"Hey, Perry!" Gossip columnist extraordinaire Cat Grant breezily greeted the editor-in-chief of The Daily Planet when he strode into her elegantly decorated corner office Monday morning.

"Cat," Perry growled, pulling her door shut behind him.

"What's up?" Cat asked eagerly, leaning forward on her elbows. Perry's look was - pitying? "Adam's ok, right?" Cat gasped, grabbing her cellphone to check for any missed calls from her son's school.

"Adam's fine," Perry said brusquely as he plopped unceremoniously into Cat's overstuffed guest seating. "Not about him."

"Geez, you had me scared," Cat exhaled. "Don't do that. Why the grim reaper face, then?" Perry pinched his bushy gray eyebrows together.

"You should've called me before running yesterday's gossip column." Her boss sounded irritated, but in the way that Cat had learned over the years meant concerned, not mad. Cat snorted.

"Don't tell me Bruce Wayne actually called to complain," she said in sarcastic wonder. "Or was it Tim?" she asked suspiciously.

"I haven't heard a word from the Waynes," Perry said flatly. "Despite the incredibly bad taste and poor judgment you exhibited in scandalizing their family friend."

"Hey!" Cat protested, shoving herself backwards off her desk. "Scandal sells! We're in the newspaper business, Perry, emphasis on business!" she lectured him just as he'd done to her, oh so many times. " And there's a story there," Cat insisted with a gleam in her eye, leaning forward again.

"Why did little Ms. Brown accompany the Waynes to the LexCorp gala last month, hm?" Cat began. "Where I, with my own eyes, saw her initiate contact with Lex Luthor, get quite handsy with him on the dance floor, and then disappear on the balcony for what we may presume was a quick fuck. And I didn't print a word about that!" Cat declared. "We're journalists, not slut-shamers," she said firmly. "Lots of impressionable young women hook up with rich, older men at these affairs. No story."

"But then she's back in Metropolis barely a month later, out on a date with him and wearing a Winston? Perry, come on!" Cat exclaimed, slamming her hand down on her mahogany desk. "You know Lex doesn't date. So what does that mean? He's humoring her to humiliate the Waynes - or, hoping to fill her social-scrabbling dragon claws with enough gold that he can fashion her into some kind of insider weapon to use against Wayne E."

"Or else," Cat went on quickly in a fresh burst of enthusiasm when Perry opened his mouth, "she's on a corporate espionage mission for the Waynes, which means they're basically pimping her out. And even if

she's nothing more than a good old-fashioned, simple-minded gold digger, well. That's still a story, any way you slice it," Cat finished triumphantly. "No innocence there."

"So don't come in here giving me puppy dog eyes about attacking a naive, young nobody," she chuckled at Perry. Perry's eyes looked far sadder than any puppy's, however, and his face was growing heavier by the minute, deepening his already pronounced wrinkles.

"What?" Cat finally said somewhat nervously. "You said the Waynes didn't call."

"The Waynes didn't," Perry said gruffly. "Lex Luthor did."

"To complain?" Cat spluttered in bemused shock, dropping her jaw. "That's not like him." She narrowed her eyes. "Maybe it is his game, then," she hypothesized. "And we're interfering by advertising it. Oh, my God, Perry!" Cat practically squealed. "We're onto something! This is fantastic!"

"Cat, you're fired," Perry said abruptly.

Cat stared at him. The words hung in the air between them, paradoxically incongruent with the situation.

"What?" Cat finally uttered to clear her stupor. She wasn't fired. She was Cat Grant, legendary gossip columnist. She was doing her job. Following leads. Trusting her gut. Chasing stories. Reporting on the newsworthy and nothing else. She wasn't -

"You're fired," Perry repeated in a surlier tone of voice, the one that he used when he was deeply unhappy and too prideful to show it.

"I'm not - fired?" Cat stammered. "No. Why?" she whispered. "I didn't do anything wrong, Perry. This is a story," she insisted.

"Freedom of the press," she added when Perry seemed reluctant to speak. "Journalistic integrity," she tacked on in an angrier voice. "Values we here at The Daily Planet cherish. What the hell, Perry?" she all but yelled at him.

"If I tell you, it's off the record," Perry growled.

"You have to tell me!" Cat snapped at him. "I have a right to know! I could sue you for discrimination or - or - unlawful termination!"

"Catherine, I am trying to protect you!" Perry bellowed. "You cannot - no - you will not breathe one word of this to the press, not if you value your well-being and your son's future." Cat's pupils blew out and her breath caught in her throat.

"Off. The. Record," Perry snarled at her.

"Ok," Cat whispered numbly.

"Lex Luthor is, by his account, in love," Perry said angrily. "He took great offense to the insinuations against Ms. Brown's character."

"And that's enough to fire me?" Cat asked in a shaky voice, blinking back tears.

"Either I fire you, or Lex makes a few phone calls and we lose all of our advertisers. Every single one," Perry said flatly. "Don't argue with me, you know he can do it. He will do it. He's in a rage. We may be owned by Bruce Wayne, but we are, in fact, a business - as you so aptly reminded me. A business that will cease to exist if we fail to generate ad income."

Cat stared at him.

"Normally, I might be able to hope for a grandiose counter-gesture from the Waynes," Perry went on. They don't take kindly to Lex's interference in the press, especially not their press. But in this case," Perry snarled, leaning forward himself, now, "you decided to screw yourself over by publicly vilifying the Waynes' dear friend, who, by the way, happens to be a twenty-two year old college student from the poorest neighborhood in Gotham."

"So, my dear Ms. Grant, I believe we may count on the fact that a retaliatory Hail Mary from the Waynes will not be forthcoming, should Mr. Luthor make good on his threat," Perry finished sarcastically.

"He can't just - we can expose him - we can -" Cat was a fish out of water, gasping for stolen comforts.

"Dammit, woman! This is exactly why I told you it's off the record!" Perry exploded at her. "Lex will deny everything. He'll sue us for libel on top of pulling the advertisers, and then he will come for your life and destroy it. Do not get in the water naked with a great white shark, young lady!" Perry boomed at her. "Think of your son!" he added with great contempt.

The disgust wasn't for her. Cat knew this. She knew - she knew that Perry hated himself right now, hated Lex, hated that she'd screwed up, hated that once again, money triumphed over morals. Not only that, he was terrified that Cat was going to strap chum to her limbs and swim right up to the shark's mouth - with her son on her back, no less.

Oh, God.

"Did he - did he say what else I can do?" Cat asked dully. She'd cry eventually. She knew this, too. She'd cry, scream, get drunk, beat up her chic designer pillows - the works. But for right now? Just the facts, ma'am. That's all she needed.

"I would consider your journalistic career quite finished," Perry muttered. "I can offer you a severance package to help out," he added wearily. "As long as you don't talk about it, he won't find out. Frame your resignation as burnout, desire for a career change, wanting to spend more time with your son, whatever," Perry sighed. "Just - stay out of the limelight. Be a nobody. Don't write a book, don't start a talk show. Get a 9-5 and scrape by like the rest of the world."

"Is that a quote?" Cat asked bitterly.

"Off the record," Perry sarcastically affirmed.


A/N - Thanks for reading! More to come. Comments are always much appreciated.

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