When Maria Hill became Deputy Director and suddenly oversaw a whole swarm of agents, she struggled to figure out how to control and keep order. Her agents were good, but man could they be stupid sometimes. More often than not, Maria found herself wanting to slam her head against a wall as an agent sheepishly admitted to doing something so stupid that Maria wanted to cry.
At first, Maria chewed agents out left and right. She brought with her the inner drill sergeant from the Marines and found that she could keep order and control that way. She got the nickname Hard-Ass Hill, but she didn’t mind it so long as the agents actually did their jobs.
“You’re too hard on them,” Phil Coulson would tell her. “They’re doing their best.”
“Their best isn’t good enough,” Maria retorted, watching with folded arms as her agents ran laps after blundering a team-building exercise that ended with a broken nose and an agent drenched in water. “They can be even better.”
“You’re more likely to catch flies with honey than vinegar,” Phil commented. Maria glanced over at him with a raised eyebrow.
“I’m not trying to catch flies, I already have all the ones I want. I’m trying to train them.” Maria looked back over the field of agents before shouting, “Stop slacking off! Gimme two more laps!”
Maria did handle a few agents differently than the rest. It wasn’t due to favoritism or because Maria thought they weren’t worthy of being pushed to their best but because she had access to the files of every agent under her control and she had read every one.
That meant that she knew which agents had issues with authority figures. Some would defy her or challenge her every word while others seemed almost afraid of her and would beat themselves up for not getting things done right.
She found that pushing those ones harder wouldn’t get her anywhere. Those who challenged her every word, she found, often responded better if Maria asked for their thoughts and opinions. If they wanted to complain then Maria would give them the floor to do so. More often than not, if she responded calmly to their frustrated rants instead of getting frustrated herself then they would calm down faster.
As for those who seemed to fear authority figures, Maria couldn’t scream at them as she did with some other agents. She had one agent who royally fucked up, and when Maria called him into her office she watched as the young pale-faced agent braced himself for the worst, his knuckles turning white from how hard he was balling his fists up.
Maria took a few deep breaths to quell her anger and lectured him all the same, albeit much calmer than she would have if he were any other agent.
The young agent apologized profusely and kept promising to do better in the future, swearing that he’d learn from his mistakes.
“I know you can be a good agent,” Maria told him firmly. “So prove it to me.”
The young agent perked up slightly and promised that he would be the best.
It wasn’t until Maria was starting to notice which agents were climbing the ranks faster than the other ones that she reevaluated the way she worked. She figured if yelling and lecturing didn’t always work then she might as well try something else.
“I know you can do better than this” and “I know you are smarter than this” became frequent parts of Maria’s vocabulary. The first time she told an agent “You did well, good job”, she swore that their eyes widened to the size of saucers.
When she was complaining to Phil one afternoon, the phrase, “I swear they’re just like a bunch of toddlers” escaped her lips and it suddenly hit her that perhaps that statement was a little more true than she realized.
When word got out that The Maria Hill was seldom handing out praise, agents seemed to scramble to make it their mission to receive an ‘atta boy’ from the Commander.
It was like a badge that they wore. Maria could sometimes hear them bragging to the others, “The Deputy Director told me that I did well.”
That isn’t to say that Maria got soft. No, Maria was still the same hard-ass as before, still lecturing loudly and screaming at those who fucked up, but she knew that she had to balance that hard side of her with something a little softer.
Then Clint Barton brought home a Black Widow assassin.
He stood there in Maria’s office as she screamed at him about his actions, shuffling in place like a scolded child as he clasped his hands behind his back guiltily. When she finished her yelling session, he looked up at her and quietly asked, “Does this mean she can stay?”
The higher-ups took control of the Black Widow situation. Maria barely saw the head of red hair before she was locked down, and Maria was too swamped with paperwork to go and see her.
But she heard all about her. The Black Widow was unruly, disobedient, acted out, and defiant in every way. She constantly challenged any authority that she could and would toe the line just before going too far. She seemed to get amused at frustrating those around her and Maria heard whispers from the higher-ups that trying to flip a Black Widow just wasn’t worth it.
After a little begging from Clint Barton where the man promised to never complain about his paperwork again if Maria just did him this one teeny tiny little favor, Maria wormed her way closer to the situation.
She watched as the Black Widow was all but ordered around and commanded like a dog. Maria would be pissy too if anybody spoke to her like that. It was like trying to bulldoze an immovable object, and even Maria could see that they weren’t going to get anywhere.
After hearing whispers from the higher-ups about how the Black Widow trashed the cell she was in, Maria knew that she could probably handle things better than they were. After all, Maria managed agents who threw tantrums all the time, she could surely handle one more.
However, her requests were denied and nobody would hear her out. Still, Maria waited patiently, keeping an ear to the ground, and listened as they ran out of options on how to handle her. Finally, Maria was called in, seemingly a last resort. If Maria couldn’t reign the woman in then they were going to lock her away.
Maria could guess what would happen the moment she stepped into the cell and she was prepared for the way she was pinned against the wall in an attempt to scare her off.
Maria gripped the wrists of the red-headed woman and stared down at her as the Black Widow twisted the fabric on her uniform to choke her a little. “Are you done?”
Green eyes stared up at her, twisting just a little more as if to prove a point before she let Maria go and stepped back a few feet. Maria didn’t bother to straighten out the collar on her uniform and instead addressed the woman.
“My name is Maria Hill, I’m the Deputy Director here at SHIELD, and as of now you are placed in my care.” She watched the scowl form on the woman’s face. “Get some rest, I’ll be here at five tomorrow morning and I expect you to be up.”
Maria turned on her heel and left. It took some finagling before Maria managed to get permission to take the Black Widow out of her cell. As promised, Maria showed up at five in the morning and told the woman to get up and follow her.
“No cuffs?” The woman croaked as she tentatively followed Maria down the hallway like it was a test.
“Please, we both know that they’re pointless and just to make other people feel better,” Maria retorted. She led the Black Widow down the hallway and toward the gym where the obstacle course she made rookies run was set up and empty.
With that, Maria basically set the Black Widow free, challenging her to prove herself and letting her run wild. After being cooped up for so long, the woman strode through the obstacle course with ease, looking smug as she finished in minutes, far quicker than any other recruit Maria had worked.
“That was good,” Maria hummed before continuing, “Can you do it faster?”
The woman paused and turned to raise an incredulous eyebrow at her. “Faster?” She echoed.
Maria shrugged. “Can you?”
The answer was no, but that didn’t stop the woman from trying. Maria watched as the Black Widow pushed herself harder and harder until she was exhausted, in which Maria finally ended the session.
“You did well,” Maria commented. She could see the way that the woman’s frame stiffened at the words.
“I was not faster,” came the reply. Maria nearly paused at the way that the woman almost seemed to chide herself. It was familiar to the agents that Maria was a little softer with, the ones who defied and feared authority because of their negative experiences with them.
Maria let out a hum. “You did well enough.”
On the way back to her cell, they pass by a vending machine that Maria stops in front of. She shoved a hand into her pocket where she ensured she had a few ones that morning before she left her bunk. The Black Widow paused when Maria stopped, standing stiffly at her side as Maria smoothed out the crumpled bills in her hand to feed into the machine.
Maria pressed the button to dispense one of the protein bars in the machine used for agents on the go. She selected the chocolate chip flavor because she figured she might as well.
When she had her purchased goods in hand, the extra quarter in change already pocketed, Maria turned to the woman beside her and extended her hand. The Black Widow’s eyes latched onto the protein bar being held out but made no move to take it.
“It’s yours,” Maria encouraged when green eyes flickered to peer up at her.
“I don’t need it.” The woman in front of her almost looked offended at being offered such a thing.
“But it’s yours anyways.” Maria gave the bar a little shake. “C’mon. You just did a lot of exercise and I already know that you’re not eating that sad excuse for food they’re serving you. The last thing I need is superiors breathing down my neck because they think I’m not feeding you.”
The woman in front of her made no move to take it. Maria sighed slightly and let her arm drop, continuing on down the hallway. She didn’t stop to ensure that the woman was following her. She could hear the light footsteps fall into line behind her and Maria didn’t make another unplanned stop.
The Black Widow stepped inside her cell without hesitation when they arrived back. Maria gripped the door to close it but before she did she readjusted her grip on the item in her hand.
Maria finally called out to the woman using the name Clint said she preferred. The woman’s head snapped to look at her just in time to see Maria throw the protein bar at her.
Maria doesn’t wait to see if the woman caught it. She never heard it hit the floor.
Instead, Maria closed the door and went to update Clint about his little friend, Natasha.
Maria showed back up at five in the morning the next day and repeated the same routine. Natasha seemed determined to break her record on the obstacle course so Maria merely had to supervise as the woman pushed herself.
They fell into sort of an easy routine. Maria would stop by the vending machine each time after letting the woman out to exercise and slowly Maria went through the different things in the machine to switch it up some. She wasn’t sure if Natasha was eating the things or squirreling them away but two weeks after she first started, Natasha finally took the item when Maria held it out the first time.
On the third week, Maria got a call as she was fishing money out of her pocket. She passed the dollars to Natasha and told her to pick before she answered her phone. She split her attention between the asshole on the phone wanting something she couldn’t care less about and the woman in front of her staring into the vending machine to look at her options.
When finally selecting one, Maria saw nothing more than the numbers pressed on the machine. She couldn’t see what Natasha had selected from the grip the woman had on the item but a hand was extended toward her with Maria’s quarter change. Maria waved her off and walked and talked on the way back to the cell.
Once Natasha was deposited back behind bars, Maria doubled back the way she came. She did a double-take when she passed by the machine and then found herself standing in front of it, her fingers moving to press the buttons she had seen the woman touch minutes earlier.
The price for the item rolled across the little screen and Maria’s eyes fixed on the packaged good that had been purchased.
A peanut butter cluster protein bar.
There was a reason that Natasha had picked that one in particular. She had tried every one in the machine, and rather than picking the first option the woman had stood there and considered for a few moments, although Maria wasn’t sure if it was because she was probably working a vending machine for the first time.
Still, Maria filed the information away for later and instead listened to an old man blabbering on in her ear and being an idiot.
“I don’t have time to take you out today,” Maria apologetically told Natasha, her time already stretched thin. She figured that she needed to tell the woman in person rather than passing on a message so Maria skipped breakfast in preference of making time in her schedule to tell her.
Natasha doesn’t acknowledge her, lying back on her bed with her hands behind her head as she stared up at the ceiling without a care in the world.
“Here.” Maria tossed her apology snack at the woman. A hand shot up to snatch the item from the air and Natasha sat up to squint down at the packaging. “I’ll try to check in later.”
Maria turned on her foot and left, silently hoping that the woman would like peanut M&Ms.
At the end of the first month of having the Black Widow under her control, Maria was called in for a meeting to assess the progress she may or may not have made.
It was pointed out that Maria let the woman grab her and yank her around every so often. Maria brushed their comment off simply stating that Natasha was trying to push her and scare her away. Another mentioned how Maria would let the woman get away with not listening to orders. Maria retorted that no one was going to get hurt if Natasha didn’t rotate through her clothes to do laundry or practice her forms in her room.
Finally, someone commented, “You’re feeding her junk. Sweets.”
Maria gave a shrug. “It’s not like she’s eating whatever it is you’re serving her. Food is food. She’s eating.”
Maria did have a talk on more than one occasion about actually eating the food provided for her but she soon gave up on it because she could see that her lectures were going in one ear and out the other. Instead, Maria focused on rewarding with food. On days when Natasha was good for her, not challenging her authority or trying to spook her, Maria let her pick whatever she wanted by handing her the money and letting her keep the quarter change. On days when Natasha was constantly at odds with her, Maria would pick from the machine and stay away from Natasha’s favorites.
There was no point in pretending she wasn’t doing so. Natasha wasn’t stupid, she knew what Maria was doing, but she never pointed it out.
“Look, am I good to keep going with her?” Maria finally interrupted the squabbling of her higher-ups. She normally wouldn’t be so curt but she had a schedule to keep. “I’m already late.”
Maria was reluctantly given another month to keep going with the Black Widow.
“You’re late,” Natasha commented as soon as Maria showed up two hours behind schedule. Her tone was curt and it was clear she was unimpressed.
“It happens,” Maria retorted. However, when she stepped aside to let the woman out, Natasha made no move to leave her bed. “Come on.”
“Fuck off.” To accent her point, a middle finger was aimed at her.
Maria took a deep breath and resisted the urge to snap at her. She already had things she was supposed to be doing and she had a migraine forming. She couldn’t be bothered trying to play whatever game Natasha wanted that day. “Okay. I’ll talk to you later.”
She caught sight of Natasha jolting upright to look at her just as Maria closed the door.
Maria does not buy snacks from the vending machine that day. The crumpled bills in her pocket were nearly forgotten and went through the wash.
Natasha does not eat that day.
Maria’s tardiness seemed to have soured her relationship with Natasha somewhat. If anything, Natasha never seemed more determined to try and spook Maria off.
Maria could only be pushed so far. She tolerated Natasha shoving her against walls or cussing at her a few times but when the woman was purposefully going too far just to see how she would react, Maria drew the line.
She made it clear what would happen if Natasha put her hands on her in such a way again and reiterated that she could be angry all she wanted but that Maria wanted her respect.
“Or what?” Natasha challenged, her gaze fierce as she stared at Maria.
“Or I’m grounding you.” Maria didn’t want to have to take away Natasha’s gym privileges but if she couldn’t be good then Maria couldn’t risk her doing something stupid. If putting the woman in time-out was what she needed to do then Maria would do it.
Natasha, as if testing Maria to see if she really would do such a thing, continued to push.
Maria, as always, followed through on her word.
In return, Natasha threw a tantrum and destroyed everything in her cell. In response, Maria waited patiently before telling Natasha to clean everything up.
When Natasha eventually did as asked, Maria rewarded her with a box of honey protein bars. If she wasn’t going to get the chance to ensure that Natasha ate at least something then she was going to ensure that the woman at least had the resources to consume something.
At the end of Maria’s second month, the higher-ups finally deemed the Black Widow worth a risk and approved her deprogramming. Maria wasn’t able to be the one to tell her about it but she did ensure that she finished earlier than usual with her work that night so that she could stop by to see Natasha.
The woman peered at Maria when she entered the cell, green eyes latching onto the stack of papers in one hand and the food in the other.
Maria sat down on the floor in the cell and set the treats she purchased to her side before holding up the stack of papers. “Come sit.”
Natasha lowered herself to sit in front of Maria as she warily gazed at the items she had. Maria held up the packet of papers she had that detailed what exactly deprogramming consisted of and what Natasha could expect from it.
Maria didn’t exactly understand the specifics herself but did her best to convey what was going to happen. When they finished through the first packet, Maria selected the Reeses peanut butter cups at her side and slid them over to Natasha before picking up the printed version of the SHIELD manual and walking Natasha through that as well.
The treat pile at her side grew smaller and smaller as Maria talked and went through the things she had with her.
When Maria finished, she had nothing left at her side. She left the cell with empty hands, leaving behind a woman with peanut butter treats and stacks of papers.
Deprogramming was rough. Not only that but it threw the carefully crafted routine that Maria made in the trash. Maria was far too busy to be there for it as much as she loathed, but she always made time to visit when her work was done for the day.
Natasha was always exhausted, curled up on her bed and bundled under the thin blanket she had. She barely even looked at Maria for the first two days.
Maria knew that she wasn’t eating. She was even turning down whatever peanut butter items Maria would bring for her. Maria could tell the woman was miserable. She couldn’t begin to imagine what going through deprogramming felt like, but she imagined it was a lot of headaches.
Maria shifted from bringing protein bars and peanut butter candy to high-calorie drinks. She had never had to sit at someone’s bedside and argue with them about drinking from a bottle of Pedialyte before but there was a first time for everything.
It got to the point where Maria called a full stop to the operation. “She needs a day off.”
“We can’t stop now,” the head agent of the deprogramming argued.
“We’re not stopping, we’re taking a break,” Maria retorted. She let the warning lilt in her tone tell him that he was starting to edge on dangerous territory. “Okay?”
The agent ducked his head down with a reluctant huff. “Yes, sir.”
Maria managed to get Clint’s paperwork shuffled around so that he could spend the day with Natasha and keep her company. However, he showed up halfway through the day looking frustrated.
“Look, I know you hate stupid questions,” he started and Maria paused to look up from her computer as he paced in front of her desk. “But Nat is asking for this thing from one of the vending machines But all of the vending machines I’ve seen don’t have something like that in them. It’s all candy and chips but she doesn’t want that, she’s asking for--”
“A peanut butter cluster protein bar,” Maria inferred and Clint’s mouth snapped shut as his head whipped around to look at her. “They’re in the vending machines by the gyms. That’s where all the protein-dense snacks go.”
“The gyms,” Clint muttered to himself before nodding slowly. “Right, that makes sense. Thank you so much. I could kiss you.”
Maria wrinkled her nose. “Please don’t,” she commented before sighing. “How is she doing?”
Clint slumped in on himself. “She’s exhausted. The kind where you’re so tired your brain can’t even conjure up horrors to terrorize you in your dreams.”
Maria was familiar with that type of exhaustion. Maria shifted and then reached down to her pocket where two dollars had become settled there each day. She pulled them out and extended her arm to Clint.
Clint eyed the money. “What’s that?”
“Money,” Maria retorted and Clint raised an eyebrow. “Use it to buy her the thing she wanted from the vending machine. You’ll get a quarter in change, give that to her too.”
Clint’s brow furrowed at the instructions but he reached out to take the money offered. “Okay…” He glanced up at her. Maria could see him open his mouth, likely to thank her for pushing to take the Black Widow under her control. Maria was quick to wave him off, making it clear that he was dismissed, and instead, Clint gave her a smile as he left, giving the two dollars in his hand a small wave.
When Maria eventually called it a night, she deviated from her usual route to check in on the woman in the cell. She didn’t bother to go in when she saw the sleeping form curled up on the bed. It appeared that Clint had broken protocol and took a few things he shouldn’t have into the cell but Maria couldn’t fault him for it, nor would she take away the new blanket and pillow inside that were currently being used.
Maria turned and went to her own bed, a familiar exhaustion wrapped around her like a blanket and dragging her down into the pits of sleep before she could think twice.
A frantic call was placed to her two days later telling her that she was needed immediately in the room where they were deprogramming. They hit a snag, triggered the Black Widow, and an agent got hurt.
Maria ran from her office all the way to where the deprogramming was taking place. As soon as she entered the room, familiar hands shoved her up against the wall. Maria ordered everyone else out of the room, and when they hesitated she raised her voice.
She turned her attention immediately onto Natasha. She could feel the hands gripping her uniform shake slightly. There were a few drops of blood on the floor from the agent that Natasha hurt.
As much as Maria wanted to get frustrated and yell, she didn’t. She could force submission on the Black Widow, that she was sure of, but she wasn’t going to get anywhere if she did.
Maria gently gripped the wrists holding her in place. She doesn’t attempt to shove her off, merely providing a grounding touch. “It’s alright.”
Green eyes blink at her slowly, the hands gripping her collar twisting much like the first time Maria met her. Maria shifted her weight to take the pressure off of her throat from where the fabric was getting tight.
“That’s enough,” Maria told her firmly, squeezing the wrists in her hold slightly. “Let me go.”
Natasha continued to stare.
“Natasha,” Maria repeated, letting a small warning creep into her tone. “Let me go. Now.”
After a few seconds, the grip on her uniform loosened slightly, just enough to take the pressure off of her throat.
“Good,” Maria breathed out, loosening her grip on the wrists slightly. “Let’s sit down, hmm?”
Maria wasn’t used to the kind of softness that was needed at the moment. It was something much better suited for Phil or Clint. But Natasha was her responsibility so Maria needed to give her what she needed.
At the moment, that was softness.
“Come on,” Maria slowly sank down the wall first, gently tugging Natasha down with her. The woman knelt down when she had to, green eyes still trained on Maria’s face. She still had a grip on Maria’s uniform, her fingers tight and knuckles white but she wasn’t twisting anymore.
“There we go,” Maria sighed out once she settled against the wall. She kept a grip on Natasha’s wrists, her thumb stroking along her inner wrist to give her something to focus on.
Finally, Natasha leaned forward just slightly. “Maria?”
The sound of her first name jolted Maria but she covered it up quickly. “Yes. It’s me.”
She wasn’t expecting the figure in front of her to slump forward into her but it was like Natasha had no more energy to hold herself upright. Maria let go of Natasha’s wrists and scrambled to wrap an arm around her instead to brace her.
“You’re okay,” Maria promised as Natasha let out a shuddering breath. “I’ve got you.”
Maria had more pressing things she needed to do, but instead, she settled on the floor and held a woman going through mental torture because she needed Maria more than paperwork.
When Natasha finished deprogramming, Maria gave her three days to recover where she would then reassess the situation. She felt like a week was much more needed but she also knew that Natasha would probably find it insulting to think she would need so long to recover.
Clint kept Natasha company for most of the time and Maria would more often than not find him in her cell when he wasn’t supposed to be there. He’d sneak Natasha little things she wasn’t supposed to have, mostly for comfort. A hoodie, better-smelling soaps, socks, and things like that.
When Maria tried to get them back into the routine they had settled into, she noticed that Natasha was more subdued. She still backtalked and snarked but she wasn’t quite so on edge anymore.
Maria assumed that things were settling in and that the next time she spoke with the higher-ups they would deem Natasha well enough to be transferred to an actual room and start training as a SHIELD agent.
Unfortunately, Maria’s life is full of problems and the world liked to spit on her so there was an incident before she got the chance to meet with them.
Maria was informed that there was an incident with the Black Widow, she had put another agent in the infirmary, and she was being detained due to the violence.
Maria found her in her cell, guards swarming outside of it. An object was held out to her, blood staining bits of it. It took Maria a moment to realize that it was a sock stuffed with something heavy.
Looking inside the sock, Maria’s heart sank at the sight of the quarters she had been giving Natasha. The woman had collected them all in a sock and then used it as a weapon. She hadn’t realized the amount of money she had been spending on vending machine snacks until she felt the weight of the sock.
Maria took the makeshift weapon with her into the cell with her despite the attempted protests of the other guards. Maria shut them down hard and told them that if they had a problem with it then to take it up with the Director himself.
Natasha didn’t look up at her when Maria entered the room. She was sitting on the edge of her bed which was missing the blanket and pillow that Clint had given to her.
“Sit.” Maria pointed a finger to the floor in front of her. Natasha glanced at her hand before she slid off the bed to sit on the floor in front of her. Maria held out the bloodied sock to her. “Empty this on the floor.”
Natasha hesitated before taking the sock and dumping the contents onto the floor. Maria moved her boot to stop a few coins from rolling away.
“Count them,” Maria ordered. Natasha finally blinked up at her in confusion but Maria merely raised an impatient eyebrow. Natasha looked back down at the collection of coins and started to sort through them to count.
When she finished, four neat stacks of coins, she looked back up at Maria.
“Well? How many?” Maria inquired.
“Thirty-four,” Natasha said quietly.
“Thirty-four,” Maria repeated as she lowered herself to kneel in front of Natasha. “Do you know what that means?”
Natasha refused to meet her gaze.
“Thirty-four good days. Thirty-four days where you got peanut butter cluster bars. Thirty-four times where you were good. Where you did well.” Maria reached out and knocked the stacks over to spread the coins out. “Look at how many. You were doing good. I trusted you with these.”
Natasha bowed her head, hiding behind a curtain of red hair.
“So what happened?” Maria pressed. “Why?”
“It doesn’t matter,” Natasha replied quietly.
“It does.” Maria’s firm tone made Natasha withdraw slightly. Maria took a deep breath and held it for a moment before letting it out. “I’m asking for your side of things. I want to hear it. So tell me.”
Natasha was quiet for a long time but Maria waited patiently. Her knees were starting to ache from kneeling on the uncomfortable floor but she bore it for the moment. She had been through worse.
“Clint gave me those things,” Natasha finally said softly. Maria almost had to strain to hear her. “They said it wasn’t allowed. They were going to take them away. I just wanted the hoodie. I was wearing it. They tried to take it off. I… did not react well.”
Maria pressed her lips together unhappily. It had been an honest oversight on her part to let the others know that Natasha could keep the things in her cell. None of them were dangerous, more comfort items than anything. “I’m sorry they tried to do that.”
Natasha’s head finally snapped up to peer at Maria in confusion. “I broke the rules. I apologize.”
“Natasha, nothing you do will ever warrant an agent attempting to remove a piece of clothing you are wearing,” Maria said seriously. “That was inappropriate and unacceptable. You are allowed to defend yourself if anyone ever tries to do that.”
Natasha looked away.
“Natasha,” Maria said firmly to get her attention. “Do you understand that? If any agent here ever acts like that again then you tell them to get me and tell me about it.”
“Yes, ma’am,” Natasha mumbled. Maria doesn’t really think she understood the seriousness of the situation but they would work their way there.
Maria sighed and gathered the coins back up in the sock. “I’ll speak with them about getting you your things back. You’re going to be on lockdown for a few days so no gym.”
“I’m sorry,” Natasha impressed once again.
“I know.” Maria stood back up with the sock of coins. “I’ll be back to check on you later.”
Maria took the sock full of coins with her when she left.
The next time Maria saw Natasha, the woman had her things back. Clint had dropped off a chess board for her to keep herself entertained while locked down in the cell and the woman was playing a game against herself when Maria entered.
Natasha’s gaze immediately snapped to the item Maria had tucked under one arm, following Maria as she crossed the room closer to her.
“I hope I can trust you with these,” Maria commented as she held out a plastic jar half-filled with plastic beads.
Natasha warily took the container. “What is this?” She turned it over in her hands as if searching for instructions.
“A jar containing thirty-six plastic beads to replace the quarters,” Maria replied before she dug into her pocket and pulled out the money she put in there this morning. “Here. This is yours.”
Natasha eyed it in confusion. “What for?”
“It’s the quarters I took,” Maria explained. She had exchanged them for eight single-dollar bills and a half-dollar coin. “It’s yours.”
Natasha snatched the money as if Maria was going to yank it away at the last second. She quietly counted it before pausing and looking back up at Maria. “Why are you doing this?”
Maria didn’t have an answer, at least not one that she thought would satisfy the woman. “I’m just doing what is right.”
Natasha eyed her before nodding slowly.
Along with two dollars, a handful of plastic beads were added to Maria’s pocket.
The next month consisted of Maria convincing the higher-ups to move Natasha to a proper bunk and start her out on some baby missions to test the waters. Clint eagerly volunteered to be her partner, and after confirming it with Mockingbird, Hawkeye was paired up with Black Widow for all future missions.
Things were going smoothly. Maria didn’t have to hover or constantly check in on Natasha. Clint had practically taken over her duty of watching over the woman.
Natasha seemed to be adjusting well. Maria knew that she still wasn’t quite eating as much as she should from the canteen but she also knew that Clint would sneak plastic bags from a grocery store to Natasha so the woman had her own little stash of food in her room.
More often than not, Maria found money already in her pocket when she went to replace it the next day. It reminded her of the fact that she hadn’t bought anything from a vending machine in a while. She never quite realized how much she was spending until she suddenly had an extra fourteen dollars at the end of each week.
To be honest, some part of Maria missed it.
Maria seldom went out into the field but whenever she did, she had a handful of competent agents at her back.
Still, even with competent agents, mistakes can be made. Missions can go from nearly perfect to a complete shitshow in a matter of seconds.
Maria and her team made it out alive, but they were battered.
“Commander, you need to sit down,” an agent insisted as Maria swayed on her feet, a hand clutching her abdomen. “You were shot twice.”
Maria reluctantly let herself be pushed into a seat. She wanted the medic of the team to handle the others first, she knew that another agent was shot in the shoulder, but it was insisted that she was the most injured.
It wasn’t until Maria saw the blood soaking through the many layers of sterile gauze that she realized the extent of the injury. She barely even felt it due to the adrenaline pumping through her veins.
“You need to lay down, Commander,” the agent putting pressure on her abdomen said. “You’re going to pass out soon.”
Maria felt lightheaded, her mouth dry as her head pounded. She blinked at the agent as a new set of hands gently gripped her shoulders, a second pair grasping the ankles of her boots, and she was shifted to lie down. She let out a stifled cry of pain when the agent readjusted their hands on her abdomen to apply more pressure.
“You’re going to be just fine, Commander,” the told her firmly. “You’re doing well.”
Maria could have laughed at the praise that was directed at her but it would have hurt too much. Instead, she choked on a cough and sucked in a sharp breath when it got hard to breathe.
She doesn’t even remember passing out.
Maria awoke briefly when they were prepping her for surgery. Doctors in masks hovered over her, the bright lights above her blinding Maria as she tried to open her eyes.
“Easy there, Maria. You’re okay. You’re getting prepped for surgery.” A doctor’s face swam into view above her as a gloved hand gently gripped her jaw to tilt her head back, an oxygen mask pressed to her mouth. “Breathe as deeply as you can.”
“My agents?” Maria breathed out, the plastic scent of the mask making the metallic taste in her mouth more apparent.
“Your agents are fine, ma’am,” they reassured her before reminding her, “Deep breaths.”
Maria faded into the darkness once more.
Maria came to with a groan, the sharp scent of something sterile assaulting her nostrils. Her mouth was dry, her tongue sticking to the roof of her mouth as she tried to open her eyes.
Something brushed against her lips and she cracked her eyes open just enough to see the figure of Nick Fury standing there, holding a styrofoam cup with a straw to her lips. She latched onto the straw and was rewarded with cool water that moistened her parched throat.
“Glad to see you’re still kicking, Hill,” Fury commented, tugging away the cup before Maria could greedily swallow all of it down. “Two gut shots.”
“It’s my specialty,” Maria croaked out, wincing at the tugging on her abdomen when she spoke. “Status report?”
“Don’t worry about it,” Fury brushed her off. “You’re on mandatory recovery for the next three days. Medical is under orders to not give you a computer or phone.”
“C’mon!” Maria protested, trying to sit up before giving up with a groan of pain. “I’m going to go insane here if I can’t at least work.”
“Don’t get shot next time,” Fury retorted and Maria rolled her eyes.
“You’re punishing me for being shot?” She said sarcastically.
“Well, I sure ain’t rewarding it,” Fury snarked back before a small smile graced his lips. “Rest up, Hill. You’ve earned it.”
“Will you at least bring me decent food,” Maria asked before he left. “I will not survive on whatever they try to feed me.”
“Sorry, Hill. You’re on a liquid diet for the next two days,” Fury commented, not sounding too apologetic about it.
Maria groaned and sank into her sheets, grateful when the time for her next dose of pain medication came around and she could sleep some more.
The next two days consisted of Maria trying to finagle a phone or laptop out of one of the staff members, even trying her hand with Phil when he came to visit her.
“Sorry, Ria. Strict orders,” Phil commented as he stuck his hands into his pockets. “Wish I could help.”
“No you don’t, you smug asshole,” Maria retorted and Phil laughed. “I’m able to eat actual food tomorrow. Will you bring me something decent?”
“I’ll see what I can do,” Phil promised.
But something must have come up because Maria didn’t see him again the next day and nobody would give her any updates.
Maria occupied herself by taking naps and reading the trashy magazines supplied to her by Phil the last time he visited.
Maria had her first physical therapy appointment where she stood for the first time since the surgery and took a few steps. The whole thing took a lot out of her and she was exhausted afterward, rewarded with pain medication and blissful sleep.
When she woke up, it was night and Maria’s stomach grumbled unhappily, yelling at her to eat something other than bland hospital food.
Maria turned to reach for the cup on the rolling table next to her, pausing when she noticed something that wasn’t there before.
There, sitting next to her water cup, was a peanut butter cluster bar and a quarter.
Maria grinned as she picked the bar up and opened it to take a bite.
She never realized quite how much she liked peanut butter.