Disclaimer: I do not own the Avengers Characters only the plot!
Hydra was at it again. It took the Avengers almost a year to figure out the plan that Hydra was working on. Once they were able to figure that out they were able to find them to stop them before Hydra was able to put their plan to work. So here they were. For some reason every time there was a war and the Avengers were involved it was always New York, this time New York got a vacation, and Hydra had their base in Phoenix, Arizona. The base was just outside the city, so the Avengers tried to keep the fight as close to the base as they could. It wasn't as easy as they thought. With Thor and Banner not around to help, the five of them had a hard time with the army, Stark had said he thought there would only be about 20 or so men which seemed like a lot for them, but Stark underestimated when in reality it was well over 50.
Captain America, Black Widow and Charlie were able to keep most of the men around the base. Ironman was able to get rid of the men on top of the building and Hawkeye was able to get about half the guys running from the base. It took well over an hour to get everyone, and a good amount of the city was damaged. Ironman and Widow went into the base and made sure all their information was destroyed and made sure no Stark weapons were around. The Stark Relief Foundation had just started to show up, and after showing them where to set up the team went back to the helicarrier to go back home.
Charlie was so excited to eat everything she could get her hands on that was in the fridge. She made some sandwiches for everyone then went up and had a long hot shower. She saw all the blood and dirt wash down the drain, she was happy to be clean again. After she was lying in bed, she started thinking how far she had come over the years. Thinking of how this all started.
3 years earlier.
Waiting all summer for the letter that would change her life, thinking it just wouldn't come and that she would have to reapply next year. She got top marks in school and a 4.0 GPA. She made sure she had all the requirements to apply and over achieved everything she needed. She should have gotten in right away but was put on the waitlist. Charlie had just turned 18 and she's visiting her parents for the summer. She had all her mail temporally sent to her parent's place hoping the letter would show up. Two weeks before school would start it showed up. It didn't matter what the letter said, it would clear up which road she needed to go down. Either it said she was accepted and she would start at MIT or it would say she wasn't and she would go to her backup and follow in her parent's footsteps as a professor.
She ran to her mom's craft room and told her to come to the kitchen, she went to find her dad and tell him the same. It took a bit of coaxing from her parents to just open it. They all jumped up to hug as they read she was accepted.
"Why don't we celebrate and go out for a nice dinner and maybe stop at our favorite ice cream parlor for dessert?" Charlie and her mom got so excited. It's been a while since they had some good news and were able to celebrate. They both ran upstairs to change and get ready. Once the women were ready they all got in the car and found a nice place for dinner. After dinner they ordered a bottle of wine to go, they decided they would order ice cream and bring it all home and have it while they watched some movies.
The next thing Charlie knew she was waking up freezing. At first, she couldn't remember anything that happened. She felt like she was in a lake in the middle of winter. Her whole body ached and her eyelids felt heavy. It took a few minutes but she finally was able to open them. All she was able to see was ice, it surrounded her like she was in an igloo. Charlie moved her hand so she could press it against the ice. It started to melt as soon as her fingers touched it. Once it was all gone she looked around and the memories of the crash slowly started to come back. She had hit her head on the ice when it formed, she looked over herself, but she didn't see anything broken. She was able to see her parents in the front. They were both turned to the side with their arms in the air. They had blood covering their faces. She took off her seat belt and fell to the roof of the car. She didn't notice till then that the car was upside down. "Mom?" Nothing. "Dad?" Nothing. Her head hurt so badly that she couldn't comprehend what was going on. Her vision started to get fuzzy and she started to get dizzy and fell backwards.
The next time she woke up she was still lying on the roof of the car. She sat up and looked around. Her parents weren't in the front anymore. She saw lights flashing outside, then she heard someone yelling. The next thing she knew was someone trying to open the back door, it was a bit smashed in but after a bit of work, they finally got it open.
"Where did you come from?" It was an officer. "Young lady I asked where you came from. We searched the car you weren't in here earlier. You need to get out of the car and come with us." The officer grabbed her arm and dragged her out of the car. Her legs were a bit shaky, but she was able to stand. She looked around where she stood. There were emergency vehicles all over and people standing around watching everything. Her dad's car was upside down and you couldn't tell if it was grey, black or white. She saw two ambulances driving away with their lights off. She saw the car they hit and it looked like it had wrapped itself around a light pole.
The officer was still talking to her, but she didn't hear a word he said. "Whaa...what?" She was so confused. "What happened?" She grabbed her head, it hurt so much. She swayed a little. The officer held on to her tighter so she wouldn't fall, and called over an EMT, they took her to the ambulance to get her checked out. Once they realized she had a concussion they told the officer they were going to take her to the hospital and give her checked over and that the officer could come by later and ask questions. They loaded her up into the back and took off to the hospital.
After getting x-rays and MIRs they deemed her with just a concussion and mild bruises. She was told to stay in bed for a couple of days so they could monitor her to make sure nothing gets worse. After a couple of hours, the officer came back.
"We need to know what you were doing in the car. When did you get in the car and how? Where did you come from? More importantly, who are you?" The officer didn't come alone, He had a couple of other officers with him. None of them said who they were or who they worked for. At least by now, she was thinking cleaner.
"Maybe before you start asking any questions about me you could explain who you and your friends are and who you work for?" She was rubbing her head, the pain meds they gave her were starting to wear off, and she was waiting for the nurse to come by with her next dose. "I won't be answering any questions to anyone I don't know. My head is killing me and I'd like to get some more sleep."
"My name is Capt. Johnson. I'm with the local police force. We want to know why you were in the car. After we got Mr. and Mrs. Anderson out, the car was empty."
Charlie looked at him in confusion. Empty? "What do you mean? I was in the car the whole time, in the back. I was with my parents, we were driving to get ice cream."
Capt. Johnson started writing in his pad and looked over at his colleagues. "Ma'am it was only two people in the car. We got them out and searched the car. I looked through the car myself. It was only Mr. and Mrs. Anderson in the car. So I will ask one more time. Who are you and where did you come from?"
"My name is Charlie Anderson. As I told you, we were driving to get some ice cream. We were celebrating as I just got a letter from MIT saying I was accepted. We had just finished eating dinner, and we decided to get some dessert, as we were driving a car ran the red light and my dad couldn't stop fast enough. That's all I remember."
Another officer came in and pulled Johnson away. They talked in whispers and they both looked over to Charlie. Johnson said thank you and walked back over to the bed. "One of our officers was looking through the bushes by the accident. They found this." It was her purse it must have flown out the window in the crash. "He looked inside and saw your license with your name on it. If your story is true, we want to know when we looked through the car we didn't see you in the back. The car was empty besides your parents."
"I only know what I told you. I was with my parents all evening, we went for dinner then went to drive to get ice cream. We got in a crash and now I'm here. I don't know why you couldn't see me or what happened after the crash. I hit my head pretty badly and I don't remember anything." Just as she said that the nurse showed up and handed her the pain meds and a cup of water. She didn't hesitate to take them and started to pull up the blanket, knowing the meds wouldn't take long to kick in and put her to sleep. She told the officers this and they looked at each other and turned around and left. Saying they would be back the next day to talk to her.
The next day her head didn't hurt as much. "Good morning Miss Anderson, hope you had a good sleep." The nurse came in and walked over to the machines to check her vitals. "The doctor will be right in to talk to you, but it looks like all your vitals are good." She smiled and then left.
It wasn't long after she left the doctor came in. "Hello, I'm Dr. White. How are you feeling today?"
"Well besides all the confusion I'm feeling fine, my head doesn't seem to hurt as much. Where are my parents? How are they? They haven't come to visit me, I thought maybe I could go visit them."
"The confusion is from your concussion it wont be long before that clears up. I'm sorry to tell you, Miss Anderson, I had thought the police were in here yesterday to tell you, but your parents didn't make it after the accident. If you need anything or anyone to talk to let us know and we will have someone come visit with you. We would like to keep you here for at least another day or two to make sure your concussion doesn't worsen or any other problems occur. I'll leave you for now to process the news. The nurse will come back in a bit to give you some medicine if you think you need it. Have a good day Miss Anderson."