Nick Fury & His Children
"You know you can't just take in random strays from the street that you feel sorry for." Coulson said out the blue one day.
Nick scoffed. “I do not take in strays.”
“With all due respect sir, you do. Hill, Romanoff, Danvers, even Rambeau because of Danvers. They’re all strays you’ve taken in.” Phil said matter of factly.
Fury sighed. He knew Coulson was right. “Well, if no one else is going to do it..." Fury trailed off. In his defense, he wasn’t trying to take them in, they just sort of became attached to him and he didn’t mind. It all started in 1995.
Carol Danvers landing on Earth was an experience Nick Fury will never forget. Watching an alien autopsy, getting his eye scratched out by a flerken, and going to space we’re just part of the excitement of that experience. However, the most memorable part was meeting Carol herself.
Carol was bold and brave, something Fury admired about her. She was compassionate, something he saw when she was reunited with Maria and Monica. (He definitely thinks her and Maria have something going on, but he wouldn’t pry…at least not yet.)
Seeing her fly off to help a universe full of people who needed help, filled him with a sense of pride. The impact she left on him led him to name his initiative after her. Something to remember her by.
A few months after Carol’s departure, Maria Rambeau contacted him about creating an agency to monitor extra terrestrial and extra dimensional threats, he helped. Of course it was from the shadows (he can’t have many people knowing his connection to Rambeau, it wouldn’t be safe). She later named the agency Sentient Weapon Observation and Response Division, or SWORD for short. He would give her the names of a few people he trusted, and gave her advice here and there but she had the whole running a super secret government agency thing down and well he was proud of her too.
It was 2000 when he saw both of them together again. She had come down to visit the Rambeaus and Maria called him telling him Carol wanted to see him. So he made the trip down to Loiusiana, Goose in tow. Carol made sure to tell him about all her adventures and he tells her he’s proud of her, but of course it’s when they’re alone, can’t have Maria or Monica seeing him this soft.
The smile he gets from her warms his heart though.
Then he and Monica subtly (it’s definitely not subtle at all) hints that she should tell Maria how it feels because watching the pine over each other is “sadder than Mufasa’s death in the Lion King” - Monica and he agrees.
Fury spends a few more days with the Rambeau-Danvers before he has to get back to SHIELD, but before he leaves he catches Carol kissing Maria and smiles to himself. Finally , he thinks, I thought it would take the end of the world for them to confess their feelings.
The next time he sees Carol is 2007, when he introduces her to Maria Hill.
Now Fury didn’t go out of his way to pick agents for SHIELD, but Maria Hill was different. He picked her up from the Marines when she was honorably discharged at 22 and by the age of 24, she was one of his best agents, quickly rising through ranks. Fury only knew what she put in the files, and what his background check told him, but that didn't tell much about her home life, only her career in the Marines. When she became leader of strike team Beta, she was described by her peers as a hard ass and an ice queen who got the job done and kept them safe. However, Fury knew there was much more to Maria than what she let on. One night, he found her distraught in a boiler room, and realized he had another stray.
He didn’t say anything when he saw her, just hugged her till she stopped crying. She immediately tried to compose herself to her stoic soldier persona and apologize out of embarrassment but he stopped her.
“This isn’t the first time I’ve had to console someone in a dark room at 4am.” He’d told her. She looked at him confused, and raised an eyebrow waiting for him to elaborate.
He sighed before speaking. “This doesn’t leave this room but I have a…well I guess she's basically my kid, Carol. She’s away right now, but when she visits sometimes she gets nightmares and I find her in a similar state to you. Anyway, I’ve learned a thing or two about helping crying people in the middle of the night. You don’t have to tell me why you were upset, but you do need to talk with someone.” Maria nodded, digesting the information.
“My father died. He was a homophobic son of a bitch who hated me from the day I was born because my mother died during childbirth. I hated him, and what he put me through but the fact that he got to die without giving me any apology, hurts. He was also the last connection to my mother, he was never a father to me, but he was all I had of her.”
“For what it’s worth, Hill, I never would’ve known you came from a home life like that, you’re controlled, caring, and calm. I’m proud of you and the agent you’re becoming. You’re gonna be running this place one day.
That night, Nick vowed to make sure he’d never find Maria like that again. So he mentored her and when she was 25, Maria was promoted to Deputy Director and she finally met Carol. Something Nick slightly regrets because Carol told him the story of how he lost his eye and now Maria can’t look at him without smirking.
A year later, Maria was overseeing a mission that Clint Barton, codename Hawkeye was on, and he brought back Fury’s final stray, Natalia Romanova, codename Black Widow.
When Fury sent Barton to kill the Black Widow, he expected 1 of 3 outcomes: Widow kills Barton, she severely injures him (she’s an assassin after all and Barton’s hand to hand is questionable) or he comes back with confirmation that she’s dead. He didn’t expect him to actually bring her back.
Seeing her in person was a little startling. He couldn’t believe a woman this small took out some of his best agents. While he was berating Barton for being back a deadly KGB assassin, he had Maria interrogate and assess her.
(“She’s defensive, guarded but she also seems defeated. She didn’t say much but she did say she was from The Red Room. I asked her to elaborate about her time there, but she refused. Wouldn’t say anything else until she knows what’s going to happen to her.)
After Barton plead her case, he ultimately decided she should stay at SHIELD, for her own protection and because her skills proved she could be useful.
Hearing all the things she endured during her time at the Red Room was one thing, but seeing her relive it during her deprogramming was something he would never want anyone to experience. Sometimes he could still hear the screams she let out, they were loud enough to be heard from the hallway. That day, he made a promise to himself she’d never have to go through anything like that again while under his protection.
A few months after her deprogramming, he found her asleep on the couch in his office. He would have called Clint or Maria to get her but they were on missions. A thought did occur to him though, a highly trained assassin who should have woken up when he entered the office, stayed asleep. She wascomfortable with him. When he heard about what the General made her endure, he wasn’t sure if she would ever trust him or feel safe, which was something he’d hoped for (because he does try and make SHIELD as safe as possible for his agents) but didn’t expect to come so early. He did the only logical thing, covered her with a blanket and started doing his paperwork.
When she woke up a few hours later, it was because Maria burst into his office looking for her. Natasha jumped up, embarrassed (she tried to hide it but he could tell). He told Maria to wait outside his office and asked Natasha to sit in one of the chairs.
"I'm sorry. I didn't mean-" she started. She looked scared, as if she did something wrong.
"Do you feel safe here?" he'd interrupted.
"Huh?" she asked confused.
"Do you feel safe in my office? Around me? Is that why you fell asleep in here?" he clarified.
"Yes," she said in a small voice.
"Okay." he replied.
"What do you mean 'okay'? Am I not in trouble?"
"No, Natasha, you aren't in trouble. I'm not going to punish or reprimand you for finding a safe place, be it the nest or my office. Besides, you aren't the only one who deems this a safe space. I don't know if they told you, but Maria and Clint sometimes sleep here, that's why I keep a blanket here. I try to make SHIELD safe for all of you, and if you feel safe here, then that's okay." he explained. He watched as she absorbed the information she was just given.
She just nodded. "Maria's probably walking a hole into the ground pacing out there, so you're dismissed." she got up from her chair and left. He faintly hear "Hi Ria", before the door completely shut.
Guess I have another one. He thought to himself.
After the fall of SHIELD in 2014, he gave the location to Maria R. and Natasha, told them to come visit him and Maria, who was staying with him, when they had time. However, when all his children did come to visit, he had been in the house alone. He woke up to the sound of whispers and clanking and grabbed the gun he kept under his pillow. He looked at the alarm clock next to his bed. 3:48 am, it read. I'm supposed to be dead and I can't even sleep in peace. he rolled his eyes at the thought. He slowly crept into the hallway, safety off the gun and ready to shoot the intruders if needed.
"Be quiet! You're gonna wake him up!" he heard a familiar voice say from the kitchen.
"Tell that to Carol and those clunky space boots, I'm surprised he didn't hear us land." Natasha's voice became clear as he walked closer to the kitchen.
"Both of you shut up, you're acting like children." he heard Hill's annoyed voice next. "If I knew you two were gonna be acting like this, I would've left you at the tower!" she complained further.
"Hey!" Carol and Natasha whined in unison.
Nick decided to stop peaking around the corner and make his presence known. "What the hell are all of you doing here? Do you know what time it is?"
All three of them jumped and turned to look at him, sheepish grins on all their faces. "This was supposed to be a surprise but those two don't know how to be quiet." Maria said
"Surprise for what?"
"Well, it's Father's Day and you've basically been a father to all of us, so we decided to surprise you today." Natasha explained.
And no matter how hard he tried to fight it, he couldn't stop the megawatt smile that took over his face.
"Oh my god he's smiling and its an actual smile; not that happy smirk he does." Natasha marveled astonished.
"Quick someone take a picture!" Carol urged.
"On it!" Maria quickly snapped a picture.
He chuckled at their antics. "While I do appreciate the surprise, next time can you do it at a decent time?"
"But, you wake up at 5:45 every morning, it was now or never." Nat shrugged.
"Maria sends her love, and a present from her and Monica." Carol told him.
He just shook his head and gave them all hugs. He watched as they excitedly shoved gifts in his face that they wanted to get opened first.
"Ok, so maybe I do take in strays but I wouldn't trade them for the world." he admitted to Phil.
"Aw that's sweet. You're going soft on me boss?" Coulson teased.
"Leave before I give you paperwork or something." Fury grumbled.
Coulson just laughed before walking away, probably going to see his own strays.