bulletproof

6

"Well?" The hologram of the one-eyed director demanded, his hands behind him and his trademark long coat shifting slightly as if there was a breeze around him.

Tony looked over at his co-workers and informed Fury of Y/N's condition, "She's currently being operated on and might be out of surgery tomorrow...maybe" Tony couldn't make any snarky comment toward the director which shocked Fury, or rather, his hologram.

"What about the base, did you manage to complete the mission?" Fury changed the subject away from Y/N as he saw them blink rapidly and clench their teeth.

"Yeah, all the agents were dead, and Wilson managed to download data on a drive. He's with Romanoff and Banner."

"Good. Let Y/N know I hope she recovers quickly." And then he blipped out, leaving the trio in an uncomfortable silence.

Tony turned to Clint and Steve, "Catch some sleep, I'll stay awake for the call" he told them, shooing them off with his hand.

They looked warily and hesitantly at first before dragging their feet to their rooms and collapsing into dreamless periods of sleep, catching up on energy.

It had been a couple of hours, five at most, when a nurse carrying a clipboard walked in and asked for the family of 'Y/N Y/M/N Y/L/N'. The three of them stood up and Sam explained how they had brought her here and were waiting for her.

The nurse sighed and asked for their names, jotting them down on her clipboard before asking them to sit while she explained to them what was and had happened.

"Y/N has suffered from an extensive amount of blood loss...we're surprised she managed to make it to the hospital without dying, the loss of blood was fatal at best." The nurse began, her eyes darting to the three of them before going back to her clipboard, "We performed an x-ray on her and a CAT scan and found the bullet, but we can't go through the procedure until she has gained enough blood."

"Does that mean we can see her?" Nat asked, and the nurse held up a hand patiently, stopping the other two from asking her questions as well.

"Unfortunately, she still has the bullet in her body and isn't in a stable condition yet for you to visit her. In a few hours, we'll be able to remove the bullet and hopefully, that will be everything...there may be a few complications, but they won't be life-threatening." The nurse finished off her speech and looked sympathetically at them all, "Don't worry, your friend is in good hands and you will be able to see her tomorrow morning should everything go to plan."

Bruce spoke up, his forehead lined, making him look much older than he actually was, "And if it doesn't?"

The nurse sighed and patted him on the arm, "We'll make sure it does."

And then she turned on her heel to inform some other visitors on another patient, her hospital shoes squeaking on the clean floor.

They fell back into their seats, not in the slightest bit relieved from the piece of information the woman had told them. In fact, it had only strengthened their worries and added another metre to the wave of stress flowing and crashing on them.

Natasha sighed and rubbed her face with her hand, calming slightly at the scent of mangoes instead of blood. She looked over at Bruce and lifted an eyebrow, "Did you bring a phone with you?"

Bruce shrugged and dug into his pockets, retrieving a mobile device and throwing it over to her.

She caught it expertly and turned it on. To her surprise, there wasn't a lock and she swiped in easily, going to messages and tapping on Tony's one, creating a new message. She typed speedily the information the nurse had just given them and sent it hurriedly.

His reply came back almost instantaneously, giving her the feeling that he wasn't getting rested for his turn in the hospital.