#except needs more jack thompson

[fossore]

Just remembered that baby sharks are in fact called pups

[whosmarinette]

The Walten Files: the story of Linda Thompson’s involvement and its consequences

Please note that I actually haven’t been in the fandom for years, this is just me organizing what I believe to be the story regarding Linda. I used to have a whole sideblog where the whole joke was how much I love her, so….

Linda Thompson was Jack Walten’s cousin. They were pretty close, maybe they were both only children and close in age, so every family reunion they would play with each other.

Perhaps, Linda even introduced Jack and Rosemary. What definitely happened was that Jack introduced her and Felix. Felix was immediately smitten, regarding Linda as the most beautiful woman he’s ever met. She did fit the beauty standard quite nicely: blonde-haired, blue-eyed all-american girl. It was almost hard to believe her and Jack were closely related with how different they looked.

She married Felix and for the first while he was the perfect, loving husband, even making the company’s uniform her favorite color - purple. A bit too nervous at times, and really obsessed with his work, but that only left her more time to visit the Waltens and become better friends with Rosemary, as well as a real auntie for their kids. To the point, that, inspired by her husband’s and cousin’s clear fascination with rabbits, she sewed a gray plush rabbit for the kids.

But Felix and Linda had fertility problems, and Felix’s drinking was becoming less and less “having fun with friends” and more and more “when was the last time you were sober”, which couldn’t have helped.

She still stayed for a while - she truly did love Felix, and believed the magic of their early days could be reborn. And also, for a while, she felt like she couldn’t leave Jack and his family behind, since they are her family too.

But she finally decided to do it. Felix was busy - first at work, then he’d have to look after Jack’s kids at a school party, so he wouldn’t be home until late. She called Jack to pick her up and explained the situation. He helped her pack her things while she wrote her goodbye note, and they were off.

As they drove towards the train station past the woods, Linda noticed something on the ground - a gray bunny she made for the kids. She pointed it out to Jack, and he said the kids were probably playing and threw it out of the open window in the car on their way home. They picked up the bunny and Linda rushed Jack to take her to the train station: Felix must be getting home by now and who knows how he might react to her leaving.

But when Jack returned home after dropping Linda off, his kids weren’t there. He propped the toy in the kitchen and called Felix, but he didn’t pick up. He kept on leaving increasingly irritated voice messages on his phone.

In the meantime, Felix returned home to find it folder than it ever was. Pictures taken down from walls, half the closet empty, the only food are at least a day-old leftovers, and his wife’s diary open on the bed. The weight of the day crashed over him and he had a complete mental breakdown as the phone played back Jack screaming and shouting.

Felix spiraled from there. Over time his mind twisted. Everything appeared ugly to him, everything except the picture of Linda he kept in his wallet, which he’d grown to treat like an image of God. He tried to get her back, but she kept slipping away.

And then, twisted thoughts began to bubble in his mind. He just has to remake Linda. He’s an inventor, he can build an animatronic, he can build her too. He just needs to find spare parts, something close enough to be able to recreate her. Someone close enough.

After the attempt with Jack turned out a failure, he turned to Rosemary. To the one lady in his company that he could swear had the same smile as Linda. He was obsessed with the idea of making a perfectly beautiful specimen, to remaking his wife. In his mind, he was almost finally making a child with her. And it had to be beautiful.

He kept Rocket because she made it. Many years later, he attacked a man with blonde hair and blue eyes wearing purple - for a moment, he thought he was her, and when he wasn’t, he flew into a rage.

And now he’s on the hunt for Rosemary - the last Walten - because of how many times Linda mentioned that she feels like Rosemary is her baby too.

[captainsophiestark]

Daniel Sousa Masterlist

Marvel Masterlist

Main Masterlist

X - x reader F - Female Reader (otherwise it’s gender neutral) ☀️ - Fluff ✨ - Humor ☁️ - Angst ⭐️ - Author Faves

Newest fics will be at the bottom

Plan B - F!X ☀️✨⭐️ Reader is a friend of Peggy’s who’s been on the team at the SSR for a few months. She hasn’t really bonded with any of the men at the agency, except Thompson, who’s her stupid hotshot mission plan buddy. She also spends a fair amount of time with Daniel, but reader hasn’t gotten to bond with Agent Sousa as much. That might change drastically when the four go out on a mission to try and recover some more of Howard’s stolen tech.

Black Coffee - X ☀️ Reader’s working at a coffee house, and they see plenty of people come in looking exhausted and searching for some caffeine to help. When a new face comes into the coffee shop, he manages to break the all-time record for the person closest to being an absolute zombie. Daniel Sousa’s been working day and night on a case for the SSR, and he’s in danger of falling asleep if he so much as stops moving. But, if he can make it through to the end of the case, it might just turn out to be worth it in more ways than one.

Assistant - F!X ☀️ Y/N is Howard Stark’s assistant, which is never a boring job. They’re in the middle of tearing their hair out trying to manage his crazy schedule when a surprise visit from a certain SSR agent shakes up their day.

New Office - X ☀️ Y/N’s been in love with their best friend Daniel Sousa since they both started working at the SSR, but he’s been hung up on Peggy since the first time he saw her. Now, however, Peggy’s turned him down for a date and he’s gone all the way across the country with a promotion to get some distance from her. Y/N went with him, but will it mean a change in anything more than location for the two of them?

West vs. East - X ☀️✨ Y/N is the LA SSR’s new nurse, a position they finally realized was incredibly important to have around after a few near-misses during the Whitney Frost case. They’ve only been there a week, but an all-SSR picnic and “friendly” East Coast/West Coast competition will give them plenty of chances to make new friends and more.

Sandy and Charlie - F!X ☀️✨ Y/N is starring in her first big picture, a Western produced by Howard Stark. When the actor playing her love interest no-shows, however, they’re going to have to get creative in finding a person to fill the role so the movie can be finished. Fortunately for them, the SSR needs Howard’s help on a case, and are willing to make some deals to get it.

The Unholy Alliance - X ☀️✨ Daniel and Y/N have been staring at each other longingly for months, and Jack and Peggy are tired of it. So, in a moment of history in the making, the two *team up* to find a way to get their coworkers to finally realize their feelings for each other.

No Way To Know For Sure - Part 1 Part 2 - F!X ☁️☀️✨ After a few months of friendship and a few more months of dating, Y/N and Daniel Sousa decided to call it quits when he moved out to LA to open the West Coast SSR. She was focused on her career with no desire to leave New York, her home, the place she had connections and established respect as a female SSR agent, the greatest city in the world. Daniel couldn’t turn down the promotion, and she didn’t want him to. So they parted ways, Y/N telling herself it didn’t hurt. But when Jack sends her out to LA to work with Daniel on a case, she realizes she is definitely not over him.

Date Night - F!X ☀️✨ Y/N and Daniel are ready to relax and listen to their favorite radio program together after a long week at the SSR. Unfortunately for both of them, Y/N’s older brother Jack Thompson has the spare key to the apartment, and he has a history of picking terrible times to drop in on his little sister.

Office Most-Eligible - F!X ☀️✨ When Jack ropes Daniel into eavesdropping on the telephone ladies’ breakroom, they both might hear a lot more than they’d bargained for.

The Ugliest Tie I’ve Ever Seen - X ☀️✨ Y/N has finally been transferred to LA, joining their boyfriend Daniel Sousa to help with a case. Unfortunately, he's picked up some new fashion in LA.

Drinks With Peggy - X ☁️☀️ Daniel's S/O came out of a program like Dottie's, so they're still learning how to be in a relationship and communicate with the people who matter.

The Gunmen Were A Relief - X ☀️✨ Daniel's planned out the perfect night to tell his SO about his real job as Chief of the LA SSR. Unfortunately for him, things don't quite go according to plan.

[official-twistfateau]

Random facts

Puppeteer:

She visits John's room during the night once every two days and leaves riddles for him to solve.

John Fall:

He enjoys music, it gives him good memories and when stressed, he visits the Music Room to hear some recordings or make some music himself.

James & Jack Firewood:

James adores his younger brother, however, there are times when he does get annoyed, and in those times he never calls his brother by name or by just 'brother', he says in a rather sarcastic tone "Dear younger brother".

Jack's first word was 'Jim' when he was barely less than 2 years, so only him has the privilege of calling his older brother 'Jim'.

Funnily, when Jack is annoyed too with his older brother or wants to convince him of not doing something, he tells him 'Your Jim privileges has been revoked. Now you are James', which inmediatly backtracks his brother.

They care for each other deeply but they still have disagreements at times like any other sibling. They, contrary to most, decide to breathe in for a day and then talk calmly, they never stay angry at each other for more than 24 hrs.

Alice Green:

She engulges herself in mysteries, she loves them so much that the sole reason why she isn't like Jack in terms of 'knowing the nature of the Puppeteer' is because she dislikes being imprisioned and limited on her work.

Isami Nakamura:

Even though she comes from a Japanese family, she despises her family and culture due to her past. She, however, enjoys Egyptian and Western culture.

Bill Gordon:

Stays mostly in the library because a lot of books in there were either edited or commented without edition, so he loves to see what other editors considered special or what perspective they had on things that they didn't agree.

Matt Stubley:

Bill mostly critiques his work, so he also enjoys the library to see other viewpoints. There are times when he asks Jack's perspective on the matter, specially psychological advice when he needs a special character.

Nataly Thompson:

As cold as James, she never lets anyone except Lancelot to call her 'Nat'.

Lancelot Donovan:

Enjoys Oriental culture and respects them a lot. He is a great mediator between the spiritual world and the living world, knowing how much it influences the living.

[periwinckles]

THE TRAIN BACK TO TWELVE - FINAL CHAPTER

(Peeta)

"You can come out now."

Katniss enters our bedroom, but I keep focused on the portrait I'm currently working on. Reese Donner, one of my closest friends, lost the night of the bombing.

"Are you sure it's safe?" I ask, taking a quick glance at her. "What did she want anyway?"

"It 's… private."

"I thought you and I had no secrets anymore." I say placing the book and my pencil on the nightstand. "What is that?" I say pointing to her balled hand. She's holding something, but I only catch a glimpse of orange fabric.

"Nothing." She says, hiding it behind her back.

I've got a two second head start before she realizes what I'm doing, and she goes running down the stairs. She's faster than me, and I would probably lose her, if Buttercup wasn't such a team player and jumped in front of her.

"Let me see that!" I ask, as I grab her waist behind her, and lift her in the air like a flour sack.

"No, Peeta, please don't!"

Buttercup tries to join whatever game he thinks we're playing and we end up falling to the couch, with me on top of her. Her hand is still closed on a tight fist and I encircle it with my own.

"I'm stronger than you."

"Peeta, trust me! You'll like it better in different circumstances!"

I let go of her hand and a look of relief floods her face.

"Can you get off of me, now?"

"That…" I say as I lean down towards her lips "...will take a great deal of convincing."

I'm about to kiss her when we're interrupted by a rap at the door.

"Peeta! PEETA!"

When I open the door, Thom comes inside, followed by Delly. He looks flustered and short of breath, as if he ran all the way from camp to Victor's village.

"We need… a toasting bread…" he says, between gasps of air, still clutching his side.

"Damn it Delly, I told you not to spring things on me! I need at least two hours for a half decent toasting bread!"

Thom starts shaking his head but he's still out of breath, so Delly explains.

"No, no, no! It's not for us!"

"Ray Thompson… '' Thom continues " …he caugh Fern… coming out of Cyrus' tent and he's making them toast. We don't have two hours, he might kill him before then. We'll take whatever you have lying around. "

I take the only bread I have, half a loaf, still on the kitchen table. It's leftovers from breakfast but at least it's fresh.

"Thank you!" Thom says before taking the bread on one hand, Delly's hand in the other and sprinting down the road.

"Full disclosure…" I say, as I watch them go down the lane "... I thought life in Twelve would be far less eventful. "

Katniss smiles and takes my hand.

"At least we're not in the middle of it. It feels nice to be on the sidelines for a change, don't you think?"

-------

-Cyrus and Fern toast, but she's way more pissed than him, because now she can't move with her parents and brothers to the new house and has to wait a couple more months. Cyrus ends up becoming the head peacekeeper for District Twelve. He and Thom still take a yearly camping trip to the bunker every year.

-Bristel Meyers leaves the district with Max (one of the bunker's peacekeepers) and they relocate to District two.

-Angie Smoak starts a school with the kids, and Katniss ends up assisting her with that. Angie teaches English and Basic math, and Katniss takes them on the afternoons for surviving skills and nature exploring. Angie and Jack Norbert surprise everyone when they toast by the fire, the night of the first harvest festival, because no one really knew they were dating. Except for Thom of course, because Thom knows EVERYTHING.

- Peeta and Katniss toast in private, at the lake, one sumer afternoon. Delly is pissed at them for a week. Peeta opens up Mellark's bakery again. He makes a wood sign to hang at the front door and on one side it says Mellark's bakery, and on the backside it says Everdeen's bakery. Only he and Katniss are knowledgeable of this.

-by the end of the Summer, new residents arrive, including the Hawthornes (minus Gale). All red armbands are finally back in the district.

- the houses are finished by the begining of December, the same week of Delly's nineteenth birthday. Thom wants to toast that same night, but Delly makes him wait two more weeks because now she's warmed up to the idea of a winter wedding. They end up getting married by the end of the year, and three months later she is pregnant with their first child.

[bonaxie]

You're being more stubborn than me, that's saying something (Comfy-vember day 19)

There was never a dull moment at SSR. Of course, it wasn't always about weapons trafficking involving a Russian doctor, a born killer and a crazy inventor, or matter from nowhere with the ability to annihilate a person mastered by a mad scientist, but the days were generally full.

As on that day in November 1948, when a bunch of youngsters decided to set off an arson attack at 3am.

Well, to be honest, the fire wasn't supposed to be criminal in the first place, just a simple, forbidden fire between friends. Except that these people had decided to set the fire in a warehouse used to store highly dangerous modified weapons.

When the police and fire department realized the risk of the fire getting out of control alongside uncontrolled weapons, they contacted the SSR.

Understanding the gravity of the situation and not wanting an incident like the Midnight Gas with uncontrolled weapons, the SSR had intervened very quickly. And among those who had intervened were two of New York's finest SSR agents: Chief Thompson and Agent Carter.

Both of them, although not on duty, had arrived first, at around 3:30. And from that moment on, they had been trying to figure out what was going on, and whether the fire was as random as all that, or whether the people who started it had worse intentions than they wanted people to believe.

At one point, Jack, along with Agents Henry and Comden, had re-entered the building to get a closer look at what they were dealing with, while Peggy remained outside, directing the troops.

But what had to happen happened, and while the building and the fire were relatively stable before the SSR Agents entered, the building exploded some ten minutes after the SSR had entered. From the outside, there was no way of knowing whether they had anything to do with the explosion or not, and no way of knowing what state the three men were in.

The explosion had been violent, and even outside the building, dozens of people had been thrown to the ground by the force of the blast. Peggy was one of them, but she didn't stay on the ground for long, getting up immediately.

She stared at the burning building in horror, and her first instinct was to run into the furnace to fetch her friend. She'd almost lost him a little over a year ago, and there was no way she was going to do it again. But almost immediately, her reason took over. There were other people here who needed her. Jack knew what he was doing and he could manage, at least until she finished organizing the rescue outside. She couldn't let her concern for him get in the way of her professionalism.

"Is anyone hurt?" She asked, looking around.

And yes, there were some injuries. None directly caused by the explosion, but the blast had been so powerful that debris had flown in all directions, injuring people.

Peggy took the lead and organized the rescue operation. And if some of the police and firefighters seemed reluctant to take orders from a woman, the SSR Agents present quickly changed their minds, obeying Peggy's orders directly and urging the others to do the same. “Do as Peggy says” was, after all, one of the golden rules of the SSR.

But that was something Peggy hardly noticed anymore. She knew that, as a woman, not many believed her capable of anything, but she also knew that she'd proven herself and didn't have to fight all the time. Her SSR colleagues had seen her in action enough times to know that she was much stronger than they were, and respected her, making sure that everyone did the same.

So caught up in the organization of the rescue effort, Peggy didn't see Jack emerge from the burning building, an unconscious man on his shoulders and supporting another who was coughing and limping quite heavily. The blond man himself was not without injuries, but he didn't stop, heading straight for the rescue area under the guidance of the police officers present.

That's where Peggy saw him, having stayed behind at the rescue area to supervise.

"Jack." She said, relieved, before pulling herself together. "Any wounded, Chief Thompson?" She asked.

"Yes. Comden took a beam to the head and Henry a metal bar in the leg." Jack says, pointing to each of the two men receiving treatment. "Comden hasn't regained consciousness since the explosion and his breathing is a bit complicated from the smoke but is stable. The metal bar was attached to the floor so we had to remove it to move Henry but it doesn't look like it hit anything important. He didn't bleed to death anyway." He added.

"All right. The hospital has been notified that we have injured people here and ambulances should be arriving shortly." Peggy informed him.

"Perfect." Jack said simply, before turning away to cough hard into his sleeve.

Peggy took this moment to observe her friend, trying to determine his condition. He was completely covered in soot, his hair and suit were burnt in places, he was wheezing, and Peggy could clearly see burn marks on his hands. And that was just what she could see.

"And you Chef?" She asked, remaining professional. "Any injuries to report?"

"No, nothing, just a little smoke, I'll survive." Jack replied immediately, a little too quickly for Peggy's liking but she'd let it go for now, making a note to herself to come back to it later if Jack didn't do anything. "Where are we with the investigation? Any idea why the building blew up on us?"

"Before the explosion, I was interviewing the fire starters and they might not be so innocent after all. They've been transferred to the nearest police station until we finish dealing with the emergency here. As for the explosion, we were hoping you could tell us more, did you do anything in particular just before?"

"Nothing special about the explosion. Henry opened an already half-broken door and fire exploded in the room. The explosion went off not even a few seconds later."

"I see. Even if the door was already ajar, it's possible that it created a draught and that the fire in the room suddenly intensified. Perhaps there was something in the room that caused the explosion?"

"It's hard to say, we didn't have time to see anything in the room. We'll have to wait until the fire is under control to see if there's anything left. In the meantime, we need answers about the origin of this fire. Have the suspects transferred to the SSR and ask Ramirez to start the interrogations."

"Yes, Chief." Peggy agreed as she set off to fulfill her mission.

She would have liked to insist a little more on Jack's injuries, but she knew there was no point at the moment, so she concentrated on her task. The sooner they were finished, the sooner she could take care of Jack.

Peggy then got so caught up in everything that had to be done that she didn't see the blond again until several hours later.

She'd just returned from the SSR, where she'd been checking in with Ramirez to see how the interrogations were progressing. Unfortunately, the suspects were stubborn, and although it was now clear that they were anything but innocent, they still hadn't managed to get them to talk.

Peggy was sure she'd get them to talk, but first she'd have to let them wait. So she asked Ramirez to stop the interrogations for the time being, and that she would deal with them later in the day. In the meantime, the instructions were to keep the suspects isolated, so that they couldn't communicate with each other, and to prevent them from sleeping.

It was barely 6 a.m. when Peggy returned to the scene of the explosion, and although there were fewer people, there were still a sizeable number of police, firemen and SSR Agents.

And in the middle of it all, directing operations, was Jack Thompson.

Peggy saw at once that the blond hadn't stopped for a moment, and hadn't done anything about his injuries either while she'd been away.

Deciding to take the temperature, Peggy approached another SSR Agent. "Agent Wallace, what's the situation?"

"Agent Carter. The fire is almost under control and firefighters say it'll be out in less than an hour. Unfortunately, the firefighters fear there's not much left to work with, and the Chief doesn't like that. Especially since the police aren't being very cooperative and are trying to get the case." Informed Butch Wallace, pointing to the police chief, who was in a heated discussion with another SSR agent.

"I see. Do you know if Chief Thompson has seen anyone about his injuries?"

"Negative Ma'am. We've tried talking to him about it but he keeps saying he's perfectly fine, doesn't need to see anyone and has too much going on to stop."

Peggy had to stifle a sigh at this, even if she wasn't totally surprised. "Copy that. Agent Wallace, can you take care of reminding the police that when illegal and modified weapons are involved, interventions fall under SSR jurisdiction? If you need to, there are all the regulations and laws regarding this fact in every SSR car. I'll talk to the Fire Chief and deal with Chief Tompson."

"Aye, aye, Agent Carter." Wallace agreed immediately, nodding before moving toward the police chief.

Peggy, for her part, headed for Jack, who was deep in discussion with the fire chief. The blond looked absolutely exhausted and, as Wallace had said, had done absolutely nothing about his various injuries. And as she got closer, Peggy also realized that her friend was shivering quite a bit. This was hardly surprising, given that it was no more than 5°C outside, and Jack had been out for several hours without even a coat.

Peggy took a confident step towards the two men and quickly saw that, from his attitude, Jack was more than eager to end the conversation but couldn't do it alone without being horribly rude. And as Chief of the SSR, he couldn't afford to look bad. Peggy, on the other hand, already had a bad image, so a little more or a little less didn't bother her, quite the contrary.

"Chief Thompson." She called as she reached him.

Jack turned and, seeing the brunette, quickly realized that she was bringing him a way out, and a flash of relief passed through his eyes. "Agent Carter?"

"I've brought back the transcript of the SSR interviews and it's promising, can you come and have a look, please?"

"I'll be right there." Jack replied, relieved, already detaching himself from the fireman.

The latter was about to protest, opening his mouth, but Peggy intervened before that. "I'd like to thank you for all your hard work tonight. If you could finish bringing this fire under control, that would be great. Then set up a security perimeter, but don't let anyone enter the ruins before the SSR. No one. No firemen, no policemen, no civilians, am I clear?" Peggy asked.

The firefighter in front of her seemed lost for a moment and turned to Jack, who was waiting for his colleague a few yards away.

"Oh for God's sake." He muttered before speaking more loudly. "Do what she says. Agent Carter is my second-in-command and the best agent we have here, so do as she says." he announced, before starting to walk away. "Carter, with me."

"Right away, Chief." Peggy said immediately as she followed him, paying no attention to the stunned firefighter.

The two SSR agents moved away from the site of the explosion to Peggy's car.

"How do you put up with this every day?" Jack asked without preamble, turning back to Peggy.

"What are you talking about?"

"Of their incompetence and indecency! How can you accept that everything you say will be systematically questioned and that no one will listen to what you have to say, unless a man repeats exactly what you've just said?"

"I'm used to it, Jack. And I know that's not going to change. Not right away, anyway. And in the meantime, I have colleagues who are willing to parrot my directives."

Clearly, Jack wasn't satisfied with the brunette's answer, but she didn't give him time to think about it any further.

"Anyway, that's not the topic of conversation here. Have you seen anyone about your injuries?"

"Peggy, I don't need-"

"You've been caught in an explosion, you've been inside a burning building for over 15 minutes, you've been standing in the cold for almost 4 hours, you're wearing nothing but a shirt and suit jacket and it's no warmer than 5°C." Peggy enumerated. “I can see why you didn't want to stop before, because there were things to do, but it's all right now. The fire's under control, the area's secure, the wounded have been taken to hospital and the suspects are in custody. You can stop Jack, and let me look at your wounds because I know you won't want a doctor to do that."

Peggy clearly sensed that a part of Jack was in complete agreement with her. But unfortunately, that part was currently being overtaken by another part of the blond, which absolutely refused to stop.

"Jack." Peggy sighed, putting a hand on his shoulder. "You're being more stubborn than me here, and that's saying something. I'm not asking you to go to the hospital, I'm just asking you to let me take care of you. Please."

Jack held his friend's gaze for a few dozen seconds longer before finally sighing.

"Okay." He finally capitulated. "Okay, I'll stop."

"Thank you." Peggy nodded as she opened the rear door. "Get in there."

"Damn Carter, buy a guy a drink first." Jack said with a playful smile.

"Thompson, I'm not above knocking you out with a punch to get you to rest so if you don't want to wake up in a few hours with a nice headache, get in this car. Now."

"Aye aye, understood, do as Peggy says." Said Jack as he climbed into the back of the car.

Peggy sighed before slamming the door behind him, careful of course not to hit him in the process.

After that, she went around the car and opened the trunk. She quickly grabbed the first-aid kit and a thick blanket, before closing the trunk and re-entering the car on the back seat, next to Jack.

"Jacket and shirt off." She asked.

"Going fast here, Miss Carter." Jack chuckled, as he complied.

"Mrs. I'm a married woman." Peggy replied without losing a beat.

"Whose husband is 2,800 miles away."

"My fist's always ready." Peggy deadpan.

"Okay, okay, I'll stop." Jack said, a little more seriously. He'd managed to remove his jacket but was having trouble unbuttoning his shirt, his fingers trembling from both the cold and the burns.

Without saying a word, Peggy gently batted his hands away, and began undoing the buttons herself, careful not to pull too hard on the fabric in case any burns were hidden underneath, which they most certainly were.

"Now that we're alone, you'll be able to stop talking nonsense and tell me how you really feel, and if you're hurt more than I can see, which is already more than you've told me."

Jack winced but sighed slightly. This simple sigh brought on a coughing fit, and Peggy just stared at him, running a hand up his back as the coughing fit lengthened a little.

When he finally stopped coughing, Jack's breathing was a little short, but nothing too dramatic.

"Okay, the smoke from the fire didn't do my left lung any good." He admitted, wincing a little.

Peggy frowned, but unfortunately wasn't surprised. After the assassination attempt he'd been the victim of almost 2 years ago in Los Angeles, Jack had suffered some respiratory damage, his left lung having been perforated by the bullet. Most of the time, the blond was completely unaffected by this injury, but when he was ill or, in this case, when he breathed in large quantities of smoke, the old wound came back to haunt him.

"Hm. It might be prudent for you to spend a few hours on oxygen today, to keep it from getting worse." Peggy suggested, continuing to work on his shirt.

Indeed, because of the damage to his left lung, Jack sometimes needed a little extra oxygen, and Howard had optimized what already existed, allowing the blond to do this from home, without having to go to hospital every time. And while Jack had been more than a little against it at first, he'd come to accept it, and today he wasn't so reluctant to use it. Except for one thing.

"I can't do this at the office, Peggy." He contradicted.

"I know. And I wasn't thinking of you doing it at SSR, I was thinking of you doing it at home."

"It'll have to wait until the end of the day."

"But you're already done for the day. I'm taking care of you, and then I'll take you home."

"It's not even 7 o'clock. The day hasn't even started yet, I can't go home already."

"I thought night Agents didn't work the next day. And that injured Agents didn't either."

"Normally yes, but not right now. Peggy, we have an investigation that just opened, I just can't go home. And it's okay, honestly, my breathing isn't that horrible, it can wait until tonight for me to go home." Jack insisted.

Peggy stared at her friend for a while, but she had to admit he was right. "Okay." She allowed. "But if your breathing gets too bad during the day, you're going home."

"Deal." Jack agreed, knowing he wouldn't get any better and that there was no point in trying to argue any further with the brunette.

"Perfect. Now on to the other wounds." Peggy replied, continuing to unbutton the blond man's shirt.

"Some burns on hands and forearms but hard to tell like that. On the face maybe as well."

"Okay. Anything other than burns?" 

"Other than a few bruises and scratches, negative."

Peggy nodded and when she had finished undoing the buttons on his shirt, helped Jack remove it, careful of the potential burns.

And just as Jack had said, there were light burns all over where he'd said.

Before she could do anything about it, Peggy grabbed the big blanket she'd taken from the trunk and laid it over Jack's shoulders, who was shivering badly.

"Thanks." He said simply, pulling the soft material tighter around him.

Peggy simply sent him a small smile before opening the first-aid kit, taking out a greasy ointment.

She then took one of Jack's hands in hers and looked more closely at the burns there.

"It doesn't look too bad." She declared, putting on ointment on the burns, looking relieved.

"I didn't catch a piece of burning metal with my full hand, it was just brief contact with flying debris."

Peggy nodded but didn't look at him, concentrating on her task. After putting cream on all the burns on his hands and arms, Peggy then covered everything with bandages, trying as hard as she could not to block his fingers in too big bandages.

"Done for the arms. Nothing on the torso but show me your back."

"Seriously Peggy, you don't trust me that much?" Jack asked, raising an eyebrow.

Peggy only raised one in turn, without backing down.

Knowing she wouldn't back down, Jack sighed and turned, pulling the blanket off his shoulders and shivering in the process, so Peggy could see that, indeed, he had no wounds or burns on his back.

"Good." Peggy said simply.

"Thanks." Jack sighed as he covered himself with the blanket, still shivering a little.

Peggy seemed to realize this and leaned forward, opening a compartment Jack didn't know existed under the back seat and pulling out a shirt and thick knitwear.

"I didn't know you kept this in your car at all times." Said the blond.

"You'd be surprised what you could find in my car, Jack." Peggy replied simply, helping him into the new shirt.

"How many weapons?" Jack asked with a smirk.

"What do you call a weapon?" Interrogated the brunette, helping to fasten the buttons on the shirt.

"In your hands, just about anything. Even a stapler becomes a weapon when wielded by Peggy Carter." The SSR Chief smirked, thinking back to the incident with Spider Raymond at the start of the Stark affair.

This remark drew a small laugh from Peggy. "Well, anything can be a weapon, if you try hard enough."

"Even in your makeup bag you have more weapons than in the SSR armories."

"Now I think you're exaggerating."

"Oh yeah? You want to talk about your eyelash curler that hides a knife in its handle? Your pocket mirror that you use to look into a room before entering? Your toothpick case that hides tranquilizer-infused stingers? Or your soporific lipstick?" Jack asked with an amused smile.

Peggy opened her mouth to protest, but realized that her friend was perfectly right, so she said nothing about it.

"Still, I'm sure you're quite happy right now that I keep a spare shirt in my car. With the added bonus of a handmade knitted sweater by Mrs. Jarvis herself." Peggy said, grabbing the knitted fabric she'd pulled from under the seat.

Jack observed the shapeless mass of wool his friend was handing him with a skeptical eye. "Ana Jarvis made this?" he asked, trying not to sound too disgusted.

"You have to start somewhere. It's ugly, I grant you, but at least it'll keep you warm until we get back to the office."

"I bet you didn't tell her that." Jack scoffed lightly, putting on the sweater anyway. And Peggy was right, it was ugly, but it was warm.

"Even you wouldn't be able to go up to Ana Jarvis and tell her to her face that her sweater is ugly."

Jack then imagined going up to the Hungarian to tell her that and winced as he imagined her reaction. No, definitely not. "Probably not." he confessed.

Peggy nodded and then stepped back a little.

"Well, how about we go back to the office, so we can go look at those interrogation transcripts?" she suggested.

"Only if you buy me coffee on the way." Jack bargained.

"Okay, but just this once. Pull up in front if you'd rather, I'll let Agent Wallace know we're heading back to the SSR." Peggy said as she got out of the car.

She didn't wait for Jack's reply and stepped away from her car, heading for where a few dozen men still stood.

"Agent Carter." Agent Wallace greeted as she approached.

"Agent Wallace, Chief Thompson and I are heading back to the SSR offices. Call when the scene is passable or if anything major happens."

"Agreed."

Peggy nodded and then turned around, heading back to her car. She settled behind the wheel and saw that Jack had migrated to the front, and was curled up in a ball on the seat, under the big blanket.

The brunette said nothing more and simply started her car, taking them to the SSR. Maybe the blond next to her was the Chief of the New York SSR, but that didn't mean he knew how to take care of himself. But that’s okay, Peggy was there to remind him or do it for him. That's what friends are for, after all.

@comfy-vember

[grit-and-glamour]

Who was/is Sonny Burgess ?

Sonny Burgess: The Classic Recordings 1956-1959

Out to the dancehall Cut a little rug We're runnin' like wildfire And hittin' that jug.. A cursory listen to some of Sonny Burgess's records suggests a life lived close to the edge - nights spent playing gin mills followed by drunken chases down dirt roads, firing off bottle rockets and puking over the neighbour's car at dawn. In person, though, Burgess is a somewhat shy and self-effacing family man. The occasional comment will hint at more turbulent waters but he hasn't lived the life one might anticipate from some of his lyrics, which is just as well, otherwise there might not be a Sonny Burgess to talk to. When Sun's crop of rockabilly singers forsook the shaking music they usually reverted back to their first love - country music.

Sonny Burgess was the exception. His passion was Rhythm & Blues. He had a true R&B voice like a tenor sax in full cry. It was short on subtlety and delicate shadings - but a magnificent rock & roll instrument. Soon after he quit the music business, Burgess took a salesman's job in a store, and still talks with enthusiasm of an old black guy who used to bring in his guitar, and play loping Jimmy Reed riffs. Sonny would sit and jam with him. Perhaps a blues album is the great Sonny Burgess album that has yet to be made. Born near Newport, Arkansas on May 28, 1931, Albert ‘Sonny' Burgess grew up on a farm, and developed his musical tastes listening to the Grand Ole Opry and the Memphis country stations, taking in R&B from WLAC in Nashville and WDIA in Memphis along the way.

Sonny Burgess did his hitch the Army, and returned to Newport with the thought of a career in baseball, or -failing that- farming. He worked for a spell in a box factory, and slowly put together a semi-pro band that went under several names and through several incarnations, eventually calling themselves the Moonlighters. He was back working on the farm when, as he put it, "farming started interfering with my music." In an early version of the group, Sonny Burgess was the guitarist, Paul Whaley handled the vocals in a Hank Thompson style, Kern Kennedy played piano, Russ Smith was on drums, Johnny Ray Hubbard played bass, and Bob Armstrong handled the accordion. After Whaley went back to California, Sonny Burgess took over the vocals, and Armstrong eventally quit.

There was no shortage of venues because Newport in Jackson County permitted liquor to be sold but was surrounded by dry counties; hence a number of nightclubs out of proportion with Newport's population. They played local nightspots like the Silver Moon, Bob King's and Mike's club. They often played at King's on Friday night; Saturday night belonged to Punky Coldwell, a saxophonist who led a racially mixed jazz dance band. When Elvis Presley came to the Silver Moon Club in October 1955, Sonny Burgess organised the supporting act, and put together Newport's version of a supergroup combining some of Punky's men and the Moonlighters. According to Sonny Burgess, Elvis tried to hire Punky and Kern Kennedy that night to flesh out the meagre sound of Scotty and Bill.

Also, according to Sonny Burgess, Elvis got the idea to record One Night from the Pacers, who often performed it as much as five times a night. For his part, Elvis's contribution to Sonny Burgess's career was to implant the idea of going to record at Sun. At some point early in 1956, the Moonlighters went to Sun for an audition. Sam Phillips told them that they needed a fuller sound so Burgess joined forces with Jack Nance and Joe Lewis who had another local band. It was Lewis who came up with the name 'Pacers' for the new group, copping it from the Pacer airplane. Both Smith and Nance played drums so Nance (who was a music major in college) switched to his other instrument, trumpet. Sonny Burgess had originally wanted a saxophone player to emulate Punky Coldwell, but he figured that the trumpet gave the Pacers a little different sound. On May 2, 1956 Burgess drove back to Memphis. Phillips was impressed with the revamped line-up and cut their debut single that afternoon.

We Wanna Boogie and Red Headed Woman stand among the rawest recordings released during the first flowering of rock ‘n’ roll. The lyrics were almost unintelligible (although they repay close attention with some very funny couplets), and the instrumentation teetered on the edge of atonality. It was a record that sported an air of total abandon, sounding as if it had been created under the heavy burden of alcohol, although Sonny Burgess remembers that everyone was stone cold sober, and nervous to the point of apprehension. Despite being almost unmarketable according to established precepts, Red Headed Woman reportedly sold over 90,000 copies. It did especially well in Boston, although Burgess was unaware of that fact until Nance and Lewis toured there a few years later with Conway Twitty. At that time the Pacers were managed by Gerald Grojean, the assistant manager of a local radio station, KNBY.

On one of their early trips to Memphis, the Pacers went to see Bob Neal, who held the promise of broader horizons and promised to get them on tour with Presley. "We come back home," remembered Sonny Burgess, “and about a year later we hadn't heard nothing so we went back and saw him again. He said that Gerry Grojean had got on the phone crying, saying ‘You can't take them away from me'. Bob said he didn't need all that crap and told Gerry he could keep us." Grojean, who knew little more about the business than the Pacers themselves had no idea how to expose the group outside Newport during a critical stage in their career.

[deansmultitudes]

What was the point of prequel? I know jackles is a j*hn apologist but this didn't even redeem j*hn lol like its just a show about some strangers? It's not even a prequel since it happens after finale and does nothing to change show timeline. It just made Dean look infinitely more pathetic. Like dude is dead yet can't stop obsessing over his abusive father. Made me feel worse than spn finale which is a feat in itself.

The point? Money and ego.

Within the show, it set up the au versions of john and mary and this whole au verse for thompson to play around in.

And thus making more money and bigger ego boost for JA lol if this crap for some godforsaken reason gets picked up for season 2.

This is all it comes down to, it has no other value. From now on it'll have nothing to do with Dean or his universe. Thompson said the voiceover will be coming from Dean's journal that he gave them. Funnily spnwinnies expect it to become a show about dean's travels through the multiverse lmao as if he wasn't told by jack he's coming back to heaven, like the show wasn't from the beginning about J&M and like they can't read what thompson is saying lmao.

Other than that, no there was no point. Nothing has changed, the show turned out to be some random john and mary among millions of other john and marys. It's like if he made a show about huntercorp sam and dean except they at least were entertaining AND they did have an impact on the "main" universe and the og sam and dean's lives, somewhat. (hell who knows maybe that's the same verse and the therapy!john will start the huntercorp lol)

Frankly, the world that's all squirrels is higher on the fun list than this one lol.

So basically JA could have just made a show "Anventures of ALT!John and Mary" about this universe where Henry's letter just happened to land in John's hands, since there was no reason whatsoever for it not to land in his hands without Dean's interference. This verse has already had so many differences in it like john and mary not hating each other when they met. There was no fucking need to drag Dean into it. And then they wouldn't have needed the deus ex machina jack (which thompson literally admitted they needed LMAO? If you need a deus ex machina in a 13 episode show, that's not a fucking bragging point for a writer dude, maybe you need a career change).

(I should put a readmore here, sorry it got so long lol)

Like, thompson's talking about this season opening a whole wide supernatural universe... but this universe means nothing. It's not our SPN universe! It's not Dean's! If in the future JA does do that reboot he keeps talking about (and it's actually a reboot not JA the big showbiz guy not knowing the proper terms for his medium) those won't be our Sam and Dean. Funny how the fandom hates the concept of AW!Bobby and AW!Charlie but this crap they're eating up like it's chocolate not a turd (some of them that is). Wanna bet that if they reboot it into young sam and dean show, JA will play john? You know, the way Bill Murray played the skeptic guy in Ghostbusters 2016.

Pathetically, this is one of the least bad solutions, because if ja actually had dean mess with his own timeline, he would have literally entirely erased Dean's existence, and all the events of the "mothership". Which, you know, with his ego he actually might have. So I guess we should count our blessings.

Which doesn't change a fact that he turned dean into an obsessed stalker. Just like you put it: a pathetic, dead dude who can't stop obsessing over his abusive father. That is NOT where Dean was mentally at the end of SPN. That is not where he had been for years before that. It's sad and disgusting and it's not who my Dean was. At least with the 40years long drive you could tell yourself the heaven timey-wimey made it last a few hours not years. Like this, you know he's purposefully following john after john after john after john channeling britney's Born to make you happy.

And by the way since the akrida was unleashed by chuck after he failed then Dean's line of "[ultimate killer] that's not who I am" aka one of the most important lines of the show was a mistake. He should have remained a killer, dad's little soldier. And well, look, he did. Almost getting kicked out of heaven (into where? hell? the empty? oh em gee d*stiel empty reunion and existence foreva and eva in the nothingness?) to make john happy.

And yeah lol, he didn't redeem John. But he's given this version of him everything Dean can never have (including Dean's favorite song that cost the whole TW budget lol). And given how weird an attitude this show and thompson have about alternate universes (like Dean was looking for his family in the alternate universes HOW?? What was he gonna pop up to a random version of X characters and be like hi! I'm Dean, you're my family now????????? And the whole giving john and mary a happy ending, like, it means nothing for Dean's world or himself. His parents still were through shit and are still terrible parents. And also opening spn universe, which this isn't? Like, I don't get what their weird view on alternate universes is lol?) maybe they do think it's redeeming.

He did however succeed at blorboification of John. Now john has fangirls that aren't the few weird john apologists who'd you see in passing once in a blue moon. Now it's their boy john, their little blorbo, their poor little meow meow and boyfriend goals.

I'm so sorry you feel that way :( It's so fucking insidious for JA to do this. But we've known for two years (heck, more with his earlier comments about how "awesome" and "satifying" spn finale would be) that he doesn't give a shit about how miserably Dean's life ended. He fucking loved it. He keeps praising it every chance he gets. The only reason he had a problem with accepting dean's death (for one week lol) after he found out is that he thought he would not be able to get back to him and make more money off him. He didn't actually care that Dean didn't get to live, just that he thought he couldn't play him anymore. Hell even when he said Dean's biggest mistake was landing on the rebar it was bc if he didn't there'd be 6 more seasons! or whatever (as if he wasn't the one who wanted to end the show. Does he think a tv series can just end then resume at his personal whim??) For him it wasn't because Dean died young and didn't get to live the life he fought for. It was about himself. And he's shown it multiple times too! Every time since he's made Dean's birthday all about himself. Last year with *his own pictures* on insta and talking about himself (young and brooding/older and happier??? That's not a description of Dean) and this year with that fucking cringe birthday party for J*nsen with J*nsen blowing out the candles. They literally sang happy birthday to J*nsen on Dean's birthday. So fucked up.

Anyway, for me this episode feels like JA stabbed my barely scabbed-over finale wound with a butter knife, opened it up and salted it. And the fact now the people who were hurting about Dean's death too, now are fucking rejoicing same way S/am girls have been since the finale adds even more insult to the injury. Like thanks, I've heard enough over those 2+ years how I'm an idiot for not understanding the show because I should be totally happy that Dean is dead, and now to hear the same from what I thought was the same side of the fence? Never thought I'd see the day where who I thought was dean girls reiterate b*bros' words because they ate up JA's b*bro agenda.

For what it's worth, this show isn't SPN canon, it's a separate show that has barely any connection to SPN. So probably best course of action is to refuse to accept it as anything other than bad fanfiction that got unfortunately televized. And I hate that due to the spn finale being what it was, there is no comfort there to go back to, but I guess we've managed to live with that for over two years now, we gotta keep going and hope that this failure gets cancelled and that no one ever picks up any more of ja's shit ideas.

We really didn't appreciate how the SPN writers would ignore JA's ideas for Dean and file them away as "actor bullshit" lol

Oh and remember, in about 35 years this earth will get fried and taken over by lucifer or michael like the AW because if these J&M don't raise Sam and Dean to be the hunters who will save the world (IF they're even born at all and are the same people), there will be no one to save it from the apocalypse that is still happening whether they shoot Azazel or not, since he was a small part of the plan that's in motion anyway. The very fact that J&M exist in this verse is because of the millenia of matchmaking programme :)

[cactusspatz]

May recs

Quite a hodgepodge this time around, since not having my computer for the first half of the month resulted in me plowing through to-read piles on my phone. Enjoy!

Standard Operating Procedures by @galateagalvanized (Star Wars, Cody/Obi-Wan)

“Sir, I need you to tell me what’s wrong,” Cody says, battlefield calm, and he can’t help his relief when Obi-Wan pulls the tattered remains of his usual dignity back over his shoulders.

“Right,” Obi-Wan says. “Of course. Commander, as far as I can tell, everyone besides you on this ship has fallen truly, madly, deeply in love with me.”

Where Cody is the exception to acting weird because of course he’s already in love with Obi-Wan. I LOVE THIS TROPE. Plays out mostly as you would expect, i.e. delightfully.

Fauna One by @avonya (Murderbot Diaries, gen)

On an otherwise tedious survey, Murderbot meets a cat.

Wonderful pre-canon fic that does that thing canon does where it’s hilarious and fun and also makes you want to scream about how fucked up its enslaved life used to be. But yes, mostly it’s about Murderbot making friends with a feral cat.

things to never give the devil by @fahye (Our Flag Means Death, Ed/Stede)

"Dark Fate?" says Stede, making sure to pronounce the capitals.

"Very effective for star-crossed lovers. And at a bargain price, if I do say so myself. A potent mixture of unspeakably rare ingredients, brewed under a new moon, which will drag you through the depths of your own soul in search of difficult truths, and leave the undeserving to drift forever in a dreamscape of torment and emotional agony!"

"What?" says Stede. "No! That sounds awful!"

Set post-S1, the path to Stede and Ed reuniting is full of obstacles. Fairytale-flavored and as delightfully bonkers/romantic as the show, with amnesia, aka my favorite trope!

The Song Remains the Same by @sholiofic (Agent Carter, Peggy/Daniel/Jack)

After a lab accident, Peggy wakes up in 1948, with no memories of anything since early 1946.

Did I mention I love amnesia? This fic is SO GOOD in that respect, and does a beautiful job with Peggy’s tendency to be kinda judgey - usually well deserved! but less good when she finds out her future self somehow ended up in a triad with Jack Thompson of all people, and starts fucking up her own life and future happiness. (don’t worry, they figure it out eventually) And all that on top of a really good casefile!

All Bets Are Off by Carmilla (Singin’ in the Rain, Don/Kathy/Cosmo)

Don will always say that he fell in love with Kathy at first sight.

It’s a good story. It doesn’t really matter that the truth is a little more complicated.

A good solid OT3 get-together, but with some good queer backstory feels for Don.

Things Floating Like the First Hundred Flakes of Snow by @beaarthurpendragon (MCU, Steve/Bucky)

In the summer of 1968, the Winter Soldier manages to break free of his HYDRA programming enough to get a message to SHIELD Deputy Director Peggy Carter that Captain America is still alive.

Or: How Bucky and Steve save one another, one more time.

Great AU with a fantastic older Peggy interacting with the Winter Soldier, and then some brutally good depiction of Bucky working through his brainwashing/trauma (guest-starring Charles Xavier) and a happy ending - or rather, a beginning.

5 Times Tim Spends the Night at Wayne Manor + 1 Time He Comes Home by @motleyfam (DCU, gen) 

Tim is good at galas.

No, scratch that—Tim is great at galas. He’s been attending them ever since the age of three, when his parents first stuffed him into his little Gymboree tuxedo and gave him a stern lecture about ‘sitting quietly’ and ‘speaking when spoken to.’ He knows all the rules: what to wear, how to stand, when to smile, what to say, what not to say. He knows how to come across as polite and intelligent and charming, and on absolutely any other day, he would be rocking this.

Or, my take on a ‘Tim Joins the Family Early’ AU, told through a series of sleepovers—most of which are unplanned.

Directly in my favorite overlap of Wayne Adoptive Family Feels, Tim thinking his life is totally normal (no parental neglect here!), and good soft h/c.

[fucktheroyals]

You know after reading and reading and reading peoples theories and the meta from before the spn finale aired and the meta writers reactions to the finale I think I have a theory of my own. We don't have any answers tho, so this is pure speculation. If you wanna add something to support or discredit any of this that's cool but there's too many things floating around. Know I dont have proof for this conclusion at all. A lot of what I say is just guesses based on previous facts.

This all came together in my head when I realized how much this finale REEKS of the original producers and who the show was originally for. It REEKS of Robert Singer. Like if the execs started saying they didn't want it, Robert Singer was the one pushing that the story was about the brothers. That kinda thing.

Then, I was thinking of the problems in this episode and it struck me these are all of Supernatural biggest issues and to be honest all of it feels completely deliberate.

Take the sexism for example, Supernatural in it's later seasons largely out grew this, we have Jody, Rowena, Donna, Charlie, Mary, Claire (and even a wayward sisters pilot with MORE women/girls) all making regular appearances. They're mainly good characters and mostly aren't there to hurt our boys. Rowena, of course, is the one outlier being very about herself but it's clear she still cares for them, I mean its part of her development. But they're all real, with character flaws just like everyone else. (And we have Death too and she was POC 😭 THANK GOD)

Now look at the earlier half of Spn, we have Ellen and Jo, who's appearances were far in between. There's Bela in season 3, recurring for quite a bit (5 eps), but she is a character that is only there for herself, definitely not found family (unlike Ellen & Jo), and she's got more episodes in season 3 than Ellen and Jo in season 2 who aren't seen again til season 5. The "fans" send in hate mail after hate mail to try to get these characters off, and eventually they are. Then there's Ruby who's character stayed for a whole two seasons and was a largely recurring character. Why does she get to say so long? She's a plot device. She's supposed to be there to betray Sam. She has to stay (plus Jared obviously likes her). But she's not just a character the writers like writing about. Same with Lilith. Obviously not as recurring but still a plot device. Did they get hate mail tho? You can bet on it. Why? because tHeY'rE gOnNa PuSh ThE bOyS (Dean and Sam) aPaRt ThE sHoW iS aBoUt ThE bOyS oNlY. Without even thinking about the hate mail, just notice how large the difference is from how women are seen in the earlier seasons to the later seasons. Misha got tons of hate mail too for being a character that could split up the boys (probably only being allowed to say because he a man, thanks sexist producers and execs).

Only after Castiel was killed off and then Castiel fans successfully (thank you guys) got him back on the show did the hate mail largely simmer, which means female character's were allowed to stay! Which has lead us to a show with a good amount of female characters. But can you imagine having to kill characters off time and time again because people keep complaining that the show is "only about the boys." Fun times really.

So now we get to this final and we see sexism. But it wasn't just the plain old regular sexism you find in the earlier days of spn. Because now, there ARE women to talk about, talk to. But this episode was DESOLATE women wise, unless they were used for plot (which is also sexist!). Small scenes, they're barely there. Women gets her tongue cut out. Random women from s1 gets killed. Sam doesn't SPEAK of Eileen. Nothing. No mention of any female characters from the boys mouths unless they were from/in this episode itself. That's WIERD. I know we've all said it. But that goes beyond forgetting about characters. I mean its SAM'S GIRLFRIEND for Christ's sake. There is NO REASON they couldn't have said Eileen's name. Notice how Sam's wife is just... faceless. This is literally an age old sexist trope. Like... one of the things about bringing Mary back to life for s12+ is that it takes this trope... of basically a generic mother, and gives her life and feelings, whether you like them or not, they're real feelings. They said Mary isn't just a mom she's a person. Mary's existence in the later half of spn is to fix this kind of female tropes that fall upon her character, to not let these her stay a 2 dimensional character. They said we should know she's more than just the mom who tried to save her kid. Do that is the exact opposite of Sam getting a nameless, faceless wife. The sexism of the old spn wasn't just brought back, it was completely amplified. It wasn't just accidental or some exec "fixing" the story it was DELIBRATE. Whoever wrote that, didn't do ALL OF THAT by accident. Because an exec or a producer who doesn't see the flaws in old supernatural isn't going to write it that deliberately.

Let's bring it back to s10 when Charlie was killed (singer was mainly to blame). Dead in the bathtub, age old classic of burying ur gays. If you were here you know people never let Supernatural live that down. THEY KNOW what bury ur gays means. Hell, Robbie Thompson left because of Charlie's death and you think the writers don't know what it means? I mean both Bobo Berens (especially) and Steve Yockey's careers are centered around LGBT+ storytelling and you think they don't know? They know. They know.

And Dean wasn't just apart of the bury your gays trope, it is so far BEYOND that. Dean being killed on a rusty nail/screw, the tongues ripped out, things that seemed to be meant for other people. Jensen's acting in the last two episodes was giving us "DEAN RECIPROCATES" but no one ever actually saying it. I think it's clear that Dean was killed for being Bi. They didn't address it for a reason, they just silenced him. His narrative was supposed to be about letting him be HIM for the first time, to say what his feelings are instead of having them miscommunicated, and instead of doing that, they just silenced him. And the more we look at this scene the more horrific it gets. The more it's a complete slap in the face and it's supposed to be. Some guy who knows nothing about the LGBT can't write a scene this horrific.

Some guy who knows nothing about Dean couldn't write a scene that deconstructs all of Dean's character development and gives Dean his worst nightmare. I MEAN DEAN WANTED TO LIVE HIS LIFE! THEY DIDNT HIDE THAT JOB APPLICATION (or whatever job related thing that was) IN THERE FOR SHITS AND GIGGLES THEY WANT YOU TO KNOW THIS IS THE ABSOLUTE WORST SITUATION. Dean isn't Barney from HIMYM. If you watched HIMYM then you'll know Barney went from being a stereotypical ladies man and treating women terribly to being in love with a women and treating her right and working hard for it. The last episode of HIMYM (why its so bad) Barney's character development is thrown out and he's back to being a stereotypical ladies man. You don't need to know Barney's character very much to do that.

To kill Dean during a hunt his father never finished, to not have anyone at his funeral, to have Dean die young like his life didn't matter. Those are Dean's worst fears and you'd only truly know that if you watched the gin episode in s3, where they are basically laid out for you. You HAVE to know Dean's character to tear him apart like this.

This episode took all the core elements of the show and did a complete 180° the name of the episode itself is "Carry on" and Dean and Sam very much did not carry on. Sam grieving his entire life so that he good get to heaven and see Dean again. Dean being ready to live his life, despite the enormous pitfalls and learning to love himself only to be killed. "Family don't end with blood." Um.... it did in that episode either literally with Dean's death or you know BECAUSE NONE OF THEIR FOUND FAMILY WAS THERE. Not Jack, Not Cas, Not Eileen, Not Donna, Not Charlie, Not Jody, Not Claire... on and on we go. No one was there, nobody was even mentioned. Dean's funeral, no one even called that we know of. It was just Sam and Dean. Sam and Dean. And Bobby. Don't forget Bobby. But yeah Sam and Dean.

That's what the show is about right, the brothers.

Except it's not anymore. It hasn't been for years.

Cas not being there was deafening but it brought us to a major point. Becky. Becky's telling us about the terrible ending.

And many of us are wondering why would they literally tell us this is the worst ending and then... make it the ending.

Now before we move on, it very apparent many of you think Dabb doesn't ship Deancas. And Dabb doesn't care about the characters.

Say what you will about any plot holes in his writing, the point he is VERY GOOD at writing the characters, and giving us good ones.

Why do we know Dabb ships Deancas? (ill say when its cowrote, other wise its not) cowrote ep 8.02 - purgatory "I prayed to you, Cas, every night" "Cas, Buddy, I need you." "I have a price on my head, and I've been trying to stay one step ahead of them, to – to keep them away from you." 8.08 Hunteri Heroici - Cas helps them hunt! 😊❤ Dean & Cas have a serious convo about why Cas doesn't want to see/go to heaven. 8.22 Dean's mad at Cas. Sam's explanation of why Dean should be easy on Cas: "It's Cas." Dean then points out how he'd knife anybody else if they did what Cas did. 9.10 - Cas comforts Dean when Dean can't take seeing Sam (Gadreel) being tortured anymore. Also tons of Cas. 9.20 (bloodlines) - Canonical couple parallel "I was there, where were you" 9.22 The angels make Cas choose between them and killing Dean and he "gave up an entire army for one guy" 10.09 Claire's reintroduction. Cas heavy ep. DeanCas date. 10.22 THE PRISONER - u know the ep where Dean beats the shit out of Cas but loves him enough to not kill him.

We COULD keep going but I think I've made my point. If Robert Singer is the guy that is like "the show is about Sam and Dean only" Andrew Dabb is the DeanCas shipper. And you could even say a Cas stan.

Notice! How in s13 for SEVEN episodes we have a story that revolves around Dean's grief about losing Cas. Notice! How often the stories in all these seasons have a focus on their relationship. THAT is Andrew Dabb. If it weren't for him doing that, we wouldn't be able to easily say after Dean's lack of a response to Cas' confession, that Dean reciprocates.

To me, when I was (binge) watching s12 for the first time, I thought damn this is really got a lot of DeanCas. So I went to look at who was in charge, who was writing. I saw Andrew Dabb, associated him with Deancas episodes, saw all the new writers, Bobo, and then I saw that Yockey is known for same sex stories and it clicked. Dabb assembled a team to give us Destiel. THAT WAS IN SEASON 12!!!!!!!!

The amount of people saying he's homophobic flabbergast me. Open your eyes! That isn't what's going on.

Imagine making a show and trying to right all the wrongs of Supernatural. Imagine trying to write the greatest love story ever told and you have the entire season planned out for it to end off beautifully, it may possibly be your greatest achievement when it's done and then boom. someone comes in and tells you you aren't allowed to make Dean bi or make destiel endgame, after he was most probably already given the go ahead.

Sure. You could imply he's bi or into cas still in a way. Still make nice-ish ending. just give everyone what the kinda want.

Or you could scrap the last season, nothing close to a canonical bisexual Dean Winchester or Deancas endgame in site. People can be done with it be happy with the show, continue to live their lives in ignorance as to how close they were to Canon destiel.

OR you can lead everyone to the very closest you can get them to what you were aiming for and then show everyone the ugly truth and reality. Light it all on fire. Burn the show to the ground in your wake. Try your darnedest to making these people's (the people saying no) pockets suffer. Show us, the audience, what happened. Show us what this show really is.

I've seen people talk about the ending being changed during covid but I dont think that happened. I think what happened was Dabb already had this season planned out before it even started. Obviously the details were wobbly but it was all lead up to this ending. Destiel endgame, Canon Bisexual Dean, whatever it was. They were ready to write the greatest love story ever told and then someone shut it down.

Imagine the pain that must have caused them to be told no when they already said yes. They must have been so excited to give this to us.

I think someone (some producers) told him what this show is "really" about. The brothers. Can you imagine, after being told no, some kinda bullshit like this is said to you: "Why aren't you bringing it back to the brothers, Andrew? that's what the shows about. What with all this homosexual stuff, you know the audience won't like that. Not really." Imagine the original producers pushing this kind of view on you. "You know when we started it was Sam and Dean. It should end with Sam and Dean." That kinda sounds like someone huh? huh.

So why give us a nice acceptable finale, when you can take every problem Supernatural's had either up front or behind the scenes and create a finale so incredibly bad that people don't want to watch it anymore.

Someone made a good point about how Sam was originally supposed to be the main focus (this isn't to put any hate on Sam or Jared). Dean and Sam are the main characters but Sam was supposed to be the focus and for Dean to have become the focus, must have annoyed the producers because... well here we are. They wouldn't listen to Jensen. The producers liked this ending. Jensen's opinion didn't matter to them.

In some ways, if this is really what happened, it can be seen as childish from Dabb. To hurt all of us like that. Yes, he's hurting the producers, the execs, the cw. But to hurt us? Yeah it stings.

But in other ways, if this is really what happened, this is Dabb showing us the muck and gunk under the shiny surface. The hate for Misha. The hidden hate for Jensen. The underlying sexism. The underlying homophobia. The people REALLY in charge don't care about us, they just want our money. He needed to open our eyes and free us, at least free the people that he was writing for. The people he sees that care about this show.

This is the ending the powers that be wanted and its a big fuck you for a reason. I dont think this is Dabb spitting in our faces for loving this show, I think this is him trying to get revenge for us.

But from here, you can see it how u want it. If this is really what happened, I'm not in charge of your emotions, if you wanna be mad be mad if you wanna be grateful be grateful. And you don't have to believe me either I said this is speculation.

Also, as for all of the rumors like there being shots to the confession scene that we didn't see, which Jensen himself implied, I think that might have been a last ditch effort to canonized DeanCas but obviously it was cut. Like the name change was pretty clear. As for Misha possibly having shot some stuff for 20 I dont know what to tell you. If it's true I dont know where the blame would lie.

I do think however, that if all this was the case, the writers were prepared to become villians here. I mean they told us the writers were villians with Chuck right? So. Who knows what went down so they could give us such a vile ending. It could've been the producers or the writers, who truly knows. I do think tho that people we "trust" did some pretty shitty things to push the narrative in certain directions so now one would see this as the actual ending that was coming.

So again do with my SPECULATION what you will. This was in no way meant to put Dabb on a pedestal or anything. Just meant to give a bit of perspective.

(Also Jensen didn't unfollow Dabb recently he was already unfollowed for years)

[thespiritoflife]

I noticed that there are only a few stories about Jack Thompson and the reader.  So I decided to make a story. 💟  I would like to write more parts, so I would be pleased to hear it from you if you really want me to write more parts.🖤

Pairing: Jack x reader

Warnings: none except grammatical errors

Summary: You are Dooley's daughter.  You work in SSR.  You like Jack here.  I think that's enough for summary🤣

Just a coincidence- part 1

(not my gif, I found it on internet!)

YEAR 1946

I got off the train.  The sun warmed my skin.  This was unusual, the sun was rarely shining in New York.

I sighed and pulled my suitcase off the train.  Shit, I shouldn't have taken so many things.  The suitcase was terribly heavy now.

"Wait, I'll help you with that."  someone said.

That someone was a man. A very attractive man to be exact.  He was dressed in a long coat, with a gray hat on his head.  His eyes glowed with gray color, and a few light strands of hair fell to his face.

I tried not to stare at him.

He took my suitcase.

"Thank you very much,"  I said.

He nodded.  "You're welcome."

"All you have to do is help me with that suitcase for that road, I'll order a taxi there,"  I said.

He nodded again and we started walking.  The way was quiet, what were we supposed to talk about?  But one thing I knew, I will be thinking about this handsome guy for a long time.

We were at the finish way.   I turned to him and smiled.  "Thank you again. I couldn't do it by myself.."

"Have a nice day, miss."  and he walked away with it.

I stared at his back.  Funny, he looked exactly like one of those guys from my father's company.

I shook my head and called for a taxi.

"Daughter! You're finally back!"  my father and mom greeted me.

I hugged them.  I also completely missed them.

"Come to the kitchen, mom prepared a feast for your return," he smirked.

"Dad, I'll just change, okay?"  I said.

"Okay, just hurry up."

I found myself in my old room.  I sighed and sank to the bed.  I should be happy.  I'm home from university.  It's summer.  So why did I feel so weird?  So lonely?  Was it because almost everyone my age got engaged, married, and had children?  And I still haven't experienced my first relationship.

I'm thinking too much.

Mom's turkey tasted great.  I praised it and my mom was happy.

"What are you going to do over the summer, Y / N?"  my father asked me.

I drank some wine.  "I'd like to find a job. I need money."

My father looked at me proudly.  "That's my daughter. By the way, I am looking for a secretary for my job. Don't you want?"

"I don't know .. thank you for the offer, but ... wouldn't that be weird?"

By the way, did I mention that dad's job isn't a typical job?  It's an agent company.

"I don't think so. Think about it and let me know, okay?"  he wiped his mouth on a napkin.

I nodded.  "Of course."

I decided to go to SSR.  After all ... why not?  It will only be for the summer.  And I need money.  Yes, I could get another work ... but something was pulling me into the SSR.

My father and I drove in a limousine toward his work.  I told him not to say too much that I am his daughter and to pretend that I am just an ordinary secretary.  

My father rolled his eyes but agreed that he won't reveal our relationship.

We finally found ourselves in the SSR.  As soon as we came in, all eyes were on me.  It was not extra pleasant for me.  Especially when those eyes belonged to men.

My father introduced me.  "Gentlemen, this is my daughter. She'll be the secretary."

I rolled my eyes.  Was he serious?  We have agreed on something!

He smiled apologetically at me.  He introduced me to a couple of men.

"Now I'll introduce you, Y / N, to a great man. He's in the office. Come on."

I sighed and went to the office with him.

A man was sitting at the table.  He was writing something, but as soon as we entered he stood up.

"Good afternoon, Dooley,"  he said and looked at me.

Shit.

That's the man from the train station!  That one whose I couldn't get out of my head for so long!

He looked confused but also amused at the same time.

So it's a coincidence.

"Jack, this is my daughter Y / N, which I've already told you about. Y / N, this is Jack Thompson. She'll be working here. Watch over her, please."

What did he tell him about me?  And what?  I hope he didn't embarrass me.

"We've seen each other at the station before. I helped her with the suitcase,"  he explained to my father.

I nodded.

"Really? It's a coincidence."  my father remarked.

Jack and I shook hands.  He had a large, pleasant, smooth palm.  He looked very good in that white shirt.

Okay, admire sideways, it will be my colleague!

"Welcome here, Y / N. I hope you will feel good with us,"  he said.

"Thank you. I definitely will."  I said.

My father looked at us with a strange look that I could not define.  But then he said quickly. "Get to work!"

The day went quite quickly.  Jack explained everything to me, I remembered all, and he then remarked that I am a wise woman.  Did he flatter me?

I blushed like a naive girl.  Such a handsome man never praised me!

Then he said that if I needed anything, I wouldn't be afraid to go after him.  And with that, he walked away.

Of course, he was nice because I'm his boss's daughter.  He couldn't be unpleasant.

I sat down at the table and started making a pile of paperwork.

When he left the office, he smiled beautifully at me.

I almost forgot what I was writing, but I also smiled at him and looked back at the paper.

What am I going to do?  I thought.  This will not end well.

[nincompoopydoo]

BABY EMERGENCY

PAIRING: Jack Thompson x reader

WORD COUNT: 1853

SUMMARY: You, the Sousa’s neighbor, mistakenly arrive at their doorstep, thinking it was pie night rather than date night. Yet, the sight of a disheveled, troubled and somewhat handsome Jack Thompson convinced you to help out with baby Nancy.

A/N: Uh, I think I got carried away because this is almost 2k words oops. Also, changed the name because I like this one better. Anyway, enjoy read and Jack Thompson being cute in a house that’s not even theirs.

MASTERLIST

← PREVIOUS CHAPTER

Jack Thompson never expected to be met with a pair of wide eyes when he opened the front door, or to be met with the smell of apple pie, tucked nicely between your arms and under a piece of blue Gingham cloth. He blinked as you began to frown, face blossoming with confusion. “Darn it, was date night tonight? I should have called before-”

“Who are you?” Jack interrupted, confused by your sudden presence. You chuckled sheepishly, eyes lit up. “I’m sorry, how rude of me. I’m Y/N and I live next door. I just got off work from the bakery downtown and I thought we could have some pie,” you paused, eyes darting towards the front lawn. You note the missing car you completely missed when you were walking up to the front door. “But it seems I got the dates wrong.” You let your shoulders slump a little. The thought of spending the Friday night alone was certainly unpleasant. Yet, you flashed him a strained smile.

“Are you here, for the baby emergency?” he asked hesitantly, hands shoved into the pockets of his slacks. You frowned once more. “Baby emergency?” you blinked, shifting the pie in your arms that were beginning to feel sore by every passing moment. “It’s more like a pie emergency.” You laughed. It was a terrible joke if it was even meant to be one yet Jack found himself struggling to resist a smile. You had a contagious laugh. Shifted in your stance, you were ready to turn around, leave with embarrassment and later wallow yourself in self-pity when you heard the sound of a newborn’s cry—Nancy. Nancy Sousa was a fussy one; she mostly cried than laughed according to Peggy’s claim during one pie night with prominent dark circles under her tired eyes. Then, it clicked in your head; this must be Jack Thompson, the babysitter and colleague, that Peggy had told you about last night.

You caught the sight of him wincing, hand rubbing against his temple. Daniel often did that when Nancy had one of her temper tantrums. There’s a sinking feeling in your stomach—Guilt. Guilt, if you didn’t at least ask if everything was alright. Well, you were already here after all. You could either sit alone at your dining table with your apple pie or you could lend a hand to this very sorry and somewhat charming blonde man. You took a step forward, peeking into the house behind him. “Do you need help?” As soon as those words left your mouth, Jack heaved an immediate sigh of relief, looking at you like you’re his savior. “Yes, please.” 

~

You reminded Jack a lot of his mother, the way you moved around the kitchen as you rummaged through the cupboards in search of a knife. Your skirt brushing against his forearm every time you squeezed through the small space with the soft murmur of an apology and the flash of a small smile; he’d only just met you and yet, your presence gave him a sort of comfort. You reminded him of home.

“Aha!” You exclaimed and waved a pie knife in the air. Jack chuckled at your wide grin as he held a spoonful of the beef & ham to Nancy’s gaping mouth while you pried up the crust of your apple pie. Scooping a slice onto two plates, you glanced at Jack, hunched down in his chair as he carefully scraped out the remnants of the baby food while Nancy watched him eagerly. He was in his dress shirt, clearly he had come right after work. His sleeves rolled up to his elbows, tie loosened and his blonde hair slightly disheveled. He was very handsome, to say the least, but you’ve heard of his talent for making bad situations worse; though the past half an hour might be making up for that claim.

As you eyed him, he happened to turn his head and caught your stare with his direct blue gaze. You divert your eyes away in an instant, cheeks burning in embarrassment. You hear him clear his throat Nancy lets out a soft burb, followed by a trail of giggles. “Pie’s ready.“ you said hastily, nearing the dining table with a couple of dessert plates and forks on the table. Jack accepted the plate you handed him with brows raised in amusement at the sight of an inviting slice of sweet and savory. Your eyes perked up at a sudden thought that came into mind. “I know just the drink.” Yanking the refrigerator door opened, you pulled out the bottom drawer and met with the sight of an emerald towel laid by the corner of the drawer. Beneath it, you pulled out a couple of root beer bottles from the six-pack. 

Shuffling to the chair opposite Jack, you popped the bottles excitedly. He gave you bewildered look. “Trust me, it goes well with the pie.” You pushed an already opened bottle to him, taking a swig out of yours. Jack chuckled lightly, shaking his head. “I meant to ask if we are even allowed to drink these because I ain’t risking anything with Peggy.” He gestured to the bottles, giving you a look before reaching over to Nancy to wipe off the smudges of baby food around her mouth. Your heart clenches slightly at the endearing sight. “I’m sure it’s fine. Peggy and I are old pals. Plus, she owes me for stealing my hairpins.” You waved one hand dismissively, already digging into the pie. Jack’s gaze flickered to you. “Old pals?” he questioned and you beamed. “Yeah, I was a nurse for the 107th during the war. That’s how I met Peggy. It was only three years after the war when I happened to move next door and now we’re best friends and their glorified piemaker,“ you explained as Jack laughed at your claim and you decided that you liked it when he laughed. It’s incredible how you were already enticed by a man you’ve only met in the past hour. “You are a glorified piemaker alright because this is really good stuff,” Jack said with amusement, shoving another bite in his mouth. He took a sip of the root beer. “And you’re right. Root beer surprisingly goes really well with apple pie. Who would’ve thought?” You hummed in response, glancing at Nancy who had become quiet for the past couple of minutes. It seems she had fallen asleep while sat in the baby high chair. The two of you shared a knowing look.

With the soft clank of your spoons against the dessert plates, Jack gently reached over to the girl and carefully held her against his chest as the three of you made your way to the nursery. 

~

There’s that feeling of endearment and the occasional ache in your heart whenever you catch sight of Jack and Nancy together and it’s the words of your mother and your aunties that kept ringing in your head throughout the evening. When are you going to settle down? That particular question was bound to be brought up and nearly impossible to escape during the annual Christmas dinner and every year you turn up without a date. If you were to be honest, you always had a deep yearning for at least love—if not marriage. Yet, being the independent woman you were, living alone and working at the bakery downtown six days a week, you have never put much thought into it. Well, until now at least. Except, it’s the daydream of being all domestic with the man right in front of you who’s busy tucking your neighbor’s daughter to bed.

You knew you were damned from then on.

Switching off the lights, as Jack brushed past you as you quietly pulled the door close, leaving it ajar. You turned around to see that he was already seated at the table, spoon in hand as he gazed at his unfinished slice of pie. There’s a part of him that believed that the pie tasted so good partly because of the person who made it.

“What about you?” you blurted out, pausing as you made your way to the table, seated across him once more. “The war. Were you . . .” you trailed off, instantly regretting your initial question. You blamed it on the exhaustion from your shift and frankly, you had a knack for saying things without thinking things through. You noticed how his face changed as soon as you mentioned the war yet before you could apologize, Jack answered. “I was in the navy . . . The 25th.” you nod thoughtfully, sensing the growing tension in the air. You desperately needed to divert the topic somewhere else. “That’s funny, I met someone who used to be in the 25th and for the life of me I can never remember his name. I don’t think he even told me,” you said, recalling the face of a young blonde man you briefly met on VJ Day.

That was an understatement, the man kissed you for heaven’s sake.

It was when you gazed at Jack, it hit you like a ton of bricks as you noticed the familiarity of the blue in his eyes. With wide eyes, you gawked at the man in shock and Jack must have realized it too. 

You were the nurse with the pretty smile he had kissed on VJ Day.

“Oh, Jesus,” he muttered and blinked at you, trying to process the whole situation while you gaped at him. “You-you kissed me on VJ Day,” you exclaimed, almost too excitedly and before you knew it, the two began to crack up, as quietly as you could. 

It is a small world after all.

Just then, the front door swung open, the two of you immediately stood up and were met with the sight of a very red and sweating Edwin Jarvis who came rushing into the kitchen. “Mr. Thompson, I apologize for my lateness but I-” the man halted in his step as soon as he spotted the two of you, watching him with bewildered faces. “Oh, Miss Y/N. You’re here,” he stated between huffs, trying to catch his breath. “Jarvis, what are you doing here?” you asked as the two of you watched him collapse onto an empty chair by the dining table. “Well, it started out as a baby emergency and I tried to ring you up but you weren’t answering. So, I came here as fast as I could but traffic was absolutely atrocious!” He explained as you went to fill a glass of water. “However, I suspect you already settled the issue, Mr. Thompson.” Jack smiled at Jarvis, giving him a pat on the shoulder. “Thank you, Jarvis. I appreciate it.” 

You returned with a glass of water, a spoon and plate. “Pie?” you gestured to the apple pie, sitting idly at the center of the table. His eyes lit up. “Oh, that would be delightful. Thank you.”

You caught Jack’s gaze as you began to sit, the two of you shared a smile. This was certainly not what you expected your Friday night to turn out.

[captainsophiestark]

Loveable Asshole

Jack Thompson x Reader

Masterlist - Join My Taglist!

Written for Agent Carter Bingo 2022! @agentcarterbingo​

Fandom: Marvel

Square Filled: Jack Thompson

Summary: Y/N and Jack have always had a flirty relationship, but every time Jack tries to take it further by asking Y/N on a date, she shuts it down. He usually doesn't let it bother him, but when the pair gets stuck working the night shift together, he's determined to finally understand

Word Count: 2,060

Category: Angst, Fluff

A/N: Shoutout to @fandomsandxfiles​ for her Agent Carter filing system headcanon. I love it and have adopted it, for this fic and in general

Putting work into an AI program without permission is illegal. You do not have my permission. Do not do it.

"Hey, Y/L/N."

I looked up to find none other than Agent Jack Thompson swaggering towards me from across the bullpen. I put my pen down and rested my chin on my hand, giving him my full attention.

"It looks like it's you and me working the night shift tonight."

I sat up a little straighter at that, my fake interest turning very real. I'd been trying to talk Dooley into letting me take a night shift for some added responsibility for a long time, but now it was apparently really happening. And with Jack Thompson, no less.

"Alright, great!" I said, giving Jack a smile before looking back to the papers I was working on. "Ugh, I'm gonna need a lot more coffee though."

"You and me both," said Jack. He walked around to my side of the desk and perched on the edge, so I turned to look at him. He gave me a charming smile. "I'll brew us a fresh post as soon as Krzeminski's gone for the night so he can't steal it all or otherwise fuck it up."

I smiled back. Since a few months ago when I'd joined the SSR, Jack and I had maintained a friendly flirty relationship. It never went further than talking, though, despite Jack asking me out a few times now. I liked him a lot of the time, but he acted like a sexist ass enough of the rest of the time that I knew a date would be a mistake.

"Having tried your version of the office coffee before, I feel like I might have to pass..."

Jack just scoffed, but he couldn't keep a slight smile off his face anyway.

"Well, it's gonna be my coffee or nothing," he said, pushing off my desk to go back to his own work. "Choice is yours, sweetheart. You've got a couple hours to think about it."

I just smiled and shook my head at him as he left. I stared after him across the office, until I noticed someone else's eyes on me. I turned to see Daniel Sousa, my good friend and desk neighbor, staring at me with a raised eyebrow. My smile immediately dropped into a glare.

"Need something, Daniel?"

He shrugged. "Nope. Except maybe an explanation for what the hell is going on with you and Thompson."

"Catch me up on you and Peggy first."

Daniel and I held each others' stares for a few beats, then Daniel held out his hand.

"Agree to both drop it?"

"Agreed."

I shook his hand and we nodded to each other, then turned back to our own work. Tonight would be interesting, to say the least, but on the bright side, none of my lovely judgy friends would have a front row seat to Thompson and I dancing around each other this time.

****************

"Fresh cup of coffee, hot off the pot."

I made a show of squinting suspiciously at the coffee mug as Jack walked over and set it down in front of me. The last of the day-shift agents had left about ten minutes ago, which meant Jack and I were officially on our own.

"You can't look at it like that until you've tried it."

I turned my expression on Jack. "I can and will look at it however I want to."

Jack sighed. He walked to his own desk, then pulled his chair across the room to sit next to me. He sat and scooted a little closer, then reached across my desk and slid the coffee mug in front of me. He took a sip of his own mug pointedly.

"Come on. Try it."

I made a big show of sighing dramatically (which made Jack smile), then reached forward to grab the mug. Slowly, I lifted it to my mouth, pausing to sniff it first. The smell alone helped to wake me up, which was a serious blessing.

Jack watched me the entire time until, finally, I tried a sip of the coffee. To my surprise, it tasted amazing. Hands-down some of the best coffee I'd ever had. My eyebrows shot up, and I turned to look at Jack in surprise. He had a smug smile on his face.

"Not bad, huh?"

I took another sip of the coffee, and my eyes immediately narrowed.

"There is no way you made this," I said. Jack pretended to look offended, leaning back in his chair and placing a hand over his heart.

"Excuse me? Sweetheart, I'm insulted that-"

"Jack, that coffee pot is old as shit and has been used by literally every person in the office since before the war. There is no way anyone could make coffee this good in it."

Jack cleared his throat and looked away, but it wasn't enough to hide the slight blush rising on his neck.

"Jack, come on," I said, leaning forward and putting a hand on his shoulder. "You can admit it. Where did you get the coffee from?"

He mumbled something that I couldn't quite hear. I grinned as I leaned in a little closer, until we were basically cheek to cheek, and I reached my arm all the way around his shoulders.

"Say that one more time?"

"I went out to your favorite coffee shot and got it," he said, finally straightening up. The space between us grew again, but as my hand fell away from his shoulders, he caught it in his own hand and held it. "I left twenty minutes ago to pick up two cups for us, alright?"

I just stared at him in shock. He stared back, and for one of only a handful of times that I'd seen, he stared back without any hint of posturing.

"Jack, that's actually... that's really sweet," I finally managed to say. He sighed through his nose and looked down at our hands. Slowly, almost absently, he entwined our fingers, then at last looked up at me again.

"I don't think I've exactly been hiding the fact that I have a thing for you, Y/L/N. And at the risk of making this whole night incredibly awkward for the both of us..." he paused and cleared his throat, and I braced myself for what I knew was coming. "I wanted to ask if you'd like to get dinner with me this weekend, when we're both off."

I sighed. Now it was my turn to stare at our hands, but unlike Jack, I didn't look up as I started speaking.

"Jack, I just... I don't think it's a good idea."

"Why not?" he asked, leaning in and gripping my hand a little tighter. "Every time I flirt with you, you flirt back. But every time I ask you to go do something, you say no. I just... I don't get it, Y/N. Are you not really interested?"

I took a deep breath as I forced myself to meet his eyes. Our faces were only inches apart, and I hated the way it made my heart race.

"You're very handsome, Jack, and charming. But I like our relationship as it is right now."

"Well I don't!" Jack paused, taking a few beats to collect himself, and when he looked up at me again he seemed more genuinely upset than he'd ever been in front of me. "Y/N, I have never felt about someone the way I feel about you. You think I normally walk ten blocks to get a girl her favorite kind of coffee?"

"Jack-"

"Listen, if you don't feel the same way about me, that's fine. I'll find a way to deal with that. But I need to hear you say it. I can't deal with this constant flirting and only flirting anymore."

I pulled my hand out of Jack's and instead ran it through my hair as I stared at anything in the room but him. I did not ever want to have this conversation, especially not in the middle of my first time working the night shift, but Jack was right. I owed him the truth.

"I'm sorry for stringing you along," I started. From my peripheral, I could see Jack tense. "I'd be lying if I said I didn't have feelings for you."

"But?"

"But... I don't know, Jack. I just don't think I can do it. It drives me crazy, because sometimes, you're the sweetest person I've ever met. You're getting me coffee and we're in the field working like a well-trained unit, back to back, and you have these moments where everything else fades away and it feels like I can see your heart shining through your words and your eyes and then..."

I took a deep breath and deflated as I let it out.

"And then other times you're telling Peggy to take the lunch orders and do your filing. And you're acting like this arrogant douchebag swaggering around the office and listening to absolutely no one, and I hate it. That part of you, Jack... I can't do it. I can't date somebody who spends so much of their time acting like that. No matter how much I like everything else about them."

Jack took a long, deep breath as he sat back in his chair. He stared off at some distant point in the office, slowly nodding his head as he worked through everything I'd told him. I didn't push him for an answer. I just waited to hear what he might have to say.

"How about this," he finally said, leaning forward in his chair and resting his arms on his knees as he looked at me, nothing but sincerity in his face. "You give me... a week. To get my act together a little bit. If you like what you see, we go to dinner next weekend. If you don't... then I'll drop it."

"Jack... you can't completely change your personality just because you want to go on a date with me."

"It's not completely changing my personality. It's called growth, Sousa talks about it all the time. Besides, you said yourself there were parts of who I am, maybe even the majority, that you actually liked... right?"

I noticed a hint of self-doubt creeping into Jack's expression, and I couldn't help my heart melting.

"Right... Okay, why not. We'll give it a try. But I don't want you pretending to be somebody you're not or stifling the comments for next week and next week only-"

Jack fixed me with a look that said Really? and it stopped me mid-sentence.

"Y/N. You're an SSR agent with one of the best bullshit meters I've ever seen. I think we both know it'll take you about two seconds to call me out if I'm not being genuine."

I grinned. "Damn right."

We shared a laugh, and some of the tension in the room seemed to melt away. After a beat, Jack cleared his throat and sat up straight, moving his chair just slightly further away from mine.

"Well, now that we've dealt with that..." he started. I smiled. "We should probably start taking care of some of this shit Krzeminski let pile up while he was spending the day eating his lunch and making bad coffee."

"Looks like it's a lot of filing. Why don't you take care of it and I'll hold down the fort in here?"

Jack shot me a look that clearly said he knew exactly what I was doing. Still, to his credit, he grabbed the files and stood.

"If you don't see me in an hour, it means I drowned under the piles of paperwork Carter and Sousa let pile up in there every time I told one of them to file something for me."

"I'll tell the reporters the karma got you," I said, shooting Jack a wink. He just chuckled and headed back into the filing room. Obviously it was way too early to actually call anything, but I couldn't help being a little hopeful at the attitude shift he'd already made.

After tonight, maybe we were finally on the path to the more loveable side of loveable asshole. And if so, I absolutely couldn't wait for our date next weekend.

[preemshots]

johnny + the nomads lore

alright, i know this is a screenshots blog but i'm going to go ahead and start dropping some juicy lore tidbits as i dig them up. part of what i'm doing outside of just photo diarying is shard hunting, and BOY is there a lot the game likes to hide in those little shards for idiots like me who like to read so we can write unnecessarily accurate fanfiction! 

full disclosure, i know jack shit about the TTRPG/cyberpunk 2020 rulebook except what i read in the wikis. 

so here’s my lore roundup so far of everything i know about johnny joining the nomads

we know johnny likes to narrate v’s quest objectives. here’s the first mention where he says it himself: 

during the voodoo boys quest "transmission" there's a shard in the maglev tunnels beside the ice bath, presumably from brigitte's research into johnny in the first place:

okay, so the timeline is this: johnny joins the nomads after trying and failing to rescue alt. johnny hides out in the badlands for some years. then he and rogue come back to night city and nuke arasaka tower help alt escape the arasaka subnet by uploading liberator to their network once and for all.

this ultimately makes sense. in alt’s flashback, we meet santiago, who is a nomad/connected to nomads, joins rogue and johnny when they're trying to get alt back, and eventually becomes the leader of the aldecaldos. 

part of santiago’s TTRPG lore is that he, johnny, and rogue have to lay low in the badlands with nomads after they storm arasaka headquarters (i am aware the game takes many liberties with the original lore so who knows the full accuracy of anything from the original rulebooks)

ENDING spoilers: in the rogue+johnny storming AHQ ending, it's revealed that rogue has a son while they're prepping for the job. if you eavesdrop on her calling him while you're at the afterlife, you hear her tell her son to (paraphrasing here) "pull over and look at the stars", which immediately made my brain go to: nomad, badlands, santiago = dad? maybe. (santiago also canonically has a son according to the TTRPG lore)

this immediately reminded me of another interesting shard that i believe you can find in multiple locations around night city: “"what REALLY happened in arasaka tower?“

i love this dang shard. at first i thought it was just a cute conspiracy with some juicy gossip (and i love how 99% of the shards that mention johnny in this game are reminding us that he's not a real rebel, he's a poser) but it brings some interesting shit together

one: it tells us where johnny got his hands on the nukes! he and the nomads jumped a militech convoy and jacked some bombs! 

which is never directly explained, even as saburo arasaka is interrogating him shortly before using soulkiller. very nice of johnny to protect his homies like that. 

...or maybe he didn’t. saburo emphasizes that the dead don’t lie like the living do, and we don’t know what exactly arasaka did to johnny’s construct in mikoshi. 

it also explains why the obvious media narrative is that militech nuked arasaka, a nice neat political bow to the end of the fourth corpo wars, which is an entire section of the TTRPG lore that makes my eyes cross when i read it. 

it also makes the star/nomads ending extremely interesting, because i originally believed it was the ending where V’s journey deviates the most from rewalking johnny’s path... which also has weird implications if the johnny’s nomad era is being kept from v. 

(this also leads into my belief that the star ending/the devil ending are narratively two sides of the same coin, but that’s a WHOLE ANOTHER POST for another day.)

TWO, just straight up the fact that they turned the raid where they actually obtained the nukes into an action flick BD that pretty much ANYONE could watch. who the hell was doing that?? 

well, who else other than the guy who johnny (optionally) punched the shit out of for filming alt's death: thompson, media guy, and according to rogue, “bad luck”. because you know, recording your crimes is straight up evidence that can be used against you.

during the alt flashback we meet thompson, and just after that in cyberspace before meeting alt, johnny tells v that he has no idea what happened to him and that they never worked together again. 

oh, johnny, you lying bastard man

this is blatantly untrue, and if V even had two braincells and better memory than a goldfish they'd know this--in the first flashback sequence where johnny and rogue nuke arasaka tower, thompson is on the comms as they ride the AV towards AHQ, questioning their plans and use of violence. 

which leaves me with some questions, like where the fuck is thompson, why does johnny keep lying about this, why doesn't johnny say almost anything about how you interact with the aldecaldo clan nonstop throughout the game when he himself may have been a member of the family for some time?? is he continuing to protect the nomad clan that saved his ass? we know that a lot of his flashbacks are unreliable at best, that johnny changes shit up as desired when presenting V with his memories.

in 2077, you can also find that there’s a remake of “badlands raid” in the shard “new release braindances” that is pretty much everywhere. that shard doesn’t add much, but does mention something along the lines of “many people don’t know the ending of the original” which probably means johnny punched thompson out for filming again, or something. 

my running theories: rogue ditched santiago and the aldecaldos with johnny and thompson to nuke arasaka tower, and when johnny died she was stuck looking for (heavily implied by johnny here:) corpo sellout ways to survive.

adam smasher obviously has something to do with this since johnny/rogue's vendetta against the guy isn't entirely clear beyond the smokescreen of "he killed johnny and he sucks". i have done 0 research into this though i'm tired of typing okay

i obviously cannot be certain i have found everything related to this in the game as i’m not even done with this playthrough where i’m trying to pay attention, but i hope this is fun for someone else to dig into. 

enjoy, fellow silverhand freaks

EDIT: additional findings

ALRIGHT I HAVE DONE MORE DIGGING AND I AM BACK WITH MORE NOMAD/JOHNNY FINDINGS. these ones are kind of a bummer but VERY interesting.

there’s a shard called “excerpts from a history of the nomads by bb pires” that goes into detail about how nomads came to be

there’s an interesting quote in it: It's hard to imagine a group less inclined to wandering than farmers, but in fact they were the ones who sparked the age of nomads. Natural catastrophes, crops ravaged by bioplagues, armed conflicts and martial law allowing corporations to speculate and privatize land - all this forced them into a life on the road.

when you ask johnny why he wants to take down arasaka, he begins by referencing this himself!!

it’s a little awkward to imagine a nomad V doesn’t also know what he’s referencing, but hey, V is the fool because we are as players and that’s only one life path... so sure.

johnny also has unique dialogue during this scene about a nomad origin V, telling them that he’s been trying to understand how V thinks, and came to the conclusion that “their family was a crutch” and essentially made them stupid because they always had a safety net (lmao johnny calling v privileged basically)

BUT this also may reference why johnny would find it confusing as hell that V doesn’t immediately share the views he does when nomads, in terms of values, seem to be more aligned with johnny than V is. but once again V is the fool for a reason and this is all my own speculation so YOU KNOW.

MORE IMPORTANTLY, at the end of chippin’ in, when you ask johnny what he meant by letting down his friends... santiago is named directly

i thought this was interesting since the only glimpse of their relationship that we get is seeing johnny meeting santiago via the alt flashback for the first time.

so now it’s obvious that while johnny and rogue were with the nomads their friendship developed, and johnny went on to disappoint santiago in some way by being his normal dickhead self

but HOW? how did he disappoint santiago? is santiago even still alive?? did smasher kill santiago and is this why rogue mentions during chippin’ in that she wants smasher to “settle a score” moreso than avenge johnny??

the only additional hints i have are from this shard, which you can find at the aldecaldos camp: “nomads at ground zero”

i’m just gonna transcribe here and bold for emphasis:

It was no secret that Night Corp offered generous pay and, in some cases, free cyberware and biomonitor upgrades to anyone willing to help clean up the crater of radioactive rubble at AHQ ground zero. Some firsthand accounts recall the incessant ticking of Geiger counters, like the loud buzz of cicadas in summer. In retrospect, we can only guess how many "crater cleaners" lost their lives to radiation sickness shortly thereafter. Both the city government and Night Corp have claimed casualties were kept to a minimum, while providing no official statistics to substantiate the claim. That being said, they have never been under pressure to release such figures. After all, most rescue, engineering, and rubble cleanup teams were not local Night Citizens, but nomads. Surprised you didn't know? Don't be. It is a fact many history courses tend to overlook. The city employed hundreds of nomad mercenaries, primarily from clans in Aldecaldo nation. These nomads were hungry for gainful work and the city needed experts who were not only experienced but brave enough to knowingly put their lives on the line - all so Arasaka could one day erect another tower in its place. But history is not without its sense of irony. These nomads, who so deliberately live outside our so-called "system," came to its very rescue. Not for the first time. And not for the last.

a main theme we find in this game is the idea that the system of corps and exploitation cannot be stopped by grandiose rebellious gestures--no amount of samurai songs, assassinating mayors, or even planting nukes in towers will change things. yet johnny, his friends and mercs at atlantis in the 2020s, including rogue, chose to rebel any way they could, thinking it better than not. johnny criticizes her lack of rebellious spirit CONSTANTLY in 2077.

but ultimately, johnny, trapped in mikoshi, didn’t get to see the outcome of what detonating the AHQ nukes did to night city’s fragile ecosystem. rogue, however, did--and likely watched their former allies, the aldecaldos, be forced to take dangerous work at AHQ’s ground zero (from lack of other opportunities as detailed in this shard), then die from radiation sickness throughout the following decades, all as a result of what she and johnny did to try and fight the system. and she also watched all the former mercenaries of atlantis be hunted down by arasaka.

so rogue sees firsthand what the cost of rebellion is and johnny doesn’t. and nomads, considered the most free of any of the factions we encounter in the game, are the cost.

[h0lygh0stlings]

I decided to finally make a big ole, main post on my TWF Oc Jodie since I did some new art of her, and such!

ᴺᵃᵐᵉ: Jodie D. Carpenter .

ᴬᵍᵉ: Forty four; born in 1938 during the late month of April.♈

ᴴᵉⁱᵍʰᵗ: 5'5", sometimes appearing 5'6" .

ᴳᵉⁿᵈᵉʳ: Female; with feminine and gender neutral pronouns

---

ᴬᵖᵖᵉᵃʳᵃⁿᶜᵉ: 

Although being forty four, they appear a bit younger on some days and their bubbly attitude that comes out in front of their friends could make one double look, and double guess if they truly were the age they said they were--. Then, there are the other days that hit them, the roughness, that worn down feeling practically oozing onto their features and making them look older, and oh so tired no matter how much they try to hide it. It's from everything, and everything to come. Years of hard work, and years of t r y i n g .

Jodie is a short, petite female with dark, messy brown hair that's long and goes far past their shoulders, and they have very, extremely pale skin with a hint of freckles scattered across. They're seen wearing very chunky, large and oversized clothing. Jeans, and sweaters most of the time with them preferring muted, and dark toned colors like greys, and darker blue shades. She is also seen often more so in their BunnySmiles INC uniform; consisting of a button up top and a long pencil skirt as well as their I.D. card, pinned neatly to the rightside of their chest . 

The only thing being, they aren't seen much let alone often enough, being a loner of the sorts outside of those they're forced to see because of their job. Jodie is a male-to-female Transgender person and is ever so slightly open about it, with them leaning towards they/them and she/her pronouns, and they are also on the shorter side compared to most. They wear many different styles of shoes, and slip on sandals to hide it, and to give them an extra inch in their step. Overall, it being yet another thing they do in hopes of blending in with everything, everyone .

ᴾᵉʳˢᵒⁿᵃˡⁱᵗʸ: 

A kindhearted person overall--, if meeting properly or ever outside of work, Jodie tends to come off as gentle. They have a very soft, and quiet type of personality with them often keeping to themselves, except for when it comes to them being around their family, and friends. Reserved, and calm. A bit shy, even. A smile, filled with secrets one would think, a lie compared to their reality. False. A mystery, of pain and agony. Someone struggling beyond work, and their desperate need for silence, peace. A moment to themselves. They're a hard worker also, and tend to over work themselves no matter what they seem to be doing, and that has been a trait that had stuck with them ever since they'd been a teen, in college-- and ever since she had started to work for the company in itself . 

After the incident leading up to the disappearances, and everything with The Waltens, and the first round of the restaurant closing down, their kindhearted, go-to attitude had sort of withered off in it's own way, and had been replaced with further silence, more of her quiet side. It had lead her to struggle to find work between the relocation project, and the rotting hopes of a revival ever, e v e r fully happening for the restaurant and it's animatronics, and she had eventually pushed the thoughts of it all, everything back into the farthest crevices of her mind until it had been brought back up-- and she had been brought on board to help design more things for the company. Jodie can come off as a bit gruff, a bit intimidating looking far more than she ever is, and their appearance and attitude nowadays is often deceiving compared to how they used to be, and actually really are.

ᴮⁱᵒᵍʳᵃᵖʰʸ: 

Jodie had been a slight friend of the Walten family, and the Krankens before they had came to be during their college years, and had been a longtime friend of Linda Thompson at the time before anything, and any of the incidents in the later years had taken place.

Born in Minnesota, with their family and their siblings somehow ending up, and moving to Michigan later on-- they had grown up being an aspiring artist, and had eventually fell into studying the arts, and graphic design for their classes during the years they met Linda, Jack Walten and his wife. It had eventually became a no-brainer of a question if they had wanted to aid in their longtime dreams of their business, and become a part of their restaurant franchise. She had been m o r e than excited to. Soon over time, taking on the job as the company's cartoonist, and mascot designer for the showstoppers, and soon being the partial influence to the iconic pops, and hints of bright color sprawled about the restaurant and it's overall design.

With the constant whirlwind of the hype, and the excitement for them surrounding the opening of Bon's Burgers, it was like watching their words, and their ideas spring to life right in front of them no matter the years it had taken them. Except, it had taken time. Lots, and lots of time. More than they had expected, more than Jodie had expected. They had eventually had families, and had gotten married during the process of it all, the Walten's having their own children even, although throughout the time Jodie had remained mostly single during it all. Focusing more so on her work and such more than anything, and more for the restaurant. The business's creations, their constantly growing, changing ideas. They kept her constantly busy, and they were more than the same when it came to themselves. Spending hours, sometimes weekends at the warehouse. She was one to overwork herself, but never was one to complain. Constantly busy,y e t, happy. Content. Little had she known about the never ending tragedies that would follow, and what BunnySmiles INC., and all the hard work put into it all would cause. Their own dream, A living nightmare that everyone would never be able to escape. That she wouldn't be able to escape.

[Jodie's backstory is written before the accident and before Jack Walten's disappearance; I will be adding more and adding a verse to her bio for after the accident/disappearance soon!]

[hecckyeah]

dousy & “um, who’s that?”

Anon, I have no idea what you had in mind when you sent this, but I’m 99% sure this isn’t it. Anyway, here you go!! 😘😘

.

Daisy set her chin on her hand with a sigh, letting her elbow fall onto the desk. “There’s only so much I can tell you. You really have to do this on your own, you know.”

The boy across the table from her let out a long string of incoherent grumbles. His shaggy dark hair made a curtain around his arm, his face pressed into the crook of his elbow. “Can’t,” was the only word she could make out.

“Reports don’t write themselves, Jord-o.”

More grumbles emitted from the thirteen-year-old’s slumped form, and Daisy sighed. She pushed the history book away and sat back in her chair, trying to recall being a teenager, herself. She’d jumped from school system to school system, just barely staying afloat in the ocean of late assignments and strict teachers. Visions of textbooks, broken pencils, and headaches came to mind, and she sighed again. She could never concentrate on her studies either, always preferring to practice hacking into the Pentagon or something of that sort. When she stopped to think about it, she couldn’t force her son to be any different. (Except she would discourage him from hacking into top-secret government bases. That was generally frowned upon.)

“Okay,” she said, “we’ll take a break. Need some lunch?”

At the mention of food, Jordan’s head snapped up to meet his mother’s sly gaze.

Teenagers. So predictable.

“I’ll make us some sandwiches,” Jordan offered instantly, jumping up to gather his ingredients and leaving Daisy chuckling at the table.

She called a “thanks, sweetheart” toward his retreating back, knowing he was just thrilled to allow his mind a break from studying.

With a deep yawn, Daisy heaved herself out of her chair and stretched side-to-side, letting her muscles yell at her for a moment before she let out another long breath and planted her hands on her hips, moving around the table toward the kitchen . . . but she stopped dead in her tracks.

The history book had fallen open to a random page when she tossed it down. And she laughed.

American Heroes of the Second World War, the headline read.

With a warm sense of familiarity at the words, she sat back down and scanned over photos of Steve Rogers and his Howling Commandos, a few portraits of Peggy Carter, and a blown-up newspaper article from V-J Day in 1945. Her eyes lingered on Carter’s face for just a moment, old conversations she’d had with her husband coming back to mind, recounting pieces of his past with this awe-inspiring woman and leader of SHIELD.  

She turned the page. The book spoke of SHIELD and the leaps it had made during and after the war, rising from the SSR into the secretive, spy-and-superhero powerhouse that it was just before its fall in 2014.

She turned the page again, and her eyes flew to the bottom left corner, where a very familiar, very welcome pair of eyes stared back at her from the paper. She found herself grinning back at the half-smiling face of her husband.

Agent Daniel Sousa, the book read. Chief of the Los Angeles SSR branch, later Chief of Security of the West Coast SHIELD Division. Agent Sousa was best known for his work with Margaret Carter and Howard Stark in the years following World War II, and his contributions the Whitney Frost Case and the dissolving of the Council of Nine, even after being crippled by a devastating injury during the war in Bastogne.

The article went on to praise a few other agents in the early SSR, telling of Chief Dooley’s sacrifice, the attempt on Jack Thompson’s life, and finally Sousa’s untimely death in a hotel in Los Angeles.

No matter how many times Daisy read that story, she always had to laugh. She remembered those events as clearly as ever, though she had to wonder at how long ago it was, now. For her, only about eighteen years had passed. But for the rest of the world, it had been just short of a century.

“Um, who’s that, Mom?” A voice interrupted her musings, and Daisy jumped slightly, whipping her head around to see the newcomer. She smiled as her daughter landed a finger not on the photo of Daniel (she had seen plenty of those), but on a photo just to the right.

“That’s Jack Thompson,” Daisy said. She leaned the side of her head on her fist, elbow propped up on the table, and glanced up to meet her daughter’s eyes. “Old friend of your dad’s.”

Ivy raised an eyebrow and tilted her head, considering.

From down the hallway, Daniel let out a burst of laughter. “Someone say Jack Thompson?”

“He’s in the history book,” Daisy explained, which only made her husband chuckle more.

“Who’s in the history book?” Jordan poked his head around the dividing wall to the kitchen, a deadly-looking knife in one hand.  

“Some SSR agents Dad knew,” Ivy filled her brother in.

Daisy scanned the rest of the page as Daniel came to stand beside her, idly running a hand across the top of her shoulders.

Beside her, Ivy crouched to see the book better, her eyes flitting over pictures and snippets of information. “Nineteen forty-seven,” she muttered to herself. “That was a long time ago.”

“Almost a hundred years,” Jordan said, having abandoned his sandwiches to ogle at the book with the rest of his family.

Daniel let out a half-snort and threw a good-natured punch toward his son’s shoulder. “Makes me sound old when you say it like that.”

“Dad,” Ivy said, poker face fully engaged. “You are old.”

After only one startled second to register what Ivy had said—during which Daisy’s jaw dropped, a huge grin already forming on her face—Daniel dove straight for his daughter, lifting the small ten-year-old girl up into the air in one fell swoop as she screamed with glee. Daisy laughed outright, half-heartedly berating her daughter for her blunt words while trying and failing to hide her amusement behind her hand.

Jordan cheered the other two on, yelling delightedly.

With another heave, Daniel threw Ivy over his shoulder and spun in a circle, teasing shouts of “What did you call me?” and “You take that back right now,” cutting through Ivy’s incessant giggling. She beat her fists against her dad’s back and kicked her legs until he almost looked ready to fall over. Their faces were red with laughter, and Daisy only watched, cheering for Ivy as she finally wrestled Daniel onto the couch. The girl grabbed a pillow and in one swift move, delivered it directly into Daniel’s face with a resounding smack. But her efforts at revenge were thwarted as her dad hauled her toward himself again by her arm and tickled her until she was shrieking with laughter and begging for mercy.

And as Jordan ran up to help his sister and gang up on their dad, a pillow already in his hand, the history book lay forgotten on the table.

.