I'll Be There

"There has to be a logical explanation for Alex not having her bracelet with her," Tony remarked as he began thinking of reasons.

"Like what?" Steve questioned.

"Like…Christina didn't want her to wear it because it clashed with her dress," Tony rambled. "Although I don't know why since Pepper made me buy those earrings for her in case Christina would complain about that," he mumbled.

"Well, if that were the case, then why was it on the floor?"

Before Tony could answer Steve's question, Christina and Pepper entered the room.

"Guys, what's going on?" Pepper asked. "Where's Alex."

"I don't know," Tony sighed.

"What do you mean you don't know?" Christina questioned. "Weren't you the last person to talk to her?"

"Yes, but that doesn't mean I know where she is," Tony pointed out. "I looked all over the church for her and all I found was her bracelet," Tony continued as she showed it to Christina.

"This can't be!"Christina uttered in disbelief when she saw the bracelet in front of her eyes. Christina stood in silence for a while before she asked, "What did you say to her?"

"What do you mean 'what did I say to her'? What does that have to do anything with—"

"She was a little nervous when Pepper and I were getting her ready," Christina interrupted. "Did you say anything to upset her?"

"No I didn't. I just told her that if she wanted to she could ditch the wedding and we could go grab some burgers, but it was a joke."

"How is that a joke?" Steve asked as he stared at Tony in annoyance.

"She laughed—kind of."

"Damn it, Tony. She probably got mad at you for saying that and threw her bracelet on the floor before running off to God knows where!" Christina exclaimed in frustration.

"Oh, really? You're going to blame this on me?"

"Why else would she run off like that?"

"Both of you calm down," Pepper intervened. "Look, Alex couldn't have gone far. I'm sure we'll find her and she can explain to us why she ran off. Isn't that right, Steve?"

However, the groom had made his way out of the room and onto the church grounds in hopes of running into Alex.

'Where are you?' Steve thought to himself as he ran around the gardens that he knew she loved. His eyes caught a glimpse of a brown haired women walking aimlessly through the gardens by herself and, thinking that it was his bride to be, Steve immediately ran over to her.

"Alex!" he called out as he stretched his arm out to touch her shoulder.

The woman gasped in surprise at his touch and turned to face Steve.

"Oh my God! You scared the crap out of me," she mumbled.

"Sorry," Steve apologized when he realized that the woman was not Alex. "I thought you were someone else."

"It's fine," the woman said as she walked away, leaving Steve by himself.

Steve clenched his fist in frustration before he let out along sigh and pulled out his phone. He immediately dialed Alex's number and waited patiently for her to pick up. When she did not he inhaled deeply before allowing it to go to voice mail and, preparing the words he was going to say.

"Hi, Alex— It's Steve. I just wanted to let you know that I'm not mad at you; I just want to make sure you're okay. You're mom was telling me about how nervous you were, so I understand. I love you, Alex and wherever you are I hope you're safe."

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Alex woke up a few hours later with her back aching. She shot open her eyes and became confused by her surroundings: a small faucet in one corner, a toilet in another, four brick walls surrounding her, a large metal door in one of them. She looked down and realized two things. The first being that she was a on top of a lumpy mattress with blood stained sheets ;the second being that she was no longer wearing her wedding dress. Instead, she was clad in an over sized T-shirt and a pair of shorts.

'What the hell?' Alex thought to herself trying to remember what had happened. As she began recalling recent events, she heard footsteps from outside the room coming closer.

The large metal door creaked open and the man who she recalled fighting with earlier was standing in the doorway.

"Well, look who's finally up," the kidnapper stated with a sinister smile as he entered the small room.

"Where am I?" Alex demanded as she raised her left arm prepared to use her bracelet against him once more. However, when she looked down at her wrist, her eyes widened in shock when she realized it was no longer there.

"Yeah, not so tough now are you?" he mocked as he grabbed her by the wrist. "Come on, you're coming with me."

"No. Let go of me!" Alex demanded as she tried to pull herself out of his grip, but was unsuccessful.

"Nice try, sweet cheeks," but you don't have anything against—ow! "

The kidnapper winced in pain as he felt Alex's nails digging into the sensitive area of his underarm and loosening his grip on her in response [1] which allowed Alex to free herself from and began making an escape.

Alex flew down the hall and made a sharp left in hopes that she would find a way to escape before he caught up with her, but, instead, she bumped into three people dressed in the same uniform.

"Hey, who are you?" questioned one of the uniformed men.

"I—," Alex mumbled unsure of what to say.

"Guards!" the kidnapper called out. "Stop her!"

Alex looked back and saw that he had caught up to her, but before she could move, she felt a pair of hands grab both of her arms from behind her.

"This must be the girl the boss has been waiting for," one of guards said to the other.

"Come on, let's take her to the lab."

"No. Let me go," Alex protested as they carried her to a large room with various machines that resembled medical equipment and a metal examination table in the center.

"What are you doing to me?" Alex exclaimed as the guards placed her on the examination table and began to strap her down.

"So this is her?" asked a woman clad in a white lab coat as she walked over to Alex. "Okay, well let's set her up and run some tests on her to make sure everything is okay?"

"Hey, spoiler alert: I'm not okay! In case you haven't noticed, I've been kidnapped," Alex remarked.

"Gag her if you need to," the woman sighed before she began injecting an IV needle into Alex's arm.

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"Come on, pick up. Pick up. Pick up," Steve repeated into his phone only to hear the words 'you have reached the voice mail box of Alex Stark please leave a message after the tone'.

"Dammit," Steve cursed under his breath before hanging up.

"Steve, please don't be upset," Christina pleaded as she squeezed his shoulder in comfort.

"How can I not be upset?" Steve scoffed. "Alex is gone. I have no idea where she is or whether or not she's safe, and there's nothing that I can do about it."

"Steve, I know it's hard for you, but you have to be calm so you can figure out a way to find out what happened to her."

"Yeah, Steve. You're her fiancé. Instead of just sitting around moping about how she's not here, why don't you actually do something about it?" Tony scoffed.

"Well, what do you want me to do?"Steve asked aggravated. "I've been looking for her for hours and I've found no sign of her."

"I don't know, but don't just sit around. You promised Alex that you wouldn't let anything happen to her when you proposed to her and look what's happened," Tony ranted. "You're not even married to her yet and she's already mysteriously disappeared. If I would have known that this was going to happen, I would have never said yes to you when you asked me for her hand in marriage."

"Well, why don't you do something? You're her father and you're probably the reason why she left," snapped Steve.

"Fine, I will," Tony responded as he made his way outside in a pursuit to find his daughter. Tony waited until he was outside to activate his Mark 42 armor.

"JARVIS," Tony stated as the armor from his suit began to cover his body.

"Yes, sir," JARVIS responded.

"I'm going to need you to access all security camera footage from my location from about twelve hours ago and run a facial recognition search."

"Accessing footage now. May I ask who is it that you are searching for?"

"Alex. And I'm sure as hell going to find her," Tony stated with determination.