Scenarios
A/N: This prompt is from shepweir always who requested that I turn up the heat on the Cartson flirting from Revenge of the Moniker
So ladies and gents, I present to you Round 2...
Playing with Fire
"Agent Ramirez, this is Agent Francine Wickers and Agent Pierre Roberts. They are the leads on the case."
Ramirez eyed Wickers and Roberts with interest as they entered his office's conference room. They were young, but not entirely fresh-faced. If Jack's and Carter's training program was even half of what his friend had hinted at, they wouldn't be. He was amused to see though that behind their almost Carter-like dignity, there was a hint of school boy/girl curiosity when they recognized his name.
What had Jack and Peggy been telling their trainees about him?
"Wickers, Roberts, this is Agent Rick Ramirez. You will be doing a joint op with him. Share everything that you have with him on Suzie Barker."
More than a bit surprised at the open invitation, he blurted, "Everything?"
Peggy smirked at him, as she proudly answered, "Yes, everything, todo, la totalidad. We here at S.H.I.E.L.D. strive to avoid bureaucratic mierda."
Rick ignored her slight mocking and grinned, "You know, Carter, for months now you have been trying to get me to jump ship and join you. And that perk right there is what you should have led with."
That caught her by surprise. There was a slow speculative blink and then a hopeful query on her part, "Now that I have…?"
Never one to make promises that he couldn't keep, he replied honestly, "If you and your team can show me that it's true, I'll consider giving up on my government pension plan."
Director Carter gave him a solemn nod, saying gracefully, "I'll leave you all to it then," before heading for the door. But not before shooting her agents a look that clearly stated that they better not let her down.
~.~
When he was sure that she was out of hearing distance (on the elevator and 3 floors down), he turned to his new partners and said, "Okay, you've got 5 minutes to ask me any questions that are non-case related before we get down to business."
Wickers and Roberts looked like they were going to deny wanting to act unprofessionally in any kind of way, so he headed them off with a stern, "I'd hate to report to my good friends that you were distracted during an op, so let's just get it out of your systems, shall we?"
The pair of them looked at each other, and then without a mutual shrug or hem or haw (clearly partners on the same wavelength) they turned to him and Roberts asked:
"What's the deal with Thompson and the Director?"
He was a little offended that their burning curiosity had nothing to do with him, but then again it was Jack and Peggy he was competing with.
He snorted, "Those two? Well, that's the oldest question in the books." At their confused gazes, he explained, "The S.S.R. betting pool books. There is still an open wager on them. There has been ever since they started their ridiculous endearment war."
"Endearment war?" Wickers asked, looking a little bit like she really didn't want to know how far her hero could fall.
And because, well, he thought the pair of them brought it on themselves (his friends for their ridiculousness and these two for their nosiness), he readily and gleefully explained.
"Yeah, he called her 'sweetheart' to pull her figurative pigtails and she retaliated with anything from 'sugar buns' to 'snookums'. Out of curiosity," he asked, "Why exactly do you ask?"
At this point, Wickers looked even more uncomfortable and Roberts grinned like an imp given a set of matchsticks and a box of firecrackers.
"Well, sir, it's gotten a lot more heated since then."
~A~
Some time ago…
"Jack, are you sure Wickers and Roberts are up for this? From what I've seen, they can't stand each other."
Jack cocked his head to side, as if eyeing her speculatively but really to subtly nod in the direction of their eavesdroppers, as he boastfully countered, "Not unlike us, Marge."
Peggy rolled her eyes and huffed irritably (and loudly enough to be heard), "'Us'? There has never been an 'us', Jack."
"Well, no, we have never carved our initials within a heart on a tree," he admitted slowly with a drawl, before taunting, "but you can't deny that we have always had good chemistry."
"Chemistry?" she scoffed with far too much protest.
"Chemistry, Marge," he answered lowly and with a little bit of heat in his blue gaze.
Whether it was the huskiness of his voice or the heat in his gaze, either way suddenly Peggy Carter was looking at him like a tigress stalking her prey.
She was one minute his Director discussing her concerns about his trainees, an old colleague exchanging witty banter, and then the next, she was in his space, her voice pitched low, and breathing into his ear, "You mean, like this?"
And then her hand was slowly sliding up his crisp white shirt to the back of his neck, trailing her blood red nails in his scalp, and then pulling him down so that she can brush her lips against his.
She didn't stop there. Oh no, when Peggy Carter crosses a line, she boldly goes above and beyond.
Her lips moved from his to then trail up to his ear for a nibble, which caused him to give an involuntary groan, before he accepted her challenge. He tugged her tighter to him, and kissed her like no agent should kiss his boss and like a man who has been finally granted the one thing he has longed to do for years.
Peggy wasn't at all unresponsive. In fact, she grabbed him by the lapels of his jacket and spun him around, shoving him against the filing cabinets, giving him as good as she got – tongue, teeth, and all.
But she was the one to break the kiss. With a slow step back and a brisk straightening of her clothes, she called out to the eavesdropping pair:
"And that is your lesson for the day in the art of seducing of your mark."
~A~
Ramirez, after hearing this story, of course, supported his friends, claiming that it 'most likely was just an object lesson – a sexually charged object lesson, but an object lesson nonetheless.'
He went on to add, "Listen, that's just Jack and Peggy – Agent Thompson and Director Carter to you. She skillfully uses her assets in the art of war, feminine wiles and weird unresolved chemistry and all, and he follows her lead. He's learned that when he doesn't back her play, bad things happen."
The two newly trained agents seemed to accept this, and they got down to the business of catching Suzie Barker.
But what no one else knew was what Jack was thinking as he watched his Director walk away.
'I am going to kill her. I am the one who has to face these rookies, not her. And, dear God, it is becoming harder and harder to be satisfied with the socialites Mother is throwing my way or the sisters/cousins/dames my buddies try to hook me up with. Especially, when all I am doing is constantly comparing them to the pistol of a woman that is my boss.'
Although some might have been able to guess his line of thinking if they saw his face. Not so, if they saw Carter's triumphant-yet-professional half-smile.
No one would have been able to guess that while she confidently strode from the room, she was shaking on the inside.
'Get a hold of yourself, Peggy. He did not make your knees quake or your legs turn to jelly. Oh okay, maybe he did. But that had more to do with his technique than any 'spark of chemistry' or romantic nonsense on your part. And we are not going to give that self-satisfied git anymore to smirk about. No, we are not. So no more playing with fire, Director Margaret Elizabeth Carter.'
But if anyone of their friends had known…
They would have been trapped in broom closet by a strategically placed crutch, sent on a one way trip to a privately owned island (by Stark) where a romantic bungalow would have been lovingly prepped by the Jarvises, and/or been forced to participate in a shotgun wedding by the Howling Commandos who would have guarded all the exits with all of their arsenal.
But much to their friends' disappointment, there never was a more stubborn un-couple.