something like blood | natasha romanoff

chapter 19

(nat's pov still)

my legs collapsed to the floor as my body gave out beneath me.

i felt a sharp pain in my abdomen and looked down to see red gushing out like a waterfall.

however, i knew i had to make it out. i had family waiting for me, i had to.

pushing the pain beside, i took out my gun and turned my body around to face the guard that shot me. i didn't even have to aim before i shot the gun without hesitation. i watched as their body dropped as i got up and started making my way out with my hand clutching my side.

as i reached the earth's level i noticed athena rushing to my side. my vision was going blurry and i was beginning to see black dots but athena held me up by my side as i leaned into her, trying not to use energy.

"bruce we need medical attention here" i heard athena say with a worried expression.

a minute later i was being carried into the new jet fury sent over by a stretcher. athena was holding my hand as i realized i was still holding onto the drawings.

as we got into the medbay on the quinjet, i felt a figure take the drawings out of my hand, presumingly putting them somewhere else for the time being. i was drifting in and out of consciousness before i heard a voice whisper, "sleep, it's okay you'll be okay" and i let the darkness consume me.

athena's pov

as soon as i saw nat come out of the facility with red dripping down her body, i rushed over to her and called bruce.

i didn't take in the fact that she was holding a stack of papers until we got to the medbay and she was still holding them.

i gently took them off her and not wanting to intrude on her privacy, i put them on the table next to her bed. but the minute i put them down i saw a familiar black and white drawing. one that i did the night before i got moved to hydra. i picked it up and that's when i realized these papers where all drawings that i had done. i kept them in a drawer in my cell and forgot about them until now.

the drawing was of a person looking into a mirror but the mirror reflection was a completely different person. it was supposed to symbolize the way the red room drained all of us and changed us completely from the person we were born as.

i turned the paper around to see the drawing summed up in words and below it, a small paragraph about the day i drew it.

i always did this, i drew something whenever i felt overstimulated or i just felt the need to let my emotions out late at night. when i did these i would often put all of my emotions and feelings on the back in words. i felt it was a good way to cope with emotions.

bruce then came in to stitch the wound and see if the bullet was still inside, which it was. whilst nat was unconscious, he carefully removed the bullet and stitched up the open wound. he wrapped a gauze around it making sure it heals properly and doesn't get infected.

he then left, leaving me and nat on my own. she was still in her suit but i didn't want to overstep any boundaries, plus i saw her as a mother figure so it felt weird.

looking back to my drawings, i looked at the next one. it was a drawing of a spider crawling on someone's face. not just any spider, the black widow spider.

i remember the time i drew this, it was the middle of the night and i woke up from a nightmare about the red room, so i took out my paper and pencil and did this. it was supposed to symbolize the way i felt trapped here felt like i could never escape. this one didn't have any writing on the back so i didn't know much about this one.