In and out. In and out.
"Just breathe Natasha." She could hear Bruce's voice behind her but her eyes were tightly shut as she tried her best to ignore the strong, aching pain and concentrate on getting through it.
She felt a hand on her shoulder, presuming it also belonged to the Doctor.
They had to keep this quiet, as they did any medical treatment the avengers team received. They had to suffer, or have Bruce take the wheel and prescribe whatever drugs were needed. Anything more serious, they handled when it came to it. She's had worse, gunshots wounds which caused searing pain, like hot pokers straight from the fire. Natasha knew the feeling of her skin burning, she knew the feeling of muscles tearing and skin being ripped through like tissue paper. Those were things she had experienced all too often.
They all had.
For this pain she paced, walking up and down the room, pausing momentarily to clutch something – anything in reach - and breathe through gritted teeth against the pain. She dragged the IV alongside her, a big filled with some sort of diamorphine cocktail. It took the edge off. She would have to wait for the rest to end, wait for her freedom to come back once more.
Why had she ever agreed to this?
They'd all been waiting around for at least twenty minutes. Natasha knew that, she also knew she shouldn't keep them waiting any longer. She knew that the little piece of cheap plastic in her hands was the answer, the answer which would affect all of their futures.
Biologically this was the only way, Steve's full version of the super soldier serum outweighing and balancing her own dodgy version. Practically, well, the team had agreed it could work and the others out there, those in government who would find it unethical, well they didn't need to know.
She knew this woulc be the most humane way, she had agreed to it, but her own inner child, it wasn't so sure. Either way, if Steve Rogers had been persuaded it was for the right reasons then that was something she had to accept. Who knew a little bit of cheap plastic could be such a change, a change the team needed, a change the world needed.
Natasha wasn't sure she was ready for this, nor was she sure she ever would be but she was one of the only people on the team capable of providing such an opportunity. The needed to end this, the wars, the deaths and – now Earth was on the universal map - prevent the things which were not going to happen in their lifetime.
It would take her life from her, that also worried Natasha, being confined to a boring and near normal life would break her or even kill her. She didn't know what it was to be normal, to sit around and watch the action unfold. What was even on the TV these days? She had no clue.
Natasha closed her eyes, taking in a deep breath before flipping the piece of plastic in her hands despite her fears, smirking before she headed out the bathroom.
As she had expected the rest of the team surrounded her instantly. Clint looked anxious, Tony tried to remain blasé but struggled. She barely looked at them, not that she thought her expression would tell them anything but she worried it would make them see a problem not a success.
Natasha pushed the plastic stick into Steve's hand. They all waited, holding a collective breath. Steve looked at the result in his hands, smiled and nodded.
"It worked." He said, addressing everyone, "Natasha's pregnant."