7472/Changeling: What's it Gots in Its Boxes Precious

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Changeling: What's it Gots in Its Boxes Precious
Date of Scene: 13 May 2019
Location: Medical Ward - The Triskelion
Synopsis: Let me explain... No, there is too much. Let me sum up. Buttercup is marrying Humperdinck in a little less than half an hour, so all we have to do is get in, break up the wedding, steal the Princess, and make our escape after I kill Count Rugen.. Er, Peggy reappears back in time out of one of Howard Stark's oopsie machines because of a stray bit of static electricity and the expected hilarity and paranoia ensues. Now with more cantaloupe plaid!
Cast of Characters: Quake, Peggy Carter, Winter Soldier, Captain America, Melinda May




Quake has posed:
Medbay.

Skye was only a couple days into her enforced rest - so far neither Jemma nor the medical team would even sign off on letting her go to her suite at the Trisk. Likely because she has a record in not actually listening to medical advice (are any of us surprised??) and Clint's record in that department is even worse than hers. ...Plus it's entirely likely Acting Director May has left a few notes in her files.

That being said, what Skye /has/ been doing has been clearing out boxes of files that were found while Fitz had been checking out some of the sub-basement where it was rumoured that Zola's initial experiments had taken place. He hadn't been able to confirm that, but he had found these, and in an attempt to both keep Skye busy and not harassing medical staff any further than she already was, and because there might be information useful to the mission at hand, Skye was assigned to sort through the mess.

That's where our story begins.

Peggy Carter has posed:
The boxes are... dusty, to say the least. Many of them aren't even from the experiments, but were from other things in early SHIELD that the first set of directors, apparently, decided to hide away in places they never thought it would be touched. That subbasement full of bad memories and cursed times. There were some early notes from Zola, a few broken pieces of equipment. But then there were boxes from the first few units of SHIELD and failed proto-type equipment from the 1950s. Some old photos. A box that looks like, in truth, it came from Peggy Carter's desk after her disappearance. And something labeled 'H. STARK - DO NOT TOUCH' and sealed completely awfully with nothing but packing tape. A rat has chewed a hole in one corner and its not leaking radiation or fluid, so it's probably safe... Probably.

Inside, its destroyed, burned, and shattered pieces of something metal and glass. A few things that look like energy tubes or edison bulbs. One of the side panels that is half in tact definitely has a retro 'STARK INDUSTRIES" logo on it, half charred off. And then, at the very bottom of the box, there is something emitting its own light. The faintest glow. Like a dying battery of some sort...

Winter Soldier has posed:
Buck here is moving boxes and typing. Mostly typing, sometimes moving. He can't sit all the time - with superserum healing, he's already mostly better from the bullet graze near Cuba. His hair's already straggling out of the neat knot he had it up in. Since they're in the Triskelion, he's only in t-shirt and jeans, no attempt to conceal the arm.

Though he gets distracted by riffling through files. "Huh," he says, running an eye down a report sun-faded and stained and yellowed with age. "I think I remember this Doctor Jones from the war. Some kinna archaeologist...." He sets it aside, picks up Stark's box....and frowns. "This look like it's glowing to you?" he wonders, looking up for Steve and Skye's opinion.

Captain America has posed:
Steve's the muscle -- and he's got the muscle, so why not? It's more like moving two-pound bags of sugar than filing boxes weighing several pounds, but he makes the best of it in his plain white tanktop shirt and khaki slacks. Rather than combat boots, sneakers, and he shed his plaid button-down over an office chair a while back.

He meanders by the room where in Bucky and Skye have found the erstwhile piece of technology and pauses in the doorway, his brows knitting at the sight of the box and its questionable contents.

"No nose goes," says the Captain in regards to touching it. "Or at least get a set of tongs or something. Radiation burns are no joke."

Quake has posed:
You have to admit, it makes quite the scene, Skye bossing Captain America and the Winter Soldier around. Well, less bossing than asking for this box, or that, changing her mind, and needing that one back again as she remembers a thing she saw there. All hampered by the fact that technically she wasn't supposed to be doing anything with her hands.

Fine, she'd been cheating, because how hard can turning pages of paper be? And honestly, as long as May wasn't here, did anyone really want to die on that hill with Skye?

Bucky's question gets a distracted, "Huh?" Then a more focused "Wait, let me see that." Skye peering at the rat chewn box with a grin. "Oooo, I could ransom this off to Tony. Make him forget I owe him that money."

Skye still owed him $1000 for a lunch he'd paid for that she'd still not arranged. Technically, she'd used the money to buy booze for their house warming, so she /could/ argue that in the strictest of senses he'd been invited to a meal it had paid for, but she was pretty sure he wasn't going to fall for that. This, however..

More to the point, Stark and Zola had worked at SHIELD overlapping times. And because Skye hadn't met a rule yet she hadn't at least thought about breaking, the "Do Not Touch" is duly ignored, the young woman ripping that dusty and glue cracked packing tape off of the box to dig into its secrets.

Sorry Tony.

Peggy Carter has posed:
Definitely glowing. It's another one of those strange Edison-bulb like tubes, but this one is still in tact and laid into some sort of panel with a shattered liquid-crystal display that is too damaged to give any sort of reading. But it's definitely still got juice, beneath shattered glass and broken tubes. The entire box looks like someone just dumped what was left of a burnt room into a container and shoved it in the basement. All of the glass that has been shattered, however, and the broken tubes, they are rounded edges because whatever caused the explosion was hot enough to melt glass. It seems a miracle anything was left in tact.

Winter Soldier has posed:
Winter Soldier peers at it. "Damn, that's a mess," he says. "Why would anyone save this? How is it still working? This is decades old...." Of course, he reaches in with the metal hand to pick up the panel. Can't get burned with that one, so it's perfectly safe, right? "We should definitely ask Stark about it." Mr. Stark was Howard. Anthony.....just Stark.

Captain America has posed:
Continuing into the room far enough to set aside the box he was bringing //back// into the room -- one of the ones that was removed before and now required again, full of far more innocent-looking sheathes of paperwork -- Steve then stands with his hands on his hips, looking a bit more concerned now.

"I've got Tony on speed-dial if we wanna pick his brain. If we're lucky, he's not in a meeting...or I don't get put on hold. Been a while since he's done that, but you never know." Regardless of his cautionary stance and tone, he is curious and cranes his head to get a better look at the object. He doesn't recognize it, so it must not have been a completed device when he was puttering around Howard's lab post-Captain-Poptart-ing.

Quake has posed:
While Bucky is holding the tube, Skye is happily digging into the box. "Fucked if I know how it's still working. I can't see a power source - Uh, Bucky? Might want to be careful with that, huh? Wouldn't want to break it. These guys were doing some pretty weird crap from what I"ve read."

Not that she's making any huge move to relieve him of the tube.

Telling STeve, "Mmmm, no. Not until we clear it, at least. You know why." Giving the Cap a stern look that says ixnay on the alktay about things olaZay might hear.

Peggy Carter has posed:
Metal on metal. It's the smallest of sparks, the little jump that happens when the heat is going and someone walked across carpet. It should be completely harmless static electricity, but whatever was in the box was still unstable. Just sitting, waiting, all these years for the tiniest bit of extra power. The glowing thing in the box snaps into place and suddenly a flash of blinding light and lightning heat cracks out of the box for the split of a second. Maybe it's a relief Bucky's arm was the one in the box, though the heat would be enough to make anyone drop it and leave people blinking and momentarily blind, like staring straight into a lightning bolt...

When eyes begin to clear, there is someone else in the room. Slightly coughing and waving smoke away, as the air around her (that maybe came with her?) smells like an electrical fire and there's some lingering smoke around her, Peggy Carter sits on the med-bay floor. She's in a screaming burn-orange suit with orange and green, wide legged plaid pants and her dark curls in a 1970s bob. "-- bloody HELL are you..." She was mid sentence when hitting the floor, but it seems to dawn on her this wasn't the same floor as before, "doing..." She looks up. She goes pale, even as she finishes her words, "...Howard..."

Winter Soldier has posed:
The warning comes too late - Buck gets the full force of the jolt. There's a howl from him, pain, shock, hard to tell which. But he doesn't let go of the device - peering past it in jaw-dropped shock. HE has to be hallucinating. Tha's Peggy....but the Peggy he knew would never have been caught dead in that ensemble.

And poor Peggy, in turn, is treated to the sight of the Winter Soldier, right there, a yard or two from her. The long hair, the metal arm - the one who's nearly killed her more than once. Where in God's name did she end up?

Captain America has posed:
At Skye's comment, there's a very mild sense of Steve wanting to roll his eyes, though by his immediate lack of sass, he agrees. No reason to let more information slip out into god only knows where because people decided to start keeping information on discs and drives and not on paper.

Paperwork was never more complicated.

The Captain reacts in same half-second as Bucky does to the arcing of electricity in that he takes a step closer, hand upraised to bodily yank his oldest friend away from the object, but the afterflash of the device's reaction has him frozen and blinking hard a few times. A step now to the side, to get a clear view of...

Reality overwipes in a vivid slap of remembered sensorium at the voice, even before the smoke clears. Crisp - clear - firm - red dress - raised gun aimed at a silver shield - fighting adrenaline in all forms - the scent of hot metal and something used to keep brown hair in place -

Steve's gone dead-silent as well, listening instead to his heart slam against his ribs and wondering if his knees might give out before the numbness retreats from his fingers and toes.

There's so much orange.

Quake has posed:
"Jesus," Skye yelps at the arc, and the heat, and the flash. Her gear is all in here too, and she's no clue what just got set off, until the smoke clears.

"Bucky, what did you do?" she asks in a quiet voice.

Peggy Carter has posed:
All Peggy knows is that a moment ago Howard was there, and now she's on the floor and the man who nearly ended her life is standing above her. While she was well into her fifties when she disappeared from that SHIELD lab, she certainly doesn't look it there, nor does she move like it. She's not heard Steve's voice, or registered anyone else she'd recognize beyond the immediate threat to her. She half springs up, leg violently kicking out and swinging around to the back of the Winter Soldier's knees, determined to take him off balance while she gets to her feet and draws a tiny, snub nosed piece from god knows where. It's certainly not SHIELD issue.

Being a touch of shock, and that he's NOT here to kill her, Peggy gets Bucky down to the floor in a flurry of motion. Then she's on top of him, twisting his good arm behind his back and holding that snubnose to the side of his neck, right against a firmly throbbing artery that should kill any man if she actually shot. "Tell me what you did with Howard Stark!?" She demands. It would be comical for the flurry of burnt-orange-and-plaid speed if she wasn't so damned violent and viciously fast.

Melinda May has posed:
In the Operations Center, one of the many agents monitoring various and sundry on the comptuer systems startles into alertness. "Sir," the agent speaks up loudly enough to be heard at the center of the room. "Anomalous reading from inside the Triskelion."

Standing there in the center of everything like an orchestra conductor (or a spider on its web), May looks toward said agent. "Where?"

"Medical."

Medical. If May were the sort to blanch, she likely would. Instead, she barks out instructions as she turns and heads for the exit at that ground-eating fast walk that she's mastered. "Get Strike Team Gamma prepped and to Medical. Get a visual of anything or anyone in Medical who doesn't belong. Now." And then she's out the door and into the nearest lift.

By the God neither of them believes in, if Castiel has just popped in there and startled Simmons or Fitz into dropping and breaking something....


Medical. The Strike team is arriving just as May gets there, and one of the medical team is standing outside the door to Skye's room -- the room that Operations confirmed has someone there that shouldn't be. For MANY reasons. Pulling her ICER, May nods to the Strike team leader.

Just about the same moment that Carter is holding a little snub-nosed pistol to Barnes' neck and demanding Howard Stark's location, the door to the room slams inward as if kicked, and May leads two of the strike team into the room, her ICER instantly pointed at the brown-haired woman in the hideous orange polyester.

Does she really need to speak up at this point?

Winter Soldier has posed:
Now that's one for the ages, the Winter Soldier being put down like a sick puppy. He rolls with it, and in instants, Peggy has him subdued, the mouth of the little pistol nuzzled up to the pulse at the corner of his jaw.

But he speaks, hoarsely, "Peggy. Peggy, it's me. Bucky." Even in their awkward pose, she can see that profile - he's supposed to be thirty years dead, but there he is, in the flesh....and the metal. "It's okay. Don't shoot."

Captain America has posed:
The blur of movement from the woman in the lurid shade of orange is enough to have Steve himself jolting in place, stuttered intents all balled up into one jittered reaction. Recovering, he moves towards the two of them with palms upraised and drops into something near to a crouch. No-no-no-no-NO-NO-NO -- Steve finds his voice after he hears the strained cadence of Barnes's words.

"Agent Carter!" The first thing out of his mouth, a bark of command that might pierce the thunder of a panicked pulse, full of authoriarian whipcrack.

Then, hot on its tail, with the impetus of adrenaline taking all of the sting from it, "Peggy!?"

May's arrival has him wheeling in place in a smooth uprighting of his body, hands held out before himself once more. "Stand down!" It's a knee-jerk reaction aimed at Director May, his eyes wide and bright, the crests of his cheeks and ears now pinked in emotion. By all accounts and appearances, the Captain is set to swing at the first person who takes another step closer without informing him first. A quick glance behind him and a hard swallow.

"Peggy, it's..." His voice falls out. "...it's us," he rasps.

Quake has posed:
Instinct is a very good thing. Until it isn't.

Peggy downs Bucky; May storms in with the strike team; Steve turns on May... Skye moves to blast Peggy back against the nearest wall of her room.

Until she raises her arms and tries and the first thing that happens is tremendous amounts of 'you better not do that' from the hairline fractures she'd insist were fine.. not being fine. Leaving Skye in realms of regret, and pain, and not helping one bit.

It's likely a good thing someone in the room is trying to de-escalate things. Skye's brain already working through.. Peggy.. and Howard, and then the last piece of the puzzle: Peggy Carter.

Peggy Carter has posed:
In all the time the Winter Soldier had tried to kill her, every vicious, failed attempt, he'd never used her name. Never pretended like he recognized her, even if she'd had a few horrible realizations of who the fabled assassin might be and, as he lays pinned beneath her, those suspicions have just been confirmed. But the tone of his voice, and the utter lack of fighting back, it's enough to tell her something is off. This is wrong. Horribly wrong. So, she doesn't shout again. Her finger moves from the trigger to being stretched out along the side of her gun instead, in safety hold by muscle memory alone. "...Barnes..." She breathes out. It's a moment of hesitation that might kill her, a horrible flash back to that fight in 1973, but he's not taking advantage of her hestation this time.

And then there is another voice. But a split second later it feels like it was a year. Her head snaps up at her old rank and the familiar timbre of her name that comes a moment later. Blonde hair. Blue eyes. Too tall and too perfect even if she remembers all too well that flash of short and skinny. Her little gun drops to the floor and she just sort of slumps off of Bucky. "...Steve..." She more just exhales the name than actual vocalizes it. Then frantic brown eyes snap up to the strike team that has marched in the room, a fierce, unfamiliar woman at the head. And another woman in seeming pain just to their sides. A completely alien looking room. She stammers out the only thing that finally comes to mind. "...Report." It's meant to be an order. It doesn't quite get to that tone.

Melinda May has posed:
May's eyes flick from the woman in orange to Steve and back, and then she's nodding to the Strike agents to follow the barked out command to stand down. Peggy dropping her pistol also proves that Rogers made the right call, and a subtle gesture of her free hand -- she's not put away her own sidearm yet -- and the two armed and armored agents leave the room to wait outside with the rest of the team.

Flatly ignoring Peggy's command to Steve to report, she looks to Skye with a suspicious looking box on her lap and Steve who is very likely a full-body blusher, to Bucky who is still face down on the floor and will likely need Lili's presence sooner rather than later to the woman in a clearly dated Montgomery Ward special.

"Someone explain to me what's going on in here." Her words are not raised or even forceful, but the equally commanding order behind them is patently clear.

Winter Soldier has posed:
Buck's first thought is to secure the pistol....and that's exactly what he does. The rounds chime against his metal hand, before he pockets them. Then he's getting up, carefully, and offering Peggy a hand. "Peggy, it's me. .....and that's Steve," His gaze has darted to the big blond.

Then to May. "Ma'am, I dunno what happened. We were ....investigating old boxes. I picked up a device, and Agent Carter appeared." A cough from him. "Ah, my last encounters with Carter.....I was the Soldier. I tried to kill her." Buck's utterly shamefaced.

Captain America has posed:
Director May's tone has him glancing back at her. However, he turns to look at Peggy again, his eyes flicking from the disappearing gun, courtesy of Bucky, and to her pale face. The Solider's update is extremely helpful -- it washes over Steve in a way he knows. He'll remember it clearly later, but not now. He's still staring, his lips working silently. Finally, he clears his throat. He'll give Peggy Carter a report, god, it's practically tattooed to his bones as reaction.

"Uh, report, uh..." Steve's voice actually weakens before he licks his lips. "It's 2027, we're located in New York City, Barnes is not the Winter Soldier anymore," -- a point at Bucky -- "That's Director May of SHIELD," -- a thumb over his shoulder at May and her collective -- "I'm still..."

God, it sounds stupid all snarled up behind his teeth, but he says it anyways.

"I'm still Steve Rogers and I still can't get drunk." He has a flashback to the old gutted skeleton of the pub in London, victim of a bombing raid, and the throat-strickening grief catches him for just a second with all the hot drag of a knife to the skin. It passes, leaving him stoic but still shaken and tasting the ghost of the liquor that would never drown his sorrows.

Quake has posed:
"Great. We're the fan-freaking Brady Bunch here," Skye mutters under her breath, rocking ever so slightly in pain, and trying to hide it by tucking her arms up under her armpits. Another regretable choice, but it does immobilize enough that the sharp stabs are nothing more than dull throbs again.

For once it wasn't her fault. Mostly. She's still sure she'll catch it somehow.

Peggy Carter has posed:
It seems that old training, on all their parts, is actually still quite helpful as Steve's report is more useful to Peggy than anything else going on at the moment, but also a thing of quiet horror. 2027. Her dark eyes search his face once more, looking for any hint of deception or jesting, but she knows it's not there. Almost fifty years later. "...H-howard? Daniel?" Dead, probably. Almost certainly. All of them. But Steve was right there. She blinks for a moment, forcing back tears even if she can't entirely erase the glassiness from her brown eyes as she looks Steve over. She then gazes up to Barnes' offered hand and slips her smaller, slightly shaking fingertips into his grasp. Picked up off the floor easy as raising a baby bird, he was still that strong. "You... they... got you back, from whatever they did, James... It wasn't you. I knew... it wasn't you." She squeezes his hand tightly, the pressure communicating a thousand things she can't say. The want of a hug, the relief he's back, forgiveness, confusion, protection, the love of battlefield comrades.

Then she's turning, about to take a step towards Steve before her glassy eyes flicker between the two unfamiliar woman again. They had an audience. Part of that audience, apparently, is her legacy. She stares at the stiff woman for a handful of heartbeats as she fights to pull back together. Stiff upper lip, Carter. "...Director... May. Of... SHIELD, still? I would hope? I am- Was... Director Margaret Carter." It's everything Peggy can do to maintain calm and professional, but she's keeping it together on a knife's edge.

Melinda May has posed:
Remaining still and stoic in the doorway of the room, she watches each person with the alertness of someone expecting violence to break out any moment. When her eyes fall on Bucky, though, her left hand goes up to her ear and she murmurs something near-silently. The super soldiers likely hear anyway.

"Have Frost bring Lili Marlene to Medical."

Finally, she tucks her ICER away, though anyone with quick eyes would get a glimpse of potentially more weaponry concealed inside her jacket. "Director Carter," she's offering the woman the polite greeting for the moment. There will still be LOTS of tests to prove she's who she says she is, "Cantaloupe is not your color. Tell us the last thing you remember." Again, more of an order than a request, and the flick of her eyes toward Skye indicates that she wants the younger woman to see if anything in that box corroborates Peggy's story.

There is no way that she's not noticed Skye's pained expression, but she's not mentioning it. Yet. Not with a potential hostile standing in the middle of the room.

Winter Soldier has posed:
They all know Buck well enough by now to see how the stress has gotten to him. A ripple in his composure, but he masters it. The pale eyes are huge, a little glassy. But she's answered the question - did she realize whose body they'd taken to create the Soldier, after all those deadly encounters after the war? He pats her awkwardly on the shoulder.....and then he's motioning Steve over with a jerk of his chin. C'mon, Steve. Whatever else happened, she was your girl, once upon time.

Captain America has posed:
A hard swallow from the Captain as he sees the motion from Bucky. Still nearly mid-distance between Peggy and Director May, he begins to move at first as if his joints pained him. The whole room might be empty around him for the blinkering of his attention.

Step by step, he closes the distance, internally a-quiver as a plucked cello string. Within reach of touch, he stops and one can see his hands curl into fists of uncertain restraint at his sides.

"Tell 'em what you know, Peggy," he whispers so very softly to the woman in the...really rather awful get-up. "We'd know you anywhere." His eyes search her face as if just catching on to the fact that Agent Carter is truly standing before him.

Quake has posed:
Skye both hears May's words over the comms, however quietly they're given, and notes the look. More, she notes Bucky's look, and how close to the edge this room is to going over the edge and losing it. The barest of nods is given to May, Skye forcing herself to unhook her hands from their stable tuck against her body, and grips the box on her knees.

"Agent Peggy Carter," Skye begins, listing off what is known of the agent, her career, and tenancy in the Director's office.. "Last know whereabouts on this site in the company of Dr. Howard Stark. There are some references to experiments I found with the other things I was looking at." Careful not to say what in front of their 'guest' - regardless of whether or not Steve and Bucky think it's huer; Steve looks as shell-shocked as Bucky by Peggy's arrival.

"Still listed as active, with whereabouts unknown." That might be a surprise to some in the room, but Skye had phenoninal clearance, and she'd been using it a lot lately. "This box here has a bunch of Stark's things. Bucky was touching something when it went off.. The box is legit far as I know. Got the right markings. There are some things inside we could probably send down to R&D to confirm it."

Adding, "Rogers may need a stand down on informing Tony, though." Not looking happy as she says it, but at this point, it might be necessary.

Peggy Carter has posed:
The comment about her suit makes her blink slightly more into a present state. She'd entirely forgotten what she was wearing. She looks down to the Montgomery Ward pants and a half embarassed smile flickers over her lips, "My husband bought it for me. He doesn't... didn't... Have the best eye." Husband. That would make sense with the simple gold ring and tiny diamond on her left hand, the heart-line finger. It should be the light sort of teasing conversation that comes up at cocktail parties, clearly a sentence that has come out of Peggy's lips more than once but she still wears the pieces because he tried and he thought of her. Now the layers behind it are a dam of emotions she's barely holding back, especially as she stares at Steve just a few feet away now. She takes one step closer to him but, instinctively, it puts her positioned directly between Bucky and Steve, like a buffer from the other strangers and this strange land beyond the little circle.

Whether it's Steve's prompting, or if she'd just continued with answering May's question, who knows. But after she swallows back that tightness in her throat again, she forces her dark eyes back towards May and states simply, "Howard had been working on something to..." She gives a look between Bucky and Steve, not totally subtle at this moment, "Possibly get Steve back. And... handle the few lingering threats of HYDRA. He said he thought he found it, you remember that voice he had, when he really hit on something big. So, I went down the hall to the lab and he had these... tubes. Blue... white... some sort of light in them. He said he had something to show me. He couldn't explain it, I wouldn't believe, but then he snapped the connection into place and it was like... lightning. And now I'm... Here."

She frowns, giving the mess of things in the box a slightly closer look, as well as Skye, though she doesn't dare move through the room away from her old companions. The Director clearly had some sort of weapon, even if she didn't recognize what it was, and she knew she wouldn't trust herself in this situation. So staying still and calm seemed the best idea. "...I can't...entirely tell what is in that box, but some of that paneling looks familiar."

Melinda May has posed:
May will have to check with Skye to make sure that Peggy's story corroborates with the contents of that box, but she's distracted from it by a new and young-looking agent arriving with a large German Shepherd Dog wearing a vest and a leash stops just outside the door.

It's almost like this is previously arranged. The agent barely glances into the room before just dropping the dog's leash, letting the canine brush past May, Steve, and Peggy -- none too gently to the one person who is not already familiar -- and making a beeline for Bucky.

For her part, May simply lets the dog by before again using her comm to have the strike team stand down, Medical send in someone to check on Skye's arms, and a porter with the proper clearance to carry that box as gingerly as possible to R&D. She takes it off of Skye's lap herself, though.

Winter Soldier has posed:
Husband. That is the world's longest record scratch. Buck's gaze darts immediately to Steve. Oh, God. No. No, no, no. Unpossible. Piecces left in shattered confusion rearrange themselves. Winter knew that - that Peggy was married. James....hadn't remembered. And while he's understood intellectually that Peggy went on while he and Steven faded to memories, to cenotaphs in cemeteries and memorial plaques on marble walls....and to a body blasphemously used, it hadn't hit, really. Just how much life had gone on without them. A second chance that isn't really a chance at all.

Then there's the dog, who clearly belongs to him, and he's sinking down to one knee to put his human arm around her neck. Peggy's reappearance is a shock heavy-duty enough to have him needing that reassurance, no bones about it. Lili takes her cue, and all but climbs into his lap.

Captain America has posed:
Steve remains silent throughout the exchange of information, his eyes flickering from speaker to speaker. His chin is tucked, spine still straight, and he's got that gleam in his eyes seen before. It's a desperate fight internally where logic and sentiment claw and acidify. This is Peggy. He'd know it by her shadow, much less her personage. That's Peggy and that's...that's a ring.

His eyes meet those of Bucky across the way, past the woman, but only for a shattered second. He discovers he can't look at anyone anymore, not right now, and the Captain finds Barnes' shoes to be of deep and important interest. Lili's arrival is enough to yank him from the incipient swamping of emotion. He composes his face to a mask of neutrality that hides all but the crackling at its edges, seen by the corners of his eyes and simply hooks his thumbs into his pockets. His chin remains tucked.

Quake has posed:
Skye is a protective hover over the box, especially when Peggy sends her glance that way. It's not a huge room - she doesn't have to be far to see in - and, well, they're trying to confirm things. There's a lot cn be gleaned without touching things within. All she needs to do it look and rattle off a list of things. Given the way Steve and Bucky are eyeballing the woman and talking to her, they've already accepted it /is/ her... forgetting their own returns to SHIELD, and the processes and prodeedures necessary to confirm these things.

And just who they're up against right now. Someone who has access to all their files. All their records. All their data. Everything he'd need to create a little replica and hit May and her agents where they live. In particular two of the powerhouses in that very upcoming mission.

That, And without being able to tuck her arms back, Skye needs the protective bracing against the box for her own good. Not to say she's not relieved when May takes the box, but it does mean she is revealing herself by returning them to under her arms, grimacing. "Sorry." Her look to May says 'we need to talk, but not here'.

Peggy Carter has posed:
Report given, Steven seen again. Bucky sane and responsive. Technology of the sort Howard Stark could have even dreamt all about them, and it's been an overwhelming few minutes. Finally, though, that kick of adrenaline has worn off to the point that her body realizes it's not entirely caught up with everything that happened. Whether it's literal shock, or a reaction to time travel, or something else, Peggy suddenly finds very much that the room is wanting to go sideways. There are more words on the edge of her lips, but she doesn't quite manage to get them out. Instead, all she manages is a shaky, "I...think... perhaps I should sit." And a single step is taken before her knees make the decision for her and she's going down hard, out cold. Whomever gets to her first will find pulse and vital signs still mostly stable, just the echoing signs of shock and some bottomed out blood pressure from it all.

Captain America has posed:
"Peggy!"

Having been considering the individual toenails on Lilli's paw and wondering if they were digging into Bucky's leg -- it reminds him of digging foxholes back on the front, cold and wet and exhausting -- get it together, Steve, it's 2027 -- he's atypically too slow in his reach for the collapsing woman. He's quickly on his knees beside her, rolling her to her side as briskly (and respectfully) as possible. Two fingers go to the pulse at her neck and his head drops in gut-watering relief.

"Shock," he volunteers quietly as to an explanation, voice tight. He stretches out in his kneel to his button-down slung over the back of a nearby chair and after wadding up the negligible ball of fabric, he places it under Peggy's head. No one needs to get a neck crick from a cold and dusty floor.

Melinda May has posed:
May hears Peggy collapse while she's handing off the box and turns back. She'd sigh if that were something she did. When Steve confirms she's just passed out from shock, she's (inwardly) very relieved. She does NOT want to contemplate how these two would react to the woman reappearing only to be gone again so quickly.

"Put her on the other bed there, Rogers." She again uses her comm to get people to start checking up on the unconscious woman, and where the hell is the doc that's supposed to be checking on Skye? And yet, with all of the bossing about she's doing, she never once tells Steve OR Bucky to leave.

It's almost like she understands.

Winter Soldier has posed:
It'd break them, indeed. Buck's in a kind of shock, himself, and Lili's doing her best to comfort him. He's got both arms around the dog, now....and Steve, at least, will know what a difference this is from how he might've once tried to keep it bottled up. There's no pretense at being okay, and he doesn't have adrenaline or the needs of the mission to stiffen his spine.

Captain America has posed:
With caution almost tremulous, the Captain gathers up Agent Carter in his arms. She's featherweight with his strength and he can be seen to pause with his eyes downcast upon her, for the barest fraction of a second that stretches into lightyears in his own experience, before the cot. Still, as carefully as he can manage, he places her down upon it. As if burned, he pulls his hands away and rubs them on his thighs before he turns again. The button-down is gathered up and placed beneath her head again, as if it really were an indignity to allow her to be anything but comfortable right now.

A lingering look at her carries on for heartbeats and then with the sense of tearing himself away, like a loosely-threaded seam, he walks back over to Bucky. He kneels down beside the man and hazards to place a palm on the his shoulder. "Hey. Figure air's a good idea about now." His voice is by no means steady; quiet and rough instead.

Winter Soldier has posed:
Emotional Support Supersoldier is also on duty. Buck swallows hard, once, cuffs at his eyes impatiently with his human hand, and nods. "Yeah," he says, and his voice is airless, miserable. "Lili could use a walk, I figure."

Then he's standing again, clipping her leash to her collar, and nodding at Steve. Lili shows none of her usual delight at the idea of a walk. Buck's still in too much distress.

Quake has posed:
Throughout this all, Skye is silent, at least until her arms are being tended to, and then she's both annoyed and relieved. It's kind of hard to pay attention to what's going on when you're being poked, prodded, and adjusted. Plus there's this whole sneaking suspicion that she's just got a new room mate, along with the attendant security detail. And while she wouldn't fault May for that move, she also knows exactly how sneaky it is.

Mind you, if someone hadn't tried to use her powers while already unders strictly enforced 'hand' rest, someone wouldn't be in this position. And that same someone needed to be able to use those powers of hers when situation go was called on the Zola affair.

Cue Skye accepting the inevitable very ungraciously.

Melinda May has posed:
May nods to the two men and lets them leave. They've had enough unpleasantness for now. Then, rather than return to Operations, she stays and stands watch by the door of the room while the doctors check on Peggy and Skye both. When the hustle and bustle in the room finally quiets down again, she steps over close to Skye. She knows she doesn't have to for the young woman to hear her, but she does anyway.

"She's probably going to need to acclimate," she tells Skye softly. Just like Steve and Barnes both did. "I think she'd do better with someone that doesn't seem threatening." And right now, Skye /looks/ about as non-threatening as possible while her arms are still in the process of healing.

Captain America has posed:
"Air'll do us some good."

If you say it enough, it makes it true? Regardless, though Steve doesn't keep a hand upon the other man's arm, he sticks to him on the other side, opposite of Lili the calming and benevolently furry. May and Skye get a flintered glance over his broad shoulder, but he still leaves the room with an air almost funereal. Expect the Captain, once he's certain Bucky's at least found his own sanctuary, whatever this may entail, to be difficult to find for at least the next day or so.

Winter Soldier has posed:
Somber, indeed. Buck all but lets himself be led away, without protest. Not without a backwards glance, though.

Quake has posed:
Skye is somberly quiet until the men have taken themselves for walkabout - okay, she's shamelessly listening in on them, because it might actually be necessarily useful in dealing with their new guest - and with dealing with them.

She turns to May, frowning. "I know. Skye, you're grounded. Skye, I want you to make nice with the lady." She sounds tired for a moment, then exhaling evening, offers, "They're going to need proof if she's not who she says she is. And we might need them to confirm depending on our tests. If she's a plant" - not that Skye can figure out how .. Then it hits her.

"Fuck," she intones lightly. "He's got more of us, May. It wouldn't take a lot if he had the right Inhuman to have.. Okay, it's a lot of circumstance, but he could have done it. Maybe he'd have done it a different way if we weren't fooling around with shit, but if I can think of ways he could do it, he can too. And if he has, they.." A chin nod to the door. "Might be the only way we can confirm one way or another."

Melinda May has posed:
"That's a possibility," May admits to Skye. "But, this is SHIELD, and unless I've been misled for decades, I'm willing to bet that somewhere in Medical records we'll find a way to prove definitively who this woman is." Even clones have differences in their DNA. "I don't like the timing of this either, it's suspicious. So we're not going to take any chances, and we're not going to allow any kneejerk reactions win out."

While Skye is thinking of ways that Peggy could have been replicated, May is thinking of ways she could have been mentally compromised just like Barnes. "We need to figure this out one way or another." And not destroy the two men who just left in the process.

Quake has posed:
Skye nods, May is entirely right. It would be a lot of what ifs, BUT.. both Steve and Bucky had returned, and there wasn't a SHIELD agent in the Trisk who didn't know how Bucky had been compromised. Which left Skye with a growing gnaw in the pit of her stomach. It was a more likely scenario.

More problematic, "Uh, Steve is a liability. You know that, right?" Bucky would be if Steve showed any inclination to wander left of center. He'd follow him there like he'd been sent by May herself. "He's also going to flip this to Tony if you don't stop him." Maybe not on purpose. Maybe not maliciously. But Tony wasn't cleared for the Zola affair, and Peggy's 'return' was ultimately tangled up in that until they knew it wasn't. The last thing they really needed wasn't an element of this they couldn't control, and while Zola might not be in Tony's systems the way he was in SHIELD's, Skye also knew exactly how dangerous the holes that were peppered throughout other people's systems were - holes that had ultimtely led her to the awareness that they'd not only been 'allowing' Hydra access to choice bits and pieces of information, but Zola had been in their systems all along and laughing to the bank with their obliviousness.

Melinda May has posed:
After a brief moment, May nods to Skye. "I'll track Rogers down, impress upon him the importance of NOT sharing this intel outside of SHIELD until I say. If for no other reason than to spare any of Carter's remaining family the shock of learning through some unpleasant means." Like social media.

With that, May takes her leave finally. She's giving both men a couple of hours to settle, then she's going to track Rogers down. And she's fully aware that he very likely will not make that at all simple or straightforward.

But it'll be cute to see him try to stay hidden.