Hi, this is my new story! I hope you like it and please review.

The bullets were rapidly firing out of my guns, hitting the HYDRA agents that were across the streets of Manhattan. Clint was a couple of streets away fighting down the rest. Seven down, two to go. I was currently reloading my guns round the side of the street, leaning against the wall. I slotted the magazines into my guns and looked round the corner. I saw them, hiding behind a car, their guns pointed in my directions through the broken windows.

As soon as they saw me, they started to fire in my direction. I quickly hid behind the building again, whilst they shot bullets into the wall next to me. I looked right and saw a broken mini-car in the avenue. Lets do this. I told myself and gripped my guns tightly. I took a deep breath before I sprinted towards the car. I did my three aerial cartwheels in a row to get there, every shooting my gun at the enemy constantly. When I got cover at the car, I remember hearing the groan of one of my victims dying. I don't like the fact that I have to kill people, but it's my job.

I got onto the floor and looked across as the dead body on the other side of the car. One left. I looked over and saw him reloading his gun. Amateur. I brought up my gun and shot him straight in the head. All nine dead. "Hawkeye, where are you?" I asked into the comms. Hurry up and reply ass-hole. "Hawk?" He must be eating some food right now or taking a break. "HEY! Clint. What's your location?"

I am getting seriously fed up with him now. Where is he? "Clint, if you don't fucking answer me then-"

"Nat, shut up!" I heard his voice go through the earpiece. He was whispering. Why is he whispering?

"Why are you whispering?"

"Because..." he said and I heard him load an arrow and fire it over the comms. "I haven't finished the mission yet!"

"How many left?"

"About five!" he said, breathlessly.

"Are you sleeping on the job?"

"You had nine! I had fifteen!" he complained.

"Whatever, just get the job done okay?"

"Come meet me here and assist then." He never admits he needs help.

"Where are you?" I asked.

"23rd Street."

"See you there." There in two minutes.

I remembered that I left my motorbike round the corner. I had nearly run out of ammunition, so I have two options. 1. Run to Clint now and take my chances or 2. Go to my bike to get extra support. Okay...bike.

It took me two minutes to get to the bike and start it up. "Clint, I'm on my way." I said putting the keys in the ignition.

Suddenly, I heard a huge explosion through the ear piece and in the city. I felt the ground move and I came to the realisation. Clint.

"Clint, what was that?" I asked through the earpiece. Static. "Clint?" I asked more urgently. "CLINT!"

I frantically twisted the keys, starting the engine and speeded down to 23rd street. As I drove, the thought kept running through my mind. What if he's dead? Why didn't I just run? I kept driving through the streets until I saw smoke rising from the side of a street. Not to my surprise, it was 23rd.

"Shit." I exclaimed. "CLINT!" I screamed, stopped the motorcycle and started sprinting down the streets to try and find him.

"CLINT, WHERE ARE YOU!?" I shouted. Oh my God! Where is he? Was he in the explosion? Did he get...did he get killed?

I quickly called Tony for assistance. "Spider woman." I heard a voice come over the speaker.

"Stark, you had better find Clint right now."

"I'm putting the suit on now. Where are you and what's happened?" he asked, sounding more urgent.

"23rd Street. There was an explosion." I explained.

"Alright calm it!"

"HE WAS IN THE EXPLOSION AND I CAN'T FUCKING FIND HIM YOU PRICK! HIS COMMUNICATION HAS GONE STATIC!" I screamed.

"Shit!" he said seriously. I saw him come up overhead in his red and golden suit. The oh so great Iron man.

"Hey, I see him."

"WHERE?" I shouted.

"1. Ouch, don't speak so loud. 2. About 10m infront of you next to the building on your left."

"Okay." I replied and ran over to where he told me to go. "Clint?" I shouted out into the piles of rubble.

I heard someone groan quietly and I looked to where the source was. "Clint?" I whispered. He was lying chest down on a concrete slab. His right leg was slightly lifted and bent at the knee whilst the left was completely straight. His shoes were scuffed and were torn at the sides. There were small pieces of rubble all over his suit. In his right hand, his bow, lying in his loose grip and both of his hands were covered in bloody scratches, raw from battle. His hair was scruffy as usual and had blood matted into it. I saw a pool of blood around his head, dripping its way down the granite and onto the floor. The others around, the enemies, all seemed unmoving and dead.

"CLINT!" I screamed and quickly checked his pulse. I felt a faint pulse against my fingertips, but also felt a slimy warm mixture pouring down his neck. At first I thought it was sweat, until I brought it away from the shadows and saw my fingers covered in blood. Oh my God.

"No life signs detected apart from Clints." I was very happy to hear the 'apart from Clints' section of that sentence.

I stared to turn Clint over. "Stark I need you right-" I began, but stopped when I saw Clint's face. His ears were covered with blood, along with multiple cuts across his face, blood dripping down them. His eyes were closed and there was a cut across his bottom lip. I saw that the front of his suit had splashes of blood over it and I wondered where the wound was and where Tony was.

Iron Man landed a few metres away and rushed over. His face lifted up and revealed Tony. "Jesus Christ." he exclaimed and came over. "Thor, I need you to come and get Romanoff." he said, obviously talking over the comms.

"I'm not leaving him." I said, my voice devoid of all emotions. I had to put them aside...for the minute.

"You have to. If you want to save your boyfriend, then you have to go separately. I can't take you both." Tony said. I ignored his comments, huffed and finally agreed. I nodded my head and then he took Clint in his arms. I sucked in a breath as he did. I didn't want to see Clint hurt.

I saw Thor thunder towards me, as Tony left with Clint. "Are you well, Lady Natasha?"

"If you mean am I hurt, then no. Not really."

"I shall take you to safety, my lady." Thor announced, putting his arm around my back and lifting me into the air. He is such a gentleman. Sometimes I wish Clint was more like Thor, because sometimes Clint is a complete and utter immature brat. I wouldn't want him to change however. I like Clint just the way that he is. I didn't realise how much time had passed, because we were already at the top of Avengers Tower.

"JARVIS, where is he?"

"If you are relating to Mr. Barton, he is in the infirmary Miss Romanoff." JARVIS replied.

"Thank you." I replied, trying to control my nerves. I was nervous. Clint's life was on the line and I needed to get to him. Me and Thor rushed down the stairs to the infirmary room where Clint was just lying there, not moving. Not a twitch. Banner and Stark were there, Banner with medical notes and Stark fixing a tube leading into Clint's body. I hate to see him hurt.

Maria and Steve were standing at the doors, blocking the entrance and waiting for my arrival. "Report?" I asked them, my face remaining serious as ever.

"4 broken ribs, fractured hand and..." Steve said and then looked from me to Maria and then back to me.

"What is it?" I asked curious as to why they were acting so weirdly.

"Something has happened. Something...that will affect him quite badly."

"Rogers, stop pissing around. Tell me what has happened." Steve squinted at the harsh language.

"It's Clint. The explosion caused...damage to his ears..."

"Meaning?" I pressed, not hoping for the bad news I knew he was going to give me.

"He is deaf in both ears, Natasha." he said sorrowfully, not even looking at me. His gaze stayed set on the floor as he said "I'm sorry."

"It's..." I started, but almost couldn't finish my sentence. "It's f-fine Steve. Honestly. I just need to see him." I said, pushing past him. I opened the doors and did a quick walk over to where he lay. I tried to look like I wasn't worried, but I couldn't even tell.

"Did Steve tell you?" Bruce asked. I almost didn't hear him ask me the question because I was too consumed with the fact that my partner was so damaged. The bloody cuts on his face were now just cuts because the blood has been wiped away. His suit only covered his bottom half, leaving his stomach, chest and arms free to move.

More deep scratches covered his torso. I could see where most of the damage had been done though. His ears had been cleaned, and were luckily still attached to his head, but unfortunately the blood seemed to continued to pour out of the left one, even though there was a bandage wrapped around it.

"Is he sleeping?" I asked Banner.

"Unconscious at present. He should wake up after we perform an operation to stop the bleeding." Bruce explained.

"And then?"

"There are two options."

"Which are?" I asked, attempting to get straight to the point and not let sympathy of the others get in the way.

"1. Leave him in this current state of deafness."

"That is not an option Banner."

"Okay." He said looking slightly scared. "The second...is an operation that may kill him. However, there is a chance that his hearing may be repaired."

How are we meant to figure this out?

I hope you liked the chapter! I thought I would base my story around how Clint became deaf. Please review :)