The Ultimate Fix-It Fic

17| Vodka

There it was. The end. The lifeboats.

The way off was so close, Natasha could hear it, as she dragged a bunch of injured stragglers into the car she and Barton jacked.

"I know what I need to do," he said as they sped towards the lifeboats. "The dining room! If I knock out that east wall, it'll make a nice workspace for Laura, huh? Put up some baffling, she can't hear the kids running around, what do you think?"

Nat shrugged. "You guys always eat in the kitchen anyways."

"No one eats in the dining room." Clint said as they reached the lifeboats. "We don't have a lot of time."

"So get your ass on a boat." Nat huffed. "Laura would kill me if you died." She heard a woman calling faintly, wracked with sobs.

"Costel! We were in the market. Costel!" she cried.

Natasha sighed and headed out to find the boy. She noticed the Hulk following her as she went, and she smiled slightly. She spotted the boy stuck in a hole and started towards him.

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Clint fall behind her, and she almost turned to get to him. But she went for the kid.

As she got to the little boy, Ultron flew overhead and started firing at them. Natasha grabbed Costel and shielded him, hoping, even if she died, her body would take the brunt of it. She braced herself.

Natasha opened her eyes as no impact made itself clear, and she felt something hovering over her.

The Hulk was holding pieces of metal and stuff to create a makeshift barrier between them and the world, shielding them from Ultron's fire.

After the firing stopped, the Hulk dropped the barrier, and he got both Natasha and Costel to the lifeboats, where Nat dropped the boy off to his sister, who was crying and thanking her.

The Hulk looked at her in askance, and she nodded. A second later, they were flying again.

He dropped her off onto the Helicarrier, and Nat got up quickly, trying to start up the lullaby, but he leapt onto the edge of a Quinjet. A second later, a mangled Ultron body fell out of the jet.

Natasha went down to the control center to send a message to the Quinjet. She swallowed her own fears about Clint and went to the station.

"Hey, big guy," she said to the camera. "We did it. The job's finished. Now I need you to turn this bird around, okay? We can't track you in stealth mode, so help me out." She gazed imploringly into the screen. "I need you to–"

The screen went dark as the connection was severed.

Natasha's smile faltered.

Fury was behind her, a comforting presence as he placed a hand on her shoulder. "It's okay. We'll find him." He said, knowing exactly what she was thinking.

"Is Clint–" Nat stumbled over her own tongue.

"He's fine." Maria walked up to her, handing her a tablet. "He's going to need a little time with Helen Cho, but he'll survive. And we have the Maximoffs."

Natasha just sat at the station. "That's good," she muttered. "Excuse me."

She pushed past the agents and the other people on the Helicarrier as she sought out the infirmary. Nat went inside the empty room and grabbed a bag she stowed there years ago, back before she was on the team, before she met Bruce.

She unzipped the bag and smiled at the bottle of vodka that was there, perfectly intact, untouched by time or the world, or any of their horrors. She unscrewed the cap and took a long swig from the bottle.

This was much better than the tiny airplane one she had swallowed down only two days ago. She shook her head as the memory came again, of Bruce laughing as he asked her about her remedy of choice.

Natasha gritted her teeth and took another drink.

A few minutes later, Tony, still in his suit, found her sitting there with a half-empty bottle. She knew, from the look in his eyes, that he knew Bruce was gone too. She offered him the bottle.

Their fight was over. Ultron was dead. Novi Grad was probably back in the ground again, since Tony was here. And now Natasha's left here, sitting in the empty infirmary cuddling up to her vodka, drinking for another reason other than celebration.

She could hear the cheers of the crew and the people of Novi Grad from here.

They did it. The world has been saved. Her friends, her family was alive.

And still, Natasha wasn't very happy. Not with herself, at least. She had the guilt creep up to her again, and stab into her as she remembered how she pushed Bruce into the pit, how, if she had never made him turn green, he would be here with her, instead of somewhere she couldn't find him.

"Widow?" Tony's voice sounded hollow as he said it.

"Yeah?"

"Do you think we can find him? I don't think–" the billionaire choked on a sip and cleared his throat. "He's my best friend, Nat."

Natasha leaned back onto the wall. "I know." She sighed. "I know."

"Who's going to be my best man?"

"Rhodey?" Nat took the bottle back. "He's eligible."

Tony chuckled without much humour. "How are we going to be like without him? He kept me sane, you know."

"All these years was you sane?" Natasha scoffed.

"Yeah."

"Oh, we're screwed." She downed the rest of the bottle and tossed it into the recycling bin.

"Yeah."