All as one?
Four hours passed, four silent and painful hours. Natasha didn't even so much as move after Bobbi gave her the antidote, naturally, everyone's thoughts jumped immediately to the fact that they had run out of time. They were too late. Natasha was just dying slowly, it wouldn't be long before she was completely gone. They were doing all that they could for her, Bobbi was doing all she could for her, the drip still ran its way into her body to keep her hydrated but Bobbi was beginning to think that it was useless. Natasha wasn't going to wake up, they'd been too late.
Only, she did.
She stirred with a groan, it was a soft sort of sound that people could've easily missed if they weren't paying attention to her as vigilantly as they were, each one of them was painfully aware. Natasha's hand twitched in Bucky's and his eyes shot open wide, he had started to doze off but now he was perfectly awake and alert. He looked down at his hand as she gave it a weak squeeze.
"Nat?" he spoke, there was a sort of desperate tone in his voice. He looked exhausted and he was a little worse for the wear after their impromptu mission, it was wholly worth every ounce of exhaustion and he knew he should sleep but he remained by her side anyway. "Natalia?"
She inhaled a deep, unsteady breath as her eyes opened slowly and she mumbled quietly that the lights were too bright for her; Clint immediately turned them off. Bobbi moved to Natasha's side and requested that Bucky move for a moment as she reached out to place her hand on Natasha's wrist to monitor her heartbeat. It wasn't like she had proper equipment.
"Her heart rate is a little faster than I'd like but it's still strong," Bobbi spoke as she reached over to squeeze Bucky's arm in order to reassure him, her eyes moved to Clint and Steve and she offered both a reassuring smile.
"What happened?" Nat whispered quietly. "Ugh, drink, drink. My throat is killing me," she moaned, her hoarse voice sounding weak.
Each person in the room was glad though that at least she was alive. Steve walked off before coming back and holding out a glass of water with a straw in, he held a calm smile as he watched Natasha.
"Welcome back," he spoke softly. "You had us worried for a little while there."
She shot a look at Bucky that was both panicky and annoyed simultaneously. She remembered very little about what had happened when she was shot but she did remember things from before and she did know that she didn't want them to be here. They weren't supposed to be here. She'd explicitly told Bucky that she didn't want them here. She didn't want anyone playing hero.
"What happened?" she demanded weakly. "You aren't supposed to be here," she addressed Clint, Steve, and Bobbi as she spoke. She wouldn't have any of them here if she had a choice so that told her that she definitely didn't. Her eyes moved to the basic things she was hooked up to, she huffed out a sigh.
Bucky stopped her before she had the chance to yank at any of the wires or tubes. He knew exactly what she was about to do and that was why she earned the scornful look, he knew all too well that she was going to wind up trying to yank them out and causing herself more damage in the process and he wasn't about to let that happen. She'd endured enough, her body needed to rest.
She needed to let it rest.
"You were shot, the bullet was laced with a poison I've never seen before, I did a hell of a lot of tests, I tried to break the compounds to see if I could make an antidote myself but I couldn't. We needed to go back into a facility and get some information. I had three hours to make something or you were going to die. We didn't have that long left when I gave you the antidote so we had no idea if it was gonna work or whether we were too late," Bobbi explained. "It was touch and go, Natasha. You could've died. For real this time. It was shutting your body down a little at a time."
She recoiled at her name and yelped at the movement, the pain she caused herself in the process seemed too much for her so she settled down again however reluctantly that might have been.
"I flew halfway around the world to save your ass, don't make me kick it. Rest for now. I know you've got some big epic mission to get back to but Nat? You almost died. Everything I did for over a day kept you alive but it didn't make that poison stop. The guys had to go in and literally get me information on what they did to you so I could make an antidote by pulling an impromptu mission and going into a facility. We're all exhausted. We all need to sleep, rest, and recuperate. I get it, you don't want any of us involved in this but tough cookies, badass. We're here. You needed us whether you wanted to admit it or not, you nearly died and I'll be damned if we're just gonna sit by and let that happen again because you're too stubborn to accept help from people that love you. So stop being such a pain in my goddamn ass and get some rest, okay?" Bobbi spoke as she studied Natasha, she looked absolutely resolute and totally unphased by the fact that she'd basically just told off and lectured an unhinged Russian assassin.
"Where's Ben?" Nat questioned softly, she offered Bobbi a small smile. Bobbi immediately softened and she laughed just a little. She was starting to sound like Natasha again which made Bobbi ease up slightly.
"With Kate, he'll be glad to see you when you get back. Not if, when. You are not letting my kid lose his aunt, you hear me? Besides, you have another one to meet just yet so don't you go slipping too deep into that rabbit hole on me," Bobbi looked down at her stomach as she spoke. "Just gone ten weeks, I hadn't really gotten around to saying anything to anyone just yet because I didn't find out until a couple of days ago but now is as good a time as any. You're gonna be an aunt again Romanov, whichever side of you that is. You know damn well how much we love you. You know how much Ben loves you so if you're going down that crazy road, we're coming down with you."
"You're pregnant?" Clint spoke to his wife with his mouth slack. "Bob! Why didn't you say anything?"
"Because all we've done lately is work dummy and I haven't known for long, I wanted to say something then all of this happened and then I was gonna put it off again but like I said: now seems like a good time to say something. Romanov there needs something to hold onto, so this is a good way of giving her something," Bobbi smiled as she spoke; she moved toward Clint and wrapped her arms around him as she leaned up to kiss him. "Think we're ready for baby number two?"
"Hell yeah!" Clint replied with a grin. "I'm gonna be a dad again! This is amazing!" He sounded so damn happy as he spoke. Clint couldn't contain his excitement; he picked up his wife and span her around before kissing her.
Natasha seemed to brighten at Bobbi's words. "Congratulations guys, I bet Ben's gonna be super excited," she spoke as she pushed herself up slightly and very slowly to sit up, she glanced at the bullet wound and sighed.
She hated the fact that she was going to have to switch back to business mode but still, she couldn't avoid it. She'd get back to the celebrations later but for now, they had something they needed to figure out.
"I knew, I knew someone was tailing me. I knew that I was drawing someone's attention but I thought I could handle it," she admitted as she looked at Bucky, Clint, Steve, and Bobbi, she looked rueful. "I didn't think they'd get that close or that they'd pull something like this. It was someone like me, people like James don't use poisons. It was another Widow."
"Any idea who?" Bucky questioned, Natasha, shook her head. "Okay, that's an issue." He breathed out a sigh. They really didn't need more loose cannon Widows running around trying to take her out on the orders of a bunch of psychopaths who granted, Natalia had picked a fight with but that was irrelevant.
"I'll call Melina, and see if she and Alexei know anything," Natasha spoke through her pain. "Yelena too, she might know more. She came out of it all more recently than I did."
"Call who?" Clint questioned as he wrapped his arms around Bobbi. He took his wife's hand in his and brought it to his lips to kiss it. Bobbi smiled. "Guess there's a lot I don't know huh..." He sounded sad as he spoke. Natasha offered an apologetic look as did Steve who understood now more than ever why Clint hadn't wanted Bobbi involved, to begin with. This was no situation for a pregnant woman to be in even if Clint hadn't known she was pregnant until now.
"Melina and Alexei are... My parents for lack of a better term, Yelena is my sister or at least the closest thing I have to one. They were a cover family for a mission that Alexei was on when Yelena and I were kids but they're the closest thing I really have to actual family outside of you guys, it was all supposed to be just a cover mission but it became real, as much as we didn't want it to be it did. It became real to Yelena and me, it became... It became what we'd always craved," Natasha explained, she sighed right after she spoke.
As much as some of them were happy memories some of it was also incredibly painful for her. "That didn't stop Yelena and me from being put through the program. Alexei was... A good soldier, Melina was a scientist. They followed orders," she added, it was hard for her to talk about but there was some good in all of it too. They'd made amends, they'd come together again. They'd found a way to make their dynamic work, they'd found out that their connection and affections toward one another were real and that Melina and Alexei had strongly regretted what they'd put their girls through.
It didn't heal the wounds, but at least it eased some of them. It had been decades and they still viewed each other as family. She knew that Alexei and Melina hadn't had anything to do with the program in a long time, but she knew they still had connections. Yelena wouldn't be someone that she'd drag into this if she had a choice. Her sister didn't deserve to go back into the hell that Natasha was trying to destroy but she may have no option.
"Can I have my phone?" Natasha turned to Bucky as she spoke, he nodded and walked over to pull it out of the pocket of the jacket he'd been wearing. He walked back and handed it to her. She smiled thankfully.
Scrolling down her contacts, she stopped over one labeled 'Mama' and she pushed call. It took mere seconds for Melina to answer and Natasha explained her situation as best she could, Melina seemed to know what she was asking because she assured her that she'd do her best to look into it and she'd get back to her as soon as she could. Natasha then asked to speak to Alexei.
Somewhere in her mind, she was still that teenager that craved reassurance from her 'father' and her 'mother', knowing that they were still there and that they had her back more than anything else. It wasn't that she wanted to know they were there in the same way a child would but that she had their backing when she needed it the most.
As she spoke to her 'Father' she asked him if he knew where Yelena was, and she explained to him the predicament she found herself in and quite naturally, she got a lecture for it and told that she should've come to them for help at the very start and it shouldn't have gotten as bad as it got in order for her to call and ask for their help. Alexei like Melina had promised her that he'd do his best to help her and he'd informed her that her 'Sister' was in Las Vegas for a job she was working; Yelena did private security these days.
Natasha was glad she had a straight and honest job and that she hadn't turned out to be a mercenary. Yelena wasn't that kind of person which was good, they'd been raised for the most part by wolves but she had her standards.
Natasha decided that she'd call her in as backup if she felt like she needed it. She hung up her phone after finishing her conversation and looked toward the group, she explained to them that her family had promised help and she had no doubt that they'd come through for her, they always did. She'd also told them about the lecture that she'd gotten and Bobbi smirked informing her that she'd said very much the same.
"So what's next?" Clint questioned as he eventually moved away from Bobbi, he instructed her to sit down. She wasn't too happy about it but she still did it anyway. The truth was that she was exhausted and she really needed to sit down.
"We try to find out who the hell this woman was that shot me," Natasha replied simply. It seemed like the next logical step to her and she was more than eager to get back to work.
"No, you rest and then we'll work on this," Steve replied sternly. "You almost died, Natasha. We keep telling you that you have to rest so you have to rest. You can't be up and running around like that." He wasn't going to let up and she knew it.
Natasha looked at Steve and for a moment she considered scowling at him and telling him that there was no way in hell she was going to back down or just sit around but she knew it'd do her no good. Instead, she nodded her head however reluctantly.
Fine, rest would do for now but she needed to get back to things sooner or later. Still, with an injury like hers and the danger that she was put in, she might need to rest for longer than she might like.
It seemed as though this process wasn't going to be over as quickly as Natasha might like and it might contain more twists and turns just yet that no one could see coming.