Who: Peggy Carter, Connor Macleod, Annie Sawyer Where: The Jungle What: Rescuing Peggy When: Backdated to Tuesday afternoon, 20 August Rating: TBD, likely low Open: No Status: Google doc / incomplete
Connor cursed his new body yet again as he/she made her way through the jungle as fast as she could, which wasn’t nearly as fast as would have been possible as a man. This female body just didn’t have the same amount of stamina that he’d had as a man. It was no knock on the females of the species, he’d met plenty of women who could run him into the ground or throw a punch almost as strong as a man’s.
But the body type Connor found him/herself in now wasn’t one of those. This body had a more fine boned, delicate structure to it, along with generous curves and softness in the places where men wanted them on a woman. To be that woman was disconcerting, and only the likelihood that it was temporary situation to be endured kept him from completely freaking out over the change.
So the immortal wasn’t going nearly as fast as he felt the situation warranted. The undergrowth was thick in this part of the jungle and it was necessary to take time to get through without tripping over something and crashing to the ground, which he’d done, twice. Boobs hurt when they got crushed like that, he’d found, even in a sports bra.
Finally Connor reached the spot near where Peggy was supposed to be. “Peggy?” He called out, katana out and in hand in case of danger, just until he could get to the injured woman.
---
Annie had found it so strange moving as Mitchell rather than herself. Everything seemed to be a little easier as far as the run to get to the co-ordinates Tony had given was concerned. She could move quicker and with a hell of a lot less noise than she ever could as herself. Everything seemed sharper, the light brighter, the sound stronger, every smell telling a story. How did he cope with this all the time? God knew, but she knew she had to be nicer about it in future.
Annie had first considered trying out Mitchell’s party trick of turning into a fruit bat, which she adored because at least for a little while, her fiance was fluffy rather than pointy, but she’d quickly realised she’d waste far more time trying to do it in the first place and then fly right than she’d save. This wasn’t the time to play.
“Peggy? It’s Annie, like I promised, where are you?” Annie called, praying to anything that would listen that she’d find her friend...and that she wouldn’t be bleeding when she got there.
---
She was getting colder as the night started to settle in around her. Peggy thought that maybe it had been a little rash of her to think her survival skills would be enough to venture through the forest and the jungle to find Steve but she’d managed to do more, she supposed. Everything ached with exhaustion and fear but mostly she just wanted to be wrapped up in Steve’s safe arms and have him be alright. It didn’t matter to her about her own safety and she hadn’t seen her cuts and bruises from thorns and thickets; it was only when she was snagged in a thick vine by her ankle and sent flying did Peggy’s adrenaline rush wear off and everything hit her in a rush.
She was lost. Injured. Crying. Scared for the man she loved and what had happened. Yes, he’d grabbed her wrist a time or two enough to bruise but she had never considered that someone else could get hurt through his trauma. His nightmares were like none she’d ever seen and if she were honest, Peggy was terrified that one day she’d wake up with a hand around her throat with no way of stopping him. It wasn’t for her, not in whole at least. She just wanted him to find some peace. She should have realised he needed help, real help and it was all her fault.
Peggy was drifting in and out of consciousness at the pain in her ankle, slumped up against the bottom of a tree trunk when she heard her name being called distantly. She had begged for help finally and, maybe it was the tiredness talking, but it seemed like it finally had come. “Here.” she said loudly, forcing herself to sit up. “Who is that?”
---
“Peggy, it’s Connor!” The immortal decided the situation seemed safe enough for the moment, even though night was beginning to fall, and the katana was returned to its sheath. It took another moment but Peggy was soon revealed to be lying against the bottom of a tree in obvious pain.
“Hey stranger.” Connor forced a smile and hoped the woman was conscious enough to understand who the unfamiliar face was.
---
Peggy blinked and pushed herself up, hoping that she didn’t look too much of a mess. She didn’t recognise the face of the person in front of her but there was something about the voice and it finally registered in her slow brain that yes, it was Connor’s accent she could hear calling for her. There was no relief quite as intense as hearing that voice. “Hello.” she muttered, “You really have no idea how wonderful it is to hear you, ma’am.” Peggy swallowed, “Is there any chance you encountered Annie on your travels? I thought I heard her voice earlier but it seems to have disappeared.” Peggy’s eyelids were heavy and started to drop. “I couldn’t trouble you for a drop of water could I?” she asked politely.
---
“Peggy!” Annie called, following the sound of voices. She crashed through what was left of the jungle. “And...I probably know you really well but...island.” She addressed the other person, moving to put herself between the other woman and Peggy, just in case. She knew that had she been herself she would have been weaker and breathing heavily due to the run. Now she felt strong, and hyper alert.
She turned back to Peggy. “How’s your ankle?” She asked softly, glad of this bodyswitch for the first time, as it would mean she was strong enough to carry Peggy to the hospital. The smell of fresh blood caught her. Her eyes flicked to black as Mitchell’s hunger tore through her. She wanted to cry, to run, so she wouldn’t hurt her friend, but Peggy needed her and she fought it, just like she knew Mitchell did every day. She pushed the smell and the sound of Peggy’s pounding heart away, and tried to concentrate.
---
“It’s Connor Macleod, Annie.” Connor tamped down on his annoyance. He’d heard that Mitchell and Annie had swapped bodies and tried not to take offense when the vampire stepped in between him and Peggy. That was easily solved by stepping back around so he could see them both. “She’s going to need help getting back to town...”
His voice trailed off as he saw the vampire’s eyes flicker to black. Connor didn’t have a great deal of experience with vampires, but whatever that meant it couldn’t be a good thing, and his hand dropped down to the hilt of his katana. “You need to step back until you’ve got yourself under control.” There wasn’t going to be any more harm to Peggy, not on his watch.
---
Peggy stared confusedly between the two of them, wondering how the atmosphere had gotten so hostile so quickly. It was a little frustrating to be sitting there, completely useless while they argue over who was more protective in their own silent way. She groaned, touched by their caring attitude but wanting to get home and get a splint and go out looking for Steve again. She had thought she’d heard something from Tony earlier but at that point, her lucidity was wearing off and she may have dreamt it. Peggy felt for them both, in strange bodies and with new urges on Annie’s part, but time was wasting away. She looked around and grabbed a sturdy branch, hauling her body upwards with a little grunt. She leant heavily on the stick and composed herself, “Which way is home?”
---
“It’ll be quicker if you let me pick you up, Mitchell’s stronger than me...and I promise...that thing...isn’t going to happen again, I’d never hurt anyone...I’ve been murdered, it’s not fun.” Annie replied.
---
Connor stared at Annie suspiciously for a moment, debating whether the ghost turned vampire had gotten the body under control. He was conscious of Peggy’s exasperation and the fact she’d already gotten herself upright, whatever was going to happen needed to happen soon.
“All right,” he stepped back grudgingly, but kept a wary eye on Annie, just to be safe.
---
Annie half smiled at Connor and carefully lifting Peggy, knowing if she waited Peggy would quite simply decline, and none of them had time for that. “You OK?” She asked her friend.
---
Peggy grunted a little in pain but nodded, conscious of the dried blood on her cuts and scrapes and how tempting it would be. She couldn’t defend herself but she was in trouble anyway. Why not make it double? “Yes, thank you for helping me.” she looked up into Mitchell’s face. “I acted far too rashly. I should have realised how stupid it was to go looking for him when he didn’t want to be found. I owe you both.”
---
“It’s no trouble,” Connor assured her. Even though his strength and stamina in this female body weren’t nearly what they had been he wasn’t the type to let friends fend for themselves in dangerous situations. “And people do stupid things when they’re worried about the ones they love, it just puts you in good company is all.”
---
“I sat holding Mitchell’s hand waiting for him to come round, not knowing if he’d tear my throat out when he came round...we’re all idiots.” Annie replied, concern flickering across her, currently masculine, face as Peggy grimaced.
“It’ll be fine...hell if it is in my world, it will be in yours.” Annie said softly
---
Peggy laughed dryly, “Some days I’m not so sure.” She had to hold on tight and trust Annie not to let go or let her control go and it was a little scary. Part of her wanted to just cut and run on her broken foot for the nearest open clearing and scream for Steve to come back but that was pointless. “Some days I’m not sure if he’ll… if he wants this life.”
---
“Me neither.” Annie said softly, quietly admitting something she hated. “Sometimes, mostly when he’s off on yet another boys night out, I worry that Mitchell resents me for getting pregnant...for even being here...in his world.”
---
“Your men are idiots then if that’s the case.” Connor snorted as he walked in front of them, eyes alert for trouble. “Immortals like me can’t have natural children, if they resent you for it then they don’t deserve you.”
---
Peggy looked between Connor and Annie and decided that situations like these called for more honesty than she was used to giving. “I’m scared of him some days.” she admitted quietly. “He doesn’t realise how strong he is and he could hurt somebody. It doesn’t matter if it’s me, I can take it, but if it was someone smaller? Someone weaker? His body has the capacity to kill but his mind wouldn’t bear to take that responsibility again. I don’t want to lose him but I’m so scared of him too.” she hid her face down, ashamed.
---
Annie sighed. “I know...I live with that too, trying not to flinch when he loses it...but I know he can break people, kill them, sometimes without even thinking, and right now, most of the time, I’m human...The last man I loved, threw me down a flight of stairs, killed me...and sometimes I wonder if the reason he did was because I deserved it...and if Mitchell killed me...he’d flip, unless there was yet another way back.”
---
Connor kept his own counsel about Rogers and Mitchell, but Annie’s comments did strike a cord in him. “Nothing you could do can cause you to deserve dying that way, lass. Even if you hurt him. I won’t claim to have been a saint these last five centuries, but I’ve never killed a woman who wasn’t trying to kill me first. The only thing I fear is everyone else growing old and dying around me, and then there are times when I think about even the oldest of you as just overgrown children.”
---
“Very few people I’ve encountered in my life truly deserve to die and I can assuredly say that you are not one of them, Annie.” Peggy said vehemently, trying to distract herself from her worry and fear and pain. “Mitchell should realise that a life inside you is a blessing. I’m technically 95 years old so I’m wise. Not that I can ever top five centuries of living.” she chuckled softly. “I don’t know what I’ll do when I get old and he loses his interest. It’ll be even worse. Sometimes I was glad for the war. I wanted to go out for some reason, to some meaning. Not coughing and spluttering in a bed with sores on my back and grey in my hair.” She chuckled. “I wanted to die young and for a good reason but now I’m here. Maybe he’s the reason I was left alive.”
---
“I don’t even know if people get old here.” Annie mused. “I’ve never seen anyone seem to get any older in this place, immortal or not, and he’d be stupid to lose interest, every single word you’ve just said proves how bloody brave and wonderful you are.” She responded stubbornly. “That and the fact that you’ve wandered into the jungle trying to save him, when he’s meant to be the superhero.”
---
“If he loves you it won’t matter how old you are or what you look like.” Connor pointed out. “I stayed with my wife until the day she died, no matter that I could pass for her grandson by that time.” He shrugged. “As for the island, I’d say that’s impossible but considering I don’t normally run around with female plumbing that word doesn’t really apply here.”
---
Peggy went quiet as she learnt more about Connor in particular. She admired him, suddenly, for going through that on his own. “How did you do it? How did you watch the woman you love get older and sicker and die? How does one love after it?” she had to know if it was possible for Steve to forget her, to find happiness again when she did die, by whatever means.
---
“I did it because I loved her,” Connor paused and turned back to face Peggy, clearly surprised she’d even asked the question, “and I meant the vows we exchanged when we married, though I didn’t know what I was at the time. My teacher, Ramirez, he wanted me to leave Heather, warned me how badly it would hurt when she died. He was right about the pain, but I wouldn’t trade those years for anything in the world. My only regret is that I couldn’t give her the family she wanted.”
“As for getting past it, it took me several hundred years and a few particularly stubborn women who wouldn’t let me push them away.”
---
Peggy could hear the tinge of pain in his voice, and yet there was something else inside there that made her realise that Connor truly meant what he said. He didn’t regret a minute of staying with his wife, even though she was scared still. Peggy wouldn’t leave her Steve. She’d hope he learned to love, despite the time it might take like it had Connor. “I’m sorry for what you lost.” she muttered and felt the weight of her sadness lift a little, “And Mitchell could learn from this man too. Love is terrifying and brilliant, isn’t it?”
---
“Mmm, if Mitchell changes his mind, I think I’m going to marry you...I’ve watched Mitchell die...more than once now, but both times were quick...I can’t imagine watching it slowly, both times, if people hadn’t needed me I’d have let myself go.” Annie said softly.
---
“I think you’d have to take that up with Laura,” Connor jested, deflecting the flare of sorrow at the memory of Heather’s sudden reappearance and just as sudden vanishing here on the island. “As for watching someone go, it was my duty and honor to care for her in the final years and days. My vows were in sickness and in health, for better and for worse, and I meant them. The love made it an easy decision to make to stick with them.”
“Now, let’s focus on getting you home Peggy. If your man tries to be the stoic and push you away ‘for your own good’, just send for me and I’ll come put him straight.”
---
“I might hold you to that, Connor.” she said sluggishly, shaking off her headache. Peggy couldn’t feel the throbbing in her foot anymore, now that there was nothing touching or putting pressure on it. “Mitchell will get his act together eventually, he adores you. Though if you and I were single and of that persuasion, I’d ask you on a date in a flash.” she chuckled.
---
Annie chuckled softly. “I know he does...and thank you, but we know you wouldn’t, because of Steve...you never can leave behind those you love...and the reason we get on is that we both know that.”
---
“Enough of this touchy feely shit,” Connor declared, oddly feeling like he might start crying at any moment. “The sooner we get you back to civilization the sooner you can get that ankle looked at.” He pushed off again, leading the way back to the city through the undergrowth.
---
Peggy laughed a little up at Annie, “I think the girl hormones are getting to him. It’s nice to have a taste of the other half, I should think.” she chuckled and secretly just wanted to make Connor feel more at ease again, knowing herself that emotional displays were meant to be kept private. Or at least they were in her day.
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“As long as it’s just a taste, and I’ve damn well had enough of it thank you.” Was the sarcastic response as Connor soldiered on. He did appreciate the teasing just a bit though.
---
“Are you kidding...it’s great being a girl, we dress better, we smell better, we get the boobs, our plumbing is tidier...and most of the time I can still throw grown men through walls.” Annie shot back. “And we’re allowed to cry at films and get over attached to pets.”