Martha Jones (greyhoundsix) wrote in valarlogs, @ 2015-02-24 21:25:00 |
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Entry tags: | !complete, martha jones, peggy carter |
Who: Martha Jones and Peggy Carter
What: Randomly meeting and an even more random job offer
When: Backdated: Mid February
Where: Starbucks
Rating/Warnings: Family Friendly
Status: Complete!
On her days off, Martha usually spent them catching up on the things she’d been unable to do while she’d been working, but this time, luckily, Martha hadn’t had much to catch up on, because her apartment was clean and she’d gone food shopping and done her laundry before her last shift, so today she had the full day off to herself so she’d decided to go out for a while instead of sleeping through the day. She had two days off in a row this week, so she had plenty of time to catch up on that later on. She hadn’t set out with a specific destination, but after all the snow they’d gotten in December, she had decided to walk to wherever she was going and eventually ended up at the Starbucks near her apartment and decided to stop in to grab a latte before continuing on.
Peggy was running a little behind this morning, but she technically didn’t have anything planned for the morning, so she wouldn’t really be late. And could the boss be late? But she needed a little bit of a pick-me up this morning before she got to work, which was why she was dashing into the local Starbucks on her way to work. It wasn’t horribly busy yet, but she walked inside to get into the line behind another young woman. Hopefully this wouldn’t take too long and Peggy spent a moment trying to decide what to get when she noticed a ruckus up from. The voices were loud enough that she could hear the customer complaining about them not having almond milk out yet and Peggy sighed and complained softly, “People just can’t be happy can they?”
Martha sighed as the commotion began and glanced behind her at the woman who spoke, “Oh, if you think that’s bad, the other day a woman started arguing with the barista cause she claimed that they gave her skim milk when she asked for non-fat. Even when they apologized and said they’d make it over and it’d be free, she kept going on. Held up the line for about fifteen minutes.” Martha glanced back at the front to see what was going on then back at the woman behind her, “Personally, I can’t tell the difference between different types of milk unless I’m drinking just the milk.”
“My goodness, that’s just stupid. I don’t understand how people think it’s okay to argue all the time and how they can’t tell the difference between milk. And I agree, it’s really not that big of a difference to me because you’re going to get it completely covered by a million other flavors in your drink,” Peggy didn’t really understand people’s attitudes nowadays. Sometimes she wished she was back in her dreams because people didn’t argue about petty things like this. But then again she spent a lot of time in the battlefield so listening to people argue at the store wasn’t something she had to deal with much.
“Exactly! Besides, skim or low fat, it makes no difference when you add whip cream and caramel.” Martha shook her head at the memory of the argument the woman had had with the barista. “Not to mention, people are a lot more likely to want to help you if you don’t argue. I mean, all it does it make you look crazy to everyone else.” She’d seen it in the hospital with patients and families of patients before and other stores and restaurants in the past.
“That’s always my favorite. When people automatically assume their coffee will be healthier with a different milk, but go and add in those extra things that add calories. And exactly, people are far more likely to go out of their way to help you with things if you remain calm and are nice to them. Being grumpy just makes people irritated and they want to help you less,” that’s why Peggy did her best to be kind to people that were helping her. She didn’t want to people that person that ruined someone’s day or got talked about after she left, “Good manners are hard to come by nowadays.”
Martha nodded, “You can say that again. I see it all the time at the hospital. I mean, I get that sometimes people are a little high strung cause they’re sick or one of their loved ones is sick or hurt or whatever, but we’re not miracle workers. We do our best and sometimes we don’t even have all the answers.” Of course it was frustrating when Martha was unable to help someone for one reason or another, but it didn’t make her mood any better when she had someone yelling at her over it.
“Oh I can only imagine the craziness that goes on there,” Peggy felt for this woman. She certainly seemed to have a good head on her shoulders and most likely didn’t deserve to be yelled at by people at the hospital. It was amazing how people put up with that stuff and didn’t give in to the beat down. But then her attention was distracted by the front, “Oh look, we’re finally moving. Thank goodness.”
“Trust me, you don’t want to imagine it.” Martha said as they stepped up a little in line, “Now we just have to hope that no one else will find anything to complain about before we get up there.” It was possible that something else could go wrong, but Martha sure hoped that there wasn’t, “I’m just glad I’m not in a hurry to get anywhere.”
“I should probably be on my way to work, but I think they won’t mind if I’m a little late. I don’t have any meetings, so that’s a good thing,” Peggy commented with a bit of a chuckle. The line was starting to move a little faster now that people weren’t complaining anymore, “But yes, fingers crossed that we can make it through the line without any more incidents.”
“I’m guessing that you’ve got a high enough position that you can decide when you go back,” Sometimes Martha wished that she could decide when she went into work, but in all honesty, she enjoyed her job, because she got to help people. She only wished that the hospital wasn’t constantly short staffed.
“Haha, yeah, just recently got a promotion so now I can come in a little bit late,” Peggy couldn’t help but chuckle. The Agency was a little more lax about attendance sometimes because a lot of people were out in the field. Each position was different and Peggy liked when people held themselves up to a high standard when setting their schedules and coming in on time.
“Congratulations.” While they had just met, Martha still felt like it would be nice for her to congratulate the other woman on her promotion, “That must be nice to have a little leeway there.” They moved up a little more in line, “I have a long way to go before I get any sort of promotion. Only finished my residency fairly recently. Although, considering some of stuff that has gone on since then though and the hours I’ve clocked, I think I deserve some sort of promotion.” First there had been the blue flu, which had seen most of Orange County near death then the accidents caused by the snow that many people in Orange County weren’t used to and the various orc or goblin invasions and the falling ash from the volcano last year, Martha had probably worked more than most doctors in the last two years. And of course taking care of various dream related injuries from various people.
“Do you like where you’re working? And residency? Medical doctor, I’m assuming,” She questioned with an arch of her eyebrow after thanking the woman for the congratulations. It was sweet of her. And it didn’t sound like her job was the best if she was stuck in a stalemate when it came to promotions and such. However, doctors were always needed at the Agency and they could certainly be more competitive with pay than a regular hospital. And if she was a Dreamer than she would fully understand what was going on.
Martha nodded, “At St. Joseph’s in Orange.” It wasn’t that she didn’t enjoy her job or the hospital, but sometimes she wished she worked at one of the larger hospitals or rotated to other hospitals like Nina did. “Been there for just over two years now. Maybe almost two and a half years. I’ve gotta say though, I’ve seen a lot of interesting things in these last few years. Things I’m sure I’d never have seen if I’d stayed in Boston.” That was an understatement.
“Mmmmm,” Peggy mused aloud for a moment before grabbing a business card out of her purse, “You must be on the Valar network. Listen, if you’re ever interested in talking about what you’ve seen and potentially going to a new job feel free to come to the address on this card and ask for me. I’m always on the look out for people I think could be of use in figuring out this whole Dreaming thing. You probably have a lot more first-hand experience than I do when it comes to the medical side of things.”
The last thing Martha had expected was for the woman to hand her a business card and basically offer her a job. “Wow, um, yeah. I’d like that.” She’d be lying if she said she wasn’t extremely interested already and she couldn’t help but be reminded of her time in Unit. “I’ll definitely give you a call…” She glanced down at the card again before looking back up, “Peggy.” Smiling, she extended her other hand, “I’m Martha, by the way. Martha Jones.” If she was unofficially being offered a job, she should at least introduce herself.
“Peggy Carter,” Peggy answered as she shook the woman’s hand. It wasn’t uncommon for Peggy to talk to someone about a potential job before even knowing their name. She tended to base those things on their merit and figure out the specifics later, “I really do hope you decide to stop by and set something up. I think it may be a place that you enjoy being a part of. And look, it’s your turn to order.” That brought forth a grin from Peggy as she noticed that they were finally at the register and Martha was able to put an order in.
“I will definitely take it into consideration. Thank you so much.” This was definitely a surprise and something that Martha would not pass up easily. As she reached the front of the line, she turned and gave her order then moved aside, “And your order is on me too, by the way.” She said to Peggy; it was the least she could do after the other woman had basically offered her a job and she wasn’t going to take no for an answer.