A/N: Hey guys! Wanna know what makes me sad? That I'm not getting as many reviews as I was when I first started this story. Don't get me wrong, I love writing for you guys, regardless if I get reviews or not, but the reviews help me know that you guys like my writing and it pushes me to keep going :) what can I do to make this story better? I want your honest opinions, but don't be mean about it. For those that still are reviewing and reading, thanks for sticking with this story! It means a lot to me. Oh and in this chapter, Maria is going to have a flashback. It's the same one from my "Soldiers" one-shot for those that have or haven't read it. If you want to read that one, feel free, but I'm not gonna make you haha.
~Meghan (MBrabs1996)
"Hey Maria. How are you?" Jake asked, pulling up a chair and sitting beside his friend.
"Like that time I got shot three times in one day." She said, painfully sitting up, finally noticing the handcuffs.
"They had to handcuff you because you almost killed a couple paramedics on the way in, and they weren't sure how you would react this time," Steve answered, shrugging as he reached into the bedside table to pull out the key, unlocking the handcuffs.
"How'd you get shot three times in one day?" Emily asked her sister. Clearly she hadn't heard the story. Well, the complete story, anyway.
"Saving a Iraqi little girl is the shortened version." Maria answered, leaning back in bed. That day was still fresh in her mind. It was a day she'd never forget.
Sergeant Major Johnson had placed Sergeant Maria Hill and sergeant Jacob Dawson on the rooftops to gun down any potential threats. They got bored and started playing games and asking each other stupid questions and they loved to annoy each other by asking the other embarrassing questions, while Maria was in a lying down position looking through her M110 Semi-Automatic. Everyone thought the pair were romantically involved, when in reality they were just good friends.
"Oh did I tell you that Emily asked me what sex was last year? How is she by the way?" Jake asked, sitting up against a concrete barrier. He had been with Maria the year before when her older brother called and told her that Emily had been sexually assaulted by their dad's friends, who did it out of revenge. They had done it as a way to get back at Maria, since she had ratted the men out to the police when she was fifteen for sexually abusing her. She never followed through on pressing charges, which was something she ultimately regretted.
They were on their way home from deployment when Maria, who had been eighteen, had gotten the call. Jake was the only one she told because she was a wreck and he wouldn't leave her alone until she told him.
Maria didn't answer his question. Instead, she was focusing on something. On the ground about two hundred yards away was a child, no older than four or five on the ground, bleeding.
"Oh my God. Jake, come with me." She said, getting up and slinging her rifle over her shoulder and grabbing her backpack. Jake got up and followed after her, and almost immediately after leaving the safety of the building they were being shot at. Maria was the first to reach the little girl; picking her up and bringing her inside another abandoned building. She placed the child on the floor in the house, breathing a sigh of relief when she saw the little girl was still breathing.
She had a head wound and a cut in her side. The Marine reached into her back pack and grabbed the gauze that she always carried with her and tried to stop the bleeding. The child was starting to come around.
"Ahlan. Mā ismik?" She asked the girl in Arabic, who looked at her with wide brown eyes.
The little girl hesitated before answering, "Ismee Soraya." She answered, before finally losing consciousness again.
"What should we do with her?"
Maria looked at her friend, her hands now covered in the child's blood.
They were both thinking the same thing.
"We can't leave her here. Not in a war zone and the nearest hospital is too far away." She answered, getting up to look at him. Jake was aiming his own M110 out the window, watching Maria's back.
They both decided to bring the little girl to the camp for medical treatment since it was closer, but both knew that Sergeant Major Johnson, or as they liked to call him, 'sergeant major dickhead' would give them shit for it.
Maria got up and just as she did, the window on the opposite side of the room broke and a bullet hit her in the chest. It all happened so fast she didn't have time to think before she turned to Jake, trying to get an aim with her own rifle to see who shot her before two more bullets pierced into the middle of her back, sending her to the ground on her stomach.
"Man down! Sergeant Hill is down!" Jake screamed through his ear piece, rushing to Maria's side.
Within minutes, two fellow Marines along with a SEAL who had seen Maria and Jake enter the house from another rooftop, came to their aid.
"Sergeant Reynolds! Help me get Maria to the camp. Private Jameson, grab the child and bring her with us." Jake ordered, slinging one of Maria's arms around his neck while Reynolds did the same with Maria's other arm and both men placed their hands around her waist to help her up.
"Sergeant Dawson! We can't bring a little girl into a war zone!"
"Well the nearest hospital is 30 Kilometers away, got any better ideas, Private?" Jake snapped and Private Jameson grabbed Soraya and the Navy SEAL watched their backs until a vehicle arrived to take Maria back to camp.
Maria came around a week later in the hospital.
"Hey Jake...is Soraya alright?" The nineteen-year-old asked, "Did Sergeant Major Johnson give you shit for it?"
"No actually. He said we made the right call. The kids parents were dead, so she was placed in an orphanage over there. Since you've been out, I've been working to get her a visa because when the doctors were working on her, she said she wanted to come to America. Said she didn't feel safe in her home country. Can't say I blame her. Oh, she thanks you for saving her by the way. But yeah, she's flying in next month and if my wife says it's alright. We might even adopt her."
Maria gave her friend a weak smile, "Hey, was I given an epidural?"
"No. Why?" Jake asked, confused.
"I can't feel my legs."
"At first they didn't want to move me. But in the end they had no choice."
"Oh yeah! Weren't you actually paralyzed for a bit too?" Emily asked Maria, who sighed.
"Yes. I couldn't feel my legs as soon as I woke up in the ICU. Took about three weeks to get the feeling back in my legs and once I did get feeling back in my legs, I joined SHIELD. I was in a wheel chair for the first two months though, and when I finally could walk, I could only train. Fury didn't send me on missions for another month or two after that."
"You know, Soraya and my son, Christopher, ask about you a lot."
"Well, Stark is throwing a party on Friday. Bring them." Maria told the Marine, sighing as she sat back up in the bed.
"Oh, speaking of children, when you and Steve adopt Alexa, may I please bring her camping?" Emily asked, giving her sister puppy dog eyes.
"Thanks a lot for ruining it, Emily."
"What? No one else is in here! It's just us and them!" Emily exclaimed, gesturing to Jake, Peter, and Gamora. Pepper, Betty, Jane, Jason, Rocket, Groot, Drax, and Lilith were in the cafeteria with the rest of the Avengers.
"Well, Social Services haven't gotten back to us yet. I'll tell you what Emily, if you can print out the paperwork and get in contact with the social worker, you can take her camping."
"Woah woah woah. You guys are adopting a child?" Peter asked, growing more confused by the minute.
"Story time! So, once upon a time, my Aunt Shawna became a foster mom. She was a great foster mom, treated the kids as though they were her own, but then came Alexa. Treats her worse than dirt and hates our dad, Maria, and myself. She adores Danny and his wife though! So, Maria and Steve are probably going to adopt her over Christmas. Our Aunt Shawna 'accidentally' broke her arm six months ago and when I asked, she was like, "oh the dog jumped on me and I dropped the poor sweetheart!" and then she hung up on me. That was a BS lie because when Maria got broken bones, she gave the same excuses! 'I fell down the stairs.' 'I fell from the top shelf of my closet trying to get my book.' 'I ran into a door.' Get the picture?"
"I'm going to punch her," Maria said, sighing, "She's worse than dad was!"
"I'll hold her down and you can punch." Emily said, completely serious.
"Sounds like a plan. I believe she was Lilith's foster mom at one point too. She treated Lilith bad too."
"Oh Maria, on a scale of one to ten, how mad would you be if I couldn't make it to your wedding?" Jake asked, looking at Maria curiously as he waited for her reaction.
"You're not coming?" She asked coolly.
"I don't know. Sergeant Major Johnson may want me to deploy in the next couple weeks. He may send someone else though."
"Well, tell Sergeant Major dickhead that your best friend that you barely see is getting married, but I understand if you can't come."
"I'll still try to make it. Maybe I'll do like a flyby and parachute in." Jake said jokingly, earning a glare from Maria.
"Do that and I will kill you. Hey Em, how's the phone call coming?"
"Do I really have to be the one to call Alexa's social worker? And do I really have to call Aunt Shawna? She scares me worse than Fury! Why can't you? You're the one that's thinking of adopting her!"
"Okay, first of all, you aren't afraid of Director Fury at all. Secondly, i'm the one in the hospital bed. Lastly, it'll help you with your Social Anxiety along with other issues and if you don't do it, you can't be my maid of honor, because the maid of honor also has to make a speech."
"But_" The teen started, only for Maria to cut her off.
"Did I mention the maid of honor also gets to dance with the best man? And that the best man is Sam?"
At the mention of Sam, Emily immediately got up, grabbed her phone, and left the room, earning a smirk from Maria.
"But seriously, Jake, if Gamora and I are coming to the wedding, you should at least try to make it." Peter said, his arms around Gamora's waist as she sat on his lap. Peter nuzzled her neck with his nose, and Maria threw something at them.
"No porn in the hospital!"
A/N: I just had to put that part in lol. Let me know what y'all think! Please review? And I'm gonna do something new. It's called ATW or "Ask The Writer" meaning that you can ask anything you want to get to know me in the reviews, or via PM if it's personal (don't make them too personal) and I'll either reply via PM or in an authors note at the beginning of each chapter.