„Get down."
Maria gritted her teeth as May yanked her arm and pressed her down into the mud of an unnamed South American forest. Bullets hit the trees above their heads as May covered Maria's body with her own and pressed her even further down. God, that hurt.
She took in a sharp breath as May's weight lifted from her shoulders.
"Let's move."
She pressed a hand to her side and let herself be hauled up. Ever since the adrenaline had worn off May had to carry more and more of her weight. Gunshot wounds hurt like hell. She stumbled and as her leg gave out beneath her she felt a bullet barely graze her jacket over her right shoulder. Talk about luck. May didn't give her a chance to rest and just pulled her along with an iron grip on her left arm. Maria had lost all orientation and just followed as best as she could through the thick underbrush. Tree branches had left scrapes on May's cheeks and she was sure her own face didn't look any better.
When May suddenly dragged her to the left she couldn't help but cry out from the pain as her stomach muscles tensed. Cold sweat broke out on her back even though the hot and humid air threatened to suffocate them. Her team mate forced her down a narrow slope and pulled her back into a recess in the bedrock and Maria sunk down to the ground gracelessly.
"Let me see it again." May instructed tensely, crouching down in front of her.
Maria just let her hand fall away. She didn't have the strength to mover her arms and lift her shirt. May not so gently peeled Maria's blood soaked shirt from her skin and checked the wound. She didn't say anything but took in a sharp breath through her nose. Her eyes flicked up to Maria's face, not quite meeting her eyes, before she pulled the shirt down again.
"What's it look like?" Maria asked between shallow breaths.
May raised one single eyebrow. "Let's try the radio again."
Maria just shook her head. "We tried that already, it's broken and there's only static."
"We try again." May said resolutely. She swiped her hands against her trouser legs to get rid of the blood before she pulled the radio from her backpack. "Unless you want to walk the next ten miles until we find our extraction point."
The younger agent just leant her head back against the ivy and moss covered stone behind her. May took her hand and laid it back against her wound, signaling her to press down. The blood flowed more slowly now, which Maria thought had to be a good sign.
Right?
They were met with noise as soon as May turned on the radio.
"Coulson, this is May, do you copy?" Her voice betrayed nothing.
Static again. May tweaked a few dials and the static's pitch changed slightly. "Coulson, do you copy?"
"May?"
Maria's eyes shot open and she met May's gaze as she heard Coulson's faint voice trough the noise.
"Coulson, we were surprised by Juarez and his people." May said slowly and held Maria's gaze. Her eyes flicked down towards her stomach. "I need you to run interference before they start bombing this whole area."
Maria closed her eyes. The villagers. They had to be their priority right now. Juarez was planning a bomb strike and if his men couldn't get any further, that would be next.
"….strike… We're try-….where…" Coulson's voice was caught up in static.
"Dammit." May shook her head before pressing 'talk' on the radio again. "Coulson, we can't read you. Hill's been shot. We're 3.5 miles southwest of the village. We'll make our own way out. Do you copy?"
"…. interfer-….. making our-….. -son out."
May put the radio back into her backpack. "It was worth a shot, maybe he got the message." She peered around the corner of their little hide out and when she seemed to be satisfied, she turned to Maria. "Alright. Let's go."
"May." Maria began to shiver and shook her head.
"Shut up." May said and just pulled her up by her arms. "We're leaving."
Once they stood May just took a second to reorientate herself before she steered her further down the slope.
"The river has to be that way, from there we'll make our way further towards the border."
Maria's legs barely carried her as she followed May through the wilderness. She barely noticed the mosquitoes which had bothered her only hours earlier and although the branches kept brushing her cheeks she didn't care. May never let go of her arm, pulling her along for what felt like hours but couldn't have been more than thirty minutes. They had to slow down a few times and stop at a small stream so Maria could drink something. She was sure if Coulson had been there he would have berated her about the health hazards from doing so.
She splashed a handful of water into her face before painfully standing up again.
"May."
"The river isn't far from here." May said, her eyes restlessly checking their surroundings.
"May." Maria gripped her shoulder until the older agent finally met her eyes. "Juarez' men will be at the river. They would be stupid not to guard the area." It's probably why their chasers had given up. They were either going to be stopped by their comrades at the river or they would get lost in the endless woods.
"We'll think of something once we get there." May replied calmly, not expecting an argument.
::
Later Maria didn't know how, but they reached the river bank. She was sure it was out of sheer stubbornness on May's part. They sought cover behind a formation of rocks and May inspected the armed guards on both sides while Maria carefully lifted her hand off her stomach. It was covered with blood in all shades of red, from dried brown to bright red. The shivering had stopped but she felt exhausted and weak. Her head was pounding. She risked a glance at May who looked as if she might carefully craft a plan to get them to the other side.
The river was neither wide nor deep. They could probably walk through the shallow water if it wasn't for the hundred feet of open space before they'd be able to seek cover on the other side.
"Stay here and stay down." May ordered.
Her eyes slid shut as she nodded. If it was up to her she would never move from this comfortable rock again.
"Hey." May lightly patted her cheek until she forced her eyes open again. "And stay awake."
Maria grunted in response and waited just long enough for May to leave the way they came – back into the thick forest – before she let her eyes slip closed. She was so damn tired. Her hand pressing against her gunshot wound didn't seem to make a difference.
For eight months now things had been going well. But as Maria listened hard and tried to hear anything besides the damn birds and the flowing water of the river she supposed it had to go wrong at one point. Rebels were supposedly trying to stage a coup to take over some Godforsaken strip of land right in the back of beyond. Which nobody would ever care about if it wasn't for a shitload of natural resources. And a KBG defector who had been hidden in a small village in the middle of nowhere by S.H.I.E.L.D. ages ago. So now their mission to extract said Russian had gone to hell because of some trigger happy wannabe Pancho Villa and his friends.
She couldn't believe she had gotten shot.
"Maria."
Her eyes flew open as May suddenly appeared out of nowhere next to her with a P-90 she didn't carry before. Was that a relieved sigh she heard?
"Time to go." May said urgently instead of anything else.
Maria licked her dry lips and took a deep breath. May grabbed her under her shoulder and bore most of her weight as she pulled her up. By the time she was upright Maria was panting, trying to breath through the pain.
"Can you do this?" May asked with a critical look.
She bit back words of defeat. "Do I have a choice?"
May's voice was hard and unyielding. "No."
Maria was stuck looking out over the river. At their current location the trees almost reached the water but there was a clearing on the other side. There would be nowhere to hide.
"I took care of the men on our side. We'll have to be quick and to reach cover on the other side, but this is the best place to cross over." With a gunshot wound.
Maria hated this. She tried to pretend not to see May's evaluating gaze upon her and stood up straighter, resting less of her weight on her partner. May just grabbed the P-90 and retrieved a small gun she had tucked into her waistband and held it out for Maria to take.
With a last nod at her May led the way towards the water and left the cover of the trees and bushes around them behind. Maria followed swiftly. Her gun raised with the hand not pressing down on her wound. Every muscle in her stomach screamed out in pain but she kept walking, ignoring the loud rushing sound in her ears.
They came under fire just as they had reached the middle of the river where the water only came up to their knees. Bullets hit the water in front of them and May immediately ducked and pulled her down with a sharp grip on Maria's shirt. They returned fire as well as they could but they were stuck in the middle of the stream. They couldn't go further. They couldn't go back.
They roaring in her ears became louder by the second and it took a shadow looming above them for Maria to realise that it hadn't been the blood on her ears. It was a helicopter. Hovering fifteen feet above their heads and returning fire at Juarez' men with heavy artillery. Once the shooting ceased the helicopter flew further over the river and landed on the clearing. Men in tactical gear leapt out of it before it had even touched the ground. Most of them immediately spread out into the woods while three of them made their way over to them, their guns at the ready.
It took Maria a second longer than May to spot Coulson trailing along behind them. He had traded his suit jacket for a bullet proof vest, apparently the only concession he had been willing to make regarding this situation.
May helped her up. They should have known and yet, Maria hadn't expected it.
The tac team reached them just as they hit the river bank and two of them immediately tended to her. As one of them slung her arm around his shoulder Maria glanced over at May and Coulson. He stopped a few feet in front of them and shot Maria a worried glance before he faced May. She watched as their eyes met and something akin to appreciation showed on May's face.
"What part of my message did you get?" May asked as if it was perfectly normal for Coulson to commandeer a helicopter and rescue them. "We've been having trouble with the radio."
"Yeah, I noticed. We couldn't reach you. I got the part where you said you needed me."
Anyone who had spent less time with May would have missed it. The way her face changed imperceptibly. But Maria didn't. "And you came here just on that?"
Coulson shrugged with a small innocent smile. "What else was there supposed to be?"
::
She woke to soft voices and a dry feeling her throat. And she felt warm. Not as stifling hot as she had felt in that jungle but warm pleasantly warm. Like a cocoon. Her stomach felt conveniently numb.
"How did you know where to find us?" That was May, sitting somewhere to her left.
"You said something about southeast." Coulson. Calm and in a low voice. "So I searched southeast of your last known location and the infrared camera did the rest."
"What happened to our package?"
A sigh from him. "Didn't make it. He was shot point blank."
"By Juarez' men?" May's confusion was clearly audible.
"Didn't look like it." Coulson said tightly. "He was shot with a JHP round, the same caliber as the asset we lost in Mexico City last month."
"What are you thinking?" May asked gently.
Coulson sighed again. "I'm thinking Black Widow."
May just hummed in agreement. "Possible. We'll have to look out for her."
Maria chose that moment to join in on their conversation. "Not without me I hope." The words grated against her throat.
Coulson looked at her surprised while May just sent her a wide smile. She had probably known all along that she had been awake for a few minutes now.
"Hey." Coulson greeted her and immediately handed her a glass of water. She drank in small sips that hurt, but the cool liquid felt heavenly in her dry mouth. It took a lot of effort but she managed to turn and put the glass down on the bedside table.
Maria carefully pulled down the covers and lifted her hospital gown to peer at her stomach. Coulson excused himself, staring pointedly at his shoes and left to fetch a nurse as he said. Maria shook her head and looked down at her exposed midriff. There was nothing to see but white gauze. "He knows that there is a call button, right?"
May just rolled her eyes and smiled fondly. "Probably."
"So, what's the verdict?"
By the look on May's face she knew that she wouldn't like it. "A few weeks of rest and physical therapy and you'll be good as new."
"How long?"
May shrugged. "You know how vague doctors can be."
Maria narrowed her eyes at her. "May. How long?"
"At least four weeks of rest. And then PT for a few more."
She closed her eyes and forced herself to take deep breaths. "Great." She muttered. "What am I supposed to do with four weeks of rest?"
Her eyes flew open as something heavy landed in her lap. "Same thing I did in your situation." May said with a smirk.
Maria looked down at the book.
Flight Instruction Handbook, Vol. I.