WHO: Maria DeLuca and Carol Danvers WHERE: The Wild Stallion WHEN: Last Week WARNINGS: Nah SPOILERS? Roswell: New Mexico and Avengers: Endgame
Having the Wild Stallion made Maria feel a bit more at home than she would have otherwise. It was something familiar, and also a way for her to make money and support herself in this town. She didn’t have a lot of expenses here, and her profit margin was good, so she felt like she was living well here. That, in addition to her strange yet satisfying relationship with Michael Guerin, meant that she was actually pretty happy in this place. Sure, it was strange and threw odd things at them all the time, but in that way it wasn’t so much different than Roswell.
It was a pretty slow night tonight, which wasn’t really strange for a weekday. She was just wiping down the bar and making sure all the glasses were clean when she heard someone come in, and looked up. When she saw who it was, she smiled broadly. She liked Carol. She was another strong and independent woman who didn’t see a problem with kicking a little ass sometimes.
“Hey,” she said. “Your regular?”
***
More often than not, Carol ended up spending an hour or two in the evenings at the Wild Stallion. Thanks to her powers, she couldn’t get drunk, and sitting in a bar having a beer was a nice reminder of her life before the explosion and what turned out to be her kidnapping. As much as she missed her Maria, she liked the one who owned this place and was happy to support another displaced person in their business ventures.
“Yeah, thanks,” she said, sliding onto the bar stool she generally preferred. “Seems kind of quiet this evening.” That wasn’t too surprising, Carol supposed, given that it was a week night.
***
Maria pulled her one of her favorite beers, putting it in front of her with a smile. She liked Carol, and liked having her around the bar because guys behaved better when they saw two tough women instead of just one. And she was also a fun person to talk to. She’d had a crazy life and seen a lot of things and a lot of places. Maria envied her that. She’d never seen much outside of Roswell.
“Yeah. Weeknights can get that way,” she said. “We more than make up for it on the weekend.” Weekends got so crazy that the night would be over before Maria ever had a chance to take a second and think.
“Did those fear monster things bother you?”
***
Carol shrugged. “I ran into them once,” she said. After her experiences on Hala though, she hadn’t found them quite as intimidating as most of the people who encountered them did. “I’ve lived through my worst fears.” And then some. There wasn’t much that bothered her these days.
“How about you? You get through all that okay?” she asked.
***
“Sorry to hear that,” she said. Even though she’d apparently made it through without much damage, it didn’t mean that it was anything approaching a pleasant experience.
“I did,” she said softly. “I didn’t run into them. Michael did, though, and he took it pretty hard.”
She’d comforted him as she knew how, but she still worried about how it would affect him in the long term.
***
“It was pretty brutal,” Carol admitted. “So I’m not surprised he took it hard.”
Not that she had a clue what Michael’s worst fears might be. She didn’t know the guy that well, only really exchanged a few words with him in passing when they were helping Maria get the bar open, but he had the broody thing going on so he probably had some stuff.
“He okay now?” She knew that Maria cared about him a lot.
***
“Yeah...I mean, he will be.” Maria wasn’t going to push him. She’d happily give him whatever he needed and let him decide how much he wanted to talk. Because she more than cared about him a lot - she deeply loved him, despite how odd their relationship might seem to people in more normal ones.
“He’s a strong guy. I’m not sure he even knows that, but he is.”
She shook her head.
“I’m just glad it’s all over. I don’t mind the weird stuff, but I don’t like the awful stuff. Obviously.” ***
There had been a lot of awful stuff Carol had seen through the years, it wasn’t just humans that were terrible, and she mostly managed to avoid letting it affect her too much. Otherwise, she’d probably go crazy.
“Seems like we go back and forth a lot,” she said. “I mean, just being yanked here is pretty bad. Then we get weird things like waking up in another city or those damn leprechauns.” The shadow things were by far the worst so far.
***
“I can take most of it in stride, I guess,” she said. It helped that she had so many friends here from home; they could all sort of shoulder the burden together. “But those fear monster things were...not good.” She hadn’t run into them personally, but she’d seen the aftermath and it had just made her more glad that she hadn’t.
“I wish whoever - or whatever - brought us here would just tell us why. Not knowing...well, it makes this all that much creepier.”
***
Carol took a long drink of her beer before responding. “I’m not sure there’s a reason,” she admitted. “Or at least not one that would actually make sense to any of us.” It wouldn’t surprise her to find out that the Jubilant Entity was an alien or god from another planet or something outrageous like that. She’d encountered some doozies in her travels across the galaxy.
“It’s creepy that people disappear just as quickly and mysteriously as they arrive though,” she said.
***
“With no warning of any sort on either side. You don’t know when you’re arriving, and you don’t know when you’re about to leave.” She shook her head a bit. There were no real answers about this place they were in, and she didn’t like it one bit.
“And honestly, I think I’d be happy for any explanation. Whether or not it made sense.”
It would at least give her something to work with, and maybe something to dispel some of her worst fears about what was going to happen to them the longer they stayed here.
***
“I can understand that,” Carol said. It would be nice if they knew that there was at least a method to the madness of them being here. She shrugged. “Until then, I’ll keep living my life. Working at Stark Industries, having beer with friends, keeping an eye on Tandy.”
It was a quiet and calm kind of existence, one Carol never had, so she didn’t mind it. At least for a little while.
***
“I mean, don’t get me wrong. I’m not unhappy here. I’ve got Liz and Michael and this place. It’s fulfilling. There’s just that little tickle in the back of my mind at all times, worrying about what’s going to happen next. And I’d rather not have that. But it’s not going to stop me from being happy. This place is a lot better than Roswell in a lot of ways.”
She smiled at Carol. She liked the woman, and she liked having regulars. To her, bars were as much about getting to know people as the alcohol you drank while you did.
***
It wasn’t just Maria who had that little tickle. Carol definitely kept her guard up more than she’d admit. “It’s better than a lot of places,” she agreed. “Especially your bar.” She hadn’t had a regular place to go in far too long.
***
“Cheers to that,” Maria said with a grin. She was right. Despite the weirdness of this place, it could definitely be worse. And she’d just hang on to that for now.