Chapter Thirty-Five
Steve and Bucky sat in what remained of the dining room. The wall that had separated the dining room from the kitchen was partially burned down, the timbers scorched and blackened. There were cups of coffee sitting on the scarred table in front of them, but neither was doing more than staring into their cups. The kitchen was almost a total loss, but thanks to quick action the rest of the house had been saved. Having stone floors had helped the fire from spreading as quickly as it would have otherwise, and the roof had never caught fire, which were the only reasons they had been able to save the house. They were still in their sweat, soot, and blood-stained clothes from earlier, neither having felt any urgency to change their clothes with everything that had happened, not that clean clothes were any better; their clean clothes were hanging on the wash line, and had collected soot from the air and were almost as bad off as the clothes they were wearing. Beneath their clothes was a different story; Bucky’s side was cleaned and bandaged where the bullet had gone through flesh just above his hip, while Steve’s shoulder was cleaned and bandaged, the bullet he took having caught against his collar bone just next to his shoulder. They had been lucky the shooter wasn’t closer than he had been, otherwise they would both be dead.
Since the bedrooms, sitting room, and most of the dining room and pantry had survived the fire, they had managed to put everyone up in the house in one way or another. Happy Sam was on one of the spare beds, Junior on the floor. Dum Dum and Sam were in the other spare bed, Morita on the floor there. Dernier, Gabe, Pinky, and Coulson were on the floor in the sitting room. Coulson had gone into town, but requested to stay on the ranch, as it was the most likely place for Runa to return to, and he had been sent to check on her well being.
“Money.” Bucky finally said. “All this over money.”
“I can’t believe someone would do something like this over money.” Steve shook his head. “The kidnapping, maybe, but… Arson? Murder?”
“People act stupid over money all the damn time.” Bucky pointed out.
Steve shoved away from the table and stood, going to the window and looking out, wishing he could see someone riding up the drive, bringing Runa home.
Home. Hell. If she still wanted this to be home. She had wanted to stay when she thought she had nowhere else to go, no matter how poorly he had treated her. Now that she had means… Would she still want to stay with him?
“They’ll find her, Steve.” Bucky said quietly. “You watch. Hell, they might have already found her. Sheriff Rhodes will bring her back first thing in the morning. Probably put her up at Pepper’s overnight. He wouldn’t ride with a lady after dark, he doesn’t have a wagon or buggy to bring her back in, and Doc might be out tending to someone, so they couldn’t use his buggy.”
“If she even wants to come back.” Steve said quietly.
“Of course she’ll want to.” Bucky said firmly. “You didn’t see her the other night, Stevie, when you stormed out and she thought you were going to send her away. This is her home, and she knows it.”
“Not much of a home. She deserves better than what I’ve given her. Always has.”
“Steve.” Bucky got up, went to stand next to him and place a hand on Steve’s shoulder. “We’ve all made mistakes. Yeah, you kind of mucked things up a few times, but the way she looks at you…” Bucky shook his head. “She’s not going to want to leave.”
Steve looked to Bucky, startled. “What do you mean?”
“What I mean is, I don’t know if she loves you or not, but she sure as hell likes you. A lot. She’s not going to leave unless you tell her to, and even then I’m betting she’d fight you. Hell, I’d fight you if you told her to go, unless you had a damned good reason.”
Steve smiled slightly. “You like her that much?”
Bucky didn’t hesitate. He liked Runa almost as much as he liked Steve, and was just as drawn to her. There was something about her that made him just want to take her in his arms and hold her. Protect her from the world. “I do. And I think you do too.”
“I do.” Steve sighed. “I do, Bucky, I just…” He looked out the window again. “Even if it meant the ranch was burnt down a hundred times, I’d still want her here. I just shouldn’t have married her. I wasn’t ready and didn’t even realize it until we were married. You should have been the one to marry her.”
“I wasn’t the one who went and made a deathbed promise to my Ma that I’d get married and settle down.” Bucky pointed out. “You know I’m not the marrying type. Runa and I would have both been miserable.”
Steve shook his head. “No. You would have made her happy. That’s the kind of person you are. Sacrifice your own happiness for that of others.”
Oh Stevie, if only you knew. “I guess I am sometimes. Only with people I really like, though.”
“Yeah, but you like everyone.”
“Guess I do.”
They were silent for a while, staring out the window together. “I never really wanted to kill anyone before now.” Steve finally said.
“What?”
“Even when we were in the war, I never wanted to actually kill anyone. I knew I would have to, knew that was a part of war. But I never wanted to kill. Not until now. I want to kill Brock Rumlow. He’s out there doing God only knows what to her. We know he beat her before dragging her off, and then he ordered the ranch burnt down, all of us shot… It’s hard to believe one person could be such a monster. And a monster like that… He has to be put down. It’s more than that, though. I actually want to kill him. See him suffer a bit. I know I shouldn’t, that isn’t who I am, but thinking about all this, what she must be going through…” Steve shook his head.
“You’re right, that isn’t you.” Bucky said firmly. “We’ll leave him to sheriff Rhodes. Let justice decide what needs to be done with him, but… Well, he’s already killed one man. Knowing Judge Murdock, that’s enough for him to hang. Add in all the other stuff…” Bucky shook his head.
“Right.” Steve let out a long exhale. “You’re right.” He stared out the window a while longer. “Buck?”
“Yeah?”
“That offer to bunk with you still open?”
Bucky smiled slightly, though his heart wasn’t in it. “Like old times?”
“Not exactly like old times.” Steve gave Bucky a tired yet sad smile. “You have to keep your hands to yourself. I’m a married man.”
Bucky snorted at that. “Right. And you’ll stay a married man for a good long while. You’ll see.”