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When Peggy Carter walked into the bullpen of the New York department of the SSR, she found all her collegues standing in a circle in a clearing between the desks.
"Ah, Marge, I see you're here, could you do me a favor? The boys and I are having a push-up contest and we need someone to keep count," Jack Thompson said.
"A push-up contest? Well, good thing I didn't choose to wear a skirt this morning then," Peggy replied, dropping her coat and purse off at her desk, before joining the men.
"What, you don't seriously think you can join us, do you," Jack laughed, after seeing her serious face.
"What, just because I'm a woman, doesn't mean I can't manage a simple push-up contest. The Howling Commando's had them all the time during the war, coulndn't help but showing off," Peggy scowled.
"Come on, Carter, just count while we do the push-ups," Jack said, rolling his eyes. He was clearly becomming irritated.
"I bet I can beat all of you, using only one arm, while the rest of you can use both of them," Peggy challenged.
"Come on, Margaret, be reasonable," Jack said, getting slightly annoyed.
"You just don't want me to go up aganist you, because you're scared I'll beat you and your pride won't be able to handle that" Peggy said with a slight smirk.
"Come one, Jack, just let her compete, she'll see that this isn't something for woman and then she'll leave us be," agent Vega's voice interveined, from somewhere in the group.
"Fine, just don't go crying when you lose. That doesn't solve our previous problem, though" Jack gave in with a sigh.
"I'll count, I won't be able to join you anyway," Daniel Sousa offered, referring to his prosthetic leg.
Now that it was decided, all competing agents formed a circle where they were standing, Daniel in the middle to keep count. Peggy, determined to prove these emn righ once and for all, kept her promise and used only her left arm, right arm on her back, out of the way. Slowly but surely, agents began to fall of one by one, untill only Jack and Peggy were left. The remaining agents forming a circle around them, most of them cheering on Jack. At ninety-seven Jack dropped to the floor, however, and everyone stared with a mixture of surprise and awe as Peggy kept going.
"How is she doing that?"
"What the hell?"
"I'm sure she has cheated somehow."
"She hasn't even switched arms. How hasn't she switched arms?"
Finally, after one hundred and eleven push-ups, Peggy's arm gave out underneat her and she collapsed onto the floor. "Jesus Christ Carter, where did you learn to do that many one-armed push-ups?" Jack asked from a nearby desk he'd sat down on, still out of breath from the push-ups he did.
"Sovjet-Russia," Peggy huffedas she sat up, she too still trying to catch her breath. She looked around at the other agentsaround them, who stared right back at her with awestruck faces and slightly more respect that they had before. Her eyes landed back on Jack, who had admiration and disbelieve written all over his face "Told you I would beat you," she said, a smirk grazing her lips.
~Extra~
Howard Stark walked into the SSR office that morning to find a lot of disshelved agents trying -and failing- to sneak subtle glances at Peggy. He wasn't surprised at the sight of the disshelved agents in the slightest, for this wasn't the first time he saw them like that. What did cause him to do a double take, however, were the different degrees of wonder, astonishment and respect on their faces, especially when they looked at his friend.
As he walked past where she was talking to Daniel, he couldn't help but ask. "Hey Peg, what happened to them?". While the question was directed at Peggy, it was Daniel who answered instead.
"They had a push-up contest this morning, she whiped the floor with all of them. Did you know she can do one hondred and eleven one-arm push-ups?" A mixture of pride and amazement laced Daniels voice.
"Geesh, Peg, one hundred and eleven? That's got te be a new record! I never knew you still did those," Howards eyes were slightly wide, a proud smile on his lips.
"I haven't practised them in a few months, actually. In fact, I think the last time I actually, seriously did one-armed push ups was a few weeks before the end of the war ended. During the last one-armed push-up contest between the Howling Commando's, remember?" Peggy mused. A melancholic smile graced her lips as Peggy was lost in the memory.
Jack, who had just been walking past to put away the file he was carrying, turned around with a look on his face that came very close to horror. As he sped of, Howard thought he could hear the guy mutter something under his breath that sounded a suspicious lot like "Damn, this woman, how is she even-"