Back Home
Clint slowly returned to the land of the living, to a low blended murmur of the heart monitor and voices nearby talking in quiet tones. He didn’t need Stark’s level of intelligence to know that they had him on some strong painkillers right now because he was definitely feeling no pain. But other than the initial disorientation of coming to, his head was as clear as a bell, and that puzzled him as to how that could be possible.
“Hey, I think he’s awake!” he heard Cap’s voice say.
In the next second, Bruce Banner’s face appeared, and the man smiled widely at Clint when he saw he was indeed awake. “JARVIS, would you please tell Natasha that Clint has woken up, and then would you ask both Tony and Doctors Cho and Simmons to please come here?”
“Certainly, Dr. Banner.”
JARVIS? Wait that meant that-
“Yeah, you’re back at the tower,” Bruce answered his unspoken question as Steve, and not surprisingly Coulson appeared within his line of vision.
“How?” he croaked, his voice gravelly and hoarse.
“It’s because Agent Simmons was onboard the medivac Thor met up with and she was able to get you stabilized enough to make the return trip back here possible,” said the SHIELD director as he stepped up beside the other two men.
Bruce poured the archer a cup of water, and helped him take a few sips. “Thanks.”
“Don’t mention it.”
Turning his gaze to Coulson he said with obvious frustrated annoyance, “Since you’re here, sir, I take it that we didn’t get Loki’s scepter back.”
“No, we… that is the rest of the Avengers, were not able to take back the scepter. After Thor flew away with you, HYDRA decided to make a tactically sound and wise decision to retreat,” Coulson confirmed.
Clint swore softly, shaking his head, “I don’t understand why they’d do that since they would have had the advantage because the team would have been down two Avengers. I’m not sure even the Hulk at his angriest-” he glanced at Bruce, “could make up for the fact that we were down by two.”
“Or maybe,” Tony said as he entered the room,“The cowards were afraid of the Widow’s bite from the not so Itsy Bitsy Spider, and deciding tucking their tails between their legs before legging it out of there was the best course of action. Speaking of which where is Red? I thought she would have beaten us here-” He gestured at Cho and Simmons who had followed him in, “by a huge margin.”
Almost at the same time the words left his mouth, Tony found himself nearly knocked flat to the ground when Natasha hurried into the room, and pushed him aside. She shot towards the bed like a speeding bullet where her lips crashed against Clint’s own waiting ones, and for once the two master assassins/spies were oblivious to the fact they were putting on quite the public display of affection.
Their kiss went on for such an impossible (and impressive) length of time, that Tony had had his mouth opened to make what likely would have been a crude comment but never had the chance to say it as Steve’s hand clamped firmly down over his mouth. When he heard Coulson muttered the word supernanny, he stopped trying to get out of the hold Steve still had over him.
Neither Coulson or Steve could miss the widening of the billionaire’s eyes but just to be sure he asked quietly, “Message received?”
Tony nodded an affirmative.
Satisfied that he would not give voice to whatever snarky comment that had been in his head just moments ago, the SHIELD director nodded to his boyhood hero, and the two men stepped away from Tony just as the two deadly lovebirds broke up their kiss.
“I’m sorry,” Clint apologized a bit breathlessly to his wife.
With her indifferent spy mask firmly back in place, Natasha replied, “Just don’t let it happen again, Barton.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
Tony whistled, and quipped, “Wow is it just me or did it go from like Tahiti hot in here to dead of winter Siberian cold in like a microsecond flat?”
“Stark!” More than one voice, including that of the man in the hospital bed, contributed to the reprimand even as Natasha turned around to nail Tony with one of her dirtiest looks ever.
Tony raised his hands in a gesture of surrender, and he decided that changing the subject was in order. “So anyway, what was it that you were saying about Loki’s scepter and HYDRA when we came in, Director Agent?”
“Uh, shouldn’t we call Thor in first if we’re going to have this discussion right now?” Bruce asked.
“No, what you should do is all clear the room so I can examine my patient!” Dr. Cho said. “I would like for everyone who isn’t Dr. Simmons, Agent Romanoff, or myself to please leave the room now. And before you ask, Tony, everyone means you too!”
“But it’s my tower!”
“And Agent Barton ismy patient who has the right to confidentiality under the law,” The small Korean woman shot back without missing a beat She pointed at the door, and made a shooing gesture, “Out please… or do I need to give Mrs. Stark a call?”
“Oh wow, Helen, you’re so bossy! See if I invite you over to play again anytime soon!” Tony whined as he exited the room.
Shaking her head, Dr. Cho muttered something in her own language before she cleaned her hands, and donned rubber gloves. She approached the bed from the side Natasha was not on, and began removing Clint’s bandages, saying over her shoulder, “Would you like to take a look along with me, Dr. Simmons?”
Shaking herself out of her deer caught in headlights shock that had been induced by the now absent mechanical billionaire genius, Jemma smiled, and said, “Of course, doctor. I am very eager to see the results of your handiwork!”
At the very moment that Doctor Cho had cut away and removed the last bandage over Clint’s wounds, Natasha looked away. Yes, she had seen and had caused plenty of gore since she had completed her training in the Red Room. But even so she couldn’t bring herself to look at her husband’s wounds again, especially not when she could close her eyes right now, and see his blood pouring out from his side. Regardless of how hard she’d pressed to stop it, the flow had remained the same and she knew that Clint had been right when he said he would bleed out in ten minutes without immediate medical intervention.
Every instinct she had either through training or by experience told Natasha that Clint should be lying dead on a cold morgue slab somewhere instead of the actually comfortable hospital bed that Stark had provided when he had stocked the tower’s infirmary floor.
“What the…” Natasha heard Clint say, obvious surprise in his tone. “That is not what I expected to see!”
“I must agree, Dr. Cho!” Simmons said, then added excitedly, “Being the first physician to render treatment to Agent Barton’s wounds, I honestly expected to find find them only minorly healed at this point but the results of your treatment have far exceeded my expectations! It’s amazing that not only are his wounds all but gone but there’s hardly any scarring left behind to speak of!”
At hearing this, Natasha whipped her head around to look at Clint’s chest and abdomen, relieved to find out that the SHIELD scientist was not exaggerating. There were no wounds on him, and what’s more the only scars she could see present were the ones she knew he had already from past assignments!
As she lightly touched the areas where his wounds had been, Dr. Cho could not quite hide her own astonishment over this turn of events. But still just to be sure thing were as they seemed, she pressed a little heavier and asked, “Is this sensitive or uncomfortable in anyway when I do this?”
“No.”
“Does it hurt?”
“No, it feels fine.”
With a nod, and a snap of the rubber gloves coming off, Dr. Cho said, “I see no reason to reapply your bandages since your wounds have completely healed.”
“So does this mean that I can get out of here today?”
The Korean doctor shook her head, “No, it does not! You lost a lot of blood before Dr. Simmons was able to get it under control. Yes, we replaced the lost blood with a transfusion, but pair the blood loss with the fact I want to keep you here to watch for infection. So no, that means you will not be leaving the infirmary today!”
"Oh great," the archer groused.
“Do not worry, Agent Barton,” the doctor said, “I am quite certain that this will be nothing more than one night’s stay for you. I just want to be certain that no infection has set in.”
“Good ‘cause, and you can ask SHIELD doctor about this, I am not the most patient patient in the world when it comes to getting out of the infirmary!”
“Come now, Agent Barton, I find that very hard to believe!” Dr. Cho quipped with a smile and facetious tone before she added, “In any case, barring any complications, I do not see why you won’t be cleared to leave the infirmary and be allowed to return to your own floor come tomorrow, or the day after on the outside.”
Clint clearly wasn’t happy to be forced to stay in bed, but he didn’t argue any further. Instead he asked, “Hey, doc, would it be alright for the others to come back in now and we finish our conversation?”
“Yes, it’s okay as long as you promise me you’ll end things if you start to feel yourself getting tired.”
Natasha gave him a meaningful look, and assured the doctor, “Oh don’t worry about that.”
Cho heard Natasha’s message of I’ll break things up if he doesn’t do it first, and she nodded, “JARVIS, would you please tell everyone that it’s alright if they come back in now?”
“Yes, of course, Doctor.”