Clint is lying on his back, his head is supported by Natasha's lap. His eyes were hazy and focused on nothing in particular. The large scrape from his forehead to cheek, crossing right through his eyebrow and over his eye, was still gushing blood that Nat had to wipe away every once in a while to stop it from getting into his eye. There was a large lump on the back of his head and it was pulsing with his heartbeat.
Natasha notices his eyes fluttering shut and shouts at him "NO! Clint stay awake! Evac is almost here." His eyes open up slowly, revealing one eye almost full of the pupil and the other had almost no black in it.
Suddenly, a truck parks outside the alley they're in and medics run down with a gurney. They lift him up carefully and place him on before wheeling Clint away, Natasha following closely behind him.
By the time they are at the closest hospital, Clint's cut along his face was sewn back together and was bandaged on top to prevent infection. Clint had received drugs and had fallen asleep during the procedure. The doctors knew there was nothing they could've done to stop him from falling asleep.
They turn into the hospital and Clint is unloaded, she tries to follow but she is pushed back by a doctor. Left standing there numbly and she watches a limp Clint be pulled into an examination room. Everything's already prepped.
Natasha takes a seat on one of the hard plastic chairs and calls Steve to relay the information to him. He is at the hospital in a little over a half hour. When he arrives, a nurse from the front desk hands them forms to fill out about Clint. Just his age, DOB, race, full name, and more personal details. Especially ones about past visits.
Steve watches as Natasha skips the DOB line, hand passing right over it. "You missed his birthday." He says absentmindedly. Natasha doesn't even go back to it. Just says "I know. I don't know his birthday." She chuckles at the last part. "He said he wouldn't tell me until he turned 40. Cause then he knows he achieved more than his father. He doesn't exactly know how old his dad was when he died, but he says that it was probably around 40. Thing is, I know he's older than 40 but he still tries to pull it off. Huh, I guess I never really thought about it until now. I don't think he knows my birthday either." She chuckles. I'll have to ask him while he's doped up on drugs." Steve shuckles at this.
Thankfully, it's not long after when a doctor wearing a lab coat comes near them and introduces herself. She had really tan skin with wavy dark hair. "Hello my name is Doctor Kailani, you guys are family of Clint Barton?" She reassures herself by asking even though the notes were right in front of her.
Natasha nods. "Yeah, how is he?"
The doctor smiles, probably having been through this multiple times. "He's currently resting with a concussion but I have to warn you on some details we noticed while examining him. Because of the head injury, there seems to be a small vasospasm slowing down the blood flow to the Occipital Lobe. It doesn't seem that big of a deal, but we're going to keep an eye on it because we don't want it to mess with his sight."
Natasha sucks in a breath, hoping and praying that it won't affect his sight. "Don't worry, it didn't seem that bad and will probably go away by itself." Doctor Kailani jumps in. "You can follow me this way. He should still be asleep."
They follow silently behind her before turning into a room. Clint's lying on the bed and his eyes, well eye, is shut. The left eye is covered in a bandage that is wrapped over the wound. Natasha knows that when he wakes up, he'll hate the off balance feeling of only being able to see out of one eye.
The doctor leaves and Natasha leans forward. "C'mon Cliinnntt." She stretches his name. "Waaakkkkeee uuuup." She leans back when she gets no reaction, already preparing herself for a long wait. Steve seats himself next to her. "He'll be okay." He says quietly. "I know." Natasha responds quickly, because she knows. He's always okay. No matter how bad it is.
…
It's been a couple hours now and Clint is still not awake. The doctors say he should be because the anesthesia wore off, but for now he's still resting.
Twelve hours. That's how long it takes for Clint to show signs of waking. It's already the next day.
His right eye opens wide and stares into nothing. "Clint?" Natasha looks at him questioningly. "You okay?"
That's when she notices his breathing starts to pick up and the heart monitor's beeping starts going faster. "Clint, calm down! What's wrong?"
Steve and Natasha are both standing over him but his eye doesn't make contact with anyone. He just sits there jerking his head around everywhere but them. That's when she realizes a split second before Clint says it. "Can't...can't see." He says chokingly. Natasha lets it hit her. "Shit." She whispers. "Steve, go get a doctor." She tells him before turning back to Clint.
The doctor from yesterday runs in and mumbles under her breath. "The vasospasm must be worse than we thought." Then she turns to Natasha and Steve. "The Occipital Lobe controls his sight. The blood vessel connected to that, the posterior cerebral artery otherwise known as the PCA, is pinched and is blocking the blood flow to that specific part of the brain." She starts explaining. Now Natasha understands. Doctor Kailani waves a nurse inside the room. "I need you to get me a container of Nifedipine please." The nurse leaves the room quickly and the doctor continues. "While it is treatable, and curable in most cases, the process can take up to two weeks." Just then, the nurse comes back in with an orange bottle of tablets. "Thank you so much ma'am." Doctor Kailani says. The nurse hands it to her silently before leaving and going back to her original task.
The doctor holds up the bottle for Steve and Natasha to see. "This is Nifedipine, it helps relax your blood vessels. I recommend Mister Barton, for you to take these three to four times a day, but only on an empty stomach. Either 1 hour before a meal, or 2 hours after a meal. After two weeks, your sight should be healed and you should stop the administration." Clint nods shakily, still in shock about only being able to see black. His hearing felt extra pronounced and it was too loud. Even for him.
"When is he going to be released?" Natasha asks.
"Probably later today. I want to examine him again and then we'll prescribe the drugs to you guys along with the discharge sheets." She answers quickly.
Steve nods and sits back down, next to the blind archer. Kind of ironic isn't it?
…
It's been a couple of hours and they were now waiting on the discharge sheets. The TDC ultrasound confirmed the blood shortage in the vessel connected to the brain.
Eventually a doctor comes with a wheelchair and some papers. Steve starts signing where he needs to before handing it back while Natasha helps a shaky-legged Clint to the chair. He's not used to his surroundings and uses his hand to feel the walls and seat before sitting down on the cushion.
"Don't forget the concussion, I'm sure you guys know how to treat one. Especially with his medical record, you guys probably get a lot of experience." When the doc first received Clint records, she whistled in amazement. Steve nods. "Yep." Popping the p sound.
The doctor leaves them be and walks out to help other patients. Clint speaks up. "Can I not be in the chair? I can walk, I'm not crippled." Natasha laughs out loud. "No, but you're blind." Clint grumbles under his breath as Natasha pushes him out of the building on the chair Steve follows closely behind.
…
"How'd this even happen?" Tony bombards them with questions the second he notices that something is wrong with Clint. The chair had been ditched and Clint was running his fingers on the smooth exterior of the wall. "Clint? Will you answer me?" Clint turns to where Tony's voice is and knows that even though he can't see him, Tony is shuttering under the glare.
"I hit my head." He says bluntly. Tony's spine shivers. "I gotta get you some sunglasses man. You're freakin' me out." Clint chuckles and turns away. Tony watches in awe as Clint places his hands in his pockets and walks the rest of the hallway, turning right going into another hallway as if he could actually see. "You sure he actually lost his vision?" He asks Steve.
"Yeah, vasospasm in the blood vessel that connects to the part of his brain that controls his sight. Natasha dumbed it down for me." This time it's Natasha's turn to laugh because she remembers the confusion in his features when the doctor told them everything that happened earlier.
Tony sighs and says he's heading back to his lab, except he's really going to where Clint is. Jarvis has located him and told him where he was.
Not surprising at all, Clint is in the kitchen. Making a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. Somehow.
"Clint?" Tony asks tentatively. Not wanting to get accidentally beaten up by the archer for surprising him. Thankfully, Clint was already aware of his presence.
The blank eyes stare back and Tony shutters again. "Do ya know how long it'll last?" Tony starts. Tony shivers when he sees the slightly bloody scar tissue across his eye. The eyebrow hairs it goes through we're chopped clean off and it's gonna leave a gruely scar across his face. Despite all of that, Clint was incredibly lucky that the knife never actually touched his eye, just the skin around it.
Clint nods before going back to his task. "The doc said tops is two weeks. If it goes longer than that, then the drugs aren't working and it might last forever, or I have to take a longer process to heal. Surgery." Clint finishes and puts the knife in the sink and the jars back in the cabinet and fridge. All without a stumble or any sign that he can't see anything. His hands reach the handles with ease.
"How can you see that well? Even though you can't see?" Tony asks suddenly.
Clint turns around. "Tony, I'm a secret agent. It's in my training, and it's my first instinct anyways, to map out the layout of buildings that I'm in. I've had this place mapped out in my mind since I stepped foot in here. I know the most common routes around the building, like coming here, to my bedroom, or the common room." He finishes and walks away. Leaving Tony in awe.
Tony notices how he walks around the couch and out the door. That's when Tony knows what he should do to prank Clint. He starts moving the furniture around the entire room, mixing up the chairs, table, couches, and even the TV. An hour later, the room is completely unrecognizable. He smiles deviously and gets ready for the next time Clint walks back in by setting up cameras all over the room, trying to capture the accident at every angle.
…
"Guuysss!" Tony sing-songs to Jarvis, who's projecting the sound to everyone else's rooms.
"Come downstairs I need you guys to see something." Tony finishes. The team groans in first ration but slowly makes their way downstairs.
Everyone's here, except Clint of course. "What's up Tony?" Steve asks.
"Okay, you may not believe me but I don't think that Clint is actually blind. So, I rearranged the furniture to test it. Shh shh!" He quickly hushes everyone before Clint comes in.
Clint strolls in, judging by the hushed voices that the team was hanging out by the bar stools. He heads over to them, making sure to dodge the couch along the way.
Clint hears quiet laughter and frowns. What'd they do this time? He keeps walking until something hard bumps into his stomach, the surprise and the speed he was walking causes his legs to fly into the air as he flips over the cushion, folding onto his head and collapsing onto the floor.
Laughter bursts throughout the room from everyone, even Natasha. Who had come over and Clint was grasping blindly for her hand to help him up. "Owww…." He grumbles, rubbing his head to make the pain recede.
Natasha is still laughing when he's standing up. "Oh man you shoulda seen that Clint." He glares at her jokingly. "I can't." This causes everyone to laugh even harder.
Tony's laughter finally starts dying and when he watches the video on the camera, it immediately starts back up.
Clint can't stifle the chuckle. "Once I get my vision back, that's the first thing I'm lookin' at."
…
The team is together and Steve nods to Clint. "Birthday?" He mouths. Natosha nods and nudges Clint. He looks at her questioningly. "Clint, when's your birthday?"
Clint leans back and smiles, folding his arms into his chest. "June 18th, 1982." Natasha facepalms. "DUDE! That was yesterday." Clint nods. "I know."
"You were knocked off your ass in a bed with no vision on your birthday." Natasha keeps going until Clint cuts her off. "I've had worse." She rolls her eyes. "When?"
"Budapest?" Clint says briskly. Natasha sighs, "Oh yeah."
"And Israel." Natasha sighs
"Aaannnd Madagascar. Both times." Natasha winces at the memory.
"Don't forget Bangladesh." Natasha eyeballs him. "Jesus Clint."
Clint nods. "Yep. Birthdays aren't really my thing, never really went well. Each year I gained false hope that maybe, just maybe, this year I'd be okay. I've been wishing that for my whole life. Hasn't happened yet. In fact, I haven't been conscious on my birthday since I think it was 2002? Maybe, I'm not sure. Well, I was awake for some of yesterday so I count that as a win."
The team gapes at him. Clint feels their stares against him. "What? It's part of the business I'm in."
Natasha whispers, partly out of shock. "You haven't had a normal birthday, like ever? How old are you?"
"Uhh...one sec." Clint starts counting on the fingers that he can't see. "Eighty two...eight...umm...eighteen and then twenty eight...uhhh thirty eight? Wait, thirty nine. Damn, I wasn't supposed to tell you until I was 40." Natasha chuckles and places her hand on his. "Gettin' old I see." She comments.
At this, Clint laughs. "Definitely, even gettin' the age pains." He rubs his sore knee and then gets up with a wince because his lower back muscle was pulled. Natasha laughed but inside she was pitying him, already having back pain at the age of thirty nine. And she knows he's had it longer, even though he tries to hide it.
I wouldn't be able to stop replaying this if it had happened. Oh my gosh I would literally keep that scene on repeat and it would never fail to keep me laughing.
Sorry this took so long to update, I just haven't had the time. Don't worry, I'm not giving up while I'm this close to the finish line. This chapter is over seven pages long! I literally can't believe that.
By the way guys, Hawkeye in the comics and movies is actually thirty nine, being born in 1982. Jeremy Renner is 50 because he was born in 1971.
Shoutouts to Katie MacAlpine, jamiehernandez8888, and Anais Laurent for reviewing!
Katie MacAlpine: Thanks for pointing out some of my errors, I didn't even realize when I proofread. I hope I got most of the more noticeable ones.