Drowning Chapter Thirty-Eight

A sensitive chat and a bit of shopping.

Sorry about the delay on this chapter. I've been mad busy the past couple of weeks but I hope to get back to writing more regularly soon.

They were both sitting in the family room, Carter trying to focus on his Kindle book, while Kara browsed IKEA's website in preparation for her trip with Cat the next day.

Carter had been very quiet all afternoon and she'd, more than once, caught him staring off into space. Wondering why he was so pensive, she threw a cushion at his head, grinning adorably when he glared at her. "Dude, what's wrong?"

"Nothing," he shrugged, his eyes back on the screen. "Just…" He looked at her again but just sighed. "Um… nothing. I'm fine."

Slim, blonde eyebrows lifted. "Nothing, huh? You look pretty dejected for someone who's fine." She shifted on the couch to sit closer to him. "Something with Rachel? Are you guys ok?"

For a long moment, Carter stayed quiet but then he looked down. "I think she's going to break up with me."

"Oh? Why do you think that?"

"She's been hanging out with another guy, tutoring him and stuff. I think she likes him."

Kara nodded. "I see. Have you asked her about it?"

Carter's eyes widened. "No! I can't ask her!" He shook his head. "What if she thinks I'm jealous or dumb or something."

"Jealous or dumb or something..." Kara repeated slowly. "Well, I know you're not dumb and I'm not sure what something else would be. Is it possible that maybe you're a tiny bit jealous and all Rachel is doing is literally being this guy's tutor? Can you tell me what you're feeling?"

"She's not really enthusiastic about kissing me. She used to kiss me all the time but not now." Carter said quietly. "I don't think she likes me anymore."

"Hmmm…" Kara mused. "It sounds like you really need to ask her. Part of being in a relationship is talking to the other person. You know? Sharing how you're feeling and asking for what you need if the other person doesn't realize."

"Is… Is that what you and my mom do?" Carter asked.

The blonde nodded with a smile. "Yeah, your mom and I talk all the time. It's one of the things I love so much about her. She listens as well as talks. Don't get me wrong, we have our misunderstandings too but we always clear them up pretty quickly."

"Is that why you slept in the spare room the other night?" the young man asked outright.

Kara sighed. "No, that was just me being me. I'm working through a lot emotionally and I just needed some space. Your Mom is incredibly understanding and respectful of that." She chuckled then. "BUT, I ended up going back to her halfway through the night anyway." She shrugged. "I quickly realized that she makes me feel so much better."

"I think it's the same for her," Carter replied thoughtfully. "I can honestly say that she's the happiest I've ever seen her. I mean, she's letting you take her to IKEA for cripes' sake!"

Kara nodded seriously. "I'm fully expecting her to need a lot of hand sanitizer though."

The young man grinned widely. "You know her so well. But anyway, getting back to Rachel. What should I say, Kara?"

The blonde pursed her lips as she thought about that. "You start off with 'Hey Honey, can we talk about us please?'. Hopefully she'll say yes. Then you say 'I just wanted to check in and make sure you're still happy. You seem a little reluctant to kiss me and I wanted to see if there was something wrong.'"

Carter nodded. "That sounds very grown up."

"Well, if you're old enough to date, you're old enough to speak like a grownup." Kara paused as a thought popped into her head. "Carter," she said slowly. "You and Rachel haven't… aren't… sleeping together, are you?"

"No, of course not!" the young man replied. "That's part of what I'm worried about. The guy she's tutoring is kinda… known for… wanting and doing stuff like that."

Kara's heart picked up and she had to stifle the urge to grab Carter's phone and call Rachel herself. Instead, she drew in and then let out a deep breath. "Sweetie, please talk to her, ok? Do it as soon as possible. And if you need any help, I'm here. Whatever you need, ok?"

Carter smiled and nodded. "Thanks, Kara. I love you."

The blonde leaned over and kissed the top of his head. "Love you too, Bud."

XX

"Oh my God." Cat stopped suddenly, watching the throngs of people milling in and out of IKEA like soldier ants. "It's…"

"Busy? Crowded? A lot?" Kara offered as she pulled a bottle of hand sanitizer out of her pocket and squirted some into Cat's hands and then her own. "Try to stay calm, Honey. We know what we want. We just want to see the display models and then order the quantities we need. There will be a lot of people in there but try not to punch anyone, ok?"

"Ok," Cat replied with a smile. She took Kara's hand, swinging their arms a little as they walked toward the doors. Once inside, they followed the foot-traffic flow until they reached the bedroom furniture. "You said Hemnes, right?"

"Right," Kara agreed, pushing her hair out of her face and wishing she'd tied it up. "The price is spot on for what we want. All we have to do is add the mattresses and slats. All in all, it's about six hundred bucks per bed. Add the dressers, bedside tables and other sundries and it works out at about a thousand dollars per room."

"Perfect," Cat replied as she examined the nightstand and chest of drawers. "And they're cheap enough to be easily replaceable if they get damaged." She nodded, satisfied. "Good, let's go ahead and look at the sofas. Oh, wait, who are we going to get to put all the furniture together?"

Kara grinned. "How are you with a screwdriver?"

Cat lifted a perfectly coiffed, blonde eyebrow. "If you mean the alcoholic cocktail, I'm phenomenal. Any other type, I'd have to say poor."

The younger woman laughed. "Good thing I hired eight burley guys to set up the rooms for us then, isn't it?" She elbowed her girlfriend teasingly. "And you're not allowed to ogle them."

"I wouldn't dream of it!" the CEO replied indignantly. Then she grinned. "When did you say they were coming?"

Kara rolled her eyes and then dragged Cat along by the hand. "Couches. Now."

XX

Sitting with Kara in the car, Cat sucked on a milkshake as she watched her girlfriend go through and mark off the items they'd ordered at IKEA. Aside from the bedroom furniture, they'd also picked up bed clothes and rugs for each room, since the floors were laminate wood. Kara had also amended her IT order to add public computers in the open living room area of New Beginnings so she had picked out computer desks too. Cat wondered if they could find someone to volunteer some time to give computer classes and mentioned it to her girlfriend. Kara just grinned and added it to her services sheet.

"I can't believe we finished furnishing the place for fifty thousand bucks," she said, happily. The office furniture I ordered will be here in the next few days too. Wow, I feel like we can open earlier than we planned."

"Maybe," Cat agreed. "Let's not rush it though. Besides…" She paused a moment. "There's one pretty huge thing we haven't really talked about yet."

"Which is?" Kara asked.

"How do we decide who gets a room?"

The younger woman's eyes lifted and she took a breath as she blinked. "I… I don't know…" She thought about it for a moment. "Maybe Alex and Briana can help us there," she suggested. "I bet they could suggest some kind of social worker or someone who has contacts."

"Maybe," Cat agreed. "I think we should discuss it at the board meeting on Friday. We have a lot of stuff to go through with everyone."

"Right," Kara agreed. "I'll lay out an agenda and send it out." She looked at her watch. "But for now, I need to get back. I have a client at two."

"Kara," Cat said, putting a hand on her girlfriend's knee. "If trying to juggle all this is too much, I can get us some more help."

But Kara shook her head. "I love keeping busy. It keeps the nightmares at bay. I'm dreaming of office supplies and spreadsheets these days." She tucked her MacBook away, started the car and headed toward the parking lot exit. "I'll let you know if I need more help."

"Ok," Cat replied with a smile. "But I think you're amazing, you know that? You're like some sort of supergirl."

"Shouldn't that be superwoman?" Kara chuckled. "I may be younger than you are but I AM a grownup after all… or didn't last night's bed-sports prove that?"

"They most certainly did," Cat chuckled. "And you most certainly are."

"Did Carter mention anything to you about Rachel?" Kara asked. "He and I had a talk yesterday afternoon which was kinda concerning. He thinks that Rachel is seeing a guy she's tutoring and it sounds like this guy is a bit of a hound. I have to admit I was a bit worried by what he told me."

"Really?" Cat mused. "Do we need to do anything?"

"I don't think so," the younger blonde replied as she smoothly changed lanes to take their exit. "But I told him to talk to her and to just ask me if he needs anything."

"Good," Cat nodded faintly. "Thank you." She looked at Kara then. "But if this kid does anything to hurt Rachel or Carter…"

"I'll kick his ass crossways 'til Sunday," Kara replied seriously. "Or better still, I'll let Winn do it."

Just then Kara's phone rang and she hit the button on her steering wheel to answer the call. "Hello, this is a Kara Danvers, you're on speaker."

Miss Danvers, this is George. I wanted to see if there was any update on the building being ready for the keycard system.

Kara glanced at Cat, knowing that she'd received the latest update on construction. "Miss Grant is with me. I'll let her answer that, George."

"Hello, George," Cat began. "I think we're good to go. Construction should be completely finished by the end of next week but to my knowledge, the doors are all installed. Let me double check with my foreman and get back to you shortly. How long will it take to get everything in place?"

Best part of five days. The installation will take about four days and then I'll need a day to test each door and reader. I'll also need to know the number of staff keycards you'll need. They'll have access to everything. But the resident keycards will only have access to one bedroom and the public 'll be providing training sessions for your staff on how to program the cards too.

"Ok, sounds good," Kara replied. "We'll let you know as soon as possible, George."

You got it, Ladies. Looking forward to hearing from you.

"Staff," Cat murmured as Kara hung up. "I guess we should decide what staff we need at some point."

"The people we hire will have to have health insurance and benefits. Winn and I provide all that for the staff at Breathe." Kara paused then. "Why don't we just get CatCo HR to find folks for us? They're internal to your company right?"

"Right," Cat replied. "I can call Janine once we've decided what staff we need."

"Cool." Kara hit the remote clipped to her visor to open the gates of their house and drop Cat off. They shared a kiss and then Kara headed off to meet her client at Breathe.