Carolina stood at the top of a small mountain among the trees and bushes, hiding away. Finding the Director had been her goal for so long. She'd wanted him to pay for what he'd done to her friends, her family, to everyone in Project Freelancer. And now that she'd done that, a hole in her heart had opened up. A hole that couldn't be filled with anything she came across. Nothing helped and it hurt. It hurt before, but that was just a dull pain that was covered up by her anger for everyone. Now thought, her heart always hurt.
At first Carolina had thought it was just the pain of realizing York was actually dead; that the love of her life would never return to her. She couldn't help but wonder if York had felt that way when she had "died" on that snowy mountainside. Then came the news that Wyoming had been killed. She'd never been super close with him, but he was still a member of her team and she cared about him even if she'd never shown it. And then hearing about a creature that was hunting down A.I. units, about North's death, South's. It was terrible. Even more news spread about a few soldiers killing C.T. At the time Carolina hadn't known it wasn't the real C.T. but it didn't matter. So what if she'd betrayed them? In the end, she'd been right and Carolina had been wrong. The biggest blow to her heartstrings was the double whammy news that Maine and Wash had died. Even Tex's death drug her down. All of her friends were dead. How was she supposed to continue on when all of her friends were dead?
When she'd found the Reds and Blues and discovered Wash wasn't dead after all, it had made her feel better than Carolina had felt in a long time. Of course she hadn't let Wash know that. But it was a relief to know that someone else understood what she had gone through because they had too. That had made the pain a little more bearable. But the pain in her heart couldn't be fixed, it wouldn't go away.
How could she piece herself back together if all her pieces were lost so long ago? Carolina was nothing more than an angry, defeated Freelancer. No one knew that, but she was. She had had enough. She was done fighting, done searching. All she wanted now was to slip away and enjoy being dead.
Carolina smiled to herself at that thought. Enjoy being dead. Whoever would have thought that was possible? In her death, she was some sort of commander for an army that really had no clue what they were doing on a planet that really didn't need saving. She could just leave and let Washington deal with them; but she would miss them. Carolina would never, ever admit to such a thing, but she would miss the Reds and Blues. Being alone was horrible. They may be idiots most of the time, but they did manage to get a smile or two out of Carolina every now and then; not that they ever saw such a thing.
"Hey Carolina?" A voice from behind drew Carolina from her thoughts. Behind her was Caboose. In his hand was a steaming mug of coffee. He held it out to her.
"You've been out here a long time. I thought maybe you could be cold so I had Donut make you some of the bestest coffee ever. It's really good. Donut makes the best drinks ever. And cheese. He really knows how to throw a cheese and wine party."
This was one of those moments where these Blue morons got a smile out of her. Caboose may be slow, but he was sweet and tried the hardest out of all of them to do the right thing. Carolina reached out and took it from him. With one hand she held the mug and the other she pulled off her helmet, letting it rest in her hand against her leg. Caboose watched her intently and she knew he was waiting for her verdict on the coffee he had given her. She blew on it softly as she brought the white cup to her lips and took a sip.
The coffee instantly warmed her up, inside and out. She gave Caboose one of those rare smiles that hardly ever saw daylight. Not that she could see, but Carolina was sure Caboose was grinning.
"This is really good, Caboose. Thank you."
"Yeah, I hoped you'd say that. I was kinda afraid that you'd throw it at my face and tell me to go away," Caboose replied honestly. Carolina let out a small laugh.
Her heart hurt a lot nowadays, but it was moments like this where she could almost feel it repairing itself. The coffee dripping down into it, filling up, acting like glue to the remains of her broken heart.
They weren't so bad, the Reds and Blues; idiots yes, but they had the biggest hearts Carolina had ever seen. Perhaps their hearts could help repair her own, but for now, the coffee would be enough.