The beam scrapes free and tumbles beneath Bucky's feet, leaving him just enough time to leap clear, clinging to the opposite balcony and clumsily hauling himself up and over. To Steve's infinite relief, Bucky's grip holds and he drops safely over the rail and onto the catwalk beyond, which stays steady under his weight. Bucky stares back across the fiery abyss, looking as helpless as Steve feels.
Somehow the possibility that he might not make it out of here alive never seemed quite real to Steve before. He's very keenly aware of that possibility now… but at least he got Bucky out. That's what matters.
They lock gazes for a few moments before Bucky begins frantically casting around the inferno that surrounds them, looking for a solution that's not there.
"There's gotta be a rope or something!" He calls, sounding half-panicked, though they both already know there isn't. They aren't that lucky.
"Just go!" Steve waves him onward. He's been prepared to die since he was just a little kid. Nobody ever expected him to survive long enough to reach 27... so he's already done better than he ever thought he could. Can't ask for much more than that.
He came to save Bucky and the others, and he has. That's enough.
"Get out of here!" He calls, waving his whole arm again.
"No!" Bucky bellows in answer immediately, jaw set and dazed eyes as hard as diamonds. "Not without you!" He tightens his grip on the rail and glares back at Steve.
I will stand right here and burn to the ground with this place if you don't get your ass over here. Bucky's expression informs him clearly. So help me, Steve. It's both of us or nothing.
Steve gets the message. He might be willing to accept his own death, but like hell he's going to let Bucky burn. They came this far...
He's already done several crazy, impossible things today. Why not one more?
He feels Bucky's eyes on him as he bends back the sturdy metal railing of the walkway and backs up as far as the space will allow. Then he fixes his eyes firmly on his friend, waiting beyond the burning deathtrap just beneath their feet… runs, and leaps for his life.
Bucky catches his wrist as he nearly skates off the edge of the walkway, hauling him bodily to safety just before a fireball the size of Central Park erupts behind him.
The metal creaks ominously underfoot, and they both take off running.
"Don't you ever do that stupid fucking 'go on without me' bullshit again; you hear me you little punk?" Bucky swats him in the back of the head as they sprint to escape the swiftly collapsing building. The fact that he has to reach up now to smack Steve's head doesn't seem to do anything to deter him "I swear to god, Rogers, you're gonna be the death of me." Bucky mutters.
Steve throws an arm around Bucky's shoulders, grins at him in sheer giddy disbelief that they've made it this far in more or less one piece, and runs like hell.
They make it outside with less than a moment to spare. The whole place comes down right on their heels, and he can feel the heat cooking his back as the building goes up in flames.
Before Steve can even register that they're out and alive -and how the hell did they manage that trick? - a cheer goes up from the assembled men in the yard outside. He'd almost forgotten about the freed prisoners in the chaos of their escape.
"Holy fuck, he actually made it!"
"And he found Sarge!"
"Goddamn it's good to see you in one piece, Jimmy!"
"I don't know what happened in there, lads, and right now I don't much care. I suggest we put as much distance between this disaster and ourselves as we can. Quickly."
And just like that, they're on the move again.
Bucky makes it half a mile before he staggers and his legs give out beneath him. Steve just manages to catch him by the shoulders before he goes down in a heap.