Nurture

"Steve, get the door!" Bucky calls out from his spot on the floor just as there's a knock at the door.

He'd get it himself, but he's in no mood to get up off the floor just yet… even if he probably should. Laying on the couch or on his and Steve's bed would be of much greater comfort after all. But actually getting up? Not currently on his to-do list right now.

"You gonna stay there on the floor all day, Buck?" Steve asks, as he walks past him on his way to the door.

"For now I am." Bucky says.

He'll get up just as soon as he has the motivation to do so. Of course, he'll probably be needing Steve's help once he does decide to get up, but he'll cross that bridge as soon as he gets to it. Staying on the floor is fine with him for now.

At least… it was fine for him until he sees none other than Bruce Banner walking into the room.

And if Bruce is here now, then it's highly likely that he's here to share the results from Francis's test. Something that Bucky is a little apprehensive to hear the results for.

Of course, he does want to know if his son has any inhuman abilities as a side effect of the serums, but… he's afraid to hear the news. He'd much rather hear that his son is completely normal, nothing out of the ordinary aside from the obvious extra strength compared to an average two year old. He'd rather hear that than compared to the other possibility.

The possibility that he has some inhuman abilities….

"You got the results?" Bucky asks, sitting up and teaching out for Steve to help him up as he walks over to him next to Bruce.

"Yes." Bruce nods.

And just like that, Bucky finds himself even more nervous to hear the results now that he knows for certain Bruce has them.

Steve notices Bucky's worry, and pulls him in close to his side.

"Hey, whatever the results are, it'll be okay." Steve assures him. "Everything will be okay."

Bucky sighs, knowing that Steve is right, and that everything will be okay. But… he just wants his son to be normal, with no inhuman abilities.

He can deal with the fact that Francis isn't like other children, and never will be. It was a given that he'd be stronger and faster than other kids, but that's all Bucky would prefer Francis - and any of his and Steve's children that they end up having for that matter - would differ from with other children.

"I know, Steve." Bucky says. "I'm just afraid of what the results will be."

Steve sighs, kissing Bucky's cheek as he smiles down at him. "Hey, whatever happens, everything will be fine."

Nodding, Bucky walks with Steve and Bruce into the kitchen, and take a seat on the table, waiting for Bruce to give them the results.

Sam had decided to retreat off into the small living room area to give Steve, Bucky, and Bruce to discuss the results. He would've gladly started to listen in, but even if he may be Francis's godfather and cares deeply about the young child, he felt it wasn't right listening in on this conversation.

Bucky would've been happy with Sam sitting and listening in on all of this, and so would Steve, but they understand Sam's reasoning for not wanting to be there to listen.

Bucky won't admit it out loud, but he’s a little disappointed in Sam's decision. He could've used some moral support from Sam.

"So, there does appear to be some abnormalities." Bruce explains, setting out the lab sheets on the table. "Well, more alongside all the supersoldier stuff Francis had inherited from the both of you - which I'm sure you both already know about."

Bucky reaches out to grab the one of the papers Bruce has set out for them to look at. Though, as he reads through it, he finds himself unable to understand any of it.

"I'm not… I'm not sure what I'm supposed to be looking at." He admits, looking up at Bruce.

"Well... Francis does appear to have some form of mutant ability." Bruce says, as he pushes his glasses up more and looks through the paper in front of his. "But, for the time being, it appears dormant. It's highly likely that it won't start to appear and evolve into something until he's older."

Bucky sits back in his chair slowly, looking down at the paper in his hands. This isn't what he was wanting to hear. He was wanting to hear that Francis didn't have anything, not that he does have some form of mutant ability. At least it appears to be dormant for now.

But it's still not what he was wanting to hear. Though really, he should've expected it. With all the things Hydra had shot him up with, mixed with Steve's supersoldier serum and his own, he should've known that it would affect their son in some way.

"It's there any way for you to tell what this ability will be, or will we just have to wait and see when it comes?" Steve asks.

Bruce shakes his head. “No, that’s not something that I can tell.” He says. "But I can monitor the progression of it. That's unfortunately all I'm able to do for the time being."

So there's no way of knowing what this ability might be…. They've got no indication on what to look out for when it comes to when and if this ability Francis had starts to appear and evolve.

That certainly doesn't make Bucky feel any better, but at least Bruce is able to and willing to monitor the progression of it for now. Maybe with monitoring it, he can manage to create something to stop it from ever evolving fully.

Although, figuring out a way to remove this ability from Francis before it starts to evolve… Bucky isn't sure if Bruce can do anything like that.

"Thank you, Bruce." Steve says. "For helping us with this." He glances at Bucky, knowing from just the look on his face that this wasn't the results he was hoping for. "Even if it may not really be what we had hoped to find."

******

"You okay?" Steve asks, sitting down on the couch next to Bucky.

Bruce had left not too long ago, and Bucky has taken to sitting by himself on the couch in an attempt to process the results of Francis's test.

Unfortunately they weren't the results he was hoping to hear, but he thinks he can deal with it. But it didn't make him any less upset about them.

All he wanted was for his son to be normal, with no mutant abilities whatsoever, but unfortunately, he has some. Even if they do appear to be sitting dormant for now.

"All I wanted was for our son to be normal." Bucky sighs. "Is that really too much to ask for?"

Clearly it is too much to ask for….

"Well, to be fair, Buck… none of our children will ever be normal." Steve says. "Especially not with having two supersoldiers as their parents."

Bucky looks at him, before leaning into Steve's side. Steve's right of course, their children will never be normal. But he can deal with that. He just never wanted any of their children to have any mutant abilities. Not when there's the high possibility that certain organisations might try and take them and exploit their inhuman abilities for their personal gain.

The fear of organisations like Hydra or the government or anything of the sorts taking their children is the main reason why he never wanted their children to have any mutant abilities. If there wasn't the possibility of that, then he really wouldn't have that much of a problem with it.

"I know." He sighs. "I'm just worried about what may occur in the future as a result of this."

"Hey." Steve starts, shifting around on the couch, and getting Bucky to look at him. "No one is going to take Francis away from us. Or Reese." He says. "I'm going to make damn well sure of that. And so is Sam, and so is Wanda."

Bucky smiles at Steve's words, and how sure of it that no one will take their children away from them he seems. "You promise?"

"I promise." Steve says, kissing Bucky on his forehead, and setting a hand on Bucky's stomach right as Reese gives a kick. "They'll have to kill me dead before they can even think of taking them away from us."

"I'm with Steve on that." Sam says, walking into the room with a mug of coffee. "I won't let anyone take your kids from you."

Bucky looks over at him. "Thank you, Sam."

He's very much appreciative of the fact that Sam won't let anyone take them away either. He loves that both Sam and Wanda are here for them no matter what. He's not sure about anyone else here and if they won't either, (with the exception of Tony Stark of course), but he's just glad they've got Sam and Wanda on their side for certain.

Speaking of Wanda…. He still needs to ask if she'll help him in reclaiming this lost memory. He's not entirely sure how to approach the subject to her, but he had to do it. He's not sure he can figure this out without Wanda's help….

"I need to go talk with Wanda." He sighs, removing himself from Steve's hold.

"This about what I think it is?" Steve asks, referring to the missing memory of the night Bucky was supposed to kill Tony's parents.

Bucky nods, stretching a little, before resting a hand on his stomach. "I need to know what happened that night."

He needs to know what happened. It's not something he thinks he can just leave hidden from himself. It's eating him up inside not knowing what happened.

Usually he'd be fine not remembering all of the shit he was forced to do under Hydra's orders, but this one feels different somehow. This one, he wants to remember.

He just has to remember what happened that night….

******

Standing in the doorway to his son's room, Bucky watches as Wanda sits in the middle of the room making a few of the toys fly as Francis jumps around laughing and squealing in delight as he tries to catch them.

He sure does love that Francis loves Wanda, and Wanda loves taking care of Francis whenever he and Steve need her to. Wanda treats Francis he's her own son, and it makes Bucky glad that if anything were to happen to him and Steve, that they've got others willing to look after their kids. It might just be Sam and Wanda really, along with T'Challa, Nakia, and Shuri, but he's glad that any of them would be willing to look after them.

Leaning up against the doorway, Bucky stays where he is for now watching Wanda and his son for a bit longer before he has to pull Wanda away from Francis in order to talk to her about a request he has.

He needs to ask her for a favor. One that involves her going into his mind and trying to make a memory resurface. The memory of what happened on the night he was supposed to kill Howard and Maria Stark.

He's unsure of how she's supposed to do this though. He doesn't know how her powers work exactly, or the full extent of her abilities, but he believes that she's the only one here that can help him reclaim this memory.

"Mommy!" Francis exclaims as soon as he sees Bucky standing in the doorway, and runs straight over to him.

Bucky smiles down at his son, who latches onto his legs, hugging him tightly.

"Hey, buddy." He says, ruffling up Francis's blond locks - that he decides he's going to have to trim soon. "You having fun with auntie Wanda?"

"Yes!" Francis says.

"He wanted me to make him fly." Wanda says, getting up off the floor and making her way over to them. "But I had to explain to him that it wouldn't be very safe, and I didn't want to risk hurting him."

Bucky looks at Wanda, then back down to his son, who's frowning up at him at Wanda's words.

"Is that right?" He asks.

Francis nods. "I wanted to fly, but it's not safe." He frowns. "Will uncle Sam let me fly?"

Ever since Francis had seen Sam flying around in his Falcon suit, he's wanted to go for a ride with him. But Bucky is a little worried about how safe it'll be.

"I don't know, sweetie." Bucky says. "Maybe when you're a bit older he'll take you for a fly."

He's not sure why Francis had such a fascination with flying, whether it's with Wanda's powers or Sam's super suit. But that might be because the idea of flying terrifies him. He's not very fond of heights, and he'd rather stay on the ground where he knows he's safe, not way up in the air where all he can think about is that he's going to fall.

And he doesn't fancy falling again anytime soon….

Looking over at Wanda, Bucky decides that now is the time to ask her for this favor, and he hopes that she's willing to help. He's not sure who else he can ask to help with this.

Though, he'd rather not have Francis in the same room as he asks for Wanda's help. This is something that he needs to ask Wanda in private.

So he kneels down on the ground so he's eye level with Francis. "Hey, why don't you go see what daddy and uncle Sam are doing?" He asks. "I gotta talk to Wanda about something."

Steve and Sam can watch Francis while he talks about all this with Wanda.

"Okay!" Francis says, turning to run out of the room, and off to find his father and Sam.

"What is it you need to talk about?" Wanda asks, helping Bucky up off the floor. "Is there something wrong?"

Bucky shakes his head. "Nothing is wrong exactly." He assures her. "Well, we did get Francis's test results back, but that's not what I want to talk to you about."

Knowing that there's a very high chance of Francis having some ability, but it won't really show through until he's older definitely isn't what Bucky was hoping the results of the test would be, but… he knows he'll be able to deal with it once it starts to show. If it ends up showing up at all.

"What were the results?" Wanda asks.

"Bruce says there's some abnormality, but it appears to be dormant for now." Bucky says. "He thinks that it won't fully start to show and evolve until Francis is older."

Wanda nods. "I know that wasn't the results you were hoping for, but I know that you and Steve will be able to figure out a way to deal with it all." She says. "Now what else is it you need to talk about?"

Bucky sighs, looking away. He's not entirely sure how to start this conversation. He's got to ask her if she'll be willing to help him with this though, but he's just unsure of how to ask it.

"I uh…" He starts, scratching at the back of his neck a little, trying to figure out the right way to ask. "I need your help with something…."