womanofvalue | Daniel Sousa

Ever since the party at Magnus' mansion and her conversation with Peggy, she's been singularly focused on one single thing. Her job search has fallen aside, the self-defense classes have only received a paltry amount of attention, and she's been glad that not much has come up to require her with Reese's project. Her birthday is in a matter of days and there's only one thing that she wants. It's time for her to tell Daniel the important truths about the time in between them.

She's sent him a proper postal invitation to dinner, but has followed it up with text and email just to ensure that he doesn't miss it. She's found herself a perfectly suitable blue dress that's equal parts modern and vintage and the heels match her lipstick perfectly. These are the easy parts, of course. Setting up plans is child's play for a spy like Peggy, but what matters is the part where she has to now execute the plans.

That involves her feelings and being honest about them. She'd struggled with that even back home to the point that she'd let her actions speak for her, but if she wants anything to happen, she needs to do something here. Near eight, she sits herself at the table she's reserved in her dress and her loose hair and a mission in mind.

Now comes her challenge in convincing Daniel that in the time between them, things have changed, and for the better when it comes to the two of them.

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From:

ssrsousa

Peggy Carter really wanted him to come to this dinner. She'd sent him an actual physical invitation, but she'd also sent him a little text message on his phone and even an email on the computer (which he'd known how to check thanks to the computer course he'd just finished taking a couple weeks ago). Three separate methods of communication made it pretty clear how she felt about what was happening here.

He wasn't gonna turn it down anyway, but he was more than a little curious about why she was so insistent that he have dinner with her on her birthday. He dressed very carefully, which was mostly thanks to Biffy and his careful guidance on what Daniel should and shouldn't wear and should and shouldn't do. The end result looked pretty modern, he thought, but he also still thought he looked like himself. The crutch couldn't be missed, for one thing.

He'd gotten her a little present at the festival a few weeks back and had it tucked into his suit pocket. Whether he'd give it to her was still something he wasn't sure about. Maybe he'd see how the night went.

Right about eight, he stepped into the restaurant and scanned the room for her. She wasn't the type to stand a man up, but he was still relieved to see her and he smiled at the maitre'd as he was shown over to her table.

From:

womanofvalue

Peggy's been doing calm breathing exercises to keep her heart rate from pulsing out of control. She's been through so much to get to where she is now, so much that Daniel himself doesn't remember, and she's tired of not letting him know what's happened between them. She's beyond grateful for his presence in the city, but she liked not having a single secret between them. That's not what it's like, now. Standing to greet him, she drinks in the sight of him in the suit, smiling privately as she settles back in her seat.

Relief hits her, a surprise to find a part of her hadn't expected him to show up. "I was afraid that I might also need to send a messenger pigeon," she jests, settling her napkin on her lap. It seems best to make a joke about how forward she had been about her invitations, but she had wanted to make it quite clear to him that she wanted him to join her. Beyond that, she still wasn't entirely sure if he felt comfortably versed in technology to only use that avenue.

From:

ssrsousa

That dress looked phenomenal on her, and he only kept himself from actually ogling her because he knew it'd be bad for his health if he did. He still very much appreciated the chance to see the whole thing when she stood up, though, and he smiled back as he sat in the seat across from her and discreetly unbuttoned his suit coat. She'd chosen a table that was a little secluded, which also meant he had a wall to prop his crutch against. He wasn't sure if that was on purpose, but he appreciated it.

"I'm not sure they even have those, but I'm glad I got the message," he replied warmly. He almost added that she looked beautiful, but decided it might be crossing a line.

From:

womanofvalue

"I'd find one," she assures him, though she doesn't think it would have to get to that point. She reaches over the table slightly, careful to avoid the little candle so that she can touch his tie, leaning forward to see the actual colour of it. "You look very handsome," she praises. "More of your modern clothes from your shopper?" she guesses, seeing as she believes he can absolutely dress himself, but this looks very good.

"Would you like something to drink? I didn't want to order wine until you were here, just in case I had it wrong," she warns him.

From:

ssrsousa

He did his best not to react to her touching his tie, although it was difficult not to. Peggy's hands on his clothes were something he'd considered more than once, even if he'd reminded himself not to be a lecherous ass every time he had. And now he was reminding himself again.

"I'm gonna need to make sure I send Biffy something if this is the reaction I get from wearing a suit he helped me find," he teased her just a little bit, but he was glad to hear and see that she liked it so much.

There were subtle reinforcements to the seams to help the shirt and pants last longer when they were put under extra stress, too. Biffy was damn good at what he did.

"Order what you like. It's your dinner, after all."

From:

womanofvalue

"Actually, I was hoping that it might be our dinner," Peggy says bluntly, going straight to the point as she believes it best to set up the expectations of why she'd asked him here. "My birthday dinner, true, but our dinner date," she says, not taking her eyes off him, though she has moved her fingers from his tie so that she's not liable to do anything stupid like grasp it too tight and wrinkle the lovely fabric.

"Red, I think," she says, finally breaking eye contact so that she can take the menu in her hand and begin to peruse the selections, thinking a nice dry red might be lovely to go along with their food. "You will have some, won't you?"

From:

ssrsousa

If it was possible for a brain to scratch like a record, he thought his might have just done it. He'd been operating under the assumption that this particular door was completely closed, maybe even locked and with one of Howard Stark's little creations behind it to make sure it never opened again. And now she was just saying it was a date. So maybe the door wasn't completely closed.

"Red's fine," he said, but the most important issue was the first statement here, not the second. "Our date?"

From:

womanofvalue

"Yes, our date," she repeats, getting straight to the point of it. She leans back in order to place the order with the waiter, tucking her loose curls behind her ear before she settles her palms flat upon the table, looking at him in the candlelight of the restaurant. "I kept going around and around in my head of what I ought to do, but a very wise friend of mine suggested I ought to simply take you to dinner."

"Of course, this gives the benefit of getting you in a very nice suit," she praises, because it is a helpful side effect. "I believe to be fair, I should give you the opportunity to leave, since I have tricked you into being here. I'll say my piece plainly. I invited you here with the intention of taking you out to dinner, romantically, as something beyond friends," she clarifies.

"If you want to leave, I won't fault you for it. This is your chance," she allows, trying very hard to be brave as she keeps her chin lifted high.

From:

ssrsousa

For a second, he thought someone was playing a prank on him, since this was something he'd wanted very much for probably longer than either of them really wanted to consider. But no, Peggy wouldn't do that to him, and he could tell from her expression that she meant what she said. Not only that, she was genuinely concerned that he'd walk out because he'd been deceived or something. He just wanted to touch her and reassure her that he wasn't going to do that to either of them, but he didn't. Not yet.

"I've never been the smartest man in the room, but I hope I'm not so stupid as to turn down a date with you when it's offered, Peggy," he said seriously. "I'm staying."

From:

womanofvalue

She lets the relief show in her eyes, which is something that she could very well have stopped, but she doesn't, because she wants him to see how much she wants him there, with her, having this dinner. There are very few things that she could imagine as being such a wonderful birthday present and this one ranks up there. "I'm very glad," she says, and orders them the bottle of wine with two glasses, a small hint of triumph in her tone.

"I'm sure you have some questions for me," she admits, having anticipated there might be some, if they reached this point and he stayed.

From:

ssrsousa

She wasn't wrong, but he wasn't interested in interrogating her, either, so he waited until the waiter poured the wine into their respective glasses. It gave him a chance to organize his thoughts, but it also gave him a chance to just enjoy this moment. Peggy was sitting across a candlelit table from him, in a beautiful dress, and she was looking at him with relief and happiness that he was here with her.

If someone had told him he'd just won the lottery, it wouldn't feel this good.

"I am a little curious," he finally said. "Last I knew, I'd asked you for a drink and you'd turned me down. Things must have changed a little in California."

From:

womanofvalue

She doesn't want to lie to him at all tonight, that's one of her key goals. If she wants to advocate for honesty, that means that she has to abide by her own rules, which means that she must be fully truthful with him in order for it to work. Still, she can enjoy whatever moment she needs to compile her thoughts to appreciate the soft curl of his hair, the way his eyes look rather dreamy in the light (Jarvis cannot hear her thoughts, which is why she permits herself to think them).

"In New York, everything was a bit fresh," she admits. "That day I turned you down, I walked myself to the Brooklyn Bridge and I said goodbye to someone," she says. "Unfortunately, before I could get around to asking you out for that drink again, you had taken off for Los Angeles. Jack sent me there, against your will, I suspect," she admits, "but to my great gratitude."

"It wasn't easy," she says carefully, not sure how much to talk about Jason or Violet just yet. "I knew the moment I saw you again what I felt. It just took me some time to get there, but I did get there. We got there," she says, sipping her wine in a large gulp to give herself courage.

From:

ssrsousa

She didn't mention who she said goodbye to, but she didn't need to. They both knew the answer to that, and he was reminded again of Krzeminski's warning that no girl was gonna trade in a shield for a crutch. Maybe Krzeminski was wrong, though, since she was sitting here telling him she pretty much wanted to do that.

"I applied for that job partly to get out of New York," he admitted. "It was a great opportunity, don't get me wrong, and I'm glad to hear I got it because of that, but there was a part of it that was about a change of scene."

It was about not seeing her every day and knowing he'd see her leave the office on her way to a date with someone.

From:

womanofvalue

She still thinks that he'd done it to get away from her, but it's her own fault equally for not doing anything about it. She could have been the one to chase him down, she could have called him and told him what she felt, but she hadn't figured that out until their lives had been on the line. "At the end of the Whitney Frost case, you put your life on the line without making a show of it and we nearly lost you," she explains. There had been so many other moments leading up to that, but it had crystallized then, for her.

"I've seen a man do that before and I respected him just as much as I respected you for it, even if you were a stupid idiot who nearly got yourself killed, were it not for my quick thinking. You, of course, had to go and reprimand me," Peggy notes in a mild huff. "Well, I believe that was the last straw for me and I had to shut you up the best way I knew how."

From:

ssrsousa

"So I'm a stupid idiot who nearly got myself killed but you respected me for it?" he repeated with just the quirk of a smile on one side of his mouth. That sounded like both of them. He'd never been the type to make a big production if something needed to be done, and he'd always preferred to think creatively. Earplugs had fooled Ivchenko and everyone else.

He could also see Peggy reacting poorly to being reprimanded, especially if she felt she'd done something that was actually in his best interest. Whether it was in her best interest or the SSR's best interest was probably debatable (or not at all debatable), and it was probably why he'd reprimanded her.

From:

womanofvalue

"If I held people in contempt for shortsighted decisions, I might have to look in a mirror and admit that I might have an issue, myself," Peggy concedes, but it's drawn out and takes a long moment for it. She'd very much like to show him exactly how she had shut him up, but they're in a very public restaurant with a table between them. It would be in poor taste.

"There's something else that I ought to tell you, though," she admits, more seriously. "When I came to Los Angeles, you were dating someone else," she says. "You were going to marry her, I think, were it not for me arriving. I mucked it all up and I'm afraid to say that I'm relieved, that I did," Peggy says, feeling awful for it, but she would never have forgiven herself for missing her chance.

From:

ssrsousa

This whole evening was making his head spin. First Peggy had invited him out, then she'd said it was a date, and now she was telling him he'd been engaged to someone but she'd accidentally caused that to end? He prided himself on being able to take unfamiliar information and put it all together after his time as a scout and then the SSR, but that was a lot of world-shifting information all at once.

He was glad the waiter came back to list the specials at that moment. He listened attentively to the options and ultimately ordered the pasta of the day. It sounded like it'd be good and not too messy, which was all he really needed or wanted from his dinner. By the time the waiter'd left, he thought he had himself back together mentally.

"What is - was? - will be? - my fiancee's name in Los Angeles?" he asked, because he needed a name to go with that story. He needed to know the name of the woman he'd apparently thought he loved enough to want to marry her had one Hurricane Peggy not come along.

From:

womanofvalue

"Violet," she says, with no ill-will towards her. "When I had my accident, with the rebar, you took me to her. She's a nurse," Peggy explains, only stopping to order herself a linguine dish, grateful for the waiter's expediency in giving them privacy. "Unfortunately, the next day, you told me that she had broken off the engagement. I wanted to go and give her a piece of my mind, but you said that she'd broken it off because she thought you were in love with me." Even now, she's delicate with the words, only because, like then, she wants them to be true.

She might be coming around to it slower than him, but Peggy's had a great deal of time to make up her mind and know exactly what it is she wants. Who she wants. "I didn't fight very hard to get you back together with her, once you told me that," she confesses.

From:

ssrsousa

Violet was a nurse. A small, cynical part of him was aware that at least maybe a nurse wouldn't be scared off by his scars. At least maybe a nurse wouldn't run screaming in the other direction the first time he took his prosthetic off.

It made perfect sense that he'd take a gravely injured Peggy to his nurse fiancee. She would be able to help and he couldn't exactly take Peggy to a hospital without some very uncomfortable questions being asked about the case. If he was there, in that moment, right now, he'd do the same thing.

"Sounds like Violet thought she knew me more than I knew myself at that point," he replied. "I hope she finds someone who was better for her than I was."

From:

womanofvalue

"I don't know the details of what happened that night, all I know is that the next morning, you looked worse than I did and I'd been impaled by a rebar," she notes critically, sipping her wine as she takes the opportunity to let a moment pass. "In fairness and honesty, I should mention that there was another man vying for my affections. Jason Wilkes," she says.

"He was a key part of our case and there was a certain chemistry, I suppose," she admits, but as the case had gone on and the zero matter had begun to impact him, she could see how their priorities differed. She still respected him thoroughly, but she knew where her heart lay, even if it took some time for her head to catch up. "He was going to shoot me, to get his hands on what he wanted. I was quite cross when you didn't allow him to do that and gave it to him. It led to quite a row between us."

From:

ssrsousa

There had probably been an unpleasant but honest conversation with Violet, and then there was a good chance he'd gone and gotten completely plastered, especially if he'd looked pretty rough the next morning. He hadn't even lived that life and he felt like he needed to apologize to a woman he'd never met.

He sipped his own wine as she told him more of the story. They'd both made mistakes, it seemed, and both of them had gotten involved with other people when it might not have been wise to do so.

"I'm a stupid idiot who didn't let you nearly get yourself killed, too?" he replied, smiling just slightly again. It was all a lot of heavy stuff, but she was telling it with honesty and compassion.

From:

womanofvalue

"You're a stupid idiot who should have let me get shot if it meant saving our case," she agrees, still standing by this, even if she had contravened her own demands. "You see, the trouble is that when you jumped to close the rift, something went wrong. By my logic, I should have let you go, rather than jumping for the rope to nearly get sucked in myself."

"I believe I've begun to see your side of the story, even if you were awfully smug about pointing out my hypocrisy," Peggy huffs, smiling warmly as if mirroring his, beginning to feel rather hopeful about the night.

From:

ssrsousa

"I'm only human, Peggy, and you don't seem to be a lot of the time," he pointed out. "I wasn't there, but if I was, well, you gotta give me a chance to point things like that out if I actually see them. The rest of us get to score a point or two occasionally."

He wasn't about to let her get shot, then or now, and he was glad she'd jumped for the rope, even if it hadn't been him nearly getting pulled into another dimension.

From:

womanofvalue

"I assure you, I bleed just the same as anyone else. The rebar wound saw to proving that," is her quiet remark, though it's not just that scar that he'd seen. She has two bullets in her upper shoulder that had worried her, nerve damage always on the list of potential outcomes. "I'm more than willing to let you have all the points, provided you come out the other side alive," she says sternly.

"I'm quite attached to that body and mind of yours, you know," she informs him. "I think that's everything, but for one last little detail," she says, sitting back as their food arrives.

From:

ssrsousa

He paused to thank the waiter quietly and sip his wine, then shifted when she said there was one last detail. If she was leaving out the detail till now, it probably wasn't a little detail at all.

And he was going to leave that comment about being attached to his body alone, obviously. Not that he would ever accuse Peggy of being a liar, but she might change her mind if she knew more details.

"Am I gonna be glad I'm already sitting down?"