Author´s Notes: Hello again, the next chapter is up! I really appreciate all the reviews and support! Thanks! Have fun!

CHAPTER 7

It is 2:38 a.m. as Clint lands the jet on the rooftop of Singapore´s hospital. He quickly stands up from the pilot sit and takes a look at Natasha, lying still with a bandage around her abdomen, blood all over her suit, sweat on her forehead, her face is pale and her lips are purple. She is blankly looking at Steve who is kneeling beside her, staring back at her. Steve has his hands on her cheeks and is whispering something so low that he can´t quite hear. "Is the Captain praying?" Clint thinks and feels a chill go down his spine when the thought of Natasha dying comes to his mind. So he quickly says getting out of the jet: "Let´s go Cap! Get Nat, I´m calling someone to help!" He runs to the door and enters the hospital.

Steve is praying. He has been praying since he noticed a few minutes ago that Natasha is in shock, she needs help fast because her oxygen rate is low and her heart can stop at any time. He has to hang on to something not to fall apart, so the only thing he can do right now is pray. And when Clint calls him running out of the quinjet, he immediately picks Natasha´s limp body up in his arms and runs out of the jet too.

Clint goes inside the building, turning left on a large empty hallway and shouts: "We need help! Someone, please!"

An oriental woman in white jacket comes out of a room and says with an accent: "Sir, what´s the matter?"

Steve appears turning the corner into the hallway too with Natasha in his arms and answers the nurse: "She got pierced by a blade on her abdomen! I managed to contain the bleeding, but she lost a lot of blood and she´s in shock!"

The nurse narrows her eyes as she recognizes Captain America and quickly checks Natasha in Steve´s arms, but without saying a word, she runs into a room and quickly comes out pulling a stretcher: "Put her here Captain, let´s go down the elevator and take her to the E.R."

Steve puts her on the stretcher and pushes it to the elevator.

Natasha´s eyes close and her head falls to the side as they all get inside the elevator. Steve calls Natasha´s name but she doesn´t move. Steve feels like he has a hole in his chest: "No, no, Natasha! Look at me!" he keeps saying grabbing her face, but her eyes stay shut.

The nurse quickly presses a button in the elevator and then grabs Natasha´s wrist to feel the pulse, it is weak. She grabs a phone that is inside the elevator: "I´m on my way to the E.R. with an unconscious female in shock! Get the crash cart ready!"

Steve looks at Clint; both have fear in their eyes. Clint swallows hard, his throat is dry.

The elevator´s door opens again. They go into a room, where more people in white are already waiting for them. Another nurse turns to them: "Please, stand back, we´ve got this."

Steve and Clint stand aside and notice Natasha chest stops moving, the nurse that had her hand on her wrist shouts: "I lost her, get the defibrillator now!" The nurse unzip Natasha´s suit exposing her black bra as another nurse hands the defibrillator to the doctor who shouts: "Clear!"

Clint watches in panic as the nurses and doctor run around trying to reanimate Natasha, he can´t believe what is happening, he nervously put his hand on his mouth. Steve is at his right side, despair is in his eyes as he watches the doctor shocking Natasha´s chest for the second time and nothing…he starts whispering: "No God, please, don´t let her die! Natasha, come back, please!" His eyes are burning from the tears he is holding back.

After shocking her a third time, the doctor puts a hand on Natasha´s neck and says: "Got a pulse, but it´s weak! Inject 1 mg of atropine, now!" A nurse does as he says, then they plug-in the monitor on Natasha and they all watch as Natasha´s vital signs stabilize.

Clint releases a breath in relieve, putting his hands on Steve´s shoulder. Steve just closes his eyes and mutters: "Thank God."

Tony, Bruce and Thor had arrived in the hospital a short time after the doctor took Natasha away for surgery. They met Steve and Clint quietly sitting in the waiting room. Tony quickly explained that as soon as the quinjet was out of their sight, he blew up the HYDRA building and they left, giving a lift to Bruce once he turned back to his normal self. Then Steve told them what happened to Natasha. They exchanged worried looks and remained quiet for a moment.

Tony is staring out the window and Bruce sits down on the nearest chair.

Thor, who is standing in the middle of the room, breaks the silence: "I am famished, is there somewhere we can eat?"

They all look at the Thunder God, but none answers right away, everybody still got their minds stunned with the news.

Thor looks around thinking to ask someone from the hospital for that information, since his friends didn´t respond.

Then Tony walks to Thor and says: "Nothing seems to take the God´s appetite away, huh!" He taps Thor on the shoulder and continues: "Come on big guy, there is probably a cafeteria around here, I´ll help you find it."

Bruce rises from where he is sitting and says: "I think this surgery is going to take a while, so I could use a cup of coffee." And he starts walking after Tony and Thor.

Clint stands up and says: "Yeah, me too" following Bruce.

Then Tony stops and looks back at Steve, who is still sitting down, looking lost in his thoughts: "Hey Cap, aren´t you coming?"

Clint stops and looks back at Steve too.

Steve, absentminded looks up: "Huh? Oh no, I think I need some fresh air." He stands up and makes his way to the elevator.

Clint stands beside Tony and whispers: "Is there something going on between Steve and Natasha? I´ve never seen the Captain so devastated. I thought he was going to die with Natasha in the E.R., it was kind of scaring." He watches as Steve gets into the elevator.

Tony looks at Clint and says: "Not that I know of, but he is acting different around Natasha since she got back. I think that the Cap is in love with the spy."

Clint eyes widen and he says in a sarcastic tone: "No way! Captain America and Black Widow?"

Tony has a smirk on his face: "Why, are you jealous, Legolas?"

Clint frown to Tony: "What? No, I mean…yeah…maybe a little. I´m a bit overprotective of Nat, she is like a sister to me." He takes a deep breath and continues: "Do you think she is in love with him too?"

Tony raises an eyebrow and answers: "I don´t know, I can´t read the spy like Rogers, she always got her poker face on. But in the tower they were always around each other."

"Hey, come on!" They both look at Bruce gesturing for them to come in the end of the hallway, so they make their way to reach him.

Steve is holding the steel rail, on the edge of the hospital´s rooftop, looking at the lights of the city on the horizon. The waiting is killing him. He feels like he has a heavy weight on his chest and it is making it hard for him to breathe. He almost lost Natasha today, he saw how weak she was and she still had to go through surgery, he was so afraid that she wasn´t going to make it. It is in dark times that you find out who your true friends are and Natasha turned out to be even more than that to him. He loves her, more than anything. He realizes that now because when he is around her, he feels truly alive. And now losing her means losing what is left of his sanity, he is afraid that he might not be able to go on without her in his life. The steel rail he is holding dents into his tight grip. He lowers his head as all the pain and fear he is feeling takes over him and the tears that he had tried so hard to hold back before now are falling freely from his eyes.

It has been nearly two hours. Steve comes out of the elevator and goes to the waiting room, finding Tony, Bruce, Thor and Clint sitting there already. They all look up at him as he asks: "Any news from Natasha?"

Bruce is the one to answer him: "Not yet." He sees how beaten up Steve is and asks: "Are you okay Steve?"

Steve sits down on a chair next to Bruce and takes deep breath: "Yes…no…I don´t know…"

Thor, who is pacing around the room with his arms crossed to his chest, just walks to Steve and rests a hand on his shoulder to comfort him, Steve nods at him and Thor resumes his pacing.

Tony is sitting across from them, he tries to comfort the soldier too: "Don´t worry buddy, I´m sure Natasha will be fine, she´s a fighter."

Steve looks at Tony with a half-smile on his face and Tony asks: "What?"

Tony is looking quizzically at Steve as he answers: "You said her real name instead of some nickname you made up." Bruce chuckles at Steve´s remark.

Tony continues: "I did, didn´t I? Well at least I got you to smile a little, ´cause you look like crap." He smiles at Steve.

Clint is sitting beside Tony in deep thought and suddenly speaks before Steve can get back at Tony: "You know, Stark is right, Natasha is a fighter, and the serum will surely help her get better in no time."

Thor stops pacing around and they all look surprised at Clint.

Steve and Tony say together: "What serum?" Steve and Tony look at each other and then back to Clint.

Clint is taken aback by all the eyes on him: "What? You guys didn´t know that yet?" They all keep looking at him, waiting for the answer so Clint continues: "She was injected with a type of Super-Soldier serum when she was in the Red Room. She was the only one who survived its effects."

Bruce, rubbing his hand against his chin, says: "That´s interesting to say the least."

Tony then looks at Bruce: "It is not only interesting, it explains a lot about the redhead too" Bruce nods at Tony.

Steve is still staring at Clint as he speaks: "So that means she can heal like I do?"

Clint looks at Steve: "Not like you no, but she can heal faster than a normal human."

Tony then asks: "What about the other Super-Soldier abilities that the Cap has, does she have them too?"

Clint looks at Tony: "Well, they are similar to the Cap, but not as powerful. Her serum has enhanced her physical and mental abilities to the top of human capability. She is as strong, as fast, as smart as a human can be. She also has a very strong immune system, high endurance, pain suppression…"

Bruce interrupts: "High endurance and pain suppression? Well that explains how she was able to pull out the blade from her abdomen herself. That must have hurt like hell."

Clint nods at Bruce then continues with a smirk on his face, knowing that what he was about to say would cause a fuss: "And her body ages in a much slower rate than ours, so she is a lot older than she appears to be."

Tony looks like he just found out a major gossip and almost jumps out of his chair: "What? How old is she exactly?"

Clint looks at Tony: "I don´t know, every time I asked her about it, she changed the subject. But from the stories she has told me, my guess is that she is almost as old as the Captain here" then he looks at Steve.

Steve is astonished and speechless. Natasha has more in common with him than he thought. He wonders how long Natasha has been around. Has she seen what he had seen? Has she lived in his time too?

And now everyone is staring at Steve as Tony says: "Wow! That must be why you two get along so well! I mean, you´re an old man and she is an old woman. Oh god, so many nicknames are coming to my mind right now…" Tony laughs at himself.

Then the doctor comes in with a nurse behind him. Tony stops laughing immediately. Steve stands up almost as a reflex and they look expectantly at the doctor who starts to speak: "I´m Doctor Ming, the head surgeon and I´m glad to give you the good news. Natasha is well and out of risk."

The tension on the room disappears right there, everyone seem to be more relaxed, and Tony resumes laughing. They all glare at him and he says: "Oh, I´m sorry, go on Doc."

The doctor smiles a little and continues: "She is a strong woman, we manage to repair the internal damage and she is recovering well. She was moved to a private room, she is asleep but if you want you can see her now. Nurse Wang will show you the way" he points at the oriental woman behind him who says: "Follow me."

Steve goes to the doctor and puts a hand on his shoulder and says with a smile on his face: "Thank you, Doctor!"

The doctor nods at Steve, smiling back.

The other all pass beside the doctor thanking him and the doctor gives a broad grin, after all, it is not every day that you get five superheroes to thank you!