I'll Be There

Alex stared in amazement at the image of her child being displayed the ultrasound technician.
“Wow,” she uttered. Although she did manage to catch a glimpse of her child during her imprisonment and once when she initially found out about her pregnancy, being able to see her child almost fully developed for the first time made her feel closer to the one she called ‘squishy’.
“You can say that again,” replied Dr. Singh. “Your baby is perfectly healthy.”
“Really?” she asked as she raised an eyebrow.
“Yes. Look,” Dr. Singh began as he gestured at the screen. “There are no abnormalities; his heart is beating fine. You don’t have anything to be concerned about.”
“What about everything he’s—I mean…I’ve been through?”
“Well,” Dr. Singh pondered, “Your situation may have caused some stress to you and your child initially, but it’s had no lasting physical effects.”
“What if there was something that was done that could have been traumatic for him? Something like being forcibly removed,” she asked as she attempted to hide her guilt at the same time.
“Well, if Red Skulls’ doctors tried to remove him, which judging from the scars that appeared in your vaginal examination, they did, I would say that they lucked out. Your baby is going to be okay. Although, they did risk a lot trying to do so; they could have killed the both of you.”
Dr. Singh’s words caused a surge of guilt to consume Alex as she continued to stare at the ultrasound screen. ‘I’m sorry,’ she thought as tears began to fill her eyes.
“There’s no need to cry, Alex,” Dr. Singh insisted as he noticed tears streaming down her face and her eyes getting puffy. “None of this is your fault.”
‘It is my fault!’ she thought.
“You and your child are safe and that’s what’s important.”
Alex took a deep breath and then exhaled deeply in order to calm herself down. “Thank you, Dr. Singh.”
“Of course,” Dr. Singh replied with a smile. “If you’d like, I could give you a picture of the ultrasound for you to show your fiancé.”
“Sure,” Alex replied, feeling caught off guard at the mention of Steve. ‘What’s he going to say?’ she thought as she made up her mind on what to tell him.

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Steve watched as light from the setting sun entered the room. He observed how the entering light seemed to highlight the features he had added to the nursery walls. A small smile began to form on his mouth as he admired his work. ‘She's going to love this,’ he thought before he hung up the finishing touch to the back of the nursery door. Just as he did, he heard the apartment door open and then close indicating that someone had entered.
“Alex?” Steve’s voice echoed. “Is that you?” he asked as he exited the nursery and made his way to the front of the apartment.
Alex stood at the front door and fumbled with removing her sweater.
‘Pull yourself together, Alex! You have to tell him!’ she internally yelled at herself before she took a deep breath and pulled the sweater over her head. As she did, she heard the sound of footsteps approaching followed by the sound of Steve’s voice.
“There you are,” Steve greeted. “That took a lot longer than I thought it would,”
“Sorry about that,” Alex mumbled as she tried to come up with a way to strategically tell Steve her story. “I just…had a long conversation with Dr. Singh so he would have a better idea of my situation,” Alex attempted to explain as her voice became shaky.
“It’s okay, Alex. You don’t have to talk about it,” Steve interrupted as he placed a hand on her shoulder.
“But Steve—I,” she began before she was once again cut off.
“It’s fine. Besides…there’s something I want to show you,” he said as he made his way back to the nursery.
“You’re not making this easier for me,” Alex mumbled to herself before she followed Steve to the room that they had been using as a guest room for whenever her mother visited. “What do you have to show me in the guest room? Is this your way of kicking me out of the master bedroom?”
“No. Nothing like that,” Steve replied as he opened the door to reveal a colorfully painted room.
Alex stared in awe at the transformation that had occurred. The previously white room was now a pale sky blue; plain walls now had painted pixilated images of familiar characters; and the queen size bed had been replaced with a fully equipped crib, throw rug, and rocking chair.
“So…what do you think?” Steve asked nervously.
Alex stood in silence as she continued to take in the newly redone room. The overall design of the room had an old school Mario layout complete with green pipes and hills, yellow stars, mushrooms, and floating brick walk ways. Alex caught glimpses of Mario, Princess Peach, Yoshi, and other characters from her beloved game spread throughout the room, but she also noticed other non-Mario related characters, such as Sonic and Pikachu, among them.
“I— when did you— why did you?” Alex babbled. “It’s so…”
“I started working on it a little while back when you said you needed something from me, but weren’t exactly sure what it was,” explained Steve. “It frustrated me to no end because I couldn’t figure out how to make you forgive me; then I realized that that wasn’t the most important thing. We’re going to have child soon so I needed to think about him which is why I started turning the guest room into a nursery.”
“Then why is it like this?” Alex questioned as she gestured at the entire room. “Our child isn’t going to know the difference between a Mario-themed room and a plain, simple nursery.”
“No. He’s not,” agreed Steve. “But squishy’s not the only one that’s going to be in here. This room is for you just as much as it is for him,” Steve pointed out. “The least I could do was make it to your liking.”
“St-Steve,” Alex stuttered, feeling overwhelmed with emotion. “I—I…thank you,” she uttered.
“You haven’t even seen the best part,” Steve grinned as he gently pushed the door so that it was shut.
Hanging from the back of the door was a multi-panel glass picture frame that had the word ‘Family’ laying on top. A majority of the panels were empty and Alex assumed that that they were to be filled with photos of their child after he was born; however, she also noticed that some of the panels had already been filled with photos from the last few years she had been in New York. There was one photo of her, Steve, and Clint having a snow ball fight; another photo of Steve, Pepper, and her mother at Thanksgiving when Steve first met Christina; and a photo of Alex and Tony sleeping on the couch after Alex’s first day in New York.
The photo that caught her attention the most was one of her and Steve at their engagement party. Pepper had given a toast. Alex still had her Champaign glass in hand when Steve decided to come from behind, put his hand on her waist, and kiss the top of her head. She had turned her head so that her eyes could meet his and had given him a small smile before she had tip-toed to give him a quick kiss on the lips. ‘I love you,’ she recalled having told him. ‘I love you too,’ he had replied as he had wrapped both of his arms around her and had leaned down to nuzzle her neck. Shortly after, Christina had caught the two off-guard when they saw a camera flash, capturing the moment.
“Steve…this is amazing,” she choked as she wrapped her arms around his waist and buried her head in his back.
Steve felt her sobbing gently into the back of his shirt to which he apologized in response. “I’m sorry, Alex. I didn’t mean to make you cry.”
“You didn’t…it’s just,” she mumbled as she tried to figure out what to say. “There’s something that I want to show you and there’s something I need to tell you,” she continued as she reached to her back pocket. She pulled out the pictures of the ultra sound that Dr. Singh had given her and handed them to Steve.
“Is that—?”
“Yes, Steve. It’s squishy. That’s your son,” she uttered as she attempted to wipe off the tears in her eyes.
Just as Alex had done earlier that day, Steve stared in amazement at the image. Steve recalled how small his unborn child had looked when Steve first saw him at twelve weeks old.
“He’s so big now,” Steve said as he continued to examine the picture.
“And he’s perfectly healthy too,” added Alex. “Dr. Singh said that there was nothing to worry about which was surprising.”
“That’s great news. I don’t understand why you’re crying though,” Steve stated with a mixture of confusion and concern in his voice.
“I’m crying because of what happened,” Alex tried to explain as her voice became uneven. “And I’m not talking about being Red Skull’s test subject and being poked with a hundred and one things because I’m safe now. I’m not talking about how absolutely hopeless I felt waiting for you because I forgive you and I know you tried and are still trying. I’m talking about finding out Red Skull’s plan to use our child to create super solider army and what I did to stop him—“
“You’re safe here, Alex,” Steve stated as he noticed her shaking violently from holding back her tears. He gently pulled her into a warm embrace and rested his chin on her head. “I promise,” he whispered as he allowed Alex to sob into his chest. As her cries died down, Steve heard her mumble something.
“What?”
“I tried to kill him,” Alex whispered in a pained tone.
“I would have done the same,” Steve replied as he tried to reassure Alex and ease her pain. “Red Skull was a threat.”
“Not Red Skull,” Alex began as she took sharp gasps of air. “Squishy.”
Steve’s eyes widened at the mention of his child. “What?” he asked in disbelief as he released Alex and took a step away from her.
“It was the only way,” she began to explain. “I couldn’t let Red Skull succeed and there was no sign of you showing up—”
“So it’s my fault then?!” Steve shouted in anger
“I didn’t say that,” defended Alex.
“That’s what it feels like you’re saying. Is that why you acted that way when Tony and I found you?” he asked furiously.
“No. I mean— I was mad at you, but I was madder at myself; there was no other choice.”
“There’s always a choice.”
“Not when it comes to Red Skull trying to destroy the world!” Alex argued. “You should know; you sacrificed yourself to stop Red Skull from bombing New York.”
“This isn’t a bomb, Alex. This is our child!” Steve shouted.
“I’m sorry, Steve,” Alex sobbed.
Steve ignored her apology as he turned his back to her, stood there for a moment, and made his way to the door.
“Steve—”she begged.
“I don’t want to hear it,” he spat as he slammed the door shut which caused the glass frame to fall.
Alex watched the frame shatter into pieces and the photos in the frame scatter on the floor. She stared at the frame and saw it as a perfect representation of her relationship with Steve—something that held so much potential and was now ruined.