did somebody say mingle

[redactions]

Who: The crew of the SS Heron and visitors.
Broadcast: nope.
Action: Aboard the SS Heron.
When: Throughout the month.

[ starters in comments, feel free to backdate/forward date anything. ]

Comments

[redactions]

[ She looks at Jim and he has eyes only for his alternate, expression caught in some mixture of horrified fascination and open wonder. This is the first indication he's given that he remembers — anything. ]

Go on, you're on the right track. Isn't he?

[ He smiles encouragingly, hoping she'll follow suit. ]

[reconstitution]

[ He shakes his head as if trying to dislodge the memory. It won't budge any further than it already has.

Winter considers what he does have of it, though. The musty bar, the muted color and echoing laughter. The disappointment sitting in his gut, and the thrill. It's frustrating not knowing the context of the memory, and nothing else before or after will come. ]

[ He looks from Jim and looks a bit relieved, but looks back at Peggy for approval. ]

[mucked]

[ had she expected any of this? no, not at all. peggy had prepared herself for a tense meeting and maybe some ambiguous phrases. but she'd not anticipated both men looking at her with such a weighty need for acknowledgement. it almost (almost!) made her wish she had something a little less anti-climactic to say. ]

He is. [ on the right track. she can't help herself -- she rises once again from her chair and (hands folded stiffly in front of her) addresses 'winter'. ] You are. I have half-a-mind to guess you're thinking of the first night we met. You and I.

[ her smile ghosts at the corner of her lips. she forces herself to relive that evening in words, carefully editing steve out of the narrative because she isn't certain how to broach his name with this one. ]

Do you remember asking me to dance?

[ it all ends with rejection -- but they'd been adults then. a little rejection meant nothing in the face of oncoming friendship. ]

[reconstitution]

[ He can't help the tenseness as she stands up, but he relaxes shortly after. His shoulders drop as she talks, and her smile is disarming. ]

You were waiting for someone else. The right dance partner, you said..

[ He just can't think of who it was- they were probably in that same bar, though he can't bring up who. ]

[mucked]

[ -- she'd circumnavigated steve's name. side-stepped it, she'd thought. but here it surfaces again in the murky marginalia of their conversation. a touch baleful, she slides her attention from one barnes to the other. from the barnes who knows to the barnes who once-knew. and it's only the lost-and-loose tone in the winter soldier's voice that raises her up out of selfish stoicism. ]

It seems that's all I ever do. [ wait. agonize. but saying so sells herself short, because she's done a great deal more than merely wait. peggy's heels shift on the office floor. ] Do you recall the Commandos? They were there -- in the background, so to speak. I spent some time liaising with them.

[ and you, but she swallows that friendly addition. she shouldn't push her friendship on a man who can't remember it. small steps. little leaps. ]

[reconstitution]

[ He shifts his gaze to the wall directly between Jim and Peggy, though he doesn't seem to be paying much attention to it. Eyes darting back and forth as he accesses the memory, unblinking for the moment.

Winter's brow furrows, then he chances a look toward Peggy, disappointed. He blinks, then shakes his head, now certain of his lacking. ]

Sorry. There's nothing.

[ He looks back to the door. ]

Just you.

[mucked]

Well. [ a little stiff. a lot unsure. ] That's not something that needs apologizing for. Not really.

[ -- she's at a loss, but she doesn't want to be unsporting. so she tries: ] I am honoured, Mister Winter. Honoured to be remembered. You and I, we...

[ a slow shrug. ] I take it our chronologies are alike. [ as opposed to jim, who stands like a sign-post of a world just beyond their reach. ]

[reconstitution]

[ He shakes his head; Winter knows that this minute of memory isn't spectacular. Not like it should be, but it's better than absolutely nothing.

He offers her a gentle nod, looking back to her again. ]

Alike to a point. [ There is no telling just how similar their paths are at this point. The important part is that she was definitely someone that he knew at one point.

Maybe she can tell him more about who he should be. ]

[redactions]

I'll let you two work it out, shall I?

[ He's inched towards the door while they were both speaking, and nods to them when their gazes meet his. ]

[mucked]

[ she nearly protests. nearly recalls jim, and tries to drum up some excuse for why he ought to stay and continue chaperoning their little 'reunion'. but she can sense the vein of weakness inherent to that request. and another vein, too, filled with disrespect. once left alone, she lets her sights fall squarely upon the winter soldier.

she doesn't flinch. ]

You and I, now. [ a thin not-quite-smile. ] I promise I don't bite.

[ deflection. use humour to suggest she's the loose cannon in this moment, and not him. ]