The statement visibly caught him off guard, and just like she had, he glanced behind her to make sure that the other passengers were asleep before he muttered, "Yeah, me too. Believe it or not, I don't always like being such a jerk."

"It is easier most of the time," she granted.

He chuckled mirthlessly. "It is that."

She leaned her head against the cool metal of the plane, asking, "What are we going to do with all of us, Jack?"

He shook his head hopelessly. "You tell me. I don't see a way to fix any of it on my end."

She didn't immediately realize that she had shifted onto her knees until she had already taken his hand in her own, staring into his eyes as she promised, "We will find a way, Jack. It may take time – quite honestly a lot of it – but there's a reason that we all have one another's words. We'll fix this, and each other, and we will be happy."

A still-sad smile turned up the corners of his mouth and she squeezed his hand, not knowing what else to do. This thing between them wasn't easy, but she knew that she felt something – and maybe he even was starting to feel something for her – and she had to believe that instinctual pull towards him – towards all of her soulmates – was worth fighting for.

Heart hammering, she did the one thing she could think of to seal her pledge to him, leaning in and giving him a careful kiss. He responded just as uncertainly, but there was still that connection there that made it feel right. But they were on the plane with far too many other people, so it wasn't like they could do anything more – even if they did know for sure that they wanted to. She broke the kiss, but so long as they were the only two awake, he didn't want to let her go and pulled her all but into his lap instead.

He needed the human contact to ground him, she realized, and laid her head on his shoulder, whispering, "I will fight for us – all of us – I promise."

And unlike with Steve and Bucky, she would win this time – for the five soulmates that she had left, regardless of what it cost her. Some way, somehow, she would see to it that her soulmates started meeting one another!

But they weren't supposed to start meeting like this! Then again, necessity was the mother of happenings... No, that wasn't how the saying went, but it proved true in Peggy's case because, honestly, considering her situation, Angie was her best bet – quite frankly, her only choice if she wanted to get out of this in one piece, or at all. Angie's apartment window was even open; it wasn't like Peggy was going to get a clearer invitation than that! Until, of course, Angie stuck her head out the window.

The blue-eyed girl gasped, asking with concern, "Peggy, what on earth are you doing?"

Peggy looked at her apologetically, but before she could answer, Thompson called out from the other side of Angie's apartment door. "Martinelli! Federal agents! We have some questions for you!"

Angie looked towards the door and then slowly back towards Peggy, a million questions swimming in her eyes as Peggy said softly, "They're here for me."

Angie's mouth pressed into a thin, disgruntled line that meant that Peggy would soon have a lot of explaining to do, but when Thompson continued calling out, "Miss Martinelli, open up!" she shut the window and went to answer the door, going to meet two more of her soulmates.

Daniel's gaze slipped right over the pretty brunette that was Angie Martinelli as she opened the door – then she said, "Huh, you don't look like federal agents."

Now why the heck wasn't he surprised! Yet another soulmate bond that was probably going to go up in flames thanks to Peggy Carter!

"We're with the Strategic Scientific Reserve," he replied in a clipped tone, not even feeling like trying at the moment – which probably meant that he was going to regret it later.

At least the pesky landlady took it upon herself to inform Angie of the situation before Daniel could properly notice – and be distracted by – how pretty his youngest soulmate was.

Thompson leaned against the wall and said while Daniel looked over the small apartment, "Mother hen here says you're friends with Peggy Carter."

Daniel bit back against telling Thompson that he thought the two women were in fact soulmates; he would find out for himself soon enough… apparently in the form of Angie's unfazed reply of "Yeah, we're friendly."

"She ever tell you about her work?" Daniel asked.

By now both he and Thompson knew the drill of putting aside the soulmate connection for later – only if it somehow remained possible after what had so far been some pretty horrible first encounters – that they could seamlessly pretend to be unruffled in a room full of their coworkers. But Daniel was suspicious about the fact that Angie seemed to be playing that game so well too. It either meant that they weren't soulmates… or that she was hiding something.

And if she had developed a loyalty to Carter, he was betting on the latter, which made him sharper in his tone towards Angie even as he allowed himself to physically step closer to her – as close as he dared to, in fact, with "mother hen" hovering behind her still.

Then his soulmate started to cry – ostensibly over Carter's "sick grandmother."

"Oh, gee, um…" Daniel looked helplessly over his shoulder at Thompson, who suddenly looked just as spooked and out of his element as Daniel felt.

Thompson stammered, "Please, don't. Do that."

Daniel tried his hardest not to do something horribly unforgivable – like laugh – when she began to ramble about hers and Carter's respective grandmothers. However, when Thompson carefully approached only for Angie to fling herself into the blond man's arms, Daniel felt his mood shift to something that couldn't possibly jealousy – even if Angie just might be exactly what he'd been hoping for when he talked to Carter about their soulmates the day after Krzeminski's death.