...

They were parked a couple of streets down from the embassy when Marie's phone vibrated with an incoming call.

"Hold on a sec." She told Phil as she answered it.

"What are you doing today?" Natasha voice cut through without any introduction.

"Hey Natasha, I'm fine. How are you today?" Marie replied back sarcastically but she was honestly happy to hear from the other woman. It had been too long since she'd seen the woman.

Natasha sighed and Marie smiled happily. She looked at Phil who was getting impatient.

"I'm actually kinda busy today. How about we get together tomorrow?" She said as Phil checked his watch.

A knock on the window next to Marie surprised them both and Phil pulled out his gun. He clicked off the safety, and aimed it against the toned window of the car. Marie rolled said window down, revealing that several suited men had surrounded the car and were standing there with their guns raised at them, and neither she nor Phil had noticed.

"So much for being vigilant..." She thought surprised. "I'm gonna have to call you back sugar." She told Natasha and abruptly ended the call.

The phone vibrated immediately again from an incoming call. Marie couldn't answer, but knew it was Natasha.

"Get out of the car." The burly man in front of Marie's window ordered them, gesturing with his gun.

Phil lowered his gun, knowing he wouldn't stand a chance against the seven men he'd counted. "Guess Day must have gotten here before us." Phil grunted out as he and Marie were manhandled and thrown against the car. The suit wearing men disarmed Phil and confiscated their cell phones. They were shoved in the direction of the embassy. "I guess he did." Marie replied.

"Mr Vincente would like to meet with the two of you." The burly man informed them as they were marched towards the enormous mansion that doubled as an embassy. "I'm gonna take a wild guess and say it isn't because he want's to get to know us better." Phil deadpanned while sending Marie a look that clearly said he'd do the talking.

They were escorted inside the embassy and further into an office. The office was decorated expensively. There was art hanging on the wall, one of the pieces Marie was sure was a Picasso. Everything that could be made from gold was. Even the drapes hanging from the windows were of golden colour. "Clearly a man who's used to luxurious comforts…" She thought as she took in the room.

She and Phil were forced into two surprisingly comfortable chairs. A skinny man in an expensive suit walked into the room and sat down behind the large desk. His slicked back, black hair was extremely greasy, so much it reflected the light from lamps in the room. He sported a matching and greasy looking moustache on his upper lip that made Marie want to snort. "He looks like a bad villain out of some Spanish soap opera." She thought.

"Welcome to my home." his light and beady voice sounded like he'd taken helium and Marie was forced to bite her cheek not laugh out loud at the man. A small glance to her left showed that Phil was as composed as ever. "He really needs to teach me how he does that!"

"Now would you like to explain to me as to why you were spying on me?" Vincente asked them.

Phil didn't miss a beat as he started to lie professionally. "My wife and I are on the lookout for some real estate in the neighbourhood when your men suddenly manhandled us." He exclaimed with a small amount of fake anger, getting into the angry husband role. "The neighbourhood clearly lacks a warning about bad mannered people residing here."

Vincente grinned at the two and then leered at Marie's body. "What is with these pervs today!" She thought annoyed and adjusted her shirt a bit to cover her better. "You're wife is very young Mister…" Vincente left the question hanging in the air. "Thomson. Brian Thomson. Yes she is, she keeps me on my feet." Marie was impressed with Phil's lying abilities.

Vincente nodded to two of his men. One man grabbed Phil and held him tightly resulting in Phil fighting get loose from the man's grip, yet failing. The other man held Marie tight, and unlike Phil, she kept as calm as she could. She didn't want to level the building on herself and Phil, while they were still inside. Though she was calm on the outside, fear was slowly taking hold of her.

The diplomat snapped his fingers at a third and mean looking bodyguard who came up next to Marie. Vincente made sure Phil at a clear view at what was going to happen now.

The bodyguard started groping Marie's breasts, and moving his hands further and further down her body.

Marie was frozen in shock, mouth hanging slightly open unable to believe what was happening. The one thing her power was supposed to protect from her, and it could do nothing until the man made contact with her skin. Out of nowhere the bodyguard went from touching her to punching her, leaving a mean black eye on her.

"That's interesting Mr Thomson. You know why?" Vincente asked as his beady eyes narrowed at Phil who was struggling even harder against the bodyguard. "Because I have a file here," he said pulling a manila file from his desk. The bodyguard continued his ministrations to Marie. Touching her in ways that left her sick, and having to swallow the vomit that made it's way up, before punching her in the face "that identifies you as Phil Coulson, agent of S.H.I.E.L.D."

Phil gave Marie a look that clearly said get ready to kick ass. Vincente snapped his fingers. "Kill them." There were several clicks as Vincente's men aimed their guns at them… again.
Marie sighed relived that the bodyguard had stopped violating her, and she used Magneto's powers to jam the guns without anyone noticing. She felt out the room and found Vincente having a gun attached to his desk. She jammed that one too.

She jumped into action Phil following her quickly. They took out the bodyguards in their surprise when the guns failed to shoot.

Phil and Marie were perfectly synchronized in their movements, dancing around each other and helping each other when needed. In less than five minutes the bodyguards were all out cold on the floor.

Marie didn't hold back the fury that had taken over her, and didn't stop punching the man that had violated her. Not even when he was begging her to did she stop. Not even when he stopped breathing did she stop. She didn't stop until she was sure that there was no life left in the bastard, not until Vincente aimed his jammed gun at them and Phil called out her name.

"Don't move or I shoot." He threatened them.

Phil stood still but Marie moved furiously towards him and removed the gun from his hand with little difficulty as Vincente let out a sound that could have been mistaken for pig squealing. Marie threw the gun on the floor while Phil pushed Vincente into his chair again.
"Tell us about the deal with Wilson Fisk and Jackson Day," Phil ordered him. "Or I'll let her," he said gesturing to Marie. "Have her way with you." He said.

Marie lifted an eyebrow at Vincente who winced as he looked at his bodyguards on the floor still unmoving and one of them dead. "Okay! Okay! I'll tell you!" Vincente exclaimed frightened. "Talk." Phil ordered him and Marie was ready to drain the man dry if he didn't. "Might do it anyway…" She froze. "Where did that come from?" She thought worried.

She took a step back as Phil interrogated Vincente. "Day has this drug, and he says it can control people. He came up with this plan to get Wilson Fisk elected as mayor of New York at the elections, but they needed some money." Vincente admitted still looking fearfully at them.

"And you just happened to have some money lying around. What was in it for you?" Phil questioned him looking as patient as ever.
Marie felt like her head was spinning mildly, the taste of vomit still strong in her mouth, but she didn't let it show.

Vincente quieted.

Phil sighed and was about to press him harder when Marie just walked over and drained him dry. Marie's head suddenly felt clearer. "D'Ancanto, what the hell?" Phil asked her angrily. "He was talking." Marie rolled her eyes. "And how would you know it was the truth? People like Vincente aren't known for their honest ways. This way we'll have the truth and his other dirty secrets Phil." Marie didn't know why she had done it, but it had felt so liberating not having to give a shit.

"That doesn't mean anything, this is my job, and this is what I do for a living! I would have gotten the truth out of him eventually!" Phil didn't yell at her, but the angry tone in his voice made it clear to Marie that he was almost there. "Yeah? And this is my job; to make sure we get the right info and not waste time. Besides it's gonna' happen tonight so we need to move as quickly as possible." She finished and Phil froze. "What is?" He asked her worried.

"Fisk has sent one of his men to poison the New York water supply with the drug, then all Day has to do," Marie explained as she walked up to a big painting removing it, and revealing a safe hidden behind it. "Is stand by Fisk's side tonight on live television and say that he supports Fisk for Mayor, and anybody drinking water will feel compelled to vote for Fisk as well." Marie opened the safe easily with the stolen code from Vincente.

The safe contained money, guns and several pounds of cocaine. Marie ignored it all and pulled out a small vial hidden behind it all. She gave it to Phil. "Vincente had his drug labs in Argentina come up with it, he was planning to use it to become president at the next election. It's made from Day's sweat and it was Fisk's idea to try it out." She informed him. Phil frowned at the vial in his hand. "Let's move." He said and the two left the embassy behind with its inhabitants out cold.

"We should get the vial to S.H.I.E.L.D. and have them come up with antidote in case we don't make it on time." Marie stated as Phil violently drove the car towards the city. Marie held on and prayed she didn't die on the way. Phil agreed with her plan but kept throwing her worried glances.

"You'll go after Fisks' goon at the water supply. I'll go to S.H.I.E.L.D. and then stop Day." He summarized his plan. "Marie... What happened in there..." Phil began concerned but Marie cut him off quickly. "I'm fine. Right now stopping Fisk and Day is our number one priority, we'll deal with everything else once the dust settles." She said and her tone left no room for argument. If there was one thing Marie was horrible at it was dealing with her emotions. "The last thing we need right now is me blubbering Phil."

Phil sighed as he rounded another corner sharply. "It's all right to want to cry, or be angry Marie. I failed you." Phil admitted angry with himself. "Don't even go there Phil. I know you're angry with yourself, but don't be. I killed the guy Phil. It's over, nothing more to be done. I'm just glad there's no one else he can do that to anymore, that's enough for me." Phil nodded understandingly, but the anger hadn't faded.

As they sped across the city in an uncomfortable silence, Marie yelled for Phil to stop the car.

Marie was sure that the screeching tires could be heard all over the city. Phil gave her his extra gun, right before she jumped out of the car, telling Phil to get going. Phil did, not questioning her once.

Marie stared at the red Ducati 748 motorcycle a couple feet ahead. "Perfect!" She thought and flashed back to her last day at Ole Miss U. Now she only had to get the man in the trench coat off the bike. She ran over to him and pushed him off it. She yelled out a "Police business! Sorry!" and sped off leaving the man on the ground yelling out French curses at her.

She pushed the bike to its limit, never pausing or stopping at red lights. Within fifteen minutes she was at the New York City water supply wondering where the hell she was supposed to go.

She called up Phil. "Coulson." she heard him say. "It's Marie. I'm at the water supply, but I need some help with direction." She said staring at the giant building.

"I'll put you through to Hill, she'll have eyes on the place." And with that he was gone again. "Hill speaking." Marie looked around the abandoned parking lot.

"D'Ancanto here. Can you pull up any heat signatures at the water supply? I've got three different entrances, and no idea where Fisk's man is heading." She said. Hill shouted out some orders before getting back to her. "We got five heat signatures inside the building. Go through entrance three. A hundred and fifty feet ahead of you there'll be two men." Marie placed her phone in her pocket and did as told and entered the building, her gun in front of her ready to shoot.

She walked soundlessly towards them, and the closer she got the clearer it was to her that the two enormous and bald headed men weren't workers. The AK-47's they held in their hands only confirmed it. She stopped and hid behind a crate a few feet away, not wanting to give away her position. From there she pulled the guns from their hands, and right as they yelled out in surprise, she knocked them unconscious with the machine guns.

Marie pulled out the phone again. "How far am I going?" She asked.

"Continue to the end of the hallway, and turn left and go another two hundred feet. There'll be another two waiting there. Once you've dealt with them turn right and there should be a door that leads directly to the water outlet." Hill informed her.

"Copy that." Marie confirmed and hung up.

She ran down the hallways as fast as she could. Once she reached the two remaining men she knocked them out with their guns as well, same as with the first ones. "Too easy..." She thought a bit cockily.

Not before long Marie found herself standing in front of the industrial door. The loud noise of the machines pumping and cleansing water drowned out everything else, and for a second Marie felt like she would go deaf from all the noise until she adjusted to it.

She looked around, taking in room, trying to locate the last goon who had the drug, but couldn't find him anywhere.

Marie felt the disturbance in the air, but before she could act on it or even understand what it was Marie screamed out in pain.

She fell to the floor gasping and clutching her stomach, her shirt growing darker by the blood spreading from the wound. Her vision blurred from the pain. She removed her clutching hands from the wound and wince. The bullet hole was gaping back at her, and the pain and sight of her blood paired with the memory of being violated by the bodyguard caused her to empty her stomach contents right then and there.

In a fearful second she couldn't help but think that Steve's healing wouldn't be enough to save her from this, and her heart ached at the thought that she wouldn't be seeing Steve again.

Marie barely noticed the pair of feet walking towards her. They came to a stop next to her, and the person who'd shot her crouched down.

"Well, what do we have here?" His rough voice was demeaning and amused. Marie glared at him. He grabbed her face between his hands painfully. "A little lady cop maybe? Or is it fed? Doesn't matter, you'll be dead in a moment anyways." He said cheerfully as he smashed her head in to the ground and got up. Marie could barely groan from the pain now, everything was starting to darken on the edges of her vision.

The man walked over to the water and pulled a necklace off. It was the glass vile filled with the drug. Her vision darkened further and Marie knew she had to act fast now. "Hey asshole!" She gasped out as she used Magneto's powers and ripped the necklace from his hand. The vial smashed onto the ground, and the liquid seeped out into the cracks of the ground.

The man cursed angrily. He ran at her and started kicking her in the stomach furiously. Marie screamed as the pain tore through her. Right before she lost consciousness from the mix of blood loss and pain, her assailant was flung away from her. The last thing she registered in her pain-induced haze was a pair of feet and a ridiculously long trench coat.

"Merde!" Marie heard the trench coat exclaim, and she couldn't help but mumble out "I wonder if Steve speaks French... We should visit Paris... Steve, where are you?" Before the world disappeared from her grip.

Phil Coulson was known throughout S.H.I.E.L.D. as the most composed man to ever walk the earth. His colleagues all agreed that he at times even seemed a bit alien with how calm he was able to stay during world ending crises. There weren't a lot of things in this world that could shake him or ruin his composure.
He'd seen and stood up to things that were out of this world, and yet standing in front of the pool of blood inside the water plant, he couldn't help but let the worry and anger show on his face. "How the hell am I supposed to explain this to the Captain? I got his girlfriend killed… No! She's not dead until we have a body..." He tried to reassure himself, though it didn't help much.

"Sir?" a soft British voice came from behind him. He turned to the female trying to remember her name. "Simon.. or Simm…" "Yes Simmons?" "Nice save Phil." He thought to himself a bit relieved, but the relief quickly disappeared when the woman confirmed his fears.

"The test came back positive, the blood is from Dr. D'Ancanto, former employee of S.H.I.E.L.D." She said as she handed him the tablet that contained the test results. She looked as concerned as he felt. "I hope we find her in time. No normal person would survive such a blood loss without receiving medical attention." She noted. "I'm counting on her not being a normal person." "Me too, Simmons. Me too." Phil left the crime scene, and walked over to the tech he had on site.

"Any luck on tracking her phone?" He asked the blonde haired man. "Sir." the Scotsman answered. "We found the phone smashed on the ground, probably a result from being shot and falling on top of it." Phil nodded at him and left the building in need of some fresh air. Once outside he leaned against the building, taking in the sight of the many S.H.I.E.L.D. vehicles.

Phil pulled out his phone, dreading the phone call he was about to make.
"Sir." He said as the call was answered. "Don't say it Phil." The Director's distressed voice said across the line. Phil sighed. "The Rogue is MIA. From the looks of it, she was mortally wounded. We can't track her phone either, it's dead." Phil said and winced when the Director started cursing. "I'll deal with Cap, you focus on locating her. Call me when you have a update." With that he ended the call.
Phil let out a curse of his own, and then readjusted his tie. "You." He said to a passing agent. "Yes sir?" "Run down hospital records for any women having been hospitalized tonight, ages twenty to twenty-five auburn hair, with white-stripes and green eyes. Emergency section." The agent nodded and ran towards one of the vans parked by the building. "Please be alright…" he thought one last time. When he made his way to the vans, the outline of a familiar figure stopped him right where he was.

Natasha knew something wasn't right when Marie hung up on her and she heard the familiar click in the background. Her belief was further confirmed when Marie didn't pick up on the second call. Natasha knew that Marie could take care of herself, and if there was one thing she hated it was being worried. Worry of others blinded you to the situation at hand, and that led to mistakes, and mistakes could get you killed. But that was the KGB way of thinking, and if there was one thing that S.H.I.E.L.D. had taught her, it was that worry meant all corners being covered, and no one being left behind. So after a couple of hours, giving Marie a chance to contact her, herself, Natasha tried calling her again, and again, and again. When Marie didn't pick up by the fourth try, Natasha tracked down her phone to the water plant. Marie, Natasha knew, would have no business there and so she decided to drive up there.

Natasha didn't know what to expect, once she reached the water plant, but it wasn't the small army of S.H.I.E.L.D. vans and personnel roaming the area. She left the car, searching for whichever agent was in charge of the scene, when she spotted Coulson. To anyone else he looked as composed as he always did, but Natasha could see the subtle signs of wear. His tie was uneven, suit rumpled and eyes tired. He froze when he noticed her there. "Natasha. What are you doing here?" Phil asked her as he made his way towards one of the vans. "I could ask you the same Phil, I was looking for Marie. What's going on?" Phil sighed and wanted to reply "Classified" but knew that Natasha would only raise her threatening eyebrow at him if he didn't answer her truthfully.

"The Director persuaded Marie to come in and... Consult on a case regarding an enhanced. She's been pronounced MIA." Natasha let out small breath when a different word than dead came out of his mouth. Phil noticed it. "Don't feel relived yet, she was wounded and lost a lot of blood. Too much blood." He stated with worry laced in his word. The implication of it left Natasha not-unusually silent. She left Phil by the van, entering the building, following the other S.H.I.E.L.D. personnel. When she finally crouched down next to the massive pool of blood, she could understand Phil's scepticism and worry.

She took in the surroundings, going through different scenarios, trying to understand how Marie had been one-upped by a thug with a gun. A gun she should have been able to notice the moment she stepped inside the room. There were too many questions and not enough answers. She turned to the forensics team. "Any leads yet?" They all seemed to shrink away from her way in fear, and on any other day it would have amused her, but not today.

One woman spoke up, British, and when she did, the rest of them let out a small and relieved breath at not having to be the one the other end of her glare. "Nothing concrete yet ma'am, but we did manage to find a third set of footprints in the room, size nine - definitely male by the width of the foot, and some light brown fabric stuck to a crater, indicating the third person was hiding while Dr. D'Ancanto was attacked." Natasha nodded at the woman to continue when she hesitated. "I also found remains of a burned out card." "A business card?" Natasha asked. Simmons shook her head "No, a playing card. King of hearts." She said as she handed the small evidence bag, containing a half burnt out card, to Natasha.

Eyebrows furrowed she handed the bag back to the woman. "Why would he work for Fisk and kidnap Marie? Not his usual m.o. something isn't adding up." She thought annoyed as she left the building. She made her way back to Phil. "I think I know where we can find Marie. Give me a couple of hours and I'll have her back in one piece." "Hopefully…" She told him before she walked over to her car. Behind her she heard Phil mutter, "How does she keep doing that? She only looked at the scene for fifteen minutes." She couldn't help but smirk a bit. She loved it when she confused both Phil and Clint, but her screeching tires as she left behind the water plant betrayed her worry for Marie.

Remy LeBeau was many things; a lady's man (some would say a pervert - but hey don't judge a man based on his kinks), a poker shark, a thief (the best in the world, of course) and a mutant, but if there was one thing he wasn't, it was heartless. That's why he sat in a chair, his trench coat thrown over it, next to his bed. Now, normally when there was a beautiful half-naked woman in his bed, he'd be in there right next to (or on top of) her. Remy just didn't think this girl would appreciate the gesture of waking up next to a strange man, after having been shot and had her head smashed repeatedly into the ground.

"But then again, not that much of a stranger, when she stole my bike right under my nose." Remy huffed out a bit annoyed. "Henry won't ever let me live this one down." He removed the warm blanket from her body and checked on her bandages, trying his best to ignore her body. "I'm only a man Cher, can't blame me for sneaking a peek. And what a body…" He shook his head with a grin to clear his mind from those thoughts, and put the blanket over her again.

He left the room to find some new bandages, and picked up a first aid kit, a bowl of hot water and a towel on the way. When he came back he removed the blanket completely and started cleaning her with the towel and warm water. "She be lucky I found her when I did, or she would've died." He thought.

"Remy cursed out loud "Merde!" as he threw another exploding card at the assailant. "I wonder if Steve speaks French..." Remy heard the woman from the floor talking deliriously, before she started mumbling incoherent words. The assailant chose that moment to flee the plant as fast as he could. Remy crouched down and slapped the woman on her cheeks, trying to keep her from blacking out on the ground, but it was no success. "Stay with me Cher! Don't die on me!" He knew he had to stop the bleeding before she died. "You're lucky this ol' Cajun found you." He said more to himself than to her.

He grabbed the skin that had been pierced by the bullet and pushed it together, then he let the kinetic energy build up in his fingers, until the heat was enough to burn the skin together with the bullet inside her. A trick he'd learned from an old friend in Egypt. The pain caused the woman to scream out loud, and as she did, everything around started shaking and flying.
"Of course she has to be a mutant too Remy, merde! How do I keep getting into these situations!" He exclaimed to himself and jumped to the side, as a cell phone came flying straight at him and smashed into the wall behind him. Once everything quieted down, he lifted her and awkwardly drove her to his apartment on the bike she'd stolen from him.

Remy broke away from the memory when the woman groaned slightly. "Sorry t' break it t' you Cher, but the pain is only gonna get worse until Remy can get the bullet out of you." He said as he finished cleaning her.

He removed the old bandages from her stomach. He cleaned her stomach, Stared at her face, happy that she'd gained some colour the last six hours, and rubbed iodine around and on the burn wound. He grabbed the scalpel and large tweezers, and then forced the towel into her mouth. He started cutting open the skin, and like before, the pain caused the woman's powers to react.

Remy ignored the flying things in favour of getting the bullet out of her. Once he removed the bullet from her body, he burned the skin closed again leaving a small round scar on her otherwise flawless body. He redressed the wound on her stomach and her head, and removed the towel from her mouth. He got her to drink some water and antibiotics, before he cleaned up the room and passed out in the chair.

When Remy woke up it was to the feeling of hunger and his phone vibrating in his pocket. He looked at unfamiliar number on his screen in annoyance before answering.

" 'Ello?"

"You have two seconds to tell me what you've done with the girl, before I rip off your balls Gambit." The familiar voice of an angry Russian woman, he had had several run ins with, left him grinning.

"You actually sound concerned Natasha. Careful, you might become human." He teased. "Where is she?" She replied, as usually, without a trace of humour in her voice.

Remy sighed as he entered the kitchen and grabbed some cereal to eat. "Chill, she's fine, well not fine but alive, thanks to Remy. Remy fixed her up after he found her bleeding out and dying on the floor of the water plant, after having stolen Remy's bike. She be sleeping off the pain in Remy's bed right now. And don't worry Remy was complete gentleman and slept in a chair." There was a snort on the other end. "Believe it if you want Cher, but it's the truth."

"Send me your address." She ordered him, causing Remy to roll his eyes.

"Now we both know that's unnecessary when you've already had this call traced."

"You're right. That was just me being considerate. I'll be there in an hour." She said and hung up.

"Great, now Remy has to find a new hideout." He said to himself as he finished his cereal and went to check up on his houseguest.

She was mumbling about some Steve guy, but luckily breathing. "Probably her beau…" Remy pondered. He returned to his morning cartoons grabbing another bowl of cereal. He had completely tuned out everything, so when Natasha was suddenly standing there he let out a surprised yell and threw his bowl in the air making it explode. Natasha raised an eyebrow at him. "Dammit woman! You can't just go breaking into people's hideouts!" The other eyebrow joined the first in disbelief. Remy, realising what he said was quick to defend himself "What? Remy does it when there aren't any people at home." Natasha ignored him in favour of making her way to the bedroom.

When she reached the room the first thing she did was check for any threats, she didn't trust Gambit as far as she could throw him, and then she checked on Marie. Natasha noticed the state of undress Marie was in. "Perv." She told Remy with a glare. "What?! Remy, cleans her, pulls out a bullet from her stomach, saves her life, and dis the thanks he gets?" Remy grinned back at her. "Remy likes to think a bit of nakedness is a good payback for stealing his bike from him." Natasha rolled her eyes at him and pulled some clothes from a bag Remy had barely noticed she was carrying. She dressed Marie in an oversize sweatshirt and jogging pants.

"Marie? Can you hear me?" Natasha said trying to wake her up. "Natasha..." she mumbled out and opened her eyes slightly. Natasha stroked her forehead. "Marie, it's me Nat." "Nat? M'head is killing me… Where are we?" she asked her groaning, but gaining more awareness of their surroundings. "You took quite a couple o' hits to your head Cher." Remy joined in.

Marie squinted her eyes at him, raising her head, before turning to Natasha. "Who's the swamp rat?"

"Oi! This the swamp rat that saved your river-rat butt. And then saw you naked." He wiggled his eyebrows at her jokingly. "Ew, perv." Marie exclaimed not catching on to the joking tone. Remy lifted his hands in despair while Natasha smirked at him. "Joking cher. Just joking." "Except not really." "Oh… Sorry." Marie replied more awake now. "What happened?" she asked Natasha. "You don't remember?" Marie shook her head carefully. "Not really. I mean I remember the call to come in to work this morning, and then... I was picked up? And there was a blue… drug? I'm not sure... After that it's all kind of blurry."

"Marie, that all happened yesterday." Natasha told her. "I'm taking you to S.H.I.E.L.D. so we can have you checked out. I want to make sure you're alright until Steve's back to take care of you." Marie nodded. "Alright…" she agreed. "Who's Steve again?" She asked feeling suddenly ashamed at not knowing the person who was supposed to take care of her. Natasha gaped at her and then let out an "Oh-oh."

Marie was resting against the hospital bed, picking at her nails, while waiting for the doctor to finish analysing her tests. Natasha was sitting next to her in a chair, and she hadn't spoken a word to Marie since a middle aged and kind looking man came to check up on her, and Marie hadn't recognised him as Phil Coulson. That was yesterday. The door to the hospital room suddenly burst open revealing two blonde good looking, well-trained men wearing odd uniforms. They both came at her throwing question after question at her, not giving her time to answer, too close in her personal space.

Luckily Natasha came to her rescue. "HEY! Back off, the both of you! You're scaring her." Both men froze and saw the slight fear in Marie's eyes and took a step back. "Sorry." "Yeah sorry." They both apologised. "Marie," The taller "and cuter" of the two men held her hand "Do you remember me?" Marie stared into those beautiful blue eyes, and wished that she could. "Should I?" She asks carefully and sees they way his heart breaks in his eyes. She doesn't take her hand from his because it feels warm, safe and familiar. She feels relieved when he doesn't remove his either. He was about to tell her something when Dr. Attwood entered the room.

"Alright Dr. D'Ancanto." Dr. Attwood took in the small but crowded room and sighed "And everybody else apparently. Seems that there's a small amount of damage to the tissue in this part of your brain." He said as he pointed to a scan of brain. Dr. Attwood saw the worried looks of all the occupants. "Now don't worry, it's already started healing so there should be no long term damage." Marie let out small breath of relief and only then realised that she had been clenching the cute blonde man's hand tightly. The man in question smiled at her gently. "Now I'm going to ask you a couple of questions to test your memories. If you don't remember the answer, don't stress yourself out. Alright?" Marie nodded.

Dr. Attwood held a finger in front of her face. "Focus on my finger, and ignore everything else." Marie did as ordered.

"What's 57 time 132,14?" "7531.98" and Dr. Attwood nodded and noted something down in notebook.

"What's the name of the school you're employed at?" Marie furrowed her brows. "Uhm…. the … something institute for learning… OH! I got it! The Xavier institute of higher learning. I'm a maths teacher there." The doctor nodded and kept noting down as they proceeded through several questions. Question after question was thrown at her, and it felt like she'd spent an eternity in the room.

"What did you feel the first time you met Natasha?" He asked her and Natasha grinned evilly at her. "Fear. Definitely a strong feeling of fear." Marie grinned back at Natasha.

"When is Steve Rogers' birthday?" "July fourth 1918." Marie surprised herself as the answer seemingly flew out of her mouth.

"Who was the first enhanced you encountered?" "Sabre...tooth?" She answered uncertain.

Dr. Attwood looked at his notes then at Marie. "I believe there is no reason for alarm. The memories are all there; you just need some time to remember. I do not recommend trying to force yourself to remember, but to let nature run its course." He told her, and glanced at the hands that were intertwined, and Marie nodded.

"Mr Rogers." He turned to Steve now. "You can take your girlfriend home now, make sure she drinks lots of liquids, and for once stays out of trouble. If she gets sick, take her straight back here to me." With that Dr. Attwood left the small room and overcrowded room.

Marie looked up at this Steve fella, who she apparently was in a relationship with. Steve saw her glance and smiled at her. "What is it?" Marie blushed slightly, "I just have wrap my head around the fact I'm in a relationship with you. I must have really hit the jackpot or something." She blushed redder when Steve laughed. "Believe me when I say I'm the lucky one, even when you make me worry like crazy and turn my hair prematurely grey." They both smiled lovingly at each other, while Clint looked like he was about to barf.

"I think we should all go home and get some much needed rest." Clint said. "If anybody needs me I'll be knocking back some beers, and watching the game. Tasha wanna join me?" Natasha nodded and the two left behind Steve and Marie. A sudden awkward silence enveloped them, until Steve broke it. "So uh? Wanna head home?" Marie nodded, and though the atmosphere was awkward as hell, neither let go of each other's hand. "Lead the way."

...