Owner Pose
Peggy Carter It's incredibly late. Late enough that Peggy is specifically avoiding looking at the clock to acknowledge how late it is. They've gone back to the Long Island house because, technically, it's as close to the Manhattan mess as the Triskelion is if they are needed to give more supplies or morale boosts in the field. And, frankly, it's more comfortable than their quarters. But, despite comfort, Peggy still can't sleep.

After a few hours of tossing and turning, dreams of battle plans in her head, she very carefully crept out of their bed and tucked him in a bit deeper before pulling on her robe and slippers before tiptoeing out of the room. She's in her office now, a cup of neglected tea beside her as she pours over all the old reports and current city plans.
Daniel Sousa Daniel never sleeps as well alone as he does when Peggy's beside him, so despite being tucked in it doesn't take long for the lack of her warmth to rouse him from his sleep enough to open his eyes and see the empty spot in the bed for himself. Taking a moment to rub the sleep out of his eyes he rises from bed and pulls on a robe of his own and a pair of old fashioned slippers and heads to Peggy's office, it's always the first place to check.

"I thought we came here to get away from work," Daniel jokes through a yawn as he stands in the doorway.
Peggy Carter "Tell my brain that." Peggy mutters quietly, dark, bloodshot eyes staring down at the tablet in front of her for a few more moments before she sets it face up on her desk and rubs her fingertips across her eyes, trying to get them to focus, to look more awake. She then gives him a quiet smile, turning out her desk chair and patting the top of her thighs in a little, inviting motion. He likely could perch on her lap, or at least the edge of her desk, which would be a convenient place for him to give her a foot rub. At least she's not kicking him out of her office and telling him to go back to sleep.

"I just... I keep going through these reports and their plans in my head. Wondering if I'm missing things. I can't believe I'm saying this, but I almost miss Phillips screaming tactical plans in my ears. I always did my best work proving him or Howard wrong." She smirks at the memory.
Daniel Sousa Daniel takes the invitation perching on her desk after stealing a brief kiss. "I would if I thought your brain would listen to me," he says with a warm smile. He tugs off one of her slippers and wordlessly begins to massage her foot. "I can imagine," he says of wishing she had to battle Phillips and Stark over all of this. "But I'd say Peggy if you haven't caught any glaring flaws in their plan they're not there, Jon and company have given us all the intel they can on the angels and their capabilities, so we've got the knowledge and god knows we've got the brains to plan well, I think we've got this," he says confidently.

"But I get what you're going through too. Command isn't easy especially when you're in the rear and you have to trust our boys," a beat. "And girls, to handle things without being their to hold their hand. I hated that in the war and running the LA office. If I wasn't in the middle of it I was driving myself nuts."
Peggy Carter That kiss is happily returned, Peggy leaning up and over, her fingertips coming up to trace over his cheek and encourage the kiss to linger just a bit longer than he might have originally planned. It's not one of the kisses she uses to seduce him back to bed, but more gentle than that. Half regretful that she got up, half thankful that he's here with her now. As he settles on her desk, she leans back in her chair and does, indeed, offer her feet into his lap. It's old habit still engrained in her bones, even if she's not really showing yet or to the point her feet should be hurting too much.

"I know. And I promoted Jon because I *do* trust him." Peggy echoes his words, absolutely earnest in it. She knows he's right, but her mind is still running. "They need more information. Need to figure out where at these... Monuments. Artifacts. Whatever you want to call them are, and get the seals on them. They're going on a scouting mission tomorrow night and I keep trying to think of ways to help them more..."
Daniel Sousa "I'd say send someone along with the DWARFs since the job is scouting, but not sure how well they can evade angels, from what I've been reading these Throne things are basically all eyes," he gives his head a shake at that, literally one of the weirdest things they've ever had to fight. "Seems to me their best bet would be a diversion, draw them away, get in, get out," he says. "In the war, I'd say an artillery barrage near the sight would be the way to go but there's too many civilians who haven't evacuated to do it safely."
Peggy Carter Silence reigns for a few moments and Peggy scoops up the tablet again, looking through Jon's initial plans. She gives a quiet dip of her head in affirmation, "A distraction is likely to be necessary, especially if these throne things are all eyes. We've evacuated most of the civilians but, you are correct, some were simply too stubborn to go even after legal order." Peggy sighs. She's still feeling guilty over that as well. She didn't manage any of this perfectly and she'll always slightly hate herself for that.

"If you had someone who know what they were doing, grenades could be useful. We know they've been effective against the Angels before, the fire seemed the most effective, that's why I've been sending in literal flame throwers." She reaches for ehr cup of tea and takes a sip, nose wrinkling at how much it has cooled. She immediately sets it down. She'll need to make another or get back to bed, but right now she's having a lovely foot rub.
Daniel Sousa "That could work," Daniel says of grenades. "Maybe see if Fitz can work up some incendiary ones." There's a nod about flamethrowers and a wry smile. "Had a momentary vision of what my mother or the nuns at school would look like if I told them we're fighting angels with flamethrowers." He continues to rub Peggy's foot thumbs kneading it from the toes to the heel. "But if they work they work."

As for the tea, Daniel can't help but smile. "I could stop if you want to go get some?" he asks her brows raising above dark eyes.
Peggy Carter "No, no..." Peggy insists almost immediately when he asks her about the tea. "I'd rather sleep when we finally get there than be up peeing every two hours." She's also not quite at THAT stage yet, but she knows it's coming. She flexes her feet against his hand, giving a softer, thankful smile. This was a familiar, comforting scene despite the difficulty of the situation they are discussing.

"There are some incendiary ones already, but we could see if we could get a bigger blast for our buck. I'll talk to him. But... I'd want someone in SHIELD to be using them. Someone whose trained. Grenades are... nothing to joke about and so many of these kids have never seen proper war before." She sighs. "I'm.... thinking of going with them, on this one, Daniel."
Daniel Sousa Daniel smiles warmly at Peggy, "Anytime," he says to the unspoken thanks. "And fair enough," he says. "I'd appreciate that too, all things considered." Given how easily he wakes when Peggy gets up. He allows himself to just enjoy the familiar moment the two of ensconced in her office in the middle of the night going over plans. He always hated whatever problem put them there, but at the same time he treasured these little moments.

"You're not wrong," Daniel says about the grenades, his fingers stop working her foot as he thinks before she mentions wanting to go.

"Our kid hasn't been to war either," he says nodding at our belly. "I figure we should let them be old enough to get drafted before we drag them along to one."
Peggy Carter As he responds with the fairly exact point Peggy expected him to make, her lips press into a slightly tighter line and she watches him in silence for several heartbeats. She knew he wasn't going to like it. She didn't know how hard his response would hit home. She sinks deeper into her seat, pressing her feet more into his hands and lap. "I know. You're right." She affirms in a quiet, rasping bit of a whisper. There's already a 'but' at the end of her statement, though.

"But, this is just a scouting mission. It *shouldn't* come to fighting. They don't have anyone with actual experience in war out there. No one who has been a scout behind enemy lines before. Other than Jon, I don't even know that they have a command structure. And I *hate*... hate asking my people to do smoething I'm not willing to do myself. As runs go, this should be one of the safer ones..." And it will help her brain feel like she's doing something, but she's not admitting that part out loud.
Daniel Sousa Daniel knew this would be one of those kinds of discussions, ones where he understood where she was coming from, possibly more than he wanted to admit, but still had to argue against her, "I get it, I do, and if I could carry our kid so you could go I would but unfortunately biology doesn't work that way," he pauses one of his hands to tap his left leg. "And scouting missions aren't always milk runs," he'd lost his leg on one after all.

Taking a breath he says, "I'll go," he tells her. "I ran the scouts for my units in France and Russia and know how not to blow my own foot off with a grenade. I can take the party on in and make sure the mission doesn't end up FUBAR."
Peggy Carter "I am *not* letting you go out there alone, Daniel. Not without me. Not on a mission like this. Not after..." Peggy isn't going to directly point out that this is the exact situation where he lost his leg in the war, but she knows it is. She's not sending him back into a PTSD nightmare without being at his back. Her dark eyes stare hard at him, unwavering. She's got that stubborn look on her face that says she is NOT going to budge on this.

"Either we both go, or neither of us go. I want us out there. I want our people to see we are willing to stand at their sides, not just play supply runs in the background. I... I want to be able to sleep at night knowing I've done SOMETHING active to help save my HOME, Daniel. Look. Just look at the mission. It shouldn't be that dangerous."
Daniel Sousa "After I lost my leg," Daniel fills in. "You can say it, and I get you're trying to look out for me, and our people. I'm trying to do the same, you don't want this to be Volgograd for me and I don't want this to be that mission at the harbour for us." The time a knife meant for Peggy ended up killing their unborn child. His eyes glance down in sadness at the memory and a little regret that he had to bring it up like he did.

His eyes raise at her words though, "I know neither of us signed up to be Chairbourne Infantry, shuffling papers at the back while other people take the risks, but we need to be reasonable Peg..." he says meeting her eyes, though his hand does go for the tablet with the plans.
Peggy Carter They haven't spoken of that mission in years. For him, it was only half a decade, but for her it had been decades. Something she'd buried a long time ago, a regret she would always, always hate a little part of herself for. Mentioning it, no matter how right he was, felt like a quiet blow. Her eyes dropped, staring into her lap instead of her husband's gaze. "We're not going in alone. This won't be the mission at the harbor. We have a whole team here." She whispers raggedly, but the fact she's not meeting his eyes says that she knows he's right, deep down. That this could turn into that easily.

She then pulls her feet out of his lap, rather abruptly. She's angry. At him. At herself. At the whole situation. Unfairly angry and she doesn't want to take it out on him so she moves to sharply stand. "Maybe I should get that tea."
Daniel Sousa Daniel gets up when she does, following her to the door. "I am sorry I brought it up Peg," he says. "I don't like remembering it either but..." he doesn't finish. There was no point in belabouring things and he could tell now was not the time to push. "Coming back here or you want me to give you some space?" he asks stopping in the middle of the room.
Peggy Carter "I'm coming back. I'm not cross with you, I'm just... Cross." Peggy breathes out gently. He could honestly probably follow her to the kitchen and it would be fine, but she's not telling him to. She simply stalks through their house in the mostly darkness to go and put the kettle back on, her motions a bit too sharp and a bit too loud as she moves around the kitchen to get things in order. She's not quiet in a slamming doors mood, but she's close.
Daniel Sousa Daniel does follow her after a few seconds and watches as she angrily gets her kettle ready. "Anything I can do to help?" he asks her from inside the doorway.
Peggy Carter "No." That's a lie, but Peggy's being obstinant. But it's late, she's moody, she's hit her frustration level about not being out there, and apparently she just needs to take it out on her tea. But the kettle is on the stove top now and if she gets her tea cup out she might just crack the thing, so she stands there. Glaring at the stove. Waiting.
Daniel Sousa There's no words from Daniel as he slips fully into the kitchen and wraps his arms around her waist and presses a gentle kiss to her cheek. "I know this is tough, I hate it too, but I think it's what we have to deal with for now," he tells her gently.
Peggy Carter For just a moment, Peggy tenses as he comes up behind her. She doesn't want to let go of this anger and she knows if he does that, she's going to. But then he's there, his arms around her waist, and she just can't rage at the world any more. Peggy slowly sinks back against him, some of that tension starting to melt out of her body as she wraps her arms overtop of his. She closes her eyes, forcing a slow, deep breath in through her nose and out through her mouth.

"I know. This is where we are. But before it gets worse... I want to help, Daniel. I get up every morning wondering if I'm being... selfish, if *we* are being selfish, sitting well behind the lines while our home is being destroyed because we decided to try and have another child. I'm going stir crazy. I can't sleep, I'm not hungry... I sit in an office and take all these reports and do NOTHING while people are *dying*."
Daniel Sousa Daniel listens to her words, his arms tightening around her waist as she spells out her fears. Taking a long slow breath that when released is warm against her neck. "We didn't know this was coming," he begins to try and reason before he makes a frustrated sound and says. "It sounds like crap even when I'm saying it," he admits, resting his head on her shoulder. "We're not the sort to sit back and let other people take all the risks." They both had plenty of chances not to go to war, but they went anyhow, he suspected this war wasn't going to be different, child or not. Either that or they'd hate themselves for not going.

"We'll need an emergency call button and the mutant with the portals standing by, if you get hurt we'll evac you right away to the Triskelion." His tone suggests none of that to his mind is negotiable.
Peggy Carter The moment he starts laying out plans for them actually going into the field, Daniel can feel the tension from her body start draining away. Peggy thought he was going to continue being stubborn about it, rightfully so, and she was bracing herself for disappointment. To have to swallow the bitter pill of staying home. But he's not pushing that. Peggy squeezes his arms tightly in relief and gratefulness.

"...I can do that. I promise I can. I'll talk to her, make certain she's willing. And I'll make sure we've both got fitting body armor. It's a stealth mission -- scouting -- I think I can justify pulling the nano mesh stealth suits out for both of us." Now her mind is turning circles on how best to plan this. She's willing to be safe, she's just not willing to remain back.
Daniel Sousa "Good, good. I'd have Jemma on standby for us when we got back but I don't think telling her beforehand would be a good idea. She's got the power to take us off active duty," as she probably should for this idea. He nods about the stealth suits. "Good plan, probably both need full medical packs just in case, but those have gotten a lot smaller in the last 65 years," he says his mind turning too. "If we're about to be overrun, we use that button and get as many of us back as we can, agreed?" he knew neither of them would be comfortable just vanishing and leaving their team to face down what was coming on their own.
Peggy Carter A gentle nod comes from Peggy, her expression worried, a touch grim. She knows they need to plan for these eventualities, but she's spent so long being successful in the field, it hurts to think about the worst happening. She turns her head enough she can kiss the edge of his jaw. "Med packs, an evacuation plan, stealth suits. Neither of us goes in first. We are rank and file for this one, just giving our people back up, alright? We're not here to be heroes, but to... help. I know that." She kisses him again before the tea pot finally starts to scream. She moves forward JUST enough that she can pull it off the heat.
Daniel Sousa Daniel leans into the kiss needing the comfort. "Alright, agreed. We do this safe and do it by the numbers," he says as much assurance for himself as Peggy. "And right, no being heroes."

He takes a breath as Peggy takes care of the kettle.

"One other thing, whatever happens out there, the blame is on the both of us, nobody gets to say it was all their fault, we share the win and the losses on this one." He knew how much the harbour mission had eaten them alive he doubted it would do much good but he wanted to cushion the potential of a second blow like that as best he could.
Peggy Carter Those last words get silence from her for a few moments. Peg steps away enough to quietly go about filling two mugs of hot water, one with ginger tea for herself and one she puts a packet of hot chocolate into for him. No coffee this time of night, but they probably both needed some comfort beverage after this conversation. Once the mugs are full and slightly starting to cool to a drinkable temperature, Peggy turns back to him, her expression quiet and serious.

"I know I pushed this. Just like I did the last time. I know... I take risks I shouldn't. I've always been like that. I suppose I always will be. But you tried to talk me out of this and I refused. I know that. You don't have to... take blame, Daniel. It's never, ever been your fault."
Daniel Sousa Daniel takes his hot chocolate lifting it to his lips as Peggy talks, though it's lowered quickly afterwards. "The hell I don't," he protests. "We're partners Peg, at home and in the field and if I really felt like we were doomed to repeat the harbour mission, I'd find a way to stop it no matter how stubborn you can be. We're in this together, win or lose and we both know there's no way either of us would be able to be who they are without getting into the trenches on this one, so best we can do is be safe and be ready for whatever happens."
Peggy Carter When he dares protest almost *loudly* at her, Peggy lowers her cup slowly back to the counter as well. She turns to fully face him, head tilting a bit to the side. It's like she's trying to process just how to respond to his incredibly well put, somewhat angry words. And then a small smile dares to bloom across her features. She steps closer to him, letting both her now-free hands rest on the side of his waist. "Do you know how attractive you are when you are fired up about something?" She asks, smile turning into a bit of a grin. "I love you... so damn much. And we are in this together. And you put up with my worst sides far, far too often, you know that?"
Daniel Sousa Daniel puts his cup down as well and lets Peggy put her arms around him. "I've been told that once or twice, but I could stand to hear it again," unable to keep a smile off his lips. "But you smiling at me like that is ruining my determined face," he teases with a chuckle. "I love you too Peg, always," he tells her before letting his grin get a bit wider as he says. "And who says they're just /your/ worst sides? I seem to remember coming up with more than a few recklessly brave and utterly stupid ideas myself."
Peggy Carter Seeing him smile helps Peggy relax the last bits of defensiveness. Even when they are on the edge of an argment, and it definitely got nearly there tonight, she loves him too much. She can't stay angry. She leans over, pressing a soft, lingering kiss to the corner of his mouth. "I love you too." She whispers there, done pushing back for the evening. Heck, she even looks like she might be getting more than a bit tired, all of her adrenaline finally run through. "And I know, you certaily have, but I don't quite know if they are the level of recklnessness of going out into the field pregnant and putting you into the same damn situation which got your leg blown off, but... It seems we're doing it. Together."
Daniel Sousa Tension leaving Daniel's shoulders he allows himself to be kissed holding Peggy close as she presses her lips to the corner of his mouth. As their lips part he tilts his head, considering her words. "Probably not but still with you on this anyway." A smile and he steals a kiss of his own. "Like you said, together."
Peggy Carter Peg takes that second kiss back, still smiling. She lets her forehead and nose rest against his, fingertips squeezing the side of his waist. "Alright. It's decided, then. I'll contact Jon in the morning and let him know we're coming. You talk to Fitz about getting enhanced grenades. I'll get us the nano mesh suits and some flame throwers. You... You're sure you're up to this, yes?" She pulls back enough she can comfortable meet his eyes. She knows she is asking him to go back into a nightmare. "I know this is... it's what you used to do. I know this parallels a lot of... the worst times of your life." Losing his leg and the harbor incident.
Daniel Sousa Daniel is happy to lean against Peggy and just drink in the feel of her in front of him, it helped keep his worries at bay. "Done," he says about reaching out to Fitz, as he stops to consider her question. "Less snow, less harbour smell, I'll be fine," he says trying to brush things off with a joke before he stops and meets her eyes. "Real answer, I don't know, but I'm not going to let the chance of me going haywire out there, stop me from going. We've got a job to do and people need us to do it. The rest, we can deal with after."
Peggy Carter The very real response from Daniel gets a quietly more serious look from Peggy. She nods gently to him, reaching one hand up to softly tuck aside some of his wavy, dark hair. "I... appreciate the real answer. If you need to get out of there, you tell me, and we will. The evacuation plan isn't just for me, alright? We're both comingback from this in one piece. We have to. I promise." Peggy leans up to kiss him one more time. The she, somewhat relcutantly, pulls back to go for her drink, handing his cocoa to him as well. "...back to bed, maybe?"
Daniel Sousa Smiling at her touch, Daniel nods. "Right now anything but the truth wasn't going to cut it," he tells her softly before nodding about the evac plan. "I'll let you know if it gets too much, you've got my word." He returns the kiss tenderly, and pulls back just as reluctantly afterwards. "I'll hold you to that promise," he tells her softly as he takes back his cup. "Sounds good," he tells her. "We could use some rest," and they both needed the comfort.
Peggy Carter "And I promise to tell you if... if I'm hurt. Even scratched. Promise. We'll get out of there before anything can go wrong." Peggy is trying to make this right in their heads. She knows they are both still worried and will be until it's done. But the decision is made. She laces her fingertips through those of his free hand and then starts escorting him back down the hallway, towards the bedroom. She pauses only at her office to kill the light in there. They aren't going back to work. They needed rest, now more than ever, if they were going into the field tomorrow.