Angie and the “Ice”: A Story About the Daughter of Agents Carter and Sousa
By: Ciara Browne
Tags: Marvel

May 11, 1967

“There you go, good, good” Dad encouraged me as I performed a few new moves I had learned on the punching bag.

“I think you’ve gotten the hang of this” he smiled.

“Well I am my mother’s daughter after all,” I smirked as I removed the punching gloves and placed them on the outside table.

“Hey, you’re my daughter too ya know,” he nudged me as best he could with his crutch.

“Oh right, how on earth did I forget that?” I nudged back and smiled.

We walked back inside to see Mum sat on the couch flipping through important files. She didn’t even look up from her work before verbally acknowledging our presence with “what’s this I hear about a supposed mother’s daughter?”

“Our daughter claims she inherited all her good traits from you,” Dad faked a sorrowful face as he sauntered into the kitchen.

“Well I wouldn’t be surprised if that was the case,” Mum looked at me and smiled, a slight glimmer in her eye.

I started to laugh as Dad poked his head in from the kitchen, “Hey, watch it you two. Now, what does everyone want for lunch?”

“I’ll take a ham and cheese toastie please,” I smiled at him.

“Make that two Daniel,” Mum added as she brought her head back down to observe her files.

“What kind of case are you working on now Mum?” I asked as I sat down on the couch next to her.

“A petty crime in comparison to some of the other’s I’ve dealt with, but a case is a case,” she sighed as she closed the folder and placed it on the coffee table.

“Anything I can help with?” I asked sincerely as she finally looked up at me.

“As I’ve told you before, you’re not ready to enter the world of field work just yet darling”.

“Yes, you’ve been saying that for the past seven years,” I sighed in frustration, “I’m going to go change”.

“All right dear,” Mum gave me a tight-lipped smile.

I stomped as lightly as I could up to my room and just as I was about to close the door, I heard the doorbell ring.

“Dr. Wilkes, to what do we owe the pleasure?” I heard Mum ask with obvious confusion in her voice.

I kept my distance but listened in as hard as I could.

“It’s been so long since I’ve seen you and I was in the area so I decided I would stop by,” he stated nonchalantly.

Dad came out from the kitchen and joined Mum at the front door, “Dr. Wilkes, not to sound rude, but I never thought I’d see you again”.

“Agent Sousa,” Dr. Wilkes sighed in confusion, “I’m sorry, what is he doing here?” He looked at Mum with a questioning glance.

“Jason surely you remember my husband, Daniel” Mum furrowed her brow slightly as she reached out to grab Dad’s arm.

“Husband? I’m sorry, I didn’t know you two were married,” Dr. Wilkes frowned but tried not to show it.

“Yeah for about 16 years now, is there something we can do for you Dr. Wilkes?” Dad rushed through the second half.

“Can I talk to Peggy, alone, for a minute?” Dr. Wilkes narrowed his eyes and tilted his head to the side.

“Of course,” Mum turned to Dad and whispered so Jason couldn’t hear, “can you go make sure Angie’s all right? I’ll be back in a minute,” she smiled slightly, as if she was trying to reassure him.

“Yeah, just holler if you need anything,” Dad readjusted his weight on his crutch and started coming toward the stairs as Mum and this man I had only heard about stepped out.

“Angie, hunny is everything ok?” Dad called from the bottom of the stairs.

I closed my door over before answering, “Yes Dad, I’m just changing out of training clothes”.

“When you’re done do you want to help me make lunch?”

“Sure Dad, I’ll be right down,” I tried to make my smile as audible as possible.

After I changed, I made my way back downstairs and to the kitchen. Dad was trying his hardest to let whatever was happening outside happen without interrupting while also making us all the lunches we asked for. It really was sweet how much he cared for Mum, but we both knew she could handle herself just fine.

“Dad, are you okay?” I asked as I stood in the doorway.

He jumped a little before looking back over his shoulder, “Yeah, do you mind getting the ham out of the fridge?” He tried to maintain eye contact, but he couldn’t help glancing between me and Mum and Dr. Wilkes.

I walked closer to put a hand on his shoulder, “Dad, we both know Mum is perfectly capable of handling whatever Dr. Wilkes is really here for,” I gave him a reassuring smile.

“Well one of the last times the three of us were together he held your mother at gun point so my apologies if I’m not completely trusting,” he sighed.

“I didn’t mean to cross any lines,” I frowned as I grabbed the requested ham from the fridge.

“No Angie, it’s not you, I’m just a little on edge is all,” he looked at me with a soft smile.

“I know Dad. Here, why don’t you sit down? I can finish the lunch orders”.

Outside

“How is everything going at Stark Industries?” Peggy asked, trying to make easy small talk.

“Oh Mr. Stark-Howard, sorry, is having me do some pretty amazing research”.

“No more inventions that could implode a whole avenue I’m hoping,” Peggy gave a tight-lipped smile.

“Thankfully not, we’re moving onto ‘bigger and better things’ as he calls it” Dr. Wilkes laughed as he accompanied Howard’s phrase with large hand gestures.

After a few moments of awkward silence Peggy looked at Dr. Wilkes dead in the eye and asked, “so what are you really here for Dr. Wilkes?”

“Peggy, I- I thought we had something,” Dr. Wilkes stated as if everyone thought the same, though stumbling over his words a bit.

“You have an odd way of showing your affection. Fan a spark while we’re trying to rescue you from zero matter, then disappear for 19 years and then suddenly appear on my doorstep after I’ve finally managed to build a successful life, outside of work, on the other side of the country,” she crossed her arms.

“But surely you feel it too? Or at least did at some point,” Dr. Wilkes searches her eyes for any signs.

He stretched his arm out in hopes of the physical contact possibly sparking something in Peggy that simply didn’t exist. She kept a straight face as she moved her upper half out of reach. The tension between them could be cut with a knife.

“What we had was very nice while it lasted and I’ll admit it was a welcomed distraction from the office but I can assure you I don’t feel that way for you anymore”. Peggy crossed her arms across her chest, almost defensively.

“You can’t honestly be telling me that you feel more devotion to a man who hobbles around New York,” he scoffed, “might I remind you he was a laughing stock until he was finally able to catch a break and run away from you?”

“If you are suggesting that you are in some way more suited as both a husband and a father than Daniel I-” Peggy was cut off.

“Father?” Dr. Wilkes looked shocked.

“Yes, we have a daughter,” Peggy unfolded her arms.

“H-How old is she?” Dr. Wilkes questioned, almost like an interrogation, with his eyebrows bent out of shape.

“Why must you know?” Peggy didn’t like talking about family that much to people outside of work and, well, her family.

“Jesus Peggy it’s not that difficult of a question ju-” His voice was getting louder and louder, but Peggy cut him off before it became alarming to those inside.

“She’s 18, and good lord keep your voice down,” she stepped closer to him to hush him and looked toward the kitchen through the window to make sure no one was watching.

Dr. Wilkes looked like he might explode. This was not the man Peggy had met all those years before, and she didn’t like this “new and improved” version. What had almost two decades done to him?

“Keep my voice down? What, you think after almost twenty years of me thinking about you every day and having to suppress my undeniable feelings down while you went running off with prince charming back to New York that I’m not going to be angry?”

“Jason, what has gotten into you? You are not the same man I met in L.A.” Peggy expressed her deep concern.

“And you’re not the same woman either. Here I was spending all of this time being so naive and thinking that we were one in the same, but you just had to go for the man on top, didn’t you?”

Peggy looked incredibly and rightfully offended before continuing, “and what are you suggesting Dr. Wilkes?”

“I think you know exactly what I mean. You can’t deny it, so why not just admit it. Why else would you choose him over me if it wasn’t just to sleep your way to the top?”

Peggy gasped and slapped him before coming back inside to speak with Daniel.

Inside

“I need you to take Angie somewhere where she won’t hear this. I don’t need her getting involved,” she whispered in her ear after leaning in close and purposefully ignoring me when I gave her a concerned glance as I had just finished plating lunch for the family.

“Mum, what’s going on?” I asked as I reached forward, trying to grab Mum’s arm before she went back outside, but missed.

“Dad, is Mum in trouble?” I faced Dad with an incredibly terrified look in my eyes.

“Nothing worse than what she’s encountered before. Now, how does going to the office and possibly helping your old man with some files sound?”

“Dad I’m not five anymore, you can tell me what’s really happening,” I huffed, upset that Dad was trying to brush off my concern.

“Hunny I promise everything is fine, let’s just get in the car all right? You wanted your chance to help out, now is your time to take it,” he gave me an annoyed and worn out look.

Deciding to go along with it, I nodded and followed Dad out to the garage. As we pulled away, I leaned over my shoulder to observe the interactions occurring between Dr. Wilkes and Mum. I had only ever heard of him through stories of my parents’ past missions and had no clue as to the short-lived love triangle that occurred shortly before I was born. Dad turned the radio on in hopes of defusing some of the concerned tension that had followed us into the Mustang.

Dad took off one of his hands from the steering wheel and placed it gingerly on my shoulder. He gave it a little squeeze as both of us looked forward through the windshield. I had so many questions running around in my head but had no idea how to word any of them. I could tell now was not the best time to burden Dad with my curiosity, but I just wanted to make sure Mum was safe. Although I knew she had dealt with much worse than what Dr. Wilkes appeared to be, to me he was unknown and that immediately made him a suspicious figure.

We arrived at the office, walking past the girls sitting in front of the switch board and waited for one of them to open the elevator. Once inside, all the agents at their desks stood up at the sight of me and Dad, not having seen me for quite some time. I used to come into the office all the time as a child- Dad didn’t see the point in hiring a nanny when one of the agents could do that job for free. But when I got older, my parents thought it would be better for me to start hanging out with people my own age, so my visits became less frequent.

“Afternoon boys,” Dad smiled, trying to come across as if everything were just fine.

“Well, well, well, if it isn’t Carter’s mini me?” Agent Thompson smiled, got up from his spot atop his desk and patted me on the head. I hated that he was still significantly taller than me.

“Long time no see Agent Breadstick,” I smiled with my hands behind my back.

I heard Dad laughing beside me but with a quick look from Thompson I felt a hand on my shoulder.

“Angie, be nice to Thompson alright? We’ve got more important things to deal with,” Dad “scolded” me as he tried to hold back his laughter.

“To what do we all owe the pleasure of having tiny Carter come and visit us?” Thompson asked with a cheesy smirk on his face.

“Hopefully, we won’t be here long, I just forgot about some paperwork and decided I’d take Angie along with me. Show her what she might be doing in a few years,” Dad smiled.

I inhaled sharply at the idea of having to wait years just to do some simple paperwork, but I also knew this was part of Dad’s cover up, so I decided to play along.

“Yes of course, can’t wait to be sorting papers,” I sighed, placing my hands on my hips.

“Well with any luck you’re just as much a master of the alphabet as your mother is,” Thompson patted my head yet again.

“After all her years of beating you time and time again to the position of superior agent and you still don’t have an ounce of respect,” I sneered.

“I’d say you’re a little biased there cupcake,” Thompson crossed his arms over his chest, almost as if he was squaring me up.

“Don’t you dare call me cupcake,” I hissed through tight lips.

“Thompson shut it. Come on Angie lets go,” Dad grabbed my arm and pulled me past Agent Thompson. The world just survived two great wars; he didn’t want to witness the start of another.

Agent Thompson and I never really got along. While he might have come back around after the incident in L.A. it appeared as if his ego didn’t shrink in the aftermath. He quickly returned to his normal self, who just happened to listen to my mother a little bit more willingly every now and again.

“I’ll never understand how you and Mum tolerate him still,” I huffed.

“Trust me, he starts to grow on you,” Dad sighed.

We stepped into one of the offices that was off to the side so none of the other agents would hear us.

“Would you mind telling me what we’re actually here for now?” I asked with my hands returning to my hips.

As he closed the door, Dad let go of the breath that he had been holding in and looked me directly in the eyes, “Honestly Angie, I have no idea why we’re here. Your mother just told me to get you out of the house”.

“Dr. Wilkes isn’t one of us, then is he?” I asked, the concern creeping its way back in.

“I don’t think so, not anymore at least,” Dad sighed, sitting down on the desk chair after checking that no one was watching us through the glass.

“Then why are we sitting here? We should be helping Mum,” I exclaimed, trying to reach the door before Dad stopped me.

“Angie, you said it yourself, your mother is more than capable of handling whatever is going on out there”.

“But she doesn’t have to handle it alone. That’s what we’re here for,” I huffed.

“Listen, there are some people who really don’t like your mother and I and we don’t want you getting trapped in the crossfire,” Dad looked at me intently, making sure I was hearing what he was saying.

“Like Dr. Wilkes?”

“Well- I’m not sure about him anymore”.

“I just want to make sure Mum’s safe,” I exhaled, not realizing I had been holding my breath.

“I know sweetheart, I know,” Dad hugged me from the side, and I rested my head on his shoulder.

Back at the House

“Peggy please, just make this easier for everyone and come back to California with me,” Dr. Wilkes begged with an angry twinge in his voice.

“For God’s sake no! I am not leaving,” Peggy responded, her voice raising in volume, matching her level of exasperation.

“Come on, you know things would be so much better if we just left all of this mess behind. Think about it, you can see Howard, Jarvis, and Anna again. Everyone’s counting on you Peggy,” Dr. Wilkes tried to reason with her.

“If you think for one moment you can guilt me into following you back to California you are sadly mistaken,” she sneered.

“Don’t make this harder than it has to be Peggy. There’s a flight leaving in a couple of hours, we can make this work”.

“You really had this all planned out, didn’t you? This wasn’t just a friendly visit at all. And to think I was under the impression that you were still the man I met in L.A. You did this for yourself you selfish twat”.

“You don’t really think of me like that, I know you don’t. Just admit that those feelings you had for me at the Griffith are still hiding in there somewhere and come back with me”.

“You clearly don’t know me as well as you thought you did”.

“What is it that’s holding you back Peggy? You’re not being held at gun point,” he tried to joke with her.

“And yet I am just as uncomfortable”.

“I could find us a house even more magnificent than this one in California. Howard’s paying me well, I’m sure we could work something out”.

“You really think I’m that superficial?”

“No, of course it’s not the house. I should have known. Then it must be your job. You know the Los Angeles division of the SSR would be happy to have you back”.

“Even if they would be its still not bloody likely”.

“Please don’t tell me crutch boy is the reason?”

“If you insult my husband one more time I swear- ”

“You can’t tell me I’m wrong. You think he’s known to others as anything besides your husband? Come on Peggy, the man couldn’t get anyone to take him seriously until you two got hitched”.

“Get out,” Peggy was raging. You could almost see steam coming out of her ears.

“Not without you Peg,” Dr. Wilkes looked her directly in the eyes, trying to convince her still.

“I’m not leaving and forcing my family to pack everything up just for your silly little fantasy. Angie has so much in front of her, I can’t take that away from her”.

“Angie — her name is Angie. How sweet of you to name her after your closest friend,” he took a pause to think, “Oh of course! I’ve just thought of a great idea!”

Peggy didn’t like where this was going but let him continue, thinking it best not to enrage him.

“She can come with us. The beaches, the warm weather, Disneyland, she’ll love it”.

“Don’t you dare talk about my daughter as if you know her. You never have and you never will,” Peggy cried.

“How old did you say she was? 18? Well by that age I think she’s old enough to speak for herself. I want to speak to her directly, get her opinion on the whole matter. Where is she?’

“You are not going anywhere near my daughter,” Peggy’s eyes grew wide with anger and sudden concern for her daughter’s safety.

Dr. Wilkes pushed past her and made his way to the front door, throwing it open before Peggy could stop him. He was on his way to the kitchen when Peggy grabbed his wrist, swinging him back against the wall.

She put his arms above his head and grabbed her pocketknife she kept in her shirt pocket, “If you dare lay a hand on my daughter, I will not hesitate”.

“She’s not here is she? Of course not. Daniel was always suspicious of me, so he made a quick getaway with her in tow”.

Peggy didn’t respond, opting to bore holes into him with her stare instead. After a brief pause of tension filled silence, she knocked Dr. Wilkes in the back of the knee, and he fell to the floor. Before he could attempt to get up and fight back, she knocked him out and threw him in the hall closet. She then sped to the garage and started up their second car, heading down to the SSR office.

In the Office

Dad and I had been passing the time by playing soccer with a balled-up piece of paper and our fingers as the goals. I sighed and checked the clock again. The hands seemed to be getting slower and slower every time I turned my head to face them. Agent Thompson kept coming in every once and a while to check on us and try and get information out of us. He didn’t believe for a second that we were just here to sort out some paperwork, and subsequently kept nagging Dad to tell him the truth. Dad was still trying to downplay the whole situation though I was starting to believe more and more that he also didn’t know the full story.

Thompson was leaning against the windowsill, “GOAL!” he shouted and threw his arms up with fake enthusiasm as I flicked the piece of paper through Dad’s fingers.

I rolled my eyes at his poor attempt to break through the tension, “do you not have anything better to do Agent Breadstick?” I asked without looking at him.

Dad let out a quick laugh as he gave me a concerned look. I returned it with a small smile that I hoped put him a little at ease. We were both incredibly worried as we hadn’t heard from Mum since we left, but neither of us wanted to make the situation any worse. We both felt the need to stay strong for the other.

We were quickly pulled out of the relative silence when we heard “Where are they?!” from outside in the main office. Dad quickly stood up and threw open the door to see Mum searching down the hall for us.

“Peg, we’re in here,” he called out to her as he stepped outside of the doorway and Thompson took his place.

Mum rushed over to us, “listen, we don’t have much time. I’ve stalled Jason for now but there is a very good chance he will be here any minute. We have to figure out a way to stop him”.

“Mum will you please tell me what’s going on?” I tried to get her attention from over Thompson’s shoulder.

“Darling, listen to me. You have to stay here, it’s too dangerous for you right now,” Mum tried to reason with me.

“No, you can’t just expect me to sit here while you two put yourselves in danger again,” I bit back, tears forming in my eyes again.

“Hunny please, we’ll take care of this and come back for you when its safe ok?” Dad sighed, “Thompson, watch her with your life”.

“NO!” I tried to duck under Thompson’s arm, but he held me back. And with that, I watched my parents rush off back down the hall as the office door was closed once again. I was trapped.

“I have to go help them!” I cried.

“Kid, please just sit down”.

“I am more than capable of handling myself, now move over!” if I wasn’t in the mood to deal with Thompson before, he certainly wasn’t building a strong case for himself.

“Trust me, if they wanted you out there, they would have let you go with them”.

“Thank you for reminding me that my own parents don’t trust me”.

I crashed down on the chair in a huff, feeling like the whole world was against me. Out of all the people I could’ve been stuck in a room with while my parents were fending off danger, it had to be Agent Breadstick. He took a pause and inhaled, trying to think of his next move. Usually our conversations were more of an intellectual discourse, but I don’t think either of us had our wits about us enough to be bitter.

“You think that’s what this is about? No kid, they think the world of you. They’re doing this for your own good”.

“How would you know? You don’t even know what’s going on,” I sighed out of frustration and sat in the chair I was in before.

“Look, I may not know the whole story, but I do know that if I had a nickel for every time your dad started bragging about how proud he was of you, I’d be on a yacht right now,” Thompson gave me a small smile.

“They talk about me?” I smiled, starting to calm down a little. I had never seen this side of Thompson before, but I wasn’t complaining. With the thought of my parents in danger swirling around in my head, not having to have a witty comeback was a welcome gift.

“Oh boy you don’t want to be in the office once your dad gets started, or else you’re stuck there for hours,” he chuckled, “I should have known from the moment he brought your kindergarten finger painting in to keep on his desk that we were in for a doozy”.

“Oh good heavens, you’re joking right?”

“Nope, he showed it to any poor sucker who happened to walk by”.

“Bloody hell I had no idea,” I laughed under my breath.

“You’re a good kid, you know that? Even if you can be a little stuck up sometimes”. He smirked at me.

“Excuse me?” I scoffed, pretending to take offense with a smile on my face.

“It’s not like I can blame you. You’re a product of your situation. I’d be surprised if Carter’s kid wasn’t a little pretentious”.

“You do know my mother only appears that way to you because you lot never paid her any mind until she successfully cleared Mr. Stark’s name right under your noses. Need I remind you that without her your mission to Russia would have been a total disaster?” I stated.

“Ok, I can’t argue with you there”.

“You have your moments, don’t you?”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” He sighed and gave me a confused look.

“You’re not an arrogant asshole all the time,” I smirked.

He scoffed and there was a long, silent pause before I asked, “who is Dr. Wilkes anyway?”

“Wilkes was a scientist at Isodyne Energy in California. He was on our side, helping us close the case of a lady who was found frozen in a lake during a heatwave. Then he got exposed to zero matter, which messed with his head and caused him to switch sides for a bit. We got him back eventually and Stark hired him to work as a scientist at his L.A. location”.

“I never knew the whole story,” I said, taking it all in.

“Probably better that way. After your parents moved back to New York no one really gave him a second thought”.

“What do you think is happening?”

“Kid, I told you I don’t know what’s going on out there,” he sighed.

“I didn’t ask for the truth, I asked for your opinion,” I stated matter-of-factly.

“Alright, you want to know what I think? I think Wilkes has gone AWOL”.

“I just don’t understand what would have caused him to show up at our door out of nowhere”.

“Well rumour has it that before your parents actually got together, Wilkes and your mom might have been closer than just investigation partners”.

“So, you’re telling me he reappeared out of thin air because he was in love with my mum?”

“Probably still is by the sounds of it. I could not get Rose to shut up about the little love triangle the three of them had going on during our time out there”.

“But that doesn’t explain why my mum seems so worried about him. I mean, she’s handled far worse in her time with the SSR. Bloody hell she’s had to deal with you for all these years,” I smirked.

“You just had to slip that one in there didn’t you?”

“Of course, I did. Consider it pay back for calling me cupcake earlier”.

“Sometimes love does crazy things to a person. Sometimes it can turn into an obsession”.

I went quiet for a moment as I processed all this new information. I couldn’t believe it was just as simple as unrequited love that made Dr. Wilkes as crazy as he seemed to be. Then again with all the things that I’ve heard over the years, I couldn’t exactly rule it out.

“I haven’t heard you this quiet since you were in diapers. Cat got your tongue kid?” Thompson gave me a concerned look but kept his usual smart remarks flowing.

“Well apologies if I seem a little bit more reserved just after I learn that my parents are trying to fight a possible mad man”.

“They’re strong people, they can handle it”.

Peggy and Daniel

As they hurried away from the office, there was a heavy weight upon both of them. Neither of them wanted to admit that they were scared. This wasn’t the first time they had dealt with something terrifying, and they were sure it wasn’t going to be the last, but this time seemed different.

“Peg, would you please tell me what’s going on?” Daniel asked after they had reached a safe distance away from where their daughter was currently hiding.

“Something has happened to Jason. I have no idea what, but he is not the same person we left in California,” Peggy sighed, clearly uncomfortable.

“Did-did he do something to you?” Daniel questioned, getting closer to her.

“No. God no, he just,” she paused, “made it very apparent that he still has feelings for me.”

“That son of a bitch,” Daniel looked as if he were about to explode.

“Daniel please, now is not the time,” Peggy reached out to touch his shoulder to calm him down. She suddenly shot her head up to look over and around him, “I need a telephone”.

“What for?”

“I need to call Howard. How did I not think of this sooner?” She muttered the last part more to herself than to her husband. She quickly turned the dial on the nearest rotary phone and waited anxiously for Howard to pick up.

“Hello? Stark residence, Edwin Jarvis speaking”.

“Oh, Mr. Jarvis, I need to speak to Howard,” Peggy sighed.

“Ah Ms. Carter, what a delight it is to hear from you. I’ll pass you onto him now,” Jarvis said in his usual upbeat tone.

“Peg, to what do I owe the pleasure?” Howard’s voice could suddenly be heard from the opposite end of the telephone.

“I need to speak with you about Dr. Wilkes”.

“What about him? Took a couple weeks’ vacation, said he’d be out of state. I didn’t think twice about it, why should I have?”

“Howard, something isn’t right with him”.

“How so?”

“Dr. Wilkes appeared at my doorstep earlier this afternoon a completely different man then when I last saw him. He seemed adamant about seeing me, though he tried to play it off as if he just happened to be in the area”.

“I knew you’d always have men chasing after you Peg,” you could practically hear his cheesy smirk.

“Howard, God help me, this is not the time. What kind of research were you having him do? Could he have been exposed to anything?”

“He was helping me revamp my work with gamma radiation. I hadn’t touched it since the unfortunate accident with my gamma cannon, but we thought we’d take another shot at it. Why?”

“Well if he was that susceptible to the effects of zero matter that he became a fan of Whitney Frost for even a short amount of time, who’s to say something similar couldn’t happen?”

“Gamma radiation could have some damaging side effects, most of which are still to be uncovered. It is possible that the rays from our experiments collided with something in his DNA that caused a switch to flip in his brain”.

“Could it have affected his emotional control? Made him more susceptible to anger management issues?”

“Sure, I don’t see why not”.

“Howard, I think Dr. Wilkes has become more of a part of you research than a colleague”.

“I fear you might be right. Leaving one man alone with that much precious material to experiment on could only produce so many outcomes”.

“I’ll call you back if anything happens, but I fear I must return to what is at hand”.

“Peggy, please be careful. We don’t know what’s going on inside his head right now”.

“You got it”. She hung up the phone.

Daniel hurried over, “so, what did Stark have to say?”

“There is a large possibility that Jason’s been unfortunately affected by work that he and Howard were doing with gamma radiation”.

“And? What does that mean?”

“Well, with so many of its possible side affects currently unknown, it is highly probable that the form it decided take in Jason was in regard to his emotional control. He’s not truly himself right now, but I fear we may be stuck with this version of him for longer than seems appealing”.

“So, the guy has anger management issues?” Daniel asked, growing exponentially more confused and annoyed.

“Precisely”.

“All right, so what are we going to do?”

“Well I highly doubt he’s still laying face down in our hall closet but as I have no idea just how badly this has all affected his brain, I feel our best option is to prepare for the worst”.

Angie and Thompson

“I spy with my little eye… something-“

“Breadstick, as much as I appreciate your efforts to distract me, I’m really not in the mood,” I sighed.

It had felt like yet another eternity since I watched my parents dash away to wherever they were. Being stuck in an office with nothing but a couple filing cabinets and a window is not exactly the best for combatting boredom. On top of being bored, I was scared. I was scared that there was some chance Mum and Dad wouldn’t come back. I knew I shouldn’t have been thinking like that, but they hardly knew what they were dealing with, much less me.

“Kid, if your parents can go through twenty years of the SSR, they can handle whatever is going on out there”.

“Even though this is the shortest they’ve ever been away on a mission, it feels like the longest”.

“That’s just your nerves talking. Now, why don’t you tell me how school’s going?”

I paused, considering giving him a fake answer but decided to be truthful. I could tell he was just trying to help.

“Well my English teacher gave me an awfully hard time the other day because I argued with him, but its not my fault he was being sexist. We’re learning about different elements in the periodic table in Chemistry and Math is as boring as ever”.

“What is it with you Carter’s and always having to raise your voice for everything?” Thompson chuckled.

“He was being sexist, I’m not going to let that go unnoticed,” I huffed.

“Things would be so much easier if the two of you learned to keep your mouth shut,” he was slipping back into his old self.

“If my mother had kept her mouth shut, you would still be under the control of Vernon Masters,” I half-muttered.

I could tell I was getting under his skin, but he didn’t say anything. As it turns out, he didn’t have the time to come up with a clever response because Mum had suddenly burst through the door.

“He’s here,” she said in a low voice, panic clearly written across her face.

“Son of a bitch,” Thompson muttered.

“Angie, come with me, we’re taking you somewhere safer,” Mum beckoned me over.

I didn’t say anything; I couldn’t say anything. It was like I was watching myself perform the actions from outside of my body.

I joined Mum in the doorway, “stay very close behind me,” she whispered.

“Where’s Dad?”

“Your father and a few other agents are holding him off for as long as they can. That’s why I’m taking you somewhere else”.

This was yet another moment where I had so many questions but had no idea how to properly word any of them. We snuck past many of the main desks and were about to slip into the lab when I spotted Dad and his colleagues fighting off Dr. Wilkes in the hallway.

“There you are!” Dr. Wilkes yelled over the sounds of fist meeting fist and limbs meeting metal.

“Go you two. GO!” Dad yelled over his shoulder. I started tearing up.

Mum pushed the lab door open and we were met with a couple of scientists.

“Doctor, you said you had something in the works?” Mum asked the doctor standing closest to us.

“Yes. I’ve been working on a self-preservation chamber of sorts. It will protect the person inside from all outside elements and can only be opened with a specific code. The person inside will have no idea about what is happening outside of the chamber; a chemical is released that puts them in a coma-like state until someone inputs the code and allows the person to step outside again”.

“And you’re sure it will work?” Mum asked.

“Every test we’ve run so far has produced positive results”.

Mum looked at me with an incredibly serious look in her eyes. I was slowly starting to piece together what was going to happen, but I didn’t want to accept it.

“Mum no-“

“Darling listen to me. We’re doing this for your own good.”

“No, I’m not-“

“Angie, please. This world isn’t safe right now. We’ll be back together again soon, I promise”.

“NO! I’m not leaving you and Dad to fight this on your own, I can help!”

“It’s not safe out there. Trust me, after this is all over, we’ll be one happy family again”.

My fate was decided, and I could tell there was nothing I could do about it. I stayed quiet while trying to push down the sobs that were threatening to come up. I leaned forward and hugged Mum as tightly as I could.

“I love you so much darling,” she hugged me back.

“I love you too Mum”.

“All right doctor, we’re ready”.

He nodded and hit a few buttons on the side of the chamber that was in the corner of the room and the door opened slowly. I looked back at Mum one more time as she nodded, and I stepped forward. I felt like I was dragging cement blocks instead of my feet. I gingerly stepped into the chamber and rested my stiff body against the back wall. I saw Mum one more time out of the corner of my eye as the door closed and I watched a single tear fall down her cheeks. It was a strange sensation, being in the chamber. I felt both as heavy as a stone and as light as a feather. Suddenly it felt as though I was falling into a deep sleep and my eyes closed involuntarily. I was in a dream world. It felt so real and yet I knew that it wasn’t.

In the Lab

Peggy watched as the door closed and her daughter slipped into that coma-like state.

“And you are sure she is safe like this?”

“Everything will be fine,” the doctor reassured her.

“Right,” Peggy turned around and went back out into the main office to help with the problem at hand.

When she joined the rest of the SSR team, they almost had Dr. Wilkes within their grasp. She grabbed the nearest stapler, opened it, and hit Wilkes over the head a few times to knock him out. With that, the men were able to handcuff him and take him to the garage from which they would escort him to a slightly more isolated location.

“Is she all right?” Daniel asked.

“She’s in the chamber, everything seems to be going to plan”.

“And the doctors are sure we can bring her out of there?”

“Yes, everything will be fine”.

Daniel hobbled a step forward and embraced Peggy with a sigh of relief.

“What are we going to do Peg?”

“They’re bringing Jason in to isolation until we figure out-“

“No. I mean what are we going to do about Angie? This world, our world, is too dangerous for a kid. It’s not fair to her to be constantly putting her in danger like that”.

“Daniel, this is what we’re training her for. She may not be ready now, but she will be someday. Until that day, she has us”. He nodded. “Now, let’s go check on her alright?” He nodded again.

They walked back into the lab and told the doctor that they were ready for Angie to come back out again. He nodded and inputted the code, the door opened, but Angie didn’t wake up.

“Why isn’t she walking out?” Daniel grew concerned once again.

“I don’t know, she should be waking up by now”.

“What did you do?!” Peggy’s voice grew louder and louder.

What the doctor had failed to consider was that the amount of chemical that was released to put Angie to sleep was the same amount they had used to put a full-grown man to sleep. The fact that this was more than double the amount it would have taken to successfully put Angie to sleep had caused more drastic effects.

“Get her to a hospital, NOW!” Daniel screamed.

They lifted Angie out of the chamber and carried her to the nearest car. They loaded her in the back seat and rested her head on Peggy’s lap. Daniel hurried into the driver’s seat and sped off to the nearest hospital, running nearly every red light on the way. Once they reached the front entrance, they immediately carried her to the front desk, both too flustered to form full sentences.

“Please, I’m going to need you to calm down,” the nurse stated as they placed Angie on another stretcher.

“She’s — she’s in a coma. We don’t know why she won’t wake up,” Peggy stumbled over her words a bit.

“Ok, we’ll take her back and examine her. You must wait out here”.

“No, we’re going with her!” Daniel cried.

“Sir, you must wait in the lobby, someone will come and get you once the examination is complete”.

Two more nurses began to pull Angie away to an examination room and Daniel tried to chase after them. Peggy held him back and he resigned slightly, following her to a set of chairs in the lobby.

“She’s going to be all right. Angie’s our girl, she’ll be fine,” Peggy whispered, the fact that she was on the verge of tears preventing her from raising her voice anymore. Daniel stayed quiet, too overwhelmed to form words.