Chapter 2

~~~FLASHBACK. Two days earlier~~~

..The low-key music accompanied by the sound of billiard balls hitting each other gives off some cozy vibes.

Kara is sitting at the table in the Alien Bar staring at her apple juice in melancholy. It's been a hard couple of months for her, even though nothing was seemingly wrong. She keeps protecting National City as Supergirl successfully, her family and friends are healthy, and she manages to survive the day-to-day pressure that Snapper Karr puts on her every second she spends at CatCo. And lately she has improved a bit at mentoring Mon-El who had arrived on Earth not long before Cat left the city.

Kara sighs. Cat Grant has always evoked so many different emotions inside her, but since her boss decided to take a break from CatCo and from National City, thinking of the woman became painful.

And still she keeps thinking of her all the time.

When Kara came to the blonde to bid her good-bye as Supergirl, she managed to send her off with a smile. Shortly before that Cat - her boss, her friend, her constant voice of reason - gave promotion to Kara Danvers and fully acknowledged her qualities. Moreover (and that amazes Kara the most), she started using Kara's actual name. After all those years of being reduced to "Kiera" the girl considered it the best gift Cat Grant could ever give her.

Now, after almost three months of her mentor's absence she thinks that the best gift would be if Cat returned home. Because Kara misses her like crazy.

She had never thought it would be so hard to endure the departure of CatCo Worldwide Media's CEO if their ways ever separated. When she realizes how empty Cat's absence in her life really makes her feel, she tells herself she'll move on soon. It's time to change, after all. (You are smart and talented and astonishing, the girl keeps repeating Cat's words every day like a mantra. You can do it.)

Ha-ha. Surprise. What a way to find out that this intimidating, sharp-tongued and at the same time shrewd and perceptive person also happens to be your crush.

It took Kara quite a while to accept it. She'd never been into females before, so this revelation caught her completely off-guard.

It took her another month to realize that it's not just a crush but something much, much more. In spite of all the mundane problems and difficulties her life was full of interesting and positive moments, as usual; but instead of filling in the void that Cat's absence created, each new day without her became more and more hard to bear.

She's been trying to fully engage herself into all that's happening around her: the D.E.O. duties, work at CatCo, giving guidance to Mon-El. It helps, but not that much.

Needless to say, Alex feels something is off and keeps questioning her about it. Every time she asks what's wrong Kara replies that she's just feeling stressed by working with Snapper and having a large workload at CatCo. Such answer actually contains a grain of truth, but still this isn't even close to the main reason of her sullen mood.

Kara hates to hide anything from her adored sister. Learning she's attracted to women and coming out is not a big problem for the Kryptonian herself; but she can fully imagine the agent being in panic after discovering she's head over heels for the Queen of All Media. Not only could this woman reveal the true identity of Supergirl to the world in a second if she wanted; she's also older, meaner and [presumably] straighter than Alex would ever consider appropriate. It may ring true; however, Kara has no desire to hear all these things from anyone. Even from Alex.

Besides, the latter has finally started to date Maggie Sawyer. They managed to fix their relationship some time after Alex came out and confessed her feelings to the detective who rejected her at first. Kara is truly delighted to see her sister's shining smile, but she herself isn't yet ready to admit to everyone that she has feelings for a certain woman as well. Even though she doesn't doubt these feelings for a second.

And of course, she's dying to fly and find Cat wherever she is. But now with her boss taking a leave of absence and also leaving the city she needs a good reason for disrupting her privacy, not only as Kara Danvers but as Supergirl, too.

They actually communicated once during this time; after several weeks of harsh criticism and totally humiliating comments Snapper finally approves Kara's article. As soon as it gets published she receives a short message to her cell: Congratulations, Kara. Well done. It makes her excited, and she smiles radiantly under Snapper's scrutinizing gaze. Naturally, she replies right away: thank you so much, Ms. Grant! :) how are you doing? where are you right now? and receivesa dry Diving, of course. She stares at her cell somewhat disappointed wishing Cat was more explicit, but it's quite clear the blonde doesn't intend to keep the conversation. She still tries one more time: maybe.. there's anything I could do for you? Cat's reply is: There's no good in being distracted while diving, Kara. Just keep your mind on your job and continue astounding Snapper. Good luck.

Her heart sinks. So she would be an unwanted distraction for Cat now.

But even though Cat remains true to her usual no-nonsense self, Kara is still so unabashedly happy to receive a message from her that she gets more cheerful for the next couple of days. After that the feeling of missing someone very important slowly absorbs her again.

When she brings some papers to James several days after that, she overhears him speaking to her former boss on the phone. Kara exits leaving the papers on his (Cat's) desk; but she can't help but keep listening greedily to the familiar voice with her alien ears, even though their talk contains nothing more than working instructions.

After that she approaches James with a request that she herself considers childish and pathetic, but she makes it regardless. Her friend seems slightly surprised by it but doesn't actually mind. So next time Cat calls James, he tells her Supergirl said hello and inquired if Cat needed anything from National City or anywhere else; if there's something, then the Kryptonian could deliver it wherever she is now.

Later James comes to Kara's office with a sympathetic smile to pass a quipped answer: "Oh, how very generous of her. Tell Supergirl I'll gratefully accept her offer when the employees of National City courier service start flying around fighting bad guys."

Hearing that Kara rolls her eyes with a sad smile. That's not a kind of answer she was hoping for, but it's a one hundred percent Cat Grant.

But that means her wish to come into stable contact with her boss is rebuffed twice - both as Kara and Supergirl. It seems that Cat prefers not to have anything to do with her now, while she's having her leave of absence.

..All that leaves her sitting at the Alien Bar on Friday evening, waiting for Alex, Maggie and Lucy to join her for the girls get-together. Baby Lane, as Cat called her, was absent from National City for several weeks due to her military responsibilities, but she's back recently. When J'onn returned to his duties as a director of the D.E.O., he offered Lucy the post of his deputy; but she refused politely, insisting that it would be easier for the organization to coexist with her father if she wasn't fully engaged into its business. So at the time she manages to combine her military service with working as a clandestine investigating officer for the D.E.O., meanwhile becoming a good friend to Danvers sisters and accepting Maggie straight away. As for Lucy's love life, after all that happened she hasn't get back together with James. They don't discuss this topic but Kara suspects the feelings might still be there. Anyway, she's absolutely sure Lucy's not holding a grudge against her.

Kara sighs again, recalling the earlier message from her sister. Apparently, Maggie had to stay at work for longer than she planned and Alex promised to pick her up, so she told Kara and Lucy to start without them. Her friend is not here yet, so Kara spends her time thinking of Cat (of course), staring reproachfully yet at another glass of apple juice that M'gann provides at her request.

Speaking of M'gann - after all this turmoil when they found out she's a White Martian and she sacrificed her blood for J'onn to stay alive, they interact more often. J'onn isn't a person who tells everyone about his private life, but the Danvers sisters know that after some super-serious talk (no pun intended) he managed to forgive M'gann wholeheartedly for all the deeds of her race. As far as Kara knows, after that these two started dating. At least, J'onn became much more relaxed and less uptight, and Kara is happy for him. She is sincerely happy for everyone she considers close, but sadly that cannot make her heartache go away.

"Hi, Kar!" she hears a cheerful voice and sees a younger Lane in all her glory.

"Luce! Hi yourself! Glad you managed to come." she smiles to Lucy. "The girls are late though, so I guess you're stuck here with me."

"Oh, I'll manage that," her friend smirks.

And she does, chatting to her easily about everyone and everything. Kara is surprised to discover that they have been talking for an hour, and she's genuinely having fun telling Lucy of some Supergirl fight cases and listening to Lucy's own life stories.

"So," the brunette says all of a sudden, finishing up her beer. "What's with that miserable face you had earlier before I came up?"

"Huh? I-it's nothing. Absolutely." Kara is surprised by unexpected question and starts rambling, as usual.

"Come on, I know a lovesick gaze when I see it." Lucy is eying her intently but not unkindly. "Are you.. lonely without James, perhaps?" she tries to sound nonchalant.

Such assumption seems so ridiculous that Kara cannot hide her reaction: "Oh, no, not him. We're perfectly fine as friends."

The alien realizes her grave mistake immediately when she sees Lucy's devilish smirk. "Oh, well. Not him, you say. So there's someone else!" the brunette leans toward her dramatically. "Tell me everything."

"But.. There's nothing to tell," she tries.

"It's not nothing, Kara." Lucy becomes serious. "I knew something was wrong with you as soon as I got back to National City. Alex looked beyond concerned last time I saw her, so I presume you haven't told her, too." she gazes at her softly. "Come on, you can't just bottle up everything forever. If there's anything happening, I want to help."

And Kara who has been stoically hiding her secret from everyone for months, even though she's really bad at hiding secrets - Kara suddenly feels she has no strength to keep it in anymore.

So be it.

"It's just.." she pauses. "It's not the same.. without Cat here."

"Yeah, of course you miss her. I thought as much."

"I.. I do. Much more than it's reasonable."

"..Oh." Lucy's eyes widen in realization. "Oh. You mean.. it's about her." she pauses. "And.. you're serious about her?"

Kara gives her a miserable nod. She remains silent for a while, bracing up. Then she looks up at her friend. "I'm in love with her, Lucy."

Lucy's speechless for a while. "Well.. I guess I can understand why you're still keeping it from Alex. So you haven't confessed to Cat yet, I presume?"

"I'd like to, believe me. But I'm afraid there's no point in doing that, Lucy. It would only make me lose her for good."

The brunette looks at her strangely. "I highly doubt that. Well, anyway.. Have you met her after she left?"

"No. I sort of dropped her a hint that I might come and she wasn't thrilled."

"Oh, seriously, Kara! What are you, five? Who in the world drops hints about such things? You just go and get the girl! Especially considering that she without a doubt knows about your true identity."

"You don't understand, Lucy. I'm not a coward, but I can't do that right now!" She exclaims in desperation. "There are some matters.. that are not resolved yet." she runs a hand over her face wearily. "And honestly, I'm- I'm not feeling ready enough to talk about them right away. Sorry."

Lucy looks like she wants to object, but she gives up seeing Kara's puppy eyes. "Okay then."

"Thanks." Kara gives out a sigh of relief.

"But you know what I know for sure?" her friend looks at her confidently. "You definitely need a drink."

"What? I don't drink. I'm immune to alcohol."

"Don't be like that, sweetie," the brunette smiles charmingly. "We are very conveniently at the bar for aliens, meaning they have suitable beverages here. So let's have some fun! You deserve a break."

Before Kara can oppose to that, Lucy grips her hand and takes her to the bar counter waving to the White Martian in disguise: "Hey, M'gann! Do you have any drinks fitting for lovesick aliens?"

"Oh. I'm sure you meant this question to be a joke," the bartender replies to her. "But, believe it or not, we got a drink designed exactly for that reason. As far as I know, this thing is pretty famous throughout the galaxy. It's called 'Zhyondhorz'."

Kara perks up her ears. "Hey, I've heard of that." she mutters thoughtfully.

"Hmm? What's so famous about it?" Lucy, curious as ever.

"Well.. It's designed specifically for the aliens who had suffered a heartbreak. Of course, it's not suited just for anybody," M'gann looks at the Kryptonian intently, "but Kara's race is included into the category of those who is able to drink it, unlike me or J'onn."

"And how exactly does it work?"

"Zhyondhorz includes some natural ingredients which make the drinker relax after consuming them. It also affects the brain receptors; for some time, a couple of days at most, the drinker forgets about the main cause of their suffering. Being free of disturbing memories for a while brings them relief. It's quite popular in our bar, by the way. Apparently, aliens on Earth have tough live lives."

"Hmm. Interesting. Any side effects?" Kara inquires.

"No, not really. But it depends on how well you can handle your liquor, though. Normally you just keep doing your usual routine until the effect wears off. If you're a lightweight drinker, you'll just might sleep through this, and all your memories recover soon after you're awake. The beverage will take its effect anyway."

"Sounds promising," Lucy says. "But we have to find something else. I suspect Alex won't be thrilled to cope with the effects of some brain-altering dri-"

"I'll take it."

"What?! Kara.."

"Luce." Kara turns to her, blue eyes pleading. "I'm so tired of being restless and miserable all the time. I need a break, you said it yourself. Please, let me do that."

The Martian observes them seriously. "Ladies. I'm not the one to decide if it's right or not for Kara to have this drink. But I can definitely say that if I wasn't sure it couldn't harm her in any way, I'd never offered it."

The brunette raises her hands up in surrender: "..Okay, fine. But if Alex feeds me to some raging aliens, both of you will be the culprits!"

Soon M'gann brings another beer for Lucy and a large drinking glass with a purple liquid for Kara.

The girl sniffs it and takes an experimental sip. Zhyondhorz hasa bittersweet grassy taste along with a hint of something that Kara can't recognize. Something bubbly explodes in her mouth, and she decides it feels pleasant. She hums in approval.

Lucy watches her intently. "Well, that's good you find it tasty at least. Just take it-"

Kara empties her glass with one large gulp.

"-slow. Sonuvabitch! Danvers, what shall I do with you?"

Kara wants to reply but suddenly everything is blurring before her eyes. She feels giddy and so, sooo sleepy.

Sluggishly trying not to zone out she hears Lucy quipping: "Oh, well. Now we know you are a very lightweight drinker."

Last thing she takes in before blacking out completely is the concerned face of her sister who runs to them from the entrance, and Lucy's doomed voice: "I'm so dead."

~~~END OF FLASHBACK~~~