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

[ 4 : b a d - b a b i e s ]

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Warnings: Mentions of weapons/dangerous inventions

Spoilers: Agent Carter Season 1

[☆]

"They're calling you both traitors – mainly you, Howard, but it looks like you've dragged poor Tonya into this." Peggy informed them as she sat beside Howard in the back seat.

"Wouldn't be the first time..." Tonya muttered, with a hint of amusement, but making her annoyance clear, from her position in the front seat beside the driver, who Peggy had learnt was called Mr Jarvis and was rather undeserving of her attack; she did see some justification in it, however, given the enmity of the situation Howard had conjured.

"Ah, she loves the drama," Howard dismissed as Tonya rolled her eyes. "Besides, I'm calling it a setup."

He paused for a moment, glancing around, as if someone could be listening in on their conversation taking place inside their moving car. "I have a vault–"

"Had, you should say." Tonya corrected.

Howard glared a little but continued without acknowledging his sister's remark. "Sub-basement of my office triple-thick, lead-lined. It was where I kept my bad babies..."

The actress in the front gave a small snicker as Peggy raised an eyebrow. "Bad babies?"

"Inventions too dangerous for anyone," Howard expanded. "Even my friends."

"Which begs the question, why invent them at all?"

"Exactly what I asked him, Peg!" Tonya gestured wildly from the front, nearly giving poor Jarvis his third blow of the day.

Howard frowned. "Hey, you helped with some of the calculations for those things!"

"Unknowingly!" Tonya protested.

"Anyway, I can't help what I think of, but I can damn well control what I sell," Howard went on as they turned down a side road. "At least I could until last month."

"What happened last month?" Peggy questioned.

"We were in Monaco," Howard paused and gazed dreamily at nothing. "With a lovely tax advisor..."

Tonya chimed in from the front. "Irrelevant!"

Peggy tried not to smirk as Howard carried on as though he hadn't heard his sister. "When I got back, I found a hole under my vault, all the way to the sewer. Somebody cleaned me out. A couple of weeks later, my bad babies, they start turning up on the black market–"

"But why run?" Peggy interrupted. "Why not tell the Senate the truth, ask for their help?"

"Apparently, it's not too big a jump to see him cutting a hole in his own vault and making some money on the sly." Tonya offered an explanation.

Peggy raised an eyebrow with a smirk and Howard's expression quickly changed to one of hurt and disbelief.

"Really?" he snapped indignantly as Tonya laughed as she realised what Peggy was insinuating.

"I'm just considering all the angles," the agent smoothly excused. "Seems you have a lot of them."

The millionaire quickly got over the blow to his pride and smirked back at her. "Now, that's the Peggy Carter I need."

"For what?"

"To clear my name."

"Our names!"

"You can't be serious!"

"I try not to be, but sometimes it just slips out anyway." Howard joked.