One-shot drabble, no pairings, rated T for violence - yes, I am still working on the next 'Stirring the leaves' chapter, but I just wanted to write out this little brain-fart after watching this weeks Agent Carter :)

Agent Jack Thompson instantly had his gun raised as he stepped around the corner and saw the figure of a tall lady standing over a prone form. "Hey!" he shouted to get her attention, clicking the safety off his weapon – the woman turned to face him, all wide eyes and blonde curls. "Is that Peggy Carter?"

"Miss, for your own safety stand back," Souza said quickly, limping around Thompson to reach Peggy, who was slumped on the floor in the middle of the corridor, her eyes closed.

"Oh gosh mister, can you help?" the woman implored worriedly in a distinctly girlish, mid-western accent. "I think my friend Peggy must have fainted!"

"Careful," Thompson warned, keeping his gun trained downwards as Souza knelt to examine her, laying his crutch down on the floor and holstering his own gun. The other two Agent's joined them in the corridor, covering Peggy with their weapons – after what had happened at the diner they were not making the mistake of underestimating her again.

"Can you help?" the blonde woman asked, sounding mildly hysterical.

Souza nudged Peggy's hand, then shook her lightly by the wrist – there was no response. "She's out," he said, his voice a strange mixture of relief and surprise as he looked back up at Thompson.

"What happened?" Jack quickly asked the woman, barely even glancing at her as he kept his gun pointed downwards, lest Peggy come to.

"Oh I don't know, I just found her like this," she said. She was hovering by the wall, clearly worried and almost in tears.

She just … found her like this?

Slowly, Thompson raised his arm and pointed his gun at the blonde woman instead, bringing up his left hand to secure his grip on the weapon. The woman looked like she was about to faint, her eyes wide and fearful as she found herself on the business end of a pistol. "Oh - oh my gosh," she stuttered out, one hand fluttering to her heart.

"Jack, what the hell are you doing?" Souza asked swiftly from the floor, looking up at his colleague as if he had lost his mind.

"Hands where I can see them," Thompson ordered her, his gaze quickly scanning over the woman for a hint of a weapon.

"She's a lady, Jack," Souza protested heatedly. "You can't seriously think -"

"Carter's a lady too, and she took down three agents this morning," Thompson reminded him bluntly, knowing full well what Peggy was capable of, having seen it first hand scant days ago.

"Oh - oh please," the woman said with a hint of a sob, backing into a corner and looking genuinely terrified.

"You're scaring her," Souza said sternly, seemingly unable to believe that Jack had his gun trained on a demure, mid-western lady.

"That facility we found in Russia, training young women to be government operatives - Carter told the chief that she thought they had been deployed here," he explained, not taking his eyes off the woman, watching carefully for her reaction to his words. "I saw Carter in combat during our mission in Russia, she is not the fainting type," he drawled, remembering both her competence and her confidence while they were under heavy fire. He took a threatening step towards the woman, who was still shrinking back against the wall, betraying no hint that she understood what he was talking about – though now even Souza was eyeing her suspiciously. "So I am going to ask you again, Miss ... What happened here?"

There was a brief silence, interrupted by a faint moan from the floor. "She's coming around," Souza said, distracted, reaching down to lightly tap Peggy's cheek in an attempt to rouse her further.

It was then that Jack made his mistake; he took his eyes off the blonde woman to glance down at Carter.

He didn't even see what happened – pain exploded across the left side of his face, the same side that Peggy had socked earlier in the day with her impressive right-hook, and his gun was knocked out of his hand. His feet were swept out from under him and he hit the floor hard.

Then there were gunshots – the other two Agent's were firing. He blinked through the pain, his vision hazy, and saw the woman leaping over Carter's body, a small knife in her hand. She quickly and efficiently dealt with the two armed Agent's, slicing her blade across the throat of one and into the eye of another, deadly and agile, and then took off at a sprint down the corridor.

There was another, single gunshot – Jack turned to see Carter with his own gun in her hand, Her gaze was out of focus, her mouth slack, and she was leaning heavily on Souza - but her hand steady as anything as she bought down the assassin with a kill-shot straight to the back of the head.

Might not be the last you see of me for this fandom, I am completely in love with Agent Carter - if you do leave a review, answer me this, do you ship Peggy with anyone in the series?

:)