Chapter 8
“I was wondering if you would ever come home or if you would just simply stay in the Triskelion and never leave Steve’s side ever again.”
Peggy met Cassandra Kam’s dry cheerful observation with a somewhat abashed smile. “The thought might have crossed my mind, I won’t lie, but at the end of the day there is work here to be done. Besides, I would only be a distraction.”
“I think that soldier could use a distraction or two.” Cassandra was looking over seven documents all at once on her tablet as she stood in the lobby of Stark Tower, keeping an eagle eye on the workers carrying boxes and crates inside to the service elevators. “How is he taking this whole modern, long-distance relationship plan you two have got going on.”
“Better than I am, frankly.” Even though they had parted at this apartment that morning with sweet kisses promises of phone calls later, it felt strange, knowing he was now no longer in New York. Years of longing for him, believing him dead, of searching for him in the ice and she was now reduced to being no better than some of the girls she knew in the 1940s, pining for their far-away sweethearts. “Romanoff will keep him busy. He has a lot to catch up on.”
“And what will keep you busy,” Cassandra’s dark gaze slipped to Peggy’s. “I mean, outside of picking fights with senators and the intelligence community?”
“This, obviously,” Peggy waved a hand at the workers coming in and out. “Where are we at with it?”
Cassandra flipped her pad around. “We got workers on the main floor doing the final installs of flooring, fixtures, and cabinets, things like that. The electrical and wiring took a bit, especially as the building is tied to the arc reactor and not the main power grid, so there was some accounting for that. JARVIS was a big help there.”
“He tends to be,” Peggy smiled, reviewing Cassandra’s meticulous notes. “Are Banner and Ross up in the labs?”
“Yeah, overseeing the non-Stark areas of everything. Also, I guess they are working on some sort of not-so-secret, secret project regarding the serum and Bruce, but I haven’t asked too many questions. They just keep bantering about it while I happen to be standing there, and they sound super smart, making me question my life choices.”
Peggy chuckled. “You are super smart else I wouldn’t have brought you on board. Who else would keep all of this running for me?”
“You do have JARVIS. He’s fond of you,” Cassandra quipped, but she was still pleased with the compliment. “But I do get the picture.”
“Don’t sell yourself short. Part of why we are here is you, after all.” Honestly, if it weren’t for Cassandra’s steadfast friendship and level head in Peggy's first years here, she wasn’t sure she’d have ever learned to navigate this strange world she often found herself in. “By the way, how was your long weekend with your fiance?”
The tables were turned on Cassandra, who now blushed, absently fiddling with the large ring on her left hand with her thumb. “Good! Wonderful! Wedding planning is stressful, but...yeah, nice have some us time before I have to deal with the madness of our families and all of this. Honestly, I’m tempted to just drag him to a judge and have it all done with now so as not to deal with it all.”
“My mother planned most of mine,’ Peggy recalled, thinking back to her own wedding that never happened. “I merely voiced my opinion on what I did and didn’t like. I had no patience for it, and besides, there was a war going on and the idea of managing all of that with rationing and what not was a nightmare. She was better suited to it. I remember the dress was perhaps the only thing I did care about, but then that’s more because I always did like pretty clothes.”
“Not going to lie, that is the one part I am looking forward to.” She paused, studying Peggy quizzically for a moment. “You know, I keep forgetting there was anyone else before Steve for you, that you had a whole past and life before you were Peggy Carter, founder of SHIELD, this legend who sort of happened into our lives.”
Funny...Peggy sometimes forgot that, too.
“I did! I had a whole life growing up; mother, father, brother. Had things gone differently, I wouldn’t have ended up here, but I suppose we could all say that.”
“Hmmm,” Cassandra nodded, absently, eyeing one of the workers trying to fit a crate twice the size of the large, open glass doors in through them. “Hey, be careful! What are you doing with that? You trying to take out a window?”
Peggy chuckled, watching as Cassandra unleashed on the unsuspecting worker, her Brooklyn accent coming out thickly as she did. Moving towards the regular passenger elevators, Peggy pressed the call button, stepping inside as her friend’s voice rang out from the lobby.
“Agent Kam is in fine voice today, don’t you think, Miss Carter?” JARVIS, the ever present AI, was clearly fond of Cassandra, judging from the hint of amusement in his voice.
“She is a woman who knows what she is about, that I will say.” That was part of why Peggy got on so well with her. “Things going well upstairs.”
“So far, though I fear that Dr. Banner is nervous that Mr. Stark isn’t here with so much fine equipment being installed. Dr. Ross has him well in hand, however. I have been monitoring his vital signs and giving them both regular updates.”
“Thank you! And Mr. Stark…”
“Is currently busy in his lab in Malibu as we speak, reviewing his latest plans for a new suit.”
He seemed to always be working on a new one. Peggy glanced at her watch. “It’s only just nine in the morning here, that would make it just six in California. How long has he been at this?”
“Most of the night,” confirmed JARVIS, “though at least he did sleep a few hours between 10 PM when Miss Potts went to bed and 2 AM when he awoke. He has been having frequent nightmares.”
Peggy pursed her lips in concern, nodding. “Perhaps if this keeps up we should let Miss Potts know.”
The AI was circumspect on that for a brief moment. “To do so would of course tip our hand that I am monitoring and reporting on him, which I don’t think would be very welcome.”
“True, but it is better to let her know than keep it from her, don’t you think?” Peggy did not know Pepper Potts well outside of a few social engagements with Stark, but she had come to admire the woman who had not only won Stark’s heart, but who ran his company. It was clear that she adored him and that she was protective of him. Had the tables been turned, if it were someone else watching over Steve, say Romanoff, and she had noticed something concerning, she would hope that she would come to talk to Peggy about it.
“I can’t help but agree,” JARVIS affirmed as the doors opened. “I will make sure to keep a regular log for Miss Potts' records should she ask.”
“Thank you,” Peggy murmured, stepping into the organized chaos of the main labs of the floor. Unlike Stark’s personal labs, which were done and exclusive only to him and Bruce Banner, this area was what Stark had envisioned for the larger Avengers team. Workers were tinkering in various corners in hard hats and t-shirts, chattering with each other as they discussed various problems. Dust and wires covered the concrete subfloor as Peggy picked her way through the various dangers in her expensive, but sturdy black and white pumps, making her way to the far end of the floor. There in the middle of all of this stood Bruce Banner and Betty Ross, the former looking desperately as if he wanted to be let loose with a screwdriver at something, the latter chatting with a worker, looking slightly overwhelmed.”
“How are you both handling this,” Peggy asked, cautiously, sensing that Bruce would rather be anywhere but in this chaos.
“Oh, you know, it’s just another relaxing day in the office.” Banner’s sardonic smile was actually rather charming and made Peggy laugh. “I don’t know why Tony thought this would be a good idea.”
“You got this,” Betty assured him, eyeing the entire scene with a look reminiscent of her father. “Things are going apace. We had a minor issue with some chemical hoods that weren’t compliant with the spaces they were meant for, but I think it will all work out. Hopefully they will be done by the end of the week.”
“The bigger issue will be the computer integrations,” Banner murmured, toeing some cabling at his feet. “We will be working on that once things are installed. I got a team of Tony’s best guys coming in and will be handling that myself with them once the chaos dies down.”
“And what’s the ETA on everything?” Peggy eyed the organized chaos curiously.
Banner shrugged under under his oxford shirt, hands stuffed in his pockets, perfectly neat and yet still giving off something of the air of the absent-minded professor. “Next week at the latest. We in a rush?”
“No, just hoping to get started planning for expanding our situation further. I’m hoping to hear from Secretary Pierce soon and if he and Fury are in agreement, we can start officially expanding the Avengers broader team.” She nodded in satisfaction at it all. It had sounded like a crazy plan when Stark had suggested it months ago, partnering with him to fund the Avengers under SHIELD’s aegis. Now, it was looking more and more like a reality. It had something of the thrill of the old days founding SHIELD with Howard and Chester Phillips, the unknown challenge of it and how to make something good and useful and viable, something that would last and make real change in this world. Something...that was perhaps a bit more manageable and small scale than SHIELD had become, she thought, with cheerful rue.
“Jane is going to be impressed when she gets back state side,” Betty observed, arms crossed over her floral printed blouse. “She can have a real office now and not just that ratty, beat-up RV.”
“My old ratty, beat up RV,” Banner shot back, archly, the slightly wounded, betrayed expression on his face saying that there was a story there.
“Well...you weren’t here to use it. Besides, she needed it.”
There was a shared look, one that spoke of years of conversations, arguments, and differences of opinion on the matter of this...RV...that they spoke of. Peggy never forgot that Betty Ross and Bruce Banner had been a couple for years, engaged to be married, but she often never thought about it until moments like this between them, when whole conversations happened without words. She wondered if this was the sort of look she and Steve shared that everyone else always tended to complain about.
She cleared her throat, pointedly, but politely. “So...Jane?”
They both snapped out of it, shaking themselves, briefly. It was Betty who recovered as Bruce shrugged his shoulders, the blush on his skin blessedly pink rather than green. “Right, Jane...she’s still going to be over there for a few months at least. Something about strange readings and anomalies.”
“Temporal anomalies and time dilations.” Banner clearly understood what Foster was talking about. “That far north it could be anything, the influence of the poles, the ozone layer…”
“Anything to be concerned about?” Frankly, the last time these sorts of strange terms had been dropped by Banner a space god had used a shiny box to open a portal over the very building they were standing in. Peggy rather hoped they wouldn’t have a repeat of such a thing.
“Not from what her data shows, but she’s keeping an eye on it. I told her to give us a shout out if it got...well, you know, weird.”
“Any weirder than the rest of our lives,” Betty asked with a hint of worried speculation.
“Well...I mean...it could be, in theory.” Banner shrugged, lackadaisical. Perhaps when one turned into a giant, green titan one could afford to be nonchalant about such things.
A crash behind Peggy made them all flinch as Banner’s eyes went wide over Peggy’s shoulder. “Hey, let me help you with that before someone gets hurt!”
Peggy was half afraid to look. She winced as Banner moved over to help pick up the corner of something heavy and covered in cardboard, surprisingly more at ease in all of this madness than she would have expected.
“He doesn’t rattle easily, you know.”
Peggy turned to face Betty, who met her guilty surprise frankly. Peggy found herself flushing, a bit sorry that her thoughts were that obvious.
“I just...wonder is all.”
“And worry?”
Peggy shrugged, nodding. “That too. There is a lot of...drama around the Avengers right now.”
“I know,” Betty nodded, shifting to move away from the madness for the moment, leading Peggy out of the main lab and towards a quieter area. “At least my father isn’t involved in any of it this time.”
Peggy winced again. “How is your father doing?”
“Better...slowly.” While her shrug was diffident, there was exasperation and true worry underlining her otherwise cool tone. “He’s half convinced his doctor doesn’t know what he’s talking about and keeps trying to go out on jogs only to get exhausted and dragged home by his assistant. I’ve thought about hiring a private nurse just to keep him locked down till he gets better, but he’d slip out just to spite me.”
In truth, Peggy couldn’t tell if Betty meant that as joking or not. It was well known the animosity between Betty and her father, General Thaddeus Ross. Peggy could understand why, the man had in many ways done much to destroy the life and happiness of Bruce Banner, and by extension, his own daughter, all in the pursuit of the holy grail of weapons manufacturing - the recreation of Abraham Erskine’s super soldier serum. Now years later, he was reaping the consequences of that decision, his only daughter was estranged from him and at a point when he could have used her by his side. Peggy had heard through Stark that Ross had suffered a massive heart attack while out golfing with friends. One surgery later, a triple bypass to work around the blockages to his heart, and he was on the road to recovery, but it would be a slow one. While Betty had dropped everything to be with her father through his surgery and part of his recovery, she still wasn’t ready to forgive him for everything with Bruce. Peggy wasn’t certain she ever would be.
“Well, I hope he recovers quickly.”
“Mmmm,” Betty slipped into a seat at one of the installed lab tables. “I mean, I hope he does, if nothing else so I won’t have to worry about him doing something he shouldn’t, but I don’t know. He’s talking about retiring from the Army. It’s the most serious I’ve heard him discuss it.”
That shocked Peggy. “And do what?”
Betty shrugged, clearly as perplexed by the idea as Peggy was. “He doesn’t know. Maybe take up consulting somewhere, private sector work. Or he could do what all old generals do, go into politics and make other men go fight in wars.”
That seemed the habit of old generals in America - ride off into the sunset and into a career into a career in politics. “And what will happen to his pet projects?”
“You mean the serum?” Betty pursed her lips. “He swears to me that the Army isn’t touching it anymore, but I can’t ever be sure. Seventy-years since Steve Rogers and they all keep chasing that brass ring.”
“It’s a fool’s errand.” Frankly, as far as Peggy was concerned, they had one good soldier and that was enough. But then again, it didn’t stop them from turning Bruce into what he became, had it?
“Speaking of the serum and regeneration,” Betty switched gears with a curious expression. “Cassandra mentioned Sharon is on the London bombing case. Do you know how she’s coming with that?”
“She just started. I haven’t spoken to her since she left, so no. I try not to interfere with her work.” Peggy lifted a helpless shoulder. “I feel it would be bad form to pull rank and stick my nose into her case. Why?”
“Was just curious. The company that got hit, MST Pharmaceutical is one I was familiar with in doing our research for the Army. They have done some pretty advanced work in regeneration and human healing. Not the serum, certainly, though I think it may have started out that way years ago, but they abandoned it in favor of something smaller than that, basic wound care and reconstruction work. They do other research, as a matter of fact. Their basic philosophy has been less on creating a drug to throw at an illness and more at working to improve the lives of people, to cut down on the health problems in the first place. They’ve been trying to branch out into doing philanthropic work, mostly in third world countries without adequate healthcare.”
Before the explosion days ago, Peggy had never heard of the company and certainly hadn’t looked that deeply into it. From the sound of it, Betty at least admired them. “They sound as if they are doing good work.”
“Trying to, at least.” Betty smiled, wobbling her head in uncertainty, her dark ponytail swinging with it. “I mean it’s never perfect, and they are just one company, but it is certainly better than a lot of pharmaceutical companies are doing. They’ve gotten some push back for it, people afraid that their philanthropic work is really a front for them to test their products on the poor before putting it out to mass market consumption, but I’ve seen very little evidence of it. But...just saying that a guy like the Mandarin, if he is what the news reports say he is, he may not need much of a reason to blame them for some imagined slight.”
“Perhaps,” Peggy murmured, frowning. She wouldn’t go so far as to say that. No one ever acted in violence without some reason or cause, even if it wasn’t a reason people couldn’t easily understand. Certainly, a man with an agenda hitting key Western targets wouldn’t do it without a purpose, even if that purpose, for the moment, was obscure to all of them. “You said they worked on regeneration, correct?”
“Well, they did years ago when Bruce and I were first starting our research. I don’t know where they are at with it now, if they continued or left off of it.”
“And you think they started with the serum?”
Her dark, elegant brows knit together. “I mean, sure, it’s the first place I would look if I were looking into cellular regeneration would be Erskine’s formula, at least to start. Why?”
A dreadful, awful feeling hit Peggy then, an idea of at least why the target might have been the company...perhaps even the bases as well. “A man who has contacts around the world and who had the ability to work with Obadiah Stane for years getting illegal weapons from Stark Industries, and you don’t think he wouldn’t be interested in a version of the serum or something like it to sell on the black market, or worse, use on his own men?”
The idea of that made Betty’s blanche white in the harsh light of the lab. “The serum is...difficult...delicate. You do it wrong and it could have horrific consequences.”
“I know,” she replied, knew perhaps better than Betty. She still remembered Johann Schmidt all too well. Even long ago, they had all long discussed the ethics of what they were doing, even the idea of putting Steve in the chamber in the first place. But the thought was there, that this might be some of what the Mandarin was after. A bomb was a convenient distraction, after all. Have everyone pay attention to that while you snuck someone into a base or into a company and look into their files to find what you are looking for.
“You think that’s what is happening here?”
“I’m a former spy, I can’t help but think that.” Was it an angle Sharon would consider? “I need discuss this with Sharon. If the serum is the target, then that makes this part of the Avengers concern, in my opinion.”
“Do you think Sharon will agree with that?”
Honestly…probably not. “If nothing else, we can work together on it, perhaps pool our expertise. If it is Erskine’s old notes they are after, no one knows them better than you and me.” Truth be told, it was as flimsy of an excuse as Peggy had ever seen, but the idea that it could be that, could even be possibly connected to that made her more nervous than she could say. “I mean...she will likely understand.”
Peggy hoped she would.
“So I’m guessing this means you are heading to London?”
Peggy blinked back at the other woman, mildly. “I suppose this does.”
She had a sneaking suspicion neither Cassandra nor Steve would be happy to hear that news.