The fifth and final part of their relationship was probably Hank's own fault. He knew that the relationship that he had with Alex was beyond unprofessional. The proverbial line in the sand was so far behind them at that point, neither of them could see it any longer. But he still should have put a stop to everything.
That night, in Alex's apartment, as the credits of the first episode of Law & Order rolled, but before the next episode had started up, Alex spoke up. "Hey Hank?"
"Yeah?"
"This 'kidnapping club card' prize is good for anything that I want, right?" She had the card out, and was looking at it absently.
"Within reason, I suppose," he said with some hesitation. Even before they'd become friends, he knew that Alex would never ask for something like a trophy or anything like that for her "prize".
But for some reason, as he watched Alex from her chair, he sort of regretted leaving her "prize" being open-ended. He had a bad feeling about it.
Alex was silent for a moment, and the opening of the next episode started to play. It was only when the opening credits started to play that Alex turned to him.
"Take me out to dinner," she said with all seriousness. "And I mean some place nice. If they serve the food on a tray and call your order number, I don't want anything to do with it."
Hank tried to think of some way that he could get out of it, or to change Alex's mind.
As if sensing what he was thinking about, Alex said, "Come on, Hank. Just one meal. And it's not like we've never eaten together."
"I know that, but going out to a restaurant with you is different than eating pizza and watching Game of Thrones," he said rather defensively.
And he hated the tone in his voice.
Alex then proceeded to give him "The Look". The one that he couldn't resist. The one that had gotten him to say yes to her insipid idea of "counseling". The one that had gotten him to accept Kara's invitation to see a movie together.
The one that had led Hank to this point in his life.
"Fine, but I'm going to pick a restaurant, so don't complain," he finally told her. He held out his hand and Alex handed him the card. "Now can we back up the episode? We missed most of it already."
Not like he'd be able to focus on the plot right now anyway. His mind was a thousand miles away, thinking about what he was going to do about Alex's "prize".
Maybe if he took her somewhere outside of the city, then they would have less chances of people running into them from work. Of course, he also knew that Alex would down-play things if they were "caught". Not like there was any shame in wanting to take a friend out to dinner. Especially after everything that Alex had been through recently.
But Hank still felt like he was doing something wrong with Alex.
And he hated that feeling so very, very much.
In the end, he picked a cozy but family-friendly restaurant a couple of miles away from the main hub of the city, in the complete opposite direction of the DEO base. He'd looked for a family-friendly restaurant so that Alex wouldn't get the wrong idea. The nicer, less family-friendly places tended to be exceptionally… romantic. And that was the last thing that he needed; Alex somehow going to the conclusion that there was a romance between them.
Alex wore what Hank dubbed "The Dress". The one that she'd worn for her not-date with Max Lord. Back when he was still a player on the board.
And he hated the way that his heart pounded in his chest when he saw her. It must be what teenagers feel like going on their first date… he thought absently. And then he cursed himself to Pluto and back because this was absolutely not a date.
"I asked Kara to try to keep the drama away from me for at least two hours," Alex said after the hostess had shown them to their table and left with their menus. "I don't exactly anticipate anything happening, but, knowing our luck, we'll get a call from the DEO in the middle of dinner." She picked up the menu and started to look it over.
The evening went well. They talked about everything from Astra to Zatanna. And, best of all in Hank's opinion was the table with screaming toddlers directly behind where Alex sat. They really were the best anti-aphrodisiac, Hank thought with a flinch whenever one of them started to scream loudly.
It really was just another night spent with Alex, just at a different location than either of their apartments.
However, things went rather sour after dinner. They were standing out in the parking lot, by Alex's car, for some added privacy as they discussed the latest alien threat. Then, some kids from the neighboring extended stay hotel yelled out "Just kiss her already, would you?!"
Hank gritted his teeth and started to turn to give them a piece of his mind, but Alex caught the collar of his shirt and kissed him.
He vaguely heard the kids whooping with joy behind him, but was more focused on the feeling of Alex's slightly chapped lips against his.
The kiss seemed to last forever, but it couldn't have been more than a second at most. Alex pulled away from him just as quickly as she'd grabbed him.
"Damn, guess we know who wears the pants in your relationship!" one of the kids exclaimed loudly. His friends snickered.
Again, Hank turned to yell at them, but Alex stopped him. Verbally this time, for which he was grateful. "Just ignore them."
"Ignore them? Alex, I-"
"I'm sorry," she said quickly, her eyes fixed on a spot on the top of her car. "I…" She trailed off and shook her head slightly.
"Alex, this cannot affect our working relationship in any way, nor can you tell anybody about this," he told her sternly. She finally looked at him, her eyes brimming with fire.
"Not once have I ever let on that there was more going on to our relationship than just a boss and his right-hand," she said with equal firmness. "I'm sure as hell not going to let on now."
"Good," he said flatly. "This cannot happen again."
"Don't make me get kidnapped another ten times for me to force you to kiss me," she said with an annoyed look.
He matched her look with an irritated one. "I did not give you that card so that you could put me into compromising positions, Alex," he told her firmly.
Her annoyed look quickly became a wounded look. "I know that you didn't," she snapped at him. She turned away from him. "I should just go."
Hank knew that he couldn't just let her walk away, but he didn't know what to do. "Alex, wait…" She paused, key halfway into the lock on the door. "This can't continue like it is. We're already walking a thin line here."
"You don't think that I don't know that?" she hissed at him. She still wasn't looking at him, and was focusing on the interior of her car.
The silence that stretched between them was not their usual kind of silence, one filled with understanding and acceptance. It was heavy and awkward, and Hank just wished that it would go away. He'd wished that he'd never given her that stupid card. He wished that he'd never accepted her proposal of therapy sessions.
Alex shoved the key the rest of the way into the lock and opened her car. She got in and roughly slammed the door after her. He turned and started to go to his own car, parked two spaces away.
"Dude, don't just let her leave like that!" one of the kids called down. But a second later, Alex backed her car out from the space and zoomed away from the parking lot.
Hank glared up at the kids, who were milling about on an open stairwell. "Dude, you done fucked up," one of them told Hank.
"If you want her back, you gotta give her like… flowers and chocolates and shit. Ladies love that kind of crap."
"Nah, she don't seem like the kind of lady who'd accept him back with some roses and chocolates," another of the kids spoke up. "She seems like a classy lady. You gotta tell her that you love her, and woo her back with a romantic evening. You know, with like candles and rose petals and the nice kind of condoms."
Hank coughed and quickly got into his car. He couldn't believe that he was standing around in a parking lot, listening to advice from some children who were a small fraction of his age.
The next day, Alex acted like nothing at all had happened between them the previous night. For once, Hank understood what Kara had been going through after Winn's ill-advised confession of his love for the girl.
He didn't want for things to change between him and Alex— he couldn't want it.
But a small, tiny voice inside of him that had been growing louder and louder since Hank had first accepted Alex's proposal spoke up. It told him that he really did want for things to change. That he wanted Alex in the same way that she wanted him.
And he hated that voice most of all.
He was an exceptionally patient man, and good at keeping his head down. He was more than willing to wait out Alex's little illusion that there was something more to their relationship than there actually was.
But as he settled in that night and picked up the remote to turn on the new episode of Law & Order, he paused. This was their thing. If they couldn't watch it live together (which, honestly, happened more often than not), then they'd always wait until the other was available so that they could both watch it at the same time.
Was it possible to miss somebody that you'd seen just an hour earlier?
He watched the opening scene, but by the time the credits started to play, he flipped the TV off, annoyed at himself.
Some at Alex, but mostly at himself.
They had managed to hide their friendship from the world for over a year now. Who's to say that they wouldn't be able to pull of hiding a romance, too? As long as they kept acting like nothing at all was wrong, then nobody would be any wiser.
And, if Alex's acting skills today were any indication, then they'd probably be okay.
Not for the first time, Hank's thoughts drifted to his wife. M'yri'ah. There were very few days where he didn't think about her, about their daughters.
Alex had told him that his family would have wanted him to survive, to thrive, to be happy. That the guilt that he felt was called "survivor's guilt". He knew all of that, but it didn't make it any easier.
It didn't make his decision any easier.
He knew that M'yri'ah would want for him to be happy, even if it wasn't with her.
She had been the love of his life, and he'd been certain that they'd die of old age together, surrounded by their children, grandchildren, and maybe even their great-grandchildren.
But when the White Martians had waged war against the Green Martians…
During the past year, whenever he'd found himself starting to fall down the hole of depression and thinking about his family and the war, he'd call up Alex. She'd help him through the darkness of his own mind.
But now? Who was he supposed to call when Alex herself was the problem?
The rest of the week wasn't any better. Alex worked along side him like nothing was wrong, but he felt the yawning gap of their friendship growing larger and larger the longer he let things fester.
He wanted to do something, but didn't know what to say. Didn't know how to even bring the subject up. That had always been Alex's forte. He might be able to swiftly defuse a tense situation with the alien du jour, but the finer aspects of dealing with personal problems was not something that he'd ever been good at.
The final straw was after the DEO and Kara had defeated another alien. Alex, Kara, and Hank were walking through the halls to see the alien in the cell designed for him, when Kara spoke up. "Did you guys have a fight or something?"
"What makes you say that?" Alex asked carefully.
"It's just, you guys are normally more friendly towards one another than you're being. But right now…" She mock-shivered. "It's like an arctic winter has fallen between you two."
Alex and Hank exchanged a look behind Kara's back. It was the first time since that disastrous dinner that they'd looked at each other; really looked at each other.
"It's just a stupid misunderstanding," Hank said at the same time that Alex said, "It's nothing."
Kara looked between them slowly. "Look, guys, I don't want to butt into your personal lives or anything, but whatever it is, just get it off your chests and into the open. You'll both feel a lot better about it; trust me."
Hank brushed past Kara and kept walking down the hall towards where the alien was. He could feel Alex's eyes on him the entire way.
Alex followed Hank back to his office after they'd interrogated the alien. "I need to talk to you," she said, her voice soft, but in her complete "business" mode.
"Shut the door, would you?" Hank said as he settled into his chair. Alex did as she was asked before she sat in one of the two chairs before his desk.
"Listen, I'm really sorry about what I did the other night. It was uncalled for and completely unprofessional. You were right."
"As much as it pleases me to hear you say that I was right…" Hank started slowly. "But you were right. Not about what happened the other night, but about a lot of other stuff. I've been afraid of enjoying myself, afraid of what it would mean for the memories of my wife and daughters. I came to this realization that you had been right the entire time on Wednsday when I turned on Law & Order. I-"
"You what?" Alex hissed at him. She half-rose from her chair, her hands clenched over the arm-rests. "You watched Law & Order without me?"
"Would you relax? I only just watched until the opening credits, and then I turned it off because I felt much too guilty," he told her with some annoyance. Alex sank back down into the chair. Hank paused for a moment before he continued. "But after that night, your self-imposed distance from me has allowed me to gain some much-needed perspective about everything. I'm sorry about everything that I said to you that night, Alex." He paused for a moment and regarded the woman before him. "How can we begin to move forward from this?"
Alex was silent for a long time. Her eyes took him in, and he felt exceptionally scrutinized. He probably deserved for her to call him something rude, for her to admit that there was no repairing their broken relationship.
"Dinner," she finally said.
"What?"
"You heard me, Henshaw! Dinner tomorrow. I'll make reservations. Pick me up at eight." She stood and walked from his office before he could say anything else.
Hank sat back in his chair and smiled, despite himself. That had gone a lot better than he could have hoped.
Alex wore another dress. A different one, than the one she'd worn on their previous, failed date. "I like that dress a lot better than the other one," Hank told her honestly as they walked downstairs to his waiting car.
"What? Why? What was wrong with the other dress?" Alex asked with some irritation as she looked down at her dress.
"You wore it the one time that you had to distract Max Lord," Hank reminded her. "So when I saw you wearing it again, it reminded me of him."
Alex sniffed with disdain. "He can rot in jail for all I care."
"You never did tell me what he did to you," he said softly.
"He didn't do anything, so that's why there's nothing to tell," Alex said bitterly. "Please, Hank. You know that I would crush his head between my thighs and dismember him if he had tried anything."
Hank chuckled slightly as he unlocked his car and opened the door for Alex. He made sure that she was settled in before he went around to the driver's side.
The dinner was much the same as the other had been, but with the distinct lack of screaming toddlers. This had been the exact kind of place that Hank had been looking to avoid, as it was dark and exceptionally romantic.
They talked about everything under the sun, and Hank felt normal for the first time all week.
The ride back to Alex's apartment was quiet, but not awkward.
"I have something for you," Alex said when Hank pulled into a parking space in front of her apartment building. She reached into her purse and pulled out a punch card with all of the spaces punched out. She handed him the card. He turned the dome light in the car on so that he could read what it said.
"'I survived Hank Henshaw being an unfathomable dumb-ass and all-around dick'," he read out loud. He turned to glare at her, but she just offered him a faint smile. "I probably deserve this."
"If I'd thought of the idea of punch cards sooner, I'd have so many cards to redeem right now," Alex went on, her smile growing.
"I probably deserve that, too," he said with some irritation.
Alex undid her seatbelt and leaned across the center console to press a light kiss to his lips. It was too hard to be angry with her right now, especially after his own stupidity that week.
"Come upstairs?" she asked quietly.
"Is this your 'prize'?" he asked.
"Um… no. Just come upstairs, okay?" She opened the door and got out of the car. Hank followed after her a moment later, and they rode the elevator up to her apartment in silence.
After Alex had shut the door behind him, she leaned up and kissed him with more passion than she had downstairs in the car. Hank absently wondered if this was what she wanted as he wrapped his hands loosely around her waist.
They kissed for a moment before Alex pulled away from him slightly, but didn't leave his arms. "Will you do something for me?" she asked gently.
"What?"
"Will you read my mind?"
That took Hank a little by surprise. "I suppose that I could, but what exactly would I be looking for? I'm not going to sift through your entire second grade year, Alex."
"You don't need to go back that far," she said with a slight laugh. "Just the past year or so, I suppose."
Hank knew instantly what she wanted for him to look for: himself. Him, and her feelings about him.
He gestured to the sofa, and then he followed her over and sat down next to her. Their knees were touching slightly. He gently held her hand, and with the other, he pressed his fingers gently against her temple.
His powers were rusty after not using them for so long, but she was human; it had always been easy to read their minds.
He saw flashes of himself, sitting in her apartment, his, at the DEO building, in the field… He knew each of those things, because he'd lived them, too. But as he brushed past them, he couldn't help but feel Alex's lingering feelings over each memory. The joy, sadness, irritation, but most of all, he recognized the admiration, the longing… the love.
He paused with one particular memory. It was an evening, several months ago. They were at his apartment, just watching old episodes of Monk and talking about nothing specific. Alex was curled up under a blanket, and she turned to smile at him, but he was looking at something out the window and not in her direction.
Alex's heart sped up as she looked at him, and then Hank was seized by Alex's complete panic as a single thought occurred to her in that moment: "I'm in love with him."
As he continued to look through Alex's memories, he was hit with a wave of intense deja vu. Only the scene had played out on Mars, with M'yri'ah. He remembered reading M'yri'ah's mind like this before they'd gotten married, and feeling her overwhelming love for him.
After a moment, Hank pressed Alex's hand that he was still holding up to his own temple, and helped her to see his own memories. He showed her the scene that he remembered on Mars, of him and M'yri'ah.
Outside of the memory, tears started to pour from Alex's eyes. "She loved you so much," she gasped out. "How can I ever hope to compete with that?"
Hank released the hand that was holding her hand up to his temple so that he could cup her face. "Watch," he told her simply, and then showed her another memory. It was of the night that he realized that he'd made such a huge mistake.
He showed her more memories, memories that showed her what he thought of her. Most of them were recent, true, but some of them were from before he'd even revealed himself. Alex in the field, kicking some alien butt and just generally being strong as hell.
When he was finished, Alex fell against him, shaking and crying heavily. He held her and allowed her to cry into his chest.
They didn't say anything, but what was there to say after something like that?
Half an hour passed before Alex's tears seemed to come to a stop. She pulled away from him a bit and looked up at him. She seemed to be searching for something, but Hank wasn't quite sure what it might be.
She reached up and pressed her hand to his cheek gently. He closed his eyes, revealing in the warmth of her touch before he turned his head slightly and kissed the heel of her hand.
Then, she leaned up to him and he accepted her kiss. She clung to him as if she would fall away without him, and seemed to drink his breath as if she'd been drowning.
But despite her near desperation, there was an odd calmness that had settled around them. As if they had all of the time in the world.
Hank reveled in the touch of her silky skin under his fingers, and couldn't seem to stop touching her. She couldn't seem to stop touching him, either, though, so it was probably an even trade.
"Shall we go to the bedroom?" Alex asked against his lips. Hank simply gathered Alex tighter against him, and a second later, they were both awkwardly falling against her bed in an awkward tangle.
Alex let out a startled noise, before she burst out laughing. "That was really amazing!" she gasped before she pressed her lips to his again. "We are seriously going to have to start you working on using your powers more. I know that you're still worried about more White Martians attacking, but-"
"But nothing," Hank said before he silenced her with another kiss. "With you and Kara by my side, I know that we can defeat any others who come looking for me. Alex, I'm not afraid anymore."
Alex looked down at him and offered him a small but bright smile. She pressed her hand to his face, again. "I'm glad."
He leaned up to kiss her again. After a moment, Alex pulled away from him and rucked her dress up so that she could straddle his waist. She pressed against him in a way that made him moan loudly.
He reached up and undid the invisible zipper on the side of her dress. Once it was down, he quickly pulled it off over her head, and then undid her bra. With nimble fingers, she undid his shirt and then opened it as far as she could with him pinned down onto the bed.
Hank half sat up and helped Alex get his shirt off the rest of the way. Then, she sat back down on him and reached behind her to remove her sandals. She quickly discarded them onto the floor, each one making a very satisfying thump as they hit the floor.
She trailed her hands down his chest, her nails scraping slightly over each dip of his well-defined chest and abs. She moved off from his legs the further down she got. When she reached the top of his pants, she made quick work of his belt, and then undid his pants. He kicked his shoes off as she pushed both pants and boxers down to expose his hard cock.
"I'm almost too embarrassed to ask, but I'm really curious," Alex said, her voice husky with her desire. She grasped his cock in her hands and slowly started to rub them up and down along his length.
"What's that?" Hank managed to ask. He was having trouble focusing because of the sensations that Alex was causing with her hands.
"Is this part of the shape-shifting thing? Or is this all Hank? I mean… the real Hank Henshaw." She looked up at him through her lashes and offered him a coy smile.
"I showed you… some of my memories with M'yri'ah," he whispered to her. "And I know that you saw what that looks like in my natural state. Humans and Martians might share some physical similarities, but our anatomies were never designed to mesh in such a way."
"That's not what I'm asking," Alex said sharply. She shook her head firmly and blushed awkwardly. "I mean…"
"You have another thing coming for you if you think that I looked in the original Mr. Henshaw's pants in order to get his correct size, Alex," Hank said with some irritation. "Although, I am very skilled at shifting. I can get every little detail down." He gave her a pointed look. "Even if they are completely covered and unseen by most."
Alex nodded slightly before she bent to take him inside her mouth. Hank gasped loudly at the contact of her tongue against the tender tip of his cock. There were many things that Martians did that humans did not do during sex, but in the same regard, there were many things that humans did that Martians didn't do. This was one such thing.
Hank knew of blow jobs— he wasn't completely naive about the finer workings of human intercourse. Just because he'd never had sex with a human before does not mean that he didn't know the things that they did. The certain rituals that they preformed, such as oral.
Sometimes, when Hank experienced new things as a human, he had a tendency to over-analyze everything. To note the way that people reacted around him, to be sure that he was reacting appropriately. But this was one situation where he knew that Alex wouldn't care how he reacted. He just let himself be overcome by the things that she was doing to him with just her tongue, hands, and mouth alone.
Just when he was certain that he was at the brink of his orgasm, Alex pulled away from him, and moved away. Hank was confused, wondering what she was doing. Had he done something to offend her?
Alex reached into the drawer of her nightstand and pulled out a box of condoms. "Alex, you-" he started with even more confusion.
"I know, I know that you said that we were incompatible physically, but that doesn't mean that there won't be some risk of Martian-human hybrids," she said as she pulled a condom out. "And just because I love you don't mean that I'm willing to have a baby with you right now. Especially not right now. There's too much going on with everything right now and I-"
"Alex," Hank interrupted her nervous ramblings. "It's okay. I can wear one now, but we'll talk about it later?"
"Right," she said with a slight nod. She tossed Hank a condom before she put the box back into the drawer.
Alex got off the foot of the bed and helped Hank to pull his pants and boxers off the rest of the way. Then, she hooked her thumbs into the elastic waistband of her panties and pushed them down until gravity took hold and then fell to the floor. She crawled back up to him, not breaking eye contact until she reached his face. She then kissed him soundly as she ran her hands down his chest, but pulled away when she reached the condom that had landed on his breast.
She ripped the package open and deftly slid the condom onto his dick before he really knew what was happening. Then, she climbed on top of him and used her right hand to slide his cock inside of her. They both let out twin signs of pleasure as she sunk down on top of him.
Hank put his hands around her waist as Alex started to move, but after a moment, he slid them down to cup her ass. There were a lot of physical similarities between humans and Martians, but he thought that the asses were probably much the same, which he was grateful for. He was definitely an ass man.
After a while, Alex pressed her chest against Hank's. She kissed him gently as he wrapped his arms around her to hold her close to him. He kept moving against her, even when her hips stilled.
She'd worked up a bit of a sweat, and her skin was slightly sticky and slick with it. Even in his human form, Hank was still overly used to the much hotter temperatures on Mars, and even the heat of their lovemaking wasn't affecting him the same way.
"Alex," Hank whispered against her lips. "There's… something that we did on Mars when we were intimate with one another. There would be no equivalent for it with humans, since you lack the ability to read minds, but I'd like to do it with you, if you don't mind."
"You don't have to ask permission to read my mind, Hank," Alex said breathlessly.
"J'onn. I want you to call me J'onn when we're alone."
"Okay," Alex agreed with a slight nod of her head. "J'onn. You don't need my permission. But… what is it that you're looking for?"
"Not looking for… but I suppose that the closest analogy that I can give to you is a Vulcan mind-meld," he explained. "It is sharing the moment of our orgasms. It is… a truly beautiful thing to bear witness to your partner's orgasm."
"That sounds wonderful," Alex said. She sat back upright again, and Hank let her. Then, she picked up Hank's hand and pressed his fingers over her clit. He slowly started to rotated his fingers under her own hand; once he started that, she pulled her hand away from his and let him continue on his own.
"I will share with you so that you might experience my orgasm, too, but… I feel as if…"
"Later," Alex finished for him. Hank nodded with agreement.
A second later, Alex stopped moving on top of him and let out a low, breathy moan that went on for a while. Hank easily slipped into her mind and felt the power of her orgasm moving through her as if he was experiencing it himself. And in the same moment that she came, he came with her.
Her mind was something amazing, so completely indescribable. Like fireworks mixed with lightning, so beautiful, yet so very white-hot with pleasure. Hank had seen a lot of very beautiful things in the minds of humans, but when he witnessed Alex's orgasm, it nearly brought him to tears. It was the most awe-inspiring thing that he'd ever witnessed.
As Alex's orgasm faded away, Hank felt her love for him wash over him once again. She collapsed against him, and he wrapped his arms tightly around her. There was some part of his mind that told him that if he let go, then the moment would be over, and he'd never be able to get it back. It was irrational, but fear frequently worked like that.
Alex looked up at him and offered him a bright but sleepy smile. "I love you," she whispered. "And I'm not going anywhere."
"Good," Hank said simply. "For the first time in a really long time, I'm exceptionally content and happy. And I love that."
Alex hummed with agreement.
They lay there for a really long time, neither in any mood to move away from the other. Then, an odd thought occurred to Hank.
"What are we going to do about Kara?"
"Shit, Kara!" Alex exclaimed loudly as she sat up quickly. Then she looked down at Hank and burst out laughing. "You know what, I don't think that we have to worry about her. She was friends with Winn for so many years and never realized that he was in love with her." She lay back down against Hank again.
Yes. He loved that a lot.
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