I'll Be There

Annabelle's eyes filled with tears. She watched the sarcastic brunette woman that she had been guarding for the last few months become smaller on the rearview camera as she moved further away from said woman. For a moment, Annabelle Contemplated staying behind with her friend in order to ensure her safety.

"No," she told herself instead as she averted her eyes from the shrinking image of Alex. "She won't be safe with me." As she flew further away, it didn't take long until she could no longer see her friend; she wipped away her tears as she whispered to herself, "Goodbye, Alex."

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

A small frown began to form on Annabelle's face as she recalled her last moments with the girl that she had been assigned to watch over by Hydra; the girl she had later decided to protect from Hydra. It was a strange relationship that the two had, but it was one that Annabelle treasured. It was what made her so willing to do anything to keep her friend safe –even if it meant Anabelle not seeing her.

"Another round?" asked the bar tender, taking Annabelle out of her train of thought.

"Yes, but make it a double," she replied as she turned her attention to the screen above the bar to make it appear as if she had been focused on the game playing in the background.

"I'll have what she's having," she heard a voice say as a figure of a man appeared in her peripheral vision and took a seat beside her.

Annabelle mentally scoffed as she felt the unknown man's eyes on her; she forced herself to pay more attention to the game on the screen. When she saw a player in a purple shirt run to the end of the field, she cheered along with two other people in the bar.

"So you're a Vikings fans?" the man beside her asked as the bartender placed their drinks on the table.

"Sure," she replied in a monotone voice, avoiding his gaze has she took a sip of her drink.

"I'm more a Patriots fan myself," he commented as he copied her movements and drank from his glass "Come here often?"

"Sometimes," she replied. She had been in situations like this with men before; and if her experiences had taught her anything, it was that one word answers would make them leave her alone. However, that tactic didn't seem to be working here.

"Oh, really? So what do you usually do?— There's not much to do here in Alaska."

"Research," she answered as she continued to watch the game;an annoyed look slowly began to appear on her face.

"On?" he asked in an attempted to keep the conversation a float.

"The weather, climate change-, things of that sort," she almost snapped. Annabelle contemplated is she should off handedly threaten him if he continued; however, she knew that something like that would draw attention to herself which was something that she was not willing to risk; so she decided to put up with the strange man's questions in order to keep a low profile.

"Wow. That's really amazing—I'm sorry. I didn't catch your name."

"Maria," Annabelle stated, giving the man the alias that she had been using since she and Alex had parted ways.

"That's funny. You don't look like a 'Maria'. You look more like an 'Annabelle', but that's probably because that's your real name," the man stated plainly, whispering the last part.

The sound of her name leaving the unknown man's lips sent shivers down her spine. 'How did Hydra find me?' she thought as she reached into her bag. Just as her hand touched the cool metal object inside the bag, though, she felt a strong grip on her wrist.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you," the man said in a hushed tone. "There's someone else here ready to subdue you if need be."

"Then let them subdue me," she spat. "In fact, tell Red Skull—"

"I don't work for Red Skull; I work for S.H.E.I.L.D."

Annabelle was surprised and confused when she heard that name. 'What are they doing here?'

"And I have a few questions about Alex that I want you to answer."

"Alex? Is she okay? Who are you?"

"My name is Steve Rogers and I'll let you know about Alex after you've answered my questions."

"I'll do anything," replied Annabelle.

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

"What's with all of this?," questioned Annabelle as she analyzed the metal cuffs that bound her wrists to a chair; the chair various wires near the head rest. "I thought you wanted to talk to me, not torture me."

"It's S.H.E.I.L.D's state of the art lie detector that monitors the human body in 96 different ways in order to ensure that the information we are receiving is true," Steve explained as he set the machine to read her heart rate among other things.

"Seriously?" she scoffed. "I already told you that I would tell you anything. Is this really necessary?"

"You tried to pull a gun out on me so I'll be the one determining what's necessary," Steve replied. "Let's begin. What is your name?"

"You already know it. Its Annabelle Castillo," she sighed in slight annoyance. 'What on earth does he plan to ask me that he thinks I would lie about?'

"How old are you?"

"Twenty- seven. Honestly, why are you wasting time asking things you already know? I thought you wanted to know about what happened to Alex."

"I'm asking you things I already know in order to establish a base for the machine," he explained. "Now it knows how your body acts when you're telling the truth. Any deviation from it will let me know when you're lying."

"Does it also take into consideration how annoyed I am at the moment?" she remarked.

Ignoring her sarcastic comment, Steve began his questioning by asking, "What was your relationship with Alex while she was imprisoned?"

"I was her guard."

"And what exactly did that entail? What were your day to day activities like?Your interactions with her?" Steve asked in order to get the gist of Alex's experience.

As Annabelle thoroughly explained her role as a Hydra member, Steve slowly began to understand her interactions and peculiar relationship with Alex; and, although he still harbored a lot of anger for Alex at the moment, he was glad that Annabelle had offered Alex companionship during her horrible experience. While Annabelle explained the daily torture that Alex had gone through, a pang of guilt hit Steve as he thought, 'I had no idea she had it that bad.' He slowly began to feel sympathy for Alex; and thought about of trying to make amends.

"She was so stubborn and always made things worse for herself," Annabelle scoffed in disapproval which caused Steve to raise an eyebrow.

"What do you mean?" asked Steve. "What did she do?"

"Well...," Annabelle hesitated unsure of how to explain. "Like when Red Skull force fed her through her nose— that never would have happened if Alex didn't try to starve herself," she stated.

"Why would she do that?" he questioned.

"I'm not entirely sure, but she told me that it would keep Red Skull from getting what he wanted; he couldn't really have a healthy baby if she wouldn't take care of herself.," Annabelle sighed as a frown appeared on her face.

"So she purposely did things to hurt our child the whole time?" Steve asked. "I can't believe her."

"No. It's not like that."

"How is it not like that?" Steve's voice boomed. "From what you're telling me, and from what I know, she tried to hurt our child not only once, but twice."

"You don't understand what she was going through!" Annabelle exclaimed.

"Yes, I do. You just explained it to me," Steve yelled in frustration which caused Annabelle to become silent. Steve inhaled deeply in an attempt to calm himself down and process the information he had been given. On one hand, he understood that Alex had tried to do what she could to prevent Red Skull from executing his plan. Under any other circumstance, Steve would have done the same. On the other hand, Steve knew it wasn't a normal circumstance and couldn't understand how Alex could live with herself after trying to not only hurt, but also kill, her own child.

"How could she live with herself after that? I thought I knew her better," he said, whispering the last part.

"You think it was easy for her?" Annabelle questioned with a hint of anger and annoyance in her voice. "It was not an easy choice for her to make. She was so desperate and it almost killed her."

"Alex is smart a girl. She knows how to survive," he spat.

"That's not what I mean. Do you even know how she tried to get rid of squishy?" Annabelle questioned angrily. After a long silence, she sighed and explained. "She pierced her uterus with metal," Annabelle stated as she recalled the day she had found her friend in her cell covered in blood. "She barely had a pulse when I found her. I took her to the lab. I begged for her to be survive and do you know what she said to me while she was barely conscious?— 'Let me die'."

"Why…why would she say that?" Steve asked as he felt a mix of hurt and confusion.

"Because she knew she was going to die anyway. They were going to kill her as soon as squishy was born so I don't blame her for her actions. I don't agree with her and wish she hadn't tried to do that, but I also know how helpless she felt; and how she felt that that was the only thing she could do to have some way to stop Red Skull…even if it meant she would die."A

Steve remained silent as he processed the information given to him. Annabelle noticed his facial expression change from one of anger to one of guilt.

"Steve, what's wrong?"

"Back in New York, Alex told me that she had tried to kill our child and I didn't handle it well. So when S.H.E.I.L.D found you, I made it my business to interrogate you and find out what happened…I just didn't expect to find out all this."

"You should go talk to her," she told him.

"Yea," he said softly. "I should."