The Road to Redemption | Natasha Romanoff x fem!OC

Chapter ten

"How'd she do?"

Currently, Natasha was lying on Clint's couch with her feet propped against the back cushions. "It was fine. She wasn't as good as everybody's been saying." She turned to look at the person currently in the kitchen making hot chocolate for the both of them.

"But is she good enough? I'm not saying to be buddy buddies with her, but maybe cut her a little bit of slack? Keep in mind that you were in a very similar position once."

Sighing, Natasha closed her eyes and let her head fall onto the pillow behind her. Holding her hand out for the mug of hot chocolate, she lifted her feet so they rested on Clint's lap instead of the couch cushions. 

"You wanna watch a movie?"

Ignoring the obvious subject change, Clint picked up the remote and flipped through the channels trying to find something easy to watch. After a few silent, but not uncomfortable minutes, they settle on a James Bond movie that's already halfway done. 

It's about fifteen minutes in when Natasha finally speaks up. "What should I do?" It's not uncommon for Natasha to come to Clint for advice, but he didn't expect her to come to him so soon. 

"Give her space and time to adjust. From what I'm hearing, she's been trying her best to keep her head down and be on her best behavior. Something gives me the feeling that we can trust her; kinda like the feeling I had with you."

"Guess you have a broken souls radar" Natasha said with a snort. "I guess so." Clint could see that his response took a little bit of the stress off her shoulders and she relaxed a little bit more. 

"I need to go. See you later."

Despite the fact that he knew she was running again, he let her go because pushing her would only make her run faster. She would have to come to terms with this on her own.

*****

Aria came back from her "mission" battered, bruised, and exhausted. Groaning, she gingerly pulled off her catsuit, tank top and shorts until she was just standing in her underwear and sports bra. Limping into the bathroom, she turned the shower to the hottest setting and assessed her injuries in the mirror.

There was nothing too severe, so she would likely be able to hide most of her injuries with nobody knowing except maybe Natasha. There were a few deep gashes that would definitely need stitches and almost her entire body was black and blue. 

Shifting her weight a bit, she winced as her right ankle almost gave out with her full weight on top of it. Stepping into the shower, she sighed as the burning water soothed her muscles. Watching the dirt and blood wash down the shower drain, she thought about how she did. 

She certainly could've done better and her old handlers at Hydra probably would have beat her so her injuries were ten times the ones sustained from the mission. They didn't care that she was successful. In their eyes, a successful mission is one that goes exactly according to plan with no hiccups whatsoever. 

Closing her eyes at the memory, she tried to shake the thoughts away. There was no point in revisiting that time. She was free of Hydra. Right?

After cleaning her cuts in the shower and washing her hair, she stepped out of the shower and immediately shivered from the cold airconditioned air hitting her bare, wet skin. Swiftly walking to her room, she pulled a clean sports bra and pair of underwear from her drawer and pulled them on.

Going back into the bathroom, she got a towel and opened random cupboards in attempt to find a first aid kit. She finally found one under the sink, and after several painstaking attempts to stand back up, placed it on the counter and threaded the needle. 

Clenching her teeth, she poured some alcohol on her gashes and set about sewing them closed. The familiar motions of watching the needle go in and out of her skin calmed her a bit and took her mind off everything else. She sewed the six-inch cut on her thigh and the 4-inch cut on her left bicep.

There was only one more cut left to stitch, but it was on her back next to her right shoulder blade and she couldn't reach it. She refused to go to medical and ask for help, so she tried to stem the bleeding herself. Although it had slowed considerably, there was still a steady stream of blood pouring out of the gash. 

Her attention was taken away from her injuries when she heard a knock on her door. Slowly sliding down from her seat on her countertop, she limped to her room and pulled on a pair of sweatpants. Not bothering to put a shirt on, she opened the door a crack.

Surprisingly, on the other side of the door was Natasha.  Opening the door so she could see her full body, she asked, "Do you need something Agent Romanoff?" 

Natasha realized she didn't actually have a reason to be here. She had lost her chance to run the second Aria opened the door. Deciding to follow her instincts she said, "Fury wanted me to ask you if you sustained any injuries on the mission, and to get checked out at medical."

Confused, Aria tilted her head a little and replied, "It's nothing I haven't had before. I can take care of it myself." 

Looking her over a little bit, Natasha examined the bruises and cuts on her exposed torso. She also smelled a slight metallic smell and saw a little blood on Aria's fingers. "Don't lie to me Artamova. If you need help you can either go willingly to medical or I can drag you myself, which probably wouldn't be good for your patched up body."

The only look on her face was one of exasperation before she turned around and went into her room leaving the door open as a silent invitation to come in. When she turned around, Natasha narrowed her eyes at the cut on her shoulder.

"Is that the only one you haven't treated yourself?" she asked referring to the massive gash.

Audibly sighing Aria turned to the redhead and replied, "Yes. Despite how flexible I am, I can't exactly stitch my back." Walking over to Aria, Natasha lightly turned her around so she could inspect the wound. 

The cut was deeper than it was long, but it didn't hit anything major and would likely heal in a week or two as long as Aria didn't open the cut again.

"No need to bother medical. Let me just do it for you quickly. Wouldn't want to ruin your reputation." Without looking back, Natasha turned and walked into the bathroom to prepare the stuff for the stitches. 

Aria hesitated before following her. She couldn't for the life of her figure out what angle Natasha was coming from. The previous few days, she was cold and distant towards her, but now she was offering to stitch her up?

Not bothering to dwell on it, she headed towards the bathroom while muttering under her breath, "No, we wouldn't"

Standing in front of the mirror, she turned so Natasha could start stitching. As Natasha poured rubbing alcohol onto the gash, she was having an internal battle with herself. 

One part of her brain thought: Why did I come here. I can't get close to Aria. She is ex-hydra and will probably stab you in the back when you least expect it. 

The other part argued: But aren't you just like her? What if Aria just wants to wipe the red out of her ledger like you? You see yourself in her, admit it. Isn't that the reason you're drawn to her?

After ten minutes of tense silence, Natasha cut the string and stepped away from Aria. Stretching out her back a little, Aria turned her back towards the mirror to examine the stitches. You could clearly see that Natasha had done this before. Although the skin around the wound was red, there was very little indication of a deep cut.

Walking back into her room, Aria grabbed a shield-issued long sleeve shirt and pulled it on over her head. "You better not pull those stitches out. I just spent a good ten minutes of my time sewing you back together."

Mockingly, Aria saluted the redhead. "Make sure you tell Fury I'm all patched up. Wouldn't want him thinking I'm backing out." Nervously tugging at her hair and trying to pull the wet knots out, Aria walked Nat to the door. Briefly locking eyes, Aria saw that Natasha had let her guard down a little. Maybe this was who she was outside of the hard agent.

"Goodnight Natasha." With a nod of her head, Natasha stepped out of the door and into the hallway before responding with a soft, "Night".