"Maria?" Phil said as soon as Hill picked up her phone.
"Phil, please tell me that Victoria has made a miraculous recovery. Or Peggy called Rogers and wants him to pick her up. Please tell me you have some good news for me, because I badly need it right now." Maria said, as she dropped into Fury's desk chair and glared at the screens rerunning the insanity of Victoria's funeral and the ensuing Peggy caused chaos.
"Victoria seems more comfortable after Skye got through to her family and we're working on trying to find Isabelle to let her know what happened. Does any of that count?" Phil asked her.
"You know, at this point, I'll take it." Maria told him. "It's close enough." Isabelle. No one had even thought about contacting Victoria's girlfriend, although given what had happened when they tried to contact her family, maybe that was a good thing. Victoria probably wouldn't see it that way when she woke up, though, at least if they couldn't fix it by the time she was feeling better and awake. "Did you have something else to tell me? How's the situation at the HUB?"
"Stark and Fitz are working on things. Hopefully they'll have things fixed soon and it seems like all of the other sick agents are at least stable, miserable but stable."
"Good, that's good. I'll definitely take miserable but stable. Keep an eye on Stark, though. I swear, he's going to build a killer robot one day if someone doesn't watch him closely enough."
"I've already vetoed any robot construction." Phil said, before pausing, considering his next words. Maria sounded totally frazzled. Did he really want to add to her stress? But if there was a chance Underwood might get involved in this disaster…. "Maria, John brought up something. I know you mentioned Dottie Underwood earlier. Does Shield have a clue where she is? Because John was thinking that she might have a clue where to figure out where Peggy's got off to with poor Nick and her other victims."
"Underwood?" Maria turned pale and debated how hard she would have to smash her head into Fury's desk to knock herself into a nice, safe coma. Peggy on the loose with Melinda's mother was bad enough, but if Dottie Underwood got involved….. "No. No. NO!"
"No, we don't know where she is or no, you don't want to think about Dottie?"
"Both." Dottie Underwood, she would have nightmares about that for sure if she was ever able to get some sleep. Maria looked longingly at the surface of the desk. Surely it wouldn't be that hard to knock herself into a coma. No, she shook her head forcing that thought away. Someone had to try to manage this disaster and with Fury gone that person was sadly her. "What did John say about Underwood?"
"He was thinking that she might have a clue where Peggy could have gotten off to. Dottie's the one who's known Dottie the longest besides Captain Rogers and their relationship has always been a bit unusual." Phil said. "Does Shield have any idea where she might be? I know Peggy's the only one who seems to have a clue how to deal with her but…."
"Peggy knows where Dottie is." Maria said. And wasn't the issue of Dottie Underwood's current whereabouts yet another sign that that dementia diagnosis needed to be questioned? Shield had repeatedly tried to obtain information on Underwood's whereabouts from her, and her memory lapses, sometimes even claiming not to have a clue who Dottie was when asked, were seeming incredibly suspicious at the moment. "As for anyone else at Shield, no one has a clue. It's not like Peggy would be helpful and tell us where the first Black Widow have gotten off to."
"Did you need me?" Natasha poked her head into the office, having heard the name Black Widow as she was passing on her search of the building. "No sign of Peggy or any indication she's been in the building recently, at least not yet, but I still have more places to check. Why do you look like you just got bad news?" She glanced towards the window, looking for signs of flames. "It doesn't look like the city's on fire. I think wherever she is, Peggy's still laying low."
"She might be but… Just a second." Maria told Phil. "Do you have any clue where your grandmother might be right now?"
"No." She looked towards the window again at the mention of her grandmother. No, no fire, no explosions. "I'm guessing not here, though, since it seems like the city's still standing. Why are you asking?"
"Phil's on the phone. He called to tell me that John suggested that Dottie might know where Peggy's gotten off to with her three victims."
"If she doesn't know for sure, she would probably have a really good guess." Natasha winced as she thought about it. Her grandmother. The chaos Peggy was creating and had the potential to create was bad but if Dottie got involved in this disaster…."I would suggest keeping an eye on Stark to see if she shows up looking for him since she didn't get to kill his father, but he's at the HUB and I'm not sure if she would attack there. There might be some sort of lesbian code against that." Dottie on the loose. That was a truly horrifying thought, especially without Peggy there to possibly rein her in. "Should I drop searching for Peggy and look for her instead?"
"I'm not sure. Phil?" Maria said as she turned the phone to speaker. "Do you think Romanov should focus on hunting down Peggy or Underwood, because honestly, I'm not sure which senior citizen I'm more frightened of at the moment."
Phil ran things through his head before speaking. "Natasha, keep looking for Peggy. If we can find her, hopefully if your grandmother gets involved in this mess, she can rein her back in."
"She's the only one who has a clue how to." Nat said with a wince. "I'll finish searching the building and then I'll head out to start checking some possible places in the city. Keep Rogers thinking about it, see if he can come up with any more ideas for where Peggy might be. And Phil, good to finally find out you're not dead." But if Nat couldn't find Peggy, and more importantly couldn't keep her grandmother from getting involved in this mess, why did she have a feeling that Phil and every other agent were going to be wishing they were dead very soon?