between who we are and what we could be

summary: once when she asked for a promise, he smirked and only replied "we'll always have Paris.. Maria." Hill/Fury in 100 drabbles all across time, the beginning and end.

i.

Edwin Hill, although cold to his only child due to the earlier years of depression from the death of his wife Sarah, had the typical feeling of paternal protection like any father the first time he hears word about the possibility of having found that special someone.

The conversations on that exact topic are like any other with his daughter, awkward, short, but at least bluntly to the point. He'll ask the basic questions on the phone; Who is he? Does he treat you right? What's he like?

She'd answer with yes or no responses, sometimes with a few details, although obviously hesitant and flushing on the other line when it carries out to the big one- 'How far has this relationship gone? Where are you two currently at?'

Edwin Hill is man who is rarely ever wrong, or so he'd led himself to believe. He expects Maria to bring to his place some charming punk about her age, or maybe some recent Harvard graduate who's an airhead when it comes to politics but could at least spoil her, or maybe- well maybe- anyone or anything other than what he got.

He doesn't expect a war veteran, the director of S. H. I. E. L. D.,-

(This make Edwin thanks God silently to himself he decided against playing that little joke on Maria of bringing a shotgun with him when opening the door.)

-an eye patch of all curious things, and a man possibly older than himself.

Needless to say, Edwin couldn't help but have mixed emotions from the first appearance, despite the moral to not judge a book by its' cover. 'But Jesus Christ this guy's gotta be older than me by fifteen years!' he remarked in his bewildered thoughts.

Edwin was not very close to his daughter, and was well aware of this too. This was the conseuquence he paid for his selfish actions of treating her coldly after the death of her mother, and of course after all these years now regretted it all. He felt a pang of disappointment from his inner self, that despite he was her father, he really had no say in the relationship, when he hardly had one with Maria except for awkward timed once-in-a-blue-moon afternoon phone calls and Christmas/birthday cards. Who was he to stand in their way?

But how could he just stand by and let this happen? He wasn't much of a father to Maria, but he was still her father either or and should act just like it. Not just let any man, even if the director of some government thingy, just hop in his daughter's pants as easy as that. No, he wouldn't, he just couldn't. Edwin Hill was going to...

.. end up stopping. Literally stopping, and just looked looked at them.

There was an unexpected glow in Maria's face, especially her smile, and it sent chills down her father's spine at the notice how deathly similar her physical complexion this way was similar to her mother's. She and the director were holding hands tightly together, fingers intertwined, shaking very slightly from nervousness. Edwin noticed this out of the corner of his eye, since they were obviously trying to be bashful in a polite manner, and concealed their hands towards the side of his dark overcoat. He noticed the glance they exchange to one another, nervous and yet assured, confident and in love, hopeful but afraid. A million things at once.

Just as he and Sarah had once been.

'He treats her right.' Edwin mentally nodded in approval.

After gawking for probably a minute or so, but to what Edwin felt like hours, and Maria and Nick like a week long examination trial, Edwin cleared his throat and offered out of his hand.

"So, ahem, I take it you're the cradle snatcher I've heard all about?" he remarked, with an eyebrow raised up in interest.

'Age IS just a number, or so we've all been told.' Edwin remarked to himself in his thoughts jokingly.

He figured he must've wrecked up the pair with anxiousness pretty badly, because obviously both of them forgot how to take a joke. The director with fashion references to pirates had a most curious expression on his face, with his eyebrows raised up by taken surprise, dark eyes stunned, and a tad bit of color from his dark face left him at the shock of those words. Maria, to the contrary, immediately turned a furiously bright rosy red.

"Daddy!" she gasped in disbelief, and hissed angrily, embarassed all at the same time.

The pair were still a little shaken and flabbergasted as Edwin still left his hand open for the offer of a handshake, to which minutes after the remark's surprise effects had died down, Nick Fury daringly took up to.

"Edwin Hill, Maria's father as you've probably figured out." he greeted.

"Nicholas Fury; Pleasure to meet you sir." the man nodded curtly and with a smile. He seemed like he wanted to add more to hit the brownie points, maybe the cheesy ones to compliment Edwin's house or remark about how Maria was such a wonderful woman. Edwin could read it all off Nick's eyes when he pondered on it for a second.

He obviously made up his made and went against the brownosing, and Edwin smiled.

'I think I just might like you after all.' he decided- for now of course.

xxx

a/n: There will be a later drabble on the infamous 'meet the father' mission from the POVs of Maria and Nick. Because let's face it, no matter who you are, no matter what you've faced, there is no greater trial than getting on your future in-laws good side. ;)