As Angie walked up to the theatre, she could see a brunette woman standing outside looking at a sheet of paper. As she got closer she could see the woman look slightly lost.
"Can I help you?"
The woman looked up, surprised, "I'm sorry, I didn't see you there," she said in what appeared to be a British accent while hastily shoving the paper back into her purse.
"You're not from around here, are you?"
"I'm from Brooklyn, actually. But I'm here as an extra for the Cinderella play, is this the right place?"
"No kidding! I'm an extra too. Yeah you're at the right place. I'm Angie by the way," Angie realised she didn't know the other woman's name.
"I'm Peggy, it's nice to meet you," Peggy said.
"Likewise," Angie said with a smile. "Should we head in?"
"Lead the way," Peggy replied, opening the door for Angie.
When they entered the theatre many of the other extras were already there. Peggy realised she had no idea what she was doing, the chief had sent her here undercover looking for a Leviathan agent who was an actor in the play, but he had given her no time to prepare. She did her best to follow Angie, but she felt so out of place among all the actors.
As Peggy and Angie put their belongings down, the director called everyone together, "As you know we are rehearsing the dance for the ballroom scene where Cinderella and the prince first meet. Many of you know the dance already so find a partner jump in after when you are ready. The rest of you will have to watch and learn the dance by the end of rehearsal today so start warming up."
During warm ups Angie asked, "You new to this, English?" as she watched Peggy struggle to keep up.
Peggy smiled at her new nickname, but then looked embarrassed, "is it that obvious?"
"A little. You're about a beat behind and you're heavy on your feet."
"I'm afraid I'm not much of a dancer."
"You must have danced?"
"Not really. It didn't seem to matter that much these past few years. Figured I'd wait."
"For what?"
"The right partner"
Angie went silent for a moment, processing what Peggy had just said, "You really believe it's possible to find the right partner?"
"I do."
Peggy wondered if it was worth it to learn the dance. She knew she was capable of doing so, but if all went well, they would have the mission completed in a couple days and she would not have to be undercover anymore. She needed to spend her time investigating actors, not learning a dance she would probably never perform. Peggy looked around at all the other actors. She couldn't imagine any of them being highly trained killers. None of them had really paid any attention to Peggy since she had arrived, a couple had snickered at her during warm ups, but besides that they were all too busy dancing to notice her. But then there was Angie. She had immediately latched herself onto Peggy and didn't socialise with anyone else, but seemed to know a lot about everyone. Peggy refused to believe Angie was part of Leviathan, but she knew it was possible.
Finally the director called everyone together again to start rehearsing the scene, "I need my Cinderella and Prince front and center," the director called out. "Where are Lily and Richard?"
"Here we are!" Called the actress who was playing Cinderella. She was blonde and very pretty. In fact, she even reminded Peggy a little of the agent she had caught Steve kissing once. Behind her came Richard, who was playing the prince. He had a very strong build and together with Lily, they made the perfect fairytale couple.
"Their chemistry is terrible," Angie whispered to Peggy as they waited for the director to start the scene.
"How do you know?"
"I overheard them rehearsing their scene yesterday and it was awful. It wasn't convincing in the least."
"And you think you could do better?" Peggy challenged.
"I bet I could, if I had the right partner," Angie retorted.
"Fine, pretend I'm your partner."
"You're on, English," Angie laughed. She took a moment to compose herself before starting their fake scene in an overly dramatic way, "English, I love you so much, I don't ever want to be apart from you again."
Peggy burst out laughing. "Darling Angie, I love you too. Let's run away together," she managed to get out between fits of laughter.
Finally Angie couldn't hold her laughter in any longer and soon the two of them were gasping for air.
Suddenly they became aware of the fact that the entire room was silent and everyone was watching them.
"Is something funny, ladies?"
"No sir," they responded trying to stifle their laughter.
"If you aren't going to take this seriously I'm going to have to ask you to leave."
"We'll behave sir." Peggy couldn't afford to get kicked out before she was done investigating.
Peggy and Angie were quiet the rest of rehearsal, occasionally whispering and giggling to each other, but only when the director wasn't looking. With a lot of instruction from Angie, Peggy eventually learned the dance, while still managing to keep an eye on all the dancers.
"Impressive, English. I'd say you're doing pretty darn well," Angie had commented when Peggy managed not to mess up a particularly difficult sequence.
"Well I have an excellent teacher," Peggy replied.
Finally the rehearsal was over. As Peggy was gathering her belongings, Angie sneaked up behind her and scared her.
"Gotcha!" Angie had practically screamed.
Peggy hadn't been shocked like that in a while and took a moment to recover.
"Angie! I haven't been so shocked in quite some time."
Angie smiled, clearly very proud of herself.
"So, I was thinking, since you've never been dancing, how about I take you out dancing one night. How about Saturday?"
"I would love that, Angie."
Somehow Angie managed to smile even wider than she already was, "it's a date! I'll pick you up around 8?"
"Sounds good, I'll see you then."
The next morning when Peggy walked into the office, Thompson immediately came up to her to ask about the mission.
"I am so sure Lily is part of Leviathan. She even has the wrist scars from being handcuffed at night."
"Fine, I'll take some agents with me to the theater to check it out, you and Sousa can stay here."
Peggy immediately protested, "Wait until I've had more time to talk to her, Thompson. How suspicious would it be if all of a sudden a bunch of agents started hanging around the theater?"
"You've done enough Peggy, time to let the men do their jobs." Thompson got up to leave, "How about you treat yourself to some lunch?"
Peggy didn't say anything, instead she kept her thoughts to herself. She hated it when Thompson did this but for some reason all she could think about was how Saturday couldn't come soon enough.
