Chapter 2
Fury’s office was nearly the same, but the extra bodies in it made it seem smaller.
“Glad you’re finally back, Hill,” Fury said in a tone that told her it was not because he had missed her.
“Good to be back, sir,” she said with a nod, not bothering to take a seat. The occupants of the two seats by the desk turned to face her, and- oh, Maria suddenly understood what the agent had meant about the Redhead’s gaze. It was abundantly clear to her that this was an apex predator, and she was a collection of soft flesh.
She was not this woman’s prey. Maria met her eyes, blinked slowly, and turned away. “Barton,” she said to the other man in the room.
“Hey,” Clint greeted her. “Been a while.”
“I see you haven’t changed a bit,” she replied. He shrugged artlessly, the muscles in his arms flexing.
“Hill, you know Barton,” Fury said needlessly. “This is Natalia Alianova, aka the Black Widow. She’s with us.” Maria did not need him to say for now to know that’s how the sentence ended.
Maria met Natalia’s eyes again, nodding in greeting. Their gazes held, not a power struggle so much as a sizing-up. Maria focused on evaluating her, but there was a voice in the back of her hear, whispering, she could eat you alive, little girl, and you would beg her to.
This wasn’t the time, nor the place, nor the woman for that.
“Nice to put a name to the face,” Maria said, after the moment had passed.
“The pleasure is mine,” Natalia replied, her voice low, slightly raspy, not at all what Maria was expecting.
“No accent?” she said before thinking.
“No,” Natalia said. “Unless you would prefer me with one? Some people do. Is easier for them, to think of me like stereotype.” The shift had been seamless, and Maria was sure any native Russian speaker would have found it as flawless as her American accent had been to Maria’s ear.
“Whatever makes you the most comfortable,” Maria said neutrally. Natalia’s eyes cut past her to look at Clint, and there was an entire conversation in the quirk of her eyebrows, the twist of his lips, that Maria wasn’t privy to.
“Hill, I’m assigning you to be Barton and Alianova’s handler,” Fury said, shifting back out of the shadows into the light. Maria hoped he’d teach her that trick someday; it was incredibly effective, even when you were expecting it.
“Her?” Natalia’s glance at her was just short of scathing, but it was the most emotion she’d displayed yet.
“I trained Hill personally. She’s an exemplary agent, and an experienced handler.” Flattering, but bit of an exaggeration on both counts. What was he up to?
“I have never had a woman handler before,” Natalia said in her cool even tone.
“You’ve never done a lot of things the way we do them here,” Fury said. “You’ll adjust.”
“What else?” Clint asked, breaking his characteristic silence. “You’re not telling us something.”
Fury glanced from Clint to Natalia to Maria, and there was something familiar in his eye, something…
“Los lobos,” she said, clarity cutting sharp through her thoughts. “That’s what it is, isn’t it.”
Natalia tightened up, ready to fight or flee. It is nearly imperceptible, but Maria thinks that "imperceptible" might describe her default state of being.
“It’s in my blood,” she said, directly to Natalia. “My mother, my grandfather. It mostly manifests in the men, and is carried by the women.”
Natalia’s gaze sharpened with this new knowledge, and Maria was flayed beneath it. “You?”
“Yes,” Maria said. “La sangre de los lobos. I’m not afraid of it.”
“But are you afraid of me?” Natalia asked.
Yes, of course. Maria shrugged.
“I know that you could kill me, if that’s what you’re asking. I don’t think you will, unless you have to, and I’ll do everything I can to make sure you don’t have to.”
Out of the corner of her eye, she can see Clint nod, and slowly, Natalia nodded too. “Yes, she’ll do.”
“Thank you,” Maria said, half-sardonically.
The tightness in Fury’s face relaxed, just barely perceptibly, and Maria thinks that this can’t have been the first time they’ve done this; this was an interview, and she passed.
“Will that be all for now?” she asked her commanding officer. Fury flicked a hand.
“Hill, dismissed. No, wait, I’m moving you to an office. You’ll need a place to meet. Expect an update shortly. You two, stay put for a second.”
Maria walked out of Fury’s office and waited until she was all the way back to her desk before heaving a deep breath. Well, this was unexpected. She hadn’t thought she’d make full-time handler for another two years at least, and certainly not to one of the best agents and his gorgeous ex-KGB werewolf recruit.
Maria sat down in her familiar chair and started counting her breaths. What the fuck was her life.
Had she really told them about la sangre? She’d been sworn to secrecy, same as the others who decided to go out into the wider human world; it was easier for her as a carrier, and not a full Were, and she’d felt so stifled, so trapped there. The only person she’d told was Fury, and that was because she needed to explain why her background check came back so empty.
And now she’d told two others, one a total stranger and a threat besides, on nothing more than an educated guess. She should not have done that. Her mamá would have her hide for it.
She heard a rippling hush behind her, and made another educated guess.
“Did Fury tell you where my new office will be,” she asked without turning around, “or are you here for something else?”
“Your heart rate is elevated,” Natalia said in her rich, even voice. “Are you frightened?”
“No,” Maria said, turning around.
“He didn’t mention it,” Clint said in response to her earlier question. “I- we thought we’d come see if you want to come get lunch with us.”
“It’s barely eleven,” Maria said, then realized. “Oh, metabolism, right. Sure, let me get my things.”
Clint looked relieved. “Great, meet us by the elevator?”
“Be there in a minute,” she said, and the pair of them turned, Natalia shadowing Clint, heads turning to follow them before snapping back to look at Maria. She sighed.
“Maybe there’ll be alcohol,” she said to herself, wistfully. She could use a shot of something right now. Maybe two.