Disclaimer: I do not own Marvel, Disney, ABC or the Avengers. Just Sera.
"So, Steve has no clue why I'm angry at him. He insinuated that Howard and I were 'fonduing' and it took everything in me to remain composed and professional. He asks what I thought of the shield, but all I can think is, "That little witch put her claws on my man, and he let her." So I grabbed a gun and fired four rounds at him."
"And then I said, "Yes, I think it works."" She said as Steve ducked his head.
"He looked so bloody terrified, I felt so proud of myself. Captain America, afraid of a petite British woman." Peggy laughed, as we all started howling in laughter.
Callie and Elijah were fed and napping in their playpen on the other side of the kitchen. I was making Loki something to eat, when Thor came up behind me and said, "I can take that to him."
"It's gonna take a lot to convince him to come up an join us. He's worried about Clint most of all," I said quietly.
"He should be!" Clint piped up.
"Quiet Hawk-boy!" I quipped. He narrowed his eyes at me but went back to his food.
"He understands. He's happy to not be in the cell most of all." Thor smiled, "Thank you for giving me my brother back."
"I was happy to," I said, moving to prepare another two sandwiches for the guys. Putting them on their plates and kissing their cheeks, they dove into the food.
"His appetite still that bad?" Gabe joked.
"I like to think it's better. He's not touching anything processed, but Bucky and I crave McDonald's whenever he cooks," I teased Steve.
"Which is very rarely. Sera doesn't usually let us touch anything in the kitchen, except the coffee maker." Bucky explained, mouth full.
"Chew and swallow," Peggy scolded.
"Because unless I make it and set out instructions you burn everything," I replied, making Peggy laugh.
"I'm not much of a cook either, believe it or not." Peggy said.
"Okay, so I've been dying to ask, what am I thawing out downstairs?" Jemma asked, when their was a moment's silence.
"Peggy," I prompted. She squared her shoulders and said, "The first super soldier."
"There was a person in there?" Darcy asked, horrified.
"No my dear. Steve was the first Avenger, but Joey was the first super soldier. Can you imagine? I was only there after they froze him, but they kept him on ice because they had no way of knowing if he would hurt someone or not."
"This soldier wasn't human. Dr. Irskine wanted to jump right to the human testing stage, but the army proposed an animal test subject first. His original name was Subject 1, but after the serum worked, we called him Joey."
"We shall have our very own mascot," I joked.
"You're original guess was dead on Sera. He is a Labrador Retriever." Dum Dum smirked.
"Oh," Everyone said in awe.
"Well, the machine says he is almost thawed out."
"I wonder if he'll take as long as you did to wake up," I wondered out loud to Steve.
"And how long was that?" Bucky asked.
"About two hours. Enough time for Clint to dress me up like a dame from the 40's."
"Oh I need to see this," Bucky teased, as Clint tossed his phone to Bucky.
"My clothing wasn't right, neither was my hair. If we had more time it could have fooled him," I said, smiling sweetly at Steve.
"It was the game that tipped me off and your watch looked odd. And you looked like an angel so I thought I was dead," He smirked, kissing my cheek.
"Okay love birds, enough preening," Dad said, making a gagging noise. I flipped Dad the bird, and everyone laughed. Bucky whistled, "You still look mighty fine to me."
"Pass it here," Nat said, and soon the phone had made its way around the table.
"Like I said, it wasn't historically accurate."
"Oh," Gabe said, holding his heart. The medically inclined at the table jumped up before he said, "She does look like an angel."
"I stand by my statement. You guys hit the jackpot." Dum Dum said, passing it to Peggy.
"Don't go trying to steal her away, you old geezer," Bucky teased as I hid my face.
"Sera, you look beautiful. You remind me of…" Peggy paused, before showing Dum Dum again, "Doesn't she look like Angie?"
"Well butter my rump and call me toast, she does," Dum Dum smiled.
"Angie was a good friend of my mine. I introduced her to the boys and Dugan fell head over combat boots for her. They married a year later. She was as sharp as a whip and my best friend, next to Edwin of course." Peggy explained.
"Wait, you knew Jarvis," My Dad said, surprised.
"Your father gave him to me as a business partner. He helped me after the war. It was about a year after we lost Steve and someone had stolen a mess of your father's inventions. He was being framed as a traitor and I set out to clear his name and track down the people that stole the inventions. It was Johann Fenhoff and a Red Room assassin named Dottie Underwood." Natasha's eyes widened and I knew something was up. I kicked her lightly under the table and she spoke up, "She was a legend in the Red Room. One of the first."
"The eyes. If she had blue eyes, she'd be Angie," Dum Dum said sadly, wiping away a tear.
"We lost her about 15 years ago," He said, handing the phone back to Steve.
"I'm sorry," I said sympathetically.
"She was full of life," He laughed, "She called Peggy 'English'."
"Miss Union Jack, English, Peggy, you sure got a lot of nicknames, Peg," Steve teased.
"I like to look at it as though I was loved." She smiled.
"Director Carter," Phil said confused, coming into the kitchen.
"Phillip, how are you?" She smiled.
"I'm… confused," He said, looking to me for an explanation.
"Reunion. Plus we found Joey."
"Oh. Oh!" He said excited. I grabbed some meat from the fridge as Peggy and Phil got caught up. Apparently they jumped right to his love life because I was surprised at what I heard when I got back to the table.
"Call her dear. She would love to even know you are still alive," Peggy said, "I know from personal experience."
"I… will go do that." He smiled, grabbing his sandwich and leaving the room, as I fist pumped.
"Peggy you just did what's taken me two years to do," I sighed in relief.
"She's bossy, isn't she?" Bucky said as I smacked the back of his head.
"I'm going to put the kids on our room, and then I'm heading down to the lab. Sit, talk, and I'll call you down when he's up," I said as Bucky rubbed his head.
"I'll help you Sera," Jemma said, offering to hold the sleeping Callie. Walking down, I noticed Pietro trailing behind us about 10 feet.
"So, how are things you two?" I asked to both of them as we approached my room.
"Wonderful," Jemma blushed. He smirked, and I didn't need to guess to know what they'd already done.
"She's shy about it," He said, kissing her cheek.
"Pietro, word of warning, she probably doesn't want you telling everyone," I said as Jemma nodded blushing. I put Elijah down first, kissing his head softly. Taking Callie from Jemma's arms, I set her down next to her brother and turned on the monitor, closing the door quietly.
"So, Joey, do we know how fast he is? What kinds of food do you feed a super soldier dog? I'd love to analyze his blood for genetic markers of the serum."
"Whoa, slow down girl," I teased as we walked down the stairs.
"We have another two hours before he wakes up, at least. You'll be able to draw blood, and I can monitor him while you are analyzing it. He's gonna be groggy, and confused." I explained, handing her the food to hold while I put my hair up in a ponytail.
"Alright," She conceded. As we walked into the lab, we saw the thawed out dog on the metal table. He looked wet, and water was still coming off him in spades. Grabbing towels, I started washing him with warm water, to help get his blood circulating. Jemma checked for a heartbeat first and smiled when she said, "Healthy as an ox."
"Joey, Joey boy," I said softly, over and over again as I washed him. Jemma took blood, going to analyze it with excitement. Pietro just watched the dog, waiting for something to happen. I dried him off, and put a fresh towel under him on the table, mopping up the water on the floor with the used towels. I was stroking his fur an hour later when I felt him shudder. I continued petting him, whispering his name as he started to come around.
"Joey?" I asked, when he opened his eyes. He sat up on the table to look at me, tail wagging and tongue hanging out.
"Pietro," I said and he smirked, leaving Jemma picking up papers in his wake.
"I really need to invest in paper weights around him," She said, approaching the dog slowly. Joey head-butted my hand, as if asking for me to pet him. Laughing, I reached up and scratched behind his ear.
"Good boy," I laughed, before his nose caught the food I had waiting for him.
"You hungry?" I asked, opening the container. He sat patiently as I pulled out a piece of bread.
"Speak," I prompted. He barked and I tossed him the bread. He ate greedily, and tried to nudge the food out from behind my back.
"Come on boy," I said backing up with the food. He followed, and let me lead him outside. Running around with him, I was excited because he seemed to really come alive. He sniffed the grass, and rolled around. I guess he needed to poop too, because after he did, he took off running to one end of the field.
"Joey," I called, whistling. He ran back, only to tackle me, covering my face with sloppy wet kisses.
"Okay, okay, I love you too you goofball," I said, throwing him the lunchmeat. He ate it quickly, and Pietro come out to where I was, with a bottle of water and a dish.
"Jemma thought he might be thirsty," He said emptying the water into the dish, and then pointed to the group gathered at the door back in.
"Oh he's beautiful," Peggy smiled. Bucky and Steve approached him, and Joey backed up to stand over me protectively.
"Guess who he imprinted on," Steve smiled, crouching down and holding out his hand for Joey to sniff. He approached slowly, sniffing and taking a tentative lick. Steve apparently hadn't washed his hands from lunch because Joey was soon bathing his fingers in slobber. Bucky did the same, and Joey didn't know what to make of his metal hand, but gave him the same treatment.
"Hey boy," They both said softly, petting him, and scratching behind his ear.
"Am I dreaming, or does Sam have his arm around Sharon's waist?" I whispered to Bucky. He turned subtly and cooed.
"It's soo cute," He said in a baby voice to Joey.
"Sammy's got a girlfriend," Natasha said, joining us in teasing Sam.
"Shut up, you guys." He growled, scowling at us. Sharon reached up to kiss his cheek and we all awed. Peggy was laughing at us, saying, "You've got yourself quite a team here Steve."
"These are the best of the best. Aren't we doomed?" He chuckled; making me hit him in the back of the head.
"Plus we have Crossbones," Sharon piped up.
"And the X-Men." I added.
"And our Inhuman agents," May said.
"Plus the government, kinda. Hydra is screwed." Dad smirked.
"Oh, definitely." Dum Dum smirked.
