To the end of the line - stucky

Finding Water

The whole team worked all night and eventually fell asleep sometime around seven in the morning, still sat in the same room.
A nurse from the Medbay stood in the hallway, not wanting to wake them all up as they needed the sleep, but she had to.

"Maria", she whispered, shaking her awake. "Clint's showing signs of waking up".

Maria sat up and wiped her eyes. "Oh, um, Thank you", she said, still half asleep.

She let out a big yawn before sitting up and quietly going to wake the others. Nat, Sam and Wanda were up straight away with a slight wobble as they stretched and walked out the door. Sam collected some paper and files from the floor that had fallen off his lap whilst he slept and followed everyone out.

Nat got there first and took the seat directly next to Clint so she could be the first to see him. She could see the twitches in his muscles as he started to wake up, and she thought she would cry in relief.
Everyone else filled the chairs and waited. Sam shuffled through the files for what must have been the hundredth time as he hoped to find something new. Wanda and Maria held out their hands for some, and Sam obliged, handing them over.

Clint's eyes finally peeled open before they squinted shut again. He tried to bring his hand up to rub them, but his coordination was floppy, and he nearly hit himself in the head.

"Be careful", he heard someone whisper.

Opening his eyes just a slither, he managed to see Nat staring down at him with a concerned gaze. He's more careful wiping his eyes this time as he tries again and sees the others.

"God, I hope this isn't heaven, it's nothing like I imagined", he joked as a smile began to appear on his face.

"Haha, very funny", spoke Sam. "You know I wondered why it's been quieter around here".

Clint looked around and noticed the absences.

"Hey, where's everyone else? Me nearly dying wasn't enough for them?" He was kidding, of course, but an awkward silence spread through the room that the man picked up on straight away. "Guys, Where are the others?"

They looked between each other, hoping someone would break the news.

"Well, Tony's shut himself in his lab", started Sam, but he couldn't finish the rest of his sentence.

"And where are Cap and Barnes?" Clint asked more forcefully, wanting to know what was wrong.

"We don't know", Nat finally answered.

"What do you mean you don't know?"

She couldn't say anything else and looked to Maria to answer for her.

"Steve and Bucky took the second jet, and you were all on the first. At some point in the first ten minutes of flight, they went down. We can't locate exactly where they are".

Clint wondered if he was still dreaming and having some strange coma hallucination from all the drugs they pumped through him. He hoped that's what was happening anyway, but when he looked to Nat, he knew it was real.

"Why aren't we out looking for them?" Was all he could ask.

"Because there's another thing", added Wanda. "Don't freak out, but the terrorists we were fighting have sent us a letter saying they're going to find them first. So, we're trying to find the terrorists".

"That's so much information", Clint groaned with both hands on his head. "How long was I out for?"

He expected it to be weeks, but when he heard it was only the day before yesterday, he groaned again.