“Do you treat all your hookups like this?”

When she starts to come back to hersenses she’s tied to a chair and her left temple is bleeding from thestrike that knocked her out.

Regaining conscience, the first thingshe feels is the pain of the growing headache.

She doesn’t remember exactly whathappened but she knows she was at a bar. She had a drink, got in acab with someone. Then, they got into an apartment, the details onthat are kind of foggy. She remembers some kissing, then eventuallythe woman sliding off her jacket, Maria frowning at something on thecoffee table.

“Here’s how this is gonna work,”the blonde woman says, a knife in her right hand and a lighter in herleft. “You’re gonna tell me how you found me and why they sentyou.”

“Do you treat all your hookups likethis?”

The blade is warm when it pressesagainst her neck, but it doesn’t cut, it doesn’t break the skin justyet.

“Strike one.”

“Okay, first of all, if I was tailingyou I wouldn’t have let my defenses down and I wouldn’t be tied to achair right now, so that should be the first indicator that I don’tknow what the fuck you’re talking about.”

The blade pulls back a millimeter ortwo, encouraging her.

“Second, if you’re referring to mestaring at the picture on your coffee table, that’s because this isobviously not your apartment,” Maria points out, eyesdarting to the happy little family depicted on the framed picturesaround the room.

The woman retracts completely and walksover to the couch, putting knife and lighter down on the table andinstead retrieving Maria’s blazer.

“Third, since I’m now tied to achair, I’ll go ahead and assume you’re not an accountant.”

“I found the badge in your hiddenpocket, Agent Hill.”

“Being a government agent isn’t acrime, and you didn’t exactly ask for my surname did you?”

“I saw you in Berlin two days ago,with Barton and Coulson. Assumed you followed me over to France.”

“You were in Berlin? No, wait, wewere tracking-“

Oh, this is almost too good to be true.They were tracking Black Widow in Berlin and she led them over toFrance. Could it be she recognized Maria and revealed herself becauseshe thought she’d been made?

“That a blonde wig, Lucy? That’s notyour name, though, is it?”

The woman smirks and raises her chin alittle, an eyebrow slowly moving up.

“So you picked me up in a bar andbrought me over for a little torture, uh? I guess maybe you dotreat all your hookups like this, then… Natalia, is it?”

“And she’s catching on,” the womanwhispers, making the walk back to the table to retrieve her knife.“So what does S.H.I.E.L.D. wants from old little me?”

Maria is still evaluating her options,no chance of backup or rescue in sight, no wiggle room to discard thefabric restricting her wrists, not really a whole lot she can do tomake it out alive from this situation, actually.

“Parley,” Maria says curtly.

“Now, Agent Hill, would that be theoffer or a request? Because if you want a parley with my boss, you’restaring at her.”

“No, I want you to have a parley withmy boss. He’s got this idea into his thick skull that you’d be a goodasset to have on our side and he’s not an easily dissuaded man.”

“Nick Fury wants a parley?”

The woman discards her wig, then hercolored contact lenses.

“Well, Agent Hill. Sell it to me,then.”

She goes ahead and starts changing outof her dress and into a spare combat suit in front of Maria, whilethe agent stares down at the floor between her feet.

“It’s a chance to do some good,repair some of the damage you’ve done with the Red Room and all that.You’ve already been doing it, we’re offering our assistance andresources, and of course he has some requests as well, it is ajob offer after all. He’ll pitch it better, I’m sure.”

“What makes you think I’ll accept tosee him?”

“Because, Miss Romanova, I’d be deadif you hadn’t already made the decision to talk to us. We’re the goodguys, and the question I’m posing is, are you one of us?”

Black Widow walks to her smirking,shaking her head, lips red and a wicked sparkle in her eyes as shecrouches down in front of the chair Maria is tied to.

“Oh, Agent Hill,” she says, and theblade is back at Maria’s throat, “I’m most definitely not.”

The knife slides slowly around her neckand down her back, raising goosebumps through the shirt she’s wearingwithout cutting through it. With a flick of her wrists, the ropesaround Maria’s arms cut loose.

“Let’s go then, we don’t want to makeyou boss wait too long.”