DISCLAIMERS

1. This is a fan fiction based on characters owned by DC Comics. I DO NOT OWN THEM. This is just for fun.

2. This is a femslash story. If you don't like that sort of thing, you won't like this.

Cat Grant entered the DEO training room, knowing what she would find. If she had not already talked to her sister-in-law, the sounds emanating from the room, reverberating through the entire complex, were a dead giveaway.

The media mogul sighed as she took in the sight before her. There, in the middle of the room, was a young woman continually pounding her fists into a slab of metal. The slab was a foot thick, but it almost crumbled like paper with each punch. After all, the woman giving it such grief was the Girl of Steel, the Maid of Might, National City's own superheroine and protector.

And the love of Cat Grant's life.

Supergirl's face was one of pure agony as she continued to waylay the metal. But it was not due to physical pain: if anything, she was going easy on the slab. Cat's scowl - already causing dreadful wrinkles - deepened as she strode forwards. Her sweet, sunny wife was in an uncharacteristically-foul mood all day, and Cat was determined to discover why.

She ignored the deafening clangs as knuckles continued to batter metal. "Kara."

Too engrossed in her current activity, Supergirl did not even know Cat was there. A second call of her name made no difference. Nor a third. Cat rolled her eyes and tutted. "KIERA!"

Just like that, the heroine spun around and gasped. "Cat!" She looked completely dumbfounded. "What... what are you doing here?"

Cat's ears took a second to enjoy the fact the metal pummelling had stopped. "I might ask you the same question," she eventually responded.

"You know I often come here to work out," said Supergirl - AKA Kara Danvers-Grant Zor-El. She was in her supersuit, apart from her cape, which Cat could tell her wife simply dumped on the floor unceremoniously. "Is something wrong? Is Carter OK?"

"Carter's fine," Cat whispered. "It's you I'm worried about." She took more steps forward until she was close enough to reach out and stroke Kara's arm.

"I'm fine," replied the Kryptonian through grit teeth. "Just thought I'd get some practice in."

"Yes, because punching inanimate objects is a skill that always needs honing." Cat raised her hand and cupped her beautiful wife's face. "Kara, you've been in a dreadful mood all day. I can read you like a book. If you haven't been moping about the house looking like you wanted to murder someone, then you've been on the verge of tears."

Kara's voice cracked. "I'm fine, really... "

"I know you're not. Carter knows. Alex knows." Cat's voice softened, adopting the tone only her wife and son had the privilage to hear. "Please tell me what's wrong."

Something in Kara seemed to switch, as her jaw clenched and her eyes became almost dead. For a split second, Cat feared she fell under red kryptonite again. "Wrong?" spat the heroine. "Why would anything be wrong? Everything's just as it should be." She tore herself from Cat's touch, causing the CatCo CEO to almost flinch. "It's not like I'm a complete failure."

Cat's eyes widened. What... ?

Kara turned back to the slab of metal. "It's not like I spent years and years stuck in a timeless limbo." Her body began trembling. "It's not like I completely failed in my mission to protect my cousin. It's not like I failed my father... " Suddenly, she gave the metal a violent punch, much harder than when Cat entered the room. "My mother... " Another slam. "My aunt... "

"Kara... "

"It's not like I missed years... and years... until my... baby cousin... became older than me... " With each pause, Kara gave the metal another swing.

Cat wanted to step closer, to grab hold of her wife and make her stop, but she was far too stunned to move.

"I was clearly meant to lose so... many... years!... " growled the Kryptonian, inbetween each hammering blow. "I was clearly!... meant to be here now!... instead of... ages ago!" The metal was barely clinging onto its chain from which it was hanging. "I was meant to!... miss Kal's childhood!... to miss!... everything!"

Finally Cat's feet began to work. She stepped closer, her need to comfort her wife overriding the pain each fist-on-metal caused her ears. "Kara, please... "

"I was meant to be with!... you!... now!... and not!... YEARS AGO!" With one final strike, Kara shattered the chainlink, sending the metal slab flying down the other end of the room. It smashed into the far wall, breaking in two.

Cat stared wide-eyed, while Kara's chest was heaving. Had the heroine's back not been to her, Cat would have seen the red of her heat vision. But by the time Cat spun Kara around to face her, her eyes were back to normal.

Except they were not. Cat's heart nearly broke at the torment and pain in her wife's usually-joyful orbs. "Kara... "

Kara then broke down, her face contorting into pure agony. Tears began trickling down her cheeks. "Please... " she whimpered, "please don't... leave me... "

Cat's heart skipped. She had no idea her darling was this bad. What the hell was going on? "Kara... my sweet, sweet angel, please tell me what's wrong." She cupped Kara's face with both hands.

"I... I lost so... so much time... " stammered the heroine. "W... we... lost so m... much time... "

Oh God. Cat's worst fears were confirmed. Kara had clearly, for some reason, finally comprehended the fact Cat was old. What else could she mean? And the worst thing was... Cat agreed. Indeed, she always knew she was too old for the Kryptonian, and that was before she learnt Kara would age slower on Earth. But Cat thought Kara saw beyond that, that their love overcame their age difference. Clearly, the Queen of All Media was wrong. It was a bitter pill to swallow. "I... I'm sorry I'm so old, Kara." Cat's voice was barely audible, even with Kara's superhearing.

Kara suddenly looked at her with abject terror. "NO!" she screamed. "Rao, no!" She then mirrored Cat's pose and took the media mogul's face in her own hands. "You... you think that?" She began shaking her head like she had been told the worst thing imaginable. "Cat, my... my love... no! It's not that... that you're too old... it's that... I... I'm too young!"

Cat shook her head in bewilderment. Her wife was all over the place.

"I... I should've been here years ago," choked the Girl of Steel. "I should've found you years ago! We should've gotten together years ago! And... and because we didn't, I, I missed out on you! I missed out on your whole life, Cat! I should've been here to love you and protect you and take care of you, and I MISSED IT!" Kara closed her eyes in pain, tears now streaming down her face.

As they were down Cat's. It was finally all clear. It was not a case of Cat being too old. It was the fact Kara missed out on "the best years" of Cat Grant's life. Or at least, that's what convention would have one believe. But Cat knew different. Her best years were happening now, and in the years to come.

"Kara, look at me," Cat breathed. "Please, my love... look at me." Slowly, agonisingly, Kara's eyes opened. Cat looked at her with steely resolve. "Would you trade what we have now, for us never meeting at all?"

Kara's jaw dropped. "NO!" she again yelled. "Cat, I love you! I live for you! I couldn't go on without you... !"

"Ssshhh," the media mogul breathed, before planting a loving kiss on her wife's lips. "Listen, Kara. Listen very carefully." She took a gulp before continuing, as the thought she was about to voice hurt her too. "If you had arrived on Earth as your parents had planned, then there's no way we would have ever gotten together. You know that, right? If you hadn't have got here when you did, you wouldn't have applied for a job at CatCo, you never would've become my assistant... and I never would've fallen in love with you."

Kara looked at her, her face a mixture of love, agony, confusion and comprehension.

"I know you feel guilty about not being there for your cousin when he was growing up," Cat continued. "But as far as I'm concerned, I wake up every morning thanking whatever gods may be out there, that you came into my life, later or not. And I wouldn't trade that for anything. You think you missed out on my life? Kara, my angel, I assure you - I've never been as happy as I am now. Understand? I wouldn't trade that for anything. I know I have decades on you, but... well, I've always been selfish. Because I'd gladly give the forty-odd years I lived before you came, to be with you now. To be with my soulmate."

To seal her words, Cat dove forward and kissed Kara passionately. Kara moaned into the kiss, wrapping her arms around Cat's neck and deepening the contact. In the back of her mind, Cat wondered if she would have the air literally sucked out of her, but she did not care: her wife needed reassurance, and that was all that mattered.

Eventually, Kara seemed to realise her spouse required oxygen, as she separated their lips. The women then rested their foreheads together, both taking gulps of air to calm their emotions. "I'm sorry," said Kara. "I'm such... such an idiot... "

"Yes you are, Kiera," smirked Cat. "But please tell me, what got you thinking about all this in the first place?"

Kara wiped the tears from her eyes with her midnight blue sleeve. "L... Lois showed me pictures of when you were, were both at the Planet. And... and seeing you back then, made me, me realise... how much time we'd... " She stopped herself. "I'm sorry."

Cat gave a loving kiss. "I forgive you, Supergirl," she smiled. "Because I love you." That being the case, Lois Lane Kent just added another reason to be on Cat Grant's shitlist, even if Cat knew Lois was doing nothing more than innocently showing Kara old photos.

"I just... can't lose you, Cat," whimpered Kara. "I'd die without you."

"Don't worry, sweetheart," the CEO said. "I plan to live forever... or at least set a new life-expentancy standard. You're not getting rid of me anytime soon."

Kara managed a smile, then tenderly took her wife's hand in hers and lifted it to her lips, kissing Cat's wedding ring reverently. "I... I'll hold you to that, Catherine Jane Grant." She then stroked the media mogul's cheek once more.

A tinge of guilt filled Cat at Kara's formal naming, and at that moment, the CEO came to a decision. She might not be able to publicly announce the full name she adopted when she wed into the House of El, but the least she could do was officially add "Danvers". To hell with the Cat Grant "brand". She would get her assistant - the eighth since Kara vacated the post - onto the courthouse first thing tomorrow.

"Let's go home, darling," Cat said. "We need to tell Carter that you're alright."

Kara pouted, and Cat knew the Kryptonian was inwardly chastising herself. "I'm sorry if I upset him."

"He's not upset, Kara," assured Cat. "He's only worried about why his stepmom was so sad today. As was I." She gave a quick yet deep kiss to Kara's adorable pout. "Shall we?"

"In a minute," Kara gulped, and engulfed Cat in a deep hug. They stayed there, holding eachother snug, for far longer than sixty seconds.

Unbeknownst to them both, Alex Danvers - who entered the room upon hearing metal hit wall, expecting the worst - quietly turned and walked out, tears in her own eyes. The last vestiges of doubt she had over the infamous Cat Grant's feelings for her sister were gone for good.

THE END