Title: Crying, Waiting, Hoping
Fandom: Marvel Comics
Characters: Clint Barton, Tony Stark, Kate Bishop
Rating: PG-13
Word Count: 588 words
Warnings: hospital setting, blood mentioned.
Challenge: #1 Beatles songs : “Crying, Waiting, Hoping”
Summary: No one will tell Clint how Kate is, or if she’s even alive.



The sun's too bright. It shouldn't be this bright. Not now, not here with Kate lying in this hospital somewhere.
Clint stares at his hands. Most of the blood has been washed away but he can still see flecks of red around his fingernails.

He hates hospitals. They smell and feel wrong. There's a cold cruelness to them that seeped in around the edges. The nurses won't tell Clint how Kate's doing. They won't even tell him if she's still alive. He isn't family, not in their eyes. Not in any official way that they would understand.

He's not sure what he's still doing there. He doesn't know how to make them tell him how she is. His head feels all muddled. He can still feel Kate in his arms, blood spilling out of her at an alarming rate. Her breath shallow and labored.

Clint's on his way out when he spots the plaque spelling out Tony's full name in big fancy letters. Of course, he's donated to this hospital. For all, he knows Stark's name is emblazoned on all of the hospitals in the area. Tony throws his money around a lot, often for good causes.

Clint digs his phone out of his jeans pocket, finds Tony's number and makes the call.

Tony picks up on the third ring. "Barton, are you actually using the phone I gave you? Is it the apocalypse or something?"

"It's Kate -- something's happened -- I'm in the hospital." Clint stumbled over the words. "They won't tell me anything." He fails to keep the tears out of his voice and doesn't even care. All that matters is Kate.

"I'll be there in a few minutes, try not to punch anyone."

Clint doesn't make any promises before he slips the phone back into his pocket. He heads back to the waiting room where the seats are uncomfortable and the nurse behind the desk keeps slipping him dirty looks. Luckily he doesn't have to wait long before Tony struts in and charms the cranky nurse into giving him anything he asks for. The woman is giggling and blushing when Clint gets to the desk.

Tony touches the woman's hand as he flashes her another billion dollar smile before turning back to Clint. "Kate's in surgery, we should know more within the hour."

"I'm so sorry Mr. Hawkeye, I didn't realize you were an Avenger. I'll let you know how your friend is as soon as I know more." The nurse says. Clint gives her a nod and heads back to the uncomfortable seats.

Tony follows. "Why don't we get some coffee?"

"I'm not going anywhere."

"Okay, I'll make a call and get coffee brought in. Sound good?"

"You don't have to stay." Though he doesn't want to be alone.

"I don't mind."

"Thanks."

***

Forty minutes later someone comes to tell him that Kate's out of surgery She's stable for now, but they won't know more for another few hours. Clint feels relieved but not as much as he'd hoped. Kate's not out of the woods yet and they won't let her have any visitors, not even an Avenger. Nothing him or Tony says changes their minds on that one. They tell him to go home, that they'll call him if anything changes, but how can he go home when she's not there?

"I'm going to wait here." He tells Tony. There were worse things than waiting. At least now he had hope.

"Then I guess I'm waiting too." Turns out he also had good friends.