Red Hand Annie

Trouble

Setting: Macabre Diner a few days after last chapter...

(Williams p.o.v.)

I left Avengers tower fuming; I went for a walk and when I got back they said that Annie had left already, so I went back to the diner...but she wasn't there. I figured she went on a walk to think, so I just waited...and waited...and waited, but she never came back. I'm starting to get worried, where would she have gone? I start looking around the apartment for anything; any form of clue as to where or why she would go and vanish. It isn't till I am in the bedroom, that I find the necklace I gave her as kids laying on top of one of her sketchbooks on the nightstand. Why the hell did she take it off! She never takes it off; she always has it on.

I feel worry come over me...where did she go?! Clutching the necklace in my right hand, I pick up the sketchbook and soon realize it's her private one-the one she never shows to anyone-I shouldn't look at it, but...what if can tell me something about where she went? What if it can help find her? Knowing full well that I'll probably regret it later,I take the chance and open it. In the first three pages, I find sketches of Steve...I'm fully aware that she had a crush on him a one point. I look over the rest of the sketches-the book is about half way filled-aside from the three sketches of Steve; all the rest of these sketches, are of...of Winter. She's been drawling Winter...all this time...I think back to all the times Steve stopped in and would tell her about Winter...her eyes always turned red when she heard about him...oh shit! This isn't good...

I close the sketchbook with my new found realization and some general idea of where she went, I pocket the necklace and hurry back to Avengers Tower; the old man's gonna wanna see this. I reach the tower; I find Pepper just sitting in the living room, starring at the broken window. Tony's in the kitchen-watching and rewatching the holographic video of the break in. I look between the two...I see now where Annie gets her depression from, I see a number of empty alcohol bottles...did he drink all those or dump them down the drain? I slowly approach Tony and turn of the Stark pad from the camera footage...

"I should've been up here," Tony mutters to me in a whisper

"There's no way you could've predicted this old man," I say in a low voice

"I still should've been up here; he asked me to watch tv with him, and I chose to work in the lab instead," he says with a sigh

"Hm,"I clear my throats as I put the sketchbook on counter

"Whatcha got there?" He asks as he dumps another bottle of alcohol down the drain instead of drinking it, "what're you doing with your sister's private sketchbook?"

"You need to see this," I whisper as I pull her necklace out of my pocket

"She's gone?!" He freaks out after glancing at the necklace while halfway done with the emptying the bottle

"Look at this," I say as I put the necklace down on the counter and opening the sketchbook

He stares at the first page sketch of Cap until the bottle is completely empty, he puts the bottle down on the counter with the other empty bottles and picks up the book. Holding the book in one hand, he flips through the book with the other; he goes slowly at first, but then he goes faster, and faster till he reaches the final picture in the center of the sketchbook. He stares at the final sketch for a few minutes, and then goes through the book again from pictures of Cap, to the final picture in the center of the book. He continues to stare at the final sketch and I can see the disbelief in his face...I know how he feels about Winter. He slams the book closed, throws it on the counter with a slapping sound, and I can see the anger boiling in him as he looks to me...

"Why the hell are there sketches of Capsicale in my Annie's private sketchbook?" He growls

"He saved her life," I say, "she had a crush on him once and she admires him."