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[mucked]

PEGGY CARTER | MCU | ENTRANCEWAY ( action, video, voice, or text )

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[mucked]

[ -- much more confidently done. she can't help but feel a curl of warmth under her ribs when he describes it so simply but so favourably. she only knows a little of what's to come. as harrowing and sickening as the word 'legacy' sounds in her ears (what intelligence operative ever wants to leave behind so indelible a print on the world?) peggy can't help but feel a fraction of the goodwill he intends. ]

I've been warned I shouldn't learn too much about what that entails -- seventy years, isn't it? That's a damn long time. [ nothing to sneeze at. ] But...thank you. All the same.

[ maybe she needed to hear that. broad strokes, without details. just some mild assurance that maybe, just maybe, she'd left the world a bit better than she'd found it. ]

[hypoxic]

Well that's bloody rubbish, isn't it. Spacetime won't change if someone becomes aware of it. For all we know, knowing about the future is what inspires you to start working with young spies in the first place.

[Disproving the theories of lesser scientists might be another point of comfort for him.]

[mucked]

[ she holds up a hand. just one, and just to forestall fitz's tirade. under other circumstances, the jutting and curt disagreement might have been downright endearing. when pressed, she rather appreciates the stubborn sort. but when it's her future on the docket? ]

Hold on, hold on. [ a quiet request for forbearance. ] Imagine, please, that you're the one who's been informed you've got a blood relative from some seven decades later running around. An impossible one, at that. Everything I've learned since arriving requires considerable adjustment.

[ it's not always about the science, agent fitz. sometimes it's about just how many heartaches a person can suffer in one conversation -- and all of them leaving her helpless in the face of what's preordained. ]

[hypoxic]

[He falls silent at her signal, and pauses to consider things as they're said. His left arm reaches over to cup the elbow of his right.]

I'd be proud to hear that we lived long enough to start families at all, really. That any of us did. There aren't many guarantees in the sort of work we do.

[mucked]

[ -- perhaps he's right. perhaps she should be proud. but the circumstances still keep her up at night. sharon's not her direct descendant, but rather the granddaughter of a brother she'd assumed dead. a brother who therefore must be alive somewhere back home. where? why hasn't he come to her?

peggy shakes her head; now isn't the time to wrestle with those demons. ]

There aren't, no. [ no guarantees at all, in fact. ] But if I understand SHIELD correctly [ intelligence work; spycraft ] then our work also doesn't lend much patience for listening to near-strangers tell you about your own life.

[ you know, he's been so forthcoming all on his own. peggy didn't think she'd tell this much -- but maybe he deserves a bit of quid pro quo for how readily he'd answered her interrogation earlier. ]

I don't much care for being recognized. Rather feels a bit like failure.

[ like a cover being blown. ]

[hypoxic]

[His attention snaps to her, wide blue eyes locking on her face. What was that? He must have heard it wrong.]

But. You're Peggy Carter.

[mucked]

[ yes, dear fitz. go ahead and do the thing she just described as difficult to stomach. there's a tightening in her jaw but -- well, she tries not to blame him. too much. ]

Which doesn't mean half as much in 1947 as it seems to do in -- [ beat ] -- what's your year?

[ in hers, she's a headache to her superiors. a rogue element, forced to work outside of the ssr's good graces because if she didn't? nothing would get done. but it comes with her own slew of spectacular failures, none of which she'll offer freely to fitz by way of explanation.

oh -- and then there's the bit where to some she's still little more than captain america's sweetheart. ]

[hypoxic]

[He's upset her. He's upset Peggy Carter. And that brings the self-consciousness flooding back.]

Oh -- I. It was 2015 when I left. But I seem to be the farthest behind, as far as my team is concerned.

I'm sorry I brought it up.

[mucked]

[ she shakes her head; refuses his apology. ]

I suppose it's inevitable. [ as much as she hates inevitability. but that's another kettle of fish. ] What about you -- how do you feel, lagging behind the rest?

[ she doubts it's by some seven decades but it might be nice to be alone in his camp when it comes to their particular home world. ]

[hypoxic]

It -- can be a bit frustrating, I suppose. One of them... There's something she won't tell me. It's a bit like trying to put together a puzzle to find out what's gotten her so upset.

[mucked]

[ more than pride, then, at what might follow after a person's particular place in time. maybe that's why fitz had reacted as he had to her reluctance to learn more. for her part, she thinks she's learned quite enough. for the time being. but now he's like a puzzle -- a cryptic crossword she's keen to solve. because until she does, she can only guess at his motives and measures. ]

And you would rather know. Fair enough.

[ maybe peggy would have felt the same if that information had been purposefully restricted from her rather than offered up on a platter. the lure of a mystery would have overcome her better angels. but now, with so much intelligence dumped at her feet, she feels herself resenting how easily some people will divulge things.

she's a fickle creature. ]

Perhaps whoever it is would rather not see you equally upset.

[hypoxic]

Bollocks. [He blurts it out initially, then goes wide-eyed. One shouldn't swear in the presence of Peggy Carter.]

I -- I mean... I don't need to be protected. Not from knowing things. Even if other people think I might.

[mucked]

[ oh, bloody nora. peggy smirks. she knows the look of someone who suddenly regrets an outburst; it is rather endearing, in the end. no matter how fierce his argument continues to be. ]

Nevertheless? Whatever it is -- it's hers to tell. Not yours to take. [ a silly counter coming from a spy, perhaps. but there are some secrets you can't take by force or guile. ] Make your peace with that, if nothing else.

[hypoxic]

[ he grimaces at that. ]

But of spy etiquette I've not successfully mastered, that. I suppose it's why they tend to keep me out of the field more often than not.

[ Even though the field is where people fight and die and really he's rather fond of keeping all his blood on the inside of his body actually... ]

[mucked]

[ spy etiquette. the irony (she suspects) isn't lost on either of them. peggy turns back around from poking her nosy way through a stately wardrobe. god, she could do with a drink. whiskey, maybe.

instead? she takes a seat on the edge of one bed. only when she bends to sit does she betray some stiffness about her abdomen -- a wound, perhaps, still plaguing her. ]

Do you wish you got out in it more often?

[ maybe -- maybe -- this might be marginally better topic. ha. ]

[hypoxic]

[ The body language is something he reads easily. His field is concerned with motion and the natural grace of the human machine. She's moving with a stiffness; if she were a construction, he'd immediately flag her as damages. ]

Are you -- feeling all right?

[ This is more important than responding to her probes. History never noted anything about Peggy Carter having impaired mobility. ]

[mucked]

[ -- hm? oh. with a wan look, she pats he stomach. low on her side, around her abdomen. ]

Better every day. [ which is true enough. ] I was in far worse shape upon my arrival. Give another week or so and I'll be right as rain. Gut wounds take a bit longer to heal than others; it's all the twisting and bending.

[ simply shutting a door or taking a seat has strained the process. ]

[hypoxic]

You've been stabbed. [ That isn't a statement of pity, at least. Stabbings happen in their community. ]

Have you found someone to treat you here? Medical help can be a bit thin, but Agent Simmons -- our biochem expert -- she's become quite a skilled field medic. She'll help prevent infection.

[mucked]

Impaled, more like. [ a slight wince. it's an unpleasant story -- but it's an injury she'd gained in an attempt to avoid a far, far worse fate. something that treads perhaps a little too near to talk of portals.

she lets her palm settle flat above the wound. or, at least, where it's likely to be from fitz's perspective. ] Another resident quickly offered to help me get my bandages changed when necessary. Luckily, I'd somehow managed to avoid popping my stitches.

[hypoxic]

Is that other resident qualified?

[ he straightens protectively. He certainly has no intention of allowing Peggy Carter to sustain grevious injury on his watch. Which this suddenly has become, apparently.]

[mucked]

[ well, this certainly took a turn for the uncanny. she sputters (only briefly) when he betrays his worry. ]

Qualified enough to change bandages? Yes, I rather think so. [ -- the chip and flint in her tone comes from a place of defensiveness than anything else. ] I'm fine, Agent Fitz. My dignity may have lost a bit of its shine but I'll be alright.

[ perhaps she could do with a bit of proper medical involvement but she's a stubborn bastard. back home, she'd made do with a butler's steady hands. ]

[hypoxic]

A wound to the midsection could be lethal. [ he insists, because someone ought to. He's the only one here to do it. ]

It will only be a moment. I'll send a message to Agent Simmons and she'll be right up to tend to it...

[mucked]

-- It was straight through; no complications. Honestly, it's not worth the fuss.

[ oh, lord, she doesn't handle anyone else's concern with even the slightest bit of dignity. somehow, it's worse to consider being aided by someone who considers her one of the founders of their workplace. a little like losing face. ]

I had a perfectly lovely nurse stitch it just two days before I arrived in Wonderland.

[hypoxic]

[Her mention of a nurse is enough to get him to pause, halfway through his message to Jemma. He lowers the device, leaving it unsent.]

You're sure there was a nurse involved. You're not just saying that to get me to stop?

[mucked]

-- Positive. Good Lord, man, she was engaged to the chief at the SSR's Los Angeles branch. And so, as you might imagine, she came very highly recommended.

[ not least of all because peggy could go and get stitched up on her sofa instead of risking a hospital, but she's not about to tell him so. nor will she confess that a day later she'd popped her stitches and jarvis had been recruited to redo them.

and after that? well, she'd turned up here. recovery has slow but markedly less complicated than had she still been back home and swanning about. ]