Who: Peggy and Cindy What: Peggy checks in on a new employee Where: The Agency When: Monday the 4th Rating: G Status: Complete
The holidays were usually a time when things got a little hectic around the Agency, but that was due to people taking vacations, new hires coming in, and just all around cabin fever. It didn’t help that once again there was a snow storm in the OC and all sorts of random Christmas themed things were taking place. Peggy could have done without the confrontation by Frosty the Snowman the other day because he scared her half to death and she felt bad putting a dent in his head from her purse. Luckily she was able to patch that up with some snow, but he was probably telling his imaginary friends to stay away from her.
But the holidays were finally over and so were the shenanigans, which meant it was a normal work week. One of the main things on her agenda had been to check in with Cindy now that she was officially a member of the Agency. She had been pleased that Garrus liked his job enough to bring his spouse in and she wanted to check in to make things were going well. After clearing through some emails she locked her computer and stepped away. Heels clicked on the floor as she went to the elevators and made her way down to where Cindy’s cubicle was located. She spotted the blonde at her desk and turned the corner and knocked slightly on the fake wall. “Good morning,” it was 10:30, still morning, right?
Definitely still morning. Perfect time to guzzle coffee - which Cindy did, generally throughout the day as well. She had her cubicle mostly set up, wanting to make it a little personalized - there were pictures here and there, a wedding photo, one of her and her bridesmaids, even one of her with those two vapid stepsisters. Family togetherness, and shit, she would concede that things were better between her and her royal southern brood. There were also a couple of plant magnets (actual plants, yes), and a ‘mural’ of a map of the world that was split up into separate parts on one of the walls - it looked snazzy.
When Peggy came by she was working on some analysis and reports - checking and double checking against the templates from other previous internal security reports, but generally, this branch of the Agency was kind of vacant and needed some revamping. So, Cindy with her background in loss prevention and FBI investigations, would gladly step in. “Director Carter, hi,” she grinned, rolling closer in her computer chair after turning away from the screen.
“It’s good to see you.” Who didn’t admire Peggy Carter at least a little, come on now. “Did you have a good holiday?”
Amidst all the...weird shit going on. At least they were never bored here.
Brown eyes quickly glanced around Cindy’s cube to take in how she had personalized it. It almost made her wish that she had a cubicle because it was far easier to decorate that with knick knacks than it was to decorate a massive office. She did have a small bookshelf behind her desk that she kept a few things from England and her family on, but one couldn’t hang up loads of pictures of her friends and family on the wall. Apparently she had to give off a professional vibe, but she did at least have a frame photo of her family on her desk at the moment. And a photo of Steve from her dreams in her desk, but she didn’t talk about that.
Cindy’s cubicle was sweet and it certainly spoke of Cindy’s personality. “You can just call me Peggy, if you want. I’m certainly not a tough military man who needs to be addressed by his station,” that was one of the first things she had tried to diminish once she stepped into this position. Long ago she almost felt like her actual first name was Agent.
“Good to see you as well. I wanted to stop by and see how things were going now that things should be back to normal without all the holiday hubbub. And as for my holiday, I took out part of Frosty’s face by accident and my parents came to visit. So, in all, it was quite eventful,” a slow smile spread over Peggy’s lips as she spoke and the corners of her mouth were ready to laugh, “How was your first Christmas as a newlywed”
“Peggy, then, that works,” Cindy brushed her bangs from her face, side-sweeping with her fingers - and she laughed when detail was relayed about the unfortunate Frosty incident. “I heard he was around, a friend of mine gave him a scarf. But aw, poor guy missing part of his face. What did your parents think about everything?”
Because they had to have noticed. Maybe they just thought that Orange County really got into stuff for the holidays. Complete with freakish snow that the residents were actually sort of prepared for and used to by now. Ah, global warming.
“My holiday was good too,” she shrugged one shoulder. “Surprisingly tame, given all of that definite hubbub. But we had a tree, and I roasted chestnuts in our firepit, we Skyped the families, it wasn’t bad at all.”
“I did manage to fix it,” Peggy quickly pointed out with a small grimace and then a laugh to follow up. She had felt absolutely awful about it, “There was some snow on the ground so I spent about twenty minutes fixing up his face. And my parents...well…” That was certainly a hard one to explain. She had no idea what to tell them when they had shown up and noticed that there was actually snow on the ground.
“Well, I explained we had a freak weather incident because of El Nino and then the couple times they saw random characters running amok I told them that people really took the holidays to heart here. I tried to keep them inside as much as possible, which was accomplished fairly well given the new child in the family. Thank god for tiny Vivian,” it had been a blessing that Viv was able to capture everyone’s attention. It also helped that she and Sharon had put together various plans of things for them to do that would keep them out of the stress of the OC.
Peggy’s shoulder rested against the edge of the cubicle wall as she listened to Cindy explain her holidays and chuckled, “People actually roast chestnuts? I don’t think I’ve ever seen that done in real life. But sounds like such a lovely way to spend your first holiday together. And now you’re unfortunately back at work, but at least you can bother him into having lunch with you every day.”
El Nino was actually a viable excuse. You really could blame just about anything on freak weather patterns. “That’s us, we really love the jolly holiday season,” Cindy chuckled, with a good ol’ gung-ho pantomime. “But staying inside, good plan. Especially with Viv, she’s too adorable, it’s like her cuteness sucks you in anyway.”
That photo of Cindy with her bridesmaids also included the flower girl, Baby Viv, who was chubby and sporting a gummy smile, not to mention a little bow in all that dark fuzz on her peach-like head. She deserved to be covered with affection and all the tummy raspberries, ever.
“But oh, wait, you’ve never had roasted chestnuts?” She had to feign southern shock for a moment there. “There’s nothing better, on a crisp winter’s day. Next time, we’ll have you over. And I sort of like being back at work, I’ve never been the cabin fever sort. Though I was actually wondering if you wanted to grab lunch sometime. Today, maybe, if you’re free?”
The pantomime earned a hearty laugh from Peggy and she nodded her head in agreement to the comment about Viv, “Oh she totally sucks you in. It must be a baby thing because my mother was more than happy to go spend time with the baby over me. I also couldn’t help but be sucked into it as well. Well, until my mother started bothering me about when I’m going to give them some grandchildren.” Granted, she had introduced Steve to her parents, but she was far from the place where she wanted kids of her own.
Viv was a worthy supplement for the time being and maybe it would drive her to want her own children, but she was happy to play Auntie. More than happy to hand the child over when things started to go south. Nothing scared Peggy anymore except for a crying child because she hadn’t been trained to handle that.
“I may have had them as a child wandering the streets of London during holiday, but I can’t say that I’ve ever roasted them myself,” Peggy explained before smiling at the offer, “I’ll certainly have to take you up on that. Experience it for myself. And lunch? I can certainly do that today. I don’t have much on my plate right now, so I’d be more than happy to come back down around noon. We can discuss how things are going and if you’re still happy that you decided to join our little crazy workplace.”
“Oh god, the grandkid talk,” Cindy rolled her eyes. “I think all parents do that, don’t they? Mine definitely do. Garrus’ family, not so much, though I think his sister is pretty eager for a niece or a nephew.” Though knowing their luck, they’d probably have twins or something - two of everything, how great.
It was still a bit before noon, sure, but Cindy was definitely on track for thinking about lunch. She loved to eat, and loved to eat a lot. “Things are definitely good, I’m glad that I got a chance to come on board here - I was already peeking over Sharon’s shoulder a lot to marry the Agency and the FBI stuff, so now it’s a lot easier for me. But anyway, noon it is,” she nodded. “No chestnuts, sadly - “ Well, even when she’d roasted them Garrus couldn’t have any because he’d die (very sad!), so, he stuck with wieners instead, “...but maybe Mediterranean? I’ve been feeling hummus for some reason, no clue why.” With some pita bread, maybe a salad. There went her rumbling tummy.
“They really do. I’m sure it’s worse for you now because you’re married. I get the ‘When are you going to find a nice man, get married, and give us grandchildren’ speech at least once a year. At least Garrus’ family is keeping fairly mum about it; that would certainly make it a lot more manageable,” Peggy totally gave her sympathy to Cindy and Garrus because it seemed like society was far more interested in when you were going to reproduce than if you were going to be able to enjoy your marriage.
“I’m glad that you were interested. I’m usually just a little hesitant to bring couples into the same workplace, but you have a great background that it would be silly to not bring you in,” she had heard the workplace horror stories when it came to places like this. Someone gets divorced and suddenly all their secrets are spilled by their ex partner. Or the craziness that happens if one of them gets injured in the line of duty, “Mediterranean sounds perfect. Hummus is so good. I swear if they brought me a large place of that, some pita, and some olives I would probably die of gluttony. Any particular restaurant you want to go to or should I do a Yelp search?”
It was true - enjoying your marriage was kind of a foreign idea; sometimes even the pressure to have children became too much for wedded couples. It was annoying, because a personal choice like that shouldn’t be rushed - some women didn’t even want children, for a variety of reasons. Not everyone had the maternal instinct. Cindy felt that she did, someday, but now it wasn’t the right time.
“Sexism is great, isn’t she?” she grinned ruefully. Like it was the woman’s ‘duty’ to pop out a litter of kittens. Fuck. “But, well, screw that. We are awesome ladies, we’ll break down the barriers. You have those grandchildren when you’re good and ready.”
As for lunch, she had just the place in mind. Being a vegetarian meant that she did a lot of comparison shopping, when it came to finding good places to eat. “There’s a place in Costa Mesa I have in mind - best falafel, and fried cauliflower. Might have to hit the gym after that one, but well worth it, I promise,” she chuckled.
“It’s alive and well. The world has changed, but the generation of our grandparents and parents haven’t caught up to the fact that we don’t need to populate the world. We can go explore our lives, but I agree with you about screwing that,” Peggy admitted with a chuckle, “And same goes for you. We will do whatever we want with our lives.” It was very true. If she hadn’t been born in this day and age she probably wouldn’t be running a place like this. The patriarchy was very adept at what they did and so engrained in the world.
“That sounds lovely. And don’t worry, I think we all get enough training in that you won’t have to fret too much about it,” Peggy lived by the rule that life was short and you should just enjoy what you wanted while you could. It also helped that she was training constantly and could eat whatever she wanted, but she had wistful thoughts of a future when she retired and could just be fat and happy, “I’ll come back down here and noon and we can head over there?”
Cindy had similar thoughts herself. Now that she’d literally died and come back from a very brief trek into the afterlife, she knew that she wanted to do so many things before it finally took - like have children, grandchildren, retire, buy a piece of farmland somewhere, a place where she could grow her own vegetables and Garrus could calibrate whatever the fuck he wanted, to his heart’s desire. And they would die together, at the same time, side by side in their rockers on the front porch.
Cheesy, but perfectly doable. She just had a few years (a lot) before it would become a reality.
“Definitely. Gotta stay fit to combat the weirdness of our happy little home,” she laughed. “But sure. I’ll finish up these rough drafts and then by the time I look at the clock again, it’ll be noon.”
Lunch with the Director? Especially Peggy ‘I Will Step On Your Face and You Will Like It’ Carter? Couldn’t get much more awesome than that. Switching jobs seemed to be a better and better idea all the time.