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i.
Jarvis was good at picking up small details about people.
He had been a quiet child. He wasn’t shy, he just didn’t like talking if he had nothing to say. So when people talked around him, he observed them. He took in every little detail about them; their clothes, their habits and quirks. He found people interesting.
He didn’t need to be observant to notice the change in Peggy Carter’s demeanor, though.
They had an errand to run together and Jarvis had come to pick Peggy up. He had arrived at the exact same time Miss Carter was coming out of the house. She didn’t join him in the car, though. No, Jarvis watched as Angie opened the door to drag Peggy inside again.
So, he waited.
Waited some more.
He was about to go inside to look for Peggy when she hurriedly came out of the house, trying to hide the fact that she was smiling.
“I’m sorry, mister Jarvis. My heel broke off, I had to find some other shoes to wear.”
He believed her, but something was telling him she wasn’t sharing the whole story with him. A different pair of shoes probably wasn’t the reason for the smile on her face. The smudge of lipstick on her face? That might be a little indication. He didn’t comment on it, simply told her she might have rushed while doing her make up. She smiled gratefully and rearranged her lipstick.
She didn’t wash the stain of bright pink lipstick on her neck, though.
ii.
Jarvis did not spend his time staring at Peggy’s neck. The last time, there was a stain that attracted his attention. Now, there was a whole new kind of stain on her neck. The kind that disturbingly looked like a bruise. A bruise made by lips and lust. Now, he wasn’t one to pry. It was Miss Carter’s private life and none of his business.
But he was curious.
So he kept staring while Peggy moved effortlessly around the kitchen, fixing them some tea. The bruise wasn’t easily visible. It was close to Peggy’s hairline and, Jarvis guessed, her hairdo had been hiding it for most of the day. It just happened that while turning her head to look around for teacups, Jarvis had caught sight of it.
The mark was slightly red and apparently fading and really Jarvis should stop staring. If Peggy had a suitor, it was none of his business. She had been visibly more relaxed and - dare he say happy - these past few weeks. So, as long as Peggy sported that happy smile on her face whenever she got lost in thought, he would not interfere.
“Is everything alright, Mr Jarvis?”
She must have noticed he hadn’t said anything for the past couple of minutes and had just been staring at her neck. He managed a tight lipped smile at being caught, trying to find an adequate answer to give her.
“Is that a hickey on your neck?”
Miss Carter was clearly taken aback by his question and, to be honest, so was he. He watched as red started spreading on the woman’s cheeks while she tried to keep a straight face. She opened her mouth a couple of times before coming up with something tangible to say.
“No, I, uhm, I ran into a door”
Maybe not that tangible. Jarvis watched closely as Peggy sighed, no doubt, at her inability to find a believable excuse.
“You ran into a door? With your neck?”
When Peggy suddenly turned around to fix him with a glare, Jarvis realized that maybe he was being nosy. But still, that excuse was flimsy at best and made Jarvis wonder how Miss Carter had managed to keep her job a secret for so long. He slightly raised his hands in surrender and dropped the subject.
He kept staring. Peggy was a terrible liar.
iii.
Jarvis knocked on the door, trying to balance the grocery bag with his left arm. He knew Angie had had an audition earlier in the day and he also knew Peggy was away on a mission. That was why he had found himself in front of the mansion, waiting for the actress to let him in. He knew from talking to Peggy that Angie usually needed to have someone to share the audition’s excitement with or someone to cheer her up.
When Angie opened the door, Jarvis figured she’d need the latter tonight. Her eyes were missing their usual spark and her smile felt forced.
“Hey, Fancy, didn’t know you were coming over. Come in.”
Even her voice sounded wrong and Jarvis wondered how he could tell her she didn’t need to pretend to be fine around him. He let her close the door behind him while he went straight to the kitchen. He heard her shuffle behind him.
“So, not that I’m not happy to see you, but what brings you over?”
She sat on one of the barstools and covered her hands with her shirt’s sleeves. She then leaned her elbows on the table and rested her head on her hands. Jarvis just kept pulling out from the bag the different items he had bought.
“Miss Carter let me know, before leaving, that you had an audition today, I thought I’d take the time to make you dinner and ask you how it went.”
A soft smile graced Angie’s lips as she looked down. Jarvis was prepared for anything. He was good at planning things, so they’d be no panic involved. He was ready to listen to her rant if need be. He even had a handkerchief in case tears were to make an appearance. Her answer, however, was not what he expected. When Angie looked up, her usual excitement was present on every inch of her face.
“It went really well! I was scared they’d interrupt me halfway through the song -I mean, I heard some of the girls and they were amazing- but they didn’t. They let me do the whole thing and actually smiled at me when I was done.”
Angie shook her head in disbelief before looking down, grinning.
“They seemed so satisfied. Can you believe that, English?”
The nickname made Jarvis look up from the tomato he was currently slicing and Angie eyes go wide before dropping again. She started fidgeting with the sleeve of the sweater to keep her hands busy. That’s when Jarvis realized the shirt was at least a size too big to be Angie’s.
She was wearing Peggy’s sweater.
Jarvis put down his knife. He wasn’t going to comment on it.
He wasn’t going to comment on the fact that Angie’s excitement had disappeared again either. Her roommate was god knows where on (probably very dangerous) spy business. Of course the young woman would worry. As far as he knew, Peggy was her best friend.
But he suspected they were way more than that to each other.
iv.
Jarvis walked into the L&L, automatically walking over to the booth Peggy usually occupied. He stopped abruptly when he saw the English woman was not sitting alone. Next to her was sitting a very enthusiastic Angie, all animated talk and waving hands. Neither saw him approach, their eyes only leaving each other when Jarvis cleared his throat. He was greeted by an excited “Mr Fancy!” and a pleasant “Jarvis” as he sat down in front of them.
He took the menu sitting on the table and flipped through it until he felt a pair of eyes on him. He looked up to find Angie staring at him with a raised eyebrow and a smirk on her face.
“I never thought I’d see this day.”
Jarvis looked confusedly between Angie and Peggy, looking for some sort of explanation. Peggy just shrugged, having no idea what the waitress was going on about.
“What do you mean, Miss Martinelli?”
Angie looked very pleased he’d asked but tried to act nonchalant.
“Oh you know, just you and Peggy actually sitting in the same booth. I’m glad you gave up on pretending to be subtle about your chats.”
Jarvis was about to point out how very subtle he was thank you very much but Angie just kept going.
“So, what does this mean? Are you making it official? Should I be worried?”
Angie and Peggy both started chuckling, apparently not catching the slip up. Jarvis, though, slowly started raising his brows, trying to make sense of that last question.
“Should you be worried about what?”
And, as he watched realisation dawn onto the two women in front of him, Jarvis felt a sort of smug satisfaction. It only grew stronger as Peggy looked at Angie and tried to discreetly nod her head in Jarvis’ direction as if to say please, find something to take us out of this mess you created. A few more looks of wide eyes and tight lips were exchanged before Angie dared to face him again.
“You know how us best pals can get,” Jarvis could see Angie cringe behind that huge smile of hers. Peggy shaking her head in the background wasn’t helping them in any way either, “I’d be worried about Peggy getting home late and… being a homewrecker. What’s she going to do with all that guilt?”
Jarvis nodded.
Angie was sweating.
They were caught in a staring match. It went on for a few silent seconds until Angie couldn’t handle it anymore.
“You know, Fancy, we have some new pies I bet you’re gonna love. They’re delicious and sweet and very good. Yes, new pies!”
She hurriedly got up, knocking her hip on the table in the process, and walked towards the pie stand. Jarvis and Peggy both watched her walk away. While his gaze was back on Peggy, hers lingered on the small firework of a woman that was Angie Martinelli. A fond smile appeared on the agent’s face as she turned around to meet Jarvis’ gaze. She tried to quell her features but it was too late.
Jarvis wanted to have a little fun.
“You should tell miss Martinelli she has nothing to worry about.”
Peggy’s answer was unexpected.
“I need to go to the loo.”
She too bumped into the table and hurried away. She paused briefly where Angie was standing to mutter something Jarvis could not make out. He did however hear Angie’s harsh whisper.
“Well, at least I tried, Margaret.”
v.
Jarvis liked Angie Martinelli. He found her company pleasant. She was honest and sincere. She clearly enjoyed teasing him and, after awhile, he found himself teasing her back. From a simple acquaintance, Angie quickly became a friend through shared dinners, grocery runs or, as was the case today, laundry sessions.
Doing laundry together quickly turned into their thing. While dinners were sometimes shared with Peggy or Anna, laundry was their territory. Jarvis actually liked doing it, Angie simply had no choice. There was no way she was letting Peggy in charge of laundry after she somehow managed to turn all of Angie’s underwear a weird shade of disgusting green.
Angie always had great stories to share, about her childhood, her work or some ridiculous thing Peggy had done or said. Jarvis enjoyed listening because more often than not, she made him laugh. She had a dramatic flare that Jarvis never thought he’d like quite so much.
Angie was telling him about the time she had gotten three bottles of schnapps and a giant chocolate cake past Miriam Fry when Jarvis stopped listening to focus on the stain he had just found on one of Angie’s uniforms. Angie continued to blabber as Jarvis softly gasped when he realised that what he’d thought was a jam stain was, in fact, not jam.
The stain was on the chest area and upon closer inspection, Jarvis could make out the shape of lips. Angie finally realised he had not moved nor talked after a couple of minutes. Frowning, she was about to ask what was wrong when her eyes caught sight of the red mark. She took the uniform from Jarvis which seemed to shake him out of his trance.
“Is that lipstick?”
He saw a blush make its way at the tip of Angie’s ears. She cleared her throat and pretended to examine the garment more closely.
“It would appear so. I must’ve accidentally smudged it when I was undressing.”
Jarvis squinted and stared. Angie waited for him to say something. When he finally started nodding slowly, he could see the tension leaving Angie’s shoulders.
At least, this lie was believable. Just barely, but still better than the last.
vi.
As Jarvis watched Angie and Anna take their plates away, followed by Howard pestering them about some thing or another while Peggy was yelling at him to drop it from her place next to Jarvis, he realised they had become a little family of sorts. Sometimes dysfunctional and tainted with secrets but still, they cared for and supported each other.
While he knew Howard and his habits like the back of his hands, he was still getting to know Peggy. They were alike in some ways, maybe in part due to their similar upbringings. They had shared a fair amount of adventures together to finally clear Howard’s name. He had watched as her grip on the vial of Captain’s blood had been death-like in the beginning only to loosen with time. She was moving on and lighting up, and he felt proud to see her grow everyday.
He had his suspicions on who was making Peggy smile so much. To be perfectly honest, after all he had witnessed in the past weeks he knew who was behind her happiness. And he was glad the tiny fiery italian woman had wormed her way in the agent’s life.
Peggy kept staring at the door Angie had just disappeared into with a fond smile on her face. The smile was accompanied by a small shake of the head when she heard Angie talk to Howard (something involving shoving a spoon somewhere unpleasant). Jarvis grimaced before turning to the woman next to him.
“Did you teach her that?”
Peggy just let out a small chuckle, “Mister Jarvis, I firmly believe we don’t know half of what Angie is capable of.”
He nodded.
A minute passed.
Maybe he shouldn’t comment on anything.
But, surely Peggy wouldn’t kill him with his wife in the next room.
“I’m glad you have someone like Miss Martinelli to rely on,” he held his breath as Peggy slowly turned to face him. She nodded, pondering carefully over her next words.
“Yes, she is an extraordinary friend.”
Jarvis smiled at that.
“Yes, it looks like you have gotten quite used to each other. It’s nice to see you this lighthearted.”
Peggy shrugged, clearly feeling a tad uncomfortable discussing her relationship with Angie. Still, the side of her lips were slightly upturned and that was all the encouragement Jarvis needed.
“Perhaps we could double date, go out dancing. Miss Martinelli looks like an excellent dancer.”
For a second it looked like Peggy was about to interject, defend hers and Angie’s relationship. But, as Angie, Anna and Howard made their way back to the table, Peggy caught Angie’s eyes and her smile widened. Looking back at Jarvis, she shyly nodded, gratefulness in her eyes and a thank you on the tip of her tongue. What she said instead, pleased him all the same.
“Yes, I think we’d like that very much. She certainly is a great partner… Maybe even the right one.”