They'd just found a shady spot to sit down after they ordered to enjoy the cool afternoon. Maggie's mind buzzed with everything she'd been shown and told. The maze of the DEO was impressive but that was nothing compared to the newer side of Alex she'd gotten to see as they'd moved from room to room.
The cool, confidence was back in spades for sure but there was something else. Something Maggie wasn't able to quite name. then there were the fleeting moments when Alex would catch Maggie's cataloging and that shy, goofy little smile would slip back onto the other woman's lips and her hand would lift to run through her hair as Maggie dropped her gaze just to remember how to breathe. Brooks beside her only added to Alex's quiet confidence as the rescue shadowed them.
"You're staring again." Alex points out breaking Maggie's glazed ogling as Brooks darts away chasing after what Maggie hadn't seen as they wait.
"Can I ask a question?"
"No, you may not have a flash grenade." Alex answers making Maggie's inside melt when the tough DEO agent's bravado breaks down yet again as the auburn-haired woman ducks her head to rest it against the arm Maggie was holding stretched along the back of the bench as Brooks trots back to them to drop into a down position leaning against one of Alex's braced legs.
"Not even if I distracted you next time and sneak one away?" Maggie asks with a playful laugh as Alex allows the cop's fingers to card through her hair as they talk.
"Distract me how?" Alex probes genuine curiosity in her voice as she catches the cop's eye yet again.
Maggie would have answered until their order number was called out giving her a small out as she rose to pick it up from the food truck window.
"Distract me how?" Alex asks as soon as Maggie, with Brooks padding beside her on guarded return to the snatched bench they'd claimed.
Before she lost her nerve Maggie reached down to pull at the front of Alex's shirt coaxing the other woman up a little more as she dipped her head as if to catch the other woman's mouth in the lightest of kisses. But instead of giving into the temptation of Alex's lips, Maggie keeps going stealing a noticeable bite from Alex's lunch-ordered container of fried rice with her own plastic spork.
"Hey." Alex pouts obviously expecting to have been kissed in that half-second. And once again Maggie fights the want to make the unspoken asking a reality as she reclaims her seat on the other half of the benched seat. "Yeah, stealing my food isn't going to make me give you what you want, Sawyer." The agent grumbles in scolding.
"Who says that was what I would have actually done if I was really trying to distract you, Danvers?" Maggie wonders aloud, needing the support of the bench seat from the sheer adorableness of Alex's pouting expression.
"W—Wh-- erm What was your question?" Alex asks in a rather smooth dodge as she flicks a few bites of grilled chicken in Brooke's direction. Maggie also pretends to not notice the move was also to save the rest of Alex's lunch from hitting the ground with the nervous trembling in her hands.
It takes a few extra seconds for Maggie to remember her original question as she watches Alex dig heartily into the food truck-ordered meal once Alex recovers.
"If you'd let me, I was going to ask if I could ask what was the moment that tipped towards." Maggie pauses waving a french fry towards the dog sitting obediently on the ground between them. The move ends with Brooks snatching the loan fry from Maggie's fingers.
For a long moment, Alex was quiet. So quiet that Maggie considers retracting her asking as the other woman's eyes cast around them. Brooks's chin dropped onto Alex's knees, his nose nudging until Alex consented to scratching at the soft spot behind the dog's ear as the hazy clouding in the woman's eyes lessened a little more under Brooks's coaxing.
Maggie's eyes followed towards the point Alex had narrowed to. The fountain in the park across the road from where they were now sitting. "If you don't want to tell…."
Alex shakes her head at the offered retraction, but she does finish her next bite of food before she speaks up. "No, no it's alright." She assures her voice low as she picks at the half-eaten food container.
She was quiet for a few long moments and Maggie assumed she wouldn't get an answer.
"The uh the shower drains in the hotel I was staying at my first simi solo mission back after…. After the attack." Again, Brooks nudged closer to her in offered comfort as Alex kept talking. "The drain, it was blocked," Alex admits at last. Her fingers immediately moved to slide into Brooks's fur. "I didn't realize until it was up to here." She pauses her hands now visibly trembling moving to tap against her ankle.
Brooks's paw covers Alex's hand the dog whimpering until Alex's chin lifts to meet the animal's eyes. Brooks giving the biggest doggie smile once this was done then proceeds to dip his nose towards the takeout container resting against Alex's lap.
Maggie could already see from the dog's stance that the move wasn't to actually steal a bite or three from the thing, only a tangible distraction from the anxious stress Maggie had also noticed clouding Alex's eyes as she'd lost herself to the memory.
The ruse working considering the giggled "Come on Brookie." Alex gives as she playfully pushes the pawing dog away from the cooling food. "Someone's been spending too much time with Auntie Kara, huh boy?" she laughs rubbing her hand over Brooks's head.
"Sorry." The cop mumbles in guilt. To Alex or to Brooks she didn't know who as she dropped her gaze towards the rest of the black bean burger, she'd picked from the food truck menu.
"So, if you're going to be the new go-between for the NCPD and DEO that'll mean the three of us are going to be seeing a lot more of one another." Alex reminds tossing over a few more pieces of chicken to the waiting dog in offered thanks.
Maggie gives her a mocking glare as she chews a bite of her burger slowly. "What's this if talk?"
"Well, it's either more 'if' talk or fishing for more information on the fact I'm near positive Lucy is not so secretly dating your friend Kate." Alex counters
"You've picked up on that too huh?" Maggie laughs
"Kinda of hard not to." Alex says pointing with her rice-covered spork towards the café across the street from the park the two had chosen for their lunch break.
Maggie's head whipped around in shock.
Sure enough, sitting as plain as day at one of the café's cozier-looking outdoor tables was Lucy and Kate. Katie now seemed to be laughing heartily at something Lucy had just said as Lucy boldly tugs a few fries from Kate's plate to her own.
"Okay new bet." Maggie gapes earning a whimpered tail wag from Brooks and an interested eyebrow raise from Alex. "How hard are we going to tease them on this?"