is that the ship name? – Question of Smoke

mrriggerworld:

So, the next time Sam has to go out of town for work, and she can’t take Ruby because Ruby can’t miss school, she doesn’t call Lena. She would, she has in the past, but let’s face it, she’d rather have someone with better impulse control than her teenager in charge, and Lena once spent 750 million dollars because a pretty girl smiled at her, and Sam’s pretty sure Ruby could talk Lena into building her a robot army to conquer the school.

No, Sam now has more than one friend in National City, and she knows why Alex and Maggie broke up, so she calls Alex. She’s a government agent, she seems more responsible than her sister, and she clearly likes kids, so Sam’s willing to take a chance and asks Alex to watch Ruby until she gets back. It won’t be hard, Ruby’s a good kid who mostly knows how to take care of herself, but Sam still wants an adult around in case of an emergency.

Alex is hesitant at first, for all her talk about being the cool aunt, it’s the first time Sam’s asked her anything like this, but Kara tells her not to be nervous, it’s not like she’ll lose her on a runaway train or anything, and if she does, that’s why Supergirl is number two on her speed dial.

Sam drops Ruby off after school, and it’s awkward. It’s that kind of awkward where the person you both know leaves and neither of you know what to say in their absence, so you just uncomfortably stare at the floor, and the walls, and the ceiling, until Alex offers Ruby a drink, and only takes two steps towards the alcohol before she remembers that Ruby is a minor and plays it off like she’s just taking the long way to the fridge.

Ruby picks out something to watch on Netflix while she does her homework, and Alex gets a kick out of explaining her biology assignment in a way that makes way more sense than anything her teacher has ever said.

Kara drops by the next night, bringing pizza and soda to share, and all three of them bundle up on the couch until Ruby asks why Kara didn’t bring Lena, because aren’t they dating? Kara sputters denials, Alex laughs, and Ruby is genuinely confused, because Lena totally likes Kara like that, so why aren’t they together? Kara leaves without even finishing the second pizza she brought for herself, and Alex gives Ruby a high five.

Sam laughs her ass off when she calls to check in and they tell her what happened, though she’s not laughing when Lena calls her at one in the morning to talk about how Kara showed up at her apartment (because Lena is not a homeless billionaire, where would you ever get that idea, she absolutely does not sleep under her desk at the office, that was only one time!) all flustered and blushing and then there was kissing and touching and now Kara’s asleep in Lena’s bed, NAKED, and that’s too much for Lena to handle at the moment, so Sam tells her to march back in there, lay down with Kara, and accept that something good has happened for once.

By the time Sam gets back to National City, Alex and Ruby have bonded and already made plans for next weekend (science museum followed by a visit to the driving range, because kids should do educational things, but sometimes it’s just fun to whack things with a club for a while, and the driving range has a lower chance of injury than the batting cages), and Alex realizes she hasn’t had a drink since Ruby was dropped off. Sam tries to pay Alex, who refuses, and they settle on Sam taking Alex out for dinner somewhere fancy.

Maybe it’s the wine, maybe it’s the food, maybe it’s the fact that they’re both turning heads in the dresses they’re wearing, but the thank you dinner doesn’t feel like a thank you dinner, it feels like a date. Alex has a few moments of panic in the bathroom once she realizes that, but she calls Kara and she talks her down. It’s not the end of the world if it is a date, and Alex realizes she’s not panicking because it doesn’t feel right, she’s panicking because she’s not panicking, and that means she’s moving on, and when did that happen?

Sam smiles at her when she comes back to the table, and Alex makes the decision to enjoy herself. Beating herself isn’t going to fix things, and sometimes the only way to move on is to make the effort. She’s not going to let herself end up like Kara, wallowing for months on end, alienating the people around her. So she sips her wine, smiles at Sam, and asks her how Ruby did on her biology test.

They don’t kiss at the end of the night, but Alex wishes they had. Sam tags along on their trip to the museum, and they get a little competitive at the driving range. Ruby just has fun laughing at their antics. They don’t kiss then, either, but Alex manages to ask Sam out on an actual date, even if she stumbles over her words.

They finally end up kissing partway through that date, and Alex can’t stop herself from sending Kara a text confirming that she is very, very gay indeed, and at the end of the night, Ruby has to flash the front light on and off to get them to break it up.

@queercapwriting, if they’re going to make Alex want to be a mom, they better not ignore the most obvious set up possible.