Author's note: I'd like to thank the people who read it and took the time to review this sorry thing.
That said, there's a sizable chunk of author's rant after the end. If anybody feels like it, go ahead.
The Jackson Ice Cream Parlor has been in activity since the 1950s, but only recently – as in the last 7 years – had it become more of a diner, under the thumb of one of the younger generation of the family. So currently it still served ice cream but mostly it looked like a diner and smelt like a diner but the name, that remained Jackson Ice Cream Parlor.
It was still so by the actions of one grandma Jackson, the late owner's widow, who, by God, would not let thatboy who'd married her granddaughter change the name of a place that still belonged her husband. After all, she was still the one who made the ice cream – butthe girl was finally getting it, thank God - and let reckoning be upon the poor boy if he ever attempts to change it. Yes, Grandma Jackson was a woman who spoke with inflections, and she mostly spoke to Faith Shabazz, Eli's grandmother.
After ordering their ice cream and sitting a little further away from the other clients, Eli was reminiscing about this. Normally thinking these minor factoids entertained him – he was actually very knowledgeable about his neighborhood's history, thanks to his grandma – but now was not a proper time for that. The girl who'd come along with him, Kate Bishop, had that look in her eyes, the one that told him he was about to be asked what was on his mind.
Again.
And she wouldn't believe him if he told her. No, right now she was looking for something earth-shaking, something that had thrown him into the depths of melancholy. So, very soon he'd hear a 'what are you thinking?' if he didn't do something about it. Truth be told, she didn't do 'the girly thing' very often, but today both of them were just a little off and it showed. Of course if she actually knew he thought of it as 'the girly thing', he'd be in deep, off or not.
A diversion was called for.
"Did I tell you about that thing in Texas with the president?"
She blinked. "Not really. The Hydra thing? With Dr. Pym?"
"That one. I wasn't actually there, but Teddy and Billy were, and they told me about it. On TV they made it seem great and easy, but in reality it was a mess. They grabbed any flyer – and I do mean any – handed them a gun telling them 'it was just like a video-game' – actual words here – and sent them off to the front. Just like that. They didn't look for the most experienced, they didn't separate reserves, just shipped the lot of them to Texas."
A long-suffering sigh.
"Billy was almost shot by a blond kid at some point. Another newbie was flying about and collided with Hulkling. The guy passed out and Teddy had to fly him down after righting himself. Can you believe this?"
"Huh. Doesn't seem like what we were taught by Cap."
The following silence was short, but Eli felt uncomfortable and looked at the counter as the attentive observer would see Kate's eyes narrowing for a split second.
"That's kind of it. Look at it this way: a bunch of beginners of all ages get thrown at a bad situation, with the potential to make it worse. But they had good intentions." He said in a intonation that led Kate to think it trough.
"No, doesn't remind me of Stamford at all…" she replied.
Eli just spreads his hands in a 'there you have it' gesture.
They were quiet for another moment, and Eli notices Kate looking over his shoulder and making a quick gesture for silence. The ice cream had arrived.
After they were alone again, Eli spoke up:
"Billy said he'd trade 15 of those newbies for me flying some kind of motorcycle and you in the back shooting. Said it'd clear the air and get a decent marksman. Also told me to tell you this."
She smiles at him. "So, he thought you'd look for me."
"Maybe not. Even if he did, not everything happens according to Billy's will. His spells have a 50-50 chance of nothing happening. And he is not pre-cog in any way. If he were, that mess with Kang could have turned out better."
"If time travel doesn't throw pre-cognition out the window." She reminded him, shaking her spoon at him.
Eli frowned. "I hate time travel." Kate mimed along.
"Everybody does. Or at least everybody says thy do. But don't be so ungrateful. We wouldn't be here if not for time travel. And I really wouldn't go for a life without the 'Young Avengers'."
He lowered his eyes to the table and smiled sadly: "Yeah, I know. No Iron Lad, no Patriot, no Hawk-Eye."
When he looked up, he was just too late. Kate already had that annoying thoughtful look in her eyes. Diversion!
"See, at first I thought this was one of your 'Iron Lad' funks, but this isn't like one of those.
"Is this about Cap?"
Too late for a diversion.
"Kate… leave it alone. What's an 'Iron Lad funk' anyway?"
"You, my friend, are stalling. It won't work. An Iron Lad funk is one of your funks where you are thinking that he was a better leader than you and he would have certainly done better. Newsflash: you're wrong. You are a good leader. You are a good friend. But you tend to funk. Cause, let's face it you're not cool enough to brood."
After she was done, she grinned.
Eli just pinched the base of his nose: "Kate…" Why couldn't she leave well enough alone?
"Ah-ah, no 'kate'ing yourself out of this one." Her grin disappeared, and a serious look replaced it. "Eli, there's something wrong. Something you aren't telling me and whatever it is, it's making us weird. Look at all of this; It's not us. Not even the Tommy stuff could get us like this. So, I say we're not leaving till we talk. That's final."
He looked at her and there was an air of finality about her indeed. And truth be told Eli was just too tired. He just breathed out a "Fine."
He saw her face crumpling. "Eli," she reached for his hand across the table. "what's wrong? Can I help?"
Eli just looked at their hands. Her hand was well manicured, but he could fell the calluses on her palm. Archer's calluses. He moved his hand and held her fingers, but didn't look up.
"I've been thinking a lot since I've come back from Stamford. Since I laid eyes on my grandfather again. It's about him, and Cap, and Iron Lad, us, Iron Man. Life, you know?"
She nodded.
"I took the plunge cause Iron Lad needed me. And because of my grandfather, also, of course. God, somebody had to show that he wasn't forgotten, just some guinea pig to come along to figure out the lethal dosage before distributing it to white people. The government did that to him. To all of them. For him. To get one blond haired, blue eyed, white guy who could wear the flag."
He stopped, looking at her long, slender, white fingers and then at her. "I wanted to hate him. For real, I did. For my grandfather. Steve Rogers was the reason my grandpa is the way he is. But I wound up taking a shot for him. Because in the end he was a great guy. He was the kind of guy who deserved that kind of loyalty. And I understood what my grandma kept trying to pound into my head – it was not his fault.
"He was the reason, yes, but he was not responsible. The scientists were responsible. The doctors. The Military who ran them. The Government who financed it. All for him. But he despised it. Yes, it's like that kind of guilt for the death of millions of natives, it wasn't personally your fault, but you kinda feel bad. You know?"
She nodded her head.
"See, and just like that, he wouldn't give back what he gained through my grandfather's sacrifice, but in his case, you could actually look into his eyes and tell it was real, the feeling was real. And I don't think it was disrespectful to my grandpa when I just let go. Let go of being angry at Cap. Cause, see, if grandpa had been trough all of that for naught, wouldn't it be worse?"
Kate nodded again. And squeezed his hand.
Eli let go of her hand and held his head, lost in thought, mapping out someway for this to make sense to Kate.
She taped the table. That got his attention. She looked over his shoulder and he heard a woman walking towards them. Kate was not on the defensive. The restroom was behind them.
"Kind of public for this conversation, huh?" He asked smiling, as she passed along.
"Yeah, well," she shrugged, also smiling but somewhat more vicious "we could have done this at your place, but nooooo. And I said we would not get up till we were done. And I can tell were not done. Wanna make a liar out of me?"
"You do that all by yourself, Kate." But the truth was he actually wanted to unwind. It actually felt good to talk to Kate about this stuff. Ah, well, bite the bullet and go. "But just wait a minute for her to go back to her table."
They dug into their ice cream till the girl passed back. Kate looked at him with a gleam in her eyes he couldn't read. Seemed happy, but that wasn't it. But the raised eyebrows, those were easy to read.
"So then Cap decides that wasn't the way to fight it. Punching it out won't fix the philosophical problem. He quits the war for the will of the people. I respect that. But I fell like… like I just quit. I register. I go to boot camp. I know I'm better than some of the guys they're 'graduating'. I'm not going to be modest about it. It's the truth. I think they'll keep us in while we're minor. Public repercussions, I think.
"And what about my grandfather? I work for the people who made him who he is. Not the persons per se – I think – but the people who are just like they were. I'll be run by a government agency – or UN agency, can't recall but I don't actually care, cause it's not important…"
He puts his spoon down and looks at Kate in a quiet desperation.
"What amI doing with my life?"
She looks at him then at the spoon that she'd been holding, forgotten in her hand since Eli began again. What was she supposed to say? She was in over her head.
"What would Iron Lad don in your place, huh?" She smiled wryly as she saw the sentence carried a little sting with it.
He looked at her, unoffended, shrugging his shoulders. "Don't know."
"Well," she responded, "I think that's a big question. Bigger than both of us, really. I say we call up the others and set up a lunch tomorrow, somewhere private for us to discuss this." She stops and as he looks at her, she seems just a little shy to Eli. Could be wrong. "Cause I've been asking myself the same thing."
They smile at each other and then turn back to eating their ice cream. Eli knew it wasn't an answer, but it was a way to one. And seemed to him that that was enough.
"Sorry I couldn't be more helpful." She says looking at the remainder of her ice cream and missing the surprised expression on Eli's face.
She needs to hear it. He can tell that much, and does so. "Are you kidding? I feel better already, just talking this out. Like you said, I don't need to know this now. Tomorrow we can all discuss this and figure out what our next step will be." He smiled at her again, felling better at doing it. He didn't need to force this one.
"Ok, then, boss-man let's set this up. I call Cassie and The Vision, you call Billy and Teddy. Do you know how to get to Tommy? I don't."
"No, no idea. Sarge had barely finished saying we were on leave, he bolted. Damn it!"
"That's ok, just give the job to Billy, let his magic figure it out. I'll see if The Vision has any way to reach him."
He looked at her "Vision's got a cell phone?"
"Yeah. Well, I mean, no, not really. He's got a cell phone number – secured – which he accesses as sound only. You know, internally."
"Vision's got a cell phone number, huh? I didn't know that."
"Well did you ever walk up to him and just asked him for it?"
Eli pictured that in his head. "No, not really."
"See, oh fearless leader, that's one of the reasons why you need me, I got you all on speed dial. All. - well, except Tommy."
He frowned, but it was fake and he knew she could tell. "Yeah, lucky me." Then he smiled again "And now that you said it like that, I just realized how much love and courage you need to be in a gay couple named Billy and Teddy."
As he looks at her smile seems to bloom, and she makes wide gestures of impatience. "I know! I've been sitting on a killer comeback for almost 7 months, just waiting for one of them to blurt out 'dude' or 'excellent'! They're driving me crazy!"
Eli grinned not sure if it was just the idea, or Kate's enthusiasm. Without realizing the awkwardness was gone.
It did not return that day.
The End.
Author's Rant: Kate is my favorite character. She is driven, facetious, and Mr. Heinberg wrote in a way that there was no way I couldn't like her. And then Mr. Brubaker did the great 'Winter Kills', with her and Elijah, arguing about her foot in mouth disorder. Great stuff. And so imagine my surprise when I looked over and cursory glance couldn't find her name [just to be clear, this was not the rant. You will know it when you see it.
So I decided to write something about it. I looked over "battle field report". It said that YA were at Stamford. There was only one entry on an entirely baseline human. It an Israeli Mossad or assassin or somesuch, and said that the SHRA didn't apply [my hate for the thing knows no bounds. For instance: the Punisher was under exotic weapon user :-/. So Kate had no legal grounds to be taken to Stamford. Even if somebody could just up and decide to go, she is a minor, it isn't her choice.
So she stays. How does that make her feel? And Eli, my 2nd favorite YA, with his grandparents? So, I got an outline, 2 parts, 1st Kate, 2nd Eli [tough that kinda fell apart by the end, maybe a hook from Tommy's last scene in YA v1 #12 – I started outlining that.
Then Fallen Son comes along.
But you said… Stamford… What!? It makes more sense to me – as can be seen above – But Fallen Son is horrible, YA/WWH is cancelled [Not sure if it's a good or a bad thing and there's some reference that The Vision is registered and working for SHIELD [in wiki about Mighty v1 #01 – didn't look it up.
Then Real Life interferes, kick in the teeth. And I quit my short career as fanfic writer.
But I decided to come back and end this. And here it is. So now my career is not short. It's merely irregular.
Thanks for your patience.