majordetectiveagent:

Alex finished lighting the candles on the table and stood back. After a quick check, she nodded to herself. A hand squeezed her shoulder and she looked over at Lois with a smile.

“Luce isn’t gonna know what hit her.” Lois shook her head. “I’ve heard you don’t half-ass anything, but this is…”

“They deserve it.”

Lois nodded. “They do. Thanks for taking care of her.”

“I’d say she make it easy, but we both know that’s a lie.”

“She makes it almost impossible, but that just makes you even more amazing.” She looked behind them when she heard the oven door open. “Let me get that, Miss Sawyer.”

“I’m not so fragile I can’t take a pie tin out of an oven,” Maggie’s aunt said, waving Lois off. “Besides, you just stood in front of a stove for the past hour. Moving a pie is the least I can do.” She slid the tin onto a colorful ceramic plate she had brought with her and carried the steaming desert to the table. “And, yes, thank you, Alexandra. I cannot express how relieved and happy I am that you and Lucy love my girl.”

For once, Alex didn’t wrinkle her nose at her full name. When Maggie’s aunt said it, ‘Alexandra’ didn’t ring flat and empty. It probably helped that she said it in a way that was just…so full of love. Alex blushed a little under the praise, but smiled proudly. “Now, Maggie actually -does- make it easy to love her.”

“She does, yes.” Looking around the kitchen, she seemed satisfied with how they had cleaned as they went. “I hope you put the rest of the recipes to good use. Don’t think I didn’t notice the drawer of delivery menus.”

Alex was embarrassed, but shrugged it off. “I bet Maggie would be more willing to follow your recipes than a cookbook.”

There was a knock before Eliza let herself in. “Everything looks amazing, Alex.” She set two covered baking dishes on the counter. “Warm this up for a few minutes, and it’ll be ready to eat.”

“Thanks, mom,” Alex said, going in for a hug. “What’s in the second one?”

Eliza wrapped her up in a tight embrace before pulling back. “I made you two, one for you to freeze for later.”

“You really are the best mom, ever.” Alex knew she could get one out of her mother, easily, since she would be sharing with Lucy and Maggie. Two, however, was beyond generous.

“I’m so glad we’re back to that ‘b’ word,” Eliza teased, causing Alex to protest that it was only the once, and she was fifteen, so it didn’t count. “Forgive me, Miss Sawyer.”

The older woman managed to tone her down laughter enough to speak. “It’s nothing I haven’t heard from Margarita as a teenager.”

Lois picked up her jacket from where she had left it on a chair. “We should probably get out of here before they get home.”

“Thank you both so much,” Alex said, squeezing their hands.

“You are most welcome.” Maggie’s aunt put a hand on Eliza’s arm. “Now, I hear there will be games at this bridal shower, and I have a few ideas.”

“I’m willing to hear all about them over dinner.” Eliza led the way out, their plotting carrying down the hall.

Lois snagged her keys. “Kara is taking me to meet the so called Superfriends at an alien bar. I’m going to pretend I’ve never seen aliens before, see how long it takes her to pick up on it.”

“You should get James to play along.”

“He will, if he knows what’s good for him.” Lois knew there were no hard feelings between her sister and James, but that didn’t mean she had to cooperate just yet. “Don’t eat so much you can’t get laid.”

Alex sighed, looking up at the ceiling in exasperated embarrassment. “Are all Lane women like this? Do I have to worry about the grandma Lucy invited to the wedding?”

“It’s not the Lane side you have to worry about.” Lois laughed at the look of horror on Alex’s face as she left. Not a lot of the General’s side of the family had been invited. The other side, however, were eager for the wedding between three people.

Alex set her desserts in the oven and freezer before opening the wine. She set up the fireplace, turned on a lamp in the bedroom, and closed the curtains halfway. She killed the overhead lights and decided things looked romantic enough. It wasn’t long before the door was unlocking. Lucy and Maggie were in the middle of discussing something, but went quiet when they saw Alex and the apartment.

“What’s this?” Lucy said, hanging up her coat and kicking off her shoes. “Oh, my God, is that-”

Alex nodded, biting her lip. “It is.”

Maggie approached the table slowly at first, then hurried over when the ceramic warming plate caught her eyes. “Where did you….”

“I asked your aunt and Lois for family recipes. I wanted to give you two a wedding present that would last as long as it takes me to cook what they sent. You aunt insisted on hands on learning, and Lois liked the idea.” Alex motioned to the table. “So they taught me your absolute favorites, and left the rest for me to learn.”

Alex found herself in bear hugs from both sides. She could’ve sworn she felt tears from Lucy, but when Lucy pulled back, her eyes were clear. Next came the kisses, and Alex had to take a step back before they decided she was an appetizer. Usually, she wouldn’t have minded, but the last few hours at a stove meant she wanted to be dessert for once.

“You are…” Maggie shrugged, at a loss for words. “Alex. Thank you.”

“For you, anything, Mags.”

“Except a flash grenade,” Lucy said before Maggie could perk up too much. “You, Alex, are amazing and now my gift feels totally inadequate.”

Alex shook her head. “I didn’t do this because I wanted you to give me something that measures up. That’s an exchange, not a gift.”

Lucy was hugging her again, and Alex once more felt the hint of tears. “Fucking perfect.”

Alex wrapped an arm around her and tugged Maggie back in. “What can I say? I’m in love.”

The smoke alarm went off.

“…shit.”

bathtimefunduck:

Alex, I love you.

So playing Halo with cops, or even teenagers, was a completely different experience than playing with agents of a paramilitary black ops organization.

For one, Maggie was discovering that Lucy was a really sore loser. Like, threw the controller across the room after being hit by Alex’s rocket launcher. Again.

To absolutely no one’s surprise, Alex spent the first half of each game hunting for the rocket launcher. And the second half she spent targeting Lucy specifically. Because Maggie’s girlfriends had a really, really weird sense of foreplay.

Sitting between them on the couch was a bad idea. Sitting between them meant Lucy’s boney-ass elbows digging into her ribs to knock her off target, Alex’s shoulder shoving her sideways to knock Lucy’s little dude into position to get blown up again, and in general it meant playing referee to two overgrown children who would literally pout when Maggie finally managed to see her own split screen long enough to shoot them with her pistol. She’s a cop, okay, and it more importantly, it works.

It works because the Agent and the Director have a running tally of kills and they enjoyed killing each other over and over again like the competitive nerds they were.

Somehow they were genuinely surprised that Maggie finished the night with the most kills. It never occurred to them that Maggie and the pistol she started every round with didn’t have to go hunting for an upgrade, didn’t have to search the corners for ammo, and didn’t have to spend the entire game hunting someone; Maggie was smart enough to wait. Lucy and Alex spent so much time trying to kill each other that they never noticed every map had one reliable spot that Maggie could hang around and wait for one of her idiots to kill the other, leaving her to deal with the survivor. And sometimes Maggie might be a total dick and kill them upon respawn because, unlike the Super Agents, Maggie played this game all the time and kicking Winn’s ass meant that she knew the maps like the freckles on Alex’s nose.

Maggie liked to finish the night with a bang though, and took great personal pleasure in killing her arguing idiots with sticky grenades thrown from above. They might take pleasure in killing each other with a rocket launcher or a sniper rifle, but there was just something extra satisfying in seeing a brick blow their digital brains out.

Plus, winner got control of the handcuffs, so bonus points for Maggie.