Anger Management
“Oh for Christ’s sake!” Peggy glares at the screen, washing her in a cold blue glow, seeming to spite her in its frozen state. She swivels the mouse around on the desk, willing the little white arrow to move; willing the computer to show any sign of life. It sets her teeth on edge, all of this technology that people use in the 21st Century. How is anyone supposed to get anything done when absolutely nothing can be relied on? Yes, she’d take a good, solid, sturdy filing cabinet over this absolute nonsense any day.
Peggy taps the mouse into the desk top, hoping that it might shake something lose, or back in, or just fix whatever in hell is wrong with the stupid thing.
“Honestly, I just want to print the damned form!” Nothing changes. The screen continues to flicker that infuriating blue light at her, taunting her. “You have to been kidding me.” Her teeth slide together as she struggles to maintain her frustration.
“Just reset it. It’s not recommended, but if it comes down to it, you can always just press this little blue button here, and the whole thing will shut down. It’s called a ‘hard reset’,” Dr. Banner instructs Peggy, cool and even tempered as ever.
“How on Earth do you manage to control ‘him’ with all of this frustrating nonsense?” Peggy sighs, finally relinquishing her useless computer to Banner, who is opening up windows and typing things that she’s certain are a code of some form, but she’s not even going to try to guess what it means or does.
“It helps that I’m not from World War II,” he chuckles, pushing his glasses up his nose a bit. This gets an eye brow from Peggy.
“I’d watch that cheek of yours, Dr. Banner.”
“Ah, my mouth is generally the least of my character flaws that need to stay in check.”
Peggy presses the blue button. Nothing happens. It continues to glow brightly at her. She presses it again. Nothing happens. Presses again. Same result.
“Bloody Nora!” Peggy’s hands begin to clench and release as she fights to maintain control. She’s doing it just exactly as Dr. Banner had shown her. Just press the glowing blue button and…
She makes another three attempts (though if she’s honest, her patience was lost around attempt number two) before something inside completely snaps.
“Arrggghhh!” Her fist comes crashing down onto the computer tower, denting the housing and forcing the metal apart at the corners. Still, the screen keeps glowing and the fans inside the monstrosity continue to whirr quietly.
It’s completely insufferable.
Before she is even aware of what she’s doing, Peggy is punching the life out of the computer. She is perfectly aware, after the fact that her first hit changed absolutely nothing, that pulverizing the computer will do her absolutely no favors, but she cannot help the unbridled satisfaction that is rushing through her body.
The stupid thing refused to comply, so it was clearly going to have to be handled and, God, she can barely contain how wonderful this release feels.
“Steady.”
A hand grabs hold of her tight fist from behind, halting her mid-punch. Immediately, it’s as if she can breathe again, and indeed, she inhales sharp and deep, unaware that she had even been holding her breath. “What in hell are you doing?”
She turns to face Steve, yanking her hand free from his grasp. She glares up at him, the residuals of her adrenaline still keeping her muscles taught. “How can you handle using all this junk? It’s absolute garbage. I was simply trying to print out a form and the stupid thing completely seized up. Not a damned thing worked and—“
“Did you try Bruce’s fixes?” Steve asks, trying not to grin at how completely adorable she looks, her curls falling haphazardly across her face, her cheeks flushed, and fury still burning brightly in her eyes.
“Of course I did! I pressed the power button like he suggested, doing that “hard start” or whatever the hell it was, and it simply refused to work,” Peggy huffs up at Steve. “And you know how much I loathe things that refuse to comply.”
She finishes with a pout, crossing her arms across her chest in protest. She realizes that she must sound (and look) like an absolute child, but she’s much to stubborn for her own good. Margaret Elizabeth Carter will never concede defeat. Or overreaction. She maintains her old standby—if it cannot be reasoned with, hit it into submission.
Steve pushes Peggy’s hair away from her face, tucking it behind her ear. He can no longer repress his smile.
“What?” she snaps, a bit more harshly than she had intended.
“Nothing,” Steve looks away, trying to hide the humor in his eyes.
“Don’t you dare laugh at me,” Peggy warns. Her tone is defensive, but they both know perfectly well that she has no real venom in it. She can feel her body relaxing as the humor of her current situation begins to take over.
“I’d never dream of it, Agent Carter,” and to an untrained eye, most would think he was serious as he straightens back up to look her squarely in the eye. But Peggy catches the warm glint in his eye that indicates that Steve finds this anything but serious.
“Good,” she nods curtly at Steve before turning to examine the mess she has made of the computer. “Now, help me come up with a story to tell Pepper. This is the third one I’ve killed since I’ve been here and I don’t think she’s going to appreciate this one either.”
Peggy feels the weight of Steve’s chin as he leans down to rest his head on her shoulder, looking down on the mangled scrap metal that once could have been called a computer. She feels him laugh deep within his chest.
“You’re on your own kid,” he turns to plant a light kiss at the soft spot behind her jaw before he’s out of the room like a shot.
“Oh bloody hell!” Peggy whips around, attempting to catch Steve before he leaves, but he slips through her fingers. “You little shit!”
“Language, sweetheart!” Steve laughs as he promptly leaves the scene of the crime before Pepper even realizes he was there.