Natasha returned roughly two hours later with a tray of food for Bruce. She sat down beside him, rather than leaving. She was silent while he ate, but they had come to expect that from her. She spoke after he had finished and set the tray aside.
"It's not going to happen again, is it?" Her voice was quiet, hesitant. Bruce shook his head.
"No. We've got his temperature down and we can use drugs to keep it down. That's what caused the heart failure. I think we've caught the infection early enough that we can prevent it from reaching his heart. It's going to be close though. He shouldn't be left alone right now. And I'm going to be truthful, Natasha, his lack of response is worrying. He should have at least responded to the ice bath." He nodded at the third IV bag he had hooked up. He then glanced over at the monitor, frowning at how weak Tony's vitals were.
"I had noticed that. He flinched when I initially touched him, but then nothing." Her voice was still quiet, and although Bruce was used to her being quiet, this was a different sort. She turned and eyed him.
"You're leaving something out. What is it?" Bruce shouldn't be shocked she could tell, and he sighed.
"He's borderline comatose. He should come around when we have the infection more under control, though. It's his body's way or protecting itself, right now. He's strong, Natasha. He survived having the arc reactor installed, and he's going to survive this." At the moment the rest of the team strode in, overloaded with blankets and pillows and Thor's arms full of snacks.
"And then we'll make sure it never happens again, because that's what we do." Steve said, handing off a blanket and pillow to both Natasha and Bruce. They took them while Bruce looked incredulously at the rest of the team.
"You're sleeping down here? There are plenty of chairs, but surely you want your own beds." Bruce said, watching as Thor set down his armful on a nearby counter and settling into a chair with his own blanket.
"We talked and decided none of us really want Tony out of our sight right now." Steve spoke while Thor nodded solemnly. Ah, Bruce understood that.
"We'll sleep in shifts, you as well Bruce. I'll go first; the rest of you should sleep." The captain continued. Bruce hesitated, he understood the sentiment behind their actions, but he didn't know if he could sleep. Tony's condition was still tenuous, for all the reassurances he had given. Still, Tony looked stable, and Steve would know to wake Bruce if anything happened. They all knew that.
"Wake me up in two hours, so I can change out the gauze." He said, curling up on the chair and shrugging into the blanket. He must have been more tired than he had thought, he was instantly asleep.
Steve let out a small sigh as his team settled in for the night, carefully and quietly scooting his chair right up to Tony's bed. He frowned at Tony, the state of the engineer doing nothing to alleviate his worry. And frankly, the tube down Tony's throat scared him. In the year that they had been a team, Steve hadn't seen one of them in such bad condition. He surveyed the rest of his team, pleased to note they had all fallen asleep. He looked back to Tony, only hoping the genius would listen to the team after this stunt. He leaned back in his chair and pulled out his sketchbook. It wasn't often he caught Natasha sleeping, and he was determined to capture it on paper. Dare he say it; she looked innocent in her sleep. Young. And while Steve knew she was only slightly younger than he was, her hardened expressions melted away in sleep. Since Steve had moved on to sketching Bruce, he didn't notice when Natasha came awake until she called his name.
"Steve, it's been two hours." She stood up and walked over to him. She flipped back the sheet over Tony.
"Are you going to wake Bruce up?" Steve asked, turning to her and tilting his head back at Bruce.
"No, I can handle this. He needs his sleep." She said quietly, already slipping on gloves. He looked at her peculiarly. She was efficient in her movements, confident that she knew what she was doing. Though, to be fair, Steve had never seen her not confident in what she was doing. He watched as she pulled the packing out and cleaned out Tony's chest before packing it anew.
"How do you know all of this stuff?" He asked, even as she reapplied cream to Tony's chest. He wasn't afraid to ask her, she would tell him if she didn't want to share. She peeled back the gloves and turned to look at him.
"When I was KGB I often had to tend my own wounds. They didn't take care of their agents. It was learn or die. I'll admit I don't know that much, but I know the basics. And I've watched Bruce work." She went back to her chair and curled up.
"Wake me in two hours; I'll take the next watch." She said quietly, just loud enough for Steve to hear. Steve watched in fascination at how she fell asleep instantly. Another piece to the puzzle that was Natasha. He turned back to Bruce and resumed his sketching. He wasn't even remotely surprised to find two hours later Natasha was awake.
"Get some sleep." She told him as they traded chairs. He obliged, feeling a little drained himself. He had some trouble falling asleep, but that was normal. As he drifted off he could have sworn he heard Natasha quietly speaking Russian.
Natasha sighed as Steve took the other chair; the whole situation was a mess. Without much thought she started quietly berating Tony in Russian. She knew he could speak it a bit of it, but she was doing it more for her own piece of mind. She wouldn't outright admit it, but Tony had given her quite the scare. She couldn't exactly tell when she started caring for the other Avengers. Maybe it had started when she and Clint moved in. She felt as strongly for her fellow Avengers as she did Clint. They were hers. All of them. She reached out and smoothed Tony's hair down.
"Don't you ever dare do that again, Tony Stark." She said quietly, gently tugging on his hair. As expected, it garnered no response. She didn't bother waking anyone else for another watch, she had plenty of sleep in her system to stay up the rest of the night. Besides, after Bruce, she was the next best person to watch after Tony. That, and she was silent. She managed to change all three IV bags without waking a single member of her team. It was around dawn when Bruce finally stirred. He sat upright and looked around, and Natasha found he looked kind of adorable half asleep. More rumpled than usual. He caught her eyes and his widened.
"Why didn't you wake me?" He asked, voice rough from sleep. He stood up and walked over to Natasha.
"I handled it. There was less pus each time." She said, tilting her head towards Tony. Bruce sighed and did a check of Tony himself.
"He's definitely stronger." He commented, glancing at the monitor beside Tony. At the moment, the door to the room opened and a very bedraggled Clint Barton walked in. He took one look at the room and Tony and muttered.
"Well, shit." Was his response. He looked at Bruce and gave a lopsided grin.
"Hey, doc. I need some patchin' up. And then you can tell me just what the hell happened." He said, shuffling over to an empty bed and hopping up onto it, careful to keep one arm pinned to his chest.