2005-Hospital Visits

Being in this line of work made them no strangers to hospitals and surgery, that being said it still sucked waking up to the white walls, the sterile smell and beeping machines that may or may not be keeping them alive. The beeping started getting louder as he came to, struggling to open his eyes Clint started to take note of what hurt. When he finally managed to keep his eyes open he noticed his right leg was slung up, most likely a broken ankle due to the amount of bandages. He reached up to wipe the sleep out of his eyes when he was met with more bandages wrapping around his forehead.

"You fell off a 12 story building" a voice whispered from the corner of his eye. He turned his head slowly so as to not make the pounding in his head any worse. "Broken ankle, concussion, 4 broken ribs, 3 cracked, a collapsed lung and a myriad of cuts and scrapes" Natasha's voice was quiet and horse.

At the look of confusion that must have crossed his face she replied "your grappling arrow latched on to a part of the building that got hit by the blast a few seconds later and the wire snapped, you fell. Evac thankfully got there not long after, I managed to keep the bleeding under control until they got there. They lost you twice on the jet before we got back to base, they—" her voice cracked, "they managed to stop the bleeding, set your ribs and ankle. You'll be out of the field for 4 months maybe more, once the docs clear you of the concussion and your ankle is fully rehabilitated you'll be reinstated, so that means I'm grounded to…..thanks for that" Clint was finally able to focus his eyes on her face, she had a small smirk gracing her lips but her eyes looked slightly swollen and a hint of worry in them.

"What about you? You were still in the building when I jumped." He tried to sit up but his ribs protested. Seeing what he was trying to do Natasha moved to the bedside to help him prop some pillows up behind him so he could be more comfortable. She moved her chair closer to the bed and looked at him.

"you're the one who almost dies and you're worried about me?" she ask incredulously. She looked shocked, even after 5 years of working together sometimes the idea that there was someone in her life that actually gave a damn about what happened to her, threw her for a second.

"She got off way easier than you did Hawk." Coulson's voice startled both agents and looked towards the door to see their handle leaning against the door frame. "she managed to get out before the building collapsed, mainly cuts and bruises but managed to catch a piece of debris with her shoulder causing a nasty gash that will keep her in that sling for at least another week." Natasha scowled at him, but there wasn't much behind it.

Clint turned back towards his partner, taking in the sling for the first time. "How long have I been out?"

"Two weeks" she replied looking at him with something in her eyes that he couldn't place. "you did some pretty impressive damaged to that skull of your, to stop the swelling in your brain from causing need for surgery they had to put you in a medically induced coma for 5 days and we've been waiting for you to wake up since." Coulson continued pulling up a second chair to the other side of the bed.

After a few minutes of the three just sitting there Natasha stood up, "I need coffee and the nurse needs told us to get her once he woke up, you want anything Phil" she asked.

"Coffee and a sandwich from the vending machine would be great. Thanks Natasha." Smiling at her, she left the room.

"Since when are you two on first name basis?" Clint asked looking even more confused than before.

Coulson looked at him, back the doorway, then back to his agent. "She won't tell you this but when you didn't wake up after they took you out of the coma she didn't take it very well. As the days went on it only got worse. It didn't show at first, but not everyone knows her like we do. That's the most I've heard her speak since she gave her report 2 weeks ago to Fury, she only spoke to me if she had to, she mostly listened to me but I had a break through about 5 days ago. Said to call her Natasha, got sick of hearing her last name I guess, but who knows her reasoning behind it. So I told her she could call me Phil if she wanted, never thought she'd do it but I guess we'll see how long it takes before she's back to calling my Coulson. She has been at your beside everyday for as long as they'd let her, I had to convince her to go back to her apartment to change out of her gear after the first 3 days. God she was still covered in blood, but the fact that you would 100% not be waking up until the next day, or so we thought, was enough to get her out of here for a couple hours to change and get cleaned up. Even got a decent meal into her before she dragged me back here."

Clint took everything in, thinking back to his partner and one of his closest friend and how she looked when she saw that he was awake. He'd seen her worried before, this wasn't the first time he'd been in hospital over the course of their 5 year partnership but this time was different, the look she gave him wasn't the same as all the other times, this time she almost looked terrified, like she thought he was never going to wake up.

On the other side of the wall holding two cups of coffee and a sandwich Natasha listened to Phil tell Clint everything that happened since they returned. Holding her breath to hear his reaction but she never got to hear it because at that moment the nurse and doctor had arrived to check his vitals and discuss what was going to happen over the next couple of months.

Coulson was right about everything, she hadn't left his side was too worried that if she did he'd wake up thinking she had abandoned him. What Coulson didn't know was that a year previously Clint had confided in her that when he was younger, before his parents died that he was in and out of hospital a lot due to his abusive father. When it got particularly bad and had to stay overnight he'd suffer from nightmares and wake up to the dark hospital, alone, in pain and scared. In return she told him about how the Red Room would operate and experiment on her for years trying to make her the quickest, the strongest, the best. So she shared his hatred for hospitals, for him it meant that he'd be going home soon but most likely would be back there soon and to her it meant pain and suffering for the greater good and prosperity of the KGB and the Red Room.

So she didn't want him to wake up with no one there, she'd made a promise to herself that she wouldn't let him suffer due to what happened in his past so she had stayed by his side ever vigil. 5 years of working with the man and she knew she'd finally found someone she could trust without hesitation and with what Coulson had done for her these past weeks she believes that number as doubled. Her only problem is, is that with two weeks of watching him sleep and listening to Coulson tell her stories about S.H.I.E.L.D before she arrived, the antics Clint used to get up to and more she started to realize that the tight feeling in her chest that had been one of her few companions in that time had disappeared when he woke up and another feeling took its place. She didn't want to admit it, her whole life before SH.I.E.L.D she had had "love is for children" drilled into her, it became like a mantra for her. With everything she has done, all those she has killed, he was too good for her.

So, trying to avoid her feelings that were ever growing for the archer in the hospital bed, she took a breath put a small but genuine smile on her face and walked back into the room. She handed Coulson his coffee and food and reclaimed her chair next to her partner. Listening to the doctor explain what rehab he would have to go through she didn't notice Clint had stopped paying attention to the doctor and had focused his gaze on her. He couldn't believe that his partner, the woman who never seemed fazed by anything had sat by his bedside for 2 weeks, not talking to anyone, worried about when or if he would wake up. He realized then, a memory hitting him, the sleepless night when he told her about when he was a kid and the constant hospital visits due to his drunken father. She'd remembered his hatred of hospitals and the times he'd wake up alone. She hadn't wanted him to relive that pain. He stared in awe at the woman beside him realizing that the feelings he had been repressing for just over a year were hitting him full force and he knew then that he wouldn't be able to repress them anymore. But he knew the way she was raised the whole "love is for children" brainwashing she was subjected to for years and that she would never return his feelings. So he knew he'd have to hide them, live with the fact that she would only be his friend but if he had to choose between having her in his life or not at all, he which he would choose.

Both consumed by their own thoughts Coulson listened to the doctors but watched his two agents struggling over something. He had seen Clint's slowly developing feelings for the fiery red head that stood vigil over him these past few weeks, over the past year but had remained quiet, knowing that he would come to him if he ever needed to talk. However, despite knowing her for just over 5 years she was still harder to read but he's seen that the way she acts towards him has been slowly changing lately. They were a pair of the most stubborn people he has ever known (and he works for Fury). He smirks at that thought focusing back on his agents. One day they'd either tell the other how they felt like normal people or they'd come back from a mission married or something as equally ridiculous. Now all he had to do was sit back and wait for that day.

Hmmmm, maybe Fury would take that bet, or Hill either way he could make some money from this. He just hoped they never find out about it, it would probably be the last thing he ever did.