Fic for colebaltblue: Playing The Game: Act I - Pawns & Politics, Secrets & Strategy, Part 1/4
Title: Playing The Game: Act I - Pawns & Politics, Secrets & Strategy
Link to AO3: Playing the Game
Recipient: colebaltblue
Author: scandalbaby
Fandoms: Sherlock/Marvel Cinematic Universe (specifically, "Captain America: The Winter Soldier" with mentions of characters and events from The Avengers and Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.)
Characters: Molly Hooper, Maria Hill, Sherlock Holmes, Mary Morstan, Natasha Romanov and Clint Barton with brief appearances by Tom, Mycroft Holmes, Sharon Carter, Peggy Carter, Nick Fury, Sam Wilson and Steve Rogers
Pairings: Eventual Sherlock Holmes/Molly Hooper, current Tom/Molly Hooper and John Watson/Mary Morstan and implied one-sided Steve Rogers/Sharon Carter
Rating: Bordering somewhere between PG/PG-13
Warnings: Some language
Summary: Molly Hooper is a legacy, one of Peggy Carter's two granddaughters and a former S.H.I.E.L.D. agent in her own right. However, due to a horrific event in her immediate family she left that life behind and settled into a life as a meek, mousy pathologist. But when S.H.I.E.L.D. is compromised by the HYDRA uprising and Natasha Romanov leaks all of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s secrets onto the internet that includes Molly's as well. Knowing that, Mycroft asks Molly to do a favour for Queen and country to best protect Her Majesty's interests in the matter. What Molly doesn't realize, though, is that agreeing to do this favour is just the beginning of her trip back down the rabbit hole into her former life.
Authors Notes: First off, many thanks to the wonderful mods for granting me an extreme extension due to the one-two gut punch of horrible real life stuff that happened close to my extra week's extension deadline. I greatly appreciated it even though I didn't need too much of it. ::hugs them both:: You guys are magnificent and I love you.
The lovely colebaltblue gave me a ton of ideas (like, a ton) and the two that stuck out most were "spies" and using the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and I just got hit with the idea of Molly being Peggy's granddaughter via Peggy's canon daughter. Originally I was going to have both acts to this story written, Act I (focusing on the events of "Captain America: The Winter Soldier" with mentions of corresponding Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. events) and Act II (focusing on AoS after an AU version of "Beginning of the End," which is hinted at in this fic), but even with the extreme deadline extension I was only able to finish Act I, but it reads well enough on its own as a complete story. I will be writing Act II at a later date, though (and I promise, that one will have much more action spy stuff)!
Also, just a note: I do plan on bringing Sharon in again in Act II and having her and Molly work out their differences, so forgive the fact that she seems a bit like a bitch in this. She’s not going to be that way in Act II. As I said, I didn’t get to write it so that’s the only real bit that feels really unfinished to me that I want to assure you has a resolution. I think Sharon’s awesome and want to make sure she’s treated better in the sequel.
“S.H.I.E.L.D. has been compromised. You understand what you need to do.”
It had been a very brief message from Mycroft, but she understood the importance of it. The full importance of it. Her grandmum had never entirely trusted those Nazi bastards, never really wanted them incorporated into S.H.I.E.L.D. She’d known even way back then that a day like this would come. Peggy Carter had been a million times smarter than anyone, man or woman, in the British Army or at the SSR or S.H.I.E.L.D. had ever given her credit for. And Margaret Anne Hooper was quite proud to be a direct descendent of hers.
In more ways than one.
She lowered her phone and gave Tom a smile. He wouldn’t understand. And she couldn’t tell him. She couldn’t really tell anyone. It was…well, she supposed unfortunate was a good word. She did care for him. Perhaps she loved him. She wasn’t quite sure. She knew, deep deep down, her heart still belonged to Sherlock. It had for so long, even though it really shouldn’t have. Even though he probably didn’t want it, probably had no use for it.
But with this news, with what that meant…perhaps that was best. She would have to begin the process of extricating herself from this relationship, extricating herself from her life here in London.
And she’d grown fond of it, too.
She needed to find out details, find out just how much S.H.I.E.L.D. had been compromised, find out if there was anyone left they could trust in the States or elsewhere in the world. Find out if there was anyone locally she could lean on for help in trying to preserve what she could of her grandmum’s legacy. If S.H.I.E.L.D. had fallen she surmised something must have happened to Fury and Rogers must have been incapacitated in some way. It must have been, pardon her French, a clusterfuck of epic proportions.
She was going to be up to her elbows in things, and soon, she knew it.
She was pulled away from her thoughts by Tom’s cleared throat. “Molly? Is something wrong?”
“I have a bit of business I need to take care of,” she said, standing up and stowing her mobile in her handbag. She leaned over and gave him a peck on the cheek. “I’m sorry to dash. It’s rather urgent. Family business and all that.”
“Do you need me to come with you?” he asked, starting to stand.
She shook her head. “No, it’s all right. If it takes all evening I’ll see you tomorrow for dinner, all right? My place?” He nodded and she gathered her coat and slipped it on before leaving the restaurant. Once she had left she saw the black sedan waiting for her, as she knew it would be. She knew there was no going back to Barts today; her excuses would be made for her and the day would be spent at either Mycroft’s office or his home. Probably part of the evening as well, if not most of it. Fury was a secretive bastard, and Alexander Pierce wasn’t much better. The Council was probably worse. Mycroft had some pull with Pierce, but Molly didn’t trust Pierce. He made her uneasy. She wasn’t expecting to get much information from anyone if she couldn’t get a hold of her own contacts personally.
She slipped into the backseat of the sedan and then pulled her mobile out again. For all intents and purposes it looked like a normal cell phone, but it was actually quite top of the line. She had called in a favor from an old friend of hers before he’d been poached for a secret team that Molly technically wasn’t supposed to know about to design it for her. It looked rather ordinary and low tech but was so advanced there were features on it that she was quite sure they would allow her to launch nuclear warheads if she really wanted to. Fitz was rather a genius in that regard. After a moment she switched to her phone’s securest setting and then pulled up Maria Hill’s contact. It rang and rang with no answer and she was about to give up when finally there was an answer. “Molly,” Maria said. “Secure line?”
“As always when I want to talk business,” she said. “You can run the check though. I imagine it would be best.”
There was a pause and Molly heard the familiar whirring that accompanied the security check, and then the soft beep than signified that the line was indeed secure. She heard Maria breathe a sigh of relief. “God, Molly it’s…it’s hell. It’s just hell.”
“I was alerted by Mycroft Holmes that S.H.I.E.L.D. had been compromised but I got no details,” Molly said.
“Well, that just proves Holmes is a bastard,” Maria said bitterly. “Pierce is HYDRA, Molly. He’s been running the god damned enemy camp right under our noses. And worst of all? It’s almost impossible to tell who’s really true to S.H.I.E.L.D. and who’s faking it. I mean, we have some intel, thanks to Rogers and Nat, but…it’s a disaster of epic proportions.”
Molly sank back into the seat. “My grandmum was afraid of this,” she said.
“They damn well should have listened to Director Carter. I don’t care what kind of scientific advancements or knowledge those Nazi scum had, S.H.I.E.L.D. never should have allowed them to be recruited.” There was a pause. “Everything here is a disaster. Fury’s dead but not really, Pierce is actually dead, Rogers is in the hospital, Nat’s banged up pretty bad…and that’s not to mention we have three Helicarriers that all crashed into the Triskelion.”
“Dear Lord, you seem to have had a busy day.”
“Oh, and that’s just the beginning. We’re going to have congressional hearings because Nat dumped all of S.H.I.E.L.D.’s files on the internet,” Maria said.
Molly froze slightly. “She did?” she asked slowly. “All of them?”
There was a pause. “Oh my God, your files,” Maria said.
“Oh, bloody hell,” Molly said, shutting her eyes and pinching the bridge of her nose. No, no, no. She did not want the files of her missions with S.H.I.E.L.D. being out in the open where the whole bloody world could see them. She’d only done them during her time in university and medical school, but it wasn’t exactly something she wanted to be public knowledge. “The next time I see Natalia Alianova Romanoff I’m going to wring her bloody neck.”
“I’ll tell her to stay far away from London,” Maria said. “You know, even though she’s an ex-KGB agent, for some reason you always managed to unnerve her.”
“It’s because I never had a problem cutting into dead bodies,” Molly said. “She may not have a problem killing people but dissecting them tended to be something she found distasteful.” She was quiet for a moment. “I suppose this will make my problem easier, provided he doesn’t have a spy kink I’m not aware of.”
“What problem?” Maria asked.
“Ending my relationship with my fiancé,” she said.
“You don’t have to, you know,” Maria said thoughtfully. “With your past in the open, thanks to Nat, you can be truthful. I mean, its public knowledge you were a spy now. And you were one of the good guys.”
“Yes, but in our game, with the knowledge that HYDRA infiltrated the very top of S.H.I.E.L.D., were we really the good guys?” Molly asked.
Maria sighed. “I suppose that’s the question we’ll be asking ourselves for a while now,” Maria said before yawning. “I need to get some sleep. It’s going to be a long day tomorrow.”
“All right,” Molly said. “I’ll give Mycroft your regards.”
“Give him a slug in the face for not giving you details and tell him it’s from me,” she replied with a chuckle. “Take care, Molly.”
“You too.” Molly hung up on Maria and began to search just what files on her time with S.H.I.E.L.D. had ended up on the internet. This had the potential of being a complete and utter disaster or, possibly, something very very good. She would need more time and more information before she could determine which outcome it would be.
---
It was with a bit of surprise that Molly walked into Mycroft’s study to see it was not just him there. She slowed her pace when she saw that Sherlock was there as well, sitting in one of the high backed chairs, looking down at his mobile.
“You incapacitated four heavily armed security guards with no weapons aside from self defense spray?” he remarked without looking up. “And left one critically injured? And managed to impress the notorious Black Widow?”
“I had rope as well,” Molly said, moving to the other seat as Mycroft was standing by the fireplace. “Though I only used that to tie them up.” She set her handbag down on the floor and then sat down in the chair, looking up at Mycroft. “Why is your brother here?”
“He picked my lock and made himself comfortable when he deduced we’d be having this meeting,” Mycroft said, turning to face her. “He’s been going over your files ever since Ms. Romanov uploaded them.”
“I’m going to kill her,” Molly muttered, leaning back in the chair, tilting her head back.
“Sherry?” Mycroft asked.
“Stronger,” Molly said with a sigh.
Mycroft went to the discretely paneled liquor cabinet that he had and went to prepare Molly a drink. He brought it over to her a few moments later and she studied it, looking up at him. “Glenfiddich 1937,” he said. “If I have to have whiskey I prefer the best. I know you like Stolichnaya…Ms. Romanov’s influence, I suppose…but that is best cold and I don’t have any that is cold.”
Molly nodded and took a sip. Whiskey was just as good as vodka, she supposed, and this was excellent whiskey. She set the glass on the table next to her and then looked at Mycroft. “Did you not give me details because you don’t have them or because you’re just being an arse?” she asked.
“I did not have many details to give,” he replied. “All I know is that Nicholas Fury is dead, there was an incident at the Triskelion in Washington D.C., Alexander Pierce was deemed compromised before he was killed, Ms. Romanov leaked the files onto the internet and all hell is about to break lose in the intelligence community.”
“Well, I know a few more details than you,” Molly said. “Pierce was HYDRA, and he’d been running HYDRA from within S.H.I.E.L.D. It’s hard to weed out who’s who at the moment, but they have some information. And the ‘incident’ at the Triskelion, as you called it, involved three Helicarriers crashing into it.”
Mycroft narrowed his eyes slightly. “And just how did you come by your information?”
“There are some perks of being the granddaughter of the former director,” Molly said with a smirk. “Tomorrow I’ll try to reach out to Victoria, see if I can get more. She’s a bit higher up in the upper echelons than Maria is, and Pierce didn’t like her much. If he was HYDRA I doubt he’d try to recruit her.” She picked up her glass again. “Oh, by the way, Fury isn’t really dead.”
Mycroft’s eyes widened at that. “What?”
“I don’t know the details, but his right hand woman told me he’s not really dead,” she said before taking a sip. “And trust me, Maria would know.”
“I swear, that man,” Mycroft said, shaking his head. “And yet I’m imagining he’s going to want the world to continue to think he is?”
“I would think so, yes,” she said, nodding. “So that’s a secret that stays between the three of us.” She glanced over at Sherlock. “Are you even paying attention, Sherlock, or are you too engrossed in finding out all my secrets?”
“I’m actually quite surprised at how badly I’ve misjudged you all these years,” he said, still not looking up. “You’re quite the actress.”
“I learned from the best,” she said, small smile on her face.
“Oh yes,” Mycroft said. “Don’t bother ever trying to deduce Ms. Romanov, Sherlock. You’ll give yourself a headache.” He went to the mantle and picked up his own drink, staring at it for a moment. “The fact that your secrets are out puts a different spin on things. You don’t need to end your relationship with Tom now.”
“Well, I don’t think he’s heard about his fiancée’s secret life as a spy yet,” she said quietly, swirling her whiskey slightly. “I’ve hurt people, Mycroft.”
“But never killed,” Sherlock said quietly, looking at her for the first time since she entered the room.
She nodded. “I don’t mind dissecting dead bodies, but I don’t like making them. I’ve been very careful never to kill anyone. The guard I put in critical condition was the closest I ever came, and that was because he nearly killed me.”
“You did it for the greater good,” Mycroft said in an oddly gentle tone. “He’ll understand that.”
“But what if he doesn’t?” she asked, looking over at him.
“Then he’s an imbecile,” Sherlock said. “Things need to be done for the greater good sometimes which are violent and ugly. But they keep the masses safe. They keep people like him safe. If he can’t look past that then he’s a selfish prat who wants the pristine version of you he idolized and not the real you he’s got, the one who’s slightly damaged and a bit broken but kind hearted and caring and overall good. If he wants perfection he can go get himself…I don’t know. An anatomically correct store mannequin or something. You’re better than that and if he can’t see it than he can just sod off.”
Molly smiled at that, the first genuine smile she’d felt like wearing since she’d found out Natasha had leaked S.H.I.E.L.D.’s records to the world. “That means a lot to me, Sherlock. Thank you.”
She saw him redden just slightly at the praise, the barest bits at the cheeks and the very tips of his ears, and he slouched in his seat more. “Well, it’s the truth,” he said.
“Back to the topic at hand,” Mycroft said. “I believe it’s best if you prepare for a trip to Washington D.C., just in case. We may need a liaison we know we can trust, someone with absolutely no ties to HYDRA who is blemishless, someone that S.H.I.E.L.D. can trust without a doubt.”
“And who’s more blemishless than Director Carter’s granddaughter?” Molly asked, taking another sip of her whiskey. “Well, the one no longer with S.H.I.E.L.D., at any rate. Are you going to arrange my leave for me from Barts?”
Mycroft nodded. “I’ll take care of the arrangements.”
“I want to go as well,” Sherlock said. Mycroft and Molly both turned to look at him. “My government clearance is high enough, Mycroft, and it’s best if this is a sticky situation, that Molly doesn’t go alone. We work well enough together. She trusts me…don’t you?” he asked, a bit hesitantly, it seemed to her. She nodded. “See? So send me with her. And Mary Morstan as well, if you can pull her away from John for a bit.”
“Why Mary?” Molly asked.
“Ex-C.I.A. assassin,” Sherlock said. “Never hurts to have one of those around. Don’t know when you’ll need one.” He looked over between Mycroft and Molly. “With all your government connections you mean to tell me the two of you didn’t know that? I’m surprised. Mary’s been involved in my affairs since the pool, at the very least. Moriarty was blackmailing her when she left the C.I.A. and forced her to be there that night. She broke ties with him after what she saw at the pool, when she saw John try and save me from Moriarty. It was love at first sight as far as she was concerned. She’s studied up on John and I ever since. She knew Jim was planning something before my fall and she tried to get in on that but he suspected her and didn’t use her, so she tried to get close to John another way to keep him safe, becoming a nurse at his surgery. She just never really expected him to love her back.”
“I never knew,” Molly said.
“She must have had good teachers as well,” Mycroft said.
“Not nearly as good as the Black Widow,” Sherlock said, going back to his phone. “I knew the moment I laid eyes on her in the restaurant when John was trying to propose. But with Molly…it’s been seven years and I didn’t have a clue.”
“Don’t tell Natasha,” Molly said, shaking her head before finishing off her whiskey. “She’ll be insufferably smug.”
“I don’t plan to,” Sherlock said before stowing his mobile. “We have plans to make.”
“We do?” Molly asked, looking up.
He nodded. “Yes. And I think we should make then in the comfort of someplace other than Mycroft’s fortress. Baker Street, perhaps.” He paused. “After we find a way for Mary to break the news to John that his fiancée is an ex-assassin. I think he should know before we make plans to see if there’s anything we can do to keep this disaster from bringing down the British intelligence community, as my dear brother would like us to.”
“Just the ones that affect members of S.H.I.E.L.D. in the United Kingdom,” Mycroft said. “MI-6 should remain unaffected.”
Molly shook her head and stood up. “We’ll do the best we can, Mycroft.”
“Do more than that, Molly,” Mycroft said. “Do your best to make Peggy Carter proud.”
Molly nodded and then followed Sherlock as they left the room together. She had always done her best to make her grandmum proud when she did work for S.H.I.E.L.D.; now she just hoped she could continue to do that as she tried to help do what needed to be done for the good of her country.
---
It was surprisingly easy to convince Mary to tell John the truth. She had been looking for a reason prior to their wedding, not wanting to get married while carrying on the deception, and this was probably one of the best that she could think of. She’d asked to do so on her own and told them that she would meet them at Baker Street once she had. When she arrived a few hours later she said John had sat in his favorite chair in stunned silence for nearly an hour, every once in a while opening his mouth and attempting to speak but remaining quiet. And then eventually he’d tilted his head back, shut his eyes, and just said “Of course. I just seem to attract psychopaths.” She wasn’t sure how to take that, but then he lifted his head back up and asked her to please make sure she was back in time to start finalizing plans for the wedding.
Molly was glad things had gone well for her, but she’d had the feelings things were not going to go quite as well for her and Tom. And she was right; when she and the others were done making their plans at Baker Street she had gone to her flat to find tom there, sitting on her sofa, hands clasped in his lap. She knew he had seen the records from S.H.I.E.L.D. then and with a sigh she’d waited for him to speak. He said he wasn’t sure how he felt about things, about how he felt about her keeping so much of her past secret. He said he still cared, but he needed to think about things. That maybe they should wait about getting married. She’d nodded, not having said a word. And then he got up and left. She’d gone to her refrigerator and pulled out the bottle of Stoli she had in the freezer. Wine was not going to cut it tonight.
She was paying for it now as she was sitting on the private plane that Mycroft had arranged for them, nursing a rather irritating headache. She hadn’t drunk nearly enough for a hangover; she had a remarkably high tolerance for alcohol. Her friendship with Natasha had ensured that. But she had drunk enough that she was still feeling some ill effects. She’d made sure to bring a bottle of paracetamol with her as well as a bottle of water to sip. The plane had nice comfortable seats with plenty of room to stretch out, as well as tables for them to sit together if they chose, and there were snacks for them to eat. Mary was eating some dark chocolate digestive biscuits at the table and patted the seat next to her. Molly sat down with her water bottle and took a sip as Mary studied her. “You look dreadful.”
“Bit too much Stoli last night,” she said.
“Tom found out?” Mary asked sympathetically. Molly nodded. “I see.”
Molly slouched in the seat. “He wants time, to see how he feels about things. So we’re…on break, I suppose. Still engaged, but not making plans.”
“Bit of a shite position to be in,” she said.
“Yes,” Molly said. She had some more of her water. “I’m just glad things worked out with you and John. You two are so good for each other.”
“He certainly took it better than I would have expected, after the shock,” Mary said with a small smile before taking a bite of the biscuit in her hand. “I expect I’ll have questions from him for a while, but I’ll answer them as he asks them and be honest. I should have been honest from the start, and the fact he’s accepting it now…I’m grateful.”
Molly nodded, having some more of her water. “John is a good man. He’s one of the best I’ve ever known.” She glanced over at Sherlock. “And I’m glad he’s rubbed off on Sherlock.”
“Oh yes,” Mary said, her grin growing wider. “I heard he was an absolute beast before.”
“That’s an understatement,” Molly said. “But I’ve honestly dealt with worse, when I was in S.H.I.E.L.D. That made it easy to handle him.”
“There was worse than Sherlock?” Mary asked.
Molly nodded. “As surprising as it is, yes,” she said. “In terms of both ego and manners.”
“I can hear you talking about me,” Sherlock said from where it appeared he was trying to sleep, stretched out on one of the sleeping areas.
“But of course we are,” Mary said with a laugh. “But it’s only in a good way.”
“I heard that as well,” he said, sitting up. He came over to their table and then sat across from them. He studied Molly slightly. “Your personality seems quite different. It has since yesterday. I take it the meekness and quietness was all a mask?”
She tilted her head back and forth slightly. “It was a reaction, more than a mask,” she said after a moment. “I used to be much more…brash and vivacious, prior to my leaving S.H.I.E.L.D. But something happened and I rather turned in on myself.”
“Is the kindness and cheerfulness going to disappear?” Sherlock asked curiously.
Molly shook her head. “No, that’s always been at the core of my personality. That’s a very basic part of who I am. But I doubt I will go back to letting people walk all over me, or bending over backwards to make people happy.”
“It will be interesting getting to know this new you,” Mary said. “But so far, I like her. I mean, I liked the old Molly, but this new Molly is definitely someone I’d like to spend time with.”
“Thank you,” Molly said. Then she turned to Sherlock. “What about you?”
“As long as you don’t turn into someone who loses their kindness I don’t think I could ever find a reason not to want to count you among my friends,” Sherlock said with a shrug. “Just don’t become like how I used to be.”
“I’ll make sure of it,” she said, giving him a smile.
“So what is the plan upon landing in Washington?” Mary asked, finishing off her biscuit and then offering Molly and Sherlock one from the package. Both of them shook their heads and so she pulled another one out.
“Supposedly we’ll be met by someone who will escort us to S.H.I.E.L.D. headquarters,” Molly said. “My old clearance level of Level 6 has been reinstated and I believe you two have been given similar levels. We’ll be taken to see Agent Hill and then we’ll settle down and get to business to see what agents are going to be affected, who wants to be shuffled where and what arrangements we can make for them.”
“Mycroft also needs us to make sure that any other interests not already compromised remain uncompromised,” Sherlock said.
“Then we’ll make sure of that,” Molly said with a nod. She shut her eyes as her head began to throb.
“Lie down,” Mary said. “It will be a few hours until we get to Washington. It probably wouldn’t be a good idea to show up with a headache because you’ll be growling at everyone.”
“Are you sure?” Molly asked.
Both Mary and Sherlock nodded. “We’ll amuse ourselves,” Sherlock said.
“All right,” Molly said, moving over to where Sherlock had been lying. She set her head on the pillow and then pulled the blanket over her and shut her eyes again. Hopefully the headache would be gone by the time they landed; otherwise this would be a very interesting start to this mission.
Link to AO3: Playing the Game
Recipient: colebaltblue
Author: scandalbaby
Fandoms: Sherlock/Marvel Cinematic Universe (specifically, "Captain America: The Winter Soldier" with mentions of characters and events from The Avengers and Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.)
Characters: Molly Hooper, Maria Hill, Sherlock Holmes, Mary Morstan, Natasha Romanov and Clint Barton with brief appearances by Tom, Mycroft Holmes, Sharon Carter, Peggy Carter, Nick Fury, Sam Wilson and Steve Rogers
Pairings: Eventual Sherlock Holmes/Molly Hooper, current Tom/Molly Hooper and John Watson/Mary Morstan and implied one-sided Steve Rogers/Sharon Carter
Rating: Bordering somewhere between PG/PG-13
Warnings: Some language
Summary: Molly Hooper is a legacy, one of Peggy Carter's two granddaughters and a former S.H.I.E.L.D. agent in her own right. However, due to a horrific event in her immediate family she left that life behind and settled into a life as a meek, mousy pathologist. But when S.H.I.E.L.D. is compromised by the HYDRA uprising and Natasha Romanov leaks all of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s secrets onto the internet that includes Molly's as well. Knowing that, Mycroft asks Molly to do a favour for Queen and country to best protect Her Majesty's interests in the matter. What Molly doesn't realize, though, is that agreeing to do this favour is just the beginning of her trip back down the rabbit hole into her former life.
Authors Notes: First off, many thanks to the wonderful mods for granting me an extreme extension due to the one-two gut punch of horrible real life stuff that happened close to my extra week's extension deadline. I greatly appreciated it even though I didn't need too much of it. ::hugs them both:: You guys are magnificent and I love you.
The lovely colebaltblue gave me a ton of ideas (like, a ton) and the two that stuck out most were "spies" and using the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and I just got hit with the idea of Molly being Peggy's granddaughter via Peggy's canon daughter. Originally I was going to have both acts to this story written, Act I (focusing on the events of "Captain America: The Winter Soldier" with mentions of corresponding Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. events) and Act II (focusing on AoS after an AU version of "Beginning of the End," which is hinted at in this fic), but even with the extreme deadline extension I was only able to finish Act I, but it reads well enough on its own as a complete story. I will be writing Act II at a later date, though (and I promise, that one will have much more action spy stuff)!
Also, just a note: I do plan on bringing Sharon in again in Act II and having her and Molly work out their differences, so forgive the fact that she seems a bit like a bitch in this. She’s not going to be that way in Act II. As I said, I didn’t get to write it so that’s the only real bit that feels really unfinished to me that I want to assure you has a resolution. I think Sharon’s awesome and want to make sure she’s treated better in the sequel.
“S.H.I.E.L.D. has been compromised. You understand what you need to do.”
It had been a very brief message from Mycroft, but she understood the importance of it. The full importance of it. Her grandmum had never entirely trusted those Nazi bastards, never really wanted them incorporated into S.H.I.E.L.D. She’d known even way back then that a day like this would come. Peggy Carter had been a million times smarter than anyone, man or woman, in the British Army or at the SSR or S.H.I.E.L.D. had ever given her credit for. And Margaret Anne Hooper was quite proud to be a direct descendent of hers.
In more ways than one.
She lowered her phone and gave Tom a smile. He wouldn’t understand. And she couldn’t tell him. She couldn’t really tell anyone. It was…well, she supposed unfortunate was a good word. She did care for him. Perhaps she loved him. She wasn’t quite sure. She knew, deep deep down, her heart still belonged to Sherlock. It had for so long, even though it really shouldn’t have. Even though he probably didn’t want it, probably had no use for it.
But with this news, with what that meant…perhaps that was best. She would have to begin the process of extricating herself from this relationship, extricating herself from her life here in London.
And she’d grown fond of it, too.
She needed to find out details, find out just how much S.H.I.E.L.D. had been compromised, find out if there was anyone left they could trust in the States or elsewhere in the world. Find out if there was anyone locally she could lean on for help in trying to preserve what she could of her grandmum’s legacy. If S.H.I.E.L.D. had fallen she surmised something must have happened to Fury and Rogers must have been incapacitated in some way. It must have been, pardon her French, a clusterfuck of epic proportions.
She was going to be up to her elbows in things, and soon, she knew it.
She was pulled away from her thoughts by Tom’s cleared throat. “Molly? Is something wrong?”
“I have a bit of business I need to take care of,” she said, standing up and stowing her mobile in her handbag. She leaned over and gave him a peck on the cheek. “I’m sorry to dash. It’s rather urgent. Family business and all that.”
“Do you need me to come with you?” he asked, starting to stand.
She shook her head. “No, it’s all right. If it takes all evening I’ll see you tomorrow for dinner, all right? My place?” He nodded and she gathered her coat and slipped it on before leaving the restaurant. Once she had left she saw the black sedan waiting for her, as she knew it would be. She knew there was no going back to Barts today; her excuses would be made for her and the day would be spent at either Mycroft’s office or his home. Probably part of the evening as well, if not most of it. Fury was a secretive bastard, and Alexander Pierce wasn’t much better. The Council was probably worse. Mycroft had some pull with Pierce, but Molly didn’t trust Pierce. He made her uneasy. She wasn’t expecting to get much information from anyone if she couldn’t get a hold of her own contacts personally.
She slipped into the backseat of the sedan and then pulled her mobile out again. For all intents and purposes it looked like a normal cell phone, but it was actually quite top of the line. She had called in a favor from an old friend of hers before he’d been poached for a secret team that Molly technically wasn’t supposed to know about to design it for her. It looked rather ordinary and low tech but was so advanced there were features on it that she was quite sure they would allow her to launch nuclear warheads if she really wanted to. Fitz was rather a genius in that regard. After a moment she switched to her phone’s securest setting and then pulled up Maria Hill’s contact. It rang and rang with no answer and she was about to give up when finally there was an answer. “Molly,” Maria said. “Secure line?”
“As always when I want to talk business,” she said. “You can run the check though. I imagine it would be best.”
There was a pause and Molly heard the familiar whirring that accompanied the security check, and then the soft beep than signified that the line was indeed secure. She heard Maria breathe a sigh of relief. “God, Molly it’s…it’s hell. It’s just hell.”
“I was alerted by Mycroft Holmes that S.H.I.E.L.D. had been compromised but I got no details,” Molly said.
“Well, that just proves Holmes is a bastard,” Maria said bitterly. “Pierce is HYDRA, Molly. He’s been running the god damned enemy camp right under our noses. And worst of all? It’s almost impossible to tell who’s really true to S.H.I.E.L.D. and who’s faking it. I mean, we have some intel, thanks to Rogers and Nat, but…it’s a disaster of epic proportions.”
Molly sank back into the seat. “My grandmum was afraid of this,” she said.
“They damn well should have listened to Director Carter. I don’t care what kind of scientific advancements or knowledge those Nazi scum had, S.H.I.E.L.D. never should have allowed them to be recruited.” There was a pause. “Everything here is a disaster. Fury’s dead but not really, Pierce is actually dead, Rogers is in the hospital, Nat’s banged up pretty bad…and that’s not to mention we have three Helicarriers that all crashed into the Triskelion.”
“Dear Lord, you seem to have had a busy day.”
“Oh, and that’s just the beginning. We’re going to have congressional hearings because Nat dumped all of S.H.I.E.L.D.’s files on the internet,” Maria said.
Molly froze slightly. “She did?” she asked slowly. “All of them?”
There was a pause. “Oh my God, your files,” Maria said.
“Oh, bloody hell,” Molly said, shutting her eyes and pinching the bridge of her nose. No, no, no. She did not want the files of her missions with S.H.I.E.L.D. being out in the open where the whole bloody world could see them. She’d only done them during her time in university and medical school, but it wasn’t exactly something she wanted to be public knowledge. “The next time I see Natalia Alianova Romanoff I’m going to wring her bloody neck.”
“I’ll tell her to stay far away from London,” Maria said. “You know, even though she’s an ex-KGB agent, for some reason you always managed to unnerve her.”
“It’s because I never had a problem cutting into dead bodies,” Molly said. “She may not have a problem killing people but dissecting them tended to be something she found distasteful.” She was quiet for a moment. “I suppose this will make my problem easier, provided he doesn’t have a spy kink I’m not aware of.”
“What problem?” Maria asked.
“Ending my relationship with my fiancé,” she said.
“You don’t have to, you know,” Maria said thoughtfully. “With your past in the open, thanks to Nat, you can be truthful. I mean, its public knowledge you were a spy now. And you were one of the good guys.”
“Yes, but in our game, with the knowledge that HYDRA infiltrated the very top of S.H.I.E.L.D., were we really the good guys?” Molly asked.
Maria sighed. “I suppose that’s the question we’ll be asking ourselves for a while now,” Maria said before yawning. “I need to get some sleep. It’s going to be a long day tomorrow.”
“All right,” Molly said. “I’ll give Mycroft your regards.”
“Give him a slug in the face for not giving you details and tell him it’s from me,” she replied with a chuckle. “Take care, Molly.”
“You too.” Molly hung up on Maria and began to search just what files on her time with S.H.I.E.L.D. had ended up on the internet. This had the potential of being a complete and utter disaster or, possibly, something very very good. She would need more time and more information before she could determine which outcome it would be.
---
It was with a bit of surprise that Molly walked into Mycroft’s study to see it was not just him there. She slowed her pace when she saw that Sherlock was there as well, sitting in one of the high backed chairs, looking down at his mobile.
“You incapacitated four heavily armed security guards with no weapons aside from self defense spray?” he remarked without looking up. “And left one critically injured? And managed to impress the notorious Black Widow?”
“I had rope as well,” Molly said, moving to the other seat as Mycroft was standing by the fireplace. “Though I only used that to tie them up.” She set her handbag down on the floor and then sat down in the chair, looking up at Mycroft. “Why is your brother here?”
“He picked my lock and made himself comfortable when he deduced we’d be having this meeting,” Mycroft said, turning to face her. “He’s been going over your files ever since Ms. Romanov uploaded them.”
“I’m going to kill her,” Molly muttered, leaning back in the chair, tilting her head back.
“Sherry?” Mycroft asked.
“Stronger,” Molly said with a sigh.
Mycroft went to the discretely paneled liquor cabinet that he had and went to prepare Molly a drink. He brought it over to her a few moments later and she studied it, looking up at him. “Glenfiddich 1937,” he said. “If I have to have whiskey I prefer the best. I know you like Stolichnaya…Ms. Romanov’s influence, I suppose…but that is best cold and I don’t have any that is cold.”
Molly nodded and took a sip. Whiskey was just as good as vodka, she supposed, and this was excellent whiskey. She set the glass on the table next to her and then looked at Mycroft. “Did you not give me details because you don’t have them or because you’re just being an arse?” she asked.
“I did not have many details to give,” he replied. “All I know is that Nicholas Fury is dead, there was an incident at the Triskelion in Washington D.C., Alexander Pierce was deemed compromised before he was killed, Ms. Romanov leaked the files onto the internet and all hell is about to break lose in the intelligence community.”
“Well, I know a few more details than you,” Molly said. “Pierce was HYDRA, and he’d been running HYDRA from within S.H.I.E.L.D. It’s hard to weed out who’s who at the moment, but they have some information. And the ‘incident’ at the Triskelion, as you called it, involved three Helicarriers crashing into it.”
Mycroft narrowed his eyes slightly. “And just how did you come by your information?”
“There are some perks of being the granddaughter of the former director,” Molly said with a smirk. “Tomorrow I’ll try to reach out to Victoria, see if I can get more. She’s a bit higher up in the upper echelons than Maria is, and Pierce didn’t like her much. If he was HYDRA I doubt he’d try to recruit her.” She picked up her glass again. “Oh, by the way, Fury isn’t really dead.”
Mycroft’s eyes widened at that. “What?”
“I don’t know the details, but his right hand woman told me he’s not really dead,” she said before taking a sip. “And trust me, Maria would know.”
“I swear, that man,” Mycroft said, shaking his head. “And yet I’m imagining he’s going to want the world to continue to think he is?”
“I would think so, yes,” she said, nodding. “So that’s a secret that stays between the three of us.” She glanced over at Sherlock. “Are you even paying attention, Sherlock, or are you too engrossed in finding out all my secrets?”
“I’m actually quite surprised at how badly I’ve misjudged you all these years,” he said, still not looking up. “You’re quite the actress.”
“I learned from the best,” she said, small smile on her face.
“Oh yes,” Mycroft said. “Don’t bother ever trying to deduce Ms. Romanov, Sherlock. You’ll give yourself a headache.” He went to the mantle and picked up his own drink, staring at it for a moment. “The fact that your secrets are out puts a different spin on things. You don’t need to end your relationship with Tom now.”
“Well, I don’t think he’s heard about his fiancée’s secret life as a spy yet,” she said quietly, swirling her whiskey slightly. “I’ve hurt people, Mycroft.”
“But never killed,” Sherlock said quietly, looking at her for the first time since she entered the room.
She nodded. “I don’t mind dissecting dead bodies, but I don’t like making them. I’ve been very careful never to kill anyone. The guard I put in critical condition was the closest I ever came, and that was because he nearly killed me.”
“You did it for the greater good,” Mycroft said in an oddly gentle tone. “He’ll understand that.”
“But what if he doesn’t?” she asked, looking over at him.
“Then he’s an imbecile,” Sherlock said. “Things need to be done for the greater good sometimes which are violent and ugly. But they keep the masses safe. They keep people like him safe. If he can’t look past that then he’s a selfish prat who wants the pristine version of you he idolized and not the real you he’s got, the one who’s slightly damaged and a bit broken but kind hearted and caring and overall good. If he wants perfection he can go get himself…I don’t know. An anatomically correct store mannequin or something. You’re better than that and if he can’t see it than he can just sod off.”
Molly smiled at that, the first genuine smile she’d felt like wearing since she’d found out Natasha had leaked S.H.I.E.L.D.’s records to the world. “That means a lot to me, Sherlock. Thank you.”
She saw him redden just slightly at the praise, the barest bits at the cheeks and the very tips of his ears, and he slouched in his seat more. “Well, it’s the truth,” he said.
“Back to the topic at hand,” Mycroft said. “I believe it’s best if you prepare for a trip to Washington D.C., just in case. We may need a liaison we know we can trust, someone with absolutely no ties to HYDRA who is blemishless, someone that S.H.I.E.L.D. can trust without a doubt.”
“And who’s more blemishless than Director Carter’s granddaughter?” Molly asked, taking another sip of her whiskey. “Well, the one no longer with S.H.I.E.L.D., at any rate. Are you going to arrange my leave for me from Barts?”
Mycroft nodded. “I’ll take care of the arrangements.”
“I want to go as well,” Sherlock said. Mycroft and Molly both turned to look at him. “My government clearance is high enough, Mycroft, and it’s best if this is a sticky situation, that Molly doesn’t go alone. We work well enough together. She trusts me…don’t you?” he asked, a bit hesitantly, it seemed to her. She nodded. “See? So send me with her. And Mary Morstan as well, if you can pull her away from John for a bit.”
“Why Mary?” Molly asked.
“Ex-C.I.A. assassin,” Sherlock said. “Never hurts to have one of those around. Don’t know when you’ll need one.” He looked over between Mycroft and Molly. “With all your government connections you mean to tell me the two of you didn’t know that? I’m surprised. Mary’s been involved in my affairs since the pool, at the very least. Moriarty was blackmailing her when she left the C.I.A. and forced her to be there that night. She broke ties with him after what she saw at the pool, when she saw John try and save me from Moriarty. It was love at first sight as far as she was concerned. She’s studied up on John and I ever since. She knew Jim was planning something before my fall and she tried to get in on that but he suspected her and didn’t use her, so she tried to get close to John another way to keep him safe, becoming a nurse at his surgery. She just never really expected him to love her back.”
“I never knew,” Molly said.
“She must have had good teachers as well,” Mycroft said.
“Not nearly as good as the Black Widow,” Sherlock said, going back to his phone. “I knew the moment I laid eyes on her in the restaurant when John was trying to propose. But with Molly…it’s been seven years and I didn’t have a clue.”
“Don’t tell Natasha,” Molly said, shaking her head before finishing off her whiskey. “She’ll be insufferably smug.”
“I don’t plan to,” Sherlock said before stowing his mobile. “We have plans to make.”
“We do?” Molly asked, looking up.
He nodded. “Yes. And I think we should make then in the comfort of someplace other than Mycroft’s fortress. Baker Street, perhaps.” He paused. “After we find a way for Mary to break the news to John that his fiancée is an ex-assassin. I think he should know before we make plans to see if there’s anything we can do to keep this disaster from bringing down the British intelligence community, as my dear brother would like us to.”
“Just the ones that affect members of S.H.I.E.L.D. in the United Kingdom,” Mycroft said. “MI-6 should remain unaffected.”
Molly shook her head and stood up. “We’ll do the best we can, Mycroft.”
“Do more than that, Molly,” Mycroft said. “Do your best to make Peggy Carter proud.”
Molly nodded and then followed Sherlock as they left the room together. She had always done her best to make her grandmum proud when she did work for S.H.I.E.L.D.; now she just hoped she could continue to do that as she tried to help do what needed to be done for the good of her country.
---
It was surprisingly easy to convince Mary to tell John the truth. She had been looking for a reason prior to their wedding, not wanting to get married while carrying on the deception, and this was probably one of the best that she could think of. She’d asked to do so on her own and told them that she would meet them at Baker Street once she had. When she arrived a few hours later she said John had sat in his favorite chair in stunned silence for nearly an hour, every once in a while opening his mouth and attempting to speak but remaining quiet. And then eventually he’d tilted his head back, shut his eyes, and just said “Of course. I just seem to attract psychopaths.” She wasn’t sure how to take that, but then he lifted his head back up and asked her to please make sure she was back in time to start finalizing plans for the wedding.
Molly was glad things had gone well for her, but she’d had the feelings things were not going to go quite as well for her and Tom. And she was right; when she and the others were done making their plans at Baker Street she had gone to her flat to find tom there, sitting on her sofa, hands clasped in his lap. She knew he had seen the records from S.H.I.E.L.D. then and with a sigh she’d waited for him to speak. He said he wasn’t sure how he felt about things, about how he felt about her keeping so much of her past secret. He said he still cared, but he needed to think about things. That maybe they should wait about getting married. She’d nodded, not having said a word. And then he got up and left. She’d gone to her refrigerator and pulled out the bottle of Stoli she had in the freezer. Wine was not going to cut it tonight.
She was paying for it now as she was sitting on the private plane that Mycroft had arranged for them, nursing a rather irritating headache. She hadn’t drunk nearly enough for a hangover; she had a remarkably high tolerance for alcohol. Her friendship with Natasha had ensured that. But she had drunk enough that she was still feeling some ill effects. She’d made sure to bring a bottle of paracetamol with her as well as a bottle of water to sip. The plane had nice comfortable seats with plenty of room to stretch out, as well as tables for them to sit together if they chose, and there were snacks for them to eat. Mary was eating some dark chocolate digestive biscuits at the table and patted the seat next to her. Molly sat down with her water bottle and took a sip as Mary studied her. “You look dreadful.”
“Bit too much Stoli last night,” she said.
“Tom found out?” Mary asked sympathetically. Molly nodded. “I see.”
Molly slouched in the seat. “He wants time, to see how he feels about things. So we’re…on break, I suppose. Still engaged, but not making plans.”
“Bit of a shite position to be in,” she said.
“Yes,” Molly said. She had some more of her water. “I’m just glad things worked out with you and John. You two are so good for each other.”
“He certainly took it better than I would have expected, after the shock,” Mary said with a small smile before taking a bite of the biscuit in her hand. “I expect I’ll have questions from him for a while, but I’ll answer them as he asks them and be honest. I should have been honest from the start, and the fact he’s accepting it now…I’m grateful.”
Molly nodded, having some more of her water. “John is a good man. He’s one of the best I’ve ever known.” She glanced over at Sherlock. “And I’m glad he’s rubbed off on Sherlock.”
“Oh yes,” Mary said, her grin growing wider. “I heard he was an absolute beast before.”
“That’s an understatement,” Molly said. “But I’ve honestly dealt with worse, when I was in S.H.I.E.L.D. That made it easy to handle him.”
“There was worse than Sherlock?” Mary asked.
Molly nodded. “As surprising as it is, yes,” she said. “In terms of both ego and manners.”
“I can hear you talking about me,” Sherlock said from where it appeared he was trying to sleep, stretched out on one of the sleeping areas.
“But of course we are,” Mary said with a laugh. “But it’s only in a good way.”
“I heard that as well,” he said, sitting up. He came over to their table and then sat across from them. He studied Molly slightly. “Your personality seems quite different. It has since yesterday. I take it the meekness and quietness was all a mask?”
She tilted her head back and forth slightly. “It was a reaction, more than a mask,” she said after a moment. “I used to be much more…brash and vivacious, prior to my leaving S.H.I.E.L.D. But something happened and I rather turned in on myself.”
“Is the kindness and cheerfulness going to disappear?” Sherlock asked curiously.
Molly shook her head. “No, that’s always been at the core of my personality. That’s a very basic part of who I am. But I doubt I will go back to letting people walk all over me, or bending over backwards to make people happy.”
“It will be interesting getting to know this new you,” Mary said. “But so far, I like her. I mean, I liked the old Molly, but this new Molly is definitely someone I’d like to spend time with.”
“Thank you,” Molly said. Then she turned to Sherlock. “What about you?”
“As long as you don’t turn into someone who loses their kindness I don’t think I could ever find a reason not to want to count you among my friends,” Sherlock said with a shrug. “Just don’t become like how I used to be.”
“I’ll make sure of it,” she said, giving him a smile.
“So what is the plan upon landing in Washington?” Mary asked, finishing off her biscuit and then offering Molly and Sherlock one from the package. Both of them shook their heads and so she pulled another one out.
“Supposedly we’ll be met by someone who will escort us to S.H.I.E.L.D. headquarters,” Molly said. “My old clearance level of Level 6 has been reinstated and I believe you two have been given similar levels. We’ll be taken to see Agent Hill and then we’ll settle down and get to business to see what agents are going to be affected, who wants to be shuffled where and what arrangements we can make for them.”
“Mycroft also needs us to make sure that any other interests not already compromised remain uncompromised,” Sherlock said.
“Then we’ll make sure of that,” Molly said with a nod. She shut her eyes as her head began to throb.
“Lie down,” Mary said. “It will be a few hours until we get to Washington. It probably wouldn’t be a good idea to show up with a headache because you’ll be growling at everyone.”
“Are you sure?” Molly asked.
Both Mary and Sherlock nodded. “We’ll amuse ourselves,” Sherlock said.
“All right,” Molly said, moving over to where Sherlock had been lying. She set her head on the pillow and then pulled the blanket over her and shut her eyes again. Hopefully the headache would be gone by the time they landed; otherwise this would be a very interesting start to this mission.