Widow Sisters and Friends (Restoring Our Broken Hearts): Book 2

The Distance Between Two Hearts: Part 1

Summary: When SWORD asks for the Avenger's most powerful member for a highly dangerous mission, Carol naturally is the one selected to go. However, to her complete and utter surprise, she is paired with the one and only Monica Rambeau, and she has to rekindle old connections with one of the people that means the most to her while battling a completely unexpected yet sinister threat.

   Carol walked briskly and with ultimate purpose into SWORD's headquarters, her old, worn leather jacket hanging around her shoulders as she tried to muster as much confidence as she could possibly project in her posture.

After all, she did not want anyone to see how truly terrified and nervous that she actually was right now.

About a week back, SWORD had sent a request to the Avengers to send one of their most powerful to their organization. They had a mission that needed to be taken care of, and they would be assigning one of their agents to accompany the chosen Avenger on the mission. There was no real clear explanation of what the mission itself would be like or even the precise partner that the chosen Avenger would receive. All that was known was that it was high threat risk since the energy readings they had been collecting from a certain area were off the charts.

Naturally, since Carol had been spending much more time on Earth after starting to form other Avengers groups across the galaxy, she was the obvious choice. She was the most powerful and she was the most readily available.

However, at Natasha's recommendation, Steve had brought her in to discuss the entire thing with her before just assigning her.

"Nat seemed to think you might have an issue with going to SWORD and helping them?" he had asked, that typical concerned expression on his face as he kept his hands stuffed in his pockets.

She immediately had forced a smile. It was not that she did not trust Steve. It was more that she was not ready to just fully dump all of those emotions and pain upon him so suddenly. Not when there was a job to be done and she needed to do it.

Besides, she could not tell him that she was terrified of potentially meeting Monica again. She could not tell him that she was terrified to face the closest thing she had to blood family in this world because she had so spectacularly and horribly crushed one of the two people that she promised herself she would never hurt or let down.

"No, it's fine. They need a powerhouse, and I'm more than happy to provide," Carol had assured him, smirking playfully as she lit up her fist and winked teasingly. He had immediately looked strangely worried, and he had drawn closer to her, studying her face as they gravitated nearer to one another with their noses mere inches apart.

"Are you sure? You can tell me anything. And if you need someone else to go, I can ask Wanda or Thor," he had pointed out tenderly.

However, instead of coming clean that very moment, she had just searched those gorgeous blue eyes for a short moment before leaning in and closing the distance gently, their lips pressing against one another softly as she kissed him. She had then pulled back just enough to look into his eyes, and she had smiled just barely.

"Don't worry. I've got this."

And here she was now heading into SWORD, Monica's own organization, clutching the very jacket that she had been wearing the last time she had seen her niece. Carol let out a deep breath as she approached the front desk, forced confidence oozing from her every motion as she tapped into that cockiness that she definitely was not feeling right now.

The woman remained looking at her computer for a few minutes, and Carol immediately felt discomfort coming over her. It reminded her too much of heading to the hospital for the first time since she came back to Earth when she had gone to see Maria.