Don't You Worry Child

Dirt and Roses

Chapter Summary: One of the final steps in the plan goes wrong when somebody tries to assassinate the President but is it all just a ploy to distract Samantha?

Soundtrack: Dirt and Roses by Rise Against

Sat on her plastic chair behind the podium, nerves rattled Samantha. Not the kind of nerves she'd gotten when doing the chat shows but full on pre-speech 'about to vomit' nerves. She'd never spoken in front of so many people before. She'd chosen a tweed Oscar De La Renta shift dress, paired it with a royal blue Alexander McQueen blazer and royal blue Jimmy Choo pointed pumps. Her hair was up in a demure chignon held in place by a few bobby pins only visible to the trained eye. Members of the National Historical Society were in attendance sat to her left and right, the President himself sat in the centre of the row of people, Secret Service agents stood at all corners of the blocked off area. S.H.I.E.L.D. agents were on the rooftops of the surrounding buildings ready to leap into action if the need should arise.

Her father, Pepper and Steve sat in the front row of the audience, each with supportive, reassuring smiles for her. She was thankful for their presence, Pepper had even taken the day off work to be there for her.

Breathing in, she stood up as she approached the podium, her heels clicking. She had a hold of her diary – her grandmother's diary – and she placed it on the podium. "War is a terrible thing," she began "There is no way we can deny that. But why, I ask you, are men the only people recognized for their efforts? I'm not pleading for the housewives who began work in munitions factories to be recognized. I'm merely asking a question. Because there are women who helped to fight behind the scenes in the FBI, the CIA, even the military. There's an old saying that behind every great man, there is a great woman and you can think of Annie Lennox and Aretha Franklin all you want but I am certain that that is true, at least to some extent. Behind my father stands Pepper Potts. Behind my grandfather stood my grandmother Maria and it is her words I'd like to borrow today," she held up the diary like a minister holds up a bible during an impassioned sermon. "This is her diary from the year 1943, the year she met my grandfather, and she writes about this amazing woman, a woman who died recently, Peggy Carter," she put the diary back on the podium and opened it to the bookmarked page.

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10th March 1943

Today was a rough day. I say that a lot but never have I felt that it was completely true until today. It started pleasantly enough. I was told to give the two new girls, Peggy and Lorraine, a tour of the base. Apparently, they worked on one of those top secret government projects but they've been reassigned here so they can help.

Lorraine seems alright, a bit too focussed on the male soldiers on base but that's by the by in a place like this. Peggy, on the other hand, is something different entirely. First off, she's British so all the guys love her but she doesn't seem to care. I heard a story that she was in love with one of the guys she worked with on the project she was on but he died, it would explain a lot starting with her apparent death wish.

We were doing the tour when Germans stormed the base. Peggy made Lorraine and I hide in a nearby storage closet but she made it known that she wanted to face the Germans head on. They arrive and they start shouting things at her in German, my German is very rough but I know enough to know what was being said. They were such horrible things about how she was a woman doing a man's job but, somehow, she didn't let them get to her. Instead, she shot them, a bullet through each of their skulls. Truth is, I don't know whether to be impressed or scared by her. She seemed so calm afterwards, running through the paces we are trained to do. Impressed, that's my decision, I'll be impressed by Peggy until such a time that she gives me reason to be scared.