The first sensation she felt was heat. Extreme and unwavering; surrounding her, enveloping her, threatening to swallow her whole. Her skin felt too tight; raw and exposed. Her head pounded; it hurt more than she could ever remember. She felt a weight over her; something pinning her in place, anchoring her to the ground. Breathing was hard; made more difficult with every painful breath she took. No matter how hard she tried, she couldn't muster the strength to open her eyes.
She heard voices, distant and muffled. The comm unit in her ear buzzed as she tried to move her head. Realisation suddenly dawned; that's where the voices were coming from, she was alone.

"Hello? Anyone there?"

"Is that you Capsicle?"

"Tony? You okay?"

"I'm fine, you?"

"I'll be alright. You got eyes on anyone else?"

"I've got Bruce here. He's unconscious, knocked out by the blast. But he's still Bruce - no sign of the other guy."

"Natasha? Clint? Thor? Do you copy?" Steve called out.

"Captain, its Thor. Barton and I are on the second floor. His communication device is malfunctioning"

"You both okay?"

"I am well, Barton has an injured leg and is having difficulty standing"

"Right, Thor; get Barton out of here and to the evac point. Tony, you take Bruce. I'll find Nat and meet you there"

"Cap, this building is about to go down. Widow could be anywhere – be careful"

"Rodger that Stark. Now get out!"

"Captain, Barton would like you to know that Lady Romanoff was heading for the basement before the blast hit, that is her likely location"

"Right, okay. Thanks"

The basement – of course it would be the basement.

It was supposed to be a simple mission. An abandoned warehouse which had been used to store stolen weapons; it was a supposed to be a quick sweep, make sure whoever had been using the warehouse hadn't left anything behind, check for any useful intel, and leave. The only reason The Avengers had even been called was because a large proportion of the stolen weapons were reportedly old, missing Stark weapons.

They'd entered the warehouse; Tony and Bruce had gone to the third floor, Thor and Clint to the second, while the Captain searched the ground floor. Natasha had gone to the basement to look through the numerous filing cabinets for anything useful.

Suddenly the whole place had shook. The blast had originated on the first floor; near the entrance they had used, sending Steve diving for cover. The entire front half of the building had crumbled, leaving at least two of the team seriously injured, and one missing.
Steve hoped that Natasha's comm unit was broken like Clint's, but the blast was almost 20 minutes ago, and she hadn't made any attempt, as far as Steve was aware, to get up to the first floor.

Steve made his was through the debris, clearing his way to the basement. Smoke billowed up the stairwell; this was not good.

"Tasha? Tasha! Can you hear me? Are you there?"
He could barely see; there was too much smoke. It stung his eyes and clawed at his throat.

"St... Stev..."

"Tasha! I'm coming!"

He fought harder now. He knew she was down there, knew his timing was essential, knew her time was limited.
He reached the base of the stairs, the cloud of smoke was even thicker down here; a wall of fire in front of him. Although the upper floors had been largely metal and concrete; the basement had wooden beams; feeding the flames, amplifying the heat. As well as the wooden beams, all the papers and files had gone up in flames too. SHIELD would have to deal with a report of 'no intel' this time.

Suddenly Iron Man appeared beside him. "Shit" was all Tony could muster.

Steve saw something move at the other side of the room; Tasha. Tony strode through the flames; she was pinned by one of the large wooden beams, it lay across her abdomen; she was completely trapped. Tony used the suit to carefully free her; cutting them beam where he could, slowly lifting it off her. Steve picked her up gently; blood gushing down her face from the deep laceration on her forehead.

Suddenly the ceiling above them began to tremble. A split-second glance at each other, and they fled.

Once they reached the evac point; Thor was wrapping Clint's calf in a segment of fabric cut from his red cape; trying to stem the bleeding. Bruce was now awake, sat a little further away; clutching his head, eyes squeezed tightly closed.

All three looked up in relief as their missing teammates arrived; they'd seen the building collapse, even from this distance.
Their faces dropped on seeing Natasha; lying limply in Steve's arms, her face covered in blood.

"Is she..." Clint began. But the thought was too painful to voice. A tear fell from his eye, rolling down his soot covered face.

"She's still alive. Barely" Tony answered. "Where the hell is the evac team?!" frustration and anger clouded his voice. He ripped off the face plate of his suit and turned to Steve.

"She needs medics now. I can get her back to SHIELD in 15 minutes"

Steve looked at Tony, and then back to Tasha. Her breathing was laboured and weak, the smoke had made things bad enough, but the beam that had crushed her had made everything worse. He looked back at Tony and nodded.

"Wait, what are you..?" Clint stammered as Tony took Natasha from Steve.

"You sure you can manage? Flying, and carrying her? Both safely?" Bruce asked quietly from a distance.

"Do I have a choice?" Tony responded. Normally Bruce would be able to look her over in the field, or even Clint. But Bruce was concussed and couldn't see straight, and Clint was injured himself. Not to mention the SHILED evac team was currently not responding, they could be hours; time Natasha didn't have.

Tony Stark, in his Iron Man suit pretty much crashed into the SHIELD HQ entrance; taking two windows, a door and a security guard with him, startling several junior agents. They all looked at him like he'd gone mad, but no one tried to stop him. He took a moment to recover, then headed straight up to medical. En route, he ran straight into Hill and Coulson.

"What the hell Stark?!" Hill cried as her paperwork and coffee went everywhere.

Coulson was too busy to comment; his eyes glued on Natasha's lifeless form in Tony's arms. Coulson turned and lead the way to medical; ensuring everyone got out of the way, Tony was right behind him, and realisation now hitting her; Hill followed too, leaving a pile of coffee soaked, classified paperwork on the floor.

Several hours later; Steve, Thor and Tony stood in Fury's office, Bruce and Clint sat in front of them.

"Can somebody... Please explain to me... How this damn, easy reconnaissance mission went SO. FUCKING. WRONG?!" Fury's voice was dripping with anger.
Coulson took a timid step forward from the corner of the room, positioning himself between the team, and director Fury.

"Our intel, sir, suggested that the building was empty. However, as it turns out, the building was actually rigged to explode sir, fortunately only one of three explosives blew. The quick thinking of the team ensured all six team members got out alive. Sir..."

"Barely..." Fury muttered. But he realised the team were not to blame. He was angry, in fact he was furious, but not at them.
The five Avengers looked to Coulson, nodding their thanks.

"Next time, let's verify our so-called intel before we almost lose our best people!" Fury yelled, at no one in particular, before storming from his office, Hill and Coulson following. He needed to find out who was responsible. He needed to make them pay.

Natasha woke the following day. She felt like she'd just gone three rounds with the Hulk, and lost.

As she stirred and opened her eyes, a smile flickered across her face:
Clint was lay curled up on the foot of her bed. The limited room made it look incredibly uncomfortable; but Clint slept soundly, his left calf covered in gauze and bandages. Bruce was sat on the arm chair in the corner; reading the paper, his glasses were slightly wonky due to the bandage which had been placed round his head. Tony was pacing back and forth on the phone, trying to assure Pepper that everyone was fine, it didn't sound like he was succeeding. Thor was stood by the window, he was in a world of his own; deep in thought. Steve entered the room, balancing various drinks and snacks in his hands and tucked under his arms. He was the first to notice Natasha's eyes were open.

"Hey you" he said quietly with a smile.
He looked down at her battered body. She, too, had a bandage wrapped round her head. Two black eyes and a bruised jaw were evident on her face, and although Steve couldn't see them, he knew there were more bandages and bruises covering her body.

She reached up, pulling the oxygen mask from her face; "Right back at you" she managed – her throat hoarse and dry.

The others all turned to look at her; Tony stammering a rushed goodbye into his Phone, Clint stirring from his sleep. They all looked at her, and she looked at all of them; her team. She trusted them more than she had trusted anyone in her life, and that made her smile just a little more. No matter how much pain she was in; she wasn't alone anymore.