Parking Garage Maintenance
Alexandria, Virginia 20 minutes from D.C. 7:43 PM An upscale restaurant
Maria was recently approved to return to work, she had to get security clearances updated, go to daily briefings at Langley where the CIA operations were and get up to speed. One of the nicer things about people who blipped returning to security positions was that they had really short background checks. Maria was able to breeze through security because of that. She went to a few meetings, and briefings and got some more information on what she would be doing there, and that she’d be working with a few members of MI6 who had discovered the terrorist network. Maria recognized a name, Sonya Falsworth. Maria had heard of her through Nick.
Since Maria had started back at work and would be leaving soon, she and Elizabeth decided to get dinner one evening. Maria was leaving in a few days. Elizabeth was happy for her, but worried too. She knew Maria loved to work, just like her, the drive they shared for service was deep in both of them. But Elizabeth was sad too, they had lost so much time together. Selfishly, she wanted Maria to stick around a little longer even if it was hard on her. Elizabeth wasn’t getting any younger, and she was so protective of her daughter. Yet her daughter worked in such dangerous situations. Still, Maria returned from all of them alive, maybe marked up from it, but alive. It seemed like this year together happened too fast. But for Maria being out of work like this felt like an eternity.
Maria had noticed out of the corner of her eye that Rhodey was at the same restaurant, far on the other side of the room, with a young blonde woman— Maria guessed she was in her early 20s maybe. She was very beautiful, they were both professionally dressed, but Maria didn’t focus on it. She spent time with her mom, she too wanted as much time together as they could have. Rhodey also noticed Maria was there but neither of them acknowledged each other.
Eventually, Rhodey got up and left the table, the blonde woman remained seated and went on her phone. Around the same time, Maria excused herself from the table and went up to the bar. She wasn’t really going there to order a drink, she just had a sense that something was awry, and she wanted to look around casually. Everything seemed okay, Maria was just being paranoid—probably. She didn’t know why she had such a strange feeling, it rarely failed her in the past, but your senses weren’t as sharp when you vanished for five years, what was normal now wasn’t the same as before.
Maria turned to leave the bar area and head back to her mom.
“Hill!” Rhodey called from behind her as he re-entered the restaurant.
Maria turned around. It was kind of one of those awkward social situations where she wasn’t sure if she should say hello or just ignore him when she noticed Rhodey was in the same place as her before, but now they could talk.
“Oh, hey.” She responded.
“Sorry I didn’t come say hello, I had to go grab something.” Rhodey said.
“Oh yeah, not a problem, I didn’t either, I didn’t want to interrupt your date or whatever.” Maria said casually.
“I— no… that’s… that’s… that’s the deputy communications director of foreign policy.” Rhodey explained. Maria raised her brows surprised by that revelation.
“She’s like 20?” Maria blurted out.
“25…ish maybe, I don’t know… Do you think I go on dates with 20 year olds?” He asked surprised.
“I don’t know, but I’m not judging.” Actually, she was a little bit.
“That seems young for that job.” Maria remarked offhandedly, but to be honest most people seemed pretty young for their jobs right now.
“Did people ever say that about you?” Rhodey asked. Maria had serious jobs when she was quite young.
“All that time.” Maria acknowledged Rhodey’s point with a nod.
“Do you want her job instead?” Rhodey joked.
“Uh no, she should keep it, plus I hate public facing jobs.” Maria shook her head.
“I always think that’s such a shame about you, you’d be so good at them, but you’re good at everything, so… I guess you get to pick.” Rhodey shrugged and flirted a little.
“Trust me, I’m not, you should see me try to draw or.. cook something.” Maria made a face. She was definitely not good at everything she had a very specific skill set. Rhodey laughed.
“Well it’s better if you’re not good at everything, it makes you seem human.” He remarked as the two fell back into their friendly flirtatious routine easily.
“Well as long as I seem human.” Maria joked, then Maria noticed that Rhodey had a book in his hand.
“Oh! Yeah. I went to get this so I could give it to you.” He handed Maria Scott Lang’s book from his office. Maria couldn’t help but frown and smirk at the same time.
“Uhm.. thanks?” She bit her bottom lip as he took the book he handed her.
“You’re welcome, I know how much you wanted to read it, and I figured you might need something to read with your upcoming travel.” Rhodey smirked.
“Wow. Thanks, that’s so considerate.”
“That’s what you’ve been into, right?” He asked smugly but playfully.
“Question.” Maria started still smirking a bit like a dork at this point.
“Were you just carrying this around in case you ran into me?” Maria teased, but also she genuinely wondered if he was. Rhodey smiled through a grimace.
“I tried to donate it and Goodwill rejected it.” He covered himself but actually yes he was hoping to run into her again, Rhodey wanted to make sure they parted on good terms, not ‘no terms’ like she had with Fury.
“They had too many copies?” She joked.
“I feel bad, Lang’s not the worst guy.” Rhodey said a little bashful after he cracked jokes about his book, but it was not a good book.
“He hasn’t grown on me yet.” Maria admitted with a bit of an eye roll.
“That’s what the book is for.”
“Thanks, but it might be a lost cause, I think my ‘Avengers’ technical support days’ are behind me.” Maria admitted.
“I really don’t think that’s true.” He assured.
“Do you know something I don’t?” Maria asked sarcastically.
“Is there anyone who knows something you don’t?” Rhodey teased back.
“Nowadays? A lot of people.” Maria admitted with a bit of defeat.
“Well, in this timeline, maybe.” Rhodey grinned.
“Funny.” Maria rolled her eyes. If Nick Fury saw this painful attempt at friendly flirting between Rhodey and Maria he’d probably never come back down to earth.
Both Maria and Rhodey realized they had to get back to their tables. But Rhodey decided to walk Maria back to her table where her mother was before he went back to his own.
“Thanks for the book.” Maria said as she got back to her table. Then she guessed she should introduce Rhodey to her mom.
“This is my mom, Elizabeth, this Colonel Rhodes, Senior-Special-Director-Advisor-Assistant-to-the-President.” Maria joked with a fake gaudy title.
“That’s your title, right?” She smirked as she glared at Rhodey as she butchered his title.
Rhodey nodded, he was nothing but professional meeting Maria’s mother.
“Yep, that’s right, it’s a mouthful.” He didn’t budge as he greeted Elizabeth Hill.
“Colonel Rhodes. My daughter tells me you got her a job, but she can’t tell me what that job is, or where it is, or where she is going or when she will be back. It’s like she’s about to blip all over again.” Elizabeth said sternly to Rhodey. Maria looked embarrassed.
“The world is much safer when Maria’s around defending it.” Rhodey said casually to Elizabeth.
“I just want her to be around.” Elizabeth clarified.
“Me too.” Rhodey smiled, he did good with moms, usually but Maria’s mom seemed like she didn’t just fall for just any charm.
“Okay. Well. It was great to see you again, thanks for the book…” Maria gestured to the book in her hand. She needed to Rhodey to leave now. Rhodey and Maria said a quick goodbye and then Rhodey went back to sit with his coworker.
Elizabeth did not look impressed with Rhodey, but it wasn’t personal, she just thought he was sending her daughter away.
“If me leaving bothers you so much, I could try to get a job here.” Maria proposed, but she was a little bit embarrassed the way her mom talked to Rhodey who just helped her get a job but also she did think it was funny.
“Ugh. For Ritson?” Elizabeth groaned.
“I hate that clown.” Elizabeth pointed out.
“I know, I’m sorry.” Maria sighed.
After dinner Maria and her mother left to the parking garage but as it turned out in order to exit the garage, you had to get a ticket form a pay station that was not at the exit. The only working pay station was five floors up from the exit. Parking garage maintenance was really not on anyone’s post blip to do list.
At the pay ticket machine Maria ran into Rhodey who had done a very similar thing that she had her mom had done, trying to leave the garage without a pre-paid ticket. There was a long line of people before them trying pay for parking.
“You would think that at least one more of these machines would work.” Rhodey whispered.
“If only we knew someone with power and influence in this town.” She muttered back.
“Oh, I, like everyone else, am powerless against the kingpins of the parking garage game. That’s who has real power in this town.” Rhodey said quietly back to her as they both laughed under their breath.
“We really messed up, went into the wrong line of work.” Maria joked.
“I think your mom really thinks you went into the wrong line of work.” Rhodey joked and Maria looked embarrassed.
“She’d definitely be happier if I ran a suite of parking garages on prime real estate.” Maria laughed.
“You still have time to change your mind.” Rhodey pointed out.
“I’m good, thanks.”
After Maria and Rhodey finally finished paying they looked at the line awaiting the elevator to go back down, there was a lot of people waiting and those elevators looked sketchy, rickety, dirty. Both Maria and Rhodey got a—-those will breakdown while you’re in there—vibe from them but Maria did not suggest taking the stairs she wasn’t sure if Rhodey could do those narrow concrete stairs with his injury. Rhodey looked at Maria and pointed to the stairway.
“I don’t mind waiting.” Maria said casually.
“Why? Let’s go.” He said carelessly like it would be no problem for him to use the stairs.
Maria figured that if Rhodey thought he could do it, she wasn’t going challenge it, he knew his limitations. Maria agreed and went with Rhodey to take the stairs. As they walked over, Rhodey glanced at Maria, and Maria did not notice.
Raava did find it challenging to suppress the male desire that sometimes came about when a woman Rhodey cared for was around. Especially someone like Maria who was cool confident, smart, pretty, funny—oh no… Raava took a mental pause. Rhodey's personal feelings and thoughts were overbearing. Maria and Rhodey had a lot in common, military background, allies of the Avengers, working with Tony, they were both very smart people who wanted to live in a safe world and protect others. He couldn’t help but admire a woman who literally vanished from the world but was so eager to get right back to it. He was offended for her that she had to wait so long to come back.
Maria and Rhodey joked and talked as they made their way down the numerous steep concrete flights in the dimly lit stairway.
“All this time, without a license what did you walk everywhere, or did you mom drive you?” Rhodey laughed and genuinely wondered what Maria did for a year.
“I drove myself.” Maria laughed.
“Maria Hill, breaking the rules? I don’t believe it.” Rhodey fake gasped.
“I break the rules all the time.” Maria said confidently with a smirk.
“You are not known for that.” He teased.
“Yeah, that’s because I’m really good at it, so I don’t get caught.” Maria bit her bottom lip and raised her brows jokingly.
The two continued down the stairs chatting and joking. Structures like the parking garage really went downhill in the five years during the blip when there were fewer people to care for them. Since it had only been a year since people had returned, many places like this were still waiting to be restored and cared for properly. This parking garage was across from some of the nicest restaurants and in a great area of town, that was frequently busy. But it just wasn’t a priority to fix right now.
Rhodey looked over at Maria, getting a little a lost in the glance, but Maria didn’t look at him, she was focused on her footing, where she was going over the rigid and steep concrete stairs in the poorly lit stairway. Rhodey should have been doing that too. As Rhodey lost focus on his own step he put his hand instinctually over the railing. He wasn’t watching his hand as he was lost in his trance for a brief moment as they walked a bit quickly down the steps, casually chatting.
Then suddenly Rhodey felt a startling sharp pain. He yelped in shock and surprise. Rhodey’s painful cry made Maria jump into action, she instantly put her hand on her gun under her jacket and turned to see what happened looking behind Rhodey, moving swiftly and quickly. Maria had each of her boots on two different narrow steps as she turned immediately worried something had happened. As Maria turned instantly to look at Rhodey she saw his hand had been sliced from very sharp metal object sticking up on the railing that Rhodey inadvertently grabbed while walking down the stairs and not paying attention to the railing when he was looking at Maria.
Maria got a quick glance of the injury and she moved closer to Rhodey, Rhodey immediately grabbed his palm as he recovered from the shock of the injury. The pain of the slice burned deep into his palm, it was a surprisingly deep cut but he covered his injured hand with his uninjured one quickly, the pain didn’t hit him right away as it cut into him, now it stung.
“Are you okay? Do you want…” Maria started to ask.
“I’m absolutely fine.” He cut her off sharply.
“We should go the to the ER?..” Maria proposed.
“For a cut?” Rhodey’s tone was short with Maria and she was surprised by the tone, but men were weird about this kind of stuff.
“You are faster than my security detail.” Rhodey said trying to change the subject.
Maria paused.
“Wait… where is your security detail?” Maria asked as she realized they were missing.
“I gave them the night off.”
“Is that allowed?”
“Maybe only when you’re around.” Rhodey tried to joke.
Maria ignored the joke attempt and she stared at Rhodey who was holding his hand as they had stopped in the stairwell. She looked very concerned.
“It’s just a cut, it’s fine.” He assured.
“Uhm.” Maria paused she could see some blood from under his covered his hand.
“Are you … up to date on your tetanus shot?” Maria asked somewhat seriously, he just got cut on some sharp metal in a parking garage, it could be contaminated. She knew the cut was worse than he made it out to be, the question made Rhodey laugh.
“I — yeah— all set…” Rhodey responded.
“You can die from that.” Maria pointed out, they were still joking around a little but also she thought that was an important point.
“I am good on tetanus protection.” Rhodey said trying not laugh again.
“I think my mom has a first aid kit in her car.” Maria said her tone lighter now that they were joking again.
“Of course she does.” Rhodey laughed, Maria probably had one too.
“I can go grab it…” Maria offered again.
“I’m fine, it’s a cut, I’m going to go home.” Rhodey didn’t want to talk about this anymore.
Maria grimaced.
“You can drive?” Maria asked genuinely wondering.
“I’m not a baby bird you need to help get home.” Rhodey teased staring at her.
“I mean, you don’t help a baby bird get home if you touch it the mom will reject it and it will starve to death.” Maria corrected and Rhodey looked at her wide eyed, of course she knew that.
“Do you really feel like you need to help me, a grown man?” He asked her.
“Uhh yeah… no… I would help anyone… I just want make sure you’re okay.” She grimaced again. She couldn’t help it, she really would help anyone.
“Hill, take a night off.” He dismissed with a laugh. Maybe Fury couldn’t help himself, but Rhodey could. Raava hated the female instinct to nurture or take care of someone, she thought Maria was the type who hated it too, but maybe it was more about helping than that whole cliche taking care of someone aspect.
“Okay, sure.” Maria agreed hesitantly. Things had been nice between them now they felt a little weird, Maria didn’t want them to end awkwardly she didn’t know when she would see Rhodey again.
“I actually have to go this way.” Rhodey gestured to the opposite way Maria was going.
“Oh.. okay, well… it was good to see you again, thanks for the book… sorry about your hand…” Maria paused she spoke a little hesitantly.
Rhodey felt bad that he kind of wrecked the good vibe they had but there was a reason he didn’t want to go the ER or for Maria to see his injury. He hadn’t been able to assess how deep it was.
“I figured you would need something to read on the plane. Good luck, stay safe, come back. Seriously, because your mom is kind intense and if something happened to you I think she might come find me…” Rhodey said in a joking but caring tone. He did mean it, Raava almost felt like she meant it too. Talking to Maria was fun, it was the first true banter back and forth Rhodey had since Tony.
“I’ll come back, don’t worry.” Maria replied. It felt weird now, things seemed flirty and friendly before now it was a bit awkward. Did they hug, did they just depart. Maria didn’t know.
They didn’t hug and Rhodey exited, he left Maria in the stairwell. Maria took a beat recalling what happened. In the brief moment she saw the injury on Rhodey’s hand she couldn’t quite tell, and it was not lit well, but she could swear—at least she thought she saw just the slightest twinge of green slowly form around the cut. But then, she wondered if it was just a bruise forming from the blood. It was hard to tell what she really saw, it happened so fast, the lighting in the stairway wasn’t that bright, and Rhodey covered his hand quickly like he was hiding it. She just couldn’t make sense of it, maybe he just cut his hand and wanted to leave. It was probably nothing, just Maria’s mind making things up for no reason. As she replayed it in her mind she could see it both ways, with the twinge of green forming and a version in her memory that played in her mind without it. She didn’t know which one was right.
Maria finally caught back up with mom who was waiting for in the car like she was in high school. It was kind funny really. When Maria got in the car in the front seat her mom just looked at her.
“You’re a teenager all over again making me wait for you in the car. Why did it take so long?” Elizabeth joked and then asked. “It was a long line, and I ran into Colonel Rhodes again.”
“These men just whisk you away with job offers and career opportunities.” Elizabeth jokingly groaned, but she was proud of Maria really.
“Well, that is my love language.” Maria joked as she opened Lang’s book that Rhodey gave her, and then she noticed that Rhodey wrote her a note after the page where Lang wrote something for him.
‘Maria, thought you might like something to read in your new wheelhouse, but sadly this is all I had. - JR’
Maria read it to herself and closed the book shaking her head and rolling her eyes.
“He likes you.” Elizabeth said and Maria shook her head no.
“Yes he does. He let you embarrass him in front of your mother and he gave you gift.”
“The gift is a joke.”
“Then he really likes you.”
“Wow this really is like high school.” Maria mumbled with another eye roll.
“But no, we just have a similar vibe about certain things, and we’re both too busy.” Maria clarified. Honestly, they had tried to see each other briefly before, and it just never worked, they were both so busy with their careers and drive for security that it couldn’t work, friends was better for them.
“Too busy? Five weeks ago you were organizing my photo albums by best estimated date of each photo…” Elizabeth pointed out with a bit of a laugh. After the issues Elizabeth had with Maria’s father she didn’t date again, but she didn’t want her daughter to end up alone. Maria had already died once, and all she had was a career, now that Maria was back her mom secretly hoped she’d maybe take a break and figure out what she wanted to do wit her personal life.
“Was I right?” Maria asked, she thought she was pretty spot on with her estimated guesses.
“I have no idea! You think I can remember what year a photos from the 80s and 90s were taken?” Elizabeth shook her head the same way Maria did.
“I think I was right.” Maria nodded supporting herself.
“Now that I think about it, it is really good that you’re going back to work finally.” Elizabeth joked with a little laugh.
“Ouch” Maria laughed back. Yeah it was definitely time to go back to work, if her mom was grilling her now.
MEANWHILE —
Rhodey rushed back to his car after he left Maria. Once he got inside he took a deep breath he uncovered his hurt hand, the metal sticking out from the railing really got him. He looked at his hand the cut wrapped around the outside of his palm. What did Maria see.. he wondered trying not panic. She didn’t act shocked or unlike herself. Rhodey’s hand hadn’t changed to green but the area around the injury had faded from his skin color on his palm into a light green twinge because the cut was deep, he had a mix of red and purple blood on his hand. He pulled a glove from his center console of his car and covered his hand with it. If Maria did see something, he knew she was too smart to react, but there was a good chance she saw nothing at all. He covered his hand so quickly. He recounted the interaction in his head. It seemed normal, didn’t it? Really Raava didn’t know what Maria saw but since she acted normally she assumed she hadn’t seen a thing, but Raava knew that Maria was aware of skrulls, that’s why she was panicked.
After Maria and Rhodey caught up at lunch Raava was relieved that Maria had been spending her time on the multiverse and alternate timeline theories and not on skrulls. Raava knew that Maria knew something, about skrulls on earth. Maria knew Gravik, Soren, and Talos just based on proximity to Fury. She was one of the few people who knew skulls existed, and that there were some skrulls here on earth. The extent of what Maria knew was the question. Raava had to assume Maria was probably the second most knowledgable person on earth aside from Fury on skrulls and since Fury was no longer on earth, Maria might even be the most knowledgeable person on skrulls on earth right now. That could be really dangerous. Raava fucked up and she felt it. Her mind was commingled with Rhodeys and she was him right now, when she acted like him and he got flustered Raava couldn’t think right.
It really was a gamble Raava was taking with Maria, could the skrulls just snatch her and replace her? This posed a problem because Soren who used Maria’s form was dead and Talos knew that. This was complicated. It’s not like Raava could just get rid of Maria, people would notice, although Raava did think for a moment that the best time to do it was when she was separated from Fury. Maria could always not come back from her new job. Raava took a deep breath as she thought about that. Raava was starting to have second thoughts about this plan. But Rhodey’s personal feelings for Maria were complicating Raava’s ability to plan. She couldn’t make a sound judgment anymore, she had been Rhodes for so long. Rhodey just told Maria to come back, and he meant it, he said it to her mother too, but Raava couldn’t keep loose ends, if Maria saw something, she would never indicate it, she was just too smart and skilled.
Raava had to really think. If Maria wasn’t working with Fury, her lack of proximity to him did make her less important for something like replacing her and since she no longer had a position of power or anything, couldn’t Raava do to Maria what Fury had always done to her? Put Maria somewhere useful for the skrulls’ purposes or even for Raava’s? Maria wanted to work and the part of Raava’s emotions that were corrupted by Rhodey’s wanted to keep Maria alive, so it seemed like it worked out almost perfectly.
When Maria and Rhodey had lunch a few days ago, Raava was weirdly stuck on some of the things Maria said. How Fury took off and left her, Raava and Rhodey both had their own reasons for disliking Fury. But Rhodey and Raava knew, Maria was a loyalist to Fury no matter what. But what Raava thought about the most was all this talk on alternate timelines. It sounded like nonsense but Raava saw it happen with her own eyes when they hunted the infinity stones to bring everyone back.
Existence was more complicated than the mission Raava had been on for so long. Ultimately, Raava had to wonder if Maria was right and flipping a coin really created an alternate timeline? If Maria did, was Raava in that timeline or was that timeline a true moment with Rhodes and Maria? Was the only difference that the coin landed on heads? Raava didn’t know why she was so stuck on this.
As Raava stole a great deal of time from Rhodes’s life, she had to wonder if someone was out there stealing her life. Or was she the one stealing from herself as she spent it living as someone else? Gravik stole the face of a dead man, he didn’t understand what it was like to live as a known person with expectations and existing emotions for people around him. Shapeshifting as someone for this long was complicated. Eventually you lost yourself in your performance of that person. It was hard to make the decisions that were best for the skrulls or their cause when your minds intermingled for too long.
As Raava fell back into her own mind she wondered if there was a timeline where the Kree never destroyed the home world of the Skrulls? Raava had to wonder what she did in that life, assuming she existed there. Even though she existed here right now, a part of her didn’t feel like she existed as herself at all. Hopefully, it would all be worth it in the end and she was going to have to make sure she got to that end in order to truly be herself one day.