A/N: Pally The Second, made a good point in my chapter 12, that PTSD was not named that until 1980. So, this has been corrected, I'm so happy for your inputs, and feedback, and this story is alive because of you readers. You are my muse and inspiration.
Chapter 14
Howard was listening behind the door, next the room that Peggy and Jack was in.
"Uhm, sir is it wise to eavesdrop like that?" Jarvis stated nervously, before being ushed by Howard, who raised a finger at him. Before standing upright, facing Jarvis.
"You're right" he said and passed the crowd, only to return with a small device.
"I need better equipment than my ear, I've been dying to try this out." He said with a huge smile on his face, showing the excitement of a 5-year-old at Christmas. He placed a small device at the door and took on a pair of headphones.
"You knew! All his time" she said and threw a nearby vase towards him, Jack quickly ducked and it knocked on the door and smashed into a thousand pieces scattered all over the floor.
"Please no, not the vase, why? It had hand painted flowers on it" Mr. Jarvis muttered under his breath from behind the door.
"Marge… I" with Jack's quick reflexes he quickly grabbed the pillow she was going to throw and pulled it down.
"Stop it... I'm sorry I didn't know what to do" He admitted bluntly.
"Your brother made me promise him, and to be honest I didn't know if I could trust him… then" he reached out to take her hand, but she pulled it slowly out of his grip.
"You knew…. You are my husband!" she yelled with tears in her eyes, before placing the pillow down.
"I'm hearing I'm-so-full-of-it Thompson, and not my husband right now" she said glaring at him, which hurt him more than he dared to admit. She was mad at him, he had never felt like this before, not even when he used to make fun of her and make silly excuses to talk to her, by making her file something stupid, that he himself was quite capable of.
He then took a seat beside her on the bed, and took her hand gently and kissed it.
"I'm sorry Peggy, I didn't mean to hurt you, I know how much Michael means to you. But with the record that he had. I didn't think twice of your protection. With everything going on I was afraid that something made him turn against you. Like Fred."
He knew that he had gotten in touch of her rational side, when her facial expression softened.
She stayed silent for a moment, he made sense, well that was certainly something that had changed with him. Their relationship had changed so much during the years, from the day he told her about his heart wrecking memory from the war, to the day she fell in love with him.
On the other side of the door, Howard and the other had eavesdropped the whole conversation, Angie and Ana had tears in their eyes.
"He is so much not a moron anymore" Angie said and hit Ana lightly on the shoulder.
"I cannot agree with you more" She replied.
A sudden cough was heard behind them, a tall handsome young man stood behind them. His hair was smoothed to the side and he was wearing a dark blue suit and a white floral tie. He took of his dark blue fedora and held it with both of his hands, and pulled a smile.
"Oh, dear lord It's him, raised from the dead" Angie blurted.
"Well I do admit that my superiors probably did not see this coming" he stated jokingly, before they all quickly straightened their posture and presenting themselves.
Howard on the other hand was still glued to the door, eavesdropping like the little spy he was. Until the door abruptly it opened by Jack, looking at him with glaring eyes.
"You know no privacy, do you?"
Howard looked at him with innocence in his eyes and quickly pulled up a smile.
"Not the slightest, did you think that I got rich just by doing nothing?" he joked and straightened his vest and tie.
"Ah yes, I believe you have a guest, apparently me casa is everyone's casa today. But I'm in a good mood, Peg's is alive and I have a dame I need to see" he half joked and moved out of the way.
"I called him" Jack said after giving Peggy a gentle kiss on her forehead, before leaving the room.
"Beware… hormones" he whispered, while giving him a gentle reassuring clap on his shoulder.
"I heard that" Peggy yelled from the bed, and almost felt her heart drop when she saw Michael enter the room.
"You're alive" was all she managed to say after a few minutes of complete silence.
It was like all the feelings and the overwhelming emotions that had rushed through just disappeared. They just looked at each other for a minute or two, just studying how long it had been.
Finally, Michael drew a deep breath "I'm sorry" was all he could let escape from his mouth.
"I know" was all she dared to say, she was afraid that he was going to vanish into thin air. That it was all just a dream, and that she would be greatly disappointed, by the fact that he wasn't here and this was just an illusion.
"I hate you"
"I know"
Tears were forming in their eyes, and a small smile crept on their faces, Michael quickly rushed over to her side, giving her a tight hug.
"You cannot tell mother and father about this, I can't risk putting them in danger" Michael whispered to her, as he released his grip and pulled back to get a good look at her.
"And with your reputation following you, I must admit that I'm the least concerned about you. You were after all always the hero when we were children. Captain America, that must have been an adventure"
Peggy looked down a bit embarrassed and smiled.
"Words cannot describe it, but this is much more adventurous" She said looking down at her stomach.
"It's foreign, and I'm scared" she admitted without any hesitation.
"Oh, wait until they come out…." Peggy's eyes widened and she placed a hand above her chest.
"Excuse me?"
Michael straightened his posture and smiled softly.
"Two boys, one 5 and the other is just a few months old… or more like almost a year"
Peggy's smile grew even bigger, and they ended up talking their hearts out for the rest of the day, while the rest slowly popped in and out took peek at them. Respecting the much-needed space between the both.
Peggy then looked at him seriously with wonder in her eyes, Michael was silent, and looked down at his hands before turning his gaze back up at her.
"Peggy, I've heard that you have been blamed for some of the things that I have done and…"
Before he could finish his sentence, Peggy placed a hand on his should der and then on his cheek.
"I don't need to know more then I already do, it's our job to follow orders and do what we think is best, it's the way we have choose to live"
Michael let out a smile at his little sister, he was amazed of how much she had changed since her engagement with Fred.
"But I would like to hear who you work for now, because I want to make a better proposition" she said with a smile.
~S~
After a week Peggy had recovered somewhat from her injuries. Jack was not in complete agreement with Peggy nor the doctor, and was treating Peggy a tad too much like a porcelain doll, which made Peggy snap at him at times.
When she had entered the office with Jack at the SSR, she had feared the worse, mocking, probably also some absurd rumors with how she had gotten onto Jack's good side to get better assignments.
They stood in the elevator and she was wearing her pastel green jumpsuit, with a white shirt and a dark green tie. Jack was wearing a grey suite, and a floral tie. He was holding his jacket in his left arm, and holding his fedora with his right hand, but quickly switched, took picked up Peggy's hand and giving her a reassuring kiss on the back of her hand, before letting to.
"It's going to be fine…" He smiled gently at her, until she gave him the look.
"Okay somewhat fine" he suddenly remembered, how not long ago he was the one to judge her, and being more helpful to her reputation.
The elevator dinged and they both entered the bullpen with a pace that indicated how much and how long they had known each other. It was a natural pace, that they had gotten used to since their cover back in England.
They suddenly stopped in their tracks when they saw everyone gathered by the entrance. Peggy looked a bit suspicious, but could tell from the expressions on their faces that they had no intentions of mocking her. Jack on the other hand was about to lose his grip until she stopped him with a hand on his chest.
He stepped back a bit and Agent Wallace stepped through the crowd with a bouquet of flowers.
"Uhm… I just want to say on behalf of us all…. That we are SO SORRY PEGGY, we didn't mean any of the things that we said before." he said and stuck the bouquet forward. "Oh, and yes congratulations to you both from all of us"
Jack stood with his mouth open and eyes widened, his whole face was saying What the hell.
Peggy raised an eyebrow and took the bouquet and glanced back at Jack, before looking back at the crowd.
"Why thank you Agent Wallace, that's very nice of you. But I think that Chief Thompson would like for us to get back to work, nothing has changed" Just yet she thought to herself.
"Right, Chief?" Peggy said and turned slightly to look at her stunned husband. He had imagined the worse, not that Peggy hadn't also done that. But she was much better at keeping her poker face.
"Right, yes right, get back to work all of you, and thank you… good gracious that was weird" he mumbled the last part to himself, and under his breath, while dismissing them all with one hand.
They all rushed back to their desks, and Peggy slowly moved over to her own.
Suddenly a cough was heard behind them, Col. Phillips was standing behind them in his uniform smiling.
"Well It's good to see you both back in action, uhm a word with the both of you?" he half whispered.
"Yes, of course Col. Philips, let's go in my office" Jack said, and walked towards his office, while every head turned for every desk they passed and opened the door.
They reached Peggy's desk and Jack nudged her over, and she quickly entered the office.
Before closing the door, he coughed and everyone went back to what they were doing again.
"I had no intention to meet you here in the first place, but unfortunately the new HQ in New Jersey is not ready for us to move in yet. Also Dr. Zola had some serious demands on extra space for his research, however you got that man to join us is still… well yes" He said and glanced at Peggy and pointing his hat at her.
"Is there any news of the Zodiac? Of what I've heard our agents here haven't been successful of getting anything from Fred" Peggy stated bluntly, hurting Jack's ego just slightly, and giving him a look that said, you'll survive.
"Well we successfully found out that Sanders Industries, were correctly enough doing insurance fraud, but it wasn't for themselves, it was for the Zodiac has suspected. This is how they get funded, an effortless way to get access to money and to STARK weapons without any suspicious, that's why the SSR was so late to catching on." Col. Phillips said, standing up straight, and keeping his serious face.
Again, a mumbling Jack stood in the corner, Peggy looked at him and rolled her and couldn't help but letting out a chuckle at her husband.
"Then we need to catch them at a meeting, we need to expose them for who they are" Jack said firmly.
"If it was just that easy, what I've heard from our sources is that they are not just anyone, these people are a good mix of powerful and quite intelligent people. We can't just go in unprepared" Peggy's voice was calm and steady as she tried to calm Jack down, knowing his frustrations all too well.
Col. Phillips let out a smile, that almost made Jack and Peggy stumble in surprise.
"I hope you still like dancing Chief Thompson, because our source has let out that they have different dance clubs, which are also storage for the stolen STARK inventions. Apparently, they get stored there for a short amount of time, before it is all emptied and taken somewhere that we need to track."
"Well that doesn't sound so hard" Peggy said crossing her arms, until Col. Phillips turned to her with a stern face.
"You… do not get to go, I cannot protect an Agent who is carrying a child"
"Thank you, finally someone who is reasonable" Jack stated in pure relief.
Peggy stayed silent, and Jack knew that she was up to something.
"No... no no no no, don't even think about it" he said and pointed at her.
Peggy just opened her mouth, and shut it again, he knew that look on her face.
Col. Phillips, took on his hat and headed towards the door
"I do believe that you are capable of finding a solution without the help of your spouse, can I can't on you Chief Thompson" he said as he turned around and placed a hand on the door handle.
"Yes sir, of course" Jack said standing up right, saluting him.
"And you, I do believe that we have an understanding" he pointed at Peggy before exiting the door.
"Yes, of course"
"Peggy Carter… listening? Following orders?"
"Don't get any ideas" she said bluntly before exiting the door and walking out of Jack's office.
~S~
Jack was standing in the middle of the dance club, watching and observing while sipping his bourbon, and having a dull conversation with a dame. Until he almost choked in his drink seeing Peggy in a blonde wig, and in a simple satin red dress.
"Excuse me for a minute" he said and pushed passed her, hearing the young woman mumble something about being his loss.
He pulled Peggy away from the men she was talking to.
"Excuse me gentlemen, I owe this dame a dance" he said in a serious voice, which no one dared to argue with.
"What are you doing here? You are pregnant and should be resting" he whispered close to her ear.
"I'm pregnant, I'm not disabled" she stated bluntly keeping up with his pace.
"Give me one good reason not to be here" she said with a glare.
"Your pregnant" He murmured with annoyance and looked down at her stomach and back up at her.
She took her hand to tap lightly on her stomach and smiled.
"With great love from STARK industries, and I'm only 12 weeks I'm not even showing yet"
"Woman, you are not to reason with" Jack whispered with annoyance in his voice.
"You already knew that when you married me" she just stated the most obvious fact that he already knew, and couldn't exactly disagree on.
"Fine, let's be do something useful then" Jack said and started to observe his surroundings as she started to do the same.
"12 o'clock gorilla, two guns, smoker nicotine fingers." Jack said and dipped her, as she quickly got to see a muscular tall bald tall man, standing behind them, all the way across the room against a wall, next to an empty hallway.
"Regular smoker, probably every hour to 30 minutes, judging from the colour and the way he is licking his lips" she said as he pulled her back up again.
"It won't be long before he is on a break again."
"We should make a move soon" Jack whispered.
"Hmm this brings me back to London" Peggy whispered with a smile, and Jack pulled her into a long kiss, good gracious he just loved this woman so much that his heart could just burst.
A/N: A more gentle ending than the usual cliff hangers, I hope you enjoyed this chapter, and will keep reading and waiting for more. Remember to leave a review on your thoughts of the chapter, and I can't wait to write more about how S.H.I.E.L.D came to life.