I'll Be There

Alex had fallen asleep with pleasant thoughts of warmer days, central park picnics, and, of course,of what she imagined her son would be like. As she imagined swinging the child on a set of park swings, she smiled in her sleep and uttered 'Mommy's got you baby. She won't let anything happen to you.'

"Oh, really?" Alex overheard someone say.

She turned her head and saw a peculiar figure clad in a black cloak with a hood concealing their face. The sight of the stranger caused a surge of panic within Alex and she immediately turned to grab her son. However, when she went out to reach him, he was no longer sitting on the park swing.

"Looking for someone?" mocked the stranger as she appeared in front of Alex holding the child.

Alex gasped at the sight of some stranger coddling her son and running their fingers threw his hair.

"What a beautiful baby boy," the stranger cooed in a raspy voice, causing the child to whimper.

"Hand him over right now or I swear I will—"

"Oh, stop now. You're threats don't scare me," the stranger scoffed. "This baby is mine and I'm going to finish what I started with him," the stranger said cynically.

"R-Red Skull?" Alex questioned. Her heart began to pound rapidly at the thought of Red Skull finding her and taking her son away.

"No, Alex," the stranger stated before lifting their hood and pulling off their cloak to reveal their identity.

**************Warning:Semi graphic content up ahead*****

"No," gasped Alex. "It can't be." Alex stared in shock as she saw herself clad in the same baggy shirt and shorts she wore when she was Red Skull's prisoner, but now they were covered in blood. "I-I don't understand," Alex uttered in a frightened voice.

"Yes, you do," the Alex covered in blood stated bluntly. "You tried to kill him once and failed. I'm simply finishing the job," she said as she pulled out the same metal spring used to perform the failed abortion and jabbed it into the infant's throat.

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"No! Stop!" Alex shouted hysterically. However, her pleas were ignored as she watched herself continue to attack the child.

"Alex, wake up," Steve said as she gently shook her to wake her up from the nightmare she was having.

Alex automatically jolted up and clutched onto her blanket, quickly checking her surroundings as she checked her stomach.

"Thank god. It was just a dream," Alex whispered.

"Alex, are you okay. What happened?" Steve asked with a concerned voice.

"It was nothing. Don't worry about it," Alex replied as she placed a hand over her stomach to make sure that thebaby was safe.

"Don't tell me it was nothing, Alex. You were talking in your sleep and I heard you say 'Red Skull'. You had a dream that he tried to take squishy away didn't you," Steve stated with a hint in his voice.

"I," Alex began unsure if she should tell Steve what actually happened in her dream as well as what she tried to do to their child.

'He can't find out. I know I'm mad at him for never finding me, but if he finds out what I tried to do to our child, he'll hate me for it,' she thought.

"Alex, it's alright you can tell me. I promise he won't harm you or the baby," reassured Steve.

"I know, it's just—he and his doctors did a lot of tests on me. They loved to poke me with various needles and tie me down when I didn't cooperate with them," Alex said as she cleared her throat. "You forcing me to go see a S.H.I.E.L.D doctor kind of brought back some of those memories," Alex stated bitterly.

"Oh. I'm sorry about that," Steve replied apologetically. "But you know it's for the baby and that I would never make you do it if it brought back bad memories."

"Yeah, well, whatever, you weird Dorito," Alex mumbled as she got out of the bed and made her way to the bathroom. "Do we have any breakfast burritos in the freezer?"

"No, but I can make you some. It's the least I can do."

"Kiss-ass," Alex uttered as she turned to face Steve.

"It's called being nice," Steve stated solemnly as he left the room.

When Alex was sure that Steve couldn't hear her, she quietly whispered, "Thank you, Steve," before starting her shower.

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"I'll have an egg white omelet with green peppers and onions," Tony joked as he entered the kitchen. Steve, who was beating eggs looked up at Tony gave him a slight glare and uttered, "Very funny. I'm not your chef."

"Then what are you doing in my kitchen? You have your own in that apartment complex Alex made me create when the two of you decided to move in together," Tony pointed out.

"Alex wanted breakfast burritos and we didn't have any eggs," explained Steve as he poured the scrambled eggs into the heated pan on the stove.

"Oh, I see. This is your way of making Alex forgive you. Why didn't I think of that; Alex loves food."

"I'm not trying to win her over. I'm just being a good fiancé and accommodating to her needs, especially since she's eating for two now."

"Fiancé," Tony scoffed. "You honestly think that she's still going to marry you after you let her down like that?"

"She still has the engagement ring I gave her. From what I gather, she hasn't taken it off. I know that over time she'll forgive me. She's already started talking to me a bit and she gave me a new nickname," Steve said hopefully as he added a bit of cheese and bits of hash brown to the omelet and wrapped it in a tortilla, adding it to the pile of burritos he already made.

"Hey, weird Dorito," Alex greeted as she entered the kitchen. "I thought you were making the burritos in our kitchen."

"We didn't have any eggs," Steve began. "So I came—"

"Whatever," Alex interrupted as she took a seat, grabbed a burrito, and took a large bite of it, ignoring Steve and Tony.

"Hey, kiddo, how are you doing?" Tony asked as he took a seat beside his daughter.

"Hmm," Alex replied as she continued to eat her food.

"So you coming to the lab anytime soon? I have a few things that I'm working on that I can use your help with."

Alex said nothing as she looked up from her food and gave Tony a slight glare.

"I have something for you in the lab," Tony stated awkwardly. "It's your bracelet. I set up a homing signal on it to notify me when it's forcibly removed in case something like that happens to you again—"

"Dad, I'm not a kid. You can't buy my forgiveness."

"It worked when you were ten," Tony muttered to which Alex responded by raising an eyebrow at him. "I mean—what do you want from me? You don't talk to me. You don't come to the lab. How am I supposed to make it up to you?"

"I want your Corvette," Alex responded plainly.

"What?" Tony asked in confusion.

"I want your Corvette, and your Porsche, and your BMW, and your Cadillac," Alex said as a sinister smile began to form on her mouth.

"Okay…but I thought you said that I can't buy your forgiveness."

"You can't, but letting me have fun with your car could make me forgive you."

"So you want to drive me cars? I'm fine with that."

"Not exactly."

"Then what do you have in mind?"

"Dorito, grab some burritos and meet me in the garage," ordered Alex. " We're going to have some fun."

"Do you have any idea what she's planning?" Tony asked suspiciously.

"Not the faintest idea, but I hope you're not attached to those cars," smiled Steve.

"What are you so smiley about? Huh, dorito?" Tony questioned as he attempted to use the name Alex had used on Steve moment as a way to annoy him.

Steve ignored Tony and smiled as he began packing the burritos he had made.