The next morning Peggy was limping heavily as she crossed the airstrip with Dugan to where the SSR's plane was waiting, its propellers already turning sluggishly; her leg was stiff and her lower back ached some, but she had been shot before and she knew that she would be fine. Jack was standing by the plane with Levourne in handcuffs beside him, shaking Happy Sam's hand and smiling slightly – his arm was in a sling once again, courtesy of Jim Morita and, based on the amount of swearing she had heard when he was getting dressed that morning, the painkiller he had been using had well and truly worn off.

"Take care, Peggy," Dum Dum said as they approached, then jerked his head in Jack's direction. "And throw that boy a bone, would ya?"

She glanced at Dum Dum and smiled, thinking of their conversation the night before and wondering how Dugan had been able to guess her feelings; knowing him, he had probably picked up something all the way back when they had been on that mission in Russia. She had known since La Martinique that her perception of Jack was changing some, but she hadn't realised how important the support of her friends was to her until yesterday. "Have I mentioned recently that I hate you?" she asked fondly.

"Yeah, that's why you can only handle me in small doses," he retorted as they joined the others. He looked at Jack, who had just finished saying his own farewells. "Look after her, alright, Thompson?" he told him in his usual, gruff voice.

Jack glanced at Peggy. "I think she can look after herself," he said smartly, while Levourne shifted his weight behind them and sighed, evidently annoyed at the farewells.

"Look after each other then," Dum Dum amended; Jack half-smiled and held out his hand.

"Thanks, for everything," he said with quiet intensity as they shook hands, the gun that Dugan had apparently given him was still slung over his uninjured shoulder. Releasing his hand, he nodded once at the rest of the Commandos before heading up the stairs of the plane with their prisoner, giving Peggy a moment alone to say goodbye.

She hugged Dugan carefully, mindful that she probably had a bruise the size of an orange on her back. "I'll miss you," she said honestly.

"You too," he replied, lightly returning her hug and then pulling back, keeping his grip on her shoulders. "By the way, I expect an invite," he said sternly, ruined by the grin that was pulling at the corners of his mouth.

She shook her head at him, unable to believe that he was already implying a wedding when she and Jack hadn't even been out on their first date yet. "You're worse than Lottie," she told him, rolling her eyes. "And I'm starting to wonder if you took an injury to the head at some point," she added, hiding her amusement.

He rapped his knuckles on the top of his bowler. "That's why I wear the hat," he responded lightly.

"Carter," Jack said from the top of the stairs up to the plane, catching her attention. They glanced up at him and he jerked his head towards the open doorway. "Wheels up," he said simply, then vanished into the plane.

With one last hug and smile to her friends, she ascended the stairs and pulled the plane-door shut behind her; the plane instantly started to taxi towards the runway and she made her way over to the benches where Jack was sitting, with Levourne left on his own at the other end of the plane.

She sat down opposite him and smiled, not having had much of a chance to talk to him yet that morning. "You look like hell, " she said honestly, since Jack had dark shadows under his eyes and was holding his arm at an awkward angle, even in the sling.

"I feel it," he admitted, giving her a tired, but triumphant smile. "Benjy gave me some pain killers, which stopped it hurting on the mission, but now I think I've busted it even further," he added with a grimace, reaching up to tentatively touch his shoulder with his uninjured hand.

Peggy braced both hands on the bench beside her and shrugged at him. "Well, the mission is about wrapped up so I think we'll both be taking desk work to recuperate," she said, looking forward to returning to New York now that they had Levourne in custody.

Jack raised a brow at her, frowning slightly. "We only took down one base, Zodiac's headed by twelve," he reminded her.

She knew as much, but thought that they had made excellent progress in the past few days. "We've got all of the intel from the lab in England and this base," she pointed out, then tilted her head pointedly in the direction that Levourne was sitting. "Besides, I know how persuasive you can be. I'm confident you can make him talk."

Jack briefly followed her gaze, then dropped his eyes to the floor of the plane and awkwardly rubbed the back of his neck with his free hand. "If I'm not fired, that is," he said bitterly, though she could tell that he was actually worried about that.

"Phillips is all hot air," she told him honestly, knowing that he wouldn't be fired – punished, maybe, but he wouldn't lose his job over this. "He'll scowl and make acerbic comments, but he won't fire you - I won't let him."

He nodded once, casting her a small, relieved smile. "Thanks, Carter," he said simply, clearly trusting her word.

"I think I should be the one thanking you," she retorted softly, knowing that despite having got a message to Bletchley, she would have been dead long before a team could have got over there had Jack not gone AWOL to come after her.

"You saved my life in Russia," Jack pointed out, watching her carefully from the other side of the plane, his eyes shadowed in the dim light. His voice was loaded, the tone behind his simple words saying far more, about how they always had each other's backs. "Guess that makes us even," he added quietly, casting another smile her way.

The moment they walked into the offices at Bletchley Peggy had practically been tackled by her brother; Benjy hugged her tightly, burying his head into her shoulder while she had groaned in pain and tried to shove him off, reminding him sternly that she had been shot.

"You were shot?" Benjy repeated, evidently not having heard this; he pulled back and stared at her, aghast. "Again?"

Jack watched as Peggy laughed. "Yes, again – I think this makes five times now," she said, them gave her brother a reassuring look, patting him on the shoulder. "... I'm okay, Benjy," she said in a quieter, more intense voice.

"Thanks to him," Benjy said, turning his gaze to Jack – he looked like he was about to hug him too, but Phillips spoke over him as he approached.

"Agent Thompson," he said sternly, making them all turn in his direction. Phillips' narrowed eyes looked from Jack, to Peggy, to Gregory Levourne in handcuffs; this was it, Jack thought, the moment of reckoning. "I hope you're aware that had this mission had any other outcome then by the time I was through with you, you would be lucky to even get a job pulling night-shifts as a small time, mall security guard," he said in a grim, dry voice.

"Yes sir," Jack agreed respectfully, cautious hope flaring inside him.

Phillips nodded once. "Thompson, take Mr Levourne to one of the holding cells," he ordered. "Since he is an American citizen you'll be taking him back to the United States for sentencing. Wheels up in one hour, more than enough time for you to gather your belongings and get back to the hanger," he continued in a tone that brooked no refusal or arguing. He then turned his gaze to Peggy. "Agent Carter, my office, now. You need to be debriefed after your mission and then discussions are continuing."

And with that, he turned on his heel and headed back towards his office.

Jack let out a breath that he hadn't realised he had been holding. "Sent home with a scolding," he surmised, unable to believe he could be that lucky. "Could be worse."

"I'll give you a lift back to the house, if you like," Benjy offered, his hands stuck in his pockets.

"Sure," Jack agreed with a nod, then looked at Peggy. "... How long do you think discussions will take?" he asked, realising belatedly that he would be going home to New York without her and frowning at the thought.

"I don't know," she replied, also looking slightly displeased at the prospect. She then glanced between him and her brother. "Benjy, could you give us a second?" she asked, tilting her head pointedly in Jack's direction.

Benjy looked thoroughly entertained. "Well, I would," he said amusedly, then nodded over Peggy's shoulder, towards Phillips' office. "But Phillips is already waiting for you."

Peggy sighed and shook her head at her brother's antics. Stepping closer to him, she lightly kissed Jack's cheek, right near the corner of his mouth. "I'll see you in New York, Jack," she said softly, smiling at him before turning to head towards Phillips' office.

Jack frowned, realising that Peggy had wanted a moment alone to say goodbye to him and that they hadn't gotten it. "You're a bastard, you know that?" he told Benjy.

Benjy smiled at him, still utterly amused. "Yeah," he agreed, glancing after Peggy before returning his gaze to Jack and nodding at Levourne. "Go ditch him and we'll head off."

Following his advice, he shoved Levourne in the back to get him moving, guiding him towards the door that led to the holding cells where he would be kept while Jack gathered his belongings. "In-laws?" Gregory Levourne asked him sarcastically as they went.

"Shut it," Jack retorted, in no mood to be baited.

Later that evening Peggy returned to an empty house.

Benjy had driven her home and offered to stay with her, but she had declined and sent him off to his own home. She went into the kitchen first, finding all of the files and papers they had been pouring over for the past week or so still on the table, though Jack had left them all in neat piles instead of spread out in a mess. The coffee mug that he had commandeered for his own during the duration of his stay was upside down on the draining board, but other than that the kitchen was clear.

Heading upstairs, she found his room empty, the bed made with military precision. She went into her own bedroom and picked up the empty bottle of bourbon they had drunk a few nights ago from where it still rested on her nightstand, turning it over in her hands as she looked down at it.

She sighed, wondering how it was possible for her to miss him this much after having been gone for just a few hours.

Jack stalked into the bullpen of the SSR with his hand wrapped around Gregory Levourne's upper arm, who was still cuffed with his hands behind his back. They had come straight from the airport, meaning that he was still in his combat gear from Austria. He shoved him towards Agent Davis, who was closest. "Take him through to the interrogation room," he ordered, then continued on between the desks towards his empty office.

Sousa was at his station; he had been talking to Agent Geller, but now his gaze was fixed on Jack.

"Where's Peggy?" Daniel wanted to know in a slightly urgent voice, frowning deeply and looking worried as he rose to his feet from his desk – Jack hadn't had a chance to contact the SSR since returning from the mission, so they didn't know what had happened in Austria.

"Still in England," he said shortly, pausing beside Sousa's desk.

"But she's okay?" Sousa pressed, his eyes still wide.

Jack nodded. "Yeah," he confirmed as he instinctively sat on Peggy's empty desk (a spot that he had somehow claimed as his own) to talk to Sousa, who had audibly sighed in relief at the news that Peggy was safe. He was in no mood for a debriefing; after everything that had happened and the acute pain in his shoulder he wanted nothing more than to go home and sleep, but he knew that there was work to be done first. "Couple of injuries, but she'll shake them off easily enough."

"Are you okay?" Agent Geller asked rudely, looking at his arm, which was still in the sling Jim Morita had given him.

"Nothing a cup of coffee and a bagel won't fix," he said dryly, glancing at the stack of files nearly a foot high that were sitting on his desk, the product of being away from work for a week. He wouldn't feel so bad about returning to work in New York if Peggy had been with him, but as it was he was in a thoroughly bad mood without her there. He frowned deeply when the junior Agent made no motion to move. "Geller, did I stutter?" he asked sharply and snapped his fingers pointedly at him. "Coffee, bagel - hop to it, kid."

Geller blinked, evidently not used to being sent on drink-runs, but headed towards the coffee machine without complaint.

Sousa shook his head at Jack; he looked annoyed, but there was also a slight smile tugging at his mouth. "Good to have you back, Chief."

It was just over a week later that the SSR's plane touched down on the airstrip just outside of the city, having returned to England to collect Peggy once the negotiations with Phillips and Stark had finished. Jack was leaning against his car with his arms folded, watching as the plane taxied to a halt just in front of the hanger. There was a pause, then the plane doors opened and the stairs descended; Peggy appeared at the top of them, her combat bag slung over her shoulder and her suitcase in hand. Her hair was perfectly curled and she was dressed in her usual, immaculate office wear and heels instead of combat fatigues; she saw him and smiled.

Jack waited until she had descended the stairs before speaking. "Hi," he said simply, not taking his eyes from her.

"Hi," she replied, still smiling; neither of them quite seemed to know how to greet each other after the shift in their relationship.

He frowned slightly, having noticed the hitch in her gait, not helped at all by the heels she wore. "You're still limping," he said, stepping forward to take one of her bags from her. She allowed it and they headed towards his car. "How are you?" he wanted to know.

"I've been worse," she said casually with a shrug; she cast a glance in his direction, her gaze lingering on his arm, which was no longer in a sling. "You?"

It was Jack's turn to shrug. "Still hurts like hell when I move it, but I figure it was worth it," he said honestly, knowing he would endure it again and more if it meant keeping her safe.

She was frowning at the car as he helped her with her bags. "Should you be driving?" she asked disapprovingly.

"Stop fussing, Carter, I'm fine," he retorted, grimacing as he heaved her heavy combat bag into the trunk. He was lucky that it had been his left arm that was dislocated, meaning he could still change gears and steer easily enough.

They got in the car and he started the engine, smoothly pulling out of the airstrip. "You know," Peggy said once they were on the road towards the city, her head turned to look at him. "There is something I haven't quite been able to figure out."

He glanced at her as he drove. "Yeah? What's that?"

"You and the team were at the base minutes after I sent the transmission," she said simply, still watching him carefully.

Jack didn't reply for a long moment, well aware of the implication in her statement. "... Zola," he said eventually, then shot another look in her direction when she didn't reply. "But you knew that already, didn't you?"

She sighed and nodded, looking displeased. "I assumed as much," she admitted, a frown tugging at the corners of her mouth. "I thought we agreed that we wouldn't go down that route -"

"Unless it was one-hundred percent necessary," Jack finished, speaking over her. "It was," he added firmly, knowing that he would have agreed to almost anything if it had meant getting those coordinates.

She still didn't look convinced. "We're keeping an eye on him, Peg," he told her quietly, having overseen the regulations and stipulations that the former-HYDRA scientist would be bound to personally. "He's on a tight leash." There was a long pause, then she silently nodded her agreement, acquiescing to him. "So what's the verdict on your global intelligence organisation?" Jack wanted to know, changing the subject away from Zola.

She smiled. "The Strategic Homeland Intervention Enforcement and Logistics Division is in the process of being set up as we speak," she said, sounding satisfied.

"That's a mouthful," Jack said with a slight laugh, his eyes on the road. "What the hell would you even shorten that to? The S.H.I.E – oh," he said, realising what the letters spelled. "Shield."

Shield, the iconic emblem of Captain America himself; he knew that Peggy, Stark, and Phillips had all been close to Rogers during the war and assumed that this was some kind of homage to him. Aware that Peggy was still watching him for his reaction, he shrugged his shoulder, as if to say that he thought the name was a good one.

"It's going to be built using the SSR as its foundations, so there are going to be some changes in the office," Peggy went on to say.

"The biggest of which, I'm guessing, is that you're gonna be in charge," he assumed, glancing in his rear view mirror as he changed lanes; it looked like the SSR was in for a serious overhaul, but she had said herself that its glory days during the war had passed. Perhaps a fresh start was exactly what they needed.

Peggy was still watching him carefully. "Does that bother you?" she wanted to know.

"Depends," Jack said honestly, shooting a glance and a half smile in her direction. "I like a woman on top, but I'm also pretty attached to my office."

She looked like she was fighting a smile at his comment. "You can keep the office for now, but we're setting up new headquarters at Camp Lehigh," she told him brusquely, keeping a straight face. He nodded his understanding and there was a slight pause. "You're not being demoted, Jack," she added quietly as the silence dragged on, evidently thinking that he was annoyed about this.

"I think I'm lucky not to be fired," he said lightly, not directly addressing her comment about demotion. He glanced at her again, wishing that he wasn't driving so that they could have this conversation without him looking at the road all of the time. "You deserve it, you know," he added honestly. "Being in charge. After the whole Leviathan thing, I mean."

She didn't try to hide her smile this time. "Thanks, Jack," she said genuinely, her tone soft.

There was another long pause, and then Jack inclined his head at her. "I'll get to have an office at Camp Lehigh though, right?" he wanted to check.

Peggy let out a startled laugh, shaking her head at him. "You're impossible," she said fondly, not sounding particularly annoyed.

"Yeah," Jack agreed with a shrug, shooting her another grin as he drove. "But at least I picked you up from the airport."

It was the middle of the afternoon by the time Jack pulled up in front of her building in the city. Wordlessly, he got out of the car to open the trunk. He heaved out her combat bag, which he passed to her to carry, and took her heavy suitcase himself before slamming it closed. They headed into the building and took the elevator up to the penthouse in comfortable silence.

Peggy unlocked and pushed open the door, glancing around the familiar space. "Angie?" she called out curiously, wondering if her room-mate was home. There was no reply, meaning that she was most likely at work or rehearsals for the part that she had recently got in a small, but respectable theatre.

Jack followed her as she went into her bedroom, leaving her suitcase by the door while she tossed the combat bag on her bed.

She turned to face him, well aware that they were alone for the first time in days and their relationship had undergone a significant shift in that time. Jack was lingering by the open door, watching her with his hands shoved deep in his trouser pockets. There was a pause, then he raised one shoulder in a slight shrug. "Do you want to go get a drink?" he asked simply, speaking for the first time since they'd left the car.

Peggy blinked once, then smiled slightly. "I don't want a drink," she told him honestly, walking slowly towards him.

Jack was frowning deeply at her as she approached, but his expression turned quickly to surprise as she reached out and lightly ran the tips of her fingers up the lines of his suspenders to his shoulders and he opened his mouth to say something. Before he could speak, she rocked forward on her toes to press her mouth to his, as she had wanted to do since the moment the SSR's plane had touched down on American soil and she'd seen him waiting by the car.

She kissed him for a long moment, leaning into him while his hands lightly – hesitantly, as if he still couldn't believe what was happening – came to rest at her waist as he kissed her back. Seemingly realising that she wasn't going to draw back any time soon, he tilted his head to one side to deepen the kiss and his hands slowly slid down to grip her hips, more confident now.

He was the one to pull back some long seconds later as her hands started on the knot of his tie. She watched as he opened his eyes and swallowed hard, looking conflicted. "Peggy -" he started to say, but she kissed him again lightly, briefly, to silence him.

"Do you know what I was thinking about when I was in Austria?" she asked him quietly, her hand lingering on his tie but no longer making any move to untie it; he shook his head slightly, indicating that he didn't know. "I was thinking about Kresminsky," she told him, then watched as he frowned slightly in confusion, his blue eyes studying her intently. "I was thinking about Li and Yauch and Dooley," she continued, keeping her voice level. "I was thinking about my team who were killed in front of me … and I was thinking about Steve."

Jack swallowed again and his fingers reflexively tightened on her hips slightly at the mention of Steve's name. Slowly, she started on the knot of his tie once again, meeting his eyes as her fingers worked. "With the line of work that we do any day could be our last, so lets not tip-toe here," she said simply, slipping the knot free but leaving the tie loose around his neck, holding the material in her hands. "... Do you want this, Jack?"

He nodded, a slight jerk of his head. "Yeah," he admitted instantly, his voice hoarse and still looking slightly bewildered.

Using his undone tie to pull him closer, she kissed him again and he made no further complaints – it felt different now, they had both admitted what they wanted and so they kissed with surety and intensity.

It was lazy and fierce at the same time, both of them giving as good as they got, and, when Jack took her bottom lip between his teeth and slid his hands around to her back to pull her even closer against him, she thought that she could honestly get used to this.

But her hand must have gripped his injured shoulder too tightly since he suddenly gasped sharply into her mouth – she stopped, watching him carefully. Disregarding his pain, he shook his head and tried to kiss her again, but she leant back ever so slightly, refusing him her mouth. "You're hurt, Jack," she said plainly, frowning slightly.

He exhaled a breath, looking simultaneously amused and exasperated at her concern, his eyes bright. "Would you believe me if I said that I honestly didn't care?" he wanted to know, his hands still lingering temptingly on her lower back.

"Well, I do," she said assertively, unwilling to bend on this.

He looked slightly put out, scowling once again with a line appearing between his brows; she laughed softly at his expression, her hands moving to his shirt to smooth out the creases she had put in the material with her grasping fingers. "You know ... my body is still on English time so I am about ready for dinner," she said affectionately, her fingers lingering where his suspenders were clasped to his trousers as she smiled up at him. "... Do you want to cash in that raincheck?"

Jack's smile returned, a slight twitch of his lips that was almost too small to see. "Yeah," he agreed, the very corner of his mouth turned up. "Sounds great, Carter."

Fini

Big thank you to #dontbesillywefall and #cravinghoneydukes for proofing for me :)

And THANK YOU ALL for your awesome support and reviews for this story – this was the last chapter, so leave a review letting me know what you thought of the story!

Also, this won't be my last Cartson fic – they are my OTP and I am trash for this stuff, so you will no doubt see more of me here! :)