Hello Captain (Steve Rogers)

Impressions

Sarah's POV

We went to Maria's office and I sank tiredly into the chair facing her desk. She looked at me with concern. "Not every day is like this, just so you know."

I smiled. "Is there a normal around here?"

"Nope. What does that word mean again?"

"I think it's a setting on the dryer."

Maria burst out laughing. "Did you really trip over Steve?"

"Yup, made a total spectacle of myself. Nailed my aerial flip, though." I grinned, thinking about it. "I take it the team didn't know I was coming in yet."

"They were told I was getting an assistant; I'm sure they weren't expecting, well, you."

If anything, my grin got bigger. "I'm one of a kind, you know."

Maria snorted. "Yeah, join the club. Speaking of which, how do think today went?"

"Planning-wise or me-wise?"

Maria rolled her eyes, making me smile as I sat back and thought about how they'd all reacted to me. If Maria hadn't wanted my honest opinion, she wouldn't have asked. While I hadn't known her for very long, I respected her; she was quite the role model for female agents back at Ops.

"Well, provided Natasha doesn't kill me tomorrow, I think we'll be fine. It will take a while both to earn her trust and figure out where I fit in. I know I have to be ready to go on missions with you-"

"Or for me."

"So it's good to get a sense of how they mesh. Dr. Banner's main concern is my age, but he doesn't know what I've already accomplished. I'm assuming you forwarded my file to them?"

She shrugged. "Of course, as of this morning. Whether any of them read it is another story."

My lips quirked, acknowledging the truth there. "Agent Barton doesn't seem to be bothered by me as long as I don't get between him and his coffee. Mr. Stark is going to be a problem until he gets it through his head that I'm not interested in him that way, but I don't anticipate any issues there." My dismissive hand gesture made her smile. "And I'm not sure if Captain Rogers knows what to make of me yet. Do I look like someone he knew?"

Maria's smile was bittersweet. "You are quite perceptive. You look like someone a lot of us knew before she retired." She tapped at her tablet for a bit and then turned it around so I could see the picture on the screen. I felt my chest tighten painfully as I looked at someone who could be my twin, a small label on the side of the photo informing me who she was.

"Peggy Carter? THE Peggy Carter?" 

That was NOT what I expected - though I really wasn't sure I'd had any expectations in the first place; she looked nothing like the woman from the paintings at Ops!

"Yes. This isn't a commonly seen picture, though. This is from before she joined the SSR and founded Shield; she's maybe 16 in this photo. Not going to lie, you probably gave Steve a bit of a shock when he first saw you. Hell, you gave me a bit of a shock the first time I met you; the resemblance is uncanny."

"I don't want to hurt him. He seems like a nice guy." 

I felt like I had just kicked a puppy. Uncle Kevin was definitely going to have some explaining to do when I saw him next. I didn't want to look up at her just yet. With a few taps I sent the picture to myself so I could study it later and handed back the tablet. 

"I'll understand if you think I shouldn't be there for certain things and I can move to a different apartment if you think that it would be better. I don't have a lot to move, really." I didn't even really know Steve yet, but I certainly didn't want to make things any more difficult for him. He hadn't had a lot of time to adjust to the 70 year time difference; to him, it hadn't been that long since he thought he had died.