Chapter 24
“Couldn’t you have done this yourself in like five minutes?” Lena asked as she helped Kara paint the walls in her new apartment. It had been a few weeks since Cat and Kara had viewed apartments, and the one they settled on was purchased and papers received within the week. The longest part of the process was selecting furniture for her new place, but the two women finally compromised between comfort and style. The couch she ended up selecting was a small pullout for when guests came to visit. Kara knew that when Lena or Sara came that they would most likely sleep with her, but anyone else would be able to use the couch. Carter already called dibs on it for whenever their mother had to go out of town and he didn’t want to stay with his father.
Kara just hummed as she thought about the question, “I could, but I’ve found that the paint looks better if it’s put on slowly rather than with super speed. Gets all streaky and more chance that it could drip. Just be glad I put the first coat on and did my bedroom by myself, all we have to worry about is the final coat in the living room.”
Lena just humphed and the two continued to paint, painting the walls with a soft cream color and accenting them with burgundy. A couple hours later, they were finishing up with the painting when Cat Grant strolled in through the door followed by movers carrying the new furniture for Kara’s bedroom. “Just up there,” the woman ordered the men, pointing towards the bedroom before turning to her daughter. “Kara,” she greeted, hugging the younger blonde before turning to her daughter’s brunette best friend. “Lita.”
“Is she ever going to get over the fact that I got you drunk in Vegas where you accidentally got married?” The brunette asked, glancing over at her friend while the older woman moved to oversee the movers.
“Eh, give it a few years and you might make your way off her shit list,” Kara said, smirking at her friend. “Look on the bright side though, you’re not as far down as Kate, or Maxwell Lord.”
“Lord should be at the bottom of everyone’s shit list,” Lena grumbled, “The man is vile.”
“He’s still being really flirty with Mom, it’s creepy.” Kara shuddered, “He kind of makes me want to take a shower, many showers, so many showers.”
“It doesn’t work,” the brunette told her, “You never really get clean.”
“Just be glad you two don’t have to spend any real length of time with the man,” Cat told them, as the men finished moving the furniture and walked out the door. “They’re going down to get your mattress Kara and once they bring it up, we’ll be able to put the bed together.”
“So I’ll be able to sleep here tonight or at least tomorrow right?” Kara asked. “We get the bedroom set up, all of my clothes moved over and put away in the closet, I should be able to stay here?”
Cat stared contemplatively around the rest of the apartment, taking in the drying walls and the open windows. “In theory,” she murmured, “The bathroom doesn’t need much other than a few more towel racks and to get everything situated in there. The kitchen won’t be done until tomorrow after the refrigerator is delivered, but I imagine you’ll probably just order pizza and drink water from the tap or something equally ridiculous.”
“Water from the tap?” Lena questioned, a horrified expression on her face.
“I’m sure you’ll manage alright Lita,” the older woman said dismissively. Lena grit her teeth together but Kara distracted her from getting into an argument with her mother, that wasn’t something that anyone needed at the present moment. The movers came back up, carrying the king sized mattress, and Kara bounced excitedly as they left the mattress propped against the wall on Cat’s orders. They left and Kara instantly starting putting her bed together, using her super speed and strength to read through the directions and put together the bed frame. It only took a few minutes to lock everything into place before she was sliding the mattress layers and memory foam into place.
She left Cat and Lena for a moment, briefly wondering if any bloodshed would take place while she was gone, and ran down to the underground parking garage to get boxes for her bedroom out of her truck. When she got back to her apartment, she found her mother and best friend glaring at each other from either side of the bed. “You guys need to sort out your issues with each other, this is getting ridiculous,” Kara sighed as she set down the boxes she was carrying. She gave her best friend a ‘look,’ and the brunette studiously ignored the the expression and glanced down towards the ground.
Cat sighed as her daughter turned her glare on her. She would probably scold her a bit more if she didn’t know where she had learned the look, from her. “What I want to know,” the older woman started instead, “Is what the new CEO of LuthorCorp is doing flitting around from Metropolis to Gotham to Vegas then to National City.” She turned and sat down on the unmade bed, staring Lena down, “As the CEO of a multi-billion dollar media company, I can imagine that a multi-billion dollar tech company is difficult to manage, unless you’re shirking your responsibilities?”
Lena looked up and growled, stomping her foot. “I am not shirking my responsibilities. I’ve been finishing up my MBA degree and there’s something else I’ve been working on, something that I’ve been hoping to present to the board, but…”
“What’s going on Lena?” Kara asked, walking over to her friends.
The brunette looked at her friend before turning her eye on the blonde media mogul. “Off the record Ms. Grant,” she said, and the older woman reluctantly nodded. “I’ve been thinking about relocating the main branch of the company to National City.”
“Really?” The two blondes stated at the same time.
“Yes really, after everything that’s happened in Metropolis, I feel like the company needs a new start, and my life, my friends are all here in National City. I’ve been here scoping properties and meeting with contractors to get quotes on what it would take to start building an office tower and development labs.” She combed her fingers through the tight ponytail on the back of her head, “I’m hoping to present the idea to the board within the next few months, be able to start building and move here in the new few years.”
“Oh golly,” Kara gasped, hugging the other woman tightly, “This is so exciting! Why a few years though? Why not a few months?”
“It takes a while to build a proper office building and research space Kara,” Lena laughed, patting the girl on the back. “And takes even longer to move a corporate headquarters to the other side of the country. Paperwork, investors to reassure, board members to wrangle, deals to make with the local government and all that. It’s a long and annoying process. I’ll hopefully be in National City frequently during that time to make sure that the building is going as scheduled and no corners are being cut in the process.”
“This is so awesome Lena, you’re going to be moving here permanently!” Kara cried, bouncing her friend in a hug again. “You can stay with me while you find a place, have you found a place yet? You can stay here.”
“I’ve been staying at a hotel, it’s fine Kara,” Lena replied.
“No no, friends don’t let friends stay in a hotel, right Mom?” The younger blonde answered, turning blue eyes on the older woman in the room.
Cat glanced away from piercing blue eyes, her own falling on the brunette in the room. She scrutinized the other woman for a minute; this was the woman who grew up with her daughter, they were basically raised together in the same house. “If you take my daughter out to get drunk and let her do something stupid again, you’ll wish I kept calling you Lita.”
“Yes Ma’am,” Lena said, nodding her head.”
The older woman nodded, “Good, now that we have an understanding, we have a bedroom to finish putting together. Chop chop girls, off you go. Mattress cover, sheets, bedspread, curtains, let’s go.”
“Yes Mom.” “Yes Ms. Grant.” The two intoned and they started pulling items out of the boxes Kara had brought up and set about putting the bedroom together. Smooth, dark sheets were pulled over corners on the bed, followed by a large, starry galaxy bedspread. Cat rolled her eyes a bit when Kara approached her with her tablet in hand, pointing to the bedset that she had found online. It wasn’t what she pictured for a bedspread for her adult daughter, but somehow it seemed to fit well with the rest of Kara’s decor. Her daughter was definitely a romantic at heart, a dreamer, and the mood she was projecting with her bedroom reflected that attitude. The room had low lighting through the use of dimmer lamps throughout the room and the many flameless candles the girl had collected throughout the years. She had selected one of her own paintings to hang over her bed, a tasteful image of a woman sleeping with a sheet draped strategically over her nude form.
“Is that Sara?” Lena asked when she saw the painting. The woman’s face was partly covered by an arm and a tousle of blonde hair, but she was still recognizable by the barely visible smirk ever present on the blonde’s face, even while sleeping.
Kara nodded, “She agreed to pose for my thesis project. She fell asleep during this one so I switched the lighting and did a few sketches while she was catching up on her sleep.”
“So it wasn’t meant to be this… sensual?” The brunette questioned, her eyes not straying from the image.
“Not originally, I did it for fun to see if I could do it and it turned out pretty well.”
Cat noticed the slightly dilated pupils and the way Lena licked at her lips briefly before glancing back to her blonde friend. She rolled her eyes at the sight, and didn’t put much more notice to the action, though she wouldn’t be an ounce surprised if the next time Kara’s two best friends were in the same place, more looks would be exchanged. Cat nearly let out a sigh, but caught herself before it escaped; she was much to mature to be dealing with this nonsense, especially when her daughter was recently married and her son was just starting to discover that girls didn’t have cooties.
Her phone vibrated in her purse where she left it, and Cat moved to retrieve it. She let out a low growl at the message on her phone, it was time to clean house again at CatCo and get competent employees.
“Emergency at work Mom?” Kara’s voice came and Cat look up to see concerned blue eyes staring at her.
“Afraid so,” Cat told her, rolling her eyes. “It looks like I’m going to need to get a new assistant.”
“That’s the third one this month, and it’s only the second week.”
The older blonde shrugged, “Competent employees are difficult to find. I’m sorry Kara, I’ll be back tomorrow to help set up the rest of the apartment.”
“It’s okay Mom, Lena and I can manage,” Kara replied, waving her mother out.
“Lena and I cannot manage,” the brunette grumbled but the blondes ignored her.
The younger blonde gave her mother a quick hug before she left, and turned back to find her best friend spread out on her bed, staring blankly up at the ceiling. “Lena!”
“What? I’m tired and bored,” Lena whined, “Leave me alone.”
“If you hurry up and help me finish putting my room together, we can get dinner. Our favorite fancy Italian place is only two blocks over.”
Lena popped off the bed, “Francesca’s? Right it is in this area of town isn’t it? Let’s get a move on, chop chop as Ms. Grant would say.” The two continued setting up the bedroom, moving on to the bathroom once Kara had everything where she wanted it in her room. She was just installing a new towel rack when Lena flounced into the room with her purse hanging on her arm. “I’m going back to my hotel room to change and get the rest of my stuff. I’ll taxi back over here later with my stuff and then we can go out. Dress like for a night out.”
“What do you mean dress like for a night out?” Kara asked, scrambling after her friend.
“I mean what I said, dress like for a night out.”
“The last time we did a ‘night out’ I ended up married,” Kara stated.
The brunette just waved her hand, “You didn’t have your powers, different situation. And you probably won’t be drinking anyway, so it doesn’t matter. I just want to eat dinner with my friend and go dancing, let loose a little, is that too much to ask?”
Kara sighed, “I guess not, I’ll have to sort through my closet and find the right dress and heels.”
“Nothing frumpy or too conservative, I know you’re a married woman now, but you don’t have to go full on nun here,” Lena said, striding out the door. “I’ll be back in a few hours, don’t forget to shave… everything, shave everything.”
“Bye Lena,” Kara yelled, used to her friend being weird when away from the public eye or her company. She had perfected the cold, neutral but superior expression when dealing with her company, particularly the board members, and adopted an open but aloof expression for the media and the public.
Checking the time on her phone, Kara knew that she had enough time to finish setting the bathroom up completely before she had to get ready, so she sped through the final things that needed doing. Towels were hung on the racks and placed snugly into the linen closet in the bathroom, and her new checkered shower curtain was placed on the new shower rod and fixed into place. She glanced at the time again and reasoned she had enough time to take a luxurious bath rather than a quick shower later like she normally does. She pushed the shower curtain out of the way and started the bath, pouring in some of her favorite bubble bath and bath oils into the water.
Kara relaxed in the warm water, still giddy about the fact that she was in her own apartment. It would take a while for her to get used to not hearing heartbeats close to her, other than the neighbors below her or in the surrounding apartments. When the water started to cool, she gave it another zap with her heat vision to keep it at the perfect temperature; she didn’t want to get out of the bathtub before she absolutely had to. Eventually her alarm went off and she knew that if she didn’t get out, Lena would barge in and drag her out of the tub. She kind of regretted giving her best friend one of her spare keys.
She clambered out of the water and dried herself off before wrapping a towel around her form and trekking back to her bedroom. After rubbing moisturizer everywhere, Kara dug through her closet and pulled out a white dress that wrapped around one shoulder with a partial ruffled sleeve and ended about mid thigh. She was fixing her hair and makeup when she heard Lena burst through the front door, dropped her bags, and strode into the bathroom.
“Don’t you look hot,” Lena said, letting her eyes trail over Kara’s body. “Love what you did with your hair.”
The blonde glanced in the mirror and fingered the loose twist she pulled her long locks into and set over her bare shoulder. “Well you did say dress for a night out,” Kara replied, finishing her light eye shadow and putting on some lip gloss.
“Come on, finish up and let’s get to Francesca’s before we hit the club.” The blonde grabbed her purse and locked up as Lena dragged her out of her apartment. They took the taxi that Lena had waiting on the curb, and headed over to the restaurant. Francesca’s was a growing restaurant in National City, one that they had come to since they were in high school when it was just a simple style place. The owner, Francesca Gianni always had a table for them when they decided to dine in, one close to the kitchens away from public view. Lena always wondered if it was because of who they were or to cover the massive amount of food that Kara managed to consume.
They both ordered their usual and a light bottle of wine to accompany dinner and talked as they ate their food. Lena filled Kara in on how the plans were going for the move to National City, and the possibility of changing the name of the company in the future. Kara told her how her job search was going; she knew that she needed another job than her job at Noonan’s to be able to support her while she figured out her art career. By the time they finished dinner, it was after ten so they called another taxi and hit one of the local clubs. Kara kept a close eye on her friend as she ordered a drink at the bar before hitting the dance floor.
The blonde ordered her own drink and sat at the bar, allowing her eyes to sweep over the building and her senses to expand to the thrum of the blood pumping quickly through people’s veins. Lena hobbled over to her as soon as she finished her drink and pulled her out into the crush of bodies. Her reflexes allowed her to move away from anyone that was getting too close or too handsy, and kept Lena from getting seriously groped. Normally she would let the brunette handle people on her own, but Kara knew that her friend just wanted to relax without worrying about anyone being jerks so she took care of them for Lena.
Her attention fell on a long haired brunette that was stumbling out of the door, her keys clutched tightly in her hands. Something familiar struck her about the brunette, and Kara motioned to Lena that she wanted to talk to her. The two left the dance floor and Kara followed after the brunette with her eyes, watching as she stumbled to her car as the police picked her up. “What’s wrong?” Lena breathed out, slightly out of breath due to the dancing.
“I, that brunette that just left,” Kara murmured, her face twisted in concentration as she watched as the woman was arrested and passed out in the back of the police car. “I think I know her, she seemed familiar…”
“Okay… was she in one of your classes?”
Kara shrugged lightly, “Maybe, I don’t know, there was just something about her…”
“It’ll come to you later, come on, back to dancing!”
It was later than night when they were back in her new apartment tucked in bed that it came to Kara, flashes of long brown hair and dark brown eyes mussed and dilated in ecstasy. “Lexie!” She cried, bolting upright in bed, jostling her best friend who just groaned at her from the other side of the bed.
“What?” Lena grumbled, her hair a tangle covering her face. “Whaddawant?”
“Lena wake up, I remembered something,” Kara said, shaking the brunette’s shoulder, “I remembered why that brunette looked familiar.”
“She one of your nude models from school,” Lena hummed out, trying to slip back into sleep.
“No, shut up, that was her,” Kara repeated, stressing the pronoun.
One of Lena’s eyes popped open and she stared at the wall for a moment before turning on her back to look at her friend. “Her her?” She clarified, shoving herself up as much as she could. “Like, the woman that wed and bed you in Vegas, your wife her?”
“Yes!” Kara exclaimed. “I remembered! That was her at the club, and I remembered her name. It’s Lexie, or that’s what she told me anyway.”
Lena fell back on the bed and looked up at the ceiling, her fuzzy mind processing as much information as she could at present. “Lexie Danvers, that would make you Mrs. Lexie Danvers then.”
Kara rolled her eyes and shoved her friend, “Be serious Lena, I know her name now, what should I do?”
“Right now, you go to sleep, and let me sleep,” Lena replied, rolling back onto her side facing away from Kara. “Tomorrow, you’ll finish setting up your apartment while your mother comes over to help. I’ll go check in with the contractors and the meetings that I have before coming back here.”
“Lena! I mean what do I do about Lexie?”
“You know her name now, that’s a big step. We can look her up, but don’t you want to have a living room, dining room and kitchen set up before you go looking for your wife?” Kara just gave her an impatient look and Lena rolled her eyes. “Fine, I’ll look her up for you, will you let me go to sleep now?”
Kara squealed and glomped onto her friend, ignoring the light ‘oof’ that escaped the brunette. “Thanks Lena, you’re the best.”
“Yeah yeah, let go, let me sleep,” she continued to grumble as she dozed off. Kara laughed lightly as she rolled over away from the other woman, falling into a deep sleep as well.
“So Lena couldn’t find anything about this Lexie person?” Cat asked as she watched Kara moved her couch and chairs into place.
Kara shook her head as she set the couch down in front of the fireplace tilted slightly towards the entertainment cabinet that she set up earlier. “She tried different names too, Alex, Alexis, Alexandra, Alexandria, nothing registered. Lena wonders if she gave me a fake name. Danvers is on the certificate, so that’s definitely her last name, maybe Lexie is just a nickname or middle name?”
“That is entirely possible,” Cat sighed as she sat down on the couch while Kara continued setting up furniture and the refrigerator. “So what are you going to do now?”
“Well, I know she lives in National City, so it’s not like I have to search the whole country.” Kara floated up to the top cabinets in her kitchen and started stocking them with different items and appliances she had collected over the years. “I might just let it go for now. She lives here, but it didn’t seem like she was in a good place in her life. I would just complicate it even more, and I don’t want to do that.”
“Time might be the best thing,” the older blonde agree, “I don’t know much about this young woman, but it seems like she needs to grow up a bit. You do too of course, so this is probably a good thing.”
Kara rolled her eyes, “Thanks a lot Mom.”
“Just telling you the truth darling. You just got your own place, I think you need time to discover who you are a bit before jumping into a relationship with someone, even if you are married to them.”
“So you definitely think I should give it some time?” Kara asked, sitting next to her on the couch. “Do you think she, Lexie, do you think she’ll want to be in a relationship with me a few years down the line, or even just friends?”
“I don’t know Kara, I guess you’ll just have to take that chance. And what’s to say you will like her when you get to know her?”
The younger blonde giggled a little, “That’s true, what if she’s a vegan? It might kill me to give up cheese… And bacon…”
“You’re impossible sometimes.”
Kara giggled and bounced up, twirling her arms around a bit. “What do you think of the place?”
Cat’s eyes trailed around the room, lingering on the pictures of their family and friends dotting the mantel and the easel sitting near the table. “It’s very you,” she replied honestly, “It’s a nice apartment Kara, so long as you actually manage to keep it clean it might even be rather cozy.”
“I can keep it clean!”
“Right, tell that to the mess your dorm room was whenever you were working on something.”
Kara scowled before a mischievous expression crossed her face and she wiggled her fingers slightly, using her super speed to dash around her mother, tickling at her sides.
“Kara! No!” Cat laughed out, trying to maintain a scowl on her face. She tried to retaliate but Kara dodged just out of reach each time. Eventually she was unable to keep up her speed due to laughing so hard and Cat was able to grab hold of her, digging tickling fingers into sides. The two collapsed back on the couch, giggles still in their throats, trying to catch their breath.
“Did you hear that Ms. Grant chewed through another three assistants this week alone?” Kara heard the murmurs from a few of her mother’s employees sitting eating their lunch in the cafe. Her attention never strayed from the customers streaming in for the lunch rush, but she kept an ear on the group talking. She knew that her mother was tough on her employees but she didn’t know that she was having a hard time keeping assistants. Cat was a difficult woman to work for, strong, determined, and she demanded more than one hundred percent from her employees at all times, complete dedication. The woman always gave everything of herself in everything that she did, and she expected the same from the people she hired, it was any wonder that many couldn’t handle the pressure of the job.
She listened as her mother’s employees idly discussed their lives and problems at work, moaning about about how Cat treats them, but compared to the other people she heard coming into the cafe groaning about their jobs, they had it pretty well at CatCo. Cat might’ve called them incompetent and pushed them harder than probably any employer they ever had, but she paid them decent wages with benefits and she didn’t harass them. Pay wage was equal between men and women, only differing on skill, experience and job title.
A thought starting growing in the back of her mind, but she pushed it down to focus on taking and filling orders. The thought returned later that night when she was at home relaxing on her new couch, and she grabbed her laptop and pulled up the CatCo employee page. She bit her lip as she stared at the job application on her screen, and filled out the form, sending it off before she could change her mind. It took less than an hour for the HR department at CatCo to email her back, and schedule an interview with Cat at 10:15 the next day.
Kara stared at the email in disbelief for a moment before putting away her laptop and going to bed. Her mother was going to kill her, probably was going to kill her. She tossed and turned in bed for a few hours, her mind still whirling around the fact that she had an interview tomorrow to be her mother’s personal assistant. It wasn’t something she had ever considered for her future career, though she did double major in marketing and minor in journalism. She picked her degrees on the off chance that she might work at CatCo one day, but it was never a set path.
She fell into a fitful sleep and woke when sunlight started to filter in through the window. Her window’s faced south so she didn’t get any direct sunlight from the sunrise, but plenty of indirect sunlight through the day. She got ready for her interview and went into work, telling her manager that she was going to be out for a few hours for a job interview. Kara had worked for the man for more than three years, so he was willing to let her go for a few hours, even if it meant she could be getting a different job.
The blonde walked into CatCo lobby around ten and took the elevator up to the top floor of the building. She had come to visit her mother outside of work hours when nobody was around, but had never been in the building when so many were rushing around. The energy in the building was electric, exhilarating, and Kara let her senses expand to feel the buzz of motion around her. The elevator dinged at the correct floor and she was immediately assaulted by the sight of the ridiculous pink jaguar statue her mother had installed several years ago on a whim.
Kara felt someone heading in her direction and moved out of the way slightly so as not to cause a collision and the man turned a little as he fumbled with his papers. “Oh, hey, almost ran into you there,” he said sheepishly, rubbing the back of his neck.
“You didn’t, it’s okay, no harm no foul,” Kara replied, allowing her eyes to take in his button up cardigan, tie and plaid shirt combination. She wasn’t sure how her mother continued to let him exist in her presence in that outfit, but assumed he was essential to the proper functioning of the office. Or her mother tried not to pay him much attention. “If you’re okay,” the blonde continued, not missing a beat, “I’m just going to…” She pointed behind her back in the direction of the offices and turned to continue.
“Oh, um, yeah, I’m okay,” he stuttered out a bit following after her. “I’m Winn by the way, Winn Schott um Junior, just, just Winn though, and you are?”
She paused for a brief second before sticking out her hand to shake his, “Oh, Kara Gr- Danvers, Kara Danvers.”
“Wow, that’s a, um, pretty strong grip you have there,” Winn commented, shaking out his hand a bit when Kara released it.
Kara winced a bit, her nerves were getting to her. “I was always taught that a strong, firm handshake left a strong impression.”
“Well that’s, that’s definitely a strong impression then,” Winn nodded, sighing in relief as feeling returned to his appendages, “So um, what are you here for?”
“Oh, I have an interview for the assistant job with Cat Grant,” she replied, glancing around towards her mother’s office.
A confused look crossed Winn’s face as he pointed in the same direction. “Does her current assistant know that she has…” As he was speaking, a woman fled towards the elevator crying and the two just looked after her. “Yeah she knows,” he finished, slumping a bit in defeat.
“Next!” Kara heard her mother’s voice echo in the office space and the two turned to look at each other. “Where’s my 10:15?”
“Ah, that’s me, I better…” She gestured towards the office, suddenly feeling unsure at whether this was a good idea or not.
“Just be yourself, you’ll be fine,” Winn called as Kara walked away.
“Yeah,” she muttered under her breath, “That’s a great idea.” The blonde took a deep breath, firming her spine and did something she hadn’t done in a while, she sent a silent prayer to Rao that her mother wouldn’t kill her for this. “Hi Ms. Grant,” Kara waved, bouncing into her office.
Cat sighed, not yet glancing up from the papers on her desk. “I thought I told HR not to send me any more-” she froze as she glanced up, seeing her daughter standing in front of her with a folder in hand in a light sundress. “What…”
“I’m your 10:15,” Kara continued, acting as if she had never met the older woman. “Kara, Kara Danvers.”
The older woman took a moment to assess the fact that her daughter was standing in front of her in her office during the workday, acting as a total stranger and interviewing for the position as her assistant. “Millennials,” she huffed out without thinking, “The generation that thinks they’re so special, coddled, told that their opinion matters without really earning the right to have an opinion.” Her words continued to pour out as she processed the scene, “So tell me, what makes you special?”
“Nothing,” Kara blurted out before she could really think. “There’s nothing special about me, I’m 100% completely average. I’m dedicated though, I just want to help.” She stressed the last word to make her mother understand that all she was doing was trying to help her.
Cat hummed and picked up the glass of bourbon and gestured towards her balcony, and the younger woman followed her out into the sunshine and away from the prying eyes of the staff. “What are you doing here Kara?” Cat hissed out, keeping her voice down.
“I heard you were having trouble keeping an assistant,” the younger blonde returned, “Look Cat, Mom, I just want to help. You’ve done so much for me, I want to do something for you in return.”
“Kara, you don’t have to do this, I can manage with the mediocre people that HR continues to fine me,” the woman said dismissively, “You can focus on your art, or finding a job you’ll actually enjoy.”
“I want this job,” Kara insisted, “I want to help you. I can do this job, and I’ll still be able to work on my art in whatever free time I have. Isn’t this what you call paying your dues?”
“Kara…”
“I want to be useful Mom, to somebody,” she continued. “I’m not ready to be a hero, not yet, maybe not ever, but I want to be able to help you. You’re already a hero to so many people, to me… I want to help.”
Cat looked at her daughter for a moment, really looked at her. Sometimes she forgets that this giant, this maid of might she raised was still that small, frightened, impressionable little girl that clambered out of a pod close to ten years ago. A girl abandoned by her only living blood relative to her knowledge, desperate for affection and a home. Sometimes Cat forgot all of that and only saw her daughter, a strong, capable young woman who could do so many great things with her life. The two images warred with each other, but she knew that both of them were part of Kara, a little girl who lost her family, her world, and a young woman with a loving and supportive family behind her.
“I expect total dedication to this job,” Cat continued, moving back into employer mode. If Kara wanted this, wanted to help her by being her assistant, who was she to deny her daughter this one thing, one of the few things she ever asked of her. “Do you think you can do that?”
“Yes Ms. Grant,” Kara replied, “I just want to be useful.”
The older woman hummed and returned to her desk. “Well you can start by fetching me a latte, hot. I’m sure you can make arrangements for whatever other employment you have at the moment.”
“Yes Ms. Grant,” Kara popped up off her seat and strode out of the office, a wide grin threatening to break out across her face.
Cat watched as her daughter bounced out of her office and leaned back in her chair, swiveling around so that her employees couldn’t see her in her fish bowl office. “Things around here are definitely going to get interesting,” she said, biting on her glasses with a small smile. “Interesting indeed.”