Increasingly Painful and Incredibly Close

20.5

●●●[going on a brief hiatus, gonna try to have the next chapter up by next week.]●●●

A shift in the bed woke Pietro out of a light sleep. Just as he was about to fall back asleep, a hand rubbed up and down his arm. With a soft groan, he slowly opened his eyes.

"You with me, Piet?" Kate took his hand, squeezing gently. She smiled as he looked over to her lazily. "Clint wanted me to tell you he got called to a mission. He'll be back tomorrow."

He looked awful, constantly sleeping for all but a few hours a day and skin pale, almost translucent. His eyes were sluggish as he typed sleepily. "Wanda with him?"

"Yeah, most of the team had to go. Do you need anything now that you're up?" She continued to hold his hand, now gently stretching his fingers.

"Sit up more, hurts. Mouth is dry." A dusting of pink spread on his face in embarrassment.

Kate just smiled, sliding arms under him to pull him up in the bed before propping pillows behind him. The faint moan of pain he gave at the movement panged in the young archer's chest. She then reached into the nightstand, pulling out and unwrapping a disposable oral sponge before grabbing his glass of water and dipping it in.

The relief was amazing as she swabbed moisture into his mouth. After a moment she dipped it in the water again before bringing it back to his slightly ajar lips. "Thank you, Katie."

"Dude, it's nothing. I wanna help you be comfortable." Katie brushed hair out of his face. "You're- you mean a lot to me."

"You mean much to me, too. You know Clint and I are proud, yes?" Pietro looked to her gratefully. Kate's eyes threatened to overflow. "You're a fine hero. Maybe avenger one day? You're a good Hawkeye."

Kate felt like the air had been sucked out of the room. She'd been staying at the tower for about a year, at first to help Clint but she'd grown close with Pietro not long after. Always with the knowledge that he didn't have long to live, but it was clear that window had been closing in these last few months. Pain meds weren't enough anymore, and he'd been getting sick incredibly easy as of late. Sweating fevers from catheter related bladder infections, hypoxia clouding his mind when he caught cold after cold. He was harder and harder to rouse from sleep as his body was exhausted with even the task of surviving.

"Piet, I don't want to lose you." She couldn't blink away the tears fast enough. "You're..." her voice grew quiet. "I've never had the best family life. But you and Clint? You two, you're the closest thing to a real family I have."

"I'm sorry, Katie." A tear traced his cheekbone. "Come here."

It was all the invitation she needed, quickly laying against his side, head resting on his collarbone. She took his hand once more, tenderly cradling it to her chest as she cried. "I'm not hurting you, am I?"

"I am hurting. Is worth it to have you with me like this, though." He felt her tears soak into his shirt. "You're a good friend, Kate Bishop."

She just sobbed in return, breathing in raspy gasps. The young archer shook, eyes squeezed shut. She longed for who he was when they'd met. Witty, sharp, always radiating with unused energy. She missed his voice, the breathy accented nature to his words. Anything that could be considered words was gone now, the most he could muster was tired and pained groans that were barely loud enough to hear. "You too, Pietro."

They stayed like that for a long while, Pietro fighting sleep. Kate looked to him, his eyelids fluttered as he clung to conciousness.

"Am I keeping you awake?" She pulled away slightly, wincing at the faint noise that left him at the motion.

Typing took him a while as he struggled to concentrate. "No. Pain is. My hips."

"How bad is it?" Kate gauged, trying to decide which pain medication and dosage he needed. "Can I move you to put some pillows and try to take the pressure off?"

"Eight. Meds first. Then move." He directed and she reached into the nightstand drawer to gather his supplies and bottle of hydromorphone.

She drew it up, slowly administering it into his tube and chasing it with a flush of water. The relief was subtle, moving the pain down to a five or six. Kate waited patiently while the medication took effect, stroking his arm comfortingly. "Can move now."

"Alright, stop me if it's too much." Kate gently lifted Pietro's left leg, feeling the complete atrophy under her fingers. She placed a pillow in the crook of his knee, repeating with the other leg before putting a smaller pillow under his ankles. "Do you need any repositioning with your arms?"

"No. Travel pillow for my neck, please." He typed with bleary eyes, exhaustion burrowing deep in his bones.

She obligied, movements gentle and calculated to cause as little pain as possible. Now that he was adequately cushioned, she sat back. "Comfortable? You need anything else?"

"So tired. You want to lay with me? Can't stay awake." His eyes closed after he finished, trying to open again but to no avail.

Kate smiled sadly, resuming her earlier position. She adjusted a bit after he whimpered, finding comfort in the fact that her head on his chest meant she could hear his heartbeat. Her phone buzzed, and she stealthily pulled it from her pocket without disturbing the man.

A text from Clint lit up her phone. 'How's he doing?'

'Tired, in pain. Gave him some of his strong meds, he just fell back asleep.' She snapped a picture of her and Pietro, adding a warm filter over it to attempt to mask how sickly and frail he looked.

Typing bubbles danced on her screen, vanished, and then returned. 'Thank you for taking such good care of him, Katie-Kate. Video call me next time he's up?'

'Of course, dude. Don't worry about it, y'all are like my surrogate dads.' She smiled at her screen, taking a quick picture of Pietro's pulse oximeter for Clint's peace of mind. 'I know you have it synced to your phone but figured it'd make you feel better to get a pic of it. Pulse 98, oxygen 92.'

'Thanks. Remember to suction and turn him in a bit.'

'U got it!'

●●●

It was dark outside when he woke next. Kate was laying beside him watching something quietly on her phone. An alarm went off over her screen and she turned to Pietro.

"Hey, you're up." She grinned, getting up on her knees to reach over him for his meds.

"What time it?"

She drew up meds before checking the time. "A little after nine. Clint wanted me to call when you woke up, is that okay?"

"Yes. After meds. Hurts." The whine he gave was so weak she barely heard it.

Kate wasted no time in giving him the doses. The pain drained from his eyes back down to his baseline levels, which were ever rising. She carefully adjusted a few pillows and tucked the blankets around him. Lucky was curled at his feet, her head resting next to his ankle. She pulled out her phone, tapping Clint's contact.

Within seconds he'd picked up, dimly lit in what looked to be a motel room. He smiled as he saw his husband. "Hey, baby. How're you feeling?"

"Doing okay. Sleeping lots today." Pietro's eyes were hazy, struggling to find focus. "How is mission?"

"It's going okay, should be finished up by tomorrow afternoon. I miss you, honey." His voice was wet as though he'd been crying. "Katie taking good care of you?"

"Miss you too. Da, she is good." The younger man's eyes flitted over to the young archer.

A crackle from his trach as he typed. "Katie."

Kate tipped his head to clear the saliva. "Gotta suction you real quick. You want Clint on the phone or you wanna hang up and call back?"

"Hang up. Don't need audience."

Tears streamed from his eyes as the young archer suctioned him. She apologized the whole time, trying to make it as quick as possible.