Work Text:
“Dottie Underwood, you are finally under arrest!” Peggy grins, ear to ear, having caught Dottie again. It’s 1950 and they’ve been playing this cat and mouse game for forever. Until now.
“Aww Peg! Long time no see!” Dottie grins, twirling her long blond hair.
“Come with me Dottie,” Peggy sighs, before putting Dottie’s hands in handcuffs and pushing her in the back of the police car, watching her. Daniel gets in and starts driving them back, and takes her hand, having her wedding ring flicker in the car.
“Aww Peggy! You should have told me! I would have loved to come to the Carter-Sousa wedding!”
“Absolutely not,” Peggy and Daniel say together.
Dottie pouts, as they stop at what would seem as the SSR building, hidden by a theatrical agency?
“Auerbach Theatrical…”
“Just come on Dottie,” Peggy says and gets her up to the interrogation room.
They get her up to an interrogation room and lock her up before going into the other room. Dottie grins before tapping her nails. She starts to think about how chipped they are when a red-headed woman walks in. Dottie perks up and looks at her.
“Are you my interrogator?” she grins.
“Only if prompted…” She shrugs. “Can I sit?”
Dottie nods and the woman sits down, before bringing out nail polish remover and some cotton balls and some nail polish.
“May I?” she says.
“Sure,” Dottie shrugs, and the redhead grins and starts removing the nail polish. Dottie sighs as she finishes and takes the nail polish remover out. She then comes back in and starts painting her nails.
“So, I’m guessing you know my name, but I don’t know yours….” Dottie pouts and the girl chuckles and grins.
“No, Peg told me not to tell you mine, in case you came after me.”
“But you're nice!” Dottie pouts and tries to cross her arms.
“And?”
“I wouldn’t come after you…”
“Still… I don’t want to risk it,” she smiles, as there was a knock at the door.
She looks up and Dottie sees Chief Sousa, she assumes.
“Mr Carter!” she smiles.
He sighs, before nodding and the girl giggles.
“Agent… we need you in the briefing room,” he nods and the girl sighs.
“Of course,” she smiles. “It was nice to meet you.”
“Nice to meet you too!” Dottie grins as Peggy comes in.
Peg interrogates her for a while, but Dottie didn’t give up anything. When would Peggy learn she didn’t respond well to her interrogation techniques. Dottie also didn’t see the woman who painted her nails for a while, but she heard voices telling her to go in again.
Dottie grins as the redhead comes in, and smiles at her.
“Hello Agent!” She grins.
“Hello Dottie. I brought you a snack, figured you were getting hungry,” she shrugs.
Dottie takes it, and smiles. “Are these varenyky?”
“Figured you’d want something from Russia…” she shrugs, before sitting down.
Dottie smiles and starts eating it before sighing. “How did you find something like this?!”
“I have my secrets,” she winks.
Dottie nods. “You know, you still haven’t told me your name.”
“I know,” she grins. “But I think you can figure it out, the chiefs said it was okay.”
Dottie studies her carefully and goes through all the files in her head.
“Well, you’re not Peggy, and you’re not Whitney…”
“Correct,” she grins.
“I don’t think you’re Violet, or the Violet he was talking about…”
“No, and before you ask, Violet’s fine, she works here now.”
Dottie nods before thinking. “It’s a flower name though, I do know that.”
“Mhm,” she grins.
“Rose?”
That’s right, My name's Rose,” she smiles.
“I didn’t get your file, that’s why, I had to go by who Peg and Mr Carter were talking about,” Dottie grins.
“I get it, Rose shrugs.
“I would like to know more about you though,” Dottie smiles.
“Oh?” Rose looks up before she nods.
“Yeah, Peggy doesn’t talk about you much,” she shrugs.
Rose shrugs. “I’m not really one to talk about,” she dismisses.
Dottie nods, before smiling. “Know any languages besides English?”
“I know Dutch…” Rose shrugs, sitting with her.
“How do you know Dutch?”
“Mijn moeder heette Catharina Van Laren,” Rose looks at her and Dottie grins.
“So your mom was Dutch…”
She nods and smiles.
“Interesting, what about what you did before the war?”
“Well, before the war I played on the softball team at work for the telephone company, and then got recruited to play for the All American Girls Professional Baseball League…”
“Did you get in?” Dottie grins.
“Yeah, played outfield for the Kenosha Comets for a season, didn’t win against Racine in the championships, but by then, I wanted to do more than just play baseball for the war effort, so I signed up as a WAC.”
“Then got transferred to the SSR?”
“Bingo,” she smiles. “Been the cover agent for them ever since.”
“And do you really see yourself just being a cover agent for the rest of your life?”
“Well, yeah,” she shrugs. “I’ve been vying for a better position, but you know… it’s a man world.”
“And you’ve haven’t gotten promoted?” Dottie grumbles and pushes away her empty plate. “I’m serious, how long have you been working as an agent at the SSR?”
“Almost 6 years? I like it,” she shrugs.
“And you’ve never gotten a raise or anything? You should come work for Leviathan, they’ll help you out. We don’t have this problem of men getting raises over women.”
“I’m the best cover agent they have, it’s not like they’ll promote me, besides I get to go on missions, sometimes.”
“Sometimes?”
“I did apply for another position in the company, if that makes you feel better, but I don’t think I’ll get it,” Rose says.
“What position?”
“Can’t tell you, classified,” she shrugs.
“What about you?”
“What about me?” Dottie says, raising her eyebrows. No one ever really tried to bond with her like Rose had, and well… It was nice.
“Where are you from, Russia?”
“Yeah, of course,” she nods.
“Where in Russia?”
“Small village, barely visible on a map,” she shrugs.
She nods. “So you won’t tell me?”
“If I said it, you guys wouldn’t know where it is... “
“We have maps, we can figure it out…”
“Vyshny Volochyok,” she says, shrugging, “Outside Moscow.”
“Mos-co, or Mos-cow?” Rose grins and Dottie rolls her eyes.
“Technically, in Russia, we pronounce it Mosk-va, so Mos-co would be more correct”
She nods “Any family there?”
“They died in a fire when I was 8…”
“I’m sorry to hear that. Then Leviathan soon after if I guess correctly?”
“Mhm. Lived there until I was 25, then well, met Peggy in New York, and you know the story from there.”
She nods, “Have you ever thought about turning yourself in?”
“Have I? No, why?”
“It’s helpful to have someone from the other team, and besides, I’ve read your record Miss Underwood, to have you on our side? Would be a game changer.”
“I can’t, they’d find me.”
“Dottie, we know Dottie’s not your real name, we’ll get you set up with a fake cover story, fake papers, everything you would need. Besides, a couple of other interrogators said that you checked in on and off for at least 3 years, which is when the Isodyne case happened. So what’s keeping you from turning yourself in?”
“I don’t like capitalists…” she shrugs.
“Well, just think about it,” she nods, before Chief Sousa comes in.
“Rose, briefing room please? There’s something I want to talk to you about.”
“Of course Chief,” she smiles, before going with him.
“Bye Rose,” Dottie smiles.
“Bye Dottie,” Rose smiles and leaves.
Dottie does have a lot to think about. Turning herself in wasn’t really a possibility until now, but Rose was right. She hadn’t really checked in to her handlers for three years, just living life on the run. She’s been through a lot, and well, she didn’t like where Leviathan was heading, maybe the SSR would be a good place to end up at.
She is given a cell, and regular visits by Peggy and Daniel, but a few days passed until she sees Rose again.
“Rose!” She grins, and Rose chuckles.
“Hello Dottie, have you had time to think about things?”
“I have, and well.. I thought about it, and you’re right, I haven’t really been checking in on everyone, so…”
“Well, I have a proposition for you Dottie.” She hands her a file folder. Dottie reads it over, before setting it down.
“What’s in it for me?”
“Whole new identity, not Dottie, not your Russian name, secured and strengthened by the SSR, New job, whole new life. In return, you work for us in the new Chicago branch.”
“Why Chicago?”
“There’s no Russian associates there, as we know of, and Peggy and Daniel think you’ll like the new chief there.”
“Who’s the Chief?”
Rose grins, “Why Dottie, you’re looking right at her.”
Dottie smiles and nods,“I’m in.”