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Red alert was reserved for serious situations. It was hardly used, but that doesn’t go to say that it has never been utilised.
When one member of the team went missing after their last mission, they all anxiously held their breath.
They were in a forest. The base they inflated blown to smithereens. She could have just been hiding out in the forest for some reason, they had hoped. But everyone knew that was highly unlikely.
Steve sprinted to the jet to make sure she didn’t already make her way there as the rest looked through the rubble. Tony had FRIDAY on it the second they realised they were missing a person. Redwing was also on the lookout. Bucky didn’t even make one of his usual snide remarks about it. They were all too focused on finding their teammate.
She knew she didn’t have much time left. And that was why she was sprinting as if her life depended on it. It did, in hindsight.
She didn’t see the Hydra agent until he had his arms around her.
Grunting, she kicked him in the shin, causing him to loosen his grip. Using that to her advantage, she twisted out of his grasp and clocked him in the jaw before landing a kick to his torso.
With the agent out of the way, she began running to the exit. She was so close.
It all happened so fast. There was a blinding light and a ringing in her ears. She crouched and covered her ears screaming in pain. She could feel the ground shake around her as her breaths began to shorten. Not now, not now! She had thought. She couldn’t have a panic attack whilst a building was collapsing on her. She had to find a way to get out.
Small pieces of rubble began to pour down on her like rain. She dreaded what would follow.
Trying to make her way out proved futile as the ceiling came crumbling in on her. She screamed and cried in the fetal position, covering her head as best she could. Jagged pieces of rock fell on her and sent searing pain through her body. She had never felt anything as terrible, and she had been through a lot. Looking up, she could tell that the rock above her was just one movement away from coming down and crushing her body.
Her breaths were uneven as the claustrophobia settled in. She couldn’t move. She couldn’t breathe. She was going to die.
When everything had settled, she could barely hear some buzzing near her ear. Gently turning her head, she saw her comm lying next to her. She practically cried out in relief. When she tried to move her right arm, it was completely stuck. She didn’t even notice that a chunk of the ceiling had fallen onto her arm. Tears gathering in her eyes, she instead used her left hand to grab the device.
Never had the team been so grateful to get a distress call. Just hearing her voice brought immense relief to the team. She wasn’t dead. She was alive.
“We’re gonna find you, just hang in there.”
She didn’t know if she could. The world was getting dark and it was getting harder and harder to breathe. She could barely hear anything over the ringing that was still in her ears—that was normal right? Everyone could hear that too, right?
When she woke up she could barely hear the beeping of the heart monitor. A nurse came in, but all she could register was her lips moving. It sounded as though she was underwater, trying to hear what the nurse was saying.
The nurse must have asked her something because she had an expectant look on her face. She wanted to answer, but she had no clue what was asked. This terrified her. Was she going to be like this forever? Was she never going to hear normally again.
The next movements of her lips were familiar, her name. The nurse repeated it a few times before calling in a doctor.
Panic gripped at her heart. What would she do now? She relied on sound for so much. She couldn’t live without music. How would she survive like this? She couldn’t breathe. Suddenly the walls were closing in on her and she felt the phantom pain of the ceiling crushing her all over again. Tears were streaming down her face and she hadn’t even realised how loud she was being.
Then she saw Steve followed by Bucky, Sam, Clint, and Natasha. Steve was quick to grab her hand and place it on his own heart. Taking in deep breaths so she could feel the rise and fall of his chest. Natasha and Clint were talking with the doctors, something serious—no doubt about her—that she couldn’t even hear.
A napkin was how she had learned that the explosion had ruptured her ear drum and she probably would never gain her hearing back. It was also how she discovered that they had to do intense surgery on her arm and it will probably never function the same again.
And just when she thought things couldn’t get any worse, she was informed that she would probably not be able to walk unassisted ever again. It crushed her soul. Her whole life she had relied on the things she had just lost. What would her life be without them? What would the point of living be?
They all assured her that they’d be with her every step of the way. That they’d care for her and make sure she was well taken care of. It was the least they could do.