4755/Just in Time

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Just in Time
Date of Scene: 16 January 2021
Location: 1949, Mojave Desert -- SSR Secured Site
Synopsis: In the aftermath of returning Melinda May to her future timeline, Peggy and Daniel have a heart to heart. Which ends in a kiss. And a plan for a hotel room later on to continue their conversation.
Cast of Characters: Peggy Carter, Daniel Sousa




Peggy Carter has posed:
The clean up took some time. Peggy paused just long enough to put her arm in a makeshift sling and some sulfa powder on it with a slap dash bandage, but it's still been bleeding through the bandage slowly most the time. Of course, that hasn't stopped her. Orders to get the SHIELD wounded immediately seen to, the bodies treated properly, any HYDRA agents captured alive for questioning taken in, their bodies searched and also readied to be processed.

It's a little less than two hours, all told, when she's about to turn on the ball of her foot and look for more work to do and her knee nearly goes out from under her. Perhaps it was more hot in the desert than she realized. Or perhaps that bandage is entirely soaked through. She catches herself on the back of a crate, hoping no one else managed to see, before giving a look to her make shift office in a tent. It's probably time to stop...

Daniel Sousa has posed:
Sousa too had been busy with the clean up, seeing to his agents wounded and healthy as well as paying his respects to his one fallen agent, Fisher. One of the ones he'd poached from the New York office when Sousa was tapped to start the LA office. They weren't exactly friends but he was less of an ass than most of the New York agents he came up with which made him close enough to one. After that he decided might as well take all his punishment in one go and sought out Peggy to let her know about Fisher and report in on the state of the LA agents in general, so of course he's there just in time to see Peggy fall.

"Whoah," he says moving from the tent flap to Peggy's side, "Peggy you alright?" he asks her, giving the bloody bandage a grimace. "Nevermind that answers my question pretty well, c'mon let's get you sitting down and we can get that changed for you."

Peggy Carter has posed:
She wouldn't exactly call it a fall, just a momentary unevening of her feet, but she's caught either way. Looking up to Daniel, the expression on her face is a woman about to quite protest, but then she sees his eyes. He *knows* her better than anyone else. She's not going to bullshit him. "I put sulfa powder on it, I swear..." Peggy finally gives in some sort of defense. But she probably needed a few stitches and, more likely, a minor surgery to get at the proper damage in there. Just more scar tissue for the files.

Never the less, she doesn't fight him any longer. SHe just slightly leans against him, not daring to put weight on his bad leg but using him as a balance, as they head towards her tent. "...I'm sorry about Fisher. He was a good agent." Apparently, she already knew. She wasn't mad at him, just in the quiet grief of anyone who has lost someone in the field. "...you did great out there. As always. You and Rose both deserve commendations."

Daniel Sousa has posed:
"I believe you," Sousa says of the powder. "Probably need a bit more than that though," he says looking at the bloody bandage again. He shifts her over to his right side giving his bad leg a bit of a break and moving along with the help of a cane that he dug up from somewhere in the old set. There's a quiet nod about Fisher. "He was," Sousa agrees, "He got married while he was out here, not looking forward to telling his wife. I don't think I'll ever get used to that part of the job, being the one to tell someone they're life has been ripped apart," he confides in her with a look in her direction. "But it's the job."

As for commendations he shrugs. "Rose did great, I just tried to do what needed to be done," he says before adding. "Thanks though."

He starts them in the direction of her tent.

Peggy Carter has posed:
"You always do. That's why I'll always want you at my side." Peggy mutters, the last part a little softer than the first. Something more personal than simply a matter of professional situations. She's quiet then, things sitting heavy in her heart and her face mostly reserved about it, but he might know her well enough to know there is a lot going on under the surface. She leans gently against him, letting him lean against her in turn, so they can both take some weight off their bad sides and mutually support each other across the soft sand.

In her tent, she's still quiet. She settles onto a stool, turning to let him get a better look at her shoulder. He'll probably need to pull down one arm of her jumpsuit, the cream linen completely soaked with blood and ruined now. Without an exit wound, the bullet's probably still in there. And she's been working all this time. "...Look... Daniel... about last night, I... I wasn't fair to you."

Daniel Sousa has posed:
Sousa blinks not quite sure he heard in her voice what he though he did when she said she wanted him by his side. He studies her for a moment as the use each other for support as they walk, seeing beyond the surface but still gently testing if what he heard was really there or just a tired mind playing tricks. "If you mean for SHIELD, you've already got me, Peggy, I'm in."
He leads her to the stool and examines the wound, from outside the coveralls first then he glances to her for permission to pull it down to get a better look. "Oh?" he asks her, reaching for a stool of his own as his bad leg starts to cramp. "I don't know, you told me the same things two years ago, I think it was pretty fair to tell me again since I didn't get the message," he says as he works. "Besides Rose made me realize I may have been a little unfair myself."

Peggy Carter has posed:
"...unfair? How?" That question buys her a bit of time, to do her best to sort out her thoughts about this all and maybe realize she's making a mistake. Peggy just isn't certain which way would BE the mistake. "You talked to...Rose? After... Everything?" Peggy turns a slightly sheepish look across her shoulder, several strands of dark hair falling free of the twist it was in, not quite getting caught in the mess of her shoulder but coming close enough. Otherwise, she's all bare back of throat and injured shoulder, a faint smattering of freckles coming up on her skin from the desert sun.

She undoes another button so he can pull her jumpsuit free even more, entirely exposing that injury. Sure enough, it's now making a little triangle with the other two bullet scars she has there, though they are mostly hidden beneath blood and pulled skin now. It's cleaned and powdered, but still bleeding slowly and probably hurts something awful. Peggy's either drugged or really gritting her teeth through it.

Daniel Sousa has posed:
Sousa takes the question about talking to Rose as his own little out to delay going into detail about how he wasn't fair. "I was snapping at people and generally being an ass, Rose figured out why pretty quick," he explains. "From there she got me to tell her most of it, except what we said to each other," he says, he'd left out the whole business of 'I love you' it had been too much like rubbing salt in the wound.

Speaking of wounds, Sousa makes a face to see Peggy's. "God Peggy, how are you still walking around doing work? Do you still have that medkit I gave you? There's a syrette of morphine in there I can give you if you need it."

Peggy Carter has posed:
"I... try not to use the stuff when I still need to work. It mucks up my head horribly. I took a handful of asprin..." Probably why that's still bleeding, isn't that a blood thinner? "And have mainly been trying not to move it." The fact she consented to putting the thing in a sling is a good indication of just how much pain she's been in. Normally, she wouldn't let anyone see her even that weakened.

But she can only spend so much time dancing around the conversation, worried about the injury at her back. She turns dark eyes back towards him, studying that handsome, sweat covered face for a few aching moments. "...and what did she say?"

Daniel Sousa has posed:
"Asprin?" he asks with a slightly amused look on his face as he wipes the sweat from his brow. "You know that makes you bleed more right?" he says considering the wound. "I'll leave the syrette when I go but we should probably call an actual medic to help with the bullet, I don't want to hit something getting it out and mess up your shoulder for the rest of your life." Which as they know now is a very long time.

Her question has him looking her way for a moment before he turns back to the wound to take another look. "She more or less said I may have been an ass for being as hard on you as I was for not wanting to fight for us. That it was easier for a man to fight that fight than it was for a woman," he says. "What she didn't say, but I took from it anyhow, is that fight would have to be ten times harder for a woman who's trying to start her own agency and have it be taken seriously," he admits. "I still want you Peggy, I still think the fight is worth it, but I understand that SHIELD is more important than just the two of us," he says those last words a struggle to get out.

Peggy Carter has posed:
"Just... clean it up, put a bit more sulfa on there, and a tight butterfly or two. I'll get to the medic in a little bit. I promise." Peggy dares to meet his eyes as she says that, so he can see she's being truthful, not just trying to put him off. She knows when she needs help and this is deep enough that proper help is needed.

But she's not going to run for it now. This conversation is too important, even if they are having it across her bare, bloodied and freckled shoulder, with her hair half falling down and both of them a sweaty mess. To be fair, the situation does seem appropriate for most of their life together. She exhales quietly, watching him. "She's not... wrong. If we do this, especially if we do this publicly, there will always be talk. People will assume *you* are running SHIELD, not me, just because you're my... Partner. It's just the way people think. And I don't want to hide you behind closed doors. That's not fair to you either..."

Daniel Sousa has posed:
He meets her eyes, "Alright," he says knowing she's telling him the truth and she wouldn't just brush it off until she had another fall or worse. He gets out the alcohol and gauze from the medkit to get about the tending of the wound. "I get it and not to mention the sort of people we'd need to back SHIELD for it to work wouldn't be thrilled about either option for leadership, a dame or a cripple, let alone looking like both together."

"As for being fair to me, I want to shout how I feel about you from the rooftops Peggy, I do, but if the choice is what we have be secret or not be at all, I'll pick secret any day of the week."

Peggy Carter has posed:
A slight hiss of displeasure escapes her lips as she feels that alcohol through the wound again. But it's probably a wise idea -- dust gets in EVERYTHING out here. Especially sticky things. Peggy closes her eyes, silent a few moments as she simply lets him handle cleaning it out and getting it patched once more. The slight sway of her body closer to him isn't probably *entirely* from blood loss. But it's definitely happening.

"... Daniel... I want nothing more than to just take you back to a hotel here and..." She gives a little chuckle, "Well, probably just take a long shower and fall asleep in your arms tonight, honestly. But that sounds like the most lovely thing in the world. You're too good to be my...secret. But I don't want you let you go. I *do* want you at my side. In the office and... out of it. I meant what I said. Entirely."

Daniel Sousa has posed:
"Easy there tough girl, we're almost done," Daniel teases lightly as he cleans the wound. Goodness knows he'd had similar reactions to this before and it's good to share the ribbing. Though as her eyes slip closed and she leans into him he falls quiet just enjoying the moment of closeness as he finishes cleaning the wound and moves on to get the needle and thread for the stitches, dropping them at Peggy suggests what she'd like nothing more than to do. "Actually that sounds pretty good," he says of the shower and falling asleep together like that. It's a hard thought to shake as he picks the needle and thread back up, though he stops short of doing the butterfly stitches to say his piece. "I know you did Peggy, and I did too, every word." He says with a look that very much confirms that statement, laying bare how he feels about her. "I understand what you're worried about and I know it's important but at the same time I don't want to let go," he says feeling as stuck as she seemed to be.

Peggy Carter has posed:
While she knows she really needs to let him finish the work on that shoulder, his words are enough to draw her around entirely. Some things are more important and she's not bleeding to death at this moment. Peggy stares up at him for a handful of silent heartbeats and then is suddenly leaning forward, pulling him into another deep kiss again. This one is longer and less restrained than last night, but it might be both their exhaustions speaking. She lets it linger for several breathless moments, and even steals another small one as she's slightly pulling away. "...Alright. Dammit. This is...idiotic. We're good together... This is *good*. We'll clean up here, get a hotel and... figure it all out as we go. *Together*. I love you and it's...stupid of me to let this all stand in our way. We're smart. We can do this."

Daniel Sousa has posed:
The needle and thread tumbles from his fingers as she grabs him for that kiss and is entirely forgotten by the time she steals that second smaller one. The rest takes a second to process, and for a long moment he just stares at her like all the gears of his brain had suddenly stopped. Though it's only for that moment, before he leans in to kiss her himself this time, long and deep his arms wrapping around her even as he is careful of her shoulder. When he parts from it he leans his head against hers, "Smartest plan I've heard all day," he says with a smile. "Going to make the trip to New York a lot less awkward too," he adds rummaging in the kit for a new needle and thread suddenly eager to move things along and put that plan of Peggy's into action.

Peggy Carter has posed:
Her head leans against his, uncaring of sweat or stickiness. They were both a mess for the day, neither of them cared how messy the other was. She rests her hands against the bottom of his ribs and just leans there, taking in a deep breath of his scent. The smile on her lips is genine. Quiet and private, a smile so few people get to see, but it's all for him right now. While there were losses, they did good work today. She knows that. And Peggy is certain they deserve this.

"Stop..." She reaches her hand aside to still him from reaching for the needle. "I'll just...get to seeing the medic. You clean up the last few bits of the scene. By the time we are both done we can get out of this dust bowl and find somewhere to... continue this... Conversation." She's kissing him again, for just a few seconds, as if to remind him of the conversation.

Daniel Sousa has posed:
That smile warmed his heart to its very core, and he holds Peggy close for awhile after that kiss despite the heat, the sweat and the blood. They did deserve this, by his measure they deserved it ages ago but they only just found the courage to try. He smiles a smile of his own, small and at peace like the wieght of the day and all those years of longing had been lifted from him in these last few seconds.

At Peggy's word, Sousa stops reaching for the needle, eyes flicking up to hers as he listens to the rest, he smiles when she finishes, for the few moments before their lips meet and when they part the smile is all the wider for it. "Right, our conversation," he says, running a hand through his hair while he casts about for his cane. Finding it, he steals another brief kiss from Peggy's lips before he stands offering a hand to her good arm. "Let's go find that medic then," he offers brightly, still smiling.

Peggy Carter has posed:
Peg gives him time to find his cane, carefully shrugging into the shoulder of her already ruined jumpsuit again and slipping her arm through that sling that cuts across the other side of her neck. By the time he comes back for that kiss, she happily returns it. Pale beneath her faint sunburn, she's still smiling a bit more brilliantly than he's ever seen her before. It's a weight off her chest, deciding not to fight this any longer.

She catches him as he pulls away, before taking that arm. "Daniel. I... really do love you. Whatever happens here... we're going to figure it out." She says that not in the way of a gentle reassurance, but of a firm promise. She knows it's not going to be easy. She trusts them to get through. And then she's taking his arm, letting him assist her back out into the heat and to properly trained care. They had their whole lives ahead of them to figure out to make this work -- no matter how long or short they might be.