no one is now what they were before the war | maria & sharon
agent-thirteen:
“No, it’s obvious that the Winter Soldier pulled that trigger.”
The words trip out contrary, sharp-edged and serrated and it might sound like splitting hairs but Sharon doesn’t care, she’s so far past caring it’d be obvious to her what’s going on here if she could see past the end of her own nose. But not now, not with - tunnel vision, frankly, hers and Maria’s - the walls are closing in, their whole universe collapsing down to a fixed point and it’s here, it’s right now, and there’s something that feels almost unavoidable about this.
“We have nothing to pin Barnes to that sniper’s nest, Hill, you know that just as well as I do. No prints, no biometrics, nothing, and we are not that sloppy.”
We. The pair of them. S.H.I.E.L.D. The goddamned United Nations. Does it really matter who she’s talking about, right now?
Sharon’s heard this tone from Maria a hundred times, and every single time she’s been beside her, behind her, shoulder-to-shoulder and ready to go down swinging, because that tone from Maria Hill’s mouth means I win, it means we’ve won, it means don’t bother coming back, it means try me again, see what happens.
Sharon never could leave well enough alone.
“What’s funny,” her palms hit the edge of Maria’s desk and the lean in seems to take her whole center of gravity with it, there’s nothing outside her, not anymore, just this, just the fucking look on Maria’s face and how could she, how could she, they’re supposed to be a team, right, and here comes Hill, ready to throw Barnes under the bus, ready to toss Sharon right after because the one person Sharon always thought she could count on to hear her out can’t be fucking bothered.
(Does it hurt more, or less, if she’s willing to admit that in someplace deep and ugly, she expected this?
Or, more accurately — she expected this again. The first time she didn’t, and remember where that landed her? A cell in Afghanistan, not even big enough for a fucking dog.)
“Is that you’d insinuate that I’m the one who’s somehow compromised here, Director, when you seem to be the one spoiling to cash in on something that sounds an awful lot like a grudge.”
Is there a difference?
Is there really, truly, a difference between the man the world knows as the Winter Soldier and the one that Sharon holds near and dear as Bucky Barnes.
Her lip curls and she can feel the muscles in her shoulders tightening, creeping upward toward her ears as she tenses up, coiling like a spring. The ballistics report had been pretty condemning, in her professional opinion- which apparently doesn’t matter to Carter over here, staunchly digging in her heels against the possibility that Barnes might not be all that he seems ( a glorified weapon- ).
When Sharon moves it’s swift, a jolt of electric energy that permeates the room kept unequivocally still by the presence of its main occupant. The only reaction that Maria affords is a flutter of her lashes, several blinks that indicate she’s aware of the shift in position. If she were a little less angry, she might be not enjoy this as much. Maria Hill is a woman who errs on the side of not taking things personally, but on the rare occasion that she does, it’s much like a tender wound that that makes you hiss on contact.
The muscle at the base of her jaw tics- once, then twice.
She doesn’t care.
( This is something she’s worn out as a mantra over too many years- )
Sharon’s chosen her side, that much is clear.
Her voice is steady ( ice cold- she can’t afford to let even her colleague know that she’s struck something a nerve ), the pad of her thumb tracing a slow circle on the inner part of her ring finger.
“Like I said, I’m following evidence. Morse’s report makes it clear. The fact that Barnes has turned on us before only gives me probable cause.”
Maria tilts her head back slightly, adjusting the angle of her gaze, lids slightly hooded. It’s important that she broadcast just how little this actually affects her.
“If you want to go to bat for a known criminal, Sharon, so be it. I’ll get started on the order for your investigation- you’re familiar with the protocol.”
