Hello darlings!
So I got a lot of great feedback on part 1, but not much on part 2. Y'all still out there digging it? It's harder for me to keep going if I think I'm just talking to myself, so plz let me know what you think! Enjoy...and who am I kidding, there will be more to come no matter what ;)
…...
I'd Carry a Plane for You
Part 3
…...
Kara was still smiling like a goofy kid lost in a daydream when she stepped off the elevator onto the executive floor of CatCo, carrying her usual latte for her boss and a big ol' bag of bear claws for herself from Noonan's. She may have eaten twelve waffles covered in butter and maple syrup before she left for work, but her stomach still felt empty and rubmly with hunger, which wasn't surprising given the amount of energy she'd burned the night before. A fresh wave of sensory bliss washed over her body at the mere thought of Alex's hands on her bare skin, and her smile got even bigger as a warm blush rose in her cheeks. She couldn't stop thinking about it. It wasn't even thinking, really; it was more like sense memory, washing over her in waves, her body reliving the tactile, immediate awareness of Alex's hands in her hair, her warm breath, her lips, her teeth, her skin on Kara's everywhere. The physical intensity of her blissed-out memory of the night before made Kara feel like she was in some kind of altered state of consciousness. It was a level of intimacy and vulnerability that defied anything the blonde alien girl had experienced. Alex...Alex was already everything to Kara, had been the shining star of her life from her first earthly breath. Touching her made every inch of Kara's body feel like it was exploding in fireworks. She had no hesitations, no doubts. She felt brave and fearless, not in a superhero-saving-a-plane way, but in a regular-girl who finally got to kiss the one she loved best after twelve years kind of way.
The blonde girl knew she ought to be focusing more on the whole saving a plane, national news, the entire world knew she could fly now thing, and she tried; she tried to make herself play out in her head what she would say to Ms. Grant, how she wanted to spin the story, what she would do if anyone recognized her, which seemed pretty likely to Kara, it wasn't as if she looked so different without her glasses. But the second she stopped actively forcing herself to think about adulting, there was Alex again, her beautiful fierce girl, her shining star, her whole world.
"Here's your latte, Ms. Grant," Kara deposited her usual steaming hot latte on her boss's desk. The blonde girl almost always had a cheerful voice, but she must have been extra-tweaky-happy-sounding today, because Cat Grant actually looked up from her keyboard, assessing her assistant with one eyebrow lifted behind her stylish cat-eye glasses.
"Well aren't we the chipper little bluebird this morning," the older woman observed wryly, picking up her latte and taking a sip without comment, which meant it was perfect and there was nothing to criticize. Kara stiffened slightly, the light behind her smile fading like she'd had a cold bucket of water thrown over her. Bluebird was one of Alex's pet names for her. No one else called her that. She didn't want anyone else to call her that, least of all her brilliant but overbearing and sometimes nasty boss. But this was good, she needed some kind of slap in the face to get her head out of the clouds (such sweet clouds, they smelled like Alex's shampoo), and back into work mode.
"Well, umm, yes ma'am," Kara stuttered, a little tongue-tied as she frantically tried to pull herself together into professional work mode. "It's, it's just a big, um, big news day, right? With the whole...the plane thing..." Her heart started racing, not in the blissful-overload way it had last night in Alex's arms, but in the oh-crap-don't-fire-me kind of way.
"Calm down, Kira, you'd think you had to write the cover story yourself," Cat Grant sighed dismissively, rolling her eyes as her attention darted quickly back from her assistant to her computer screen. "But yes, it is a big news day. With the whole...plane thing." The older woman said sarcastically, still not taking her eyes off her computer screen. "I need you to call an executive staff meeting in my office right now. We are not going to get scooped by the Daily Planet this time. They have their own superhero, and now we finally have ours. A woman, no less. Feminist utopia arrives in National City. We are going to brand this girl for the whole world to see before anyone else has a chance." Ms. Grant looked up when she realized that her assistant wasn't moving, wasn't going off to call her senior staff together as she had just requested. The blonde girl was just...standing there, wide-eyed, like she'd just begun work at CatCo yesterday and didn't realize that when Cat Grant said five minutes, what she really meant was right now, and when she said right now, she meant five minutes ago or your ass is fired. "Go go, Kira. Flitter away now."
"Yes, Ms. Grant," Kara squeaked, grabbing her iPad and hurrying out of the large office to call the department heads together. She'd been momentarily transfixed with anxiety listening to Cat Grant talk about branding her, like she was cattle that was about to become property of CatCo. But at least the sharp-eyed boss lady hadn't recognized her from the few photos released from the plane rescue on the news the night before. But those shots were all blurry, at weird angles, and her hair had been so grimy with jet fuel it had looked almost black. Alex was right—if she kept on using her powers and being heroic in public, eventually someone was going to get a clear shot, and then Cat Grant and National City and the whole world would know that Kara Danvers was an alien. And then what?
Kara ran from office to office, preferring this to any sort of electronic messaging when Ms. Grant said right now. She came to James' office last; he was her friend, he'd been with her in the bar when she'd jumped up and literally ran out the door without explanation, a whole minute and a half before the mysterious plane rescuer appeared. He wasn't stupid. Kara was afraid of what he might ask her, because in truth she was a terrible liar. "Hey." She knocked on his door as she was opening it, smiling a little nervously. "Meeting in Ms. Grant's office, like two minutes ago."
"Right. The plane rescue last night. She's gonna want the big byline," James nodded, his usual calm, amused grin already in place when he looked at Kara. "So...are you gonna give her the exclusive, or what?" Kara stared at him, even more wide-eyed than she had been in Ms. Grant's office.
"You...you know?" She choked, completely unable to summon even the pretense of denying it when James already knew, he knew. Kara could see it.
"Kara, please. You know I spent the last eight years before I came here photographing your cousin in Metropolis, right? I won a Pulitzer for it?" James chuckled, crossing his arms over his chest.
"My cousin?" the blonde superhero repeated blankly, the wheels in her head spinning so fast she couldn't seem to jump off. "You know that I'm...that he's my...you know?"
"Relax, Kara. After all this time, I know how to keep a Kryptonian's secrets. We'll talk after the meeting." James winked at her, and walked past her to Cat's office. Kara just stood there hyperventilating for a minute. She knew she could trust James, she always had, he was one of her best friends in the world—but no human being on the planet knew about her extra-terrestrial secret except her foster parents and Alex. No one. It was a completely unexpected shock to her system, one that at least took her mind off Alex's bare skin for a minute. Now that she had finished corralling up the department heads to go meet with Ms. Grant, she was free to return to her normal duties; but her heart was racing and her brain was spinning and she needed to talk to someone, someone she could tell everything to. Obviously James was under that heading now; but he'd be in with Ms. Grant for at least twenty minutes, and she needed to talk to someone now. She didn't even stop to think who that someone should be. She knew.
"Winn, I have to talk to you," she whispered anxiously, running to her friend's desk that was right across from hers and leaning down low, as if anyone were trying to overhead them. "Meet me on the roof in two minutes."
"The—what? Kara? The roof?" Winn frowned in obvious confusion, but he still got up an followed after her, not about to question Kara Danvers if she wanted to be alone with him anywhere. Even if that anywhere was the roof of a thirty-story skyscraper. When he got to the top level and ascended the stairwell to the roof door, there was Kara, pacing back and forth like she was about to tell him she was a fugitive from justice or something.
"Kara, what is up with you? Are you okay? Is this about why you left the bar so fast last night? I have your stuff under my desk, by the way."
"Thank you. Yes. And yes. I'm okay, it is about last night. I'm going to tell you something about me that only four people on earth know. I know I should've told you this a long time ago but it's just that I've never told anyone, I didn't think it was safe, but last night something happened that changed everything and I don't wantto hide who I am anymore..." Kara was babbling fiercely, the way she always did when she was overwhelmed, and as one of her closest friends Winn was no stranger to it.
"Oh my God, you're gay!" Winn blurted out, looking weirdly thrilled. "Kara, this is great! This explains everything! Hey, congrats..."
"No, no, that's—well, yes, actually, but that's not what I came up here to tell you," Kara frowned, momentarily sidetracked from her big reveal by Winn's odd reaction to her sexuality. "But what do you mean, this explains everything?" She raised an eyebrow and tapped her foot.
"Well, you know," Winn shrugged a little sheepishly. "Why you wouldn't go out with me." Kara rolled her eyes. She didn't want to hurt her friend's feelings, but it annoyed her on reflex when men assumed the only reason a woman wouldn't want to date them was because she was gay. Winn seemed to notice her bristle, and tried to backpedal a little. "I mean, if you did like guys...I'd totally have a shot, right?"
"Duuuude," Kara groaned. She really did not want to hurt her friend's feelings. But what kind of question was that? "Come on, I don't know. If you liked guys, would you wanna date James?" Winn's eyebrows knit together in a moment of obvious confusion, having absolutely no idea what to say. "Yeah, see? Not so easy," Kara smirked, raising her eyebrows. "But no more hookup talk, I didn't bring you to the freaking roof to talk about Alex."
"Alex?" Winn squealed, his face heating up at the very naughty visuals that flooded his mind without intention. "Alex, your lifelong best friend and winner of every annual sexiest FBI agent alive award, if there were such an event, that Alex?"
"Yes. And shut up. And she's not actually an FBI agent...that's part of what I have to tell you."
"Okay..." Winn said slowly, the perplexed expression still etched across his face as he stared at his best friend blankly. "Listen, Kara, I have a lot of work to get back to, there's a big headline today in case you hadn't noticed, some flying lady superhero saved a plane while we were drinking beers at Noonan's last night..."
"It was me," Kara blurted out, tired of babbling for once and just cutting right to the chase.
"What was you?" Winn asked blankly, obviously not catching on.
"I'm the flying lady superhero who saved the plane!" Kara beamed, bouncing on the balls of her feet in excitement. Technically, this was the first time she'd ever actually told anyone who she really was. Alex saw her pod crash, her foster parents knew who she was when Kal-El brought her to them, and her dear cousin had also obviously spilled the beans to James, as well. She had never told any of them herself. It was a weird rush of almost painful excitement. Winn was looking at her like she had three heads. Then he started to laugh.
"Okay, good one Kara...that's, yeah, that's funny. Umm, why is that funny?" He frowned in confusion. Kara sighed. He wasn't getting there fast enough. So she walked right up to the very edge of the roof, grinning confidently at him. "Kara, hold on, not so close. Kara, you're gonna hurt yourself..." Winn's voice was nearing hysteria when Kara winked at him, held out her arms, and let herself fall backwards over the edge of the roof. She heard Winn screaming her name in absolute terror, and it was only funny for a second before she started to feel bad for giving her best buddy a heart attack. So she rocketed back up, about fifty feet higher than she'd meant to (she was still learning control, clearly), and did a couple of spinning twists in the air just to show off before she landed again, ten feet in front of him, and calmly straightened her glasses.
"Kara..." Winn's eyes were wide as saucers as he stared at the girl he thought he'd known so well for the past two years. "You're..."
"An alien," Kara shrugged when Winn seemed unable to complete his own thought. "And Alex isn't really an FBI agent, she's a DEO agent—the Department of Extra-Normal Operations. They monitor alien life on earth, most of which is hostile except for me and my cousin. I was always told I had to lay low and pretend to be normal so I wouldn't end up in alien Guantanamo Bay, basically. But last night...the plane...Alex was on that plane, Winn." She looked at him with a pained expression, and all at once the wheels of the young IT director's brain clicked into place, and he understood everything. Kara could see it.
"You're the flying lady who saved the plane," he repeated dumbly.
"This is what I'm saying," Kara nodded with a smirk. "Winn, I don't want to go back to just being Executive Assistant Kara Danvers...my parents sent me here to save people, to protect them, not just go through life using my laser vision to heat up Ms. Grant's lattes every morning. But I can't just let the whole world know my real identity—I'd be putting a target on the back of every person I love for every bad guy on the planet to exploit. That includes you," she added unnecessarily as she paced back and forth in front of him. "I need your help, I need a secret identity like my cousin..."
"Your cousin?" Winn asked blankly. Kara stopped pacing and cocked her head at him with a duh expression. "Your cousin is Superman. Your cousin is Superman?!" Winn was squealing again, and Kara sighed, a mixture of affection and exasperation in her face.
"You know Alex was thirteen years old when she found this stuff out, and she was exponentially more composed than you are right now."
"Right. Sorry. Catching up now. I'm good, I'm good." Winn nodded, and Kara grinned at him, a genuine, full-on Kara Danvers smile, and Winn couldn't help smiling back. This was still the same Kara he'd known for two years. The same Kara he'd do anything for, even if she'd never love him quite the way he wanted, she did love him, he knew that. "So...how can I help?"
…...
Winn spent the rest of the morning discreetly working on design specs for a few options of superhero suits that would serve to protect Kara's identity and allow her to continue saving lives without anyone being any the wiser. James told her quietly that Ms. Grant had demanded he find a way to get a clear shot of "Supergirl" and an exclusive interview, but he assured her that he'd handle it and she shouldn't risk exposing herself. Kara darted around the office like she always did, running errands for Ms. Grant, fetching hardcopy and print layouts, and for one awkward minute, accidentally yelling at her boss over the appropriateness of the name Supergirl. She just barely stopped herself from blurting out, I'm twenty-four years old, I'm not a girl! But thankfully she caught herself.
It was just after 1pm when an instant message window popped up on her computer screen. It was from Alex. It just said, look up. Kara raised her head and as the elevator doors opened directly across the lobby from her desk. There was Alex, wearing her FBI jacket over the tight black uniform and smirking at her like the cat that ate the canary, holding a large bag of takeout food from Kara's favorite Chinese restaurant.
"Hey," the blonde girl smiled dumbly as Alex crossed the lobby and sat on the edge of her desk. "Aren't you supposed to be out on alien recon?"
"Yup. I am on alien recon. Look, I found one." The dark-haired agent grinned teasingly, dropping her bag by Kara's feet. "I figured you'd be too busy and flustered to take a lunch break today...and I don't want to see what kind of mood you'll be in tonight if you don't eat your weight in takeout. You need your strength for round two." Kara felt her heart start to pound again, all the blissfully overstimulating sense memory that she'd spent the morning trying to push aside leaping to the front of her mind again as her face flushed pink.
"Round two..." she grinned stupidly, standing up and wrapping her arms around Alex's neck. "Can we go home now?"
"I wish," Alex smirked back, slipping her hands around Kara's hips and pulling her even closer. "Can I kiss you at work?"
"If you don't I'm going to throw you off the roof," Kara replied seriously, and for a moment the whole world fell away again as Alex's lips found hers. It was so much tamer than any of the kisses they'd shared last night, aware of the vast number of CatCo employees milling around them in the large executive lobby; but still so tender and intense that Kara felt her knees actually wobble. Alex giggled against her lips.
"You better eat something, bluebird. You are not allowed to be too tired for sex when you come home." Alex winked, and Kara resisted the urge to throw her onto the desk and rip her girlfriend's clothes apart with her bare hands.
"Not possible," Kara smirked. Alex raised a hand and brushed back a strand of blonde hair that had fallen loose from Kara's braid. "Have I told you today that you are the light of my universe?" The blonde girl asked shyly.
"Yes," Alex grinned back, childish delight sparkling in her dark, shining eyes. "But you can tell me again..."
"Kira!" Ms. Grant's sharp voice cut across the open lobby impatiently. Kara sighed, reluctantly releasing her hold on Alex and once again trying desperately to pull her brain out of the gutter.
"Duty calls," the blonde girl rolled her eyes in the direction of her impatient boss's office.
"Yeah, me too. I should probably get back on the grid before Hank notices I'm taking a girlfriend break." Alex bit her lip, trying to hold back her blissed out, beaming smile; then she leaned in and gave Kara one last, hard kiss on the lips. "Bye angel. I'll see you tonight."
"Bye Lexie," Kara grinned stupidly. Then she frowned. "The DEO doesn't, like, monitor your phone, do they?"
"No," Alex said, raising an eyebrow quizzically. "Why?"
"Because if they were, I couldn't torture you with dirty texts for the rest of the day," Kara teased, grinning wider than ever. "Now go. Save the world. I'll be here booking eyebrow waxing appointments and getting coffee."
"Tease," Alex grinned.
"Thanks for lunch," Kara grinned back.
"Kira! My espresso isn't going to fetch itself!" Ms. Grant's sharp voice cut through their blissful daze again, and they finally stepped away from each other unwillingly.
"Okay. Bye. For real," Alex sighed, with a little wave, knowing that if she kissed Kara again she'd never make it out the door.
"Bye babe. I fucking love you."
"Me too."
Kara couldn't seem to wipe the dopey teenage grin off her face as she walked into Ms. Grant's office, notepad in hand. "I'm so sorry, Ms. Grant, I was momentarily sidetracked. What can I get you?" The blonde girl asked brightly.
"Yes, I saw what was...tracking you aside. Perhaps you're not as boring as I thought, Kira." Ms. Grant raised an eyebrow, and for a second Kara thought she saw a weird look of approval flash across her unyielding boss's sharp eyes. "Now, I need my 2pm teleconference with Bill Gates pushed back to 5, I flat-out refuse to speak to him until I have at least a quote from Supergirl. Reschedule my shiatsu massage for tomorrow. Call my house and tell my son's babysitter I'll be home late and that he is to have no TV time until his science fair project is completed..." Kara was nodding and writing diligently, getting it all down exactly as Ms. Grant told her. But all the while, there was this whole separate section of her brain that was just reliving Alex's kiss, over and over and over...and somehow, another part of her brain that was thinking just about the giant bag of Chinese takeout waiting for her behind her desk.
