Tonight, is the night I get to spend some alone time with Supergirl. No costumes, no masks, no potential life-threatening situation for us to worry about; just her and me, Kara and Kate, Kara Zor-El and Katherine Kane. Okay, I need admit something, I'm extremely nervous. I have no reason to be, it's not like it's a real date or anything, but still.
I'm manning my book shop which I have been neglecting. I've been so caught up in drama the past few days that it's been hard to wake up when need be.
"Hey, I heard today you're having a buy-one, get the other half-off sale." I snap out of my daydream and go to correct the customer but stop and smile.
"Hi, Maggie."
"Hi Maggie?" she says while leaning on the counter. "I get knocked out by some tattooed chick and wake up in the hospital with two uniforms watching over me, and after hearing you came and checked up on me all I get is a 'Hi Maggie'?" I walk around the counter to give her a hug. "That's better." I pull away first and get a good look at her. There are dark circles under her eyes and she looks thinner than when I last saw her, but you would look like that too after sleeping on a hospital bed for a few days while eating their food.
"You look tired and thin."
Maggie gives me a look and crosses her arms. "Oh yeah, that's what every woman wants to hear. You look awful and gaunt."
"I didn't say that."
"You said it nicely." We pause for a few seconds then burst into laughter. "It's good to see you again, Kate. It's been a while." I return behind the counter and ring up the books she placed on it.
"It's good to see you, too. We haven't seen each other since that afternoon at the Chinese restaurant." I stop for a second before ringing up the book in my hand. "The World Unseen… don't you have this book?"
"I did, but remember about six months ago when my apartment blew up?" How could I forget? Maggie stayed with me while she looked for a new apartment; it was nice having her around but to be honest, living with her is a bit of a nightmare. I nod, and she goes on. "Well, that bomb took out my library and I've been working on restoring what I had including a few new books."
"How do you know what you had?"
"I have an inventory of all that I own." Of course, she does. I finish checking out all her books and put them in a bag.
"Fifty-eight, forty-seven." Maggie hands me a fifty and a ten-dollar bill and I hit the cash register's button to get her change.
"You know, I would have been here earlier but every time I came by the store was closed."
"Sorry, my personal life has gotten a bit hectic lately."
"I heard. How is Linda?" I slowly close the register and hand Maggie her change.
"She's fine. A little sore but she'll live."
"I heard the bullet was through-n-through. I also heard she disappeared the same night she was administered to the hospital."
"You sure heard a lot of things while you were unconscious."
Maggie smiles. "Yeah well, Bullock has been keeping me informed of everything that I missed. So-" Another customer clears his throat behind Maggie. She steps aside and I ring up his books then send him on his way.
"You were saying."
"Never mind."
"Mags, what were you going to say?" She clears her throat.
"What happened to Linda? How did she leave the hospital in that condition?" I think carefully over the words I need.
"Supergirl pulled her out. I don't know why but she did."
"Sounds like that upset you."
I let out a breath then take one before continuing. "A little. In the past few days, I've realized Linda and Supergirl have this bond, this relationship I can't explain."
"Kate, Linda Lee-Danvers has gotten more exclusives with Supergirl than anyone, other than Jimmy Olson who is an extremely close second. It's kind of like how Lois Lane is Superman's favorite reporter."
"Wasn't there a rumor they were dating?" Maggie starts laughing and doesn't stop until she's crouched over holding onto the counter for dear life. "I don't see what's so funny about this." She finally gets a hold of herself.
"Kate, that's stupid. There is nothing more than a professional relationship and maybe a friendship between Linda Lee-Danvers and Supergirl. Supergirl a lesbian…" Maggie lets out a snort then grabs her bag of books, "please." I narrow my eyes at her as she walks out of the shop.
"I'm glad you find this is amusing."
Maggie turns and winks at me. "Good because it is."
As soon as she closes the door behind her, I hear a loud guffaw from outside and see Linda walk in my shop a few seconds after. Even as Linda closes the door, I can still hear Maggie laughing her butt off. The shop goes quiet again as soon as the door completely closes.
"May I ask why Detective Maggie Sawyer of GCPD began to laugh hysterically as soon as she saw me?" asks Linda while pointing back at the door with her thumb.
"It's been a long day for her."
"Clearly." She stops at the counter and taps a little cadence on the table-top. "So, how are you, Katherine Kane? And how's the shop doing?"
"Fine, a little tired, but fine."
"Understandable, especially between me getting shot and Maggie getting knocked out, me having a mental breakdown and you comforting me, and then me kicking you out of my apartment without giving you a reason, I can see how that would be exhausting." Linda smiles widely at me. I've always liked her smile. I feel this warmth inside every time she does.
"Yeah, I guess."
It fades into a frown accompanied by a crinkle between her eyebrows. "Look, about me kicking you out, I'm sorry. I was in a weak spot and I didn't like you seeing me like that. I don't like anyone seeing me like that. I needed to clear my head and get some composure and I couldn't do that with you around. I'm sorry. Will you forgive me?"
"Of course, I'll forgive you," I say before I can stop myself. Drawn by Linda's natural energy and warmth, I even run around the counter and giving Linda a big hug. She holds me tightly in her arms for only a few seconds. When she lets go, she pushes her glasses up her nose and smiles crookedly at me.
"I've missed that." Linda tilts her head and gives me a look of confusion. "The glasses, I've missed you doing that." Linda quickly makes her glasses pop up and down on her face then wiggles her eyebrows at me. I laugh with amazement. "How did you do that?"
"Precise muscle control." Oh, boy. The smile slides off my face and I walk to my spot behind the register. "Kate, you okay?"
"Mhm," I say, nodding. Linda scrunches her brow again, which I find adorable, then scratches the back of her neck.
"Okay… I was wondering if you'd like to join me for lunch." She says this all slowly, still trying to figure out what just happened. Teenager. Me. I swear.
"That's sweet, but um, I already have some food upstairs." The lift of her eyebrows shows her surprise. I really should be itching to go with her, and I am, but my neglect of the store has forced me into store arrest.
"Alright, well I'll see you around then." Linda goes to leave then back pedals quickly, almost dropping her bag in the process. "I almost forgot, I'm leaving in a few days to cover the Bialyan meta-human issue and I was wondering if you wanted to meet before then."
"I thought you were going to London?"
"I was, but my editor Perry White changed his mind the last second and I'm going to be escorted with a few other reporters from Qurac and into Bialya."
"Isn't that dangerous?"
"Completely. But I've handled stuff like this before and I've obviously come out alive, and I'll do the same for this story."
"I liked it better when you were going to London." Linda's face softens, and she steps to the counter and before I can react, takes both of my hands into hers.
"Kate, I'll be okay. Superboy will be escorting us into Bialya and Miss Martian will be watching over us from then on. Everything is planned out. It'll be okay?"
"What about Diana?" Linda's hands loosen but don't let go of mine.
"Yeomen Prince? She's the girlfriend of the JLA liaison Steve Trevor and my source of all things Justice League. She's the one who encouraged Perry to send me to Bialya."
"So, what? I should thank her for putting you in danger?" Linda lets go of my hands completely and steps away from me.
"Kate, where is this coming from?"
"I…" Where is this coming from? Is now the time to tell Linda my feelings, or no? "I care about you." No, it isn't. "And I don't want anything to happen to you." Linda tilts her head to the left and gives me that look again.
"Katherine, I care about you too. But this is what I do. People need to know what is going on over there, and the Daily Planet, whether under PGN or not, is one of the few newspapers that actually tell you the truth. There are still Bialyan supporters out there who believe that country is not filled with a big chunk of terroristic hateful people. There are meta-human and regular humans suffering over there, and until people open their eyes it will never change."
"And you think telling a few stories will work?"
"Truth always works. Look, I know many people will still deny the truth even with evidence, but it's all I can do. And it's what I will do. See ya around, Kane." And without another word from either or us, Linda leaves the shop.
XXX
After pacing back and forth for an hour I still don't feel any less nervous than when I got home. On top of that, it's nippy up here on the top of the Gotham Cathedral. When I got home, I found an envelope on my floor; it had been slid underneath my door. It was a letter from Supergirl telling me to meet her where we first met and to dress nice—not like I was going to dress like a bum to begin with. After going through my entire closet, twice, I settled on a pair of black jeans and a button-up green shirt. Since I knew it was going to be chilly, I grabbed a light jean jacket and my black beret.
"Nervous, are we?" I jump and almost bump into a pair of feet hovering in front of my face. I follow the feet up as they float down. "Sorry, I didn't mean to startle you."
"You didn't."
"That's good." Kara touches down and smiles at me. "I like your clothes. They kind of remind me of Linda's."
"Oh, well that's what every girl wants to here, her being compared to another girl."
"You should take that as a compliment. Linda is a great kid."
"Kid? You two look like you could be the same age."
"Technically, I'm older than Superman."
I'm sorry, what?
Kara chuckles softly at the surprise and confusion probably on my face. "To make a long story short, I was trapped in a stasis pod and because I was released too late Superman ended up aging past me."
"Wow. How much older are you than him?"
"About seventeen years."
Geez, I remember Batman stating he and Superman were born within six years of each other. If that's true, based upon how old I am compared to Bruce… that would put Kara in her fifties! "How old are you really?"
Kara thinks over it for a second. "I think I'm fifty-four no… fifty-six years old."
"That makes you over twenty years older than me."
"Hey! Technically I've only aged to between twenty-five and thirty. In other words, I wouldn't try to make me out to be old enough to be a member of the Modern Maturity Center, yet."
"Whatever…" I wink at Kara. She just rolls her eyes and chuckles softly. This gives me the chance to look over her outfit again. "I thought we said no costumes." Kara steps back and places her hands on her hips.
"I will have you know that this is not a costume."
"I'm not complaining. You look hot, but I was figuring you were going to be wearing-"
"Something a bit more civilian?"
"Yeah."
Kara shrugs then leans against the wall. "I only wear civilian clothes when I'm undercover. Other than my Kryptonian clothing, this is all I have that's Supergirl-ish." Kara pushes off the wall and rotates slowly to show off the rest of the outfit. "I modified it a bit to make it look less punk-rock, but it's still pretty out there, for me anyway."
"Where did you get it?" Kara takes a deep breath and closes her eyes for a second. "Kara?" She holds her hand up to quiet me then opens her eyes.
"Remember those stories about Supergirl losing it in Metropolis?"
"Vaguely."
"For me it still feels like yesterday." Kara sits on the ledge and I follow suit. "Those moments were mental relapses. Years ago, Superman, Superboy, and I were kidnapped by an otherworldly villain called Darkseid. He had kidnapped Superman before but this time he went after all three of us. He wanted to brainwash us in order to create these mighty warriors. Since he succeeded with Superman before, Kal-El knew how to fight it. Superboy, Kon-El, has other powers Superman and I don't have and he used them to fight. Sadly, I wasn't as strong as them." I place my hand on her shoulder, and she reaches up and squeezes it gently.
"Darkseid succeeded in bringing out this monster that I didn't even know existed inside of me. I… I killed people, Kate. I used my heat-vision to burn holes into them, my super-breath to break their bones, to freeze them to death. I even crushed a man's head with my just two of my fingers. And I know you don't want nor need to hear this, but I wanted you to know where I got the outfit from." Kara looks at me from the corner of her eye and gives me a sheepish smile.
I feel telling me what she went through, even without all the details, is a form of therapy for her. I'm flattered, and honored Kara can tell me this. Maybe one day I can do the same. Kara stands and holds out her hand for mine. I take it and she pulls me up.
"Follow me." With my hand still in hers, she takes me past the gargoyles until we reach the spot Kara set up. "What do you think?" I let go of her hand and soak it in. The entire area is lit up with Chinese lanterns. In the middle of all this light are two chairs and a small table you might find in front of a French café. The table is set for two with a single carnation sitting in a small vase between the two settings; my favorite flower.
"Kara, this is amazing!" I give her the biggest and tightest hug I can muster. As she holds me, I repeatedly say thank you and don't stop until she puts me down. "This is the sweetest thing anyone has ever done for me." Between Kara and Linda, I'm turning into a sappy hug person.
"What can I say? I'm a sucker for making people happy." Kara lets go of me then motions for me to sit down. "Wait here." Kara disappears into the belfry and reappears with a three-shelved cart filled with covered dishes. She comes to a stop next to the table. "I hope you like them." She removes the first cover, then another, then another, each unveiling a favorite dish of mine.
"Kara, how did you know I like these?" She but doesn't say anything at first, not until she has shown everything on the first shelf.
"I'd thought I make you a smorgasbord board of food so that you could pick from whatever you wanted."
"You made all of this?"
"What? Are you surprised I can cook?"
"A little, I didn't even know you ate. Batman said you and Superman primarily get your energy from the sun."
"We do, but eating is sort of a habit we don't feel like breaking." I stare at all the food Kara made for me.
"Kara?" She was about to disappear into the belfry again but stopped and looked at me. "What's your favorite food?"
Kara thinks for a little then smiles widely. "Dark chocolate-covered strawberries," she says before disappearing for a few moments. Note-to-self; buy strawberries more often. When she reappears, she is carrying a bottle of wine still in the chiller. "Batman let me have one of his wines for this." Kara pops the cork and pours the wine then lets me pick which meal I want to start with first. Afterwards, I let her pick what she wants to eat, and we fall into a night of easy chit-chat and quiet eating.
When I check my watch the next time, it's been three hours since we started the dinner. We've already gone through the main courses and a few of the deserts. We settled down to me drinking mint-flavored hot-cocoa and her eating a bowl of rice-pudding.
"You know," she says before taking another bite of her dessert, "Batgirl introduced this to me. I was still fairly new to Earth and she was in Metropolis showing me a bit of humanity. We had stopped into a diner around ten at night. Neither of us was really hungry, so she ordered two bowls of rice-pudding. You should have seen my face the first time I tasted it. We had nothing like it on Krypton." She finishes her thought by taking a bite from the spoon.
"Tell me about it," I begin, "Krypton. What was it like?" She peers up at me with the spoon still in her mouth then eventually releases it and pushes the bowl away.
"Krypton was one of the most advanced civilizations for its time. Even for an alien planet. It was thought that Krypton was on the verge of hitting its technological peak. In fact, I'm sure the only thing we hadn't truly conquered was time travel. My father Zor-El was working in the advanced technologies department. He was assigned to make the things we could already do work even faster and better. Jor-El, Superman's father, was involved with planetary work. Basically, he was our 'green guy', the one who was constantly for the planet. On top of that, he was a doctor of medicine and created one of the most advanced prisons in all the galaxies; the Phantom Zone."
Linda takes another bite of rice-pudding before continuing. "Though primarily used by Krypton, the Phantom Zone has also been used by other planets and is in charge of harboring the deadliest and most evil of villains. He was a brilliant man, and I can see that some of that brilliance, along with the stubbornness, was inherited by Superman." Kara takes a break from talking and has a sip of wine.
"As interesting as it is to learn about your planet, I'm more interested in your family."
Kara puts the wine down. "Okay. My father was… kind, sweet, and awful at telling jokes. He cared for people, all people. Everything he said I took as gospel. You could say I was a daddy's girl." I smile and reach for my own wine. "I wanted to be just like him, a scientist. My mother on the other hand did not see that in my future. Now, I've found that no matter what planet you're on or galaxy you are in, a mother is still a mother. She cares deeply for you but a good majority of the time her caring comes across a little extreme. For instance, usually you pick whomever you want to marry but there is the old-fashioned way of doing it too. My mother chose the latter. You get put on a CAT-scan like machine, go through a few tests, and voilà, you have a chance of being with your genetically-primed match."
"Seriously?"
Kara laughs. "Yeah, and though I detested every moment of those tests, looking back I can see my mother was being my mother. She wanted what was best for me and thought that was the best way of doing so. I loved her, and I miss her often, and the same goes for my father. Every night I say a prayer just for them. It brings a certain peace to my soul." Kara had been looking up at the sky while telling me this. It isn't until she brought her head down that I realized she was crying.
Without a second thought, I jump out of my seat and hug her again. She is surprised to say the least, but eventually she relaxes and hugs me back. When she pulls away, she wipes the tears from her eyes as well as the ones from mine. I didn't even notice I was crying. "As much as I love being here right now, it's time for me to leave." I give her one last hug, not really wanting her to go, and step back to let her take off. "Don't worry about cleaning up. A friend of mine said he would do it for me. Goodbye Batwoman, I do hope we meet again and soon." Slowly, Kara ascends into sky, leaving me with that same look she had given me before.
"Kara!" She stops and floats closer to me. "That look you keep giving me. What does it mean?"
Affection and warmth radiates from her eyes and stretches her mouth into the most beautiful smile I have ever seen form her. "It means I love you." And with that, she's gone.