[oom] conversations with dead people

[from_the_outside]

 The thing is, by the time she's tired enough to go back to sleep, she knows she needs longer than she's got back in Wakanda. It's probably close to when Bucky will start stirring, honestly, so if she wants a good night's sleep, she should probably just stay here. Fortunately, she knows Bucky has a room here. And she knows he asked Bar to give her a key if she ever needed it, so a few minutes later she's climbed the stairs into the dormitories, looking around until she finds the room that goes with the key and lets herself inside.

It's neat and a little spartan, not unlike the hut by the lake. She looks around a little, seeing small signs of Bucky everywhere. It makes her smile, right up until she turns and comes face to face with a pin-up recruitment poster featuring one Zinda Blake in the same tiny skirt and black uniform Sharon recalls seeing her wear downstairs.

"'To Bucky'," she reads aloud, her eyes narrowing and her voice grim. "'Let's go dancing, kisses, Zinda.' That's perfect."

She reaches to lift the poster off the wall and sets it facedown on top of the dresser instead, eyes flashing.

A few moments later, once she's convinced herself there's no other hint of Lady Blackhawk in the room, she turns off the lights and climbs into Bucky's bed, which smells very faintly like him but mostly like clean sheets.

And she sleeps.

And she dreams.

* * * * * * *

The room she finds herself in is familiar, somehow: an office with wide plate glass windows and a large desk covered in papers. Sharon goes around it to sift through the items, then looks at the framed photos which sit in pride of place. There's one of her, as a little girl. Her parents. 

And one of Steve Rogers before he took the serum.

"Wait," she gasps, and looks up. "I'm – "

Comments

[marvel_npc]

"You're what, darling?"

The woman standing on the other side of the room raises her eyebrows. "Looking for something?"

[from_the_outside]

"Aunt Peggy," Sharon gasps, as her eyes fill with tears.

This isn't a normal dream. She's dreamed about Aunt Peggy plenty of times since – but she's never known during the dream that her great aunt is gone.

And now... just look at her. Young and strong and so vibrant the room pales around her, and Sharon comes around the desk so fast she clips her hip on a corner just to be able to embrace her aunt. "You," she murmurs, into her great-aunt's shoulder. "I guess I was looking for you."

[marvel_npc]

Her arms close around Sharon, warm and real, and Peggy hugs her tight. "I'm here," she murmurs, stroking her hair.

Sharon's upset, she knows. This girl has always been dear to her, held close to her practical, loving heart, and the best thing she can do for her now is hold her like this, just for a little while. "I'm here."

[from_the_outside]

"I'm glad," she says, and wraps her arms around her aunt, holding her tight like she hasn't been able to do in so long. "I'm really glad to see you, Aunt Peggy."

When she looks up, her eyes are glossy, but she's smiling. "Boy, am I ever glad to see you."

[marvel_npc]

"It's good to see you too," Peggy tells her, without pulling away. "How are you, darling?"

[from_the_outside]

"I'm – "

She swallows the instinctive good, even as she presses a smile. "A lot's happened since you went away. I could use some perspective."

[marvel_npc]

"Well, I think we can manage that."

There's a couch on one side of the office, with a good view of the desk, windows, and door. Peggy puts her arm around Sharon and leads her to it, getting her to sit down by virtue of sitting down herself with her arm still around her grandniece.

[from_the_outside]

"It's hard to know where to begin," Sharon says, once they've sat down. She realizes that there's a coffee table in front of them, with a steaming teapot and two cups that she could swear hadn't been there a moment ago.

"The most important thing is that everyone's okay. But... Aunt Peggy, we're all on the run. I can't go home. They'll arrest me if I do."

[marvel_npc]

Peggy stares at her for three full seconds before her mouth firms. She leans forward and picks up the teapot, pours a cup, and presses it into Sharon's hands.

"Are you safe?"

[from_the_outside]

"Yes."

She takes the cup and waits until Aunt Peggy has poured one for herself. "I'm in Wakanda. With Bucky."

[marvel_npc]

Her eyebrows threaten to hit her hairline. "With..."

There's a long, long silence as she thinks that over. "You said they'd arrest you. Darling, did you do the right thing?"

She's certain of what the answer must be, with this girl that she'd helped raise and who'd chosen to follow in her own footsteps in her own way, but some questions have to be asked.

[from_the_outside]

"Yes," she says, absolutely certain. "I did my duty, Aunt Peggy. It just turned out that my duty and the right thing weren't the same things the CIA wanted me to do."

[marvel_npc]

"All right. Good." She reaches for her own teacup, fills it, then sits back with it her in her hands and gives Sharon a stern, no-nonsense look.

"Now. Fill in the blanks."

[from_the_outside]

"Yes, ma'am."

She starts at the beginning, with Franche-Comté. In the strange way of dreams, she talks for a long time, while no time at all seems to pass, telling her great-aunt about Thessaloniki, about planning the next mission, about the Avengers in Lagos and the Accords that followed, and then how everything went so horribly wrong when Zemo bombed the United Nations.

All this she covers in mostly broad strokes, but she relates the manhunt and the chase and the arrest of Steve and Bucky to Aunt Peggy in as much detail as she thinks might be necessary. And she slows when she comes to Zemo, her expression and voice both hard. "He did it all just to get thirty seconds alone with Bucky in a cage so he could activate the Winter Soldier," she says.

[marvel_npc]

Of course Steve would have thrown himself straight into danger for Bucky Barnes. How could she have expected any different?

And to hear that Sharon's neck-deep and sinking with this series of secret missions that have led to this--

She shakes her head once, crisply, setting her thoughts aside until the story's done. Mostly, anyway.

"And it worked, didn't it?" Peggy Carter knows quite a lot about how government organizations run ... and how their workings can be subverted. Her fingers are tight on the teacup.

[from_the_outside]

"Yeah," Sharon tells her, low. "It did."

She covers what happened next as quickly as possible: Aunt Peggy must have heard of the ghost that was the Winter Soldier during her days running SHIELD. She knows perfectly well what he's capable of. "Natasha and Tony and I tried stopping him together, and it didn't work. Last I saw he and T'Challa were fighting. Somehow he got to the roof, had it out with Steve again. Both of them fell into the river. I guess he got knocked out – Steve brought him to a safe place. I called them later to see if they were all right. If he was... himself again."

[marvel_npc]

"You tried stopping him, hm?" Peggy gives her a sharp look.

Both of them fell into the river. Oh, those stupid, stubborn men.

[from_the_outside]

"Well – I – "

Boy, does she ever remember that look. "... had to try," she finishes, a little weakly.

"But I couldn't hit him hard enough."

[marvel_npc]

She reaches to take Sharon's free hand in hers, and squeezes tightly.

"Of course you did." She would probably have done the same thing. It's just as well Bucky Barnes isn't within range right now, no matter how glad she might be to see him otherwise. A spike of cold arrows through her at the risk her niece had taken.

"So you called Steve?"

[from_the_outside]

"I called Steve."

She squeezes Aunt Peggy's hand back, reassuring. "Bucky was back to himself, but the three of them – Steve and Sam and Bucky – needed to get out of Berlin. They thought they knew what Zemo was after: up in Siberia, where they used to keep Bucky, they'd tried to make more Winter Soldiers. But without their equipment..."

She shrugs. "So I stole the shield and Steve's uniform and Sam's wings and met them for a hand off. And then I ran."

[marvel_npc]

"And you could get access to those things because of your position," she realizes. "That must have made some people very angry."

[from_the_outside]

"It did," she says, wry.

"They declared me an enemy of the state. I can't go home. King T'Challa offered me sanctuary in Wakanda when I got there, so I've been there ever since."

Minus one short trip to Prague that's really almost not worth mentioning.

[marvel_npc]

Peggy's eyes flash fire. "Enemy of the state? I've never heard anything so ridiculous."

[from_the_outside]

"Ridiculous or not, it's real enough," Sharon says, wry. "It's been a few months and nothing's changed."

[marvel_npc]

"No, well, it wouldn't, until whoever's knickers are in a twist gets them untwisted," she points out, practically. Peggy takes a sip of her tea and sets the cup back down on the table. She reaches to smooth her hand over Sharon's hair as she'd always done since her niece was just a child.

"You're sure you're all right in Wakanda? They're treating you well?" Evidently Wakanda's much different than anyone had really known. They'd kept their secrets well, and she has to admire that.