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

The Distance Between Two Hearts: Part 8

Summary: When SWORD asks for the Avengers' 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.

   "Step it up some, Lieutenant," Carol called ahead of Monica as she hurried her, internally feeling a bit of nervousness about using the nickname. Granted, she had not added "trouble" on the end, but she was not feeling quite that gutsy at the moment.

They were currently hiking the trail up to Eagle's Point after Carol had insisted that they do it for their covers. Since Monica could not quite seem to piece together the common thread in their case and figure out their next lead, Carol had declared that they needed to make their cover more believable to buy them more time. Monica had been against this despite knowing that Carol was right, and they had ended up getting off to a late start.

At this moment, it was almost sunset, and they were getting a lot closer to the peak where the cliff overlooking the town was located.

Carol was thriving on the exercise, enjoying the opportunity to move without the necessitation of super strength. However, Monica, while definitely by no means out of shape, was most certainly not excited about the idea of hiking up to the cliff.

"Don't call me that," Monica shot back in reply to Carol's name. Carol raised an eyebrow at her as she glanced back down at her.

"Alrighty, then. Step it up some, Private," Carol addressed her again, smirking widely.

"Y'know, I get that you have super strength, but—"

"I'm not using the strength right now," Carol immediately replied to her, and Monica blinked momentarily before restarting her statement.

"Okay, let me restate that. You're not using your super strength, so how exactly are you doing this so easily?" Monica asked, keeping up her pace at a yard or two behind Carol. Carol shrugged.

"Well, basic training kind of gets you ready for this, and when you're finishing first of your group, this is nothing," Carol explained.

"Yeah, I know. I did it, too. I guess I just didn't relish it quite to this degree this long after the fact," Monica answered her, not quite out of breath, but definitely seeming as if she were getting a little more worn than she would like to admit.

"Look, you haven't even been alive as long as I have since I was last in the military, so you physically couldn't relish it as long as I have after the fact," Carol pointed out astutely and with a playful grin. Monica huffed, rolling her eyes, and Carol looked up, straightening a bit as she tried to get an idea of how much longer it would be.

"Hey, the good news is that we're not too far away from the cliff," Carol explained, and Monica let out a soft breath.

It was directly at the tip of Carol's tongue to ask her if Monica's powers did not help with stamina or endurance at all, but she quickly stopped herself from questioning it. After all, Monica had not told her about her powers just yet and was apparently wanting to keep them secret for some reason or another.

Honestly, Carol thought it was a little unprofessional of her, and it actually hurt a little that Monica did not want to share, but she unfortunately understood. She had not really given her niece a good reason to trust her after leaving her for years. She honestly just wished that she could undo everything that happened and all of the things that had transpired to keep her away from Earth.