Loving The Hawk

Chapter 13

My body hit the floor hard and I cried out in pain as something fell on my leg. I tried to pull my leg free and after a minute of struggling was able to get free. I looked over and saw Nat on the ground as well. Bruce was also with us but he was groaning in what sounded like pain. I lifted myself up to go over to him but Nat stopped me. 

"Nat! Are you ok?" I asked her quietly while Bruce groaned again. 

"We have to move, he's going green," she whispered, looking over at Bruce.

"Agent Romanoff, Agent Stark, is everyone alright?" we heard Fury's voice say over comms. I reached up to tap my earpiece.

"We're ok. We are ok right?" I asked looking from Nat to Bruce. I had never really seen Nat afraid, I had seen her fake it a few times, but right now the fear in her eyes was real. We needed to get out of here.

"Can you stand?" She asked me. I stood slowly as Bruce shuffled away, growing larger and greener by the second. He looked over at us for a split second with what looked like guilt in his eyes. Then he was overtaken by his transformation and rolled out of sight. I tested my weight on my bad leg and stood. 

"Yeah, I think I'm ok," I said taking her by the waist as we ran for it. We could hear the Hulk roaring behind us. I did not really want to get in his way. He was going to destroy everything if we weren't careful. 

"Up those stairs," Nat said quietly and we ran as quickly and as quietly as we could, but soon he caught up with us, knocking us both off of our feet and into a wall. We rolled behind some pipes and hid. We sat there for a second, but he found us again and we took off again. Suddenly out of no where, Thor came crashing into the Hulk knocking him through a wall.

"Well, I guess we should just leave him to it. He can handle it a lot better than we can. Besides your head is bleeding. We need to get you to the med bay," I said. Just then Hill's voice came through the comms.

"We have eyes on Barton, he is heading for the detention block. Does anyone copy?" she shouted. My heart leapt and dropped at the same time. I reached up to my earpiece.

"This is agent Stark. Agent Romanoff and I are on our way," I said, determination clear in my voice. I completely forgot the pain in my leg as my adrenaline pumped and we made our way towards the detention area. As we snuck in, I could hear bootsteps on the cat walk above us. I pointed up and gave Nat a signal. She snuck down at one end that was behind him and I climbed up the other end until I was right in front of him.

"Clint," I breathed.

"Hello, Aurora," he said with no emotion in his voice at all. He rushed at me and swung his bow at my head, causing me to duck and kick out and sweep his legs. He came down hard and I took the bow from him throwing it behind me. I heard it hit the cat walk. I would get it later. I had an idea of how to help him but he wouldn't like it. I signaled to Nat behind to go for his head. She nodded and he turned to attack her.

"Baby, please this isn't you. Please come back to me," I said to him grabbing him from behind. He elbowed me in the face, just barely missing my nose and I stumbled back. He was preoccupied with Nat so I swept his legs again and he hit his head on the railing beside us. He groaned for a second, before looking up at me again.

"Rory?" he asked, clearly confused. I hated to do it, but for good measure, I punched him in the face, knocking him out. He fell back, unconscious and I went to retrieve his bow.

"You ok?" Nat asked me. I nodded.

"I'm going to have a bruise on my cheekbone. I hope he didn't break it, that was a hell of an elbow that he threw at me," I said, cupping my cheek. I could feel it swelling already and I knew that the bruise would form within a few minutes. Nat radioed to Hill that we had Clint and a few minutes later, two agents came to take him down to the med bay. As they dragged him off, I heard Fury's voice come through the comms. What he said was something that I had hoped never to hear.

"Agent Coulson is down," he stated. I lifted my hand to my mouth. A moment later medics reached him and they made a call that destroyed me. "They called it. He's gone.

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After hearing about Coulson's death, I went straight to find Clint. Before they would let me see him, they looked at my face and my leg. Nothing was broken just a few bruises. As soon as they cleared me, I rushed into the room with Clint. He was still unconscious, so I went and sat down on the bed next to him. I noticed that they had cuffed him to the bed. I fingered them sadly. I knew it was a precaution until he woke up, but it broke my heart to see him this way. I didn't have to wait long, because after a few minutes, he started to stir and with a groan, he called out for me.

"Rory? Where is she?" he asked. "Did I hurt her?"

"I'm here babe. Open your eyes," I told him taking his face in my hands. 

"No. Back up for a minute," he ordered, sounding scared. I backed up as he shook his head and groaned again. He shook his head a few more times and laid back against the bed.

"Baby, you're going to be ok," I said trying to reassure him from across the room.

"Hmm, you know that?" he asked sarcastically. "Is that what you know? You don't understand. Have you ever had someone take your brain and play? Pull you out and stuff something else in?"

"No, I haven't. But you have me and I'm going to make sure you are ok," I said getting him a glass of water and walking over to him. He refused to look at me.

"Why am I back? How did you get him out?" he asked breathing heavily.

"Cognitive recalibration," I said smirking. I went to sit on the bed next to him. "I hit you really hard on the head." I uncuffed his hands and handed him the water and he finally looked up at me.

"Oh god baby, what happened to your face?" he asked softly. He reached up to touch my face and stopped a look of horror crossing his face. "Did...did I do that to you?"

"I'm ok babe. Nothing's broken I'm just a little bruised," i replied smiling, trying to avoid the question but he wasn't having it.

"Aurora," he said sternly, taking me by the chin and turning my face to his. "Did I do that to you?"

"Yes, but like I said I'm fine," I said, trying to reassure him again, but he got up and walked away from me. He turned toward the bathroom and lifted a hand to his face. He was quiet for a minute and when he turned back to look at me there were tears in his eyes.

"Baby, I am so sorry," he said kneeling down on the floor in front of me and putting his head in my lap. "God I can't believe that I hurt you like that. Oh god, I'm a horrible person. How can you even look at me right now?" He began to cry again and I held him.

"Because it was Loki, not you. You had no control over what you were doing, and I don't blame you for it," I said softly, lifting his head so that he could look at me. There were still tears in his eyes and he was very clearly upset. I pulled him up to his feet and stood myself. I stepped into his arms and held him. "Don't ever let me go, Clint Barton. I've missed you so much."

"I've missed you too kitten. I've missed you more than you could know," he whispered back.