This is not the Endgame

Living through each empty night

Sam dropped by the bar the following week just to check on Ava. He looked carefully, but any bruise she might have gotten had faded; she was wearing a sheer foundation, so it he'd have been able to tell. She did look exhausted, if you looked past her smile, with red-rimmed eyes and bags under them. She also seemed to be trying to use blusher to put some color in her face; it wasn't notably successful. But then this was something you'd have to look for; her smile was beguiling as usual, drawing attention. It wavered quite substantially when she saw him, but she put down the peanuts and a napkin pleasantly.

"Bud light?"

"Sure," he said, and waited until she'd returned with the beverage. "I don't want to harass you while you're working, I just wanted to see how you were doing."

"I appreciate your consideration," she said, placing the glass on the napkin. "I'll be fine." She shot him a look. "And I got asthma medication from my doctor. I'm set."

He accepted the lack of details; it was her right to decline to provide specifics, and she associated him with Bucky. "I won't keep you. But if you need anything, just want to get coffee or anything and talk, please call." He handed her a business card, then paid for his beer. She made change on the spot, tucking the card into her apron pocket without looking it. Sam placed the odds of her tossing it into recycling without even looking at it at about 70%. Well, he'd done what he could. He drank the beer, which he didn't really want, then left.

He reported this to Wanda, who liked Ava too and was worried about both Ava and Bucky, but when he and Wanda went to the bar the next week, there was a new waitress who didn't know anything beyond that a waitress had quit for a better opportunity.

Spring came, beautiful and green. Bucky was backing off his plans a bit, instead of going to summer school, he was going to do an internship for credit at a development company and bump up his therapy. He and Steve talked about this; Steve was doing classes. Bucky also complained that the rent was going up another $400, residents were leaving in droves, but Bucky was feeling mean about it and signed a lease. Inspired by the money the US had paid Steve for being experimented on with probably illegal protocols--and it was decidedly unethical despite Steve being a volunteer--Bucky was suing the Austrians and the Russians. The Austrians promptly had begun  negotiating a settlement with his lawyers, but the Russians were digging their heels in. His human rights lawyer, one of the best on the planet, had cracked her knuckles and was creating havoc.

Then in late June, the property manager told Bucky that the owner's plans to scrape the building and put up luxury apartments was off the table, since had been discovered that it had landmark status, granted decades prior; one owner had applied for the status and it had been finalized during a sale of the property; the current owner didn't know of the status and there was no bronze marker for the designation. Steve dropped by at this time, hoping that Bucky might be home and available to talk. He frowned as he saw a moving company bringing out a few boxes; their truck had well-protected furniture inside, a wardrobe box, and a few more boxes, and this looked to be the last of the goods; the engine of the truck started up and the door was dropped and secured. Bucky had good things to say about all of the tenants he knew, which by this time was all of the remaining ones.

"That's good," Steve remarked. Bucky eyed his friend.

"What's up?" he asked warily.

"I bought the building," Steve said.

"You bought the building."

"Yeah. Something to anchor me here, provide a home. Make it possible for other people to make their homes too. It has so much potential, Buck." Bucky rubbed the back of his head.