Bruce arrives first and quickly takes in the scene in front of him: Natasha cowering in the corner of the room, leggings pulled obnoxiously high and barefoot while Clint paces, arms crossed over his chest. Tony follows closely behind and Steve enters a few minutes later, dark circles under both eyes and in the same t-shirt and sweatpants he had been in for days.

"Clint, what's going on?" Bruce asks calmly.

"I don't know when or how, but she cut again. There's a bunch on her ankles and one on her foot, you probably need to look at all of them."

To his teammates' surprise, Steve quickly walks over and pulls her into a tight hug. At first, she is unsure of how to react and lets her arms lay limply at her sides before eventually giving in and letting loose a small sob she had choked back.

"I'm sorry," she cried as he continued to hold her tightly and say nothing. When he finally released her without a word, she had stopped cried and Bruce came over to examine her wounds.

"This one is infected," he says matter-of-factly. "Tony, can you get a round of antibiotics, alcohol wipes, and gauze from the medical wing?"

He leaves without a word and Steve follows closely behind out of the door.

"The others look fine," he says to Clint and the mostly vacant room. She stares down at him expectantly, waiting for the lecture she knows is coming, but it never does.

"When did this happen, Red?" Tony says as he rushes over with the supplies and gives her the antibiotic to swallow with a small cup of water. She stares blankly ahead as she takes it. "JARVIS?"

"I have no information regarding Miss Romanoff's injuries."

"They look like they're a few days old," Bruce muses.

"Did Natasha leave the helicarrier at any point, JARVIS?" Tony asks the AI, following his hunch.

"I was not enabled on your most recent mission on the helicarrier. You set up the mission, but did not activate my capabilities before leaving the Tower."

"Damnit!" He cursed himself. "I knew I missed something. Is that when you did this, Red?"

She continued to stare forward, not responding to his questions. Internally, she was still thinking about how she had almost let Clint have sex with her. Someone that the Red Room had not authorized had almost been inside of her. She had to do something to punish herself or they would kill her when she was returned to them. There was no way that she could hurt herself with all of them here and they would not let her miss any more meals or train. Just as her fingers found the IV, a hand grabbed hers and pulled it away from her body.

"No," he said firmly. "No more of this."

"What do you mean, 'no?' It's my body, I can do what I want! Unless you're saying I don't even get to control my body here, this is no better than the Red Room."

"You are not allowed to have control of your body if it means you're going to hurt yourself. And if that means I have to stay with you every minute of every day and hold both of your hands, I will."

"Steve, we've barely even seen you, why are you doing this?" She begins to cry again.

"I couldn't save him. I couldn't save my best friend. And until we figure out a way to help him from what they did, I am sure as hell going to make sure they don't get to take another one of my best friends."

For once, she had no rebuttal. She had not realized how he must have felt since they found the Winter Soldier. She had never thought about him through the lens of being Steve's best friend, only through the lens of what the Red Room had made him. It was a disservice to both the person he was and, more importantly, to her friend. It would make her a better person to consider him as both, but she couldn't felt but see the flashbacks every time someone said his name or talked about the mission. She couldn't give Steve that, so she owed him this, she decided. She always owed men something.

"Now, when did this happen and why?"

"In the helicarrier, while we were flying to the destination."

"You did this while we were all in the helicarrier, too?"

"Nat, why didn't you come to us?"

"It's not that easy!"

"Of course it is," Steve says. "Instead of cutting yourself every time you are having a hard time, you talk to us."

"You were in the middle of discussing strategy! And I can't… You guys wouldn't understand it and you wouldn't let me do it."

"Of course we wouldn't-" Clint begins.

"Wait," Tony chimed in. "Bruce and I have actually been doing a lot of research on this. It's not going to help you to take everything you can hurt yourself with because you'll just find something else."

"Yeah, but Tony, we haven't found an alternative that isn't harmful and works yet."

"But what if we let her do it?"

"Are you crazy, Stark?"

"Let me finish, bird boy." He rolls his eyes. "She needs to know she can talk to us. Red, if you could come to us and we didn't tell you that you couldn't or try to keep you away from everything you could use, would you talk to us?"

"I don't know…" she hesitates.

"What if we make a deal? We don't try to stop you, but you have to come talk to us before you do it every time. If we talk about whatever it is and you still feel like you need to cut, you can do it and Bruce or I will treat you afterward. JARVIS will only notify us and you'll only be in trouble if you don't try to talk to us first."

"That's insane, Stark," Clint says again.

"It might work," Bruce adds. "In some studies of this method, it actually lessens the need for harm because the harmer realizes that they have safe outlets to exercise instead of harming themselves. I don't love the idea of her being allowed to hurt herself, but I think it's more dangerous if we stay in the dark and find out a few days later when things are infected or worse."

"I suppose that's true," Clint concedes. "What do you think Tasha?"

"It's better than having to hide it from you all."

"What if this doesn't work? I won't lose her." Steve chimes in.

"Well, that's why we treat her right after it happens, in case she needs medical attention. But if the frequency and severity don't decrease in, let's say a week, we will try something else. Does that sound okay to everyone?"

"Do I have another choice?"

"No," all three men responded.