look after you × winterwidow & oc

V. siberia

Finding Tony in the hospital wasn't hard. Natasha feared that conversation. What happened with Rhodey was exactly what she was the most afraid of. Completely unnecessary, and easily avoidable, caused by distractions, and feelings clouding their judgments.

Stark turned and walked away when he noticed her, but she decided to follow him anyway. She found him on a balcony, leaning on the barrier with the noninjured arm. She stopped next to him, keeping quiet at first, letting him start the conversation and hoping it will help her read him better.

"The doctors say he shattered L4 through S1," he said after a while, not looking directly at her, keeping his gaze straight ahead. "Extreme laceration in the spinal cord. Probably looking at some form of paralysis."

Romanoff knew it wasn't the best time. Rhodes was his best friend, who could have ended in much worse condition, Tony himself was also injured. But it had to be said sooner or later.

"Steve's not gonna stop. If you don't either, Rhodey's gonna be the best-case scenario."

Stark scoffed and shook his head, finally meeting her eyes. "You let them go, Nat."

"We played this wrong."

"'We'? Boy, it must be hard to shake the whole double agent thing, huh? It sticks in the DNA."

Normally, she wouldn't let this one just go by. But she knew Tony long enough to know that arguing with him now wouldn't do any good. He wasn't in the right state of mind, too shaken up.

"Are you incapable of letting go of your ego for one goddamn second?"

He clenched his jaw and looked away for a moment. She touched a nerve, so he decided to change the subject. "T'Challa told Ross what you did, so . . . they're coming for you."

She expected that. It was exactly one of the outcomes she expected before. Either James would get locked up or they all end up on the run.

"I'm not the one that needs to watch their back."

Natasha knew Tony wasn't easy to like and now that some of them got locked up, partially because of him, even though it was much more complicated from her point of view, she wouldn't blame them.

She started to walk away, but to her surprise, Stark called after her.

"You said that there was something wrong with the psychiatrist they sent to talk with Barnes," he said after catching up with her. "If you know something it's time to spill, Romanoff."

This couldn't get worse, couldn't it? Maybe it was her chance to make Tony see things from a different perspective.

"Barnes was framed." she began. "It couldn't have been him."

"And you know that how exactly?" he questioned.

Natasha didn't get a chance to answer as she got cut off by FRIDAY speaking up.

"Priority upload from Berlin police."

Tony took a turn looking for a more secluded area. Romanoff followed. She had a feeling that she was about to see proof for her words.

"The Task Force called for a psychiatrist as soon as Barnes was captured. The UN dispatched Dr. Theo Broussard from Geneva within the hour. He was met by this man."

"Did you run facial recognition yet?"

"The fake doctor is actually Colonel Helmut Zemo, Sokovian Intelligence." Tony enlarged the holographic image, so they were able to see the man clearly. "Zemo ran Echo Skorpion, a Sokovian covert kill squad."

"What happened to the real Broussard?" Natasha chimed in.

"He was found dead in a Berlin hotel room. Where police also found a wig and facial prosthesis approximating the appearance of one James Buchanan Barnes."