[Jack Thompson] (The things they don't know about) Miss Tonya

[ 2 8 : e a r l y - m o r n i n g - e n c o u n t e r s ]

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Warnings: Suggestive comments (nothing explicit)

Spoilers: Agent Carter Season 1

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The sun had not even risen when Tonya got up. Ordinarily, the only thing that would get her out of bed so early would be to avoid an awkward encounter with whoever may have ended up there the night before or to work on whatever invention was her current project, but if the latter was the case, it was unlikely she'd even have gone to bed in the first place – though she wasn't entirely sure she had slept at all last night anyway. She had a different mission today, however, and though most of the world was still snoring, she knew Peggy Carter was an early riser and so that was why she found herself approaching the Griffith when only the very tops of the tallest buildings were shining with the rising sun.

It was a good thing she was early too, as her first delay appeared in the form of an annoyingly familiar man sneaking along one of the shadowed walls. She was hypocritically surprised to see him, as he was only ever awake at this hour for the same reasons she usually was, and she noticed that he also appeared to have struggled to find sleep last night. Ducking back around the corner, she waited in silence until she heard the hurried footsteps draw nearer and then she grabbed his arm as soon as he rounded the corner and dragged him into the nearest alley to much surprised protest.

"Ton? What the hell are you doing here? I–"

She pushed him away furiously as he reached out to her. "Don't even talk, Howard, I don't care about anything you have to say anymore. Jarvis told me everything." she added, snappily, when it looked as though he might begin to protest.

Howard sighed heavily and leaned back against the wall as though he had just sprinted around the block five times. "Look, Ton, this has all become a huge misunderstanding–"

"Oh, don't even try to patronise me, Howard, you know I'm smarter than that." she cut him off, raging as she watched him spinning more lies right to her face.

"Well, how was I supposed to know Peg was gonna react like that?" Howard retorted. "I thought she would realise it was the right thing to do! If the government got their hands on our vial, Tonya, it would be an insane waste of–"

Tonya cut him off again, growing more and more frustrated by his excuses. "Then why didn't you tell her then? If you really thought she'd believe that, then why not tell her what she was really stealing back from the S.S.R.? Why lie to her? Why lie to me?"

She watched as whatever excuse had been forming in Howard's mouth appeared to dissolve at her last question and he instead could only seem to look at her helplessly.

Sighing deeply, she shook her head at him. "How can you have messed this up so bad? We were well on the way to clearing your name, and now it's all gone wrong. I thought for sure that we were so close to it all being okay, especially with you coming back, but now I really wish you hadn't."

Hurt flashed across Howard's face briefly, but before Tonya could even decide whether she'd actually meant it, his expression had hardened to a furious glare of resolution. "Whatever you and Peg say, it's all a matter of opinion; I thought I was doing the right thing."

Tonya laughed dryly, almost deliriously, at the ridiculousness of the thought, refusing to believe he was truly so twisted to actually think that lying here had been right. "No, Howard, you knew it was wrong, because otherwise you would have told me! You told Jarvis because the poor man practically has no choice, he has to do as you say, but you know damn well I take orders from no one. You knew I'd have talked you out of it, you knew it wasn't the right thing, but you knew you'd have felt too guilty to go through with it if I told you so."