Paper Rings; M. Hill (on hold)

Fifteen.

January 23, 2008
Location: SHIELD Headquarters

It had been a long few weeks for Adelaide, after arriving back to SHIELD, the three agents went their separate ways. Natasha went with Coulson to officially become an Agent of SHIELD, and Clint (after filling out a form on his perspective of the mission) went home to his family. 

Adelaide filled out a report of the mission and then took a shower, falling into a deep sleep soon after. That was until she was woken by a storm of memories in the form of a nightmare, around 6 pm.

"You didn't say goodbye," 

Adelaide sat with a mug of tea in her hands, her appearance all over the place, the four hours of sleep she had gotten since arriving back this morning was nowhere near enough to recover from the previous weeks. 

"It was sort of thrown on me last minute...I'm sorry."

Maria swallowed giving the blonde a small nod of understanding, "I uh- I was worried, you and Barton and Romanoff- didn't come back when you were supposed to...and Fury couldn't locate you."

"Getting out of Budapest was hell," the blonde noted softly, meeting Maria's gorgeous blue eyes.

Adelaide studied the brunette, her hair was always pulled back very neatly, and her posture was almost always stiff and serious...unless Maria was just around her.

"Ria- I think that I might want to tell you something about...something." 

Maria arched an eyebrow at her, a small amused smile on her face, "Is that so? Something about something?"

Adelaide nodded, "You see I was talking to Natasha before...before we went to Budapest, and she um pointed out something I hadn't really noticed before. Or maybe I did and I just didn't want to admit it to myself or-"

"Addy." Maria pulled out the chair next to her, sitting down, "Just say whatever it is that you want to say."

The blonde took a deep breath, it attempts to calm her nerves, "What I'm trying to say is...I like you, Maria."

"You like me?" Maria spoke, looking into Adelaide's eyes.

"Yes. I like like you."

"Oh," realization seemed to fall over Maria a bit, followed by a smile, "Well, I like like you too, Laurie."

"Really?" Adelaide sighed in relief, and Maria nodded, "Well that's great, we should do something...like dinner?"

"Are you asking me out on a date?" 

Adelaide half-glared at the other woman, "Yes. Now, will you go on a date with me or not?"

"I would love to go on a date with you, Addy." Maria laughed, and Adelaide smiled, "Good. That's very good."

Adelaide paused, "I would say Friday? But I'm not entirely sure what day of the week it is. Budapest really screwed my sense of time."

Maria laughed, "Friday is great, today is Wednesday."

"Perfect!"

Adelaide and Maria's first date was far from perfect, but still better than most dates the blonde had been on, even with the very dramatic interruption of a work emergency. The woman promised Maria a do-over of their first date, but they both knew that this was their lives.

Maria and Adelaide were both married to their jobs and understood that their relationship would have to work around that.

Over the course of the next few months, the two women had barely managed to squeeze a couple of dates in. 

Adelaide, Clint, and Natasha ended up being quite the team after all, their missions went smoothly...for the most part.

"Hey stranger," the blonde murmured, a smile on her face, as she lay in the bed attached to several different machines.

Maria wanted to be angry with the blonde but she was just so damn cute, "Agent May is going to kill you."

Adelaide laughed, although the sound was airier, "They pumped you up with pain meds didn't they?" Maria spoke with an amused smile.

"Oh yeah." Adelaide nodded dramatically.

The blonde patted the bed next to her, "Lay with me."

Maria looked around their surroundings, "Laurie, May already doesn't like me. I doubt she would be very happy seeing the two of us cuddled up on your hospital bed."

"You're no fun, Ria." she crossed her arms.

As predicted, May was very unhappy, "You've got to stop with the self-sacrificing stuff, Adelaide. You don't have nine lives, one of these times you're not going to make it." 

"May, she's not getting a word your saying." Barton pointed out, "Laurie's half-asleep, lecture her later."

Also during those months, Natasha began to open up to Adelaide, not about everything. She was sure there would always be aspects of Natasha's past that would never be spoken about out loud.

In the very late hours of the night, Natasha and Adelaide crossed paths in the kitchen.

"Everything ok?" Natasha asked, watching as the blonde's face had worry written all over it, very deep in thought.

"My sister called, she had a nightmare." the blonde spoke, "God, I wish I had protected her better when she was still a kid."

"I can understand that," Natasha noted, filling up a glass with water.

Adelaide just looked at the other woman a bit confused, "You can?"

The redhead looked back at her for a second, and then nodded, "I...have, or had, two little sisters." she paused hesitating a bit, but Adelaide offered her a reassuring smile.

"God, they drove me crazy, both around the same age, Yelena and Tatiana." Natasha smiled fondly, "Really, it was a mission, a staged family, to get some information that I'll probably never quite know what it was. It felt real though, we were a family for three years."

Natasha paused trying to picture what the two of them would look like if they were standing in front of her now. "Tatiana was the only one I was biologically related to but- Yelena and I were always closer...I think I might've envied Tatiana a bit."

"It's similar with me and my sisters, I was always closer to Lilian," Adelaide noted.

Natasha frowned, "I tried to save them, protect them...but I was a kid myself. There was nothing I could do. Not really."

The blonde nodded, "My parents...weren't the best." she paused, "And I... I did what I could to protect Lilian while I was there but...well, I left Lilian there as soon as college hit."

"I think I'll always regret that."