He hadn’t expected to wake up.
From what he could feel as he lay there with his eyes closed, Clint wasn’t sure he was happy about the development. He could taste the heavy pall of concrete dust on his tongue, but he wasn’t hacking a lung either, which told him he’d been there long enough for some of the dust to settle before he’d woken up; it annoyed him that he’d been in enough building collapses to know what that meant.
Deciding he’d waited long enough, Clint started a routine check of his body, tensing and relaxing muscle groups waiting for twinges. After the kind of shock you get from having a building fall on you, Clint had learned that some of the more serious injuries weren’t readily noticeable over the immediate scream of adrenaline and survival instinct.
The worst of it was either severely bruised or slightly cracked ribs, a wrist he really hoped wasn’t broken but probably was, and a random scattering of bruises, cuts, and other abrasions that would be itchy and annoying while they healed, but weren’t life-threatening. All told, it could have been much worse. With a groan, Clint blinked his eyes open and sat up, spitting dust off his lips and wiping more from his eyes with his good hand.
He wasn’t pinned down by anything, which was nice. He shoved a few smaller pieces of rubble off of him, and wiggled up to a sitting position. He’d be sore for a week or two, and off-duty for longer as his ribs and wrist healed up, but nothing career-ending. Feeling around in a pocket, he dug out a small glow stick and snapped it against his leg, holding it up to take a look around the closed-off area he’d landed in, and paused, going still. The ceiling of the enclosure was only about 4 feet above him, and the space across only about 10 feet. Along one edge he could see a hand poking out of the rubble. A hand that wasn’t moving, and was wearing a darkish-red fingerless glove.
“Aww, Cap, no.”
Rolling painfully over to his knees and one hand, Clint made his way across the space, and stopped when he hit Steve. Most of rubble covering Steve’s arm was loose and small, and Clint made steady progress at moving debris until he’d cleared Steve’s top half. Clint was quickly becoming concerned that Steve still wasn’t moving, though he did appear to be breathing. There was a sticky patch of blood bright against the pale blond of Steve’s hair, his helmet nowhere to be found, and most of the rubble past the middle of Steve’s back was too big and heavy for Clint to try to move safely, even if he’d had both hands working properly.
Reaching up to his ear, Clint tapped at his comm.
“Hey, uh, is this still working? Hawkeye reporting in...anyone there?”
There’s a promising hiss and click, and Clint’s shoulders sagged slightly as Tony’s voice came over the comms.
“Jesus, Barton, do you need to make eyes at every collapsing building you see?”
Clint quirked his lips. “Well, you know me, it’s not a good week unless I have a building fall on me.” He paused to cough. “So, I’m not alone down here; Cap got stuck too, and I think the faster you get us out, the better.”
Clint could hear Stark mutter a curse, then ask, “How bad is it?”
Sliding a bit closer, Clint carefully reached down and pressed his fingertips against the side of Steve’s neck. Clint wasn’t sure what Steve’s pulse was normally like, but he was happy enough to find it there at all.
“Cap’s down, head injury at the least, possible spinal injury, possible injuries in lower extremities. He’s got about half the building on him, it’s hard to tell much right now, and I won’t know more about the head injury til we get him out or he wakes up.”
Stark uttered another curse.
“Ok, here’s what’s gonna happen. I’m going to start scanning the rubble and get a team together to work on getting you guys out without anything flattening you. If you can get Cap to wake up, do it. Just keep talking to him, I’m sure he’ll come around. I’ll be in touch.”
The comm clicked off, and Clint sighed, scrubbing a hand through his hair. Yeah. Just talk to him. Sure.
Clint sat down a few feet away from Steve’s head, and started talking. He was in the middle of detailing the finer points of mess cart chili when Steve shuddered minutely, then came to full consciousness with a choked-off scream.
“Christ. Cap, Steve, hey, you gotta stay still!” Clint rolled forward onto his knees and lowered down onto his stomach with a wince so he was face-to-face with Steve. Steve’s eyes were scrunched shut, and he was gritting his teeth so hard Clint was concerned they might crack.
“Cap, hey, can you hear me?”
Steve’s breathing had picked up drastically, and if he didn’t calm soon, he might end up hyperventilating, which was less than optimal. Clint reached out and tentatively put a hand on the side of Steve’s face. “Hey, Steve, c’mon, focus on me, can you do that?”
Steve whined in the back of his throat, his fists clenching and unclenching, but his breathing started to slow, and when he opened his eyes again, he looked at Clint.
“What happened?” Steve sounded like he’d been swallowing gravel. He moved his arms like he was going to try to get up, but quickly aborted with a cut-off scream. “Fuck.”
“Geez, Steve, what part of ‘stay still’ didn’t you get? You’ve got like, half a building on you. Stay put, huh?”
Steve gave a tired nod and lowered his head back down to rest on the ground.
“Ok good, yeah, resting is good. We need a sitrep though so I can tell the guys outside how we’re doing. How’re you feeling, Cap?”
“Like I had a building fall on me.” Steve took another couple harsh breaths. “Broken ribs, broken legs- you know what, just assume a lot of me is broken right now and go from there.”
Clint winced in sympathy. “Got it.” Clint passed the information on to a grumbling Tony, and Tony informed him they were almost ready to start moving debris. They were going to need to keep comms open once that started so if anything shifted Clint could alert them before it got worse.
“They’re almost ready to dig us out, Cap. We’ll be out in no time, and we’ll get you to SHIELD medical, everything’ll be ok.”
Steve made a noise between a grunt and a whine, nodding minutely. From outside their pocket of space, the sound of digging had started, heavy machinery rumbling. Every once in a while a rain of dust would fall down on them, but otherwise everything seemed pretty stable.
Clint was starting to think things were going to go smoothly, and really, he ought to have known better. There was an audible ‘pop’ noise, and Steve tensed up with a bitten-off yell.
“What the...Steve, you ok?”
Steve took a moment to breathe, then nodded. “Yeah, I’m- I’m fine, just...one of my ribs just popped back.”
Clint sat back from where he’d leaned forward in alarm. “Jesus.”
Steve snorted a quiet laugh and winced. “Yeah. There’s nothing in the way so my ribs’ll likely figure themselves out before we’re out of here. It’s my legs I’m more worried about. I don’t know what’ll happen if they keep trying to heal with a building on them.”
Clint was momentarily speechless; he knew Cap healed quick, but this was fucking ridiculous. He tapped at the comm unit. “Hey, uh, how much longer do you think you’ll be, Tony?”
There was a brief pause, and when the comm opened on Tony’s end it was loud, the sound of machinery doubled over the comm link. “We’re going fast as we can, Katniss, but we’re still looking at a half hour minimum.. Something change down there we should know about?”
Clint glanced over at Steve. “His body’s trying to heal itself. Some of it’s ok, but he thinks his legs might try to heal even with the building on them, and he doesn’t know what’ll happen.”
Tony let loose with a string of curses that left Clint stunned in admiration. There was a pause, the sound of Tony speaking to someone else, then, “We’re going to see if we can go a bit faster. Hang tight.” before the comm went quiet again.
Clint took a few breaths, wincing as his own ribs twinged at him, then carefully laid down on the ground near Steve so they were face-to-face again.
“Tony said they’re gonna try to speed this up. We’ll be out of here in no time, don’t you worry.”
Steve nodded, a the barest hint of movement. His face was tight with pain, and Clint could see rivulets of sweat cutting through the dust on Steve’s face.
Clint reached up with his good hand and put it over Steve’s. Steve cracked his eyes open to look at him.
“Just hang in there, Steve, they’re coming. And I’ll be here with you the whole time.”
Steve gave Clint a look. “You don’t have a choice. You’re just as stuck down here as I am.”
Clint rolled his eyes. “Gee, sure, have that as your main take away from what I said.”
Steve’s brows furrowed deeper for a moment. “I didn’t ask, were you hurt Clint?”
Clint scowled. “That is not the point.”
“Oh I think it very much is the point.” Moving faster than Clint would have expected, Steve pulled his hand from under Clint’s and captured Clint’s hand in his own, his grip surprisingly strong. “Were you hurt, Clint?”
Clint squirmed under Steve’s gaze. “Not- I mean...only a little?”
Steve just raised an eyebrow, and Clint thought that was distinctly unfair.
“Uh...bruised or cracked ribs, some bruising, some scrapes, maybe a busted wrist?”
Steve’s eyebrow climbed ever-so-slightly higher.
“Geez, Steve, stop that, fine, yes, it’s busted. Put that eyebrow away, will you?”
Steve quirked a small smile and gave Clint’s hand a squeeze. “I worry.”
Clint huffed a quiet laugh. “Yeah, I know.”
Clint was going to say something else when there was a louder noise above them, and both he and Steve looked up as part of the rubble making up the top of their enclosure lifted, revealing Hulk tossing a piece of the building away, and letting dusty sunlight filter through. A moment later Iron Man’s faceplate popped over the opening, and Tony’s mechanized voice followed.
“Hey, miss us?”
They were able to extricate Clint pretty quick, but he refused to leave the site until they had Steve out. Another 45 minutes later and they’d managed to move enough of the debris to get Steve loose and out of the hole. They had him on a gurney, making their way to the waiting medical transport when Clint caught up with him.
“Can I catch a ride to medical with you guys?”
The EMTs looked at each other and shrugged. “Yeah, there should be room.”
They got Steve up and into the waiting vehicle, and then helped Clint get up and onto one of the bench seats.
Steve opened his eyes long enough to give Clint a stern look. “You should have let them take you to medical already.”
“Nah. What fun would that be without you? Why don’t you rest your eyes a bit, Cap. I’ll keep an eye out for you til we get there.”
Steve hummed in agreement, his eyes sliding shut again. “Thanks, Clint.”
“Anytime, Steve.”