Chapter Thirteen
The cab ride home was quiet for Bucky. Quiet and lonely. He knew he screwed up and he knew it wasn’t the first time. Perhaps he wasn’t completely healed from his childhood friend’s death and he was channeling the energy into protecting Angie. He loved her, he knew that much and he knew that he would have to let her go if they weren’t a good match. But he thought they were a good match. He saw a future with her, he saw a reason to keep going with her. But when she ended things then and there, he realized he would need to find something new.
When the cab arrived at his apartment building, he paid the driver and made his way into the apartment. Adjusting to a new normal was hard enough when the new normal changed from having Angie in it to readjusting to life of not having someone he loved by his side.
The radio was quiet, he was unsure of what was playing. The conversation repeated in his head as he walked to the kitchen and poured a glass from the half consumed bottle of whiskey. He leaned against the counter as he stared out the window that showed him nothing other than part of another building and the night’s sky. He sipped slowly, staring out the window as the conversation replayed in his head with faint radio trumpets in the background.
“Did I make the wrong decision, Caterina?” Angie asked, snuggling into Caterina’s Murphy bed with her second glass of schnapps in her hand. “Things were going so well with us before tonight.”
Caterina was changing into her pajamas as she listened to her sister talk. She stepped out of the bathroom and grabbed her own glass as she sat down on the bed beside Angie. She shrugged, smiling a little at her elder sister as she put her arm around her. “Well, you know my stance on the whole settling down and getting married to a man,” she said thoughtfully as she took a sip of her schnapps. “But you know how Father is about tradition and not having a ‘real job’,” she said, using air quotes to get her point across.
Angie giggled in response to Caterina’s response, mostly due to all the alcohol she had already consumed that night but also due to her sister’s ability to make her smile. “He would support me in whatever I did,” she said thoughtfully as she took a long drink and took a deep breath. “My last audition, I almost didn’t go. But he encouraged me to. Well, more of he insisted I go but I think someone like that is hard to come by,” she said.
“I think it is,” Caterina agreed, kissing her sister on the top of the head as she rested her head against Angie’s. “I think…you should sleep on it, sober up and then see how you feel after a little bit of time,” she advised as she took her sister’s drink and set it on the bedside table. “But take tomorrow off. I’ll stay home too and we can listen to a program on the radio,” she suggested and earned agreement from Angie immediately.
Three days. That’s how long it had been since the fight that ultimately ended the relationship. Despite the strong desire to stay home and drink the entirety of a bottle of whiskey, Bucky knew he’d have to go to work. Bucky slowly got himself ready for the day, dressing in his worn down jeans and boots with his dirty buttondown shirt.
He left his apartment, greeting the elderly neighbor who lived down the hall as he made his way down the busy street. The activity of morning New York was overwhelming despite the activity always being this way. He walked the route he knew by heart, slowly to a gradual stop in front of the L&L Automat. He looked through the window to see Peggy sitting in her spot and Angie walking over to Peggy. Angie greeted Peggy with her genuine smile, unlike the one she used with regulars she wasn’t fond of. He stood and watched her for a moment, only resuming his walk when Angie looked over and saw him.
“You haven’t been at the Griffith for a couple nights,” Peggy noted to her neighbor as she sipped her coffee. “Is everything alright?”
Angie glanced out the window, seeing Bucky briefly walk off and glanced at Peggy before taking a deep breath. “I’ve been staying with my sister,” she explained as she rested a hand on her hip and brushed a stray hair out of her face. “I ended things with James and…I’ve just needed Caterina’s company,” she explained. “I’m doing alright, just trying to adjust to the change.”
Peggy nodded, sensing Angie’s hesitation to talk about it. She offered Angie a compassionate smile as she set her coffee mug down. “Of course. Well, you know where I live, if you need a listening ear,” she said.
“Thanks, English. I really do appreciate ya,” Angie responded, flashing Peggy a genuine smile as she walked away to take care of another customer.
Bucky followed a routine similar to what he did prior to the war. Cody tried to engage him in small conversation which was met with one word answers and regular unamused looks. Cody knew the man better than that but also knew better than to push Bucky to talk.
Everything seemed pretty routine on the construction site, with the same group of guys working and cracking jokes as well as others singing songs in their painful out of tune voices. Bucky listened to them, cracking a small smile occasionally at their attempts to sound like an angelic choir. It was painful. But that’s what made it fun sometimes.
Routine meant everyone knew their job and they knew what they were supposed to do. However, something was off, something wasn’t done properly and everything happened so fast that the sound of panicked voices and building materials falling were the only sounds heard.
“Barnes, hurry!” One of the older men’s panicked voices called to Bucky who was furthest from safety but he made a run for it. However, his attempts were in vain when he felt something hit him hard and he hit the ground, hearing the sounds of his coworkers calling for help and arguing about whether to go save him.
Those sounds faded out and all he heard was ringing in his ears as his vision went black.
And the last thing he heard was a woman’s voice calling out his name.