𝚂𝙴𝚅𝙴𝙽𝚃𝙴𝙴𝙽 - 𝙱. 𝙱𝙰𝚁𝙽𝙴𝚂

Chapter 24

The End of the Line

Dear Lois Baxson,
SALA, Apartment 17
Bucharest, Romania.

My name is Steve Rogers and I am writing to you many years too late.

Six years ago, you searched for a way back to our friend, Bucky Barnes. You didn't find him but you found me, in one way or another. I was a stranger to you yet you entrusted in me your last part of him, his journal. For six years, I read it front to back, over and over, until the seams tore apart. Bucky was one of many who disappeared in the Blip. I know he would have been mad at me for reading his journal and wallowing in the words while he was gone but if I didn't, I would never have found you.

Lois Baxson, the neighbour in Apartment #17. Bucky wrote about how you listened to our old music and took care of the landlady. You worked long hours but still made time for him. You dragged him out of a dark place and into the light, even when you were fighting your own demons. You understand him and what he's been through in a way no one else does. In all honesty, I've never heard Buck speak about a woman the way he spoke about you. It would've been an honour to meet you.

I promised Bucky I'd be with him till the end of the line but I've fought my last war. Bucky's going to be the only 106-year-old super soldier in Brooklyn and I don't want him to be alone. Writing to you, even if you live a very different life, is one last thing I can do for my best friend and to repay the debt I owe you for letting him go.

I write to you as a friend, understanding that you loved him as I did and that you deserve to know where to find him. If you want to find Bucky Barnes, find Captain America. He'll be right by his side, always.

Thank you,

S.R

Bucky looked up from the letter and at Lois. She shifted to lean out the window and against the window sill. The air was cold as the clouds were slowly opening up for the sun to peek through.

Bucky looked down at the letter again. There were smudges in the ink, watermarks too.

"I spent months trying to settle down at the house in England but I never could find peace there so I went looking for the Avengers, Steve mostly. I ended up tracking down Tony Stark and gave your journal, which Vulpe sent me, to Vision. I wasn't sure Steve ever received it until I found this letter in my mailbox."

Bucky leaned against the window sill beside her. "I imagine that conversation with Stark wasn't good."

"It was short." Lois pulled a piece of her hair back. "He was still grieving from losing the Avengers."

"I never made amends with him."

Lois leaned her head on his shoulder and sighed a deep breath out. "I don't think you needed to. As much as he hated it, he knew you had no choice."

Bucky looked down at the date on the letter. It was many months ago. "Why'd you wait so long to read this?"

"I was scared it was going to tell me you were dead." Lois lifted her head off his shoulder and looked at him. "I couldn't do it."

"So, when you saw me on the news a week ago and realized I was in fact not dead, you fully read the letter?"

"Yeah."

Bucky nodded and carefully folded the letter back up, placing it back in the envelope.

"It's a good thing you didn't open it any sooner. I needed time for my own shit together. Which I'm still doing." He pointed to his empty living room.