Chapter 1
“Kiera, call Harrison Ford and tell him that I’m flattered, but once and for all, I do not date older men, especially when they’re married.” Cat typed away at her phone, sunglasses on, as she exited the elevator and heads to her office, not sparing a glance at her assistant.
Kara cleared her throat, causing Cat to turn around to find Supergirl standing and staring at her.
“Oh, Supergirl, what a pleasant surprise.” Cat removed her sunglasses. “What, do we have a 9am?”
“You’re not a mindless drone,” Supergirl stared wide-eyed, puzzled as to why Cat appears to be the only human unaffected by Myriad.
“No, no, I learned that lesson when Demi Moore and I wore the same dress to the premier of Ghost. Never again.” Cat continued to type away at her phone, her focus no longer on Supergirl.
“Miss Grant, listen to me.” Supergirl walked up to Cat, regaining her attention once more. “Everyone in the city is affected by this alien signal, they’re acting like automatons. Haven’t you noticed?”
Cat finally looked up, and the pair surveyed the office, where every employee was staring mindlessly at their computer, typing away. “Hmm, well, yes, they are a bit more quiet than usual. Maybe my reign of terror has finally reached its peak effectiveness,” Cat smirked, returning her focus to her phone.
Kara’s phone dinged. “Ah, you do have a cell phone?” Cat looked up, intrigued. “Can I get that number, please?” She eyed Supergirl, eyes sparkling.
“It’s Superman,” Kara said, relief apparent in her voice.
“Oh, can I get that number as well?” asked Cat with a small smirk.
“He’s coming to help.” Kara responded, running to the balcony to look for her cousin.
“He is?” Cat replied with interest, following Kara to the balcony.
The two stood looking over the balcony, surveying all of the people below, walking towards one destination like robots. “Oh my god, what’s happening to everyone?” Cat asked, suddenly serious.
Kara’s eyes, however, were set to the skies. “There he is!” she pointed as she spotted Kal-El flying through the sky.
“Who? Superman? Where?” Cat’s human eyesight isn’t as good as Kara’s Kryptonian eyesight, so she couldn’t see him.
“What? Oh god, no,” Kara exclaimed as she sees Kal-El fall from the sky and begin to walk in line with the humans.
“What’s happening?”
“Myriad.” Kara gave a one-word explanation that meant nothing to Cat. Cat noticed that her voice was confused. “It’s affecting my cousin, too.”
“Myriad?” Cat furrowed her eyebrows, not taking her eyes off the robot-like humans below. “Wait a minute, if it’s affecting Superman, then are any of us safe?” She finally looked to Kara.
“Well, I may not be Superman, but I do have my moments.” Max Lord stepped onto the balcony, a smirk on his face.
Cat didn’t have to turn around, as she recognized the voice immediately, accompanied by that nauseated feeling she gets whenever Max Lord is around. She hated him, has always hated him. He’s been anti-Supergirl since the beginning, but Cat hated him long before that. She always knew he held some sort of torch for her, and while she couldn’t blame him, she wanted absolutely nothing to do with him.
---
Back in her office, Max explained his ion-blocking ear-wig thingy being the reason that the two of them had been affected by Myriad. Apparently he had hid some in the diamond earrings he sent her last night. She hadn’t known who had sent them, as he didn’t leave his name or a note. She never would have guessed it was him – she was constantly receiving jewelry and other gifts from people and companies she’d written about or interviewed. She’d assumed those earrings had been a thank-you gift from a recent interviewee. Her cheeks almost flushed pink with embarrassment when she found out Max had sent them. He seemed to interpret her wearing them as a sign that she had positive feelings towards him, but he couldn’t have been more wrong. While she was glad he had saved her mind, she was furious that his plan seemed something along the lines of making sure the two of them were the last remaining people on Earth. Even if that had happened, she would not procreate with Maxwell Lord to save the human race.
He’d made a glib comment about her assistant Kara, and Cat felt a pang in her stomach and looked at Supergirl. Kara had tried (and failed) to fool her with a stunt double somehow, but she still knew that Kara was Supergirl. But Kara had clearly put a lot of effort into trying to convince her otherwise, so Cat had relented. She could see that Kara clearly didn’t trust her with her super secret, and so she continued to play the game that Kara clearly wanted to play, and pretended like she didn’t know. She made a pointed remark in response to Max’s comment about how she was worried about her assistant, then looked at Supergirl to see Kara’s reaction, but her face betrayed nothing.
Max had an idiotic plan defeat Non and his minions, which was to “kill them all.” Cat scoffed and looked at Supergirl. She couldn’t possibly agree with him or let this happen, that much Cat knew. Kara was smarter than that, and better than that.
Suddenly, a grey-haired man came walking into the bullpen from the elevator. Cat assumed he was the Kryptonian, Non, that Max and Supergirl believed was behind this myriad mind-control scheme. He thought he was saving the world, and Cat couldn’t hold back a remark about how he was enslaving them, not saving them. She knew he was probably someone she was supposed to fear, but she was never one to display weakness. Besides, she knew Kara would find them a way out of this.
Non mind-controlled Whit and James Olsen, Kara’s best friends and sort of sidekicks, as a way to try and hurt Kara. Their voices were their own, but their words were Non’s. Before Cat could process what was happening, the two men as well as another one of her employees jumped off the sides of CatCo. Cat could only stare in open-mouthed shock. Supergirl immediately flew off the building to save them. Cat finally began to feel fear.
---
When Supergirl came back into the bullpen, Cat was on the phone with Anderson Cooper to explain the situation. She overheard Max Lord trying to convince Supergirl to use his kryptonite bomb, and paused her conversation with Anderson to inquire whether the bomb would kill Supergirl and Superman. Max said that it would, unless Supergirl flies up and detonates it over the city center, and they flew away as fast as they could. They wouldn’t be able to come back to National City for 50 years, which Max claimed was a “small” price to pay for saving the city.
Cat was becoming more impatient with him by the second and couldn’t hold back a scoff at that. Small price? Losing Supergirl was no small price. Cat started to roll her eyes, but when she looked at Kara, whose face seemed to be considering it, she momentarily pictured a life without Kara and the pain associated with that thought left her breathless. A life without Kara was the exact opposite of what she wanted.
Kara asked about the effect on the human beings, and Max explained that yes, there would be some losses. She ended her phone conversation to argue with him.
He claimed that only 8% of the population would be lost. Cat scoffed loudly, “8% of 4 million people is over 300,000 people, Max!” She looked at Supergirl exasperatedly for support. “You can’t seriously be considering this.”
Max spoke for her; she was. Cat closed her eyes, not knowing what to do. She didn’t think Kara would actually let this happen, but it didn’t seem like there were many other options at this point. She knew she needed a few moments alone with Kara, to guide her protégé back on the right track. Both Kara and her alter-ego Supergirl had inspired Cat a countless number of times, had truly helped her become a better person, and Cat knew it was time to return the favor and nudge Kara in the right direction.
---
Cat let Supergirl have a few moments alone on the balcony to think before she followed her out. Supergirl was staring out at the city, so Cat sighed to announce her entrance. “I’ve always liked the view out this window. Wish I had it from my office,” she started. “I like looking at the park. All the people. Mothers pushing their strollers, kids playing. I wonder which of them will die in Max’s moronic attempt to save the city.” Cat said glibly.
“I don’t know how to fight this.” Supergirl exclaimed exasperatedly. “What would you have me do?” She turned to face the older woman, who was always pushing her to be better.
“You could come up with a better plan than irradiating the city and killing thousands of people,” Cat suggested.
Kara threw her head in her hands and sighed, telling Cat about how her mother was forced to make a similar decision back on Krypton and had made the wrong choice, causing her planet, her culture, her home, and her parents to die - to be wiped from the stars. She told Cat she didn’t want that to happen again.
Cat finally turned her gaze from the city toward Supergirl. “I know you’re scared. I am too. But so is Max. And so is Non, for that matter.” She took one step forward, closer to the young hero. “All of you are letting your fear guide you, but somebody has to find the courage to stand up even though they’re afraid.” She took another tentative step toward Supergirl.
Now she looked directly into Kara’s eyes. “You know, the worst decisions that I’ve ever made in my life were based on fear. But you showed me that there was another way to be strong, by having faith in people. By believing that goodness would prevail. And because of you, I started letting people in.” She almost stopped here, but something inside her nudged her to keep going. She’d play the game that Kara wanted her to play, but she did want Kara to know what an impact she’d made on her as Kara Danvers, as much as she’d made an impact on her as Supergirl. But she knew this wasn’t the time to tell her that she knew her secret, and so she could no longer look her in the eye, choosing to look out over the city again. “I even opened myself up to my assistant, Kiera, who helped me have a relationship with my son again.”
Cat looked up at Kara once again. “Now I can’t tell you what to do, Supergirl, but if you’ve taught me anything, you’ve taught me that hope is stronger than fear.” She chuckled lightly. “And that is what I think of every time I look at that.” She pointed to the S on Supergirl’s chest.
Cat took another step closer. “You’ve changed me.” She looked out over the city once again, the words heavy as she spoke them, with a feeling that things were about to change. “And I am not easy to change. And I believe that you can change everyone out there.” Cat looked back at Kara and reminded her, “Not with violence, not with fear. Just be Supergirl. That’s all anyone’s ever needed from you.” Kara smiled widely in response to this praise from her boss, her role model, her own personal hero.
“Thank you, Cat.” Kara whispered, and before she could stop herself, pulled her in for a hug. Cat hugged her back immediately, reveling in the feel of her strong arms and how her first name sounded when Kara said it out loud. She hadn’t been hugged like this in…years, maybe ever. Tentatively, Cat pressed her fingers into Kara’s back a little tighter, feeling the taut muscles there. Kara immediately held her closer in response. Cat breathed in the scent of Kara’s shampoo, and couldn’t believe how warm Kara was. As soon as Kara pulled back to inform Cat that she had an idea, Cat missed her strong arms, her warmth, and the brief moment of comfort she provided. For a second, she wondered if Kara knew that she knew.
“Do you have any way to broadcast to National City that doesn’t use the internet? We can broadcast a message or a warning to people and they might wake up.” Cat immediately knew where they needed to go. Her first TV station used broadcast and not digital equipment, and was currently unused, but Cat knew exactly where the keys were.
“First, we need to stop Max from setting off this bomb.” Kara said once Cat located the station key.
“My elevator, come on.” Cat motioned toward her private elevator.
“Cat?” The older woman spun on her heels, heart swelling again at the way Kara said her name. Cat briefly wondered if Kara could hear the spike in her heart rate. “Do you want to fly?” Kara asked shyly and stared at the ground. Cat saw immediately that Kara was afraid to ask because of what she had done under the influence of the Red Kryptonite.
Cat waited until Kara looked up at her again and then she nodded, taking a step toward Kara. “Do you trust me?” Kara whispered.
“Always,” Cat responded in a heartbeat, closing the distance between them. Kara could hear the faintest sound of Cat’s heartbeat speeding up, which she tried to write off as probably Cat’s nerves about flying. She never would have guessed that Cat could return her feelings.
Kara had developed a crush on Cat Grant since the moment she walked her into office that fateful day at 10:15. It was the reason she used her powers at work, when she otherwise wouldn’t in her daily life before she came out as Supergirl. Cat was amazing, driven, and intelligent, not to mention a great mother, and the more she got to know her, she realized that Cat was really caring and kind, too. She was inspiring, and she was Kara’s hero. There was nothing more that she wanted than to make Cat proud. She played the part of the dutiful assistant because she wanted to be important to Cat somehow. Despite never calling her by her real name, she knew that she really was important to Cat, in a way, even if it wasn’t in the way she wanted to be. But it was good enough for her.
She held the older woman close and kicked off the ground, flying them to Max’s lab.
---
Cat folded her arms and gleefully informed Max that Supergirl had a plan. Max rolled his eyes and made a rude remark, but Supergirl interrupted him to tell him that Cat had inspired her to use hope rather than fear.
“I’m a muse, Max. To the world,” Cat tried to cover her blush with the confident words. He scoffed, but out of the corner her eye, Cat could see that Kara’s smile met her eyes, even in this time of crisis.
Cat took them to her first, very out-of-the-way TV station to inspire the world, to send out a symbol of optimism, love, and hope to National City. They needed to send a symbol so undeniable that people would recognize it even under Myriad’s spell. Cat believed that broadcasting Supergirl giving a speech and the S symbol that both she and Superman wore on their chests would do it. The station used broadcast technology instead of digital, and Max could rig it to piggyback off Myriad’s signal, without Non and his accomplices becoming aware of what they were doing.
Cat and Max got to work while Supergirl flew outside the building to meet her sister. Eventually she came back into the studio, accompanied by a short-haired brunette woman and an older blonde woman who looked alike. She heard Supergirl refer to them as Alex and Eliza respectively, and Cat remembered Kara mentioning them as the names of her adoptive sister and mother. A man also joined them, and from the way they all acted, Cat would have thought that he was Kara’s adoptive father, but she didn’t remember Kara mentioning him.
Supergirl gave an amazing, inspiring broadcast. Cat watched with rapt attention, tears almost welling up in her eyes. The young woman really was amazing, as both Kara and as Supergirl.
After returning home and hugging Carter for longer than usual, Cat sat by her fireplace with a glass of red wine. She first hoped to corner Kara the next day, asking her how her sister Alex and adoptive mother Eliza were. Cat knew that she finally had the upper hand, and that Kara would have to admit to being Supergirl. By the time she finished the glass, she had changed her mind, and decided to wait and let Kara tell her on her own.
If she was being honest with herself, she was a little hurt that Kara hadn’t yet told her the truth about her identity. But she wanted to let Kara come clean on her own terms, not because Cat had bullied or threatened her into it. She realized that she went about it the wrong way the first time, and wasn’t going to make that mistake again.