When It Rained

Chapter 14 - The Three Musketeers

Tossing a bag of Ice to Steve whom was sitting at the end of the bar, Finley spun grabbing six beers out of the fridge behind her. Each cap popped off beneath her fingers and the woman was sliding them down one by one to each man. After, she had turned taking three glasses out of the cabinet and began mixing drinks. 

Bucky grunted while sitting beside Steve. "How is she still moving?" The smaller one sighed looking at her. 

Chuckling, Buck extended his hand catching the bag of ice she had thrown to him as well. Their eye contact was short, and in response all she did was grin. 

The night was spent watching Finley work, Jack doing the same from the back. He was a big conversation on his own, the guy loved talking with his customers. Most of the time, it was to do with his bartender. There weren't many female ones out there, but he was damn proud of the one that he had. 

Buck could see that Steve was getting tired. The poor guy had taken a beating today, they all had. But just because he was smaller, that seemed to have the biggest contribution to his soreness. However, over the past few weeks, Bucky could see an improvement with his friend. He had more muscle mass, more confidence when he stood. 

"There's a difference you know." Bucky nudged Steve waking him up. 

"Difference in what?"

"You." He smiled. Then, reaching into his back pocket, Bucky pulled out a picture of the two of them together just about a month ago. 

Shaking his head, Steve pushed it away. "You know I can't see it, right?" 

He needed to show the improvement to Steve. It was clear that the guy was beginning to give up, and once he caved mentally- there was no picking him back up. 

"Hey Jack?!" Bucky turned looking towards the owner. This immediately made both him and Finley perk up. "You got a camera handy?" 

The owner had to think. Then- almost as if a light switch went off in his head, Jack was stomping towards the counter soon taking Finn's side. With a slide of the cabinet before her, the older man was handing over the device to Bucky. "Here Steve, stand up." 

Following his friend's directions, Steve stood up and stood still as Bucky took the picture. 

Once he snapped it, Bucky was pulling out the picture and waving for it to form. Finally, it did, and Bucky compared it to the picture they had taken a month ago. There was a difference, now it was easy for Steve to see. His neck and shoulders seemed more filled out, his arms at a broader range from his body, and his stance taller than it was before. 

"Oh my god..." He breathed taking the pictures from his hand. 

Bucky handed Jackson back the camera and smiled watching his friend realize the progress he was making. 

"See what I mean?" 

At a loss for words, Steve looked up towards Finley to see her dealing out one drink after another. He couldn't help himself. 

Leaping over the counter, Steve wrapped his arms around her pinning her right where she was. All of the guys let out a holler seeing him do so. Guys had tried to grab ahold of her plenty of times before in the bar, and they luckily caught on that it was a bad idea to even think about it. However, here was the little pip squeak, arms wrapped around her and the biggest smile on his face. "Finley, thank you thank you thank you thank you." 

Bucky shook his head seeing the discomfort spread across Finn's face.  So, throwing himself over the counter too, Bucky went to her front and pulled her in for a hug that way too. As soon as he did so, she was reaching forward grabbing the collar of his shirt with one hand and putting a firm hand on the forehead of Steve as well. Each boy had the biggest smile on their face, and Finley was trying to hold back a smile of her own. She really hated physical contact, but the humor of the situation was almost too much for her to bare.