A/N- This is a slightly longer chapter. It's all about Peggy and Jack:). I hope you guys like it. Let me know your opinion on it!
P.S-Some of you may think that the story is progressing too slowly, since I haven't made them kiss or anything like that, but come on guys, it's 1946. Things were slower back then! Still, a few intense yet fluffy cartson moments in this chapter! Feel free to suggest anything that comes to your mind!
The next morning, Peggy decided to go meet Angie at the diner since it had been a few days since they last met. As she was looking at what to order, she read the word bread somewhere on the menu. This poor man has not had a single piece of bread since this afternoon. This line suddenly popped into her head, reminding her of last night when she had the first glimpse of Jack Thompson's humorous side. Once again, the memory brought a smile to her face.
"Well, you look happy today, English! Any particular reason?" said Angie, appearing from behind the counter to greet Peggy.
"Oh no, it's nothing. I was just reminded of something funny."said Peggy, clearly trying to avoid mentioning the reason for her smile, because she knew that if she would have relayed to Angie what had happened last night, that would only make her think she was right all along. And Peggy could not have that since she and Jack had no feelings for each other. Well, I wouldn't say no feelings. We're friends...at least I think we are,she thought.
"Alright, don't tell me if you don't want to, but I am an actor Peggy, I know alllll about emotions. And the expression you have on your face right now, that secretive smile, that's the smile only a man can bring." Angie smirked, before continuing, "Don't worry, I'll wait for the time when you'll tell me yourself."
Glad that Angie was being understanding, Peggy decided to change the topic and soon both women were chitchatting about this and that until Peggy had to leave for office.
When she entered the SSR office about half an hour later, she was surprised to see Thompson sitting with a bunch of files spread on her desk. Why is he sitting on my chair, reading those files? She wondered. As she went ahead, she noticed Agent Sousa was nowhere to be seen, nor was Agent Smith, as a matter of fact.
As she opened her mouth to enquire why Thompson was at her desk, peering over files, without even glancing at her, Thompson said, "Sousa called a while ago. He won't be coming in today; his leg's giving him trouble. He said something about keeping a watch, so I decided I'll accompany you today" he finished.
Peggy, who had been expecting a much warmer greeting, felt annoyed. It was as if he was accompanying her to protect her, to make sure that the mission was going alright without Daniel accompanying her.
"Chief, might I remind you that I am perfectly capable-" she began.
"Yes Carter, I know you are perfectly capable of keeping a watch by yourself, but since I am Chief now, I get to decide who goes on which missions and with whom."he said.
"Of course, Chief. You're the boss" said Peggy, now absolutely annoyed with how the day was turning out to be. Of course Jack Thompson was back to his old pompous self. The guy she had dinner with yesterday, he seemed long gone now. He had been replaced by his arrogant, pompous self.
It's going to be a long day, thought Peggy.
Once they had reached their destination, which was the same alley as yesterday, Jack decided to start a conversation with Peggy, since they had spent the entire car ride in huffy silence.
"So, this is where you were all day? No wonder Sousa didn't want to come today. It smells like rotting fish" he said.
"Yes Chief" said Peggy, evidently trying to keep the annoyance out of her voice, "This was the only place we could keep a watch from, without being detected. Our mission seemed more important to us than concentrating on the smell of rotting fish" she retorted.
"Easy there! Why are you in such a bad mood today Carter?" he questioned.
"Nothing at all Chief" she said, with an emphasis on the word Chief.
"Look, if it's about the way I spoke to you this morning-"he started, when Peggy said, "You were just being yourself Chief, why would that bother me?"
"Listen Carter, I am the Chief now. I don't want people to think I've gone all soft. I am their boss and I need to act like it" he said.
"And you think acting like a pompous and arrogant toe rag, you'll be respected?"Peggy burst out, before she could stop herself.
To her utter surprise, Jack actually cracked a smile and said, "Only you, Carter, can have the guts to call your boss an arrogant toe rag right to his face."
He continued, "Look, I now realize I was a jerk. But just try and understand it from my point of view. I cannot show any signs of weakness in front of them. This Chief thing really is quite straining and quite boring if I might add".
Peggy, feeling a little less annoyed, now that he himself had admitted to being a jerk, said "Is that why you wanted to come out on a mission, Chief? To escape your apparently boring office life? "
"You know me well." He smiled, before adding, "Oh, and Carter, its okay if you want to call me Jack. Hearing you and Sousa calling me Chief is frankly odd. Though, for appearance's sake you could call me Agent Thompson in the office if that's okay? " he asked.
"Oh..umm..well I suppose so. It's going to take some time getting used to calling you Jack. And if you expect me to call you Jack, then I expect you'll use my first name as well. I do have a first name, you know." She smiled.
"Oh wait.. it's Marge, isn't it?" smirked Jack, knowing fully well how that name annoyed her.
"Call me that again and I will knock you out, like the last time. Remember that, Thompson? " said Peggy, with a straight face.
Jack chuckled, "Threatening the Chief of SSR in broad day light? " he said.
"Well, we're not at the SSR office right now, are we Jack? " said Peggy, with a very sweet smile etched on her face.
Jack only shook his head in return, once again amazed at her wit, and thinking that hearing her call him by his first name was not so bad after all.
2 hours later, both Peggy and Jack were slumped against the dirty walls of the alley, with no sign of the mysterious man. Both were about to give up hope when they suddenly saw a man emerge out of a car, headed straight for Grekov's shop. They couldn't see his face, but his profile didn't seem to match that of the man Grekov had described. This man was shorter, maybe 5'9 at the most, and was very lean in stature. Peggy thought his profile looked vaguely familiar but couldn't quite make up her mind as to how and why it was familiar.
Jack, who had been staring at the stranger, looked at Peggy and said, "I was thinking that we should wait for him to come out and follow him. He may be an ordinary customer but all the same, let's keep our eyes and ears open."
"Yes, Agent Thomp-I mean Jack, we should do that" replied Peggy.
They waited for a few minutes in silence, when the man came out of the shop, and his face was clearly visible. It was Agent Smith, the young lad who had been rather disinterested in the mission. Until now,thought Peggy. He was carrying a rather large package in his hands.
"That's Agent Smith. There is no way that he just stumbled upon this place. Something's going on here." Said Peggy.
"We'll follow him then. See where he goes. Maybe he'll lead us to this mysterious tall client of Grekov's."said Jack.
"Yes let's do that" said Peggy as they both set out to shadow Agent Smith, taking care not to be conspicuous.
They had been tailing him for about 10 minutes when Agent Smith stopped in front of a two storied building, and decided to check whether he had been followed. His eyes scanned the area, left and right. Despite having checked, he stood there for about 5 minutes until he was greeted by a tall, muscular man, who once again scanned the area for any intruders.
Meanwhile, in a small gap, wide enough to barely hold two people, stood Jack and Peggy, trying to conceal themselves from the two men who were barely 30 meters away. They had been in such a hurry to hide that they seemed to have ended up in a rather compromising position, with both of them facing each other, Jack's hand touching the wall opposite to him, precariously close to Peggy's waist, trying to sneak a peek at what was going on, and Peggy, with her hand on Jack's chest, trying to the same.
Both of them were completely unaware of their close proximity until Peggy leaned at bit more than was necessary, trying to get a good look at the two men and almost lost her balance. Jack's hand which had been resting right next to Peggy' waist quickly caught hold of her waist, preventing her from falling. At the same time, Peggy, in an attempt to grab on to something to avoid falling out of the place, had grabbed hold of one of Jack's suspenders.
While Peggy managed not to fall, both of them were suddenly aware of their close proximity, with Jack's hand on Peggy's waist and Peggy holding on to Jack's suspenders, their faces barely an inch from each other. Peggy's breath caught in her throat, with her heart beating wildly as her brain tried to make sense of it all. Wow his eyes are such a vibrant shade of blue ,she thought staring intently at him. Jack, who himself had been staring at her eyes, had still not let go of Peggy's waist. He didn't know why but her red lips, slightly parted now, looked so tempting. He could smell the faint scent of lavender, which was quite pleasant.
Wow, you smell nice, Peggy. Wait ,did I just say that out loud?
"You did." Said Peggy, who sounded surprisingly breathless as she said those words.
Her words however, seemed to have brought both of them to their senses and the brief spell was broken.
"Jack, I am alright now." Said Peggy.
"Yeah, I know" he replied.
"So, you can take your hand off my waist now" said Peggy.
"Oh umm yeah.. sure. Sorry" said Jack apologetically.
Deciding to change the subject Peggy took a quick sneak peak and said "They seem to have gone up that building. Should we go in?"she asked, with a note of apprehension.
"Let's, because God knows whether they'll be here tomorrow. I doubt there will be many of them inside, the building's not that big." Said Jack briskly.
"Alright, let's shoot only if we need to" she said, stepping out of that small space into the open with her gun in her hand, and Jack following.
They entered the building, with their guns ready to be used at a moment's notice. They knocked on the first door, which was on the first floor. As the door opened, they were greeted by Agent Smith, who, with one look at them, decided to attack.
Just as Jack threw open the door, Smith aimed a swift punch at Jack, hoping to knock him down, but missed. Peggy aimed a kick at his knees, making him fall on the ground. Suddenly, there was some movement inside.
'You go in, I'll deal with Smith" said Peggy to Jack.
Jack quickly went in to take a look. Meanwhile, Smith who had gotten back to his feet while Peggy had been talking to Jack, kicked Peggy in the gut and followed it with another punch to her forehead. Though the blow was quite painful, Peggy responded with a punch to his jaw, while he responded by aiming a kick. Just as he raised his leg to kick her, she grabbed hold of his foot and twisted it quite violently. Smith fell to the ground, moaning.
"Tell us who you're working for Smith, and this need not go on any further than it has to" said Peggy, twisting his arm behind his back.
Inside the room, Jack was dealing with the man Grekov had described- tall, muscular, with a broken nose. It turned out that this giant of a man was merely using his strength to fight, while Jack had tactics. Initially, the man had hurt Jack by kicking him in the stomach and then almost smashing his head into the wall, when at the last moment Thompson had managed to wangle out of his grip.
Thompson, though not asphysically powerful as the man, caught hold of the man's arm and twisted it. He then aimed a kick at the man's abdomen, which made the man lose his balance and fall on the ground. Finally, he punched him squarely on the side of his head, which made the giant of a man pass out on the floor. Just as he was dragging the man after having tied his hands with a rope he found in the room, he was greeted by Peggy, who seemed to have suffered a head injury which was bleeding.
"Oh my god are you alright? " she asked, concern evident in her tone.
"Me? Have you taken a look at yourself Peggy? You're bleeding!" said Jack, now swiftly moving forward to take a look at her wound.
"Oh, I am quite fine, it's not too deep. I tied up Smith. He has passed out. I also called the office, they're sending people to take both of them back to the SSR for interrogation. By the way, Thomp-Jack, how did you manage to overpower him?" asked Peggy.
"O ye, of little faith" said Jack. "I used my brains. This man had brawns but no brains to spare. So I won" he said, making Peggy smile.
20 minutes later they were at the SSR office, both Smith and the other man having been locked up for the night.
Peggy had been planning to leave, when she was greeted by Jack. She took a look at his jaw and said, "Let me take a look at your jaw, it seems bruised-", when Jack interrupted her.
"You're looking at me? Honestly Peggy, do you realize you still haven't patched up your head wound. No, wait here, I'll get the safety kit and I'll patch it up in a moment." He said and began looking for the box.
Normally Peggy would have declined the offer immediately, but once again, she sensed his concern and decided to let him do it for her. Less work for me, she thought.
As Jack cleaned her wound and applied a band aid, Peggy was thinking about the day they had had. Her initial annoyance, shadowing Smith, and the few moments in that tiny space where they had been in close proximity. He smelled kind of like pine, she thought. No, it was more than that, he smelled kind of.. like a man, that musty attractive scent. She smiled as she remembered what he had said about her smelling nice, he had beebn so embarrassed.
"What's so funny?" asked Jack, jolting her back to reality.
"Oh, nothing" she blushed, preferring not to mention that she'd been thinking of him. "I was just thinking of what a long day we've had" she said, which was not entirely a lie.
"I agree. We make quite a good time Cart-I mean Peggy." He smiled.
Peggy smiled back, and said, "I would have asked if you were clocking out for the day but given the huge pile of files I can see on your desk, I don't think you can".
"Yeah, quite right, I can't. Need to finish some of it at least" said Jack.
"I'll see you tomorrow then. Goodnight Jack, and take care" she said .
"Goodnight Peggy" Jack smiled.