Clint grabbed his bow off the rack and snapped it open, he adjusted the strap on his quiver and took a deep breath as the launch doors opened. His mission objective was simple: find the Black Widow. Clint was already a professional agent in all ways, but this mission was personal and made it even more important that Clint be successful. Someone had taken his Natasha and he wanted her back. His hand shot instinctively to the spider charm on his necklace, he rubbed the surface once for luck before he jumped from the small shield plane. The cold Alaskan air hitting his face set his senses into overdrive and he tuck and rolled into a perfect landing on to the snowy ground. This section of Alaska was pretty rural and the winters extra harsh because of the terrain. Clint was worried about the state he would find Natasha in. If her captors weren't adequately taking care of her she could be sick or worse when he got to her.

"Hawk, I'm at the rendezvous point waiting." Steve Rogers' voice came over the com.

"Copy that, I'm on my way." Clint responded and started running toward the east. He had to get to the rendezvous point before the sun went down or he would be in big trouble himself. Clint reached the rendezvous point only twenty minutes before the sun set on the Alaskan tundra. He hated how short the sun was out up here during the winter. At the rendezvous point Steve and Tony were waiting for him when he got inside. Tony was on the phone with Pepper, who was back at Stark Towers with Maria Hill and Jane. Natasha had been compromised during an undercover mission and they had been trying to find her for the past month and half. Tomorrow morning they would be setting off to infiltrate the facility they had finally located her in. Clint was clinging to the hope that she would still be alive when he got to her, and if she was alive she wouldn't be too bad off. Steve was laying on his cot in the safe house staring up at the ceiling. Now that Clint and Natasha's marriage was out in the open Steve and Bruce were the only ones without someone to love and it was affecting Steve more than it was Bruce. Clint sighed and threw his bow and quiver of arrows down on his bed. Even inside the safe house it was freezing so Clint had to keep his massive jacket on. He nodded to Steve and Tony in acknowledgement before climbing in to the bed and burrowing himself in the covers. He closed his eyes and willed for sleep to come over him.

Meanwhile in a facility twenty miles from the safe house Natasha sat on the floor of her cell with her knees drawn up to her chest. She was freezing and her side ached from where they had tortured her to try and find out who she was working for. She was certain they had broken a few ribs. She was also positive that her left ankle was broken. Her shoulder was visibly out of socket and she was pretty sure her elbow was broken as well. The rough pain in her chest and her constant coughing combined with chills that made her believe she had a fever; confirmed the worries she had that she was getting terribly sick. A single tear slipped out of her eye and she pulled her knees in closer to her chest as coughs racked throughout her body.

"Clint please hurry." She whispered hoarsely and broke into an intense coughing fit. She was horrified to find that she had coughed up blood into her hand. She knew then that Clint needed to find her soon, or there wouldn't be much of her left to find. She had been feeling feverish and her chest had been hurting for the last two days. She'd only been coughing since yesterday. Today nausea had been added to her long list of symptoms. She hadn't thrown up yet, but she felt like she could at any minute. The torture hadn't been too bad before she had started to get sick. It had started out as just fatigue but now it was so much worse. She coughed roughly again and drifted off to sleep.

When Clint woke up the next morning he felt more exhausted than he did when he went to bed. His heart was heavy and he had a horrible feeling that Natasha was in bad shape. So he went on ahead of Tony and Steve to get to her as soon as possible. The trek across the Alaskan Landscape was rough but Clint ran as fast as he could anyways. He was two miles out from Natasha's recorded location when Tony's voice came over the com.

"Hawk, where are you?" Tony asked.

"Two miles out from the facility. I have a bad feeling that Nat won't hold on much longer so I left early." Clint replied.

"Cap and I are on our way. Wait before entering the facility. I'll be there in five minutes." Tony ordered. Clint sighed and picked up his pace. Five minutes for Tony would take Clint at least fifteen to go the next two miles. When he finally reached the outskirts of the facility he found Tony already scoping out a way into the facility.

"How does it look?" Clint asked as he approached Tony. The Iron Man shrugged.

"Actually. This security system sucks. This will be a piece of cake. The people inside are the problem." Tony reported. Clint nodded and briefly checked his quiver for an arrow count.

"I've got fifty arrows, so I think I'm good." Clint told him. Tony nodded. Steve pulled up next to us on his bike and flipped the engine off. He adjusted his shield on his back before stepping off his bike.

"What's the plan?" Steve asked. Tony shrugged.

"Charge?" He suggested. Steve rolled his eyes, but Clint nodded in agreement.

"I'll sneak in and find Natasha. Once I've located her you guys come in and blow the crap out of people as a distraction so I can get her out. You said Fury has a transport on standby?" Clint asked. Steve nodded and Tony started chuckling.

"Blow the crap out of people? Nice word choice." Tony laughed. Steve rolled his eyes and Clint glared.

"Tony, be serious. I have a horrible feeling Nat is seriously injured. Fury has a transport on standby, right?" Clint asked patiently. Steve nodded. "Alright, I'm going in. I'll let you know when I have Natasha." Clint told them. They nodded in response and he slipped through a crack in the fence line. He stayed low to the ground as he ran across the field and up to the side of the building. He ran along it until he found a good window to climb into. As soon as his feet hit the ground of the inside he heard loud coughing coming from down the hallway followed by screaming. His heart dropped. That was Natasha screaming. He immediately took off running toward the sound. His footsteps never made a sound though. He followed the sound of harsh coughing and whimpers of pain down the halls until he found himself outside a door. He peeked inside and found that Natasha was now alone in a cell on the floor curled into a fetal position. He could tell her breathing was off by the rising and falling of her chest. He busted open the door and she glanced up at him weakly. A small spread slowly across her face. Clint's heart broke for his wife and he ran quickly to her side.

"Clint… I knew… I knew… you... would… find… me." Her voice rasped painfully and she broke into another coughing fit. Clint smiled and he reached up to push her hair out of her eyes. Her hair was matted with sweat and without even fully touching it he could feel the heat radiating from it. Her fever was dangerously high.

"Oh Nat. They were horrible to you." He sighed angrily. Nat nodded and coughed harshly again. Clint was horrified to find that she had coughed up blood. This was bad. "What hurts?" Clint asked. He could tell she probably had pneumonia and her shoulder was obviously dislocated, but he wasn't sure what else was wrong.

"Ankle… ribs…elbow." She wheezed between each word. Clint sighed and shook his head angrily. He wanted to kill the jerks who did this to her.

"Alright. I'm going to get you out of here. Hold on Nat." He promised her and picked her slowly up off the ground. "Cap. Stark. I've got Nat. Cover me." He barked into the com.

"Roger." Tony answered. Clint smiled at Natasha.

"Ready Nat?" He asked. She nodded weakly and buried her face into Clint's jacket. Her body was shaking in his arms and it worried him so much. He had never gotten out of a building so fast in his life. Thankfully Fury was waiting for him at the end of the drop gate of the plane to help him bring Nat inside. Once inside Fury led them into the main area where a cot was pushed up against the wall with some basic medical supplies nearby. Clint gently laid his wounded wife down on the cot and started to take care of her as the S.H.I.E.L.D aircraft lifted off the ground.

"Cold." Nat mumbled deliriously. Clint smiled sympathetically at her.

"Hold on babe. I've got to do somethings before I can cover you up. This is going to hurt just a bit." Clint warned and stuck an IV needle into her uninjured arm. Nat hardly flinched. Clint started her on an IV of fluids and some Morphine for all of her injuries before he proceeded with any more of his exam.

"How high is her fever?" Fury asked.

"Somewhere around 103." Clint reported.

"I hope Tony and Steve blow them to Pluto." Fury growled. Natasha's pained moan brought Clint and Fury's attention back to her.

"We got her out just in time. I think she's got some pretty bad pneumonia, and her fever's high enough that she's starting to become delirious. They've broken at least eight bones as well." Clint told Fury worriedly.

"How's her breathing?" Fury asked.

"It's getting steadily worse." Clint answered. Natasha coughed painfully and forcefully enough that she threw up. Clint immediately came to her aid and started cleaning up the mess.

"Clint, I feel horrible." She mumbled. Clint stopped cleaning and pushed the bangs off her forehead and kissed her gently on her burning skin.

"I know Nat. We're going to fix you up." Clint promised. Natasha nodded and took a deep breath, but it caught and she started to struggle to breathe. Her eyes grew wide with fear, causing her breathing to become worse.

"Nat! Calm down baby. Focus on me." Clint begged and grabbed and oxygen mask from the supply cart. He strapped it down over her mouth and breathed a sigh of relief as it helped her to calm down.

"Alright Barton. We're descending. I've got a team waiting for her." Fury reported. Clint nodded and ran his hands calmly through Nat's hair.

"Almost home Nat. Almost home." He promised. Natasha smiled weakly and closed her eyes and nodded in understanding.