From The Ice || a Marvel Studios Fanfic

13 - Elizabeth Angela Carter

"Lizzie, it-it's me," I said shakily down the phone, my eyes flooding with salty tears. Silence followed for a few seconds, it seemed like it definitely wasn't just me who had to process this new information. The voice began to speak again from the other side of the phone.

"L-Liberty?" Lizzie's voice slowly and shakily replied, and a tear fell from my eye fast as I smiled widely, making a small wet patch on my shirt. I laughed out of relief and Lizzie did the same.

"H-how? W-what? Wh-"

"It's kind of a long story," I said, looking over at dad who was also smiling at me,

"I-I've got plenty of time," Lizzie then said, a smile even evident in her voice. "Also, h-how come you're on Tony's phone? I saw the name on the phone and was a bit suspicious!" she laughed.

"That is all encompassed in the long story, promise," I laughed back.

"Tony knows my address, tell him to drop you off here and you can tell me this story?" Lizzie suggested, excitement replacing the smile in her voice now.

"Expect me soon then," I replied, getting excited too. I said my farewells to my sister and hung up the phone, another tear rolling down my cheek. I turned to Tony, gave him the phone back and pulled him into a hug, which must've been unexpected for him.

Tony gave dad Lizzie's address and we drove there straight away, excitement and nerves all building up in the pits of my stomach.

We drove past where she lived for the first time and dad pointed it out, the number 12 hanging above the door, as we went past it. It was a nice little home, colourful flowers bloomed in the front garden, a bench on the front patio, it was entirely idyllic, absolutely perfect.

I walked up to the front door, dad following just behind me wearing a baseball cap and sunglasses to hide his face from any of the public who might recognise him, my legs shaking slightly underneath me. I brought a hand up and knocked three times on the window of the door and looked back at dad, who gave me an encouraging smile. I could hear voices coming from behind the door and then a figure appeared at the door.

The door opened to reveal an older lady, her curly hair grey with age, who was about my height. She looked like a stranger to me at first, that was until I looked into her brown eyes and saw nothing but my Lizzie. Lizzie, on the other hand, recognised me immediately.

"Liberty!" She exclaimed happily and she pulled me into a hug, "Lizzie," I hugged her tightly back. Once we broke from the hug, she looked at me and her face moulded into a confused expression. "Where-where have you been? How do you still look like you did back-"

"It's a long story," I replied, looking back at dad who was just watching all of this unfold from behind me.

"I-I suppose you'll be wanting to come inside and tell me this story then," Lizzie said, looking to have only just seen dad stood behind me, "The both of you?" she questioned, I nodded and she ushered the two of us through the front door.

Lizzie then took us through her kitchen area into what looked to be a sitting room of sorts where there were just two armchairs. She ushered us to sit.

"So, first of all, who's this?" Lizzie gestured towards dad, who was stood leaning against the doorframe, letting Lizzie sit in the other chair opposite me.

"You won't believe it, but I found my dad," I replied, smiling.

"But I thought dad was our dad, I didn't think that-"

"Well, it turned out that mum didn't meet 'dad' until after I was born," I said, as dad took off the baseball cap and his sunglasses to properly reveal his face as he was in safe distance from any of the general public. Lizzie looked at him and immediately recognised his face.

"Captain Rogers," She whispered under her breath, her face was shocked. She looked back at me and then back at dad. I nodded, not able to contain the smirk that crossed my face. "He's- he's your father?!"

"Seems like mum was actually quite a big fan of Captain America," I laughed, Lizzie was almost completely starstruck.

"I was taken by these people, they knew about dad being my dad and did 'experiments' on me. They froze me in ice, kind of similar to how dad was frozen, and I was brought back after just over 60 years, that's why I haven't aged and-"

"Lizzie, have you seen my glasses?" A male voice said from the hallway, as a slightly familiar face popped around the corner. He looked surprised to see us in the least but I would know that face anywhere.

"Arthur?"

"L-Liberty?"

I recognised him almost immediately, Arthur Williams, the only person I had the honour to call my friend back before I was taken. I looked from Lizzie and then back at Arthur, flitting between them both. Arthur moved towards me, pulling me into a hug which almost completely engulfed me. He'd grown a lot since the last time I saw him.

"Liberty, I see you remember Arthur," Lizzie laughed from behind him. I looked at her, a smile on my face as the hug ended, and it was then that I spotted a ring on her hand. A wedding ring. "Hang on," I started, looking between then both again, "are you two..."

"Happily married, 32 years this August," Arthur smiled down at Lizzie who was sat in the armchair still. I tried not to let my smile fade, I wasn't disappointed that my sister has married Arthur, of course not, he was my best friend and I was never interested in that kind of stuff, but it made me realise how much of life I had actually missed whilst being in the ice.

We then repeated the whole story of how I'm kind of still alive at this point, Arthur was just as shocked to meet my dad and I then had to tell dad how Arthur and I were best friends, the only friend I'd ever managed to keep for more than a couple of months, and that the two of us plus Lizzie were what mum always called 'the dream team', which made all four of us laugh.

It was then that something on the fireplace across the room caught my eye, a picture in a frame. I got up and walked towards it, which was when I saw that there were lots of framed photographs, most of them were of groups of people, smiling. There were a couple of some small children, an older boy and a younger girl, the photo looked more aged than the others. Some were newer photos, of a group of five; a mother, a father and three happy children, two of which I could see were identical twins.

"That's Oliver and Emma," Lizzie started, gesturing at the older photo, "their ours," and then she turned towards the slightly newer photos, "and that's our Oliver with his wife Sonia and their kids; Matthew, their oldest, and their twin girls Evie and Isla, my grandkids." I looked over at her as she smiled, I could see the joy spread across her face. "Evie and Isla are going up to high school in September, Matthew is almost off to college,"

I had missed so much. More than I could ever have imagined. I missed my sister getting married to mine (and her) best friend, I missed her having children, my niece and nephew, and then they had kids who are almost grown. It saddened me that I always thought that I'd be there for those things.

It was the longest 'catch up' I thought I'd ever had, I turned out that a lot can happen in 60 years. Lizzie got out the photo albums of their wedding, the albums filled with photos of their children and their grandchildren, but then a question was asked that I 100% was not expecting.
"So, have you visited mum yet?"
As soon as the question formed in my head, I was surprised and confused.
"What do you mean?" I then asked, looking between my sister and then my father.
"Liberty... I-I meant to tell you-" dad seemed to stutter slightly, his voice breaking a little bit.
"Mum is still alive, she's in hospital, but she's alive."