To the end of the line - stucky

Getting Comfortable

Halfway through his surgery, Clint's heart rate was rising, and the surgeons were becoming concerned. They worked as fast as possible to stem the bleeding whilst he was getting blood transfusions, but it was tense.

"Clamp"

"What's his systolic?"

"95mm Hg. We're heading towards hypovolemic shock".

The only thing they could do was keep giving him transfusions and stop the blood loss, but as it stood, there wasn't enough to pump around his body.

"BPs rising!" One shouted.

The surgeon carried on, there was nothing else he could do until they needed to take emergency action. He kept working until beeps began sounding from the machine.

"Heart rates over 120, systolic BP is at 99!"

Everyone immediately stopped and began the emergency procedure. The bleed had been clamped, and other doctors stuck small squares to his chest.

"Performing electrical cardioversion!" Someone shouted.

The hustle of people stopped and stood back after hearing the word, "CLEAR!"

Seconds later, a bead of electricity shot through Clint's body, jolting him in his place. And after a moment, the rhythmic sound of beeping returned.

"Heart rate back to normal, continue".

Thankfully, the rest of the operation went well, and he was wheeled into recovery just before Nat approached.

"How is he?" She asked.

"It was touch and go for a while, but he's stable at the moment. We'll be keeping a close eye on him for the next few days".

Nat thanked the nurse and walked into the room. She's always hated hospitals, they were creepy and smelt of chemicals, but worst of all, they reminded her of the past. A time she never wanted to hear about again.

She sat on the uncomfortable wooden chair beside his bed and put her hand in his. She'd decided against telling his family so far, so they didn't worry. She would contact them when they had a definite answer, when he woke up.... Or didn't.

"You should be downstairs helping us right now. We've got a big mess on our hands", she sighed. Even though he wasn't awake, it made her feel better to just talk to him. No one knew she was the sappy type, but here in the room, just the two of them, it was okay.

"Steve and Bucky are missing. We think they crashed and we don't know if they're okay, they're still lost somewhere in Canada".

She couldn't believe she was telling her unconscious friend that her two other friends were lost and might be dead. But if she was being honest, that wouldn't have fazed her at all twenty years ago. She'd probably be more shocked to hear she even had any friends.

She liked the rest of the team of course, all they had all gone through things that a lot of the population hadn't, but these three were her good friends and she could relate to them better than anyone else.

Her and Clint had bonded over a mission in 'Budapesht' and had been friends ever since. They were trained assassins and could keep up with each other intelligence-wise. But her and Steve were different. She could talk with him and relate to him like they were both out of their time. Of course, Steve actually was 'out of his time', being born in 1918, but Nat had spent most of her life hidden away and raised to kill. Somehow it felt they had something in common, that it was hard fitting into the modern world.
And, of course, there was Bucky. It was a miracle they were so close really, because neither of them liked sharing all that much and kept to themselves. They had spent most of their lives so far holed up in cells or safe houses, waiting for the next instruction. That was why they were friends.
She felt so useless sat here, not being able to help any of them.