Hold On by Chord Overstreet

AN: This was a request from a bit ago. I apologize for it taking so long, this pregnancy has been on the rougher side. The baby is being induced on Dec. 22. So around then the stories will really slow down. I'm hoping to get a lot prewritten so all I have to do is read over them to edit and then post so there's still something but I'm sure some of you at least know what newborns are like.

He had found her by chance. They had been getting worried, he and Wanda mostly. "It's not like Natasha to stay away from so long." Wanda had said. Steve just said that her last mission was difficult, she had been held captive by human traffickers for four days and that all she needed was time. James, however, thought that this was all the more reason she needed them. So while everyone else had started the game night, he walked the few blocks to Natasha's apartment.

God, now that he was sitting there thinking about it, listening to the monitor's beep to the rhythm of her heart, they should have never let her move out by herself. The second the hospital and Bruce had cleared her to live normally again she had moved out. That should have been their first red flag. If only he had seen it. If only he had gone over more often. He wouldn't be holding her cold hand as she lays near lifeless on a hospital table.

He had snuck in through the window she always left open for her cat and walked around the apartment quietly. If she was asleep or busy he really didn't want to get shot by accident. Instead, he found an impeccably clean home with a thermostat turned to Russia in winter. He could see breathe as he found an overflowing bowl of cat food and even a large bowl of water. On her kitchen island were sealed letters with all the Avengers names on them as well as a few of her other friends. Even her sister's name was written in perfect swirly Russian on one. That is when the pit in his stomach dropped.

Loud and frantic meowing had him running into her bedroom. Her cat was at her bathroom door, meowing and howling at it made deep scratches in the door, and hit at the handle. The dark feeling James' had only worsened when he tried the handle to find it locked.

"Natasha?" There was a light under the door, she had to be in there. She had to be. "Natasha?" He jiggled the handle banging on the door with his other hand. "Natalia! Open the door! Otkroy dver', Natalia!" He stepped back, barring his teeth and grunting as he broke the door open with his metal shoulder.

He felt his heart stop and his blood run cold at the sight before him on the floor. She laid there, in her sleep shorts and tank, with deep cuts on her forearms and two empty pill bottles by her head. The blood was barely pumping out of her at this point, her eyes closed and chest barely rising and falling. The cat stormed in, howling at it charged over to Natasha, nipping at her nose and liking her face trying to get her to wake up.

He bent down, picking her up in a bridal fashion, the way her body weighted like dead weight in his arms had vomit come to his mouth making him swallow it down. He broke into a sprint back to the Tower. Bruce. Bruce would fix her.

The moment he burst through the doors, chaos ensued. Orders were barked, jobs are given, and done at a speed he didn't know everyone could move at. Natasha ended up being stripped, respectfully, and quickly and put into the Tower's hospital floor. She laid there, unconscious and in the plush bed, but it was still a hospital bed. No matter how much Tony tried to make it nice. And he knew how much Natasha hated hospitals.

Her wounds were cleaned and bandaged but she wouldn't wake up and the bleeding wouldn't slow. Wanda and Sam had gone to the apartment to get the pill bottles and anything else they might need. James had also requested for her cat. Who would want the cat here more when she woke up he didn't know… but the cat needed to be brought here.

They had arrived moments ago, Bruce began to work on what she had taken and how to reverse it while the kitty had curled up on top of Natasha's other hand, the one Bucky wasn't holding.

"I told you," Wanda seethed at Steve. "I told you something was wrong. I told you she needed us but you-"

"Watch it, Maximoff," Steve growled. "This isn't on me-"

James shook his head, turning them out as he turned to Natasha, rubbing her head with one hand and holding hers with his other. "Loving and fighting. Accusing, denying." He whispered to her. "I can't imagine a world with you gone. The joy and the chaos, the demons we're made of, I'd be so lost if you left me alone. You locked yourself in the bathroom. Lying on the floor when I breakthrough. I pull you in to feel your heartbeat. Can you hear me screaming, "Please don't leave me!""

James sighed, turning to see others either working at computers, crying, or glaring at one another.

"Hold on, I still want you. Come back, I still need you. Let me take your hand, I'll make it right, I swear to love you all my life." He turned to Natasha again. "Hold on, I still need you."

Steve had settled against a wall staring at Natasha with tears in his eyes, aware of Wanda glaring at him. He remembered the Long endless highway they had driven together while taking down Sheild. "You're so silent beside me," He had told her. She had commented on how observant he was. If he was so observant how could he not see she was Driving a nightmare she can't escape from. Now he was just standing there, Helplessly praying, the light isn't fading.

Tony and Bruce were working as fast as they could, pulling Friday to work with them as well. Natasha's smile full of adoration filled his mind, and while the smile had a different meaning now, he still saw it time from her to him. He used his palm to push the tears from his eyes. He could cry later. Now, Natasha needed his help.

Tony typed faster than he ever had trying to work out chemical compounds and how to counteract them. He was wrong, he always was, so much about Natasha was real. She was the heart of them, all of them. And no heart was going to stop beating on his watch.

Sam drew the short straw and had to call Clint, a terrible job but better than trying to help the way Tony and Bruce were. They didn't know a lot, so he didn't have a lot to tell Clint, but what they did know was far too much. He began to pull on coping mechanisms he knew from his work before the Avengers and took deep breaths. Clint was on his way, he'd be here, and Sam would do anything he could to make sure that Clint would see his best friend alive.

Wanda was practically humming in her seat, her leg bouncing as she alternated between fighting back tears, staring helplessly at Natasha, and glaring at Steve. She knew it wasn't his fault, she really did, but Wanda was sure that nothing would ever make sense again until Natasha woke up. She was Hiding the shock, poorly, and the chill in her bones. They took Natasha away on a table when they saved her from the traffickers and now she was on one again. She'll pace back and forth as Natasha lays still. She watched as James pulled Natasha in to feel her heartbeat. Wanda was left wondering if she used her powers could Nat hear her screaming, "Please don't leave me!"

"Hold on, I still want you," James muttered to Natasha. "Come back, I still need you. Let me take your hand, I'll make it right, I swear to love you all my life. Just Hold on, I still need you. I don't wanna let go. I know I'm not that strong. I just wanna hear you. Saying "Baby, let's go home". So Let's go home. Yeah," He nodded. "I just wanna take you home. Hold on, I still want you. Come back, I still need you." James sighed, resting his head on her shoulder as everyone worked on a way to save Natasha from her demons.