[ peggy doesn't want to be a cynic. quite the opposite, really. but cynicism has taken root in her all the same. maybe the war had something to do with it -- or maybe it's because of the first time she lost steve and the subsequent avalanche of losses. to climb so high only to be knocked down again. what progress was there in the years following the war, when working women became somehow disposable? the soldiers wanted their jobs back. one step forward, two steps back -- but retreat wasn't easy. not now that so many more of them had a taste.

but fitz is looking bright-eyed and hopefully toward a very different kind of progress, she thinks. peggy allows herself a slight smile. and the next sip of tea she takes has turned sweet from the biscuit crumbs swimming in it. ]

Even the smallest of dreams need a bit of ballast. [ and if it sounds as though she just might maybe be offering to be that ballast for him, then it's because she absolutely is. it's a terribly important step in her larger design for this conversation. ] So it only stands to reason than larger ones would need some too.