Jane felt her like her heart could break as she watched Steve walk away. She moved to go after him.
"Li Liweyo!" Okoye grabbed her arm with an angry look.
She turned to Henrik. "Please take me home."
"Just let me finish my drink." He replied.
Steve pulled off his tie and undid the top button of his shirt as he hung his jacket over the back of a dining table chair. He walked over to the couch and sat down. When he closed his eyes all he could see was her, in that golden dress, and those eyes.
"Steve?" came Nat's voice as she let herself in.
"Not now." He sighed. She ignored him, walking over to the couch and sitting down next to him.
A silence stretched on for a couple of seconds before she spoke.
"Why don't you just tell her how you feel?"
"It's not that simple," replied Steve.
"I think it is," she argued.
"What do you think's gonna happen when I tell her I have feelings for her? We don't know if she's ever been in a situation like this or if she knows what this is. It's not right."
Nat shot back, "give the girl some credit, we've all seen the way she looks at you."
Steve looked at her.
"You've not been imagining it," she answered his unspoken question, "you've been denying it, as you do."
He clenched his jaw at her. She wasn't wrong. He was, after all, the world's leading authority on waiting too long.
She could see she wasn't making enough headway.
"Think about it like this." She began. "She doesn't know the dating game of the twenty-first century."
"She doesn't know any dating game." Retorted Steve.
"That's beside the point." She shot back.
"Here is a girl who clearly likes you, who isn't going to expect anything of you. She's not going to expect you to put out on the third date for example." Nat cracked a grin.
Steve sent her a disapproving look.
"You get to take this as fast or as slow as the situation truly unfolds. No expectations, no preconceived ideas, no rule book. How many people get to have that?"
Steve looked at his shoes. Nat couldn't have any other reason other than wanting to see him happy to keep pushing it. That, and/or she had a bet with Sam.
"You really believe she feels the same way about me?" He asked her, his voice low.
"You know, for someone who has such amazing instincts in battle, you can be pretty obtuse." She teased him.
His lips pursed into a grin as he raised his eyebrows and nodded his head slightly to the right, she wasn't wrong.
Hendrik finished his drink and then two more after that. It took him a little over two hours. Jane had left him with his friends and joined Shuri and Okoye.
She was sitting with her back to the room when Hendrik touched her shoulder. "Come on, let's take you home."
She jumped up, relieved. "Enkosi kulungileyo!" [Thank goodness!] she breathed to herself.
Okoye stifled a chuckle.
He drove her home on a more direct route and parked on the curb in front of the building. It was past midnight and the street was deserted. She stepped out of the car and shot a "thank you" and a "goodnight" over her shoulder, but Hendrik rushed to her side and grabbed her wrist as she quickly began making her way to the entrance. She was dying to get to Steve.
"What are your plans for the rest of the evening?" he smiled, pulling her around to face him. She recoiled slightly at his tone, jerking her wrist out of his hand.
"I am going to take Dog out and then I'm going to sleep." She replied indignantly.
"Ah," he said. "Well, why don't you go up and get Dog and I'll wait for you down here. I'll say goodnight after." He said, raising his hands in apology. "It's late and I want to make sure you're safe."
A little baffled and frustrated, she made her way up to her apartment and called Dog, clipping on his leash as she turned to leave, Steve's undoubted presence in his apartment burning a hole in her heart.
"Please be quick tonight." She pleaded with Dog as they made their way down in the elevator.
Steve heard her coming up. In the hours it took for her to get back, he'd resolved to tell her how he felt. He knew that tonight may not be the best time, but he'd already left it too long. He ran his hand through his hair as he paced the lounge, deciding to wait until she came back up. He didn't want any interruptions.
Downstairs, Jane and Dog met Hendrik again. She stood, silently watching Dog as he sniffed around. A sudden gust of wind brought a chill over her and she clasped her arms around her waist to try and retain some warmth.
"Here," said Hendrik, handing her his jacket and taking Dog's leash from her so she could throw it over her shoulders.
The sound of screeching tyres in the distance made her look down the street and as she did, Hendrik bent down and unclipped Dog's leash. Dog tilted his head, this way and that, listening to something Jane and Hendrik couldn't hear before he leapt into a run down the street.
"Dog!" yelled Jane. She looked angrily over her shoulder at Hendrik as she pulled off her shoes. "I'm sorry," he whispered as she ran down the street after him.
"Dog, come back!" She yelled a block down. He'd turned onto a darker street and she slowed to a walk, straining to find him in the dark.
In the eerie silence, she heard footsteps behind her and instinctively blocked an arm coming in her direction, someone was trying to stab her with something. She fought her attacker for a few seconds before she realised there was more than one person attacking her. She could do nothing as many hands forced her to the ground and restrained her, a rag was stuffed in her mouth, followed by a sharp sting in her neck, she struggled for a few seconds and then, with a feeling of falling backwards into cold water, everything went dark.
When she surfaced, she felt that she was moving. She struggled to open her eyes and saw for a fleeting moment that she was inside the back of a van before one of the men sitting around her stuck her with a needle again and she slipped back into unconsciousness.
Steve had waited for her for fifteen minutes when his anxiety at telling her he loved her and worry about her being gone so long won over, and he went to go and check on her. The ride down in the elevator felt disproportionately long as he wiped his damp palms on his suit pants, running through what he was going to say. Once downstairs, he found the street deserted and Jane nowhere in sight. He had an uneasy feeling in his gut as he walked toward something dark lying on the curb. As he came closer, he recognised Dog's leash and picked it up. Realisation hit him like a bucket of ice water.
All his senses exploded to life as adrenaline coursed through his veins. He looked around him, frantically searching for the right direction before he instinctively ran down the street in the same direction she did, but he'd waited too long, she was nowhere in sight.
His heart riddled with angry thorns, he ran back and burst first into Natasha's and then Sam's apartment.
"Gear up! We gotta go, now!" He was on the phone with T'Challa in a few seconds, taking off the rest of his suit and pulling on his combat gear.
"Steve?" Came T'Challa's voice.
"She's gone." He was doing his level best to keep his tone even.
"We can track her, she was wearing her bracelet. I'll send you the coordinates." T'Challa's voice was full of urgency as he ended the call.
Less than a minute later, a blip appeared on a map on Steve's phone. She wasn't far and didn't appear to be moving. He could kick himself, it was around the corner from where he was a few minutes ago.
Without waiting for the others, he made his way down the stairwell, jumping each flight over the railing, moving faster than the elevator could and tore down the street in the direction of the blip on his screen, the anxiety at telling her how he felt a distant memory.
As he rounded a corner onto a dark street, he reached the blip, but there was nothing.
"Jane!" He called. His voice splitting the silence.
His eyes scanned the area and all his hope shattered as he found her broken bracelet on the ground. He bent down and picked it up, his eyes stinging.
Nat and Sam came running around the corner.
"Steve! What's going on?" Sam was out of breath as he came to a standstill.
Steve squeezed his eyes shut, swallowing the lump in his throat. Rage was rising rapidly in his chest.
"She's gone." He said through gritted teeth. "Someone's taken her." He turned and held up the bracelet.
"Oh shit." Sam and Nat said almost at the same time.
He heard something behind him in the dark and spun around. Peering timidly around the corner, his ears flattened against his neck, was Dog.
"Dog!" called Steve, crouching. "Come here boy."
It took him a minute, but he came trotting toward Steve, his head and tail low. He buried his face in Steve's chest.
"It's okay buddy." Said Steve softly, scratching his ears, before pushing himself up.
Dog looked up into his eyes and there was an unspoken agreement between the two of them.
Steve broke into a run past Nat and Sam with Dog next to him and dialled T'Challa again.
"Did you find her?" He answered immediately.
"I found the bracelet. Whoever took her knew to take it off her." He breathed.
"I'll send the Quinjet. Come straight to the palace." T'Challa ended the call before Steve could protest. He didn't want to go to the palace. He needed to find Jane.
Ten minutes later, Steve, Nat, Sam and Dog were on the roof of the building, watching the Quinjet approach. A palpable tension had settled over them. By the time they arrived at the palace, Steve felt like he was losing his mind.
T'Challa was geared up in his Black Panther suit and waiting for them in the throne room with Okoye, Shuri, Nakia and Ayo. Shuri looked like she was going to be sick.
"Who was the last person to see her?" barked Okoye.
Steve shot a look at Shuri. "Hendrik."