The Full House
If she didn’t look too closely at the updated computers, or the faces that were only somewhat familiar around her, Maria Hill could have convinced herself she was right back in the command center of SHIELD.
“Shit,” Tony called out as he rebounded off the building they were looking to get into.
“Language,” Steve scolded.
The whole room stifled a laugh, Maria included as they continued to give different members updates on the Hydra base they were looking to infiltrate.
“We’re getting energy readings from the sensors in Stark’s suit,” Maria regained composure, turned on her coms, and let the team know.
“Jarvis, what’s the view from upstairs?” Rogers asked the automated system.
Most screens in the control room were using the satellite image Jarvis provided, they watched as it zeroed in on several red dots and what looked like-
“The central building is protected by some kind of energy shield. Striker’s technology is well beyond any other hydra base we’ve taken.”
It was obvious that this base had something else that the others didn't. It had more power, more energy, and each of the soldiers used weapons that were farther advanced from any of the other bases.
“Loki’s scepter must be here, Striker couldn’t mount this defense without it,” Thor chimed in, slightly out of breath.
The Commander continued working, continued directing the team, and launched the Iron Legion on Tony’s command. Her mind, however, was far away from the mission in front of her.
Loki’s scepter, an item she had thought about again and again over the last 2 years. She glanced at her phone, it was still hours before Ellie would be done with school but she had the sudden urge to check on her, to make sure that somehow the energy source in a tiny European country wasn’t affecting her.
“Clint’s hit!” Natasha’s voice was the only thing that pulled her out of her mind.
“Owusu, distance between the team and the closest quinjet?” Maria barked out to the woman in front of her.
“Half mile,” the young woman stared at her screen for a moment longer.
“Find a clearing, bring it in closer.” Maria gave the order.
“Somebody want to deal with that bunker?” Romanoff spoke quickly as the sounds of explosions sounded around her.
“Owusu, hold,” the Commander held up her hand.
They watched on the screen as Banner ran full force into the bunker, taking out not only the weapon but the Hydra soldiers around it.
“Thank you,” Natasha’s voice was small as she spoke, clearly feeling the relief from the cessation of gunfire around her.
“There,” she pointed to the newly cleared section of forest, “land it there.”
“Copy,” the young woman nodded and controlled the jet remotely.
Maria gave a few more orders before it was clear that the bulk of the battle was over and Natasha was deployed to bring Banner back to his original size. She waited until Clint was safely back in the first jet before looking at her phone once more to make sure she hadn’t missed anything from her daughter's school.
“We’ve got a second enhanced in the field, female, do not engage,” Steve called into his coms.
She took in a breath and calmed her nerves, there was no reason to panic. They had Strucker, they took down the base, they would learn what was going on and Ellie would be fine.
“Ms. Hill, the boss wanted me to send these files over,” Jarvis’ voice filled her computer as a massive download of files came through.
“Got it,” she scanned the folders for a moment before patching into the man’s coms, “Stark, you want me to pull the legion? They’re getting trashed out there.”
She waited for a moment, then another, “Tony?”
His indicator light still blinked from where he was located in the building, she looked at his vitals, other than his heart rate (which was faster than average), everything looked normal.
“Rodgers, you got eyes on Stark?” Maria looked at the dot closest to Tony.
“Let me hand off Strucker,” the blonde answered.
A moment later he spoke once more, “on my way.”
“I’m-” Tony cleared his throat, “fine. Just trying to figure out how to speak without Sister Rodgers hitting me with a ruler for cursing.”
“It was one time,” Steve complained, “Hill, we’re headed back your way.”
“I’ll have Dr. Cho on standby,” she worked quickly to send off a message to the woman, “watch their return, if anything pops up, come get me.”
“Yes, ma’am,” the man next to her nodded once before focusing once more on the monitor in front of him.
She had to at least try and sort through the data dump that had just come her way. But before that, there was a call she needed to make.
“Hey Ria,” Laura sounded more and more out of breath as her due date got closer.
“Hey,” she walked into her office, “he’s fine.”
“But,” the ex-agent supplied.
“He got hit, nothing too serious but we’re going to keep him in the tower while Cho works on him,” Maria typed in her password and waited for the woman to respond.
“You promise he’s okay?”
“Promise, it was just a graze from what Tasha saw.”
“Okay,” Laura sighed, “you know I trust you, but if anything happens-”
“You’ll be the first to know,” she nodded, “I gotta go, but I’ll make sure he calls you when he’s back.”
“Bye Ria, give Ellie a hug from me,” the mom of two answered.
“Will do, bye Laur.”
Mari hung up the phone and began the tedious process of running through the major sections of data, categorizing it as she went. There were large sections based on political upheaval, resource mining, and the largest of them all, weapons. Hundreds of subsections followed but she had her gaze focused on one in particular. Chitauri.
Time passed quickly from there as she read more and more about not only the Chitauri army but also the man who had ruled them. Her breathing stopped as two names came into focus, not for what they could do, but where they got their power from.
Maria read every single thing about the two, twins as she came to learn, as she could. She read about their lives before they joined Hydra and then went as far as to see if she could find anything about linking them to known widows. Her eyes burned as she got the notification that the Quinjet had landed and Natasha and Clint were off to the medbay. Maria got up, grabbed her tablet, and went to update the team.
“Lab’s all set up boss,” she walked into the almost empty quinjet.
“Oh actually, he’s the boss,” Tony pointed to Rodgers who was grabbing the last of his things, “I just, pay for everything and design everything and… make everyone look cooler.”
Steve rolled his eyes and smiled, “what the word on Strucker?”
“Natos got him,” Owusu had let her know about 30 minutes prior.
“The two enhanced?” and nodded and met her at the ramp of the jet.
“Wanda and Pietro Maximoff. Twins,” Maria handed her tablet to Steve as he walked off the quinjet, “orphaned at 10 when a shell collapsed their apartment building.”
She played the video which showed them at various political protests before swiping to show the demolished building the two had once called home.
“Sokovia’s had- a rough history,” she paraphrased the decades of unrest, “it’s nowhere special, but it’s on its way to everywhere special.”
“Their abilities?” the blonde continued looking at the tablet as they walked into the building.
“He’s got increased metabolism and improved thermal homeostasis. Her thing is neuroelectronic interfacing, telekinesis, mental manipulation-”
Steve punched the passcode into the elevator door and looked at her, confusion etched into his features.
“He’s fast and she’s weird,” Maria concluded, recognizing that not everyone wanted to know as much about the twins as she did.
Not everyone had a close relationship to the scepter that she did.
“Well, they're going to show up again,” he handed her back the tablet.
“Agreed, file says they volunteered for Strucker's experiments. It’s nuts,” she watched as he entered the elevator.
“Right, what kind of monster would let a German scientist experiment on them to protect their country?” He smirked.
“We’re not at war, Captain.”
“They are,” he gave a half shrug.
She let the doors close, his point was solid, and he had been in the same situation. But all Maria could think about was Ellie and how she had never asked for any of this.
“I’m thinking of throwing a party,” Tony walked up behind her, “Saturday. Think it would be good for team morale.”
“I’m sure you’ll have a great time,” Maria sighed and scrolled through her emails.
“We’ll have a great time,” he emphasized the first word, “Come on Hill, you’re part of the team. Let your hair down.”
“I have a kid, Tony,” she barely glanced up from the device.
“And sadly, this will be a 21 and up event,” the billionaire truly did sound upset, “and I assume it she’s not really the babysitter type?”
Maria looked up and stared at the man, “you assume correctly.”
“I’ll think of something,” Tony called out as she walked to the elevator.
The doors closed and she punched in her floor, maybe in another life her daughter would have been someone to trust and be safe with a babysitter. But not in this life, and that wasn’t something that particularly bothered Maria, she knew Ellie was safe and that’s all that mattered.
“So much testosterone,” Natasha opened the door and flopped onto the couch in Maria’s office.
It had been hours since they came back from the missions and the Commander was just about to pack up for the night and grab Ellie from the lobby.
“That bad, huh?” she smiled.
“Thor’s unable to separate his feelings from the objective, Steve’s not willing to put more pressure on the remaining Hydra bases with teams that don’t involve him, Burce and Tony are doing something shifty.” the Russian sighed, “Helen’s the only one with even a little bit of reasonable judgment.”
“How about Clint?” Maria asked as she turned off her computer.
“Bird-brain almost got himself killed today!” The redhead threw her hands in the air, “also, he’s staying with us.”
“I figured as much,” Maria bent down and kissed her girlfriend, “let’s go grab the tiniest member of the ‘Bad Judgement Club’”
“Is it already 5:30?” Natasha sat up and looked at the clock on the wall.
The brunette just hummed and held the door open. Less than 5 minutes later they were crossing the massive lobby, both watching Ellie kick her feet out and let them tap the bench below her.
“Hi, Happy,” Maria gave a brief nod to the man who sat just far enough away for her to assume Ellie had scooted away.
“Hey Ms. Hill,” he smiled, “Ms. Rush- Ms. Romanoff.”
The driver's cheeks flushed as he looked at Natasha. Ellie came barreling into Maria, the zippers on her backpack jingling slightly.
“Anything from school or aftercare?” She bent down to pick the girl up but stopped when the redhead next to her tisked and picked up the girl herself.
Her surgical sites were little more than scars at this point, but still, Natasha insisted on picking Ellie up. Maria had the sneaking suspicion that it had nothing to do with her surgery at all but rather the woman just waiting to be close to the little girl.
“They're having a Valentine's Day party next week,” the driver searched his pockets for a second before pulling out a red piece of paper, “Her teacher asked for any allergies.”
“I do not have,” Ellie noted from where she sat on Natasha’s hip, eyes narrowed on the man in front of her.
“Thanks, Happy,” Maria nodded and took the paper, “see ya tomorrow morning.”
“Have a nice night,” Natasha smiled and walked back to the elevator.
The man hadn’t mentioned anything weird occurring and the piece of Maria that had been nervous since learning about the Maximoffs, eased slightly.
“What mission?” Ellie asked as she ran her finger down the suit the Russian still wore.
The child was obsessed with all things Avengers-related to the point where Natasha normally changed clothes before she saw the little girl.
“A Hydra base,” the redhead pressed the floor they lived on and punched in the code.
“Widows?” green eyes glanced between Maria and Natasha.
“No, no widows,” the woman shook her head and readjusted the child, “just snow and lots of silly soldiers with weapons they shouldn’t use.”
Ellie sighed and nodded as if she had been there hundreds of times. Maria smiled as they reached the apartment, opting not to tell the girl about the twins who shared her same origin.
“Hey!” Clint’s voice was partially muffled from where he ate a pop tart.
“Hi,” Ellie went to take off and hug that man but stopped suddenly.
She bent down, gave Liho one long pet, and then raced off back toward the archer.
“Did not know you were here,” the curly-haired child smiled as she hugged the man.
Natasha waited for her cat to twist between her legs before giving her a rub on the top of the head. Liho looked at Maria for a moment before swishing her tail and walking down the hallway, Natasha following her.
“I decided to stay a little longer after work,” he patted the girl’s hair from where she wrapped her arms around his leg.
The archer didn’t mention where he was hit and with a shower and a change of clothes, it wasn’t obvious to anyone that he had been. He took another bite of a pop tart and ran a hand through his still-damp hair.
“Good with flautas?” Maria motioned to the kitchen.
“Good with any food you put in front of me,” Clint nodded.
“I’ll make extra,” she looked at her daughter, “You have homework?”
“Finished after school with Liam,” Ellie nodded from where she now perched on a bar stool.
“Have Clint look it over,” Maria pulled out the ingredients for dinner and threw on an apron.
“I’m a whiz at 1st-grade math,” the archer smiled and took a seat next to the girl.
<I am in second grade> Ellie tilted her head to the side as she signed.
“Oh…” Clint frowned, “are you sure?”
“Yes,” Ellie nodded.
“Well, I’m sure I’m great at that too.” He smiled once more.
Maria made a mental note to check the homework once more tonight before she went to bed. But for now, she mixed the ingredients for dinner and listened to the two talk as she worked. She was on her last tortilla when her phone rang.
“Hey kid,” she placed the phone between her cheek and shoulder.
“Hi Maria Hill,” Yelena answered, “Do you know where Natalia is?”
“Yeah, she’s in the shower,” Maria finished up the last item and washed her hands, “need me to go grab her?”
“No,” the blonde answered, “she did not return my call earlier and I was not sure if the mission had run long or…”
There was no reason to finish the sentence, they both knew the worry that crept in from time to time in a job like this.
“No, I’m sure she just forgot, it was a long day from what I’m hearing,” she dried off her hands, “how’ve you been?”
“Oh good, I submitted all of my applications to school,” Yelena sounded slightly nervous, “globally so there is a small chance I will be around you once more, but it is small.”
“Fingers crossed,” Maria answered, “it would be great to have you around.”
“I know, I am a gift to those around me,” the blonde sighed.
“Hey, your sister just walked in if you want to talk to her,” she smiled and watched as a freshly clean Natasha approached her.
“Okay, thank you for the chat Maria Hill.”
“Anytime kid,” Maria snorted and handed the phone over to the redhead who quickly started speaking in Russian to her sister.
It was hours later by the time everyone was fed and washed and ready for bed, Ellie the first to be sent off to her room. Maria noticed at dinner that every once in a while the girl would shift uncomfortably and glance around.
“Something feels funny, Mommy,” the little girl confessed as Maria pulled the girl’s covers up to her chin.
“Funny how?” she had a good guess but wanted to confirm.
“Like… breathing energy,” the child squinted.
“Does it hurt?” Maria stroked her daughter's hair, she would take them out of the tower in an instant if it did.
“No, just funny,” Ellie settled as soon as Liho leaped onto the bed and into the space between the little girl's arms and legs, “Book tonight?”
The brunette paused for a moment, still considering if they should leave the apartment, but decided against it as her daughter yawned and snuggled into the cat further.
“Book tonight,” she nodded and reached for one they had been making their way through.
It was the routine they would follow for the next few days as the scepter remained in the building. Ellie remarked on how the air felt funny but confirmed that it wasn't painful each night as she laid down to sleep. However, on the third day, it wouldn't be Maria who would put the girl down for the night, it would be the man standing in front of her.
"The pizza is already here," she pointed to the kitchen, "they'll probably eat around 6 and I told Ellie they could watch a movie with it."
"Feel free to eat the pizza or whatever else you find," Maria shrugged, "They'll probably just work on the legos all night so they shouldn't be too much to handle but if anything goes wrong-"
"You're two floors up and Liam's parents can be reached on the phone numbers you left on the island," Barnes nodded.
While they had all been invited to the party, the man from the 40s had immediately declined. He was still getting used to being around large crowds, and given those invited, he thought it would be better to sit this one out. Something Tony had put together after he texted Maria at 2am the night before.
Stark: What about Caps... special friend?
It was the only person she trusted to watch Ellie while she was still in the same building. The realization was something Maria was eternally grateful for as soon as Stark had mentioned it and Barnes agreed, it had been a very long time since she was able to have a night out without Ellie.
"Exactly," the Commander nodded as a knock rang out.
In the blink of an eye, Ellie rounded the corner and threw the door open wide.
"Hi!" Liam beamed.
"Hi!" Ellie called back.
"You look real pretty Ms. Maria," the little boy readjusted his glasses.
"Thanks, buddy," she smiled and ran a hand through her hair (which was down by request of Natasha), "Hi Elena."
"Hey," the woman smiled and handed over a backpack, "he's right, you look great."
"Thanks," she shook her head, the dress she was wearing hadn't seen the light of day in years, "this is Barnes."
"Pleasure," the man shook Ruiz's hand with a polite smile.
"Thanks again, I haven't had a night out in years," Elena smiled, "plus he's been begging for a sleepover."
"Glad to help."
"We'll be back by 11 tonight and don't have any plans for the morning so feel free to stop by whenever you want," it was going to be a blessed, boring weekend. Maria couldn't wait.
The adults all spoke for a while longer until the Ruiz's said bye to each other and Maria waited for her date in the living room. It was nice talking to Barnes as she waited, they had more topics in coming than not and a mutual love of a little girl whose giggles floated down the hallway.
After what felt like hours, Natasha finally deemed herself presentable and exited the bedroom. If women were pretty, Natasha was beauty incarnate.
"I'm still not sold on the dress," the redhead fastened another earring into her decorated lobe and brushed slender fingers down the fabric.
"I am," Maria cleared her now dry throat.
"Well if it gets the Maria Hill stamp of approval, we're good to go," Natasha chuckled.
"Ellie," she called into the space, still unable to take her eyes off the woman in front of her, "we're going to head out."
The little girl came running in, her friend in tow.
"I love you, be good," she kissed the girl on the top of the head, "I hope you two have fun."
<I love you> Ellie signed and waited until both women signed it back.
"Be good," Maria pulled on a pair of heels.
"We will," her daughter nodded as she used Barnes's arm as her own personal playground.
"Yeah, we'll probably just build legos and see if we can name all the wor-" Liam started but stopped after Ellie shot him a glare, "Yeah... just probably legos..."
"Elizaveta, I'm going to ask you one more time," Maria narrowed her gaze "Do you have worms in your room?"
"So silly Mommy," little hands pushed on her hip, "have to go now."
"Come on," Natasha opened the door and led the two into the hallway.
"That wasn't an answer!" she shot into the apartment, "Call if you need anything, Barnes."
The door clicked shut behind them and before they could even get to the elevator, the Russian's hands were threaded through her hair, a searing kiss to her lips.
"Have I told you how much I love it like this?" Natasha played with the brunette's hair which was down to almost her shoulders now.
"Once or twice. I always listen to you-" Maria was cut off by another kiss, "and take your requests into consideration."
"Always, huh?" the redhead asked as she walked closer to where they were trying to go.
"Of course," Maria smiled as she pressed the elevator button, "really...anything you'd ask for, I'd do for you."
"Anything?"
"Anything."
Natasha smiled and shook her head, "Some things are too big."
"Not to me, not for you," she walked into the elevator and listened to the doors close behind her.
"Oh yeah?" the Russian stood in the corner and Maria bracketed her hands on either side of the rails next to her.
"Natasha Alianovna Romanoff," she whispered into the spy's ear, "you could ask for the moon and I would go up and get it for you."
And for the first time, Maria could recall, Natasha didn't have a rebuttal, she just stood with her hands on Maria's waist, her eyes huge and fixed on the woman's face. The two stayed like that until the elevator dinged and the doors opened.
"There you are!" Clint nearly shouted from where he leaned against the bar closest to them.
They entered the party which was really starting to ramp up and mingled with visitors until Maria offered to get her date a drink. She herself was still staying away but made it to the bar, Rhodes, Tony, and Thor occupying the far end.
She took a glass of water and walked up to the trio where Rhodes was telling what Maria knew to be his favorite War machine story.
"But ya know, the suit can take the weight, right?" he looked to make sure everyone was watching him, "so I take the tank, fly it right up to the general palace, drop it at his feet. I'm like boom, ya lookin' for this?"
The brunette covered her smile at the lack of response with a sip of her drink.
"Boom, are you lookin'-" Rhodes shook his head and cut himself off, "Why do I even talk to you guys? Everywhere else that story kills."
"That's the whole story?" Thor tilted his head slightly, making sure he understood the completion of the tale.
"yeah... war machine story..." Warmachine himself sighed.
"oh- it's- it's very good then" the blonde smiled and took another sip of his ale, "it's impressive."
"Quality save," Rhodes shook his head and looked to Tony, "so, no Pepper?"
"What about Jane?" Maria chimed in after making eye contact with her own girlfriend, "Where are the ladies, gentlemen?"
"Well, Ms. Potts has a company to run," Stark dismissed her.
"I'm not even sure what country Jane is in, her work on the convergence has made her the world's foremost astronomer," Thor answered and Maria could already tell where this conversation was about to go.
"And the company that Pepper runs is the largest tech conglomerate on earth, it's pretty exciting." Stark tried to play it off as nonchalantly as possible.
"There's even talk of Jane getting an um," Thor's voice raised slightly, "a Nobel prize."
"yeah, yeah they must be busy because they'd hate missing you guys get together," Maria placed a hand on her chest to fake a coffing fit, "testosterone."
"Oh my goodness," Rhodes placed a hand on her back.
"Oh excuse me," she shook her head.
"want a lozenge?" he guided the two away from what was going to be another stare-down between the other two men.
"Mhmm," Maria walked with him, Natasha's drink in hand as she made her way back over to the redhead.
She was standing with Clint who at some point had found drumsticks and was effortlessly carrying a rhythm on the side table next to him. Maria walked up with Rhoodes, her hand finding easy purchase on Natasha's waist as she pulled the both of them to the arm of the couch behind them.
"For you," she held the drink over as the Russian leaned into the side of her leg.
"Thank you," Natasha took a sip and scooted in closer.
"How's it goin' being the war machine?" Clint asked the man next to him.
Not wanting to strike out twice with the Avengers, he sighed, "It's going pretty good, been seeing a little action."
"Stateside or are you over international waters?" the blonde began an easy conversation with Rhodes, enough to where Maria now realized Natasha was scooting even closer to her leg, their thighs pressed together.
While she didn't mind the contact, not one bit, Natasha wasn't one for open public displays of affection and so the brunette cocked her head to the side. The Russian's brows were furrowed.
"Are you packing?"
Maria actually choked on her water this time, enough for Clint and Rhodes to look at her. She waved them off as her face flushed red and took another sip, a devious smile on Natasha's lips.
"I mean I can run back to the apartment and-" Maria stopped abruptly and realized that was not at ALL what Natasha was referring to.
"I'm not expecting trouble, it's just force of habit," she clarified, "makes me feel more secure."
She wore the holster almost every day, at this point, she didn't even feel the way her gun sat on her thigh. Natasha pressed her leg into the outline once more and hummed, glancing at the pink that still sat on the Commander's cheeks.
"You're cute," the Russian's nose crinkled slightly, "I'm going to say hi to Steve and Bruce."
Maria simply nodded and prayed that neither of the men next to her would call her out on the heat in her face.
Luckily, they didn't and the night moved on in such fluidity that she only glanced at her phone twice to see if Barnes had needed anything. The notifications stayed at zero and she once again focused on the small group in front of her who were all taking turns trying to lift Thor's hammer.
"Widow? Bruce offered to Natasha after even the mighty Steve sat back down.
"Oh, no no, that's not a question I need answered," Natasha took a sip of her beer and Maria kissed her on the forehead.
She didn't need a hammer to tell her that Natasha was worthy of everything good in this world. It was getting closer to 11 and the small group left all knew about their relationship. Natasha smiled and leaned back into Maria's side.
"All difference to the man who wouldn't be king," Tony took a sip of his own drink from where he stood with Clint and Rhodes, "it's rigged."
Clint himself had a lasting theory of the hammer being nothing more than one of the sideshow scams he had seen too many times in the circus.
"You bet your ass," the archer agreed with Stark as he passed by.
"Steve," Maria got the Capitan's attention, it was too good to pass up, "he said a bad language word."
Everyone in the group smiled and laughed as Steve shook his head, "you tell everyone about that?"
"The handles imprinted," Stark tried once more.
That was the thing about Tony, once he had an idea, he was like a dog with a bone, he wouldn't put it down until he was done picking it over. Maria shook her head and pulled Natasha in close, it had been so long since all of them were together. It had been so long since she had been surrounded by family like this.
"Right? like a security code?" Stark asked, "Who so-ever is carrying Thor's fingerprints is I think the literal translation?"
"Yes, so that is a very very interesting theory," the god stood to his full height and walked over to his weapon of choice, "I have a simpler one, you're all not worthy."
"Oh come on!" Maria called out, Natasha booing next to her.
Banner opened his mouth to say something else but stopped short as an ear-piercing sound rang through the floor. Every single body subtly moved to the closest weapon they could find.
And just like that, the good times were over.