Chapter Text
The mission had been so normal so far. Of course the SSR was on Dottie's tail. Not that she minds, none of them were good enough to come anywhere close to her. No-one, that is, except Peggy. Peggy, who was not on this mission for whatever screwed up reason. Dottie's missions felt useless without Peggy. They made her utterly bored. After successfully completing the task at hand, Dottie slips into the hall where a small vent is that she can just barely slip into. She manages to hoist herself into it without much issue. She slowly crawls through the vent as to not make too much noise. After a few minutes of navigation, Dottie spots the exit of the vent. She pushes the door open and slips out onto a stair landing. She checks her surroundings before rushing down the stairs. Every clank of metal that her shoes make are loud but necessary to her escape. Finally at the bottom, Dottie turns to make her escape when she spots someone lying on the ground. Someone she immediately clocks as Peggy Carter. She seems to be unconscious but possibly not. She's lying on her side with her left arm beneath her. She's bruised and bleeding in multiple places. One of those places being her head. She has a knife lodged in her abdomen. Her clothes are miniscule, she likely didn't expect to stay outside for very long.
Dottie immediately holsters her gun and runs over to Peggy, checking for a pulse. Peggy gasps at the contact, her eyes darting to Dottie's face. "I'm not going to hurt you," Dottie states, ripping a piece of fabric from her shirt and pressing it to Peggy's head. "What happened?" "A-ambus-shed," Peggy stutters, shaking from the cold. "What did they do?" Dottie asks, cupping Peggy's cheek with her hand. "S-stab," Peggy manages, groaning in intense pain. "P-pushed off t-the st-stairs." "Okay Peg, I'm taking you to the place I've been hiding recently," Dottie explains, noting the blue that Peggy's lips are turning. "You probably have a few things broken, a concussion, the whole sort, plus the stab wound and possible hypothermia." Peggy can only bring herself to nod weakly. Dottie hoists Peggy up into her arms where she feels Peggy immediately cuddle closer to her, desperate for warmth. This worries Dottie as the warm blood is still pooling out of her wounds, despite the cold. Dottie quickly rushes to her getaway car, laying Peggy in the passenger seat and immediately turning on the heat. Rushing to her side and peeling away from the building, she hears Peggy groan more as presumably the heat makes her wounds feel much worse. "How long were you out there Peg?" Dottie asks. "S-since s-sev-ven th-thirt-ty," Peggy stutters, still shivering. "Peg, it's almost eight-forty-five, you were out there over an hour?" Dottie asks in disbelief. She figured she'd been out for a while, thankfully the cold had slowed her blood loss. Peggy just hums a weak 'mhm' before sputtering, a bit of blood now dripping from her mouth, likely from her hypothermic body warming up. "Oh Peg, shit," Dottie curses, quickly pulling into her thankfully close-ish hideout.
After her previous run-ins, Leviathan had gotten her a safe place to herself. Hoisting Peggy into her arms once more, Dottie practically runs inside, quick to set Peggy on the couch and dial up the heat. Grabbing her emergency first aid kit, Dottie runs back over to Peggy who is still coughing. "Peg, be warned, I'm going to pull out this knife, it's going to hurt," Dottie explains. Peggy nods and Dottie quickly, in one swift movement, pulls the knife from Peggy's abdomen. Peggy yelps in pain, to which Dottie immediately grabs her hand, allowing Peggy to squeeze the ever loving daylight out of it. "It's okay Peg, I've got you," Dottie assures, slipping her hand out of Peggy's and grabbing the disinfectant. Screwing off the top, Dottie placing her hand back in Peggy's before carefully pouring some of the disinfectant on Peggy's stab wound. Peggy screams and squeezes Dottie's hand but Dottie doesn't mind at all. After properly assessing and dressing the wound, Dottie moves to her next highest place of concern. Peggy's head. Checking for any skull fractures, not finding any, and disinfecting the wound was the easy part. Stopping the bleeding and bandaging would be the hard part. Pressing the fabric back to Peggy's head, Dottie finally manages to get the bleeding under control. She quickly sterilizes a needle before stitching the wound closed. Dottie quickly tends to the smaller wounds. At this point Peggy's lost more blood than Dottie likes. "Peg?" Dottie asks, holding Peggy's head up. "Can you hear me Peg?" "Mhm," Peggy hums weakly. "Stay with me please," Dottie pleads. Peggy nods as Dottie lays her back down. Testing Peggy's left arm, Dottie can tell it's broken. She quickly bandages it straight so that it can heal before picking Peggy back up and moving her to the bed. Setting her under the covers, Dottie makes sure Peggy is warm and comfortable. She's still shivering excessively so Dottie quickly climbs into bed with her and wraps her arms around Peggy who immediately responds by cuddling in closer. "W-why d-did you s-save me?" Peggy stutters, intertwining her fingers with Dottie's. "Cause who's going to try and capture me if you're dead?" Dottie scoffs. Peggy manages a weak laugh before falling asleep, clearly exhausted. Dottie, against her better judgement and everything the Red Room and Leviathan have taught her, places a gentle kiss on the stitches on Peggy's head. She smiles to herself as she rests her head on the back of Peggy's neck, slowly but easily drifting off.