agent rogers • j. thompson

welcome to new york.

COVER SHOWN ABOVE MADE BY PamellaJane912

it's a new soundtrack i could dance to this beat, beat forevermore
the lights are so bright but they never blind me, me

—
PEGGY CARTER

Sometimes, it was the little things that brought back the pain in waves that I tried so hard to swim against.

Working with the Strategic Scientific Reserve could've been my outlet. It could've been my great escape.

Yet, it all brought me back to Steve.

His sister, Charlotte Rogers. My best friend. She was a tall, beautiful, intelligent woman. One could easily see the resemblance between the Rogers siblings.

The likeness didn't end with appearances. The two had hearts of gold and carried every act courageously.

We had met early in the war. She worked as a nurse, wanting to follow in the footsteps of her late mother. She was quiet, but she also had a spunkiness to her. With what she already learned from her childhood friend Bucky and with me during the war, she became a powerful fighter in her own right.

The two of us were brought to the SSR shortly after the war, hoping it would provide more direction in our lives.

I had developed a routine here.

I would walk into work, spot Charlotte who always arrived earlier than I, and feel the smallest ounce of pain when I thought of her brother.

She'd great me with a kind smile and sometimes would bring me a coffee or strike up a conversation.

Then I'd sit at my desk, waiting for phone calls and never being called upon to do much more.

But just when I stopped expecting anything more or less from my routine day at work, everything began to change.

One morning, I walked into the SSR office and looked around for the familiarly bright and kind face of my best friend.

However, unable to locate the blonde, I accidentally bumped into Daniel Sousa's desk.

"Looking for something, Carter?" Daniel asked.

"Where's Charlotte?"

"Not sure. Haven't seen her."

"That's odd..." I muttered as I walked to my desk.

My small pit of worry grew into a gigantic canyon by the end of the day. As soon as I finished up my underwhelming duties, I hastily made my way to the Automat.

I rushed to the counter, where my other best friend Angie sat behind, bored and expressionless.

"Angie, have you seen Charlotte?" I asked.

"No, sorry Peggy," she frowned.

"It's alright... I just, I haven't seen her today."

"I'm sure she's alright —" Angie's attempt to calm my nerves was cut short by a rather large male customer approached her.

I silently dismissed myself to sit down with some food at a booth.

The ambience of Angie speaking with the customer and the quiet music seemed tainted by a foreboding essence.

I whipped my head around behind me, only to find nothing there. As I slowly turned my head back, I noticed something scribbled onto my napkin.

My heart skipped a beat, and I found myself thoroughly confused.

Ignoring all the common sense the typical person would have in this situation, I made my way to the alley in the back, as instructed in the note. Here I was confronted by a tall man in the shadows.

"Miss Carter, you are going to have to come with me."

POW!

I punched the sketchy British man in the face.

BANG!

I shot the wheel of the car that drove toward me. It rounded up next to me and screeched to a stop.

I was trying to catch my breath as I stared down the vehicle. I scowled up until I spotted none-other than Howard Stark sitting in the front seat. Not only was I face to face with my old friend, but Charlotte Rogers sat in the back seat, smiling up at my bewildered face.

The three of them — the British man I learned to be Edwin Jarvis — explained everything.

Stark was a wanted man.

He needed Charlotte and I to find his stolen inventions to clear his name.

Howard hugged the two of us before leaving us to work as double agents and risk our lives to save his ass.

Fortunately for him, Howard was one of the few people I truly trusted aside from Charlotte and Steve.

He treated Charlotte like his own sister. We all did, really. There was this nature to her that made everyone love her. She was just like Steve. They had the same eyes, same face, same heart.

"Pegs?" She snapped her fingers in front of my face.

"Oh sorry, I was thinking about-"

"Steve? Yeah, me too."

I had lost a man I loved for some months. She'd lost her brother whom she had grown up with and took care of and loved all her life. Because of this, I struggled to bring him up around her without feeling an overwhelming sense of guilt. I knew what it was like to lose a brother.

"You guys are so similar."

She frowned. "We are, but he had a much better heart. He will always be a better person than me."

Despite being just as amazing as her brother, the poor girl felt like she could never do his legacy justice. He sacrificed everything for her, me, his friends, and his country.

I gave the girl a comforting hug before Jarvis took each of us home. He informed us that he was always available, except after 9:00 pm. That was, of course, when he and his wife went to bed.

I bid Charlotte adieu when Jarvis stopped in front of my apartment and I shuffled up to my room. I fell into bed, my body exhausted but my mind restless.