I'll Be There

Alex was staring at the wall when she heard the door to her cell open indicating that the guard had come to bring Alex her meal. Alex turned her head to face the guard and the guard was in shock when she made contact with Alex's face— the whites of her eyes had a pink tint to them and dark rings circled her eyes.

"What happened to you?" the guard questioned as she slowly approached Alex, placing the food tray on the floor as she got a better look.

"I haven't slept in two days. Can't you tell?" Alex replied sarcastically, her voice horse.

"Why haven't you been getting enough sleep? That's not good for the baby."

"I haven't slept because I have this damn pain in my stomach from not eating that keeps me up at night," Alex answered in a raspy voice.

"What is wrong with you? You need to eat—"

"Why? So Red Skull can get that perfect healthy super baby he wants?" Alex scoffed weakly. "I don't think so."

The guard grabbed hold of one of Alex's arms and pressed two fingers against her wrist only to discover that Alex's heart rate was well below normal. "We have to get you to the doctor," the guard stated as she pulled Alex over her shoulder and began carrying her out of her cell.

"No, put me down," Alex protested as she attempted to fight off the guard. However, due to her weakened state, Alex's attempts proved feeble.

The guard rushed to the lab and burst through the lab doors, catching the doctor's attention.

"What are you doing with her?" the doctor questioned at the sight of the guard carrying Alex. "She's supposed to be in her cell."

"She needs medical attention. She hasn't eaten in days and is suffering from starvation and possible dehydration," the guard replied.

"WHAT?!" the doctor exclaimed. "How is that possi—"

"That doesn't matter right now. She needs nutrients," the guard interrupted.

"Okay, strap her down to the examination table. If she's dehydrating, I need to administer her a saline solution with an IV needle."

The guard did as she was told and placed Alex on the examination table, strapping her down so that she wouldn't fight back even though Alex was too powerless to do so.

"What are you doing?" Alex questioned confused as she saw the doctor approaching her with a needle.

"Leave me alone," she mumbled, her vision becoming blurry.

"This is for your own good," the doctor stated plainly as she stuck the needle in Alex's left arm before Alex blacked out.

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"So did you get any new leads from that location Natasha sent you?" Steve asked as he entered Tony's lab.

"No. I had J.A.R.V.I.S go through the security footage from that port they supposedly dropped off Alex at and found no site of Alex or that woman's van," Tony relied.

"Wait—so you're saying that that woman Nat interrogated tricked us? Ugh. I knew I should have—"

"Easy, Capsicle," Tony interjected. "I said J.A.R.V.I.S didn't find anything on Alex or the van, but what we did notice that was that the security footage for that area was set on loop so—"

"Whoever was there was covering their tracks," Steve uttered in frustration.

"Was Nat able to get any information that would help us find Alex?"

"Our suspect didn't know who she was working for or where they were taking Alex. The only thing they knew…was why they wanted Alex," Steve sighed, debating in his head whether or not he should tell Tony about Alex's pregnancy, unsure of how he would react. Steve remembered that the last time Tony had thought Alex was pregnant, Tony was ready to kill him and if Tony reacted the same way, it would not help the situation.

"Well, spill it grandpa. What did they want with Alex?" Tony asked.

Steve could see the frustration as well as the concern for Alex's safety on Tony's face that made him resolve his decision.

"They kidnapped Alex for her child," Steve responded.

"She's pregnant. Congratulations, Tony, you're going to be a grandpa," Steve sighed as he anticipated the worst from Tony.

"How?" was the only words that came out of Tony's mouth after he heard the news.

"Tony, you're an adult. I'm pretty sure you can figure out how Alex—"

"No. I don't mean that," Tony said with a hint of disgust in his tone.

"I meant how did whoever kidnapped her know that she was pregnant?" Tony questioned.

"I was going to go to Dr. Parker to find out. She was the only other person who knew so I think she may have been compromised."

"Well, let's go find out who compromised her. It's bad enough they put my daughter in danger, but now they want to put my grandchild in danger. I don't think so," Tony stated firmly as he got up and made his way out of his lab.

"Also, don't call me grandpa."

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"So, I see you're awake," boomed Red Skull's voice moments after Alex regained consciousness.

Alex squinted her eyes and attempted to get up from where she was laying only to feel the leather straps pressing against her wrists and ankles constricting her.

"Not so fast. What did you think you were going to pull with your 'not eating' routine? Huh? Did you honestly think you were going to rob me of what I want?"

"Look, you can poke me with needles and fill me with fluids that will keep me sustained all you want, but—"

"You stupid girl," interrupted Red Skull.

"My doctors didn't feed you with needles. They only gave you saline so you wouldn't dehydrate. I made them leave the task of feeding you to me," he said as he pulled out a tube from one of the cabinet draws.

"What are you doing with that?" Alex asked as she watched Red Skull approach her.

"Teaching you a lesson," he responded as he positioned one end of the tube at her nostril and began to slowly insert it up her nose.

Alex began to thrash in terror as an attempt get the tube out of her nose, but it only caused it to go further in more jaggedly.

"Fight it all you want," mocked Red Skull. "You're only making things worse for yourself."

Alex listened to his words as she felt the tube hit the back of her throat making her want to gag. She felt tears beginning to form in her eyes from the pain as the tube continued to go further down her throat.

When Red Skull had finally stopped inserting the tube down her throat, he connected the other end of the tube to a machine and turned the machine on.

Alex watched as a thick white goo moved through her tubes and entered her body via her nose.

"Mahlzeit![1]" Red Skull said eerily before he left Alex alone in the lab.

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Dr. Parker was sitting in her office checking emails when she heard a knock on her door.

"The door's open," she said as two men entered her office.

"Mr. Rogers, I wasn't expecting to see y—"

"Who did you tell?" Steve interrupted getting straight to the point.

"Tell who what?" Dr. Parker asked trying to sound innocent.

"Don't try to act innocent, doctor. Alex is missing and the reason why is because whoever took her wants to do something to our child. You were the only one person who knew so who did you tell?"

Dr. Parker remained silent, refusing to answer.

"Dr. Parker, you have to tell us so we can find her," Tony stated.

"I'm sorry. I can't help you," Dr. Parker said apologetically. "I don't know."

"How could you not know?" Steve demanded as he slammed his fist against her desk.

"They called my phone and asked me to give them all the information I had on Ms. Allweather. I didn't know they were going to kidnap her," Dr. Parker admitted.

"What did you think they were going to do with her?" Steve asked in a spiteful voice.

"Look, I'm sorry. I had no other choice. They were going to hurt my son."

"How long ago did this happen?" Tony asked.

"It happened the day that Ms. Allweather came in for her test results."

"Give me your phone," Tony requested.

"Okay, but why?" Dr. Parker asked as she handed her cell phone to Tony.

"I think I might be able to trace the source of the call."

"But that call was over two months ago."

"It's worth a shot and I'm going to take it," replied Tony with determination.

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"Breakfast time," called the guard as she opened Alex's cell.

"Thanks," Alex said apathetically as she watched the guard place the tray on the floor as usual. Alex noticed that instead of having a plate of food on the tray, there was a Styrofoam container instead and raised her eyebrow in suspicion.

"What's with the Styrofoam? Is it my new source of nutrients now?" Alex asked sarcastically.

"Open the container you idiot," the guard replied.

Alex did as she was told and opened the container to reveal a plain cheeseburger. Her mouth watered at the sight of it, but immediately closed the container and pushed the tray away.

"Okay, what kind of sick joke is this? You force me to eat through a tube for a week and then you try to give me real food."

"It's not a joke. It's what you want. I overheard you mumbling 'I want a cheeseburger' when you were given the saline treatment so I thought I would get you one," the guard said trying to sound apathetic.

"Why would you do that?"

"I felt sorry for you. Happy?" the guard scoffed.

"Why would you feel sorry for me?" Alex questioned as she picked up the container and opened it. "I'm your prisoner."

"Yes, but your also five months pregnant and I'm the only one here that actually knows what that's like, so I have to look out for you," the guard admitted.

"Does that mean you're going to help me bust out of here?" Alex mumbled as she took a bit of her burger.

"Nice try," the guard scoffed. "But you're going to be here for a while, so get comfortable."

"That's what you think. Any day now, my fiancé is going to find me and when that happens, I suggest you run."

"Thanks for the warning," the guard said as she began to exit Alex's cell.

"Hey, wait," Alex called out. "What's your name"?

"It's Annabelle."

"Well, thanks for the burger, Annabelle."

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"Dammit," Tony muttered under his breath. "This can't be happening."

"What is it, Tony?" Steve asked.

"I'm done," Tony responded. "The number I got from tracing the doctor's call gave me came from a disposable phone. There's no information that goes with it."

"Well, maybe you missed something. It's not possible that the number doesn't at least give you a name of some sort—even if it's an alias."

"That's the thing about disposable phones, you can't find out who bought it or even where they bought it. Hell, it was a miracle I even got a number from it. That number hasn't been active for weeks." Tony sighed in frustration. "We're back to square one.

Dun dun dun~