agent rogers returns • j.thompson

i forgot that you existed.

i forgot that you existed
it isn't love, it isn't hate
it's just indifference

N E W  Y O R K
—
P E G G Y

"Dorothy Underwood, you're under arrest," I said, cocking a gun inside the vault and pointing it at her.

She raised her hands, a surprised smirk on her features.

Just outside the vault, Jack Thompson signalled for the rest of our team to raise their weapons.

"We are the SSR! Lower your weapons," he called on top of a table.

"You heard the man," I said cooly to Dottie.

With a smirk still plastered on her face, she slowly set her gun on the floor. As she stood up, she sent a swift kick at the man to her left, getting the action started.

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

Daniel Sousa and I stepped out of his rich green car in the Los Angeles heat.

Daniel limped behind the homicide Detective.

I was distractedly trailing them, looking up at the palm trees, my eyes shaded with a pair of sunglasses gifted to me from Peggy.

I was brought back to reality at the mention of the Lady of the Lake killer. The Detective explained that they found another body similar to the ones found last year in the exact same lake.

"So why was the SSR called in?"

"If it were up to me, you'd be working on your tan right now, but our lieutenant's got a bee in his bonnet about jurisdiction... Hottest day of the year right?" He turned to Daniel and I. "Only the lake don't know it."

I gaped at the frozen lake, and I even reached up to tilt my glasses for a better look.

After we got a good look at the lake, the detective motioned for us to follow him.

He showed us a block of the ice with a girl frozen inside. I gripped Daniel's arm as I leaned over the block to get a better look.

What did we have on our hands?

N E W  Y O R K
—
P E G G Y

I stood confidently in front of Dottie in an interrogation room and firmly listed the things she was to tell me.

When she questioned my technique, I took the handcuffs off and told her I was not afraid of her.

She still had that creepy smirk on her face, like it was permanently stuck.

When I placed a pin found in the vault down in front of her and asked her what it was, she looked up at me with the smirk and said, "Peg, we both know there are currencies stronger than money."

Only a few moments later, I was called into the next room by Thompson.

"Are you trying to undermine this interrogation?"

The man frustrated me to no end.

Especially when he told me I was 'done here.'

"What? Why?"

"We caught a high-profile case that needs eyeballs with experience."

"Well give it to someone else. No one knows Dottie better than I do. We lived right next to each other."

"Yeah, and you had no idea she was a spy," he said pointedly.

"You already sent Charlotte to LA—"

"I didn't send her there, Marge. She chose to leave. Besides, Sousa asked for you and no one else."

Oh..

"Did he?"

"Yeah. It's a real burden being everybody's favorite agent, isn't it?"

I rolled my eyes. "If this is about your insecurity, Chief Thompson, then I suggest you deal with it on your own time. Don't sabotage our first real chance at uncovering Dottie's true agenda."

"Carter," he stood up with a dick-ish look on his face. "Believe it or not, the SSR can actually function without you once in a while."

I all but laughed out loud when he told me he'd take on interrogating Dottie.

"She isn't afraid of you!"

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

"Was that Thompson on the phone?" I asked Daniel with a scoff.

"Yes, Charlotte, it was. You know, what happened between you two anyway?"

"C'mon, you know I don't like to talk about it," I groaned.

"I just want some insider information! What kind of friend am I if you can't confide in me about your relationship troubles."

I sighed, but decided to indulge him a bit.

"Things were just different between us. He was becoming too focused on work, I guess. Starting fresh in LA, even if only for a little bit, just sounded like a better idea each day."

At my confession, he frowned and reached out to comfortingly pat my shoulder. In my time in LA, Daniel and I have become much closer as friends. Perhaps it was because we were both running away from someone important in our lives.

"Anyway, what did the oaf want?" I asked, trying to mask my hope.

"I actually asked him for another man, for backup."

"And what did he say?" I smirked.

"He told me he'd send someone."

"So Peggy is coming?!"

"What? No!"

"Daniel Sousa, what were the exact words he used?"

He looked at me with a look that told me he was catching on.

"'I-I have just the man...' Oh god."

I squealed with excitement. I missed my best friend so much.

Surfing with Rose, meeting up with Howard every so often, and doing the standard agent work with Daniel was all good fun, but I knew a real adventure was upon us if Peggy Carter was coming to town.