Agent Daniel Sousa didn't feel one bit sorry for Margaret Carter. Her iron control, while impressive, didn't fool him this time. Being fired from the SSR was a blow – one she accepted without a murmur. While she was a phenomenal chameleon - she duped him easily enough for a full six months - even she couldn't hide the flash of anguish in her eyes when the Chief barked, "You're out of the SSR." The pained look disappeared quickly as she shored up those impenetrable walls. During the past couple of days, he realized that he never understood the dimensions of those walls. How had he – a trained agent –not realized that there were dangerous depths to Agent Carter hidden behind her cool British reserve?
If he was honest, he would admit that anger at his own blindness added fuel to the already hot flame of resentment he felt towards Carter.
No, Daniel didn't feel an iota of pity for Miss Margaret Carter. He let the conference room door fall closed behind her even though he wanted to slam it, to throw things, to have a tantrum of epic proportions. His self-control was firmly in place. The door closed quietly; and, with a terse "don't let her out of your sight," he returned to his desk. It looked like he had some time to begin paperwork documenting this debacle before the traitor Stark arrived. Despite what Miss Carter believed, his "police work" was in no way shoddy. Wasn't he the one who had connected the dots and realized that they were harboring an enemy within the office?
Sousa set to work, but he couldn't prevent his attention from wandering from time to time. He would find his gaze sliding back to the conference room where Carter and her partner-in-crime were being held. Each time he caught himself, he would turn resolutely back to his duties. Still, he noted how the two miscreants interacted. Shortly after their incarceration in the conference room, Jarvis must have said something to set Carter off, for she turned her back to him and strode away in agitation to the far end of the room. Jarvis chased after her - a man trying to placate an irate female. She whirled on him, radiating anger, but whatever the butler said must have worked to calm her. Sousa watched as Carter reeled in her feelings, her body language returning to the stiff serenity that Daniel was familiar with. She was unhappy but in no danger of flying off the handle.
With a huff of irritation, Daniel forced his attention back to his work.
The next few times Sousa found that his eyes drawn back to the pair, they both were leaning against the table, observing the activity in the bullpen. Occasionally he would catch a glimpse of one offering a comment to the other.
He wished he could read lips.
No. No, he didn't. He didn't care at all what the two were talking about.
Daniel let himself fall into the familiar routine of work. He was verifying some facts with the Chief when Peggy's voice interrupted them unexpectedly.
"Chief Dooley! Chief Dooley, I'd like to make a confession."
Daniel looked up in confusion to see Carter striding towards them while Jarvis trailed slowly after her.
"I already got the confession I need," Dooley said coldly.
"It's a fake." Carter insisted.
Daniel stared hard at the woman before them. That she had the unmitigated gall to continue to play these games left him dumbfounded. Even now, she was proving what a actress she was. If he didn't know any better - which he did, now - he'd have been concerned about the worry in her eyes. She was practically vibrating with tension. Oh, she was good.
"Why are you pulling this, Carter?" Jack demanded.
Her eyes flickered towards Thompson before she returned her full attention to Dooley. "Howard Stark isn't coming. The confession is a phony, the signature a forgery."
"Agent Carter," the long-suffering Dooley began.
"It's Miss Carter," she corrected. "I don't work here any more, but if you want a confession, if you want the truth, I'm willing to give it to you."
Sousa met Dooley's eyes. It was the Chief's call, of course, and Daniel shrugged his shoulders. If it were up to him, he would listen to whatever "confession" she wanted to make. It wouldn't change anything. She was untrustworthy. Nothing she could say would change that.
When Dooley jerked his chin towards the conference room, Daniel heard Carter's soft sigh of relief. She turned and walked back to the room, taking a seat at the head of the table. Dooley chose the spot to her right, Jarvis claimed the seat on her left. Thompson and Sousa were left to choose from the remaining chairs. Once they were settled, Carter began her story. She told it quickly and concisely, interrupted minimally by the men as the led them through her activities between the time that Howard Stark approached her in the alleyway to the SSR's recovery of Stark's inventions.
"It killed me," she claimed. "I'd manage to discover all the remaining items from Howard Stark's vault, and there was nothing I could do about it. But I knew that Agent Sousa was working that day, at least he would get the credit." She looked directly at Daniel as she said that, and he found that he could not hold her gaze. His stomach roiled with confusion, uncertainty. Even knowing how she had played them all for months, even knowing that she was a liar, that she couldn't be trusted, he found that he wanted to trust her. Oh, god, how he wanted to be able to believe this story that she was telling. She's a liar, he reminded himself. Don't trust her. Just...don't.
"We left the ship moments before you arrived. I didn't know what was going to happen to Agent Krzeminski. I could have been more careful." Her voice quivered. She actually sounded remorseful, but - as he had reminded her earlier - he'd attended her earlier performance of grief for the dead agent.
She met Dooley's eyes as she admitted, "I'm going to have to live with that."
"And why are you telling us all this now?" Dooley asked quietly.
"Because I need your trust if you're going to believe me about Dr. Ivchenco."
"The evil enemy scientist." Dooley's disbelief was obvious.
Sousa agreed with the Chief. "Yeah, he's a real killer. You can tell by the way he rubs his nose."
Carter pinned him with a hard look. "I know what I saw!" She said fiercely. "He was communicating in Morse code with someone across the street. The southeast corner of the building. At least ten stories or higher."
"I saw it, too." Jarvis, who had held his silence up until this point broke in to confirm her claim.
"Well, as long as you saw it, too." Thompson said sarcastically.
Ignoring their disbelief, Carter continued on doggedly. "He was discussing some kind of time table. We have less than ninety minutes before something happens. We can't leave him on his own."
It was funny, Sousa though, how her voice could crack with what could be taken for fear or desperation. Did she practice that, or did she use what she was truly feeling about her uncertain situation and twist it to give her story verisimilitude?
Dooley argued. "He's a good man. He's done nothing but help us."
"He's only been here for 48 hours. We don't know him." Carter insisted.
"Maybe not, but we know you." Sousa wanted - NEEDED - to make it clear that she was even less trustworthy than the Russian psychiatrist. When Carter looked at him, the hurt and surprise evident in her face, he felt a startling wave of shame wash over him. Again, he dropped his gaze from hers.
Dooley hesitated before breaking the sudden quiet. "I'm supposed to believe," he asked, "that you pulled off your own investigation without any of us noticing?"
This was something that had bothered Daniel from the beginning. "Why would you go through all that trouble instead of coming to one of us?" What he meant, what he couldn't say is 'why didn't you come to me?'
Peggy was indignant. "I conducted my own investigation because no one listens to me. I got away with it because no one looks at me. Because unless I have your reports, your coffee, or your lunch, I'm invisible.
That hurt. Sousa reflected on the potential truth in her statement. What would have happened if she had come to him? Would he have dismissed her theories? Would he have discouraged her from gathering evidence that was being ignored by the rest of the SSR and advised her not to make waves? And if he had been in her shoes, would he have taken the risk to confide in a colleague?
"Forgive me for not getting all pissy-eyed at your tale of woe." Dooley obviously didn't agree that her assessment of her treatment at the SSR was good enough to excuse her covert actions. "But your track record with the truth hasn't been all that hot. So if all I've got to go on is your word..."
"There is one more thing." Her face tightened into a small grimace. "The device." She stood and, as the men followed suit, Carter led the way to the interrogation where she had been held. She picked up the odd, metallic ball and brought it over to the Chief, indicating that he should open it.
Sousa was torn between staring at her face and watching Dooley handle the device gingerly. Dooley hit the button and the ball opened, a vial of...something...popped up. As Dooley reached to remove the vial, Carter warned, "You'll want to be careful with that." Her eyes were riveted to the vial.
"Does this stuff implode, explode, or spice up an old fashioned?" Dooley quipped.
Peggy's voice was rough. "That is the last remaining sample of Captain Steve Rogers' blood."
That got Daniel's attention. Now his attention was fully on her while she focused on the blood.
"Mr. Stark was afraid that your scientists would squander the remaining samples attempting to recreate the serum."
"Which they did." This was from Jarvis. "So, I'm afraid you'll have to forgive him for trying to protect the greatest scientific feat of the 20th Century."
"Howard didn't trust me with it, either. He lied about the contents of the device. He nearly convinced me that I was saving the city by stealing it."
"Is that why you kept it? Because he lied?" Daniel asked. God help him, this felt real. This felt like the truth. Peggy wouldn't foolishly risk her freedom by going back to her boarding house, not when she knew they were on her tail, unless there was something of immeasurable importance to her waiting there. Having custody of Captain America's blood would most certainly kick her common sense out the window.
"Maybe at first. Or perhaps I didn't trust our "greatest capitalist" with such a prize."
That didn't sound like a woman bamboozled by Howard Stark, as Daniel had accused mere hours earlier.
Peggy continued. "But I couldn't bring it here, either. And for that I don't have an answer. I suppose I just wanted a second chance at keeping him safe."
Daniel's heart ached for her. It hurt to witness this, to see Peggy feeling so much pain, wincing as the vial was sealed once again in the device, and stoically blinking back tears. Maybe he would never completely trust her again. Of course, if she was still fired, it would be a moot point. When would their paths cross again? He may never believe her without reservation ever again, but every instinct was screaming at him. Here, she was telling the truth about Captain Rogers' blood. And because of that gut feeling, he was willing enough to believe the tale of her personal investigation into Howard Stark's innocence. He would follow the evidence where it led. There was no harm in diving down the rabbit holes she had presented. At worst, he would discover that she was a liar and the tiny ember of faith that sputtered to life again as she stood, exposed and vulnerable in a way he had never seen before would be extinguished completely. At best...well, at best his faith would be somewhat restored. The future was uncertain.
Maybe, though, just maybe, he could give her a second chance. And if he had more luck than he deserved, she'd be willing to offer him the same.