A/N: Um. Yeah.
This one's a little more... for lack of a better term, angry. Not sure how or why, but yeah, this is the final product. I'd also like to note that this might be the second to last, with one more chapter from Kara herself.
BIG THANK YOU TO ALL OF YOU FOR COMMENTS/KUDOS/FAVORITES/FOLLOWS JUST ALL OF IT IS WONDERFUL AND MAKES ME FEEL WARM AND FUZZY FEELING PLEASE KEEP THEM COMING ESPECIALLY YOUR COMMENTS THEY GIVE ME LIFE!
Usual disclaimer of none of this being mine.
She's having a morning from hell.
After spending the past week investigating a spike of alien murders in an increased wave of xenophobia – surprisingly not perpetrated by Cadmus – the latest of which was the murder of a little helpless four-year-old alien toddler, Detective Maggie Sawyer had caved the night before and drank her way to the bottom of one of her girlfriend's harder liquor bottles.
Amidst the mind-splitting headache and dry mouth and general ickyness of a hangover, Maggie vaguely makes a note to have a talk with Alex about the stash of alcohol she found, her girlfriend probably thinking she's being sneaky and won't get caught.
Of course, the increased murder rate meant that the DEO was working overtime to stop the people responsible.
Which is why, to Maggie's immense irritation as she tries to snuggle into said girlfriend, she realizes Alex Danvers hadn't come home last night.
Again.
She sighs as she drags her body out of Alex's Alex-less bed and scolds herself for her misplaced annoyance because, "Alex is trying to help make the city safe too, so I don't have to bag another four-year-old body again…"
She feels even guiltier when she catches the text from Alex that tells her she misses Maggie and she's so sorry about her latest case and that she thinks she's almost figure out who's behind these attacks.
Her guilt – if possible – builds further because there's breakfast on the kitchen island and it's from that little hole-in-the-wall bakery way, way across town she loves. She groans when she looks inside to find the pastries inside are still warm.
Kara
Supergirl has been working tirelessly and practically nonstop since the attacks started. Not to say the hero is a slacker as far as her heroic duties are concerned, but she's been spreading herself even thinner lately between her DEO duties and living her Kara Danvers life. The detective knows she's probably not getting more than two or three hours of sleep a night.
Maggie's surprised she hasn't snapped yet.
But every time she sees Kara, regardless of Maggie's increasingly foul moods, the physical manifestation of the sun that is Kara Danvers is, without fail, smiling brightly at the detective as she drops in on her in the precinct with a DEO progress report and a bag of takeout.
And she knows it has nothing to do with Alex, that her girlfriend isn't the one that send Kara out to her with whatever new lab results they've learned, or that Alex hasn't tasked her with making sure Maggie eats something before she starts drowning herself in beer. She knows this because on the rare nights she's gotten to see Alex, her girlfriend starts to tiredly fill her in on the same info that Kara has already supplied.
Kara takes the time out of her absurdly busy schedule, between flying in a cape and getting yelled at by her asshole boss, to check on the detective with a warm smile and concern for her as Maggie's captain yells at her again because, "you're my friend, Maggie, and let's be real, you're family too."
She wonders if maybe the happiness has something to do with the increased amount of time Kara is spending with a certain CEO with Kryptonite-green eyes.
She can't help her amused smirk when she remembers Alex's oblivious look and slow blink of her wide bewildered eyes because, "they're just friends, Mags."
For a big badass secret agent, Alex Danvers sure can be blind sometimes. It's nice to know it's not restricted to her own love life.
Whatever it is, Maggie makes a mental note to treat Kara to a special night, just the two of them, once she's solved these cases and the people responsible are behind bars.
Or worse, she thinks darkly.
She watches Supergirl rescue kittens from trees in the early morning sun as she dejectedly shovels cereal into her mouth, each motion of her jaw setting her hung-over brain on fire, as she briefly entertains the idea that at least Supergirl's safe from these xenophobic attacks since the one thing that can hurt her is locked up somewhere in the arctic.
Her musings don't last long because soon enough her phone's blaring to life and she's grunting into it that she'll be there in ten, the rest of the morning soon a distant memory as she immerses herself in her latest victim's case.
When the call comes in about the bake sale gone awry, Maggie's first thought is that she should have kept her mouth shut instead of tempting the multiverse like that. How can one person's luck be this bad?
Her following thoughts as she drives like a maniac down to the scene are of forced optimism, of trying to convince herself that it'll be fine, it can't be that bad if they're calling in the cops instead of the secret men in black that usually deal with this, that it's probably like a splinter and Kara's being a baby about someone taking it out of her finger.
Boy, is she wrong.
She's struck still as she watches Supergirl writhe and cry out in pain because up until this moment, even knowing Kara Danvers personally, seeing her in her super suit firmly equals alien for Maggie which meant that Supergirl's biology wasn't like her own.
But seeing her very red blood pool around the hero's body shocks Maggie's system, and suddenly she's caught in the thought that this is Little Danvers.
Kara.
She doesn't even register the pain in her knees as she drops onto them beside Kara, but she does note the ache in her heart as Kara's hand, veins rapidly turning deadly green, shakes as it reaches for her; notes her fingers painfully trying to twitch into a grip that won't form because, "Maggie, it hurts- I can't breathe, Maggie, please-"
She swallows thickly as she tries to soothe Kara and ask her what happened, barking orders behind her for someone to fill in the blanks because Kara's gasping in pain as the blood seeping out is starting to look a little green.
She catches on to someone saying something about a hilt, and a broken blade, and her own veins feel like they're filling with cold Kryptonite, eyes roaming to find the entry wound before she realizes it must be in Supergirl's back.
She suppresses the dark thoughts from clouding her eyes so Kara doesn't see the murderous rage she wants to unleash on the person that did this because the coward couldn't even look Supergirl in the eye when they tried to murder her in front of children.
Instead, she murmurs quietly to Kara that, "it'll be okay, I've got you, and you're going to be okay…" as she tries to turn Supergirl on her side, biting her bottom lip hard as Kara's anguished cry rings out at the movement.
Maggie's no doctor, but she's seen her fair share of wounds, and this one- makes her ribs feel like they've suddenly grown thorns that are digging into her heart and lungs.
She hates herself as she shifts to lay Kara's head in her lap, trying to jostle the hero as little as possible while continuing to murmur lies to her.
"It's nothing, Supergirl, you're gonna be fine…"
"The DEO will be here any second now, Alex will be here to take even better care of you, just breathe…"
Alex is going to be a mess.
Not that Maggie would blame her; she's barely hanging in there herself.
It's a cold sobering shower on her entire existence; watching this woman, akin to a god but really just a soft delicate ray of sunshine, felled so wholly by a piece of rock.
Soon, Alex is there, and for one moment, Maggie thinks it'll be okay because Alex is rushing over in full Agent Danvers mode even as she murmurs to her the obvious, that it's lodged in there good and deep.
That moment of relief is, however, fleeting because she barely has to look up at Alex's quickly crumbling resolve to know that it's dire.
She figures, as she slides her hand that isn't coated in the alien's blood in Kara's hair, that if these are her last moments on earth, Kara should have at least one calm person so she isn't absolutely terrified.
So she keeps her voice soft regardless of Alex's hysterical frantic attempts to save her baby sister, and she keeps murmuring to Kara that it'll be okay, nodding as Kara – sweet loving and unfailingly selfless – Kara murmurs, breaths more ragged and grip on Maggie's jacket progressively weaker, making Maggie promise to look out for Alex.
But suddenly Alex is gone and Maggie's looking up to see why she's moving away now that Kara needs her most of all, frowning when she sees her trapped and thrashing in J'onn J'onzz arms, jaw dropping open to protest before the pale hand contrasting sharply with Supergirl's suit catches her eye, and she's looking into the face of one Lena Luthor, framed by long raven locks and an indescribable pain in eyes the color of the veins in Kara's neck.
And the voice, controlled but so very deeply and truly in love cements the truth in Maggie's gut, the detective continuing her soft soothing ministrations in Kara's hair, Lena Luthor's easy words of, "it'll be over soon, love, I promise, just a few more seconds…" has even Maggie believing her even when Kara keeps sobbing in her lap.
Her heart feels lighter a little because, "Good job, Little Danvers."
Her heart feels just about ready to fly out of her throat when Lena's hand comes away with the pulsing green sharp blade, not even caring about evidence as she watches the CEO throw it as far away from a trembling Kara's body, pale blood covered fingers shaking as they check Kara over, Kryptonite-colored eyes tracking the recession of the poison from the hero's veins dutifully.
Her inhale is ragged as Alex drops in next to her to brush Kara's hair away and kiss her forehead frantically, her lungs feeling like they're being introduced to oxygen for the first time, even after she watches them load and drive away an unconscious Supergirl.
She makes sure she's the one driving Alex and Lena to the DEO, because Alex is still a hysterical mess and even though she hasn't yet, Lena's gonna break soon. The detective won't risk it happening behind the wheel of a car.
It feels like just about everyone in the building is hovering. Around Supergirl's unconscious form under the yellow sun lights, that is. But soon they all understand that there isn't much any of them can do except wait her out.
Of course, that doesn't stop Alex or Lena from holding vigil over the superhero.
And once she's sure they'll be okay, she takes her leave with a silent exchange between her and J'onn to call her if there's any change in anything – whether it's Kara or the case – and she'll run back.
She's glad the Martian is psychic; she's not sure she can talk past the seething rage lumped in her throat as she walks past him with renewed vigor.
She has a monster to catch.