Aunty Natty

Monica jumped to her feet in one smooth moment. "She left us!" Eyes filled with tears and her voice full of venom, Monica continued. "Not once, but twice!" She moved closer to Nat. "And now she thinks she can just show up here, with you and everything will be fine?"

"We don't need your permission to visit your mom's memorial, Monica!" Nat countered like the seasoned fighter she was. "She has every right to be here, just like you."

"What right does she have? She left us! We thought she was dead!" Monica marched forward undeterred by the smaller woman's anger, then stopped, barely an inch from Natasha's nose and snarled, "then she came back and left again, just to help the Skrulls."

"She was trying to make up for what she had done on Hala." Nat raised her hands, resting them on Monica's shoulders. The woman tensed beneath her grip, and she quickly lifted her hands away.

"She was running from us, from Mom!" Monica accused. "Mom's cancer was caused by the radiation she suffered while testing spacecraft for S.W.O.R.D."

Natasha breathed in. "Your mom did what she did, founding S.W.O.R.D., to keep the world safe from alien invasion. She couldn't have predicted what..."

"You believe everything Fury told you, Natasha?" Monica interrupted, laughter erupting from her mouth. "Her whole goal was to find Carol, not defend the world!"

Natasha snapped her mouth closed. After a moment, in a level tone, she looked Monica in the eye. "You don't know, do you?"

"Know what?" The other woman asked with indifference.

"Carol was there. She was there when the cancer came back. She stayed by your mom's side until the very end," Natasha admitted in a soft whisper.

Monica stumbled back, almost as if Natasha had struck her, her mouth wide open and her eyes full of surprise. "That--that can't be." The woman lurched towards a nearby bench and sat down. She looked up at the sky, towards the direction Carol had disappeared, then she fell onto her knees and retched, emptying her stomach's contents onto the ground.

>>>

Carol sat at the top of Smithsonian Institute, staring out over the city but not truly seeing any of it. Her head turned at the sound of War Machine's thrusters, but she turned back to the view, uncaringly.

"Hey, Carol." War Machine's voice was almost robotic, and it grated on Carol's exposed emotions.

"What do you want, Rhodey?" She looked down at her boots. "Nat send you?"

His helmet snapped up with a metallic clang, and Carol lifted her head to meet his gaze. James Rhodes looked sadly at his friend. "She said you might need some company."

"I don't deserve it." Carol sighed, and the backs of her eyes burned with unshed tears. One of the sad truths of a long life was that it had plenty of space for regret. "I should have looked for her after everyone came back." She took a deep, seemingly painful, shuddering breath. "I'm a coward."

Rhodey locked his armor, and with a simple eye movement, he opened up the front and stepped out, his braced legs moving stiffly until he got closer to his friend. Lines of pain etched his face as he sat down beside her, dangling his feet over the rooftop. "Let's talk, Captain."

>>>

Nat returned from her car with a bottle of water and broke open the seal, handing it over to Monica. "Feeling a little better?" Her normal commanding tone was soft, almost gentle, and Monica nodded, but the lie was obvious.

"Tell me what happened?" Monica implored, taking a drink of water and swallowing, trying to rinse the taste of bile from her mouth. "Please?"

Nat knew the story, Carol had filled in the blanks, but she had been there during the final days...