womanofvalue | [outlander psl au]

The ground was saturated with so much rain that Peggy thought she might be washed away, but just because the plains were soaked didn't mean that the drills stopped. The soldiers didn't know it yet, but the landings were going to arrive sooner than anyone wanted and that meant no one can be untrained, lest they end up paying with their lives on those beaches. Today, when the fog rolled in, her superiors informed her that she would be running orienteering with her men, eliciting a sharp 'sir, yes, sir' from Peggy before she took the maps to her own private tent in order to brief the Lieutenants.

Leaning over to study the map, her stubborn engagement ring catches her eye. It had managed to escape from where she had tucked it away, just like all her thoughts about Fred. Their engagement was a terse and stressful thing. When she had announced that she was going into the field with the SSR, he had threatened to leave her. It had been her mother that had convinced Fred to wait Peggy out, insisting that once the war was over, things would change.

As much as Peggy was fond of Fred, she was beginning to see the splinters in their engagement turn to wider cracks, chasms so wide that you could lose sight of the love you once shared and guided you towards that engagement. Carefully, she pushed the ring back, securing it with one of her brassiere straps. Snapping her compass shut, she gave the objective and the orders. "I'll be out in the field to keep an eye on each platoon. The first to reach the objective will not run additional miles," she promised.

"The others will be doing laps around the base, respective to their finishing position." Folding up the map, she handed one to each of her four Lieutenants. "Let them look at it for a few hours, then to the navigator." With a few more orders, she allowed them to prepare as she herself got ready. She tugged on knee-high rain boots, an overcoat, and despite the misty fog in the air, she double-checked that her hair and makeup was in good shape.

Several hours later found Peggy in the thick of drills, listening to the shouts of men in the distance as they worked their way towards her and the objective. Standing there with a brolly, she glanced at her pocketwatch and decided mentally that she would see the first platoon in no more than forty-five minutes. Clasping the watch shut, the echo of it was drowned by another sound -- one that didn't belong. The sound of twigs and branches crunching made Peggy reach for her pistol, simply to be ready.

"Phillips?" she called out, thinking perhaps something had happened and she needed to recall her men. She saw the silhouette of what appeared to be a man in the fog and she found herself inexplicably drawn towards him, mainly because it simply didn't make any sense. "Who's there?" she asked, when it was clear that the man she was seeing didn't bear resemblance to anyone on base. This close, she could see that his hair had a strange look to it, not to mention his clothes. "Has there been an accident?" What could have happened to render the man in such a state?

(Peggy also did not need to allow her conscious thoughts to become aware of how handsome the man was, despite the fact she feared she was already a lost cause, given the way she was filled with a renewed warmth and how her gaze lingered)

They were inside a ring of large stones, which she vaguely recalled the locals warning her about. She had paid little mind, marking them perfunctorily on the map before moving on, but now she had to wonder if the talk of strange rituals wasn't at least a little true. Forty-five minutes. She had forty-five minutes until the men arrived, surely she could deal with this surprise in that time.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

From:

bearstheshield

Steve has no idea what happened. One moment, he's doing training exercises with the Avengers in some admittedly-pretty English countryside and the next moment there's a strange buzzing in his ears and he'd woken up on the ground. It's cooler now by a significant amount; it had been high summer when he'd passed out. A storm?

He staggers toward the people. The woman is the first he makes out, a petite woman dressed in what seems to be a pretty good facsimile of period 40s dress. He's always had an appreciation for red lipstick and old fashioned women so when he smiles, it's both appreciative and a little bewildered.

"Hello?"

From:

womanofvalue

Peggy is glad that the practice rounds are going off a fair distance from them, shaking the ground only slightly. Letting out a mild huff, she wonders what regiment this man has stumbled in from. Clearly, it's someone with a weak leader, if he's all the way up here where Peggy is waiting for them to end, on his own.

"You're not supposed to be here," Peggy remarks curtly, irritated that he's somehow broken formation and decided to strip off all his clothes in order to come dally around here. "Which unit are you with?" she asks, as she digs out her clipboard, clicking the pen loudly as if to make a point.

From:

bearstheshield

"The Avengers," Steve says, not sure what she's asking. He is recognizable by most everyone these days so someone looking at him and not knowing he was Captain America was a little shocking. It's refreshing, though, because he wants to be more than the name and more than the shield. He's happy to be a symbol, yes, but he's also a man who's flesh and blood and has flaws.

"I was in a training exercise with Stark and Falcon. How did I get here, ma'am?"

From:

womanofvalue

She rolls her eyes. Bloody Americans and their ridiculous names. Of course he would be in a unit that likes to think of themselves as some sort of avengers arriving on the scene, never mind that they're years late and they've been fighting this war long enough to be annoyed by this.

"Well, whoever you are, you're in the middle of my training exercise and in twenty minutes, this area will be flooded with soldiers. I suggest you go back to your bird friend," Peggy says crisply, her annoyance showing in having to corral a stray American back to base. "Or, more wisely, you wait and I'll escort you back. You seem lost enough already." Perhaps there is a small, very small, part of her that doesn't want to let him out of her sight.

It's just professional worry, that's all.

From:

bearstheshield

"Ma'am, this is our training base. We leased it from the U.K.," Steve says politely. He's firm but unfailingly polite as he doesn't want to antagonize their host and ally. He has no idea why the field would be double booked but he's willing to cooperate with the feisty woman in front of him if it keeps everyone happy.

"Today is May 16th, isn't it? We booked this field for May 16th."

From:

womanofvalue

"Yes, May 16th," she agrees, crossing her arms over her chest as she raises her chin defiantly in order to argue with him, right up until the point that she has NCO's at her ankles, demanding to know who won. "And I assure you, we have not leased out an inch of this land, not when it's so important to our drills."

"Which, you seem to be a part of some training exercise," she says, which is what baffles her. She checks her charts again, shaking her head. "Who's your commanding officer? I'll need to have a word with them about jumping on my exercises. How on earth do they expect the landing to go smoothly if we can't muster a few drills?" she demands.

From:

bearstheshield

"I report to Nick Fury, ma'am," Steve says. He doesn't have a commanding officer in the traditional sense but he still answers to S.H.I.E.L.D and to Fury. If she needs to know more details than that, it's not his place to give them. In many ways, Steve is a rank and file soldier. While he takes initiative in the field as his rank warrants, he's also very cognizant of his higher ups and the respect they deserve. Her question is better directed to Fury than to himself.

"Colonel Nick Fury with S.H.I.E.L.D?"

From:

womanofvalue

She has absolutely no record of them on the chart, which is only making her frustrations mount. Her patience is absolutely at its shortest when she hears footfalls behind her. "Well," comes the disdainful sound of Hodge, seemingly on his own, "I was told to scout ahead, but I didn't realize it would put us alone."

Peggy realizes that in the fog and with the sightlines, he hasn't seen the other man. She steps forward to deal with this new disaster, clocking the rest of them as five minutes away. "Not now, Hodge," she says impatiently.

"Why? There's no better time for you and me to get acquainted. I've seen the way you look at me," he says, "forget that ring, I know what a gal like you w..." His words evaporate in a yelp as Peggy takes his fingers and bends them back, hopefully fracturing them enough to teach a lesson, but not enough to put him out of commission. She punches him for good measure and gives him an order to rejoin his unit before she storms back to the other man.

"If you don't want that to be you, you're going to explain why you're on my training field," Peggy says, fire in her eyes, "We are at war, I have months before we land on Normandy, I have no time for your lies. You're coming back to base with me, but until I am assured you are actually one of us, you're coming as my guest," she says the word as though it's interchangeable with prisoner.

From:

bearstheshield

Steve suddenly realizes that something terrible has happened. Normandy? The war had been over for sixty some odd years now. Why did this woman think they were in the middle of preparing to invade occupied France? There's something strange going on but for now, he thinks he needs to go along with her and do what he can to prove that he doesn't mean any harm to the Allied War Effort.

"I'll come along. But I promise you, ma'am, I'm not a spy. You can test me as much as you want but there's nobody I would rather be allied with than the great USA."

From:

womanofvalue

Peggy is still on guard, her posture ridiculously straight. She needs to be firm and defiant in the face of men who don't believe in her, but she also doesn't understand what on earth has happened to this soldier that he's so confused. "For now, I'll keep you close at hand," she insists. "If you are a spy, time will tell. If not, you seem like you might be an asset, if your Avengers are willing to spare you," she notes.

Letting her gaze slide over him again, she instantly knows what he could be useful for. "There is a mission," she admits. "Most of our soldiers are in the midst of prep and I can do most of it alone, but I need some muscle. If you are trustworthy, we may just press you into some work."

From:

bearstheshield

"I would be happy to serve, ma'am. I'm here to do whatever you need me to do," Steve promises. He doesn't know how he's managed to end up in the 1940s but he's going to do everything he can to help the war effort until he can figure out how to get back to his own time and place. He's just too honorable, too forthright and too patriotic to abandon his allies and if there's a job that needs to be done, he'll do it.

"I appreciate you giving me a chance and not throwing me in the brig."

From:

womanofvalue

At least he seems to respect her more than Hodge. Peggy still isn't sure she trusts him, but she doesn't have time to think of that now, digging her whistle from its cord when the men come over the hill to join her at the stones. She hits the end button on her stopwatch and nods. She offers mild praise, mild rebukes, and goals for next time before sending them back for dinner.

That leaves her with whomever this is standing with her in such ridiculous garb. "Stop calling me Ma'am," is her order. "I'm Agent Carter," she says, thinking that perhaps eventually, she'll offer a first name. "Who are you, and why would your superior officer send you out in such ridiculously inappropriate clothing?"

From:

bearstheshield

Steve looks down at his suit and realizes that, yes, it's actually pretty ridiculous looking. The kevlar weave is pretty good at stopping the bullets that his shield misses but overall, the effect is that he's donned an American flag and it's over the top patriotic. He's always been proud to wear the stars and stripes, for certain, but it's not exactly something that blends in.

"Well, Agent Carter, this is kevlar. It stops bullets. As to the colors? I just really love serving my country."

From:

womanofvalue

She doesn't even flinch once, not finding the joke particularly amusing, not after the day she's had. "Come on, march," she gives the order, pointing for him to walk in front of her. He might not seem like a threat, but she also doesn't want to take any chances. He might seem like the typical all-American handsome man with looks to spare, but she also would never live it down if he managed to get one over on her.

This is why she needs to be cautious. "Your name," she says, as she starts to walk. "Your real name, please."

From:

bearstheshield

"Steve Rogers," Steve answers, careful to keep himself in front of her as she'd directed. He's not looking to get on Agent Carter's bad side, especially when it seems like somehow he's a man out of time. It seems impossible but, then again, most things about his life are impossible. This is just the sixth impossible thing he's heard since breakfast.

"Captain Steven Grant Rogers, US Army."

From:

womanofvalue

She'll look him up when they're back at the base. She's sure that they can afford a telegram to make sure they're not entertaining a German spy who's simply learned to act like an American. The uniform seems to patently ridiculous that she imagines it has to be some setup. Watching him go, she tries not to let her gaze linger on his perfectly displayed arse, but it is a touch hard when she's put him before her.

"Captain Rogers, welcome to England," she says. "We have only a few months before the largest operation begins in this war. If your little Avenger unit isn't already working with us, then there's something else you can do. Provided you are who you say you are, but the records ought to show it, soon enough."

it's agent, to you

[outlander psl au]