Frozen Over: An MCU Story

Chapter 31 - Tragic Night

13 years ago, in 2011...

Late in the evening on a nice, warm, August night, the Pines had finished dinner half an hour ago.

"Lila! Are you almost ready?"

"Yeah! I'm coming mom!"

45-year-old Maria Jackson-Pine stood at the front door with her husband, 47-year-old Philip Pine. 15-year-old Lola Pine sat on the front couch with 12-year-olds Isaac and Oliver Pine. And from the top of the stairs, 16-year-old Lila Pine came down the stairs. She had a gymnast suit on. It was purple and had teal stripes and sparkles going down it, and the name 'Pine' written in big bold sparkly letters on the back. She made her way down the stairs and went to the kitchen to get a quick snack.

Lila was a gymnast. She had been doing gymnastics since she was 5 years old. And tonight, she had a gymnastics competition that she had been training for weeks to participate in. And the teenager was fuelled with determination.

"Alright, Mom. I'm ready now." She spoke.

"Let's go, then." Philip said. "Lola, take care of your brothers. We'll be back in a few hours."

"Yep. I will, Dad." Lola sighed. "Good luck, Lila!"

Philip, Maria, and Lila all left the house. Lola stood up and went to the front window with Isaac and Oliver. The Pine siblings watched the car pull out of the drive way.

"Do you think she's gonna win?" Isaac asked.

"Yeah. I think she'll kick their butts." Lola stated. Now come on. Let's go play some video games."

Lola and her brothers went down to play some video games. They had a great time, and a good laugh, and were completely unaware of the tragedy that was about to hit their family.

Philip, Maria and Lila were in the car. They had only been driving for about half an hour on the highway. Traffic was normal for a Thursday evening. Lila was excited. She had been training for this competition every day for the last 2 months or so. She was so determined to win. She was always a competitive young girl with a very competitive spirit. Contrary to Lola, who definitely did figure skating for the fun of it rather than being the best of the best.

"Come on! Can we get there already? I really wanna win this!" Lila impatiently exclaimed.

"Be patient, Lila. You wouldn't want to lose your patience and mess up in your competition." Philip said.

"You've come so far. We are super proud of you. And your siblings are too." Maria added.

"I know... it's just that I really wanna get this done and over with." Lila muttered.

"Nervous, are we?" Maria asked.

"What? Nah! You kidding? Me, nervous?" Lila quickly answered.

"It's okay to be nervous, sweetheart." Philip assured his daughter.

The trip seemed to be going fine during the whole conversation. That was, until Maria looked out the window and let out a startled yelp. Standing on the highway in front of the car that was driving was a human figure, who appeared to be a woman. Not wanting to hit the person, Philip turned the wheel as far right as he could, swerving across the highway. Unfortunately, this caused one of the oncoming cars in another lane to smash right into them, along with a few others. Many people were hurt because of the accident, and the mysterious figure disappeared into the shadows before any authorities could arrive.

The three Pine family members died because of the crash. Maria and Philip never got to return home to their three remaining children. And the eldest Pine child, Lila Pine, never made it to the competition she was so determined to win.

It was only around 8 pm, less than an hour after their parents and sister had left the house that Lola, Isaac, and Oliver got a visit from the police, where they had to break the news that their family had died. After that, with nowhere else to really go, the siblings, heartbroken by the loss, went to stay with the only family they had remaining. Their aunt, and Philip's younger sister, Olivia Pine.

42-year-old Olivia Pine was a sweet woman and loved a generally decent life. She had a full time job and was living her best life as a single woman. She too, was heartbroken by the news that her brother, sister-in-law and niece had died in a crash, and was more than willing to raise the three remaining children. Though because she had to now provide enough food for 4 people instead of just 1, Olivia had to work extra hours every day. But she made the effort to make her niece and nephews as happy as they could be after the loss.

Nowadays, Clover Pine often wonders what happened on that tragic night, and what could have caused the crash. While they had theorized that it was likely an animal or something, the young adult couldn't help but feel like there was something missing from the picture...

Present Day...

Maria woke up in a cold sweat, breathing heavily as she sat up from the floor she had been sleeping on. She had just had a nightmare.

"You alright?" Bucky asked, while laying down on the couch watching the news. "Nightmares, I assume?"

Without saying anything, Maria nodded. She was distraught by the nightmare, and quickly realized what was wrong with this compared to other, smaller nightmares she had had over the course of the last few weeks. Feeling a need to let this feeling of guilt out of her chest, she began describing the nightmare to Bucky, talking about a highway, and a swerving car with two adults and a child.

"The younger girl's suit had a name on it. 'Pine'..." She had gone on, the realization hitting her in that moment. "I'm the one who stood in the way of that car and made them swerve, Bucky. I'm the one who killed them."

The guilt began quickly eating at the woman, who wiped her eyes with a shaky hand. Bucky slowly approached her and sat next to her in hopes of calming her down.

"Who's 'them', Maria? You have to be more specific than that." He whispered to her.

Maria was quiet. She was too scared to admit what she knew was the truth. With a lot of hesitation, she spoke up.

"Clover's family. I killed Clover's family..."

A/N: Okay so I would say this is pretty much the last backstory chapter I'm gonna do for this story.

A/N: I also decided to make Maria more relevant to Clover's past so that's lovely.

A/N: It was only when I was looking in the original document that I made of Clover Pine did I realize that Clover's mom's name was also Maria. Needless to say, my friend and I had a good laugh about that.