CH7 S.T.A.R. Laboratories
"This is not me being stupid. Hear me out."
Kara looked across the kitchen at her fiancé with suspicion. That was not an auspicious way to begin a conversation. Comically bracing herself, she waved her hand at him, "Ok, I'm ready. Hit me with the 'Barry's a dumbass ray'." His snort of laughter started the giggles for her. "Ok what did you want?"
"You told me how your family on Krypton was primarily scientists. In the distant past, the House of El were warriors, but in modern times, they were scientists."
She nodded, stirring the soup she'd made in the five-gallon pot. "The house of El was a part of the Science Guild. There was also the Artists, Military, Religious, and Labor Guilds. When we came of age, Kryptonians would select which guild they wanted to join, but it was unusual for a person to choose outside their family's association. My mother was of the Military Guild, but my father and all others in the House of El were scientists."
"And you were taught according to the precepts of the Science Guild."
Not seeing where he was going with all this, she agreed, "I was flash taught basic and intermediary education as a toddler."
"Which would put you past most doctoral candidates here in some of the theoretical fields."
She shrugged, "Krypton was much older than earth is now when I left." She didn't like bragging because she felt there wasn't much to brag about. For all their vaunted superiority the Kryptonians were severely xenophobic and arrogant. Their suicidal adherence to their superiority led to the destruction of the way of life with a few unintended exceptions.
"This is the 'not stupid' part. Would you please lead the theoretical physics department at S.T.A.R. Labs?"
She blinked at him.
"Kara, you are the smartest person I've ever met and that includes Harry Wells, Cisco Ramon, Caitlin Snow, and Ray Palmer and they were all geniuses."
Taking her hands in his, he spoke in a fervent voice, "I'm the idea guy. I can see things. I look at a crime scene and I can just see how it all works. I see capabilities that would further humankind and I think 'Why not?' I need really smart people to help me realize this vision because I want to go farther than most people can even imagine. I want us to build a teleport capability. Imagine not only instantly transporting people, but raw materials and finished goods. Instant arrival with no pollution, no wasted fossil fuels. I want us to build a safe cold fusion engine. Goodbye gasoline engines, just put in a pint of water and you're good forever. I want us to build an artificial intelligence that will be always correct in the medical field." His enthusiasm was increasing as he listed the things he wanted to do. At the end, he was passionately waving his hands as he told her, "I want us to build a warp drive that will allow for us to explore the galaxy as peers of its other inhabitants."
Slowly, she turned the heat down on the soup, before placing the lid on it. Moving across the room, she slid into his arms, "I would love to do those things with you. You inspire me, Barry, and I love you." Kissing him softly, she then added, "And you being smart is very hot. You need to take me to bed right now."
He laughed as he kissed her back, "As you wish."
.oOo.
Kara had been nervous about this discussion all day. It was unavoidable, but she really wished she could bridge the gap between working at S.T.A.R. Labs and working with Ms. Grant. Sighing, she asked, "Ms. Grant, can I have a moment of your time?"
Cat took her glasses off and looked up at Kara. "Oh, dear. I have to get a new executive assistant, don't I? Has your J. Crew model paramour stolen you from me?"
With a look of regret, Kara nodded.
"It was inevitable, I suppose. You are far overqualified for this position, Kara."
Blinking at the use of her name instead of 'Kiera', Kara was caught off guard when she was asked, "And your new role at S.T.A.R. Labs?"
"I'll be the head of the theoretical physics department."
Cat blinked at that. "Well." Taking on her airy demeanor like a shield, she said, "Then your last task shall be to find your replacement. I have faith that you can do that in two weeks." With that pronouncement – in true Cat Grant style – she resumed reviewing the documents on her desk.
"Yes, Ms. Grant."
As Kara headed out of the office Cat said so low that only Kara would ever hear it, "I shall miss you, Kara. Don't be a stranger."
Turning back with watery eyes, Kara replied, "I'll miss you too."
Resettling in her chair, Kara considered who could replace her. Given Cat's place in Kara's heart, she knew that the criminal and super villain elements would always target Cat Grant. With that threat in mind, she pulled out her cell phone. Scrolling through the Contacts she found who she wanted. After a few rings, the other end picked up.
"Cassie? It's Kara. Hey…no, things are good here. My yummy boyfriend is now my yummy fiancé." She smiled at the squeal from the other end of the phone. "Hey, I'm calling because I have a question for you."
.oOo.
"She's not very easy to work for sometimes, but her heart is made of gold."
The brunette across from Kara nodded, "Cassie and Diana filled me in a little. Plus, Google is my friend."
Kara smiled as they walked into the building, pointing out the elevators. And the fire escape. "That's really useful as it goes right to the roof. None of the windows open up there."
Her replacement nodded, "Thanks. I know this is yours and Barry's town, but I appreciate you getting me this job. First job out of college and all. I want to get into media and this will be a big help for me."
"Hey, you're helping me as much as anyone, Mary. I want someone…" she gave Mary a meaningful look, "like us who can keep an eye on Ms. Grant. She's a trouble magnet."
"And if you and Barry need any help at all, please call. I need some more practice with the spandex squad."
Kara snorted at the nickname.
"You'll have to come over for dinner. We can eat fifty pounds of pasta and tell stories."
Mary smiled, still nervous about the forthcoming interview with the Queen of all Media, but loosening up just a little.
"So, Billy did the lightning bolt thing inside and it didn't mess the building up…," Kara began.
"But it's really loud," Mary told Kara. "I usually make the call outside. It's not as loud as a real lightning bolt, so it disperses more."
The elevator let them off at the right floor. "Your desk is right here," she handed Mary the coffee in her hand. "Ms. Grant's elevator is over there." She gestured. "She likes to get her coffee or tea of the day right about here. Now, let's talk calendars and habits."
Forty-five minutes later, Kara heard Ms. Grant's elevator start up. "She's on the way." Picking up the coffee, Kara could tell that it wasn't warm enough. Checking around, she saw no one watching so she gave it a quick warmup with heat vision.
"That's so not fair. I can't do that without the big bang," Mary sighed.
"Here, go give this to her and give her the first three things on her schedule and let her know about the two phone calls." Mary looked nervous, so Kara leaned in to whisper to her, "You are Mary Marvel. You can do this."
The young superhero took a deep breath, squared her shoulders, and strode off to meet her new boss.
Ms. Grant strode into the room with her usual scowl and fashionable sunglasses. Kara thought she was doing an admirable job of channeling Audrey Hepburn this morning. Mary intercepted her while Kara hung back.
"Good morning, Ms. Grant. Here's your coffee. In fifteen minutes, the director of the print division is meeting you in your office to discuss sales forecast for next quarter, followed by your technical division lead to discuss the costs regarding satellite relays, and right before lunch you have the pre-brief for the board of directors quarterly meeting." When Cat looked at her blankly, Mary rushed to say, "Mr. White from the Daily Planet called about your lunch next week and your son's school called about the fundraiser the week after next."
Cat still didn't reply. Finally, she looked over Mary's shoulder, "Kara, is this the person you trust my calendar with?"
Kara nodded with a big smile. "Yes, Ms. Grant."
Cat narrowed her eyes. "You two. In my office."
Sauntering into her office, Cat tossed her purse and jacket on a chair as she called out, "Door, Kara."
Kara shut the door, wondering what Ms. Grant had on her mind.
As the woman sat at her desk, Mary stood in front of her, a pad and pen in hand. "What is your name?" Cat asked.
"Mary Bromfield, Ms. Grant. I'm a recent graduate of…," but Cat cut her off.
Rolling her eyes while shaking her head, Cat persisted, "No, your other name. I did this dance with Kara for three years. I'm not wasting that much time again."
Kara closed her eyes. She should've known that Cat would see through her. Meeting Mary's wide-eyed gaze, Kara sighed in resignation. "You can trust her. She knows about me and Barry."
"I'm also Miss Marvel, Ms. Grant," she announced with more than a hint of trepidation.
Cat nodded, "From Philadelphia? Supergirl-like powers but with horrible fashion sense? I can fix that." Turning to Kara, Cat raised an eyebrow, "You only trust my executive assistant to be a superhero who can lift a mountain?"
Kara grinned, "Pretty much."
Cat laughed that understated laugh of hers. Turning back to Mary, she said, "You'll do. You've a week with your mentor there. Learn everything you can from her and you'll be fine."
.oOo.
Winn had a pencil in his mouth as he reviewed spec sheets of various computing plants. The data center for their temporary location had been an easy design. It took him thirty minutes after Barry had told him, "Keep it under two hundred and fifty thousand dollars." The design for the permanent facility, though, that was giving him fits.
He wanted it to be a work of digital art. It needed to be flexible enough to support massive compute cycles for the expected modeling and simulation runs needed while providing local web service hosting of exabytes of data that had to be available at a moment's notice. He had to integrate satellite communications, various sensor inputs from radar and sonar to electron microscope. It had to have a scalable architecture that would grow and evolve over time and not require a complete redesign.
And given the after-hours hero activities of his bosses, he had to build in capability to support them in those endeavors, also. Neither Barry nor Kara had brough it up, but Winn would always be the guy in the chair for them.
"Hey, I need you."
Winn looked up to see Barry and Kara stood at the door of his office. "What's up?"
"Going to do a few interviews and we want you there. Need to get your input and take on the applicants." They started walking down the hallway together when Winn realized that he was wearing his usual checked shirt and jeans while Barry and Kara were both in suits. Kara was wearing a skirt, but still, a suit.
"Ah, guys, I'm not really dressed…" Kara waved him off before shoving a pile of paper in his hand.
"Abigail set up these interviews. Barry and I haven't even had a chance to review the resumes so we're going to have to do all this on the fly."
Smirking at her play on words, he followed his friends and employers into their 'nice' conference room, as opposed to the one covered in white boards which in turn were covered in equations, schematics, and requirements flowdown leading to R&D topics. He saw a young Latino man standing nervously next to the table while tapping a pen on his personal notes. Winn promptly ran into the back of Barry who had stopped in his tracks. "Barry, you Ok?"
"It's Cisco," he murmured.
Winn didn't know all the details, but knew that his friend had lost everyone in the other universe. Cisco must have been one of those people and this guy in front of him, looking at the sheaf of papers in his hand found the name Francisco Ramon, must be this universe's version of Barry's old friend.
Kara covered for her fiancé, "Good morning, Mr. Ramon. I'm Kara Danvers. I'm the head of the theoretical physics department. This is Barry Allen, our founder and technical director. And last, but not least is Winn Schott, he's our data systems chief engineer."
Winn gave Barry a little shove and it seemed to get him going. "Hi, I'm Barry Allen."
"Francisco Ramon. But call me Cisco. Francisco is a bit of a mouthful."
Winn thought that he could hear Barry gulp. Gathering himself, the Scarlet Speedster began "So, Mr. Ramon, a little background on S.T.A.R. Labs and our mission. We are looking to push the boundaries of science as it is defined today for the betterment of all humanity." Barry half-grinned to himself. "It took me a long time to come up with a one sentence vision statement. Kara kept telling me everything else was too long." They all chuckled at the icebreaker.
"So, I see that you're a doctoral candidate at Metropolis University. What is your area of concentration and how do you see yourself fitting here at S.T.A.R. Labs?"
.oOo.
She held him while they entwined on the couch, him reclining on her as she wrapped him in her arms. The bottle of wine on the coffee table was open but untouched. They'd been quiet for the past twenty minutes. That was long enough, she decided. "Barry."
"I know."
More silence. Slowly, she began to stroke his hair, carding her fingers through it in a massaging fashion. He would talk about it. He was begging to talk about it. He just needed to figure out where to start.
"At first, I was freaked out. I mean, that was Cisco. Except my Cisco never wore a collared shirt. Or a tie. Ever. That actually helped me. I guess, right now, I'm just confused. We have to hire him. This guy is as talented as my old Cisco. His imagination and drive we need at S.T.A.R. Labs to succeed. I guess, I have to keep reminding myself that this guy isn't my guy."
She leaned forward before kissing his ear, "No."
He half turned around to her. "No?"
"No. He's not your old guy. He could very well be your new guy." She blinked. "And didn't that sound very weird." Deciding to try to lighten things up, she poked him in the side, "Remember, you're mine and I don't share."
He smiled halfheartedly before nodding his head having come to a decision. "It's time to start over. This Francisco Ramon deserves every chance to excel, to become my friend, colleague, or even brother. It would be unfair to always compare him to the Cisco Ramon I knew before."
He stood, pulling her to her feet. "He may even be part of team SuperFlash."
"Oh, I have to know who coined that term," she asked in jest while pulling on her jacket while he corked the wine.
"Winn. He said he'd be our guy in the chair for when we're being, and I quote, 'All team SuperFlash out there',"
She shook her head. "Well, c'mon sidekick. Let's go get some Indian food. I've got a hankering for some Chicken Vindaloo."
He followed her out of the apartment, pulling on his own jacket as he protested, "Sidekick? When did this happen?"
Laughter was her only reply.
.oOo.
"Cisco accepted the offer," Barry told Kara from her doorway. He was yawning. They had a late night with a gang fight down at the port. More than thirty idiots shooting at each other until after midnight. Supergirl and the Flash were working until late helping the police catch all the shooters all the while keeping bystanders safe. She leaned back in her chair of her office. It was a nice office; on the seventh floor of their rental building she could look out over the bay. It was next to his office and she was debating having a connecting door between the offices, but there were pros and cons to the arrangement.
He'd wanted to share an office that she quickly shot down. "Barry, I think that our office door would be shut and locked most of the time and we'd get no work done."
Laughing, he nodded, "You're probably right. But what a work day!"
She smiled sadly at him as she tossed another resume on her desk. They were targeting a mix of hires to bring in young blood who were not as technically experienced as their older colleagues, but had the idealism of youth who wouldn't let 'it's not done that way' stand in their way. They were looking to pair them with experienced scientists and researchers who could instill technical rigor into their efforts so as to insure coherent research and documentation. It didn't hurt if they were geniuses in their own right.
"Look at this one," she handed over a resume that had been emailed in that morning.
"Fuck."
Grimacing, she asked, "Another doppelganger?"
"Ray Palmer."
He scanned the resume. This Ray was fifteen years younger than his own, fresh out of the University of Starling City with a double masters in electrical and biochemical engineering and a doctoral candidate in electrical engineering. "Hire him. We'll put him in the digital engineering group."
She hesitated. "There is someone else for the bio group. Actually, two someones."
Turning back to her, he took a gulp of his coffee as he raised his brows in question. "Alex applied yesterday," she told him as she handed her boss the resume.
Barry set the coffee down as he sat on the edge of her desk. Concentrating on the resume he read it through quickly. "Very impressive." His gaze moved from the paper to his blonde department head, "But can she work for us?"
"That's the question, isn't it?" Kara answered, relieved that he'd not dismissed it out of hand. Alex hadn't made a very good first impression on Barry. "How about we have her over to dinner tonight and talk about it low-key and all?"
He nodded, "That's a great idea." He took another sip of coffee. "Who is the other someone for the bio group?"
She stood up, moving to his side. Taking his coffee from him, she set it on the desk before putting a hand on each shoulder, steadying him. Barry was frowning now, concerned at her behavior. "It's Caitlin Snow, Barry."
He sagged into himself. Covering his face, he shuddered while she enveloped him in her arms. A few tears of her own leaked out of the corner of her eyes as she grieved for her love while he remembered the woman he'd loved as a sister. "First Cisco, now Caitlin," he murmured through his hands.
Holding him close, she kissed his cheek, "I know, babe. I know."
From within her arms, he asked, "What would I do without you?"
"You'll never have to find out," she swore softly but fervently.
Taking a deep breath, he gathered himself. "Is she as amazing here as she was on the other earth?"
Kara nodded. Stepping back, her heart broke to see tear tracks on his face. She wanted to hold him and tell him that all would be well, but realized that he needed to feel this and go through it. Just like she had when she was in his shoes. His nightmares had tapered off to nil, but he still had his hard moments. Like right now. Shuffling through the pile of resumes on her desk, she handed him the relevant one.
He nodded. "Yup. She's awesome." Sighing he rubbed his face with his free hand, "I'll tell Abigail to set up these interviews. Anyone else?"
She shook her head. "How is it going with the construction company?"
"We keep meandering with the design. I wonder if I'm getting ahead of myself. The old lab was built for a single purpose: to support the particle accelerator. Everything else was a plus. We're looking at a multi-use, multi-discipline lab that can expand over time."
"Are there any other facilities like this we can model?"
He nodded while rubbing his chin in thought, "Well, there's the National Institute for Nuclear Physics in central Italy. Fermilab; they're up near Chicago if I remember correctly. Of course, there's CERN. The Germans have an interesting approach. The Helmholtz Association disperse their areas of concentration. One facility is focused on Plasma physics, another on Environmental Health and another on Materials and Energy. There's a bunch of them each focusing on a specific discipline." He nodded and she began to see the idea.
"Start S.T.A.R. Labs here, but eventually grow to have specific disciplines spread out."
"Theoretical Physics here. Materials Science in Metropolis. Oceanographic Research in Coast City…" he was getting excited again.
She smiled, "My mad scientist. Look at you being awesome."
He smirked, "Is it still hot?"
"Very," she purred.
"Can I close the door?"
She glanced out before focusing on her hearing. No one around. "Please do."
.oOo.
Dinner was super low key. Barry ran out and bought a pan of enchiladas, a pan of burritos along with a bowl of black beans and another of refried beans. Kara made queso with chorizo with Alex while the speedster was fetching their order. Alex brought the beer, of which she didn't partake. "The last time I had a drink in this apartment I was sick for two days."
Sitting down to dinner, they were chatting about this and that, just normal life things. It was Kara telling Alex about leaving CATCO which brought the issue to bear. "Alex," Barry began, "I saw that you applied to S.T.A.R. Labs."
Setting down her glass of ice water, Alex nodded. "I think it's marvelous what you're doing there. You're going to change the world and I want to help."
Barry blinked. He'd not had such a sincere and honest statement from any of the interviewees so far; even Cisco had a canned pitch during his interview. "You and I have had a rocky start. Can you work for me? If I tell you 'no' can you abide that as you would from any other technical director?"
He heard Kara's long indraft of air as she fought getting involved here. This had to be a business discussion, and not a family one. Despite their relations, Barry needed to have confidence that one of his lead researchers would support S.T.A.R. Labs' vision and not buck his lead whenever she got her back up.
"I need team players. We'll discuss issues, topics, equipment, and funding levels. We'll disagree and work it out. But when we slap the table and call it done, that's it. We're one team marching in the same direction, not a bunch of independent agents moving in the direction they see fit." He regarded her over the beer at his lips, "Can you do that?"
She was quiet for a long moment, obviously in contemplation. "As long as you'll genuinely hear me out and give me and my teams a chance, I can do that."
"I expect nothing less." Leaning over the table, he extended his hand. "Welcome to S.T.A.R. Labs Doctor Danvers."
Her beaming smile was the first time that Barry had seen her as genuinely happy since he'd come to this universe.
.oOo.
A/N
1. I own nothing
2. As I said before, I hated writing the first section. I love Cisco & Caitlin. I had to bring them back in the new universe.