Back to You [An Endgame Continuation]

False Truths

§Ｆａｌｓｅ Ｔｒｕｔｈｓ§
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p.o.v: Peggy

Frigid unforgiving wind pressed against the windows of the antique store, making the pillars in the foundation creak in protest. An innocent tinkle of the bells above the door welcomed Steve and I in, and we escaped the cold only to walk into an overwhelming stench of cigarette smoke. You didn't have to look too far to see the source of the fumes, for a small plump elderly woman was practically eclipsed in a cloud of smoke not ten feet ahead of us, her cigar dangling between her fingers underneath her sour expression.

My eyes started to sting from the air as we reluctantly stepped up to the woman. The smoke swirled in the reflection of the her reading glasses, and when we got close enough, the smile she gave me was sickly sweet. "Good morning," she exhaled after taking a puff. She looked down to peer at me through her glasses. "Good day for a picnic, isn't it?"

Bloody hell, I forgot about this. They must've changed the password after the HYDRA agent got in a couple years back. I felt Steve stiffen beside me, and my mind automatically started formulating a plan of attack. The woman is hiding a machine gun, but if I take her out it'll give Steve time to get to Zola and bring him back to—

Then I heard a voice ever so low in my ear. "Yes, but only if there's rhubarb pie," Howard had enunciated into my earpiece barely loud enough for me to hear.

My mind cleared and I prayed that my expression remained unchanged. My voice was smooth and unsuspecting. "Yes," I said with a dry smile. "But only if there's rhubarb pie."

The woman that seemed to look like a poker player rather than an antique store owner smiled again, and it was so haunting that it made my stomach twist like I had eaten a piece of rotten fruit. She bent down slightly to press a disclosed button, and the doors disguised as book shelves opened inwards to reveal a beige hallway that showed SHIELD agents walking to and fro. At least that much had remained the same.

"Thank you, Howard," I muttered as Steve and I made our way towards the back.

"Yep. That's why you bring someone like me, along."

I smiled warmly, and when I turned to look at Steve, he was already looking at me and whipped his head forward before I could see. We walked into the hallway where various agents wearing the SHIELD symbol were walking in and out of different offices, and the fact that some of these people could be feigning their loyalty made me feel as suffocated as standing in that antique store.

I must've been going blue in the face as a result because I felt Steve's large hand cup the small of my back, and he moved his head down towards my neck. "Relax. No one suspects a thing," he reminded me, and I felt the tenseness in my shoulders loosen. I turned to look at him, and the look in his eyes both grounded me and made me weightless at the same time. I swallowed and nodded, although when his hand left my back, I wanted so desperately for it to stay there.

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Steve and I stood silent in the white-washed interrogation room, levels below any of the commotion happening above. Any small sound carried and bounced off the walls like you were in a swimming pool, and when I coughed, I would hear the sound for what felt like minutes.

However, it felt like years as we waited for Zola to be brought in. We had asked one of the agents to go get him, but they warned us that he was in the middle of an experiment.

"I believe this is urgent enough," I explained smoothly to the balding man, and with a stiff nod and a shift of the eyes to the ground, he settled off. I pressed the cracked down arrow on the elevator that stood at the end of the hallway.