And So It Begins

by In-betweens

Cat Grant is seeking investors to help fund her capitol project to bring CatCo WorldWide Media out from her dream world and into reality. After being turned down every which way Cat is left with one last Hail Mary: Bruce Wayne; or better yet, his elusive right hand woman: Kara Danvers. Pre-SuperCat. (Alternate Universe: What if Kara and Clark arrived together)

Title: And So It Begins
Author: InBetweens
Rating: PG-13
Plot: Cat Grant is seeking investors to help fund her capitol project to bring CatCo World Wide Media out from her dream world and into reality. After being turned down every which way Cat is left with one last Hail Mary: Bruce Wayne; or better yet, his elusive right hand woman: Kara Danvers. Pre-SuperCat. (Alternate Universe: What if Kara had Arrived with Clark)
Author's Note: I need to shout out from just about every rooftop my sincere thanks to ShipItLikeASteamBoat for all of her help and hard work for this story and all of my other crazy Supercat fics. Truly, your assistance and support is appreciated beyond words

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-2002-

Cat Grant was a dedicated woman. When she put her mind to something she would not stop until she was satisfied that she had done all she could to make the idea become a reality. Most times, those ideas didn't remain locked away in a closet of regret. No, Cat Grant's ideas came to fruition. When Cat Grant wanted something, she made sure she owned whatever it was—and anything similar to it. Her dedication, perseverance, and incredible determination made her a force to be reckoned with.

Cat Grant was a journalist whose name was upon plaques, bylines, front pages above the fold. She was a reporter who the people knew and trusted as it was her face that they saw upon their screens when breaking news stories hit. Cat Grant was an investigator who overturned every last brick, opened every locked door, and told the honest truth with integrity.

Cat was a force so powerful that lesser people shied away from her, too overwhelmed; frightened by all that she stood for. So by necessity, Cat Grant was also a charmer. To the men in the business world Cat Grant was a seductress, a select few even called her a succubus for she would take and take and take until there was nothing left of a man but a pale, grey shell. Her reputation preceded her into any board or conference room she entered. Already crowds would part as she walked through them.

"Damn it!" Cat threw the navy folder down upon the passenger seat of her car. "Damnit, damnit, damnit!" Cat growled as she hefted the folder up and slammed it back upon the leather seat, over and over and over again. When she was finally finished throwing her small tantrum she leaned back heavily into her seat, knocking herself forward and back a few times just to get the frustrated energy out of her system.

The reputation that Cat had worked to gain for the last ten years was going to be her undoing. Cat Grant wanted more from this life than what she had as a reporter. She wanted more for the country, the world, then what they had in means of media outlets. She wanted global connectivity, she wanted her dream to become a reality. She wanted CatCo World Wide Media to be more than just pieces of paper in folders she handed out and with a logo she'd created herself. She wanted this idea, more than any she'd had in her life, to grow.

At the moment she owned five radio stations and her own television network where she had her own talk show. But those were national or local affiliates. What she was proposing was her own global television network and radio network. That network was going to help her livestream news and ideas to the nation, and the world, rather than just a 50 mile radius of radio listeners or viewers in National City and its suburbs.

Cat took a deep breath and closed her eyes, her neck strained as she bent it up towards the top of the car. She focused on her breathing. Deep, long breaths that she sucked in and held within her lungs for several seconds before she expelled it slowly. Her heart rate slowed and her frustration ebbed away. Resting her hands upon her stomach Cat rubbed the round bulge of skin beneath her best maternity suit.

It would only be Six more weeks before Cat would welcome another child into the world. Unlike Adam, Cat was determined to make motherhood, single-motherhood—plus being a career woman work. She was so close to her dream. She just needed one more investor. One more person she could trust to help her make her place in the world with a company she knew—with every fiber of her being—would be a success. Just one…and she'd blown this one.

"Grhhh…" Cat groaned, feeling herself get anxious once again. The tension in her shoulders seemed to move down to her back, where an ache had settled for the last few hours. It had begun when she woke up this morning and had continued. She was sure it just had to do with the way she slept last night—wrapped around her pillows like a cobra, in a way her body just shouldn't be able to contort into anymore.

The fluttering in her stomach was just nerves. That was all. She got these often enough to push them aside and deliver a profound speech. It took a lot of charm and intelligence to win these men over. But of course, Maxwell Lord had to be involved in this meeting. Maxwell Lord—a competitor of sorts for financial backing. He had just sprouted his own technology company up from the ground. It was doing phenomenally well and he wanted to take Lord Technologies global, just like Cat wanted to take CatCo global.

If only Cat had been ready to make this move towards global expansion last year! She could have capitalized on the fact that Max was sweet on her. But alas, the ever visual reminder that Cat was not as 'attainable' or seemingly desirable enough was currently doing a little jig on her bladder and spine.

Sighing, Cat started the engine to her car and pulled away from the curb.

She had other options.
There were…
She…

They...
She just had to find them.

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

By the time Cat arrived home it was nearly noon. She made her way into her living room and saw many of Jonathan's boxes. They had separated almost a year ago—but had rekindled their marriage for a week long vacation—which ended with Cat sitting in a bathroom by herself as she held a pregnancy test with a positive symbol. Jonathan had moved back in four months ago. They talked a lot about their relationship and what they were or could be to each other now that they were expecting their first—and only—child.

A boy.
Carter.

They'd already decided on a name, or rather, Cat had decided on the name. Jonathan was thrilled with the choice and excited to become a father. They had tried, earlier in their marriage, but had been unsuccessful. Cat had thought it was punishment for abandoning one child. Jonathan had been her rock then. He still was. Jonathan was her best friend and confidant, her biggest supporter. They just couldn't be lovers. So they were trying being roommates and co-parents.

Cat was excited, as well as nervous and incredibly sick to her stomach over all this.

Bypassing the semi-unpacked boxes, Cat moved to the nursery. They'd finished painting and setting it up almost two weeks ago. The smell was finally gone. There was a window in the corner of the red and blue room. The crib was from Jonathan's mother—who Cat couldn't stand. The woman really didn't know when to keep her opinions to herself. The arrangement Jonathan and Cat had was of no consequence to her, not when both Jonathan and Cat were so happy. Stressed, as new parents should be, but happy. They loved each other. They just couldn't be in love with each other. They didn't know why, but they had accepted it. Now it was time for everyone else to accept it as well.

There was a rocking chair that Cat was remiss to admit came from her mother. It was the one that Cat's father rocked her in when she was an infant. Cat made her way to the chair and took a seat. Her feet swollen and her back killing her. With a sigh, some of the pressure released as she sat the right way. Cat closed her eyes as she rocked slowly in the rocking chair.

Taking care of CatCo—Worldwide Media—an infant in the scheme of things and an actual living breathing infant son, well, it was going to be hard. Harder than anything Cat had ever done in her life. But she was ready—or as ready as one could be.

Brrring….Brrrrinnngg..

Cat's eyes shot open at the sound of the telephone ringing. She stumbled up to her feet and made her way to the phone which sat on the side table in the living room. There were others located around the house but this was the closest. She stared down at her wrist watch as she answered the phone.

"Cat Grant."

"Kitty Cat! I'm glad I caught you. I called the office and they said that you weren't coming back in. How are you feeling? Is everything okay? How's the tadpole doing?"

Cat couldn't help but sigh, even as a smile spread across her lips as Lois Lane's voice filtered through the phone. "I'm feeling fine, Lane. Everything is…terrible. Carter…is fine."

"Ah, yeah, I heard through the grapevine that Maxwell Lord screwed you out of the investors this morning."

Cat rolled her eyes, "Did you call just to rub my set back in my face or was there a purpose to your call?"

"Khhee…" Lois hissed like a cat, "…feisty. Did I wake you up from a nap?"

Cat remained silent, unwilling to admit that Lois had woken her up from a nap—a two hour one! Cat brought her hand down to her stomach and rubbed it gently. Carter was very active today, moving around this way and that. It was even a little painful.

Ignoring the discomfort Cat focused back on the call, her hand absentmindedly rubbing back and forth. "Look, normally I'd make you suffer a little, but since you're having such a bad day already I figured I'd cut you a break."

Cat grimaced, "Out with it, Lois."

"On second thought…maybe I will make you grovel a bit for the wonderfully amazing piece of information I have that anyone—including you and that heart throb Maxwell Lord—would die for."

"Loissss…do not make me call Clark or Perry and tell them you're harassing me while I'm seven months pregnant."

Lois chuckled on the other end of the phone, "Fine, fine. Spoil sport. running to tattle to big brother." Cat had to smile at the grumbling. "Anyway, get a pen and paper handy you'll wanna take this address down."

Cat didn't question it. She just grabbed the pen that was beside the phone and the pen from inside the drawer—a habit that was hard to kick after years of being an investigative reporter. Cat wrote down the address and stared at it. It was up in the mountains just outside of National City, two or three hours from Cat's home along the coast.

"Okay, why do I have this?"

"I have confirmed by a credible source," Lois coughed the name Barbara Gordon "…that Kara Zorel is there for the next four days on vacation."

Cat's eyes widened as she stared at the slip of paper. "Lois, if this is some practical joke..." Cat left the threat hanging in the air between them. Sure that she would and could find sufficient punishment/payback should this be a practical joke.

"As much fun as it would be to send you on a wild goose chase, you are carrying my future godchild. So, no. This is not a joke. She's there."

"The fact that you think you're going to be my son's godmother is ludicrous."

Lois snorted, "The fact that you think you know someone else who'd do it is funny."

Cat clicked her tongue against her teeth in displeasure at the joke, her foot tapping against the floor beneath her.

"Stop tapping your foot and get going. She won't be there forever."

"Tha…"

"Oh, and by the way, this favor ends all favors and I owe you nothing for the rest of my life."

Cat had to admit, the woman had a point. If this panned out she would owe Lane nothing for the rest of her life. "Fine. Thank…you." Cat almost sounded pained to say it, but that she could easily blame on the back pain radiating from the center of her spine.

Alexander McQueen had seen her, and had even promised to financially back her with 20 million in capital. He'd even issued a dare that had been matched by Diana Prince's R&D company Themyscira Industries for another 10 million if she could get Wayne Corp. to invest as well.

Cat needed that additional 20 million on top of whatever she could milk Wayne Corp out of. She was 50 million shy of her goal. It was a far cry from where she was before and how much of her own money she'd invested. But it would come back to her 100 fold if she could just reach her mark. With Lois intel, she was two steps closer.

"Good luck, alley cat. You're going to need it." Lois hung up, the sound of her laughter ringing in Cat's ears even as she closed the door to her car and sped off with the directions to the cabin in the Temescal mountains that Kara Zorel was renting.

Why the woman would rent a cabin in the woods outside of National City when she lived in Metropolis and could easily visit mountain ranges on the East Coast was beyond Cat. Though it gave her something to wonder about as she drove the four hours it took to reach Sugarack, named after the Tamarack Pine and Sugar Pine trees of the area. It was a small town that had been able to escape the hustle and bustle of National City and didn't attract large crowds for skiing or hiking. Those that visited were mostly conversationalists looking to see the endemic floral species that dominated the area or climbers looking to reach the San Jacinto Peak.

Cat wondered if the brief research she did into this area would help her connect on some level with Kara Zorel.

Kara, unlike many of her male counterparts in the business world, was very elusive. There was very little known about her other than the fact that she was Bruce Wayne's right hand woman. She was the Vice President of his company and headed the Special Divisions sector as well as Research. Cat had tried to get an audience with Bruce Wayne and failed—three times.

Now, she had to resort to stalking the VP of Wayne Corp. After all McQueen and Prince never said the money had to come from Bruce Wayne himself, just that Wayne Corp had to invest as well. It was a loop hole that she would stick to like glue if she could successfully gain Kara's investment.

The soft sounds of Trent from her local affiliate office filtered in through the speakers of her radio. As he was speaking about an approaching storm from the south Cat thought about all the intel she had gathered on Kara Zorel.

Name: Kara Zorel
Age: 29
Marital Status: Single, never married
Nationality: American
Ethnicity: Unknown/Caucasian
Dependent: 1

Dependent Name: Unknown
Dependent Age: 13
Dependent Gender: Male
Dependent Relation: Unknown

According to her academic profile Kara Zorel was one of the smartest living beings on the planet. Kara had five college degrees under her belt. Five degrees! Kara held a double doctorate, double Master's Degrees, and one Bachelors of Arts. According to Metropolis University Kara was attending classes for her third masters: in History.

Cat's head reeled over it all. The woman wasn't even 30 yet and she held a Doctorate in Environmental Science and a Doctorate in Health Science. The Masters she held were in Creative Technology and Business Engineering and apparently she spoke fifteen languages.

Cat had gotten a look at Kara's transcripts. She had been able to test out of half of her classes without any previous knowledge of the subjects, essentially skipping a total of four years' worth of study per doctorate!

When Cat had asked Lois to help her dive deeper into Kara's academic history—since Cat refused to fly in any of her trimesters and Lois was already in Metropolis—Lois had learned that one of Kara's professors actually attempted to write a paper on Kara's intellectual ability. He claimed that Kara's brain was superior to all other geniuses due to some unfathomable ability beyond photographic memory. His study, according to Lois, had been stopped suddenly when Kara sued him and won the case. Lois had gone to the court to get a copy of the case file but found it had mysteriously vanished from the records.

Kara had been working for Wayne Corp for eleven years. She'd been hired as an intern at 18 and had risen through the ranks quickly. No one would have paid the young woman any mind if it hadn't been for the lengths that Bruce Wayne went to in order to protect Kara Zorel. The event had happened on live television. A disgruntled employee had opened fire as Bruce was leaving the building with a shy looking woman beside him. Bruce had put himself directly in the line of the gun fire in order to protect Kara. Bruce was fine, of course, a flesh wound, he'd called it, trying to downplay the two weeks he'd been in the hospital recovering. The media went wild with speculations on why the stone hearted elusive Bruce Wayne would risk his life to save Kara's. Who was this woman Bruce almost died for?

Many thought the young woman was his love child from his wild teenager-young adulthood. Others speculated that Kara's son, (never confirmed) was the love child in question and fathered by Bruce. Some thought she was Bruce's new lover. Nothing had ever been confirmed.

No one knew who they were to each other, but many news outlets learned just how fast they could be sued and brought to court for focusing on the story and trying to decloak the mystery around Kara Zorel. So, three years after the shooting, no one asked questions. Everyone knew of Kara's existence but it wasn't a focus of anyone's attention. No one looked twice when she showed up with Bruce at a function or arrived to one without him. They left her alone. There were bigger, more juicy stories to nab—stories that wouldn't cost the networks hundreds of thousands of dollars in fines and fees.

If Cat Grant knew one thing about Kara Zorel, it was that the woman was dangerous. When people toyed or messed with Kara they often paid the price with their careers and/or livelihoods.

Cat would not be another one of those statistics. She would get what she needed out of Kara Zorel, and she would do it with charm and class.

She could do this.

She could.

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

The wind had slowly begun to pick up speed causing many of the leaves upon the trees surrounding a small log cabin to fall upon the walk ways and on the rented pick-up sitting in the drive. Over one of the ranges there were approaching storm clouds. Within minutes there was rolling thunder echoing around the small clearing and the sky was beginning to grow darker and darker as the grey clouds loomed overhead. There was a distinctive smell in the air that promised a hefty amount of rain but the sting in the atmosphere promised lightning as well.

"Clark, make sure the umbrellas are tied down under the deck." Kara called out from around the corner of the cabin where she was chopping fire wood.

They had enough supplies to last them a week, even with how much Clark tended to eat. Kara just wanted to be safer than sorry. Firewood would allow for hot water and somewhere to cook the fish and rabbit they'd caught.

"Kara…someone's coming up the road." Clark called out as he came rushing around the side of the cabin.

Kara dropped the ax she had been hefting up over her shoulder and back down to the stump with the thicker logs and walked a forward enough that she could see down the only dirt road that led to and from their cabin. The car approaching was not the landlord's truck. He had stopped by yesterday to make sure they had enough supplies and warned them of a storm the meteorologists were predicting. He showed them where the emergency kits were, where they could find the radio that connected to his family's cabin-which was a few miles dew west-how to work the pot belly stove, and where the extra firewood, blankets, lanterns, and candles were.

"Go inside." Kara instructed as she noticed how the clouds above them were starting to swirl in place and the wind continued to howl, the sun now completely blocked even though they should have had three more hours of sunlight.

"But..." Clark complained groaning when Kara shot him a stern glare that sent him stamping his big feet up the deck and into the cabin. He was grumbling the whole way about how he was old enough now to take care of himself and he could help, he wasn't a baby anymore.

Kara had to agree with him. He wasn't a baby anymore, he was a young man who wanted his independence and her trust. No matter his age or desires he was still her responsibility and she would always put his safety above her own.

Especially when it was the press harping down on them.

With a sigh, Kara carried the ax on her shoulder and made her way to the front of the cabin. The flat bed of the truck she'd rented was covered in leaves and the air was heavy with humidity.

The small economy car came to a stop beside her truck and the high beams clicked off a second before the engine was turned off.

The car door opened slowly, but there was no dramatic pause in the reveal of who was in the automobile. It closed with a thunk. The rain started to pitter and patter against the tops of the two cars. Slow at first but it was picking up momentum. The air fizzled with electricity but it was not the stark streak of lightning that filled the air around them, it was the roar of thunder that shook the ground.

Kara watched the infamous Cat Grant jump, the soft squeak of fear barely audible above the gravel-shaking noise. Kara shifted the ax from one shoulder to the other-aware of the picture she made standing at the foot of the stairs leading to her cabin with a sharp bladed weapon as a rain storm rolled in. No matter her physique and her brisk, elusive manner, she wondered what horror movie this scene reminded Cat Grant of. And if it was scary enough for her to regret her trek out into the middle of nowhere to track Kara down.

"What can I do for you, Ms. Grant?" Kara asked once the thunder had ceased.

"Miss Zorel, I've come to speak with you about a possible joint..." Cat eeped again as the Lightning that had been building finally snapped swiftly overhead, the fizz of it enough to make the hairs on Cat's arm stand erect.

The rain finally began to fall from the sky as if it were being tossed downward from brimming buckets.

Kara sighed, wondering if the journalist had planned to arrive just as the storm set in, or if she'd planned to be gone before it hit. Either way, Kara couldn't let her drive home in this mess. Not with that economy car. Kara was surprised the car had even made it up the mountain dirt road. There was no way it would make it back down, not safely at least, with this torrential rain.

"Come inside..." Kara extended an arm and gestured back towards herself and the safety of her home. "...hurry up." Kara egged on the trembling woman as the air rumbled with another long reverberating snore of thunder.

Cat didn't need to be told twice. She held her bag against her stomach and raced the thirty or so feet to the cabins porch. Kara was already holding the door open for her, the ax placed alongside the doorframe. Cat sighed a little in relief at the weapon being put down, and stepped into the Zorel hide away.

Cat noticed that the cabin wasn't very furnished or decorated. So it mustn't have been a place the Zorel's frequented or owned. Unless they were minimalists. Then perhaps it was theirs.

"Clark, grab Miss Grant and I a towel or two from my room."

Clark, her dependent, whose name was nowhere to be found. Cat even suspected she registered him in school under another last name to keep the press away from him.

Still, Cat had completely bypassed the young man in her once over of the sparse cabin. It was decently sized for two people, had a small love seat, an armchair and a bench closing off the living area. The fireplace at the center and a thick comfortable rug set a foot away from the hearth.

Clark was standing by the fire, poker in hand as he tamed the fire before putting the gate back in front of it. He had scrappy dirty blonde curls and the makings of a very charming face. His glasses were the same shape as the glasses Kara was often photographed wearing. Though, as Cat turned to look at the tall, muscular-those power suits hid practically all of the toned muscle-blonde, the glasses she wore were nowhere in sight.

Clark looked at her strangely for a few seconds too long. "Clark, towels."

"Right. Sorry. Got it." Clark spun around on his heels and was gone in a few seconds flat to the room Cat now knew was Kara's.

Kara didn't say anything but she stood rather close to Cat. Close enough that Cat rolled her shoulders and cleared her throat to make it clear she was uncomfortable with Kara's proximity. Either Kara did not understand the nonverbal cue or she ignored it, because the taller woman made no move to give Cat the space she had silently requested.

Clark came barreling back into the room with two towels. At first touch Cat realized they were incredibly course. But Kara took the towel and wrung out her hair and shirt into it. Once she was suitably dry she moved away from Cat and the doorway they'd been standing in together. She went to each window and made sure the shutters were secured by their matches. Even with the latches on the window shutters still dinged and thumped with the wind as it whistled and howled around their cabin, sneaking in through the cracks of their shelter.

"You'll have to stay the night." Kara seemed pained to admit it.

"That's quite alright once the storm is over I'll be sure to be on my way."

Clark chuckled behind Cat, drawing her attention to the retreating young man. "Good luck with that." He mumbled under his breath.

Kara sighed heavily enough that her shoulders moved as she stood beside Cat, close enough that Cat could feel the warmth of the younger woman's skin. "Although impolite and mumbled, Clark's right. We'll be lucky if the storm only lasts the night. It's forecasted to stay for the next two days, at least."

Cat's eyes widened in horror. "Two days?!" She couldn't stay here for two days! She needed to go home! She needed to be closer to the city. She had appointments she couldn't cancel.

Carter kicked anxiously against her stomach and her grip on her bag slackened as she clutched at her stomach. She breathed in the way her coach had caught her. These Braxtonhicks contractions were truly starting to get on her nerves.

"Kara...she's pregnant..." Clark whispered with wide fearful eyes, as if the young man didn't understand that the baby wouldn't come shooting out of her belly in a spray of blood like those damn Alien remakes.

"Yes. So she is." Kara looked around Cat's side and stared at her stomach as if just realizing she was pregnant.

"It would appear that you will have plenty of time to pitch your idea or capture private moments between me and my family."

"I didn't come to spy on you. I..."

Kara and Clark both raised individual eye brows at her, the questioning glance from them made them appear like mother and son. Though Cat doubted that was their relationship, even if Kara was Clark's guardian.

"I came to discuss a very prestigious opportunity." Cat started to dig through her bag for the folder she'd brought with her. She frowned when she felt just how wet it was. Well, that was going to make this a little more difficult. It wasn't like Cat didn't have the entire packet memorized but when it came time to show figures about the projected incoming capital in a ten-year plan, well, she'd have to wing it. Cat closed her bag, and held it more securely against her shoulder.

"Once in a lifetime for a woman in your position and power in the business world."

The edge of Kara's lips twitched, but she didn't smile. She merely nodded her head as if accepting that whether she liked it she was going to hear about this once in a lifetime opportunity.

"Hold that thought." Kara held up one finger to silence Cat for a moment. "Clark, put the kettle on please and the large pot. The potatoes and carrots I cut are already in the pot. Make sure to soak them in..."

"The broth half way. I got it." Clark rolled his eyes at the instruction, but he went to do as he was told.

"Miss Grant. Please, follow me." Kara extended her arm once more for Cat to move away from the door and follow her into the cabin towards the room Clark had grabbed the towels from.

Cat sniffed impatiently, but followed Kara's lead. She wasn't used to being ordered around, but she supposed this situation did call for some form of corporation. Though, Cat had to wonder why they were going into the younger woman's bedroom.

Kara entered first and went seamlessly towards a side table that had a gas lantern. She lit it and the room was bathed in light and shadow. The shutters in this room quietly clicked with the howling wind outside. Although the noise level was softer in here there was a clear breeze in the room and the air was cold enough to make Cat suddenly start to shiver. The heat from the fireplace lacking in this room. Cat wondered how Kara could possibly sleep in here, the bed only had one thin looking throw blanket. Surely the woman was freezing at night.

"These should fit you." Kara put a pair of stretch capris and a t-shirt that looked two sizes too small for Kara in front of her. The capris would probably fit like pants thanks to their height differences and the elastic waist would stretch around her pregnant belly, the shirt would probably be a little snug, but it wouldn't be too uncomfortable, at least it would be long.

"You should change. It gets cold in the cabin at night. We'll do our best to keep it warm with the fireplace." Cat wondered why they wouldn't do that normally, the way Kara said it made it almost sound like they didn't keep the fireplace going throughout the night. They were only going to keep it going for her. "You'll also be better off sleeping by the fireplace. I have a blow up mattress that's comfortable and high off the ground."

Kara explained all of this from her place in the corner of the room. The way she wrung her fingers together made Cat wonder; could the young woman be nervous? It would certainly make sense if their positions were reversed. Especially if Cat was as private a person as Kara.

Kara was forced to accept Cat into a place that only twenty minutes ago was safe. Cat was a stranger. Someone Kara was unfamiliar with and had a reputation for uncovering the dirtiest secrets of the saintliest of persons. It was a reputation Cat had rightfully earned, but the skill involved weren't skills she planned to use today. Cat just needed a little more time with Kara to show the young woman that she wasn't interested in uncovering whatever it was she was hiding. Cat honestly just wanted her influence and money. There was an end goal to this meeting that had nothing to do with Kara's privacy being exposed any more than it already had.

"Thank you." Cat whispered, afraid that if she spoke any louder she'd spook the young woman.

Kara moved to leave the room just as Cat started towards the offered clothes which were laid out nicely upon Kara's bed.

As they went their own way their arms bumped into each other. Cat cringed, it was like hitting a brick wall, yet Kara in the meantime bounced off of Cat as if she were the catch in a pinball machine. Kara's back was against the wall faster than Cat could blink, her eyes wide and her nostrils flaring as she panted heavily, trembling.

Cat's mouth opened to apologize, but she was in a bit of shock herself. What had just happened? How had Kara gotten that far away from her? Why would she jump away from her like that? How sturdy was the blonde's shoulders for Cat's own shoulder to ache with the otherwise swift and 'gentle' touch.

"Kara...?" Clark called out as he knocked on the slightly ajar door. "Kara, are you alright?" Clark asked as he opened the door and looked between the two women. How could he possibly know something was wrong? Had they made a noise? Had that large bang been Kara's back hitting the wall, not the thunder outside?

He frowned. "Kara...?" Clark spoke softly as he made his way towards her, slowly, both hands raised up so Kara could see them. "Kara...can you hear me?"

Cat's eyes narrowed as she watched the two very carefully. This was obviously something that happened often. But from what? Simple contact? Was that why Kara didn't pick up on social cues or spoke so monotone, the only difference the volume she spoke in?

Kara nodded her head yes, jerking it up and down in short bursts. "Okay, good. It's me, Clark. I'm going to put my hand on your arm and lead you out of the room. Okay. It's just me. Clark. I won't hurt you. We're just going to slowly make our way out of the room and to the couch. You're fine. Nothing is going to hurt you."

Kara swallowed thickly but nodded again, her eyes zoned out and staring at something that wasn't actually in front of her. Her body was visibly trembling.

Clark did as he promised and led Kara out from the room, he didn't spare Cat a second look. It was only a few minutes later after Cat had time to ponder what had just transpired that Clark reappeared, knocking softly on the open door once again.

"She'll be fine. She wants you to change though. And she apologizes for possibly scaring you." Clark seemed to reiterate verbatim, though his nose scrunched up at the apology of possibly scaring Cat, as if he didn't understand why Kara would need to apologize for something she could not control.

"Tell her, it's fine. She did no such thing. And I will be out shortly."

There was a soft spark in Clark's eyes. Cat thought it was approval.

Clark left her alone to change. As she took off the wet clothes and slipped into Kara's borrowed clothes she frowned at the pain in her back. She rubbed at the tense muscles and wished Jonathan was here to knead them away as he had done for the last seven months.

Pushing away the pain, Cat dressed and went back out to get what she'd come for.

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

For the rest of the evening Cat sat frustrated in one chair or another, unable to get comfortable no matter what she did. During her bout of musical chairs, she was able to get only ten words in with Kara.

Clark did most of the talking for Kara. When she asked a question, directed at Kara, Clark would answer. Kara would sit where she was, and flinch. The flinches grew less and less obvious the more Cat and Clark spoke throughout the night. Clark even showed his journalistic ability and for every question Cat asked, he returned with a question of his own. And Cat surprised herself by answering most of them.

She spoke about where she went to school, her childhood in the Midwest with her parents. She even mentioned how she didn't get along with her mother and how excited she was about the baby. Clark had become uncomfortable with the mention of the baby though, so Cat didn't focus on it, though she wondered why he was so uncomfortable with a pregnant woman. Was there a story there or was it just fear of the unknown? He seemed very attuned to her. Every time she moved or made a soft noise of discomfort he shifted uncomfortably.

It was Kara that actually jumped up from her seat each time and went in search of something that would make her more comfortable.

By the end of dinner, Cat had three pillows propping her up, and two throw blankets, all gifted to her by a young Kara Zorel, who could not meet her eyes even when Cat was accepting the items being offered.

It was obvious that Kara was incredibly tense. If it were possible Kara seemed more tense then Cat felt. Which at this point, the knots in her back made it almost impossible to fathom anyone being as tense and uncomfortable as her.

Cat learned that Clark's last name was Kent, and that he attended a private school for the children of the elite. Cat wasn't even sure she'd be able to get Carter on the waitlist of the school he attended. He seemed proud of his past and Kara. Though Cat still hadn't been able to figure out the relation between the two of them, and she hadn't asked. Clark hadn't offered it up, and Cat didn't want to push. She was trying to ease the two of them into a swiftly built trust.

Clark never offered what it was that kept Kara quiet and nervous, but Cat never asked either. He did look at Kara often, as if to make sure she was okay. He would lean towards her and whisper something to her that helped ease the tension in Kara's shoulders—if only for a second. Cat wondered if it was a diagnosed mental disability that she'd been born with, or something that came on later.

Cat had done her research into varying mental diagnoses for varying stories she'd written in her career. She'd interviewed soldiers, scientists, doctors, people with Autism, with sever social anxieties, with OCD, phobias and more. With the knowledge she had of all the possible causes of Kara's anxiety, she could not find one specific plausible diagnosis.

"I'm going to go to bed. Goodnight, Miss Grant. It was nice speaking with you." Clark announced after he'd helped Kara set up the blow up mattress that Kara had run outside into the shed to grab. She'd come back soaked, but unaffected by the cold or rain. Her eyes were still a bit distant, though she did look at Cat often through the corner of her eyes when she thought Cat couldn't see her. While Clark set up the blow up mattress with the pillows and blankets Kara had gotten Cat throughout the last few hours, Kara changed—again.

When Kara came back out after Clark hugged her goodnight, Kara sat on the wicker arm chair across from the blow up mattress and stared at the bottom of the mattress. Cat had yet to lay down on the thing, instead she was still seated on the love seat across from Kara, the mattress directly in front of her. Her eyes looked towards the shuttered windows and sighed. The storm had only gotten worse.

Kara sat still and silent, and appearing incredibly weary of Cat. Every time Cat looked at Kara the young woman-as if she could feel Cat's stare-met her eyes for a moment before looking away or pointedly turning away from Cat.

Outside the rain continued to pour and the lightning zinged through the air as the thunder sounded every few minutes. Cat pulled one of the blankets off the mattress and wrapped it back around her shoulders. The moment she did so, Kara jumped up from her seat and put more fire wood on the fire.

"You don't have to do that." Cat sighed, rolling her eyes. Kara was as attuned to Cat as she could be. It was obvious the young woman was trying to make up for her lack of conversation skills by getting or giving Cat everything she needed.

"It's no trouble." Kara whispered, her attention still on the fire she was stoking to keep going.

Cat's eyebrow raised at the answer, genuinely surprised Kara answered her at all. "I am sorry for bothering you on your vacation." Kara stiffened but said nothing, so Cat continued; "I wouldn't have done so if I weren't desperate. I hate the mountains." Cat whispered as she leaned heavily back against the couch. The sting in her back making her hiss as she forced her muscles to relax into the position.

"It was foolish of you to come with the storm on it's way." Kara seemed able to speak to Cat so long as she had her back turned to her and her hands were busy doing something else.

"The storm wasn't supposed to make it past the mountains. I wasn't aware of it until I'd already made it too far to turn back." Cat defended herself, wishing she could swallow a healthy gulp of alcohol at the situation. "It was foolish." She admitted with a heavy sigh, her hand resting protectively over her stomach. "I just couldn't lose the opportunity to discuss my proposal with you."

Kara sighed, "I'm well aware of your proposal. Diana shared it with me."

"Prince?" Cat sat up, just a bit intrigued.

"Yes." Kara answered as she used the poker to jerk the logs about in the fireplace. The flames crackling and giving off a very pleasant warmth that Cat's cold skin craved.

"And…?" Cat pressed, wondering what Kara had thought about the proposal. If Diana Prince had shared it with Kara already then….

"The storm is supposed to let up by tomorrow afternoon. I'll drive you to our landlords house, it's a few miles west of here. He'll take you back into the city." Kara stated as she stood from the fireplace and put the grate back in front of it. She remained at the hearth though, her back still to Cat as if the flames mesmerized her.

Cat blew out an exasperated breath, "Thank you. I'm sure he's lovely. But I'd much rather discuss a business venture with you and Wayne Corp."

"Bruce won't go for it." Kara immediately stated, smirking a bit. Cat could just make out the slight upshift of Kara's lips from her seat.

"I'm sure if you speak with him…I do not know which proposal you've seen but since I've shared it with Diana there have been changes, changes that were recommended and agreed on by…"

"Miss Grant."

"Cat, please." Cat sat up fully, attention rapt on the younger woman.

"Miss Grant." Kara insisted, almost sounding like she cringed at the prospect of using her name. "Bruce Wayne is not in the business of supporting a competitive business. Even one that has great potential."

"Competitor? CatCo would be…" Cat stood up, unable to remain seated.

"A direct competitor to Wayne News and our abroad com—" Kara tried to continue but was cut off once again, making her sigh and finally turn to look at Cat, her hands on her hips as she stared intently at the other business woman.

"Wayne News is a local news station and the abroad companies and affiliates you speak of would not do what CatCo is interested in. We would primarily be print and live broadcast news. We would be an ally more than a competitor."

"Until CatCo reports negatively about the business sector that Wayne Corp. is directly responsible for. Or Wayne Corps. issues lay-offs and cut backs or the stock drops and causes thousands to lose their 401Ks." Cat cringed, Kara knew her work well if she was able to site former articles that Cat had released regarding the lay-offs Wayne Corp had issued five years ago while the executives retained their salary even as their stocks tanked. "What happens then Ms. Grant? Would CatCo Worldwide Media simply look the other way because Wayne Corp is one of the founding contributors to its birth and growth?"

"Of course we wouldn't. The whole principle is to tell the people the truth!" Cat almost missed the near smile that spread across Kara's face. She was far too invested in her argument to take full notice of it until it was too late. "Our integrity would make it impossible to turn a blind eye. I don't care what Wayne Corp gives to start the company. That does not mean it will dictate terms..."

"Yes, and you may see why Wayne Corp then cannot be linked to CatCo. Our stock holders would stage a mutiny if Bruce were to support the growth of your business. You aren't the most…friendly…of journalists to have crossed paths with Wayne Corp."

Cat scuffed, "Friendly, your company stole the 401Ks of thousands of employees to help forestall bankruptcy while the executives came away with big fat bonus checks."

"Those bonus checks were part of negotiated contracts and funds already set aside to provide the bonuses upon their hire. The same executives that you so love to mention receiving their bonuses took pay cuts to try and forestall the issues, 5% pay cuts every year for almost five years. 25% of their income was cut."

"And how much did the bonuses give them back, hmmm?" Cat challenged, crossing her arms over her chest.

"The bonuses gave them back 1% of the pay cuts they lost, but they then had to pay higher tax rates that only gave them .5% back a year." Kara rattled off the numbers so quickly Cat had trouble keeping up.

As she thought about the numbers she swallowed, and she met Kara's eyes. The young woman was staring right at her, eyes alight with passion for what she was speaking about. Cat didn't blame her, Cat had made it a point to stick Kara's name in her article as she had been the Vice President of Finance at the time and had been one of the executives to still receive their 'bonus'.

"But the numbers…"

"Were jerry-rigged by someone to give the story merit." Kara sneered, her nose flaring at her obvious distaste over the matter. The truth of the matter was that Kara could recite the entire article that Cat Grant had written. It had been front page news. "The facts overlooked were the waivers all of those 401k owners signed when they took out the plans. They knew it was a possibility, that the money that the company matched into their accounts could be withdrawn in detailed and forecasted emergency situations."

"The company took the money that those employees were promised. People lost thousands of dollars!" Cat insisted and watched Kara shake her head, and did the girl just roll her eyes?!

"I suppose it didn't matter that almost all of the money taken from the 401Ks to help forestall bankruptcy was replaced over the next five years." Kara intoned, her own arms crossed offensively across her chest. "But there weren't any articles written about that. Or the 15% interest on any money taken out was then given back once our company rebounded with the development of the technologies most companies now use." Kara smirked, eyes agleam with something that looked akin to amusement. "I even believe the frequency disburser Grant Enterprises uses currently is my design."

Cat knew then, this was Kara Zorel being smug. It was her making a point. It was also where Kara was far more comfortable. Talking about her work, her passion. it brought her out of her shell and made her shine brighter than anything Cat could have even thought to compare her to.

Cat knew Kara was right. They had purchased the disburser from Wayne Corp. It was by far the superior technology, and they'd paid out the nose for it. But they hadn't gone dark once. Not once in the last five years, even when the city had suffered through an earth quake and a black out.

"No, there weren't." Cat had to admit when she was wrong. If she didn't, she was just as bad as the companies and entrepreneurs she swore she would never emulate in any fashion.

Kara nodded once, recognizing Cat's acquiescence for what it was. The fire crackled behind Kara as the wind of the storm whistled through the room and the flash of lightning beyond the shutters lit up the room with a white glow while the red hue of the fire bathed Kara in it's warm glow.

"You see why Mr. Wayne cannot be linked to you company?"

Cat sighed, knowing she had lost this argument five years ago. She slumped back into her seat, and dropped her head into her hands. She would not cry. Not in front of anyone but Jonathan. The pregnancy hormones made it very hard to keep the tears at bay. She had to often excuse herself into a bathroom or a stairwell and allow her emotions to run their course.

But to know that she had come all this way and she was going to fail at the last hundred yards. That she had come up here into the mountains during a horrible storm and was trapped in a cabin with a woman who had made it very clear that she was unwelcome while still trying to take care of her. All for nothing. This whole thing had been for nothing. She had worked herself to the bone to fail, what would Carter think of her when he was old enough to understand what she had done? How she had failed. Failed to leave the legacy she'd dreamed of for longer than she could even remember. Failed because she had been a naïve journalist who should have done her homework.

The tears fell without her permission or her control. She just started to cry and cry and she couldn't stop. Her shoulders shook with the force of the tears and to her horror the sobs came next.

Kara stood on the other side of the room looking as if she were going to be sick. She played anxiously with her fingers as she shifted her weight from one foot to the other. She stared towards Clark's room as if she was contemplating getting the young boy to handle the situation as he had been all night. The sound of the first sob had Kara moving forward without actual thought. She was as skittish as a field mouse in front of a house cat as she sat down beside Cat Grant, her back stiff and her hands in her own lap. She pulled at her fingers and counted silently. Her face a mix of a cringe and horror as she forced one of her hands to place itself gently on Cat's shoulder. She patted the area rubbing it as she had seen other humans do, as she had once been able to do without this excruciating effort.

The touch of her hand seemed to spur something on in Cat because before Kara could offer a verbal offering of comfort, Cat Grant's arms were wrapped around her waist, her face snuggled into her shoulder, and wet drops of tears were falling down the U of her t-shirt onto her chest.

Air caught in Kara's throat and she remained stiff as a board as Cat sobbed against her. Kara's heart raced painfully against her chest as she stared down at the top of curly blonde hair. Kara began to see spots as her body refused to take in a single ounce of air.

"I came all this way….just to fail." Cat sobbed, her hand grasped tightly in Kara's shirt.

The soft utterance of Cat's fear caused Kara's heart to stop all together. Failure was something Kara felt she could personally relate to in more ways than even Cat Grant could expect or know. The idea that Cat Grant was going to fail in her endeavors because Kara didn't help her, made something in her chest twist. Kara had never been the cause of such pain before. She had been the recipient to pain unlike any human had ever endured or could fathom—all at the hands of human monsters.

Kara never wanted to be a monster. Never wanted to cause such pain in another person. She would do anything to keep that from happening. Anything…

"You have not failed." Kara assured, her hand gentle as she ran it down from the top of Cat's head to the center of her back, only to do so again and again. The motion seeming to help calm Cat's tears and sobs.

"I need 20 million dollars before I reach my goal. I've tapped all the founders I can think of. Maxwell has sabotaged me with half. The egotistical pompous ass that he is." Cat sneered. "I have no other plans. This was my Hail-Mary, and I dropped the ball before I even threw it." She blamed Jonathan for her ability to reference sports so easily. The man was obsessed with football. His uncle was the owner of a team or two, their names long since lost to Cat's mind. It wasn't important.

What was important was how she was making a complete and utter fool of herself in front of Kara Zorel. Hanging all over the woman and crying into her shirt. If there was ever one thing to despise about this pregnancy, it was the hormone imbalances (and the back pain).

"I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I didn't mean to..." Cat apologized as she pulled away from Kara. A part of her missed the human contact almost immediately. She never realized until this moment how much physical contact she had had the last few months. She was constantly touched or touching someone. And one night without Jonathan's snuggling arms or massaging hands and she was like a starving animal, throwing herself at anything that even appeared to look like steak-when in fact it was tofu.

Kara's smile was hardly a smile at all it was so tense. "It's alright, I did not mean to make you cry."

"Oh don't give yourself so much credit, dear, it's the hormones." Cat explained away, hoping to save some kind of face with the most prominent business woman in North America outside of Diana Prince.

"Right...of, of course." Kara stuttered, leaning away from Cat a few centimeters at a time, her eyes locked on Cat as if she were watching to make sure the older woman truly was okay on her own.

Cat winced as she leaned away from Kara too fast. The second the air passed her lips Kara scotched back next to her, her arm still up and ready to accept Cat back into her arms if needed. If the woman didn't look so nervous (and adorable) Cat would have found the sight very awkward.

"What's wrong? Is it the boy?" Kara asked as she stared, eyes widening as she spoke, as her gaze fell to Cat's stomach.

"No, no. He's fine." Cat waved off Kara's concern. "For all he's put me through." She mumbled as she tried to rub at the small of her back on her own. But she just couldn't get into a position where she could easily rub the knots away. She sighed, realizing she was twisting left and right and attempting to reach her back without giving Kara any kind of explanation.

Sighing heavily Cat turned to Kara and waited for the younger woman to look into her eyes. But she didn't. Kara was too busy staring at her stomach, a crease forming down the young woman's paling features.

A crease in Kara's forehead deepened as she stared at her stomach like she could see inside it. The longer she started the deeper that line in her forehead became and the paler the already pale woman became.

Kara was so pale it actually worried Cat. "Kara...?"

The sound of her name seemed to spur Kara into action. She leapt off the couch and was running to Clark's room before Cat could breathe out a surprised gasp.

Damn, that woman was fast.

"Clark!" Kara hissed in a way that made it sound like she had shouted the teenagers name.

"What!? What? I don't have school today. It's Saturday!" Clark mumbled out in a surprised, obviously, sleepy haze.

Cat frowned as she stared towards Clark's room. Wondering what in the world was...

Cat groaned suddenly as the pain in her back began emanating from her stomach. Her eyes widened and filled instantly with tears as she realized what was happening. What had been happening all evening. Those Braxtonhicks contractions hadn't been in her head at all. They had been actual contractions.

Cat stared towards the rattling window shutters and the flashes of lightning that continued to cut across the sky outside. It was easy to ignore the sounds of the storm after it had been raging for hours on end. She'd even stopped jumping at the rumbling thunder. But now?

Now, as thunder rumbled across the landscape and the cabin shook a bit with the force of it and the ferocious winds...she jumped. She jumped and she paled and she began to panic.

Her baby bag was all the way back in National City. There was no way Jonathan could come and bring it to her here. The roads had to be flooded out somewhere along the way. And besides, If he was going to bring the baby bag all the way here, why not just have him drive her to the hospital? That seemed like a much better plan then staying here in this cabin and having her baby.

She started to laugh, even as she breathed the way that sycophant Lamaze teacher had taught her to.

She was going to have Carter fifty miles away from the nearest hospital in a cabin in the woods during what might as well be a bloody hurricane(!) with a 13-year-old boy her only assistance because his 29-year-old guardian couldn't even look her in the eyes let alone help her give birth!

"Uh...Kara..." Cat continued to breathe just as she'd been taught. A damp feeling along her legs was the breaking point for her.

"WHAT?!" Clark shrieked from his bedroom. "What do we DO?!"

There was silence, at least it seemed like silence, although the rain did continue to pound against the roof shillings and the shutters creaked and banged when the wind got too strong. But other than that all Cat heard was the pounding of her own heart.

"Miss Grant...?" Clark whispered, he was standing in front of the fire looking at her with wide, terrified eyes. He was playing with his fingers the way that Kara had all night and he couldn't stand still. He was shifting his weight left and right and it made Cat feel nauseous. Especially when Kara was nowhere in sight.

Oh no. No. No. No!

Cat was not having a 13-year-old boy help her give birth!

Kara was just going to have to woman up and help her!

Whatever kept Kara from touching people, because that had to be it, Cat was going to have to help her get over it. And fast. Or at least Cat was going to have to make her not think about it. If only for the time being. Because, damn it all to hell! The adult with a god damned medical degree was going to help her birth Carter into this world. Because by whatever deity Kara believed in, if Kara thought Cat was going to let her live if something happened to her son and Kara hadn't done everything in her power to help him?! Oh yes. Kara would rue the day she ever heard the name Cat Grant.

"Uhm…don't cry." Cat hadn't even realized she was crying. "It's going to be…uhm." Clark stopped short of promising it was going to be okay. He looked at Cat, still bouncing from foot to foot and the poor boy was green around the gills. "Kara!"

Clark looked over his shoulder towards the hallway that led to another door to the back yard of the cabin—and the shed. Kara had gotten her blow up mattress from out there, though Cat hadn't been down it yet to imagine what it looked like.

"I'm here, I'm here!" Kara promised, her voice traveling down the hallway. "Hello? Mr. Pritchet!? Mr. Pritchet, this is Kara Zorel." Static. "Mr. Pritchet? This is Kara." There was static echoing from the hallway, crackling and the sign of a lack of connection. "Mr. Pritchet, please. I have a pregnant woman here who is in labor. I need to get her to the hospital." Kara whispered, her voice barely traveling to the living room it was so soft. Childlike in its desperation.

"Damn it!" Kara cursed, and a loud bang followed her exclamation. "Okay, okay" Kara chanted as she walked purposefully into the main area of the cabin. "Clark, I need water. Warm water. Boil it for three minutes, then take it off. I'm going to need all the clean towels we can find, bedsheets will do. Uhm…" Kara ran her hand through her hair, finally looking up from where she'd been staring at the floor.

"This…could go on for hours. Why does he need to boil the water now?" Cat finally was able to gain Kara's gaze but the sight of Cat sitting on the couch doing her breathing must have spooked her, because Kara turned and went to get the towels on her own.

Clark sprang into action and raced to the kitchen to do as Kara said thus leaving Cat alone in the living room, Heedless to what she had said about the process taking hours.

Kara came rushing back into the living room with a pile of towels and two bedsheets. She put them on the arm chair by the fire before she moved towards Cat. She bent down while stepping forward and practically scooped up the round coffee table and pushed it out of the way. Then turned and grabbed the blow up mattress and stripped it of the pillows, blankets, and sheet. She tossed the sheets towards the armchair and kneeled down in front of Cat. She offered the older woman the pillow, barely able to look up into her eyes.

"What am I supposed to do with that?" Cat snapped, grabbing the pillow with one hand as the other pushed into her side, her breathing labored as she felt another contraction coming.

"Put it behind you to make you more comfortable. We can do this in here or in the bedroom." Kara scratched at her nose, as if she were looking for glasses to play with. "I think in here would be better because there's more room." She looked up suddenly. "I can bring the bed in if you'll be more comfortable on that. But we can do this on the floor."

Cat felt dizzy. On the floor. In a cabin. In the middle of the mountains. This was nothing like the hospital birth Cat had been planning on from day one. There was also no epidural either. Just as she thought about that she cried out in pain as a contraction hit. She forgot all about how to breathe through them and wished Jonathan was here and holding her.

The tears that Clark said she was crying, kept falling down her cheeks steadily. She was scared and as calm as Kara seemed to be now—taking charge of the situation as best she could—they were all out of their depths.

"Have you done this before?" Cat found herself asking after the contraction stopped.

"No." Kara simply stated. She didn't sugar coat the situation. "I'm educated. I know the science and the literature. But I've never done this. I don't…I have trouble with people. Here, please. Let's set you up here on the floor."

Kara jumped up from where she was kneeling on the floor and grabbed two of the thicker blankets and put them on the floor in front of the couch. She didn't offer Cat her hand to help her settle on the floor like Cat expected. Instead, Kara walked right up to her, bent down and slid one hand around Cat's waist and the other under her knees, lifting her clear off the couch.

Cat squeaked in surprise and instinctively wrapped her arms around Kara's neck to keep herself balanced.

Kara gently settled Cat down till she was seated on the floor, enough distance from the couch that Kara could fit two pillows behind her.

"What can I do now?" Clark asked as he brought over two pots of warm water, holding them in his grasp as he stared at Cat and Kara on the floor.

"Put them down on the floor over there," Kara pointed. "Then move that coffee table back so it's resting against the back of the couch."

"Okay!" Clark immediately jumped to do what Kara said, but Cat found her eyebrows raised.

"Why move the table?" It seemed fine where it was.

"I need there to be more weight behind the couch so when you begin pushing you can press up against it without it moving." Kara explained as she put a pillow to the side and had the clean towels and sheets nearby.

"I could be at this for hours!" Cat reiterated the fact that this could just be the beginning to a very long night.

Kara looked pointedly at Cat's stomach in that odd way of hers, and the young blonde shook her head. "No, you're contractions are only five minutes apart. This isn't going to take very long."

Cat felt the burn of tears in the back of her nose at that. Kara was right. The contractions were coming swiftly. "That's why we're not trying to leave. Isn't it?"

"Yes. We'd never make it and it's safer to have the baby here than in the car during this storm." Kara picked up a tattered looking sheet, that smelled clean, and grabbed it by both ends and ripped it clean in half.

It took a few minutes for Kara's conclusion to settle in. Cat stared off at the ceiling as she blinked away the tears. She had to be strong. She would be strong. Carter was worth it. They could do this. Women had been birthing babies for hundreds thousands? of years without the technology of a hospital. Surely two well educated women could do this.

They…

"Ughh…god damn it!" Cat cursed as she yelled through her contraction. Clark moved as if he were going to come towards her, but stopped, standing where he was, looking even more uncomfortable then before. When the contraction subsided, Cat's face was blotchy and her eyes glazed. Sweat was beginning to form all over her body, soaking into her borrowed clothes.

"We need to take off your pants and underwear."

"Hhmtpht…no!" Cat looked directly to where Clark stood in the corner.

Kara sighed, "I will cover you with this sheet. He won't see anything." Kara promised as she lifted up the sheet in question. Kara sighed heavily, still focusing her eyes on Cat's shoulders rather than her eyes. "I need to see how dilated you are. You can't have this baby wearing…"

"Okay, okay…fine. Clark," Cat twisted her finger around to signal the boy needed to turn around. He did so and even put a hand over his eyes, in a sign of respect.

Cat struggled getting the pants off from the position she was in. Her muscles already tight and tense and making it almost impossible to move without pain. She was almost surprised when Kara's hands slid gently over her own for a moment and grabbed the waist band of her pants and underwear and pulled them down in one go.

"Clark, get a plastic bag for me. Also, get a hunting knife. Put it in a pot of boiling water. We should have antiseptic in the first aid kit. Once you've boiled the knife clean it with that and put it back into the water for another few minutes." Clark still didn't move. "Quickly, Clark."

"Oh, okay." Clark hmmphed when he banged into the blow up mattress, almost tripping over it but he seemed to catch himself before he hit the floor. one hand still over his eyes as he navigated back to the kitchen without the use of his eyesight.

"Why a knife?" Cat stared at her stomach as if by doing so she'd have the answer to her question.

"For the umbilical cord."

"They say not to cut that right away. Especially with home births." Cat was quick to point out, shifting uncomfortably as Kara settled the sheet over her legs.

"I need you to bend your legs and open them as wide as you can." Kara instructed swallowing thickly as she looked at the detail of the sheet and the pattern of the blanket beneath Cat, rather than at the woman.

Cat rolled her eyes, but lifted her legs and did as Kara asked. She focused on the fact that Kara hadn't answered her question rather than the obvious fact that Kara Zorel was currently staring intently at her vagina. "I don't often repeat myself, Kara." Cat growled, "Why cut the cord!?"

"Not right away. Only after he's breathing and his color is good. But you're going to have to give after birth and I don't want you and the baby still attached to that while we're traveling." Kara's hands were warm against Cat's overheated skin. The touch of the smooth hands on her knee and pushing on her inner thigh to open her legs, just that much more, gave Cat chills. Her cheeks flushing with embarrassment over exertion.

"Traveling!? I thought you said we shouldn't leave yet?"

Kara didn't seem exasperated, but her tone certainly sounded strained. "No, not yet. Not until the storm passes. Which may not be till tomorrow afternoon. So, unless you want the baby attached to the placenta for almost twelve hours…"

Cat cringed in disgust at the image that brought about. "No, no." she shook her head, her hair sticking to the sides of her face. "Okay. Okay. But you're going to talk me through everything. Do you hear me, Kara?" Cat groaned, a contraction hitting and forcing her to sit up with the strength of it. "Look at me, Kara!" Cat ended up screaming through the pain.

Kara snapped up to attention, staring directly into Cat's eyes. They stared at each other through the rest of her contraction, she'd be damned if she closed her eyes. She held Kara's blue gaze until it passed and she began to settle. And even then, she allowed herself a moment to think about how beautiful Kara's eyes were. A striking yet soft blue unlike anything Cat had ever seen before.

Cat rested heavily against the pillows and the couch, panting deeply enough that her chest physically moved up and down with the air she sucked in.

Cat's eyes must have drooped for a moment because one minute she's staring into Kara's eyes and the next thing she knows there's a wash cloth with cool water on it wiping away the sweat dripping off of her as fast as the torrential rain outside. The touch of the cloth is a soft texture but it is also the soft manner in which Kara wipes it over Cat's skin that makes Cat's heart warm with appreciation.

"Thank you." Cat smacks her lips together, her mouth incredibly dry. "Can I have…"

"Clark, ice chips." Kara instructs, though she never looks away from Cat. It seems now that she's looked at her, truly looked at her, she can't stop.

"Coming!" Clark came rushing back into the room, one hand still over his eyes as he approached and offered Kara a cup with chipped ice.

Cat didn't even bother to ask how they had chipped ice. It didn't matter. She was grateful for them.

"Ah…here, let me. Rest." Kara insisted, stopping Cat from reaching for the cup to feed herself the ice chips. Instead Kara fed the small frozen water pellets to her.

The moment was heavy and yet, they said nothing of it. The rain continued it's splash across all available surfaces, the thunder rumbled in the background and the shutters continued to click and clack as the wind swirled. And still, they said nothing.

The crash of something in the kitchen broke the trance as Kara looked visually make sure Clark was okay.

"I'm good. I'm good!" Clark assured only a second later.

When Kara relaxed Cat watched the woman focus back to her task at hand. Though the muscles in her arms jumped a bit at the tension that had filled her as worry had overcome her for her ward.

"When did you start looking after Clark?" Cat found herself asking.

Kara's eyebrow raised a fraction. She stalled her answer by looking underneath the sheet and inspecting how far along Cat was.

"You're dilated almost 6 centimeters. It won't be long." Kara stated as she put the cup of ice chips down to Cat's left.

"You don't have to tell me. But this silence is…I just need to talk. Please. Anything." Cat could see that Kara was considering it, but she was still hesitant. "I promise, anything you share won't wind up out there somewhere. I mean…" Cat had to laugh, "…you are literally staring at my vagina, helping me give birth. I think we should know a bit more about each other. Don't you?"

Kara smirked, even chuckled a little. Sure that not saying anything about not minding staring at Cat Grant's vaginal canal was the safest thing for everyone.

"Our parents died when Clark was just born." Kara started, clearing her throat as she started talking. "We were taken in and adopted by this amazing couple. But they died too, car accident." Kara explained, fiddling with the fringe of the sheet that was resting over Cat's legs.

"I'm so sorry…that's…" Cat groaned and breathed through the contraction. Kara's hand on her ankle, her grip gentle, but firm, until it subsided. Cat fell backwards, the couch creaking with the weight of her, the table keeping it steady though. Cat smirked, realizing how right Kara was about that.

Still, she couldn't help but feel terrible for Kara, and Clark. "I'm so sorry." To lose their biological parents and then their adoptive parents. "You mustn't have been much older than Clark when it happened…" Cat guessed, using the information she knew about Kara to her advantage in the conversation.

Kara nodded in agreement, "Seventeen, my 18th birthday was a month later. I took custody of Clark and we moved to Gotham." Cat cringed, knowing just how dangerous Gotham was. "It was what I could afford." Kara defended herself.

Clark appeared to the side of them. "She was an 18-year-old, working full time, going to school full time for a dual degree, and she still managed to make it to all my school plays and all my games." Clark's eyes sparkled with his adoration and love for Kara as he stared at her.

Cat felt like she was invading a private moment as Kara got chocked up. Clark touched Kara's shoulder, softly. It took a moment, but Kara rested her own hand against Clark's, even though she was staring off towards the front door instead of at Clark or Cat.

Clark wiped away two tears that fell from his eyes quickly, shying away from admitting that he was crying.

"It was hard." Kara whispered, "But we made it work. I got the internship at Wayne Corp and I worked hard. I put in as many hours as I could. I had friends from university help with watching Clark." Kara smiled fondly at the memory of Jeremiah Danvers and his wife Eliza helping her look after Clark when she had to work late or she couldn't find a sitter to watch him when she had class. They had moved to Midvale almost five years ago now, and they had a little girl of their own that they hadn't wanted to raise in Gotham.

Thankfully, Kara had Bruce Wayne by then, and Barbara and James Gordon. They were like family. Kara still saw the Danvers during holidays and Clark insisted that they visited them at least twice during school recess. But things had been hard those first few years in Gotham. Very hard. Even though they now lived in Metropolis, it had been a hard fought journey there.

"It wasn't all bad. Was it?" Kara asked, her voice cracking as she finally turned to look at Clark, hoping with every fiber of her being that he said he had a good life. That she gave him a good life. As good as she could with their circumstances.

Clark's tears fell and he didn't wipe them away. "The best." He admitted with a watery smile. "The best I could ever want, Kara." He said her name like it was a benediction, as if him saying it as he did, would help her believe him.

Kara sucked in a deep breath through her nose and kept herself from breaking down, even though her shoulders shook twice as if she were going to.

Their attention was pulled back towards the situation at hand however, when Cat couldn't keep from groaning out through another contraction.

They were coming faster and faster now.

"Okay, okay, breathe." Kara instructed as she bent down to look at how dilated Cat was.

"Oh god…I feel like I need to push…." Cat groaned out, gritting her teeth as Clark sat beside her and helped keep her up. His touch was a bit firmer than Kara's but still, gentle, as if he were afraid he'd break her.

"Can she? Can she push?" Clark asked, eyes wide as he gave Cat his hand and let her squeeze it. Anyone else might have complained or cringed at the grip, but Clark didn't even flinch.

Kara's face appeared above the sheet and Cat groaned louder at the sight of it, knowing the answer was no. "Ugh…god. Jonathan should be here for this!" Cat growled out, sniffling back sudden tears.

"Jonathan, your husband?" Clark voiced the question at the sudden dropping of a male name.

"The father…" Cat sagged as the contraction came to an end. She didn't sink into the couch or the cushions this time, as Clark's arm kept her sitting up.

"Let her rest, Clark."

"Oh, sorry." He blushed a little as he removed his arm and Cat sank back into the pillows and rested her head back so she could stare at the ceiling.

"So, he isn't your husband?" Clark asked, his eyes trained on Cat's left ring finger.

Cat chuckled when she noticed his deductive skills. He'd probably make a decent reporter. "He was, we're in the middle of a divorce."

"But he still lives with you—" Clark hedged.

"Clark!" Kara scolded, glaring at the nosy young boy.

"What? She said that he'd been giving her foot rubs and back massages to keep away the pain before. Besides, it's keeping her mind occupied. Right?" Clark challenged, smiling wide when Kara remained silent, which meant he was right.

"You'd make a decent reporter, kid."

"Really?" Clark's eyes lit up. "Thanks!"

Kara groaned, "Perfect. He's already enamored with the controversy of reporter privilege and exposing the government." Kara paled, her words slowing as she mentioned exposing the government. It was an interesting pause, and one Cat normally would have jumped on, but for now, she focused instead on Clark and allowed Kara the time she needed to recompose herself. She couldn't afford to have Kara go back into her shell. Not now.

"Well, if you're ever looking to get those expose articles published, you let me know." Cat was trying for levity, but there was a dark cloud over both Zorels' faces.

"Thanks…" Clark whispered, his exuberance suddenly stifled.

The thunder that shook the whole cabin was the only noise for several seconds before Clark rebounded.

"So you're single then?"

Cat snickered, "Why, do you know someone who's interested?"

"Maybe…" Clark blushed, turning a soft hue of pink. It was charming on him. He'd make a dashing man one day.

Cat didn't have the heart to say anything to the boy about what she perceived as his crush. She did have to wonder at it though, if he could still have a crush on her even as she sat in his living room giving birth, looking like a ragamuffin.

"Oh god…okay…here we go." Cat attempted to sit up on her own, but fumbled. Clark caught her and helped her lean forward as another contraction struck.

Kara looked behind Cat at the clock on the wall, a deep crease forming again. "The contractions are two minutes apart."

"What does that mean?" Cat asked, gritted teeth, her grip on Clark's hand should have crushed it.

"It won't be much longer."

"Well …isn't…that…comforting!"

Kara stood up from her position on the floor, and Cat panicked. "Where are you going? You can't leave. I'm sorry. I please don't leave."

"I just need to wash my hands." Kara explained, blinking at the way Cat was staring at her, in the way Cat needed Kara to stay with her. It was comforting and terrifying all at the same time.

Kara stalked to the bathroom and went about scrubbing her hands, and her arms. She took off her shirt and left herself standing in a tank top. She stared at her reflection in the mirror. "You can do this." She told herself, over and over again, her heart racing against her chest as she tried not to notice the scars along her arms.

She could do this.
She could.
She didn't have another choice.

While Kara pumped herself up to handle this situation, Clark helped Cat lean forward and breathe properly through another contraction.

"You're doing…well-you-good. You're doing good." Clark stuttered, looking over his shoulder for Kara. It was one thing for him to be comfortable when Kara was here handling the situation. It was another to be left alone with a pregnant woman in labor.

"Talk to me. Please. the distraction helps." Cat panted as she rested back against the couch again, breathing heavily as she tried to catch her breath.

"A..about what?"

"Anything. Why…why did you come here for a vacation?"

"Oh uhm. The stars."

"The stars?" Cat asked, eyebrows pinched in curiosity.

"Yeah, the uhm. The light pollution doesn't make it over the second ridge here and it's great for seeing the stars. We have this telescope that Kara created and we were testing it out to see if we could see…" Clark stopped suddenly. "We were just trying to see how far it could see. If it'd beat the Hubble telescope."

"So, you're an aspiring astronomer?"

Clark shook his head as he rubbed the back of his neck, "No, not me. I want to be a journalist or a politician."

"Oh?" It was an interesting either/or. "Those are two very different things."

"I know…one makes the policies and the other gets to expose the corruption of the whole process. But maybe I can do both. I don't know." Clark scratched at his neck again and looked down at the floor.

"It's a noble cause. I'm sure if it's something you want; You'll find a way to make it happen." Cat didn't add a pessimistic view of how often politicians who started out like Clark ended up like a Cunningham or Agnew.

"Thanks…I'm sorry this is happening to you. I'm sure you're really scared. But Kara is really smart and she'll make sure you're okay. It's what she does."

"What is what she does?"

"Taking care of people." Clark whispered, his eyes shifting towards the bathroom. "Saving them."

Cat felt her heart clench in her chest once again. She knew, without a doubt, that Kara deserved the adoration Clark held for her. and that honestly made the woman all the more special in Cat's eyes.

"Ung…Clark, can you…Kara!" Cat called out as she felt a contraction stir within, the strongest of them all thus far.

Kara appeared in the room almost instantly, and was kneeling in front of Cat and lifting the sheet to see how far along she was.

"Okay, okay, the baby is crowning."

Clark went pale, "Clark, get that knife and come back here. You'll need to help Miss Grant remain sitting up."

"Okay!" He disappeared into the kitchen to get the knife and came back as quickly as he was allowed to. His hand back in Cat's and his arm at her lower back to help her sit up.

"Can you not call me Cat? For the love of God!" Cat exclaimed, screaming suddenly as the contraction she'd felt building slid through her.

"I will not call you a feline!"

"Then at least Cathryn!"

"Alright. Cathryn push!" Kara watched as Clark helped Cat brace as she pushed.

Cat wanted to scream, "thank you" or maybe "finally" but she was too preoccupied with doing as Kara said and pushing as hard as she could. She wanted to see her son, she wanted to hold Carter in her arms and lay eyes on him, to see whose eyes he had and whose nose.

But the head remained where it was and the contraction began to dissipate. Cat's body sagging against Clark as she panted heavily.

"Okay, okay. You did great. That was great." Kara praised, with a soft smile. Cat tried to smile back but she was tired and could just manage a twitch of her lips.

"On the next one we're going to do the same thing. Okay?"

Cat offered up a thumbs up.

"Clark…" Kara pointed to the wash cloth in a bowl of cold water. He took her suggestion and grabbed the cloth and patted at Cat's forehead and the sides of her neck and the back of it.

They went like this for almost ten minutes, Cat pushing on each of the contractions and Kara trying to encourage her to do one more. Just one more, big push and she could see her son. Kara was getting nervous about the baby's oxygen, but said nothing. She was more worried about how tired Cat was appearing and the glassy haze of her eyes and slurring.

When the next contraction came Kara was ready, kneeling between Cat's legs and egging her on as Clark had to lift Cat up into a sitting position because the older woman couldn't do it on her own. Tears were starting to fall and pessimism was setting in.

"I can't…I can't…" Cat cried, sniffling through her breathing exercises as she leaned heavily against Clark. "I…"

"Yes, you can, Cathryn, yes you can. Come on. We're almost there. You can do this."

"I'm not going to be a good mother. I messed it up the last time. I let him take my son from me. I…maybe I'm just not meant to have what I want. It's just…everything is always so hard." Cat complained, well over the line of exhaustion and heading straight into delirious.

"You're right. Everything is hard. It's always hard." Kara agreed, feeling a lump in her throat. "When I was twenty-four years old I was abducted and held prisoner for three months." Cat's eyes widened as Kara spoke, it was as if Kara didn't even realize she was talking as the words just flowed. "I was held against my will and…tortured…for 97 days, seven hours and twenty-five minutes." Kara knew exactly what she was doing. Distracting the older woman but she was still caught off guard by the emotions swirling around inside her, she always would be. The fear. The terror. The panic. She pushed it all aside because she had to.

"It is the hardest thing in the world to go through what I did and then…be expected to just seamlessly move back into society and continue where I left off. But I did." Kara nodded, her eyes looking to Clark, whose mouth was open and eyes wide with tears. "I had reason to get passed everything I went through. I had a purpose and a cause. So I got through it, most of it, but it was hard and it took time. I still, I can't touch people or be touched. I just…it hurts. But I do. I'm doing it now. For you. So…" Kara swallowed, forcing herself to meet Cat's eyes. "You need to do something that's hard and seems impossible. You need to sit up and push as hard as you can. Because you have a purpose and a reason to do it. You have a beautiful little boy who is counting on you. So please, Cat. One more time. One more…"

Cat didn't say a word, but she nodded her head and she forced her muscles to push up and she sat up (mostly) on her own and as the contraction hit she pushed with everything she had. She tore her own body apart in order to bring her son into this world, because Kara was right. She had every reason to give up but she had the single most precious reason in all the world to keep going.

Cat felt something give and she watched as Kara's arms fell slack, just a bit, and from beneath the sheet Kara's arms came out (even bloodier then before) with a small little thing cradled in her arms. Kara was staring between Carter and Cat, her fingers seeming to work on their own as she massages Carter's chest and used a clean damp cloth to clean off Carter's face and his mouth.

Cat started to laugh and cry all at the same time. Joyous and relieved and so very overwhelmed by it all that it took her a moment to realize that Carter wasn't crying. When she did she used Clark as a propellant to sit back up. "He's…he's…why isn't he…"

Before she could even ask why he wasn't crying, Carter took in a deep breath and let out a single shrieking wail…and then stopped crying, although his limbs moved about and he wiggled in Kara's grasp as he sucked in air. Kara looked up from the little boy held in her arms to the new mother, and watched Cat lean back again and cry with joy.

"Here…" Kara crawled on her two legs up to Cat and helped her move her arms so she could hold Carter. She hadn't cut the umbilical cord yet, but she rested Carter in his mother's arms and gave them a moment.

"Hi…hello there my darling boy. Hello, Carter. Oh Carter. My perfect little boy…" She whispered, her hands going to count fingers and toes as she held her son against her chest.

Kara stood up and put two pillows on the left and right of Cat to secure her so Clark and Kara could step away and give the newborn and mother a moment alone. Or as alone as they could get.

As soon as they were against the wall Kara touched Clark's shoulder and found the teenager in her arms a moment later, tears and soft cries issued from him as he snuggled against Kara. Kara held him tightly, squeezing him against her and let him cry. Kara's own tears falling.

It seemed the only one not crying was Carter.

Except Kara spoke too soon.

He began wailing after a moment.

Kara turned to look over at the crying infant, her eyes narrowing as she watched Cat's arms grow slack. She raced across the room and was able to steady Carter before he rolled off of Cat's chest.

"Miss Grant…Cathryn…Cat!" Kara called out, using one hand to hold Carter against Cat's chest while the other grappled with Cat's shoulder and shook the woman. The body beneath her just swayed left and right with the force of her touch.

"Cla…" Clark was beside her before she could even finish calling for him.

"Here, take the baby." Kara picked up the infant and handed him to Clark, the two of them kneeling at Cat's side.

"What's going on!" Clark trembled as he held the tiny infant, the blood still on him soaking into his shirt. "Why is she unconscious?" Clark asked as he looked down at Cat, not seeing what could have caused her to just pass out like she had.

"Kara? Kara!" Clark's voice raised and the baby cried louder at the noise. The young boy had only held an infant a few times in his life, his hold on Carter was secure but he was afraid that he'd hurt him, so he just stared down at him.

Kara frowned as she settled back in front of Cat, the sheet was stained red with blood. Too much of it. She felt bile rise in her throat.

Cat was hemorrhaging.

Kara started to panic. Her breathing picked up and she couldn't look at one thing for more then a second as her mind was franticly attempting to solve her current problem.

She was a problem solver. This is what she did. She fixed things. She could fix this. She could save Cat. Cat Grant was not going to bleed out in front of her while she did nothing!

"KARA!?" Clark yelled, wincing when it just made Carter start crying louder and louder. Nothing was as loud as the blood racing through his ears.

"Clean him up." Kara tossed Clark the warm wet cloth. "Then wrap him in these." Kara tossed Clark the ripped sheet that she had intended to swaddle the baby in right after he was born.

"But Kara what's…"

"Now, Clark! Don't ask questions. Please. I have to…" Kara ran her bloodied hand through her hair, uncaring that the thick red blood was pooling along her scalp and going to dye her blonde strands red and then brown as it became oxygenated. Kara had to think. She had to figure this out. Without much thought she grabbed the knife and cut the umbilical cord.

Kara started mumbling as she stared intently at the growing stain of blood between Cat's legs. If she could just find one of the vessels it would give them time.

"Now what?" Clark asked as he stood anxiously to the side, having cleaned and swaddled baby Carter as best he could. He was rocking the baby slowly, cooing at him like he he'd seen Eliza and Jeremiah do to Alex when she was an infant.

"We...god. Okay. You're going to need to put him down. I need your help." Kara felt sick to her stomach.

"Where am I putting him?!" Clark's voice cracked with the sudden a stress of the situation.

Kara wanted to snap at Clark for being so unsure and unable to solve such a simple problem. But then she realized she didn't know where to put Carter either.

"Uhm...pull out one of the drawers from the dressers, cushion it and put him in it."

"A drawer?! Really?!"

"Clark!" Kara bit out, snapping at him as he remained standing there. "She is going to bleed to death. Just do as I say! I need your help!"

"I...I...ohkay." Clark mumbled softly, shrinking back as he went to do as Kara said. He brought Carter back out snuggled into the drawer. "I used Cat's clothing. I thought...I don't know..." That it would be soothing for the boy to smell Cat's scent. Clark had felt comforted when he'd snuggled against Kara's pillow or into one of her worn shirts when she'd been...gone.

"Perfect. Okay. Now I'm going to need you to come hold her legs open so I can reach one of the vessels."

"How are you going to reach one of the..." Clark asked, even as he did as Kara asked and grabbed each of Cat's legs and maneuvered her as Kara told him to.

He realized just how Kara was going to do this when her eyes glowed red.

"This is going to be very unpleasant Clark. You can look away. Keep an eye on Carter for me. Make sure he's okay." Kara gave Clark any excuse to look away that she could think of. Knowing he'd want to prove he could be brave and strong, but this wasn't for him to see.

Clark turned to look at Carter and found himself smiling for a second. The little one had found his hand and was sucking on it as his legs kept kicking out and his eyes stared up curiously at the ceiling.

The little boy had no idea what was going on. Clark felt Cat's body jerk around, and he kept his eyes on Carter even as he pushed down on Cat to hold her steady like Kara said. Clark didn't look. He didn't want to know what Kara had to do to save Cat's life.

After what felt like an eternity Cat relaxed again and although there was the awful scent of burning flesh and blood heavy in the air, Clark kept his dinner in his stomach.

"Okay. Clark, get Carter." Clark had Carter in his arms before a human could blink. "No, keep him in the drawer. Bring it with us."

Kara picked up Cat's limp body. Cat's skin wasn't pale, it was grey. Clark shivered at the color. He'd seen that once before. He knew that wasn't good.

"We're leaving. Get in the front seat of the truck and leave the back doors open."

Clark didn't ask why they were going to drive or how Kara thought she could drive in this weather. He just did as he was told. He went to the door and unlocked it.

Before he could open it all the way it flew back against the hinges and crashed into the side of the house. The wind had blown most of the leaves off the trees and-

"Kara, there's a tree branch through the roof of the truck." Clark intoned, turning his back so Carter wasn't facing the wind and he could look back into the cabin.

Kara came to stand beside him. She had Cat draped over her arms and a pile of the cloths resting on her stomach.

"Fuck...ugh..." Clark's eyes widened. Kara never cursed. And if by chance she did, It wasn't in English. "Alright. Alright...Get in the car."

Clark nodded. The doors to Cat's car were open and he raced into the relative safety of the car and settled Carter's makeshift baby seat. At least they weren't getting wet.

"It's okay...shhh...your momma will be here soon. Then you can go home and meet your dad." Clark explained to the crying baby.

Kara came into the car and she leaned in awkwardly. She stretched to lay Cat down across the back seat as comfortably as she could. She secured something between Cat's legs and then closed the doors and came to the driver's side. Before she opened the door she disappeared and then reappeared with Cat's purse.

"Here, put the car on. You'll need heat."

Clark looked at the keys and the closed door for several seconds, confusion filling him until he felt the car jostle right, then left, and then suddenly the view of the outside was different, higher.

Clark's eyes widened as he turned the crank of the widow down, "What are you doing?!" He yelled to be heard over the wind.

Kara was flying with the car resting on her back. That had to be it, because as he looked in all three mirrors and out the window beside him and behind, he couldn't see her at all.

"The heat!" Kara called out from her mystery position.

"Oh..." Clark fumbled with the keys, his heart racing as he watched the trees start to pass them as if the car was already on and Kara was driving them down the dirt path. At least they weren't above the tree tops. It could just look like a car was stupid enough to drive in this storm. He finally hitched the key in the ignition and turned it, the engine revving and then starting. He fiddled with the dials on the car and turned the heat on.

Clark leaned out towards his window again when he heard Kara's voice.

"Pay attention to her heartbeat and tell me if it stops! The second it happens Clark!"

"Okay!" Clark rolled the window back up and focused on the sound of Cat's heartbeat. His ears were focused on Cat but his eyes were staring at the little baby that had caused all this-without even meaning to.

The little boy that Cat loved, so very dearly, was going to be her undoing. And Clark wondered if his biological parents loved him as much as Cat loved Carter, or as much as the Kents had loved him and Kara; or as much as Kara loved him. He wondered if children were cursed to be their parents undoing. The Kents died in a freak tornado that they wouldn't have been caught in if they weren't taking Kara and Clark to see the space museum in Oklahoma.

It took a long time for Clark to get over their loss. They were the only parents he had any memory of. Kara...well they were the second set of parents she lost, and she'd refused to let them have any others. She took custody of him and they disappeared after the accident. Everyone just thought that they were killed along with the Kents.

The move to Gotham wasn't easy. For a long time, Clark didn't think Kara loved him, that she didn't see him as anything more than a mission, a burden.

He was idealistic and he had used his powers to save someone. A stranger. But then there had been a newspaper article about him. It had been small and beneath the fold. it didn't have his name but it had a grainy picture of him in his hoodie saving the woman with super human strength and speed.

Kara had been furious. Instead of congratulating him she'd scolded him about his irresponsibility. Then he had been young(er) and stupid, he lashed out and he'd made Kara cry. He'd told her that he wished they'd died with their parents because then he wouldn't be stuck with her as a guardian. That she was a waste of a Kryptonian because she was a coward and hid in the shadows.

It had been mean spirited and nasty. He'd only said it because he knew it would hurt her and he wanted her to hurt. Because back then all he did was hurt. It'd all started because she'd told him he couldn't use his powers. Powers that were his to use as he saw fit-at least that's what he liked to think then-because she was just trying to keep him from being something great. She was afraid that he would be better than her and her jealousy killed her.

But jealousy hadn't been why she'd scolded him. Not at all. And he knew that now. not two hours after the fight, and three days after the incident, the windows of their apartment were blown in by some kind of devise that made their ears bleed, and men in suits with weapons that hurt Kara were filling the apartment through the broken windows and the door they kicked down to gain entry.

Before Clark could even get up from the floor, too stunned by the pain in his ears to do much more then whimper, Kara was fighting the agents and protecting him. Keeping him back and telling him to get up, to stand, to run. But he wouldn't. He wouldn't run. He stood and stayed where he was, and that meant Kara was limited on how she could fight their attackers, because she wouldn't move from in front of Clark. Not when she'd felt the sting and pain of their bullets pierce her skin.

It was only when Kara's blood splattered across Clark's face when she was shot-the bullet passing through her weakened skin to embed itself in his shoulder-that he listened. Kara fell, barely conscious but still kicking at the men that were reaching for him. He bent down and with his one good arm he tried to drag Kara with him, but his powers weren't working and his strength wasn't there so he couldn't get her to budge more than a few inches. Kara begged him to run. To leave her. And with tears and whispers of how sorry he was, he listened: he ran.

He ran right to the Danvers. Who he told everything to, and when they pulled the bullet from his shoulder, they told him that they knew about him and Kara. Kara had told them years before when Clark was just a little boy. Clark was hurt that Kara never told him the Danvers knew, he was angry with her. Angry that she had told someone without consulting with him first, angry that she'd been mad at him for using his powers and getting caught when she was telling people about them, (it didn't matter at the time that he'd just told them as well) but he was most angry because she had been taken and he hadn't saved her. She spent her life taking care of him and the one time she needed him most he couldn't return the favor. Kara was gone and he was all alone.

The Danvers helped him as best they could. They went to Bruce Wayne for help. At first it looked like Bruce agreed with the agents that took Kara, and he wouldn't help, wondering aloud if Kara wasn't better off in their custody, that she belonged there.

It had been Clark's breaking point. He'd broken down in Bruce's office and he begged Bruce to help him get back Kara, the only family he had left. He rambled on about losing his biological parents before he was two days old and how Martha and Jonathan Kent-the only mom and dad he knew-died when he was four and how Kara was all he had left. That she was good and kind and smart and brave. That she did everything in the world to keep him happy and fed and well taken care of. He cried as he explained that they were good, kind people, that they were normal. They lived like everyone else until he had ruined it. He'd used his powers when he knew Kara wouldn't approve. He accepted the blame, cried and sobbed and begged forgiveness for actions he hadn't fully realized would cause such problems.

He only stopped crying when Bruce grasped his shoulder and squeezed it. They stared into each other's eyes and Bruce promised to help him get Kara back.

Bruce kept his word. He did help them. But it took three months.

It had been three long months where Clark lived with Bruce, the Danvers, the police chief turned-Mayor's-daughter, Barbara Gordon, and a private swat team of body guards, and Alfred of course. He learned about the vigilante life Bruce lived at night and the Danvers even helped Bruce develop new nonlethal weapons.

When Kara came back she was never the same. She flinched at loud noises, screamed in her sleep, and she couldn't be touched. She broke Jeremiah's wrist when he tried to touch her arm.

Clark cried when he first saw her, she was covered in a blanket and shivering. She stood between Bruce and Barbara at the other end of the hallway. Clark had run to Kara that day, careful of her because she was so frail looking, but when she dropped her blanket and hugged him it was with super strength and he hugged her back just as tight, both of them crying. When her legs gave out and everyone reached for her he was the one that picked her up and carried her to her room.

Kara had been emaciated and her eyes dull. He didn't care. She was home and safe now and that was all that mattered to him then, because he was going to make up for how he'd acted and help Kara get better. Whatever she needed.

It took almost six months for Kara to recover enough to trust that she wasn't hallucinating, that Clark was real, that she wasn't still in the facility being experimented on. Six months where they stayed at Wayne Manor and found a new, accepting family.

Kara had scars. A lot of them. She hid them well, but they were there, under her shirt and pants, along her chest, arms, her back and thighs. They were physical reminders of what she had been through.

Clark had promised that he would do anything in his power to protect Kara next time the government came, because they all knew they would try again. Kara wouldn't always be safe hiding in plain sight, not anymore. So Clark trained with Bruce and Barbara. He learned how to fight, several different styles, and all without his strength so he could protect Kara no matter the circumstances.

Kara would never let him join Bruce, Barbara, and Dick on their nightly activities, but she let them teach him how to fight. When she was ready, she had them teach her as well.

They'd also come up with a temporary solution to keep Kara safe. They put her in the eye of the media. They had Bruce Wayne take a bullet for her, they leaked that she was living with him, and made sure her face was on magazines and TV screens and that the speculations were running rampant about her connection to Bruce. She was the hottest mystery in business since Bruce Wayne's resurgence from beyond the grave and it was the best way they could protect her.

Rather than hiding in plain sight they had her hide in the eyes of the media, where the government couldn't touch her without the whole world noticing now.

The only drawback to 'hiding' in the media's eye was: this situation. The media literally came knocking on their door. All the time. They wanted to know more. Always looking to get the scoop. Even now, three years later.

The car shook violently, pulling Clark out of his thoughts and making him focus on the baby he cradled on the drawer and the slowing heartbeat of the media mogul in the back seat.

Clark looked out the windows to see what had made them shake like that but didn't see anything noticeable. Kara probably hit the equivalent of turbulence.

Carter started crying again and Clark frowned as he tried to soothe the infant. He rocked the drawer as gently as he could and even started singing a Kryptonian lullaby that Kara sang to him when he was young.

The soft sounds of Clark speaking Kryptonese as he sang helped keep Kara calm as she gripped the bottom of Cat's car hard enough to leave indentations in the bottom well of the car. It would need to be totaled and she'd have to make it look like something other than her fingers had done the damage. But for now she was focusing on keeping them all alive. The storm was getting worse and as she flew overhead Kara saw washed out roads that wouldn't bode well for a cover story. But that didn't matter. Creating a cover story was something she could manage when it dealt with washed out roads. She would not be able to explain the death of Cat Grant in her rented cabin.

Kara could not be responsible for Cat's death. She would not be the reason a child grew up without his mother-even if that meant breaking all of her sacred rules about using her powers.

Kara's heart was beating wildly against her chest, so thready that she feared she was having an actual heart attack as the pain was worse than the panic attacks she'd suffered from the last three years.

The sound of Clark's voice and the whimpers of little Carter Grant helped her focus, kept her flying four feet off the ground with the car laying on her back. It had been a long time since she had flown and trying to maneuver around fallen trees with a heavy car and precious cargo on her back, was harder then she thought it was going to be.

Weaving left and right took several extra seconds, seconds that she didn't account for at first. She'd nearly dropped the car over her left shoulder before she caught it and yanked it back.

Now she accounted for the delay, and things were going as smoothly as she could hope. They were twenty minutes out from the nearest hospital at this rate.

Of course, Kara forgot that fate was not a friend, but a bitter enemy, and just as she was beginning to feel secure in the fact that she could get them to the hospital in time, Clark gasped. He sucked in a deep breath and he was frantically moving around in the car.

"They stopped! They stopped!" He screamed out the window.

"What stahp-" Kara's eyes widened as she realized what Clark meant. Their hearts. But wait... "Their?!"

"The baby too! What do I do!" Clark screamed, his voice cracking with the stress.

Kara felt her eyelids flutter with all the options that were running through her mind. Clark only had two hands. He couldn't perform CPR on both of them.

"The baby! Clark, focus on the baby. Gently push with your pinky finger over his heart in a tempo."

"But what about..."

"One at a time Clark. Get Carter's heart going. Then focus on Cat."

Because that was what Cat would want. She would want Carter to survive. Even if she didn't. Kara knew that and she'd only just met the woman. Still, Kara whispered a Kryptonian prayer and held onto the under carriage of the car tighter and started to fly faster. And faster. And faster until the metal of the car started to give to the pressure and she slowed, but only a bit. What would have taken then twenty minutes now took them two minutes.

Kara put the car down, and threw the doors open. Clark had the baby and was still doing compressions.

"It's down the block. We have to run from here." She would come back for the car later.

Clark was crying, his eyes pleading with her to make this better. To save the two humans in front of him. "Hold the drawer against your chest with Carter against your chest, and run Clark. Run till you're on the sidewalk outside the hospital." She emphasized the word run so he would understand what she meant. "I am right behind you. Tell them I'm right behind you."

Clark kept doing soft compressions against Carter's small chest. His cheeks covered in tears as he focused on what he was doing, terrified that he'd hurt Carter more then he'd mean to.

"Clark...Clark." Kara reached to touch Clark's forearm, but he jerked back. His eyes still on Carter as he did compressions.

"Please...please..." He whispered through his tears.

They both sucked in a deep breath when Carter's heart stared on its own.

Clark picked up Carter and held him against his chest. He then grabbed the drawer and used it as a cover and rushed out of the car, heading towards the hospital as Kara had told him to.

With Carter and Clark gone Kara focused on Cat. She stared at her chest and cupped her fist, laid her as flat as she could, rubbed a bit roughly against her chest and then hit her chest cavity, hard. Not as hard as she could. But she did it once and Cat's body jerked but her heart didn't start. So she did it again. The woman's arms flung about as she landed back against the backseat. And Kara sucked in a breath and did it one more time.

This time Cat gasped as she jerked and her heart beat started again, it was slow and unsteady. But it was there.

Wrapping Cat in her arms and bracing her fragile body against hers, Kara lifted her out of the car and then started to run towards the hospital. In her ear the slowing and softening thump...thump...thump...of Cat's heartbeat.

Kara grit her teeth and did the only thing she could do. She ran faster.

By the time she made it to the hospital doors there was staff rushing about in surgical gowns and putting on gloves, eyes wide and frantic. It probably wasn't everyday this hospital received two critical patients with such high profiles.

"Here, let's get her down on the gurney. We've got her now. You can let go..." A woman, Kara couldn't tell if she was a doctor or a nurse tried to get her to put Cat down.

Kara looked at them all suspiciously but she did as she was asked and put Cat down on the gurney. Before Kara knew what was happening they were wheeling Cat away and she was left standing in the rain with a male doctor looking at her trying to ascertain if she was injured of if the blood soaking through her clothes were from Cat.

Kara could hear Carter crying and Clark, he was in distress. Kara was stalking towards Clark swiftly, jaw set and eyes hard as she barreled into the hospital room. A doctor had his hands on Clark and before Kara thought about what she was doing she grabbed his hand and snapped it at the wrist. He started screaming and it was almost as loud as the baby's.

"Wait, no!" Clark yelled as he jumped to stand in front of Kara when two security guards came in. "She has PTSD. She thought he was hurting me!" Clark explained and tried to get control of the room. "Please. Just help Carter."

Kara was trying very hard to control her breathing, but her heart was racing and she was shaking, her vision narrowing. Carter was still screaming, Cat's heart was still echoing a soft stuttering beat in the distance and Clark was safe. Before Kara knew what was happening everything went black.

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

The first thing that Cat noticed was the brightly shinning light that kept her from opening her eyes without pain.

Without the use of her eyes she paid closer attention to the sounds and smells around her to try and piece together where she was and what was going on.

The soft hum of machines and the stench of hospital antiseptic filtered in. There was also soft rustling of fabric and the impatient huffs and puffs of an infant. At that her eyes snapped open, damning the light with a growl Cat kept her eyes open.

Carter.

She had to see Carter, had to make sure he was okay. He needed her. She'd just finished counting his fingers and his toes when everything had gone fuzzy.

"Easy, easy..."

Jonathan? Cat turned her head to the side, regretting the speed immediately as everything got fuzzy again and she felt nauseous.

"Jonathan?! How, when?"

"Shhh...shhh...I'll explain. Just calm down." Jonathan cooed, his hand brushing Cat's long tresses aside. "Carter is fine. He's just fussy because he's hungry."

"How long?" Cat asked, feeling anguish at missing her sons first few what? Hours? Days? Weeks?

"Three days." Jonathan dropped his hand to rest on Cat's. "I'm so glad you're awake. They weren't sure how long you'd be in the coma."

"Coma!? Jonathan. Explain faster." Cat demanded, though she squeezed his hand tightly, eyes wide with the fear she felt settling around her.

"You hemorrhaged after giving birth. Kara drove you and Carter to the nearest hospital through the storm. Totaled the car a few blocks away, but she carried you in." Jonathan rushed to explain.

"You'd lost a lot of blood and your heart had stopped. Carter had gone into shock and his heart stopped at some point as well." Cat whimpered and her eyes moved to the medical basinet that Carter was resting in.

Jonathan jumped up and picked Carter up from his bed and sat as close to Cat as he could so she could see him. "You're hooked up. Once the doctor gives the okay you can hold him." Jonathan promised, noticing how Cat frowned when Carter wasn't placed directly in her waiting arms.

"Jon..."

"No. Cat. You...you've been in a coma!" He hissed, eyes shining with tears. "You're going to wait till the doctor says it's okay. And that's that." Jonathan panted as if he'd just gone ten rounds in the ring with his ex-wife.

Cat didn't continue to argue. She wasn't sure her arms could hold Carter safely yet, and she wouldn't risk him. Not for anything. Never again.

"That girl saved you." Jonathan whispered. "You know that right? She cauterized some vessel with a name I can't pronounce and it's the only reason your alive. That and she found a way down from the mountains to get you here…" Jonathan shook his head. "She saved you."

Cat remained silent as Jonathan whispered his awe at all Kara had done to save her. "Where is she?"

"She and the boy left this morning."

"Oh…" Cat frowned, sighing heavily. Why would Kara stay anyway? It wasn't like they were friends. Cat had invaded her personal space and her vacation with Clark, it wasn't like she'd been invited to join them. She'd forced her way into their private time and made a mess of it by going into labor.

Cat sighed, she'd made a mess of a lot of it to.

Carter groaned and wiggled around uncomfortably in Jonathan's arms for a moment, the sound and sight of her son wiggling around making her heart swell. Then she recalled what Jonathan had said, "What do you mean his heart stopped?!"

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

Three days later Cat was standing beside what was her hospital bed, pulling roughly on a zipper of the baby bag that Jonathan had remembered to bring. She grumbled to herself as she tugged, the action useless as the zipper didn't budge.

"I swear they make these things more impossible every year." Cat growled in her frustration and pushed the bag away from her, huffing as she glared at it.

"I'd heard they were letting you leave."

Cat froze, her back going straight as she sucked in a sharp breath, "Kara?"

She spun around and was rewarded with the sight of Kara Zorel standing in her doorway. The woman was well put together, wearing a designer suit that framed her body well, her hair in a refined and pinned up bun, not a hair out of place, and dark eye liner around her eyes that made her other-worldly blue eyes even more striking.

This woman was a far cry from the woman decked in a plaid shirt and jeans with an ax hanging loosely over her shoulder

"Hi."

"Hello…" Cat looked around the hospital room for a moment before meeting Kara's eyes. She was pleasantly surprised when Kara didn't look away.

"Clark and I, we sent flowers." Kara gestured with her chin to the three vases in on the windowsill.

"Yes, I was going to send a thank you card. It was…very thoughtful. You didn't have to you'd already done enough." Cat rambled, and stopped herself quickly. She didn't ramble. She was eloquent and poised. She was not a rambler. Except, she was, especially when she was nervous. It was a habit she would have to kick sooner rather than later.

"Well, let me give you this last, uhh, gift, before you say that." Kara grinned, blushing as she stepped into the room and pulled a folder from behind her back.

Cat looked at the folder suspiciously. It wasn't particularly thick, but it was obvious there was paperwork in there.

"An NDA?" Cat asked with far more snark then she meant.

"In a way, yes." Kara hedged, fiddling with her glasses as she waited for Cat to take the folder she was extending towards her.

Internally groaning, Cat grabbed the folder, her heart hitching in her chest at the momentary electric contact of her fingers sliding over Kara's.

Kara's blush just got deeper as she let her hand fall to her side. It was an improvement from the woman jumping across the room to get away from her at the slightest touch. Then again, Cat realized, Kara had touched areas inside her that no one but her gynecologist had. To be honest, she still didn't quite understand how Kara had been able to cauterize the uterine blood vessels to keep her from bleeding out.

"So, what am I looking at here?" Cat asked as she went for her reading glasses, which were in the front pouch of the bag that she had exiled to the other side of the bed.

"It's a contract." Kara explained, watching as Cat slipped on her own glasses and opened the folder to see the contents within. "It includes an NDA which will forbid you to release where you received the twenty million dollars of capital from unless subpoenaed, and even then this contract should be enough to stall any inquisitive eyes. Of course, the contract lays out a plan to make it less conspicuous. You'll see that in Part 3 paragraph four subsection two." Kara took a half step forward and tried to point things out as if she could read the contract upside down and through the many pages that Cat hadn't gone through yet.

In fact, Cat was still. Very still. Alarmingly still.

"Cathryn?" Kara whispered softly, heart spiking in sudden fear that she should rush to get the doctors, maybe they'd missed something and Cat wasn't well enough to go home, let alone have any visitors maybe…

"Twenty…twenty million dollars?" Cat blinked slowly, her eyes zeroing in on the check that stood out half hidden behind the left flap of the folder.

"Yes, that was the amount you were looking for Wayne Corp to invest, correct?"

"But, but…" Cat looked up from the check and the contract. She knew that she'd sign this contract even if her lawyers told her it was as bad as selling her soul. She could think of a million and two people it would be far worse to sell her soul to than Kara Zorel.

"There are stipulations of course. The contract covers them. But…it specifically states that you cannot print anything you learned about me or Clark while you were at the cabin. It also outlines how Wayne Corp is replacing your car as the old one was brought to the impound lot and destroyed."

"Jonathan did say you'd totaled it. I loved that car…" Cat sourly mourned her car. But she joyously celebrated her continued health and the health of her son, a car could always be replaced.

"I am sorry about…"

"Don't! Don't you ever be sorry for totaling that car!" Cat shook her head, her voice sharp as she stared intently at Kara. "You saved my life, You're giving me 20 million dollars. Hush money. I know what it is." Cat wanted Kara to at least be aware that she knew this money wasn't about helping her build CatCo, it was about keeping her quiet. "But I also don't see why, and honestly, I don't care. I don't care…" It surprised even her, but she didn't want to dig, she didn't want to know what it was that needed hiding about Kara Zorel. "…what it is you have to hide about that night. I'm just grateful for you, Kara. I'm grateful for you. You saved my son's life." Cat felt her eyes fill with tears. These postpartum hormones were as bad as the mood swings she'd faced while pregnant. "Thank you."

"I..it was…" Kara took in a deep breath and nodded once, "You're welcome."

The two stood in silence for several long minutes.

"Where do I sign?" Cat asked, finally looking back down at the contract. If the light reflected the two tears that had fallen from her eyes, Kara didn't say anything.

"You can have your lawyers look it over before…"

"Kara, where do I sign?" Cat rolled her eyes, it seemed she was always going to have to ask twice when it came to Kara Zorel.

"There are tags on pages 8, 15, and 21."

"Great. Oh, perfect. Jonathan. Come sign as my witness."

Kara twisted around as Cat waved someone into the room. She backed several feet away from Jonathan as he came in. He was smiling and pushing in a baby carriage that had a car seat upon the top. Baby Carter Grant was sound asleep within the car seat, dressed in a small cap and booties and a onesie that was a size and a half too big.

"Miss Zorel." Jonathan smiled and nodded his greeting to Kara.

"Mr. McCaffrey." Kara fiddled with her glasses as she shifted a bit nervously from one foot to the other. "I should be on my…"

"Nonsense. Wait one moment. This won't take long." Cat insisted. "Jonathan. Come sign here." Cat pointed out where she wanted Jonathan to sign, and shushed him when he asked if they shouldn't have the lawyers look over it first.

"There. Here's your copy. We'll get it notarized by a nurse before we leave." Cat promised, feeling positively giddy. She'd gotten far more then what she needed from Wayne Corp. And although she couldn't tell Diana where she'd gotten the money from, she didn't need their additional 'donations'. Not with the check resting in the folder she held protectively against her chest.

"Uhh…great." Kara took her copy and looked pointedly between Cat and Jonathan before she ducked her head down. "I'll just be on my way. Congratulations, Miss Grant. I'm sure we'll see each other again soon."

"Yes. The next time your in National City. Please…" Cat cleared her throat at the way it cracked. "Look me up. I'm sure you can weasel my number from Lois Lane if you wanted it."

Kara smiled, "Mr. McCaffrey already gave me your number." Kara admitted bashfully.

"He did, did he?" Cat gave him a side long glance and he smiled as if he'd done nothing wrong, and yet appeared to exude the aura of a man who'd just done something he shouldn't have.

"Well, good. I expect that you'll call." Cat tried to straighten herself up so she appeared more commanding. But she was wearing sweats and a baggy t-shirt with DUKE in faded letters. She was nowhere near as put together as Kara and her poise and eloquence just weren't the same when she was dressed like this.

"I will." Kara smiled, the sight of it breath taking. "I wish you both luck. With Carter. And…" Kara stopped by the door of Cat's room. "If you're ever back in Metropolis, Barbara Gordon knows how to reach me. I hope you'll come over for dinner, with Carter of course. And Mr. McCaffrey. Clark would love to see Carter. And you!"

"Mr. McCaffrey will be busy." Jonathan grinned even as Cat pinched his arm and he focused on Carter's sleeping face.

"Oh, well, the offer is still there. Should you be…available." Kara didn't understand why Jonathan was smirking the way he was, and staring pointedly at Cat. But there was a lot about human interaction that Kara didn't understand. She just hoped she hadn't made a fool of herself in front of Cat.

"He's being an ass. Ignore him. I only married him for his money."

Jonathan huffed a laugh and shook his head but said nothing.

Kara became even more uncomfortable at the ease with which Jonathan and Cat interacted. She nodded her head stiffly and turned to leave. Sure that she had been excused from the conversation now.

Before she even made it around the doorway wall, she felt a warm hand settle around her wrist. She didn't flinch, or jump, and although her heart rate increased, it wasn't because she was panicking. She was just…nervous, and her skin was flushed with heat.

"Please, don't mind him. I'd love to join you…and Clark for dinner the next time I'm in Metropolis. I have a standing meeting there in three months. I'll be sure to get in touch with you then."

Kara's beaming smile was back and it made Cat's cheeks hurt with how wide her own smile became at the sight of it, "Wonderful. I shall see you then."

Cat knew that this was going to be the last time she saw Kara for at least twelve weeks, so she threw caution to the wind and leaned forward. She pressed her lips softly against Kara's cheek and pulled back quickly. Her smile as bright as her blushing cheeks. "See you then." She whispered as she ducked back into her hospital room.

It took Kara several long moments to figure out how to breathe again, and even longer before she remembered how to walk.

"You certainly know how to pick them, Cat. I'll give you that. Yes, I will. what do you think Carter. How does the name Carter Zorel McCaffery Grant sound to you, hmm? Hmm…do you think mommy likes Ms. Zorel? Oww…Cat, that hurt!"

"Shut…uush you. Don't tease me. Or her. She's…it's not like that. At all. She's just a business partner."

"Who gave you twenty million dollars."

"Yes, who gave me twenty million dollars."

"Well, I don't know about your friends. But my friends don't give me twenty million dollars as a way to cheer me up after a near death experience."

"Jon! Honestly! Is that necessary," Cat sighed heavily, "She's far too young."

"If that's the only reason you're not considering going out to dinner with her, without Clark and Carter, then you're a bigger fool then I ever realized."

"I don't-it can't-she wouldn't-there's…" Cat couldn't seem to find the excuse she was looking for.

"When you're done trying to find an excuse, I might be persuaded to give you her number."

"You have her number?"

"Of course I do! Who do you think called to let her know you were leaving today? Ow—Cat, stop. It's not funny! That hurt!"

It took Kara longer than usual for her to make it down the hallway, but as she walked, if anyone saw her, all they would see would be a happy, smiling, beautifully joyous woman.

Who may or may not find herself on a date in three months. A date she was surprisingly already very excited about. After all, nothing could be more stressful or disastrous than what they'd already been through, right?

THE END

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So ends the beginning of what will probably be a series of long one shots based in this alternate universe/timeline. Let me know what you think! :-D I worked really hard on this one and I hope that you enjoyed it!