Peggy Carter (aspeggysays) wrote in valloic, @ 2021-01-18 11:25:00 |
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Entry tags: | !: action/thread/log, ₴ inactive: peggy carter, ₴ inactive: steve rogers |
Log: Steve Rogers & Peggy Carter
But first, she was going to have coffee with Steve Rogers, who was alive, here in Vallo. And there was a feeling she got, from the conversations she'd witnessed, that there was even more to the story than that from her own past.
She knew Steve would be punctual, and she tried not to pace in the small kitchen of the apartment she was staying in. She'd put on a kettle, set out to cups. She had tea ready for herself, but he had mentioned coffee, so she made sure to have some of that on hand as well, if he preferred it. While she waited, Peggy wondered what time had caused her mind to forget. She was curious to know what had brought him here. She was eager to see what he might know of everything else in their timeline that she had yet to experience.
When the knock came at the door, she steeled herself, crossed to it, and opened it. She looked at him, smiling widely, eyes bright. "Steve," she said. "It's - really good to see you."
Of all the people who could show up in Vallo, Peggy Carter was honestly both the most hoped for and least prepared for person that Steve could have ever asked for. He'd seen her on her death bed, known that she'd moved on and gotten married. Had two kids. Was the reason SHIELD existed and an idol to so many professional agents. Where in that timeline was she from? Was she from right after he'd radioed in, letting her know he was taking the plane down? Was she from around the time he'd briefly spotted her during his trips to recover and return the stones? Somewhere in between?
There were a lot of thoughts, concerns, and curiosities swirling in Steve's head and for someone usually so very confident in everything he did, he suddenly felt a bit awkward again. He'd had enough time after he'd been thawed out to try and move on with his life and knew that she'd made the best of his apparent death. But he also knew there'd always be a place in his heart for her. Well. There was only one way to find out, so when she opened the door, he'd been in the process of shifting the bag of bagels and spreads to his left hand and he just naturally drifted into a soft smile when he saw her.
"I have so many things trying to fall out of my mouth at once. It's great to see you, too, Peggy,"
At that, her smile only widened. "Come in," she said, stepping back to make room. Peggy closed the door behind him and took a moment to look at him, trying not to make it obvious. He looked different from what she remembered, and she wondered if that was due to his time spent here or something else entirely. "I suppose we have some catching up to do," she continued, for want of anything better to say in the moment. "Can I get you something to drink? I have the kettle on, and a small selection of teas. I'm sure it's no surprise that I haven't taken much time to do much else, considering the circumstances."
"Some tea would be great. I'd considered picking up coffee with the bagels, but it occurred to me you wouldn't just be sitting around waiting for me to show up," answered Steve, still smiling. And the call seemingly paid off, she must've already thought ahead and put on the kettle. Good thing he hadn't shown up trying to juggle coffee and bagels. Top that off with him now recalling that she preferred tea anyway, he felt a bit better about only showing up with the food.
He set the bag on the table nearby and adamantly reminded himself not to shove his hands into his pockets, but still had the general nervous energy of not knowing what to do with his hands. Instead, he took in the layout of the room, which was pretty generic in Morningside until you had enough time to give it more of a personal touch. Which, in turn, seemed to come along with more of your own items being randomly gifted by Vallo or just making local purchases.
"Tea's coming right up," Peggy said, turning away from him and busying herself with the tea, even though the kettle was still heating up. While she waited for it, she opened a tea bag for each of them and got them ready. "Milk or sugar?" she asked, realizing that even though they'd spent so much time together, she couldn't recall ever knowing how he took his tea.
She turned to look at him over her shoulder. "Bagels sound great. I haven't managed anything for breakfast yet. I slept longer than I'd intended."
"Some of both, please?" he answered, nodding. "Arrival here takes a bit of a toll at first, I think it has to do with how much of it you're already used to. My first day, I ran into someone with blue skin and horns, the minotaur who sells the bagels, and someone I'm pretty sure is part fish. Mind has to do a few flip-flops to adjust." Steve smiled over his shoulder before adding, "Plus I doubt you were well-rested before you arrived."
When the kettle whistled, she poured the tea and fixed it for each of them, then turned and handed him his cup. "That's certainly an introduction to this place," she said. "I haven't met very many others yet. Though I have a lot of questions. How long have you been here?" was the first one she asked.
Steve accepted the cup with both hands and took a moment to appreciate the heat and aroma. He hadn't grown up around tea, but he'd learned to enjoy it as an adult. Military coffee may have had something to do with the appreciation of tea, but that was another story. "Beginning of November, actually. So not long, just enough to get through the holidays, which aren't celebrated locally but there's still people who get into the spirit here."
"That's still a long time," Peggy said. She kept her hands wrapped around her cup as well, but stood where she was and looked up at him. "Can I ask -?" she started. "I'm still sorting through how everything here works, and I understand that there are people here from various universes and timelines, but - well, I suppose I'm wondering where in -" she almost said our "- your timeline you're from."
"SHIELD found me and managed to bring me back in 2012," answered Steve, pausing to let that be absorbed while taking a sip from his cup and trying to collect his thoughts. There'd been so many things that had happened since then, he didn't really stop and consider just how long he'd been at it. "But it was 2023 when I found myself here. There's a lot of events in that time, though. Enough to take probably all week to cover." He glanced to his side and gestured. "Do you want to sit?"
It was more that Peggy needed to sit rather than wanting to. She nodded and reached out for a chair, sliding into it. "Found you," she repeated. "That's over fifty years … how did finding you -" Peggy was certain she should be able to understand this better than how she was doing so far. She set the cup of tea on the table and folded her hands in front of her. "How were you still alive?"
Once Peggy was settled into her chair, Steve moved to sit into one opposite her and put on his 'sympathetic and understanding face,' as Tony called it. "I won't claim to know all the science behind it, but I think it has to do with Dr. Erskine's formula. Suspended animation, I think they called it. Let's just say the world was a bit of a shock when I went outside for the first time."
He still remembered that first moment, just staring around at the buildings and lights, billboards, cars, everything so drastically different. In hindsight, it was a lot like showing up in Vallo.
Peggy sipped slowly from her tea, even though it was still hot, gave herself a moment's pause before responding. "Until this happened to me, I'm certain I would have said it was unimaginable." It was a steep learning curve for her here, in understanding Vallo and its futuristic ways. But she was learning that Steve's learning curve was not as sharp as hers was. "That's very fortunate for you," she said. "That you survived, mostly."
"Just goes to show that the world will always find a way to spit you back out if it decides to," mused Steve, not entirely sure how to read her response. He certainly didn't always feel too fortunate, but he wasn't raised to buckle under pressure or have low expectations of himself. "Can I ask you the same? Where in our timeline this place plucked you from?" He'd have to be careful not to reveal too much of what would be the future to her, though she could easily look it up if she wanted. This place had records of everything.
"The end of the war was just about three years ago," she told him, "and you'd disappeared shortly before that." Peggy looked at him from behind the rim of her tea cup. It occurred to her that he might know more about what had happened to her than had already happened to her at this point in her life. And after her conversation with Daisy, she knew that many people did. "I don't mind knowing more about my own future," she said confidently. "After all, it's not going to be the same now that I'm here, now is it?"
"I think it actually will be the same. I've been told that when you get sent home, you don't remember your time here, but I also don't think anyone knows everything about the situation," admitted Steve, leaning to rest his elbows on his knees. He peered up at Peggy, knowing that if she wanted to find out about her future, she would - with or without his help. But he was still hesitant. "Are you sure? It's not better to just live in the now?"
Peggy held up a hand for a moment. "I meant that it wouldn't matter to me, that my current future isn't the same as that one, as I'm here now and my future is here, not there." She shrugged and took a moment to regroup herself. "I'd prefer to know, and I'd prefer to hear it from someone I care about, not from any files I can get my hands on."
That got a humored smile from Steve. "It's funny you say that, since files are how I found out what I know. But I certainly understand that feeling. I would've loved to learn about your life from you directly, too."
And for the next half hour, Steve detailed out everything he knew regarding Peggy's history, from her post-War activities, her dealings with the SSR, her move to Los Angeles and her experiences there, to the founding of SHIELD and how she was it's director for most of her career (which was, in turn, why he gave them a chance), to how she became a huge role model for countless female agents.
"I'm sure it's all different from your perspective, but you made the world a better place."
That was an awful lot for her to take in, but she listened intently and let her tea go cold without finishing it. When he was done, though she knew he probably could have kept talking for another hour or more, she pressed her hands against the table and let out a long, shuddering breath. "Well, it's good to hear that I didn't just sit around and drink tea all day, isn't it."
"I don't think you could have even if you wanted to," answered Steve, chuckling softly. He knew he'd left a lot out, including the Alzheimer's, but what good would telling her that one day her memory would fail her and she'd be frail in bed? Peggy Carter in her prime was a force to be reckoned with and he was just glad to have this time with her. "Oh, and you still found time for a marriage and children, so there was at least some downtime for our hero."
Of course she couldn't have, she almost said, but stopped short when he added the bit about her getting married, having children. She raised an eyebrow and sat back a little in her seat. "Oh, I did? No chance you know who the lucky bloke was, do you?" In her life right now, there were only two men she could see herself staying with, and she'd already met the son of one of them without any indication that she could have been his mother. Probably for the best, anyway. Not only that, but they weren't the only men left in the world either. At one point in her life, not too long ago, she might have said the man sitting before her was the only one who she thought could be in her life that way, but that moment had passed.
"I admit I purposefully stayed away from that information, for my own well-being. I was presumed dead, you had every right to move on with your life. It wouldn't do me any good to be jealous of someone else, decades later." And, eventually, I learned to move on, too.
Steve sat his cup down on the table, empty, and wringed his hands briefly. "Whoever he is, I'm sure he's very proud of you, too."
"I guess if I really want to know, I could look it up, but I think that might be the one thing I'm not interested in finding out." The fact that Steve didn't know at least solidified the answer to whether or not she ended up with Howard, and to her surprise, she felt relieved at that.
A moment later, Peggy reached out and squeezed his hands briefly. "Thank you for telling me all of this, Steve. It's - it helps to know. At least now I won't be ignorant whenever people know more than I do."
"Anything for my best girl," answered Steve, the smile coming easily to his face. "The people here tend to be respectful of everyone's lives, which might just be that they've been through the same thing." As if that reminded him of something, he leaned over and slid the bag of bagels closer to Peggy, nodding that she should take a look. Bagels had come a long way in the last half century.
Peggy smiled right back and looked through the bag. It may have been a universe and half a century away, but Steve still managed to bring something she'd like. She chose a cinnamon sugar bagel for herself and then nudged the bag back to him. "Thank you," she said simply. "For the bagels but also for telling me everything. I appreciate it. And I'm - glad I'm here, and you're here, and I can get to try a different life here, too."