Hey guys - thanks for the reviews, follows, and favorites! Sorry for the delay, I've been so crazy busy and then I got a sinus infection and felt like crap for a few days. I wanted this chapter to be longer but I decided to break it into two parts so I could polish the second part correctly.

Anyway, in response to some of the reviews - I hope you don't think I'm a sadist. I'm really a nice person, I just read A LOT! I read all kinds of books and some of my favorites like War and Peace and East of Eden can have very dark tones. And I watch a lot of movies. I love good plots, sometimes these plots contain things that are not happy. But this will have an eventual happy ending.

This is a story about healing and humanity. Natasha and Clint are human beings, they might lead strange lives but they are still just people. And people feel real emotions.

So, things are not okay for our two heroes right now, but they will be. So, let the healing begin.

Chapter 6

The next few hours went by as flashes in Clint's mind.

The Hulk roaring through the room and crashing through the opposite wall.

Stark, in his Iron Man suit, cutting the ropes that held him up.

And Natasha.

And red…

Clint refused to leave her side, even as they were transported to a medical bay at SHIELD's Los Angeles headquarters. Turns out they never left the planet, they had been in a remote area of the Andes Mountains the whole time, which was actually just about 2 days. Stark's upgrades to SHIELD's security had included trackers on all jets and SHIELD issued clothing, like his jacket. He probably would take issue with that later but for now he was glad.

Loki had escaped. Walked out of the room and flew off just as the rest of the team had arrived. SHIELD was frantically searching for him but no one had any knowledge of his whereabouts.

After a lot of protesting Bruce had convinced him to let himself be treated while Natasha was treated, under the agreement that the doctor over see anything that was done to her. Clint allowed himself to be patched up, it wasn't much: a busted lip and an IV bag of saline for dehydration. He was agitated and uncooperative the entire time, barking at the nurses and other doctors who tried to treat him until they finally left him alone on a bed in the corner with his IV attached. Clint's leg shook nervously as he anxiously waited and after what seemed like hours Bruce finally appeared.

Clint jumped out of his bed and practically began ripping the IV out of his arm before Bruce jumped in to remove it.

"How is she? Let me see her. Where is she?" He demanded.

"Clint, I'll take you to her, but you have to stay calm." Bruce's demeanor was calm and patient, a far cry from the monster he had been just a few hours previously.

Clint swung his legs over the edge of the bed and followed Banner down the hall. They stopped in front of a darkened room and Clint could just make out Natasha's sleeping form. He paused; he couldn't bring himself to walk in yet.

Bruce sensed his hesitation and started talking, "She lost a lot of blood, we had to give her a transfusion. And like you, she was extremely dehydrated."

Clint turned to Bruce and interrupted him, "She lost it…the baby.. she lost it, didn't she?" He asked softly.

Bruce switched out of his clinical mode and his eyes saddened, "Yes, I'm sorry. By the time we got here it was too late. I'm, uh, assuming you were the father?"

"Yea," Clint braced his arm against the window and leaned his forehead on it, "How far along was she?"

"Not very, maybe about eight weeks. She came to me for a test. I think she already knew but she just wanted to be absolutely sure."

Clint turned his head to Bruce, "How did she seem, about the news?" Bruce's eyes looked at him questioningly, "Was she happy? Upset?"

Bruce shook his head, "I couldn't really tell, Natasha's pretty hard to read. You probably have more practice at it than me. But, she didn't seem upset, she seemed a little nervous."

"Mmm," Clint grunted, looking back down at the floor, his forehead still braced on his arm.

"Look, I don't really know what the story is between you two but I'm really sorry about what happened….and if we had just gotten there sooner…."

Clint put his hand up to stop him. "Don't…just…thanks for getting there." He pushed off the wall and grasped the doctor's shoulder with one hand, giving it a squeeze before letting go and walking into the room. He stood there for a moment, until he felt Bruce walk off and quietly made his way to Natasha's bed.

She looked scratched up and pale, but still beautiful. Her red hair was framing her face giving her an almost ethereal look as she slumbered. Clint sat in the chair by her bed and grabbed her hand but then decided that it wasn't close enough so, careful not to disturb her IV, he climbed into the bed next to her and put his arm around her. He could feel the tears begin to stream down his cheeks as he nuzzled his face into her neck. His body felt so fatigued and his spirit was broken but he was here, with her and that gave him some kind of peace. He was asleep within minutes.

Clint woke with a start to Natasha's voice ordering a nurse to leave them alone. The woman was protesting but the iciness in Natasha's tone scared her off.

"Go away."

The women ran out the door.

"Tasha?" He pushed himself up into a sitting position.

"She wanted you to leave." She said flatly, staring at the wall in front of her.

"Nat," he switched to his favorite nickname for her, "how do you feel?"

She turned to look at him, her eyes were blank, devoid of any emotion, any hurt, any pain. She opened her mouth to say something but they were interrupted by a familiar figure walking in the door. Maria Hill.

She appeared all business but Clint could see a soft look of regret in her eyes. She stopped in front of the bed and cleared her throat.

"I..um..I'm hear to inform you that the council has requested that you two appear before them immediately."

"What?" Clint's eyes flashed, "Are we being questioned? Now?" He jumped off the bed and regretted it as a wave of dizziness passed over him, he braced his hand on the side as he went on. "What the hell is this about?"

"I'm just carrying out orders Agent."

"From who, Fury?"

"No," Maria said softly, "He tried to fight them…but they're demanding to find out what happened. How this happened." Her professional demeanor began to drop. "I'm sorry." She looked at Natasha, "Agent Romanoff…Natasha, I'm so sorry-"

"Don't," Natasha growled. "We'll be there." She sat up and dangled her legs over the side of the bed. "Go get a nurse to take this thing out." She pointed to the IV.

Maria left two SHIELD issued uniforms for them and they changed in silence. Clint put his hand on Natasha's shoulder as they walked towards the meeting room on the other side of the base. She tensed at the touch of his hand but didn't brush it off and he was grateful because he needed to touch her, to know that she was there.

When they got to the door Clint stopped and spun her around to face him.

"Nat-"he began. He didn't even really know what he was going to say, he just wanted her to talk to him, to tell him she was okay. They hadn't even gotten a chance to talk about what had happened.

She shook her head, "Don't do this."

"Are you okay?"

She glared at him. "I can't…I don't know." She sighed in defeat, he could see her breaking in front of him, starting to let out all the emotion that she had been holding in.

"Nat." he whispered, dropping his forehead to hers, "We don't have to do this, we can just leave-"

She shook her head again, "No." Her walls came back up, "We can't just run away, not with Loki still out there…"

"Yes." He said almost pleading, he was ready to give it all up, everything he had ever worked for and trained for, everything that had been his whole life for so many years, he would leave everything for her. "If it was just us, no agency involved, no one else to slow us down, we could stay hidden better than any protection SHIELD will offer us."

He could feel her start to relax into him, her breathing start to quicken as he could tell that she was about to make her decision, when all of a sudden the door slid open and the two found themselves staring into a room filled with the rest of their team, Nick Fury and the televised heads of the Council.

So there it is. Sorry for the tragedy but it has to be there for this story to go on. The rest will focus on Natasha and Clint's journey to heal from this trauma that they both faced. Their relationship will be explored and their strengths and weaknesses exposed.

I know I'll be super busy the next few weeks but I'll try to update as often as possible.

Thanks for the reviews, hope you still like it and want to keep reading!