Monica
One thing that had not changed about Carol Danvers in the time she’d been gone from Louisiana, and that was her stubbornness. The blonde refused to answer any of the Rambeaus questions until Maria had sat her in an upright position in a bed, brought her the cracked pager and put her suit within arm’s reach. Monica had been promptly sent to bed – due to not only it being her bedtime, but also because Carol refused to talk with her in the room. It was almost an hour before Maria was sat, cross-legged, at the end of the bed facing Carol, who had three pillows propping up her back to keep her comfortable.
“Will you tell me what’s going on, now?” She implored.
Carol sighed, letting her head roll back on its shoulders. She’d been trying to put it off as much as possible, she regretted even saying anything but the whole situation had caught her off guard. One moment she’d been –
“Carol?” Maria was looking her with those big dark eyes of hers – wanting her to explain. Her bottom lip was wobbling slightly, her eyes wide with concern for her friend.
Carol exhaled again. “It’s hard to explain.” She muttered, fiddling with the broken pager in her hands, ignoring the flashes of pain that went through her sprained wrist. The blonde glanced up at Maria. “-and I’m not sure you should know. Monica cannot know.”
Maria reached forward slowly and took the pager, putting it on the bedside table and replacing it with her own hands in Carol’s. “Carol-“ She began slowly. “You told me that I’m going to be dead by 2019 and half the galaxy is dead. I need to know what’s going on.”
The two women stared at each other for a couple of moments, Maria squeezing her hand. Carol knew she shouldn’t say, knew it would be horrible, knew she could never explain what had happened in the twenty-four years she’d been gone. The blonde ran her thumb over Maria’s knuckle and with a last glance at the dark eyes fixated on hers, she spoke.
“I don’t know how I’m here. One moment I was – “ She bit her lip. “And the next, I was here with you.”
Maria nodded for her to go on. “Just tell me what happened before that.”
Carol stared at her for a second, like she was insane. She let out a small chuckle. “God, where to start? Um…well I was in 2019 – not as nice as this year – I’ll say that now.” She said with a smile, which faded as soon as it had arrived. “And everybody I knew – apart from Monica – was dead.”
That earned a small smile from Maria, fresh hope being renewed in her eyes. “Monica’s alive? Half the galaxy and she’s alive?”
“I knew you’d like that fact.” Carol commented. “Alive and kicking. Oh – and married. Like, super married.”
Maria grinned properly then, glad her daughter was happy in the future, but quickly waved it off. “Back on topic. What were you doing in 2019?” She implored, trying to keep the image of her daughter being married at the back of her mind. It probably wouldn’t stay there long. “Were you fighting someone?”
Carol’s face turned from a fond grin to a twisted expression of rage – something Maria had never seen before. It was like her face caved in on itself: the corners of her mouth were pulled down, her eyes narrowed till they were almost shut, her brow almost knitted together.
“Thanos.” Carol said with a furious tone, her eyes clouding into almost total pitch black. She looked like something out of a horror film. “He killed…everybody.”
Maria squeezed Carol’s hand. “You’re safe here, Carol.” She reminded her softly.
Carol ignored her, her mind now seemingly elsewhere. “I almost had him, he was right there, in front of me. We were so close and then –“ Carol’s hand made an angry fist, and then her expression seemed to clear. “-and then I ended up here.”
Maria studied Carol’s body language carefully; noticing how the heroine’s shoulders were tightened, her lips pursed together in confusion, her good hand clenched in its fist. There was no binary energy even crackling from it, let alone the hand in the cast. Carol followed her friend’s gaze, frowning and then clenching her hand tighter. Nothing.
“Now I don’t have any powers. Great.” The blonde tutted, throwing up her hands in frustration. She winced as she felt her bad wrist tweak. Carol stared at her leg, then swung her good arm, sending the pager and her suit off the bedside table. “Shit!” She cursed furiously.
Maria took Carol’s face in both hands, holding her still as the other woman started to shake with emotion. “It’s okay, Carol, it’s okay. Look, you’ll get better.” She told her forcefully, leaving no tone for argument. The former pilot pointed at Carol’s casted leg. “You’ve dealt with worse than a broken leg, Carol.”
Carol didn’t say anything, but Maria could see she was visibly starting to relax again. She let go of her friend’s face and went to pick up the pager and the suit. “You should rest. You’ve had a busy day, we can start to make sense of it tomorrow, yeah?”
Carol sighed, watching the suit be folded over the end of the bed and the pager be put back onto the table. Feeling her watching eyes on her, Maria offered the other woman the pager, pressing it into the palm of her good hand. With no words being spoken between them, Maria helped Carol lie down flat: placing a cushion underneath her bad leg to alleviate it, tucking the duvet up to underneath her chin and placing a heated blanket over the top.
“That okay?”
Carol pressed the pager up to her mouth, shutting her eyes and just offered a small smile. “Thanks.”
Maria returned the smile, placed a kiss to the blonde’s bruised forehead before heading to walk out of the room and take a place on the sofa. As she passed the bed again, something caught her by the wrist. Maria looked down to see Carol’s good hand wrapped around it, the blonde staring at her from the bed.
“I’m really sorry, Maria, that I wasn’t there. I’m so sorry.” She said. Maria could almost hear a whimper in her voice, like a kicked puppy. “I would’ve been, I just…I didn’t know. I lost track of time.”
Maria raised an eyebrow. “What are you talking about?” Carol let go of her wrist, tucking it back underneath the blankets. She didn’t say anything, just shut her eyes. Maria took that as a reserved dismissal and so went to pull the door shut. “Goodnight, Carol.”
++
Maria woke the next morning to the sun shining through the living room window, the smell of bacon and eggs filling the house. Looking at the clock that hung on the wall, it was only just past eight in the morning. As she lifted her head dozily, Maria saw a shadow rush past the window, a familiar laugh following it. She frowned, that was Carol’s laugh.
Outside, Carol was sat in a chair with a plate of breakfast in her lap and her casted leg had been propped up on a chair. Dressed in one of Maria’s old flight suits, she was facing one of Maria’s broken planes, laughing at it. Monica had climbed into the cockpit, and was pretending to be the pilot. She was sounding off all the correct flight terms, making Carol laugh as she remembered them all.
“What’s going on here, then?” Maria smiled as she leaned in the doorway of the house.
Monica lifted the goggles she’d found off her face, grinning at her mother wildly. “I’m showing Carol how good a pilot I’m gonna be!” She laughed.
Maria nodded, rolling her eyes. As Monica pulled the goggles back over her eyes, Maria sauntered over and flopped down on the grass beside Carol. “Is she going to be a pilot?” She asked, breathing in the smell of Carol’s bacon.
The blonde handed her a space streak of it. “Technically yes.” She murmured in response, her eyes remaining on Monica’s antics. “Doesn’t fly out much as far as I know.”
It achieved a small smirk from Maria as she ate the bacon contentedly. “As much as you?”
Carol snorted, and looked at Maria with a sideways grin. “Nobody could ever fly as much as me.” She boasted proudly.
The two women laughed briefly, before a frown came over Maria’s face. “How are you even out here?” She asked, gesturing to the propped-up leg.
Carol pointed to the giggling girl in goggles. “She’s very strong.”
Maria elbowed her best friend fondly. “You mean that you’re very persistent.” She chuckled knowingly. Whilst the two settled in their quiet laughter, Maria noticed Carol still had the broken pager in her hand. “Have you been trying to call Fury?” She asked, pointing to the pager.
Carol squinted in the sun, looking at anything but the two Rambeau women, running her thumb gently over the cracked screen. “No point.” She muttered, holding the pager up uselessly. “Broken.”
“You can’t fix it?”
“He wouldn’t know what to do anyway.” Carol replied, still looking away from her best friend. “Besides, I don’t think I could face him again.”
When Maria remained silent, Carol offered her the plate of food she hadn’t eaten. The other woman took it, eating the bacon quietly. “How come?” She pursued gently, knowing she was toeing the line a little by asking.
Carol sighed, seemingly trying to sum up the courage to reply before she finally took another breath and spoke. “He’s dead. In the future, I mean.” She managed, staring at her hands in her lap. “I don’t think I could meet with someone I know is going to be a ghost the next time I see them.”
“Well what about me? I’m supposed to be dead, aren’t I?” Maria pressed, trying to crane her neck to look up at the blonde.
“Yeah, something you’re taking remarkably well.” Carol noted dryly. “-and I didn’t really have a choice when I made a small crater in your back garden, did I?”
Maria laughed. “I’m just glad you missed the plane.” She remarked, nodding to the little fighter plane that her daughter was still sat in. “Would have cost a fortune if you’d sent that up in flames.”
“I’ve been meaning to ask you about that, actually. Always meant to.” Carol replied, gesturing to the house around them. “How do you afford to live in all of this? They never paid us this kind of money when we were in the air force, even with Mar-Vell’s little ‘donations.”
Maria nodded. “Don’t miss a trick, do you? After the crash –“ She explained, eyeing Carol. “They kind of, well, they gave me hush money. You know about the cover up? They didn’t want anyone telling so they gave me this big box to shut up and leave the air force. They knew I was close with you, and with the Professor.”
“Ah, so they kicked you out.” Carol summarised. “So, you fix fighter planes now? God, really wish we’d done all this catching up before I – well – went.”
“Didn’t you ever come back? After you left, I mean. You didn’t come back?” Maria frowned. When Carol remained silent and looked away again, Maria nodded. “Oh. That’s why you were apologising last night. You never came back. Glad to know you care.”
Maria got up, putting the plate on the ground and heading over to the plane. Carol kept quiet, watching her friend walk over to Monica, and fish her out of the plane. She wanted with all her heart to pull her back, tell her how sorry she was. But she couldn’t. She had a broken leg, and no excuse. As always. Monica looked confused, and hurt, as her mother marched her back inside with an ice like grip on her shoulder.
“Mom? Auntie Carol?” She questioned, but received no answer from either woman.
It was another ten minutes until Maria returned to Carol. The faint sound of water in the distance told Carol that Monica had gone to have a shower. Maria sat on her haunches in front of the blonde. “So, tell me, after you left in ’95, when did you come back?”
Carol could feel Maria glaring at her, and forced herself to look at her friend in the face again. “I didn’t.” She mumbled.
“You wanna tell me why that is?”
Carol shook her head. “I can’t. I’m sorry, I really can’t tell you. I wish I had an excuse – but I don’t. I just – lost track of time.” She attempted weakly.
“So from ’95 onwards, neither I nor Monica saw you until 2019, am I right?” Maria spat. Carol could tell from her tone that she was more hurt than angry. “What about Monica, hm? Did you go to her graduation, her wedding? Were you there for her, like you promised?”
Carol only stared back at her friend. “I was at their wedding.” She replied softly. “I was late.”
Maria stared back at her incredulously, the anger from her eyes fading. Eventually it reached the corners of her mouth and she couldn’t resist a small smile. “Typical.”
The blonde tried to hide her smile, hiding her face by staring at her lap again. “Lovely reception though. You’d gone to find where her veil was, apparently.” She mentioned. “But once you got to it, the speech was wonderful.”
“You didn’t make one?” Maria questioned.
Carol shook her head, another coy smile wiring itself onto her face. “Decided to keep out of the way. Fury was there.”
That earned another eyebrow raise. “Fury was there?” Maria echoed. “Why was Fury there?”
Carol smiled fondly. “Yeah, it was one of his agents that she married.” She commented.
Maria opened her mouth to speak again – but was this time interrupted by a voice yelling out the window. “Mom!”
She squinted upwards, looking at her daughter half hanging out of the bathroom window. Her usually untamed hair was damp, and hanging down by her shoulders, accompanied by Carol’s old red air force t-shirt. “Yeah, hun?”
“Auntie Carol’s suit is making weird sounds, I can hear it from the shower.” She shouted down. “It’s beeping, can’t you hear it?”
Over the arguments, the laughter, and the humming of the crickets in the long grass, neither Maria nor Carol had heard the loud insistent beeping of Carol’s suit inside on the end of the bed. Monica, noticing her mother’s concern, dived back inside the house and was outside with the suit in her arms in seconds. Carol took it from her roughly, offering her an apology with her eyes, and studied over it quickly.
The beeping was coming from her right gauntlet, which was flashing a blinding yellow instead of its usual royal red. Some of the light was covered, mostly by the fact the suit was so covered in dirt. Carol frowned at it.
“It’s a message.” She stated, glancing up at the Rambeau women briefly.
“From who?” Monica asked excitedly, only restrained by her mother’s gentle squeeze on her shoulder.
“Is it Fury?” Maria also questioned, getting an outraged glance from Monica.
Carol shrugged, and pressed the activation button on the gauntlet. A small hologram popped up, the moment it did Carol gestured to Monica silently and furiously. “Close your eyes.” She demanded.
Maria complied by quickly ushering the girl indoors, much to her frustrations. Once Monica was out of sight, Carol opened the message properly with Maria sat by her side eagerly. Despite the bright blue of the hologram, Maria could tell the messenger was a black woman – and looked scarily familiar. Untamed hair had been pulled back into a ponytail, but kept the curly look to it. She was dressed in a black stealth uniform, stood to military attention, a clipboard held in the crook of her elbow.
The message was static, probably due to the damage the suit had sustained in its landing. “W—where….a-a-arrrrrre…..” The message cut out after about two seconds, the hologram flickered for a moment or two – and then promptly died out.
“The signal – it’s gotta be jammed by the…uh…time flip.” Carol muttered, fiddling with the dirty gauntlet. “I should be able to fix it – can you help me back into bed?”
When the dark-haired woman didn’t reply, Carol looked up. Maria was staring at where the hologram had been, an expression of pride and wonder written all over her face. Carol let her have a moment, smiling at her friend’s face fondly. Maria’s fingers pressed into Carol’s borrowed shirt gently, leaning against her a little.
“I-in a minute. Was that-?” She whispered, a smile teasing the corners of her mouth.
Carol grinned, returning a thumbs-up. “Sure was.” She replied, clapping her good hand on Maria’s shoulder. “That was Monica Rambeau-Hill, head of S.H.I.E.L.D.”