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A day later and Clint was being checked to see if he was ready to have the procedure again. Steve told me during the night "There is a chance that he could go into a coma." It was my fault, because the blood loss was from a vital section of his brain - a blood loss that I caused. Nothing was damaged, but it stopped the procuedure from going through. He had to wait even longer. He was unconcsious, but the scientists needed to make sure his vitals were stable before they proceeded. That's what they were doing right now.
Maria was quickly pacing in front of me, Pepper Steve and Thor. We were all waiting outside the box watching her walk backwards and forwards and backwards and forwards and backwards and
"Lady Hill, what troubles you to be pacing with such speed?" Thor asked. She stooped walking and turned to him.
"I'm sorry." she said and jumped up onto the table surface, but her nails tapped against the metal of it.
"Maria, what is wrong with you?" Pepper asked. "Are you worried about him?"
"How could I not be?" she said, quietly. "Natasha may mean more to him than I do, but I've known him for so much longer."
"I'm sure we mean the same amount to him." I said to her. We do mean the same. We must mean the same.
"It's like Clint thinks of you in the same way Rogers thinks of me." she said, obviously without thinking properly. She stopped herself and looked at Steve. "Uh you know what I mean!" she groaned, rolling her eyes, but both of their cheeks were flushing pink.
"Clint will be fine." Pepper reassured her.
"Uh...guys?" Bruce said, appearing around the door of the glass box. I stood up as he walked over.
"Is he ready for his procedre yet?" Maria asked.
"Yes." Thank God. "Stark's starting the procedure in a minute." he said and went back in the room.
"Does Lady Romanoff need to be restrained again?" Thor asked Steve quietly, but I heard and then smiled turning to him.
"No, I don't need to be restrained. I'm okay." I said, laughing slightly.
"I apologise, Lady Romanoff. I was only concerned about your safety." Thor explained.
"It is fine, Thor. I know." I said, smiling. He smield back and walked to the glass with all of us.
"I'm going to get some lunch while this happens. You guys want anything?" Pepper asked.
"No, thank you." I replied, similar to the other's answers. She left and our gaze returned to the glass box.
"Beginning procedure now." Stark said and started the process again, this time without me interrupting. Stark cut his ear off, which was pretty grusome, and inserted the plastic ear piece into his head. He repeted it with the other ear, stiched the ears back up and cleaned everything up. It was a pretty quick procedure and Stark came out saying "No emotional outbursts, hey Romanoff."
"Shut it Stark." I said. "Is he okay now? Can we see him?"
"Not just yet. Give it half an hour just to make sure everything is alright."
"Okay." I replied and looked through the glass at him. Thank goodness he was okay. I don't know what I would do without him. He's always been my partner and I would not have it any other way. We always cared and looked out for each other.
Two years ago
"That turned out worse than expected." Clint said, sitting down on the bed that we share at the motel we were staying at. We had been on a mission taking out a druglord and Clint got hit. Shot in the arm - nothing major, but still painful.
"You can say that again." I smirked, going over to our bags.
"It's just not been a good day." Clint replied, hissing from the pain.
"No day is a good day." I said. I stopped collecting the medical equipment I needed and added "Not any more." I brought the supplies over to him and started wiping away the blood with a cloth that was dipped in water, so I could find the exact spot of the bullet. Thank goodness there was no exit wound.
"Do you ever think that we'll stop?" Clint asked me as I injected the pain relief into his arm, wincing as I did.
"Stop what?"
"Stop this. Playing spies or whatever." he said, even though he knew what we both were. Whether S.H.I.E.L.D wanted to brand us as spies or agents...we would always be the assassins that killed hundreds.
"We're here to do a job. We're here until that job is done."
"And when will that be?" he asked, which stooped me a little.
After a second, I replied "Who knows." in a serious tone.
"It's good that we are doing the job till it's done though." he said.
"I agree. The civilians need protection." I said. He shook his head. Is that not what he meant?
"No, I mean us. We are doing it together." h said smiling. "We work better together."
I smiled and replied "I agree with that too." I picked up the extraction tool and asked "Ready?"
"Nope." he answered, groaning slightly.
"Bad luck." I said, slowly pushing the metal into his skin. He shouted multiple swear words and I felt bad about doing it, but he had to get better.
Present day
I saw Bruce leave the room and I met him at the door. "Can I see him now?" I asked.
"He needs to be woken up and I think that it's best if it is you instead of a doctor." he replied.
"Thanks you Dr. Banner." I replied, smiling, and he let me through the door. Clint was lying there, his body now void of any blood. As I got closer, I could see the little stitches on his head, from where the ear had been stitched back on. I placed my hand on the side of his face and stroked it, trying to wake him up as I sat down on the side of his bed.
"Clint?" I said and stroked his cheek a little harder.
"Tasha?" he said weakly, his voice a little croaky.
"How are you feeling?"
"Good. Great actually. You sound so clear."
"Thank God. I am so sorry. I didn't mean to-"
"Look, we've been over this." he said, sitting up. "It wasn't your fault about me getting hit in the explosion okay? And I can hear you. That's all I need." That's all he needs?
"Yeah, I know, but...I caused you to bleed even more."
"What do you mean?" he asked, confused.
"You had two operations. Well half operations. The first one didn't go as well as the second."
"What happened?"
"The first time...Stark started cutting at your ear, but I…" I looked down at the ground. "I stormed into the room and tried to them away from you and it…" I shook my head. "It just made things worse. You bled even more and-"
"Tash!" he said, taking my hand in his. "It's fine. I'm all better now. At least I can hear you." he said, smirking.
"Thank goodness for that." I said. "I don't know what I'd do if-"
Suddenly, the lights went down and I couldn't see anything. "Oh my God, Clint! What the fuck is going on?" I asked, as I reached out to find him.
"JESUS TASH!" he shouted and I thought I touched somewere 'innappropriate'. "God, your hands are freezing." he said, putting me slightly at ease.
"Shit." I whispered, stressing slightly at the situation.
"What do we do?" Clint asked.
"Are you feeling okay?"
"Yeah, i'm feeling okay. Okay to kill for sure."
"There is a gun outside in the infirmary and I have one on me." I said, grabbing his hand. "Lets go." I whispered loudly and rushed out of the glass doors.
"At least the emergency back up is on." Clint said, referencing to the emergency light on the cieling. We made our way to the desk.
"Here." I said, grabbing the gun underneath it and handing it to him. "Where are the others?"
"Natasha? Clint?" I heard a small voice say. "Is that you?"
"Maria?"
"Yeah, it's us." she replied.
"Who is us?" Clint asked.
"Me, Stark, Steve and Thor." she answered.
"Where are you?"
"Behind a desk near the doors." she said and we slowly made our way over.
"OW!" I heard Clint say.
"What?"
"Table."
"Idiot." I replied as we made our way towards the door. I got out my phone and pressed the lock button. I shined it across the room and saw them hiding there.
"Clint?" Maria said and ran towards us. She stood infront of him for a second and then put her hands on each side of his face, stroking it. "Thank God you're okay."
"Come 'ere." he said, wrapping her in his arms tightly. "You doing alright?"
"I'm alright now!" she said and then pulled back. "Now what the hell is going on?"
"There's been a security breach." Bruce explained. "Someone's hacking the system."
"How the fuck did they hack my system?" Stark said.
"Shut up Stark!" Maria shouted. "That's not the question we should be asking. The question is why did they hack your system? Why did they make the blackout happen? What do they want?"
At that moment, there was a woman's ear piercing scream from another floor. "Pepper?" I heard Stark whisper. I knew that Tony was a bit of a man whore...okay more than a bit, but I could see that he genuinely cared for Virginia. My phone light was still on and lighting up everyone's faces...including Stark's. He was worried about her. "Where's Pepper?" he asked.
"She...she went to get her lunch." Maria said.
"And you let her go alone?" he asked.
"Hey!" Steve said. " We didn't know that this was going to happen."
"You still shouldn't have let her go."
"It's your defense system!"
"GUYS!" Clint shouted. "Shut it! We need to go and get her. Now, who has guns? Me and Tash have one each."
"I have 15 knives on me too."
"15?" Thor asked.
"What? I need to be prepared."
"Thor? Do you have your hammer?" Steve asked.
"Yes, Man of America." Thor answered and I heard the sound of his hammer flying through the room. My phone showed him catch his hammer and then he asked "What other weapons do people have? Lady Hill?"
"I have 6 guns on me, 7 knives and 2 hand grenades." she answered casually. Everyone was surprised apart from me and Clint.
"Where do they fit?" Steve asked.
"Watch it." she said, smiling, and I could almost feel the fire coming off of Steve's face. The red would be visible even without the light from my phone. Radiant.
"Well I don't have any weapons obviously." Bruce said.
We chuckled and then turned to Steve. "I have my shield." he answered, tapping his back where his shield was kept. "1 gun in my holster and a knife."
"That all?" I asked.
"I never needed anymore than the shield and that."
"Okay. Stark?" I asked, but I didn't realise that he was already half way suited up.
"I need to find Pepper." he said, the final piece setting into place - the mask that covers his face.
"Here." Maria said, her back turned to us. She faced us and had 7 torches in her hands. She handed them out and Steve commented "You are a genius." She smiled and handed him the final torch.
"Ear pieces." Stark said, motioning to the wall. In every room we had a set of comms just in case we needed them. Thank goodness we decided to do that. Tony already had one in his suit, so he didn't need to put one in.
"Okay. Lets go." Steve ordered and we all went up the stairs, towards the top floor, trying to seek out Pepper and anyone else in the building.
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