Chapter Text
When Winn knocked on Kara’s office door in the afternoon he wasn’t expecting this.
James and Kara’s relationship had crashed and burned two weeks ago. The initial infatuation of a new romance collapsing under the weight of their incompatible priorities. James’s words not his. Apparently he felt like he was always going to be third on Kara’s list of priorities on a good day, her duty to protect National City or her career at Catco, coming before whatever it was they had.
Winn was friends with both of them so it made things especially awkward when one of them used him as the go between for the other. Which was what he assumed Kara’s request was when she’d texted him asking for a favour.
When Winn entered her office he noticed the empty take out containers and pizza boxes jammed in her waste paper basket. He wasn’t shocked at the ton of empty snack wrappers that cluttered her desk. The comfort binge eating he expected.
Kara humming loudly while typing using super speed, a small smile on her face as she worked – not so much.
Winn frowned as he recognized the tune. “Are you humming Walking on Sunshine?”
Kara stopped typing and looked up, treating him to a megawatt smile.
“Uh huh. It’s such a beautiful sunny day you know. That song it just speaks to me”.
“Right. Ok. Sure”.
Winn noticed Kara had chip crumbs covering the entire top half of her yellow dress. As messy as she was when she literally inhaled food, Kara usually cared enough to clean up after.
“Uh. Kara you’ve got crumbs all over-”
He pointed to the general area of the crumb explosion covering her dress. Kara frowned, looked down and brushed it off as she stood.
“Thanks Winn. I just – I’ve felt so inspired. Like the creativity is just flowing out of me. The ideas are all roaring past like a train at 500 miles per hour and the only way to keep up is to use my super speed to write them down. You know?”, she rambled cheerily as she approached him.
Winn gave her a genuine smile. James was an idiot for not getting who Kara was and what that meant if he wanted to be in a relationship with her. Winn loved Kara. Would always. But he loved her so much that he wanted the best for her. And as much as James and he were great friends he wasn’t nearly good enough for his best friend.
“You needed a favour?”
Kara nodded vigorously. She paused, reaching out to touch his grey cardigan.
“That’s really soft. I always like this one the best. You should wear it more often!”
Kara giggled as she patted at his cardigan like it was a puppy.
“So soft. It reminds me of Rudy”.
Winn knew he was frowning, he could feel his forehead crumpling up in confusion and concern as Kara stopped patting his cardigan and gave him another smile.
“You know Rudy? The dog that the firefighters in-”
“I know who Rudy is”, Winn sighed. “Are you feeling alright Kara?”
He moved to feel her forehead. God they didn’t need another Red – K incident. Kara stayed still as the back of his hand felt her skin. Her skin was cool so she didn’t feel feverish. But who knew for sure with aliens?
Winn suspiciously squinted as he appraised her cheerful demeanour. Kara laughed as she gently knocked his hand away.
“I’m fine. Actually I’m better than fine. I feel-”
Kara paused as if was she was genuinely struggling to articulate something.
“It’s just – the last two weeks I felt so awful. When James and I broke up I thought well it’s confirmed. I’m never going to have a successful relationship with someone who knows everything about who I am. I’m destined to be forever alone. But today it’s like this fog’s just lifted. The sun’s out. I’ve had all this inspiration and I…I finally figured something out”.
Winn gave her a reassuring smile. “Is this what the favour’s about?”
Kara nodded her head so fast she resembled a bobble head toy.
“I need to talk to someone I trust about this thing. James is out for obvious reasons. And everyone else I’m afraid won’t understand. Also they don’t work here so they don’t know how Catco and Ms. Grant really are and –”
Winn held his hands up to stop Kara mid babble. “Kara we’re best buds. You know I’ve always got your back”.
He gave her his best you can trust me nod and smile as Kara sucked in a lungful of air.
“I’m pretty sure I have a crush on Ms. Grant”.
“Like a hero crush? Because I used to worship Max Lord before he tried to kill you”.
Kara shook her head and to her credit Winn noticed she hadn’t nervously twitched or adjusted her glasses unnecessarily. In fact, he hadn’t seen her do that during their entire conversation which he’d brushed off as Kara just being in a good mood.
“Like…I think she’s amazing, strong, intelligent, beautiful and she’s always inspired me to be a better person. As Kara and Supergirl. I thought I liked James and admired Ms. Grant because I wanted to be like her-”
“But you told me that you’re not gay”, Winn interrupted confused.
“I’m not. I don’t care about gender. It wasn’t a big deal on Krypton. I think on earth people call it pansexual?”
“Oh. I just assumed. Sorry”. Winn gestured for her to continue talking.
“I was thinking of asking Ms. Grant out for dinner. I’m not her assistant anymore so it’s not like she’s my boss right? It wouldn’t be weird? But I don’t know if she likes me back. She’s older than me and so sophisticated and rich – it’s not like I can afford to take her out to that restaurant she likes that does the cool food art. The four course for two costs two weeks’ salary. I checked”.
Kara frowned and perched on the edge of her desk.
“Do you think she likes me Winn?”
Kara gave him a hopeful look. The look always reminded him of a puppy that was hoping you’d take it for a run when it heard the jangling of keys.
Winn was still nervous every time Ms Grant acknowledged his existence with a dismissive mangling of his name. But he knew when she pulled the same thing with Kara there was a noticeable fondness to the way she said it. So who knew?
He shrugged. “You’re asking the wrong person. I’m not good with all this feelings stuff. Remember when I tried to kiss you?”
Winn grimaced at the recollection. Kara reached out and squeezed his arm with a deprecating chuckle.
“We both suck. I’m not good with flirting or reading signals. Usually Alex has to tell me or the person asks me out”.
He smirked at Kara as a thought came to him. A brilliant thought that would solve Kara’s problem.
Hopefully.
“When’s your next meeting with Ms. Grant?”
“Ms. Grant usually pops in to see what I’m doing around 6 pm”.
She grimaced as she remembered something.
“I ate all of the M&Ms. I usually keep a bowl of them on my desk so Ms. Grant feels welcome to stay”.
Winn tucked that factoid away for later. He had an immediate problem to solve right now.
“You get more M&Ms. I’ll fill you in on the plan when I’m done”.
He turned to hurry out the office. He only had three hours to put his plan together.
“Winn!”
He turned back and was almost crushed by Kara’s hug. “You’re the best”.
***
Kara adjusted her hair to cover her DEO ear piece.
Winn’s plan involved Lucy and hacking into the DEO frequency so that he and Lucy could listen in on Kara’s conversation with Cat. Lucy had enthusiastically agreed to help, according to Winn, she would provide the much needed “feelings expertise” Kara needed while Winn would provide “emotional support”.
Kara pressed her ear piece to activate it. “Testing. Can you hear me Winn and Lucy?”
“Loud and clear Kara. This is awesome”, Winn’s voice crackled into her ear.
“Remember to patch up the hack or whatever it is, you need to do when we’re done. We’re breaking so many laws having you intercept this frequency”, Lucy piped up.
“Really? I don’t want you or Winn getting in trouble”, Kara interrupted, concerned at the thought of what could happen.
“Relax Kara. I wouldn’t have agreed to this if I wasn’t fully on board. I just don’t want Winn forgetting and overhearing classified transmissions in the future”, Lucy reassured her, her voice soothing and confident.
“I’m wounded by your insinuations Miss Lane”, Winn responded, his voice more playful than genuinely offended.
Kara’s super hearing picked up the familiar sound of Ms Grant’s heartbeat and the particular way her heels click clacked across the floor.
“She’s coming”, Kara whispered fiercely.
“Remember Kara just act like you always do. Keep it casual. I’ll listen and step in only when you need help. Ok?”, Lucy said.
“You’ve got this”, Winn reassured her. “Also if you need rescuing I’m just down the hall”.
Kara exhaled, letting go of a breath she didn’t know she’d been holding. She sat at her laptop and pretended to check her emails as she heard Cat stride in.
“Kara you won’t believe what Brian did today”.
Kara looked up. Brandon was her replacement. The fifth new assistant. He’d lasted a week which was a record in itself. The first had quit after three hours.
“He confused Lisa my therapist with Liza the PA for the Mayor. I told him to reschedule my appointment with Lisa and now the Mayor, that insufferable personification of male privilege, thinks I’m interested in writing a piece on him. Even after I wasted ten minutes disavowing him of such a ridiculous notion”.
Cat grabbed the bowl of M&Ms as she slinked past Kara’s desk and lounged on the bright yellow couch shoved against the wall.
“To be fair Ms. Grant they do sound similar. It’s an easy mistake to make”.
“You never made that mistake”, Cat responded as she crunched on an M&M with an almost vindictive glee as if imagining Brandon or the Mayor in its place.
“Kara go sit next to her”, Lucy prompted.
Kara nodded before realizing Lucy couldn’t see this and mentally face palmed as she crossed the office. She took a seat on the end of the couch. Hopefully Cat hadn’t noticed.
Oh crap! She totally had.
Kara caught Cat watching her with an almost inscrutable expression on her face. Was it confusion or curiosity? Or both. She wasn’t sure. Casual, Lucy had said so Kara slouched against the couch, grabbed an M&M and ate it.
Too fast.
Kara coughed as she choked on bits of M&M lodged in her windpipe.
Cat arched a perfectly manicured eyebrow at that before she pulled out her phone, stabbed at it and pulled something up on screen. She held it up to show Kara.
“Look at the email that pompous ass had his PA send me after I explained we’re not interviewing him”.
Kara nodded from her spot on the end of the couch. Cat impatiently waved her over.
“Your eyesight’s as bad as mine if not worse. Come here”.
Kara slid up to the middle of the couch giving Cat a good personal space buffer. Which Cat completely ignored as she shoved the phone in front of Kara’s face. She tried to focus on the words of the screen as Cat leaned into her, her flowery perfume and warm body making it difficult for her to concentrate.
Kara felt giddy, the room was spinning, her senses overwhelmed with the closeness of Cat pressing into her. She hmmed distractedly in agreement as Cat pulled the phone away but remained sitting close.
“Make conversation. Compliment her on something”, Lucy suggested.
Right.
Kara turned to Cat and went to grab another M&M from the bowl currently balanced on Cat’s lap. As she did she quickly scanned the office for something to talk about. Anything. Her mind had gone blank the moment Cat’s leg had brushed against hers.
Cat was wearing a new necklace. She’d noticed it in their morning meeting. A gleaming, expensive looking silver chain that consisted of three flat segments so intricately patterned the metal looked like it had been woven like cloth.
“That necklace you’re wearing is beautiful Ms. Grant. It really accentuates your eyes. Is it new?”
Really Kara?
She cringed inwardly as she ate her M&M. Slowly this time. Of course it’s new. She hadn’t seen Cat wearing it in the last two years.
Cat smiled, idly touching the necklace with her left hand.
“Thank you for noticing Kara. When I saw Sergio’s new collection I fell in love with this piece. It’s the only one of its kind. Made from an extremely rare metal. I beat out Kim Kardashian. The look of sheer disappointment on her overly pouty lips was worth the price tag”.
Kara giggled at that. The thought of Cat outbidding the celebrity and her expression, seemed really funny for some reason.
Cat arched another perfect eyebrow at Kara’s reaction.
Kara decided that was her cue to grab another M&M from the bowl. As she grabbed for another chocolate her hand ended up touching Cat’s thigh instead.
She frowned. The bowl had just been there.
“Here”.
Cat held up the bowl in front of Kara’s face. Kara smiled sheepishly, grabbed one and crunched it.
“Are you feeling alright?”, Cat asked. Part concern, part suspicion clouding her really pretty face as she stared Kara down.
“Stay calm. Remember casual”, Lucy reminded in her ear.
With Cat sitting next to her she felt calm and safe. Like she could trust Cat with anything.
She flashed Cat her best Sunny Danver’s smile. Cat’s nickname always reminded her of the orange drink. The image of herself dressed up in an orange juice carton costume with Sunny Danvers emblazoned down the side flashed unbidden into her mind.
She stopped herself giggling at the image by biting her lip. Hard.
“Perfectly fine. Ms. Grant”.
Cat didn’t look convinced by her answer. “Go home. You look exhausted”.
Kara sighed. She didn’t feel exhausted. She felt energised and happier than she had in the last two weeks.
“I’ll see you tomorrow. Good night Kara”.
With that, Cat placed the bowl of M&Ms back on Kara’s desk and sashayed out of her office.
Kara groaned. “I suck”.
“Next time maybe don’t choke on the M&Ms?”, Lucy suggested. Good natured amusement obvious in her voice.
“You’ll do better next time”, Winn encouraged. “How about we get pizza and watch Orphan Black tonight? My treat”.
“Alex is coming over tonight for the Danvers sisters tv and take out night. Raincheck?”.
“Sure. See you tomorrow Kara”, Winn said before her ear piece went silent.
Kara rubbed her face, tomorrow was another day. Right now she was looking forward to some pot stickers, ice cream and watching Daenerys Targaryen conquer Westeros.
***
When the alarm clock blared Kara practically leapt out of bed feeling even more supercharged and happier than she had the day before. Today was going to be a good day. No, a great day!
She looped National City three times before breakfast at her fastest speed. Kara felt like she had energy to burn.
Her appetite which was usually relentless on a good day, felt bottomless, as she appraised Noonan’s breakfast menu and her stomach grumbled ominously.
Katie the waitress dutifully noted her order down of three sticky buns, a big breakfast plate, a stack of pancakes and a slice of chocolate pecan pie that was almost as good as Eliza’s.
“So how many people are you waiting for?”, Katie asked.
Kara frowned, the confusion at the question must have been clear on her face as Katie smiled sweetly.
“It’s just so I’ll make sure their meals come out last and don’t go cold”.
“Oh! That’s so thoughtful. Don’t worry. It’s all for me”, Kara said with a bright smile.
Katie nodded, impressed, “Girl I’d kill for your metabolism. You really must be an alien”.
She sighed wistfully before hurrying off to ring up the breakfast order.
***
When Kara stepped out of the elevator onto her floor at Catco she was humming and bouncing with each step.
Winn was leaning against his desk listening as James, his muscled arms crossed, chatted to him about something. Warmth spread through her chest as she watched Winn. He was such a great friend! She needed to tell him that more often.
Kara nodded to herself. That’s exactly what she was going to do.
She strode over to Winn’s desk on a mission. “Good morning Winn!”
She gave him a brilliant megawatt smile. Before he could react she launched herself at him, pulling him into a tight hug.
“You’re the bestest friend anyone could have”, she whispered into his ear.
“You’re not secretly going on another suicide mission are you?”, Winn asked, giving her a suspicious look as she pulled away, breaking the hug.
Kara laughed. “Winn don’t be silly! I’m just making time to let you know how I feel. It’s important I don’t forget-”
She stopped mid-sentence, James was still standing by Winn’s desk, confusion clouding his features.
“Oh! I forgot you were talking to Winn. Morning James!”
Before James could say anything Kara hugged him tightly as well. After all, she didn’t want him to feel left out. They were friends still. And friends hugged, right?
“Are you okay?”, James asked, his confusion turning to concern instantly.
“Never been better”, Kara reassured with a genuine grin before she rushed off to get started on the day’s work.
The rest of the day blur passed. It’s true what they say Kara thought, time does fly when you’re having fun. She hadn’t noticed before how funny everyone in her new section really was. Everyone seemed to be a naturally gifted comedian.
Kara frowned as her stomach growled at her. Again.
She’d eaten four lunches and cleaned out her entire stack drawer only two hours ago. She could order take out but it would take at least 15 minutes to get here. Kara was hungry now.
Using x-ray vision on her office door and wall she noticed no one was around. She could use a burst of super speed to get to the fire exit, fly to the place and be back before the delivery would have even left the store.
It was the perfect plan.
“Kara?”
Alex’s voice crackling across her DEO ear piece put a halt on any immediate food runs.
“What is it?”
“A high speed police chase on highway route 4. Two criminals are armed and dangerous. They’ve already caused a ten car pileup on the bridge”.
“I’ll be right there”.
***
It took Kara less than a minute to be hovering over the bridge surveying the carnage of the pileup.
She freeze-breathed the sparks of a beginning fire before it roared into an inferno, pulled three people from a car so smashed in, the jaws of life couldn’t have pried them free and shoved two cars out of the way so that the ambulances could get through.
Kara x-rayed the mangled cars in the pile up to double check that no one was still trapped inside. The wrecks were clear. Everyone was pulled free.
She looked to the team of paramedics examining the shaken drivers and passengers. One of the paramedics, a blonde woman in her thirties, waved her off.
“We should be fine Supergirl. Thank you”.
Kara nodded, ready to take off again before everything started spinning. It was all too much.
The heat and smell of gasoline from the smouldering wrecks, the sounds of breathing and heartbeats from everyone on the bridge, the flashing lights of the ambulances, overwhelmed and pressed in for a moment like waves crashing across rocks with a roar.
Kara closed her eyes, shook her head and exhaled. When she opened her eyes everything had settled down once more, so she shot off into the sky.
As she soared Kara cocked her head to the side trying to pick out the sounds of the car chase still very much in progress. After a tense moment of hovering in mid-air, she heard it. The distant squeal of tyres, gunfire and police sirens.
Kara rocketed towards the direction of the sounds.
A beat up black van weaved in and out of traffic dangerously. Two National city police cars followed hot in pursuit, their sirens blaring.
A Catco affiliated news helicopter hovered above taking in the scene. Kara heard the news crew scramble within the helicopter trying to get her in shot as she floated above the car chase, deciding what to do.
That was when it happened.
Everything happened so fast and yet time seemed to stretch out to a crawl…
She saw the muzzle of a shotgun, as a crewcut haired man in the passenger side of the van attempted to scare off his pursuers, the flash of the weapon as bullets sprayed, the likely trajectory of each bullet as they ricocheted and headed toward-
A harried middle aged man driving a SUV full of rowdy school children, a young couple, one man tightly holding onto another on a motorcycle, an elderly man nervously gripping the wheel of his yellow Volkswagen beetle.
Kara turned her heat vision on the gun. The metal of the barrel turning red and distorting into molten slag. She felt a sense of satisfaction at the man’s surprised yelp of pain and fear at that.
In a burst of super speed Kara used her body to shield the couple from the bullets headed their way, plucked the bullets from the air that arced towards the SUV and shoved the Volkswagen beetle so the bullets ricocheted safely off the metal side panelling and her, instead of through the glass windscreen.
“It’s Superbitch!”, Crewcut man shouted to his partner in crime.
The driver, a scrawny balding man glared at her with beady, too close together eyes, before turning his attention back on the road.
When she saw Crewcut man reach for something else that glinted, all metal and hollow sounding, another gun, her mind was made up.
And like a lioness Kara pounced. All lithe muscle, fierce determination and strength. Her hands gripped the rear bumper of the van and she lifted it up and into the air, carting the vehicle away from the highway and innocent bystanders.
She grimaced from the impact of the high calibre rounds as they bounced off her shoulder. Kara looked up from her spot by the rear. Crewcut man was taking pot shots at her with an assault rifle.
This is getting out of hand Kara realized. Someone who isn’t bulletproof was going to end up hurt or worse.
She released her hold on the van’s bumper, ripped off the rear door and surged inside with another burst of super speed. Kara yanked the AK-47 from Crewcut man’s hands and twisted the rifle into a pretzel. She ripped the passenger side seatbelt out of the van and used it to bind the man’s hands behind his back.
The driver’s attention was focused on the rapidly approaching ground as the van free falled. Kara pulled him from his seat with no resistance.
As Kara leapt from the van with the two men gripped in her arms she felt herself being dragged downwards, her cape fluttering uselessly behind her. Her stomach lurched. They were falling!
The wind buffeted her and the two men as they plummeted.
Fast, way too fast.
Below her she could see the van, heavier than the trio’s combined weight falling faster. It would only be a minute before it reached a crunching stop.
After a terrifying twenty seconds of plummeting towards the ground, Kara finally felt the resistance before she knew she’d regained her balance. As she hovered in mid-air and slowly floated toward the ground she thanked Rao that whatever had caused her lack of coordination had cleared up just in time.