A/N so the response from the last chapter was go back and do the hurt/repair. Don't worry, I will return to the farm in a couple of chapters time. In the meantime, chapter covers Clint getting hurt, the next chapter will be a lighter one when he gets repaired.
She saw a flash of blue light in her peripheral vision, followed by a pained grunt in her earpiece. "Clint!" Her reaction was instinctive. She sprinted over to him. He was already on the ground, his bow fallen next to him, clutching his side. His face was twisted in pain but a tiny flicker of relief crossed his eyes as she came to ground next to him.
She moved his hands away to assess the damage. It wasn't good. A Thor-fist sized chunk of flesh had been blasted from his abdomen. The edges of the wound were singed.
"We have an enhanced in the field." Came Cap's voice over comms.
"Yeah, no shit." Clint grunted, his voice was quiet and strained. She ignored him.
"Clint's hit" She told the team, knowing that this wasn't something she could stitch up mid-battle. No sooner had she said it than there were a series of small explosions, the nearest going off not four feet from them. Clint grasped her hand.
"Find cover" he hissed at her, his urgency clear to hear. Like hell she was going to leave him exposed on his own though.
"Does somebody want to deal with that bunker?" She said into the comm, desperately hoping that there was someone nearby to help them out; the only cover she could drag him to at the moment was a couple of pine trees and trees are worth jack against Hydra weapons.
To her unutterable relief, a green blur streaked across her vision, leaving a pile of rubble in its wake.
"Thank you."
She finished applying the gauze to Clint's side, keeping pressure on it. Even with the tissue factors embedded in the material, the makeshift bandage couldn't hold up forever. "Clint's hit pretty bad guys, we're gonna need evac."
He groaned again and she didn't think it was entirely from pain. "I've had worse" He said through gritted teeth, leaning his head up to try and get a look at the damage. She pushed him back down.
"Yeah and I'm gonna give you a whole lot worse if you don't hold still, дебил" She growled at him.
"You can give me anything you like, sweetheart." He replied. It was a poor attempt at innuendo, its effect lessened by the ashen colour of his face. She pressed her hand harder against his wound- keeping pressure on it was the key, right?- in retaliation. Needless to say, the moan she elicited from his throat was not one of arousal.
She heard footsteps behind her. Without a second's hesitation, she flung her knife at the mercenary. It buried itself in his throat, dropping him instantly. She gunned down another two as they made to run over. There were more on their way and she was low on ammo. Thankfully, two of Tony's Iron Legion arrived, hovering in the snow next to her. Between the three of them, they dispatched another five mercenaries and cowed the rest into submission.
"We're locked down out here."
Thor dropped down out of the sky and into a crouch. "I'll get Barton to the jet." He said. She nodded, focusing on the voice in her ear. It was Cap's.
"Then get to Banner, time for a lullaby."
"Got it." She helped Clint to his feet. He gave a sharp shout of pain and almost collapsed again, but she held his weight up until Thor took him. Unable to stand unaided, Thor was forced to hoist Clint over his shoulder in the same way that Shrek did Fiona. She made a mental note to photoshop her fellow Avengers' faces onto a Shrek screenshot as soon as Clint was hopped up on meds. With a few swings of Mjolnir, Thor was away and Clint out of danger for the time being.
She set off in search of Banner, not that he would be difficult to find; the trail of felled trees that the Other Guy left behind him made for easy tracking. What the team didn't know about the lullaby was that she had developed the idea from one Clint had once used on her.
The Red Room had left more than physical marks on her. The effect on her psyche had been profound; the walls she had built up around herself kept just as much in as they did out. In the six months that followed Clint's decision to bring her in to SHIELD, he had started to break those walls down. She had started to trust him, slowly. But as those walls came down, she began to unravel. She would wake up from nightmares, forgetting who she was, who he was, believing that it was all a façade set up by her trainers.
There's nothing more terrifying than losing your mind.
Clint should have reported it to SHIELD or at least to Coulson, certainly after he woke up with her hands around his throat, but he hadn't. He had drawn on the trust that they had built together to help her regain control. It was another debt that she could never repay.
She was reminded of that debt, their lullaby, every time she helped Banner with the Other Guy.
As she saw him this time, the Other Guy was pacing having kicked a tree down.
"Hey big guy." She said.
"Hey Romanoff."
His head snapped around to look at her as she crouched down. "Sun's getting real low."
She willed her eyes to meet his gaze. She knew those stormy grey eyes. Her grip on the gun wavered. "Moon's almost full tonight" She knew that voice.
She raised her hand slowly. He recognised the motion, recognised her. Her heart was pounding but she didn't let it show.
The man raised his hands slowly, his breathing steady. She didn't try to stop him as he reached out towards her.
He raised a large green hand so that their palms were almost touching. Then she turned hers and lowered it so that her palm faced the sky. He mimicked her movements with almost child-like curiosity. She ran her hand along his skin and over onto his forearm, before finally trailing one finger along his palm and down middle finger, catching it just at the tip.
He took her hands in his, never taking his eyes away from hers. Her hands were shaking slightly. She knew that he wasn't a threat. Then, very gently, he traced the shape of an arrow on the back of her hand.
She saw Banner in the Other Guy's eyes. He blinked and shuddered, suddenly exhausted. She turned to leave, knowing that Banner would radio them when he was ready.
Clint. It was only Clint. She sagged slightly, allowing him to take the gun from her grasp. His eyes searched hers. "You with me?" He asked softly. She took a deep breath and nodded.
Oh the things she owed that archer.
A/N hope you enjoyed that, do let me know what you thought :D
