Nervous? Yep, I'm nervous about Cat coming to my apartment. Kara thought to herself as she rushed around it trying to make sure it was presentable to her particular boss. When Cat knocked on her door promptly at seven pm, Kara's heart nearly leapt out of her chest. Deep breath Kara, it's going to be okay, she's here to be a friend, a listening ear, not to judge you. Kara inhaled deeply and slowly exhaled just as she opened the door to find Cat standing there with arms filled with her favourite Chinese food.
"I understand that potstickers are your favourite," Cat said with a smile as Kara welcomed her into her apartment. "I trust I grabbed enough to be able to handle your super-alien appetite." Kara laughed as she took the food bag from Cat's outstretched hands. "Thank you, I love potstickers!"
Cat strode into Kara's small apartment and began to look around the place, noticing the things that she had chosen to surround herself with, things that would shed even more light into who Kara/Supergirl was as a person. Cat was delighted when she found a partially completed painting in the far corner, "I had no idea you painted, Kara. May I?" Cat gestured, asking for permission to go investigate. "It's not completed yet," Kara said with a small blush coming over her face, "but you are welcome to look at it. It's a scene from my bedroom window from when I lived on Krypton, at least as well as I can remember it." Kara's face shifted for a brief moment as she sadly recalled her lost world.
"It's beautiful, so far," Cat said admiringly, "I'd love to see it when it's all finished." Kara turned away to go get out plates for the food, "I haven't really felt much like working on it lately, kind of makes me homesick sometimes." Seeing the shift in Kara's demeanour from bubbly to sad and quiet, Cat quickly changed the subject and suggested they eat while the food was still hot.
While they ate they chatted lightly about non-important fluff, laughing and enjoying each other's company without the stress of work. Cat watched with wide-eyed wonder as Kara devoured several huge helpings of the Chinese food, a bit envious of her super-metabolism that allowed her to indulge and yet never gain an ounce. "Just how do you feed yourself on the small salary you get from CatCo?" Cat queried after Kara had devoured the last potsticker. Sheepishly Kara replied, "I eat a lot of take out and high calorie food, I don't really shop that much or even cook as my jobs keep me running. I manage okay."
"Hmmmm, I suppose I could offer you a salary increase to help you out, seeing as you do your Supergirl stuff free of compensation and you give CatCo exclusive interviews." Cat mused for a few moments. "Yes, I think some compensation is in order for our hero for all she does for the city and my company. Let me get back to you on this one so we can work out something fair for you and all that you do." Kara's mouth just kind of hung open before she replied, "Thanks Ms. Grant, I really do manage to do okay on my salary and I help the people of the city and you because I love to do it."
"Kara," Cat interrupted, "first, you're supposed to call me Cat outside of the office, and second it's my money; and my company and if I want to compensate and even help Supergirl then I will." Kara smiled, "Thank you Ms. Gr…Cat, I appreciate it." Kara got up to start to clean up the dinner stuff when Cat suggested that they leave it until later and that they head over the sofa to let supper settle while they talk some more. "I have coffee already made if you want some," Kara began, "I even happen to know how you take it." Cat grinned, "Yes, you do seem to know quite a bit about me, I think it's time we grabbed that coffee and I got to know more about you." Cat got up and gestured toward the living area.
When they had they're coffee's in hand and were comfortably seated Cat just sat for a moment watching Kara stare down into her cup, seemingly lost in time and space. "Earth to Kara," Cat softly said, "where were you just now?" Kara slowly lifted her head and smiled at Cat, "Remembering the last time I had dinner with my family on Krypton before…before I came to earth."
"What was Krypton like?" Cat asked, hoping that some insight into Kara's home planet might her understand her a bit better. "It was both beautiful and sad," Kara said with a lost look in her eyes as she tried to remember it, "we had so over mined and used our natural resources that the planet was dying a slow, painful death. No birds flew in the air; there was no marine life in the water. My aunt Astra was correct - we had killed our planet in our quest for more." A small tear began to trail down Kara's cheek as she thought of Astra and their special bond on Krypton.
"Tell me about you family on Krypton," Cat continued, "Did you have any siblings?" Kara looked down at her cup again, "My dad was a prominent scientist and a leader in the Kryptonian government, and my mom was a head judge in our legal system. I was an only child as children on Krypton weren't born like they are here; we're gestated in "pods" until we're ready to biologically to join our families, much like being born. In fact, Kal-El was first naturally born baby on Krypton in generations."
Cat's eyes got wider as she listened to Kara talk about Krypton and her family. "What about your aunt…Astra is her name, correct? You didn't mention her when you talked about your family." Kara turned her head away from Cat and stared out the window, tears beginning to run freely down her face. "Kara?" Cat said softly, "It's ok, tell me about her. Where you close to her? Did she die on Krypton when it exploded?"
"Yes aunt Astra and I had this special connection from when I was born," Kara began softly, "but, she and her husband Non, had broken the law on Krypton, killing several people, and when they were finally captured my mother sentenced them to Fort Rozz." Silence.
"You mean the same Fort Rozz that crashed onto the earth that held all those aliens we're now trying to re-capture?" Cat asked. "Yes," Kara replied. "So your aunt Astra is alive and on earth?" Cat continued her probe into her family. "No," Kara answered, "She was killed shortly before the Myriad thing happened by an agent of the DEO."
Kara began to sob as she remembered her aunt and what happened to her. Cat let her cry it out for a few moments before she said anything. "Kara," she asked ever so gently, "what happened to Astra?" Grabbing a kleenex Kara wiped her face and didn't respond, just looked down at her lap having set aside her now cold coffee. "Kara?" Cat tried again, "How did she die?" Letting out a deep sigh, Kara looked up at Cat with anger and sadness in her face, "An agent of the DEO stuck a kryptonite blade right through her heart before she could kill another agent during a fight one night."
"Were you there when it happened?" Cat continued her line of questioning about Astra.
"No," Kara replied, "I was beating the shit out of her husband for something he did to me…that one is kind of a long story; but I got to the fight with Astra right after she'd been stabbed with the blade and was laying on the ground bleeding to death." The anger in Kara's voice kind of surprised Cat, she hadn't really heard her sweet little assistant speak with such controlled anger before. "Maybe if I'd been there Astra would still be alive." Kara sort of muttered to herself.
"Did you know the agent who killed your aunt?" Cat asked, sensing there was more to this story than Kara was letting on. Kara sat twisting the kleenex in her hands, not looking Cat in the face, not saying anything, trying, fighting to keep the rage she felt for Astra's death from boiling over the top. "Kara?" Cat spoke her name softly and yet with some authority. "Yes," Kara raised her voice to Cat, "I know the agent, I know her well, or at least I thought I did. It was Alex who killed her." With that revelation finally out in the open Cat moved forward and wrapped her arms around Kara's shoulders and held the young wounded hero while she wept.
"Did Alex know Astra was your aunt?" asked Cat. "Yes, she and Astra had worked together to save me from something Non did to me." Kara replied as she continued to cry on Cat's shoulder. "I could sense that Astra was beginning to doubt what her and Non were planning to do regarding the whole Myriad thing, she was getting closer and closer to coming back into the light when Alex killed her!" More sobbing as she let the anger and sorrow at Alex continue to pour out of her.
"Then when I arrived and asked what happened Alex and the Director lied to me about who killed Astra, she let him take the blame for what she did." Kara let the betrayal of those actions creep out of her voice. "I trusted Alex to always tell me the truth and now she lied to me and she killed my aunt!" Kara continued to cry tears of anger and sorrow as Cat held her.
Finally, after several minutes had passed and Kara appeared to be calming down a bit, Cat leaned back from the embrace, lifted Kara's chin with her forefinger and thumb and looked into the sad face of her hero, "I cannot imagine how horrible that all must have been for you, Kara. No wonder you can't confide any of your pain in Alex, you're angry at her and you've lost some of your trust in her."
Kara's eyes got really wide when she realized the truth in what Cat had just said! "Why didn't she use the threat of the blade to get Astra to let the Director go? Why did she have to plunge it through her heart? Couldn't she have used it in some other way than to take her life?" Kara was up on her feet, pacing back and forth and she rambled on with these questions, practically shouting at Cat while she clenched and unclenched her fists. "She killed the last of my family; she took the last closet person to my mother from me!" And with that out Kara collapsed in a heap on the floor; sobbing over her losses. She'd lost her mom, her aunt and now the special bond she had shared with her sister. No wonder she was feeling so lost and alone.
Cat crawled off the sofa and onto the floor; grabbing Kara again she wrapped her arms as tightly as she could around her and just held her while she cried. "Have you and Alex talked about any of this?" Cat finally asked when Kara began to calm down. "Not really," Kara answered, "I hugged her after she confessed it all to me one day, she was so frightened of losing me over it, but we never really talked about it." Kara pulled away from Cat's hug, "Then when I was under the influence of the Red Kryptonite I said some pretty nasty things to Alex about why she killed Astra. So nasty I made her cry."
Cat tried to imagine Kara being that nasty to anyone, let alone someone she loved as much as she did Alex; then she recalled the powerful negative impact that the red kryptonite had had upon Kara; she could see how it could happen. "Did you apologize to her to what you said to her?"
"Yes," Kara shared, "as soon as I woke up after they cleared my system of the stuff I apologized to her for what I said to her…and for breaking her arm." "You broke her arm?" A shocked Cat asked. "Yeah, I didn't mean to break it," Kara continued, "she was trying to use the weapon on me that they'd created to free me from the red kryptonite when I flew past her and the other agents and they slammed into the vehicles they just got out of; that's when she broke her arm." Kara's head now hung in shame as she remembered what she'd said to Alex in this very room and then how she'd not only injured her but had nearly killed her.
"I think you two need to talk about this," Cat softly suggested to Kara. "Don't let any of this ruin the amazing relationship the two of you have with each other. You're hurting and so is she I bet; call her, talk to her, don't leave it too long and wreck you both."
Kara nodded her head slowly; Cat was right and she knew it; she was missing her sister and the depth of love they had for each other. "She's coming over tonight; I guess now is as good a time as any. Will you stay and help me; help us?" Cat thought about it for a moment, she was either going to go all the way in and help Kara or not at all…"I'll stay for a bit, but once I think you've gotten past the rough parts I'll be heading home."
Kara turned and smiled weakly at Cat, "Thank you so much Ms. Gra…Cat!" Cat smiled, "You're very welcome, Kiera!"
