A/N: Here we go once again! I think I may actually have this entire story finished within the month! Whoop! I hope you enjoy this chapter and please let me know what you think. I'm not one hundred percent on my medical terminology either so if something in here (or in the next chapter) seems off please, please, please don't hesitate to let me know either with a review or a message! I will definitely appreciate it!
DISCLAIMER: still not mine…
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Natasha dropped silently from the quinjet and landed on the roof without a single guard glancing her way. She stayed crouched low behind an air duct, carefully watching for guards coming her way. The entrance to the shaft she needed was only fifty feet away but she knew that if she didn't time it right this would all end before it even began. She took one deep, steadying breath, waiting for the right moment. There! She took off across the rooftop and managed to make it to the entrance before anyone noticed her. She made it inside and let the access hatch shut silently above her head. Thirty seconds exactly. Under normal circumstances she could have done something like that in half the time.
She tapped the comms unit in her ear, "I made it."
Steve's voice came back through with a little static, "Copy that, Tony and I will start on our end now. Be careful Natasha."
Natasha began moving through the shaft, carefully maneuvering her body and being cautious of every little noise she might make. She knew there were guards just below her, every single one of them armed and ready to kill anyone who was stupid enough to try breaking into the warehouse. Tonight she was the person was stupid enough to try breaking in and she knew that if she made a single noise she would be dead. Natasha paused and took another deep breath before reminding herself she was the Black Widow and nothing should scare her.
It was only a few moments later when she paused again as shouting rose up beneath her. It sounded like Steve and Tony were getting to work already which meant she should have just enough time to get Clint and get them both back out again. Nothing was more distracting than Iron Man and Captain America showing up at your front door. Except maybe the Hulk plowing through it.
By the time she reached the end of the air shaft she was sweating , her arms trembling slightly from the strain on her body, and she knew she would have to make this quick or she wouldn't be able to do much of anything. She leaned forward, peering through the air vent inside the room. Below she could see the top of Clint's head and Antonio Vargas standing over him with a riding crop in his hands. Marks littered Clint's arms which were tied down to the armrests of the chair. Bright red welts were raised all along his flesh there with blood slowly oozing from them. Anger rose back up in throat again, her exhaustion temporary forgotten.
"Hermano, I do believe your friends are here. They won't make it past the first floor guards and they certainly won't make it all the way down here," Antonio said, his voice making Natasha narrow her eyes.
Carefully she removed the grate on the vent and set it to the side silently. Vargas was turned away from Clint now and she took the opportunity to silently drop down into the room. Clint looked only slightly surprised to see her there and she knew he had been expecting some sort of rescue even if he didn't exactly expect that rescue to be in the form of her. She winked and dropped behind his chair to cut the ropes from his ankles. Just as she was moving to the ropes around his wrists she heard a soft chuckle, "Ah, I see the little spider has come to rescue her partner. Hermano, perhaps I will kill her in front of you. I am sure that would draw a scream or two from you, hm?"
Clint scoffed as Natasha stood, "You think you can kill her? I would like to see you try it."
Natasha smirked as she moved around Clint's side, working to cut through the ropes wrapped around his right wrist as she did, "You are a very confident man, Antonio Vargas."
Vargas smiled slowly, "So you know who I am then, araña, I am impressed. But I also know who you are. You are Natasha Romanoff, the Black Widow. And this is your partner, Clint Barton or Hawkeye. The two of you have been causing trouble for others like me recently and I know many, many people who would pay me a great sum to have you both eliminated. I do not need such incentives to kill him of course."
Natasha gave him a hard little smile, "Again you are a very confident man. That or you're extremely stupid. I can't decide which one."
Vargas advanced toward her, twirling the riding crop in his fingers as he began to slowly circle around Clint's other side. Natasha went in the opposite direction, moving so she was in front of Clint while Vargas was behind him. Clint looked about ready to explode being unable to do anything except sit and watch as Natasha faced off against one of his biggest enemies from before S.H.I.E.L.D. Natasha could see the ropes holding down his right wrist beginning to unwind from where her blade cut into them and she knew if she could stall for a few moments he would be free. Two of them against one enemy, no matter how injured they were, was a sure victory.
Antonio's mouth tilted into a slow, sadistic little smile as he circled around Clint forcing Natasha to move as well. Her back was to the door now which she despised but if she stayed in one place Vargas would be practically on top of her and within distance to use that crop in his hands, "I am not a stupid man, araña. You will learn that soon enough and then you will die while your partner here watches."
The door banged open behind her and Natasha whirled as three guards came bursting in, all heavily armed. She cursed inwardly, casting a quick glance toward Clint who was still struggling against the ropes binding him. As her gaze traveled back toward Vargas she felt a blinding pain in her abdomen. A small gasp escaped her parted lips before she could stop it and when she looked down she could see a blade embedded in her flesh just above her left hip bone. Her knees grew weak beneath her as blood glowed out around the blade and she felt herself sinking to the ground.
"Tasha!" Clint's voice was garbled and when she looked over at him he was growing blurry around the edges. She knew she was going to pass out and she also knew that without treatment soon she would die. Death had never been far but it had also never been so close.
Natasha blinked rapidly, fighting the urge to pass out. Clint was going to need help, there was no way he could fight off four men while also trying to protect her. But no matter how hard she tried she couldn't get her body to listen to her, it refused to stand back up again. So instead she began to move on all fours toward Clint, determined to at least remove the ropes from his wrists so he stood a fighting chance. She was halfway to him when a hand in her hair made her yelp. Antonio Vargas laughed darkly, yanking her up to her knees right in front of Clint, "Ah, you finally screamed hermano. I told you I could make you. Now shall we stab her again? Will that make you scream or will you beg for her life?"
"Vargas, I swear to God I will kill you. I will snap your neck and watch your body drop before you get the chance to hurt her again," Clint's voice was a growl now, the muscles in his arms bulging out as he pulled at the ropes binding them. Even in her current haze Natasha could tell one more yank would free his right wrist and was all he needed.
Vargas yanked on her hair and she bit down on her lip to keep from crying out. Everything felt more sensitive to her in that moment. She could feel the blood as it left her body, the knife still embedded in her flesh. All of it was painful and she barely had the willpower to keep from screaming as Vargas dragged her closer to Clint, putting her face right in front of his. His hand gripped the hilt of the blade in her abdomen and slowly he began to draw it out. She couldn't hold in the pain this time and it came out with a loud cry. Clint glared up at Vargas, cursing angrily at him as he gave one final yank on the ropes.
His right wrist came free and not even a second later Natasha was on the ground and Vargas' body dropped beside her. His eyes were wide and glassy, an expression of pure shock forever frozen on his face. Natasha wanted to move as Clint moved toward the guards in the doorway but she couldn't find any energy to do anything except breath and even that was becoming more and more difficult. Her eyes began to slide closed and the last thing she saw before the darkness took her was the red and white of a shield and the glowing eyes of a man in an iron suit…
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The moment Clint felt his wrist break free he was up with his hands on either side of Vargas' head before the man even knew what was happening. With one fluid motion he snapped the man's neck, his look of utter shock forever plastered to his face. He knew Natasha would die if he wasn't fast enough and he refused to lose his partner on this mission. It was his fault she was even in this situation to begin with. If he hadn't screwed Beijing up so horribly she would be on the Hellicarrier right now away from harm. She wouldn't be bleeding out on the floor.
The three men at the door were going to be a problem though. Even with the anger fueling his body and allowing him to forget his pain for a few moments he knew that he couldn't take all three of them on. Not while he also had to keep Natasha from harm. He was deciding how to best handle the situation when a loud banging echoed in the hallway and a moment later Steve Rogers and Tony Stark in full on Iron Man armor were standing in the doorway. Clint didn't think he would ever feel so relieved to see those two. He guessed he shouldn't be surprised Natasha didn't come alone but he never expected she would bring two Avengers with her.
Leaving the men by the door to Steve and Tony, Clint moved to Natasha's side. She was breathing shallowly and her eyes were closed. He slipped his arms under her body and picked her up bridal style. If she was awake he would have been receiving a death glare and multiple threats to his life. Instead, Natasha's head lolled back over his arm and her whole body hung limply in his arms. Her skin was turning paler as he held her and he could tell her breathing was growing weaker. There was no way she could make it all the way back to the Hellicarrier like this. She needed help now.
"How is she?" Tony was beside Clint now, his face shield up as he looked down at the unconscious Russian in Clint's arms.
"Not good. If she doesn't get treatment quickly she's going to die," Clint's voice was clinical and void of emotion. He was slipping into the cold assassin who didn't feel loss or fear. If he let those emotions hinder him Natasha would die. So no matter how badly he wanted to scream at the world right then he knew he couldn't. That could wait until later.
Tony frowned, "Then we better get moving. Fury's team is dealing with the last of the guards. We sent out a distress signal after dropping Natasha on the roof. Fury had people keeping track of us the moment we fired the jet up back at the tower, I found their radio signals a few minutes after we left. Why he waited so long to send them in I'll never understand but at least they're coming. Hopefully he thought to include a medic in that group of his."
Clint said nothing, simply moved through the doorway and toward the stairs at the end of the hall. The weight of Natasha in his arms was making it hard to converse in any way at the moment. Steve and Tony seemed to understand though as they fell into step behind him. Once they arrived at the top of the staircase Clint began moving faster as Tony took the lead and wound them through the hallways until they were in a wide area bare of anything except a couple of tables and chairs. There was a commotion outside, people yelling and the sound of engines running. Their pace quickened again as they neared the front doors and Clint prayed there would be a medic out there somewhere.
S.H.I.E.L.D agents were scattered outside, all of them corralling men into small groups and stripping them of their weapons. A few agents were standing at the base of the quinjet sitting beside the one Clint assumed Natasha came in. The agents rushed toward them the moment Clint stepped out of the doorway and into view. He recognized one of them as a medic from the Hellicarrier who normally ended up tending to either him or Natasha. Clint turned toward him first, trusting him more than the other medics he didn't remember ever seeing before.
"What happened?" the medic asked. Clint was fairly certain his name was Mark.
"Stab to the lower abdomen. She fell unconscious two minutes after the wound occurred and hasn't woken up since," Clint relayed, carefully lowering Natasha onto a stretcher that was placed in front of him. He was right beside Natasha as she was moved toward the quinjet. He was only barely aware that Steve and Tony were one step behind him, leaving the second quinjet for another agent to bring back to the Hellicarrier.
Mark nodded, pulling a stethoscope from around his neck and placing the end to Natasha's chest. The frown on his face didn't comfort Clint at all. He pulled the stethoscope back and helped lock Natasha's stretcher into place on the quinjet before moving to where the wound was. Another medic was fluttering around Clint now, worrying over the lash marks to his arms and legs. Medicines were placed over the wounds along with bandages and through the entire process his eyes never moved from Natasha.
Mark was at her side now, cutting her clothing away from the wound and fully inspecting it. Clint could see him biting at his lower lip now, his brow furrowing as he cleaned the area around the wound, trying to find exactly where the entry point was. Blood was constantly streaming from it though and Clint didn't know how he was going to find the source of it. But Mark continued on and within a few moments he was putting pressure just over Natasha's hip bone, calling for bandages and an IV to be started. He was also calling for a blood transfusion. That scared Clint more than anything else had so far. He'd only seen Natasha in need of a blood transfusion one time and that was in Budapest.
Another medic ran to a cooler sitting just behind the cockpit and pulled two bags filled with blood. Both were marked with Natasha's blood type and Clint was grateful not for the first time that the medics on board the Hellicarrier always expected the worse. He leaned forward as the medics worked over Natasha, trying to keep her breathing and with them. He didn't know if they would make it to more advanced care in time though. Natasha was growing still and pale, more than before, and she was beginning to remind him of the people he was sent to eliminate. Cold and lifeless.
"How far out are we?! She isn't going to survive without surgery," Mark called to the front. The quinjet had apparently taken off without Clint even noticing as he focused on Natasha.
"Ten minutes. Director Fury has the Hellicarrier just outside of Spanish air space," a voice from the cockpit called back.
"Make it five or she isn't going to make it," Mark ordered. Clint felt the jet kick into a higher gear at the words while his heart slammed to a halt.
"She'll be okay, Clint. Tasha's tough," Clint looked over at Tony who was no longer in his armor and instead sat on the seat next to him in sweatpants and a gray cotton shirt. While his words were brave and Clint knew they were meant to comfort him, the look of utter fear in his eyes destroyed whatever comfort he was offering. Tony was just as terrified as he was that they were about to lose Natasha.
"I need a BVM and AED, she's crashing!"
Dun dun dunnnnnn…yeah I know I am being a big meanie but hey, I needed another really good cliffy it's been too long!
As always please let me know what you think! I look forward to hearing from you and another big thank you to all the people who recently favorite/followed/reviewed this story ya'll are the best!
-Luna