MM had nothing uplifting to tell me, not that he wasn't doing his damndest to find another site where Vought could be pumping the less than fully sane with Compound V to test the likelihood of it doing who knew what on those the world would rather forget. He sounded as light on patience as I was, and I told him to remember self care and the importance of taking care of himself in the madness of the course of our duties.

"Don't worry about me, Ronnie," he promised me he was taking more than enough time to smell the roses, or in his case take his little girl to appreciate the offerings at Baskin Robbins. "We have a standing date, and I do my best to not miss it."

"Good man," I was smiling through the burdens our lack of answers seemed to grow, but knowing that our team was taking the care to keep sane was at least something. "We'll have to work out a monthly get together as a group, maybe -" I was thinking of my added visits with Ryan, weekly as of now, but if Billy's intel showed it necessary and if my own digging proved my worries correct that schedule would grow. "We'll see."

"Hey," I blinked, brought back to the conversation at hand with the phone in my hand and MM in my ear. "Look, you just got back in the saddle, Ronnie." I nodded, but sighed. "Don't think you're gonna have all the answers all at once. Vought is the damndest group of conspiracy shit that I've ever seen, my pops even knew that -" I swallowed hard, knowing exactly what he meant, having dug through his past as well as Billy's and the others. "Rome wasn't built in a day, and Vought won't tumble in one."

"Wise words, MM." I grinned, my eyes landing on the monstrosity of the tower that I normally wouldn't notice outside the bank of windows that made up one wall of my office. "I have to wonder though, if it will ever 'all fall down'."

Mallory agreed to lunch, in the office after I told her it was of a sensitive nature. She surprised me by actually bringing it with her, however. "I thought I'd cut out the middle man, as it were," she said, juggling the bags and drink carrier. I rushed to help her and together we set it up on Billy's desk, still the clearer of the two.

Once our meals were divided up, drinks and chairs situated, I told her the reason I'd asked to see her face to face. "I asked Billy if I could meet Ryan." She nodded around her bite of salad and I went on. "What do you know about his current living arrangement, Grace?"

She chewed carefully as she considered my question, then after swallowing and taking a sip from her drink she answered as I'd expected. "All I really could do, Ronnie, was start the process. You know the majority of my pull is reputation based." That's what the paperwork showed, but I had to make sure. "I sent it up the ladder, a request, that's all I could do."

I'd started eating while she explained, so it was my turn to chew and swallow. "The problem is that I'm not sure who took over after you took that first step." She was squinting in confusion. "I can trace your request. Hell, I can even trace the request that Homelander made to find out Ryan's location." She stared at me in confusion. "It happened the same day you came to tell us about Adana." A nod and I went on. "I put off or pushed away worries about Ryan because honestly I assumed out of sight out of mind was the best way to go with him." Pushing away my own lunch I sat back. "Then my own troubles with his darling sperm donor started and I guess I started thinking about him more often, and it started to nudge me, this worry. Until it was a nagging irritation."

"You asked Billy if you could meet him and he agreed?" She seemed surprised and I smiled. "He really would hand you the world if you asked." I shook my head, I highly doubted that. "What happened when you went to meet him?"

I told her about the area they were keeping him in, the neighborhood that had no neighbors, the tutors instead of school. "He's not being socialized. The guardians are guards, from what I can tell only one is an agent, and her identity is only known from the time she joined up, before that I can't find a single mention of her. The man? Nothing." I groaned. "I haven't a clue of what the tutors are teaching him or what he's being given in the way of nurturing at all. All I know for certain is that he has three chips in him and all are transmitting."

"Three chips?" Now she truly looked confused. "Why would he have any chips?" I stared at her. "Vought had him in a controlled community from the moment of his birth, Ronnie. Why chip a subject you never intend to allow out of your sight? We had no reason to chip him because, honestly, he's a child who has only ONE known enemy and he's a VERY noticeable one. As for the third chip, who would do it?"

"I guessed Stormfront." She waited for me to explain my reasonings and when I did she was shaking her head. "I thought with her background, Ryan would be the epitome of the perfect specimen."

"It doesn't make sense." Grace leaned forward, her lunch as forgotten as mine. "The same reasoning as Vought's. Why chip what you don't intend to allow out of your control? Stormfront had the same over confident belief in herself that they did in their control of him and Becca. Why chip what you don't intend to lose?" I started to point out my own chips, but she held up a hand. "You were different. You're a loose end, Ronnie. No one controls you. They had to chip you to make sure they knew where you were in case you went supernova and exploded. That way they control the narrative. Ryan? He's a child. Minors that young don't just run off, not when they are under control of an adult dependent on the kindness of the company like Becca was, or Homelander and Stormfront." She was making sense and it pissed me off because it left another puzzle unanswered. "These chips make no sense. Not when you really think about them."

Knowing that Grace simply asked for Ryan to be given protective custody, but then left it up to those who took care of that particular designation within the agency wasn't super helpful, but it did cross her off the list of those who could answer more in depth questions about Ryan's current living situation. Her theory about the chips, on the other hand, gave me more questions than answers.

I was going over Davos' short file of service in the agency, trying to see if there was any way that I could finagle her identity through some channel that I hadn't found before, when Billy came back. It was later than I thought, the sun starting to hint at the end of the day, and he looked grim.

"Do we want to talk about it now, or do we want to go pick out our boy from Mom's and hear whether or not they're no longer allowed in the toy stores in the tri-state area?" His lips quirked and he let out a long breath.

"Let's do it on the way," I slipped on my shoes and he held open my jacket for me. His arms wrapped around me and I felt how tense he was, how it released slightly as his body came into contact with mine. "God I missed you."

"Same," I sighed. As we locked up, saying goodnight to the worker bees finishing up and the janitorial staff just starting their shifts, our fingers linked and we both felt that at least we were together again, and we could shift through what we'd come across while we'd been working apart.

Mom and Terror hadn't been banned for life from any of the toy stores. From the sight of how many new acquisitions they'd purchased, I had a feeling I knew why. Terror was bright eyed and drooly, and he rushed over to Billy like he couldn't believe the luck he had in moving back in with him and ending up with this crazy old broad as his daycare provider. I mean, can you imagine being a horny dog and having a babysitter who ended up making sure you never had to hump the same stuffy twice in one afternoon? Life was sweet for the little sweetheart.

Hugging my dad, who was trying desperately not to mock my mom, or laugh his ass off at the insanity, I apologized for making her crazy. "I'm not sure this is your fault, Veronica." He shook his head, trying to hold back on what was clearly laughter to end all laughter. "Maybe we should have let you have a puppy when you wanted one back when you were little." He turned a laugh into a cough and I held mine in until I swore I cracked a rib. Jesus.

We didn't talk about the drones, or Frenchie and Kimiko's help during the 'mission'. Not during the ride to pick up Terror, or during the final leg to our house. Instead we simply enjoyed the lightness of being near one another. The ease it brought to both of us, letting us unwind from what was clearly a stressful day for both of us.

He parked and let Terror chase the fireflies while I got the house opened up and dinner started. We ate in the kitchen, laughing at Terror as he gobbled down his own kibble, rushed outside and did more business, then ran upstairs to his less than posh bed and started snoring.

"I think his daycare tires him out," I offered as I took another bite of my own food. "He might need a break from Mom's house."

Billy snorted, taking a drink from his beer and shaking his head. "I think we'd have a tantrum to end all tantrums if we try to keep the two of em apart." He took a bite and sighed. We couldn't keep work and our debriefing at bay forever. We both knew that. "Want to go first?"

"No, but I will." I smirked. "MM hasn't found anything that remotely resembles what Stormfront did with Sage Grove. Doesn't mean there aren't others, just that he hasn't found one yet." He nodded, thinking about what I was saying as he ate through his dinner and drank through his beer. "Then Grace and I had lunch. She confirmed that aside from asking for protective custody and putting him in the car and handing him off, that's all she did for Ryan's protection."

"Kind of thought so," he sat back and groaned. "Not like she's got that much pull, even if we wish she did." He shook his head. "So she's got no idea about those cunts watchin' him?"

"None," I pushed my empty plate forward. "And worse yet, she doesn't think I'm right about the chips. None of them."

"What do ya mean?" He set his bottle down from where he'd been about to take a pull.

"Her theory is this: why would Vought chip a child that they never intended to let out of their sight? And why would WE chip him for the same reason? Then with my theory about Stormcunt, she asked the same question. And I have to admit, I didn't consider it from that angle."

"But if Vought didn't, and WE didn't, and the cunt didn't -" he stared at me and I sighed louder. "Fuck me, Ronnie. And I thought my day was bad."

"How bad?" I gathered our dishes and loaded the dishwasher, then refilled my glass and got him another beer. When I got back to the table, he reached out and grabbed me, pulling me onto his lap instead of letting me sit on my own chair. "I do prefer this seat." He rubbed his face against my neck, moaning at the scent and feel of my skin.

"Me too," he murmured, kissing me under my earlobe. "Let's see, we got the drones up, after we managed to find cover about half a town over in a park." He groaned. "Between me, Frenchie, AND Kimiko, we manned them and took some usable footage. Got Frenchie editing it so we can work it up to actually show you it." I nodded so he would continue. "Tutors are a man and woman, just like his guards. They go in, but they 'teach' in an interior room. No windows, doors closed." Fuck. "The guards have the tellie on half the time, but it ain't on nothing too traumatizing. Soaps, news, whatever strikes their fancy at the moment." Right, great. "From what we could tell, there are other residents in the neighborhood, but they don't go anywhere. No cars in the driveways, no mailman. It's the weirdest shit I've ever seen."

"Do you think you got a good shot of the tutors for facial recognition?" His hum told me he thought so, but his fingers were busy pulling my shirt free from my slacks. "Are you back to distractions, Mr. Butcher?"

"Think we both deserve a reward, Doc, don't you?" His mouth started to tempt me by teasing against my neck. "Unless you want to debrief more?"

"Oh, I think a gold star is a better idea," I was laughing as he scooped me into his arms, gesturing for me to grab our drinks, as he took me back out to our hanging bed outside.

"Terror snores so damn loud he throws me off my rhythm." He growled before I could ask why we were leaving the comfort of our house. And as I giggled, our clothing hit the porch floor, the lightning bugs were flickering around us, and Billy gave me a few dozen sparkling gold stars and I was sure to give him a couple of his own.