This had to be the most awkward lunch on earth.
Alba chewed on her sandwich dryly, having lost her appetite the minute she sat at the table across from her mother.
Steve sat next to her, silently eating his food and keeping his head down, pretending the uncomfortable silence in the room wasn't his fault. Alba reached under the table and gave his hand a hand a supportive squeeze.
She glanced across the table and froze the moment her eyes fell on her mother, who had given up eating and was staring at Steve suspiciously, as if he would burst into flames the moment she stopped looking.
Alba felt a wave of pity for Steve as glanced up and froze, staring at Marlena like a deer in the headlights. Her mom and sister had barely kept it together after being introduced, and now her mom was staring at him like he was the devil in the flesh.
This wouldn't do.
"Mom? Can I talk to you, upstairs?" Marlena blinked slowly, giving her daughter a hesitant look before nodding and slowly ambling up the stairs.
Alba waited until the door to her bedroom was closed before whirling around on her mom.
"Could you possibly be any worse?"
"What are you talking about?"
"I'm talking about the fact that you're staring at Steve like he's going to burst into flames any second!" Marlena raised her hands defensively.
"Well he's the one with fire coming out of his feet!"
Alba's brows furrowed. "What are you talking about?"
"The red one. The one that flies everywhere. That's him, right?"
She sat on the bed beside her mom defeatedly, quietly groaning and throwing her arms over her face. "That's Iron Man, mami. Tony Stark."
Marlena looked at her daughter curiously. "So which one is he?"
"He's Captain America." Alba explained patiently, taking a deep breath as her mom looked more and more confused by the second.
"Which one is that one?"
"The one with the shield, mom."
The light went on in her mother's eyes. "Oh. That's the one that's really old, right?" Alba laughed weakly.
"Yes. But don't tell him that. Could you please be nicer to him?"
Her mom gave her a guilty look. "I'm sorry. It's just that everything is changing so fast—you're having a baby. You're really pregnant."
Alba rested a hand on her stomach fondly. "Is it so bad?" Her mother hesitated before answering.
"Of course it's a good thing. It's just…you've always been my little girl, my wallflower. And now you're going to have a family of your own. You're going to be a wonderful mother, Alba." She swiped at her eyes inconspicuously, trying to dry the tears that had suddenly welled up.
"You know…if your father was alive, he would have been happy." Alba sat up straight and met her mother's watery gaze.
"He hated Marcus. Always said he was too stuffy and fake." The two women shared a smile until a soft knock interrupted them. A second later, Meredith poked her head in the room and glanced between the two of them with furrowed brows.
"You two made up yet? Steve got a phone call. He's driving to the city but he wanted to tell you goodbye in person before leaving." Alba thanked her older sister and went after Steve, finding him pacing by the bottom of the stairs.
Alba couldn't help grinning at the nervous expression on his face. "Tony called, didn't he?"
Steve's shoulders relaxed. "At least he didn't sneak into the house unannounced."
Alba laughed as she imagined her mother beating Tony Stark over the head with her frying pan.
"I'm sorry I can't stay longer."
"Don't be," Alba assured him. "My family is best dealt with in small doses. Would you mind giving me a ride home?"
Steve gave her a surprised glance. "You don't want to stay here until tomorrow?"
"I've had enough lectures for the next few weeks. Besides, I need to run over some work stuff at home. Mom's friend asked me to look into her son's arrest. Something about inconclusive evidence or something."
Steve nodded, satisfied, and helped Alba load up her stuff in his truck. Alba bid her mom and sister a hasty goodbye, promising to send them pictures of every ultrasound and baby related symptom, and go give them a call for Thanksgiving.
The commute into the city went by in a blur. Before Alba realized, she stepped down from the truck onto solid concrete. She looked around the cool garage slowly, stopping short when she spotted the neat little line of supercars near the entrance.
"Jesus…how many Avengers are there, exactly?" Steve followed her gaze and grinned.
"Six of them are Tony's." Well, that made perfect sense.
Steve guided Alba to his floor, promising that whatever Stark needed him for would not take too long. The large, spotless apartment looked more like a penthouse that an apartment, covered in floor-to-ceiling windows with breathtaking views of the New York skyline. Alba lingered by the window, too amazed to resist the view of Manhattan. The setting sun lit the skyline on fire, a burnished orange that glowed from all angles. If she looked carefully, she could probably spot her law firm.
Both heads swiveled towards the door when a loud, insistent knock filtered into the room. The person on the other side of the door refused to wait, instead settling for tapping away on the door relentlessly.
Steve sighed and looked at the ceiling, steeling himself before welcoming their latest guest.
Tony wasted to time strolling into the room. He glanced at the couple, eyes narrowed, barely reigning in his impatience.
"I said I needed you upstairs ASAP."
"We only just got here."
Stark tutted and waved his friend over to the door. "C'mon. Everyone is waiting. By the way," He mentioned, pointing at Alba. "I need her, too."
Alba couldn't resist looking over curiously, noticing the way Steve stepped in front of her protectively, as if he could shield her from whatever harebrained plan his friend had in mind.
"Whatever you think you need her for, forget it. We are not going to drag her into any of our messes."
"Relax, old man. It's not like I'm going to drag her out into the field. We could use the legal council. Besides, who better than lawyer lady to keep our dirty secrets? She's family now. Not like she can tell on us."
Steve pursed his lips and refused to meet Tony's eyes. He had a uneasy feeling about bringing Alba into his profession, about all the dangers that could suddenly find her and their baby. But ultimately, it wasn't his choice. He knew her well enough to realize that trying to handle her would only end in disaster. For him, anyway.
So with a hefty sigh, he turned to face his girl and raised a brow questioningly.
Alba's eyes shimmered with their usual good humor, and Steve sensed he had made the right choice.
"I don't mind helping. In the interest of full disclosure though, you should know I specialize in criminal law. You could probably used an experienced international law attorney."
Tony cocked his head for a moment before shrugging. "A lawyer is a lawyer, right? Come on."
Alba hadn't thought about how nerve-wrecking it would be to stand in front of a table full of avengers until two minutes later, when her legs suddenly seized up as four pairs of eyes flitted towards her.
She spotted the Falcon sitting off to the left, accompanied by no other than the Black Widow. On the right were the 'new' Avengers. She didn't quite remember the names of the young brunette sitting next to the red…thing. Alien. Android?
Alba trailed Steve meekly and sat at his side, trying to contain her anxious fidgeting in a way that wouldn't draw attention to herself.
The control room she sat in was surrounded by a myriad of screens. Some contained maps, other ran a series of codes, and others ran a slideshows of potential targets. Tony ambled to the head of the table and raised his hands ceremoniously, not blinking an eye when all of the lights in the room dimmed. He immediately jumped into what could only be described as a debriefing, talking about a missing person who had been taken from the American embassy in Paris.
It all sounded very interesting, except Alba had no context so she understood very little of what was being discussed. Steve sat opposite Tony, occasionally asking clarification and glancing at all the screens in front of him, forming a plan of action in his head.
"Alright. This is going to have to be a covert mission. No one can know we're involved until we're well out of the situation. We do all investigation off-site, once we have a location on the target its a simple extraction and we're on our way. Sam and Nat will go out in the field, we'll stay behind and give them intel." The two nodded and began getting ready to leave the room, chairs scraping back against polished floors.
"What about me?" Tony asked, glancing at his nails nonchalantly.
"What about you?"
"I should be in the mission."
Steve gave Tony an amused look. "You will be. Off-site." Tony gave him a surly look. "I said covert, Tony. Last time I checked Iron Man flying around the Eiffel Tower is most definitely not covert."
Tony ran a hand though his hair and sighed, settling his gaze on Alba's apprehensive one. "Back me up here, Lawyer lady."
Alba choked back on a laugh. "This is what you called me here for? He's right, Tony. From a legal perspective, the least attention incurred the better. More attention means more proof that can be dredged up in court." The group immediately fell into a squabble, torn between letting Tony have his way or running the operation covertly. Alba rose to her feet and slipped out in the commotion, leaving the heated conference room and strolling into the quiet lounge area outside.
She poured herself a steaming cup of tea and made herself comfortable, knowing it would be a while before they came to any sort of agreement. She started replying to e-mails to pass the time, stopping short when she spotted a pair of boots in front of her.
"Hi—did you want to sit?" Alba made room on the modern leather sofa for the young brunette standing before her. The seat beside her dipped as the young woman sat down carefully.
"Have they finally finished, then?"
"No. I left because it is too loud. Can't hear myself think around them sometimes."
"Are they always like that?"
Wanda tilted her head thoughtfully before answering. "Only when Tony is here."
Alba grinned and continued to answer her e-mails, enjoying the comfortable silence the woman next to her provided. The past two days with her loud family had felt like an eternity. Her productive spell was suddenly broken when her phone began ringing vibrating with an incoming phone call. She quickly accepted the call when she realized it was her assistant.
"Hi, Agnes."
"Hello, Miss Herrera. Thank goodness you answered, I was afraid I wouldn't be able to reach you." Alba's brows furrowed as she wondered about all the things that could have gone wrong at the firm during the couple of days she'd been out. She could hear the bustle of afternoon Manhattan faintly on the other end of the line.
"What's up?"
"I'm calling because a courier just came by to drop off documents for the Jenkins trial, but he's scheduled to come in tomorrow morning. You'll need them if you're going to get any good work done."
Alba sighed. Nothing major. "Thank you so much for calling me, Agnes. You must be leaving the office now, right? Can I meet you at the Starbucks across the street? I can get there in ten."
"Of course, Miss Herrera. I'll see you there." She ended the call and glanced at Wanda, who was engrossed in all the colors of the sunset.
"Could I ask you for a favor?" The brunette turned to look at her curiously. "I have to run to work for a second. If Steve wraps up before I get back, just let him know I'll be back soon, okay? I'm gonna be somewhere over there…" She pointed out over the sweeping views of Manhattan in the general direction of the Upper East Side.
Wanda cracked a small grin and nodded. "I will tell him."
Alba jumped to her feet and was on the elevator before finishing the phone call, jamming the lobby button until the elevator doors closed and started sliding down smoothly.
She hopped on the first available taxi she could hail, ignoring the way the autumn afternoon chill nipped at her cheeks. After hastily directing the older man sitting behind the steering wheel, she made herself comfortable in the word leather seat for the ride.
There was something calming about taxi rides. For Alba, the fact that she was able to sit and look out a window without being expected to do anything was relaxing on its own. Adding on the exciting bustle of New York City unfurling before her eyes only made it better.
Agnes was waiting outside the coffee shop when Alba finally got there, five minutes too late.
"So sorry I'm late. There's some sort of construction on fifty-third."
Her assistant waved her off and placed a thick cardboard envelope in her hands. Alba took the heavy package and turned it over, noting the note with her name and time stamp on the front.
"Here—I got you some tea. It's too cold not to drink something hot." Her assistant was right, of course. The cold wind whipped at their faces, unrelenting and chilling to the bone. It didn't matter that they were surrounded by hundreds of people rushing home after a long day at work.
They drank their tea across the street from the firm as the last of the evening workers trailed out of the building. Alba soaked in the sights and sounds of lively Manhattan, where she was surrounded by chaos and yet felt perfectly in place.
Her phone pinged with an incoming message. She reached for it blindly, expecting a confused text from Steve. Instead she found a voicemail that'd been forwarded from her office.
Huh. It must be important if its showing up after-hours.
Alba put the cool metal of the phone to her ear, pressing her hand over her other ear in hopes of dampening the sounds of the throngs around her.
"You don't know who I am…you ruined my life. And you're gonna pay, little lawyer. You think you can keep me away from Jo? From my woman?" Alba felt a chill run up her spine. "She will never escape me. Too bad you'll never be able to see it."
The sudden peace of their afternoon was shattered by a thunderous boom overhead. An invisible force pushed Alba sideways, stealing her breath as she collided with a length of scaffolding. Her head smacked into the long piece of metal, an explosion of pain forming on her temple.
It took her a long, dazed moment for her to gather her surroundings and pull herself out of the crush of people stampeding away from the explosion. Pieces of broken glass, metal, and plaster rained down onto the screaming mass on the street. People ran in all directions, some screaming, others barely keeping their composure. Alba knew she should leave. Find someplace safe. But her feet were glued to the ground and her fingers would not release the frozen piece of scaffolding she was clinging to well after the first responders arrived at the scene.
"Did you see anyone suspicious at the scene?"
"No, officer. I've answered this question three times." Alba explained impatiently, wishing the persistent cop would finally leave. She was sitting in the triage of the nearest hospital, head throbbing from the fall she took during the explosion. She ended up with two small stitches on her temple, and until the painkillers kicked in, a massive headache.
"Alright, alright." The man grumbled, tucking away a small notepad into his pocket. "I just want to make sure I have all pertinent details. I'll contact you if I have any more questions." Alba tried to afford a friendly smile at the officer as he left her room, leaving her with nothing more than the resounding heartbeat of her baby.
After learning she was pregnant, the emergency doctor on call decided to place Peanut under observation for two hours before he discharged her. Not going to disagree with that. Alba shifted uncomfortably in the small, stiff hospital bed. No matter how hard she tried to rest like the nurse told her to, the thick monitoring bands wound around her stomach stopped that form happening.
Alba reached for the clunky remote and flipped through the channels, wondering when she would be able to get her hands on a phone to call Steve. Her own phone was sitting in her bloodied purse, shattered beyond recognition. It was not coming back to life.
"This was clearly a terrorist attack!" Alba stopped flipping and skimmed the headlines. EXPLOSION IN UPPER EAST SIDE.
Jesus. What a mess. Her head started throbbing violently as she remembered the cryptic voicemail she listened to before the explosion. She was sure that Gonzales was behind this. But how would she even prove it? The man was already in prison. He had nothing left to lose.
He was trying to kill her. What would he do when he realized he failed? Attack her house? Kidnap her like he kidnapped Joanna's family? Alba shivered and wrapped the rough hospital blanket over her shoulder for comfort.
"—Sir, I'm sorry, but you are not allowed to be here!" She sat up straighter at the commotion outside the door. Had he come to finish the job already?
"My girlfriend is in there. Alba? Alba!" Alba tried to scramble to her feet, fighting the mass of cables hooked on to her stomach.
"Steve? In here!" He appeared a moment later, head swiveling wildly as he searched her out. His relief was palpable as he crossed the small room in two steps and gently inspected her.
"You're okay?" She nodded, hiding her face in the supple leather of his favorite jacket.
"Thank goodness." He glanced down at the contraption strapped across her stomach and gave her a nervous look.
"Is something wrong with the baby?"
"It's just a precaution. So far the we're doing fine."
The nurse chose that moment to storm through the door and give Steve a hard look. "Sir, you are not supposed to be here—" Alba leaned around Steve to meet the nurse's eyes.
"He's with me. We're waiting for news on the baby." The nursed glanced down at the monitors strapped to her stomach and then glanced at Steve's tense face, deciding at the last second to back off.
"Fine. But the other one stays outside." She marched through the door as Alba gave Steve a confused look.
"The 'other one'?"
"Tony. He helped me track you down after the explosion." Of course he did.
Steve pulled a chair and sat beside Alba and gave her a blank look. "What happened?"
She hugged herself, unsure on how to answer. What the hell had happened? One minute she was standing on the street warming up with a steaming cup of tea, the next she was laying on the ground with shrieking people all around her.
She glanced over at Steve when he reached over to give her a hand a gentle squeeze. The addictive heat of his skin brought her back to the moment. "I went to the Starbucks next to the firm to pick up some documents from my assistant. Next thing I know, I get a strange phone call. Then there's a huge explosion."
Steve leaned forward slowly. "You think the phone call had something to do with the explosion?"
"It sounds crazy to say this, but yes. The man who called is someone I put in prison weeks ago. He was promising revenge. Seconds later the law firm blows up. It isn't a coincidence." Alba's head started throbbing again. "He wanted to kill me. What if he goes after my house next, Steve?"
"You're staying with me until we figure this out, okay? Try to get some rest." Alba nodded and closed her eyes. Now that Steve was here to look over her, the warm blanket of sleep claimed her easily.
Hey guys! It's been two weeks since the last upload! So sorry about that. Holidays and family stuff has kind of taken up most of my time. I've tried to change up my writing style a little bit, let me know what you guys think!
Let me know what you guys think of that explosion!