The Seventh Avenger - (Marvel x OC)

CH 2.35 The Trip

Carol woke up and took a deep breath. She didn't want to get up. If she just stayed in bed maybe it would all go away. She sighed after hearing her mother announce that breakfast was ready and her stomach growl. She stood up and grabbed some socks to keep her feet warm on the cool hardwood kitchen floor. She slipped them on and grabbed some trash on her way to the door to her room. Carol walked out of her room and noticed that the birthday decorations were still up. She'd just turned thirteen.

"Where's everybody else?" Carol asked her mother, sitting down in her chair reluctantly.

"Stevie isn't home yet. Who knows where the Joe's are" her mother sighed. "Here you go, hon" the older Carol got and the more Mary looked at her, the more she saw herself. The blonde hair, the brown eyes, it was astonishing. She loved the boys, but she'd always had a stronger bond with Carol. Mary could still remember having to tell Carol that she wasn't Stevie and Joey's mother. Carol was crushed, assuming that she wasn't her mother either. Mary had to explain the whole story to a teary Carol. It took Carol a while to get over not being the boys' full sister. It was one of the worst days of Mary's life. That was the day Carol found the answer she'd been searching for. That's why she wasn't good enough. Two things she couldn't control had set her apart from her brothers in her father's eyes. She was a woman and she was Mary's daughter, not Amanda's.

"Steve home yet?" Joey asked, happily bouncing down the stairs.

"No" Mary sighed, it wasn't like Steve to be this late.

Joey let out a sigh and sat down at the table.

A knock at the door turned Joey's head and Carol peered around him to get a look at the front door. Carol's father thumped down the stairs and answered the knock. It wasn't who the family expected to find. Two police officers with their hats in their hands stood at the front door of the Danvers house.

"Your son, Steve, was killed in a car crash last night" One police officer spoke solemnly.

"We're sorry for your loss" the other let out a sad sigh.

"No" Carol's father stumbled backward and barely grabbed the wall to catch his balance. "No, not him."

Mary had a hand over her mouth and tears streaming down her face. Joey's eyes were wide in disbelief, a tear falling down his cheek. Carol's body jerked as she forced it to hold in sobs. She pushed her chair away from the table and began losing control of her breathing.

"You're wrong" Joey sputtered. "It's not him, it can't be."

"We've checked your brother's DNA and identification was found in the car" the officer's jaw clenched emotionally.

"It's him...I'm very sorry."

It had been hours since the police left Joseph Danvers' house. He'd filled that time with drinking and holding in tears. After being backed into a corner, his sadness evolved into anger, then to rage before morphing into hate. Joey had taken off as soon as the officers left, stating that he needed to clear his head. Mary followed him, not willing to lose another son.

That left Carol alone with her emotions in her room. She was curled up in the fetal position on her bed with the covers down at her feet and her head resting on an absolutely soaked portion of her pillow. She didn't know how she still had tears to cry, she'd nearly sobbed a puddle into her pillow. Stevie had been her best friend as she'd grown up, it felt like he and her mother were the only ones excited to welcome a baby girl. Carol sniffled and realized she had a sharp headache across her forehead, most likely dehydration. She stood up and looked in the mirror, her eyes were red and puffy and her cheeks were pink. Carol rubbed her eyes hurriedly to attempt to make them appear as normal as possible. Carol gazed out the window past the mirror at the patch of grass where she and her eldest brother would lay on the ground and look up at the stars many years ago. She remembered him telling her stories about the sky and the stars that danced in it. Steve was always interested in the constellations and would point them out to little Carol.