The Disagreement
The girl sat awkwardly in her hold keeping her body rigid and as far away as Maria’s as possible. The bustle of the agents around didn't seem to help the situation as the Commander walked up to the Director.
“Hill,” he raised an eyebrow at the girl whose face flushed as she tried to cover her shorts.
“Sir, I know that we're all running on fumes right now. But there’s nothing I can’t do from my tablet right now,” she shifted the child in her arms, “Until our engine is back up and running in… Agent Taylor how long until engine 3 is running?”
“Crew will get here in an hour, a few hours after then at least, ma’am,” the agent responded.
“Until the engine is back up in a few hours, I’m requesting to work from the medbay,” she looked into the eye of Fury, “after that we're going to land in the Hudson as planned and start clean up. I’m already working on plans for that with local and federal crews.”
“You’re dismissed Hill,” he nodded, “make sure you get a change of clothes and some food for little miss.”
“Got it, sir.”
“And Hill,” he called out after her, “make good on your promise to your team, we lost some good ones today.”
She gave a curt nod and walked towards the stairwell, trying her best to keep the girl in her arms comfortable.
They stopped by her bunk first, she needed to change and get Ellie out of her clothes.
“We just need to stop by here really quickly,” she put the girl down, watching as she took in the room, searching for the exits with her eyes first just as Natasha did, “I need to grab some clothes for me and we can change you out of those bottoms too before we clean you up back in the medbay, okay?”
“Okay,” the girl had tear marks down her face but looked calmer now.
Maria put the backpack down and riffled through the items, finding clean underwear and another pair of shorts. She closed her eyes and thanked Phil from wherever he was before handing them to the girl.
“Do you need help changing?” she wasn’t sure how comfortable the child would be with her help.
Ellie shook her head and walked into the bathroom, where she immediately pulled off the bottom half of her clothing.
The Commander averted her eyes and walked over to her closet and grabbed another uniform before going to her dresser and pulling out a few more shirts and pants just in case. She added her own items to another bag and made sure that she would be set for a few days which included grabbing her charger for a phone she was pretty sure had been dead for a few hours.
“Better?” she asked the child who emerged from the bathroom and nodded, “alright, back to your room.”
She stuck her hand down to the child who grasped back, her tiny fingers wrapping around Maria’s palm tentatively. They exited the room and walked back to the stairwell where agents were still taking up a majority of the space, a few of them tripping as they saw “Hard-ass-Hill” with a child in tow.
The medbay was quieter now than it had been when they had left hours earlier, Maria barely had to raise her voice as she talked to the agent at the nurse's station.
“I do not want anyone in this room,” she narrowed her gaze, “the Director and I are the only ones in and out. Do I make myself clear?”
“Yes, ma’am.”
“Tell all of the agents on this floor and the night shift.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
She swiped her card and opened the door, leading the girl through first before she closed the door behind them and drew the curtains. The space was just as they had left it, bed sheets crumpled, the pen and notebook that May had dropped still in the middle of the floor. It seemed to take both of them a moment to take it all in before the girl turned to look at Maria.
“Off?” she looked at her shoes.
“Yeah, we can take those off, you- well we both need a shower but you first,” the Commander watched as Ellie pulled the velcro off her shoes clumsily, sitting on the floor and using both hands to pull the adhesive.
Maria hadn’t really thought about how young the girl was. In so many ways she carried herself as an adolescent, but in moments like this, or the reminder of the inability to open up the snacks in Maria’s office, it was clear she was still a child. She watched as the child lined up the shoes at the end of the bed with just the heels sticking out from under the space.
“Let’s see what other clothes we can find you and get you in the shower,” the deputy director continued to force her feelings down as she looked through the bags that were mostly empty now.
There was a noise from the other side of the room as Ellie got on her tiptoes and used her full body weight to open a top drawer.
“Here,” she offered.
The clothes had all been organized and put away in the drawers, “thank you.”
The girl nodded in a very serious way, as if they had just completed a business deal and that it didn't take all of her strength to open the drawer. Maria gave a small smile at the thought and pulled out a clean pair of what looked like a set of pajamas.
“How do we feel about these?” she showed them to Ellie who nodded again, “Alright let's get you cleaned up.”
They entered the bathroom and suddenly Maria felt very very out of her element. Natasha had given the child the last shower and she wasn’t sure how that went. There were probably books, probably many books, on how to teach a kid boundaries and what to do in uncomfortable situations. But as Maria stalled, Ellie did not, she used both hands to try and push the water valve in the right direction.
“Here,” the Commander helped turn it on and set the temperature to what she thought was the right setting, “do you want me to help you with…”
She watched as the girl stripped out of her clothes and immediately went to get in the shower.
“Wait,” she put her arm out, “water needs to warm up.”
“Warm,” the girl nodded.
“Not yet, but it will be in a second, let me take your braids out,” Maria moved towards the girl who eyed her suspiciously.
The commander pulled the elastic out first and then began unweaving one side, watching as the girl did the other side herself. She thought about how the girl changed in her bunk without closing the door, and again took off her clothes without hesitation. Maria didn’t know what to make of it and made a mental note to ask Natasha. There were a lot of things she wanted to ask the woman.
“Warm?” the girl looked at the shower again, her dark hair was wild from having it in braids, the waves sticking out in different directions.
Maria stuck her hand in the water and deemed it warm enough, “go for it.”
The child stared at her and tilted her head to the side.
“It’s warm, you can get in,” the deputy director tried to be more direct in her verbiage.
Ellie got in, face first, and stood under the water as it fell around her, swallowing the water as it fell into her mouth. Kids are gross . The blue-eyed woman sat on the countertop and averted her eyes as the girl clumsily used a bar of soap and washcloth to try and bathe herself. After a minute of this, the girl started to hum as she continued to shower. Kids are cute .
“What song is that?” Maria gave a small smile as she watched the girl shrug from behind the half-closed curtain.
She sat on the counter for a little longer until there was a loud clatter as the shampoo bottle tumbled to the ground, spilling its contents down the drain. Ellie shoved herself into the corner and closed her eyes tightly. Before Maria could do anything, a portal opened up and the girl was gone.
“Shit,” she sighed and sat the bottle upright.
The door to the bathroom hadn’t been closed so the brunette could see through to the room and under the table where Ellie had balled herself up, dripping wet.
“Just an accident,” Maria walked over to the girl who started to shiver, “come on little bear, we need to finish up.”
The girl looked at her as if she was weighing her options. There were a few more moments of hesitation before she shivered once more and got up and opened the shower curtain again. She looked at the adult next to her nervously as she picked up the bottle, almost dropping it again.
She turned the bottle upside down and stuck her fingers covered in soap into her hair. Maria observed the movements for a minute, they were jerky and looked painful as the girl's hands knotted further into her hair.
“Do you need help?” She stood up and walked over to the child who was still trying to detangle her fingers, “I can help you just have to let me.”
“Help… hair?”
“I can help you with your hair,” Maria squeezed some of the liquid into her hands, breathing in the sweet apple scent that it gave off.
She had helped younger cousins wash their hair before and was used to them wiggling around while she tried to lather. Ellie however, stood still, tilting her head back and squinting her eyes to keep the soap from getting in them.
Maria told the girl to turn off the water while she got a towel and she watched as the child once again used two hands to try and turn off the valve. The room was suddenly so quiet as the water turned off and she wanted nothing more than to get out of her uniform and turn the water back on.
“Here,” Maria gave her the towel that she awkwardly tried to wrap around her body, leaving most of it in a puddle in the shower. The Commander had no idea what she was doing with a child and hoped that May would come back soon.
She watched as the girl brushed through her damp curls, apparently, this was a skill she was able to do with the most accuracy. The girl then got changed into the purple pajama set and stared at Maria.
“What’s up?” she looked down at the child, “what do you need?”
The child stuck her arm out with the brush, “braid or do not know braid?”
“I’m not as good as Tasha,” the brunette looked at the girl, “but I’ll try my best.”
And she did try her best, but in the end, the braids were uneven and a little lumpy in some spots. But it was the best she could do with what she was working with and the girl looked tired and not concerned about her hair anyway. It was getting late and harder to push her feelings down as she looked at Ellie.
“Okay, here's the plan,” she spoke, watching as the girl’s eyes landed on her, listening to every word, “I’m going to give you this,”
She pulled out the charger and Phil's tablet, waiting for it to charge for a moment before opening up the video the girl had been watching.
“And these,” she opened up a container of crackers and a water bottle, “and you hang out here while I shower. I’ll be right back and if you need anything you knock. I promise I’ll open the door.”
The girl’s eyes looked heavy as she nodded “okay.”
Maria grabbed her own change of clothes and walked into the bathroom. She cranked the shower to a much higher setting for herself and waited for the room to steam up before she got in. The water had barely hit her skin before the tears started rolling down her face.
Phil’s gone, you’re still here .
It was the mantra that continued playing in her head as she showered, watching the water wash away the dirt and grime away. She did her best to keep her sobs to a minimum so that the girl in the conjoined room didn’t hear what was going on. The water continued to hit her skin, stinging the wounds she had sustained that day, something she sucked down and just repeated the phrase again and again. Phil’s gone, you’re still here .
When she finally finished showering she found it difficult to open the door to the small room very far. The brunette squeezed her body through the opening and braced for whatever was on the other side.
What she found was a sleeping child curled up on the floor right behind the door. The Commander looked at the bed, the snacks had been eaten, the water drank, and the video continued to play on the tablet. But in front of the door, the girl was fast asleep as if she didn’t want to miss Maria when she got out of the shower.
The blue-eyed woman did her best to pick up the girl without waking her, but she was not just a girl, she was a widow in training. As soon as her hands were under Ellie’s body, she woke up and immediately started kicking and scratching.
“Hey hey, it’s just me, just Maria” Maria yelled out, “ safe, safe, me .”
Russian seemed to sink into the girl’s brain faster as she calmed her movements.
“I am sorry,” she looked up at Maria before hanging her head.
“That’s alright, let’s just get you to bed,” she thought for a moment about asking her to brush her teeth, but that was a fight for another day. She was positive the child had gone without brushing her teeth before.
Ellie got up and walked over to her bed where she grabbed the sheets and tightly cocooned herself into the fabric, watching as the Commander sat down in the recliner next to the bed.
“I’ll be right here if you need me,” she smiled and watched as the girl blinked a few times before looking at the door.
“Phil?” she looked back to Maria who bit the inside of her lip to try and keep from crying.
“Phil’s not um…” she closed her eyes tightly, “Phil’s not going to be around anymore.”
“Around?” the girl’s voice was so little.
“He isn’t going to come by anymore… he um… he’s…” she opened her eyes and blew out a long breath, “He’s dead, Ellie.”
She balled her fists up and tried to slow her breathing. It didn’t work and new tears fell from her eyes.
“Gone.” The voice was so small she almost missed it.
“Yeah, yeah Phil’s gone little one.”
The girl pulled the blankets impossibly tight until her eyes were the only things visible, “Mel?”
“Mel isn’t gone,” the Commander had no idea where the woman was, but she knew she wasn’t dead, “but I don’t know when she will be back.”
The Deputy director hoped soon, as much as she liked the girl, she was way out of her element. She didn’t know anything about raising a kid, let alone a super spy in training with teleportation abilities. There may have been a lot of parenting books out there but she knew that there wasn’t one that specified that.
It seemed like a good enough answer for the child who continued to watch Maria until sleep was too much to fight off. Once she was sure the girl was asleep the brunette got up and turned off the video that played on the tablet. Looking at the frozen image of a cartoon astronaut she waited to see if the child would wake up, she did not.
A few hours later she got the notification that they were back on course to New York and would be there by the middle of the night, the movement of the carrier eased her anxiety. She looked at the clock and figured she now had 4 hours to get everything in motion for the clean-up crew.
The Red Cross was already on site and she coordinated efforts with their team to make sure they would be as useful as possible. She went to text Tony to see what the damage to his building was looking like before she remembered her phone was dead.
Her phone flooded with notifications as it powered back up, she had just started looking through them before the arguing started.
It started quietly and she figured it was an agent getting in trouble at first. But the noise continued to grow outside of the door and she got up, ready to lay into whoever was on the other side.
“I don’t care that no one is allowed in, I am,” the voice was familiar as Maria swiped the door open.
“The Deputy Director-” the nurse was cut off as Melinda spun around, face red in anger as she stumbled slightly towards Maria.
“Mel…” Maria watched as the woman’s shoulder shook.
She opened up the door and let her friend into the room.
“You didn’t answer your phone and they said I couldn’t come to see her and I just-” the agent was clearly trying to keep from bursting into tears.
“I’m so sorry Mel,” the brunette wrapped her arms around the woman in front of her, finding comfort in their embrace.
They eventually crammed themselves together in the recliner, neither of them letting go of the other. Both women were known to be cold, to be standoffish, to worm their way out of hugs, but that wasn’t the truth. The truth was, they were selective with who they allowed to see this side of them, and they both lost one of the only people who they let in less than 12 hours prior.
“Like Minsk,” Melinda spoke first as she twisted her body to be face to face with the Commander, her breath somewhat fruity.
She was referring to a mission they had gone on in Belarus together when they first started. The two of them had been partners for years before Maria started taking on more handler responsibilities, but before that, they had been in Minsk after a long mission.
On their side, the mission had been a success, on Beta team, not so much. And so the two women found themselves intoxicated, waiting for transport in an airport lounge for 12 hours. There was only one comfy chair and so they had squished themselves into it and waited it out.
“But with less booze,” Maria gave a half smile.
“Speak for yourself,” and for the first time, the Commander really looked at the woman next to her, smelling the alcohol on her breath.
“I’m sorry May,” she felt the familiar weight of the woman's head on her shoulder.
“Me too, I shouldn’t have left like that,” she breathed out, “but I just… I can’t do it, Ria.”
The raven-haired woman began to cry hard and Maria waited for it to ease up again before she spoke.
“You don’t have to do it alone, I’m right here and I’ll be right here through it all.”
“I can’t- it was Phil who was going to take the lead until I work through Bahrain more and it’s just not fair to her,” she took a shuddered breath, “I mean look at me, Hill.”
Maria looked as her friend continued to cry, dark circles under her eyes, hair no longer perfectly in place as it normally was.
“I panicked and I started drinking and I have to bury my husband who- FUCK,” the agent yelled, waking the child up, “shit… I’m sorry… I’m sorry I just can’t- I can’t do this.”
“Mel breathe,” Maria put her hand on the woman's back and smiled at the child who continued to watch it all unfold.
The raven-haired woman gulped down breaths as she leaned forward, “I can’t do this Maria, I’m sorry.”
The Commander was the first one to stand, “we’ll be right outside the door okay?” she looked at the girl who just stared back.
The two of them walked out of the room and into the nearly silent medbay, “look at me right now and tell me what you need.”
“I need time,” May wiped the tears off her face, “and I need you to know that I don’t know if I will ever be okay enough to be her guardian.”
“Melinda, you understand that she’s going to be put into the foster system if you don’t finish signing those documents,” Maria tried to convey the seriousness of the situation, “If you don’t sign them, you may never see her again.”
“I know…” her response was quiet, “she deserves better than me, she deserves someone who will help her, someone who won't run to alcohol as soon as things get rough. She deserves Phil.”
The flood gates opened once more and Maria supported her friend as she cried on her shoulder.
“Okay,” the brunette nodded.
“I already put in for bereavement leave,” the woman stood up and wiped her face again, “when I’m back in DC I’ll let you know.”
“Where are you going to go?” Maria looked at her friend.
“I don’t know, somewhere to find peace.”
“Call me if you need me, okay?”
“Okay, bye Ria,” the agent hugged the Commander, “I’m sorry.”
“It’s okay, Mel."
She stood there and watched as her friend walked away and silently hoped that she would find the peace that she was looking for.
Her fingers were cramping by the time they arrived in New York, no matter how many times she flexed them, they continued to seize every time she typed. It was just after 1am when she got the familiar feeling of descending in her stomach as the carrier made its way into the water.
She had watched from the window of the medbay as the dark water came into view, and then engulfed the bottom half of the ship, rocking the entire vessel slightly as it did so. The child on the bed continued to sleep through the event and Maria couldn't help but frown, knowing this would be one of the last times she would see the sight.
With Mel out of the picture, the girl would be moved into a holding cell where SHIELD could test her abilities. She hoped that it wouldn’t take too long and that the child would then be adopted by a family that treated her well. There was a part of her that really hoped for this, but the reality was she would probably be kept for testing for too long without a guardian there, and then be put into foster care where she would be labeled as a “troubled” kid.
There had been a few months of Maria’s life that she spent in the system while her dad continued to drink and before her Abuela could get custody of her. Being a “troubled” child meant that she was the last one to get the pick of anything because she “wouldn’t be appreciative of it anyway”, or at least that’s what she came to find out.
Now, looking at the girl curled up on the bed, she hoped that Ellie wouldn’t face the same experiences that she had. Her tablet dinged and let her know that they had landed and would expect to start the deboarding process at 6 am. While it was normally something that brought her joy, this time she knew that it meant that she would need to start moving the girl to her new setting. The Commander would become just a small part of the girl's life, one that she would probably forget within the next year. She went from watching her best friends become parents, to burying one of them and watching the child leave her life for good. In a way, she lost them all in a matter of a day.
Nat: 1 video msg.
Maria leaned against the glass and clicked on the attachment, making sure the volume was low.
“Hey Ria,” the redhead still looked pretty beat up from the battle that happened in the city, “pretty sure I just saw you guys land, hope everything is going okay… or at least that you’re still pushing through.”
The two had checked in with each other earlier in the day, making sure that they were both alive and in one piece.
“We had Shawarma last night, that was pretty good,” the woman was walking around whatever safe house they were stashed in, “To keep you in the loop from a close source, Thor’s taking Loki back to Asgard in the morning, Tony and Bruce are going to hang out in the city and try and rebuild the tower I guess.”
Maria watched as the Russian's face was covered by shadows for a second before she emerged again, “Steve’s back to DC, Clint’s on the first flight back to Iowa… everyone's going their own ways I guess.”
There was a pause, too long of a pause and then Natasha gave a small smile, “it was good while it lasted I guess. Anyway, hope you guys are okay, tell May and Elizaveta I said hi. Okaybye.”
The brunette double-checked the girl was still sleeping before she walked into the bathroom and, without a second thought, hit the call button on her phone. The line trilled, she held her breath, she never called Natasha and on the off chance she did, the woman never answered. Still, she waited and hoped.
“Hey,” Natasha’s voice was uncertain, “you okay?”
“I um…” she suddenly was at a loss for words. Come on, Maria. You were the one who called her .
“Ria?”
“Sorry, yeah no I’m okay,” she lied, “you didn’t say where you were going to be.”
“Where I was going to be?” Natasha questioned back.
“Your message, you told me where everyone was going to be but you. You didn’t say where you were going to be,” when she said it that way, the Commander felt like a teenager again.
“Oh,” the Russian paused, “I guess that’s because I don’t know where I’m going to be.”
“Are you going to take another leave? Because Mel just said she is and with Barton on the farm and Phil gone I just… I just wasn’t sure if I should start eating in my office again,” she cringed at the words she said even though they were true.
“If I do, it won't be for too long so don't lose our table in the caf okay?” The woman tried to make it sound less sad than it was.
“Okay, yeah.”
“May going to get the kid set up for a while?”
“No um…” the brunette bit the inside of her lip, “no May isn’t going to take Ellie anymore, with Phil and everything she’s going on bereavement leave.”
“Oh shit, what happens to Elizaveta?” The question came out quickly, leaving no room for the Commander to come up with anything other than the truth.
“She’s going to foster care after SHIELD tests her,” she kept her voice low even though the door between the room was closed.
“Ria you can’t let that happen,” Natasha protested.
“I can’t do anything else, there’s not another option,” she argued back.
“Yes, there is.”
“No, there’s not Tasha,” she leaned her head back against the wall next to the door.
“Someone could take her, maybe Clint or… I don't know… maybe Stark has someone that could watch her,” the redhead continued to talk, getting more animated as she did “or you, you could take her.”
“I can’t, I don’t know anything about kids,” that was becoming more clear, the longer she spent with the girl, “she has to go into the system.”
“You’re just sending her back to the streets then!”
“I’m not, I’m just following procedures,” she tried to reason.
“You are and you know it, Hill. She’s going to last all of a few days in foster care before she leaves and then she’s right back on the street but this time she doesn’t have a teenager to look out for her. She’s a child, she doesn’t speak the language well, she won't last out there!”
“Or she’ll be adopted by a great family,” the Commander spoke out loud the hope that she wished for.
“And what? They find out she can kill them with a butterknife and return her. Or she gets spooked and teleports away? Or she tries to hurt the other kids they have? Because that’s how she was raised Ria, that’s all she knows!” Natasha was yelling now.
She listened as the woman made great point after great point, getting even more worked up after each one. There wasn’t space for Maria to argue and she tried to figure out what else the woman was worried about for her to project like this. Maria could count on one hand the number of times she heard Natasha yell like this.
“You can’t just leave her, Masha… you can’t just leave her. You were supposed to protect her.”
And there it was .
“I know,” she spoke quietly, knowing that this was about Yelena more than anything else, “I am. Just not in the way that you want me to.”
“I’ll be at the farm if you need me,” the call disconnected before Maria could get another word in.
At least she knew where the woman would be.
She opened the door and took a seat in the recliner for the last time. The child hadn’t moved from her blanket cocoon, her chest rising and falling in a slow pattern. The next morning would be hard and so Maria did her best to sleep, hoping she would wake up and her friend wouldn’t be dead and that this was all a bad dream.
Of course, it wasn’t a bad dream, it was real life. That was apparent as her alarm went off at 6am the next morning, waking both of the occupants of the room.
“Sorry,” she sat up and looked at the girl who squinted her eyes and stared at Maria, “not a morning person?”
The girl continued to squint in her direction, “you can go back to sleep if you want.”
They wouldn't deboard for a few more hours, and the less time she had to spend bonding with the child was probably for the best. The blue-eyed woman watched as the child pushed herself further into her blankets and stared for a little longer.
Maria took it as a good sign and went to change into her uniform and get ready in the bathroom. She had a lot of work to do, the sooner she started, the sooner it would be over. Or at least that’s what she told herself as she finished getting ready and started walking the crew through how to get agents to their assigned stations on the mainland.
It wasn’t a difficult process and she was done after a few hours, her hands only cramping slightly. She looked at the girl who had been in and out of sleep since the first alarm, it seemed she was in fact trying to get as much sleep in as possible. Maria figured it was a mixture of sleep debt, and not knowing when the next time she would be able to sleep was.
The room had a lot of the girl's new things in it still as the brunette looked around. She walked around the space and tried to put everything into the bags they came in, at least she would have new items wherever she ended up.
There were 4 full bags by the time Maria finished gathering everything, every item had been carefully selected by Phil and so she did her best to not miss anything.
“Knock knock,” the female physician, Dr. Carter announced as she walked into the room, “I wanted to come and talk to you before I deboarded to help in the city.”
“Yeah of course,” Maria kept her voice low, trying to keep from waking the girl.
“I heard about Agent Coulson, my condolences,” she gave a sad smile.
“Thank you,” the Commander pushed down her feelings.
“I also heard about Agent May,” the physician smiled sheepishly, “nurses gossip. I just wanted to know who I should give her medical records to?”
“I can take them,” the Deputy Director took the file.
“Oh, you’re taking her? Thank goodness, I was scared she would be shipped off to some testing site or something. You seem to already have her trust so that makes the most sense, good good,” the woman talked and Maria didn’t have the heart to tell her the truth, “So the first page is a list of notes and what should happen next with her medication. Any physician will be able to help you out, but if she’s staying with you then I can keep treating her.”
“Thank you, Dr. Carter.”
“Of course, her prescription is filled and that will last her about 2 months, after that we're going to do some blood work and refill it,” the woman smiled wide, “you’ll be seeing a lot of me if you keep me on her team.”
Her team . Maria’s heart broke, there was no way foster care would pay for the medication and regular visits that the girl needed. She pushed the thought aside, the state would do what’s best for the child. If she stays in the system and doesn’t run .
“What happens if she misses a dose?”
“Hmm, well it wouldn’t be the end of the world,” the woman paused to think, “but say she missed two or more? She would stop her weight retention. So, try your very best to make sure she takes it. If she missed a week we would see some major effects on her body, organs would start to malfunction and she would be in a lot of pain, or worse.”
“Got it,” the Commander made a note to tell foster care about that.
“As I said, two months and we’ll check her levels to make sure that the dosage is right. The more she uses her powers, the more she needs to eat or the more medication she needs to take. It’s going to be a guessing game until we get it down after you establish a routine.”
Maria nodded.
“It’s not often we get to see a cutie like her,” the physician laughed, “makes my day to help her out. Unless there’s anything else you need I should get going.”
“No, this is great,” the brunette held up the file, “thank you.”
“Have a good day Commander,” the woman looked past Maria and waved, “bye Elizaveta.”
The deputy director turned around and watched as the girl wiggled her fingers back slightly as the doctor left the room. Immediately the child eyed the bags on the table, looking back at Maria after.
“We're going to get off the ship today,” she said, leaving out that the girl would be taken by different people after.
There wasn’t time for a further discussion before Maria’s phone rang, “Hi sir.”
“Hill,” his voice was gruff, he was in a mood, “I’m about to get on a call with these dumbass council members. Come meet me and we can talk about it before you deboard.
“Got it, sir,” she waited for the line to disconnect before looking at the girl, “okay, we gotta get ready.”
On cue, the child’s stomach growled, “and get you food and meds.”
Twenty minutes later she had a fully dressed child in front of her, full of oatmeal. Maria looked at the liquid in the medicine bottle, it was chalky and pink and unappealing in every way.
“It says here,” she pointed to the medical file, “you get 25ml in the morning and 25 at night. Sound right?”
The girl shook her head.
“No it doesn't sound right, or no you don't want it?” she had a feeling it was the latter, the question was more of a formality. The instructions were in black and white on the paper in front of her.
“Do not like,” the girl said, making a face.
“Right, but it keeps you from being sick.”
“Do not like,” she shook her head again.
“You could use the juice as a chaser?” Maria eyed the open drink.
The child stared at her and cocked her head to the side, something Maria was learning meant that the girl didn’t follow.
“Drink it really fast after, so you don't have to taste the medicine.”
It seemed to be a good enough compromise as the girl downed the medicine and juice. The brunette smiled and stood up.
“Okay, we have to go to the bridge then we're going to get on a plane and go somewhere new,” Maria tried to make it sound fun.
“New?” the girl questioned.
“Washington DC, it’s where I live and work, there’s a lot more stuff that you’ll like there.”
The Triskelion had an entire floor dedicated to childcare, it was something the Commander had helped plan after several agents requested time off due to a lack of daycares in the summer. They had created the space to be used not only during the summer but year-round for children from 6 months to 13 years. It took up the second floor of the miniature city that was the Triskelion, Maria figured this would be the right place to take the child.
She helped the girl get her shoes on and watched as she walked over to the bags of things that had been purchased for her.
“We can leave those here, I’ll let the team know and they’ll make sure they get to DC,” Maria explained to the girl who didn’t look convinced, “we won't leave your things. I promise.”
The Commander walked over to the backpack, “this, however, is coming with us.”
Ellie nodded in relief as she pulled the straps on her back and looked up at the woman in front of her, “tablet and snacks, Ria?”
Maria smiled at the nickname, the little girl pronounced it like Natasha did.
“Already in there, little bear,” she paused at the name, she couldn’t use it anymore. She couldn’t let the girl get any more attached, she couldn’t get any more attached.
Maria swiped her card and unlocked the room to the medbay one last time. She looked down to the girl who had stuck her hand up and was waiting for the Commander to hold it and guide her out of the room.
She encased the child's hand and made her way towards the bridge, hoping that whatever news Fury received from the council wasn’t earth-shattering. Their flight to DC was leaving in less than an hour, and she didn't want to spend any longer on the ship than necessary.
“Hill,” Fury looked at his right-hand person before glancing down to the child, “little miss,” he greeted her much more quietly.
“Sir,” Maria answered for the both of them.
“The council isn’t too thrilled about the initiative and my direct involvement with the actions that went against their orders,” he rolled his one eye, “but I reminded them that if it wasn’t for our team, there wouldn't be a city of Manhattan right now.”
“And that worked?”
“As much as I hoped, they made the wrong call and don’t want to admit that.”
They stood there and soaked in the reality that was the last 48 hours, the Commander broke the silence first.
“Sir, what now?” she thought about the phone call to Natasha, “they all went their separate ways.
“They’ll be back when we need them.” His answer was clear that he didn’t believe anything else.