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She’s become old, now, on the inside. She can feel it in her bones, in the way that she can barely taste the sting of the alcohol washing down her throat the same way as before. In the way that the flashing lights of the bar around her don’t feel like too much, how they haven’t felt like anything but a grey background for as long as her memory is recent. She sipped her drink, spun it around the tumbler.She had the thought that maybe she wasn’t supposed to live this long.It would be nice to talk to an old friend, she supposed. It’s been a while since she had those, friends. She can barely remember what it’s like to have those. To let someone in close enough to stab you in the heart. She remembered that it was supposed to feel nice. It did, from time to time. At least from what she could remember, as the alcohol blended both the grey lights and her memories together. Memories of laughing, crying, joking, and walking away as she felt the bottom drop out of her chest.She took another sip.She wondered why she had come here, why she hadn’t found some other distraction, a quieter diversion with less noise and bustle. Something that didn’t force her to look at all the people around her living their lives as she passed from hers at an agonizingly slow pace. But she found the lancing pain in her chest to be a comfort, a necessary throbbing like the beating of her heart. Something to keep her alive, even if that meant less and less to her with each passing moment. She was interrupted from her pondering by a cheery voice cutting in over the sound of the bar’s music.“Hey there gorgeous. You know, there’s a rule here, you gotta talk to at least one girl your first time here,” a woman said as she sidled up next to the red head’s booth. “Not my first time,” Alex said casually as she swirled her bourbon again, leaning against the bar. “And now we’ve talked.”“Hmmm, have we?” the woman persisted as she slid into the booth across from Alex, cocking her head to the side. “You’ve staring out across the room the whole time. Name one thing we’ve talked about.”Alex didn’t respond.“Would you rather be talking to her?” the woman asked. Alex finally broke her gaze on the leather clad woman from across the bar.“Her. I recognize her. She’s a cop,” Alex said. “She’s one of us,” the woman said sympathetically. “You can relax a little.”“Yeah? How does a cop come to drink here, of all places?” Alex asked.“Same way as most of us, on the arm of a pretty lady leading her into this little island of Lesbos,” the woman said. “You got a name?”“Carol,” Alex answered. “You?”“Nia,” She said with a sweet smile.Alex’s mouth turned down slightly as she briefly scanned the woman leaning across the table at her. “You seem like you know who’s who around,” Alex said, as she considered the woman before her. “I’ve been told I’m excellent with faces,” Nia said. “Who’s arm brought her in here?” Alex asked. “Emily, the brunette over at the other end of the bar,” Nia motioned with a head nod. “Why?”“So now I can name one thing we’ve talked about,” Alex said.“Why come here if you didn’t want to talk?” the woman asked.“I came here to drink,” Alex said. “I doubt I’m what you’re looking for anyway.”“I’m looking for a woman, and I seem to have found one,” Nia said. “I’m a transsexual,” Alex said bluntly. “Go back to the other lesbians.”“Hey. We all come from somewhere, and maybe I can relate to that,” Nia said quietly.Alex cocked her head to side as she slicked her short hair back with one hand.“You?” Alex asked. “Me,” Nia said, smoothing down her sun dress unconsciously, the article in complete contrast to the leather motorcycle jacket Alex wore. “And here, at least, that doesn’t make you any less of a woman. Or of a lesbian.”Alex took another sip from her tumbler, mostly just to hide her surprise.“In fact, that cop you were asking about earlier? She helped me get access to a clinic,” Nia said. “Not everywhere is perfect, or even good, in our community. But there are still safe places. Places you don’t have to hide behind a drink.”Alex took in the fidgety young woman before her.“Wish I could believe that,” Alex said with a hint of wistfulness in her voice before she threw back the rest of her drink.“You can choose to if you want to,” Nia said.“No offense, kid, but talk to me in a decade,” Alex said as she stood up.Alex walked outside of the bar, nodding to the bouncer on the way out. Walking a block away to the payphone she had noticed on the way in, she pulled in a dime and punched in the number she had memorized by heart.“Overlord,” Alex said, and then hung up the phone. She waited several seconds. The phone rang, and Alex picked up on the third ring.“I need a profile on someone connected to my target. Someone named Emily. Probably a former or current roommate,” Alex said. “And keep this off the books.”Alex hung up the phone, frowning at the feeling of the alcohol warming her stomach. Something was off, she could tell. She felt something stirring, deep in her bones, something that should have been dead. One more thing she had killed. Pushing her hair back again, Alex walked out into the brisk night air back to where she had parked her bike. She settled back into the seat, watching the door to the bar from several blocks away through the tinted visor of her bike helmet.She could wait for whatever it was to reveal itself. She had plenty of time, after all. She always had time, she mused to herself as she pulled on a pair of black leather riding gloves. It was the one thing she never seemed to lack, even as she her age advanced in an unstoppable march. She settled in for a long wait.
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“Hey, Sawyer, I need to talk to you,” Renee said as Maggie closed her locker. Maggie grimaced internally. If Renee was talking to her now, as she was leaving the precinct, there was no way she was going to be delivering good news. “Yeah, what’s up LT?” Maggie asked. “There’s no easy way to say this, so I’m just going to say it: you’re under an Internal Affairs investigation,” Renee said.“What? For what?” Maggie asked angrily. “Look, I know you’re a good cop. This is bullshit, plain and simple. But it does mean you’re on desk duty for the foreseeable future,” Renee said. “Did someone find out? About me?” Maggie asked quietly.“No, I don’t think so. If they had you’d already be shit canned. I don’t think they’re even looking for that,” Renee said. “No, you pissed someone off that you shouldn’t have.”“So a different kind of witch hunt,” Maggie said as she let herself breath again.“You’re an idealist, Sawyer. That means this kind of thing is going to happen if you don’t use kid gloves on people in high places. But if you beat it? That’s when the old timers will start to give you some respect,” Renee said. “You know I’m in your corner. So, what did you do?”“I don’t know,” Maggie said. “I’ve been working missing persons for the last year. Is it possible maybe I found someone who was supposed to stay missing?”“I think that’s a pretty reasonable assumption. I heard it might have to do with some place on Mulberry Avenue? “Yeah, I had a case up there once,” Maggie said. “It’s out in the hills in the middle of nowhere. Half expected to run into the Manson family.”“Anything weird happen you might have left out of your reports on that one?” Renee asked.“Weird?” Maggie asked.“Strange. Unusual. This job means that you see some weird stuff, sometimes stuff that you can’t always explain,” Renee said cryptically. “Things they would lock you in a padded cell for if you told anyone.”“That whole case was bizarre. It ended with a bunch of dead people in the basement of an unmarked laboratory. I thought it was some kind of stranger killing torture dungeon, but it was scrubbed clean by the time we got there,” Maggie said. “Closest we got to an arrest was a black van seen driving away, but our roadblock was delayed and he got away.”“Well, then I would guess that’s what this is about,” Renee said. “Sometimes a delay is just a delay, but sometimes it means there’s someone in the department that wants a case to stay open.”“What are you saying?” Maggie asked.“That sometimes the biggest criminals have friends in blue. If you can cover your P’s and Q’s you’ll be fine, and I have friends in the department who don’t like when this kind of thing goes down. But don’t lose your cool. I’ll get you through this,” Renee said. “Thanks, Ren,” Maggie said.Twenty minutes later, Maggie was walking home on the hot concrete with a copy of the Mulberry case tucked under her arm. Tugging at the collar of her uniform, Maggie wished that she hadn’t decided to become a policewoman. She had assumed that she would be able to do more good in a place like National City than in Blue Springs, Nebraska, and that once she was past the good old boy network she would be able to be the kind of police officer she knew was needed badly in this city. So far it seemed like she was simply wasting her time.Cocking her head, she was pulled from her musing about her career by a low buzzing in the distance that was growing louder. Frowning slightly, she only had half a second to ponder why the sound stuck out to her before she threw herself to the side as a woman on a black motorcycle came to a screeching halt beside her, startling a man next to her into dropping his umbrella.The next few seconds passed in a blur as Maggie looked up from where she had fallen on the sidewalk. The woman riding the motorcycle had smoothly pulled out sawed-off shotgun from a holster on her bike as she skidded to a stop, leveling it at the man as he reached into his trench coat half a second behind. With a deafening boom, the man dropped to the ground as an automatic pistol clattered from his lifeless hands. Gun smoke and red mist hovered in the air for half a second as Maggie’s brain rushed to catch up with the situation she was in.Scrabbling for her hand gun from the awkward position she had fallen to on the curb, Maggie had barely cleared leather before she was looking down the twin barrels of the shotgun. “Before you try and do something stupid like arrest me, get on the back of the bike so I can finish saving your life,” The woman said.“I’m not going to just let you take me to a secondary location,” Maggie said. “Besides, you fired both barrels.”Cursing as Maggie tried to level her gun, the woman viciously kicked the gun out of Maggie’s hand in an impressively accurate display of raw strength. Maggie instinctively moved inside the taller woman’s guard in an attempt to put herself on more equal terms. Despite her skill at grappling, in a flash Maggie had a garrote around her throat the woman had pulled from her watch. “Sawyer, stop struggling or you’ll break your trachea. Which will make my life much simpler, but also a lot harder to justify,” the woman said. “If I wanted to dead I would have let the guy with the skorpion kill you.”After considering for several seconds, mostly just to test how truly trapped she was by this woman. Feeling the iron hold she was in, Maggie relented.“Fine,” She choked out past the uncomfortable pressure on her throat.Immediately the pressure released around her neck, and she took in a deep breath only to cough it out again.“Get on the bike, we’ve wasted enough time as it is,” the woman commanded her as she threw a long leg over the Japanese cycle.“Right,” Maggie said cautiously as she picked up her gun from the ground. “You got a name?”“Alex. Danvers. Hurry up before they block off the roads,” The woman said gruffly. “Unless you want to wait around for another professional to bump you off.”Maggie considered the other woman warily for half a second, before she spotted a man running down the street towards them two blocks away, semi-automatic handgun already drawn. As he leveled the gun at them while at a dead run, Maggie decided to take her chances with the woman on the bike. Holstering her revolver, Maggie slid behind the woman as she pushed her freshly reloaded shotgun back into it’s holster on the front of the bike, looking behind her as she pocketed the spent casings into her leather jacket. Maggie could see her coolly considering the man running desperately towards them.“There’s not a real backseat, so hold on tight,” The woman said casually, before she gunned the engine and pulled into traffic at high speed, weaving between cars as they left the man behind them to fire several rounds in frustration. Maggie knew he couldn’t be a cop, since she was still in uniform and any police officer who discharged their weapon into crowded traffic wouldn’t have their badge for long. She felt significantly better about her decision, knowing she could probably justify this to her superiors as a means to reduce civilian causalities, despite how reckless she knew she was being in taking Alex up on her offer. In a different situation, being pressed up behind a woman like Alex would be something she enjoyed immensely, but what she knew this woman was capable of certainly dampened the mood. Or, rather, it should have, but as Maggie felt her body respond, she realized it added an air of excitement and danger. She did her best to tamp down her apparent urge to behave like a teenager discovering puberty for the first time, and settled in for the ride. Maggie was still slightly unsure why she was going against all of her training and allowing herself to be driven away from a crime scene at high speed by the perpetrator of a crime. It certainly wouldn’t look good to an IA investigation.But if Maggie was being honest, she knew she had a need to get to the bottom of this, consequences be damned.Maggie kept track of where the agile motorcycle was going, driven excellently by the woman she had her arms wrapped around. In a few minutes, she realized they were headed down to East National City. She shifted uncomfortably as she thought about how easy it would be for Alex to dispose of her body in the seedy industrial section of town.Her fears were allayed only slightly as they pulled up to a rundown motel that charged hourly rates.“This where you take all your dates?” Maggie asked as the woman pulled off her helmet.Without the tinted visor to obscure her view, Maggie had to tamp down her initial reaction to Danvers fine, chiseled facial features and her close-cropped red hair. Keeping her face carefully schooled into a passive face, she only realized she was staring awkwardly when the woman cocked her head to the side.“What, can’t take a joke?” Maggie said laconically. Given how lethal this woman had already proven to be, Maggie sincerely hoped this woman could.“No, it’s just... I haven’t been on a real date in years. Didn’t realize it till you mentioned it,” Alex said. “Hey, focusing on your career is perfectly valid. Not like I have a husband and two and a half kids I’m hiding back at my apartment,” Maggie said.“Well, obviously. Look, not that I don’t love idle chit chat, but maybe we should check in before someone sees us?” Alex said.Maggie nodded to Alex, who started walking towards the small check in kiosk. She frowned as she tried to parse the woman’s words. Could she be gay? The bike, the haircut, and her apparent awareness of Maggie’s sexuality would seem to indicate that she was. Her demeanor certainly seemed like it was plausible as well. Maggie’s frown deepened as she realized exactly how much of a shitstorm it would be if she brought in a lesbian hitwoman. Personally, professionally, and politically.Yet another awful aspect of her chosen career.“The usual room,” Alex said as she slipped two crisp twenties to the man behind the bars.“Keeping it spicy for your boyfriend?” The man asked with a raised eyebrow as he looked at Maggie.“Something like that,” Alex said nonchalantly. “But I thought I paid you to not ask questions.“Just curious,” the man said. “Still don’t see what that guy has that would interest someone like you. You do know you could date anyone you wanted to, right?”“Hey. Questions,” Alex said with a frown as she took the silver key from him.“Whatever. Have a nice stay,” the man said as he looked back down at the playboy he had been reading.“Boyfriend?” Maggie asked.“Not my boyfriend,” Alex confirmed with a roll of her eyes before she checked her watch. “But he should be here in 10 minutes.”“So you care to explain why the hell I’m walking into an hourly hotel with a woman I just saw turn some guy’s chest into chunky salsa?” Maggie asked.“Look, you’ve made some very powerful enemies while you’ve been on the police force. You were going to be assassinated today, if that wasn’t obvious,” Alex said.“By the guy you killed?” Maggie asked.“Yes,” Alex said.“So, I’ve made an enemy that wants me dead, and the method they choose is to gun a police officer down in the street? Who could that possibly be?” Maggie asked.“The gun was just back up. You were going to feel a tiny pinprick of pain today after you walked past the man with the umbrella, if you noticed it all. Like a bee sting at worst. Over the weekend you’d start to feel like you were coming down with a cold, then a flu. But you’d keep feeling worse and worse. You’d be dead by Monday,” Alex said.“Poison?” Maggie asked, less aggravated by the riddles Alex was speaking in than she probably should be.“You notice the weather today?” Alex asked.“No,” Maggie said as she looked up. “It’s sunny. This is National City.”It took her a second before it clicked.“The umbrella,” She breathed.“Yep,” Alex said. “Ricin delivery method. Coroner wouldn’t have caught it unless he was a savant.”“What, is James Bond trying to kill me?” Maggie asked incredulously.“I repeat, you’ve made some powerful enemies,” Alex said as she unlocked the room.“I thought you meant the mob, not the fucking CIA,” Maggie said in disbelief. “I have to call my LT, fuck, I have to call my captain-”“You can’t,” Alex said. “All you’ll do is get them killed too.”“So what, I just trust you to take care of everything?” Maggie asked. “Are you even CIA?”“I’m not CIA. It doesn’t matter who I work for,” Alex said. “What matters is that you’re being targeted, and I can help get you out of this mess. Alive, even.”“Uh-huh. You still haven’t told me who’s trying to kill me,” Maggie said. “It’s not like you’re protecting me at this point by not telling me, so spill.”Alex looked uncomfortable.“I don’t know that telling a civilian this kind of thing is advisable even if you’re already at risk,” Alex said.“One, I’m a cop, not a civilian, two, what’s the harm in telling me now?” Maggie asked indignantly.Alex considered Maggie’s words for several long seconds.“First I need to ask you what you know. Do you even have any idea why someone would want you dead?” Alex asked.“Several. But… I would have to guess I’d say the DEO is involved,” Maggie said as Alex sucked in a short breath.“You know about the DEO?” Alex asked.“Yeah. I know what they do, too. You work for them,” Maggie guessed.“Sort of,” Alex said. “It’s complicated.”In response, Maggie threw a hard punch into Alex’s solar plexus unexpectedly.“Fuck!” Alex exclaimed as she reeled backwards.“Well, I guess you’re not Russian then-“ Maggie mused before she was cut off by Alex launching herself at Maggie, knocking her down and pinning her to the ground.“Never do that again,” Alex growled, cold fire burning behind her eyes that were now inches away from Maggie’s.“Hey, sorry. Just had to be sure I wasn’t accidently committing treason with the Soviets,” Maggie said. “I mean, you definitely look like a femme fatale…”Alex continued to stare into Maggie’s eyes intensely for several long moments before she pulled back.“’Whatever,” Alex grumbled as she stood up. “You want to talk about this like adults and not pull dime store novel tricks?”“You’re not exactly being forthcoming. When you say that you sort of work for the DEO, which means you’re really working for someone else. That someone has to be willing to hire Americans, and also has similar interests to the DEO. Which means,” Maggie said before her face twisted into a scowl. “Please don’t tell me you’re CADMUS.”“If you actually knew what you were talking about you should be a lot more afraid,” Alex said with narrowed eyes.“Thought you were trying to save me,” Maggie said back, just as icily.“I am,” Alex said.“Didn’t know CADMUS was in the business of saving people. They seem more interested in cutting them up,” Maggie said.“Maybe it’s more complicated than you think,” Alex said.“Doesn’t seem too complicated to me,” Maggie said.An uncomfortable silence descended on the room as the two women stared angrily at each other.A knock followed by two more broke the silence.“That’s Winn,” Alex said, pushing past a bristling Maggie to open the door.“Hey, Alex, quick question. Why are you covered in blood?” a short man asked as he looked down at Alex’s leather jacket.“There were some complications,” Alex said.“Oh. Well, obviously nothing you couldn’t handle,” Winn said as he strode into the room before stopping again. “Hey, Alex?”“There wasn’t any time. I didn’t have any other option,” Alex said.“What about what we talked about!” Winn said. “This is incredibly reckless!”“They moved up the time table at the last minute,” Alex said. “They called in the umbrella man. Don’t have a cow Winn, it doesn’t change the plan that much.”“Ok, but she looks super pissed so I think that changes the plan more than a bit,” Winn said.“She’s also sitting right here and has no desire to be part of your little Dr. Mengele group,” Maggie said. “So unless you’re actually going to kill me this time, I’m leaving.”“If you go out there you’re as good as dead,” Alex said.“Better than being here,” Maggie snarled.“Fine. You know what? Fine. Look a gift horse in the mouth,” Alex said with her arms crossed.“Alex, did you explain about why you’re working for CADMUS?” Winn prompted.“No, and I don’t really care,” Maggie said as she moved towards the door.“They had her sister,” Winn said before Maggie could turn the doorknob. “They were going to torture her or worse unless Alex worked with them.”“That doesn’t justify working for CADMUS. Do you even know the things they’ve done?” Maggie said, turning.“Yes,” Alex said evenly. “I would do it again for Kara. I’d do it 100 times over.”“Alex, could you not be, uh,” Winn trailed off as Alex fixed him with a death glare, forcing him to turn towards Maggie. “What I mean to say is that you hate CADMUS? We hate them too. And Alex is right, if you leave now you’ll probably die, and it will be for nothing. But if you stay with us? You’ll at least have a shot against them.”Maggie’s hand rested on the doorknob.“So I assume your friends were the ones trying to kill me. What happens when they find out you’ve going rogue?” Maggie asked.“That was what Winn was doing. He managed to break Kara out of containment with tech we were able to hide from CADMUS,” Alex said. “So were is she now?” Maggie asked.“Somewhere CADMUS can’t get her,” Alex stated simply.Winn’s impassive face seemed to indicate a surprisingly united front on the matter, despite his earlier openness. Maggie could live with that kind of defensiveness.“So, what, they’ll just let you quit?” Maggie said.“You saw my resignation letter,” Alex said. “Hard to go back after that.”“So why rescue me then?” Maggie asked suspiciously. “Why not?” Alex asked.“It just seems like someone like you would have a reason beyond charity for rescuing me,” Maggie said.“Person like me?” Alex asked.“Someone who’s known as the Red Death? Yeah. I think so,” Maggie said.The room was silent.“I’m sorry, the what now?” Winn asked as he turned to Alex.“Winn, give us the room,” Alex said.“I just got here-” Winn started.“Now.”“Ok, I’m going, know what that tone means,” Winn said as he practically scurried past Maggie.Alex’s eyes never left Maggie’s.“You want to repeat that name?” Alex said in a dangerously quiet tone.“I know a contract killer when I see one. The motorcycle, the shotgun, keeping the shells? I’m familiar with your work. You’ve made quite an impression on the alien community. You know that half the aliens I know won’t even meet me anymore?” Maggie said. “I didn’t have a choice,” Alex said.“Everyone has a choice,” Maggie said. “You chose your family over dozens of others.”“The killing I did? Most them had death sentences on other worlds,” Alex said angrily. “Don’t you dare fucking act like I’m some kind of baby killer.”“So what? It’s not like you had any kind of oversight, any kind of transparency. What if CADMUS lied to you?” Maggie asked. “They aren’t exactly trustworthy.”“I checked first,” Alex said. “Lillian knew that there were some lines I wouldn’t cross.”“Even if that’s true, your helping CADMUS meant that other people with less scruples had the free time to abduct children out of their homes, disappear people, break up families,” Maggie said.“If it was Emily, what would you have done?” Alex spat. “What?” Maggie said sharply, too surprised to add any real venom to the words.“You heard me. If it was Emily who was going to be tortured to death and dissected, would you have done any differently?” Alex asked.“How do you know who…” Maggie trailed off. “You were the one who was supposed to kill me.”Alex gave all the answer she needed to with her stony silence.
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Maggie stood in the spinning hotel room, trying to find her footing as she searched for something solid to anchor herself on. Finally, she brought her gaze back to the woman who had thrust her into this entire insane situation. Letting her detective instincts take over, Maggie narrowed her eyes in concentration as she took in the leather clad woman before her. “You looked into me. That’s why you saved me. You couldn’t go through with it,” Maggie said. “Was it because I’m human?”“No. You were a clean cop in National City on desk duty for trying to be a good cop. It’s not the same thing as taking out someone who was the lead enforcer of a cartel, alien or not,” Alex said. “Jesus fucking Christ,” Maggie said. “So you’re telling me that I need to trust you because when you were stalking me so that you could kill me with a clean conscious you deemed me worthy of saving?”“Ok, if you’re going to put what happened in the worst possible light-” Alex said.“You followed me back to my apartment. You know the name of my ex-girlfriend. What, did you catch an eyeful when you were peeping through my window? See anything interesting? See anything really freaky that the perverts do to each other?” Maggie said, the frustration of the past hour building with each question.When she finished she could hear her the loud sound of her own breathing for several long seconds as absolute silence filled the room.“I probably deserved that. Do deserve that,” Alex said as her defensive posture slumped in defeat.“Well, that’s a start,” Maggie said as she felt much of the fight flow out of her body even as her pulse continued to race.“Look, I kill people for a living. I’m not going to judge what you do in your private life. And for the record, I only found out about Emily because I asked around the bar,” Alex said. “And um, when I followed you to the bar you visit, everything sort of spiraled after that, because once you know something that weirdly intimate about someone you wish you could be, how could I justify killing you unless you were some kind of monster? And you aren’t. So, here I am. Take it or leave it. But I really hope you take it.”“You have a lot going under that bitchy exterior, don’t you?” Maggie asked, quirking her head to the side.“And you’re not too bad at putting two and two together, for a cop,” Alex said. “I guess we should let Winn back inside. Assuming this means you’re on board.”“Before we do,” Maggie said. “You’re right. About what I would have done for Emily. I shouldn’t have been so quick to judge.”“No, I understand. CADMUS is... well, you’re really not exaggerating when you called them a Mengele fan club,” Alex said. “Fresh start?” Maggie asked, sticking out her hand.“I don’t know, that thing I did with the bike was pretty cool. I don’t know that I want to give that up,” Alex said.Maggie rolled her eyes.“Fine, you get to keep the bike thing,” Maggie said.“And for the record, I’m sorry to hear you broke up. I thought you were still living together,” Alex said.“We were,” Maggie said.“Oh,” Alex said in confusion. Maggie could see the question on her face.“Not like that. Just awkwardly cohabitating, because even if we’re split, rent is still due,” Maggie said. “Sounds like a shitty situation,” Alex said.“It is. Very much so,” Maggie said.They were interrupted by a knocking on the door.“Hey, it’s been like ten minutes? Can I come back in?” Winn asked.“Yeah, Winn, you can come in,” Alex said.“Ok, good, because we have to plan phase 2,” Winn said.“Phase 2?” Maggie asked.“We were going to move you and Emily to Gotham, give you fake names, Social Security numbers, the works. Try to build a case against CADMUS and see if we couldn’t take them down with one of the other intelligence services,” Alex said. “But now that we’ve shown our hand, that plan is pretty much shot to hell at this point.”“The murder probably didn’t help,” Winn muttered.“Maybe it did,” Alex said thoughtfully.“Spell that one out for me, Danvers,” Maggie asked. Alex ignored the use of her last name and how right it felt coming out of Maggie’s mouth.“I’m a CADMUS asset still. Technically, at least. The fact that I not only botched an assassination job but also very publicly murdered a fellow agent?” Alex said. “That’s a lot of egg on Lillian’s face that she’ll have to explain to someone.”“Lillian?” Maggie asked.“Lillian Luthor. She runs CADMUS,” Winn said. “And I get your point, but that seems more like a minor inconvenience to CADMUS and makes our little group look pretty deranged. I don’t see how we win.” “If we can provoke CADMUS to overreact publicly, something that might blow their cover, we might be able to establish a pattern of CADMUS flying off the handle,” Alex said. “We could paint them as an exposure risk.”“Where does that leave us?” Maggie asked.“Innocent patriotic bystanders that the system handled poorly,” Alex said.“Or dead. Or tortured. Or dissected. Or all three,” Winn said.“We could be thrown in jail, too,” Maggie said as she pointed at Winn.“Ok, it’s not a perfect plan,” Alex said in exasperation. “But what are our other options?”“Run away?” Winn asked. “Wouldn’t work. They’d find us eventually,” Alex said. “Also all those pesky innocent people who CADMUS will kill if we walk away,” Maggie asked. “Damn,” Winn said. “So, high risk plan that even if it works could easily get us locked up anyway?”“Not entirely. We, uh, know someone who could be useful,” Alex said.“You do?” Maggie asked.“We do?” Winn asked. “Yes. Winn, do remember the irregularities we collected on Henshaw?” Alex said. “I remember finding a trail of bodies around him whenever he happened to go out in the field, yes,” Winn said. “But from what I recall of spy school, being the last person standing after multiple missions isn’t really a sign of trustworthiness.”“Exactly. I don’t think he’s only working for the US government,” Alex said.“Who is Henshaw, again?” Maggie asked. “The director of the DEO,” Alex said. “So your plan to take out CADMUS is to get them shut down as a security risk, and to make that plan go more smoothly you plan to blackmail the head of the organization that hunts down the people they turn into lab rats,” Maggie said. “The organization that’s not just a collection of scientists and security, but also has possibly the highest trained and best equipped special forces operators in the world assuming the even exist? Not to mention you don’t even know what you’ll be blackmailing him about.”“That wasn’t really a question, but yes,” Alex said. “Ok, just making sure of the level of insane I’m signing myself up for,” Maggie said. “Can I object, then?” Winn asked.“You have a better plan?” Alex asked.“Look, I know that I’ve brought this up before, but we could always ask-” Winn started before Alex cut him off.“No, Winn,” Alex said firmly.“Look, I know you’re a bad ass agent, but you need help. This is her world she’s fighting for too,” Winn said.“No. This world? The one that means living in shadows and never staying in one place for more than a week? The one that means hurting people, killing them? Dissolving bodies with acid? Walking past aliens in so much pain that they’re asking to be put out their misery, every single day? No, Winn, this isn’t her world, and it fucking stays that way. Don’t bring it up again,” Alex said.Realizing how far back Winn was leaning and how far she was bending over him, Alex pushed a hand through her hair and let out a deep breath. “I uh, I’m going to get some air,” she said with only the hint of a tremor in her voice.After she pushed out of the door of the seedy hotel room, Maggie turned a raised eyebrow to Winn.“Sore topic?” Maggie asked.“I’d say so,” Winn said as he gathered his breath.“Does she threaten you? Is that why you work with her?” Maggie asked. “No, uh, well, she does threaten me, but she doesn’t mean it. Usually,” Winn said. “And no, I’m working with her because we both want the same thing.”“Which is?” Maggie asked.“To help her sister,” Winn said. “So, no offense, but what do you do exactly? You don’t really look like you can handle yourself in a fight,” Maggie said.“I’m Alex’s tech guy. She might be able to punch a dozen bad guys, but she needs to know where they are first. You’re looking at the best bug and gadget expert in tradecraft, in my humble opinion,” Winn said. “So you listen to people and tell Alex where to go,” Maggie said.“Ok, it’s a little more complicated than that, but yeah,” Winn said.“So who pays you?” Maggie asked. “Alex does,” Winn said.“Like, personally?” Maggie asked.“Yeah. I’m sort of freelance, normally,” Win said.“Feds are overpaid,” Maggie said.“Oh, she didn’t get rich from CADMUS. Well, kind of. You know what, let’s not talk about it,” Winn said. “It’s boring.”“How?” Maggie asked in annoyance.“Uhhh,” Winn said. “She made me promise not to tell, and seeing as how she pays me and you don’t-““Look, I already know she killed people for a living, it’s not like I’m going to judge her any more harshly for- Oh,” Maggie said. “Not all of her jobs were for CADMUS, were they?” “Not exactly,” Winn said. “Lillian didn’t mind as long as Alex was discrete. Or at least didn’t leave any witnesses.” “Lovely,” Maggie said. “Look, I know Alex can be a bit overly pragmatic, and maybe a little cold, and maybe she has a bit of a temper, and her people skills could probably use more than a little work,” Winn said.“Is there a redeeming quality in there?” Maggie asked.“I know she tries to hide it, but she is a good person. One of the best people I’ve met.”“The murderer for hire is a good person,” Maggie said.“It would have been a lot easier to kill you, but she couldn’t. Not even when someone else was going to pull the trigger,” Winn reminded her. “But on this topic, you called Alex ‘The Red Death.’ Isn’t that a Poe reference?”“It is. There was a series of killing of underworld figures, the last of which was a group of men on Mulberry street. All by shotgun blasts at close range, no witnesses, no shells, no fingerprints. A faceless killer, taking out gangland nobility. The FBI thought they were stranger killings, and most stranger killings get a name. Gotham got Son of Sam, we got the Red Death,” Maggie said. “Sound like someone you know?”“Those were hits, though. Not stranger killings,” Winn said. “Well, now I know that,” Maggie said. “How did you know about it? It’s not like any of that was on the news,” Winn said. “I was there for one of the cases. I was the first on the scene because I managed to trace a series of phone calls back to one location in a missing persons case. They told me that the bodies of the men looked like they did because of mutations caused by soviet experimentation on their own people, that they were part of the Russian Mafia. I wasn’t going to argue with them, because putting… aliens, in a police report?” Maggie said. “Career suicide.”“So you already knew about aliens?” Winn asked. “Is that how you already know about Cadmus?”“I couldn’t see what happened at Mulberry street and not dig deeper. And I found a lot buried under the surface. And one name kept popping up in whispers,” Maggie said. “Cadmus.”“Well, I guess that answers why Cadmus wants you dead,” Winn said. “That’s actually, like, five different things you aren’t supposed to know.”“And they couldn’t just have me sign an NDA?” Maggie asked. “That’s not really Lillian’s style. Besides, are you telling me you wouldn’t blow the whistle anyway?” Winn asked. “Probably would have,” Maggie said.“Discretion is the better part of valor,” Winn said. “How’d you end up working for Alex, anyway?” Maggie asked. “We met through Kara,” Winn said.“What, were you just mingling and the topic turned to work?” Maggie asked sarcastically. “Not exactly,” Winn said as he scratched his head. “Look, it sounds pretty bad to just say it.”“Listen, you and Alex have been stalking me for a least a week. You know who you’re working with. If I’m in, I deserve to know who I’m in with,” Maggie said. “Alex killed my dad,” Winn said.“So you’re working for her why?” Maggie asked.“Because my full name is Winslow Schott Jr.,” Winn said with a sigh. “And if Alex hadn’t stopped him, me and my mom wouldn’t be here anymore.”“Holy shit,” Maggie said quietly. “Yeah,” Winn said. “You’re just going to give me the answer to one of the most infamous cold cases in history, who shot the Toymaker, in a situation where I can’t act on that at all?” Maggie asked. “I guess, yeah,” Winn said. “That is absolutely cold-blooded,” Maggie said. “Not what went down, it’s just, I know now and I can’t tell anybody.”“Get used to that feeling,” Winn said. “Why? Did CADMUS kill Kennedy?” Maggie asked. “No, but there’s plenty of toe curling stuff in there,” Winn said. Alex burst back into the room. “We have company about two minutes out,” She said as she cocked a semi-automatic pistol before tucking it into the back of her waistband. Alex walked over to a spot in the wall, carefully aligning herself with a beam in the ceiling. Bringing her foot up, she slammed it through the drywall of the cheap hotel room. Reaching into the hole, Alex yanked a canvas back pack out of the wall, ripping out a larger portion of the wall.“Ok, two vans. They either followed us from the hit, or Lillian figured out this safehouse and is checking all the ones she knows about,” Alex said as she unzipped the back pack. “If they’re just rolling up now, they probably don’t have snipers, so we have a chance if we move now.”She tossed a p38 to Maggie and two large wads of cash to Winn.“Ok, here’s the plan: they don’t know there’s three of us or that we know they’re coming. Winn, drop onto the balcony of the room below us and wait until you hear the shooting start, then run like hell and get us new wheels,” Alex said as she pulled out two claymore mines. “Sawyer, empty the clip at them when they get out their cars through the window, then duck behind the bed. It’s lined with enough Kevlar to stop anything short of anti-tank rounds.”“Where are you going?” Maggie asked. “Roof. They’ll send at least one sniper up there. I’ll take him out, start picking them off. In the confusion you go across the street and hotwire that bike. Drive it under the eaves, and we should be off before they have a chance to call in back-up,” Alex said as she tucked a switchblade into an interior pocket on her jacket. “You just going to leave that back pack full of money here?” Maggie asked. “Nope, that’s your job,” Alex said as she pulled out an MP5 before tossing the back pack to Maggie. “And lose the uniform. Count to thirty after you pull back.”“Yes ma’am,” Maggie grumbled as she slung the back pack on. As she approached the window, she looked down into the parking lot just as two black vans screeched to a stop. As the doors flew open and men in unmarked mercenary gear began piling out of the car, Maggie realized that she did not have a nearly big enough gun in her hand compared to the assault rifles the CADMUS soldiers were packing.Pulling the trigger, she squeezed off all seven rounds before she pulled back from the window seconds before a burst of rounds flew back at her. Diving behind a bed, she quickly ripped off her uniform shirt, shoving the spent gun into the backpack. As her internal head count neared thirty, the whole front of the door exploded as dozens of rounds of automatic fire ripped through the cheap building materials. Maggie hunkered down further behind the bed frame as she felt several impacts against it, but the Kevlar did it’s job, leaving Maggie unscathed.Withdrawing her service revolver, she crawled towards the balcony Winn had just jumped off of. As she reached the doorway, she threw herself over the side of the balcony. The room erupted in a pair of deafening explosions as the claymores Alex had placed went off. Maggie heard the high-pitched screaming from the kill team added to the general cacophony of the hotel as half-dressed patrons started to rush out of their rooms in terror.Dropping off the balcony, Maggie jogged across the street to the bike Alex had pointed out. Reaching under the frame, she pulled out a small copper wire as she felt around for the electrical plug. As she began testing the combinations which would allow her to start to start the bike, Maggie heard several solitary reports of a rifle. She heard scattered return fire by the time she heard the electrical system click on.By the time she had brought the bike to life and was running it up to the eves where she could see Alex dangling two stories up, the return fire had reached an impressive volume. As Alex dropped down to the ground Maggie slid back to the end of the seat. Alex paused for a second as she looked at Maggie, leaning back on the bike in her undershirt and slacks.“Never seen a dyke on a bike before?” Maggie asked as the bike idled.“Uh, sorry,” Alex said as she shook her head and threw her leg over the saddle, scooting in between Maggie and the handle bars. Revving the engine, Alex pulled out into the street. However, just as they were about to clear the hotel, a screech of tires announced a third black van that had pulled directly into their path. The back doors flew open as Alex brought her mp5 up one handed. Letting loose a spray of bullets at the van, Alex veered sharply onto the sidewalk around the side of the van. Most of the men in the van dove for cover. However, there was one that Maggie caught out of the corner of her eye who had made it to the far side of the van unscathed and was bringing his weapon up towards them.Maggie reacted on instinct.Reaching for the nearest weapon, the sawed-off just inside Alex’s jacket, Maggie turned and fired as the motorcycle ripped past the van. The gun let out a heavy retort as slammed into Maggie’s hand, numbing it up to the elbow. Her target fell backward against the van as the motorcycle accelerated down the street, taking an unexpected left through traffic. Soon, the noise of the hotel faded into the throaty roar of the engine and the whistle of wind as Maggie hugged the back of Alex’s body.She just wished her hands would stop shaking.As Alex raced along the side streets of the city, Maggie quickly realized that Alex was headed towards the desert. As they reached one of the smaller highways out of town, Maggie wondered how long it would take the NCPD to set up road blocks around the city after the multiple violent murders Maggie had seen. But it seemed that Alex had chosen her route out of the city wisely, as they managed to ride out into the desert unmolested. After hours of hard riding stopping only to fill up on gas, Alex pulled up to a lonely hotel just as the sun started to dip below the horizon. Pulling up next to a Harley, Alex pulled the wire out of the plug and pocketed it. Bending down at the back of her bike, she started removing the license plate.“Would you mind checking into the hotel while I get these plates switched out? Unless you want to be part of another felony today,” Alex said.“Yeah. Of course,” Maggie said as she slipped several bills from one of the money rolls in the back pack. “How long are we staying here?”“Just the night. Winn’s going to meet us at our fallback location in South of San Fran tomorrow morning,” Alex said. “Then we’re going to go after one of Luthor’s major supporters.”“And by go after, do you mean assassinate?” Maggie asked.“As much as I would like to, no. I want him on our side, at least for now. If I can cut Luthor off from the money and political apparatus of this guy, then all that’s left of her private support to cut off is her son,” Alex said. “After that, there’s a chance that the chaos will cut off her government support, especially with our guy’s political support. Then we show up and offer to get rid of the headache Luthor is causing.” “That’s pretty long-term plan,” Maggie said. “I can explain maybe a few days absence from my job given the circumstances, but I can’t just run off to play spy with you for the foreseeable future.”“I said I could give you chance to survive. I never said that about your career,” Alex said as she started unscrewing the Harley’s plates.“So you just expect me to become a criminal?” Maggie asked.“We don’t get to pick what we have to do to survive,” Alex said. “Your career was over the moment CADMUS targeted you. If the assassin botched the job you would have been run out of your job on an internal corruption charge and fired in disgrace. Then they would have made it look like a suicide.”“Why do so many of your hypotheticals end with me dead in a ditch?” Maggie muttered angrily as she walked away to rent them a room. Maggie frowned as she thought about what Alex had said. She really didn’t have much to go back to, all things considered. Given how out of her depth she was in dealing with this, she supposed she would have to defer to Alex in this case, as much as it galled her. Maggie wondered how this day had taken such a disastrous turn so quickly. As soon as she had the thought, she knew she should have knocked on wood.Coming back from the desk with a comically oversized piece of wood branded on one side with her room number and on another with the name and address of the Yeehaw! Cowboy Motel they were apparently staying at, Maggie came to stop in front of Alex, waiting for her to stand before she delivered the news.“So, you really know how to pick motels,” Maggie said.“You have the key, what’s the issue?” Alex asked, straightening from where she had just finished switching the plates.“They only had a single left,” Maggie said.“The lot’s only half full!” Alex said.“They’re fumigating the second building,” Maggie said. “We have the last room.”“Ugh. That tracks with how this day has been going,” Alex said wearily. When they got to the room, Alex sighed. “You didn’t mention it was a twin,” Alex said.“It’s like I picked the room, Danvers,” Maggie grumbled. “You picked this place.”“Because it isn’t listed in the phonebook, not because of the accommodations,” Alex said. “And the other rooms have chairs! And TV’s! and more things than a single twin bed!”“Look, if you’re going to freak out about this, I’ll sleep in the bathtub with a couple pillows,” Maggie said, putting her hands on her hips.“I’m not freaking out!” Alex said loudly.Maggie raised both her eyebrows and tilted her head.“That so?” She asked.“Not everything is about you,” Alex spat out as she grabbed a fresh set of clothes from the pack as she stormed into the bathroom. “I’m taking a shower.”“Don’t suppose there’s a change of clothes for me in there,” Maggie muttered after her, feeling her muscles ache as she sat down. Her body seemed to suddenly remember how tired she was from a full shift of work on top of multiple gunfights as she finally crashed from her adrenaline high. Feeling her stomach rumble, Maggie opened the back pack to see if there was any food in there. Pulling out two plastic bags with pictures of food on them, she sighed internally as she realized that she was going to be eating something similar to the K-rations her father had complained endlessly about. Sighing as she tried to block the sound of the silly voices he would do for his sergeant and beset friend out of her head, she dug around in the pack to find any other clothes, but couldn’t find anything other than an extra pair of socks and underwear. Taking several small bills from the pack, she managed to push herself up off the bed to walk back over to the gift shop to see if she could buy some clothes from the gift shop before it closed. When she opened the door to the room, she was greeted by the sight of a naked and wet Alex kneeling on the floor, aiming a shotgun at her chest from behind a bed.“Jesus!” Maggie said, throwing her hands up and turning her head away. “It’s just me, Danvers.”“Shit, I’m sorry, that’s, uh, yeah, that makes sense,” Alex said in a flustered tone as she immediately threw down the shotgun and desperately snatched at her towel.“Why, are you not wearing any clothes?” Maggie asked.“I forgot underwear- why are you standing there with the door open?” Alex asked. “Sorry,” Maggie said, stepping back outside and closing the door.As she stood outside the door, Maggie stood with crossed arms as she tried not to think of Danver’s well-muscled thighs, or of the incredible curve of her ass or of the flinty look in her eyes that turned to an adorable kind of shocked panic at the recognition of Maggie. She was remarkably unsuccessful in her efforts. After several long minutes, the door opened to reveal a fully-clothed Alex. “Sorry. Old habits,” Alex said. “From when you didn’t wear clothes regularly?” Maggie said. “Ha, ha. No, I’m just used to sweeping my clothes for bugs. And I’m not used to having a roommate,” Alex said. “That why you left a dildo in the duffle bag supposedly full of essentials?” Maggie asked.“I- that’s not what it looks like,” Alex said as her face turned bright red.“I’m sure it’s not,” Maggie said with a smirk as she headed into the bathroom, ignoring the slight thrill in her stomach that seemed to happen every time she got under Alex’s skin. She definitely didn’t take care of any of her own carnal needs in the shower.
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
As she removed herself from the warm steam of the shower, engulfing her like the fog that seemed to surround her brain after the harrowing day she had had, Maggie looked in the mirror. Her reflection looked back at her. She looked like she had been through hell. Dark circles lined her eyes and her entire body seemed to sag with the exhaustion of being the passenger on the stolen bike for hours of riding. Her hair looked limp, somehow even Maggie didn’t like looking in the mirror, for the most part. When she got out of the steaming bathroom, her hair wrapped in a towel, Maggie took in the sight of Alex trying to act nonchalant on the bed. She had a small leather-bound pocket journal, and seemed to be going through notes while making a few marks with a pen. The oversized t-shirt and sweat pants seemed out of place, almost too soft for the hard body and deep scowl.“Hair dryer’s broken, so you’ll probably want to towel off before you go to bed,” Alex said. “You think I can towel this off as easily as you can with that extremely heterosexual high and tight?” Maggie asked. “Fine, get pneumonia if you want,” Alex said. “I’m going to bed.”“You’re so dramatic,” Maggie said with a huff. “I’m too tired to be baited. Good night,” Alex said before she reached over and turned off the deskside lamp. Rolling her eyes, Maggie wrapped her hair with an additional towel as she got ready for bed. Minutes later, she crawled into the side of the bed that Alex had left open for her. She drifted off to sleep on the cramped mattress, distinctly aware of the discomfort Alex seemed to be in as she lay on her side, facing away from her.“Are you sure you’re comfortable like that? You don’t seem very relaxed,” Maggie asked.“I’m fine. Other side hurts more. Took a shot to the ribs when I was up on the roof. I’ll live,” Alex said. “Might hurt less if you relaxed more than three muscles,” Maggie said.“I haven’t relaxed a muscle since Johnson was president and we both know it,” Alex said.“Was that another joke, Danvers? Keep this up and I might start mistaking you for a person. With feelings,” Maggie said.“Good night, Sawyer,” Alex said. Maggie nodded off with a smirk on her face. The next morning, Maggie shifted against the comfortable warmth next to her. Nuzzling forward into the soft lump, Maggie squeezed it tighter to herself. The contented little sigh she received in return from the woman she was spooning brought a sleepy smile to her face. Opening her eyes, she was met with a shock of red hair. Suddenly, the events of the previous day came rushing back to her. She froze once she realized that she had Agent Danvers, deadly covert assassin, cuddled up beneath her. Maggie considered her options. Danvers would definitely freak out if she woke up and realized they were spooning, and the last thing Maggie needed was to freak out the only ally she had at the moment, least of all over something as stupid as what position they woke up in bed together. And which they had probably slept most of the night together in. A night of sleep that despite the lumpy mattress had been one of the best nights of sleep she’d had in a while.Crap. Now she was a little freaked out.Carefully pulling her arm up elbow first, Maggie tried to defuse the situation with desperate slowness. She had managed to clear Danvers’ body carefully when some instinct alerted her to the fact that Danvers was about to move. As she tried to pull away her hand, the woman sleepily reached up to grab the swiftly retreating hand to her chest. Panicking, Maggie tried to exert more pressure to pull away, only to have Alex pull her hand tighter to her chest with a grumble.Before Maggie could think of what to do, Alex’s eyes flew open.They both froze, caught in the moment. “Your hand is on my boob,” Alex said dumbly. “Your hand is holding my hand to your boob,” Maggie said.Neither woman moved. Time seemed to stand still as the pair stayed locked in eye contact. Maggie briefly wondered how she got herself into situations like this, and why they always involved beautiful women whenever they happened. The suddenly blaring alarm from the bedside clock broke the tension as both women quickly rolled apart. Maggie quickly threw on her jeans and a jacket before practically running out the door as she blurted something behind her about grabbing coffee. Alex only grunted at her as she fled to the bathroom. Maggie inhaled sharply at the relief from the brisk morning air. Raking her hand through her hair as she let out a misty breath in the surprisingly cold desert air, Maggie tried to push her panic down further into her chest. Shaking her head as she realized that the way she had rushed out of the room would only reinforce Danvers’ association between her increasingly obvious sexuality and shame, she headed back towards the room. Stopping in her tracks, she realized that now that she was out of the room, she really should be ready to talk with her about it herself. She turned around again and headed towards the lobby.She came back to the room minutes later with the most digestible-looking parts of the burnt sludge that passed for coffee from the lobby’s coffee maker in two disposable cups. Cursing herself as she got to the door for not keeping a hand free, she took a deep breath to calm herself before she spoke. “Hey, I’m back with coffee,” Maggie called out.The door swung open after several seconds and Alex walked out, fully clothed, with the backpack strapped to her back. She had changed her shirt, but she had changed her exterior from soft cotton to denim and leather. Her eyes were unreadable behind her aviators and her face was an expressionless mask as she took one of Maggie’s offered coffees with a nod. “Thanks. I’ll check out, you grab your things and we’ll go,” Alex said. “I hope you like black… coffee…” Maggie said as she watched Alex’s retreating form across the parking lot. Shaking her head, she gathered the few items Alex had left of hers in the room. She shoved the items into the small backpack she had bought from the gift shop. Doing one last sweep of the room, she came back outside to the bike. Connecting the ignition as she hotwired it once again, the engine roared to life. Alex stepped out of the Hotel lobby just as Maggie pulled the large motorcycle up to her.“We’ve got to stop meeting like this. People are going to talk,” Maggie said. “You gonna let me drive?” Alex asked. Her face remained impassive.“You drove all of yesterday, and may I remind you I am the one who technically stole this,” Maggie said.“And do you somehow know where we’re going all of the sudden?” Alex asked. “San Francisco,” Maggie said. “Yes, but do you know how to get there without being surveilled and that goes by an arms supplier to reload on weapons and ammo?” Alex asked.Maggie gave a tight smile and moved back on the bike to give room to Alex take the handles of the bike. “Thank you,” Alex said.“You’re sort of a hard ass,” Maggie said.“You’re welcome,” Alex said. She slapped down the tinted visor before Maggie could see the blush in her cheeks and drowned out her question with a loud rev of the engine as Alex turned onto the street.After several hours of driving, however, Alex was forced to relent on the road enforced silence when she saw how low the gas gage had gotten. Pulling into the only station she had seen for the last 20 miles, she pulled the cycle up to a pump station that looked several decades out of date.“Hope you don’t mind a little lead,” Alex said with a tight smile. “Fuck, you think I’m worried about a little lead poisoning right now?” Maggie asked as she nearly fell off the bike, only catching herself on a metal bollard at the last possible second, her legs still bowed from the bike. “I can barely feel my fucking legs, Danvers.”“I’m going to go inside to pay. Don’t run anywhere,” Alex said with a smirk.“You’re a real comedian, Danvers!” Maggie called after her. Maggie could swear she saw a cocky little sway enter Alex’s hips as she walked into the store.Muttering to herself, Maggie slowly straightened up from her stooped position. It had been almost a full minute since she had gotten off the bike, and she still felt tingling at the tips of toes. She idly wondered how she was supposed to ride on the back of this stupid bike all the way to San Francisco.Her blood ran cold as tires on an unmarked white van and several grey sedans screeched to a halt next to the old building. Several men burst out of the side door, automatic weapons snapping up. Pushing herself away from the gas pump faster than she would have thought possible given how exhausted her legs were, she drew her service weapon from her inside of her jacket pocket. Glancing back, the men seemed surprised to see her at the gas pump, having fanned out to try to cover the entrances and exits to the small gas station building.Firing several rounds into the gas pump furthest from her as she scrambled away, the men dove for cover seconds before a gout of flame erupted from the punctured pump, spreading tongues of flame skyward. Scrambling for cover behind a pile of firewood, she heard shattering glass and gunfire as the men fired into the shack. “Come on, Danvers, get out,” Maggie whispered as she suppressed the urge to pop her head up to check to see if Alex had escaped.Seconds later, an ancient blue pick-up crashed out of a small shed Maggie had barely taken note of, taking half of the plywood garage door with it as it accelerated with the gas pushed to the floorboards. moments later, the van and the cars peeled off down the road after it as it tried to catch up to the retreating vehicle. Sensing an opportunity, Maggie popped out from the opposite side of the wood pile to fire her remaining rounds into one of their assailants. She ducked down behind the woodpile as gunfire slammed into the logs in front of her, sending dangerously large splinters flying in every direction like shrapnel. She heard a scream from one of the men followed by shouting and more gunfire. Scrambling around the side of the woodpile, she charged forward towards the melee she could only barely make out through the flames. By the time she got there, she could see one man lying on the ground with a knife in his throat and another crumpled in a pool of his own blood. Alex was currently holding her own in a knife fight against the only man still standing. The pair circled one another, trading jabs and swipes as they tried to find an advantage over each other. As the man glanced over at Maggie running towards them, Alex took advantage and slashed his throat with a single, lightning fast motion. Reaching up to grab desperately at the arterial blood pumping out of his neck, he collapsed in seconds.“Jesus Christ,” Maggie swore under her breath.Alex seemed unfazed by the man’s death rattle as she turned to her as she wiped the light blood spatter from her face.“Thanks,” Alex said. “You owe me one less.”“Don’t think that’s the expression,” Maggie said as she rolled her shoulders in discomfort.“Whatever. I got the attendant to distract them with his truck,” Alex said as she stripped the man in front of her for his rifle and pistol.“I saw,” Maggie said as she armed herself similarly. “I uh, sort of set the bike on fire.”“It’s fine,” Alex said. “We don’t need it. We’re going hiking.”“Hiking?” Maggie asked.“We’re going to have to lay low for a while, and I happen to know of a cabin up the way a little bit the attendant mentioned,” Alex said. “It’s off the grid, and the trail and building aren’t visible from the road.”“And this place isn’t off the grid?” Maggie said as she trotted after Alex as she strode towards the tree line.“I had about 20 seconds to come up with this plan, cut me some slack,” Alex said. “You have a better idea?”“Not unless there’s another car around here,” Maggie muttered. “B and E it is.”“Yeah, that’s definitely the first thing the police will get upset about,” Alex said.“I am the police,” Maggie said indignantly.“Uh-huh,” Alex said.Scowling, Maggie jogged away from the carnage at the gas station to catch up the long-legged woman striding away from her.After about an hour of hiking up a steep hill, Maggie was glad that feeling had returned to her legs. The only disadvantage was that what she was feeling now was pain from the cramps of trying to keep up with Alex’s brisk pace. She was about ready to say something snarky to Alex when she noticed that she had frozen as she looked back towards the road, a small ranch house just behind her.“Shit,” Alex said.“What?” Maggie asked.“Three government sedans are parked down there,” Alex said. “How the fuck did they track us so fast?” Maggie asked. “They were following the truck!”“I don’t know! I don’t how they found us in the first place either!” Alex hissed. “They have to have a tracker on us,” Maggie said. “That’s impossible. I’ve swept everything we own, I swept all of our clothes, where could it be?” Alex asked. “It couldn’t possibly be a surgical implant-”The color drained out Alex’s face.“Oh shit,” She said. “We have to get underground.”“You think that will work?” Maggie said, pointing to a cellar door attached to the house.“It will have to,” Alex said grimly.“What’s the plan?” Maggie asked as they descended the steps into the abandoned root cellar. “I think I have a tracker inside of me,” Alex said as she took out the bug sweeper from the backpack, this time running it over her pelvis. It pinged when it was almost directly over her crotch.“You have a tracker shoved up there, and you didn’t notice?” Maggie asked.“It’s surgically implanted. I can’t be sure, but I’m almost positive it’s in my left inguinal canal,” Alex said as she pressed a hand to her pelvis experimentally. “You’re going to have to remove it.”“What?” Maggie said in disbelief.“You want to get shot and dissolved in acid?” Alex asked.“Of course not! But one, I don’t know what the fuck that canal is, two, I’m not a surgeon, three, how did they do surgery on you without you noticing?” Maggie asked. “It’s a small cavity located about an inch to the left of top of my, um,” Alex said as she unbuttoned her pants hastily.“You can say labia,” Maggie said with more confidence than she felt as Alex dropped her pants, falling backwards as she sat down bodily.“Just hurry up and get this over with. They aren’t going to be confused for long,” Alex said, handing her switchblade to Maggie. “I keep it sharp enough that that should do the trick. It’ll scar, but we don’t have time to find a real scalpel.”“You can’t be serious,” Maggie said, trying to stop herself from staring at Alex’s crotch.“No, I’m on ass with my pants around my ankles as a joke,” Alex said. “Yes I’m serious!”“Ok, shit, what do I do?” Maggie asked shakily. Alex grabbed Maggie’s right hand and pulled it to her lower abdomen. Maggie felt her anxiety wash away as she felt her world focus down to the task of keeping this woman alive and removing the source of danger Cadmus had put inside of her body. “Make an incision about an inch long, here,” Alex said, tracing a short diagonal line halfway between her hip and center with Maggie’s hand. “Then insert a finger in the same direction as the cut until you feel something solid. And then pull it out.”“That’s it?” Maggie asked.“Well, I’d appreciate if you sutured me back up after,” Alex said. “And we don’t have any anesthetic, so I’ll probably be screaming for most of this.”“Oh. Right,” Maggie said. Rubbing Alex’s skin and the knife with antiseptic, Maggie took a calming breath as she stared at Alex’s crotch. A small part of her brain was distracted by the sight of Alex’s pink lips set against her dark pubic hair and pale skin, directly next to the strip of skin she would have to mar with a thin handled, spring loaded stiletto. Pushing the thoughts of Alex’s body out of her mind, she looked up towards Alex’s eyes. The former Cadmus operative had the sleeve of her leather jacket firmly between her teeth. She nodded, and leaned back, eyes screwed tightly shut.With a final breath to steady her nerves, Maggie pushed the tip of the blade into Alex about half an inch before smoothly dragging it through the place Alex had traced and pulling it out in one motion. Alex screamed into her sleeve and shook on the dirty floor, but stayed as still as she could manage as Maggie finished the cut. Maggie stayed focused on her job, trying her best to ignore Alex’s clenched fists and curses as she tried to quickly slip her sterilized finger inside of Alex’s torso without retching. After only a few seconds of searching, Maggie found the canal Alex had described. It felt more like a slick cavity of flesh; like pushing into a very narrow orifice, only there was no muscle squeezing her finger. The only thing resisting her finger was the elastic nature of the flesh straining painfully around her finger and Maggie’s ability to block out the pain and disgust she felt. Maggie heard Alex’s screams increase in pitch as she felt a long, thin object that felt entirely dissimilar to the flesh around it. As she tried to get a grip on the slippery object past the sickening amount of blood and fluids filling the space, Alex started shaking too much for Maggie to get a solid purchase on implant. Clenching her jaw, Maggie knew what she had to do.“Sorry,” Maggie said, leading to a half second of quizzical pause from Alex. Then Maggie quickly and smoothly jammed her finger into Alex around the tracer and pulled backwards with a hooked finger, stretching the warm flesh past the point of tearing as Maggie extracted her bloody finger and the tracker in one swift motion.Alex let out a full-throated scream as she threw her head back.Maggie dropped the small, rubber coated electronics device in her hands, before rubbing Alex’s thigh comfortingly as Alex slammed her fist into the floor as she openly wept in pain. “I’m sorry, it’s over, I got it out, I’m so, so sorry,” Maggie said as she pushed the bile in the back of her throat down as she applied pressure to the wound with a wad of gauze. “I’m so sorry.”“Fuck, fuck, no, Sawyer, you did good, fuck, you did a good job,” Alex barely managed to get out as she writhed in pain on the ground. “Fuck!”“Should I suture you up?” Maggie asked. After several seconds, Alex grunted an affirmative.The suturing was no where near as terrible as the removal, drawing only the occasional grunt of pain from Alex. Maggie felt like she winced almost as much as Alex anyway.“So, when did Cadmus give you surgery?” Maggie asked, if only to distract Alex from the pain of the metal thread tugging at her skin.“It wasn’t a Cadmus surgeon. I thought he was outside of their control,” Alex said. “Must have bribed him, or snuck someone in when I was knocked out.”“My second question is how on Earth they managed to get in there the first time without leaving a surgical scar. And what they were even doing there,” Maggie asked. “If you want to tell me, of course.”“You uh, yeah,” Alex said, wincing as Maggie pulled the suture tight. “Would have thought you would have put it together by now.” “Put what together?” Maggie asked.“I’m transsexual. The scars aren’t there because they’re hidden in the vaginoplasty,” Alex said as Maggie’s eyebrows went up even as she finished tying off her suture.“Oh. I’m sorry, I didn’t realize,” Maggie said as Alex painfully pulled up her underwear and pants.“Well, now you do,” Alex said gruffly. “Hand me the medical tape and some fresh gauze.”“I want you to know that it doesn’t change my opinion of you, one way or another,” Maggie said.“I talked with Nia in the bar,” Alex said.“So you know I mean it when I say it,” Maggie said.“Yeah,” Alex said. “And you know that I know that you’re just as much of a woman as I am,” Maggie said. “No matter how you got there.”“That’s um… good to hear,” Alex said, shifting uncomfortably as she taped herself up. “I’m not really used to talking about it. At all.”“How did it come up with Nia?” Maggie asked.“I was trying to make her go away,” Alex admitted. “It didn’t work.”“She’s tenacious,” Maggie said with a smile. “Like someone else I know.”“Don’t get all soft on me, Sawyer,” Alex said, grunting as she got to her feet. “Fuck, that hurts.”“You think you can make it off this mountain?” Maggie asked. “Yeah. I got an idea,” Alex said. “You didn’t break the tracer yet, right?” Forty minutes later, and Maggie was seriously concerned about Alex as she was supporting most of her weight after the arduous, slow path they had taken down the mountain to avoid men coming to kill them. Suddenly, Alex grabbed Maggie’s arm.“Are you ok?” Maggie whispered. “Only left one man guarding the cars. 3 o’clock. I can’t take the shot,” Alex said weakly.“It’s ok. I can do it,” Maggie said as she lowered Alex to the ground gently. “Sawyer-” Alex said.“Clear and present danger. Would do it for anyone,” Maggie said.Pulling out the rifle from the pack, Maggie let her breath slow. Dropping to one knee, she sighted the man standing next to the unmarked government cars, absentmindedly scanning the area with a bored expression on his face. Making a few last second adjustments to the gun, she let out a breath, lined up her target with the iron sights and then fired a single round from the assault rifle.As soon as the man was hit, he jerked back and fell down bodily.“Alright, let’s go,” Maggie said hurriedly as she pulled Alex up with one hand as she supported her injured side, the two taking off through the undergrowth with little regard for stealth now that their cover had been blown. “I think they’ve figured out we left the tracer at the farmhouse.”“No shit,” Alex grunted as they crashed toward the cars.Alex fired two shots from her pistol at the man on the ground when they broke from the tree line, his gurgled cry telling Maggie that he had still been alive. He was dead by the time Maggie got to him, his gun clattering from his hand onto the gravel.Quickly searching his body, Maggie stole his car keys while Alex put two neat holes through the tires of the other two cars with the remaining bullets in her handgun. Once the other cars were disable, both women jumped into the remaining car, Maggie peeling out onto the road as she floored it. In her rearview mirror, she saw several angry looking men in fatigues come out of the forest.As she tore down the still relatively abandoned highway, Alex jammed her knife into the paneling in the door. With effort, she ripped out a small black box in a shower of electrical sparks, before she threw it out the window.“Tracker,” Alex said raggedly in explanation.She bodily flopped back in the seat as she clutched at her freshly bleeding pelvis. “Alex, are you ok? And don’t give me any badass, invincible secret agent spiel,” Maggie said. “I can see how much it hurt you to get down that mountain.”“I’ve been better. I’m not going to die on you,” Alex said raggedly as she grunted, shifting herself to a slightly less uncomfortable position.“That’s not what I asked,” Maggie said.“I’ve had worse,” Alex snapped. “Is there a point here?”“I’m just worried about you,” Maggie said. Alex didn’t say anything for several long moments. Maggie glanced over at her, to make sure she hadn’t passed out from the pain. She saw Alex’s face frozen in an almost unreadable pensive stare out the windshield.“You shouldn’t be,” Alex said finally. “Well, I am,” Maggie said. “Fine. Don’t get distracted,” Alex said. Maggie turned her attention back to driving. The swirl of emotions she felt fluttering in her chest would have to wait until later.“Where am I going? We’ll need a safe place to go to let you heal,” Maggie said. “I don’t know. I have a supply cache in San Francisco, it has a few thousand dollars tucked away. That will be enough to at least keep our heads above water for now, lay low for a few weeks,” Alex said. “Maybe even come up with a long-term plan.”“So we’re done driving on these middle of nowhere roads?” Maggie asked.“Yeah. We just need to get there at this point,” Alex said. “You have the helm.”“Fine. Nerd,” Maggie said. “I’m a world class assassin!” Alex said. “That quotes star trek,” Maggie said.“You’re impossible,” Alex grumbled. As Alex began to fiddle with the radio, Maggie couldn’t quite help repress the small smile tugging at her lips. It didn’t make any sense, but she felt a sense of optimism tug at her gut that was entirely unfamiliar even as it filled her with a sense of lightness she hadn’t felt in years. “What are you smiling about?” Alex asked distractedly.“Kismet, Danvers. Kismet,” Maggie said.
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
It had taken an anxious, painful day and a half to finally get within sight of San Francisco. Maggie sighed at the mental slip up. This was Danver’s safe house, not hers, and certainly not theirs. No matter how much the assassin had grown on her in the past few days even as Maggie had played nursemaid and chauffeur to her, she had to remind herself that she had an agenda, and a particularly illegal one at that. No matter how appealing her captor and savior seemed, she had to continue to maintain her boundaries, even if Danvers had made some pretty convincing arguments about her unfortunate new position in life. Not that she was having a whole lot of success with that at the moment as she glanced over to see Alex with her hand down her pants.“No! Stop that! Missy, I swear to god I will turn this car around and drive us right back to CADMUS if you don’t stop messing with those bandages,” Maggie said. “Ok, which one of us went to med school?” Alex grumbled.“You don’t get to do stupid things you know you shouldn’t just because you’re a college drop-out, Danvers,” Maggie said.“Oh, drop-out is what we’re going with. Not early graduate,” Alex said. “If you had graduated you would know to stop messing with that,” Maggie said.“You’re the worst,” Alex pouted as she crossed her arms, knee bobbing as she tried her best to keep her hands where they were. “I’ve already done more medical procedures on you than I would have liked to, I am not going to suck out the gangrene if you reopen that wound,” Maggie said. “Well golly gee, I hope you don’t have to dig arrowheads out of my shoulder with a bowie knife, either,” Alex said.“Are you making fun of my medical knowledge?” Maggie said. “Maybe so, pardner,” Alex said. “You’re making me regret letting you booze yourself up,” Maggie said. “It’s medicinal,” Alex said, reaching down to take another sip of her beer before she set it back down.“This is why I went with drop out,” Maggie said with a grin. Alex simply stuck her tongue out at her before turning to fiddle with the radio. “Not that that isn’t vitally important, but I sort of need street directions if we want to meet up with Winn,” Maggie said. “Oh, you have to get off,” Alex said, glancing up. “Sorry?” Maggie said as her mind raced to make sense of Alex’s words.“What? No, get off the freeway now,” Alex said.“Oh. Oh! Right,” Maggie said, shaking her head. Pulling off the freeway, it was only minutes before they parked their non-descript car in a narrow back alley. Pulling back a steel door to a small warehouse, Alex grinned as she looked inside. “Excited to finally get to lay down?” Maggie asked. “That, and I finally have access to my real guns,” Alex said. “The military grade machine gun wasn’t a real gun?” Maggie asked incredulously. “Sub-machine gun,” Alex said. “Uh huh,” Maggie said. “Bed though. Bed sounds nice,” Alex said, swaying on her feet slightly as she crossed into the dimly lit building. “Ok, let’s get you to the cot,” Maggie said. After a brief stumbling journey from the car to where the key was hidden under a loose plank on the porch, Maggie helped the taller woman lay down onto a bed in the sparsely furnished house. Alex sighed in relief as she finally got to properly lay down after the long days ride. “I suppose you only have one bed here, too,” Maggie said wryly. “Well, actually, there are two, but I definitely plan on sleeping on one,” Winn said as he rounded the corner munching on a candy bar. “Wait, too?”“Shut up, Winn,” Maggie and Alex said in unison. “Ok, that is extremely freaky,” Winn grumbled. “And I got a van. And I lined up a deal with a guy for a boat.”“A boat?” Maggie asked. “Because I also got a lead on one of Lillian’s extra governmental suppliers who she’s illegally feeding research information to, and a location on a meeting that you might be able to crash that could have a big information cache, assuming you have the right ID’s in your bag of tricks,” Winn said. “And I set a meeting with Grigor.”“Thank you, Winn,” Alex said placatingly.“Grigor?” Maggie asked. “Yugoslavian gun dealer. If it spits lead, he moves it. Professional and willing to deal in bulk orders of ammo to customers he trusts,” Winn said. “And he has a grudge against Lillian for almost getting him killed, so he isn’t likely to turn us in, no matter how much he’s embraced his new capitalist life style,” Alex said. “Speaking of which, how did Alex get broken?” Winn asked. “Just a little light un-aestheticized surgery,” Alex said.“I’m sorry, what?” Winn said. “Don’t worry about it. You don’t want to know,” Alex said. “Other than that I might need some antibiotics.”“Who even- Officer Sawyer?” Winn asked, eyes nearly popping out of his head. “Ok, but what about the boat?” Maggie asked, promptly ignoring the question.“Well, that gets to the plan. There’s a meeting in 2 weeks on an island owned by the supplier in our very own local Bay,” Winn said.“I think it might be time for Irene Hendrick to start socializing again,” Alex said with a weak smile. “I mean, sure, I’ll get on it, but like, are we just not going to talk about what happened?” Winn asked. “Nope,” Alex said. “Not going to happen,” Maggie agreed.“End of discussion,” Alex said. Alex was glad Winn was as much of a snoop as he was, but even still, he could be a bit of a snoop at times. His snooping ability, however, were what found the redhead inside of Maxwell Lord’s exclusive party armed with nothing but a two-piece swimsuit Maggie had picked out. Alex did her best to shove that experience out of her head, as mortifying as it was to feel the strange trill in her stomach when the former cop had given her an appreciative once over in the simple number. She had to keep an eye on the proceedings, had to protect that very woman from the wolves den she had asked her to help infiltrate, and she gave another surreptitious glance around at the luxurious party. Spotting Lord talking to Lillian on the opposite side of the pool, Alex subtly checked the nearby clock. Maggie needed another five minutes to crack the safe. Then, Lord gestured to the doors of the house, as the two started to move away from the bustling party. Alex realized they needed a distraction.Leaping gracefully into the pool, Alex dove beneath the surface in a shallow dive. Kicking powerfully forward, Alex let herself glide into the shallow end of the pool. Standing up in front of her two targets, Alex casually pushed her short hair back.“Danvers,” Lillian said with a raised eyebrow. “I thought this was an exclusive party.”“Lillian, would you mind introducing me to the lovely lady?” Max said as he gave Alex a long once over. “I think you know who I am,” Alex said as she pulled herself out of the pool.“Yes. And his security should have as well,” Lillian said. “Oh, they would have if Alex’s friend hadn’t changed the picture of an oil heiress I invited as a favor,” Max said.“And you let this happen?” Lillian said.“What can I say. I was curious to meet the doctor who engineered the xenovirus in her time off from being your most effective field agent. So effective, I might add, that not even Lillian Luthor can keep a handle on her,” Max said. “That and we’re on my personal private island, surrounded by a lot of surly men with guns who I pay to keep people from killing each other.”“And yet they’re over there and I’m over here. I could just reach out and they couldn’t stop me,” Alex said, letting herself fall into the more familiar role of flirting with a man. Somehow it felt stranger now than it had before, but Alex shrugged and attributed it to the circumstances. “I’ve always liked living dangerously,” Max said. “If no scientist ever took risks, we would still be naked in the jungle.”“Clearly, a two piece is a marked improvement in civility,” Lillian said as she looked as if she swallowed something sour.“I’m pretty sure that civilization benefitted men more than women,” Alex said. “Or there was less need for improvement to women,” Max said with a grin Alex had to remind herself to find charming.“Is there a reason you’ve decided to expose yourself like this?” Lillian asked. “Or have you finally completely lost your mind?”“If you haven’t noticed, I’ve had no problem avoiding your goons so far. And maybe I wanted to meet the man enabling the murder of hundreds of beings every year by this woman,” Alex said as she turned to Max.“You were one of my goons until a week ago,” Lillian muttered.“Like I said earlier, scientists have to take certain risks,” Max said.“Doesn’t seem like much of a risk to you,” Alex said. “People who live under their reign of terror though?”Max smiled and laughed awkwardly before cocking his head as he seemed to reconsider the woman standing before him. Alex repressed the shiver that ran up her spine. “So, I hear that you’re recently unemployed. I happen to have an obscene amount of money and a need for both top bioengineers and deadly bodyguards, and given the daggers Lillian is staring at you, you seem to come highly recommended,” Max said.“I’m more of freelancer,” Alex said.“Are you seriously trying to hire a wanted criminal who I’m actively trying to kill in front of me?” Lillian said.“Firstly, the authorities are looking for an unknown assailant, and secondly, things seemed to be going much smoother when she was on our side,” Max said. “If you remember, she was ‘on our side’ when she was happily gunning my agents down in the streets,” Lillian said.“Lillian, do you actually expect me to believe that you care about any of your agents?” Max said. Alex snorted as Lillian scowled.“Well, Mr. Lord, we agree on one thing, which is that Alexandra is not as stupid a girl as she seems to be playing at. Even if you happen to be in Mr. Lord’s employ, do you think that I won’t find your sister eventually? Or the police woman, Sawyer, now that you’ve let it be known she’s also a point of leverage over you?” Lillian asked. “I think Mr. Lord made an excellent point about scientists needing to take risks,” Alex said.“I’m clear Danvers, making my way to the speedboat dock. I have 60 pounds of disks on my back, so hurry up,” Maggie said in Alex’s ear.“Is that a yes?” Max asked.“It’s not a no,” Alex said. “I’ll call you.”“Not generally how I do things,” Max said.“Wait. She has an ear piece-” Lillian said in shock as she reached for her gun. Alex was faster. Slapping the patch of her suit Winn had wired to a miniaturized radio trigger, the lights blew in a massive power surge as most of the San Francisco power grid was momentarily redirected towards Max’s island. The showers of sparks and screaming gave Alex more than enough cover to slip out of the veranda under the cover of darkness before the emergency lighting came on. Sprinting at an easy pace down to the boat docs, Alex easily slipped past the guards en route back to where she had entered the party in the tall bushes of the garden. As her feet ran over the painful gravel towards the boat house, her blood ran cold as a deep voice called out her name.“Danvers. Luthor thought you might try something like this. Guess she was right.”Half the man’s face and most of his body had been covered in steel plating, a sickly green glow radiating from under a thick chest plate. His voice was a far cry from anything particularly human, all sneering rage and artificial lungs. Alex realized that this is what happened to the real Hank Henshaw when he had disappeared for several weeks, reduced to nothing but a pet science project for Luthor. Just as Alex realized she was still almost a hundred meters from the safety of the boat house, the cyborg raised two M-18’s in slow motion towards her. Instead of being shredded in a hail of automatic rifle fire, a single pistol shot rang out in the night, the bullet deflecting against Henshaw’s armor in a shower of sparks. As the man turned to level one of his assault rifles at the source of the fire, Maggie emptied her clip at Henshaw from nearly point blank range from where she had been hiding in the speedboat next to him.Alex saw Henshaw stagger backwards as a spray of red blood indicated Maggie had wounded him. Alex took off once more as Henshaw straightened up to reveal that while Maggie had torn away a patch of flesh on his face, the metal armor extended underneath his skin. Alex’s thinking mind went out the window as she saw the rifles leveling at Maggie. Launching herself through the air, she delivered a two-legged flying kick to Henshaw’s head, transferring the full force of her sprint into the heels of her feet as she slammed them home with enough force to break any normal man’s neck. Dropping to the ground just to the side of the now fallen Henshaw, Alex rolled onto all fours with the agility of a cat. Pushing herself from a dead stop to sprint down the dock, she launched herself into the speed boat that had just gunned it’s motor.Throwing herself into space, Alex landed with a thud into the back of the speed boat. With Alex aboard, Maggie opened up the throttle sending the craft rocketing forwards into the bay. Looking back, Alex incredulously saw Henshaw not only get up from the ground, but pick up both rifles and fire them at the rapidly fleeing boat. Alex reacted quickly, pushing Maggie’s head down in the driver’s seat as she hunched over next to her until the bullets stopped.When they both looked up, several bullet holes littered the windshield, including one directly at Maggie’s eye level.“What the hell was that thing?” Maggie yelled over the whipping wind.“I don’t know!” Alex yelled back. “Nothing good!”“Glad you made it out!” Maggie yelled back.“You too, Sawyer,” Alex said. The racing boat cut across the cold waters of the San Francisco Bay, quickly bringing them to the rendezvous point ahead of Winn. As Maggie cut the engine and let the boat drift into the sand, she turned to Alex, who was still kneeling in the boat next to her. With a rueful smile, she poked a finger through the bullet hole in the windscreen that was directly in front of her.“I guess I owe you one,” Maggie said with a smile.“One? I’ve been saving your ass for weeks now,” Alex said, unable to keep her voice from lowering as something tugged low in her belly.“Mhm, I suppose you had it completely under control with whatever that was back there?” Maggie asked, the playfulness in her voice seemingly tempered by another emotion under the surface.“No. But I knew I could count on you,” Alex said, almost surprising herself as much as Maggie with the earnestness that she let slip into her voice. “And I couldn’t let anything happen to you. Ever.”“You’re getting sappy, Danvers,” Maggie breathed, her eyes flicking hesitantly over Alex’s body.Alex felt weightless as she was slowly drawn into Maggie’s gravity well. Maggie’s breathing seeming to entrance her, the short inhales like she was trying to catch her breath even though Alex had been the one running. The way she leaned in to Alex’s personal space subconsciously.“We still talking about the island?” Maggie asked in a soft voice, inches away from Alex.“I don’t know,” Alex said, eyes drawn to Maggie’s lips before meeting her gaze again. “What are you saying then?” Maggie asked, aware of Alex’s half naked form kneeling inches away from her.For the second time in half an hour, Alex felt herself react faster than she could consciously keep up.Reaching forward with both hands, Alex drew Maggie into a passionate kiss. When she felt Maggie lean into the kiss, she deepened it, running her tongue along Maggie’s soft lips as she felt her entire body heat up, an ache burning low inside of her. When Maggie pulled back, Alex lightly dragged Maggie’s lip between her teeth as she opened her eyes, an unsure smile on her face.“Danvers,” Maggie whispered before she regained her composure. “This is not, this is not happening. I’m not being your experiment.”“You’re not- this isn’t some kind of idle fascination,” Alex said. “You know the last time I went on a date?”“Danvers, that’s not really a very good metric-” Maggie said.“Three years. And it was miserable. I’ve had three boyfriends in my life, and all of those ended because they just seemed like friends to me. I have never thought of myself as someone who was intimate, who did things like this but, I want to. With you,” Alex said.“Winn’s here,” Maggie said, picking up the bag full of floppy disks as she started towards the van that had just pulled up.Alex felt like she had been slapped. When she tried to stand up, she fell back into the boat as pain lanced through her feet. Swearing as she caught herself on the side before she toppled all the way over, Maggie put the disks down and turned around in concern.“Danvers?” Maggie called. “I’m fine,” Alex yelled, trying to stand through the pain only to fall again.“Jesus, Danvers, why didn’t you tell me you were hurt?” Maggie said as she walked back towards the boat. “Your feet are cut to ribbons!”“I said I’m fine!” Alex said, trying to will herself to stand and for the tears that had sprung at the corners of her eyes.“What happened?” Winn asked as he jumped out of the van to move towards the two women.“Nothing! Nothing fucking happened,” Alex said.“Danvers, we have to go, let me help you to the van,” Maggie said reaching for Alex.“Don’t touch me,” Alex said, recoiling away from Maggie.It stung more than she was expecting it to.“Ok, so clearly a whole lot of nothing happened, but we are still on a clock here, and Alex, I can’t carry you to the van on my own,” Winn said. Alex didn’t say anything.“Danvers. Please,” Maggie said. “I know this hurts.”Alex frowned. After a half a second, she motioned for Maggie to pick her up. Hauling the taller woman into a fireman’s carry, Maggie managed to get Alex to the van and gently deposit her on the floor, before piling in herself. As Winn pulled back onto the road, Maggie opened a first aid kit and began cleaning the bloody mess of Alex’s feet, earning several hisses of pain from Alex.“What the hell happened?” Winn asked. “I cut myself on something,” Alex said.“You ran over sharp gravel and kicked a man covered in metal in the face as hard as you could in bare feet,” Maggie said as she splashed more water on the bottom of her feet as she cleared out the last of the dirt. “How are you surprised that this happened?”“Maybe because I was focused on keeping you alive, like I have been this entire time,” Alex said angrily.“Look Danvers, I appreciate it, but you can’t just do things and expect them to work out,” Maggie said.“Maybe I knew I couldn’t just stand by and watch anymore,” Alex said.“Ok, I feel like I’m missing something here. Man covered in metal?” Winn asked.“This is going to hurt,” Maggie said as she dabbed isopropyl alcohol onto Alex’s wounds.Alex went rigid, closing her eyes and slamming her fist into the metal floor of the van repeatedly as a string of swear words erupted from her mouth. Maggie squeezed Alex’s ankle as she watched the assassin writhe in pain on the floor of the van. Eventually, Alex got her breathing down to a ragged gasping as she refused to look at Maggie with her clearly crying eyes. Gently, Maggie started to bandage her feet in gauze as she looked pleadingly at Alex.“I’m sorry,” Maggie whispered.“I don’t want to talk,” Alex said in a thin voice.Maggie returned to her work bandaging Alex’s feet in silence, the only sound the occasional bucking of the van as it sped off into the night. “Ok, I’m done,” Maggie said as she tied off the last piece of gauze. “But we’ll need to get more gauze soon.”Maggie tried to ignore the stabbing sensation in her heart when she saw Alex slowly curl up into a fetal position leaning against the side of the van.“Danvers, you have to be freezing in that,” Maggie said. “Do we have any blankets in this stupid thing?”“I’m fine,” Alex said quietly.“No, I left everything at the safe house,” Winn said.“Danvers, you’re not fine,” Maggie said as she slipped her jacket around Alex’s now shivering form. “Why?” Alex asked quietly enough that Winn couldn’t here. “Why are you being nice to me?”“Because I care about you, and against my better judgement I like you, but Alex we can’t,” Maggie said as she made the red head put her arms through the sleeves before she took a seat next to her. “I’m a cop. If I ever want to be a cop again, I very much can’t get involved with you.”“You really think you’re going to be a cop again?” Alex asked. “You’ve shot up at least three places, you’ve actively helped me and Winn evade capture by local and federal law enforcement and now you’ve just committed larceny. That’s just off the top of my head. And you think you’re going to be a cop again?”“Yes. Because I have to. This whole thing, almost getting killed on a weekly basis, living on the run? I have to imagine that it has an end. I can’t keep going on forever,” Maggie said as a lump formed in her throat. “Maggie, this life doesn’t end. If you’re lucky, it goes on for a while, but it doesn’t end. Doing this is going to save a lot more people than being a cop no one wants to work with, but in the end you don’t have a choice. You’ve crossed the Rubicon already,” Alex said.“I don’t know that I can live with that,” Maggie said. “Yes, you can. You’re a survivor,” Alex said.“This is just, this is just a lot,” Maggie said as she leaned against Alex. They sat in silence for several long minutes, resting against each other as the vans heater finally started warming the cavernous back.“When I saw you coming down that beach with that cyborg coming at you, I was shooting to kill. No hesitation,” Maggie said. “I know I didn’t, but even if it would have? I would pull the trigger again. And that might scare me.”“Why?” Alex asked softly.“I’m sure you’ve heard stories about the NCPD. Suspects beaten, corruption, taking people for ride arounds that put them in the hospital. It’s true, that shit happens. I knew that when I signed up, I wanted to change it,” Maggie said. “And even when I was there, I could never really get my head around how a cop could let that kind of thing slide in their fellow officers. How they could defend someone they know kills people, hurts people, as a matter of course.”“And then there was me,” Alex said, voice rough.“That’s not what I meant,” Maggie said.Alex stayed silent.“Alex, it’s what you said. It was clearly illegal. The kind of illegal I was never going to come back from. And it was for you, not a cause, not some principle. Just you,” Maggie said.“It sounds less like we can’t and more that you’re scared,” Alex murmured. “Aren’t you?” Maggie asked.“Yes. Like hell. But you’re someone worth taking risks for, Sawyer,” Alex said. Testing the space between them hesitantly, Alex let her head rest against Maggie’s. When Maggie leaned into the action, Alex let herself smile. “So, you’re actually interested in me?” Maggie asked.Alex laughed softly.“Yes, I think I’m definitely interested in you,” Alex said. “If we do this, it’s going to be complicated. And messy. And probably a lot of work and challenging of assumptions,” Maggie said.“Maggie, I know. I want that. I want you,” Alex said. “You’re the first person that’s made me feel like maybe I can redeem myself. Like maybe I can . I don’t want to let you down. Ever.”“Anyone ever tell you that underneath that hard ass exterior you’re a gigantic sap?” Maggie asked.“You might be surprised to learn that no, in fact, no one has,” Alex said with a small smile.“Don’t take this the wrong way, but I think we should go slow,” Maggie said carefully. “Don’t want to uhaul till the third date?” Alex asked playfully.“Look at you knowing the lingo already,” Maggie said with a smile.“I did spend like, a week at that lesbian bar. I’m not completely wet behind the ears,” Alex said.“Oh, and Alex? Just so you’re clear,” Maggie said, turning to slide her fingers around Alex’s neck and brushing her thumb past Alex before kissing her passionately. Alex’s head lightly tapped the side of the van as she was pushed backwards with the force of the kiss, any willpower to fight back against Maggie’s insistent lips melted away with the rest of her thoughts almost instantly at the contact with the soft skin.“That’s how you kiss a woman,” Maggie whispered throatily in Alex’s ear.“Don’t remember you complaining much,” a heavily blushing Alex muttered.“Hey, so not to butt in here, but you’ve been really quite back there for like, a long time, and I’m just wondering if you’re resolving that nothing from earlier,” Winn said from the front seat.“Yeah. Yeah, I think we have,” Alex said loudly enough for Winn to hear. She curled up against the woman wrapping her arm around her protectively as she felt the adrenaline drain out of her body. “Is it moving too fast if I fall asleep on you?” Alex asked groggily.“I think I can let it slide this one time,” Maggie said with a smirk. “Then I’m doing it and you can’t stop me,” Alex said. Maggie smiled as the tough-as-nails assassin drifted off into a catnap on her shoulder.