Chapter Text
Maria Hill was on the plane quicker than anyone could stop her. One of their best agents had been shot, was diing in a hospital in Ukraine. She needed to be there. She called Bobbi Morse to come with her as she needed someone who reliably spoke Ukraninan and while still in recovery Agent Morse was happy to help. "I'm getting stir crazy anyway." She said on the phone.
Maria was ansy the entire way over and Agent Morse asked her a few times, why she was so tense, but Maria didn't answer. Her mind was with Natasha. When they were almost half way there Bobbi took a deep breath. "Does Barton know?" "No." "Do you want me to let him know?" "No. He would do something stupid." "He's not doing anything is he. I mean he's just on holiday, roadtrip or something right?" "But he'd try to go over there, he'd not be rational." Maria said, feeling anything but rational. Bobbi probably thought the same thing, but since Maria was her boss and their relationship wasn't a very close one she shut her mouth and stayed quiet.
***
Ariving at the hospital they found Coulson and May sitting in the waiting room. "Anything?" "No. They took her into surgery six hours ago, she isn't out yet." Coulson said. Maria nodded. "Okay, we don't all need to be here. Agents May and Coulson make your way back to DC. This is now a Level 7 Operation." "What if the assasine comes back?" May asked. Maria looked around. "The scientist is dead?" "Yes." May said nodding. "Then they archived their target." Maria looked at Coulson. "Did you get all her personal belongings." "Yes, all of their things are in this bag." He gave her a big trashbag, that he got from the paramedics to carry all the stuff laying around. "No files, no databank nothing. I'm afraid they must have lost it. As the only way to get to the cove where we found them is by sea and their clothes were wet and they had made a fire, i suggest any material they might have tried to save is now at the bottom of the black sea." "Great." Maria sat down. "Agents Coulson and May, Go home. File your reports when you can. Thank you." "Copy." Maria clutched the binder she had quickly grabbed on the way out. It had Natashas medical file. She had quickly printed it out from the SHIELD Data base. Any information that the doctors might need on her condition. It also held her next of kin. Clint Barton. And Maria knew it was wrong to not tell him. She knew she had no right, but she just couldn't bring herself to do it. She just didn't know how. Clint would leave his newborn, his post natal wife, his toddler and their tornado destroyed farm to be here with Natasha. Maybe it was selfish. Maybe she wanted to be here for Natasha. Maybe... But a big part was also that she just couldn't bring herself to say that Natasha was injured. That she was badly hurt, possibly irreversible damages. Her stomach turned at the thought.
***
Another hour later a nurse came up to them speaking rapid ukranian. Bobbi talked with her and Maria tried to figure out what was said, but it was hard. The nurse walked away and Bobbi turned to speak with her. "So, Natasha is recovering. She is stable and they will continue stabilizing her until we can organize transport. She'll need more surgeries, but they need her to recover a little for that. The doctor expects her to be able to be transported in two days." "Oh. Thank god." Maria let out the breath she was holding. "They need the next of kin to determine if the followup surgeries should be done here or in the US. All in all she is doing well, but she still has a long road ahead. Her small and large intestine was perforated and she has some extrensiv soft tissue damage." Maria sighed rubbed her face. "Okay. Are we going to call Clint now?" Maria nodded. "Go ahead. I need a minute." Maria said and walked into the womans room.
***
Clint was bouncing Lila up and down. Caroline was making breakfast, while Laura was sleeping. The phone rang, waking Lila and made her wail again. Clint cursed quietly. "Shit." Cooper looked up from the table at hid dad. "Daddy said a bad word." He said giggling. "I'm sorry, Cooper. I haven't slept. Don't tell Mommy." "I won't. Can i have a snickers?" "That's bribery, you know." Clint said. Cooper smiled a cheeky smile that reminded him so much of Laura. "I have pancakes for you here, Coop." Caroline said. Clint bounced Lila in his arm reaching for the phone. "Clint Barton." He answered trying to stop Lilas crying. "Hang on." He said. He put the phone down reached for the pacifier. Luckily Lila took it and he could hear the the phone now.
"Clint, was that a baby crying?" "That's classified." "I don't buy it." "No. Really. Whats up, Babs why'd you call?" Clint knew it was Bobbi Morse from her voice. "Funny. You only call me Babs, when you know, i don't know, where you are." "That is because, i don't have a death wish." Clint said still bouncing the baby. "I'm calling for work." "Oh. I thought you were still recovering." "Not about me. It's about Nat." "What?" Clints face fell flat. "Natasha got shot. She is alive." "Oh my god." Clint sat down. Lila didn't like that. She started crying again, but quietly not the siren screaching sound, she had let go anytime anyone put her down. Caroline came over and took the baby out of Clints arms. "Here we go, Sweety." She said walking over to where her big brother was shoveling pancakes in his mouth.
"What happend?" "We don't know yet. She is in a hospital in Ukraine. I'm here with Agent Hill. They need you to decide, wheather you want her to have the other surgeries here or at home in DC. If you want her transfered, she should be stable enough for that in two days." "Two days. Surgeries...." "I can't tell you much over the phone, but she is stable right now. They are doing everything they can. Do you want to keep her here or take her to the US?" Clint rubbed his face." I...I... Did you see her?" "Not yet." "Wait. Maria is there." "Yes. She was quite ademant about coming over here herself and staying." "Right." Clint scoffed. Maria Maria. "Have her transfered." "Okay. We'll do that." "Is she awake? Or.." "They keep her sedated." "Fff... damn it." He cursed quietly. "Clint. Agent Hill and I are here. If you can't come, we'll stay. I speak ukrainian, so i can talk with the doctors and nurses and Agent Hill and Natasha are good friends. I don't know what's going on in your life, i'm sure if you could you would have told me, but believe me Natasha is in good hands. She is sedated and they are not going to wake her before she is transfered probably, but still. We are here." "Update me please." Clint said. "I will. Don't worry." "She is in good hands." Clint knew Bobbi tried to comfort him, but it wasn't really comforting to him. "Bye Bobbi. Thank you for calling." "Bye."
Clint put the phone down and let himself fall into a chair. "Clint, sweetheart, are you okay?" Caroline didn't know Clint worked for SHIELD. She knew he worked for a government agentcy and that he was sometimes gone for days or even weeks at a time, and that his work was in DC. But she didn't know, that he was a secret agent, that he chased, caught and killed dangerous people in his job and the danger that put him in. And she didn't know Natasha was also doing that. Before he knew what he was allowed to tell her, he wouldn't say anything. "Something happend at work, it's all very secretive, so i'm not sure what i am allowed to tell you. I'm sorry. But it's bad." Caroline handed him a glass of water. "I'm sorry, darling. Do you need to go over to DC?" "No. Not right now. Maybe in a couple of days, but i'll have to wait on updates."
"Well, don't worry. Whatever you need to do, i will support you, with the baby and Laura." "Thank you. Truely, Caroline, i don't know what we'd have don't without you. With Lila and the house." "I'm happy to help. I'm sorry i could only get six weeks off work to help you, well four plus two weeks of spring break, but i promise to come back in the summer, if i don't have to do summerschool classes." Caroline was a teacher at home in Seattle. "I'm sure your students miss you." "That depends on what the substitute teacher is like." Caroline said smiling. "Now would you like some pancakes?"
***
The morning was calm. Caroline took Lila out for a walk to get her to nap and Clint read a few books to Cooper. Two carpenters came around 10 to draw plans for the new barn. They spent all day measuring and calculating things. Clint was very glad they could come so quickly. He had been able to put the horses under in one of their neighbors stables, but he'd had to go there everyday to feed and clean and take the horses out, and since the farm was over half an hour away from their house, it had severely cut into their time. Luckly Cooper loved the horses and really liked comming with Clint to clean and feed them. He even started to learn to ride the horses and Clint wondered if they should put him in classes, so he learned it properly. Like he had in the circus or Laura had when she was a child. He had taught Natasha to ride horses, but she was an adult and very physicaly capable. Cooper was a toddler and just like most toddlers he was clumsy and Clint wasn't sure he'd be able to teach him savely.
Because the carpenters came today, Clint had already been with the horses in the early morning, before Cooper woke up. Caroline had gotten Cooper and Lila up when they awoke, and came down to the living room with them for an hour before Clint came back.
Laura came down around the time Caroline and Lila came back. She had been a little unwell yesterday and wasn't super well today. She sat down on the sofa to watch Cooper play with his farm playset, while Clint went outside to check if the carpenters needed anything. The weather was nice. A sunny spring day. Easter was in a few weeks and he hoped it stayed this nice. That would also help with getting the farm repaired. The roof of the house was still temporarily covered with a plastic sheet. Unfortunatly the company that fixed the roof didn't have time for them until August.
He had taken all this things into the cellar, because the shed was probably also not salvagable. With the roof gone, that static was off and that meant it wasn't an as easy fix as putting on a new roof. But that wasn't a priority. They had to completely redo the porch, which meant that they had to go around the house to get in and out, and not use the porch door, as they usually did. Clint was curently using the time he had to finish striping the porch and figuring out what can be salvaged and what was done. There as still a container in their driveway, that they filled with debree and the leftover of the broken barn, shed and porch.
After lunch, Caroline took Cooper to nap, while Clint and Laura went outside for a tiny walk around the house. Laura was still quite weak, so more wasn't possible right now. Clint had Lila, who was a wake and happily looking around, in a babycarrier on his front. He held Lauras hand, when they were out of earshot from the carpenters he said. "Bobbi called me." "Oh thats nice, how is she?" Laura looked up at her husband. He looked tired and worried. "She didn't call me about herself. She called about Natasha. Natasha was shot." "What?" "I don't have more intel, but she is in Ukraine in a hospital. She wasn't supposed to go to Ukraine. Something went wrong. She is badly hurt, they needed my opinion as her next of kin." "Oh my god. Is she going to be okay?" "They don't know, she is stable for now. But she'll need more surgeries and they wanted to know if they should do them in Ukraine or risk transfer to do them in the US. They said, she'd be stable enough to transport in about two days. If no complications arise. I said they should do that." "Oh my god." Laura gasped. They walked quietly for a moment. Lila cooed in her carrier. Clint strocked her back absentmindedly.
"Do you want to fly over?" Laura asked. "I want to. Yes, i want to hold her hand and be there for her, but you need me here. I will go, once she is in DC. Bobbi and Maria are with her. "Maria? Isn't that a little outside her perview." Laura said looking over to Clint. "It is...But... I haven't told you something." Clint said smiling cheekily. "Maria kissed Natasha. They had a date... 'Just as friends'" Clint said making air quotes. "And Maria kissed Natasha." "Really. Oh my god. That is...amazing." "Yeah, but she ran away. Ignored Natashas texts and calls and didn't even look at her properly before she sent Natasha on this assignment." Laura pulled her nose up. "Uff." "Yeah..." "And now Natasha is shot and laying unconcious in a hospital in Ukraine." "Yes." Clint said letting out a long breath. "Well shit." Laura cursed. "We really need to watch our language more. Cooper wanted to bribe me this morning." Clint said chuckling. Laura laughed. "What did he do?" "I said Shit and he said, he wouldn't tell you if he got a snickers." Laura laughed. "Cheeky little gremlin." She said. They walked in silence for a while. "So Natasha..." Laura said breaking the silence. "Yeah... I'm so worried." "Me, too." "She is strong." "She survived so much." "She'll get through this." Clint hugged Laura as good as it was going with a baby in between them.
***
The next few days were stressfull to say the least. Maria spent all her waking moments at Natashas bedside. She did her work from Natashas room, a delegated as much as possible. Bobbi tried to help her as much as possible, but Maria just wanted her to make sure Natasha got the best possible care, so that they could get her to DC asap.
Three days, because of a short complication later Natasha was taken into a military plane and flown over to DC. Bobbi and Maria flew with them, but they were advised to stay in their seats, so that the paramedics that took care of Natasha could do their work.
Finally arriving in DC Natasha was quickly wisked away for some testing and then to recover after the journey. They had sceduled the first surgery for the next day.
Clint arrived just a moment after Natasha was taken to the ICU. He waited by her side, until Maria and Bobbi came with the Doctor. "Mr. Barton?" Clint nodded. "You are Ms Romanoffs next of kin?" "Yes." "Okay. Would you follow me so i can explain everything to you." Clint nodded. "I got it now, Maria. Thank you. Thank you Bobbi, for comming out of leave early." "You're welcome Clint." Bobbi said hugging him. She took her bag and left. "Hey Bobbi. I'll call you in a few weeks... to catch up." Bobbi smiled. "Looking foreward to it."
"Hey." Maria was still sitting next to Natasha. "Hey." She said looking up. "You can go now. I got her." "I know." "You probably have a lot of work to do." "I delegated it." "Maria." He said sternly, but more worried than mad. "She told you, didn't she?" Clint knew Maria was talking about the kiss. "Yeah..." "I'm sorry about that... It was unprofessional." Clint sighed. "Maria, she likes you. Okay. And she wasn't mad that you kissed her, she was mad and confused that you didn't answer her messages." Maria chuckled. "I didn't know what to say. I am in love with her and i want to be with her, but i can't... I'm her boss that is totally unethical." "Screw that." Clint said. "You love her, she loves you. Yes maybe SHIELD doesn't like people of different rank dating, but it happens all the time." Maria nodded. She stared at Natashas chest rising and falling with the push of the ventilator.
"Go home, Maria. Take a shower and call Fury to talk about work, then come back. I got her right now. Okay?" Maria nodded. Wiped her eyes, straigtened herself and put on a classic non-expression. Then she left the room.
***
"What happend is that Ms Romanoff suffered damage to the large and small intestine. Because of the hypothermia at the time of the surgery, they had to temporarily staple the bowl ends close, because proper reatachment would be too dangerous. Anything to do with the intestine, but especially the large intestine, is a huge infection risk. That is what happend yesterday. They washed her abdomen out and left it open, so it can drain properly." The doctor was a middleaged black man from England. Black hair with a few grey streeks, his smile was kind and comforting. Clint placed his accent somewhere in Surrey, but he wasn't the best at detecting accents. Natasha was much better at that.
"It's open?" "Yes. Sealed with a special sterile foil. I assure you that is standart procedure." "Okay." "Now we have a few things we have to do. What we need to do is reatach the intestine. But we will probably have to resect parts of it, because of damage and on the scans we can see necrosis starting. From what we can tell, she will not be needing a ostomy, right now. That means fabricating an new opening at the abdomen for a bag to attatch and then drain stool." "But she doesn't need that now?" Clint asked. That sounded like a definite end for Natashas cariere as an agent.
"No. Not right now. We are positive we can salvage the intestine enough. We will need to do this surgery and then keep it open for another 24 hours, until we can do a so called second-look surgery. Just to make sure everything is perfused properly and no infection is starting" "Okay." "Then after that we will close her and watch the progress. We will still need to drain her stomach through a ng tube, as we don't want anything getting into the intestines for the first few days. Then we will start slowly. We will need to reasses along the way, but it will be a long road. We can think about waking her up if the sugeries go well and she doesn't develop another infection and she does well for a week after." "Okay." Clint said. "We will do our best, to get the best result for Agent Romanoff. We know she is a very active agent and we need her back at work asap." "Well maybe not so asap. I will probably wrap her in bubblewrap and keep her at home for a few years. Just so she doesn't get hurt." Clint joked. The doctor laughed, but then Clint got serious. "Please save her. She is my sister and i need her." "We will do our best." He said, handing Clint a few papers on what was going on.