6886/The Framework: There's No Place Like Home

The Framework: There's No Place Like Home
Date of Scene:	11 July 2021
Location:	The Playground, Medical Bay
Synopsis:	After the Framework, May, Daniel, Dottie and Peggy all wake up in the Playground's medical bay to try and start processing their emotions. None of them are good at processing emotions.
Cast of Characters:	Peggy Carter, Melinda May, Dottie Underwood, Daniel Sousa

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Peggy Carter has posed:
The chaos of being moved from the Sphere, down to the Playground, and into the medical bay was a lot, but efficiently managed by SHIELD techs and medical staff. They were trained for these things, though it had been a long time since they had something as close to 'mass casualty' as they did with the half dozen patients they pulled out of those pods, bodies all going through various levels of shock and loss of their life support systems. No one coded, but it was an intense trip back. Even those who vaguely woke up out of the drugs were disoriented at best. Sleep is more peaceful.

They've now been settled in to a makeshift ward in the Playground. A row of beds with privacy curtains between them, if needed, and everyone hooked up to monitors. By sheer happenstance, or maybe McLaren's recommendation, May, Dottie, and Peggy's curtains aren't pulled at the moment. They are the three at the end of the row, laying in a line. It's hard to tell how long Peggy's been awake, but after her vitals were cleared again, she's remained conscious and silent. Staring at the ceiling. Not even demanding to get out of the uncomfortable hospital gown she's been put in.

Melinda May has posed:
May is sitting up. Like Peggy, she's said very little over the intervening few hours. She's had no particular cause to and, frankly, has spent a great deal of time trying to reconcile the memories of two very different lives in her head.

But May isn't the quiet, meditative type. She's the quiet, beat the shit out of things type. Which means there's a limit to just how long she's willing to sit still.

She reaches up with curled knuckles to scrub at the itch at the base of her skull where the micro insertion points from the pod's control systems are beginning to heal. Her expression is that of a faint scowl. She pulls her hand away and looks at her knuckles, but there is no blood. Somehow, she feels like there should be blood. Still, there isn't. There's just the weird, ghostly red lines on the back of her hands and arms -- her whole body, in fact -- that speak to where the blue circuitry once ran underneath her skin. Those lines will fade in time. But they haven't, yet.

The site irritates her. She pushes herself up to the edge of the bed and swings her feet off to touch the floor. She's had enough.

Dottie Underwood has posed:
Dottie feigns sleep, but watches the monitors with a languid curiosity. She's been amusing herself by manipulating her vitals while keeping them within acceptable levels. And tracking the quiet beeping of her neighbors machines. But when May starts try to leave, she rolls over to watch. Will she be allowed to leave? Dottie waits with idle curiosity.

Peggy Carter has posed:
Hearing someone else moving, Peggy turns her head to look over and actually consider who is next to her. Daniel must still be asleep. They assured her he made it out. Seeing May, and then Dottie across from her, Peggy slowly forces herself to sit up. She drags one hand across her exhausted face, also trying not to itch at those odd red lines, but it's difficult. They felt strange.

"I... owe both of you a... Very large thanks." Peggy finally rasps out. Her voice doesn't sound like her own, but rasping from lack of use and hollow, well, because all of her felt hollow. Two sets of memories, both feeling as real as the next, but she knows where she is now. She looks numbly around the room before gazing back to May and Dottie. "You saved our lives."

Melinda May has posed:
May glances to Peggy as the woman speaks about saved lives. As far as she's concerned, she's responsible for putting them all in danger. It nags at her on two levels -- the first being the op into the Sphere itself, not that anyone could have anticipated the pods or tentacles or anything else; the second, though, comes from her memories from within the Framework. The more time she's had to dwell on it, the more time she's had to understand that so much of that world came about from her decisions in Bahrain, Cambridge, and everything that came after.

So, she offers her friend a small, tight smile and a faintly dismissive wave of her hand as if to say, Don't worry about it...

She looks around the room, and over to Dottie for a few moments, before her lips press together and she lets out a soft breath. "We're out. That's what matters."

It wasn't real.

Daniel Sousa has posed:
Daniel sits up, slowly, his head kept carefully upright as he blinks against the light. "Hey," he greets in a coarse rasp. "Anyone else's head feel like they went ten rounds with Ted Grant?" he asks. "Where are we?" he wasn't sure if he could trust his eyes or not.

Dottie Underwood has posed:
"I'd get awfully bored if you weren't around, Peg," Dottie says with a slight shrug. And that's all she's prepared to say about that. Her time in the Framework had been brief. And she had only her own experiences to sort through. Aside from the torture, it had been relatively uneventful. Although she is curious about the part that computer simulation of Dorothy Underwood had played in their other lives.

Peggy Carter has posed:
Hearing Daniel's voice behind her, Peggy's eyes press tightly shut for one moment. She's shoving back a wave of emotions she's not ready to feel, the grief dove tailing immediately on the relief of hearing his tone. "...Yes. Rather." Peggy responds to him quietly about how her head feels, though she's not showing it at all. She's not really showing much of anything.

May gets a slight nod, a bittersweet smile pulling at her lips, "Y-yes. I... suppose that is what matters. And no one... died in there. I don't think. We all got out. Oh... god. Poor Fitz." She breathes out softly, as more memories come flooding in. "If he remembers everything too..." Peggy shakes her head, her stomach slightly turning at the thought. Better to worry about others than herself.

Dottie gets a bit more of a weak smile as she admits to being bored without Peggy. There's even an edge of a laugh there. "Yes... I suppose you would. Still, I'm... sorry. For what I said -- did... in there. I didn't realize you were... I didn't understand. I'm... glad you were with us." It's swallowing some pride and humble pie to say that to Dorothy Underwood, but she means it.

Melinda May has posed:
May lets out a chuff of air in response to Daniel's question. She's come out of real life battles with fewer bruises and less of an epic headache. Beyond that, though, she doesn't have much of a response.

Not even to Peggy's comments about Fitz. Her jaw tightens slightly and she swallows, turning away so she can start hunting for someting that resembles actual clothing instead of a stupid tunic. She can imagine how Fitz is feeling. And there's a part of her that completely empathizes. Moreso, perhaps, than Peggy or Daniel can, given she was his chief lieutenant for so long.

But it wasn't real. None of it was real.

Daniel Sousa has posed:
Daniel catches himself looking around only for his eyes to close as he remembers the children are gone. It's a revelation that fills him with sorrow. "Glad to hear it's not just me," he says, the attempt at humour spoken automatically and without much feeling.

"Who all made it back? Just people from our side?" he knows better but he has to ask.

Dottie Underwood has posed:
Dottie settles back to stare at the ceiling. She knows she's useful. She thought Peg had realized that long before now.

Peggy Carter has posed:
"Melinda..." Peggy starts quietly, as she sees her friend moving and that tight swallow without words, "It... wasn't you. And the parts of you that were... Well, those are the parts that kept fighting. Got us out of there too. Went back for..." Peggy can't even say her daughter's name. Her words fall dead on her lips as she realizes she was about to. She swallows back tightly herself, trying to shift off the bed enough she can stand.

"It just... wasn't. HYDRA's done fucked up things in their time. This... this might take the cake." Peggy very carefully reaches over to shut off her monitor, so she can pull electrodes off her skin without it screaming. She's very done with being in a bed, much like May. She wants to go touch her husband. Her dark eyes, however, land on Dottie. "How in the... world did you find us?"

Melinda May has posed:
Melinda continues looking for her clothes. There are too many people here. Too many ears. Too many that don't need to know what she's thinking, how or why. Eventually, she finds her tacsuit in a footlocker and pulls it out.

"We're out," she says simply. "We need to concentrate on finding HYDRA and wiping them from the face of the Earth."

Still, Peggy's question to Dottie interests her. "How *did* you find us?" she asks now, her brows dipping faintly. Two warring sets of memories around Dottie war with one another behind her eyes. "What are you even doing here? Last I saw you in this world, you were swimming off with HYDRA."

Daniel Sousa has posed:
"No argument from me," Daniel says about this being the most fucked up thing HYDRA has done. "And yeah, we need to end this," he agrees about wiping them out. It was long past time.

Seeing Peggy removing her monitors, he shifts over in his bed to make room for her.

That question to Dottie? Daniel gives Dot a glance and a bit of a shrug.

Dottie Underwood has posed:
"Giyera likes to gloat," Dottie says simply. "And he's a man. It wasn't difficult." She hasn't bothered to move again. This bed is much like any other in her past, -- a bed. The medical equipment doesn't have the same comforting restraint as the handcuffs of her girlhood, but she makes do.

Peggy Carter has posed:
A slight chuff of breath, almost amused, comes at Dottie's response. "Well. I... suppose we were lucky you did." Peggy wasn't walking out of that nightmare place otherwise, it seems. Once she's got all of her monitors off, she quietly walks to the bed behind her's. That ghostly, strange smile haunts her lips again as she sees that Daniel's already made her room. Silently, she slips up into sitting next to him, resting shoulder to shoulder. She doesn't have any words, but she can sit there. Confirm just how real he is.

"...do you all remember... Everything? It still feels... Real." Peggy admits softly, utterly uncertain if she was the only one as fooled by this illusion as she was, or if the others were sucked in that deep. She's reaching for any sort of straw to help it make sense. "I...don't know all who got out. I think it was just... Us. Last thing I remember is... Dottie shooting us." For good reason.

Melinda May has posed:
The last thing May remembers is pulling back from beating Dottie with the ragestaff... and then carrying Daniel to that vortex in the middle of the pavillion. She just chooses not to dwell on it. "I don't even know who all was *in*, aside from the four of us, Morse, Hunter, and Fitz." A beat. "Simmons and Daisy." She yanks her curtain closed and starts to change in private.

The answer they get from Dottie is far from sufficient, but this isn't where they'll get better answers from her. A humourless half-smile touches May's lips, unseen behind that closed curtain as she pulls on trousers and the long-sleeved top. Her memories from within the Framework tell her she and Dottie could actually have been friends, had circumstances gone differently. They tell her Dottie could actually make a solid SHIELD agent. But that's not who she remembers Dottie to be here... in the real world.

She leaves the curtain closed and sits on the end of the bed with a silent sigh, scrubbing her hands through her lank hair. A shower wouldn't go amiss.

Daniel Sousa has posed:
"Dottie's intel saved all of you, HYDRA was planning an attack, if they'd succeeded they'd have brought the whole Sphere down on our heads," he volunteers.

Daniel smiles as Peggy leans against him in the hospital bed, his hand slipping into hers, to feel that confirmation that she at least is real. He lays back feeling more comfortable for that bit of closeness and says, "I feel like I had a whole extra lifetime jammed in my head," he says. "But yeah, I think I remember all of it."

He flinches slightly as his eyes catch the light from one of the bright fixtures overhead. :Sorry, I think I need to shut my eyes, won't be long," he promises the others, before squeezing Peggy's hand and trying to get a bit more sleep.

Dottie Underwood has posed:
Dottie hopes that they'll all go back to sleep. Or leave. So she can slip out unnoticed. Their inquiries chafe more than the healing holes in her skin. She had a job to do and she did it. She never asked for their trust. And their wretched soft belonging makes her feel ill. She doesn't fit in this place. And soon enough, she'll be gone.

But, looking over to the monitors, she's reassured to see steady little blips. Unchanging. Nothing to alert the rest.

Peggy Carter has posed:
"Well. I... I'm glad you're all back alive. *We're* all... back. That is what matters. Maybe a little more sleep wouldn't go ill. I'm sure I have a pile of work on... On my desk when I get out of here." Peggy admits softly. "We should talk... longer... Dottie. When things are a bit less... Fresh." Peg admits softly, before sinking back down into Daniel's bed next to his sleeping frame. She slowly starts to give into the pain and exhaustion that still riddles her slightly itchy frame. She gives everyone the peace of not trying to make any more small talk, however. Even if it's very loud alone in their minds.