Archive of Our Own ^beta

She was going to kill Jack Thompson. That pompous, egotistical arsehole. Send her and Daniel off to the arse-end of nowhere on a ‘mission’ while he receives his medal of honour. Heaven knows he could never accept such an award while looking the two people who actually did the work for the case in the eye. Arsewipe.

Peggy wasn’t completely aware she was voicing these opinions aloud until Daniel chuckled lowly in the hotel lift beside her.

“Anyone ever told you you curse like a sailor, Peg?” He smirked at her.

“You can’t tell me you’re not having the same thoughts. He’s an arse!” She shot back.

“I dunno, having to watch him with his chest puffed out while the President pins a medal to his jacket? Much rather be at a fancy party with a gorgeous woman on my arm. But that’s my opinion.” He cocked an eyebrow at her and she rolled her eyes with a smile.

“Yes well, company aside, it was completely useless. I don't even think the suspect entered the building. Probably on the other side of the country.” The lift dinged as it reached their floor and Daniel offered her his free arm which she took. They had been undercover all evening as a married couple on Jack’s orders, but for some reason the gentle touches to the small of her back or him leaning in to whisper in her ear had sent her heart thumping in her chest in the most peculiar way. And their matching fake wedding rings weren’t helping, the feeling so foreign yet oddly comforting as she spun it around her finger.

“Well Mrs Walker, here we are.” Sousa stopped in front of the room, fetching the key out of his pocket. “At least the concierge brought our bags up.” He unlocked the door, before gesturing for her to go first. As it goes, the room was decent, a view that she was sure was better in the daylight, but she couldn’t bring herself to care about much more than getting out of these heels and into bed.

Casting her eyes over the rest of the room, she came to a surprising observation. Daniel, who had been previously digging through his overnight bag, came up beside her.

“Erm.. Peg. There’s only… there’s only one bed.” 

“A keen eye you have Daniel.” She replied, running a hand through her hair.

“I’ll take the floor.” He said, putting his washbag on the dresser.

“You will not. I will.”

“Not a chance, my mother would skin me alive.” 

“You tell your mother about your missions?” 

“No, but she’d find out. She’d just like that.” He screwed his face up a little bit. “I’ll take the floor.” The restatement grated on her for some reason.

“You will not.”

“Why?”

“Your leg. It couldn’t be comfortable at the end of a day like today. It will be worse if you sleep on the floor.” He paused at her bluntness, though it shouldn’t have been surprising. Peggy Carter wasn’t one to skirt around a topic other’s found uncomfortable or downright off-putting.

“Slept on worse.”

“As have I.”

“Peggy…”

“Daniel.” She turned on him, arms crossed. The power she didn’t know she had over him almost had him cracking right there. She had no idea how she made him feel, and standing there in the dress that had taken his breath away when she stepped out of Stark’s mansion in the early afternoon, he steeled himself to win this argument despite his crumbling resolve.

“I will not let you sleep on the floor.” Was the only reply he could come up with.

“Why do you assume that’s the only option?” He glanced around the room, looking for something glaringly obvious that he’d missed. 

“Huh?”

“I propose that we share.” She almost smirked when he reeled back. 

“We can’t…” His brain seemed to buffer at the suggestion.

“Why not? We are friends, no? Nothing wrong with two friends sharing a bed for a proper night’s rest.” The no-nonsense tone of her voice threw him, it was as if she was talking about the weather or traffic.

“But…” He was interrupted before he could even get the words out. 

“If you are concerned about rumours of my virtue, I promise you that will not be a problem. I’m pretty sure it’s in tatters with the stories that are spun in our workplace. You worried I won’t keep my hands to myself?” She smirked and he swore that this woman would be the death of him.

“It’s not proper.” Daniel muttered.

“Oh for heaven’s sake, I’m going to wash up. If I find you on the floor when I come back I’m going to be very cross.” She grabbed her cosmetics bag and pyjamas and disappeared into the bathroom, leaving Sousa standing awkwardly in the middle of the room.

He couldn’t argue with her apparently, and he really didn't want to be on the receiving end of a Carter wrath. As the water turned on in the bathroom, he seemed to resign himself to the reality of the situation. Loosening his tie, slinging it back into his bag and hanging up his jacket and shirt up in the small closet, he contemplated the other issue. 

Sleeping in the prosthetic would only lead to further complications and the ache from being on his feet for most of the day and in a car for the four hours it had taken them to drive here, was beginning to set in. Hearing the water shut off again, he hurried to perch on the edge of the bed, thankful that he’d brought a pair of pyjama bottoms with him, having known he’d at least have to share a room with Peggy.

He quickly changed, throwing his dress pants over the prosthetic after he balanced it in the corner, out of the way. He applied his creams and ointments before pulling on his pyjamas and leaving his undershirt on as he sat back down. 

He was lost in thought when the bathroom door swung open revealing Peggy, changed into pyjamas with her evening dress folded neatly on her arm until she hung it in the closet besides his shirt and jacket. He didn’t miss the small smile on her face when she saw him sat on the bed, but that wasn’t what he was focussing on. 

There was no doubt Peggy Carter was a beautiful woman and despite the often physical nature of their job she always looked almost picture perfect, hair in neat curls and red lipstick just so. On one quiet night shift Daniel had come to the realisation that was probably on purpose, in order to not only be taken seriously by the sexist male co-workers or to ensure there was no excuse for them to see her as anything less than a woman in control of herself. It was part of the mask she wore.

But right now, with a make-up free face, her hair pinned up, the mask had been removed. She looked younger, almost softer but no less beautiful. And he couldn’t stop taking it in.

Part of him was beyond happy that she felt able to be herself, to drop the mask around him. In fact that made him feel pretty damn good.

“Cat got your tongue Sousa?” Peggy’s voice cuts through his thoughts, bringing him back to the moment. She stood, hands on hips, at the foot of the bed.

“Huh? Sorry, what did you say.”

“I asked if you were taking that side.” She gestured to the bed.

“Uh yeah, that okay?” 

Without answering she rounded the bed and in one swift motion lifted the sheets and slid between them, trying not to be obvious as she eyed-up her bed mate. It was the first time she’d seen him without his leg on, but she wasn’t going to be the one to point that out, the man seemed nervous enough as is. She did however let her eyes trail over the well muscled back and shoulders that were rarely visible under his sweater vests and jackets in the office. His arms were braced at his sides as he seemed to be steeling himself, and Peggy couldn’t help the warm feeling in her chest that began to grow. Somehow her imagination leapt to those arms being around her, digging her nails into his shoulder as…

She cleared her throat and he looked back at her over his shoulder. 

“Everything okay?”

“Yes, why wouldn’t it be.” She fluffed her pillow and laid her head on the pillow, looking away from him trying to rid her mind of some baser urges.  The bed shifted besides her, the sheets moving as he laid down flat on his back.

“Goodnight Daniel.” Reaching for the lamp on the nightstand, she plunged the room into darkness. There was a deafening silence for minutes, could have been hours for all Daniel knew, as he fixed his eyes firmly on the ceiling, his hands folded on his chest.

“What did you want to be when you grew up? When you were a child?” Peggy’s voice asked in the darkness.

“I thought you were going to sleep?” Daniel questioned, allowing himself to look across at her briefly, to see she was still on her back looking up at the ceiling.

“Yes well, I doubt either of us are going to get any sleep with you all tense over there. So..?” 

“I wanted to play baseball for the Dodgers. Starting Pitcher ideally.” He said after little contemplation. “What about you?”

“I wanted to be a knight. Or a pirate.” He let out a chuckle at her confession. 

“Yeah that sounds about right.” The silence, although a little more comfortable now, took over again. Several moments passed before she spoke again.

“Why did you never ask me out again? For drinks.” The question startled him.

“You want to talk about this now?”

“Well I was waiting for you to ask again and you never did. I was always curious, why not?”

“Didn’t feel like getting turned down again I suppose.” She shifted to her side to look at him.

“I didn’t turn you down Daniel. I did have plans.” He tore his gaze away from the ceiling.

“What? I thought you were letting me down easy.”

“Why would I do that? I had been kicked out of the Griffith, due to someone’s fine police work.” She shot him a playful look that he could just make out in the darkness. “Howard offered to put Angie up in his mansion instead. We had to move our things that evening.”

“You had to move.” His head rolled back onto his pillow and he pinched his brow. ”I did apologise for the whole accusing you of treason thing right?”

“You did. Although I never apologised for saying you put me on a pedestal.” She countered

“Eh, that’s okay. I supposed I kind of did.” A few more moments passed after that.

“Well, if you ever did want to get that drink again, I would say yes.”

“You think that’s a good idea?” It was out of his mouth before he could think it.

“Whatever do you mean?” She propped herself up on one elbow, forcing him to look at her.

“I… I just spent a lot of time thinking about how it wasn’t probably a good idea.” 

“Why not?” Her tone wasn’t accusatory, genuinely curious.

“Well… just things. Y’know.”

“Daniel, I’m about to get very cross with you.”

“You deserve better. Better than a one-legged cripple with a crutch.” He mumbled.

“Daniel!” Her tone was harsh and biting, making him feel a pang in his gut.

“You could have your pick of any guy in the world. You deserve someone good, someone like…” He trailed off, not wanting to upset her any more than he may have done.

“Someone like Steve?” Her voice was softer.

“Yeah, Peg. Someone like Steve.”

“You know, when I first met Steve, he was a toothpick of a man. Skinny and wheezy and couldn’t run a mile or do ten pushups without having an asthma attack.” It was so rare for her to speak about the Captain, he didn’t want to stop her. “Didn’t have a clue how to talk to a woman, used to trip over all his words. But there was something in him, his heart, his soul that made him extraordinary. And that was before the procedure. He was determined, kind, respectful and unrelenting in his battles. Striving to do his best to ensure the safety of others. He never wanted the recognition, only to help.” She paused. “You remind me of him.”

“I what?” Daniel turned to her and he could just make out the corners of her mouth tipping up. 

“When I first arrived at the office, you were the only one who didn’t look at me like a piece of meat or Captain America’s old fling that they were lumped with and was only good for making coffee and fetching lunches. You treated me like a human, a fellow agent and didn’t make me feel less than because I am a woman.”

“That’s just common decency Peg, you’re an excellent agent. The pigs we work with are just asses.”

“You’re rare though Daniel. Given the hand you’ve been dealt, you could have stopped working or chosen a job with a less…physical aspect. That would have been completely understandable. But you didn’t instead you chose to protect, to fight for your country and the protection of others yet again. And that is brave, I don’t care what you have to say.”

He struggled to come up with words in response to that. 

“Wow… thanks. That’s a lot Peggy.”

“I just wish you would see yourself how I do. Any woman would be incredibly lucky to have you Daniel. And any of them with eyes should be snapping you up.” He let out a low chuckle and settled back on his pillow in slight disbelief.

“You are one of a kind Peggy Carter.”

“I do try.” She dropped back down onto her pillow, a beat passing.

“Agent Carter?” Daniel asked into the silence.

“Yes Agent Sousa?”

“Do you fancy grabbing that drink tomorrow night after work?”

“I would love to.” She smiled in the darkness, knowing he was mirroring her. “Daniel?”

“Hmm?” He hummed in some kind of content way and she couldn’t help herself. She rolled onto her side besides him, a hand turning his face towards her as their lips met. He tensed beneath her for a second, before he returned the kiss with a slightly unexpected delicate passion. A smile appeared on her lips as she pulled away slightly, her eyes meeting his in the dim light that trickled through the curtains. “I’ve been waiting to do that.”

“Me too.” He whispered in the darkness, delighted when Peggy Carter, the Peggy Carter, released a girlish giggle and nestled her head in the crook of his neck. No longer thinking about the tension and awkwardness, he shifted to wrap his arm around her as she relaxed into him, soft curves pressed against his body. It wasn’t long until he felt the haze of sleep take over with her in his arms and he couldn’t quite believe this was how his night had ended up.

“It would have looked strange if I’d have booked a room with two beds for a married couple! I thought staying professional wouldn’t be a problem for the two of you.” Peggy stood in front of Jack’s desk with her arms crossed and a terrifying glare that apparently had the newly appointed chief sweating. 

“Well excuse me Chief Thompson! You know bloody well that is not SSR protocol.”

“You saying you’d let protocol get in the way of a mission, Carter?” Daniel knew Jack was playing with fire. “At least it was Sousa, hey?” 

“You should be bloody glad it was someone I get on with, because otherwise I’d have to come to that damn ceremony myself to tell you my thoughts.” She slammed her mission report on his desk.

“So you enjoyed it enough then?” He was smirking, that asshole.

“Jack!” Sousa stepped forward, in between the two of them as some kind of buffer. He shot Jack a pointed glare as he added his own report to the pile. “We will get out of your way Chief.” Besides him, his companion huffed, but turned on her heel to exit his office as he followed her at a slower pace.

“You’re welcome!” Jack called after them and Peggy turned round to no doubt beat the stuffing out of his cocky ass, only for Daniel to stop her, half carrying her out of his office before the damage was irreversible. Thankfully the bullpen was empty.

“C’mon Peg. We’ll never get that drink if you get arrested for murdering Thompson.”

“You don’t think I’d get away with it? I’m very cunning, you know.” She challenged, her anger slowly seeping out of her body. 

“I really don’t want to have to arrest you again. Before we get that drink.” She picked up her handbag and rounded the desk, tucking her hand in his free arm. 

“Then lead the way Daniel.”