Flying cars. That’s what Bucky expected to see in the future, what he wanted to see. Seriously, how cool would that be, right?
Flying cars would’ve been so cool. Instead, he’s face-to-face with a Gandalf wanna-be in a weird cape.
The man introduced himself as Doctor Strange - seriously, Strange? Seems like hitting the nail a bit too directly on the head.
Strange took one look at the group around him, blinked twice, and started throwing out orders like a drill Sargent.
“So we’re suppose to just, what, believe you?” Steve was, of course, the first to speak up since the entirety of the Barnes family living room appeared in, well, Bucky wasn’t quite sure where they were. The contents of his family home, from the sofa to Bucky’s sister, sat in the middle of what had to be a corn field. They had no sooner realized that they were no longer indoors before Strange had stepped out of the door to the only building for what must have been miles.
“Yes,” Strange nodded to Steve like a teacher would the class pet.
From there it seemed like everyone was yelling, but Bucky couldn’t even make himself stand up off of the chair he’d been in when he was actually in his home. George Barnes, in typical George Barnes fashion, started throwing accusations around. He claimed that this Doctor Strange must be behind all this. Whatever all this is, Bucky thought but didn’t say. Steve was simply pissed off by the doctors curt explanation - Welcome to the future - and following orders - gather up, lets get you home quickly. Sarah Rodgers had her son by the arm but was silent, not jumping into the argument. Winnie had offered a gasped, “Oh, George!” twice when her husbands words sounded a bit too rude. And Becca, at first had been content to watch and send her brother bewildered looks across what use to be their home, but moments later decided to back Steve in his wild rambling.
George was in the middle of a particularly nasty threat when Strange held a hand up to Barnes&Co. listening as the same door he had come from opened once again.
“Seriously?” A mans voice called, he seemed to begin to say more but-
“Sargent, I am going to have to insist you go back inside.”
Sargent? Steve mouths the word to Bucky once their eyes meet.
“Go home, doc.” The man calls, still heading off the small set of steps. It seems to take him that long to actually look up from, well Bucky once again has no real idea what. “No. Nope.” The Sargent starts again, “No way, what the hell, man? Is this suppose to be funny?”
Bucky realizes that this encounter had taken place in a matter of minutes - seconds - and not hours only when yet another man falls out of the rather large building from the door that hadn’t even finished closing. The Sargent stands, face blank, starring a hole through Bucky’s mother.
The second man is unfazed by the family in the field, or perhaps hadn’t noticed. He’s juggling a large bag and a small child in either arm.
“Buck, let’s go man,” A black man calls without even glancing in their direction. This third man is headed off the porch in the opposite direction, eyes on whatever his destination is.
Strange hasn’t moved, and therefore, none of the Barnes’ or Rodgers’ have either. The Sargent takes a visible deep breath and runs a hand through his long dark hair. “Send them back.” His voice is more of a growl than a voice and has lost all of its prior humor. Each word is spoken like it its its own sentence.
“That doesn’t seem to be an option at the moment, Sargent.” the doctors tone is just as calmly irritated as it had been all along.
The third man, having not heard anything over the ramblings of the toddler in his hold, tosses his bag down beside of an odd-looking car and yells to the Sargent again. Bucky feels the blood rush from his face, pieces of an impossible puzzle falling together as he hears
“James Buchanan Barnes, get your ass in this car before my sister sends out a search party! We’re set up to be an hour late already.”
Welcome to the Future, Strange had said. Holy. Shit.
“What do you mean you ‘can’t send them back’, Strange? That’s like your whole thing!” Sam, the third man, exclaims, his voice rising higher in weird places. They’re all inside the large building now, and Sam is pacing the floors but Bucky can’t take his eyes off of… the other Bucky.
George jumps in with a, “This is absolutely ridiculous, you cannot expect us to believe we’ve been dropped into the future.”
“Well,” Sam slows both his pacing and his words, drawing the L sound of the word out much longer than necessary. “What are you going to do with them?”
“Nothing, at the moment, I will need to do some, lets call it research. The sacred time line is…” he doesn’t continue but he doesn’t need to.
“What do you mean ‘nothing’? We can’t stay here.” Steve complains.
“That is exactly what you are going to do, Steven.” Strange states in a take-no-bullshit tone. He turns to the Sargent - who Bucky is absolutely refusing to believe is him from the future, no way. He’s overthinking, for sure, certainly no one has outright said that that is him, will-be him. “The nest is the safest place for them until I can return them to their own timeline.”
“And how long is that going to take?”
“Impossible to say,” Strange presses his lips together tightly, then, “Quicker, surely, if I begin now. That said, I’ll be on my way.”
The Sargent, who hadn’t moved since re-entering the building, standing stone-cold against the wall watching everything play out, jumped when Strange turns from the door one last time to ask, “Sargent Barnes, are you able to tell me if this is something that happened within your timeline?”
“I, uh, it’s not something I remember,” He shrugs, pulling gloved a hand up to rub unconsciously at his left shoulder, “but that doesn’t really mean much. My brains still scrambled eggs, Doc.”
Sargent Barnes