"Kara where are you?" Alex asks when her sister answers the phone.
"I'm at my place, but I'm heading over to Cat's," Kara answers. "Please don't tell me that you need me tonight," she adds worriedly.
"No, I just didn't see you before you left the DEO, everything's okay?" Alex asks doing her usual big sister thing.
"Yeah, I had to go check on Cat, Lord was there in her office. Alex, I don't get it. He asked me for help and I helped him, then he heads over to CATCO to out Supergirl to Cat," Kara replies.
"Wait, he went there to out Supergirl?" Alex asks. "What his assistant is a psycho so he wants her to know that hers is a superhero... that makes no sense," she adds.
"Well, he's having a really bad week," Kara points out generously.
"It is going to get worse," Alex counters angrily, then looking up at her girlfriend entering, she adds, "Lucky for him, Lucy just showed up. I'll fill her in. Kara take the night off, you deserve it."
Kara steps off the elevator to find Cat's front door open slightly, soft jazz filtering out into the hallway and the smell of lasagna leading her into the kitchen.
"Mmm," Kara moans coming up behind Cat and wrapping her arms around her and kissing her neck. "I am not complaining, but you didn't have to get my favorite tonight Cat," she says softly into Cat's hair.
Cat gasps softly and melts into her arms, turning slightly to say, "Kara, I was so wrapped up in what had happened to me twelve years ago, that I didn't even think about what happened to you at that time. Darling, I am sorry. That was incredibly insensitive."
"You weren't being insensitive, you were reacting to having your past thrown into your face. Cat I hadn't even considered the context before. I mean I know that your life changed twelve years ago, because your son is twelve. It's odd to think about that isn't it?" Kara remarks.
"Let's not," Cat replies with a slight frown.
"If my pod had landed when it was supposed to, we would be the same age now and who knows what things I would have in my past," Kara points out.
"Kara, if your pod had landed when it was supposed to then we wouldn't be here together. In fact, we would probably never have met," Cat counters, walking away from her to pull the food out of the warmer and plate it.
"I don't believe that, Cat. And I admired you long before I worked for you," Kara reminds her sheepishly.
"Darling," Cat replies reaching out a hand to cup her chin, "Dinner is ready," she says kissing her lightly on the lips. "Perhaps you wouldn't mind opening the wine?"
Cat carefully sets the plates down and lights the two candles, while Kara decants the wine. She waits before turning the lights down, because she knows that Kara loves to watch the patterns that the wine makes as it swirls through the aerator and into the decanter.
"Mmm Cat, this is perfect. Thank you," Kara says waiting for the other woman to be seated before sitting down herself.
"Maybe we can just put today behind us for a few minutes," Cat says placing her hand over Kara's and giving it a light squeeze. Kara nods and leans in to kiss her.
"As much as I want to know what you have over Max Lord, I do understand if you can't tell me," Cat says as she watches Kara load the dishwasher.
"Wow," Kara replies. "That is not what I expected you to say." She exclaims leaning back against the counter to look at the other woman for a moment.
"I know. Me either," Cat remarks. "But I am curious how long has he known?"
Kara nervously adjusts her glasses. Cat knows from experience that it means Kara is about to tell her a half-truth.
"Bizarro," Cat exclaims softly, realizing the point when she herself considered that perhaps Kara was Supergirl. "Of course, Max was behind that wasn't he?" She questions as she crosses the room. Then holding up her hand, she places her fingers to Kara's lips. "Don't say another word. Kara I saw the look of disgust on your face and I assumed that it was about me and him. But you know things about him that I probably shouldn't know, don't you?"
Kara closes her eyes and reaches up to remove Cat's hand from her lips. "Cat, there's so much that I can't tell you and believe me, you don't want to know and I don't want you to know, because you'll think badly of me," she stammers.
"Darling, I would never think badly of you. And as for Max, he never had much in the way of morals to begin with, so there isn't much you could tell me that would surprise me. But if you not telling me means that I can safely write that expose on him and expose him to the world, then by all means don't say another word." Cat replies taking her hand and leading her to the couch.
"You'd still write that story?" Kara asks.
"That research you did Kara will stand on it's own. I'll have to run it by legal and they'll have to vet it before we could even consider printing it, but yes, I'll publish that story, my history with Max is just that, history. I owe him nothing and if he was behind creating an evil nemesis for Supergirl, especially one who put the public at risk, well he needs to be stopped. And if there's some reason that you and your agency can't stop him, but I can, then I won't hesitate to do it," Cat answers firmly.
"Cat, it's too dangerous, I don't know if I can let you do it," Kara exclaims.
"Let me?" Cat asks quirking an eyebrow. "Darling, you may have superpowers which allow you to do many things, but controlling what I do or don't do will never be one of them," she says pulling away.
"I can't stand by and let you put yourself in danger Cat and what about Carter?" Kara asks.
"I would never do anything to put Carter in danger, Kara. You know that," Cat snaps at her.
"Cat, I need you to understand that Max Lord is dangerous to me and tonight he found out how important you are to me, so now he's dangerous to you as well," Kara points out.
"He doesn't know this about us Kara," Cat counters confidently.
"It's only a matter of time with him. He used Alex to find out who I was to her and she's a trained agent," Kara remarks.
"Hack into CATCO's security feed, I want to see how close Cat is to Kara Danvers. Cat doesn't usually go for young and poor, but then she does go for strength and you don't get much stronger than a goddamn superhero," Max says pacing behind his IT lackey.
"Mr Lord, there's no security footage from the 28th floor available," the IT guy points out.
"It's missing or not in this file?" Max asks.
"Both I guess, sir," the guy replies.
"Check the root directory, is there another location for security footage from that floor?" Max questions.
"Ah, yes there is sir. The security footage is saved to a private drive, separate from the mainframe. There's no way to get to it from the mainframe, sir. This is a top of the line security measure," he remarks.
"Yes, yes it is. So what is Cat hiding that is so important to her that she would go to these lengths to protect it?" Max asks mostly to himself.
Max is sitting at the park across the street from Cat's Penthouse. He watched the security feed in his office and was curious when he saw the girl leave early after she watched Cat board the CATCO helicopter and take off from the roof.
On the monitor, he then watched Kara Danvers go down to the parking garage and get into the waiting car and ride out to pick up Cat's son from school. Judging by the child's response to her, this wasn't the first time. And now watching the two of them exit the building together and walk through the park, it looks like they have a routine that they follow.
Max knows how extremely protective Cat is about her son, but it makes sense that she would trust Supergirl to watch him in her absence, but he's getting the feeling that there may be more to this.
"Hello Ms Danvers," Max says approaching her and the boy.
"Mr Lord," Kara says taken aback by his sudden presence, her hand instinctively reaching out for Carter and pulling him close.
"Carter Grant, right?" Max asks bending down to greet the boy. "We've met before Carter, you were on my train."
Carter looks at him nervously, then back to Kara, who wraps an arm around him protectively.
"Mr Lord, we were just running some errands. If you'll excuse us," Kara says pushing Carter ahead of her a little so he can't see her glaring at Max, warning him to back off.
"Of course," Max says smirking. "I think I've gotten what I came here for," he adds smugly.
"Kara, I don't like him at all," Carter says watching Max walk away.
"Neither do I Carter, neither do I," Kara replies.
"How is it really going?" Cat asks after Carter hands the phone off to Kara.
"Fine," Kara replies hesitantly and Cat hears the pause again. Carter did the exact same thing.
"Kara, fortunately for me, neither you nor Carter are good liars. Out with it, what are you not telling me?" Cat says more concerned than annoyed.
"Carter and I were walking through the park after school and we ran into Maxwell Lord," Kara admits reluctantly.
"In the park across the street from the Penthouse?" Cat asks alarmed now.
"Yes, I think he was watching me. Well, I'm sure that he was, but don't worry as soon as you get back, I'll go have a talk with him and set new ground rules. It won't happen again Cat. I'll take care of it," Kara promises.
"Maybe it's time for me to have a heart to heart with Mr Lord," Cat snaps angrily.
"Cat, remember what we talked about the other night?" Kara asks. "Please let me handle this, it's my fight. It's me he is trying to get to," she reminds her.
"He has no right to be anywhere near my son. Carter has to stay out of this Kara," Cat says firmly almost desperately.
Hanging up the phone, Cat sighs. She actually managed to convince herself long ago that there was no way Max could be her child's father, but the reality is that she doesn't know. Her affair with Max wasn't planned, it was a crazy one night stand, fueled by alcohol and a lover's spat with her new husband. It was a few weeks later when Max tried to blackmail her into selling him CATCO stock that she realized why he was there and what a fool she had been. And by then she was pregnant. Fortunately she is an excellent liar and she was able to convince Max that she was already pregnant when they had sex, while convincing her husband that just the opposite had occurred. The two men hated each other and never compared notes. Now it would appear that she's going to have to face this again. She had decided that both she and her son would be better off not knowing if Max was his father, but now she's not so sure. If only there was a way to get the testing done confidentially and safely.