Conversations on a Balcony

11

"SUPERGIRL!"

Cat waited as she peered up into the night sky, then turned in a circle to see if… But a fluttering of cape caught her attention and she startled a little as Supergirl dropped hard onto her bedroom balcony next to her, boots skidding a tad on the marble floor as she looked around frantically for danger.

"Huh," the CEO chuckled as she scratched her cheek. "I didn't actually think that would work."

For a moment, the hero just stared at her... then she perched her fists on her hips and frowned. "Miss Grant, did you call for me just to see if I'd come?"

Cat made a small sound of agreement and waved her hand. "Maybe."

Supergirl tilted her head and huffed her blonde hair out of her eyes. "But I was in the middle of…" She stopped then and shook her head. "Never mind. What is it you need?"

But Cat hadn't failed to notice the paint splatters on the hero's hands, and she reached out to touch one, finding that it was still slightly tacky. "Supergirl has a hobby?" she asked.

The Girl of Steel looked at her hands as if she was seeing them for the first time, then quickly clasped them behind her back. "Um… I… yes?"

Cat smiled as she turned and leaned against the railing. She was dressed in yoga pants and a grey t-shirt with a pink heart on the front and it was the most casual Kara had ever seen her. It was refreshing and oddly sexy. "Unfortunately, my creative and artistic ability begins and ends with writing," the older woman said. "My assistant, Kiera, she's a painter too."

Supergirl smiled. "I didn't realize that you…" She stopped herself as she joined her friend to lean on the wrought-iron barrier and look over the edge at the traffic below. "I didn't know that," she amended.

"Yes," Cat replied. "The paint on your hands reminded me of her. Sometimes, no matter how much she scrubs, it doesn't all come off."

"It's the oils," Supergirl chuckled. "I p-presume…" she added quickly.

Cat just nodded, wondering how much longer they'd keep up this little dance. But she recognized the grave mistake she'd made in trying to force the young woman to come out to her so now, she vowed to just let Kara make that decision in her own time.

"There WAS actually a reason why I called for you," she went on. "I need to ask you something." Supergirl nodded and waited patiently, blue eyes twinkling in the moonlight. "How close did we come to dying yesterday?" She paused then and lifted a finger. "And please tell me the truth."

"Oh," the younger blonde breathed as she looked back out over the city. "Closer than I'd ever wish," she replied with a little shake of her head.

"And you saved us?" Supergirl nodded, her eyes fixed on her hands in front of her, and Cat wondered what more to the story there was. "How?" The hero straightened and crossed her arms over her chest. "Supergirl," she prompted. "How?"

"Off the record, Miss Grant, the signal that was causing the pressure in everyone's heads, was coming from a derelict spaceship in the desert. I… I carried it up into space and pushed it away from Earth."

Cat's eyes widened. "You carried a whole spaceship? By yourself? How much did it weigh?"

Supergirl shrugged. "A million tons or so, I was told."

Cat gasped at the magnitude of that and she was silent for a long moment. But then she frowned. "You can survive in space?"

The hero shook her head. "No, I can hold my breath for a long time but eventually, I need oxygen just like you do."

Cat's frown deepened. "So how did you intend to get…" But the emotion in the blue eyes gazing back at her made her surge forward and hug the hero hard. "Oh my God," she whispered. "You didn't think you were coming back."

"No," Supergirl replied as she returned the embrace. "But MY hero saved me so here I am. Still breathing." To her surprise, when the older woman eased back, there were tears on her cheeks. "Cat," Kara whispered, erasing the tears with her thumbs as she cupped her friend's face between her hands, and smiled gently. "I'm ok. WE'RE ok."

"Forgive me," the CEO said softly. "It just hit me that I could have called your name tonight and you may not have come."

But Supergirl's smile broadened. And it creased her eyes and wrinkled her nose in that way Cat loved. "If you call me," she said. "I'll do EVERYTHING in my power to always come. I promise."