Before Maggie realized it, she was ushered out of the cell and into the evening air outside, followed by an incredibly irritated-looking Holmes, and Alex, who looked ready to murder.

Maggie assumed it was going to be her Alex was going to lash out at.

"I appreciate your cooperation, agent... Danvers, was it?" Holmes opened his mouth to continue without letting her answer, but Alex wasn't in the mood. She flashed her badge at his face again, now close enough for him to see that the badge had shifted into her real, DEO one.

"Agent Danvers, assistant director of the DEO."

Holmes raised an eyebrow, but didn't lose his cool. "Wow, Sawyer. A federal alien hunter for a girl."

Alex tucked her badge away, and folded her arms. "I am taking detective Sawyer in for questioning."

Holmes laughed. "Yeah, no. Not happening. This whole charade you're pulling, I'm not buying it. And as far as I remember, the last time we spoke each other, you were still short one foot, Danvers."

"It's called a prosthetic, detective." Alex stared him down, before continuing. "… I'm taking her back to the DEO."

"If you think I'm going to let her walk after the shit she pulled earlier… Driving under the influence of drugs, and endangering the entirety of the National City population…!"

Alex chuckled humorlessly, before looking back up at him. "I assume you know about the joint force between the NCPD science division and the DEO? Well, actually, I assume you don't. Detective Sawyer has been investigating a new case of alien dealers, and hours ago, she was forced to take alien drugs to maintain her cover. I was overseeing the operation, and everything she did was completely within our operating rights as a government organization."

Holmes opened and shut his mouth a few times. Maggie was completely frozen. Was Alex really ready to give up her own integrity just to get her out of this?

"I'm still taking her in for protection." Holmes argued. "She was directly threatened in a murder case."

"Yeah. The cold case from 2012. I'm well aware." Alex tilted her head. "We received intelligence that the killer is an alien. We have direct orders from the president to take over the investigation."

Holmes' eyes went wide as saucers. "I… No, this isn't a federal case. This is within the NCPD's jurisdiction!"

"Your jurisdiction ends where I say it does." Alex narrowed her eyes at the man. Maggie had to fight off the smirk threatening to take over her face – the exact same words Alex had told her on the tarmac when they first met. "Now, sir, if there's nothing left to complain about, I'd suggest you go to the precinct and get the DEO everything you currently have on the case. I will handle the rest, and make sure that detective Sawyer is safe and protected for the next few days."

As a last move, she handed him a card. "Here's my contact information. If you want an update on the case, be sure to give me a call."

Holmes snatched the card from her hand, and proceeded to rip it apart in front of her eyes. Alex made a point out of sighing deeply, before looking at Maggie. "Let's go."

Maggie didn't dare to look Holmes in the eyes as she followed Alex down the road. When they'd turned a corner and were out of his sight, Alex stopped and looked Maggie in the eyes. "You have a hell of a lot of explaining to do."

"I know. But… Al…" Maggie looked down and laughed. "…Your leg…"

"Yeah. It'll take some time getting used to, but at least I managed the badass entrance."

"That you did."

Alex smiled, and wrapped an arm around Maggie's waist, but pulled away quickly when she saw the other woman flinch. "You okay?!"

"Yeah, don't worry." Maggie managed a weak smile. "Just… Sore. From the impact, probably. And also, I feel like all the hangovers I ever had came back to haunt me."

The agent frowned. "Let's call a cab, and get back to my apartment, alright? You can lay down there, and tell me everything."

"The case files are still at your lab."

"I'll tell Kara to bring them. She promised she'd come by later. Let's just get you home."

The detective nodded, and allowed her fiancée to hail a cab, and guide her into the back seat.

When Alex was sure that Maggie was comfortable, she took a seat next to her on the couch, and reached for her hand. "Maggie, we've been through so much these past three weeks…"

"I know, Al, I-…"

But Alex raised her other hand, indicating that Maggie should let her finish. "… I love you. And I want to spend the rest of my life with you. But whatever thing you're doing, whatever you think you're doing, it ends here."

Maggie looked down in shame.

"One more secret, one more lie, and I'm out, Maggie." Alex shook her head. "This is your life we're talking about. I know how much you're used to doing things alone, but you're not alone anymore."

The detective took a deep breath, and pressed her lips together. She had to let Alex finish. And as much as she wanted to cry, she couldn't. Not now.

"… I can't help you if you keep lying to my face. God, Mags, you could have killed yourself getting behind the wheel like that! What the hell were you thinking?!"

Finally, Maggie took this as her cue to answer. "… You were angry at me."

"Yeah, the fuck I was!" Alex shot back. "And your solution to that is getting high somewhere?! Is that how you're going to handle every single time we're fighting?! Because if you are…"

"… I had to try out the effects on humans." Maggie whispered, her eyes closed to avoid seeing Alex's disappointed and angry face. "… I got it from the dive bar. The bartender said that it was harmless to humans. I had to see."

There were so many things wrong with what she just said, and Maggie knew it, but it was the most honest answer she could give her. Alex seemed to realize that too.

"You visited the alien."

"Kara told you?" Maggie laughed dryly. "Yeah. I had to see if he was responsible for the murders. But he wasn't. He just told me about Scarlet, the alien dealer that comes by the bar to sell her drug."

"And?"

Maggie finally looked up at Alex. "And what?"

"How did it feel? Were there any side effects?"

She was completely baffled as to why Alex would ask her the questions, a slight hint of fascination audible in the woman's voice.

"I felt… Really floaty. Almost instantly. I could walk and think, but it just felt like regular LSD."

"Glossing over why you know that…" Alex sighed. "Look, I'm still out of the field for at least another week. And maybe my earlier statements about the DEO were a little bit overblown…"

The pair shared a quick laugh, before Alex went serious again. "… The DEO isn't going to get involved in this, but I am."

Maggie frowned. "What do you mean?"

"I mean, without Holmes breathing down your neck, you have a lot more space to do whatever you do best. And I'm here for you. Every step of the way. We're going to get the guy."

She couldn't do it alone. She needed a partner.

Maggie took a deep breath, and looked her girlfriend in the eyes. "Six days?"

Alex smiled. "Six days is enough."

With another nod, Maggie wrapped her arms around her, ignoring the pain shooting through her body for the relief she felt. Alex was okay, she was okay.

They were going to get through this.

Maggie had fallen asleep on Alex's couch, and she was wide awake the second she opened her eyes again. The soreness of her muscles, especially her neck where the seatbelt had cut into her skin, was the first thing she was aware of, and she couldn't help the loud groan.

As she turned her head, she saw the painkiller and glass of water sitting on the coffee table. Alex was nowhere in sight, but Maggie was tremendously grateful for the small gesture. She took the painkiller quickly and swallowed it down with a gulp of water, downing the rest of the glass with it.

"Al?" She croaked, assuming that her girlfriend was in her bed- or bathroom. But when she didn't get a reply, Maggie carefully got up from the couch, attempting to stretch the soreness out of her upper body.

On the kitchen aisle, next to the fruit basket, was the pile of case files that Maggie had left at the DEO. The clock on the wall said that it was past nine, so she must have slept for hours.

"Shit…" She cursed to herself. She couldn't waste time to take naps when there was a killer on the loose. Quickly, she flipped open the files again, to see if there was anything she'd missed earlier.

After a few minutes, the apartment door unlocked, and Maggie looked up to see Alex walk in, a bag slung across her shoulder. "Hey, you're up!"

"You should have woken me up." Maggie scowled weakly. "I should have gotten back to work."

"Believe me, you needed it." Alex said, remembering how quickly Maggie had fallen asleep, and how peaceful she looked getting some rest.

"I went to your precinct and talked to Holmes while you were sleeping." She continued, as she pulled the bag away from her, and set it down onto the aisle next to her. "Got his reports, testimonies… Anything that was pulled from the 2012 case too."

"I don't think those testimonies will get us somewhere." Maggie leaned back on the stool, turning to Alex. "Why would the guy kill Ian out of the blue, when all Ian had done was look into the files without any particular interest in them? I mean, not even 24 hours later, he gets a death threat sent to his house, so the killer knew where he lived… None of it makes sense."

Alex folded her arms, and thought. "Either the killer murdered those four women because they meant something, or more were coming and he just stopped because he was forced to."

"But if somebody stopped him, shouldn't that person have turned up dead too?"

"Maybe they were, and they were just never found." Alex sighed. "We've been holding on to the MO. But what if that was just the beginning? If there is an alien involved, it could be going much further than just dumpster killing."

Maggie rubbed at her eyes. Of course. She had largely underestimated how big this case could be. Alex eyed her cautiously. "Why did you think the Magh'rah had something to do with it?"

"Ian had six files. The four Friday night dumpster murders, a narcotics case about a drugged woman, and the Montana case. The alien was the only connection I could see. Shapeshifting, memory wiping, and toxins."

"But he convinced you he had nothing to do with it?"

"The bartender was wrong." Maggie frowned in thought, already a few steps ahead. "He told me there were no human side-effects to the drug, but there clearly were. So either he's lying, and he's involved in some sort of drugging scheme, or I'm the exception to the rule."

Alex knew that the first was far more plausible. "Okay, so alien bar, get to know the bartender."

"Also, check if we can find who Scarlet is, where she deals, what her drug consists of. He claimed it was expensive stuff, so I doubt she's selling it out in the open. She'll have made a fortune."

"I'll check the DEO records, see if I can get information on her. You scout ahead at the bar, see if you can talk to some people, I'll meet you there."

Maggie nodded, meeting Alex for a kiss. "Did Kara come by when I was out?"

"She dropped off the case files. She said to call if something's going south."

Maggie hoped that it wouldn't come to that.

As Alex moved towards the door and reached for the handle, a note slid through the crack below the door, and into the apartment.

The same size, and font, Maggie could tell from a distance.

Before she could even respond, Alex had thrown open the door, pulled her gun, and was running through the hallway, as fast as her new leg would go, in pursuit of whoever the messenger was.

Maggie felt numb, as she walked towards the note, and picked it up.

Maggie Sawyer,

She won't be able to see your body if there is no body left to see.

Stop looking, or face the consequences.