I woke up with Billy's chest beneath my cheek, and our bare legs tangled under the sheets that twisted over the lower half of our bodies. Scared to look, but feeling like not looking was cowardly, I took a chance and glanced at my bare arm curled up his chest and the hand that was holding tight to his neck. No steam. Closing my eyes, I sighed in relief, and felt him shift under me. The one part of Billy that woke before all the other parts of him nudged my thigh where my leg was tossed over him and I felt the rush of need for him hit hard and fast. Shit.

Eyes opening with less willingness than the first time, I sighed again, this time with resignation at the sight of the steam rising slowly off that same arm. Damn it.

"Ronnie?" His voice, still rough from sleep, let me know that he felt my tension as did his arms wrapping more firmly around me. "It's alright, love, you know that."

Sure, I thought, he wasn't the one who had to worry about fogging up the windows. He was right, at least where the two of us were concerned, since we'd found out that while my temperature was definitely higher skin level, it wasn't anywhere near too hot to keep us apart. Which helped me calm down, marginally. "How the hell am I supposed to drive to work like this?" I asked, almost growling as the steam seemed to kick up a notch.

"I'll drive," his lips brushed my forehead and I could feel his smile. "We can roll down the windows, like yesterday, or we can turn on the damn air." I sighed, and settled into his embrace letting him deal with the issues that my rising skin temperature would cause for our commute. "You know I'm cancelling any field work for me, right?" Another sigh, I hated this, hated that our lives were being caused so much inconvenience because one superhuman asshole decided to fuck with us.

"I suspected you might," I turned so my face was pressed against his chest, breathing him in and kissing his skin. Propping my chin on his chest, I looked up to see him studying me with a soft smile. "Overprotective and ridiculous, those are two more words to throw in that file of yours."

His thumb traced my cheekbone, under my eye, and down to the dip where my lip met my chin. "I'll wear 'em with pride, Veronica." His eyes were as soft as his smile. "I'm beside you until we get this settled, and after that, we'll renegotiate." He pulled me up so our faces were inches apart, and I hoped I misheard the muttered, "maybe," that came from his lips before he kissed me.

A shower, which was somehow steamier with cooler water than it normally was with hot, then we were dressed and on our way. I was dressed professionally, but in the lightest of my summer work clothes. I'd even left off my jacket, afraid to tempt the steam into rising so high that I'd set off alarms in the building. It took windows down along with the air at full blast to keep the windshield clear enough for Billy to see out of and I felt my ire growing.

Homelander, because acting like I didn't know who put this in motion, would pay. Somehow, someway, he'd pay. I just had to make sure that Billy didn't share the cost.

While we met with a few of the lesser supes, rescheduled from the day before, coupled with the ones we had scheduled for that day, I kept clicking through the clinic pages looking for something I could use to nail Homelander to the wall. Nothing came. Not even lunch, which Billy insisted we eat out of the office, helped get my mind off of my personal issue and back on the work at hand.

"Ronnie," I looked across the table, blinking at the realization that I had a full plate of food in front of me that I didn't remember ordering, and saw Billy's brow furrowed in worry. "Eat, please?"

I picked up my fork and reluctantly dug in. I ate with the same absent mindedness that I'd handled work, mechanically and thorough, but without noticing what was going on around me. My mind was running in circles, trying to think of a way to link Homelander to the doctor who stepped in for my doctor who was supposed to be out due to a family emergency. It hit me. The receptionist. The one who told me, as I signed in, that my doctor was out. She had to be in on it, but would she be the link or would she be another dead end?

Lunch finished, Billy hoisted me into my truck and shook his head as I kept the door open while he got in. "No point in making the entire restaurant think we're getting steamy for good reasons," I muttered as he joined me and turned the truck on. Once the windows were cracked and the air was blowing, I shut my door.

"I love you," Billy offered as he pulled the car into traffic flow to head back to our office. "And this is just a fucking bump, Ronnie, you know that."

I nodded, but I wondered. Was it?

The receptionist, I learned as I called the clinic, was a temp. She was a fill in for someone who'd called in last minute and they'd been lucky she was available. I was given her name and the name of the agency they used, but as I hung up I started getting a feeling that it wasn't going to be so simple.

"What's next?" Billy was pecking away at a report on one of the supes we met with, a job I usually powered through quickly and easily, but he'd taken over while I worked on what was plaguing my mind.

I sighed and sat back. "It's too simple." I bit my cheek as he stopped tapping at the keys of his laptop and looked over at me. "All of it. It's too easy." He waited while I gathered my thoughts. "The database, using my code to request the sperm, the doctor, the receptionist. It's all too easy to put together." Homelander was impulsive, see Becca Butcher's rape, but he wasn't stupid. Entitled, sure of his own superiority, yes, but stupid? No. I was squinting while I tried to piece it together and shook my head as it dawned on me. "It isn't just about us." Billy's eyes widened. "He wants the doubt about the security of the office to start seeping in. He wants me to think that we're being recorded like he was- with Stillwell and then Stormfront. He wants me to think that my security is lax and I can't trust anyone here." I looked at Billy. "He wants me to be irrational and you to take the bait."

"I make the first move and he-" Billy's head was shaking now. "Diabolical cunt. Or trying to be."

"You make a move, he gets to defend himself. Hell, if he can work it just so, he can pretend he was protecting his unborn child." I glanced down with distaste at my midsection. "He thinks he has us."

"And he's coming in here tomorrow," Billy reminded me, eyes bright and dimple popping out.

"So let's make sure he's got a nice warm welcome shall we?"