Conversations on a Balcony

34

A/N: Conversations in a Chapel... (and in case you're trying to remember, Cat is referring back to Chapter 3)


It was quiet and peaceful in the hospital chapel, the small space lit by lamplight and the flickering candles in the receptacles near the altar. Cat was sitting alone, head bowed and tears on her cheeks as her chest ached with grief.

My Mom didn't make it.

It echoed around and around in her head.

Katherine Grant... sometimes harshest critic, sometimes witch, onetime loving mother... had passed only an hour earlier and Cat didn't know what to do. The pain she was feeling was both shocking and not. She'd hated her mother... she'd loved her mother...

"Kara," she said softly, needing her girlfriend more than she ever had before. "If you can hear me... can you please come here?"

It took only a moment for the Kryptonian to appear and their eyes met and held as Kara crouched next to the pew. "What can I do?" she said softly and Cat almost laughed as she shook her head.

"I remember you saying that to me before during circumstances surrounding my mother," she said. "The first time you had the pleasure of experiencing how much of a bitch she could be. You found me on the balcony at the office, just trying to deal with how hurt I was. You didn't even know me that well but you somehow knew that I needed to not be alone so you just stayed with me. You've been taking care of me for a long time."

"I remember," Kara replied as she took Cat's hands and kissed them. "I think that might have been the first time I began to truly realize that what I was feeling for you wasn't just a hero-crush. My heart was aching for you."

Cat fisted her hands into her girlfriend's shirt and scooted back along the bench seat a little, pulling Kara up to sit with her and then pressing into her chest as the hero's arms closed around her. "I don't know what to feel or do," she said, crumbling into hitching sobs as she buried her face in the hero's neck, breathing in the soothing fragrance of her light perfume. "There's s-so much to do now and I just c-can't... I..." It was all so overwhelming that Cat felt like she was drowning in it.

Kara kissed the top of her girlfriend's head and rocked her gently. "When I lost my family," she said quietly. "I felt angry and empty and alone... like no one on this planet could understand what I was going through. But then I learned that grief touches everyone, Cat, and no one knows what to feel or do until they have time to just be quiet and process it." She felt Cat nod. "And right now, My Love, all you have to do is be quiet and process it. I'll take care of the rest."

At the back of the small chapel, Carter and Anna slipped in through the doors and the young couple took a seat in the pew next to Kara and Cat. Carter put his hand on his Mom's shoulder and squeezed gently, his other arm around Anna, offering silent support even as tears trailed down his own cheeks. Kara swallowed, blinking back her own tears as pride swelled in her heart and she reached out to the young man, pushing his hair back from his eyes and then letting her hand rest on his shoulder as they all just sat quietly together in the peaceful, dim light.