Maria sighed as she collapsed onto the bed in the hotel room, pain jolting through her body.
"Shit Hill," Clint said. "You got a death wish or something?" He asked and she just gave him a weak smile, eyes closed. They were both covered in dried blood and dust, their hair a mess and clothing torn.
After five months the mission was finally over and they had got what they needed and taken out who they had needed to.
"I'll grab the first aid kit," Clint said and Maria just hummed at him. She had bullet and knife wounds, with burns along her right side and back from where the grenade had gone off. Out of the two of them, Maria had come off worst. Clint sat down on the bed next to her with his legs crossed and began fixing her up. She flinched when he sterilised her wounds.
"Deal with it," Clint said with a smirk and if Maria had had the energy she would have hit him with a pillow.
Half an hour later they were both patched up. Clint dropped the needle into the bathroom sink and wrapped his stomach up. He turned the tap on, watching the bloody water swirl around. He turned to look at Maria, who laid awake on the bed while looking out of the French doors to the balcony view. Clint walked over after turning the tap off and crawled into bed next to her.
"We can go home tomorrow," Clint said and Maria just hummed, turning slightly to not lay on her burns. "You don't seem happy about it," Clint said and Maria turned her head to look at him. She pulled the covers over her but Clint pulled them back down.
"I'm trying to sleep," Maria simply said, sounding slightly annoyed.
"And I'm trying to talk to you," Clint replied and Maria groaned.
"What do you want?" Maria asked him and Clint raised an eyebrow, giving her a look. Maria took a deep breath, her ribs still aching from the beating they took.
"I regret coming on this mission," Maria said, moving slightly which only caused her to flinch in pain.
"You're the one who insisted on coming," Clint told her and Maria just rolled her eyes.
"I needed to get away for a while," Maria said and Clint lifted his arm up to rest above his head on the pillow. He turned to look at her and smiled sadly.
"Don't we all," Clint said and Maria hummed. "Can I ask why?" He said, moving slightly into the deep end of the conversation.
"It's complicated," Maria told him, not wanting to get into anything.
"Isn't everything... I'm sure it's not too complicated for my little brain," Clint said and Maria just shook her head.
"Stop that, you're not dumb," Maria said strongly. "How's things with Nat?" Maria asked, changing the subject away from her.
"Oh you know the usual, she's on mission in China so we haven't talked in a while," Clint said.
"She'll be fine," Maria stated.
"Yeah, better than us," Clint told her, commenting about their injuries and Maria nodded.
"Can I go to sleep now? Since I have talked," Maria asked and Clint smiled as she moved to get into a more comfortable position.
"Good night," Clint said.
"Night," Maria mumbled back. She closed her eyes and went to sleep with Clint by her side.
They got back to the Helicarrier and medical team checked them over, ordering them both to have at least one week off to get their bodies back to normal. Clint was happy about the time off however Maria didn't seem as pleased. She needed to keep her mind busy, stop it from wondering.
"Get some rest Maria," Clint said as the S.H.I.E.L.D car dropped her off at her apartment. He smirked at her through the open window as she flipped him off while walking up the stairs. She pressed her code in and the door buzzed open.
"Goodnight Barton," Maria said and Clint replied with a simple,
"Night Hill," and the car drove off. She got up to her apartment and unlocked the door.
Suddenly, she paused, looking around the apartment. She closed the door behind her, dropping her bag into the ground. Someone had been in.
The way the files on her desk where in a different place and how the window was slightly open made it clear someone had broken in. She glanced around the room and came to realise that nothing had been stolen. It wasn't any of S.H.I.E.L.D's enemies, they would have taken the files. But who would come in and not steal anything... Unless.
Maria moved to the box under the bed and noticed the other fingerprints on the box. Steve.
She sighed before opening the box and checking everything was still there.
It wasn't.
He had taken... His proposal? She didn't know how to feel about it. He had gone through her belongings and actually taken something of hers, something so close to her heart.
She couldn't go on now trying to lie her way out of the situation. Steve knew the truth and had evidence as well. How else was she going to explain about the box of belongs from her past life.
She angrily stuffed the box back under the bed and stood up. She ignored the fact he had invaded her privacy and started to unpack her belongings.
It took Steve one week later, coming to see her on her seconds day back. She knew it was his knock at the office door, not only did the live picture show up of him on her computer screen but she knew his knock. She knew the heaviness of his hand but still light enough to not sound rush or violent.
For a second, only a second, she debated weather or not to call him in. However she knew she had to stay professional.
"Come in," Maria called, minimising her screen and turning to the papers on her desk. Her assistant had tired to put together a brief description of what had happened throughout the week she was off on medical. Brief was not the way Maria would describe the dozens of files that laid on her desk, this was the only reason she hated breaks from work. The tone of catching up she had to do after just gave her a massive headache.
Steve walked in, closing the door behind him and walking up to the desk. He stood tall and strong like any soldier would do, the way he used to stand even when he was the little kid from Brooklyn. He still was in Maria's eyes.
"I've decided to take the job here at S.H.I.E.L.D," Steve told her and Maria kept her face cool.
"What changed your mind?" Maria asked him.
"Fury," Steve said and Maria wasn't surprised. The man wanted people like Steve on his team, so did Coulson. Superheroes to protect the world when humans couldn't. To be honesty, Maria didn't trust any of them, especially Stark. She just didn't believe a man like stark had the right mind set for a job like this. Yet Coulson had insisted on bringing him in, opening the billionaire up to this world before he found it himself.
"Well it's good to have you're on board Captain," Maria said, keeping her mind busy by looking over the files. It helped, kept her eyes away from Steve. She knew one look would melt her, she had to get her emotions under control.
"Please, call me Steve," he told her politely. Maria glanced up, locking her emotions away.
"I'd rather not, Captain," Maria said, pulling a professional barrier between them both. He didn't look hurt by the comment, Maria could see the smirk in his eyes. It made her uncomfortable to what his motives where in this visit, though she didn't show it.
"That's up to you," he said and then took a seat.
"As you can see Captain, I am very busy," Maria said, repeating his title once again, to which Steve just nodded.
"Noted," he said simply and Maria growled internally. He was doing it on purpose, getting under her skin, waiting for her to blow. However she wouldn't allow him the satisfaction.
"Charles, can you get me a cup of coffee?" Maria said through the comm and he replied with a swift "already on it".
"How was the mission?" Steve asked, starting up a pointless conversation between them.
"It was long but fine," Maria said, ending the conversation.
"I heard you both got some bad injuries," Steve said and Maria hummed in reply, flicking through the fourth file before glancing at her computer. She still had her back and right side wrapped up in bandages due to the burns still healing.
The door opened and her assistant walked in, a cup of coffee in his hand and a file in the other.
"Fury needs you to look over this. He needs a second opinion," Charles said and placed both items on the desk.
"Thank you, tell him I'll have my opinion by the end of the day," Maria said and Charles nodded before leaving the office. She glanced at the first page in the file and silently sighed, the tesseract file.
"I had a good five months," Steve began. "Coulson set me up in a remote lodge for a week and I made a new friend," Steve told her and Maria raised an eyebrow, looking up at him.
"Good to know," Maria said before shifting to start typing up an email to Fury on the computer. The day was getting busier and busier and she was getting more stressed by the second.
"She's called Ebony," Steve said and Maria nodded.
"She's sounds nice already," Maria said, waiting for him to continue with his story while not really registering it. She knew it was going somewhere, she knew it was, but she was wondering where and quite frankly, bored of him trying to get to the point.
"She's quite old, lives in the suburbs," Steve said and Maria looked up at him, clicking onto what he was saying. There's his point.
"Really? You went that low," Maria asked him, eyes narrowing as Steve nodded and crossed his arms.
"What else was I supposed to do?" Steve asked.
"Move on," Maria said harshly and Steve looked at her, a hurt expression on his face.
"She told me about what you did after the war. How you told her stories. How you ran away from any possible chance of happiness," Steve said.
"That's because having happiness in this life won't happen. I outlive all my family and friends, I watch them die. I can't have that with you, not again. Back then it was a mistake, a moment of weakness so to speak," Maria said harshly and Steve visibly flinched. He stood up suddenly, shocking Maria slightly.
"I was going to ask you something, but I know the answer now. I'm guessing I won't be needing this anymore," Steve said and pulled out the crumbled piece of paper from his back pocket. He placed it on the table and then walked briskly out of her office.
Her heart skipped a beat as she stared down at the paper.
His proposal...
Good move Rogers, good move.