[ it's almost empty, this room. the standard issue bed and locker still sit in place, but there's also a thick-sided trunk at the foot of the bed that holds a number of peggy's personal affects. when steve arrives, and his knock draws her attention, she'd been in the process of looking from trunk to doorway -- sorting out her preliminary thoughts for moving the trunk outside and down the hall to her new quarters as captain. it had taken her a long time to assume the previous captain's room, but now she had the impetus to free up this one. ]
You weren't lying about being here shortly. [ her smile is almost guilty. ] I thought I'd have the place wholly emptied for you before you arrived.
[ it's nice to see her like this, on her off time. he almost looks away, her room is her own, after all and steve, forever insistent on good manners will not walk in unless she asks him to. still, she's lovely in this moment of quietness. ]
Doing perfectly well, actually. [ she gives the trunk a nudge with her well-shoed toe. ] Apart from this being the last of my things to move from the old room into my new room. Once that's done, the place it yours. Promise.
[ that's right, steve. you're getting a hand-me-down room. but only of the highest quality. ]
Lend a hand, why don't you. [ she could carry it alone. but why not make use of the super soldier? ]
[ he picks it up, leveling it easily in his arms, looking around. it'll take a few days to get used to this, for her scent to leave the place and for him to start thinking of it as his. he doesn't mind it, not one bit, the traces of her presence in the corners ]
Two doors down. Captain's quarters. [ frankly, he'll know it when he steps in -- a busy vanity-cum-workdesk in one corner and a well-pressed skirt hanging over the locker door. feminine, but precise. ]
[ he notes how close everything seems to be. it's the same all over, so much he had gathered from his many trips to the different ships but maybe it's even more evident here with one peggy carter being two doors down the hall.
he places down the trunk at the side of the room, giving her space to move about ]
Captain.
[ he nods his head to her, smiling a bit. it's like old times, really. ]
[ will she ever adapt to the title? likely not, and less so coming from his mouth. but she meets it with grace and good will, nodding as she enters behind him. peggy reaches for the chair tucked under her vanity, and then gestures at a second pushed against the far wall. ]
Take a seat, if you like. [ only a moment's hesitation. she wishes she had a proper office, and not only her bedroom. ]
[ he stares at her for a moment before moving to sit, entirely sure he looks as awkward as he feels. they are creating a sort of a rhythm, he and her and it's a good one and then there are quiet moments like this, Steve Rogers sitting in front of Peggy Carter aboard some god forsaken spaceship in an unknown star system and it's so overwhelming in its simplicity that for a moment he can just look at her. ]
I've started looking into the moon issues. The - terraforming. it's hard to get a clear picture of something that happening centuries ago but I have my reading material.
If you're curious about the nuts and bolts of the moon, I'd suggest you speak with -- Max. [ her voice hitches before she speaks his name, but only because his name is so abhorrent to him. what else is she supposed to call him in mixed company? anything else might sound disparaging, and she has yet to properly outline the man to steve rogers. he takes something of a delicate touch. ]
One of our pilots. He jumped straight in to helping the natives with their mechanical work. He's spent time with him -- and has something of an affinity for wasted worlds. Only...
[ she hesitates while she takes a seat of her own. ] He's not easy to talk with.
[ sorry, peggy but that has to be the peak of unorthodox and Steve had been there and back, he can deal with Max. ]
I have some information from Allen Walker from the Blue Fish and Hank from the Blameless, he's a scientist but even he admits terraforming isn't really his field. Maybe with all of them combined we might achieve some process.
[ crowd-sourced solutions. basically, how she rolled in this fleet. but peggy isn't quite done with her warning: ] ] Only...don't actually call him Max when you do talk to him. He doesn't care much for the name. It's a bit of a long story.
I believe he was some sort of police officer before his whole world went to Hell -- so that might provoke him as much as anything else. But that shouldn't dissuade you from trying. [ ... ] So far as I've been able to observe, each new crewmate must come to their own agreement over what to call him. He's near-feral, at times...if he takes a swing at you, be patient with him.
[ she knows steve can as good as absorb a punch, but she still wants to warn him. ]
[ it'll do her no good to lie -- ] He looked about to, once. But he wasn't right in his mind at the time. A sort of tricky darkness had taken over him -- he hallucinates, I think. He hasn't used that particular word but...he says he sees ghosts.
[ these are secret things. private things. things, perhaps, she wouldn't tell anyone else who wasn't already in max's good graces. but she has a weakness for captain america, and spills these details under the understanding that steve should be her ally in his case. ]
Steve, even if he tried -- I wouldn't hold it against him. And nor should you. He's been a good member of this crew. And as much as he won't admit it, he needs our help. I only wanted to prime you so you when you met him, you'd know...
[ ... ] I've nudged him to make polite with Barnes. [ she won't call him winter, not with steve. it seems to cruel. ] They remind me of each other, in their current states.
[ he gives her a look that suggests that he's almost about to argue. To say that comparing whoever the man is to bucky isn't fair, to claim this sort of a person shouldn't be around her or wanda ( he's biased, terribly so ) but eventually there is only a sigh that's mostly acceptance ]
I think so. [ she won't commit entirely -- they are both so unpredictable, in the end. ] I was there the night they met. That, ah...dance? The one you'd just missed? [ her smile is slow and sad. ] I went with Barnes. And they met there, down on the moon. Like great big loyal mastiffs, they sized each other up and found each other acceptable.
[ as crass as the metaphor may be, she tells it with affection. ]
[ he is still waiting, patiently as he can for the time to come in which Bucky finds him acceptable but if he doesn't try to kill anyone or him that's progress enough for now. He had missed out, yet again, on a lot, the moment the man took the name Winter, his - tentative relationships with the rest of the fleet, with peggy.
Late, it would seem, as per usual. If only there was more than one hanging bag. ]
He's doing well, Steve. [ -- he hadn't asked. not truly. but she could tell that worry lurked under every look. steve's dearest friend hardly recognized him. but somehow, for some unknown reason, winter had found common ground with peggy carter. he could remember the red dress, at least... ]
Better than anyone could have anticipated. He struggles -- and he questions himself, which is a good sign.
[ there is a gap between them. a few feet, and she reaches across to take steve's hand. ] He, too, requires our patience. But I keep my eye on him, I swear.
[ and his hand tightens around hers, an explanation rushing up at once, to assure her it's not her he's questioning ]
Last time I've seen him he was -- upset.
[ well that term is as good as any ]
He saved my life but after that, I couldn't find him. I don't know hoe much he remembers. I think - if he does remember, he'll know what my share was in all of this.
[ in the end, it's he who didn't save him and knowing what they did to him - it'll always be his responsibility to bring him back. It's his fault he's as lost as he is begin with. ]
Your share's no weightier than my own. But -- he doesn't remember much. He did better with...[ jim, here. oh bloody hell. she has to tackle this now, doesn't she.
her cheeks puff. ] There was someone here who kept very good care of him -- he knew exactly how to talk to Barnes. Exactly how to treat him, and he did him a world of good. But if I begin to explain who that person was, you may never believe me.
[ a world of good, she says and he feels a stir of guilt and something else, a pang of envy. Bucky had taken care of him since before he can remember. Isn't his job to know how to help now?
Until the end of the line, he had echoed bucky's words to him but how much has he helped, really? He looks away from her for a moment ]
[ she sees his pain -- and regrets having caused it, however obliquely. her firecracker brain doesn't slow down, and she's quick to assuage the ache: ]
Me, too. He -- Heavens, Steve. You've been here long enough to hear people talk about alternate timelines. Whole universes, chock full of different choices?
One of the earliest connections I made upon my arrival was with a -- [ oh, she breathes out. before today, she thought this might be easier. simpler. but there's a heavy ache in her heart as she considers how to introduce jim barnes. she misses him terribly. even now, she wonders what sort of world he returned to. ]
He went by the name Jim. And he told me how during the battle on that HYDRA train, it was his world's Steve Rogers who fell. He took up his best friend's mantle. He became Captain America.
[ peggy cues up the shield intel file on her device, and leans forward just far enough to show steve: a document outlining the battle of new york against the chitauri -- but there is no ROGERS, STEVE present in the text. only BARNES, JIM. ]
Jim was as good as the Winter Soldier's keeper while he was here. For him, it must have been like trying to help heal a version of himself.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
action;
Date: 2016-05-14 04:07 pm (UTC)You weren't lying about being here shortly. [ her smile is almost guilty. ] I thought I'd have the place wholly emptied for you before you arrived.
action;
Date: 2016-05-14 05:13 pm (UTC)[ it's nice to see her like this, on her off time. he almost looks away, her room is her own, after all and steve, forever insistent on good manners will not walk in unless she asks him to. still, she's lovely in this moment of quietness. ]
Doing alright?
action;
Date: 2016-05-14 07:20 pm (UTC)[ that's right, steve. you're getting a hand-me-down room. but only of the highest quality. ]
Lend a hand, why don't you. [ she could carry it alone. but why not make use of the super soldier? ]
action;
Date: 2016-05-14 08:29 pm (UTC)[ he picks it up, leveling it easily in his arms, looking around. it'll take a few days to get used to this, for her scent to leave the place and for him to start thinking of it as his. he doesn't mind it, not one bit, the traces of her presence in the corners ]
Where am I taking it?
action;
Date: 2016-05-14 08:39 pm (UTC)action;
Date: 2016-05-14 09:03 pm (UTC)he places down the trunk at the side of the room, giving her space to move about ]
Captain.
[ he nods his head to her, smiling a bit. it's like old times, really. ]
action;
Date: 2016-05-15 11:44 am (UTC)Take a seat, if you like. [ only a moment's hesitation. she wishes she had a proper office, and not only her bedroom. ]
action;
Date: 2016-05-15 09:13 pm (UTC)I've started looking into the moon issues. The - terraforming. it's hard to get a clear picture of something that happening centuries ago but I have my reading material.
action;
Date: 2016-05-15 09:59 pm (UTC)One of our pilots. He jumped straight in to helping the natives with their mechanical work. He's spent time with him -- and has something of an affinity for wasted worlds. Only...
[ she hesitates while she takes a seat of her own. ] He's not easy to talk with.
action;
Date: 2016-05-15 10:06 pm (UTC)[ sorry, peggy but that has to be the peak of unorthodox and Steve had been there and back, he can deal with Max. ]
I have some information from Allen Walker from the Blue Fish and Hank from the Blameless, he's a scientist but even he admits terraforming isn't really his field. Maybe with all of them combined we might achieve some process.
action;
Date: 2016-05-15 10:29 pm (UTC)[ and hardly hers to tell. ]
action;
Date: 2016-05-15 10:33 pm (UTC)Will he agree to 'sir'?
action;
Date: 2016-05-15 10:36 pm (UTC)[ she knows steve can as good as absorb a punch, but she still wants to warn him. ]
He's worth knowing.
action;
Date: 2016-05-15 10:43 pm (UTC)[ peggy, why. ]
He ever taken a swing at you?
[ mind your step. ]
action;
Date: 2016-05-15 10:47 pm (UTC)[ these are secret things. private things. things, perhaps, she wouldn't tell anyone else who wasn't already in max's good graces. but she has a weakness for captain america, and spills these details under the understanding that steve should be her ally in his case. ]
Steve, even if he tried -- I wouldn't hold it against him. And nor should you. He's been a good member of this crew. And as much as he won't admit it, he needs our help. I only wanted to prime you so you when you met him, you'd know...
[ ... ] I've nudged him to make polite with Barnes. [ she won't call him winter, not with steve. it seems to cruel. ] They remind me of each other, in their current states.
action;
Date: 2016-05-15 10:56 pm (UTC)Will they be safe around each other?
action;
Date: 2016-05-15 11:01 pm (UTC)[ as crass as the metaphor may be, she tells it with affection. ]
action;
Date: 2016-05-15 11:10 pm (UTC)Late, it would seem, as per usual. If only there was more than one hanging bag. ]
I don't like this.
[ honestly ]
But I'll help in whatever I can.
action;
Date: 2016-05-15 11:15 pm (UTC)Better than anyone could have anticipated. He struggles -- and he questions himself, which is a good sign.
[ there is a gap between them. a few feet, and she reaches across to take steve's hand. ] He, too, requires our patience. But I keep my eye on him, I swear.
action;
Date: 2016-05-15 11:24 pm (UTC)[ and his hand tightens around hers, an explanation rushing up at once, to assure her it's not her he's questioning ]
Last time I've seen him he was -- upset.
[ well that term is as good as any ]
He saved my life but after that, I couldn't find him. I don't know hoe much he remembers. I think - if he does remember, he'll know what my share was in all of this.
[ in the end, it's he who didn't save him and knowing what they did to him - it'll always be his responsibility to bring him back. It's his fault he's as lost as he is begin with. ]
action;
Date: 2016-05-15 11:27 pm (UTC)her cheeks puff. ] There was someone here who kept very good care of him -- he knew exactly how to talk to Barnes. Exactly how to treat him, and he did him a world of good. But if I begin to explain who that person was, you may never believe me.
action;
Date: 2016-05-15 11:33 pm (UTC)Until the end of the line, he had echoed bucky's words to him but how much has he helped, really? He looks away from her for a moment ]
Well, whoever he was, I'm sorry he's gone.
action;
Date: 2016-05-15 11:35 pm (UTC)Me, too. He -- Heavens, Steve. You've been here long enough to hear people talk about alternate timelines. Whole universes, chock full of different choices?
action;
Date: 2016-05-15 11:39 pm (UTC)[ Winn's voice rings through his head, explaining the science behind it. He nods. ]
I heard.
action;
Date: 2016-05-15 11:45 pm (UTC)He went by the name Jim. And he told me how during the battle on that HYDRA train, it was his world's Steve Rogers who fell. He took up his best friend's mantle. He became Captain America.
[ peggy cues up the shield intel file on her device, and leans forward just far enough to show steve: a document outlining the battle of new york against the chitauri -- but there is no ROGERS, STEVE present in the text. only BARNES, JIM. ]
Jim was as good as the Winter Soldier's keeper while he was here. For him, it must have been like trying to help heal a version of himself.
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