#Tara would never return to the past forever and leave Sam behind

[smolmakerel]

You know what? I live for the Black Widow AU that I saw floating around some time ago (I don't know if it's still a thing). It's such an interesting concept, and it got me thinking of another AU.

Captain America AU

Imagine, it's the early 20th century and WW2 is just starting, but women were allowed to fight in the army. There in NYC are the Carpenter sisters.

Tara Carpenter is a sickly little thing. She has asthma, was born early, and is always ready to pick a fight with people much bigger and stronger than her. She looks up to her sister Sam and is desperate to fight in the war with her when Sam volunteers.

Samantha Carpenter is a perfectly healthy woman. She's been working her way up the ranks of the U.S. military to become one of the people to put an end to the war. She worries that if she doesn't hurry, the opposing side might nuke the United States and Tara -

Tara might die.

But Tara wasn't afraid of death.

It took a lot of perjury, but Tara managed to enlist in the army with the help of a certain doctor (whose name I'm too lazy to look up rn). Seeing such a thin, sickly girl in the army, the other recruits and higher ups don't believe in her.

Despite their lack of faith, Tara has heart. And with her heart, she was recruited for a secret program. She was going to become a super soldier.

She signed on to be a lab rat of sorts. It hurt, the administration of the serum, but she came out...

Looking exactly the same. But on the plus side, she has better reflexes, stamina, and no asthma! Sam was going to be so proud of her when they finally met up.

Only for disaster to strike.

Sam, trying to protect Tara, ended up being thrown from a train and off the side of a mountain. Tara, devastated with the loss of her sister, was determined to end it all.

And end it she did. Only, Tara didn't expect to wake up nearly a century later in modern America. S.H.I.E.L.D. was eager to recruit her into this "Avengers Protocol", or whatever.

She also didn't expect H.Y.D.R.A. would come back with a familiar brunette on their side. Her left arm shines with metal, and her eyes became hardened over the years.

Tara knows this is Sam, her older sister who she thought she lost forever. The person she would die for.

They call her the Ghost Face now, but Tara knows Sam is still in there.

Why would the Ghost Face hesitate multiple times to kill her otherwise?

[dreamersbcll]

“Samantha” - a part two to this post.

for my @dxcinhx

——————————————————————

Tara often found herself walking the streets at night ever since Sam left.

She found that the Woodsboro streets were kinder to her once dusk hit. No pitying looks, no snide comments about the sister left behind. It was just her and the pavement, and the trees swaying above her. It was peaceful, and she would walk the streets up and down, listening to the sound of her own voice in her head.

If she listened closely around her, she could hear the fall leaves whispering to her as they fell. They asked her questions about her future, her present, and her past. They wondered if Tara knew what she was doing and if she was prepared for the rest of her life.

Her answers never changed. She had no idea what the future held or if she was prepared for it. Tara used to be a conscientious person. Ever since her big sister disappeared, she stopped holding back. She took every risk she could- from skipping class to touching boiling water. The sting of pain ached, but it didn’t hurt as much as the pain in her empty heart.

Sometimes she would talk to the trees. She asked them questions as if they were a magic eight ball. But they never answered back. It was as if her sorrow was too much for their mighty trunks to handle. But she was okay with that. She kept talking out loud, letting the window take her words with them on their journey home.

Sam left four years ago—four years since Tara had the person who balanced her equilibrium.

At the beginning of her grief, Tara didn’t think she would survive. She was sure that she wouldn’t. She had two inpatient stays for attempted suicide, a psychiatric evaluation, and an official diagnosis of PTSD under her belt. There was a period where she was forced to sleep in Mindy’s bed, as the twins were afraid that if they went to bed, they would wake up in a world without Tara.

But she survived. Tara misses the morgue by the skin of her teeth, her hands still stained red with her own blood and a forever frown etched into her face. That doesn’t mean everything was okay and that she was all put back together; it just meant that Tara could live day after day knowing that she was alone in this world. It didn’t make it okay, but it was tolerable. Her psychiatrist told her that “okay” was what they aimed for.

It was the one thing that she was acing.

She didn’t try to kill herself anymore, but she didn’t mind the pain that she chased. Boiling water felt good on her skin, and a cigarette burned her, or there kept her breathing straight.

And the midnight walks she took kept her alive as well.

Each night she wondered what Sam was doing. Does her big sister have a job? Is she partying, or is she working her life away? Is Sam still trying to grow her hair out? Does she still own those blue Converse chucks?

Tara never gets an answer. But she still asks. Especially when she gets to the park they used to visit, she likes to sit on the swings and let herself push back and forth, whispering into the wind.

Do you still remember when we played at this park? Does Sam still know that Tara visits this park? Would Sam ever join her again?

Does Sam know that if she returned, Tara would accept her with open arms and a warm heart?

There’s never an answer. But she asks anyway. She hopes that the wind will carry her words to Sam and let her sister know that she’s allowed to come home.

Even if Sam didn’t love her the same or think about her anymore, she was still wanted. It was never too late to come back to Tara’s side. Sam was still needed, and she was always allowed to go home.

Tara kept walking up and down those streets, empty heart and full mind.

——

A year later, Tara was in a hospital bed instead of the midnight Woodsboro streets.

She was aching in pain, but she still felt empty. All her friends were around her, and she still felt undeniably alone.

But then the door blew open, and it was as if the wind carried back all her unanswered conversations. Sam stepped through the door, and Tara could practically feel her heart mend back together.

Despite the pain in her leg, and the fact that she felt like a baby, Tara bawled.

All the words she had cried and wished for all came true.

Sam had came back to her.