Stasis || Bucky Barnes

Thirty three

Basil found Steve in a pub in London. It was the same pub they had been drinking in last year, where the howling commandos first started. The building was a wreck now. It had fallen to bombs while they had been away. The inside was trashed and the wood was broken and scorched. Only the bare frame if the building remained and it creaked as Basil stepped through the empty doorway.

"I feel like this is pathetic fallacy", He said aloud to the room. Steve had found the one table that hadn't been broken and was sat at it. Basil glanced around for a chair and managed to find a unbroken stool. He dropped down on the other side and sat down opposite Steve. The captain was in uniform. A opened bottle of whiskey and a glass in front of him. There was a clatter as Basil shifted through the remains of the bar for another glass. When he found on, he let out a triumphant noise and set it down heavily on the table. Steve wordlessly poured him a drink.

For over an hour they didn't say anything. Each man just sat their with their thoughts, occasionally refilling the glasses with more alcohol until the bottle was almost empty. That was when agent Carter found them. Her heels cracked against the debris as she stepped inside. Steve half turned his head towards her as he topped up their glasses. Basil was slouched over the table and he flicked his gaze once at her before concentrating on the glass in his hand.

"Doctors considered that the serum just wouldn't affect my muscles", Steve spoke. "It would affect my cells. Create a protective system of regeneration and healing which means", he sighed and looked up to where she was standing. "I can't get drunk. Did you know that?"

"Your metabolism burns four times faster than the average person", Peggy Carter replied as she found a unbroken chair and set it at the table. She sat down with them. "He thought it could be one of the side effects". She looked at Steve for a minute. Then she turned to Basil. Both men were in their full uniforms. But that only seemed to make it worse. "It's not you fault", she stated.

"Did you read the report?"

"Yes".

"Then you know that's not true".

"I don't blame you Cap", Basil murmured. He was visibly tipsy, not drunk yet but his words were soft and slightly slurred.

Steve sighed at him as he met the younger man's gaze. "You should".

"You did everything you could", Carter stated. "Did you believe in your friend? Did you respect him?" Steve looked up and there was an answer in his eyes. "Then stop blaming yourself. Allow Barnes the dignity of his choice. He damn well must have though you were worth it".

Steve flicked his eyes back to the table. "I'm going after Schmidt. And I'm not going to stop until all of hydra is dead or captured".

"Here here", Basil raised his glass and downed the liquid. When it was empty he set it down on the table with a thud. "Sarge promised the both of us", he pointed between himself and Steve. "That he would be with us till the end of the line. So, since he's not here I am going to pick up the slack".

Steve leaned back to stare at him as Basil continued speaking. "I may not have known Bucky as long as you, or in the same way. But I know that he wouldn't want you to be alone. So I'm here and in honour of him, I'm the sticking with you Cap. Because I respect you. You are my friend but you were Bucky's brother and he loved you. So I'm going to make sure you don't do anything stupid. You won't be alone".

Steve blinked a few times in surprise. "I think you've had enough", he pulled the bottle away from Basil's hands.

"I'm not saying this in drunkenness Steve", Basil propped his head on his hand and sighed at him. "I'm saying this to the man who rescued Bucky and I from the hydra camp in Italy. To the man who I've been patching up after every battle since. To the symbol and also the little guy from Brooklyn Bucky used to tell me stories of. As your main doctor, I am fucking following you the the end of the goddamn bloody line if it's the last thing I ever bloody do".