The Guide To Moving On

Chapter 31 Part 2 - Hurt

He returned with one a few minutes later and I smiled as he returned to the hospital chair. 

"Good evening Ms Romanoff. If you don't mind, I need to check on the your wounds to make sure they are healing ok?" He asked and I nodded wincing as he started poking around. 

"You were very lucky Ms Romanoff. Your wound missed all of your important organs and it should all heal nicely. We should be able to discharge you in an hour." He said as he finished his examination. 

"Is there anything that we can do for her pain?" Steve piped up and I looked at him tiredly, he knew full well that pain killers don't work on me. 

"Actually yes, but it has to be super strong to have an effect on you. It will mean that you will be a bit out of it for the night though due to the strength of the medication." He said and I immediately recoiled at the idea of 'being out of it'. 

I am always sharp, in control, and the idea of losing that was not something that I even wanted to consider. 

"I won't be needing that." I told the doctor sharply and he nodded, leaving the room quickly. 

"Natasha." Steve said warningly and I fobbed him off, trying to change the topic. 

"What happened after I blacked out?" I asked him and he sighed in defeat before he answered my question. 

"I came running towards you and took out the remaining guards that were attacking you from the other side of the iron bars. I ended up lifting up the gate myself to get to you and I got you the hell out of there, calling for backup to finish the rest of the mission and I took you to the hospital." He regaled and I nodded. 

"If it was that simple, why do you look like you have seen a ghost?" I asked him, half joking, half serious. 

"Ah-, I- um" He stumbled and I waited patiently for him to get a grip of himself and tell me. I could tell that something had a rather large effect on him, so I didn't want to push him too much.

"Back in the army, I had a mission once with 3 other guys. We had to rescue some hostages from behind the edge of the German line and that had been taken in a raid of a town close by the day before. There was this building, with black tiles and lime green walls where they were being held." He took a breath before continuing.

"I had a young kid with me, begged me to let him come, only just eligible for the army, when we went down a corridor looking for where they were kept. The corridor was a dead end and before we knew it were were trapped, being attacked by guards. The kid didn't make it." He said, looking at his feet, probably in guilt. I badly wanted to grab his hand and let him know that it wasn't his fault, but I knew it would have no affect. 

"Anyway, the building we attacked today, kind of looked like it. I pushed it aside, especially when I saw that there wasn't a single lime green wall in the place. That was until my shield got stuck in the wall and it chipped the white paint. Lime green underneath, just like it had been. I realised that you had gone down the exact same corridor that I did, but I was too late, you were already screaming and when I got there you were unconscious and beaten." He said looking up at me with tears welling in the corner of his eyes. 

"Come here." I whispered and he stood up, leaning over me and wrapping himself around me, carefully, as to not hurt me too much. We stayed like that for a while until he let go and sat beside me again, this time on the edge of my bed. 

"You mean to tell me the base we were in today used to painted lime green? Who in their right mind decided that that was a good idea?" I chuckled, trying to make light of the situation. But my giggles quickly turned into coughs and before I knew it, I was having a coughing fit.