Alphabet Soup Table - 21. Undulating - Supergirl
Title: A Role Model's Inspiration
Author: Kat Lee
Fandom: Supergirl
Character/Pairing: Cat/Kara
Rating: G/K
Challenge/Prompt: FemSlash100100 Alphabet Soup: 21: Undulating (I FINALLY got it!!)
Warning(s): Spoilers
Word Count: 1,982
Date Written: 9 September 2018
Summary:
Disclaimer: All characters within belong to DC Comics, not the author, and are used without permission.
The world looked to her for inspiration. Women revered her as a role model; she had encountered countless reporters and other career women who held her up on a pedestal and had started their whole careers because they admired her and what she had done with her time in the world. Men lusted after her as a sex object who could do much more than just keep them happy in the bedroom. She was bombarded with kids any time she stepped foot in a school, a mall, or anywhere else the little brats happened to be in packs. The whole world looked to her, but sometimes, though she would never admit it out loud, Cat Grant needed someone to whom she could look.
Her mother had been a strong woman, but she had left very little impression on the world after her death, certainly nothing like Cat’s impression upon it. She had eclipsed her mother’s fame like the sun shining its bold light onto a shadowy place until there was very little darkness left in it. That tiny bit of darkness that remained was the tiny bit of her mother that was remembered, but Katherine Grant had made Cat a stronger woman. She had made her strong, but she had never once, for as long as Cat could remember, held her up. She had expected her to be strong and stand on her own, even as a child.
Cat could stand on her own now against almost anything. She had survived several near-apocalypses and had faced down both metahumans and aliens, not to mention the plethora of human criminals who had thought they could get rich off of abducting her. She was the strongest woman she knew. Most of the world thought she had no feelings, that she was a rock. Very few knew how wrong that belief was.
Cat did feel. She just didn’t often allow herself to give in to her emotions. She couldn’t afford to. Her enemies and the world would eat her alive. Press hounds would grab onto that moment of weakness, and before she could blink, her sad, sorrowful face would be across thousands of magazines all around the globe. She would go from being admired and revered to being just another pretty face over which the world had trod in its rash greed. She would never allow that to happen.
But sometimes . . . Sometimes, she needed to feel. Sometimes she grew so weary of not allowing herself to feel, of trying to be the rock which everybody expected her to be, that she just needed to feel something, anything, to know she still lived and she wasn’t just the robotic rock that the rest of the world thought of her as. She was a feeling, living, breathing, caring human being.
She cared more than almost anybody else would ever know. There were a very select few who she let into her life and even fewer who she allowed to slip glances at her true self. Even most of those, Cat knew she couldn’t trust and remained ready to defend herself against with her next breath. But a woman needed friends. She needed them more than fame, wealth, or even power, although Cat would never admit it aloud. She needed a safe haven.
For years, that secret safe haven had been a place only witnessed by Cat’s brilliantly cunning mind. No other person could access it or even imagine it. It was inside of her, her deepest, darkest, most well protected secret, but now, that place was being replaced by another. Now her refuge was a living, breathing being, much as she herself was. Her refuge was watched by the world, but like Cat herself, very few people actually saw her for the amazing, young woman she was. Even fewer knew of the true face behind Supergirl, the young woman who had struggled hard to earn Cat’s respect and had finally received it in such a measure that she would never lose it.
The fact that Kara constantly saved the world as Supergirl was only a small amount of the reason why Cat admired her so greatly. Kara saw everything in the world. She saw more evil than most women, especially girls her age, would ever know existed; yet she sought out and focused on the good that was left in the world. She let nothing dampen her spirits, nothing darken her, nothing change the heroine she was.
Cat watched her now, a small smile playing over her lips. Kara didn’t know she had become aware of her presence. Something had called her attention away from Cat’s new office window; as her back was now turned to her, Cat was free to watch her. She watched the way her long, blonde hair and bright, red cape fluttered undulating in the wind. She eyed those strong shoulders and remembered how it had felt so many times to be carried in her arms. Kara had saved her rather frequently back in National City, but she would never know that the greatest threat she had saved her from was her own darkening soul.
She’d come so close, Cat remembered, to losing the true purpose of her life. She’d worked her to build her fame and fortune, and once she had climbed to the top of the ladder, she’d become so eased and accustomed to getting her way that she’d forgotten why she’d started climbing in the first place. It hadn’t only been for her. It had been for girls like her, and like Kara, for young women who were overpowered by the men in this world and could barely take a stand for themselves.
And now she was taking a stand all over again, bolder and bigger than ever before. Something trembled deep inside of Cat. A part of her wanted to turn tail and flee back to National City, run back to the nice and reassuring comforts of her own company. But if she stayed behind the glass doors of CatCo, she would never make the magnitude of change she stood to make with her new position. Yes, she was only the Press Secretary for the President of the United States of America, but she was more than that too. She had the ear of her old ally. Cat had always been adept at convincing people to do what she wanted, and the President was no exception to that general rule.
Kara had been, though. She had stood up for what was right and against what was wrong every single time, no matter what she’d had to gain from it. She had never once backed down from her in important matters although she had flown to get her frappe whenever Cat had barked and had always been afraid she’d gotten something wrong when she’d returned with her orders. But in all the things that had mattered, she had never once wavered.
She might inspire the world, Cat thought, but she herself was inspired by a young slip of a girl who was no less a hero in or out of costume. In fact, as Kara Danvers, she might even be more of a heroine than Supergirl for in her civilian personality, she could not access Supergirl’s gifts. She didn’t have her super strength; she had only the super strength and valor of her own heart. And that was what had changed Cat Grant’s world and outlook forever.
Cat’s lips lifted into a trembling smile. She started to move away just as Kara turned and caught sight of her. She could have pretended that she wasn’t watching her. She could have busied her gaze with any number of things in her new office. But she didn’t. She caught her gaze, held it, and smiled.
And her breath left her in a great whoosh when Kara smiled back at her. All over again, Cat found herself wishing she hadn’t left National City, though now for an entirely different purpose. If she had stayed, there was no telling what might have grown between herself and Kara. They were already friends, but they may well have become much more than friends. She had never felt such strong attraction to another woman, but then too, Cat had never once been touched like Kara had touched her heart, soul, and life.
Hesitantly, she raised a hand and opened it. She splayed her fingers and gave her heroine a tiny wave. Kara’s answering smile was brighter and bolder than the sun itself. She waved eagerly back at her and then mouthed words that Cat would remember and hold close to her heart for a long time, “You can do this, Miss Grant.” Supergirl believed in her! Kara believed in her, and that was all the answer Cat needed to know that she had not made a wrong decision and that she would use her new, powerful position to improve the lives of millions of little girls, little girls who had once been like herself and Kara when they were children, set apart from the rest of the world because of their differences yet still needing to be loved and to be heard.
They were more alike, she reflected than most people ever realized. That was something that Kara had taught her well, perhaps the most important lesson she’d taught her. People like Supergirl and like Cat herself were needed by the world, by every female voice in the nation that might otherwise not be heard. They were needed to make a difference, to improve the world, and yet they’d all started out the same way. They’d all started out needing to be loved for the girls they were.
Tears came unbidden to Cat’s eyes. She pushed them down, her irises hardening against the moisture, but did not give herself away by actually, physically wiping them away. She smiled up at Supergirl. Kara’s smile widened. She started to fly closer to the window but then stopped and lifted her head as though she was listening to something. Cat watched her, and then watched her fly away. Undoubtedly she’d heard a call for help. Cat was well familiar with those, but now she would never let another go unanswered in her vicinity.
They would both help any way they could, and Cat could provide far more aid and inspiration to all the girls in the world from this new position than she ever could sitting behind her desk at CatCo. What she had said before was right: She was too comfortable there, and she still wanted to make a difference. She would make a difference. She would make the world a better place. It was still possible after all. Her Supergirl was living proof of that and living proof of, no matter how loudly or often she protested that it was otherwise, Cat Grant still cared. She always would, and she always work to improve the lives of all those little girls who would come after herself and Supergirl, of the next generation and the one behind them and the one behind them and so forth and so on, all of whom revered them both, Cat Grant and Supergirl, as heroes.
Cat smiled as she watched a flash of red, white, and blue far out in the setting sun. She knew that was her Supergirl. Kara would always be her Supergirl, even if she never knew it, and Cat would always love her, admire her, and most of all, be grateful to her, even if she never said the words aloud. She could do this! Cat thought, squaring her shoulders. Kara believed in her, and as long as Kara knew she could do it, Cat knew, too, that she could. She turned and headed out to meet her destiny and finally make the world a better place, just as she’d always secretly dreamed of doing.
The End
Author: Kat Lee
Fandom: Supergirl
Character/Pairing: Cat/Kara
Rating: G/K
Challenge/Prompt: FemSlash100100 Alphabet Soup: 21: Undulating (I FINALLY got it!!)
Warning(s): Spoilers
Word Count: 1,982
Date Written: 9 September 2018
Summary:
Disclaimer: All characters within belong to DC Comics, not the author, and are used without permission.
The world looked to her for inspiration. Women revered her as a role model; she had encountered countless reporters and other career women who held her up on a pedestal and had started their whole careers because they admired her and what she had done with her time in the world. Men lusted after her as a sex object who could do much more than just keep them happy in the bedroom. She was bombarded with kids any time she stepped foot in a school, a mall, or anywhere else the little brats happened to be in packs. The whole world looked to her, but sometimes, though she would never admit it out loud, Cat Grant needed someone to whom she could look.
Her mother had been a strong woman, but she had left very little impression on the world after her death, certainly nothing like Cat’s impression upon it. She had eclipsed her mother’s fame like the sun shining its bold light onto a shadowy place until there was very little darkness left in it. That tiny bit of darkness that remained was the tiny bit of her mother that was remembered, but Katherine Grant had made Cat a stronger woman. She had made her strong, but she had never once, for as long as Cat could remember, held her up. She had expected her to be strong and stand on her own, even as a child.
Cat could stand on her own now against almost anything. She had survived several near-apocalypses and had faced down both metahumans and aliens, not to mention the plethora of human criminals who had thought they could get rich off of abducting her. She was the strongest woman she knew. Most of the world thought she had no feelings, that she was a rock. Very few knew how wrong that belief was.
Cat did feel. She just didn’t often allow herself to give in to her emotions. She couldn’t afford to. Her enemies and the world would eat her alive. Press hounds would grab onto that moment of weakness, and before she could blink, her sad, sorrowful face would be across thousands of magazines all around the globe. She would go from being admired and revered to being just another pretty face over which the world had trod in its rash greed. She would never allow that to happen.
But sometimes . . . Sometimes, she needed to feel. Sometimes she grew so weary of not allowing herself to feel, of trying to be the rock which everybody expected her to be, that she just needed to feel something, anything, to know she still lived and she wasn’t just the robotic rock that the rest of the world thought of her as. She was a feeling, living, breathing, caring human being.
She cared more than almost anybody else would ever know. There were a very select few who she let into her life and even fewer who she allowed to slip glances at her true self. Even most of those, Cat knew she couldn’t trust and remained ready to defend herself against with her next breath. But a woman needed friends. She needed them more than fame, wealth, or even power, although Cat would never admit it aloud. She needed a safe haven.
For years, that secret safe haven had been a place only witnessed by Cat’s brilliantly cunning mind. No other person could access it or even imagine it. It was inside of her, her deepest, darkest, most well protected secret, but now, that place was being replaced by another. Now her refuge was a living, breathing being, much as she herself was. Her refuge was watched by the world, but like Cat herself, very few people actually saw her for the amazing, young woman she was. Even fewer knew of the true face behind Supergirl, the young woman who had struggled hard to earn Cat’s respect and had finally received it in such a measure that she would never lose it.
The fact that Kara constantly saved the world as Supergirl was only a small amount of the reason why Cat admired her so greatly. Kara saw everything in the world. She saw more evil than most women, especially girls her age, would ever know existed; yet she sought out and focused on the good that was left in the world. She let nothing dampen her spirits, nothing darken her, nothing change the heroine she was.
Cat watched her now, a small smile playing over her lips. Kara didn’t know she had become aware of her presence. Something had called her attention away from Cat’s new office window; as her back was now turned to her, Cat was free to watch her. She watched the way her long, blonde hair and bright, red cape fluttered undulating in the wind. She eyed those strong shoulders and remembered how it had felt so many times to be carried in her arms. Kara had saved her rather frequently back in National City, but she would never know that the greatest threat she had saved her from was her own darkening soul.
She’d come so close, Cat remembered, to losing the true purpose of her life. She’d worked her to build her fame and fortune, and once she had climbed to the top of the ladder, she’d become so eased and accustomed to getting her way that she’d forgotten why she’d started climbing in the first place. It hadn’t only been for her. It had been for girls like her, and like Kara, for young women who were overpowered by the men in this world and could barely take a stand for themselves.
And now she was taking a stand all over again, bolder and bigger than ever before. Something trembled deep inside of Cat. A part of her wanted to turn tail and flee back to National City, run back to the nice and reassuring comforts of her own company. But if she stayed behind the glass doors of CatCo, she would never make the magnitude of change she stood to make with her new position. Yes, she was only the Press Secretary for the President of the United States of America, but she was more than that too. She had the ear of her old ally. Cat had always been adept at convincing people to do what she wanted, and the President was no exception to that general rule.
Kara had been, though. She had stood up for what was right and against what was wrong every single time, no matter what she’d had to gain from it. She had never once backed down from her in important matters although she had flown to get her frappe whenever Cat had barked and had always been afraid she’d gotten something wrong when she’d returned with her orders. But in all the things that had mattered, she had never once wavered.
She might inspire the world, Cat thought, but she herself was inspired by a young slip of a girl who was no less a hero in or out of costume. In fact, as Kara Danvers, she might even be more of a heroine than Supergirl for in her civilian personality, she could not access Supergirl’s gifts. She didn’t have her super strength; she had only the super strength and valor of her own heart. And that was what had changed Cat Grant’s world and outlook forever.
Cat’s lips lifted into a trembling smile. She started to move away just as Kara turned and caught sight of her. She could have pretended that she wasn’t watching her. She could have busied her gaze with any number of things in her new office. But she didn’t. She caught her gaze, held it, and smiled.
And her breath left her in a great whoosh when Kara smiled back at her. All over again, Cat found herself wishing she hadn’t left National City, though now for an entirely different purpose. If she had stayed, there was no telling what might have grown between herself and Kara. They were already friends, but they may well have become much more than friends. She had never felt such strong attraction to another woman, but then too, Cat had never once been touched like Kara had touched her heart, soul, and life.
Hesitantly, she raised a hand and opened it. She splayed her fingers and gave her heroine a tiny wave. Kara’s answering smile was brighter and bolder than the sun itself. She waved eagerly back at her and then mouthed words that Cat would remember and hold close to her heart for a long time, “You can do this, Miss Grant.” Supergirl believed in her! Kara believed in her, and that was all the answer Cat needed to know that she had not made a wrong decision and that she would use her new, powerful position to improve the lives of millions of little girls, little girls who had once been like herself and Kara when they were children, set apart from the rest of the world because of their differences yet still needing to be loved and to be heard.
They were more alike, she reflected than most people ever realized. That was something that Kara had taught her well, perhaps the most important lesson she’d taught her. People like Supergirl and like Cat herself were needed by the world, by every female voice in the nation that might otherwise not be heard. They were needed to make a difference, to improve the world, and yet they’d all started out the same way. They’d all started out needing to be loved for the girls they were.
Tears came unbidden to Cat’s eyes. She pushed them down, her irises hardening against the moisture, but did not give herself away by actually, physically wiping them away. She smiled up at Supergirl. Kara’s smile widened. She started to fly closer to the window but then stopped and lifted her head as though she was listening to something. Cat watched her, and then watched her fly away. Undoubtedly she’d heard a call for help. Cat was well familiar with those, but now she would never let another go unanswered in her vicinity.
They would both help any way they could, and Cat could provide far more aid and inspiration to all the girls in the world from this new position than she ever could sitting behind her desk at CatCo. What she had said before was right: She was too comfortable there, and she still wanted to make a difference. She would make a difference. She would make the world a better place. It was still possible after all. Her Supergirl was living proof of that and living proof of, no matter how loudly or often she protested that it was otherwise, Cat Grant still cared. She always would, and she always work to improve the lives of all those little girls who would come after herself and Supergirl, of the next generation and the one behind them and the one behind them and so forth and so on, all of whom revered them both, Cat Grant and Supergirl, as heroes.
Cat smiled as she watched a flash of red, white, and blue far out in the setting sun. She knew that was her Supergirl. Kara would always be her Supergirl, even if she never knew it, and Cat would always love her, admire her, and most of all, be grateful to her, even if she never said the words aloud. She could do this! Cat thought, squaring her shoulders. Kara believed in her, and as long as Kara knew she could do it, Cat knew, too, that she could. She turned and headed out to meet her destiny and finally make the world a better place, just as she’d always secretly dreamed of doing.
The End