Supply Run
Perhaps the fact that he basically didn't possess a sleeping pattern was helping, though it didn't feel that way. He had actually dozed off fairly quickly, a sign that he had been more exhausted than he'd been willing to admit to himself. Nevertheless he was still a light sleeper and jolted awake instantly every time the baby started crying, which happened roughly every two hours. On the bright side she was feeding without complaint now and her fever was basically gone by the morning.
He had swaddled her up in the blanket again, and she watched with interest as he packed up their things, babbling and gurgling along. Without really meaning to, he found himself holding up his end of the conversation again.
"I should probably prepare you a bottle for during the day, right?"
"Guu..."
"Or actually, two might be better. Yeah, two. Two bottles, that's sensible."
"Guu ...uuuu..."
"Well, we have a lot to get done today. You need some clothes, and a car seat would probably also be good. Can't have you lying around on the floor now, can we?"
"Awoo..."
"That being said, I should probably pick up a book or two. I don't know if you've noticed, but I have no actual idea what I'm doing, or why."
"Aba"
"Right, okay, but first we gotta put some distance between us and that nefarious place. Also the next biggest stores are about an hours drive from here; I looked it up in GPS yesterday."
"Da!"
"Since that means 'yes' in Russian I'll just take that as you agree with everything I just said and can't wait to get started."
---
James Buchanan Barnes hadn't really had any reason to concern himself with babies in his previous life. There were vague recollections of younger siblings, but nothing substantial. Once he came home from the war he might have started thinking about starting a family at some point, but as history went that was not the path his life would take. Until now. Now he found himself in a world of happy colors, bows and cutesy animal designs. At least it had been fairly easy to figure out the sizes.
"This would be a lot easier if you could talk." he remarked distractedly while comparing two long-sleeved onesies, one of which had a teddy-bear print while the other was adorned with penguins. Maggie reached out for the rack, taking a firm hold of a penguin-laden sleeve and yanking it towards herself.
"Okay, this works, too."
They utilized this method of shopping until Maggie started fussing and wailing, signaling to him that she was hungry. He quickly paid for the clothes and crossed the mall until he found the food court, where he bought himself a sandwich and charmed an elderly waitress into warming up Maggie's bottle in their kitchen for them, since he found out that she was very much chagrined by the effrontery of being offered cold milk formula.
"There you go, dearie, but you might wanna think about getting a bottle warmer." The waitress said as she handed the bottle back to him. He promised that he would and took off, as much to put the newly purchased baby clothes in the car as to get away from the masses of people. Sitting in the backseat of the car out in the parking lot wasn't the most normal thing to do, but he still had a fair amount of paranoia which was not alleviated by being among crowds. Maggie drank eagerly, little hands gripping the bottle as if she was worried it would vanish. When she had finished, she burped with satisfaction and smiled up at him happily. Just a big gummy smile, bright and beaming and only for him. He felt his heart stutter for a moment, overcome with a strange sensation. Maggie was already nodding off for a nap as he cradled her tiny body closer and stroked a thumb gently along her round cheek. Yawning cutely, she took a hold of his finger with her little hand and cooed, eyes drooping. He gazed down at the little bundle in wonder as she napped contentedly. If he hadn't been irrevocably set on protecting and caring for this child before he certainly was now. It was strange that he would feel this way with all the programming he'd received, since forming strong emotional attachments had definitely not been part of that. Even though she was biologically his, at least according to what he could glean from Whateley's files. There had been a moment the previous night when he thought he should have delivered her into more capable hands, an orphanage, law enforcement... The idea had been discarded as quickly as it had come up. He didn't trust anyone, thus he didn't trust anyone to take care of this child - not that he was especially qualified himself - but that was the way it was.
To distract himself from these conflicting feelings he started reading through the parenting books he'd gotten. He learnt a great deal doing that, like, to his great relief, that he hadn't botched anything too badly up until now. Maggie awoke from her after-lunch nap with another big smile and started cooing and babbling when he dressed her in some of the new clothes. They were a bit big on account of being for six month olds, and she shook her chubby little arms in a futile effort to get her hands free. He had to roll the sleeves up a bit.
"You'll grow into those in no time, peanut." he justified hurriedly, finishing off the outfit of a short-sleeved sailor-style onesie, leggings and knitted cardigan with a pair of impossibly tiny socks. Maggie kicked her feet up when he was done, grabbing a hold of her toes and regarding the socks with an expression of intrigue.
"You get shoes when you start to walk." he informed her unnecessarily, carefully picking her up again, "Okay, we still have a lot to do and not enough time to do it."
---
Inside the next store, he spent some fifteen minutes looking at various items with what must a been a look of pure befuddlement, and he almost jumped out of his skin when a quiet voice addressed him from the left. The voice belonged to a sales assistant who looked nervous and too young to be working already, but he supposed they were one of those kids who retained their baby chub far beyond their liking and subsequently looked fourteen until their mid-twenties. Their name tag said 'Brendan' with the final 'n' crossed out. Also, they wore a sparkly bow in their dark, almost chin-length hair, which did little to restrain their unruly curls, but matched earrings, nail polish and shoes. He was therefore inclined to conclude that the 'n' had been crossed out deliberately rather than as the result of a cruel prank. It didn't really matter to him as long as this person could help him. Taking care not to wake the baby nestled into the crook of his arm he turned towards Brenda, who was nervously bouncing on the balls of her feet.
"Um, yes actually, I'm looking for a car seat and... A few other things." he said softly, taking the chance to further hone his 'clueless sudden single dad' act. Brenda's round, kind brown face lit up and she confidently marched him further down the aisle, mouth suddenly moving a mile a minute as she started chattering about these and those features and safety ratings. It was largely due to his training that he could keep up with her excited prattling, but since he knew nothing about the finer points of infant car safety he was reduced to nodding along thoughtfully. Brenda had just wrestled two models from the second highest shelf when the baby started to stir and woke with a wide yawn, crunching up her little nose before looking up at him and then around herself with mild interest.
"So adorable!" Brenda cooed after adding a final car seat to the selection on the floor and stepping a tiny bit closer to get a better look at the baby. He didn't really know how to reply to that. 'Thank you' seemed vaguely conceited. He had no idea what was and wasn't appropriate to say to strangers about the genetically modified baby you just rescued from a secret underground lab, and somehow he doubted there were many precedents for that either.
"Would it be okay to try those out and see which one she likes best?" he asked instead, nodding towards the assembled car seats. Brenda replied with an enthusiastic 'Of course!' and pulled up the first option, a bright red one. He gently pried tiny fingers from his shirt and placed the infant in the seat, letting Brenda show him how to properly adjust and buckle the clasps. The baby wriggled a bit at the new sensation, and he could have sworn she gave them both a skeptical look after which she let out a displeased whine.
"I don't think that's the one." he concluded and Brenda nodded, already undoing the straps. They repeated the process with the second seat, which was dark blue with polka dots and the safest model currently in their inventory according to Brenda. Maggie whined a bit as she was moved from seat to seat and buckled up again, but soon relaxed and gave a contented sigh as soon as she was properly settled in the blue seat.
"Getting warmer." Brenda commented impishly and he found himself smiling a little. Maggie looked just about ready to go back to sleep after a moment of stirring, and grew very disgruntled very quickly when they attempted to put her into the last seat.
"I guess that means we're taking this one, then." he said sheepishly and picked up the seat with the now blissfully dozing baby, eliciting a quiet giggle from Brenda.
"Guess it does. Now what else did you need?"
'A few other things' turned into two over-full shopping carts even though he tried to keep it light and contained. Just as it turns out, babies require a great deal of things. It was a good thing the late HYDRA agent's car was quite big after all, as well as the limit on his credit card. James left Maggie and her new car seat in Brenda's temporary care while another employee helped him load his purchases into the vehicle. Maggie was wide awake by the time he returned to pick her up again, and she was getting hungry, too.