A/N- This one shot was long overdue. This is based on a prompt by Serenity Shadowstar (thank you so much for it). This is my version of how things could possibly have gone had Peggy been injured in Russia. I hope you guys like it. Please tell me what you think of it!

None of these characters belong to me (sadly)

Jack Thompson was not a fainthearted man. He had been through a lot and seen horrors during the war. He had seen and done things that he would never be able to forgive himself for. The demons of his past hadn't let go of him, and judging by the events of the last hour, they weren't going to leave him anytime soon.

Jack Thompson sat beneath a tree, recounting the incident which had happened not an hour ago, remembering the way he froze when the sounds of gun shots filled the air, the familiar smell of gun powder, and the faces of those men…those men in Okinawa who had died at his hands. He remembered the overwhelming fear he felt when he heard the first round of bullets, he remembered feeling the need to escape, but he also remembered feeling paralyzed, knowing that he had to move but somehow feeling disconnected with his body entirely. He had made an effort to get up once, twice but his body wouldn't co-operate. He rubbed his temple, hating himself for displaying weakness, for huddling up behind a pillar while his comrades were getting shot. He hated himself for having to need someone's help, least of all Peggy Carter at that, to get up and get out of there.

While the memories were fuzzy when it came to what had actually happened when the fighting broke out, he recounted with perfect clarity how Peggy Carter had jumped over to his side, risking her own damn life, to help him. How her simple words had worked when nothing else had. It was time to go back to America, to face Dooley and discuss how horribly wrong this mission had gone. He wasn't sure if he could bear to tell Dooley of his cowardice.

He lifted up his hand to check the time, but realised that he was not wearing his watch. He had probably left it in the tent with his tactical gear. He got up and decided to go and have a look inside the tent.

As he entered the rather spacious tent, he was greeted by the sight of Peggy Carter in her black slip, with a pair of tweezers in her left hand, trying to pluck something that looked horribly familiar to a bullet wound. His normal response on seeing a woman in a state of partial undress would have been to avert his eyes immediately, but seeing her like that made him forget all sense of propriety and chivalry and he blurted "Carter, what the hell are you doing?"

Needless to say, Peggy Carter, whose attention had solely been on the wound immediately jumped out of the chair she was perched upon, dropping the pair of tweezers and quickly put on her coat that was lying next to her to face him. Looking scandalised, she said, "Agent Thompson, I realise that men at the SSR have no sense of privacy, but it still does not give you the right to simply barge in here and stare at me!"

"What kinda man do you take me for, Carter? I just came here to check if I had left my watch here somewhere, only to find you like this, with a pair of tweezers, trying to remove a bullet or somethin'!" he replied indignantly.

"It's nothing to concern yourself with" she replied, picking up the tweezers, "If only you could give me some privacy for the next few minutes, I'll be up and ready to go".

"What? Are you crazy? You get shot while tryin' to save my ass and you want me to leave you alone while you remove a bullet lodged in your shoulder?" he asked incredulously.

"Agent Thompson, I am perfectly capable of-" she began when he held up his hand to silence her.

"Yeah, you looked totally in control right before you squealed and dropped a sharp object" he said wryly, "Come on, let's not waste any more time, I am here so let me just help you get it over with"

Peggy was about to retort but thought better of it and resigned to rolling her eyes while handing him the tweezers as she sat on her chair, while Jack came to stand next to her.

"Come on, remove the coat Carter, I swear I won't be lewd" he smirked, "Unless, you know, you want me to be"

"One comment about my body and I swear, these tweezers will end up at an unfortunate location on your body" she muttered as she pulled her coat midway to her elbows.

"It's not quite deep, but I don't understand why you didn't say something before, or why you were planning to take it out by yourself" he said, as he looked at the wound, where the blood had recently been wiped off but was nonetheless beginning to appear again.

"It's nothing I can't handle. I know it's difficult for you to believe this, but trust me, I've faced far worse injuries during the war" she said.

He raised his eyebrows at her comment, choosing to say nothing as his hand gripped her injured shoulder. He remembered Dooley saying that most of Carter's work during the war was confidential, he hadn't paid much attention to it then, but now, he wondered what dangers she had been through during the war.

Having seen a bullet being removed and the pain it caused, he decided to distract her with conversation, "I don' get it Carter. You could have a perfectly normal life with some secretarial job, and you choose to come here and fight the Russians. Why is that?"

He could see her heave a sigh as she answered, "The answer to that is much too long for me to explain to you Agent Thompson. Suffice it to say that I felt that I had a responsibility to not only my country but also to someone else. And if you're just looking for ways to distract me while you take out the bullet, don't bother; I am used to this kind of pain"

He let out a small laugh at her words; she knew exactly what he was up to. Her words only made him more curious, and he continued "Now I am REALLY curious, tell me, we have time. Was it Rogers?"

"Contrary to what you believe, my life did not revolve around Steve Rogers." she retorted, irritation evident in her tone. Her voice grew quieter as she said "It was my brother Michael. He…" she paused, took a deep breath and continued "He died in the war. I was already working at the war office but he had once asked me to take on the S.O.E job. I'll admit I was rather doubtful at first, but when he passed away…I felt like I had to do it…for him. It's what he would have wanted"

Jack's hands, which had come to a halt while extracting the bullet as delicately as he could, resumed their work, as he spoke after a moment, "So, if it wasn't for him, you'd be married with kids right now?"

"Probably" she smiled briefly, "But Michael understood me in a way no one else, not even I myself could. He knew deep down, that this is what I would have wanted, to be the daring hero who saved the day rather than the princess who craved help"

She let out a small hiss of pain, as the bullet came out finally, while Jack tried to stop the blood flow with the cotton and bandage she had kept nearby.

"Sorry, I know it hurts but we're almost done" he said. His voice grew quieter as he spoke, "I uh…I wanted to thank you Carter, for what you did in there. I don't know what happened to me back there, I…. just couldn't get myself to move"

"Has it happened before?" she asked tentatively and he nodded briefly.

"It's alright, everybody freezes sometimes. You got up, that's what matters" she said, turning to look him directly in the eyes.

There was a long pause before he spoke, "They were carrying a white flag, the soldiers I shot in Okinawa. They were coming to surrender, and I shot them before I even realised what I was doing." He gulped, and continued, the pain evident in his voice, "I hid the flag before anyone had time to realise anything….Everybody thinks I am this person that I never was, and everyday it gets harder and harder to live with it" he finished, finally raising his eyes to meet hers.

Peggy was shocked to say the least, because of what he had confessed to and the fact that he had confessed it to her, of all people. She knew it mustn't have been easy to come clean for him, and yet here he was, the golden boy, the ideal soldier, broken by the war like the rest of them, a man who was fighting his own demons, trying to forget the horrific things he did. She didn't know how to respond, so she simply took one of his hands in hers and held it while saying, "It's going to be alright Jack, it'll take time, but you'll be alright".

They both just looked at each other, each one seeing the other in a whole new light, neither of them needing words to communicate the fact that this simple conversation had broken down the barriers that existed between them.

Jack glanced briefly at their intertwined fingers, and said "Peggy, I just want to say sorry-" when they were interrupted by the booming voice of Dum Dum Dugan, "Come on Peg, your plane's all ready to leave. And do you know where Thompson went? Ramirez is looking for him"

Both of them quickly let go of their hands, as Peggy quickly got up and put on her coat and said "I'll be right out, Agent Thompson and I were just looking for his watch" With one final look at Jack, she said, "Come on Thompson, we need to leave" and went outside.

Jack stood there motionless for a minute, almost coming out of what felt like a reverie. He felt as if this was the first time he had come remotely close to actually knowing Peggy Carter. Till now she had just been Cap's girl, the glorified secretary of the SSR, with a fierce temper but nonetheless inferior to him and the rest of the men. He saw her bravery, her courage, her spirit, her compassion. He wanted to kick himself for not believing in this woman who risked her own life to save his, who must have done some rather dangerous work in the war if her retracted file were any indication.

It was then that Jack Thompson saw Peggy Carter in a new light, and decided to do whatever it takes to give her the respect she truly deserved.