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Tweak says, "cheetos!"

agent carter (strategist) wrote in timerift_log,
@ 2022-04-14 20:20:00

Entry tags:

mcu: peggy carter, mcu: steve rogers

WHO: Peggy Carter & Steve Rogers
WHAT: reunion
WHERE: Outside the Enclave, on Hudol Street
WHEN: [backdated] evening of April 13th
WARNINGS: TBD

If waking up in a strange new place and time had been alarming for Peggy, it was nothing next to discovering that Steve was alive and well. And here. Not to mention Sgt Barnes. She knew how devastated Steve had been when his best friend since childhood fell to his apparent demise on that fateful mission to capture Zola. Fortunately, they achieved their objective that day, but at the cost of Bucky Barnes. Sacrifice and war go hand-in-hand, but Peggy would have done almost anything to spare Steve the pain and grief of that loss if she could have.

She had a mere twenty minutes to get ready to reunite with the love of her life. Suddenly, no amount of time in the world seemed adequate for this moment. Years had passed since Peggy finally said her goodbyes to Steve Rogers and tried to move on with her life.

And she did. Peggy worked closely with Howard and Jarvis and accomplished things in the manner of a woman before her time. She helped form and became Director of SHIELD. She was proud of herself and all of those things, of course, but in her heart of hearts, there had been a certain degree of loneliness. Daniel Sousa had been a wonderful reprieve. Souza had been a nice man, a sweet man, but in the end he was not the one for her. It seemed strange that she could spend so much time with him and so little with Steve—comparatively, in terms of intimacy, in the grand scheme of things—and feel so deeply for the latter.

Like everything else unbelievable about this place, she had appeared in her new room wearing only the clothes on her back. And seeing as the last thing she remembered before arriving here was going to bed, she showed up only in a nightgown. She could hardly go downstairs to meet Steve wearing nothing but that. A part of her missed a certain red dress that had been hers. The one she wore with confidence as she strolled into the bar that she knew captured the attention of Steve (and James 'Bucky' Barnes, and possibly others, though she only had eyes for one man). The dress she would have worn to the Stork Club to go dancing if they had been able to keep that date.

In the end, her options were limited. Peggy managed to find an overcoat lying around and hurried off out of the building in search of Steve. Standing on the stoop outside, she waited for him to arrive.

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_onyourleft_
2022-04-16 12:29 am UTC (link)

Twenty minutes. He was going to see Peggy in twenty minutes. It was probably actually closer to fifteen now, since he’d spent at least five of those talking to Tony and telling himself to stop and think for a second. Which maybe flew in the face of Tony just saying to go with his heart, but this was Peggy. This was the love of his life. The first woman to pay him any real attention, before the serum. They’d had so little time together, but he treasured every memory as much as he mourned every lost opportunity. And now she was here.

And found herself thrown forward to 1999. He knew just how confronting that could be. Pair that with seeing him alive when for ten years she’d thought he was dead, and it was more than a little for her to get her head around.

He’d known when he’d made his choice that day. Logically, of course he’d known what it meant for both of them. But he’d done the only thing he could think to, in the circumstances. The right thing. He couldn’t put his own life ahead of so many. And it wasn’t as though he’d been expecting to wake up from the sacrifice. He couldn’t count the number of times he’d wondered why he couldn’t have woken up sooner. Every time though, he’d pushed the thought aside as quickly. That wasn’t fair. He couldn't in good conscience wish for anything that had happened to have gone any differently.

Knowing she would be thrown regardless, he settled for throwing a jacket on over his jeans and t-shirt as he left the compound. It didn’t take him long to reach Hudol street, and even less time to spot her. She looked lost and confused and yet more beautiful than every memory he had of her combined. She still absolutely had the power to take his breath away without even a word. This wasn’t the same as seeing her when she was older. And though he’d treasured those moments, it had been so hard to see the woman he loved succumbing to illness, too. In the end, he couldn’t bear how much it tore her apart every time she forgot, only to see him again for the first time.

He approached her as calmly as he could manage, resisting every urge screaming at him to just get to her side and hold her. He wouldn’t presume to know what she’d been through in those ten years, or what had changed. Whatever happened next was entirely in her hands.

He stopped a handful of steps away from her, his smile small but sincere as he willed his voice not to shake when he spoke. “Hi, Peggy.”

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strategist
2022-04-16 04:47 pm UTC (link)

Knowing nothing of the future that Steve lived through, Peggy didn't have to struggle with that loss yet. Her memory, her sense of self, her hard-won independence. Only she would have lived a life by then, so she would go into the final chapter of her existence with very few regrets. The only one she did carry, of course, involved Steve.

Being in the same place as Steve Rogers once again was something she never expected. Of course she hadn't. She thought he was dead. Plunged into the icy depths of the Arctic in the Valkyrie to save New York City and countless civilian lives in 1945. Between that and being informed that James Buchanan Barnes was also alive, Peggy wondered for one wild moment if she might have died in her sleep and gone into the afterlife.

She would likely require more time to process everything later tonight. She would do that once she was alone with her thoughts and tumultuous emotions again. But for now, she was going to soak up his presence while she could.

Like the familiarity of his voice. Soft spoken, but utterly masculine, even before Erskine's serum. Hearing it again now, after all these years, was like a fever dream. She turned around slowly, still hardly daring to believe this could be real, fearing if she faced him too soon, he would fade away like a mirage. Yet he didn't. To see those familiar blue eyes again. Peggy's heart ached with remembrance.

"Well, I cannot profess to understand the stipulations of time travel or whatever this is, so I'm not sure if I'm breaking some kind of cardinal rule by telling you, but..." Peggy smiled, wondering if he knew the impact he had on the war efforts. The Allied Forces had won. If he was here, did he know any of that? Perhaps it was safer to veer away from larger world events and focus on the personal happenings. "I, uh... Colonel Phillips, Howard Stark, and I took what we knew as the SSR and founded a new organization." She paused. "We call it SHIELD, for short. You know how much governments and their military apparatuses love their acronyms." Steve had to see the significance of that.

Then again, he had to know this already. That woman, Natasha Romanoff, had introduced herself as an agent of SHIELD. She already told Peggy she knew both Steve and Barnes. In 2023. There had to be a story there.

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_onyourleft_
2022-04-18 12:44 am UTC (link)

The forthright explanation was just so Peggy, he had to return her smile. He knew it all already, of course, but she didn’t know that he did, and he wouldn’t begrudge her the need for taking a minute to find her footing. More than a minute, really, but then he’d never underestimated her ability to handle a challenging situation. He’d always admired her direct approach to any situation. Though their time together hadn’t been near long enough, there were certain moments that would be seared into his memory forever. Even something as simple as seeing her punch Hodge in the face.

“I know,” he finally agreed. “That is, I know about SHIELD, and that you founded it.” It had been what had kept him fighting for them, after all. “They’re the ones who found me, actually.” And that was a whole other can of worms he was opening right there, but he could hardly stall on such a salient point. She needed to know, to understand just how he was here, and how he could possibly know those things.

“It was nearly seventy years later. 2012. Fury told me I’d been asleep, but it was a little more complicated than that.” He’d heard all the scientific theories, but he just put it down to the serum. As he did with most things that had changed since the day Erskine had changed his life forever. “They found the Valkyrie, and saw my shield.” And that had been enough for them to know who they’d found.

“When I woke up, they had me in a room meant to make me think it was still ‘45. But they had a game playing on the wireless I’d already been to,” he explained with a humoured smile, remembering the faux pas. At the time, it had put him on high alert. Now, it was just funny.

He didn’t say more, right away. She’d just been given more than enough information in the span of a few minutes to need to digest. And as far as he was concerned she could take all the time in the world. The simple fact of it was, she was here. And that was enough for Steve.

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strategist
2022-04-19 04:46 pm UTC (link)

Peggy was touched hearing Steve SHIELD and knowing her connection to it. It took a moment longer before it fully registered that Steve joined SHIELD, but he hadn't been found in her 1955. Which likely meant... However, Peggy chose not to immediately leap to conclusions. Instead, she listened carefully as he went on to explain his experience of the future.

Because there was the rub. He was found in 2012. Agent Romanoff had mentioned she was partnered with him at SHIELD and she was from 2023. He was indeed from the future. How was that possible? That would make him over 100 years old. Yet he doesn't look that much older than the last time she saw him. Was it Dr. Erskine's formula that allowed him avoid the ravages of time? But how on Earth did Sgt Barnes survive? Steve watched him fall...

She had so many questions. But right now was hardly the time for them. All she wanted to at this moment was bask in Steve's presence. Who knew how long she would get to be here? Peggy didn't want to go to bed tonight, only to wake up and be home again, without Steve. This was a gift, whatever else being here meant. She wasn't going to waste one minute of it.

"Always observant and wise," said Peggy admiringly, as Steve told her how he figured out the ruse. "I don't suppose you were able to pick apart our situation here similarly?"

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_onyourleft_
2022-06-17 10:24 am UTC (link)

He smiled briefly at her compliment, though her subsequent question stole the expression relatively quickly, turning it rueful. "Unfortunately not. It doesn't seem like there are many answers at this stage." Then again, none of them had really been here that long. Not when you considered it with any kind of perspective. The concept of time scared him now, with Peggy right there in front of him. Close enough to touch and yet he dared not, yet. Not until he had some sign she was ready.

But how long would he have her there, for? If nothing else this place had proven it couuld, and did, change things in the blink of an eye. With everything this place had deigned to present him with, why should it give him this? He chided himself for that thought as soon as it hit him. He'd never let himself be quite that defeated before, and he'd be damned if he started now. It had just been hard, having his friend so distant.

He took an almost cautious step closer to her, still just taking in her presence. "You must have so many questions," he allowed, an opening for everything he was certain she wanted to ask. But Peggy being Peggy, he figured she was already rationalising a time and place for them and what her priorities were.

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strategist
2022-06-19 10:42 pm UTC (link)

It was good to see him. It was a miracle to have him here, alive and well, up close like this. But it also hurt more than she thought was possible.

Peggy thought she had effectively closed that chapter of her life. As painful as it had been, she had to lay things to rest. She thought Steve was dead and gone. She had no other choice. There was no use hanging on to the past. Even though he was the bravest--and simply the most good--man she had ever met, despite the instant connection they seemed to share, the other feelings that blossomed between them were nipped in the bud before they could truly flourish. Although she knew that what they shared, in the all too brief time they had between them, meant something special, they had not been able to talk and adequately express the breadth of their feelings for one another. One kiss in the heat of the moment as he bulleted toward danger. It had been a good luck and goodbye. They never got to have their dance.

"I do," Peggy admitted, not quite able to keep her eyes from scanning him up and down, properly taking in the sight of him. He was here. He was real. How was this even possible?

Then again, like he said, he didn't have much in the way of answers about their current setting and circumstances. Perhaps none of them did just yet. However, he could fill in the blanks about what had happened to him back in their own world and timeline. She didn't understand what the rules were here, such as if finding out about her future would be not allowed, but for now it felt worth the risk to at least ask.

"How did you survive the crash of the Valkyrie?"

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_onyourleft_
2022-07-01 04:02 am UTC (link)

There was no denying the distance he could feel between them now, with the passing of so much time. It was the last thing he wanted, but he also didn't know what to do about it. He could feel her hesitance, and the last thing he wanted was to put his foot in his mouth by saying or doing the wrong thing. Even if he had spent so long now wishing for a moment like this. For a chance to see her again. To share their first dance.

When she asked her question, he considered briefly the bet way to approach it. It was funny, but he really hadn't thought about that in a long time, not by choice. He still dreamt about it, sometimes. About the water rushing in at him from all sides, and the impossible cold. But he'd become pretty adept at ignoring his dreams in the last decade or so.

"I was...well, I was frozen, basically." He knew how jarring that might sound to her, but in the end he was never going to be anything but honest with Peggy. "The serum kept me alive, though I barely remember it." Not after those first agonising minutes of cold, his body fighting against drowning. She knew about everything leading up to it, so he didn't need to explain any of that.

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strategist
2022-07-08 12:39 am UTC (link)

A wave of deep sadness washed over Peggy when she heard his response. Frozen. Physically and in time.

"Oh Steve..." She shook her head. "That must have been awful. Even if you barely remember it."

She could only imagine how disorienting it was when he was revived. In the future, into an entirely unfamiliar world from the one he knew. Not so dissimilar, perhaps, from her experience waking up here.

"I'm so sorry you had to go through that," she said softly, with sympathetic eyes. "And go through it alone. That must have been very difficult for you."

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_onyourleft_
2022-07-10 01:39 am UTC (link)

He smiled at that, small but sincere. There was no denying the warmth he felt at her response. At the real sympathy for something which had happened to him so long ago now. "Thank you, Peggy. It was hard at first. But it was a long time ago now."

The smile grew slightly as he went on, admittedly happy to change the subject. He wasn't too good at dwelling on the past. "But I know a little of what it's like to be thrust into the future the way you have. It's okay if it takes a little while to find your footing."

When it had been him, the part of him that hadn't wanted to just go back, had just wanted to get on with things. Throw himself back into life and carry on.

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