"Where's Kara?"
"What do you mean?"
"I mean she went out for Ms. Grant's lunch order and hasn't come back yet," Winn told James, his head still popped into the other man's office. "I mean, I've called her...Ms. Grant has bellowed at me to call her...and she's just sort of turning into a Snickers commercial...you know before the Snickers comes into play…" Winn paused for just a breath. "She needs her food...and I'm worried about Kara...more about what Ms. Grant will do to her if she doesn't get back soon...because you know...she's pretty badass otherwise…"
"Do you know what the order was?" James asked quickly as he got up from his desk. "Where it was ordered from?"
Winn shrugged and moved his hands around in a slightly flailing motion. He couldn't help it, he was the next in the line of fire if Kara didn't show back up when it came to Ms. Grant. At least James' office was a good ten angry steps from Ms. Grant's office doorway. He had a running chance, unlike Winn. "I don't know… Noonan's? I mean, I don't think she's on one of those weird juice cleanses or Chinese herb tea things...at least this week…"
James just sort of stared at him.
"I swear, it's all a real thing."
"So, we call Noonan's...see if Kara's picked up the order yet-"
"And if she has?"
"Have them make up another..salad or whatever she ordered-"
"And who's going to pick it up and who's going to run interference?" Winn questioned.
James seemed to take a moment to really think that over. "I'll call Noonan's and then I'll go out and pick it up-"
"Wait, really?!" Winn asked, suddenly panicked. Sure, he and James had done this plenty of times. Covering for Kara as she was out flying around the city as Supergirl was practically a daily event, but this time was different. Normally, either Kara would run out for food or it would be delivered. This was the first time that Cat didn't have her lunch on time. No one wanted to face Cat Grant's wrath, but especially not when her blood sugar was likely plummeting. "I was thinking, I would go-"
"Don't you think it would be far more noticeable if you went?" James reasoned. "Your desk is right outside of Cat's office-"
"She calls me Witt," he pointed out. "She didn't even know I existed until-"
"Yeah, you sort of brought that upon yourself," James stated a bit amused.
Winn was about to argue, but then realized there really wasn't any time for it. "Oh...okay…" He shrugged. "I guess it comes in handy to have an office farther away-"
"From the lion's den?"
"I was thinking...more dragon…"
Winn had a hard time concentrating on his computer screen.
It had been fifteen minutes since James had left CatCo, but it felt more like fifteen hours. He kept looking over at Cat in her office, she seemed to be working and just looked even more pissed off than normal. Every now and then, he swore that she noticed him glancing over and he received a glare.
As he sat there, he was starting to wonder if Cat would demote Kara after just promoting her. There hadn't been a new assistant found yet (well, not one that could stand up to being Cat's assistant for more than fifty-nine minutes). Winn was fairly sure that there was no one else in the universe like Kara.
"Witt!" Cat bellowed.
He cringed and looked around, even though he knew exactly who Ms. Grant was summoning. Him. "Crap, crap, crap," he mumbled to himself. Winn's fingers combed through his hair and he pushed out a breath, threw on a smile, and pushed up out of his seat. Heading towards Cat's office, all he could think was that he was going to die...Cat was going to kill him...and Kara wasn't going to even be there to save him (as Kara Danvers or Supergirl).
"Uh, you called...Ms. Grant?" he said nervously as he entered her office. Winn purposely placed himself as close to the door as possible, just in case he needed to run.
"Where is Kiera?" Cat asked, irritated and slowly.
"I-uh-um-and Kara-and-well-"
"Speak in a full sentence," Cat commanded sharply.
Winn stood there, trying to come up with a sentence that would keep him from getting killed, verbally or physically (he firmly felt like his boss was capable of both). "So, I don't know?" he put out there slowly.
"You don't know? You always know where she is."
"That's...not true."
"Isn't it?"
Winn just exchanged looks with her for a long moment.
"You know, why don't I go try calling her?" Winn suggested, just hoping to get out of Cat's office.
"You mean...again?"
"Yes," Winn replied. "Maybe her phone's on silent or the battery died or-"
Cat waved a bored hand in the air. "Okay, okay...enough excuses… Just get Kiera back here with my salad."
Winn moved quickly back to his desk, picking the phone up immediately. This time, though, his phone call wasn't to Kara, instead it was to James. He was fairly sure that at the moment, the most important priority was Cat's salad in front of her rather than Kara. "Where are you?" he asked when James picked up immediately. "Okay, sooner you're here...the sooner the better…" He tried Kara again, but nothing.
Blonde hair out of his peripheral vision immediately caught his attention. "Kara," he whispered and jumped to his feet to intercept her. "Kara, where have you been?" he whispered as he met her before she could make it all the way to Cat's office. He immediately noticed that she didn't have Cat's lunch with her. That didn't matter, though, James walked up right behind her and placed the bag in her hands and they both nudged her towards Cat's office.
When they looked over, Cat was standing right there. Winn's eyes widened and he held his breath for a moment.
"I see that you finally remembered where you needed to be, Kiera," Cat said grumpily.
"I'm sorry, Ms. Grant, I just...there was an accident and-"
"That doesn't explain why you didn't pick up your phone."
Crap.
"Her phone wasn't charged," Winn said with a half shrug.
"And I was going to let her use my charger, but it burnt out," James threw in there.
Before anything else could be said, Cat was speaking and obviously not convinced.
"What are you? Team Excuses?" Cat snapped, her hands on her hips and her eyes darting between them. She shook her head and then snatched the bag from Kara before heading back in her office.
The End.
