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[deaddrop]

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[assays]

I am running into old friends, yes. Also managed to make some new ones also. Aside from you.

[Her expression grows fond for a moment. It wouldn't be the same without Natasha.]

Have you met Nikola Tesla yet?

[deaddrop]

I have, actually. He's an interesting man.

[She wouldn't call them close, but he certainly made an impression.

Makes an impression.]

You two hit it off?

[assays]

I think so, yes. He is interesting as you say.

[Peggy smiles, taking a sip from her drink.]

Never expected to meet someone from history before. He died in 1943.

[deaddrop]

Apparently faked his own death.

[Or at least this version of them did. Hard to say one way or the other what happened in their own universe.

At this point, Natasha wouldn't frankly be surprised if he were a vampire there either.]

I hate to point this out to you, Carter, but from my perspective you are someone from history.

[assays]

[The comment is taken in good faith as Peggy lets out a snort.]

How right you are, Natasha. I'm practically a living museum artifact.

[She chuckles, reaching over to grab the bottle and tops up both of their drinks.]

I still don't want to know what lies ahead of me though.

[deaddrop]

Don't worry. I'm not planning on giving you any spoilers.

[Natasha flashes a slight smile as she says that, though it doesn't last long.

Just a reminder that Peggy has things to get back to. Things she has to do.]

Who knows, I might not know what happens to you anyway. Seems like there's more different versions of us than we knew.

[assays]

Natalia spoke of another version of me once. She was American and lived a slightly different life to mine.

[Which was strange to think about, but also interesting.]

It makes me wonder about other people I knew back home. Not just during the war, but afterwards, at the agency. Is there another version of them somewhere?

[deaddrop]

It seems safe to assume there are other versions of all of us out there somewhere or other. There has to be, right.

Maybe more than a few.

[assays]

Who knows? Maybe we will get to meet them if they turn up here? Not that I'm wishing that on them, but it's just a thought.

[Peggy takes a sip from her glass.]

I don't think I've told you this before, but I was engaged once. If the wedding had gone ahead, my life would've gone down a different path.

[deaddrop]

That seems like it would be a pretty big change, yeah.

[Natasha leans a little closer, curious. Or maybe just encouraging.]

So what happened? Obviously it fell though.

[assays]

[She is going to tell Natasha the story, but Peggy needs a moment.]

I had a brother - Michael was his name. He believed that I could be a good field agent. In fact, he recommended me for it, but I turned it down because I was getting married. Sadly, Michael was killed on active duty and I lost the only person who truly believed in me. I thought I should honour him by taking up the field agent position.

So I did.

[deaddrop]

I'm sorry for the loss. Safe to say you honored his memory and then some, though. He'd be very proud.

[assays]

Thank you. [Peggy's tone wavers briefly as she tries to keep her emotions in check.] I know he'd be proud of me.

I miss him.

[deaddrop]

[That seems like a cue to pour another glass for each of them, a generous three fingers.]

Tell me about him? If you like. If you'd rather not... It's not like I was the most forthcoming about my sister.

But I'd like to hear.

[assays]

It's alright, I can talk about him.

[She does take a drink from her glass first.]

Michael was brave and smart. He stood up for me when I was younger and even as an adult, when I was trying to figure out my life. We had a really close relationship growing up - I felt safe with him.

Somehow, he knew I was destined for greater things.

[deaddrop]

Well, he'd met you. It's hard to miss.

[Smiling. She doesn't mean that to dismiss or minimize the importance of her brother's opinion.]

Not that I'm sure there weren't plenty of people who did.

[assays]

[Peggy ducks her head, touched by her words.]

He was probably the first to realise it about me. Then I found some more people who believed in me after I signed up for the war effort.

Admittedly, that took longer than I’d like but a lot of people believed women shouldn’t have been at the front.

[deaddrop]

There are still a lot of people like that. Or people who think a woman's place is doing what a man tells her.

[Natasha raises her glass in a sort of mock salute, a toast to all of the men out there who only saw a pretty face.]

[assays]

I had hoped that society would have moved on a little further than my time.

But of course neither of us will listen to them.

[deaddrop]

Oh, it's moved some. At the same time, there are some people who will only be dragged into the twenty-first century kicking and screaming.

Or the twentieth century.