I'll Be There

Alex smiled as she held her newborn child in her arms. "Who's a fat baby?" she cooed as she nuzzled the child.

"He certainly is a big one," replied a doctor as they entered the room. "How are you feeling?' they asked as they checked Alex's vitals and changed her IV needles.

"I'm fine," Alex sighed as she paid no mind to the doctor and continued to stare at her child.

"Really? After everything you've been through?" the doctor replied in a somewhat surprised tone. "I know it was a difficult birth so if you're still in pain in any way—"

"That doesn't matter," interrupted Alex. "I'm fine. My baby is healthy. All that matters now is giving him a good name."

"There's no need to worry about that," the doctor stated nonchalantly as they continued to fiddle with Alex's IV. "The name RXT-2 will do just fine."

"What the hell kind of name is that?" questioned Alex as she directed her attention from her child to the doctor. As she turned her head she felt a surge of pain rush through her body.

"Ahh," she winced as she moved her hand and placed it on her head. However, her arm did not move.

"What's happening?" she asked in distress as the doctor made their way from her IV bag to the sleeping infant.

"Standard name sequence for test subjects. Although to be honest, I'm not sure what all the letters stand for, but that's something that Red Skull's scientist deal with," answered the 'doctor' as they pried the child from her arms.

"No. Don't touch him! He's mine!" screamed Alex hysterically, attempting to jolt up and attack them but with no success.

"But you didn't want him. Remember?" taunted the doctor as they walked with Alex's child to the window large enough to fit a person and undid the latches. "You tried to get rid of him," they pointed out as they opened the window. "I'm simply just taking him out of your hands."

With those words, the alleged doctor stepped out of the window and dropped with Alex's child. Alex watched in anguish as she continued to scream, her cries dying down as her voice became horse.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"No," Alex whispered as tears began to stream from her eyes causing her vision to blur. "You can't take him."

Alex's cries caused Steve to jolt up from his sleep and rush to her bedroom.

"No!" she continued to scream. "You can't do that!"

"Alex what's wrong?" asked Steve as he burst into the room half-expecting someone to be taking her. To his surprise he found her clutching her sheets and kicking her legs around as if she were fending off someone. 'It's just a dream,' he thought to himself as he made his way to her bed. 'What could she be dreaming about that would make her like this?'

"Alex, wake up," Steve stated firmly as he placed a hand on her shoulder.

Soon after he felt a sudden force hit him right on the nose as Alex instinctively launched a punch at who she believed to be an attacker and shouted, "You're not taking him!" as she held her stomach protectively.

"Alex, it's me," Steve replied as he covered his nose, feeling drops of blood trickle down his nose.

"Steve?" Alex questioned as she extended her arm to flick the switch on her lamp. "What are you doing here? I thought you were sleeping on the couch. And what happened to your nose?"

"You were screaming as if you were being taken so I rushed over to see what happened and you punched me," he explained.

"You're saying I did that to you?" How bad is it?" she asked as she slowly moved his hand away to reveal blood gushing from his nose. "Oh my God. Go to the bathroom," she instructed as she removed the covers and got out of bed. Steve followed her into the bathroom and watched as she turned the sink faucet so that water came out.

"Alex, I'm fine," assured Steve as Alex turned her attention to the cabinets and began rummaging through them.

"You don't know that. I could have broken your nose," she replied as she took out gauze pads.

"Alex, it's not that serious; I don't need gauze pads. See," he pointed out as he cleaned off the last of the blood with cold water and reached over to grab a tissue. "I'm fine. I just need to add a little pressure."

Alex stared at Steve as he pinched his nose to prevent further bleeding. She noted that he was indeed fine and that there was no need for her over reaction.

"Maybe my mom instincts just kicked in," she thought to herself.

"So," began Steve after several moments of silence, "Are you going to tell me what was it that had you screaming like that?"

"No. I don't want to talk about it," she stated plainly. "But," she uttered as she thought about her friend's advice about opening up to Steve. "Since I nearly broke your nose, I guess you at least deserve to know why." Steve waited patiently as Alex struggled to find the right words. After much thought, Alex let out a long sigh before she explained.

"Well, obviously I had a bad dream…I've been having them ever since I got back."

"I don't blame you for having them, but I didn't hear you screaming last night or the night before," Steve pointed out.

"That's because I usually dreamt about being strapped down and tested on which isn't so bad. I would wake up in a small panic and then go back to sleep."

"So what was it that drove you to this?" asked Steve as he gestured at his nose.

"They took him," Alex responded with a hint of sorrow and fear in her voice. "A Hydra spy took our baby and there was nothing I could do about it," she continued as tears slowly fell down her eyes. "God, I was so hopeless and I thought that that was it— that I was never going to see him again," Alex cried as she attempted to wipe away her tears.

"Alex, I'm not going to let that happen. I promise that I'll keep you and our child safe."

"How?" she questioned. "You didn't keep me safe the first time."

"Alex, I said I was sor—"

"No, Steve. I'm not saying that to throw it in your face. I'm saying it because it's true. I don't know that without a doubt you'll keep him safe."

"But I know that you'll keep him safe."

"How on earth would you know that?" Alex scoffed.

"Because you punched me in the face while you were sleeping to protect him." Imagine what you could do when you're fully awake; you would be like a mother bear trying to protect her cubs," elaborated Steve.

"Mother bears can be shot down and, in my dream, I was shot down," she pointed out with a hint of hopelessness in her voice.

"I know that you wouldn't let that stop you. And even if it did, I know that I won't let anything happen to our child even if you don't believe me."

"I—," Alex began, stopping midsentence as she tried to find the right words. 'I do believe you,' were the words that she wanted to say, but Alex could not allow herself to say that out loud.

'You can't protect him from me,' she thought, but she did not dare say it for she knew that those words would mean unraveling everything she's tried to hide.

"Alex, are you alright?"

"I was going to say that it's hard for me to believe you can protect your unborn child if you're all the way in the living room. I mean—that's how they got me in the first place. I was all by myself," she explained. "If you really want me to believe you then you would be in bed next to me so if anything happens I can escape with squishy and be safe," she stated plainly as she left the bathroom.

"Mmmhmmm…so you're asking me to sleep with you and squishy then?" questioned Steve as a small smile began to form, following her back to the bed

"Don't get all smiley on me. It just so happens that that it was what I determined would be best for the baby," she explained as she fluffed her pillows and lay down.

"Well, I'm glad you feel that way," Steve replied as he lay beside Alex making sure to face her. "It's nice to be back in our bed; it almost feels like you don't hate me."

"I don't hate you, Steve," Alex uttered softly with a hint of pain in her voice. "I love you too much to ever hate you no matter how mad, hurt, or upset you make me. And I know that if it were the other way around you would never hate me either."

"But it's not the other way and even though you haven't made these last few weeks easy on me, I know that there is nothing you could do to let me down and hurt me the way I did to you."

Steve's words hit Alex with guilt knowing that what he said was wrong. She knew that the minute he found out what she had been hiding, the tables would turn and Steve would ice her out like she had initially done to him; only she feared that it would be worse.

"Good night," she said emotionlessly to hide her fear as she turned to flick the lamp off and lay with her back facing Steve.

"Good night, Alex," Steve replied confused. He followed Alex's actions and turned so the two were now back to back. He stared at the wall as he listened for Alex's breathing to become even indicating that she had fallen asleep. When he was certain that she was, he turned his body and placed a kiss on her cheek.

"I don't know what I said to upset you," he whispered as to not wake her, "But I love you and I love squishy and I'm going to do my best to protect the two of you. I promise."