*Previously*
Tony rushed forward towards the man, lasers blaring. It was just then that I saw it.
"Tony! NO" I yelled, but it was too late.
There was nothing I could do.
Steve's POV
CLICK. Oh, that's not good. Our eyes all were drawn to where the sound came from.
A bomb. No!
I looked at the timer and it had 1 minute displayed in red on the front. The leader smirked as this happened, Tony had triggered it and we had to get out of here now.
Nat rushed forward, I have never seen her move so fast. She shot the man dead in the head, killing him, grabbed a laptop on the desk for information, and then ran out of the room, the rest of us in tow.
We turned down corridor after corridor but we didn't seem to be getting any closer to an exit.
"20 seconds!" Tony reported as we ran down another corridor. I had noticed that Nat had started to slow a little and I started to get worried about her.
"I don't feel good." Nat weakly reported and she turned back towards us. I gasped at what I saw. She was dripping blood, her face was as white as a ghost and she appeared to be breathing erratically. Not good.
"There's the exit!" Clint shouted but Nat kept slowing more and more. We had mere seconds left before the bomb went off and we had to get out of there. I rushed forward and scooped Nat up in my arms as we sprinted towards the exit.
The ringing sound of the explosion burst into my ears and I made one last leap out of the door before the base blew up.
The sheer force of the explosion blasted me off of my feet and I was pushed forward onto the concrete. I tried to shelter Nat in any way possible as we came into contact with the hard ground.
I lay there for a few seconds just trying to regain my senses. I was distracted however when I heard coughing coming from somewhere next to me. I looked over and saw Nat laying there, dazed but still awake which is a good thing.
Her coughing subsided and I sat up, crawling over to her to make sure that she is ok.
"You good?" I asked before I stood up and offered her a hand to get up. She nodded, accepting it and she stood up shakily. I wrapped my hand around her waist to support her because her condition hadn't improved and she was still on the verge of passing out.
I glanced around the rest of the rumble and quickly located the rest of the Avengers. Tony was standing over Bruce who had shrunken down again and Clint was hobbling over to us.
I waited until they all made their way over to us and then we all silently stumbled our way back to the jet. Other than Nat, it seemed that everyone made it out relatively injury-free. I had a few gashes that might require stitches but it was nothing too major considering how much of a close call this mission had been.
We all piled onto the jet and Clint went up the front to pilot. I sat Nat down and grabbed a few towels to mop up some of the blood. Tony came over and started applying pressure to the wound but decided to wait until we get back to the tower to have someone look at it properly.
I thought back to the explosion and how close we had come to being blown up. All in all, this mission was far too much of a close call for my liking. Far too close.
Nat's POV
The plane journey back to the tower felt like it took forever but at last, the tower came into view. The pain in my shoulder had increased with every passing second, how I haven't passed out from blood loss is beyond me.
I winced slightly as the jet made contact with the ground but quickly covered it up, showing pain was a weakness after all.
Everyone stood up as the engines turned off, grabbing their belongings.
"Who's taking Nat to medical?" Bruce asked as he grabbed his stuff.
"Right here you know. And I can take myself." I replied coldly, there was something about Bruce that rubbed me up the wrong way.
"I'll take you, I have a few cuts I wouldn't mind getting looked at anyway." Steve piped up. I huffed and rolled my eyes, I am a strong, independent woman and could take myself to medical but at least he talked about me like I was there.
Steve and I both walked off the plane together in silence and headed in the direction of medical. We got into the elevator and Steve pressed the button for the correct floor.
"I can take myself down to medical, it doesn't even hurt that much," I told Steve as we rode down to medical. All he did was smirk at me which was even more infuriating.
"For an injury that doesn't hurt that much you do wince at even the slightest movements," he commented matter-of-factly. I was slightly taken aback, I had tried so hard to hide my pain and yet he had seen it anyway. Either he is observant or the pain is prohibiting me from fully hiding my emotions, maybe both.
"I am a strong, independent woman who can take herself to get treated, Steve," I replied sighing as I did so.
"Yeah, you are a strong, independent woman who needs to allow people to help sometimes, especially when she is in pain," Steve remarked. I walked off the elevator ahead of Steve to hide just how much is his words affected me. Just maybe he was right. Maybe.
"Ms. Romanoff. Mr. Rogers. What can I do for you?" A nurse asked as we entered. I smiled weakly at her.
"Bullet wound treatment please," I replied as sweetly as I could considering the amount of pain I was currently in.
"Ok come right through both of you." The nurse said and guided us into one of the rooms. I got up onto the hospital bed and Steve took a seat on the chair next to the bed.
A doctor entered the room and I tensed a little, I had never like hospitals or doctors, ever since the Red Room. If you encountered a doctor there, it never led to anything good.
Steve must've noticed because he sent me a concerned look. I chose to ignore his look and return my gaze to the doctor.
"Ok, Ms. Romanoff, I am just going to take an x-ray to check where the bullet is and then we can treat it. But I am going to need you to get changed, a hospital gown preferably." The doctor said as he put on some gloves.
"Absolutely not. I can take my suit off, I have clothes underneath, but there is no way you are getting me in a hospital gown." I answered forcefully. The last time I was in a hospital gown, I was- well it wasn't good. They brought up painful memories and flashbacks that I didn't want to have, especially not when I had a teammate next to me.
"Of course, I will send a nurse in to help with that, but let me take an x-ray first," He said, grabbing a machine and fiddling around with it. A few seconds later he moved over to a screen and studied what I assumed was the x-ray image.
"Well, Ms. Romanoff, the bullet has just missed the bone and looks to only be tissue damage which is a good thing. We will be able to treat it fairly easily." The doctor reported. At least it was nothing too major.
He stood up and left the room right as the nurse re-entered the room to help me change. Steve promptly left the room to give me some privacy which I was immensely grateful for and the nurse got to work.
We had to cut the suit to get me out in the end but we did it, and I was now sitting in a tight singlet and tights on the bed. Steve came back a few minutes later looking slightly fresher than what he did before, I assume he found a bathroom and rinsed his hands and face.
I watched as his eyes wandered to my wound, which had a pressure bandage that was also slowly turning red with my blood. He looked downcast as he came and sat back down in the chair.
"Hey, what's wrong?" I asked although I was fairly sure of what his answer would be.
"It should've been me." He mumbled, yep, exactly what I thought he was going to say. His entire body was radiating guilt from the second that he realized I had taken the bullet for him.
"No, don't blame yourself, it wasn't your fault. You can't protect your sixth and fight 10 guards at the same time, that is what having a team is for. The reason I got hurt was due to the lack of teamwork and communication between the team." I assured him as the doctor enter the room with a tray full of suturing supplies.
"I still feel like it's my fault, you did take the bullet for me." He admitted, and I sighed softly.
"And I would do it again if it meant I didn't have a dead teammate. I am kind of bummed that the laptop was the only information we got. But then again that was also due to lack of teamwork, and trust, Tony didn't trust my judgment when he went for the leader and no one trusts each other with their lives, which is a key thing in a well-functioning team." I said.
"We just have to get the bullet out and then we can stitch the wound." The doctor said as he reached for the anesthetic equipment but I stopped him as he did so.
"Don't bother with the anesthetic, it doesn't have much of an effect on me anyway," I said, he didn't know much about me and the serum that I have. He nodded and started to clean the wound with alcohol.
It burned but I remained stoic, the worst was yet to come. But still, it is nothing the black widow can't handle.
He grabbed tweezers and so I looked directly forward blankly, ensuring that my face remained calm and void of emotions. There was no way I was going to show how much pain I was in to a new teammate and a doctor.
The doctor started fishing around in my wound for the bullet and I gripped the sheets. Again, Steve picked up on my discomfort and reached forward, placing his hand over mine comfortingly.
It did help me relax slightly and the doctor finished pulling the bullet out of my shoulder. The pain lessened a little and the doctor started to stitch up my wound.
It was then that another nurse entered the room, but this time she walked over to Steve and started to tend to a few gashes that we had as well.
Within 20 minutes, we were all fixed up and allowed to leave. We both walked to the elevator in silence and entered the elevator.
"You know, you are right about the teamwork being the reason we nearly got blown up," Steve said, breaking the silence.
"Yeah, but I don't know what we can do to improve it though," I said sighing. We had to be better, but I didn't have the slightest clue as to how.
"Actually, in the army, we had to go on team building camps and things to get to know each other and how we functioned better. We would have to go camping in the middle of nowhere and have to fend for ourselves for a few days. All part of the training." He informed me and I nodded along.
"A camping trip in the middle of nowhere actually sounds like a good idea. I mean the only time we have spent together as a team other than missions was the housewarming party and Clint and Tony were too drunk to remember much at all." I said, smiling a little at the memory.
"Ok, how about we take the idea to Tony then and see what he can do to make it happen." He said as we got off the elevator on our floor. I nodded in agreeance and turned to face him as I got to my door.
"Let's talk to him tomorrow," I said and he smiled at me. I looked down at my feet, taking a deep breath before looking back up at him, directly into his ocean blue eyes.
"Thanks for taking care of me today Steve," I said, smiling sweetly at him.
"Shouldn't I be the one saying thank you considering you took a bullet for me that probably would have killed me otherwise?" He replied, his guilty look seeping back into his facial features. I wanted to comfort him, reassure him that I am ok and that I would do it a thousand times if it meant saving one of my teammates.
To be honest though, the more I try and comfort him, the worse I can tell it makes him feel so I just decided to smile at him, ending the conversation.
"Goodnight Soldier," I called as I turned to unlock my door.
"Goodnight Widow." He said following my actions. I looked back and smiled one more time and then entered my room. I sighed and got myself ready for bed, food was the last thing I felt like doing after such a long day.
I dragged myself to the shower, took a truckload of painkillers, and then flopped onto my bed, my eyes closing before I even hit the pillow.
Tomorrow would be interesting, and if we could convince Tony to help us do it, I couldn't wait to go on a camp with the boys. It would be so much fun, regardless of how annoying they can be at times.
2400 words! Hope you enjoyed it!