Natasha sat on the couch that was in Maria's apartment. They practically lived together now a days so it wasn't all that weird that Maria wasn't even home from her long work days at SHIELD. She sipped on a warm mug of hot chocolate. She looked around and started thinking to herself on how exactly she came to love being in a cozy home. She was surrounded by a throw pillows that were god awful, an old book shelf that had way too many books on it, and a fire that Natasha had made herself. Maria never used the fireplace too much, but despite what they say about Russians, Natasha loved the warmth of a good fire.
The TV was off and Natasha was enjoying the quiet of being home. Her mind started wandering back to the first time Natasha had met the famous Maria Hill. This was probably the start of when the Black Widdow felt the desire of wanting something she didn't entirely think she could have.
It was her third mission with SHIELD. Her and Barton had gone in to put an end to a large drug dealing group on the outskirts of Europe.
It had gone badly, to say the least.
Barton had gotten hit with a stray bullet in the shoulder right at the start of the mission, and it had pretty gone down hill from there. The dealers were much more inclined to heavy weaponry than expected. But just because they had the tools, didn't mean they knew how to use it. In all, they got a lot of lucky shots just by shooting into the darkness. The darkness in which Hawkeye and Black Widdow were hiding. After Barton dived for cover, Natasha had gone to finish the mission on her own. She took down many of the men on her own, but noticed about half had been taken down by arrows. Once the gun fire had stopped, Natasha had turned to look into the dark corner of the second floor balcony where Barton was still stooped. She let out a small smile and a half hearted salute to him signaling that their job was finished when a man let out a groan. She turned to see the lone survivor grab at something under another body. She immediately knew what he was reaching for and dove for cover.
Natasha remembers the deafening bang and a blinding light. But most of all she remembers the pain.
Due to the Red Room training, she was pretty much made to handle pain in amounts that would typically crumple 10 men.
She laid on the ground drifting in and out of consciousness. She remembered barton rushing to her and yelling into the comms about an evac. Then darkness.
When she woke, she was being rushed into the evac jet on a gurney. She was in so much pain. Looking down at herself she could see the blood that covered her front. There were some shards of metal sticking out of her shoulder and leg.
Barton was yelling at the med team to help her but no one was moving. They worked to set her up on the secured operating table, but no one was operating. She was the Black Widdow, why would anyone want to save her? She remembered letting out a small laugh and immediately regretted it. She knew what was happening and she knew that her third mission on the "good side" was coming to a quick end.
"Can't say I didn't try eh Barton?" She said weakly.
"Don't worry Nat, You'll be okay, ill make them help you by any means." He said that with an evil glare towards the doctor who nervously turned his attention to the carts on his clip board.
After that Barton walked towards the doctor making sure to stand mere inches away from the man who couldn't shy away from making eye contact.
"What is going on here?" Said a female voice. She sounded demanding and seemed to catch the attention of everyone in the room.
"This man who claims that he dedicates his life to saving others is refusing to operate on Natasha. She needs help or she wont make it to base." Barton said, still inches away from the man never breaking eye contact. "Permission to engage in persuasion."
The Doctor looked even more frantically around trying to avoid Hawkeyes glare.
A moment passed without a word. Until the feminine voice spoke up again, "Doctor? Will you not do what you were hired for for our fellow agent?
"We don't have the proper tools for this certain operation." The Doctor said evenly.
"We provide you with every tool you would ever need, and this woman needs help."
"I won't save this murderer." The truth had blindsided both Barton and the woman.
"Very well then, Barton permission granted." The woman said walking towards Natasha who was now shaking, and Clint had a menacing look in his eye as he abruptly punched the Doctor in the nose with a satisfying crack. The man dropped to the ground holding his now bleeding face. "When we return to base you will find that you are no longer needed at SHIELD. Do not bother gathering your things, they will be sent to your home by this afternoon." She stopped to put on a pair of medical gloves. "And Doctor, if Agent Romanoff does not make it through this you will be place under arrest and I will make sure to personally sign off that Agent Barton is your handler throughout the entirety of your time in prison." She quickly started cutting the fabric away from Natashas bloody body and went to work. "Barton, escort him to his room and lock it under code 583. no one is to enter or leave until we are back at base."
"With pleasure Sir." Barton grabbed the man forcefully by the lab coat and walked out.
Natasha had lost a lot of blood, but she had been through worse. The woman was hovering over her starting to clean and stitch up the small cuts. Natasha was just staring. The woman was beautiful, she had dark hair that was pulled into a neat bun, and had the most blue eyes she had ever seen. She was commanding orders and the nurses seemed to be responding without complaint. So whoever she was, she held authority.
Natasha never stopped looking at this woman and the determination to help Natasha. She had never seen someone look so fixed on helping her as this woman. After about 20 minutes, the only things left to operate on were the two large pieces of metal sticking out of Natasha's shoulder and leg.
Her sight kept getting blurry but Natasha kept blinking hard to rid of the feeling of fading away. She felt numb. Shock most likely. But she wanted to stay awake to look at this beautiful determined woman hovering above her. "Hi" Natasha croaked out quietly. She wasn't sure if the woman even heard her. But the woman made eye contact for a split second which Natasha took as confirmation. "...Wha 'ser name?"
The woman gave a small smile "Please don't talk, I'm trying to operate on you. You're going to be in a lot of pain with these metal pieces, so I'll start with your thigh first ok?"
Nat looked a little confused but she nodded. She felt the pain come crashing back when the brunette started removing the shard in her leg. She was almost enjoying the effects of shock. Granted it was not a good sign of survival, but it was a small moment of relief. Still the red head only grunted when she felt a swift pull as the metal shard came loose.
A moment later the woman was back in eye view and looking concerned at the piece that was sticking a good two inches out of her shoulder. She could still feel the nurses stitching up her leg, but all she could focus on was the woman n front of her who has the most adorable "concerned" face she'd ever seen. "You're back."
"Yes, I'm checking to see if I can tell how deep this piece is. The one in your leg wasn't too big which is good." She started putting a bit of pressure on the opening of the wound. Natasha closed her eyes against the pain.
"So..." Natasha looked into those blue eyes. "Yoh gotta n-name?" she manages a little crooked smile.
"Maria" She said blandly. The looking a tad out of sorts, "I mean Hill. Director Hill."
"Murria. Thas Pretty. You're Pretty too. So it fitssyou." Natasha was rambling. She knew it too, she just didn't know how to stop herself. She gave a confused look when she noticed the woman, Maria, smiling but still concentrated on the problem at hand. "Wai- Director?"
"Mhmm." She said quietly. "Now be quiet Agent Romanoff."
"Nat." Natasha said breathing a little more ragged then she should have been. "I can still think the Director is pretty though." She smiled and Maria looked momentarily into the red heads eyes. "You are l-like my guardian angel... Never ha- one before... Thank you for tryin to save me." Natasha held her gaze.
"Trying? What do yo-" With that Natasha coughed roughly and spit up a large amount of blood. "Shit! Get me more gauze and a scalpel, we need to operate now!"
Natasha couldn't focus on much, the world was spinning and started to look like she was heading into a dark tunnel. Not good. She knew it wasn't good from the moment she got blind sided with the blast. But she didn't was Barton to feel guilty and then this woman came out of nowhere and she couldn't allow herself to let go without talking to the women.
"Issa shame, you seem like a fun person to talk to." Nat was wracked with another blood spilling cough.
"Romanoff! Stay with me here you can do this!" Maria was cutting around the shard and figuring out how to remove it without causing more damage. "Keep talking to me, you said you wanted to talk, so talk, I'm listening!" her voice was no where as calm as when she first walked into the room.
Natasha could see red. So much red. Her own blood was covering her body and now was oozing a small trickle of red out of her mouth. Maria was covered up to the elbow in blood and had a bit on her face from when Natasha coughed. "Sorry for the blood."
"Its fine, it's not the first time. Just breathe okay?" With that, there was a nasty suction noise and in a instant, the shard was out of Natasha's chest. It was slightly curved which was the cause of it hitting the lung.
Nat let out a small yelp and arched her back a little while the world went black. Her last moment was looking at the woman with wide worried eyes that was holing a bloody metal object. "Nat!"
Natasha woke in a white room. The light was dimmed and she thought for moment that she was dead. But she quickly noted the smell of cleaning chemicals and antiseptic. Her whole body hurt like hell and there was a distinct beeping noise.
She hated hospitals.
"You made it." A quiet voice said. Natasha tried to look around a little too quickly and her body immediately was in pain. "Not that I was questioning my skills, but you gave me a run for my money."
"Mria?" Nat sounded horrible.
"Yea it's me."
A small click sound quickly pulled the day dreaming spy out of her trance to find a Maria Hill walking into her apartment with a brief case in hand which she dropped as soon as she came though the door.
Natasha set her cup of hot chocolate and turned to lean on the edge of the couch.
"Hey Nat, sorry I didn't pick up dinner, I though we could go to tha- what?" Maria realized that Natasha was staring at her with a small smirk.
Natasha silently walked over to the taller brunette and wrapped her arms around her waist which Maria gladly followed up by putting her arms around the red head. "You okay?"
"Yea, just thinking about the first time we met." Natasha was wearing Maria's pajama pants and a tank top that left little to the imagination. It clearly showed the curved scar on the woman's upper left side of her chest. "It was also the first time you called me 'Nat'." she said with that signature crooked smile.
Maria bent down and kissed the scar gently. "You know I had no idea what I was doing during that operation?"