Hi! Corrected a few things and polished some others a bit :)

Disclaimer: I don't own the Avengers or Spidey.


Chapter 20: Broken

Where the hell is Hoban? She thought, and then she saw a sleepy Penelope Morse coming from the terrace. Uh oh.

"I'll- I'll come back later" Natasha tried to get up and move away from the arm chair she was sitting in, but the pain all over her was too much. She couldn't walk without feeling her insides burning.

"Hoban's shift won't start for another two hours. Are you in pain?"

"I'll come later, don't worry" Penny rushed to her and seized her by the arm, making Natasha wince at the pain "So now your arm hurts too. How long?"

Natasha sighed, she knew what it meant, she didn't need to be a fancy Magna Cum Laude like the blond in front of her. Shit, she was sure Hoban was on duty today. Shit shit shit. Still, she needed a doctor, and she couldn't really go to any clinic anywhere in this godforsaken city, not after that meltdown kiss in the middle of the op last week. She'd be all over the web again; she could even see the headlines in her head…

"Couple of hours, the arm just started."

"Come on in, let me help" the blond offered her back and place Natasha's arm around her neck, helping her walk to the stretcher in the office. If Morse would just drop the nice act this would be so much fucking easier.

"Don't be nice, just do your job"

"Fair enough. Are you still spotting?"

"Started earlier last night, I was going to see Hoban later or something, I just"

"Yeah, well, if you would've listened to me a week ago we may have been able to fix this with no surgery, but now, you're screwed"

"Surgery-what?"

"You know what arm pain means. Reflex pain for internal bleeding. That's why you're here, you hate doctors, but you'd hate to die even more"

"I don't hate all doctors"

"Touché. Well, you should've listened to either one of us"

"Could we avoid the I told you so speech?"

"You told me to stop being nice, now deal with it" Morse had started moving the transducer around Natasha's lower abdomen, and then her face changed. Whatever she was seeing in the ultrasound was not good. Morse swallowed slowly and spoke,

"I hate being right sometimes. Elinor, get me Dr. Hoban ASAP, I need him in the OR"

There was a low knock on the glass door and a sleepy Rogers was standing there, guitar case in his hand, same clothes as the night before, messy hair. Very unlike himself. What the f-oh… Just look at that!

"Cap, what are you doing here?" Natasha forgot for a second her womb was stabbing her from the inside out. Before he could answer the med AI spoke, "Dr. Morse, I can't reach him. His phone is disconnected and there's no answer in his extension" Natasha saw Penny grit her teeth and for a second she felt scared.

"Frak, okay, page Dr. Stephens"

"She's not on call Dr. Morse"

"I don't care, page her ass and get her here. Rogers, I'm with a patient. What do you need?"

"I came to drop your guitar, but then I heard Natasha's voice. How are you feeling? Want me to call Cl- someone?"

"No need, Barton's busy in the Hellicarrier. Plus, the doctor here will fix me up in no time, right doctor?" Penny took a deep breath and kept moving the transducer ignoring Natasha's comment, which made her feel even worse. She decided to focus elsewhere… "Nice shirt Cap, brings out your eyes. Wait, weren't you using it yesterday? You never use the same shirt two days on a row" And now he was blushing. Natasha had to repress a smirk.

"Dr. Morse, Dr. Stephens is on her Hamptons' home, and there's a storm, she can't make it for at least 3 hours"

"Frak it. Okay, okay, uhm" she saw Steve standing there and seemed to have an idea. Finally, I'm in pain here!

"Elinor, did Hoban left the premises?"

Natasha answered before the AI "He was having dinner with Mark last night, he's probably there still." Penny nodded to her and took off her Bluetooth pitching it over to Steve.

"Please go to the 3rd and find Hoban. If he's not at his room he's probably still with Mark. Break the door down if you have to, but get him here. He'll have to run point the surgery. Here, this'll help you find the right room" He grabbed her Bluetooth lingering there for a second looking at the doctor and the patient and then took off.

"What you mean Hoban?"

"Natasha, I'm a cardiothoracic surgeon, I hadn't done this kind of procedure since my residence. I'm not taking any chances here"

"Weren't you top of your class? Don't you patch up everyone here? Didn't you do an appendectomy on that 8th floor geek not a week ago? Why can't you do this?!"

"I'll be attending Hoban, I hadn't slept much last night. Now, Hoban hopefully did and he is an ER surgeon. Let's get you ready for surgery, c'mon"

"You owe me this. You're the best according to everyone, so you do it"

"What I owe you is for you to get the best chance you can to make it out of the OR alive. He's the best choice Romanoff" She helped Natasha up and led her to a wheelchair. No way.

"I'm not sitting there"

"You're gonna sit there and I'm gonna take you to the showers, where we'll get you prepped up for surgery."

"I can walk"

"You know you can't. Now sit or I'll make you"

"I'd like to see you try"

"Could you just sit on the goddamn chair? There's no one else here. No one is going to question you being the toughest woman in the building cos you won't walk to your own surgery, c'mon Natasha" She reluctantly sat gritting her teeth at the first name basis while Morse slowly drove her to the other side of the building.

"Don't worry Romanoff, you're not going to die on that table. I couldn't stand Barton weeping all over this place"

"Die? Isn't that a bit of an extreme alternative? What's the prognosis anyway Doctor? You hadn't told me yet"

"Ectopic pregnancy, I warned you about this a week ago. It probably ruptured your tube by now but the ultrasound is inconclusive. We won't know until-"

"Until you open me up. Funny how life works. Hope you remember I spared your life once Doctor"

"I do, though I think your words at the time were more in the lines of "You won't last a week after everything he's done to you." I may be mistaken though, I was under serious dosages of mind controlling drugs" Natasha cleared her throat.

"Well, they weren't nice to me either if it's any consolation"

"I bet. There has to be a reason why you turned and became SHIELD's finest female agent. I don't think Clint's charm was remotely enough to make you turn against Lakin" Natasha turned in the chair and looked at Morse straight in the eyes. Could it be possible she remembered? She wasn't supposed to. She said she hadn't.

"Lakin?" Penny smiled at Natasha's blink of fear.

"I read it in one of your early debriefings. Don't worry, I still don't remember much of my downtime" and there it was, Morse's tail. She remembered. Morse remembered.


Clint was pacing quickly in front of the room where Natasha was resting in bed and talking to Penny. They looked serious and Natasha seemed clearly sad. He wanted to be there holding her close to him and telling her that everything would be okay, whatever the hell it was.

He couldn't believe it had been 2 hours already and he still didn't know what the hell was wrong with her. He had borrowed a Quinjet after Rogers paged him and got here as quickly as possible but was still unable to talk to her. He hated being outside a room when someone he cared for was down. He felt powerless. He didn't like feeling powerless.

When he was about to burst in, Rogers stopped him, using his usual I outrank you tone.

"Calm down Barton"

"I need to get in there. She's, she's-"

"She's going to be okay Barton. Now get a grip, she needs you to be the strong one."

"How- what happened to her? She was fine when I left"

"She was bleeding internally and they had to run her to the OR, but Hoban and Penny fixed her up. She'll be okay Barton"

Barton's eyes were lost inside the room, thinking of the last time he was out looking in. Only, that time the one in the bed was Penny, back when she was his Nella.

Only now she was the doctor and his other love was in bed. Funny how life turns out. Suddenly he frowned confused staring at his girls. Soon, Rogers had an equally surprised reaction. Natasha had grabbed Penny by the hand and seemed to be saying something like Thank you. Romanoff was thanking Morse.

"Do you think they made up?"

"I wouldn't like to be in your shoes if they did Barton"

"Sure you would" Clint's tone didn't have his usual playfulness. Steve guessed he was bound to have the talk with him once this settled down.

Then they saw Natasha nodding and Penny injecting something on her IV. She walked out of the room after grabbing Natasha's chart and stood between Clint and the door.

"She needs to get some rest Barton, she's sedated now"

Clint asked the obvious question. Penny took a deep breath and cleared her throat.

"Wyatt changed her pills and that caused her to get cysts. That caused a rupture in her left tube and we had to remove it. But she'll be fine. She needs time to heal and she'll still be able to have kids in time. Now, I'm late for a meeting with Fury." Penny was clearly uncomfortable and so was Clint, they've had moments of weirdness in the past year, but they were never awkward around each other... not until this moment.

"Can I stay with her?" Penny's eyes flickered for a second and then she agreed letting him through.

Steve needed to clear something up, "Doc, can I have a word?"

"I'm late for a meeting but we can ride the elevator together cap"

Once they reached the elevator and it started moving up, Steve jammed it. They were suddenly stuck between floors.

"Brandon, garble the feeds"

"Sure Sir" Penny looked annoyed and extended her hand,

"Can I have my sidekick back please?"

"In a while. Why did you lie to him?"

"What do you mean?"

"She didn't have whatever you said. She was pregnant. I heard you during the surgery" Penny sighed heavily and leaned on the elevator wall. "She asked me to keep quiet, and I agreed. Barton's had enough and he has a distinct ability of chickening out when someone needs him. The less he knows the better"

"But it was his ba-"

"Shut up Steve." Yes, this was definitely a sensitive subject. "You're not supposed to know this and there's doctor-patient confidentiality. Please respect that. When she feels strong enough, she'll tell him, I'm sure of that. It's her decision and we must respect it."

"And how are you with all of this?" Penny tried to look confused,

"I'm a bit tired. I'd like to get a bath and sleep in my own bed for a change. Not that your chest isn't comfy or anything." She blushed realizing she had just said that out loud. She cleared her throat looking away "How are you?"

"What you mean?"

"Well, you had quite a scare when you found Hoban with Mark by the looks of you" She couldn't help giggle a bit, while taking her hand to her head, back to where her latest scar was. Deviation technique pays off again.

"It was… um… uncomfortable. I guess I'm old fashioned" Uncomfortable didn't even cut it. Try embarrassed to the core.

"They do make a cute couple" Penny tried to avoid the giggles and think that Rogers had been frozen in 1945, before the Civil Rights movement, the 60s, the Beatles, the Stones, Woodstock, same-sex marriage being legal... before the Cold War. He probably didn't even know what the Berlin Wall was.

"I guess, I just saw… too much of it" She kept smiling at him while leaning passed him to turn the elevator on again. He cleared his throat and took a step back from her when they started moving up again.

They were looking at each other from either side of the elevator, silence ruling the way up, though they were so many things they both needed to say. Finally Steve spoke when she was about to take off to Fury's office.

"Want to have dinner later? Or tomorrow?" She half smiled and was about to say yes, when she remembered she was on the 20th floor. She looked at Fury's office, and when she looked back at him, he had his answer.

He took off the Bluetooth and handed it over to her, extending his hand. She hesitated, sighed and then held his hand with her own, not realizing she was brushing his skin slowly.

"You keep it, I'll get another one. He's your sidekick too now. Don't tell anyone though." He sighed. He realized this was as much they could ever be, as much as they could share, as long as they'd be on SHIELD's watch. And he feared that it would never stop.

He saw her walk away and heard Brandon's voice coming out of the Bluetooth. He put it on,

"Sir?"

"Yes Brandon?"

"Director Fury wants to see you in 15 minutes"

And it dawned to him: she'd given him Brandon, the one thing SHIELD had no idea about. The one thing that seemed to overrule every other protocol in the building.