Fitzjames contends with unparalleled excitations.

Hickey thinks on what is to come for Billy Gibson and for himself.

Unpleasant things happen to Jim Halsey, several times in a row but not in any particular order.

He Xuan had been ready to leave the desert well before Shi Qingxuan had finished her little investigation. It wasn’t the sun, or the sand, though both were unpleasant, but Crimson Rain’s stupid voice on the private communication array: « Oh, sorry, are we walking in on something? If I knew there was a dress code I would have gotten done up. » And if it wasn’t that, it was the tinkling of jewelry in Shi Qingxuan’s hair as she moved, or the meaningless asides that were disorienting in…

The possibility that keeps him up at night is that Meng Yao came into his service an honest man, and over time changed into what he sees before him now. That, as his ambitions rose and his world grew grander, he reshaped himself and discovered the things he was capable of, all the while looking like his familiar self, but transforming under his skin into something Nie Mingjue could hardly recognize.

Janet is there for the trial, and afterward.

Mikey meets Pete and Alicia, who are a couple. Cue awkward fumbling-toward-a-threesome shenanigans. Thanks to handsomespeck at LJ for the beta.

"Assume success," says Bruce unencouragingly. "Describe how it's achieved."

An unfortunate fact dogging Peggy's heels is that she needs Senate approval for non-Stark funding for SHIELD. Howard proposes marriage; Peggy agrees. Peggy proposes tracking a criminal to Leningrad; Howard agrees. Also, feelings.

An unpublished footnote in the history of Henry Jekyll.