14 June 1944

Hermione used a Point-Me spell to find her sister after she left Linz. It wasn't until she walked the last mile into the army base dressed in her expensive, upper-class operative clothes covered in black soot and ash that she was even really aware of herself or the world around her. It was dark and quiet the way most places got in the hours before dawn.

"Ma'am? Can I help you?" a soldier said in German. She blinked at him and a low-level nugget of fear at the base of her throat kept her from speaking. He switched to French and then English.

She opened her mouth, her bottom lip trembling, and instead of Peggy's name, a small scared sob slipped out. The soldier, a thin man who was probably younger than she was, held her shoulders tight and nodded like he understood. Like her reaction was something he could relate to. This was war. They'd both seen unmistakable horror and tragedy. She swallowed and tried again, "Carter? Agent Carter? Is she here?"

"Yes, ma'am, she is. I can take you to her tent but I'm going to need your name."

She felt her lips twitch like she had intended to give him a grin but he didn't smile back so she doubted her face was behaving the way she wanted it. "Carter," she answered again.

He blinked and squeezed at her shoulders. "Yes, ma'am, I'll take you to her but..."

She shook her head and tried again. "My name's Mildred Carter. She's my sister."

Understanding lit his features and he turned, pulling her into his side and escorting her through the city of tents to one at the centre but set apart. He scratched at the fabric and called out softly, "Agent Carter? Are you awake? You've got a guest who seems like she needs you."

There was rustling inside before they heard Peggy respond. She sounded no-nonsense despite having been woken up. "If it's Dum Dum in drag again I might shoot you." She pulled the flap back and her angry glare dropped away as soon as she got a glimpse of Hermione. "Millie! My God, what's happened to you?" She reached out and grabbed for her arm and the soldier helped guide her into Peggy's arms. Peggy wrapped her arms around Hermione and pulled her into the tent. She was making a shushing sound, saying soft calming things like she would if someone was crying. She took a deep breath because she felt like she'd run out of air and another sob slipped from her. Peggy guided her to sit on her cot, all the while brushing stray strands of hair out of Hermione's face. As she cried, Peggy cleaned her up; wiping the tears and soot and snot from her face, the soot and ash from her hands and arms. She even knelt and wiped at her knees and legs. When Hermione was relatively cleaner than she was, Peggy sat beside her and held her, rocking her in her arms like she might a child. She hadn't ever really needed this sort of comforting as a child but it felt nice to be held and cared for.

Finally, she cried herself out. When she was quiet, Peggy spoke. "Are you hurt anywhere, darling?"

"No. I don't think so," she answered. She looked down at her hands and flipped them palms up. Besides the dirt and grit they looked just as normal as they had before. Not like there was blood from a dozen people on them. Not like the hands of the killer she knew she was.

"What happened? Were you on assignment?"

"I killed someone," she whispered, feeling her bottom lip trembling again. She swallowed and looked up at her sister. "A woman. She wasn't a Nazi," she confessed. She couldn't admit to a dozen murders without the deed coming back to her but Inge had been her friend, despite the lies and the subterfuge. It was her death that weighed the most on Hermione's shoulders.

Peggy's lips pursed but the look she gave Hermione wasn't pity or admonishment, there was sympathy. "None of us are as innocent as we were, Millie. You wouldn't have done something like that if your own life hadn't been on the line. I know you. You're devastated. That means it wasn't malicious; you don't delight in the awful acts we have to commit in the name of war." She leaned close and pressed her lips to Hermione's forehead. "Were you on assignment?"

Hermione nodded.

"Can't talk about it, then, huh?"

She shook her head.

Peggy squeezed her in a hug before pulling back and looking her over. "You don't have anything with you?" Hermione shook her head, she had the briefcase she'd stolen from Pohl but other than that she had nothing. "Here, use the rest of this bit of water to wash up while I get you a change of my own clothes. I'll put in a request for more things for both of us tomorrow."

"I can't stay. I have to get back to London."

Peggy nodded. "Still, you need a second change of clothes. You look like a socialite. As much as I'd like to think otherwise these men haven't seen women outside of nurses or women in uniform in a long while. I don't want them thinking they can accost you."

"After the first one winds up in medical with a bloody nose, they might think differently."

Peggy gave her a doubtful look.

"Testicular torsion?"

They met each other's gaze and there was a pause before they giggled. "That might stop them. No, if you're in uniform it's much less likely that it'll come to that. We don't need you damaging abled bodied soldiers if you don't have to." Hermione stood and stumbled a little. "When was the last time you ate?"

Hermione thought while she disrobed. She'd left Linz via Apparition as night was falling, back to the little German city Passau where she'd first landed for this assignment. She'd been walking a long time before her spell had even locked on to Peggy's location. "Where are we?"

"About 82 kilometres west of Prague."

Hermione tried to guess the distance between that little German town and Prague. She blinked and turned to her sister. "I... I don't know. I've been walking for a while. Hours? Days?" She shook her head and immediately regretted it when her eyesight went spotty black. "It's all a blur."

"Well, finish up. We'll go to the mess and get you something. They'll be starting breakfast for the men soon," Peggy said as she laid out all the needed items of her uniform for both of them. "And then maybe I'll send you back to bed in here. You're not in any state to be heading back to England like you are. Do we need to get a message to your contact to say you're safely on the way back from an assignment?"

"No, they sort of just expect me to get in touch with them. Showing up with my intel in hand is even better."

Hermione finished washing as best she could in the cool water and redressed in Peggy's uniform. The trousers and sleeves were a touch too long but otherwise, they were of similar enough shape that she wasn't too far past regulation. She followed Peggy through the camp to the mess and was given food. She assumed Captain Rogers and the rest of the team were around but she didn't see them. After breakfast, she returned to Peggy's tent and collapsed into sleep. She woke up once in need of relieving herself and found another meal waiting for her. She handled her business, ate and slept again.

When Peggy retired to her tent that evening, Hermione was just waking up. "I was wondering how long you'd sleep," she said as she started undressing for bed. "The boys are back; if you're interested. Something happened to Sergeant Barnes's and Brigadier Falsworth's packs, though, and they lost their tent. Falworth is bunking with a private from a different unit but Barnes is in Captain Rogers's tent for the night."

"Are you kicking me out?" Hermione asked, smiling. It seemed food, sleep, and her sister was enough to restore some of her spirits. She wasn't completely unaffected by what had happened and what she'd done but she didn't feel completely consumed by it.

"Only if you want to be kicked out." Peggy tossed a condom package onto the bed where Hermione was sitting. "Be safe, have fun, and don't get caught." They both snickered again.

Under the cover of darkness, Hermione crept out of Peggy's tent and skirted the tent city until she spotted the pup tent that Peggy had described to her: a red, white, and blue ribbon tied to the front flap. She paused outside and listened and when she didn't hear anything she scratched at the fabric. "Bucky?" she whispered.

A half mumbled, "Wha?" was her answer. She pulled the tent flap back just enough to peek inside. Bucky's messy hair partially clung to his confused, sleepy face but once he registered who she was, he smiled back brightly at her. "Millie!" he said, probably too loudly. She slipped inside and let the tent flap drop, returning the small space to darkness. "Button it up behind you," he whispered. She made quick work of the buttons on the flaps to give them the illusion of privacy and then crawled up Bucky's cot to straddle his lap.

She leaned down and whispered, "Hey, look, we've got a bed."

His breath huffed out of him in a silent laugh. "It sure looks that way, doesn't it? Now, what was it we were going to do if we ever got around to finding a bed?" He asked as he licked his lips. He gave her a wicked grin before he leaned up to kiss her.

* . * . *

Hermione was halfway back to Peggy's tent when she heard a stern, "Agent Carter." She wiped at her eyes and the traitorous tears there and hoped the man who just called her name wouldn't notice her emotional state.

"Yes, Colonel?" She turned to face Colonel Phillips.

He was speaking before he recognised who she was. "I didn't just see what I think I saw, did I? Oh, uh, wrong Carter." He narrowed his eyes at her and took a step in her direction. He turned and glanced back at the tent she'd just come from. He pinned her with a fatherly look. "You and Rogers aren't...?"

"Oh, no, sir. Captain Rogers and my sister can continue making moon-eyes at one another for however long they want."

"Then who..." His eyebrows furrowed and he half turned his head to look at the tent again as he thought then he looked back at her. "Barnes?"

She smiled as innocently as she felt she could. It felt stiff and broken but it must have come across fine. Well practised, maybe.

He rolled his eyes and sighed. "Fine, whatever. Agent Carter had me send a message to your office to report your location. You're to report back to London within two weeks. It looks like the tactical team is headed that direction as well. You're welcome to travel with them."

She pressed her lips together to stop them from trembling. She didn't think she could handle being in close proximity with Bucky for that long, not after what had just happened. Not after what she'd said. So she lied. "Thank you, sir, but I've already made plans and set my route. I don't want to tax the rations any more than I have already."

He nodded and turned to walk away but paused and glanced back at her, giving her a once over. "You didn't do anything that would compromise my soldiers, did you?"

"All I did was give Sergeant Barnes something to help him sleep, sir."

He scowled. "You stay clear of my boys, Agent Carter," he said but waved his hand at her like he was dismissing the comment all the same.

"Of course, sir." He nodded again and headed back towards his own tent.

Hermione hastened towards Peggy's. She listened quietly at the flap to make sure her sister was asleep before she stepped in. In the dark, she sat down and emptied the briefcase she'd arrived with. She Transfigured it into something more suitable for clothes and added a pocket with an Undetectable Extension Charm. She hid the papers she'd stolen in the pocket, then tucked her clothes in the case. She cleaned herself up with a spell, altered the uniform she was wearing to fit her better and then found a scrap piece of paper and left a short note to Peggy saying she loved her. When she left, she used one last spell to button Peggy's tent flap closed for her privacy.

As Hermione walked out of camp she didn't bother wiping the tears from her eyes.