AN: If you are here without having read my first book Project English Rose, I HIGHLY suggest that you go read the a href=" s/13824244/1/Project-English-Rose"prologue/a to that book first so that you have a full understanding of what's going on. If you are here from that book, WELCOME! You have chosen to wake Peggy up before she was actually scheduled to. Enjoy seeing Aunt Peggy in action and of course, happy reading!
Ever since she went into her sleep chamber, she was used to Howard waking her for various things. When she first went under only a few days had passed before he woke her. Days turned into weeks which turned into months which turned into years. Well, only one year to be exact. He needed help with SHIELD. He wanted her to meet Maria. He wanted her to meet Tony. Basically, he still needed his best friend, one of the only people he could fully trust, to still share his life with despite their ultimate goal for this particular project.
After Tony was born, Howard would always wake her to celebrate Tony's birthday. As he got older, Peggy started to notice the more aloof stance Howard was taking with parenting. By the time Tony got to elementary age, Howard left to head to some meeting or whatever excuse he had at the ready. Despite Peggy's best efforts to cheer the boy up, she noticed how it affected the young Stark. She always confronted Howard about it before he returned her to her sleep chamber but he always brushed her off, promising he was doing his best while also running a company and a top-secret intelligence agency. She'd be filled in on what was going on with SHIELD and then sent back to sleep with a half promise of trying to do better while she was asleep.
"Oh, Mr. Jarvis, what a pleasant surprise," Peggy said as she walked out of the freshly thawed chamber. She looked around the room looking for Howard, even tilted her head to see if she could hear him speaking with someone on the phone on the floor above them. "Howard forgot, didn't he?" It wouldn't be the first time especially after they had gone longer and longer between each thawing. "Or are we meeting him somewhere?"
That's when she finally took in the somber look upon the butler's face. Her heart sank to her stomach. Something was wrong. Edwin wasn't here because Howard had sent him to fetch her. Edwin was here on his own accord. That thought alone scared her terribly. "What happened?"
Jarvis wrapped a blanket around Peggy's shoulders to help warm her up from being in the cold chamber that kept her pristine, looking no older than the day she went in. "I think it's far better to be sitting when I give you the news."
He tried to lead her away from the room her chamber was in but they didn't go far. Peggy dug her heel in and held Jarvis to his spot.
"You should know by now, to not beat around the bush with me, Mr. Jarvis." She glared at him. She didn't want to go down all the possible what-ifs popping up in her mind. Maybe whatever news he had to give her didn't have to deal with Howard at all. Maybe Howard didn't even know that he had gone to see her. Oh, god, had something happened to Ana? To Maria? To Tony?
"Miss Carter, please. This information is best given sitting down. I will not have a repeat of our conversation in the desert." His eyes begged her to actually listen to him.
She didn't even have to ask which conversation in the desert. They wound up having quite a few more after their emotional one after Ana had been shot. It had to be Ana then. Something happened to Ana if he was bringing up that conversation.
She let out a sigh and nodded, motioning for him to proceed.
"Is Ana alright?" She finally asked, not being able to take it any longer. The silence in the short car ride from where she was being kept to the current Stark residence was nearly unbearable with how heavy it sat around them.
"She's doing fairly well, considering the news we just received. It's still 1991, just so you know. It's December and a few days before Christmas." He said, motioning for her to sit once they got to a couch.
She sat down, far from ladylike, and looked up to her friend. Things were starting to not add up and she would very much like an explanation. "Alright, I'm sitting now. So what is going on? And why did you bring me to the entertaining part of the Stark mansion?"
Jarvis let out a heavy sigh as he sat down next to his friend. "Ana and I really didn't know what else to do. Tony has fallen into such despair and we can no longer reach him. Howard and Maria died last week in a car accident and he's next in line to take over Stark Industries. But Howard's business partner Obediah Stane makes Ana and I worry."
Peggy's breath hitched at the news. She couldn't even focus on the last bit of information Jarvis gave her. The other words barely reached her ears after she heard the fate of Howard and Maria. Howard was dead, lost to a wreck. "Why didn't you wake me sooner?" Her voice cracked as her vision became blurry from unshed tears.
"We thought if you didn't know right away it would soften the blow." He answered, tugging on his ear.
Even through her unshed tears, she noticed Edwin's tell. There was something more to her not being told right away and once she felt ready to dig in deeper, she was going to find out why. Her bottom lip quivered as she gripped onto the blanket around his shoulders, trying to ground herself. She needed to focus on the here, on the fact that one of the few people she could consider her best friend had been gone for a week. "Are they already buried?"
Jarvis nodded. "I'll take you in the morning if you'd like."
She nodded just as the tears began to spill down her cheeks. She covered her mouth as a sob escaped her lips, hoping to force them to stop. She needed to go see Tony, make sure he was okay before she tried to rally him so that he could take over his father's company before someone snatched it up. It was a fear that the Jarvises had, especially with this Obediah Stane fellow in the picture.
Instead, Jarvis wrapped his arms around her, pulling her into his side. By now the man looked more like her father than someone she used to save the world with. She normally wouldn't cry in front of others but Edwin Jarvis had always been an exception to that rule. Peggy wrapped her arms around his middle and cried into his shoulder, mourning the life of one of her oldest friends.
They held each other until Peggy stopped crying. She sniffled, gratefully taking the handkerchief from Jarvis to wipe her nose and to dry her eyes. "You can do whatever with that sleep chamber. I'm not going back in there. I'm here to stay."
"I was rather hoping you would say that. I've made up your room already. After you speak with young Mr. Stark, I can take you there."
That caused Peggy to laugh, a bittersweet one sure, but she was rather grateful that despite now having another large hole in her life where Howard once was, some things still remained the same.
She knocked on Tony's bedroom door before entering. Her heart broke at the sight of him curled up in bed. There were a few liquor bottles lying around, one even dangling from his fingertips. They definitely looked like they were retrieved from Howard's personal stash.
Peggy gently removed the nearly empty bottle from Tony's grip and set it on the nightstand. She then moved his arm back onto the bed and started to tuck him in when she heard him grumble.
"I was drinking that." His words were all slurred and she wasn't entirely sure if it was because he was drunk or because he appeared to be half-asleep.
"It didn't look like it."
Tony lifted his head, just barely, from where it was buried in his pillows. He'd know that voice anywhere. It was his Aunt Peggy.
"They woke you." He said in surprise. He had wanted to wake her up as soon as he knew, especially after the police came to question him and the Jarvises. She would have known the right questions to ask and certainly would have gotten them out far quicker. He especially wanted her at the funeral but his father's business partner, Obediah Stane, had warned him against it, telling him he didn't need to appear weak so people wouldn't question when he took over as CEO.
Seeing her now, he wondered why the hell he listened to anyone who kept him from waking her up.
"They did." She responded as she sat on the edge of the bed, moving some of his hair off his forehead. Her nose crinkled a bit at how greasy it felt. "When's the last time you've bathed?"
He didn't have a witty response. He didn't really have any response. It had been nearly a week since the last he showered and it was so nice to have someone not ask how he was feeling. He moved so quickly, wrapping his arms around her middle, that he had startled her.
She wrapped her arms around and held him tight. They stayed that way for some time, just holding each other. Peggy even started to rock slightly, trying to offer as much comfort as she could, especially after she started to feel his tears against his blouse. She was surprised her heart could break any more. She had been dealing with it all her life and now it broke for the young man in her arms. The fact that her presence, her simple question caused this big of a reaction out of him made her think that maybe Jarvis was downplaying how Tony was really handling things. She was here now though so she would make sure he would get all the care he needed.
"Please stay." He whispered, voice broken. He didn't realize just how much he needed his Aunt Peggy until she showed up at his bed. He'd have to thank the Jarvises when he could.
"That's the plan. Jarvis even already set up a room for me." She said, rubbing his back.
"No." He then looked up at her. "No, I mean, I'm glad you're staying, I just meant stay with me tonight?"
He looked so hopeful, so young. She would have never been able to say no. Peggy smiled, reaching out to caress his cheek. Ever since she met Tony, a few months after he was born, she always grew excited to see how much he had grown. She would play with him for hours, listen to him describe the latest thing he built or learned, and would even tuck him into bed. There wasn't much she wouldn't do for him.
"Of course. Now scooch." She waved him over but instead he stumbled out of bed and made his way over to his dresser.
"Here, they'll be warmer and comfier than that suit you've got on now." He handed her a pair of old sweats to change into before pointing to where the ensuite was located.
She took the change of clothes and stood. "So you're making me change while you remain unshowered?" She asked him a bit cheekily as she made her way to the bathroom.
"I'll shower in the morning." He promised as he climbed back into bed.
Peggy reappeared dressed in an AC/DC band tee and some gray sweat pants that had MIT's logo on the left pant leg. Tony was sitting up against the headboard, the bottle of whiskey back in his hands. He stared at the wall in front of him without really looking at it, his mind elsewhere.
Easily plucking the bottle from him, she smirked his way when he turned to look at her before finishing off what was left. She set the bottle back on the nightstand and climbed back into the bed. "Now that's enough of that."
Sighing, Tony sunk down into the blankets, moving to rest his head in her lap. "Tell me about one of your adventures?" He asked after a few more moments of silence.
She hummed as she thought, running her nails up and down his back. "Did I ever tell you the one where I beat a man with a stapler?"
Chuckling, he shook his head. "This oughta be good."
Tony had drifted off, somewhere in the middle of her second story about one of her adventures with the Howlies. Just as she was about to let sleep take over her, she heard a faint knock at the door before Jarvis poked his head in. "Would you like for me to show you to your room, Miss Carter?"
She shook her head. "No, I'm fine right where I am for the evening."
Jarvis nodded and for a moment Peggy thought that would be it. Instead, he made his way inside the room and gathered a couple of the extra pillows lying about. "Lean up, please." He instructed quietly so as not to wake Tony.
He was rather pleased that Peggy had seemed to get the young Stark to go to sleep at a less horrendous hour. It was nearing midnight and he seemed comfortable and out like a light. Although she stated that she was fine, he was not about to let her sleep with only a pillow at her back. She deserved some comfort as well.
Peggy did as she was asked, conscious of her movements so she wouldn't wake up the boy in her lap. Jarvis fluffed the pillows already resting against her back and then placed another so that she'd have something to rest her head on. "Good night, Miss Carter." He said once he seemed satisfied.
She gave him a grateful smile as she settled into the pillows. "Good night, Mr. Jarvis."