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“Hill, with me.” Deputy Director Maria Hill looked up briefly from the tablet in her hands to Director Fury’s gaze, before handing the tablet off and with a final look around, following him off the bridge. The sun was coming up again she noted idly. She followed him quietly, nodding to the agents that stopped and saluted, stepping out of the way of the work crews beginning on repairs of the Helicarrier.
By design, the Director and Deputy Directors offices were a distance from each other and from the bridge, just in case the Helicarrier was breached. Whether it was paranoia or caution, Maria had never been quite sure, but recent events had her leaning to caution. The door to his office had two step verification, a pin code and retinal scan, another act in caution she decided.
Settling into the chair in front of his desk she watched him do the same and waited from him to speak. When he didn’t, she frowned, the movement pulling at the cuts on her face. “What’s on your mind sir?”
He snorted, his eye falling shut and his head leaning back. “What isn’t?” He thought for a moment before deciding, opening the bottom draw of his desk and pulling out a bottle of scotch. It was well past time they were both of duty. Without being asked Maria retrieved two coffee mugs and set them on the desk, waiting for him to pour some into each before raising one in a silent toast. He copied her movement, watching as she sipped it. There was another moment of silence before he spoke. “We need to fix the flaws in the Helicarrier’s security and design. I don’t want another incident like we’ve just had,” he said, referring to the take-over attempt.
“Security isn’t the hard part there. Simulations can be run to tighten up the flaws we’ve discovered. New protocols for incoming jets; All information being filtered through the bridge; No nuclear weapons accessible without direct release from yourself. Design is more difficult. We’ll need to be drydocked for one and running a skeleton crew for a second. What part of the design do you want to improve exactly?” She wasn’t sure she wanted the answer, mostly because she already suspected she knew.
“We can’t fall out of the sky like that again.” Internally she cringed, covering it up by taking another sip of her drink. The engineering teams were not going to enjoy the next few weeks. “At the very least we need to be able to have this thing land safely, glide until we can set it down in the water.”
It was her turn to snort. “The Helicarrier has all the glide capabilities of a dead pigeon.”
“When a pigeon falls out of the sky it’s not likely to squash a small town or kill the two thousand souls riding on its back.” Pulling her phone out she fired off an email to the engineering teams’ head. Review Helicarrier’s capability to land safely under engine failure. She had no doubts that she was adding to Agent Akhtar’s already full plate.
There silence grew and Maria found her mind wandering, exhaustion making it harder to keep all the problems in her head, her thoughts travelling to the nuclear weapon that had been fired at New York. Briefly she wondered if Stark’s suit filtered out radiation.
There would be repercussions from all angles, everyone would want someone else’s head on the block and they all would want someone to hold out to the public as the sacrificial lamb. Opposite her Fury topped his mug up before leaning over and doing the same for her. “The World Security Council will be out for blood,” she said when her mouth caught up with her brain.
“Yours or mine?” he asked. His voice was deeper than normal, she noted. She put both her minds odd observations and the tone of her boss’s voice down to the alcohol and sleep deprivation.
“Both ideally,” she paused, gathering her scattered thoughts. “I’ll give them you,” she said finally.
His eye opened sharply, watching her in a way that might have been disquieting to another. “You after my job Hill?”
She frowned then, her brow knitting together before she shook her head, suddenly realising how it had come across before her hand came up in a lazy, dismissive wave. “We’ve been playing them for ages. If we make it look like I blame you for the Avengers and the events in New York and side with them-“
“They might just admit to trying to nuke Manhattan,” he finished for her, nodding his head in agreement. “We then have something to hold over them and they might just stop breathing down our necks.”
“Give us a little room to move and get to grips with the new normal.” It might be enough space for them to stop any attackers that would be planning to strike now the world was looking another way. “It’ll be the last of us being able to use the council against themselves though. If we do this, they’ll know I have your back.”
“I can live with that. I think we’ve finally worked out how far they’re willing to go.” He smiled then, “does this mean you’ll stop disagreeing with me in public?” They’d both been trying to root out the Councils moles within SHIELD, and seeing which arguments got reported back to them had helped narrow down the list, with the added benefit of making it look like the Deputy Director and Director weren’t seeing eye to eye.
“Maybe. Depends on what shit you’re trying to pull.” She smirked at him before letting her head fall back against the head rest of the chair as her fingers came up to rub her temple, her eyes falling shut briefly. The headache she’d had since the grenade had exploded in front of her hadn’t really eased, but the tunnel vision had mostly gone.
Fury took another swallow of scotch and watched his deputy. Her exhaustion was plain to see. They’d both been awake since the research facility had collapsed and while he’d sent Coulson off to round up the Avengers she’d helped dig through the rubble looking for survivors, once they’d dug her out that was. He still couldn’t explain the moment of dread that had passed through him when she hadn’t answered immediately after the building had caved in on itself. He’d felt it again when that grenade had thrown her into the air. His eye traced the cuts around her eye and the bruises forming on her cheeks. “How’s your head?”
Her eyes rolled open and her fingers dropped back into her lap. “Throbbing,” she admitted, before taking another sip and smiling slightly. “This won’t help much.”
“I’ve been meaning to thank you.” At the look of confusion on her face he carried on. “That third mercenary you shot on the bridge. You probably saved my life there Hill.”
She shook her head. “Trust me I don’t want your job yet. Honestly though, I don’t remember it.”
He looked at her with concern. “How much you missing?”
“I’m not too sure. Thor had just engaged the Hulk in the lower hanger bay and then I’m ordering an escort ship to the wishbone. The medic that patched me up said it might come back, but it might not. Something to do with the short-term memory being disrupted and not forming as long-term memory.” She shook her head again.
“Well you saved my life, Agent Stone’s when you shoved him over the barrier and probably a large portion of the bridge crew when you helped me stop Loki’s men breaching the bridge.” He paused for a moment, his mind straying to all those they had lost. No matter how many they saved, there were always losses. Opposite him, Maria’s mind seemed to have followed a similar path. This time it was her who reached for the bottle, topping their mugs up for the final time and raising her mug in a toast again. He met her mug in the air. “To the fallen.”
She nodded, before whispering, “to Coulson.”
He couldn’t help but see the shine of tears in her eyes. Coulson, Barton and Hill had all joined SHIELD within a few years of each other and had quickly formed one of the deadliest and most efficient teams the agency had ever seen. They’d both backed Barton when he’d brought Romanoff in, and she’d quickly joined their tightknit group. As they’d all moved up through the SHIELD ranks, Fury had been one of the privileged few they’d adopted into their confidence and friendship. Tipping his mug back, he drank the remains of his scotch, feeling the warmth as it went down his throat. “Project TAHITI.” Opposite him, he saw Maria stiffen briefly.
Copying his motion, she drained her mug and set it on his desk before levelling her gaze with his, her eyes bright with anger. “No, Sir,” her voice as sharp as a blade. He respected that she didn’t pretend to not know about it. “I was under the impression that project TAHITI was only to be used on an Avenger.”
He raised an eyebrow. “Phil is just as important as Stark or Rogers. More so.” He couldn’t imagine Coulson not being there on his left, Hill on his right. Between the two of them, they’d kept him honest.
She shook her head again, the movement almost vicious. “The side effects of that project were horrific,” her voice was rising now, her temper getting the best of her. “You’d be willing to do that to him. After everything he’s done?”
Nick couldn’t blame her anger, if things were reversed, he would expect Coulson to behave exactly the same. At the same time, it surprised him, it was so rare for Hill to lose her temper, he couldn’t think of many times he’d seen her so animated. “He wouldn’t remember it.”
“You’d have his memory wiped,” if anything that seemed to upset her more. “Bring him back and take everything from him?”
He held his hands up and shook his head, quickly dismissing her concerns. “Partially. Doctor Goodman has refined the process. Only his resurrection would be removed.” He paused for a moment watching the woman opposite him. “Maybe remove his memories of Project TAHITI as well, so he doesn’t put the pieces together.”
“And when he asks how, how he lived? What do you plan to tell him? What do you plan to have me tell him?” Her voice still held an edge, but she wasn’t shouting anymore.
He thought for a moment. “Emergency surgery, resuscitation, extreme methods. I don’t know yet,” he answered honestly. “We’ll work that out if he pulls through.”
Her face tightened and she exhaled sharply. “You’ve already sent him to the Guest house.” It was more an accusation than a question, a painful realisation that she couldn’t stop this. Her hand came up to rub her forehead again, the throbbing behind her eyes getting slightly worse as her anger faded. Fury could see her hands shaking as the surge of adrenaline and anger ran its course. “What will you tell everyone?” Her voice had softened again he noticed, even her anger not keeping exhaustion at bay.
“Those that need to know he didn’t die will be told something-“
“Again, to be worked out if he lives,” she finished for him, a touch of sarcasm creeping in. “And the Avengers? You pulled them together with Phil’s death.” She left unsaid that telling them Phil is still among the living might tear them apart and ruin what little trust some of them had with SHIELD.
He shook his head lightly. “They don’t have high enough clearance to be read in.”
She sighed in resignation, knowing that she could argue with him until the end of time and still not win on this one. Part of her didn’t want too. “Phil won’t be happy that he can’t work with them anymore.”
“I’ve got another project in mind for him. Besides, he’ll know that the Avengers are in the best possible hands.”
There was a smile playing at the corners of his mouth and Maria couldn’t help the sickening sensation that she’d been outplayed. “Please no,” she half pleaded. He knew how she felt about that particular pet projects of his.
“You’ll be the official liaison between SHIELD and the Avengers.” He couldn’t help the grin that formed at the look on her face. “They’re all yours.” Later he might try and blame the scotch for laughing at the horror that crossed her features.
“Why me?”, her voice was as close to a whine as he had ever heard it. “You know what I think about the Avengers.”
He sobered then. “That’s exactly why. You won’t be taken in by them or let them get away with anything.”
“There has to be someone else. Sitwell maybe? Or Nguyen, he’d work well with them.” Part of her was ashamed at herself for trying to beg out of an assignment.
His face grew serious. “Of course there are other agents,” he watched the relief grow on her face. “But,” he continued, “no one I trust more with the Avengers.” He paused so his words would sink in, watching as the surprise grew on her face. “No one I trust to keep them in line and away from each other’s throats. You are the best person for the job.”
She smiled then, her eyes showing how genuinely touched she was before shaking her head and reaching for her mug, only realising that she’d emptied it when she raised it to her lips. Instantly he reached for the bottle again, but she waved him off. “Anymore and I’m going to feel it on the bridge tomorrow,” then, checking her watch she amended, “later today.”
Nodding in agreement he slid the bottle back into its draw, before closing his eye a moment. The silence stretched on, both of them letting it lull them into a haze, the first quiet time either of them had seen in somewhere near seventy-two hours. Finally, Nick opened his eye again and looked over to Maria opposite him. Her eyes were still shut, and it took a moment to realise her breathing had deepened and her muscles relaxed. It comforted him to know that she trusted him enough to let her guard down and sleep in his presence.
He hesitated a moment before deciding and standing. His chair was not where she should sleep, but at the same time he knew she’d never make it to her quarters. His couch on the other hand was far closer. Standing, he rounded the desk before dropping his hand to her shoulder lightly. She stirred slightly, her eyes opening a little. “Come on Hill.” Blearily, she allowed him to guide her over to the couch.
“I have got a bed, Sir,” she mumbled.
He paused and looked at her, his face amused. “I don’t want to get a report from someone saying Deputy Director Hill has been found unconscious in a corridor.” He chuckled then, “besides, I doubt you’d want that damaging your ‘Ice Queen’ reputation.” Reaching under the sofa he pulled out a blanket and passed it to her, watching as she wrapped it around her shoulders. Nick was almost certain that she was asleep before her head hit the arm rest.
Part of him was tempted to take the other end of the sofa and copy her, his own exhaustion weighing heavily on him. Instead he settled back behind his desk and set to work. Once she’d had a few hours’ sleep, he’d wake her, and she could take command while he crashed, but for now he’d let her sleep. Tomorrow was a new day and he needed one of them to be awake enough to deal with it.