A/N: So, towards the end of the chapter, there's gonna be a little bit of action! WARNING: Character injury!
Maria awoke disoriented, unsure of where she was until she realized she had fallen asleep at the tower, just as she did almost every weekend.
"Agent Hill, Mr. Stark would like me to inform you that it's time for breakfast." JARVIS said.
"Whatever happened to dinner?"
"It appears you slept through dinner last night miss. Mr. Rogers forbid anyone from waking you." The AI explained.
Maria groaned and looked at the clock on the bed side table and saw it was 6:30 AM. She groaned again and rubbed at her tired eyes until she rolled-literally-out of bed, slowly making her way upstairs.
"Does no one sleep in anymore?" She asked, walking into the kitchen.
"Woah, what's up with your hair? Did someone plant a birds nest in it?" Tony asked, flicking her unkempt hair with his finger, earning a scowl from her in the process.
"Well, at least I got to sleep in a bed, Stark!" She snapped, pointing her finger at the couch over in the lounge.
That shut him up.
Maria sat down at the table, serving her self some blue berry pancakes and bacon when she realized how hungry she really was, grabbing a seat next to Steve.
"I don't get how you girls' can all eat like pigs but be so skinny. Do you not have your woman problem yet?" Tony asked.
"It's called a period, Stark, and no, it's something called a metabolism." She answered, taking a bite of her pancakes.
"Health class helps, you know that right?" Natasha added.
Pepper cleared her throat.
"What's everyone doing today?" She asked, sitting down on the other end of the table, far away from the billionaire, obviously still angry.
"Fixing the hole in the wall with Thor and Clint." He said, making the other two who had been involved with yesterdays events nod in agreement.
"Jane and I will be in the lab doing experiments. Not sure about Maia, I think she's going to be with Natasha." Bruce explained, looking at the redhead in question.
"Yes, Maia asked me to teach her some self defense, I believe she went out for a run. She should be back shortly." Natasha said in agreement.
"Well, I will be going back home for a bit and do some work for SHIELD."
"And i'll be going there after my workout in the gym to help her pack, she's moving in." Steve added, giving a confused Maria a small smile.
"I am?"
"Yes ma'am, remember? You agreed to it yesterday."
"I was also half asleep, but, if I agreed to it, then I guess I am moving in."
The group nodded as Clint and Tony each gave Natasha thirty bucks, mumbling something about telling Fury that Natasha won the bet.
Maria sat back in her bedroom at her house a couple hours later, doing work on her lap top. Although, throughout most of the day, the woman couldn't help but feel she had been being watched since leaving the tower, her gray eyes occasionally scanning the area around her before going back to work, typing on her computer, furiously.
Maria looked up once more upon hearing what sounded like foot steps in the long hallway out side her bedroom. The twenty-five-year-old stopped typing once more and grabbed her gun before getting off the bed.
"Hello?" She called, padding into the hall way.
"Who's there?" She added, descending down the stairs in a hasty manner, heading into the kitchen.
The kitchen window was open, and Maria knew for certain that she hadn't opened the window and that it had been closed when she had arrived home.
Someone was in her house.
The front door closed with a slam, confirming her suspicions. Turning around, her gun still pointed at the door, she closed and looked the window. As she did so, her gaze settled on the beeping object that had been placed discreetly by the window, where she wouldn't have noticed it.
10...9...8...7...6...5...
Her gray eyes widened in fear and she lunged to the side, trying to get as far away from the bomb as possible as it exploded with a loud bang.
Maria landed under the kitchen table, hitting her head in the process, as debris landed all over the place, pieces of the wall and shrapnel littered the floor around her, her gun skidded across the floor, far out of her reach.
Slowly, she tried to get up, ignoring the throbbing pain in her head and the dizziness that made her vision go blurry.
Fumbling around in her pockets, she grabbed her cell phone and with trembling fingers, dialed Director Fury's number.
"Hello?" Fury's gruff voice answered, obviously annoyed about being called at 9:00 AM, but the fact that he even answered her call, made the Agent sigh in relief.
"Director Fury.." She coughed, growing dizzier by the minute, the smoke still thick from the explosion. Fury immediately sensed the woman's distress in her tone, and knew something wasn't right.
"Agent Hill, is everything alright?" He asked, his voice as calm as he could manage, when in fact he was worried for one of his best. Maria, Natasha, and Clint were like the children he never had, and it would crush him if something happened to any of them, although he would never admit it, he also cared for the other Avengers, despite how they got under his skin.
Anxiously, he waited for her reply.
"No, i'm_" She started, only for another explosion further off in the distance to cut her off, cracks began to form on the ceiling, pieces of the ceiling falling onto the table, trapping her there.
If she wasn't scared before, she was definitely scared now.
The Agent was overwhelmed and ended her call with Fury. She tried to sit up again, finally managing to get onto her hands and knees, noticing that she had fallen in some type of fluid.
With shaky breaths, she picked her hands up out of the strong smelling fluid, realizing at that exact moment what it was.
Gasoline.
A/N: Let me know what y'all think! Please review :)