Chapter Text
Angie struggles trying to drag a huge bag of trash to the dumpster in the alley way out back. The bag catches on the door threatening to rip and she curses her boss for what feels like the hundredth time that day. She was a waitress for chrissakes trash runs were not on her list of responsibilities.
“Just twenty more minutes” she mutters “and then it’s just you and some schnapps and maybe if you’re lucky —“ She cuts that train of thought off immediately, she refused to think about Peggy. Things had been going pretty well after she opened up to Angie the night her co-worker died.
Peggy had possibly said more words to her that night than during the entirety of their friendship.
After quite a bit of schnapps she even mentioned her lost love from the war. Unfortunately that combined the two topics Angie liked to avoid at all costs romance and casualties of war. Her unease was outweighed by seeing her typically composed friend so distraught. Angie got the feeling the woman hadn’t really let herself go like that before so Angie simply held her, stroking her hair and letting her cry. A bit after the tears stopped and the comfortable silence ebbed Angie fell back on her default setting, cheery chatting. She broke out her most amusing anecdotes, even a few from her time working the munitions factory. Not everyone knew explosives occasionally led to hilarity instead of despair.
At some point they must have both drifted off as Angie woke up still in her uniform with a hell of a hangover and Peggy draped over her torso. She panicked for a full minute while attempting to slip away without waking the other woman. Angie held her breath when the movement caused Peggy to stir and open her eyes. She paused mid-stretch looking around in confusion for a split second before she met Angie’s wide eyes and smiled. Angie felt herself relax as Peggy bid her good morning and excused herself to wash up without any hint of discomfort.
Following that night Peggy accepted more of her invitations, even occasionally extended her own. She still cancelled plans with questionable excuses but the look of genuine regret and honest attempts at making it up to Angie went a long way.
There were quite a few early mornings or late nights at the phone company, which Angie would believe is where she actually worked the day she saw Miriam Fry drinking tequila on top of a scantily clad male hooker above the first floor.
She shook her head as if doing so would physically dislodge the thought. She couldn't stop the shudder that ran through her, why did she do these things to herself? She tried desperately to scrub that image from her mind. Maybe if she drank an entire bottle of schnapps?
But yeah things had been swell, there were even times where Angie thought maybe, just maybe Peggy shared her more than friendly feelings.
Then she disappeared without so much as a 'cheerio'.
It had officially been four days since she last saw Peggy. She came in on a lunch run and said she’d be at the Griffith for dinner.
Since then nothing.
Angie’d been ready to bust the other woman’s door down or file a missing person’s report but then Ms. Fry said something about a family emergency and well Angie was pissed.
There was concern mixed in sure because god help her she was dizzy for the dame but evidently she didn’t even rank a hastily scrawled note or a message left with Fry who she clearly spoke to. So Angie was angry and worried and angry about being worried and twenty minutes left in her shift was twenty minutes too long.
She was about to head back in when she felt something bump into her leg.
She looked down and saw a scruffy little dog that had definitely seen better days. The poor thing probably was brown but he was covered in enough dirt to make it debatable. His ribs were sticking out and there seemed to be blood matted in his fur. He looked up at her with big eyes, his mangled ear flopping when he tilted his head. Angie had just reached out hoping to see how bad the injury was when the door behind her slammed open.
Her boss took one look at her squatting on the ground and sneered.
“I’m paying you to work Martinelli, not play with vermin.”
She whirled around ready to give him a piece of her mind but she caught the look in his eye, her mind flashing back some neighborhood kids who liked to tie firecrackers to strays.
She calculated that the dog’s best chance was getting the mutt out of her boss’ sight immediately. So she pasted on her best chastised smile and ushered the man back inside.
“Sorry sir, won’t happen again, looks like I should hurry with squaring everything before closin'.”
He grunted and vacated through the front entrance leaving Angie to take care of the straggling customers and lock up.
Typically she’d be grumbling about her good for nothing boss leaving her to handle close-up. Again, waitress, closing not in the job description but today she was glad. By the time she finished up it was ten minutes past her shift’s official end, instead of dwelling she grabbed a box, some extra dishrags, water and leftover meat and exited through the alley. This time she was greeted by a wet nose pressing through her stockings.
She knelt down to clean him up some and check his wounds. Once the blood was off he didn’t appear to be in awful shape. While he ate she layered the box with the extra dishrags and set it up some ways down from the Automat’s dumpster. He wandered over after devouring the meat and climbed into Angie’s lap.
“I wish I could take you home with me little guy but Miriam would have a cow.”
The dog stopped its nuzzling and let out a soft growl which was around the same time Angie heard footsteps approaching. She slipped out of her heels brandishing one of them as weapon. It was quiet but she sensed someone was lingering in the dark. The continued growling by her side validated her senses.
“Come on out! It’s been a long day and I ain’t gunna hesitate to shove this heel somewhere unpleasant!”
“Angie, you really shouldn’t threaten unknown assailants! There are some rather dangerous people about.”
“What can I say I’m just a scrawny gal from Brooklyn too dumb not to run away from a fight.”
The words came out purely on instinct, her mouth running before her brain kicked into gear. Angie was in the middle of pinching herself to make sure she wasn’t dreaming when Peggy materialized from the shadows. Which meant she missed the falter in Peggy’s step and the hitch in her breath when Angie’s words registered.
Oblivious to the words she uttered let alone Peggy’s reaction to them Angie shouted Peggy’s name flinging herself towards the woman nearly knocking her over.
“Where the hell’ave you been? I been worried sick! You just disappeared this is New York City ya coulda been at the bottom of the Hudson for all I knew and then I find out you had enough time to tell Ms. Fry you’d be gone but couldn’t even find time to pass along a ‘I ain’t dead’ to Angie” She punctuated all this with a few strong jabs to Peggy’s shoulder before calming a bit.
“Are you okay? What about your family? Fry said something about a family emergency? Did you go all the way to England? ”
Peggy looked a bit bewildered at the onslaught both verbal and physical. Looking closer Angie could see the fatigue etched in the other woman’s face and was that alcohol she smelled on her breath? She decided the inquisition could wait until they were back at the Griffith at the very least.
“Come on English let’s get you home” Finally seeming to regrasp her control of the English language Peggy manages to croak out, “I believe that’s my line.”
“Really now? never knew I came across as English.”
That Peggy once again became flustered made it clear that she was far from the top of her game. The exhaustion of the past few days and switching of time-zones caused the celebratory drinks to hit her a bit harder than usual. After a few of the agents left to go home to their wives and girlfriends, Peggy was gripped with the sudden need to see Angie. She steadfastly refused to dig any deeper into motivations simply bidding Thompson goodnight and heading straight to the Automat hoping to catch Angie before she ended her shift.
“That’s not what I…what I meant...that is to say..” Peggy was having a rare difficulty getting out a sentence much to the amusement of Angie. Noticing the smile threatening to break out across Angie’s face Peggy managed to draw herself up and in inject some semblance of dignity into a short but complete sentence.
“I am here to escort you home.” And damn if Angie didn’t swoon just a smidge at the turn back to her typical airs of sophistication.
“That’s right chivalrous of you, doll.” If Angie didn’t know better she’d swear there was a blush staining her friend’s cheeks.
“Yes, well, I do try.”
Angie was about to reply, she how far she could push this into flirtation territory when she noticed they were being followed by her new furry friend.
“I thought I told you to stay put?” A heartbreaking whine was the only response. Angie placed her hands on her hips and put on her best stern face.
“We talked about this, you gotta stay here.”
“Ah, Angie, dear you do realize he cannot actually understand you, yes?”
At which point Angie and the small pup both turned their heads towards her in what Peggy would swear were identical 'you’re an idiot' faces. If there was anything Peggy knew it was how to choose your battles so she wisely raised her hands in a placating manner.
“Although….”
“Angie, Ms. Fry would kick you out on the spot.”
“Jeez English I know, I wasn’t about ta suggest bringing him back to the Griffith. I was thinking more my parents’ house, it’s been a few years but uh…it was sort the neighborhood’s unofficial animal shelter for awhile.” Angie looks a bit sheepish and Peggy can’t help but grin.
“I bet you were adorable bringing all sorts in off the streets”
“Shut up English…still you shoulda seen the time I came home with a rat I thought my Ma was gunna have a heart attack right there in the kitchen. I don’t think I ever saw J laugh so hard.” Angie trailed off gaining a distant look in her eyes. After the silence stretched a few beats too long Peggy became a bit concerned.
“Angie….Ang are you quite alright you disappeared on me for a minute there” Angie jolted from her thoughts offered up a sad but genuine smile.
“Yeah, sorry English animals weren’t the only strays I had a tendency to bring home is what my Ma would say if ya asked her. I was just thinking about some friends… it’s been awhile…since…ah anyway I ever tell you about TC ?” Peggy filed away the reaction for later. A simple answer was about all the brain function she was capable of at the moment.
“Hmm not that I can recall, I believe I’d remember such an odd name.”
“Well it’s a nickname obviously, kid had the luck of the Irish that's for sure, got into more fights than a professional boxer with none of the skill but he always stood back up. And I think he had every type of fever known to man at some point. Used to tease him about being a cat, nine lives and all but there was already a girl on our street named Katherine, Kat for short and ‘sides he’d say if he was any kind of cat he’d be a fierce jungle cat like a tiger. It was funny ‘cause even when he was grown he was smaller'an me. So I said maybe a tiger cub and somehow it became TC which stuck for some reason.”
Peggy swallowed hard, schooling her features best she could. The last few days had been filled with haunting reminders of Steve more blatant than the visceral echoes she lived with daily. Angie’s friend sounded so much like the Steve she fell in love with that she was struggling to retain her composure. She had already spent a night crying on the poor girl over him and she was not keen on repeat performance so soon or at all really. Tears had no place in the kind of night she'd like to spend with...
She cleared her throat determined to focus on the present, refusing to indulge the pull of exhaustion and alcohol towards her more base thoughts. Be them melancholy or.. She cleared her throat once more, “Isn’t it a bit late to be showing up on your parents’ doorstep with a puppy though?”
“I suppose. Well I think he’d be alright if we left him in the courtyard for the night, even if Fry finds him it’s not like she could trace it back to us.”
“Well come on then you can tell me about you’re youthful misadventures on the way.” Angie gave Peggy a brighter smile, scooping up the dog with one hand and grabbing Peggy's with the other, pulling her towards the Griffith. All while animatedly launching into the story of the first time she met her childhood friend.
Neither of them noticed their hands remained intertwined for the duration of the walk home.