"How could you?!" Kara shouted as she slammed the door to Cat's penthouse.
Kara had been called away on a Supergirl emergency earlier that morning/ She walked in to find Cat waiting for her with a glass of wine in her hand. She was very eager to for the two of them to continue enjoying their day off together
.
The older woman was startled by the sound of her girlfriends unusual tone. She stood up and turned toward Kara only to be met with blue eyes filled with anger and hurt.
"What are you talking about?" she spoke with concern in her voice.
In the months that the two had been dating Kara had never once yelled at her. In fact, it was rare for Kara to ever lose her temper and for her to become this angry with Cat was nearly unheard of. But her rage in this instance was very justifiable.
Earlier that day…
Supergirl was flying towards Cat's penthouse after defeating the rogue alien that had been wreaking havoc on National City.
She was halfway back to Cat's place when she heard her phone beeped. As she looked at the phone she saw a text from Cat's new assistant.
Emma: "Please help me! Miss Grant asked me to plan the annual Catco banquet next month and I am completely lost. She's gonna kill me if I don't get this done. Please help me Kara!"
Kara sighed then smiled. It had taken her forever to learn how to plan a party worthy of Cat Grant when she was her assistant. After two years of practice, however, she could do it without any second thoughts.
Kara: Calm down, I'll see you in a few :)"
Within minutes Supergirl had touched down on the roof of Catco headquarters and headed straight for the stairwell. She used her super-speed to change into 'normal' clothes, as she like to call them. She also took the time to text Cat.
Kara: I'll be a little late getting back. You got Emma afraid for her life again.
Cat: Then I'm doing my job right ;) Hurry back love.
Kara: I will baby. Promise 3
Soon, Kara and Emma were in Cat's glass office. Kara had gone over the basics of what Cat thought of as successful banquet and Emma was finally beginning to look a little less worried.
"Here, you'll need this." Kara said as she unlocked the top drawer of Cat's desk to grab a file. She paused for a moment. Under the file she had just picked up was a small black jumpdrive. A confused look appeared on the blonde's face. As Cat's former assistant and current girlfriend Kara knew exactly what files and documents Cat has and where they are at, but this jumpdrive was new.
"Kara? You okay?" She heard Emma ask.
"Huh? Oh yes, I'm fine." Kara gave an apologetic smile and turned back to her friend. "Here," she said as she handed Emma the file. "In there is every body you need to call to make sure the banquet turns out perfect. The food, the music, the decorations, everyone."
"Thank you Kara. You're a lifesaver." Emma smiled quickly before hurrying out of the room.
Once Emma was back at her desk, Kara reached back into the draw and pulled out the jumpdrive. Turning it around in her hand, she noticed that it was labeled 'Personal', which only furthered her confusion.
Curiosity got the better of her as she plugged it into Cat's computer. When she opened the documents they all appeared to be unpublished articles that her girlfriend had written. The headlines of them caught her attention. Then, as she read further into each one, her mouth slowly dropped open in shock and she could feel anger and hurt begin to rise within her.
"How could she…?" Kara mumbled quietly under her breath.
She quickly printed off three of the articles and grabbed the jumpdrive before shutting down the computer. Storming out of Cat's office, Kara headed straight for the roof. Once again she changed in the stairwell and then flew off to confront her girlfriend with the articles in her hand.
"These! These are what I'm talking about Cat." Kara practically shouts as she holds up the jumpdrive and the articles for the older blonde to see.
Cat's face instantly flashes with shock and guilt. "Darling it's not what you think. I can explain."
"Explain what Cat? How you had these waiting in your office for the perfect time to use!?"
"No!" Cat started getting defensive. "You know I would never do that."
"Do I?" Kara held the articles up and started flipping through them while reading the headlines out loud. "Secret Government Alien Facility outside National City, Farm-Boy Turned Superhero, Supergirl Revealed! And these are only the beginning." After reading the last one Kara shredded the small stack of paper in her hands.
Once the pieces hit the floor she stepped closer to Cat to look her in the eye. "Everything…" Kara's voice carried the betrayal she felt. "You wrote about everything. Every single thing I told you about Krypton, my mother, Astra, Clark, the DEO, about J'onn and how he took over Hank Henshaw's identity, you even wrote about Alex and how the Danver's took me in and raised me. Every secret that I trusted you to protect and you wrote them down for the world to see."
As the last part crossed her lips a tear slipped down the younger woman's cheek. "I trusted you Cat…"
Guilt, once again, washed over Cat's features. She knew Kara would be upset with her if she ever saw those hidden articles, but she never wanted to cause her love so much pain.
"Darling please let me explain." she spoke in the same gentle tone she used only ever used when she was trying to comfort Kara or Carter. "Yes I wrote them...all of them. I'm a writer Kara. Every time I hear about anything newsworthy my hands practically start to shake with the need to write it down. I only wrote all those articles to get it out of my system. I know that's not a good excuse, but I was never going to publish any of it. That's why I locked that thing away. You and I are the only people with a key to that drawer, nobody else could get in it." She brought her hand up to wipe the tear off Kara's cheeks only to have the younger woman jerk away from her touch.
"Cat you nearly have as many enemies in this city as Supergirl does. Any one of them could try to find something dirty on you for them to expose. All it would take is a simple lock picking kit to get into your desk and find this damn thing." Kara held up the jumpdrive before she crushed it in her hand and allowed the pieces to fall to the floor.
Cat cringed at the sound. "I swear I never meant to hurt you." Before she and Kara became a couple Cat had hidden all of her vulnerable emotions so that no one could hurt her. She still hid her them from most people, but never from Kara. And at that moment Cat allowed all those feelings to show. Guilt, shame, and regret could be heard in her voice and seen on her face.
Kara took a deep breath to calm herself down and brought her hand up to wipe her face dry after a few more tears had managed to escape. She was still hurt by Cat's actions, but she also could not stand to see Cat so upset. And in her heart she knew Cat would never intentionally hurt her.
"I know you would never publish them Cat, I really do. I know you love me too much to ever do that. When I saw these articles I suppose I let my pain cloud my judgement." Kara stepped closer to Cat and placed her arms around the older woman. "I'm sorry I snapped at you." she whispered in her ear.
Cat sighed in relief as she returned the hug. A small smile appeared on her lips as she laid her head on Kara's shoulder.
"But," Cat's smile disappeared when she lifted her head to look at Kara when she continued to speak. "I need you to realize how serious this is. If anyone ever did find these articles we all could be in danger. You, me, Carter, Alex, Eliza, J'onn, Clark, Lois, Lucy, James, Winn. Literally everyone we care about would be walking around with targets on their backs."
Cat's eyebrows furrowed at the thought. "Even if that were to happen you would be there to protect us."
"I wouldn't be able to protect you all at once though Cat. No matter how hard I tried. Don't remember what happened with Non and Myriad? I wasn't able to save Kelly when Non made her and the guys jump to their deaths."
Kara watched as the color drained from her lover's face. Clearly, Cat had not thought that far ahead. Kara held onto her tighter before speaking again. "It took me a long time to get over not being able to save her. If that happened to anyone of you...I would never be able to recover from it and I don't think you could either."
Cat pulled away from Kara and sat down on the couch. The idea of her son or her friends dying due to her writing made chills run up her spine. She still blamed herself for the actor who murdered his wife when all she had to do was write a story on how he was secretly abusing her instead of the puff piece she wrote for popularity. If something like that were to happen again, she knew that there would be no way she could survive it.
Until all of these thoughts entered her mind Cat had looked shaken, but now the strong woman was breaking. She placed her hands over her face as she began to sob quietly. "I'm sorry. I'm sorry." she mumbled over and over again, knowing that Kara could still hear her.
Kara had never seen Cat this vulnerable in a long time, not since the two had first got together and Cat began to let Kara into her heart.
Kneeling down, Kara took Cat's hands away from her face and wiped her tears away. She then gave her girlfriend a gentle, tender, and hopefully comforting kiss. "It's okay." she said as she picked Cat up into her arms and sat down on the couch herself before settling the older woman in her lap.
"I know that you're an amazing reporter. Hell, you're the best in the business and yes that includes Lois." Cat smirked slightly at hearing that. "I'm not mad at you. Just promise that if you ever get the urge to write these stories again that you'll fight against it."
"I promise." Cat said, still sniffling a little as she allowed herself to fully relax into Kara's hold.
"Thank you." Kara smiles as she places a kiss on the top of her head before moving to her lips giving her a much more passionate kiss than before.
When they pulled away each leaned their foreheads against the other and Cat was the first to speak. "I'm so sorry Kara. I was so stupid not to think…"
"You are not stupid baby." Kara interrupted her with a solid voice full of determination. "And you can stop apologizing. I love you." She then gave her one more quick kiss before smiling lovingly at her.
"I love you too." Cat snuggled deeper into Kara's arms.
After the two sat in comfortable silence for several minutes Kara spoke. "What do you say we go pick up Carter from school and the three of us go out for dinner tonight? We can forget about all this."
Cat nodded into the younger woman's chest, "I think that's an amazing idea."
The two then stood up and cleaned the trash off the floor before going to pick up their favorite nerd.
Several weeks later Kara and Cat sat on the balcony to Cat's office as they enjoyed a late lunch together. Once they were finished the two stood up to go inside.
Kara followed Cat to her desk. "Thank you for buying me lunch love." she said as Cat sat down in her chair.
"No problem darling. You're still coming over tonight right?"
"Unless Supergirl gets called for duty. Otherwise, I'll come back here and fly us to your place in a few hours."
"I can't wait." Cat smiled genuinely. She was once terrified of heights, but she had never once felt fear while flying with Kara. She only ever felt safe in her arms.
Kara grinned and leaned down to give her lover a kiss before going back to her own office. Thankfully Cat had finally allowed her to do so at work, although she still had to promise not to call her baby while at Catco. Then, as she was turning to leaving, she glanced down and noticed that the drawer of Cat's desk was open. On instinct she reached down to close it, but then her eyes caught something lying within it, a small black jumpdrive labeled 'Personal."
"Cat?!" The young woman's voice raised as she reached down and grabbed the device. "You promised!"
Cat quickly stood and quickly shooshed her girlfriend before she attracted the eyes of everyone in the bullpen to them. She placed a calming hand on Kara's cheek while her other hand took the jumpdrive out of the hero's grip. "Darling, it's not what it looks like, I swear."
"Then what is it?" Kara said as she tried to soften her expression, giving Cat the benefit of the doubt.
Instead of verbally answering, Cat stood back and gestured for Kara to sit in her chair. Once the young blonde was seated Cat inserted the jumpdrive into her computer.
Hesitantly, Kara clicked on the documents that had popped up on the screen. Like the previous jumpdrive, this one also had unpublished articles that Cat had written stored on it. Yet, these articles were much different that the ones before. They were all about Cat.
One described, in detail, the emotional pain that Cat had endured from her mother while growing up. Another explained that the true reason behind the woman's hatred of cat jokes was due to the bullying she suffered in childhood from her peers. In one, Cat had confessed that she truly respected Lois Lane and that the reason she insulted the other reported was to cover up the fact that she looked up to her. More of the articles went on to talk about how the reason Cat was afraid of heights was due to her grandfather dying in a plane crash when she was 15, the grief she had felt in her heart when she was forced to give up Adam, and that she had cried for weeks after her divorce because the saw herself as being unloveable.
"I was planning on showing them to you once I was finished with them all. I still have a few more to write." Cat spoke quietly while Kara continued to read.
"I don't understand." Kara said once as she turned to look up at Cat with an expression mixed with shock and confusion.
"This is me making up for my mistakes. All of my own secrets and weakness within that device for anyone to find and exploit. This makes it even." Cat's voice is stern but Kara can see the vulnerableness in her eyes.
"Cat, this was not necessary." Kara stood and took Cat's hands in hers to give them a comfortable squeeze.
"It is to me Kara." Cat spoke while avoiding Kara's gaze, not used to confessing or apologizing for her mistakes. "I wrote those other articles just to satisfy a stupid old habit of always writing the latest scoop. I never once stopped to consider what it could cost us or our family."
"Our?"
Cat turned to look at her girlfriend, noticing that a small, pleased smile had formed on her lips. "Yes," she said with a smile of her own. "I can tell that you care for Carter just as much as I do, that you'd do anything for him. And I'd like to think that Alex has finally gotten used to me hanging around you now."
Kara laughed, "I do and she has. She even asked me to invite you to join us for movie night next week."
"It won't be another Disney movie will it?"
"You know you love them." the hero said with a smirk.
Cat only smiled wider at that and leaned into Kara's touch as the younger woman's arms encircled her. Kara placed a kiss on Cat's temple, "Thank you." she whispered into her ear. Cat could not resist snuggling deeper into Kara's embrace. For once she didn't care that anyone could turn around and look into her glass office to see her being so emotional, she just wanted to enjoy the moment.
Kara looked down to see that Cat's expression was full of peace and content. "Come on." she said before giving her girlfriend a brief kiss on her head and letting go of her.
"Where are we going?" Cat asked already missing the feeling of Kara around her.
Kara walked over to the sofa to grab Cat's coat and bag. "You are giving yourself and your favorite editor the rest of the afternoon off."
"Oh I am, am I?"
"Yes you are." Both women grinned as Kara helped Cat put on her coat. "That way we are both free to enjoy each other for the rest of the day." Kara spoke the last part as she caressed Cat's cheek with the back of her fingers.
"In that case, let's hurry home." the older woman smiled mischievously as she took her lover's hand and started to lead her out of the office.
"Just one last thing before we go."
"What?
Kara let go of her girlfriend's hand and walked back over to the desk. She grabbed the jumpdrive out of the computer and like she had done with the first one, crushed it in her hand. "I know how much you hate feeling exposed. As much as I truly appreciate you doing this, there is no need to risk your heart like that love."
"The risk of my heart is the one thing I never worry about with you around." Cat's words made a pink hue appear on both of their cheeks.
Once they were in the stairwell and walking up to the roof Kara placed her left hand into her pocket as her right arm was circled around Cat's waist. Her fingers wrapped around a small velvet box that she had been carrying around for over a week, ever since Alex went to the jewelry store with her to help pick it out.
Their one year anniversary was coming up and Kara had planned on asking Cat to marry her over dinner as they celebrated. But knowing that Cat was willing to go that far, to put all her weaknesses together for anyone to see just to make things right for her, only made Kara fall more in love with her. She did not want to wait any longer to ask her girlfriend to become her wife.
"What are you thinking about?" Cat asked as the two reached to door to the roof.
"Oh nothing." Kara said dismissively as she used her speed to once again change into her Supergirl suit. "Just thinking about what the rest of the day might bring." she smiles brightly and before Cat can question her further, she opens the door to the roof and scooped the older woman up into her arms. Kara kissed her lips as she lifted the two of them up into the air and headed toward Cat's penthouse.
Later that night, Cat laid awake in her bed. Her head rested on Kara's bare chest and she could feel the softness of her lover's skin pressed up against her own. She never felt more safe than when she was in Kara's arms.
She brought her left hand up to look at the small diamond ring now resting on her finger in the dim moonlight and smiled. "I don't know what I did for the universe to bless me with her," she thought to herself, "but I know I'll do anything I can to keep her."
With that thought in mind she looked up to Kara who had fallen asleep only minutes before. She lifted her head up just enough to kiss the hero on the cheek. Cat then settled herself back onto the younger woman's chest. Within seconds she had drifted off to sleep in the arms of the woman she would spend the rest of her life with.