Author's Note: I'm totally stoked for this. I have never really gotten the chance to write about Peggy, but here it is.


Peggy Carter

November 11, 1940

Peggy's car stopped outside of London at an airfield, and Aspen got out of her cab, paying the driver and ignoring his protests that he didn't take American money. Peggy was speaking to the driver of the car, so Aspen hung back, pretending to be observing one of the small planes while hiding behind it's tail end. The driver drove off, and Peggy approached one of the fancier looking airplanes. Aspen let out a small gasp of surprise when she read the name on the side of the plane. Stark.

A dapper man with dark hair and a well-trimmed mustache greeted Peggy. Aspen did a double take. The man was so similar to Tony Stark there was no way he wasn't Tony's father. She remembered that Peggy had worked with Howard Stark during the war. She had been so focused on Howard she realized Peggy had disappeared a moment later. She looked around. Something grabbed her shoulder from behind, and she spun around to find herself facing an irritable looking Peggy.

"You'd better explain why you've been following me and quickly," she said. Aspen looked down to see that she was holding a gun in her hand.

"I'm not a spy!" Aspen said in a hurry.

"Keep talking."

Aspen opened her mouth, but words wouldn't come out. What could she say? Peggy didn't know Steve yet, so she couldn't say she was a friend of his. "I'm a free agent," she said finally. "I've been tracking Hydra, and I know you're fighting against them too. I thought maybe you had a lead. I wanted to see if I could help but didn't know how to ask."

"Why should I believe you?" Peggy asked. The gun hadn't wavered.

"I'm not sure I have a good reason," Aspen said. "If I told you the truth you'd think I was crazy."

"I've seen my fair share of crazy already in this war. Try me."

Please don't let me mess up the future, Aspen pleaded silently. "I'm going to get something out of my bag," she told Peggy. "I don't have a weapon. It's my driver's license."

"Go on, but I'm not lowering my gun."

Aspen pulled her driver's license out of her coat pocket and held it out to Peggy. Peggy took it with her free hand and read it over. "This is impossible," she said, looking back up at Aspen.

"Improbable but Hydra seems to work magic these days."

"It says that you were born in 1990 and that this was issued to you in 2012. Who are you?" Peggy was looking at her with cautious curiosity mingled with disbelief.

"I'm Aspen Tolvar. I'm from the future. I know that does sound crazy, but I was tracking a name named Strucker." She saw recognition in Peggy's eyes. "And he had this device. It sent me back here." She didn't mention Steve. "I ended up in London. I saw you getting into the car-"

"But how do you know who I am?" Peggy asked. "Do we meet in the future?" She narrowed her eyes, but Aspen could see she was working on wrapping her mind around what Aspen had told her.

"I really hope so. I also really hope I'm not completely screwing up the future by talking to you now, but I don't know what else to do or who else to turn to. I trust you. I know you don't trust me, but I trust you. I know Howard's son too."

"He has a son?" Peggy glanced over at Howard who was watching them with his hands tucked into the pockets of his leather jacket.

"Yes, he does." Aspen noticed that Peggy had loosened her grip on her gun. "Look, I don't know why I was brought here, but it must be for some reason if I found you. I wasn't in London when I found Strucker's machine."

Peggy finally dropped her gun, stowing it away in her pocket. "I believe you, crazy as this all sounds," she said finally. "Hydra is capable of frighteningly advanced things, and I did hear rumors of Strucker building a machine. I don't think even a Hydra agent would fabricate such a story." She handed Aspen back her license. "I'm headed into Germany for a mission. If you want to help, you can come, but it will be dangerous."

"I want in," Aspen said. "I really am an agent but I work for the organization you help found in the 50s."

Peggy looked surprised. "Then I might need your help. Let me introduce you to Howard."

Aspen followed her with a surreal sense of déjà vu as she shook Howard Stark's hand. "This is Aspen," Peggy introduced. "She's going to be helping us."

"If you say so," Howard said, shaking Aspen's hand. "It's a pleasure." He gave her a winning smile. No wonder he'd been considered a lady's man, Aspen thought. Like Tony, he had a certain charm to him. He was certainly handsome.

"Thanks, it's nice to meet you too," she said.

"Ah, another America. Good. It was getting a little stuffy here." He winked at Peggy who rolled her eyes.

"Let's get going," she said. As they got into the airplane, she looked Aspen over. "You're not planning on wearing that on the mission, are you?" she asked.

"I have other clothes," Aspen said. She cast Howard a glance. "From home."

"You'll have time to change later. Strap in." They strapped themselves in as Howard started the plane's engine. Aspen couldn't stop glancing at Peggy as the plane took off into the air and headed toward Germany.

"I take it you've heard of Johann Schmidt," Peggy said to her.

"Yes, I have," Aspen said.

"Well he's captured an important scientist named Abraham Erskine."

"Doctor Erskine!" Aspen exclaimed before she could stop herself. Peggy gave her a sharp look. "I've heard of him," she said in way of explanation. "He plays a very important role in the war. Why does Schmidt have him?"

"Doctor Erskine has been working on developing a particular serum that caught Schmidt's interest. It's vital that Hydra – that's Hitler's science division – doesn't get its hands on that serum. It could have disastrous consequences."

"How are you going to rescue him?" Aspen asked.

"A cover has been arranged," Peggy said. "My organization has arranged for me to become Schmidt's new maid. That will give me access to the castle and the ability to snoop."

"That sounds really risky." Aspen hadn't even known Peggy had rescued Doctor Erskine. It wasn't something Steve had ever talked about so maybe he didn't know either. She realized now all that was hanging on this one moment. If Peggy didn't successfully rescue Doctor Erskine then Captain America would never be born. Steve would never go to war, and Peggy wouldn't even know that he existed. Aspen was suddenly terrified that she was going to mess something up. Perhaps she should have stayed in London after all.

"I can't risk this plan failing so if you can't handle it, then you can stay with Howard," Peggy said crisply.

"I can handle it," Aspen said quickly. "I think I was meant to help. Why else would I have been sent back to this exact time and location?"

Peggy frowned. "I can't answer that. I stopped doubting the unbelievable the moment I was introduced to Hydra and their experiments. But how do I know you're not working for Strucker in the future? You could have been sent back to botch this."

"If you really believe that, you never would have let me on this plane," Aspen said. "Just trust that I would never do anything that would put you in danger. I'm close to someone in the future who will become quite close to you very soon. He's from your time."

"Was he sent back too? From the future?"

"I don't know. He was with me, but I don't know where he was sent. I wish I knew." She had the feeling she was getting further and further from Steve.

"Maybe this wasn't where he was meant to be," Peggy tried to reassure her.

"What I don't get is why Strucker would send us back. I think he might be trying to stop something from happening which makes getting Doctor Erskine free of Schmidt even more important. Maybe he thinks we'll mess up our own futures and cease to exist."

"We won't let that happen," Peggy said.

"What if I'm trapped here forever?" The thought sprung into Aspen's mind, and she felt herself begin to panic again. "What if there's no way to send us back?"

"We'll figure this out," Peggy said. "Let's focus on the task at hand first. After that we can find a way to get you home."

"All right." Somehow having Peggy on her side made anything seem possible. "How can I help?"

"You said you're an agent. What are your skills?" Peggy asked.

"I'm fairly good at stealth and infiltration. I'm a good shot and handy with a knife, decent with a bow. And…" She paused, fingering the cuff she wore around her wrist. Did it even work in this time? Peggy didn't miss the motion.

"That's not just a bracelet, is it?"

"I was injected with a serum similar to Erskine's," Aspen admitted. "Only instead of enhancing my physical abilities, it enhanced my mental abilities. I basically have access to my whole brain, but I'm not at all adept at using it. I don't know my limitations or even what all I can do. I'm terrified I'm going to hurt someone or lose control so I keep this cuff on. It keeps my powers at bay. My parents invented the serum. It's a long story, but I wasn't meant to be injected with it. It was an imperfect serum at first, and it nearly killed me."

"I'm sorry you were injected without your permission, but imagine what all you could do," Peggy said. "I think you're strong enough to control it."

"You think so?" Aspen asked, surprised. "I'm not so sure about that."

"Sometimes we can't see the strength within ourselves until we put ourselves out on the line and force ourselves to either succeed or fail. You might surprise yourself if you take that cuff off your wrist."

"Maybe." Aspen was more convinced she'd somehow turn everything into a disaster if she tried that.

"Well we'll work with your natural skills first. You said you can shoot a bow? That might come in handy."

"I'm not as good as the friend who taught me, but I think I can make some decent shots."

"I think you're being modest." Peggy smiled at her. "I think you could pass as my younger sister. Not that we look anything alike, but they won't ask questions. I'm from an agency known for its hard-working and silent maids. You don't know any German, do you?"

"No."

"Pity, you'll have to be mute then, I'm afraid. Schmidt will most likely question us when we arrive."

The thought of meeting Red Skull in person terrified Aspen. Being interrogated by him would be a nightmare. "Is he…does he look like a normal person?" She wasn't sure if he was Red Skull yet.

"As far as I know. Should he look different?" Peggy asked.

"Not yet."

Peggy didn't question her further, and Aspen thought she might try to be avoiding asking questions about the future. "My name is to be Eva. What shall we call you? How about Elsa? Elsa and Eva. Easy to remember." Aspen nodded. "Our mission is to find out where Doctor Erskine is being kept captive and find an extraction route all while avoiding suspicion." Aspen gulped. Somehow the stakes seemed much higher now. Even the Battle of New York hadn't been this stressful. "Schmidt has a castle in a secluded part of Germany. He does a lot of his work there, and I'm afraid he's going to try to replicate the serum if he gets his hands on it. Doctor Erskine will try to resist, but I'm afraid Schmidt will get his way in the end."

"As if Hitler wasn't bad enough," Aspen muttered.

Peggy's eyes danced with unasked questions, but she shook her head and continued on. "Howard will drop us off, and we'll continue on foot. I have sets of clothes for both of us, but you might want to bring a change of clothes in case we need to make a quick escape. I'll have a radio and be able to contact Howard when we're ready to make our escape. With luck we'll be able to get Doctor Erskine out and reclaim any samples of serum in the castle. We'll need to see if there are any before we leave. We can't leave something like that lying around."

"What duties will we be performing as maids?" Aspen asked, imagining dusting an entire castle and scrubbing floors.

"We'll be cleaning the main rooms as well as taking care of laundry and ironing. We may need to serve meals. He has a small staff, but we won't be in charge of cooking."

"That's a relief."

"We'll need to be careful in spying around the castle, but two sets of eyes are better than one. You could prove quite helpful."

"I certainly hope so. I don't know what I'd do with myself if I failed Peggy Carter. You're my role model."

Peggy looked touched. "You might be the only one to think that," she said. "I'm surprised I was allowed this mission to be honest. The British Secret Intelligence doesn't usually allow females to serve as agents, but I worked my way here despite it all."

"Men are just jealous that women can make just as good if not better agents," Aspen told her.

"I hope you're appreciated in your time," Peggy said, looking hopeful.

"I am. There are quite a few women agents. I've never faced adversity because of it though I wouldn't say women have entirely equal rights. Still, in my organization it doesn't matter one way or another."

"That's because I helped found it," Peggy said with a smile.

"Exactly." Aspen had somehow lost some of her fear while talking to Peggy. It was like a strange and incredibly wonderful dream coming true. She only hoped meeting Peggy didn't change anything vital about the future.