541. Chapter 541

It’s been three hundred ninety days, thirteen hours, twenty-six minutes, and fifteen… no, twelve seconds.

Since Alex last saw Maggie on anything other than a pixelated screen. Since Alex last heard her voice without static. Since Alex last felt her skin on hers, fell asleep in her arms, held her when she cried.

Three hundred ninety days, thirteen hours, twenty-five minutes, and thirty-two seconds.

And Alex Danvers is shaking with nerves.

“What if we don’t fit anymore? What if we’ve changed too much? What if we got too used to being apart? What if the things we’ve both been through apart – “

“Alex. Hey. She loves you. You love her. I’m not saying it won’t be hard, and that there won’t be complications to work through. But for now? For now, you get to see her again. Try to focus on that, just for now, okay? It’ll be alright.”

Alex nods, grateful to her sister for stopping her spiral.

She’s had a lot of spirals to stop, this past year and some odd months.

She’d lived her entire life without Maggie.

Until one day, she wasn’t. Until one day, she didn’t want to.

And then Maggie went away.

Went away because the President was impressed by the NCPD Science Division, especially a particular detective, and she had a job that Maggie was apparently uniquely suited for. A job that required her to ship out and for Alex to stay… home.

A home that somehow didn’t feel like a home anymore, except when Kara was there. Except when James or Winn or Lucy or Lena would crash on her couch, because they knew she was hurting.

Because somewhere in the time she’d spent with Maggie before she left, she’d developed a family beyond Kara.

Because Maggie got her to be herself.

Because Maggie.

And now Maggie’s coming home, and Alex is nauseous. She can’t tell if it’s excitement or anxiety or both, but either way, Kara isn’t letting her drive.

“I’ll take you to the airport. Come on,” she says, stroking her sister’s newly straightened hair, redder now than it was when Maggie left. Alex nods and smiles, her heart racing faster than even her DEO training could ever prepare her for.

Kara drops her off at the tarmac.

The tarmac where it all began.

The tarmac that was most certainly Alex’s jurisdiction, that… oh. Oh. Maggie’s private presidential jet is landing.

And no Infernians in sight.

Alex bites at the inside of her cheek and rings her hands.

She knows Maggie’s hair’s gotten shorter – not as short as hers, but shorter than it used to be – and she knows she’s gotten herself a new set of scars on her upper arm. She knows she’s still got a slight limp from the last part of her mission.

She knows, but her body still isn’t ready for seeing Maggie’s face, Maggie’s body, right in front of her, stepping off the plane first – Alex wonders who she had to threaten to get that honor, and she smiles, her nerves evaporating.

Maggie’s eyes find hers immediately, and Alex doesn’t know she’s running until she’s up the metallic steps and spinning Maggie around in her arms.

She kisses her like there aren’t other officers grinning and whooping and easing around them so they can get off the plane.

She kisses her, exploring slightly new but perfectly familiar tastes in her mouth, mapping every slight change in her body – harder muscles here, fresh scar tissue there – and wondering how she was able to breathe for an entire year without this woman’s mouth giving her oxygen.

“I love you,” is all either of them can say between kisses, between pulling back to stare at each other and hug and kiss all over again, and neither of them are surprised that Alex starts crying first.

“Welcome back to my jurisdiction,” she murmurs when they finally separate enough – but barely, their bodies still perfectly lined up side-to-side as they walk – to dismount the plane completely.

Maggie pretends to scoff and her eyes shine with unshed tears. She looks up at Alex like she’s never seen anything so perfect, because god, she hasn’t.

She looks up at Alex like she’s her every dream come true, because god, she is.

She looks up at Alex like wearing their engagement ring is the only thing that got her through the past year without her, because god, it is.

“Marry me,” Maggie whispers. “Right now. Take me to city hall, Danvers, just… just marry me.”

Kara is already waiting at city hall for them, because she knew. Of course she knew. Because Alex wasn’t the only one Maggie would skype while she was away.

Except she’s home now. Home, in her wife’s arms at long last.