Remnants

"Carol? Carol?" A gentle hand nudged Carol on her shoulder. "Are you going to wake up or am I going to have to pour this on you?" A voice lightly joked, finally Carol groaned and opened her sleepy eyes to find Sam standing over her with a glass of water. "Here, I thought you might need this considering last night."

Last night? Carol remembered coming over to Sam's after grabbing dinner with her and then the rest was blurry. Despite her confusion, she smiled up at Sam genuinely happy to see her face this early in the morning and took the glass of water from her, sipping it gingerly after noticing her head pounding. She also noticed that she was in her friend's bed. "Um… what happened?"

Sam laughed cutely, and Carol couldn't help but admire her appearance. Her hair was a little unkempt from sleeping and her eyes had a slight red tint from sleep as well making her hazel eyes pop out more. She wore an oversized t-shirt from the local art studio and Carol assumed she had on shorts under the shirt. The woman shifted on the bed so that she was facing Carol and sitting with her legs crossed, confirming she was indeed wearing shorts. "You got super drunk is what happened." She raised an eyebrow in amusement.

Carol cringed and rubbed her eyes, "Wow, then I'm sorry you had to see that. I can get a bit rowdy when I'm drunk. I hope I didn't do anything weird?" She asked, desperately hoping she had not made a move on Sam. She tended to want to make out with everyone, particularly other women, when she was drunk. Not to mention, she knew that she felt something a little more than just friends for Sam, but she never felt anything other than pure desire towards anyone else so these feelings freaked her out. And she didn't want to freak Sam out.

Sam thought for a minute, "Well… you did suggest we sing karaoke all night long, but after a few more drinks you totally forgot about it." She grinned and added, "It was nice to see you so… free, though. You've been so stressed out lately and I hate seeing you like that."

Warmth spread from Carol's stomach to her cheeks as Sam gazed at her in a trance-like state. She would give anything to know what it was Sam was thinking. Carol cleared her throat and Sam awkwardly looked away saying, "Alright Danvers, come on, you're going to help me make breakfast!"

Following Sam, begrudgingly, into the kitchen Carol said, "I thought the host was supposed to make breakfast for the guest, aka, me?" She quipped lightly.

Sam whipped around with a spatula in hand and waved it at Carol, "Ha! Guest? Please, Carol you practically live here. I might as well just give you a key already." She joked.

"Asking me to move in already? You really don't waste any time, do you?" She feigned surprise and let out a yelp when Sam threw a hand towel at her. Carol caught the towel ungracefully and threw it back to the woman who just shot her a half-hearted glare.

Down in the basement of Maria's house, the Skrull was starting to groan and open his eyes slowly. Carol stood in front of him a few steps away crossing her arms impatiently. She really wanted to send a warning blast to wake him up faster, but she was remembering he wasn't her true enemy. At least she hoped he wouldn't be by the time she explained the situation.

"Hey? You going to sleep all day, or do you need another blast to the head?" She said confidently.

The Skrull's head shot up in surprise at hearing her voice, she assumed. His eyes darted around checking his surroundings and his shoulders tensed up when he realized he was nowhere familiar and in big trouble. "Where the hell am I?" He shouted, confused.

Maria was the one who spoke up now, "Don't worry about it. We'll be asking the questions."

Carol smirked at her best friend, loving that they both would be playing the role of bad cop. She crossed her arms again and stood confidently. "We need to talk. I know you're working with Roan and he's probably told you that I did something to the rest of your people, but that's not true. Once Talos showed me how I got my powers and who was to blame for my memories being lost, I decided to help him, not fight him." She started to explain everything to the Skrull but he violently shook his head and interrupted before she could continue.

"No! That's a lie!" He yelled, "There's no way Talos would leave us here like that, you must've tricked him and captured him or worse killed him!"

The Skrull tugged at his restraints futilely. Carol looked at him in pity, he really thought the others were dead and everything he was doing was to get revenge. That was no way to live. "We found Mar-Vell's lab. She was helping your people; they were on the ship! That's where I've been the last year, helping Talos and your families find a new home world. And I can prove it."

He watched her carefully as she held out her wrist and tapped a few things on it. Suddenly a shaky image of Talos popped up. "Carol? Are you there?"

"I'm here Talos. One of Roan's agents is here as you can see. He needs proof of our partnership."

Talos turned his back to Carol to face the Skrull. "Gradar! You're alive!" He exclaimed in relief.

Gradar leaned forward eagerly, "Talos? This must be some sort of trick! This Kree woman says you came to her in peace and she helped you? That can't be true!"

Talos nodded firmly, "Yes, Carol was willing to help us after hearing our plight. She is not our enemy, in fact, she's a close friend. When she told me we had left behind some of our men, I felt such shame and failure as a leader. I hope you can forgive me."

For a moment, Gradar hesitated like he wanted to believe Talos but he shook his head. "But Roan says we should just made this planet our home! He says we can carve our future by taking over."

"Roan is wrong, Gradar. We have started anew in an even better place, no offense to your home world Carol-"

"None taken." She replied with a chuckle.

Talos pursed his lips and sighed, Carol noticed he looked tired, "Please, Gradar. If you can convince Roan to leave his crusade behind, you can be reunited with your wife and children. Earth already has inhabitants… this new planet, Dara, we call it- is ours."

To both Maria and Carol's surprise, Gradar started to tear up and drops fell from his eyes. "My wife and children are alive and well?"

Talos smiled gently, "Yes. They miss you a great deal. Will you assist Carol in contacting Roan? To convince him he need not continue this crusade of his?"

The Skrull thought for a moment before reluctantly agreeing. Carol and Talos exchanged a look before they nodded to each other once and ended the connection. Carol squinted her eyes at the Skrull, "Okay, how-"

"You know, I thought I told you not to cause a scene." A voice from the top of the staircase boomed. Carol instantly recognized it as belonging to Fury so she smiled lightly and rolled her eyes.

"Technically, I didn't, he did." She said with a light tone and pointed at Gradar, who shrugged and acted oblivious.

Fury's footsteps stopped when he reached the bottom of the stairs and he seemed unconvinced by the stare he gave her. "Right, just like last time you came to Earth. I believe you." He said in his quick witted, sarcastic way.

Carol smirked coyly, "At least I caught one of the rogue agents, agent Fury."

Fury just stared at her in a way that was between annoyed and amused. Carol found the whole situation only slightly funny that a few days of her being back on Earth she was already doing what Fury's agents had been failing to do for a year. A little voice in her head told her even though she was solving the Skrull problem, she still hadn't been successful in solving her own problems. She still had no inclination to how deep her connection with Sam really went, and if it was even reciprocated. All in all she was hoping for one solid memory that would confirm her suspicions without a doubt. Preferably before she made a fool of herself.

She heard Fury's voice before fully processing what he was saying, "So what did you get from him?"

Gradar rolled his eyes, "He has a name. And I'm right here, I can hear you."

For a moment, Carol thought Fury was going to strangle the Skrull from the wide-eyed glare he shot at him. His mouth pursed in annoyance too. Somehow, he actually held it together after another moment of silent glare before turning to face Carol fully, ignoring Gradar. She took the queue to begin explaining, "Well, I have figured out who is leading this whole charade. It's a Skrull agent named Roan, he and Talos don't have the cleanest record with each other which could complicate things. But Gradar here is going to help us try to dissuade Roan from any further violence."

Carol shot a pointed glare at Gradar, making sure he knew what his role was going to be. Gradar nodded quickly. "If it will help me get back to my family, I'm going to help any way I can."

Fury placed his hands behind his back and held his chin up, "Do you have a plan?" He directed the question at Carol who just sort of grimaced and smiled awkwardly. "You don't have a plan?" Fury sighed incredulously.

"It's a work in progress. All we need to do is find a way to contact Roan, they fried Gradar's communication device when I tried to track the connection, so that's going to be a no-go," Carol began explaining when Gradar interjected. "I can tell you where we were set up, but I'll need to go alone if you want any chance of meeting with Roan peacefully."

"No way," Fury said forcefully. "How do we know you won't just go back in and warn them or worse tell them wh-"

"You really think I'm going to abandon the chance to see my family? I have to go alone or Roan will shoot you all on sight. Look I can give you the coordinates in good faith but I'm asking you to trust me like I'm going to trust that you won't go in and kill my comrades. Most of them are lost and confused." Gradar eyed Fury skeptically. Carol could see that he was telling the truth so she nudged Fury's shoulder silently trying to convey they should listen to the Skrull. He seemed to get the message because he pursed his lips and rolled his eye.

Gradar nodded a "thank you" to Carol as he continued, "I can speak to the others first and try to recruit them to the cause. If enough people are on board then Roan will have no choice but to stand down and meet with you. It may take some time to convince everyone, though."

Fury crossed his arms, "How much time?"

"Give me a few days, if you can. If it's more than a week just assume something went wrong and that's when you can head to the hideout and force Roan to speak if you have to."

Carol thought it was a decent plan, she would've liked to have had more say in it, but she understood that an inside man might be the better way to peacefully end this and get the Skrull united with the others on Dara. "How do we get everyone to Dara if they agree to leave, though?" Maria asked. It was a good question, Carol certainly couldn't fly them there one by one that would take way to long.

"We have… been trying to build a ship, but most of us are soldiers, not scientists." Gradar added.

Fury shifted his weight and glanced down, he was acting strangely Carol noted. She narrowed her eyes at him, "Fury? Do you know of a way?"

He shook his head, "I'll make some calls."

"Great, so when do we start?" Maria clapped her hands together expectantly. "I'm ready for everything to go back to normal." Carol laughed at the last part and waved her hand dismissively. She knew Maria liked the action, but she understood not wanting Monica around all of this too.

Gradar wiggled his arms as much as he could in his restraints, "We can start right now, but you'd have to release me."

Maria, Carol, and Fury all looked at each other for a moment, then Fury spoke first, "You give us the location of the hideout, then we release you." Gradar nodded his agreement and Maria fished a piece of paper and pen out of an old desk drawer that clearly hadn't been used in a while. Carol was surprised there was even anything in it. The Skrull wrote some glyphs that only she recognized as coordinates. She glanced at Fury who nodded his approval before Carol sent a blast that cut the ropes off the Skrull. She pointed a finger at him, "You've got three days, then Roan will have to answer to me. We should start first thing tomorrow morning."

Maria gave her a look but sighed instead of arguing, "There's a sleeping bag over there," she pointed to a corner then directed her attention to the Skrull, "You can sleep down here. Sorry, no room in the house. But if we're decided on the plan I'll go make dinner for everyone. Gradar, would you like to help?"

Taken back, the Skrull pointed at himself clarifying that she really wanted him to help her. When Maria nodded, he quickly agreed and followed closely behind her as she walked up the stairs, Carol kept a close eye on him and began to follow, but Fury grabbed her upper arm and spoke quietly. "Are you sure we can trust him?"

"I think he just wants to get back to his family, that's what most of the Skrull wanted from the beginning. He betrays us or doesn't succeed, and he knows he may never find them. But just in case," Carol held up a small device that was a flat circular shape and placed it in her wrist device, a screen not unlike a radar popped up with a pulsating dot. "This is a tracker, I put the other end on him before he woke up. If he lied about the location we'll know soon enough."

Inside the house, Sam and Monica were sitting on the couch while Sam watched the younger girl draw and occasionally gave her pointers or praise. When they noticed Carol walk in, Monica's face lit up and she held up her drawing for Carol. "Auntie Carol! Look," the picture was of her in her suit but her eyes were glowing and her hair was flying in different directions. It was pretty impressive, Carol thought, she had no idea Monica liked to draw. "Ms. Sam has been helping me! She says I'm a natural. Do you like it?"

Carol's eyes went from the drawing to Sam, who was smiling endearingly at Monica, and back to the drawing. Fury took the opportunity to greet Sam and introduce himself. Carol vaguely heard him telling her that his "people" were fixing up her art studio.

"There! All done." Sam exclaimed happily and held the sketch book up to Carol showing her the very elaborate landscape sketch she managed to draw in under thirty minutes. They were on top of a building overlooking a city, music was playing in the background and people were chatting around them. The building doubled as a mall, but the roof was a lounge type space where people could get away from the business of the mall, if they were willing to pay a little extra. Carol was enjoying the atmosphere and the view, but her whole focus was on Sam drawing. It was her favorite thing to watch. The way her eyebrows would scrunch together in concentration, the focus in her eyes as they moved from the view back to her sketchbook, and the way her lips turned upwards when she was satisfied with the drawing. "Do you like it?" Sam asked slowly and Carol realized she had just been staring at it without saying anything.

"It's amazing! I don't know how you do it. You never cease to impress!" She said and felt her heart swell when Sam smiled brightly.

The brunette tore the page out and gave it to Carol, "You keep it." She said, then she stood up and grabbed Carol's hand, "Come on, flygirl, let's go grab some food. It's on you!"

Carol laughed but let the slightly smaller woman drag her from the stool she sat on, "On me, huh? I don't recall agreeing to that!"

"Consider it repayment for the drawing!" Sam called while still eagerly leading Carol to the lift that led down into the shopping center and food court.

If it were anyone else, Carol might have protested but she never minded treating Sam. She told herself it wasn't because of the crush she was starting to get for the brunette, but that was becoming less and less believable the more time she spent with her.

She smiled warmly at the memory. "I absolutely love it! When did you get so good at everything?" She said while holding up her hand for Monica to give her a high-five. The young girl met her hand happily and gave Carol a tight hug.

With big puppy eyes Monica said, "Do you want to keep it? That way if you ever get lonely you'll remember me and feel happy!"

Carol's eyes squinted in a huge smile and she ruffled Monica's hair, "Of course! It'll be my lucky charm. Thank you, Lieutenant Trouble!" Monica giggled at the weird voice Carol added when saying the nickname. Fury and Sam were finishing up their conversation and Fury left the room saying he would check on Gradar. For a while, Monica, Sam, and Carol stayed in the room talking and laughing. Monica was making Sam laugh hard at some of her stories of Carol. She recalled a time where Carol took her swimming and tripped and fell into the water, which the blonde defended she had no memory of it, but deep down she knew the story had to be true by the details. Hearing Sam's laughter was doing strange things to her body. The sound was easy, but the electricity that surrounded Carol was intoxicating.

"That does sound like you, Carol," Sam giggled in response to something Monica had said about her reaction after falling into the pool. Carol felt heat rise in her body while she smiled along with Sam and Monica. "Are you okay?" Sam's voice called and her hand touched Carol's very gently.

It was then Carol realized her hands had started to glow with her powers. As soon as it started, though, she put a stop to it. "O-Oh yeah, that just happens sometimes…" she lied, not wanting Sam to know that she affected her that much. "How about you draw something for your mom too, kiddo? I've got to talk with Ms. Sam." Carol said to Monica.

Monica looked between both of them and Carol could see the realization across her face. She made an "O" with her mouth and gathered up all her drawing supplies before she headed into the kitchen where her mother was whipping up something to eat. She raised her eyebrows at Carol knowingly before fully exiting which confused the super-powered woman. Once the girl was gone, Carol moved from her position on the recliner chair and sat down next to Sam on the couch.

"She's a good kid, really talented at drawing too." Sam said when they were alone, and Carol nodded her agreement. "I saw you let the Skrull guy go…and he's helping in the kitchen," Sam's face scrunched in mild amusement, "so does that mean he's going to help?" she asked quickly.

"Yeah, well I hope so. He seemed genuine about helping out, he's going to go talk to the rest of the group and if we're lucky get them to agree to leave peacefully." Carol leaned back into the couch and sighed. She closed her eyes and the image of the revealing sketch of her in Sam's apartment popped into her head. She desperately wished her memory would come back completely, but she knew it wouldn't work on command like that. "Hey, can I ask you something?" She asked trying to push down the nervousness she felt. Her body was literally indestructible, she could handle this.

"Of course," Sam turned to fully face her, her face was scrunched in minor concern and she obviously sensed Carol's discomfort.

"Hey guys, dinner is almost ready! Can you both set the table for me?" Maria poked her head into the room and asked. Carol chuckled at her friend's horrible timing. Now that she had said something, though, Carol could smell a delicious aroma filling up the house. She really hoped it was Maria's famous gumbo dish.

Sam smiled patiently, "What did you want to ask me?"

Deciding Maria's interruption was reason enough to back out of asking Sam about the drawing, or commenting on the energy that surged between them anytime they were near each other, Carol just shook her head, "It can wait, let's go enjoy dinner!"