#live with me

[chaotic-super]

Live With Me - Chapter 16

Read it on AO3 here!

Kara isn’t best impressed when the plane lands and she’s immediately separated from Cat and Lena. She was hoping for at least a few minutes with them to talk before being whisked away but the second the plane is on the tarmac, Cat and Lena are ushered into one car, she’s ushered into another, and she’s on her way to see The President whether she likes it or not.

She’s being escorted by who she assumes to be some kind of secret service or high-ranking guards or something of the like because they are dressed in fancy suits and are somehow watching her every move and not looking at her at all at the exact same time.

For the most part, she tries to do the same and ignore them back and instead just look out of the window but she’s been sat between two of the guards so she can’t look out of it without having to lean forward uncomfortably. She doesn’t pay it much mind though, leaning forward and craning her neck to try and see where they are, not that she’d recognise the streets anyway since she’s not particularly familiar with the city, She’s only been here once before and it was a very short stay years ago.

She must be doing a good job of annoying the guards though, or at least the one to her right because eventually he turns to her and snarls, “Lean back.”

She sighs quietly and does what she’s told, noting that this isn’t good foreshadowing for her meeting with The President. She’s pretty much just expecting to be asked to back off the articles and mildly threatened to stop coming after them and this is pretty much just practice for that. She really wishes she could have someone with her though because while she’s pretty good at handling herself, she can only handle so much before she wants to cry and she would be able to stop that involuntary response being triggered by having a friendly face at her side to play off of.

As she expected, they pull up to the infamous White House and she’s taken inside to be led to the Oval Office. She sees the door and her heart jumps up into her throat, her nerves really intensifying now that it’s real.

She’s not taken into the office though; she’s taken past it and into a room down the hall that appears to be a small meeting room with a large table that has a whole bunch of chairs surrounding it. A guard grabs her by her upper arm and guides her inside. His grip isn’t painful, just tight enough to let her know that there’s more force to be added if she tries anything.

“Sit down and wait,” Is the only instruction she gets before the door is closed behind her and she’s left alone to either stand awkwardly around as an act of defiance against the guard that told her to sit down or she can sit down and just stare at the wall until something happens.

Kara opts to sit down, crossing her legs and folding her arms as she just pins her gaze on one spot on the wall. She tries to keep her face as void of emotions as she can since she’s definitely being watched. There are cameras all over this building and she doesn’t have to look around to confirm that, it’s just common sense.

Thankfully, she still has her purse on her, although it was searched through when she first arrived, so she’s got something to focus on when she gets bored, which she does very quickly since the wall Is plain white. She kind of wishes it had recently been painted, then she could have watched it dry. There’s not even a clock in here for her to watch.

A few minutes into her wait, she ends up setting her purse on the desk and opening it up. Reaching her hand inside, she openly starts pulling everything out and lining it up beside the purse since it’s now an absolute mess where everything has been jumbled by the uncaring hands of security.

This is actually Lena’s purse that she’s using because before everything happened, including her apartment being flooded, a pen burst in her purse and she didn’t realize it until she got to Lena’s place, where she was staying that night. Lena insisted on her taking a bag and she argued with her that she would just borrow it but Lena ultimately won because she’s still using it months later.

She knows exactly what’s in the purse though because she’s careful with it and has been overly cautious about overfilling it or putting anything into it that could rip the lining or anything. She doesn’t have a lot in there anyway, just the usual stuff, her chapstick, a pack of tissues, the phone Cat gave her to pass off as her own, her wallet, a tape recorder, her notebook and a fancy pen Lena also bought her so she wouldn’t have the same issue with a faulty pen again. It was a very Lena move.

She keeps the notebook and pen on the desk but carefully packs the rest of her things away again and filters them into the correct compartments inside the purse. With a sly little flick of her thumb, she turns on the tape recorder and keeps it near the top with the hope that the audio won’t be completely useless and she’ll be able to get something from it later. She clicks her tongue in a jaunty little beat as she does so just to give whoever is listening in a little morale boost. Well, that or to annoy them, she isn’t sure which it is but she finds that she doesn’t care much which it is.

The purse is settled on the floor between her feet when everything is away and the notebook is flipped open to a fresh page where she very purposefully starts writing everything that has happened so far down and goes as far as to write down direct quotes from The Governor and the guards down too.

The notebook is resting on the table and she keeps it a couple of inches further out from her body than she would usually have it to keep it a comfortable distance from her but she wants the cameras to see what she’s writing. They threatened her, now she’s threatening them. She has leverage still, even if she is directly inside the hornet’s nest, she can hold her own.

It seems to do the trick in hurrying them up though because not two minutes later she’s being joined by a couple of guys in suits, neither of whom she recognises.

“Good day, Ms Danvers.” A greying gentleman greets her, unbuttoning his suit jacket as he sits down across from her.

The table is a nice bridge between them, a safety net for Kara. A shield if you will. “I have yet to determine if that statement is true, Mr…”

“Sgt Peters. I’d say that it’s lovely to meet you but you’ve caused quite a few issues for us and I don’t think you’d agree that it’s nice to meet us either.”

“Not really. It comes with the whole trying to destroy my life thing.”

His chin pushes up into the air, arrogance radiating off him where the other man just sits silently at his side, just watching the interaction wordlessly. “I don’t believe that statement to be accurate, Ms Danvers.”

“My apologies, I should have said that it comes with the attempted assassinations rather than the attempts to ruin my life. You people have shown that you would prefer if I didn’t have one anymore.” Kara retorts, sarcasm dripping off each and every one of her words.

The man’s jaw clenches in a visible display of his barely contained annoyance and anger towards her. She’s glad it’s a man. Men are a lot easier for her to handle, women get her tongue twisted. “I can assure you; the government have nothing to do with any of that. We actually brought you in to discuss it and help you out as much as we can to see if we can keep you safe.”

“With all due respect, I don’t want your help because whether you know it or not, I know who wants me dead and I know it for certain.”

“How so?” He tries to lead her.

Kara’s eyes narrow. “Oh, so that’s what this is.”

He tilts his head upwards again. “What do you mean?”

“Don’t take me for a fool, Sgt Peters, you want to know what I have on the government, you want to know what proof you need to get rid of. Do you really think that for all the research I’ve done and the attacks I’ve been subjected to, I have learned nothing?”

“We are not your enemy, Ms Danvers.” He tilts his head again and Kara mimics him, her nose sticking up into the air.

“You have a funny way of showing that. You had me brought here against my will and then shoved me into a random room with two men that I don’t know and have not so much as explained to me why they are here or what their job is in regard to myself.”

Finally, his head moves from its spot in the sky and he looks down at the table, an unreadable expression written across his face. He takes a long moment to think over his next words, choosing them carefully. “I can see why you don’t trust us, Ms Danvers. While my words are true and we are not here to harm you or to get information to harm you in any way, I can see that you were not handled with care.”

“I wasn’t handled with care? Are you saying that you wanted to have me all buttered up so I’ll spill my guts or give into whatever it is you want easily?”

“Not at all. I’m saying that you were treated poorly rather than as the person you are, someone The President would like to speak to and a guest here. You are welcome to leave whenever you want but I ask you with all sincerity, will you please stay?”

Kara lets her eyes dart between the two men, the silent one still watching the pair of them. “Why aren’t you talking?”

“He’s mute. This is Sgt Booth, he’s mute so he doesn’t speak, he’s here to keep me on track, he’s very good at giving me a kick under the table to tell me not to go off on a tangent, something that happens mostly when someone brings up basketball, I love basketball.”

Kara hums, acknowledging the answer but not giving away whether or not she actually believes him. “And why is The President so keen to meet with me?”

For the first time, Sgt Peters cracks a smile but it’s full of stress and it gives away his feelings more than anything he’s said so far. “I don’t have to tell you that your article has been all over the news and what you’ve gone through is very alarming. It’s gotten big enough that The President caught wind of it and a formal investigation has been launched into the sector of government that allowed what happened to happen. He would like to discuss it with you and gather what evidence he can to ensure that the people responsible face repercussions for their actions.”

“I’m not giving you any of my evidence. For all I know, you’re all in on it and trying to cover it up so you’ll just destroy it. I’ve already listed the important stuff in my articles so you know what I have but I got it all myself, you, as a gigantic organization, should be able to do the same and find even more than I did with all of the resources you have.”

He sucks on his teeth, clearly unhappy with her response. “We need you to be with us on this one, Ms Danvers. If you’re not, I’m not entirely sure we’ll be able to effectively be able to bring those responsible out into the light to face judgement, we have to be remarkably careful with our investigation because we can’t deny that responsibility lies on some very powerful people in our system.”

“If you just want my help, why separate me from Ms Grant and Ms Luthor?”

“My apologies for that too, I was only made aware of you having people with you as you were brought in and I was told they were being taken to your accommodation, that was not my choice or else I would have had them brought along with you.”

“Then can you have them brought here?”

Both men shake their heads at her. “There’s no time for that now, The President is waiting for you now. We’re to take you through to him when we’re certain that you’re willing to assist us.”

“I don’t think you’re going to have any certainty from me. I’ll hear you out and then make a decision after taking some time to think on it, that’s as much as I can offer you.”

“Then now is as good as time as ever. I will go and let him know you’re ready and make sure he is too. Sgt Booth will keep you company; I will be right back.” He stands up and tucks his chair in before he leaves, his hands flying in rapid ASL to his partner and unfortunately for Kara, she only knows a few very basic signs so she doesn’t have a clue what they are actually talking about right under her nose.

With him gone, Kara is left to just sit in a strangely comfortable uncomfortable silence. It’s awkward but it’s not making her nervous, maybe it’s because she knows he’s mute so there’s no pressure to talk to him.

With nothing better to do, she just goes back to her notebook and starts making more notes, this time a brief description of the interaction she’s just had with these two guys.

Sgt Booth is watching her still and when he sees her starting to write, he cranes his head to see what it is she’s doing. His eyes widen a fraction and he stretches his arm across the table to get her attention, his palm resting flat against the surface.

Kara looks up at him in question and is instantly annoyed when he starts shaking his head at her and pointing to her notebook. “Whether I write it down now or not, I’m still going to have the information and it’s going to be noted down. I’ve got a pretty good memory, I can just wait until later but since I’ve got nothing better to do, I might as well do it now.”

He shakes his head again and stands up, his hand reaching out to grab her pen. She snatches it back, along with the notepad, and stands up too. “Keep your hands to yourself. My partner gave me this pen and if you break it, I won’t be happy. Jeez, I’ll just write it down later.”

She flips the notepad closed and clips the pen to the spine of it before putting it in her purse, sliding it in beside the tape recorder. She nudges it slightly to check for the tiny blinking light to make sure it’s still recording. It is. Good.

“Better?”

Sgt Booth nods at her, his face unchanged.

She wouldn’t have had the opportunity to write much anyway because the door is opened again and Sgt Peters pokes his head inside. “The President is ready for you now, Ms Danvers. Right this way.”

Kara pulls her lips up into a polite smile and gets up, hooking her purse over her arm and straightening the chair she was just sitting in. She waves at Sgt Booth and goes to the door and starts following Sgt Peters along the hallway.

This time she is actually taken to the door of The Oval Office and after a polite knock to announce their presence, she’s taken inside.

The President is sitting behind his desk, his silver hair shining in the light coming in from the window and a large smile sat on his face. Given the reason she’s here, it has to be fake. He kind of reminds her of the old guys you see reading the labels of screenwash as they try to figure out which is the best to buy rather than doing what every other person does and picking up the first one they see.

“Mr President.” Kara greets him, her hand held out for him to shake.

“Ms Danvers, I presume?” He replies, taking her hand in a firm grasp and shaking it twice before retreating back to his own space. “Thank you for you coming on such short notice.”

She nods once. “I have to say, it was an unexpected invite.”

“I understand that but given the circumstances, I’m sure you understand why it’s important that we have a chat face-to-face.” He brushes off her defensive tone and instead waves a hand towards the chair on the opposite side of the desk. “Please, take a seat.”

She puts her purse on the floor. It would be better if she could keep it on her lap but that would likely give her away. “What would you like to discuss first, Mr President? Perhaps, we could go over the basics.”

His smile drops but doesn’t completely disappear, “I appreciate your desire to get right into it, Ms Danvers, however, we both know the basics of this, in fact, we are both more than aware of everything to do with this case. It’s because of that I’m going to get right to it. I need every scrap of evidence you have and every bit of knowledge you’ve come to possess about the people within this government that have targeted you or have had a role to play in the initial deals with Maxwell Lord to exploit those in the prison system for human trials.”

“I would have thought that The President himself would have the power and resources to get his own evidence. Why should I give up mine?”

He breathes out heavily, his head tilting to the left. “Because it will speed up the process of you having your life back.”

Kara’s eyes pin on his balled-up hand that is resting on the desk, a single finger free of the fist and tapping away at the wood. It shows his nerves and she’s got a good feeling why he’s nervous. He’s lying to her. “Do you know what I think?”

“What’s that then?”

“I think that you’re all playing me. I think you want to destroy the evidence and paint me as a villain. I think you’re protecting the people that were a part of that deal and that makes me wonder, were you aware of the deal before it was made? Did you sign off on it, Mr President?”

Suddenly, The President is standing up and he’s leaning forward over the desk, his hands bracing his weight. “That is absurd, how dare you question me like that?”

Kara folds her arms, her face as uncaring as she’s managed to keep it this whole time. “Why would that rile you up so much if there wasn’t truth to it?”

His nose scrunches and his lips curl in anger, no signs of a smile gracing his lips anymore. After a grumble under his breath, he sits back down. “This is the only chance you’re going to get. Will you comply and hand over the evidence?”

“I will not. That is my own personal and intellectual property and after this meeting, I’m very certain that the only reason you want it is so you can destroy the evidence.”

He tuts at her; eerily calm after his brief show of dramatic annoyance he showed just moments before. “I don’t believe you’re understanding me correctly. This is not a request, Ms Danvers.”

“Oh, it isn’t?” She responds, trying to keep her cool even though her heart is starting to pound.

“No, it isn’t. You’re going to hand over that evidence and you’re never going to speak of anything that happened in here or anything to do with what happened with the case ever again. Do you understand?”

She shakes her head. “About as much as you seem to understand my constitutional right of free speech.”

“That’s unfortunate.” The President responds, straightening his tie and leaning back in his chair. “Sgt Peters, Sgt Booth, take her out of here. She’s no use to me.”

Kara can’t contain a reaction this time, her eyes widening and her head whipping around to see where the two other men are and then recoiling in horror when she sees that they are already at her sides, each of them grabbing one of her arms.

“Oh and Ms Danvers, you were quite foolish to believe that you would get away with the whole recording device plan you had.”

She’s pulled to her feet but they don’t release her arms, instead pulling them behind her back and locking them there with handcuffs. “So what? You’re going to arrest me now, charge me with some bullshit crimes I haven’t committed?”

Sgt Peters keeps hold of her while Sgt Booth grabs her purse, rifling through it to grab the tape recorder and her notebook. He Switches the tape recorder off and tucks it into his hand along with the notebook before going back for her pen, quickly snapping it in half with a bit of brute force and then dropping it into the trash can just to be petty.

“You son of a bitch.” She spits at him. “That was completely unnecessary.”

He just shrugs and grabs her arm again so each sergeant is holding her on either side once again.

“You’ll see what’s coming up for you Ms Danvers but I just want to reiterate something to you.” He rounds the desk, stopping just in front of her. “You had your chance to comply.”

She’s tempted to spit in his face but given that she’s already in handcuffs and likely being arrested, the last thing she needs is to add more charges to whatever they stick her with. Surely spitting at The President would mean she’s treated quite harshly.

The two men pull her out of the room, their grips especially tight considering the fact that she’s not resisting. They walk quickly and she struggles to keep up. “Any chance you’re going to tell me where we’re going?”

No response.

“Any chance you’re going to tell me where Ms Grant and Ms Luthor are?”

No response.

“Any chance you’re going to apologize for being complete assholes that want to let evil people like that rule our country? Then again, I suppose you know what he’s like given the fact that you work for him. You were probably in on it too, you’re just as guilty as the rest of those scumbags.” Her words drip with venom and as she’s pulled around a corner, Sgt Booth stops them dead in their tracks, rears his hand back and strikes her across the face with the back of his hand.

She reels for a moment, not expecting that. A quick glance around through now blurry eyes tells her that he knows there are no cameras here and so he knew he could get away with that.

“Coward.” She snaps, not letting him win.

He doesn’t strike her again, just digs his nails into her arm and keeps pulling her. She doesn’t speak again while they drag her through the halls until she’s taken out of a side door and pushed into a car where different guards watch over her, all of them with guns strapped to their waists and hands that keep twitching like they are just waiting for the perfect opportunity.

Because of the way they are looking at her, Kara doesn’t dare move, not that she really could anyway since her hands are still cuffed behind her back and there is a guard on either side of her.

The windows are tinted so she can’t see out of them and that just makes her all the more worried because wherever she’s going, they don’t want her to know where it is. She’s now leaning on the side of her being murdered and the longer she thinks about it, the quicker her heart flutters in her chest and the less she can hear, the sound of her blood rushing through her ears far too loud.

The car stops at some point. With her nerves, Kara can’t be sure if she was in it for minutes or hours but what she does know is that the backhand she got earlier has definitely left a mark because she’s had to put up with the horrible feeling of her nose bleeding the entire time, the droplets of blood slowly sneaking their way down towards her lip and making her itch.

One of the guards gets up and opens the door, holding it open and staring at her. She gets the message though and climbs out the best she can without the use of her hands, pressing her shoulders back into the seat to turn her body and keep her balance as she does so.

Once she’s out of the car, she sees that she’s beside another building, once again around the side of it, definitely because they don’t want anyone to see her. It doesn’t look like a precision though and she’s pretty certain she would know a prison if she saw it. It looks to be some kind of office building but she can’t be sure from outside.

She’s going to find out soon enough though because she’s already being led inside by three guards, all three of whom were in the car with her, all three of whom she’s got no idea the identities of. One of them keeps hold of one of her arms to direct her inside.

They climb up the fire escape rather than going through the side door from the ground which confuses her but she supposes it’s all so she’s not being seen as they take her somewhere she’s not going to like very much.

A few knocks to the steel door part way up the fire escape and it’s being opened from the inside by another suit-wearing, gun-wielding guard and she’s being pushed inside.

She’s immediately directed into a room with nothing inside of it except a singular chair directly in the centre of it. It’s just a normal wooden chair but something tells Kara that it’s the last place she wants to be and so she digs her heels in when she sees it, fighting against the one guard that’s holding her so harshly and suddenly that she manages to briefly get away from him, turning back towards the door just in time for another guard to step in front of it and grab her.

With two guards dragging her, she stands no chance and within a matter of moments, she’s sitting on the chair. They lifted her slightly so her arms went around the back of the chair and she can’t lift herself off of it. Just to be sure though, they trap her legs against the chair with zip ties.

In the process of them finishing up on binding her where she sits, she manages to slip a leg free and give one of them a good kick to the chest but it only results in the zip ties being fastened unnecessarily tight, the handcuffs being tightened around her wrists and the opposite side of her face is hit from before, this time with a closed fist that does more damage than the warning slap she received earlier.

As she sits there, now left alone in the room, all she has to focus on is the rapid swelling of her cheek and eye, the dripping of her nose and the beating of her own heart. She only prays that wherever Lena and Cat are, they’re safe.

-

“God, this is awful,” Lena complains, her heels wearing the carpet down as she runs her fingers through her hair from the stress of not knowing where they took Kara.

“You need to sit down before you make me so dizzy I vomit all over this room and if these heels get soiled, you’re replacing them tenfold.” Cat is perched on the edge of the bed of the hotel room they have been brought to. Hopefully, this isn’t where they are expected to stay because between the three of them, one double bed just won’t do and she doesn’t want to wake up to the activities of Lena Luthor and Sunshine Danvers. “Pacing isn’t going to help. Unfortunately for us, there are situations where we can only do one thing; sit down, shut up and wait.”

Lena shakes her head, her nails digging into her scalp. “I can’t. I should have fought harder when they separated us. I should have insisted on going with her. She shouldn’t be alone.”

“Lena, your girlfriend is an adult and a damn good reporter with good instincts. I’m sure she’ll be just fine. She’s always been good at handling herself in a pinch. Other than that, if you really think you could have fought a bunch of guys with guns with little more than your commanding tone, I think you’re delusional.” Cat argues with her in a calm tone, checking her nails and pulling a nail file out of her purse to touch them up.

Lena sighs and sits beside her. “I know she’s capable but this isn’t just waiting for her to get back from the store. She was taken by the government and that’s something she can’t fight her way out of. I don’t know what I’d do if I ever lost her.”

“I do.” Cat drops a hand onto Lena’s forearm. “We would burn this country to the fucking ground.”

“So, we just wait?” Lena asks after a moment of consideration.

Cat doesn’t answer before the door swings open, barely half a knock before it does so. A guard is standing there, his spine straight as a pole and his chin held high. “Ms Grant. I’ve been sent to come and collect you for a meeting with The President. Please follow me.”

Read the next chapter early on Patreon here!

[itosevenito]

What if I just like, travel back in time, scoop up some cold boys from a failed mission to find the northwest passage in the Arctic and bring them to the modern day?

Whose gonna stop me huh?

[jt1674]

[rastronomicals]

4:44 PM EDT October 30, 2024:

Rolling Stones - "Live With Me" From the album Let It Bleed (December 5, 1969)

Last song scrobbled from iTunes at Last.fm

File under:    Bands who at one point or the other were the best in the      world

[paintedcrows]

Did anyone tell Ford (bonus doodles: Family Movie Night, 70s Classics)

[itsscaredycat]

so ok yeah fine i watched gravity falls again and read the book of bill

[koobiie]

shoutout to everyone who wants to infodump but cant string together coherent thoughts to form sentences and instead just look at you like this

[codecicle]

Guys I'm so glad everyone loves hit JRWI campaign: The Suckening so much. 12 thousand notes on just a thumbnail that's so cool. Anyone think about emizel pussy-out post revival

[eruditetyro]

good morning let’s hear it for Mildly Cool Outside a round of applause for Mildly Cool Outside

[butchfalin]

the funniest meltdown ive ever had was in college when i got so overstimulated that i could Not speak, including over text. one of my friends was trying to talk me through it but i was solely using emojis because they were easier than trying to come up with words so he started using primarily emojis as well just to make things feel balanced. this was not the Most effective strategy... until. he tried to ask me "you okay?" but the way he chose to do that was by sending "👉🏼👌🏼❓" and i was so shocked by suddenly being asked if i was dtf that i was like WHAT???? WHAT DID YOU JUST SAY TO ME?????????? and thus was verbal again

[chaotic-super]

Live With Me - Chapter 18

Read it on AO3 here!

“I don’t think that’s going to work.” Cat huffs, watching as Kara fruitlessly squirms in her seat in an attempt at getting out of the too-tight cuffs as she strains against the zip ties holding her legs against the chair.

Kara sags in defeat. “There has to be a way out for us. We both know what will happen if we don’t, and frankly, I don’t want to see the inside of a coffin any time soon.”

“Obviously I don’t want that either but tiring yourself out in a futile attempt to break free from that chair isn’t going to help us, is it?” Cat peers over at her, exasperation clouding her features. “We might have to fight and scream and cause a ruckus at some point. We can’t do that if you’re in need of a nap because you’ve already been fighting some handcuffs for hours beforehand.”

Kara sighs as she tries to stretch out her wrists. A quick wiggle of her fingers tells her that the cuffs are definitely cutting off her circulation somewhat. Her fingertips are slightly numb and that’s pretty worrying. “I wish they hadn’t put these cuffs on so tightly. Can prolonged blood loss to a limb cause permanent damage?”

“Do I look like a doctor to you?”

Kara meets Cat’s eyes. Her words might be harsh but her worry is palpable. “Point taken. Do you have any ideas on how we could get out of here?”

The resounding shake of her head has Kara sighing a second time, and she indignantly throws her weight back into the chair to show her displeasure at the entire situation. As she does, a faint crack can be heard.

“Was that…?” Cat barely dares utter the words.

“I think I just broke the chair.” Kara’s mouth hangs open as she looks over at Cat wide-eyed.

Cat shakes off her initial surprise quickly. “Don’t just sit there then. Break the thing. If you can break it, you might be able to get up, and if you can get up, getting out of here will be a hundred times easier, come on.”  

In an attempt to recreate the effect she just had on the chair, Kara leans forward before shoving her weight back once more, but it’s tentative. She does it again, reserved because she’s afraid of falling backwards.

“Kara, for the love of God, please put your back into it, quite literally, because if I have to stay here longer than necessary because you’re afraid to chip a nail, I’m not going to be very happy.”

The sharp tone cuts through Kara’s worries and puts her back into the correct headspace, getting her to try a bit harder and come back to the realization that her need to get out of here is a lot greater than her fear of falling backwards.

First, she rocks forward as much as she can and then she shoves herself back into the chair with as much force as she can muster. It sends both her and the chair toppling over, and her face scrunches as she prepares for the landing.

Her arms hit the floor first with a dull thud, muffling the sound of wood on wood. She has to press her lips together tightly to stop herself from crying out and, in the process, inadvertently ends up biting down on her tongue. She winces as the taste of copper floods her senses, making her nose scrunch up.

“Are you ok?” Cat’s worried voice calls out to her.

“Yeah. Yeah, I’m good.” Kara coughs, swallowing harshly and doing her best to ignore the pain in both her tongue and her arms from falling directly onto them.

“Can you get up?”

Kara tries her best, swinging her legs as much as possible to get her momentum to force her onto her side. Her feet are still attached to the legs of the chair but she has made progress. She’s managed to snap the back of the chair off completely.

 Pushing her arms back and wiggling as much as she can in an awkward sort of side shuffle, Kara manages to ditch the useless chair back, immediately giving her more room to move.

“What now? My legs are still trapped.” Kara strains to look back over at Cat, who is watching her closely, the cogs evidently turning in her head as she tries to figure out a way to get Kara off the floor and get the pair of them out of there.

“Uh…” Cat hesitates, and that doesn’t fill Kara with hope. If there’s one thing Cat Grant doesn’t usually do, it’s hesitate. “Can you reach your feet?”

With a bit more awkward twisting, Kara manages it, tapping her fingers against one of the zip ties to show she can. “Yeah.”

“Take your shoe off and bring it closer to you so you can get the laces out, then you’re going to thread it through the zip tie. Once you’ve done that, you need to create friction, pull it back and forth as quickly as possible, and it should snap. Got it?”

“Yes, I think so,” Kara grumbles, doing her best to ignore the aches and pains from being in such an uncomfortable position for so long.

From there, Kara attempts to follow the instructions she’s been given, the task achievable yet nowhere near easy to accomplish. She’s forced to wriggle and squirm to reach her hands around to her feet and contort her body in ways her joints don’t particularly appreciate.

“You look like a caterpillar that has been cursed by the universe to never turn into a butterfly. Hurry up.” Cat rushes her, aware that Kara has made a lot of noise and unsure if there are guards around or someone in the building who is supposed to be watching them.

“Thank you.” Kara grunts, forcing the lace of her shoes through the practically non-existent gap between her ankle and the chair leg.

As soon as it’s through, she starts trying to saw her way through the zip tie, her leg kicking against it to try and weaken it. It’s only on one particularly strong kick that she rips the zip tie down the leg of the chair and realizes that she could have just slid it off all the while without the added stress of trying to break it.

“Oh, I’m kind of dumb.” She mutters, sliding the other one off and forcing her shoe back on, minus the lace, which she just shoves deep into her pocket.

Now that she’s not attached to the chair, she flips herself onto her knees, using her hands as much as she can while still stuck behind her back. She clambers to her feet and steps towards Cat. “Ms Grant, I have an idea of how to get you off the chair, but it’s not going to be pretty.”

“I don’t care about pretty; I care about you getting me the hell out of here.”

Kara takes a deep breath before cracking on with her plan that she admits isn’t the best thought out but is the only one her brain is giving her in this pressing situation. They don’t have time for her to try and find another solution. She just has to try it and hope for the best.

Shuffling behind Cat, she turns her back to the chair before grabbing the top of it with her bound hands and slowly tipping it back, lowering Cat to the floor as gently as she can. Once she’s safely on the ground, she tips her onto her side as delicately as she can, which is not very.

“Hold on, I’m going to help you shuffle down to free your legs, and then I’ll help you off the back of the chair.” Kara murmurs, her hands scrambling to find purchase against Cat’s body to arrange her in a way that will make the escape possible. She’s never before wished that she was friends with David Blaine, but there’s a first for everything.

“Hurry up, we need to make this quick and we haven’t even touched on the handcuffs yet.”

“Oh yeah, I forgot about that part,” Kara whispers.

“You forgot?” Cat whisper-yells back at her.

Kara nods, focused only on getting Cat’s feet free, which isn’t too tricky. Once that’s done. Kara moves to get Cat out of the rest of the chair but falters and changes tactics. It will be easier to pull her up if she can see what her hands are doing.

Totally overestimating her flexibility, Kara attempts to pull her legs through her joined arms. There’s a struggle as she crouches down and tries to shimmy her wrists over her butt so she can kick her first leg over, and in doing so, she falls directly onto Cat, her face smushed against her stomach and her shoulder digging into her boss’ boobs.

“Ugh, can’t you do anything delicately? Jesus, Kara.” Cat can’t do anything to push Kara off her. Still, the sharp tone is enough to get her pulling herself together and trying again, this time a little further back from where Cat is lying so if she falls, it won’t be onto the woman that would totally file a sexual harassment claim against her with HR just to inconvenience her before revoking it after a day.

This time, Kara gets further. She gets her wrists over her ass and manages to get one leg through her arms. The problem comes when she can’t get the other leg through. She’s essentially now just stuck with her hands handcuffed between her legs. At least she can see them.

“That is entirely unhelpful, Kara. Now you’ll have to put your crotch next to my body, and I don’t appreciate that.”

“This is better. I can actually see where I’m grabbing you now.”

“I would prefer an accidental boob grab to having something Lena Luthor has spent too much time buried in lingering right beside my head.” Cat sneers.

Kara’s face flushes a deep crimson at the words, not expecting her boss to come out with something so lewd, yet somehow, she feels as though she should have expected it on some level. Making a choice that will most likely get her further away from the statement and the further tongue lashing she could potentially open herself up to, Kara stays silent, instead manoeuvring around Cat so she can hook her fingers into her armpit and drag her up and off the chair completely.

“Ok, now what do we do about the cuffs?” Kara asks.

Cat answers right away, a plan already formulated in her head. “I need you to pull out the hairpin in my hair and then pass it to me. I can get myself out of my cuffs and then I’ll get you out of yours. Ok?”

“You know how to pick the lock of government issues handcuffs?”

“I dated a senator once.” Cat offers up as Kara digs through her hair for a hairpin.

Kara’s face scrunches in confusion as she hands the hairpin over, her eyebrows furrowing and her lips pulling down as her nose scrunches up cutely. “Why would a senator—”

“Shut up. I have to focus.” Cat snaps, her face the epitome of concentration. It’s also the exact same face as the epitome of constipation but Kara doesn’t dare say anything. She doesn’t have a death wish.

It takes her a few minutes, but it works. Cat pulls it off, displaying the opened cuffs to Kara like a trophy with a smug smile before it drops with her eyes. She’s looking right at Kara’s hands with a level of disdain usually reserved for board meetings.

“I really wish you hadn’t put us both in this position.”

“I’m getting that.” Kara breathes, rolling her eyes.

“I’m going to kneel in front of you. Please remember I’m not your girlfriend, so if I see those hips so much as twitch in my direction, I’m going to leave you like that. Actually, I’m sure Ms Luthor would probably like that. You look like the kind of couple to be into weird shit.”

Kara’s jaw is practically resting on the floor at this point and settles for leaving it that way. At least then her tongue can’t get her into any trouble. Any more trouble.

Cat works away for a minute or two, her eyes laser focused while Kara looks anywhere other than at the kneeling CEO. She would like to erase this moment from her brain forever and feels much dirtier than it actually is because of the uncomfortable air left in the room from the comments made.

As the handcuffs unlock, Kara feels the rush of pain to her wrists as the blood flow is restored. She brings both hands up to her chest and tries to rub some of the feeling back into them.

All signs of her previous snark gone, Cat rests a tender hand on her forearm. “Are you ok?”

“I will be once we’re out of here and we’ve found Lena.”

“Then let’s go find her.”

That decided, they first take a look out of the lone window over on one side of the room, taking in the wonderous sight of nothing but a dirty alley and no way to get down from what is very clearly either the third or fourth floor. There’s no climbing or dropping their way down without breaking their ankles, and if anyone were to try it and fail spectacularly, it would be Kara.

Cat flicks her head towards the door. “That’s our only way out. We can’t get down.”

“That’s the way they’ll expect us to try and escape through, in any case. There might be a tripwire or something.”

“A tripwire?” Cat looks half disappointed and half amused at how Kara’s brain works. “I don’t think there’s a tripwire.”

“Wait,” Kara calls out softly as Cat starts making her way over to the door. “We might not be able to get down, but I think we can get up.”

“Please tell me that doesn’t mean what I think it means.” Cat folds her arms, her usual strong stance faltering from a mixture of exhaustion, fear and stiffness from being trapped in one position for so long.

Kara looks up and out of the window, judging carefully to see if her idea is feasible. “I think we can do it. We climb out, and I’ll give you a boost up. There’s a balcony right above us. If you can get up there and help me up once you’re there, we can get out through that room upstairs instead.”

“Do you think I’m stupid enough to try and climb out of a window to a balcony attached to a room that could be filled with a bunch of assholes that handcuffed us to chairs not too long ago?”

Kara shifts her weight, her hands wringing in front of her. She stretches out her back, cracking it softly. “No, but I am, and I think it’s our best chance. I’ve just got a gut feeling that if we go up there, it will work out for us. I can’t explain it.”

With a huff, Cat pins her with a look Kara has never seen before. “Then let’s follow your gut. Maybe it will lead you to a buffet on the way to Lena.”

“I care more about Lena than a buffet,” Kara argues, prising the window open as much as she can, grateful it’s old and only has a catch, not a lock that requires a key.

“Then today is the day hell freezes over.”

“Is now really the time for you to be making snarky comments? This seems like a time where you should be giving me time to think so we can make the best decisions possible.”

Cat sneers in response. “The best decisions possible? Kara, you just told me to climb out of the window and risk falling to my death.”

Kara’s nerves are fried and she can’t keep her mouth shut any longer. “Would you prefer a bullet instead? I’m sure that can be arranged if you really want that.”

“You’re spicy,” Cat complains, but there’s a hint of something in her eyes that Kara can’t make sense of, her brain too busy figuring out how to get them out of this mess to try and work out the inner workings of Cat Grant’s mind, a hefty task if there ever was one.

“No. I’m scared, and you’re not helping.” Kara answers. “Plus, my head is killing me.”

Cat had somewhat grown accustomed to the dried blood smeared across Kara’s face, but at the mention, it’s like seeing it for the first time all over again. “Let’s get out of here then. You need to get that looked at.”

“Exactly. So, do you want to climb up there or what?”

“No, but let’s do it. I once climbed a basketball player like my life depended on it. This can’t be much different.”

“Gross.”

Kara climbs through the window first, keeping one hand inside to clasp onto the wall just above the window and keep her balance as she teeters on the thin window frame. She holds her other hand out in offering and sighs in relief when Cat takes it without a word, climbing out and facing Kara.

“Stand on my knee first and then work your way up to my hip. Then, I’ll brace my arm against my chest, you stand on my hand, and I’ll boost you up. It’s not that high up to the edge of the balcony. You should be more than high enough to grab the railing and have enough leverage to pull yourself up.”

Humming her understanding, Cat gets right to work. She’s not putting off the inevitable. If this fails, it doesn’t matter if she goes splat on the pavement now or in two minutes.

Kara grunts, doing her best to stay as still and as steady as possible as she’s used as a jungle gym. She has to give it to her boss, she’s actually pretty good at climbing. She’s scaling Kara like she’s nothing more than an average staircase. Impressive.

Cat grips the railing and starts pulling herself up. The metal railing is cold against her palms, the chipping paint helping her grip, something she needs because her palms are so sweaty. She tips herself over the edge as soon as she can, her heart thumping quicker than a hummingbird’s.

“Are you good?” Kara peers up as much as she can, her anxiety increasing now that Cat is out of sight.

She doesn’t get an immediate response, but then, through the gaps in the railings, two legs appear, swiftly followed by Cat’s sharp voice. “Grab on and get up here.”

Kara has a feeling that she’s either going to slip or break Cat’s legs, she’s not sure which it is. She wraps her hands around Cat’s ankles first, and a small part of her revels in the hint of stubble there. She’s found an imperfection in the Queen of All Media. Lena is going to love hearing about this later.

If she wasn’t determined before, she certainly is now that she’s got an image of Lena in her head. She has her head thrown back in laughter and a cheesy grin etched across her face. They’re at home and they’re safe. Kara’s going to get them home.

Climbing her way up to the balcony, her arms gripping Cat tightly and her feet scrambling for purchase against the wall, she almost slips as the unexpected sound of the door slamming open shocks her out of focus.

Someone is in the room they have barely stepped a foot out of and there’s no doubt that her legs are currently hanging right outside of the window right now. There’s no way they don’t know where she is.

“Get down, now!”

The voice is so demanding and strong that Kara has to fight every instinct that she has not to give in and obey, but they can still make it. She’s sure of that.

One final push and a little bit of dumb luck and she’s got her hands around the railings, Cat is standing up and she’s being pulled up onto the balcony fully.

It’s just a shame that by the time she’s safely on the right side of the railings, they’ve already been blocked onto the balcony by a group of agents.

“Hands where we can see them!”

Cat doesn’t fight them, and if Cat isn’t fighting them, Kara knows she sure as hell shouldn’t and follows suit.

“Catherine Grant? Kara Danvers?” One of them confirms – a woman with a stern face, heavily wrinkled despite looking moderately young.

“That’s us.” Cat answers for the pair of them.

“Agent Captyn, CIA.”

A badge is held up for them both to see.

“Agent C—”

“Spelt with a C-A-P-T-Y-N. No jokes at this time, please. We’re here to protect you in the name of national security. Follow us.”

A brief glance is exchanged between them before they shuffle in from the balcony. They’re a little shocked to see what has to be close to twenty agents in the room, some kind of office with a fancy desk and a large monitor in one corner.

“Agent Captyn?” Kara hesitantly tries to get her attention, not willing to risk tapping her on the shoulder. She’d like to keep all of her fingers; Lena would be upset if she didn’t.

Steely grey eyes meet hers. “Yes, Ms Danvers?”

“Have you found Lena?”

Those eyes soften just a smidgen. “We’re working on it, I promise. There’s another team out there right now on their way to a possible location.”

“Is it a hotel?” Cat rushes her steps to keep up with them, the pace a little too fast for her liking. She’s not one to be left behind in any capacity though. “That’s where I last saw her. We were initially taken there together.”

“It is.”

“Good.”

“Excellent.” Agent Captyn faces off with her, not liking the air of superiority Cat is exerting. “Now, we’re going to take you to a safe location and we’ll have someone look over your injuries, Ms Danvers. It looks like a possible broken nose from where I’m standing.”

Kara nods. “Yeah, they got me good. Where are they? The FBI guys sort of just left us there. Did they just leave after?”

“Either that or they got a tip that we were on our way. Our priority is your safety right now, Ms Danvers. All you have to worry about is following my orders and you’ll be back in National City before you know it.” She directs them to the fire escape and they start making their way down to where there are several non-conspicuous black cars and a few plain vans ditched haphazardly outside of the building. “Come on, you’re safe now.” She reassures them one last time.

Climbing into one of the cars, Kara feels Cat’s hand slide over her wrist. The pressure is grounding and helps calm her, but a sly glance over at the woman sitting on her left has her realizing that the touch isn’t for her. Even the mightiest of people falter under too much pressure and need a little reassurance.

Looking away to not make her self-conscious, Kara trains her eyes out of the window, the pain in her face now more evident since she’s got time to sit in the moment. She hopes that whatever doctor they set her up with gives her some pain meds because it’s getting less bearable by the second.

They have no idea whether these people are actually going to take them somewhere safe, but Kara finds that she doesn’t really care so long as she gets reunited with Lena. She needs to know she’s safe. That’s her number one priority.

-

Lena taps her fingers against the table impatiently. She was sure she wouldn’t be waiting long, but here she is, still waiting. At least a couple of hours must have passed, and she’s been alone ever since. It’s making her uneasy. She was so sure that she handled General Lane well and came out on top, but the longer she sits, stews, worries and waits, the less certain she becomes.

As much as she understands why she can’t have her phone with her, she wishes she kept it with her so that she could play one of the dumb games Kara insisted on downloading there months ago so she would have something to do in her downtime besides check her emails. She’ll never admit to Kara that she plays them occasionally, but she’s relatively sure Kara knows anyway. She always knows.

She sighs, weighing up whether or not to just put her head down and see if she can rest a little while she waits. It makes her feel awful that she feels she could sleep even though she doesn’t know where Kara and Cat are but she’s mentally and physically exhausted. She’s half ready for the government to just make them disappear at this point just so she can rest. Albeit, that would be a more extended rest than she would like. A nap is a nap though.

The door opens just as she’s about to throw caution to the wind and get some shut-eye. The person she was expecting isn’t the one standing there though. In place of General Lane, there’s instead a group of agents, guns drawn and in full tactical gear.

One steps forward and raises his mask. “Ms Luthor, follow me. We’re getting you out of here.”

“And who are you?”

“CIA.”

“Say no more.”

He looks confused as she stumbles to her feet. “You don’t have any questions.”

“Not currently. Just take me to Kara and I’ll be happy. That is where we’re going, correct?”

“Well…yes.”

“Wonderful, let’s go.”

-

Lena strides through the building like she owns the place, her fatigue and exhaustion pushed aside as she’s directed to a motel room by a couple of agents. They hand her the key and nod to door number twenty-seven. “You’re safe here. You’ll be well guarded, I promise.”

“Thank you.” She forces out, eager to get to her girlfriend. She slides the key into the handle and pushes it open, barely remembering her manners. “Good night.”

“Good night.”

She rushes inside, letting the door swing closed behind her.

The motel room is split into two parts, a living area and then a bedroom area. Given the quiet emptiness of the living area, she knows where her people should be.

Rounding the corner, she holds her breath, terrified that she’s not going to be there.

She is.

“Kara?”

“Lena?” Kara’s voice is filled with excitement and relief, but that’s not what Lena’s focusing on. No, her eyes are instantly drawn to the bruising and swelling across Kara’s face. She has sutures across one cheek and her forehead.

“You’re hurt.”

“I’m ok.”

Cat clears her throat from where she’s sat in a massive terribly-patterned armchair, the thing practically engulfing her. “She’s not fully ok, but she got signed off by a doctor. As you can see, those assholes really did a number on her face. Believe it or not, this is much better than it was before.”

Lena’s feet draw her closer to Kara, even when her mind isn’t all there to direct her. Her body knows where to go, or rather, who to go to. As soon as she’s within reach, Lena’s hands cradle Kara’s face, turning it gently so she can get a better look. “I’m going to kill them.”

“That’s easier said than done. I think a lot of them have run back to wherever they hang their bad-guy masks at night. They ditched us at the office building where they were keeping as soon as they knew the CIA were getting close.”

“And the CIA came and let you out?”

“We were already halfway out by the time they got there. We would have managed it.” Kara brags.

“By ‘halfway out’, she means halfway out the window. We were in the process of successfully scaling the building when they arrived. It was all very dramatic and very impressive. I could have done without it though.”

The story is almost too much. Lena’s had enough for the day—more than. “I can’t take much more of an explanation tonight. Think we can save the story for tomorrow?”

“Of course.” Kara takes Lena’s hands from her face and gently guides her down to sit on the bed beside her.

“She says as though she hasn’t been fighting sleep for the past hour because she wanted to be awake when her girlfriend finally arrived.” Cat snickers.

Lena can’t help the fond smile that falls into place. “I love you.”

“I love you too.” Kara nudges her. “Now, there’s three of us and one bed. How are we doing this? I don’t mind taking the couch so you can rest properly. I hear CEOs can be particularly grumpy if they don’t get enough rest.”

Cat raises herself up from the chair, straightening out her clothes as best she can despite them being heavily rumpled from the day’s events. “That’s quite alright. I’ll take the couch. I’ve been far too close to you today, and I don’t want that same experience with your partner. I don’t know if I’ll ever recover from being forced to be that close to your crotch. In fact, I might need therapy.”

“You’re not the only one,” Kara mumbles as Cat flounces off.

Lena pins her with a look of utter bafflement and Kara rushes to explain as she realizes that her boss just told her girlfriend that she was close to her crotch. That’s not something that any girl wants to hear about her girlfriend.

“I uh…I got my hands caught around my crotch.”

“I don’t know what that means.”

“It’s not as sexy as it sounds. I had my hands handcuffed behind my back and I tried to get them around to my front. I got caught like this.” Kara mimes out how she got herself trapped. “Cat had to pick the lock while I was like that.”

Lena nods slowly. “You’re a disaster.”

Kara is about to argue but loses the words as Lena practically dives onto the bed. “Come cuddle.”

“You don’t have to tell me twice.”

Read the final 2 chapters on Patreon here!

Find out more about 'Supergirl May-hem', a new collaborative event for writers and artists who love all SG WLW ships right here.

[filibusterfrog]

types of wizards :)

[jt1674]

[rastronomicals]

7:47 PM EDT March 17, 2024:

Rolling Stones - "Live With Me" From the album Let It Bleed (December 5, 1969)

Last song scrobbled from iTunes at Last.fm

File under:    Bands who at one point or the other were the best in the      world