Basil found Steve in a pub in London. It was the same pub they had been drinking in last year, where the howling commandos first started. The building was a wreck now. It had fallen to bombs while they had been away. The inside was trashed and the wood was broken and scorched. Only the bare frame if the building remained and it creaked as Basil stepped through the empty doorway.

"I feel like this is pathetic fallacy", He said aloud to the room. Steve had found the one table that hadn't been broken and was sat at it. Basil glanced around for a chair and managed to find a unbroken stool. He dropped down on the other side and sat down opposite Steve. The captain was in uniform. A opened bottle of whiskey and a glass in front of him. There was a clatter as Basil shifted through the remains of the bar for another glass. When he found on, he let out a triumphant noise and set it down heavily on the table. Steve wordlessly poured him a drink.

For over an hour they didn't say anything. Each man just sat their with their thoughts, occasionally refilling the glasses with more alcohol until the bottle was almost empty. That was when agent Carter found them. Her heels cracked against the debris as she stepped inside. Steve half turned his head towards her as he topped up their glasses. Basil was slouched over the table and he flicked his gaze once at her before concentrating on the glass in his hand.

"Doctors considered that the serum just wouldn't affect my muscles", Steve spoke. "It would affect my cells. Create a protective system of regeneration and healing which means", he sighed and looked up to where she was standing. "I can't get drunk. Did you know that?"

"Your metabolism burns four times faster than the average person", Peggy Carter replied as she found a unbroken chair and set it at the table. She sat down with them. "He thought it could be one of the side effects". She looked at Steve for a minute. Then she turned to Basil. Both men were in their full uniforms. But that only seemed to make it worse. "It's not you fault", she stated.

"Did you read the report?"

"Yes".

"Then you know that's not true".

"I don't blame you Cap", Basil murmured. He was visibly tipsy, not drunk yet but his words were soft and slightly slurred.

Steve sighed at him as he met the younger man's gaze. "You should".

"You did everything you could", Carter stated. "Did you believe in your friend? Did you respect him?" Steve looked up and there was an answer in his eyes. "Then stop blaming yourself. Allow Barnes the dignity of his choice. He damn well must have though you were worth it".

Steve flicked his eyes back to the table. "I'm going after Schmidt. And I'm not going to stop until all of hydra is dead or captured".

"Here here", Basil raised his glass and downed the liquid. When it was empty he set it down on the table with a thud. "Sarge promised the both of us", he pointed between himself and Steve. "That he would be with us till the end of the line. So, since he's not here I am going to pick up the slack".

Steve leaned back to stare at him as Basil continued speaking. "I may not have known Bucky as long as you, or in the same way. But I know that he wouldn't want you to be alone. So I'm here and in honour of him, I'm the sticking with you Cap. Because I respect you. You are my friend but you were Bucky's brother and he loved you. So I'm going to make sure you don't do anything stupid. You won't be alone".

Steve blinked a few times in surprise. "I think you've had enough", he pulled the bottle away from Basil's hands.

"I'm not saying this in drunkenness Steve", Basil propped his head on his hand and sighed at him. "I'm saying this to the man who rescued Bucky and I from the hydra camp in Italy. To the man who I've been patching up after every battle since. To the symbol and also the little guy from Brooklyn Bucky used to tell me stories of. As your main doctor, I am fucking following you the the end of the goddamn bloody line if it's the last thing I ever bloody do".

Basil went to slam his fist on the table for emphasise but his hand went straight though the wood. The three of them blinked at it for a second and Basil huffed. "Shit". Then he fell through the stool and hit the floor. Steve and Peggy both stood up as he sprawled out on the floor.

"Can I assume that he doesn't usually go through solid objects?" Peggy asked with a raised eyebrow. On the floor, the stool he was just sitting on sticking out of his leg, Basil had began giggling. High, drunken, grieving giggles.

"Not usually but grief has been known to make us do weird things", Steve remarked dryly. He stretched out a hand to haul him up. Basil reached out to take it only for his hand to go through Steve's like he was nothing but fog.

"Huh", Basil frowned. "Oh give me a second". He waved his hand in and out through Steve's a few more times until they collided and he was physical again. Steve took it and pulled him up into his feet. Basil listed slightly before leaning on Steve's shoulder. "Actually, I'm probably drunker than I thought". He giggled and Steve rolled his eyes.

"Of course you're a giggly drunk", he muttered with a sigh as he propped Basil up.

Peggy waved a hand at Basil to get his attention. "Corporal Parrish. Could you please explain to me how you were able to go through solid objects?"

Basil shrugged. "I don't know. Ever since Zola experimented on us, I've been feeling weird. I was keeping track of mine and Bucky's symptoms but my notebook got destroyed. I have a hypo hypothee", he stumbled over the word and frowned. "Hypothesis", he held up a finger triumphantly. "What we were injected with was supposed to make us like you. But you got some sort of booster to speed up the serum changes".

"That's right", Steve nodded.

"Yeah. Bucky and I didn't. So everything had been happening slowly. I was in that lab at lest a week longer than Bucky and was injected with different things so I think the night vision and the ghost thing is something to do with that", he shrugged. "Bucky knew. We talked it over. It is one reason why we took our chance on each other. We didn't know what the serums could do to us and there was the very high possibility that we would drop dead at any second", he began crying. Tears dripping down his face. "Which is why we followed you. When Bucky said to the end of the line, he meant it. So I don't think he had any regrets. We went into every situation thinking we could drop dead or die in our sleep. That the serums they injected us with could kill us".

Steve's face was a heartbroken mixture of sadness and confusion. Basil wasn't sure if the information helped or did more damage. Peggy seemed to be assessing what she had just been told. "We should take you to Stark and run some tests", she decided.

"No!" Basil gripped Steve tighter and shook his head. "No more tests. They had me strapped to the table and everything hurt. I don't want to be experimented on like that again. I promised my brother I would die in battle. I won't be experimented on by the government".

"But"- Peggy objected.

Basil gave her a steely eyed look. "I'm a homosexual Agent Carter. Bucky Barnes and I were lovers. You know what the government does to people like us? I promised my brother I would die in war before the government catches me and it ruins my family name. No. I won't have it".

Peggy shut her mouth, eyes wide in surprise. Then her gaze softened. "Okay. I won't tell anyone".

"Thank you".

Steve sighed. "Come on Basil. Let's get you sobered up. Buck would kill me if I let you do something stupid too".

"I have got to stop you from being an idiot for Bucky, and you've got to stop me from being a idiot for Bucky", Basil muttered as Steve began steering him out of the pub. "If we both do something stupid together then I guess Bucky can yell at us both when we die". He laughed and patted Steve on the shoulder. "I guess we're together till the end of the line Rogers".

Steve chuckled. "You're a good friend Basil".

"Well you're stuck with me now. God decided that I live another day and I'm going to make it your problem".

Steve snorted. "Yeah. I am beginning to realise why Bucky kept telling you to shut up".

"Shhh he loved me", Basil leaned his head on Steve's shoulder as they walked down the empty London streets. The sun was starting to set and black out curtains were being drawn in the houses as they passed. "Not sure why or how, but he loved me".

Steve smiled faintly. "That he did. Come on. I've got to take care of my brother's best man". Basil giggled.

"Best man. That sounds like we got married".

Unedited

More pain? Here you go.
Anyone still crying?