Title: Tactical Insertion

By: TriplePirouette/3Pirouette

Spoilers: Agent Carter Season 1

Disclaimer: They're not mine.

Distribution: . Anyone else please ask first :)

Summary: A series of short fics that take place in Agent Carter, Season 1, assuming Steve, for whatever reason, was along for the ride.

Feedback PLEASE at:triplepirouettephile Or just hit the little button there.

AN: I really just wanted to see Steve be a part of Agent Carter, Season 1. This isn't really a fix it, because there isn't much story. Just a little intro then a brief "Insertion" in each episode with what would have happened with Steve there.

Chapter 1 is an intro, chapters 2 and onward will follow the episodes as they were released on American Blu-Ray.

Chapter 1: In the Early Morning Light (Now Is Not The End)

Summary: A brief how, when and why of Steve existing during Agent Carter s1, set at the very beginning of the first episode of Agent Carter.

AN: Just a little background, not meant to be exhaustive. Insert your favorite "Steve was rescued" head canon here.

Peggy stared out at the city as it began to come alive. She was waiting for her tea to boil, waiting for the sing-song siren of the kettle to begin her day. The room wasn't much, but it was enough. She shared it with another woman, but she'd much rather be bunking with Steve. As it was the United States Government saw to it that she barely had opportunity to see him these days.

It had taken them six months to find him, another six to revive him, and even then there were still questions about how fit he was for duty. It didn't much matter, though: World War II was over, and the world didn't need Captain America anymore.

He'd huffed and puffed and finally settled back in Brooklyn, while Peggy took a shared apartment in Manhattan proper. She still had a job with the SSR, though now that she was no longer Captain America's handler, she seemed to be relegated more to coffee and sandwich duty.

The world had been told that Captain America had perished in the fight against Hydra, that he'd given his own life to save those around him. His sacrifice had been glamorized beyond compare and it had rallied the troops and civilians alike in those last, grueling days of the war. The government was afraid that if they revealed that he was alive now, the murmurs of unrest happening in Russia would burst into full-blown war.

He was a secret now, known only to a few in the highest ranks of the SSR, Howard, and Peggy. Even the Howling Commandos weren't allowed to know he was alive, though Peggy was sure they'd hear word soon. It was hard to hide the man whose picture continued to grace every newspaper and magazine cover on the continent. It was why they'd dyed Steve's hair brown and insisted he grow a beard before they let him back into civilian society. He complained the beard was itchy, but didn't seem much to mind the auburn.

Steve, for his part, had turned his mind to writing and drawing. If he wasn't going to take his enforced rest gracefully, at least he decided to do something useful with it. Peggy was sure the military would redact his memoirs to within an inch of their life, but at least one uncensored version should exist in the SSR for posterity. He pecked away at a typewriter most days, sketching memories others as he sat and looked out the window.

She knew that the waiting, the quiet, was killing him. Before, his purpose had always been to be a soldier. Ever since he was a little boy that had been all he wanted to do. Now, he was the world's greatest soldier, and they didn't need him any longer. He'd confessed to her one night that he'd never had any other plan, and it made him feel lost now that he couldn't even go out and find job.

It's going to take time, Peggy would tell him over and over. It wasn't easy to resurrect a dead man in the media, for one, and there just wasn't a threat big enough for the army to put him on the front lines and at risk again. Your time will come, she'd whisper, distracting him with kisses.

The kisses worked. They were very distracting for Steve and Peggy alike.

It was days like these, though, that were hard. Wednesdays, usually, where she hadn't seen him since the weekend and she knew she wasn't likely to see him until Saturday again at the earliest. They kept her far away, tried desperately to keep him a secret. Sometimes, mid-week like this, it almost felt as if it had all been a dream and he'd never really been found. She still relived that awful day in her dreams, relived his promise over the crackling radio over and over until she woke up with tears in her eyes and her heart pounding in her chest.

The few nights she'd been able to sneak over Steve's she never woke up crying. His solid form beneath her hands was all she needed to remember he was real. But her world, out here in Manhattan and at the SSR, didn't know Steve was alive, and sometimes it was enough to make her feel crazy.

She knew he was alive, knew he was just a few blocks and a bridge away, but she still ached inside like he was lost this morning.

She turned as the teakettle blew its high pitch furiously. SSR and US Government be damned, she wasn't staying away from him any longer.