[Jack Thompson] (The things they don't know about) Miss Tonya

[ 1 7 : t h e - F l e e t m a s t e r - b u m p e r ]

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Warnings: Mentions of weapons, the aftermath of unspecified violence, mention of an explosion and victims of said explosion

Spoilers: Agent Carter Season 1

[☆]

Tonya didn't like being left out of things, especially when she had every right to join in. It wasn't easy to convince people of that right, but Howard had always helped, so it hurt twice as much when he had been the one depriving her of it. So, when he returned, she made sure she was ready and waiting to give him the piece of her mind he had left too quickly to receive when he earned it. He came marching into the room with an uncharacteristically sullen look on his face, but her irritation towards the man that had been building up inside her for days blinded her to this fact.

"You don't let me come with you and then you don't even call to tell me about it?" she snapped, as he stared around the workshop like she wasn't even there. "'We're in this together, Ton'... 'I'll make sure you never get left behind, Ton'... so how come it's okay for you to leave me behind, hm? Because, personally, I don't think–"

She cut herself short, not because her words were falling on deaf ears, but because when she had begun to pace frustratedly towards him, she had caught sight of the darkening bruise on one side of his face. Gaping at him as she came to a halt, her eyes widened when he finally turned to look at her properly.

"What happened to your face?"

Howard didn't answer her. Instead, he looked away from her again and began gathering pieces of half-finished inventions and boxing up those that were completed and waiting on multiple worksurfaces.

"We've got to hide them, Ton." he said shortly after a minute, offering no other kind of explanation.

She frowned and started following him in his crazed tour of the room. "Hide what? Howard, what are you talking about?" No answer again, and so she took hold of his arm as he reached for another of their projects. "Howard, what–?"

He wheeled around so suddenly that she jumped and let go of the arm she had grabbed onto. "I don't regret for a second not letting you come with me on that plane," he snapped, though she somehow realised that his fury wasn't meant for her. "I sure as hell wish I hadn't gone myself, but I'm glad I did, because it made me understand."

He took hold of her shoulders like he did when he was trying to be genuine. Howard's sincere moments were rare, even rarer between the two of them, but she always found herself appreciating the times when he tried to reassure of things in this way; she didn't need streams of empty promises or nonsense lies that she was supposed to take for truth; she just needed her brother giving her a few simple words and she always knew in a heartbeat that he was right – she only had to look at him as he faced her.

But she hardly recognised the man in front of her now as her own brother. She had seen him serious before, but the look on his face now was so solemn that it was barely his own. It terrified her, and maybe that was what had made her listen to him, despite the easy assurance she'd been hoping for when his hands had grasped her shoulders.

"We can't trust anyone, okay, Ton? They only need us to make the stuff; they don't care what we say they should or shouldn't do with it, even though we know better than anyone. I won't stand for that and if you're still the kind of person I think you are, then I know you agree with me."

The shock had worn off as her words sank in and she didn't even hesitate with her reply. "Of course, I do, Howard. So, what are we going to do?"