Where Is She? (Steve Rogers x Reader)

Chapter 2 - Retracing the Steps

"If we're going to track them down, you're going to need to tell me as much as you can remember," Maria Hill said to Steve, holding his shoulders and looking him square in the face. Steve stared, blankly. His mind was jumbled tonight, this mission was hitting too close to home.

"Okay," Steve finally said. His voice was barely audible. He was still dressed in a tuxedo, sitting at Stark Tower now.

Maria sat back down in her chair and got a pen ready to take some notes. It was a way for her to feel like she was doing something to help find (Y/N). Though she was (Y/N)'s boss, she considered her a friend and this was all deeply upsetting to her.

Steve began to recount details from the evening. "I picked her up in the limo at her apartment just after 7. The limo driver drove us to the front door and we went inside, we went to the bar and got a couple of drinks."

"Anyone paying too much attention to either of them? - or to you?" Maria asked.

Steve sighed, his eyes started to sting. Guilt crept up the back of his throat like it was going to choke him. He shook his head, not wanting to speak. "I did have a crowd around me... it was hard to keep track of (Y/N). I tried to get away but... I just wanted to spend time with her but I couldn't seem to break away." Steve gulped, choking back hot tears. "But Natasha had introduced her to Pepper and they were all talking, so... that made me feel like she was at least having a good time."

"Steve, you can't blame yourself for this. You didn't want this in any way," Maria said.

"She just wanted to dance with me..." he said, holding his emotions back as much as he could.

"Steve..." she said, putting her hand on top of his. "We'll find her. We'll find both of them."

He sniffed lightly, though he showed no tears. "We have to."

"What else happened?" she asked.

"When the emcee started talking, we found our table... sat with Pepper and Tony, Natasha and Sam. That was the longest I was really with her. They served dinner, nothing was strange. When dinner was over..." he looked up for a moment, "Pepper and (Y/N) went to the ladies room before the dancing started." He took a second to compose himself. "The rest of us were talking at the bar and... and we didn't notice that they'd been gone for a while..."

"How much time? - In your estimation?" Maria asked.

"I don't know," he said, more to himself than to her. "Maybe... twenty minutes or so until I noticed - but, I thought maybe they were talking with someone and just hadn't come back yet. I feel like it was a couple minutes later when Tony brought it up, he was already in a hurry to leave and was looking for Pepper to come back. I looked around the room for (Y/N), thought maybe she'd be on her way back from the ladies room or something.... When I didn't find her, I asked Nat to go in and check... see if maybe something was wrong, maybe one of them had gotten sick. It was right around that time that we heard a commotion... a crowd was gathering and that's when I knew..."

Steve got up out of his chair and walked to the window, looking out over the city lights. "People were talking about a giant hole in the bathroom. That's when I saw Nat pushing back through the crowd to come towards Tony and me. She quietly told us that the bathroom had been demolished, there was a giant hole in the ceiling. She hadn't found the ladies but she'd found their purses and she'd searched in all the spots nearby. Without saying anything... we didn't want to start a panic, we started looking through the building."

Tony walked in the room just then, his face was stern, he was angry. He walked towards Maria and sat down on a couch, leaning onto his knees with his elbows, his hands clasped together. Steve turned to watch, then he walked over to join them. "Tony, did you find anything?" he asked.

Tony shook his head angrily. "No trail... NO trail whatsoever. There's no security footage from that building or any of the buildings nearby... I don't know who did this, but they covered their trail pretty well."

Steve sat back, slumping onto the couch, rubbing his eyes with his palms, before standing up and telling them, "I need a break." Maria nodded at him and Steve left the room, headed back to his quarters.

I couldn't even keep her safe... how did I NOT keep her safe? She didn't ask for this.

Steve's eyes watched his feet as he walked the hallway. The muscles in his back were tense and burning. Walking into his bedroom, he took the tuxedo jacket off and laid it on the bed. He was working on removing his cufflinks when he looked at his dresser and saw the photo of (Y/N). Picking up the frame, he only looked at (Y/N) for a second before his head fell back and his eyes squeezed closed tightly. A stinging sigh escaped his lips and he pressed the frame to his chest.

He thought about earlier in the evening when he'd picked her up, his stomach doing flips as he walked from the limo to her apartment door. She'd looked like an angel when she opened her apartment door, wearing a blue ball gown. Her hair was done in an up do, her makeup a little extra tonight and sparkly earrings hanging down to frame her face, the light they picked up complimenting her eyes. Seeing her standing there smiling at him made him calmer and more nervous instantly. He thought about how she'd reached out to grab the sides of his face, making a fuss over how handsome he looked in his tuxedo. Somehow seeing him had made her light up like a Christmas tree. He knew (Y/N) was special before tonight but something about that moment made him realize he couldn't live without her now if he tried. He was in love with her.

He just hadn't gotten the chance to tell her.

Her three story walkup apartment was no match for (Y/N)'s full ballgown. Steve walked in front of her down the stairs, stepping slowly and keeping an eye on her.. She was holding the railing in one hand and bunches of fabric in the other. Suddenly, her eyes widened as her toes caught in the front of the fabric, causing her to fall forward. Steve lunged to catch her in his arms as she breathed hard. "I gotcha," he smiled. He was more than happy to catch his girl and she was relieved she wasn't splayed on the stairs in front of the man she most wanted to impress.

Regret filled him again as he stepped into his shower. He was hoping a hot shower would help calm him. Since there was no lead on where Pepper and (Y/N) had been taken, there was nothing he could do. He found himself standing in the shower, staring blankly ahead. He didn't know how long he'd been like that.

(Y/N), I don't know where you are but you have to hang on. I can't lose you. I can't.