"Try it again."

Milo sighed, moving the needle towards her big toe, and pushing it down into the fake skin.

Nothing.

"Again."

"Alex, I really think we should go back to the design of the prosthetic. Maybe-…" Milo tried, but the agent looked up from her spot on the bed and growled. "You checked everything. I double-checked. There is nothing wrong with the prosthetic. Try. Again."

Milo raised the needle again, but hesitated. "It could be the transmitter. Can I check it again?"

He waited for Alex's nod of consent, before moving the blanket away from her body and checking the strap around her knee that contained the small transmitting device. Alex studied him closely, as his mouth formed words without sound.

"Oh, hold on…" He narrowed his eyes, reaching for the strap. "Ugh, yes, I see what the problem is."

Alex's heart jumped at that, as she looked up. "What?"

"There's scar tissue here…" Milo said, moving the strap around. But Alex didn't hear the rest of his explanation, because a sudden twinge caused her to instinctively pull her leg back from him.

Her leg.

"Oh, well…" Milo stammered, seemingly at a loss for words.

Alex froze, her eyes wide, as she stared down at both of her legs.

Toes wiggling, ankle circling… The sensation was weird and unfamiliar and would definitely take some time getting used to, but… it worked.

"Milo, I'm seriously going to kiss you."

The man chuckled, adjusting his glasses. "I don't think detective Sawyer would be too pleased about that."

The agent felt her chest tighten at the mention of Maggie, but refused to think about it for now. "Help me up, will you?"

"Hang on." Milo grabbed her hand, and carefully pulled her to the side, so that she was sitting upright on the bed. Now that she saw it up close, it was almost as if nothing had happened. The leg looked scarily real, and it was almost as if she felt her own pulse pump through it.

"Okay, now, hold on to me, don't put too much weight on it at first. Get used to the feeling."

Alex got to her feet slowly, leaning on her left leg. As she looked into Milo's reassuring eyes, she eased her balance to the center, the right leg touching the ground. And before she knew it, she was standing.

"Yeah! There you go!" Milo cheered. "Agent Danvers, back in business!"

Alex felt tears sting at her eyes, and sobbed through a smile as Milo held on to her. "Wanna take a few steps?"

After her quick and eager nod, Milo let go of her waist and arm, and stepped back. Alex took a shaky breath through her tears, and took a careful step in his direction. Then another one. Milo kept stepping back, and Alex kept shuffling towards him. Milo beamed, and kept on cheering her on, as Alex now finally cried.

"You did it! You walked, Alex!" Milo wrapped his arms around her, and Alex fell into his embrace, holding him tightly. "Thank you… So much…"

He let go of her, and eyed her with a raised eyebrow. "Now, I know that you want to get back to the field as soon as possible, but you're gonna walk with that thing for at least another week. Slow build-up, and we'll see from there, alright? Go home for now. We have all the transmitter's info backed up to the DEO server, but if something's wrong, you call me. And come back tomorrow for performance tests!"

After getting the hang of a few more steps so that Milo could see for himself that she was able to walk comfortably, and putting on her pants, Alex walked out of the med bay, reminding herself to take Milo out to dinner for all the hard work he put into getting her to walk again.

She managed three steps out the door, before she froze.

Standing in front of her, with a confused scowl on her face, was her sister.

And she could see Kara's confusion growing at the sight of her. "What are you doing here?"

"I, uh…" Alex motioned down to her feet.

It took Kara more time than she'd ever dare to admit, but her brain took long in registering that Alex was in fact standing on two legs. And then, the blonde's eyebrows shot up into her hairline. "Alex! You're… What?! I… Your leg!"

Alex laughed weakly, and nodded. "I got a new one."

Kara ran forward, and enveloped her sister in a desperate and loving hug. "I'm so happy for you, oh Rao… Maggie said your leg was broken, I rushed over here…"

Alex pulled back, frowning. "Where did you see Maggie?"

"She- uh…" Kara leaned back and scratched the back of her head. "It's, uh…"

"Kara…?" Alex asked again.

"She told me you were mad at her. But… She wasn't making a whole lot of sense. She crashed her car into a pole, and-she's fine…" Kara added quickly, seeing the look on her sister's face change from confusion to pure worry and panic. "…But she got arrested, they suspect she was driving under influence, and I… I think they were right."

"She… drove while she was drunk?" Alex asked, feeling her blood begin to boil. If there was one thing Maggie had promised her, it was to always call a cab when she'd drank too much. She wouldn't even think about driving drunk.

So Alex thought.

"… No." Kara winced. "Not exactly. I mean, she was definitely on something, but I think she was high. She told me she'd taken alien drugs."

They both knew what that meant. The DEO had been participating in a joint task force to take down alien dealers that sold their own body toxins and poisons as drugs for other aliens. It usually didn't end well for humans, though, and a string of bodies had more than once been the result. But as far as Alex knew, Maggie didn't work the case.

So, instead of being there for her, to help her through the milestone of getting her prosthetic, Maggie had been off getting high somewhere, using the excuse of working her case.

"She lied to me." She whispered, loud enough so that Kara would hear her. After that, she looked her sister in her eyes. "She told me she was working the case."

Kara sighed, finally making sense of the things Maggie had said to her earlier. "That's why she needed to be back in time… Because of you."

"What?"

"I took her to visit the Magh'rah, in the desert facility out east. She told me she wanted to visit him because she needed the closure, but I heard her talking to him about an alien… Someone named Scarlet. She dealt some sort of drug."

Alex looked down at the ground, trying to make sense of it all. And then, all of a sudden, it clicked. Her anger disappeared immediately. Because Maggie wasn't on some bender of alien drugs.

Maggie was onto something.

"Where is she, Kara? Where did they take her?"

Kara shook her head. "Holding, somewhere. I don't know the precinct."

"I'll find it." Alex growled, walking towards the elevator. Kara seemed torn between telling her sister to wait, and running after her. But seeing the elevator doors close, making her sister disappear, she sighed, still trying to wrap her head around everything.

Whoever that bartender was, he'd been lying his ass off.

'No side-effects.' That didn't explain why the room was spinning the second she opened her eyes, why her stomach lurched, or why her throat felt like it was on fire.

She moaned, turning her head to the side.

"Wakey, wakey."

Maggie looked up, willing herself to focus on the iron bars that separated her cell from the rest of the room. And she rolled her eyes involuntarily at the sight in front of her.

Leaning casually against the bars, a fake disappointed scowl on his face.

Michael Holmes.

"I gotta say, I'm not entirely surprised. You certainly seem like the type to snort a line the second anything goes remotely wrong in your mess of a life, Sawyer."

"What do you want." Maggie grunted, but it came out garbled. Holmes laughed, as he crossed his arms and looked at her. "I do remember I asked you politely to give me your statement as soon as you had the time. Seeing as how you had time for getting high and ramming your car into the sidewalk, I somehow doubt my instructions were clear."

"I don't know anything, Holmes."

"Now, you see, I pitied you when I saw the state your girlfriend was in. I gave you the space you needed to undoubtedly move the stolen case files around – don't bother denying it. So I highly doubt that I'll find them if I come back to your apartment with another warrant. But, being the good guy I am, I'm giving you another chance to come clean."

Maggie finally moved to sit up, feeling the room spin once again. The next thing she was aware of were footsteps, and the squeaking of a door. Holmes must finally be in the cell with her.

"You obviously have something on the case. If you tell me what you know, right now, I'll consider dropping the DUI charge, and getting you back on the force. But if you keep your mouth shut, there's not much I can do for you, Sawyer."

"Right." Maggie raised her eyebrow. Though she felt much too nauseous to be convincing, she couldn't help the biting sarcasm. "And allowing me to keep my driver's license will obviously save my life when that killer comes back for me."

Holmes rubbed at his forehead, and Maggie watched as he seemed to drop his 'bad-cop' charade for a second, shaking his head. "I had a partner like you, you know. Always stubborn, running into danger. Couldn't hold his tongue."

Maggie waited, assuming that his story wasn't going to have a happy end.

"… One day, the both of us were in a shootout with a murderer. He planned a suicide by cop, and my partner was ready to hand it to him. He trapped him in a corner. But the guy changed his mind, drew a gun, and shot him point blank, right through the head. If he'd listened to me, if he'd stayed back and waited for a plan, he would still be alive. And you know what, Sawyer? I fucking hate cops like you. You get yourselves killed, and you don't think or care about what you leave behind."

His words were another punch to the gut. But he didn't leave time to dwell on his story. "Last chance, Sawyer. Tell me what I need to know to catch the guy that's going to kill you. Do it for your girlfriend."

Maggie closed her eyes, and winced. Through the jumbled mess that was her mind, she remembered the events of the day. Alex, needing her. The tears slipping down her face.

She didn't want to think about how much pain Alex would be in if she died.

"Fine." She whispered weakly. "I'll tell you everything I know. Just, promise me one thing?"

Holmes stared at her in anticipation.

"… Make sure she doesn't get to see my body if it happens."

A nod from him, and Maggie realized that she was out of options. She couldn't go on alone. She needed a partner.

And Holmes wasn't the perfect one, but at least he knew his way around. He was as good as anybody.

"I'll get you out of here, and then you're coming with me."

Maggie nodded, as he walked back out of the cell, and moved to the guard at the desk. She saw him flashing his badge, and talking to the man. But the guard seemed less than enthusiastic about letting her go. Holmes huffed, and moved in again, probably trying a different approach that involved a lot of pointing at her.

She got to her feet, and walked over to the bars, holding on to them, and already trying to accept the fact that she was going to have to spend the night in the cell.

After that, a loud banging noise indicated that the door had flown open, and a redheaded figure walked over to the guard's desk, practically shoving Holmes to the side and flashing her badge. "Alex Danvers, FBI."

Maggie finally allowed herself to relax.

She was going home.