She didn't know why, but the slight clicking of the door closing behind them rang like the sliding clang of prison doors against her ears as she watched them go.
Two minutes.
What were two minutes when Maggie had fought so hard to walk away from that part of her life?
Despite her worries, she also remembers the heartbreak in Maggie's voice the few times in their much more stable relationship when the Latina had slowly started to open up about her current wedding crasher ex.
"Hey," her brother's hand against her shoulder makes her start in surprise, but her eyes don't waver from that closed door.
"It's just two minutes."
Tears were already starting to well in her eyes as she gave her answer: "Maybe." She says, her voice breaking as that first tear slides down her cheek. "but she's spending them with just Alex Danvers."
Her brother's arms were already locking around her shaking shoulders as she hid a new wave of tears against his suit-covered chest.
"Seriously, Maggie, you really do look…." Alex starts to praise, only to trail off when Maggie turns fully to look at her.
"You've got two minutes," Maggie remembers wishing her hair wasn't so pinned up so she could give it a quick tossed flip the way she knew Alex always hated during disagreements.
Mostly it was her own way of keeping her mind from drifting back to the time she'd also asked for her own two minutes of Alex's time in those faraway early days between them. "So start talking." Maggie prods, already rubbing her hands over her unclothed shoulders as she puts a little more distance between them.
A half beat after the body heat warmed, the covering of Alex's jacket dropped over her already trembling fingers. From the chill or nerves of what Alex was thinking of saying to her, Maggie wasn't about to admit it.
"Thanks," Maggie grunts out, attempting to hold on to her annoyance at the intrusion to her wedding day while pulling the offering as close as possible against the unnatural chill of the hallway. Already, the swirling blend of Alex's shampoo and body wash so deeply engrained as safe and comforting in Maggie's mind was already unlocking her tensed muscles the longer she allowed the simple jacket to hang around her shoulders.
"Come on then, Danvers. If you've got something to say well-You crashed my wedding so now's a good a time as any I guess." Maggie huffs when again, after a few more granted seconds of quiet between them, Alex had done nothing to drink in the sight of Maggie dressed in the simple, stylish, and unintentionally sinfully teasing wedding dress she'd picked for her solo walk down the aisle.
"I almost died again." Alex tells her with a trembling laugh. "a few months ago, now." She adds catching Maggie's eye.
Maggie's breath leaves her lungs in a low gasp at the words already calling up another time she'd known about Alex almost dying as her finger gripped that much tighter around the offered jacket.
Even now, the trauma of that day lingers on particularly wet days and even worse during the nights. Yet, her new love had proven incredibly understanding and accommodating for her past wounds.
"So don't think that this is just me riding out some kind of near-death adrenaline rush about how 'in my last moments as I stood in front of a literal firing squad over my own shallow grave' speech." Again, the words were met with a ragged breath. "Because yes, that actually happened, but even when it had, I knew searching for you the second we got back from it like I wanted to would have been so beyond wrong that I was nearly physically sick just from thinking about it." Alex rambles.
"So why even put those thoughts, those- those situations in my head?" Maggie asks through her teeth, mostly in her own self-hatred for her own mind, drawing up those very possibilities for the woman she'd once been allowed to call hers.
"Do you know how hard it was walking away from you that day?" Maggie pushes. "I told you once it takes a lot for me to care about anyone and hell, Alex, you and I were supposed to be getting married, so yeah, you could say I cared. I cared a hell of a lot about you, and part of me still does, so don't you dare come here and tell me things like you almost died and expect me to gloss over it."
Alex only shrugs her shoulders. "About as hard as getting over you, I expect. At least you've found my replacement. I can't find one for you. And I've tried. Rao help me, I tried to walk away from you. I even tried a near-revolving door of other women, including dating James's sister, to get over you and had a fling at a cross-universal wedding with a literal time-traveling assassin. All I could think about was coming home and trying to win you back."
"Sixty seconds," Maggie says through her teeth, but Alex can see tears shining in her clouded eyes.
Alex sighed, running a hand through her hair in an already accepted defeat. "I'll just take another ten; then you never have to see me again."
"You do realize I'm still charging you for that even if you don't drink it right?" Darla reminds, eyeing first the untouched shot glass resting mockingly against the bar top, then the shell of a woman darkening the only occupied bar stool.
Not that it was all Alex's fault, considering Darla had glared, the other buzzing bar flew out of the place as soon as the Roltikkon had spotted Alex's hunched figure slipping through the door of the then mildly occupied bar.
Alex doesn't bother lifting her head to respond. What was the point in it.
"If you're wondering if I can read your mind or anything, I can't." Darla corrected, stopping again in front of Alex's bowed head. "But I can spot someone who could use a stiff drink and a few measures of physical privacy when I see her."
"Thanks." Alex manages to whisper her shaking words like a cannon blast in the quiet bar. Again, replaying those last seconds with Maggie as she looks unseeing into the untouched drink.
"Sure," the bartender nods, then just as quickly moves away again, this time to head out from behind the bar to start collecting the left remains of the bar's kicked-out customers.
Alex gives another defeated sigh, and then she hears it. Another sound besides the scrapping of empty peanut shells being swept up or half-emptied beer glasses gathered from tables rattling against one another in the quiet handling.
The unmistakable sounds of a quarter dropping into the groaning jukebox wedged into the far corner, then the clicking press of whatever musical selection Darla had decided to listen to as she cleaned.
"Hmm, I would have thought you'd have gone for the top-shelf scotch, but you surprised me again with a tequila shot instead."
Instead of answering back, Alex only takes a deep, grounding breath as the bar chair beside her becomes occupied.
Flat beer and other blended liquor flavors assault her nose, then the woodsy aftertaste of peanuts. It turned out to be an oddly universal bar snack, even among the off-planet clientele the bar leaned towards. The scratching sounds of rolling emptied shells cluttering into the dustbin. The soft scraping of leather against itself as the shadow beside her settles more against her stool.
"Ouch, so you crashed my wedding, and now you're not even gonna say hi to me?" her hallucination pouted, knocking back Alex's untouched drink for herself before replacing the emptied glass in front of her as Alex once again attempted to ground herself back to her lonely sulking. "That hurts, Danvers. That really hurts."
Another half a second, Alex found herself pinned between the bar and that painfully familiar body as Maggie's mouth molded to hers in a greedy scotch-tasting kiss, complete with Maggie's hands fisted hard in Alex's jacket, holding her in place as lips bruised in hungry traded kisses.
"Maggie, I…" Alex groans between greedy meeting of searching mouths.
"Ssshh." Maggie quiets, resting her ringless left hand against Alex's flushed cheek as the two pull back just enough to press their foreheads against the other in that soft way only they could achieve as they catch a mingled breath. "Don't spoil this."
Alex relents, happy to drop her head to Maggie's jacket clade shoulder as Maggie herself hugs closer into her space. "There is one more thing I have to tell you first."
Maggie rocks back on her heels, her eyebrow lifted in quiet curiosity.
"I got a puppy." Kara's older sister confesses. "After well…everything Kara talked me into it." Alex says, letting her fingers toy with Maggie's hair as she speaks. "If you can believe it, she found me a match with a washout from a police K9 unit who was too sweet during her training to be allowed to finish out."
"Rao, forbid you name that poor pup Gertrude, Danvers." Maggie tisks.
"She already had a name when I stepped in to adopt her." Alex corrected this, fishing for her phone to offer proof. "Her name is Jamie." Alex supplies as Maggie scrolls a few snapped pictures.
"Think she'll approve of me?" Maggie asks
"Wanna stop by Kara's to pick her up with me and find out?" Alex offers dropping a few bills on the bar top to pay for her single-shot drink, then holds out her crooked arm.
"I do." Maggie smiles leaning her head against Alex's shoulder as they head towards the door.