The Irony of it All

8

There’s no need to keep them in the holding cell, so as they emerge with Natasha, the group slowly turns to greet the kids. Uncomfortable silence ensues as the two parties stare at each other, each wondering what to say. Finally, James speaks up. “I wanted to apologize for our entrance. I hope we didn’t cause too much damage.”

Smiles start to crack. “Well, you did damage a multi-million dollar suit, as well as ruining the piece of machinery that was going to get you home.” They visibly cringe.

“Oh, actually, that was Scott, so...you’re off the hook for that one.” Rhodes corrects. 

It’s now Scott’s turn to cringe, “Sorry about that.” 

“So do you recognise any of us?” Bruce asks.

James shakes his head. “Just him”, he says, nodding his head to the back of the room where Steve is silently watching.

They all turn to look at Steve, who decides now is the best time as ever to properly introduce himself. “Hi,” he says, reaching his hand out. James meets the hand halfway and firmly shakes it. He then reaches his hand out to Sarah, but she just looks away. Returning his hand to his side, “I’m sorry. I kind of feel out of sorts still. You know me, but I don’t know you, and I really wish I did.”

“It’s alright, Dad. I get it.” 

Sarah’s head snaps up, and she steps back suddenly, frantically looking between the unknown man, and her brother. “Dad?!”

Steve, now confused, asks. “You don’t know me?” His son knew him, why didn’t his daughter?

“Sarah…” James began, trying to get his sisters attention, if only to calm her down a bit. 

“This is our father?!”

“I don’t follow,” Tony said. “What’s going on?”

“Just ignore her.” As Sarah continued to gawk at Steve, James continued. 

“I thought it would be good to properly introduce myself this time. My name is James Anthony Rogers, and this is my sister Sarah Yelena Rogers, though you already know that.” He was quiet for a moment, waiting for the others to speak, but they were just kind of...frozen. “If we have to wait a while for you to get us back to our time, maybe it would be best if you introduce yourselves.”

“Oh. Yeah. Right. I’m Tony. Anthony. Stark. Iron man. You’re namesake. You get the picture. Why don’t you know who I am? Just curious.” 

Before James could answer, Rhodes pushed Tony out of the way. “My name is James too, but everybody calls me Rhodes or Rhodey. You might know me as War Machine.” James and Sara stared blankly at him. “No?”

Then Sam came up to them. “Hey guys. My name is Sam Wilson. I’m your Dad’s wingman, his best friend.”

“Mom told us about you,” Sarah said. “She said you helped her and Dad escape from Hydra once.”

“That’s right. Yeah. That was last year.”

“Last year?” James repeated, eyes widening. 

“You guys can call me Uncle Sam. If you want.” Then he thought about the name and how familiar it sounded. “Wait.”

“Hi. I’m Scott. I’m the Ant-man. Kinda the reason you guys accidently got transported here. I think I accidently knocked Cap’s DNA into the targeting system when I spilled my coffee on the control panel, so...sorry about that.”

“Cap?” Sarah asked.

“Yeah. It’s short for Captain America. We have a lot of nick-names for him.”

“Really?” Sarah asked. Both the kids had the hints of a smile on their faces as they heard the interesting new things about their father. “Can you tell us them?”

“Sure.”

“No.” Steve said, but Scott ignored him.

“Basically all the nicknames were started by Tony, so I’ll let him tell you.”

“Tony…” Steve pleaded. But of course Tony ignored him also.

“Cap, Capsicle, Dorrito, old man, older fellow, Gramps, Grandpa, Grandma. You know, I’m never going to let your Mom live it down that despite all her complaints, she named you after me,” He said, suddenly switching topics.

“What’s a Dorrito?” James asked.

“You don’t know what a….Oh my gosh!” Sam exclaimed.

“It’s a triangular chip, and Tony here claims that Steve has the same shoulder to waist ratio as one.” Rhodes said.

“Why do you call him ‘Old man’ and ‘Grandpa’? Sarah asked. 

“Because he’s super old.” 

“He’s younger than you.” Sarah insisted.

Tony laughed. “Is that what he told you in the future? Hey Cap, how old will you be in July? Ninety-seven?” He laughed again.

“There’s no way.”

“That’s not possible,” James said.

“He’s telling the truth kids. You didn’t know how old your Dad was?”

They looked at Steve. “You’re serious?”

“Unfortunately.”

“How is that possible?”

“The ice kept me cryogenically frozen.”

“What ice?”

“What do you mean, ‘What ice’? Don’t tell me Steve never told you about that.”

They shook their heads. 

“I don’t understand.” Natasha spoke, finally stepping forward. “Do you know anything at all about us?”

They shifted uncomfortably. “Well, um. Dad was never really in the picture. And you never really spoke about him, or your pasts. You mentioned a couple of these guys here, and would tell us a few stories about your missions with Dad, but that was it.”

“Why wasn’t Steve in the picture?” Scott asked.

“Well. Um. He’s dead.”