Water was in her nose, in her mouth, and stuck to the sides of her stomach. Her eyes have frozen shut long ago, crystallized droplets pasting the ends of her lashes shut. Hair is separated in strands around her head like a fiery halo. As a show of good faith, they left her in undergarments to feel the cold of the freezing metal under her ribs as life leaks from her body.
The door on the other end of the room bursts open. There are footsteps.
Finally, she thinks. They have come to end her misery. If she is lucky they will put a bullet through her head and that will be the end.
Her eyes stay shut, even as hands roam her body. One comes to a stop on her face, tracing over the bruises dotted across her cheekbones with a careful thumb.
"Wake up–"
Fingers thread through her hair, and her head is shaken back and forth.
Why can't they leave her be?
"Oh God," says the voice. "is she dead?"
Warmth pushes against the side of her neck, and someone else mumbles: "No."
"Good." A sigh.
They have to drag her onto her feet before she peels her eyes open.
"You're awake," Clint says from her right.
"I can't feel my legs." She says.
"You'll be fine as soon as we get to the safehouse," Natasha readjusts her hip, feeling bone grind against lung as Steve hooks an arm under her opposite shoulder. "you just need to stay awake."
Her throat closes up when she's readjusted, and Natasha can see Clint's jaw twitch every time she coughs.
"Where are we?" When she begins to feel her toes is when she begins to worry. They sting, as if her feet are buried ankle-deep in fire ants.
"We don't really know. Somewhere in Macedonia," Steve answers.
"No wonder the air is always so hot."
Natasha's throat hurts too much to keep talking. Clint and Steve whisper in each others' ears while she dozes off every few minutes. Her body is tensed as she waits for the facility alarm to begin blaring above their head. They make it to the metal door on the edge of the facility, and Natasha shakes herself free as it creaks open. She stumbles forward into sand, grinning as it sticks to her skin.
"I've always hated the outdoors."
Bruce is there when they make it back to the jet. Natasha is the first to initiate the embrace, and she can almost feel his surprise through her hands. Her fingertips graze over his cheek. Clint puts a jacket around her shoulders while Steve tells Friday to activate the autopilot and fly them back home. She shivers for half the ride, but Clint is there to hold her.
When they land, she collapses on the bed and sleeps for a millennia. Natasha wakes up with an ache in her chest–it's fine though, she's rested. Flashing lights are always in her head now, and Clint has to be ready to catch her if Natasha goes to the ground.
She's alive though, and that's what matters.
