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Tony and Steve were about twenty feet away from the med bay 'viewing window room' that Tony had insisted on putting in when he built the place, so that patients could be monitored without being overwhelmed. Everyone else thought that Tony just wanted to be able to spy on them. Clint came striding out of the room, spotting them immediately and beckoning them to move faster with a grim expression.
"Clint? What is it?" Steve asked, straightening up as Tony fell silent and dropped his arm from around Steve's shoulders.
"You two have got to see this." the archer faltered a bit, rubbing his temples. "Its like nothing I've ever seen before. He looks like...like a corpse really. I have no idea how hes still alive. I hate the guy, but this...this is something that just shouldn't happen. Ever. I don't even think it can happen to many others, any of us would have been long dead..." Clint brushed past the two, still muttering to himself and shaking his head.
"I don't know if I want to go in there if Clint reacted like that." Tony said stiffly, a rare serious expression on his face. Steve didn't say anything, just tugged the billionaire the last few feet into the room, moving to stand next to Natasha before letting his eyes drift through the glass at Loki.
Bruce looked completely calm as he worked Loki, who he had stripped down to his undershorts revealing just how torn apart the god was.
"Good Lord above..." Steve muttered, eyes wide.
"Holy fucking shit." Tony breathed. "What the fuck happened? How is he alive?!"
Loki was covered in deep red gashes, some just dark pink indents in his skin and others looked like that had just managed to scab over, and one wrong move would send them splitting open again. Bruises, some looking like handprints and others just masses of yellow purple and black covered nearly every inch of his skin. Because of how thinly his skin was stretched over his bones, it was easy to tell that a few of his ribs were broken, as well as his right arm. But none of that, as horrible as it was, compared to his face. It looked like someone had poured acid down Loki's face, leaving deep rivets in the skin down his face, neck, and splashes of the raw burns on his shoulders and chest. Some of the wounds were infected, covered in something that looked crusty and yellow. His eyes were a bit red, and his entire body was shaking. Thor was holding one of his hands, face drawn in concern as he crouched by the bedside obviously trying to comfort his brother. Loki looked like he wanted to climb onto his older brothers lap to escape Bruce, but forced himself to stay still.
Bruce was the only one keeping his calm, as Steves face had lost all color and Tony was looking a little green. Natasha was stone faced, but even she winced when Loki flinched away from Bruce who was attempting to clean out some of the wounds on his legs.
"I'm going to order us all some dinner before it gets too much later." the only female Avenger said stiffly before striding out of the room.
"Widow's got the right idea, I don't want to be here to see how he reacts with Bruce actually begins with the medical stuff." Tony muttered with a grimace. "I think I'll go check on bird brain, see how he's holding up with all this."
Clint ran a hand through his hair as he walked into archery range, nearly growling in frustration. With unnecessary force he smacked the button that would start rotating and swinging the targets, some design of Tonys meant to challenge him and Tasha. After he let the first arrow fly, the rest just followed as he lost himself in his thoughts.
He hated Loki, more than anything. The man had forced his way into his mind, how could he not? Loki had stolen information directly from his memories, his thoughts, and as if that wasn't bad enough then controlled him, making him killed people and nearly take down the helicarrier. He had shot friends of his, taken them down without a thought and then he had attacked Natasha. Natasha, of all people! He put Phil in a coma for three months, Clint's only friend besides Tasha before the Avengers had bonded. And that was just what had been done to him personally, not counting all of the civilians that he had mind controlled, any of the people he had killed while preparing to open the portal, and then all the casualties from the Chitauri were on the damn gods head as well.
But his face. The fear, the panic, the slightly vacant look in his eyes...not something that can be faked. "Though its truly a miracle there is enough left of his face for me to tell anything from it." Clint thought to himself grimly. As a secret agent and an assassin, he had seen his share of torture victims, he had been a victim a few times, but even the bodies he had found of those who just couldn't handle the abuse had not looked even half as bad as Loki did.
And as Steve was letting Loki stay at the tower, Clint knew he was going to have to get over his grudge. If even one of them acted as hostile as Clint wanted to Loki would only curl further into himself. So he had to let it go and get over it. Besides, how mad can you be at a man who had his face melted off for his crimes? Death Clint was fine with, but he didn't approve of torturing someone until they shattered.
"See, this isn't even fair." Arrow strung ready in his bow Clint whipped around, aiming it at Tony on relax, who lazily put his hands up. "Cool it Legolas, I'm just jealous of your mad skills, no need to prove them on me. I quite like how I look."
"We know Tony." snorted Clint, turning back to look at the targets. Every arrow was exactly in the bullseye, some arrows split down the center where he had shot two at the same target.
"How are you doing Clint?" Tony asked abruptly, crossing his arm over his chest and leaning against the wall. "Really? I know hes ripped to pieces, but he still put you through hell. Now hes here, weak and helpless...and you have to help him. Are you ok?"
"Getting sappy are we Stark?" Clint snapped, pressing the button that would call the targets back to him, yanking out the whole ones and shoving them back in his quiver, tossing the split arrows on the floor.
"Don't pull that bullshit with me Clint. You're like me, bottle it all up no harm done. But this is different, this is big. We can't afford to be like we have been all these years, not anymore. This team, we're all each other has. We need to stick together, remain strong, and keep our heads. Now I want to know how your head is!" Tony said, lifting an eyebrow. "Now tell me or you're going to be demoted from Legolas to Katniss."
"What do you want me to say? I hate that bastard, but that little thing inches from death in the med bay? That isn't the man I hate. I'm conflicted Tony, but I don't have the option to be." Clint sighed, rubbing a hand over his face.
"Steve and Bruce know what their doing. And who would be able to stand Thor's puppy face if we had kicked his little brother out?"
"Know what's disturbing? I would have felt bad." Tony laughed. "Wouldn't have told any of you bleeding hearts, but I would have felt bad. Guys missing like, half his face Tony. And he curls into Thor like hes a small child."
"You know what I think? I think we need to drink on this insanity. Quick, before Cap gets to the bar!"Clint chuckled, shaking his head as Tony pulled him out of the room. "And before Cap eats all of the food!"
Natasha wordlessly handed plates to Steve as he walked into the kitchen as she unloaded the take out boxes from the giant bag, placing serving utensils in each one. Steve walked past her to the dining room, setting the table then helping Natasha carry out the food before taking his seat at the head of the table. He caught a glimpse of Tony and Clint sneaking past through the living room, and moments later they came into the room with a bottle of scotch and six glasses, taking their seats next to each other and avoiding Steves gaze. The super soldier rolled his eyes but stayed silent. He didn't like how much they drank, but if any day called for alcohol it was this one.
The dinner was awkward, everyone just pushing their food around on their plates while three fourths of them steadily refilled their glasses.
Finally, Bruce walked in, covered in blood.
"Sorry Captain, I know I'm breaking kitchen area rules but I need to talk to all of you." Bruce said, giving them one of his little awkward smiles. "Thor took Loki to a room on his floor, the one across from his own I believe. I did as much as I could, reset the bones, gave him stitches...he looks a bit like a mummy with all the bandages I had to use. By the way Tony, could you order me a few more boxes of those? I have a feeling I'll be going through our current stock in nothing flat."
"You heard the man Jarvis." Tony said, nodding to Bruce.
"Of course sir." came the electronic butlers voice from the ceiling.
"Anyway, I'm going to start Loki on broth tomorrow, he won't be able to handle real food for a few weeks, maybe more, from what I could get out of Thor they weren't keen on feeding Loki during his...imprisonment." Bruce continued, face going serious. "We also need someone to be watching him at all times, and Thor does need his rest. I'm going to make a schedule, but it won't exactly be work because his body is going to want to sleep most of the day in order to heal itself. Obviously we will work around mission schedules, and it won't be for very long, but I don't want him walking or even moving very much right now- he's too weak."
"You're the doctor Bruce, whatever you say goes." Steve said, smiling at Bruce.
"Honestly? For the first time in a long time I have no idea what I'm doing. By every medical fact that I know Loki should be dead. I half expect one of you to run up to me during one of your watches to tell me that his body has finally just...given out. I don't know anything about biology in Asgard, or frost giants or whatever he is, but I'm flabbergasted he is still breathing, let alone moving and talking and interacting with us. For Thors sake...I hope he makes it through this." with that Bruces shoulders slumped, his head bowed and his hand lifted to rub tiredly at his neck as he turned and headed for his floor to go to bed.
Clint had demanded the last shift of watching Loki possible, not listening to anyones protests on the matter. Now he wished someone would have slapped some sense into him. He would be having words with Tasha after this for allowing him to make such a mistake.
The last shift before Thor took back over was in the morning. When it was most likely that Loki was going to wake up. Not that he had woken up for the past two days when everyone else had their late night or early morning shifts, but he still didn't want to be there.
Twirling a knife between his fingers with one hand he scrolled through his phone with the other, he waited for a call, a text, anything to get him the hell out of there. Fury was normally good at getting him out of things with random missions! Maybe Tony was deleting message before they got to his phone so he couldn't skip out, or maybe Bruce had threatened Fury so that he would be able to sleep in a bit before he had to check Loki's wounds, or maybe Natasha was a traitor and told Fury to send her all of the missions, or-
"Are...you...going to kill...me?" Clint froze, catching the knife by the handle and looking over at the bed to see Loki attempting to scoot away from him, fearful wide eyes visible through the bandages that wrapped around most of the top half of his head and around his chin. Clint blink in confusion. Why would Loki think that- oh. Shit. Way to go Barton, twirling a knife was the entertainment you came up with? Could you BE more stupid?
While chewing himself out in his, mind Clint slipped his phone into his pocket and the knife into its casing strapped on his ankle before pulling down his pant leg and leaning back in the chair, trying to look as relaxed and not threatening as possible.
"Nah, Thor would be pretty pissed off if I did that, not to mention how Steve would react. Plus Bruce would be pretty pissed if he put all of that effort into getting you stable only to have me mess it up." the archer said, shrugging his shoulders. Loki stopped trying to move, but the wide eyes didn't leave Clint.
"Then...why are you here?"
"Bruce. Doctors order are that someone needs to be watching you to make sure that you don't open any of your wounds trying to get something you need or something like that. I dunno I just do what Bruce tells me to." glancing at the clock Clint felt relief wash through him. "Oh would you look at the, nearly 7:30. Speaking of Bruce, he really should be in here any minute now-"
Clints phone buzzed, causing the man to pull it out of his pocket and glare at it. Really Fury? Couldn't have needed something a few minutes earlier? Unlocking the screen he read the message.
You and Rogers. Unidentified robots, coordinates set to the quinjet. Move now.
"And it looks like I've got to go, duty calls and whatnot don't move Bruce will be in here in a few and I don't really want to get in trouble with him if you manage to break your stitches or something. Don't. Move." Loki just stared at Clint as he made his get away, bumping into Bruce halfway down the hallway.
"Clint?" Bruce said in surprise, medical kit in one hand a mug of coffee in the other.
"He woke up, which is just my luck I mean come on really, but I gotta go Doc Fury is sending the Cap and I off to go get some robots, just the two of us so its a small job and since I'm kidnaping the resident chef make sure someone orders something, if I get back from this mission and there is not food I'm going to be pissed!"
Bruce just blinked, watching as Clint backpedalled down the hall while babbling before turning around and bolting away, yelling "CAP SUIT YOUR STAR SPANGLED ASS UP WE GOT SOMEWHERE TO BE!"
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