Chapter 4 : Partners
December 2015 — CatCo Worldwide Media — Afternoon
The elevator doors opened on chaos.
Cat Grant's voice cut through the bullpen like artillery fire, demanding coffee, demanding updates, demanding to know why her headline about "National City's Angel" had been changed to "Supergirl" without her approval. Staffers scattered in her wake, clutching tablets and looking traumatized.
I kept my head down and walked toward my desk. Three days since the plane rescue. Three days of non-stop coverage, speculation, and increasingly unhinged theories about who Supergirl might be. My training log sat in my apartment, updated this morning: 74% deflection rate now, and I could hold an electrical charge for almost thirty seconds before needing to release it.
Progress. Slow, but real.
"Winn."
Kara's hand closed around my elbow. Her grip was gentle—she was always so careful—but there was urgency in the pressure.
"Rooftop. Now."
"I haven't even—"
"Now."
She practically dragged me to the stairwell. We climbed in silence, her sneakers squeaking against concrete, my dress shoes clicking a counterpoint rhythm. The roof access door groaned when she pushed it open.
National City sprawled beneath us. Glass towers catching afternoon sun, cars crawling through gridlock, planes circling the airport in the distance. Beautiful, from up here. Almost peaceful.
Kara stood at the edge, arms wrapped around herself, shoulders tight. She didn't turn around.
"So." Her voice cracked slightly. "I need to tell you something."
Here it comes.
I walked to stand beside her. Close enough to touch, far enough to give her space. "Okay."
"It's going to sound insane."
"Kara, we work for Cat Grant. My threshold for insane is pretty high."
She laughed—nervous, short—and finally faced me. Her glasses were slightly crooked. She always forgot to adjust them when she was stressed.
"I'm Supergirl."
The words hung in the air between us. She watched my face, searching for shock, disbelief, the dramatic reaction the original Winn would have given. The stammering and the wide eyes and the "oh my god Kara that's amazing."
Instead, I nodded.
"I know."
"You—" She blinked. "Wait, what?"
"The glasses don't actually hide much. And you called in sick three times last week, always during Supergirl sightings. Plus your 'cold' coincidentally cleared up right after the Tribune building fire."
Her mouth opened. Closed. Opened again.
"You knew?"
"Suspected. Strongly." I shrugged. "It wasn't my secret to confirm. I figured you'd tell me when you were ready."
"I..." She ran a hand through her hair, dislodging the careful arrangement she'd spent ten minutes on that morning. "I don't know what to say. I had this whole speech prepared. About Krypton, and my pod, and why I hid for so long."
"Do you want to give the speech anyway? I can pretend to be surprised."
That got a real laugh out of her. Some of the tension bled from her shoulders.
"God, Winn. You're impossible."
"So I've been told."
She leaned against the rooftop railing, staring out at the city she'd sworn to protect. The wind caught her hair, and for a moment I could see it—Supergirl beneath the cardigan and glasses. The hero she was becoming.
"I want to do this," she said. "Really do it. Not just show up when planes are falling. I want to help people. Fight crime. Save the world, maybe."
"That's a tall order."
"I know. And I can't do it alone." She turned to face me fully. "Will you help me?"
The question I've been waiting for since I woke up in this body.
"Absolutely."
Her face lit up. Then—
"But we're doing this smart."
"Smart?"
I reached into my messenger bag and pulled out the notebook. The one I'd been filling for weeks. Threat assessments based on everything I remembered from the show. Power analysis. Suit designs. Communication protocols. Emergency contingencies.
Kara took it with both hands, flipping through pages covered in my cramped handwriting.
"Winn, this is..." She stopped on a diagram of her suit with annotations. "You've been working on this for weeks."
"You needed backup. I wanted to be ready."
"But how did you—" She looked up sharply. "How did you know about any of this before I told you?"
Careful.
"Research. After the plane rescue, I started digging. DEO exists in government databases if you know where to look. Fort Rozz is referenced in redacted files. And the suit..." I pointed at the page. "Basic materials analysis. That blanket cape won't hold up to sustained heat vision or friction burns."
She stared at me for a long moment. Something in her expression shifted—not suspicion, exactly. More like she was seeing me clearly for the first time.
"You're different," she said slowly. "The last few months. I noticed, but I didn't... you're really different."
Don't flinch. Don't explain.
"Near-death experience."
"What?"
"Nothing. Inside joke with myself." I tapped the notebook. "Point is, I've got ideas. You've got powers. Together, we might actually make this work."
She looked down at the pages again. Heat-resistant threading. Hidden comm units. Emergency beacon designs. Everything practical, everything professional.
"This isn't fanboy stuff," she murmured.
"No. This is partnership."
Her smile could have powered the whole building.
Winn's Apartment — That Night
The suit spread across my workbench like a surgical patient.
Kara sat on a stool nearby, eating pizza and watching me work. She'd changed into civilian clothes—jeans and a CatCo hoodie—but kept the glasses. Force of habit.
"The cape is actually my pod blanket," she said around a mouthful of pepperoni. "It's Kryptonian. Basically indestructible."
"Good. That's the one thing I wasn't sure how to reinforce." I held up a spool of modified thread. "But the rest of the suit is Earth fabric. This should help—heat-resistant polymer weave. Won't stop a bullet, but it'll survive friction burns up to about 400 degrees."
"How do you know how to do any of this?"
Because I've watched you fight a hundred battles in another life.
"YouTube tutorials. Plus a lot of late nights."
She threw a wadded napkin at my head. I caught it without looking—vector sense pinging automatically—and tossed it back.
"Show-off."
"Says the woman who can fly."
We worked in comfortable silence for a while. Kara finished her pizza and started sorting components by size. She was good with her hands—careful and precise despite strength that could crush steel.
"The comm unit goes in the ear cuff," I explained, soldering the final connection. "Range of about five miles, encrypted frequency. I'll have the receiver end at my apartment until we figure out a better base of operations."
"What about the emergency beacon?"
"Wrist mount. Double-tap to activate. I'll get a signal even if you can't talk." I set down the soldering iron. "There's one more thing."
I pulled up a blueprint on my laptop. An older design, from the first week after I'd woken up here.
"Flight recorder. Tiny camera, stores locally, uploads to encrypted cloud backup when you land. Documentation for everything you do in the field."
"Documentation?"
"Proof. If someone accuses Supergirl of property damage or excessive force, we'll have footage showing what actually happened. Protects you legally."
Kara went quiet. She was looking at the blueprint like she'd never seen anything like it.
"You thought of all this," she said finally. "All these details I never would have considered."
"That's the job."
"No." She shook her head. "That's more than a job. That's... Winn, this is care. Real, genuine care about keeping me safe."
You have no idea.
"You're my best friend. Of course I care."
She hugged me. Quick, fierce, strong enough to make my ribs creak. I hugged back, careful not to wince.
"Thank you," she whispered against my shoulder. "For being ready. For believing in me before I believed in myself."
"Always."
She pulled back, wiped her eyes quickly, and reached for another slice of pizza.
"So. When do we start?"
I looked at the suit, the comm system, the notebook full of plans.
"Tomorrow. You patrol, I coordinate. We build from there."
Kara grinned. "I like it."
She left an hour later, suit bundled in a gym bag, flying home over the city lights. I watched from my window until she was just a speck against the stars.
Then I turned back to my training area.
Partnership established. Phase one complete.
Now comes the hard part.
Author's Note / Promotion:
Your Reviews and Power Stones are the best way to show support. They help me know what you're enjoying and bring in new readers!
You don't have to. Get instant access to more content by supporting me on Patreon. I have three options so you can pick how far ahead you want to be:
🪙 Silver Tier ($6): Read 10 chapters ahead of the public site.
👑 Gold Tier ($9): Get 15-20 chapters ahead of the public site.
💎 Platinum Tier ($15): The ultimate experience. Get new chapters the second I finish them . No waiting for weekly drops, just pure, instant access.
Your support helps me write more .
👉 Find it all at patreon.com/fanficwriter1