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[bravejemma]

"This is Jemma Simmons. Leave a message! ♥"

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[mucked]

[ peggy hasn't waited to order herself a drink. she's already got a glass of something dark and neat sitting by her elbow when jemma arrives. but she hasn't been drowning in it -- merely sipping, savoring the burn, allowing it to settle.

she turns in her seat. ]

For one, I wanted to extend my gratitude for your part in that lovely little lipstick. Helluva colour.

[bravejemma]

Of course -- that was no trouble. It was a bit of fun, actually.

[It was the sort of work she hadn't done in ages, having a simple problem to solve with knowledge and ingenuity. It was something of a change from trying to solve Wonderland's problems.]

[mucked]

Fun. [ she almost breathes through the word. peggy can understand it, she supposes, because everything that's happened this past week has been remarkably outside routine. but even so. ] Sorry, it's hard to contextualize any part of what's happened as fun.

[ she's exhausted. ]

I'm only glad it didn't have to get used. This time.

[ but there's always a next time, isn't there? some fresh hell to look forward to. ]

[bravejemma]

Oh, of course. [She'll stand by her statement of fun -- was she digging about in a cadaver or performing surgery? No, indeed -- but it is always nice to hear a weapon didn't need to be used.]

I do hope it can prove useful -- though I imagine weaponized kissing has a somewhat limited scope of use.

[The question, of course, was who was Peggy Carter possibly planning on kissing, but that's not really her business.]

[mucked]

You might be surprised. [ although she'd certainly balked a bit when fitz had suggested it -- mostly because she was trying to avoid any unintentional assumptions made about her personal life and whose lips hers locked with. ] Back home, I've got a -- an admittedly more rudimentary version of the same thing. It has its uses.

[ but then again, she's starting to wonder whether the incidental mobsters and guards of the 1940s weren't simply...more amenable to getting kissed out of the blue by anyone who batted lashes in their direction. ]

Display of affection put people on the back foot. They're out before they even realize what's happened. Usually.

[bravejemma]

Well, I do believe that much.

[After all, even today Fitz is taken aback if she kisses him, or slips in closer than she might have before. She'd always considered it a reaction that was purely Fitz, but on reflection, she thinks Peggy is right.]

I suppose it's most useful when it's not expected, over when it might not be out of the ordinary.

[At this point, a drink of her own appears, courtesy of a bartender who is gone as quickly as they appeared.]

But -- I don't suppose you asked me here for just a 'thank you.' [She might have done that in the message itself, or dropped by the lab.]

oh boy typos ahoy in that previous tag. sorry!!

[mucked]

[ no, no she did not. peggy's chin lifts -- agent fitz is clever, yes, but often a touch too cowed to call her out on this meandering moments even when he knows she's taking her time to hit her point. simmons, it seems, isn't so willing to play that game.

a point in her favour, peggy thinks.

she drinks a mouthful of whiskey and nods her agreement. ]

I know Fitz explained certain facts to you. About -- recent happenings. My concerns about an associate of mine coming back 'wrong,' and how I'd hoped to solve that problem before it cropped up. [ luckily, it never did. but other problems cropped up in the process. ] We had a bit of a debriefing, after everything, and I'm not entirely satisfied with how it ended.

[ and peggy carter is feeling just a bit too cowardly to check up on the fellow herself. ]

spelling is hard <3

[bravejemma]

[He certainly had -- there's been more than a little peacocking about the fact that he'd been acknowledged as Peggy's "favorite," and it was so endearing she could hardly call it a fault. And she also knew that a second meeting had left him in a bit of a mood that he hadn't really been able to articulate. So this is a check on Fitz, and indeed, who would know better than she?]

I see. And how is that?

[She casually sips her own surprise whiskey, not showing nearly as much comportment in doing so -- she's used to a mixed drink or beer, something altogether more mild than the bite of a whiskey.]

[mucked]

He walked out.

[ clear and simple. peggy won't mention the tears -- not to jemma, because she puts some value in her own hide and because she can remember the fierce flare of protectiveness the woman had exhibited during that one event.

no, she's here to gauge how much goodwill she'd burned through in that one afternoon -- not burn through more of it in the process. to that end, she charts a rather oblique approach to her concerns. she chooses not to mention that they had discussed the portal incident at all. ]

I suppose I'm wondering whether the whole mess took a bit too much out of him. He insists he views it as a success, that no one got hurt and we got the answers we wanted, but I'm not certain whether he's being objective about it.

[ there was the bit slipped out about grant ward, after all. and it had been that twist in the conversation that had brought them to discuss other choices. ]

[bravejemma]

I see.

[It sounds like something he would consider a success -- but she can understand how it would lead to darker thoughts.]

Interrogation was never our focus or specialty -- or anything we were ever trained in -- though SHIELD has become an all hands on deck situation since the fall. [Read: it has not been normal since then, or even since they left Sci-Ops.]

Fitz doesn't like confrontation, even if he has the upper hand. [Maybe especially then.]

[mucked]

-- I didn't learn until afterwards that he had what could perhaps be called a sort of spotty history with interrogations.

[ because no matter what was in the report issues months ago, nothing had quite prepared her for the revelation that he'd attempted to kill a man, however vile, in an off-record session. ]

Some sour feelings got dredged up. I'd like to know how he's doing, but I imagine he wouldn't find my concern all that welcome right now.

[bravejemma]

[Ah. If that was got dredged up, as Peggy said, things now make perfect sense.]

Grant Ward is something of a special case. [Which is putting it mildly.] He will be fine -- he is feeling somewhat better, I think, but those feelings... are difficult. It will pass.

[mucked]

[ it hadn't only been about grant ward, of course, but this is as good an access point as any -- and peggy nods, turning the tip of her finger across the rim of her whiskey glass. ]

I hadn't intended to cause him any distress, you understand. [ well. that's true enough. ] But I'm not convinced there's a way to tell him so that won't make him feel patronized.

[ she can relate to that, at least. ]

[bravejemma]

Of course not.

[That Peggy hadn't meant to upset him, and the latter part.]

Trust me, that is the trick. He may forgive weakness in others, but if he finds it in himself he finds it deplorable... inexcusable, even. And to acknowledge that you've seen it is worse.

[It's all very British, in a way, so she suspects Peggy understands. Jemma knows where it comes from, the place deeper than cultural norms, and it makes it all the sadder to her. What Fitz has been told is weakness is where his strength lies -- and she's told him, time and again, though how much ever makes it over the walls he builds around himself she never knows.]

But you're right. Being direct about it usually ends with him still in a strop and you in an even deeper hole than before. [All true, but not so much advice -- if that's what Peggy had even been looking for.] I've found time is the best balm. ... And food.

[She's found you can never go wrong in giving Fitz food as an apology.]

[mucked]

[ it's a helluva chestnut, isn't it? the sensitivity that fitz displays. some occasions, it infuriates her. other moments, it's downright humbling. but the very thing that sets him apart from the pack seems to be (if simmons is right, and peggy suspects she is) the same thing that he dislikes in himself. ]

I'm afraid it was something a bit more than a strop. [ she tips her glass. she drinks. she lets the whiskey burn sort out her words for her. ] I -- I may have called into question his scientific objectivity. Can food fix that?

[bravejemma]

[Jemma opens her mouth as though to make answer, but then is forced to reconsider it. After a moment, she continues:]

Well, I can't say I've ever had to try it for that reason but it certainly couldn't hurt to help grease the wheels.

[mucked]

[ grease the wheels, she says. peggy offers a hum. truth be told, apologies aren't a strength of hers. never were, might never be. and she knows that asking for a strategy now is little more than making certain she knows what hoops she might have to jump through if she needs fitz before he comes back 'round.

surely, he will. won't he? peg worries at her drink -- tapping the glass with tidy manicured nails. ]

I don't suppose you'll go as far as to drop some hints? Favourite treats?

[ oh, intel is intel. ]

[bravejemma]

[She chortles at that.] Anything sweet or crunchy, especially if it has ingredients fifteen syllables long.

[Every once in awhile she shakes something green and leafy in his direction, but that's about as close as the two get. She considers sharing the Sandwich, but in the end she keeps it to herself.]

Anything that goes well with tea -- he likes his tea time treats.

I really think that this will blow over. Knowing that you don't judge him or treat him any differently will be the biggest help. After... well, it's important to him that he not be handled with kid gloves.

[mucked]

[ that's just it, isn't it? peggy hadn't considered her kid gloves to have been in use on that particular afternoon. or maybe she's slipped them on (so to speak) once things started charting south. she presses her lips together.

no, tea treats won't solve this one. as lovely as the thought is.

but then, of course, jemma leaves a little gap in her sentence and peggy can't help but go excavating. ]

After what? [ a tip of her head. ] Are you talking about -- about the injury? The one that showed itself so unavoidably during not that event? You were both a touch younger.

[bravejemma]

Yes.

[She sounds a touch regretful in bringing it up, but it had just been an automatic explanation that she hadn't thought to check until the beginning had left her mouth. But it sounds like Peggy knows, at least a bit of the tale.]

I suppose it's... a few years, when you combine our timeline with the time in Wonderland. He nearly died. After a nine-day coma he woke up, and had trouble with -- well, you name it, I suppose. Speaking, movement -- I think his hand still bothers him sometimes. But it just compounded what was already ingrained in him.

[mucked]

[ -- already ingrained in him, hm? well. peggy doesn't make too much of a show of mulling over those words, perhaps it once again boils down to culture, but they certainly don't go unheard. ]

Yes.

[ a huff of breath. they'd talked about that, hadn't they? the way your vulnerability after a near-fatal (should be fatal) injury knocks you down and makes you question your place. indeed, it'd been that path that had brought them hard against the topic that had unwound everything: the portal.

she wars with herself. how easy it might be to tell jemma to tell fitz that she's got no interest in pursuing that path -- not really, not any longer. only peggy can't be certain saying so would be truthful. ]

Yes, he would have had a lot of ground to recover. Living it again, thanks to the event, might have exacerbated those feelings. [ feelings, those pesky little things are always the problem. ] He did acquit himself marvelously during the -- interrogation itself, I'll say. I hope our little disagreement doesn't convince him otherwise.

[bravejemma]

I'm sure a therapist would say the same. [Not that Fitz would have played well with a therapist. The physical therapy had been trial enough.]

I'm sure he did, and I'm sure on reflection he'll remember that he did will.

[Well, she's sure about the first part -- the second will come in time.]

[mucked]

Actually -- just how much field training have the two of you had?

[ fitz might stand uniquely endeared to peggy for a great many reasons, but she isn't so blinded by that favouritism that she can't see the writing on the wall: simmons is, by far and large, the more reliable source.

somehow, these questions come with baggage when she asks them of fitz. maybe she'll find a more satisfactory and straightforward response with the other half. ]

[bravejemma]

[Jemma tries a smile and a laugh to cover what is going to be a bit of an embarrassing reveal, but it comes out as a grimace.]

Officially, none. We failed our field tests before we left SciOps to be on Coulson's team, but... he wanted us anyway.

[Coulson wanted them and she wanted to go, and that was that.]

[mucked]

[ ...oh.

remarkable, really, how her expression doesn't shift an inch. but inside she's humming with a rare chorus of uncertainty. did she do wrong, then, to go dragging the fellow into a caper like monday's? but no, no, no, she still meant what she'd said: he had acquitted himself well. ]

But you've both had plenty of experience since then. [ the reports certainly implied as much. and simmons herself had discussed doing undercover work at...hydra, good lord, of all places. ] More than most, would it be fair to say?