[ oof.

...you know, she's come to accept a certain threshold for bruises and marks when it comes to splitting her time with rip hunter. but, admittedly, this is something completely different. and (oh alright) she perhaps might take half the blame. a third, maybe. it's a good thing she knows how to fall -- the whole thing might have been much worse if she didn't know when and how to brace herself.

and then there's rip. peggy pushes up onto her elbows, wincing, and watches as only a few inches away he sprawls supine as though clinging to the floor might somehow solve all his problems. if she's reading him right (and she believes she is) then he looks a bit queasy after their tumble.

she very nearly tells him his discombobulation is well-deserved. next, she nearly laughs -- it bubbles up as far as her mouth and she coughs to cover the near-sound. there's nothing she finds funny about the evening but...well, it's all a bit absurd. isn't it? here's peggy carter, fresh off two of the most challenging personal conversations she's ever held, and she couldn't refrain just once from rising to obvious bait.

with a groan, she gropes along the landing's baseboard and thinks about what standing up might look like. ]

..was hardly working alone, was I?

[ she grumbles, mostly to herself, before reaching out to brush back a bit of his hair that's flopped out of place. ]

I trust you're still all in one piece. We can't have you scuppered at the first trial.