Black Hawk Down

Chapter Three

February 4 - 0900 hours - Clint's Cabin - Waverly - Iowa

"Natasha?" Clint asked, "Tasha? ...Natasha?"

"What did she say Clint?" Phil asked again trying to be the voice of reason.

"She's at the waterfall and she asked for help," Clint said. "Now it's as if she dropped the phone, she's not answering but I can hear the water."

"Grab a first aid kit and your bow, I'll grab some food and water, meet me at Lola in a few minutes," Phil ordered. "This must be serious."

They hurried around grabbing the items they might need before racing out to the red convertible. Coulson flicked several switches and the car hovered off the ground. "Lets go," He said putting the car into gear. He flew the car low over the tree tops hoping to stay out of sight of most people in the nearby area.

"Over there to the left is the clearing." Clint pointed out. Flying had cut the half hour drive down to 10 minutes.

"I see it," Phil replied guiding the car to hover over the gap in the trees. "Can you see her?"

"Yeah she looks like she's by the edge of the clearing over there," Clint pointed.

"Ok," Phil nodded guiding the car down on the other side of the clearing.

Clint was out of the car before it had even settled properly on the ground. "Natasha?" There was no answer to his call as he ran quickly across the clearing towards where he had seen her lying.

"Natasha?" Clint asked again as he reached her. He checked her pulse to find it was very weak.

"Clint, how is she?" Phil asked concerned as he caught up to him with the first aid kit.

"In a bad way," Clint said quietly, "She's unconscious and has these two stab wounds which seem to still be bleeding quite a bit through the gauze." Clint began to put pressure on them eliciting a quiet groan from her as the pain registered. "Natasha, you're ok, I'm here." Clint assured her.

Natasha drifted into consciousness again, "Clint?"

"Yes, Tasha, I'm here."

"You shouldn't have come," Natasha whispered. "I shouldn't have asked you too."

"Tasha why didn't you tell me?" Clint asked.

"I couldn't," She coughed. "I had to be sure."

"Sure of what?" Phil asked.

"My enhancers aren't working," Natasha mumbled, "Not on those two wounds."

"Any idea why?" Clint asked.

"I think Ivan used something on the knife, the same way he used poison on the whip," Natasha whispered. "Except it doesn't seem to be healing at all."

"Nat, you should have told us last night," Phil answered. "We need to get a better look at the wounds. Then we need to re-bandage them."

"Nat, I'm going to take this off," Clint told her.

"I cleaned it with the antiseptic but it's not helping I don't think," Natasha whispered.

"Have you stitched them closed?" Clint asked.

"I couldn't, I didn't have a needle or thread to do it with." Natasha whispered slowly losing the strength to stay conscious.

"We need to get her back to the bus, Simmons may be able to help her. She's a Bio-Chem scientist," Phil informed Clint. "She may be able to help reverse the effects of whatever drug Ivan used."