Chapter Text
“Thanks for coming.”
Lucy Lane gave Kara a puzzled smile as she stepped into the warm glow of her apartment. It was late, National City having descended into darkness hours ago. Lucy itched to be back at the DEO finishing up her reports, but when Kara had called, asking for a friend, she’d been unable to refuse, personally or professionally.
“No problem.” Lucy glanced around the apartment curiously, startled to find Kara in sweatpants and a t-shirt. Hair swept back in a messy ponytail, glasses conspicuously missing, and devoid of makeup, Kara looked even younger, like a college co-ed cramming for finals. Chinese takeout boxes littered the coffee table and an empty gallon of ice cream sat forgotten on the kitchen counter. Someone had been comfort eating. “That kind of weekend, huh?”
Kara closed the door and motioned for Lucy to sit on the couch. “Any word on Alex and J’onn?”
Lucy shook her head as she settled in while Kara took a seat on the opposite end. Drawing her knees up to her chest, Kara snuggled against the arm, facing Lucy. “Your sister is proving to be a very talented fugitive, much to my father’s frustration.”
A small, proud smile shaped Kara’s lips. “I get the impression no one at the DEO is looking all that hard.”
“Too bad the other agencies out there don’t have anything better to do. Have you heard from her?”
Kara shook her head and sighed, looking more than a little miserable.
“Miss her?” Lucy guessed.
“Every day. Especially right now.”
“Is that why I’m here?” Lucy asked gently, flattered that Kara would consider her as an alternative. The bond between the Danvers sisters was something she privately envied, considering her own strained relationship with Lois.
Kara nodded, her gaze on her hands which lay linked and still in her lap. “I normally wouldn’t bother you with something like this, but I… I really need to talk to someone.”
Leaning forward, Lucy put her hand on one of Kara’s socked feet and squeezed, and Kara gave her a small, grateful smile. “Am I here as the director of the DEO or as a friend?”
“Both, I think.” Kara took a deep breath. “Something… something happened last night, and I have spent nearly the last 24 hours obsessing over it.”
“Okay.” Lucy frowned. “Is this something personal or is the cape attached?”
A fraction of a grin ghosted over Kara’s face at the description before it disappeared. “Both,” she said again.
“You didn’t report in with any issues last night. I thought you went home after the fire.”
“It’s…” Kara lifted her hands before dropping them helplessly to her knees. “It’s mostly personal, but I had the cape on at the time so…”
Mind running wild with the possibilities, Lucy wondered if the other woman had any idea how that sounded. “Kara, is this about James?”
Kara snorted unexpectedly. “This is definitely not about James. I wouldn’t have called you if it had been,” she added meaningfully.
“But it’s about somebody?”
“Have you ever… realized that you had feelings you didn’t know you had? Feelings you apparently buried so deep you were clueless they were there? Or maybe you convinced yourself what you were feeling couldn’t possibly be what it felt like, couldn’t possibly mean what you knew it did. Then something happens and it’s like… floodgates opening.”
Lucy studied her, trying to discern who they might be talking about. “What kind of feelings?”
Burrowing further into the couch, Kara sighed. “Very, very complicated feelings.” She was quiet for a moment and Lucy waited her out. “I know I’m not supposed to get involved with anyone without telling the DEO.”
Intrigue battled with duty. “Is that what this is? A notification?” Lucy asked. “Because there are some protocols…”
“Protocols. How romantic.” Kara bit her lower lip, worrying it with her teeth.
“So romance is involved?” Kara’s gaze skittered away, and Lucy had her answer.
“I think… last night… I realized I was… attracted… to someone close to me… maybe more than attracted.”
“But we’re not talking about James?”
Slowly, Kara shook her head, looking slightly chagrinned and embarrassed.
“Okay,” Lucy said again, but her mind began to feverishly work through the possibilities while considering the mountain of paperwork this was going to cause. Supergirl’s love life was sadly a national security concern. “Is it… Winn?”
Kara shook her head again.
“Someone at the DEO?”
“No.” Kara’s voice was soft.
“So someone at CatCo?”
Throat rippling around a rough swallow, Kara looked away, her gaze focusing once more on the hands in her lap.
There weren’t many options for Kara to choose from, but the person that popped into Lucy’s mind was the last one she would have expected, the last one Kara should have chosen. The idea seemed so absurd, Lucy almost didn’t voice it, but her gut told her she was right. “Kara, no.”
The younger woman’s face scrunched up as she put her hands over her features, trying to hide the blush Lucy could see crawling up her neck. “I know…” she whined, confirming Lucy’s fears.
“Kara, she’s your boss. She’s Cat freaking Grant!” Lucy was stating the obvious, but Kara apparently needed the reminder. “You really think you’re… what? In love with her?”
A sharp intake of breath was Lucy’s answer before Kara reluctantly dropped her hands and looked at her. “After last night? I’m really scared I might be. I’m really scared I’ve felt this way for a long time and convinced myself all I wanted was her praise, her mentorship.”
“You sure that’s not what this is now?”
“Oh yeah,” Kara said with the most conviction in her voice since Lucy arrived. “I don’t think I could have been any surer last night.”
“Tell me what happened.”
So Kara did. Haltingly, she confessed everything. Every moment. Everything Cat made her feel the night before. Lucy listened, surprised by how intimate it all sounded, how strangely… romantic. When Kara got to the moment on the balcony where she’d walked away, Lucy wasn’t sure if she was proud or disappointed. Maybe a little of both.
Kara watched her, biting her bottom lip again as she waited for Lucy to pass judgment.
“Can I ask you something?”
“Sure,” Kara sighed, but she sounded wary.
“Did you want to? Did you want to sleep with her?”
Kara’s blue eyes were bright when they met Lucy’s gaze. “Yes,” she admitted, the word barely a whisper.
“Do you still want to?”
Kara hesitated before nodding again. “I… haven’t been able to think about anything or anyone else.”
Lucy took a deep breath. “Nothing is ever easy with you, is it?”
Snorting softly, Kara rolled her eyes. “Alex would probably say the same thing.”
It felt like a compliment and Lucy took it as one. She squeezed Kara’s toes again in wordless comfort.
“It… feels good to tell someone. Thanks.”
“I’m honored you trust me with this. I don’t know that I approve of your choice, but I can understand it. Cat is… Cat is like the sun and we all just exist in her orbit. We’re all attracted to her in our own way.”
Smiling faintly at the comparison, Kara didn’t deny it. “Are you going to report this?” She didn’t sound upset, only resigned.
“There’s nothing to report. Not yet. But if and when there is, we’ll have to put it on the record,” Lucy admitted honestly. “If you two become… intimate,” Lucy’s brain nearly short circuited at the thought. National City was not ready for that magnitude of power couple. “Then we’ll revisit that topic.”
Kara fell silent, toying with the fraying edge of a blanket tossed over the back of her couch. Outside the open windows, Lucy smelled the hint of rain, and the night sky flickered as a streak of lighting crawled over the horizon.
“You really think me and Cat…?” Kara looked up at her then, hope and fear in equal measure in her gaze.
“I don’t know, Kara. You have a lot of obstacles in the way. Not the least of which is Supergirl and the difference in your ages.”
“I don’t care about that.”
“I guarantee you Cat does.”
Kara groaned dramatically. “One more complication. Add it to the pile.”
“Which shouldn’t be so hard to overcome for the woman who can leap tall buildings in a single bound.” Lucy offered her a reassuring smile. “If I’ve learned anything in this life, Kara, it’s that if something is meant to be, it finds a way.”
The first drops of rain began to tap invitingly against Kara’s windows, and a welcome breeze stirred the drapes.
“So what do I do?” Kara asked, making no move to close the windows against the coming storm.
“Can you walk away?” Lucy was blunt. If there was a time for Kara to stop whatever was happening between her and Cat, it was now.
Kara’s brow furrowed as she gave the question serious thought. “I don’t… I think that might kill me,” she admitted, and Lucy didn’t think she was exaggerating. “The thought of not having Cat in my life...”
“Then you have your answer, Kara.” Lucy suspected this would be the first of many of these conversations between them to come. She could only hope Cat wanted what Kara did, or there was a lot of heartache in the younger woman’s future. Lucy hated the thought of her hurting. She’d been through so damn much already.
Slowly, Kara took a deep breath, her shoulders squaring as the clarity she’d been seeking began to sink in. Lucy recognized the determined glint beginning to flicker in those blue eyes and she smiled against her better judgment.
“You know what you’re going to do?”
Kara nodded. “I need to ask Cat on a second date.”
****
Monday morning, Cat reluctantly stepped into her private elevator at CatCo. The doors closed almost silently and she took a moment to simply stare at her reflection in the cold metal, not sure who the woman was looking back at her. She certainly didn’t look like the Queen of All Media.
Her attire fit the part, of course, but her confidence was conspicuously MIA. She’d worked years to hone it into a lethal, sharp point, one she used to destroy anyone who might be out to bring her down, but in just one night, Kara Danvers had blunted everything.
And God help her, Cat would let her do it a thousand times over again.
The look in Kara’s eyes as they’d said goodnight had been Cat’s undoing. It had accomplished the unimaginable, unraveling her tightly held ethics about employer/employee relationships and scattering them in the summer wind. Everything about that night felt like a dream, and Cat suspected they could be frighteningly perfect for each other if there hadn’t been the gaping chasm in their ages.
Palms sweating, Cat finally smashed the up button on the elevator, determined to face the music. After a moment, the car lurched and started to climb, and Cat slipped her sunglasses back on, a shield so Kara wouldn’t see too much.
As annoying as her palms were, the butterflies in her stomach were worse. They stirred and fluttered nervously at the thought of seeing Kara again. Part of Cat couldn’t wait, desperate for a glimpse of blue eyes and that infectious smile, but the rest of her was terrified.
They would play their roles to perfection, Cat knew; they were too professional to do anything else, but what would be below the surface of the façade? Would Kara pretend nothing had happened between them, or would that heat still be there, that sinful, delicious warmth they’d shared on Cat’s balcony?
At the memory of the hunger she’d seen in Kara’s eyes, the butterflies took flight, harder and faster than before. The damn things felt like they had the wingspan of a Cessna.
“Knock it off,” Cat ordered and the metaphorical butterflies obeyed, but Cat knew they’d be back again and in short order.
It was ridiculous, getting this worked up over a woman half her age. Getting this worked up over anyone was out of character for her, and Cat was mildly annoyed at Kara for being so different, for being the exception to her nearly every rule.
The elevator signaled its arrival and Cat swallowed, willing an expression of bored disinterest on her face. She’d had plenty of practice.
When the doors parted, Cat spied Kara instantly, her assistant dredging up a nervous smile as she offered Cat her latte.
“Morning, Ms. Grant,” Kara greeted, a little too eagerly, but Cat noticed the younger woman was struggling to maintain eye contact.
“Morning, Kiera.” Cat took the cup, pleased her hands weren’t shaking, but when their fingers brushed, the butterflies really went to town. Cat tried to kill them all by taking a sip of her too hot coffee.
Kara pulled her hand back as if she’d been burned and adjusted her glasses. “Did you have a good weekend?” She looked like she regretted the questions as soon as it left her mouth.
Cat smiled slightly, Kara’s clear nerves strangely easing some of her own. “It was… better than average.” She brushed past her assistant but didn’t miss the twitch of Kara’s lips as she fought to keep a smile from forming. “You?” she called over her shoulder, knowing Kara would follow.
“Me? Um… it was… wonderful.”
Taking a quick breath, Cat cast her eyes heavenward, praying to whatever god she hadn’t thoroughly offended by now to keep a goofy, love-struck expression off her face at the remark. Honestly, this hormonal nonsense needed to stop.
Sauntering into her office, Cat noticed the pizza box and beer bottles were gone. Her cleaning crew had done their job, but she was oddly disappointed that the evidence of her evening with Supergirl has been tossed in the trash. It was as if it never happened, all traces of the superhero wiped from the room.
Well, almost all traces. Cat paused at her desk, turning around to find Kara standing there in the middle of the room staring at the cleared table as well, and the butterflies took flight again, virtually stampeding. Huffing in frustration with herself, she watched as Kara quickly straightened and met Cat’s gaze. “Any changes to my schedule I need to know about?”
“No. Everything seems to be… the same.”
Was that a hint of disappointment? Cat frowned, unsure what to say or do. She took another sip of her latte and regarded the younger woman. Kara was wearing a new sleeveless dress that showed off her toned arms, and the color was a deep, almost blood red. She looked… like temptation personified, Cat decided, which was accurate but unhelpful. Cat reluctantly turned away, slipping off her sunglasses and tossing them on her desk. “Someone is updating her wardrobe.”
“I…”
“Wherever you bought that number, Kiera, you should continue shopping there.” Cat sat down and booted up her laptop.
Glancing down at herself, Kara smiled, just a little, before looking back up at Cat. “Was that a compliment, Ms. Grant?”
“Hmm.” Cat fortified herself before looking at the younger woman again. The satisfied grin on Kara’s face was as sexy as it was adorable, and Cat knew she was going to get next to nothing done today if Kara was around to distract her. “I need you to get me the latest layouts and then I have a few errands for you to run.”
“Of course.” Kara stood there a moment, unsure. Cat knew exactly how she felt.
“Chop, chop.” The words were a little more cheerful than intended and as soon as Kara left the room, Cat rolled her eyes at herself.
“Stop acting like a lovesick fool,” she grumbled.
The description, her ego reminded her gleefully, was also accurate and entirely unhelpful.
****
“You owe me, Max.”
Kara’s hearing sharpened at the sound of Cat’s voice, raised in irritation. After two years, she’d developed a filter for it, her livelihood often depending on how quickly she could remove that particular pitch from her boss’ tone. Trapped in the elevator, there was little she could do but wait, but when she heard who Cat was talking to, the desire to get out and push got a hell of a lot stronger.
“Which is why I came in person to apologize.”
Max.
Maxwell Lord.
When the doors parted, Kara shot out of the elevator, nearly flying toward Cat’s office. Winn gave her a look as she blew past him, sending papers scattering, her expression less than friendly as she charged into Cat’s domain like she belonged there.
“Cat, I’d love nothing more than to be your arm candy tonight for this benefit, but I have to take care of something.”
“You need to take care of something so much you took the time to come here when a phone call would have sufficed?”
“What can I say?” Max smiled disarmingly. “You’re beautiful when you’re angry, and I needed a break. But I should be going. Work to do, protecting the city from aliens and all that.”
Kara cleared her throat, drawing their attention on her. When Max turned, he smiled knowingly, and Kara drew her shoulders back, ready to show him out personally if need be. Throwing him through the outside wall seemed like the fastest route.
Cat glared at him, but when she finally focused on her assistant, her anger shifted into something that sounded suspiciously like concern. “Kiera, what’s wrong?”
Kara took a deep breath, guessing her Sunny Danvers persona had slipped for something decidedly more homicidal. “Nothing, Ms. Grant. Do I need to reschedule your next appointment?” she asked pointedly, hoping Cat would play along.
“That won’t be necessary,” Cat said in a clipped tone. “He was just leaving.”
Max sauntered closer, ignoring Cat and eyeing Kara in a way that made her want a shower. “Kara,” he purred. “Looking lovely in red today. Of course, blue is really your color.” He stopped in front of her, lowering his voice conspiratorially. “Heard from your sister lately?”
Her fingers curled inward, balling into fists. Max might have actually cared, his tone indicated genuine curiosity and maybe even a hint of concern, but Kara didn’t give a damn. She wanted him far away from Alex and even farther away from Cat. “She’s none of your business.”
“Come on, Kara. We both know she’s been given the short end of the stick.”
Worried Cat might begin to connect Supergirl’s worries to Kara’s own, Kara adjusted her glasses and leveled a dangerous glare at Max. “I don’t want to know how you know that, but my sister is none of your business,” she reiterated. “Now, Ms. Grant has a full day. Either you leave or I call security.”
Cat was watching them, her keen eyes missing nothing and a curious frown on her lips.
Max loitered for a few seconds more, savoring Kara’s discomfort before her turned back to Cat and held out his hands in supplication. “Give your mother my regards.”
Cat growled and shoved open her door to her balcony as Max left, and Kara was torn between Cat’s upset and making sure Max got the hell out of CatCo. In the end, the pull toward Cat was stronger, and Kara followed her out on the balcony.
It was too bright and too hot, heat waves causing the concrete beneath their feet to shimmer, but Cat seemed oblivious. If anything, she was soaking it in, letting it fuel her ire. Kara approached her with caution, loathing Max even more for upsetting her.
“Ms. Grant? Are you alright?”
Cat said nothing, glaring out at the city but seeing none of it. Kara inched toward the rail, remembering just in time not to place her bare arm on it as she watched the older woman carefully. Max was right about one thing. Cat was beautiful when she was angry, the fire in her eyes adding an intensity to her looks that was nearly impossible to tear her gaze from, but the simmering rage boiling beneath the surface made Kara’s stomach hurt. She desperately wanted to touch her, to off comfort, but she didn’t dare.
“Ms. Grant?” she tried again.
“I should have known better.”
Kara swallowed, hating the hint of disappointment she detected in Cat’s brittle tone. “About?”
Cat lifted a hand and massaged her right temple. “A lesson for you, Kiera. Never depend on a man for anything.”
Kara snorted faintly and Cat looked at her in surprise. “If you mean Maxwell Lord, he’s…” Kara searched for the term. “I mean… I don’t even think of him as a man. Something to scrape off the bottom of my shoe, maybe.” Kara was rewarded with the flicker of a smile from Cat and it felt like the best victory she’d had all day. “Can I ask what he did?”
“We had a date.”
“Oh.” The word came out softly, like an exclamation of pain, which is exactly what it was.
Cat took a deep breath as she watched her, something in her eyes gentling at whatever expression she saw on Kara’s face. “Not a real date. More like… an arrangement. Max owed me a huge favor and I collected. Now it looks like he’s going to owe me two.”
“Oh,” Kara said again, a completely different inflection this time. She hoped her relief wasn’t manifesting in her voice. “Um… what was the arrangement?”
“The new National City Animal Sanctuary opens tonight. It’s a private benefit for the VIPs and donors.”
“I heard about the sanctuary. It sounds amazing.” She’d flown over it a few times to take a peek at how the park had been coming along, excited and proud to see such an expensive and expansive effort to protect endangered animals was happening in her city.
“It better be, considering the money CatCo donated to the cause.”
Kara smiled and risked teasing the other woman. “You had me worried there for a second.”
“You thought I was really dating Maxwell Lord?” Cat sniffed, but she eyed Kara now, her expression curious.
“My point. I thought you had infinitely better taste.”
Cat stared at her, and Kara’s body grew warmer in reaction. “It’s improving,” Cat said simply. “But still getting me into trouble.”
Clearing her throat, Kara resisted the urge to squirm.
“I did date Max for a time,” Cat admitted, letting her off the hook as she turned to focus on the city again. “Not one of my smarter decisions.”
“I really… don’t want to think about that,” Kara said sincerely, but Cat just slowly smiled, offering Kara a wicked grin that sent her hormones into overdrive. “Why ask Max if you don’t like him? You go to events alone all the time.”
“Not when my mother will be there.”
“Oh,” Kara said for the third time, understanding dawning.
“Oh,” Cat parodied, but her tone lacked its usual bite.
“So… you thought, as the most powerful woman in the city, that if you showed up with the most powerful man in the city…” Kara winced, beginning to understand.
“Spare me your thoughts on my brilliant plan, Kiera.” Cat sighed theatrically. “I suppose this is the universe’s way of evening the scales since I stood up what’s his name from that whatever movie two years ago. Karma took its sweet time with that one.”
“I’m sorry, Ms. Grant.”
Cat sighed again, and it sounded more genuine this time. “There’s an open bar. I’ll survive. I wasn’t exactly looking forward to the evening anyway. Max is pretty, but for such a genius he can be incredibly… dumb.”
A germ of an idea took hold, and Kara glanced sideways at her boss, wondering how Cat would react. The sanctuary sounded like the perfect place for a second date.
Before Kara could suggest it, Lucy’s voice crackled in Kara’s ear, alerting her to another Fort Rozz escapee down by the docks. Kara closed her eyes at the timing, but the sooner she dealt with the problem, the faster she could get back to Cat.
“I’m sorry, Ms. Grant,” she said again, backing toward the door. “I just remembered this thing… I have to…”
Cat arched one eyebrow as she watched Kara shove the door open and hurry inside. She shook her head, knowing exactly what Kara needed to do.
“Duty calls,” she murmured, unsurprised to see Supergirl shoot across the sky moments later.
****
Hell apparently had a soundtrack.
Cat groaned and rolled her eyes as the muffled sounds of The Lion Sleeps Tonight greeted guests to the National City Animal Sanctuary as they walked the red carpet outside her town car. Her driver glanced up in his rearview mirror, offering her a sympathetic grin.
“Want me to keep the engine running, Ms. Grant?”
“Don’t tempt me.” Besides his penchant for chatting about baseball, her new driver was at least working out nicely. Cat gave him another eye roll for effect as the car pulled up and her door was opened from the outside. The summer heat wafted in as a young volunteer clad in a rented tuxedo offered her his hand. Cat took it since he was practically a boy and she didn’t want to stump his development by rejecting it.
Cameras went wild as she emerged, stunning in a sleeveless black sheath accented with slashes of white across her torso. She looked like she’d been clawed by something wicked, and the dress gave her a predatory appearance that pleased her. It was the closest she would come to the absurd jungle theme the guests had been asked to sport.
Walking the red carpet alone didn’t bother her. Honestly, she preferred not to share the spotlight. Cat Grant didn’t need a man to elevate her in the eyes of others, she had her own power. Men needed her.
Except when it came to her mother. Katherine Grant was the one creature on Earth who could make Cat feel utterly powerless. Tempted to pop a Lexapro to fortify herself, she kept the pills in her purse for now. Drinking heavily was on her agenda, and while Cat too often ignored the “Do NOT take with alcohol” warning on the label, she didn’t want to be completely at her mother’s mercy by being too relaxed. Letting her guard down around Katherine Grant was not an option.
Sighing, Cat made her way inside, exchanging small talk along the way with friends, associates, and even a few enemies because it was always good to keep them guessing. Once she stepped through the gates, she paused, taking it all in. The ridiculous music aside, the initial appearance of the sanctuary was aesthetically pleasing, offering plenty of lush plants, aromatic flowers, and a multitude of geographically-themed paths one could wander depending on one’s interests. Strings of white lights dangled overhead for the occasion, and the whole setting was strangely romantic, or at least as romantic as it could be when she could smell the elephant habitat close by.
For a moment, Cat stood there, wishing she had someone to share the evening ahead with. Not because of her mother, although that was enough of a reason, but because the sanctuary actually looked… fun. One face instantly came to mind, and Cat sighed again at the lonely ache that bloomed in her chest as she watched other couples mingle.
“Kitty!”
“God, adulting sucks,” Cat said under her breath. If she was going to be reduced to feeling like a disappointing teenager, Cat figured she might as well act like one. She plastered an insincere smile on her face and turned, waiting for her mother to reach her.
Apparently, Katherine Grant had no qualms about embracing the jungle theme. Looking like a sparkling tiger who’d just spotted her prey, she pounced, greeting her daughter with polite but distant air kisses which Cat returned in kind.
“Mother,” Cat said drolly, glancing at the young man on her arm and waiting for introductions.
There were none as he simply kissed Katherine’s cheek and went off to find the open bar. Cat was tempted to follow him.
“They keep getting younger,” she commented neutrally.
“One thing your father and I had in common.”
Cat couldn’t argue with that. Maybe she could get away with blaming her attraction to Kara on genetics.
Distantly, she wondered what Kara was doing tonight, wondered if she’d solved whatever crisis had pulled her away late in the day. A pang of worry brought Cat’s hand up to the silver teardrop necklace at her throat and she toyed with it as her mother droned on. Surely someone would have said something if harm had come to Supergirl…
“Did you come alone?” Katherine asked, sounding positively giddy at the thought as she jarred Cat from her concerns. “Really, Kitty, everyone who is anyone is at this event. Couldn’t you find someone?”
“I don’t need someone, mother.” Cat’s efforts to sound confident rang hollow to her own ears.
“But how does it look when a woman of your age can’t find a man? Or even a woman?”
Cat glared, hating the way this woman could always spot whatever insecurity was gnawing at her and exploit it. There was a commotion outside the entrance, and she looked over her shoulder to see camera flashes going off like mad. She frowned before turning back to her mother who seemed equally as curious about who was arriving.
“Now, Kitty, it’s all about perception,” Katherine continued distractedly. “Surely you know that in your line of…” she trailed off abruptly, her eyes widening.
Before Cat could ask what was wrong, a hand unexpectedly touched the hollow of her back and lingered there possessively. The way her body reacted to the contact, in pure pleasure rather than surprise, Cat didn’t even have to turn around to see who was there.
TBC