Title: Maybe I'll See You in New York
Author: vendettadays
Fandom: Marvel's Agent Carter
Characters: Peggy Carter, Angie Martinelli
Rating: T
Length: 2163
Summary: AU - It was supposed to be a simple mission to London to recover Howard's device, because it was always Howard Stark's inventions that got stolen and Peggy who had to get them back, when the man she tailed made a run for it. Peggy almost had him when he crashed into a tourist enjoying her holiday and tumbled to the ground, bringing her and the woman with him.
A/N: I do love Peggy/Angie, but writing the 40s scares me b/c I really don't think I can do it justice, so have a modern AU instead and a horrible pun in amongst the writing - hope you enjoy!
Peggy turned the page of the Metro she had picked up on the Tube and glanced over the top of the newspaper at her target. He brought his coffee to his lips with shaking hands and his eyes darted from side to side. Peggy shook her head at how shifty he looked just sitting there. He was young and eager, probably his first solo job with the way he clutched at the parcel in his lap, but Peggy had to hand it to him. Of all the places to conduct an exchange, a busy Saturday afternoon at an outdoor café in Covent Garden was the best place to do it. Now, if only it wasn't in London, then it would have been perfect in her eyes.
She leaned against the back of her chair and surveyed her surroundings from behind her large sunglasses. There was a crowd of tourists in the middle of the square watching a magic show. The balconies on either side of her were full of people drinking beer and no one stood out amongst them. There was nothing amiss as far as she saw. It was like any other day in June.
It was ten past one and her target's contact was a no show. Peggy sighed, drank the last of her tea, and folded the newspaper. It was time to get Howard's invention back, because it was always Howard "bloody" Stark's inventions that got stolen and always her, who had to get them back. Peggy stood up and straightened her clothes: grey trousers with a white shirt and a casual blazer. It was better than SHIELD's uniform of black, black, and more black, that screamed suspicious and the only person who cared enough to dress that way was Thompson. For a top-secret agency, they really needed a lesson in espionage and subtlety.
She walked over and the closer she got to him the more his leg bounced. He turned to her and froze, eyes wide and mouth half opened, before he launched himself out of his chair, knocking a table over as he ran.
'Bugger!' Peggy weaved between the tables and through the crowd, past the magician who had pulled a rabbit from a hat, as she followed her escaping target round a corner.
Her fingertips almost brushed his collar when he crashed into someone and tumbled to the ground, bringing Peggy and the person down with him. She groaned into a head of brown hair that smelt far too nice to be the man she'd been after. Peggy grunted as the man shoved her off him and ran for it before she could recover.
'What hell? Watch where you're going!' The words were muffled and would have sounded more threatening if they weren't coming from under her.
Peggy lifted herself off the poor woman and stood up, wincing at her throbbing side from where an elbow had hit her. The heel of her left hand was sore from stopping her fall and her right was fine; the stomach had softened the landing and she hoped it was her target's, who was probably long gone by now and so was Howard's invention. The paperwork was going to be horrid.
'Are you alright?' Peggy offered a hand to the woman on the ground.
'Yeah, but the only human sandwich I ever want to be part of is on a bed.' The woman pulled herself up with the Peggy's help and brushed her hair out of her face. 'Thanks!'
Peggy let go of the woman's hand and coughed to hide the sudden heat on her face, from amusement or embarrassment she wasn't sure, though it might have been a bit of both. 'You're very welcome –'
'Angie.'
'Right, Angie, I'm so sorry that you got caught up with…' There was a graze the size of an egg on Angie's knee, hidden a little by the hem of her floral summer dress, and Peggy frowned at the blood and forgot what she had wanted to say. 'I have a first aid kit in my bag. I can clean it up for you.'
Angie lifted the hem of her dress to examine the cut and nodded at Peggy with a raised eyebrow. 'Who carries a first aid kit around with them?'
Someone that was employed to fight criminal organisations, chased thieves for their friend, and got more scars than she could remember. She shrugged and sat down on a low wall, gesturing for Angie to sit. 'Oh, you know what it's like having to wear heels to work that haven't been broken in properly.'
Angie hummed sympathetically and sat down next to her. She hiked up her dress, revealing the graze and an alarming amount of thigh, and Peggy dropped her gaze quickly and rummaged inside the satchel that hung around her shoulders. It was the polite thing to do, rather than ogle at Angie. God, it was like she had never seen another woman's thigh before with the way she was acting.
'Who was that guy anyway?'
'He stole something from my friend and I was after him to get it back.' It wasn't a lie, and then again, it wasn't the whole truth either. Peggy opened a pack of antiseptic wipes and dabbed at the graze as gently as she could, but Angie's leg tensed under her touch.
'You don't mean this?' In Angie's hand was a battered Lonely Planet Guide to London and the parcel Peggy was after.
'Oh my God, Angie! Yes, that's it!' Relief flooded through her at the sight of the squashed parcel and she would have flung her arms around Angie if it weren't weird to do so. 'You have no idea how much trouble you just saved me.'
Angie grinned widely at her and shoved the parcel into Peggy's satchel. 'So what do you do, English? When you're not chasing after thieves and disinfecting wounds that is.'
A smile quirked at Peggy's lips at the nickname and she stuck a large plaster onto Angie's knee. Angie had no idea just how close she was to the truth. 'I work for a telecommunications company in New York.'
'We're practically neighbours then! I live in New York and please, tell me you work for Verizon, 'cause I pay forty-nine bucks every month for the worst reception ever and I'm locked into a contract.'
Peggy laughed, a small huff from her throat that did not really pass for a laugh, but Angie's face brightened at the sound and the weight that had settled on Peggy's shoulder the moment she had landed in Heathrow lightened a little.
'I'm Peggy Carter.' She held her hand out and was about to drop it when Angie caught on and grasped it in an enthusiastic shake.
'You wanna get coffee together?' asked Angie.
It was an invitation that she should decline, for Angie's safety and for her own good. Maybe it was the weight on her shoulders, or Angie's hand in her own, or the fact that being in London brought on a loneliness in her that had had her moving to the US without a second thought. Whatever it was, Peggy nodded and followed Angie to a café on the other side of the road.
They sat by the window with mugs of tea between them. It turned out that Angie hated coffee; apparently, years of serving the stuff had put her off the drink. Peggy sipped at her tea and listened to Angie as she regaled her with all the tourist traps she had visited in London. It was nice that she didn't have to carry the conversation and it didn't seem like Angie minded doing all the talking.
'I've seen Big Ben and Buckingham Palace, even rode on the London Eye twice, but there must be more to know about London, right?
'If you want to get to know London, if you want to get to know any place, you have to start with the people first, but before that, you have to get past the fact that most Londoners hate tourists.'
'Well, it's a good thing I met you then, English.' Angie leaned on the table, chin resting on her left hand, and winked at Peggy in a way that she could only interpret as suggestive. 'You could be my tour guide for the day.'
'Sure.' She really should not be doing this with Angie. It went against all the training and regulations that SHIELD had taught her, but she wanted to do it anyway.
'Great! What have I missed?'
'Have you had a Full English?'
Angie frowned at Peggy with a gaping mouth. 'English, are you flirting with me?'
'What?' Peggy ran through what she had said and laughed. 'It's a type of breakfast, not a euphemism if that's what you're thinking.'
Angie rolled her eyes and smirked. 'Well, how about we have lunch first and if it comes to that, you can buy me breakfast.'
They ended up in Hyde Park watching the sunset on their backs, sharing a bottle of peach schnapps and half a rhubarb pie, and it was the most relaxed Peggy had been since she moved to the US a year ago.
'Peg?'
Peggy shifted so she lay on her front, the grass tickled her chin and she stared at Angie, who was on her back and gazing up at the sky. Her mind was warm and languid from the alcohol, and she was a world away from the woman who had woken up this morning with a mission to complete. 'Yes?'
'I'm kinda glad that your friend's stuff got stolen, else I wouldn't have met you.' Angie smiled at her, the kind that was full of adoration that could not possibly be for Peggy, not from someone who she had known for only half a day. 'Thanks, I really enjoyed today.'
'No, I should be thanking you instead.' Her voice wavered as she spoke and she swallowed the lump that had risen quite suddenly in her throat. 'You made this trip back home much more bearable.'
'Hey, what's wrong?'
Peggy sat up when Angie tugged at her shoulder. The schnapps had loosened her tongue, but it was Angie's worried expression that got Peggy talking about the one thing she had avoided thinking about too much.
'I'm not really fond of London, not anymore.'
'You don't like London?'
'It's not about liking it. It is where I'm from after all. It's just there's history and there are lots of memories here that I cannot deal with at the moment.' She was grateful when Angie leaned against her, waiting for her to go on without pushing. 'I got a letter that my… friend was MIA and afterwards, all I saw were the places he and I went together, the time we spent, and it all got a bit too much. That's why I left.'
They sat in silence and Peggy drew in a calming breath at how much Angie's arm around her waist reminded her of Steve, only much softer but the warmth was just as familiar.
'He was important, wasn't he?'
'Yes, he was.'
Her heart hurt at how Angie understood without question and her eyes focused on Angie's mouth. She leaned in close, slowly enough for Angie to stop her if she wanted, but her refusal never came. She pressed her lips against Angie's, captivated in an instant by the softness and fullness. It was desperate and ached with loneliness, but she kissed her again and again when Angie's hand tangled in her hair. She stopped abruptly and pulled back, breathing out shakily, but Angie's hands stayed cupping her face.
Peggy gathered her clothes off the floor and silently pulled them on in the dark. Her shirt was rumpled and missing two buttons and her trousers had seen better days. She checked her satchel for the parcel, but couldn't bring herself to leave yet.
She sat down on the bed and brushed the hair from Angie's face gently.
'You're leaving?' Angie's voice was rough with sleep as she opened her eyes.
'Yes.' Peggy bent down and kissed Angie's cheek. 'Maybe I'll see you in New York.'
Peggy scrolled past the apartments listings that were out of her budget on her phone. The "cosy studio apartment" looked promising and it wasn't too far from work either. Apartment hunting was a pain.
'Can I get you a refill, English?'
Peggy jerked her head up, mouth falling open as she stared at Angie behind the counter, a coffee jug in one hand and the other hand on her hip. There was that smirk and raised eyebrow that had become a permanent fixture in Peggy's mind since she returned to New York two weeks ago. She hadn't quite gathered the courage to look up Angie on SHIELD's database, but here she was standing in front of her.
'I've got a break in ten. I think you owe me that breakfast you promised.'