InsaneJournal

Peggy ran into Phil in the mess hall at breakfast. She had a bowl of oatmeal in one hand and a cup of coffee in the other as she walked up to the table he was sitting at. "Agent Coulson," she said, teasing, "do you mind if I join you?"

Howard's appearance, quite unexpectedly as it was, had actually flustered Peggy more than she cared to admit. While it was nice having him around - she didn't want to confess to having missed him in the first place - he certainly brought a different level of, well, everything to Peggy's life. She felt even a little bit like the air was different, on edge, buzzing, with him around. She tried to push that thought out of her mind as she sat across from Phil and smiled at him.

Phil looked up and smiled. Meals with Peggy were always a pleasant surprise. Although they worked together in the traveler liaison office, their shifts didn't always overlap and work was work. Whereas a meal meant they didn't have to worry about work. "Of course not, Agent Carter. Please, have a seat."

Years in SHIELD meant that phil was used to eating when he could, so three square meals in the mess was a bit of an adjustment. He had oatmeal with freeze dried fruit and coffee. Coffee was always a requirement. "How are you doing?"

"I'm fine," she said automatically, but it came out with a bit of a sigh as she dumped some sugar into her coffee and raise it to her lips for a sip. "Actually, I was hoping to catch you. I know it's breakfast and we're not working exactly yet but now that you've been here a while, and now that the liaison office has grown, I thought I might get your opinion on an idea I've been considering. Do you mind?"

Phil chuckled with a bit of a smile. "Peggy, I'm used to SHIELD, where there isn't much of distinction between work and non-work. Feel free to hit me with any ideas," he said as he took a sip of his coffee.

She tilted her head to the side. "That might be true, but we're not operating under SHIELD here. We're not even Starfleet. I've been doing my best, at least, to separate work from pleasure, though as you can see it doesn't always work." Peggy rarely even made it to the lounge or anywhere except the traveler liaison office, here, and her quarters.

"I've been thinking about this for a while now, but Admiral Pike's recent network post brought it to mind again. Do you think our fellow travelers might benefit from being paired permanently with a liaison?" She sipped her coffee. "Now, obviously we are all available to them at any given time, but excepting their day one here, we don't always seek out travelers to ensure they're doing all right."

"Perhaps you just need more pleasure to distract you from the work," Phil deadpanned, though his lips quirked in a bit of a smirk as he spoke. He took a sip of coffee as he considered her proposal. "It makes sense, especially since the number of travelers doesn't seem to be lessening. Almost as if we would be case workers - responsible for a set number of travelers. Which means we could keep better tabs on them - how they're adjusting, if there are any concerns or needs that we need to be aware of… the proposal has merit. It might be a bit too big brother for some, but I don't think it needs to be intrusive like that."

Peggy met his gaze and blushed. "Maybe I do," she said quietly.

Then she cleared her throat and picked up her spoon to start on her oatmeal. She didn't want to let her mind wander like that, not with Steve gone and Howard here. But - she ate a bite of her breakfast and quickly moved on. "I don't want it to be intrusive either, so perhaps on a volunteer basis? As in, travelers can sign up for the program. We can pair each up with a liaison that fits them. For instead, I might be better suited for those from an earlier Earth time period whereas you have experience with, well, superheroes."

"Oh, I'm certainly you can wrangle Cap or Tony just as well as I did if not better," Phil said, his gaze lingering on Peggy's blush just a little too long before glancing back down at his oatmeal. "That would take away the big brother aspect, for certain, but I don't think it would hurt to have the remaining travelers divided among us, even if just for logistic purposes."

"Steve, I'm sure, Tony, I don't know about. He's - well, he's certainly Howard's son." She smiled at that and then wiped her mouth with her napkin before picking up her PADD. She drew her finger along it and then pursed her lips. "There are currently six of us in the liaison program. And … 84 travelers, total. That's still quite a lot to divide among us."

Phil chuckled at that accurate statement. "I'll take Tony and you can have Howard. That turns out to be approximately… 12 each? Perhaps we could recruit more people to work in the traveler liaison program? That's like managing two teams. Doable if not ideal. Obviously keeping it under ten each would be preferable.

She could have Howard. How appropriate. She almost laughed but managed not to. "We can start with recruiting more, yes. Do you have any thoughts right away about who might be good at it?"

"Not off the top of my head, but if we take a look at the manifest, I might be able to come up with a few names." Phil took another sip of coffee. "Maybe Maria Hill - but that's mostly because I've worked with her before."

"She worked with in SHIELD, yes?" Peggy asked, thinking back on the brief conversations that she'd had with Agent Hill. "I imagine that would mean she has the right skill set to be a liaison. I'm not sure who else I'd suggest, though I did mention it to Miss Weasley. She's the young redheaded witch. She's friendly and personable, and I think she'd do a good job, though she has reservations about it."

"She did. She worked with me on the Avengers initiative with me. Of course, she may be more comfortable working in security." He nodded. He knew of Ginny Weasley, though he hadn't had many interactions with this one yet. "What are her reservations?"

"There are many people working in security, yes, I considered it as well." Though she didn't like the feel of a phaser in hand, preferred her gun. "Miss Weasley claims it doesn't fit her personality And that she would grow bored."

Phil couldn't help but chuckle at that. "She sounds like all the young agents - eager to get out into the field. But we can put out a call for some more folks to work in the liaison office."

Peggy smiled. "Good. Hopefully we can gain more liaisons before we lose any," she said. "I think that the more of us that there are willing to help each other figure this whole situation out, the better."