EVERMORE ─ marvel

XVI. The Price Of Leadership

Chapter Sixteen
Sam

"How's Jade doing?" Soroya asks me as we walk down the halls of the palace. She and I currently helping with turning it into a makeshift hospital. More and more patients are being delivered here from the battlefield and the hospital is getting too crowded. Everyone is helping out, or at least everyone who isn't already helping out with one of the other million tasks we have to accomplish. It's just been on thing after the other, I haven't had time to sleep, to shower, to think.

I haven't had time to see Jade. "Livy says she's fine and that she'd contact me if something happens with her."

Soroya gives me a slow nod. "If you want to go see her I can take things over from here."

"Have you gone to see Stevie or Alex?"

Her face falls as she shakes her head. We make it to the end of the hall to the storage room where some extra stairs are stashed. We need to take them to the throne room. We both take two and then venture back towards the other side of the palace.

"With all the injured, the damages, the people who need homes, the Skrulls, making alliances with other planets, dealing with normal Avenger duties—"

"Don't forget Zy's plan to use the people of different countries to elect the world leaders out of office." I add.

"Yeah and that...we're never going to have time to ourselves," Soroya says, guilt and regret filling her tone. "Or time with our families. My son and brother are going through a lot. Both of them will have to retrain themselves to shift with their injuries and I won't be able to help them. I feel like a terrible mother and sister. But if I abandon my duties to help them then I'm a terrible leader."

I nod, feeling a little lighter despite discussing such a heavy topic. It's nice having someone who understands the position I'm in, along with the stress and anger that position brings. Soroya and I have always been really close friends, but over these past few months, I feel like she and I have gotten far closer. We spend all our time together planning how to fix the world's problems. That task would be far more daunting and isolating if she wasn't there to share the burden with me.

"I guess that's the price of being a leader. In order to rebuild the rest of the world we have to watch ours fall apart."

Soroya bites her lip, which is wobbling slightly. Her eyes are lined with tears. "Do you think it will ever get easier?"

"I don't know. I doubt it. I'm starting to see more and more why Steve chose to go back in time and leave this behind. Being a leader isn't just a hard job, it's a lonely one."

Soroya, despite her sorrow, playfully bumps my shoulder. "That's why I'm glad you're my partner in all this."

Despite my own sorrow, I bump her shoulder back. "Me, too."

-

Naomi

There are so many wounded the hospital in Wakanda can't hold them all. Shuri's lab is already being filled with the overflow and now the palace is too.

I've been trying to help where I can, whether that means getting more bandages or getting some extra chairs for patients to sit. I welcome the tasks I'm given, in dire need of a distraction. The more time I have to myself to more time I have to think, and when I think, I think of Matt and Johnny. I can't think about them right now. If I do, I'll break down and I won't be able to function again, and with so much going on, I can't afford that right now. Maybe not ever. I need to distract myself. I need to be useful.