Whumptober 2023 ~ Marvel Edition

'She's Not Breathing!' - Natasha

Day 25:

"You're not delivering a perfect body to the grave."
Storm | Buried Alive | "They're not breathing!"

~~~

"All right, great job everyone," Steve's voice rang through the coms. "Let's rendezvous back at the front gate and get out of here."

"Copy that," Clint said into his ear piece.

He started walking towards the back garden's exit, careful to watch his step. The snow was piled high, but the walkway had significantly lower levels of snow than the rest of the yard, so though his feet still sunk into the ground, it was only about ankle deep instead of practically hip deep.

"Copy," he heard Thor's voice in his ear.

"Sounds good," Tony said. "Hey, does anyone have eyes on Romanoff? We should probably get her to talk Banner down before he decides to start tearing up the neighboring building's lot, too."

The line was silent for a bit longer than what would be considered a reasonable amount of time to wait for a response, but no one responded, not even Natasha. Clint stopped in his tracks and his heart rate sped up a little bit, but he tried to stay calm. He knew Natasha; she was fully capable of taking care of herself. Plus, if something were wrong, wouldn't someone have seen her by now and signaled the rest of them? She was probably just busy. Maybe there was one more guy she had to take out that they hadn't been able to notice, and just needed a minute to respond.

"Nat, are you there?" Clint said into the com.

Again, there was a lack of response, and the silence was making Clint more anxious.

"Nat?"

When that didn't get a reply, Clint cursed under his breath and started moving his feet once again. There was only one way to ease his nerves, and that was to find Natasha himself. He roamed the back garden - or as much as he could given the amount of snow - and eventually made his way over to the side of the building. The longer he went without laying eyes on her or hearing her voice come through the coms, the more Clint's heart rate sped up. When it reached the three minute mark, Clint knew something was wrong. Natasha definitely would have responded by now. If it had been as simple of something as her com breaking, someone would have spotted her by now, at the very least.

Clint was about to give up looking on the side and start making his way over to the front, when something caught his eye. About a hundred feet away, he saw a small bit of black sticking out in contrast against the bright, white pile of snow that lay just below a small cliff. At first he wondered if it was a rock, but the harder he squinted his eyes at it, the more details of it came into view.

Was that...an arm? His eyes widened when he noticed the vague and half-hidden outline of the SHIELD insignia etched into the sleeve. With a speed that amazed even himself, given how deep the snow was, Clint immediately took off into a sprint towards the buried figure.

"I have eyes on Nat," Clint said into his ear piece. "About two hundred feet from the northeast wall."

Within ten seconds of sending that message, Clint arrived at the pile of snow covering his best friend, knelt down at her side, and immediately began digging his way to her. He had barely gotten one scoop of snow from her body when he heard Tony's suit land beside them.

"Oh shit," Tony muttered under his breath. He, too, dropped down to his knees and started digging. Clint was thankful for the help, but he was too focused on the task at hand to pay attention to what anyone else was doing.

Finally, between the two of them, they were able to dig the snow out and away from Natasha's face, and Clint's blood ran cold when he noticed a blue tint to her lips. He watched for the rise and fall of Natasha's chest while Tony, newly joined by Steve, continued digging the rest of her out, but he saw none, and his face paled. Clint quickly placed his finger against the bottom of Nat's nose to feel for the warmth of her breath.

He waited.

And waited.

And waited.

And...nothing. Clint felt like his stomach was about to turn inside out.

"She's not breathing!" Clint yelled out, panic laced into his tone.

Tony and Steve looked down at Natasha, and then to each other with wide eyes. Without wasting a second, Clint bent over and listened for a heartbeat. He could barely hear anything over the sound of his own, but he closed his eyes and tried to focus his attention directly beneath him. Clint took in a cleansing breath and tried to let his nerves settle.

There. It was faint, but it was there, and that was all the hope and motivation Clint needed. He shot up, positioned Natasha's head, and began giving her rescue breaths. Since her heart was beating, he knew that she didn't need any chest compressions, but he wanted to do anything and everything he could so bad, that he had to fight off the urge to start slamming down onto her chest.

With each breath that Clint forced into Natasha's lungs that didn't seem to do anything, Clint's anxiety shot up an equal amount. Sure, his own lungs were getting a bit exhausted, but he could hardly tell over the amount of pure adrenaline in his system. His own discomfort didn't matter, not when Natasha's life was at stake.

After what felt like hours - or maybe seconds; time really felt fake while attempting to save his best friend's life - Clint felt Natasha's mouth open up on its own, and a loud gasp escaped her lips. Her eyes were still closed, but that didn't matter. She was alive. Clint's heart flooded with so much emotion that he physically collapsed - careful not to further hurt Natasha, of course - pressing his forehead against her abdomen, and let out a muffled cry of relief. He didn't even realize he was crying until he finally picked his head back up and felt the chill of the winter air against his tear-stained face.

Clint cupped his hand around Nat's face and gently let his thumb brush against her skin, before using his other hand to turn on his com.

"She's okay," he said breathily. He smiled wider than he ever had before and looked up at the sky, before turning his attention back down to Natasha. "She's gonna be okay. Alert medical that we have incoming."