A little bit shorter than the past few but it's more of a filler than anything. Regardless things do happen, but besides meeting Clint really nothing. I struggled a little bit more with this one but that could just be exhaustion from the past week dealing with not only finals but the whole COVID-19 panic as well. My entire town is pretty much shut down for the next two weeks at least. The only place that's open that I really go to anymore is physical therapy and even then they're thinking about going to only post-op cases. I'm pretty much isolated at home right now so I'm hoping to get a good chunk of this story written as well as working on some of my other ones as well. My school extended its spring break by a week so I have two weeks now to get some things written and seeing as pretty much everything else is closed I don't really have anywhere to go. So hopefully, you'll be seeing a lot of updates here pretty soon.

BuckyBarnes07: Thank you! And yes, poor Rory.

yasmina1: Yes, things had to get interesting!

Rory wakes up slowly, her entire body feeling as if she had been hit by a truck and sent flying under a train. She still feels hot, pain rippling through her nerves. She can't take it, a whimper leaving her mouth as she attempts to push some of the pain aside. Someone is there with her, speaking gently to her. Battle rough hands brush the hair from her face, pressing something cold to her forehead. Something wet hits her lips and she welcomes it, gulping down the water. It stings as it goes down, making her feel like she's going to puke again. She holds it in, letting her eyes drift closed again, darkness taking her.

She wakes up again, this time in less pain than before. It's light outside this time, the sun burning her eyes for a moment. She blinks away the pain, her eyes adjusting to the light. There's a strange sound coming from beside her and she turns her head, a slow process before her eyes come to rest on someone she's never seen before. He was currently reclining back in a chair, blowing up a blue glove like a balloon.

He lets it go as soon as he sees her watching, the glove flying over her bed before hitting the floor with a smack. "You're awake!" He grins, sitting up straight, leaning on the edge of the bed. "We haven't met yet. I'm Clint."

She stares at him for a moment before looking up at the ceiling. Memories of what had happened flash through her mind. She had killed a man. He had been with HYDRA, there to kill her but she had killed him instead. It had felt so easy, so satisfying to watch him burn. The power she had felt, letting her anger wash through her like that, was unlike anything she had ever experienced. The part that scared her, was that she liked it.

Something is touching her face, bringing her back from her thoughts. She recognizes the familiar rubbery texture of latex gloves. Clint's thumb is brushing along her cheek, wiping the tears away. She hadn't even noticed she had started crying. She stares at him, looking into his concerned green eyes. She felt sick to her stomach, but she knew there was nothing in there to puke up.

"Breathe." He says to her, taking a few deep breaths himself to help her. She copies his pattern, sniffling as her breathing calms down.

"I killed him." She whispers, her hands attempting to curl into fists but she finds they're wrapped in gauze. She holds them up, looking at them. They tremble as she holds them in the air, tears threatening to fall again.

"You did what you had to do." Clint lowers her hands with one of his own glove covered ones. "You were just protecting yourself."

"But I shouldn't have killed him."

"It's okay." Clint squeezes her arm gently. "No one here is going to blame you for it. We've all taken a stab at someone from our pasts when we came across them again."

They lapse into silence for a while, Rory taking the time to calm herself down again. How easy it had been for her. She never wanted to feel that way again.

She looks down at Clint's gloved hands, reaching out to touch the latex. "What are those for?"

Clint looks down at his hands. "Precautionary. In case I needed to touch you. We all agreed it would be best to not overwhelm you. You've had a tough past few days."

Rory shrugs. "Might as well get it over with now." She holds out an arm to him since her hands were currently wrapped in gauze. "Can't feel any worse than I already do."

Clint hesitates before slipping the gloves off, touching her arm. Electricity flows through both of them, feeling as if some gap has suddenly been filled. Like two pieces of rope that had been dangling finally tied together. Rory feels like she might pass out again, closing her eyes and breathing deeply to work through the overwhelming feelings. She almost regrets her decision, but at least this way, it was done, and as far as she knew there wouldn't be anyone else. She finally had all of her mates, at least in spirit. There was still one missing from her life, arguably the most important to her.

"Are you hungry?" Clint asks after she opens her eyes again.

Rory shakes her head. "Not really." Her stomach was churning and she wasn't sure if it was from the pain or what she had experienced.

Clint leans against the bed. "Bruce will want to look you over, but you should definitely eat something. You've been out for almost a day and you need to put something in your stomach."

Rory stares down at her gauze wrapped hands. She definitely didn't feel like eating but he was probably right. A day wasn't the longest she'd passed out for after using her powers but it was still an extensive time. She nods in agreement, chewing on her lip.

"JARVIS, let Bruce know Rory is awake."

"Right away, Mr. Barton."

Rory jumps at the computerized voice, looking around. Clint chuckles, putting a hand on her shoulder. "It's alright, that's just JARVIS. He kind of runs everything. Monitors the tower, runs the security programs, all of Stark's tech, he's been monitoring you as well and your…" He gestures with his hand. "Medical stuff. He's also Stark's AI and kind of like his butler."

Rory nods, relaxing back in bed. "HYDRA never had anything like that. They were advanced, but in some ways, they weren't." She shakes her head. "This is going to take a long time to get used to."

Clint nods. "That's understandable. I know Tony, Steve and Nat have lists of stuff they want to talk to you about, but Bruce is holding them back for now. Making sure you're okay before they start rambling off things that could get overwhelming fast, knowing them. Well, at least Steve and Tony. Nat knows what it's like, being in this position. Hell, we all do in a way. We're trying our best, but we're excited too, finally having you here with us."

Rory nods, staring up at the ceiling. She doesn't know what to say, but thankfully it's not very long before Bruce comes into the room again. He looks her over, checking on her stitches. He talks to her as he does so, Clint leaving to get her something to eat. Bruce tells her that she tore her stitches and the wound partially opened back up but thankfully not enough. It had taken her a while to cool back down, and her hands had been bleeding. He checks those over too, her fingers raw and blistered and scabbed. He lets them breathe for a bit, starting another morphine drip. He stays with her until Nat comes in, carrying a steaming bowl. Bruce sets the table up, Nat setting it in front of Rory. It's some kind of soup, the smell of it making her stomach growl.

Bruce leaves them once everything is settled, letting Nat know she'll probably have to feed Rory since her hands were still torn up. It would take a couple of days for the scabs to scar over and the blisters to go down, but they wouldn't ever fully heal. Not unless she could go a significant amount of time without using her abilities. Then maybe for once, she'd be able to look at her hands and see somewhat normal hands again.

"Where's Clint?" Rory asks after Nat sits down next to her bed.

"Eating his own lunch. It was almost time for us to switch places anyways so I offered to bring you your lunch."

Rory frowns. "Switch places?"

Nat smiles at her. "We agreed it was best to not leave you alone for a while, after what happened. If he got in, we don't know how many there could be in the tower, much less if they figured out a way around Tony's security measures." Rory must be giving her a panicked look because Nat puts her hand on her arm gently. "Don't worry. No one can step foot on this floor without Tony knowing about it. He's also going through all of the tower's staff again and running tighter background checks to look for any sign of potential HYDRA affiliation. And you won't be alone. They'll have to go through one of us to get to you."

Rory looks down at the bowl of soup. "That's what worries me."

Nat picks up the spoon, offering her a taste of the soup. It's salty but light, bringing back memories from when she was a child. HYDRA hadn't been big on soup, giving her mostly sandwiches and plates of food that looked like they had seen better days. She's not sure what she had ingested in her six years with them, but she had eaten when they had given her food since she never knew when she was going to be fed again.

The memories turn her stomach, and if it wasn't for Nat feeding her, she probably wouldn't have finished the soup. Nat doesn't speak to her while she eats, but for the first time, she wishes she had something to distract her. She doesn't want to think about HYDRA anymore, but it seems she can't help it. It seems HYDRA will always be there, always looming in the background, threatening to swallow her whole again.