Bit shorter than the ohers, sorry. I hope you like it anyway!
Thanks so much for the support!
"Where is Howard Stark?" asked Dottie.
"I don't know." Answered Peggy, Dottie slapped her across the face. She was sitting in a different chair, in a different room. Once they had realized she had gotten herself free from the first chair they moved her. In the new chair she could hardly move a muscle. Her wrists were tied to the arms of the chair with belts, her ankles tied to the legs with belts, her head held in place with a belt around her neck.
"Where is Howard Stark?" asked Dottie more forcefully.
"I don't know." Said Peggy. A punch to the stomach, leaving Peggy gasping for air.
"Take a picture." Said Zola. "We need to send them a message." He finished.
"What message would that be?" asked Peggy.
"Never you mind." Said Ivchenko.
"If you really think they're going to trade Stark for me you're wrong." Said Peggy.
"Don't you worry about that, just focus." Said Ivchenko, twirling the ring on his finger.
"Focus, where do you want to be right now?" asked Ivchenko. Peggy stayed silent, doing her best to block out what Ivchenko was saying.
"Just focus, where are you? You can tell me." Said Ivchenko.
"Home." Came the unbidden word from Peggy's lips.
"Where is home?" asked Ivchenko. Peggy closed her lips tightly.
"Focus." Said Ivchenko.
"Go to hell." Said Peggy. There was a flash, it took Peggy a moment to register that it was a camera.
"Send it to the SSR with our compliments, if you please." Said Ivchenko to Dottie.
"Yes sir." Said Dottie.
"I don't understand, if all you want is to make Stark pay for what happened in Russia; why go through all this trouble?" asked Peggy.
"Because it is worth it." said Ivchenko.
Dottie walked down the street, trying to find the perfect messenger to deliver the picture and message. It was 4:30 in the morning, the SSR would not be open yet and the only people out on the streets were drunk or homeless. Walking down an alley she stumbled across a little girl who looked to be homeless.
"Hello" said Dottie, crouching down in front of the child.
"Hello" replied the little girl, looking at Dottie with scared lies.
"Would you like to earn some money?" asked Dottie, the little girl nodded.
"Do you know where the telephone operations center is?" asked Dottie, she waited for the girls nod before continuing "Take this envelope and wait for a man outside, we walks with a crutch and his name is Agent Sousa. When you see him, give him the envelope and say that Dottie asked you to give it to him. After that you run as fast as you can and you come back here, and I will pay you for your trouble. Do you understand?" asked Dottie, the little girl nodded, grabbed the envelope and ran off. Dottie smiled and settled in to wait.
Sousa got out of the cab in front of the SSR, he was paying the cabbie when he heard someone call his name.
"Agent Sousa?" it was a child, crouching behind a tree. Sousa finished paying and limped over to her.
"Are you alright? Can I help you?" asked Sousa.
"Dottie asked me to give you this." Said the child, handing him an envelope. Before Sousa could say anything she got up and ran off. Puzzled, Sousa opened the envelope. His heart stopped when he saw the picture of Peggy, immobilized in that chair with blood covering her face and an arm which clearly broken. There was a written message on the back of the card: Give us Stark, or we will kill Agent Peggy Carter. You have 24 hours from the moment you receive this. If Stark isn't waiting in front of his manor for me to collect him, Peggy will die. If I get taken into custody, Peggy will die. Without saying anything, Sousa walked into the SSR.
"We just got a demand, and a timetable." Said Sousa to Jack, who was at his desk with Stark across from him. Sousa handed over the picture
"What? Where did you find this?" asked Thompson, Stark ripped the picture from Jack's hands and gasped at what he saw.
"A little girl, looked like she was homeless, handed it to me and ran off." Said Sousa.
"How did she know who you were?" asked Stark.
"I don't know, but she addressed me by my name, I suppose Dottie or Ivchenko told her." Said Sousa.
"Why you though?" asked Stark.
"I don't know." Said Sousa.
"I do." Said Jack.
"What? How? Why then?" asked Sousa.
"Ivchenko knows how you feel about Peggy, it was one of the things he said when he was trying to hypnotize you." Said Jack.
"Ok. So we trade Peg for me, once she's safe you can figure out how to get me out of there, preferably before they kill me or cause mass destruction." Said Howard.
"I don't think they're really planning on letting Peggy go." Said Daniel.
"Why wouldn't they? It's me they want." Said Howard.
"Explain." Said Jack.
"Before Chief died, when he sent us over to that hotel, I found a piece of paper written in the same handwriting as that note." Began Sousa, indicating the picture of Peggy. "We know the Ivchenko was communicating in Morse code with Dottie, part of the note said: New directive, kill Peggy Carter. Letting Peggy go would be too risky, she wouldn't believe that they just decided to let her go, she'd know that one of us went in her place and she'd fight. It makes more sense to-to kill her." Finished Sousa.
"This is speculation, if I don't go to my manor and wait for Dottie Peggy will definitely be killed, if I go then there's a chance she will be freed. I'm willing to take that chance." Said Howard.
"If we don't do the exchange, how else can we save her?" asked Jack.
"I don't know." Said Sousa.
"You know if Peggy heard us talking about her like she was a damsel in distress she would kick all our asses." Said Stark. Jack and Daniel said nothing in response to that.
"Look, I don't care if you guys are behind me in this, I care about Peggy. Tomorrow I'm going home to wait for Dottie to pick me up. For now you can find me at Jarvis' safe house. If I never see you again, have a nice life." Said Howard before exiting the office.
Peggy was pretending to be unconscious when she heard Dottie return.
"All done, the message was sent directly to Agent Sousa, we should have Stark within the next 24 hours." Said Dottie.
"Very good. Go to Stark's house now and wait for him, if he doesn't show, you will have the honor of killing our guest." Said Ivchenko.
"And if he does show, you will have the honor of killing our guest anyway, but Stark is ours." Said Zola.
"I can't wait." Said Dottie.
Ok, it's time to get out of here. Thought Peggy to herself, formulating a plan in her mind.
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-daughterofathena2