City Never Sleeps

[womanofvalue]

It's been some time since the actual engagement, but Peggy's needed it to sink in.

Perhaps it's because it's not her first time being engaged that she's so hesitant to begin plans. The first time with Fred had been such a flood of planning and a hurricane of activity she'd hardly wanted to take place in (she'd wanted to work on the codebreaking), but this time, with Daniel, she knows it's going to be different. It's why she eventually remembers that while she doesn't have to go to the same lengths to plan, she still needs to take some steps.

The first and most important is making sure that she has the critical people at her side when she's standing there saying her vows, witnessed by the people she cares for. It's why she's sent out a few texts and is sitting at her favourite coffeeshop with a magazine filled with dresses, sipping her tea as she makes notes in the margins. While she's not expecting trouble, she still wants to be sure that if there is, she's well-equipped for it, which means any dress she buys is going to be one that at least allows for a thigh holster.

After all, you can't be underprepared for one of the most important days of your life, now can you?

Comments

[primary_asset]

Ever since running into Daniel, John has admittedly been curious about what kind of news Peggy might have to share with him. Daniel hadn't wanted to be the one to tell him, though, and he imagined she would tell him in her own time, so he'd left it alone and just waited, expecting she would tell him whenever she was ready.

When she sends him a text asking him to meet her for coffee, he gets up from behind his desk, telling his boss he's going to take a long lunch, then gets his coat. Maybe he has a reputation for shooting knees when he doesn't necessarily need to, but he also has the highest solve rate in the precinct and so his boss more or less lets him do whatever he wants.

Arriving at the coffee shop, John spots Peggy. Then the magazines. And he doesn't break into a smile, that isn't quite like John, but it's there all the same, curving the corners of his mouth as he sits down across from her.

[red17]

When Dutch gets Peggy's text, she grins and immediately heads for the coffee shop. Her day's been pretty slow and she's got no plans for later on so it's easy to stop what she's doing and makes the trek down there.

She steps into the shop, looks around and, after spotting Peggy, makes her way over to take a seat.

"It feels like I haven't seen you in forever," she says by way of greeting. "Hello there."

[womanofvalue]

Peggy's in the midst of her second cup of tea when John arrives, giving her enough time to slide the magazine beneath a leather-bound notebook so that she's still polite, but it's clear that he's still seen it. Giving him a rueful smile, she suspects that the jig is up, so to speak, at least in terms of the news.

"I'm not getting you into any trouble by calling you out of work like this, am I?" She sounds supremely unconcerned if she is, but at the same time, it's best to ask.

[womanofvalue]

Peggy shifts her magazine under her leather notebook, where she's been keeping notes for the wedding, but also notes on Hydra's activities (both clearly important things), and smiles warmly when Dutch arrives. "It has been, and I'm afraid a lot of that is my fault," she confesses, "but I'm glad you were able to come out."

"Do you want something to drink? I've been steeping myself with tea, so if you want to share, I think the counter staff will be relieved I won't simply float away from ingesting it all."

[red17]

"Hey, we all get busy," Dutch says, waving a hand. "Hopefully you've been doing good things in the time I haven't seen you."

Peggy looks just fine, whole and in one piece, so Dutch holds back on asking if she's okay.

"I think I'll go with coffee," she decides eventually. "Maybe it's a little too early for wine but it's tempting to ask for that anyway. But no, I'm going with coffee. I've grown to like the taste."

[womanofvalue]

Peggy's about to give it all away, she fears, with the way that she's smiling, but she reminds herself to be cautious and careful, because this is important and she doesn't want to ruin it. "Very good things," she agrees, with a hum, seeing as she's quite pleased with it.

"Coffee it is, on me," she assures, raising a hand to summon the waitress. "I'm hoping to get back into contact more, the codebreaking classes are only so exciting and I keep wanting to do more."

[red17]

"Well, now you've made me curious," Dutch says, gesturing with her hand for Peggy to continue. "Very good things like what? Have you beaten someone up and I've missed it?"

Was there anything better in life than that? Yes, but it's still fun to beat someone up when they absolutely deserve it.

"Come on, don't wait for my coffee to get here. I'm curious!"

[womanofvalue]

Peggy ducks her head down, aware that she's allowed to be happy and smile freely about this, but at the same time, she still feels a touch self-conscious feeling so pleased about something that she wouldn't normally. When she looks up, she's still beaming, though it's in the corners of her lips and the warmth of her eyes.

"It was my first anniversary with Daniel a little while ago," she says. "He's got a new prosthetic," she shares, aware that she wouldn't talk about this with just anyone. "I've been pestering him to get it looked at for ages, and he finally listened to reason."

She's getting to the news, but she feels it important to highlight all the wonderful things about that night.

[red17]

"Congratulations on the anniversary," she says, delight and warmth in her voice. "That's excellent. I hadn't even realized it had been that long."

Time passes in strange ways in Darrow. Sometimes, she can feel every single day as it slogs by, reminding her of where he is and what she might be missing back home. At other times, it goes quickly to a point she can't even remember where the months and now year went.

"And congratulations to him for getting an upgrade," she adds with a nod. "I hope he's liking it."

[primary_asset]

"No, I'm very well liked," he says and his voice is dry, but he's teasing her as he slides into the chair across from her. "They let me get away with all kinds of things, including taking long lunches."

He doesn't say anything for a moment, just watches Peggy and he waits to let her lead the conversation. She'd invited him and even though he has a fairly good idea now of what she wants to tell him, it's still her news to tell. It's her story and he's not going to rush her toward anything.

That's never really been his style.

"You have me for as long as you need me," he says.

[womanofvalue]

"It feels like it's been a lifetime and the blink of an eye, both at the same time," Peggy says, rather pleased with that. It means that there's never any fatigue or ennui, because things are always interesting. "Yes, I was quite pleased with the upgrade myself," Peggy says, drawing out the chain around her neck where she wears her engagement ring half the time, always aware that if she ends up in a mess and needs to punch her way out, she doesn't want to lose it.

"He was rather a show-off, what with the dancing," she says, leading up to the real news, a playful smile on her lips, "but really, I was so very impressed when he was able to sink down to one knee with no issues to propose."

[womanofvalue]

She raises her brow at him, but can't manage to hold a stern look for very long, which is utterly the fault of the good mood that she's been in for some time now. As she shakes her head at him, she draws out her chain where the ring lies, giving John a fond smile as she lets the light catch the glint of the engagement ring.

"I won't keep you longer than I need to," she guarantees, "but I wanted to let you know that Daniel's proposed, if you haven't already figured it out, though I imagine you have."

[red17]

"To...propose?" It takes Dutch a minute to really process what that means. Proposals weren't all that common in Westerley only because attachments were dangerous and just tended to draw unwanted attention.

But, that's definitely not the case here and, after Dutch realizes what Peggy's telling her, she breaks into a wide grin, unable to help herself.

"Well wow!" Dutch says, laughing. "I bet that was a pleasant surprise for you!"

[primary_asset]

"The last time I saw him, he told me you had news, then refused to tell me what it was," John admits, reaching out toward Peggy to touch the ring at the end of the chain. It glitters and makes him think of Jessica with a gently aching longing in his chest.

"Between that and the magazine, I might have guessed. But it's much better to hear the words than to only have a guess." He smiles then, uncharacteristically wide, then gently drops the ring. He's happy for his friends, though, he really is and he wants to make sure Peggy knows.

"Congratulations," he says. "That's really wonderful news."

[womanofvalue]

Peggy's lips are still curved upwards with the happiness of such news, seeing as she's still rather delighted with it. "Not a total surprise, we did discuss it before. It was one of our topics when we were testing my truth serum," she admits.

"Still, it was lovely that he did it on the anniversary," she admits, "and as you can guess, I didn't hesitate to say yes," she says, beaming. "Which is why you're here, now. I have a question to ask you."

[womanofvalue]

She can't help the way she beams for the news, even though she hasn't even said anything out loud. It's enough that she's gotten to even hint at it, and the delight on her face says that much. "I'm very pleased that he allowed me to break the news," she admits.

"There is, of course, the matter of the actual affair," she says, getting right down to business. "That's why you're here, and I'm sure you don't need much more to understand why."

[red17]

"Well, congratulations to the both of you," Dutch says happily. She doesn't think anything like that's in the cards for her but that doesn't mean she doesn't want her friends to enjoy something like that.

"And you have a question for me?" she asks, tilting her head. "In regards to a wedding?"

[womanofvalue]

"Thank you, I know Daniel will be very pleased to hear it," Peggy says, though at the same time, she knows they didn't do this for anyone else. "And yes, I do," she agrees, a smile on her lips. "I'm not sure if you've ever done this before, but while we're wanting a small event, I was hoping that maybe you'd be willing to be in my small wedding party."

"Bridesmaid?" she asks, rather hopeful that she'll get a yes.

[red17]

"Bridesmaid?" Dutch repeats, waiting for further explanation. She assumes it has something to do with participating in the wedding but it's not like she's ever been asked to be in anyone's wedding before.

"You'll have to forgive me, I don't know what that is," she says with a laugh. "I'm more than willing to help but you might have to tell me what I have to do though. I have no idea what a bridesmaid is."

[womanofvalue]

Sometimes, she forgets that some of the things that Peggy expects everyone to know are things that Dutch doesn't, necessarily. She catches herself, but as she presses her lips together, she tries to figure out how best to explain. "Well, it's a sort of honour," she starts.

"They're the guests at the wedding who are your best friends, the people you trust the most. There's no one I'd like to have more standing at my side than you and John," she says. "And you wear a dress that I pick the colour of, but I promise, I'll be very lenient about that."

[primary_asset]

"I'm sure I do," John answers, because unless Peggy wants him to work as a security -- which he would be happy to do -- he doesn't think there's any obvious role he would play at the wedding besides being a guest.

He's been to so few weddings. He and Jessica had gone to one together when they were dating, before he'd made the decision to leave the CIA and be with her, before everything had been turned on its head and he'd gone back to them instead. It had been a nice day, a nice moment, the sort of thing that had made John really aware just how badly he'd wanted to be with her. While sitting through the ceremony, it hadn't felt like such a stretch to imagine it might be the two of them up there someday.

And maybe it would have been, had he not made the wrong choices.

[red17]

"Well, I'd absolutely say yes but are you sure it's me you want?" Dutch asks, surprised. She's never really seen herself as being that kind of person to anyone but Johnny and she doesn't want to be taking the place of someone else who might be better served.

"I'm really not that fancy a person even though I do love dresses," she says, laughing. "I just want you to be sure of your choice. For me, that is. I don't doubt the choice of John or, of course, your future husband."

[womanofvalue]

"You won't have to worry too much," she says, blithely continuing forward as she thinks of the actual affair. She's still half convinced that all she really wants is a bit of a ceremony somewhere, but it would be good to have their friends there. "I won't even make you wear a dress, though I would be honoured if you'd be my bridemaid."

"Bridesman, perhaps?" she corrects, wondering if there even is an appropriate word for it. All that Peggy knows is her mother would have conniptions to think of the faux-pas she's committing.

[womanofvalue]

Peggy tips her head to the side, confused as to how she couldn't want Dutch to be there at her side. "Of course I want you there, you're one of my best friends that I've made here," Peggy insists. "And that's what's important, that you're at my side when I'm in the middle of one of the most important days of my life."

"You won't be my only one, if John says yes, but I couldn't imagine without asking you," she says, a touch offended that she could have the day without Dutch.

[red17]

"I'd be happy to be there, then," Dutch says, grinning broadly. "I just wanted to make sure you didn't think you had to ask me. Even if you didn't, we'd still be friends."

But, Dutch is pretty pleased that she's been asked. It might be the first and only time she gets to do this and she can't think of a better person for that to happen with.

"And I do love wearing pretty dresses."