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The SUV rolled down the embankment into the woods, bouncing and spinning as it plowed through the undergrowth towards an even steeper drop off. Half-grown saplings and the tough little shrubs clinging to life in the rocky soil slowed it's decent, snapping off under it's weight and tangling in the undercarriage before finally dragging it to a stop with one wheel hanging over the edge.
For a moment there was silence as every bird, deer, racoon, squirrel and anything or anyone else that might have been in the vicinity froze, and held their collective breath. Then a small sparrow, feathers puffed to their fullest, hopped out to the end of his branch for a look. Eyeing the SUV he cocked his head, gave a curious chirp and flew down to land on the hood which rocked dangerously even under his slight weight. After strutting back and forth a few times and giving the still-cooling metal an experimental peck, he fluttered over to peer through the shattered windshield.
Neither of the two women in the front seat, one with light hair and the other dark, noticed the little bird. The first was awake, but her blue eyes were vague and unfocused. She lifted a hand to wipe at the smear of blood on her forehead; staring uncomprehendingly at the red stain left on her fingertips. There was somehow something... wrong about that, but she didn't couldn't remember what or why. Everything was a blur of bright lights and noise; the screech of tires and hollow crunch of metal, and someone yelling Kara just before the world started spinning.
Kara... was that her name? It sounded familiar.
Losing interest, the sparrow hopped up to perch on the steering wheel where the other woman had collapsed. Ducking his head, he tugged at a piece of her hair, disappearing in a sudden blur of feathers when she lurched up with a gasp.
“Where? What? I...” She shook her head and winced, closing her eyes and pressing the heel of her hand to her temple while she drew in another ragged breath. “What happened?”
“We crashed.” Kara (it was as good a name as any) figured that much at least was a given.
“Are you okay?”
“I guess so...” Memories notwithstanding she seemed to be more or less in one piece. “You?”
“Yeah, just stunned, I think. Where the hell are we?” The other woman twisted in her seat to look around and the SUV groaned and shifted under them, it's nose tipping down alarmingly before bobbing back up.
“Uhhh...” Kara leaned back in her seat. “Maybe we should get out of the car first, and worry about that later?”
“Right. You good to move?”
“Yep.”
“Okay, follow my lead.”
Kara nodded, trusting her without even having to think about it, though she had no idea why. “Let's go,” she said, unbuckling her seat belt.
In spite of it's long fall, the SUV was more or less in one piece. The doors were jammed, but they managed to crawl out through the shattered back window, laying their coats over the broken glass to protect their hands. Kara stumbled and nearly fell when she slid down to the ground and the SUV, without any counterweight to hold it in place, lurched forward, tipping over the edge and crashing down another fifty or so feet of rocks and trees until it finally shuddered to a stop on the forest floor.
“Look out!” The other woman grabbed Kara's arm before she followed it, dragging her away from the edge and holding her upright until she found her balance. “It's okay. I got you.”
“I'm sorry...” Kara said, grateful for the strangely familiar arm around her, but also a little embarrassed that it had been necessary. “I'll be fine, just give me a second...”
“Is it your head?”
She nodded, reluctantly stepping back and pushing blood stained hair back out of her face, fingers lingering on the still oozing cut just shy of her hairline. “I'm a little dizzy and I can't quite remember... anything really.”
The other woman frowned. “Look at me...” She tipped Kara's chin up and studied her eyes, telling Kara to look left, then right, follow her finger and asking her name.
Kara obeyed automatically. “Kara,” she said. “I think. And... this may seem like a strange question,” she said. “But... do I know you?”
“Of course, I'm...” the other woman trailed off with a startled blink.
Oh. Crap.
“You don't remember either, do you?”
She shook her head and rubbed a hand over her eyes, brow furrowed in concentration.. “Just give me a minute. I should have some ID somewhere...” She checked both of her back pockets but came up empty.
“Your jacket?” Kara suggested, peering out over the edge, down to where the SUV with their coats and all of their other belongings, along with any clues about who they were, was laying on it's back, all four wheels still slowly spinning.
“Fuck...” the other woman said for both of them.
They made it down the slope somehow. Whenever Kara slipped or struggled to find a foothold, her new (old?) friend was right there, steadying her, or offering a hand over a rough patch. Kara, for her part, let her scout their path, calling down when she saw an alternate route or when a branch or tree root looked unstable from a higher angle. They didn't to need to talk about it, they just knew how to work together. It was both reassuring and a little unnerving.
When they reached the wreck, a cursory search of the leather jacket still hanging out of the back window turned up a handful of change, a pocket knife that looked like it saw regular use, a silver ring, and a wallet. The latter held a drivers license, debit and credit cards and a few other pieces of ID, all with the same name.
“Alexandra Danvers, 27. I live in National City... Alexandra?” She made a face.
“Alex?” Kara suggested, looking over her shoulder at the card.
“Better. What about you?”
They searched the rest of the SUV, but there was no sign of any other wallets, purses or ID, just a big black duffel bag, and a canvas backpack. The backpack held a change of clothes in pastel and beige, a bag of licorice, two pens, skittles, a notebook with half the pages torn out, two bottles of water, four chocolate bars, a set of keys, a small first aide kit, a bag of chips, three carefully wrapped turkey sandwiches and a phone charger.
“Well, at least we're not going to starve right away.” Alex observed wryly, putting everything back in and zipping the bag up before reaching for the duffel.
“Hey, for all you know, that could be your bag,” Kara huffed from the other side of the SUV where she was checking the front seat for more clues. So far she'd found a phone with a cracked screen and another silver ring. The phone was dead, either broken or drained. Useless either way. She put them both in her pocket and kept looking.
“I've never eaten a Skittle in my life.”
“You don't remember your life,” Kara pointed out. “You didn't even know your name five minutes ago.”
“Well I know I don't like Skittles.”
Kara rolled her eyes, reaching under the upturned seat and pulling out a pair of dark framed glasses. Huh. She hadn't noticed any trouble with her vision... Here,” she said, standing up and passing them over the car. “These must be yours.”
Alex looked up from a pile of nondescript black clothing she was pulling out of the bag. “What? Oh... let me see...” she took them and squinted through the lenses before handing them back with a shrug. “Not mine. Looks like they're just plastic.”
That was weird...“Why would we have fake glasses? And...” she trailed off, wide eyed as Alex pulled a scarily real-and-dangerous-looking gun out of the bag, expertly checking the loaded clip and snapping it back in again, “Guns... okay, so... who exactly are we?”
“I don't know,” Alex said, shrugging into her jacket and shoving the gun into the waistband of her jeans. “But it's getting dark, and it looks like there might be a storm coming in. We should probably try to find some kind of shelter for the night.”
The SUV had crashed close to the crossroads of what looked like a fairly well-traveled trail through the woods. A rough wooden sign pointed north to a campground, west back towards the road, east looked like a lake, and south was a simple picture of a house.
They packed up the bags and went south.
Just before leaving the wreck, Kara spotted something. Ducking under a branch she brushed aside dirt and leaves, uncovering a small blue handbag. It looked new, and it was near enough to the SUV that it could have been thrown clear in the crash.
“Kara, you coming?”
“Yeah...” Kara took the handbag and caught up with Alex. She followed a few yards behind, letting Alex pick their route while she considered their situation. The gun didn't bother her nearly as much as the gaping holes in their memories did. She trusted Alex. Maybe that made her naive, or just stupid, but something told her Alex was one of the good guys. The amnesia on the other hand... She could have blamed her own on a head injury, but what were the odds of them both having traumatic memory loss from the same accident? Pretty much nil, she was sure. Which meant there was something else going on here. Whatever it was, the answer lay in figuring out who they were, and how they'd ended up driving off the road together.
She turned the little bag over in her hands. Did she really want to know? What if there was something worse than a gun to be found inside? Was it weird that she was a little bit afraid of herself when she had nothing but faith in Alex?
Probably.
Telling herself firmly to stop being silly, she popped open the clasp and looked inside. There was more candy, another notebook, this one with a few dates, reminders and appointments scribbled inside, a wallet and a phone. She took the wallet out first, hanging the bag over her wrist so that she could flip through the cards, finding her drivers license almost immediately.
Kara Danvers.
Kara... wait, what?
That couldn't be right...
Curious, she put the wallet away and took out the phone. The screen was cracked, but she thumbed it on, and it lit up obediently with a selfie of her and Alex. Kara was grinning at the camera and Alex was pressing a kiss to her cheek. They looked kind of ridiculously happy... She gave up trying to unlock the phone after three failed attempts to guess her own password. Instead, she flipped through the little notebook, her suspicions mounting as one name came up over and over again...
Lunch with Alex at Noonans...
Pick up Alex from work...
Eliza called about thanksgiving. Again. Tell Alex she can call her own mother back this time...
Game night at Winn's, you and Alex are bringing the chips...
Dinner with Alex...
They even had the same address on their driver's license. It was almost starting to look like... Kara remembered something else she'd found in the car, digging into her pocket for the little silver ring. She hadn't even thought about it at the time, but it was a match for the one in Alex's jacket.
Oh. Oh.
“Alex... you should probably take a look at this...”
“What is it? Oh...” Alex frowned, taking the ring. “One of these was in my pocket,” she said.
“And the other was under my seat,” Kara added, showing her the rest of it.
Alex examined the ID, flipped through the notebook and studied the lock screen photo.
“So we're...”
“Married,” Kara said at the same time that Alex said, “Sisters?”
“Seriously?” Kara scoffed. “We look nothing alike, we have matching rings and the same last name but not the same mother, and we live together. We're not sisters.”
Alex shrugged, giving Kara her phone and wallet back. “We don't know those are wedding rings.”
“They say Ride or Die, inside.”
“Then why weren't we wearing them?” Alex demanded, crossing her arms over her chest and taking a step back, as if she could physically refuse to believe the evidence.
“I don't know.” Kara was getting a little annoyed now. How heteronormative could you be, really? “Maybe we took them off because we were on our way to visit your homophobic family when we crashed?”
“Why is it my homophobic family?”
“Because my family is dead,” Kara countered automatically, catching herself as soon as the words were out of her mouth. “Oh...” She pressed her fingers over her lips as tears pricked the corners of her eyes. She knew it was true. She didn't know how she knew, she just did.
“Oh shit, I'm so sorry...” Alex was immediately contrite at the sight of tears, all of her sharp edges melting away in an instant. She dropped her arms, tugging anxiously at the ends of her sleeves. For the first time since they had crashed she looked truly worried. “Please, please don't cry...”
“I'm not crying,” Kara lied, wiping her face on the cuff of her sweater. “See? I'm fine. Let's just get moving, okay?” she said, striking off blindly down the trail. “The sooner we're out of here the- ”
“Kara!”
Alex tried to catch her, but it was too late. Kara tangled her foot in a root and fell, yelping as her ankle twisted and she landed hard on the packed earth.
“Kara...” Alex was beside her in an instant. “Are you okay?”
“No...” Kara sulked, still mad, but slightly mollified by Alex's concern as she gently untangled Kara's ankle and helped her up.
“Do you think you can walk?”
Kara tried. “Ah... that would be a no,” she gasped, grabbing onto Alex for support when her ankle refused to hold her weight. “What do we do now?” she asked as thunder rumbled somewhere up above them, the threatened storm coming ever closer.
“I can carry you,” Alex said, adjusting the duffel bag so it hung in front of her and ducking down. “Climb up on my back.”
“You're not serious...” Kara had at least two inches on Alex.
“It'll be fine, come on.”
Lighting flashed above the trees, lighting up the darkening woods, and the thunder cracked again, making Kara's decision for her. “Fine!” she said, clambering awkwardly onto Alex's back, and letting the other woman lift her up. “But for the record, I think this is a bad idea.”
“I won't let you fall,” Alex assured her.
“It's not me I'm worried about,” Kara grumbled, wrapping her arms around Alex's shoulders as they started off. They were very nice shoulders she had to admit. Alex didn't seem to be having any trouble with Kara's weight on top of the bags as she carried her easily down the trail. She looked lean, but she had a lot of muscle packed into that slight frame. It didn't hurt that she was almost ridiculously good looking too. Kara had no idea how she identified on a regular day, but she had zero doubts Alex was her type. Alex was probably everyone's type.
“I'm sorry about your family,” Alex said after a few minutes.
“It's okay,” Kara let her off the hook. “You didn't know, and I think... it feels like something that happened a long time ago.”
“Still sucks.”
“Yeah.”
“Do you... “ Kara could practically feel Alex bracing herself, “do you really think we're married?”
“Don't you?”
“I don't know,” Alex said, shifting her weight and hitching Kara up a little higher as the trail angled down. “I guess it makes sense...”
Kara blew out an exasperated breath right next to Alex's ear, gratified by the little shiver that went through her as a result. “You guess?”
Alex shrugged. “You're someone important, I know that much.” She paused. “I trust you, and I don't think I trust a lot of people.”
“Aw, you do like me...” Kara teased, unable to help feeling just a little smug about that. “I knew it.”
Alex snorted. “Don't let it go to your head, you're heavy enough already.”
“Hey!” Kara poked her in the side. “Be nice, I'm wounded.”
“You twisted your ankle.”
“I have a head injury.”
“You're not still dizzy are you?” Alex asked, more seriously.
“No,” Kara pouted, pressing closer and resting her chin on Alex's shoulder. It wasn't the most comfortable way to travel, but Alex was nice and warm, and the woods were getting chillier as the storm moved in. She thought she felt a slight hitch in Alex's step as she snuggled into her, but she couldn't be sure. “It hurts a little, but that's all.”
“Good. If we can find somewhere to stop I'll take another look at it for you.”
“'Kay,” Kara agreed. “You're a pretty good wife, you know.”
This time Alex definitely stumbled and Kara laughed softly at her. “Sorry.”
“No you're not.”
As the first drops of rain began to fall, they rounded a corner and Kara could just make out the silhouette of a cabin up ahead. “Alex!”
“I see it.” Alex tried to hurry, but the storm wasn't quite finished with them. The rain began in earnest before they were halfway there and they were both drenched in seconds.
“Ugh,” Kara buried her face in Alex's neck. “What are you doing?” she demanded when Alex stopped and set her down under a tree about twenty yards from the cabin, dropping the duffel bag beside her.
“I'm going to go take a look, make sure it's safe,” she said, taking out her gun. “Here,” She shucked off her leather jacket and draped it over Kara's head and shoulders. “I'll be right back.”
“Um, no?” Kara caught her wrist, holding her back. “We should go together.”
“I have a gun, you have a bag full of snacks,” Alex said. “I'll be fine.”
Kara scowled. “What if there's a hungry bear in there? What if you get eaten because you didn't have a bag of skittles to distract it with?”
“I'm not going to get eaten, and bears don't eat skittles anyway. No one should eat skittles. They're objectively awful.”
“Don't make fun of me, I'm trying to keep you safe here!”
“Well I'm trying to keep you safe,” Alex countered. “And since of the two of us, I'm the one who can walk, I'm going.”
Kara struggled to her feet, holding onto the tree for support. “I'm coming with you.”
Alex sighed. “No, you're not.”
“How exactly are you going to stop me?” Kara demanded, She wasn't stupid, she knew she was being unreasonable, but her gut was telling her not to let the other woman out of her sight. Alex might have a gun, but she needed someone to have her back, and Kara was pretty sure she was supposed to be that someone. Even if she had to stand in the rain and argue about it until she died of hypothermia.
Alex glared right back, but either this was an argument they'd had before or Alex just knew an unwinnable fight when she saw it. “Fine,” she said grudgingly. “But you stay on the porch until I give the all clear, okay?”
Kara nodded, and Alex gave her a shoulder to lean on, helping her over to the little porch and sitting her down on the steps. The door was locked, but it gave way under a hard shove of Alex's shoulder and even soaked and shivering and worried about bears, Kara couldn't help but find that kinda hot. Alex was only gone for a minute or two before lights flicked on inside and she was back.
“No bears,” she said, pulling Kara to her feet and half-carrying her over the threshold into the blessedly dry cabin. “It looks like someone's summer getaway. There's even electricity and running water.”
“Oh thank goodness...” Kara said feelingly. “I don't know if I've ever slept in the woods before, but either way, it's a memory I can do without.”
The cabin only had one room aside from the bathroom. The “kitchen” was lined out against one wall, the fireplace and a huge stack of firewood was on the other, and a big double bed filled up most of the main room. Two small lamps to either side of the bed, and a naked bulb hanging over the counter were the only light sources. Alex got Kara settled on the bed and went back out for the bags. She was shivering by the time she got back in, kicking the door shut behind her and wedging a chair under the broken lock to keep it shut. Dropping the bags beside the bed, she knelt down at Kara's feet.
“Let's take a look at that ankle.”
“Alex,” Kara protested. “You're dripping. At least get dried off first.”
“I'm fine. I want to check this, and then we can get you into the shower.”
“You coming in with me?” Kara asked, just to see Alex blush. She wasn't disappointed.
“Stop that,” Alex mumbled, carefully pulling Kara's shoe off and manipulating her ankle. She was as gentle as possible, but Kara still winced.
“Ouch.”
“Sorry.” Alex set her foot back down and stood up. “It's not broken, but it's going to be sore for a while.” She tipped Kara's chin up. “Now, let me see your head...”
The rain had washed all of the blood away, and the area around the wound was only a little tender. “I'm fine,” Kara protested. “Can I shower now, please?”
Alex took one look at Kara's miserable wet face and caved. “Okay, do you think you can manage on your own?”
Kara was tempted to say no, but she thought Alex might actually implode. For a married woman she was surprisingly easy to fluster. “I'm good.”
Kara spent a blissful twenty minutes under the hot spray trying to scrub away the last few hours with a bar of rough soap. Other than her ankle, the cut on her head and bruise or two and a few scratches picked up along the way, she'd escaped surprisingly unscathed. She wiped the steam off the mirror and finger combed her hair as best she could before wrapping herself up in one of the tiny towels they'd found on shelf in the closet and limping back to the main room to look for some clean clothes. She hadn't thought to bring any in with her.
“Alex, could you pass me my... what?” Alex was crouched in front of the fireplace, a burning match extended halfway to the little pile of sticks and paper she'd built on a bed of ashes, but instead of lighting the fire, she was staring open-mouthed at Kara in the doorway.
Kara checked to make sure she was more or less decently covered (she was,) and when she looked back up, the match had burned down to Alex's finger tips.
“Fuck...” Alex swore and dropped the match, shaking her hand ruefully. “Nothing, I uh... here,” she said, grabbing Kara's backpack and handing it to her with her eyes firmly fixed on the floor.
Kara took her time fishing out clean underwear and a long T-shirt. There weren't any pajamas in the bag, and she refused to sleep in khakis. Alex lit another match and kept her eyes trained on the fire, but there was still a hint of a blush staining her cheeks by the time she got it started. In a different situation, Kara might have considered going for it. They were married after all, and for all of her stubbornness and prevarication, Alex was clearly interested. Still... life and death situation, injury, amnesia... it would probably be better if they didn't complicate things before they got their memories back.
Regretfully, Kara took pity on Alex's ill-timed gay panic, and got dressed in the bathroom, switching places with a simple, “your turn,” when she was done.
While Alex was in the shower, she limped around the kitchen area, putting on the kettle for tea, and rummaging through the cupboards for anything they could add to their little pile of food. She couldn't actually remember the last time she had eaten, but her stomach was convinced it had been abandoned, and she snacked on skittles while she waited for the water to boil.
(Alex was crazy. Skittles were amazing.)
~
“Go fish!”
“Again?” Kara sighed and took another card from the deck on the bed between them, sulkily adding it to her hand. “I could have sworn you had a three...”
“Don't be a sore loser,” Alex teased, carefully considering the last four cards in her hand. “Do you have an eight?”
“Of course I do,” Kara grumbled, handing it over and grabbing another handful licorice from her rapidly dwindling pile of candy. The sandwiches from her backpack were long gone, as were the crackers and cookies she'd scavenged. Alex had scolded her for being on her feet when she got out of the shower (wearing what looked like military issued black sweat pants and a tank top that showed off those shoulders Kara was getting so fond of,) but Kara had just rolled her eyes and handed her a cup of tea. Alex had taken the tea, though she'd made Kara sit down on the bed while she finished putting their little picnic together. The deck of cards had turned up during a search for napkins and after they'd eaten, Kara had suggested a game to distract herself from the realization that there was two of them and only one bed. She was fine with it, but she wasn't looking forward to the inevitable argument when Alex insisted on sleeping on the floor.
One game had turned into two and then three. They'd switched from War to Snap (which had nearly ended in divorce,) made a brief foray into Euker before they realized that neither of them knew all the rules and now they were playing Go Fish. It had been surprisingly fun, even if Alex was an unexpected card shark.
“Do you have a Jack?”
“Go Fish,” Alex said smugly.
“Oh, come on, I know you have that one!” Kara was not that bad at Go Fish. She made a grab for Alex's hand. “Show me your cards...”
Alex leaned back out of reach.“No way,” she feigned a wounded innocence, “I thought you trusted me...”
“To defend my life with your bare hands, yes,” Kara said, scattering the pile between them as she made another try for the cards. “This is different. This is serious!”
Alex fended her off, catching a elbow to the gut in the struggle.“Oof, that was my stomach!”
“Give me the cards!”
“Not a chance.”
Within seconds it was an all out wrestling match. Kara was on top, but Alex was clearly more experienced, and she managed to flip them. Kara was forced to regain the upper hand through means both underhanded and painfully cliched. Meaning, of course, that she ignored the little voice in the back of her head reminding her that she had decided not to complicate things, and took the first opportunity to duck under Alex's guard, wrap a hand around the back of her neck and drag her down into a kiss.
Alex froze.
Which, duh...
Kara rolled them over, intending to press her advantage, but then Alex started kissing her back and... Oh...wow... She probably should have been used to it, given that they were, you know, married and all, but it was like the first time all over again. It was some comfort that Alex seemed to be equally affected. They were both gasping and a little glassy-eyed when they came up for air.
“I'm sorry,” Kara said, propping herself up on her elbows. “I probably shouldn't have-”
“Don't you dare apologize,” Alex growled, pulling her back down.
The candy and playing cards were quickly scattered across the bedspread. They were clumsy, uncoordinated and a little awkward (if Kara didn't know better, she might have thought they'd never done this before,) but after a few bumped noses and some good natured teasing, they found their rhythm. Alex took the lead, straddling Kara's hips and working her long shirt off over her head between kisses. She was shy to touch at first, but Kara whispered encouragement, arching up with a whimper as Alex gained confidence.
It wasn't perfect, but it was fun, or at least it was fun until Kara reached into Alex's sweatpants and found the missing Jack and three of clubs tucked under her waistband. “You horrible cheat!” she hissed, sitting up and slapping the cards down on Alex's bare chest. “I can't believe I married you!”
It got fun again a few minutes later when Alex stuck a hand down her pants, finding something much sweeter there than vindication, and after that neither of them was keeping score anymore anyway.
~
Later, when the fire had burned down to embers and the little cabin was cozy and warm, Kara and Alex lay drowsing in the fading firelight, both exhausted, neither of them quite ready to fall asleep. Kara had curled up with her head pillowed on Alex's chest and Alex was gently teasing out the knots and tangles their lovemaking had left in her damp curls.
“Do you think we have kids?” Kara asked, fingers tapping out the familiar rhythm of Alex's heartbeat against her belly.
Alex's hand stilled. “No,” she said after a moment, resuming her stroking when Kara grumbled a wordless complaint. “I don't think I could forget that.”
“You forgot me...”
Alex tugged on a handful of curls in silent admonition. “I remembered you. I might not of known how or why, or who we were to each other, but I knew you. I'll always know you.”
“Mmm... smooth talker,” Kara murmured, tilting her head to press a kiss just over Alex's heart. “Be right back,” she added, slipping out of the bed to rummage through their bags. When she came back she was holding their wedding rings. “Here...” she took Alex's hand and slid hers onto her ring finger. “Now you do mine.”
Alex sat up and took the other ring, cradling it in her palm before reaching for Kara's hand and sliding it into place.
“There,” Kara said softly. “Now we'll never forget.”
“I love you...” Alex whispered, pulling her close for a kiss.
Kara smiled against her lips. “'Love you too,” she said, pushing her down so that she could resume her preferred spot; half-on top of her, half curled up against her side. “So... do you want kids?”
Alex chuckled. “Why the sudden interest in kids?”
“I don't know... it just seems like stuff we should talk about. Are we cat people or dog people? Are we saving up for a house, or do we want to stay in our apartment? Which one of us remembers to pay the bills on time? Who cooks?”
“We don't cook,” Alex said with certainty. “We order in. We love our apartment, but we'd like to have a house someday. Definitely dog people, and yeah... kids would be good.”
“Got it all figured out have you?” Kara propped herself up on her elbow. “What if I want a cat?”
Alex wrinkled her nose. “Why would you want a cat?”
“I like cats.”
“Fine, one cat.”
“And two kids,” Kara added, snuggling back in and closing her eyes.
Alex wrapped an arm around her shoulders and pressed a kiss to the top of her head. “Perfect.”
“Alex?”
“Hmm?”
“We're going to get our memories back, right?”
“Right.”
“Good. Because I want to remember everything about us...”
~
If there was a knock on the door the next morning, Kara ignored it. It was too early, and she was way too comfortable to move anyway. Alex was a warm Alex-shaped blanket against her back; wrapping around Kara like, well... a blanket. It was early, okay? She wasn't awake enough for complex analogies.
She couldn't ignore the sudden bang and shudder of the door frame though, or the scrape of a chair being forced back across the floor, or the loud yelp that cut through her head like a knife when her cozy Alex-blanket disappeared and the cold air rushed in.
There was a moment of shocked silence, and then the yelling started.
“Who the hell are you?” Alex demanded from somewhere over Kara's head.
“Whoa... whoa... whoa... put the gun down, Alex. It's me, Winn.. And J'onn, you remember J'onn, right?”
“I'm actually having a little trouble with my memory right now,” Alex said, sounding like she was about three seconds away from pulling the trigger. “So I'm going to have to ask you to get out and leave me and my wife alone.”
“Your what?!”
“Agent Danvers,” a third voice broke in, this one low and gravelly. It sounded like a voice you could trust. “We are friends. We're here to help.”
“Yeah well, we don't need your help.”
At this point Kara figured it was about time to join the conversation. Clutching a sheet to her chest, she sat up, shoving Alex's hand away when she tried to push her back down behind her, keeping the gun in her other hand trained on the two intruders. (Had she been sleeping with that under her pillow? They were going to have to have a long talk about weapons in the bed...) “Stop that, I just want to get a look at them.”
“Stay down, Kara.”
“No. Hey guys...” Kara said, taking them both in. One was a short, geeky looking man in a cardigan who was trying really hard not to look directly at them, because unlike Kara, Alex hadn't bothered with a sheet. The other was a large green alien in a superhero costume who honestly didn't seem to have noticed either of them was naked. “Look, I'm pretty sure you're on our side, but this might not be the best time... put the gun down,” she added in a whispered hiss to Alex.
Alex set her jaw. “No.”
“Mr. Schott,” the alien rumbled, putting a hand on the little man's shoulder before her could press the issue. “I believe Ms. Danvers is correct. We should retreat, and return at a more opportune moment.”
“Give us like, ten minutes,” Kara said.
It was more like fifteen by the time she had soothed Alex's fears and convinced her to let them back in. (both of them fully clothed this time.) What followed was... a very, very long story... apparently she was some kind of superhero? She'd had something called a solar flare, and a small invasion of white martians had taken advantage of it to tear National City apart looking for her. Alex had smuggled her out, but one of the Martians had followed them, attacking their minds and driving them off the road. J'onn had intervened, chasing the martian away, but by the time he had come back to look for them they'd been gone.
Then J'onn offered to restore their memories.
And boy... had they gotten a few things wrong.
*****
How do you apologize to someone for something like this?
Kara agonized over that question the entire way back to National City. The Martian invasion had been contained and it was safe to go home, but she wished they had just a little more time to figure about what had happened, and what it meant before she had to return to her life as Alex's sister instead of her wife. The mix-up was so obvious in hindsight. The clues were all there, and of course Alex hadn't updated the address on her drivers license when she gave Kara her apartment.
It wasn't a question of how they'd gotten it wrong, more along the lines of why had it felt so right...?
And it wasn't anyone's fault, not really, but Kara still felt responsible.
Which is why she was surprised when Alex stuck to her like glue on the drive back to the DEO, and through their debriefing (the most awkward two hours of her life,) even insisting on taking her home afterwards. Winn offered, but Alex stared him down, which wasn't difficult considering he still hadn't quite recovered from the whole seeing her naked thing. Kara would have expected Alex to want to get as far away from her as possible until they could forget any of this had even happened. She wouldn't even have blamed her, but Alex didn't seem interested in going anywhere.
“Do you want to grab something to eat on the way?” she offered, pulling out of the DEO parking garage in a new SUV, virtually identical to the one that had carried them over the cliff.
Kara shook her head. For once in her life, she wasn't hungry. “This was supposed to be Maggie's, wasn't it?” she asked instead, twisting the silver ring on her finger. “Before you canceled the wedding.”
Alex's hands tightened around the wheel. “Yeah... I kept meaning to get rid of them, but...”
“You don't have to explain.” Kara understood hope, and how painful it could be. “I'm so sorry, Alex...” she said in a rush. “It was all my fault. You knew we were sisters and I didn't listen to you. If I-”
“Don't.” Alex cut in, glancing briefly from the road to Kara and back again, her expression unreadable.
“But I-”
“We'll talk,” Alex said. “Just... let me get you home first.”
“Okay.” Kara scrunched down in her seat and fidgeted with Maggie's ring, trying not to examine too closely why she was so reluctant to take it off. It had to have been a mistake, right? No matter how it felt. She didn't want that with Alex. She couldn't.
“I'm sorry,” she tried again when Alex followed her into her apartment, dropping her bags on the floor and spinning around before the door had even shut behind them, unable to wait a another second to try to make this right. “I'm so sorry...”
“I'm not,” Alex said without missing a beat, derailing her entire self sacrificing plan in an instant.
Kara blinked. She couldn't have heard that right. “You...what?”
Alex sighed. “Sit, please,” she said. “We need to talk.”
Kara sat. “I know, but...” she had the feeling they were about to have a very different conversation than the one she'd been expecting.
“Just listen for five seconds, okay?”
“Fine.”
Alex paced in front of her, she looked nervous, frazzled, a lot like she had when she had first come out, but she didn't look upset. “I wanted to be sorry,” she said. “At least I did at first, but last night... Kara, I was lost in the woods, with no memories, no idea why or how I got there and no way to get home, and that was still the happiest I've been in...” she blew out a breath, “a really long time. We thought we were married,” she continued. “We talked about dogs and cats, and kids, and it felt right. We had sex,” she said that last part in something of a stage whisper. “Good sex, great even. So I can't help thinking, that if we can have all that, and still be us, then why shouldn't we? I mean,” she went on without giving Kara a chance to interject, “I know, I know, that we have this history, and of course you'll always be my family, but there are so many ways to be family, and maybe...” she sounded so terribly hopeful. “Maybe for us family doesn't have to be just sisters...” She stopped in front of Kara, hands twisted together and the corner of her lip caught between her teeth. “What do you think?”
Kara thought she was really, really glad she was sitting down. She opened her mouth but no sounds came out.
“Oh,” Alex said when the silence had stretched on a little to long. “I can go...”
“No,” Kara found one word, and then another. “Stay.” She took a deep breath. “So what you're saying is, you're not sorry?”
Alex shook her head.
“And you want to date? You and me?”
Alex nodded. “I know, it sounds crazy, but-”
This time it was Kara's turn to interrupt. She stood up, taking Alex by the hand and dragging her towards the door.
“Kara, where are we going?”
“Come on,” Kara said, grabbing her jacket on the way out. “You can start by taking me out for breakfast.”
“That's it?” Alex sounded a little strangled. “As easy as that?”
Kara paused halfway to the elevator. “Nope,” she said matter of factly. “I have one more question.” Spinning around, she crowded Alex back up against the wall and took her face in her hands, kissing her the way she'd kissed her in the woods. “We good?” she asked, leaning back.
Alex nodded dumbly.
“Good, let's go.”