[fic] John Doe
Title: John Doe
Prompt: Anxiety
Fandom: Avengers, Chicago Fire
Pairings: Gen
Warnings: Violence
Word Count: 2,613 words
Summary: A battle in midtown Chicago goes horribly awry for one of the Avengers.
Author’s Notes: Thanks to crazy4orcas for the prompt! This says it's a crossover between Chicago Fire and the Avengers, but you don't need any knowledge of the former to read it, I swear.
"If I were you, I'd do my best to avoid being hit by the zappers," was Tony's somewhat-less-than-helpful advice when the Quinjet finally hit Chicago air-space.
"Zapper?" Clint, who was piloting, asked. "That the official term for it?"
"You'll see what I mean." Tony sounded distracted, which Natasha discovered was understandable: there were at least three hundred of the enemy speeding across the ground and through the air and they were all armed and firing willy-nilly with their rifles into the Loop. Not purple energy bolts like the Chitauri, she discerned immediately, but bright red ones, almost like-
"Blasters," Steve, who'd braced himself against the bulkhead just behind the cockpit, said. He sounded awed; they'd introduced him to the entire body of work belonging to one George Lucas a few weeks before, and he'd taken a definite shine to the worlds presented in Star Wars, incompetence of the Stormtroopers aside. He pushed back his cowl to get a better look. "They look like blasters!"
"Well, whatever they look like, don't get hit," Tony said, and Iron Man banked around the Sears Tower to draw a few of the enemy away from the Quinjet.
Clint hit a series of switches above his head. "Ready, Captain, Doctor?"
Steve gave him a salute; Bruce, who'd stripped down to just a pair of shorts, gave him a nod.
"Bombs away," Clint said, opening the hold doors as Natasha took aim and began to shoot at the enemy. The whoosh of passing air filled the cabin and cockpit, making the jet buck to the side, but Clint slapped the doors shut almost immediately after the two had jumped, and righted the jet. Natasha's rhythm from the copilot's seat never wavered. Clint shot her a grin. "You ever miss the days of garden variety terrorists?"
Natasha looked away from the targeting computer only long enough to give him the side-eye.
"Nah," he said, "me neither."
As far as Avengers' battles went, it was pretty standard. Tony and Thor had arrived before the others, the first wave of attack and, as Tony liked to put it, leading with the big guns. The big gun was definitely the Hulk, who gleefully and recklessly smashed his way through anything in his path. Thankfully, most of those things were the enemy, and Steve managed to dodge out of the way before he could become Hulk-fodder. Clint had to crash-land, but at least the damage to the jet only seemed cosmetic and they wouldn't have to deal with snarky comments from the mechanics' team about yet another million-dollar piece of equipment ruined. With the jet down, Clint headed for the high ground, and Natasha ran for the front, snatching up whatever weaponry she could find and using it against the enemy, who were at least humanoid (she was going to have nightmares about the Big Ass Ugly Bugs for months).
All in all, it was just another day in the life of an Avenger...until the Hulk took an energy blast right to the gut.
Natasha only saw it out of the corner of her eye. The enemy's ammunition was bright red, but the bright green bolt made her turn-and nearly get hit herself by one of the enemy's snipers. She rolled out of the way, springing back to her feet just in time to see the Hulk let out a pained roar and fall, mid-leap. He dangled in mid-air for a split-second, as though trapped in some kind of force field, and began to shrink.
Oh, that was definitely not good. "Bruce!" Natasha sprinted. She was the closest to the Hulk; Steve was two blocks away, holding off a battalion, Thor was bottle-necking some of the enemy from the top of one of the skyscrapers, Tony had his own problems, and Clint, there was no way Clint would get there in time. So Natasha ran for it, and even she wasn't fast enough to stop the Hulk from shrinking back into Bruce and plummeting twenty feet to the ground.
He hit with a sickeningly-loud thud and lay still.
"Avenger down!" she said over the com as she picked off two of the aliens that were converging in on his prone form. "Something hit Bruce-he's not the Hulk anymore."
"Is he okay?" Tony asked.
"I don't know." She dropped to her knees beside him, already searching for injuries. He was breathing, she could see that, but his chest was heaving and there was an angry red mark across his torso. "I've got to get him to safety. Steve-"
"I'll double back and provide what cover I can." The captain sounded out of breath.
"Hawkeye, we need a break in the pattern, anything that can put us ahead. Any idea what hit Banner?"
"I don't know, but it was green and not red." Natasha whirled and put bullets in the heads of three oncoming targets. "We're sitting ducks out here."
"Almost there," Steve said. She turned and spotted him, the bright blue and red standing out among the smoke and grit of the day. That was enough of a signal for her; she hauled Bruce's unconscious body over her shoulders in a fireman's carry and ran, trusting that Steve would catch up. There had been paramedics about three blocks south, she remembered, though it had been awhile and they'd probably had to relocate due to the fighting. Still, she didn't have any better options. Bruce needed medical attention and she needed to get him out of the fight.
By the time she reached the hastily constructed police barricade, every muscle was burning. She was strong, perhaps stronger than she should have been, but Bruce was still a full grown man with several inches on her. At least he wasn't the Hulk at the moment, as that would have been impossible.
Two paramedics spotted her coming and raced out to her. One of them, a slim blonde, had a body-board. "What've we got?" her partner asked, all brusque business.
"He was hit in the abdomen by one of the blaster weapons," Natasha said. "Compounded by a twenty-foot fall. He's breathing, but..."
The paramedics had obviously worked together for quite some time, for they didn't even need to communicate as they worked seamlessly to get Bruce lowered onto the body-board. Within seconds, Natasha's hands were empty and they were calling out Bruce's vitals as they wheeled him off. "Where are you taking him?" she called after them.
"Lakeshore," the blonde one called back, and Natasha nodded, filing that away as she ran back into the fight.
There was no celebratory cheer when Tony finally took out the last of the enemy with one of his repulsor bombs. Instead, they gathered at a central location, looking at the fresh pock-marks in the buildings all around them, sweating, panting, the adrenaline still kicking and making their limbs twitch. "They took him to Lakeshore," Natasha said right away.
"Was he-"
"I don't know. He was breathing, but..."
"Enemy, fight, yeah, got it." Tony pushed up his face shield, looking winded. "I'll get a lock on the weapon that did it, see if I can disassemble it, find out what it does. You said he wasn't the Hulk anymore?"
Natasha described it, like she would at any regular debriefing. Tony's lips went into a thin line before he blasted off, likely already scanning the battleground for any sign of the weapon that had felled their comrade.
"Any other injuries?" Steve asked, always the leader. The others reported in: Natasha had a gash on her leg, Clint had over-extended his left elbow, but the damage was minimal at best. "One of you had better head over to Lakeshore, get those looked at. I'll stay behind and secure the scene until the rest of SHIELD can arrive. Thor, could you...?"
Thor held out his hand. Natasha glanced at Clint, but he gestured for her to take Thor's hand, that he would stay behind and assist Steve. With a spurt of gratitude, she gave him a nod and took Thor's hand.
The emergency room waiting area was full when they walked in, nurses and doctors bustling about and trying to see who was injured the worst and needed immediate treatment. Everything stopped, however, when Natasha and Thor walked in. People stared, wide-eyed, at the two Avengers.
Natasha decided the best way to deal with that was to ignore it. She strode to the information desk. "We're looking for information on a man who was brought in from the fight with a contusion on his abdomen and possibly a few broken bones."
"Name?"
"It's Banner, but he didn't have that on him, so he'd probably be listed as a John Doe."
The nurse, who kept sneaking glances at Thor, quickly turned to her computer and clicked away. "I'm sorry, I don't-"
"Oh, hey, it's you."
Natasha turned. The paramedics who had taken Bruce had just rounded the corner, paper cups of coffee in hand. Now that there wasn't a fight going on, she could see that they were almost model-pretty, one as dark as the other was fair. They both wore gray polo shirts and the reflective fire-fighter pants they'd been wearing during the fight. "Hi," she said. "I'm looking for information about my friend, the one you brought in."
"Our John Doe, right."
"Who is this John Doe of whom you speak?" Thor asked. "We come in search of our fallen comrade, Doctor Bruce Banner."
"Banner, huh?" the dark-haired one sized Thor up and seemed to shrug to herself. "Well, either way, he's this way. We've got this one, Karen." She tapped the reception desk as she walked by. "The doctor wants to talk to you, anyway, so it all works out."
"How is he? Is he all right?" Natasha asked.
"The contusion on his abdomen looked like it needed a few stitches. They were checking for broken bones last I heard, but I've got a hunch they're not going to find any." The paramedic gave Natasha a frank look. "What with the fact that the burn on his stomach started healing itself on the ambo ride back and all."
So that explained why the two had been waiting for Natasha, she thought. She gave the Latina woman her best no-nonsense stare. "Seems like there's a question in there, Paramedic..."
"Dawson," the woman said. "And this is my partner, Shay."
"It is a pleasure to meet you," Thor, always polite, said.
Natasha, on the other hand, continued to stare at Dawson, who stared right back, not backing down in the slightest. That alone might have earned her a job offer from SHIELD, the upper levels of whom regularly lamented the number of trainees Natasha scared off in the first week.
"Dawson," Shay said, resignation in her voice.
"No question in there," Dawson told Natasha. "But it also seems like some important information was left out of your assessment on the scene."
"Perhaps." Natasha moved a shoulder. "I'd like to see Dr. Banner now."
"Dawson." Shay laid a hand on her partner's shoulder. "Why don't you show..." She glanced at Thor questioningly, as he had yet to offer his name. "Why don't you show this gentleman the water cooler? And I'll take her to see Dr. Banner."
Dawson stared at Natasha for another second before dropping it with a glare. "It's right this way," she told Thor, and Natasha was impressed that she didn't stomp off.
"Sorry about that," Shay said once her partner was out of earshot. "She gets cranky if we're not operating on full information, though God knows, we're used to it. Plus, long day."
"It's not every day aliens attack," Natasha said.
"Not unless you're an Avenger."
"I don't know, sometimes we get Sundays off."
The joke made Shay crack a tired smile as they headed down the corridors together. "He's right in here. Since he's not in imminent danger as far as the doctors can tell, they're choosing to see to needier patients first, I think."
"I understand. Please, don't let me keep you, if there is work to be done."
Shay nodded and started to turn away, but the sound of Natasha's name made them both stop. Clint came hurrying down the hall. "Sorry-Stark found the weapon and dropped me off and-oh. Hello." He blinked at Shay, and Natasha immediately felt suspicion begin to arise. "Sorry, didn't mean to interrupt."
"Banner's in here," Natasha said, pushing open the door.
Shay apparently took this as her cue to leave, for she ducked out, heading down the hallway. She got about ten steps before the guilt caught up to Natasha. "Hey, Shay?" she called, and the paramedic turned. "Thank you."
"It's just part of the job. I could say the same to you."
"Just part of the job," Natasha said, and Shay left.
Banner, it turned out, was sleeping, his breathing and heart-rate even. After a moment of debate, they decided not to wake him and instead headed out to the waiting room to meet up with Thor. The SHIELD doctors wouldn't take long to arrive and test him for any signs that the Hulk had been permanently deleted from his system. Natasha figured it hadn't. Perhaps the energy blast had just been a neutralizing agent.
Still, relief nearly made her jittery as she took a seat by his bed and sipped the bad coffee Clint bought for her out of the vending machine. "How's the leg?" he asked.
"It'll keep. How's your elbow?"
He grinned. "Hurts." There was a long pause. "Say, want to hear something funny?"
Natasha wasn't sure she did. After all, half the time a statement like that led to a terrible pun. She gave Clint an unimpressed look, which he of course took as acquiescence.
"When I found you in the hallway, you had the exact same look on your face as that paramedic-"
"Shay," Natasha said.
"It was a little spooky. Like seeing double."
"I don't think she looks anything like me. She's blonde and tall."
"It was more the look on your faces," Clint said. "You both even did that little head tilt you do-that one right there, coincidentally."
Natasha immediately straightened her head.
"Oh, don't do that, it's adorable. But it was weird. Like looking at you with a sister or something."
Natasha highly doubted she had a sister, much less one that was a paramedic in Chicago, so she rolled her eyes at him. For a second, she entertained the thought-after all, she had no idea who her parents were, and Shay had had rather Slavic bone structure, so it was possible that if one girl ended up in the Red Room, another might have ended up in America-but even Clint seemed to think it was absurd, for he smiled and shook his head.
"I'm going to go back to the scene and give Steve and the SHIELD team a hand. Thor can give me a lift," he said, rising to his feet. He touched Bruce's arm. "Hey, doc, you should quit sleeping on the job, Tony's taking all of the cool scientific discovery cred."
Banner didn't even so much as stir, but it made Natasha smile a little. Clint gave her a salute as he left, and then she was alone, with nothing but anxiety and Bruce's even breathing to keep her company.
She hoped he would wake up soon.
Prompt: Anxiety
Fandom: Avengers, Chicago Fire
Pairings: Gen
Warnings: Violence
Word Count: 2,613 words
Summary: A battle in midtown Chicago goes horribly awry for one of the Avengers.
Author’s Notes: Thanks to crazy4orcas for the prompt! This says it's a crossover between Chicago Fire and the Avengers, but you don't need any knowledge of the former to read it, I swear.
"If I were you, I'd do my best to avoid being hit by the zappers," was Tony's somewhat-less-than-helpful advice when the Quinjet finally hit Chicago air-space.
"Zapper?" Clint, who was piloting, asked. "That the official term for it?"
"You'll see what I mean." Tony sounded distracted, which Natasha discovered was understandable: there were at least three hundred of the enemy speeding across the ground and through the air and they were all armed and firing willy-nilly with their rifles into the Loop. Not purple energy bolts like the Chitauri, she discerned immediately, but bright red ones, almost like-
"Blasters," Steve, who'd braced himself against the bulkhead just behind the cockpit, said. He sounded awed; they'd introduced him to the entire body of work belonging to one George Lucas a few weeks before, and he'd taken a definite shine to the worlds presented in Star Wars, incompetence of the Stormtroopers aside. He pushed back his cowl to get a better look. "They look like blasters!"
"Well, whatever they look like, don't get hit," Tony said, and Iron Man banked around the Sears Tower to draw a few of the enemy away from the Quinjet.
Clint hit a series of switches above his head. "Ready, Captain, Doctor?"
Steve gave him a salute; Bruce, who'd stripped down to just a pair of shorts, gave him a nod.
"Bombs away," Clint said, opening the hold doors as Natasha took aim and began to shoot at the enemy. The whoosh of passing air filled the cabin and cockpit, making the jet buck to the side, but Clint slapped the doors shut almost immediately after the two had jumped, and righted the jet. Natasha's rhythm from the copilot's seat never wavered. Clint shot her a grin. "You ever miss the days of garden variety terrorists?"
Natasha looked away from the targeting computer only long enough to give him the side-eye.
"Nah," he said, "me neither."
As far as Avengers' battles went, it was pretty standard. Tony and Thor had arrived before the others, the first wave of attack and, as Tony liked to put it, leading with the big guns. The big gun was definitely the Hulk, who gleefully and recklessly smashed his way through anything in his path. Thankfully, most of those things were the enemy, and Steve managed to dodge out of the way before he could become Hulk-fodder. Clint had to crash-land, but at least the damage to the jet only seemed cosmetic and they wouldn't have to deal with snarky comments from the mechanics' team about yet another million-dollar piece of equipment ruined. With the jet down, Clint headed for the high ground, and Natasha ran for the front, snatching up whatever weaponry she could find and using it against the enemy, who were at least humanoid (she was going to have nightmares about the Big Ass Ugly Bugs for months).
All in all, it was just another day in the life of an Avenger...until the Hulk took an energy blast right to the gut.
Natasha only saw it out of the corner of her eye. The enemy's ammunition was bright red, but the bright green bolt made her turn-and nearly get hit herself by one of the enemy's snipers. She rolled out of the way, springing back to her feet just in time to see the Hulk let out a pained roar and fall, mid-leap. He dangled in mid-air for a split-second, as though trapped in some kind of force field, and began to shrink.
Oh, that was definitely not good. "Bruce!" Natasha sprinted. She was the closest to the Hulk; Steve was two blocks away, holding off a battalion, Thor was bottle-necking some of the enemy from the top of one of the skyscrapers, Tony had his own problems, and Clint, there was no way Clint would get there in time. So Natasha ran for it, and even she wasn't fast enough to stop the Hulk from shrinking back into Bruce and plummeting twenty feet to the ground.
He hit with a sickeningly-loud thud and lay still.
"Avenger down!" she said over the com as she picked off two of the aliens that were converging in on his prone form. "Something hit Bruce-he's not the Hulk anymore."
"Is he okay?" Tony asked.
"I don't know." She dropped to her knees beside him, already searching for injuries. He was breathing, she could see that, but his chest was heaving and there was an angry red mark across his torso. "I've got to get him to safety. Steve-"
"I'll double back and provide what cover I can." The captain sounded out of breath.
"Hawkeye, we need a break in the pattern, anything that can put us ahead. Any idea what hit Banner?"
"I don't know, but it was green and not red." Natasha whirled and put bullets in the heads of three oncoming targets. "We're sitting ducks out here."
"Almost there," Steve said. She turned and spotted him, the bright blue and red standing out among the smoke and grit of the day. That was enough of a signal for her; she hauled Bruce's unconscious body over her shoulders in a fireman's carry and ran, trusting that Steve would catch up. There had been paramedics about three blocks south, she remembered, though it had been awhile and they'd probably had to relocate due to the fighting. Still, she didn't have any better options. Bruce needed medical attention and she needed to get him out of the fight.
By the time she reached the hastily constructed police barricade, every muscle was burning. She was strong, perhaps stronger than she should have been, but Bruce was still a full grown man with several inches on her. At least he wasn't the Hulk at the moment, as that would have been impossible.
Two paramedics spotted her coming and raced out to her. One of them, a slim blonde, had a body-board. "What've we got?" her partner asked, all brusque business.
"He was hit in the abdomen by one of the blaster weapons," Natasha said. "Compounded by a twenty-foot fall. He's breathing, but..."
The paramedics had obviously worked together for quite some time, for they didn't even need to communicate as they worked seamlessly to get Bruce lowered onto the body-board. Within seconds, Natasha's hands were empty and they were calling out Bruce's vitals as they wheeled him off. "Where are you taking him?" she called after them.
"Lakeshore," the blonde one called back, and Natasha nodded, filing that away as she ran back into the fight.
There was no celebratory cheer when Tony finally took out the last of the enemy with one of his repulsor bombs. Instead, they gathered at a central location, looking at the fresh pock-marks in the buildings all around them, sweating, panting, the adrenaline still kicking and making their limbs twitch. "They took him to Lakeshore," Natasha said right away.
"Was he-"
"I don't know. He was breathing, but..."
"Enemy, fight, yeah, got it." Tony pushed up his face shield, looking winded. "I'll get a lock on the weapon that did it, see if I can disassemble it, find out what it does. You said he wasn't the Hulk anymore?"
Natasha described it, like she would at any regular debriefing. Tony's lips went into a thin line before he blasted off, likely already scanning the battleground for any sign of the weapon that had felled their comrade.
"Any other injuries?" Steve asked, always the leader. The others reported in: Natasha had a gash on her leg, Clint had over-extended his left elbow, but the damage was minimal at best. "One of you had better head over to Lakeshore, get those looked at. I'll stay behind and secure the scene until the rest of SHIELD can arrive. Thor, could you...?"
Thor held out his hand. Natasha glanced at Clint, but he gestured for her to take Thor's hand, that he would stay behind and assist Steve. With a spurt of gratitude, she gave him a nod and took Thor's hand.
The emergency room waiting area was full when they walked in, nurses and doctors bustling about and trying to see who was injured the worst and needed immediate treatment. Everything stopped, however, when Natasha and Thor walked in. People stared, wide-eyed, at the two Avengers.
Natasha decided the best way to deal with that was to ignore it. She strode to the information desk. "We're looking for information on a man who was brought in from the fight with a contusion on his abdomen and possibly a few broken bones."
"Name?"
"It's Banner, but he didn't have that on him, so he'd probably be listed as a John Doe."
The nurse, who kept sneaking glances at Thor, quickly turned to her computer and clicked away. "I'm sorry, I don't-"
"Oh, hey, it's you."
Natasha turned. The paramedics who had taken Bruce had just rounded the corner, paper cups of coffee in hand. Now that there wasn't a fight going on, she could see that they were almost model-pretty, one as dark as the other was fair. They both wore gray polo shirts and the reflective fire-fighter pants they'd been wearing during the fight. "Hi," she said. "I'm looking for information about my friend, the one you brought in."
"Our John Doe, right."
"Who is this John Doe of whom you speak?" Thor asked. "We come in search of our fallen comrade, Doctor Bruce Banner."
"Banner, huh?" the dark-haired one sized Thor up and seemed to shrug to herself. "Well, either way, he's this way. We've got this one, Karen." She tapped the reception desk as she walked by. "The doctor wants to talk to you, anyway, so it all works out."
"How is he? Is he all right?" Natasha asked.
"The contusion on his abdomen looked like it needed a few stitches. They were checking for broken bones last I heard, but I've got a hunch they're not going to find any." The paramedic gave Natasha a frank look. "What with the fact that the burn on his stomach started healing itself on the ambo ride back and all."
So that explained why the two had been waiting for Natasha, she thought. She gave the Latina woman her best no-nonsense stare. "Seems like there's a question in there, Paramedic..."
"Dawson," the woman said. "And this is my partner, Shay."
"It is a pleasure to meet you," Thor, always polite, said.
Natasha, on the other hand, continued to stare at Dawson, who stared right back, not backing down in the slightest. That alone might have earned her a job offer from SHIELD, the upper levels of whom regularly lamented the number of trainees Natasha scared off in the first week.
"Dawson," Shay said, resignation in her voice.
"No question in there," Dawson told Natasha. "But it also seems like some important information was left out of your assessment on the scene."
"Perhaps." Natasha moved a shoulder. "I'd like to see Dr. Banner now."
"Dawson." Shay laid a hand on her partner's shoulder. "Why don't you show..." She glanced at Thor questioningly, as he had yet to offer his name. "Why don't you show this gentleman the water cooler? And I'll take her to see Dr. Banner."
Dawson stared at Natasha for another second before dropping it with a glare. "It's right this way," she told Thor, and Natasha was impressed that she didn't stomp off.
"Sorry about that," Shay said once her partner was out of earshot. "She gets cranky if we're not operating on full information, though God knows, we're used to it. Plus, long day."
"It's not every day aliens attack," Natasha said.
"Not unless you're an Avenger."
"I don't know, sometimes we get Sundays off."
The joke made Shay crack a tired smile as they headed down the corridors together. "He's right in here. Since he's not in imminent danger as far as the doctors can tell, they're choosing to see to needier patients first, I think."
"I understand. Please, don't let me keep you, if there is work to be done."
Shay nodded and started to turn away, but the sound of Natasha's name made them both stop. Clint came hurrying down the hall. "Sorry-Stark found the weapon and dropped me off and-oh. Hello." He blinked at Shay, and Natasha immediately felt suspicion begin to arise. "Sorry, didn't mean to interrupt."
"Banner's in here," Natasha said, pushing open the door.
Shay apparently took this as her cue to leave, for she ducked out, heading down the hallway. She got about ten steps before the guilt caught up to Natasha. "Hey, Shay?" she called, and the paramedic turned. "Thank you."
"It's just part of the job. I could say the same to you."
"Just part of the job," Natasha said, and Shay left.
Banner, it turned out, was sleeping, his breathing and heart-rate even. After a moment of debate, they decided not to wake him and instead headed out to the waiting room to meet up with Thor. The SHIELD doctors wouldn't take long to arrive and test him for any signs that the Hulk had been permanently deleted from his system. Natasha figured it hadn't. Perhaps the energy blast had just been a neutralizing agent.
Still, relief nearly made her jittery as she took a seat by his bed and sipped the bad coffee Clint bought for her out of the vending machine. "How's the leg?" he asked.
"It'll keep. How's your elbow?"
He grinned. "Hurts." There was a long pause. "Say, want to hear something funny?"
Natasha wasn't sure she did. After all, half the time a statement like that led to a terrible pun. She gave Clint an unimpressed look, which he of course took as acquiescence.
"When I found you in the hallway, you had the exact same look on your face as that paramedic-"
"Shay," Natasha said.
"It was a little spooky. Like seeing double."
"I don't think she looks anything like me. She's blonde and tall."
"It was more the look on your faces," Clint said. "You both even did that little head tilt you do-that one right there, coincidentally."
Natasha immediately straightened her head.
"Oh, don't do that, it's adorable. But it was weird. Like looking at you with a sister or something."
Natasha highly doubted she had a sister, much less one that was a paramedic in Chicago, so she rolled her eyes at him. For a second, she entertained the thought-after all, she had no idea who her parents were, and Shay had had rather Slavic bone structure, so it was possible that if one girl ended up in the Red Room, another might have ended up in America-but even Clint seemed to think it was absurd, for he smiled and shook his head.
"I'm going to go back to the scene and give Steve and the SHIELD team a hand. Thor can give me a lift," he said, rising to his feet. He touched Bruce's arm. "Hey, doc, you should quit sleeping on the job, Tony's taking all of the cool scientific discovery cred."
Banner didn't even so much as stir, but it made Natasha smile a little. Clint gave her a salute as he left, and then she was alone, with nothing but anxiety and Bruce's even breathing to keep her company.
She hoped he would wake up soon.