I'll Be There

"Three…two…one…Happy New Year!" cheered Clint, Bruce, Kate, and various others that were at the Stark Towers New Year's Eve party.

Steve took a sip of his drink as he watched people welcome the New Year by blowing noise makers, making toasts, and kissing their significant other.

"Happy New Year, Steve," Pepper piped as she wrapped her arms around Steve and gave him a hug.

"Happy New Year, Pepper," Steve replied with less enthusiasm.

"It doesn't sound like you're having much fun," Pepper pointed out.

Steve didn't reply, he just took another sip of his drink.

"It's Alex isn't it?" Pepper asked, already knowing the answer.

"I should get going," Steve stated as he placed his drink down on the coffee table and began making his way out of the room.

"Great party by the way," Steve said, trying to be polite.

"I know it's not easy," Pepper said plainly, causing Steve to turn around.

"When Tony was held in captivity, I didn't know what to do and no one knew what had happened to him. After a while, I thought I was never going to see him again, but then one day he returned asking for a cheeseburger."

"This is different," Steve interrupted.

"No, it's not. It's personal to you, which is why you're beating yourself up about it," Pepper replied as she placed a hand on Steve's left shoulder to comfort him.

"I know that but, the day that I proposed to her, I promised her that I wouldn't let anything happen to her and now—"

"That's not your fault, Steve," Pepper pointed out. "Look— just because you haven't been able to find Alex and save her that doesn't mean that she can't save herself. She's a smart girl."

"I guess you're right," Steve sighed. "Maybe she is finding away to rescue herself, but that doesn't mean I'm going to stop searching for her," he said persistently.

"I know you won't, but like I said, don't be too hard on yourself and don't blame yourself for what happened."

"Thanks, Pepper. I just hope we somehow find her soon."

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'Where am I?' Alex thought to herself as she woke up from her state of unconsciousness. The last thing she recalled was a burning sensation throughout her body and the familiar feeling of the cold hard examination table against her back. However, her body no longer felt like it was burning; instead, she felt warm. And the hardness of the examination table she recalled feeling was replaced with an unusual soft plush surface pressing against her back.

"Alex?" she heard a familiar voice call out.

Alex turned her head and saw Annabelle sitting in the corner of her cell. She then looked down and noted that the mattress she had destroyed and stained with blood had been replaced with an air mattress.

"Annabelle? What happened?" questioned Alex. "Why are you here?"

"Are you seriously asking me this?" Annabelle scoffed. "Do you not remember stabbing yourself with your mattress spring?"

"I remember that, but I thought I would have bled out or something. Why am I here?" Alex asked as she sat up.

"You're here because I found you and brought you to the doctor."

"Did— did it work?" Alex asked afraid of finding out the answer.

"No!" Annabelle exclaimed in frustration. "What on earth were you thinking, Alex? You could have killed yourself!"

"Well, I'm going to die anyway!" Alex shouted as she balled up her hands into fists and slammed them on the concrete floor in frustration.

Annabelle gasped as she watched the floor under Alex's fists crack.

"Alex…how—how did you do that?" Annabelle stammered in a confused manner.

"What are you talking about?" Alex questioned.

"The floor—you cracked it, but how? You can't even open the jar of pickles you made me get you."

"Hey, they make those things impossible to open," Alex said defensively as she lifted her fist to examine the floor closely. She saw that aside from the cracks she had caused, she also made a circular dent about three inches deep into the floor.

'That had to be a mistake,' Alex thought to herself before she said, "Annabelle, punch the floor."

"No way! I'll break my hand if I do that."

"Annabelle, I need to test something out," Alex whined as she once again slammed her fist to the floor, creating more cracks.

"Easier there, Alex. There's no need for you to go all Hulk on me," warned Annabelle.

"I'm not Bruce," scoffed Alex.

"— but I may be able to actually hold my own against him for a bit in a fight," Alex mutter as an idea began to formulate in her head.

"I can finally leave," Alex whispered.

"Alex, you can't."

"But I can," Alex smiled. "If I can break concrete floors imagine what I can do to a person. I can take down every guard and finally leave and go home."

"You don't know that for sure," Annabelle pointed out. "You don't even know where you are. How are you possibly going to find your way home?"

"I have to try!" exclaimed Alex as tears began forming in her eye. "I have to try because it's the only way I'm going to keep my son from being used for something terrible without killing him. I know that it's insane and that I shouldn't even be telling you this because you'll probably rat me out, but I don't care I'm just tired of waiting for my fiancé, who at this point, is never going to come!"

Annabelle remained silent as she watched Alex wipe away tears from her eyes. She knew that Alex was just another prisoner—she had dealt with them and their attempts to escape before, but with Alex it was different. In the two months that Alex had been there, Annabelle had made a real connection with her and the two had became good friends. But Annabelle also knew that if she allowed Alex to escape, the consequence for it would be far worse than anything Annabelle could imagine—hydra did not tolerate traitors. Annabelle's decision of whether or not to stop Alex would cause Annabelle to lose her friend or possibly her own life.

"You can't just escape, Alex," Annabelle sighed as she made her decision.

"I know I can't. I just—"

"You're going to need help," interrupted Annabelle.

"What?" Alex questioned as she raised an eyebrow in confusion.

"I know you can probably get past whatever guards come your way, but that's not going to help you get off this Island."

"Wait—we're on an Island?"

"Yes, Alex, we're on a private island in the South Pacific. That's part of the reason why no one has come to rescue you," Annabelle pointed out.

'Steve would've found a way,' Alex thought bitterly. 'He finds a way to do everything else.'

"Anyway, if you want to get off this Island, you're going to need to need to break into the garage and steal a jet."

"Wait—why are you telling me all of this? Won't you get into trouble? And I don't know how to fly a jet."

"That's why I'm going with you," Annabelle stated plainly before she continued to explain her plan.

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Alex waited for night to fall before she began phase 1 of the plan. She listened carefully for the sound of the guard walking past her cell before letting out a painful cry.

"Help," she cried out, causing the guard to stop in his tracks.

He immediately walked over to her cell door and asked, "Is everything alright?"

"Help me," Alex cried. "I think my water broke."

The guard quickly opened the cell door and rushed to Alex's side.

"Just breathe. I'm going take you to the doctor. Can you stand up?"

"I—I think so," Alex said as she breathed unevenly. "No," she grunted as she placed her hand over her stomach in pain.

"Alright, I'll help you up," the guard replied as he moved beside her to assist Alex in getting up.

As soon as he was he was behind her, Alex elbowed him in his gut and swiftly punched his nose with her fist, causing him to fall backward. Alex immediately yanked the I.D. card that every guard wore from his collar and made a break for it, locking the door behind her.

Once out of her cell, she followed Annabelle's directions and began to run in the direction of the garage. As she made a sharp turn left, she came across another guard.

"Hey, what are you—" the guard began before he was pushed to the wall. The guard stumbled a bit before reaching to his holster to pull out a tranquilizer gun. In response, Alex kicked him in the chest, sending him to the floor. Once down, she grabbed his gun and shot him causing him to lose consciousness before she continued to make her way to the garage.

As Annabelle said, there was a scanner on the garage door. She placed the guard's ID card over the scanner, and soon after, the garage doors opened. Alex entered the garage, quickly made her way to the nearest vehicle which was a car, and ducked behind it before anyone could notice her. She used the car's side-view mirrors to count the number of guards in the garage as well as note their locations. On the far left of the garage, Alex spotted Annabelle standing with another guard. In the center was one guard standing alone and to the right was another guard by the garage's control panel.

Alex let out a deep breath before she stepped out from behind the car and shot the tranquilizer gun at the guard in the center of the garage.

"What the—," uttered the guard by the control panel as he saw his fellow guard drop to the ground before Alex aimed the tranquillizer gun at the second guard causing him to drop to the floor as well.

"Hey stop!" Alex heard Annabelle call out as Alex ran towards the control panel.

"Come on, we have to stop her," said the third guard as he reached for his gun.

"No, wait," Annabelle said as she got a clear view of Alex. "You can't use your gun on her we need her alive."

"Fine," the third guard grunted as he as ran towards the control panel.

When Alex reached the control panel, she swiped the I.D card in the panel's slot and pressed a large red button. Soon after, the wall in front of her began to lift.

"Where do you think you're going?" the guard questioned as he grabbed Alex by the arm and yanked her towards him. In response, Alex kicked him in the shin causing him to release his grip on her.

"I have a ride to catch," Alex responded as she made her way to one of the planes. When she reached the door of the plane, she noticed the hand scanner on the door.

"You're not getting away that easily," Annabelle said from behind.

Alex turned around and saw her friend look as if she were about to punch her. Alex quickly blocked the fake attack and aimed for Annabelle's gut followed by her face to make it appear as if she had knocked Annabelle out.

"I need all units in the garage. We have a 1487. I repeat we have a 1487," said the guard that Alex had injured moments ago.

As the guard made his way towards her, Alex threw Annabelle over her shoulder and used her hand to open the plane door.

"Confirmation complete," said an electronic voice as the plane door opened.

As soon as she entered the jet, she placed Annabelle down and closed the door behind her. "Okay, you start the plane. I have to keep this door from being opened," Alex told Annabelle. Annabelle nodded as she rushed to the cockpit and began flipping switched to start the jet.

As Annabelle started the jet, Alex kept the inside handle of the jet door in the locked position in case another guard tried to enter

"Let me in," the guard demanded as he slammed against the plane door.

"Annabelle, hurry up," Alex said impatiently as she pressed just enough weight on the door's handle to prevent the system from opening the door.

"Give me a minute," Annabelle replied as she struggled to get the engine started. "Come on," Annabelle muttered as she once again turned the key in the ignition, causing the engines to finally start running. "Yes!" she exclaimed as the plane began moving.

When the plane began to move, Alex no longer felt the guard slamming against the plane door and made her way to the cockpit and took a seat next to Annabelle.

"I can't believe I'm finally leaving this place," Alex sighed in relief. "I can't believe—shit," Alex cursed as she saw the raised wall begin to fall. "They're trying to close us in. What are we going to do?"

"Hold onto something," Annabelle replied as she slammed her foot on the thrust lever, making it go faster.

"Come on. Make it," Annabelle repeated to herself as the plane approached the closing wall.

The plane was able to make its way out of the garage just as the wall closed, allowing the two to make their getaway.

"I can't believe we did it," rejoiced Alex as she wrapped her arms around Annabelle and gave her a hug. "After all that time, I'm free," Alex grinned.

'After all that time,' Alex thought. 'All that time and Steve still didn't save me. I had to save myself.'

"Yes, you are," Annabelle replied as she pressed a few buttons on the planes control board. "Next stop, New York Cit—"

"No," Alex interrupted.

"What do you mean, no? I thought the whole point of you breaking out was so that you can go back home to your fiancé and get married before you have a baby born out of wedlock," Annabelle joked.

"No. I broke out so that my son wouldn't be taken away from me," Alex answered.

"Alright then," Annabelle replied in confusion. "Do you at least want to call anyone? We have a radio so you can call your fiancé, your dad, your mother, or anyone."

Alex thought for a second. After all the time that passed, she wasn't sure if she wanted to see or even talk to Steve. The same went for Tony. In fact, she was perfectly content with having either of them know where she was.

'They didn't know where I was for two months, what's another couple weeks more to them,' Alex though bitterly.

However, she thought about her mother and Pepper and how worried they probably were. Alex knew that there was nothing Christina or Pepper could do to save her and that she shouldn't let another day pass with them not knowing she was alright.

"No," Alex said plainly, making her decision.

"Why not? Don't you want you want to let everyone know that you're safe?"

"We're not in the clear yet," Alex stated, hiding feelings of anger she had towards Steve. "We have to land somewhere safe before we can actually be safe."

"Okay so where is it that we're going to if we're not going to New York?"

"Set the coordinates for 34 degrees north and 119 degrees west. I have somewhere else in mind to go."