Spider-Man and Power Girl

Chapter 24: Contentment

Karen was at work working away, it had been two months since she and Peter started dating and she honestly had never felt happier. Finally, it seemed things were going her way, she had built a new home, made new friends, had her own work and was in a healthy relationship. All in all, she felt her life was finally getting on track. Even her therapist Dr. Samson had said she was doing much better these days.

She even put a little photo in her cubicle of her and Peter on one of their dates, it was taken on a trip to Coney Island. She stopped to take a look at it, a blown-up image from a photobooth they had gotten into. They looked so happy in the picture and Kara couldn't help but smile at the memories of that date.

"Who's the cutie in the picture?" Her co-worker Kate stated looking over the cubicle.

Karen cast her work friend a look, "Peter, my boyfriend."

"Damn, you know how many hearts you just broke in several departments with that statement?" Kate made a listening gesture by putting her hand to her ear. "I think I can hear it from here."

"Not my fault no one caught my interests," Karen had received a lot of requests for dates or just people trying to talk her up. A few kept glancing down her blouse so she verbally kicked them to the curb.

"So where did you meet him?" She grinned as she rested on the cubicle wall.

"You remember when I went over to Horizon?" She asked.

"You mean when things went tits up over there?" Kate responded. "Yeah, kind of hard to forget, I also remember Miss Dover being on the warpath for a week after that."

"Hey, it wasn't my fault." Karen shot her a look.

"I'm not saying it was, but you know her. Once she gets an idea stuck in her head no matter how wrong it is, she won't budge from it. I think the fact that Horizon took full responsibility is the only reason she didn't just fire you out of spite."

Karen sighed she might need to look for a backup job in case Dover was looking for a way to get rid of her. Seriously, how did some people like that rise to position of manager? Oh wait, she sucked up to the higher ups and took credit for other people's hard work and then blamed others when her ideas didn't pan out. This irritated Karen as when she had her own company, she tried to weed these types out but just like weeds they kept springing up.

"So, you met him during all that chaos?" Kate took the conversation back on track.

"I was working with him during my time there," both she and Peter had come up with a cover story of how they knew each other in their civilian identity, since it was mostly true it wasn't that hard to tell people the same story.

"Oh, I want to hear this story," she looked around to make sure their boss wasn't looking. "You can give me and Sam all the details at lunch."

Karen smirked as Kate went back under the wall to her desk as they both got back to work. She had a feeling Kate might be going to offer them to drink after work if only to get more stories out of her. Well Karen didn't mind in fact it would be nice to have a little girl's night out.

Turns out she was right, as soon as work was over for the day Kate dragged them off for a place to eat and drink, it was a good time, and Karen was asked all kinds of questions. Some of them a little inappropriate but at least Kate kept them to only a few questions about how deep her love life got.

Kate ended up making sure Sam got home okay, Sam was a bit of a light weight and Kate had taken her home plenty of times now. With that out of the way Karen figured it was time to do some patrolling for a few hours of the city. Quickly flying home and changing she took the skies she was used to the skyline of this version of New York by now.

Power Girl flew through the city looking for any trouble. First thing was a motorist whose car broke down, she helped get them to a garage the driver knew, she figured saving them time and the tow would be enough to help. An accident over on 104th street was apparently just a simple fender bender that they didn't need any help with. She found a few mugging attempts which she easily handled.

Currently she was floating up in the sky looking over the skyline, it was a bit quiet tonight, at least there was no major attacks, or villains causing problems or some kind of huge accident like a fire out of control or anything.

She was thinking of maybe it was time to start expanding, she kept in the city but she could do more for the world in other places. Although another thought hit her, if tonight was quiet then maybe she could have a nice quiet evening with Peter at his place. She smiled as thought about her relationship.

It had only been two months but it seemed longer since she knew him beforehand and she had to admit she was enjoying it. It felt nice to have someone in her life like this, someone she could always go to, someone she could share her life with and someone she cared for. It also felt nice having that feeling returned. It was something she treasured since she had lost so much so it felt like she was finally gaining something in life.

She took a moment to reevaluate how her life was, sure she had lost a lot (again) but she finally felt like she was having something solid under her feet. It had been almost over half a year since she got to this world and it was finally starting to feel comfortable here. She had slowly been rebuilding her life and for once today it felt as close to 'home' as she felt.

Her therapy was also going well, sure she got sad over her loss but who wouldn't? At least she didn't have this heavy heart and weight on her all the time anymore. She started to fly back to her apartment as she would change out of her suit and quickly fly over to Peter's place for a surprise visit.

-Peter's Apartment-

Peter was busy working on something in his little kitchen/dining room area, it was a paper he was writing up. His talk with Kara had given him the push to try and finish his last credit for a PhD. He had spent a few days trying to think on what to do it on. After that whenever he had a free moment, he would work on it, he would admit, it was kind of slow going. With his work on Horizon, patrols, Avenger meetings and missions not to mention his new dating life, he was swamped and had little free time.

At least he didn't have to worry about deadlines on Horizon, as long as they could show progress, they were able to go at their own pace. He had to admit the work at Horizon was rewarding, finally he felt he could put his mind to work.

The laptop he was working on was sitting on his kitchen table as he double checked everything. He didn't like a couple of the equations and checked them over more carefully. He was making the paper on alternate dimensions and how it wasn't just a theory. Being a hero and working with Kara gave him the idea of it. He already was using the Negative Zone as an example of this, not to mention a few alternate realities he either knew or heard about. Well minus Kara's, that was kind of private for her and he didn't want to use it without her say so. Right not he was trying to prove it through math that it wasn't just possible but ways of doing it.

It helped that Reed had already built a device, and he had seen some of it but he was also trying to come up with alternate ways as well. So far proving that there was a difference between different dimensions like pocket dimensions and places like the Negative Zone and whole alternate realities like Kara's home that there had to be a difference and what they were.

They model he was coming up with was a layered sphere, each 'sphere' being a reality while the layers were the different dimensions that made it up.

"Not sure how I'm going to get the firsthand accounts though," Peter muttered leaning back in his chair. He could ask people like Reed, Hank Pym, Hank McCoy and other people who knew about alternate realities like the Mojoverse, the Quantum Realm, and other places but they only knew him as Spider-Man. So, if Peter Parker came up with a paper with their firsthand accounts without talking to them, well things would get awkward.

"What firsthand accounts?" Kara's voice spoke up behind him.

Peter jumped looking back seeing his girlfriend there in normal clothing. "Jeez, give a guy a heart attack."

"I thought your spider-sense would have warned you?" She smirked.

"That only warns me of danger," Peter looked around. "How did you get in?"

"The window was open," she jerked her thumb towards it and he turned to look to see the open window.

"Oh right, good thing you can move so fast I bet no one saw you," he got up to go over to her as he hugged her. She smiled hugging him back. "So what's the occasion?"

"Just wanted to stop on by for a visit, it's pretty quiet tonight. Also surprised the rush of air of me coming in didn't tip you off, you must be really focused to have missed that." She replied.

"Guess I was," he hadn't even noticed a breeze when she came in as he looked at the laptop. "Just plugging away on my paper."

"Oh, can I see?" Karen said eagerly to see what he was coming up with, he had told her he was finally going for that final credit and needed to publish a paper but he hadn't said what he was planning on doing.

"Sure, want some coffee?" He was ready for another cup himself.

"Sure thing," She sat down as he read through it. She saw what he was doing, and it was interesting, maybe she could help him out by giving him what she knew about the Phantom Zone as another example, well the theory of something like the Phantom Zone at least, she wasn't even sure if it existed in this reality.

But she could see where he was going with the paper and it was good, it was still a little rough in some areas and there were some gaps but at the moment it was a very good start. She knew Peter was smart but seeing his mental process in the paper really helped her to understand just how smart he really was. He was very methodical in how he attacked a problem, no leaps or guesses, he stuck with what he could prove and clearly stated what was just conjecture.

She idly took the coffee and sipped it as she focused on the paper. His multiverse model was interesting but it seemed unfinished.

"Have you thought about adding in time as a factor for this?" She asked him idly.

"Why time?"

"Well given what Flash did to my universe…" she let it hang as she wasn't sure she could ever forgive Barry for what he did even if he didn't know what he had done with Flashpoint as he called it.

Peter hadn't thought of it, that would throw his calculations off but if he added in Time as a variable, it would make the model a bit more complex but also fixed a few issues he was having. "That might actually work, I've also been working on super dimensions."

"Now what's that?" she turned to him interested.

"Well think of it like this," He got a piece of paper and started drawing. He made two dots. "Say this is our universe here and this is way your old on over here, now you said there was a bunch of different Earths."

"Yes, I'm original from what we called Earth-2 but after that Crisis was, I was somehow moved to Earth-1." She nodded, she never did get to the bottom of how she was put on the new Earth or how her memories were altered to fit it, the same could be said how she was pushed out into this world as well.

"Okay but those are alternate realities based on that Earth," he drew a few more dots around Earth-1 dot. "Now here is the current one we're in, I know there are alternate worlds, timelines, etc here too."

He drew more dots around the other first dot, then he drew a sphere around both groups. "So, what if there was an Earth Prime in each of these, like they're a multicell organism. Each 'Super Cell' contains alternate Earths based on a single Earth that was originally there."

Karen thought about it and she could follow the logic. "I assume when you say 'Earth' you're just using it as a point of reference?"

"Oh yeah, there's tons of alien worlds out there so figuring out there the Prime Universe is, well it's literally trying to find a needle in a haystack of infinite size. Even if we knew what to look for it wouldn't be easy."

Karen looked at his calculations and then noticed the harmonic frequencies section. "Did you use the tests Reed did on me as an example?"

"More like inspired by it, I'm not using the actual data without your okay, but I did notice that the harmonics were kind of odd when looking into past data Reed collected before." He reached over to the laptop and pulled out the info he asked Reed to copy as he wanted to study it. The man was all too happy to share scientific data if it helped progress science.

Karen looked at it and noticed the shift in her was way different than the data Reed had on other dimensions. "This…might actually explain this data."

"Yeah, but it's still rough and it's not like I can prove it in a lab, at least not yet. I'm thinking of making small experiments at Horizon, nothing big, just big enough to get readings and try and figure out if the math works."

"I'd say go for it," she said. "This just might end up being something for theoretical physicist to tackle."

"Oh yeah I can already see the nerd comments now in my head of them battling it out on who is right about what," Peter joked.

They spent the next twenty minutes talking about his paper, refining some of the ideas before they took a break to just sit on his couch to watch a film. It was one of their favorite things to do since both of them had a love for cinema. Kara was cuddled up next to him as the day just seemed perfect.

In fact, she had been thinking about something else for a few days now, they had been dating for about a month and while things had been going well, very well actually. She decided that she wanted a little bit more than just sitting together on the couch. With a coy smile started to caress his chest through his shirt getting his attention.

Peter looked surprised as she was looking at him with an expression, he was familiar with, he'd been in enough relationships to know 'that' look in a woman.

"Someone is feeling frisky," he grinned.

"You have no idea," she moved to straddle him as she kissed him deeply, her hands cupping his face as she felt his hands on her waist and back. The two of them kissed deeply like they had many times before but there was a bit more passion than normal in this.

'Maybe tonight is just right,' Kara thought to herself feeling his reaction to her.

Peter was enjoying her no top of him, she was heavier than you would expect to be, something he learned early in their relationship. Because of her super dense body it increased her weight but thanks to his super strength it all evened out. In fact, she was the first women he didn't have to constantly worry about his strength. He always had to made sure he was gently with everyone it got to the point he did it unconsciously.

Now however that wasn't the case running his hands over her back, feeling her running her hands over his chest he was sure this wasn't just going to end on the couch. He reached down as he gripped her ass she moaned into his mouth so he gave her a nice squeeze and damn it felt nice.

Kara was wresting with his tongue as she felt her body getting more and more heated with each passing minute. She leaned in pressing up against him as she gently nibbled on his ear lobe as she ground her hips against him. Peter started to attack her neck making her moan and she knew that tonight was definitely the night for them. Two months was more than enough time for her to know what she wanted out of their relationship and in this moment, she wanted a lot more.

"Peter," She breathed into his head. "I think we should move this to the bedroom."

Peter didn't need her to say anything else. He easily sat up, his hands still on her ass holding her as he carried her up with him. She giggled wrapping her arms and legs around him as he carried her to the bed room as she captured his lips again.

-The Next Morning-

Karen moaned as she blinked away the sleep from her eyes as she felt the warm body next to her. She was in a spare t-shirt of Peter's as she was resting her head on his shoulder. She gave a small moan as she stretched out a little. Peter shifted a little as she was just enjoying the moment. She smiled as she remembered last night, it had been a great night, it certainly had been a long time since she was able to just find a moment of intimacy like that.

She felt his arm rubbing her back as she knew he was awake now.

"Morning," she said not moving form her spot.

"Morning," Peter grinned it had been a long time since he got to wake up with a beautiful woman in his bed and he missed that. "Sleep well?"

"Oh yeah," Kara did sleep well, she felt well rested as she held him a little tighter.

Peter could feel her body pressing up against him, especially two very large somethings, he had to admit, they were just as amazing as he figured they were after getting an up-close look at them last night among everything else about her body. He did feel a few sore spots but he knew in a few hours he wouldn't be feeling it later. Besides it was well worth it.

"You want a shower first or breakfast?" he offered.

Kara moaned thinking about it, she could smell the state of them both and while she didn't technically need to eat, she liked to.

"Come on, as much as staying in bed all day sounds, we got to get up at some point." He told her.

"I suppose, but can't I get a few more minutes?" she asked him snuggling against him.

"I don't see a few more minutes as bad," he would admit he did enjoy having her snuggling against him. They just lay there enjoying each other's warmth as Peter thought of something. "You know, my aunt's been dying to meet you. You want to come with me tomorrow for Sunday dinner and meet her?"

Kara had heard a lot about this woman that raised Peter from childhood and she was curious, she also knew this was a big step, while maybe not as big as the one they took last night, she had to admit that she did wonder what kind of woman she was. She also was a little worried what if she didn't like her? This was Peter's only real family and she wanted to make a good impression.

She did want to get along with Peter's family and she would never know if she didn't do it.

Taking a few minutes to think it over she decided. "Yeah, I think I'd like to meet her too."

Peter smiled, "Good, I'll let her know."

"Well I think I'll take that shower," Kara rolled off him and stood up a she stretched out, letting the T-shit pull up to see her panties and backside as she was facing away from him. She could hear his heart beat increase and she had to admit, last night had been very good. She slipped out of her panties as she walked into the bathroom.

Peter saw the shirt being thrown out of the room as the water started. "Peter, can you help show me where the soap and shampoo are?"

"It's right…" He was about to say it was right there in the shower and couldn't be missed until he caught up to her meaning. "Oh…oh right."

He decided to join her for a lot longer of a shower than he normally would have taken.

TBC…