Yes, Captain (Captain America, Peggy Carter)

[matilda3948]

Hi @normandy  I got you in Secret Santa!     I hope you like your story. I wanted to get it posted before I go out of town. Take care  

Yes, Captain

Peggy found him where she often did—sitting off the to side away from the crowd of soldiers wandering through the camp. A light snow was falling and the thick clouds overhead promised more before the day was over. Steve had been sitting there long enough that there was a light dusting of snow on his shoulders and when Peggy sat down next to him she dusted off his coat.

“You okay?” she asked.

“Yeah. Just ready to do something. I feel like I’ve been sitting around waiting for orders forever.”

“There’s more waiting involved than the recruitment materials would have you believe,” Peggy said. She drew her coat tighter around herself and shivered. The temperatures must be dropping as the day went on. “I have a project for you,” she said. His eyes perked up, ready for some kind of dangerous covert mission. “There’s a USO Christmas show tomorrow; one that you’re not performing in,” she said. “Any interest in escorting a lady to the show?” His enthusiasm morphed into something akin to fear.

“Um…I uh…”

“You’d love to and you’ll pick me up at 8pm,” she supplied for him. Steve smiled and ducked his head.

“Yes ma’am.”

Peggy was about to reply when her breath caught suddenly and she hastily raised a hand to catch a sneeze.

ahhTISHHoo!

“God bless you,” Steve said, reaching into his pocket for a handkerchief. She waved him off.

“I’m fine. Thank you. Tomorrow 8 o’clock. Don’t be late.”

*

“Agent Carter!” Colonel Phillips barked.

“Yes, sir.”

“Care to explain to me why you’re out here infecting my platoon instead of back in your barrack nursing what is obviously a terrible head cold?”

“Sir, I’m—”

“Unless the next words our of your mouth are ‘Sir, I am heading straight back to bed right this instant and I’m an idiot for coming out in this weather in the first place,’ I don’t want to hear it.”

Peggy sighed and rubbed her aching forehead, closing her eyes for a moment. The Colonel was right, of course. She’d woken up feeling like her head was full of cement. The sneezing fit that soon followed confirmed what she was afraid of the day before—she was sick.

“Peggy?” The Colonel’s voice was closer and quieter. “It’s freezing, there’s three inches of snow on the ground, and not a damned thing that needs your attention right now. Take this,” he handed her a small bottle of whiskey, “pour a healthy dose in a cup of tea, and get some sleep. Consider it an order.”

“Yes, sir.”

Sleep did sound undeniably good to Agent Carter. She tucked the whiskey in her coat pocket and pulled out a couple of tissues, sniffling wetly as she stepped out into the freezing wind. The temperatures had been falling since yesterday and the wind cut through her making her long for her bed. She opened the door to her barracks and was, for once, glad she was the only woman in the camp. The little wooden structure was built to house four soldiers, but she had the place to herself. Her nose twitched and tickled, the sharp change in temperature made a sneeze inevitable.

ahh Hahh…ahhKTISHHooo!

She pulled another tissue from the box on her bedside table just in time for another.

ahh AhhTISHHoooo!

Oh, forget making herself tea—she was going to bed. Peggy quickly changed into a pair of Army sweats. Despite getting the smallest pair available they still hung off her petit frame, but she didn’t care. She crawled into bed with her box of tissues tucked under one arm, pulling the blanket up to her chin. Peggy groaned when she felt her nose begin to tingle. She was already getting tired of sneezing. She buried her nose in a handful of tissues as her breathing grew shallow. Her eyes fluttered shut and her lips parted as she took a series of short little gasps.

ahh AH Ahhh! AHHktissshhoo! ahhTKSSHHooo!

She blew her nose and tossed the used tissues on the floor next to her. She’d clean up later.

*

Steve took a deep breath and tried to steady his nerves. It wasn’t a date, he reminded himself. He was just going to walk across the base with her and watch the USO show with 1,000 other soldiers. No big deal. He could do that. Steve knocked on Peggy’s door and waited. And waited. He checked his watch; he wasn’t late. Maybe she’d left without him or got a better offer. He knocked again and this time heard someone moving around inside. Finally the door opened and Steve couldn’t help but stare openmouthed at the woman in front of him. Peggy had obviously been asleep when he showed up. Her hair was tousled and she had the pale skin and inflamed nose of a person who was in the throws of a bad cold. Perhaps most shocking though was what she was wearing—Army sweats and a blanket wrapped around her shoulders.

“Peggy, you look awful,” he said. She rolled her eyes and wiped her nose with a tissue.

“Literally no idea how to talk to a woman.”

“Sorry, I didn’t mean to—”

AHHtishhooo!

“God bless you.”

“Thag you.” She held the door open and Steve stepped inside (looking very unsure about being in a woman’s room). “I’b so sorry. I completely forgot about tonight. Just give be a few minutes and I’ll get rehh hehh…ready…” She hurried over to her bed and pulled a few tissues from the box.

AhhTissshhoo! AhhKTSHHHooo! AHHHTISHSHHOOOO!

“God bless you,” Steve said. “The only place you’re going is back to bed,” he added, coming into the room. Peggy resisted the urge to groan. How could she have woken up feeling so much worse than earlier? She blinked a set of watery eyes when she felt a large hand come to rest on her forehead. “No fever,” Steve said. “That’s good. Still, maybe I should get a medic.”

“I’m fine. Just a head cold.” She shivered and he pulled the blanket tighter around her shoulders and rubbed her arms up quickly to try and warm her up.

“What can I do?” Steve asked.

“Nothing. Go to the show. I don’t want you to miss it because of me.”

“I was only going to spend time with you,” he admitted quietly. His hands were still on her blanket-clad arms and, even sick, her sly little smile was hypnotic. Just as Steve was summoning the courage to tilt his head down and kiss her, Peggy gasped and sneezed violently towards the floor in the gap between their two bodies.

AhhHIIITSSSHHHOOO!

“Oh, God bless you. Come on, you need to be in bed.”

Steve looked at her bed and saw it was littered with used tissues (as was the floor all around the bed). He moved around her and began cleaning them up over top of her objections.

“Steve, no. That’s gross and I don’t want you catching this.”

“Pretty sure I can’t catch colds now,” he said, depositing another handful of tissues in the trash. When he glanced back at her Steve felt a tug of sympathy in his chest. She was clearly on the verge of another sneeze—she was rubbing her nose back and forth with two fingers and sniffling. “Aw, Peggy. Here,” he said, holding out the box of tissues to her. She snatched one and brought it to her nose.

ahh AHHHtishhooo!

Another tissue, another sneeze.

HahhAHHKTSHHHooo!

And one more:

ahhTISSSHHooo! KTsshhoo!

“God bless you. Have you been like this all day?” he asked, taking the used tissues from her.

“MmHm.”

“Lay down,” he said, placing a hand on her elbow and tugging her towards the bed. As she eased herself back into her bed, Steve looked around at the other three empty beds. “No bunkmates?” he asked.

“Have you seen another woman on this base?” she asked with a smile. Steve huffed a laugh and then went and pulled the blanket off a neighboring bed and spreading it over Peggy.

“You look cold,” he said.

“Want to stay for a bit?” she asked. “Like you said, no bunkmates.” He blushed and took a step back from her bed.

“That’s, uh, that’s probably not appropriate,” he stammered.

“I thought you’d like helping a damsel in distress.”

“I find it hard to believe you’ve ever been a damsel in distress,” he said.

“Come on. Pull up a chair and keep me company,” Peggy said, nodding towards a wooden desk chair. “I am missing the Christmas show after all. Actually, the Colonel gave me some medicine before banishing me to my quarters if you’d like to get it from my coat pocket.”

Happy to be given something to do, Steve got up and checked the pockets of her coat finding a small bottle.

“This is whiskey,” he said.

“It sure is. Can you…” She raised a finger for him to wait a moment and brought a tissue to her nose.

Ahh Ahh hahIHHTSHHHooo!

“God bless you.”

“Thag you. Sorry. Can you switch on the kettle and make us some tea?”

“Not sure I approve of us being alone together, drinking in your room,” he said, but he plugged in the kettle and looked through the box where she kept her meager supply of creature comforts. “You don’t have any honey, do you?” he asked.

“No. Never cared for it in my tea.”

“Too bad. Honey and lemon are good for colds. Before the serum I used to be laid up with a cold or flu most of the winter. Those freezing Brooklyn winters and my asthma made it—”

ahhhKIHHTSHHHooo!

“God bless you.” He picked up where he left off. “Made it hard for me to ever completely get over it. Seemed like—”

Ahh AHHKTSHHooo!

“God bless you. Seemed like I coughed and sneezed pretty much from November to February and then it was just a month or two before allergy season. Can’t say I’ll miss that.”

AhhTissshhoo! AhhKTSHHHooo!

“God bless you, Peggy.”

“You don’t have to keep saying that,” she said with a sniffle. “It’s going to get very old very quickly.”

“It’s good manners,” Steve said, sitting down in the chair by her bedside and handing her mug of tea. She wrapped her hands around the cup and let it warm her fingers. In the distance they could hear the noise coming from the USO show—music and cheering. Peggy rubbed her nose and took a sip of her tea.

“What was Christmas like for you growing up?” she asked. Steve smiled a little, but his eyes were sad.

“I’m sure there were some good ones before I lost my parents, but I was so young. I have a wooden train engine that I think I got from them for Christmas one year but that might just be a story I made up later. Bucky always found a way to do something special, but things were always sparse even at the best of times.”

 “You’ve had a hard life,” Peggy said.

“I got by. A lot of folks had it worse,” Steve said. Peggy started to say something when she suddenly froze. The steam from her hot tea had gradually been working its way into her swollen sinuses and it was as though she’d suddenly reached a tipping point. The first two sneezes tumbled out nearly on top of one another and she covered her nose with one hand.

ahhTISHHoo! Ktschhoo!

She hissed in pain when tea spilled on her opposite hand. Steve quickly took the cup before she sneezed again. This time Peggy managed to get a couple tissues as her breath hitched wildly.

ahh AH Ahhh! AHHktissshhoo! ahhTKSSHHooo!

“God bless you. You okay?” Steve looked on with concern as she scrambled for more tissues.

AhhTissshhoo! AhhKTSHHHooo! AHHHTISHSHHOOOO!

This time she couldn’t hold back a little moan of discomfort.

“God bless you.”

“Thanks,” she whispered. Peggy blew her nose and felt Steve’s hand come to rest on her leg, just above her ankle. His eyes were glued to her face though. He’d never seen her without her red lipstick, barrel-curled hair, and neat uniform. He was intrigued with her the moment she punched out the biggest man in his cohort of new recruits. This version of her was profoundly different but no less fascinating. Pale, sniffling, and tucked under several blankets—it sparked a warm, tight feeling in his chest he’d never felt before. The worry in his eyes made her blush and she smiled in a way that she hoped was reassuring. “I’m really okay,” she said. “Just a bad cold.” She held her hand out and took her tea again.

“Is there anything I can do?” he asked.

“You’ve done everything just right.”

“I’m usually on the other of the arrangement, but I do have a lot of experience taking care of colds. A hot bath or shower would go a long way…if we could get any hot water out here.”

“Somehow I don’t think that’s happening anytime soon,” Peggy said, finishing off her tea. Steve took the empty mug and did another clean up of the tissues scattered across her bed. When he came back he saw Peggy’s eyes were getting heavy and she covered her mouth when she yawned.

“I see the colonel’s “medicine” is kicking in,” Steve said.

“Sorry. I’m not very good company.”

“You’re perfect company.” He straightened the blankets and brushed his fingers across her forehead. “I’ll come by and check on you tomorrow and bring you something to eat. Don’t trek over to the mess hall in all this snow; you’ll end up with pneumonia.”

“Yes, Captain,” she teased. “Thank you for looking after me tonight,” she added before yawning again.

“It was truly my pleasure,” Steve said. “Feel better.”

[beatlelover22]

MMmm I love Peggy (and Steve) but sneezy!Peggy is just to die for  Ugh, I love it. You write them well!

[Rook]

THIS OH MY GOSH. V GOOD MUCH GOOD AHHHH

[normandy]

I got back on the forum at the right time!!! Thank you soooo much for the amazing gift!

[Sneezingnonstop]

Lord that just made me bubbly to read and it was soooooo adorable, thank you and such great work!!!

[NoV]

Great story - I always imagined Peggy as having a powerful and quite uncontrollable sneeze