[ CLOSED ]

[revlon]

Who: Peggy Carter (revlon) & John Watson (enarms)
What: Transparency and a cuppa.
When: Backdated to late August.
Where: House #29.
Warning(s): Two people being excessively British, probably.

[ There's been a great deal of secrets being traded since Peggy Carter woke up on Thesa — she hasn't contributed to them in any way, but she's certainly been privy to quite a few, never mind being recruited to keep them. She hasn't even admitted to anyone what it was she truly did before the world ended; thus far, Steve and Bucky are the only ones who know, and that's only because they share that wartime history. Peggy's dossier hasn't been intentionally classified, even if it technically is in the time she came from. She's just never had to explain or share it.

But... given what John Watson has asked of her, she supposes it was only a matter of time until she had to elaborate on certain things. (Besides which, they met in a simulated prison cell at the station; she does owe him some answers after escaping that particular ordeal. And all the rest that's followed.) And so: tea.

She's on her way back to the home she shares with Captain Rogers and Mrs Fraser. It's mid-afternoon and while she does work for the Royal Guard and patrols the outskirts of Olympia, it seems her schedule for the moment is fairly flexible (she's working on a private assignment, regardless) — so nipping home for an hour or so shouldn't be an issue. She's got the tea going and some modest sandwiches (very modest: brown bread, butter, the closest thing to pickle she's been able to find in the markets, and some good cheddar) by the time he knocks. She answers the door promptly. ]

Doctor Watson! [ she greets, then corrects — ] John, [ — and waves him in. She's still wearing the all-black uniform of the Guard, the gemstone issued to her pinned to her left breast. It's the only thing more striking than her red lipstick. ] Right on time. Have a seat. We've got the place to ourselves; everyone else is still at work.

[ Between Claire, Peggy, and Steve, the flat has managed to be... somewhat homey. It's clean, at least, scrubbed down as best they could manage. ]

How do you take your tea?

Comments

[enarms]

[ what he's not expecting when the door to Peggy's flat opens is to be met with a woman fresh off the rounds - some kind of rounds, anyway, and he absolutely does give her a quick once-over, gaze settling on the gem on the way back up in a move that both confirms her fresh off the rounds status and captures his attention for a moment too long. a quick glance up at her face when he catches up with himself, then he's very swiftly away to slip past her with a hastily slapped on smile in lieu of a hello. ha.... haha. hm.

Peggy's place is a whole hell of a lot neater than John's, and whether that's because John's rarely actually a presence there to clean up or because he makes a mess and leaves Dirk to it is best left up to mystery. but it does mean that he walks past Peggy, caught slightly off guard already, just to find himself thoroughly bemused.

he didn't think it was actually possible to have these places not looking like a complete shitheap. it's impressive. ]

Just— milk, ta. [ jesus, this is going well, isn't it? but he'll do as his told and take a seat, though not before taking a short, halting, pacing lap around the small space he walks into, apparently paying just as much detailed attention to the flat as he had to... other things. look! definitely just this observant about everything! time to Make Conversation, quick. ] You, uh... there many of you, here?

[revlon]

Three, including myself, [ comes the absent reply as she turns back to the cramped kitchen counter. She's unbothered by the once-over; it earns an eyebrow raise more than anything else. ] Bit of a squeeze, but we manage all right.

[ Now to go about making that tea. The first errand run by the two Englishwomen living here was scrounging up a teapot and all the other necessary things that go along with it. The place was, in John's estimation, truly a "shitheap" but they've all endured grim places during the war. Any attempt to make it feel a little less so was valiantly made. ]

I don't suppose you know Claire Fraser? I imagine you do. [ Nurses and doctors and all that. ] It's her, me, and Steve — that is, Steve Rogers. Who's someone I know from home, as it turns out.

[ Somehow, their random roommate assignments meant putting the people born between 1915 and 1920 together.

Peggy brings over the teapot, two mugs, the glass bottle of milk. She takes her tea black these days, a holdover from the war when rations were tight. But those sandwiches, well. She's going to start in on those. She hopes you don't find her too rude, John Watson, because she's taking a generous bite (heedless of her impeccable lipstick) and says with a full mouth, ]

Sorry; missed lunch. [ She swallows, slides the plate towards him, a clear invitation to help himself. Then her smile turns a little more amused as she asks, ] Did you get a good look around the apartment, then? [ Apartment, not flat. She's spent time in America and it shows. ] See anything interesting?

[ Her back was turned but she noticed, anyway. Because of course she did. ]

[enarms]

[ well, if this isn't a thorough tea making operation going on here, he doesn't know what is. it's reassuring to see the priorities of the English here haven't gone askew - even if it's also fairly funny to find that even here, presumable light years away from swallowed homes, England's old inhabitants are keeping their own stereotypes alive. ]

Oh. Claire, yeah, we know one another. [ now that he thinks about it, that's an apt match. the rooming system here seems to have been oddly on the nose in some roundabout ways. ]

No, not a problem. Especially not if you're feeding me. [ free cheese and pickle sandwiches? doesn't mind if he does. helping himself to one, he's got his mouth full when another question comes in, one that catches him at what hadn't exactly been purposefully sneaky but is still slightly snoopy behaviour for a new houseguest (perhaps not the best way to cover up earlier awkwardness, peering around your host's home) and just like that he's caught between swallowing a barely chewed chunk of sandwich or chewing a rapid chew. he opts for somewhere in the middle, sentence hitching straight onto the end of his swallow— ] Just that yours is a hell of a lot tidier than mine. I've got an infestation of ducks, as it happens.

[ as you... do ]

[revlon]

[ Now it's Peggy's turn to pause, just a beat, but long enough for the bewilderment to register. ]

Ducks, [ she repeats rather neutrally. She studies him for a moment then states, ] You're serious.

[ Good Lord, and she thought they had it bad. She shakes her head and stirs her spoon through her tea, although there isn't anything to stir. Habit, more than anything else, but thankfully she hasn't had to endure teabags in Olympia. America may be very forward-thinking and innovative, but leave it to the Yanks to try and improve upon tea when there wasn't anything wrong with it to begin with.

Then again, their forefathers did dump it all into the ocean, so what do they know?

She takes a sip, studying the man across the table with an even gaze. He hadn't meant to be caught snooping in her place, then, nor had he meant to snoop at all. Curious that he toes that line. He's observant, but that's what you want in a doctor, surely? Except there's a touch more to it than that. ]

But you didn't come here for small talk, did you? [ She smiles and it's a rather mild expression compared to what she says next: ] If we're going to be working together, we've got to be able to trust one another. I imagine you've got questions. But I've got to ask if you can keep a secret.

[enarms]

[ a smirk indicates that she's on the money with that one - serious as you can be about an infestation of ducks, anyway.

John, on the other side of the tea scale, is running close to the end of his supply of teabags and isn't sure he'll be bothered to faff with the stuff planetside when he runs out - he's more reliant on coffee these days anyway, seems efficient to cut out the middle man. but she isn't the only one caught in habit and John nurses his cup just as closely, if aligned with a different set routine. in this case, the cradle between handle-hand and whole palm, and the cooling blow across the surface that does next to nothing in practice.

it's in the middle of these that Peggy speaks up again, and by the time she makes it to the end of what it is she has to say John's expression is floating somewhere between neutral professionalism and the muted edge of a wry turn of the lips. ]

I can, yeah, and I will. But you'll have to take my word for that.

[ what's the point in asking a question that might have a lie as an answer? the point, he supposes, is that it's easier to read a lie than it is to find out the answer to an unasked question the hard way. ]

Then again, it's not like you've not got any leverage if I can't.

[ lighter, at atmosphere-lightening afterthough. though it's true. if he's going to spread secrets, there's a whole network out there he's sure would love to know he's plotting something. ]

[revlon]

That's very true.

[ He's looped her into his plan without knowing the whole of her story. It seems other people had been willing to vouch for her, which is touching; but with the life she's led, it's a small wonder to trust so openly and so easily. That doesn't deter her from doing so now, though. The greater aim here is to try and protect the people that have become their neighbours, whether they like it or not. The aim is to try and make their new home a little more like a home and that means keeping it safe even if no one knows you're doing it.

And by God, does she have more than enough experience in that department. Her whole career has been built on doing her job so well that the public will never know. Peggy sips at her tea then sets it back down, leaning her elbow on the table and her chin in hand. ]

"Observation with a view to intercede," [ she quotes from his earlier texts. ] "Teams for watching and teams for moving in when a threat is made." But you don't want to draw any undue attention and lose the advantage if the situation comes to that. [ Peggy smiles a little. ] Is that it?

[ It's a hypothetical question. ]

The tricky thing, of course, is to make sure we've got all sides to the story covered. We can't be biased and we can't presume to know more about a world than someone actually from it. Which means a bit of solid detective work to be absolutely certain, one way or the other. [ She inclines her head. ] It just so happens I've got a great deal of experience in gathering intelligence and acting on it with no one noticing.

[ Are you picking up what she's putting down, John Watson? ]

[enarms]

[ he is, in fact, picking up the majority of what's being laid on the table here. with all the rest of what he's seen and learned about her through his few previous meetings with the woman herself, it's not much of a stretch to tie the strings together.

this has worked out better than expected. the smile on John's face by the time she's finished is infused with a sort of satisfied understanding. he knew Peggy was competent, but just how perfect her skillset would be and how actively she'd be willing to engage with it?

it's not as if this is an interview, really, but if it were she'd be hired three weeks ago. ]

Well then. It's convenient you're the one we decided to recruit.

[ which is to say he had an inkling, but the full picture is working out to be far better than expected. ]

[revlon]

Convenient I agreed with the idea in the first place. But it's in line with what I did back home, especially when it comes to cases others might consider — otherworldly.

[ She really hopes she hasn't been entirely obvious, otherwise she won't last very long here at all. Although, to be fair, it's been an interesting sort of puzzle — to keep things classified when the countries and governments in question no longer exist? A war record that no longer applies? Well, that's rubbish, of course. No soldier can shake what they've done, no matter how long it's been. She saw what the Great War did to the men in her family.

Peggy does concede, however, ]

Maybe I shouldn't have been so casual about Pearl Harbour around you. [ She smiles briefly. ] But you'd be hard-pressed to find a woman who hadn't done her bit in the war. At least, in my time.