A Different Kind of Fight

by friendofkara

James Olsen had remarked that Supergirl's battles were ultimately battles of values, "your values versus your enemies.'" Battles of values can have equally high stakes, but they are fought with less obvious superpowers, facts, reason, integrity, and truth. Here are two stories showing Kara's growing skills in a different kind of fight.

1. Resolution

1 Resolution

In which Supergirl corrects her boss' mistake and Cat Grant is taken aback by Kara's integrity.

Cat Grant sat on her office sofa and tried to pour herself a cup of tea, but the teapot was empty. As she made sure there was nothing left, the phone rang on her assistant's desk. As she began to call "Kiera" she realized that her immanently-to-be-former assistant was not in the room.

The phone rang again. Instead of repeating her call, Cat turned to look at her balcony: two seconds later Supergirl touched down on it. As she walked into the office, Cat told her:

"I never realized how absurd you look in that ridiculous outfit. Blue, yellow and red; it's like a colour wheel threw up."

Supergirl chuckled. "Sorry to bother you Miss Grant, but James Olsen said your assistant wanted to see me in your office. And she said it was urgent."

"Oh for God's sake, are we going to keep on playing this tiresome game?"

"Excuse me, Miss Grant, but could I speak to Supergirl for a moment, please?"

Cat Grant turned, slowly. Kara was at her desk putting down a banker's box. Stunned, Cat waved her in.

"Thank you for coming, Supergirl." the girl said. "I just wanted to thank you personally for saving my sister's life. She was one of the passengers on flight 237. I can't thank you enough; Alex means the world to me."

Supergirl shook Kara's outstretched hand. "You're welcome Ms. . . .?"

"Danvers, Kara Danvers. Kara to you."

"But why did you ask to meet me here?"

"I knew that Miss Grant wanted to see you, and I thought I could kill two birds with one stone."

Supergirl turned: "What can I do for you, Miss Grant?"

Cat Grant thought hard and fast: "I had very strong reasons for thinking Keira was you: for one thing, as you can see, there's some resemblance. But other things happened that made me certain she was you. I let Kiera know what I thought and why I thought it. And when she denied being you, it left me no choice: she had to admit she was Supergirl or she had to resign. And she resigned earlier this afternoon. She was kind enough to finish out the day. Keira, I apologize for doubting you, and I refuse to accept your resignation."

"Miss Grant, you remember our first conversation I hope." Supergirl's voice was glacial.

Cat nodded.

"Then you'll remember that I told you that I don't like bullies or manipulators. I said that if you ever threatened one of your employees with dismissal if they couldn't get you what you wanted from me, I would immediately cease all cooperation with CatCo. No matter that Ms. Danvers isn't me: by trying to get the person you thought was me to tell you something she hadn't already told you, I have to take that as an attempt to manipulate me. If I can't trust you to keep your side of our deal, I need to find a new media outlet.

"You can't do that!" The outburst came from the assistant, not the mogul.

"Why not, Ms. Danvers?"

"Kara, please. Because it's not a matter of her manipulating you. It's a matter of the trust that she has to have in me" Kara said. "She didn't break your deal; the circumstances forced her hand."

"What do you mean?"

"Have you ever been an Administrative Assistant to a CEO?"

"No." replied an obviously puzzled superhero.

"Then you might not realize that any CEO like Tim Cook at Apple, Maxwell Lord over at Lord Technologies or Miss Grant here will have certain common expectation of the AA's like me that they work with. It's mostly an unwritten part of the job description, but those expectations are inherent in what we do. Look, we keep our bosses' schedules, we manage their lives, we solve their minor problems, help solve their major crises, we have to keep entire filing cabinets worth of confidential information to ourselves and of necessity we get to know more about our bosses than anyone else in the company. In return, they need and expect us to give them our total loyalty and they've got to be able to trust us absolutely in return. Thanks to some freak circumstances, Miss Grant had what appeared to be strong reasons for thinking I was you, and when I denied that I was Supergirl in the face of that evidence, I lost Miss Grant's trust. She's got to be able to trust her confidential assistant and when I lost her trust, there was no alternative: I had to resign."

"Just how strong was that evidence?"

"Well, for one thing, there's the resemblance, but as James Olsen has pointed out, I actually look more like your cousin that I look like you. Then you did show up at interesting times, like when you saved Miss Grant from Livewire when she came here."

"Do you have any idea how loud her discharges sound to someone with my hearing? I could hear her arrival here from across the city."

"Not till you told me, how could I? But what you don't know is that Miss Grant had just finished telling me to run for the stairwells a few seconds before you turned up. Which meant, hypothetically, that I had enough time to change to Supergirl and fly in to save her life. By the way, that's something else I owe you thanks for: if anything had happened to Ms. Grant, I wouldn't have a job. And then I had the bad luck to fracture my arm and get a cold when you were away during that earthquake. And when you came back my cold was gone and what I had thought was a break turned out to be only a sprain, so my arm didn't need the sling anymore. These kinds of things but they added up."

"Your loyalty to your employer is commendable, Ms. Danvers."

"This isn't about loyalty. It's about what's right. Miss Grant didn't break your deal and it would be unfair to her to treat her as if she did."

"You're the first person to argue with me since I put on this outfit. It's refreshing. You've got some backbone and integrity there. But you're also right. Miss Grant, our deal still holds."

Cat thought it was time to end the meeting. She stood up, "We're finished here. Supergirl, I don't want to keep you from your important work. And Keira, you have important work to do too. This bottle will not refill itself."

"There's one more thing, Miss Grant," said Supergirl.

"And that is?" asked Cat as Kara turned to walk out with the bottle.

"Please stay a moment Ms. Danvers. I need your help with this."

Kara turned and asked a question with her eyes. Cat nodded, puzzled.

"Can we stipulate that the rest of this conversation is totally off the record," Supergirl asked, "You'll see why in a moment."

Executive and assistant both nodded.

"Ms. Danvers, you mentioned you have a sister," Supergirl said. "Any other family members or close friends?"

"Only my Mom and a couple of friends here. James Olsen is one of them. Why do you ask?"

"Because I need to tell Miss Grant something very important and this is the perfect opportunity. Can we pretend that you really are me for a moment?"

"But I'm not you." Now Kara was puzzled.

"Of course not. But suppose you were me, and Ms. Grant had absolute proof that you were, what would happen?"

"She'd have the scoop of the century." said Kara.

"Not exactly. First, she'd have to decide whether to publish or not to publish. And there's a downside to publishing that she may not have thought through. This is the perfect opportunity to make sure she knows all the implications of that decision."

"What do you mean, Supergirl?" Cat's voice was cold and disdainful. "I do have a smidgen of intelligence and foresight you know."

"Of course, but I want to make sure you have fully thought through the question from my perspective."

Cat thought for a second then nodded.

"Miss Grant, how do you feel knowing that you're Livewire's first target if she ever breaks out of jail?"

"Obviously, I don't like it."

"Do you remember Reactron, Miss Grant?"

"Of course."

"The first time Reactron attacked me it wasn't because of anything I did: it was because Reactron wanted to hurt Superman by hurting me."

"I see. If I publish the (hypothetical) truth that Keira here is Supergirl, I'm painting targets on the back of her mother and sister to say nothing of James and her other friends. And they've done nothing to deserve being targets. And you have done nothing that deserves me putting them at risk."

"Exactly."

"But there's more to it, Supergirl, isn't there?" asked Kara slowly.

"That's perceptive, Ms. Danvers, there is. If Miss Grant finds out who I am and publishes it, not only do targets appear on the back of my family and friends, I lose my daily life and to me, that's far more important to me than being Supergirl. Supergirl isn't really my life: Supergirl is a label, a cape, an outfit and a job description. Thanks to the amazing closeness of Kryptonian and human biologies, I can live as a human on this world. I have friends who don't see me as an alien because they know me as one of themselves. I have a job, doing useful work that I like doing. I work with mostly nice people . . . all the normal things humans do which are not all that different from what Kryptonians did, and what I expected I would do before . . . " Supergirl's eyes went distant for a moment and she shook her head. "So my life here is not all that different from what it would have been on Krypton. It's basically a happy life with my family and my friends. And most of the time I think of myself as a human immigrant to this country, not as a Kryptonian in exile. And it's partly because you guys have become so much my people that I kept on being Supergirl and started looking for trouble instead of staying hidden. If I'm outed, I lose my entire human life that I've built up over the last ten years. Oh, I guess I'll keep on helping out, but unless I build an entirely new life, I won't be able to go to movies with my best friend, or take my Mom out to dinner. I've never asked for any favors as Supergirl and I'm not going to start now, but is the scoop of outing Supergirl worth me losing my entire life just because I feel compelled to help others? Is it Miss Grant?"

Cat Grant was an experienced, cynical and committed journalist. She had heard and disbelieved every rationale for not publishing stories pushed by people who didn't want their lives damaged by the exposure of their stupidity or their actions. She could see through the self-interest that drove every other argument. But she couldn't deny the force of Supergirl's words. "No, you don't deserve to lose your normal life, so long as you keep on sticking to helping others. But if you ever develop another agenda, all bets are off."

"Agreed and thank you. So you don't publish. Great, but there's another problem you need to be aware of. Let's pretend Ms. Danvers here is still Supergirl and she's still working for you. You don't publish the fact, but I'll bet you let her know that you know it. Maybe you tease her about it?"

Kara's face froze.

"That's equally dangerous, for both Ms. Danvers and you. Oh sure, you don't do it when you're not alone together, but one day you'll slip up and tease her in the presence of a third party. Or what happens if somebody bugs your office for other reasons and hears you call Ms. Danvers Supergirl in a loaded tone of voice, or Livewire hides in your circuits and hears you tell her to go jump a tall building in a single bound in the same loaded voice?"

Cat's face froze.

"You see Miss Grant, my real life, my real name is a different kind of secret than the professional confidences I'm sure you have much practice in keeping to yourself. It's not enough that you not expose me if you ever find out who I am. It's not enough not to tell anyone; you can't give anyone, anytime, anywhere even the slightest hint that you know this secret, even when you think it's safe to do so. And of course, the same thing is true for my cousin."

"I see. Thank you for explaining things so clearly. If the situation ever arises, I give you my word that I will do my best to keep your normal life, and your cousin's, confidential."

"And you, Ms. Danvers?"

"I don't think I'll ever be in a position to learn your other name, Supergirl, but since my presence in this conversation is due to my position as Miss Grant's assistant, you can rest assured that her commitments extend to me. Not to mention that you saved my sister's life. I'd be honored to keep you secret if I ever learn it, whether or not your agenda changes."

"Thank you. And with that, I should be going. Good night ladies."

"Good-bye Supergirl." said assistant and CEO together. As Supergirl took off, Cat looked at her assistant.

"As I said Keira, you can have your job back if you would like it . . . as long as you don't tell anyone that I thought you were . . . you know."

Her employee let out a long breath. "I think that would be in both of our interests, Miss Grant. I'll be back in a second with the water for you tea."

"Before you go, thank you for speaking up there and keeping Supergirl in the CatCo stable."

"You're welcome."

"Why did you do it? CatCo was no longer your employer. I had forced your resignation. Why were you loyal?"

"Because you had just said that you refused to accept my resignation. That meant I was still your AA and a CatCo employee with the obvious responsibility to help both you and CatCo. Fortunately, the facts were on your side. All I had to do was to point them out."

"Kiera, as I have said before, you really don't lie very well. There's more to it. Even before I said that, you were being loyal to me when you had no reason to be. You only asked James to ask Supergirl to come here to see you, you didn't tell him my suspicions, even though I had forced you to quit. And when Supergirl asked why you wanted to meet her here, you didn't answer her question. You passed it over to me. Why?"

"I'm sorry Miss Grant, I was trying to avoid embarrassing you. There was no need to let James know of your suspicions, and I thought you would ask Supergirl a few questions about how being a superhero looks from the inside, now that she's been doing it a while. I never thought that you would mention your suspicions. I mean, Supergirl's presence in the same room with me had already proved they were wrong."

"Let me get this straight: I force your resignation and you don't want to embarrass me? I know you aren't Supergirl, Keira, but clearly you are not from this planet."

"No, no, Miss Grant, I'm a normal earthling. Two thousand or so years ago, it was another normal earthling who said 'That which is hateful to you, do not do to another.' I hate being embarrassed or making a fool of myself and I knew that my repeating your suspicions would be nothing more than rubbing your nose in exactly how wrong you were, and that in front of Supergirl. Right when this started I told you that I didn't want you to be embarrassed when you found out how wrong you were, and I meant that. Telling Supergirl of your suspicions in her presence would have been a mega-embarrassment for you. There was no way I could do that to you."

"Who said that line you quoted? I don't know it."

"It was a Jewish philosopher named Hillel. I came across it in a University ethics class."

Cat opened her mouth to speak, but her assistant hadn't finished.

"And if that reason is too goody-goody for you, there's another reason why I didn't want to embarrass you. Like the rest of us normal earthlings, I need to eat, and I asked myself what kind of reference would I get if I'd mega-embarrassed you in front of Supergirl? And the answer to that question was easy."

Cat Grant's smile was a sunrise.

"You seem to be developing some rudiments of common sense. I begin to have hopes for you."

"Yes, Miss Grant."

"By the way, Keira, I second Supergirl's observation: that was a very perceptive question."

"Thank you."

"Oh, and Keira? I was wrong. Now that I've seen you both in the same room, you look nothing like her. Now, go get that water. Chop chop."

"Yes, Miss Grant."