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I spent the night be his bed, on the comfortable chair next to him. I woke up and looked at the clock which read 6:15. I fell asleep at around 2:15. Assassins sleep lightly.

I looked at Clint. His wounds were beginning to heal but the scratches on his face were still red. The blood had finally stopped pouring out of his ears at around 1 this morning and his ears were now protected by bandages. Banner mentioned something about keeping pressure on the wounds. Stark explained that his eardrums had been severely damaged. He also said that he was lucky not to be killed by the explosion. Lucky? How is is luck?

I felt guilty. I would never tell anyone that I was because that would mean that I had emotions. Black Widow with emotions? That would be in the newspapers for weeks. I could've got to 23rd and helped him shoot them down quicker, instead of getting my bike. Yes, I would've had only a couple of bullets to kill the enemy with, but at least it may have solved the situation if the enemy threw the grenade.

My thoughts were interrupted by a small groan and I realised that Clint was slowly waking up.

"Clint?" I said, standing up and walking over to the side of his bed.

"Tash?" He asked, his eyes fluttering open. His voice was croaky and quiet.

"Yeah, it's me. How are you feeling?" I asked and he looked at me, confused. "What is it?" I asked. What's up with him? He lifted his hands up to his ears and then I got it. Deaf.

Before he could fiddle with the bandages on his head, I caught his hands and out them back down by his sides.

"What's going on?" He asked, panicking about his sudden loss of hearing.

"Stay calm." I reassured him, but I forgot he couldn't hear me. "Breathe." I said slowly and breathed deeply so he could see. His short breaths lengthened and I slowly withdrew my grip of his hands, knowing that I could trust him not to freak out.

"What is wrong with me?" He asked, his voice now becoming stronger with the more he spoke.

"Um..." I picked up a pad and a pen on the side table.

As I clicked the pen he said "I can lip read. It's okay." I nodded and placed them back down on the side.

"Do you remember the mission?" I asked.

He nodded and replied "HYRDA agents in the street. Just us taking them down. I had fifteen and you had nine. Unfair." He smirked, which made me smile inside. At least he still has a sense of humour, even if it does piss me off sometimes.

"Do you remember us talking over comms?" I asked.

"Yeah. You said you were coming to help me."

"And then?" I said.

"There were too many and more were coming round the corner. I was running out of arrows. I decided to take out an explosive arrow and shoot the centre of the group to take them all out. I fired the shot and was getting up to run, but...one of the enemies had snuck up behind me, knife at my throat. I managed to kick him back quickly, in the space of a second, but I only ran a couple of metres before the explosion went off." He paused on looked up at me. "Nat, what happened?"

"The explosion." I tapped lightly on my ears. "It made you deaf Clint."

He looked forward and his lips parted, looking surprisingly calm for someone who just found out information that will change his whole life. "What do we do?" He asked, his voice now breaking down slightly from emotion, and looked up at me.

"Stark has created something to get your hearing back." I said, a sad expression on his face so he would know that it wasn't all beneficial.

"But...?" He asked.

"There is a chance..." I said and took a deep breath. "A chance that you could die."

He nodded slowly in understanding. "What do you think I should do?"

"It's not my life."

"I want your opinion."

"Of course I want you to hear again, but I couldn't live with myself if you died."

"Nat it wasn't your fault." He said.

"I didn't say that."

"But you were thinking it." He said as fact rather than question. He raised his eyebrows and I rolled my eyes. "It's not your fault. I was the one who took the shot."

"I could have come for you instead of getting the motorbike."

"And why did you decide to get the bike?"

"To get more ammo." I answered.

"Exactly. You did what any of us would've done to support a team member." He explained and I just sighed, meaning that I didn't want to talk about it anymore. He caught my drift and moved onto another subject. "So what happens now? The operation or?"

"I'll go and get stark and banner. They'll talk me through what's going to happen."

"They are on their way, miss Romanoff." JARVIS said.

I looked up at the ceiling and said "Thank you."

Clint look curiously at me and worryingly said "um...Nat. Who are you talking to?"

"JARVIS." I said, but he could understand me. I grabbed the pen and paper and wrote in huge letters 'JARVIS' and he finally got the picture that I wasn't talking to God.

"You needed me?" I heard the voice of Stark call from the elevator. Bruce was behind him, clipboard under his arm, and nervously smiling as usual.

They strode toward us as I replied "Yes, I need you-"

"Who doesn't?" He interrupted, knocking Clints shoulder with his hand. Clint scowled but I continued.

"I need you to tell me what is involved in fixing his hearing."

"Oh okay, well we just cut his ear off and-"

"WHAT?" Is he crazy? "YOU WANT TO CUT HIS FUCKING EAR OFF?" I saw Clint eyes widen slightly and he and I both gulped.

"That idea sounded better in my head."

"Not helping, Tony." Bruce said.

"It's the only way to reach the section of the ear drum that we need to operate on."

"Is it safe?" I asked.

"Is crossing the road safe?" He asked rhetorically.

"Don't I get a say in this?" Clint asked and Bruce and Tony furrowed their eyebrows.

"You can hear us?" Bruce asked.

"Lip reading training from SHEILD." He answered. "Now...I want the operation. Anything to hear the sound of your voices." He said, finishing his sentence looking at me.

"Well I do have a voice of an angel." Tony said.

"Not when it comes to singing." Bruce smirked.

"Hey! When have you heard my perfect singing voice?"

"You sing AC/DC while your work and it's far from perfect."

"GUYS!" I shouted drawing back their focus. "Can you two stop talking about how shit Tony's singing voice."

Tony shrugged and quietly defended "it's not shit."

"Shut up Tony." I said, glaring evilly, and he got the picture. "You want the operation?" I asked Clint.

He nodded. "I need to."

"Will it hurt him?" I asked the science bros as Tony insisted on calling them.

"He will be under sedation." Bruce answered. "He won't feel any pain during the operation. After the operation, there should be some time that the ear feel irritated and he should get some slight throbbing. Apart from that, he will be fine."

"Then you can go back to your usual routine of training, pretending to sleep and shagging each other."

I glared evilly at Stark and there a clipboard at his head. He screamed like a little girl and complained "Hey! Don't hit people who are fixing your boyfriend."

I rolled my eyes and took the medical notes from Banners hands and read the notes.

Name: Barton, Clinton Francis (Hawkeye)

Profession: Avenger, SHIELD Agent - Level 7

Status: Alive

Received treatment from: Dr. Bruce Banner and Tony Stark

Damage to patient caused by: explosion by exploding arrow - battle with HYDRA agents

Damage to patient: multiple scratches across body, 2 fractured ribs, torn ideogal, windpipe slightly crushed, stab wound lower back

"What an ideogal?" I asked.

"Part of the eardrum that has been torn. It affects both ears, stopping them from picking up sounds." Banner explained. I nodded and handed Banner his clipboard back. "His recovery should only take a couple of hours if everything goes smoothly."

"And when are you going to operate?"

"Now." Tony stated and wheeled Barton to the enclosed room on the other side of the infirmary.

I have completely and utterly made up the word 'ideogal' because I have not studied how the ear works :) Please review!