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Kara’s body is warm and solid, and Cat nuzzles closer in the pre-dawn chill. The younger woman smells of lavender body wash with a hint of a melon-y shampoo, and Cat wishes she could bottle the full scent as perfume. She doesn’t often get to wake up with Kara in her bed, given Supergirl’s hectic nightly schedule, so she treasures the moments she gets.
She rolls over to get the full little spoon experience, not quite ready yet to let the world interrupt her perfect moment. As she nestles her hips against Kara’s, she feels the tell-tale hardening of her younger lover’s dick against her ass, and she ponders what Kara might be dreaming about. She adds an extra wiggle under the guise of getting comfortable and draws out a heady groan.
Kara’s fingers slip around her hips and tighten just so, and she lets Kara move slowly into wakefulness. As much as she’d love to simply start in on Kara’s muscular body, she respects Kara’s insistence on enthusiastic consent with every encounter. She doubts Kara would reject her advances, but she’s also looking forward to the spectacular way Kara’s cheeks flood with color, even this long into their relationship.
“Mm, Cat,” Kara murmurs, voice laden with sleep. “G’morning.”
Cat grinds a bit more, rousing and arousing her partner with each subtle shift. “Good morning, sunshine.”
Kara’s fingers tighten, and the grasp is deliciously firm. However, Kara’s next words completely lack the passion Cat had been hoping for. “Um, Cat?”
She sprawls onto her back and tilts her head to make eye contact. “Are you not in the mood?”
“It’s not that…”
“Then what is it?”
Kara’s gaze shifts lower. “Um…”
“Out with it.”
“Are you… Did you--”
“Did I what?” Cat sits up, gathering the sheets around her legs to keep them warm. This isn’t the way she’d pictured her morning going. Her temper is simmering, but that’s not good enough to stave off the cool air.
“Back after, y’know, when we were in the air? Over the city?”
The memory sizzles delightfully in her core. “Yes, darling.”
“I got you the pill, didn’t I?”
Cat’s expression shifts from playful to doubtful. “You did. And I’m still miffed you didn’t let me pay for it.”
“I’m the one who didn’t use a condom--”
“We aren’t rehashing the argument.”
Kara’s gaze remains fixated on Cat’s abdomen, and Cat slowly covers her belly with one hand. Suddenly, she catches Kara’s drift, and she feels queasy.
“That was just over a month ago, wasn’t it?”
“Your point?”
“You did take the pill, didn’t you?”
Cat’s mind flickers to the small, white box, buried in a desk drawer where she’d placed it--promising she’d take it just as soon as she’d eaten lunch. Of course, after lunch, she’d been distracted by everything it takes to keep CatCo running efficiently. And so, it had just sort of sat there, and she hadn’t spared it another thought.
“I don’t recall.”
“Your period--”
“Is always irregular. You know that.”
“Cat, I can hear it. A heartbeat. Not yours.”
All arguments flee Cat’s mind. She immediately stares at her stomach with the same marvel and confusion Kara had been displaying since she’d awoken. If she’s correctly collecting all of Kara’s clues, then she’s pregnant. With Kara’s child. She’s pregnant with Kara’s child.
That singular statement bangs around her head too loudly for any other coherent thought to speak up. Her mental processors are running at full capacity and straining with effort, but all she can manage is a stuttered, “I’m pregnant?”
“I think so?” Kara scratches the back of her neck, cheeks still ruddy. “I’m not a doctor, but… Yeah?”
“Can you see it?”
“That’s kind of weird, isn’t it?”
Cat rolls her eyes. “I think we’re beyond that, Kara.”
Kara focuses her vision and sees a very not-human looking form. She’s no expert in babies, though, and she has no idea if this is normal. Were they supposed to look like blobs? When did they develop little features? A swell of panic rises in her, but Cat touches her arm gently and draws her attention back in.
“I’ll see my doctor later today, as long as my assistant can get me an appointment. Unless you have some special alien doctor that I should go to, in case this baby is more you than me.”
“Um… I should call my sister.”
“I suppose that was inevitable.”
“Cat… if you are pregnant, what… what do you want to do?”
Cat leans back against the headboard. “I’m in my forties, so pregnancy won’t be easy. But women older than me have carried to term, and my income gives me access to the best in medical care.”
“You want to keep it?”
“You don’t?”
“To be honest, I hadn’t really thought about kids. I love Carter, I mean. But like, my own kids? I guess I didn’t expect any.”
“I’d like to keep it, but I understand your hesitation. I can handle this on my own if I must, but I’d prefer if you were in its life.”
“Oh, Cat, I’m sorry.” Kara swoops in and envelops Cat in a hug. “I’m giving you the wrong impression. I’m so here for you and the baby. I’m excited, even, but I just wanted you to know that I’d understand if you didn’t want the pregnancy, or if you wanted to discuss adoption. Having this child is a surprise, completely unexpected, but it’s not unwanted, at least on my end. I just wanted you to have the freedom to decide what’s best for you without…”
“Without you?” Cat can’t stop from rolling her eyes once more. “I don’t know what they taught you in alien sexual education class, but creating a child requires two donations. Whatever happens next, happens to us together.”
“You’re pretty calm about all this. Are you sure you don’t need more time to process?”
“Call Alex, dear.” Easing out of bed, Cat heads for the bathroom. “You either roll with the punches or get knocked out. Which do you suppose I prefer?”
She closes the door to the sound of Kara’s laughter. Leaning back, she sucks in several shaky breaths. This is not an insurmountable obstacle, but the coming challenges will be intimidating. Although she’s already had two children, she’s never been pregnant with a half-alien child. Nevertheless, she’s Catherine Grant, and she can handle anything--especially with a Kryptonian beam of sunshine as her cheerleader. She gathers herself, pushing all panic into a compartment that she seals off for the time being.
Refreshed, she moves through her morning routine and then joins Kara in the kitchen. Kara flips a pancake, humming under her breath; she glances over as Cat enters and smiles cheerfully.
“Alex said she could come by before work, if that’s okay. I didn’t tell her what was going on, but I told her it was important.”
“You should have moved my eleven o’clock appointment up. Alan is always too eager to get his nose up my ass, and I would have welcomed the excuse not to see him.” She reaches for a coffee mug and hesitates, thinking of the potential life growing within her. Rather than her usual dark roast, she pours orange juice for herself and settles at the table.
“I thought about it, but do you know who he’d bother about the change?”
Kara winks as she brings a plate of breakfast over. From the sounds of it, Carter is waking up as they speak, and he’ll devour every pancake he sees; Cat selects two for herself to keep him from gobbling them all up.
“That’s what I pay you for,” Cat teases. “To keep the brown-nosers at bay.”
“I’d like a raise.”
“You might need one, what with a child on the way and everything.”
Kara sobers quickly. “I hadn’t even thought about that--”
“Because it’s very early. Wait for Alex to get here. You’re getting ahead of yourself.”
“It comes with the super speed, I guess.”
Carter bounds into the room, eyes lighting up as he spots the pancake feast. If he heard their chatter about the pregnancy, he shows nothing. Cat assumes their secret is still safely kept. She runs her fingers through his messy mop of hair to settle some strands in the appropriate direction and asks him about his homework.
“Easy,” he replies between bites. “Except that essay for English.”
“Carter Grant, are you telling me that an offspring of mine is struggling with English?”
He huffs. “I’m not struggling.”
“It’s okay if you are,” Kara interjects. She makes eye contact with Cat, and Cat tilts her head, granting permission for Kara to continue. “Sometimes struggling is the best way to learn. What’s the essay on?”
“Symbolism in Lord of the Flies. It’s like, not everything has to mean something, but Ms. Nash just goes on and on about how the color red plays a major role in the thematic development of the story.” He rolls his eyes, a perfect miniature of Cat.
Cat leaves them to their conversation and pulls up her phone to scroll through the news. A few minor disturbances in other cities litter the news feeds, but nothing is so enticing she has to worry about a hectic morning in the office. Carter kisses her cheek and runs to catch the bus. When he flings the door open to leave, he nearly runs directly into Alex, who deftly steps aside to let him thunder onward. He yells an apology over his shoulder.
Alex steps inside Cat’s apartment for the first time and casts her gaze around while Cat stands from the table.
“Alex, thank you for coming.”
“Ritzy place.”
“It serves its purpose.”
Kara embraces her sister and cuts straight to the purpose of the visit. “Alex, I think I got Cat pregnant.”
“Good one, Kar.”
“No, for real. I think I can hear a heartbeat.” Kara gestures to Cat’s lower belly. “Like, in there. And I saw like a wrinkly peanut?”
“You… you’re not joking.”
Cat shakes her head. “Not today, Scully.”
“So, you’re really…” Alex gestures between her sister and Cat. “You two, together, and... baby?”
“Alex, you went through the same sex ed program I did in high school. You know how babies are made.”
“It’s just hard to wrap my head around. I’m the big sister. Shouldn’t I have kids before you?”
“This wasn’t exactly planned.”
“Eliza’s going to flip.”
Kara sighs. “I know. And I haven’t even had a chance to introduce them yet.”
“She’s going to be your doc, right?”
“She has to be. No one else is as qualified, and she helped Kal.”
Cat tires of being left out of the conversation and clears her throat. “Alex, we asked you here to do a preliminary examination. I realize you may not have your tools with you, but we happen to know someone who can fetch them very, very quickly.”
“Oh. Right.” Alex points to the window. “Kara, fetch.”
“I’m not a dog,” Kara grumbles as she opens the window and flies out to hover by the sill .
“Then how come all your villains call you a bitch?”
“You’re lucky you’re my sister.”
With that, Kara takes off, leaving Cat and Alex alone together. Cat returns to the table and nurses her orange juice. A good host would offer her guest something to drink as well, but this visit is making the pregnancy seem that much more real. She needs to collect herself once more to avoid worrying Kara.
“So, you and my sister.”
“You act like you didn’t know we were dating.”
“I mean, I knew that. I just… I didn’t know it was serious.”
“She didn’t mention that?”
“Well, no. I mean, she mentions you all the time, like to the point that I want to puke, but I must have not been listening that well.”
“Yes, your sister is quite important. We plan on keeping the child.”
Before Alex responds, Kara swoops inside and deposits a small kit into Alex’s lap. “I think I got everything important. Oh! And I found a Snickers bar in your top drawer, and I kinda took that, too. I ate it. Sorry.”
“You’re not even sorry at all,” Alex grumbles. She assesses the equipment and nods. “This’ll be fine for now. I’d like to draw blood to run some tests. Thankfully, our oven here is the human and not the Kryptonian, so this’ll be quick and pretty painless.”
Cat sits still as Alex readies a needle and wipes down the crook of her elbow. As Alex ties the rubber-band around her arm and instructs her to clench her fist a few times, her stomach rolls. She has no fears, at least none she’s willing to admit to, but hypodermic needles make her distinctly uncomfortable. Kara notes the tightening of her jaw and takes her free hand. Thumb stroking the back of Cat’s hand, she initiates a vapid conversation with Alex, as if she has no idea what Cat is feeling and isn’t doing this to ease her anxiety. Cat appreciates the effort, however poorly executed.
Alex expertly inserts the point, and Cat’s grip tightens just an iota. Watching quietly, Cat takes slow, steady breaths as her viscous blood slowly fills the tube. She’s long outgrown fainting and fits of anxious temper, but monitoring her breathing can only do so much. Her heart races of its own accord until Alex removes the needle and presses a cotton ball to the pinprick where the needle pierced her skin.
“You want a Hello Kitty Band-Aid?”
Kara whaps her sister unceremoniously on the back of the head. “Alex! No cat puns! Please! I told you.”
“What’s she going to do to me, huh? She can’t fire me, and she can’t break up with me.”
The banal argument gives Cat the requisite time to come back to herself. “I’m sure there are still many venues through which I can make your life miserable.”
Alex must hear the threat in her voice because she lifts her hands and laughs. Then, she notices the needle is out and about, so she caps the tip and sets it inside a secure case. The rest of Alex’s visit is full of stethoscopes, thermometers, and tiny lights designed to peer into human crevasses, and Cat isn’t the slightest bit sorry when Alex runs out of toys to test on her.
“Okay. Well, bare minimum I’ve got some baselines I can test against later. You better call Mom before tonight because I will be contacting her for a consultation tomorrow morning.”
“Alex!” Kara pouts, but Cat bets Alex is mostly immune to the expression by now. “You can’t just put a timeline on forcing me to tell Mom the news.”
“Look, Kara. If this were just about introducing Cat to the family, I’d stay out of this. But you want your baby to be healthy, don’t you? Then stop being flighty and just tell her.”
“You know, this is a weird conversation to have with you,” Kara considers. “Normally, I’m you, and you’re me.”
Alex grins crookedly. “Finally, I get to be the big sister.”
“You know I’m technically older than you. And,” Kara adds, grinning wolfishly, “so very much taller.”
“That’s not fair. You float every time we do a measurement. You’re a cheater. A short, short cheater.”
Cat ignores the rest of their banter and gathers her belongings. “Kara, you’re still expected at work on time.”
“Sleeping with the boss, and you don’t get any benefits?”
“Alex!”
She shuts the door on their laughter and rides her personal elevator down to her waiting car in silence. This will work out, and she is genuinely excited about the prospect of a mini-Kara running around their home. Well, she hopes her home will become their home. She isn’t sure if Kara will want to maintain some independence. Having a child doesn’t necessarily mean their lives have to merge. She realizes she’s fooling herself. She doubts Kara would say no to her over anything, least of all moving in.
This seems a bit fast, in retrospect. Her previous liaisons were glacial in comparison. It took two years before she considered living with Adam’s father and just short of that for Carter’s. She called it needing personal space, but she recognizes now that she simply wasn’t interested in those men. Kara is just special.
----
Kara closes her eyes tightly as the phone rings several times. Cat strokes a few fingers down her back, one of the few caring gestures she’d learned from her mother. She isn’t sure why Kara is so nervous; she’s never thought anything of meeting a partner’s parents or the reverse. Sure, there’s some hesitation about submitting anyone to the elder Grant’s derisive wit, but if a significant other wilted in front of her mother, that person wouldn’t have been a good fit in the long run away.
Cat smiles, knowing Kara’s already faced her mother down and lived to tell the tale.
Putting the phone on speaker, Kara barely gets a greeting out before Eliza interjects, “Are you okay?”
“Oh, yeah. Fine. Why?”
“You don’t usually call.”
“Oh.” Kara rubs the back of her neck. “Well, I’m totally good. Better than good, actually. You know how I said I was sort of seeing Cat?”
“She didn’t propose did she? Are you getting married?”
Cat entertains the fantasy for a moment, picturing Kara in a delicate dress hemmed with lace and adorned with pearls. She makes eye contact with Kara and wonders if the younger woman is thinking something similar. They ought to get married. Perhaps not now with the baby on the way, but she’d enjoy the weight of a ring on her finger as a reminder of Kara’s love.
“No, not yet.” Kara flashes her a shy smile.
“You’re moving in together?”
“Eliza, you’re going to be a grandmother.”
There’s a beat of silence, and Cat wonders whether Eliza will be delighted, flabbergasted, or horrified.
“I haven’t even met her.”
“Hello,” Cat says.
“Wait.”
Kara grimaces. “For what?”
“Is your Cat… Cat Grant?”
“Um, yes? I thought you knew?”
“I never thought you’d be dating your boss!”
“Believe me, that wasn’t planned.”
“You got your boss pregnant?” Eliza’s voice pitches up.
“That’s why I’m calling. You should really meet her.”
“And you want me to be there for the pregnancy.”
“Like, you don’t have to take off work or anything, but if you could be the doctor for the big stuff?”
“I’d appreciate your assistance,” Cat adds. “You seem to be the foremost expert in Kryptonian-human hybrid babies.”
There’s a moment of elongated silence before Eliza says, “Of course. I’ll be on a plane as soon as I can.”
Kara sighs as soon as the call ends, and Cat pulls her in for a brief embrace. They’ve been out at work since the HR incident, but she still likes to keep a professional front. From the look in Kara’s eyes, she understands perfectly. Cat likes that about her, along with a million other little things.
“Ready to meet Eliza?”
“Yes.” She speaks with full confidence, not only as an honest response but as a comfort for Kara. “Anytime.”
“She’ll probably show up at my apartment in a day or so.”
Cat pauses. “She asked if you were moving in with your girlfriend.”
Kara flushes. “I’m sorry. She--”
“Are you?”
“...What?”
“Are you moving in with me?”
“Are you asking me to move in with you?”
“Well?”
“Are you sure? Is this just because…?”
Cat touches her wrist, fingers feather-light. “This is partially because of our child, yes, but I would have asked sooner or later anyway.”
“Carter?”
“He loves you.”
“I want to,” Kara replies slowly. “But I want to talk to him first. If that’s okay?”
Cat kisses her and hustles her back to work. “Of course. That’s more than okay. Thank you for considering his needs.”
Kara smiles and slips away. Cat sits back at her desk, feeling very at-ease and comfortable. She’s sure Carter will consent. They’ll tell him about the baby, let him help choose a name, and hopefully, live happily ever after.