III: Jealous Jitters

Winn sat comfortably in Alex's lab as he began telling her the accounts of the previous night. "I knocked on your door. You opened. I gave you back the jacket you forgot in my car. You let me in to be your audience for yet another Maggie Sawyer rant. My DEO beeper went off. You needed a distraction, so I brought you with me back to the quarters. You seriously don't remember anything after your Ben & Jerry's?"

"Now, I do." Alex shook her head. "I'm remembering a little more. We waited for an hour - see if the alarms on our scans would set off again. Then it didn't."

Winn nodded.

Alex smiled - pleased with the progress in her memory gaps. "Then I wasn't convinced that it was a technical error so I offered to inspect the perimeter on the location given. You insisted to come since I was intoxicated. Well, as if you weren't yourself. Hank was home. Kara. The night shift staff weren't much. No one was there to call out on our shit. So we did? Wait, did we?"

He sighed. "We did. It was an abandoned gift shop near the outskirts. It was dark. We broke in. No signs of anyone in there or anyone having been there for the past year. Apparently, an old man owned the shop selling crafts and materials from all over the universe. Some were authentic; he stole them from sites where extraterrestrial ships crash landed here. The rest? Replicas and makeshifts. Records show that he died about a year ago. No family. No friends… and the shop was closed for good.

"By the way Alex, the Maggie Sawyer ranting never ended on our way there. You should thank me. I had a lot of patience."

Alex buried her face in her hands - embarrassed. "Yes, I remember now. Oh god."

"Great. Care to finish the rest of the story?" Winn smiled.

Alex shut her eyes for a few seconds. "No, it's cool. It's all coming back now. Hey about dinner, let's get food. I'm starving."

"Finally! I mean, I know you're just deflecting like I was a while ago but, I don't care anymore. I'm hungry." Winn got up. "I'll get my car. Meet you at the exit."

Alex nodded. "Thanks, Winn."

A few minutes later, Alex was sitting at the passenger seat of Winn's car. They got stuck in an unexpected late hour traffic caused by some busted pipelines that required closed streets and reroutes. She closed her eyes, and heaved a silent sigh… and tried to remember every detail that happened after Winn returned her jacket last night.

[The previous night…]

The power was out in the perimeter. Only the moon's ample light that shone through the dusted windows provided Winn and Alex the luminance they needed to inspect the abandoned gift shop.

"I'll search for nearby transmitters," said Winn as he powered his device and toured the establishment.

Alex nodded. She stayed where she was and made sense of the unsold artifacts lying around. Her head was still swinging from the alcohol. After a while, her eyes landed on a curious pink-tinted glass vial behind some "Kryptonite necklaces."Alex grabbed it and headed outside where there would be more light. She was growing sleepy with each yawn. The solidified dust on the vial label made it hard for her to comprehend what it was.

"No transmitters, that's for sure," Winn said as he approached her. "I already left Kara a message about this. The scans definitely showed suspicious activity but that's all we know so far. We don't know what kind of threat this is yet, or who's highly to be involved. I say we take things to rest and wait for morning… when we're fully sober?"

She held out her arm to show him the vial. "Look what I found."

"What's this?" He snatched it from her grip and inspected it. "Aux Krypton," he read from the label. He furrowed his brows and looked at Alex. "Is it supposed to mean that this is from Krypton?"

Alex laughed. "I even found Kryptonite necklaces in his shop."

He grinned. "Wow. I wonder what's inside of it. I mean, the label's pretty hard to read."

Winn got into his car and opened the lights. Alex mounted too and laid her head back to combat the growing headache.

"Lacarnoff," he whispered then turned to Alex - smiling. "It says Lacarnoff. Do you speak Kryptonian?"

"Nope, but my sister does." Alex chuckled. "Lacarnoff. The 'noff' part means something like uh juice or potion or some liquid stuff. 'Lacar,' on the other hand… it sounds like a verb in its infinitive - given the R at the end. I know this word. I just can't remember it right now."

Winn started the engine. "Well, we can ask Kara some time, yeah? I can hear my bed calling me. I need to-,"

"Wait, we're going home already?"

Startled, Winn raised a brow. "Uh. What do you have in mind right now? Is there some place you wanna go to?"

Alex shook her head light. Winn smiled at this - seeing her tired and a bit peaceful. He was driving past the first mile on their way back to the main city when Alex exclaimed, "Gas! It means gas!"

"What does?"

Alex, wide-eyed, retrieved the vial from her pocket. "Lacarnoff. I remember now. 'Lacar' means 'to pass out gas.' Hah! This is a potion that'll make you fart."

Winn laughed all too soon. He was laughing so hard that he had to slow down on his driving for safety. Alex had managed to coax him into stopping by a particular club by the West Intersection. Poor Winn Schott did not have much choice as she was pulling his hair while he drove. Despite his queries, Alex wouldn't say about her interest in the place. She got off his ride and hacked her way into the scene while Winn napped at the parking lot.

Alex knew that Maggie was going to be there. She sent her a message that read "WRU?" while she was hanging out with Winn earlier and with all politeness and sass, Maggie replied with the address of the same club that they drove to.

Alex hoped to spot Maggie among the crowd before the detective sees her first. Then finally, there she was by the counter - her eyes swooning, her lips in a small smile. Alex never thought she'd seen something this uplifting before. She was still with the blonde woman, and they were talking. Alex watched. The blonde was telling an enthusiastic story and Maggie was just smiling, staring at her as if she was the sunrise that you can look at without hurting your eyes. There Alex was, from afar, wishing she was the soft brightness that Maggie looked at with peace. Alex did not want the jealous jitters but she had them.

The blonde leaned and gave Maggie a quick kiss before leaving. Alex hid among the crowd and secretly made her way to the other side of the counter to get two glasses of water. The bartender handed her what she asked, and for a moment she stared at the water point blank, snickering for no reason. Impulsively, she emptied the contents of the vial from the shop into one of the glasses.

"Hey! I didn't expect to find you here!" Alex greeted sarcastically as she approached Maggie and gave her the glass of water.

Maggie laughed. "Whatever, Danvers. Wait," she sniffed. "Geez, Danvers. How many drinks have you had already?"

"Don't push it. We all have our moments." Alex sat next to her. "So where's your pretty girlfriend?"

"She's not my girlfriend… we just went on our second date."

Alex winced. "You call this a date?" She motioned to the interior of the club.

"She likes it that way." Maggie sipped from the glass Alex gave her. "Thanks for the water."

Before Alex could open another conversation the blonde woman returned. "Hey, sorry it took long. The line was crazy," she remarked before kissing Maggie on the cheek, then giving Alex the challenging gaze and the smug smirk on purpose.

Alex rolled her eyes. "I gave Maggie a glass of water. Would you like me to get y-,"

The woman took the water from the counter and sipped. She shrugged. "Just making sure she didn't get you a drink to mess with me and my girl."

Alex glared at her as she winked mockingly. "I was just leaving."

"Thought so," the woman jeered.

Alex left the scene. She got back to Winn and told him about spiking Maggie's drink and the about how both of them took a sip. Winn's spirits skyrocketed as he drowned in laughter.

"I mean, the vial could be the real deal. I can't imagine them gassing out for the rest of the night!" Winn teared up from the laughing.

Alex's face was red. "Real or not, the point of the prank is the highlight of my night."

Winn drove them back to the main city. Alex, tired from the long day's adventure, gave in to slumber for the remaining of the trip. She thanked Winn for his company and hurried to her unit. She laid on her bed. As she stared at the ceiling, she wondered what tomorrow would be like for her and her unsolicited attraction to the NCPD detective.

A/N. Never read the comics. I made up my own Kryptonian stuff. Don't hate me please. (Oh, and leave reviews. Thanks.)