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The tiniest decisions could have the biggest impacts.
Cat knew that, of course. She’d practically made her career off the premise. Start small. Build something solid then add a level. Reach for success in careful doses until you can gamble for the big one.
She’d also learned the lesson the hard way. One night at the office becomes two becomes ten. A few early mornings becomes a habit. Then suddenly your son is gone and you’re left with nothing but the cold company of an empty building.
Which is why she shouldn’t be surprised now. It isn’t as if she hadn’t seen something like this coming right from the start. She’d tried to tell Kara it wouldn’t work but the girl was too damn optimistic. And now here they are.
“I wasn’t flirting, dammit” she tries again for the tenth time. Hoping this time Kara will believe her. “We were discussing a potential investment deal over drinks, that does not make it a date.”
“You weren’t wearing your ring!” Kara fires right back. “And since when do you have investment meetings at Providence? That’s where you took me when you proposed, Cat. It’s not a business restaurant.”
“For God’s sake, are you even listening? I didn’t make the reservations! He did, and I wasn’t about to insist we abandon them. I like Providence. In case you missed it, I have some very fond memories of the place, particularly the moment you said ‘yes’ and knocked over two waiters in your excitement.”
Cat knows fighting back isn’t the right answer here, but staying calm hasn’t done much to help either and she’s not the type to sit back forever when someone is yelling at her. If it were anyone but Kara she’d have snapped a long time ago.
“Even if that’s the case it doesn’t explain the ring. And the way he was looking at you, do you honestly expect me to believe you left it at home? You haven’t taken it off since I put it there, Cat. Except for the one night you just happen to be meeting an investor that looks at you like you could be wife number five?” That’s the clearest accusation of the night, and Cat rears back in anger heavily mixed with hurt.
“Do you honestly think I would ever choose someone over you?” She asks coldly, anger burning so hot it feels like ice. “I have sat by your side when you’ve been beaten unconscious, I have fought by your side against every threat that comes our way. I stood before my god, your god, and our families and swore to love you through good times and bad. And I have never once backed down on that promise. So if you’re going to accuse me of something you damn well better have a reason to back it up.”
Any other day and Cat knows Kara would back down so they could actually talk about this rather than rely on screamed accusations. Their fights aren’t common but they have happened. They’re a normal part of two people living together and in the past they’ve always worked through their problems eventually.
Tonight it doesn’t seem like eventually will be happening any time soon and for the first time since Kara finally put that ring on her finger she’s afraid.
“You were a reporter. You tell me what you’d think if you saw me sitting in a fancy romantic restaurant with a guy looking a little too interested. If I was laughing and having a good time all while not wearing my ring. It’s a damning picture, Cat.”
Kara sounds like she’s already made her mind up, and Cat knows she’ll have to be completely truthful if she wants to make it out of this still married. Kara’s always said Kryptonians don’t have divorce but she doesn’t want to test that particular fun fact after this fight.
“I wasn’t wearing the ring because I lost it,” she admits, hating every word. She knows how much that ring meant to Kara and she’s been searching all day trying to find where it was.
She doesn’t remember taking it off because Kara’s right. She never takes it off. The alloys won’t rust or take damage, so there’s no reason. And it fits perfectly, not loose enough to fall off and not tight enough to restrict blood flow. There’s absolutely no reason it should be anywhere but on her finger and yet it isn’t there.
“You...you lost the ring?” Kara echoes, looking more devastated than Cat had anticipated. “The ring made from my mother’s necklace?”
“Yes, and I swear I’ve been looking, Kara. I swear. I retraced my steps all afternoon and it was nowhere. I was going to tell you when I got home, but then I got the call about a possible investment for the Tribune and I got sidetracked.” God she hates this, hates the look on her wife’s face. It’s why she never takes it off. She’s lost wedding rings before, gone through the screaming matches that followed as her ex husbands accused her of not caring about their marriage.
They’d been right, but this time was different. This time she does care and it’s killing her inside.
Kara doesn’t say another word and Cat steps hesitantly to her side. The silence is worse than the yelling and Cat wants desperately to wave her hand and fix this. Go back to whatever moment in time she took the ring off and smack some sense into her past self. She hates that she can’t even remember when it happened. She’d just looked down and it was gone.
“Kara, darling, are you okay?” Cat asks when the silence stretches on. “Talk to me, please?”
“I almost wish you had been cheating on me,” Kara says eventually, distantly. She won’t look at Cat, no matter that her words are slowly shattering a heart barely mended after years of disappointments. “My mother’s necklace, Cat. The last thing I had of her. Of my planet.”
Cat knows all this. She can remember clearly what Kara said as she slipped the ring on her finger at their wedding. “Keep it safe for me.” The same thing she’d whispered every time she handed it to Cat or Alex before a major fight. And now Cat had let her down.
“I was going to ask Winn to run a scan for the metal type,” Cat says, the words spilling from her quickly as she tries to find the magic combination that will ease Kara’s pain. She’s so bad at this part of relationships, at making things right with the people she loves. It’s so much easier to throw resources at a problem until it goes away but she knows Kara doesn’t care about that. She cares about the effort. “I don’t know where it is, Kara, but I’m going to find it.”
Kara just nods, still not looking at Cat. And there’s the sneaking suspicion at the edge of Cat’s mind that she won’t, not until the ring is found.