Friends are to be protected. Safeguarded, if you will.

[ peggy winces -- as though a pain along her ribs is troubling her again. leaving her just a little out of breath as she explains. ]

Allies, on the other hand, form a different bond altogether. As deep as friendship, maybe, but with the pragmatic understanding that either one of you might need to...dive on the grenade, as it were. For the cause.

[ a dispassionate answer. and a hypocritical one, too. not that peggy will ever admit as much. ]