STRAIGHT ESCAPE.

Two Sapphires

TW: no proofread

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Nick Fury only watched as Maria closed the door, leaving him alone in the middle of the corridor.

He wasn't sure about what he'd just done. Letting a murderer out like this... But he knew he had to give her a chance, for Romanoff.

"You decided to trust me after everything I had done and you saved my life that day. Today you have the opportunity to do the right choice again, so don't screw that up."

These are the last words his agent told him before she left for yet another mission. Don't screw that up.

Ever since she proved her loyalty to SHIELD, Romanoff had became really close with Fury or even Maria. She went from the assassin who can't change to one of the few people Fury could trust.

And that was hard work.

That didn't mean she was instantly right, though. Even the greatest spy could be wrong. And this included the famous Black Widow too.

She needed to understand that her caring for this child would cost her a lot if she made it her weakness. And she was more than capable of doing so, he knew it.

You're right Romanoff.

You better not screw that up either.

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"Just breathe slowly it's okay."

Hill sat the sobbing girl down on her bed, wiping the tears off her face in a gentle manner.

"Paige, right ?"

That wasn't a question. Maria Hill knew the kid's name damn well, she just wanted to get her to calm down.

And she seemed to know that because she didn't even make the effort to nod. The only noises that echoed through the room for the next few minutes were only Paige's sniffing and Hill's soft hushing.

None of them seemed to have anything to say and Paige's eyes were slowly but surely starting to get darker again. And that wasn't really a good sign.

The agent didn't know why she was so angry and what was causing this, but she definitely wanted to avoid that.

The best way to do so was to try and get the girl to trust her. But was it too soon ?

"My name's Maria. You have a beautiful name."

Paige just shrugged, rubbing her eye with her right hand. She's never acted so much like an 8 year old girl. Maria felt a bit good about it. Maybe she'd get to enjoy a normal childhood.

She grabbed the girl's hand and put it away from her now red eye, gently stroking the back of it with her thumb in an attempt to ease the tension that had built in the past few minutes.

It seemed to work so far. Paige's breathing eventually slowed down until the tears completely stopped. To be fair, Maria had no clue what she was doing. She had never worked with children and her own parents never really put any efforts into the comforting part.

Maybe she could try to do better than them for Paige. She could do everything in her power to make her the little girl she deserved to be. At least until Romanoff came back.