Each step delivered shockwaves: vibrations from foot to skull, shaking up all the little bits of her that got banged and bruised and bashed on the way down. Peggy was (at least) pleasantly surprised to find herself capable of movement -- wondering whether he didn't take the brunt of their fall, somehow. Not that he looked particularly impacted when she glanced stoically over her shoulder. He wasn't moving. All well and good for him, who'd done his healing. But she craved somewhere with a bit more cover -- somewhere lower, well-beneath the narrow bridge above, where she could sit and let her own much slower healing process begin. The plateau would not suffice but -- mercifully -- the remaining handful of switchback path wasn't quite so dreadful steep as the first half.

"Do keep up," she grimaced. But there was no bite left to the words -- indeed, they betrayed an unhappy desperation. Until this past minute, she'd been trying hard to convince herself they needed each other rather equally. She may not have cared much that he disparaged her, but she cared to realize how mismatched she was.