"Hey English, unbutton me, will ya?" Angie turned around and stood quietly while Peggy undid the clasps of the wedding dress she was trying on. They had been shopping for hours and Angie still hadn't found a dress. "Thanks English," Andie said when Peggy finished before heading behind the curtain to try on the next dress.
As Peggy sat down on the sofa to wait, she picked up one of the newspapers that sat on the table, wincing as she did so. They had successfully infiltrated a Hydra base a day ago and taken many files. The team returned with minimal damages with Peggy suffering the worst injury with a minor shoulder injury. Steve had suggested she take the day off to rest and Peggy had only agreed because Angie had asked her to go dress shopping with her. As Peggy paged through the paper, Steve's face was on almost every page. It had already been a month since his return, but his face was still plastered on every paper in the city.
"Captain America Found Alive"
"What's Next for Captain America?"
"Post War Captain America: The Life He Thought He'd Never Have"
All the articles were the same and Peggy never really read them. Steve had already saved all the photographs from the war that were printed, so they both avoided reading the papers for the most part.
"I think this is the one," Angie called from behind the curtain.
"Let me see it, darling," Peggy said, setting down the paper.
Angie stepped out in a stunning lace dress. [DESCRIPTION]
"It's beautiful, Angie."
Angie twirled, "this is definitely it. I love it."
Peggy smiled, "it really is perfect for you."
Angie looked at the dress a bit more before going back behind the curtain to change. As Peggy waited, she heard the phone ring. A moment later, one of the shop ladies walked over, "Ms. Carter?"
Peggy looked up, "yes?"
"There's someone on the phone for you.:
Peggy got up and answered the phone, "Hello?"
"Heya Marge," came the overly happy response from the other side.
"Thompson," she said coolly, rolling her eyes. "What do you want?"
"We need you to come into the office."
"Thompson, it's my day off."
"Yeah, yeah. Look, you know I would never come to you for help, but we found a pretty important looking file. Problem is, it's in Russian so we need a translator."
Peggy sighed. She hated to spoil her day with Angie, but this case was important. "Fine," she said. "But I'm bringing Angie."
"Thanks Marge," Thompson said before hanging up.
Peggy hung up the phone and turned around to find Angie standing behind her.
"We're off to the office, English?"
"I'm sorry Angie."
"It's fine. Daniel told me how important this case is and the dress won't be delivered until later. This'll be fun, I rarely get to see you work and we can grab food on the way."
Peggy smiled, amazed at how she got so lucky to have a friend like Angie, "You truly are amazing, you know that, Angie?"
Angie blushed, "shut up English, you talk too much," she said as they walked out the door.
When they arrived at the office, agents were running around trying to figure out what to do with all the files they were done going through. Thompson and Steve were huddled at Steve's desk and Daniel was directing some of the junior agents. As Angie and Peggy approached them, Thompson looked up, "Oh good, you made it. And just in time, I just ran out of coffee."
Peggy could practically feel Steve's glare as she placed the sandwiches she and Angie brought on her desk and taking off her coat. "Are you really that incompetent that you are unable to perform the simple task of pouring your own coffee," she asked. "And besides, isn't there a file i need to translate instead?"
"Here it is," Steve said, reaching across his desk to grab the file. "As far as we can tell, Schmidt himself was directly involved in whatever this is, so we figured it must be pretty important."
"Great, I'll get started on it right away," Peggy said, taking the file.
"How about that coffee before you get started?" Thompson asked.
"Do it yourself, Jack," Steve said.
"I got it," Angie said.
"You don't have to Angie," Peggy said, looking up.
"It's fine. I spend years refilling people's coffee, what's one more cup?" Angie said, taking Thompson's cup.
"Thanks Ange," Thompson smiled.
A moment later Angie returned with Thompson's coffee and a cup of tea for Peggy. "Here ya go, English," she said, setting the cup down.
"Thank you darling," Peggy said.
Suddenly Thompson gagged, spitting out his coffee, "what is this?" he sputtered.
"What's what?" Angie asked innocently.
"I mean, what did you do to my coffee?"
"Nothing," Angie replied.
"You did something," Thompson said as he tried wiping the spilled coffee from his tie. "Coffee doesn't get this disgusting on its own."
"Well if you don't like it, then maybe next time you should get your own coffee," Angie retorted.
"Unbelieveable," Thompson muttered as he walked off.
"Angie, what did you do?" Peggy asked, suppressing a smile.
"Nothing!" Angie said, pretending to look hurt. "Well I may have mixed up the salt and sugar, but it was an honest mistake," she said.
"Angie!" Peggy gasped while Steve tried to hide his laughter.
"What! He had it coming to him. I can't stand how he treats you, English."
"I gotta agree with Angie on this one," Steve said.
"Very funny," Peggy smiled. "Thank you Angie."
"Anything for my English," Angie replied, winking at her friend.
The next few hours passed quickly as Peggy worked her way through the file. It was astonishing what Hydra wanted to do. But was perhaps even more astonishing was that they were close to achieving their goal.
Shocked at what she found, Peggy quickly went to Sousa's office. Seeing that she was done, Thompson and Steve followed her.
"What have you got, Peg?" Sousa asked when she walked in.
Peggy waited for Steve and Thompson to enter and close the door before beginning, "well it seems Hydra is trying to build their own sort of super soldier," she said.
"The does that mean they've recreated Dr. Erskine's formula?" Steve asked.
"No. It seems that they have some other form of modification . Anyway, so far they've only had one subject and they seem pretty close to whatever modification it is that they're doing. Right now he's in a lab in Russia but they're moving him in three days to proceed with the process, which means we've got to act fast if we want to stop this," Peggy finished.
"And what are they calling this super soldier?" Thompson asked.
Peggy glanced at the file to check the name, "they're calling him 'Зимний солдат,' 'The Winter Soldier.'"
"Well we've got to get a team out there to stop this," Daniel said. "And once word reaches Russia that we raided one of their bases I'm sure they'll want to move The Winter Soldier sooner. I want you three out there and take another three agents with you. You leave for Russia in 6 hours."
"Yes sir," Thompson said as he got up to leave. "We should see if any of the 107th can join up. They've got effective tactics and I'm sure they'll want to see Steve."
When he and Steve left, Peggy closed the door again.
"What's up Pegs?" Daniel asked.
"I was sort of wondering if maybe you could keep Steve off this mission," she said.
"You mean keep him here while you and Jack take a team to Russia?"
"Yes," Peggy said slowly.
"Pegs, do you know what you're asking? Steve's one of the best agents we've got, I thought you of all people knew that."
"It's not that," Peggy said.
"The what is it?"
"I just wonder if he's ready to back in the field. He's only been back for a month."
"You know he's going to fight me. What am I supposed to tell him? 'I'm sorry Steve, Peggy doesn't think you're ready to go in the field yet'?"
"You could just say there's a conflict of interest since we're together."
Daniel looked at her blankly, "that's exactly why Steve would want to go."
Peggy sighed, "you know what, forget I asked. I knew this was a long shot to begin with."
"No. I'll talk to him Peggy. I can tell there's something you're not telling me so I'll talk to him. Just keep in mind that he's not gonna like this and he'll probably still try to go."
"I know, but at least we can try. Thank you Daniel," Peggy said as she turned to the door.
"Good luck Pegs."