The Flu

As he headed upstairs to talk to Skye and Jemma, Phil pulled out his phone and dialed.

"Phil, please tell me you are calling to say Captain Rogers or Stark figured out exactly where Peggy's hiding." Maria moaned as she answered the phone. "Because we did a little checking at the British embassy and it turns out that Pete Wisdom and our visiting royals are out and about playing tourist. And I can only pray that they aren't meeting up with Peggy and her merry band, but I'm very afraid that prayer isn't going to be answered."

"They're still thinking of possible places." Phil told her. "You have no clue where Wisdom and those girls are?"

"If it was just Wisdom, I would have people checking all the pubs, but one of the girls is a teen, or maybe a tween."

"It's Wisdom. I wouldn't let that rule the pubs out." Phil said. "Captain Rogers did have a suggestion on the Peggy front, though. Is there a chance that she could have managed to get into the Triskellion and might be trying to hide in plain sight? He says she's done something like that before."

"In plain sight. I'm not sure if I should be hoping she's doing that or not. Agent Rumlow might quit if he ended up trapped in the same building as her. He gets nervous enough thinking about being in the same city as her." Hiding in plain sight. That did sound like something that Peggy would pull though. And if Peggy was in the building some place, at least that would mean she wasn't on the loose and in danger of reenacting the War of 1812. "I'll get Nat on discreetly searching the building. If they're in here, I'm sure she can find them."

"That would work. You might want to make sure she knows she's supposed to apprehend Peggy, not aide her, though."

"Don't even mention the possibility of something like that. I'm just glad that if Peggy had to pull something like this, at least Melinda's mother was her accomplice, and not her little associate Dottie. And if you ever tell Melinda I said that, I will deny it." Maria told him. "Is Victoria still okay?"

"As far as I know. I'm going to check right now. And warn Agent Simmons that she might need to let her parents know about the danger on the British roadways. Don't worry about Victoria. We'll handle that. And we'll keep working on figuring out where Peggy could have got off to with Nick."

"That's what we're doing here too, without luck. Keep working on Rogers. He either dated her or wanted to. Surely he has some clue." Maria called as she spotted Jasper passing by and waved for him before hanging up the phone. "Jasper, find Romanov and get her in here. Rogers suggested that Peggy might be trying to hide in plain sight and I need a discreet search of the building."

Jasper paled slightly and shot a nervous look down the hallway as if expecting Peggy to appear from nowhere. "You think she could be in here? I hope Agent Rumlow doesn't hear that's a possibility. It took two weeks after the last incident for me to convince him that he really didn't want to flee to Antarctica."

"That's why we need a discreet search. I'm not sure how they could have managed to sneak in here, at least without Sharon trying to somehow signal us but if there's any chance…."

"I'll get Romanov. And maybe I'll set up some training exercises in the gym for some of the STRIKE teams. That might keep them occupied. And hopefully not fleeing from Peggy being on the loose."

"I wish that I could flee." Maria muttered as Jasper hurried off. Where in the world could Peggy have gotten off to and how big a disaster was it going to be when she finally turned up? "Please just let in be Rumlow actually fleeing to Antarctica this time, and not a War of 1812 reenactment."

"Aunt Peggy, where are we?" Sharon demanded as they entered the small building. Some sort of cabin, although from the outside, it had been blended so well into the hillside it was almost impossible to tell that it was there. And as for where they were location wise, she had pretty much given up any attempt to work that out, after over an hour of her aunt's driving, up hills and through dales, and through something that she was almost sure was someone's cow pasture instead of a road and that was probably going to result in Maria Hill getting a visit from an irate farmer or two at some point.

"Safe house." Peggy called over her shoulder as she checked the cabin's second room to make sure that it would be secure for her purposes before waving to Nick. "You can put Ms. Price in there for the moment. Sharon, be a dear and she about patching her up."

"Safe house. Whose safe house?" Sharon demanded. Please, please, let it be one of Melinda's mother's, she prayed. At least there might be some vague chance they would be found then.

"My friend Dottie's." Peggy told her. "You know, we should have stopped and picked Dottie up on the way here. She would have been a big help." And probably wouldn't have complained nearly as much as her niece. Honestly, what in the world was Shield teaching agents these days?

"No. No, absolutely not! You are not letting the first Black Widow loose! Shield is not insured for two Black Widows! We're lucky that insurance covers the one that we already have!" Sharon cried. What in the world was her aunt thinking? Even if some of the stuff she had heard about Dottie Underwood had been exaggerated, and okay, the trying to kill Howard Stark thing, it seemed like everyone in the forties had wanted to do that, she still knew that letting Dottie loose was a disaster waiting to happen. "Aunt Peggy, you've kidnapped Director Fury, you've kidnapped Rosalind Price and I'm just hoping haven't given her a major head injury. You can't unleash the first Black Widow on top of that! We need to contact Agent Hill and get back to Shield, not do anything to make this situation worse!"

"Don't be silly, Sharon. I'm sure that Ms. Price doesn't have a major head injury. People took knocks much worse than that in the War all the time and it was fine. The rest will probably do her good." Peggy told her as she approached her niece, and somehow before she knew what was happening, Sharon had been herded into the room Fury had carried Rosalind Price into and the door was slammed behead her.

"Aunt Peggy!" Sharon shouted as she heard the sound of a lock clicking into place. "Aunt Peggy, open this door!"

"Just tend Ms. Price, Sharon. Let us worry about everything else." Peggy called to her before going to join Lian, shaking her head as she went. "So nervous. Honestly, what is Shield teaching them these days?"

"If I wanted to check my phone, Melinda's probably acting the same way." Lian said. "I imagine there are enough supplies here to last for awhile?"

"Supplies and burner phones." Peggy said with a smile. "And I can arrange for a few more things after I call my friend Valerie's granddaughter. I'm sure she'll be more than happy to help pass a few messages along." She looked back towards the locked door and shook her head again at Sharon's shouts. Really, what was Shield teaching their people now?

"I can't believe this." Sharon muttered, glaring that the door. Dottie Underwood's safe house, she was almost sure that it wouldn't be possible or probably safe to try to get through the door and with her Aunt Peggy going into the room first, she was sure that she wouldn't have left anything in there that she could use for a possible escape. She looked around the room with a groan. No window and thinking on what she had seen as she entered, she thought this part of the cabin might actually be at least partially built into the hill.

"Director. I hope whatever they gave you wears off soon." Sharon said with a shake of her head as she looked at the bed that Rosalind had been deposited on, some sort of solid wood slab with a thick piece of foam for a mattress. Fury had deposited her so she was curled on her side before either falling asleep or passing out himself. She looked around and spotted what seemed to be medical supplies in a niche in the wall. "I just hope that she is resting and isn't in a coma." She muttered as she gathered them up. Until her aunt actually decided to let them out, she didn't see what else she could do besides attempting to patch up Rosalind's poor, damaged head. Well, that and worry that her aunt was happily planning to loose a second Black Widow upon the world.