I'll Be There

"Die you bastards— die!" Alex yelled as she violently pressed the buttons on her controller, but not so much so as to break her controller—again, to shoot rapid fire on her enemies. "Yeah, suck it –wait, who's shooting at me," Alex grunted in frustration as her screen appeared momentarily red indicating that she had been attacked. Alex navigated her avatar so that she could see her attacker fleeing. "Oh, no, you don't," she uttered as she threw a grenade in his direction. As she continued to play her game, an alert popped up on her screen notifying her that there was someone at the door.

"That must be the pizza man," Alex said to herself as she paused the game and got off of her bed. Just as she had grabbed the wad of money she left on top of her dresser, the sound of a small explosion could be heard from outside her room.

'That's not the pizza guy,' Alex thought as she immediately dropped the cash and feared the worst. She then quietly approached the bedroom door, opened it, and listened for a sound from whatever or whoever caused the explosion. It was relatively silent, but she was able to faintly hear the sounds of two men, arguing, coming from the floor below.

'Could someone from Hydra have found me?' thought Alex as she instinctively placed her hands over her stomach. She clenched her fist in anger before she walked over to her dresser and pulled out a plasma gun from one of her drawers and whispered, "I'm not letting them take you away from me."

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"What do you got there, Cap?" Tony asked as he flew over his mansion to do an aerial sweep of the place.

"I did sweep of the perimeter and heard a commotion going on the upper level above the lounge," Steve replied as he attempted to break through the bulletproof glass that was Tony Stark's living room window.

"Alright, Cap, are you ready to go in?" Tony began as he flew to Steve's location and raised his arm ready to attack. "Stand back."

In that moment, Steve dove to his right as Tony blasted his own window causing it to shatter and smoke to form. Once the smoke had cleared, Tony entered the facility with Steve following him.

"Gee, Tony, could you be more conspicuous?" Steve asked with a hint of annoyance in his voice.

"Well what was I supposed to do, Steve? Knock on the door?" Tony countered as he began to scan the living room for evidence of someone entering. "There by the door," Tony said as his eye spotted a piece of paper near the entrance of the house.

Steve turned his head to the entrance and also spotted the paper before he made his way towards it.

"It might have code a written on it that explains how this person broke in or a message of some sort –"

"Or it could be a Domino's menu," interrupted Steve after he picked up the paper and read it.

"That doesn't make any sense. Why would someone—"

Right then, a blow to Tony's chest interrupted him and sent him flying across the room.

In response, Steve raised his shield slightly up in defense before he called out, "Show yourself."

Standing at the top of the stairs, Steve saw a woman with long brown hair and a round stomach indicating that she was with child.

"Alex…" Steve uttered in confusion. "Is that really you?"

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Alex quietly made her way down the hall to a set of stairs that would lead her to the lounge. She took a quick glance at who was downstairs and saw two men standing by the doorway. She leaned against the corner wall and took a deep breath before she took a quick step forward and shot the plasma gun at one of the men. After she pulled the trigger, she immediately ducked back into the corner hidden.

As she stayed hidden, she heard the sound of a familiar voice exclaim, "Show yourself." It was the same voice that she recalled telling her to get down when a Russian arms dealer tried to attack her two years ago. A voice that, for a split second, made her want to run toward it. However, when she stepped out of the dark corner so that she could see him, the look of disbelief on her fiancé's face, coupled with the confusion in his voice as he uttered the words, "Alex…is that really you?" turned her desire to go to him into anger and bitterness.

"Yes it's me," Alex replied as she aimed her gun at his lower torso, knowing that he could easily block her attack with his shield.

"You asshat," Alex yelled just as she pulled the trigger, sending a plasma blast that Steve immediately blocked.

"Alex, stop; it's me, Steve," Steve said as he held his shield up in defense as Alex continued to shoot at him.

"I know it's you," Alex began as she made her way down that stairs. "Where have you been the last two months? Huh? Playing super hero while I was imprisoned somewhere?" Alex stated as she noted his Captain America outfit.

"Alex," Tony said causing Alex to stop her attack on Steve. "You're alright."

"Yeah— No thanks to you," Alex scoffed.

"Alex, let me explain. Tony and I—"

"I don't need an explanation," Alex interrupted. "I was kidnapped and in two months neither of you rescued me. I had to save myself before—" Alex rambled, pausing at the thought of her child being taken away from her.

"Alex, we're sorry," Tony and Steve apologized. "We—"

"No!" Alex shouted in frustration. "You," she said as she pointed at Tony. "You let me down a million times so I expect this from you, but you," she continued as she turned her attention to Steve. "You promised me that you wouldn't let anything happen to me, but something did; and it wasn't your fault and I forgive you for that, but I was imprisoned for two months wondering when you were going to come and get me and you never did—never," Alex spat.

"But Alex, please listen to me," Steve begged. "I tried to—"

"Well, you didn't try hard enough," Alex stated simply.

"Okay, so according to you, we didn't try hard enough to find you?" Tony sighed. "But did you even bother finding us once you were out of wherever you were," Tony asked a bit angered from Alex's rant. "Do you even know why we're here, Alex? We're here because Natasha showed us photos of a plane that landed right outside this house and a woman exiting the house. We had no clue what she was doing here or who she was, so we came over to find out and we discover you."

"So your house is more important than the well being of your own daughter?" Alex scoffed.

"Well—"

Tony was interrupted by the sound of someone knocking on the front door.

"Just a second, Cody!" Alex exclaimed as she dropped her gun on the floor and made her way back up the stairs.

"Who's Cody?" Tony gestured to Steve who shook his head in confusion as a response.

Alex returned down the stairs with a wad of cash in her hand and made her way to the front door.

"Hi, Cody," Alex greeted as she opened the front door.

"Hi, Alex, here's your order," Cody replied.

"Great, can you just bring it inside for me? I'll grab the sodas."

Cody entered the house and began making his way to the island to right of the entrance so he could place the ten boxes of pizza on top of it, but stopped in his tracks when he saw Captain America and Iron Man standing in the middle of the room.

"Umm…"Cody uttered in confusion.

"Don't pay them any mind," Alex instructed as she set the bottles of soda on top of the island. "In fact," Alex said as she counted out a hundred dollars in twenties from her wad of cash and handed it to him, "don't say anything to anyone."

"But the pizza costs $107.25," Cody pointed out.

"I know," Alex replied before counting $108 and handing it to him. "That was your tip."

"Okay then," Cody said awkwardly as he began to exit the mansion. "Have a good day."

"Wait—let me get this straight. You're nice to pizza boy, but not to your own father?" Tony asked in confusion.

"His name is Cody. And yes I am because I can count on him to bring me pizza and he hasn't let me down yet," Alex mumbled as she took a large bit of pizza.

"Okay, well, Cody might be the one to bring you pizza, but he won't be the one to bring you back to New York," Tony remarked.

"Of course he wouldn't. I'm not going back to New York. That's the first place they'd try to find me," Alex replied as she took yet another bite out of her pizza.

"Who are they?" Steve questioned.

Alex swallowed the bite of pizza she had in her mouth before she responded with the word, "Hydra."