Just A Mistake
It all started out with a mistake. Maria had been innocently walking through the base, checking up on the science division, making sure they were not doing any too crazy or out of this world. Fury often let the scientist have free rein on what they did. Their department was filled with colour and had a mixture of rooms of pure, unchecked disorganisation and rooms filled with nothing but order and cleanliness, whatever worked to bring out the best in their scientist and allowed them to stay as the top agency for intelligence and technology.
Which is exactly why you had to be careful when you were walking through. Maria had long ago created the perfect walk path through the science division to avoid any potential mishaps and shared this across the organisation and it quickly become the most common path with the least amounts of accidental experiments or miniature explosions. If you strayed from the Maria Hill Path™, you were bound to be subjected to the unwanted or rather unexpected results of the wandering science experiment.
Needless to say, Maria was not expecting to collide with several other agents and have bright light blinding her vision and a loud bang to deafen her hearing to happen shortly afterwards. She found herself lying on the floor, staring blankly at the bright lights above and willed her vision back to normal. She felt people lying around her and some limbs tangled with hers and she slowly tried to remember exactly what happened.
She could not.
Maria groaned as someone gently pulled her into an upright position before pulling her up to her feet. The red hair the took over her vision signalled to her that it was Natasha standing in front of her, looking concerned as sh placed her hand on either side of her face. It felt nice. It always felt nice when her newly established girlfriend held her in anyway. She slowly moved her hands up to rest hand Natasha's forearms as she continued to just stare at her, watching her mouth move in an attempt to communicate with her. It wasn't working. It was weird, she found, having nothing but quietness, being only able to just see what was in front of her. She could feel parts of her body that she normally wouldn't and her stomach was doing flips, over and over again, demanding her attention, alerting her to the fact that she was going to be sick soon.
Maria hated being sick. She tried to force that feeling down, closing her eyes and gripping Natasha tighter and tried to think of a way to communicate that she was going to be sick. Sluggishly she tapped her fingers out on Natasha, hoping that she got the message fast enough. Thankfully she did as a bucket was quickly placed in front of her with moments to spare as she threw up the contents of her stomach.
Of course, at that moment in time, all her sense decided to work again and everything came rushing back with the first sounds she heard were her own gasps of breaths as she attempted to recover being sick.
"Hey, hey, Maria? Maria it's okay, come on. Let's move you to the med-bay. Maria you need to work with us." Natasha gently cooed to her left. Maria only managed a small grunt in response, shaking moving her head in agreement and moved cautiously, still gripping Natasha tightly.
"There we go." Natasha murmured soothingly to her as she guided her along the corridors to private room containing a doctor, thankfully the only doctor Natasha and herself dealt with and got along decently with – Sharon Carter. Part time S.H.I.E.L.D doctor but mainly one of S.H.I.E.L.D's specialist in the field.
"Well if it isn't my favourite patients" Sharon teased as she helped Natasha gently rest Maria on one of the beds. Maria really was not paying much attention to her surroundings, she was just trying to get over this feeling of sluggishness and confusion. She gripped Sharon's hand a little tighter in greeting and hoped her long time friend would forgive her inability to talk.
"So what exactly happened?" Sharon questioned Natasha, or at least Maria hoped she was asking Natasha. She was not able to answer any questions right now.
"If I'm honest, I'm not too sure. All I'm really aware of was that Clint, Coulson and I were walking to a meeting and then we got cut off as someone went running by us as they carried a machine and crashed into Maria we went to go make sure they were alright then there was a bang and a bright light and we were all on the floor. The only two that had a hard time getting back up was Maria and May. Even now Maria not really responding to anything. I'm not sure how much she is aware of what's going on around her at the moment" Natasha explained, holding onto Maria's hand tightly.
Maria grunted and squeezed Natasha's hand, hopefully conveying that she was aware of what was going on, just groggily. It was like trying to come out of a long sleep but still feeling exhausted.
"Well if I know Maria's noises, thats generally the one she used to reply whether or not she wanted coffee in the morning when I work her up. So she must understand what's going on at the moment." Sharon said cheerfully, gently moving around Maria, check for any physical injuries or changes. "Probably will have to do some blood work to determine if that machine had any effect on you other than the nausea and tiredness, see what's causing that and then actually check what the hell that person was creating." Sharon finished off.
Natasha rolled her eyes at the initial comment "I'm glad I'm not the only one whose experience the communication skills of Maria Hill pre-coffee. From someones job which relies on a lot of communication you'd think she'd get over her tiredness in the mornings." Natasha teased, trying to lighten the mood.
It was working a little, although Maria wasn't sure how she felt about her best friend and girlfriend ganging up on her and using her habits against her.
Sharon stood back and carefully observed Maria after getting everything done, including taking blood samples. "Physically you seem fine minus the tiredness and nausea I can't really tell what might have happened to you. We will see if the blood work come back with anything then we will go from there. The blood work should only take a couple of hours, so in the mean time, you should stay here in medical, Maria, okay?" Sharon asked, looking between them.
Maria grumbled and attempted to nod in agreement, she really did not feel for moving at all. All she needed was Natasha on the bed beside her, giving her cuddles whilst she felt terrible and she would be okay. Maybe some Netflix wouldn't hurt either. They could catch up on some shows.
"We'll be fine, I'll make sure she stays her. I've got Clint retrieving our medical survival kit" Natasha joked as she eased herself onto the small bed next to Maria.
"Okay, I'll make sure that no one disturbs you. Only those with the correct passes can enter her and its the same team of nurses that normally deal with you two, so you'll be okay for all your mushy, gross relationships that makes everyone want to barf." Sharon said, leaving with a grin on her face.
Natasha rolled her eyes for both of them and quickly retort "You're just jealous Carter, everyone is, who wouldn't want to be with this beaut?"
Sharon mimic Natasha's eye roll and left without a comment, a gentle click off the door told the two that it was locked securely and only those they trusted could enter the room.
It wasn't long after till Clint appeared in their room with the medical survival bag and glanced curiously at Maria, she tried to glare at him but by the amused look at that appeared on his face, she doubt that it held it's usual effectiveness.
"Here you go, one survival bag, also Maria, your glare has no bite, super cute." He grinned teasingly at her before turning serious. "Do we know what happened? Why is Maria the only one to have such a reaction? Is it an allergy thing? Or something much worse?" He questioned quickly.
Natasha shrugged as she busied herself with setting up the computer that Clint had brought them, "We're not sure. Sharon's doing some checks on the blood work at the moment for Maria and will let us know in a couple of hours if they have found anything."
"I wonder what it will be" Clint mused, as he slung himself into one of the visitors chairs by the bed. Maria did not mind his presences, as long as he didn't pretend to puke or make comments about their relationship. She knew that Natasha and Clint were close and had a bond that Maria would not be able to match, nor did she want to. She wanted Natasha to have a close relationship with someone other than herself and hoped that Natasha would be able to talk about things that she might not be ready to tell Maria or if she needed someone to have stupid fun with. Being around the same person 24/7 was exhausting, even if you loved that person with your whole being, it could still be exhausting. It was always good to get a couple of hours away from someone, healthy for you even.
Maria knew that being around her 24/7 was not easy. She was not always willing to sit and watch movies or pull pranks on other agents. Sometimes she prioritised her work over Natasha when something needed done ASAP and when Natasha was looking for some sex, that was really hard to put off. Sometimes she managed, batting Natasha's hand away with a small smile as she hurried with the paper work, other times the paper work ended up covering the floor and Maria's back pressed firmly against the table that it previously sat on with Natasha towering over her with a smirk as she dropped the robe she was wearing, knowing exactly what effect she was having on Maria.
Either way, Maria knew that was just some of the small bad "habits" she had that could get in the way of a relationship, thankfully Natasha understood and it made everything a lot easier.
"Who knows? Hopefully nothing bad. Ohmygod, what if she can now turn into an animal?" Natasha faked gasped as she looked on in horror at Clint.
Clint sat up with a glint in his eye as he mimicked Natasha look of horror "Oh no! What if she can now turn into the most deadliest animal known to mankind... a kitten!" He finished dramatically, falling back into his chair with the back of his hand against his forehead.
Maria scowled at them and managed a few words "Shut up you two dorks."
"Well put Maria, babe." Natasha said, smiling as she softly placed a kiss against Maria's head. Clearly wanting to continue joking at Maria's sentence, but decided to just be grateful that Maria managed to say something instead of just making small noises at them.
Clint rolled his eyes but settled back into the chair as it was clear that their joking session was over as Natasha put on a show for them to pass the time with.
"I really do hope that the results are just temporary tiredness and sickness." Natasha murmured close to Maria's ear as she held on tightly to Maria. She could feel the slightly tremble in Natasha's body and Maria look at Natasha, but as usual the women wasn't giving much visual cues away that something was upsetting her.
"Me too" she whispered back and nestled back against her girlfriend, tangling their fingers together and gently squeezing them, hoping that it would provide enough comfort for the time being whilst she had very little strength in her limbs.
The hours flew by and Sharon entered the room again, looking pale but she held the door open, not saying a word as Nick Fury walked in behind her, his eyes ablaze in frustration as he gave Sharon a look that simple said "explain."
Sharon cleared her throat before talking "Good new is, you're not dying and not so good or good, I'm not really sure if you two have ever had this conversation before but um, Maria? You're pregnant."
