"Handhold.."
Who: Natasha, Dani and Rahne What: Mountain climbing accident! Where: Out in the mountains? When: Today! Rating: PG-13 for squishy insides trigger: injuries
Natasha Romanoff did all of her own stunts. She enjoyed outdoor activities and after shooting a two parter Black Widow episode had falling in love with scaling rocks and cliffs.
So today she found herself stuck on a particularly difficult climb. It had looked much easier from the ground (and shorter), but now that she was about thirty feet up, she was having trouble finding good handholds, and still had another thirty feet to go.
She should have invited Clint along.
She reached for a handhold, and the rock gave way.
It had been a relatively slow day for Park Ranger Moonstar. She'd spent most of it parked in the local ranger bunker, catching up on boring paperwork and trying not to worry about Alma.
She was almost certain that she could have gotten away with smoking another joint, right there in the office, but... well. That was wrong. Damn you, adult responsibility raring it's ugly head.
She was about to consider taking a NAP when a call came through her radio. Possible avalanche or dangerous falling rock? She grabbed her hat and hopped into her truck.
Tasha came to a few moments after she'd landed. It took another few moments for her brain to register what had happened and her leg to start screaming in pain. She felt the back of her head and her fingers came back wet with blood. She cursed vividly in Russian and tried to move a heavy rock off her left leg to no avail.
Navigating the parks on the tiny trails they left for cars was pretty rough. Dani was speeding, too, and the tiny truck she was driving was leaping into the air fitfully as she went. She didn't mind that, it was pretty exciting!
Getting as close as she could to the scene by truck, she leaped out, grabbed her radio, and started covering the area on foot. This might be impossible. She was glad that someone was up in the air, too.
"This is Moonstar. I've got nothing on the ground so far, what do the eyes see?"
The man on the radio gave her some coordinates, "Looks like there's someone down there. I can't get in to retrieve."
It was completely against the rules to swear over the radio, so Dani made sure the button wasn't pressed while she strung together some really impressive curse words.
She made her way through the terrain a bit more, squinting as she came across a set of colors that didn't fit in with the normal scenery. That was probably the person the rescue team had spotted in the air.
She hit the button again, "I think I spot them, I'm going to climb down a bit and take a closer look. We're going to need an ambulance up here if you can't airlift them."
The chopper pilot responded after a moment, "Got it, radioing it in now. I'll drop some emergency gear in case they need stabilizing."
"Thanks, I'm pretty sure we're going to need that," Dani mumbled into the radio. She tucked it into her back wasteband and headed down into the ravine the person in question had fallen into.
It wasn't as deep as she'd thought once she finally got there, which was a relief. She headed over to the woman - she looked familiar, but Dani couldn't quite place why - and perched next to her.
"Don't try to move. I'm with the rangers, we're going to help you."
"It looked better from down here," Natasha mumbled. She didn't know how long it had been. She must have blacked out again.
"What looked better? Can you tell me your name?" Dani pulled the emergency gear over and started picking through it. The boulder on the woman's leg, Dani was pretty sure she couldn't move that by herself. She wasn't sure she even should.
"Tasha..Natasha..." She sounded dazed, "My leg..my head is bleeding." She didn't know if anything else was broken, only that she wasn't inclined to move.
Amy: Rahne's rig took a call about a fallen hiker. So off they went, not completely sure what sort of terrain they might be dealing with once they got there.
Tasha momentarily blacked out again.
"Stay with me, Natasha. You're going to be fine. Just... stay with me and stay still."
Dani slapped her cheek a few times and tried to get a handle on the bleeding happening behind Natasha's head. She'd been trained in emergency first aid procedures, but there wasn't much to restrain her neck with and she was pretty sure this was one of those situations where moving the neck or spine was a bad, bad idea.
She grabbed her radio, "I've got a leg trapped under a boulder here, and a pretty bad head injury. We're going to need help extracting her."
Amy: Oh boy. This was going to be a fun one. Neck brace certainly. Fluids. And hoping not to injure themselves going down or up. Well, Rahne thought, the challenging ones were good learning experiences.
Tasha groaned, stirring again, "Haven't been slapped that hard in...."
Dani forced a smile, "If you don't want to get slapped that hard again, you better stay awake. We have an ambulance on the way."
"Need to..lose weight," She replied, managing a smile at her joke.
"If you lose much more you're going to fade away. Women should be curvy." Where was that ambulance?
The curves were sometimes the problem, Tasha mused. She was a walking breast joke sometimes.
Amy: Here was that ambulance. Rahne hopped out and looked down. "...aye, it's little wonder she fell."
Must... not ... laugh...
Dani bit her lips a bit to keep them from opening with laughter. This was not a laughing situation. NO laughing.
"I'm glad you guys could make it. I'm pretty sure she needs a neck brace, but I'm no doctor."
Amy: Rahne, neck brace in hand, eased down until she was with the other two women. "Is she conscious?"
"Drifting in and out." Dani moved her position so the EMT could take over with the first aid, but stayed close by to offer any help necessary.
"Handhold just..gave way." Tasha blinked her eyes. That had been in Russian, oops!
Amy: Rahne raised an eyebrow. "I dinnae speak that, sorry. Just stay still and we'll get ye out of here." She eased the neck brace into place and examed the woman's head injury.
"Handhold.." Tasha managed to English that time, "Poof."
"The rocks out here aren't like a rock wall at a gym... you're barely wearing any protective or climbing gear." Dani's tone was that of scolding, but she couldn't help it.
She glanced back at the EMT, whose appearance was making her feel all kinds of wiggly inside for some reason, "I tried to stop the bleeding back there but I didn't want to move anything too much. Do you have someone who can help me move this boulder off her leg?"
"Director going to....kill me.." Tasha tried to laugh.
Amy: Rahne's partner volunteered to help Dani with the rock, while Rahne eased the injured woman out from under it then they moved it. "Och...that's a bit messy."
Natasha grit her teeth, too stubborn to scream even though the sudden release of pressure sent such a powerful signal that she felt nauseous.
"You're extremely lucky. I know you don't FEEL extremely lucky right now, but you are. That boulder could have landed on your head." Dani frowned, and offered Natasha a hand to squeeze.
And why was that 'och' so cute? And so familiar?
"Da....I really don't feel that lucky."
Amy: Rahne and her partner finished the rest of their on-site patching up and eased Natascha onto the board and prepared to carefully get her back up to the rig.
Dani wasn't really sure what else needed to be done here - there was some paperwork she'd have to file, but all of that could be completed after Natasha was in a hospital.
"Room in this rig for one more?" Dani asked the Rahne as she helped them load Natasha up.
Amy: "Aye, you can come along," Rahne said, grinning. "Since ye did such good work keeping her calm but awake, it can't hurt tae have you along."
"I am..so calm!" Ow.
Dani grinned in return. Her insides were all squishy again. Why did squishy insides happen at the most inappropriate times?
"Happy to come along and continue keeping our patient calm. I'll need to do some follow up with you, too. You know. Boring paperwork."