I'll Be There

A/N: There's some flashbacks in this chapter indicated by '***' ok.

Alex woke up in the same cell that she had been sleeping in every night. She stared at the same ceiling as she waited for Annabel to arrive at the same time with her morning meal. As she waited for the recurring scenario to play out she felt an unfamiliar feeling in her abdominal area.

'Was that,' she thought as she immediately sat up and placed her hands over her womb waiting to see if she would feel that unfamiliar sensation again.

"Squishy, was that you or does mommy have gas?" Alex asked out loud. Moments later she felt a tap from inside her stomach.

"Morning," Annabel greeted as she opened Alex's cell door and stepped inside. "I was able to sneak you a—"

"Annabel, come here."

"What is it?" Annabel asked as she placed Alex's food tray on the floor and walked over to her.

"Is everything alright?" Annabel questioned.

"Do you feel that?" Alex asked as she took one of Annabel's hands and placed over her stomach. Annabel looked at Alex strangely before she felt a small force pressing against her hand.

"The kid started kicking?"

"I think so. I didn't know that babies started kicking so early. I thought that that happened later on," Alex admitted.

"I'd hardly call nineteen weeks early; I'd say you're exactly where you're supposed to be," Annabel giggled as she felt Alex's child press against her hand for a second time.

'Nineteen?' Alex thought to herself. 'That can't be. I was only twelve weeks when they brought me here. There's no way I could have been here for more than two weeks. Steve or my dad should have found me by now.'

"Alex, are you okay?" Annabel asked, snapping Alex out of her train of thought.

"No, I'm not okay," begun Alex. "Why did you just say that I was nineteen weeks pregnant?"

"Because you are, duh," Annabelle replied sarcastically. "Couldn't you tell by your huge bump?"

"I can't be. That would mean I've been here for almost two months."

"You have been."

"But my fiancé—" Alex began.

"Is not coming to save you," Annabelle interrupted. "Because if he was, he would have by now."

"But—"

"I'm sorry, Alex, but that's just how it is. Now eat your breakfast," Annabelle sighed before she exited the cell.

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Alex lied on the examination table motionless as usual waiting for the doctor to do whatever tests she needed to do. She drowned out the sound of the doctor and her assistant fumbling around with the equipment and ignored the pinching sensation caused by a needle going through her arm and the coldness of the ultrasound gel being applied to her abdomen. Her mind began to wander and she thought of a time that felt not too long ago to her.

"What if we turn the guest room into a nursery?" Alex said out loud.

"That sounds good on paper but, where will your mom stay when she visits?" Steve pointed out. "Face it, Alex. It's about time we move out of Stark Towers."

"No, we don't. Our apartment might not have enough rooms, but my mom could stay in my old room upstairs. Besides, where else are we going to live that has a state of the art lab that I can use whenever I want or a training facility for you and, besides, the building has my name on it—we have to stay."

"Alex, we're going to be starting a family. Don't you want us to have our own home where we can raise our son or daughter like normal people?" Steve asked.

"I do," Alex sighed. "But I also want to be not too far from my dad or Pepper and if we stay here it will be easier for you to do your S.H.I.E.L.D stuff. Besides, it will give us time to adjust to being parents—please Steve."

"Okay fine, we can stay here for a while after the baby is born as long as we'll eventually get a house with a backyard so I can teach the kid to play baseball."

"Baseball?" Alex began as she gave Steve a suspicious look. "You're not hoping for a boy, are you?"

"A boy would be great, but if we have a girl I'd be more than happy to teach her how to play baseball or how to draw. What about you?"

"Well," Alex began, "If we have a boy, I could show them how to play videogames and dress them up as Squirtle and if we have a girl, I could show them how to play videogames and dress them up as a Chikarita."

"You do know you're not giving birth to a Pokémon, right?"

"Of course I know," assured Alex.

"I'm going to give birth to a little boy or a little girl and they're either going to be little angles like you or they're going have the classic Stark sass like me. It's a fifty-fifty chance," Alex joked.

"So when are you going to find out if it's a boy or a girl?" asked Steve.

"I'm supposed to get a sonogram in about two months to find out the gender," Alex replied. "Make sure you're not on a mission or something so you can be there when I find out, okay?"

"I wouldn't miss it for the world."

Alex was brought back to reality when she heard the doctor talking to her assistant

"The child seems to be doing well and her tests show no signs of abnormalities. Our boss will be pleased to know that," the doctor said to her assistant.

"What's that weird bump? Is it cancer?" questioned the one of the guards.

"That's the child's penis. It's a boy, you idiot," the doctor scolded. "It's a good thing you're not a doctor."

"I'm having a boy?" Alex asked.

"Apparently so," the guard responded.

"You idiot, she's not supposed to know that," the doctor whispered.

"Why not?" questioned the guard.

"Because," began the doctor.

As the doctor went on about procedures and such, Alex ignored their conversation and thought about the recent news.

'I can't believe I'm having a son,' Alex thought. 'A son I'll never get to know.'

"Guards, take her back to her cell," the doctor ordered.

The guards did as they were told and brought of Alex back to her cell. As they closed the door, she overheard one guard say, "I don't know why the doctor has so many protocols. It doesn't matter if the girl knows the gender of the baby or not; she's as good as dead once it's born.'

Those words struck fear into Alex and she thought to herself, 'I have to find a way out of here.'

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"No, that won't work either. I have no idea where they lead to," muttered Alex as she mentally crossed out escaping through the drainage pipes in the shower room.

"There's got to be a way out," Alex said to herself as she began drawing out as much as the layout of the building's layout as possible on the dusty floor.

"So here's my cell. Here's the lab. Here's the shower room. Over there are two long halls that I don't know where they lead too and—that's it. That's all I know. Shit. I'm never going to get out of here," Alex whispered to herself.

'But I can't let Red Skull take my child and use it for evil—there has to be something I can do to stop him,' Alex thought to herself as she began to brainstorm.

As she tried to come up with her plan, she remembered what Tony once told her when she was young.

Alex had snuck into Tony's lab late one night hoping to get an early start on the robotic dog she had been working on earlier that day. As Alex opened the door to the lab, she could hear the sounds of objects being smashed.

"Dad," she began as she entered the lab cautiously. "What are you doing?"

"Alex, what are you doing here? You're supposed to be asleep."

"Why are you destroying the new weapon you made?" Alex asked confused.

"There's been a security breech and I'm afraid that this might fall into the wrong hands," Tony replied.

"I— I don't understand. Why don't you just hide it somewhere where they can't find it?"

"It's not that simple, Alex," Tony sighed. "As a creator, it's my job to make things that will help the world, but it's also my job to make sure no one can use what I create for something that will destroy the world— that's the case right now. I have to destroy my creation before it becomes a threat to someone," Tony explained. "Do you understand?"

"I think so," Alex answered.

"Alright then, go back to sleep, honey."

"Hey, dad…how will I know if I have to destroy something I've created just like you have?" questioned Alex.

"When there's not much else you can do," Tony sighed unknowingly leaving a lasting impression on Alex's twelve-year-old self.

'But is this really my only option?' Alex thought as she heard footsteps approaching her cell followed by Annabelle entering her cell to deliver Alex her dinner.