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Natasha waited until Steve had fallen back asleep before sliding out of his hold as slowly and quietly as possible. She winced and looked down at her wrist. It was black and blue and swollen to hell. She checked the time; it was only 5 in the morning. After quickly getting changed she hurried out of her apartment and into the medical bay.
She struggled to wrap the bandage around her wrist. "Damn it."
"Need some help?" A voice in the doorway said. She whirled around to see Bruce standing in the doorway.
"Oh. Uh, sure. I think it's just sprained or something." She lied. Natasha sat down on the edge of the medical bed. Bruce walked towards her, gently holding her wrist. "What're you doing up so early?"
"Decided to come down here and get some work done." He moved her hand around a bit, causing her to wince in pain. He took a quick breath between his teeth. "This looks worse than sprained Natasha." He said curiously. "Mind if I take a quick x-ray?"
"Sure…" Natasha said cautiously. Bruce grabbed a small handheld screen from one of the tables. He held it up to her arm.
"Tony and I invented it. Handheld x-rays are much easier than the big machines." He explained, motioning towards the device. Within 30 seconds an image of her arm flashed on screen. A clear line down the bone. "Yep, it's fractured. What'd you do it anyway?"
"I dropped a weight on it in the gym this morning." She lied again; thankfully Bruce seemed to believe her.
"Well. I'm gonna put a cast on it and you should be good to go."
"Thanks Bruce."
"Don't mention it." He came back with the supplies for the cast and took one more look at her wrist. "Huh."
"What?"
"The bruising, it looks kind of like a handprint." He raised an eyebrow.
"Weird." Natasha said quietly. Bruce watched her for a second before turning back to her wrist.
"And voila. You're done." Bruce said, stepping away to put away his tools. Natasha looked down at the blue cast around her wrist and hand, her fingers stuck out like thin little sausages of the end with a small hole for her thumb. She sighed, not wanting to think about Steve's reaction to the cast. "So Tony installed a big fancy coffee machine in the common room last week that's yet to be used." Bruce said, opening the medical room's door. "I vote we go grab some." Natasha smiled, happy that Bruce was dropping the broken wrist topic all together.
"Coffee sounds great."
Bruce and Natasha sat in the common room together as the sun rose, Bruce drinking decaf with 2 sugars and Natasha drinking a chai latte.
Slowly as night became day the Avengers started making their way into the common room. Clint was first, emerging half asleep. He made himself a batch of black coffee.
"Umm Clint, that's not a mug." Bruce raised an eyebrow as Clint slowly shuffled back into the elevator, carrying the glass pot of coffee with him.
"Yeah yeah yeah." Clint murmured, taking a sip straight out of the pot. Natasha rolled her eyes.
"He does that." She said taking a sip of her latte. She laid her broken wrist in her lap, covering it with a blanket. Thor came up next. He could only say hello quickly before heading back to Asguard. Unsurprisingly Tony was still fast asleep.
"So Bruce, have you got a lucky lady out there?" Natasha raised an eyebrow. Bruce chuckled nervously.
"Any 'lady' that'd be with me wouldn't exactly be lucky."
"That's not true; you're a really good guy Bruce." Natasha reassured him. "Hell, you fixed my arm up at 6 am no questions asked!" Natasha joked.
"I meant… The Other Guy." Bruce said uneasily. Natasha shifted slightly, feeling a bit uncomfortable. Unknown to Bruce 'The Other Guy' was a sensitive topic to Natasha. She was utterly terrified after he attacked her on the Hellicarrier 4 years ago. "I did have a girl at one point."
"You 'had a girl'? Wow Bruce you're sounding like Steve." Natasha chuckled, quickly frowning a bit when she remembered her wrist. Bruce laughed a bit, shrugging.
"Her name was Betty Ross... She was a genius. Beautiful. Most beautiful girl I've ever seen. She got me in ways no one else ever has."
"What ever happened to her?" Natasha asked, sipping her coffee. Bruce was quiet .
"We were dating back when… the accident." Bruce said mournfully. "I couldn't control the other guy as well back then and… I ended things. I didn't want her to get hurt." He pulled out his phone, showing her the lock-screen photo. It was of a slightly younger Bruce and a beautiful girl with long black hair.
"Do you still have contact with her?" Natasha asked, staring at the photo.
"Yeah. But I haven't spoken to her in-"
"Call her."
"What?" Bruce asked, his eyes wide in shock.
"Call the girl."
"Natasha, it's too dangerous. I'm too dangerous-"
"Not anymore. You said it yourself Bruce, you can control it better now. Call. The. Girl."
"Come on Bruce, call her." The two turned to see Steve standing in the doorway, still dressed in his pajamas and smiling.
"You know what. I think I will. Excuse me." Bruce went into his phone contacts, quickly walking into the hall. "…Betty?" He said hesitantly.
"Are you playing his match-maker now too?" Steve raised an eyebrow, sitting down beside her.
"I guess I am." Natasha smiled. The stared at each other for a few moments before Natasha looked away, glancing back out the window.
"Your wrist..." He said, staring down at the blanket covering her cast.
"What? It's fine Steve-"
"You're hiding it." Natasha shifted uncomfortably, pulling the blanket up even more.
"No I'm not." Natasha said, trying to mask her nerves. Steve took a deep breath.
"How bad is it?" He asked quietly. Natasha bit down on her lip.
"It really doesn't hurt that badly." She slowly moved the blanket, lifting her arm. The sunrise seemed to make the dark blue cast glow. Steve stared at it, his eyes wide.
"Natasha-"
"Steve, I'm not angry with you. It's alright. It was an accident." The soldier was quiet, keeping his eyes blued to the cast.
"What happened to your arm Red?" Steve and Natasha jumped at the sound of Tony walking into the common room.
"Dropped a weight on it." Natasha said nonchalantly.
"That sucks. Hey Rogers, I need your muscles for something in the lab." Tony said, stepping into the elevator. Steve looked at Natasha.
"Go." She whispered. Steve looked down before silently joining Tony in the elevator.
Natasha was put on medical leave from missions until her wrist healed, for which she was grateful. She really didn't like being kept from missions for very long, but a paid vacation was always appreciated.
"Hey Nat. I'm making lunch for everybody today" Pepper announced as she walked into the common room around noon. Tony and Bruce trailed behind her, each carrying full grocery bags.
"Pepper, why'd you drag us shopping with you?" Tony asked, dropping the heavy bags onto the coffee table. He laid down on the floor, sprawling out like a starfish.
"Again?" Bruce complained something rather uncharacteristic of him.
"Stop complaining or I'll spit in your food." Pepper smiled a bit. She sat down next to Natasha. "How's your wrist?"
"Kind of sore, but not anything I can't handle. I've had a lot worse." Natasha shrugged.
"I got some stuff for you-"
"With my credit card." Tony whined
"Shut up Stark." Natasha snapped, before turning back to the CEO.
"Anyways, so I got you some stuff to make you feel better until you're well enough to go back on missions. There's painkillers, your favorite chips, a six pack of that beer you like and some noise cancelling headphones to help you relax."
"This is awesome Pepp." Natasha smiled brightly. "Thanks."
"Don't worry about it. I'd better get started on lunch. JARVIS?"
"Yes Miss Potts?" The AI replied
"Can you alert the rest of the team to go to Tony and I's floor for lunch?"
"Yes Miss Potts."
"Thanks. Tony, Bruce I'm gonna need your help with the bags again." Pepper said, grabbing a few bags. The men moaned.
"Can't Red help too?" Tony whined, picking up some of the bags. "She's got a free hand."
"Not a chance Stark." Natasha laughed.
She had managed to avoid Steve all day, until she realized it had before far too easy to avoid him. Knowing Steve, he'd come looking for her eventually and try to apologize for something that really wasn't his fault.
It finally dawned on Natasha just after lunch, when Steve didn't come down to eat. He was avoiding her.
Natasha was sitting on the roof, dangling her feet over the edge. She was almost finished with the book Steve recommended. She didn't like it at first, but it sort of grew on her.
"There you are." Natasha turned around to see Clint walking towards her. He stopped in place when he saw the cast. "What happened?"
"I dropped a weight on it in the gym." Natasha felt like a parrot, constantly repeating 'how' she fractured her wrist.
"That doesn't sound like you." He sat down beside her.
"It was an accident."
"Obviously." Clint elbowed her lightly. He took the book from her. "Good book?"
"Yeah." She shrugged. "Steve recommended it."
"Did he now?" Clint flashed her a knowing smile.
"What are you on about Barton?" Natasha raised an eyebrow.
"Nothing… You just seem to be pretty close to our captain. Despite what happened…"
'Oh god. He knows.' Natasha though, panicking.
"It was an accident." She said seriously.
"What?!" Clint stared at her in astonishment. "What was an accident?"
"You just said-"
"I was going to say despite how the mission went down in Saint Petersburg. I know all about you're little realtion-" He glanced down at her cast. His face contorted into anger. "Wait. Rogers did this to you?"
"Clint-" Before she could stop him the archer stood up marching towards the door. Using her non-broken hand Natasha carefully stood up, following behind him. "Barton wait!"
What's Clint gonna do to Steve?
Next chapter'll be up soon!
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