April 13th, 1944

"Okay, so what do we know about the perimeter. Has Intelligence managed to bring much back on that yet?" Gabe Jones shook his head at Steve's question, as did Jim when Steve looked to him.

"We're still waiting—"

"Mail's here, ladies!" Steve was severely tempted to roll his eyes as Dum Dum plunked himself down at the bench, his back to the table as he dropped the stack of letters over his shoulder even as he flipped his own over and began opening it up. Between him and Steve, Bucky chuckled, meeting Steve's eye with a glint in his own. Especially when Dum Dum's infamous hip flask appeared in his hand.

"Mind sharing?" Monty teased. It was a long running joke, and behind Steve Jim Molina muttered along with Dum Dum's inevitable reply.

"Not a chance, you damn swigger. Get yer own." Steve could only sigh in exasperation. Well? They weren't about to change the man. But then a chuckle of his own slipped out. The feeling was unanimous, with Gabe, Jim, Monty and Jacques all joining in with sniggers or exasperated grins of their own.

"Break, Cap?" Glancing to Gabe, who was trying but failing to keep from eying the small pile of letters, Steve nodded.

"We're stuck until Base gets back to us on the perimeter," he offered before waving them off. Gabe was the first to dig through for his mail, settling on the opposite end of the bench Dum Dum had claimed. In the mad grab that followed, the envelopes disappeared in the blink of an eye, with each of his men retreating around their camp do devour their newly arrived pieces of home. It had been a couple weeks since they'd been able to receive mail thanks to their current mission. He knew his teammates had been eagerly looking forward to their arrival. He knew he would be...but the sadness that usually flickered in his chest when the rest of them got mail from home blinked out when he noticed the one lonely little letter left waiting on the table was for him—Bucky's little sister Bea was one of the only people who wrote him anymore, unless he counted fanmail, which he didn't. Steve couldn't help but grin.

He exchanged a smile with Bucky as his best friend noticed Steve grabbing up his own letter. He could already see the anticipation growing on his friend's face. Judging by the letters in his hand, Steve had to guess that Bucky had letters from his mom, Bea and maybe even Jack too. More than that, Bea's birthday had been the week before, and Steve knew Bucky was dying to know how she'd liked the gift he'd sent earlier in March—a photograph he'd managed to convince Steve to take with him of them both in their Howling Commandos uniforms and some sketches he'd done just for her.

The camp was quiet as they all settled in to read and reread their letters. Steve loved his. It was indeed from Beatrice, from not long after Bucky's birthday, apologizing and hoping Bucky hadn't teased him too much with the Captain America comics she and Jack had sent him. He had been teased, mercilessly, but honestly Steve knew it was all in good fun and didn't truly mind. It was a little funny, after all. And his men certainly enjoyed the jokes. His ego wasn't so big that he couldn't take a bit of ribbing for the team, not when it kept morale high. And it was better them teasing him about it than people practically—

They all jumped to their feet as a crate of tins was violently upended with an ear-splitting crash. Most of the team jumped to their feet, hands snapping to holsters as all eyes immediately swivelled from the tins tumbling onto the ground to the figure standing next to it. Immediately Steve's heart clenched.

Bucky stood, feet apart, shoulders rounded and his arms tensed and fisted at his sides. His jaw was clenched so tight Steve was suddenly afraid he was going to crack his teeth. And his face? At first Steve thought he looked furious. But then he saw the way his eyes glinted and shone, overly bright and anguished. He refused to look at any of them, staring at the crate he'd kicked as though it has the source of all his ills.

And then he was turning and storming from the camp.

At once the rest of the team was turning to Steve. But Steve barely noticed. He was already striding over to where Bucky had been sitting, looking down to the letters that he'd left behind. One in particular caught the supersoldier's eye. It was the only one that had been opened so far, the thin paper laying half crumpled on the ground. Steve had to force himself to pick it up. He didn't even have to start reading for dread to begin pooling in his gut; it was Bea's writing, some of it blurred ominously. More than that, Bucky had let it fall to the ground, nearly crumpling the letter from his beloved baby sister. It had to be bad news.

And has he skimmed the shaking script, Steve hated that he was right. His eyes slid shut as a wave of grief threatened to wash over him.

"Who?" Steve looked sharply to Gabe. The sympathy in the black man's eyes was unmistakable. Steve sighed. He knew exactly what he meant. And judging by the looks on his other teammates' faces? They all knew what lay behind Bucky's reaction. Steve sighed heavily, swallowing back his own emotion.

"His younger brother, Danny. Killed in the Pacific. Bea doesn't know where." Heads bows sadly at the confirmation, Dum Dum and Molina both swearing softly under their breath. Steve looked back down to the letter, smoothing it as best he could before looking up to where Bucky had disappeared. Steeling his nerve, he started to take a step toward his best friend, only to jerk as something hard brushed his shoulder.

He couldn't help the look of grim astonishment that appeared on his face as Dum Dum held out his precious hip flask. The large man shrugged, tipping his head in a gesture that clearly said Bucky needed it more. With a wan grin of thanks, Steve took the battered flask and followed after Bucky.

When he finally found him, Bucky was sitting on the outskirts of their camp slumped forward, elbows on his knees and hands clasped painfully tight before him. He was staring at nothing, his gaze distant and filled to the brim with an anguish Steve could sympathize with; he'd felt something similar when he'd heard of his mom's sudden passing from TB.

"Buck?" The dark-haired man's head tilted faintly in Steve's direction, but otherwise he didn't move a muscle. If anything he tensed further, his shoulders and back rock-hard with it.

"It's—it's Danny, he—"

"I know," Steve admitted softly. "You left the letter in the camp. I—" The tension suddenly bled from Bucky's body, and for a split-second Steve was afraid he was going to fall over. A soft, sad sighing sound escaped Bucky as Steve edged closer.

"You read it." Despite having known Bucky for as long as he had, Steve couldn't decipher his tone as he said it. With a wince of remorse at having looked at Bucky's private letter without permission, he lowered himself down to sit next to Bucky.

"Only enough to find out why you—sorry," Steve offered. Bucky sighed again, prying his hands apart to scrub a hand across his face. Steve didn't look at him, staring down at his own hands the way Bucky had been. One held the letter, the other Dum Dum's flask. Inhaling deeply, he reached over, nudging the flask against Bucky's forearm. Bucky started, looking down to the flask before looking up to Steve with the same incredulous look Steve had given Dum Dum. It was heavily tempered by grief, though, and the grin that had been tugging at Steve's lips at the reaction faded slightly. After a moment, Bucky reached out, taking the battle-worn flask.

"You snitched Dum Dum's flask?" Steve shrugged, a small huffing chuckle escaping him.

"You need it more than he does." The corner of Bucky's lip tugged as he unwound the lid and took a small swig. He grimaced as he swallowed.

"You know, I expected it to be something, well, better considering how grumpy he gets about sharing it." Steve couldn't help it. He actually chuckled at the incredulous comment.

"You'd think," he replied. But then Bucky's features turned grim again, his whole body seeming to slump. He scrubbed a hand across his face again.

"I knew it could happen. After Azzano and almost...I knew that one of us might not make it home. But now that it's happened... He just got married, Steve." Steve just listened. Part of him felt like he should be saying, well, something to try and help. But a bigger part knew Bucky just needed him to listen. "You know, he'd been planning on enlisting right before he was drafted?" Steve started then. He hadn't known that. He'd assumed like everyone else that Danny had simply been drafted just like Bucky. Slowly Bucky nodded, seeming to read Steve's thoughts as he glanced up at him.

"He was planning to sign up. He didn't tell anyone. He didn't want Mom to worry. Or Bea. I think Abigail knew... But then he was called up before he could..." His face crumpled then, the hand not holding Dum Dum's flask fisting so tightly his knuckles went sharply white. "He didn't even tell me of his plans until after I'd been deployed, after he'd already reported for Basic." Steve sighed as his friend took another, longer sip from the flask. He knew the expression appearing on his face; Bucky was blaming himself.

"Buck? He knew what he was getting into—"

"No," Bucky interrupted, his voice hollow and resigned instead of the sharply bitter tone Steve had been expecting. "He didn't. None of us did." Steve couldn't argue with that. He'd been so determined to join up himself, and he'd had a much more practical view of what he'd been getting himself into than most of the young men who'd enlisted. It had never been a chance for glory and adventure for him. He'd known better than that. He'd paid attention to the papers, and the picture reels, reading the horrors written between the lines of optimism and propaganda. He'd paid attention when the first wounded soldiers began returning home, their eyes haunted and hands shaking. He'd known he was walking headfirst into the stuff of nightmares just as he'd known it was the right thing to do.

And even he hadn't been wholly prepared once he'd finally made it.

They sat in silence for a long while, Bucky sipping slowly at Dum Dum's flask, Steve more than content to simply be there for his oldest friend. He just knew that Bucky needed the company even if he didn't want to talk just then.

Bucky was eventually the one who broke the silence between them, sighing heavily, the sound slow and pained. "Jack's definitely going to enlist now, and I won't be able to stop him," he finally said, his voice suddenly sounding impossibly tired. Steve frowned. But before he could even ask, Bucky grinned, the expression grim and humorless; of course he knew what Steve was about to ask.

"He's been writing about it for months. He hasn't said anything to Mom or Bea yet. I've been trying to—but now..." He sighed again. "He won't hear of sitting out now. Not anymore."

"Will they even let him enlist?" Steve asked gently. "He's in college, isn't he? And with you and Danny—" Steve cut himself off, feeling his voice beginning to break at the mention of the middle Barnes brother. Bucky glanced to Steve, his gaze unreadable for a moment.

"You're thinking of that guy everyone's talking about? The one they called home?" Reluctantly Steve nodded. None of them even knew if it was a true story, but it had been working its way through the ranks for months; the last brother of four, called home because the other three had all been killed on the Front to spare his family at least one of their sons. Bucky shrugged helplessly. "I don't know. Maybe. But you know Jack," he said bitterly, with a trace of fond exasperation nevertheless colouring his tone. "He's just like all us Barnes kids. And he may not have been quite so book smart in school as me and Dan—" Bucky's voice broke, but he swallowed thickly and managed to press on as though nothing had happened. "But—but he's not stupid. Nowhere near stupid. He'll find a way if they reject him," he admitted wryly, giving Steve a pointed look. Steve felt the back of his neck begin to warm. He knew all about that...

It was then that Bucky sighed again, the sound tired and small. He took another sip from the flask before turning back to Steve, holding it out to him.

"Thanks, Steve," he said softly, his voice hollow again. Steve took it back, watching Bucky carefully. "I—you should probably get it back to Dum Dum before he misses it." There was no missing the unspoken plea. Nodding, Steve said nothing as he laid a hand on his best friend's shoulder before he stood. He'd thought about offering a sorry or some other traditional expression of condolence, but decided against it. He knew that Bucky didn't want that from him. He knew that his company had expressed the sentiment far more clearly and in a far more meaningful, genuine way than such stock words.

He paused only once as he retreated back to the camp, glancing back to Bucky, worry at leaving him alone clenching in his gut despite knowing that his friend needed the solitude. Bucky's head had lowered again, his hands resuming their tight grasp on each other. He looked exactly the same as when Steve had approached him so many long moments before. Only this time, his tense shoulders shook.

Steve's gut twisted with sorrow, but he let it be. Bucky just needed time. And right this moment, that was something Steve could give him.

Turning, Steve walked sedately back into the camp.

A/N: Let's just say, I never planned on doing anything but letters when I first started writing this collection...but then this scene just hit me and it wouldn't let go. So here it is!

Also, interesting bit of trivia: believe it or not, the 'fourth brother' story? I didn't actually just pull that from Saving Private Ryan. As I understand it, there are several undocumented cases and one confirmed case (the Niland Brothers, which inspired Saving Private Ryan) of instances where a last surviving son was recalled to keep all of them from being killed, and I do believe one could contest being drafted if one was the last of several brothers not in service, as well as the existence of a rejection code for enlistment intended to prevent all the sons in a family from enlisting. So there you go.

I hope you enjoyed! I'd just love hearing what you think, so don't forget to vote and comment!

Thanks for reading!