She promised Maggie that she’ll always love her.
She promised, she promised, she promised.
She promised, and she held on for her.
She promised, but god, that fob watch? That damn watch that’s always there, but that she never notices, not really, not really?
She’s noticing it now.
She’s noticing it, and she knows – somehow – that it has the power to make her break her promise.
Because there are whispers coming from it.
Whispers, and sometimes, screams.
She’s never opened it – why would she, it’s just an old fob watch, it’s broken, it’s not… – she’s never opened it, but it’s pulling her, now. It’s calling her, now.
And for some reason, its calls feel like her dreams.
Her dreams of space ships and pepper pot killing machines and supernovae with her ship at the center, and running. Lots and lots of running.
Always with the running.
Maggie’s never in her dreams.
Kara is, sometimes. Kara is, and she thinks that sometimes, Kara knows.
That Kara knows about the watch.
She brings it to her one night, and Kara begs her. Begs her to forget it, begs her to put it away. Keep it safe, keep it close, but Alex, please, you’re my sister, I love you, you have to trust me: keep it closed.
And she does trust her – she trusts her more than anything – but the watch scares her.
And she hasn’t ever run from things that scared her.
If her dreams are any indication, she’s the kind of person who runs toward things that scare her.
Not that her dreams are real. Of course they’re not.
But there’s a certain feeling.
A temptation. Another reality.
“Tell me why, then,” she asks her teary eyed sister, her voice soft, half-hoping Kara will comply easily. Half-hoping Kara will refuse her.
Kara groans and she takes off her glasses and she paces – something she’s picked up from Maggie – and she sits back down and pulls Alex’s hands into her lap.
“Alex, we haven’t always… we haven’t always lived this life. But this life? This life is keeping you safe. This life is keeping you alive. And I need you alive, Alex, okay? I need my sister.”
“And I need you, Kara, but you… what the hell do you mean, we haven’t always lived this life? And this life? Keeping me safe? Kara, I’m a DEO agent, my life is on the line all the time, and so is yours, I don’t – ”
“Alex, I just need you to trust me, okay?”
“I do trust you, Kara. I do. But I need to know.”
Her eyes are desperate and her eyes are burning. Her eyes are determined and her eyes are decisive.
And Kara loves her sister. Loves her so much she can’t lose her.
Loves her so much she can’t let her keep living a lie. Even if Alex herself had made her promise to prevent her from opening the watch until it was safe.
Because she has to love Alex enough to trust her. Trust that they’re strong together. That they can keep each other safe. Together.
So she explains – she explains for an entire night, and Alex chugs bourbon and Alex paces and sometimes, Alex cries.
She texts Maggie before she opens it.
Before she lets her Time Lord DNA resurface, before she lets her memories flood back into her body, into her heart, into her mind.
She texts her and she asks her to come over, because if she’s going to keep the universe safe – the universe, the multiverse, all of time, not just the earth anymore – she needs to give Maggie a chance to be with her. Needs to give her a chance to love her anyway.
Or to leave her, instead of being left behind.
She’s convinced Maggie won’t come with her.
Convinced that this will be goodbye.
Kara waits in the other room on standby, in case it is. In case her sister will need her to pick up the pieces.
But Maggie just listens, and Maggie just chuckles.
“Figures that even when I think I’ve fallen for a human, I actually fell for an alien.”
Alex forces out a short laugh, but her ears are roaring with the silence between Maggie’s words, in the moment before Maggie takes her hands and kisses each of her knuckles.
“Ride or die, right Danv – Doctor?” she whispers, but she’s terrified, because how could someone that powerful still want her? Still love her?
She’ll ride with her if Alex still wants her to.
And she might just die if she doesn’t.
Kara holds her hand while she pops open the watch, and Maggie keeps a trembling hand on the small of her back.
Alex falls to one knee and bows her head, eyes squeezed shut, as her life, her thousands of years, pour back into her soul.
She keeps her hand steady in her sister’s, and then she reaches out for Maggie.
Reaches for her, and pulls her into the deepest kiss they’ve ever shared.
“Come with me?” she whispers, because Time Lord or human, TARDIS or DEO, she will never not love this woman.
“Ride or die, Doctor,” Maggie whispers back against her lips, soft and awed and in love, in love, in love.