Peggy, Jack and Daniel sat perched on the edge of Peggy's desk at the SSR watching as FBI agents filed in and out of their office, taking all of the SSR equipment with them.
They hadn't seen this coming. Not that long ago the SSR had stood tall among the other Agencies in America. Not that long ago the SSR had seemed unstoppable. But then everything changed.
Two months ago, the three Agents had discovered that the SSR had been infiltrated by a Soviet Spy who was sending information back to Russia. Six weeks ago, they identified who it was and arrested them. One month ago, they realised that was somehow Russia was still getting information on their missions. Three weeks ago, they'd found out that there was in fact multiple Russian spy's in their organisation. Ten days ago, they'd discovered that over half of the SSR was in Russia's pockets. Three days ago, they thought they'd arrested everyone. And yesterday the FBI had come to shut them down.
"I guess this is it then," Daniel sighed, "We're all out of a job,"
"I'm sure you two will have no problem finding new jobs," Peggy said, not taking her eyes off the agent who was carrying a large pile of classified files out of Jack's office. Well, old office.
"We both ran an organisation that happened to be full of Soviet spies. I don't think anybody will be very keen to employ us after that," Jack replied glumly, "Anyway I'm sure Stark will give you a job," Peggy snorted slightly,
"I'm not a scientist," Jack looked at her poignantly,
"Since when has Stark's main reason for hiring somebody been that they're a scientist?" Peggy rolled her eyes and turned her attention back to the men clearing out their office.
"Of all the Soviet spies, I can't believe it wasn't Dottie Underwood who brought us down," Daniel remarked after a moment,
"I'm sure she'll be very disappointed not to have had a hand in it," Peggy snapped.
"Umm…That would definitely have put her in Russia's good books," Jack mused,
"Nah, she's tried everything, I don't think it matters what she does, they're not taking her back,"
"Another reason we should have tried to recruit her," Peggy said,
"And have another informant in the SSR?" Jack replied but there was no temper in his voice, he just sounded tried. Ever since they'd discovered that Russia had disowned Dottie Peggy had been try to recruit her but so far all of her efforts had failed,
"At least we'd have known she was a spy," Daniel pointed out. At that moment, there was a loud crash from just outside the door,
"Careful!" Peggy yelled as a canister rolled past the door, "That's volatile!" The Agent who dropped it glared at her sheepishly, with a look that Peggy had previously thought impossible, before hurrying off after the container,
"It's a good job Samberly isn't here," Daniel sighed, "He'd be having a heart attack."
Everyone other agent had been told not to bother coming in but as the chiefs Daniel and Jack had to be there and Peggy wasn't going to let them face this alone.
"We should have let Howard take everything from the lab," Peggy said as another Agent walked past the door carrying more inventions than should be possible,
"And let Stark blow everything up? No way,"
"He might be a bit of a mad scientist but I think his hands are safer than those idiots," Peggy declared, nodding her head at the FBI agents trailing past the door.
"I'm fairly certain the FBI have scientists," Daniel assured her,
"Yes, but none of them are like Howard,"
"Nobody's like Stark," Jack muttered as an agent headed through the door and walked straight towards them,
"Agent's," He greeted with a nod,
"Not really," Peggy retorted, "Since the SSR doesn't exist anymore we aren't agents anymore,"
"I wouldn't be so sure about that," the three of them all frowned at the man,
"What do you mean?" Jack asked,
"My name is Special Agent Dennis," The man told them, "And I am part of a team that's looking to put together a new agency,"
"You mean you're replacing the SSR?" Daniel question,
"Sort of, is there somewhere we could talk in private?" The three ex-agents stood up and Jack nodded towards his old office,
"I think they've already emptied that room."
Agent Dennis shut the door behind them then turned to face Peggy, Jack and Daniel.
"Washington is getting increasingly concerned with the growing amount of threats that we are just not equipped to fight,"
"You mean like Dottie Underwood?" Daniel asked,
"No, the FBI can deal with threats from Russia, what we can't deal with is the increasing number of paranormal and superhuman threats,"
"Paranormal and Superhuman?"
"Like the Zero matter you encountered a while back," Dennis explained, "And Washington have decided that we need an organisation that specialises in these sort of threats,"
"Why now?" Peggy asked, "these sorts of threats have been around for a while and we've been handling them just fine,"
"This agency has been on the table for a while now but with the fall of the SSR the plans have been accelerated. Because of this we have yet to find anybody suitable of running this organisation,"
"And you want us to do it?" Jack pressed,
"More specifically we want her to do it," all the eyes in the room fell on Peggy,
"Me? Why me?" she asked, "I don't have any experience running anything like this,"
"Exactly," Dennis said, glancing at the other two, his meaning clear, she hadn't been the one to run the SSR into the ground. "The two of you will also have high up jobs in this new organisation," he said, addressing Jack and Daniel, "It'll be a lot of work to set it up and you'll need all the help you can get. Of course, you'll need to higher lots of new agents, hopefully this time you'll screen them a bit better than last time-"
"Is this all the information you have?" Peggy asked, trying to hide her shock at having been asked to run a new government organisation,
"Of course, not but I can't give you all the information here, it's hardly private in this office, you'll all have to come to Washington and the whole committee will discuss everything with you,"
"Hang on, we haven't agreed to take the jobs yet," Jack protested. Dennis gave him a disapproving look,
"As I'm sure you've already realised nobody is going to be particularly keen to employ you after this latest fiasco so if I were you I would jump at any offer I got, especially one this good," Jack frowned slightly and looked down at his shoes,
"Obviously, there is a lot more we need to discuss," Peggy said, "But I would like to come and meet everyone in Washington," Daniel nodded in agreement,
"Me too," they all turned to face Jack,
"What about you, Thompson?" Peggy asked and he nodded slowly,
"Yeah OK, I'm not promising anything but I'll come to Washington. When is this meeting?"
"There isn't a set date at the moment," Dennis replied, "Before planning a meeting we had to be sure you'd turn up to it, so what dates work for you?" Dennis asked,
"Any," Peggy replied quickly, "None of us have anything to do now that we're all unemployed," Dennis smiled slightly,
"Well hopefully we can change that." He reached into his pocket and pulled out a card, "My number," he explained turning towards the door, "We have all of your details. We'll be in touch," with that he walked out of the office leaving the three ex-agents slightly stunned,
"Did that just happen?" Peggy asked, Daniel nodded slowly,
"We all just got offered jobs,"
"Well that was a lot easier than any of us thought it would be," Jack mused,
"You are not wrong," Daniel agreed as the three of them walked out of the office,
"We need to hire all of our agents again," Peggy announced,
"The non-Russian ones," Daniel agreed,
"Let's wait until this actually happens," Jack said,
"Umm…" Peggy agreed, "You know if this comes off I'll be both of your boss's,"
"Ugh," Jack groaned causing Peggy to smirk, "I'm taking it you're going to seek revenge for all of the stuff I had you do for me?" Peggy gasped in mock horror,
"Would I ever?" Daniel smiled and took hold of Peggy's arm,
"How about we go out to lunch to celebrate?" He asked just as Jack's stomach rumbled,
"Sounds like a good idea."
"I'm going to get Howard to do the security on our new building, wherever it is," Peggy remarked as they stepped into the lift,
"He'll definitely just be able to walk in then," Jack complained, thinking back to when they'd been after Howard and he'd just waltzed into their office.
"He'd be able to walk in anyway," Daniel pointed out, "so we may as well just let him do it in the first place. It might stop other people from just walking in,"
"I'm in charge so I get to say who does our security," Peggy said with a grin. Jack groaned,
"You're not in charge yet so I say me and Sousa get to choose where to go to lunch."