Angie had fallen asleep in the plush chair and was woken by the sound of whimpering coming from the bed. She sat up and rubbed the sleep out of her eyes. She blinked a couple of times till her eyes adjusted to the darkness. She looked over to the bed to see Peggy fidgeting in her sleep, whimpering and mumbling every few seconds.
The waitress placed the shotgun on the ground and stood, shuffling over to the bed. She climbed in next to the agent, placing her hand on Peggy's shoulder and shaking her softly.
"Peggy, wake up."
The agent thrashed her head side to side and mumbled, "Angieā¦."
Angie shook the agent a little harder. "Sweetie, it's just a dream, wake up." Angie pushed messy curls from the agent's sweaty forehead. Peggy's eyebrows furrowed and she frowned deeply, mumbling something Angie didn't quite catch.
"Come on Pegs, wake up." The waitress grasped the agent's shoulders and shook her again. Suddenly the agent bolted upright and pinned Angie to the bed by her throat. Her eyes were hazy and unfocused as she stared down at Angie, she spoke rapidly in a language that Angie didn't understand. Her face was dark and threatening, her hand squeezed the waitress's throat harder, whatever she was saying, she was angry and Angie was terrified.
"English, wake up," Angie choked out, struggling to breathe.
The agent blinked a few times and her eyes cleared, taking in the waitress's terrified face, wide fearful blue eyes, tears streaming down her cheeks. The agent threw herself back off the bed, hitting the floor with a loud thud and scooted back against the far wall as far from Angie as possible.
Angie drew in a shaky breath, wiping away her tears and sat up slowly, looking for the agent. She spotted Peggy on the other side of the room, with her head in her hands, rocking back and forth as sobs wracked her body.
"I'm sorry, I'm sorry," Peggy choked out between sobs.
The bedroom door opened and the lights were turned on revealing Jarvis holding an iron as a weapon, Howard holding an umbrella and George armed with a pistol. If her agent wasn't sobbing in the corner, Angie would have made a joke about Jarvis's and Howard's choice of weapons.
"Is everything alright?" Howard asked his eyes landing on the brunette on the floor. He looked over at the waitress and went to step in the room but Angie shook her head no.
"Everything is fine," Angie answered, "Go back downstairs."
"But Miss Martinelli," Jarvis started to say but Angie cut him off with a sharp look. Jarvis nodded his head in understanding and pushed Howard and George out of the room, closing the door behind them.
Angie stood up from the bed and made her way to the older woman.
"Stay back, I..I don't want to hurt you." Peggy said between sobs, trying to control her tears. She wrapped her arms around her knees, avoiding looking at the waitress. She was ashamed of having hurt the younger woman, even if she wasn't in full control of her actions at the time.
"Stay back," she whispered this time, sounding so ashamed, so self loathing, so guilty that it broke Angie's heart. The normally well put together woman continued to rock herself back and forth, looking so small and so broken and it destroyed Angie.
"Honey, it's okay, I know you didn't mean to," Angie said gently. "It wasn't really you Peggy."
"It was me, I could have killed you."
"I'm fine Peggy."
"This time," Peggy whispered, "What if it happens again and I don't come to till it's too late?"
Angie sighed and sat down on the floor across from the brunette. "You know, when George got back from the war, he was pretty messed up, he had dreams like that, had hurt his wife a few times during them but most of the time she was able to calm him down."
The agent continued to look at everything but the waitress. Angie moved a little closer to the agent, expecting her to tell her to stay back again. When Peggy didn't say anything, Angie moved till she was sitting next to her.
"She eventually left him though, said he was too damaged or something like that"
Angie had stayed with George after his wife had left, she helped him through the nightmares, helped him get back to his old self. She knew she could help Peggy, if Peggy let her.
"Is this suppose to make me feel better?" Peggy asked quietly, interrupting the waitress. "Am I too damaged for you?" Her voice was so broken, so vulnerable.
"Everyone is damaged English, in some way or another," Angie said, drawing random patterns on the agent's back with her finger.
"You didn't answer my question, am I too damaged for you?"
Angie grasped the agent's chin gently, turning Peggy to face her, ducking her head slightly to catch brown eyes.
"Listen to me Margaret Carter, you are not, nor will you ever be too damaged for me, I am in this with you for the long run, I'm not going to leave just because the going gets tough," she leaned forward and kissed the agent softly. "I love you Pegs, I can help you through this, I helped George."
"Let me help my best girl," Angie whispered, placing gentle kisses along the skin she could reach.
Angie knew stopping HYRDA and Leviathan was their top priority, more so now that there was a super soldier on the loose but that doesn't mean Peggy's mental health should take a back seat to all that. If Peggy wouldn't take care of herself then Angie would take care of her.
"How often does it happen?" Angie asked, running her fingers through Peggy's tangled curls.
"Not very often," Peggy answered as the waitress continued to run her fingers through the agent's hair. "I used to have them a lot after Steve but they are quite rare now, I only have them when I am under incredible stress."
"Do you want to talk about the dream?" Angie asked, massaging the agent's scalp. Peggy sighed and leaned into the waitress's touch, shaking her head no.
"I just want to try to sleep."
"Okay," Angie said, standing up and offering her hand to the agent. Peggy took her hand and allowed herself to be pulled to her feet. Angie pulled her to the bed, stopping to pull the covers down. She climbed onto the bed, laying down on her back, she opened her arms for Peggy. The agent climbed in after her, laying her head over the waitress's heart.
Peggy breathed in deeply, letting the sound of Angie's beating heart relax her as the waitress's runs her fingers through her hair. Peggy sighed contently, closing her eyes and lace her fingers with Angie's free hand.
"Goodnight, my dear."
"G'night English."
Jarvis walked down the stair the next morning, fixing his tie as he went. He had gotten up early to fix breakfast for everyone before their long drive out of the city. He made his way to the kitchen, stopping in the doorway when he saw Miss Martinelli and Miss Carter. He stayed at the door and watched them for a few moments.
He knew it was wrong to spy on their private moment but he needed to make sure that they were alright after last night and he knew if he asked it would be met with "I'm fine," and "No need to worry about me, Mr. Fancy." He needed to see with his own eyes that they were okay. He had come to care for the two women as if they were his family and he guessed in a way they were his family now.
Angie picked up a small thing of face powder from the counter and moved to stand in front of Peggy, who was sitting at the small table in the corner of the kitchen.
"Look up," Angie ordered the brunette. The agent did as she was told and lifted her head, exposing her bruised neck to the waitress.
Mister Stark had told him and Mister Martinelli what had happened last night, that a man, a super soldier had held Miss Martinelli at knife point and that Miss Carter had charged at the soldier only to be choked.
Jarvis fought the urge to enter the room and assess Miss Carter's injuries. She didn't need him to take care of her, she had the waitress.
Angie gently started to apply the face powder to Peggy's bruises. "You were stupid and reckless," she said quietly.
"Excuse me?"
"Don't play dumb with me English, you were reckless and you know it."
"What was I supposed to do? Let him kill you?" The agent asked looking up at the waitress.
"He wasn't going to hurt me."
"But he did hurt you," Peggy said reaching up and running her fingers gently over the white bandage covering the cut on Angie's neck.
"He wasn't going to kill me Peggy, he wanted to kill you and you went and handed yourself right to him." Anger lined her word as she spoke. "It was so damn reckless Peggy." Her voice had softened but Peggy knew she was still upset and she had every right to be, Peggy knew that but she wouldn't take back what she did, she would do anything to keep Angie safe even give her life.
"I told you once before my love for you Angie, it makes me do foolish things." She reached up and cupped the waitress's cheek, looking into those bright blue eyes that she loved so much. She leaned up to kiss the waitress but Jarvis cleared his throat and entered the room.
Angie sighed and shook her head. It seemed that someone was always interrupting them lately. Peggy gave the waitress a small smile and leaned up to kiss her cheek. She sat back down and allowed Angie to finish covering up her bruises.
"Sorry to interrupt, I came down to get started on breakfast." Jarvis said moving to start some coffee, stopping once he noticed it had already been made.
He grabbed three cups from the cabinet, pouring some coffee into each one, adding sugar and cream to one for the waitress. He placed the agent's and waitress's cups on the table and moved to the fridge to pull out the things he needed to make breakfast.
"It's quite alright Mr. Jarvis."
"How are you feeling Miss Carter?" Jarvis asked looking over his shoulder at the agent. He was referring to the incident he had walked in on last night. He couldn't get rid of the image of Peggy crying in the corner last night. Peggy's body tensed and her eyes hardened. She remember him walking in on her crying and she knew that eventually one of the three men would ask why she had been crying.
Jarvis turned around fully to face the two women and motioned to the woman's neck, watching Peggy's body relaxed. He knew she wouldn't speak of what happened. Jarvis's green eyes bored into blue ones, silently asking the waitress if Peggy was okay. "I'm dealing with it." Angie mouthed to the butler and he gave her a stiff nod.
"Oh, I'm fine, just a couple more bruises."
It was silent in the kitchen as Jarvis made breakfast and Angie finish applying makeup to Peggy's bruises. Then Howard and George came down the stairs in a heated argument about some car.
"Good morning," Howard said cheerfully to the room as Jarvis handed him a cup of coffee.
George smiled a thank you to Jarvis as he was handed a coffee. He walked over to his sister and kissed the top of her head, flashing Peggy a small smile before sitting at the table. Howard took a seat as well and looked over the agent.
"I made some calls about our super soldier," Howard stated as he sipped his coffee.
"Who did you call?" Peggy asked, watching Howard turn serious.
"Dugan, it seems he has gather quite a bit of information since your trip to Belarus." He took another sip of his coffee and grabbed a piece of bacon Jarvis sat on the table, taking a bite. "Like Leviathan, is just a side project for HYDRA with the intent to steal all my inventions and kill or capture me," he said through a mouthful of food.
"What about the soldier, Howard?" The agent asked growing impatient.
"I was getting to that," he said taking another bite of bacon. "They call him the Winter Soldier and he is HYDRA's top assassin, he is relentless, he has never failed a mission and Pegs, Dugan said to be careful, that he's never seen anything like this man and that there is no way that you can take him on alone."
"Well, I don't have any choice but to take him on alone," Peggy said after a few minutes of silence.
"The hell you do English, you have us," Angie shouted at the agent, standing with her hands on her hips and staring down at the burnette. "Train us Peggy, teach us to fight so we can help you stop him." She kneeled down in front of the agent, looking up into dark brown eyes with specks of gold in them. Peggy just shook her head no.
"I get it, we ain't no Howling Commandos and we ain't no Captain America but we're all you got right now Pegs, we could be your team, just give us a chance," Angie said softly, taking Peggy's hand in her own. "Let us help, we're in this together."
Peggy sighed deeply and looked around at the people in the room. Jarvis had stopped cooking and was giving her a encouraging smile. "We are in this together Miss Carter"
She looked to George, who was looking at his sister. "They would be able to protect themselves if we weren't around," he said looking over to Peggy.
She looked to Howard and he grinned at her. "We are with you till the end of line, Pegs."
She looked back to Angie. "We can do this, we can stop HYDRA together," Angie said.
"Okay," Peggy finally said, "I'll train you."
Thank you so much for reading and commenting guys, it means a lot. I hope you enjoy this chapter. It might take a little longer for the next chapter to be posted, i'm stuck in the middle of writing chapter 13 and I want to finish it before I post anything else, I like to stay a couple chapters ahead. Anyways, thanks for reading. I hope you all have a great weekend.
