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Alex knows something’s wrong the moment Kara opens the door.
Her sister’s smile is weak, almost hesitant. There’s no squealing glomp and roughhousing-adjacent drag of Alex into the apartment. She can see Lena slumped on the couch, bent over herself.
Alex catches Kelly’s eye as she pulls Kara into a hug. Kelly meets her look, and nods.
“So,” Kelly says when they’re all seated and Lena’s offered monosyllabic greetings. “How can we help?”
Lena bursts into tears. Kara wraps her into a hug, and Lena sobs into Kara’s chest as Kara grimaces. “Her appointment was today.”
“I remember,” Alex says. “So…they didn’t say you’re OK to try again?”
Kara’s eyes are wet with tears as she rubs Lena’s back. “She has a hostile uterus, Doctor Hamilton said. Any number of reasons, apparently. And I’ve taken a few too many Kryptonite stabs in the area. Too much scarring.”
“Oh, honey,” Alex murmurs, and she and Kelly slip over to the other couch and wrap Kara and Lena in a hug. Kara lets herself go and cries on Alex’s shoulder, and Alex rubs her sister’s back and wishes she could do something, anything, to help.
“Well,” Kelly says once they’ve calmed down a bit, “there’s always adoption.”
“I wanted her to have something of me,” Lena says, voice raspy. “Since I’m not gonna be here forever.”
“Lena,” Kara says, but it’s halfhearted. The Lifespan Talk is one they’ve all had at one point or another.
“I wanted her to have a daughter, part her and part me. We can adopt a whole village if she wants but…I wanted her to have someone, to love her and be loved.” For eternity, for when Lena is gone.
“I know,” Alex murmurs, brushing a lock of Lena’s hair behind her ear. “I know, Lena. I want that for her, too.”
Lena nods, and chokes out a half-sob. “So much for that. Another thing I fucked up.”
“Lena, no,” Kara and Kelly say simultaneously, but Alex is thinking.
It takes her a minute. It’s an out-there idea. But this is her sister. And if anyone deserves someone to love…for that whole, Kryptonian lifespan…
“I could carry her,” Alex offers.
The others look at her. Kelly with surprise quickly melting into a loving smile, Lena with shock, and Kara with surprise turning slowly into hope.
“I could carry your baby,” Alex says again, warming to the idea. “Yeah. I could be your surrogate.”
“But…but you and Kelly…” Kara starts.
“As much as Esme’s badgering us about siblings, we’re not sure we’re ready yet,” Kelly cuts in, which is about 40% true and largely rooted in financial concerns. “And we might end up adopting instead. But I don’t think Alex has anything that could cause issues?”
Alex shakes her head. “I had a full scan by that Tamaranean autodoc we were testing. Turns out I have a mild peanut sensitivity, but the rest of me’s good to go.” She leaves out the various broken ribs, broken limbs, and numerous lacerations that she’s acquired and healed over the years. No need to discuss all of that.
“I’m game if you are, hon,” Kelly promises.
Lena reaches up and grabs Alex’s hand. “I can’t ask…thank you…it’s too much…”
“Hey.” Alex squeezes Lena’s hand back. “I want this. OK? You know me and my mommy issues. And you’re my sister’s wife, and my friend. So if I can help you with this pain, even indirectly, even if it’s not a lot, I’ll be here, OK?”
“…ok,” Lena manages with wet eyes.
Kara bursts into tears.
“Hey, hey, it’s OK!” Alex insists, and Kara turns to sob into her some more.
“I know!” Kara wails. “I’m sorry! You’re just…it’s so generous, I can’t…Alex, Alex, thank you…”
“Shh, shh, shh,” Alex murmurs, petting her sister’s back as Kara cries into her shoulder. “I know, sis. I know. You deserve this gift, no matter how many people it takes to bring her to you. She’s going to have Lena’s hair and your eyes and she’s going to drive the two of you crazy. And you’re going to love her more than anything else in the world.” She kisses the top of Kara’s head, and Kara squeezes her almost hard enough to hurt.
***
“You’re sure about this?” Kelly asks, once they’ve put the emotionally exhausted Kara and Lena to bed, watched the two fall asleep curled up with each other, and gotten in the car to head home for their own beauty sleep.
“Yeah,” Alex murmurs. “I want to do it.”
“And this isn’t just you wanting to take care of your sister?”
Alex bites her lip. “I won’t pretend that isn’t there. But it is an experience I want to have. So…I’m game.”
“Alright then, I’m game,” Kelly agrees. “You know Kara’s going to want to be there to help you when you start vomiting.”
“Oh yeah. And Lena’s gonna have, like. Some kind of insane security system for our house.” The house was a wedding gift from Lena, who was trying to mash up apologies and assuaging her own guilt and wishing them well and thanking them for their friendship all at once. Alex and Lena have figured out the ways in which that didn’t quite work, and talked it out in a healthy manner without requiring Kelly to go Therapy Mode, which they both consider something of a milestone. Kara, the brat, thought Lena’s overindulgence was adorable.
“I’ll try to help her keep it sane.”
“You’re the best wife.”
“I know,” Kelly preens, and Alex giggles.
“Esme’s gonna go nuts,” Alex says after a little while.
“Well, she can be a good cousin as well as a good sibling,” Kelly points out. “Though…I’ll admit I’ve been putting some more thought to it.”
“Yeah.” Alex lets that sit for about half a minute, then adds, as one of them always does, “but we need more financial stability.”
“And life stability.”
“Can’t be leaving two kids without one of their moms.”
“Yeah.”
Alex reaches over and squeezes Kelly’s hand. Kelly takes it off the wheel to briefly squeeze her back.
“We can try to be more part-time,” Kelly suggests.
“Yeah, but we need our salaries.”
“I know.”
They sit in silence. Alex watches the streetlights pass by. Eventually she looks back over.
“But it would be nice to give Esme a sister.”
“It would,” Kelly agrees, and Alex sees the same longing she feels in those eyes.
***
“Can we have a moment, alone?” Lena asks.
Alex, clad in a hospital gown and bunny slippers even though this is Lena’s private lab, looks to Kelly and Kara. “As long as they can be here when you’re sticking stuff up me,” she says with a grin. Kelly sighs at Alex’s attempt at comedy. Kara groans.
It’s been about a month. Lena has freaked out twice, Alex once. They’ve all broken down crying on one of the others at least once. Kara has punched the latest space invader into the Moon slightly harder than absolutely necessary. Legalities have been discussed and they’ve all agreed that they’re all family anyway so their contract is mostly just making sure Kara and Lena’s names are on the birth certificate and after that it’s whatever the child prefers as she grows up. Lena did insist on some ridiculously strict protections for Alex’s right to an abortion, even though Alex protested that she wasn’t going to get one when she’s going into this for them. Kara gently slapped Alex upside the head and told her to shut up, Lena was only caring for Alex’s health and safety, because Alex knows damn well that there are circumstances other than imminent, abort-now-or-she-will-die-in-an-hour danger that could and would merit that heart-wrenching decision. Alex has gotten a set of injections over Lena’s halfhearted protests to make sure there’s the best possible environment for the future embryo when it goes in.
“Is there an issue?” Alex asks in concern once the door is closed and Lena’s set a white noise machine going.
“No, I just…” Lena bites her lip. “I know you and Kelly want another, too. And I know there are…financial concerns. And I’m not…I don’t want to make you dependent on me. And I don’t want this to be buying from you or…”
“You want to set us up with some money,” Alex says.
“Well, yes,” Lena admits. “Enough for good schools, medical care…I have so much, it’s really ridiculous, I have so many charitable donations I have to decline tax rebates every year and somehow I keep making more of the stuff.”
“Probably because you cornered the electric car market out from under Elon Musk and L-Corp builds half the planet’s solar panels,” Alex observes.
Lena blushes. Alex sees what her sister sees, and is happy that this wonderful woman has someone as great as Kara in her life. “Probably,” Lena admits, then clears her throat. “Anyway. This is…you’re more of a sister to me than Lex was ever a brother. OK? I just…you and Kelly are my family now, outside of Kara.”
“Mom has joked about us adopting you,” Alex chuckles. “I understand. I…I won’t deny I have some instinctive discomfort. But I know you mean well, and I know we’re…well, superheroing only pays so much, and we were already running on your dime for a couple years there.”
“That and Kara’s endorsement deals,” Lena giggles.
“That too.” They share a grin. “And yeah, babies are expensive. And I’m going to be taking nine months off to ensure safe gestation for your daughter. And Esme has her own special needs, and support superhero isn’t the safest of jobs. Takes up a lot of our time, too. So…I’ll talk with Kelly about it, OK?”
“OK,” Lena says with watery eyes, and Alex can’t help but pull her into a hug. “Thank you,” Lena croaks. “So much. This is…I don’t have words, it’s such a gift…”
“I know,” Alex murmurs, and gently rubs the other woman’s back. “For you, for Kara, I’m more than happy to do it. You’re my sisters. And that’s what matters.”
***
“All good?” Kelly murmurs as Lena works with the repurposed Daxamite cloning apparatus that she’s using to turn two DNA samples into a hopefully viable zygote (technically, it’s still in human trials. Alex supposes she’s one of those human trials, but knows Lena wouldn’t be doing this if she wasn’t 1000% convinced of its safety). Alex is sitting on an actual honest-to-god hospital bed Lena somehow got in here, trying to keep her breathing slow and steady.
“Yeah,” Alex assures her. “Just. Anticipating.”
“Anything I can do?” Kara asks from the other side.
“Just hold my hand,” Alex tells her, “and don’t let Lena run away after, at least not until I can give her another hug.”
“You got it,” Kara says with a soft smile. “Alex?”
“Yeah?”
“Thank you. This…this means a lot. More than a lot.”
“I know,” Alex says, and squeezes her sister’s hand as she looks up into those watery blue eyes. Then she grins. “I am gonna be asking you to get me all my cravings, of course.”
“Oh, of course,” Kara smiles back. “I already fly to all sorts of places to get new stuff for Lena to try. You’re prepared for the time off?”
Alex grimaces. “I’m not thrilled, I’ll admit, cooling my heels for nine months. At least I can still patch your dumb ass up after you have a big fight. But for you, for your daughter, I’m game.”
“I’ll try not to overload you,” Kara grins. “And I’ll call for backup if it’s some jerk like Darkseid. Don’t want to stress you out while you’re pregnant.”
“OK,” Lena says, a little vial held at the end of a complicated device that looks a little like a spear and a little like a trash-grabber claw. “Alex, are you ready?”
“As I’ll ever be,” Alex says, and sets her feet in the stirrups, shivering a little as the cold lab air creeps up under her gown. “Go ahead, Luthor. Knock me up.”
Even Lena can’t help but giggle at that.
It’s cold, as it goes in. Alex shivers, making Lena pause, but assures her that it’s just a bit surprising.
“Three, two, one,” Lena counts down, and hits a little button.
Alex doesn’t feel anything, but knows that inside of her, that little zygote has been set free into her uterus. She looks down at her womb, mouth suddenly dry.
“That’s it,” Lena says as she pulls out the injector. “We’ll do your first check in two weeks, OK?”
Alex nods, barely paying attention. She reaches down, bringing Kelly’s hand with her, and rests it on top of her flat belly.
Somewhere inside there, that little cell is starting to divide. Soon, hopefully, it’ll implant in Alex’s flesh. Grow and develop, fed by exchange with her blood, forming organs and limbs as her body reacts to its presence, changing her, forever, as she gives Kara’s daughter the gift of life with her own flesh and blood.
She grieves for Lena, at the same time. Wanting this and being unable to have it…It would make Alex feel broken inside, though she knows logically that’s nonsense. But emotionally…Yeah.
But she can help. She can help this little bit of her sisters grow into her own being, give life to another little person, care for and nurture her before she’s even born, carry Kara’s future daughter inside her own body, shielded with her flesh and bone and the power of her love.
“Good luck, kiddo,” she murmurs.
Kara tries her best not to sniffle, and fails.
Alex notices Lena trying to slip out the door, and elbows Kara sharply. Lena yelps, and appears by Alex’s side, hair tousled and settling from the sudden sweep of wind, Kara holding her in place, and Alex surges up, wrapping Lena in a bear hug, and murmurs to her,
“You deserve to be here, Lena. Every step of the way. Thank you for helping me experience this.”
It takes them a while to get out of the lab. Everybody’s cried by the time they do. Alex makes a crack about pregnancy hormones, which makes Kelly roll her eyes.
Kelly’s hand is warm in hers as they leave Kara and Lena to their devices, headed home for a quiet dinner and their daughter’s favorite nature show. Alex entwines her fingers with her wife’s and holds them that way all the way home.
***
Alex enters her checkup with Lena about 99% sure she’s successfully pregnant.
Fortunately, her morning sickness isn’t too bad. Just a little queasiness around some stronger scents. She is bloated and feels like a balloon, though, and has been cursing whatever deity came up with fucking pregnancy gas in her mind all morning.
Kelly, being the best wife, has been holding her hand and snuggling and kissing her whenever she detects Alex getting grumpy, and Kelly has near perfect radar for Alex’s mood.
“How are you?” is what Kara asks the moment she arrives, as she has every day for the past two weeks.
“Bloated,” Alex replies. “Pretty sure I’m pregnant.” Her smile is met by Kara’s own, a stunned, hopeful thing that compels Alex to stand and wrap her sister in a hug. “Hey. This is happening, yeah? You’re gonna be a mom.”
“I’m gonna be a mom,” Kara echoes her, and squeezes Alex like she’s afraid she’ll float away.
Diagnosis by blood test is quick, and because it’s designed by Lena, damn near painless. Kelly holds Alex’s left hand and Kara gazes at Alex’s belly with crinkle that Alex knows means she’s trying to see inside as they wait across the lab from Lena. Alex doesn’t have the heart to tell Kara that there won’t be bones yet.
“Well?” Alex asks as Lena walks over, a hesitant smile on her lips.
“Your HCG is up. Everything hits the benchmarks. It worked,” Lena says, and Alex waves her in.
“C’mere.” She nudges Kara to sit in front of her and waves Lena over to the vacated seat. “You’re going to be a mother, Lena.”
The smile is tremulous but there. “I hope Kara helps me avoid mistakes.”
Alex snorts. “Oh, please. You’re the one I trust with a baby out of the two of you.”
“Hey!” Kara protests, though it’s halfhearted because she looks like she’s about to burst with joy. Alex takes Lena’s hand and puts it over her womb.
“Baby’s safe and at home,” Alex tells her. “Kara, here.” She motions Kara in, and her sister puts her hand there, on top of Lena’s, and Lena’s shaking, and Kara’s got her free arm around Lena and Alex is holding their hands in place as she breathes in and out and her guts grumble with stupid bullshit gas, and Alex, somehow, feels more feminine and yet more powerful and more herself than she ever has. “Thirty-eight weeks, OK? Thirty-eight weeks, and you get to meet her. Until then, I’ll keep her safe.”
“Thank you,” Lena chokes out, tears spilling from her eyes.
“I’m happy to do it,” Alex promises. “And I’m sure I said this before, but any way you want to be involved with the pregnancy, I’m happy to bring you along. I know…if I were dealing with, you know. Infertility. It would hurt. And I’d be jealous. And it’s OK for you to be jealous, but I want to help you experience as much of this as you can.”
And Lena bursts into tears, and Kara glomps her, and Kelly’s sniffling, and Alex feels herself tearing up, and manages an “oh, christ, here come the hormones”, and then they’re all crying and cuddling and somewhere along the line someone starts laughing through the crying and they’re hugging and Kelly’s wrapped around Alex’s back and Lena’s hugging them both thanking them and Kara’s there, kneeling, eyes closed as she presses an ear to Alex’s belly, a soft smile on her lips even though she all but certainly can’t hear a damn thing yet because her daughter-to-be is still a glorified gastrula.
Kelly tells Alex that night that she’s never loved Alex so much, and that Alex is a wonderful generous woman who Kelly’s lucky to have even met, much less married. Alex calls Kelly a flatterer, but preens under the attention (and impromptu shoulder massage, which is always appreciated) anyway.
***
They tell Esme about a month in, and are less shocked than they should be to learn that their eight-year-old had already suspected something and copied Nia’s powers in a successful attempt to see into her family’s future. Esme glomps Alex’s legs anyway and says that Alex is the best Mommy ever and Aunt Kara and Aunt Lena are going to be really happy and Esme promises she’s going to be the best cousin-sister ever.
Alex tears up at that. It’s happening a lot more, now. Emotions feel more intense. Damn hormones.
Kara comes over every day, and does loops in the air when she can finally hear a heartbeat. Lena performs all the necessary checkups, and a few more besides, and Alex always makes sure to encourage her to put her hand over Alex’s still-flat abdomen, because she knows it means a lot to Lena and Lena is bad at communicating.
Alex and Kelly talk a lot. About the future. About finances. About another baby. About Esme, and her powers, and how that’s going to affect her in the social pressure cooker of her teens.
“I want another,” Kelly tells Alex one night, hand resting over Alex’s womb. “I know…the financials and all. But Lena’s offer…”
“Yeah?”
“You’re having her and Kara’s baby, Alex. I think…I think we’re close enough, as a family, that we can make it work.”
“I’m not worried that she’d use it against us,” Alex clarifies.
“Oh, no, of course not, I mean…even with the implications, we can make it work.”
Alex wriggles a little, snuggling in tighter against her wife, and loves the feeling of Kelly against her, her legs wrapped around Alex’s and her breath at the nape of Alex’s neck and her breasts full and soft against Alex’s back. “She is basically another sister at this point,” Alex admits. “We’ve been through enough shit. I already think of her as one, sometimes.”
“Maybe it would be good for her,” Kelly murmurs. “She needs family, supportive and loving family. And she gives a lot of awkward extravagant gifts.”
“Oh, yeah,” Alex agrees, remembering the time Lena bought CatCo for her then-“bestie”. Christ, how did it take them so long? Gay dorks. “Let’s talk to her, then?”
“Let’s.”
And they sleep like that, Alex the little spoon, and she rests her hand on top of Kelly’s and falls asleep imagining that she can feel the baby growing inside of her.
Alex’s body changes in fits and spurts. No sooner has the bloating died down than her breasts are aching and expanding. Alex finds the change fascinating as her nipples darken and areolae widen. She worries, briefly, that Kelly will be turned off by the change, but then Kelly sees her changing and comes for her with hunger in her eyes and gives Alex one of the best orgasms of her life, and Alex kicks herself for letting her anxiety get in the way of her relationship for a couple of days.
Her appetite is up. She’s still working out—less intensive training and combat practice, more long runs and weightlifting to keep her condition up. She invites Lena along, and resolutely ignores the stares as she and Lena do regular female-friend things like chatting while running next to each other (Lena takes a little coaxing, but she has plenty of dorky Kara stories to add to Alex’s vast library, and sharing those is always a good icebreaker) and spotting each other while lifting. Lena isn’t much of a match for Alex, who has a decade plus of regular training behind her, but she keeps pace on the runs and it keeps her mood up, so Alex thinks it’s going pretty well.
Even with her workout schedule more shifted than lessened, Alex puts on weight. Her cheeks fill out, and Kelly kisses them when she asks if they’re too pudgy. Her thighs swell a bit, and Kelly develops a habit of grabbing Alex’s butt when she’s horny, in response to which Alex develops a habit of flicking Kelly with assorted towels and half-folded clothes. She starts to get a little pooch in her abdomen, not just bloating, now, but a growing deposit of fat and her womb expanding in anticipation of the baby’s eventual size deep within her.
“If I knew how horny it would make you,” Alex gasps out one night, Kelly between her legs for the fourth time in thirty minutes, the two of them eagerly taking advantage of Esme being at a sleepover, “I would’ve gotten knocked up years ago!”
“I can’t help it,” Kelly gasps as she surfaces. “You’re glowing. Even when you’re anxious there’s joy beneath. You look so womanly. A warrior queen. Mother bear. It suits you.” She kisses Alex’s clit, and Alex whimpers. “My hot, sexy, curvy mama bear. I can’t wait to see you at full term.”
“Oh my god,” Alex moans. “You have a pregnancy kink!”
Kelly stops, considers. “I guess so,” she admits. “Or at least, I have a kink for my sexy mama bear being pregnant.” And then she proceeds to ensure that Alex forgets everything but Kelly’s name for a good fifteen minutes.
Kara tags along for the next checkup, and she’s mesmerized by Alex’s little belly, and Alex encourages her to lean in and listen to the baby’s heartbeat as Alex crashes on the couch. Lena does her work, and then Alex brings her into the cuddle, and Kelly comes up behind Alex to rub her shoulders and kiss the top of her head as Alex holds Lena’s hand to her belly right next to Kara’s closed eyes, asking Lena to tell her what the baby looks like, how big she is, how she’s going to grow next.
Esme makes drawings of her family at school, including the future baby growing inside of Alex. Another kid makes fun of her for having two moms and the whole surrogacy situation, and they get into a fight. Alex storms out to the school in fury but spends most of the meeting hugging Esme, her daughter listening at her belly even though she doesn’t have Kara’s senses to hear the baby yet, while Kelly proves yet again why she’s tyrant queen of the PTA by terrifying principal and other parents alike. Alex would be terrified if Kelly wasn’t so damn hot doing that.
They reach a general agreement with Lena on finances. They all feel a bit weird about it, because of the implications of the wealth difference. But Kelly knows a lot of therapists, and they talk it out, bit by bit.
Kara fuels Alex’s cravings without complaint as Alex hits the three month mark, even when Alex asks for midnight runs for ice cream and pickles. Kelly is not convinced of the glories of mint chocolate chip on dill pickle, but she snuggles Alex and calls her a beautiful mama anyway.
“I could try it,” Kelly murmurs as they lay under the covers.
“Hmm?”
“Having a baby. Our baby. I know we were going to wait, but Esme’s so excited…”
Alex hums again. Esme is excited. Thinks the baby means that she’ll be getting a sibling soon. “I want to have one of ours,” Alex admits, “but back to back would be hard.”
“You could still have another later on, and I could carry,” Kelly suggests. “If you still want to carry one of ours…since Lena’s…helping out, we can probably manage three on a reduced schedule.”
“If we handle support work more than getting on the front lines, that would make Kara happy even though she won’t admit it,” Alex says. “And there’d be less risk.”
“What do you think?”
“If you want to do it, babe, I’ll always support you.” She half-turns her head, and meets Kelly’s lips in a kiss. “I’ll let Lena know you want to talk to her about possibilities for us when she drops by in the morning.”
“Alright,” Kelly says, muffled by Alex’s hair as she burrows back into the back of Alex’s neck. “But you have to make Kara promise to deal with my cravings, too.”
“She’d probably do that anyway, but deal.”
***
Life goes on. An intergalactic conqueror invades, which is only unusual because it’s the end of June rather than early May, and Kara punches him into outer space and kicks him in the gonads. Kelly takes some vacation time and comes to work out with Alex and Lena, since Alex is hormonal and cranky around workout time and apparently can’t be trusted to not react to people who for some reason don’t like noted philanthropist (and sister cum killer of infamous criminal Lex Luthor) Lena Luthor.
Alex’s belly is growing for real now, visible under most clothes even when she doesn’t find her hands drifting to rub it on instinct. Kelly catches her doing that, and cuddles her for it, calling her “my cute mama”. Alex feels a frisson of warmth flow through her at that comment, and soon finds it reoccurring when Kelly calls her “mama” in other ways.
Esme insists on reading her future cousin stories in the evening, and Alex doesn’t have the heart to tell her the baby’s not going to hear or understand. Kelly takes Alex for walks and picnics in the park, kissing her and calling her beautiful and strong and loving and Alex revels in it, revels in Kelly’s love and her own reciprocal emotion. They sit together on a blanket and Kelly wraps herself around Alex and cups her belly from behind, and Alex just closes her eyes and leans back and lets the warmth fill her while Kelly rocks them slowly back and forth.
Work is slow these days, and two whole weeks go by where ‘work’ is just Kara and Alex chatting over comms while Kara flies in circles. Outside of the alien invasion in June, the streets are quiet, and Kara’s only busy in early July because Boravia decides to start bombing the nominally not-occupied parts of what’s left of Jahanapur down to the bedrock in response to an attack by an anti-Boravian resistance group, so Kara’s involved in UN meetings and Congressional hearings after turning the Boravian air force into so much scrap metal and taking Boravia’s nukes to throw into the Sun. The Americo-Boravian Public Affairs Conference runs an ad campaign against Kara that pisses Lena off, so in the second week of July Alex takes some time off, finally gets around to the prenatal yoga class Kara has been subtly pushing, and invites Lena with her to take her mind off the mess.
(Lena proceeds to spend a ridiculous amount of money running ad campaigns against ABPAC-backed candidates in various political primaries anyway, which Alex considers a more calm and sober response than her initial plans to run for President and kick the organization out of the country)
Prenatal yoga isn’t Alex’s usual cup of tea, but it’s nice to spend time with her sister-in-law, and she does admit her back could use the stretching out.
Kelly and Lena have a couple of long talks. Alex spends much of those days out with Kara, doing stupid prenatal nutrient smoothie cleanses that she’s pretty sure are bullshit but goes along with because it makes Kara smile. Later, she’s pulled into the discussion, and all four women discuss where Alex and Kelly want to go.
Alex and Kelly pull Esme aside for a long talk of their own. Esme is insistent that she’ll love any sibling with all her heart no matter what, but Alex and Kelly recognize that she does feel a little alone sometimes, with her powers, and take that back to Lena.
“I’ll need a few months,” Lena says. “The tech works for a cross-species zygote, but a mix of three sources of DNA will be harder.”
Kelly hugs her harder than Alex has ever seen her wife hug someone before.
“We are gonna be one messy family if this goes too fast,” Alex says as they watch a Sopranos rerun that night. Kelly is sipping wine in her pyjamas. Alex is munching on carrot sticks and almond butter courtesy of the Kara Danvers Delivery Service, the button on her jeans popped due to her growing uterus. “Two pregnant women and a kid?”
“Mmh,” Kelly hums. “We’ll make it work.”
“We will,” Alex says, reaching over to squeeze Kelly’s hand, and she doesn’t doubt her own words for a second.
***
Alex’s first ultrasound arrives a few days after she’s abandoned jeans for sweatpants, and a week after she first feels the little flutters of movement inside of her. She’s obsessed with that feeling, holding a palm to herself for what must be hours a day, even though nobody’ll be able to feel the kicks from the outside for around a month.
“You’re glowing,” Lena says with a bittersweet smile.
“I guess I am,” Alex laughs, and takes Lena’s hand, holding it to her womb. “She’s getting bigger. I felt her kicking, I think.”
“That’s wonderful,” Lena whispers. Alex can hear the tears in there, the grief that she can’t do this herself, and Alex pulls her in, wraps her into a real hug, and just lets her cry softly as Alex tells Lena that she’s a good person, she’s going to be a good mom, she and Kara are going to give this baby the best life she can have, and that means more than what Alex is doing, because she’s just temporary caretaker here, and Lena’s already loving and protecting this baby her own way by taking care of Alex and prescribing various vitamins that taste like chalk and being a great workout friend and putting a new security system in Alex and Kelly’s house…
(ok, so the security system is a second draft because Kelly vetoed the first on the grounds that they don’t need concealed laser turrets, but still, even if Alex had a leg to stand on calling another woman overprotective, it’s the thought that counts)
“Thank you,” Lena says when she finally disengages.
“Don’t mention it,” says Alex, and she steps up onto the medical bed (she’d hop, but she doesn’t want to jostle her cargo too much) and pulls up her shirt.
Lena pulls the monitor around so Alex can see, and moves the probe across the cold gel…
“Huh,” says Lena, and Alex turns to raise an eyebrow.
“Problem?”
“I see three…no, four legs. Let me…” And Lena gasps, and her hand stops moving, and she’s shaking, and Alex sits up and grabs her shoulder.
“Hey. Hey, it’s OK, what happened?”
“Twins,” Lena manages, and she turns into Alex again, and Alex pats her back as she cries.
“Oh, god, I’m gonna break down too if you keep this up,” Alex complains, and then the hormones predictably take her and she starts crying.
They call Kelly first, since Kara’s busy answering a Congressional subpoena about how she had the sheer temerity to stop an American ally (Boravia) from committing genocide. Kelly, being the best wife, immediately takes time off work to drive over and brings lunch up to Lena’s lab. She and Lena go over the sonograms as Alex, who’s hungry what seems like 24/7 these days, wolfs down a couple of burgers and a strawberry milkshake, and then Kelly kisses Alex and calls her beautiful and Lena breaks down again and they cuddle her while she sobs with joy and anxious nerves and the sheer overwhelming emotion of it all.
“I’m gonna be so huge,” Alex laughs once they’ve gotten the gel cleaned off her abdomen and she’s made sure Lena remembered to eat (usually that’s Kara’s job, but Kara’s in DC and Congress is being a bag of dicks). “What do you think, Lena, can I make it to thirty-eight weeks?”
“We might want to induce you early,” says Lena, whose hand lays enmeshed with Kelly’s atop Alex’s bare womb, Alex sitting with one arm around each of them as she reclines on the couch in Lena’s office, shirt pulled up so her wife and sister-in-law can touch her womb more directly. “But you’re on the taller side, and in great shape, and your historical health problems aren’t anything that we’d expect to cause problems.” Her thumb traces a scar where Alex got a superficial cut fighting some alien or other years ago. “Even the scars are stretching well.”
“That’s the body butter,” Kelly murmurs, her thumb rubbing back and forth against Alex’s skin. “The stuff you sent, it’s working great.”
“It had better, it costs enough. And I have to send Kara to pick it up from Germany.”
“Thank you,” says Alex, and Lena looks up at her like she’s said something insane. “Seriously.”
“It’s the least I can do.”
“I still appreciate it,” Alex says, and Kelly kisses her temple.
They call Kara once the Congressional hearing lets out. She sounds emotionally exhausted over speakerphone after answering questions from various ABPAC-funded stooges about the gall she had in foiling Vasil Ghurkos’s plans for an Inferior-Free Greater Boravia, and Alex’s heart aches for her precious sister.
“Hey, Lee. How’d the ultrasound go? Is Alex doing alright?”
“I’m fine, sis,” Alex assures her. “So, about the ultrasound…”
“She’s OK, right? There aren’t any issues? Do I need to find someone to help with any issues? I don’t know any Kryptonian specialists…”
“Kara!” Alex cuts in. “It’s fine! We found two babies!”
“....what.”
“There’s two, Kara,” Lena says, choking up a little. “Two perfect little girls.”
“They look happy and healthy,” Kelly adds.
“You’re having twins, Mama,” Alex says with a grin, and she hears her sister shriek like a banshee for a single infinitesimal instant before the speaker decides it can’t handle the noise, followed by the whooshing of wind and whoops of joy as Kara does loops over the capital. “Kara! KARA!”
“What?” comes over the speaker as the wind dies down. She sounds energetic, ecstatic even.
“Don’t fly home yet, OK? Don’t give Congress another reason to be pissed. We’ll have a little party on Saturday, OK?”
Kara’s sigh is loud, because she quite reasonably wants to fly home and hug her sister and talk to her children-to-be, but she acquiesces. “Oh-KAAAAAY. Have you found out if any of these ghouls knew about Ghurkos’s death camp plans yet?”
“Nia’s on that,” Kelly says. “We’ll release anything we can verify as soon as possible.”
“Thanks. You’re the best sister-in-law. Keep taking great care of my sister! Alex, don’t forget your cleansing smoothies!”
“We’ll take care of her,” Kelly promises as Alex grumbles about how she doesn’t like the cleansing smoothies. “Lena, Kara, we’ll let you chat, I’m going to get my wife home and spoil her.”
“Of course,” Lena says, and Alex gives her a quick good-bye hug, then tosses a farewell to Kara over the phone, takes her wife’s offered hand, and lets Kelly help her stand.
Kelly can barely separate herself from Alex enough to drive. Alex finds that honestly pretty flattering.
***
Kara spends about as much time as she physically can around Alex when she gets back from DC. Alex spends hours upon hours with Kara all but glued to her swelling abdomen, much of which involves being pampered by or cuddling Kara and Kelly and/or Lena.
It hits a peak about six and a half months in. The twins are quiet for once, which is good because Esme is sprawled in Alex’s lap, her head brushing up against Alex’s belly after she passed out while reading the twins a story. A nature show burbles on the TV on low volume, and Lena sleeps with her head against Alex’s shoulder, one hand resting atop the rounded bulk of Alex’s womb. Kelly nuzzles Alex from the other side, kissing her slow and sleepy around the rim of her ear. Kara glomps Lena from behind, letting out faint whistling almost-snores as she snuggles into her wife’s back.
“We’re really a family now,” Alex realizes.
“We already were,” Kelly murmurs.
“I know. But it feels so real like this.” Alex brushes a lock of hair out of Lena’s face, then pets her daughter’s hair with gentle strokes. “I don’t know. I like this. Being a family like this. Fulfilling our needs.” She keeps petting Esme, her daughter letting out a little sigh and shifting just enough that Kelly can slip a hand in and swap the storybook for Esme’s beloved stuffed zebra. (Their daughter’s probably gonna be buried with that plushie, not that Alex minds at all)
“In what way?” It’s questioning. Not demanding. Leading. Alex would be grumpy about the borderline therapy from her wife, but she’s too blissed-out to care.
“I need to be a mother.” There. She’s vocalized it. “I need to care and nurture and bring life into this world, to culture and cultivate little beings and watch them grow and flower. Don’t know why. But I need to. Esme, she needs moms, and we brought two awesome aunts in the bargain. Kara needs support. Family, emotional support, people to keep her grounded and stable. Lena needs sisters, women who can be there for her and help her be herself and support her, and when she got with Kara she got us in the bargain. You need to care for people. I can’t articulate…it feels like your needs aren’t really the same as mine, but are close? If that makes sense?”
“I understand,” Kelly murmurs. Her hand comes down to stroke Esme’s hair, then moves up to rest on Alex’s womb. “You were born for this, Alex. And I love that for you.”
“You’re so sweet,” Alex sighs. One of the babies, which Alex has mentally nicknamed Lefty, shifts inside of her. She imagines what this will be like with her and Kelly’s child. This feeling of motion inside her, the euphoric tingle it causes, the sense of fulfilment and femininity she can’t quite quantify. “I could do this a couple more times, honestly.”
“Did I convert the hot futch secret agent into a pregnant tradwife?” Kelly says with laughter in her voice.
“No, it just turns out the secret agent feels…I don’t know, fulfilled, somehow, by being pregnant.” She turns her head and kisses Kelly. “Doesn’t hurt that the secret agent’s hot wife likes her being pregnant.” Kelly lets out a soft meep, and Alex giggles softly. “I love every bit of you, babe, amusing preferences and all.”
“Stop, you’re making me blush,” Kelly murmurs, and they kiss again.
Alex’s back doesn’t appreciate the whole family sleeping in a cuddlepile on the couch, but it’s worth it to wake up surrounded by love.
Seven months in, and Alex’s center of balance is shifting, her back arching more concave and exaggerating the size of her rapidly growing belly. She can’t go for runs anymore, so Lena helps her figure out a baby-safe workout routine, and covers Alex with sensors to make sure her vitals are OK, which Alex very nearly snaps at but pulls herself back because this is just how Lena copes with anxiety. The babies are kicking regularly now, and Alex encourages Lena, who she still sees having too many melancholy moments, to touch and feel them moving perhaps a little more than Alex would normally be comfortable with, but again, it’s for her sister-in-law’s emotional support, and Alex would do a whole lot for Kara’s wife.
Kara signs Alex up for Lamaze classes and Alex just has to invite Lena along with her and Kelly, which gets them a few odd looks but thankfully no comments. Kelly takes Alex to the park, to the zoo, on long slow walking sorts of activities so that Alex can get out and about, and she rubs Alex’s feet and smothers her stretched-out belly in lotions and kisses Alex’s popped-out belly button, and she spends wonderful, glorious hours kissing and petting and snuggling Alex, murmuring to her about what a beautiful mama she is, and Alex falls asleep every night in a haze of bliss and love.
Kara finally gets out of the Congressional hearings after CatCo drops a vast trove of documents on the Boravian regime’s evil plans, then punches out another out of season space invader before things settle down again, which lets Kara spend day after day hugging Alex and talking to her daughters through Alex’s womb and taking Alex on more juice cleanses and preparing her and Lena’s place for the baby.
Kelly fields the anxiety-riddled text messages about babyproofing, heroically sparing Alex’s sanity and earning her a grateful kiss that turns into somewhat awkward sex. Alex, now eight months in, goes with her sister to shop for baby supplies, and watches with joy (and a bunch of potstickers she’s dipping in soft custard because Alex’s cravings are officially off the rails demented) as her sister builds the cribs and curses out the crib building instructions and sets up the mobiles and paints and paints, all with Alex watching and eating with her legs sprawled open to fit the rapidly expanding belly that Alex is shamelessly using as a supplemental table.
“Have you figured out care plans for when they arrive?” Alex asks as Kara, finally done with putting things together, slumps next to her with a horrified expression at Alex’s defilement of her favorite food.
“Lena and I will be taking some injections. She wants to breastfeed, and I figured I might as well help. For moral support, too.”
Alex chuckles at that, and offers her sister a potsticker unmolested by custard. “I’ve been noticing my body getting ready for that. Breasts are bigger, veiny, I’ve been leaking some fluid. Colostrum, it’s apparently called.”
Kara nods. “Lena gave me the run-down. Kryptonians aren’t very different. All my bras are gonna be tight.”
“I’ll talk to Logistics. They’ll put an order in for some Kevlar.” Athletic bras for a woman who can break the sound barrier and eat 10 G’s in a midair turn aren’t found in Target. “You got names picked out?”
“We have some ideas. I kinda wanted your input, though.”
Alex shrugs. “They’re your kids. I’m just their aunt, taking care of them for a few months. And maybe spoiling them a little rotten.” She dips another potsticker in custard and eats it over Kara’s aggrieved expression.
“You’re more than just an aunt,” Kara insists, and puts her hand on Alex’s swollen womb. “This…I’ve said before, it means a lot. But that doesn’t grasp the scope of it.” She shakes her head, rubbing gentle circles on Alex’s belly, and Alex mentally compares herself to a beach ball. “Thank you for letting Lena participate so much, too. I know it’s a little awkward…”
“She’s as much my sister as you are, now,” Alex cuts in, and she wraps Kara in a one-armed hug. “It doesn’t matter to me what you name them, I’m more than happy to be the cool aunt, and I’m just glad I can help you like this. Now, can you help me up? I gotta pee and your kids are tap-dancing on my bladder.”
***
Alex’s water breaks in the middle of the night when she’s thirty-seven weeks into her pregnancy, after a day of what feels like more back pain. She wakes up in a puddle, and curses fluently loud enough to wake Kelly.
Kelly, being the best wife, already has a go bag packed, and coordinates Alex’s quick and rudimentary dressing process, holds Alex’s hand without complaint through another contraction, and even calls Lena on their way out the door. Alex can’t imagine herself being a tenth as put together if/when Kelly goes for it and gets pregnant herself.
Lena is waiting at the hospital when they arrive—Kara’s in the Congo helping with relief for an Ebola outbreak, on the grounds that she’s immune to the damn virus as long as she’s powered up by the sun, and Lena says that she called Kara but even when Kara gets back it’ll be hours of decontamination room before she can enter the maternity ward, so Alex shouldn’t worry about waiting. Kelly and Lena help Alex out of the car, help her clumsily waddle a couple of steps to a wheelchair, and gently lower her in, praising her and calling her beautiful and mama and wonderful and beloved every inch of the way, and Alex just leans back against Kelly’s hand as Kelly pushes her into the hospital and lets herself be cared for.
The birth itself is less magical and more a sweaty yelling experience (Alex tells the visibly skeptical nurses that she’s going to do it drug-free, then within two hours is screaming “WHERE’S MY FUCKING EPIDURAL???” at the top of her lungs), but Lena and Kelly hold her hands and the doctor is a middle-aged woman who assures them she’s done plenty of twins in a voice that carries with it a reassuring level of experience, and the connection and love are there and keep her grounded. Hell, Alex has had worse pain, what with getting thrown through walls and the like.
And this…this is a battle. Alex can do battles. She is a warrior, Kelly’s gorgeous warrior queen as Kelly likes to say, and she will bring these lives into the world just as she kicks and takes names in the superhero business. The pain is just an obstacle, and she has support to overcome it. She will prevail.
After six hours of yelling and Lena needing her hand wrapped and Kelly coaching Alex through the pain and Alex snapping at her wife and Kelly having the gall to smile down at her and kiss her sweaty forehead after said snapping comment, the baby Alex has been mentally nicknaming Rightie comes out at a respectable weight of five and a half pounds, followed not five minutes later by her sister Leftie at five pounds six ounces. Both are pink squalling things covered in fluid and kicking their little legs in anger at being exposed to the cold air, but soon they’re clamped and the cords are cut and they’re swaddled in blankets and the nurses, having had everything explained to them by Kelly and Lena and occasional snarky notes from Alex, are helping Lena to nurse them for the first time, and Alex says, “They’re really cute, aren’t they?”, and Kelly, wonderful perfect Kelly who Alex is sorry for ever snapping at, is holding Alex’s hand as the doctor cleans up the mess of Alex’s body squeezing out the placentas and Alex is holding hands with Kelly and feels her heartbeat and Kelly giggles and says, “You’d make beautiful children, too,” and Alex scoffs and says, “not as beautiful as you!”, and Lena’s too busy staring down at her new children in wonder and joy to notice, and really, the only downer here is that Kara isn’t here yet, and Alex is crashing, crashing so hard as the contractions cease and her pulse returns to normal and…
Alex wakes up in Kelly’s arms, her wife dozing behind her, Kara holding one of the babies with awe in her eyes, Lena passed out on a couch against the wall of the birthing room. Alex squints at the tag tied to the baby’s foot, but can’t make it out.
“Hey,” Alex rasps, and Kara turns, and beams with a smile so radiant Alex fears for her sight, and Kara floats over and ever so gently settles in the bed, the baby sleeping quiet as a mouse, and Kara reaches out and strokes Alex’s shoulder and says,
“Hi, Alex. Sorry I wasn’t here earlier. Had to get hosed down with some pretty nasty stuff to make sure none of the Ebola was clinging to me. I feel like I’ve been sandblasted again!”
“It’s fine,” Alex promises her. “I had plenty of support. What are you calling them?”
Kara blushes, and holds the sleeping baby with her half-pursed lips and closed eyes and the bit of dark hair that shows that one day she will have Lena’s extravagant mane up close to Alex’s face so Alex can study every inch of this perfect little creature, and Kara says, “Alex, meet your niece, Alexandra Kara-Ze Danvers. Lexie, this is your Auntie Alex. You already know her, you’ve been with her nearly nine months.”
“You named her after me?” Alex whispers.
“We couldn’t think of anyone better,” Kara says with a soft smile, stroking the sleeping baby’s fluffy knit hat. “We decided on Kryptonian customs for the middle name, and technically since I’m heir to the estates of El and Ze, as much as that even matters, we decided to make one the El and the other the Ze. The older one is Elizabeth Kara-El Danvers.” She stretches over to kiss Alex’s forehead. “Thank you, Alex. Thank you for bringing these lives into the world. Thank you for loving me so selflessly, so deeply, more than I deserve.”
“You deserve the world,” Alex counters immediately.
“Well, I think you do, right back at you,” Kara grins. “Hey. If and when you and Kelly go for more…Lena had a breakthrough on the process and thinks she can have it up and running in a couple weeks.”
“Double that time,” Alex says seriously. “Kids are exhausting.”
Kara nods. “Well, whenever you make that choice and however you make it—I’ll be there for you. Every step. It’s the least I can do.”
“Look at us,” Alex murmurs, looking down to little Alexandra with wide soft eyes. “Us Danvers girls. Having each other’s babies.”
“We should come with a warning,” Kara agrees.
We should, Alex thinks. Will Suck You Into Our Weird Little Family or something like that.
And she lets herself drift off again, safe in her wife’s arms as her sister cares for the babies and snuggles with them all in time.
She’s doing this again, Alex decides. Pain and all…that was still an experience like no other.
Kelly was right.
Alex was born to be a mother.