The request was sent to Homelander for an official appointment. While we waited for the confirmation on that, we met with the team to brainstorm the next steps in the path forward. Hughie, after that tense meeting with Starlight present, returned to the fold at least partially.
Billy wasn't keen on the idea that held the most promise. To be honest, I wasn't exactly excited about it either, but it was something we had to consider. Putting Billy back in the field, having him help the others work through the leads on the ground made sense. There were only three active members, two of whom worked as a pair, and another who deserved time with his family. Hughie was working with Neuman, but he offered to do any research he could during his downtime. It was after a couple more meetings, and so many conversations over dinner between just the two of us, that he finally relented.
Billy Butcher was heading back to the field, so to speak. But only if I agreed to schedule any further meetings with supes when he was home, or when another member of our team could be present. I agreed, but then he clarified.
"I mean THE TEAM, Ronnie," holding back an eye roll was a close thing. "That means Frenchie and Kimiko, MM, me, or-" he sighed at the thought of it, but had to offer him up since they were working through their latest hiccup. "Hughie. Not Joey." Damn it.
"Fine." Agreeing meant that I got a long lingering kiss that stoked a fire for my REAL prize. I'd like to say that as an adult woman with the title of doctor in front of her name wasn't so easily won over, but I try hard not to lie. And saying that I wouldn't give in to Billy with a promise of his body flush against mine, bare skin to bare skin would be the worst sort of lie.
And after he gave me my gold star as it was, hovering over me, catching his breath and staring into my eyes, he reminded me why he needed my compliance, why it was so damn important to him that I not meet with a supe without someone he trusted by my side. "I love you, Veronica, and I can't lose you." The tone of his voice was rough as sandpaper, and a part of me wanted to think it was only from our exercise, but as I swallowed down against the pounding of my heart, I knew. It wasn't only from sex, it didn't come from the noises we could force from one another without trying, no in his voice I heard the pain of his loss. The reminder of how his wife had died, and how he couldn't stand the possibility that I'd suffer the same fate.
"You won't." I promised, kissing him with every ounce of my love for him, hoping that I could keep that promise.
The first thing that Billy and the Boys chose to do was focus on knocking out as many of the supe whereabouts unknown files as possible. When I insisted he have backup, he raised an eyebrow, but conceded when I told him I wanted him as safe as he wanted me. The team split, Frenchie and Kimiko and Billy and MM. I also asked for daily updates, from both teams, to be sure I could track them with more than just their cell phone locations. No contact meant the other team would abandon their list and go find the other team. Should neither team call, Mallory told me that she had put together a smaller team that's sole purpose would be to act as recovery and if necessary clean-up crew for any messes the team created.
When Billy and I said goodbye, at the office with the team looking on, it wasn't nearly the farewell we both wanted. I think both of us tried to focus on work, and on the fact that we'd spent the night before departure giving one another that more concerted effort, but this was Billy Butcher and Veronica Taylor we're talking about and I wasn't sure the two of us were ever going to be able to settle with not fully satisfying our every urge for one another.
Once they left, Mallory called to confirm they were on their way, and I went to work trying to piece more information together about our mystery supe. My focus returned to work. My meticulous nature took over and I almost forgot that Billy wasn't nearby doing his own research. When lunch came around, it hit me again that he wasn't with me, but I shrugged it off and ordered in. This was my new routine. Our new routine, and fighting against it wouldn't make it less real.
It should have been easy to fall back into my old normal, coupled with daily check-ins to calm any fears that might start creeping in, and it was. I worked as I had worked before I became completely engrossed by Billy Butcher. The reminder of him through calls, texts, emails of reports along with the rest of the team kept the fear that something would happen to him firmly at bay.
I should have known that it was too simple. That the ease of it, the normalness of this new daily grind was deceptively comfortable. I didn't. Instead, I went about my days without allowing the possibility that heading this new office might be dangerous. I focused on the times between Billy's field work, when he would come home and we'd get lost in one another again. I focused on the mundane of the grind of day to day work. Appointments, errands, reports, and every other thing that work or regular life entailed.
During one of the now regular duty trips that took Billy and the team back out on the road, I took a day off to do personal errands. I had my yearly exam scheduled and I also made an appointment with the benefits office of human resources along with an appointment with my lawyer and with my insurance agency. Now that our work was getting slightly more notice-I'd been asked to do three interviews a week earlier for national and international news stations and when I'd started to pack up for the day's end only the day prior, Anthony told me he had more requests with papers, magazines, and more stations, I wanted to make sure I had my affairs in order. I wasn't courting disaster, I was being smart.
My doctor's appointment came first. When I walked into the clinic to sign in, I was told that my regular physician had been called away on a family emergency, but they had a substitute if I was agreeable. The choice being reschedule and take the chance on the reliance of condoms versus waiting and getting my birth control shot and the confidence it gave me for pregnancy prevention. So not a real choice, because I wasn't ready to be a mother, and I wasn't sure Billy ever wanted to be a father. My wait wasn't long, the doctor asked all the regular questions and the nurse hovered at my head while he went to work so to speak. Practically painless with a shot in my arm and confirmation that I'd return for the next dose within the parameters, I was in my car heading to the next appointment with plenty of time to spare.
I changed my beneficiary information at both the benefits office and with my insurance company, upgrading my policy with the theory that it is always better to be safe rather than sorry. At my lawyer's office, we redid my power of attorney and tweaked my will. I honestly wasn't thinking about a present threat while I went about my day, I only wanted to make sure that my affairs were up to date, that my ducks were in a row. By the time I got home, I had been contacted by both teams, with a promise from Billy that he'd be home soon.
Such an ordinary day, almost forgettable aside from the fact that I hadn't been in the office at all. Why would I ever assume that something happened that day that would alter my life? That would put me in danger or that would make me question everything I knew? I challenge anyone to have such a normal day and make it nefarious. Because trust me, I've tried to work through my head, over and over, just how I missed it.