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

The Distance Between Two Hearts: Part 12

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.

   When Carol stepped through the barrier, it felt like every piece of her was on fire. She let out a pained cry, but she persisted through the magic, gritting her teeth as hard as she could as she pushed forward, trudging along as she fought to lift her feet for each step.

"Oh, Carol... You shouldn't have done that... I was going to make it easy and mostly painless, but now I see that I have to subdue you a little while the spell runs its course," Agatha's voice whispered in her ears, the sound of her voice coming from every direction.

Carol tried to look and see where the voice was coming from, but suddenly, she found the magic all melting away as a somehow extremely familiar scene started to unfold before her.

She suddenly realized that she was looking at her sister and herself, the both of them sitting in a terribly familiar hospital room. A baby in a pink blanket was wrapped in Maria's arms, and Carol's eyes widened a bit as she realized it was Monica.

She was only a simple onlooker for just a moment before she was transported into the memory. She suddenly found herself seeing out of the past Carol's eyes and feeling those same emotions of joy, happiness, and absolute love that she had experienced when Monica had been born, and she felt Maria's warmth again, and she let herself relax, somehow unable to remember exactly why she had been so tense in the first place.

..........

"She's so beautiful," Carol whispered softly, looking up at Maria in awe. Her heart felt so full right now that she almost believed that it might burst directly out of her chest. Maria nodded with a hum, a smile on her face as she gazed down at the baby, stroking Monica's face softly wit her fingers.

"Yes... My sweet, little baby," Maria tiredly yet exceedingly fondly proclaimed, and Carol smiled, glancing at her as she tried to scoot her chair a little closer to the hospital bed to get an even better look at her new niece.

Carol had known that she was going to love her niece, but actually meeting her was an entirely new concept despite the fact it was something that she had known was going to take place. Somehow, absolutely nothing could have prepared her for the absolute adoration that she would feel upon seeing her.

She had been there throughout the entire delivery, holding Maria's hand as she let the older woman yell, curse, and squeeze the life out of her.

"Little Monica," Maria declared gently, and Carol huffed, starting to reach out toward her. However, she stopped just before touching her, somehow uncertain and a little fearful of somehow breaking the fragile, tiny baby, and she let her hand fall upon Maria's arm instead.

Maria looked at her, offering a onceover before raising an eyebrow.

"You're not going to hurt her, y'know?"

"Oh, I know, I know. I just... She's just so perfect," Carol expressed, not really giving a full, spoken explanation of her reasoning. Part of why she did not want to touch her is because it felt so strange for someone like her that was so rough so often and so loud and obnoxious to be having such tender interaction with such a darling little creature as this.

"You wanna hold her?" Maria offered, and Carol's eyes went a little wide, nervousness and intense excitement running through her all at the same time as she found herself really wanting to hold her niece.