Angie tensed at the sound of hoofs against packed dirt. She was alone on the small farm for the better part of the year, and unexpected visitors weren’t always friendly. She loaded her springfield and carried it in the crook of her arm to the door, prepared for trouble. She wasn’t prepared to open the door just in time to watch a blood soaked brunette topple from her horse and land hard on the packed earth. The horse stopped and stood listlessly, while the woman didn’t appear to be breathing.
For a second Angie stood frozen, unsure what to do and then set the rifle aside and rushed towards the woman, the bodice of her dress was stained with blood, there was a smear across her face, and her hands were covered in it. Angie sent a quick prayer of thanks when she found the woman was still breathing.
For a second she hovered, unsure where to try and lift the woman because it was unclear where the blood was coming from, but then she had a better idea and went to get her largest quilt. She laid it next to the woman, and then as gently as possible rolled her onto the quilt and began to drag her across the yard. Angie wasn’t a particularly large woman, she leaned more towards willowy than sturdy, but she had been doing farmwork daily since she’d inherited the farm from her parents. She was able to pull the woman easily enough, carefully lifting when she got to the stairs of the porch.
She dragged the woman until she was in the main room next to the bed Angie kept made up for guests, and then quickly went to heat to stove and start water boiling. She returned to find the woman leaning up, pointing a gun in Angie’s direction. The brunette seemed woozy and on the point of collapse but she seemed to be trying to glare at Angie.
“Wer’m’I?” She slurred at Angie, already dropping the arm with the gun, looking exhausted.
“You’re safe, can I tend your wounds? Can you tell me your name?” Angie said, gently prying the gun from the woman’s hand and setting to the side.
“M’Peggy,” Peggy tried to look down at herself, “that bastard shot me.”
She looked back up at Angie before appearing to pass out again. Angie shook her gently before informing the unconscious woman that she was going to have to cut her out of her clothes. The bodice was completely ruined, soaked in blood and torn in several places, there were two wounds on her torso one a long graze along her ribs and a stab wound to the meat of her arm, there were also several large fresh bruises on her back and side like someone had kicked her. She wasn’t just armed with the pistol, Peggy also had several knives and another small gun strapped to her person, Angie set them with the first gun. The skirt was savable and so Angie set it aside to wash and mend, her underthings were a lost cause, and Angie tried not to feel embarrassed as she undressed Peggy and then redressed her in one of Angie’s nightgowns and some of her underthings.
By the time she was done, the water was boiling it and she poured it into a large basin, and brought it in the room to carefully clean and dress the woman’s wounds. Once everything was cleaned and bandaged, Angie carefully lifted Peggy onto the bed and tucked the blankets around her tightly before gathering the quilt and Peggy’s clothes and taking them into the other room. She set the skirt, Peggy’s underthings, and the quilt to boil in the washtub out behind the house and gather some vegetables for dinner. She’d already been boiling down some bones and vegetable scraps to make a broth, so it wasn’t too much trouble to add some veggies to soften to make something gentle to feed her injured guest.
Once that was settled, Angie went and gathered the horse which had been listlessly pacing the barnyard. She pulled off the tack and brushed the animal down, it had Peggy’s blood dried in with sweat from a hard ride, but Angie cleaned it off as much as she could, she knew that as soon as she paddocked the horse that it’d roll around in the dirt and take care of the rest. She cleaned the tack and saddle as best she could and then brought the saddlebag inside where she dumped out the contents. There wasn’t much, some money and bullets and wanted flyers for the Howling Commandos gang.
Angie wondered if Peggy was some sort of bounty hunter. She hoped she woke up soon to give Angie some answers, she was tolerant woman but showing up on her farm half dead really did beg some answers.
That night Peggy developed a fever and Angie was up all night trying to sweat it out.
Peggy didn’t wake up for three days.
~
Peggy was awake when Angie got in from feeding the animals, Angie didn’t notice until the other woman started speaking, her words and voice much clearer than before.
“I suppose I have to say thank you for saving my life.”
The crisp english voice startled Angie enough that she dropped the mending she was doing.
“You’re welcome. It’s not every day a gal drops dead in my front yards.”
“Not quite dead it appears Miss, I’m sorry but I don’t know your name.”
“Angie Martinelli, do you want some water?”
“If it’s not too much trouble, I’m Peggy Carter.” Peggy nodded.
“Nice to meetcha Peggy, I must say caring for your on your deathbed wasn’t too much, but pouring you a glass of water, that crosses a line.” Angie gave Peggy a cheeky wink as she went to get the water.
“Well as long as I know where the line is.”
She helped the other woman sit up and gave her the water.
The two of them chatted amicably while Angie went about her daily routine.
It wasn’t until several days later that Angie realized that Peggy had dodged all questions leading to how she ended up shot and stabbing on Angie’s farm. For a second it made her uneasy how much she instinctively trusted Peggy, but then she shrugged it off, the other woman wasn’t going anywhere for at least two or three more weeks, Angie would get the story from her eventually.
~
Life with Peggy was nice. She couldn’t do much with one arm in a sling but she followed Angie around keeping her company as Angie ran the small farm.
Angie liked her on the farm, keeping her company, she liked their snarky conversations and Peggy’s dry wit, she enjoyed not being alone, and she especially liked the way she’d caught the other woman starring sometimes.
Angie wasn’t blind and she wasn’t a fool. Peggy Carter was a handsome woman, her angular face, wide eyes and smirking lips, not to mention her curves and the way the borrowed trousers hugged Peggy’s hips in the best way possible. Angie would have to be a dead woman not to notice a woman like that and she was most certainly still alive and kicking. The attraction was only made worse by the fact that Peggy was clearly seeing something she appreciated in Angie as well.
There was something dangerous about Peggy, and aura that made Angie’s heart race and her palms sweat. Something iron in her smile, a rough bitterness to her wit, a deliberate vagueness to her words sometimes that drew Angie in like a moth to a flame.
She desperately wanted to know more, to know everything there was, about Peggy Carter.
Which is why halfway into the second week of Peggy’s stay, Angie determined that get the answers she’s been wanting no matter how evasive Peggy was.
She proposed some gin after dinner, the good stuff, not the paint stripping whiskey that they made down the road. Peggy was no lady, but her accent felt posh as anything to Angie who’d only ever been around a country drawl and her grandmother’s thick italian accent from the old country.
“So English,” Angie said after a reasonable amount of drinks had been had, “you still haven’t told me your story?”
“Haven’t I?” Peggy sighed a bit as if she had known this was coming, and perhaps she had, Angie wasn’t the most subtle of creatures.
“No you haven’t, you enter on the scene like a lone desperado, worked over half to death and the most you’ve said about it is to tell me someone shot you like you couldn’t believe it when you were out of your mind.”
“I was lucky that yours was the farm I dropped dead in. I imagine some other more unscrupulous character would not have been as kind as you are being.”
“It’s the christian thing to do English, but I do have quite a few questions as to how a nice lady such as yourself winds up getting shot and stabbed. Does it have something to do the wanted flyers in your bag? Are you some sort of bounty hunter?”
“Yes it has something to do with that, but no it’s not what you’re thinking.”
Angie poured them each another drink while Peggy seemed to be gathering her courage.
“English, I know you haven’t known me very long, but I hope you know that we are true friends. If you’re in trouble, I’d like to do my best to help.”
“I’m not going to insult your intelligence and tell you that I’m not in trouble, but I’m worried about your safety if I tell you the full story.” She paused, before taking a drink then mumbling, “I also don’t want you to think less of me.”
“Oh, English, Peggy hey, I hold you in very high esteem. These two weeks with you have been some of the best I’ve ever known. If you tell me you got reasons for the things you’ve done, I’ll take you at your word and keep listening.”
Angie reached over and grabbed Peggy’s hand, holding it with both of her own. Peggy seemed to take courage from that and steeled herself.
“The flyers, for the Howling Commandos, I’m not chasing the gang, that is my gang.”
“Are they the ones who, did they double cross you?”
“No, they’d never, loyal to a fault every single one of those idiots. We didn’t set out to be outlaws, but a wealthy industrialist named Schmidt bought up the land new my friend’s farmstead. Brought with him a group of well dressed thugs to help throw his weight around. Myself and a few others we stood up to him and he killed the town doctor and then had the rest of us written up on false charges. He conspired with the Sheriff to have us arrested and hung, me and my pal Steve, we managed to not get arrested and went back and freed the others. We’ve been fighting Schmidt and his thugs ever since, trying to undermine his power.”
“Schmidt, he’s head of Hydra Industries? He’s sent his dogs sniffing over here at my land and a few of my neighbors but we ain’t got nothing he wants so he mostly left us alone.”
“Yes, you don’t know how lucky you are darling. He’s trying to get land because there’s silver in the mountain nearby and he doesn’t want to buy out the farmers and ranchers. It’d be easier for him to make them leave or round them up as criminals.”
Angie let go with one of her hands and placed her arm around Peggy’s shoulder, gently pulling the other woman close.
“Is this how you were hurt, were his thugs the ones that did this to you?”
“Yes, we had a mission to stop one of the stagecoaches carrying Schmidt’s right hand man, a vile little rat named Zola, the mission went to hell, Steve got Zola but Bucky, one of our men, got shot and I went back for him. We both got away but we were separated from the gang and from each other. I’m hoping Steve went back to find Bucky, he’d never leave him behind.”
“Do you think they’re looking for you?”
“Probably but as you can see, I landed on my feet.” Peggy shot a weak teasing grin at Angie.
“No you didn’t, I was there, you landed on your face.”
“Well in that case you’d better kiss it better.”
“How’s this for a deal, you work on healing and I’ll kiss you when you’re better. Or at least when we’re both more sober.”
“Okay.” Peggy agreed, but then grabbed Angie’s chin and gave her a chaste kiss.
For a second Angie was sorely tempted to deepen in, stabbed shoulder and gin be damned, before she collected herself and pulled back.
“Come on now English, you’ve told me all your secrets tonight and now it’s time for bed, there will be time for kisses tomorrow morning.”
Peggy looked miffed but allowed Angie to pull her to her feet and steer her towards the bed.
There’d be time for kisses in the morning.
~
The problem, Angie found, was that once one started kissing Peggy Carter, it was very hard to stop. As evidenced by the way Angie nearly cried when Peggy tried to pull away the next morning, even after spending several minutes exploring Peggy’s mouth, it wasn’t enough.
“Angie darling, if we don’t take a break than breakfast will burn and you’ll be grumpy and hungry all day.”
“You underestimate my willingness to eat burned food as long as I get to keep kissing you.”
“Well aren’t you sweet? But let go because you’re overestimating mine.”
What followed was several days of getting kissed all the time, it was a bit frustrating because Angie wanted to be handsy but Peggy was still black and blue and stabbed all over and that made good groping a bit difficult. Still she loved the way that Peggy would gather her up in her good arm or run her hand up Angie’s side, squeezing and grabbing at her in way that drove Angie crazy.
She wanted to take things further but was worried that the injury and the stress might make this a bad time to push, so she settled for long open mouth kisses and keeping her hands firmly on Peggy’s waist.
Still it was a blissful handful of days where Angie didn’t worry about what was going to happen when Peggy got better and was obligated to return to the war she was fighting for her life and the lives of her friends.
They were in the kitchen, Peggy was helping Angie pull out canning jars because harvest season was right around the corner and it was easiest to do prep in small doses, when they heard the sound of several hoofbeats right up.
Right away Angie went to the cellar door and pulled it open, Peggy went and gathered any trace of herself from the room and then went down the steps into the dark, not even a candle to give her away. Angie shut the door and went and got her rifle. The horse was in the barn, out of sight for now, as was the tack and saddle but they weren’t hidden and anyone who entered would be able to see them right away.
Outside there were three men, a very small blonde man with sharp intelligence in his eyes, a large man with a cigar and a bowler hat, and slightly smaller but still large and robust looking Asian man. Angie kept her rifle slightly up, letting her mistrust show clearly. This could be Schmidt’s thugs, looking to finish what they started with Peggy.
“Howdy Ma’am,” The blonde man said, politely nodding his head, “I’m sorry about turning up here unexpected.”
Angie was glancing between the three of them, all of them were very distinctive, all of them looked like the men on the posters for Peggy’s gang.
“Afternoon gentlemen,” Angie said slowly, “what brings you by?”
“We’re following a friend of ours,” the blonde said, “it’s possible she passed by here?”
“Nobody’s passed through here in the past couple of days.”
“Eh lass,” the big man with the bowler hat said, “but this would be about two weeks ago. Perhaps you seen her then? She’s about ye’ high and as likely to black your eye as she is to thank you.”
The blonde man glared at the man with bowler hat and was about to say something when Peggy interrupted, coming up from behind Angie.
“That’s just you Dum Dum, I’ll have you Miss Martinelli here thinks I’m quite pleasant.”
All three exclaimed at seeing Peggy and swung down from their horses to approach, the blonde man even going so far as to hug Peggy tightly.
“Miss Martinelli is it?” The blonde said when he let go of Peggy, “I’m Steve Rogers, and I’m in your debt for helping one of my closest friends.”
“Like I told English, I was only doing my christian duty.”
Peggy snorted which caused Rogers to raise an eyebrow at the two of them.
“Are you telling me that Carter can be shot and stabbed and half dead and still get the girl?” Dum Dum muttered half joking.
“What can I say boys, she’s very charming.” Angie gave them all a cheeky wink.
“Oh my god.” Steve muttered.
“Did you find Bucky?” Peggy asked, turning conversation suddenly serious, “Yes, he’s how we knew you’d gone in this direction. He’s recovering back in camp.”
“He let you go out without him?” Peggy asked in a disbelieving tone.
“He threw a screeching fit about not being able to come but he’ll get over it. He’s not my keeper Peggy.” Steve sounded a bit irritated.
Angie took that opportunity to give them some privacy by going to grab two chickens for dinner. She put Dum Dum and Morita to work killing and preparing the hens and gather some more root vegetables from the garden to accommodate three more mouths. After a while Peggy came and joined her in the kitchen, watching as she deboned the chicken and then egged and floured and seasoned it before putting it in to bake along with the already baking vegetables.
She took the chicken bones and vegetable scraps and put them in a jar in the root cellar for broth tomorrow. When it hit her that Peggy would not be eating the broth, because tomorrow evening Peggy would likely be gone.
She turned to look at the beautiful outlaw woman who’d made life some much happier in the few short weeks that Angie had known her.
Peggy must have read what was on her face because she pulled Angie forward and folded her into a tight one armed embrace.
“It’s not going to be goodbye forever, just for now. You know that, don’t you darling?”
“I know,” Angie’s voice was muffled from where she buried her face in Peggy’s shoulder.
“I was planning on asking you if I could come back, when I need to lay low for a few weeks, and that maybe after. After this is over I could--” She trailed off, but Angie got her drift.
“You could, I’d really like it if you did.”
“Good, now let’s set these lazy men to work before supper, there are a few things around here that they could help out with.”
They worked until supper was ready and then settled down for the simple meal. The four howling commandos were a boisterous bunch, each of the three men more than meeting Peggy in her sharp humor and they had Angie roaring in laughter with tales of their outlaw exploits.
After supper, they chatted for a while before Angie told Peggy that she could join her in the loft upstairs and that the three men could sort their own bedding situation out. Peggy smirked as she followed Angie up the ladder.
Angie wasn’t planning on doing much more than kissing a bit and then sleeping but after she watched Peggy get into her nightgown and put nothing on underneath she started to think about all the ways that they could use the bed instead. Peggy curled and leaned close to Angie’s ear to whisper to her about all the things she’d be doing if and when she had two arms again. Eventually it was too much even just to listen to Peggy’s dirty talk and Angie pushed her over and pushed up her nightgown as she kissed her way up the inside of Peggy’s thighs.
Angie brought her to the brink slowly. Alternating long flat licks with tongue with fucking into Peggy with her fingers as she pressed open mouthed sucking kisses to the top of her sex right where it’d feel the best. She had Peggy sighing and gasping and then coming with quiet moans. Angie slide up Peggy’s body, not bothering to push the nightgown back down, stopping only to use the hem to wipe her face before leaning over Peggy and kissing her deeply.
“Just a little something so’s you don’t forget me.”
Peggy pulled away a little to look Angie in the eye.
“Hey now, love, you think I could forget a girl like you? Not bloody likely. You’re stuck with me now Angie darling.”
“Well gee English, that’ll teach me for lending a helping hand.”
Peggy smirked and slide her good hand down to start pulling at Angie’s nightgown.
“Speaking of which…”