Steve wakes up when his alarm goes off. After starting his new running routine, he has gotten used to waking up. Because of this, his nightmare rate has gone down. Steve walks to the kitchen and gets ready to run. He grabs himself water and is just about outside the door when he hears a strange noise from the bathroom.
Steve starts walking towards the bathroom, putting his hands up and getting ready for action. He knows that it's nothing bad, but he can't be too careful.
He walks up to the door and tries the handle, it's locked. "Hello?" He asks. Steve puts his ear up to the door. There's a gagging sound near the back of the room. It's muffled and barely audible. "Is anyone in there?" He asks. He hears a groaned "Come it…" from the bathroom. Clint. A jolt of worry spikes through him. Steve tries again.
"I can't it's locked." Steve states. He hears shuffling and muffled grunts from the other side, and then the door clicks open. Steve goes to open it and he can't cause there's a weight on the other side. "Clint you need to back away from the door."
Clint pushes away from the door clumsily and stumbles the few steps to the toilet, before collapsing onto the ground and barfing into it. Steve sees the pitiful sight and runs in to rub soothing circles on his back. Clint blindly puts his hand up and flushes the toilet before laying his head on the rim.
"Noo don't do that," Steve says lifting Clint's head off the seat. Clint groans. "Ugghh, s'cold though." Clint sniffles before his head lolls back into Steve's shoulder.
"Let's go to the living room Clint." Steve effortlessly picks up Clint and brings him to the couch, all while alerting Jarvis to wake the others that are here. Tony is not here because he's helping Pepper with a meeting. And Thor is in New Mexico, probably making out with Jane.
Natasha is the first to walk in. She's in the spider pajama pants that Clint got her last year for Christmas. "Jarvis told me that you needed m-oh my gosh! What happened to him?" She jogs the rest of the way and puts her hand on Clint's forehead. "He's burning up, you need to call Bruce down here."
Steve lowers Clint down onto the couch and lays a blanket on him when he starts shivering. "I found him in the bathroom when I was getting ready for my run. He was throwing up." Clint coughed and sniffles into his blanket. "His fever's pretty high, it probably hit him hard because he was fine yesterday." Steve observes.
Natasha leans over Clint. "Hey, can you hear me? I'm gonna take your temperature once I get a thermometer." Clint looks up. His eyes are bright with fever and they are glazed over. He nods in response before huddling himself further into the blanket.
Clint is left alone while Natasha gets a thermometer and Steve goes to make some soup. When Natasha comes back he is jolted back awake with her seemingly freezing hands on his forehead. The next thing he knows is the thermometer in his mouth. It beeps and Natasha leans back on her heels in shock and amazement. She shows Steve who comes back. It reads 102.7. "We need Bruce."
…
Bruce sees the temperature and takes the blankets off Clint, who has now huddled under three of them. He groans at the loss of warmth and starts to shiver. "His temperature is too high already, we need to cool him down before it can get higher." He places a cool rag on his forehead before sitting on the other couch next to Natasha. Together the three of them watch Clint for the next hour.
When his shivering calms down, Bruce asks for his temperature. When the instrument is slid into Clint's mouth, there is no reaction. This troubles Natasha. "Oh my god," Bruce exclaims. "104.4," Bruce says before rushing to get a couple of ice packs. "Seve refresh the rag on his forehead and Natasha try and wake him back up. He wasn't sleeping, he's practically dead. His blood is literally boiling inside of him."
"Clint come one please wake up. I know it feels like you dying because you probably are. Please wake up." She taps his cheek lightly, going harder when the only reaction she gets is his head lolling to one side. She puts her ear up to his mouth, his breathing is wheezy and sounds like he's not getting enough air. She winces in sympathy.
They get a reaction five minutes after the ice packs are placed on the most sensitive parts of his body, like his wrists, forehead, and the inside of his thighs. He groans. "Clint?" Nat hops up and kneels beside him. "Can you open your eyes?" She asks him.
He groans again but his eyes open a sliver. They're bloodshot and unfocused but they are open."t'sha?" he mumbles. Lips barely moving. He tries to sit up but can't because his energy is drained. "Hey hey hey take it easy okay, you're sick. our fever just broke. It's going down now." She checks the temperature again and sighs in relief when it reads as 103.2. She shows the others and they have the same reaction.
Clint hums and his eyes slip shut. Falling back asleep. "That was close," Bruce says bluntly. "If it had gone any higher he probably would've died." Natasha glances longingly at Clint with this statement. "It's always him. I swear to god," she says while rubbing a hand over her face and collapsing onto the couch next to him. She chuckles. "He has the worst luck." Steve nods in agreement and Bruce gives a quiet chuckle.
Thanks, Katie MacAlpine once again for reviewing!
Sorry, I posted this late. I got home pretty late last night and completely forgot about this. I watched Magnum PI, my favorite TV that is back, and then went straight to bed. Anyways I'm writing this while waiting for my ride to my high school because we have a band competition. Wish me luck!