Chapter Five

There was softness and warmth and light. The softness beneath her cheek and the warmth around her body reminded her of her bed on Krypton, where the synthetic fibers were softer than silk. The light though, it was paler than the red sun of Krypton. Kara's eyelids twitched slightly as her thoughts meandered on the edge of consciousness. Pale sun. Yellow sun. Earth, not Krypton.

And suddenly Kara's heart was racing, her breath lodged in her throat as she sat straight up and her eyes opened, scanning the room, wild with panic. Because softness and warmth and light were not parts of her life on Earth anymore. Yet bright sunshine bathed her in a golden glow, and as she clenched her fists, her fingers clutched a thick down duvet.

She rushed to her feet, looking down to see that her fight suit was gone and she wore only her underwear and a thin t-shirt. She had been conditioned not to react to any bodily discomfort but she yanked the blanket from the foot of the bed and wrapped it around herself, hoping that stealing some physical comfort wasn't going to result in punishment.

This place was nothing like LordTech, but where else could she be? She remembered a woman with tumbling blonde curls and a man, rough and mean. She remembered falling and the look in green eyes as her own slipped closed. At least the woman had been safe. Would she have called an ambulance for her? But this was no hospital. She must have seen her wrists. Must have called LordTech. Because an escaped Alpha was dangerous.

With halting steps, Kara moved to the door, hand poised over the knob, needing to get out, to run, to find out what was happening. Her fingers strained to grab the doorknob, but she couldn't do it. If this was LordTech then why was she in this room? Was this was all an elaborate trap? If she opened the door, would she find grey concrete and guards with heavy fists? Would she find herself in the General Population that those same guards had laughed darkly about. Was the loss of this seeming dream-world to be her final mental torture before Maxwell Lord flung her back into the nightmare of her life?

She couldn't do it. If they wanted her, they would have to come in and drag her out. She spun quickly, feeling the tug of pain in her shoulder. Her powers were still gone. She had no way to defend herself and she looked around for something she could turn into a weapon, but there was nothing. The only light fixture was the ceiling light. The nightstand beside the bed held nothing heavier than a woven coaster and a CatCo magazine. A chair in the corner was positioned to catch the first rays of sun, and there was a well-used throw pillow on the cushion, but nothing else. Nothing that could help her.

In the corner she saw another door, partially open, with tile floor visible. Kara rushed over, half-tripping over her blanket, and fumbling with the light switch on the wall when she got there. It was a bathroom, quietly luxurious with plush towels hanging on the wall and fruit-scented hand wash in a cut-glass pump beside the sink. Even the tub was oversized and had a surround of tiny glass tiles, blue and green and grey like the ocean.

The tub was her destination, and Kara climbed in, the surface cold and hard, but her body shielded somewhat by the blanket she kept tightly around her shoulders. She would see anyone who even approached the door, and she would be ready. They could drag her out, but she wouldn't make it easy. She had seen freedom and she would fight for herself one more time before surrendering to her pitiful fate.

Yet as she sat there, rocking slightly back and forth, hands tangled in the blanket, the panic slowly receded leaving only resignation in its wake.

Her mind drifted to parts of her training. She remembered being strapped to a chair and forced to watch video of other Alphas beaten, tortured, even killed. If she made any show of emotion she was thrust into an isolation chamber with the sounds of pain and suffering echoing against the metal sides and filling her mind. By the end, she had been able to watch the most brutal acts without even blinking. She wasn't normal anymore. She had never been human, but now? Could any small spark of soul left within really overcome that?

Of course the woman had called LordTech. She had watched her kill a man right in front of her. Well, she thought he was still alive, but she had certainly meant to kill him. And it hadn't even given Kara pause. If not for the knife in her shoulder, she knew she would have finished him. Would have watched his blood drip from his ears as she cracked his skull. Would have done the same to anyone she saw as a threat.

But he hadn't been a threat to her. She had done it to save that woman, the one with the green eyes. Kara's face twisted in confusion trying to believe that some innate part of herself had pushed her to help. That she wasn't just an Alpha.

As the sun rose higher over the National City horizon, Kara continued to sit, eyes trained on the doorway, and oblivious to the other occupants of the penthouse.

Carter Grant had been taken to his summer robotics camp, and Cat had given the nanny an early paycheck after informing her that she would be working from home for the remainder of the week. Carter would be spending the following week with his father, so the woman had been happy to start her vacation early. A few phone calls later and Cat was ready to start her work day. She'd told her assistant to change all of her in person meetings to conference calls and had postponed a luncheon with two of the more pompous members of CatCo's board of directors. She admitted to herself that she probably would have found a way to delay that event even if she hadn't had a Kryptonian Alpha fighter lying in her guest room.

She had checked on the Alpha - Kara, she kept reminding herself - several times during the night, but hadn't gone near the guest room since morning had come. She hadn't wanted to rouse any suspicions in Carter. The room was the one closest to her own master bedroom, but it was no longer in regular use even as a guest room. It had once been Carter's nursery and was the smallest room in the penthouse.

James had told Cat that the loss of her powers might cause Kara to sleep for the entire day as she recharged. She had opened all of the blinds and pushed the curtains aside to allow as much sunlight as possible to flood the room. She wasn't exactly sure what she was going to do once Kara was at full-power and full-strength, but she wanted the woman to heal as quickly as possible and the sun would no doubt help.

It was after nine a.m. and Cat still hadn't heard any sounds from inside the guest room, and she assumed that Kara was still sleeping. The other thing that James had told her was that Kara would need more food than the average human, and so she was torn between letting the woman sleep and attempting to wake and feed her. Taking a sip of her coffee before setting it down on her desk, she decided that she would at least check on Kara before she started her work.

When she actually got to the guest room door, Cat became more hesitant. She hadn't been at all worried about checking on Kara during the night. Then, she had known that the woman would no doubt be sleeping, but now, she wasn't at all sure. She wasn't sure, and she didn't know what she would find if Kara was awake. While she'd talked a good game to James, the truth was that she knew that having an Alpha in her home carried serious risks. Sure, Kara had protected her in the park, but that could have been nothing more than instinct. Instinct that would now turn the Kryptonian against her if she was feeling trapped.

Cat took a deep breath and opened the door. She couldn't stand in the hall all morning wondering 'what if', she had to face whatever reality held for her. As she swung the door open gently, she glanced around the room and her brows drew together in confusion. The room was empty, but she knew she hadn't heard the door open, and she certainly would have noticed the blonde roaming through the penthouse. None of the windows were open or broken, so clearly she hadn't flown off anywhere.

Stepping inside the room, Cat saw that the bathroom door was open half-way and the light was on. She really didn't want to approach the girl in such a small area. She feared that it might seem threatening and confrontational, but she didn't see that she had much of a choice. Kara might have gotten up to use the bathroom and then passed out, further injuring herself.

With slow steps, she rounded the bed and moved towards the bathroom, slowly pressing the door further open when she got there. The sight that met her eyes both frightened her and broke her heart.

Kara was still sitting in the tub, completely wrapped up in the blanket from the bed, with only her face and her blonde hair visible. Here eyes were huge, and Cat couldn't tell if she was even seeing her or was lost in some terror within her mind. Because it was clear that the woman was scared out of her mind. She was moving slightly, just back and forth, back and forth, while those blue, blue eyes stared right through her.

"Kara?"

And the woman suddenly startled and then blinked as if she couldn't understand what she had just heard. In truth, she couldn't believe it. She hadn't heard her name uttered by anyone but Alex or Maxwell Lord in almost two years. It sounded strange coming from this new voice. This green-eyed woman. She blinked again, several times in rapid succession, trying to discover if this was real or a jumble of thoughts and dreams. Why would this woman be here? Where was here? What was going to happen to her now? She clutched at the blanket tighter and started rocking a little faster.

"Kara... That is your name, isn't it?" Cat said, trying to keep her voice slow and calm although her heart was pounding fast within her chest.

For a moment Kara didn't know what to answer. Didn't know if this was a trick or a tortured hallucination, or the real world. Sadly, that last seemed like the least likely option.

"You're safe here. I had you brought here last night," Cat explained. "You remember the park? You helped me. You kept that man from - well, never mind about that. You were hurt and I had you brought here and had a doctor look at you."

At that, Kara startled again, much more violently. Doctors were never good. Never. She had to get out. She had to run from this place before any other doctors came for her. With jerking motions, she started to scramble out of the tub, but she struggled to get her legs untangled from the blanket and pitched forward over the side. Only Cat's quick dash across the room kept her from slamming her head against the tile floor, but when she realized what she was doing, she just as quickly righted the other woman and stepped back, holding her hands in the air and trying to seem as non-threatening as possible.

"I swear, you're safe here. The doctor is a friend of mine. He's not going to tell anyone you're here, and neither am I. You're injured and your powers are gone, and you need a safe place to rest. This place."

Kara's eyes snapped up to meet Cat's at the mention of her powers. So this woman did know that she was an Alpha. This woman knew what she was capable of and was still offering her a place to hide and rest.

"My name is Cat Grant. Maybe you've heard of me? CatCo Worldwide Media. CatCo Magazine, etcetera, etcetera," she said adding a slight flourish with her hand.

Kara had thought she'd seen something familiar when she'd stared at the woman in the park. She'd felt memories pricking at the back of her mind, and now she felt them becoming less foggy, less shrouded by the conditioning that taught her that anything prior to LordTech was unimportant and even dangerous to think about. Kara looked up at Cat, still somewhat fearfully, and nodded her head just once.

It was enough for Cat, and she breathed a long sigh of relief before saying, "And you're Kara Zor-El. Is that right?"

Kara's eyes took on a more frightened and haunted look again. That name was something she had been trained to reject, even as she'd clung to it in her heart. She nodded again, slowly.

"Well then, now we've settled on who we both are, I am going to leave and get you something to eat and something to wear." She motioned to the blanket. "I'm sorry we took your clothes, but we needed to cut your top off to treat your shoulder, and then it seemed simplest to remove the whole thing."

She backed out of the room slowly, watching as Kara relaxed slightly.

"That tub is not the most comfortable place to sit, so I suggest you come out here and get back into bed," Cat said, trying to make her voice sound gentle but confident.

However long Kara had been held by LordTech, she had obviously learned to obey commands, and to fear personal choice. She hoped that providing some concrete guidance would make her feel more secure. As she continued to back away and then turned, she saw Kara begin to move, extricating herself from the blanket. Cat let out another quietly held breath and left the room quickly.

Once in the hall, she shut the door and then leaned back against it, breathing hard and staring at a point high on the opposite wall. She had not expected that to be so terrifying, and she hoped that at least some small amount of progress had been made.

On the other side of the door, Kara moved, step by slow step, out to the bedroom, dragging the blanket in one hand. She looked around, her eyes darting to every corner to make sure that her new captor was gone. Cat Grant. Not really her captor. Kara wasn't sure what she was. A protector? That couldn't possibly be right. Kara shook her head, trying to settle the confusing thoughts that swirled within.

She looked at the bed. Cat Grant had told her to get back in bed, but it was right near the door. It was the first thing anyone would see when they entered. Too open. To exposed. Kara looked around the room and then pushed the chair further from the window. She pulled the duvet from the bed and piled it onto the floor where the chair had been and then curled up in a tight ball on top of it. The chair and the bed blocked her from view, but she could still see just the top of the door. Pulling the blanket over herself she kept her eyes focused on the the door and wondered when it would open again. Cat Grant had said she was safe, but her heart still beat fast, like bird wings fluttering against her ribs. Even if she was safe for now, she didn't think she would ever fly again.