Author's Note: As always, I don't own Supergirl.
Over the course of their rather unusual relationship, Supergirl had inadvertently given Cat Grant clues about her true identity. The first had come on Thanksgiving when Livewire had attacked Catco.
After Supergirl had fought her off, she'd saved Cat from plummeting to her death in an elevator.
"You're safe now, Ms. Grant," Supergirl said after she pried open the top of the elevator.
"Oh Thank you." Cat sighed.
Supergirl offered Cat her hand and lifted her out of the elevator with as much ease as if the older woman weighed no more than a pillow. Then she pried open the doors to the nearest floor and helped Cat out of the elevator shaft.
"What happened to Leslie?" Cat asked.
Supergirl's smile faded. "She escaped." Then seeing terror cloud Cat's features she hastily added. "Don't worry, I'm not going to let her hurt you or anybody else."
The thought that Leslie was still out there with electrical powers worried Cat, but she trusted Supergirl would keep her word. She felt her heartbeat started to return to normal. However, the relief she felt only lasted for a second when she remembered something that made her pulse start to race once more.
"Kiera!" Cat had suddenly cried out while grabbing Supergirl's arm.
"What?! No! I...I mean what are you talking about Ms. Grant?" Supergirl stammered in response.
"Kiera's my assistant." Cat explained. "She was here when Leslie attacked. I sent her to get help, but what if Leslie found her?!"
Cat didn't really think that her assistant could actually reach help in time, but she had hoped that if Kara got away from her that she'd have a better chance of surviving. After all, Cat was the one Leslie wanted to kill, Kara was just at the wrong place at the wrong time.
But what if her plan had backfired and by calling Kara into work (on a holiday no less) Cat had inadvertently gotten the poor girl killed? She looked desperately at Supergirl hoping the hero could reassure her that Kara was alright.
"Oh." Supergirl sighed. "Don't worry, she's fine."
"How do you know?" Cat asked, still worried.
"I...uh...I can hear her. She's running down the stairwell calling for help."
Right. Cat thought to herself. She remembered that in addition to all of her other powers, Supergirl also had super-hearing.
"But she's not hurt, is she?"
"No, she's fine. I mean she's a bit panicked about everything, but besides that she's fine."
"Good. I guess we better find her and let her know everything's okay."
"Yeah, I guess we should." Supergirl agreed, although (if Cat wasn't mistaken) she sounded almost hesitant.
Cat waited for Supergirl take the lead since with her super-hearing and x-ray vision she could find Kara a lot easier than she could. But when the alien didn't move Cat asked, "Can you tell what floor she's on?"
Supergirl squinted in the direction of the stairwell. "She just reached Building Security."
She's reached them already? Cat knew Kara's adrenaline had to be pumping, but she had never expected her to run down twenty flights of stairs that fast.
"Okay," Cat said leading the way. Supergirl started to follow her, then she stopped abruptly.
"Actually, you're going to have to find Kara by yourself. I hear someone calling for help and have to go." She said before flying off.
At the time nothing in particular from that interaction had stood out as being suspicious—at least not that Cat was consciously aware of. But still, she had this nagging sensation that she'd overlooked something significant. Years of chasing stories and hunting down leads—even the ones that seemed crazy—had taught her not to ignore this feeling. But as much as she tried to replay the events the last few days in her mind, she couldn't find any details that were out of place.
Then, once Leslie had been captured and her brain finally had a chance to rest, it came to her. She had been lying in bed at the time, about to succumb to the exhaustion caused by this whole ordeal. Her mind was somewhere between sleep and wake when she'd abruptly sat up. She'd finally realized what had been bothering her.
How did Supergirl know her assistant's name was Kara? She thought back to their conversation and she was sure she had referred to her assistant as 'Kiera'. And she realized that was not the only part of their conversation that did not fit.
When she had mentioned Kara, Supergirl had seemed generally flustered. No, not just flustered, she was nervous. Cat had been too worried about her assistant at the time to notice, but her subconscious had picked up on it. What did Supergirl have to be nervous about?
Also, when Cat had finally found Kara, she did not seem out of breath like someone who had just run down twenty flights of stairs should be. And Kara had apparently run down all those stairs in the heels she'd still been wearing when Cat caught up with her. Why wouldn't she take off her heels before running down the stairs? Surely her assistant was smart enough to know running downstairs in heels is a good way to break her neck.
None of this makes any sense. Cat thought to herself. Unless, of course, Supergirl and Kara are the same person.
The second her brain registered the thought, Cat burst into laughter. For at least two minutes she sat in bed laughing so hard it brought tears to her eyes. Finally, she managed to compose herself.
I must be even more exhausted than I realized. Why else would she even consider the notion that her mousy assistant was flying around National City saving people in-between fetching her coffee and layouts?
Then again, Kara does disappear a lot at work. And now that she thought about it, there was an undeniable resemblance between the two.
Stop it. She told herself. None of this proves anything. There are probably thousands of women in National City who look like Supergirl.
She lay back down deciding she was too tired to think straight, but still, sleep did not come easily. Her subconscious was still too active for her to fall asleep. No matter how insane her theory seemed, in the back of her mind, her instincts told her she was onto something.