Never Alone Again |N.R|

Who are you?

I was fast asleep on the now familiar cold floor of my cell that soothed my bruised and broken body, when I heard the loud bangs of bullets ricocheting off of walls. At first I thought the noises were a figment of my imagination, a part of the familiar nightmare that now plagued me in moments of silence and loneliness in which I executed that innocent person. Each time I pictured it the person changed, often being a member of the team and most recently Natasha, which was the worst yet. But before I could conclude that the bullets were in fact fake, someone burst through the door to my cell. I was too weak and too tired to open my eyes since I expected it would be Madame B, back for another round of excruciating torture.

"Rue, please wake up." This person touched their hand to my shoulder. Although they did it lightly I flinched, terrified of the beating that would come.

"Please no more. I'll do whatever you want, just please no more pain." I was pleading for my life, although it never usually mattered.

"Oh God Rue, what have they done to you? Come on, we're getting you out of here." That was all I heard before someone picked my fragile body up off of the floor. I winced as they did so, my entire body deeply bruised from the constant beatings with no break in between. Maybe I had finally been set free into the darkness I'd craved for days now, the one that was free of any pain or fear.

Natasha's POV

Tears sprung from my eyes the second I saw her curled up on that floor. Her skin was black and blue, she'd lost so much weight and blood both new and old covered her face. At first I thought we'd been too late, that she'd gone, but the second she spoke an overwhelming feeling of gratitude washed over me. She was incredibly unwell, but she was alive. Rue had always been a fighter, and this would be the biggest fight of her life.

The underground compound we'd found her in wasn't far outside the city, so it didn't take long to get back to the tower. Bruce was waiting in the Med Bay expectantly, jumping straight to work the second we arrived. There was no time to change her out of her ripped and bloodied clothes, so he worked around them. The first thing he did was attach her to a heart monitor, it was beating so slowly. He then placed two IV's, one was for fluid and I didn't know the purpose of the other.

"Bruce, what's the other line for?" I pointed at the IV he'd just placed.

"I need to run tests to determine the exact extent of her injuries, but I think we can all agree that it doesn't look good. This will keep her unconscious until she's strong enough to wake up."

"So you've put her in a coma?" He was right, it was best she remained unconscious until we could gage how bad things were but every part of me wanted her to wake up soon.

"I had to Nat." He looked at me with pity in his eyes, which I truly detested, before he turned back to Rue and continued treating her.

"But..." I had nothing else to say, I just stared at her in disbelief. Tony grabbed my arm, pulling me back down to earth, before turning me around to face him.

"Come on Nat, we need to leave Bruce to look after her." Tony was trying his best to calm the situation, except that was impossible.

"No, I can't leave her." Tears streamed down my cheeks now, I was beyond caring what the others thought.

"You'll be right outside, you're not leaving her." I allowed Tony to lead me out of the room by my arm before I snapped it away the second we stopped walking. I turned on him now.

"None of this would've happened if you'd just told her no!" His eyes were filled with sorrow, and I instantly regretted attacking him like this.

"You don't think I know that Nat." He shifted on his feet before storming away, and that feeling of regret quickly grew into guilt. This wasn't on him, but in a moment of weakness I'd needed someone to blame. Clint seemed to pick up on this thought, standing up from a bench next to the wall and pulling me into a warm hug.