Prompt - The moment Jack realised that he loved her was when she was laying unconscious after an explosion ...

Jack and Peggy had been out investigating a new cache of Stark's missing weapons when the idiot trying to fence the chemical had accidentally managed to activate it – god he hated Stark for the crap he invented, they had only just made the minimum safe distance before the explosion. He was going to sock that self-righteous millionaire right on the jaw the next time he saw him just for inventing it - if they made it out of here alive that is, the building was still unstable.

He shook his head in an attempt to clear the ringing in his ears. The air was hot and smoky, the acrid taste coating his mouth. His shoulder hurt like the devil and he thought he might have a piece of shrapnel from the explosion lodged in there.

He groaned and rolled over, feeling the pain lancing up his back. "Carter?" he said with his eyes squeezed tightly closed, his voice rusty from the smoke.

She didn't reply.

Turning his head, he saw her sprawled out on the ground a couple of yards away from him with her eyes closed and her head lolling to one side. There was blood running down from her temple, the precise shade of her lipstick. "Jesus, Peggy?" he said, quickly crawling over to her.

He shook her lightly but she didn't respond, making his heart clench in his chest. Ignoring his injured shoulder, he leant over her to listen to her breathing – there was nothing for a few seconds, then he felt the faint puff of air on his cheek.

"Thank god," he breathed, relief flooding through him. He lightly tapped her cheek. "Wake up, come on Peggy, wake up," he ordered.

There was no response. He quickly checked her over for other injuries, but found none. Peggy was a fighter, she would be fine, she had to be. He bent over her again. "Come on, don't do this to me, sweetheart," he muttered, reaching for her neck to feel her pulse.

"Call me sweetheart one more time and I may have to shoot you, Thompson," she murmured mutinously, her eyes still closed.

Jack let out a strangled laugh - god, he loved this woman.