Duyên || Clint Barton

016 || emergency

•••

Not even a day after they left, I received a phone call from Fury.
It was roughly midday. I had just made the kids some lunch and was sat listening to them explain their new game to me, their excitement bouncing off them in waves.

"Grace, I'm calling you in"
"No. Way."
"We need as much help as we can get, there's going to be a lot of casualties"
"I thought you said I wasn't allowed to help in any Avengers affairs. Not to mention I'm quite heavily pregnant, unless you hadn't noticed Lt. Loser"
"Is that you not wanting to come in? Am I sensing some fear, Cinderella?"
"fucking of course not! Let me call Nancy to come look after the kids - you better come and pick me up"
"I'll send Hill, I can't exactly fly this ship over Iowa"
"How long?"
"Be ready in an hour"
"On it"

•••

"What's the situation?" I asked Maria as we descended onto the helipad, my hair getting tousled in the wind.
"Sokovia is airborne. We need to evacuate the city" she explained, "we were also trying to contact anyone we trusted to help with the medical side of things. Fury suggested you"
"The old man, huh? I'm honestly surprised. I've been begging him to take me on for years"
Hill raised her eyebrow inquisitively.
"Oh right sorry - I'm Clint Barton's wife. Fury and I go way back"
"Oh - He never mentioned you"
I noticed how her eyes slightly flared in shock, yet she kept a composed face.
"It was an off the records thing. That's kind of gone to shit though considering you and all the Avengers know where we live now. But if Fury trusts you then so do I" I grinned
"Thank you" she said, a genuine smile tugging at her lips.

I watched as she rushed over to a small group of agents, scolding them for manhandling equipment. Deciding to find Fury, I set off inside, coming across a large open room.
"Fury!" I called, gaining his attention.
"Grace, you made it!" He replied, a small smile on his face.
"That I did. Thanks for bringing me on this time"
"We needed the extra hands" he admitted, "since SHIELD fell I had to work with what I could get"
"Gee, you always did know how to flatter a woman" I snorted sarcastically "what will I be doing exactly?"
"Making sure people don't die"
"You do realise I'm technically not a doctor?"
"You've studied it for a long time, it's not like you'll be doing any surgery" Fury shrugged.
"Well - either way I'm ready for it. Gimme a pistol and medical supplies and I'm good"
"wha- you're not having a pistol"
"You want me to go out there unprotected? I'm with child Fury. I'm not gonna go to a scene of a robot apocalypse without something to kill with!"
"It's not - ugh fine"
"Yay" i said happily, clapping my hands childishly, my smile only widening as he rolled his eyes at me, "also don't tell Clint that I'm here"
"Trust me, I wasn't going to"

•••

"Holy fuck Fury I didn't know you meant it was this bad" I said into my earpiece, gesturing over the injured as they piled onto the smaller vehicles so I could help them.
"What part of destroying a whole city did you think would happen without casualties?"
I silently rolled my eyes, cleaning a gash on a woman's forehead, my eyes diligently looking at the fast forming line behind her.
The woman uttered words of thanks as she left, her seat immediately being filled by the next person.

I was working in a rhythm for about an hour when Fury's voice crackled into my earpiece, "You've got some more coming in"
"Human or robot?"
"Robot"
I gestured for the (significantly shorter) queue to stay where they were, whipping out my pistol and walking to the side of the helicarrier. I shot all 5 robots with near-perfect accuracy, a weird feeling of calm settling around me.
"Got 'em" I grinned, giving myself a mental pat on the back, before returning to my patients.
"I'm impressed" Fury admitted, an odd tone to his voice.
"As you should be" I quipped, before returning my focus to the teenager in front of me, examining the arm that he was clutching. He hissed in pain as I touched it, letting me move the sleeve up nevertheless. I winced slightly as I saw the gash, knowing it would need stitches. I tried thinking back to some Russian words Nat had taught me, looking up at the boy sympathetically as I brought out the sterile needle and thread.
"извиняюсь"
The boy just nodded, a grimace gritted on his face as I started to sew the cut shut. I was so immersed in keeping my hand steady, that I didn't notice the new wave of robots that started to descend onto the jets.
"Shit"
I hurried up and finished the stitches, wrapping his arm in clean gauze before stepping back into the line of fire, knocking a few robots off. Tony and someone in a similar suit swooped in taking care of the rest and I strode back onto the lifeboat before Tony could spot me.
"Can you try to warn me next time Patchy?"
"I'm talking between two lines, I apologise for missing out a few things" he replied sarcastically.
"Watch your tone old man" I laughed, returning back to the line of people.