bulletproof

9

The phone buzzed on the countertop as Tony and Steve snacked on all the junk food they could find, figuring that it probably wouldn't be the best idea to get drunk while their friend was busy getting operated on. Tony wiped away a few smudges of chocolate from around his lips and checked it, almost dropping it from excitement and shock at the message.

Operation's done

He handed the device to Steve who just dropped everything and raced out to the jet as fast as he could, leaving Tony to go wake Clint up. Excitement ran through him as he stopped at the jet. A bubble of laughter rose to the top of his throat and he let it out, unable to wipe the grin off his face as he pictured Y/N lying in her hospital bed, smiling at the sight of him.

A fluttering sensation erupted in his stomach and he couldn't hold back an exhilarated laugh, he could feel all the pent-up stress from earlier wash out of him as fast as it had been to drown him, and all he could do was restrain himself from whooping. Clint and Tony entered the hangar bay and Clint seemed to be having the same problem as Steve.

"She made it!" he laughed out loud, grabbing onto Clint and Tony and hugging them tightly and they replied, feeling all that negative energy escape from them as hope began to surge in their hearts.

They rushed on board with a keenness to get to the hospital as fast as possible to catch Y/N wake up for the first time since the surgery. Tony concentrated on the speed of the jet, flying through the sky at an almost supersonic speed with the urgency to see her. She had been there for him when he thought everything had gone to shit and been his support when everything was too much for him to bear. It had hurt him deeply when she had been bleeding out her life and he couldn't do anything to help her or stop the pain. The terror that had gripped him less than a day ago had felt so awful and for a moment on the jet with her lying on the floor, he was almost certain that she was going to die and that there was no way to prevent it. She had been the one who'd taken away the bottle and told him that that was enough. She backed Pepper up and helped her with looking after his sorry ass and when Pepper was gone, she was the one who kept tabs on him and made sure he went to bed at a reasonable hour. It had irritated him then, but he couldn't deny the gratitude he felt towards her for controlling his addictions, for taking care of him when he spiralled out of control.

Steve paced in the back, his mind a whirlwind as the events from a few hours played in his head. He hadn't felt so afraid of anything until then. Over the course of a few hours, he had discovered a love he never thought was possible with her or would ever happen since Peggy. He always thought that you could only have that one person and he had been positive that Peggy had been it. Upon meeting Y/N for the first time, he had become a nervous wreck with a need to impress her while trying to appear relaxed and nonchalant.

Within seconds, she made him want to make her laugh, to tell her a joke and see the light appear in her eyes.

The jet landed on top of the hospital, in the same place as it had been when Y/N had been wheeled in, staining white with red. And the door opened, letting them exit and stand on the roof. The three men opened the door to the hospital and entered one by one, descending the stairs and closing the door behind them.

The atmosphere of the ward they were standing in was sombre and tearful and no place for their goofy grins, so they hurried out before they got yelled at for being insensitive by some visitor. It took them a while to find Nat, Sam, and Bruce and they ended up asking for directions from an exhausted nurse who was carrying a clipboard and looked dead on her feet.

"Hey," Clint greeted the Russian redhead once they spotted her, "Where're Bruce and Sam?"

Nat smiled tiredly at him, "They went ahead while I waited for you guys...she hasn't woken up, yet, I don't think, so..."

Tony looked her in the eye, a serious expression on his face, "Get some sleep, Nat. You don't look too good." And Nat nodded, too tired to fire back at his observation, getting up from her position and heading away from them, toward the main entrance and exit of the hospital.