"What do you mean Charlie has abilities?"

Marlena rolled her eyes and plopped down on the couch beside Bucky, careful not to spill her glass of champagne on her clothes. She took a sip and looked at Steve, who held a rather perturbed expression on his face. This was the reason Marlena decided to wait until after dinner to break the news to all of them. Of course, she only planned on informing Wanda of the matter, but as Bucky reminded her earlier, Sam, Tony, and Steve deserved to know as well, as the three of them were incredibly important to each member of the Barnes family. She just wasn't sure if she would be looking to them for help as she originally planned to, however.

"How many more times do I need to repeat myself?" Marlena scoffed and took another sip of champagne. "My three-year-old daughter is capable of reading minds and telekinesis. I don't know how or why it's happening, but it is, and I am incredibly alarmed because of it."

"As am I," Bucky followed.

Sam furrowed his brows at this information. "So, what you're saying is that little Claire is developing a set of abilities similar to yours and Wanda's?"

Marlena nodded. "As they continue to develop, I believe you'll find them to be a bit more than similar. I don't trust that within the next few weeks she won't be trying to hex me out of existence."

"What have you done about this so far?" Steve asked the couple.

"Marlena gave her a suppressor," Bucky breathed out and looked at Tony. "Apparently Tony sends them to her, and apparently they come in the form of a tablet now."

"It was a good idea at the time," Tony defended himself.

Steve was slightly taken back by this information. He was a witness during the time in which Marlena was forced on the suppressors. He remembered everything effected during that time, and he worried the suppressors would have the same effect on his niece as they did on Marlena.

Marlena, however, could not ignore her closest friend's thoughts. If anything, they only annoyed her. Steve knew Marlena better than to think she would ever put her daughter at risk that way.

"Before you get too out-of-sorts about the situation, Steve, stop and take the time to think that you know me, and you know me better than to believe I would ever put my daughter at risk the way I was all those years ago," Marlena said to him. "The tablets contain a trace amount of Tony's suppression compound, so they don't have the same effect on the body as they used to. Tony constructed them specifically to make sure Wanda and I could be our normal, functional selves after taking them. The worst they'll do is put you to sleep for a few hours."

"I didn't know," Steve defended himself.

Marlena rolled her eyes and finished off her drink. "Clearly."

"You're a real bitch when you drink, did you know that?" Sam chimed in.

"No, but thank you for pointing it out," Marlena replied sarcastically. "Now, if you guys wouldn't mind helping me figure out how this is even possible, I would really appreciate it."

"DNA."

Marlena looked over at Tony with furrowed brows, but wasn't allowed the chance to respond before Bucky spoke.

"It makes sense," he started. "I remember you saying the reason Marlena couldn't get rid of her abilities in the first place had to do with the fact they were ingrained into her DNA. Your abilities are part of your biological makeup, Marlena."

"How the hell did I forget that?" Marlena grumbled.

Steve chuckled and looked at Bucky. "Don't forget your abilities are as well, Buck. You may have a lot more to be worried about than just Charlie."

Bucky's eyes widened in realization, and he and Marlena exchanged a glance with one another. He wondered why he hadn't thought of it sooner. He wondered why it'd slipped his mind. "Are you trying to tell me that my son could possibly end up sharing an ability with me?"

"It's possible," Steve told him. "It looks like Charlie's already showing signs of developing Marlena's abilities, so yours could have been passed to Jay. If that's the case, he might be a little easier to handle than Charlie, though."

"If you really wanna know the truth, I would just challenge him to an arm wrestling contest," Sam suggested. "If he matches your strength, there's a good chance he's going to be breaking a lot of hearts in the future."

"And arms," Tony snickered.

"I'm not arm wrestling my three-year-old," Bucky exclaimed.

Marlena scoffed and crossed her arms over her chest. "He's only saying that because he knows Steve is right, and if he lost an arm wrestling competition to his three-year-old son, his ego would disappear into thin air."

Everyone laughed aside from Bucky, though he knew she was telling the truth. He would never be able to live it down if his three-year-old son beat him at an arm wrestling match; Jay himself would never let him live it down.

"I'm just annoyed with the fact that two three-year-olds now fall within the category of the world's deadliest human beings, when I'm only considered the least bit threatening when I've got my wings on," Sam scoffed and sat back in his seat, his eyes falling on Marlena. "And why the hell do we have so many of you witchy people? Enough is enough."

"You'll get over it," Marlena breathed out. She glanced up at the clock on the wall and saw that it was nearing eight, which meant it was about time for her and Bucky to head back home. Being away from the twins for too long definitely wasn't their favorite thing in the world. "Bucky and I should get going, though."

Sam smirked and stood up. "Is it frisky time already?"

"Not at all," Marlena answered with a sarcastic smile. She moved to hug Sam, and when she did, she didn't pass up the opportunity to pass along a little message, though she did so telepathically. "Keep up the jokes and I may just have to launch you from your window."

Sam chuckled and pulled away from her, and Marlena shook her head at him before moving along to say goodbye to Steve and Tony. She and Steve shared a long goodbye, as did Bucky and Steve, but Marlena's goodbye to Tony was much longer, though it was not by her choice.

"What are you doing, Tony?" Marlena questioned the man as he pulled her away from the group. She noticed a strange expression on his face and knew then that he had something else to say other than goodbye.

Tony sighed and checked to make sure the remaining men were no longer within hearing distance. He looked at Marlena with glistening brown eyes and placed his hands on either of her arms. "I wasn't going to tell you this, because you're already powerful as it is, but listening to you talk about your daughter gave me a bit of anxiety."

Marlena furrowed her brows in confusion. "What are you talking about?" she asked slowly.

"Your abilities, Marlena."

"What about them?"

"Over the years, Friday and I have been studying you and Wanda, I guess you could say," Tony began. "There's new information on the blood samples I took from the two of you back in 2016, and while Wanda's is more or less harmless, yours could be considered potentially dangerous, maybe even catastrophic."

Marlena was more than confused with his words. She wasn't sure why he was still wasting his time studying her and Wanda, nor was she sure how a blood sample from years ago was still of use, but she figured science had something to do with it. "What are you talking about, Tony? I'm kind of at a standstill right now."

"Your abilities and Wanda's abilities both came from the mind stone, right?"

Marlena nodded her head.

"Well, we know the Mind Stone was used directly on Wanda when she was given her abilities, but that wasn't the case for you," Tony said to her. His vagueness was beginning to annoy her.

"And?"

"Friday's been studying the components that make up your blood, and thus make up your abilities," he explained to her. "Her conclusion is that your abilities come from the Mind Stone like Wanda's, but they also come from something else."

"So, what does this mean?"

"It means those Hydra douchebags had no clue what they were doing when they gave you your abilities," Tony answered. "It means that they were never aware of just how powerful a soldier they were creating. Whatever you have flowing through your veins, and whatever you have in your DNA, just like the Mind Stone, it's not of Earth. I'm just gonna to hypothesize now that of the six Infinity Stones out there, you not only came from one, but you came from two, which makes you and your daughter a hell of a lot stronger than you can even put into words."

"So, what exactly am I supposed to do about this?" Marlena asked him. The information was startling, but not too startling. She'd lived years knowing just how dangerous she was, so learning that she was much more dangerous than she even knew wasn't exactly surprising to her. "I mean, I haven't unlocked a hidden power or anything."

"It's not hidden," Tony stated. "Have you ever noticed that if you get hurt during a fight, you bounce back from it quicker than if Wanda were to get hurt? You fractured your spine on Halloween seven years ago and healed completely a month later. During the fight in Siberia, you only came out with two broken ribs after being slammed into a wall, when in reality the combined strength and velocity of the blow should've killed you. You're capable of taking a hard hit, whereas Wanda can't. Your physical strength has been enhanced, and it has nothing to do with your training as an assassin, nor does it have anything to do with the Mind Stone's effects on you. Whatever it is, it's not hidden, Marlena, and I'm afraid we don't have long until we figure out just how hidden it isn't."

Marlena sucked in a breath and ran a hand through her hair. That was definitely not what she had planned on adding to her infinite list of issues, but as her life would have it, there was no issue she could seem to escape.