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“It’s not surfing,” Alex repeated, exasperated, for at least the third time that day. “You can’t just fly over the water and call it surfing.”“I’m being resourceful,” Kara shot back, shifting her grip on Carter’s arms. She hovered, just barely, above the clear blue water tickling the soles of her feet. Carter stood on them, his back to her front, arms stretched wide in an effort to feel balanced. “Good,” Kara said, to Carter this time. “Now crouch down a little, and let me know when you’re ready.”Carter nodded. Kara couldn’t see his face, but she could picture it - nervous and pale, a slight crease in his brow, but with the glint of determination in his eye that she’d seen so many times in his mother. The incoming wave was small, but it would work. With a slight burst of speed Kara skimmed across the water, hunching low so that her body shielded most of Carter’s, and together they shot through the loud, low tunnel to the other side, where Kara rose back to her full height and tightened her grip on Carter.“Well?” Alex asked, paddling over on her board with a raised brow. “What did you think?”Kara let her gravity field drop so that she and Carter were both submerged again, not letting go of him until he’d begun treading water, his curly hair darker than usual and plastered across his forehead. It took him a moment to speak - just long enough for Kara to become concerned that the glazed look in his eyes was the result of being pushed too far - but then he coughed, sputtering a little on the seawater, and broke into a wide grin.“That was awesome,” he crowed, kicking his way over to Alex and resting his arms on her board. “Way cooler than regular surfing. No offense,” he added hastily when Alex huffed. “Either way, you need to learn,” Alex insisted. “What’s the point of that ridiculous beach house if you can’t surf? And Kara won’t always be there to be your personal body board.”Kara shrugged, ducking beneath the water for a moment and emerging with a tightly closed mouth and puffed up cheeks. Carter stared, bemused, as Alex groaned and started move away, hampered by Carter’s weight pulling the board down, and finally closed her eyes and submitted to her fate as Kara pursed her lips to send a stream of now-freezing water directly into Alex’s face. Carter burst out laughing, warming Kara the way it always did when she was able to put that expression of carefree happiness on his face, and even as Alex stuck her tongue out she was grinning with the same fondness that Kara felt. “All right, you’ve had your fun,” Alex said. “Why don’t you go check on your girlfriend, she probably needs to be fanned with palm leaves or something, and I’ll show Carter how to really surf.” Kara rolled her eyes, but didn’t need to be told twice; seconds later, she had settled herself on the lounge chair next to Cat, watching Alex help Carter onto her board in the distant water.Considering that Cat dealt with her fear of heights by jumping off mountains and placing her glass office at the top of a skyscraper, Kara had been a little bemused by her flat refusal to set foot in the ocean. “Fear of heights is irrational,” she’d sniffed, glossing over the in fact very rational reasons she had to not like them with uncharacteristic thoughtfulness. “But we know next to nothing about what ungodly things live in the ocean, and I have no intention of learning the hard way.”“So much for diving,” Kara had teased, not able to help herself, and had only been forgiven when she’d brought Cat a Mai Tai later in the morning. Which, she thought now, was a good thing. Cat was lounging on the recliner they’d folded into the car, a brightly striped umbrella shielding her from the worst of the sun, in a bathing suit that made Kara’s mouth water when she first saw it: a navy one piece with deep triangular cutouts at the waist and a plunging back. Her hair, slightly less perfect than usual from the salt and sun, fell across her face as she startled at Kara’s sudden appearance. “You know the thrill of that has worn off,” Cat said flatly, looking up from the book she’d been pretending to read (Kara knew full well she hadn’t taken her eyes off Carter since he’d stepped into the water). A pink flush colored her cheeks, though - Kara supposed it could be the sun, but mostly she thinks Cat is just a giant liar, because they’ve discovered some very interesting new ways for Kara to use her powers, and the effect on Cat was never less than devastating.“I think you need more sunscreen,” Kara informed her, reaching into the large beach bag between their chairs. “Sit up.”“As you say, Supergirl,” Cat teased, but obeyed easily enough, turning so that her back faced Kara. “Around the shoulders, please.”“Bossy,” Kara mocked right back, but rubbed the cream between her hands and began kneading it into Cat’s shoulders, lifting the straps up and away to begin a proper massage. Cat let out a soft, contented noise that thrilled Kara as much as Carter’s earlier laughter, though the warmth settled in an entirely different place.“How’s he doing?” Cat asked after a few moments. She turned her head, offering Kara better access to the side of her neck, but the shift also allowed her to gaze back out at the water, where Carter was standing - wobbly - on the small surfboard Alex had tied to her own. Kara pressed her thumb into a particularly tender spot, holding it there for a long moment until Cat sighed and the muscle released. “He’s fine, Cat,” she said, removing her thumb and brushing her lips over the same place. “You know Alex wouldn’t let anything happen to him, and he’s having fun.”Cat sighed, a different one than before. “I don’t believe what I let you talk me into,” she murmured, turning all the way around to face Kara and taking her hands. “For god’s sake, even being here…” She gestured towards the large Bentley, parked incongruously on the deserted white beach of the otherwise uninhabited island. It had been Cat’s suggestion to begin with to get out of National City for Christmas after three straight cloudy, muggy holidays in the mid sixties. “Paris,” she’d declared, but Carter had vetoed the idea immediately, disliking the idea of an overseas plane ride during the holidays. “You know you don’t actually have to take a plane,” Kara had said, and that had opened up a whole new world of possibilities.She’d already celebrated Hanukkah with Alex and Eliza, so felt no qualms taking off to join the Grants on their mini world tour. Three days - Christmas included - in Paris; a quick jaunt through Norway for a close-up of the Northern Lights; a detour back to National City to grab Alex, who’d been unable to get more time off work; finally, they’d settled on a speck of an island in the middle of the Atlantic, becoming, Kara was sure, the first humans to ever set foot there. She almost felt bad spoiling it, but as she refocused and zeroed in on Cat’s bright eyes and sun-flushed cheeks, it was hard to think of anything as being spoiled.“You love it,” Kara reminded her, and Cat barely had a chance to roll her eyes before they were kissing, Cat’s hand tangling in the salty mess of Kara’s hair. It was easy to get lost - easy to let the gentle crash of waves and the occasional shouts of laughter wash over them, a sweet backdrop to the softer, closer sighs and quiet hums Cat let out every so often, their heavy breaths and the feel of Cat’s damp skin under her fingers. Easy, even, to start to forget, their hands wandering places that they’d normally refrain from in company, but Cat shuddered as Kara toyed with the tie of her flimsy swimsuit, goosebumps erupting along the nape of her neck.“Okay,” Cat whispered raggedly, leaning forward again to catch another kiss before straightening. “Okay, enough of that.” She cleared her throat and blinked rapidly, her eyes losing some of the cloudiness; Kara mourned it, but mostly delighted in the visible effort it was taking Cat to pull herself together. “Later?” she murmured, tilting her head just enough that Cat rolled her eyes again. Kara pouted, exaggerating it until the corners of Cat’s lips became tight with the smile she was trying to hide, and then relented. “Fine. You should come check out the water, though. Cool down a little.”
”You’re impossible,” Cat sighed, raising a delicate hand to her forehead in a gesture that Kara found delightfully old-Hollywood and dramatic. “And no. You’ll have to make do with Carter and your sister.” She frowned, scanning the open ocean ahead of them. “Where are they, anyway?”They’d drifted a little, out and to the left. Kara pointed, shielding her eyes from the sun. “You see Carter? Look - yeah, there he goes!” She let out a whoop as Carter shakily raised himself to a standing position on the board, Alex doing the same thing a moment later with significantly more grace. “Awesome, Carter!”“I hate this,” Cat grumbled, but let out a cheer as well. “I was always so glad he didn’t like sports, and then you and your sister come along and suddenly he’s Mr. Adventure.”“Our adventures are cool,” Kara argued. “Come on. He got to fly across the ocean in a car, even Harry Potter didn’t do that. Plus, we saw polar bears.”Cat’s lips twitched again, but her face immediately fell as Carter wobbled and then fell, landing with a splash. “Ouch,” Kara winced, focusing her vision to find him among the waves. “He’s fine,” she reassured Cat a moment later as he surfaced, looking no worse for wear. “Look, he’s - oh.”She paused, just for a moment, just long enough for Cat to turn and stare at her, alarmed. Then she was gone.She could hear Cat’s startled yelp, could hear her heartbeat triple and the thread of real fear in her voice as she called out after her, the shifting sand as she began to rise from the lounger - but more importantly, she heard Alex, encouraging, patient, oblivious, and Carter, his legs kicking beneath the surface as he clung to his board -“Kara, what the hell?” Alex gasped as she swooped over them, grabbing Carter with one unceremonious hand and dropping him on Alex’s board. They were all in the air and then back on the beach before it could overbalance. It all happened quickly enough that Cat had only just reached the water’s edge by the time Carter and Alex had reoriented, both wide-eyed and tense. “What the hell, Kara?” Cat demanded, angrier than Alex, as she reached for Carter. “What happened?”Kara glanced over her shoulder back to the water. “Sorry,” she said grimly. “There are a couple of sharks out there, they were heading your way. I don’t know what kind live out here but I wasn’t taking chances.” She narrowed her eyes, taking in the details she hadn’t the first time - small darting eyes and powerful tails, the smooth motion of wide gills, the sheer length of them - and shuddered. “Sorry,” she said again, putting a hand on Carter’s shoulder. “I didn’t mean to scare you.”“And you didn’t think to check if there were sharks before bringing us here?” Cat’s voice loud, shrill, and Kara knew it was because she was scared - her heart was still pounding, and she was gripping Carter’s other shoulder tightly enough that even her short nails were leaving marks. “You were on the lookout for the damn polar bears, but not sharks?”Alex cleared her throat, positioning herself subtly in front of Kara. “It’s all right, Cat,” she said, running a hand through her hair. “There are sharks in National City, too, and they usually leave people alone. You know Kara wouldn’t let anything happen to us.”“We’re fine, Mom,” Carter added, still pale but sounding steady enough. “But I think I’m ready to go home now.”Kara nodded, managing a small smile. “Of course,” she said. “Why don’t you guys dry off, I’ll pack everything up.” She didn’t wait for an answer, just grabbed the surfboard and made her way back to the lounge area they’d set up, moving only a little faster than an average human as she went about breaking it down and stowing it in the car.Cat was waiting for her when she closed the trunk a few minutes later. “I didn’t mean to yell,” she said abruptly, clutching her own wrist, looking small in the oversized wrap she wore over her bathing suit. “That was just -” she paused, clearly searching for words, and then deflated in one big rush of breath. “I can’t explain it, Kara, but every single day, every single minute, I worry about him. And as much as I try to protect him, all it would take…” she trailed off, eyes bright as she looked over Kara’s shoulder into the lush green trees behind them. “You can protect the people you love, darling, but I can’t do that. Not from sharks or polar bears or an idiot driver on the road, or any of the millions of things that could happen to him.” She let out another shaky breath, bringing her gaze back to Kara’s. “It’s terrifying.”Kara nodded, distantly aware of Carter and Alex drawing pictures in the sand down the beach - giving them privacy, she was sure, and made a note to thank Alex later. “I can’t imagine,” she said at last. “I mean, being a mom, what that must be like. I’m scared every time Alex goes into the field, but I know it’s not the same.” She stepped closer, so that Cat had to tilt her head up to keep eye contact. “But Cat, you have to know that you do more than enough for him. You do everything for him. And I’m here for the sharks and the cars and whatever else I can be, because as long as I’m around I will never let anything happen to him. To either of you.”Cat blinked, a couple of tears spilling down her cheeks; she wiped them away angrily, pressing her hand roughly against Kara’s chest. “And what about you, hmm?” she demanded. “For god’s sake, it was bad enough with just my kids, but now I have to watch you go off and fight the monster of the week, and you’re bulletproof but you’re not immortal, Kara, as much as you act like it sometimes.”Her last words burned as they landed deep in a place Kara rarely let herself acknowledge; she ignored it as best she could and clasped her own hands over Cat’s. “I know,” she said, pressing her forehead to Cat’s. “I know, I’m sorry. But I always come back.” She felt Cat swallow and let go of her hand to cup her face. “I’ll keep coming back for as long as you’ll have me.”Cat pulled back, just a little, and looked at Kara - just looked, for a long swollen moment that felt heavier than the ocean air around them - before nodding once. “Then you’ll always come back,” she said at last, not asking, but hesitancy written in the lines of her eyes, the tightness in her jaw.Kara kissed her, felt the flutter of Cat’s eyelashes on her cheek as she pulled back a moment later. “Yeah,” she agreed, the warmth of the sun barely registering against the warmth in her chest, and she just knew her smile must be bordering on ridiculous, but the tension drained from Cat as Kara wrapped an arm around her, and she couldn’t help it. “You’re stuck with me, I think.”“I’ll live with it,” Cat murmured as Carter and Alex started making their way towards them and together, they started towards home.