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"I can explain. Let go of me!" Peggy exclaims, looking at her co workers whom, she never really felt a bond with. An emotion she never thought she's ever feel this deeply, here in the heart of the SSR- betrayal. Sousa- Thompson- the betrayal on evident in how they look at her- the Chief's stoic face- she passes by all of it. Panic fills her veins.
Then, she's manhandled into an interrogation room.
"Don't go easy on her. She's a traitor." The words hurt as they leave Dooley's mouth.
She's waiting for something, a blow, a question-Jarvis-something.
It is a few, long, moments before anyone in the room opens their mouth to speak. It's Sousa who breaks the ice.
"So, Peggy-" She doesn't bother to correct him, if this goes badly, the loss of her title is one of her lesser problems.
And then there's a roar of noise, Peggy can hear shouting from Chief Dooley- and the door opens. And Peggy just blinks in disbelief. Blink. Blink. One. Two. And he's still there-
"Steve." Spills out of her mouth and she's almost sure she's crying as her vision blurs - Steve is there, a few inches away from the table.
Steve was there and alive and in that damned outfit- and the tears are down her cheeks at this point- Steve- joy, it all blurs together for a moment. Three words. One. Two. Three, come out of his mouth.
"Let. Her. Go."
"She's a traitor, and sold weapons of mass destruction to foreign countries while working with Howard Stark-" Thompson tells him.
"Hello." There's Howard, cocky as ever, standing in the door frame, and Peggy can see a rush of people behind him. He holds up keys to handcuffs.
"This is what I was workin' on, Peg."
"Howard- I could kiss you." Peggy says, looking at both of them.
"Really?" Howard looks interested.
"No, get me out of these damned handcuffs." She orders. He moves forward, Sousa blocking his way.
"She's innocent and you know it." Howard remarks, there's a fierce tone in his voice that surprises her.
"Then let's all sit down and talk about this." Thompson suggests.
"Then, if we're staying, it shouldn't be too much to get Agent Carter over there out of her handcuffs." Howard offers pleasantly. Sousa and Thompson look at each other.
"Alright." Thompson says, and Howard moves to Peggy, and takes the cuffs off. Chief Dooley enters the room.
"We're arresting all of you."
"They're going to give statements, Chief."
"All right, let's hear them." He says, locking the door.
Steve pulls up a chair and sits next to Peggy. One of his hands finds hers and holds it.
"You need to get Dottie." Peggy tells them.
"Who?" Her fellow agents ask. Peggy describes her, urgently, leaving out the kiss, and Thompson moves out of the door and out to find her.
"She might be working with the man you rescued. Both Russians, right?" Howard asks.
Chief Dooley frowns and Steve squeezes her hand.
There are so many words she wants to say, but doesn't. This isn't the time or place for it.
Howard begins to explain everything. The thefts, who are most likely from Dottie, and Howard digresses about how they met and she and Steve groan. With a sharp look from Peggy, he continues about how he asked Peggy to help clear his name, and what Jarvis has told him, and how he needed to test his weapons somewhere, so he went to Antarctica to blow up some ice, and how he was about to blow up a section, and he slipped. And saw Steve's shield a few feet below his feet. And uncovered the rest of him.
Peggy moves her thumb against Steve's hand. He gives her a small smile, and she loves him even more, if that was possible.
And then he talks, omitting, Peggy is fairly sure, how annoying Howard was during their trip back. He had to be, she couldn't imagine him not being at least mildly irritating. He's about to add something else, and the door is flung open. Dottie and Ivchenko are standing in the doorway.
"Give us Carter and Rogers and no one gets hurt." Dottie says, looking at Dooley and Steve squeezes her hand. He gives her a look out of the corner of his eye and she nods, and they look at Howard. He takes one of his gadgets- the one that was supposed to be a muscle relaxer, and takes down Ivchenko. Dottie grabs Dooley, and puts a gun to his head. Howard puts his hands down, drops the device onto the table. Dottie is too focused on him to notice Peggy pulling something out of Howard's pocket- she hopes it isn't one of those tacky bracelets, and points it at Dottie and fires.
She slumps to the floor and Dooley looks alarmed as he moves out of her grip.
"Mister Stark!" Jarvis appears in the doorframe.
"Hey Jarvis." He greets.
Peggy instructs them to use two pairs of handcuffs on her, and a good amount of complicated knots, and high security. She's deadly, like that little girl in Russia. She looks at Dottie.
She is one of those girls from Russia. Trained to kill, sleeping with handcuffs on. And everyone in that room knows it.
But it's okay. Because Steve is there.
So they deal with it. The SSR has the full story, and Peggy and Howard are off the watch lists. They're heroes again, according to the papers, just for bringing back Captain America.
He proposes to her as soon as they have a minute alone and she says yes. The wedding is quiet, no press at all, but close friends. The absence of Bucky hurts, and is felt.
There are other celebrations, about his return nationwide, and Steve and Peggy try to attend as many as possible to keep up morale. There's a growing threat in Russia. And the SSR is still keeping tabs on it. Peggy thinks that working with her husband, isn't all bad. It's actually, rather nice.
FINIS