Chapter 41
“Gold kryptonite?” Kara repeated, looking at Lena with wide, questioning eyes.
“Gold kryptonite,” Lena confirmed, setting her elbows on Kara’s counter and scratching her head. It had been over a week since the incident at L-Corp, the holiday season firmly behind them along with half of January. Astra was still unconscious from Corben’s assault and hidden away in Lena’s secret office with different monitors hooked up to her along with an IV line. The fact that the needle easily went into the woman’s arm when Lena tried had Kara near hyperventilating in the lab. She was comforted by her aunt’s steady, if slow, heartbeat, but whatever Corben had shot her with rendered her powerless.
“What is gold kryptonite?” The blonde continued, “What does it do?”
Lena hummed and bit into the french toast sitting on the plate in front of her. She had come over to Kara’s apartment to let her know what she had discovered about the material that hit her aunt and found her best friend stress cooking, something the blonde had picked up from her adoptive mother. The brunette just took one of the plates of stuffed french toast off of her hands and sat down at the kitchen island. “Well it’s a mineral from Krypton, obviously,” Lena muffled out around her mouthful of french toast. “I did a rudimentary scan of the area around National City for more fragments with the same radioactive composition using some of L-Corp’s satellites and drones, but didn’t find anything, just other similar traces that indicate different colors of kryptonite, which will do different things to Kryptonians.” Lena wiped her hands and pulled out a file from her purse, “I destroyed each sample after I analyzed it and ran the properties against the Kryptonian brain modeling software you helped me create.”
“Had to wear that stupid hat for like a week,” Kara grumbled, remembering helping Lena with her project but not knowing what it was for.
“You lived,” Lena quipped, not looking up from her folder. “But the purpose was to be able to check which areas of the brain the different kinds of kryptonite effected in order to determine what they would do to you if you happened to come into contact with them.” She turned the page in her folder, “Green as you know, weakens you, so it greatly reduces the overall effectiveness of your brain to process anything, making you feel sick, or weak. Blue kryptonite doesn’t appear to do anything to you, so if you want some I saved those samples. Red affects the decision making and emotional cortex of the brain, silver causes an intense fear and hallucination response, and pink… well, it awakens the sexual aspect of the brain, to what extent I’m not sure, and I don’t really want to find out.”
“Good to know,” Kara blinked, “But what does gold kryptonite do?”
“Ah, well, yes, that’s the tricky thing, there were only slight traces left on Astra’s suit, fortunately enough for me to run them through my program. The results were inconclusive, but it looked like the gold kryptonite started to change Astra on a cellular level, making her cells unable to store solar energy, and shifting them to resemble those of a human.” Lena tilted her head trying to find the words, “I guess, it would seem like the gold kryptonite effectively made her human. She still has Kryptonian biology, but basically rendered her powerless.”
A shiver of dread raced down Kara’s spine as she shuddered, thinking about what that would mean. “Corben said they were saving it for Superman,” she murmured, “But I got in the way so they targeted me, I would’ve lost my powers if Astra hadn’t stepped in and taken the shot for me.” Kara shook her head, before turning back to the situation at hand, “Will she be alright? It’s been over a week since it happened, and she hasn’t woken up yet.”
“I think her body is adjusting to being without superior abilities,” Lena told her. “Remember you blew out your powers so often when we were teenagers because of your moods you were able to get your immunizations and build up your immune system, Astra hasn’t, she’s basically starting from scratch.”
“So what does that mean exactly? She’s going to die from the common cold?”
“What is means,” Lena started, “Is that I’ve been pumping her full of immunizations and medicines that will strengthen her immune system, many that are being developed by a subsidiary of L-Corp.”
“You’re giving my aunt experimental medicines?”
“No? Well yes technically, but they’ve gone through rigorous testing and Astra was showing signs of developing the flu, which could’ve easily turned into the plague or leprosy and I was desperate,” Lena retorted.
“It’s fine… well, it’s not fine fine, but I know you didn’t do it deliberately to try and kill my aunt.”
“No no no,” the brunette replied. “Partly I wanted to see what they would do.” At the incredulous look Kara was giving her, Lena waved her hand, “Kidding, kidding, I was kidding.” She finished eating her french toast and sipped on the latte that Kara had given her, “On a slightly separate note, since we’re talking about family, have you made up with your mother yet?”
Kara just shrugged, “Not yet, after everything that happened we just… I don’t know, we never really connected. Cat went back to work, I went back to being ‘Keira.’ She stopped treating me like shit at work, though Siobhan is still around, simpering behind Cat, smirking, Rao she is such a brown-nosing snake.” She finally quit cooking and just started eating the large piles of food, Kryptonian version of stress eating, “Mom isn’t giving me the third degree anymore, but she’s not really talking to me either. I mean, even Carter has noticed that something is wrong, and texted me about why Mom and I weren’t talking, and you know how oblivious Carter can be about things.”
“Carter’s like me,” Lena pointed out. “We get too wrapped up in our studies or when we’re working on things, though we do occasionally poke our heads out to scavenge for food. Then we notice things.”
Rolling her eyes, Kara nodded, her brother and best friend were far too alike, and she blamed that on herself for bringing Lena around a lot during Carter’s formative years. “I just, I don’t know how to start the conversation with her,” she said after a few moments. “I mean, how do you really start? Just go ‘hey mom, we really need to talk about that time when you were mad at me for going out with the son you pushed me at, but then stopped being mad when you came to get me from my ultimate fantasy world.’”
“I feel like that’s not the best way to start the conversation,” Lena pointed out.
The blonde gave her friend and exasperated look and continued to plow her way through the piles of food on her counter, just eating away her feelings. She hasn’t been flying around much as Supergirl recently, still recovering from the emotional trauma of losing Krypton again and her aunt being injured while saving her from Cadmus. Krypto recovered well enough from the effects of the kryptonite flung at him, and he’s been helping out more around the city as Superdog, assisting the new hero White Canary who took the city by storm. Kara was grateful for her friends helping her out as she tried to sort things out in her mind, but she couldn’t help but feel guilty every time the media captured footage of Superdog or White Canary, asking where was Supergirl?
She was on her sixth plate of eggs and french toast, a piece of bacon sticking out of her mouth, when Lena slammed her hands down on the counter. “That does it,” the brunette said, yanking Kara out of her seat.
“Wha- Lena!” Kara protested as Lena womanhandled her out of her apartment, grabbing her coat and keys as she went. She pushed her down in her car and Kara pouted as Lena climbed into the driver’s seat and pulled out of the parking garage. “Where are we going?”
“We’re going to solve this problem,” Lena told her, “And don’t think I didn’t notice that if you really didn’t want to come, I wouldn’t have been able to make you move.”
“You caught me off guard,” Kara grumbled, folding her arms. “And if Krypto comes back and eats all of that food, he’s staying at his aunt Lena’s tonight.”
“And deal with Superdog sized gas? I don’t think so,” the brunette retorted, turning her car towards Cat’s penthouse. “He can go sleep outside somewhere, maybe fly up into the stratosphere and cause planetary extinction from all the methane, put us out of our misery.”
“You’re hilarious, you should do stand-up when you’re not being such a nerd.”
“You’re a nerd,” Lena retorted. “You’re literally an alien, you’re a bigger nerd than I am.”
“Out of the two of us, who is the most normal, the one with superpowers or the who thinks the Cardinality of the Continuum equation is beautiful?”
Lena paused before nodding her head, “Fair point, I’ll concede to that.” She pulled up in front of the apartment building and Kara peered out the window up towards the penthouse apartment where she could hear her mother and brother’s hearts beating steadily. “You can’t really talk to her if you stay in the car,” Lena pointed out, urging Kara to go talk to her mother.
“I don’t think I can…”
“Kara,” Lena sighed, turning fully to look at her best friend. “We’ve both lost moms, we lost them far earlier than we really should have, and we were given new mothers to take care of us. Mine just happens to be a raging, racist, xenophobic sociopath while yours… yours is possibly the most amazing mother ever, if a little emotionally stunted at times.” Kara cracked a smile at Lena’s words and the brunette continued, “She uses alcohol and M&M’s as crutches for stress, has a wicked sharp tongue and an even sharper mouth, and loves her children with everything within her, blood related or not.” Ducking her head a little, green eyes met blue and Lena sent her friend a comforting smile, “Cat loves you, and probably wants to sort out this issue between you both as much as you do.”
Kara glanced from her friend to the building, up to the penthouse apartment suit and sighed. “I hope you’re right,” she replied, unbuckling her seatbelt and stepping out of the car. “Oh, by the way, you call Mom ‘Cat’ a lot when she’s not around, think you’ll ever call her that in person?”
“When Hell freezes over probably,” Lena replied before pulling away from the curb, leaving Kara standing there staring after her.
She turned around and looked back up at the building, gazing through walls and floors, ignoring the amorous couple in 12C, and locked onto her mother and brother in the penthouse. Carter was in his room secretly working on a science project while his video game was running through tutorial mode to disguise his actions. The beaker over the small burner started vibrating when Carter wasn’t looking at it, and Kara darted around the building out of sight before shooting off into the air and through Carter’s open window before he could blink. She moved the beaker off of the heat before it could shatter and cradled the glass in her hand to prevent the heat from escaping and possibly ruining whatever her brother was working on.
“Kara!” Carter squeaked out, giving his sister a hug before looking at the glass in her hand. “Wait, what are you doing here?”
“I was in the area, I was coming to talk to Mom when I noticed that your experiment was about to explode and I didn’t want you to get hurt.”
Carter’s eyes widened and he whirled around to look at his project, “Ah, shoot, I had the heat turned up to high.” He turned the heat down and Kara replaced the beaker on it’s stand.
“What are you trying to do anyway?” Kara asked, “You know you’re supposed to tell Mom when you’re experimenting and not have your video game playing in tutorial mode.”
“I know, I know,” Carter sighed, scuffing his foot against the carpeted floor. “I just, I wanted this to be a surprise.”
“What?”
“I was working on developing a new perfume for Mom,” he said, sitting down on his bed. “One that was calming but also smelled good, and maybe reminded her a bit of…”
“Of?”
Carter shrugged, “Of us, you know, her family. I got nectar, leaves and blossoms of the flowers from her tattoo and I was hoping it would remind her of why she loves us and you guys would start talking again…”
“Oh Carter,” Kara sighed, sitting down next to him and tugging him into a hug. He was reluctant at first but quickly sank into her hold, his own arms wrapping around her and his head burying in her chest. “It’s… what happened between Mom and I was just a result in the breakdown of communication between us, it’s nothing for you to be concerned about.”
“But why did you guys stop talking,” Carter continued, pushing back from his sister a little. “You guys always talk, about everything, what made this different?”
Kara paused, she wasn’t sure. Her brother was right, they always used to talk about everything so why was this time so hard, why did they fracture so quickly and spectacularly? “I don’t know Carter,” she said finally. “I don’t know why this happened, but I came over here to talk to Mom, to repair what’s been broken.” She gave the teenager a hard look, “I won’t tell her you’ve been experimenting without supervision, so long as you put everything up immediately and finish your other homework.”
“I finished my homework,” Carter countered, wincing as the lie was easily detectable in his words.
“Including that book report due next week?”
“Do I have to?” Carter whined, “I don’t really want to read Romeo and Juliet, and I really don’t want to do a project for it. It’s so depressing.”
“Romeo and Juliet is so funny though,” Kara said. “You just have to read it like a bad, teenage drama story; the writing is beautiful of course, but the jokes are amazing, it’s basically a running commentary on culture and the fickleness of love. Just give it another read, you’ll find something to do your project on.”
“If you say so,” Carter sighed, pulling the book out of his backpack. “I’m just going to read this, with my headphones on, just in case there’s yelling and stuff.”
“Mom and I aren’t going to yell Carter,” Kara rolled her eyes and stood up. “But she probably will appreciate the privacy so thanks buddy.”
Carter nodded to her as she walked out the door, and Kara softly shut the door on her way out as she headed to Cat’s office. She paused outside of the doors and rested her forehead against the cool wood for a moment before slipping through into the room. “Oh Mom,” Kara sighed slightly, finding her mother sprawled out on the couch in her office, an empty bourbon glass sitting next to her on the low coffee table. “It’s not even 11 yet,” she muttered to herself as she sped out of the room to get a glass of water. “Though I guess this would count as Sunday brunch.” She propped Cat up against the arm of the couch and flicked water on her face trying to pull the older woman out of her drunken doze.
The older blonde’s face scrunched in irritation at the water drops on her face, and Cat momentarily wondered how it was raining indoors. When she opened her eyes to discover the source of the rain, she found Kara sitting in front of her on the coffee table holding a glass of water. “What’re doing?” Cat muffled out, a hand automatically coming up to run through blonde hair, straightening the wayward strands.
“Making sure your liver survives long enough to see your grandkids graduate college,” Kara replied, handing her the glass of water. “Drink up, I’m going to get you some aspirin.” There was barely a flutter of wind before Kara was back and placing two aspirin in Cat’s outstretched hand. She watched as the woman downed the pills and the glass of water, concerned etched across her face. “You know I don’t like it when you drink like that,” Kara murmured.
“It was only one glass,” Cat defended, “I didn’t get much sleep last night with the mess at the Paris office, and by the time I got that sorted out it was early. I ate some breakfast with Carter and then came in here, I must’ve fell asleep after I had that glass. She rubbed at her eyes and blinked at Kara tiredly, “Why are you here?”
“I came over to talk finally, but you’re in no state to have this conversation,” Kara said, picking her mother up off the couch and carrying her to her room.
“Kara! Put me down!”
“Mom,” the younger woman said, setting Cat down on her bed. “You need to sleep.”
“But you wanted to talk,” Cat started again, desperate longing tinting her voice. “We need to talk.”
“And we will, when you’re rested,” Kara replied, smoothing her hair back and kissing her mother on her forehead. “Sleep, I’ll be here later when you wake up.” The older woman grumbled a little bit about not being a child before slipping off into dreamland. Kara studied her mother for a few minutes, a frown etched on her face as she took in the stress lines around her mouth and on her forehead. She softly smoothed the lines away in an attempt to ease the woman’s discomfort, and Cat shifted into an easier sleep.
Kara sighed and left the room, knowing that the tension between them was part of the reason why Cat was so stressed. They hadn’t ever fought before to the point that they stopped speaking, stopped communicating, and they always worked it out within a few days. It’s been going on weeks now and nothing has reconciled, they’ve been in a holding pattern and Kara missed her mother. She hasn’t had the chance to tell her what has happened with Alex or really talk about what they both experienced under the Black Mercy. They were at a stalemate and Kara was at a loss at how to resolve it, to move past words said and actions taken.
She walked into the kitchen after leaving her mother’s room and quickly looked through the fridge and cupboards, hoping to locate something to feed Cat and Carter for lunch. It was obviously clear to Kara that Cat hasn’t placed a grocery order in a while with how bare everything looked, other than a few half eaten boxes of cereal. Carter coming over every day this week to raid her fridge suddenly made sense, though Kara had to wonder how long it’s been since her mother ate a proper meal. Kara quickly located her purse and double checked on both Cat and Carter before popping back out the window and down to the road.
As she walked the few blocks to Noonan’s to grab some lunch for them, Kara pulled out her phone and called one of Cat’s personal shoppers and dictated a grocery list to the man. Normally her mother just placed an order with the store and had it delivered, but that usually required a few days’ notice and they needed food immediately. “Brie!” Kara said, brightening when she saw her old friend. “Thank goodness you’re working today, I need a rush order on some food.”
The redhead took in the anxiety on Kara’s face and nodded her head, pulling out her notepad. “Just let me know what you want and I can let the kitchen know it’s for you so they’ll put a rush in for it.”
Kara recited her and Carter’s usual order, hesitating slightly before ordering Cat a large burger and order of onion rings. Comfort food would be good for her right about now, and the calories would stick with her if she decided to work through meals again this week. She sat down at the one of the empty tables, and Brie quickly bustled back around, dropping a glass of water off on her way. Kara pulled out her phone and started to idly scroll through different pictures of kitties and puppies that she kept for when she was feeling depressed. She was lost in the images of cute animals that she didn’t notice a familiar heartbeat approach and enter the restaurant.
The owner of the heartbeat stuttered out a gasp as she spotted Kara and warred with herself for a moment before deciding to walk over. “Kara,” she murmured, causing the blonde to freeze before looking up at her wide-eyed.
“Laurel?” Kara gasped out, staring up at her ex-girlfriend. “How… what?”
The now blonde woman smiled widely and tugged Kara out of her chair, pulling her into a hug, one that was longer than many would consider appropriate. “It’s great to see you Kara,” Laurel said when she finally released the girl and sat down across from her at the table.
“Ye-yeah, you too,” Kara replied nervously. “Um, so wh- I didn’t even know that you were back in National City? From what I understood, you had moved back to Star City and taken a job there?”
“Sara told you,” Laurel stated, a smirk on her face. “But yeah, I did, I ended up working for a non-profit charity for a while before taking a job in the DA’s office. I actually was elected district attorney for Star City this year.”
“District attorney, that’s…” Kara didn’t quite know what to say, she never really imagined running into her ex-girlfriend, nevermind sitting down with her in what used to be their place. She half wondered if the Black Mercy had an evil cousin that trapped her in her worst nightmare.
“It’s weird,” Laurel finished for her, breaking her from her thoughts. “I know, I didn’t imagine myself being district attorney of my home city, but I just kind of fell into the job really.”
“So what are you doing down here in National City?”
“Ah, well, I heard that my sister was back in town and I came down looking for her,” the older woman explained. “We… None of us have really seen her since… Well since I moved back to Star City. Communication was always… stilted between Sara and our parents, but at least she spoke to me on occasion… I haven’t really heard from her in years.”
“So you came all the way down to National City just to talk to your sister?”
Laurel nodded, “I wanted to make sure that she was okay, and that she wasn’t… doing anything she really shouldn’t be doing. I didn’t plan on running into you Kara but now that I have, I can’t up but feel grateful.”
“Laurel…”
“No Kara, don’t, look I… I don’t like the way we left it between us years ago. I fucked up, I know that, I really, really fucked up, but I can't help but think that us running into each other again is a sign that maybe we can work things out.”
“You cheated on me Laurel,” Kara said. “That's a little more than just fucking up. You cheated on me with possibly one of the worst people in the city, I mean, he works for Maxwell Lord now defending him against terrorist charges, so that doesn't exactly inspire hope in me about you.”
“James was…” Laurel didn’t exactly know what to say to Kara’s words. She didn’t much care for her ex-coworker (never would she acknowledge him as an ex-lover), even when they were working together he came off as slimy. Laurel didn’t realize it then of course, she could only see his true colors now looking back, and she couldn’t help but curse her idiocy. She lost one of the best things that ever happened to her just because she had a momentary weakness for charm, feigned intelligence, and a hefty trust fund. “James was a mistake, a horrible mistake that shouldn’t have happened, and I know, I know it only became a mistake when I got caught, but Kara, believe me, I didn’t do it to hurt you. I don’t even know what I was thinking.”
“Probably thinking that you missed it, the feel of a man rather than a woman,” Kara returned, sipping at her water distractedly. This was such a weird conversation, she didn’t even know how she ended up discussing this with her ex-lover, retreating so far back into the past as to consider what might have been… Laurel was her road untraveled, and she would always partially wondered what would’ve happened if they had stayed together, if the woman hadn’t betrayed her. An image of Alex’s face flashed through her mind, and Kara idly brushed away thoughts of Laurel. She couldn’t regret meeting Alex, being with her, despite how it was working out for her. The auburn haired woman was strong, beautiful, interesting, everything that Kara could have asked for, everything that her Kryptonian instincts searched for in a bondmate.
“You weren’t the first woman I was involved with Kara, though definitely the one that lasted the longest.” Laurel fiddled slightly with the condiments on the table, “But maybe we could try again, while I’m in town, start over…”
Kara didn’t know quite how to answer the older woman, she wasn’t really at a place where she could get in a relationship with someone else, not when there was someone else to think about. The other person she was thinking of suddenly entered her peripheral vision and Kara jumped slightly in her seat. “Al-alex,” she stuttered out, her eyes wide at the sight of the agent. “Wh- um, what are you doing here?”
Alex really didn’t know what she was doing there. Noonan’s had the best coffee in National City and she had a craving for a particular bean used by the restaurant. When Alex walked through the doors, she instantly spotted Kara sitting with another blonde woman and her feet carried her over to their table before she fully registered what she was doing. She hadn’t seen the blonde in several weeks, not since she told her that she was seeking an annulment. It was an impulsive decision, but she wasn’t sure what other option she really had. “Coffee,” Alex said, tearing her eyes away from Kara’s and shaking her mind free of thoughts that promised happily ever after; it only existed in fairy tales. “Noonan’s has the best coffee, as you know.”
“Right,” Kara replied, her mood dampening a bit. She caught the look Alex was giving both her and Laurel and she knew that she would have to clarify their relationship so the brunette doesn’t get the wrong idea. “Oh, right, um, Alex, this is my ex-girlfriend, Laurel Lance, Laurel this is my frie- um, this is Agent Alex Danvers. Laurel is visiting from Star City.”
“Agent,” Laurel mused, standing to shake the other woman’s hand. Both held firm grips, eying each other, testing their strength, their measure. “What branch do you belong with agent?”
“FBI,” the lie came out quick and smooth as Alex continued to stare at the woman across from her. “And may I ask why you have decided to visit National City Ms. Lance?”
“I’m looking for my sister Agent Danvers,” Laurel replied. “And I happened to run into Kara here while I was stopping in for some food, and I decided to try and reconnect a little.” She turned and smiled at the blonde, reaching out to stroke her hand, “We did have something amazing years ago.”
Kara momentarily wished she was back in the Phantom Zone if only to get away from the tension of this conversation. “Kara,” Brie called, “I have your order ready.” She nearly outed herself in the busy restaurant in her haste to get to the large bags of food the redhead was holding.
“Thank you,” Kara whispered. “You have no idea.”
“What’s the story there?” Brie asked, gesturing at the two women who were still staring each other down.
“Um, one’s an ex and the other is a sort of ex? Sort of, it’s complicated.”
Brie winced, “Ouch, yikes, you get on out of here away from all that drama.”
Kara nodded before turning back to look at the two women who were still locked in a stalemate. “Um, I have to… go, right, I have to go, I’ll see both of you… later.” She hesitated slightly, wanting to talk to Alex since it was the first time she’s seen the other woman since their fight, but she really wanted to be away from Laurel and all of the confusion she caused within her. Kara fled out of the restaurant, leaving Laurel and Alex behind, believing that she was escaping with her life.
Cat groaned a bit as awareness filtered through her mind caused by the sound of muffled voices and the smell of something greasy and artery clogging. Her mouth tasted like lighter fluid and regret so she quickly stumbled into her bathroom, turning the shower on to heat up while she brushed her teeth. The shower was quick but rejuvenating, and Cat exited the room wrapped in her robe. She quickly located some of her softer clothes, a well worn t-shirt and a pair of yoga pants, and pulled them on before walking out into the living room.
“Hey Mom,” Kara greeted, biting into the giant wrap she held in her hands. “I got you a cheeseburger,” she continued when she swallowed, “I figured you could use the calories, and Nate dropped off a load of groceries for you.”
Cat winced slightly at her words and realized that it has been a while since she placed a grocery order. “Thanks,” she replied, sitting down to her burger. “Where's Carter?”
“Back in his room with his food. He's working on a book report.”
The older woman nodded and bit into her food, relishing the taste but also mentally scheduling her pilates appointments. She groaned a bit at the flavor, relishing at the thick meat of the burger and the crisp quality of the vegetables. After a few more bites, she set it down in favor of sampling some of the golden onion rings in the makeshift basket, enjoying the honey beer batter flavor. Silence stretched between them, neither comforting nor tense, just there, unnecessarily. “Kara,” Cat started, trying to think of what to say. “We do need to talk.” When Kara didn’t say anything, the older woman continued to press, “Kara please.”
“Why did you do it?” Kara whispered out, her voice low. “Why did you push Adam and I together, and then cut me out when it didn’t work out?”
Cat sighed, and glanced down at her food. She knew that she would have to provide an answer to Kara, and not just the basic ‘I don’t know.’ “I think I wanted a way to make it up to Adam,” she said finally. “For not being there for him growing up, so I tried to tie him to you, someone who I knew was loving, compassionate, strong, astonishing, someone that anyone would be lucky to date.”
“Did it not seem weird to you that you were setting your son up with your daughter? Or was I no longer your daughter at that moment when the original had returned?”
“No!” Cat barked out immediately, wanting to rid that notion from Kara’s head. “You are my daughter, blood related or not. I’ve taken care of you, fed you, loved you, that’s what makes a mother, a family, not just blood relation to each other.”
“Then why Cat?!” Kara cried, “Why any of this?”
“I really wish that I could give you an answer that was suitable, one that fully explained my actions and the reasons behind them but I don’t have anything like that,” she said, green eyes staring into blue. “I’m not going to make excuses, I made a terrible decision, a series of terrible decisions. I pushed you away because I realized that I made a mistake by insisting you two go out on a date, and I didn’t want to admit that it was a mistake and I snapped at you without thinking.”
“I’ve really needed you these past few weeks Cat,” Kara sniffed, wiping at her eyes. “There’s things… I really needed you, needed my mother, but you made yourself emotionally unavailable. You clouded work and personal lives, something that you told me you wouldn’t do, and I just… I just can’t help but wonder why, what did I do that was so terrible Cat? I told Adam I didn’t want to date him, just wanted to be friends, and you flipped out that he overreacted. You basically blamed me for not wanting to date him.”
“I am so sorry Kara,” Cat whispered out again, wiping at the tears that started to fall down her face. “I’m so sorry.”
Kara glanced down at her food, pushing her mozzarella sticks around idly as she stared at what was left of her wrap. “Alex found out,” she said after a few moments. “She found out I was Supergirl and that we were married. She… she didn’t take it well, either of those things…”
“Oh Kara…”
“I needed you Mom,” Kara stressed again. Tears fell down her own face but she ignored them. “I needed you to tell me that it was going to be okay, that everything would work out, but you were too busy ignoring me for a perceived slight against your son.”
“What can I do Kara?” Cat pleaded, “What can I do to show you how sorry I am, that you are as much my child as Adam, that you are just as important to me.”
The younger blonde just shook her head, “I don’t know Mom, I don’t know.”