Chapter Text
Kara Danvers
Junior Editor
Kara looked at the nameplate on her new desk and felt a smile make its way across her face. James and Winn had gotten it for her as a gift, and from how quickly they had given it to her after she moved offices, Kara guessed they had been in on the secret. Cat had probably enlisted them to set up the office, actually. Though...Winn was almost as bad at keeping secrets as Kara was. Maybe it was just James. Still, it was such a nice present. It made Kara feel like she was someone important—as plain old Kara Danvers, anyways.
Honestly, Kara still couldn’t really believe it. She’d saved the world as Supergirl, but Cat had seen something of value in her meek alter-ego. Kara Danvers was all about blending in, not being noticed...but it felt nice when Cat did. With Cat, Kara felt seen, in a way most other people couldn’t accomplish.
Alex loved her, but she still saw Kara as her naïve little sister (when really, Kara was a woman carrying the weight of a dead planet on her shoulders). She’s a surrogate daughter to J’onn, and Lucy Lane’s sunny friend. Winn and James were both blinded by the cape. But Cat...Cat’s strength was that she saw everything, and, apparently, Kara had come to her attention. Kara knew that was dangerous. Cat Grant had already figured her big secret out once before, and Kara wasn’t actually sure that her trick with J’onn had fooled her completely. Kara didn’t want to lie to Cat, and now she’d found herself straddling a line between being valued and being caught.
A knock at her door startled Kara out of her thoughts. She opened it to see James, standing casually in the hall with a stack of papers in his hand. Kara felt a surprising flash of disappointment run through her that it wasn’t Cat.
“James! What brings you here?” Kara said brightly. It really was nice to see him. She kind of missed being on an open floor plan full of people—even if a private office was better for Supergirl quick changes.
“Layouts,” James smiled back. “It’s now your job to edit them, officially.”
Kara laughed. She and James both knew that her job as Cat’s personal assistant had entailed a lot of uncredited editing. Kara had liked it, so when Cat had offered her her choice of positions, editor seemed like a natural fit.
Kara had been working as an editor for nearly six weeks now. It had been three since she’d broken things off with James. After four aborted dates where Kara needed to leave to go be super, she had gently suggested that maybe it wasn’t the time in her life to get involved, and had been relieved when James had agreed. He really was a good guy, and Kara really did like him, so standing here having shared a laugh with him, Kara felt glad they were still friends. For a relationship to work with Supergirl in the mix, Kara would need to feel things 110%, and she just wasn’t there with James. She didn’t know if she’d ever be ready to be with anyone like that, but Kara wasn’t shutting herself off to the possibility, either.
James’ eyes were still crinkled from his smile when Kara took the layouts from him.
“When do you need these back?” she asked.
“Pretty much as soon as possible,” James replied. “I’ll leave you to it.”
Kara walked back over to her desk and sat down. The layouts were for a feature on powerful women that was going to be running in the latest issue of CatCo Magazine. Hillary Clinton, Beyonce, Angela Merkel, and Miranda Priestly were featured. And then of course, Supergirl. Kara felt a little out of place in company like that.
Cat would fit right in though, Kara thought. She could see why Cat wasn’t featuring herself in her own magazine: lots of people would call it raging narcissism, Kara was sure. But that didn’t change the fact that Cat deserved to be in the article.
Cat was the most amazing woman Kara knew. She was smart, determined, resourceful, and surprisingly kind once you got past the ice queen facade.
Kara smiled, remembering the first time she saw Cat with Carter. It had been about five weeks after she was first hired, when she was still terrified of Cat (now, Kara only felt moderately intimidated). Kara still wasn’t completely sure how she’d survived those first few weeks at CatCo. But everything had changed when she saw Cat with her son.
Carter wasn’t meant to be there that day. Kara should know, given how closely she managed Cat’s schedule. He wasn’t due back from visiting his father for another two days. But Cat had instructed in no uncertain terms that if Carter ever showed up, Kara should bring him straight to her, no matter what meeting she was in. So as surprised as she was, Kara had at least known what to do.
“Hey buddy,” she’d said. “I’m your mom’s new assistant, Kara. I’ll take you to her, okay?”
Carter hadn’t looked at her, but he’d nodded. Kara had thought he’d seemed down, but the boy was hard to read and Kara hadn’t been sure if she’d been projecting the disappointment she would have been felt at being ditched by her own father. Either way, Carter had followed her to Cat’s office, where Kara had cleared her throat nervously, afraid of interrupting the dressing down Chad from accounting was apparently getting.
Cat had looked up at her with fire in her eyes, but they had immediately softened as soon as she’d caught sight of Carter. Kara had nearly stepped back in shock.
“Well, Chuck,” Cat had drawled. “It seems you’ve gotten a brief reprieve. We will continue to discuss your inadequacies later.”
Chad had nearly fallen over himself exiting the office, but Cat had paid him no mind as she turned to Carter.
“Hey sweetheart. What are you doing here?” she asked gently. Carter looked up briefly.
“Dad said something for business came up. He had to take a trip.”
Cat’s lips had pursed, but her voice was still soft when she asked Carter if he wanted to do his homework in her office, which he quickly agreed to. Kara had been transfixed. She’d never seen this side of her boss before.
Cat had seemed to notice her then, and dismissed her with a sharp “I need my schedule reworked now, Kiera.” It was a snap back to normalcy, but it didn’t take away the softer side of Cat Grant that Kara had seen.
Kara shook herself out of the memory. She thought that was the day she started thinking of Cat as Cat, and not Ms. Grant. Kara had found herself distracted more and more lately by thoughts and memories of her boss, but she couldn’t figure out why. She was seeing less of her in her new position, and Kara knew she missed her. But...she was seeing less of Winn, too, and hadn’t found herself thinking of him more. It was….curious.
Kara’s phone rang with a call from the DEO, which broke her out of her contemplation. After she picked up, Alex told her that a Fort Rozz escapee was headed to National City. Banishing all thoughts of Cat, Kara cleared her head and rushed to the stairwell, already unbuttoning her shirt.
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It was getting late and Cat was the only person left at CatCo. It was Carter’s night with his father, and Cat always tended to stay late when she didn’t have her boy to come home to. Besides, Cat’s attention was firmly locked on the battle playing out on her TV, being faithfully recorded by the CatCo film crews.
The fight had been raging for quite some time, a couple hours at least. It had begun in the city, but Supergirl had flown away with the alien some time ago and Cat had assumed it was over. That assumption had held true until about ten minutes ago, when the alien had returned and pummeled Supergirl into the ground at one of National City’s most busy intersections.
Cat could guess why the alien, orange-skinned with glowing green eyes and pink energy blasts, had taken the fight back to the city. Now Supergirl’s attention was split between protecting the civilians and subduing the attacker. It was a potentially deadly combination.
Cat tamped down the worry curling in her chest for Kara—for Supergirl. Of course Cat knew it was Kara. She was Cat Grant, she didn’t get to where she was today by missing the obvious. Kara Danvers may well be the worst liar on the planet. Cat had wondered if perhaps lying wasn’t done on Krypton, or if it was just a Kara thing. Either way, her lack of ability made for bad secret identity-keeping.
Cat had suspected Supergirl was Kara from that first interview. The physical resemblance truly was astonishing. She’d even slipped and said “it’s you” in her surprise, but had quickly covered it. Cat had watched and waited until finally getting confirmation from Kara on the balcony. Yes, Cat had been thrown slightly by that trick with the double, and was still quite keen to figure that one out, but after Bizarro? Anything was possible, clearly.
Besides—the girl was just so damn obvious. Disappearing “coincidentally” whenever Supergirl was out saving the day, returning smelling like smoke and ozone, unable to stop herself from questioning Cat’s coverage of the hero. Cat snorted. It was a wonder all of CatCo didn’t know.
Cat rather hoped that giving Kara a private, windowless office would help prevent that. She would hate to see harm come to her.
Cat could lie to herself and say her concern was only for the hero, but her mother has a penchant for dishonesty Cat tried not to engage in, even privately. The truth was, Cat had found herself having something of a midlife crisis. She had feelings for her former assistant. It was such a cliche Cat wanted to roll her eyes at herself. She already had the red sports car to go along with it. Cat had been trying for months to push away her growing attraction; it was inappropriate and besides, there is no way Kara would ever return such an...infatuation.
On the TV, Supergirl took an especially hard hit, and Cat gasped. Such a prolonged fight had to be draining.
“Come on, Kara,” Cat murmured, now that none of her employees were around to hear her use the girl’s actual name. Cat watched with baited breath as Supergirl picked herself up and threw herself into the fight.
Supergirl looked to be trying to keep things at more of a close range to try to minimize the collateral damage from the alien’s energy blasts. Though Cat was far from an expert in combat, Supergirl’s hand to hand fighting seemed to have improved as she neatly ducked under one punch and used her leg to sweep her attacker’s feet out from under him. He went down with a bang, but shot away and hovered in the air above Supergirl almost immediately.
A considering look flashed briefly across Kara’s face. Cat wondered what she was thinking. She didn’t have to wonder long, however, as Kara dove down to the ground, punched a hole in the road, and extracted a pipe spewing water. She aimed it at the alien, and used her ice breath to freeze the water around him. It wasn’t long until the alien was frozen solid, just his head free as he yelled in an unfamiliar tongue.
Supergirl put the pipe back in the ground and welded it back together with her heat vision. Cat felt a little relieved she wouldn’t have to explain to the populace tomorrow why Supergirl had cut off the water for half of downtown. Kara looked a little sheepish looking at the hole in the road, but some things couldn’t be helped.
Soon, Supergirl was flying off with the alien fugitive in tow, and Cat let out a relieved breath and turned off the TV. Once again, the day was saved. Cat wondered if she’d ever get used to it, knowing that the girl fighting was one she cared for. It made an already difficult job harder. Cat’s control was absolute, and she was sure none of her employees could detect an unusual amount of tension from her while Supergirl was off being heroic, but still. The fact that she couldn’t fall back on a veneer of apathy regarding Kara annoyed (and concerned) Cat.
Cat shook her head. It was past time for her to go home. She packed up her things and entered her private elevator. As the floors clicked down, Cat took a moment to center herself and shake off her work persona. Even alone in the CatCo building, she was still Cat Grant, the Queen of All Media. At home, for Carter (even when he wasn’t there), she tried to be just Cat.
Her car and driver were waiting in the underground garage. Cat preferred to exit that way and avoid any paparazzi. Cat accepted that she was a public figure, but that didn’t mean she had to make it easy for them.
As she walked back to her car Cat realized that something felt...off. The hairs on the back of her neck stood up, and that journalistic instinct that had gotten her so far was blaring alarm sirens in her head. Cat picked up her pace and risked a glance behind her. There was no one there. When her head snapped back around, Cat realized: this man was not her driver. She had no idea who the hell he was.
Cat stopped, reaching for the pepper spray in her purse.
“Who—” she began, but the man was already moving towards her. He was big, burly, and faster than his size would suggest. Cat had barely gotten her hand into her purse when he was right there, in front of her.
“Dr. Mortis wants to see you,” he said. His hand, holding a rag soaked in chloroform, came up to Cat’s mouth and then everything went dark.