Days went by and Natasha still wasn't awake. The world was curious as to the status of the captain.
Until 4 days later, the captain woke up.
Natasha opened her eyes and looked at the ceiling of her hospital room. She propped herself up slightly and looked around. She paused when she saw Clara, asleep by her bed in a chair.
"She's still here..." Natasha said quietly, making sure not to disturb her. She sat up slowly and realized she was pretty much healed, but she was scarred now.
She lifted the blanket and saw her legs were scarred a decent amount. She sighed and rubbed her neck as she got off the bed and walked over to the bathroom.
She washed her face. Memories came back to remind her of the past she wanted to run from.
As she dried her face, she heard her room door open. She peeked out and saw Sam. "Dad." She said as he promptly ran over and hugged her tightly.
She held onto him and teared up slightly. "I'm sorry... I didn't mean to get that hurt." She said into his shoulder.
"Quit apologizing. It only matters that you're okay." He said as he pulled from the hug and held her face gently.
She smiled a bit, but then her attention went over to Clara who got up, and was getting ready to leave. She was hoping to be able to leave without anyone noticing.
She left the room.
Natasha excused herself and rushed out of the room. "Agent Carter!" Clara sighed and stopped as she turned and looked at her.
"Yes captain?"
"Why didn't you follow my order earlier..." Natasha said.
"Which one? You said a few." Clara said, which had Natasha roll her eyes slightly. "When I told you to leave but you stayed..."
Clara crossed her arms and looked at Natasha. She walked towards her and looked up at her. "I'm not going to willingly leave my friend to die, just because she tells me to. You understand me, Captain?"
Natasha simply looked at her and smirked. She liked this girl. This girl had spunk, and attitude, a willingness to call her out on her shit.... Someone more headstrong than her.
"Understood... I hope you stick with me for awhile." Natasha said. Clara's eyes widened slightly.
"You're the partner/ bodyguard I've needed for awhile, so... I hope you keep working with me." Natasha said before two nurses started to scold her to head back to her room and continue getting rest.
Natasha waved and then headed back to her room.
Clara smiled as she turned to head down the hall. "Interesting."
About two days later, Clara headed down to the second office they had in town. Maria had called her for a meeting, which Clara was slightly worried about. She didn't mind seeing the big boss, but was still low key terrified of seeing her on her own.
She made it up to the office and entered as she saw Maria looking over a report.
"Agent Carter, good morning. Take a seat." Maria said as she closed the report. Clara sat down.
"Is something wrong?" Clara asked as she looked at the director. Maria shook her head with a smile. "Actually, quite the contrary. I wanted to commend you once again."
Maria pulled up footage of Clara shooting Wanda. "I'm very impressed... you're the only agent in the entirety of shield who was able to hold this woman off besides Natasha." She said as she chuckled.
Clara was a tad surprised. "I was just doing my job."
"And some people aren't even able to do that, agent." Maria said.
"I want to give you a promotion. And this is at the request of the Captain." Maria said as she opened her desk.
"A promotion?!"
"Yes. I'm upping your clearance to level 3 instead of two. That means, on mission when the captain isn't there, you're the squad leader." Maria said. She handed the blonde a new access card. Clara Held it and smiled.
"Thank you ma'am."
As she stood up to leave, an agent rushed in.
"Ma'am, the captain is downstairs training..." the agent said. Clara raised a brow. "I'll get her." Clara said as she walked out.
Maria watched her leave. She looked at the other agent. "Let's go watch."
Clara walked down to the training ground and saw Natasha fighting an agent. But they were promptly slammed to the ground.
Clara sensed Natasha had an anger behind her as she was fighting. She sensed a rigidity behind her movements as she backed up from the agent.
"Captain." Clara said as she walked onto the floor. Natasha looked at her.
"Yes, Carter?" Natasha said as she pulled her hair up.
Clara took off her protective vest and looked at her. "Want to spar?"
Natasha looked at her, almost hesitantly. Clara helped the other agent off the ground and moved them off the floor. "Hm? What do you say, Captain?" She said looked at the taller woman.
Natasha walked over to her side and raised her hands. "I apologize in advance."
"Me too." Clara said with a smirk. She ran at Natasha and started hand to hand. Natasha knew that she was stronger than Clara, but Clara packed a punch.
Natasha smoothly blocked a kick to the face and suddenly grabbed Clara's leg and put her to the ground. Her eyes went dull slightly as her actual knife was at Clara's neck.
"Captain!" Clara yelled. Natasha snapped out of it and jumped back off of her. She dropped her knife and realized it was her real one.
Clara got up and looked at her. "Are you okay?"
Natasha just walked out of the room and rushed to her motorcycle. She felt the memories rushing back to her. It was killing her.
She just put on her helmet and left as she saw Clara running out. Clara panted as she watched her race away. "What was That..."