Conversations on a Balcony
63
"You're being too hard on yourself," Cat said as she stepped out onto the balcony outside of Kara's new office. Her wife had finally agreed to take on the role of Associate Editor-In-Chief after the previous one had retired, but only after Cat had promised that she could continue writing her own articles too. "I would've fired him too."
"But would you have gotten as angry as I did?" Kara shot back.
"Have you met me?" Cat chuckled. "C'mon, Sweetheart."
"Cat, I need you to be my boss right now," the younger woman said, crossing her arms and pushing her glasses up higher on her nose.
Cat nodded and straightened, body language and tone changing to professional. "You gave him a verbal warning and two written for harassing various women. That's more than the required number to warrant termination in a harassment case." She scoffed a little. "Don't tell me that you feel sorry for him?"
"I don't. What I AM sorry about is the way I handled it." Kara shook her head and leaned back against the low wall. "I lost my temper."
"You caught him with his hands on Nia, Kara! Of course you lost your temper!"
"I broke his shoulder, Cat!"
"Serves him right," Cat replied stubbornly. "If I'd seen him touching her, I'd have broken more than that."
Kara's shoulders sagged. "What if he sues?"
"We'll deal with that if it happens. We'll…" Cat suddenly stopped talking when she saw Nia crossing Kara's office. The young reporter tapped lightly on the balcony door and Kara beckoned for her to step out to join them. She looked unusually nervous.
"Sorry for intruding," she said. "Kara, can I talk to you for a minute?"
"Do you want me to…" Cat chucked a thumb over her shoulder.
"Oh, no, Ms. Danvers-Grant. It's nothing you can't hear."
The older woman smiled and took a seat on one of the rattan chairs as Nia moved closer to her boss. "Kara, I just wanted to say thank you. For listening to me and believing me and for intervening on something that could have been devastating to me."
"Any time," Kara replied with a smile.
"No," Nia said softly as she put her hand on Kara's forearm. "I mean it. Kara, I'm… I'm a trans woman and a guy like that… if he'd found out, he probably would have outed me to the whole company." She shook her head and held up a hand. "Not that I'm hiding or anything but… sometimes people treat me differently when they find out. So… So thank you again. What you did, pushing him off me like that, means so much to me. A lot of people wouldn't have wanted to get involved."
Kara tilted her head and then stepped closer to pull the young woman into her arms for a long hug. "Thank you for trusting me with your truth," she said softly. "And he's never going to bother you at work again. I fired him and if he bothers you outside of work, tell me and we'll help you get a restraining order against him." Kara's eyes moved to Cat who nodded her agreement. "You just let me know, ok?"
Nia pulled back a little and nodded before hugging Kara hard again. "Thank you, Supergirl," she whispered so quietly that Cat didn't hear. The hero pulled back, surprise etched on her face and Nia just smiled and headed back to her desk with a gentle squeeze to Cat's shoulder as she passed.
Kara chuckled and shook her head. "Now I'm glad I broke that asshole's shoulder. Did you know about Nia being a trans woman?"
Cat just shrugged. "I did, but it's not my truth to tell."
"That's why you hired her, isn't it?" Kara said with a broad smile. "To make sure she was ok?"
The older woman waved a hand, letting out a small sound of agreement. "Well, she graduated top of her class and she's extremely talented," Cat explained. "But yes, I actively headhunted her for CatCo. I wanted her talent, yes, but I also wanted to make sure that she was treated fairly."
"I love you, Cat-El."
The CEO chuckled. "I thought you wanted me to be your boss right now?" she teased but she got up anyway and held Kara by the hips to kiss her gently. "I love you too."
