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Maria's cell phone rang as she was leaving the morning briefing. She glanced at it, recognized the number for Natasha's current burner, and answered while heading towards her office. "Hey, what's up?"
"Maria Hill?" The voice wasn't the one she expected or one she even knew.
Maria halted by her assistant's desk as she answered, "Yes, who is this?"
"You don't need to know who this is. We have your girlfriend, and you're going to do what we tell you to do."
"My--," Maria cut herself off as understanding hit. "You have Natasha?"
"Yes, Ms. Hill, like I said, we have your girlfriend and--" Maria cut him off this time.
"You think you've kidnapped Natasha Romanoff and have her in your custody?" Her assistant looked up sharply, face immediately showing concern and Maria waved her down.
"We don't 'think' any such thing, Ms. Hill. We know we have her and you'd better--". Maria cut him off again as she walked into her office, shutting the door, and ignoring her assistant staring wide-eyed after her.
"Look, whoever you are, this is SHIELD and I have more important things to do with my day than play games with you." She could hear the voice starting to splutter but continued on over the sound as she sat at her desk, pulling the keyboard towards her to log in. "Tell Natasha we still have dinner plans for 7:30 and I will not accept her being late again. Oh, and good luck".
She tacked that last sentence on more as an afterthought and started to hang up but the voice came through the speaker, loud and angry now. "We aren't your messenger service! We aren't releasing your girlfriend until our demands are met, and no amount of luck is going to save her unless you do exactly what we tell you to do!"
Maria rolled her eyes. "You misunderstood me." She spoke her next words slowly, enunciating her words carefully as if this would enhance the comprehension for the listening person on the other end of the line. "I was wishing you good luck. You don't have her, she has you."
She hung up the phone and turned it off, dropping it in her top drawer for the rest of the day.
Her afternoon ended up being busier than usual so she was running behind at the end of the day and grateful for years of experience which meant she had a suitable outfit already in her office. She had long since perfected the art of a quick change, even into evening wear.
She got a few double takes on her way out of the building to hail a cab, ignoring them in favor of quickening her stride out the main door to hail a cab.
She entered the restaurant at 7:31, internally cursing as she was shown to their table, where Natasha already sat, calmly sipping water, perusing the wine menu. She barely glanced up as Maria sat down.
Silence lasted at the table for about ten seconds as Natasha set down the menu, pointedly looked at the watch on her wrist, then up at Maria with an arched eyebrow. Then she grinned and Maria found herself smiling in response.
"You're kind of late for someone who was giving my kidnappers big talk about punctuality earlier this morning." Her eyes danced over the rim of her water glass as she took another sip.
Maria couldn't help but laugh as she retorted. "You're kind of blasé for someone whose kidnappers called me with ransom demands this morning."
"Which I noticed you didn't even listen to." Her dancing eyes belied the small pout on her lips.
"After the third or fourth time it starts to get old. There's only so many unoriginal demands for money, weapons, release of dangerous prisoners I can listen to before the boredom kicks in." Natasha's foot, free of its shoe, was sliding down Maria's calf.
Maria's free hand was under the small table and on Natasha's thigh without her even thinking about it. Years of experience meant she knew if she slid her hand just so in this direction she would also feel the small gun Natasha kept discretely placed.
"Ah well," Natasha smiled at Maria, tilting her head ever so slightly, "I suppose I'll have to see what I can do to make the evening less boring than the mediocre plans of cut-rate criminals."
Maria felt certain that she would.