Waking Up From the Dead (Part 3)
Title:Waking Up from the Dead (part 3)
Author: MaeveBran
Rating: Teen (will eventually get to Mature-ish I'm sure)
Fandom: Captain America:The First Avenger (movieverse)
Pairing: Steve Rogers/Peggy Carter with mentions of past Peggy Carter/Howard Stark
Summary: Steve adjusts to life in the twenty-first century.
Disclaimer: I don't own the Captain or SHIELD or the asociated personnel. I'm just using them for some unprofitable fun.
Notes: I haven't read the comics so the only canon I know comes from the recent movies.
The car pulled into the underground lot and stopped next to the elevator that would take Steve to the S.H.I.E.L.D. headquarters. Steve got out of the car and turned to say good night only to find Peggy getting out too.
“You’re coming in?” Steve asked surprised.
“I have a meeting with Colonel Fury,” Peggy said. “He wanted to know if your appearance in public would cause too big of a stir.”
“So this wasn’t about us? It was about if my fame had died down enough for me to be out and about?” Steve asked hurt.
Peggy stepped up next to him and placed her hand on his cheek, caressing it slightly. “It was about us,” Peggy reassured him before dropping her hand and moving to hit the elevator call button, “The Colonel heard about my plan and thought he could kill two birds with one stone.”
The elevator came and Steve followed her inside. They were silent for the short ride to the ground floor. Steve turned to Peggy as they stepped out of the elevator.
“Thanks for the evening out,” Steve said. “I hope your meeting goes well. Good night.”
“I wasn’t going to leave right after my meeting,” Peggy said. “I thought we could have a night cap and talk for a while,” she suggested. “That is if you’d like.”
“I’d like that very much,” Steve said with a faint smile.
“I’m not sure how long I’ll be but I can’t imagine this will take more than an hour,” Peggy said.
“See you then,” he said as he watched her head for Colonel Fury’s office.
Steve made his way back to his quarters where he changed into what he was told were called BDUs. Whatever they were called it was more comfortable than the military version of the monkey suit he was wearing.
That thought reminded him of a drawing he had once done- himself as a dancing monkey. As soon as he was in more comfortable attire, he sat down at the desk and pulled out the paper and pencil he had requisitioned that afternoon. He started on a drawing. If he finished it by the time Peggy got there he might give it to her.
An hour and a half after they had parted at the elevator, there was a knock on Steve’s door.
“Come in,” he called.
“I hope nine o’clock isn’t too late to come calling,” Peggy said as she peaked her head around the door.
“It’s not too late,” Steve said as he stood. “Not too late at all.”
Peggy came in and walked right over to the side of his desk. “What are you working on?”
“Nothing,” Steve said turning the paper upside down. “Just a silly drawing.”
“Let me see,” Peggy asked. “As I recall, you are rather good at drawing.”
“All right,” he said turning it back over. There in pencil was the dancing monkey, with a shield on its back dancing with the younger Peggy, the one Steve remembered.
Peggy traced a finger over her face in the drawing. She looked up at Steve. “Is that how you see me?”
“Yes,” Steve answered without hesitation. “To me you’ll always be the agent, I mean woman, who befriended a ninety pound, scared asthmatic on the way to the most important day of his life.”
Peggy was silent, remembering the pre-serum Steve. He was so sweet, brave and lost that she couldn’t help herself from befriending him. Truth be told, she had fallen a little in love with him before he became the Captain. She had started falling for him the moment he dove on a grenade with no thought for himself just to save those around him. His actions through the rest of the testing and right after the treatment only confirmed her feelings. Now sixty-odd, almost seventy years later, she realized that she had never really fallen out of love with him. True, they never had a chance to go beyond just the beginning stirrings of the feeling, but looking at the drawing Steve had just done she thought maybe they’d get the chance to find out if there could be something deeper. If he still saw her as the beautiful and capable military woman she still felt like she was, then there just might be that chance.
“I haven’t looked like that in years,” Peggy said trying to hide the swell of hope she felt.
“When your niece told me you had celebrated your ninetieth birthday I expected you to look . . . ,”Steve started before he realized where that thought was going.
“You still don’t know how to talk to women, do you?” Peggy said. She sank down to sit in the wingback chair before his desk. “But you’re right. I don’t look my age. There is a reason for that.”
“Oh,” Steve said as he sat on his chair behind the desk, since that was the only other place to sit.
“About five years after Howard and I divorced, I was promoted, to the head of the SSR,” Peggy said. “You remember giving blood right after you brought down that Hydra Agent that infiltrated your procedure, right?”
“Yeah, I remember,” Steve said remembering losing Dr. Erskine. “You told me that if the serum could work only once that Dr. Erskine would be proud it was me.”
“That’s right,” Peggy confirmed. “Well the SSR scientists worked on trying to replicate the formula from your blood for years. Finally, after sixteen years, they thought they had it.”
“And you tried it on yourself?” Steve asked, knowing that was precisely what she’d done.
“I knew what it could do. I knew how painful it would be. I was the only one involved who had been there that day. I couldn’t let anyone else try it until I had made sure it was safe and did all we hoped it could do. So, yes, as director, I took my prerogative and tried it on myself,” Peggy explained. “Howard tried to stop me but as he wasn’t my superior or my husband at that time he had no power.”
“Did it give you more muscles when you used the vita-ray?” Steve asked, wondering if he could look forward to losing his strength as he got older.
“Vita- ray?” Peggy asked. “No, we didn’t use the vita-ray. That must be what went wrong.”
“I wouldn’t call slowing the aging process to be going wrong, precisely,” Steve interjected.
“Neither would I,” Peggy said. “But we were looking to create another you- a super soldier.”
“Right,” Steve said lost in thought. “I wonder what would happen if you used the Vita-ray now?”
“I’m not sure,” Peggy said. “You think it would do any good?”
“I don’t know but I do know that the formula bonds to your cells so it must still be in them,” Steve suggested.
“Then they could still be activated,” Peggy perked up at the thought. All these years she thought her biggest experiment with the division had been her biggest failure but if they could turn it around then she might not just be the footnote in the division’s history about being the first woman director.
“Last night, when I couldn’t sleep,” Steve began.
“And you weren’t learning how to dance,” Peggy teased.
“Right, when I wasn’t doing that,” Steve said with a blush. “I looked around out there,” he pointed to the rest of the World War II vintage area. “And I found the stuff from the Brooklyn lab that survived the bombing.”
“The Vita- ray machine?” Peggy asked.
“It’s out there. Intact,” Steve confirmed. “But it needs a power source. A big one.”
“I think I know someone who might be able to help,” Peggy said.
“How?” he asked.
“I know someone with a power source that might be powerful enough yet small enough to get in here without raising anyone’s suspicions,” Peggy said.
“We’d do this behind Colonel Fury’s back?” Steve asked, unsure if he could support that kind of deception.
“No, I’d get Colonel Fury on board but only the four of us really need to know about this,” she explained.
“Four of us?” Steve asked. “You, Colonel Fury, me and who else?”
“My friend with the power source. I won’t say who until he agrees,” Peggy explained. She went over to the phone on Steve’s desk, lifted the handset and pressed the number one.
“Colonel Fury’s office,” the perky voice of Agent Carter, the younger, said on the other end of the intercom line.
“Sharon, is he still in?” Peggy asked her niece.
“Yes he is, Aunt Peg,” Sharon replied. “Did you forget something when you were here a few minutes ago?”
“No. Captain Rogers and I have need of an immediate appointment, if you can swing it before the director goes home,” Peggy answered. “We have something that needs to be run by him.”
“How about I just come by the good Captain’s quarters right now, then,” Colonel Fury said cutting into the conversation.
“That might be better, sir,” Peggy said.
“I’ll be right down then,” Colonel Fury said before the intercom line went dead.
“I thought you retired as the Director so why do you call him, sir?” Steve asked, wondering if Peggy was intimidated by the Director who had taken her place.
“I don’t have to call Nick that but it reminds him that I’m more than an useless old lady,” Peggy smirked.
“Not that I need much reminding that she ran this place, quite capably for twenty- five years,” Colonel Fury said as he entered the room without bothering to knock.
Steve immediately stood at attention. He hadn’t been in the habit of saluting or even being at attention for Colonel Philips, but then again that Colonel hadn’t really expected Steve to be a soldier at first and then later hadn’t cared if Steve had followed the nicer points of military discipline as long as the job got done. This Colonel intimidated Steve enough to follow military protocol until he got to know him better.
“At ease, son,” Colonel Fury said. “Those formalities aren’t needed here.” The colonel turned back to Peggy. “What was it you needed from me?”
Peggy quickly outlined the plan and Colonel Fury agreed to it, if they could get a power source without costing the division money from the budget.
“I think I can manage that,” Peggy said with a smirk as she walked out into the corridor to make a call on her cell phone.
“That is one courageous lady,” Colonel Fury said as the door closed behind Peggy.
“Always was,” Steve agreed. The Colonel smiled and left the room. Steve was left to wonder just what the effects of the Vita- rays might do to Peggy.
Author: MaeveBran
Rating: Teen (will eventually get to Mature-ish I'm sure)
Fandom: Captain America:The First Avenger (movieverse)
Pairing: Steve Rogers/Peggy Carter with mentions of past Peggy Carter/Howard Stark
Summary: Steve adjusts to life in the twenty-first century.
Disclaimer: I don't own the Captain or SHIELD or the asociated personnel. I'm just using them for some unprofitable fun.
Notes: I haven't read the comics so the only canon I know comes from the recent movies.
The car pulled into the underground lot and stopped next to the elevator that would take Steve to the S.H.I.E.L.D. headquarters. Steve got out of the car and turned to say good night only to find Peggy getting out too.
“You’re coming in?” Steve asked surprised.
“I have a meeting with Colonel Fury,” Peggy said. “He wanted to know if your appearance in public would cause too big of a stir.”
“So this wasn’t about us? It was about if my fame had died down enough for me to be out and about?” Steve asked hurt.
Peggy stepped up next to him and placed her hand on his cheek, caressing it slightly. “It was about us,” Peggy reassured him before dropping her hand and moving to hit the elevator call button, “The Colonel heard about my plan and thought he could kill two birds with one stone.”
The elevator came and Steve followed her inside. They were silent for the short ride to the ground floor. Steve turned to Peggy as they stepped out of the elevator.
“Thanks for the evening out,” Steve said. “I hope your meeting goes well. Good night.”
“I wasn’t going to leave right after my meeting,” Peggy said. “I thought we could have a night cap and talk for a while,” she suggested. “That is if you’d like.”
“I’d like that very much,” Steve said with a faint smile.
“I’m not sure how long I’ll be but I can’t imagine this will take more than an hour,” Peggy said.
“See you then,” he said as he watched her head for Colonel Fury’s office.
Steve made his way back to his quarters where he changed into what he was told were called BDUs. Whatever they were called it was more comfortable than the military version of the monkey suit he was wearing.
That thought reminded him of a drawing he had once done- himself as a dancing monkey. As soon as he was in more comfortable attire, he sat down at the desk and pulled out the paper and pencil he had requisitioned that afternoon. He started on a drawing. If he finished it by the time Peggy got there he might give it to her.
An hour and a half after they had parted at the elevator, there was a knock on Steve’s door.
“Come in,” he called.
“I hope nine o’clock isn’t too late to come calling,” Peggy said as she peaked her head around the door.
“It’s not too late,” Steve said as he stood. “Not too late at all.”
Peggy came in and walked right over to the side of his desk. “What are you working on?”
“Nothing,” Steve said turning the paper upside down. “Just a silly drawing.”
“Let me see,” Peggy asked. “As I recall, you are rather good at drawing.”
“All right,” he said turning it back over. There in pencil was the dancing monkey, with a shield on its back dancing with the younger Peggy, the one Steve remembered.
Peggy traced a finger over her face in the drawing. She looked up at Steve. “Is that how you see me?”
“Yes,” Steve answered without hesitation. “To me you’ll always be the agent, I mean woman, who befriended a ninety pound, scared asthmatic on the way to the most important day of his life.”
Peggy was silent, remembering the pre-serum Steve. He was so sweet, brave and lost that she couldn’t help herself from befriending him. Truth be told, she had fallen a little in love with him before he became the Captain. She had started falling for him the moment he dove on a grenade with no thought for himself just to save those around him. His actions through the rest of the testing and right after the treatment only confirmed her feelings. Now sixty-odd, almost seventy years later, she realized that she had never really fallen out of love with him. True, they never had a chance to go beyond just the beginning stirrings of the feeling, but looking at the drawing Steve had just done she thought maybe they’d get the chance to find out if there could be something deeper. If he still saw her as the beautiful and capable military woman she still felt like she was, then there just might be that chance.
“I haven’t looked like that in years,” Peggy said trying to hide the swell of hope she felt.
“When your niece told me you had celebrated your ninetieth birthday I expected you to look . . . ,”Steve started before he realized where that thought was going.
“You still don’t know how to talk to women, do you?” Peggy said. She sank down to sit in the wingback chair before his desk. “But you’re right. I don’t look my age. There is a reason for that.”
“Oh,” Steve said as he sat on his chair behind the desk, since that was the only other place to sit.
“About five years after Howard and I divorced, I was promoted, to the head of the SSR,” Peggy said. “You remember giving blood right after you brought down that Hydra Agent that infiltrated your procedure, right?”
“Yeah, I remember,” Steve said remembering losing Dr. Erskine. “You told me that if the serum could work only once that Dr. Erskine would be proud it was me.”
“That’s right,” Peggy confirmed. “Well the SSR scientists worked on trying to replicate the formula from your blood for years. Finally, after sixteen years, they thought they had it.”
“And you tried it on yourself?” Steve asked, knowing that was precisely what she’d done.
“I knew what it could do. I knew how painful it would be. I was the only one involved who had been there that day. I couldn’t let anyone else try it until I had made sure it was safe and did all we hoped it could do. So, yes, as director, I took my prerogative and tried it on myself,” Peggy explained. “Howard tried to stop me but as he wasn’t my superior or my husband at that time he had no power.”
“Did it give you more muscles when you used the vita-ray?” Steve asked, wondering if he could look forward to losing his strength as he got older.
“Vita- ray?” Peggy asked. “No, we didn’t use the vita-ray. That must be what went wrong.”
“I wouldn’t call slowing the aging process to be going wrong, precisely,” Steve interjected.
“Neither would I,” Peggy said. “But we were looking to create another you- a super soldier.”
“Right,” Steve said lost in thought. “I wonder what would happen if you used the Vita-ray now?”
“I’m not sure,” Peggy said. “You think it would do any good?”
“I don’t know but I do know that the formula bonds to your cells so it must still be in them,” Steve suggested.
“Then they could still be activated,” Peggy perked up at the thought. All these years she thought her biggest experiment with the division had been her biggest failure but if they could turn it around then she might not just be the footnote in the division’s history about being the first woman director.
“Last night, when I couldn’t sleep,” Steve began.
“And you weren’t learning how to dance,” Peggy teased.
“Right, when I wasn’t doing that,” Steve said with a blush. “I looked around out there,” he pointed to the rest of the World War II vintage area. “And I found the stuff from the Brooklyn lab that survived the bombing.”
“The Vita- ray machine?” Peggy asked.
“It’s out there. Intact,” Steve confirmed. “But it needs a power source. A big one.”
“I think I know someone who might be able to help,” Peggy said.
“How?” he asked.
“I know someone with a power source that might be powerful enough yet small enough to get in here without raising anyone’s suspicions,” Peggy said.
“We’d do this behind Colonel Fury’s back?” Steve asked, unsure if he could support that kind of deception.
“No, I’d get Colonel Fury on board but only the four of us really need to know about this,” she explained.
“Four of us?” Steve asked. “You, Colonel Fury, me and who else?”
“My friend with the power source. I won’t say who until he agrees,” Peggy explained. She went over to the phone on Steve’s desk, lifted the handset and pressed the number one.
“Colonel Fury’s office,” the perky voice of Agent Carter, the younger, said on the other end of the intercom line.
“Sharon, is he still in?” Peggy asked her niece.
“Yes he is, Aunt Peg,” Sharon replied. “Did you forget something when you were here a few minutes ago?”
“No. Captain Rogers and I have need of an immediate appointment, if you can swing it before the director goes home,” Peggy answered. “We have something that needs to be run by him.”
“How about I just come by the good Captain’s quarters right now, then,” Colonel Fury said cutting into the conversation.
“That might be better, sir,” Peggy said.
“I’ll be right down then,” Colonel Fury said before the intercom line went dead.
“I thought you retired as the Director so why do you call him, sir?” Steve asked, wondering if Peggy was intimidated by the Director who had taken her place.
“I don’t have to call Nick that but it reminds him that I’m more than an useless old lady,” Peggy smirked.
“Not that I need much reminding that she ran this place, quite capably for twenty- five years,” Colonel Fury said as he entered the room without bothering to knock.
Steve immediately stood at attention. He hadn’t been in the habit of saluting or even being at attention for Colonel Philips, but then again that Colonel hadn’t really expected Steve to be a soldier at first and then later hadn’t cared if Steve had followed the nicer points of military discipline as long as the job got done. This Colonel intimidated Steve enough to follow military protocol until he got to know him better.
“At ease, son,” Colonel Fury said. “Those formalities aren’t needed here.” The colonel turned back to Peggy. “What was it you needed from me?”
Peggy quickly outlined the plan and Colonel Fury agreed to it, if they could get a power source without costing the division money from the budget.
“I think I can manage that,” Peggy said with a smirk as she walked out into the corridor to make a call on her cell phone.
“That is one courageous lady,” Colonel Fury said as the door closed behind Peggy.
“Always was,” Steve agreed. The Colonel smiled and left the room. Steve was left to wonder just what the effects of the Vita- rays might do to Peggy.