D A R K

FUBAR

Maria Hill groaned, she was exasperated which wasn't what the red head was quite expecting. Maybe for Hill to give her a death stare and then a witty remark? But it never came, Hill placed her face in her hands for a brief second. Rubbing her eyes as if to hope Romanoff would disappear when she opened them, Maria already didn't want to do this Op especially not with people she cared about.

Sharon coughed as if to wake Maria up, to snap her out of any mental turmoil that she was going through. Maria straightened her back straight away, regaining her composure. She was the leading Agent on this operation and she'd be damned if a little set back ruined the whole mission.

"Romanoff, you're staying on the jet" Maria barked, glaring at the smaller woman. Natasha was about to protest, barely getting a word out until Maria glared at her even more. Natasha was frightened that the brunette's icey blues would pop out of her eye socket.

"No!" Maria growled before Natasha could speak, her face was stoic but everyone sensed Hill's anger. "No, Romanoff. You are not cleared in the field. You stay here! That's an order" she barked, Natasha effectively shrunk pretending the American's shouting didn't effect her.

"Carter, watch her" Maria stated, Sharon nodded immediately.

"Let's go" Maria raised her voiced to the rest of the team, they had already wasted enough time. What was Natasha thinking? Maria sighed before looking at Jason.

"Jason" she asked more calmly but the anger was still there. Why did Romanoff always have to be such a pain in her ass?

"Yes Ma'am." he replied swiftly not wanting his commanding officer to be annoyed at him too.

"Contact Agent Barton, Alert him that we have the Black Widow." Maria spat, anger still present in her voice. Natasha cringed at the name Maria had chosen. She never expected Maria to use it, she always assumed the American Agent didn't see her as the Black Widow but as Natasha. Maria was acting out of fear, trying to cut all ties of connection before going out. She didn't have the time to worry about Natasha, so she had to pretend that they just had the Black Widow and not her secretly favourite red head who was soft and cruel, who had cried to her and who had been vulnerable. Maria had to leave her behind, for now.

She didn't take another glance at her before grabbing her tac vest and kevlar, grabbing her favourite hand gun and placing it in her holster. Hill, Davis, Thompson and Morse descended out of the Jet into the cruel heat of the dessert. Fuck, Maria hated this place. As soon as her boots touched the sand she wished it would rain, anything to get rid off the dryness of Iraq.

"Break a leg" a certain Russian shouted from the jet cheekily, clearly recovered from Maria's shouting. Maria simply chuckled, she didn't turn round to reply to the Russian but Natasha heard her laugh regardless, and that was enough for her. Bobbi riled her eyes, when would these two women get a room?

It had been three hours and they'd heard nothing, Carter grew anxious feeling useless just waiting in the Quinnjet. Natasha, however, was pretending to be unbothered but she had this itching feeling at the back of her neck. Had something gone wrong? She couln't bare just sitting around anymore, she stood up to stretch her legs but Carter shot her a death stare within a second.

"Sit down, we've already let you have your little joyride." Sharon stated bluntly, she wasn't too fond of Natasha. Carter had had Agents Hill's back even before she joined field, Carter had helped fury select Maria to the programme.

"Why the aggression, Carter?" Natasha teased, standing up regardless. Natasha really was pushing everyone's buttons today.

"You don't understand do you, Romanoff?" Carter spat, refusing to take her glare off the Russian. Carter saw straight through her ignorant act.