|
*
NOW
The wide eyed blonde barrels through the man in the suit with the black glasses, sending him flying into a food stand. He runs down the street. Fast. Really fast. Faster than the cars on the street. People turn to look at him, clad in a tight fitting white t-shirt that looks a couple sizes too small, and some tight pants that hug around the muscles in his legs. They reach only the lower calf.
"Breaker breaker we got a situation!"
"Eagle is on Broadway! I repeat, the EAGLE is on Broadway!"
There's some additional radio chatter that squelches confusingly, but you can make out, a '"Holy shit" in there somewhere.
ONE WEEK AGO
The pings have become monotonous to the ears of Jacques Cousteau, and he no longer pays them any worry. The Frenchman's eyes are trained on the outside of the mini submarine, looking for the wildlife of the sea, as always. He and his crew have come a very long way to study the marine animals of the arctic.
His eyebrows come together and he radios something in.
"Je ne sais pas. Cette une fuselage d'un airplane, peut-etre? Amenons les plongeurs. Nous devons donner un meilleur vue."
LAST NIGHT
Encased in a thick block of ice, the body of Captain America sits peacefully in death. It's hard to see with the refracted light, but through the ice Steve Rogers seems to look like he died at rest.
The ice block sits upon the table under heat lamps, creating a large puddle on the floor. The SHIELD agents don't care. From the body of Steve Rogers they will likely be able to, they hope, replicate the super soldier serum to give them a leg up on both the Communists and HYDRA.
"Well, Melvin, not much we can do here," says Stan. Melvin nods, "I think by the time he's melted out it should be morning. We can head home and get some shut eye and do the autopsy afterwards."
"Not much we really need to do. I mean, "Dead by Airplane Crash" is pretty much a given."
Stan gives a little bit of a cough. "Hey, we should probably keep it tight lipped around Carter. She and this guy had a thing back in the day."
Melvin shrugs his shoulders, "Hey, that was a long time ago."
NOW
Broadway is thick with commuters on their morning way into work. Both by car and by foot, the street is filling up, which both helps and hurts the blonde man in his attempt to get away. He has no idea where he is. Clearly it's some futuristic city, perhaps Wakanda. Although there are far too many white faces, he thinks. Maybe he's been taken to the Soviet Union, and that the propaganda about what the Communist world was like was actually not propaganda at all. Funny, all of the signs wouldn't be in English, then.
He tears under a movie theater, just below a sign that says "It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World" on the marquee. The poster says it's starring Spencer Tracy; Steve had always been a fan of his films, but the guy on the other poster looks way too old to be Spencer Tracy.
*
It's Times Square. There's people about. There's bound to be trouble, right? So Teddy's hanging out. He's got a large cup of some soda, and is in a simple pale yellow oversized shirt and pair of khaki's, but is otherwise just sorta hanging out. Over there, watching people, right? Right.
*
Off to Washington. Off to fight with bureaucrats about something none of them seem to remember or understand. Off to maybe not scream (because she's a woman and no one listens to her when she screams) but to speak firmly and with passion to probably deaf ears. The fact her daughter wanted to come see her to the train was one of the nicest parts of the day. So, Peggy, Michaela and Victoria are all walking down the street from the subway towards Mickey's favourite breafkast cafe where they'll all eat and then it's off to Penn Station and the train. Peggy is holding one of Mickey's hands and Victoria the other, because that's just sensible in Times' Square, event his hour of the morning.
"I'll only be gone two days, hopefully. Your father will be home at night, but you need to be good for Victoria, alright? You promised me. That's why we're getting crepes." Of course Peggy Carter's daughter knows what Crepes are — she's a five year old of the world and crepes are damn well delicious.
Then, suddenly, there is a half naked man in his tightie whities streaking down the block like his life was on the line. Peggy's eyes go wide and she immediately inserts her body between child, nanny and the running man. It's protective and instinctive. Her free hand reaches for her gun, but something makes her stop.
*
Victoria Stackpoole is holding one of Mickey's other hands. She's recently gotten a job at Peggy Carter's new nanny, and has found it a surprisingly refreshing change of pace. And Mickey is so cute. So she's holding the little girl's other hand, and heading with Peggy to a breakfast cafe, keeping a careful eye out. She always keeps a careful eye out. She smiles down at Mickey to see her reaction to crepes.
When Peggy Carter suddenly moves, its with a speed that outpaces her own. She's no trained agent, and may be good with details and patterns, but that doesn't trump Peggy's experience. So Peggy is much faster. Victoria, however, moves to keep her hands firmly on Mickey, lest she suddenly dart off, or need to be picked up and carried away. But her eyes are calculating, and watchful.
*
Brian was having a cup of tea and going over some reports when all hell broke loose. Well, not really hell. A bit of shouting is all. And then lots and lots of comm traffic which took him several minutes to get calmed down and find out what the hell happened. Needless to say, he's startled. "Steve?" He's used to making quick decisions so the first thing he does is go to the closet to change. It's not long before a convertible with a SHIELD agent behind the wheel is racing after the fleeing man with Union Jack standing on the seat with a hand on the front windshield.
*
A man in an outrageous red coat and red glasses comes out of a shop carrying a medium-sized paper bag. He's immediately accosted by a vagrant who begs for some change. "I don't want to… didn't I give you a buck ten minutes ago?" Simon complains, irritated. "Get outta my way." he says, moving past the man, but a step or two away he turns back with a sigh. "Fine. Here." and he hands the bag over to the bum who looks inside and find a bounty: two cartons of cigarettes and a bottle of booze. "Don't say I never gave you anything." and Simon moves on again. As he does, a man missing a few clothes runs by, and not long after a car with a costumed loony atop it is following. "Huh. I love New York." Still, he notes the older lady, the younger lady and the child and frowns, converned. He strolls in that direction, just in case.
*
Teddy stops, and stares. He's here looking for trouble, and while he's pretty sure a nearly naked— hey, and pretty well fit together one at that, hmm— FOCUS TEDDY— while he's pretty sure a nearly naked man running around is technically trouble? He's also pretty sure its not his kind of trouble. So he just watches the guy for awhile. Just in case. You know. He turns into a giant ant. And not at all to admire any particular attributes that are on display.
*
Steve blows right by Teddy as his fight and flight risk controls every fiber of his being. His blue eyes dart around to try and find a vehicle, with no luck. He can tell most of these people are civilians, and wants no harm to come to them. They can't be held responsible for their government's actions.
Steve goes from the sidewalk out onto the road and takes an abrupt left.
As he does so, a pair of SHIELD agents who hit him with some sort of electric netting. Steve lets loose a scream, and then tears the net in two. SHIELD agent number one gets an elbow to the face, while the second one is knocked out in one swing with a left-hand cross!
*
That instinctive hand reaches into Peggy's jacket and her gun is halfway drawn before she even fully realizes what is going on. Then she recognizes some of her own agents. "Bloody nora." She breathes out, replacing her gun and trying to talk her brain out of the fact that she swears they are chasing the impossible. But no one is using lethal force, so that is good.
"Mum. Bad word." Mickey is utterly unphased, but perhaps that's what she gets for being the child of two SHIELD agents. Peggy just smirks and leans down, immediately scooping up Michaela beneath her arms and handing her straight to Victoria, "That's work. Take her. Get her inside if you can." Peggy wouldn't admit it in front of her daughter, but the look in her eyes is enough to tell Victoria that she actually has NO CLUE what is going on, and that's even worse than it'd be if she was informed. It's bad when the director is in the dark.
*
"Do NOT, I repeat DO NOT engage." Brian transmits on the agency's comm system. "Get ahead of him and try to slow him down so I can catch up." Steve might be on foot but he's fast and the car is busy speeding around cars and dodging lanes. Though it all, the costumed figured just balances left or right, forward or back in answer to the car's maneuvering.
*
Hey! Now THAT's some supervillain activity right there, oh yes it is. Only supervillians have uhh. Electric nets. Right? Tossing his soda with a mental command to remember to come back and grab it and throw it away properly, Teddy moves in towards Steve and his attackers, "Hey, you —" He hasn't really worked out a good witty reportaire yet, that's on his todo list, "Leave the guy alone!" He's just kinda nudeish. No need to electrocute him or anything. Damn supervillains.
*
Complexity takes Mickey from Peggy's grasp, giving another glance towards the rapidly escalating scene. "Alright." she replies, her eyes darting from Peggy towards the scene. A hundred small details flit through her mind, and she comes to a rapid conclusion. "I think your agents are trying to capture Captain America. Apparently he's alive." She then takes Mickey and runs off in the other direction, looking for a secure-seeming building.
*
Men… G-men no doubt… throw a net at the underwear-clad man and he shouts, then beats two men down. Simon sighs. "I was hoping he was just out for a run." The girl and the smaller girl run off to safety, but that doesn't mean that everyone is safe. Traffic is already stopped, so he hoofs it towards the melee. Surely there's something he can do to keep the carnage to a minimum?
*
"Hey, you, kid," Steve says to the young blonde man who is taking his side in all of this. "You know a quick way out of here? We won't last long against these thugs. I've got to get back to America!" Steve realizes there's a family who have come out to take pictures, providing him with an opening. He grabs Teddy by the hand, beckoning him to come with. "Come on!"
Steve leaps into the car and steps on the gas, burning away from the two G-Men who he laid out. Having a vehicle should give him an advantage.
*
Does the guy look familiar? Teddy's pretty sure he looks familiar. But he doesn't really have time to process that, because his hand is grabbed and the next thing he knows, he's in a car, and driving away. "Hey, uhh, don't get me wrong I'm totally on your team against the supervillians trying to capture you but two things! One! Turn left up there! Two! This is America. Already. New York City. America. United States Of! Do you need a safehouse or something?" He tries to think of a proper safehouse, "I live in Queens?" is his only quick suggestion.
*
And Peggy is off. She might not have super soldier serum in her but, dammit, she can run in a pair of high heels like no one else. Instead of pulling out her gun, she pulls out one of her communicators and slips it in her ear, turning it on to a screech of panicked traffic across the signal, too chaotic to actually tell her ANYTHING of what is going on. She's running like a man woman in Steve's direction, as she watches more SHIELD agents go down like bowling pins. As she gets within about two dozen feet, she breathes out, "…Steve…" And, for once in her life, shock might actually knock her off her game. She slows down a minute, almost stumbling, before her run renews it's energy and she yells, far louder: "STEVE!"
This is the moment that Victoria Stackpool is going to find out that children are secretly boneless jelly fish with attention spans barely better than most golden retrievers. Because, while Mickey had got the fact that her mom was worried, now her mom was worried and RUNNING and suddenly Mickey is bonelessly wiggling right out of Victoria's arms and starting to take off after her mother, "NO! Mom! You didn't say goodbye!" She's screeching with the tone of voice that says she's on the edge of a breakdown. It might be the first time she's ever watches her mother run into an emergency and the little, dark haired girl is NOT taking it well. She's also dashing across a busy city street that is already quite chaotic.
*
Damn it. He's got a car. "Take out the tires IF and only if you have a clean shot." Brian instructs. "His reflexes are good enough he should be able keep the kid he took with him from being injured. Anyone who hits a civilian get busted down to janitor." Still he gained some ground before Steve managed to find a car. And is that Peggy?
*
'Oh god!' Victoria thinks to herself, as the chaotic little child squirms, cephalopod-like, out of her grasp and into the busy street. There is a brief moment of total panic where she reflects on the incredible ability of rampaging children to get themselves into horrible trouble - and then her mind starts working. The velocity of cars, the direction of the wind, the motion of Mickey, the flashing of the streetlights, the local stopsigns…all of these go through her marvelous and mutant mind and are processed in an instant.
Victoria moves through the city street - even more chaotic and deadly then usual - with a precision usually reserved for those with superspeed. She stops just before cars would hit her, and passes inches ahead of a bus. The traffic near her and Mickey suddenly….shifts, as she moves across it. One car slows down, and another stops behind it. An intersection blocks up. And within a few moments, traffic across the area comes to a screetching halt, as a thousand variables all suddenly shift, and traffic for several blocks screetches to even more of a halt then usual.
Victoria makes a dive for Mickey. "Oh no you don't!" and tries to grab her. The traffic of a city block? Thats easy. A single upset child? Completely powerless.
*
"Hey. Hey!" Simon shouts after the man takes a hostage and then steals a car. He also starts running - he's fast, very fast, and has a good chance to catch up to the car, even if the traffic doesn't make it difficult for the stolen car to go flat out. The plan: reach the car and grab the rear fender. What he _should_ do is lift the back wheels off the ground, but he hasn't thought that through. "One side." he says as he passes Peggy.
*
The agent who rolls with Union Jack takes aim an dfires two shots towards the vehicle in question. He's a trained professional of course.
"This is America? Son, are you crazy?" Steve asks, incredulous. He curses as the cars above him all pull to a stop and, just as he hears someone in the distance call his first name, there's a double-bang, causing him to flinch, half sure the rear window will burst into a million pieces.
The car comes to a halt, just as Simon catches up to it and SHIELD agents approach the car with weapons drawn.
*
"Hey, you know, I can fly?" Teddy offers, a little shyly, just a little, "I mean, I can fly us. Away. If you want. You know. To SAFETY. In Queens." He doesn't usually tell people that, not when he's not green, but there's something familiar, and besides, supervillians were after this guy. Clearly that means he's good news. Then the car comes to a halt? And Teddy has to save the day. The supervillians almost HAVE THEM. Suddenly he's growing, turning green, pressing against the ceiling, and with a creek, he's ripping the entire top of the car off to fling it away and go all Hulkling with a sudden roar. Not just the normal Hulkling, either, but Hulkling complete with a pair of huge leather wings that blur out of his body. He extends one giant hand to Steve in offering, his expression all that kid with a grin despite being on a huge body.
*
As aware as she often is, Peggy's full attention is on the impossible in front of her. Blonde and perfect, the oversized version of that skinny young man she met so long ago, her brain is a skipping record at the moment as she just keeps running, trying to catch up with Steve even as he fliches fro the bands. She yells, louder than before, not certain if those bangs were guns or worse, but it's the director's voice now booming across the scene and she sure as HELL expects to be listened to now, "HOLD YOUR FIRE. Union Jack. On me. Disable any bloody idiot who even thinks about firing a god-damned weapon!" Hopefully she's close enough and loud enougn now to be heard and recognised, because she is NOT joking about those orders.
The clueless little girl, completely unaware that her nanny has stopped an entire block of city traffic for her, is squirming in Victoria's arms again, tears largely welling in her eyes as she tries to reach out in her mother's direction, "…Yelling, she's yelling, they're bad… Tell them to stop being bad…" Oh, Victoria is about ten seconds from a full on mini-Carter meltdown in her arms.
*
As traffic comes to a sudden screeching halt, the driver slams on the brakes sending Brian flying forward. Well, diving might be closer since that's what it looks like. He does one full rotation in the air before coming down feet first on the roof of a car ahead of him. Rolling forward onto the hood, he's back on his feet and running forward leaping from car to car. "Captain!" he shouts. "Steve!"
*
Victoria has no idea what to do with Mickey in a temper tantrum. Cute Mickey? Sure. Troublsome little munchkin? Sure. TODDLER SCREAMING IN A TANTRUM? ….not a clue. "Mickey!" she says softly, but firmly. "If you want your crepes you have to be a good girl. If we go inside, your mother will follow us soon." And she attempts to carry Mickey straight into the nearest building. Doesn't even matter what it is. People are shooting! No place for a child, even one worried about her mother.
*
"Let the kid go." Simon says, putting on his 'gritty gunslinger' voice. that was to Steve. "Get out of…" he starts to say to Teddy but the guy suddenly turns into a giant winged creature. "Whoa!" Reflexes kick in, he's not so sure who the bad guy is at this point, so he leaps at Hulkling, intending to slam into the monster and knock him away from the (possibly not normal) human the creature is reaching for.
*
Steve grabs hold of Teddy's hand and nods in one of those epic, adventure movie nods, as if to say: This is it. Crazy or not, the kid can get them out of here. "If we get to Queens we can get to Brooklyn." Just as he's about ready to take flight, a man from nowhere moves to run headlong into Teddy, breaking the green being and the Star Spangled Avenger's grip.
"Kid!" Steve exclaims, not wanting this innocent bystander to fall to HYDRA. There was another kid who fell to HYDRA, and Steve couldn't bear seeing it happen to someone else because of him.
Steve leaps upon Simon and begins pummeling him about the face, throat, and shoulders with mighty swings. The punches hit, and hit hard, but do no damage other than to bloody Steve's knuckles. "Let the kid go!"
Over his shoulder, Steve can hear Peggy and Union Jack, but he just keeps punching, punching hard in hopes he can at least turn Simon's attention toward him and not the kid. "Run!" he yells to Teddy.
*
The Hulkling is fully prepared to take a hit, he's in full on mountain mode, and then suddenly Simon is hitting him and the giant green guy stumbles back and grunts in surprise. That supervillain can pack a PUNCH. More then anyone the Hulkling has ever felt, that's for sure. So, the Hulkling ROARS, "YOU WILL NOT CAPTURE HIM, YOU FIENDISH ERR FIENDLING. FIENDS." So he needs a weapon, he does. He picks up a car nearby, hears a bit of screaming, winces, and sets it down, "Sorry!" And then grabs an empty one, lifting it the car up like a baseball bat, "Guy! Jump off, I'll smash the evildoer!"
*
This is just de-evolving into complete chaos before Peggy's very eyes. She also has a feeling that everyone is trying to help and no one knows who actually NEEDS help. And Steve is terrified. Now, this close, she recognizes that scrappy kid look in his eyes, behind the violence in his muscles and the strength he has just pinning someone down to the ground like that. THen there is soeone with wings, picking up a CAR, swinging it two SHIELD agent's directions. This needs to stop now.
So, once upon a time, Peggy was a fan of rugby. There was that female team briefly with the SOE, then again the SSR. Now, she's channeling those rugby days, running fast and hard and just full-body tackling Steve to pull him off the poor man he's pummeling. Maybe she will be stopped. Maybe Steve has gotten stronger and she'll bounce right off of him. But hopefully she can put the man on his back and force him to look at her. "STEVEN GRANT ROGERS!" She commands, just trying to get his attention.
Complexity, meanwhile, is in a little bit of hell. Mickey is in full on meltdown, screaming, crying, squiring as much as her wiry little body can as she tries to get out and run for her mother. "Nooo! She has the Captain, it's the Captain! I don't WANT CREPES I want to see the CAPTAIN and MUM!" There were enough photos in the house. Old newspaper articles. Stories told at bedtime. Steve Rogers was always a quiet ghost in the Sousa-Carter household, it's no surprise their daughter, sharp as a tack, recognizes a face. Even in her melt down.
*
"Fall back." Brian instructs the agents over the comm. "Form a perimeter and clear the civilians from inside it." Oh dear. Another convertible. He lands on the passenger seat before bouncing up onto the hood then continuing onto the next car.
*
On the ground again, Simon grins a moment, success. "Ow! Hey!" he complains as the once-and-future Captain America lays into him. He reflexively covers up in a boxing defense. "It's not a good idea to hit me." he warns. Steve has succeeded too, having turned Simon's attention from Hulkling, so he doesn't notice the serious hammering he's about to take from the swung car. More importantly, there's a woman shouting like a mother… using all three of someone's names. "Uh, oh. Someone's in trouble." he manages to get out before impact.
*
Teddy freezes. That wasn't his name, but he knows that name. And that sounded awful like his mom. So, car up in the air, all green and a little confused, he stares a moment, trying to figure out what the hell is going on because suddenly he's a little uncertain supervillains are attacking the guy with nice abs.
*
"Oof!" Steve is yanked off of Simon and pulled in a rugby tackle. Something not readily known about rugby style tackling is it's use of leverage and twisting, allowing smaller players to take out much bigger players and use force against them. Steve rolls and lands face first onto the pavement. Ouch.
One eye opens and he spies a head full of (mostly) brown hair. As she turns slightly, Steve says, "Peg?"
He moves to sit up, and for the first time, really takes in the area around him. He gives a nod back towards Hulkling for the assist. Then, for the first time, he notices Brian. "Jack?"
*
Victoria (Complexity) is indeed in her own personal version of hell. But sometimes you have to do what you have to do. There are giant monsters and mutants and superheroes and secret agents here. The last thing the Director of Shiled needs here is her child. So Victoria attempts to just physically drag the squirming child inside the aforementioned building. As anyone whom has ever tried to handle a screaming toddler knows however, this can leave you feeling helpless and that it is almost impossible. Nevertheless, she is firm. "Mickey! I am your Georgina and you will listen to me right now. You will come inside this building and wait for the Captain and your mother with me, or I will tell your mother that you have been a very bad girl when the Captain comes to see you." Despite saying that, however, she doesn't give an inch and further attempts to drag. The last thing anyone needs is a young child running underfoot as someone throws a car.
*
Union Jack is only a car away by that time and jumps off its hood to land on the street and walk the last few steps over and offers a hand to help the man. "Steve. It's jolly good to see you, old man. I never thought I would again." Looking over at Peggy, he gives her a nod. "Ma'am."
*
Teddy puts down the car, even as he his body blurs down into something only a foot or so larger then he was originally, though still really green. Hopefully they won't remember what he looked like before he was green. He still looks a little confused. "Are you Captain America?" He says it in a voice like he's meeting his hero. Or one of them. Even if its totally not possible that this guy in the mmm— FOCUS TEDDY— is the Captain. Its totally not.
*
"Careful now, lady…" Simon warns Peggy. "Good tackle, though." They seem occuped, though, so he turns back to the remaining threat - the green creature who has yet to hit him with the hefted car. "You should put that down." he commands. "I don't want to have to hurt you…" and sure enough he does. "See? Isn't that better?"
*
Well, that worked. Add it to Peggy Carter's resume that she can stop entire fight scenes in the middle of Times Square by her mom-voice alone. As Steve finally isn't in a full panic and, for the moment, doesn't look like he's going to be fighting them again, she carefully pulls herself off of him and slips back up to her feet. She's in a dark green suit, more fitted than the fit-and-flare style of the 40s. Her hair is shorter. And there are the starting hints of gray. While she doesn't look old, there is no doubt she is older. She is not the fresh-faced young 20 something that kissed him goodbye what would probably feel like hours ago to him. She gives Brian a gentle, thankful nod as he helps Steve up.
"Yes, Steve… it.. It's me. And I have not a bloody clue what is going on here. But… It… Well… Welcome back." For once, Peggy Carter is completely out of words. Her morning has been quite turned upside down. She gives Simon a slight look, a smirk following, "I'm fine. I've got this under control." Except she doesn't. SHIELD is still half panicking in her ear, she can distantly hear her daughter screaming, and Steve Rogers is alive. If Peggy was an inch less strong, she'd be screaming herself.
Tired, screaming protests are slowly beginning to break down into sobs against Victoria's shoulder. Mickey isn't fighting her near so bad but, of course, that is just as the scene outside seems to get much calmer. It's probably safe to at least be on the sidewalk now. A very large crowd is gathering. "I wannnaa be *oooout there*…" She whines into her nanny's neck.
*
Steve, a little short of breath, uses Peg's shoulder to balance himself slightly and reaches out to grab Brian by the elbow. His face is lost as he looks around, taking everything in. This /is/ New York, but it's not his New York. Many of the buildings look the same, but many don't. The cars look different, the clothes look different, and the people, his friends, look different. Gradually it begins to dawn on him, more than he already thought, that something very, very bad has happened. He can hear Teddy's voice and looks over at him, still gone.
"I used to be."
*
Teddy narrows his eyes as he stares at Simon, his skin darkening to a deeper green and adding a good six inches and a hundred pounds of muscle a moment later. "Don't bite off more then you can chew." the cocky teenager warns the fellow, before he blinks at Steve again, and has one word of comment: "Whoa."
*
"He still is." Union Jack tells Teddy as he clasps Steve's arm. "Come with me, Steve. There's a lot to tell you but it's all going to be all right now." He looks over at Peggy and says "Thank you for the assistance, Ma'am. Perhaps you should return to your child now. I suspect your employee could use some guidance on how to clean up the mess that was made." Not the nanny, the agents. Turning back to Steve, he motions down the street. "Shall we? My automobile is waiting."
*
Victoria knows that if a child is misbehaving, and you give in, that child will -keep misbehaving-. The same applies to toddlers, boyfriends, and pets. So while she feels very bad for Mickey, she doesn't let her go outside. "You ran out into the street." she says, softly. "We'll wait here and your mommy will be here soon."
*
"I can chew a lot. I have a big mouth." Simon says, that's true enough. "I'm sure a rematch can be arranged." He looks back to the knot of people. "Captain America, huh?" he asks himself. "Isn't he dead? Huh. Guess not."
*
Ma'am. They called her ma'am. Clearly, to the few watching and to Steve, Peggy is nominally in charge of everyone in this scene, but Brian's words are a god send as they help her shocked mind get back into order. Silently, one hand comes up, finding Steve's shoulder and giving a gentle squeeze. "…It's… all very complicated. Go with Jack, Steve… He… He knows what's going on. I'll be back at the offices soon." Another heartbeat or two her hand lingers, the reassuring, warm pressure of familiar fingertips, but then her palm is gone. She had so much to clean up — Agents and family. It's times like this which priorities warred and she still didn't really have all the answers.
Another breath, and Peggy turns back to two of the still standing agents. She stares at them hard, "I don't think I need to explain what an utter muck up this entire situation has been. Secure the scene. Clean up what mess is left. Make certain *every agent on this scene* reports to my office in an hour. And somebody bloody well better prepare a press release. This is going to all over the Post by the afternoon edition." The men just stare, waiting for for something more. She sighs, "GO. NOW." ANd then they are scrambling to finish her orders.
She then double times to that building, always having been keenly aware out of the corner of her eye where Victoria took Mickey. A mother's senses. She steps in through the door and looks to them both, relief in her features and thankful gratitude for Victoria. "…I… am so sorry." She breathes out, reaching to gently take Mickey from the woman.
*
Complexity hands Mickey over to her mother. "Your both alright. Thats whats important." she says, softly. She knew what she was potentially signing up for when she had the first interview. Though, there is a large difference in expectations between 'dead billionares may drunkenly demand to be let in' and 'dead superheroes may rampage half naked across the street'. Hmm. The common thread there is dead people. She eyes Peggy, mentally wondering at that, before smiling as politely as she can.
*
\Riiight… Clean up. Agents. Yeah, no. That sounds like questions Suddenly Teddy has wings again, though not as giant a pair since he's not got a giant hulk+Captain mass to carry, and with a flap send, he's totally flying away. Agents and cleaning up and questions do not give him good feelings.
*
Steve watches Peggy go, and then Teddy go, and then gets the distinct feeling that people are fleeing from him. If it were up to him, he'd flee again. Did someone say daughter? But Brian's here, his one link left to try and find out what's going on. Wearily, he takes his friend's arm and begins to follow him toward the vehicle.
Once he's seated in the car and they begin to drive away, Steve is quiet. Bloodshot eyes stare off down the road, face sad. The SHIELD agent with Brian is talking, but Steve isn't hearing him, isn't listening at all.