I'll Be There

Alex stared blankly at her bedroom wall as she replayed Steve's reaction in her head over and over. During the time that they have been together, Alex had never seen such anger in Steve's eyes. It was that anger that haunted and pained Alex to no end. She knew it would be close to impossible to make Steve understand, much less forgive, her. And his absence did not give her the opportunity to explain herself. He had returned to the apartment hours after their dispute and began to pack some of his belongings into a duffle bag. The sight had caused Alex to panic as she desperately begged.
"Steve please don't leave m—," she said.
"I'm going on a mission," he interrupted. "S.H.E.I.L.D needs me."
"I need you," is what Alex wanted to cry out. She knew that if he left right now, then it would be that much harder for Steve to understand her reasoning.
"Steve," she mumbled, afraid of his reaction, "I know you're mad but—."
"We'll talk when I get back," he stated plainly as he slung his bag over his shoulder and made his way to the door.
"Okay. Stay safe," Alex said in a weak voice. "I love—."However, Steve had closed the door behind him before she could finish her sentence.
"At least he didn't slam the door," Alex thought. "Maybe he's cooled down a bit."
It wasn't until she left the bedroom and then returned from the kitchen to eat that she noticed that the doorknob had been crushed, indicating the anger he still had pent up. Shame and sadness then overwhelmed Alex and caused her to rush to her bed where she once again cried her eyes out. She had fallen asleep and woke up to stare at the wall and wait for any indication of Steve's return. She continued this routine and occasionally left the room to eat and use the bathroom. This was day three.
"He's never going to forgive me," she thought as she recalled the pained look on his face when she told him. "I don't blame him though. I wouldn't forgive me either."
Her train of thought was interrupted by the sound of her phone vibrating on the nightstand in front of her. She reached for the phone and peeked at the screen.
"Another text from dad," she thought before she placed the phone back down and ignored his message just as she had his other ones. Her phone vibrated three more times indicating that there were three more messages.
"Leave me alone," Alex thought as she turned her body to face the other direction. Shortly after doing so she heard her phone vibrate several times.
“Really? A phone call,” she mumbled as she reached out, grabbed the phone, and immediately swiped to decline the call. Alex stared at the screen for a moment as she anticipated another call or text; however, her phone remained silent. She sighed in relief and placed her phone back on the nightstand before she continued to stare at the wall.
“How the hell am I going to fix this, squishy?” she whispered as she gently placed her right hand over her stomach in hopes that he would kick in response. Instead, she felt nothing. “So you’re mad at me too then?” she asked as she allowed her hand to linger. Alex received no response from her child, but she did hear the front door to the apartment open and the sound of keys jingle.
“Steve,” she gasped as she got up from the bed and made her way to the door. Her heart raced as she approached the front door and she began to relive the same anxiety she felt a few days prior.
“How am I going to get him to listen to me?” she thought as a male figure came into view. She watched as they fidgeted with the lock and tried to remove the key from the door. Alex watched in confusion and wondered why Steve could not remove his keys until she got a closer view of the figure.
“Dad?” Alex questioned. “What are you doing here?”
“Well, as you can see,” Tony began as continued to struggle with the door, “I’m trying to get this key out of this door.”
“Twice to the left and then twice to the right,” Alex sighed. Tony followed her instructions and was able to remove the key.
“Why do you have it set up that way?” he asked.
“So people can’t just waltz in using the spare key,” she replied. “What do you want?”
“Well, a simple hello would be nice,” Tony replied sarcastically. “How about maybe a text?” Tony stated as he pulled out his phone and showed Alex the string of messages she had ignored from him over the last few days. “Fifty seven messages, Alex. You ignored fifty seven of my messages over the last three days.”
“Okay. I’m sorry,” Alex stated plainly with a monotone voice. “When did you get so sensitive over me not texting you back?”
“It’s not just me. Pepper, Monica, Clint, even Christina— since when have you not answered a call from your mother?”
“I—I—,” Alex stuttered. “I’m sorry, dad,” she sighed. “I’ve just been dealing with things. This baby stuff can be overwhelming,” she half lied.
“I thought that’s why you had Steve to help you. Where is he anyway?”
“He had some important business to do with S.H.E.I.L.D.”
“More important than taking care of the woman carrying his child?” Tony scoffed. “Some father he is.”
“I don’t think you’re one to talk,” Alex replied. “You weren’t exactly too thrilled to be having me and didn’t help mom out initially.”
Alex watched as her words hit Tony hard and he was slightly overcome with guilt. She hoped that this would cause him to leave so that she could be alone again, but instead Tony looked at her firmly and stated, "I'm here now."
"Thanks, dad," Alex sighed as she tried to hide the mild annoyance she felt. "But I'm fine. I just need some rest."
"From the looks of it, I'd say you're good on rest. How about we go for a walk? I can help you get whatever things you need for this guy before he comes along," Tony insisted, referring to squishy.
"No, dad. It's fine; I just really want to take it easy for a bit."
"Okay, fine. Then how about some video games?" Tony asked. "I haven't played Mario Kart with you in a while."
"I'm not in the mood. Maybe another time," she suggested. Tony raised an eyebrow at her before he asked,
"Are you okay, Alex?"
"Yeah, dad. I'm fine," she quickly replied. "I'm just tired."
"Okay. How about instead I order pizza and we can watch movies? Or I can watch movies and you can just eat pizza and go to sleep?" he offered.
"It's fine, dad. I'm not really hungry."
Tony's eyes widened in shock at those words and he desperately asked, "Okay, what's going on? What happened that you don't want to eat?"
"Nothing. I'm just not hungry," Alex replied not bothering to mask the annoyance in her voice anymore.
"I don't believe you. You're always hungry. When Steve and I found you, you were ready to devour five large pizzas and now all of a sudden you don't want to eat," Tony pointed out as he began to walk around the apartment.
"Or I had a big lunch," Alex countered as she followed Tony into her kitchen.
"Right," Tony replied sarcastically. "That's why your sink and dishwasher are empty."
"I ordered take out," she defended.
"Is that why your garbage is empty?" Tony countered as he gestured toward the empty garbage can.
"Okay," Alex sighed in defeat. "So I didn't eat yet. I'm going to make myself something later; it's not a big deal."
"If it wasn't a big deal then you wouldn't have tried to hide it from me," Tony said as he began to explore the rest of the apartment for anything suspicious. "It also doesn't help that no one's heard from you for 3 three days and that Steve is gone."
"I already told you that I've just been feeling overwhelmed and that Steve had a mission," explained Alex as she followed Tony. Tony examined the living room, bathroom, and even the two large closets before he made his way to the former guest room. As he reached for the door knob, he felt Alex's hand stop him. He looked up and saw Alex staring at him with a look of guilt on her face.
"I'm sorry for not responding to you, dad. I've just been really moody lately and don't want to deal with people, but thanks for checking up on me. We can grab that pizza if that offer is still on the table," she said sincerely. Tony looked at Alex and saw her apologetic eyes. It reminded him of when she was a child. And at that moment he knew she was putting up a front.
"So whatever it is, it's behind here?" He asked before turning the knob and pushing the door open.
Tony was amazed to see that the guest room that had a large queen sized bed and dresser now contained a rocking chair, crib, book shelf, toys, and a much smaller dresser. His eyes scanned the walls and he noted the various Nintendo characters and overall Mario theme painted on the walls. As he continued to examine the room, Tony grew confused as to why Alex did not want him to enter the room. Tony took a step into the room and was welcomed by the sound of broken glass. He looked down and large fragments of broken glass from what appeared to be a frame accompanied with photos scattered on the floor.
"Alex, what happened?" he asked.
"It's nothing. The frame just fell," she replied, which wasn't entirely a lie.
"How? Did you and Steve have a fight or something? Is that why he's not here?" Tony asked. Tony's questions caused Alex to begin to tear up as she recalled the last interaction that she had had in that room.
"Shit. I'm sorry, Alex; I didn't mean to get you upset. I just wanted to know why you've been acting so strange."
"N-no," Alex stammered as she tried to hold back her tears. "I can't. You'll get mad at me too."
"Alex, I'm your dad. I promise that whatever it is, I won't get mad.”
Alex continued to suppress her cries as she looked at her dad and saw that he meant what he said. She took in a deep breath and exhaled before she opened her mouth and explained to Tony what had happened.

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“Wow,” Tony said in shock. “That’s a lot to take in.”
“Yeah,” Alex sniffled as she rubbed her eyes. “And that’s why Steve left. He was so mad at me, but I don’t blame him for it,” she admitted. “I don’t blame you either if you want to leave.”
“Why would I do that to you?” Tony asked angrily. “You’re my daughter and I’m always going to be there for you—no matter what.”
“But I tried to kill your grandchild. How could you be okay with that?”
“I know that it must have been a difficult decision for you to make. I also know that you wouldn’t have made it unless there was absolutely no other choice and that Steve should have understood that too,” Tony elaborated as he pulled in Alex for a hug.
“I don’t know. He seems to think there was another way. I don’t know if I’m going to be able to make him understand,” she mumbled into his shoulder.
“Give him time. He’ll come around.”

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“So this is the woman Alex was with when she escaped,” Steve said into a small microphone.
“Yes. And our orders are to bring her in for questioning,” Natasha explained. “Right now she’s our best bet in finding Red Skull and finding out what happened to Alex.”
“I already know what happened,” he thought bitterly as he approached the dark haired woman.