I'll Be There

"So, what's in Malibu?" Annabelle began as she saw rocky cliffs coming into view. "Do you have a secret sugar daddy that is going to take care of you?" Annabelle joked after she received no response from Alex.

"Ha, ha, very funny," Alex scoffed. "Why would I need some middle-aged sugar daddy when my fiancé is a fossil?"

"Finally, you say something!" Annabelle chortled, causing Alex to roll her eyes.

"I've been quiet because I'm trying to think of a way to get in without anyone finding out," Alex sighed as she fiddled with one of Annabelle's knives.

"Get into where?" Annabelle asked in confusion.

"There," Alex replied as she pointed to large white mansion sitting on the edge of a cliff.

Annabelle's eyes widened at the sight of it and said, "Alex, please tell me that you know the person that lives in there because I already helped you break out of somewhere, I'm not about to help you break into some random millionaire's—"

"It's my dad's place," Alex interrupted. "Millionaire: yes. Random Stranger: no. Don't worry, he won't mind if we crash at his place for a while."

"I don't understand," Annabelle said in confusion. "If we're going to your dad's place, then why do you have to break in?"

"Because one: he's in New York. And two: I don't want him to know I'm here."

"But Alex, you're dad can—"

"It's better that he or anybody else doesn't know that I'm here...at least for now," Alex replied.

As the jet approached closer to the mansion, Alex made up her mind as to how she and Annabelle were going to get in. "Okay, you can land her on the lawn and then wait five minutes before following me."

"Seriously? The lawn? You don't want to maybe be a little more discrete?"

"Just do it," Alex sighed as she used the knife to slash her leg, wincing slightly at the pain.

"Alex, what the hell?"

"Just do it," repeated Alex.

Annabelle listened to Alex and as soon as the jet landed in the lawn, Alex opened the jet's door, exited the jet, and began to slowly make her way to the front of the mansion.

As Alex approached the entrance, she heard a familiar voice say, "I'm sorry, but residents of this house are not—"

"Jarvis, it's Alex, let me in," Alex pleaded as she clamped her hand over the bleeding gash she had created moments ago.

Recognizing her voice, Jarvis granted her entrance before he asked, "Miss. Alex, what happened to your leg? Where have you been?"

"I was imprisoned somewhere," Alex replied as she walked over to the security panel on the side of the wall. I' was able to escape, but I got injured pretty badly and I'm afraid they might try to track me," Alex continued as she began to enter a series of codes on to the screen.

"Do you need medical attention, Miss Alex? I can get an ambulance here if you need one as well as inform your father about your whereabouts."

"That won't be necessary, Jarvis," Alex stated as she finished entering the code.

"Operating System, rebooting," echoed a robotic voice.

Alex let out a sigh of relief before turning her attention to her wounded leg and thought, 'Better get that cleaned up.'

"Alex?" she heard Annabelle say as Annabelle knocked on the door. "Did your plan work?" Annabelle questioned.

Alex opened the front door and told Annabelle, "Of course it worked. Why wouldn't it?"

"Well you said it was a break in, yet you made me land the jet on the lawn. And you made your leg bleed right before you entered an empty house—that didn't seem like much of a plan to me," Annabelle pointed out. "Why didn't you just go all James Bond and break in like a normal person?"

"Well it worked and I doubt I can do any James Bond sneaking around with a baby bump," Alex said in defense as she closed the door and made her way towards a set of stairs.

"So what exactly is it that you did?"

"Well, I'm making us invisible to my dad's system, Jarvis, by rebooting it and putting it on a temporal loop," Alex explained. "So whatever happened in the last twenty four hours, Jarvis will think it's still happening so we can do whatever we want here without anyone even knowing that we're here."

"How did you learn to do that?" Annabelle asked in amazement.

"I figured out how to do it one weekend when I had the place to myself. I was able to throw an awesome party thanks to that," Alex replied nonchalantly. "Anyway, I'm going to order some pizza after I clean this wound and change clothes. I'll show you around when I'm done, but if you need to wash up, I'd suggest using the bathroom right up these stairs to the left. Make yourself comfortable and let me know if you need—"

"Alex, I can't stay here," Annabelle interrupted.

"What do you mean?" questioned Alex as she stopped in her tracks and faced Annabelle.

"I mean that I have to go. I can't stay with you. If anyone from Hyrda finds us— I'm dead."

"They won't find us. There's no way that they can."

"I'm not going to take that chance. Besides, if you're with me, it will be easier for them to find you and after everything that you did in order to escape, I'm not going to let that happen. I'm assuming you don't need the jet anymore."

"No I don't, but—where are you going to go?" Alex asked as tears began to form in her eyes.

"Don't worry about me," Annabelle began as she wrapped her arms around Alex and pulled her into a hug. "Worry about your kid. Make sure he's safe, and loved, and taken care of. Okay?"

"I will," Alex responded as she held back a sob.

"Goodbye, Alex," Annabelle said as she released her grip on Alex and began making her way out of the mansion.

"Bye, Annabelle," Alex replied as she watched her friend leave. As the door closed, Alex thought about how the people she cared about kept disappointing her. First it was Steve who hadn't come to her rescue, and then it was Tony who wasn't able to find her. Now it was her friend Annabelle who flat out left her.

"I guess it's just you and me, squishy," Alex whispered as her hand grazed over the growing bump on her stomach.

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"Find anything new?" Natasha asked as she entered Tony's lab.

"No," Steve replied.

"Not really," Tony sighed. "I've been going through the same information for weeks, but have been getting nowhere."

"Well, I've got something for you," Natasha stated as she took out a USB drive from her pocket and inserted in the port. A few moments later, images of Tony's mansion in Malibu appeared on the screen.

"What is that?" Steve asked in confusion.

"Those are pictures of my house. Why are you showing me this?" Tony questioned.

"Well a few days ago, this aircraft landed in your front lawn and a satellite image of a woman entering the vicinity was taken," Natasha explained as she zoomed into the image.

"Jarvis, why was I not informed of this?"

"I'm sorry, sir. I have no such information of this on my data," responded Jarvis.

"Alex?" Steve asked with a hint of hope in his voice. "Alex could have hacked Jarvis and erased any proof of her being there."

"Why would she do that?" Tony questioned. "And besides, Alex has brown hair. The woman's hair in the photo is black."

"And she also left within a few hours after landing," Natasha said as she showed the two photos taken after that had no jet. "If it were Alex, she would have showed up in New York a few hours later, but that's not the case."

"Well whoever this person is, I'm going to find out why they were at my house and what they did there."

"I'm coming with you, Tony," Steve declared.

"I don't need your help, Cap. Besides, I thought you were going to use your spare time trying to find Alex."

"We haven't had any new leads in weeks and suddenly this happens," Steve pointed out. "Look— it may have something to do with her or it may not, but I'm going to find out for myself."