Oh Death, can't you spare me over 'till another year?

[impaledqueen]

Who| Peggy Carter and Linden, then Peggy, Linden, and Jason
What| The Peacekeepers are coming for Peggy and Linden. Jason is Peggy's hail Mary to get them both out.
Where| Linden's room in the Tribute Center, then Compson Manor
When| Afternoon to Evening days before the parade.
Warnings/Notes| Jason, and (minor and breathtakingly pathetic) violence against a woman. I'll add more as they come up.

For Linden

Peggy has a lot of practice looking calm when inside she feels like melting down. After talking with Derek and destroying the letters Bucky had sent her (it stung a little, but she knows them word for word now and there can be no evidence of his survival left behind), she puts the radio Bucky had given her years ago into her bag, touches up her makeup, and goes to work like any other day.

Her girls are still working with the Stylist. Peggy wishes she could say goodbye to them, but she can't let on that she knows what's happening, and any gesture of favor from her would put them in greater danger once she's gone. She tries not to think of all the people she's probably never going to be able to see again after this.

"Linden?" She's at Linden's door, knocking gently. She doesn't really know how they'll get him out of the Capitol along with her, but she can't bear the thought of just leaving him to die and saving herself. She's making this up as she goes along, and hopefully she can just drag him along. "Linden, it's Peggy."

For Jason and Linden

Peggy explained what she could in public, which basically amounted to her taking his arm so she could lean in and whisper, "The peacekeepers are after you. Follow my lead and trust me," into his ear without it looking too weird or getting picked up by the microphones scattered through the city.

There's a blind spot in the middle of the Compson Manor's dining room. Jason doesn't know she knows about it. Hell, Peggy's not even sure if Jason knows about it. Either way, she's not sure if Bucky's instructions for escape were one-time or long-term, and if they are meant to be constant, she doesn't know if whatever system he set up could move as quickly as she needs it to and take on an extra person. She doesn't even know if District 13 would take her when she's been discovered and turned into a liability--that is, if any escape is sanctioned by D13, which she's not sure of. She's left thinking on her feet, unsure of how to proceed and going to Jason in an effort to save her and Linden.

She clicks the system to buzz her in at the gate, Linden by her side when she says, "Jason, it's Peggy. Could you buzz me in, please?"

Comments

[dead_black_eyes]

Linden's been doing a good job sucking it up, so far. He's been as quiet as the furniture he's sitting with, not bothering with a safety belt, curling up and thinking about how much he could use rest while admitting privately that his heart is beating too quickly to allow his eyes to close for even a moment. He listens to the sound of Peggy's voice, pulling his knees closer to his chest and resting his cheek against them as her words blur and blend into a series of pleasant, meaningless sounds until they dwindle and fade back into a natural-sounding silence. While it's easy to feel the way the air around Jason seems to vibrate with his pent-up anger, the desperation in Peggy's performance also radiates. Linden doubts that he's exuding anything on this trip, but it's only because he's so blanched, raw and beaten, here only because Peggy cared enough to pocket the cooling, ashy ember of his will to live and take it away from the Capitol before it could finish smothering him.

When the car finally stops after what feels like weeks in the stifling environment, Jason starts typing a message, and Linden pulls himself forward so he can read the glowing screen. He quickly holds up two fingers, indicating that he'd much prefer that the chip was disabled. He'd not hesitate to cut it out, ordinarily, but at the moment he doesn't feel that he can afford to lose any more blood. After he's done whatever's needed to scan the information into the program, he slips outside the car, pulling the large suitcase down with some effort and unlatching it. He'll fit inside with room to spare, but he glances over his shoulder, expecting that one of them will follow to help latch and stow him since no one could do this alone.

He's so thin and wasted. It isn't even cramped once he's inside the suitcase, just uncomfortable, with the boniness and the scabs on his back that regularly tear and bleed every time he moves in a way that isn't perfectly careful and delicate. What remains of the trip will be very difficult, and if any dogs even come near them, that blood that makes his shirt stick to his back will draw them directly to his location. He tries to take comfort in thinking about safety in 13, but of course there's no guarantee that he won't be shot, or worse, rejected and left to fend for himself in the wild until he is caught or killed.

[impaledqueen]

Peggy nods and presents her arm to Jason to scan. A part of her wants to tell him no and dig it out herself so he can keep his name off the logs entirely, but that would mean that her blood would be all over the inside of his car. Even if he scrubbed it away, trace amounts of her DNA could still be found and used to implicate him. It's better that she let him deactivate it now and take care of covering his tracks himself. She can dig it out later when she's not going to get blood somewhere important.

She waits until Jason has finished and Linden has left the car before opening the door itself. "Thank you for driving us, Jason," she says for the audio surveillance's benefit more than for anyone else's. Getting out to latch Linden into the suitcase and carefully put it away also has the benefit of making it sound like she has left the car, just as long as she leaves the door open while she works outside of it so she doesn't have to open it again.

She closes it when she climbed back inside and curls up under the seat. Her body is bulky from all the lean muscle she has tirelessly maintained, so it's a tight fit, but she manages it. She wishes she could close her eyes and relax, but she can't. Her eyes stay open, vigilant for any sign that they've been figured out, for a sign that she has helped sign their death warrants.

[whatisay]

Jason turns on the radio as he drives, something he rarely does, if only to cover any sounds his smuggled persons might make. It's some talk radio program about how subsidies to the Districts are raising capital gains taxes in the Capitol. He isn't really listening to it or absorbing anything.

The first border check is easy, him flashing some credentials, a license to travel, an explanation that he has to head out to find a relative on vacation in the Districts for some post-funereal business of his mother's. Still, it's two hours before he crosses the border and gets out far enough to get them out of the car. By the time he pulls over in the middle of a forested area, his hands ache for having been clenched for so many hours.

He doesn't explain anything to Peggy and Lunden as he kills the car and leaves it. For all he knows, Linden's suffocated by now. Good, he thinks. At a scheduled meeting point, he reconnoiters with a man who has an unkempt beard and the sort of glassy eyes that look like marbles in most lights.

"I thought that niece of yours run off."

"She did. That's not what I'm here for. I just need you to not ask questions, alright?" Jason runs his hands through his hair and marches back to the car. "Just help me unload the furniture."

It's not about the furniture; that's not what this man is here for. He's here to dispose of the antiques and make sure the smuggled people get to a drop-off point - even if it is the middle of the woods - without incident. And he doesn't say much, either, just undoing the seat Peggy's under and grabbing the suitcase and dragging it out a good distance from the car.

Jason helps Peggy untangle herself from the seat and leads her towards the bushes.

[dead_black_eyes]

Once Linden's encased in leather and securely stowed, the car starts moving again. It feels like longer than it is as the air in the suitcase begins to thin out and grow stale, and he nods off into an uneasy sleep as the vehicle rocks and bumps along their road's smooth and rough patches.

He's dreaming of Karkat yelling soundlessly, with only steam coming out of his mouth as his horns glow neon, when a jolt of sudden, erratic movement startles him awake. The car's stopped and the suitcase is being handled, dropped, and dragged along the ground and left while footsteps retreat.

He slept awkwardly and put kinks in his already hurting body. He's more than a little lightheaded from breathing the same stale air for two hours, but he remains still, not knowing the circumstances of this dropoff or if they're among friends.

[impaledqueen]

Peggy both wishes that she could fall asleep and has a deep anxiety at the thought. Her muscles start to cramp, but she stays silent, biting her tongue. She has gone through worse pain. She remembers sleeping under machine guns.

She feels the bumps in the road and waits. Waits for a sign that they're either safe or the peacekeepers have stopped them. Waits for a sign that they'll live or die.

They stop. She holds her breath. Jason starts talking to someone. It doesn't sound like a peacekeeper.

Then they take the seat off of her. She needs the help Jason offers--her legs have fallen asleep and she has to use him to balance as feeling rushes back to them. They're not in the Capitol anymore. Her heart thuds in her chest.

She lets Jason lead her. She hopes Linden is okay in the suitcase.

"Thank you, Jason."

She could thank him a thousand times and she doesn't think that it'd be enough.

[whatisay]

"Yeah, you'd better. If I end up with my brains blown out on public television it's going to be your fault," he mutters, once they're far enough from the car. He sets her against a tree, trusting her to hold herself up while he finishes the matters he needs to, mainly payment. The man helps Linden out of the suitcase and puts the thing back in the car, leaves Linden to stretch out and unfold himself in the damp grass.

Jason peels off bills from his money clip for the coyote, but it's not enough even after he's stripped the whole thing down, so he has to go digging in the car and grab from his stash in the glove compartment. He grabs his cigarette and tries in vain to feel calmed as he sucks it deep, then stretches his hands and wrings them like an old rag.

"Where they going?" the coyote asks.

"I don't know. Just keep them out of the surveillance zones and let them figure it out once you get them far enough away from the roads." Jason sounds callous, more than usual, even, laying on thick that anger that smothers everything else. Anger is so easy. It's simple, pure, a radiant and undiscriminating glow that bathes everything around it in blinding red.

He sure as hell doesn't break it for Linden. In fact, as if he can't even help himself, as he passes Linden he gives him a disdainful nudge with his foot towards the welts. He hopes it hurts.

But when he reaches Peggy - God, he wants to hit her again, and his hand hurts in longing and sympathy to do so - instead he pulls her close and holds her to his chest for a moment, stiff and wordless, tight, and then he kisses the crown of her head.

"I hope I never see you again," he says, and he means it to be vicious but it's entirely true. If he sees her again it'll probably be on television before her execution. He hands her the rest of the money from the stash in his car; it's a day's wages in the Capitol, and she probably has some stowed away, but it'll last a long time in the Districts. He feels sick, sick behind his eyes, even, like he wants to cry but can't and won't as another brick is pulled from his rotting foundation.

"This way," the coyote says, to Linden and Peggy both. "Not far before I leave you."

[dead_black_eyes]

Feeling left his extremities a long time ago, and even though the rush of cool, fresh air is welcome, as well as (surprisingly) Jason's help getting out of the suitcase, and once he's free of the confining space, he stretches painfully and slowly while a variety of other things go on above and around him. Some concern him, like that vicious kick that renders him speechless and breathless by merit of coming so close to the tender whip-wheals. Some, like whatever Jason has to say to Peggy, do not, and as the blood and sensation rushes back into his cramped limbs, he focuses on the scent of the grass, slowly counting these brief seconds he's been afforded for the purpose of recovery.

He cranes his head back; it looks like an embrace. The kink in his neck prevents him from staring too long.

At the prompting of the coyote, he wills his cramped and aching legs to hold his weight and staggers to his feet, knowing that the journey will be long and difficult from this point forward but hopefully worth it in the end.

[impaledqueen]

Her eyes sting and her throat closes when Jason kisses her, but she doesn't cry. That, perhaps more than anything else, communicates how much Jason cares. He doesn't need to say it (he'll never say it), but she knows. She won't cry because it won't do any of them any good, and she'll need to stay hydrated for the coming journey. She embraces him briefly, then separates, taking his money and putting it carefully in her pocket.

"I hope I never see you again either." Unlike Jason's, her voice is soft, pained. She's not trying to be cruel.

She doesn't expect to live past the war. If she sees him again, it's because he's being executed on television or has been paraded as a casualty of war by either side. Neither of them should expect to see the other alive and well again.

She bows her head and adjusts her grip on her bag. "Live well, Jason." She really, really hopes that he'll be able to find something to make him happy. Is that possible? She's not so sure, but she hopes so.

Then she turns around and reaches to take Linden's arm. It's partially to help support him, partially to help support herself as she says goodbye to another beloved friend. "I'll dress your wounds once we're a safe distance, okay?" she says to him while she gives him a visual check up. She's not sure how long he'll be able to walk, but they will need to walk as far as possible, so she resolves to carry him if she must.

/wrap

[whatisay]

"Right. You're sure leaving me on a good foot to start the rest of my life on." He can't help a parting shot; she means enough to him that he can see the years she's been in his life as constituting some separate period from the rest of it. He doesn't look back when he walks away.

The coyote will take them deep into the woods, and then leave them to their own devices, neither knowing nor particularly caring where it is they're heading to. The surveillance in the Districts is much spottier, so they can get further on foot. Jason tells himself he doesn't care, and makes an affirmative plan not to ask the coyote for any details if they ever speak again.

He drives back to the Capitol in silence, and when he's home, puts his fist through the rotting drywall of his niece's old bedroom.