Winter is for Lovers (Bucky Barnes X OC) [Book 1]

24. All The Cats Join In

I sat in the interrogation room for what seemed like hours after Steve left. I felt bad, seeing him get so hurt. I could sense the feeling of betrayal. In a way, I felt like I had betrayed him, even if it wasn't my fault. That, and the fact that he watched his best friend die.

I think a part of me died, too.

The door to the room opened back up, revealing a solemn-looking Steve Rogers leaning on the door frame.

I was picking at the skin around my nails when I heard the door unlock, and saw him staring at me from a distance.

"If I uncuff you, are you gonna try to kill me again?" He asked, sitting across the table from me.

I shook my head, afraid to look into his eyes.

"Do you know me?" He asked.

"You're Steve," I answered, reaching deep into my memory to find some slight trace of remembrance. "We were friends."

"Do you know who you are?" He asked.

"I'm Doctor Hazel Grace," I said, looking up at him. "And I'm sorry for trying to kill you."

That seemed good enough for him because he unlocked my wrists from the table and got up from his seat.

"Come on," Steve said, waiting for me to get up.

"Where are we going?" I asked.

He didn't answer, leading the way out of the building. He took me down the street to a part of the city that had become a victim of an air raid.

We could hear sirens in the distance, first responders working harder than before to ensure the city was still intact. I could only imagine what the hospitals looked like right now, how busy they must be.

According to Steve, the rubble we currently found ourselves in was once a bar that he brought Bucky and the rest of his team of Howling Commandos to when he recruited them to destroy the known HYDRA bases and rescue me. Now, it was just a pile of bricks and wood with broken tables and chairs and bottles of booze.

"Charming," I said, looking and walking around the rubble. I was trying to imagine what it looked like before it was destroyed, how lively it must have been, and I tried imagining Steve and Bucky drinking and enjoying what little time they could have together.

I grabbed a couple of unharmed whiskey bottles and found Steve at a table he had set up for us. I slammed the bottles on the table and sighed, sitting down next to him, and we both stared at the bottles before pouring both of us shots of the amber liquid.

We sat in silence, neither of us willing to say anything, and we just kept pouring shot after shot, polishing off the bottle before Steve spoke.

"I can't believe he's gone..." Steve said quietly as he stared into his glass.

I didn't know what to say, I just continued circling my finger around the rim of my glass.

"He saved our lives," he said softly, and I just shook my head. "And we failed him."

"You should have never gotten on that train," I slammed my glass down on the table and glared at him.

He looked at me dumbfounded.

"It was a trap," I explained. "Schmidt knew you'd come to my rescue, he knew you'd try and take Zola as a prisoner. We were waiting for you... and you took the bait, and it cost Bucky his life."

I threw my glass, watching it shatter and letting the sound of the glass falling to the ground soothe me as I opened the other bottle, drinking directly from it.