#notaplane

Sometimes when Alura looked at her, she found herself so overwhelmed with loss and guilt that all she could do was step forwards and hug her. At least that was still easy. At least Kara still welcomed her hugs as readily as she once had, even if everything else had changed. 

But she had to do this, now. If she didn’t, she might never work up the courage to. 

‘Kara?’ She twisted her fingers together in her borrowed shirt - one of Kara’s, as she hadn’t yet been able to go shopping herself, still learning to control her enhanced senses - and murmured, ‘I... can I talk to you, for a moment?’ 

“Tried.” Repeated--quiet and serious. Unwavering. 

It’s hardly the first time the 40th floor of CatCo has been invaded due to an increasingly incompetent security staff. Normally it’s accompanied by debris or fires or a few dramatic monologuing villains flourishing into her office, knocking over papers and spouting metaphoricals about the erasure of humanity and restoring balance and blah, blah, blah. 

It was a tiring diatribe ten years ago at Max’s first holiday party, it’s just as exhausting, now, even if he had the poise to leave the majority of her office, intact. 

Save for one lone assistant who’s always been particularly dangerous with that little schedule binder of hers, and has just flexed the muscle to prove it. 

(Really, there’s a reason Max could never win at chess, he could never see far enough past his third leg to strategize past the first tip; men). 

“The world is...full of grays. Evils. Vague moralities and even vaguer reasons that help...enable some of humanity to do horrible, unspeakable things.” 

Normally, also, she’s a little battered and bruised, stumbling up from the ground with a surprising amount of grace for a woman in heels, but as is she’s uninjured and still graceful, quietly coming to stand up the moment Kara dipped down, that knowing feeling settling deep--deep--in her gut. 

A fear, but not of the gun--not of the bullets--because today is just another Thursday, oh, no, there’s something else that presses down on her chest. And Cat dusts off her once-impeccable skirt as she shifts upwards onto the pinpoint of heels, calmly coming closer, one hand raising up like it might be able to stem the shake of shoulders, or the faint quiver of rage rolling off of breath. 

She unlocked the cell, and strode in quickly, squatting down and resting a hand on Kara's shoulder. 'I'm getting you out', she said, her voice tense and low, 'right now. I know you don't trust me, and you probably think this is a trick, but I don't have time to make you believe me. We need to go, now'.

She wasn't exactly sure what to do if Kara resisted. The diversion she'd caused, and her own rank within the organisation, would only serve her for so long. She could deal with a few foot soldiers, maybe, but it was risky. They needed to go, as soon as possible.

Maybe it was just nerves, or maybe the elevators in this building were really that slow. Lena always liked to be punctual, especially on her first day in a new situation, and every second spent waiting for the elevator was a second closer to being late for the afternoon editorial meeting.

None of this was supposed to be happening, but the woman she’d hired to oversee L Corp had an emergency and a quick visit to her other company was unavoidable. She needed to get there and back as fast as she could, and...

The elevator door opened, and there was Kara, her eyes glazed over and her whole body shaking and her purse emptied on the floor. Something was very, very wrong, and all thoughts of L Corp and Catco disappeared as Lena stepped into the elevator and pressed a button to take them up a few floors.

She’d studied the building the night before, wanting - needing - to know where everything was before she arrived, and she knew that this particular one was currently empty as it awaited remodeling. It had seemed like such a waste when she’d looked at the plans, but she was grateful for it now. She needed to get Kara somewhere quiet, not somewhere where they’d be surrounded by her coworkers.

And maybe there was a tiny part of Lena that didn’t want James coming to the rescue when she was the one who found Kara, but it would be easy enough to call him if Kara needed him.

@notaplane

It took Cat longer to reach Kara’s apartment than distance alone would explain and picking out something to wear for her visit only partly explained the difference. 

The rest was all Cat. She still believed she was in the right, Lena clearly had a thing for Kara and cat would be hard pressed to think of a better match for Kara than Lena --other than herself that is-- while Kara clearly had a thing for powerful women in general and --other than Cat-- Lena in particular. 

And since neither of them had the courage or confidence to admit how they felt to each other so Cat would have to be the one to do it for both of them. No, Cat wasn’t hesitant about that or doubting herself, or even doubting how far she had pushed either of them today. 

... But she hadn’t planned on Kara knowing that she’d shared those pictures with Lena. And that threw the tiniest of monkey wrenches into her plan. And The reason Lena and Kara made such a good match was the very same reason Cat was dragging her feet just a bit when it came to facing Kara now. Kara was a strong woman with a very clear cut view of right and wrong. 

Not that she always right about which was which, which was another reason she and Lena made a good match;  both could challenge each other when it came to those times when the answer wasn’t so black and white but more a shade of grey and both of them would see reason rather than cling to their beliefs even after they could see they were wrong.

The question was, where did Cat sharing those pictures fall on Kara’s scale? Because Cat knew there was no black and white logic she could use to defend her actions. This was clearly a shade of grey situation and she wasn’t sure Kara would be willing to hear her out if she’d decided that Cat was in the wrong. 

And more than just messing up her plans to help Kara and Lena get together were hanging on whether or not she would. Her relationship with Kara was at risk too. And her relationship with Lena. Neither of which she wanted to lose. Especially if losing them also kept her from bringing them together. 

But this was her bed, even if Lena had changed the sheets by sharing those pictures with Kara, and Cat would have to lie in it. 

He had a plan. A pretty good plan too, at least he thought it was a good one - he had worked hard to make notes and plan everything out. It had taken time to plan it out, constantly adding and going over his notes - to make sure that he was actually certain of what he believed. After all the last thing he wanted to do was be wrong and upset Kara, not to mention embarrass himself. 

He was a smart kid, so it wasn’t really too much of a stretch that he had noticed certain things about his mothers now former assistant that also matched up to one of his favorite superheros - Supergirl. After going over his notes and following the heroes current recent heroics - perhaps a little too closely - he was now almost completely certain that Kara and Supergirl were in fact one and the same. But - he didn’t have one thing, a confirmation. That was something he would have to confirm face to face. This was where his plan came into play.

It would be easy enough to catch Kara at work, Carter pretty much had free reign at Catco - and it wasn’t too unusual for the boy to show up without notice. But what was unusual today was the fact that he didn’t head towards his mothers office - instead he took a different route, heading towards one Kara Danvers. He had a small book tucked under his arm, his back pack hanging from one shoulder as he knocked on the door - a small smile curling at his lips.

“Kara?” He spoke quietly, peeking inside - blue eyes lighting up as he saw her behind her desk, “Are you busy?”

She was supposed to have landed with Kara, but instead she’d woken up to these men and their furious faces, and she didn’t know where Kara was. She didn’t know where she was, only that they were hurting her, and –

There was a searing pain in her neck as something sharp pricked her skin, and Alura screamed. 

And now she was here, still sleeping. Knocking her unconscious had been an unfortunate necessity, the only way to extract Kara from Camelot without her knowledge, but she was safe now. Camelot had to fall, but Lena was not about to let Kara get hurt in the process.

Lena sat beside Kara in the bedroom that, while technically hers, she’d barely used, usually preferring to share Rhea’s quarters during her visits to their stronghold. She wondered what Rhea was doing now - planning strategies with her generals? Nothing she needed Lena for, not when Lena’s part in this plan came after they took the kingdom, when Lena would be installed on Lex’s throne. No, this was where Lena needed to be. Beside Kara when she woke, the first thing she saw when she opened her eyes.