Wilhelmina Barnes was the third of four children born to George Barnes and Winifred Hubbard Barnes, who immigrated to the United States some five years before their eldest child was born. George, who'd stylized his Romanian Gheorghe to a more subtle form of his name, found factory work quite quickly in the city, and Winifred, whose father was English and mother was German, became a low-paid typist for a local store. As they'd settled into Brooklyn, they swiftly discovered the growing anti-immigrant sentiment in the city to prove quite the problem. Their Jewish roots certainly did little to endear them to xenophobic nationalists, but they nevertheless made the best of their situation, moving into a multicultural neighborhood of people that shared their inclusive values and raising their children as best they could.
They named their only son James Buchanan, after the President of the United States. It was perhaps a bit of an oversight on their part, for as far as presidents went, James Buchanan was a rather weak one, to be faulted for his stance on slavery. When James first realized that he'd been named for one of the worst presidents in American history, he'd pouted and raged and demanded his parents name his siblings better.
The Barnes learned from their mistake, and so named their second child, their eldest daughter, Rebecca, which was innocuous enough a name (ignoring, of course, the anti-Semitic assholes who had a problem with the origins of her name being Hebrew). Rebecca, who was a little over two years younger than James, was the one who dubbed him Bucky, because 'Buchanan' was far too difficult for her to say at a young age.
Their second daughter was born in 1922, five years after her brother and three after her sister. Wilhelmina was another misstep, because the invocation of a German name so shortly after the Great War ended raised some eyebrows, and the Barnes found themselves receiving cold treatment from overzealous patriots (read: nationalists) who wanted nothing to do with Germans, much less those of the Jewish faith. Still, their neighborhood and community embraced them with open arms, and Wilhelmina and her older siblings grew up playing with the other children, Jewish and Italian and Irish and black and Catholic all laughing and loving and struggling together.
(Of course, the story of multiculturalism is far more complex, and this sort of cohesion did not necessarily hold true everywhere, but as far as the Barnes children and their friends were concerned, more united them than divided them).
When Bucky was nine years old, Rebecca seven, and Wilma four, Winifred became pregnant once more. The family was overjoyed, if not a little worried. They would soon have one more mouth to feed, and they had to find another way to make ends meet. They would manage somehow, George reassured Winifred, even if that meant money was a little tight for a while.
But what they hadn't realized was that little Wilma had powers none of them knew of.
One day, in a tantrum fit for the toddler she was, Wilma beat her little fists against the floor. Flames erupted where her hands had been, and soon the entire structure of the house was on fire. Winifred dragged Bucky and Wilma outside the burning home while George ran in to save Rebecca.
Rebecca made it out. George did not.
Winifred named the baby girl Georgiana in his honor.
It was this incident that shaped the course of Wilma Barnes' life. Even at that young age, Wilma knew the fire was her fault. Oh, her family never once blamed her, even if they were afraid of her powers and her temper, but she knew she was responsible. By the time she was ten years old, she vowed to find out what it was that made her so different from the rest of her family. This, of course, led to her passion for biochemistry in her teen years, so desperate was she to figure out why she could control fire.
(That was a mystery she never solved. The discovery of the X-gene happened in 1952, years after she disappeared. She never knew that she was a mutant, though her sisters Rebecca and Georgiana realized she must have been.)
Sarah Rogers, who lived a few streets down from them and whose young son Steve was Bucky's closest playmate, offered to help out in any way she could, and Winifred tearfully accepted her offer. The Barnes family moved closer to Sarah and Steve, and started anew there.
For as long as she could remember, Wilhelmina Barnes had found immense joy in irritating her elder brother James. Of the four Barnes children, the two of them argued the most, always bickering over what to eat for dinner or fighting over whose turn it was to pick out music. To Bucky, Wilma was a mild irritation, like a fly buzzing about just a foot away. To Wilma, Bucky was maddeningly patronizing in the early days of their childhood. To Winifred, Rebecca, Georgiana, and Steve Rogers, the two siblings were exasperating, for most of their squabbles were loud and disruptive, despite a five year difference in their ages.
They had grown out of their constant fighting a few years before, when Wilma was maybe fourteen or fifteen. Still, they were siblings at the end of the day, and even though Wilma was now eighteen and Bucky twenty-three, there were moments when they brought out the childishness in each other.
(To be completely fair, Wilma mused, this time it was Georgie's fault).
When they'd come home the day she'd met Howard Stark, Georgie was bouncing with excitement and had immediately run off to Rebecca's room to tell her the news. At twenty years old, Rebecca was a schoolteacher, but she still hadn't had her own bed until Bucky moved out and she left her shared room with Wilma and Georgie to take his empty room.
So Georgie banged on the door until Rebecca let her in. Wilma had simply rolled her eyes at her younger sister, who seemed to see romance in any interaction between members of the opposite sex, and opened a book on complex chemical equations. Absently, she wondered how Georgie would react when she finally noticed the tension between Steve and Bucky. Rebecca and she had already had a few whispered conversations on the subject late at night, and the sisters agreed that their love for their brother was worth more to them than the nature of his relationships. Georgie was still quite young, but Wilma suspected she'd agree when she figured it out.
She had quite forgotten about her encounter with Howard Stark until that night, when Georgie failed to keep her trap shut.
They were all sitting about the dinner table — at the head was their Ma, who'd taken the place after George passed. To her left was Rebecca, then Georgie. Wilma sat at the opposite end of the table. Bucky had moved out the year before to a small apartment just down the road, but he came around for dinner every night, Steve in tow. The smaller man had become a near-permanent fixture in the Barnes' residence in the evenings once his mother had passed, some five years before, and it went without saying that he was just as much a part of the family as anyone else.
"How's work going, Bucky?" Rebecca asked. Bucky had gotten a job working construction a little while back, and though he didn't seem to love it, it paid well despite the Depression.
"Slow going," Bucky said through a bite of chicken, "But it ain't too bad."
"It isn't too bad," their Ma corrected gently. All her children rolled their eyes. Winifred ignored them, getting up and serving Steve some more soup. Bucky had mentioned that Steve had a bit of a nasty cough the night before, despite his best friend's chagrin, and Winifred cooked accordingly.
"Sorry, Ma," Bucky said, though he didn't sound too sorry. "So what have I missed around here in the last day?"
"Well," said Georgie, her eyes glinting with excitement, "Wilma's got a fella running after her!"
Wilma's eyes widened and she dropped her fork in surprise. It landed on her plate with a loud CLANG. She felt her face warm, but she couldn't understand why— it wasn't as though she was interested in Howard Stark! It wasn't as though he was really interested in her! She'd just asked him about Dr. Abraham Erskine, a personal idol of hers, and he'd answered her questions with barely concealed bemusement.
She glanced up furtively. Both her sisters were smiling mischievously, and she noticed with indignation that Rebecca was surreptitiously giving Georgie a thumbs up. Her Ma had her eyebrows raised in disbelief, and Bucky was looking at her in barely concealed amusement. Only Steve, dear, sweet Steve, wasn't making a huge commotion in some way or another. Instead, he offered her a sympathetic smile as the interrogation started.
"Is it true, Wilma?" Winifred asked, setting down her fork. She sounded quite skeptical, and while Wilma was slightly insulted by the dubious note in her Ma's voice, she rather understood. She had never shown an interest in anyone before, and had been the butt of many spinster jokes from her family. It would certainly have been quite out of character for her to suddenly be mooning over a man she'd met in the street. But that was irrelevant, a moot point. She had no interest in Howard Stark to begin with.
"No, of course not!" Wilma protested, glaring daggers at her little sister. "I just met him today!"
"So there is a fellow!" Rebecca said triumphantly.
"No there isn't!" Wilma said defensively. Honestly, she didn't see how she could be all dizzy over a guy after just one meeting, and certainly not over a guy like Howard Stark, who was far less swanky than he thought he was. "It was one conversation about a common interest! Georgie just doesn't know what she's talking about!"
"Hey!" Georgiana said.
"Aw, come on Will, we're just teasin'." Bucky said. His eyes glinted with good humor. "It ain't every day that your kid sister picks up her first sweetheart." He couldn't even finish the sentence without breaking into loud peals of laughter. Rebecca and Georgie joined in, and even her Ma cracked a smile.
"It is a little odd, dear," Winifred admitted. "You've always been… well…" She trailed off, searching for the right word.
"An egghead?" Bucky offered, chortling. This sent both Georgie and Rebecca into a greater fit of laughter, and even though her Ma chastised him, he didn't look particularly abashed.
Wilma opened her mouth to retort hotly, and Steve, probably sensing danger, tried to change the topic.
"'Becca, how are things going at the school?" He asked in his quiet tone. But Rebecca waved him off, grinning.
"Wait, you haven't heard the best part yet!" She said.
"Oh, yeah?" Bucky's smile widened.
"You'll never believe who the guy was!" Georgie leaned in conspiratorially. "It was Howard Stark!"
She and Rebecca resumed their laughter, but Bucky stopped short, his grin fading. When he looked back at Wilma, his eyebrows were furrowed together in displeasure and there was a decidedly vexed frown on his face.
"Howard Stark?" He repeated. "Like the inventor?"
"I suppose," Wilma said, nonplussed. "Why?" One glance at Steve told her that he was just as confused as she felt.
"Will, you gotta be careful with Stark," Bucky said. "You can't fool around with him."
Wilma's jaw dropped with outrage. Rebecca and Georgie stopped laughing. Steve winced.
"James Buchanan Barnes, do not bring that kind of talk to the dinner table!" Winifred said sternly.
"I ain't foolin' around with anybody!" Wilma said furiously. "And you're one to talk, James Barnes!"
"I thought you liked Mr. Stark, Buck," Georgie said innocently. "You can't stop gushin' about his inventions."
"I like the man's inventions well enough," Bucky told her patiently. He turned to Wilma seriously. "But he's a skirt chaser, Will, everyone knows that."
"James Buchanan Barnes!" Winifred said. "None of that talk at my table!"
"Sorry, Ma, but it's true!" Bucky said. "Will, you gotta be careful."
Wilma threw her hands up in the air in frustration. "For cryin' out loud, Buck, I'm not messin' with him! Besides, you can't lecture me!" She knew she sounded a bit whiny, but she didn't care. "The way I've heard it, you're the most doll dizzy fellow in Brooklyn! Going dancing every night with a new dame—" She felt a burning sensation in her gut, and that was her cue to calm down before she blew a fuse.
"I just go dancing, Will, he takes 'em to bed!"
"James!" Their Ma said.
"I don't care, Buck! You don't get to tell me off! You're not my father!"
Everyone went silent at that. Wilma froze, hardly believing what she'd just said. Slowly, she glanced around the table.
Steve looked extremely uncomfortable, if a little sympathetic. He'd grown up an only child, but he'd spent so long with the Barnes siblings that he was all too familiar with their spats. Normally, he was quite good at mediating any conflicts between the four children. This time, however, Wilma had crossed an unspoken line by invoking their father. Steve probably had no idea what to do.
Georgiana looked equal parts upset and confused. She'd never met their father (which was something Wilma had always blamed herself for), so she never knew outside of stories what kind of man George Barnes was. Her hand was clasped tightly in Rebecca's.
Her elder sister looked stricken. There was no better word to describe it. In all their years of sharing a bed and whispering secrets in the dead of night, the topic of their father had always hung over them unspoken, unacknowledged, like a specter. Oh, there were portraits of their Dad on the mantle and his large overcoat was still hanging on the rack, but everyone tiptoed around the subject.
Bucky looked angry, and that sent a surge of annoyance racing through Wilma. He had no right, adopting some holier-than-thou attitude and lecturing her about guys! Not when he was the most notorious heartbreaker in Brooklyn. She felt the burning sensation rise in accordance with her emotions, and so she tore her gaze away from her brother and looked to her mother.
Her anger faded and immediately she felt a sharp stab of guilt.
Winifred had been so strong after George had died. She'd raised four young children mostly by herself, with the help of another single mother whose own child was often sickly and ill. She'd never remarried, despite the pressure she faced to find a fellow that would take care of her, because she believed the strength of a woman was not dependent on the presence of a man. But she'd loved her husband dearly, and having a reminder of his untimely demise hurled so harshly across the dinner table by her feuding children probably did nothing but deepen the pain.
"That's enough, both of you." Winifred said. Her voice was quiet but steady. "I think we should leave this conversation behind."
"Yes, Ma." Bucky murmured softly.
Wilma felt a lump form in her throat. "May I be excused, Ma?"
Winifred waved a tired hand, and Wilma jumped up quickly, clearing the table and rushing off to the room she shared with Georgie. She undressed and lay down, her mind spinning.
She'd been so excited to ask Howard Stark about Dr. Erskine. She'd read in the papers that he'd travelled to England once before the war in Europe, and she'd seen a photograph of him standing with the legendary chemist. Erskine was a brilliant scientist, and she'd only been anxious to learn more about his work.
But it had been more trouble than it was worth.
Sighing, Wilma closed her eyes. If she ever saw Howard Stark again, she told herself, she'd turn on her heel and walk the other way. Yes, even if her instincts were to strike up a conversation with him just to spite her brother.
For now, she just had to focus on her job and her science.
so a couple of things:
immigrants... we get the job done (okay i had to i'm sorry i know i'm trash) but yeah, the barnes are immigrants, that's my story and i'm sticking with it.
i am not jewish, which means my knowledge about the faith is limited. i just generally want to see more representation of all demographics (cause duh) so i put that into this story, but since i don't practice the religion i don't think it's my place to go into detail about it/make a commentary out of it/act as if i know much about abrahamic faiths (i am myself hindu, so like. literally have no idea about it). so that's where i'm at.
i also don't ever intend to offend anybody and i try hard to keep everything i write about any marginalized group strictly celebratory of their cultures/ideas/beliefs/achievements/etc. that being said, i recognize that because i am not all of these demographics, there may be something problematic in my writing that i have missed or been unaware about. so if i have inadvertently done written something hurtful and offensive, please, please let me know and i will immediately fix it.