womanofvalue | Open RP Post

Typically, Peggy has little patience for Howard Stark's plans, but when it comes with the stamp of the SSR on it, she has little option but to fall in line and do her duty, especially when Howard coaxes her and coerces her on the telephone with promises that she'll truly like this mission, though he won't tell her why he sounds like a child with a secret. She packs her bags and heads to the little home they've rented out in the Hamptons, ready to play dutiful wife to the agent they're sending to meet her.

Her packet has the background and her identity -- one Mrs. Penny Rogers, which stings because she didn't think that Howard would be so cruel in creating an identity for her, but she supposes that there are plenty of Rogers in the world. On the car ride there, she slides on the fake ring and stares at the way it dapples in the sunlight, letting her mind drift as she reviews the background and the objective.

The former spy (Russian) had defected and settled here in a lovely house, paid for the government, she imagines. There are secrets that they've been trying to get out of him, but nothing has worked because he's notoriously tight-lipped. This is why she's being sent in as the docile wife to try and loosen his tongue alongside the agent posing her as husband. She sends up a brief prayer that it's at least Sousa, because she can't bear the thought of acting as the little Missus to Jack Thompson for more than an hour. The mission should take two weeks, at minimum, and she really might kill Jack, if that's the case.

To take her mind off it, she reviews the folder again. She'd met her "husband" during the war and they had a secret wedding to avoid press (though why there would be press, she cannot imagine). When the car drops her off, she takes the key from the driver and murmurs her thanks as she smooths her skirt and assumes her character, heading to the door to let herself in. "Darling," she calls (to a hopefully empty house), "I'm home!"

[Briar Rose, Peggy will insist, remains the worst code name that she could possibly have to bear. It's bad enough that she'd woken up to her files saying that, but when her subordinates in the office continued to use it on missions, she thought perhaps she might have to invite them to target practice and remind people where her accuracy might hit, with enough anger. She's hardly a helpless maiden or damsel or anything and Peggy has to wonder, later, if this bitterness is why she had so fervently determined that she and only she would be taking on the newest mission.

There's a man suspected of being a covert agent for a Hydra cell and he's going to be at a popular club this weekend. Better, the man is a hermit for the most part and he has a very specific type, which is why Peggy had closed the file quickly and insisted that she'd be the one to take this mission, thank you, and no, she didn't need another lecture about the differences between the 1940's and the present (Barton) and no, she didn't need help picking an outfit (Romanoff).

Unfortunately, there is one person whose approval that she needs. Well, not precisely approval, but she needs to at least tell him that she's going. Ever since she'd woken up from the ice (thanks to Howard's machinations), she's been so immensely grateful for Steve's presence in her life. Sometimes, though, she has to wonder if she isn't simply burdening him with her presence and whether he's going along with things because this is how they used to be.

Shaking that off, she turns to the mission at hand and the task -- letting Steve know what she intends to do. Lucky for her, she can do that while she gets ready and as soon as she arrives back to the shared accommodations, Peggy swiftly launches into a greeting that bypasses the small talk and goes right to the mission parameters, deliberately avoiding looking Steve in the eye because if he thinks that he's able to shut this down, he's got another thing coming.]

I'll be out at the club with a backup revolver and I'll have contact with ops the whole time. You are not to interfere. I'm the man's type and I know that I can have any secret I want from him within an hour, maybe even less, if you stay away," she warns. "I'm the best one for this job. It's mine and mine alone. [This is all said quite breezily ignoring the part where she hadn't allowed anyone else to get close.]

The end rushes up to meet him before he can get all the words out. The cold is cruel and death is far from instant. He tries to hold onto the thought of her voice, tries to imagine her walking through the doors of the Stork Club in that red dress. His last thoughts before the world goes black are of Peggy Carter and the taste of her lips.

When he wakes he finds himself in a recovery room in New York City. He used to visit enough of them before the serum to know a hospital when he sees it. He sits up, nearly giving the nurse that enters his room looking down at a clipboard a heart attack when she walks in. Apparently she hadn't expected him to wake up this quickly.

They try to explain the situation to him - he's been frozen for a full year and the war is over - until Howard of all people shows up and makes even shorter work of the explanation.

"Yeah, frozen solid. You shouldn't be alive, but you are. Welcome back, Steve."

Howard tries to catch him up on what he can and Steve tries to wrap his head around all of it. It doesn't take him long to ask about the Commandos. About Peggy. Howard's eyes light up.

"She's here in New York. Still working for the SSR. I can take you to her if you want?"

Steve can't think of anything he wants more. Though, considering the chaos that ensues, he thinks he probably should've found her himself. He's sitting in the back of one of Howard's fancy cars when his butler, Jarvis steps out and disappears into a diner. Five minutes later they're in the alley, Steve's heart speeding up as Peggy emerges outside a back door. She looks just the way he remembers her and for a moment he forgets to breathe.

Of course in that moment, Jarvis has managed to get himself punched out and Howard has started the car. Steve knows what's going to happen before Peggy pulls out the gun and fires at the car and he ducks as Howard brings the car to a halt beside her.

"I know, we should've called," Howard says, leaning out the door and giving Peggy a shit eating grin. "Thing is, we don't want the public hearing about this until he's had time to get acclimated to things."

Steve forces himself to sit up in the backseat, his heart pounding as he meet's Peggy's eyes. His mouth is suddenly full of ash as he tries to speak. "Hello, Peggy."

The afternoon seems to crawl by and though he's grateful to Howard, for helping him to get his affairs in order - a room in Howard's penthouse and a suit that he can go dancing in - he is grateful for the hour or so he has on his own to get prepared for the evening.

The Stork Club is the way he imagined it, though it is strange not to see uniforms at every turn. With the war over, most men have packed away their uniforms and instead wear broad breasted suits. The line is outside the door, but he makes his way through with little fanfare in Howard's wake. They make their way towards the bar and Howard orders some liquid courage for him with a friendly pat on the back. Steve doesn't have the heart to tell him that it doesn't have any effect on him.

"You know, you look just like Captain America," a cigarette girl says, stopping as she walks by him.

Steve smiles, glancing towards the door before returning his attention to her. "I get that a lot."

"Not a bad fella to look like," she says, giving him a wink before walking away.

"You know, you're going to have to tell the world soon," Howard says, knocking back his drink.

Steve nods. He knows. "I just want one night before then."

One night where all he has to be is Steve Rogers.

[ In truth, Peggy is still reeling from the briefing.

For once, she'd thought that she was being brought in to actually be given a mission and to be set out into the world with purpose. Instead, she'd been sat down opposite a familiar man who wasn't familiar at all, told that he's Barnes, and that he's going to be filling in for Captain America because they need to keep the image going to keep the Russians in line after the war.

All that had been shock enough. What had been truly over the top for Peggy was when Dooley and the others had the gall to suggest that in order to keep the guise working and for everyone to believe it, she needed to be seen publicly and romantically linked with him.

"Everyone knows you and Cap had a thing," had been the unflattering way they had put it.

She wished that she could have said no, but unfortunately, her role with the SSR meant that she had to accept the missions she'd been given, even if this one felt utterly useless apart from her swooning in public. Romantic with a stranger. This was the best the SSR had to give her.

Standing at her desk, Peggy feels utterly aimless. She could call Howard and complain viciously to him, but she was sworn to secrecy. She knows that she ought to simply go and talk to Barnes, but she's trying to put it off for the moment. Leaning forward against the desk, she grips it and stares, steely, forward until Barnes is led out of the room as well.

Better to talk now, isn't it? Gesturing for him to come sit with her, she stays standing and wonders just what the hell she's going to lead with. This certainly had never been covered in any of her training. ]

1946 - Project Silver Bells