665. Chapter 665

She’s spent Thanksgivings with other people’s families before.

The families of women she was with, the families of friends on the force whose spouses wouldn’t take no for an answer when they heard that the detective was planning to spend the holiday alone.

But she had always felt like a guest.

And it was pleasant. Nice. Happy, even.

Still, though: just a guest.

It was never her family.

Always someone else’s family, that maybe she was part of, for a little while. But it never felt… permanent. And she always felt vaguely pitied, which made her stomach turn inside out.

But this year?

This year roughly marks a year since she and Alex had gotten together.

This year, she isn’t a guest.

This year, she is… part of the family.

And it feels permanent. And permanence has never felt so freeing.

She changes outfits at least three times before Alex tilts her head in the doorway and sighs with a soft smile on her face.

“Dressing to impress some women, Sawyer?’ she teases gently, and Maggie’s instincts send her defenses up, but one look at Alex breaks them down again.

“Only you, Danvers,” she shakes her head at this nerd she loves so much.

Alex crosses the room and puts her hands on Maggie’s waist. “Talk to me, babe,” she encourages, and Maggie lets her head drop forward lightly onto Alex’s shoulder. Alex strokes her hair and waits patiently.

“I just… I know we have dinner together all the time, but this… it’s a family thing, you know? And I feel like it’s family, with you, and that’s… I haven’t had it, not like this, in a long time.” She shrugs. “Ever, really, because turns out even the sense of family I had as a kid was actually contingent on… things. But this feels… unconditional, you know?”

Alex strokes her cheek and brings her fingers through Maggie’s hair before kissing her lightly. Maggie’s lips part for her automatically and Alex nearly swoons.

“Because it is unconditional, Maggie Sawyer. I love you, unconditionally. And so does our family.”

And – when two sex-induced clothes-changes later – they show up at Kara’s apartment, they show her so, so, so well.

Winn has made little place settings – “I’m sure we could have seated ourselves, Winn,” Eliza teases, but she ruffles his hair proudly like he’s a teenager, anyway – with Maggie between him and Alex.

“Look at us, a place at an actual family table,” he nudges her with his shoulder, and they hug until they both decide they have something of reputations to uphold.

“I’m so glad you’re here, sweetie,” Eliza takes her turn. “And she sets the table without being asked; you can learn something from her, girls,” she teases Kara and Alex, giggling with each other off in a corner.

“Yeah, she’s a keeper,” Alex calls, beaming, and Kara superspeeds across the room to hug her.

“Yeah, she makes the besttttt fooooodddd,” she says longingly as Lena shakes her head and laughs.

“Try not to crush your sister’s girlfriend’s ribs, darling,” she reminds Kara, who blushes and preens as she dinsentangles herself from Maggie.

“Seriously though, Maggie. Having you and Lena in our family is amazing,” Kara beams, and James is next to scoop Maggie into his arms.

“It really is,” he tells her as they rock back and forth in their hug.

Because normally, she’s not overly physical with people.

But somehow, this day, this place, it feels right.

It feels safe. It feels happy.

It feels like… family.