The usual disclaimers apply. I still own nothing.

Please see Authors Notes at the end of this chapter.

Chapter 4: Someone to Watch Over Me

On the bright side, Dottie Underwood was dead.

After two years of false leads, lost trails, and dead ends, the Russian assassin had definitively reappeared. Since losing her handler, Dr. Fennoff, their best intel suggested that she no longer followed anyone's orders. At times, whispers of evidence seemed to suggest that she offered her services as a hired gun. There were other hints, too, that she also killed for the pleasure the act brought to her.

There were times Daniel would wake from night terrors that showed him visions of Peggy Carter's lifeless body, bloody and maimed, with Dottie Underwood hunched over her in triumph, splattered with blood and carving more gouges in Peggy's ravaged flesh. The horror would jerk him out of sleep and he would fight back nausea as he stumbled his way to the bathroom. He would gag, choke, puke up his guts until his body was purged. At the time he wished there was something that could erase the images in his mind.

As it turned out, his dreams hadn't been too far from the mark. It had been Peggy who faced the black widow alone. A team of a dozen agents had followed all protocols, each one had one partner - or more - watching his (or her) back, and still Underwood had managed to orchestrate the situation to her liking. And what she had wanted more than anything was a showdown with Agent Margaret Carter.

In the end, Dottie Underwood lay dead, her throat pierced by a shard of glass that Peggy had managed to grab from the debris that littered the floor of the abandoned warehouse.

Carter had been luckier, but only just. She was still living, still breathing, and - as Daniel had heard Jarvis comfort a tearful Miss Martinelli - where there was life, there was hope.

After Underwood sprung the trap, it took an agonizing amount of time for the other agents to locate the two women. They converged on the building, eased their way in through the back, and found a disturbing sight. Underwood was dead, her blood congealing in a pool under and around her body. At first, it seemed as though Peggy was no where to be found. Then, Daniel glimpsed tracks along the ground, as though something - or someone - had been dragged. Signalling the others, Daniel led the group, guns in hands, following the trail that had been left.

They didn't have to go very far before they found Peggy. Oblivious to their arrival, Carter was moving herself along the floor, pushing with her feet, pulling with her hands...well, hand. Her left arm was useless and dragged sickeningly. Thompson reached her first, calling her name. She was in a world of her own, and when his hands touched her, trying to get her to stop so that her colleagues could help, she fought back as best she could. Kicking was her best option, but her movements were slow. There was no real power behind what blows did land.

Jack had threatened to cuff her. "I've done it once, I'll do it again." He tried to sound menacing, but seeing how badly injured she was dulled the edge of his irritation. Her face was bruised, the tissue already swelling. It was likely that she was only able to see out of one eye, her left one was swollen shut. Her clothing was torn and bloody, her left arm wasn't functioning properly. The worst was the lack of recognition in her eyes and the fact that she was almost begging. She kept saying Daniel's name, kept repeating that there was a bomb, that he shouldn't go home. It was an eternity before Daniel, with his face delicately cupping her poor face, managed to make a connection with her.

That had been four days ago.

Peggy was rushed immediately to Memorial Hospital where doctors worked to undo some of the damage Underwood had caused. A stab wound that nicked her liver was set to rights with surgery, her broken left clavicle was splinted, and she received transfusions to counteract the blood loss she sustained. Her concussion was monitored, a sprained knee was bandaged, and other lacerations had been stitched up. Her friends and colleagues were told that all they could do was wait and hope for the best.

After almost twenty-four hours, Peggy started a cycle during which she would rouse for brief moments before falling back into unconsciousness. When she was awake, there was little lucidity to feed the hope Daniel was trying to maintain. It was harrowing to force her gently back down, even as she tried to get out of bed, tried to find Daniel, tried to warn him that his home was not safe.

The first time she woke, delirious, Daniel was not at her side. Howard had pushed, pulled, cajoled, and threatened to get Sousa to leave the hospital for a while, to rest, to eat, to shower. When he returned to sit with Peggy again, he found her in restraints. The nurses explained that they had found her, collapsed on the floor, trying to rise, trying to get out the door, trying to find Daniel.

The second time she woke, she panicked at finding herself in restraints and unable to complete the mission she set for herself - to find Daniel. To keep him safe.

Daniel was there that time. Defying the nurses, he freed Peggy's arms and legs. Then he worked hard to break through the static in her head that prevented her from seeing reality as it was. After that, he didn't leave the hospital again. He only left her side when another one of her friends was there to watch over her, and then only to grab a quick bite to eat or to use the facilities.

He allowed himself to doze, on and off, but the situation was taking a toll on his body and his mind. Everything irritated him, and he started snapping at everyone. The worst instance was when, after yet another check on the patient, the doctor couldn't tell him when Peggy would wake up and be back to herself. It was the serenity with which Dr. Biderman delivered the news that ignited Daniel's temper.

"Do you even know what you are doing?" Daniel roared. "What is taking so long? Why is she still like this?"

Dr. Biderman watched calmly as Daniel paced up and down the hallway and muttered darkly about inept doctors, the curse of bureaucracy at hospitals, and the failure to see patients as people. Daniel insulted everyone from Dr. Biderman, to the nurses, to the hospital administrator. At last, he ran out of words and sank helplessly down onto a hard bench that sat outside of the door to Peggy's room. Letting his crutch fall to the floor with a clatter, Sousa leaned forward and buried his face in his hands.

A moment later, Dr. Biderman sat down beside him. There was a momentary pause, and then the doctor began to speak. "It is like this: healing can be hard work. Our Miss Carter has a great deal of healing to do. She needs all of her reserves for this task, but she is distracted by a message she wants to get to you. She cannot focus entirely on understanding that she has succeeded in her mission because her body needs too much for the healing. So, she isn't as efficient as you might expect her to be because her attention is split." Now Dr. Biderman's hand was a gentle weight on Daniel's shoulder. "Don't worry, lad. Have patience. She'll find her way home to you."

So, Daniel tried. He distracted himself by talking her Peggy until he found that the only things left for him to say were nonsensical. Then he read to her out of books that Jarvis brought and he wondered if Peggy liked poetry. If she did, how did Jarvis know? He wasn't one for artsy types of entertainment, but some of what he read...resonated.

"...If they be two, they are two so

As stiff twin compasses are two;

Thy soul, the fix'd foot, makes no show

To move, but doth if th' other do.

And though it in the centre sit

Yet, when the other far doth roam,

It leans and harkens after it

And grows erect, as that comes home.

Such wilt thou be to me, who must

Like th' other foot, obliquely run..."

"Thy firmness makes my circle just," Peggy's soft voice jerked his attention away from the page. "And makes me end where I begun."

"Peggy?" Daniel dropped the book carelessly and brought his hand up to caress her cheek. For the first time in four days, her eyes were clear and met his without a hint of confusion or panic.

"Daniel," she acknowledged. "You enjoy Donne?" At his blank look, she prompted. "A Valediction Forbidding Mourning? The poem?"

"The..oh. No. Well, yeah, but no. I think Jarvis is the one who enjoys Donne. He left the book behind yesterday."

"Oh." Peggy seemed to take stock of the room and to inventory her own hurts. "I'm in hospital?" She verified. "How long?"

Daniel eased himself down to sit on the edge of her bed. "Four days," he sighed. "Do you remember what happened?"

She leaned back into her pillow, closing her eyes, and thinking. It didn't take long for her eyes to snap open. "The bomb!" Her right hand shot out and groped for his hand.

Daniel chuckled. Then he started to laugh. He shook the bed with his hearty guffaws, even as tears began to stream down his face. It took him too long to get himself under control, if Peggy's dismayed expression was anything to go by. Still, he managed to choke back the laughter that felt like sobs. Pulling a handkerchief from his pocket, he wiped his face and willed himself to calmness once again.

"Thanks to you," he began, "we discovered the bomb that Underwood rigged at my place. Kinlaw and Gomez were able to disarm it, and my home is safe again." He couldn't ignore how the tension left her body at his news. "Sweetheart, you've been trying to make sure that you got the message to me for the past four days." He leaned forward and placed a chaste kiss on her forehead, then leaned his own forehead against hers. "You scared the life outta me."

Peggy's eyes drifted closed at the contact. "I think I was dreaming," she admitted. "I was trying to find you, and each time I got close, you'd somehow disappear." Her hand came up and grasped the front of his shirt. "I thought...I thought I'd lost...failed you."

Daniel straightened up and brought a hand up to cover hers. "Peg, you could never fail me. I," he hesitated. "You humble me - so much effort to keep me safe, and I couldn't get to you in time. Forgive me?"

"Oh, Daniel," Peggy's eyes were damp, "there is nothing to forgive. You were watching over me, yes? While I was sleeping?"

Daniel looked away, feeling sheepish. "I...it was the only way I could make sure you were safe."

Peggy's curved into a small smile. "With you, I am safe." She reassured him.

Her eyes started to close, although she tried to keep them open, to stay awake and with Daniel. "Sleep now, Peggy." Daniel instructed. "I'll be here when you wake."

Obediently, Peggy closed her eyes and snuggled further down under the covers. "Love you, Daniel." She murmured sleepily.

She had never said the words before, and Daniel felt poleaxed. It was some time before he was able to speak past the lump in his throat. "Love you, too, my heart."

I want to apologize for how much exposition is in my writing. It is a goal of mine to work at reducing how much I rely on exposition. In this case, I wanted to (FINALLY) finish this chapter and story, so I used the tools I had on hand.

Thank you for reading. I hope that you enjoyed the escape. If you didn't, then I hope - at least - that you have been inspired to write your vision of lies ahead for these characters. Happy reading. Happy writing. - LL