Chapter Text
“I hate when she does this,” Alex groaned. Because she had come back to the DEO after an unsuccessful CADMUS related raid only to find a voicemail from Kara. A voicemail saying she had gone off to Barry’s earth to help him with some new alien threat. After debriefing from the mission, she and Maggie had gone to Alex’s apartment to crash.
“You say that like it happens all the time,” Maggie chuckles, shedding her coat and shoes at the door before collapsing onto the couch with a relieved groan. She watches across the open apartment as Alex strips and changes into pajamas, wasting no time in getting comfy.
“Far more often than I'd like. And she always just disappears! It's only recently that she's remembered to call or leave a note. But she never lets anyone come help her because she's a reckless idiot ,” Alex calls. Maggie smiles, still a little in awe that not only is the multiverse theory true, but also that Kara has visited other universes. Many times apparently. Alex comes and crashes onto the couch, letting her head fall in Maggie's lap. “And there's no telling how long she'll be gone because time sometimes passes differently. What if she gets hurt out there, Mags? I can't protect her if she's in another universe,” she adds softly. Maggie just cards gentle fingers through her hair.
“Hey, she's Supergirl. She can handle herself. Plus, you said that universe is littered with superheroes, right? They'll have her back. Just trust,” Maggie attempts to reassure.
“I know, I know, I just…” Alex sighs in frustration.
“I know, babe. You'll always worry about your sister. But unless you know how to travel across the universes, you have to wait. So why don't we order some food and watch crappy cop shows and see if I can take your mind off of it for a little while?” And if Maggie's low, sultry tone didn't give it away, her hooded eyes and the way she gave Alex a bruising kiss certainly made sure Alex knew exactly how she planned on distracting her.
“Bye Barry, it was really good to see you again. But maybe sometime, you could just come visit just to say hi instead of bringing aliens and killer robots,” Kara smiled, hugging her friend. She was sweaty and exhausted after two long days and absolutely ready to go home.
“Sure thing,” he laughed. He pulled away and clapped Kara on the back while Cisco fiddled to make sure Kara's device was set properly. Suddenly, there are alarms going off in their headquarters and Cisco startled, nearly dropping the device. “It's fine, Kara. Just a bank robbery on fifth and a fire on Macklin street. We can handle it. Go,” Barry tells her. Kara takes the device, twitching her fingers anxiously against it.
“Are you sure? It would be no problem for me to just-”
“Go, Kara. Your own earth needs you. This city has its protectors. Go,” Barry insists before speeding off. Nodding, Kara hits the button. She's stepping into the portal just as Cisco is shouting for her to wait but it's too late. She's stepped into the portal.
Three days later, Alex and Maggie are woken in the middle of the night by a loud crashing noise. Their training kicks in and they both roll out of bed, reaching for their weapons. Pausing for a moment, Maggie hurriedly pulls a shirt on while Alex glances around, noticing no obvious signs of an intruder. While she pulls on a shirt, Maggie steps out of the bedroom to inspect the apartment. Silently, she signals to Alex, pointing at the blankets moving in the living room. As one, they approach from either side, weapons drawn to find…
Nothing. Just a pile of blankets.
“What the hell?” Alex murmurs. Suddenly, there's a whimper from under the blankets and both women startle. Maggie quirks an eyebrow because that sounds like a child. Making eye contact with Alex, who raises her weapon again, she counts down with her fingers before yanking the blanket off.
“Is that Kara? ”
“Oh my god.”
Maggie and Alex both gasp at the same time as they look at the small figure wrapped up in Kara's supergirl uniform. The kid looks a bit like Kara with short, dirty blond ringlet curls that fall just below her ears and deep blue eyes, wet with tears. Maggie reacts first, putting her gun on the table and kneeling down to greet the scared child. Once she's on the ground, she realizes the little girl must be Kara; she has the same scar just above her eyebrow.
“Hi. Kara, right?” Her tone is gentle and soft, not wanting to scare the girl. She nods briefly before letting her thumb slip into her mouth. The corner of Maggie's mouth quirks up in a smirk. “Kara, do you know who I am?” And then Kara's tears are falling and her lip is trembling and Alex finally moves, finally breathes. She puts her gun down, kneeling before her sister.
“If this is really a younger version of Kara, she probably doesn't know English,” Alex whispers softly before switching to Kryptonese. Maggie just watched her girlfriend in awe as she seamlessly switched languages. “ Kara, do you know where you are?”
“No. Want my mama.” It takes Alex a moment to decipher Kara's childish kryptonese.
“ She's not here, sweetie. She's… your parents had to go on a trip. So they left you with me. Do you remember me?”
Kara pauses, bites her bottom lip. “Alex?”
Alex beams. “That’s right! Good job, baby girl, I'm Alex. Your sister.” She pauses, watches Kara process the information, still clearly confused as the crinkle forms between her eyebrows. She smiles fondly and pokes at it. “Baby crinkle.” Kara's face crumples and Alex blanches. “Shit, what did I do?” The English only confuses Kara more and her lower lip begins to tremble.
“ I wanna go home. I want mama and daddy,” she whimpers. Alex freezes, unsure what to do. Maggie responds quickly, scooping Kara out of the now loose outfit and using a nearby blanket to swaddle her.
“It's okay, Kara,” Maggie whispers, standing and bouncing Kara on her hip while Alex takes a minute to collect herself. “It's okay, it's okay, it's okay.” But Kara shakes and Kara cries and Maggie just continues bouncing and rocking her, switching to singing in Italian. It may not be Kryptonese and Kara may not understand the words but the melodies are simple and smooth and relaxing. As Kara slowly relaxes, yawning and rubbing at her eyes with her fist, Maggie grabs Alex's arm. She pauses the song for a moment.
“Can you run to a convenience store and get some diapers? We just need something to hold us until we can sort this out.” Alex nods mutely, hurrying back into her bedroom to put proper clothes on. Because maybe she can't calm Kara down and maybe she doesn't know what the hell is going on but she can certainly go and get diapers. She can do that, if nothing else.
The cashier at the convenience store down the street gives Alex a few odd looks for getting diapers (after deliberating for nearly five minutes on how big to get them), bananas and ice cream but she doesn’t pay him any mind. He’s probably just more used to Alex buying cheap liquor here than he is to her buying baby necessities. When she hurries back into her apartment, she finds Maggie on the couch with Kara curled into her lap, still sucking her thumb though her eyes are closed. Maggie’s eyes open briefly, smiling at Alex before shutting them again for a moment, still humming softly.
“Hey, babe. What else did you get?” Maggie asks, taking a deep breath before standing, still holding Kara against her chest.
“Ice cream and bananas. Babies eat bananas, right? And Kara loves ice cream, so... I don’t know.” Alex shrugs, putting the food on the counter and taking out one of the diapers before holding out her arms to take Kara. Maggie chooses not to comment on Alex’s food choices for the new toddler. Once she’s settled on to Alex’s chest, still snoring soundly, Maggie goes to lay out a towel on Alex’s bed, gesturing for Alex to change her here. Kara twitches and whines while Alex fixes the diaper and pulls an old shirt from high school over her head as a night dress. She stands there for a minute, biting her lip and unsure of what to do next.
“Danvers, maybe you can put her in the middle of the bed,” Maggie suggests. Alex nods decisively, shimmying her little sister up and nestling her into the pillows, draping one blanket over her before she lets Maggie pull her back out into the kitchen area.
“What the fuck is happening, Maggie? Like, what is my life? I’ve had a pretty weird life ever since an alien started sharing my room when I was in the eighth grade but this really takes the cake. Because what the fuck is happening? And why is my sister- who is nearly twenty-seven, but is also kind of- like, over fifty? Except now she’s like… two? And she doesn’t remember anything and she doesn’t speak English and this is just- it’s a lot. And I’m not a mother! Oh god- do I have to call my mother? Because I swear, I will never hear the end of this from her. Oh my God-”
“Al. Al. Alex. Alex, c’mon, babe, breathe,” Maggie tries to interrupt. Finally, she takes Alex’s hands to still her pacing and pulls her chin to force Alex to look at her. “Alexandra Danvers, take. a. breath ,” Maggie says sternly. Alex pauses, takes a deep breath, letting her eyes flutter closed. Good God she’s so tired. “Now, we are going to make some tea or something or drink some water. We’re going to go make ourselves comfortable on the couch where we can still see Kara and we will rest . We can take her to the DEO in the morning, but for now we need to relax. Do you understand me?”
“Mhmm,” Alex sighs. Part of her wants to get Kara in there right now but she’s sound asleep and already traumatized so maybe it’s not a bad idea to let her sleep a little bit before dragging her to be poked and prodded. Plus, J’onn and all of the best agents and medics aren’t working tonight and she’d definitely prefer to have them working on her than strangers. Alex opens her eyes again to lean forward and give Maggie a chaste kiss. “Thank you.” Thank you for staying. For saying ‘we’. For not running because my life is insane.
“Not going anywhere, babe. Plus, this is probably one of the coolest, weirdest things to ever happen to me. I’m not missing a second of it,” Maggie grins, pulling Alex down onto the couch, deciding to forgo tea and just hold each other under the blankets.
“Or are you just worried I’ll kill my little sister-turned-toddler?” Alex teases.
“You did seem a bit unfamiliar with kids,” Maggie says carefully. Alex rolls her eyes, grinning.
“I was an only child! When Kara came to live with us, she was already my age. She wasn’t a baby! And I never babysat kids as a teenager, either. I was a tutor to make money, or I did chores. My parents wanted me around to take care of Kara,” Alex explains, sighing as she relaxes into Maggie’s side. Once they’re comfortable, Alex puts reruns of Parks and Rec on the TV.
“Well, my family is huge and I was the stand-by babysitter. Plus, I babysat for most of my town until I came out. Then about half of them fired me,” Maggie shrugs. “I can help out.” Alex just smiles, nuzzling into her girlfriend’s side- God is she tired. “Why don’t you close your eyes for a few minutes and I can keep an ear out for Kara and we can switch later.” Alex nods decisively and lets her eyes close again, steadying her breathing and letting herself relax.
Maggie has switched from Parks and Rec to Game of Thrones episodes- she was still way behind and needed to catch up so she could watch with Alex and Kara when the new season came out- and had made it through three episodes before she heard Kara stirring. Checking to make sure Alex is still sound asleep, Maggie carefully stands and heads into the bedroom to find Kara sniffling, tossing and turning under the blankets. The moment Maggie crawls onto the bed to go comfort Kara, the little girl jolts, eyes opening and crying out in quiet panic.
“Hey, whoa, Kara, you’re okay,” Maggie whispers gently, reaching out to squeeze her shoulder, unsure of how Kara would do with touch- she remembered Alex telling stories about how Kara was touch sensitive when she first arrived on Earth. To her surprise, Kara throws herself into Maggie’s arms, shaking slightly. “You’re okay, munchkin. I’ve got you.”
“Alex?” Kara whines into her shoulder.
“No, baby. I’m Maggie. Maggie.”
“M-ma-ma-he? Alex. Ale-ex. Alex .” Maggie worries her bottom lip.
“Alex is sleeping right now, baby girl. Alex sleeping. You’re okay,” Maggie whispers, rocking her back and forth.
“Want Alex,” she whimpers. “Alex.” She switches into Kryptonian and Maggie just bites her lower lip, hugging Kara tighter.
“We can go see her. Go see Alex? She’s sleeping but we can go say hi and then you and I will go back to bed, okay? Yeah, Kara,” Maggie suggests. She knows Kara doesn’t really understand but the little girl is nodding and picking her head up off of Maggie’s shoulder to smile, sniffling lightly. She hiccups now, her breath hitching as she tries to calm herself down. Maggie grins, bouncing Kara on her hip as she walks into the living room.
“Alex!” Kara smiles, waving.
“Alex is sleeping , Kara. Sleeping . Shhh, say hi to Alex before we go back to bed, okay?” Maggie whispers.
“Hi Alex,” Kara says softly in her squeaky little voice.
“Say goodnight, Alex,” Maggie prompts.
“G’nigh, Alex,” Kara giggles.
“Okay, let’s go. Time to go back to sleep, baby girl. Sleep now, Kara,” Maggie whispers. It takes nearly fifteen minutes for Kara to settle down and fall asleep, curled up on Maggie’s chest with her thumb in her mouth and snoring softly. Maggie just shifts her so she’s laying on the side next to her so Maggie can fall asleep without worrying about squashing Kara. Immediately, the little girl wraps her arms around Maggie’s neck, snuggling into her. The sound of Kara’s breath puffing in her ear lulls Maggie to sleep.