Fall of the Mighty ★ [4] ✔

In Times of Mourning II

⏳ 2016      

She was gone. Gone. Just like that. Asleep one moment and whisked away the next. I didn't even get to say goodbye.

The choirboys' voices were somber, but soothing, melodies and harmonies from the darkest corners of Heaven inviting the souls passed through the gates to the light. Stormy grey light shone through the stain-glass windows, filtering the sunlight into beautiful colors. Every pew was occupied, mourners dressed in black and silent as I aided in carrying her coffin down the aisle.

Things could've been different. I thought about that often, I thought about that now more than ever. If I'd never crashed that plane back in 1945, I could've been with her. I would've gazed on her walking up this aisle instead of me having to carry her, confined in a prison of oak and death.

My eyes met Andi's sitting next to Sam, looking on with pity and mourning and sadness. If I'd never crashed that plane back in 1945, I wouldn't be where I am today with her. I wouldn't be by her side, holding her hand, comforting her as she did me. I would never have fallen in love with her.

This painful loss...it bred more losers than winners.

I sat nestled in between Sam and Andi, and I tried to ignore the disappointed feeling of when she shifted away a little.

"And now," the priest drawled, his voice nothing but a drowned-out sound to my ears, "I would like to invite Sharon Carter to come up and say a few words."

I blinked when Sam elbowed me and I looked up to the foyer where a familiar pretty face framed with blonde hair stood.

"Margaret Carter was known to most as a founder of S.H.I.E.L.D.," Sharon began. "But I just knew her as Aunt Peggy." When she looked at me and said that, my heart skipped a beat as I raised my chin in realisation. How had I not put two and two together earlier? "She had a photograph in her office. Aunt Peggy standing next to JFK." She smiled at the memory. "As a kid, that was pretty cool. But it was a lot to live up to." She focused on me again and gazed at me apologetically. "Which is why I never told anyone we were related.