The Mission
WANDA POV:
I was enjoying running with Steve and Nat when all of a sudden, I tripped. I felt my ankle pop and then crack but I quickly pushed off of my bad foot to keep running. Nat looked at me and asked if I was okay. It hurt like a son of a bitch but I didn't want to ruin Nat and Steve's running trip so I sucked it up and told her it was fine as I kept up with them.
Nat slowed down next to me but I pushed harder to show her that I was fine. I did not need her babying me because I tripped.
Luckily we were almost done with the run when I hurt my ankle because my ankle was throbbing by the time we got to the car. Nat asked me if something happened but I told her nothing happened as I got in the car. I didn't need her worrying about me.
Steve suggested going out to breakfast and Nat agreed so pretty soon, we pulled up to a pancake house. My ankle hurt even worse when I got out of the car but I tried to walk as normally as possible to hide it from Nat.
I ate without even thinking about the food because I was so focused on the pain in my ankle. It felt tight and hot and it was just getting worse. Maybe running on it for another 5 minutes wasn't such a good idea.
I was glad when we finally got home so that I could get off of my ankle for a few minutes. Maybe even ice it and take a tylenol to ease the pain.
I went to my room but Nat followed me and grabbed my arm, making me lose my balance and fall on the bed. "What are you doing?" I asked as soon as she started to pull off my shoe. I was 16 which meant that I was very capable of removing my shoes. She quickly got my shoe off and rolled up my leggings, revealing my extremely swollen ankle.
"Oh my gosh! What happened?" she asked, surprised as she turned my ankle slightly.
"I tripped. I'm sorry," I mumbled.
"Did you trip during the last lap? Don't be sorry honey." I just nodded. "Why didn't you tell us to stop?" she asked me.
"I didn't want to worry you or ruin your run," I told her, not meeting her eyes. I didn't want her to get mad at me for ruining her run, that's why I didn't tell her.
"You wouldn't have ruined our run. Well let's go get some ice on this and then maybe we can have Tony look at it."
"It's just a sprain," I insisted. I knew it was probably a break from the crack that I heard when I tripped but I didn't want them to worry about me.
Nat apparently didn't believe me because she said, "Hmm, maybe. Let's see if the ice makes some of the swelling go down." She tried to help me walk out of the room but I shrugged her off as I walked to the kitchen. Nat followed me closely the entire time but I wasn't going to let her help me, no matter how bad it hurt.
She tossed me an ice pack once we got to the kitchen and I wrapped it around my painful ankle as I sat down.
"FRIDAY, can you ask Tony to come here really quick?" I heard Nat ask and I rolled my eyes.
"It's just a sprain," I moaned.
"Well then you should have no problem having Tony confirm that for us," she told me with a raised eyebrow and I just huffed, knowing I wasn't going to win this argument.
Tony waltzed in and ruined my hair. "What's up with the little witch?" I chose to stay silent as I fixed my hair and then continued icing my ankle. I listened as Nat explained what had happened to me during the run and Tony started to look at my ankle. Then he asked FRIDAY to x-ray it and I knew they were going to figure it out.
"It appears that she has a fractured ankle. Recommended treatment is ice and to prevent weight bearing for the next few weeks." Few weeks?! I couldn't last a few weeks without walking on my ankle! I had training!
"You heard her," Tony started, "we'll get her fitted for a boot because apparently it's not bad enough for a cast. Until then, you are to stay off of it." Tony told me and I just nodded, not willing to start an argument over this. I was exhausted from last night and didn't feel up to fighting.
Tony left the room, mumbling something about getting a boot for my ankle. As soon as he left, Nat turned to look at me. "Wanda, how did you run an entire lap with a fractured ankle?" I shrugged. It honestly wasn't that bad, it was really painful but it wasn't the worst thing I had ever felt. Several years of experimentation by Hydra really ups your pain tolerance.
"Alright, well since you can't walk or put weight on your foot, do you want to watch a movie?" Nat suggested. I had a feeling that she wanted to try to get me to sleep since I had fallen asleep almost every time that we watched a movie after a draining night but I didn't know how I felt about that. I wanted to sleep so that I wasn't so tired but I also didn't want to suffer from a nightmare again.
Last night had been terrible, I don't know if I'm ready to relive it. I must've waited too long to respond because I heard Nat clear her throat. "Did you hear me?" she asked gently.
"Oh, um, yeah, sorry. Yeah, I guess, a movie sounds good," I told her.
I followed Nat to the living room and sat down on the couch while she grabbed a blanket. She came and sat next to me so that I could lean against her. We started watching a movie but I could barely pay attention due to how tired I was. Running really took a lot of energy out of you, especially if you barely slept the night before.
I fell asleep with Natasha's fingers carding through my hair.
o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o
I woke up to see that the TV had been turned off. I was laying on the couch, wrapped up in a blanket, my head resting on a pillow. I pushed myself up to see that Nat was not in the living room.
I walked to our room, despite being told to stay off of my ankle. No Nat. The kitchen, no Nat. The lab, no Nat. The gym, no Nat. Where was she? "FRIDAY? Where's Nat?" I asked.
"Ms. Romanoff is currently not in the building," she informed me. Did she go outside?
"Do you know where she went?"
"She got called on a mission with the rest of the Avengers." Why didn't they wake me up? I was supposed to help them with missions.
I started to panic a little bit when I thought of being left in the compound by myself. What mission did they get called to do and why didn't they ask me to come? I felt anger and a little bit of sadness when I thought of them leaving without me. I was capable of fighting, I thought I showed them that in Sokovia.
As I was walking back to the living room, I ran into Pepper.
"Where were you?" she asked me.
"I was looking for Nat, I didn't know you were here," I pushed past her to get to the couch.
"You aren't supposed to be walking on your leg," Pepper told me sternly.
"Yeah? Well who's here to stop me?" I questioned angrily as I threw myself onto the couch.
Pepper decided not to comment on my sarcastic question but instead said, "They should be back soon. Nat didn't want to leave you but she needed to leave quickly to help them."
"Why didn't they bring me?"
"You fractured your ankle, I don't think you would be much help." I rolled my eyes as I turned away from Pepper. I was fine, it was just a fracture! It wasn't even a full break!
"I'm going to go grab you some ice. Don't move," Pepper told me sternly as she left. I just pulled my ankle up next to me to gently rub it. Walking around had aggravated it a little bit.
I quickly dropped my ankle back to the floor when Pepper walked in, I didn't want to show her that it was hurting. She handed me an ice pack. I set it next to me on the couch while I stared out the window.
"Put the ice on your ankle please," Pepper told me. I ignored her, I was mad that I wasn't allowed to go on the mission. "Wanda," she warned.
"What?" I hissed, my voice laced with venom.
"I need you to put the ice on your ankle since you were walking around."
"It's not like I ran a marathon," I snapped.
"I know, but ice will help with the swelling and make it feel better," Pepper was gentle with me but still had a stern edge to her tone. I huffed but picked up the ice and wrapped it around my ankle. I didn't need Pepper tattling to Nat about my disrespectfulness. "Thank you," she said as she sat on the couch next to me. "Do you want to do something?" she asked me.
"Yes, I want to go on the mission with them."
"Wanda, you hurt your ankle. Maybe next time," she told me sympathetically.
"My ankle is fine," I grit out. "I could've at least gone with them to help in case they need it," I tried to reason.
"They'll be fine. They should be home soon, it was just a quick mission."
"What did they have to do?"
"I don't know the details, all I know is that it's supposed to be fast. Nat called me to watch you, telling me that she should be back later this afternoon."
"I don't need a babysitter," I huffed.
"You do. You would've just kept walking on that ankle if I wasn't here to stop you," Pepper told me smugly and I glared at her.
"My ankle is fine-"
"Stop," Pepper held a hand up to stop me. "Your ankle is not fine, FRIDAY already confirmed that. The sooner you accept that and let your ankle heal, the sooner you can get up and walk around, but until then, you need to stay off of it."
"What if I have to go to the bathroom?" I challenged.
"You can use crutches, but you better not put that ankle on the ground."
"I don't have crutches," I scoffed.
"Well I can go grab you a pair from the med-bay. If I find out you moved from this couch, I will tie you down," she said as she left the living room.
Even though Pepper told me that in a teasing tone, it did nothing to ease the oncoming panic. Tie me down? Nat said she would never use restraints on me again but she probably didn't tell Pepper that! If I tried to tell her, she probably wouldn't believe me. I couldn't be restrained again!
I felt my thoughts spiral as my breathing picked up. The room started to feel smaller and my chest felt tighter. I wanted Nat to tell me that she wouldn't restrain me.
I was so busy panicking that I didn't hear Pepper re-enter the room.
"Wanda?" I heard faintly before I felt arms wrap around me. Lavender, not vanilla or flowers like Nat. "What's wrong sweetie?" I heard the familiar voice ask. It was Pepper.
"Restraints," I managed to choke out before I started crying.
"What?" I didn't answer as I cried into her shoulder. Pepper gently rocked me as I cried. I wasn't crying hard but I was panicking. "Honey, calm down. Deep breaths. It's okay," I heard Pepper tell me.
I was glad that Pepper was there but I really wanted Nat. Pepper still managed to calm me down and I pulled away embarrassed. "Sorry," I mumbled as I wiped away the remaining tears on my cheeks.
"It's okay honey. Are you okay? What happened?" she asked me.
"I'm fine. Nothing, really, it's stupid."
"It's not stupid if it made you upset," she told me but I still didn't want to tell her.
"You don't have to tell me, but you can if you want, okay?" I nodded. "Alright, are you hungry? It's lunch time." I wasn't really hungry so I shook my head. "How about you try to eat something small?" I shrugged but Pepper got up to go to the kitchen so I grabbed the crutches and followed her.
I ate a piece of bread with some applesauce. I couldn't stomach anything else but Pepper seemed satisfied so she let me go to my room after I finished that.
I read for a few hours and then I folded some laundry from when we went to the farm. By the time I finished everything, it was already 5 o'clock. I thought everyone was supposed to be back by this afternoon? It was edging into the evening now.
I grabbed my crutches and set out to find Pepper. I found her in the kitchen, making dinner. She kept checking her phone that was next to her on the counter. I tried to stay unnoticed but the sound of my crutches gave me away.
"Hey!" she said with what sounded like fake cheer as she paused in cutting potatoes to look at me.
"Hi, where is everyone? I thought the mission was only supposed to take a few hours?"
"They should be here any minute," she said that as she glanced at her phone again.
"What's going on?" I asked her. "Where are they?"
Pepper seemed to have an internal battle with herself before she sighed as she gave me an answer, "They were supposed to notify me if the mission was going to take longer than expected but I still haven't heard anything. This could just mean that they are headed back right now but I'm not sure. Sometimes their missions go over the expected time so don't worry."
"What time were they supposed to be back?"
"2." It was already after 5. Three hours had gone by without any notifications from them. I know that a mission can go well over 3 hours longer than expected but they are supposed to let us know.
"What are we going to do?" I asked.
"Wait. We don't know where they are. They are fine, they'll be here soon," she told me.
"We can't just wait Pep! We have to go find them, what if they're hurt?'
"I bet they're fine. If we don't hear anything by tomorrow morning, then we will contact SHIELD and find them."
"Tomorrow morning? That's way too long! Someone could be dying!"
"Okay, we'll eat dinner and then if we don't hear anything by 9 p.m. we will contact SHIELD. Better?"
"I guess," I huffed. I felt a little better knowing that we would contact someone in a few hours if we don't hear anything but I still wanted something to be done immediately.
Dinner felt like it took forever. Pepper made chicken with fried potatoes and a large salad. I didn't have an appetite with worry over what was going on with Nat and the rest of the team.
Pepper tried to get me to calm down a little bit by putting on a movie but I was still anxious.
We got about halfway through the movie when I heard the jet landing outside. I jumped up, grabbed my crutches, and rushed outside with Pepper following me.
Tony left the jet first, closely followed by a gurney. My stomach dropped and I felt bile rise in my throat. Who was it?
Steve and Rhodey were pushing the gurney so that ruled them out. They were running as they pushed it. As they passed me, I saw the unmistakable bright red hair on the gurney.
I leaned over and threw up on the lawn, my entire dinner coming up. I immediately took off, following the gurney. What happened to her? Where were they taking her? Was she still alive? That thought brought tears to my eyes. I couldn't lose another person who I loved.
I got into the compound with tears streaming down my face. "FRIDAY? Where did they take Nat?" I asked, trying to hold back the sobs.
"They took Ms. Romanoff to the med-bay," she told me almost apologetically and I immediately crutched my way to the med-bay.
I went down the hall, looking in the rooms, trying to find which room she was in. All of the rooms were empty. I let out a strangled scream as I tried not to fall to the floor.
I felt a hand on my shoulder and I turned to see Steve standing there. "Where's Tasha?" I choked out. He looked at me sympathetically. "Please Steve, where is she?" I was crying at this point.
"She's okay." Those words caused a wave of relief to rush over me but I was still incredibly worried.
"Where is she?" I screamed. My legs buckled and the crutches slipped out from under me as I started to fall. Steve was quick in grabbing my and lifting me up into his arms. "Steve, where's Nat?" I cried.
"Shh, shh," he said as he bounced me slightly. It made me feel like a baby but I honestly didn't care, I wanted Nat.
He carried me into the 'waiting room' part of the med-bay. Pepper was there along with Vision and Rhodey. Tony was not in the room which meant that he was probably with Nat. I didn't know where Bruce, Thor, or Sam were but none of them have lived with us recently so there was a chance that they didn't go on the mission.
Steve sat down in a chair with me. Normally, I would be embarrassed that I was sitting in Steve's lap but at this point, I couldn't care less, I just wanted Nat.
"What happened?" I asked, absolutely distraught.
"There was a slight surprise during the mission," Steve started. "We were told that it was supposed to be a quick, easy, in-and-out mission so we only took the five of us. It started easy but by the time we broke into the warehouse, there were way more people than expected and we were quickly outnumbered. We held them off for a few hours but more and more of them started filing into the room. We were all able to communicate through the comms but it took us a few minutes to realize that we hadn't heard from Nat in awhile. Once we realized, we immediately started trying to connect to her. We were there to stop a shipment of weapons but that became second priority once Nat was missing. Tony found her in one of the back rooms of the warehouse, bloody and unconscious. We aren't exactly sure what happened but she needs surgery. So far, we know that she has a few broken ribs, some internal bleeding, a lot of cuts and bruises, and a possible concussion. All of this is manageable and she should make a full recovery. We are flying Helen Cho in, she's the best of the best. We tried to find Bruce but he is still MIA. I'm sorry Wanda." I had silent tears streaming down my face throughout his entire summary but I immediately burst into sobs as soon as he finished.
If I had gone, I might have been able to save her. Steve just pulled me into a hug while he rubbed large circles on my back. "I want Tasha!" I cried into his shoulder. "Please Steve! I want Nat!" He whispered reassurances to me. I was normally better at controlling my emotions but all I could see was Nat's fiery hair laying on the gurney, her broken body being led into the compound. I was also still tired so my emotions were all over the place.
Steve passed me to Pepper after a few hours had passed. I had finished sobbing but I was still crying as I was placed on Pepper's chest. I just laid my head down as tears leaked out of the corner of my eyes. I wanted Nat so bad.
It got late quick and soon, it was midnight and we still hadn't heard anything about Nat. The last thing we heard was that Helen had arrived. Pepper tried to get me to sleep but I told her I couldn't without Nat.
"Try to sleep baby," Pepper told me as she rubbed my back. "We'll wake you up the second we hear something about Nat, okay? I promise."
"I can't sleep," I told her numbly.
"Nat would want you to sleep, not sit here and worry about her. You need your rest hon, just close your eyes and try to rest." I tried to pull away but Pepper placed a gentle hand on the back of my head and gently guided it back to her shoulder. "Sleep baby. If you can't sleep here you can go back to your room," Pepper offered.
We were still in the waiting room but there was no way that I was going to go back to my room to sleep. "No!" I cried as I held closer to Pepper. I didn't want to go to my room, it was way too far from the med-bay.
"Okay, you don't have to baby. It was just a suggestion," Pepper rocked me slightly in her arms, trying to make me fall asleep. I'm embarrassed to say that it was working as I felt my eyelids growing heavier.
I tried to fight the sleep but I could no longer hold my eyes open as I fell into a dark world.
o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o
I jerked awake after having a dream that Nat died. Tears immediately sprung to my eyes as I heard Tony's voice tell me that Nat died. Pepper was still holding me and the rest of the team was in the waiting room.
Pepper immediately started hushing me and rocking me after I woke up, probably assuming that I had had a nightmare.
"How's Nat?" I asked through my tears, almost scared to ask.
Steve answered, "We're not sure yet. We haven't heard anything."
"Nothing?" My voice cracked as I asked this.
"Not yet sweetie," Pepper responded. "We would ask but we don't want to distract them if they are helping Nat." I just gripped onto Pepper's shirt as I continued to cry. I was so done with this day.
I laid there for a few more minutes before I heard a female voice clear their throat behind me. I lifted myself off of Pepper and whipped around, turning to see who I assumed was Helen Cho standing in the doorway.
Steve and Rhodey stood up as they walked closer to Helen. I scrambled to grab my crutches and get off of Pepper. I almost fell over when I stood up but Pepper and the crutches helped steady me.
"How is she?" I blurted out as soon as I was standing.
"She'll make a full recovery," Helen said and I almost cried in relief but I was out of tears. "The surgery was successful, we stopped the internal bleeding and reset some of her bones. One of her broken ribs punctured a lung but it was small so we were able to patch that up quickly. She has a concussion but we don't believe that there will be any lasting effects or brain damage. She'll need to rest the next couple of weeks but she will be okay. She is breathing on her own but is still unconscious from the surgery. She should be up within the next few hours."
I smiled my first real smile in several weeks. I was still exhausted but I was beyond happy that Nat would be okay. All of the things that Nat suffered from sounded scary but I was ready to be with her for her recovery.
"Can I see her?" I asked.
"Of course," Helen responded as she started to lead me to one of the back rooms. I saw Nat laying in one of the beds, unconscious but alive. It took all of my strength not to jump into her arms. "I'll let you guys be," Helen said as she left the room. I crutched up to her bed and collapsed into one of the chairs next to her, carefully grabbing one of her hands.
Steve, Pepper, Vision and Rhodey filed into the room where they sat on the couch behind me. Tony walked in a few minutes later and pulled up a chair to sit on the other side of Nat.
Vision and Rhodey left quickly after seeing Nat, leaving Pepper, Steve, Tony and me in the room. "Are you okay little witch?" Tony asked me from his spot in the room.
I lifted my head off of the bed and looked at him. "Why didn't you bring me?" I asked, not mad, just curious.
"We thought it would be fast and with your ankle, we didn't want you to hurt yourself more going on a mission." He seemed to be leaving something out but I didn't particularly care at this point, now that I had Nat.
"Get some sleep Wanda," Steve said from behind me.
"I wanna make sure Nat's okay," I whined.
"She's fine, look, she's right there," Steve said. "We'll wake you if she wakes up before you okay?" I nodded but still didn't try to sleep.
I heard movement behind me and felt a hand on my shoulder. I turned to see Pepper. "Will you sleep if you're with Nat?" she asked and I looked at her confused. "I bet she'll wake up faster if you're next to her," she hinted.
I very carefully lifted myself out of the chair and crawled into bed next to Nat, laying my head on her shoulder, careful not to pull on any of the tubes or wires monitoring her.
I immediately felt safer as I closed my eyes and drifted to sleep, gripping Nat's gown in my hand.