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It's been a couple days since the GPR: Great Peggy Rescue and Teddy's looking for Fitz. He filled out those forms Coulson gave him to be an agency 'consultant' and regardless of whether they've been finalized or not, in his mind it's a done deal and that's what he tells anyone who actually asks who he is and what he's doing here. He's a 'consultant'. Given he's green, almost twice as wide as a normal person, bulging with muscles and wearing a SHIELD uniform with 'HULKLING' wear others have a name, it's obvious what kind fo consultant he is. Walking into the lab, he looks around for the scientist and, not seeing him, pokes his head into the back room where he knows Fitz has been looking in on the real Director.
*
There is no Fitz in that back room, however, there is a Peggy Carter. A hospital bed has been rolled in with all varying sort of monitors hooked up to it as the lab techs get every reading they can of a woman who has been with aliens for months and in stasis for weeks. Still, monitors, wires, strange reactions or whatever, Peggy Carter is working. She's got a whole stack of files on a rolling table next to her and one in her somewhat smaller than usual lap (pregnant belly not overwhelming, but certainly prominent these days.) She blinks and looks up as a very not human looking head pokes into her room. "…Ah…Hullo. May I help you?" She clips out without fear or hesitation. Very little seems to sway the middle aged woman.
*
"They got you out of the stasis tube." Teddy is very good at stating the obvious. He steps into the room proper and looks around before looking back to Peggy. "I was looking for Fitz. Sorry to bother you."
*
The woman's dark eyes narrow on him a bit closer, studying for a few moments, and then to the HULKLING name on his uniform. "…Theodore, yes? I ready about you. Have the report." Peggy pats a stack of folders to the right of her, the report of her rescue probably somewhere buried in there. "…You are… related to them. Partially, at least, yes? That is how you helped get in." He's ducked his head in, he's stuck with her now.
*
"Teddy." He never did give a last name or address which might be a problem and holding up the application. "Umm, maybe? Fitz said the blood looks the same but not exact. So who knows. Maybe lots of aliens have that double thing in their blood." Pause. "Cells. Blood cells, I mean. I got to see it under the microscope and yeah, they're close but not the same. So who knows. Maybe it even happens on Earth sometimes."
*
"…Maybe, but I don't see much in the way of large green men running around…" Peggy states flatly, though a heartbeat later some amused tweak comes across her full mouth, "…though, it happens more than one might expect these days, so who am I to say?" She offers with an almost teasing tone to her clipped British voice. She nods towards the one chair in the room, having been occupied by many visitors. The welcome for him is clear.
*
As he stands there, Teddy turns blue. A nice, soft sky blue. And then black before turning green again. "Hulkling." he says, tapping his chest over where it says that. "That's why I picked green." He shrugs both shoulders. "It seemed like a good idea at the time. I'm not normally green."
*
"..Not…normally green. What ARE you normally? Just… get comfortable, *Teddy*…" Peggy clearly was listening. Recovering, pregnant, and ten million things to catch up on or not, the older woman doesn't miss much. "And… do you like the code name Hulkling? It's… well, I'm sure Bruce would be flattered if he could get over his self doubt and loathing." It also seems the Director is absolutely pulling NO PUNCHES right now. She's run out of patience to be polite.
*
"Like anyone else." Teddy answers, glancing over at the chair and then to Peggy before moving over to sit down. Now that's a question he's never been asked. Not even by himself. "I suppose? I mean, sure some of the things he does when he's out of control isn't great but…" He just trails off, not really sure of his own reasons.
*
"…When fully out of control, he destroys without hesitation. I believe there are levels of control and thought to him that Bruce Banner does not believe, but… still… It's a name with mixed implications to take on." Peggy quirks just a hint of a smile in his direction, not complaining, simply not turning away from the oddness of it all when others might try to ignore it to be police. "…So… I hear I have you mainly to thank for my rescue."
*
Teddy shakes his head. "Nah, I just did what anyone would do if they could. And once they took me to their ship, it was B… Aether who opened the portal so everyone could get there. And then get back. Everyone did their thing."
*
A slightly skeptical arch comes to Peggy's brow as she watches Teddy, her head tilting to the side, "…While I would say that most SHIELD agents would, yes, do what you did… Not anyone. What you did was highly dangerous and probably rather insane for your average citizen. And you risked your life for a total stranger. So.. I have much to say in thanks to you. Are you always this humble?" Peggy inquires straight out, dark eyes almost boring through him.
*
"I wasn't in much danger." Teddy objects. "I can take a lot of pounding. Bullets just bounce off. I'm not sure about lasers." he admits but shrugs. "But I also heal quick if it comes to it. And since no one else could do it, I did. You're welcome." That last question just gets skipped over.
*
"…you went onto an alien space ship against a race of beings no one yet even understands. So, yes, apparently, you are always quite humble. Or perhaps too young to understand the danger. I don't know you well enough yet to tell." Peggy has completely discarded being polite for polite's sake these days. She's too old, too tired, and life is too short. "But…still, thank you. I hear you are contracting with us? Or, plan to if you actually finish the paper work? It's a miracle they are letting you walk around here…" And Peggy has some lectures to give about that.
*
"It was fun." Teddy admits with a small shrug. "And I did finish. I turned it in." He can't comment on the rest. If you act like you belong and look like it and there are aliens running around posing as agents while the Director was only just rescued, things are a bit chaotic.
*
A smirk crosses her lips. "Yes. Because a full name is Teddy Slash Hulkling. I read the application, it is not complete." Peggy insists. She's one of those sticklers for every last detail, it seems. No surprise, considering the ship she runs around here. "Look, Teddy… You are clearly an excellent addition to the team. I'm only angry I didn't recruit you myself. But… we have a need for full histories and information on our agents."
*
Teddy shakes his head. "I'm not going to tell you my last name. I'm a consultant, not an agent. My mom would kill me if should knew what I was doing." He glances around to see if anyone is listening then lowers his voice. "And if one of those aliens did look like a human and she met him and they fell in love and… you know. I don't want her to find out he wasn't human. She's told me my father is dead and if he faked his death and left her, it's better she believes he died."
*
A slightly deeper frown flickers across her lips as he insists on not talking about the last name. Peggy sighs quietly, knowing they could probably find it out if they really need, but she hates spying on her own. "It… would not leave this organization. But knowing what we have just been through, do you understand why we are hesitant to let anyone in our ranks we cannot fully vet? We will not contact your mother. THis is just to protect our own…"
*
"I don't know what you think you'll find out." Teddy objects. "I was born here in the city, I went to school here from kindergarten on. And now I'm in college. That's it. I get why you're nervous. I do. But this wasn't my idea and one of you said you pay consultants and the old bald guy gave me stuff to fill out and I just need some cash since we're not rich and college is expensive."
*
A slight sound comes from Peggy's throat, considering him for several heartbeats. "It's not about your schooing… Not really. It's about… did you get into trouble as a teenager? How stable was your life? What sort of grades did you get or, more so, what did your teachers say about you? It's about getting to know a person, inside and out… not just a file. But much of it starts with that file." While the terminology for psychological profiling isn't necessarily in vogue, it's what Peggy does to every one of her agents. He included.
*
Teddy just looks at Peggy as if she's crazy. "And you think that government agents questioning my past teachers about me is not going to get to my mom?" Definitely crazy. "Anyway, who cares what I did when I was a kid." At the ripe old age of 19, that was so long ago. "That was a long time ago. As for my grades, I'm not a brain but I passed. I was always better at sports than school."
*
While he might be able to take the run around a lot of scattered, over worked, uncertain younger agents, Peggy Carter isn't nearly so easy to talk out of issues or push around. "You would be surprised how subtle we can be about talking to people. And I care about what you did. Your formative experiences will explain a lot as to why you'd toss yourself at trouble for a lot of strangers, and just how much trouble you can take before you break. And, frankly, young man… I was murdering nazis before you were born. So *nothing* in your life was a lot time ago compared to me." He gets a tight, clipped smile from her.
*
"I'm not telling you my last named." Teddy states firmly. He might be humble but he's also stubborn. "If you don't want me to be a consultant, that's fine. But I'll still help out anyway if it's important. It would be wrong to just sit around and do nothing."
*
"I have yet to decide. I need to talk to a few other agents. For now, of course, you will be paid for this job and any other tasks you take on… But I think it would serve you well to actually be a team player, for once. You could use that team more than you realize, I suspect." Peggy murmurs, an actual touch of… Was that worry, behind her voice?
*
"I still have classes to go to." Teddy reminds Peggy. "I had to miss class already because of this but it's just an intro class so it's no big deal. But I don't have time to do the whole spy thing and go to class and do my homework and chores and everything else."
*
"I don't expect you to be full time. Go. Handle your life. We will be in touch, no doubt." Peggy offers him simply, the tone of her voice that of a dismissal now. He did have other people he was looking for and Peggy has gotten a nice amount of information for a first encounter. SHe gives him one last, smooth smile, looking as put together as if she was behind a huge oak desk and in a business suit, not in a hospital gown and lab bed.
*
Teddy eyes Peggy like she's a dangerous snake. "Umm, yeah. I'll keep in touch with Fitz. He's a good guy." Standing up, he backs toward the door, not wanting to take his eyes off the Director. Maybe Billy was right about government agencies.
*
"Good evening, Mr. Hulkling. It was an honor to meet you. Thank you again… Truly." Sadly, while Peggy's words are only ever protective and professional… They were intimidating, sometimes. Peggy was good at what she did, very good, even in a hospital bed. The sort of gaze that can see right through a person and a lifetime of being a spy didn't make her a reassuring figure, sadly.
*
"You're welcome. Hope you feel better." Teddy tells her and makes himself scarce.
*