I blinked the glaze from my eyes, wincing at the blinding white lights.
"Wha?" I grumbled, covering my eyes with my hands. Where the hell was I?
"Ah. Pietro You are up. I will tell Doctor Cho," said the mechanical voice that took me way longer then it should've to recongize.
"Wait . .. " I croaked.
"Pietro! You're up!" Said a feminine voice. My senses were overloaded as she shined more bright lights on me, her voice was all weird in my brain, like a voice across a staticky radio frequency. I hissed outloud, trying to hide from the lights and the things she was trying to poke me with.
"Please, don't move." I must've whined out loud at the pain her voice caused me because she stopped scanning and poking me. "Pietro, what's the matter?"
"Please, don't talk. It hurts," I said, now covering my ears, my eyes were squeezed shut.
"Friday. Get Tony. Right now," Doc Cho said, speedily walking away. Friday must've sensed the pain I was in because she dimmed the lights, I gave a sigh of relief and lowered my hands, now able to scan my surrounds. I looked down and gasped out loud.
"Wha?" I placed a hand on one of the many bullet scars that traced my bare chest, abdomin and arms. Then it all flashed back to me. My eyes widened and I stared, frozen in panic, at the bullet scars. I wouldn't have even registered the voices coming in the room, except for that one of the voices caused even more pain then Dr. Cho. I laid my head back, wishing I could just cry my pain away when suddenly a voice rang through my ears, clear and absolutely painless. I whipped my head to the side, looking for the speaker who was still finishing his sentence.
"-So you better patch him up real good, doc," My eyes widened even more(something I didn't even know was possible) as I saw the speaker clearly. It was Clint Barton, AKA Hawkeye, AKA Grumpy Bird man.
I wanted to jump up, run to him, tell him to talk to me and tell me jokes, just because it didn't hurt, but the IV in my arm restrained me. So I sat, staring at him.
"What's the matter, Punk?" Clint asked, raising a brow at me. "Do I got something on my face?"
Doc Cho noticed my different behavior immediately.
"That's weird, earlier he was acting like my voice hurt him," She said, stepping near to scan my ears, I winced, leaning away.
"Geesh kid, be nice to Cho, she nursed you back to health," The other man, who was Tony Stark, said, also causing me pain. His voice was even worse.
"I helped," Hawkeye complained, I frowned and looked around, signing for a note pad. Hawkeye must either know Sign language, or understand what my flailing meant because he left and returned with a white board and a marker. I took them, nodding my thanks and started writing, explaining how Cho and Tony's voices physically hurt me, while Hawkeye's was perfectly clear.
"That's very strange," Cho said. "I've never heard of something like this happening before."
"I have," Tony said, frowning.
"What?"
"Steve told me that Bucky said something like that happened once he rescued him from the Hydra base. . . . . and then just recently, after HYDRA was revealed inside SHIELD, when we found Cap again, he was in a lot of pain and something similar happened to him, he got over it after a few days," Tony said, shaking his head, then stopped talking as Clint hit him, pointing at me. I didn't even notice Tony looking up. I had my hands clamped over my ears, trying to block out the noises, Clint put his hand on my arm.
"It's okay, Pietro, They're going to leave." Clint gave them a very pointed look. Tony and Cho exchanged a look and left.
"Does . . . . Does Wanda know I'm awake?" I asked, uncovering my ears. Clint shook his head.
"I was training with Tony when Cho called for him, so I tagged along. Why do you ask?"
"I don't want her to know, if she can't talk to me."
"Can she do a mind thing and talk to you in your head?"
"Aye, but I don't know how that will effect me."
"I'm sure you'll be fine." Clint patted my leg and turned to walk away.
"Clint?"
"Yeah?"
"Do something for me, ask the Captain what happened to him after he recovered from the hearing problem."
"Since I seem to be your ambassador to the rest of the Avengers, I'll do that."
"Thank you." Clint smiled, a very charming smile and turned and walked out. I sighed, laying back down and stared at the ceiling.
"And. . . that was when I realized how much Tony meant to me. And then . . . well things escalated quickly and look where we are now." Cap sighed, leaning back in his chair. "Why do you ask Clint?"
I was still staring at him.
"So . . . . let me get this straight. Tony was the only voice you could hear properly. . . . and then you two fell in love?"
"Uhhh. Yeah."
"God dammit."
"Is something the matter, solider?"
"Well. . . . Steve, you can't tell anyone about this. Not even Wanda."
"Tell anyone what?"
"Pietro's awake," I said, nervously tapping on my knee.
"Really? That's great!"
"Yeah. Well. One problem. He's having that whole. . . . hearing problem," I said, refusing to look up at Steve.
"Oh? And let me guess. You're the only one who he can hear clearly?" I nodded.
"You'll have to face it up Clint. Bruce said he he had something like this happen with Nat after one of the times they used the lullaby."
"What am I supposed to do?! If what your saying is true, then this is some sort of truemate situation!"
"Yep."
"Steve, I have three kids!" I exclaimed. "Who are used to a mom and a dad! Not a dad and a dad!"
The few people at the avengers compound who actually knew Laura had no idea what actually happened. Most assumed we just split up, which was partially true, but why we did, or why I got custody of the kids, no one knew that either. We had broke up right before Ultron.
"You just have to work that out Clint," Steve said, then had his attention dragged away as his screens started blinking.
"Hydra attack, you up for a mission?"
"No."
"What?"
"I want to stay here. I need to think and talk to Pietro."
"Alright, I'll get the rest of the team," Steve said, standing, we left at the same time. I walked slowly towards the medbay. Then suddenly stopped. I turned and walked back to my room. I showered, taking a lot longer then I need, just letting the hot water drip down my face from my hair. I finally got out and wrapped a towel around myself, drying my hair with a second and walking out to my bedroom. I opened the drawers and rummaged around, finally pulling out some clothes. I got changed, my hair still slightly wet and spikey. I grabbed my phone and put it in my sweatpants pocket. I started walking towards the medbay again, the floor cold on my barefeet, I took a breath before pushing open the door.
"Clint! Thank god!" Cho said. "Pietro's been refusing to talk to me!"
"Well, I don't blame him if everyone else's voice hurts him," I said, shrugging and walking over, Pietro was laying on the bed, staring grumpily at the ceiling.
"Well, I've even been using a whiteboard!"
"Hey, Kid," I said, walking over to Pietro and putting one hand on my hip. Pietro looked over at me and I could actually see his eyes widening, his jaw dropped slightly, I leaned down, grabbing his shirt(that had only recently been added) and pulling him up into a sitting position, our faces barely inches away.
"I'm only going to say this once," I growled, taking a very command expression. "I'm done dealing with your stupidity. You're going to allow Doctor Cho to treat you. And you're going to cooperate with her. Or else you'll have to report to me."
I released his shirt, shoving him backwards slightly so he fell back and hit his head on the bed. I walked towards the door, maybe walking a bit more sassily then was necessary.
"Clint." I turned to look behind me, Pietro was leaning on one elbow, staring at me, he winked at me and something told me he was emnot /emgoing to be helpful. I shook my head, glaring at him and walking out, sensing his gaze on my ass.