Agent Jones- Book One

| Chapter Eighteen |

Peggy leaned up against the table, Mr. Jarvis stood next to her, and I stood in front of them both. She had a stupid smile on her face and Mr. Jarvis looked to be heading in the same direction.

"Oh would you two stop looking at me like that," I said, lightly smacking Peggy's arm and walking over to my unfinished files. "I don't even know why you would be giving me such looks."

"'Be careful'? Is that really all you could say?" Mr. Jarvis asked, and my jaw dropped at the words coming from his mouth. Peggy snorted and moved a hand to cover her growing smile and stifle a laugh. "Honestly, it was less of a romance we were watching and more of a comedy."

I scoffed and said, "I have no idea what you are talking about." My face heated up and I had to look away to retain some dignity.

Peggy laughed openly now. "Oh, Tiffany darling, you really aren't very good at this whole 'feelings' thing, are you?" she asked. Rather than retorting, I shook my head. "Lucky for you he already likes you so there's not much to do there. However, if you ever want any sort of chance with him, you need to do better than that."

She was very right. We all knew that. Rather than denying at this point, I just sighed and put my head in my hands. "What am I supposed to do then?" I asked, the question coming out slightly muffled. Moving my head from my hands, I looked at the other two. "My history with relationships doesn't exactly look the best."

Mr. Jarvis tilted his head to the side. "What do you mean?" he asked. Both him and Peggy were now looking at me in confusion. I realize I screwed up.

Hesitantly, I started to talk. "I was seeing someone back in Miami. He was sent home early from the war after getting seriously injured. Luckily he recovered and we started dating when I quite literally ran into him on the street."

Landing on the sidewalk, I let out a huff. Of course on my way to an important SSR meeting I ran into someone. Hopefully my outfit didn't get too dirty or ripped in any way. I finally looked up to apologize to who I ran into and found myself stuck in my words.

I ran into a man who didn't look half bad if I was being honest. His brown hair was now disheveled, falling in front of his eyes a bit. His beautiful hazel eyes looked up to me and he also had to take a pause. Pushing a piece of my own hair out of my face, I cleared my throat and started to stand up.

The man, who was still standing, held out his hand. "Here, let me help." I gladly took his hand and he helped to pull me up off the ground. When I was completely up, I saw that his left arm was in a sling. He saw me glance at it and shrugged. "War wound. They sent me home to get it checked out and make sure I didn't lose the damn thing."

I laughed and smoothed out my skirt. "Well looks like they made the right decision. Now you still have two arms and I got to meet you," I said. This bolder side of me was new, gained from working in the SSR and getting confidence in my position.

The man smiled and held out his right hand. "George Cook," he introduced. I shook his hand and gave him my name. "Well Tiffany, you seemed to be in a hurry before we ran into each other, so I'll let you go. As long as you promise that I'll see you again."

I smiled at George, and nodded. "I can promise you that." He waved goodbye at me as I hurried away, and I waved back. How we were going to see each other again, I don't know. But there was some part of me that knew he would find a way.

Peggy was smiling. "We started dating and got serious enough that I told him about my job at the SSR. At first he was concerned, but then we talked it out and he was okay. Field mission after field mission, we stuck through it."

Mr. Jarvis leaned forward slightly. "But..?" he asked. His voice was soft, like he was worried about what was happening next.

"When I told him about my opportunity to move up here to New York, he gave me an ultimatum: marry him and stay in Miami or leave him for good to go to New York." I sighed and started to pick at something stuck on a file. "I think you can guess what happened."

Peggy walked over to me and sat down next to me, placing an arm around my shoulders to bring me in for a side hug. "Tiffany, I'm so sorry. Can I give you some words? They may be a bit harsh..."

I simply nodded. "He's an arsehole plain and simple. If he truly loved you and if he really wanted to spend the rest of his life with you, he would've been on that plane with you to New York," she said. "I think it's good that he's out of the picture. Now you can find someone who will want to be with you always- no matter what life throws your way."

Peggy's words really rang around in my head, and I smiled. "Thank you," I whispered. Mr. Jarvis came over and leaned against the table in front of us.

"You seem like a brilliant young woman, and I just know that there is someone out there who will be with you just like you are," Mr. Jarvis said. I smiled at him.

Taking in a deep breath, I wiped away the tears from my eyes and cleared my throat. "Well, that was a beautiful heart-to-heart there, but I think it'd be best if we could find a way to save the last bit of my dignity," I said. The other two laughed and we sat and talked for a bit.

Our topics of conversation ranged from what Miami was like, to Mr. Jarvis and the fact that he worked as Howard Stark's butler, to Peggy and her little thing for Daniel (yes, I somehow managed to get that out of her). We stayed away from the topic of my little crush since that had basically opened up these conversations.

We were having a good talk when Chief Dooley suddenly burst through the doors. His interruption caused us to shut down the talking and stand up quickly.

"You three, with me, now," he said in a quieter voice.

Peggy walked over to him first, Mr. Jarvis and I right behind. "What's happened?" she asked in the same volume. My thoughts went to the doctor and how he might be up to something, and we need to act on it pretty quickly but inconspicuously.

He shook his head, and I felt like my thoughts were confirmed. "We can't talk here. There's ears everywhere," he said. I nodded my head and we followed him out of the room and past all the desks. As we walked, I snuck a glance into the Chief's office and saw Ivchenko rubbing his ring while looking around. It was like he was trying to watch us but not make it too obvious. Something is off here.

Chief Dooley led us into the interrogation room, and we walked in as he closed the door and shut the blinds. Peggy and I shared a look, and we looked back at the Chief.

"Have we been compromised? Did they find something across the street?" she asked.

I stepped forward. "Ivchenko was doing something weird in your office- rubbing his ring while not-so-discretely watching us walk away. There's something going on. Is that was this is about?" I added on.

The Chief didn't say anything, and turned around to face us with his gun out. I sucked in a breath and hesitantly put my hands up. The other two behind me probably did the same thing, I was just too worried to look; if I moved, there was a possibility I would get shot.

He put the gun right up to my chest. "Stop talking." He moved the gun to point at the other two, probably making sure they kept their hands up. When he was moving it back to me, I took a chance and tried to disarm him.

It didn't go very well, and instead he managed to hit me in the side of the head with the gun. The blow was hard and took me down. I fell to the ground in pain, holding my head while trying to remain conscious. Chief Dooley kept talking to the other two, and I heard some shuffling around.

The door closing was the last thing I heard before I blacked out totally.

A/n: so not only did we get more of a glimpse into Tiffany's love life and the possibility she has with Jack, but we've got another cliffhanger! My favorite >:)

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