Peggy had left the automat with the thought running through her head, not at all for the first time that it was cruel of her to ask Mr. Jarvis to refrain from speaking to Angie. Her only consolation was that she knew the butler's protective instincts to be as heightened as her own. He knowingly withheld Anna from the entire situation – and her other soulmates – in the same way that they were protecting Angie – through ensuring her ignorance – and for now that was just how it had to be.

What she hadn't counted on, however, was having to protect Mr. Jarvis from Thompson and Sousa.

Peggy didn't let her momentary panic show on her face when she heard her two soulmates outside Howard's home; this was either going to go well or go to h***. Either way, the two agents couldn't know she was here. So she ducked behind a potted plant and listened in as Mr. Jarvis opened the door.

"Good afternoon, gentlemen. How may I help you?" he asked cordially, finding two soulmates with the same phrase.

Jack nearly flinched when those words flew from the butler's mouth. No. No way. He couldn't have another relationship go down the toilet like the other two had so far… but he had to do his job.

He held up his photo I.D. saying politely, "Good afternoon. Agents Thompson and Sousa with the SSR."

The man didn't even blink, so maybe Jack was wrong and this man wasn't his soulmate… or Carter's for that matter? The maroon words on the inside of her right elbow were in plain sight whenever she wore something with short sleeves, and it hadn't taken him long to notice that the words had come from the same person.

But still, the greeting was common enough, right? Maybe he was letting his mind get away from him for no good reason? He sincerely hoped so.

"If you're looking for Mr. Stark, I'm afraid he's indefinitely unavailable," Mr. Jarvis said evenly.

"We're well aware of that, Mr. Jarvis," Sousa spoke up before asking, "That is your name, isn't it? Mr. Edwin Jarvis?"

Again, Mr. Jarvis didn't even blink. A part of Jack wanted to ask him outright if they were soulmates, but so far he hadn't acted like it, so he couldn't bring himself to do it. The job had to come first. Even if that meant arresting a man who just might turn out to be his soulmate. Even if that meant threatening said man – and his wife, as it turned out – with deportation, which only added to Jack's theory that he was speaking to his soulmate, given the pale blue words that zigzagged between his shoulder blades: Next time you consider threatening someone with deportation – don't!

Sitting there in that interrogation room, doing his job and making the eyes of the man who he was – thanks to those pale blue words – now sure was one of his soulmates fill with unconstrained hatred, he was nearly making himself sick with what he was capable of. Threatening a man was one thing, but threatening a woman, and to separate their marriage for that matter – he would be sent back to England and her to Hungary – that wasn't something he was proud of. He needed a drink – badly.

And that was before Carter did the noble thing and put herself on the line to get Mr. Jarvis out of the hot seat. Regardless of how that had flown directly over the chief's head, Jack noticed it in the way that Mr. Jarvis and Carter kept catching each other's eye in those split second glances that meant something – they meant that the two already knew each other, regardless of what Sousa said Carter had told the chief.

But after being such a monster towards Jarvis and Anna, he wasn't about to hurt another one of his soulmates today by selling her out to the chief. Keeping the secret meant that he had to play into the lie, though, had to be cruel to Carter when the chief reamed her out over her "mistake." Had to watch her gorgeous dark eyes shimmer with tears and do absolutely nothing about it.

He knew that she thought that he disliked her, but that wasn't true, not anymore. Nowadays he was more prone to hating himself than anyone else, he just didn't know how to fix it.

The minute he was alone outside the police station, Edwin began to tremble. Too close. That had been far too close. He had to protect Anna and Mr. Stark and Miss Carter, too, if only she would let him! However, instances like what had just happened inside the station with the stolen car report proved that there was no way that she was going to let him do that. And it also proved just how much she must feel something, platonic or not, for him, considering how badly she wanted to be respected among her coworkers, yet was willing to sacrifice herself like that. It was humbling to say the least.

He couldn't just continue to stand there on the sidewalk, he reminded himself, hailing a cab, knowing full well that Anna would see straight through him if he returned to her before he was calmed down. Maybe the ambiance of the L&L Automat – and getting a glimpse of Angie who continued to live a normal life, blissfully oblivious to her soulmates' struggles – would soothe him.

He gave the cabbie the address and sat back against the seat taking a deep breath and forcing himself to think on something beside what repercussions Miss Carter would be suffering this very moment. Unfortunately, his thoughts slid to Angie, as they had been getting prone to doing in his sporadic downtime of late.

The first set of words to appear on his body – Agent Sousa's, he knew now – had shown up when he was four. When he was six, he'd gotten two more sets of words – Thompson's green ones and unidentified navy ones. When yet another two soulmarks had appeared when he was seven, his parents had begun to panic, although – like any seven-year-old – he had been far from understanding the words' significance. At eight, he'd gotten a sixth set of words – his beloved Anna's. When he'd hit double digits without another set of words appearing, his poor parents had begun to relax.

They shouldn't have.