Working at the growing S.H.I.E.L.D. branch in New York City wasn't nearly as exciting as Darcy would have hoped. She was starting to think that history textbooks made history a lot more interesting than it really was. The day to day grind of life was kinda boring without Netflix to kill a few hours each night. She mostly filed paperwork. A tedious job at the best of times, but far worse without the future convenience of laptops and internet. But she had to admit that is was better than doing next to nothing at the larger base she had been first brought to. When she wasn't filing paperwork she was slowly integrating herself into some of New York City's rich and famous' social circles courtesy of her ties to Howard Stark. Apparently, S.H.I.E.L.D. didn't trust any of those rich sons of bitches.

She wasn't really enjoying it to say the least. But at least she got to eat at some swanky restaurants.

It didn't help that Howard Stark had been off on some 'business trip' for the last two months.

But it wasn't all bad, just lonely.

The good part was she had a slight bit of freedom to explore on her unofficial days off. She had a feeling she was being sporadically tailed and reported on, but overall it seemed that Agent Carter was coming around to the idea of trusting her on her own.

And she had her own apartment. Well, room to be exact. Like the world's tiny tiniest studio apartment walkup. Her legs had never looked better after all this walking and training. Naturally, when she wined and dined with socialites she omitted the part where she lived alone in a cramped apartment. It might ruin their shiny scandalous image of her as Howard's latest fling. She'd be scandalous in a whole new, non-approved way.

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Shit that hurt like a mother fucker was the slightly coherent thought that raced through Darcy's brain as she hit the ground as fast as she could. Glass and metal raining down around her and the other passengers. Her arm was on fire from where she had been hit and she was going to have some nasty bruises from when she had slammed down on the car floor. Shit! That was blood. And not just her blood. But still some of it was definitely her blood. What the fuck was going on?

In between the cries for help, swearing, and moaning a baby started to wail. And wail. And if the poor child had a mother tending to him five minutes ago, Darcy had a feeling he no longer did.

There was little she could do though. Glass and twisted metal littered the floor in front of her face. Everything had gone dark. The only lights came from the glow of still lit cigarettes. Her arm was bleeding and she could hear more loud booming noises going off further down the subway line. She tugged her scarf free from her hair and pressed it to where she was bleeding. She could really fucking use a fucking cellphone and some emergency personal right about now.

Darcy was in the process of inching up off the ground to better assess the situation, like the agent she really did not want to be would, when the car rocked again knocking her back down.

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It was to the muffled sounds of nurses giving orders and the beeping of the machine by her bed that Darcy woke up hearing.

"Hello?" Darcy tried to call out but it came out all raspy and her throat was sore. Luckily or coincidently, a nurse pulled aside her curtain just moments later.

"Miss Carbonell, it's good to see you awake. You must be parched. Small sips." The nurse instructed as she held a small cup up to Darcy's mouth. Darcy had to squash the impulse to down the whole cup at once. She was really thirsty.

"Better?" asked the nurse after she had taken several sips.

"Um, yeah?" Darcy managed to answer.

"More water?"

Darcy nodded in agreement. Just that small movement made her head hurt.

Once the nurse was assured that Darcy could handle holding the cup by herself and wasn't going to pass out in front of her, she got up and left to attend to other patients.

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"Maria."

"huhushuwha?" came Darcy's brilliant reply.

"Agent Carbonell."

"Huh?" Darcy mumbled as she fumbled around for her glasses only to have them handed to her.

"How are you feeling, Maria?"

Darcy got her glasses on, ignored the smudged fingerprints on the lens with difficulty, and forced herself to sit up in the bed a little bit higher.

"My arm and head hurt."

"Well, I'm not a medical professional, but being caught in a bombing sometimes has that result. You are very lucky to be alive right now. You lost a substantial amount of blood." Said Peggy as she handed Darcy a glass of water, before pulling a chair up next to the hospital bed.

Darcy watched as she settled herself on the hospital chair and pulled out a pen and pad to take notes.

"I'm going to need you to tell me everything that you remember up till now. Let's start begin with you leaving your apartment that morning, unless you can think of a better place to begin?"

Darcy took a sip of the water to clear her throat and try and collect her thoughts, she didn't even know what day it was currently. Or even how long she had been in the hospital.

"Um, I don't remember much, but is the baby ok? The one I could hear crying in the same car as me?" she focused her attention back on her glass of water, missing the quick look of horror that had flashed over Peggy's face. Darcy's throat hurt still, she must have inhaled a lot of dust, smoke, and grime from the subway.

"I'll look over the hospital and the witness statements and see if I can find out after you give your statement. If that is acceptable?" Peggy asked softly as she reached out to awkwardly pat Darcy's non-wounded arm.

"Yeah, thanks."

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Morse code. It was almost old fashioned at this point and slightly charming, a throwback from serving in the War together all those years ago. Peggy usually left him some sort of message, usually a demand he actually fill out his paperwork on time and correctly before leaving on his next trip. Followed by the occasional joke or anecdote. It was a nice little reminder that someone gave a damn about him out there. Even if they showed it by making tediously long coded messages.

So when he when he was summoned to his makeshift office on the ship and told that Agent Carter was on the radio for him, he was guessing it wasn't good news.