"I saw what was in your notes," Peggy said from where she stood beside Charlotte in the tree line next to Schmidt's bunker. They had heard a faint explosion a few minutes prior, which had made Charlotte's chest clench painfully.
"There are a lot of things in my notes, Peggy," Charlotte replied quietly. She turned her head to look at the agent, seeing the line of soldiers preparing to help storm Schmidt's stronghold that had formed along the trees.
"Don't play dumb," Peggy whispered furiously. "You're too smart for that, Charlotte."
"Okay, so maybe I'm looking at the possibility of time travel," Charlotte replied quietly, staring in the direction the noise of the explosion had come from. "What's the big deal?"
"Well, it all makes sense now, doesn't it?" Peggy retorted. "Your drive, your intelligence, your convenient lack of memories, and the fact that you always look incredibly despondent when I bring up certain names. You know what is going to happen."
"To be fair, World War Two wasn't exactly my strongpoint in school," Charlotte argued quietly, seeing Peggy's eyebrows lift.
"You're not even denying it," she murmured.
"What else am I supposed to say, Peggy?" Charlotte responded in frustration.
"Is it good?" Peggy asked quietly. Her voice was hopeful, soft and curious.
Charlotte smiled. "As long as humans exist, it won't be perfect, but you can argue that the world is good."
"What are you two talking about?" Howard whispered as he joined them. "Charlie's notes?"
"Bloody hell, have you all read my notes?" Charlotte groaned, internally chastising herself for not being more secretive with her notebooks and designs.
"She confirmed it," Peggy replied, and Howard's jaw dropped.
"No way," he murmured, eyes widening as he reviewed all of the possibilities. "I have so many questions-" he began, but Charlotte lifted her hand to stop him.
"I don't know how to get back, I haven't told anybody except you, Steve and Peggy, and Chaos Theory dictates that I don't tell you anything or interfere with history if I plan on returning."
"You seem to know a lot about the rules of time travel," Peggy commented.
"I did one of my theses on it," Charlotte replied. "Trust me when I say I know enough- the culmination of many sleepless nights when I was sixteen."
"So you're technically a doctor?" Howard queried, raising an eyebrow.
"Yes."
Howard let out a low whistle. "Damn, I should have been paying you a lot more then," he said quietly, earning a glare from Charlotte.
"My salary was nearly two hundred thousand a year," she replied. "So yes. Accounting for inflation, I am being underpaid."
"Do you even want to go back?" Peggy muttered.
Charlotte's face contorted, and her hand reached up to touch her pendant for reassurance as she thought. "I don't know. I think I would be happy here."
Peggy smirked. "I think Steve would have no complaints if you stayed."
Howard snickered.
"Are you three done?" Phillips hissed from where he was setting up their communications.
"Maybe," Charlotte replied, hearing Phillips's hand-held radio crackle into life.
"We're in!" Morita's voice filled the cold air around them. "Assault team, go!"
YOU ARE READING
Coffee, Courage and a Captain
FanfictionCharlotte Red is eccentric at best, unconventional at worst. Working as the head technician of Stark Industries' R&D Department since she was sixteen, and with two PhD's under her belt already sets her apart from most other nineteen-year-olds- not...
