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Four

Juliette walks downstairs at the griffith only to see Angie next to a familiar face.

"Peggy?? Hi!" She says happily and goes over "You moving in?"

"Just had an interview with Miriam" Peggy gave a half hearted smile and Jules links arms with her.

"Isn't she a delight?" Juliette said sarcastically making the other two laugh a little.

"You two know each other?" Angie asked with a toothy grin.

"Co-workers and friends" Peggy said and Jules nodded.

☆☆☆☆☆

He had to say bye. Just in case. So Bucky walked over to the tent Juliette and Peggy shared "Hey, Ju, you in h..." Bucky trails off when he sees her, half way throught putting a dress on.

"BARNES OH SHI-" she practically screamed and Bucky took that as his cue to face the other way and cover his eyes.

"Sorry. Me and Steve were just about to head out on a mission with the howlies, wanted to say bye" He breathlessly muttered. His heart was pounding out of his chest at a thousand miles per hour "Can I turn around now?"

"Yep" Jules said, buttoning up the last button on her dark green dress.

He turned to her and smiled "Beautiful"

"I'd hope so" She grinned and hugged him, her hands snaking around his waist "Stay safe. Where you off to?"

"The usual stuff, but we're jumping onto a train this time" He chuckled nervously.

"Hope you enjoy that" She smiled. Few would have noticed the tremble in her tone but he did "You're my best friend, Barnes. Don't go dying on me"

"I wouldn't dream of it. Believe it or not I like living"

Juliette dramatically gasped "No way" sarcasm dripped from her tone but not maliciously.

The two shared a smile and he buried his face into her hair, the sweet smell of her perfume was intoxicating to him.

"Don't do anything stupid" He whispered.

"I'm not Steve, don't worry" She smiled and kisses his cheek.

He pressed a lingering kiss against her forehead and closed his eyes.

"Love you, asshole" She grinned. He knew she meant platonicly but his heart yearned for it to be something more.

"I love you" He said back, pressing quick little kisses around her face, making her turn red and let out a quiet laugh "I got something to tell you when I get back" his heart sped up as he thought about confessing.

"Why not now?" She pouted stubbornly, tugging on his jacket sleeve "Pleeeeaassee"

"Nope. See you then" He kissed her forehead one last time, savouring the moment and walked out the tent.

And that was the last time she saw him.

☆☆☆☆☆

The next day, Juliette knocked on Peggy's door. Since they worked together and now were living on the same floor, she figured she'd walk with her to work.

The walk was about 15 minutes through manhattan's busy streets and they got to the 'telephone company', making their way up the stairs.

Jules followed Peggy into the bullpen, secretly hoping to see Jack, not that she'd ever admit it.

Sousa, Dooley and Thompson all lent over Sousa's desk, looking at a picture. Juliette immediately felt Peggy tense up next to her.

The three men looked up from the desk "Carter, Johnson come here for a second" Dooley waved them over.

"How can we help, sir?" Juliette walked over with a smile that Peggy didn't share as she walked behind her.

"Come here, come here, come here" Dooley repeated, still calling them over "Settle a bet for us" He held the photo out infront of Peggy and Juliette's faces "That Joe DiMaggio?"

Peggy let out a sigh of relief "I don't follow boxing" She had a clearly forced smile as she glanced at Thompson and Sousa.

Juliette just shrugged silently, too invested in Peggy's strange attitude to actually pay attention.

Dooley starts laughing with Thompson and Sousa make displeased groans.

"I told you they wouldn't know who DiMaggio was"

"I still say it's him" Dooley said to Thompson before turning back to his office.

"Believe me, I think I'd know if I was in the same room as Joe Dimaggio" he called back.

Dooley turned back as he walked "How'd dya figure?"

"I would sense his presence" he look out some money, holding a few notes between his teeth and handing some over to Sousa, patting his back before following Chief.

Jack and Jules hadn't spoke much since the night Van Ert was interrogated. Juliette never tended to initiate conversation anyway but Jack was so confused by her. She was sending different signals every second they were in the same building. She asked him to ask her out, then said no when he asked again, then got worried about him and clung onto his hand for about 5 minutes.

Juliette Johnson was one confusing woman.

Peggy turned to Sousa "You bet against me? How could you be sure?"

"I wasn't. That's why they call it gambling" He smiled at her briefly and let out a soft chuckle that Peggy returned.

Juliette just watched the two, internally making a note to herself to find someone who'd make a bet on the two with her.

"Do you, um, spot anyone else?" Juliette heard Peggy ask just before going over to Chief's office.

"Can I help you, Johnson?" Dooley asked as her presence became known by him.

"Anyone interested in making a bet with me?" She grinned as she stepped in.

"Always" Jack flashed her his iconic smile and for some reason she had to physically stop her knees from buckling.

"What we betting on?" Dooley asked, sitting at his desk.

"Sousa and Carter" Juliette responded and immediately the two started laughing.

"No way, who'd trade in stars and stripes for...well Sousa" Jack scoffed.

"I would" Jules mumbled and the two men gave her a look. Her face flushed and she cleared her throat "So, I say 20 bucks she confesses first"

"You're on" Jack nodded.

"I'm not taking that bet, nice try Dr Johnson" Dooley said making Juliette smile. For once she felt somewhat respected, it was nice.

"I'll leave you to it then" She turned to leave the office, giving the two men a nod.

She passed Peggy and Sousa with a wave and went down to the lab.

☆☆☆☆☆

The next morning, Juliette woke up and immediately got dressed and made her way downstairs for breakfast. Breakfast at the Griffith usually sucked but she was pretty hungry in the mornings so there was no complaints from her.

She said down at the table, listening to people complain about powdered eggs and cold coffee, just the usual, as she took a bite of her bacon.

She tuned out the rest of the ladies and just sat there, eating her food. She missed having breakfast with Steve and Bucky. Jules and Steve used to go to the same little Café everyday and Bucky would come along every Monday before he was drafted.

She'd rip the bones from her body if it meant having one last breakfast with them.

She snapped out of her trance when she heard someone ask "You got a guy Peggy?"

"I'm afraid I'm married to my work at the moment"

"What about Mr. Fancy?" Angie pressed while smothering her toast in Jam.

"Who's that?" Peggy looked a little confused.

"You know, the guy I've seen around the auto-mat. Nice suit, nice car, nice shoulders"

"Margret Carter, something you'd like to share with me?" Juliette's mouth gaped involuntarily as turned to Peggy.

"Oh no, no. He's just a colleague" Peggy awkwardly cut in.

"Daniel isn't fancy" Juliette teased, earning her a disbelieving look from Peggy and a playful elbow to the ribs.

"Daniel? That his name?" Angie took a bite of her toast.

"It's not Daniel" Peggy assured.

"What?" Jules nose scrunched up as she concentrated "if not Sousa then who? Yauch? Don't tell me it's Krzeminski? Not Dooley right? Thompson? Oh God it isn't Thompson is it?" She was rambling she knew but she wanted to know so badly.

"It's not any of them. I have standards, Juliette"

"Jack isn't that bad" She mumbled but off Peggy's look she bit into her toast to avoid any further questioning from her friends.

"Good day, ladies. Early bird and all that" Peggy stood up "Meet you at the office Jules"

"Aight" Juliette nodded.

Before Peggy could leave Mirium cut in "Ah, Miss Carter, please sit. This will only be a moment." She announced in her creepily happy tone.

Peggy sat back down and Juliette shared a look with her.

Miriam began with her tangent, something about Harry Houdini but Jules found herself focusing on her cup of tea instead of Mirium's long monologue.

"But the one trick he could not pull off, was ascending the stairs" suddenly Mirium got very serious,angry but in a way where she clearly wanted to hide it so it come off as intimidating. Or as intimidating as she could be."It's a simple rule, ladies. No men above the first floor. Molly Bowen"

Molly head snapped up, and Juliette looked at the poor blonde who was about time be evicted.

"Please go to your room and pack you things" Miriam continued.

The ladies all gave Molly sympathetic looks as she stood up and looked at Miriam with begging eyes "Miss Fry, please-"

"I hope you had a splendid evening" Miriam cut in "because it will be your last at the Griffith." She pointed to the staircase and Molly went off to her room.

Juliette just tuned Miriam out as she continued. She felt so bad for Molly. She'd been a good neighbour. She was sweet, brought her coffee sometimes. Juliette would miss her.

Juliette snapped out of one of her many trances as Peggy stood up.

"No building is impenetrable" Peggy said as she grabbed her coat.

Jules got up, giving the girls a wave, and took her own coat, following Peggy out.

☆☆☆☆☆

It was January in 1945, the howling commandos, we're off on their mission as Howard and Juliette worked on something in the lab. It wasn't anything too significant, just something Howard had made up to get Jules' mind off the fact her best friends were doing god knows what far away.

The door quietly opened, Steve stood there, his eyes red and puffy and his cheeks wet from tears.

"Steve!" She smiled happily but seeing his tears made her smile drop "Are you okay? I didn't hear you guys get in, usually you're pretty loud I gotta sa-"

She was cut off by Steve hugging her tight, his face buried into her hair as he sobbed.

"I'm sorry Jules. He's gone" His voice croaked.

"That's not fucking funny" She pulled out of his hug "Where's Bucky?"

"Jules-"

"No!"

"Jules he's-"

"No!" Tears streamed down her face, everytime Steve tried to get out the words she'd scream at him to interrupt.

"He's gone Jules"

She froze. Sinking to the floor in tears "Liar" she whispered "Liar, where is he?"

He squated down next to her "Ju, I'm not lying"

"Liar!" She screamed, her vocal cords raw from her yells, tears running down her face.

Steve was crying too, his eyes red from crying.

"Jules I'm sorry"

"He's not gone. He's not gone" she kepts shaking her head.

"How did he..." Howard came over to them, trailing off his question.

"Don't you bloody answer that. I don't want to know because he's not gone" She kept yelling and crying.

Steve pulled her into a hug, her face buried into his chest as she sobbed. He sobbed too, clinging onto her.

Howard put a hand on their backs and half joined the hug on the floor.

"I'm so sorry, kid" He whispered to Jules.

'I guess I'll never know what he wanted to tell me' she thought to herself.

☆☆☆☆☆

Peggy disappeared by the time Jules got out. It was confusing but she assumed she was getting coffee of something.

She got into the SSR and sat at her desk in the lab, doing what she usually did, just busy work.

At around lunch, she went upstairs to see if Peggy was around. But she froze when she saw Edwin Jarvis being taken to an interrogation room.

She'd met Jarvis after the war, she didn't have anywhere to go so Howard let her stay with him. Of course, she'd moved into the Griffith after about a month of staying with Howard, but she'd grown pretty fond of the butler and his wife.

She stopped Jack from opening the door.

"Why is Jarvis here?"

"Hello Dr Johnson, its been a while" Jarvis smiled and Juliette gave him a brief hug.

"You know him?" Jack asked in confusion.

"Howard was my friend, let me stay with him but I moved out after a month." She said blankly then turned back to Jarvis "How's Ana?"

"She's good, she misses your walks an-"

"Dr Johnson, move. He's not here for a catch up he's here to be interrogated" Jack stepped to her, making her step back, now trapped between the door and him.

He heard her breathing get faster which made him smirk "Move, love"

She felt his breath on her cheek, making them redden "Don't hurt him" She put a hand on Jack's arm before walking into the observation room.

Jack and Jarvis walked into the room, sitting opposite each other.

When she got into the observation room Peggy walked in first.

"...missing-car report I filed"

Juliette heard Jarvis say as she entered, sitting down next to Sousa, Dooley standing next to her.

"That report might take us a while to dig up. You see the NYPD aren't as efficient as the SSR at record-keeping, which is saying something," Jack sat down, putting his coat on the back of his chair, putting his legs up on the table and rolling up his sleeves "Because our files are a wreck"

"That hurts, my filings impeccable" Daniel whispered to Juliette, making her snigger and slap her hand over her mouth.

"Isn't that Stark's butler?" Peggy asked. She was standing at the back of the room arms crossed.

"You know this guy?" Dooley turned to her.

"Only from a file" Peggy answered "Do you think he was really involved in the Roxxon implosion?"

Dooley faced the two sided mirror again "Well, maybe he didn't blow the place up, but he's capable of driving the getaway car"

Juliette turned back to listening to Jack interrogate Jarvis "It's funny. A lot of stuff gets stolen from Howard Stark. Cars, bombs, death rays."

"Actually the death rays accounted for. Its in Nevada, I believe"

"Hmm" Jack seemed unimpressed and slid a file over to Jarvis "Take a good look, we have reliable information that says that both of these men were in possession of some of your boss' missing doohickeys. And now they're dead"

Jarvis put on his glasses, looking at the pictures put infront of him "Oh what a pity" Jarvis sounded borderline smug "Sounds like you found out thieves"

"Unless, of course, they were working for your boss"

"Look at that, five minutes in and Thompson hasn't knocked out a single tooth" Daniel turned to Johnson and Dooley.

"Well, don't let this guy fool you. He may he a butler, butlers know powerful people. If we font play this just right, he'll have a dozen lawyers down here by lunch" Dooley leant against the table as he spoke.

"I don't doubt Edwin would do that if you touched him" Juliette's words reminded Dooley she was in the room.

Dooley turned to her "You getting buddy-buddy with Stark's butler, Doc?"

"After the war Howard let me live with him. Only about a month but long enough to know Ana and Edwin"

Peggy interrupted the conversation "What about the stolen car report?"

"Currently lost in the system" Dooley put a file down on the table infront of him.

"But if the care as actually stolen, we got nothing to use on him" Sousa added.

"We got something that'll rattle this limeys cage good"

Juliette looked down at the file infront of Dooley. The missing car report...

"Mr Starks on the run" Jack's words made Juliette look back at the interrogation.

"He is also" Jarvis said back, leaning on his elbows "an innocent man."

Jack turned to look at the observation room. Jules knew he couldn't see her but his gaze was right on where she sat. She felt heat rise to her cheeks but she looked away, only to see Spusa smirking at her reaction.

"Shut up" She groaned.

"Didn't say anything" he laughed to himself.

Jack turned back to Jarvis "I can see why he hired you. You're smart, cool-headed, extremely loyal, which is surprising, considering you were charged with treason"

The rest of Jack's words didnt make it to Juliette's ears as her thoughts were louder. She knew about this. About what he did for Ana. About how what he did was honorable not treasonous. But of course, the SSR didn't know the whole story.

She watched as Jarvis' calm face turned to a grimace.

She wasn't sure what Jack was saying, her mind over yelling faster than him, but when he mentioned the office of immigration its like it all froze.

"No..." she whispered under her breath. The Jarvis' didn't deserve that.

"Yeah I'm putting that on the table" Jack, handing were on Jarvis' shoulders "That'll be a fun conversation to have with the wife. Yeah?" He mocked Jarvis' accent "Honey, pack a bag, spot of bother. We're being deported."

Jarvis' expression turned rageful "You leave my wife out of this"

"You dragged her into it when you broke the law with your boss" Jack quipped immediately "You pay, she pays."

"He's about to fold" Jules heard Dooley mutter next to her.

"And admit what?" Peggy's voice echoed slightly.

"If I had my way, damn near everything. This guy washes Stark's underwear. He knows"

Peggy stood up and went over to the door "Hey its just getting good" Sousa turned to face her, Juliette turned too.

"I should get back to my station" Peggy said a little too fast before quickly leaving.

Juliette watched her go, giving her a look that begged her to save Jarvis. Peggy hadn't told her anything, but Juliette has a doctorate for a reason. She was perceptive about everyone other than herself.

Peggy came back a few minutes later. Juliette wasn't really paying her anymind, solely focused on Jack amd Jarvis.

Peggy came over, making Dooley sign something, then left the room again.

The absence of the missing car report was missed to Dooley and Sousa but Juliette saw. She smirked to herself and looked down at the empty spot.

"That's my cue" Dooley got up to go, Juliette and Sousa followed him.

As Jack stepped out, Dooley went over to swap with him.

Juliette couldn't get herself to listen to what they were saying, her mind wasn't with it today, she was in a daze from everything.

Jack looked at her briefly as she followed Sousa back into the observation room.

When Daniel and Juliette finally turned back to watch the interrogation, they saw Jarvis leaving and Jack and Dooley looking pissed.

☆☆☆☆☆

Jules sat on Daniels desk as she listened to Dooley yell at Peggy. Her leg bounced up and down as she anxiously gripped the desk.

"Jules, you know I love your company but you've barly been in the labs all day, do you not have any work?" Daniel looked up at her.

"I haven't been told to do anything so I don't. I'd rather see how Peggy is when she gets out of there" She anxiously looked through the glass at Peggy as she was being chastised.

She waved bye to Jarvis as she watched him being led out.

When Peggy got out, she jumped up and hugged her.

"I swear to god I'm gonna kill those stupid condescending bastards, say the word and I'll do it I got their addresses Peg, I'll-"

"It's alright Jules." She interrupted reassuringly but her eyes spoke volumes.

Juliette just sighed and gave her a side hug as they went over to Peggy's desk.

☆☆☆☆☆

Juliette stepped out of her room, seeing Angie storm away from Peggy's place and Peggy shut the door on Miriam and a happy looking blonde.

Shit she was pretty (A/N-I love fruit baskets)

"Ah Miss Johnson!" Miriam called out when she saw her "This is Miss Dorothy Underwood"

"Dottie" She blonde grinned and shook Juliettes hand.

"Juliette. Jules if you'd like. And it's Dr Johnson" She corrected Miriam.

"Nice to meet you Doc" Dottie said like a happy puppy.

She smiled back, but something about the blonde was off-putting "You too, Dottie"

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