Owner Pose
Peggy Carter It's fairly early in the day. Well before noon. Peggy did warn Melinda that she was planning something, she had someone she wanted the woman to speak to, at least once, before she pulled something with Melina. Now, she's called both of them into her office. Things are a little less hectic around the place now that Manhattan is getting near back to life, the evacuations are over, and the DoD is done yelling at her. She's got everything back into order, her tea cart refreshed, and even the blinds up on her windows.

She has a pot of green tea on this morning, as she knows May is coming and it's early enough she'll indulge herself a little caffiene. She's mostly abandoned her pant suits now, the waist too tight, so today she's in a neat green wrap dress with an unbuttoned suit jacket overtop. She waits patiently, calling to the door as the knocks come, "Come in." Oh, there's a plate of biscuits too.
Natasha Romanova Natasha Romanoff is curiuos as to why Peggy would have called her up here. But one doesn't make the Boss wait. Her bruises from her 'incident' a few days ago all gone; the wonders of her inherent healing abilities to deal with such minor things. So in her normal attire and equipment, Natasha is reporting exactly when ordered. Not a second too soon, not a second too late. Just immediately as the clock strikes for her to have been asked to come on in. She would arrive over and enter into the office, taking in the plates put out and assume that it was more informal.

So she would go to take a seat rather than stand at attention. Body posture curiuos; at least as far as Natasha's body language would permit.
Melinda May When she enters, and discovers Peggy has set out both green tea *and* cookies, Melinda's brow arches faintly. That always suggests a 'friendly chat'... which in her experience usually means not-so-friendly topics. And given the warning she got at breakfast? She gives a wordless nod of greeting and moves to help herself to the tea, if not the cookies. (Though she does inspect them first to see if they're homemade -- by Daniel, please -- or packaged.)

She eventually settles in a chair at the opposite end of the desk, setting her tea on the arm of the chair and holding it lightly while she waits to see just what her friend has in mind.
Peggy Carter Half are homemade. Chocolate chips and oatmeal. The other half are the long round packaged British ones she gets goodness knows where, aren't really all that good tasting, but she likes. Especially when nausea is sometimes not her friend. She practically lives on the things. She probably has a crate of them somewhere. She's got two in front of her and a cup of her own green tea already. As they both come into the room, she gives them a quiet, professional smile and a brief nod.

"Natasha. Melinda. I know you both know each other, already, so I don't need to bother with introductions. Sit down, please. Get comfortable. Physically, at least. They are Daniel's cookies, so they are safe." Peggy plucks one of those nicer ones from the tray as well. "As for today... I'd like to talk about the fact that Melinda May has been programmed by the Red Room using whatever neurotoxic that woman in our holding cell developed. It's not public knowledge, but it happened. And part of that programming means she can't tell anyone about it. I was lucky to put the pieces together from a few hints..."
Natasha Romanova Natasha Romanoff would glance at Peggy and go to fold her fingers together over at the first request from Peggy. Her not bothering to say 'then get on with it'. The Chief would get to it in her own time. No sense in pushing the issue. There was always the proper dance to be done when it came to these conversations and the Englishwoman had her own etiquette. There would be no change of expression from Natasha.

Making a move then to reach for at least two of the cookies to ensure she had some of them before they would be gone,s he would mvoe to take a bite of it before Peggy spoke. Then she would glance at Melinda thoughtfully. Evaluating what was known in her head, what sorts of physical or emotional signs there had been.. Giving Melinda a low nod. Of understanding.
Melinda May If she's honest, Melinda is getting *really* tired of these conversations. There's a reason she just wants to grab Vostokoff by the scruff of the neck and force her to help her. The problem, of course, is that Vostokoff also knows the trigger words -- the only other person who does is Phil Coulson, who got them out of her. Even Daniel's cookies lose their appeal in light of that fact.

For the most part, Melinda has been keeping a very low profile at the Triskelion since her initial encounter with Vostokoff. She's avoided key nerve centers and stuck mostly to training cadets, probies, and junior agents, or running STRIKE agents through higher level combat techniques. Some days, she's avoided the Triskelion altogether. The biggest tell something was wrong, really, came on the day Belova brought Vostokoff in... and May's empathic abilities shook a football field sized portion of the building before she finally fled. That was Peggy's initial tip off, certainly... albeit after the fact.

She returns Natsha's sympathetic nod with a gaze that simultaneously appreciates the unspoken support and reflects her ongoing frustration. Her knuckles are white around the handle of her mug.
Peggy Carter Peggy can practically sense Natasha's impatience, so that might be why she dives quite so deep and quick into it all. She lays the initial issue out on the table, letting them both take a few moments to process that before she continues quietly, speaking around bites of her cookie. She is not a woman who is shy about her appetite, especially not these days.

"They have yet to give any orders, at least that we know and I have been monitoring, but they did implant trigger words into her, which Phil Coulson knows. We have yet to use the antidote, because May is stubborn and wishes to save it for analysis. So far, the dose that Yelena was given has yet to be replicated. But, if I am not mistaken, you were given a dose as well. Now... let's talk in theoreticals, so May can talk. This is not about *her* situation..." Such bullshit, "But if we had an agent under the effects of that neurotoxin... and we had a single spare dose, and we do still have its maker in prison... What do we do?"
Natasha Romanova Natasha Romanoff would fold her hands together, "Take some blood samples from Yelena and see hwo effective it's being." She would go along, "And if you're truly worried about something, go into isolation and quarantine for awhile." Her tone is flat over and serious. Yes she's aware that Peggy has asked them here for other things and no doubt has something ulterior, but Natasha feels that she must first offer the obligatory pragmatic answer to these sorts of things so that she can -hear- the logic for why they can't do it.
Melinda May May swallows down a healthy portion of her tea, not particularly caring that it burns her throat all the way down. It's a good distraction as she works her way through the mental gymnastics -- read: bullshit -- she needs to do to be able to even speak hypothetically about all this. "Isolating and quarantining a high level operative for any significant period of time will require an equally high level security facility." Because, otherwise, she's going back to her original plan of grabbing hold of Vostokoff and going hunting. It's also subtle, fair warning: Clock's ticking.
Peggy Carter "And I do not believe Yelena took the substance. She gave the whole dose to Fitz and Simmons for analysis, they just haven't managed to recreate it. Yet. They have put it through every chemical sampling and analysis possible. We could save it to give to an agent in an emergency such as this. Or..." Peggy sighs, finally putting down her cookie and even ignoring her cup of tea. She sits back in her chair, looking them over, "The asset could be removed from prison. Used for her knowledge... used to hunt down more information or doses."
Natasha Romanova Natasha Romanoff would glance at Peggy, "All right, so what did ou ask us here for then?" She would go to cross her arms, moving to get to the point as soon as 'not take the sample' would be mentioned. That was fair enough and probably what she would do. Without the whole insistence on 'not be put into quarantine'.
    Then as Peggy would go on Natasha would note, dryly, "Said asset is currently mentally broken and disoriented and likely in need of therapy for stability."
Melinda May Melinda refrains from making the first comment that comes to mind: She'll happily provide Vostokoff with some therapy -- albeit 'aggression therapy' instead of anything more constructive. Instead, drawing on Peggy's calm to stabilize herself, she realizes that won't actually be helpful. And there is a small part of her (very small and buried under an awful lot of anger) that will concede Vostokoff is as much a victim, if not more so, in this as anyone else.

"Natasha's right," she says, tension in her voice and in her jaw as she pushes through the edges of the mental barriers, "but that doesn't mean she can't be helpful. But she..." She closes her eyes and rolls her head and shoulders as the thoughts on the tip of her tongue push far too close to her geas... she switches what she intends to say. "She gave us everything she knew in Phil's interview. She's as blocked as..." She clears her throat against rising pain in her frontal lobe. "Anyone else."

It occurs to her Vostokoff might actually like a chance for payback.
Peggy Carter "So. Our options are as such. We use one of the doses of the antidote we have, if there is one left... Natasha, did you use yours or give it over to Fitz and Simmons? I am assuming she gave you one. She seemed to have been passing them among all the ex-widows, if my information is right." And it's highly rare that Peggy's information is wrong. She then forces herself to pause, to take a calming breath, and then a sip of her tea.

"Or, we pull an unstable asset out and use her for what she's got left in her, going back into enemy territory and cleaning up a... few loose threads that are highly dangerous, but also still loose." Another sip of tea. She then sets the tea cup down and gives them both a tight smile that is no real smile at all. "Or, we do nothing and... wait. Leaving one of our best compromised and going stir crazy."
Natasha Romanova Natasha Romanoff would shrug, "I've been away from the room for years and my conditioning by them would have been before the period they developed this method." Her tone is mostly flat over and wary. Yes, she might be paranoid. But she has the logical justification. "I would have been considered too 'useful' to them if it was in prototyping to want to risk having it backfire on me if it didn't work."

OF course she had given it over. She would look at Peggy. "Do you think she's mentally stable enough?"
Melinda May Emphasis on the *crazy*.

Melinda *is* still mentally stable enough, but if she's forced to retire or go rogue (they're pretty much the same thing, because there's no way she's going to sit home twiddling her thumbs, especially not with her own futuristic arms and armour to play with), she will be considerably less happy than she is now. And she's *really* not happy now.

"Hypothetically speaking," she grinds out, "a second dose would solve all of this..." She won't object to using one of *two* doses. Only to a single dose that's the only one available. "Otherwise... I really need to hit something."
Peggy Carter That makes Peggy relax just a little, giving May a quiet nod, "I... suspect we have two doses in tact. We'll need to confirm with Fitz and Simmons but, if so, we get you that second dose and this all is solved. I mean... solved enough that we don't have to immediately rush in. We can still plan an operation. We probably should. Dreykov took direct action against SHIELD. We can't let that stand. But it means you can do it more in your right mind. And... if one of the doses has been uses... then we have another conversation to have." Peggy's expression has just an edge of hopefulness to it, though. That they can give Melinda her life back AND plan a mission.
Natasha Romanova Natasha Romanoff would cross her arms over, "So what are you 'considering' you would like to have us think about on this end?" Her deciding better to be up front on this given the set of vagueness. If this was an operatinoal plan they wouldn't be in Peggy's office having cookies and they've have been told to report in. hence 'considering' when it came to 'suggestions'. Natasha being direct here. Not in a rude way.

Leaving the manner of the doses, their effectiveness, and the general questions of analysis and oeprative testing over to the experts and biochemists. And if they hadn't gotten only -two- doses she would have wanted to also give one to Nadia.
Melinda May Oh, Melinda knows, if Peggy wants to plan an op -- particularly a sideways mission -- away from any obvious telltale signs, the office is just the place she'd do it. And she'd do it couched in theoreticals. Because... spies.

But, really, all the theoreticals are simply to try to keep Melinda's brain from exploding. Or shutting down. As it is, there's a faint sheen of sweat across her brow, near her hairline. And her knuckles are still white.

She rakes one hand through her hair, pulling it back from her face. "I'd like to get back to work," she admits. That's not a request for dismissal. That's an admission that she's tired of being sidelined and needs to do something -- whether that's taking a spare dose or finding someone who's got one or can make one.
Peggy Carter "Then we use the dose..." God, please tell her that there is actually a dose left untouched in science that they'd not realized was there, "And once you are clear headed, we start planning a proper mission to go in and hit back. Agreed? Natasha, are you in for this, or are you too close?" Peggy gives them both a bit of a snirking, half laugh as she leans back in her seat. "Truthfully, you're both too close. I should bench the lot of you." But she's sure as hell not doing that.
Natasha Romanova Natasha Romanoff would just fold her hands together, "I presume that we use it at the point we're very sure that it can be replicated and stabilized to the same degree?" Now her tone was polite. Because some things went -ahead- of being personable. "if you need to you can put the prisoner to work on it. However I'm not sure whether she's trustworthy or not but she does hve the skills. If she is still programmed, it's several layers deep with what she's already done and the Red Room hasn't shown.. That level of creativity."
Melinda May "She's got no love for SHIELD," Melinda notes. Of course, Vostokoff has even less love for Phil. But they can both live with that. She reaches up to rub the center of her forehead and her temple. "Whatever we do, we need to do it soon." Because Melinda won't wait a whole lot longer. She'll find Phil and get him to help her with Vostokoff. Because he can counter any 'order' the Russian tries to give her. Phil's always been her safety net, just as she's been his.
Peggy Carter "We still have one dose if we use one now. I think. I need to talk to Fitz and Simmons. As long as we still have one dose for replication and tests, I am willing to use the other." And Melinda said she was willing to take it. Maybe Peggy is too close to this, maybe she and Melinda have become too-near a friends. But she's made emotional calls before and they've almost always worked out, so she's willing to make it here.

"Once the dosing is figured out... Then we start planning the op. So, for now, you are both dismissed. Melinda, I expect operation perameters on my desk 24 hours after, well... You can trust your own mind again. Any questions?"
Natasha Romanova Natasha Romanoff would just look at Peggy with a 'you sure'. Then glance at Melinda, "No, but she feels guilty. Guilt is an amazing motivator, particularly for something that's ehr fault and she wants to make amends for. Beyond ehr mental stability.. Have someone confirm that however. I expect that if she doesn't try and kill herself anytime soon that she'll probablyb e trying to run and breakout soon enough."
Melinda May Melinda nods her acknowledgement of Peggy. Then her hand flips. She doesn't really have any questions. *If* there's a viable second dose, that's the clearest way out of this quickest. Otherwise? Phil. Vostokoff. Anyone else quick enough to catch them. Melinda will be going hunting.

She chuffs something halfway between a snirk and a laugh at the comment on Vostokoff's sense of guilt. "She's actually feeling resigned, depressed, and fairly hopeless, last I sat in with her." The empath knows. "I suspect suicide is a much more likely possibility in the near future." She's hard pressed to care, when normally she would. But the woman is still a threat to her -- until she can bet herself deprogrammed.

Maybe, after that, she can think about being charitable again. When the anger loop she's trapped in is no longer overwhelming her.
Peggy Carter "Well then, for our own people, and for that woman... We move fast. You are both dismissed. I'll send you updates as soon as I know them." Peggy is then sitting up straight and moving to stand, abandoning her coffee and her cookies. She's determined to head down to the lab as soon as her office is clear. She has work to do.