A/N : Finally, third chapter! So sorry for the late update, I'm in the middle of my senior year, which means lot of work and little time to write to my misery. So here it is, peeps!
"She's stronger than you know, a heart of steel starts to grow."
by OnceUponAPenname
- Chapter two - "All her life, she's been told : she'll be nothing when she's old."
MARIA'S P.O.V
INT. HELICARRIER BRIDGE.
IN THE AIR.
"It's good to see you, Maria."
Maria froze as she felt all pair of eyes settle on her. She had noticed him as soon as he stepped into the helicarrier, but she was too busy trying to ignore and program/coordinate the take-off of the freaking aircraft they were currently in to acknowledge him. The dark-haired woman swallowed the lump in her throat, slowly turned around and replied, a small smile appearing on her face:
"You too, Bruce."
The doctor returned it, hesitating, before following the deadly redhead. At they got out, Maria let out a breath she didn't know she was holding, still feeling pairs of eyes on her person. Fury was the first to react:
"I hope we won't have any issues considering Dr. Banner, Hill."
"No, we won't, sir." The young woman deadpanned, turning toward her superior.
"Good. I expect you to work along. And please, brief Agent 19 before sending her to assist the doctor."
"Yes, s- wait, what?!" Maria quickly interrupted herself, staring at the director in disbelief. "With all due respect, sir, agent Morse's status doesn't allow her to work on this nor to assist Banner. She's a level 6 bio-chemist and-"
"And she is the best we have." Fury was the one to interrupt her, this time, glaring at her with his one-good eye. "We need everyone on this. And about 19's status, you might want to check you the lastest upgrades, deputy."
The dark-skinned man turned around and left before she couldn't retort or protest. Maria groaned, grumbling under her breath. Great. She had to ask for help after she had played Bitchy Deputy earlier. Well, she wasn't really-
"Wait." A male and familiar interrupted her train of thoughts. She turned her head and her brown eyes met the blue gaze of the tall and muscular blonde man. "I know you."
"Of course you know me, Einstein." she retorted in an irritated tone, cocking an eyebrow. "You made me dump my coffee all over myself. That's not something you forget easily."
"You mean, Latte Moron is freakin' Captain America?" Coulson muttered, then blushed red when the blonde turned to stare at him, his eyebrows frowned in confusion at the nickname.
"No, I mean Captain America is a freakin' Latte Moron" she corrected, both of her eyebrow hiding behind her dark bangs.
And imitating her boss, she turned around, not allowing them to retort as she hid a small smirk and walked toward senior agent Avery, the older man looking up and smiling as he heard approach. He drawled, his voice laced with a heavy southern accent
"Well, hello, suga'. Wha' new with ya?"
Her smile became more genuine. Kenneth – Ken – Avery was one of the only persons working for S.H.I. she actually liked. Along with Phil, she had become someone she looked up to, a faternal figure – 'cuz' God knew she needed a faternal figure. Her 'father' sucked. She sighed and answered, with a shrug of her shoulder:
"Nothing much, just trying to safe the world."
"HA! Ain't ya modest!"
"I don't need to be modest, just realistic." Maria retorted with a smirk. "Anyway, do you have any idea where the hell Sitwell disappeared? I need to go check on our Lab Rats and Coulson is too starstruck by the ol' Captain over there to watch over the bridge."
"Respect ya' elders, lass!" Avery let out a booming laugh. "And I'm pretta sure baldie is hangin' with Boss Man. But I could watch over, if ya want to."
Maria grinned at him instead of replying and started walking toward the labs, shouting a thank you as the doors closed behind her.
IN THE HELICARRIER LAB,
IN THE AIR.
Maria quickly walked toward the scientific part of the aircraft, greeting the few agents she met on her way. As she got closer to the labs, she could see Bruce examing the gadgets at his disposal and setting his own. The brunette allowed herself a small smile as she watched the gamma expert observing his surroundings in awe.
"Deputy Hill." A male voice called her.
The young woman turned her head to see a grey-bearded man and white lab cot wearing, walking toward her. She smiled as she greeted him:
"Dr Maclain, how are the updates on Mr. Rogers' suit coming?"
"Oh, the suit is over. However, the re-creation of our Captain's shield is quite the struggle, but I don't want to bore you with the scientific details, Deputy. "
They shared a laugh that quickly a few seconds of silence, the scientist glanced over her shoulder, where she knew Bruce was already working, before wondering aloud:
"We might have a chance after all, huh?"
The dark-haired woman nodded before walking into the hive-lookalike lab. Despite the chaos, Maria immediately spotted the blonde head of Bobbi Morse. She took a deep breath before making her way over. The younger woman looked up at her arrival, goggles over her blue eyes and blonde hair in a ponytail.
"Deputy." she spat.
"19. What do we got?" Maria asked, her tone wary.
"Classified."she deadpanned.
"Bobbi" she stressed out the woman's nickname, feeling a headache coming on.
"Okay, I get that Asgardian gods – or aliens, whatever – invading the planet and turning people into aliens-puppets is stressful, but no one tells me what to or not to do. Except Fury, cuz he has one eye and that's freakin' scary. Not only the fact that he has one eye, but his name is Fury. Couldn't you have told me that Barton had been compromised and that today might be the end of the world?"
The blonde stopped rambling to breathe. Maria stared at the younger woman, unimpressed. She knew the biochemist and her temper. She had been expecting it. When Bobbi looked back at her, the fury in her eyes had been replaced by concern as she asked:
"Did we located them already?"
"No" she sighed "That's why I'm here. We need an extra pair of hands and that extra pair is yours."
"What do you need me for?" The blonde asked, hesitant.
"Banner's working on his own for now, but calls are being made to labs all around, so we can have all materials and informations at our disposal. However, most of these labs are suspicious of govermental agencies that no one heard of, so... We need the best hacker we've got. You know, just in case." Maria quickly explained.
" 'Hacking' is such an ugly word." The scientist retorted, wrinkling her nose, as if she was disgusted just by saying it "It's more like borrowing intel without permission. I'm not even keeping it for my-wait" Stopping her own babbling, Bobbi turned toward Maria, eyes wide-opened. "Banner? As in Dr Bruce Banner, gamma expert, workshipped by FitzSimmons? That Bruce Banner?"
"Who the hell is FitzSimmons?" The dark-brownish haired woman asked, frowning her eyebrows.
She waved it off and kept staring at her, waiting for an answer to her previous question. Maria sighed, not knowing what to expect after she'd reply. Yes, the blonde woman didn't seemed interested in working with the Hulk nor did she seemed to fear him. At the very least, Bobbi seemed eager to work with Dr Bruce Banner. Still.
Taking a deep breath, she faked a smirk as she said:
"Yes, that Banner. Think that you can handle it, Morse?"
…
"Hell, yeah!"
As she left Bobbi with Bruce, making sure that neither of them were uncomfortable working with each other, Maria started walking back toward the bridge of the aircraft. Tired, she let her hair out of her tight bun and wrapped it again in a loose ponytail. The aircraft was still sailing, calm overcoming the helicarrier as agents worked quietly and actively.
"Hi."
Silence broken by a deep familiar voice which made her jump. Not that she would admit it to anyone if they asked. Taking a few seconds to mask her emotions, she, then, turned around to face Captain America. The blond was his hands stuffed in his pockets and a small smile on his lips as he pushed himself from the wall he was leaning onto and started walking toward her to catch up. The brunette - unimpressed by the presence of the tall World War II soldier, unlike others – cocked an eyebrow and crossed her arms as she asked:
"Do you need something?"
"Hum, no. Thanks. I was just trying walking, trying to find my way around here and I saw you."
"And you found it necessary to engage contact?" She retorted, her words dripping with sarcasm. Maria smirked when she saw him frown "Well, Captain, you'll quickly find out that I like to stay away from any civilization."
Then she turned away, her hair swinging as she walked. She gritted her teeth as she heard loud steps follow her. Steve quickly fell into step with the brunette woman and asked, casually:
"So, what do you do around here?"
Maria stopped again and turned to look at him. He had a small grin as he looked down at her. He didn't seem irritated by her behaviour. If anything, Steve was amused. Inwardly groaning, she started moving again and replied, through gritted teeth:
"I'm Fury's deputy. If anyone needs something, they come to me first. I'm in a charge of selectionning potential SHIELD agents and am the liaison between other govermental agencies. Among others things." The brunette explained when she saw him frown again.
"Oh, I know what a deputy is. You just seem so...young." The blonde retorted, hesitating on the last word."
"Says the the 20-something guy who became Captain within a week." She grumbled as they arrived to the bridge.
"Touché." Steve muttered.
As she walked in, Ken caught his eye and winked at her from the platform. Maria smiled at him and started moving toward the older man to replace him. Well, she intended to before she froze as Steve said:
"You don't like me."
Irritated, she spun around and spat, her jaw clenched:
"I don't know you! And our first meeting didn't leave a good first impression."
"You make me seem like the bad guy, here." The blonde retorted, crossing his arms. As she cocked an eyebrow, he added "You were the one texting when you ran into me. I was just being a gentleman when I admitted the fault."
"Well, sorry, Captain, if I don't swoon and drool in your presence. I've got some respect for myself."
The brunette didn't let him the time to retort as she pratically ran to her platform, from where Avery was observing her with a knowing smirk. She rolled her brown eyes at him and asked as she noticed the file in his hands:
"What's that?"
" A gift from ol' Maclain. Tha updates on the lass' suit and shield wer' approved by the Board." He replied, handing the folder to the younger woman.
"Really? Wow, that was fast." Maria muttered to herself, quickly scanning it. Looking up, she nodded "Thanks, Avery."
He theatrically bowed before her as he left the platform. She watched as he left and her eyes settled on the pair Rogers/Coulson talking. She smirked as she watched a small blush forming on the older man's cheeks. She deflected her gaze as Steve turned his head and observed the other agents working, imitated by Fury a few feet away.
"We got a hit." Sitwell suddenly shouted. Maria started walking toward him, followed by Coulson, while his eyes stayed stuck to the screen in front of him. "Sixty-sevent percent match. Weight, cross match. Seventy-nine percent."
"Location?" Coulson asked, peering over her shoulder.
"Stuttgard, Germany. 28, Konigstrasse. He's not exactly hiding." The bald-man answered
He typed, a few times, widening the image, so everyone could clearly see as the god/alien Loki strolling in the museum.
"Captain, you're up." Fury announced, turning to face the tall soldier.
Maria watched as he nodded, previous amusement gone from his face, and walked toward the locker rooms, where the dark-brownish haired woman knew his suit was disposed.
"Hill, make sure Romanoff is ready to take off." Fury ordered, not looking at her as he retreated to his office
"Yes, sir." she muttered before walking toward the taking-off pad.
Things were about to get interesting.
TBC.
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