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J’onn is really not sure how it happened.
He used to be respected! He used to be feared! He was the goddamn Martian Manhunter, for crying out loud!
And now?
Now he’s standing on a pitcher’s mound, with his whole space family around him, playing softball against the NCPD’s Science Division, with his daughter’s girlfriend sticking her tongue out at him from home plate.
“Bring it!” Maggie calls out at him, smirking. “Let’s see the heat!”
Laughter erupts from around him. Lucy is standing behind him on second base, howling, and M’gann is on third. He doesn’t hear her laugh out loud, but instead, feels her grin in his mind.
“How did we get roped into this again?” she asks, but he can feel her smile through it.
“Beats me,” J’onn thinks back, but he knows the answer, and so does M’gann.
“So, Winn and Kara’s puppy dog eyes had nothing to do with it, right?” she asks.
J’onn turns to look into the stands, where Kara (disqualified because of her superpowers and super powered competitive streak) sits in the stands. She’s holding up a flag each for the DEO and the NCPD, and is surrounded by at least six hot dogs and eleven bags of Cracker Jack. She’s talking animatedly to Alex through the fence. Alex is trying to teach her to whistle through her fingers.
He turns again, to spot Winn behind him in left field. His glove is brand new and he’s giggling with Lucy.
“Nothing at all,” he says to M’gann, with a content sigh.
Maggie’s chief from the NCPD steps out and pulls Maggie away from the batter’s box to confer. J’onn’s catcher takes the time to jog out to the mound.
“Boss, you’ve got this one. She likes it low and away, so put it up and inside and she’s as good as struck out,” Jane Vazquez says, as she lifts her catcher’s mask above her face. Vazquez didn’t even need to be asked to join the DEO’s softball team – she heard Alex and Maggie talking about it and insisted that she was in.
J’onn regards her seriously. “Thank you, Agent Vazquez,” he says, in his deep voice. “But you know I can read minds, correct?”
“Yes, sir – just talking strategy. Alex will never let us live it down if we let Sawyer get on base,” she chides, and he resists the urge to roll his eyes.
“Of course, Vazquez,” J’onn says, just as the ump calls for Maggie to return to the plate.
James steps out from behind the bag, lifts his mask and yells, “Alright guys, let’s go! Let’s play ball!” He’s smiling from ear to ear, and turns to Maggie. “Sawyer, let’s go, get in there,” he says, and she winks at him.
(James – neither an official member of the DEO nor one of the NCPD’s favorite people – was thrilled to be included, to be asked to ump the game.
When he said as much, Kara and Alex rolled their eyes.
“Why wouldn’t we ask you?” Alex said. “You’re part of the family. We’d be stupid not to include you!”)
J’onn leans in, as everyone settles down for the first pitch. He has no idea how this happened, but damned if the DEO isn’t going to show the hell up and get the win.
___
The game is, of course, a total blast.
J’onn hears Lucy behind him, constantly trash talking. Lucy – no doubt the product of a military family and a big sister’s shadow to climb out of – has an insane competitive streak. She’s been training – actual, honest to god softball practice- for two weeks now. When they’re in the dugout, Lucy alternates between having sunflower seed spitting contests with Mon-El and giving vaguely inspirational speeches that only Winn and Vazquez are listening too.
Lena, who Winn and Kara also convinced to play, is excellent at second base. “I played softball at boarding school,” she explains. Maggie starts laughing so hard that her Gatorade spurts out her nose, and Alex has to lead her away, apologizing, while Maggie giggles hysterically.
Every time Lena makes a good play (which is often) Kara cheers from the stands way too loudly. Halfway through the game she perfects her whistling technique, and after Lena makes a spectacular catch to save a home run, they all have to take a break for a few minutes when Kara almost pops all their eardrums.
Every time Kara cheers for Lena, Lena blushes bright red, starting at her collarbone and creeping up her neck. Kara always notices, blushes, and chokes or trips or sighs. The entire rest of the team – and the NCPD team too – groans every time. Maggie catches Alex’s eyes from across the field, arches her eyebrow, and smiles her big dimpled smile.
Every time a new batter for the NCPD comes up, Vazquez jogs out to the mound to talk to J’onn about their hitting style. He wants to be annoyed, but she has somehow (Lucy must have been involved) done an insane amount of scouting and knows exactly where to put the ball on every pitch. He smiles and rolls his eyes at M’gann, with whom he’s kept a running commentary, grousing about having to play softball in a t-shirt that says “Papa Bear.” She smiles back at him, and she knows he doesn’t mean it.
During the 5th inning, when Alex comes up to bat, she smacks a single off the NCPD’s pitcher. Not two minutes later, James has to stop play when Alex and Maggie won’t stop making out at first base. Maggie has turned Alex’s hat around backwards and dropped her glove to the field. Neither of them are watching the game. James calls time so that J’onn can put Pam from HR – surprisingly, an incredible athlete – in as a pinch runner. Alex pouts and smacks Maggie’s ass before she walks back to the dugout and everyone else on the field groans.
Mon-El has passable hand eye coordination, but doesn’t understand the game at all. When Lucy sends him out to right field, he trots over and smiles. From time to time, he shouts something from his spot in the outfield, but nobody pays him much attention. He seems fine with it.
Later in the fifth inning when Winn comes up to bat, the chief of the Science Division sneaks a curve by him on the outside corner of the strike zone. James calls it a strike and sends Winn to the dugout. Winn goes crazy and they get into a yelling match, complete with Winn kicking dirt onto James’ shoes, like they do in the big leagues, and James both yelling back and trying not to laugh. Kara has to run to home plate to separate them and carry Winn away. It’s slightly diminished by the fact that she can’t stop laughing the whole time.
When the game is tied in the top of the 9th, Maggie steps out with two outs. She strikes a pose and calls her shot, like Babe Ruth, grinning wildly to herself. The DEO team soundly boos her, except for Alex, who gives a loud wolf whistle. The rest of the team turn to send her scandalized looks. She shrugs, laughs, and says “Sorry, not sorry.”
Out of nowhere, Pam from HR hits the game-winning homerun, in the bottom of the ninth, in dramatic fashion. She nonchalantly runs the bases as the cops from the NCPD groan good-naturedly and walk off the field. When she touches down at home plate, surrounded by the rest of the team, they lift her up and yell, “Pam! Pam! Pam!” Winn, Vazquez, and Lucy carry her off the field on their shoulders, as all four of them laugh.
Mon-El and James walk off together. James is rolling his eyes agreeably and trying to explain the rules to Mon-El - again.
Alex meets Maggie at home plate with a shit-eating grin. “Chez Danvers it is then,” Maggie says with a smile. “And yes – real ice cream this time!” Alex laughs and drapes an arm across her shoulders. Together they turn and see Lena and Kara walking away together. Kara is admiring Lena’s game, and Lena is smiling radiantly, glowing with the compliments. They’re all heading to the alien bar for drinks, and Kara, after convincing Lena to join them, is almost floating – literally.
Maggie nudges Alex in the side. Alex laughs out loud, and nudges her back. “Yes, you win too, Sawyer. First round is on me.”