"I'll be home in thirty."
"That's what you said thirty minutes ago, Steve."
"Well, I meant it...thirty minutes ago."
"Babe," you sighed, "why do you always act like you're gonna get in trouble?"
He laughed at the other end of the line, "because that's a historically accurate statement."
"All you have to do is just tell me upfront-"
You paused and pulled the phone away from your ear, thinking that you had heard something in your living room. Slowly pulling the blankets of your bed back, you softly stepped to the door and put your ear against it, trying to breathe as quietly as possible. You put the phone back to your mouth and whispered, "that's not you in our living room, is it?"
"What?" Steve asked, his voice already changing to one of concern. You heard him say goodbye to Sam and the quickness of his footsteps even through the receiver. "(Y/N), talk to me, what's going on?"
"Steve, I don't think I'm alone." Another noise came from the other room, only this time louder and closer to you. You jumped back and gasped, looking around the room frantically to figure out where you could hide. "Definitely not alone."
Now you could hear Steve running at full speed with quickened breaths and a sound of urgency in his voice. "Go down the fire escape. You need to get out of there right now."
You rushed to the window and pushed it open, looking down and feeling vertigo and nausea hit you at the sight of the alley six floors down. "Oh, god, Steve. I can't."
"(Y/N), get your ass out that window! If they're looking for me, you're in more danger than you realize." Steve was pushing his body as hard as he could, trying to get his legs to move a little bit faster with every step. No matter how much faster he ran, you felt like you were getting further away. "Go now!"
Closing your eyes, you took a deep breath and put your leg over the windowsill, stretching until your toes touched the metal landing. "Okay," you whispered to yourself, "I can do this." You slowly slid back and were just about to pull your other leg through when the door to your room slammed open and banged against the wall behind it. You startled and let out a loud yelp, jumping back and dropping your phone. Steve's voice diminished to nothing as you watched the phone crash on the hard ground below, realizing how completely alone you now were.
"He's on the way, isn't he?" the stranger growled at you, still standing at the door and staring at you, motionless. When you didn't respond, he took a few steps closer and his voice grew louder and more menacing. "Rogers. He's on the way, isn't he?"
"Yes," you replied with a small voice. "He's almost here."
"Then I had better hurry." The man burst forward and reached for your leg, but you were able to pull it through the window before he could connect. "Slippery little thing, aren't you?" You started down the metal steps but came to a sharp halt when he grabbed your hair and pulled you back up. Your scream echoed through the alley and you knew that Steve would be close enough to hear it.
"Alright, it's time." He slipped a knife from his boot and pulled your head back further, but you had just enough room to thrust your elbow back and startle him into releasing you. You had only made it a few steps again when he pulled you back up and pushed you against the railing, leaning into you with his hand around your throat so that you were bent back over the nothingness below.
"Don't be brave, dear. It's really not going to help."
"She's a hell of a lot braver than you."
You let out a sigh of relief at the sound of Steve's voice, but it was short-lived. Steve reached out to grab the man but was seconds too late; he grabbed your leg and flipped you back over the railing, sending you to the exact fate you were scared of in the first place.
"(Y/N)!" Steve yelled and pushed through the window to grab the assailant, smashing his head into the wall and knocking him out cold with one strike. He rushed to look over the edge, fighting the wave of fear of what he would see. "Oh, thank god."
"Great plan, Steve!" you yelled, barely holding on to a metal bar two floors below, trying to keep your body still so that you wouldn't slip.
"(Y/N), hold on!" You were too far down for him to try to grab you, even if he ran down the metal stairs to the level you were on. He looked for something to grab you with, but quickly gave up the idea and ran out the front door to try to catch you instead.
With every second that passed, you could feel your fingers slipping. "Go down the fire escape, he said..." you mumbled to yourself sarcastically, "I knew I should've hid in the stupid closet." You could hear Steve running towards you, but you couldn't hold on any longer to wait for him to get there. Squeezing your eyes shut tightly, you felt the tips of your fingers graze past the metal bar as you lost your grip and fell towards the ground. All you could do was hope that the injuries wouldn't be as bad as you were imagining they would be.
"I got you!"
You heard his body solidly hit the ground below just before you felt yours land on top of him and his arms immediately wrap around you in a tight grip. "Are you okay?" you gasped, trying to gather your senses from the fall.
"Are you?" he asked urgently, ignoring that you had asked first and pulling you closer to him. After seeing that you were both without any major injury more than a few scrapes from the asphalt, you pushed back and slapped him soundly on the arm.
"You see? This is exactly the kind of thing that happens when you don't come home when you say you will!"