617. Chapter 617

Maggie runs after her father, and Alex runs after Maggie.

Because she’s been restraining herself.

Because this is important for Maggie.

This… chance at reconciliation.

Alex knows what that’s like.

She thinks of her own father, of guns and space arcs and the woods at night.

She thinks of utterly breaking.

She knows what second chances with fathers can be.

And she knows how they can break a person.

She knows how it broke her.

So she’s restrained herself so far, for Maggie.

But now, they’ve kissed, and now, he’s walked out.

He’s slammed the door of her sister’s apartment, and Maggie’s work friends stare, and Maggie is a private person, and Maggie is not a perfect person, but Maggie is the perfect person for Alex, and Maggie is… well, a person.

So when Maggie goes after her father, Alex goes after her.

Because no one deserves… this.

No one deserves to not be loved for who they love.

And she hears him.

His pain, his fear. As he has it out with his daughter by the dumpsters behind Kara’s apartment building.

She hears him, but she puts her hand on the small of Maggie’s back, and she feels Maggie breaking.

She hears him, and she hears her.

She hears the woman she loves, fighting for a scrap of dignity from a man who should know better.

Fighting for the love of a man who can google her cases but who can’t bring himself to watch her kiss the woman she loves.

She watches, and she listens, and when Maggie’s about to break, she feels Maggie’s consent seep into her bones.

So, finally, she speaks to him the way she’s wanted to since she found out about… about him.

“You know the thing, sir? The thing that really baffles me about all this?”

“Agent Danvers, this is between my daughter and I, you’re not involv – “

“Oh no, that’s one of the many parts you don’t seem to be able to understand.”

Alex steps toward him, and Maggie doesn’t stop her.

Rage replaces her the blood in her veins.

“Because I am involved. Because whether you like it or not, I’m marrying into your family. You may have disowned your one daughter, but now you have two, so you’re going to listen, and you’re going to hear me.”

“With respect, Agent Danvers, I – “

“No. No, clearly, you don’t have any respect for me. And that’s fine, you don’t know me. But what really baffles me, sir, is that you don’t have any respect for your daughter. For your daughter, who’s idolized you and done nothing but love you, nothing but try to honor you her entire life. Because those awful things you’re talking about? Guess what? She experiences them, too. She lives in the same world you do, and you’re right.”

“I know I am – “

“No, not for the reasons you think. You’re right that it’s not different, and it’s not better, not everywhere, not all the time, not for everyone. Not for people who don’t look like me or my sister, anyway. But the thing that I can’t seem to understand is that you’re the one making it awful for your daughter. You can’t bring yourself to accept that she’s carved out a life for herself that is better, and it’s better when it’s without you.”

“You dare to – “

“Yes, I do. Because Maggie is an out lesbian homicide detective and she is damn incredible at what she does. You’re impressed by the cold cases she’s cracked, that she makes the news for, that she makes a name for her precinct with? You should see what she does on a daily basis. You should see how she talks down the same kinds of white terrorists you’re talking about who want to build walls, so nobody dies. She’s saved my life, and the lives of everyone in this city, more times than I can count, and you can stand there and tell her she’s shamed you?”

“Agent Danvers – “

“No, you don’t get to speak. You don’t get to speak because I’m not done. Your daughter has loved me, and she’s healed me, and she has given me everything I’ve ever needed, and nothing I’ve ever deserved. She’s making me into the best version of myself, because that is exactly what your daughter does for everyone she meets. Everyone except you, apparently; because all you can do is fixate on who she loves, who she sleeps with?”

“That’s enough – “

“Yes, I quite think it is.”

Maggie jumps, and Alex jumps, at the sound of a new voice from behind them.

Eliza.

“Mom,” Alex whispers, and Maggie’s lips – firmly pursed with the effort of not sobbing a moment before – drop open.

Eliza sweeps past both her human daughters like they aren’t there, and steps straight into the face of the man who’s made her newest daughter cry, over and over and over again.

“I don’t know how you’ve slept at night these past decades. Abandoning your own flesh and blood like she’s worth less than the ground beneath your feet? What kinds of hatred must live inside you to compel you to cast a child – your own child – away like she means nothing, like she is nothing, because she’s… what? Offended you? Frightened you? Turned out to be different than the woman you expected her to be? Well, my daughters turned out differently than I expected them to, as well. And my Alex and I don’t always see eye to eye, but I will tell you the one thing that I will never do: I will never turn my back on my daughters. You say she brought you shame? You bring shame with you everywhere you go. You come into my daughter’s home, to celebrate the profound love of two beautiful women, and you storm away when they express that love? How dare you. How dare you treat my child that way.”

“I have done nothing to Agent Danvers – “

“I wasn’t talking about Alex.”

A silence.

Even the cars in the streets beyond seem to hush.

Maggie weaves her shocked fingers through Alex’s, and they cling to each other like they’re both fourteen, and being defended like they’ve always deserved to be defended.

“Margarita is not – “

“Oh, yes, she is. Maggie Sawyer is my child. You abandoned her long ago. Parenting isn’t about blood, as you proved with that suitcase and that silence and those words you spewed. Parenting is about choosing to love, every day and every night and every little moment in between. And I choose to love Maggie like my own, because she is my own. And I’m afraid that, if it’s alright with Maggie, I’m going to have to ask you to leave so that she can try to salvage this celebration of her love in the peace and happiness that she deserves and that you’ve refused to give her.”

Eliza steps out of his space, and when she holds her hand out for Maggie to take, Maggie takes it.

“I spent all those years trying to hold onto a family that stopped existing when I was fourteen. But you know what? I’m good. I’m good, now. On my own. With my family. With… with this family. Goodbye, Papa,” she tells him, and she turns with a straight back and a raised head.

He watches her walk away, watches Alex and Eliza follow her with linked hands and a closer bond than they’ve felt in years.

And he won’t know it, because he won’t go back upstairs, but the party after that?

Is the sweetest either of them have ever been to.