I just can't take a break from writing. Or this fandom for that matter. For those of you that read my Fix You fic, I hope you love this one just as much. Also, this fic won't be as long as Fix You was. Not sure how long, but it definitely won't be 35 chapters. For those of you that are new to my writing, I hope you enjoy! This is my third story for The Avengers and Clintasha. Therefore, I hope you enjoy this one!

Natasha heard it before she saw it. She was in the building adjacent to the one her partner was in. She heard the sonic boom of one of his arrows, and the shaking of the walls and the shattering of the window's glass shortly followed. When Natasha was sure the explosion was done, she sprinted to the nearest stairwell and ran down the stairs to reach the main floor. As she rushed down the stairs, a million thoughts were buzzing through her head but there was one that stuck out like a sore thumb.

Please don't let him be dead.

When she reached the ground floor, she felt the ground begin to shake underneath her, and then soon after, she saw a cloud of dust and debris begin to engulf the street. Things had started to go to hell when the larger pieces of debris began slamming into the building Natasha was currently in. If she stayed, she could very well be injured in some way or form, so she felt her legs carry her to the back of the building.

Natasha burst through the back door and stepped out into an alleyway. The alley wasn't hit as badly as the main street was but it was still pretty difficult to see due to the cloud of dust. The building next door had completely collapsed, and there was no way of knowing if Clint had gotten out or not. In the past when Clint had used his sonic arrows, it temporarily cut all communication within a two mile radius, including the earpiece communicators the two partners used to stay in touch with one another. Every time before they began a mission, they always set up a rendez-vous point to meet up if Clint ever had to use one of his sonic arrows and the communicators were cut for more than a half hour after one of the arrows were used.

For this particular mission in Brussels, they had decided to meet at the Cinquantenaire triumphal arch. It was about a ten minute walk but if Natasha started now, she would be able to make it to the arch in about the same time as Clint. That is, if he made it out of the building.

Natasha needed to move. She knew she had to get moving to make it to the arch but she couldn't move her legs. She couldn't move the rest of her body. She was completely numb from fear, fear that Clint didn't make it out.

She knew she was being stupid when she began walking towards the ruins of the three-story building, and she knew she was being even more stupid when she started pulling debris from the pile. Her knuckles were bloodied and bruised as she continued to dig through the mess. She knew there was no possible way of finding Clint if he was trapped underneath the debris, but she wanted to try. She needed to try. If she found him, there was no guarantee he would be alive, and if she did find him, he would definitely be severely injured.

As she tore away a large piece of a window frame, she heard a moan. Her heart stopped for a second, and then she began to tear away more pieces of debris at a quicker pace. The more she pulled away, the louder the noise became. Eventually, she pulled away a piece of debris and saw Clint's hand, still clutching his bow. She quickly extended her arm forward and wrapped her hand around Clint's to let him know she was here.

"Hang in there Clint," she said, panicked. "For me, Clint. Hang in there for me. Don't do this to me."

She dug around and pulled the pieces of the building away from the pile. When she got closer to revealing his body, she started to pull the debris off of him slower. If anything was broken, she didn't want to injure it even further.

When she finally pulled the last piece of debris from his torso and from around his head, she could see the extent of the damage. There was blood dripping down the side of his head. His upper arm was snapped in half. He probably had several broken ribs. She didn't even want to know how badly injured he was below the waist; just looking at him with the few injuries she could currently see absolutely hurt her beyond belief.

"Clint," she said, reaching forward and touching her hand to Clint's cheek. Clint's eyes fluttered open but it looked like he was having trouble focusing. "Clint, stay with me, okay? Don't leave me."

At that moment, the communicator in Natasha's ear came back to life with the crackle of static. She switched the frequency so that she could contact someone from SHIELD's base. When Agent Hill had responded, Natasha – who never really lost control of her emotions – was in full-blown panic mode.

"Agent Hill, I need an extraction immediately, and I need the med team too. Haweye is in dire need of medical attention," Natasha said, her voice shaking.

"Give me a second to pinpoint your location and I'll dispatch the extraction team," Agent Hill said. Natasha curled her fingers over Clint's again and gave his hand a reassuring squeeze.

"They're coming Clint. They're coming. Just stay with me until then."

"The extraction team has been dispatched," Agent Hill's voice said from the earpiece. "Black Widow, I need you to get your emotions in check and stay calm."

Natasha hadn't realized how heavily she had been breathing; she was practically hyperventilating. She calmed herself, her breathing reaching a normal pace, and she kept her eyes trained on Clint to make sure that he himself was still breathing. Within a couple minutes, the extraction team had arrived and secured the area surrounding the collapsed building. They pulled Natasha away from the rubble and began working on prying Clint from the rest of the debris.

The med team practically dragged Natasha to get checked out for any injuries; she constantly threatened them and insisted she was okay. However, they weren't going to take any chances and they checked her over for any injuries.

Despite being dragged away from Clint, she still had a perfect view of the team trying to wrest away the pieces of the building. Her eyes were focused on Clint. She could barely see the top of his head, but she could see him. From where she was sitting, she couldn't tell if he was still conscious or not, and she didn't even want to think about whether he was still alive or not.

When the last piece of debris was pulled off of Clint's leg, he let out a pained groan. Natasha pushed her way through the extraction team and knelt down next to Clint. She brushed some pieces of hair out of his face as he frantically looked around at the people surrounding him.

"Clint, you're going to be okay. Just stay calm," Natasha said comfortingly.

The medical team brought over a stretcher and some other medical equipment so that they could work on Clint. They carefully hoisted him onto the stretcher and then began to poke and prod him to check his stats. Natasha never left his side, and growled at any med team member who asked her to move. When they finally placed all of the braces on the limbs that needed them and slipped on an oxygen mask to keep him breathing, they carried him to the edge of the alley where a helicopter awaited to transport him to the SHIELD helicarrier. As soon as they loaded him into the helicopter, Natasha jumped in right after him and held his hand as they lifted off and headed for the helicarrier.

As soon as they touched down on the helicarrier, the medical team had rushed Clint to the medical wing. Natasha wanted to go with him but two SHIELD employees held her back. She would have fought back if she wasn't physically and emotionally exhausted.

"He's going to be okay, right?" she said through clenched teeth.

"They're going to do everything they can," one of the medical personnel said.

"If you let him die, you are all on my hit list," she said, and then turned on her heel to take a seat on one of the chairs that lined the hall.

Natasha didn't move far from where she was stationed. For the majority of the time that Clint was in surgery, Natasha either bounced her leg up and down while she was seated in the chair or paced the floor in anxiousness. The wait was killing her and no one seemed to be able to give her new information on Clint's condition.

During the third hour, Director Fury marched through the medical bay and stood in front of Natasha. She had been ordered to report for debriefing as soon as she touched down on the helicarrier, but had ignored the order to make sure that Clint was okay. She would continue to ignore this order until she got some sort of information on Clint's condition. But despite Director Fury's constant badgering, the Black Widow ignored his requests and stayed positioned at her seat.

By the fifth hour, one of Clint's doctors came waltzing through the doors to tell Natasha that his surgeries were a success. The doctor told Natasha that he was stable but unconscious at the moment and would be sedated for several more hours until his body is able to heal itself enough on its own. From the building's collapse, Clint had a broken arm, a broken leg, several cracked ribs, a collapsed lung, and a concussion. However, Natasha was relieved. It was nothing that he hadn't gone through before. It was a lot that he would have to suffer through all at once, but he would recover in time.

"Can I see him? I know he's sedated but can I just sit by his bed?" Natasha asked urgently.

The doctor nodded and led her through the doors to the rooms that kept the injured SHIELD employees and agents under surveillance. The doctor led Natasha to the end of the hall where Clint's room was. The doctor motioned for Natasha to step in, and so she did.

She'd seen him badly injured before, but this time, it just hurt a little bit to see him laying in the bed hooked up to tubes and wires and practically in pieces. Natasha pulled a chair up next to the side of his bed and took his hand into hers. There was no telling when he'd wake because the doctor had made it very clear that he was pretty drugged up, but she'd sit there and wait until he did.

At one point, Natasha started to drift off to sleep herself. She knew that the position she was in on the chair was going to either mess up her back or her neck or both, but she would suffer through it just to wait until Clint woke up.

She wasn't sure how long she was asleep until she felt a tug on her hand that ripped her out of her hibernation. She blearily rubbed an eye and focused to find that Clint had woken up. He looked confused, as if he didn't remember what had happened, but Natasha rose from her chair and ran her fingers over his jaw line comfortingly.

"Hey, how do you feel?" Natasha asked.

Clint blinked and then shook his head.

"Do you need more pain meds? I'll call a nurse in here," Natasha said as she turned to walk towards the door, but Clint grabbed her by the hand. She turned back around and saw Clint's face stricken with panic.

"Clint, what? What's wrong?" Natasha said as calmly as she possibly could.

"I…" Clint said, his throat scratchy from having not used it in a while.

"You need water. I'll get it." Natasha turned to leave again, but Clint grabbed her by the hand to pull her back. She turned back around just in time to see him wince from exerting himself to keep her in the room.

"Don't move you dumbass," she said.

"Tasha," he mumbled.

"Clint, what? You're really starting to concern me."

"I…I can't hear you," he said.

"Stop fucking around," Natasha said angrily.

"What did you say?" Clint asked.

Natasha leaned down to put her lips right by Clint's right ear. She slipped her hand into his and then said, "If you can hear me, squeeze my hand."

She waited for a couple of seconds, but there was no pressure on her hand. Clint didn't squeeze her hand. Natasha pulled away from him with a barely audible gasp, and then got off of the bed to head out the door to find a doctor.

Clint couldn't hear, and Natasha hoped that it was just temporary. Her frantic behavior in the field wasn't just for nothing. Of all the times she needed to talk to Clint he goes and loses his hearing. She needed to talk to him. Before the mission, she had told him that what she needed to talk to him about could wait until afterwards but of course, his hearing was shot. She needed to talk to him and she needed him to listen because it just wouldn't have the same effect if he was in complete silence.

Uh oh, poor Clint! I've read several fics about Clint losing his hearing so I thought I'd put my spin on it as well. I hope the first chapter intrigued you enough to stick around!

For those of you that signed up for author alerts from reading my Fix You fic, if there is a one-shot sequel you would like me to write, send me a prompt to my inbox and I'll see what I can do. Also, the Love Me If You Dare fic might be a while. As many times as I've seen Love Me If You Dare, I need to study it a little more to get a good feel for what I want to do for Clint and Natasha's Love Me If You Dare story. But it will be coming up.

Okay, so like I said, I hope you guys enjoyed this enough to stick around. Please review! Let me know if this is worth continuing haha.