A Saviour At Last (Hawksilver/Marvel AU)

20

The past few hours had been a blur to Clint. 

Natasha had been the one to call the ambulance. He hadn't realised it when he called, but he had phoned his friend by accident. He didn't even notice until he was in the waiting room and she was handing him a cup of coffee.

Pietro had been rushed into surgery as soon as they reached the hospital. Clint couldn't listen to what had been said, his hearing aids gone. Nat tried to explain but he struggled to take in the movements of her hands enough to understand, so eventually, he just zoned out.

His coffee had gone cold. He hadn't even touched it. Nat ended up throwing it in the bin and she didn't offer to get another one for him.  Clint didn't ask.

He felt numb. He was covered in Pietro's blood, it was dry now, sticking to his skin and his clothes. He knew he should wash it off, clean himself up. But he couldn't move.

Nat paced back and forth in front of Clint slowly, her eyes trained on the hallway where the doctors and nurses seemed to come from. They were currently waiting on any news from the surgery room; they had been told that it could be another few hours or a few minutes until they got an update. The vagueness of the whole situation had Natasha on edge.

Clint blinked slowly as he stared at the wall. There was a couple opposite giving him strange looks; he didn't really notice them. His hands gripped at his jacket. He still felt cold despite being inside the heated room. His eyes were dry and puffy now, bloodshot and sore. He couldn't remember when the tears stopped, he assumed it was around the same time the shock had set in. 

Nat huffed and took a seat next to her friend. She glanced to him, he hadn't moved since he had sat down, hunched over and arms wrapped loosely around his stomach, elbows on his thighs. She nudged him gently before she began to sign.

'How are you holding up?' 

Clint didn't answer, his head gave a shallow shook as he slumped further. Nat tried again.

'We should probably get you cleaned up.' 

His fingers dug into his jacket further, he wasn't even looking at her.  Nat sighed softly and squeezed his shoulder. She wasn't going to push. 

They sat for another hour in silence. It was getting late now, long since sun-down. Nat was starting to feel weary but she refused to leave Clint alone. It had now been a total of 5 hours since they had arrived at the hospital.

An exhausted looking surgeon came from the hallway, looking down at a clipboard. Her hair was covered with a paper cap, seemingly having come straight from the operating theatre. 

"Family of Pietro Maximoff?" The doctor looked up.

Nat looked and nodded her head, "Yeah, we're Pietro's family." She rose from her seat and headed over to the doctor. 

Clint saw the movement from the corner of his eyes and tilted his head to look. His gut twisted in confusion and anxiety. He knew they were talking about Pietro, they had to be. He tried to lip read but it was hard to focus.

The doctor looked towards Clint, seeing the state he was in before turning back to Natasha. "Pietro has sustained an incredible amount of damage. He was shot 8 times, a lot of his organs took a pretty big hit. He has a punctured lung and the bullets tore through a lot of tissue. There was a lot of internal bleeding. He was in critical condition for a while." 

Nat nodded stiffly. "And?"

The doctor gave a sigh, "We managed to get him into a more stable condition and repair most of the damage he sustained. However, due to the extent of the damage his body incurred he is currently in a coma. His body has, essentially, shut itself down so it can heal." She explained slowly, "He is far from out of the woods yet. We will be monitoring him closely for any changes. As of yet, we are unsure if or when he will wake up." She placed the clipboard aside. "He is no longer in the operating theatre so you and your friend are more than welcome to sit with him."