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"That's really good, James," Madeleine told him as he carefully bathed the infant. "Now, you want to make sure you still hold his head while you dry him off," she continued her instruction, rocking her own son back to sleep. She smiled as James gently pulled a borrowed clean top and pants on the baby, as cautious as though he were handling a grenade.
"Here ya go," Henry said, bringing him a ready bottle of formula, "figured it's about time for little Eliot to eat again."
James takes the bottle, feeding the baby, before a long-forgotten voice rings in his head prompting him to mind his manners. "Thank you," he offers clumsily, and a little belatedly.
The Spencers both smile, compassion in their eyes.
When Shawn finally falls asleep, and Eliot is tucked safely in an empty drawer filled with blankets, the weary parents all gather in the family room and have a very long talk.
James is understandably wary, both for his son's safety and for the safety of this generous couple who has offered the two of them shelter without any expectation. His eyes are alert as he watches each of their every movement, but he takes comfort in the fact Henry watches him just as closely.
A few weeks pass, in which James learns all about caring for a new-born infant, and after a few long, comforting talks with Madeleine, is beginning to remember pieces of the man he once was. He won't tell them many details of the Winter Soldier or the Red Room, but both are sharp as tacks, and recognise the soldier in him, if nothing else.
A month later, and he tells them he prefers to be called Bucky, and Madeleine seems delighted at his progress.
Eliot is 4 months old and is just starting to ease into solid foods, while Shawn seems uninterested in anything Henry tries to offer him. At his son's eager acceptance of the proffered yoghurt and Shawn's defiant spit-up of mashed peas all over Henry's face, Bucky's finds that his small, shy smiles of the last few months finally evolved into a combination of a snort and a giggle. Before Henry can glare at him, both men find themselves blinking from a bright flash. They simultaneously turn to an amused Maddie, who is holding a polaroid camera with a blinding smile of her own.
When Eliot turns one, Maddie has convinced Bucky to have a small birthday party. Even at his most lucid and present, James has only vague memories of "parties" to celebrate one's birth, and explains that people didn't splurge on much more than cake, if they could afford the ingredients, where he grew up. Still, that doesn't stop Bucky's determined friend from getting baby Eliot his own toy rocking horse and inviting Mr. and Mrs. Guster and their two kids, Joy and Burton (and no, Henry doesn't understand why they would name their child Burton either, but James Buchanan isn't in a place to judge) over for a proper celebration.
Eliot is just about to turn three when Bucky decides it's time for them to move. He smiles (something a lot more common these days) as he tucks his son in, knowing he's safe, that he's happy, that he's free to act like a little boy and not like a Red Room recruit, and that despite the detective training Henry has convinced him Eliot needs as much as Shawn, he knows he is free to make his own choices. Bucky has painstakingly earned freedom for the both of them, and with Madeleine's blessing, he's ready to take that freedom and make a life for the two of them on his own.
He calls Henry and Madeleine as soon as they are settled into their new home in Oklahoma. He found a job at a small hardware store and a nice little rental for him and Eliot. He only hits small snags when trying to fill out applications for day-care, his job, and their home, due to his inability to correctly answer a few simple questions.
Age: He's somewhere in his 60s, though his body is much younger.
Previous employment: Secret mercenary and assassin for officially non-existent organisation.
Marital Status: … Widowed? He snorts to himself as he checks in that particular box.
The only thing he is able to fill out with full confidence, thanks to a kind police officer in California who gave two strangers a family and a home when they had nothing to offer, is the first question listed.
Name: James Spencer and Eliot Spencer
And just like that, for the first time in over forty years, Bucky is a civilian once more, tasked with the most difficult assignment of his life: raising a toddler. To that end, he's made a point to meet any locals with young children, such as the Martins, with their young daughter Aimee.
It's been a long time since he has believed in much, but here, in their new life in their new city, he prays his son can one day find friends as important to him as a scrappy, kind, stubborn boy from Brooklyn was once to him.
Bucky smiles to himself at old memories and new hopes and continues playing "Where did Eliot go?" with his giggling son.