I'm a Lost Cause

Prologue

James Buchanan Barnes and Ava Rose Fox are partners in crime but not the way you'd think. They fight crime. The darkest of crime in the city of New York. Meeting in college in the criminal justice sector, they hit it off instantly. Becoming a moth to a flame with each other but living in a life full of crime and hard choices they separate a couple years after college. Now both in their 30s they find themselves becoming the best detectives for the New York Police Department.

Ava and Bucky met in a criminology class their sophomore year. Bucky slipped in the classroom a good fifteen minutes after the class had begun. Ava let him have a copy of the notes that he missed to catch up. It didn't take long for them to connect further. Eventually becoming a couple and falling in deep with each other. Connecting on career goals and personal goals. Immersing themselves with each other.

Through college Ava worked for the NYPD going through the academy much like Bucky had done. Once she graduated with her degrees in Criminal Justice and Psychology; she was moved into the narcotics department and that's where things got rough for the two. Always going undercover and risking everything to earn a good dollar. She found herself deep undercover as a Exotic Dancer for one of the illusive clubs of NYC. Losing herself in the undercover mission getting mixed up with the wrong drugs but she completed it and came out victorious with the take down on Brock Rumlows drug run. He went to jail and Ava found herself in a six month program to make sure she was on the straight. Bucky was livid with her with how caught up in the world she got on that mission. It severed their relationship shortly after she was completely clean. Their relationship took a huge toll alone during her undercover mission. They spent less time together, way less time. Going from living together to living separately to keep her cover from being blown up.

While Ava was in the narcotics department Bucky was climbing his way up towards homicide starting in the missing persons department. Working with a great partner, Steve Rogers. Becoming great friends with Steve, Steve helped Bucky understand things with Ava. Having been in narcotics when he first started out much like Ava. The split with Ava not only affected Ava in many ways, but it affected Bucky as well. They'd grown to spend so much time together through college and the beginning of their career with NYPD.

Ava was finally back to work a couple months post-rehab. Finding herself in a different department on NYPD and working back on the streets much like she had once she completed the police academy. She was hating it all. She hated doing patrol. She hated dealing with the bullshit people on a daily basis. She hated to wear the uniform with the kevlar under it all. She'd do anything to be back in dress pants and dress shirts with a pair of dress shoes rather than the horrible combat boots she wore. The shoes were what bugged her most. They just weren't comfortable after a twelve hour day. The only plus was she chose to work twelve hour days, three days a week. It gave her 4 days off, but her shift was overnights. Where crime in NYC increased tenfold. One day after about six months on the job, Bucky came to her noticing she wasn't happy. He came to her one night at the beginning of her shift with an offer. A platonic offer. An offer to come back and work in Homicide with him as his new partner. She wasn't sure at first, worried about how things had ended, but eventually took the opportunity and did her best. Quickly, their relationship as friends repatched and they're bond as co-workers grew. What's about to happen is about testing the real bond between the two, and how they are going to continue life with these changes.