4738/Desert Heat

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Desert Heat
Date of Scene: 15 January 2021
Location: The Mojave Desert, 1949
Synopsis: Daniel comes to confess something very important to Peggy. She returns his feelings but ends up pulling away, as work always seems to have her loyalties first.
Cast of Characters: Daniel Sousa, Peggy Carter




Daniel Sousa has posed:
Sousa wasn't willing to change his future but he was sure as hell willing to make the present a whole lot better, or, he supposed a whole lot worse depending on how things went. However he was set on going forward no matter what, an attitude evidenced by his determined stride, cane helping him stay steady as he made his way through the sand towards Peggy's tent. Spotting one of his agents nearby, he pause, brow damp with sweat as he takes a much needed breath and asks. "Is Agent Carter in there?" he asks the agent figuring either they would or Peggy would hear the question and give him his answer anyway.

Peggy Carter has posed:
"I'm here, Daniel! Just come on in!" Peggy's voice clips out easily, completely neutral and professional as she hasn't a clue about the conversation he just had. She's in the middle of reading over the reports from the science team and Howard that came into her desk about twenty minutes ago, trying to make rhyme or reason over what they are missing other tham the direct link. The agent he stops gives a little smile and a hook of his thumb. "All yours. Better you than me." And with that, he contines on his patril. There is constant security right now.

Inside the tent, Peggy is at a makeshift desk with a portable type writer and several paperwrights. She's dressed for the desert in a light cream linen sundress and with her hair swept back, up off her neck into some loose rolls the back of her head. It almost looks like she's gotten dressed up for somewhere fancy instead of is just trying to fight the heat, but it's so different from her usual look. "Eveyrthing alright?" She asks him as her eyes flicker up.

Daniel Sousa has posed:
Sousa barely registers the man talking to him as he heads to the flap of the tent and pulls it aside and there seeing her, he freezes for a moment and his heart drops as a legion of what ifs come welling up to smother his purpose. He looks up meeting Peggy's eyes, the tears have long since stopped but the evidence is there to see along with the sweat of what must have been a grueling walk on his artificial leg. Her question gives him pause but only for another moment before he says it: "Peggy, I love you."

Peggy Carter has posed:
Well, that is one way to stop reading rather dry science reports. Peggy looks up from her files and just stares at him, abject shock on her features as she considers how to process what he just said. Then she looks at his face, really looks at him, and the files are released to her desk top. She smoothly slips up to her flat shoes (heels in the desert are unwise) and steps around her little desk. "...Daniel... What happened? What's... wrong?" The echoes of tears are more concerning than his words. Besides, the question buys her some time to process. Her hands come up, gently pressing against his cheeks, one thumb brushing at the streak of a tear stain.

Daniel Sousa has posed:
Daniel lets Peggy take his face into her hands and rub away the tear stain only to break away for a moment to look back at the flap confirming it was closed before he looks back to Peggy. "I talked to you in the future," he explains before he halts stopping short of telling her everything. A beat later he continues. "It made me realize that parts of our futures may be written, but the details are up to us, and I didn't want telling you I loved you to be a detail I let go unwritten."

Peggy Carter has posed:
"...Oh." Peggy hadn't really had the courage to ask her elder self, but she had the feeling he wasn't there. That's all she knew. Studying his features, that strange track of loneliness that he saw in her face that night in her office, it's back again. Probably the thought of a future without him is a good chunk of what triggered it. She's silent for several heartbeats, letting her hands drop from his cheeks to his shoulders, but not fully willing herself to let go, even as he's looking away from her.

Then his eyes are there again. A bittersweet, quiet smile cuts across her own sweat slicked features, but there's an edge of fear in it too. "I... hell, Daniel. I love you too." She finally breathes out. It's worth saying. "But... our lives. Our jobs... we... We both agree... we talked about this..."

Daniel Sousa has posed:
She knew now he could see it but as much as he didn't want to confirm it, it did make things easier in the moment. Though what he meant to say is halted for a moment when she tells him she loves him too. He looks like a man relieved a heavy burden of uncertainty removed from his shoulders. "I know," he says to all of her objections, meeting her eyes with his own. "But what is going to happen is going to happen, and right now we have a choice to make, do we want to look back at a thing we almost had with each other, or something we had? Because whether it's the work, or our lives, distance or time that pulls us apart, Peggy, to me the whatever time we get will be worth it."

Peggy Carter has posed:
The silence that comes in response is probably enough to say she's thinking this over too hard. He's walked in here, all fire and impulse, and Peggy is the calm, forcibly distant Brit as ever. Then she abruptly leans up and into him, pulling him into a deep, long kiss. Something close to that one day back at the SSR, when they thought maybe they'd try this the first time. She lets the kiss linger for a few heartbeats longer, before her mouth pulls back just enough she can rest her nose and forehead against him, catching her breath quietly. "God, Daniel... you... I want this... I don't want to ruin this... but I don't want to ruin our careers either. We've both worked so hard. SHIELD... it's going to be... so much. You'll either either be the Director's boyfriend, or I'll be Sousa's wife... but you... You know how people talk. We'll lose respect."

Daniel Sousa has posed:
If Peggy hadn't kissed him he'd have done it, but even so the kiss takes him by surprise for a moment before he returns it just as deeply and lets it linger as long as she will, leaning against her when it's done. At least at first as she talks he pulls away his hands coming to her shoulders as he looks at her. "I've been called worse things Peggy and so have you," he says but even as he says it his face betrays his understanding it wasn't that simple at least for her. He glances away. "We can't let those people dictate how to live our lives Peggy, if we did you'd be fetching coffee and I'd still be left at the office every time the rest of the guys went on a raid," he says. "If we have to fight harder then we have to fight harder but we can do it together."

Peggy Carter has posed:
Her hands linger against his arms, even as his come up to her shoulders. Peggy barely pulls away from the kiss, sharing his breath and feeling each of his words on her mouth. He can feel her shoulders slump, the struggle in her just making all of her ache. She breathes in deeply again, even just savoring the scent of his sweat. Familiar. Like home. "I'm not letting them...dictate it. But I need them to be able to follow me in the field... to stop questioning my orders. To...stop seeing me as the little lady. And I'm not going to hide you in some closet. There... there's no winning this situation." Peggy whispers, achingly. "You... you should probably go."

Daniel Sousa has posed:
Daniel too lingers close after the kiss, even with the words being shared he doesn't want to pull away from her, not yet. In that moment things feel right though as Peggy lays out her case the rightness of it fades replaced by anger and disappointment. "Of course there's no winning, Peggy, to do that we both need to be willing to fight," he says, looking away for a moment. "Sorry, but I don't get it Peggy, we've taken crap from the Thompsons and Dooleys of the world all our lives and now that we've found something worthwhile we're going to just let them take it away because it /might/ be a problem for us down the line?"

He closes his eyes, turning for a moment to lean on his cane and gather his thoughts before she offers that dismissal and he turns back to her, his eyes mirroring the ache in her voice. "Alright," he says. "If that's what you want," he says, beginning to make his way to the flap of the tent. He leans there a moment. "I'll see you tomorrow Peggy. Have a good night," he says, before he ducks under the flap and walks back across the sand.