Chapter Text
The fires are under control but smoke still plumes into the night. Maggie’s finger is splintered, her rib is cracked and she’s on her fifth cup of coffee for the night. It hasn’t helped; she can barely keep her eyes open.
All things considered, she’s lucky to be alive. Not bad considering their alien mascot went rogue. And she thought Gotham was dangerous. She thinks of Kate and pushes her out of her head.
A blinking streetlight draws her attention, along with the preppy blonde walking in the dark. A raindrop hits her windshield and then another. Maggie slows the car. The blonde keeps walking until Maggie flashes her lights at her.
She stops. Maggie rolls down the passenger side window.
“Am I in trouble?” The woman asks. She almost looks guilty.
“Need a lift?” What she really wants is a beer, some pizza and to crawl into bed. The blonde approaches the window, manicured nails and hands neatly on the door. She’s young. Cute. “Looks like you’re out past curfew.”
“What?”
Maggie smiles. “It’s starting to rain. And unless you haven’t turned on a television in the past twenty-four hours you know Supergirl’s lost it.” The blonde frowns gently, adjusting her glasses. “It’s not safe out.”
“I appreciate it but I’ll be fine on my own.” She pulls back and walks.
Maggie keeps the window rolled down, still traveling much too slow. “Hey, people are going to start thinking I’m looking for the wrong kind of company if you don’t get in.” She waves her splintered finger. “I’ll stop being a pain in the ass once you let me drop you off at home.” Maggie pulls the car over and leans to look out. A moment later the blonde walks over and gets in. She’s on edge. “Rough night?”
“Yeah. You could say that.” She looks her over apprehensively.
“I look like someone out of a police lineup, huh?”
“You look hurt.” So much concern in her voice, sweet like maple syrup.
“Ah, it’s just a scratch.” A few cuts on her face, a broken rib and she still has a car, unlike other officers. “Name’s Maggie Sawyer. I’m a detective with NCPD.” The woman’s quiet. “Mind telling me your name? I promise I won’t run it for any warrants.”
A smile almost touches her lips. “It’s just Kara.”
“Nice to meet you, ‘just Kara.’”
xxx
They end up at a hole in the wall with greasy burgers and fries, Miller Lite on tap. A hidden gem and occasional dump. Kara insists on paying. It seems to mean something to the girl so Maggie lets her, watching her pull the perfectly flat bills from her clutch purse, saying ‘please’ and ‘thank you’ to the bedraggled cashier. Maggie would kill for a beer but can’t justify getting behind the wheel after tossing one back.
“This is amazing. I’m bringing Alex here.”
Who’s Alex? Probably a boyfriend. Maggie smiles. Rare to see a cute girl pounding away at a meal like that. Maybe it’d be different if it was a date. Now and then Kara turns distractedly towards the dinosaur of a TV playing behind the bar, watching Supergirl’s antics. Whatever the meal did to restore her mood, the news has stripped right away. “You usually wander National City when it’s in the midst of crisis?”
Kara wipes her lips with a napkin and has a sip of soda. “You talk like I’m a damsel in distress.”
Maggie folds her arms on the booth and leans forward. “In my defense, you looked to be in distress.”
“I’m not a… um.” She frowns, considering. “Agh, Winn and Ms. Grant would be so disappointed right now. The witch with the shoes? I don’t melt in the rain.”
“You don’t look like a witch to me.” Flawless skin, bright blue eyes, flushed cheeks and lips. Supergirl might have knocked her around tonight, but even in her condition she can see.
“Sometimes witches don’t look like witches.” Maggie smiles, wondering why she’s contradicted the entire point she was trying to make. “I was trying to clear my thoughts. That’s not illegal.”
“Consider clearing them somewhere else. I saw a lot of crazy shit tonight. National City’s got more polish than Gotham, but a hell of a lot more aliens.”
“What do you have against aliens?”
“Nothing, when they’re not throwing cars at me and trying to destroy the city.” Kara winces. “A few of my buddies are in the hospital tonight.”
Kara breathes unevenly. “Will they be okay?”
“Yeah, they’re tough. Bullets don’t bounce off of us. We just have to keep going. We don’t get as many damned parades, either.”
“I think you’re brave.”
Maggie leans back into the booth. So damned earnest. She laughs, not sure how to believe it.
xxx
Maggie pulls the earphones away and trots over to her. It’s early morning, the air wet and grey. Kara leans into the dewy railing, overlooking the water. “If it isn’t ‘just Kara’,” Maggie smiles, wiping sweat off her forehead with the back of her hand. She usually jogs the park in the early morning but has never seen Kara before.
“Maggie,” her face lights up like the sunrise. Maggie’s momentarily staggered by it. “It’s good to see you.” She lowers her glasses, adjusting them back up her nose. There’s a small crinkle. “Maybe you should try to take it easy for a while.”
Maggie laughs. So the junior librarian gives lectures. “You have x-ray glasses or something? I’ve never been good at following doctor’s orders.” Kara’s wearing one of her little sweaters, a pearl necklace. “You’re not working out.” But it looks like she works out.
“I’m waiting for Ms. Grant’s favorite coffee place to open up.”
“You a secretary?”
“Personal assistant. Slash, slave, depending on the day.” She looks her over. “How are your buddies? The ones who were in the hospital?”
“Hopped up on IVs but making a speedy recovery. Supergirl is trying to get back into the good graces of National City.”
“How’s she doing?”
“She’ll get there. We all have bad days, right?” Kara nods, though somewhat morosely. “You okay? None of the coffee shops open up for another hour.”
“I have a lot on my mind.”
“Your boss a bitch?”
Kara laughs. Busted. “She’s… challenging.” Maggie nods. A bitch, then. “But that’s not it.” She shakes the thoughts away. “Actually, I’ve been thinking about you.”
Maggie perks. “You have?”
“Yeah. That night… it was a bad night for me and for you. I wasn’t thinking. You dropped me off and… well, I didn’t know how to get a hold of you. I didn’t think to until after the fact.”
“So you camped out here, hoping to catch me on my morning jog?” Kara fidgets. “That was a joke.”
“Oh.” A nervous smile. “You were injured. You’re still injured. And you’d had a long crappy day and you still gave me a ride back. That was really decent.”
She smiles wryly. “I try.” And often fails.
“So, let me take you out for a drink? Or dinner?”
“You already bought me dinner. You’re not trying to get me go steady are you?” Kara’s eyes widen, a line cutting her brow. “Cause I’m kind of already going steady with someone else.” Even if it’s on the rocks. Even if they haven’t talked in days.
“It’d just be dinner. Or drinks. Or dinner and drinks.”
Maggie smiles. “How about tonight at nine? Corner of State and Elm?”
“It’s a date.” She grimaces. “A non-date date.”
Maggie slips the ear buds back. “I’ll wear something pretty.” She takes off, fighting the urge to look back.
xxx
She arrives five minutes early but Kara is already there, sitting at a high top table, looking around uncomfortably.
Maggie watches her from a distance. There’s something different about her. Her hair is loose around her shoulders, pulled back from her face with a small clip. She turns to her, smiles and slips her glasses on.
Maggie moves over. Kara slips down from her chair. “Hi!” She gives her a brief, tight hug. She’s tall. And smells like fresh laundry. “Sorry, too soon?” she adjusts her glasses.
“I’ll survive.” Maybe. Her rib isn’t feeling too great about now. Kara’s wearing a white dress with a thin red belt. Maggie briefly imagines unlatching it and forces herself to take a seat across from her. “So this isn’t your usual place, is it?”
“How can you tell?”
She cocks her head. “Pretty obvious if you know what to look for. I prefer dives myself.” But taking her to her usual place is out of the question.
Kara grabs her purse, a light purple color and starts to stand. “Let’s go there, then.”
“You wouldn’t like it.”
“Why not? I can be adventurous.”
“Let’s be adventurous some other time.” It took forever to find parking. “Get that coffee for your boss?”
“I’m still alive, so, yes. Arrest anyone today?”
“Not yet, but the night is young. I don’t get to stop being a cop just because I’m off duty.” She flags a waitress over. “I’ll have a beer,” she looks at Kara, “what are you having?”
Kara takes a breath, the decision paramount. “Can I get something with an umbrella in it?”
The waitress moves on and Maggie laments the twenty dollar drink Kara’s ordered. “You look nice.” Kara smiles. Maggie’s flustered. “I was joking earlier about the something pretty.” She picked something out but shoved it further into the closet than a homophobic republican.
“Looks to me like you’re getting plenty of attention.”
Maggie looks around. An ex and a few guys she’s collared. “Take it from me, not all attention is good.”
“Tell me about it.” The waitress comes back with the drinks and Kara smiles at the colorful drink in front of her, plucking the cherry free and eating it. “I frickin love these.” She has a drink, folding her arms on the table and setting her gaze on her. “You could have brought your boyfriend.”
“My what?” she shakes her head. “I don’t have a boyfriend.”
“You said you were going steady…”
“I was kidding. I mean, I’m seeing someone but I don’t think it’s going to work.” I’m a serial monogamist, how about you?
“Why not?”
Maggie takes a long drink of her beer. “I’m emotionally unavailable. And never around. Work keeps me busy, you know?”
“But you’re here with me. You could be home with them.”
“Usually has to be an open line of communication for that to happen. I might have been ghosted,” she says with mock alarm. It wouldn’t be the first time.
“That’s too bad.” Kara reaches out and takes her hand, giving it a gentle squeeze before pulling her hand back.
Maggie wonders if she’d be up for going back to her place. And this is why you can’t keep a relationship. “How’s your love life? Hell, I know we just met, but we’ve got drinks. Sometimes a stranger’s the best person to tell your secrets to.”
“Like a taxi driver.”
“Yeah. Or a priest.”
Kara smiles, fiddling with the clasp of her purse. “I’m not seeing anyone. I’m not really good at that kind of thing, anyway,” she tells the purse. “And I’ve been sad.” She waits, thumb grazing along her glass. “I lost my aunt recently. She was killed. And…” her eyes fog over. “I’ve been struggling with everything. It’s… it’s just been really hard.”
Maggie sits up. “I’m so sorry. Have you talked to anyone about it? Maybe a counselor or…” Kara shakes her head. “Maybe you should.”
“I don’t know how to talk about it.” Her eyes darken momentarily. “She wasn’t a good person.”
xxx
She has one too many beers and relinquishes her keys to Kara when she asks. “Know how to drive a stick?”
“I do a little bit of everything.”
They walk to the car, Kara sober as anything despite Maggie being certain she drank more than she did. She never thought of herself as a lightweight. They slide into the seats, the windows fogging with their breath. Kara smiles over at her. “Buckled up?”
Maggie jostles it for her. “Yes, ma’am.” Kara drives, the windows rolled down, cool air hitting their faces. Maggie watches their hair flutter, the reflection of night lights in her glasses. “Anyone ever tell you you look like a dorky Supergirl?”
“It’s not nice to call people dorky.”
Maggie chuckles. “Cut me some slack, I just had a sixteen hour day.” Kara turns on the radio, some slow trippy techno jam. “This the kind of music you’re into?”
“I like music that makes me happy.”
“Are you happy, Kara?”
“Of course I am.”
Maggie doesn’t believe her.
xxx
They take the stairs up, three flights. Paint flecks off the railing. Whenever she’s brought girls by they make a face. Kara doesn’t make a face. Even as the stairs creak under their weight, as Maggie leans a little too heavily against the rail.
They arrive at the landing. The overhead light buzzes, flickering orange before snapping off. Maggie laughs. One day she’ll get out of this dump. National City has a higher cost of living than Gotham. “You impressed yet?”
“I didn’t know you were trying to impress me. That’s kind of cool.” She mutters the last.
Kara gives her the keys. Maggie takes them, their fingers brushing. Maggie fumbles with the door lock. She’s not drunk. It’s dark. Or both. She’s ready to ask Kara to turn her cell phone light on when Kara covers her hand with her own, leading the key to the lock and turning with her. “Thanks.” She pushes the door open. She has an internal debate that doesn’t last very long. It never does. “Hey. Um. You want to come in?”
Kara leans into the wall, ignoring the apartment but facing her. All Maggie sees are the outlines of her face, the blue in her eyes. “Do you think that’s a good idea?”
“No. But I’ve never played it safe.” It’s one of her less attractive traits. So her exes tell her. She bows her head, smiling with embarrassment before switching the lights on. Even from the hallway she can see the place has been trashed. “Wait here.” She moves ahead, taking in the space. It’s clear. She takes a breath and sighs, turning chairs upright, picking up the lamp knocked off the table.
“Oh my God,” Kara ventures in, danger be damned. “Have you been robbed? Or… do you have a cat?”
Maggie smiles. “I’ve got a few catty ex-girlfriends.” And Kate’s enemies never played nice. Shit. Maybe she should have never left Gotham. “I’d like to tell you this is out of the ordinary but…” she pulls the cell phone from her jacket and rings Darla. She has to make sure she’s safe. Or… rule her out as the culprit. “Hey, uh. You okay?” Maggie pulls the phone back from her ear. Jesus. “You know, you can call me, too.” She listens. “It’s just that someone trashed my place and I wasn’t sure if—” She massages her neck. “Yeah. Got you loud and clear.” She ends the call, pushing the button on the screen. Easy, but not as satisfying as slamming a handle down.
Kara touches the side of her glasses. “Are you okay? That was…” she shakes her head. “I can help you clean up.”
She tosses the phone aside. “You know, that’s not why I invited you in here.”
“Why did you invite me in here?” Maggie feels a flush of heat crawl up her cheeks. Kara looks away from her, righting the dining room table. “Should we file a police report?”
“We could but I guarantee you they have better things to do with their time.” She runs a hand through her hair. “This isn’t the worst thing that’s happened to me.” Kara nods absently, settling the table cloth over the table. She runs her fingers over the cloth. “It’s small, right? I eat a lot of tv dinners.” Usually on the couch.
“That’s awful,” she says genuinely. “Food is… it’s more than food. It’s relationship building. You should learn how to cook,” she says.
“I know how to cook. But it’s not fun cooking for one. Especially after a long day.”
“What about your steady?”
She laughs. “I don’t tend to go steady for very long. And after a long day I’m usually beat.” TV dinners and dive bars it is. She goes over, picking up the cracked picture of Darla and setting it facedown again. “So what’s your excuse? Bet the boys go crazy over you.” The girls, too.
She’s sheepish. “Not really.”
“You mentioned your aunt. They catch the person who did it?” she doesn’t remember seeing a case like that.
Kara smiles sadly. “Yeah.”
“And?”
“It doesn’t make anything better.”
Maggie heads to the fridge, pulling two beers out. She offers Kara one. “This usually helps.” Kara looks at the bottles and back to her. She picks up another few things while Maggie uncaps the bottles. “Want to order a pizza?”
“I should head out. I have another early work day.”
“Oh. Yeah. Sorry.” She tries to contain her disappointment and follows her to the door. “Thanks for being my DD.” She blinks. “Were your drinks virgin or…” they weren’t virgin prices.
“The point was for you to have a good time, guilt free.” Maggie doesn’t tell her how easy ‘guilt free’ is for her. “You wouldn’t let me drive if I was drinking.”
Maggie leans into the doorway, smiling up at her. “Right.” She takes her wrist. “Sure you’re not up for forgetting our worries? Just for the night?”
Kara’s lips part. She’s surprised. She’s blushing. “What about Darla?”
“She’s old news. I’m old news.” She eases her thumb along Kara’s wrist. “Let’s make a night of it. I would really love to go down on you.” The words tumble out of her. Kara doesn’t gasp but she pulls her hand away. She did it again. Crossed the line. You’re a real fucking sociopath, you know that? She doesn’t agree. She’s just. It’s just…
“I’m going to go.”
“Jesus. Um. Yeah. Look, I’m …” Kara walks off. Maggie follows her and knows she shouldn’t. Some of her balance has been restored to her. She catches her on the second flight.
“That’s not why I came here.”
You didn’t come at all. Drum roll. Maggie takes a breath. “No. No. Of course not.” Why did you come here? “Sorry,” she mumbles, touching her lips. Kara exhales. “That was…” she smiles, because she’s so embarrassed, because she can’t think of the fucked up implications. “That was really shitty of me. I can give you a rundown of excuses. That it was the beer or the night. Or that I’m lonely and you’re cute. But mostly, you’re here.” Kara looks at her thoughtfully, hurt somehow. Which is record time for her. “I’m a cop, not a saint.”
“No one expects a saint.”
“You really are naïve.” She takes the steps down. Once again, Maggie follows. “Hey, slow down. I’m a good cop. Not so great at everything else. Good at making fast friends and losing them just as quickly.”
“Maybe you should think about that.”
“I do. I have. Sometimes it’s better not to think.”
Kara stops and looks at her. “That’s lazy.”
“But easy.” She sighs. “Hey. I meant everything I said tonight. All of it. I know it’s not pretty. A lot of what I’m good at happens in the bedroom.”
“So what, you’re like some shallow…sex thing with a badge?” Sex thing? “There’s more to you than that. You’re more than beer and your job and… cool bedroom tricks.”
Maggie smiles wryly. “How would you know?” She jams her hands into her pockets. “Hey. I know you’re probably never coming back and I don’t blame you. No good deed goes unpunished, right? But I really like you. You’re not like anyone else.”
“Did you detective that out?”
She laughs. “I’ve got my ways.” Kara looks uncertain. “Normally I’d turn on the charm. I’ve got it sometimes. And it might even work. But girls like you should stay far away from girls like me.”
“You’re not as scary as you think.”
“That’s what all my exes say.” They think it’s romantic to try to fix her, as if she were some pet project.
“I’m not an ex.” A beat. “I hope your heart feels better soon.” She smiles back, a melancholy that transcends her years and then she’s gone. Maggie watches, resisting the urge to chase her outside, keep her in her line of sight.