The moment we got back, I was rushed to a medical room in the SSR. Doctors properly fixed me up while having to deal with the Chief getting pissed off at me. I didn't feel like I deserved to be yelled at, but I wasn't going to bring that up. He was extremely mad at me, saying I was "careless" and he "should't have agreed to this in the first place." Frank wasn't very happy either when Chief Dooley told him what happened. But I didn't entirely care; all I cared about was that we got somewhere.

No, we didn't get somewhere on the mission, but I got somewhere with Jack. Neither of us decided to talk about what happened over there yet, but I hoped that we would soon. Peggy's words stuck around in my mind for the two days I spent recovering in the SSR before I was told to recover at home.

My recovery at home was for two days before I went insane and decided to go back to work in the SSR building. It was against Chief's orders, yes, but I couldn't stand being in my apartment all the time. Peggy was the only thing keeping me grounded there and she wasn't even there most of the time. For breakfasts and dinners, Peggy would help me down and help me grab food since I struggled to walk on my own. Others would ask what was wrong, and I just brushed it off as a twisted ankle.

Today, even with my inability to walk very far very fast, I was going to work. Peggy told me about a lead she was chasing today. It had to do with the Russian girl that attacked us, and how maybe some of the older ones were brought to the US. I had no idea how this connected to the Stark case we were working on, but she was adamant on it. All that to say I'm on my own this morning.

I made sure to leave very early so I could get to the office at a good time. When I did, I caught Sousa looking stressed at his desk. "What's the matter?" I asked him as I moved to sit at my own.

He looked up, surprised to see me. "What are you doing back from recovery so early? I was told you had to spend at least a week at home," he questioned me back.

"I was immensely bored sitting in my apartment doing nothing, so I decided to come back a little early. Now, back to my question."

Daniel sighed and sat up a bit, bringing his elbows to the desk and putting his face in his hands. "I have something on the Stark case that I really don't like, and hopefully it's nothing. I'm thinking about going out to check with a witness to see if he can confirm my suspicion."

As he spoke, I nodded a long and tried to forget the fact that he was being very vague with me. "Well, if I were you, I'd go check on that guy a bit faster. If it means a lot to the case then it's best to figure it out now and get going," I said, hoping it was good advice.

He nodded, and it looked like he already knew that's what he had to do, he just really didn't want to. Whatever it was, seemed to be really hard for him for some reason. I didn't get a chance to push because he got up and left.

I sat and stared at the pile of files on my desk, and sighed. Of course, I was the one who wanted to come here and get out of my apartment, but at the same time I didn't want to sit and do files for hours and hours. My mission to Russia really got me high on getting out and doing real missions again. Yes, I got shot and also reopened my other GSW, but it was so great to be out and doing real field work.

At this point it would be a true miracle if I ever went out on the field again.

My thoughts rampaged around my mind as I started getting to work on closing some random files. I picked different files out of the stack, trying to give myself some fun and mystery to my day of sitting at a desk. It felt like hours of doing boring file work before Daniel came hurrying back into the office.

I looked up him with a small smile, ready to ask him how it went, but his face told me it wasn't very good. Or, maybe it was. So his expression didn't tell me a thing, but I was going to find out. "Hey," I called out, stopping him from continuing into the Chief's office. "What happened?"

"Looks like I was right," he said, the grim expression remaining on his face. He was moving fast, so I didn't get a chance to ask him to clarify. Again. I couldn't hear what he said to the Chief, but then they had a pretty good conversation.

When it was over, the two came out and Chief Dooley started barking out orders. Daniel went over to Jack first, and the two talked. Jack was confused, then a grim expression of his own fell on his face. I kept looking at the two as they continued to quietly talk, ignoring the Chief's orders in the background.

I picked back up on his words when I heard him say my name, and turned around to see him looking at me. "What the hell are you doing here? I told you a week at home at the least, and it was barely two days!"

"That's on me," Daniel said, stopping me from stumbling out some sad little excuse. "I asked her to come in just in case my hunch was right. She can talk to her a lot more effectively then any of us can." Inside I was very confused as to who the other girl was, my only other thought being Peggy, but on the outside I was very calm and just nodded along.

Chief Dooley didn't comment any further and moved on to shout out more orders. Daniel pointed to the exit, so I got up and followed him out. We went down to a completely different room and went inside to see Jack already there and waiting.

He second the door shut, I turned to Daniel. "What the hell is going on?" I asked in a harsh whisper.

The two men shared a look and then Daniel looked back at me. "Were you and Agent Carter doing anything related to the Stark case?" he asked. I couldn't stop my confusion from coming out onto my face. "Okay, so I think that is a no."

"Wait, hold on, what happened with Peggy and the Stark case? And you- and you think I'm involved? I- what?" I stumbled out. Daniel looked to the ground and looked very upset by this. I turned to look at Jack who wasn't as torn up as Daniel, but still looked hurt by this. "Jack?"

He looked at me and sighed. "We have reason to believe she is working with Stark to cover up the fact that he was selling weapons under the table. There's a lot of proof that we're going off of here," he added on, noticing my look of disbelief.

I didn't believe Peggy would ever do something like this. Sure, I haven't known her for that long, but she is devoted to the SSR and helping this country. There is no way she would help see extremely powerful weapons to our enemies. However, I couldn't say any of this out loud. The men in here would quickly think I am working with her and that wouldn't go well.

So I nodded. "What do we have to do?"

~~

Jack and Daniel know Peggy well enough that she would quickly get out of the diner and make her escape. So most of the agents went in there, while us three waited outside. Jack was first, then Daniel, and then me as a last resort. I was still injured, so I couldn't be put through any high stress situations.

There was some noise and some talking, and then I saw Peggy hurry to where I stood. I had my gun in my hand, but I refused to put it up and point it at her. She looked a bit surprised to see me standing there, and put her hands up slightly. When I made no move to move my gun to point at her, she lowered her hands.

"What are you doing, Peggy?" I asked in a whisper.

She sighed lightly and moved her hair out of her face. "So you all came to stop me. To take me in a prisoner?" she asked. It almost sounded like she was hurt, and that in turn hurt me.

Standing my ground, I said, "I thought we friends. You were nice to me... you fought for me to come to Russia on that mission. Please don't tell me it was all a lie. Please don't tell me that everything I did to help you was to help commit treason. And please do not tell me that you acted like a friend to me." Tear were coming to my eyes but I pushed them back along with my emotions.

Peggy didn't move in any way, just sat there and looked at me. "There's so much more to this. Please let me go," she begged. "I'm not the enemy here. The real one is getting away and getting away fast- I need to go catch them... Please let me go, Tiffany."

I wanted to, because I believed her. Some optimistic little part of me said that this really was all a misunderstanding, and that she was a good guy. That part of me won. "Just kick me in the stomach or something... I'll stay down," I whispered.

There was a bit of hesitation before she kicked me. At least she kicked me on the side that I wasn't wounded. I went down to the ground in a coughing fit as she ran away. Even though she didn't hit it, my GSWs still ached from the coughs and the fall.

Jack came running over to me and helped me up. "You okay?" he asked, and I nodded lightly. Daniel was a few paces behind, and came up a second later. Jack turned to us and sighed. "We have to get her... she just took down an entire team of men from DC, meaning she could very well be labeled as dangerous. Where would she be going?"

It was thinking time. I had a thought right away, but kept it to myself. Daniel, however, had the same thought as I did and decided to voice it. "Her place, the Griffith. You live there too, don't you Tiffany?"

The two turned to me, and I had to nod my head. "I can take us there-"

"No," Jack interrupted. "You need to go back to the SSR and make sure everything it okay." He gestured down to my stomach where I had gotten kicked. So far, no blood. "You can just give us the address and we will go, okay?" he asked.

The way he spoke felt different. He wasn't being patronizing, saying that I wouldn't be able to handle this. Instead he was worried about me and wanting me to make sure I wasn't injured any further. It was sweet, and I really hoped I wasn't reading too far into the situation.

And yet, I couldn't do it. "Okay, I'll write down the address." The two of them didn't wait a second before taking the paper and hurrying off to a car. But what I wrote was not the address to the Griffith, it was a completely random building that was on the other side of town. Hopefully this could buy me time to talk to Peggy and beg her to come in without a fight. Well, without another one.

~~

At the Griffith, I was on Peggy's heels. She had just run up the stairs, and so I followed her quietly until we got to her room. I stopped the door just before it closed, and pushed myself in. She turned around to see me, surprised. I closed the door behind me and walked up to her.

"Peggy, please. We don't have that long before Jack and Daniel realize the address I gave them was bogus," I said. "So now it's time for you to please explain this to me."

There was a moment of silence, then Peggy started to move around quickly again. She had a tan bag over her shoulder and then went to move a painting off the wall. There was some exposed brick there, and when she removed those she pulled out a green orb. "Peggy?" I asked, unsure of where this was going.

She turned around to me as she placed the orb in her bag. "Tiffany I didn't mean to hurt you. I just..." she trailed off. "I can't explain any of this right now. Please believe me when I say I'm on your side and that I don't want to fight you."

I let out a groan of frustration. "Peggy please stop being so cryptic and just explain this all to me!"

It looked like she was genuinely in pain when she said, "I'm so sorry but I can't."

"Fine," I said. "I won't bring you back with me, but I also can't defend you against them. I'm not involved and I am going to stay out of this."

Without another word or question, I turned around and walked out of her room. I left the floor, went down to the lobby, and was ready to leave. Dottie, however, stopped me on my way. "Well hey there, what's wrong?" she asked. Her voice was so sweet and innocent that it hurt my ears. "You look all sad."

I gave her the best smile I could and shook my head. "I'm doing alright, Dot, just have to go back to work. Thought I had the day off but they called me in last minute."

She gave me a small wave and a smile as I walked out. SSR cars were pulling up to the building as I was leaving. None of the agents said anything to me as I got into a taxi and went back to the SSR.

A/n: Aaaaaaaand I think I'll stop the updating for today here. Can't wait to see what happens next! You've made it past the halfway point, meaning the end is in sight! Well, it will be once I post the rest of these chapters tomorrow.

Like I've mentioned in the other chapters, I'd appreciate a vote and comment!