Chapter Text
“God, it’s like kicking a puppy,” Cat muttered under her breath and turned back around. Her heels clicked against the pavement as she hurried down the sidewalk toward the slumped form of the young blonde sitting on the steps.
“Come on then, let’s get you inside.”
Large sad eyes looked up at her from a perfectly beautiful face and Cat had trouble keeping the mask of thinly-veiled annoyance fixed on her features.
“No really, I’m okay, I wouldn’t want to –“
Cat rolled her eyes and interrupted her. “We’re both wasting time, and if there is one thing I do not have right now, it is time, so get up and stop pretending you’re some kind of street urchin trying to sell matchsticks.”
Kara immediately jumped to her feet at the command and Cat raised an inquisitive eyebrow. Interesting.
She started walking without another glance in the other woman’s direction and soon enough she heard footsteps catching up to her. The shoes on Kara’s feet were obviously outdated but they looked newly purchased. Who in the world dressed like a fifties housewife in this day and age? Cat rolled her eyes again, something she felt would become a habit if she didn’t stop soon. Or kept different company.
Her apartment was only two blocks away so she silently hurried down the sidewalk, glancing at her watch repeatedly. She was going to be late for her appointment with the head of the City Cleaning Department, but then again he wasn’t a terribly interesting or busy man, so it shouldn’t turn out to be a big problem. Despite the fact that she’d been given the most yawn-inducing topic anyone could think of, she would make it a smashing success, if it was the last thing she did.
But judging by the way her day was going, it may as well be. She glanced over at the other woman beside her who quickly averted her eyes as if she’d been staring. Cat smothered a small smirk and rounded the corner. Almost there.
One more left turn and a small flight of stairs took her to the entrance of her apartment building. Not exactly prime estate, but she would make do, just as she always had. She fished her keys out of her pocket and unlocked the door. A small noise from her companion made her pause and she narrowed her eyes. “What? If you’ve got something to say, say it, I don’t speak puppy.”
Kara opened her mouth a few times, as if trying to decide what her next words should be. “You… you live here?”
“No, I just like to collect keys from random buildings in Metropolis… of course, I live here.”
Kara hunched her shoulders and mouthed something like an apology.
They quickly made their way down the corridor, Cat checking her mailbox as she was walking by, and ascended the stairs to the second floor. Her apartment wasn’t exactly huge, but by Metropolis standards it was fairly nice. Not that she couldn’t afford anything bigger, or nicer, but she would rather drop dead than ask her mother for money.
Cat tossed her coat and bag onto the small table in the living room and glanced over her shoulder to see Kara slowly tiptoeing into the apartment.
“I’d say make yourself at home, but I would prefer it if you didn’t leave any traces at all. My bedroom is off limits, of course, but you may use the kitchen, bathroom and such. If you use something up, replace it.”
Kara was nodding along to her words, blue eyes darting from one corner of her apartment to the next.
It had a semi-open living room with a couch, television, armchair – the usual, and an adjoining kitchen with a breakfast bar. Her bedroom was off to the right and the guest room was next to it.
Right now it was her home office, but she could remove a few things for a little while until her unexpected houseguest left.
“The DMV is only a few blocks from here. Ask for Matthew and tell him I sent you, he owes me. That way you can start tomorrow without having to wait for your replacement documents to come in.”
Cat was whirling around the apartment while she spoke, grabbing a few things here and there, putting them in her purse and quickly changing her shoes and blazer. After a brief look in the mirror she was ready to leave. “I’ll see you tonight, try not to break anything.”
She was about to head out the door when a warm hand against her arm stopped her. She froze in place for a second and slowly looked down at slender fingers curled around her biceps before trailing her eyes up to look at Kara, who immediately blushed and let go.
“I… thank you, for everything. I wouldn’t have known what to do without you.”
“Yeah, I’m sure that’s true, but now you owe me,” Cat replied with a raise of her eyebrows before she whipped around and finally strode out of her apartment, slamming the door in her wake.
-S-S-S-
- 24 Hours Earlier -
The last thing she remembered seeing was Non’s smiling face as he pulled the lever. Somewhere in the distance Alex was calling her name, but the white light that engulfed her drowned out every sound, every miniscule movement of air around her. It was as if she was floating in blinding nothingness.
Was this what death felt like?
Kara closed her eyes, welcoming the darkness, and focused on the faces of her family and friends flashing through her head, ending with the disapproving scowl of one Cat Grant. She would be so pissed if those layouts weren’t on her desk tomorrow morning.
Suddenly everything seemed to be rushing again, the air around her became a turbulent whirlwind and when Kara opened her eyes she was surrounded by colors and shapes moving too fast for her to pin down. It was making her nauseous and she reached up to clamp a hand over her mouth.
It felt like the constant movement would never stop when she hit something solid with her shoulder. It wasn’t a terribly painful sensation but she still groaned at the impact because everything had stopped around her while her head was still whirling.
Opening and closing her eyes rapidly brought her some sense of her position and she realized that she was on the ground, one side of her body cold and wet.
Gasping lightly Kara drew much-needed air into her lungs and pushed herself into a sitting position. The world was still tilting on its axis around her but she was eventually able to figure out that she was in some dark alley, right next to a smelly dumpster, the ground was wet and the air was charged as if a thunder storm had just passed by. It was night, so at least half a day must’ve gone by since her fight with Non.
Her entire body felt sluggish, almost as if she was moving in slow-motion but the rapid pounding of her heart forced her to her feet. Looking down at herself she realized that she was still in her Supergirl suit. What had Non done to her?
She shook her arms briefly, trying to rid herself of the last tremors still passing through her body before she launched herself into the air. The cold wind felt good against her skin even though she was still struggling with flying in a straight line. Kara had to find Alex, she’d know what was wrong.
So her first stop was her apartment, just in case Alex was waiting there. She zipped between the darkened buildings, heading straight for the open window of her apartment, only to stop short when she saw lights in the living room. Her brow furrowed as she drifted closer and watched with growing horror how a family she’d never seen in her life was sitting in front of a small tube TV in her living room. Which didn’t look like her living room at all.
All of her stuff was gone and replaced with furniture she’d never seen before.
“What the…?”
The family didn’t appear threatening or like they didn’t belong. Maybe she had confused the story? Or even the building?
After flying up and down a few times Kara came to the conclusion that, no, she wasn’t wrong and, yes, this was definitely her building and her apartment. Just… not quite.
Okay, something was obviously off.
“Oh god, please no alternate universe stuff,” she mumbled.
Kara stretched her arm forward and took off in the direction of CatCo Plaza, since it was closer than the DEO base. Hopefully Winn and James had an idea what was going on.
Her thoughts where a complete mess as she gently landed on the roof of the building and she took a deep breath to calm herself before tilting her head just so, listening to the sounds from beneath tons of concrete.
She couldn’t make out Winn or James anywhere in the building.
S-S-S
“Oh my god, oh my god, oh my god.”
Kara was pacing up and down the empty desert road, burying her hands in her hair.
No DEO, no Alex, no James and no Winn. The place where the headquarters of the DEO used be was nothing but a piece of dry, empty land somewhere in the middle of the desert.
What could’ve possibly happened here? How was she going to find out without any help? It was as if all of her family and friends had been erased from the face of this planet without a trace. Even trying to listen for their familiar voices for more than an hour had proven useless.
Kara’s heart immediately sped up as she gazed up to the stars. What if Non had managed to change this reality? Perhaps the electric waves from the machine the DEO had picked up had something to do with this? Another parasite?
She had to find out somehow. Kara took a few calming breaths, closing her eyes briefly to imagine Alex in her mind’s eye telling her to calm down and go about this rationally. If she’d learned one thing working for the DEO and for Cat Grant it was that she needed to remain level-headed before she charged into a situation.
She needed a plan, but first of all she needed information, so she took off again. The dust was whirling underneath her feet as she pushed her body into the air and quickly returned to the city.
The National City library was still open as she landed atop the building. Here she could easily find out if she was indeed trapped in an alternate reality without disturbing anyone else.
She was about to simply waltz into the library when she realized that she was still in her Supergirl outfit and didn’t have any clothes to change into, or her glasses. And since her apartment was currently otherwise occupied, she couldn’t just rush over there and grab a few things.
Kara bit her lip thoughtfully and narrowed her eyes. She normally didn’t condone stealing, not at all, but this was an emergency and she was only borrowing a few pieces for a couple of hours.
Within the blink of an eye she had jumped back into the air and zipped down to a dry-cleaner at the corner. Looking around, she squeezed the lock at the back door until it popped and slipped inside. The entire thing took less than half a minute until she was dressed in black pants, a blouse and cardigan. It would have to do for now.
She tied her hair back into its customary bun as she hurried across the street toward the library. Without her glasses she felt somehow naked, but there was nothing she could do to change that. Instead she straightened her shoulders and headed toward the main entrance of the building. She made her way inside and nodded toward the elderly librarian who seemed to be almost asleep behind the desk.
It would probably be for the best to start looking at important events to see what might have changed and if some things were still the same. She remembered glancing at today’s newspaper and seeing some report about Lord Technologies’ newest product.
She snatched a daily newspaper from one of the tables, noting that none of the headlines seemed to match up. Then her eyes swept across the date in the corner.
1990.
Kara gulped and sank down into a nearby chair that creaked quietly under her weight. Was this real? Had she traveled twenty-five years back in time?
It wasn’t completely insane, not since Barry had suddenly appeared from an alternate universe.
If it was really true, Alex would be just a baby and she had no idea if J’onn had already arrived on earth. Even so, he would still be a refugee trying to remain hidden while the real Hank Henshaw might have already started hunting down aliens.
There was only one way to go about this: she had to find Kal-El.
Kara slapped the newspaper onto the table and got up from the chair with determination but cringed when it scraped against the floor, making an obscenely loud noise in the otherwise quiet library. The elderly woman at the front desk whipped her head up and looked around for a few seconds before fixing a glare on Kara, who raised her hands in silent apology.
She left the library as quietly as she had entered. She wasn’t so sure she was up to this without her friends at CatCo and the DEO at her back. But if one thing was certain, then it was that Alex was doing her utmost from the other side – the future, Kara reminded herself – to bring her back. So even if she couldn’t solve this on her own, chances were pretty good that she didn’t have to.
Kara speed-walked into a nearby alley and, with a glance over her shoulder, propelled herself into the nightly sky once again, toward Metropolis.
She hoped that this would be over soon and she could return to her own time, because otherwise it would become very lonely very quickly without a friendly face in sight.
S-S-S
Kara straightened her shoulders and brushed her fingers across the soft material of her cardigan, scowling slightly at the reminder of her own criminal moment.
The building underneath her feet was bustling with activity and she’d listened to some news reports for a while until deciding that it was time for her to go in. She’d done this before, walking into the den of the lion, or in the case of Cat Grant, the lioness. She only had to pretend that she belonged and knew what she was doing. So long as no one became suspicious of her she was fairly certain that she could move through the building and even ask a few questions here and there.
She reached up to adjust her glasses but her fingers curled around nothing so she shook out her hands and moved her head around to loosen the tense muscles in her neck.
“Okay, I can do this.”
With straight shoulders and a self-assured gait, Kara made her way down the stairs into the bustling offices of the Daily Planet.
As she’d expected none of the other frazzled employees paid her any mind and she managed to walk past usually very inquisitive reporters without being spared a second glance.
She was about to search for her cousin when a friendly female voice stopped her. “Oh hello there, you must be new here?”
Kara turned around to find a short, rotund woman with blonde hair smiling brightly at her. “I’m Betsy. You’re looking for Mr. Tate, aren’t you?”
“Uh… no, I mean, actually I was just about to…” Kara jerked her thumb in the other direction.
“Oh don’t be shy, dear, we’ve all been through it. Once you get to know Mr. Tate a little better he isn’t as scary.”
Betsy grabbed Kara’s arm with surprising strength and more or less dragged her past a few desks toward a brown door.
Betsy knocked briefly and opened the door without waiting for a reply. “Go on in, sweetheart, he won’t bite.”
With a little push against the small of her back, Kara basically stumbled into the office and jumped when the door was slammed shut. Her eyes quickly darted from the windows on one end of the room to the other side where a large mahogany bookshelf took up most of the space. It wasn’t like Cat’s office at all, instead of being open and sunny it felt stuffy and dark. The giant wooden desk and black leather chair behind it pretty much spoke for themselves.
The air smelled of cigarette smoke and the man, Mr. Tate apparently, in the leather chair was in the process of lighting another cigarette when his dark eyes looked up, slowly trailing from Kara’s shoes up to her face.
“My, aren’t you a pretty little thing?”
Kara couldn’t suppress the shudder of revulsion that ran through her body at the older man’s stare. He looked like a sleek loan shark from one of these old black and white movies Alex liked to watch. From the suit and tie right down to the gelled hair, he fit the mould perfectly.
“Why don’t you have a seat and tell me a bit about yourself.”
Not wanting to attract any more unnecessary attention, Kara slowly walked over to the chairs and sat down. She found herself looking up to be able to see Mr. Tate perched behind his desk.
“I…uhm… just moved into the city actually, and I’m not sure I should be here.”
Mr. Tate’s smile widened and there was some kind of happy glimmer in his beady little eyes. “Quite the opposite I think. What’s your name?”
“Kara Danvers,” she automatically answered, only cursing herself after the fact for giving her real name.
“I think you’ll fit right in Miss Danvers,” Mr. Tate replied and grinned. He got up from his chair and Kara immediately rose to her feet, not wanting him tower over her even more. He rounded his desk and reached out to shake her hand with both of his.
His grip as a too tight and too moist and Kara cringed silently, wishing for this to be over and done with.
“I’m sure you’ll be an asset to the company,” Mr. Tate drawled, his eyes once again wandering across her body and leaving the feeling of a very unwelcome phantom touch. He led her back to the door, his hands still holding onto her all the way, until he let go and opened the door to peer outside.
“I’m sure someone can show you around… oh, Cat come over here for a moment,” he called and a blonde woman turned around to face them as Kara emerged from the office.
Suddenly her heart stuttered in her chest and it was as if most of the oxygen had been sucked out of the air. Was this what a panic attack felt like? She’d never experienced anything like it before.
A moment later Cat Grant stood in front of her, but not the Cat Grant she saw almost every day in the office, no, this was Cat Grant at twenty-five years old.
Cat’s eyes were trained on Mr. Tate and she was clearly displeased by being summoned like that.
“Why don’t you show Miss Danvers around Cat, she just got into the city, I’m sure you gals have something to yap about.”
With that Mr. Tate cut his eyes one last time over at Kara and disappeared back into his office, leaving her standing in front of Cat.
She was used to that scowl being directed her way, but knowing that Cat had already been able to scare the living daylights out of someone with a single glare even at her age made Kara more uncomfortable than she could’ve possibly imagined.
The encounter with her apparently new boss was all but forgotten as she stared, speechless.
Cat was wearing a micro-skirt and blazer combination – not exactly something the CatCo founder would be proud of twenty-five years later, Kara was sure. The most fascinating thing, however, was probably her darker blonde hair falling around her shoulders without the customary curls.
“Alright Keira,” Cat said, drawing out her name on purpose and causing Kara to flush, “despite what you might think, I’m not some kind of secretary here to waste my time with Tate’s new playthings.”
Kara wanted to feel indignant because she clearly heard the insult, but the largest part of her brain was still trying to compute the fact that Cat Grant was standing right in front her, calling her with the same false name as if nothing had changed.
Cat raised an eyebrow at Kara’s continued silence. “You’re a little slow on the uptake, aren’t you? God, no wonder Tate hired you on the spot.”
“I’m not actually,” Kara managed to answer, “and I wasn’t really here for any job.”
“Whatever,” Cat answered with a dismissive roll of her eyes. She turned around and stalked over to one of the desks scattered all around the open office space and grabbed a stack of papers which she promptly thrust into Kara’s arms. “Make three copies of each document, think you can do that? It should keep you at least busy for a while. Chop chop.”
Kara still stood rooted to the spot, folders cradled in her arms, long after Cat had grabbed her coat from a nearby chair and exited the office without a backwards glance.
“Oh my god.”
She blinked several times and it slowly began to feel like she was returning from this bizarre out-of-body experience. She glanced down at the folders in her arms and sighed. What now? Taking orders from Cat Grant had become almost second nature, but this time she wasn’t actually here for a job.
Kara frowned at the folders and looked up when someone walked past her, someone who looked surprisingly familiar. Lois Lane.
She quickly hurried after Lois until she was almost walking beside her. “Miss Lane?”
Lois stopped and glanced over her shoulder at Kara. She appeared only marginally less hostile than Cat. She was wearing a similar blazer and slacks combination in black with white dots all over and Kara almost smiled at what Cat would say if she could see it. Well, the Cat in twenty-five years at least.
“Yes?”
“I…uh…I was looking for Clark…Kent?”
Lois’ eyes narrowed at the mention of Clark’s name and she brushed a stray lock of shoulder-length black hair aside. “He’s called in sick for a few days. He doesn’t respond to calls, so I wouldn’t get my hopes up, he does that disappearing act from time to time. And that’s exactly why he isn’t going to make it as a journalist.”
“Oh, alright, thank you,” Kara answered and took a small step back.
She remembered Clark telling her that his and Lois’ relationship had started off pretty rocky, but he hadn’t exactly mentioned how rocky.
“Sure,” Lois answered and glanced down at her watch before dismissing Kara with a nod and heading down the hallway to the elevators.
Kara sighed quietly and looked at the folders in her arms, contemplating her next move. If Clark was out in the world somewhere, preventing some disaster, it would probably make the most sense if she’d wait for him to return, rather than risking to expose herself.
“Oh looks like you got the job,” a chirpy voice sounded from behind Kara and she turned around.
“Congratulations,” Betsy added with a bright smile and Kara managed a small smile in return.
“Thanks. You wouldn’t happen to know where the copy machines are, would you?”
S-S-S
“What do you mean you don’t have any identification?” Cat asked, and just in case her voice didn’t clearly transport her displeasure, she had her hands on her hips and one of her patented scowls on her face.
But the moment those sad sad eyes looked at her and the girl nervously started to fumble her words and reached up to her face but then lowered her hand and cradled it against her stomach made Cat briefly reconsider her harsh tone. But only very briefly.
“I… I just moved to the city, and uh, my suitcase was stolen, and it had all of my… stuff in it.”
Cat huffed and lifted a hand to massage her forehead with her fingertips. Only because she’d been in the wrong place at the wrong time was she responsible for Tate’s brand-new, fresh-faced little secretary. And now the girl didn’t have anything with her they could put on file, HR would not be pleased.
“Okay, well, it can’t be changed now, make sure to take care of this in the afternoon, do you understand? I just do not have the time to deal with you today. You can go home.”
The girl looked almost relieved when she jumped to her feet and hurried away from Cat’s desk, Cat’s gaze thoughtfully trailing after her. There was something about this girl, but Cat wasn’t sure what exactly it was and the fact that she just couldn’t put her finger on it would probably get to her in the future. Usually she could read people as easily as the morning paper. If you’d made your way through college with half of the staff and students hating your family or your mother, or both, you quickly learned to distinguish friend from foe.
Cat shook her head and returned to the files on her desk, longingly gazing at Tate’s office at the far end of the room. One day she wouldn’t have to work among all the other minions and their incessant noise and chatter. One day she’d have her own office, bigger than Tate’s, bigger than Perry’s even, and she would make every single one of her employees fall silent with a flick of her wrist.
With a quiet sigh, Cat returned to her work, preparing her upcoming interview with the city’s Cleaning Department. She knew Perry had hired her for her journalistic eye and stamina, so it was really about time he returned to work so she could show him how brilliant she actually was. That would at least get Tate off her back and she could focus on writing the things she was interested in, not this mind-numbing blather.
It took about an hour before she had finished up and was ready to leave the office. She double-checked all of her materials before casting one last glance at her orderly desk. Happy that everything seemed to be taken care of, she sauntered through the large room, ignoring the eyes she knew were following her from the other desks, and entered the elevator. Thankfully it was empty.
She hated riding the elevator, it meant being at close quarters with other people, who were smelly and loud and just simply irritating. The doors dinged open and Cat quickly crossed the entrance hall and stepped out into the sunlight.
She tilted her face toward the warmth and exhaled a quiet breath at her moment of peace. Only to be interrupted by the sight of a hunched form sitting on the steps of the Daily Planet. What the hell was the girl still doing here?
Cat worked her jaw and approached the new girl, about to berate her for lounging around on the steps like a homeless person. Rather than sitting around doing nothing, she could be in the middle of sorting out the whole stolen suitcase affair, a story which didn’t exactly add up to begin with.
Only about an hour later, Cat was once again standing in the sun, this time in front of her apartment building, glancing up at the blue sky and wondering how she had gone from a verbal whipping to having a temporary roommate. Certainly not one of her most glorious moments, but then again, not even the most heartless person could kick a puppy when it was already on the ground. Right?
S-S-S
“I don’t know, I haven’t heard from them either. How do we find out what happened?”
James was pacing up and down the small computer room, their private little headquarters at CatCo, his long legs preventing him from taking more than three steps in each direction.
Winn was slumped at his desk, staring at the empty computer screen. “Something must have gone wrong, otherwise Kara would be back by now. Maybe you should call Alex again.”
“I’ve called her about fifty times in the last thirty minutes,” James answered, “she knows we’re trying to reach her.”
Just then his cell phone rang and he basically jumped to grab it from where it was sitting on the desk. He snatched it up and shot a worried glance at Winn before holding it to his ear.
“Is Kara alright?”
There was a moment of silence before James raised a hand to rub it across his forehead, his entire body tensing. “No, she hasn’t shown up at work and we haven’t heard from her since this morning. Okay, yes, I’ll let you know if I hear anything, okay, thanks.”
Winn stood from his chair and approached James slowly. “What? What happened?”
“Kara just… disappeared. They don’t know where she is.”
“Okay, so we should start looking for her,” Winn replied, already inching closer to his computer again.
“Yes, but where do we even start?”
“I think I might have an idea,” said a voice coming from the doorway, almost startling both men out of their respective skins.
Winn’s eyes were wide as he stared at his boss, who looked anything but pleased. “M-Miss Grant?”