Ave Maria

Sixteen

Chapter 16

Maria hugged her arms around herself as Nick Fury led them through the Helicarrier, into the lab full of 'avengers'. She stiffened instantly as four new pairs of eyes locked on her, shrinking into herself at the attention. Not even Thor's reassuring hand at her shoulder could calm her.

"This is Maria Sorin." the director declared to the silent, staring team - albeit, most of them were staring at Thor, still in his armour and carrying his colossal hammer.

The weight of the stares seemed to pin Maria's eyes down to her folded arms, and she focussed on the throng of her heartbeat - anything to distract her from the team of super heroes! Even the one at her shoulder.

She screwed her eyes shut for a minute and tried to block out the world around her long enough to calm herself down. Her thoughts flew to home, to the cottage, to her friends, to sitting with Thor on the couch watching Titanic while she blushed like crazy...a small smile pricked at her lips and she found the courage to flicker her eyes upwards for a moment. Her heart dropped as she met the gazes of four super humans, instinctively turning to the director for help - only to find an empty space and a closed door where he'd once stood. Her mouth was open, eyes wide with panic as she turned front ways again.

"You're just in time for the party." a dark haired man with a bored expression said, as he wondered lazily to one of the high tech monitors. "Jarvis just finished digging up every last one of S.H.I.E.L.D's dirty little secrets."

Maria was still too frozen to react, eyes blinking at the stranger with the light shining though his shirt blankly.

"You are spying on them?" Thor asked for her.

"They're the spies." another dark haired man chipped in, stepping forward towards the couple, unfolding his crossed arms. "We're just cluing up on who we're working for. Bruce Banner," He offered a hand out to Thor, before noting the god's hands were busy with Mjolnir and Maria, moving on quickly. "Wild card of the team. That's Agent Natasha Romanov in the corner," glancing briefly over his shoulder at a red-headed woman sat on one of the table tops, leaning against the wall while she examined the gun in her hands, "Steven Rogers and Tony Stark. Working his magic."

The first man rolled his eyes over his shoulder from the monitor screen. "Like I need an introduction, Banner!" he scoffed. "I'm kind of famous, remember. The big tower with my name on it tends to give it away." His voice dripped with sarcasm.

A frown finally cracked Maria back to life. "Who are you?"

A blonde man that had to be Rogers laughed, rolling his eyes to Stark - who'd froze, snapping his intensely furrowed gaze to Maria. "Not as famous as you thought, huh, Stark?"

"What?" Stark ignored him, speaking directly to Maria. "Don't have civilisation back in England? No weapons? No TV? No newspapers? 'Cos I kind of dominate that here."

"Sorry." Her voice slightly shaky with apology, eyes round imploringly as her shoulders lifted in a stiff shrug. "Never heard of you." Her teeth gnawed anxiously on her lip.

The monitor bleeped, drawing Starks attention back though the frown remained etched in his features. "You know that accent is simply adorable." he said coldly and mockingly, tapping away at the technology that hung in the air. "Say something else, English."

"Watch your tone." Thor warned darkly before Maria could say anything back, his arm tightening protectively around Maria's shoulders, affirming his grip on Mjolnir's handle. "You know not who you speak to."

"Oh yes I do. I've got her profile up."

Maria's frown dug deeper than ever as she stepped clean out of Thor's arm, before catching herself and freezing halfway between him and Stark. "I've got a profile?"