A/N:

Hi all,

I feel I should also mention that 1) the "present day" part of this fic is set in the sort-of-now, basically, post Black Panther and pre-Infinity War; and "10 years ago" part begins roughly a year before CA:TWS.
And 2) with the posting of this chapter, the rating has changed. And there will be some violence, some language, and some adult themes. So just wanted to give everyone a heads up.

Hope you enjoy! :)

A minor sub-note: I just had to render this chapter after it apparently had a seizure while sitting in doc manager for a few hours, so if the formatting and grammar is off, I apologise.

X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X

10 years ago

*ding*

Allie smiled at the sound as she continued brushing her teeth. Despite her previous scepticism about meeting people online, she had to admit: it was kind of fun.

After rinsing her mouth with water she was practically skipping as she headed back to her computer, beaming even harder as she saw the little red flag above the message icon.

She'd always avoided having online accounts, but after months of nagging and peer pressure from her friends, she'd finally caved and signed up for a Facebook account. And now that she had, she found herself regretting not doing it sooner. In just 3 weeks she'd reconnected with a whole bunch of her old school friends, gotten in touch with at least 7 overseas relatives that she hadn't seen in over a decade, and most importantly, met a really nice guy

By a complete twist of fate she'd gotten a message from a stranger 2 weeks ago, and now she was constantly catching herself thinking about how cute their story would sound when retold to their grandkids 40 years down the line. God, she was a loser.

As is turned out, Will (that was her future husband's name) had mistook her for an "Allie Patrick" that he went to grade school with back in Ohio, and the rest was turning out to be history – albeit, a sickeningly sweet one.

"So, any chance I might actually get to meet you for real one of these days ;)"

Her breath caught in her throat. He wanted to meet. An uncharacteristically high pitched noise came out of her mouth and her fingers were dancing across the keyboard before she even had a chance to think about how desperate she was about to look.

The messages continued back and forth for hours with Allie finally admitting defeat at about 1:30am. It didn't matter though. That night, she practically floated to her bed, euphoric with the knowledge that it would be mere hours until they spoke again and mere days until they could meet in person.

X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X

As was to be expected, the rest of the week dragged by like a prison sentence. Under normal circumstances, Allie loved her job but this week was killing her. All she could think about was Saturday and meeting Will for the first time.

The logical part of her, currently trapped in the back of her subconscious, urged her to slow down and not let her heart run away with her but she was beyond help at this point. At 23, she knew that she was far from being an old maid but with the rest of her close friends all loved-up in committed relationships, hell – some of them were even expecting kids! …She couldn't help but yearn for a relationship of her own.

And besides, Will seemed …perfect. He was 25, recently moved to Chicago for work (an architect, no less), eventually wants marriage and kids, likes cooking and the outdoors, loves animals, and to top it all, he also just happened to be drop-dead gorgeous.

She couldn't have found someone more perfect if he'd been dreamt up specifically for her.

X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X

Grabbing her purse, Allie stopped to inspect her appearance in the mirror one last time before leaving for her date. Will had promised her a picnic in the park, so she'd tried her best to keep it simple. Tried and failed, most likely. But as long as Will liked her, she didn't care.

She'd spent an embarrassingly long amount of time transforming her usually straight, brown hair into the "effortlessly wavy" look she now sported. The waves sat neatly around her shoulders, slightly shorter than her usual length, but curls will do that to you.

Sweeping her gaze down the rest of her reflection, she once again questioned whether the yellow capped-sleeve blouse she wore complimented her white and blue patterned skirt and yellow flats.

After a moment more of deliberation, she decided she was happy and hurried out the door; eager to meet the man of her dreams.

X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X

Pulling on the park brake, she glanced at her watch and congratulated herself that it had been almost 2 minutes since she'd last looked at it. That could very well be her record for the whole drive, she noted drily.

Turning off the car, she opened the door and got out. She was 10 minutes early – definitely a desperado; but she wasn't about to let that ruin her day.

The parking garage was dimly-lit and heavy with the smell of exhaust. She'd mentioned to Will multiple times throughout the week that she could just as easily meet him at the park, but he'd insisted that he had a surprise in store and it would be better if he could just pick her up.

A big part of her had almost suggested that he just pick her up from her house but her friends had filled her head with more warnings that she cared to listen to, and so, being the peacemaker she was, told Will she'd just meet him somewhere else.

And so, here she was in a parking garage.

Glancing at her watch again, her stomach did a backflip.

2 minutes.

Opening up her purse, she pulled out her compact and her lip gloss; quickly checking her makeup was still set in place.

1 minutes and 30 seconds.

Putting her hand to her mouth, she exhaled strongly – checking for any signs of bad breath. She popped a mint anyway, just to be safe.

1 minute.

She heard the faint squeal of tires getting closer. Oh god! This was it. She couldn't help the smile that broke out across her face.

30 seconds.

She could hear the car getting closer and made the snap decision to check her hair was still "effortlessly" styled while she was still alone. Turning to face the car window, she quickly used the reflection to adjust her brown waves.

Her watch beeped. 3pm. This was it. It was time.

And as she turned to greet the car she could hear coming up behind her, a blinding pain erupted in her head.

Instantly she tumbled to the ground, not able to convince her arms to break her fall. Her vision was swimming and a ringing sounded in her ears.

She briefly registered another blow of pain in the back of her head and then there was nothing but darkness.