Coffee, Courage and a Captain

Chapter Fourteen: The First Change

"Charlotte."

A lilting and somewhat amused feminine voice came from above her, and Charlotte cracked her eyes open to see Peggy standing over where she lay on the cold tiles underneath the bank of switches and gauges that made up the control panel. The woman was already full dressed and made up, ready to face the day. It was a quality of the agent that Charlotte simultaneously feared and respected.

"Peggy," she responded blearily, squinting at the clock on the far wall. "What time is it?"

"It's six."

Charlotte picked up the screwdriver that had fallen from her hand while she was adjusting the wiring for the final checks, and ran a quick test on the handheld device connected to the electronics board. When the numbers were at a satisfactory level, she screwed the panel back into place and moving onto the next one, testing the output.

"Williams said that you didn't leave last night." Peggy's tone was that of one a teacher would use when talking to a particularly rebellious child.

Of course the officer in charge of security would have snitched to Peggy- he knew that only she, Howard and Erskine were people Charlotte would remotely listen to. He kept records of the comings and goings of the officials who used the bunker, as well as all of the scientists. Charlotte had quickly become notorious for not leaving every day, often working long into the night and sometimes accidentally falling asleep at the bunker. This heavily annoyed the head of security, who informed Peggy each and every time it happened.

"Peggy, today is the day we trial an incredibly experimental test. Nothing can go wrong. I couldn't live with myself if somebody died due to my negligence."

"I brought you coffee," Peggy said, placing the mug on the ground beside where Charlotte was lying under the control panel. "I need to go and collect our participant, but Howard is bringing you a change of clothes and Erskine is on breakfast duty this morning."

The trio often had morning meetings over breakfast, with one of the three buying breakfast.

Charlotte slid out from under the control panel and absentmindedly took a sip of coffee. Peggy noticed her staring at the specially designed, lead-lined booth that was going to be used to facilitate their participant's change later that morning. Charlotte's brow furrowed as she ran a critical eye over it, and then the walls of monitors and dials beyond it, mouthing something to herself. Peggy recognised the behaviour- Charlotte was doing relevant calculations in her head as she ran through every possible outcome, mentally re-checking that she had covered every base and mitigated every undesirable effect.

"It's going to be fine," Peggy reassured her, patting her shoulder.

"I know. I just-"

"It'll be okay, Charlotte," Peggy said, straightening up and smirking at Charlotte. "By the way, Phillips says that the plants need to be out of the way for the guests attending later today."

Phillips intensely disliked the fact that Charlotte kept an array of houseplants in the lab. She claimed that it added a pop of colour to the room. He claimed that she was domesticating a top secret scientific research facility. Howard had then piped up that they would help improve air quality. Charlotte had added that the woman who fronted the antiques store that hid the entrance to the lab would give them some sunlight on the roof for an hour each day, and she had rigged up a light system for them to sit in for parts of the day.

Phillips had relented, but only after Howard had bought him lunch and Charlotte had asked nicely.

"Phillips can screw off," Charlotte said sharply, but huffed out a sigh anyway. "Fine, I'll move them, but I won't hide them."