With eyes transfixed upon the sycophantic smile he wonders who gave the bastard the audacity. Titanium fist seems contagious, one white knuckled at his side, the other hidden beneath the table’s edge where she can not see it. Blessedly, he does not remember her from earlier days when the world needed his good work and he knew what the give of Captain America’s bones felt like but he does remember the fear. The panic in snippets of news trickling through cracks in the wall while they assessed the risk. Well worth it, he’d paid off.
The table groans between white pressed fingers, the curl of a full lip Walker’s response to eye contact with a camera lens. He would rip him apart for the shoes he tries so desperately to fill. He would gut him for the insult and brazen mockery of a uniform. For the blood he’d bathed the relic in. The way the pit of his stomach churns he can not look any more.
“Unfortunately.” In the moment it had taken to hear the first syllable out of his mouth he had understood the trouble to come.
“I’d rather talk about therapy than him.” A feat, an admission beyond the scope of expectation. He himself is surprised and yet…not. Steve Rogers was a wound yet to heal.
“I’d ask for someone else, but if she’s the best, I’m terrified.”
‘ aw come on. a little old mean officer-turned-therapist spooked the legendary 70 year old winter soldier ? ’ and if maria has any tact, she’s clearly not exercising it: her words, laced with undeserved sarcasm, comes out flat, leering in a way that could almost be patronising. she’s not trying to be patronising, not really. what can she say, not everyone can be charming. she just has the natural talent of pissing someone off.
ask her former subordinates. she’s sure there’d been some nicknames circling around behind her back — ice queen hill. deputy dictator hill. the best of all, very creative - bitch.
she orders a whiskey; the barman grunts, and pours it for her. ‘ he’s not going ten feet near a shield. walker. ’ maria says in the end, leaning back on the topic of neutrality, even though speaking anything about captain america and its legacy is clearly anything but neutrality. maria still doesn’t know how to process it - how rogers had tore down a whole airport for barnes, and now left him here, alone and struggling.
left everyone here, alone and struggling. she had exploded SHIELD under his orders; she didn’t regret a single fucking second of it, but my god, does it hurt. being abandoned fucking hurts.
maria doesn’t think about it. avoidance - such an amazing coping mechanism. ‘ he is, however, hired. ’ she pulls out a series of pictures - taken from a rooftop angle, into the window panes where walker stands in a dark uniform, talking to a woman in a long coat.