You didn’t know and yet you stood in front of a gun? Carol!
Who: Carol and Jess What: Costumes and home invasions When: Day before Carol got everyone to help them move Jess into her place Where: Jess's apartment Status: complete Rating: PG-13 warnings: mild violence
Carol had tried to fix the lightpole after running into it, and then straightening it. It looked rather horrible, but it seemed to still work. She rubbed her head and took off again, zigzagging through the air towards Jess’s apartment.
She couldn’t really describe in words how it felt to fly like this. She could only express joy.
Landing, she opened the door and called out. “Hon?”
Jess was sitting in the living room, with all of her things all packed up in boxes. There wasn’t much left, just that everything had to be moved to Carol’s place. However her costume was in her hands as she looked it over.
“I’m in here,” she called. “Just come in.” Once she saw Carol, she smiled. “See?”
"Oh..." Carol came over to touch the fabric. "It's kind of soft."
She also wanted to just touch Jess.
Jess grinned a little up at her. “Yeah it is, I mean is this supposed to keep me warm? I have no idea how that’s supposed to work.” She didn’t know if she even wanted to put it on, to be honest. “Apparently in my dreams, I keep getting brainwashed by this group called HYDRA. Ever heard of them in your dreams?”
“I think I’ve fought them.” Carol pulled Jess into her arms. “In my last dreams I kind of left the Avengers. Because they weren’t there for me.” She kissed Jess’s forehead. “What do you mean keep brainwashing you?”
She frowned a little bit, and then curled up against Carol. “Huh. I wasn’t a member of the Avengers. I was brainwashed into thinking they weren’t the ones that killed my family, but they were.” It was awful. “Then I fought the Avengers, and realized what they did.. but in another dream.. I had gone back to them. It was odd, and awful. This woman tried to make me believe that I was her daughter. She’s batshit insane.”
Carol sat down, pulling Jess into her lap and pressing her lips against her shoulder. “Why would they kill your family? I mean, they weren’t perfect but they weren’t evil, either. Just kind of..dicks.”
All Jess could do was just shrug her shoulders. “I don’t know. All I know is that I was sick, thanks to my father, and then he did this to me. Gave me all that spider junk and put me in stasis and when I came out.. they were gone.” She didn’t really know what happened to them, thanks to the dreams. “Maybe your version were dicks.. it seems like mine were evil.”
She didn’t know how she felt about that. The idea that their dreamselves might be seperate was a little distressing to her. Carol sighed. “I don’t know enough to say. Only the thought pisses me off.”
“You’re telling me. The whole thing makes me annoyed. Wait, are you talking about HYDRA or the Avengers?” She realized that they might be talking about two different things.
“The Avengers,” Carol said, realizing they were talking about two different things. She laughed. “I misheard you, I’m relieved.”
Jess laughed a little and shook her head in amusement. “Oh god.. no. HYDRA is evil. Avengers are decent enough. I mean from what I know of them. I guess I am one in the future.” Or at least dream her was.
“I think you are. Or will be. Or something.” Carol leaned in and kissed her. “You’re not evil. You never will be, no matter what. Do you understand?”
Giving a little nod, she kissed Carol back gently and tried to smile. “Not evil. Got it.” She just had to keep telling herself that. Being brainwashed was one thing, but being actually evil was another. “Thanks. So.. shall we get me into this outfit? Since it’s only fair because I got you into yours.”
“....god yes.” She got to her feet again, and held her hand out to her lover. “It looks like we’ll have to paint it on. I think I’m going to enjoy this.”
The front door bang open, and two men entered.
Taking her hand, Jess got up to her feet and grabbed the costume when the guys burst in. “What the fuck?” She was a bit scared of course, she wasn’t Spider-Woman or anything. Just a woman who dreamed about her. Breaking and entering though. Who the hell were these guys and what did they want?
“Shit, I thought you said no one was home!”
The other man shook his head and pointed a gun at them. “Just sit pretty and don’t scream.”
Carol weighed her options. She wasn’t sure she was bulletproof yet, but she was fast. She kept her hands where they could see them, and subtely moved between them and Jess. “Sit pretty? Really?”
Normally she would protest that Carol was moving in between her and the robbers, but well she couldn’t do much of anything besides stick to things. “How about you turn around and get out before we kick your ass and call the cops instead?” She wasn’t very good at not provoking people, sadly.
Things moved quickly. The man’s finger squeezed on the trigger. The bullet left the barrel. It hit Carol in the shoulder, jarring and painful, as she darted forward. Her punch sent him flying into his companion and both men crashed through the door, down the stairs and landed in the street.
Carol looked at her arm. It was bruised, and the bullet dropped to the ground.
Jess let out a shout as the man fired at Carol, looking quite panicked at the thought. As soon as the men were taken care of and out onto the street, she went to Carol’s side. “Oh my god, they shot you. Are you okay? What.. what was that? Did that bullet just … what was that?”
She rubbed at her shoulder, wincing. It was sore, and would leave a terrible mark in the mornings. Carol swallowed. “We should call the cops. I’m not sure what we’re going to tell them.” She looked at Jess, eyes wide. “Did it actually hit me? It hit me!”
Jess scrambled to get the phone and dialed 9-1-1. “You’re bulletproof? Good grief.” She didn’t know what to tell the cops either. Soon they answered and she told them that some people were breaking into her house. After a moment, she hung up. “They’re on their way. What the hell? Were you going to tell me?”
“I didn’t know! Not for sure, anyway.” Carol frowned. “I’m practically superwoman in the dreams? I thought, that since I could fly, and everything...” God, was she going to get the power cosmic, next? It was related, wasn’t it? She wasn’t sure she could mentally handle that. Not yet.
Ignoring the fact that she’d acted without thinking she could actually live through it.
“You didn’t know and yet you stood in front of a gun? Carol!” Jess was trying not to be angry about the whole thing. “You can’t just do that because you have a hunch that you’re impervious to bullets! What if you weren’t?” She still didn’t believe that she was going to get the powers that she had in her dreams. That would be stupid.
“Then I’d be bleeding and you’d still be okay,” Carol said, her patience fraying. She sounded a little snappish. “I’d do it again even if I wasn’t!”
“You think I want you to get shot? If I had jumped in front of that bullet, you’d be yelling at me.” Now Jess was actually yelling at her. “Don’t ever do that again! I don’t care if you’re bullet proof. You aren’t dying for me. I can actually take care of myself, you know.”
Carol frowned at her, but knew that Jess was right. Reversed positions and she would be doing the yelling, not the other way around. Still. “You’ve beaten so much, I don’t want a damned bullet beating you.”
“Just because I had cancer, doesn’t mean I’m fragile. None of us had to get shot by those guys. They were punks.” Jess rubbed her forehead in frustration. “No one should be getting shot. So how about neither of us goes and does something stupid, shall we?”
“I’m not saying you’re fragile...” She folded her arm, grimacing as her shoulder protested. Carol leaned against the wall and chewed her lip. “I’m sorry. Okay? I love you, this was stupid of me.”
“Yes, that was stupid of you. But I love you too. And I’m sorry as well.” She hadn’t meant to yell at her girlfriend. The police were outside as it was. “What are we going to tell them?” she asked as they knocked on the door. Jess went to go answer it, looking behind her.
“They broke in, and we defended ourselves?” Carol followed her to the door. She wasn’t sure how she was going to explain that she wasn’t bleeding from a gunshot wound, but she didn’t really care. She just wanted this day over with. “God, I can’t wait until we’re living in the same place.”
Yeah okay, that was how it was going to have to be. There was nothing else they could tell them. Jess let the cops in after they had taken the guys away in handcuffs. She just wanted this over with too, but now they had to give their statements to the cops. Separately. After this, Jess was done staying here. She’d move in that night.
Carol was going to be glad for the help she’d get from the valarnet tomorrow. But tonight, she wanted Jess safe in her arms. She gave her statement, and then went into the kitchen to find something harder than water to drink. Her hands were shaking. Why were her hands shaking?
Once the police were gone, she followed Carol into the kitchen. “Let’s just go back to your place, and that’s that. Are you okay?” she looked worriedly at her.
“Yeah. Just...I just got shot!” She looked at Jess. “It’s all kind of..I just got shot.” She leaned against the counter and squeezed her eyes shut.
With a frown, Jess went over and put her arms around Carol from behind and held onto her tightly. “I’m so sorry. You’re okay.. I’m here.”
Carol thought that she ought to be comforting Jess, not the other way around, but she leaned in anyway. “Lets get to my place, and curl up. Put on something silly on the tv.”
Jess pressed her lips against Carol’s head and nodded. “Let’s go.” She grabbed a hold of her hand and then went to take her back to her place.
“Don’t forget the costume,” Carol said lightly. “We were rudely interrupted.”