Because there is a serious lack of genfic in the world and gosh dangit I'mma write it.
Kara was a Good Kid™. She had a healthy respect for justice and rules, she tried to stay out of trouble as much as she could, and until recently (and still, recently) was more keen on Hufflepuff than Gryffindor. Loyalty and Fair play and mutual respect and Hard Work were not bad things, after all. And there were bonuses to staying on your boss's good side, like not getting fired. If that meant putting up with a lot of rules, some pointless, others extremely important, Kara wasn't going to argue too strenuously.
But sometimes, Rules had to be broken.
Sometimes, there was a greater good.
Sometimes, that greater good was a sopping wet lump of brown fluff with large gold-green eyes and the most pitiful mew Kara had ever heard.
She crouched, trying to keep her skirt from getting wetter than it already was. "Hey, kitty. It's ok. I won't hurt you."
The kitten mewed again, shrinking back against the sodden box it had taken shelter in. Kara dug in her purse for something to lure it out with, finally finding a packet of potato chips. A few wouldn't hurt the cat, right? She crinkled the bag, then held out a broken bit of chip, hoping.
The kitten stretched out its head, peering at the woman and the food, then cautiously stepped forward, through puddles that came nearly up to her belly. She chewed at the chip, then licked Kara's fingers for more grease and salt. Kara bit her lip, then reached forward to scoop the kitten close. Any protest was cut off by the kitten realizing that Kara was warm.
The muddy kitten held inside her raincoat, against her sweater, Kara slipped inside the Newspaper building where it was warm. She couldn't just leave the kitten in the cold, but she wasn't sure what exactly to do now. Hide it in a drawer?
Winn would help. And James. She was sure of it.
"Ok, Potato Chip, let's get you dried off."
Nothing in her life had ever gone According To Plan, and Kara was starting to wonder why she wasted the energy making Plans and wondering why they always crashed and burned around her. She managed to keep Potato Chip occupied and out of trouble the rest of that day, with help from James and Winn. Her sweater would never be the same, but she'd dried off the poor thing and Winn, after sneezing twice and declaring the bedraggled creature the cutest thing on the planet, had swiped a carafe of milk from the breakroom.
Unfortunately operation: keep kitty a secret was going about as well as operation: go one day without getting yelled at (or to) by Ms. Grant. By lunch, four people had noticed the sound of purring coming from the desk, and two more had come to reclaim the milk carafe.
All had promised to keep the secret from Ms. Grant, for what that was worth, and Potato Chip seemed to relish the attention.
Of course, when Kara tried to leave her in the apartment when she headed off to work the next morning, the fluffy brown kitten had yowled pitifully, and loudly, and Kara wasn't more than half way down the stairs when her hearing picked up the sound of falling furniture. She found Potato Chip under a tipped chair.
"Ok, you can come with me, but sshhhhh." Kara hoped the cat understood.
Thus became tradition. Kara smuggled the kitten into the office, having cleaned out a desk drawer and lined it with her favorite sweater. Coworkers, from reporters, to editors, to photographers, to the janitorial staff all dropped by as discreetly as possible to drop off small toys or treats, or just give the kitten a quick scratch. Slowly, the "chip" was dropped from her name, as Potato grew rounder and rounder, fat on kitty treats and the ill-gotten gains of Kara's unguarded lunches. Several of the others working on that floor took it in turns to hide the kitten in their own laps, desk drawers, or boxes at their feet whenever there was a risk of an inspection, passing the munchkin cat around the office and smuggling her to other floors when need be. No one wanted to risk her getting found out.
Winn stocked up on allergy meds, and James learned the hard way not to let his shoe laces come undone in Potato's presence.
"Morale seems to be up," Cat Grant said one morning as Kara buttoned her coat over her shirt, which had cat fur on it. "I must be doing something right. Kerra, did you remember to schedule my appointment with—"
"Yes, it's at four, like you wanted," Kara checked her glasses, and smiled. "And dinner reservations at La Note for seven tomorrow."
"Good. It's been too long since I had a decent bouillabaisse. Honestly. Well, go on, I pay you for something. Shoo. I have things to do."
Kara left sighing in relief…until she noticed that Potato was very distinctly not in her drawer.
"Winn?" she sidled over. "Have you seen Potato?"
"Is she…not in her draw—oooh. Ok, that's…probably bad. Um. I'll start looking."
With Mary from Fashion, James, and two interns from Central city on her side, Kara started her search, straining her hearing. How had the munchkin kitten, with her tiny stubby legs, gotten so far?
"Uh, Kari?" a new intern poked her shoulder, looking more than a little skittish. "Ms. Grant asked me to find you?"
Kara was glad there were no mind readers in the building that she knew of because every curse she knew, was going through her head, even as she plastered a smile on. This was…not so good.
"You wanted to see me?" Kara asked Ms. Grant, her chair swiveled away from the door.
"Yes," Cat spun around slowly, and Kara's eyes widened. Worse than she'd thought. "It seems we have an intruder."
Potato was sitting on Cat Grant's pristine white skirt, purring up a storm.
"Oh, Um, I—I" Kara stammered. "ThatiIs a… remarkably…not dangerous intruder?" she winced.
"I don't know why I didn't think of it before," Cat said, giving Potato a quick, awkward stroke. "What better mascot for CatCo, than a cat?"
"Uh…"
"That was rhetorical, Kerri. A purebred probably would look better, one of those elegant ones. But this one seems to have found us, so that will do."
"Um, excuse me, what?" Kara blinked. Was she not fired?
"Well, obviously I'm too busy to take care of it, so you'll have to find a place for …her. If you can't keep her, find another employee, someone here must want a kitten. You'll need to go to the store, get whatever it is cats need. Food, collar…a place to… do the necessary…Bring the receipts to accounting." Cat waved a hand airily. Potato blinked.
"I will get right on that, Ms. Grant."
"Good. And send out a company email about this. Maybe a naming poll, help employees feel like they actually have a say in it. I suppose it's their mascot as well." She sighed. "Not much of a beauty, but readers adore cutesy. Well, what are you waiting for? Go on."
Kara nodded, waved to Potato, and made her retreat.
Winn was waiting at her desk.
"Sooo what was that?"
"Good news is, I'm getting reimbursed for the cat litter I bought. Bad news is I'm not sure Ms. Grant will go for the name "Potato" for our apparent mascot."
More of Potato's adventures will follow. She's sure to have plenty.
Feel free to say hi (it's my birthday!)