The Avengers all stand around in shock as they stare at the picture of Vision. Freya's face scrunches up in clear emotional distress at the confusing situation.
"What is this? How did you get this picture?" she asks Jimmy and Darcy shakily.
"Well, we took it as a still frame," Jimmy frowns. He gestures for them to follow and leads them to Darcy's workspace around the corner.
Freya gasps when she sees an old box television set playing a black and white show starring Wanda and Vision. She glances at Darcy, who nods and pulls a chair out for her. Freya slowly sits down and attempts to process what's going on. The three men that accompany her are all frozen in shock while they watch the T.V. The bustle of people around the workspace finally makes Freya look up. She sees handfuls of people running around with paperwork in their hands. Some have pictures and copies of drivers licenses. Others have data they've gathered from the anomaly so far.
"Can anyone please attempt to explain what's going on?" Freya requests quietly. Jimmy nervously nudges Darcy, who shrugs and steps forward.
"Well, S.W.O.R.D. called me out here and requested an assessment of the anomaly. My equipment picked up an insane amount of CMBR."
"We did as well," Freya nods.
"There was a broadcast frequency entangled in it too, but we weren't able to make sense of it," Sam adds.
"That was my next step. I found an old physio-scope and picked up the sitcom with Wanda and Vision. So I had Hayward's goons grab me an old television set and voilà," Darcy gestures to the T.V.
"We've been studying the episodes that have aired so far to see if we can figure out what's going on," Jimmy nods.
"Well, part of it is definitely Wanda, I can tell you that. The energy feels like hers. But, what I don't understand is that there seems to be another presence here," Freya furrows her eyebrows and looks in the direction of the anomaly. "Aside from the other signature, which I now know to be Vision, there's something else here. But I can't get a read on it for some reason."
"Does that mean there's another party in play?" Steve asks.
"I'm not sure," Freya shakes her head. She sighs and looks around at the T.V. sets scattered around the tables. "We should start scanning over the episodes too to see if we can help." Her team nods in response and everyone grabs a seat around a television set.
While they watch the first episode, Freya can't help but smile at how happy Wanda and Vision look. She definitely didn't miss the reference to Vision's indestructible head. Which made her squirm uncomfortably in her seat. Steve had patted her leg, sharing in her unease. The neighbor, Agnes, seems a bit off though. Of course she has to be the typical pushy, nosy neighbor, but there's something that stirs in Freya's stomach when she looks at her. When the commercial rolls around, Darcy moves to fast forward through it.
"Wait, what are you doing?" Freya asks.
"It's a commercial, I'm gonna fast forward," Darcy replies in a "duh" tone.
"You're watching a fake sitcom starring two Avengers, one of which is supposed to be dead, while it's being broadcasted from an anomaly that has swallowed an entire town and you didn't think to watch the commercials?!" Freya snaps.
"That's a really good point," Darcy replies, letting Freya's annoyed tone roll off her back. Knowing she doesn't mean it.
Freya sighs and waits for Darcy to start the commercial over. When she does, Freya tilts her head in confusion. It's a commercial about a toaster.
"Is your husband tired of you burning his toast?"
"Seriously?" Sam asks.
"What the hell?" Bucky mumbles.
"Shh," Freya shushes them.
"Try our new and improved ToastMate 2000. It's the go-to for clever housewives."
"Okay, wow," Steve says in shock at the blatant sexism. Freya just focuses on the screen. She knows there has to be a reason for a fake show to have fake commercials.
"Say, this machine has some shine."
"You said it. Set the dial and get the taste back into your toast."
The woman puts bread in the toast and the light on the front of the toaster begins to blink while it starts to beep. When the camera zooms in, Freya's heart lurches at the name on the toaster. Steve grips her hand when he sees it too.
"Top and bottom heating elements can handle anything from meatloaf, to cherry pie, to open-faced cheese sandwiches."
"What the hell is an open-faced cheese sandwich?" Sam mumbles.
The beeping on the toast starts to get faster and the light is now red. The only thing in color.
"Oh, no," Freya says in horror as her stomach sinks guiltily.
"What?" Darcy asks.
"The toaster," Steve says quietly. "What does it sound like to you?"
"Like, a bomb," Jimmy speaks up after a moment.
"And what's the name on the toaster?" Freya asks.
"Stark..." Darcy whispers.
"Oh, shit," Bucky gasps.
"The all new ToastMate 2000 by Stark Industries. Forget the past. This is your future."
"What does it mean?" Jimmy asks.
"The toaster represents the bomb from Stark Industries that killed her parents. And the second one that almost killed her and Pietro. Weapons that my father created... Oh, God, I feel like I'm gonna be sick," Freya almost heaves. She stands and quickly walks outside into the chilly, late night air.
Steve, with the others on his heels, follow her outside. They stop to watch her when she paces with her hands on her head. Suddenly, she pauses and faces the anomaly. Slowly walking forward, she approaches the barrier. Agents just stand by and watch, knowing not to get in the way of an Avenger.
"Wait, I wouldn't do that, Mrs. Rogers!" Jimmy warns her when she walks past the ring of lights.
Freya ignores him and walks up to the barrier. Lifting her hand, she gently places it on the static wall in front of her. There's a sharp sting when she makes contact, making her hiss. She yanks her hand back briefly just as the others walk up next to her.
"What is it?" Steve asks.
"It responded negatively my contact," Freya thinks out loud. She reaches her hand up and presses it further into the barrier all the way up to her wrist. She's met with another sharp sting, but instead of pulling her hand back, it's forcefully shot from the barrier. "What the f-" Freya's hand flies back behind her, making her stumble. It almost catches Sam in the face, which makes him let out a squeak of surprise. Steve reaches out to steady her as she looks back at the barrier in confusion. "It doesn't want me to go in," Freya informs them. "Or, maybe, Wanda at least doesn't."
"How did Monica get in then?" Jimmy asks.
"Maybe it's because Wanda doesn't know her," Bucky offers.
"Yeah, maybe," Freya nods. She looks at her team sternly. "No one touches this barrier, understood? We can't afford to have another person get yanked inside."
"Copy," Steve nods seriously. Bucky and Sam nod as well in confirmation.
They eventually head back inside to see what other clues they can find in the episodes. Jimmy has a whiteboard of questions and topics that he had started. Questions consisting of "Why the hexagonal shape?" or "Why sitcoms?". That's one that Freya can actually answer. It was what Wanda and her family watched when she was growing up in Sokovia. Her father sold DVDs of old sitcoms and they would watch them as a family to better their English. Other questions that Freya has no clue what the answers are would be "Same time and space?" and "Is Vision alive?". Both really great questions with absolutely no answers. They had finally started identifying most of the people that have appeared on the show. Aside from Dottie, the mailman and Agnes. Another commercial they had come across was for a HYDRA-made "Stucker" watch. Representing Baron Von Strucker. The man that experimented on Wanda and Pietro with the Mind Stone. The commercials now seemingly following a pattern of Wanda's past trauma's or major events that have happened in her life.
"When was the last time you ate?" Steve asks Freya quietly. Who's standing silently behind Darcy while she looks over footage.
"Uh, maybe a few hours ago," Freya says distractedly.
"I'm gonna go grab you an apple and some juice. Why don't you take a seat next to Darcy and rest your feet," he offers.
"Steve, I'm fine," Freya sighs. She looks up at him and sees him giving her a stern look. "Okay, an apple and juice sounds great," she concedes as she pulls a chair up next to Darcy.
"That's my girl," Steve chuckles. He gently rubs her stomach and gives her a sweet kiss on the lips before walking away. Freya sits down next to Darcy with a sigh.
"What was that about?" Darcy chuckles.
"Oh, he's just wanting to make sure I'm okay," Freya waves her off.
"Why, though? You seem perfectly fine to me," Darcy snorts.
"Uh, well, it's because I'm pregnant," Freya admits hesitantly. Darcy chokes on the noodles she's eating and falls into a coughing fit. Freya laughs and pats her on the back.
"You're pregnant?" Darcy asks when she finally regains her voice.
"Yeah," Freya nods. "It's all still new to us. So, we're figuring it out as we go I guess," she shrugs.
"Well, congratulations!" Darcy grins and gives Freya a side hug.
"Congrats for what?" Jimmy asks as he walks up.
"Freya's pregnant!" Darcy announces.
"Darcy!" Freya scolds her in amused disbelief.
"Congrats!" Jimmy grins.
"Oh, sorry!" Darcy cringes. Freya shakes her head and laughs before facing the T.V. in front of them, but she instantly freezes. Darcy goes to take another bite of her noodles, but the cup drops from her hand in shock and spills ramen across the floor.
"What?" Jimmy asks. Freya points at the screen and his eyes go wide when they land on Monica.
"Does she seem okay to you guys?" Darcy asks.
"Does who seem okay?" Steve asks as he walks up to them. He hands Freya the apple and juice as she gestures to Monica on the T.V. His eyes go wide in response.
"Where's Sam and Bucky?" Freya asks.
"Oh, they found they donut table," Steve informs her as he studies the T.V. screen.
"Of course," Freya sighs before looking over at Jimmy. "What do you think?"
"I mean, donuts aren't the best snack but- " Jimmy stops talking when he sees Freya's deadpanned look. "Oh, you meant Monica." Freya just blankly nods in response. "Well, she doesn't appear to be harmed in any way, but that is definitely not the boss lady I met yesterday," Jimmy replies.
"So what, deep cover? Monica has to play along?" Darcy asks.
"With whom? Or else what?" Freya asks.
"Exactly," Jimmy nods before looking pointedly at Freya. "All right. Brass tacks, Mercury. What are we lookin' at here? Is it an alternate reality? Time travel? Some cockamamie social experiment?"
"I'm honestly not sure," Freya shakes her head. "I've never come across this before." Jimmy frowns in response and turns to Darcy.
"Dr. Lewis?"
"It's a sitcom," Darcy responds. "A 1950s sitcom."
"But why?" Jimmy asks. Freya snorts takes an exasperated bite out of her apple in agreement.
"Hey, man, we're all working with the same scarcity of intel," Darcy retorts. Jimmy sighs and turns back to the T.V. while Darcy cringes in thought. "But, listen, I do have an idea."