1963-09-29 - Past Sins and Current Ghosts
Summary: Howard visits Peggy drunkenly to tell her about a conspiracy he's discovered — everyone who went with him to get Vibranium from Wakanda is dead.
Related: None
Theme Song: None
peggy howard 


It's a wet one out there today, the sun hidden almost completely behind a layer of impenetrable grey, the oppressive cloud-cover blots out part of the sun leaving in its wake the sounds of pouring rain. It's not quite enough for an umbrella but too much to call it a misting. People mingle and move about the HQ minding their own business and tending to the daily grind.

Occasionally the men with their guns get ready to head out for some response, but over all it's a very calm and quiet day. The secretary sets out front of the directors office, her calm collected demeanor carrying her through what has been thus far a slog of a Sunday.

Inside the closed door of the office Howard sets with a bottle in his hand looking down towards the label. He's oddly silent as he swirls round the Empty office. This wasn't HIS office anymore, nor was SHIELD his baby, but being the former director has its perks either way.

*

Of course, it's a weekend. There is a skeleton crew on. Peggy shouldn't be working, she should be spending the day with her daughter and husband. But things were still keyed up since the missing munitions case and she can't entirely abandon the office the whole weekend. So, she's come in. She's still slightly limping from the attack in central park, using a cane to keep weight off the calf that the wolf tore into, and otherwise she's definitely looking softer around the edges now with being into her second trimester, but otherwise she's her regular old self.

She waves to the secretary, "Just here for an hour or two." She clips out, limping into her office and, immediately, noticing something is wrong. Her free hand reaches for her gun until, a heartbeat later, she realizes who it is. "Bloody hell, Howard… what are you doing here? It's Sunday….you should have called. Hell." She groans out, limping to behind her desk and giving a quiet smirk to him.

*

"Well you know what they say, only an alcoholic if you drink alone." Howard offers a bit of a smile, kicking back a bit in the chair. "Personally I've decided to stop being an alcoholic, and that means drinking in the company of other people." There's a lit cigarette setting in the ashtray, and it looks like somehow he's managed to be here for some time without the secretary noticing. "Keeps up the mystique."

The bottle is sat down atop the desk quietly the contents slush about as expected slowly and calmly, before being tipped right over into a waiting glass. "You know Peggy, first time we met, when my dashing charms and good looks won over the entire room, there was that handler there." He picks up the glass. "Jacobs" He says the name somewhat colder. "Real piece of work."

*

The younger woman arches a brow in his direction. Well, not younger, just younger than him. She can still give him sass even in her middle age. She shakes her head and steps around to the far side of her desk, sinking down into the chair and setting her cane aside. Now free of the device, she rolls forward to level her dark eyes in his direction and actually listens to what he says.

"…That wasn't *quite* the first time we met. You were still consulting with the SSR before then and I was… an assistant. I just wasn't pretty enough for you to notice like the other girls. You didn't turn your head until you realized I had brains, too. But yes… what about this Jacobs?"

*

There's a silent little laugh from him as he takes a swig from the glass. Soon after he follows with a few puffs from his Lucky Strikes cigarette. "Found him face down in his kitchen sink." There's a pause as more smoke exits from his lips. "Juan Donovan died in a 'car accident' the same day, and Thomas Prowler was found with his throat slit in his country home."

In a single drag Howard practically drains the entire cigarette to ash, before dumping it down into the tray. Smoke streams out from the corners of his mouth before he just lets it slide out with a bit of blown air.

*

"…So, you're telling me that all the people left who worked on Project Rebirth are quickly finding themselves 'accidentally' dead, Howard?" Peggy asks, her expression turning a bit more grim as she tries to put those pieces together and remember what she knew of the others whom she's not seen in years. She waves off some of the smoke from his cigarette, the scent still enough to get a rise of nausea in her, but she doesn't tell him to stop otherwise. The drinking or the smoking. He probably needs it.

*

"About the size of it." Howard pulls another cigarette out from his shirt pocket. The ash tray is already full of burnt away cigarette butts. A quick sip from the glass as he lightly leans back in the chair. "Every last one's been ruled an accident by local authorities, did some digging and other then me?" He lets down his feet taking a deep breath as he sets down his glass onto the counter. "Rest of the group that found that Vibranium is dead or missing."

*

"…Well, shit. I…I can start putting guards on you, Howard, and I'll dispatch two of our people to start a deeper investigation. This is a good catch, if an… Unnerving one. There is too much of a pattern here for it to be purely accidental. How recent did these… Incidents start? The last few weeks? Few months?" Peggy does seem to be taking this seriously, at least. She reaches for a ragged notebook at the corner of her desk, turning it open to a blank page and beginning to take some quick case notes already.

*

Silence again, as Howard grabs for that vibranium lighter of his. He doesn't light up, simply flicking the lighter around his hand occasionally flicking it open. "Little over two years." That little glowing lighters almost white flame flickers out for a moment before being shut once again, the idle moment of flicking it around causing the odd flash.

"Every one of them an accidental death." He finally lights that next cigarette, with that pure white flame. There's another stretch of silence as he thinks to himself. "Plane crashes, car crashes, slips in showers, gas leaks." A stretch for thought. "Peggy I can't help but wonder… what if Maria wasn't an accident…"

*

"…Two years…" Peggy breathes out, stopping writing her notes. She looks up to him, lips pressing in a hint of a line. "…Howard…" She broaches gently, her head tilting to the side, "…Have they all been… incidents? Like, none of you are that young. You are younger and more fit than most of them now for… well, what you've done. Could some of this just be age? Or is it all unnatural?" Peggy asks him seriously, studying his eyes to bring in his immediate reaction to that. Was this a fear of aging and death, or a fear of being killed? "…And Maria didn't work on the project, Howard. Why take her out?"

*

"I don't know alright." Howard speaks softly as he takes another puff from his cigarette. There's something about this that has him on edge, but he's setting there with that calm exterior. "I just- Call it a hunch." He runs a hand through his hair he sighs, before turning away from Peggy. "Each one of us took a.. souvenir from that trip, for me it was the lighter and a necklace, but everyone had something" He rolls the lighter from one finger to the next. "In every case that souvenir has been missing." He pauses again. "Maybe you're right, and we're just getting older, but something doesn't feel right about this."

*

"Alright…Maybe something is wrong. I'm still going to assign people to it, and you two guards… Do you want to pick your own, or shall I send them? You shouldn't be alone right now, Howard. Not until we figure this out, alright?" Peggy murmurs reassuringly, her eyes calm and a touch wider than usual so he can see that she IS taking this seriously and she is ready to work/

*

"Clint and Sam." Howard jokes with a bit of a smile as he sets up from his chair, realizing the two to be far to busy actually saving the world and doing the whole avengers thing to be guards. He puffs away tucking that lighter back into the pocket of his shirt. "Peggy, I…. do you ever wonder if we're doing the right thing?" That glass gets refilled to the halfway point.

*

THAT comment gets a deep smirk and Peggy just narrows her eyes. "You really want me to keep two of my best off the front lines…and off of *tracking down whomever did this* to follow you around? I can give them rotation, but I need them doing the leg work on this, not just watching you… As much as you like to harangue both of them." Peggy teases him gently, but she's also trying to be calm about it. Help him to see logic. "…And I know we are doing the right thing. If we weren't, I wouldn't do it."

*

Howard smirks, getting exactly the response he'd thought he would get. It's about this time that the oversized brown briefcase at the mans side… begins to ring… It's a strange thing really. The sound of a telephone bell chimes out from inside of it. He looks down to the case, and with a moment to set down his glass, lifts it up to set inside of his lap.

Dialing in the combination on the front of the 30lb Briefcase he pops it open to reveal a jumbled mess of wires. He takes his time to pull up what looks to be an antennae from the side of the case. The inside has a large rotary dial for making calls, and the receiver from a payphone by the looks. After the 20 some seconds it takes to open the case he finally answers the phone.

"What is it, I'm bus-" His face drops slightly again. It's a quick reach for that glass again, so he can down a bit of the contents. There's a stony nature to his expression as he closes his eyes. "Were there any survivors?" He asks a long pause. "I see."

*

"…What…what is going on, Howard? Aside from a bloody phone in your briefcase. Who is dead?" Peggy demands, her eyes a bit more wide and serious as she stares hard at him and prepares to get out of her desk so she can run off to handle whatever emergency situation is just about to hit.

*

Slamming the phone back down onto the receiver as lightly as he can Howard simply grabs the bottle and starts pouring a fresh glass. "French Mercenary team we had for backup just got shot to death by a man in a cat suit." He leaves the now full glass to set there on the edge of the desk, his cigarette going down into the ashtray as he stays put with that heavy briefcase on his lap.

*

"…Why were you sending a french mercenary team anywhere without my knowledge? I… I'm sorry they were killed, but what the hell is going on now, Howard?" Peggy looks a touch disgruntled, at death and at being kept out of the loop. At all of those things, in truth. Her jaw sets quietly and her dark eyes remain leveled firmly on him.

*

"Peggy, there are a lot of things I used to do that I don't talk about." Howard shuts the briefcase speaking calm and collected. "Africa is one of those things." He comes to a stand grabbing his glass so he can walk over to the window of that office. "When you go to Wakanda, you don't come back, that was the myth."

Howard takes a short sip, letting the cigarette burn away in his hand as he looks out at the raindrops. "Back then I was one hell of a lot more cocky." He takes another sip. "Even I knew we needed some backup." Smoke rolls off the end of his cigar as lightning flashes against the window.

"But I'd already taken on the hunt for Atlantis, the Holy Grail, Sankara Stones, and what felt like half the damn German army. The words suicide mission didn't seem to mean much anymore…." He pauses. "The SSR sent us to steal that Vibranium, from wakanda."

*

"…Steal? God… Howard…" Peggy winces deeper as she hears that, really not liking the thought. She was so low level back then and, ultimately, a part of the reason the SSR disbanded. She gives a deep sigh and sinks back in the chair a bit more, "And you think the Wakandans are… getting revenge now? I take it that you succeeded, at the time… but now they are aware and…Unhappy about the matter?"

*

Howard takes a long swig from his glass. "Peggy I don't know a thing for certain." His attention falling down as he rests his hand up against the frame of the window his own face reflecting back at him. "It's a long story, but the short of it is: We got it, the shield got made, we got a few trinkets, a lot of people died, and now more people are paying the price." He takes a drag from his cigarette, dropping off some of the ash. "I just hope I'm wrong."

*

"…I hope you are too. Just… if you want to wait outside, I'll call in a security detail and get them changed out regularly. We're being pulled… a thousand ways these days, between Paperclip, the perimeter at the Hellmouth, now this… God, I need more people. But… I won't let you leave here alone, Howard. We'll figure it out. You'll be alright." Peggy assures him gently, still clearly worried. For all their issues, he is still her friend. She's not going to abandon him to handle this all alone.

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