Moments
Tagline: Peggy Carter, Agent, not coffee girl, not office gopher, not simply Captain America's girl, but Agent. Welcome to the new era that is my life.
Disclaimer: I do not own. All royalties and rights go to Markus and McFeely, Marvel, and ABC.
A/N: In honor of Season 2 being renewed, here is the first of my one-shot series.
Enjoy.
Coffee
She was late. She was late on her first day back at the SSR.
As she was walking into the bullpen, she began to count her blessings in the hopes of boosting herself out of a foul mood.
One, she had missed Chief Thompson's morning announcements of 'edicts, assignments, and public recriminations' (according to Daniel's description at last week's luncheon).
Two, over half the office was in the conference room for what looked to be a briefing, so there was mercifully few to witness her late arrival or to gape at her unexpected return.
Three…
Well, there was really only two. She was late and had missed the beginning of a briefing and would need to play catch up. Wonderful.
Pursing her lips to keep her curses at her rotten luck silent, she set her satchel down on the chair next to Daniel's desk, as she did not know if she was to have her old one back or not, and then quietly marched over to the conference room with her shoulders square and her head high.
"And so judging by these men's unusual stock market trading on the day of the near successful Leviathan attack, we believe that they must have known something about Ivchenko's plans," Agent Fisher concluded.
"So how are we going to get these money-grubbing bastards?" Wallace asked belligerently.
Peggy remained in the doorway intently following the resulting debate between Ramirez and Daniel about how to handle that very thing. If she had been there for the entire briefing, she might have made a few suggestions of her own, but alas, that was not meant to be, and so she kept mum. For now.
Her mental scheming was rudely interrupted by a young baby-faced, slick-haired agent (a wannabe Thompson, with none of the clever cynicism and all of the obnoxious pomposity, if she was any judge). He leaned back in his chair to whisper less than discreetly, "Hey, doll, quit standing in the doorway and make yourself useful. I like my coffee black with two sugars."
Before she could summon up a fittingly cutting retort, Thompson barked out from his end of the table, "Get your own damn coffee, Matthews."
The young agent stared mouth agape at his new Chief. Carter noticed that all of the other newbies wore similar expressions, but her fellow veterans were unsurprised at this curt reprimand. It was almost as if they now considered her one of them, as if she was equal to them.
Daniel was the exception to this. He was staring with wide eyes at their interim-Chief in shock – not that he didn't believe she was an equal, but his amazement had more to do with the disbelief that Jack had so publicly demonstrated that she was no longer the coffee-girl.
Jack then went on to add, "Carter, go with Sousa. He'll explain on the way, as it is his pet theory and game plan."
Peggy could barely contain her excitement. The day was beginning to look up. She had not been in the door ten minutes and she was being sent out on a mission for something other than a deli run.
As it was almost too good to be true, she asked curiously, "While we are out and about, do you want me to pick up lunch too?"
"No, Carter," he replied with great condescension as if speaking to a toddler. "You are not currently on my shit-list. But if you want to stay off of it, you won't be late again."
Ignoring her slight mocking tone in her dutiful 'yes, sir', he stood up and strode for his office, tossing over his shoulder various last minute assignments, concluding with, "And Matthews?"
"Yes, sir?" was the young man's hesitant reply.
"Get everybody's lunch order today."