Why are you so Stubborn?!
“Carol, behind you!” Sam shouted.
Carol turned around to face the alien coming at her only to be shot in the shoulder by a blue laser beam. She hissed in pain but ignored it for the time being to attack and bring down the slimy bastard that had just shot her. When she defeated the alien, she lifted her hand to her shoulder, cursing when it came back sticky with blood.
“You alright?” Steve asked as he took down the last alien.
Wanda and Sam, who were assigned to this mission with her and Steve, were standing by the Captain, Wanda looking at her with concern.
“I’m fine,” Carol shrugged off the question while surveying the battlefield.
They had figured out that an invasive group of aliens from another planet Carol had saved from them had somehow managed to escape and get to Earth. They had located them in a secluded area in Manhattan, and since it was a smaller group, Fury felt comfortable sending her with only three other Avengers.
“Did we get all of them?” Wanda asked.
“Let’s hope so. If I ever see any of these bastards again, they’ll be sorry,” Carol replied.
“You should get that checked by Bruce or someone in medical when we get back,” Steve told her as they were heading back to the Quinjet.
“Thanks for the concern Cap, but I’m fine.”
Steve raised an eyebrow, pointedly staring at the wound which was bleeding at a steady pace. She looked down at it and shrugged, mentally wincing at the stinging sensation.
“If you’re sure,” Steve said with uncertainty. He made a mental note to try and get ahold of Nat when they got back. Fury sent her on a separate mission, and nobody has been able to contact her and she hasn’t contacted them. He was still going to try though because he had a feeling Carol was in more pain than she was letting on.
“I am.”
“Alright,” he breathed out, sitting in the seat behind Sam, who was in the copilot seat.
Avengers Compound
Carol had tied up her shoulder so the blood would stop on the Quinjet, which left her free to go straight to her room. She shed her suit and hopped into the shower, sighing in relief when the hot water hit her sore and bruised muscles, relaxing her. She quickly washed her hair and body, and once she toweled off and got dressed in shorts and a sports bra, she took off her makeshift bandage to see the full extent of the damage to her shoulder. She winced when she saw the large patch of burnt flesh. She inhaled sharply as she poked at it, causing it to sting badly. She applied some burn ointment and tied it back up in a clean bandage. When that was done, she left the bathroom and collapsed onto her bed, asleep before her head hit her pillow.
Carol awoke to feel nauseous, disoriented, and clammy. She stumbled out of bed and to the bathroom where she proceeded to puke her guts out into the toilet. She wiped her mouth with some toilet paper and flushed the toilet, placing her head against the cool tile of the bathroom. She must've dozed off like that, because the next thing she registered was Steve carrying her in his arms, yelling for someone to come help. She thought she saw a flash of red, but chalked it up to a figment of her imagination.
“Wha’s happening?” She sounded sluggish and found it hard to get the question out, which she thought was odd.
“We’re getting you help,” he told her breathily as he was speed walking down the hall to the medical room.
“M’kay,” she said before passing out.
After Carol entered the compound
“Nick, I need to talk to Nat,” Steve declared as he entered his office.
Fury looked up, unimpressed, from where he was seated at his desk. “And why do you need to do that?”
“Because Carol got injured on our mission and she's refusing treatment.”
Fury showed no outward reaction, but internally he was wondering what the hell she did this time to hurt herself. “If I remember correctly Captain, everyone can decide for themselves if they need medical or not. Even if others think they should.”
Steve had a slight frown forming and a crease between his eyebrows. “Do you know how to contact her or not?”
Fury sighed but unlocked a drawer in his desk and handed Steve what appeared to be a burner phone. Steve opened it and saw only one number saved to it. He rang and put the phone to his ear.
“Hello?”
“Nat, it’s Steve.”
Steve couldn’t see it, but Natasha’s brows furrowed at that. “Why do you have this phone?”
He figured she was somewhere near her target and that’s why she couldn’t use names. “Captain got injured and is refusing treatment. I think it's a lot worse than she thinks.”
“Let me put you on hold for a minute.” Steve heard her ask someone to take the phone, and he patiently stood there as he heard Nat taking her targets out. Fury was staring at Steve blankly, though inwardly he was amused. People never realize they shouldn't underestimate Natasha, and when they do, she's already gotten everything she's needed and disappeared.
“Alright, I'm back. What happened?” Natasha asked as she walked away from the now tied-up and unconscious men.
Steve explained the situation, and Nat’s brows were furrowed the entire explanation. “I told her to get checked out, but she refused. She didn't look too good when we landed, and I'm honestly worried that she's in a lot more pain than she's admitting to.”
“Which is none I'm assuming.”
Steve agreed.
“I'm coming back. Tell Fury to send agents to my location and that the mission is complete. I'm not too far away so I can be there in ten minutes.”
“I'll see you when you get here.”
Natasha ended the call, and Steve handed the phone back to Nick. “She says to send agents to her location for cleanup and that she'll be here in ten minutes.”
“Alrighty then, that's that. Now get the hell out of my office.”
Steve shook his head but left the office to wait at the main entrance of the building for Nat. True to her word, she pulled up ten minutes later. Outwardly, she was showing no signs of worry or stress, but Steve could see the underlying concern in her eyes. Much as she would like for her mask to be impenetrable, Steve knew her too well for that. They could read each other, and that's what made them such a great team and best friends.
“She went to your room when we landed,” Steve told her as they began walking through the compound.
Nat nodded but said nothing. They walked in silence, Steve turning away from the door so Nat could punch in their code to get into the room. The room was dark, but there was a sliver of light coming from the bathroom door. “Carol? Babe? It's me.”
There was no response, so Nat tested the door and was surprised to see it unlocked. She raced over to Carol when she saw her girlfriend unconscious. She tried rousing her but to no avail. She peeled off Carol’s shirt and took off the bandage, gasping at the injury. The area was still burnt badly, a second-close-to-third degree burn, but now, they could see something black pumping slowly from Carol’s injury to her elbow downwards, and to her collarbone upwards. “Steve, we need to get her to Bruce! Now!” Nat exclaimed.
With that, Steve was brought out of his state of shock and rushed over to Nat and Carol, picking the blonde up as easily as someone would a 10-pound weight. He adjusted her so he was holding her bridal style and began his jog through the compound, Natasha right on his heels. He was shouting for help as they approached medical when he felt Carol stir.
“Wha’s happening?”
Her words were slurred, which wasn't a good sign. “We're getting you help,” he said, slightly panting from the exertion this was causing.
“M’kay,” he heard her acknowledge him before blacking out again.
He quickened his pace and placed her on the stretcher. Bruce and Helen immediately set to work.
“What happened?” Bruce asked, taking Carol’s vitals while Cho was attaching an IV.
“She got shot, right shoulder, on our mission,” Steve said.
Bruce inspected it, concern and a slightly fearful expression appearing. “We need everyone to gear up now. Steve, Nat, we all need to be decontaminated, and we need to start pumping her with Ataxia.”
“Bruce, what's wrong with my girlfriend?!” Natasha demanded.
“Whatever she was shot with, it was laced Kraivyth,” he said while ushering them to the section other workers had sectioned off for decontamination.
“What's that?” Steve asked.
“It's a poison, a very deadly and dangerous one. It starts by causing nausea and vomiting, followed by confusion, hence the passing out, and a slowing heart rate. Then it causes pain, millions of neurons feeling like they're on fire all at once. And if it reaches either her kidney or her heart, well…” Bruce trailed off, and Natasha's anger kicked in.
She shoved Bruce against the wall and stared into the depths of his soul, not giving a damn about the Hulk at the moment.
“I swear to God, if you don't find a way to stop this in time, I will tear you and the Hulk into pieces and scatter you across the galaxies,” Natasha growled in his face.
Not only was Bruce himself trembling with fear, but the Hulk was too.
Scary Nat, he told Bruce.
She's just worried, Bruce replied.
Fix Carol, happy Nat.
I'm trying my best.
Try more!
Bruce shook his head but brought his attention back to Nat. “She's going to be fine. We got to her in time. You brought her to us in time. We’ve already started an IV with Ataxia, the antidote. I'm going to suggest putting her in a medically induced coma for a few days, just so her body can rest. I'll regulate her vitals and if anything goes wrong, I'll be there to figure it out.”
Natasha eyed Bruce, and seeing nothing but the truth in his eyes, she backed off. She rapidly turned away from him and headed to the area of the medical wing that was now set up for their decontamination and quarantine.
“She's just scared,” Steve informed a shaky Banner.
“So am I,” Bruce muttered under his breath.
Steve could hear it though because of his super hearing, and he shook his head in slight amusement before following Nat’s lead and entering the decontamination unit.
Two hours later
Natasha was pacing the hall. Forward seven steps, spin on her heels, back seven steps, spin on her heels, forward seven steps, spin again, back seven steps. Steve followed her with his eyes for about twenty seconds when he told her to stop because she was making him dizzy. Natasha scowled at him but sat down in the chair across from him anyways. She placed her elbows on her knees and pitched her head into her hands. Steve reached out and touched her knee, making those green blue eyes meet his baby blue ones. He gave her what he felt was a sympathetic smile, and she dropped her hands from her face to fiddle with the strings of the navy scrubs they had to change into.
“You heard Bruce. We got to her in time. She's going to be fine.”
Natasha scoffed. “Yeah, no thanks to her. What on earth was she thinking?! She got shot by alien technology and thought, ‘hey, I'm going to pretend this never happened because I feel fine?!’ No! Fucking stupid is what that decision was!”
Steve gave her a look, and she arched an eyebrow at him. “What?”
“You know what.”
“No, I really don't.”
“You do, you just don't want to admit it. Which is fine, if you're a coward,” Steve said with a shrug of his shoulders.
Natasha narrowed her eyes at him but didn't fall for the goading he was doing. “Nice try Steve.”
He chuckled. “It was worth a shot.”
The corner of her mouth lifted up, and Steve took that as a sign of success. “That's the first Natasha-like thing I've seen all day.”
“The anger wasn't?”
“No, because that’s not you. You try not to let it show, but you care about all of us. You sign with Clint to make him feel more comfortable and at home, you bake with Wanda and you're an older sister to her, you bring Tony coffee and tell him off when he's been in the lab too long.
“For Bruce, you make sure if someone pisses him off, you're the first one he sees come to his defense so he knows he isn't alone, you don't get mad at Thor when he speaks loudly or when he wants to talk to you about his family, specifically Loki. You've helped Bucky settle into the compound by being a silent shoulder for him to lean on, you answer all of Vision’s questions, no matter how incessant he is or how many he has. You’ve taught Sam methods to help the other vets that he hasn't thought of, and you've helped him make his aim more accurate and faster than it's ever been.
“As for me? You've become my best friend, Nat. You've become someone I can confide in, someone I can go to when I'm feeling overwhelmed, whether it's from nightmares or stuff about this world that I don't understand. You've helped me become better, better at being a person, a friend, a teammate, a leader, and a hero. You've let me come to you in my own time, but you also know when I need a shove in the right direction. You're someone I can rely on, someone I trust infinitely, both on and off the field. You teach me things I've never known or been good at, like effective disguises and how to sneak up on someone. But most importantly, you've taught me that I can't spend the rest of my life hiding from people because I'm scared of losing them. As for all of us, you help us train so we can continue to improve as a team, heroes, and plain old people.”
Natasha was just staring at Steve. Her eyes were rapidly moving from eye to eye, and seeing no deception, the shock remained.
“I never thought I'd see the day someone would render you speechless,” he chuckled nervously, his cheeks tinted pink. He brought a hand up to the back of his neck and scratched it awkwardly as Nat continued to stare at him.
“You mean that?”
It was Steve’s turn to be shocked. “How could I not?”
He swore he saw her eyes glimmering with tears for a split second, but it disappeared as quickly as it came. “You're not too bad of a friend yourself Rogers,” Natasha finally responded with a small smirk.
He scoffed, but was relieved she was back. “I'm hurt,” Steve pouted.
Natasha chuckled and they fell into a comfortable silence, the redhead falling back into her seat and quietly staring at the ceiling, pondering everything Steve revealed to her and just how she would kill her girlfriend if the poison didn't.
A few days later
“All of the Kraivyth is out of her system. Her vitals look good, and her body is pretty much healed. We’ll still keep her here for a few days, just to make sure, but I’ll be waking her from the coma now.”
Natasha nodded at Bruce and immediately began playing with her fingers, staring at her girlfriend intensely as Bruce put the drug that would wake her into the IV.
“Remember, she might not wake right away. It might take a few minutes, hours, or even days. It depends on her now.”
“Thanks Bruce,” Steve said, noticing Nat wasn't paying any attention, just nodding along cluelessly.
He nodded and left the room, in turn leaving Steve with a pissed and concerned ex-assassin, spy, and Avenger.
“Take it easy on her,” Steve said, making Natasha’s head whip towards him, her glare making even his super soldier self cower in fear.
“Take it easy on her?! She almost got herself killed because she's so goddamn stupid and selfrighteous!”
Steve gave his friend a look, telling her to calm down before he kicked her out for disturbing everyone.
She huffed and turned away from him and back to the pale figure of her girlfriend. It was only a few minutes later when Carol began to stir, grimacing at the bright lights. “Ughh, it's too early for this.”
“You've been out for almost a week,” Natasha said flatly.
“What? Nat? Why are you here?” Carol asked while carefully propping herself up against the mountain of pillows on her bed.
“I'm here because you decided to be idiotic and not get checked out! After getting shot! By freaking alien technology!” Natasha fumed.
Carol gave her girlfriend an embarrassed and small smile. “I thought I was ok?” she questioned rather than stated.
“You got shot, by alien technology, as in, technology from another fucking planet, and you THOUGHT THAT YOU WERE OK?!?!”
“Yes?”
Natasha literally growled, and both Carol and Steve flinched. “You don't realize how bad it was, do you?! You were poisoned, Carol! You could've died!”
“But I'm fine,” the blonde protested.
“Yes, but only after Steve called me because he thought something more serious was happening with you! And he was right! Without him, we wouldn't have found you passed out in our bathroom, with poison coursing through your veins! Don't you get it?! You would be dead if Steve didn't have the guts to talk to Fury in order to call me! And if he didn't call me, where would that leave me?! Alone and unable to love again, because of your stubbornness! God, why are you so fucking stubborn?!”
Natasha stormed out, leaving behind a chagrined Carol and a speechless Steve.
“I'm just, gonna go,” he said while standing from his chair, practically racing down the hallway to the elevators so he could escape the wrath of angry Natasha. He would definitely be hiding in his room until she was done kicking whoever’s ass was in the training room.
“FRIDAY, tell everyone, except for Agent Romanoff, obviously, to stay away from her for the time being. I don't want anyone receiving any unnecessary injuries.”
“Of course, Capsicle,” FRIDAY replied.
Steve groaned. Every time he tried to correct FRIDAY, she would stop, only to start again because Tony would fix it again. It was an endless cycle, and an annoying one at that.
Meanwhile, Carol was kicking herself for worrying Natasha like that. She knew how hard it was for the redhead to open herself up to love, and here she was, almost abandoning the woman she’d come to love because she was too damn proud to get help when she knew she needed it. She'd figure out some way to make it up to the redhead. She had to.
After Natasha had cooled off (by laying punches on the punching bag for almost an hour), she headed back up to the medical wing to Carol’s room. She saw her girlfriend asleep, and her heart clenched with relief. She was alive, and she was ok. That was all that mattered.
“Hey,” Carol rasped, waking up to see Natasha in the doorway.
“Hey,” she replied. “I brought a few things. A couple of our favorite movies because I know you’ll be stuck here for a little while, a few as snacks, our blanket, and your favorite tea.”
Carol smiled widely at Natasha. “Thank you. Now put in Moonraker and come cuddle with me,” she said, holding her arms out.
Natasha smiled back and quickly put the movie in, climbing into the hospital bed with the blonde and sighing in content as Carol's arms wrapped around her.
“Love you,” Carol murmured before the movie started.
“я тоже тебя люблю.” (I love you too)