A Shot Through The Heart (Book 1 of Love, Monsters and Magic.)

Chapter 32

Natasha

When Thor told me that Clint was in a bad way, I knew he wasn't lying, but I didn't expect to walk in to see him in such a state. He lay in amongst the thin pristine white sheets of the hospital bed, his body limp and lifeless except for his shallow breathing, his chest rising and falling in feeble movements. An oxygen mask covered a large portion of his face and a blood bag was connected to a vein in the crook of his arm. His skin didn't have its usual healthy glow it but instead his complex was pale and his skin a sickly grey colour but at the same time looking almost transparent with the faint outline of his veins flowing just below the surface of him skin. A machine next to his bed let out steady, rhythmic bleeps signalising that his heart was in fact still beating; barely. His chest was bare showing of the large white bandage wrapped around both of his shoulders and the upper half of his chest and there was a multitude of wires attached to the skin on his temples, his chest, his neck and at several points of his arms. He looked so small, lying there in his delicate state. His body that always appeared to be so strong for once looked weak and ever so fragile, as delicate of a china doll. In my eyes, he looked as if he was dying and that, in this current situation, might very well be the case. Thor was right; staying here would only cause me pain so I made it quick. I took his hand and spoke softly into his ear.

“I don't know if you can hear me like you could last time, but it won't stop me from trying to tell you this. I am so sorry, Clint, that this happened to you. A-and if I hadn't shown weakness and I didn't let Loki into my head then this might well have never happened to you. I... But dwelling on what I shouldn't have done isn't going to make this better; it isn't going to help you. I have to fix this and I will fix this. I'm going to find Loki. We will be leaving in the morning to start tracking Loki so I will not be here beside you. I-I hope I am here when you wake up. Stay strong, if not for me then for yourself. You need to fight and you need to come back. You need to wake up because I... I don't know what I'll do if you don't. I have to go but I just... I want you to know that I-I love you. Stay strong, Clint.” Tears ran down my cheeks as I struggled to choke out the last few words. I kissed Clint's forehead, and his cheeks and his nose, a few stray tears splashing onto his pale face as I did so.

“I love you,” I whispered once more before I left the room, closing the door tightly behind me. I leant against the door and wiped my eyes with the heel of my hands. I collected my thoughts together, and composed myself before I headed in the direction of Agent Blacks room. I wasn't going to hurt her although I would very much like to, no, I was going to make her talk and she was going to talk whether or not she wanted too.

Agent Black was sitting upright in her hospital bed in the end room of the hospital wing. She didn't really look so bad, well, in comparison to Clint, she looked wonderful. She watched me with careful eyes as I entered her room, closing the door and flicking the lock behind me, pulling her hands that Fury had cuffed to her bed frame to stop her from moving or trying to escape, obviously frustrated. Serves him right. I smirked at her major disadvantage.

“Now, now. Temper, temper.” I teased with a bitter smile.

“You aren't supposed to be here.” She snapped.

“And you aren't supposed to shoot your team members but that didn't stop you.” I retorted viciously. Huh. That shut her up. I carried on. “So Loki, huh? What is it with you always choosing the wrong teams to bat for?”

“I'm not going to talk, Natasha, you can't make me and dropping snide remarks isn't going to make me change my mind.”

“Oh, well I beg to differ. I'm sure I can... Persuade you.” I teased batting my eye lids at her mockingly. I stalked across the room and began inspecting the chart hanging on the bottom of her bed. It said she had a bullet wound on her right thigh and lower abdomen. Wonderful. “So, have you been working with Loki the whole time?” She clamped her lips shut and formed a tight line with her lips, her jaw tight. I smirked. She was going to play this the hard way but something that she obviously wasn't aware of was that that's the way I prefer things to go. I slipped the pen out from its clip on the chart and raised in up to inspect it before ramming it down and lodging it into the bullet would on her leg. Her eyes went wide and she let of a bloody curdling scream. I pulled the pen out of the wound and she whimpered, pulling at her wrists in a desperate attempt to protect her leg from any further attack on it. I flicked the pen down on the reopened wound. Whoops! So much for not hurting her. Tears were forming in her eyes with the pain I had just caused her. “Let's try that again, shall we? Have you been working with Loki the whole time?” Again she stayed quiet. Clenching my hand into a fist I threw a punch at her stomach but before impact occurred she cut in. She cut it so finely; my hand was merely centimetres from her bullet wound.

“Yes! I've been working with him all this time.” She whimpered again, tears spilling over her eyes. I smiled at the obvious pain I had just caused her.

“So, it was in his intentions to get caught?” I pressed on.

“I don't know he doesn't exactly parade around his plans,” she snapped. I hit her again on her leg, the white bandage around her thigh now turning deep red as it soaked in the blood from the open wound beneath it. “Yes, he meant to get caught!” Jeez, she was making this to easy. I'm sure if Loki knew that he had teamed with a snivelling idiot her never would have bothered with her.

“You are awful at this. You're not meant to give in so easily, you're meant to bite your tongue. You make this easy, to easy. But anyway, carrying on. So, your job was to set him free? Correct?”

“Yeah, it was.”

“You weren't supposed to shot Agent Barton then?” She shook her head. I began to see red. “So you shot Agent Barton? Why? Out of cold blood? Pay back? Is that what this is? You joined with Loki to get back at me, am I right? You stupid bitch! You have no idea what you have just gotten yourself involved with. Joining with an intergalactic villain. Jeez, Aria. I knew you were stupid but, Loki? Seriously?” She just stared at me with silent tears streaming down her face. “What was in it for you? I mean surely, you weren't just doing all of this to get back at me?” I continued on, I was on a role! Aria dropped her gaze, not willing to look at me. She shook her head sheepishly not wanting to answer my question. “Well?” I pressed.

“He told me, that he could use magic, dark magic, sorcery whatever it is that he uses, to bring back my dad.” She looked up at me with her puffy red eyes. They were raw and irritated from crying. “He told me that with the power of the gods and all the power that he possesses, he could summon a dark power to bring my dad back.” I stared at her in shock.

“God, Aria, you stupider than I thought you were.” I barked at her. “And another thing; you were right about one thing, Agent Barton is a nice guy.” I commented in a bitterly cold tone. And with that I just turned and left her there, the wound on her leg still open and the blood flowing freely from it. The thing was; I didn't feel the slightest bit of remorse for killing her father. Everything that man done was out of cold blood. Like every typical fat cat in the corporation, he done what he done because, in the end outcome, it would line the inside of his pocket with more money than he could imagine.