Here we go; first chapter of the last story in the series! And my 200th story besides! Enjoy!:)

"Hi."

SHIELD agent Maria Hill nearly jumped out of her skin when a strong hand came from behind her to rest on her shoulder, and she very nearly elbowed her would-be "attacker" in the chest before she whirled around to face him.

"Gosh, Steve!" she hissed through her teeth, looking wildly around when she realized she had just used his first name – something that she would never do with someone who was just a coworker, like he was supposed to be… only he wasn't just a coworker, and no one that she worked with needed to know that.

"Relax," he said, glancing with her around the alcove they were in on the edge of SHIELD's infirmary wing. "It's just you and me here."

"Well then maybe we should leave before we get caught."

"Nah, we're good for a few minutes; I'm here with some of the others to pick up Scarlet."

"Who else?" Maria asked letting her hands relax slightly around her mug of the sludge that passed for coffee around this place.

"Bruce, Clint, Natasha, and… ah, let me see if I can get their names right…" Steve squeezed his eyes closed, making a face as he hazarded, "Hayne, Hazel… Dakota, and… Blake?"

"Blaine," Maria corrected him with a small smile. She raised her steaming cup to her lips and sipped tentatively before asking, "How are they doing?"

"What do you mean?" Steve asked in confusion.

"The other seven kids besides Scarlet – how are they?"

Steve shrugged. "I don't know. This is only their third day here in New York; I don't really have a standard to judge by yet." When she sighed, he hesitantly offered, "They do seem to have a lot of nightmares, though. Insomnia. They all seem kind of… troubled."

"Aren't we all," Maria murmured, guilt slashing through her.

"Hey," Steve said gently, laying his hand on her shoulder again.

She closed her eyes and tilted her head to rest her cheek on the back of his hand, both emotionally and physically drained. She'd been here at the infirmary with Scarlet every chance she got, and seeing a fifteen year old – let alone the one that she had raised practically on her own for so many years – was hard.

"How is Scarlet?" Steve asked.

"Fine I guess. Quiet. Tired. With the day that she had yesterday plus the anesthesia working all the way out of her from the surgery and the pain meds she's on for her leg and bruises, I don't blame her. Is Hayne okay?"

"He's her boyfriend, right? The kid with glasses? He seemed distraught when we got back to the tower. Makes sense, if he's blaming himself for the staircase caving in."

Maria sighed, nodding as she decided not to say what she was thinking.

"How are you doing?" Steve asked gently, catching her eye.

She sighed deeply, admitting, "Sometimes I hate myself for what happened to these kids. This is just one of those instances. I raised six of those kids for years; they were my life for a decade, and I really do think of them as my own. Fury pulled me out of Vermillion and back into New York when the things that let up to the Battle of Manhattan started happening, and he never let me go back – at least not as a permanent fixture in the kids' lives. Sure, he'd drag me into it when he needed someone to hold Andy down in a lab or drop Dakota off at the spot where she was supposed to be killed, and on a really good day to be the one that Ryan saw when he woke up after the ice. But I was… I was practically their mother for ten years, and then Fury made me all but disappear on them, at the same time Coulson died, and they've never looked at me the same way since. I've betrayed them just like everyone else who should've looked out for them, and I hate it. I hate Fury for telling me to do it, and I hate myself for going along with it, and I hate it – all of it – for every single one of them. And I hate the fact that I really, truly don't know that they would believe me if I told them so."

The two of them stood together in silence for a second before Steve asked tentatively, "Maria… would you move into the tower if Tony was okay with it?"

She choked on her coffee, spluttering, "Steve, I'm not sure this is the appropriate time for that conversation!"

"No! That's-" he flushed, stammering, "That's not why! Not for me; for the kids. If you know them – if you're a familiar face – it might be good for them for you to be around them. Believe me, I know how nice something familiar is when all else has been upended."

"Then of course I would love to live with them again, but the better half of them don't trust me anymore, and I'm fairly certain none of them like me at this point." She lowered her voice an octave before saying, "By now, they've reduced me to being nothing more than another one of Fury's stooges, and they're all standing around waiting for me to stab them in the back. It might be better if I stayed away."

Steve crossed his arms over his chest, saying, his tone both thoughtful and pointed, "Sounds like their opinion of all their biological parents, as of the day we met them – and yet you chose to bring us into their lives, even though you knew they didn't want us around. Why's that?"

"Because I knew the Avengers could and would help them, that's why."

"And you can help them, too, Ria. If nothing else, you can help them by helping the Avengers, as their parents, learn more about them and their interests. That in and of itself is being a help."

"I can do that without moving into Avengers Tower, Steve."

"Please, just let me ask Tony."

"Fine, you can ask."

Steve grinned, even going so far as to place a quick kiss on her forehead as he happily thanked her. She sighed, even rolling her eyes a little before she reminded him that they were, in fact, there for Scarlet, and the two of them had better get back to her room before someone came looking for them.

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