April, 1951

In which Peggy goes back to work.

Before James had been born, Peggy had waited as long as she could before going on maternity leave. She'd been worried about stepping away from her job with S.H.I.E.L.D. still in its infancy, fearing that their sorting out how to work around her absence would end with them deciding they didn't need her after all. Colonel Phillips (now Director Phillips) had assured her that this was in no way the case and he had no intention of losing his right-hand woman, but she'd still been nervous about going. Now that James was here, however, she found it rather more difficult than she would have expected to go back.

"I don't know if I can do this, Steve," she said the night before she went back. They had just put James to bed and were standing in the door of his nursery. The past three months at home had been wonderful, restful for her soul if not her body—everything still seemed a bit upside down as James rearranged their schedules—with the three of them completely absorbed in each other. Peggy never would have thought she'd find the purely domestic side of life so enjoyable. She did miss her job, and she was starting to feel a bit of an itch to get out of the house again, but… "Can I really just leave him?"

She felt Steve's hands come to rest warmly on her shoulders as he leaned in from behind her and kissed her cheek. "You say it like that, it sounds like you're abandoning him on a doorstep somewhere."

She smiled and reached back to poke him in the side. "You know what I mean."

Steve grunted as she hit one of his ticklish spots, then pulled her back into the hall and away from the nursery so they wouldn't wake James up. "I know," he said as they walked back to their room. "So, talk to me," he prompted, dropping down to sit cross-legged on the bed and folding his hands in his lap. He looked so much like an expectant schoolboy that Peggy had to smile. "Tell me what's going on in your head."

Peggy sighed, tossing her dressing gown onto the chair in the corner. "I don't know," she admitted, sitting down in front of the mirror to pin her hair. "I want to go back to work—I really do. And I sort of have to, since my maternity leave's ended. But the thought of leaving him here…" She looked into the mirror and met the reflection of Steve's eyes. "It's not that I don't trust you with him," she explained, a slight teasing tone in her voice, though she did mean it. "I know he's in wonderful hands, I just…I've been here for his whole life. And now I won't be." She sighed. "It hurts more than I thought it would."

Steve nodded. "If you want," he said after a minute. "I mean, if you think it would help…If you wanted to stay with him, you could, and I could go out and get a job."

Peggy put in the last pin and turned around to look at him curiously. He was serious, and she smiled, getting up and crossing the space between them, taking his face in her hands and kissing him warmly. "That's very thoughtful of you, darling," she said. She knew leaving James would be just as hard for Steve as it would be for her—and she knew that while she was starting to feel the need to get back out into the world again, Steve wouldn't have been as happy out in the working world as he was at home. "But I don't think that's what would make you happy."

He smiled up at her. "We're not talking about making me happy," he pointed out. "And if it's what you need, then making you happy makes me happy."

She smiled and kissed him again. "Thank you." She moved around to her side of the bed and slid under the covers. Steve kicked off his slippers and got into the bed on his side, shifting over for her to roll and lay her head on his chest. She snuggled into him with a happy sigh, and he rested his arm on her back. "But I don't think it would make me happy," she said. "Not really. I do love my job, and I want to go back to it, it's just…It's just hard, taking that first step."

Steve smiled and kissed her forehead. "Well, the offer still stands if you change your mind." His smile widened. "But, to be honest, I can't see you being a happy housewife anyway."

Peggy chuckled. "No. Besides, you're a much better housewife than I am anyway."

Steve laughed. "I am," he agreed. He reached out and turned off the lamp, then rolled in closer and wrapped his arms around her. "You're destined for big things at that job, Peggy. Good things. And there's nothing wrong with wanting to do it. Having a hard time leaving your baby doesn't make you any less of an amazing independent woman. And wanting to go back to work does not make you a terrible mother."

Peggy swallowed down an unexpected lump of emotion in her throat. She hadn't said those words, but she'd been thinking them. How did he always know just what she needed to hear?

"You are a fantastic mother, a terrific agent, and an amazing wife," he went on. "Not many people are capable enough to balance all of that, but for Peggy Carter?" She heard the smile in his voice before he leaned in to kiss her. "Piece of cake."

"Flatterer," she said with a smile, though she felt a great deal better than she would have thought after just a few words of reassurance. Steve chuckled, kissed her soundly, and pulled her closer as they drifted off to sleep.

The next morning, despite feeling a bit better about the whole thing, she still found herself reluctant to let go of her son and step out the door. "Mummy loves you very much, James," she said, kissing his round little cheeks. He squeaked at her in response. "You be a good boy for Daddy while I'm gone, alright?" She kissed him again and transferred him into Steve's arms. She sighed and looked up at Steve. "Now, there should be plenty of milk in the door of the fridge, and the—"

"Peggy," Steve cut her off. "I know." He smiled at her warmly. "We'll be okay."

She nodded. Hard as it was to leave James, she'd been around Steve nearly every waking hour for the past three months, and found herself incredibly reluctant to leave him too. She huffed an embarrassed laugh. "I'm being silly," she said. "I'll be seeing you both in eight hours."

Steve smiled wider. "I'll miss you too." He kissed her soundly. "You've got this."

She squared her shoulders back. "Yes, I do." She smiled back at him. "I love you, darling."

"I love you too," he replied. "Knock 'em dead."

"See you this evening." She turned and headed for the car, feeling a little pang in her chest as she pulled out of the driveway and looked back. Steve was holding up one of James's little arms to wave goodbye. She mustered up a smile and waved back and drove away.

Once she'd made it to the office, the familiar building and faces offered a welcome sense of normality. She greeted Rose at the front, who welcomed her back, and headed back to her office. Shedding her coat, she leafed through the files sitting in a neat stack on the corner of her desk, then scooped them up and made her way down the hall to Phillips' office.

"Carter!" he greeted. "Good, you're back. Ready to get back to work?"

"Yes, Sir," she replied.

"Okay. You look at those files I left in your office?"

"A quick skim, yes, Sir," she said, knowing he would expect her to be prepared before he gave her the details.

"Good. We wrapped up that Dawson case, so you can save that one for later—just wanted you to be up to speed since it gave us a lead on a couple of his buddies we're still looking for. Bryant case is top priority. I know you were working on it when you left, but Crenshaw screwed that up royally while you were gone. About time we had someone competent here to set things straight. Now…"

They spent about an hour getting her back up to speed on the multiple cases going on and the political finagling with the Senator, then she returned to her office to get to work. Phillips had been gruff and brusque as always, and Peggy rather appreciated that. It was how he always was, and it made it that much easier to slide back in. She worked for a couple of hours, finding it difficult to worry about Steve and James as there was so much here to occupy her mind. She ate a quick lunch with Rose out at the front desk, resisting the urge to call home and see how things were, though she did acquiesce to Rose's request for the most recent baby pictures (which had not changed significantly since Rose stopped by last week).

"Oh, good, Parker, I wanted a word with you," Peggy said on her way back to her office, spotting one of her colleagues in the hall. "My office." Parker followed her back, and she picked up one of the files off her desk and handed it to him. "It would seem you've mistaken my office for the filing room," she said.

Parker shrugged one shoulder. "You've been on a long vacation. Figured you might want to ease your way back into the more rigorous part of the job."

Peggy gave him a tight-lipped smile. She had paid her dues as the 'office errand girl' back in Chief Dooley's office and had no intention of being sidelined again—especially not now that she outranked Parker. "How very thoughtful of you. However, I can assure you my grasp on the alphabet is quite up to date. I'll let you do your own filing so you can get a bit of practice in," she said sweetly, nodding at the label on the folder she'd given back to him. "Surveillance has two l's in it."

Parker scowled and marched out of the office, and Peggy smirked and sat back down. By the end of the afternoon, she'd managed to at least decipher the mess Crenshaw had left of the Bryant case, though it would be another few days until it was back in working order and they could proceed with it.

She headed home happily, pleased that she'd made it through the entire day at work, but now very ready to cuddle her sweet little baby in her arms and kiss his chubby little cheeks and hear the little squeaky noises he made. "Hello?" she called when she got home.

"Hey!" Steve greeted. He was lying on his stomach on the living room carpet, face to face with James who was on his stomach on a blanket, holding his head up to look at Steve.

Peggy dropped down to sit with them. "How are my handsome boys today?"

"Ah-ah!" James squeaked, lifting his little arms and legs up off the blanket.

"Oh, someone's excited to see Mommy," Steve said, grinning.

Peggy was already reaching for him, melting a bit as she always did when he smiled up at her. "Oh, Mummy missed you, love," she said, nuzzling her nose against his before hugging him tightly. She sighed happily when he made a contented little noise and snuggled against her chest. Steve rolled around to sit up, and Peggy leaned over to kiss him warmly. "I missed you too," she said.

"How did everything go today?" he asked.

"Better than I was anticipating," she said. She filled him in on her day, and Steve in turn caught her up with what the two of them had been doing all day, which had mostly involved laundry. It was amazing how someone as small as James could increase their need to do laundry so significantly.

"You tired?" Steve asked her when James started getting fussy. "I can take care of him for you."

"Actually, no," Peggy said, though she appreciated the offer. "I'd like to feed him." Aside from missing him and wanting to keep holding him, her body was rather sore after having not fed him all day. "It would seem I've not quite got the proper timing of hand-expressing in the Ladies' Room down yet."

Steve chuckled and stood up, offering her a hand so she could get up and sit in a chair while James ate. "How'd that part go?" Steve asked.

Peggy laughed. "Oh, terribly glamorous, I assure you," she said.

Steve smiled, leaning down to kiss her and resting one hand on James's hair. "Well, I'll leave you two to dinner time in here, and I'll go finish up ours in the kitchen." He kissed her cheek again. "Missed you today too," he said.

The next few days of being away at work got easier as she got into a routine again, though there were a few more instances like there had been with Parker and his filing. It was frustrating, but Peggy was well-experienced in how to handle it by now, and fortunately had the authority to push back without getting in trouble for it. She'd had most of these boys whipped into shape before she'd left, and she'd soon have them in line again.

Things did come to a bit of a head on Friday afternoon, not long before she was getting ready to go home for the weekend. "No!" she snapped, resisting the urge to ball up the report in her hand and throw it at Flannigan's face. "I told you to go and talk to the shipping clerks two days ago!"

"I got busy. They can wait until Monday," Flannigan protested.

"No, they can't, because the Sparrow set sail Wednesday afternoon," she huffed. Now they were going to have to send someone down to Mexico to meet the ship before it docked. "Why didn't you go Wednesday like I said?"

"Well, Crenshaw wanted me to—"

"Crenshaw is no longer in charge of this case!" she said. "He hasn't been for a week!"

"Yeah, well, he's been working on it for three months while you've been off playing house," Flannigan huffed. "He knows what's important, and he thought it was more urgent that we talk to Petrelli."

"If he'd done it properly, he wouldn't have had to work on it for three months," Peggy replied, ignoring the jibe about 'playing house'.

"It was going just fine until you came back and stuck your nose into it."

"I stuck my nose into it because it's my case," she said coolly. "And I will thank you, Agent Flannigan," she continued, stressing his title as a reminder of who here was in charge. "To remember that there is a chain of command which should be followed if this organization is going to work. When followed properly, it saves everyone trouble, as it would have done if you'd spoken to the shipping clerks Wednesday as requested. When ignored, everyone's lives become more difficult, and you end up flying to Mexico."

Flannigan stopped short. "Mexico?"

"To meet the Sparrow and get the information you could have gotten two days ago." She looked down at her watch. "I'd start calling some airlines if I were you. If you can't find a commercial flight to Veracruz that leaves before Sunday night, you're going to have to charter something. Travel offices will be closing before too long."

"I'm not going to Mexico!"

"Yes, you are. Chop, chop." She waved him out of her office. She sighed as she started redoing her schedule for the case. "Who would have ever thought I'd wish I could work with Jack Thompson again?" she huffed. The man had a tendency to be a condescending prat, but was capable of seeing reason.

"Carter!" she heard Phillips bellow from his office about twenty minutes later. She groaned and got to her feet. It normally didn't bother her when Phillips yelled for her attention—it was more expedient—but at the moment it was rather irritating. It was expedient, yes, but it wasn't that much harder to walk down the hall.

"Yes, Sir?" she said, walking into his office.

"You want to explain why you think we need to spend the money to fly Flannigan down to Mexico?"

Flannigan was standing by the other door looking a little smug, and if she hadn't been so angry right now, the fact that he had run and tattled on her to Phillips might have been funny.

"Certainly," Peggy said calmly. "Seeing as there seems to have been some confusion as to who was taking point on the Bryant case, a request I had made that someone speak to the shipping clerks before the Sparrow left port was overlooked. I thought it best we have someone meet her when she arrives in Veracruz to get the information."

Phillips nodded. "Sounds reasonable to me." He looked down at his watch. "Hop to it, Flannigan. Airline offices will be closing soon." He stared at Flannigan until he left. "Figured you had a good reason," he said, turning back to her. "Seemed easier just to ask you than to listen to his bellyaching."

Peggy smiled. "Thank you, Sir. Is there anything else before I take off for the weekend?"

"I did have a question for you about this baby business of yours."

"Yes, Sir?" Peggy asked, a little warily. Phillips hadn't brought up her maternity leave at all since she'd been back, and she'd rather been hoping he'd be one of the few in the office not to try to dig up a problem about it.

"Figured it might take a little while for things to fall back into place after you got back, but you've been back a week now. We go to all this trouble to arrange some good time off for you—paid, I might add—and then you're not even gonna bring the kid in for me to meet him?"

Peggy smiled. "I'm terribly sorry, Sir. It must have slipped my mind. I'll make sure to take care of it on Monday."

"See that you do," Phillips said with a nod, giving her one of those not-quite-smiles that he did. "Have a good weekend."

Peggy smiled and nodded and left, her good mood souring somewhat as she passed the breakroom where Flannigan was complaining not quite quietly enough about the Mexico detail to Becker and Flynn. That was probably going to give her some fallout to deal with on Monday. She sighed in frustration as she got into her car. She'd had a baby, not some sort of…brain injury. She knew what she was doing. She'd worked hard to get to where she was, and proved she was worthy of the respect of her colleagues. Apparently, her physical presence was required to maintain that in some of their minds, but at least she wasn't starting from square one again. She would have this sorted soon.

But for now, she was off home for some baby snuggles and lazy weekend mornings in bed with Steve. The thought cheered her as she headed for home, and she was in a considerably better mood by the time she pulled into the garage. "Hello?" she called.

"We're upstairs," came Steve's voice from the top of the stairs. Peggy hung up her coat and ascended the stairs, staring in puzzlement at the sight that greeted her in front of the linen closet. She smiled at the strange scene, then started to laugh. "What?" Steve asked.

She laughed a bit longer before she was able to pull a sentence together, partially at how ridiculous Steve looked, and partially at the confused expression on his face as she continued to laugh. "Are you…Are you wearing our son in a backpack?" she asked. Steve was wearing something that looked like a backpack that he'd put on his front, complete with a pouch where James was nestled with his back against his father's chest, his little arms and legs poking out holes in the sides, and his face watching the putting away of laundry with rapt attention.

"Huh?" Steve said, looking down. "Oh. No, not exactly. It's a baby carrier. For carrying the baby," he added, when her expression invited him to elaborate.

"Yes, obviously it's for carrying the baby," she said. "I'm still not quite sure I understand." She'd never seen anything like it.

"They're kind of a thing in the future," Steve explained, putting the last of the towels away. "You'd see people out shopping or something, carrying a baby like this with other stuff in their hands. So I thought, why not try it out around the house? I mean, not all the time, but if I have to go outside to get the laundry, or when I'm working on dinner or something. It's kind of hard to do everything one handed, and he likes it when he can see what I'm doing. Don't you, buddy?" he said, holding a finger out for James to grab.

"Ah!" James agreed, grabbing Steve's finger and sticking it in his mouth.

"I see," Peggy said, eyeing the contraption curiously. Now that she knew what it was, it did seem rather useful. Odd, but useful. "Where did you get it?"

"I made it," Steve said.

"You did?" Peggy knew he could use the sewing machine, but she'd never seen him go beyond mending before.

"Uh huh," he replied. "The straps are adjustable, so you can use it too," he explained. "And there's a little pocket here on the side." He demonstrated by slipping his hand in. "Because pockets are always handy. And there's another one on the front with a little chain that clips onto his pacifier." He pulled the pacifier out of the front pocket, with what she recognized as the chain from a necklace she'd broken attached to the seam. "The chain is because he's learned a new game where he spits the pacifier out and thinks it's funny when I have to pick it up."

Peggy smiled fondly as he explained, clearly proud of his creation.

"Here," he said. "You try it on." He unfastened a clip on the side and lifted James out, who pouted as this caused Steve to remove the finger he had been sucking on. Steve shifted out of the carrier and handed it to Peggy, balancing James on one hip. She took a moment to appreciate the craftsmanship of the device as she tried to work out how to put it on. "You need help with the clasp?" he asked.

"No, I've got it," she said, now that she'd figured out where it went. She slid her arms through the straps and reached behind her to fasten the cross strap. Steve lowered James into the pouch on the front, and she held him in with one hand until she fastened the clip on the side.

"What do you think?" Steve asked.

It fit rather well, actually. James felt nice and secure against her chest, and the placement of the shoulder straps and the one across her lower back helped to distribute his weight evenly. "Not bad," she said, slowly turning from side to side, pleased that it didn't shift as she did so. James cooed happily as he swayed along with her. She looked up at Steve and smiled. "Consider me impressed."

Steve grinned. "And see, now you can hold the baby and…" He stepped forward and took both her hands in his. "You can hold me," he finished with a cheeky smirk, leaning forward and kissing the tip of her nose.

"A definite improvement," she agreed. "It still looks rather ridiculous, though," she added with a smile.

"Well, sure," Steve agreed. "But it'll be mostly me wearing it. And you already married me. Little late to be scared off by me looking dumb now."

Peggy laughed and leaned over and kissed him. "You could never look ridiculous enough for that," she assured him. "However," she continued, still smiling as she pulled back. She reached up one hand to stroke James's soft hair. "We might want to use something a bit more traditional to transport him when we take him in to meet Phillips on Monday."

Steve laughed and agreed, kissed Peggy, kissed James, then went to finish dinner.

After a very relaxing weekend, they set out to arrive at the office a bit early Monday morning, which ended with them arriving just on time after James spit up all over Peggy's blouse in the car and they had to turn around so she could change.

"What was that about, hey?" she asked him, tapping his round little nose. "Is this your form of protesting me going back to work?"

"Maybe he was trying to help," Steve mused. "That sour spit-up smell takes some getting used to. No one would have been in your office bothering you if you'd been wearing that all day."

Peggy chuckled. "Well, if that's the case, I appreciate the gesture, love," she told her son, who burbled happily.

They arrived at the office, and several minutes were spent at the front desk as Rose cooed excitedly over her little visitor. James was clearly relishing the attention, hamming it up as much as it was possible for a three-month-old to do so, and it took several more minutes before Rose let them go.

"Well, that was a bit dramatic," Peggy told him. "You'd think we never gave you the time of day at home, a performance like that." She smirked. "You're clearly your father's son."

"Hey!" Steve protested.

"Dramatic," Peggy said again, kissing him quickly before they opened the door into the main office.

In Phillips' office, James repeated his performance, and it was enough to earn an approving grunt and an upward quirk of the lips from her superior. "A reaction like that, he's clearly smitten," Peggy whispered, knowing Steve's enhanced hearing would pick up on it.

Steve chuckled. "As cute as our baby is? Who wouldn't be?"

Then there was Abernathy, apologetically requiring her attention, and she put an hand on Steve's shoulder and slipped back to her office. She signed the requested forms, answered some questions, and realized with a start a full twenty minutes had passed when she looked down at her watch. She hurried back to Phillips' office and was surprised to find Steve standing just outside the door.

"What are you doing?" she asked. "And where is our son?" she added, shooting a pointed look at his empty arms.

Steve smiled and put a finger to his lips for her to be quiet. "He sent me to go get you ten minutes ago," he whispered. "You looked like whatever you were in the middle of was important, so I stepped back into the hall to wait, and then I looked back in there."

He nodded to the window in Phillips' door, and Peggy followed his gaze. Colonel Chester Phillips, decorated war hero, Director of S.H.I.E.L.D., and one of the most imposing men Peggy had ever known, was leaning back in his desk chair with James asleep on his chest. James's little fist was clenched around one of Phillips's dogtags that he'd clearly fallen asleep sucking on. Phillips was patting James's back, and he was humming what Peggy was fairly certain was the song 'Blue Moon'. He wasn't smiling, but Peggy was hard pressed to say she'd ever seen her commanding officer look more content.

"Oh, dear," she whispered. "I believe Mr. Jarvis is going to have some competition for the title of favorite uncle."