#mama bear Kara doesn’t care about your rules

[natalievoncatte]

cw: this ficlet contains some graphic violence and a child in peril, but everyone makes it out okay, except the bad guy.

“Now, Alex? Right now?” Kara demanded, as she laced the room with her phone to her ear. Lena watched her from the bed, hands resting on the dime of her belly, a bemused smile on her face.

“I’m sorry, Kara, but the rampaging supervillain didn’t check your schedule before attacking the city.”

She glanced at Lena, whose smirk had taken on a hint of sadness.

“My wife is about to give birth,” Kara sighed. “Alex… we talked about this. We still need to figure out how to make it work.”

“I know, I know, but I have J’onn on his way there now to keep an eye on Lena. It’ll be fine. You’ll probably be back before they’re done prepping her.”

“Fine, I’m on my way.”

Ending the call, she turned to Lena, cupping her soft cheek with one hand.

“I’ll be back as fast as I can.”

“Kara,” said Lena. “This is a surgical procedure. I don’t think you need to actually watch it anyway.”

“I promised I’d be here.”

Lena sighed. “Go get ‘em, Supergirl.”

Kara hesitated, unable to restrain the frown that twisted her lips as she left. She waited until she was on the roof to whip off her glasses and materialize her suit. Alex had directed her downtown.

Kara flew, and fast. When she landed it was with a bit more of a shockwave than usual, and she spared the usual pleasantries and pleas to surrender peacefully. An eight foot tall, blue, horned alien was engaged in the usual mayhem as she arrived, and paid her little mind.

He opened by throwing a steamroller at her. Kara sidestepped it, sighing. The wind really had left her sails for this. She wanted to be with Lena. She wanted to welcome their baby into the world.

The alien quickly made it apparent that she didn’t need to pull her punches, and she didn’t. Nevertheless, it took half an hour for her to put him in a headlock and knock him out, and there was an interminable wait while Alex had him loaded up into a containment unit.

“Go,” Alex finally told her. “Go see your son.”

Kara took off with renewed vigor, landing a block from the hospital to change into her civilian clothes before rushing in. She moved perhaps a touch too fast for a human as she returned to the maternity ward and walked into a nightmare.

J’onn was standing in the hallway. He seemed indistinct, somehow, like he was in the middle of phasing, and he was frozen as still as a statue. There was something stuck to the chest of his polo shirt, and when Kara reached for the circular device, her hand passed through him.

She jabbed the comms she’d left in her ear.

“Alex,” she whispered, frantic. “Something’s wrong at the hospital. Someone incapacitated J’onn.”

“Wait for me,” Alex replied at once her voice high and tight.

“I can’t.”

“Kara,” Alex began, but Kara ignored her.

She pushed into the surgical ward, slowing when she saw a nurse lying against the wall, clutching a wound in her stomach as a doctor crouched beside her. Lena was still on the table.

The baby, her son, was beside Lena, still covered in amniotic fluid, his cord uncut, crying lustily for his mother.

Standing over him was a man Kara never expected to see again. Ben Lockwood.

“Hello, Kara.”

She froze. Lockwood held a sharp chunk of Kryptonite in his hand, the jagged point aimed down at the child. The other held a gun aimed at Lena’s chest.

The painful burning spread up Kara’s limbs, working its way along her nerves like a thousand hot needles scraping under her skin. Her knees buckled and she fought the pull of gravity.

“Get rid of the kryptonite,” Kara demanded.

“You have to make a choice. The kid or the wife. You’ve got ten seconds. Pick one.”

Kara locked eyes with him, pleasing.

“Me. Not them. Take me instead.”

Lockwood smiled, though his eyes remained cold and dead. “Wrong answer. I guess I’ll just have to pick for you.”

Kara finally started to sink, the collapse imminent. She knew what she had to do. With her dwindling strength, she threw herself at Lockwood, sprinting the distance, and in her weakened state, she could do no more than artlessly crash into him.

The gun spun free, unfired.

The kryptonite slid home, parting the flesh under Kara’s ribs. A fresh agony ripped through her as the jagged point struck her lung. She collapsed on top of Lockwood.

“I’m sorry,” she choked out, foaming blood from her lips falling on Lockwoods face.

With her remaining strength, she clamped her hands on his neck and twisted. It took no more effort than cleaning a chicken. She barely felt the bones part as her hand went numb.

I have to get the Kryptonite away from the baby.

Kara rolled off of the body and began dragging herself, forcing her way past her screaming son and into the hallway, painting the tiles red for a good fifteen feet until she finally collapsed. She thought she heard Alex calling to her, as blackness came in and swallowed everything.

***

The first thing Kara was aware of was the pleasant, prickling heat of sun lamps on her skin, and shortly after that, the sound of a voice… singing. It was a familiar voice, soft and halting, singing the lullaby as if she might be embarrassed if someone caught her.

Kara opened her eyes and looked over, flooded with a wave of relief as she saw Lena sitting beside her, curled up in a chair with the baby swaddled in her arms, sleeping peacefully.

Joy and relief shattered her more fiercely than sorrow ever could. Kara choked out a pained sob, more following as the sheer weight of it overwhelmed her. Lena looked up and Kara saw she hadn’t slept.

“Is he okay?” Kara said. “Did the kryptonite hurt him?”

“Nothing permanent or serious,” said Lena. “His half-human physiology makes him much less sensitive to it than you are.”

“I’m so sorry,” Kara said, her body shaking with sobs. “Rao, I am so sorry. I left you. I left you.”

Lena shook her head. “Kara, it’s alright. You saved us. Ben Lockwood was as much my enemy as…”

Was.

Kara sat up and plunged her head in her hands. She sobbed harder. She’d done the one thing she swore on her very life never to do. She killed him.

“Kara,” said Lena. “Would you like to hold your son? He wants to meet you.”

Her head snapped up. Kara held back the sobs as she tenderly accepted the bundle from Lena’s arms. Her little boy was at once the lightest and easiest and heaviest burden her arms had ever carried. Tears fell freely as she stared at his tiny sleeping face. He was perfect. Perfect.

“Should you be on your feet so soon after the surgery?”

Lena sighed. “It’s been two weeks, Kara. That kryptonite did a number on you.”

“Oh,” said Kara.

They were quiet for a time, Kara rocking the baby gently in the bed while Lena carded her fingers through Kara’s hair.

“This is it,” said Kara. “This is the end. Supergirl is done. He comes first. You come first. We come first.”

“Yes,” Lena agreed. “Alex and I talked about it while you were out and she told me what you were planning to do, so we took the opportunity. Supergirl died saving me from Ben Lockwood. I gave the eulogy at your public funeral. It was very moving, I’m told.”

“I’m sure it was,” Kara said, absently.

Suddenly, Lena threw her arms around them both, pulling them into a tight embrace. Kara leaned into it, burying her face in the crook of Lena’s shoulder.

“Let’s go home.”

#supercorp #supergirl fanfiction #supergirl #supercorp fanfic #lena luthor #kara danvers #kara x lena #karlena #supergirl fanfic #ficlet #established supercorp #Supercorp baby #mama bear Kara doesn’t care about your rules #supergirl retires #this is the last dance

[musetotheworld]

Supercat- A quiet lake

Kara smiles as she looks out over the lake, letting the peaceful sounds of nature wash over her. It’d taken some adjusting before she grew comfortable out here but after three months she can barely remember what the city was like.

“Your Mama’s coming to visit tonight,” she whispers to the tiny bundle in her arms as she watches the sun break over the trees. “Yeah, we get her all weekend this time. She’s missed you, little one.”

That’s the only part of the retreat that’s still hard on Kara, not having Cat by her side for every moment of their newest son’s life. The first month had been easiest, despite adjusting to the immense change of secluded forest after busy city. Easiest, because Cat had been by her side every day, taking her own maternity leave from CatCo to help Kara settle in.

But she couldn’t work from home when their home was hours away, and once her four weeks were up Cat returned to the city and her responsibilities. Now she could only make it out for weekends, and sometimes only a day at a time. The Board still wasn’t happy she’d married and had a child with her former assistant, and every day Cat spent away from her company was another day risking a takeover attempt.

Kara understood all that, but it didn’t make it easier. Not when she’d had to step away from her own duties until Dan-El was old enough to eat solid food. For all he was half human his appetite was all Kryptonian, and despite working for months on a formula they could use to supplement his feedings the still had nothing. Which meant Kara was on the hook for every feeding duty for at least the next few months until they could start to introduce solid food for him and give her a break.

Not that she minded being responsible for her son at all. She loved the moments of quiet peacefulness with her son no matter how often they came. But the strain of hearing sirens in the distance and being unable to rush out and help had become too great a strain soon after Dan-El was born. Before, she could tell herself it was too dangerous to rush off while pregnant. She couldn’t risk the life of her son, or risk the world finding out about his existence.

But after, when it was only her life in danger, it was harder. Yes, she was still responsible for her son’s well being. But there were others available to care for him as well, and she had a responsibility to the city as well. It was harder to argue with an abstract thought that only she could provide something Dan-El needed when she could see Cat holding him close and soothing his cries. Cat loved and cared for him every bit as deeply as Kara, but only Kara could produce the nourishment he needed to survive. If she died or was even seriously injured there would be no way to feed him.

She’d never knowingly risk leaving her child without one of his mothers, but she couldn’t bear the thought of letting another child in the city suffer that fate either. It tore her apart every time she heard someone call for help and she had to sit back in a chair and try to shut them out.

That’s why Cat had insisted they leave the city when the strain began to affect Kara’s health. If hearing trouble in the distance was too much, then they’d go someplace the sound didn’t carry until Kara could help once more.

It wasn’t perfect, but it was the best they could do.

“Your Mama is a very wise woman,” she continues as the silence stretched on, starting to grate on her nerves. She’s working hard at keeping her hearing turned down to human levels as practice for when they return to the city, but that means it’s nearly silent most of the time, and she’s taken to talking at Dan-El to fill the emptiness. “She’s important too, no matter what the Board says. And if Supergirl has to take a few months off, I’m glad National City has her to look after them.”

“It’ll still be nice to have you back,” a voice comes from behind them, and only long practice at not moving too quickly around the baby keeps Kara from spinning in shock.

“Cat, you weren’t supposed to be here until later!”

“One of the Board members was caught cheating on his wife and has decided to resign, the others aren’t interested in adding to any potential controversy by ousting me,” Cat explains as she crosses the room to take her son, holding him close as she closes her eyes with a peaceful look on her face. Kara understands, she can’t imagine being away from him as often as Cat is, and she knows it grates on her wife. “I left early and told them I’d be gone Monday too, James is covering for me and knows to call at the slightest sign of them starting something.”

Kara nods, knowing that if James is on the case he probably has Winn helping keep a discrete eye on things, namely their emails and cell records. Not all that legal, and inadmissible in court, but it would give Cat plenty of warning to shore up her defenses before any ploys are set in motion.

“Well, for once I’m thankful for rich white men and their belief they’ll never get caught breaking the rules,” Kara teases as she stands to wrap her arms around her wife and child. “Four whole days with you sounds amazing.”

“You know I wish I could be here more,” Cat starts guiltily, but Kara cuts her off.

“Of course I do, Cat. And you know I’d love to be back in National City with you, but right now it’s not possible.” They’ve had this disagreement before, but Kara refuses to let Cat walk away from CatCo over something temporary. Another two or three months, and she should be back in their home where she belongs. “With the Board backing off hopefully you can be here more often, and it shouldn’t be long until we can start him on solid foods anyway. Once his system develops enough to process human food he’ll only need to breastfeed to supplement for his nutrients, so I’ll actually have enough time between feedings to pump.”

Honestly, Kara is looking forward to that for dozens of reasons. One, having a child with Kryptonian appetite dependent solely on her for sustenance greatly limits her freedom of movement. Hourly feedings make it hard to go anywhere or do anything.

Second, she wants Carter to have every chance to bond with his new brother. Adam too, when he has time. They can’t do that out here, not with school and work and friends. They’ve each been out a few times but never enough to really spend time bonding as siblings. Not even to the extent an infant can manage.

Third, she knows Cat wants to feed her son, but Dan-El eats so often Kara doesn’t have time or spare milk to pump a bottle so she can. The closest they’ve managed is holding him between them while he nurses, and while that was nice, it wasn’t the same for her and Kara knows it.

It’s still better than nothing, and when their son starts to fuss right on schedule Kara hands him over to Cat while she fiddles with her shirt. They’ve done this often enough that Cat knows the drill, and once Kara is ready she brings Dan-El to her breast to quiet him while Cat slips off her own shirt so they hold their child together skin to skin. Kara doesn’t know if the bare skin contact as important for a half Kryptonian baby as it is for a fully human one but she never wants to risk stunting his development.

“We’ll be back soon and it’ll all be worth it, you’ll see,” Kara whispers, leaning her head forward to rest against Cat’s. She misses these moments of closeness more than anything else while they’re apart.

Soon, though. Soon she won’t have to miss them.

They stand quietly while Dan-El eats, each leaning down occasionally to kiss his head and inhale his sweet baby scent. And when he finishes, he looks up at his mothers with a smile that melts their hearts all over again.

“It’s already worth it,” Cat says, closing her eyes and moving to pull Kara close when she shifts their son to her shoulder. “This could never be anything less.”

#supergirl #supergirl fic #supercat #supercat fic #prompt fill