Marvel (MCU only) Stories

Undercover

Summary:

The Avengers go on an Undercover mission to catch a former S.H.I.E.L.D. agent who's gone rogue. 

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 Natasha wakes up without the memory of falling asleep. She cracks her eyes open, unsure of her surroundings. She relaxes at the sight of Bruce Banner reading a book, sitting in a chair beside her bed.

"Bruce?" she croaks. "What happened?"

Bruce lowers his book and rushes to Natasha's side. He hands her a cool glass of water, which she is grateful for. Her throat is dry and scratchy from disuse. "You were hurt during our last battle. You hit your head. You're in the MedBay now."

Natasha pushes herself into a sitting position and looks around, taking in the white walls, medical tools, bustling nurses, and disinfectant stench. The last thing she remembers is shoving Peter out of the way of a flying robot. She peers between the gaps of the curtains on the beds near hers. "Peter?"

"He's fine, thanks to you. He feels bad that the robot knocked you into the wall, but physically, he'll be alright."

"That's good," Natasha mumbles. "Can I leave yet?"

Bruce checks over the chart at the end of Natasha's bed. He's not officially one of the doctors at Avenger's Tower, but sometimes, he drops by to relieve some doctors and nurses for a few hours. "Yeah. You're good, but take it easy."

Natasha stands and finds herself clad in black silk pajamas. Pepper must have changed her while she was asleep. "I am going to find Steve. We scheduled to train today, but with the mission yesterday and my injury, I'm unsure if we are still on."

"You're not going to be doing any training," Bruce informs her. "At least not for a few days."

"That is not fair."

"Dr. Banner! Dr. Banner! Dr. Banner! Dr. Banner!" One of Bruce's science interns comes flying into the room at breakneck speed.

"Alex!" Bruce exclaims, extremely startled. "What's wrong?"

Alex bends over, resting his hands on his knees. He pants, trying to catch his breath. "Lower intern... lab... explosion... BOOM... Kasey... hurt... hurry."

It takes Bruce a moment to decipher the message hidden between Alex's stuttering. He peels off his surgical gloves on his way to the door. "I've got to go. That new division Tony set up with our interns monitoring high school students just can't seem to get the hang of not blowing things up." He tosses his gloves into the trashcan by the door. "Take it easy today, Natasha," he orders as he disappears out the door.

Natasha groans as Alex takes a shuddering breath and collapses to the floor. "Stupid kids fainting all the time." Since she is the only adult in the vicinity, she resigns to dealing with the kid. She bends down, hooks her arms under Alex's armpits, and drags him across the floor to a nearby unused bed.

Tony enters the room as she loses her grip, and the kid slips through her hold, landing on the ground. "Natasha, don't drag children across the floor of my Tower. It causes too many lawsuits."

"It's not my fault that teenagers these days weigh so much."

Tony watches Natasha roll Alex across the floor, pick up his shoulders, toss them on the bed, and then pick up his legs and discard the rest of him onto the bed. Alex ends up bent awkwardly, but his entire body is on the bed.

"Don't break him. I'll have to pay the bill to fix him," Tony says.

"He's not broken." Natasha dusts her hands off. "I would have left him on the floor, but it would have been a safety hazard."