Before her first day of kindergarten, Phil had to establish some ground rules for his daughter. There was a list of things she was not to do in front of the other kids such as heavy lifting, showing off her strength, and picking fights. It had been a long time since she received any unwanted attention. Every once in a great while he got junk mail from AIM but he threw it in the bin without even opening it. As far as he knew, they hadn't reached out to contact Evelyn directly and he was keen on keeping it that way.
Nick offered to put an agent on campus to keep an eye on Evelyn during the day and do damage control if she slipped up. Phil didn't want to do it for the sake of giving the little girl a sense of autonomy. Furthermore, he felt confident that there would be no problems and setting someone up would just be a waste of valuable manpower. Although he had a hunch Nick was fully intending on setting up an agent anyway, regardless of if he gave permission.
She sat at the breakfast table, too excited for her first day of school to eat her corn flakes. Her gingery hair was pulled into twin braids on either side of her head, frizzy from sleeping on them. The purple ribbons hung in limp loops. He would have to re-do her hair before she went off to class. Her Minnie Mouse nightgown was a bit too big for her and hung off her shoulders a bit. Phil learned to buy clothes which were slightly too large for her because she would grow into them quickly.
Phil sipped his tea, "Remember what we said, Evelyn."
Her feet dangled from the chair, feet still not quite reaching the ground. She said the words with little interest because Phil had repeated them with her time and time again."It's not important to stand out. It's important to do the right thing. And sometimes the right thing means blending in."
She picked up her Captain America doll from the counter. Cap had two different colored blue eyes now. The button for the left one fell off a month back. Evelyn cried when she couldn't find it. But Phil managed to replace it with a spare button from one of his old dress shirts which was almost the same color.
"I can be like Cap and keep a secret identity."
"I was hoping you would say that," smiled Phil, "Come on, let's get you ready. Kindergarten awaits."
About an hour later, Phil walked up to the charming red brick building with Evelyn holding his hand. Despite her repeated requests, he did not drop her off a block away and let her walk in and introduce herself to everyone on the first day of kindergarten. Although, Lord knows, she would do it. But that just wouldn't be very responsible parenting on his part.
"Did you remember your lunch, Evey?"
She almost rolled her eyes at him while she shrugged her blue canvas backpack onto her shoulders, her vintage tin Captain America lunchbox in her other hand, "Yes, Papa. And I have my backpack and my school supplies. I'm ready."
"I'm just checking," he said, looking down at his daughter.
They spent the night before meticulously picking through her wardrobe to find the perfect thing to wear. Evelyn finally settled on a purple flowered jumper, little black Mary Jane shoes with lacy socks, and Phil tied a matching bow in her hair. Over the past five years, he had become fairly adept at doing things like tying hair bows and picking out dresses. Had anyone asked him before that night in New Mexico if he could foresee this becoming his future, he probably would have denied it or assumed they were crazy. But, now that he was taking his daughter to her first day of real school, he felt like he wouldn't have it any other way.
Evelyn ran ahead, kicking up the first crunchy fall leaves as she ran and giggling, "Come on Papa! I'm going to be late!"
Phil followed her down the sidewalk and into the school building. It took a few minutes to find the classroom but it was unmistakably a kindergarten class. The room was festooned with brightly colored posters with the alphabet or numbers on them. Toys were stacked on child-sized shelves. Painting easels were set up by the window with thick stacks of paper already pinned to them.
The desks and chairs were far too small for any adult to sit in comfortably, and probably more than a little awkward for Evelyn. Truthfully, she wasn't that much taller than the other children her age but there was enough of a difference that it was noticeable to both Phil and the other parents. Phil had poured over parenting books to learn about things such as growth spurts to better prepare himself for her future. According to his reading, it isn't unusual for a child to be a bit taller for a year or two. It just means their growth spurt hit a bit earlier than most. That was probably what happened with Evelyn. It would all even out in the next few months.
The child development books were, however, woefully lacking with information about a child who could pick up a car with one hand. Every book on the planet was woefully lacking on the subject.
"Evey, let's find your teacher," called Phil over the kids who were already starting to buzz loudly with excitement of the first day of school.
Phil glanced around the room and it took him about three seconds to find Mrs. Keesler. She was a larger woman in a bright dress of many blocks of color and massive, chunky jewelry in the shape of school supplies. It was as though the kindergarten classroom came to life.
"Papa, I think that's her," said Evelyn pointing toward the lady.
"Don't point, Evey, it's not nice," corrected Phil automatically but he steered her over there anyway.
"Uh, Mrs. Keesler? I'm Phil Carlton and this is my daughter, Evelyn."
"Oh my, it is such a pleasure to finally meet you both," she said, taking Phil's hand and shaking it exuberantly. The lady had a very firm grasp. "And how are you doing today, Miss Evelyn?"
"I'm doing well, Ma'am. You can call me Evey if you want," she said, almost curtsying a little. Phil had to stop himself from swelling up with pride for his daughter.
"Alright, Evey, let's find you a seat."
As Mrs. Keesler led Evey to one of the desks with a bright name tag, Phil felt his pager beep in his pocket. He shouldn't have been shocked to see Nick Fury was trying to reach him. Sighing deeply, he walked over to where Evelyn was settling into her desk.
"Evey, I have to go to work now," he said, kneeling down to the level of the desk as she squirmed to get comfortable in her seat, "If I'm not here to pick you up at noon, then look for one of the people from work to come and pick you up and…"
He dropped his voice to an undertone so no one else would hear it but him and Evelyn.
"…remember to ask to see their badge first, okay? Even if it is someone you know, like Maria."
Evelyn nodded solemnly, "Okay, Papa. Be safe."
"You be good today, okay?" said Phil at his regular volume, leaning forward to kiss Evelyn's forehead goodbye.
"Yes, Papa."
"I love you," he said to Evelyn as he stood up.
"I love you too."
"Do you remember the emergency contact numbers?"
"Dad," said Evelyn, drawing out the vowel in annoyance, "You can go now."
Phil smiled, trying not to laugh, "Okay. Bye Evey."
They fell into a routine every day. Phil would drop her off at school, go to work, and pick her up in the afternoon. The evenings were their special time, after dinner, when he would get a chance to play board games with her or watch movies or go to the park so she could play with the other kids. They were, in every sense of the word, a normal family.
Except they weren't.
School started well but Phil still made it a point to work through things carefully every day to make sure her power stayed in check. It was a precaution he felt he needed to go through. Not that Evelyn particularly abused her powers but all it took was one person to be looking the wrong way for the cat to fly out of the bag.
One day while they were at the park, she picked up a Honda Accord to help a mother duck and her little row of ducklings get across the street. Phil noticed, racing across the street to get her to stop. She put the car down as the duck family disappeared into the tall grass.
"Evey, what are you doing?" he exclaimed, brushing off the dust from the front of her yellow dress. Motor oil stained part of the sleeve. He did not relish the scrubbing it would take to get that out. "You could have been hurt! Someone could have seen you!"
"Papa," she squirmed away from him, "I was just helping!"
"Evelyn, you have to be careful. If someone saw you, then..." He cut himself off. He didn't know how to explain it to her. "Evey, we talked about this."
"Nobody saw me!" She stamped her foot, "You told me I was supposed to be helpful and do the right thing."
"I also told you, you need to be careful. You're not," normal, was the word he was going to use but that would be unduly mean. He quickly corrected himself, "like other children. You can't just…"
He sighed, standing. He took her hand and briskly walked back to the car. Evelyn pouted at him when he buckled her into her spot but he ignored her. There was no way she was going to charm her way out of this one, not with everything at stake. And he worked so hard to go over this every single day, reminding her to be careful!
"I'm disappointed in you," he told her, shutting the car door with a thud. He glanced in the rearview mirror. Evelyn's pout had dissolved into silent tears. Now he felt bad. He knew he shouldn't. She needed discipline and she wasn't going to get it if he rolled over every time she got upset with him. She needed to know when she wasn't doing the right thing. Actually it was right, but not the right way to go about it. Explaining the difference was tricky navigation even in the best of times.
"Evey, do you understand why I'm upset?"
"Because I used my strength where people might see."
"No, I'm disappointed that you didn't listen to me," explained Phil, "I'm only trying to keep you safe. I don't want you to get hurt. I don't want people who might try to hurt you too…"
He swallowed, focusing on the road. He didn't want to think of what could happen. Even the best case scenarios left him feeling uneasy. The point was not to scare her, but he wanted her to know there were real risks.
"I love you very much, Evey," he admitted, "And if someone hurt you, I don't know what I would do."
She didn't respond right away. Instead, she stared at the back of his seat, wiping her eyes. With a sigh she said, "I love you too, Papa."
Dinner was mostly stony silence. They were polite to each other but not particularly vocal. The usual joy of their encounters was muted. Evelyn brushed her teeth and got ready for bed. Phil lingered in the living room. There was a good deal of paperwork left to do as he set up the new recruit programs.
Currently, there was no way to train people with exceptional physical abilities. They had what the agents fondly called "geek school" for the students who tested high intelligence or mental aptitude. But there was currently nothing similar for people like Evelyn who were unique physically. There was no way for them to train or to study their abilities at the level that they should. He was working with the R&D department to find ways to rectify things and build up a new school within the academy for recruits with super human abilities. It would be invaluable once the mutant recruitment pilot program began in earnest.
But things like this required money. Money that was not necessarily in the budget. At this rate, he would need to start holding SHIELD bake sales to come up with start up funds. The idea didn't seem too insane, the more he thought about it. Bobbi and Maria actually had halfway decent baking skills. Maria actually had an almond cookie recipe to die for. It took a moment, but became aware of the fact he was actually starting to consider a bake sale as a real solution for building a new school rather than a humorous flight of fancy. He rubbed his eyes, realizing he needed to get to bed. He managed to keep awake long enough to crawl under the covers and get his head on the pillow.
He awoke a few hours later to a piercing shriek coming from his daughter's bedroom. It was Phil's worst nightmare realized. Sweat broke out on his forehead as he scrambled for his service gun in his nightstand. He fumbled, sleepily trying to find the drawer but then he heard the pattering feet of Evelyn racing down the hall.
"Papa!"
"Evey? What's going on?"
"I had a nightmare." she quietly said as she stood in the doorway.
Phil sighed in relief and put the gun back into the nightstand, closing it tightly. Evelyn was holding Cap in one hand and her blue blanket in the other so tightly her knuckles appeared bright white even in the darkness of the room. Tears made her cheeks shine. Phil patted the end of the bed and Evelyn jumped toward him. The bedsprings protested the sudden impact.
"Do you want to tell me about it?" as he embraced her.
"It was the gold man," she whispered, "He picked me up and he threw me and…and I kept falling."
Phil sighed and hugged Evelyn. This wasn't the first dream she had about the gold man. While it didn't happen every night, it happened often enough that Phil could safely call it a returning nightmare. The dreams got worse when she had a bad day or was feeling stressed.
"Sweetie, there is no gold man," whispered Phil, holding his daughter close, "There is no one here to hurt you."
"And if there was? What if it was real?"
He looked at her earnestly in her shimmering eyes. "There is nobody here to hurt you and if there was, I would be here. I wouldn't let anyone hurt you. You know this, honey."
She gripped Phil even tighter, drying her tear-stained cheeks on his nightshirt. Phil started rocking her back and forth to get her to stop shaking in fear. Every time she dreamed about the gold man, she would be shaken to her core. It seemed like a simple nightmare but there seemed to be more to it. There was something about the gold man that scared Evelyn in ways that Phil didn't understand. He kept Evelyn close until long after she stopped crying and fell back to sleep. He carried her back, tucking her into her bed with Cap at her side.
He paused over the doll for a moment. "Keep her safe, Cap."
Elementary school went by fast, all things considered. Phil couldn't believe how time slipped along. With a blink, Evelyn was a ginger-haired eight-year-old. He couldn't be more proud. She did well in school and, for the most part, there were no problems. There were a few minor slip-ups of her strength but most could be argued away by natural causes.
"Hey, honey, how was school?" asked Phil as he put his own work away. Evelyn slid her backpack off and slumped into the chair at the bar.
"It was okay. We couldn't finish the group science project because Max was out sick with chickenpox. So we can't get graded on it until he's back and feeling better."
Phil paused, "Honey, you haven't had chickenpox, have you?"
"No."
He stopped for a second, considering it, "Have many of your classmates had chicken pox?"
She shrugged, "I dunno. Some have."
The idea seemed peculiar. He did some research the next day. He hadn't thought to get Evelyn vaccinated for chickenpox, assuming she was just going to pick it up naturally from one of her schoolmates. At least then, she would have the antibodies for it.
"It's not too unusual," explained Parker while Phil helped him pack up his office. "Some people go their whole lives without ever catching chickenpox. Although, if you are going to catch it, you want to catch it young because it is a pain to deal with as an adult."
"I just ask because her teachers say the third grade is experiencing a chickenpox epidemic. I'm a bit surprised she hasn't caught it," Parker took a cardboard box from Phil and placed it on the cart.
"She may not have been exposed to the virus. She may have some really good antibodies in her," he paused for a second as his eyes sparked with an idea. "Was she breast fed?"
Phil shrugged, "I don't know what her birth mother did."
Parker adjusted his thick, black glasses on his nose. He had been wearing those Buddy Holly frames ever since he was a nerdy, but gifted, kid in the academy. "Right. Sorry. You two are so close that I forget that she was adopted. Short of knowing her early medical history, I can't really know much for certain. It could just be that you have an exceptionally healthy little girl."
"Could it be that it has something to do with her… abilities?" asked Phil. He had been taking Evelyn in to get her yearly physicals with Parker. It was easier to utilize the SHIELD resources over trying to find a physician who wouldn't freak out about her. "I was willing to accept this as a growth spurt but things have gotten weirder."
"It could have something to do with it," admitted Parker, stacking file folders into another cardboard box, "Her structural development is highly advanced for someone of her age. It stands to reason her immune system would be equally advanced. I haven't seen anything like this before or since. But I have no plausible reason for it, other than maybe the X-gene."
"Can we test for it here?"
Parker shrugged, "Sure. But it takes about a month to get a sample through the testing process. Although if I am being honest, it will probably take longer. Evelyn would be at the bottom of the list. We have a backlog of samples which need cataloguing."
"How bad of a backlog, do you think?"
Parker's smile lacked mirth. "Let me put it this way: if I worked twenty-four seven for a year with a full crew, I might be able to catch up."
Phil didn't know what he was expecting, but it wasn't that. "That bad?"
"We have to get samples from everyone incarcerated in the Fridge, our agents, FBI files, CIA files, Interpol files, national databases, and so forth. All of them have to be isolated, printed, catalogued, and digitized. We've barely made a dent in those, much less our pet projects. So if you are going to get her tested, you need to find somewhere else to do it. Or, alternatively, wait a few years and hope we've advanced the technology enough to speed up the process."
"Well, if anywhere was going to improve things, it would be wherever you are," said Phil with a smile, "I wish you luck at Oscorp."
"Thank you," smiled Parker, "It will be nice to get back into research and out of the field. For once I will be able to work without the fear of being shot at. Also I'll be working with Curtis Connors. He's doing some research on the human genome that I think has a good deal of promise for practical medical applications."
"Let me know if there is anything you need," assured Phil, "We're all here for you."
"I appreciate that," Parker replied. He picked up the last box and looked around his office with a sigh. "I'm going to miss everyone."
Phil walked into the apartment complex a few hours later, briefcase in hand and a new stack of papers to go over. There was so much paperwork associated with recruitment, he felt like he would drown in a neverending sea of triplicate. He was so lost in his thoughts that he almost didn't notice the stranger standing right inside the stairwell on the way to the apartment.
"Mr. Carlton?"
He wore a suit, which Phil looked upon with the eyes of absolute judgement. The pants were a dark pinstripe but the blazer was solid colored. His sleeves were rolled up to his elbows in a haphazard way, which seemed to be the latest trend if the window displays at the mall were to be believed. The messy knot of tie was solid blue and didn't quite match up with the aquamarine shirt underneath to the point where Phil half-suspected the man must be colorblind to miss it.
"Yes," he hesitated.
"I'm with the think tank Advanced Ideas in Motion. I'm here about your daughter."
Phil crossed his arms in front of his chest. He did not like the idea of AIM being physically in the same building as Evelyn. She was with Maria but he didn't like this creep being anywhere near her. He felt his heart flutter with nervousness in his chest.
"What about her?"
"I'm sure you have been visited before," said the dark-suited man with a smirk, "It would be astounding if AIM had gone without investigating this... truly intriguing lead."
Phil almost rolled his eyes. Either AIM had really shoddy records regarding their visits or they were attempting to play him like a violin. He strongly suspected the latter given the man's slippery used-car-salesman persona. It took everything in his power to keep staring forward and avoid glancing over to the door.
"Yes," said Phil tiredly, "We have been contacted with AIM before. I stand by what I said then. Evelyn's case is being reviewed by other scientists. The study is ongoing. I can't pull her out, especially now."
"Who, specifically, is studying the young Ms. Carlton?"
"That's not important," countered Phil.
"Actually, it might be. We have data-sharing programs with many school districts, top universities and other think tanks. We could easily collect Evelyn's data from them."
"I'm afraid that's classified," said Phil with a glint to his eye. The dark suited man looked annoyed at his stonewalling but Phil stood firm. He stared down gangsters, politicians, terrorists, and evil aliens. He sure as hell wasn't going to be intimidated by a sloppily dressed fast-talker with over-gelled hair. That man was not going to come one inch closer to his daughter.
After a potent pause, the other man finally spoke again, "Shame. I'm sorry you feel that way, Mr. Carlton. Your daughter could be the next step human evolution."
Somehow, Phil got the feeling the man was speaking less about evolution and more about the other thing. He felt his blood boil at the idea of his girl being used for potentially nefarious ends.
"If it makes you feel any better, I've turned down the United States government as well," said Phil, his words halfway disingenuous, "I'm not interested in my girl being used by anyone."
"Well, one only hopes that you change your mind, Mr. Carlton," said the man as he started making his way toward the door, turning back to throw his final words over his shoulder, "Your daughter is exactly the sort of thing humanity needs to advance."
He waited until the man was out of sight before he hurried to the apartment. His fingers fumbled, attempting to find the keys and shove the correct one into the lock. He threw the door open and shut it behind him, locking both the regular latch and the deadbolt.
"Evey?"
"Papa!" he heard the thud of her tiny feet race up the hall and his breathing returned to normal. She leapt into his arms, giggling as he pulled her into a hug. When he turned the corner, Maria was standing up and brushing off her knees. It looked like they may have been in the middle of a tea party.
"Did you see anyone odd around here this afternoon?" he asked, "Someone who shouldn't be here?"
"I did see an odd car outside, a black newer model Ford sedan. It looped around the block twice before parking."
"Who was in it?"
"Didn't get a good look," she shrugged, "But I think the driver might have been a bright blond male, on the skinny side."
Phil nodded, "Sounds like the guy. He's with AIM."
"Really?"
"They know where we live," muttered Phil, "They could-"
He didn't want to say the words in front of Evelyn because he didn't want to alarm her. But he did feel there was a real possibility that they would try to contact her directly. Beyond that, they could abduct her, track her, reveal her great secret to the world if they wanted to.
"We have to move," said Phil softly.
"What?" Evelyn looked troubled, "Why?"
Phil stammered, trying to figure out exactly what to say to Evelyn. Guilt rippled through him, this wasn't the first time they had to move. He feared it wouldn't be the last.
"We need to keep you safe."
Maria raised an eyebrow at him. Phil looked at her, over to Evelyn, and then back to Maria. His eyes pleaded for help. None arrived. Evelyn frowned, her eyebrows drawing in on each other. "You keep saying things like that, but I don't understand why!"
Phil still didn't have an answer that he felt good about. It wasn't their first move. But she had been a lot more accepting of it then. She was a child. It was an adventure for her to go and see somewhere new. She was also too young to understand what was going on. Now, she wanted answers and had enough sophistication to understand what was going on. It wasn't fair of him to hide answers from her anymore.
"So, I will have to go to a new place, away from my friends?" she frowned.
"I'm sorry, Evey," he said, hugging her close, "I really am. I wish you didn't have to but…"
He knelt down to look at her face-to-face, "There is a group of people who want you to go to one of their labs. But I don't have much information about them and I don't know what exactly they want to do with you. I don't know if they want to hurt you or not."
"But they just want to put me in a lab?" she looked confused, "But it might explain why I am…"
"Evelyn, honey," Phil held her hand, "If they put you in a lab, you won't be able to go to class with your friends or play like you want. They wouldn't even let me see you for long periods of time. Maybe someday we will find a way to figure out why you are special but… I want you to have a real childhood. I want you to be able to play and have fun."
He bit his lip to keep from spilling more. If he was to be perfectly honest, that was why he held on tightly to Evelyn eight years ago in New Mexico. She deserved to be a child and not a lab rat. Nothing had changed between now and then, in that respect at least.
"Are they gonna come and get me?" she whispered, wringing her little hands.
"I won't let them," said Phil while he wrapped his arms around her shoulders and pulled her close to his chest, "I will do everything to keep you safe. But if I am going to do that, we're going to need to hide away from them."
"We're going far away?"
"Not far, just across town."
"That's not bad."
"You can go to the same school," assured Phil, "and you won't have to change your name again."
"I guess that is a good thing," muttered Evelyn, rubbing her arm a bit and looking down, "But… do we have to?"
"Yes," said Phil softly, "Yes or else they will keep coming. We will never be free unless we get away now."
He didn't want to scare her like this. She said she was fine, but he knew better when she had the gold man dream again that night. Over the next few weeks, there was a good deal of preparation for the move. The dreams didn't abate. Every time, Phil felt guilt corkscrew a little more deeply into his chest. She awoke from hard-won sleep on the day of their special appointment.
"Where's the Cleaning Lady?"
"This way." Phil held out his hand to her in the lobby of the building he had visited years previously. The building was almost unchanged except the mural on the ceiling was updated. He wished he didn't have to come back but he needed to see if the Cleaner could erase Evey from AIM's database. The elevator doors opened to her special floor, the miles and miles of bookshelves the same as ever. "And don't call her the cleaning lady, thats rude. She's Agent Brandford."
"Mr. Carlton?" a raspy voice inquired.
Evelyn immediately hid her face behind Phil's legs at the voice. Funny, that was more or less his reaction the first time he met her. Phil chuckled, taking Evelyn by the hand and led her over to Elsa's desk. As she promised all those years ago, she had barely changed a bit. Her barn-owl face considered him with dark, unblinking eyes.
"You're on time for once," she mused going over the file on her desk, " I understand you are having difficulties with a research lab hounding you?"
"Yes. They-"
She cut him off with a clipped, "Director Fury has updated me on the situation. I have my IT Team on it now." She handed him the extended file with all the data of their current and former identities. He opened it and made sure to hide the obituaries from his daughter, who looked at the file curiously.
"What's that?" she asked, pointing at something.
"Your updated information. Your personal information stays the same, but your address has been updated along with your contact information. It should be enough to lose you in a city as large as New York. And on top of that, we laid a few false trails. If they bother to chase them down to the end, they will find it a pretty fruitless endeavor."
"And you're able to get rid of AIM's data on her just like that?" Phil asked cautiously.
"We have been very fortunate. Because of their extended networking with schools and other institutions, we are able to maneuver our way inside their system using a few weak holes and stage a little, ah, digital accident. Nothing too serious, nothing to cause lasting damage. But several of their files will be, shall we say, unusable. It's so much easier to dispose of data now than in the old days. There were a few missions where we had to resort to arson to get the job done cleanly."
"I'm going to pretend I didn't hear that last part," chuckled Phil but his professional curiosity was piqued, "How far does their network go? Who all is involved?"
"According to my little internet minions, it's quite extensive," explained Elsa, "They have a pretty wide net across schools and some businesses."
"Do you happen to have a list of those schools?"
"Of course. I'll e-mail it to you."
"How much do we know about AIM, overall?" inquired Phil.
"Not much," said Elsa, leaning on her desk with one elbow, "All we know is what you have told us and the little bit we have picked up by snooping through their system."
"What do we know about the guy who visited me?"
"What was his name?"
"He didn't leave a name, but he looked like a punk."
Bradford examined him over her steely-framed glasses, "As in a literal member of the punk subculture or as a colloquial term for a goon?"
"Sort of both."
She leaned back, crossing her arms across her chest, "I'm afraid I can't help you much. We really weren't looking for any information to that effect. And in any case, we would technically need a search warrant if ever we were going to use it."
"I'm not saying we should use it. I mean, other than being creepy they haven't done anything wrong. I'm just saying we should find it. We should know who and what we are dealing with."
"I'll see what my little IT minions find, but I make no promises," she said noncommittally, "I thought it was the spy's job to do the information gathering. I just make sure you don't get yourself killed."
"Well, we need help too," he closed up the file and tucked it into his briefcase. The last of the loose ends was tied off.
"Oh, and Coulson," she smiled at him softly under her beaky nose and pinched glasses, "I'm not one to say 'I told you so,' but I did say you would be back."
Phil wanted to smile but he couldn't quite conjure it up. His confidence was definitely knocked down a peg. In the end, she would be better off. As they drove to their new home, he decided it was well worth the blow to his pride.
The new apartment was a bit bigger than the last one. There were wide windows in the living room that let in plenty of light and made the whole room glow bright gold with late afternoon light. Right now, it was empty but soon it would fill up with furniture and other trappings of everyday life. Evelyn wandered around the large space, clutching her Captain America doll close to her chest. She fiddled with the little leather boots as she explored the corners of the new space. Finally, she managed to work her way around to her own bedroom. The walls were ivory with built-in bookshelves painted a pale blue. She hurried over to Phil and smiled up at him.
"Papa, my bed is here."
"Yes it is," smiled Phil, watching as Evelyn put Cap in his customary spot, his tiny thread smile and mismatched eyes poking out from between the pillows."I made sure you would sleep in your own bed tonight."
She hugged him close, "Thank you Papa."