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It's not hard to find Sousa and Mickey if one is looking for them. They just need to do a little sleuthing. They're not at their home on Long Island, but seeing as Mickey still needs to go to school, checking out a couple of hotels near the girl's school is the best place to start. It's a moderate hotel…not necessarily meant for long stays, but it has beds, a bathroom, and a little desk. It's enough for their needs right now.
Dinner has just been had at a nearby diner, and Mickey is on the bed, doing homework with Daniel's help. The radio is playing softly in the background, some musical radio program.
*
A little sleuthing is easy enough for a trained SHIELD agent. So in the early evening, waiting until most families have settled in for the evening. There's a knock on the door, with May behind it. She comes bearing gifts howeve, a few cartons of Chinese dangling from her fingers.
*
The knock on the door has both father and daughter looking up. Sousa gestures for Mickey to stay where he is, but after he stands, he limps his way to his jacket…and the gun in it's holster, and slips both on. The door is opened with the safety chain still attached and he blinks, "Me…Agent May?" There's a quick widening of his eyes before the door closes, the chain is slipped off, and it's opened more fully. "Is Peggy all right?" That's the conclusion he jumps to.
*
"As fine as can be. I got her to stop sleeping in her office and brought her over to my apartment." She extends the pair of cartons. "For you and Mickey. I've been making a lot of shiu mai." If he doesn't stop her, she walks past him into the hotel room proper. "You know it's not like me to wade hip deep into anyone's personal business."
*
There's a sigh of relief when he hears that she's all right, but even as he closes the door behind her, he turns, "She's not at the house?" No one's at the house? That's not good. He then takes the cartons, "Thanks…" it'll be a snack before bed, maybe or saved until tomorrow. The mention of personal business has him trying not to scowl too deeply since his daughter is here, "Maybe we should talk out in the hall."
Mickey is indeed watching and she hops off of the bed to give May a hug before she looks up at her, "Is Mommy coming home? You're going to tell her to Daddy that she's sorry, right?" As Sousa gives the girl a look, she gives a heavy sigh and sulks back to the bed and her 'homework'. "You so owe me a puppy," is muttered as she quiets to let the adults talk.
*
"Hello, meimei." Melinda says fondly to the little girl, and leaves her to her homework without answering her questions. She nods agreeably, heading for the door once more and looking over her shoulder at him with her brows cinched forward. As soon as the door is closed, she says, "When people's personal lives compromise the job, that's when things get complicated." And she really doesn't like doing this.
*
The door is closed and locked behind them and Sousa is still wearing his jacket and holster…he's not about to leave a precocious child in a room alone with it. He leans against the closed door, his arms crossed a bit defensively at his chest, "What job? Have you heard? I no longer have one. And if you're referring to Peggy, there's nothing I'd be able to do to get her to sleep if she's convinced she doesn't have time for it."
*
"I heard Peggy's side of things." May folds her arms over her chest and leans against the hallway. It's a deceptively casual position, but it gives her a few of the hall's length. "Sousa. Daniel." The use of his first name should emphasize how serious this is. "Think about this. She's heading an international intelligence outfit as a pregnant woman and now you and she are fighting. The vultures were circling the moment she started showing. I only know what she told me about why this is happening, but you've got two kids to worry about and nevermind the professional tightrope she's walking, this," she makes an absent, all-encompassing gesture, "Can't be good for any of you."
*
"Did you? Just what did she tell you and would you like to hear -my- side? It actually has absolutely nothing to do with the family and she is the one who is refusing to slow down or delegate despite her condition." Sousa's jaw tics as he tries not to outright scowl; is this going to be come a 'he said, she said' thing? "I put in for my resignation for a number of reasons, none of them have to do with our relationship. Well, it has to di with it in the sense that it would be better if I wasn't resenting having to go to work just for the sake of keeping things copacetic."
*
"I would, if you think it's relevant." May replies. "There are any number of places you can work aside from SHIELD that would benefit from your talents, I'm not worried about your career. But none of us are in a business where you leave the workplace at the door, you know that. It effects us more than any of us care to admit. Remember what I was like after Andrew and I divorced?" She shakes her head. "If your resignation has nothing to do with your relationship, why are you here? She won't sleep in the house without you, much less Mickey."
*
"She's not in her right mind. She struck me and I'm worried about what she might do if our daughter gets on her last nerve." Sousa can take it. A child? He's not an advocate of that sort of punishment. There's a heavy sigh when she says she'd like to hear his side.
"I disagree with the direction SHIELD is going and I disagree with what is being built," the prison for Powered individuals, "And I disagree with what they are using to power it," Kree technology that they know nothing about. "Couple that with the fact that Peggy doesn't seem interested in what I have to offer at work, it seemed better to go somewhere that I feel I can be of use." He glances around the hallway for a moment before he adds, "She was mad at me because I told her about an offer from the FBI. I haven't accepted anything yet. I'm doing this to keep our relationship intact, although it may have backfired on me. If I had stayed, I would have grown resentful and that would have bled into our home life. I don't resent Peggy and I don't want to."
*
"Then go home." May says gently. "Whatever you need to work out regarding your professional lives, you can still do in the same house. No one's saying you and your wife don't have a complicated dynamic, but if you want to compartmentalize, this isn't the way." Blunt, but meant kindly. Her head tilts toward the door. "If it's a bitter pill, do it for Mickey, if nothing else."
*
There's a shake of his head, "Not yet. Not until I'm sure that she won't lash out at our daughter. I honestly don't know what's got into her and until she figures it out, we're not going to go home. I want to and I want to for Mickey, but it's my job as her father to keep her safe. Even if it means it's keeping her safe from her mother."
*
May lifts her brows. "Peggy took a hand to Mickey?" Her eyes narrow; she wants to make sure she's understanding what Souza is saying.
*
"No, to me. And out of anger…not because I stood in her way of a mission. I don't want to give her the opportunity to lash out at Mickey." Not while Peggy is acting strange. Sousa looks over at May, "She wasn't this bad when she was pregnant before."
*
"You're a grown man, you can take it." May points out. "I can't imagine her ever doing that to her child. Or any child, for that matter." Pushing her hair away from her face in a weary gesture, "She can't prove anything with you here and her sleeping in her office when I can't bully her into coming home with me. If you want Mickey safe while you work on things with Peggy, make some kind of arrangement. Have her stay with her grandparents, or a some friends you trust. But I think you're doing your wife a disservice by thinking she'd ever hit her own daughter."
*
"Yeah, I can take it but until she calms down, I'm not letting her near Mickey." That whole conversation…it was like he was talking to someone he didn't know. "If you're trying to get me to apologize, I won't. I'm not going to go back home and pretend like nothing ever happened. Micky can't be missing school to go to Boston to stay with family and frankly, most of our friends don't have the capabilities or desire to take care of a child." Are they going to have Captain America babysit? Doubtful. Sousa inclines his head some, "I appreciate you trying to help, but we're both stubborn and I'm sure that Peggy can find me if she wants to talk to me."
*
"You both may be stubborn, but I'm patient. You're compromising the director of SHIELD and making life miserable for your daughter. I'm not asking you to apologize. I'm not asking you to dress in a grass skirt and do the hula. I am asking you to get your house in order, Sousa. Because a pregnant woman of Peggy's age is not going to 'calm down' anytime soon if you go on like this." There's a tilt of her head. "Enjoy the shiu mai. Give Mickey a kiss for me." Pushing off the wall, she starts to walk past him.
*
"You dare to accuse me of making my child's life 'miserable'?" Sousa limps a couple of steps after her, "Maybe you should tell the Director of SHIELD that you didn't think she could handle herself without her husband. Because that's what it sounds like you're telling me and both you and I know that Peggy isn't about to let her marriage define her work. If you think she's been compromised, then maybe there's another reason but it sure as Hell isn't because she's not coming home to a prepared meal and I'm not laying in bed beside her."
*
"Sometimes parents do." May looks over her shoulder at him matter-of-factly. "Or did you not hear your daughter's very clearly stated desire to go home?" May's mouth purses into a line. "The last time she was pregnant and working, she had your support, even while every stiff in DC breathing down her neck, waiting for her to fail. Now she's older and pregnant - which is higher risk, you realize - running SHIELD with just the same types waiting for her to screw up so they can have one over on her, but she's also dealing with being separated from her husband and child. It's not good for her work or her pregnancy. It's not about you being a house frau. It's about you just being there for her."
*
"Of course I realize the risk and she still has my support! I am there for her, but are we talking about the same Peggy? Because the Peggy I know can handle all of that on her head, one hand tied behind her back, pregnant, and spinning." Sousa isn't going to be guilt-tripped. "You're a good friend, but if she isn't handling her work, then it's more than the pregnancy and more than me. I don't know what is going on as she hasn't said anything to me about her concerns." The pickle jar has been static. "There's something more and I don't know what it is…and she won't tell me."
*
May sighs. "No, Sousa. You're not there for her. You're here in a hotel room with your kid, and she doesn't have it in her to go back to an empty house, which is why she's been sleeping in her office." May can take a horse to water, but she can't make him drink. There's a one shouldered shrug. "Goodnight, Sousa." On their heads be it.
*
"That is not the Peggy I know," Daniel admits. "Maybe you can get at the bottom of it, but there's something going on and until I know what, I'm keeping our daughter away. If she wants to talk, I'll talk, but I'm telling you, something is off." Something that happened before he took Mickey to the hotel. As May walks off he sighs and heads back to the door, "Thanks for the visit."
*
"I'll keep an eye on her." May promises, still walking.
*