Chapter 3
Chapter 3
Kara has been living with Cat and Carter for nearly a month and has not heard from her cousin since the time he dropped her off. She has seen his heroic exploits in the news though and watched eagerly every time. Cat identified the woman with him who interviewed and wrote articles about him as Lois Lane, the described ‘vicious harpy.’ The girl was sad that her cousin, her blood, hadn’t contacted her but her new family was swiftly filling the hole left by the loss of her own family. It wouldn’t be filled completely, but it wouldn’t hurt as much.
Cat arranged to work from home unless she was absolutely needed in the office, and continued to help Kara learn to control her powers and adjust to life on Earth. She had books on history, science, technology and social sciences delivered to the house, and retrieved literature not in her own possession from the library. The girl devoured everything she gave her, from Plato to Jane Austen. Cat discovered that Kara had a near photographic memory and was able to use her enhanced senses to speed read through every book, comprehending them on a near unheard of level.
The woman knew that reading about her new world would give the girl information, but it wouldn’t give her context, wouldn’t give her actual experience with humans. Cat would be the last to admit it, but she was frightened. She was terrified to take her girl out into public, terrified that something would happen, that people would come and try and take away her girl. She didn’t have enough notoriety at present to truly protect Kara, but she would, it was only a matter of time. Cat paced around her study, her mind mulling over the decision she had made earlier on how to ease Kara into life on Earth.
Her decision cemented in her mind, Cat left her study to look for her children. She found them both in the nursery; Carter was asleep on his blanket clutching at his stuffed triceratops and Kara wasn’t far away from her, laying on the floor reading a book. “What are you reading?” Cat asked, knowing that the girl had heard her approach so she didn’t worry about startling her.
“The Wizard of Oz,” the girl replied, glancing up to smile at Cat. “I just finished Alice and Wonderland.”
Cat hummed and settled herself between the two children, rubbing her hand softly along Carter’s back so as not to wake him. “Both stories of young girls ending up in worlds different from their own and trying to find their way home or learning to manage in those new cultures.” The girl glanced away from Cat and the woman smiled faintly. “You’re very transparent Kara, not a deceitful bone in your body, don’t ever change.”
“I didn’t know bones could be deceitful,” Kara murmured, looking back up at her with a confused expression on her face. “Does that make them look different?”
“No, darling, no, it’s an expression. I’ll get you a book of idioms with the next shipment.” As she spoke, she felt Carter stirring under her hand and turned her head to see her boy sleepily open bright blue eyes.
“Mama,” Carter whispered, rubbing at his eyes when he saw the woman smiling down at him. He crawled over to the woman, and Cat assumed that he was going to crawl in her lap. She was surprised though when he simply crawled over her to lay across Kara’s back. The boy had found his new sister and playmate was durable and strong, and could handle his weight if he decided to hang onto her or climb on top of her. Often times Kara would lay on her stomach and read her books, much like she was doing now, and Carter would sit on her back to play with his toys, running his cars and blocks over her shoulders and legs. The first time she witnessed this behavior, Cat was going to scold the boy but Kara quickly told her not to. It helped, having Carter’s weight on her, his movement, it was imprinting the feeling into her muscles and nervous system, helping her learn.
The older woman didn’t quite understand but refrained from saying anything about how they interacted with each other. It was rare for Carter to take to someone so quickly, and Cat hoped that Kara’s presence in their lives would help her son as he got older. “Did you have a good nap?” She asked, smiling as Carter booped his dinosaur along Kara’s head and shoulders.
“Mhm, there were ‘saurs,” he mumbled out, still waking up. “Kara there too, we a’venture.”
“I’m sure you did.” Cat was fascinated with how infatuated her son was with the alien girl. “Carter,” she said, attracting his attention again, “Would you like to go to the park? We can show Kara the ducks you like to feed?”
Carter’s eyes lit up, “Play too?”
“Not this time, but you can show it to Kara and maybe she’ll feel comfortable playing with you next time.”
“No play?” Tears were welling up in his eyes and Cat knew that they were two seconds away from a full tantrum.
“You remember what I told you about Kara being special,” Cat said, distracting him. The toddler nodded, his eyes still watery. “She didn’t grow up like you did, so she isn’t used to doing some of the things you normally do, like playing on the playground. You’ll have to teach her how.”
“Cause Kara special,” Carter murmured. A determined look crossed his face and he bounced lightly, bending over to hug Kara’s head. “I teach you and we play.” Kara nodded as best as she could with small arms wrapped around her. He released her head and scrambled off her back. “We go feed ducks now?” He asked.
“You need to put more clothes on young man,” Cat replied, standing to retrieve shorts and shoes for the boy.
“No pants, no pants!” He yelled giggling. Before he could make it out of the room, Kara had wrapped her arms around him and was holding him in a loose embrace.
“Thank you Kara.” Cat retrieved her wiggling offspring and quickly pulled his shorts on and changed his shirt. “Hopefully with you around, I won’t have another incident of a naked toddler running down the hall.”
Kara giggled, “Nudity wasn’t as frowned upon on Krypton as it seems to be here, though many of the parents of the children I watched weren’t amused when they took off in the housing complexes without clothes.”
“Is it wrong of me to be relieved that it isn’t only children on Earth with a fondness for running around without clothes?”
“I’ve been to twelve different planets Cat, I can assure you that children aren’t that different on each one.”
Cat tried to control her visual reaction to that piece of information, but she couldn’t contain the disbelief that was etched on her face. She shook off her amazement and continued to dress her squirming toddler, securing him in a stroller. “Are you sure this is a good idea?” Kara asked hesitantly while Cat pulled on a pair of flats.
The woman sighed, “Good idea? No, but necessary? Yes. We can’t keep living in fear Kara. You’ve been practicing with your senses and have been reading about this world, but that isn’t enough. You have to go out and actually experience it in order to learn. This park is relatively quiet and not far from here. It’s part of the reason why I bought this penthouse.” She scrutinized Kara’s appearance, taking in the soft flannel pants and long sleeve cotton shirt the girl had become attached to. “You might want to change. It’s summer and while I know you can’t feel the heat or cold, but you need to blend it. Shirt and shorts, or summer dress, your choice.”
Kara nodded and disappeared, reappearing a few minutes later wearing a simple, lightweight summer dress and sandals. “It reminds me of what we wore on Krypton,” she offered with a weak smile. “More skin showing, though it was colder climate.”
“You know you don’t have to tell me about it if it makes you sad,” Cat murmured.
“Talking about it helps,” the girl replied quietly, “It would be worse I think, to pretend, to not talk about it.”
Cat hummed and nodded before ushering the girl out the door while she pushed the stroller with her babbling toddler. She had noticed something about Kara over the past month. She was mourning her family, her planet, her culture, but there was something else behind the pain and sadness. She wasn’t sure what that something was though but knew that it had to be addressed before it became a problem.
The Kryptonian hesitantly stepped onto the elevator, clutching at the hand strengtheners that Cat had ordered for her a week ago. It gave her something to hold onto, something to concentrate on not breaking. They were also good for her hands. The more she used them, she could feel her strength wane at times which meant her hands were getting stronger. She could hear the mechanics of the elevator as they road the car down. The grinding of the gears was making her nervous so she took a deep breath and blocked everything out except for the voices and heartbeats of the two humans with her. They were calming, steady beats that fluctuated and changed depending upon their mood or state of being, it was almost like private insight into their emotions, personalities.
“It’ll be okay Kara,” Cat whispered when she saw the girl next to her taking deep breaths to calm herself. “Just let yourself feel and hear everything, as much as you can, don’t be afraid. I’ll be here with you every step of the way.”
Kara nodded just as the doors opened and they stepped out into the lobby of the building. She was instantly bombarded with sights, sounds and smells of the city. She nearly collapsed from the intensity of everything she was experiencing, but Cat’s steady hand on her arm grounded her. “I’m okay,” Kara stuttered out, “I’m okay, I just, I just needed a minute.”
“If it gets too much, just let me know and we’ll come right back,” Cat assured her. “But in the meantime, let’s get to the park and feed those ducks, despite how germ filled they are. Maybe get some ice cream. I’ve noticed you need more calories than a… than most girls your age.” Feeding the girl had proved to be interesting, but Kara ate basically anything, she just needed a lot of it. It was lucky she had a trust fund and was already amassing a small fortune or she’d never be able to feed the girl. She didn’t know how the family that the idiotic, self-righteous superhero was going to leave her with would be able to feed her.
The girl brightened at the mention of ice cream, one of her new favorite foods and Carter started squealing as well. “Ice cream, ice cream Mama, to the park we go,” he squealed out, banging his hands on the stroller bar.
“You won’t be getting any ice cream young man unless you behave yourself.”
“Like Kara?”
Cat stifled a smirk as she saw the blonde girl blush out of the corner of her eye. “Yes, if you behave yourself like Kara, you’ll get ice cream.” She hit the button for the front door of her building and the door swung open, letting bright sunlight filter into the lobby. They stepped out of the building and Kara’s head automatically tilted up to soak in the sunlight, a bright smile crossing her face. Everything about the city seemed amplified once she was outside but with the sun shining on her face and Cat’s hand tightly gripping her arm, she wasn’t overwhelmed. Cat kept a guiding hand on Kara’s arm and pushed the stroller while the girl glanced around, her wide eyes taking in everything around her. The older blonde had encouraged the use of her x-ray vision to the point of only brief glances to get used to it, nothing that would invade people’s privacy. She looked through buildings completely if only to see what was behind them or the sky among rectangular, steel structures.
They reached the park and made their way to the small pond. There weren’t many people in the park, and those that were left the small family alone as they went about their own business. “Cat, are ducks birds?” Kara asked, her eyes wide in astonishment as she stared at the feathered animals floating in the pond and waddling around the edge.
The woman stared at the girl incredulously, “Did you agree to come out and feed them without knowing what they were?” Kara was infatuated with birds, she had learned this only mere hours after knowing the girl. Birds had been extinct on Krypton for centuries, as Kara had told her, so she was fascinated by the flying creatures. Cat had looked at the blonde, marveling at her innocent wonder as she looked up at the birds flying among snow tipped mountains, knowing that this girl could fly freely among them if she wanted. Kara smiled innocently up at the older woman and Cat let out a long suffering sigh as she unbuckled Cater from the stroller. “Yes, they’re birds. There are some birds that swim and make their homes by bodies of water, ducks are one type of those birds.”
Carter wiggled out of his mother’s hold and grabbed Kara’s hand. “Feed the ducks, feed the ducks!” The boy giggled. Cat handed Kara a handful of oats and gave Carter strict instructions not to let go of his sister’s hand. The blonde girl smiled shyly and the toddler tugged her over to the water’s edge, pulling clumps of oats out of her hand to drop on the ground for the birds. Several of the ducks walked up to Kara and allowed her to pet them and Cat snorted, even animals are enchanted by the young blonde. Carter soon tired out from the excitement of feeding the birds and wandered back to his mother, intent on being held for his nap rather than buckled back into his stroller.
Cat faked a long suffering sigh and pulled her toddler into her lap, brushing her fingers through his hair until he fell into a peaceful sleep. She glanced over at Kara who had sat down next to her when Carter wandered over. The girl had her eyes closed and a peaceful, whimsical expression on her face. She wondered at all the things she could hear, and what she was listening to, what put such a smile on her face. “What are you listening to?” She asked, a slight bit of hesitation in her voice at disturbing the girl.
“Birds,” Kara murmured, “There are birds all over the city singing, chirping. It’s beautiful, listening to natural sounds among the mechanical, artificialness of the city.” A bittersweet expression crossed her face, “My parents would’ve loved this.”
“The things you must hear, the things you must see,” Cat sighed. “Part of me is envious, but I know it is a struggle.”
“It’s getting easier, being around everything, being forced to concentrate and control, but focusing on you and Carter, it helps,” Kara replied shyly. “I don’t know what I would do if I had to do this alone.”
“You wouldn’t have been alone, no matter how idiotic your cousin is at times, he would have made sure that you were taken care of,” Cat admitted. She stood up and placed Carter back in the stroller, maneuvering his arms and legs in through the straps. “He’s all wiggly and squirming when he’s awake, as soon as he falls asleep he’s basically dead weight, he’ll probably wake up when we get to the ice cream cart.” Kara giggled and stood up to help Cat with the sleeping toddler. They started over towards the ice cream stand, Cat pushing the stroller with one hand on Kara’s arm. The woman had just started thinking that their first visit out into the city had went well when she felt Kara freeze and stiffen slightly. “Kara?” She asked, turning to look at the girl. The younger blonde’s eyes were wide as she swiveled her head from side to side as if she were looking for something. “Do you hear something?”
“I… There’s a- a man, he’s threatening a woman, he sounds like he is going to hurt her.”
Cat’s eyes widened and she tightened her grip on Kara’s arm. She briefly released the handle of the stroller after making sure that Kara’s hand was still gripping it lightly, and fished her cell phone out of her purse. “Where can you hear it?” She asked, already dialing emergency services.
“Four, five blocks down,” Kara murmured, remembering what she had learned about city layout and terminology. “They’re in an alley near a… a pizza place?” She started to move when she felt Cat grip her tighter. “Cat, he’s going to hurt her…”
“Yes, I’m calling to report an assault in progress,” Cat said into her phone. “In the alley behind Francesco’s pizza on Stratford street, there was a man threatening a woman.” She waited a few moments before ending the call and looking over at Kara. “Do not move, just listen.”
Kara wanted to protest, to do something to help the woman, but Cat’s grip on her was firm. She knew that she could easily break out of her hold, but it would injure Cat and possibly scare Carter and Kara didn’t want that. She did as Cat asked, she waited and listened. Sirens sounded and grew closer to the location of the attack, and Kara breathed a sigh of relief when the man was picked up and the woman taken to the hospital with nothing worse than a broken wrist and a few bruises, nothing physical anyway. “She’s okay,” Kara murmured, instantly relaxing, “Nothing too serious and they got the man.”
“Okay,” Cat nodded, “Okay, do you still want ice cream or do you want to go home and talk about this?”
“I… We probably should go but Carter was looking forward to ice cream…” Kara looked up at her with large blue eyes, concern for her little brother filling them and it warmed Cat’s heart that the girl was so concerned with Carter’s well-being, both physical and emotional.
“I’ll order dinner out tonight and have them send ice cream with it,” the woman replied, turning slightly to head back to her penthouse, her hand still on Kara’s arm. “It won’t be any trouble, people have learned not to say no to me.”
Kara looked uncertain but Cat’s steady, insistent hand on her arm reassured her and she nodded. “Yes, going… going home would be good.”
Cat knew that it was the first time Kara had referred to the penthouse as home; she was surprised but didn’t let it show on her face, though a small smile did break through. She wanted Kara to feel at home with her and Carter, but didn’t think it would happen so soon. “Mhm, Mommy?” Carter’s voice slurred out, still thick with sleep.
“Yes sweetie?” Cat asked as they walked back to the penthouse.
“Mhm, ice cream?”
“I’m sorry Carter,” Kara said, “I wasn’t feeling well so Cat said she would order ice cream for after dinner.”
Carter turned around as much as he could to see the older girl. “Are you okay Kar’?”
“I’ll be okay buddy, I just need a minute.”
The boy nodded sleepily and started to doze off again, and Cat smiled at the interaction between the two. They got back to the penthouse and Kara helped Cat remove the sleeping toddler from his stroller. By the time they had gotten him out of the stroller, Carter was waking up and ready to play again. Cat left Kara to entertain Carter, taking a few calls from producers discussing her upcoming talk show. It had been in the works for months and she had slowed down everything when she adopted Kara, but talks were resuming and she had some decisions to make. She finished up her conversation and looking over the paperwork they had emailed her close to dinner time, and she could still hear Carter’s excited babbling and Kara’s giggles. Cat’s mind turned to what happened earlier, with Kara in the park and the incident on the way to the ice cream stand. When she was pregnant with Carter, she had resigned herself to the fact that she would be raising a little boy to be a good man. She had firmed her spine and resolved to do the best that she could, be a better person for Carter than she was for Adam. She had time to prepare. With Kara, Cat had assumed the responsibility of raising a strong, young woman, helping her adapt to life on Earth and making sure that she would be prepared for the future. Now, with the incident in the park, the woman was coming to a startling realization, that she was responsible for raising a hero.
Kara would be a hero, and it had nothing to do with who her cousin was but everything to do with who she was. Cat could already tell that the girl wasn’t one to sit back and watch as people were hurting, as people died from natural disasters when she could do something to help. The sheer weight of raising a child, one who she hoped would be a responsible adult in the future, and instilling them with good virtues and morals, it was immense. Raising a hero though, one who would be responsible for many, it was something Cat had never prepared for. She hated not being prepared.
She pulled out her phone and ordered Chinese from one of her local guilty pleasure restaurants. Her normal order of chicken and broccoli, and a few different entrées and appetizers for Kara to try. She had been cooking most night since Kara started living with them, trying out different types of food to see what the girl would eat. She ate everything, a lot of everything, so Cat knew she could order take-out now without worrying about whether Kara would eat it or not. A part of Cat felt guilty for resorting to take-out, but she had a lot on her mind and didn’t have the concentration to cook enough food for herself and a growing alien. She made sure that ice cream was part of her order, knowing that the owners of the Chinese restaurant knew her and would deliver a gallon of ice cream if she asked.
Cat sighed and moved to the kitchen, pulling out fruit, vegetables and meat for Carter’s dinner while she waited for her order of food. She finished putting together her toddler’s dinner and went to find the two in the living room. “Carter sweetie, I have your dinner ready. Time to eat and then bathtime and bed for you.”
“No Mama,” Carter protested, wiggling slightly on Kara’s back. “We playing.”
“I know, but you have to eat and get cleaned up.”
“I don’t want to!” He yelled out, his voice reaching a higher pitch. Kara winced at the loud tone of his voice and Cat frowned.
Young man,” Cat said, hands on her hips, her voice hard, “Is that how I taught you behave?”
“No…”
“Then to the kitchen with you young man.”
Carter sniffed and pouted, but hobbled up from his perched and walked over to his mother obediently. The woman lifted him up and set him in his high chair once he was in the kitchen. She put his plate in front of him and he immediately started putting pieces of fruit, beans and bits of chicken in his mouth. He quickly finished eating and drank a sippy-cup full of juice and another full of water. Cat carefully lifted him out of his highchair to take him for his bath when the buzzer on the front door rang. The night attendant’s voice came through the intercom saying that her delivery was there. She froze. She had had deliveries brought to the penthouse before, but she had always answered the door. Now, with a squirming toddler in her arms, she knew that she had to make a choice. She pressed the intercom and told the attendant to send the delivery up.
“Kara,” Cat called. “I have to get Carter in the bathtub. I ordered food for us and the delivery man is on his way up. Grab a 20 dollar bill from my purse to give to him for tip and let him bring the food in and set on the kitchen counter.”
“Are you sure?” Kara looked worried.
“It’ll be fine. I know the people from this restaurant so just this once it's okay.” Cat disappeared down the hall to her bathroom and turned on the water in the tub. She heard a knock on the door as she was taking Carter's clothes off and waited, holding her breath. She heard muffled voices when she set Carter in the water and focused on washing her squirming boy rather than her new daughter interacting with a stranger by herself for the first time. Being a parent was one of the most wonderful parts of her life, but it was also extremely stressful.
A few minutes passed and Cat could still hear muffled voices from the kitchen area. How long does it take to drop off food? She grabbed a towel and Carter's pajamas and dried her boy off, wrangling him into pull-ups and his Thomas the tank engine footie pajamas as she went. When she finished dressing him, Cat picked the drooping toddler up and carried him back towards the living room to check on Kara. She was shocked when she found Kara and Jin Fa, the owner of the Chinese restaurant, an older man with graying hair around his temples, conversing in Chinese in her living room. It didn’t sound like the Mandarin chinese she was used to but a different variation.
“Ah Cat,” Jin Fa turned toward her with a wide smile. His english was excellent though difficult to understand at times because of his thick accent. “I did not know that you had adopted a daughter, and one so smart too. She speaks Jin Chinese wonderfully.”
Jin Chinese, that explains it. “Kara is a recent addition to the family Mr. Fa. Her parents were very adept with languages and passed their enthusiasm on to her.” Cat turned her eyes to Kara and spotted something she had missed earlier. The girl was eating the potstickers she had ordered with gusto, nearly groaning at the taste with each dumpling that disappeared in her mouth.
“I miss speaking it,” Jin admitted. “My wife speaks Mandarin mainly and so do my children, but I miss my home language. She ever want potstickers again, you call me and I come and we will talk.”
Kara nodded happily and she reached out to hug the older man. Cat held her breath but nothing happened, Jin merely patted the top of a blonde head, took the tip Kara handed him and left the penthouse. “You speak Chinese,” was the only thing Cat could say once the door was safely shut and locked. She turned back to Kara to see her sheepishly looking up from the empty container of potstickers and smiled ruefully. “Try not to eat the rest of dinner before I put Carter to bed.”
“I can do that,” Kara hurried out, setting the empty container down as she walked over to the two humans. “I can put Carter to bed if you want to…” she gestured back towards the food, unsure of what to say. She may know multiple languages, but certain nuisances still escaped her. Cat nodded and wordlessly allowed the girl to take the snoozing toddler from her arms and pad down the hall towards his bedroom.
The older blonde set out containers and pulled out two clean pairs of chopsticks for her and Kara to use. She put her own food on a plate but knew that it would be useless to do so for the girl, she would be consuming her food far too fast for the plate to be of any use. She heard a soft sound coming from her son’s room, so she abandoned the table in favor of following the sound. It was Kara; she was singing. It wasn’t a language Cat could understand but she recognized it as Kryptonian from the few things that Kara had taught her over the last few weeks. After listening to it for a few moments, Cat recognized it as a lullabye Kara said her mother had sung to her when she was a child. Tears filled her eyes as she watched the girl looking down at Carter with fondness as she shared something with him that had just been hers, shared something with the both of them.
Kara glanced up at Cat when the song was finished and the woman blinked away her tears and motioned Kara to follow her back to the dining room table. The table suddenly felt inadequate and the penthouse stifling, and Cat glanced back at the girl. “Let’s eat out on my balcony instead. The temperature isn’t bad and I could use some more fresh air.” Cat motioned for Kara to grab a few of the containers and moved to the sliding glass doors to step out on the balcony. She set her food and glass on the small table, and sat down on the bench. Kara followed carrying a few of the containers and she zipped back inside to grab the rest and her cup of water. Cat demonstrated how to use the chopsticks properly and Kara was soon digging into her food with gusto, exclaiming at the amazing flavors but stating that the “meat-filled pockets” were the best.
“So Kara,” Cat starting, finishing part of her own meal and giving the rest to the hungry girl. “I wanted to talk to you about what happened today…”
Kara flinched and looked down, folding in on herself slightly. “I’m sorry Cat, I’ll try not to listen to them so much, but she sounded so frightened…”
“No, no Kara no, I’m not reprimanding you for what you did, I’m proud of you,” Cat rushed out, grabbing one of Kara’s hands. “What you did today, I’m so proud of you, you saved that woman from unimaginable pain, quite probably saved her life.” Kara smiled slightly, but stayed silent, hearing the ‘but’ in the woman’s statement. “But,” Cat continued, hating herself, “You can’t just rush into danger like you were going to do. I know you’re bullet proof, but you, who you are, what you can do, Kara that has to stay secret for now.”
“My cousin is a hero,” the girl replied, her voice small.
“He is,” Cat admitted, “But he’s older and only recently became a hero. Judging by his fumbling and bumbling, he’s an untrained hero. Kara, I don’t want that for you. He’s okay, and he’ll be a good hero some day, but I want you to be great. You can help people, and I want you to help people, I want you to be able to use your gifts to help people.” Cat took a deep breath, “But you can’t put on a suit and save people like your cousin, not yet, you’re just 13 Kara.”
“So what do I do?” The girl asked, “I can’t just sit back and let people get hurt, not when I can help them. I wasn’t raised that way.”
“I know darling, I know, and you will help them, just the way you did today. And when the time comes, if you want to put on a suit and help people, I will support you.” Cat leaned back in her seat and took a sip of her wine, “But I’ll be damned if I send you out as a hero without any training.”
“Training?”
Cat waved her hands, “We’ll cross that bridge later. Let’s just say I know a few people that will be able to teach you a few things, made some contacts during my days as a reporter. I need to talk to you about something else though. I’ve been in talks to have my own talk show, you’ve seen a few of them on TV, though obviously they’re mediocre compared to what I’m going to be doing. I won’t be able to stay home with you and Carter every day, as much as I hate it, I have to get back to work.” She took another deep breath, “And the school year will be starting soon so we’ll need to do something about your schooling. We still have a few weeks before we really have to make any decisions and I start my talk show. I can be on call with the writers and director until then.”
“School, right, I read about that,” Kara sighed.
“The biggest part about school is teeangers being mean to each other, learning how to get through social interactions.” Cat hummed and bit at her nails. “I’m going to make a few calls, see what I can do.”
“Thank you Cat,” the girl said, gratefulness present in her tone. “I’m really glad that I’m here with you, with both you and Carter.”
“I’m glad you’re here too precious girl,” Cat murmured, pulling the girl into a hug, pressing a kiss into blonde hair. “You make us better, you make our family better.”