kick_ass_curls | Business as Usual

They say it takes the average woman half the time of a relationship to get over a break up.

It took Natasha Romanoff seven and a half hours, a bottle of Stoli, and half the ammunition she had in her personal collection to 'get over' Steve Rogers. Or, that's what she told herself happened. In truth every second she was apart from Steve made it worse, made her worse. She was angry, violent, close to becoming unhinged. It would have been scary of she hadn't spent much of her life in a very dark place before. It wasn't anything new. He'd be better off without her, and she'd live.

She always lived.

Everyone at SHIELD knew by the time she came to work the next day that she and Steve were over. There was chatter of a betting pool. Natasha considered breaking the wrist of the man holding the wad of bills. Instead she walked by, head held up like nothing was bothering her, her expression so cold and emotionless it was terrifying. She'd got mission orders. She was a SHIELD agent, damn it and a failed relationship wasn't going to stop her from doing her job.

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"It seems to be centering around this area. I'm looking for something that may giving off a signal." Tony said through their headsets as he kept looking. Steve continued to fight with the civilians, disarming one that was about to shoot Natasha. A little harder than he probably should have.

She's too busy fighting to notice what Steve did. Tasha's at the risk of being overrun here since she has to hold back and not hurt anyone. It's not easy for her, and she takes a couple of hard hits. Even so she never stops fighting. When she hears Tony in her earpiece she all but shouts back. "Look faster! I'm getting buried here!"

Steve notices how she's getting over run and automatically runs over to help her. Tony continues to search before spotting something. "Think I found it."

She doesn't need to be rescued, Steve! Okay, maybe she does but the fact it's him makes her all the more cranky about it. "I've got it just fine." Tasha says sharply, pushing him out of the way when someone with a crowbar goes to hit him. "Watch your own ass, Cap. I'm...." She stops suddenly, a choking gasp coming out of her mouth instead of the next words. Tasha looks over to Steve again, shaking her head before she looks down at her stomach.

Maybe it would have been a better plan to let the super solider take the crowbar to the guts instead of herself. "Oh...shit." Tasha nearly falls over as her gun falls from her hands so she can cover her stomach. "Ow." She says weakly before dropping to her knees.

Steves eyes widened before he took the crowbar from her attacked and knocked him unconscious. He then moved to her side, checking on her.

"Tasha?"

By the time he's done with that she's on the concrete, her eyes wide with panic and pain. There's a million thought rushing through her mind then. So many things, and none of them concerning the hole that just got torn into her. She blinks, trying to focus her eyes on him. "Are you OK?" A second ago it wouldn't have been the first words out of her mouth, but it was always in her mind. Always. You don't just stop loving someone because they hurt you.

"I'm fine." Steve replied as he looked her over. Seeing how she was hurt, Steve tapped his headset. "I need to get Natasha out of here. Can you guys handle this?"

Nothings ruptured, but she's torn up enough that she's losing a lot of blood and the pain is somewhat blinding. "Good." Tasha tried to smile, but even that hurt.

There's a loud curse before Clint's voice comes over the communicator. "What? WHY?!? What happened?"

Natasha can hear him, even though it's fuzzy. Everything fuzzy and she's so damn cold. She picked a very bad day to not wear the re-enforced cat suit but there was that incident with the acid a few days back and it's still in repairs. "Steve, I'm..." She closes her eyes, trying to shake her head. "Don't leave them. I'll be fine. I...I promise." She might be lying. She doesn't know.

"She took a crowbar to the stomach and she needs help now" Steve said in reply to Clint.

"I need to get you out of here, Tasha you need help..."

That's enough to make Clint pause long enough to order emergency extraction. There will be a helicopter there soon enough.

"Watch your back." Tasha says weakly, her eyes opening slightly. They're still in the thick of a fight, after all.

"I'll be fine." He told her before glancing around. "Just keep looking at me."

"Didn't think... you'd want me looking at you again after...I..." Tasha stops, swallowing back tears that threaten. Is this really the way she's going to go out? Torn to hell by a...zombie and whimpering like a child.

Maybe...she doesn't know so she has to say something. She has to say everything in case she never has the chance to again.

"Steve, I..." Tasha pulls on every ounce of strength she has left to reach her hand up to his face. "I never wanted to hurt you, not ever. All...all I wanted was for you to be happy, and I...couldn't." Her eyes close again, the ability to speak getting harder and harder. "I'm so sorry, baby. I...I...I'm so sorry made everything worse for you by... being...me."

Steve closed his eyes as she touched his face, instinctively leaning into her hand. "Tasha..." He murmured quietly. "It... it wasn't your fault. Zola made that duplicate too identical to me. No one could have known...." He replied, opening his eyes to look into hers. "You make it better by being you...."

Edited Date: 2012-09-13 07:15 pm (UTC)

By the time he gets to the last words she's already passed out. There's too much blood loss for her body to let her do anything but hang on and stay alive. She heard him though, most of what he said and it made her hate herself just a little bit less. That was something. More than something. It really meant everything to her that he didn't hate her for the mistakes she'd made.

Edited Date: 2012-09-13 07:22 pm (UTC)

Steve looked up as the extraction helicopter appeared over head.

"Come on Tasha, please.... i'm not losing you today too...."

There's a team of paramedics that jump from the helicopter, complete with a stretcher and portable life support machines, blood and everything else they'll need to get her out of here. "We're going to need you to move, Cap." A paramedic rests his hand on Steve's shoulder to get his attention. "We don't have a lot of time from the look of that wound."

Steve looked at them, not wanting to move but knowing he had to. He nodded before moving and letting the paramedics do their job.

They moved quickly, getting her strapped down an airlifted. Even though the news of the... unpleasantness had traveled though SHIELD. One of the paramedics looked back to Steve, frowning. "Are you coming with?"

They wouldn't have been able to stop him from coming with them, so he nodded silently.

Soon enough they have Natasha back at medical, rushed to surgery. It's not looking good. There's muscle and nerve damage on much of her body, as well as the blood loss. They're worried about her spine. They're doing everything they can to make sure she makes it but even if she does it may not be much of a life. They won't be sure until she's out of surgery. If she survives surgery.

Phil used to be Natasha's medical contact, because she had no family. Now, there was only one other person she'd have trusted enough to make a choice like if they should let her live or die.

The doctor approaches Steve slowly, holding out the paperwork Natasha had submitted several weeks before. "You're her..." This is never easy to tell someone. "Here." He holds the papers out to Steve.

Steve had been waiting when the Doctor approached and he frowned as he handed him the papers. Looking at them, the realisation hit him and his lips parted as he looked up. He didn't even want to think about the possibility o having to decide to let her die, but he knew it was a possibility. The thought made him waver and he closed his eyes, tilting his head down. His eyes starting to fill with tears for a moment.

The doctor calmly explained all the options, what the possible outcomes would be, anywhere from something as positive as her having a lifetime of lower back pain to the opposite end of the spectrum. "Her vitals are holding, it was touch and go for a while. We almost lost her twice.There's going to be a few more hours of surgery. Things can go wrong during surgery." The doctor says plainly. "We need to know at what point we should stop trying to revive her."

Steve screwed his eyes up, his head still tilted down as a tear fell dow his cheek. He then looked away from the Doctor as he tried to process it all. He couldn't lose her... He didn't think he'd survive with out her. She was the one thing in the world that he had now.

"When... when she w-wouldn't be her if sh-she lived... if she..." He closed his eyes again, drawing in a deep breath. "... If she would be stuck inside her body..... She wouldn't want that...."

The doctor had sadly become very used to understanding what people meant by they. "The primary concern if she pulls though is her memories. There could be gaps from the lack of oxygen reaching her brain. Perhaps a few hand eye ordination issue. If our scanners show she'll be... nonfunctional, we'll let her go."