fix you

chapter five

The arms carrying her were gentle.

That would have been the only reason why her brain assumed it was okay to sigh and cuddle in. She was injured, someone was being considerate, and her battered body thought that equaled snuggles.

Never mind that Maria Hill Did Not Cuddle.

Or that she didn't let anyone carry her around bridal style. She was far too tall for it, and she'd worked too damn hard to be placed in positions that made her seem weak.

But the arms carrying her were gentle. There was a hint of a familiar voice murmuring to her, breathing her name, while a comforting, all encompassing scent surrounded her. That voice meant safe, that scent meant home.

She let go, snuggled into the warmth and let herself dream.

There was a vague understanding of being picked up again, moved to a different car. This time Maria groaned; her body was on fire, what the hell had she done, gone a round with the Hulk? She somehow understood Steve when he asked her where they needed to go, managed to bark into her phone to provide him the location of the safe house in the Cotswolds. They switched cars three more times, Maria fading in and out each time, until she was finally able to keep her eyes open for more than three minutes.

"Hi," Steve said softly, taking his eyes off the road long enough to study her. "How are you doing?"

"Unnnngh," she groaned. "Like I got in a fight with Thor and he punched me in the face with Molinjr."

"Yeah, that's about what I thought. I'm so sorry about the car crash, Maria. I couldn't avoid it."

It took her brain a long moment to process his sentence. "What? You have nothing to apologize for, if it wasn't for you I would be roadkill."

His jaw clenched. "I should have protected you better."

"Yeah, well, I shouldn't have dragged you into a Hydra base. And please don't say things like you should have protected me better, Cap. You saved my life. Thank you."

He angled his gaze her way again briefly. "You're welcome. Scared the hell out of me, I thought you were going to go flying out of the car."

"Me too," she admitted. "Really glad I didn't. Thank you."

"Well, I figured I owed you. Since you saved my life in that warehouse earlier tonight and all," he said.

She saw his smirk in the dark and laughed. "Yeah, we're definitely even now."

Groaning again, she rested her head on the windshield and willed the world to stop spinning.

"We're almost to your safe house," Steve said.

"Yay."

"Are there decent medical supplies there? You need to be looked at."

"Should be some," she stated. "I'll be fine, once the tweeting birds stop flapping in circles around my head."

He chuckled. Then he sighed. "It worried me when you didn't wake up. I couldn't do anything about it, there were too many Hydra agents after us."