"Well done." May complimented her after her fifth throw in a row.

That was her standard. Five clean and accurate executions in a row. Otherwise she had to start over. The first week had been hell. The second had been… less hell. And now, well into her fourth week of training with Agent Melinda May she actually felt like she was getting better. And May seemed to think so too if her small smiles were anything to go by.

"Now clean up the mats and the rifles and we're done for today."

Maria risked a glance at the clock. A whole hour early. Even if she cleaned and disassembled the rifles they had used for shooting practice earlier – May insisted that she do it herself instead of letting the armoury personnel handle it – there would still be time until she had to meet with Coulson.

"Don't get used to it, I have a meeting to attend to." May said with a knowing smile before gathering her towel and water bottle and leaving her alone in the empty gym.

A meeting so close to the end of her training just had to be about their first mission together. Not that May would tell her. Or maybe she would if Maria ever dared to ask. Maria just bent down to pull up the first mat when she heard the door open behind her.

"What? Am I late?"

"Marshall? What the hell are you doing here?" She let go of the mat again.

"I got off early and thought I could stop by. Maybe watch how you get your butt kicked." He strolled further into the gym and tried to pat her ass as he passed her. Maria quickly grabbed his wrist before he could make contact, side-stepped him and pulled his wrist up behind his back forcing him to his knees. It hadn't even taken her 3 seconds.

"Don't ever do that. You're just making an ass out of yourself."

Marshall craned his neck to look at her. "That was totally hot." Maria rolled her eyes. "Can you do that again?"

She let go of his wrist and let him get to his feet. "I need to put the mats away. But you could try helping me instead of being such an obnoxious douche bag."

"Come on." He groaned. "I know May is in a meeting right now. Coulson too. So you have the time to show me some of your new moves. Maybe you could teach me something so I can finally beat Don in hand-to-hand."

Maria had to smile. She did have time. And by now she could easily take Marshall. Plus getting his ego trimmed would definitely do him some good. Him and everyone else around him.

"Okay." She agreed before suddenly grabbing and twisting his right wrist down, bending down and kicking his feet out from beneath him. He hit the mat hard and by the sound of his breath, he had the wind knocked out of him.

"Holy-" He had to cough while fighting for air. Maria nudged his ribs with her toes so he would at least roll around onto his back. "That was hot, too." He said breathlessly. "But what about some warning, Hill?"

No matter how many times Maria brought him to his knees or dropped him onto his back, Marshall asked for more. By now even their friend Jane had joined them and Maria gladly showed her a few tricks. Much to Marshall's dismay. His and his back's.

When he refused to get up claiming that Jane had broken his spine, Maria and Jane joined him on the mat. It was fun. And a small reminder of how things used to be. Rationally she knew that they couldn't stay together forever. That it had been only a matter of time before one of them would have been transferred somewhere else. But it saddened her none the less that she was the one to leave first and break up their close-knit group.

That is until her eyes met the clock and she realised she was supposed to meet Coulson in fifteen minutes. Time really did fly when you were having a good time. Marshall and Jane promised to clean up the mats and convinced her to clean the rifles after her session with Coulson. Looking at the clock again she had no choice but to agree. It's not as if May would ever find out.

::

"What do you think?" Coulson looked at her expectantly over the table.

She had no idea. Not even an inkling. They were talking about a mission she was supposed to know because Coulson had given her the very extensive file on it days ago to prepare. But all she could think about right now was May and her meeting and what kind of mission they were supposed to go on.

"Were you at the meeting with Agent May earlier?" She asked instead.

Coulson raised his eyebrows, his expression clear. "If Agent May attended a meeting you were not invited to-"

"It's classified, I know." Maria sighed. "But-"

He just shook his head wordlessly and tapped down on the file in front of her. Right. Back to that mission. That old and theoretical and past mission.

"Who came up with the codename 'Ajax'? It sounds ridiculous." Maria grumbled.

"I did." Coulson said without any infliction.

Oh.

"What do you think about the op?" He clarified, his ever present patience clearly running thin tonight.

"Well, it looks good."

"It looks perfect even." Coming from anyone else, Maria would have thought him to be arrogant. But she had to agree with him. The plan was flawless.

She took another look at the papers strewn out in front of her. She might have gotten better at a few of these things over the last weeks, but she still felt like she was lacking something. "The two men team was the perfect choice. According to their records, they had all the experience and in-depth knowledge needed to succeed. The pre-mission work surpasses every requirement. I mean there are not three but five exit strategies."

Coulson nodded and then handed her a paper. "Here's the post-mission report."

He gave her a few minutes to read over the single sheet of paper. And when she was done, she read it again. And again.

"Sir, this can't be true." Maria finally said, looking up at him.

"It is." Coulson said with a weary voice.

"But it says here that the target was lost upon arrival and one of the agents died. The other one barely made it out alive."

"Yes."

"But why?" She asked disbelievingly. "Everything looked perfect."

"That's what I want to know from you. Why did it fail?" Coulson asked.

Maria had no idea. And she didn't feel like thinking about it either.

"Think about it. We'll talk about it later."

"Sir?" Maria asked questioningly. Their session usually went on for another hour.

Coulson smirked and inclined his head towards the doorway, where May was waiting in her workout gear. "Agent May thinks I need a refresher in my hand-to-hand skills."

Maria had to smile at his obvious reluctance. He knew what he was in for, he had watched the two of them often enough the last weeks. Hell, her own shoulder still ached from a very memorable flight to the floor two days ago.

"Good luck, sir." Maria said with an encouraging smile.

Coulson just sighed and headed after May. Maria waited fifteen minutes and followed them. This was too good of an opportunity to miss. And apparently she wasn't the only one who thought so.

When she reached the gym, her two instructors had already gathered a small crowd of spectators. She joined the howling and cheering agents at the sidelines.

May and Coulson were circling each other carefully, each waiting for the other to make the first move. May was smiling coyly while Coulson already gritted his teeth. It was obvious Coulson was not going to make the first move. When May finally struck, Maria could see that she was taking it easy on Coulson. Not for long though, as Coulson turned out to be a better opponent than most had expected. He got more blows in than Maria'd ever had the chance to before he too went down.

He beamed up at May as he took her offered hand and let her help him up. Both of them shifted their stance to absorb the others blow and a small smile widened on May's face. Coulson smirked.

And then the fight really started. There was no awkwardness, no more feeling each other out. It was as if they had never done anything else in life and Maria would even go so far as to say it looked beautiful. Like a dance. They both anticipated the other's move perfectly, blocking, turning and dropping into a grouch at just the right moment to avoid each other's fists or feet. To no one's surprise Coulson spent the most time on the ground, but he managed to pin May down a few times as well.

The last time she took him down, he landed hard on his knee. He flopped onto his back and tried to catch his breath. "Ouch."

May squatted down next to him and leaned over his knee, trying to assess if any real damage had been done. Coulson used that moment to make his move. He rolled over, grabbed her ankles and incapacitated her nearest hand by grabbing her wrist as he pinned her under him. His hands held on to her wrists as his shins pressed into her thighs. He smiled down at her in triumph as their gazes held for a few moments, silent except for their heavy breathing.

"Get a room!" Someone laughingly called somewhere to Maria's left.

Maria could see May's body go tense as she used that moment of distraction to her advantage. She elbowed Coulson in the side of his throat and used his flagging grip to free her hands. Maria's eyes could barely follow her movements as she turned her body to get one of her shoulders out from underneath Coulson. She used moves she definitely had to teach her because after what felt like a second, May had him pinned face-down, painfully pulling his arm behind his back while she sat on his back. She moved off him after a few moments and Coulson turned onto his back, rubbing his shoulder.

The fight was clearly over and the crowd around her dissipated. Maria glanced at the clock and with a last look at the pair sitting on the mats and talking silently, she made her way one floor up towards the armoury.

::

Only that the rifles they had used earlier today were not were they were supposed to be. Namely lying on the far table to the right where May and herself had left them only a few hours ago.

"Lookin' for something?"

Maria turned to see the armoury officer looking at her skeptically from behind his book.

"Actually yes. Agent May and I left some rifles here this afternoon."

He grunted an affirmative response and went back to his novel.

Maria walked over to him and tipped his book with a finger to the spine. "Do you know what happened to them?" She asked with a sweet and utterly fake smile.

His gaze as well as his mood darkened. "Agent May cleaned them and put them away."

Maria just huffed and left without a goodbye.

Fuck.

::

She found May coming out of the changing room by the gym. Her dark hair was still wet from her shower, her duffel was thrown over her shoulder.

"Agent May."

"Hill." Her voice was impassive as always.

"I saw that you cleaned the rifles before I had the chance to."

"Yes."

Maria straightened her spine. May was not going to make this easy for her, not that that came as a surprise. "I didn't forget them and I would have cleaned them."

May cocks her head. "I asked you to do so five hours ago."

"I know but-"

May interrupted her. "It's done."

Maria swallowed and tried to blink away the burning at the back of her eyes. She tried to tell herself that it was just some rifles and they were hardly reason enough for her to feel like she had failed. It didn't help. And it didn't help that May seemed to be so blasé about it. Maria half wished she would yell at her instead of this disappointed treatment.

"I'm sorry."

The older woman nodded. "You should go and pack your bag. Get some sleep. We will leave tomorrow at 0700 hours."

"Leave?"

"We're going on our first mission."

Sorry for the wait and this disjointed chapter. But now that we have it out of the way, the real action can start.