Carol had vaguely remembered it feeling about the same when she and Maria had gone looking way back in the day. It wore on you emotionally, mentally, even physically when you were endlessly touring neighborhoods and traipsing through house after house. She’d hoped it would be better, now that it wasn’t 1986 and there was so much technology at their fingertips to streamline the process.
It absolutely wasn’t. She was tired, and for someone who ran on endless cosmic energy, that was a hell of a feat.
For the most part it was just the two of them with their realtor, occasionally with their friends tagging along. Pepper was ultimately the one who had talked Carol out of a fixer upper that would have taken years, but she and Emme hadn’t had any major disagreements that required a referee. There had been one house built to resemble a UFO that Carol had acted very seriously interested in, much to her future wife’s dismay — until she’d given up the act, admitted she was kidding, and gotten smacked for her trouble. Other than that, it was just a few little squabbles, all of which were quickly resolved.
They just hadn’t landed on the right place yet.
It was another just-the-two-of-them day when they pulled up to a big blue house on the corner of a suburban street. Carol examined it with a thoughtful hum, reaching out to take Emme’s hand and help her out of the passenger side seat of the realtor’s car.
“Looks promising from here.”
Emme peered out the windshield from her spot in the passenger seat. She had on a pair of oversized sunglasses and a baseball cap with a Captain Marvel logo on it. She took one last sip from her thermos of tea for fortification, then she swung her legs out of the vehicle and took Carol’s hand.
“Looks promising, but I’ve learned that’s when we should be the most suspicious.”
“You’re right, Ms. Cynical,” Carol chuckled, poking the brim of Emme’s cap with her free hand. “I’ll lower my hopes accordingly.”
She did hope they’d be able to finish this process out soon. They had been looking for a while, but Emme was right – most of the time, the ones they liked didn’t work out for some reason or another. Better to go in with low expectations and be happily surprised if it all worked out.
The realtor was already rattling off the specs – five bedrooms, four bathrooms, an unfinished basement – as they made their way up the front walk, onto the porch, and through the front door. It was already huge just from the front hall, spacious and open. They could fit the entirety of their Morningside apartment on the first floor alone.
A bit more chatter from the realtor, and she left them alone to explore. Carol preferred that over letting her lead them from room to room. It gave the two of them time to talk about things without someone hovering and trying to fill in silences.
“I’m gonna have to amp up my cooking skills with a kitchen this size,” Carol commented, leaning back against the counter and taking a good look around the space.
“I am absolutely okay with that.” She smirked in Carol’s direction before turning to survey the rest of the room. “Though it would definitely be nice to have the room to have more people over for dinner.” Cramming multiple people into their flat when they wanted to have friends over became crowded very quickly, and often ended with someone having to eat from the sofa. Emme liked the idea of a large dining table with their friends.
“Well, we’d have plenty of space for that now. Half of them could probably spend the night with five bedrooms,” Carol pointed out. It was all open concept, so while there wasn’t really a closed off dining room, like she was accustomed to back in the day, there was plenty of space, filled in with a staged table and six chairs around it. Hosting people without shunting someone off to the couch to eat wouldn’t be a problem anymore.
She’d never been the type to imagine herself in a large home. Her childhood home with her parents had been modest with only a teacher’s salary. And once she’d moved out it was just a series of small flats. After the war in particular, she’d rarely ever stay at home, so there wasn’t really a need for it. But here in Vallo with a wife, a teenager, multiple animals, and a host of friends, the apartment life was no longer a viable option.
They spent some time together poking around the kitchen. Between the sun streaming in through the windows and the hanging light fixtures, it was bright and airy. Emme could easily picture them having morning tea together in the space and it gave her a warm feeling in her chest. Still, she didn’t want to get her hopes too up just yet. She held her hand out to Carol. “Lead on, love.”
It was beautiful, Carol had to admit. It was huge and on the higher end of their budget, but if they fell in love with it, they would find a way to make it work. She’d talked to Pepper about assistance programs the DOA had on hand already, and hopefully they could cut a good deal that wouldn’t leave them permanently in debt.
“Upstairs?” She took Emme’s hand and squeezed gently, intertwining their fingers, and led them around the corner to the waiting staircase. The second floor had three bedrooms and a bathroom, the latter of which was open in front of them. After poking around in there for a few minutes, there were two open, spacious bedrooms about the same size, before they found their way into the master.
“Damn,” she remarked as they entered. They had their own ensuite attached off to the left and a walk-in closet with a barn-style door to the right. There were windows on either side of the bed and the sun was pouring in. “Look how far it is from the living room,” she joked.
Damn, indeed. Emme marveled a bit at all the space. “We’ll have to get Pepper’s help to find enough furniture to fill this place.” The closet, though, that she would have no trouble with at all.
Having let go of Carol’s hand finally, Emme wandered over to the closet and began to poke around inside. Her brain had already begun to mentally assign where she would put her things. As she made her way out, she glanced out the windows to the trees rustling with the afternoon breeze. The peacefulness of it made her smile.
“So far, I’d say this one is jumping to the top of my list. What do you think?”
“I think you’re biased because of all the closet space,” Carol teased, having perched on the end of the bed to take a good look around the entire room. Their room at Morningside was decent, but this was easily twice that size. This was probably the biggest place they’d seen so far, and as someone who had spent years literally amongst the stars, extra room was something she heavily appreciated.
She bounced back to her feet to go with Emme to check out the ensuite – there would be no squeezing past each other in this bathroom, that was for sure. “We’ve got two more floors to check out.” One more up, one more down, though she suspected there wouldn’t be too much to see in the basement. That was going to turn into a project if they took the place. “Ready to head up?”
“I’m only thinking about you, babe.” Emme replied with a wink as she flicked her long hair over her shoulder. “With all this closet space, you could maybe even have two whole shelves for yourself this time.”
The bathroom continued the trend of getting her hopes up, and Emme was starting to feel like they might have finally found the one. But, two more floors of potential hazards and deal breakers still awaited them. With a nod of agreement, Emme followed Carol out of the master and toward the stairs leading upward.
The top floor might as well be its own little apartment. The stairs led right into an empty hallway and turning the corner led into another good-sized bedroom, staged with a bed and bedroom furniture. Across from it was another empty bedroom, but the first branched off into its own bathroom on one side and another open closet.
“Maybe I can put my stuff in here so I don’t steal too much space from the queen,” she teased, stepping over to open the door. She was surprised to find a box in there, dropped in the dead center of the little room, flaps open since the thing was nearly overflowing. She dismissed it at first, sure that it was just something the previous owner must have left behind, until a glint of silver caught her eye.
She stepped further inside and reached for the silver chain that had caught her eye, a lump forming in her throat when she read her own name – most of it – off the old burnt and broken dog tags. She looked back down into the box and saw an old, army green flight suit on top, her last name displayed prominently on the raised patch.
“What the fuck, Vallo,” she sighed, the sound more of a breathless laugh than anything else as she pulled the suit free to see what was buried beneath. “Em!”
Emmeline had been examining the other bedroom when she thought she heard a muffled ”What the fuck” followed by her name.
Merlin’s sparkly pants. She knew it was too good to be true. Clearly Carol had found some bodies buried beneath the floorboards or something equally as horrific. With a sigh of resignation, Emmeline made her way over and prepared for the worst. “Scale from 1 to 10 how bad is-” She stopped mid-sentence as she saw Carol holding some clothing with an almost wistful expression on her face. Em cocked her head to the side. “What have you got there?”
“Flight suit,” Carol said, tossing it in her fiancée’s direction. “This is from the Louisiana house.” She reached out to pull out a photo album – one, then a second, then a third. She remembered packing this box herself after Maria had passed; it was one of the last ones, packed haphazardly with important things she wanted to have around instead of put into storage or sold off by the neighbors after she left. Nat had helped her stow it away at the Compound, but with that gone, this was probably gone now, too.
Yet, here it was, whole and full and nothing any less damaged than it had been when she’d packed it all together almost four years prior.
“I think you’re right.” She turned back to Emme with an old Air Force t-shirt (the one Monica had once worn as pajamas when she was just a little one) clutched to her chest. “This has to be it. Pretty sure Vallo dropping this here is some kind of flashing, neon sign, right?”
Emmeline caught the suit out of reflex as her mind played catch up to what was happening. Carol’s flight suit? She looked down and brushed her fingers lightly over the patch that was sewn on the breast. The pieces clicked into place in her mind just as Carol said the words out loud. This was Vallo’s way of telling them that they were home. This place could be cruel and capricious, but had also given her more than she could ever have asked for. She swallowed a lump of emotion in her throat, and folded the suit gently over her arm. “Definitely. With the giant inflatables that wave around at you.”
“Yeah,” Carol agreed, smiling a bit when that image filled her mind. Her past just kept showing up around here – whether it was to haunt her or to help her, she hadn’t completely decided yet. This, though, right here, she knew it was nothing but good. If Maria could have sent her a sign herself, this would have been it, she felt that in her bones.
She let the shirt in her hands drop back into the box before she stepped up closer to her soon-to-be wife and pressed a kiss to her forehead. “You really want this one?”
Emmeline smiled. It had been a long and exhausting process that lasted longer than either of them had imagined, but it had all been worth it if they wound up here. She wrapped her arms around Carol’s shoulders and nodded. “Let’s be honest. I was sold the minute I saw that closet space. But now I’m positive. Let’s do it.”
Carol nodded, her arms slipping around Emme’s waist in return. She was ready for the house hunt to be over. Really, even without a box of her belongings here, there was something about this place that had just spoken to her the moment they pulled up. It was big, but they could fill it up with friends and family. It was going to be expensive, but they could find a way to make it work financially.
“Alright, we’ll do it,” she agreed. How could she say anything else? This house was clearly meant to be theirs. “I mean, how can I turn down the opportunity to have two whole shelves all my own?”