Part 27

Steve's POV:

I have no idea how long I've been sitting here in the waiting room. No idea how long I was in the hall. No clue how long I was standing by those doors. But then Natasha's doctors came up to me. "Mr Rogers, Natasha is out of surgery." I sigh in relief, if she had died they would have said they are so sorry and that they did everything they could. "There were some complications though." I give Dr Grey a look to continue. "There was more damage than we originally thought, she crashed, we were able to get her back but, it took its toll on her body."

They continue talking but everything goes numb again. When they finish I say, "Can I see her?" They nod and I follow them out of the room and back down the hallway of the ICU. This time she looks even worse then before, her lips are chapped, her hair is shaved and has a bandage wrapped around her head, the tube is still in her throat and there seems to be more wires than before. I lean against the doorframe for a little bit, no emotion showing on my face. My eyes are glued on Nat, eventually I walk inside the room and over to her bed.

"Hey, Nat." I whisper to her. "You still multi-tasking or are you just trying to find me date?" I stroke her cheek with my thumb, tears coming once again to my eyes, I sit down in the chair beside her and grab her hand in mine.

I sit there for a long time without moving much, just stroking the back of her hand and occasionally whispering to her. My voice wont rise much higher than that, I don't want to be much louder anyway.

Tony texts me:

Suit of Armour:

Fury's sending out a team, he know who hit Nat and Peter

:Spangles

Okay

How's Peter?

Suit of Armour:

He's alright all things considered

How's Nat?

:Spangles

Alright, all things considered...

Suit of Armour:

We can't keep that Nat was in the crash off the press for much longer

:Spangles

I know

With that I turn off my phone and ignore everything that comes through it, I need to focus on Nat. She needs to know I am here and that I love her, god I should have said it sooner. Why didn't I tell her sooner? There were so many times I could have told her. I know she probably can't hear me right now, but incase she can there is nothing I would rather say to her then tell her how much she means to me. I look back to her face and the tears come again, I unwillingly let them fall not bothering to wipe them away.

Every once in a while a nurse comes in to check on Natasha, they always ask me if I need anything and I always shake my head no. This time Dr Shepherd comes in, she checks Natasha's eyes and does a standard neuro check before sitting down beside me. "Mr Rogers-" I cut her off.

"Steve, please call me Steve." I look away from Natasha for a second to look at the doctor, she nods her head.

"Steve, you need to eat. You need to sleep. Making yourself weak is not going to help Natasha." I sigh and look back to Natasha.

"The day I met Nat was when Loki first came to New York, before he brought all of his aliens with him." I don't really know where I'm going with this but my voice has seemed to come back. "I was born in 1918, my father died before I was born and I was so weak and scrawny that it was barely worth caring for me. I got beat up so bad I almost died, and that was on a good day. I was just a kid when I joined the army, I watched my best friend fall off a train and 'die' just so he could be captured and tortured by an anti-peace terrorist group for years. I crashed a plane and was frozen in ice for 70 years before they found me." I look back to Dr Shepherd, "Natasha was kidnapped when she was 2 years old and was forced to become an assassin. She's survived more than anyone, Bucky might have been brainwashed by Hydra but Natasha was taken before she knew how to tie her shoes, hell before she knew what shoes were. Nat has been through so much worse, this is nothing compared to her past. Believe me when I say, I'm fine. I can take care of myself."

She looks at me, her voice goes back to how it was when I first met her, "The thing is, Steve. You don't have to."

I look back at Natasha, Shepherd puts a hand on my shoulder before walking out of the room. I sigh slightly. "I need you back Tash, I need you."

Fury's POV:

After Natasha got out of surgery Hill and I left the hospital and headed back to Shield headquarters to assemble an attack squad, a location squad, and a medic on standby. We don't know what she will do when she realizes we know it was her who tried to kill Natasha, and that kid Parker.

The second we got to HQ I start going over the details to the agents. Ideally Rogers would be here leading the mission but I don't think he will leave the hospital until Romanoff does. He thinks I don't know that they are dating but I do, I know everything. After about an hour of searching she picks up on our radar, I send out 3 different teams to bring her in. I'm going to be part of one of the teams so I can make sure nothing goes too wrong. Hill will be leading the mission with 3 different teams of 10 agents. It may seem like a lot but we can't take chances.

"Load the quinjets, wheels up in 5." I say while walking towards one of the jets. The agents start to file in and the jets take off exactly 5 minutes later. Everyone knows the plan, everyone knows what she's capable of. But no one wants to be the one to bring her in.

The jets land about a half hour after take off in a field. In the centre is a run-down barn that seems to be falling apart. 'Sketchy' I think.

I turn towards the agents, "You know your assignments, so do them." That's about as much of a pep talk as they're going to get out of me. I turn and walk out of the jet, agents running ahead of me towards the barn. Once a person attempts to assassinate a Shield operative you are shown a small bit of mercy, but once you try again the only mercy that person is shown is in hell.

The difference between mercy is based on the person, Carter, for example, was sent on a mission to deal with her anger issues, which clearly didn't work based off of security footage and reports filed throughout the mission. While Jack Jackson went on a submarine for a couple months and worked out all his issues.

Hill is walking beside me, I hear yelling coming from inside the barn I can just make out the orders being yelled around the structure. "Agent Jhonson, status." I say into the comms, theres more yelling from inside the building but I get no answer from the agent. "Status, Jhonson." I say more forcefully. Still when no answer comes Hill gives me a look and we walk slightly faster towards the barn.

Inside we find several agents down in a circle, they are breathing but barely. Standing in the centre of them, with several guns pointed at her is none other the the lady we are looking for. "You know, you're starting to become more assassin than spy." I say stepping through the wall of guns, Hill stays back with a gun now pointed at the recipient.

"I could say that about others as well." She says, looking like she wants to take a step forward but there are 20 large guns pointed at her head and chest.

"If you're talking about Romanoff," I start, taking another step towards her, "She's more spy than assassin."

She laughs a little, "That's what she wants you to think, when in reality she's still a toturi-" I cut her off before she can finish her sentence.

"Alright, that's enough." I'm getting impatient, and annoyed. "Sharon Carter, you're under arrest."

Sharon smirks, "That's what you think." And then she reaches behind her and grabs a gun, before she can do anything else there are shots being fired around and at her.

A/N

Wow! who woulda thought it was gonna be Sharon? That was super cringy but I wanted to write out Sharon and you guys want her dead so... 🤷‍♀️ thanks for reading hope you enjoyed :)

-agirlwholikesmarvel1