The three of us (karamel baby AU)

Downhill (Part 2)

Kara knew all about roles and play-pretend's, she knew about wearing different faces and masks and façades. She’d been doing it her whole life on Earth, as she tried to navigate through her second world without being discovered, and she’d had to learn how to be different people on separate occasions. Being human while still staying true to her alien origins and balancing those two so she could wear a superhero suit and help people wasn't easy at all. But she managed. She struggled and hurt and battled with her own self, but in the end, she managed. Nevertheless, adding a new face to the list and becoming a mother was unlike anything Kara had known before, truth be told. Because being a mother wasn’t about roles and masks and façades, it was about giving her all to a tiny person who needed her to be herself—the truest version of her she could possibly be.

So that early afternoon, as she paced her office from one side to another, trying to sooth her little one enough to put her to sleep, Kara was quickly discovering how hard it was to be just one person, one face, without any tricks up her sleeve. It meant she couldn’t put on a cape and chase away whatever had Alura on edge. And she couldn’t put on a pair of glasses and deceive her upset daughter like she had the rest of the world. The only thing she could do was be a mom. Because Alura didn’t see capes and glasses, she didn’t know the difference between humans and aliens and superheroes. She only knew her mom’s smell, and her mom’s voice, and her mom’s soothing touch. And Kara, even though she was used to having a variety of options as to who she could be, had no other choice than to obey her baby’s demands. So she rocked the little fidgeting figure in her arms, humming comforting tunes, and she let her fingers wander and caress and hold until cries turned into whimpers and whimpers turned into labored breaths.

She continued to whisper sweet endearments and comforting promises even after her baby had fallen asleep, her voice like a magic trick, accompanying the infant straight into her dreamland. Alura didn't even stir once her eyelids had fallen shut, as she was securely held against her mother's chest and rested her little head on the blonde's shoulder. And when Kara took a loose fist in her hand and kissed it lightly, listening to her daughter's patterned inhales and exhales at the same time, Alura was already too deep into sleep to feel it.

"Sweet dreams, pretty girl," Kara mumbled and caressed a clothed back, her lips curving up into a soft smile.

She could hear chuckles and conversations all around her, from outside the four walls of her small office, but Kara paid them no mind. Her colleagues were getting back from their lunch breaks, the building once again filling up, yet the blonde was content right where she was. With her sleeping angel using her as a pillow, in a quiet office that was bathed in warm sunlight and a couple flat screens on the wall showing Valor's latest escapades, the reporter couldn't think of a better way to spend her break.

A gentle knock echoed from the other side of the door and Kara narrowed her eyes as she checked who was standing behind it. She didn't need to grant entrance before the door was pushed open and a familiar figure slipped in. And then there she was, clad in a fancy-looking dress, with perfect curls bouncing across her shoulders and a pair of gentle eyes, the one and only Cat Grant.

"Mrs Grant," Kara greeted with a widening smile. She kept her voice low, so as not to disturb the little girl in her arms, but her excitement was as genuine and palpable as it'd always been.

"Mr Olsen told me I'd find you here, but he failed to mention you had company," Cat approached and gave her former assistant a quick side hug. It was kind of awkward with a baby limiting the pair's free space but neither minded.