"Let me see it again," Nat said as she reached for your left hand across the breakfast table. "I just can't believe that Rogers could make something that gorgeous. I guess Captain America is a softie at heart."

"Excuse me," Tony joined in with a huff, clutching at his chest and feigning hurt, "I helped, thank you very much."

You pulled your hand back with a sigh and gave a sad smile as you looked at the ring again. Steve had been gone for almost a week, having left almost immediately after putting it on your finger. You hadn't had any time to celebrate it with him, and his absence was beginning to change your mood and your attitude towards your own progress. You were finding it more and more difficult to stay positive and you were fighting with Clint more than ever.

"Yeah, but we already knew that you were a softie, Stark," Nat chuckled, standing to clear her dishes away. As she passed by, she knelt down close and gave you an affirmative pat on the shoulder. "He'll be home today."

"Right!" Tony gasped, jumping up from his seat and pulling his phone from his pocket, his chair almost tipping over from the force. "I almost forgot! What time is he supposed to be here?"

"Um, like six?" she replied, looking at him with complete confusion, but now intrigued at what the notorious troublemaker might be up to. "Stark, what are you doing?"

"What makes you think I'm doing anything?" he mumbled, his focus directly on the phone in his hand and whomever he was frantically messaging.

"Because it's you."

"Pfft, lame." He shoved his phone away and walked towards you with an excited clap of his hands and a mischievous glimmer in his eyes, moving behind you to pull you away from the table. "We need to talk, sweetheart. You're coming with me."

"I'm on wheels, asshat. Does it look like I have much of a choice?"

~~~

"I've never attempted regeneration of spinal cord tissue. This would be highly experimental and there's no guarantee for success," Dr. Cho said through the screen overlooking the lab. "I don't foresee a complete recovery by this alone. It will still take focused therapy on your part, (Y/N), but it could greatly reduce the time of your rehabilitation."

"There's no guarantee of success, but could it do more damage?" you asked, watching the flashes of imagery and medical terminology in front of you, trying to take it all in.

Tony looked at Helen then at you, his expression changing from anticipation to worry; he hadn't thought that it might not be all good outcomes. He had been working with the doctor to build the equipment she needed to do this for you, and hadn't looked beyond his own excitement. "Hold on, if there's a risk to make things worse, then you're not doing this at all."

"We're working with spinal tissue. The nerve pathways are extremely intricate and delicate, so the risk of further damage is there." The doctor leaned closer and looked directly at you, her eyes soft but you sensed an eagerness from her; she was a pioneer and a researcher, and you saw the excitement in her eyes. "(Y/N), what do you think?"

It was all too much to take in. If it worked, you could possibly recover in time to walk in your own wedding, which looked like nothing more than a dream right now. But if it didn't, you could be stuck in that chair forever. You looked down at your hand and spun the ring around your finger, lost in thought and getting nowhere closer to a decision. "I need to talk to Clint."

Tony startled and turned to you with surprise, "don't you mean Steve?"

"Did I say Steve?"

~~~

You had to explain it only once, he didn't ask any questions, and he took only five seconds to give you his answer. You knew that going to Clint was the right thing to do.

"If you don't go, you're a damn fool."

"But what about the risk?" you asked, lifting yourself from the chair to prepare for your session. Every time you stood now, your legs began to hurt; it was no longer just an occasional twinge or spasm, it was pain. "What if it makes this permanent, Clint? I can't..." You paused, holding yourself in place to wait out the ache that coursed through your nerves running the length of your hip and into your foot, your muscles shaking with each wave. "I can't do this forever."

He leapt up from his chair and moved to stand behind you, wrapping an arm around your waist to hold you steady, seeing the tremble in your stance. "I got you. Lean into me if you need to. I won't let you fall."

Heat began to build in your chest, up your neck and into your face. The tight lump in your throat was worsening despite your best efforts to stop it and seconds later you were fully sobbing. His grip tightened and now you relied on him to hold you up.

"Hey, what's going on? (Y/N), what's wrong?"

"Why are you so good to me when all I've ever done is be difficult and call you every name that I know?"

"We're teammates," he said matter-of-fact. "We're friends. It was never a question that I would be here. And trust me, there's nothing you've said that I haven't heard before."

You closed your eyes, took a deep breath and pushed yourself straight, concentrating on holding it together. Controlling your breathing, the tears began to slow. Clint was the one constant you had since the first day, and you swore in this moment, that you would never treat him with anything other than friendship again. "So, I hear Korea's nice this time of year. You think maybe I could get a ride?"

~~~

Natasha sat in the hangar bay waiting for Steve and not having the first idea of what she would say to him. She had looked at the clock every five minutes on the dot but the time never felt slower to pass. You had left with Clint and Tony an hour ago, and he had no idea. He didn't know your plan, and it was her job to keep it that way. If he found out, it was her job to keep him there. She began to wring her hands with an uncharacteristic nervousness at the thought that she had no idea how to do it. When the doors opened and the jet came to a stop she jumped up and put on her best fake smile to welcome the Captain.

The door opened slowly to let him out, as he slung the shield onto his back and grabbed his gear. It only took two steps from the jet for him to stop in his tracks; she never welcomed him back before, and she certainly never smiled that way.

"Nat, what happened?"

~~~

"Just try to relax, (Y/N)," Helen said, trying to be soothing and reassuring in her voice, "this will only take a few hours, and you shouldn't feel much of anything. I've given you something to help you relax, because it's very important that you stay as still as possible."

"Okay," you sighed, "let's just get this over with." You glanced up at Clint and Tony, both of them standing across the room to watch and be there for as much support as they could offer. Tony gave you a wink and a thumbs up, doing his best to look hopeful, but Clint only stared at you. He remembered the feeling of being inside of that very machine himself and how nervous he was; that was just for a small wound compared to this. He quickly rushed to your side and pulled up a chair, taking your hand and giving you a small kiss on your forehead.

"Don't be afraid. I got you."

~~~

"You have got to be fucking kidding me! How did anyone think that this was a good idea? And who had the genius idea to not tell me? Huh? Tell me, Romanoff! Whose idea was it to keep this from me?"

"Steve, calm down," Nat replied smoothly with her hands raised to him, "just take a deep breath, okay?"

"Don't tell me to calm down! That does nothing to make me feel any calmer, it just pisses me off even more!" Steve was pacing back and forth across the hangar bay, trying to get his temper into check and glancing occasionally at his shield after he had imbedded it into the far wall a few moments before. "She's not...she's not thinking this through. This isn't a decision that she can make on her own."

"She didn't make it on her own, and you need to trust her. She's doing it for you as much as for herself, you can see that, right?"

He finally stopped pacing and rested his hands on his hips, closing his eyes with a groan and raising his face to the sky, as if he were searching for you somehow, trying to sense you around him to keep him grounded. "I see that, Nat. It doesn't mean that I have to be okay with it. Do you see my side though? How it feels like she couldn't tell me? How it feels like she still doesn't trust me?"

"Steve, that's not what's happening," she stood and rushed to him, grabbing his arm. "It's not-"

"If they get back before I do, tell Tony I'm sorry about the wall." He pulled the shield down and re-entered the jet, pausing when she called out to him and rushed forward.

"Cap, where are you going? I'm supposed to keep you here."

"I have something I need to do. Something that I should've done a long time ago." He paused for just a moment, looking at her with determination, "so if that's what you need to do, give it your best shot." He waited a moment with raised hands, leaving himself open to her, but when she didn't advance, he closed the jet door. "That's what I thought."