The coffee shop was one of Laurence’s favourites. It was busy enough that he was surrounded by a near constant, pleasant hum of conversation, of friends talking and laughing with one another, but not so busy that he felt guilty taking up an entire table, reading the news while sipping on his morning coffee and slowly eat his scone with its clotted cream and jam. That, and they were one of the few places in California that served their scones with actual clotted cream.
He had glanced up from his newspaper for just a moment to generously slather a piece of scone with some more of the clotted cream and jam that sat in globs on his plate, when he spotted her in line, just a few short feet away from him. “Mrs. Carter,” he exclaimed when he saw her, and rose from his seat. “What an unexpected pleasure to see you here. Is Captain Rogers with you?”
****
Peggy was on break and stepped out of the office to get a coffee, honestly she hadn't been called Mrs. Carter in a while so she didn’t even look at first, but then when Captain Rogers was mentioned, her head snapped up and she smiled brightly, “Laurence?” .she shifted, “excuse me,” she told the person behind her as she headed over to him.
“You are actually here as well?” She moved to hug him, because she was a hugger and he was an old friend of both her and Steves. “He is, we actually settled down here. I’m workin at the clinic around the corner, he’s trying to figure out what he wants to do,” she chuckled “He’s doing construction at the moment. Are you visiting someone here or are you living here as well?”
****
While Laurence had spent the majority of his life with very little physical affection between himself and his peers, living in Orange County was beginning to change that, and so he hardly stiffened at all when Peggy hugged him, returning the hug himself.
“I’m living here,” Laurence answered her. “I was assigned here as a liaison officer some three years ago, and so I have an apartment up in Seal Beach. Am I to take it that you’ve moved here as well, then?”
****
When the hug broke, she nodded her head, “Yes, we’ve been here nearly a year now, I’m working at the dream clinic and Steve is going construction work. He is going to be so pleased when I tell him that I’ve run into you. Bucky was here for a bit but he had gone back on another tour, I think...I’m not sure.” she told him with a kind smile.
“This is such a nice surprise!” she proclaimed, “it’s nice to see an old friend!”
****
Laurence frowned a little at Bucky’s name. He had never met the man himself, but he did know that he had recently left, and that even more recently that he and Clara decided to call off their engagement. It seemed amicable, and he could hardly blame the man for desiring a quieter life than what the Orange County offered, but having his own failed engagement in England, he could not help but take Clara’s side in all of it.
“The dream clinic?” Laurence asked, raising an eyebrow. He thought he had heard rumours of it on the Network, though he’d never encountered it himself. It would have been useful to know of after either of his dream-induced injuries, however. “So, you know of the Dreams then? Do you have them as well?”
****
“I have,” she said with a nod of her head, “though they are not as drastic as some,” she said with a small shake of her head, poor Peter went through the ringer with his. She smiled softly at him, “So I'm one of the doctors who treat people from ever getting injured from them or wake up with something wrong with them.”
“Am I right to assume you have been dreaming as well, right?” she asked softly.
***
“You’re entirely right,” Laurence said. “I’ve been dreaming, off and on, for nearly four years now.” He nodded toward the counter. It seemed as though it was nearly her turn at the counter, and the man she’d spoken to before leaving the line was glancing back at them as if wondering if he should take her place. “I hope that we can continue this conversation at my table once you’ve ordered, however?” he asked, nodding toward his seat, where the newspaper still sat, folded neatly, upon the table.
***
“Yes, I can spare some time for a friend,” she told him, nodding her head and motion for him to go sit down, “I’ll join you in a moment.” Peggy did join him, with a bagel and hot tea. “So off and on for four years?” she had often wondered what even triggered the dreams. “Do you know if anyone has done a study on it?”
***
While Peggy got her bagel and coffee, Laurence set to folding the newspaper and tucking it away in his carrying case. By the time she rejoined him, he had cleared a space for her at the table.
"I'm actually participating in one at the moment," Laurence said. "It's bring conducted by one Dr. Underwood, originally out of Champman University, though I believe he must have secured funding as he's now operating from an office in Costa Mesa. It is the first study of its kind that I've been privy to, however."
**
Peggy picked at her food as she listened and arched a brow “huh” and finally took a bite of her food. “You would not happen to have to card, would you?” The name sounded fam but she couldn’t place it for the moment. “I think I would like to talk to him for a bit.”
Putting her food down she waved her hand “tell me more about you! How are you truly doing?”
***
“I’ve been very well here,” Laurence said, smiling. “I was surprised to discover just how suited to California I wound up being.” It was so very different from home, and he had never thought he would find anywhere more suited to him than England, and yet somehow California had become more homelike to him than England ever had been. “My dreams don’t abuse me as some others do, and I find myself looking forward to them more often than not.”
Not, at this moment, of course, given his dreamself’s recent, mad flight from Turkey to mainland Europe, which he knew would be embroiled in conflict. But he did look forward to seeing the people in his dreams.
“And yourself? I hope you and Captain Rogers have been enjoying Orange County so far, despite all its particular idiocyncracies.”
*** She nodded her head as he spoke, her dreams weren’t so bad as well, especially with what she had seen at the clinic and what she had read. When he asked about her and Steve, her smile lit up more. “It’s nice,” she told him, “We have finally made a home for us both and his nephew Peter has joined us as well,” she told him.
“I never realized how much we have missed both being countries apart, he had to leave for a little while and it felt like the house was so empty. However, he’s back for good now and things are good, great really.” Peggy couldn’t be happier.
***
“Has he been discharged then?” Laurence asked, raising an eyebrow and taking a sip of his coffee.
***
Peggy nodded her head, “He has, he’s home for good now.” She smiled at Laurence, “It’s the best thing to be in one place for more than a few months, nearly a year here.” Peggy looked at her watch, her eyes widened, “I should go,” she told him, moving to get her bag, she grabs her phone, “what’s your number?”
***
Laurence waited until he saw that Peggy was ready, and then he rattled off his phone number. “It was such a pleasure to run into you again, Mrs. Carter,” he said warmly. “I do hope that you’ll call soon.”
****
“Steve or myself will,” she assured him, as she put her phone back in her bag, “I hate to run off, but work,” Peggy stood up, smiled brightly at him, “You have made my day, Laurence.” She picked up her mess, “got to go,” she was headed to the trash can and then out the door headed back to the clinic.