Work Text:
When Peggy was a little girl, she used to constantly misplace her things. Whether it was her other shoe, her favorite stuffed animal, her money for train fare, or her books. She always had a penchant for losing them when she needed them the most. Time and time again, when she'd say she couldn't find them, she'd always be met with the same old phrase from either her mother, father, or sister Anita.
"It's always in the last place you look"
Peggy always hated that phrase. It seemed too obvious to her. 'Of course it's in the last place you look because once you found it, you're not looking anymore...' Peggy would always think to herself. Sure, it was true that she'd always find them in the last place she looked, but the phrase was just way too hokey for her. As the years went by, she would misplace things time and time again and every time she did, she could hear her mother in her Brooklyn drawl repeating that phrase to her as if it was some sort of mantra to live by.
The last time she misplaced something, it was her passport. Upon retrospect, she is glad that she couldn't find it that night when she was on that blind date with Stevie. An impromptu date to Paris with a guy she hardly knew? What was she thinking? Sure, it sounded tempting at the time by when you're that inebriated, even the silliest of ideas sound brilliant. The next morning, she ended up finding her passport in her desk at work. Before her mother's voice could ring in her head, she heard footsteps heading into her door. She looked up and there was Stan, laughing as she sat down and drank her Alka Seltzer.
"Sounds like someone had a good time" he said, genuinely happy for her.
It didn't occur to her until now but that must have been a sign or some kind of weird symbolism that some pretentious film student would insist upon if her life was a shitty movie. They'd say something about how the passport was some kind of symbol for her heart and how it was there all along. She could imagine the film student going into their dissertation and smiled to herself in amusement as the film student in her head sounded increasingly like Abe, her old boyfriend. A man who was nice enough at the time, but never truly respected her and never took the time out to understand her either.
Peggy broke out of her thoughts and looked over at her couch in her office. Stan was laying down, sketching something for Chevalier cologne. He looked over in her direction and his eyes met with hers. The two exchanged a warm smile. He sat up and put his drawing pad down on the nearby table.
"Ready to go?" he asked softly
"Yeah" Peggy said as she got up from her desk. "We can pick up where we left off tomorrow"
The two headed for the door but before leaving they exchanged a brief but tender kiss as they headed out of the office. They walked side by side like normal until they hailed a cab to take them back to Peggy's brownstone. In the back of the taxi, Stan wrapped his arm around Peggy and held her close. She put her head on his shoulder as he kissed the top of her head softly. She smiled to herself as they spent the time in the cab quietly snuggling each other.
It had only been three months since they finally got together but damned if they weren't the happiest three months of Peggy's life. Work was going splendidly and she was really making a name for herself at McCann Erickson and she finally found someone who not only respected her and understood her but loved her for who she really was. They hadn't yet gone public about their relationship, but they really didn't care who knew and who didn't. It's not like McCann Erickson really gave a damn anyway. They already had bigger fish to fry with the impending return of Don and who knows what else.
For five years, Stan Rizzo was right there under her nose. Well technically four and a half since their first six months of knowing each other was a little more antagonistic. He had seen her naked both physically and emotionally. He'd seen her at her best and at her worst. He'd been the one who was there for her to talk to on the phone and he was the one who was there to keep her grounded when she'd get too full of hot air. But yet, it wasn't until that phone call the day before Halloween before she even realized her real feelings and affections for him.
As the cab stopped, they headed up into the brownstone and into Peggy's apartment. Peggy went into the kitchen and fixed her and Stan up a drink. Once she returned, Stan was already on the couch. She put the drinks onto the table and sat down beside him. He put his arm around her and the two cuddled together. Peggy looked up at Stan as he was laughing at something Johnny Carson was saying on the TV and smiled.
Perhaps this time they were right -- it really was in the last place she looked.