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Language:
English
Series:
Part 11 of The Invaders
Stats:
Published:
2025-05-18
Updated:
2025-10-02
Words:
13,663
Chapters:
4/?
Kudos:
1
Hits:
51

Small, Sharp Grace

Summary:

“We have to live without sympathy, don't we? That's impossible of course. We act it to one another, all this hardness; but we aren't like that really, I mean...one can't be out in the cold all the time; one has to come in from the cold...d'you see what I mean?”, John le Carré, The Spy Who Came In from the Cold

Emily Gower hasn't adjusted well to the burgeoning Cold War. Lost, uncertain, and reeling from personal failure, she has retreated into a comfortable isolation, even among friends. It's become hard to connect with those she holds dear. Until she runs into the Soviet spy, Ivan Petrovich. Left adrift by his own loses, he soon finds a kindred spirit. Yet the rules of their world are cold and harsh. Friend and foe can swiftly change. Loyalties are tested. Roaring passions fracture old relationships. And from the shadows, an ancient force pulls the strings for her own purposes.

Notes:

Hi again! As promised, Agent Carter: Phantom Pain wasn't the last of this series, Sparky and I have a lot more coming.

This is a story I've had cooking for a long time and one that's sort of a culmination of a couple plot points we've set up and the set up for quite a bit of the future. Then again, a lot of our works are like that, we are very long term planners. But as you will see, this is an Emily centred fic. I will be returning to Peggy, it's just that this particular idea has lived rent free in my mind for a bit too long. But I hope you all enjoy this...

Chapter 1: Prologue: I bequeath you my history

Chapter Text

21 January 1951

Fy nghariad bach,

 

If you are reading this, I want to apologize, for it will not be under happy circumstances, and I am the origin of all of this. Decisions I made long before your birth have led to this moment, and you should not feel guilt for any of this. None of this was your fault. I, and I alone, bear full responsibility for my actions. There are many things I regret, but you are not one of them. You were the best thing to happen to me.

I have faith that you have been brought up knowing the truth of your birth. Of my history and of your father’s. I know Edith, your grandparents, and all our friends are honest to you about the past because they love you. And I owe you a truthful accounting of what led to your birth. Silence would be robbery.

I fear that the world you have been born into will not be kind to you. So I will give you the armour of knowledge, truth, and love. I know that there is a desire to protect someone so young and innocent from such a horrible reality, and in my trade lying comes as easily as drawing breath. But I have found that acting from a place of honesty is far stronger than building on a foundation of lies.

And with that preamble, I will now bequeath you my history…