Chapter 12 - Sidelined
Agent Hill didn't mean to fall asleep. Yet, when she awoke on the couch, tucked in with a light blanket and pillow, she realized that's exactly what had happened. After all the other crap she'd been dealing with for months from her peers, this treatment was more aggravating than touching. They must have thought very little of her possible contributions to have decided it wasn't necessary or prudent to wake her.
Natasha stepped into the office. She wore a please-don't-do-your-Hulk-impression look and held out her peace offerings of a jelly donut and a cup of hot cocoa with generous amounts of mini-marshmallows.
"Believe me, sleeping is way better than worrying."
"Hold that thought," Maria grumbled, stretching out her hands in a silent request for assistance. "I've got to pee bad."
Once on her feet, she strolled across the hall into the women's lavatory. When nature called, everything, including sugar and Thanos, had to wait.
Memory stirred while Maria emptied her bladder. Loki was gone, and the team may or may not know that.
Natasha wandered in when Maria left the stall to wash her hands.
Maria smoothed and patted her hair then took the food.
"Loki bailed—so get me up to speed."
She nearly bit the pastry in half because she was so hungry and it provided a good excuse to not go into detail about the disagreement with the Trickster God.
The redhead's eyes narrowed and mouth pursed into a slight frown.
"Loki was here. In fact, he asked me to make sure you got this," she said, drawing the golden Aries charm and chain out of her pocket.
Maria took the necklace, feeling a bit astounded and pleased to have it back. She secured it around her neck while avoiding her friend's inquisitive looks.
Black Widow further explained, "Loki told Tony the wormhole would be most effective if they activated it within the command ship. With the help of Gamora and Rocket, we cracked the signal of their cloaking shields, so we know exactly where each of the ships are located, which happens to not be that far from where Loki predicted."
"Oh." Given a few seconds, more words tumbled out. "So, can I assume no one choked, maimed or killed anyone else while I was out?"
Smiling and shaking her head, Natasha told her, "Asgard helped us throw together two dark energy devices. We covered our bases— two ships, two crews, two wormholes. With a little luck, they'll do significant damage to Thanos's ship and scatter his fleet in the process. The guys left about ninety minutes ago."
"Who is on the mission?"
"Tony, Bruce, Thor and Loki are carrying one package. Quill's crew has the other. Loki is using his magic to conceal both vessels right under Thanos's nose."
Maria nodded, a mix of good and terrible scenarios popping into her head at once.
"I bet that idea was a hard sell with the rampant trust issues."
"Actually, Groot ended that argument."
"Groot?" Maria asked around the last bite of her donut.
Natasha pulled the door open. "Yeah, he was all 'I AM GROOOOOT!'" she bellowed, mimicking the tree-like being's low, resonating voice. "Nobody could really argue with that. Though, Thor kinda tried."
The women giggled as they continued down the hall, but froze in their tracks when the facility's emergency alarm sounded. The door to the war room flew open. Steve and Clint exited and hurried toward them.
"It worked," Clint said. "Thanos's ship was ripped apart and sucked away, but Quill reports that some of the smaller ships evaded the wormholes and are heading our direction."
Steve added, "Unless they're combat trained, all personnel are being evacuated to the bunkers." He focused on Maria. "That's where Nick wants you."
Maria growled. "I'm pregnant, not incompetent, Captain."
"How about insubordinate?" he challenged.
During Maria and Steve's stare down, Barton stole and finished her cocoa. Then he pulled his bow, uttered something about the roof and ran off, tossing the cup into a garbage receptacle in passing.
"Get to a bunker and help the teams coordinate," Steve ordered Maria. He turned, saying as he jogged away, "Romanoff, make sure she gets there."
"E.T.A. on backup?!" Natasha yelled after him.
"Don't know. I'm sure everyone has their hands full."
He disappeared into a stairwell.
Natasha grabbed Maria's sleeve, giving her a tug toward the elevators. Maria cooperated, but was muttering curses, criticisms and mild threats under her breath.
The elevator arrived with a ding, already packed full with people. When Maria hesitated to board, Natasha pushed her into the limited space available.
"I will get you back for this," Maria promised. Though, she really had no idea how she planned to do that.
Natasha wasn't concerned. The spy shrugged, waved and flashed a quirky grin as the door closed between them.
The elevator had only descended a few floors when the sounds of artillery fire started. Though the action was outside the building, the noise echoed along the elevator shaft. Then a series of loud booms shook the car hard enough to cause the warning lights to come on. The group startled and huddled even closer together. After the initial cries of surprise, they fell into a tense silence.
The baby also jolted and stretched like he was searching for someone to hold onto too. Maria gasped with discomfort, which further unnerved her fellow passengers.
She massaged her stomach, whispering, "Come on, kid. Not now. Aren't you supposed to sleep most of the time?"
The sounds of battle grew louder and more intense. The booms continued to shake the car, but it didn't stall, and within a minute the elevator delivered them safely to the deepest subterranean level.
A guard met Maria at the checkpoint to issue a communicator and escort her to the operations station where the technicians tracked and coordinated defense efforts.
Within the first quarter hour, the top floors of the base lay in ruin, and they were losing planes faster than they could get them in the air. The channel buzzed with Clint, Nick, Natasha and Steve's updates.
With the arrival of Sam and Rhodey, who helped thin out the air traffic, Clint managed to get airborne with a fully-armed jet. The other three moved on foot from floor to floor with sweeper squads, engaging hostiles.
Tony and Peter's ships arrived a short time later, helping clear out the remaining threat. So, less than an hour after it began, the attack ended, leaving their headquarters in a wreck.
The elevators now out of order and the facility running on backup power, Hill stayed down in the bunker, organizing recovery teams. She wasn't at all surprised when Natasha drove in along the lower tunnel since Maria had been ignoring messages from her and the entire team for a while.
Natasha climbed out of her jeep and sauntered over. She looked a little disheveled and banged up.
"Still mad at me?"
"Yep!" Maria snapped, keeping her features tight.
"I'm sorry. Next time we'll girl power the hell out of them."
Maria chose to ignore her, scrutinizing the fuzzy scans her team was in the process of sharpening.
"Hey, we lost power to the kitchens. We should help the guys rescue the ice cream from the freezers before it melts."
Of course no one minds letting the nutritious food go to waste, she thought, as if she wouldn't be equally guilty of an ice cream raid if not so annoyed.
"I don't think so."
"Oh, come on," Natasha begged. "The gang's all up there. Thor promised to save you some rocky road."
The idea of her best friend actually having such a conversation with the ravenous God of Thunder was humorous, but Maria squelched the smile. She just wasn't in the mood to spend time with the heroes.
"No, thanks. I've got plenty to do here."
With most of the upper floors in devastation, there really wasn't a better place on base to coordinate from anyway. Plus, if she didn't do it, who would?
Natasha's excitement deflated with a slight whine. "Don't be stubborn. You know a less tolerant person will be sent down if I come back without you."
"Ma'am," one of the technicians interrupted, "we're picking up a smaller, yet similar energy signature to the cloaking fields the aliens' fleet uses."
"Where?"
"In here."
Across the room, one of Thanos's mercenaries broke out of concealment and began firing his pulse weapon at them. Natasha whirled away, dodging energized projectiles and sought out cover to draw her guns.
"Get down!" Maria screamed at the petrified techs as she rushed along the terminals to get to the weapons locker. She entered her code then pulled and loaded a Saiga 12K shotgun from the case.
A pulse blasted a monitor directly to her left as she advanced, taking aim.
Natasha also popped up from behind a storage cart and together the women returned fire.
The alien still had some sort of energy shield around himself, which caused their bullets to bounce off. Unfortunately, one of them ricocheted into Maria's prominent stomach.
She collapsed, gripping her wound and trying to curl up in a ball as her insides screamed with pain. Blood, and what she thought might be amniotic fluid, spilled past her fingers to pool on the cold concrete.
Maria didn't have sufficient cover. Natasha taunted the attacker, throwing herself into close combat with him to draw his fire.
Oh God, Maria's mind repeated over and over.
A bright glow sparked and brightened beneath her chin. Straining to see the light, Maria realized it was coming from the Aries charm. Loki had told her the talisman would help protect her and the baby. Plus, she could use it to call for him.
Maria took the glowing metal piece between her bloody fingers, speaking through a fearful sob.
"Loki, I'm hurt. The baby might be too."
Seconds dragged on after that. All sounds muted and her vision blurred as she slipped closer to unconsciousness.
She didn't know how much time passed before Natasha reappeared, urgently tapping and shaking her to keep her awake. A doctor in a white coat knelt down with them, pressing his stethoscope against Maria's abdomen. Loki arrived soon afterward, taking over the task of applying pressure to her wound. Thor was quick on his heels, gripping his hammer.
Maria told them, "The baby isn't moving."
"I can sense him," Loki said, "but he's in distress."
"She's losing blood too fast." The doctor urgently decided, "We must move her to an operating room now."
Loki scooped Maria up, holding her a bit too tight as he ran with the doctor to the bunker's infirmary where medical personnel met them with a gurney to sweep her into surgery.
"I don't have time to stabilize them both," the doctor called back to the trio, who'd been stopped in the doorway by a pair of overzealous orderlies. "As a S.H.I.E.L.D. officer, Hill has to be my priority, and an emergency c-section could kill her in this state. I'm sorry."
Maria tried to argue, but the words were a mere whisper lost in the mad hustle of the nurses and the mask they placed over her nose and mouth to administer the anesthesia. She cast a pleading gaze toward Loki who, with Thor and Natasha's assistance, pushed into the room to meet the gurney.
"I'll share my life force to give them more time to save the baby."
His hand began to glow when Loki took hers. The light reflected in his distressed eyes.
"I won't leave your side," he promised.
Then Maria succumbed to the drugs.