just because she's on a mission...

Chapter 13

A/N: This is the chapter I've rewritten, so if the writing style feels different you know why. I'm not saying the original ending was awful, it was actually well structured and thought out, I just REALLY don't like books that don't end with the main couple together :)

When Dottie awoke in a general hospital, meant for the public, and not for military-grade assassins, she knew she'd fucked up.

As expected, when she tried to pull her hands away from the scratchy bedsheets, she was met with the familiar feeling of cool metal clamping her down.

She surveyed the room and found a measly guard, dozed off in the only armchair in the room. Dottie rolled her eyes; 'were the SSR really that foolish?'

Dottie used the skills the Red Room had taught her many years ago, one of the first they showed the girls, to manoeuvre her hands from the shackles. She shook them loose of their numbness and slid off the bed, cracking her neck.

Apparently the fall from Stark's building hadn't affected her that much.

Because she was better than the rest.

The assassin placed her hands on the guards temples and twisted his neck around in one short move, killing him instantly. He slumped off the armchair and landed on the linoleum with a clinking thud. A set of keys and a handgun conveniently fell from his pockets, and Dottie couldn't help the smile that grew on her face.

As she grabbed the possessions, Dottie thought about Peggy once again. The look on her face as Dottie threw herself out of the window and into the ground (well, she landed on a plane wing, actually).

She didn't want to hurt Peggy. Not anymore.

Dottie was compromised; to Leviathan and to Peggy. She'd gone and done the worst thing an emotionless, killing-machine is NOT supposed to do.

She'd fallen in love.

Dottie shook the thought out of her head; she could think (obsess) about that later, when she'd escaped this harrowing hospital.

The assassin walked out of her room and down the hallway, putting a bullet in the knee of another guard waiting for her outside the door. She found an exit and pushed through it, to find an abandoned parking lot, save for a couple of cars littered here and there.

As Dottie contemplated her best escape route, she registered the sound of a gun cocking behind her.

"Not so fast." Came the familiar, raspy voice.

She turned on her heels, gun resting at her side, and faced the woman she'd fallen in love (stop it) with.

Peggy stood, a rifle in hand, with a look of absolute despair on her face. She stared hard at Dottie, as if she was pleading with her to stop.

"Drop it, Dottie."

"You know I can't do that."

"Please... don't make me do this."

Dottie calmly approached the agent, pushing away the barrel of the gun with two fingers and she looked down at Peggy with a sense of familiarity. This wasn't going to end in the way either of them wanted.

"I can sort out a deal of some kind with the SSR... if you come with me now... please. Dottie, they'll listen to me."

"You and I both know they wouldn't. The minute I step into that building they'll have me sentenced and hanged the next day. The SSR doesn't take kindly to Russians, murderers, and people who identify with both."

"I can't lose you. I can't lose this, Dottie." Peggy could feel herself welling up with tears, but she didn't bother trying to stop them. "There will be another way around this, I'm sure of it."

A look of longing spread across Dottie's face as she lifted a hand up to her cheek and she held it, the pad of her thumb brushing her skin gently.

"This is the only way. I can't just sit and let them order me around anymore, I have to put an end to it. You have no idea what they do to us, to the little girls in there."

"I know but surely someone can-"

"There is no other someone, Peg." Dottie sighed, bringing her other hand up. She framed Peggy's face in her palms, as if taking a mental picture to store in her mind. "It has to be me."

She knew it was right. Dottie had suffered all those years, under the mind control, the torture, the submission to those filthy people. It's her right and her conquest to take them down, once and for all.

"Take me with you."

"What?!"

"Take me with you. I want to come with you and help in any way I can."

"Peggy, I'm not going to intentionally put you in harms way. You have a job here, a life at the SSR. I shouldn't be the one to-"

"The SSR has never needed me, they treat me like I'm a secretary and nothing more. When we stopped Howard from flying that plane and saved the city, Jack Thompson was given all the credit. He's been appointed Chief, effective immediately."

"What? They can't do that, it was you-"

"Oh, but they can. And I shouldn't have to stick around and serve a man who's never done anything for anyone but himself."

Dottie looked like she was about to say something, but they were rudely interrupted by another voice.

"Get her!" The voice was lined with a thick, Russian accent, and followed by heavy footsteps.

They saw a group of men brandishing guns and other weaponry storm out of the building. Dottie was quick to grab ahold of Peggy's waist and roll them behind a car, just as they began firing. Bullets sprayed across the lot and bounced off the car's metal, shaking it. Dottie looked over to Peggy with a heavy breath.

"They've come for you, haven't they?"

Dottie didn't need to verbally confirm; the look in her eye said it all. She turned over her shoulder and blindly fired the gun. Her aim was apparently stunning, as there was a loud thud of a body falling to the ground. Peggy watched in awe as she tactically found blind spots and succeeded in shooting all the gunmen. They fell to the ground in similar fashion, and Dottie leaned back against the car door with a heavy intake of breath.

"Did you bring me to the hospital?" She panted after a short passing silence.

"I did."

"And did you do it without the SSR's knowledge?"

With no verbal confirmation, Dottie sighed and chuckled at the mess she'd found herself in. When this started, she'd only felt the need to serve and obey Leviathan and it's orders. But now... now, she wanted to make her own choices and decisions. And she knew she would never be free to do that if they were still alive.

So Dottie was going to put an end to this insanity, once and for all.

But the question was... was she going to let Peggy help her?

"They won't stop coming for me until I've put a bullet through their skulls." Dottie sighed, rubbing the sweat from the back of her neck.

She turned her head up to the car and pulled open the door, kneeling down to the underside of the steering wheel. After a few moments of Dottie hot-wiring the engine, it roared to life and rumbled in waiting. She slid into the seat and turned back to Peggy, gesturing to the passenger seat.

"Well, aren't you coming?"

The brunette could only smile as she took the seat, slamming the door shut. She pulled Dottie into a slow, hot kiss, pouring her emotion into every slide of her lips and caresses. They had completely forgotten about the dead thugs on the floor as it laid out. Eventually, Peggy moved back and slipped a hand into Dottie's, lacing their fingers together.

With that, the two lovers drove away from the hospital akin to a prison, hand in hand, never looking back.

Nothing and nobody was going to stop them.

The Red Room would pay for all they'd done.