Chapter 9
The girl in front of Maria looked impeccable despite the late hour, her make-up flawless, her hair perfectly styled.
“Peggy Carter? I’m detective Hill, I’d like to ask you a few questions.”
“Of course,” Peggy replied.
“You and your sister had a fight quiet recently,” Maria started, “Can you tell me what it was about?”
“Sharon saw something she wasn’t supposed to see.”
“You and Steve.”
“Yes,” Peggy answered and for the split of a second her mask broke, pulled into a grimace, “But not just that.”
“What else did she see?”
Peggy looked at her for a long moment before answering quietly, “Me and Angie.”
Peggy wasn’t even sure how it had started.
Or rather she did.
She had met Angie at Steve’s party, she had beaten her and the boys at poker, and then they had talked. Angie was clever. She worked in a diner and went to film school. She wanted to be an actress. Angie was funny and brave and kind.
So maybe Peggy did know how it had started but that didn’t answer the question of how they had ended up here. Here, was the diner Angie worked in. The other girl had told Peggy to come by and Peggy had. They’d spent the whole evening exchanging banter and easy conversation. Laughing. Flirting. It had happened again and again and again.
Now, Peggy was in the hallway in front of the toilets, back against the wall, and Angie was right there in front of her, close, so, so close, and smiling her beautiful smile and –
Oh.
She was kissing her. Angie was kissing her. Her lips tasted sweet and Peggy found herself getting lost at the sensation, her heart beating far too fast and her brain slowing down.
“Peggy?”
Were they in a movie, there would have been the sound of a record player screeching to a hold. As it was, they were not in a movie, but instead of the record player, it was Peggy’s heart that stopped as she looked past Angie at her sister. Sharon looked good, she noticed, she was wearing her best jeans and the cute, new shirt Peggy had given her for her birthday. And then it hit her.
Shit.
But before she could do something, anything, Sharon had turned around and walked away.
“Shit,” Peggy cursed and followed quickly, but her sister was already gone.
“Angie calmed me down and took me home after her shift.”
“Did you and Sharon talk about what happened?”
“We fought about it,” Peggy said, “She was so upset…accused me of lying to her, of not trusting her, which is ridiculous. I just wasn’t ready to talk about it yet. Everything was still so new and fragile and I wanted to figure it out for myself before I told anyone…but Sharon didn’t see it that way.”
“That must have hurt,” Maria said, “Your own sister dismissing you like that.”
“Of course it hurt.”
“And Steve?”
“He came by one night, fuming in anger. I asked him what was wrong but he wouldn’t say, so I opened a bottle of wine. Eventually, Sharon joined us and Steve started to talk…”
“I had a fight with Buck,” Steve slurred from where he was slummed over on the sofa, his elbows resting on his knees and his head hanging low.
Peggy immediately walked over to him, throwing her arm around his slender shoulders and pulling him close.
“What did you fight about?” she asked.
“It was stupid.” Steve sighed and leaned back, half against the sofa, half against Peggy.
“Most fights are,” Sharon noted, pouring Steve another glass of wine.
“Yeah, but this one was really stupid. I overreacted.”
“What happened, Steve?” Peggy asked gently.
“The scholarship I got so I could go to Shield Academy? It was Bucky’s.”
Oh.
“Why didn’t he take it?” Sharon asked and held the glass out to Steve who took it without looking.
“’Cause he’s Bucky,” he answered like that was all they needed to know.
“And you’re angry with him because…”
“Because he keeps doing shit like this. Ever since we met, he puts me before himself, always taking care of me, protecting me, even though I never asked him to and I don’t need protection. I can look after myself! And I’m not sure if he just doesn’t see that or if he doesn’t want to see it but he treats me like I’m a fucking child. And now he threw away a perfect opportunity for him to make something out of his life and get out of this shithole but no! Instead he tricks me into taking that fucking grant, as if I’m some sort of charity case!” Steve was panting, his face red with anger, and he emptied the glass with one big gulp.
Peggy blinked. Once. Twice.
“Steve,” she began carefully, “Let me ask you something…if your roles were reversed – if it had been you who had been offered the scholarship…wouldn’t you have done same thing for him?”
“Of course I would have!” Steve answered, looking at her like she’d gone crazy, “That’s not the fucking point! The point is that this wasn’t the first time, Bucky’s missed out on something because of me!”
“But that’s his choice, isn’t it?”
“Well, he shouldn’t have to make that choice. It’s not fair.”
Sharon sputtered, “Fair?” she repeated, her voice disbelieving and her eyebrows raised, “Steve, this has nothing to with fair. That guy worships the fucking ground you walk on, I’m pretty sure that there is literally nothing he wouldn’t do for you, he loves you so much it’s actually disgusting, and if you can’t see that, then you’re either blind or a fool – also, let’s stop talking about this, it’s depressing. Here’s what you’ll do: drink some more wine, spent the night here, and tomorrow you apologize to your boyfriend and tell him you love him. Deal?”
Steve stared Sharon for a long moment, dumbfounded and wide-eyed, but eventually nodded.
“Fine,” he muttered and reached for the wine on the table.
“We all drank a lot,” Peggy explained, “At some point, Sharon pulled out these pills, said she’d gotten them from Brock, and then…well…you know what happened then.”
“You had sex with Steve.”
Peggy nodded, “I did.”
“And your sister walked in on you?”
“She walked in on us just as we had fallen asleep afterwards.”
“What happened then?”
“Steve left,” Peggy answered, “He seemed horrified by what had happened, kept apologizing…” the brunette lowered her eyes, her voice barely more than a whisper now, “Sharon just looked at me like she didn’t even recognize me. She didn’t speak to me for two weeks.”
“Until Tony Stark’s party,” Maria concluded and Peggy nodded, still not looking up, “Thank you, Peggy” Maria said softly.