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It turned out this goddamned city didn’t actually have a single good takeout place.

Forget the bleedin’ hole in his chest and the medical leave he was officially on.  The worst thing about staying in this city was the complete lack of good old food, decent meals that actually tasted good and didn’t come buried in a heap of avocado. He’d almost rather stay in hospital.  The food might be bland, but it was tolerable.  None of that exotic mumbo jumbo that every vendor in this city seemed obsessed with.

(He and Stark’s butler have formed some kind of ceasefire solely on commiserating over the crazy stuff people eat here.  Marge finds it hilarious.)

It had occurred to him that his takeout intake could be greatly reduced if he didn’t spend most of the day at the SSR trying to find his own shooter, but hey, sacrifices have to be made sometimes.  It’d almost be worth it if they actually had a lead to go on.  Which, of course, they didn’t.

Whoever it was clearly was a professional, which made him feel slightly better.  At least he could say it wasn’t some dumb thug who nearly killed him and laid him up in hospital for a month.  It also hopefully meant they won’t be back for Round Two, or they would have actually aimed to kill the first time around.  Unfortunately, it also meant they couldn’t even use him as bait to draw the guy out, and he was stuck in this city until they found him because he wasn’t leaving until this case was solved.

He was going to be here a long time.

“You know, if you really thought this place was being handled so badly it needed two chiefs, you might have just said something,” Danny-boy quipped as a couple of agents manoeuvred an extra desk and chair into his office “Almost starting to think you like hanging around us.”

Yup, a real long time.

To probably both their surprises, apart from the expected who’s-in-charge and getting-in-each-other’s-hair things, sharing an office wasn’t much of a problem.  It kind of reminded him of the old days –and how old was he getting, calling a year ago ‘old days’?- when the prefixes to their names were just ‘Agent’ and they tossed barbs across the bullpen from the safety of their desks.  And it still kind of was the same, except now they were both stuck behind a desk instead of out in the field, but hey, it wasn’t so boring when you weren’t alone in it.

“Must be a shame, having to actually work now that I’m here,” he said once during a marathon paperwork session “What did you actually do all day, apart from making puppy eyes at Carter?”

“Well, you usually are a real piece of work to deal with,” Sousa said without missing a beat or looking up from the form he was filling out “Not that you would know a chief’s work if it hit you in the face.”

So that was alright.  It was the same kind of stuff he’d been doing in New York, except without any chance of going on missions, but hey, it wasn’t too terrible when he had someone to grumble aloud to.  Truth be told, New York had been getting kind of boring since Sousa had left and the only person who he could talk smack with was Carter, and then she’d upped and gone as well.  The office had become so mundane after that, all ‘Yes Chief’ and ‘No Chief’ and ‘Right away, Chief,’ that coming to L.A. was almost a relief.  He didn’t like being stuck here, but at least things were interesting.

“You know Daniel, if I didn’t know any better, I’d say Chief Thompson was growing fond of us,” Carter said after he made some noncommittal answer to the War Office’s inquiry about the length of his recovery “Either that, or California is agreeing immensely with him.”

“The weather is a lot warmer here,” Sousa said in mock thoughtfulness “What do you say, Jack?  Do I have to watch out for my job, or are we doing a swap?  You get L.A., I’m back to New York?”

“Marge is still due back there after we solve the case, so I don’t think you’d object too much.” he said, watching their blushes smugly “What’s the matter, cat got your tongue?  Oh no, wait, that’s Carter.”

Officially, he knew absolutely nothing about any relationship outside the professional between Sousa and Carter.  Unofficially, he’d exceed Krezminski’s level of stupidity if he didn’t notice how they stood together just a little too closely, hands lingering over casual touches that weren’t really casual at all, giving each other little covert glances probably full of a hundred lovey-dovey messages.  If they didn’t do it so often, he’d even say they were kinda cute.

“Is that jealousy I detect there, Chief Thompson?” she said, the slight gleam in her eye ruining the whole innocent look she was trying to pull off “I don’t blame you, I myself am quite partial to Daniel’s tongue.”

Sousa turned bright red and he felt his own cheeks heat up.

“And to think you’re my best agent,” he said, a bit louder than he intended “I’d hate to see what the rest of them are like if this is all you can come up with.”

And before she could deliver what was no doubt a clever and devastating response, he spun around on his heel and left the office magnanimously, smug for having gotten the last word.  He almost made it to the front door too before the bullet hole in his chest started complaining at the exercise.

“Hey Chief,” Rose said cheerfully from behind the front desk “Heading out?”

“Well-“ he said eloquently, then grimaced as the pain flared up again- “Ow.”

 Rose looked at him sympathetically.

“Why don’t you have a sit down?” she said, gesturing to the chair in front of her desk “You’d be doing me a favour: so many audition hopefuls come marching in through the door –don’t ask me where they come from or how they find us- but they’ll probably think twice if they see I’m busy.”

The idea that he was sufficient to deter some bright eyed young thing with mad ambitions of being a Hollywood star wasn’t likely, but he recognized the offer for what it was and tried not to sit down too quickly.

“Thanks Rose,” he said before a voice in his head that sounded like Carter reminded him that she wasn’t really a secretary “Agent Roberts.”

Rose positively beamed at him.

“No problem, Chief.” she said, and digging around in her desk, drew out a tin of cookies “Oatmeal and raisin cookie?  They’re my mother’s special recipe.  She swears they‘re the perfect cure for anything.”

“I’ll take all the cure I can get,” he said, taking a cookie and biting into it.  Delicious.  “Do you get a lot of crazy auditions?”

“Most of them are just eager young things,” Rose said, taking a cookie for herself “Every so often though, there’s the occasional nutjob.  Let me see, the first one we got after the office opened was a man who said he was an expert knife thrower and decided to give a demonstration.  He did a nasty job on the new paintwork, I can tell you that.”

She tsk-tsked disapprovingly and Jack wondered just what kind of person she was to be more concerned about a few scratches on the wall than a crazy guy with knife.

“What happened to him?” he asked.  Rose’s smile was just about the closest you could get to smirking without actually smirking.

“Oh, I convinced the poor man that it was in his best interests to stop while he was ahead,” she said, stretching her arms out in front of her and casually cracking her knuckles.  Damn, he was going to have to speak to Daniel about letting her into the interrogation room.  She could be both stick and carrot in the old routine and probably get a confession inside of ten minutes.  Besides, it’d be a hell of a lot more interesting than sitting around and putting him with the occasional wannabe starlet.

“So tell me, Agent Roberts, what else have you seen from behind the old front desk?” he said, leaning forwards.  Rose lit up and began animatedly recounting a story about a determined one-man band that had insisted on seeing her ‘supervisor’ immediately or else.  Yeah, he definitely had to see about getting her a desk in the actual office.  Anyone who could bake cookies and slam a guy into a window so hard he was knocked out was a valuable asset to the team.

-

“For the record, this is not what I had in mind when I said I could cover a few shifts,”

“Oh come on, Jack, it’s only until we find someone new to take over the position,” Sousa said soothingly “You did say you wanted to help, and it won’t be for too long.  I’m interviewing some new recruits today.  If they pass, we can have them share front desk duty as part of their trial period.”

“I think it’s a great thing you’re doing, Jack,” Carter said, and she sounded sincere “Rose has deserved this for ages.  You should be proud.  You’ve done a good thing.”

“Hey, I just don’t want to see you complaining you don’t have enough manpower when you have perfectly good agent material wasted on the front desk,” Jack said, feeling pleased at Carter’s compliment though he’d never show it “Agent Roberts, by all accounts, looked like she had potential.”

“She is a brilliant agent,” Carter enthused “I have every confidence in her skills.”

“Yeah, yeah, no doubt she’ll exceed all expectations.” Jack tried to prop his feet up casually on the desk but his chest decided it wasn’t a good idea and protested loudly “All I want to know is how picky you are about your recruits and how long it’s gonna take for them to start.”

“There are a few promising ones,” Sousa said “I’m just off to interview them now.”

“Not inviting them here?” Jack said “That’s what Dooley used to do.”

“I want to be sure they’re right for the job before I show them where we are,” Daniel said “No point giving our location to someone who might not get taken on at all.  I’d like to avoid the ‘disgruntled applicant sells us out to the highest bidder’ scenario.”

“Your call.” Jack shrugged “You taking Carter?  She’s got pretty good instincts about people.”

Carter looked at him strangely, looking like she was trying to figure something out, or someone.  What, him?  Like he was any sort of mystery to her.  She always seemed to know exactly what to say or what buttons to push when it came to him.

“I appreciate the thought, but I’ve got a lead to follow up on about your shooter,” she said to him “We’ve possibly identified some dealers that could have provided the bullets and hopefully they’ll remember something.”

“You really think some shady arms dealers are going to remember a few lousy bullets they sold months ago to one guy, and that they’re going to talk you about it?” he said skeptically.

“It’s worth a try,” she said firmly “You never know, something might turn up.”

And L.A. might suddenly have good food, but he wasn’t holding on his breath on that.  Still, she was doing this frankly grunt work for him, so it’d be rude to say it out loud.

“Good luck,” he said instead “Hope you find the bastard.  You too, Sousa.  Have fun with your new recruits.”

“They’re not hired yet,” Sousa said.

“But at least one of them will be before the day is through, right?” Jack said pointedly, spreading his arms wide to display the desk “Or Whitney Frost won’t be the only one in the asylum.”

Sousa and Carter shared exasperated looks and Sousa muttered something that sounded a lot like “Drama queen.” 

“I guess we’d better be off,” Carter said “I’ll see you both later.  Bye Jack, have fun on the front lines.”

“What part of the front lines is ever fun?” he called as she left “We all had enough of that in the war.”

“I’ll say amen to that.” Sousa said, and picked up his briefcase from the floor “See you, Jack.  If you get bored, you can always do some filing.”

“Don’t you and your smart mouth have somewhere to be?” Jack said, shaking his head in mock-disapproval “Time to do some actual chief work, Chief.”

“Said the pot to the kettle,” Sousa said, heading over to the door.  He paused, hand on the doorknob, and turned back to look at him “If the great Jack Thompson can tear himself away from his ‘actual chief work,’ I should be back around four.  Want to call it a day and go for a drink then?”

“Only if you and Carter can tear yourselves apart for more than five minutes,” Jack said, feeling inordinately pleased at the offer.  How long had it been since they’d gone for a drink after work?  It had to have been his last day in New York, which had been with the whole office anyway “You still haven’t shown me the famous Frolic Room I’ve heard so much about.”

“Then I guess that’s our drinking hole tonight,” Sousa said “Ok, I really got to go now.  I’ll meet you back here around four.”

“I’ll try not to be late,” Jack said wryly, and Sousa laughed as he left.

-

“Dammit Sousa,”

Jack checked his watch for the umpteenth time.  5:00, that’s what it said, and here he was, still stuck behind the front desk.  Agent Roberts had been right, this job was about as interesting as watching paint dry.  He almost wished that someone had actually come in to audition; a geriatric tap dancer would have livened things up considerably.  Hell, he had even fantasized about the full force of Leviathan storming through the door with guns blazing.  How had Agent Roberts managed it to do it every day?  She must have a fairy godmother or something who’d given her infinite patience as a baby.

Four o’clock had seemed so far away but he had convinced himself if he could only hold out until then, the day wouldn’t be a total write off.  Funny to think about it, if he’d been asked a year ago who his friends were, he’d have laughed to even think about Sousa.  That one legged guy with a crutch that dressed like a good little schoolboy, complete with sweater vests and all?  Mind you, he still thought that the lurid Hawaiian shirts were ugly as heck, but at least he didn’t look like a goody-two shoes anymore.  Although, if anyone could pull off one of those shirts, it was him. 

Of course, he’d never tell him that.

But yeah, strange as it was to admit it, he liked being around Sousa.  Carter, too.  He couldn’t really pinpoint when it was that their bickering got less pointed and more good-natured or why, but it was nice, even if they were the only people in the SSR who would dare to talk back to him with enough insubordination that any boot camp drill instructor would have kicked their asses to Japan and back if they had been in the Marines.  Maybe it was this city.  In New York, he was Jack Thompson in Chief Dooley’s office, and Sousa and Carter were the ones who got passed over, the unsung heroes of the Leviathan case that everyone knew should have gotten better.  In LA, they were two chiefs of the SSR and Carter, who was always a force of nature to rival anyone she tangled with, regardless of location.

Now if only she were here to set her full might against the question of where the hell Sousa was.  He’d said ‘around four,’ but an hour was beyond ‘around.’  He could be caught in traffic, but for an hour?  He might have forgotten and gone off to do something with Carter, but Carter had said she would be back and she wasn’t yet.  He could have decided not to come at the last minute, that it was too weird to be having a drink with him, his former nemesis, waltzing into his office like he owned the place and basically commandeering it, who’d almost sold them out completely to Vernon Masters.

No.  Don’t think like that.  Just don’t.

“Hello Jack,” said Carter’s voice, and he was shaken out of his reverie by the sight of Carter in front of him “Still manning your post?  I’m impressed, most people would be going home right now.”

“Yeah, well, blame it on your boyfriend,” he said, trying not to sound too frustrated “He said he’d be back for drinks an hour ago, but apparently someone needs a functioning watch.”

“That’s odd.” Carter frowned “It shouldn’t take him that long to get back.  His last interview’s just a couple blocks from here.  Even if he ran behind schedule, he shouldn’t need a whole hour to make up for it.”

A dozen different scenarios immediately, irrationally, ran through his head.  He’d been hit by a car.  He’d been mugged and left in an alley somewhere.  He’d stumbled on a crime being committed and the criminals had tried to silence him.  He’d gotten caught up in some mob fight and was bleeding out on the street.  There was a burning building and he’d been trapped inside.  The whole interview thing had been a trap and he’d gotten caught in it.  An old grudge had come to settle a score.  The Council of Nine was back and taking revenge.  Leviathan was here and taking revenge.  A Soviet assassin was taking out rival spy agencies.  The man who’d shot him was after SSR chiefs.  Hell, what if he’d tripped on the curb and hit his head and he’d forgotten who he was?

“Jack?  Jack?  Are you listening, Jack?” Carter said, the calmness of her voice touched with a hint of urgency “We need to investigate.  It could be something perfectly mundane.  Perhaps his car broke down and he needed it towed to a garage.  Perhaps he came across an injured civilian and decided to do the responsible thing and take them to hospital.  We don’t know what happened and that’s why we need to find out.”

“Need to find out what?” Rose came through the doors to the office with a fixed smile still on her face and a hint of desperation in her eyes “Is anything the matter?”

“Rose!” Carter said, turning quickly to face her “I mean, Agent Roberts!  How was your first day in the bullpen?”

“Full of coffee requests and lunch orders, but I don’t think that’s going to last,” she said, and Carter frowned “Although if one more person asks me to do their filing, they just might find themselves regretting it.  But what’s happening here?  What needs finding out?”

Carter looked at him.  He looked at Carter.  She raised an eyebrow, he tilted his head in Rose’s general direction.  Carter gave the slightest of nods and he shrugged ever so slightly.

“Chief Sousa is an hour overdue,” Carter said briskly, looking back at Rose “He was out conducting interviews all day, and said before he left that he would be back by four.  As you can see, he has not yet appeared.”

“Where was his last interview?” Rose asked, straightening up and adjusting her glasses.

“There’s a café a few blocks from here, the Hazelnut Tree.” Carter said “And he drove today, so it should not take a whole hour for him to travel the distance of a few city blocks.  We were about to go and investigate.”

He saw Rose lean just the smallest bit forward, weight on her toes, mouth slightly open, breath held, hesitant want in her eyes, and he made a snap decision.

“Why don’t you come along, Agent Roberts?” he said, looking her straight in the eye “If something is wrong, Agent Carter will need someone as backup who can handle themselves in a fight.”

“An excellent idea, Chief Thompson!” Carter said, catching her surprise quickly “What do you say, Agent Roberts, care to help us hunt down our wayward chief?”

Rose looked near bursting with anticipation but she contained herself well.

“Of course,” she said in an orderly way that did not fully succeed in hiding her delight “Should we go now?”

“Yes,” he and Carter said emphatically at the same time, and she spared him another one of her puzzled little looks.  There was something about that look that he knew was important, but he didn’t have time to work it out.  They’d already wasted enough time.  If Daniel really had been hurt, he could well be dead by now.

“Let’s go.” he said, and ignoring the warning twinges in his chest, managed to beat them to the door.

-

“This guy?  Yeah, he was here.  Had the crutch, right?  Yeah, I definitely remember him.  Showed up, sat down at one of the tables for half an hour like he was expecting someone but no one ever showed and he left around 3:30 or so.  I can ask the girls if they remember anything else, but that’s all I got, sorry.”

“Thank you, Mr. Johnson, you’ve been most helpful.” Carter tucked the photo of Daniel back in her handbag “If there’s anything else, we’ll let you know.”

The moment the man was out of earshot, she turned to Jack.

“Trap,” she said grimly, lips pursed tightly together “They lured him here with a fake application and ambushed him after he left.”

“Something definitely happened after he left here that’s connected with why no one showed up,” Jack said “It might not have been a deliberate trap, but they could have taken advantage of the scenario.”

He heard the sound of heels clicking on the restaurant’s tiles and turned to see Rose coming towards them, her distinctly professional mask marred with a look of worry in her eyes.

“I talked with the waitresses who were on shift this afternoon,” Rose said “They remember seeing someone matching Chief Sousa’s description come in around 3:00.  He ordered a cup of coffee and sat down at one of the corner tables for half an hour.  He looked he was waiting for someone, but they didn’t see anyone come and he left at 3:30.”

“That confirms what the owner says,” Carter said “The questions now are, why didn’t anyone show up, and what happened after he left?”

“Who was the last person to speak to him here?  Did he say anything to one of the waitress?” Jack asked “Anything that might have shown his plans?”

“I’ll go and ask Bernadette.” Rose said, trotting off to one of the uniformed girls behind the counter.  He turned back to Carter.

“I don’t like this.” he said “Something doesn’t feel right.  I can’t put my finger on it, but something tells me this goes way deeper than it looks.”

“I agree,” Carter said “I don’t know why, but this was more than just a trap.”

“Chief Thompson?  Peggy?” he heard Rose say, and he shifted to let her into the discussion “I talked with Bernadette, one of the waitresses here?  She’s the one that served him and her story is the same as the manager’s, but she did mention something out of the ordinary.  One of the girls left around 3:30, said she wasn’t feeling well and could they cover for her?  Bernadette says she thought it was odd at the time because her shift was due to end in half an hour anyway and she didn’t look that sick, but she just thought that she was skipping out to meet a boyfriend or someone.”

Alarm bells rung in his head.  It could be nothing, it could be that the girl really had been sick, but the fact that she left at the same time as Daniel and that her alibi had sounded fake even to her coworkers bore investigating.

“This girl, I want her name, address, how long she’s been working here, everything.” he said harshly, falling back into the role of agent, like he’d been not a year ago, when things had gotten done without any politics or talking “Everything they got on her, I want to know that and more.”

“Way ahead of you there, Chief,” Rose said, taking out a notebook and flipping it open “She just started here yesterday, she’s new.  Her name is Molly Bowden and-“

“Hang on, what did you say?” Carter said suddenly “The woman’s name, what was it?”

“Molly Bowden,” he said “Why, do you recognize it?”

“I know it from somewhere,” Carter said, staring at the wall in deep contemplation “I know I do, I just need to remember from where…”

“Any chance you could remember her a little faster?” he said bitingly, ignoring the warning voice in his head that told him not to say anything he might later regret “Come on Carter, the longer you take, the more likely your boyfriend is to be dead.”

He’d only heard about the A-bombs that had been detonated in Japan at the end of the war, but those explosions paled in comparison to Carter’s absolute fury as she rounded on him.

“Actually, I do remember her,” Carter said coldly, her voice sharp and icy, her eyes ablaze with unholy wrath “We used to live in the same rooming house in New York, that is, until she got kicked out for sneaking her boyfriend in.  Would you like to know who got her room?  I remember her clearly enough.  Do you?”

“I have more valuable things to do with my time than memorize who is in your gossip circles,” he retorted, the words and the bitter frustration with everything spilling from his tongue before he had a chance to stop them “Are you going to tell me, or are you going to waste even more time playing games to try and prove yourself?”

“Oh, Vernon Masters’ lapdog is talking to me about wasting time playing games and proving myself,” Carter snapped “I’d expect that’s a subject you’d know a lot about.  Jack Thompson, the war hero, sucking up to every politician who looks in his direction so they don’t stop seeing him as the brave soldier who courageously eliminated a whole group of the enemy.  Tell me that story again, would you?”

He reeled back as though she had struck him.  How could she…how dare she…after everything they’d been through and he’d thought…  No, he’d been wrong.  She despised him.  She hated who he was and what he’d done and it was a mistake to ever think that it could be otherwise.  They weren’t friends, there was nothing between them, had never been anything real between them.  And yet there was a pain in his chest that had nothing to do with his wound.

“Alright, cut it out!”

With a carefully controlled face belying such a fervent statement, Rose planted herself firmly between them, one hand on Carter’s shoulder, pushing her back, her other hand on his collar, keeping them apart.

“Is any of this going to help us find Chief Sousa?” she said much more calmly and quietly than when she had interrupted them.  Her face was unamused, disappointed even, and he suddenly became aware of the café’s other occupants alternating between looking at them with wide eyes or pretending they had not seen anything.  His anger melted away and he found he could look neither Carter nor Rose in the eye.

“No,” he said quietly, dropping his eyes to the floor.

“No,” Carter said a few moments later.

“Then let’s all take a deep breath and walk outside so these folks can enjoy their meal without any more disturbances,” Rose said, fixing them both with a stern look “Mr. Johnson, I’m so sorry for the disruption to your business.  Thanks for all your help, we won’t be bothering you anymore.”

She spared them the indignity of physically steering them to the door, but she wouldn’t have needed to anyways.  He was ashamed.  Daniel could be dead or dying right now, and what had he been doing?  Having it out with Carter, in public no less, screaming and mudslinging like a kid with a tantrum.  And he’d known it was wrong too, known that he shouldn’t be saying those things, and he’d kept on doing it anyway.

‘You’re a good man, Jack.  I know that.’

He remember what Carter had said to him, the day they’d set the trap for Whitney Frost, the day they’d opened the Rift, the day Daniel had almost died while they were busy arguing over who would get to play hero.  Looks like Carter could be wrong sometimes after all.  He wasn’t a good man.  He wasn’t even a good agent.  He was a fraud, a bootlicker, too much mouth and not enough brains.  How could Carter and Daniel put up with him when he couldn’t even put up with himself?

“Ok, Chief Thompson, Agent Carter, I believe we have a potential lead?” Rose said pointedly.  He couldn’t bear to look her in the face “Agent Carter?  Who is pretending to be your old neighbor?”

Carter didn’t say anything.  He could only imagine that she too felt as ashamed as he did of creating such a public spectacle in front of Rose, no less, on her first case too.  The seconds ticked by.  She remained uncharacteristically muted.  There was nothing for it.  If he wanted to save Daniel, he’d have to do it.      

“Look, Carter-“ he began.

“Dorothy Underwood,” Carter said abruptly “Dorothy Underwood moved into Molly Bowden’s old room.”

And he forgot every ounce of his shame as his stomach dropped and an overpowering sense of dread overcame him.

Dorothy Underwood was back.

And she had Daniel.

-

“We can’t do this on our own,”

He looked out the window of the apartment that Underwood had been renting under her waitress alias, the address of which Rose had managed to coax out of the café’s manager with profuse apologies and a staggering amount of flattery, delivered with what he had come to realize was an entirely artificial smile.  Of course, none of them actually expected Underwood to be sitting quietly on the sofa when they came in, but it was their best shot at finding some kind of clue to her plans.

“Involving the SSR will only complicate matters,” Carter said behind him “Dottie is a master at manipulating people and the less experience you’ve had with her, the more vulnerable that makes you to her machinations.  Not to mention she could probably fight her way through all our agents without a hair falling out of place.  I’m not putting anyone else at risk.”

“It’s not your decision to make,” he said, then clamped his mouth shut.  God knows he’d put his foot in it enough times already.  Carter paused.

“Jack, about before-“ she started to say.

“Chief?  Peggy?” Rose’s voice suddenly interrupted from the bedroom “You need to come and see this.”

He almost turned on the spot to run for the bedroom, but guilt stayed his feet and he forced himself to wait until he heard Carter’s heels clicking away before heading after her.  Not that he could have run if he tried.  He had hardly noticed the pain from his wound for the past few hours, too caught up in events to think about it, but now with each step, he felt the dull ache with each jolt.  It wasn’t anything he couldn’t handle for now, but how could he rest until they found Daniel?  The doctors had warned him against overexertion and if spending all day at the SSR was already pushing it, he’d be lucky to avoid hospital by the time this was all over, whenever that might be.

“What do we got?” he said once he had finally made it to the bedroom.  Rose took a small photograph from Carter’s ever so slightly shaking hands and handed it to him.  It was a close up of Daniel’s head and neck and the very first thing he saw was the black box with wires sticking out of it attached to a metal band around his neck.  Bomb.  But he made himself stay calm and look at the whole picture.  Daniel appeared to be unconscious but unharmed.  There was no sign of Underwood, but when he turned the picture on its back, he saw an elegant cursive spelling out a message.

‘I told you I’d return the favour someday, Peggy.’

“Alright, so we have confirmation that Dan-Chief Sousa is likely still alive,” he said.  Remain objective, focus on the mission at hand “Underwood needs him for some purpose or she wouldn’t have gone to all this trouble.  She wants something from us.  What is it?  Did she leave a note?”

“Just the photograph on the bed,” Rose said “Nothing else.”

“What does she want and how are we supposed to know if she refuses to give us any more information?” he pressed on unrelentingly “She knew we’d figure out her cover and make our way here, so what is she trying to accomplish with this?  Money?  Revenge?  Information?  Why D-Chief Sousa in particular?  What does she mean by ‘returning the favour?’  Carter, report.”

Carter seemed to shake herself out of a daze and looked at him without seeming to remember that they weren’t looking at each other right now. 

“I believe she’s referring to our last encounter,” she said slowly “On our last…meeting, I gave her a diamond choker with a tracker and a kill switch implanted in it.  She said…she said that she’d return the favour someday.  I thought it was just another threat.”

“It probably was,” he said “Likely thing is that she remembered it and decided to use it as a sick little joke in her plan.  The question, what’s her play?  What does she want Chief Sousa?  Why hasn’t she made any demands yet?”

“She’s not going to make any demands,” Carter said, and this time her voice was steady and sure “She doesn’t need to.  This is a game of hers, and she’s only going to play with people who are any fun and can give her a good match.  She hasn’t made any demands because she wants me to be her opponent and she knows that I can figure out what she wants.”

“And can you?”

Carter took a deep breath and took the photograph back from him.  She looked at it long and hard.

“I’d better,” she finally said “Rose, was there nothing else in the room?”

“Nothing,” Rose confirmed “The photograph was all.”

“And the photograph tells us nothing except that Daniel is alive,” she said “Nothing in the background to give away location, nothing on the bomb to indicate whether it was self-made or provided by a supplier, nothing to tell us anything.  That means-“

“-it’s not the clue.” he realized, finishing her sentence for her “It’s just a decoy, something to distract us.”

“Then what clues do we have?” Carter started pacing “Daniel arrived at the Hazelnut Tree Café at approximately 1500 hours.  At 1530, after his interview did not show up, he left at the same time as the waitress we presume to be Dottie’s disguise, a disguise purposely meant to alert me to her presence.  It took us here, where we found the photograph.  We have already established that the photograph holds no value to us in the interest of her location.  So what does?”

There was silence for a few moments as they all thought this over.  He racked every corner of his brain, trying to think what he would do if he was a Soviet assassin with a hostage trying to…trying to…

“She needs a base of operations,” he said out loud “And she needs to have gotten Chief Sousa there without anyone noticing.”

“She would need some way of ensuring his cooperation.” Carter said, picking up where he left off “She knows that Daniel will be looking for any opportunity to escape and she needs to keep him close.  She needs him conscious or dragging his body through the streets would be too suspicious.”

“Does she though?” he asked “If she had a car waiting nearby, all she would need was to get him into the car.  Who looks inside a car to see what’s going on in there?  Even if someone did look in, all they would see is someone sleeping and a woman, maybe their wife, driving them somewhere after a long and tiring day.”

“She’d still want to do that away from the public eye, in case anyone happened to see her knocking him out.” Carter said, and snapped her fingers “There was an alley next to the café.”

“Then let’s go!”

He stood back and let Carter and Rose hurry through the door first before following in his own slow, shuffling gait.

-

“Here!”

Rose bent down and picked up Daniel’s crutch off the ground where it had been lying behind some crates.  She handed it to Carter, then bent back down and came up again with an envelope that had Carter’s name written on it in the same neat writing as on the photograph.  Carter put the crutch down and taking the envelope, opened it and unfolded the note inside.  She skimmed it quickly, her expression hardening with every second that passed. 

“What does it say?” Rose asked.  Tersely, Carter thrust the note at her and Rose took it. 

“Dear Peggy,” she said out loud “Congratulations on getting this far!  I knew you could do it.  As a reward, I’ll make the next bit easy for you.  What you have to do next is go back to the SSR, collect all the files you have on Whitney Frost and Zero Matter, and meet me in front of the Hazelnut Tree café tomorrow morning at 9:00 on the dot.  I don’t think you need a reminder of what will happen if you don’t.  We’ll be waiting for you!  Kisses.”

“So that’s it.” he said, leaning against the wall of the alley while trying to seem like he didn’t desperately need to “She wants information about Zero Matter.  Why?  Why does she need it?”

“Perhaps she’s gone freelance and she’s on a job,” Peggy shrugged “Perhaps she’s planning to dangle it as an incentive for taking her on.  Perhaps, perhaps, perhaps.  The important thing is that we’re not going to give them to her.”

“She’ll know if they’re not the right files,” he challenged, catching on to her drift right away “I wouldn’t put it past her to check every single one.”

“Which is exactly why we’re going to need a lot of help to pull this off,” Carter started striding back down the alleyway “I have some phone calls to make and we need to get back to the SSR.  We have a lot of work to do.”

-

“Are you sure this is going to work?”

He fought back a yawn.  Even though Carter had sent him to his office for a few hours wink sometime around midnight when it became clear that he had nothing more of use to offer, sleep had eluded him for hours.  His mind had been too busy turning over Daniel and every inch of the case to settle down.  Where was Daniel now?  How was he holding up as Underwood’s hostage?  Where was Underwood?  Was she keeping a watch on Daniel?  Was she preparing her plans for tomorrow?  Why did she want the information on the Isodyne case?  What was her endgame?  Even after he’d finally gotten to sleep, he had dreamed, and though he didn’t remember what exactly it was that he had dreamed about, he’d woken up with a foreboding sense of unease and discomfort.

“Not at all,” Carter said grimly, managing not to sound exhausted though she must have been.  She and Rose had stayed up the entire night, poring over the Isodyne case files and with the help of Samberly, who had been all too happy to help once Rose flashed a brilliant smile at him, and Dr. Wilkes, whom Carter had called up on the telephone –he had the sudden absurd thought that the SSR accountants were going to pitch a fit when they saw the phone bill for the hours long call to Florida- they had gone over each and every one of the papers and made small changes here and there.  A few numbers in the calculations for the rift generator, not enough to be immediately noticeable but enough to prevent the thing from working, some details on the specific properties of Zero Matter there.  Bit by bit, they had chipped away at the information, undermining it, sabotaging it.  It still essentially looked like the real thing, but anyone trying to gain intel from it would only find useless junk instead.

At least, that was the hope.

“Suspect’s been in place for half an hour,” crackled Rose’s voice from Carter’s radio “She’s sitting in a car outside the restaurant.  She has someone with her, in a large overcoat.  I think its Chief Sousa but I can’t be sure.  Over.”

“Roger,” Carter said “Do not engage, continue observing.  Over.”

“Copy that.  Over.”

Her radio fell silent and so did their car.  Jack kept his hands firmly on the steering wheel though they were still parked, gripping it tightly, staring straight out ahead.

“I’m sorry,”

Carter broke the silence with her quiet statement.  Jack continued looking straight ahead.

“And what do you have to be sorry for?” he said, pretending he couldn’t feel her eyes on him “You were just telling the truth, weren’t you?  I’m a fake trying to prove to the world that I’m the hero they all think I am.”

“I was wrong,” Carter took a deep breath “You trusted me with a secret, a terrible secret, and I have used it against you again and again.  That was wrong of me to do, and I apologize, truly.”

He couldn’t bring himself to look at her.

“If you’re going to apologize, then I should too,” he said, fixing his eyes on a point in the distance “I was out of line there yesterday.  I took out a lot of anger and frustration on you and I did it where anyone could see.  I’m sorry.”

A hand touched his arm lightly.  He steeled himself and made him look her in the eye.  If he was apologizing, he ought to do it looking that person in the face.

“I’m sorry,” he said, looking her full in the face “You were wrong all along.  I’m not a good man.  You are ten times the person I will ever be.” 

“That’s not true,” she immediately said “You’re being too hard on yourself, Jack.  I was being too hard on you.  I said many terrible things yesterday and I won’t deny that some of them may have been partially true, but I’ve come to learn that what’s happened in the past has happened in the past.  What you’ve done is not so important as what you are doing now, and do you know what I see when I look at Jack Thompson today?”

“An asshole who can’t handle his own life never mind the SSR?”

“No.  I see a man who’s trying his hardest to be a better man.  You might have been someone in the past, done certain things, but you’re not that person now.  The things I said yesterday may have been true at one point, but you’re trying to move past them and you’re doing so well, Jack, I can see it.  The Jack Thompson I first met wouldn’t even know Rose’s name, much less promote her to field agent.  The Jack Thompson I first met would be treating Daniel like a carpet, not throwing himself into saving his life.  The Jack Thompson I first met would never have apologized to me or admitted that he was wrong.  You’ve changed, Jack, and even if you don’t think you’re a good man, I know you are a better one.”

He didn’t know what to say that.  He wasn’t sure that even if he knew what to say, he could say it.  Some kind of lump was clogging up his throat and his eyes were getting wet.  Peggy’s hand moved down his arm to his hand and grasped it firmly.  They sat there in silence, she holding his hand, he holding back tears, and in that moment, they weren’t colleagues, they’re weren’t friends, they were something…more.

The moment was broken by the crackle of her radio, and then they were agents again, professional and ready for the job.  She removed her hand from his and looked the other way while he wiped his eyes on his sleeve and muttered about getting checked for allergies. 

“Its 8:55 and the suspect has just left the vehicle with a newspaper.  She’s resting against the side of the car and opening it up.”

“Let’s roll,” he said, and revved the engine.  Pulling out of the alley where they were parked, he drove the short distance down the street to where the restaurant was.  Outside, just as she said she’d be, was Dorothy Underwood.

She’d changed her hair to a lively red since the last time they’d met but other than that, he’d recognize her face anywhere.  She saw them as they approached, folded up her newspaper, and gave a little wave.  He parked in front of her and they got out.

“Peggy!” she said with something that sounded like genuine delight “I’m so glad you could make it.  We hardly ever see each other anymore!  How have you been?”

“Oh, I can’t complain,” Carter said breezily, as though this were a casual conversation between old friends “And what’ve you been up to since I saw you last?”

“You know me, Peg, I never kiss and tell,” Underwood said coyly “Jack Thompson!  Good to see you back on your feet again, especially after that nasty accident you had.  Are you feeling better?”

“Just fine,” he said with a tight smile.

“Let’s cut the pleasantries,” Carter said bluntly “We have something you want.  You have someone we want.  This doesn’t have to be a difficult exchange.  Let him go and we’ll give you the files.”

Underwood’s smile took a predatory turn.

“And what makes you think I want those files?” she said, and he got a bad feeling about this.  Of course it couldn’t be this simple “A couple pieces of paper for an SSR chief.  That doesn’t sound quite fair to me.  I could lose a lot if your files don’t turn out to be worth it.”

“Then what do you want?” Carter said very calmly and measuredly.  Underwood’s smile grew wider.

“What a question to ask, Peg!” she said, tapping her chin with a finger in mock thought “What do I want?  I want what you have.  No one hunting you from place to place, a good job where you don’t have to play nice with anyone, a great wardrobe.  I want what you have, Peggy.  I want to be an SSR agent.”

“…what?”

He couldn’t hide his shock.  What the hell?  Had she just said what he thought she said?  She wanted to be an agent?  What the hell?

“I’m sorry, I could have sworn you just said that you wanted to be an SSR agent,” Peggy said, shaking her head from side to side in disbelief.

“Do try and keep up, Peggy dear, that’s precisely what I said” Underwood said condescendingly “After all, I did show up for that interview, didn’t I?  What, you thought it was a trap?  I’m hurt.”

She placed a hand over her heart melodramatically.  He quickly gathered his wits, suppressing his shock with a cool façade of control.

“So if you’re so eager to be one of us, why did you kidnap Chief Sousa?” he said with convincing confidence “Not exactly the best way to show your trustworthiness.  Why should we believe anything you say?”

Underwood tilted her head and looked at him.  The corner of her lip twitched up.

“Because we’re all good at our jobs and none of us can trust anything that anyone says,” she said “But as a token of my sincerity, I’ll let your precious chief go.”

She opened her car’s passenger seat door and he saw Daniel, inexplicably wearing a coat with the collar turned up.  He didn’t look injured, just disgruntled, and he was able to limp out of the car pretty well even though his crutch was gone.  Underwood hadn’t tied his hands in any way and they soon saw why: the turned up collar of the coat hid the bomb that was attached round his neck, just like it had been in the photograph.

“Hello Peggy, Jack,” he said, sounding pretty at ease for a guy with a bomb strapped to his neck “I assume she’s given you the whole spiel about joining the SSR?  I gotta say, she made a pretty compelling case to me.”

“Really?” Jack said skeptically “Or are you just saying that because you’re a human grenade and she’s got the lynch pin?”

“No, no, I gotta admit, she’d be pretty good at the job,” Daniel said with nothing but honesty “I mean, we all know at least some of what she’s capable of, and you can’t deny she’s already a great spy.”

“You can’t seriously be thinking about it,” Carter said in disbelief.

“Oh no,” Daniel said, shaking his head “She’d be perfect for the job if she hadn’t killed Agent Krezminski and if her old pal, Dr. Fenhoff, hadn’t blown up Chief Dooley.  Somehow, I don’t think the SSR really approves of people who kill our own.”

“Damn right we don’t,” Jack said loudly “Let’s cut the games, Underwood.  What do you really want?”

Underwood lost her smile.

“Is that your final answer?” she said, a dangerous note of warning in her voice “I seriously recommend that you think very carefully before you answer me again.  Remember that I have the power to kill Chief Sousa whenever I want, wherever I want, and that only I have the power to remove the bomb.  You know the drill, Peggy.  Tamper with it in any way, try and take it off without the proper key, and you can add another exploded chief to the list.”

She reached into her pocket, took out a small, square detonator, and held it up, waving it almost tauntingly in their faces.

“I will admit that is a compelling argument for your case,” Carter said thoughtfully “It could be argued that it is also a compelling argument against us trusting you.  But I don’t think we need to go over that again, and I don’t think you’ll be blowing him up.”

“And why not?”

Carter looked at Daniel with one of their Looks that even he couldn’t decipher on the spot.  Then in the blink of an eye, her pistol was in her hand and she was firing off three rapid shots at Underwood.  Daniel dove to one side and Underwood followed a split second later to the other side.  None of the bullets hit Underwood, but before the echo of the last shot had faded, Daniel had taken advantage of her surprise, lunged across the sidewalk, and wrested the detonator from her grasp.  Without a moment’s hesitation, he threw it to Carter, who caught it easily with one hand.

“Because a hostage situation only works when you can still make good on your threats,” Carter said, handing the detonator to Jack, who tucked in his pocket.  She advanced on Underwood who had fallen into a defensive stance, gun held steady on her, and Daniel backed away quickly “Give it up, Dottie.  You don’t have any more chips to bet with.  If you surrender now and give us the key, you might even get a good cell.”

Underwood’s eyes darted quickly around the scene, assessing everything with lightning speed, weighing the pros and the cons, and he came to the same conclusion the same moment she did.

“Watch out!” he shouted as Underwood moved, lashing out her arm and snagging Daniel like a frog with a fly, then throwing him bodily at Carter.  The two of them went down in a tangle of limbs and cursing and she legged it, taking off with remarkable speed.  Seconds later, Rose burst out of the restaurant where she had been watching the situation.

“What are your orders, Chief?” she asked him quickly.  He didn’t hesitate.

“Follow Underwood and do not engage unless you have backup!  She’s more than a match for any of us, even Carter,”

“Yes Chief!”

Without another word, she took off Underwood with surprising speed.  A few seconds after she had disappeared from view, Carter struggled up on her feet again, having finally extricated herself from Daniel.  She leaned down to offer Daniel an arm up but he waved her off.

 “Go after Underwood!” he said “I’ll be fine, don’t let her get away!”

“You’ve got a bomb around your neck that for all we know has a secondary detonator out there or could go off at any minute-“ Carter began, but Daniel interrupted her.

“Reconnaissance scout, remember?  I can take care of this, but you’re our best shot at getting Underwood.  Go!  I’ll be fine.”

Carter looked back and forth between him and the direction in which Underwood had disappeared with an anguished look.  Daniel was right though.  If anyone stood a chance of capturing Underwood, it was Carter.

“Agent Carter,” Jack said roughly “As your superior, I order you to pursue and apprehend Underwood.  I will stay behind to help Chief Sousa, but this may be our only chance at recapturing her.”

Carter turned a fiery look on him, but it was plain to see that they both understood what needed to be done.

“Yes Chief Thompson,” she said through gritted teeth, and took off running in the direction that Rose and Underwood had gone, quickly disappearing as fast as she had.  He didn’t waste time watching her go, and walking forwards quickly, crouched down where she had been next to Daniel.

“Ok, what do we got here?” he said, probing the explosive collar with a finger.  Daniel shrugged.

“Not a clue.  I disarmed German land mines, not Soviet tech,”

He stared at him incredulously.

“So you lied to her,”

“Well technically everything I said was true.  I was a scout, Carter is our best chance at getting Underwood, and I can take care of this,”

“How, when you don’t even know how this thing works?  Underwood said it herself, only she knows how to take it off without exploding it,”

“With a special key that only she has which she has, right?” Daniel said “Or, this key?”

He dug around in his pant pocket and took out a small silvery key.  Jack stared at him dumbfounded for a few moments, trying to collect his thoughts to form a coherent question.

“What-“

“First rule of kidnappers: never lost control of a hostage situation,” Daniel said “I guess she’s already broken that, but if she needed the key immediately for whatever reason, it would be better to have it on her where she could directly control it.  The only place she could have kept it and retrieved it quickly and easily without leaving herself open to attack was her pocket.”

“So you pickpocketed a Soviet spy, trained from childhood to spy and kill, and she didn’t notice a thing?  Where’d you even learn to do that?”

“To be fair, you and Peggy are rather distracting,” Daniel said modestly, avoiding the question “And you gotta have steady hands before they let you work with explosives.  Can you unlock me?”

Jack took the key and made quick work of the wretched thing, setting it to one side carefully.  Daniel rolled his head around several times.

“Ahhh, that’s better,” he said, then placing his hands on the ground, carefully started levering himself up.  Jack tried to stand up and help him, but found that his wound disagreed ardently with that notion and resisted every inch of the way.  As it was, Daniel was up and about before he was, and the sight of Daniel looking like he was about to offer a helping arm up spurred him enough to push past the last agonizing mile and stagger upright.

“I have your crutch in the car,” he said “How fast can you go with it?”

 “By the looks of things, probably faster than you,” Daniel said “Not fast enough to catch up to Peggy and Underwood.”

“And Agent Roberts,” Jack added “We’ll take the car then.”

He made to walk back to the car but his damn bullet wound was really growing a mind of its own and he stumbled forwards, just catching himself against the back of the car in time.  He groaned.  If he ever got his hands on the guy who’d shot him, he was a dead man.

“Yeah, I know the feeling,” Daniel said, limping up behind him “Want me to drive?”

Wordlessly, Jack took out the keys from his pocket and handed them to him.  There was a joke to be made here about letting the guy with one leg drive the car, but he didn’t exactly trust himself right now – if he could barely get up and walk on his own, he didn’t trust himself not to accidently crash the car if his body suddenly quit on him again.

“How are we going to find them?” he said, laboriously crawling into the passenger seat “They’re on foot and they could be anywhere by now.”

Suddenly, in the general direction where Underwood and Carter had disappeared, several loud gunshots sounded and loud screams began ringing out.

“I think that’s your answer,” Daniel said, and stepped on the gas.

-

They found the scene within minutes: screaming civilians running in every direction or frozen stock still behind the nearest available cover.  Trying vainly to direct the panicking public away was Rose, who was alternating between shouting instructions at cowering civilians and attempting to herd a hysterical mother with three equally hysterical young children out of the way.  Her face was grim and there was a graze on her cheek but she was still on two steady feet and was slowly but surely shepherding the innocents out of the way.

At the epicenter of the screaming, Carter and Underwood were firing at each other from behind two cars.  It was a credit to their marksmanship that only their own cover was peppered with bullet holes and that no civilians appeared to have been caught in the crossfire.  Both were also quite good at not getting hit, and the gunfight showed little sign of ending.

“What’s the play?” Daniel asked.  Jack looked over the scene once more.

“We have to stay low,” he said finally “At this point, we’d only distract Carter and provide Underwood with an opportunity.  We have to trust that Carter will get the upper hand.”

Daniel’s eye twitched and his lips became set in a thin line but he did not protest.  He was clever enough to see the situation as it was: any interference was liable to too much risk to be beneficial. 

“So we’re just gonna wait here while Peggy takes on Dorothy Underwood by herself,” he said tightly.

“Unless you got another plan, yes,” Jack said.  Daniel was unnervingly silent.  Jack looked at him and recognized the look in his eyes.

“I have an idea,” Daniel said, and reaching down beneath the seat, drew out the collar with the bomb on it “How good’s your aim?”

Jack calculated the distance, noted the obstacles, and marked the nearest possible perch.

“Top ten at boot camp,” he said “Can you get that thing ticking?”

“Probably.” Daniel started fiddling with the wires “I couldn’t give you an estimate on detonation time though.  You’ll just have to throw as quick as you can.  This could go off at any time.”

“And there’s no way to control it?”

Daniel shook his head.

“I told you I’m not familiar with Soviet explosives.  I can get it to explode, but that’s about it.  We’ll just have to hope it goes off when we need it to,”

He didn’t like this plan.  There were too many variables, too many things that could go wrong.  If it detonated too early, he’d be lucky to join Daniel in the lost limb club.  If it detonated too late, they’d give away their presence and provide Underwood with an easy hostage against Carter.  It was riskier than even he’d like to play, but what choice did they have?  Carter and Underwood had already proven they were a pretty good match for each other and once they ran out of bullets, they’d have to resort to hand-to-hand combat and there was even less chance of being able to interfere then.  There was nothing for it.  They had to risk it now.

Daniel handed the bomb to Jack and he got out of the car.  He could feel the very faint ticking of the bomb through his hand.  As best he could, he duck and wove until he reached a little corner of an alley a couple buildings away from Underwood.  The ticking was growing faster.  Quickly establishing a line of sight, he took careful aim and drew back his arm.  His chest positively screamed in outrage but he forced himself to ignore it.

If you fail, they’re all dead.

He had a clear shot at Underwood’s back.  She was too distracted by Carter’s shooting to notice the threat at her back.  The ticking seemed to get even faster.  There was no time.  He leant back and threw.

The good news: he hadn’t lost his aim, even though he was injured.  The bomb arced gracefully through the air, landing perfectly on the ground behind Underwood.  The bad news: it didn’t go off.  Underwood whirled around, saw the bomb, looked up and saw him, and then with a wicked smile, scooped the bomb up, turned around, and threw it in Peggy’s direction.  He didn’t even have time to cry out before he heard the bang, saw the orange flames rising up to lick the sky, and felt the intense heat.

“PEGGY!” he heard Daniel shout somewhere, and no doubt that he was limping out as fast as he could towards the site of the explosion.  But he had other concerns.  In the seeming blink of an eye, Underwood was in front of him, hitting him squarely in the chest, right on his wound, and he saw nothing but black and knew nothing but pain for a few long minutes.  When he finally regained some awareness of anything other than the burning fire in his chest, he was being propped upright by somebody, probably Underwood, and there was something very sharp pressed against the side of his neck.

“Chief Sousa,” he thought he heard Underwood say “You will let me pass.  Now.  Or I will kill him.”

The sharp thing, probably a knife, dug into his skin and he felt a thin trickle of blood run down his neck.  Daniel must have said something but he couldn’t hear what it was.  Underwood laughed.

“Do you really think you are in a position to be threatening me?” she said dismissively “You are alone.  Dear Peggy won’t be helping anyone for a long while.  Your friend’s life is in my hands.  I could cut his throat right now and make you watch him bleed out.  I could break his neck so he dies instantly, or I could slip a blade between his ribs and leave him to suffer.  But I’m nice.  I could be persuaded not to do any of those horrible things.  All you have to do is step aside, and I’ll drop him off safe and sound at the end of the street.”

There was a short silence.  He managed to crack open his eyes and blearily look at what was happening.  A vaguely Daniel-looking blob was standing in front of them, with something in his hand that was probably a gun pointed in their direction.  He couldn’t see where Peggy was, and he finally allowed himself to panic a little.  Peggy was down, Rose was nowhere to be seen, he was Underwood’s hostage, and all that stood between her and freedom was Daniel.  And then Daniel spoke, loudly and clearly.

“No,” he said, and that was enough to startle him into nearly full wakefulness.  What the hell?  What was he playing at?

“I don’t think you understand,” Underwood said, and he caught just the slightest hint of bewilderment before she spoke “I’m in charge here.  You will do as I say or I will kill Jack Thompson.”

“No, you won’t,” Daniel said, and Jack could hear the confidence in his voice “You won’t be killing anyone today, or for a long time either.  You’ve lost, Underwood, you just don’t realize it yet.”

He could feel the tension in Underwood’s body and the displeasure with which she tightened her hold on him.

“And what am I supposed to have lost to?” she said dangerously “You?  The cripple with one leg and no weapons, no backup, no means of stopping me?”

“Ah, well, that’s where you’re wrong,” Daniel said condescendingly “Dorothy Underwood, it is my pleasure to introduce you to one of our finest agents.  Agent Roberts?”           

Underwood spun around, dragging him along with her.  Having finally connected the dots a half second before she did, he wrenched himself to one side and unlike Underwood’s face, did not become acquainted with Rose’s fist.  Underwood dropped like a stone and Rose quickly caught him as he fell with her.

“Are you alright, Chief Thompson?” she asked, laying him gently on the ground.

“Fine,” he wheezed out “Underwood?”

Rose bent over Underwood and passed a light hand over her face.

“Out like a light,” she announced, and took out a pair of cuffs from her purse “Chief Thompson?”

She held out the cuffs toward him and he didn’t think twice before waving her away, not that he was really capable of doing much thinking with the way his head was spinning.

“You do it,” he said, resisting the urge to give in to the blackness creeping around the corners of his vision “Then call an ambulance, and take her back to the SSR.  Don’t let her out of your sight for one minute.”

Rose said something that was definitely to him but her voice had somehow become more distant, like she was speaking from the other end of a long tunnel.  The darkness wasn’t so much skulking around his eyes now as it was consuming them.  His head seemed to be lolling on his neck and everything kind of sounded like one big mumbo-jumbo.  Was someone shouting his name?  There was definitely someone shaking him and saying something, he didn’t know what.  It sounded vaguely like Daniel and he thought he caught a glimpse of a blurry face that might be him-

And then he knew no more.

-

“Read ‘em and weep, Danny-boy,”

“Not so fast there, Jack, that’s only a straight flush you’ve got.  If someone had a royal flush-,”

“If you’re trying to say you have the damn cards, just get on with it,”

“Thanks, I will.  Pay up, o’ man of action.  That’s how many hands I’ve won now?”

“It’s gonna be your last,”

“Funny, that’s what you said before we started this one, and the one before that, and the one before that.  Prophecy must be one of the rare exceptions to the multitude of talents possessed by the great Jack Thompson,”

“Yeah, and I’m still better at it than you are at respecting your boss,”

“You’re not my boss,”

“I’m a boss,”

“So am I,”

“You two bosses are insufferably loud.”

“Peggy!”

Daniel quickly turned away from Jack and leaned forwards towards Peggy, who was stirring dazedly on the bed.  Jack swept the cards on the bed into a loose pile and dumped them on the bed stand before doing the same.

“Hey Marge,” he said “How you feeling?”

“Like I’ve been caught in an explosion,” Peggy said in what was surely supposed to be a dry tone, except that it came out as a half-conscious mumble “Thank you for that.  Did we get Dottie?”

“Rose did,” Daniel told her “Snuck up behind Underwood and landed one straight between the eyes when she turned around.  We’ve got her in custody now and she won’t be escaping this time.  There are two guards on her at all times and we’ll be keeping her sedated until we can interrogate her.”

“She’s probably built up a resistance to most sedatives.” Peggy said, determinedly pushing herself to a semi-upright position and brushing any help away.

“True, which is why we also told her that we’d injected her with a deadly disease and that she’d be given enough medicine to survive every few hours.  She didn’t believe us the first time so with Stark’s help, we gave her a very intense cold and she hasn’t given us trouble since."

“How positively devious of you,” Peggy said, looking between him and Daniel with eyes that suddenly didn’t seem so dull and unaware “So it was Rose that saved the day, was it?  Good job, Rose.  Capturing Dottie Underwood on her first official case as a field agent, that’s a nice feather in her cap.”

“I don’t think she’ll be having many more problems with the boys in the office,” Jack said “From what I heard, they gave her a standing ovation when she walked in the next day.”

“Good,” Peggy said in approval “She deserves it.”

“She said she’d come by to visit once she’s finished with her new case,” Daniel said “I’ve got her and Fisher investigating a company we think Leviathan may be passing money through.  It shouldn’t take too long to wrap up so you’ll probably see her soon.  Oh, and you should probably expect the Jarvises in the next few hours.  Jarvis was sitting beside you the whole time you were unconscious and I only got him to go home for some rest by promising to telephone the moment you woke.”

“That was kind of him,” Peggy said fondly “So I take it that you’ve yet to question Dottie?”

“I think it’s pretty clear by now that you’re the only one who stands a chance of getting through to her,” Jack said “So you better heal up quick before someone has the chance to take her from us again.”

“Yes, that is the only reason I shall seek to get better,” Peggy said with a straight face “I do love lying around in a hospital bed all day doing nothing but rest and recuperation.  But do tell me you’ve at least ascertained how she was able to capture one of the SSR’s best agents in broad daylight?”

“Yeah, we put that together pretty quickly,” Jack said “Hey Daniel, want to tell her how you managed to get kidnapped by Underwood in the middle of a crowded street?”

“Hey, I’d like to see what you’d do if you were in that situation,” Daniel grumbled “You know that no one showed up to the interview so I left after a half hour.  The moment I walked out on the street, she stepped out in front of me, pressed a knife against my ribs, and told me to move into that little alley where you found my crutch.  Kinda hard to argue with someone who’s ready to slip a blade into you.  I get there, and the next thing I know, she’s chloroforming me.”

“We figured that’s when she left the crutch and the note,” Jack said “The thing at the apartment was just a little side game of hers to mess with you.”

“I think she took me to one of her safe houses next, but she had me blindfolded the entire time I was there,” Daniel said “I don’t think she wanted to take any risks at all.  But I woke up there with the bomb on me and we had a little talk right there about the whole why-are-you-doing-this and what-do-you-want thing.  She said pretty much the same thing as she told you: she wanted a job with the SSR and she was perfectly qualified for it.”

“Yeah, I think we all gotta admit that the Soviets do some disturbing stuff but they get effective results,” Jack said, then added quickly “Not that we should do the same.”

“I should hope not,” Peggy said indignantly “But she had to have known that was impossible.  There was no way we were ever going to agree to that, and especially not after kidnapping you.  So what was her real goal?”

“I think she was being serious,” Daniel said thoughtfully “She sounded pretty serious about it when we were talking and it didn’t sound like she was working for anyone.  I got the feeling she was doing something that she wanted to do and it wasn’t a mission or job.  The kidnapping and the bomb were her insurance.  When she was safe, when everything was signed and official, then she’d take off the bomb.”

“How nice of her,” Jack said sarcastically “She was going to take off the bomb that she put on you in the first place.  Real decent of her.”

“Oh, don’t start,” Peggy said before Daniel could respond “We’re all alive and Dottie is in custody.  Let’s call it a victory, shall we?”

“I can definitely live with that,” Daniel said with a shrug.

“Only for you, Marge,” Jack drawled.  Peggy rolled her eyes fondly.

“So how long was I out for?” she asked “Surely not that long if you’ve only just sent Mr. Jarvis home.”

“Just a couple of days,” Daniel said “You were lucky.  The bomb exploded in midair and you were already running for a doorway when the thing went off.”

“You pick up a few things when you’re fighting Nazis,” Peggy said “If your enemy throws anything at you, assume it’s not a good thing and run like hell.”

“Thanks for the daily dose of common sense,” Jack couldn’t resist drawling “How we all got through the war without your wise words to guide us is a wonder to me.”

“The world is full of wonders, Jack, you just have to open your eyes a little,” Peggy said loftily “Perhaps you could do with a little more common sense yourself.  I see you’re not here as a mere visitor.”

She gestured at the hospital robe he was wearing and the wheelchair that a stern matron had forced him into before leaving his own room.  He could almost have born it with good grace if Daniel hadn’t been there and deliberately spent the next ten minutes chatting to her about proper wheelchair procedures and troublesome patients and how he remembered those old days in army rehab, and oh, she had a cousin who’d been posted to the same hospital?  What a small world.

“Ah, you know those doctors, always overcautious about everything.” Jack waved his hand dismissively “I just have to play it easy for a few more days and promise them I won’t let you two drag me into any more shenanigans and I’ll be free of this place.”

“Us drag you into shenanigans?” Peggy raised an eyebrow.  He quickly corrected himself.

“No, you’re right, you drag me into shenanigans.  Daniel just encourages you,”

“I don’t think either of you need any encouragement or dragging to get into trouble,” Daniel declared “You just find the nearest, largest source and dive straight in.”

Jack looked at Peggy in fond exasperation.  She looked back at him with knowing eyes.  He looked at Daniel, who had a smug little smirk and a glint in his eye.  He looked back at Peggy who looked at him like he was an idiot.  Daniel looked at the two of them.

“So, we’re gonna sit here looking at each other now and not talking,” he said “Ok, we can do that.  Who are we looking at and what are we not talking about?”

He looked back and forth between the two of them with an infuriatingly self-satisfied look on his face.  In a perfectly synchronized move, Jack and Peggy rolled their eyes at the exact same time.

“Darling,” Peggy said, taking one of Daniel’s hands and patting it lightly “Much as I would love to, I am physically incapable of a quick comeback right now.  If you want a kiss, you’re going to have to come over here and get it yourself.”

“Aw geez.” Jack rolled his eyes at Daniel did exactly that, swooping in and sharing what was probably considered a chaste kiss for them with her.

“Aw, poor Jack,” Peggy said once they had separated “He looks a bit left out, doesn’t he, Daniel?”

“Yeah, I can definitely see it,” Daniel pretended to give him the once over “You want a kiss too, Jack?”

For a moment, he entertained saying yes just to see what their reactions would be.  Peggy would proclaim that she was right all along and that he fancied him, Daniel would probably play it up and turn it into a funny scene and they’d all have a good laugh…

…wouldn’t they?

Daniel was still smirking at him, waiting for his response, but there was something more in his face, something he couldn’t pick out.  Peggy had one of those knowing looks again.  He really needed to figure what that was.  What did she know that he didn’t? 

Ok, probably a lot, but what specifically here was she saying with her eyes?

“I don’t know, Danny-boy, what would your girlfriend say?” he said, playing for time “I’d hate to come between Peggy Carter and her man.”

“What do you say, Peg?” Daniel looked at Peggy with something more than a joke in his face “Do you think Jack could come between us?”

Peggy looked up at the ceiling and shook her head slightly, a small smile appearing on her face.

“Well Daniel,” she said, taking his hand and holding it “I’d say that was an irrelevant question since Jack is already here and it doesn’t look like he’s going anywhere anytime soon.  The real question here is, does anyone mind?”

She reached out towards Jack with her other hand, open and waiting.  And suddenly something clicked and he finally realized what it was she knew that he’d known all along too but hadn’t known that he knew it.  He glanced at Daniel.  There was a look of epiphany on his face, as if the secrets of the world had suddenly been made clear to him, epiphany and what else?  He knew that face, could read it like an open book.  It was the look of a man who’d found his home, his place to belong, his people to-

Wordlessly, he took Peggy’s hand with one hand and with his other, reached out to Daniel across the bed.  He waited, the sound of his heartbeat thumping steadily in his ears, his hand firm and unwavering.

The world did not pause for them.  There were no eternal moments, no slow and tortuous seconds of what-ifs and wondering and doubts.  They all knew, had perhaps known all along, what was.  This was neither acceptance nor confession.  This was Peggy’s hand in his and his hand in Daniel’s and Daniel’s hand in Peggy’s, a single chain of three links, strong enough together to withstand the fire, fragile enough to need each other.

…And enough of the poetry.  It was the three of them, him and Daniel and Peggy, and that was that.  They were here, now, living in the moment.  That was all that mattered.

“So…I’m guessing no one minds then,”

“Dammit Sousa,”