Make You Feel My Love
~Book IV~

Disclaimer: I do not own Civil War or any other Marvel characters in this story. All I own is the story I've come up with and my own characters.

Chapter 3

"He's the size of an ant," repeated Maria in a mocking tone. "What can he do to me?"

Sam sighed, wincing as Maria pressed a soft cotton ball to his bleeding nose.

"Your suit's broken," stated Maria, Natasha standing behind her with her arms crossed over her chest. "The breach got away. And he managed to steal something."

Another sigh escaped Sam's lips, his own fingers replacing Maria's on the cotton ball. "Yeah, sure, no back-up needed."

"Look," sighed Sam. "I thought I had it handled."

"No, Sam," scolded Maria. "You knew you had it handled. Never underestimate an opponent. The moment he punched you the first time, you should have called for back-up. We're a team. Don't be an arrogant douche-bag."

Sam rolled his eyes at being scolded like he was a five-year old little boy, though still he nodded his head, understanding what she meant.

"Confidence is good. Just don't be too confident," said Maria.

"Imma find him," moped Sam. "I promise."

"Very well," sighed Maria, turning to look at Natasha. "In the mean-time, Wanda's taken over your guard-duty for now. You can't have it when your suit's broken."

Sam nodded his head, wanting to defend himself through knowing he would get nowhere. The lady in front of him was at least five years younger than him, though the respect she had on the team, the experience she had and the look on her face made her feel much older than him. He admired her for what she had managed to accomplish so far, and wanted to be like her. Though if he kept failing like he had done that day, there would not be much room for him to accomplish what she had.

"Don't worry about it," said Maria, turning around as though she had heard his thoughts. "Everyone makes mistakes. I did and still do. At least he didn't steal anything of importance. Otherwise we would have already found out what it was he did steal."

"It was square… if that helps," shrugged Sam, earning a chuckle from Maria.

"That helps a lot, thanks," she chuckled before turning to leave his room with Natasha trailing behind her.

"Also," he said, causing both women to turn around again. "It's very important to me that Steve does not hear about this."

Nat and Maria exchanged a look, knowing that out of all the original Avengers, Steve was the most respected and the one considered as the leader. Apparently, Sam thought that if he heard of Sam's little mishap, he might not trust Sam anymore. Though Maria and Natasha both knew Steve better than that.

"Very well," said Maria with a nod of her head. "Try to lean your head back, might stop the bleeding."

They left him in his room, alone, and walked down the hallway in silence.

"Where is Steve anyway?" asked Maria, asking the question that had been itching inside of her since she had arrived that day.

"He's on a mission. If I'm not mistaking, he should be back tonight," said Natasha with a knowing smile. "It was quite a heated kiss you two shared six months ago."

"Oh God…" sighed Maria.

"That's okay, I've seen worse on Clint's web-browser history."

Maria stopped by her bedroom door, a slightly disgusted look on her face. "I don't think I want to know…"

"No, you don't," chuckled Natasha.

"How is Clint?"

"He's fine," smiled Natasha. "Living a normal life… For now."

"Let's hope he can stay living a normal life," said Maria. "And… And Bruce?"

Natasha's smile faltered slightly at the mention of his name. It was unusual to see the assassin show her feelings so well, though most likely the mention of his name had come as such a surprise to the woman that she had just not been able to stop her emotions from showing.

"Not a word…" was all Natasha said before turning and leaving Maria alone.

Her heart ached for Natasha, knowing what heartbreak and loneliness felt like. Though there was not much that Maria could do except to try and never mention it again. Avoiding problems usually is the worst thing to do, though Maria knew from experience that, sometimes, it's the best thing to do.

Entering her own room, she walked towards the centre of it. It looked as plain and modern as it could, barely having any personality to it nor any sort of decorations. Sam's room had been filled with posters, books and sprawled out (probably used) clothing. It looked personalized and lived in while Maria's was… plain. It made her feel less at home even though she knew the reason behind it was her absence. She made a mental note to one day go out shopping to find some things to decorate her room with. Not only that, but she was in desperate need of new clothing after having carried around the same pairs of jeans, shirts and jumpers for the past seven years, since joining the Avengers. Besides, she also had a bath-tub in her own bathroom and if there was one thing she loved more than relaxing and watching Batman movies, it was taking a bubbly and warm bath. But for that she needed products – all things she would have to buy some day when she got the time, and the money. Tony would probably pay for it…

Walking over to the bed, she let herself flop down on the comfortable bed. The previous night had been long and she had barely gotten any sleep apart from a small nap in Logan's car on the way to the Avenger's facility. Though it had not been until she had laid down on the bed that she felt just how exhausted her body truly was. Her plan had been to unpack her bag laying on the floor, though her eyelids suddenly felt very heavy and she felt herself be drawn into a dreamless nap.

Four hours later, she awoke with a start. Her head felt heavy after such a long nap and she rubbed her hands over her eyes. Sighing at the sight of her still packed bag, she stood up and entered her bathroom, splashing some water on her face to wake her up a bit more. Her phone told her it was seven in the evening and her stomach told her she had missed dinner. Shuffling down the hallway, her hair most likely looking like a bird nest, she entered the kitchen.

Wanda was still there by the dining table, drinking some tea while Vision was over by the counter, placing dishes into a giant dishwasher Maria had not noticed before. Before Wanda was a PAD on which she was reading the news. Her eyes looked up at Maria as she shuffled into the kitchen and by the amused look on the girl's face, Maria's suspicions of a bird nest on her head were confirmed.

"Sam did not want to wake you up. He said that in-between snores, you had looked very peaceful," she said.

Maria could not help but hear that Wanda's accent had faded slightly. Although it was still there, it was obvious that after six months of speaking with Americans, her accent had begun to fade.

"Urgh…" responded Maria. "Didn't get much sleep last night."

"Oh," responded Wanda, tilting her head to the side. "Who was it?"

From the kitchen area, Maria heard Vision drop a cup against the counter at Wanda's question and she smirked.

"No one," Maria chuckled. "I meant, I had been up all night making sure I could leave the team of thugs behind to work alone."

Wanda smirked, "Seeing as you're here now, I assume they could?"

"Yeah, they did well," smiled Maria.

The tension that had been between the two women before Maria had left was gone. Whether this was because Maria had forgiven Wanda or because Maria's hurt feelings had been forgotten, she did not know. But she was glad there was no tension between the two anymore. Each time Maria met a new woman, there would always be some tension between them. Not because of jealousy, but because of Maria's past. Now that she had been working with Xavier for a while, a man who could read her mind, she had found out that her resentment towards women came from unprocessed anger towards her own mother. Her mind had generalized that all women would abuse her and hate her which Xavier had helped her work through. Now, she had met several women at the mutant school without feeling any tension or fear towards them. It felt peaceful.

Vision joined the two women a bit later, bringing with him some leftovers from dinner for Maria. The three of them talked for a long while, the summer sun outside of the facility slowly descending, the moon replacing it instead. If you would have asked Maria six months ago if she and Wanda would ever become friends, she would have said no. But now, things looked differently. Maria was different and more like her old self and the two women got along really well. Vision watched them interact and sometimes joined in, trying out some new social skills of his and all in all, the three had a nice evening.

It was when Wanda decided to go to bed that the social evening stopped. Vision wanted to walk her to her room, which made Maria smile a knowing smile, and so she was left on her own. For a little while she just sat at the dining table, listening to the dishwasher buzzing while she stared out through the large windows and out into the darkness there. Soon, she found herself wandering around the facility. She was tired, though something kept her from going to bed; an unconscious fear of missing Steve's return from his mission.

She found herself wandering into the labs. They were quiet and dark, only some automatic lamps turning on at sensing her movement. Her thoughts went back to when she had gone over to Bruce and Tony a couple of years ago to learn more about her healing abilities. The science brothers had truly been trying to help her understand her powers and she felt a wave of gratitude wash over herself towards them. Though it was mixed with sadness at the fact that Bruce was not there anymore. Whether he would ever come back again, she did not know. Bruce had never really wanted to be a part of the Avengers, unlike her, and therefore it was hard to say whether he would return or not. Though she hoped he would.

Sitting down at one of the desks, her mind recalled the memory of Bruce and Maria's conversation at Clint's house, back on their latest mission together as a team. He had wanted to tell her something and her heartbeat quickened as she remembered it had been about children… She clenched her fist, wanting nothing more but to know what he had been going to say to her. Her body ached to fulfil that one dream she had, that one dream the doctors had told her she would never be able to fulfil… But Bruce had said something, or at least wanted to say something on the matter until they had been interrupted. What had it been?

Perhaps Tony knew… They did work together after all…

"Romanoff told me you had returned."

The sound of the familiar voice caused Maria to gasp in surprise and jump down from the desk. She turned to face him, her eyes wide with anticipation and happiness. She had not seen him for so long now… It nearly hurt her more to see him again then to not see him again. He was even more handsome then she remembered him to be and to think that she had purposely avoided being close to him, the most handsome man walking on Earth, hurt her.

"I barely believed it…" he breathed.

They were stood several feet apart, simply staring at each other after he had spoken. The silence that had fallen over them felt like it was choking Maria. All she wanted was to talk to him, ask him what she had missed during those six months and tell him all about her own adventure. But her voice would not work. She was breathless after finally getting to see him again. It was almost as though all the feelings she had ever had for him just overwhelmed her and entered her all at once. Years of feelings, attraction and lust… And then he parted his lips to say something, and it felt like her entire world had been lit on fire – a passionate and warm fire.

They were reunited again, though how was he going to react to it?

I'm such a tease... Hehe