agent rogers returns • j.thompson

begin again.

and for the first time
what's past is past

C A L I F O R N I A
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C H A R L O T T E

Peggy and I snuck to the waste management facility. The two of us knocked out anyone who stood in our way.

When we finally found Dr. Wilkes laying strapped to a table, I stood guard while Peggy freed him.

At his screams of agony, I cautiously stepped closer to the two. He was begging her to just get out of the building. Despite his pleads, Peggy assured him that she would not be leaving without him.

I led them out the door, Peggy close behind me with Dr. Wilkes. But when we turned around, Dr. Wilkes had locked us out.

I looked around anxiously, worried that someone else would hear Peggy banging on the door and yelling at him to open it.

"Go," he said finally, and Peggy obeyed. The two of us ran away to where we knew Daniel and Samberly would be waiting.

"Turn it on, turn it on now!" I heard Jack yell to Daniel as we approached them.

"You want us to trust you, then you pull this crap?"

"This isn't about trust. This is about making hard choices!"

"By killing an innocent person?!" Peggy exclaimed once we reached the boys.

"Not one person in there is innocent!"

"Jason Wilkes is!" She protested.

"I'm doing what needs to be done! What the three of you won't do!"

"By killing three people?"

"Vernon would've killed all of us the first chance he got!"

"Vernon masters should be brought to justice! Isn't that our job? Or is the SSR no longer in that business?"

"Well, it doesn't matter now. Whitney's taking care of him as we speak, with or without the bomb! And no one is gonna shed a tear if we blow Whitney Frost to kingdom come."

"And how does killing Wilkes fit into your moral prevarication?"

"Because he's more dangerous than all of them put together!" He yelled. "Samberly, whatever you did to the detonator, undo it."

"Jack, forget about it! This is over!"

He pulled his gun on Samberly and told him to fix it. Peggy and Daniel screamed 'no' together.

"He won't do it Samberly!" I called, but Samberly turned off the detonator already.

Peggy pulled her gun on Jack as he turned around.

"Put it down!"

I shut my eyes and pleaded for him not to do it under my breath.

"What, you gonna shoot me, Carter?"

"Listen to her, Jack," I pleaded.

"You won't. You can't. You don't have it in you."

"There was a time when that was true. Not anymore. Put the detonator down, Jack."

"Sorry Carter, gotta do it."

Before either of them could act, a blast knocked us all to the ground.

Peggy, Daniel, and I looked to him.

"Wasn't me. It's still armed," he shrugged.

All of us expect for Samberly went inside to see what happened. I refused to look at Jack, but I could still see that he was often looking at me.

Once we got inside, we noticed puddles of zero matter all over the place.

The gamma cannon was still intact, and almost looked untouched, even.

A light coughing coming from the ground turned out to be Dr. Wilkes. Peggy got down to help him, but he urged her to stay away.

"Peggy, it's not safe. I'm —"

"I think you're all right. How do you feel?"

"Weak. Sore. I'm... the zero matter. It... it's gone! I couldn't hold it anymore."

"It seems you've expelled it," Peggy observed. "Can you move?"

As Dr. Wilkes moved to get up, a heel emerged from under some rubble. The zero matter inched toward Whitney Frost as well.

"We got a problem," Jack said as he pointed his gun at her.

The crazed woman pushed the rubble off of her and pulled the zero matter into her.

"There," she said creepily. "Everything is where it belongs.

When Daniel pointed his gun at her as well, but Peggy dismissed him.

"We have to move. Now!" She ordered.

She helped Dr. Wilkes through the door. Jack ran ahead to help support Wilkes.

Daniel and I hurried behind them, looking back every so often to see if Whitney had emerged from the building or not.

When the mad woman finally emerged through the door, she creepily said, "You can run if you want, but why bother? I know where you're going, and it's only a matter of time until I find you."

We kept hurrying forward, ignoring her threats.

"You honestly thought that I —"

She was cut off by screeching tires. She was knocked out cold by Howard's yellow car, driven by Mr. Jarvis.

Both of their heads popped out at the same time.

"Jarvis, you just hit a woman with my car!" Howard exclaimed.

"I know, sir."

"She's a two-time Oscar nominee."

"Miss Frost is quite resilient. She's fine. Trust me."

Samberly emerged behind them and honked the horn of his navy blue car.

Peggy and Jason joined Jarvis and Howard, while Daniel, Jack, and I got in the car with Samberly.

Daniel sat in the passenger seat, leaving me stuck in the back with Jack.

"Charlotte, I'm —"

"What the hell were you thinking?!"

"I was thinking about us! All of us!"

"Not Dr. Wilkes! You saw him in there, finally free from zero matter! You would've killed him! And you went behind our backs."

"I was trying to do what no one else would. We all would've died if Whitney Frost was not stopped."

I sighed deeply. I knew he was right, he just went about stopping her the wrong way.

"I trust you, Charlotte. I trust you completely. I know you probably don't trust me after what I pulled, and I'm willing to accept that. I just want you to know that I'll do whatever it takes to earn your trust back."

I looked over to him, and I could tell by the look in his eyes that he was fully serious.

But at the moment, I had nothing yet to say. I kept turning his words over in my head.

He finally could say the three words that would have kept me in New York with him. I trust you.

I stayed silent but reached out for his injured hand again. He placed the bandaged hand in mine and looked at me while I studied it.

"What happened to your hand anyway?" I asked quietly.

"Dottie Underwood's face," he replied.

I nodded slightly and held it gently. For the rest of the car ride, I stayed silently holding his hand and looking out the window.

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Quick a/n: is this actually how he got his hand hurt?? I've rewatched a bunch of scenes and it seems like his hand was bandaged after knocking out Dottie. If anyone has more insight, please let me know lol