The Portal
“Charlie team prepare for extract on the Eastern side of the rooftop,” she watched the blinking dots turn towards the left, “your other East Charlie team,” the blinking dots walked back towards where they started, “Your other other East Charlie team."
Maria rolled her eyes and spoke one last time, "prepare for directional training after debrief.”
“That's never going to make sense to me," the man in her office doorway spoke as he placed a cup of coffee in front of her "How is it that they can complete a mission under your guidance with near perfect accuracy, until extraction?”
“If I knew the answer to that question, we wouldn't be going over 4th grade geography for the third time, tonight after debrief,” she pinched the bridge of her nose before wrapping her fingers around the warm cup.
“And Hard-ass-Hill keeps her name,” Coulson smirked at the thought of Maria standing in front of a projector with maps; showing a group of agents the difference between east and west for the third time.
“If they were competent with directions at even the most basic level, I wouldn’t have to be Hard-ass-Hill,” she took a sip, “thanks.”
“After a night and a mission like that I was sure you needed it.”
The mission had been complicated from the start, not dangerous, but complicated. It took hours of planning and running through drills with various teams to make sure Charlie Team was ready to enter a lab, collect the necessary equipment and data, and get out before anyone other than the scientists who were scheduled to work that day showed up. The mission was a complete success (sans extraction point) and SHIELD was one step closer to finding the right materials to stabilize the tesseract.
“Long night indeed,” the commander pulled a long sip from the cup before placing it back down and checking on the agents who had now entered the quinjet.
“Nothing more than what you’re used to at this point,” the man wiggled his eyebrows.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” she rolled her eyes and kept them on the monitor in front of her.
“It doesn’t take a college degree in geography to know that your bunk and agent Romanoff's bunk are nowhere near each other,” his voice was low as he teased his friend, “and yet, I’ve seen her coming out of your room on the carrier several times now.”
So much for being a super spy , she thought. “Don’t know what you’re talking about, Phil.”
The older agent hummed and shook his head, “Well if you and Romanoff aren’t ‘not hanging out’ tonight,” he put the words in air quotes, “let me know, we can grab dinner.”
“Still don't know what you’re talking about. I’ll bring takeout to your place after the debrief and impromptu geography lesson,” she watched him nod and stand with a smile.
“You have fun with that, see ya later,” he pushed in the chair he had been sitting in and left her office.
Maria double checked all of the agents were safely in the jet and on their way back to the helicarrier before pulling out her phone.
Maria: Phil’s on to us, have to have dinner with him tonight to throw him off the trail.
Nat: :(
Maria: Swing by after 8?
Nat: :)
The brunette forced the smile she felt creeping on her lips down before putting her phone back in her pocket. She reminded herself that it was just sex between her and the redhead, nothing more. Definitely not something to cause her to smile at her phone like a love-struck teenager.
Maria was on the intake team when Barton brought back the Russian a few years prior. She watched the archer get verbally ripped into by every agent who was a level 7 and higher, she also watched him as he would shrug off every senior agent and just say “I made the call, we're going to have to live with it.” Maria herself wanted to yell at the man until she started the onboarding process with the former Russian assassin. It was then she saw what Clint had, and she understood why he made the call he did.
The mysterious Black widow, the ghost killer that had the looks of Hollywood and the skills of a 10-man army. The killer who felt no fear, felt no pain, had no remorse. Only when Maria sat down in the interrogation room and took a look at the woman across from her, she was shocked to find that that wasn’t the case at all. The woman across from her had a face that was sunken in, her skin was pale and sickly, she looked young, dirty, and tired. It was not the face of a painless killer, it was the face of a young woman who was lost in life and didn’t care if the next moment was her last.
“You made the right call Barton,” she left the room after hours of the interrogation and found the young man still waiting in the hallway.
“I couldn’t…” he trailed, he didn’t need to say anything else, Maria knew what the next words would have been.
“You made the right call,” she reiterated, placing her hand on his shoulder before walking away.
She thought about this exact interaction while watching said archer trip over one of the stairs on his way into her office.
“Well hello there Commander, what a pleasant surprise to see you here!” his voice was overly excited as he walked into her office, both hands holding a cup of coffee.
“It’s my office Barton, what do you want?”
“Oh, what, your agent can’t come and say hi to his favorite handler? That’s a crime now?” he looked at the other coffee cup that sat to the left of her hand.
She raised a single eyebrow at the man.
“Damn, already have coffee?” He placed one down in front of her, “there goes the bribe.”
“I’ll still gladly take it,” she reached for the cup as it was pulled back, “risky game you’re playing Barton.”
“Just hear me out, then coffee. Coffee that I got from your favorite place off base and kept warm on the seat warmer of my car,” the blonde emphasized with eyes that screamed ‘ hear me out before you say no ’.
“You have 2 minutes,” she glanced at the clock above her door.
He walked in and closed it behind him, “The oldest duckling has a swim showcase on Friday and if I leave tonight I can be there to make his favorite, orange crush pop tarts, before he leaves for school and then I can pick him up before the showcase and I’ll be the best… duck father… ever!”
Clint talked quickly, trying his best to fill the full two minutes she had allotted with vague duck analogies. Maria was among the small group of people who knew about Clint’s family, mainly because she knew Laura as an agent before retiring.
“And she already said she would cover for me if needed so I just think that if you would sign off on it, it would be great and-” he continued to ramble.
“Who?”
“Who what?” He stopped and looked at the brunette behind the desk.
“Who said they would cover for you?” She had to hold in the smile that was threatening to creep across her face as the man in front of her knitted his eyebrows together in thought.
“Oh!” he straightened his face and smiled “Tasha, she said she would cover so I already thought that through, and if you-” he started to ramble once more.
“Fine,” she cut him off and reached out her hand, “coffee.”
“Thanks, Ria!” he shoved the cup in her hand, still warm, “Sorry, thanks, commander.”
“Fill out the paperwork and have it in my inbox an hour before you leave.”
It was a fine line between boss and friend, one that Maria walked with near perfection, opting to not make friends with any of her assets. Still there were times where her role as Deputy Director tumped all and one of her friends ended up having to come to her for missions or requests. Requests such as last minute time off approval which Clint was giddy with as he stood alone in her office.
As much as he was a bird brain, it had been smart for him to come without his partner. Coming as a team was too much most of the time and would have granted him an immediate “no” after he or Natasha inevitably broke something inside.
“Will do commander!” he threw the door open, it ricocheted against the wall and flung back at him, “sorry” he apologized to the door.
She shook her head and listened carefully as he left.
“She say yes?” Natasha’s voice was quiet and trailing as the two of them walked away.
“Yeah, I just have to fill out the paperwork or whatever,” his voice was louder.
“Fill it out, Barton!” Maria yelled from her desk, knowing they would hear it.
“I will, thanks again Commander,” he yelled back sheepishly and she could envision him shaking his head as he said it, “I swear she has supersonic hearing.”
She downed the coffee Phil had gotten her and, in one perfect arch, threw the cup away in the trashcan by the door. The coffee Barton had gotten her was in fact her favorite, even as it reached lukewarm temperature. She thought back and couldn’t remember the last time she went to Compass Coffee, opting to get her subpar coffee from the Triskelion cafe instead.
There was an alert on her computer letting her know that Carlie Team would be arriving back in the next two hours from their mission. The blue-eyed woman leaned back in her chair and savored her coffee as she double-clicked on the PowerPoint presentation saved to her computer. She watched the screen enlarge and now read: The Sun, where it’s located and how it can help YOU find your location!
Maria dismissed a group of agents that (she hoped) now had a better understanding of their geography as a tapping sound came from the glass wall on one side of the conference room.
<See you Monday> Clint signed from the other side of the glass as he smiled.
The brunette waited for the man to popped his head into the room fully before asking him her follow up question.
“The paperwork is in my inbox, Barton?” She pushed in a few chairs as she walked by them, how are people so messy ?
“Yep, all there,” he smiled and gave a thumbs-up as if to convince her of this.
“Have a good weekend, Clint. Tell the ducklings and Laura I said hi,” she returned his smile and watched him throw a duffle bag over his shoulder.
“Will do, bye Ria!” He yelled.
But then again, the archer was always yelling.
Maria sighed and made her way back to her office, figuring she had time to finish a few more things before meeting Phil for dinner.
There was always more to do before dinner, before bed, before heading to work. She knew her work consumed her life, and was even more aware of the fact that very few things were off-limits to her in terms of when work should be put on pause for something more important. Her phone vibrated as she thought about this:
Nat: 1 Video Msg.
She closed the door to her office and sat in her chair, eyes glued to the screen in her hand, very few things were work off-limits indeed. Video messages from Natasha were one of them.
“Hill,” the redhead started with an eyebrow raised, “you sign off on Barton’s leave, and almost immediately I’m told that he was scheduled for a new agent recruitment tour tomorrow morning? How is it fair that now I have to do that?”
Maria smiled as she watched the spy talk into her phone, arm outstretched so that she could see most of her face and the surrounding area that Maria now recognized as the hallway outside the gym. Natasha texted often, called never, and sent video messages nearly constantly. She said that it "conveyed how she felt" more accurately, an action that the Russian's therapist had suggested.
The videos always started in one of four ways, all meaning something different, all things the Commander had learned at this point:
Videos starting with “Riaaaaaaa” were normally about something non-urgent like what they were serving in the cafeteria that day. “Commander/Hill,” was when she was pissed off at a work-related thing, typically something completely out of Maria’s control but she was the person the Russian chose to complain to about it. “Hi Mia,” was the start of videos that were strictly saved for when the brunette was alone with her door locked (normally on missions where Natasha was in the field for more than a week). The last were the ones that Maria cherished the most, they always started with a small smile and then “Hey Masha”. From there, the video could go anywhere. Maria liked to believe that it was the sense of mystery that made her heart melt at the start of those videos.
“Hey, Masha” videos ranged from slightly intoxicated Natasha in front of a bar smoking a cigarette, to ever so subtly puffy-eyed Natasha on the roof of her apartment in the city. Those videos always got an instant reply form Maria and a drive to wherever the redhead was currently located.
“Anyway, I don’t want to do that and I’m pretty sure SHIELD will fire me if I scare any more baby agents off before their first day. But if a tall handsome Commander was by my side to keep me in check,” the redhead said this with her voice lowered as she passed agents in the hall, “well that would make it a little more bearable. See ya later. Okaybye.”
Maria closed the video and texted back: I’ll consider it after tonight.
As often as she got the video messages for Natasha, she rarely responded back in one (Unless it was a “hi Mia” video, those always got a video response). She spent most of her life writing in the form of messages, emails, mission reports, and felt like she could accurately convey her attitude back in one just fine.
Nat: I think I have a few ways of persuading you ;)
The woman shook her head and got back to reading over various leave requests and mission reports. Charlie team had come back with a few hard-drives worth of data on the tesseract that she sent to the data team to encrypt before sending it to the right scientists. She knew that Fury had a plan for it all and was currently talking to Dr. Selvig about different ways the energy source could be used.
Personally, Maria didn't understand why so many people were interested in the cube which had both powered the underground lab it was being held in and created a small portal just for a moment before closing again. But then again, there was a lot in the agency that she kept her nose out of either due to the dullness of, or the importance of including this. It seemed like the whole “power source from outer space” thing would lead to nothing good and she didn’t want to be on the ground floor when that happened.
So instead she approved requests and helped with mission planning until the next time she looked at the clock she realized that not only was she late, but she was also going to be even later having to stop by for take out. She grabbed her jacket and keys as she locked her office door and headed to the garage. As per usual the lot was mostly empty by the time she got to the black car she had recently purchased.
She had been driving a tan sedan for the last 10 years, it was great on gas and had been fully paid off in her first year at SHIELD. It was also the ugliest “grandma” car that both Natasha and Fury said they had ever seen and so after another year with the car, she finally upgraded to an Audi TT two-seater.
She backed out of the spot and punched it to the family-owned Mexican restaurant located right outside of the gates. Phil had shown it to her when they first started working at the Triskelion full time and it was now a staple of her diet. The spring air was warm and smelled like roasted chilies and garlic as she pulled into the spot and got out of the car.
“One or two?” The woman behind the counter asked in Spanish as she watched the brunette walk in.
Maria held up two fingers, she came often and ordered the same thing enough times, that the staff only needed to know if she was feeding it to one or two people. She opened the cooler door next to her and grabbed two glass coke bottles before walking over to the register.
“How’s your day going today?” A teenage girl who was standing behind the register asked, as the first woman disappeared into the kitchen to make the food.
“Pretty good, long but hey it’s almost the weekend,” Maria had gotten good at small talk over the years of having to talk to recruits, her platoon in the Army, and world council members.
“Lucky you,” the teenager rolled her eyes and sighed loudly.
The blue-eyed woman chuckled, “no rest for the wicked huh?”
“No rest ever,” she sighed again and slouched in the chair she was sitting in.
“You’ll be thankful for that when all of your schooling is paid for,” the woman from the back reemerged and handed a bag of takeout over to Maria.
It was moments like this that made the commander miss her grandmother and aunts who raised her. The smells in the restaurant, the weathered hands of the Latina woman in front of her giving an abundance of love to the teenager, all of it made her heartache.
She reached into her pocket and grabbed two bills, handing them over to the girl behind the counter.
“Keep the change,” she turned around and left before letting her heart hurt any more.
The garage of the apartment complex was underground and full of cars that would be at the Triskelion along with hers in the morning. The building was technically property of SHIELD and therefore old and boring as each contained: a bedroom, small kitchen, small living/dining room, and bathroom. It was then up to the agents to make it a “home”, or at least that was what the executives pitched.
However, some people were much better at decorating than others which was why it was hard to believe that she and Phil had identical layouts, just on different floors, as she walked into his apartment. His place was warm and inviting, the couch and loveseat were light grey with wooden legs that matched the coffee table perfectly, the throw blanket and pillows were placed perfectly. This design carried through the rest of the apartment seamlessly, it was as if a home design catalog had been replicated in the space down to the clear cereal containers that adorned the floating cabinets in his kitchen.
“Sorry,” was the first word out of her mouth as she kicked off her shoes and made her way to the living room, “I lost tra-”
“Track of time,” the agent finished her sentence, “I know, that’s why I always eat a late lunch when you say you’re bringing dinner.”
She gave an apologetic smile and opened the to-go box which immediately filled the small space with a delightful aroma that she could hear Coulson inhale. He returned with a bottle opener and two glasses for the coke, along with a bottle of top-shelf rum.
“May get back tomorrow?” she missed the woman who was completely different in her own home, then when she was at work.
“Bright and early,” Phil beamed as he poured the coke into the glasses.
“Speaking of early, what do you know about the recruitment tour tomorrow?” She tried to ask nonchalantly as she bit into a taco.
“I know that it was Barton's responsibility,” he opened the bottle of rum and added it to the glasses, “which means it’s now Romanoff’s, which means you’re probably going to get roped into it.”
Maria rolled her eyes, “just tell me about it.”
“It might actually be useful for you now that I think about it, maybe you can show them our command room and have them point out where south is, take your pick from there,” he smiled and ate a spoon full of rice.
She snort-laughed, Phil was one of the handful of people who ever heard her do it. Maybe it would be good to go in that case, just for work, obviously.
“You seeing her tonight?” He chuckled at the sound she made.
“Yeah,” there was no point in denying it away from work.
“You guys should come to dinner with Mel and I next Sunday. Kinda like a double date.”
“That would imply that we are dating,” she took another bite and locked eyes with the older agent next to her, “which we are not.”
“Come on Ria, you two are practically in love with each other. You spend most nights together, you text each other all day, you let her bully you into a much nicer car,” he was making good points.
“She’s just a friend who, like myself, is not looking for anything serious.”
“She told you that?” Coulson challenged.
“Yeah, we both said it when this started” she had remembered the conversation well, she remembered what came after that conversation even better.
“And when was that?” He was pushing it now.
“I don't know like… a year… year and a half ago?”
“Ria people’s feelings change over time ya know,” he took a sip of his drink and winced slightly, “maybe you have the conversation again.”
They sat there and ate and talked for long enough that Phil had convinced her to “just think about” going on a double date with him and May. Which is to say, she sat there and talked for too long.
Maria felt her phone vibrate and without having to look she knew who it was from. So did Phil.
“Have fun,” he smirked as she got up.
“See ya tomorrow,” she threw away her trash and made her way to the door.
Natasha didn’t live in the building, she lived in a nicer place with Steve a few blocks over. But by the time Maria descended the staircase to the floor below Coulsons, the redhead had already gotten into the apartment, leaving the door ajar.
“You should have just kept the key,” Maria announced as she walked in.
The Russian had one hell of a green thumb and was Maria’s go-to house sitter when she was on the carrier alone. She had given her a key each time she asked the spy to water her plants, and each time it was kindly returned with a red ribbon attached to it.
“Yeah but this keeps my skills sharp,” Natasha responded, placing a bobby pin back into place into the messy bun on her head she sat on Maria’s couch.
Maria’s apartment was clean, a little bare, but clean. Her navy blue couches had come from an aunt's old house and were slightly too large for the space, her TV was large but old, and her coffee table did not match at all. It wasn’t that she didn’t have the funds to upgrade everything, it was that she didn't have the time or the will. The apartment was used to sleep, have mind-blowing sex with Natasha, and watch old movies. There really wasn’t a need to make it fancy.
“Whatever you say,” she sat down on the coffee table across from the redhead, “you’re the boss.”
Natasha hummed and stood up as she took Maria’s face in her hands, tilting it up. She kissed her deeply, moving her hands from the brunette's face to gently placed them on her chest. The Russian trailed her fingers down, taking a button in her fingers and undoing it before coming up for air. Maria immediately missed the feeling on her lips and looked up at the sight in front of her.
Natasha’s hair had fallen from its bun and was now framing her face in perfect curls, her eyes were soft, her lips slightly parted and pink. She smiled as she watched Maria take her in before undoing more buttons, kissing her for every one. For a second, the brunette thought about what Phil had said about people’s feelings changing and how she should ask Natasha about it. But she brushed past the idea, there was no world in which she would bring that up and risk losing what she already had if the spy didn’t feel the same way.
This moment was too close to perfection to ever lose.
“Julia Roberts,” the green-eyed assassin was still slightly out of breath as she laid down next to the Commander.
“What?” Maria turned her head on the pillow to get a full view of the woman next to her.
“Julia Roberts,” she confirmed and trailed a finger up the brunette's forehead.
“If you’re telling me you had to think about Julia Roberts when you have sex with me-”
“No no, trust me you are more than enough,” she grinned with near devilish eyes, “in fact let me show you again just how wet you make-”
“Nat, what about Julia Roberts?”
“Right. She has a vein on her forehead like this,” she softly touched Maria’s forehead again, “and during the filming of Pretty Woman they had to massage it so that it didn’t stick out as much between takes.”
There was a lot about Natasha that no one knew, her extensive knowledge of movies from the 80s and 90s was one of those things. She explained to Maria one day in a “hey Masha” video that it was how she would practice her American accent when she first joined the agency. Other than Clint all of the agents were afraid of her and she lived down the street from a Blockbuster so every weekend she would watch movies and recite them back to sound more American.
“So what I’m hearing is you think I’m as pretty as young Julia Roberts?” the brunette joked.
“Prettier,” Natasha replied so quietly as she kissed her on the cheek that Maria thought she might have made it up.
She laid in bed and watched the redhead pull her clothes back on, just as enthralled as she was watching her take them off.
“What time are they getting to the Triskelion tomorrow?”
“7:45 AM sharp,” she was pulling her hair back into a messy bun with a small smile.
“I want it on the record that sex was not payment for that,” Maria sat up against the headboard of her bed, “makes me feel gross.”
“Oh, so we have a record now huh?” Natasha jumped slightly to get her pants all the way up.
The brunette's face flushed, “No, it’s a saying- a figure of speech- I was just-”
“It’s fine,” Natasha kissed her on the cheek, “you’re cute, see you tomorrow.”
And with that she left, seemingly having taken all the oxygen out of the room as Maria sat there embarrassed, cursing Phil internally for getting in her head. She slid down in her bed and stared at her ceiling, replaying the interaction she just had until she fell asleep.
The air was cool this far below the earth's surface, the tension that accompanied it made Maria want to shiver. It seemed that the hard drives that Charlie team brought back had been monumental for further exploration of the tesseract, something that the scientists now wanted to show Fury.
“Sir, with all due respect, I don't understand why I’m here,” the brunette walked alongside the director as they descended the last staircase in the building.
“I’m a busy man, Hill,” he kept his head straight forward.
“I am well aware,” she continued to match his pace as they got to the bottom of the stairwell.
“And you’re a busy woman,” again he kept his head forward, offering nothing else.
“Which is why I don’t understand why I’m here, sir,” there was a mountain of work that she needed to finish back at her desk. But instead, she was cold, annoyed, and standing in front of a group of scientists.
“Figured a field trip would do you some good,” he finally turned to look at her, “unless you have other extracurricular activities you’d rather be doing?”
Fury only had one eye, but never missed anything. Including the way that his second in command acted as soon as Natasha was in the room. He had watched her show up a little before 8am the week before to talk to some of the new recruits and had been harassing her about it ever since.
“I already told you, sir, that was strictly to see if there were any new candidates that would benefit from work in the strategic analysis sector,” she felt the blush creep over her face.
The man didn’t even dignify this with an answer, instead, he turned and began talking to one of the scientists. Maria had a system in place for categorizing her relationships with people so that wires were never crossed and moments like this never happened. Clint was a friend but an agent first, Phil and May were colleagues but friends first, Laura was just a friend these days, but Fury was in a category all alone. He was her mentor and she looked up to him in many ways. Which is why conversations like this (which he seemed to always get a kick out) made her squirm just a little.
“Commander Hill, what a pleasant surprise ma’am,” Dr. Selvig stuck his hand out and shook hers.
“A surprise to us both,” she glanced over to her boss, “what's going on today?”
“Do you recall the report of the small portal that the energy source created a few months ago?” The scientist walked over to a laptop where other agents were gathered around.
“I do.”
“Well over the last four days, at exactly the same time each day, we are getting glimpses into that portal again,” Selvig had a large smile across his face.
“Who authorized this?” She had a feeling of what the answer would be, but if they were being authorized by someone, that paperwork would need to be filled out and make its way to her desk.
“No one,” one of the other agents looked nervous as she answered, “they just happen on their own ma’am. After we figured out some of the inner workings from those files your team brought back.”
“How much longer?” Fury spoke for the first time tot he group.
“About 3 minutes, if you could please stand behind the protective barrier sir,” the agent motioned to a large bulletproof tunnel to the side.
Once they were behind the glass barrier Maria looked more closely at the setup. The tesseract had been placed in a container at one side of the room, opposite it was a metal rig that the commander had been informed was used to harness the energy. They waited for another minute before the cube began to shine brightly.
A single beam exploded from the center and caused a large blue ring to emerge where the metal rigging once stood. Her skin was covered in goosebumps as the ring continued to show an inky black hole. Then, the darkness started to take shape and as the brunette blinked once more, there was an office space in the hole. Chairs and tables were visible with computers scattered around.
“What is that?” she squinted harder to try and make it out.
“Dr. Selvig, an explanation?” Fury’s voice was loud behind the glass.
Maria looked at the scientist who's eyes were filled with amazement as he shook his head. Then, just as the portal started to close, a small child flashed in front of it for just a moment before portal closed once more.
“It has never taken an image before!” Selvig began typing away on the laptop in front of him, “where even was that? A bank? An office?”
“A Slavic nation,” the Commander spoke up as she followed Fury to the scientist.
“What?” this got his attention.
“The writing on the whiteboard in the back was written in Cyrillic,” she had picked some up from Natasha, “so, you’re looking at Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, or Russia most likely.”
She reached into the pocket on her uniform for a piece of paper and the pen she kept clipped to her left arm. The words on the board were already fading in her memory as she wrote them down quickly, hoping they would help at some point.
“Figure it out Selvig, I don’t want to be outdone by the Russians. I want a report by the end of the week,” Fury turned and walked back to the staircase with Maria following closely at his heel, “at least your extracurricular is paying off.”
“Sir?” She was still thinking about the writing.
“A year ago, you didn’t speak Russian,” his lips hinted at a smile as he continued to climb the stairs.
“I don’t speak Russian… well,” she thought about the phrases that she had gotten comfortable using around Natasha, “I don’t speak Russian well.”
“I don’t really give a damn about how well you speak it, I want you on this project and this project alone until we figure out what’s going on. I trust you to see it through,” he had reached the top level and opened the door to the parking lot, “I have matters at hand that cannot be fulfilled without that energy source.”
While doing her best to stay out of these affairs, she had been looped in on a few of the details including how the energy source would be used to harness the energy to create laser-like weapons. Fury had only ever mentioned it as ‘phase two’ and would leave it at that.
“I understand, sir,” she had noticed her boss becoming more stressed recently, “I’ll see to it.”
She followed him to his car and got into the passenger seat.
“Great,” he started the engine that roared to life, “then let’s have a conversation about your next car.”
“Sir, I just got my car,” she groaned and put her seatbelt on as they started driving entirely too fast.
“Which is why you should already be on the market for a new one,” he blew past the guard post and onto the main road, “now this model is great not only because of its sleek design but the features that you can…”
He continued to talk about the car the entire drive back to the Triskelion. It was during moments like this that Maria had a hard time figuring out the category that Fury fell into. He was her mentor, they weren’t truly friends, it was more formal than that. She thought back to her deadbeat dad and how this was the kind of relationship she was supposed to have with him.
Therapy Maria, you need to go back to therapy. Do not put your daddy issues onto Fury, she shook her head clear as they pulled into the Directors spot in the garage.
“Make sense?” he asked as he cut the engine.
She nodded and got out of the car, hoping the end of the conversation hadn't been important. There was too much on her mind, she didn’t need to add buying a new car to that list anyway.
“Let me know if you need backup and I’ll sign off on Morris or May to help out with intel,” he walked over to the elevator and pressed the button numerous times.
“Will do,” she stood next to him and waited for the elevator, entering it as the doors opened.
They rode the elevator up to the top floor where their offices were located, Maria peeling off to the left after saying her goodbyes. She wasn’t entirely sure where she should start on this project, knowing the scientists would be more apt to handle the reasoning behind the portal opening.
This logic is what left her trying to rack her brain for any additional information she could think of. The image looked like it was in some type of office building, but the equipment was dated and the writing on the board hadn’t made any sense. She looked down at the piece of paper with her handwriting scrawled across it in nearly illegible Russian writing.
In her haste, she was sure she had missed a few characters because every search she did of the words came back with nothing important. The translation of words ranging from socks and quarterly reviews to commercial logistics management. She was worried that it was all business jargon that was used in every office, regardless of country of origin. Again she tried and again she was met with the same translation “транспорт → transport” and then images of trains and cargo ships.
Her hands were grasped too firmly around her mouse as frustration crept in and she pushed away from her desk, annoyed. After a few deep breaths and the realization that she had been at this for five hours, she pulled out her phone.
Nat: 2 Video Msg.
Begrudgingly she smiled and opened the video, “Hi Riaaaaaa,” the spy's voice was chipper even as her flushed cheeks made it obvious she had been training, “found out that Barton gets back today from the farm which is fun, but more importantly, apparently, the caf bought too many muffins so they are giving them away to anyone. I’ll try and get you one depending on how many I can grab. Anywayyyyy talk to you soon, okaybye.”
Maria saved the message and went on to the next one, “RIA!” Natasha’s voice was loud on the speaker, a big smile on her face, “They let us take them all!” She panned the camera over to Clint who had at least 6 boxes of muffins obscuring his vision, “let me know when you’re free and I’ll bring you some. Hope you aren't too stressed, okaybye!”
The brunette wasn’t sure if it was the familiarity of listening to the redhead rush the last two words of the message together, the number of muffins she had, or the smile that still lingered, frozen in perfection, on her phone screen, but she couldn't help but want to call Natasha and tell her to come right now. However, that was desperate, they were just sleeping with each other, no feelings, just friends and coworkers. Nothing more, she had to remind herself as she slowly put her phone away.
That lasted another 15 minutes before she couldn't take it anymore and pulled her phone back out.
Maria: Sorry, busy day. Blueberry?
She waited and thought that maybe she should have said something better than that; something more flirty or at least more entertaining. Another minute went by without a response and Maria put her phone away, she was once again acting like a love-struck teen. They were just sleeping together. And yet as soon as her phone vibrated, she picked it up with the speed she normally reserved for pulling her gun from its holster.
Nat: My fav too. Be there in 10.
Sure enough, exactly ten minutes later, there ware two light knocks followed by a softer third on her door.
“Come in,” Maria looked up from her computer that she half wanted to throw off the roof at this moment.
“Someone is very grumpy considering she’s about to be gifted 5 free blueberry muffins,” the redhead closed the door behind her and placed five individually wrapped muffins on the desk.
“Sorry,” she looked at the woman who had now laid down full on the couch next to Maria’s desk, "thank you for the muffins."
Much like the apartments, the offices on this floor of the building were all identical for the most part. Fury’s was a larger corner office with a nicer desk, Phil’s had an extra chair in front of the desk and an expansive tea collection in the corner, Maria’s office, however, had a couch that had been properly broken in, unlike Fury’s and Phil’s that were still just about as hard as they were the day they were delivered. This, coupled with the fact that it always smelled like warm coffee, created a well-kept secret that her office was the best place to nap.
“Tell me about what's stressing you out?” the spy had closed her eyes and tilted her head back on the armrest.
“It’ll bore you,” the brunette warned as she reached for a muffin.
“Good, I need a bedtime story,” it wasn’t uncommon to find one of the troublemakers asleep on her couch.
“Fury and I went to take a look at that classified power source,” she took a bite of the muffin, it was good for the mass-produced kind.
Natasha hummed for her to continue, eyes still closed.
“And there was this portal that opened up,” she took another bite and watched the redheads breathing slow, “but it was dark and we couldn't see much other than... an office? It looked like an office.”
She finished the muffin and threw the wrapper away in the trashcan by her door, “And in the background, there was this writing on a whiteboard but I think I wrote it down wrong because for the last five hours I have been coming up with nothing, or maybe it was just office stuff."
Maria knew that the Russian was most likely asleep, but still she continued, "Oh and I think I might be going crazy because I saw a kid in front of it before it closed.”
“A kid huh?” the woman asked from the couch, her voice sleepy.
“I mean I thought it was a kid but, I’ve been told too much caffeine consumption can lead to hallucinations,” this was the more likely explanation considering no one else had mentioned seeing the child, “so now I’m trying to figure out if sales quotes and transportation has anything to do with the mission.”
She sighed and looked at the writing on the paper again, pretty sure the redhead was now asleep. The writing at the top of the board had looked old, parts of it were smudged off and the quarterly reports were from years prior. However, the transportation section was written in new black ink.
The commander glanced (for too long) and saw that Natasha had indeed fallen asleep and curled herself into a small ball on the couch. Without any distractions, the typing on her computer increased in speed now as she continued to look for any old office buildings in nations where Russian was spoken. She searched for buildings that had been renovated and ones that had been condemned.
Her eyes stung from staring at the computer screen for so long, every once in a while she would look at the assassin on her couch, fast asleep. There were too many options and yet she still came up with nothing for what seemed like hours. Her head made a dull thud as she put it down in frustration.
“You didn’t tell me it was in Russian,” Natasha had managed to get off the couch and stand behind the Commander while her head was down.
“I have translation settings on,” she spoke into the desk her head was still placed on.
“Those are garbage, this the note?”
Maria nodded, there was only one note on her desk that was written in Cyrillic, she didn’t need to look up to know that she had found the right one.
“Well this should say finansovyy otchet, the last few letters got erased,” she wrote the correct letters down, “so financial report from the early 2000’s”
“I got that far, but all of the stuff on the bottom was new and I can't find any banks or offices that closed in the 2000s and opened back up recently.”
The brunette groaned and sat up, looking at the intensity of Natasha’s face as she studied the scrap of paper.
“You said you saw a kid?” The redhead looked up.
“I said I think I saw a kid,” she confirmed.
“It’s not uncommon for kids on the street to live in old buildings that don’t get checked out very often, especially in Russia which is where this was written.”
“I thought about that, but what do street kids have to do with opening portals to government facilities? Or transportation for that matter?”
Natasha raised an eyebrow, “are you serious? What do you think Yelena and I did in Ohio?”
The Russian very rarely talked about her sister and sleeper family from the early 90s in Ohio. The older woman knew that they had helped burn down a SHIELD facility from the records that she read, she had learned about Natasha's pseudo-sister (and how she missed her) from a “Hey Masha'' video.
The blue-eyed woman finally spoke up, “shit... you think this is the Red Room?”
“No, Clint and I took that down during my defection,” her voice was sober, “but Hydra worked pretty close with The Room and was always looking for kids to do their dirty work.”
So now she just needed to find out where this building was located and fast if they were planning on transporting something to do with the tesseract soon.
“Are you positive this is in Russia?” that would at least narrow it down to one country rather than four.
“Yeah, this is Russian slang,” she pointed to the bottom row, “how old was the kid?”
“Young," she recalled the brief flash of a face that looked no older than six, "really really young."
“Then you’re looking for a larger group, this wouldn’t have been written by a child. It’s slang teenagers use,” the redhead's face became very serious.
“So a teenager and a child? At least?” Maria tried to get her to come back from wherever her mind had gone.
“Yeah…” her eyes still looked distant and concerned.
“What’s wrong, Tasha?” it was a risky question, she could bolt at any second.
“It’s… it’s exactly what The Room used to do,” she swallowed hard, “they would send out teenagers and kids at the same time like siblings to blend in. But it can't be them… we… Clint and I… we blew it up. We rigged bombs.”
“Hydra probably just picked up the tactic, it’s okay,” the brunette tried.
“I have to go,” Natasha started towards the door, “oh and Hill that last word isn’t transportation, it’s teleportation. You switched two of the letters around.”
Maria descended the staircase to the sub-level where the tesseract would be opening a portal in approximately 90 seconds. Her feet flew down the steps as she lengthened her strides to get to the bulletproof viewing tunnel once more. This time there were more agents and scientists behind the glass structure.
“Commander,” Phil greeted and scooted over to make room, “have you seen it before?”
“For a few days,” she recalled the last 4 days of this routine.
“Is it as interesting as everyone makes it?” he looked over to the woman next to him and took a sip of his tea.
“The first time is unlike anything you’ve ever seen,” she stared at the power source that started to glow briefly before, once again, letting out a single beam of light.
Over the last few days, the portal had grown in size but the image remained the same. The office, the computers, the old style of chairs, the only difference was there was no child after the first time. Without the near confirmation from Natasha, the handler would have convinced herself that it was a hallucination the first time.
“Wow,” she heard the agents next to her gasp as the portal opened and showed the now-familiar scene.
Everything remained the same as she squinted to see that the whiteboard had now been erased, confirming that there was recent activity. However, this time as the portal grew she could see outside of one of the windows. The sun was setting behind a large billboard advertising a coat sale from what she could tell.
She had just pulled out her pen to start writing when the massive hole flickered once, twice, and then was gone.
“You weren’t kidding that was incre-” Coulson started before the commander held up a finger to silence him.
The writing on her paper was in half Russian, half English as she recalled everything she had just witnessed. As soon as she finished she looked at the man next to her.
“Incredible, right?” she nodded to him.
“This happens every day?” He was smiling as he asked, letting people pass from behind him.
“Same time, every day,” she confirmed, “this time it was bigger though.”
She looked over to where Dr. Selvig was stationed, talking with broad gestures to the scientists around him. Phil walked over to the team with Maria next to him, both pausing as the doctor flew his arms around.
“Dr. Selvig,” the brunette interrupted.
“Ah Commander Hill, hello! Did you see that today, the absolute size of it all,” he was beaming, “tall enough and clear enough if I do say so myself. Just as a pond would be.”
He rambled on for a moment more, talking about things that clearly only made sense to him and a few of the scientists around him.
“Dr. Selvig,” the blue-eyed woman cleared her throat, “I just wanted to remind you that Director Fury would like a report by the end of the day.”
“Yes, yes, of course, Friday already?” he asked no one in particular.
“It is,” Maria answered, “end of the day, Dr. Selvig.”
She turned and made her way back to the staircase with Coulson who chuckled as soon as they were out of earshot.
“He’s a character,” the older agent commented.
“Oh you have no idea,” she responded as they climbed the stairs, “need a ride?”
“Please, May has the car and I really don’t want to carpool back with team meathead.”
This time it was Maria who laughed as they got to the door to the parking lot. There, in a large group were said meathead agents.
“Coulson, you coming?” one of the older members called out.
“I got him,” Maria answered on his behalf.
“Yes, ma’am,” and with that, the agent was in the large van they had come in.
The two got into Maria’s car and fell into an easy conversation as they pulled onto the main road.
“We technically do have two cars though,” Phil was arguing back.
“You only drive Lola on the weekends, that technically counts as like 1 ¼ cars,” she smiled at his sigh.
“Well, there’s only two of us and we work the same hours at the same place. Unless one of those factors changes then I don't see the problem with the car we have,” he took a sip of his tea.
“So, you think that you guys will have kids?” The brunette knew that they would both always work at SHIELD with relatively the same hours, so only one of the items on his list could change.
“Maybe, she’s still recovering from what happened in Bahrain but she's talked about the possibility,” Phil smiled.
If there was anyone who was well suited for parenthood, it was Phil Coulson. The man was like a baby magnet as soon as he walked into the SHIELD daycare. Maria knew that he and Melinda had been planning on having a child before the incident in Bahrain that left May traumatized.
“I’m glad, I know that you guys…” she didn’t know how to finish the sentence.
“We’ll just have to wait and see, I guess. You never know what’s going to happen in life, but I’m sure it will all work out” he always had the ability to spin situations in a positive direction.
The brunette hummed in half agreement and continued to drive back to work.
“You know, you and Natasha still owe us a double date.”
“She’s been a little… distant recently,” her mouth felt dry as she said it.
After the day in her office, Natasha had been on edge, spending most of her time alone. Her video messages had become less frequent and were always work-related questions. Any push to see what was wrong had ended with even more distance.
“I’m sorry Ria,” Phil's voice was low, “I didn’t know.”
“It’s fine. It was just sex anyway.”
There was a pause for just a little too long before Coulson spoke again, “Do you know why?”
“No,” she answered quickly, “I mean, I don’t know for sure. She kinda bolted after we talked about the Red Room.”
“You think that has anything to do with her requesting time off?” His voice was already weary.
“She requested time off?” In all of their years together, the only time the Russian had ever requested time off was for Clint-related reasons. Even that had only been done a handful of times.
“Tomorrow,” Phil sipped his tea loudly, “she has a mission in a few weeks so I granted it.”
“Oh,” Maria swallowed, “well… good for her. I hope she gets to relax.”
“Ha, right. Relax,” the agent gave a fake laugh as they pulled into a spot, “Just let me know if you hear anything, I’d rather my assets stay in one piece.”
“Yeah, will do.”
She doubted she would hear anything from the redhead regarding what she was actually using her time off for. Her mind was racing as they got on to the elevator, too many things that the Russian could be up to, but none of them were good.
Fury was waiting at the elevator as it got to their level, whether it was a coincidence (it wasn't) or he had been waiting for them, he looked busy.
“Coulson,” he greeted before turning to Maria, “A word.”
They walked back to her office in silence, he closed the door behind him and sat on a chair across from her desk.
“Mission report with the tesseract,” right to the point.
“I can't confirm what Selvings team has found,” she clicked on her computer and brought up the pages of intel that she had gathered from the days of returning to the power source, "but I narrowed down the location. I need a little more time to be certain but I know that it’s in Russia and most likely a small town in Siberia.”
“I don't have more time Hill, I need an answer,” the director stared at her.
“I understand that sir,” she started, “but I just need to find out where this billboard is located and then I can give you coordinates.”
“Monday,” he stood up quickly, “I have a meeting with the council and need to give them an answer. I can give you no longer than that.”
“Yes, sir.”
He walked out of the office, his jacket flowing behind him. She looked up at the clock, 70 hours until she needed a conclusive answer on where the other side of this portal was coming from.