Monday. Everyone's least favourite day of the week. For Maria? Not this time. She was in far too good a mood for it to be ruined by another day of work. She didn't let it show on the outside. She couldn't. An Assistant Director of the top secret military organisation in the world had to stay uniform.
As she paced down the corridor to her office, she kept the straight, unreadable expression stuck to her face. Her body language was tight and angular, like always. She radiated authority and felt slightly hostile to the other Agents, but that's what she wanted. Maria had enough paperwork left over from Friday to deal with being handed another load.
Briskly opening the door to the office, the Brunette stepped inside, letting the door shut quietly behind her. She exhaled gently as her precious lips softly curving into a natural smile. Her last weekend had been filled with an extreme amount of positive emotions. She couldn't have hoped for anything better.
Now Maria had to chore through another 3 days of work before her and Natasha's next date. Wednesday night they were going over to Maria's for dinner, it was only fair she returned the favour after Nat had so kindly cooked before.
Sitting down in her large office chair, she slowly picked up her Shield-branded ballpoint pen. Tapping it rhythmically against the surface of the desk, Agent Hill plucked up the first of many pieces of white office paper; each with printed facts and other information ladened across it. Her spare hand slowly skimmed across the sleek wooden top of the desk as she read the pages beneath her. It was incredibly smooth. She traced small and intricate patterns onto the wood, just as she had done so across Natasha's body over the course of the weekend. It was her subconscious shining through, showing what she really wanted to be doing right now.
After a few hours passed and several pens were replaced, Maria couldn't focus any more. Gently, she pushed up and out of the chair, before quickly making her way to her door. She found herself heading towards Tasha's office, a smile fighting its way onto the American's face.
Maria was only slightly surprised to find it empty. She knew how much Tasha hated being in that one room- cooped up like an animal in a cage. Walking around to the desk she noticed it was rather cold and the blinds were still pulled. It didn't seem like anyone had been here in a couple of days.
Where the hell was she? Nat hadn't said anything at all to Maria about not being in that day. The brunette headed back out, making her way towards Gillen's office. Knocking on the door, before swiftly stepping inside she looked passed the cluttered desk at the figure behind it.
"Romanoff, Natasha. Has she been deployed today?" Maria asked sternly, a little frown creasing onto her brow.
Gillen shifted his body away from the computer and scanned his grey orbs over the woman that stood in his office. "Yes, she went out early this morning. You need her for something?"
"I have some paperwork for her, I need it out the way but first her name is required on it." Shield Agents were used to lying. So used to it in fact, that it was rare for one to trust another. Hill kept her official stance, banishing any expression from her face to help add to the validity of the untruth.
"Well she's scheduled back in a few days." Gillen was sceptical about Maria's true intentions, but then again when was he not sceptical about anything?
'If she's not back for our date, I'll kill her' was all that ran through the brunette's mind. "Details of the mission?"
"It's clearance level 8." He replied simply, returning to his computer. A tone of slight annoyance had rung through his words. He had been through a bad weekend and work wasn't helping, especially when people were pestering him about information they could have easily looked up in the shared database by themselves.
Maria's eyebrow raised as Gillen had said this. "I am clearance level 8."
Looking back up with his tired hues, a sigh emitted from his nose. "Of course, how could I forget?" He pulled a file out of his middle draw and dropped it onto the desk. Flipping it open with one swift movement, he spun it around with his fingertips so that it was sat perfectly for Maria to read it. "Covert Ops, nothing fancy or personal. It'll be a quick in out apart from the travel time. I'm not sure why you're so interested."
Scanning over the front page of the file quickly, the woman internally cursed. She wasn't going to get to see Tasha until their date and that was going to make the wait even longer. Maria thanked Gillen before quickly leaving, returning to her office in a bit of a huff.
She sat down, staring into the vast space in front of her. Hill couldn't get Nat out of her brain, and that was likely to be the case for a while. For a split second, a look of disappointment cross the flat façade of Maria, but it was gone in an instant. This was going to be a long few days.