Sam, the black man with the gapped teeth, had asked them what year they thought it should be and upon hearing Winnie Barnes' answer promptly decided they should move forward on a 'need to know' basis. Which basically meant he would deflect any questions he didn't want to answer by saying they didn't need to know.
Bucky, frankly, thinks that's fucking stupid. He'd like to understand what the hell is actually going on, but it seems no one is going to elaborate past "Welcome to the future".
Sam told the Sargent he would "shoot Sarah a text" to let her know they couldn't make it. The Sargent didn't react to that, hadn't reacted to anything for a while. But he did follow behind the group as they followed Sam into a rather large kitchen.
Sam had the little girls hand, patient as she toddled along beside him. She had ringlet curls that seemed perpetually wet and bounced with every step she took. Little shoes slapped loudly against the white tile floors.
Sam seemed to be the only person not so shellshocked, he could move around the fanciest kitchen Bucky had ever seen and ask about allergies and food preferences as if anyone would be able to force down food right now. He offered seats at the table to the group, the Sargent pulling his own chair to the edge of the room, giving him a view of everyone inside and a direct line to the exit. Sam was real sweet about declining Winnie's impulsive offer to help cook in a kitchen where she didn't even recognize the stove.
Just shook his head as she insisted and plopped the tiny girl onto the counter.
"Don't put her up there, Sam." It was the the first time the Sargent had spoken since that ‘Dr. Strange’ man had left to find them a way back home.
"Man, shut up."
But he did lift the girl off of the counter. Her pout only lasted a second before her gaze zeroed in on Bucky. He had to admit the confused little head tilt was pretty cute.
"Daddy," Bucky had a split second of panic thinking she was actually confused enough to be calling him 'daddy', but she continued on like this wasn't the weirdest experience ever. "Look like you!"
Her little hand pointed out at Bucky, head turned back around to look at the Sargent.
"Don't point," was all the Sargent said.
She didn't seem very happy with that response, so her head turned to Sam to repeat, "look like daddy!" finger still in Bucky's face.
Sam looked between the Sargent and Bucky a time or two before returning to the task at hand, "Ida Claire, we do not point at people." He said 'Ida Claire' in a put on way that made it sound like 'I declare' which must've been the point because it sent the little girl rushing into the Sargent arms to hide her giggles from the room of strangers.
The Sargent puts on a smile when the child looks up at him, but it immediately falls away with her attention elsewhere. He lets her wiggle around in his lap until she's comfortable then hands her a small screen that takes 100% of her attention away from the room around them.
Becca takes that as her cue to start talking.
"You are, aren't you?" She says what everyone else is surely thinking, but no one had had the guts to mention. "You don't just look like him, you are him."
Bucky’s father seems to think that, even though they had suddenly teleported from their living room in Brooklyn to a corn field in Louisiana the, idea that they could’ve also traveled through time was absolutely preposterous. “Tell me you’re not buying into that mess now, Rebecca.” He insists.
The little girl looks up when Bucky’s sister’s name is said, “what mess, Daddy?” She’s not good at whispering, but she tries.
“Nothin’, Becks. What’s Peppa up to?” The Sargent glances down at the screen in the child’s little hands, tapping it to draw her attention back in.
“Peppa can’t whistle, Daddy.” “Oh, no.”
“You know, we’re trying not to raise an iPad kid here, right?” Sam throws in. Bucky’s not so sure why Sam is injecting himself into the parent/child situation going on. It solidify’s Bucky's thoughts that the Sargent cannot possibly be himself, because Bucky cannot see himself allowing another man to act as his child’s father.
“You think, maybe, I’m a little preoccupied with my dead fucking family in our goddamn kitchen, Samuel? Her screen time is not really my biggest problem right now.”
“Alright, so we’re not coping well, got it.” Sam had apparently decided on simple sandwiches, two plates full of them are placed on the table in front of Bucky’s family - plus Steve and Sarah. Sam leans against the counter he had made the sandwiches on, “I’m not sure what you want me to do about it, Buck. Strange says he can fix it, but that’s going to take time. For now, this is what we’re working with. Friday!” The last word is said a bit louder, head tilted upward slightly like Sam is now talking to someone in another room or up a flight of stairs.
“Captain Wilson,” All six of the so-called time travelers jump at the disembodied voice that seems to come from… everywhere.
“What the hell was that?” Steve, of course.
“I am Female Replacement Intelligence Digital Assistant Youth, or ‘F.R.I.D.A.Y.’ I am an artificial intelligence program that runs through the Nest’s electronics systems as well as other Stark Industry products.” The voice answers Steve and then asks its own question - because disembodied voices have questions in the future, Bucky decides that’s the least weird thing to happen thus far. “How can I help, Captain Wilson?”
“Is anyone else still in the compound?”
“You have just missed the departure of Mr. Hogan and Mrs. Parker. Mr. Parker, Mr. Leeds and Ms. Jones are in the enhancement lab. Lieutenant Torres is in flight above the landing strip. Ms. Belova has asked to be undisturbed.”
The Sargent seems to catch on to whatever Sam was thinking because he gives a small nod to the black man, relaxing slightly into his chair. Sam says, “Call one of the kids up to get Rebecca, please.”
“I beg your pardon!” Rebecca, Bucky’s sister is out of her seat, the chair legs scraping against the tiles.
“Absolutely not!” Sarah Rodgers hadn’t said a single word this whole time, but she wasn’t about to let a girl she loves like her own go off who-knows-where with who-knows-who.
“I’m not sure who the hell you think you are-“ George is up and in Sam’s face. Then he’s not, he’s against the cabinets on the other side of the room. The Sargent has his child in his left arm, his right hand holding Bucky’s father against the wood.
“Enough.” The Sargent speaks in a low voice, he doesn’t release George but speaks to Becca, “He didn’t mean you.”
There’s a pause and then, “Mr. Parker has agreed to babysit.”
“Thank you, Friday.” “‘M not a baby!”
The tiny girl’s indignant voice rises above her fathers low rumble.
“My apologies, Miss Wilson.”
“Thank you, Friday.” The apparent “Captain” Sam Wilson says like a dismissal.
“Wait, wait,” Bucky’s eyes jump between the ‘Captain’ and the ‘Sargent’, the voice had referred to a ‘Lieutenant’. Steve must’ve made the connection at the same time, but where Bucky was eager to ignore the likely possibilities of his future, Steve is eager to know.
“Is this a military base? Army? Are-is- Bucky’s in the Army. Am I in the Army?”