I have to admit that this one got a bit away from me
"Carter, in the past thirteen years, when did I give you any indication that those beautiful big puppy dog eyes would work on me?" Cat says in her most derisive and non-plussed tone.
"It always works when Kara does it." Carter says with an even more well-pronounced pout.
"It does not always work for her!" Cat's eyebrows jump up into her hairline and her voice jumps up nearly an octave.
"He's right! You're whipped, Cat Grant!" Alex called over her shoulder as she and Maggie worked on fixing the dinner for a family meal that the Danvers-Grant family was hosting that night. Winn was going to bring his reformed con-artist girlfriend and Lena was going to bring some apparently ridiculously expensive wine that Cat had been dying to try. Lucy and James had also promised to drop in whenever they returned from Metropolis.
"I second that statement." Maggie agreed. She offered a wooden spoon to Alex to taste test the spaghetti sauce. Alex made a pleased noise and looked adoringly at her fiancee.
Those two honestly made Cat kind of nauseous. However, she couldn't really promise that she and Kara were ever any better. Her deep, abiding love of her girlfriend's arms could get her in trouble sometimes. Cat and Kara had only begun to get serious recently, and Cat had moved in a month before this dinner, after Cat had consulted with Carter on how he felt about it.
"What does 'whipped' mean?" Carter asked. Cat immediately shot a glare that could curdle milk at Alex and Maggie, the former of whom responded with a shrug.
"It means that you're willing to do just about anything for someone, and only because they asked... because you love them so much." Cat chuckles lightly and scratches the back of her neck. If team Sanvers ever did something like that again, NCPD would never find the bodies.
"I must be whipped too, then." Carter said, a slow smile forming on his face.
"Oh, fine then, thirty minutes extra and then it's straight to be with you, even if we're in the middle of a game. Understood?" Cat folded into Carter's earlier request. Her boy was just too precious for his own good. "You've still got classes tomorrow."
"I know, I know. I'll have all of my homework done by the time that Kara gets home, I swear." Carter offers his mother his pinkie with the kind of innocence that no teenage boy should have.
She accepts it with her own and they shake on it.
"You two are too adorable for this world." Alex says and smiles affectionately at them.
"We know." they say in sync. It sounds almost as though they had rehearsed it.
"We get that a lot actually. It's because he's probably about eighty percent me and twenty percent also me." Cat snorted.
"She says that line a lot as well... like too much." Carter teases as he drags his backpack to the coffee table. It seemed to weigh about the same amount that he did.
Maggie leaned into Alex, trust obvious in every aspect of their body language. Cat recognized the looks on their faces as they watched her interact with her son. She could already tell that they would be great parents. She was already kind of excited about it. Cat kissed Carter's hair and looked over his homework even though it far surpassed anything that she knew.
"You know if Alex isn't too busy cooking, maybe she could help me out with this?" Carter asked.
"I bet that you wouldn't mind a bit, would you Agent?" Cat asked, a smirk pulling at the curve of her lips.
"God, no. I'd much rather help a teenager out with physics problems. Much more my speed." Alex said as she ruffled his curls. "Thank you for the assist, little fella."
"Thank God, my poor bride-to-be is a wreck in the kitchen. No wonder her dowry was so large. Could you take over, Cat?" Maggie asked, her hands never ceasing the movement of the knife she was dicing with.
"Of course I can. I might not be the best cook, but I'm a sight better than either Danvers sister." Cat laughed at her own joke as she donned an apron.
Everyone was still hard at work when Kara came home. She was dressed in a reporter's outfit, her glasses clearly broken in the front of her blazer pocket and she smelled strongly of soot despite the hard rains outside. Her smile when she looked over her family was forced but affectionate with more than a hint of sadness. Alex had noticed the distinctive smell as soon as her sister arrived. She knew better than to ask what had happened just yet.
"That smells heavenly, Maggie." Kara praised, her stomach already begging for whatever was on the stove. Kara wasn't confident that she could keep food down for the next minute, however. As Kara passed she patted Carter's head and kissed his brow, the pained look in her eyes plain to those who knew her best. Clearly the mission she had been called away on had not gone well.
"I'm going to go wash up. You don't need a walking ashtray at the dinner table." Kara kissed Cat's cheek and hugged Sanvers as she passed through towards the bedroom.
"Come and pull me out of the shower if more guests arrive." Kara brushes though, seeming to sink inside of her own skin.
Cat, Alex, and Maggie all knew what that was. They all knew what was going on in Kara's head and heart. Cat had never really felt what she was going through,but she knew that Maggie and Alex did. She was glad that Kara had those girls who could understand. Cat only wished that she could help Kara herself more than she did.
Kara was one of the people that Cat loved most in the world. She didn't understand how she could love her so much and still be unable to fix everything for her. Cat traded looks with Maggie and Alex before going after her. She knew all along that she would. Cat had just wanted the confirmation that it was the right thing to do.
Kara was on the verge of throwing a lamp across the room when Cat got to her. The worry-stone that Cat had gotten her for her birthday was a pile of dust on the floor that may never come out of the carpet. She hadn't ever seen Kara's jaw working like that before. It worried her even more. Cat wrapped her arms around Kara from behind and locked her them around her waist.
"Cat, I'm not in the mood for this right now." Kara said in a voice that was more of a low rumble than an actual speaking tone.
"That's the point, sweetheart." Cat replied, squeezing her about the middle with all of the strength that was in that little body. "Now, hows about you tell me about whatever it was that made you feel like this."
Kara could feel her body slowly start to relax in Cat's unyielding grip. The tension in her shoulders and neck stayed though. It was always the last to go. Cat was still doing her best as she curled around the back of the much larger Kara.
"There was a fire out towards Coast City, in an abandoned warehouse district. A bunch of homeless kids had been living there for months. All of the exits had been blocked by the fire so I went in to make a skylight. No one was able to help. Clark has been in deep space on a diplomatic meeting to the Lantern Corps." Kara said looking torn apart.
Cat came out from behind her and knotted her fingers with Karas' in their laps.
"I just... I just wasn't fast enough. I know that if I had gotten there sooner, pushed a little harder I could have gotten them all out. Those kids... they didn't deserve that. No one deserves that." Kara cries softly, her tears leaving clean tracks on her cheeks.
"Kara, look at me. Look me in the eyes, right now." Cat ordered, snapping Kara to attention with her tone. "You saved kids' lives today. Every one of those children knows that they owe you their lives. I know that you love being Supergirl and you are great at being a hero, but every life that is endangered day in and day out is not your responsibility. You can't hold yourself to that high of a standard or you would go nuts. You have to find a balance inside. Mourn the lives that are lost, but don't hold yourself accountable. You should also know that I will always love you no matter what... even when you've gotten soot all over our bedroom and probably the rest of this place."
