The Ultimate Fix-It Fic

1| The Lullaby

It's been well over a year since Natasha Romanoff and her team released all those SHIELD (HYDRA?) files to the rest of the world. And, against everything she's experienced, she kind of thought the fight would be over by now.

It's May of 2015, and Natasha's driving a tact car away from some HYDRA fighters with Clint in the back shooting arrows at them.

Tony's up ahead blasting things, Thor's flying up from behind them, no doubt having fun swinging his big hammer at their targets.

Steve was nowhere to be seen, though she could hear the noise of his motorcycle faintly from far away, and in that general area, she also picked up on the Hulk's regular ambient noise as he threw aside some tanks. Natasha mentally filed the three tanks and their injured drivers away to fill Bruce in on later.

A split second later, she saw the fence up ahead and motioned to Clint. They leaped out of their vehicle just before it crashed into the fence.

Natasha didn't bother wasting her breath to sigh, but she would have to run the rest of the way to the fight and, despite having a strong stamina, she would definitely have some aches and groans once they got back to the Tower. If they survived this raid at all.

As she ran, she could hear the boys talking over the comms.

"Loki's sceptre must be here," Thor was saying. "Strucker couldn't have mounted his defence without it. At long last." he grumbled, stepping aside as Mjolnir flew into the chest of one of his offenders.

Natasha ran up to one of the HYDRA tact cars and threw a tidy little explosive in it. As it exploded with a bang, some tried to fight her but got thrown off. Natasha rolled down the hill. Panting a little, she spoke on the comms channel. "'At long last' is lasting a little long, boys," she said as she shot some guy on HYDRA's defense.

She saw Clint shoot something out of the corner of her eyes. "Yeah. I think we lost the element of surprise." He huffed as a blue laser barely missed him.

Tony interrupted. "Wait." He sounded tinnier than usual. "Is no one going to deal with the fact that Cap said 'language'?"

Natasha heard a crash over the comms and mentally sighed again.

"Yeah, I know." Steve breathed a little louder, probably out of breath. "Just slipped out."

Another minute went by of solid fighting. Not that Natasha noticed until–

"Clint!" She called as she watched him roll to the ground. She saw Steve get flipped over by some weird blue streaks and land on his feet.

"We have an Enhanced on the field," Steve panted.

"Clint's hit!" Natasha said over the comms. She rushed to her best friend's side and tried to staunch the bleeding. "Somebody want to deal with that bunker?"

The Hulk ran in out of nowhere and plowed through the bunker she was looking at.

"Thank you," she said in a slightly higher voice as she stuffed some wadded out cloth onto Clint's side. She heard Steve talking on the channel.

"Stark! We really need to get inside."

Tony blasted something, making the whole fortress rumble. "I'm closing in." After a beat, he said, "JARVIS, am I... closing in?" He didn't bother waiting for an answer. "Do you see a power source on that shield?"

Natasha turned her attention elsewhere, though she heard faintly, "The drawbridge is down, people." after an alarmingly short amount of time.

She herself spoke up. "Clint's hurt pretty bad, guys. We're gonna need evac."

"I can get Barton to the jet." Thor said. "The sooner we're gone, the better." He said something else before Tony said something and before Natasha knew it, she was clearing up the field after Thor got Clint.

"We're locked down out here." She said.

Steve spoke. "Then get to Banner. Time for a lullaby."

Natasha glanced around and found the Hulk tossing away some debris. She winced as some metal bars hit the ground hard. "Hey, big guy," she tried for a smile. The Hulk turned to look at her, and she swallowed the tiny inexplicable fear that came with her practicing the lullaby after an unexpected Code Green. "Sun's getting real low."

The Hulk slowly walked towards her, and she crouched down and took off her gloves. He lifted a hand as she extended hers in a sort of ritual, a little game of 'here's a taste'. Natasha tapped his wrist, slid her hand down his palm and off the tip of his fingers.

The Hulk snorted, a little nervous, and he lumbered away as he started to shrink.

Natasha smiled softly and looked away as the Hulk melted into a groaning Bruce. She knew these transformations back were always painful, at least for a while. She stepped off the ledge of snow she was standing on and went towards him, holding a shirt out for him.

"Hey, doc," she said quietly as she helped him up.

"Hey, Natasha." Bruce accepted the shirt without looking at her, looking a little embarrassed. "Thanks for the, uh, you know..."

Natasha nodded, smiling briefly. "You did good."

She led the way back to the Quinjet to wait for Tony and Steve to grab the sceptre. Natasha handed Bruce his headphones and went over to check on Clint. "You look awful." She told the injured man.

Clint chuckled. "I'll live. I think."

She glanced back over at Bruce.

"I think he did well this time, considering," Clint offered.

Yes, Natasha thought, considering Bruce was completely unprepared when Steve called the Code Green right before the ramp of the jet opened into the snowy Sokovian landscape. "Tell him that," she said instead, eyes not leaving the distracted scientist.

"Miss Romanoff, I need you up here!" Tony called from the front.

"You have JARVIS," she retorted, heading up there anyway. Natasha sat down. "What?"

Tony didn't look back, but she knew he was grinning. "You were checking out my science boyfriend."

"I was not." Natasha shot back. "And since when was he your 'science boyfriend' anyway?"

"You jealous?"

"Of course not, Stark, don't be delusional." She scoffed. "Is that all you wanted from me?"

Tony looked back and Natasha saw his smug smile of satisfaction. "Yep."