Chapter Text
It was the summer before Carter started his first year of high school, and Cat felt the need to celebrate it by taking her son on a summer vacation, just the two of them so that they could bond and become closer before Carter became too engrossed in high school life. Recently, he had become more interested in the outdoors, thanks to Kara’s help in bringing him out of his shell whenever she was around him at the office, and the rare occasion Kara had to drop something off at the penthouse. That evening, she was determined to ask straight out, what her son wanted for his summer vacation.
After dinner, Cat approached her son and asked him what he wanted to do for summer vacation before school started. To her surprise, her son looked up at her with a shy smile and asked if they could take a trip to see the Great Smoky Mountains and do some sightseeing in Gatlinburg out in Tennessee. To say that Cat was surprised would be an understatement. Shaking her head, she talked with her son about what he wanted to do on this trip and how he wanted to get there. The media mogul even so much as offered up her private plane to fly out there, but her son refused, saying that he wanted to drive out there. Once again, she became weary of her sons' ambitious plans for his trip. Upon seeing the trepidation on his mother’s face, Carter laughed and told his mom that it would be okay to only use the private jet partway, like say, fly to the midwest and then rent a car and drive the rest of the way to Gatlinburg, Tennessee. This settled the anxiety and overwhelming feeling for Cat, and she agreed with her son that they could discuss this more in the morning and then would have Kara plan out their travels.
Over the next few days, Cat and Carter had discussions on what he wanted to have planned for the trip, which would then lead Cat to have a discussion with Kara about her booking everything for their trip. As the days drew closer to Carter’s summer vacation week, Carter decided that he needed to add one more adjustment to the trip the day before they were all set to leave for the trip. He pulled his mom aside and asked with the puppy dog eyes that he had picked up from the blonde assistant if he could bring a friend along for the trip. Cat was weary, but agreed anyway, glad that her son had made a close friendship with someone that he wanted to bring them along. Carter was happy with this and told his mom that his friend would meet them at the airport in the morning.
What Cat didn’t know was that this friend that Carter wanted to invite, was none other than Kara Danvers, her mousey assistant. It sure came as a surprise the next morning when the Grant duo showed up at the private airport where Cat’s private plane was waiting, to see Kara Danvers waiting for the two of them by the plane.
At first, Cat thought that Kara was just being a good assistant in seeing her boss off on her vacation that she had booked and planned for her. But to her great surprise, Carter leaped out of the limo and ran up to Kara to give her a hug.
“Kara, I’m so glad you could make it!” Carter exclaimed, still wrapped up in the hug with the younger blonde.
“I’m glad I could be here, buddy,” Kara replied, rubbing a hand over Carter's shoulders. She then looked up at her boss who had a confused expression. “Carter, did you tell your mom that I was coming with you?”
Carter looked sheepishly at both blondes, but before he could reply, his mom did for him. “No he did not, he just said that he invited a friend to join us. I was expecting a kid his age, not my assistant.”
“Oops,” Carter said with a sly smile. “I guess it just slipped my mind. We should hurry up and get on the plane before our whole timetable is messed up for the day.” Carter said as he sneaked his way past the two who were still standing there looking at one another.
“If this is going to be an issue for you, Miss Grant, I can just go talk to Carter and tell him that this is a complete misunderstanding and that I had plans with my sister that I forgot about so that I don’t have to be a bother to you. I’m really sorry. I thought he had spoken to you about all of this and that you were okay with me tagging along for this vacation.” Kara rambled on nervously to her boss as she twiddled her thumbs and looked at her shoes.
“Honestly Kiera, you are a horrible liar, so I doubt my son would be convinced with that lie. We’re losing precious travel time, and if it makes my son happy to have you along with this trip, then I guess you can come along.” Cat said with a wave of her hand as she made her way towards the plane.
Kara stood there dumbfounded for a few seconds, regained her bearings and picked up her bags and boarded the plane with the Grant family.
After arriving at the airport in the midwest, Kara took care of renting a car that was deemed suitable for the road trip to Tennessee. As trio made their way through Kentucky, they made a pit stop for gas and some food, while Cat allowed her son to sit up front with Kara while she took the back seat so that she could relax.
Within minutes of hitting the road again, Cat had fallen asleep. Halfway to Lexington, Cat startled awake due to the sound of the GPS giving directions. Carter turned around and saw his mom with a bewildered look on her face and started laughing. Kara glanced in the rearview mirror to catch a glimpse, but only received a glare from her boss, so she chose to keep her comments to herself.
Eventually, they made it to the border of Tennessee, and after another stop for gas, they decided that they could push it and make it all the way to Gatlinburg. Two hours later, they pulled up to a hotel and checked in for the night. Finding out that the hotel was booked up and the only available room had two full beds, Kara resigned herself to booking the room for the two Grants and trying to find another place for her to sleep at for the night.
Cat, after glancing at her watch and the state of her exhausted assistant, conceded and told Kara that the room would be fine and that it wouldn’t be an issue if she and Carter shared the bed and Kara took the other.
Sleeping arrangements were made for the night, and the trio settled in to get their sleep, excited for the vacation to come.