After the flash of white light subsided and it was clear that the woman who had just been standing with them was no longer there, the dark haired, mustached man was right in Natasha's face. Something about him felt extremely familiar.

"What the hell did you do to Peggy and who the hell are you?" he demanded, saliva flying from his mouth onto her face as he screamed.

"Don't cross me." Natasha replied in what she thought was a calm voice. She stepped backwards from the man, wiped her face clean, and took a deep breath. "I am Natasha Romanoff. I was just in the year 2019, which clearly is no longer the case. I assume your friend Peggy is either now in 2019 or she is somewhere else in time entirely."

"From 2019? And you're a Soviet? I don't think so, lady." The man said, eying her.

"I told you who I am. Who are you?" Natasha said, still keeping a calm voice. Fighting without understanding her situation and its variables would not help her get back to James and Steve any sooner. Besides, the man had a strange familiarity to him, like she had seen him before in a movie or on television.

"My name is Howard Stark." The man said.

"Howard Stark? As in Tony Stark's dad? Wait, what year is this?" Natasha replied unable to hold in her surprised laughter. She took in the large, sun-filled room's furnishings, trying to determine the year or at least decade from them. They were in some kind of parlor and everything was too formal for her to distinguish the difference. If not for the rotary telephone on the round table next to the loveseat, she could have put them anywhere from 1850-1980.

"Anthony Stark is my son, yes." Howard said, shifting his stance. "How do you know him?"

"We work together." Natasha said in a short tone. "Listen, Howard, I know this is weird—trust me, I was not expecting to end up...here—but I am actually from 2019. And I am coming from a warzone, where my son happens to be. Since you're a father, I am certain that you can relate to how I am feeling at this moment."

Howard looked her in the eyes for a long moment. Finally he spoke.

"Okay, I believe you." He said. "But unfortunately time travel has not been invented. Trust me, I've been trying. There are two separate dimensional variables that I simply cannot solve. Though... you might know them, being from the future?"

"Wow. You're exactly like Tony when I first met him." Natasha said. "Oddly enough time travel hasn't been invented in 2019 either, at least not on Earth. I honestly have no idea how I arrived here, but believe me, it was not intentional."

"Intended or not, Mrs. Romanoff, I think you are stuck here in 1972." Howard said.

"I figured as much." Natasha said. "And it's Miss, not Mrs."

"But you have a son?"

"Are you really Tony's dad saying that to me?" she laughed. "How funny."

"Sorry, I don't know what you mean." Howard said.

"I'm pretty sure people have been having children out of wedlock for a while now, even in 1972." Natasha said. "Besides, you know the father and you like him."

"How could I possibly know the father?" Howard said. His eyes widened and he said quietly, "It's not Anthony, is it?"

"That's disgusting. No offense." Natasha said, unable to mask her disgust. "No, it's... oh."

"Oh?"

"I just realized there's going to be a complication in your understanding." She said.

"I was beginning to trust you. This is an unfortunate turn of events." Howard said moving towards her in a threatening way.

"No, it's just... you know the man who is the father to be dead." She said. "But, he's not. He's... hibernating. Oh god, I don't even know the consequences of me telling you this."

"I don't know what you're playing at, but I've encountered plenty of weird shit in my day. Including people coming back from the dead." Howard said in a very serious tone.

"Who came back from the dead?" Natasha asked.

"A war hero, a friend of Captain America." Howard said. "It happened in April, during the Apollo 16 mission."

"You mean Bucky?" Natasha asked in shock.

"How do you know that?" Howard demanded. "No one knows about it."

"He's... I know Bucky. We've been trying to save him for years now from HYDRA, but he keeps disappearing as soon as we get close." She said, finally looking around the room for its Earthly comfort rather than its escape routes and possible weapons.

"HYDRA is still around in 2019? Did they rebuild? We destroyed them in the second World War." Howard said. "Who are you, Miss Romanoff? How can Bucky be alive now and alive in fifty years?"

"He's the same age, right? Looks like it's 1941 again, right?" Natasha asked.

"Yes," Howard whispered.

"Strange, huh?" she said.

"Get to the point."

"Howard, the same thing that's happening to James Buchanan Barnes is going to happen to Steve Rogers, except the good guys find Steve, not the bad guys. Steve isn't dead. He never was. Your serum kept him alive in the ice." Natasha slid into one of the formal chairs in the room. It felt like it had never been used.

"What are you telling me?"

"Steve's the father of my son, James. We named him after Bucky. He's only three and I need to get back there." She said.

"I don't believe you. I don't believe this." Howard said, opening a bottle of scotch and pouring a glass. "This is ridiculous. You come in here from out of nowhere and are telling me this man who I know is dead—whose death I grieved for years—is actually alive in the future. This is ridiculous. This is a lie. You need to get out. You're just a crazy person, Miss Romanoff, if that's even your name."

Natasha shifted in her seat. She was unsure how to prove something like this to him without giving away where Steve was located. She remembered her communicator was still on her utility belt. She pulled it out and called up a video of Steve and James. "Come here, let me show you proof." She said.

"Of course you have a picture to show me." Howard rolled his eyes. "It's a plant. One you doctored."

"It's a video. Just watch it. Then you can decide. If it's a plant, I'm out of your hair for good." she said.

Howard reluctantly walked over to her and stood over her shoulder so they could both watch the video play on her device. She pressed play and the video started.

"All right, this time for mommy on the camera." Steve said, kneeling on the floor of Stark Tower's central living area surrounded by differently shaped vibranium building blocks. The blonde toddler, James, looked at the camera and waved. Natasha's voice said, "Show me how fast you can do it, honey." close to the camera's microphone.

"Okay, watch me!" James said and then quickly assembled the building blocks into an oddly shaped structure.

"Wow good job!" Steve cried. He looked across the room to someone off camera and called out, "Tony, he beat your record."

"Let me see. I don't believe it." Tony replied, walking into frame as he did.

As soon as Tony was visible, Howard dropped his scotch glass. Natasha caught it midair and stopped the spilled drop with her tongue as it ran down her hand.

"Wow, he did." Tony was saying in the video. "But I was two when I did it, and James is three."

"Uncle Tony, I am two!" James protested.

"You're almost three." Tony shrugged. He looked at Steve and said, "You sure he's not my kid? Seems too smart to be yours."

Steve blushed and looked extremely uncomfortable for a moment as he glanced at the person holding the camera.

Natasha's voice could be heard saying, "He's way too handsome to be your kid, Tony."

Steve laughed and James knocked over the puzzle and started to redo it.

"How fast was that, dad?" he asked Steve once he finished again.

Steve looked at him and said with a wink, "Faster than Mr. Pietro."

"No! Nothing is faster than him." James protested.

"Kid's got a point." Tony said.

"Mom, how fast are you? Come do it." James said to the person holding the camera.

The frame shook as Natasha stood up and walked across the room, handing off the camera to Steve. The vastness of the room could be seen from this new angle and Howard reached for his scotch glass from Natasha's hand. The video was only six months old and Natasha on screen looked identical to how she looked now in Howard's parlor.

"Ready mom?" James asked her.

"Ready," she said nudging him with a small grin.

"Go!"

Natasha quickly assembled the puzzle, quicker than James had done, and he clapped excitedly.

A new voice could be heard offscreen yelling, "Who is clapping? Who is that making so much noise? You know I don't like noise."

Natasha laughed and said to James, "Uh oh, you woke up Uncle Bruce. You know what happens when he gets angry."

"No!" James screeched looking at someone off screen with delighted wide eyes. Bruce Banner charged into frame, grabbing James and tickling him mercilessly. "Help, mom!" James squealed.

"I'm no match for the Hulk." Natasha said with a shrug. "You'll need Captain America for this."

"Daaaad!" James cried through tearful laughter.

Bruce roared at him and then the camera was set on the ground. A moment later Steve came into the frame with his shield.

"You leave my family alone!" Steve said in a voice full of authority.

Bruce gave him a playfully wary look and Steve knelt down to cover James and Natasha with his shield before Bruce could tickle attack James again. Someone picked up the camera and filmed from a standing angle as Bruce jokingly pushed on Steve's shield.

"He's still attacking, dad!" James breathed.

"Not on my watch" Steve yelled and thrust upwards with some force, accidentally causing Bruce to fly across the room.

Tony's voice could be heard close to the camera microphone muttering, "Oh shit."

The camera followed Bruce's body until it stopped midflight and hovered in the air. Wanda Maximoff looked at Bruce and then at the group.

"At least try to be careful." She said, shaking her head as she lowered Bruce easily to the ground and unfroze him. He rolled a few feet before coming to a stop.

Tony turned the camera on himself and said in a quiet, mischievous tone, "We're in trouble now," before shutting off the recording.

/\/\/\

Natasha closed out of the video application and put her communicator back in her utility belt.

"That was six months ago in my time." She said. When Howard did not reply at all she stood up to turn and look at him. He was crying.

"Sorry, I just...Steve was dead and now...He is just so happy." Howard said as she looked at him with a softened expression. He wiped his eyes and looked at her, "I want to help you. I wish I could."

Natasha put a hand on his shoulder and said, "Maybe you can."

"How?" Howard asked, shaking his head.

"You're one of the brightest minds alive right now, and I'm not too shabby myself. There has to be a way to get me back." She said. "There has to be."

Howard nodded and sniffled, starting to compose himself.

There was a rap on the parlor's double doors and a man entered.

"Sorry, I did not realize Mrs. Carter had left and you had new company." The man said. He had an English accent.

"It's a long story." Howard replied. "Mr. Jarvis this is Miss Natasha Romanoff. She's...a family friend. Miss Romanoff, this is my butler, Mr. Edwin Jarvis."

"Jarvis?" Natasha asked trying to stifle a laugh.

"Yes, is my name somehow funny?" Jarvis asked.

"No, it's a great name is all. Uncommon." She replied with a nod.

Howard looked at her with a raised eyebrow before turning back to Jarvis.

"Sir, your three o'clock for Anthony is here. Shall I show them in here, or will you meet them in the playroom?" Jarvis asked.

"I'll meet them." Howard said then paused and asked in a tight voice, "Did Brian come?"

"No, sir. It is just Mrs. Banner and her son." Jarvis replied. "I will let them know you'll be there shortly. Nice to meet you, Miss Romanoff."

Howard and Natasha nodded at him and she waited until the door was closed to grab Howard's arm.

"Mrs. Banner's son doesn't happen to be named Bruce, does he?" she asked.

"Yeah, wasn't he in your video, still friends with Anthony?" Howard said.

"They don't meet until 2012." She said. "Something's changed. This isn't good."

"Listen, Rebecca's in a bad way with her husband. He hurts her and the kids. I'm trying to help them out." Howard said. "If you think that's not good, then we don't see eye to eye."

"Not what I mean." Natasha replied. "Remember how I said that I was in a warzone? Well Thanos, the enemy we're fighting, was threatening to initiate an attack that would rewrite history in his favor. We banished him to the abyss, but... maybe he found a way to alter time from there. I don't know. But I do know that I'm in 1972, Peggy Carter isn't, and Bruce Banner should never have met you, Howard."

"There's no way. I've known Rebecca for years." Howard said.

"Are you sure? How did you meet her? Tell me the exact memory you have of meeting her."

"Well, we were at a party, and I..." Howard trailed off. "No, that wasn't her. That was someone else. I don't know. I don't know how I met her."

"It's okay." Natasha said softly, hearing the panic rise in Howard's voice. "I've had my memory tampered with before and I promise you'll be okay. We just need to be careful. Something horrible is supposed to happen to Bruce in a few decades. Believe me, I really don't want him to have to go through that, but if he doesn't, a lot of events will play out very differently."

"What kind of events?" Howard asked.

"I don't think my James will exist, for starters." Natasha said. She looked Howard in the eye and added, "And to be honest, I'm not sure the Earth still will either."