This is not the floor she expected

[therightpartner]

Of all the ways Peggy had anticipated her day going, becoming the head of Stark's latest endeavor had not been one of them.  Once the details of her exploits the night before were known, she had expected two reactions.  She would either be praised for her work or her efforts would be disdained simply because she was female.  Even knowing which outcome was more probable, being reprimanded and called incompetent by someone like Flynn had been insulting.  

Then, everything had changed with that phone call.  Howard had always believed in her abilities.  He might have spent most of the war flirting with her but he had never doubted her place in the SSR.  Or her place in S.H.I.E.L.D.  The idea of it, the idea of being one of the leaders of the organization left her in an almost awed state.  

But even through that shock there was a quiet happiness that finally the doors that had always been slammed in her face because of her gender were now being opened.  It wouldn't be easy.  Men like Flynn would dismiss her until they realized Peggy wasn't a pretty trophy piece that Stark had chosen to decorate the S.H.I.E.L.D. offices.  There would be resentment from some, but  it was something she was used to.  

At least now she'd be doing real work.  The type that had kept her going when it would have been easier to focus on her grief and return to the role that was expected of a woman after the end of the war.  After Flynn offered his feeble congratulations, Peggy moved to the desk, removing the one personal item that she had kept in that depressing office.  

The framed photograph in one hand, her purse in the other, Peggy stepped onto the lift.  Smiling faintly when she looked down at the picture of Steve, she hoped he would pleased with this new incarnation of their work.  The doors slid open and she stepped into...

A pub?  One decorated in a style that looked more like a Hollywood set than any bar or club she had ever seen.

Taking a few tentative steps forward, she looked around, trying to understand how the lift - the entire building - could disappear.  Or how she could have disappeared, stepping out of a lift and into somewhere else entirely.  The look of shock and confusion lasted only a moment before Peggy regained her composure, moving to one of the tables and sitting down as if that had always been her intention.  Placing the photo on the table beside her and her purse in her lap, she watched those around her, trying to understand where she might be and how she had arrived.

Comments

[therightpartner]

"Is nice?" Despite Peggy's attempts at not sounding like an echo, that use of tenses was too important to ignore. Did the girl know what had happened to Steve? What had been done to the poor child? If she thought it was 1944, then she might not know about the crash.

"He was right. You don't have to be a weapon." No matter how shocking the idea of Schmidt having a child might be, the idea of how this girl must have been treated is horrifying. "If you're here -" Wherever here might be. "Then you have a chance to be whoever you wish to be."

[abyssum_invocat]

She nods, somewhat nonplussed. "Is. He's here," she says though her eyes flick to the sides as if making sure, as if she could see him, that Steve is still aboard.

She doesn't really have the capacity, yet, to give much response to what people keep telling her about the life mold she's been put in so far, though. She simply hasn't ever experienced complete freedom, ever, not even here. And she has no concept of what personal freedoms even are.

[therightpartner]

Despite her usual attempts at composure, her expression slipped from disbelief to hope to confusion. Instinctively, her gaze followed the girl's, almost expecting Steve to magically appear beside them. Her chest ached with the same hope she felt every time Howard sent out more searchers. "He somehow made it here..."

She couldn't completely believe, not until she saw him for herself or had some other certainty. But if she could end up here simply from stepping off an elevator, then it was possible that Steve might be here too. "He's still missing where I was."

[abyssum_invocat]

"We're not where we were. Steve is here," she says. "I don't know where right now, but he's hard to lose. He's tall."

And big. But as she's a child that might come off wrong if she says it out loud.

[therightpartner]

For a moment, Peggy felt like she had tumbled down Alice's rabbit hole and was speaking with someone from Wonderland. None of it made sense. If they weren't where they were, where were they? It was enough to give her a headache if there hadn't been three important words accompanying that riddle.

"He was easy to find even when he was shorter. Perhaps I can speak to him once I've regained my bearings." The words gave her time to think, to let that reality sink in. Alive. Safe. Not at the bottom of the ocean or buried beneath ice. "Where exactly is 'here'?"

[abyssum_invocat]

"If you know him, he'd be happy about seeing you," she says, with a bit of confidence that she's never displayed before.

"We're on the starship Enterprise. This is Ten Forward, it's...like a bar," she says. "I've never been to one, but that's what people tell me."

[therightpartner]

"And I'll be happy to see him." More than happy. Ecstatic might begin to describe her feelings during that reunion.

A starship. It sounded like something Howard would think of. "How did we get on a spaceship?" Glancing around, Peggy compares Ten Forward to the pubs she'd visited before. "It's similar to the bars I've been in. It looks different but the concept seems to have carried on despite being in space." Which sounded even stranger spoken aloud as it had in her thoughts.

[abyssum_invocat]

"You like him," Sinthia murmurs. It is not hard for her to pick this up--even less hard than it is for her to wonder about who in the world Howard is and why Peggy thinks of him with a first name.

As to the question, though...she could answer truthfully, as far as she knows, but it makes her no less unsettled to think of someone that powerful pulling the strings here and she doubts Peggy will take it well either. Lying directly to an adult, though, is something she does not have much practice in. (And it did't work at all the last time she tried it.) "I don't...know. How we got here. I don't know if anybody does."

[therightpartner]

Automatically, she began a denial, but the idea of lying to the girl seemed wrong somehow. "Yes, I do. I've missed him a great deal."

It really didn't surprise her that there wasn't a clear answer to how they had arrived. Something had obviously happened and it could have been caused by almost anything. She had seen enough strange things during the war to know that the impossible could easily be possible. "Eventually, we might find out. My name is Peggy."

[abyssum_invocat]

"My name is Sinthia," she murmurs quietly. "You don't have to use my last name. If you don't want to."

[therightpartner]

The name did have unpleasant associations but she couldn't blame Sinthia for that. None of the things her father had done were her fault. "It's not what I'd want, it's what you want. Sinthia is a lovely name but if you prefer Miss Schmidt, then that is what I'll call you."

[abyssum_invocat]

"Nobody ever calls me that, though," she says, shaking her head a little. "Everybody calls me Sinthia here."

At home, few people call her much of anything. Certainly nothing she likes. "What year is it for you?" Because if she's further along than Peggy things may indeed go badly.

[therightpartner]

"All right, Sinthia. It's a pleasure to meet you." Perhaps if the girl hadn't mentioned what other had been attempted to do to her, Peggy might not have felt that way. But she couldn't blame Sinthia for what her father had done. She was a victim like so many others Peggy had seen during the war.

"It was 1946 before I... arrived here." Which caused her to wonder about 'when' they might be. "What year is it now?"

[abyssum_invocat]

"2366," Sinthia murmurs with a sigh. "It's...a long way in the future. Everything is different here."

[therightpartner]

Vaguely, she knew that she must look foolish. Staring at Sinthia like as if one of them had gone mad. Although, Peggy wasn't sure which one of them had lost their grip on sanity. "It should be after so long. Better, I hope."

[abyssum_invocat]

"That I'm not sure about," she says. "It's very...strange. Everyone seems to be from the future, and doesn't know anything about when I came in from. Or where, half the time."

None of them save Steve, Steph and now Peggy have had any clue about who her father was.

[therightpartner]

"Perhaps that is why we're here. Maybe our history is important in some way and needs to be remembered." It was as likely as any other solution and more pleasant than some ideas Peggy could come up with. And it might make Sinthia feel better about her history not being known.

"And if the two of us are here, and Steve -" That sounded strange, almost unnerving, to say. "Then there is a link to where we're from."

[abyssum_invocat]

"I don't know why someone like me would need to be remembered if my father did't win the war," she murmurs quietly.

"It doesn't seem like there would be a point."

[therightpartner]

"Every person deserves to be remembered. You are more than just a connection to your father." No one, especially not a child, should be remembered solely because of Schmidt.

"There has to be a point." Even if they didn't see it yet, there had to be one. "Why would anyone go to the trouble of pulling people from their lives and delivering them here without a reason?"

[abyssum_invocat]

Sinthia bites down on the comment she wants to make, and her tongue at the same time, shaking her head. "Sadism, maybe," she says lightly.

"The last time I asked the captain he wouldn't tell me. And he told me not to read anyone's mind to find out."

[therightpartner]

Sinthia was far too young to consider that option, but Peggy knew that with her background, the girl must have been in worse situations than this. "If that is the option... then the intended target can turn against the sadist." They weren't helpless. She wouldn't believe that or allow Sinthia to think that she did. Hope was necessary no matter how bleak things might be.

But was this place that terrible? The pub looked safe enough and the people around them didn't seem abused. "The captain probably has his reasons." Which didn't seem as important as the rest of Sinthia's comment. "Reading minds?"

[abyssum_invocat]

It's difficult to convince someone who has never known hope that it is actually necessary.

"Telepathy. I can hear what's in your head."

[therightpartner]

Telepathy really wasn't that shocking, but the idea that someone had been reading her thoughts, perhaps seeing her best and worst memories...

The situation was unnerving, potentially frightening, but so had what they had tried to do to Sinthia. "Is it something that is constant or do you choose when you use your... ability?"

[abyssum_invocat]

"It's constant," she answers softly. "I can't turn it off. Ever."

She doesn't like admitting that. She really doesn't. "It's okay, I don't talk about what I hear."

[therightpartner]

"It's not your fault." No matter how unnerving it might be, Peggy doubted that it was a talent that Sinthia had asked for.

Perhaps she might not talk about it, but she knew that things slip occasionally which meant that she would have to be cautious if she ever had to use her training in this place. "Thank you for that privacy, Sinthia. It must be draining to hear so much." Are there ways to make it less of a nuisance?"