7481/Rise and Shine, Agent Carter

Rise and Shine, Agent Carter
Date of Scene:	14 May 2019
Location:	Medical Ward - The Triskelion
Synopsis:	Peggy wakes up again for a brief conversation with Skye, a strange realization of their shared background, scaring Jemma Simmons half to death, and eventual tears in the bathroom.
Cast of Characters:	Peggy Carter, Quake, Jemma Simmons

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Peggy Carter has posed:
It's about two hours later when Peggy Carter finally begins that slow swim back into consciousness. A few blood draws were already taken and the time-exhausted ex-Director slept through them all. But, according to initial scans, she seemed stable enough and everything SEEMS to be her, so far. Therefore, she's been allowed to sleep and not shackled up in a cell yet. Brown hair still spilling over Steve's button down which he'd tucked beneath her skull earlier that evening, she stirs drowsily on the bed with a few faint, muttered words. One is probably a curse word. Definitely, a curse.

"...Howard... I swear, if you pull out that bourbon again I am going to be beyond cross..." She mutters into the room, still half asleep and utterly certain she was dreaming. The strangest of dreams. But then her dark eyes flicker open and she's staring at an immensely unfamiliar ceiling. She falls dead quiet, gaze the only thing about her that moves, searching the room ever so carefully like a prisoner who is scared to alert her captors that she was awake. "... Howard?" Her voice cracks out again, but the doubt is clear behind her tone.

Quake has posed:
"No Howard here," Skye says quietly.

She's been watching old reruns of television, and repets of shows she's already seen, and fast hitting the point of stir cazy - especially since the gear she was promised hasn't arrived, Skye's own having nothing to do with this voice activation BS, and anything new needing to be brought up to specs to keep Zola out of their business.

Also, she suspects at this point it will be delayed to force her to interact with Peggy - mostly because Skye is cranky after three days of enforced bed rest and another couple for certain in her future after her little trick a few hours ago.

Skye turns to regard Peggy. (Peggymight notice there is no visible sound from the screen Skye is watching). "So, hey. Looks like we're roomies, and we didn't get to make introductions last time. You're Peggy Carter." Skye is ignoring the fact that Peggy may not be who she says. "I'm Skye."

Softening some, she asks, "You okay? I mean, you did just sorta show up here." If she was Peggy, and had just pulled a Steve and a Bucky, the woman wasn't going to be all that many levels of okay, and it occurred (however belatedly) to Skye that maybe she'd need the comfort of another human being, however unknown that being was.

Peggy Carter has posed:
That voice was vaguely familiar. It was out of that dream. That dream which clearly could not be true, was some strange flash of Howard's invention back firing, but there it was. Slowly, Peggy turns her head in Skye's direction. She studies the woman silently, her brow knit and lips in a carefully neutral line. Everything about her face is that of a woman who is trained in neatly keeping things together in the worst of crisis situations, and this situation is no different. Slowly, she pushes herself up into sitting, her fingertips coming up to test at the bed she's been laying on but she finds the sweater she'd been laying on and fingers it quietly. Steve...

"Skye. Yes, I am... Margaret Carter. Friends call me Peggy. It seems my... reputation proceeds me. I cannot say I have heard your name before, Agent." She tosses that last word out there, studying the woman's reactions to it as much as testing it as a guess. She doesn't answer the 'okay' question, not yet. She might be still figuring that out herself.

Quake has posed:
Skye grins, lips falling into a crooked line. "Agent Johnson, but mostly folks call me Skye. Or Trouble. It really depends on how often they pay attention to what I'm doing." Thoughtfully, then, "Mind if I call you Peggy? I've read your files."

Well, some of them. Just enough that she knew more than the average Agent about the woman.

She watches the other woman's subtle movements and checking out of the room, then that gesture that has her finding her sweater. It's pretty clear that the other woman is trying to parse things, and that her arrival had distrubed her. Not to mention Steve and Bucky. The three of them had been a bittersweet tableau of painful proportions.

"You wouldn't know me. I've only been an agent for a year or so. They kind of recruited me off the street." There's that grin again. "I got the we have bigger rooms than 4 by 6, your choice speech. Still had to think about it."

Peggy Carter has posed:
A slow, deep breath is drawn in through Peggy's nose, the sort of centering that happens before a big fight or even (on a micro level) before someone pulls the trigger of a gun. But there are no apparent threats here except for the entire situation she's found herself in. "... And just what skills were you using on the street which tempted them to offer you training and not just turn you over to the government? You... must be quite talented. Or have had it quite rough. Or... both, I suspect." She clips out gently, her dark eyes now completely focused on the other woman. The strange room around her wasn't going to give her many answers. Skye, and what reading she could get off the woman's physicality, would.

Quake has posed:
"A little bit of both," Skye admits, making an executive decision. "You actually have heard of me. I'm the first human O84." She waits to see Peggy's reaction to that. May wanted to start the confirmation process, and a gauge of the other woman, May was going to get it. "When they nabbed me, though, it was for hacking. Poked my nose into one too many government agencies."

She knows, now, that there was more to it, but that's part of the story the other won't get immediately. Not without the younger Agent having a better sense of what she's dealing with.

Peggy Carter has posed:
That revelation makes Peggy's eyes widen just a moment. Clearly, she recognizes the designation. "...Fury.. was handling it. I didn't realize they'd managed to find a human. Or... maybe they hadn't, in my day. If they knew about you, the report certainly didn't make it to my desk. And you look far younger than 50..." But then, Peggy looks far younger than fifty herself, so that isn't saying much.

She shifts on the bed, not standing up but at least letting her horrible plaid clad legs hang over the edge and testing how her body feels after everything. Probably without even realizing she's doing it, she's grabbed Steve's sweater and is just carefully fingering it, like some sort of repeated reassurance that this whole place, and Steve, is real. She can touch it. It wasn't just a dream. It also stops her hands from shaking.

Quake has posed:
There's a shrug from Skye. "Oh, the designation is older than I am. I think the crystals were what started it all. Or about then. I'm just the first human to get the designation." She sighs, thinking about that whole affair. "It's a bit complicated. SHIELD found me as a baby. My parents were thought to be killed in a raid on the village I was born in. Hydra pretty much had decimated the place by the time we - uh.. SHIELD - got there. I was found in the rubble."

Because she's brought up the O84 business, there's no sense not admitting the rest. Plus, bonding, right?

"Blood tests showed I wasn't precisely human. They weren't sure what, and before they could find out, most of the team who had rescued me had been killed, one by one. So they buried me in the adoption system. Lost me when I ran away as a teen."

Skye watches the fingering of STeve's sweter. "We found him some time ago. Bucky, too. He was kind of before my time, but I was one of the people who cleared Bucky through security when he was first back."

The day Hydra showed their hand and attacked from inside the Triskelion. The day she now knew that Zola had shown himself.

Peggy Carter has posed:
Those dark eyes drop down to the sweater, studying it a few moments. But Steve is a distraction, she understands that. Even if she has a thousand questions, there is a more pressing, bigger picture here than Steve Rogers. So, Peggy swallows emotions back again and looks back up to Skye, her eyes narrowed in thought, "Did you ever know... or did they tell you who your parents were? I wonder..." If she would recognize a name from the project. If she was in that village. "...Which HYDRA raid?" Her expression is dead serious now. Back to business Peggy. Enough that she finally stands up, testing legs and steadiness again. No wavering this time. Chunky brown heels take her in a quiet pacing of the room as she tries to remember back to what, for her, was more than thirty years ago..."I was... in a lot of those villages, you know. If the Commandos were doing the raids, that is. Did some clean up and recovery."

Quake has posed:
"Truth?" Skye says simply, "No. Not then at least. I fought being here most of my first year here. Detested and resented being forced to stay. Or so I thought. Let's be honest, here or jail isn't much of an option. I didn't get it, or why they'd even bother."

She refuses to let her gaze drift back to Steve's sweater, allowing that to be the woman's and the woman's alone. She's said her piece about the man. Opened that door, and now she'll wait to see if their guest takes it. So far, their guest is walking down other hallways. Which is fine, if they're building trust, Skye has a hell of a lot of secrets to drop by way of saying you could screw my life over if you wanted to and aren't who you say you are.

"Eventually I learned a few things." Listening, she nods, and mentions the village in Hunan province where her parents had disappered from.

Peggy Carter has posed:
"Reinhardt. That... was one of the villages Reinhardt had been experimenting in. I remember questioning him about it... That bloody rat." Peggy's brows furrow once more, a few clear traces of exhaustion across her face, but more so the kind of exhaustion that comes with working 12 hour days in a high stress environment and trying to remember something from decades ago without a filing cabinet behind her, not because of any physical issues with her travel. She hugs arms across her chest, that sweater tucked between them, not leaving her at all but also nothing more than a comfort item right now. She's got bigger things to consider.

"...I don't know if I... encountered your mother. I'd have to see the file. But I remember the project. I remember questioning Reinhardt about it. He was... one of the most insane men I'd ever encountered. But also one of the most brilliant. Sometimes, it goes hand in hand..."

Jemma Simmons has posed:
Faintly, in the background, there is heard a decidedly British voice...definitely female...and certainly cool in tone, if not a tad bit annoyed. Clearly heard behind the door, the voice states..."...I don't care if you have the bloody Queen of England in that room. I am going to go in there and check on my patient and that is final. Unless you want to speak to the Director why you felt it prudent to prevent the one person most qualified from preventing a fellow agent from grinding her humerus and radius bones into powder." There is a silence for a few seconds....then a murmured response that is not legible for those on the opposite side....followed by a curt "Thank you" as the door opens.

And, as it opens, in walks Jemma Simmons. Judging from her expression, she isn't exactly chipper with the reception. But that clears up as she sees Skye. "And...how is Skye today? You haven't tried to stress your arms too much yet, have you?" The other occupant in the room is not seen, yet, as Jemma closes the door. "You won't believe what I had to go through just to get into the room. It was amazing. You would think that there was some big secret or something."

And then...that's when Jemma looks up. And sees a certain pacing Peggy. To which the biochemist just freezes. That's...some secret right there.

Quake has posed:
"I've been told we.. my father says it was torture. Then again, I know Hydra didn't treat her better. I'm not sure what to think. I already drank the kool aid by the time I found out what had been done to me. That Fury likely knew all along who I was. Probably was a race to see who got to me first at that point."

There's a short, almost bitter laugh from the woman, who still had some issues with this. "I thought I was so clever, running away and all. That I was in complete control of my life. Pretty funny the stupid things you think. But I guess you know a lot about that, being old school SHIELD. One of the founders, right?"

The rest, she knows. She's read it all now, and can confirm.

When Jemma arrives, there's an extremely guilty wince from Skye, who had /totally/ stressed her forearms and undone all the healing she'd managed. "Uh.. no?" Lying like a trooper.

Peggy Carter has posed:
Now Peggy is studying Skye even closer. The child of those experiments, or something else? She never managed to get an entire answer out of Reinhardt. Her expression is a thoughtful frown, touched with just a bit of guilt but also lost in some old memories. "I... know that we did our best to take care of our people and clean up the messes that HYDRA left in the world. What was done to your mother... It shouldn't have been done to anyone, Skye. But, if SHIELD was watching you, it was because they wanted you to have a better chance than she had. I know Nicholas... Knew, I suppose." There is another catch in her throat as she realizes he might be another who is lost to time and death. How many has she lost...

"SHIELD isn't in the habit of needlessly stalking people. We try to... help. We don't always get it right." Yes, Peggy is clearly one of the founders and she's got that tone of someone who is a bit of an idealist about SHIELD. Who was there from the very beginning, who set down directives and dreams. And then, suddenly, they aren't allow. Peggy arches a dark brow towards Jemma and steps backwards a few paces, gesturing with her one free hand, "Please, see to your patient. I... think it was something with her... Arms?" Peggy tosses a guess into the world, another detail she picked up just from watching a few hours before. She really was that observant.

Jemma Simmons has posed:
The look that Jemma has upon her face is that perfect mix of surprise and confusion, with a growing dawn of realization. It almost overwhelms her, as the questions threaten to flood out of her. But, as Peggy indicates to tend to Skye, that famed British sensibility takes over, as Jemma nods curtly. "Right."

Questions will have to wait for later.

With that, Jemma turns to Skye, taking a moment to glance at the medical charts (written, rather than electronic, for some reason) and matching it up with a tablet that Jemma carries under an arm to compare. "Please, Skye. I know you tried again. If you are going to lie, do try to be more convincing." There is a wink as Jemma shows she is joking, at least for now. "Take lessons from Clint. He was always good at dodging medical exams."

With the confirmation, Jemma replaces the charts, then gently reaches up to examine the arms with her fingers...as light as possible. "You know you wasn't supposed to put undue stress on your forearms. But, because I know you....I have been working on a compound to speed up the healing process. Just a few tweaks to a formula we already have...making it more efficient."

While examining the arms, Jemma leans in close to Skye. The whisper is soft, but may be overheard with sharp ears. "Am I mad...or is that SHIELD co-founder Margaret Carter walking in your room? And...why orange?"

Quake has posed:
Skye gives Peggy an open mouthed gape of 'traitor!' for telling on her to Jemma. Very much on the lines of 'after all I told you, too'. It doesn't seem to stop the younger agent from sharing, "Fury is.. he's been like my father here. I'm worried, though. He's disappeared?" Not really, it was an official leave of sorts. Just, unexplained, though he had come back to witness her performance evaluations.

Dutifully (what choice does she have) Skye holds her arms out for Jemma to examine. "There was a bit of an incident," she says carefully by way of explaining the injuries. "And I wouldn't have to lie if people weren't always poking me and telling me what to do. May won't even let me touch a computer for two weeks - I have work to do, Jemma. How am I supposed to get it done if I'm stuck here?"

Which might be a reason to behave, but it wouldn't heal her fractures faster, and she really did have to do that work. It was kind of something /only/ she could do in this instance.

Leaning in to whisper back to Jemma, "Totally claims to be her. And says that was the height of fashion. Something about her husband bought them? Remind me, Clint ever comes home with something like that, I am /not/ wearing it, no matter how much I love him."

To break the obvious silence of them talking about Peggy, Skye tells the senior agent, "It's really complicated what happened with me. I know that's not who we are. Or what happened to my mother." Reports she'd read said her mother had died. She'd been told otherwise by her father. Sort of. "Just still dealing with a few issues over it. Like I said. Drank the kool aid. Bought the condo. Signed the time share." She shrugs. "What else does someone like me have, anyway."

Peggy Carter has posed:
Peggy's shoulders slightly drop their tension as she gets the news that Fury might still be alive, if disappeared. That doesn't actually seem to shock her in the least. "He has a habit of only turning up when needed, at times. It's how he operates." A fond, nostalgic sort of smile cuts cross her lips at the thought of the man. Her one hand tucked under other elbow still clutches tightly across that button down sweater which Steve Rogers was wearing not but four hours ago. It's a life line as she focuses on the work in front of her. "And...Skye, once I am cleared by your staff, if you want to talk about those issues, well... I was around for the beginning. Unless we can figure out a way send me back..." Then she pauses as a realization hits her.

She can't go back. This world carried on without her, no doubt. Going back would break so much. She can disappear for good, or carry on here, but there is no fixing this. A wave of emotion hits her just as hard as those first few moments and she shuts her eyes against it, forcing back that glassiness and letting Jemma work on her patient while Peggy pulls herself back together. "...Never mind. If... I... disappeared in 1975, I suspect that is a touch important to most of SHIELD's history and... must remain as is." She rasps out, eyes still shut. "And yes, Doctor. I am that Margaret Carter." Whether she could hear the whispers, read lips, or just assumed what the muttering was, she's answered the question decent enough in her mind.

Jemma Simmons has posed:
Jemma cringes...visibly....as Peggy calls her out on the whispered question posed to Skye. But, to Jemma's credit, she doesn't immediately turn around to apologize. At least, not yet. So, instead, she focuses on Skye. "You know, if you did what you was told and not break medical orders, then people wouldn't have to always poke you and keep telling you what to do. It would be a one and done and then you get out sooner. It's a vicious cycle, I know, but one you propagate yourself." The hands drop to the side, then the right hand snakes into Jemma's labcoat pocket. "Besides, it's nicer to tell the truth. Always makes me feel good." And...with that comes the patented Jemma Simmons smile. Bright and cheerful.

"And...speaking of feeling better." The right hand emerges from the labcoat, holding a plastic container with a child safety cap on it that all children know how to open anyways. "This...should accelerate the healing process for your arms. It targets the bones in particular, ramping up cellular regeneration, which will help to fuse all those hairline fractures and get you back to your usual self in no time. It is not quite on the level as instanteous regeneration...but it's close. A couple of days at most." Jemma shakes the bottle at Skye. "But, under my strict observation and following my instructions to the letter. This is not something we want to consume like candy. Are we clear on this?"

Jemma sounds serious on this....best not to try her.

It seems that Jemma is also avoiding addressing the orange elephant in the room until she has her medical duties squared away. She is totally not ignoring Peggy. She is just stalling to determine how the hell to start casual conversation with one of what may be Jemma's personal heroes. So...no pressure.

Quake has posed:
The bottle is given a suspicious look. Not that Skye doesn't trust Jemma, but something meant to get her out of medical faster? Is May out there ready to pounce and say "ha! didn't I tell you.." or something.

"Not like candy. Gotcha." More like someone may have to remind the young woman to take them regularly. Because a working Skye was a very immersed and distracted Skye. Or, rather less distracted by outside forces.

She can't help a chuckle, leaning in to whisper to Jemma in tones that are most clearly meant for Peggy to hear, "She's smart. She was Director here once. And she already knows I don't listen to the rules. I think I like her. May says I can talk to her."

Letting both know where things stand. Because dammit, Peggy /was/ once Director of this place, if she couldn't figure out what the scenario was without Skye dropping that, then she wasn't worth her salt -- or she wasn't Peggy.

"And you'd have done it too," Skye then complains. "She dropped in here out of the blue without warning and put Bucky to the floor almost as fast as that Castiel did. It wasn't pretty."

Okay, it was TRULY pretty, but she was still an unknown entity at that point, and that made it unpretty. And deserving of a split second reaction like the one Skye had tried to take.

Peggy Carter has posed:
The other Brit is studied for a moment or two, Peggy's eyes narrowing, considering the new bit of tension that has come across Jemma's body. "I promise you, Doctor..." Clearly, the woman is some sort of doctor, with the care and consideration she's treating Skye's arms. "Though, I suspect you are more than a traditional medic, but Doctor seems a safe title. I promise you, I do not bite." She clips out to Jemma, trying to be reassuring in that both professional and a touch motherly tone that Peggy perfected in her later career. It disarmed upstart agents and uncertain enemies. "But... perhaps I should let you to your patient. She did have due cause for further injuring herself, I can assure that. My return was... Not entirely smooth." Also, we see the British habit of understatement.

"While you are both working, is there a... WC? I can't imagine what being stuck in time for fifty years has done for my hair." A poor joke to laugh off the need to disappear into the bathroom and just sob for a few moments, but hopefully it does the trick. Because she is keeping herself together -- if barely.

Jemma Simmons has posed:
The good Doctor Simmons does turn around, offering a smile (and actual eye contact!) to Peggy. "Your suspicions are correct, Director Carter." Oh no, Jemma isn't doing first names with Peggy quite yet, but falls back on the Director title. "Doctor Jemma Simmons, co-head of the Research and Development department. Or Agent Simmons. Or just Jemma. Whichever you would prefer." Jemma takes a bit of a stabilizing sigh, then offers that smile to Peggy, in much of the same manner as that professional matronly demeanor exhibited by Peggy. Wonder where Jemma picked up that little detail..."I am quite sure that this is all rather strange and unusual for you, Director Carter. I...did not want to add to the confusion." A true enough statement to be made.

There is an indication as to where the water closet is, with another one of those smiles and a raise of the hand. "For a time traveler, you look rather well. Though, I can understand the need for freshening up."

Oh...so many questions. But Jemma is a trooper, keeping her curiousity below the surface. There will be time for that later, but for now, the fellow Brit knows not to overwhelm. And, for once, Skye can breath a sigh of relief, as Jemma's attention is no longer on her.

Quake has posed:
Skye every so happily sits this one out, though when Peggy is gone, she'll reassure Jemma that she cn keep an ear out for her - there really isn't much Peggy can do that Skye can't hear within the confined radius of the medical room. And unless Peggy takes down the security detail outside the door, the other isn't going anywhere, or likely to run into too much trouble.

Skye has had more than one cry up on the roof. She gets it. This place - even if you cme from here, was truly overwhelming when you realized it's where you were going to be... forever.

She just doesn't embarrass them all by mentioning it till Peggy is behind the door of that bathroom (at least she thinks that's where Jemma is sending her. WC? what the hell? Don't Brits use the proper words for anything??)

Peggy Carter has posed:
"Ah... thank you. Much... much appreciated, Dr. Simmons." Peggy clips out, as if she'd asked to borrow a tissue. Then, with a tip of her head to both them women, Peggy neatly excuses herself to the water closet and shuts the door. Sure, she knows the lock could be easily popped open by every security system around, probably, but it doesn't mean she still doesn't secure it firmly out of pure habit and the need to affirm she's got her own space, if even for just a few moments.

Looking around the bathroom is no help or comfort. It's as screamingly modern, almost alien, as everything else that surrounds her. There is no doubt she was in an entirely different world and, worse, there is no going back. A tight, ragged breath claws at her throat and she forces back an actual sob. She couldn't let them hear. So, with choked back tears, her back presses against the wall and she slowly sinks down to the floor. Knees curled to her chest, both her arms come around that now-familiar sweater. It still smelled like him, somehow. She clutches it tight against her, knees pressed in close as well, as if curling all of her body in against itself would stop the screaming dam of pain that was just about to break free. It doesn't stop the tears, however. She lets herself fall apart on the floor of the gray metallic and mirror glass alien cell that SHIELD calls a modernly well appointed bathroom.