418. Chapter 418

She didn’t expect him to stay with her. She didn’t even want him to.

But damn, she expected him to fight harder than he did.

It was his mother, after all. His girlfriend, his mother, his people.

She didn’t abandon her people on the front lines when her family was the one trying to take over the city, the planet.

Not even when it almost killed her. Not even when it almost killed Alex.

Alex, Alex, Alex.

Alex is the arms she runs to when the dust settles, and Alex is the home she goes to.

Because Alex is the sanctuary she needs.

Maggie’s there. At Alex’s apartment.

Because Alex is her sanctuary, too.

And Alex has both of her sanctuaries right here, right now.

And right here, right now, Kara doesn’t have the energy to process what it means to have to share Alex after crises.

Right here, right now, she’s just grateful that Maggie is curled into an armchair, eyes downcast, giving the sisters the time they need. For each other.

“I could kill her for you. Marsdin. For forcing you to make such an impossible choice.”

Alex grins faintly and shakes her head, her eyes red and her voice thick.

“Maggie already offered.” Kara nods at her over Alex’s shoulder, from her position curled into Alex’s chest, and Maggie shrugs.

“But it wasn’t even her fault.”

“It was, Alex – “

“No, I mean… Kara, think about it. One person, versus the world? I’m a soldier, it’s my job, I shouldn’t have even hesitated. But on the other hand, it was you, Kara, you. And I shouldn’t have even considered pushing it in the first place.”

Kara sits up and strokes Alex’s hair, wipes Alex’s tears.

“Alex, your two biggest instincts are protecting me and protecting basically everyone except yourself. She knows that about you. Marsdin. If she wanted someone to commit genocide against the Daxamites, she should have pulled the trigger herself. Or, Rao, at least given the order to someone who kinda has a grudge against me. Make the decision easier.”

Alex chuckles wetly and rests her forehead on Kara’s temple. “I could have lost you, Kara. And it could have been my fault.”

“You’ll never lose me, Alex. Ever. I promise you that.”

“But I almost – “

“Almost isn’t gone. I’m right here, Alex.” Kara pulls back and frames her big sister’s face in her hands. “I’m right here. And Maggie’s safe, and J’onn’s safe, and Lena and James and Winn are safe – “

“And your boyfriend is now your ex, right?”

“Alex – “

“No, Kara, he abandoned you. And this was far from the first time he – “

“Alex.”

“Kara?”

“Why did I do that?”

“Why did you stay behind to try to convince Rhea to surrender? Because that’s what you do, Kara, you – “

“No. Date him. Why did I do that?”

Alex sighs and Maggie shifts up from her chair and pads into the bedroom to place a call to Jessy the Pizza Guy (who, of course, she’d checked up on after the attacks, and who’d gotten through it just fine). This was going to be one of those nights.

“Kara,” Alex whispers, and it’s her turn to smooth her sister’s hair out of her face. “The kind of pressure he put you under… and he was from your home – sort of – your past… you couldn’t break his nose by kissing him… Kara, that stuff is – “

“Ugh.”

“I love you,” Alex offers, because Maggie’s better at this part than she is.

As if on cue, Maggie kneels beside the couch. Beside her Danvers girls.

“I ordered pizza and potstickers,” she offers, and Kara smiles through tears like Maggie’s the MVP of the year.

“And also, Little Danvers, listen… you’ve surrounded yourself with people who would easily die for you. Alex. J’onn. James. Me.” Kara and Alex both tear up when Maggie includes herself, and Maggie stammers a bit at their overwhelmed and overwhelming response before continuing. “Hell, Cat Grant. And Winn? You saw him, Kara. He was crawling out of his skin, even being in the same room as Lilian Luthor. But he powered through, and he did that for you. And Lena? How hard Lena fought to get back to you? You’re surrounded by people who love you. And we just went through the end of the world together. If you only lost one person to betrayal and selfishness, you really haven’t crafted a bad family for yourself.”

“You’d die for me?” Kara asks, and Maggie nods without hesitation.

“Alex needs her sister,” she tells her, and Alex shudders and pulls Maggie up onto the couch and into her lap.

“Don’t you go anywhere. Either of you.”

They promise Alex they won’t, they won’t, they won’t, and after pizza and potstickers are demolished and hours’ more tears are shed, Maggie holds them both – Kara pressed against one side, Alex curled on and slightly over the other – until their tears dry and their breathing evens out and they dream of flight unmarred by missiles and love unmarred by massacres.