Cat Grant has gotten married three times. The first time was an utter disaster, only made worse by the amazing, saddening fact that her baby Adam was around. The second time didn't last long, but it was mutual, and they had parted on very good terms – with very good joint-custody agreements for Carter.

The third time Cat got married, it was both the best decision she had ever made, and in hindsight, probably the most idiotic way ever to spite her mother when gay marriage became legal in California. Ever.

"Keira-"

"Yes, Ms Grant?" Kara came swanning into the office, tapping away on her tablet. Cat pointed her chopsticks at her, swirling them as she spoke, ignoring her mother, who stood a little off to the side, chatting on her phone to some rich businessman.

"My mother has deigned some drab little book-signing more important than picking up her grandson from school."

As she expected, Kara immediately looked up from her tablet, eyes narrowing at the dark-haired woman. Cat watched her wife clench her free fist, making sure to hold the tablet loosely in her other hand, so as not to break it, before she nodded, returning to her desk and tidying up to leave. Cat looked back to her mother, who finished her call, tucking it away in her purse.

"It seems that I can pick up Carter after all."

"Too late," Kara chirped coolly from the office door, before leaving. Kat glared at her retreating form, before hissing at Cat.

"For all your whining that I don't spend enough time with him, you certainly seem like you want to keep him away from me." Cat rolled her eyes, snapping her chopsticks once at her before digging back into her chow-mein, ignoring her mother as she herself rolled her eyes.

"You know I'll never believe that Kara actually cares, that she loves you. No-one actually loves Kitty, and when it comes to young, beautiful women like her – all they're after is the money."

"Get out," Cat snapped, meeting Katherine's gaze for a tense, hate-filled second before soundlessly dismissing her. Katherine huffed, before leaving the office.

So yes, it wasn't exactly the best way to spite Katherine Emily Grant nee Lane, but in the end, it wasn't – obviously – all about spite. Cat loved Kara, more than she loved CatCo or what she had built in the world. Carter was perhaps an exception, however, Kara agreed with her on that matter. Carter was their world. Kara had been there when Carter was born. She'd have had to be, of course, as a nurse at the hospital.

The two of them had met when Cat was three months gone, and her divorce happily finalised. Harold and Darius had been with her, hands gripping hers as she had her ultrasound, Darius being Harold's partner. The reason their divorce had went so well, of course, was because Harold realised he was gay, and found a new partner before they even discovered that they were having a baby.

Carter's heartbeat steadily pounding through tinny speakers, Kara had knocked on the door to the room, appearing with papers for them to sign, and seeing her took Cat's breath away. Their eyes had met across the room, and when the gorgeous young blonde smiled shyly, honestly, happily, looking away, Cat had kept on staring, the monitor with her own cardiac rhythms indicating a spike that only calmed when Darius jabbed her in the side lightly.

"Get a grip, Grant, it's just a pretty lady," he'd said, grinning. Cat had rolled her eyes at him, before ignoring her, looking back to the ultrasound screen.

"Print us off a few copies," Cat had ordered the technician, trying and failing not to notice the other woman's blush. Later, when they were leaving the hospital, Kara had approached them again, quickly, but not out of breath.

"You forgot these," and then she held out the ultrasound prints, which Harold took.

"Thank-you, ma'am."

She'd waved them off, grinning brightly, tucking her hands in the pockets of her pink scrubs. "Oh, it's nothing – and call me Kara, or Nurse Zor-El."

Cat was hooked immediately, and every time she went to the hospital after, she looked for her. One day she even got time to explain that Harold and Darius were partners, after Kara mentioned how she was looking after her goddaughter briefly while her parents found a new home in the city, the little girl having been treated badly at her country-town middle school for asking another girl to the Halloween disco. Kara took it well, and when Carter was born, it was Kara who was the main attendant to the doctor, and who accompanied Cat, Harold and Darius through the exhausting labour – and not just because she was a nurse.

Because she was Cat's partner now, too.

Not that the hospital knew. The hospital knew nothing. Harold and Darius would have been banned from entering, if they did, Cat too. Kara probably would have been fired. She was fired, after Cat and Kal-El – Kara's toddler cousin slash son, who she had adopted the year before – came in with Alex when she absolutely destroyed her arm a few months later and Kara got a little too bold with her public displays of affection for the both of them in the hospital lobby. Alex had been getting a ride on her at-the-time girlfriend Lena's motorcycle – their neighbour, who had moved out of her family home and was hitting a rebellious phase at the time, according to her regularly-visiting brother, Alexander – and seeing her in that condition had worried Kara beyond belief, so Cat had to calm her down and take her aside, Kal-El on Lena's hip. They were caught kissing by Kara's superintendent.

After Kara was fired though, she couldn't find any more work in National City as a nurse, except as a part-time employee at a downtown clinic, which didn't bring in a lot of money in comparison to her previous job. Cat having a company made it easier, however, and Kara instead spent more time at home with the kids, or alternatively at CatCo, helping Cat out for free doing paperwork – it came to a surprise to find out that her partner had double-majored both in nursing and in administration. Around the same time, they fostered a young boy, a little younger than Alex, called Winn, who had met Kara at the clinic with his social worker after his newest foster-father broke his nose.

Eventually, years later, when gay marriage in National City, California, became legal, Catherine Grant and Kara Zor-El tied the knot, keeping each of their respective names legally – both for practicality and for the fact that Kara's full second name wasn't something in full that Cat should have, as it was in it's true Kryptonian format – and in private, calling everyone in their little family El-Grant.

Winn especially enjoyed it, and when they weren't paying attention, was a cheeky sod and changed his name to Winslow Zor-El Grant. When they found out, Cat and Kara were both flattered and a little angry too for not telling them, but they'd adopted him years ago – or really, Kara had adopted him, due to the lack of civil partner adoption certificates, but Cat had adopted him in her heart too – so the little addition to his last name, which had already been changed to Zor-El, wasn't so much of a big deal.

However.

However.

They didn't tell anyone they were married.

They didn't announce it to friends, or give a press-release.

They wore rings, but not on their ring-fingers, and if Cat went to an event with someone on their arm, it was either one of Harold's more closeted friends, Maxwell Lord, Cate Blanchett or Lucy Lui. And Katherine wasn't going to spread the word around that her daughter was a lesbian, even if she took almost vindictive glee in gossiping over how Cat married and had a child with a gay man. It was strange in itself though, how Katherine didn't bother herself over talking about Adam.

What was not strange was how, every year on Adam's birthday, Kara asked if Cat was ready to reunite with him.

Cat always said no.

And then Kara didn't give her a choice. And then Cat screwed their reunion up. And now…

Cat stared at her son through the glass, to where he stood with Kara.

And now he's asking my wife out on a date.