Oh, don't believe everything you hear. Characters: Wanda, Billy Setting: Streets of New York Content: Nothing questionable Summary: Wanda meets another version of her son from another universe.
There was a fine line between caution and paranoia and Wanda was on the verge of crossing it. Every moment spent with the Avengers the certainty grew for her that S.H.I.E.L.D. would be cracking down on them any day now. The waiting was probably the worst part, knowing that it was only a matter of time but hearing not a word about it. Not that she hadn't been a criminal before (and, apparently, a criminal since the Avengers broke away from S.H.I.E.L.D.), but it wasn't a life she'd intended to go back to. Actually, it was one she'd been trying to get away from and, law or not, she really couldn't see how helping the people of New York made her, or any of the non-S.H.I.E.L.D. sanctioned heroes, into villains. That was only her opinion, of course, and one that S.H.I.E.L.D.- or at least it's new Director- clearly didn't share.
This difference of opinions was likely to lead to a prison cell, it was only a matter of when. Anxiety over that was enough to make her want to lock herself away in her apartment. The problem was that life always went on and Wanda reasoned that hiding out at home wasn't going to help anything. If S.H.I.E.L.D. wanted to try and arrest her they could just as easily come after her there as out in public. There was going to be a fight in it for them either way and she half-way hoped it was sooner rather than later if only to have the suspicions and worry over with. For now she carried on like nothing had changed (except with a little more vigilance) and that meant going out this evening and braving crowds for a few stores running deals. The holidays would be here soon and, criminal vigilantes or not, the people she cared about still deserved gifts.
As the last of the stores she'd spent her evening in closed up she stepped out into the street, still surprisingly busy this late, and buttoned up her coat against the chill. With her arms laden with bags, Wanda maneuvered along the sidewalks trying to get to a nice secluded alleyway where she could teleport back to her apartment.