Chapter 7
Fire? Was anyone hurt? Was Bucky hurt? Or worse? Was he-
"Steve, man. You okay?" Gabe says on the phone after Steve's sudden silence.
"Umm huh?"
"You sort of checked out there," Gabe notes.
"What happened?" Steve chokes out.
"I don't really remember much. Just we were heading out to there, heard about the fire, went somewhere else. We never really went by again or checked to see if it was back up. Heard something about how people thought it was a hate crime. I think it ended up being disputed though."
"Hate crime because...right" Steve shakes his head. "When...when was this?" This could be why Bucky wasn't answering his letters for the past few weeks. He could be hurt. He could be d-
"Few years ago..." Gabe's voice interrupts Steve's thoughts.
"No I know but like when during the year?" Steve asks his friend and he begs him to say something like in the summer and it was something highly preventable so he could tell Bucky. Stop this from happening. Maybe that's what this distance situation was meant for.
"Oh god I dont know. Probably around this time...Matter of fact" Gabe pauses for a second. "I think it was around St. Patrick's."
And Steve's heart drops.
"Only remember because we begged Montgomery to try his Irish accent because for some reason we thought that bartender was one of those Irish guys with the darker hair." Gabe continues. "Turns out he was more Eastern European, which Tim kept reminding us as Montgomery failed at the Irish one." Gabe chuckles lightly at the memory and in any other situation Steve would ask more about that scene but he had other concerns at the moment.
"Um was anyone hurt or..." Steve asks, his voice starting to get shaky.
"I don't really know honestly. It was a long time ago. I know it seems kind of an asshole move from us but we went to a lot of bars. We didn't really pay any mind to one or the other and if one stopped running we stopped going."
"Right yeah." Steve clears his throat again to try to hide his emotion, tries to keep his voice from shaking. "You really don't know anything? Anything about the owner or..." Steve can feel himself start to panic. He pinches the bridge of his nose to stop himself from crying while Gabe is on the phone.
"Look Steve is there a reason you were asking? I mean I know you're not doing a lecture on bars in Brooklyn and I also know you're not interested in them in general...did something happen with this one? Did maybe a certain someone ask about it? Have something to do with the owner of it?"
"What?" Steve sounds offended. "No, no this has nothing to do with them." Steve knows Gabe is alluding to his infamous ex. Steve almost wants to cut Gabe off and hang up the phone but he knows truly his friend didn't deserve that. If it was the other way around Steve would be asking questions too.
"I'm sorry, man. You just asked about it out of the blue I figured maybe -" Gabe almost says the name, almost, but he stops himself. "Figured maybe they mentioned it in the past or ...recently and you wanted to scope it out."
"No. It's not that-"
"I wouldn't even judge either of you because that bartender was something-"
"Look I gotta go." Steve says hurriedly. "Thank you for letting me know, really. I just-"
"Just tell me what it was for...Why's this have you so upset?" Gabe asks genuinely.
"You-you could tell?"
"Yeah. You're never good at hiding it. So what is it?"
"It's nothing its-" It's just that I feel I was given the opportunity to prevent something bad from happening and managed to fail at that and now someone I care about could be in trouble or worse and I can't do anything but write them fucking letters. He wants to say but knows that wouldn't be good so instead he tries something more surface level, less specific. "You ever get mad at someone over something, accusing them of shit and turns out they were really in trouble."
"Like getting mad at someone for being late and then finding out they were in an accident?" Gabe offers an example.
"Yeah. Like that."
He knows Gabe wants to ask what that has to do with a fire at a bar that happened 2 or so years ago but he doesn't. Instead the other line is silent, waiting for Steve.
"Look I gotta go I need to...I just gotta go. Thank you for calling me about that."
"Yeah sure."
Steve is about to pull the phone away from his face to hang up.
"Just Steve..." Gabe continues.
"Yeah?"
"You know I'm always here to talk. With or without the other guys. I mean I know none of us hold a candle to Sam but since he's in DC."
"No. I know. Thank you."
"Maybe give him a call too or something? I'm sure he misses you."
"Yeah I'll-I'll do that. Thanks, Gabe."
"Anytime."
They hang up. Steve thinks about what Gabe said about calling Sam. He really should. He kept meaning too things just pilled up. God he's been such a shitty friend and such a shitty...whatever him and Bucky were.
Bucky!
He remembers again the fire. His heart starts picking up pace not letting his brain think. All he can think about is getting to the Lakehouse. Checking the mail, leaving a letter apologizing for his anger (which he never let Bucky know of but he was going to had he not found out about what happened), telling him he knows about the fire apologizing again for not being able to warn him, begging, begging him that he's okay.
He pulls into the small driveway of the Lakehouse, his tires screeching as he slows it to a stop. He quickly folds the paper of the letter he was writing on the way over using ever red light he hit as an opportunity to put his pen to the paper. He opens the mailbox to swiftly put the paper in before he heads back home and goes to his laptop to look up history on Bucky's bar. However as he's pulling his hand out of the mailbox to leave his letter he feels something in it. Another piece of paper. He pulls it out thinking maybe it was his old one still in there or returned. But when he pulls it out it's a new one, addressed to him.
March 18th 2010
Bucky wakes up to a phone call at 2am. He's agitated for other reasons besides the phone call. Sacha Barron whatever supposedly got married a few days ago but there was no news about it and Bucky doesn't know why Steve gave him such a stupid fact or why he hasn't answered his letters. Okay okay he did say he was an ER doctor Bucky shouldn't exactly be upset by that but...dammit how was he supposed to call him out on his prediction being wrong if the guy wouldn't send him any letters back.
"What is it?" He answers the phone. Shocking himself had how hoarse his voice sounded from lack of sleep. He didn't look at the caller ID but he already knew it was the bar. No one else ever calls this late. His brain scrambles trying to remember who was on duty tonight so he can yell at them for calling him in the middle of the night.
"Buck- uhh" They clear their throat. "Bucky."
Bucky recognizes the voice of Alfie and he feels a little bad about thinking about yelling at him. If anything Alfie was the one who respected his space the most. That's not to say, however, he hasn't called him for stupid reasons but he lets it slide because well it was Alfie and if Alfie was anything he was kind. Bucky wasn't in the business of breaking a kind man down.
"Alfie its-"
"I know it's late and you're at the lake and we're not supposed to bother you at the lake but" He can hear the man on the other line is out of breath, rushing his words. Bucky breathes in.
"Just tell me what it-"
"Fire ! There's a fire I don't know what to do..."
He knows Alfie is rambling on about it but all Bucky hears is fire. Fire at his bar. He jumps out of bed, finds his nearest pair of pants, scrambles to put on yesterday's shirt, and struggles to pull his shoes on, hopping on one foot to balances as he puts on one and then the other. He almost trips over a sleeping Jack who barely wakes up to the commotion that Bucky is sure he is causing.
"Be back!" He says quickly to the dog who has now appeared in the foyer. He closes the door quickly behind him and is sure to lock it before he runs across the wooden walkway.
He can hear Alfie on the phone now becoming a blubbering mess and now that he's fully dressed and in his car he can calmly ask what happened.
"Okay, okay Alfie breathe in real quick..." He can hear the man do so as he himself turns on his car ignition and back out into the road.
"Now is everyone safe? Anyone hurt? You hurt?" Bucky asks, slowly.
"No, no sir umm Bucky no one is hurt," Alfie says.
"Okay good. And you're out of the building right?"
"Yes."
"Good. And fire department?"
"They're here."
"Okay good. That's good. So Alfie, I'm going to need to tell me what happened calmly ...and slowly since I'm still barely awake." He turns his phone on speaker and lets it sit in his cupholder.
"Right I'm sorry about that."
"It's alright, Alfie. This is definitely one of those 'emergency' reasons to call. Now tell me how it started."