EVERMORE ─ marvel ⁷

IV. Just A Little More Time

Chapter Four
Sam

I think it will be a long time before I can enter D.C. and not be hit with a wave of intense dread. Two weeks after the battle and the capital of the US is still drenched in blood, in rubble and dust. The only bright side is that very few people live inside D.C. itself, so there isn't the amount of repercussions from the battle like there are in London and especially not Beijing. A few homes were hit outside the city area, but a manageable amount. The people whose homes happened to be destroyed have been compensated, those who were injured are on the mend, the real issue here is the damage to the city's buildings, particularly the government buildings. All of them took hits, thankfully none of them fell. The US government has been conducting it's business in the bunker beneath the White House, and they'll probably be doing so for the near future. Until we get this mess cleaned up.

"Bruce Banner, Wanda Maximoff, and Peter Parker are helping the police do sweeps of the outer bands of the city, they want to make sure it's safe before the clean up crew heads in." I inform Daniel Fai, who is standing next to me in the lobby of the White House. Since he's now the US leader in the World Security Council he is in charge of overseeing these issues alongside me.

Daniel nods. "Anything else?"

"Jade is checking up on the people who were moved to new homes, she wants to make sure they're settling well."

"Kind of her."

I smile proudly. "Jade will always do what's best for others." Sometimes to her own detriment.

"I am glad she is on the mend from the battle," Daniel says a little awkwardly, his body and gaze directed towards the nearest window, not me. "And that you and Director Roberts are as well."

"Yes, physically we are all on the mend, but other wounds will take time to heal." I reply, my thoughts once again going to Jade, to her lying unconscious in that hospital bed, in a coma, having nearly died...

"I know that all too well. I was in the Navy for many years and my days of service still haunt me. Not as much as other wounds do, like the wounds I have inflicted on others."

I'm not sure if he means the wounds he physically inflicted in battle or the emotional wounds he has caused countless enhanced people to carry. I know better than to ask. "All wounds heal with time, I've heard."

"But it's not true, I'm sure you know. Wounds, especially emotional ones, always leave their mark, no matter how faint."

I can't help but stare at him and feel awe. Less than a year ago, he was hunting down enhanced people like a hunter would their game. Less than a year ago, he thought the Avengers were no better than criminals, that we all needed to be put behind bars. Less than a year ago he almost declared war against the F.E.P. And now, now he's probably the enhanced's and the Avenger's greatest ally.

"It's astonishing, isn't it? What love can drive you to do." After all, it was his love for Jo that caused such a complete one-eighty change in his character.

Daniel seems to be thinking I mean something else. "It wasn't love that drove me to do the things I did. It was vengeance. It was guilt. It was my own selfishness."

"But it's love that drives you now. That's why you're doing all of this, right? For Jo."

"Not for Jo, because of Jo," He says, a small smile creeping onto his lips, but pain is still prominent in his features. "She makes me want to be a better man, a man worthy of being in her life, of being her father, even though I know that's something I'll never be."