So, this is the fic. Not really how I wanted it to come out but ????
I have a really hard time writing action, so I did the best I could, and I hope the tenses don’t make this unreadable (and also, that the characters seem to stay in character??).
I will happily write the dinner if you would like, but I figured it’d be better to get this to you now so it didn’t seem like I’d forgotten you!
Maria never liked Superheroes, and Tony Stark in particular always tended to set her teeth on edge. Working for him after the Hydra shitstorm, however… well, they hadn’t killed each other yet, and she’d just received her second quarterly statement (and another-very large- paycheck).
It helped being on good terms with Pepper. Between the two of them, Tony knew a petty complaint (too much ketchup on the burgers at lunch, too few bobble-head hulk toys, etc, etc) was pointless and would be met with blank stares or no recognition at all.
And Tony quickly got over his “mandatory initiation” bint which included loudly blasting any song which happened to include ‘Maria’ in the title.
(All it had taken was Maria not-so-sweetly talking Jarvis into switching Tony’s prefered Rock music to Classical, spiced with a bit of Folk. Maria might not have been one for practical jokes and crude humor, but neither was she a passive doormat who waited for things to blow over. She also knew when a straight-forward conversation would only make things worse.)
In her six months as “Communications Director” for Stark Industries, she had streamlined every department, “weeded out” roughly seventy employees as potential Hydra agents (the ones she was certain of, she executed, ones that didn’t spit “Hail Hydra” in her face she let go, but with a good deal of surveillance), and hired several trustworthy ex-S.H.I.E.L.D. agents who were desperate for safe haven.
She’d also suffered through more senate hearings than she felt were possibly fair, drank her weight twice over in martinis after said hearings with Pepper, and collected and distributed a fair amount of intelligence on Hydra and Barnes.
Steve and Sam were her most frequent contacts using her information, but she’d had a few late-night, back-alley exchanges with Natasha and others, and had met with Phil on occasion.
She knew Phil was rebuilding SHIELD, and she understood why, but she couldn’t bring herself back to the agency that she had pulled the trigger on. The best she could do was help Stark privatize global security and control channels of intel that would help cut down Hydra agent by agent.
She was headed to the bank to cash in her paycheck when she got a call to her burner-of-the-week. It buzzed a few times, then a minute later it buzzed again. As she answered, Maria used an intersection as an excuse to look around.
“Hello?” She said, as she stepped into the crosswalk among a throng of pedestrians.
“We’re in town for a few days. Wharf district, two east from the hideous green warehouse on Fisher.” Steve’s voice was tired, but efficient.
“I’ll meet you for lunch,” Maria replied, “My choice, Stark’s wallet.”
Maria showed up at the guys’ hideout twenty minutes later laden with three full bags of takeout from the Thai kitchen. She wasn’t too proud to admit that she knew exactly how much food to bring-a stint in the Marine Corp followed by SHIELD and, well, you find out just how much a hungry soldier can eat.
She was maybe a tiny bit ashamed to admit she knew exactly how much Steve would need as a Super Soldier (and what his favorites were…).
Sam met her at the door, and ushered her in, taking the bag she waved under his nose and ripping into a box immediately.
“Back here,” he mumbled between bites of noodles, gesturing with his entire upper body in an attempt to keep from spilling any food.
Maria stared, unimpressed by his display of mannerlessness.
“When did you all last eat?” She asked, wondering if she had misjudged the needed quantity after all.
“Yesterday around three,” Steve’s voice replied from behind the next door, and as it opened, Maria stepped forward, using the bags as an excuse to close the distance between the Captain and herself.
“Why?” She asked, grabbing his hand as he took his food from her.
He looked at her, noting the poorly concealed circles under her eyes, and the ever-deeper wrinkles between her eyebrows.
“We were in a rush to get here. Not a lot of time to stop for food when you’re trying to prevent a catastrophe at Stark tower. ”
“And why didn’t you call me?” She seemed to suddenly remember that she’s gripping his hand, and let go, conscious of her tone and actions being too caring.
Steve winced at his slip, but answered, “Because we couldn’t risk contacting you. If it looked like you were evacuating, it would be too late.”
Maria narrowed her eyes and pursed her lips, not satisfied, but accepted his excuse anyways.
The three made their way into the room behind Steve, where the guys had two ratty couches and a rough card table set up. Maria emptied the last bag onto the table, and sat delicately on the edge of the least filthy couch cushion. Steve took a seat to her left, and Sam sprawled on the other couch, starting in on his second container, this time, at least, making use of the utensils.
They talked as they ate, the men filling Maria in on their last two months, giving her details that she hadn’t been able to glean from their encrypted texts and brief calls. Maria, in turn, gave them a rundown of what had been happening in her other circles.
They then spent an hour sketching out a plan for the guy’s next few weeks, trying to sort and connect their compiled information into useful guidelines.
Maria and Steve left the building as the sun was setting behind the city skyline. Maria had known that meeting with the guys would require the rest of her day, but she was still restless and ready to get home.
She turned to Steve, finally allowing herself to really look at him. She’d kept herself professional and distant all day (barring the momentary lapse when she first saw him). Now she stepped closer, noticing, for all that he was pumped with Super Serum, that he looked haggard and aged. Finding out that Bucky was alive, but not really… Bucky… it had taken a toll on him. Searching for his friend, and taking down Hydra along the way- it was wearing him down.
“Steve,” Maria started to ask something, but her question got stuck in her throat.
He just looked at her, waiting.
“Steve, I need you to take care of yourself.” She settled on, knowing it hardly got her point across.
Steve lifted a hand to her face, and gently ran his thumb over her cheek. He didn’t quite cup her face, and she didn’t lean into his touch, but for them it was enough. It had to be.
After a too-short moment, Maria sighed and stepped back.
“Call me before you two head out.” She said, as she turned and started walking away.
“Will do.” She heard, as the rusty hinges of the door squeaked behind her.
The next time Maria saw Steve, she and Sharon were shoulder to shoulder in a dark hallway, clearing a Hydra facility with three guns and seventy bullets between them, because they had been taking a lunch break, damn it, not going out of their way to get themselves into a steaming puddle of panda piss.
In any case, it happened that Steve and Sam are also interested in burning this facility to the ground, so when Maria spotted a suspiciously familiar red-white-and-blue disk flying around, she nudged Sharon.
“We’ve got that back up you were muttering about.” She said, in answer to Sharon’s hissed “What?”
Sharon’s head snapped around, and as the gunfire lulled, they could hear the unmistakable reverberation of the shield.
“Hey Captain,” Sharon called out, “Welcome to the party.”
The women reached the lobby, and were checking around the corners, when Steve called back.
“Neighbor?” He shouted, and the women looked towards him, their movements in synch, as they had been the whole fight.
“Where’s Sam?” Maria asked, her voice loud enough to carry across to where the good Captain was half-crouched behind the receptionist desk.
“Present,” a voice stuttered from below Steve, and Maria and Sharon rushed across the battlefield instantly.
Half-way to the desk, Maria heard a gunshot, and dove for Sharon, just as the other woman spun around and fired back. The gunner behind them went down, but there was another, and, from her vantage point on the ground, Maria could see him in the hallway opposite from where she and Sharon had come.
She aimed and shot without thinking. He went down, and all that was left was the scattered Hydra bodies and the heavy breathing of her and Sharon, who was still pinned beneath her.
In seconds, the women were back on their feet, and Sharon was at Sam’s side, her nurse’s training guiding her assessment of his prone form.
“Broken leg, bullet to the abdomen, clean through.” She was speaking in clipped phrases, still catching her breath. “How’re you feeling, Falcon?”
“Doing okay…” He wheezed back.
“He got shot in the air, fell on his leg.” Steve supplies from the end of the desk, where he was looking out for yet more Hydra agents. “I’ve called Stark, he’s enroute, ETA-” he paused to check his watch, “-three minutes.”
Maria looked down and the wings folded into their pack beside Sam.
“Why were you even wearing that in here?” She asked, exasperated.
“‘s helpful, ‘cept there’s not ‘nough room to maneuver.” Sam was wheezing in pain, but fortunately was fairly lucid and not spitting blood.
“I can’t patch him here, and we’ve gotta finish sweeping the place, Stark will have to take him.” Sharon was ripping cloth from her own shirt, and Maria knelt down.
“Of course you’d take a shot right below your armor, idiot.” She said, and Sam glared back, but their eye contact broke when Sharon applied pressure to the entry wound.
“Take my pack,” Sam hissed out, “hard to carry me and it.”
“We’ll get it when Stark gets you,” Maria replied, and stood, knowing Sharon would be better off with some space. “For now we’re staying right here.”
“Steve, check all those guys,” She nodded towards the fallen Hydra shooters, “we don’t need any surprises.”
Steve nodded, and moved out around the desk. Maria moved to take his place, reloading her gun as she did.
The shield slammed down three times, but Maria didn’t flinch, she did, however, check the window, impatiently taking in the empty sky. A moment later, Stark blasted through, in a red and fiery streak, flying straight through the glass. It shattered as Maria ducked for cover. Sharon barely had time to throw herself over her patient, shielding her own head with an arm.
“DAMN IT STARK!” The women roared in unison.
Steve straightened from a crouching position, and returned his shield to his back. “Great timing, now get Sam to a hospital and get back,” was his only comment, and he gave it as an order.
Stark would probably have given a smart-ass reply, but Sharon was already snapping at him.
“Over here, he can’t lose anymore blood; pick him up and get going.”
In another moment, Sam and Stark were gone, and the three remaining fighters looked at each other.
Maria reached down and grabbed Sam’s pack, shouldering the extra weight without much thought.
“Lets go.” She ordered, and they started down the hallway that hadn’t been cleared.
“I’m pretty sure everything important is underground. The stairs should be this way.” Steve says, a step ahead of the two women, the shield held out in front.
xxX A few weeks later Xxx
“You owe Sharon and I a bottle of wine each. Expensive stuff too.” Maria shouted, as she rolled away from a volley of gunshots, wearing Sam’s pack yet again.
“And why’s that?” Steve asked, ducking under his shield for cover.
“For bloody existing is why!” Sharon called from around the corner, and then a moment later she was crouching next to Maria, breathing heavily and clutching her side.
“You hit?” Maria asked, her eyes quickly searching her friend for blood.
“Not a bullet.” Sharon answered, shaking her head.
Maria nodded once, quick and decisive, before turning back to the firefight. She fired off a few rounds, a small thread of satisfaction finding her as she heard a falling body and less return fire. She shouted back to Steve, who was now on the far side of the most recent Hydra lab.
“We were quietly clearing the place when you two idiots stormed in, and Sam- once again- got shot and had to be hauled off by Stark, who had to be called in, who will once again dock my pay ‘for his trouble’. So, you owe us for mucking up our op, and for us consistently having your back while Sam can’t keep it together.”
“Alright, fine.” Steve conceded as he threw his shield, taking down two Hydra agents with it, “Sharon, your choice of wine when I’m able to stop by a decent store.”
He took down another two agents with his fists before continuing.
“But you, Maria, I’m going to have to insist that you split your bottle with me over dinner.”
“That’s a ridiculous suggestion.” Maria snapped, and emptied the rest of her clip into three more agents as Sharon fired off shots from beside her. “On a whole bottle, I can get somewhere in the realm of tipsy, why should I share with you when you could down a barrel without blinking?”
Four more Hydra agents went down as she and Sharon crossed towards Steve.
“So if I let you have the whole bottle that’s a yes to the dinner?” Steve asked as the two women approached. There’s a slight air of smugness to his tone, as though he’s caught her in a trap.
“I’m picking the place. It’s going to be fancy and expensive and you’re paying.” Maria answered, looking him dead in the eye, a smirk on her own face. She knew what she was doing.
Sharon would have cackled, but she was still short on breath. She settled for an eye roll and a exasperated “Finally.”
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