Sitting on her knees on the bed, Victoria had a hand on Homelander's shoulder as her other hand held the makeup brush in her fingertips. Homelander was sat with his legs dangling over the side of the bed as his wife's grip on his shoulder increased and he let out a deep sigh in frustration. Victoria pulled the brush back and glowered at him, trying not to drop the concealer that was resting in a pot in her lap.

"Could you just sit still?" she demanded from him.

"This is ridiculous. If people saw this then do you know what they'd say? It's bad enough I'm all over the internet being humiliated by your brother…people thinking he's stronger than me," Homelander said. "And he isn't. He caught me on an off day and I wasn't prepared."

"Right, well, just sit still and let me try and cover this bruise, okay?" she demanded from him. "And I am sure Vought's PR team are all over this for you and saying exactly what you want them to say."

"They are, but that's not the point."

"No, I think I know what the point is," Victoria said to him and she moved a hand to his cheek, forcing him to look at her again as she tried to blend the concealer and hide the bruise. She kept her fingers pinching his chin to stop him from looking away. "The point is that my brother came close to killing you and that scared you. It scared you because you're so used to being indestructible, but we both know that's not the case."

He didn't say anything to her and Victoria placed the brush down once she was happy that she had managed to blend the makeup into his skin as best as she could. She let her thumb run across his chin slowly, almost like she was trying to soothe him. Homelander just remained silent, a towel around his waist after he'd had another shower when he woke up. His hair was dry though, slicked back on the top of his head and neatly coiffed. Victoria was still in her green silk pyjamas, hair a mess on top of her head. She knew that she was supposed to meet her mum in another hour, but she guessed that she was going to be late.

"It's only natural to be on edge after something like that, John," Victoria promised her husband. "And you don't need to get all defensive over it like I know you probably will. You can just admit that it shook you up and just...let yourself feel that…you're only human."

"I'm not human," Homelander snapped at her.

She exhaled a sharp breath. "You're a supe, yeah, but you're still capable of feeling human things," she said. "If you weren't then you wouldn't spend your nights in bed with me and you wouldn't feel love…sadness…you'd be empty and I don't think you're empty. I think what happened was a scary thing and I don't think it makes you weak to admit that."

Homelander lowered his gaze for a moment. Victoria gave his shoulder a final squeeze before she uncurled herself from where she sat next to him. She moved to her feet and he watched her go to her suitcase that was open and on the floor by the wardrobe. She crouched down and grabbed hold of a jumper, skirt and tights.

"How do you know what to say?" Homelander questioned from his wife.

"What have I told you? They don't give out doctorates to anyone," Victoria said and she elicited a chuckle from him. Her own lips quirked for a brief moment before she moved to her feet, holding the clothes against her chest and looking to him as he stood up and went to the desk where he'd left his supe suit hanging over the chair.

"And why are we separated again?" he asked her.

Victoria scoffed. She wasn't entirely sure if she could say that they were separated considering that they were still spending time together and, perhaps not being intimate, but definitely being more than co-parents. Victoria knew that it was hypocritical of her, but a part of her had stopped caring. She stopped trying to rationalise things in her mind and she found that made her feel so much better.

"Because we can't stand each other, remember?" Victoria retorted and she watched him drop his towel and reach for his briefs. He pulled them onto his legs as Victoria looked down. She left her clothes at the end of the bed and went about making the bed, busying herself and looking anywhere but her husband's naked body.

"Apparently we do," Homelander confirmed for her. "I'm not entirely sure if that's the case though. We did spend last night in the same bed…and the night before…and come to think of it the night before that," he said to her, moving a finger through the air in exaggeration. Victoria rolled her eyes and plumped up the pillows.

"Still doesn't mean we're getting back together," she said to him and he kept on smirking. That was exactly what it meant and she would soon see it. He just needed to give her a little bit more time, but it was going to come. "What we have is complicated, I'm not denying that. We're…we're fucked up…but there's a small part of me that doesn't care anymore."

"I still love you, Victoria," he said to her as he pulled his trousers onto his legs. He let the material cling to his hips before he tugged at the top of the supe suit. "And I know that you still love me. What we have can't be thrown away…you can't just stop loving someone. I know you just like you know me."

"All of that might be true, John, but that doesn't make it right," Victoria said. "And I hate the fact this has all happened. You think I don't know it would be so easy to go home with you now? To let you look after us…to let you be my husband…it'd be so easy and I imagine it might even make me happy. Wipe my memories…keep me docile…it might not be the worst thing, but it'd be wrong. The fact we're even sleeping together at night is wrong. The fact that I still love you is wrong and I know it. I know it and I-"

"-You still love me," he interrupted her and Victoria blinked profusely.

He finished dressing but left his cape off. His hands went to his hips and he watched her intently, refusing to look away. She bit down on the inside of her cheek, wondering what she should say next. She could try to deny it. She could say that it had been a slip of the tongue, but he could suss her out easy enough. He was used to finding liars.

"I never stopped loving you, John, not really," she said. "But you broke my heart so many times. You broke it and I should stop feeling this way…I should hate you…and a part of me does hate you for everything you've done. I hate that I fell for you in the first place. But no matter what I do or what you do…a part of me will always be yours and I need to figure out a way to make that stop. I need to figure out a way to move on and I know that's not going to happen so long as we're doing this, but a part of me doesn't want to let go."

"Then don't," Homelander said. "You don't need to let go of what we have, Vicky. Come home with me," he said, pointing to himself. He moved towards her and Victoria remained rooted on the spot as he took tentative steps towards her. "Come back with me and I can keep you sheltered. I can look after you. I can love you better than anyone else ever could. Everything that's happened in the past few days with your family…the pain they've put you through…reliving what your dad did…come home with me and let me love you. Let me be there."

He finally stood in front of her, hands clasping hold of her hips and she wanted to do nothing more than throw her arms around his neck and let him. It would just be so easy.

"I can't," Victoria whispered, a hand going to press to his chest. "I can't, John."

"Can't or won't?" he questioned.

"Both," she said.

"Not true," Homelander said with a shake of his head. "You can come back. You just won't come back, but you know that I'm not going anywhere. I'm never going to move on because I know we belong together. I'm willing to wait for as long as it takes for you to realise it too."

Victoria didn't want to tell him that was unlikely to happen. She just felt him reach his hand up, the back of it stroking her cheek tenderly. He bent down and kissed her forehead before taking hold of her hand against his chest, holding it in his fingers and bringing her closer to him, arm going around her waist and her cheek pressing to the space between his neck and shoulder.

"Are you going to be alright today?" he asked, changing the topic. He knew not to push her when she was like this. He moved his thumb over her knuckles as she shrugged against him. Closing her eyes, she inhaled the smell of him. He'd used the hotel's expensive body wash, but there was still an undercurrent of sandalwood from his usual cologne. It used to feel so comforting. The feeling of his body against hers was comforting. Everything about him made her feel safe which was ironic considering she'd been so scared of him at one stage.

She knew what they had was toxic. She felt safe one minute and scared another. Everything about their relationship was contradictory. Had she played her part so well that she'd really fallen back in love with him? Or had it always been this way? Had she always just loved him?

"I don't know," she confessed to him. "I haven't been back home since I left when I went to university. I never even went back for the holidays. I'd find summer jobs and stay in halls. I'd spend Christmas on my own in my room. I just never wanted to go back and I never thought that I would."

"You don't have to, you know?" he said, stroking her hair at the back of her head. "You can stay here. You can stay holed up in this hotel room with Evie…order room service…take her for frozen yoghurt in the stall I saw by the river."

"Sounds idyllic."

"Then don't put yourself through this," he urged from her.

"I promised my mum."

"You don't owe her anything."

"I know, but I still promised," Victoria said. "And maybe cleaning it out might feel good? There are some things there that I haven't seen since I was a kid and I might want to take. I used to have this big book of famous women in history. Billy bought me it when I was ten and I was obsessed with it. I'd sit and read it for hours."

Homelander chuckled at that. "Most kids when they're ten want video games or dolls, not books."

"I've always been a bit of a nerd," Victoria replied.

"Yeah, never thought I'd marry a nerd," Homelander said to her and she pulled back to look up at him. She let her eyes meet his and he tucked her hair behind her ears, moving it from her face as his eyes flickered around her features. "After years of dating actresses…models…supes…I fell in love with a book loving academic from south London."

"And I never thought I'd be married to a supe never mind the leader of The Seven," Victoria replied.

"So you never had my poster on your wall growing up?" he asked, tone slightly teasing.

"Unfortunately for you, I preferred the periodic table watching over me as I slept."

"Is it wrong to be jealous of elements?"

Victoria rolled her eyes and nudged his chest as he chuckled and she tried to escape his grip. But he didn't let her go. He kept laughing quietly to himself as his hands gripped her waist to keep her planted in front of him. Victoria let him, not bothering to fight him as his forehead brushed hers.

"But seriously, you're going to be okay?"

"I'm going to be fine," she promised him, hands wrapping around his forearms. "You go and sort this PR disaster out and I'll be back in the States on Monday."

"Another two nights…do you want me to come back tonight?"

"I shouldn't."

"But you do," Homelander answered for her. "I'll come back and see what's happened today. Just…look after yourself and you know where I am if you need me."

"I know," she said and he kissed her forehead once more, letting his lips sit there for longer than he probably should. He gave her one final squeeze before letting her go and Victoria watched him clasp his cape underneath the eagles on his shoulders. He threw her one final look as she stood there, arms wrapped around herself before he just nodded once to her, silently promising her that things were going to be fine. He left through the patio door and took off into the early morning sky.

…

"This is a nightmare for Vought, but it doesn't really do anything to us. In fact, it makes you look pretty good…begging your brother not to kill him…longing for peace…it's alright."

"I'm glad that my pain is good for our polling numbers," Victoria said down the phone to Daniella, voice snappier than she had intended for it to be. She was walking towards her old flat from the tube station. She hadn't even needed to use her phone to navigate her way there. It was etched in her memory. She walked through the estate, phone glued to her ear as she heard dogs barking in the distance and someone zoomed past on a moped.

"Sorry," Daniella said. "I didn't mean it like that. I just meant that it hasn't hurt us."

"I didn't mean to snap. I'm walking to my old flat and I think I'm on edge."

"You have every right to be."

"Doesn't mean I should snap at you, I know you're just trying to help. It's just that yesterday was a lot. It was the funeral and then Billy showed up and he…I don't know what the hell is inside of him, but it almost killed John."

There was a moment of silence from Daniella then before she spoke her mind. "You know, it probably would've saved you a lot of pain if he had just killed him."

"And what would it have done to Billy? He's already public enemy number one. If he kills John then what happens to him? I just…I just couldn't let him do it."

"For him or for your husband?" Daniella asked and Victoria's jaw tensed and she didn't reply. Daniella picked up on her silence and quickly retreated. "Sorry, I know that you don't like talking about him."

"It's just complicated, Dani," Victoria confessed. "I spent months longing for them to find something to kill my husband, but it never felt like it was going to happen and then yesterday it all felt so real and I…hearing him scream in pain…seeing the look in Billy's eye…I just couldn't let it happen. I couldn't let him do it."

"I want to say that I understand, but I don't know if I do," Daniella confessed.

"What happens if John dies, Dani? There's always going to be someone ready to take his place. Killing John doesn't solve our problem," Victoria retorted. "Killing hasn't solved any problems so far and I'm done with it. I told Victoria Neuman the same thing and we could've maybe done something to bring Vought down, but she's not here anymore. Billy killed her and what did that achieve? Nothing. It ruined everything and now we're here…just me fighting him on my own and I can't even fight him because I begged for his life."

"I'm only going to ask you once, Vic," Daniella said. "And I want you to be honest with me. Tell me the truth and I won't ask again."

"What?" Victoria questioned and she looked up at the block of flats in front of her, feeling her stomach churn and her throat clench. Looking up, she spotted the walkway to their front door and her eyes watered.

"Do you still love him?" Daniella asked from her.

Victoria said nothing, her mind now whirling as everything came back to her and she remembered the horrors that laid behind that door. She remembered being too scared to go home most days. She remembered flinching whenever she heard the key turning in the lock, scared that her dad was going to come home with Eddie. She remembered wanting to run out of that door whenever Eddie came into her room, sat on the end of her bed and ran his hand under her skirt.

"Yes," Victoria breathed out, tears falling down her cheeks.

"And will that stop you from going against him? Truly going against him?"

"Honestly?" Victoria confessed. "Right now…I don't know," she admitted to her friend. "Look, Dani, I'm…I've got to go…I need to go."

Daniella spoke quickly on the other end of the line, trying to stop Victoria from hanging up. She couldn't though. Victoria dropped her phone back into her pocket and turned on her heel, moving through the carpark outside the flats and ignoring the old woman sat by the garage with a beer can in her hand. She ignored the three men stood by the doors to the entrance who had their hoods up and were shuffling around each other. She moved as quickly as she could without running until she spotted her mum moving out of her car.

"Vicky, sweetie," she called for her, running to catch up with her. "Honey, what is it?"

"I can't do it," Victoria said as her mother grabbed her forearm and stopped her from running off. Victoria shook her head, crying and her cheeks stained white. "I can't go in there…please…don't make me…don't make me, mum."

Connie looked over her daughter as she broke down and she felt her own eyes begin to tear. She reached for her daughter, bringing her against her and holding her tightly. Victoria let her as she cried, her mind going back to what it had been like in that flat. She could see his face. She could see Eddie as he laid on top of her, whispering in her ear how she was his good girl and he loved her. She could see the wardrobe that her dad had locked her inside as she listened to Lenny cry in pain as he beat him.

"Baby, you don't have to go in there," Connie said to her. "I'm sorry…I should've known…I should never have asked you…"

Victoria shut her eyes and did her best to try and control her breathing, but she was struggling. She didn't know if she could hold the tears back no matter how much she tried. She just cried until she had no more tears to cry.

…

Victoria had let her mum take her to the nearest café and buy her a hot chocolate. She'd drank it as the two women sat in silence for the most part. The conversation was stilted and Victoria could feel her head pounding. Her eyes were also stinging from crying and her throat hurt. She had eventually told her mum that she should go back to the hotel and spend some time with her daughter. She'd left her mum to go into the flat and Victoria had taken the tube, but she hadn't gone back to the hotel. Instead, she'd sent a text to the number she guessed was blocked and had headed to the park that they used to go to as children.

When they'd been little and their mum had spare time, she'd take them there to feed the ducks. It was still there when Victoria arrived, but the pond wasn't as clean as it used to have been. It was covered in green grime and the ducks were long gone. Victoria sat on a bench and decided to wait for ten minutes. After that, she'd go to her daughter and hold her close for the day.

"I saw you at the flat."

Looking to the side, Victoria glanced upwards and saw her brother stood there. He was still wearing the clothes he'd been wearing the day before. He sat down on the opposite end of the bench and Victoria crossed her legs, blue coat falling open around her frame.

"You didn't want to say anything then?"

"Figured I'd just leave you two to it. Couldn't do it, could you?"

"Go into the flat?" Victoria checked with him. "No, I couldn't. And you?"

"Went in earlier. Spare key I've had for years still worked," Billy commented. "Got this."

He reached into the pocket of his coat and he tugged out a stuffed animal. It was a rabbit. Victoria's eyes widened as she looked at it and he set it down in the middle of the bench between the two of them. Victoria bit down on her lip and hesitantly reached out to pick it up. She took hold of it in her fingertips and looked down at its matted ears and how its white fur was discoloured.

"Lenny saw it in Camden Market when I took him one Sunday. He insisted we got it for ya. You were about five," Billy said and Victoria set it down on her lap, stroking its fur slowly.

"I still have the bear you gave me as a kid," Victoria told him. "I don't know why, but I've kept it…and why did you bring this to me?"

"Because I figured that you'd want it," Billy said to his sister. "And because this is it for us, Vicky. I came here to tell you that we're done. I know you want me to forgive you for everything. I know you want me to try and do things the diplomatic way, but this isn't the fucking UN, Vic. You think fancy words and speeches are going to stop him? They ain't. I'm going to kill him and when I do, I'll kill anyone who stands in my way."

Victoria's grip on the stuffed toy increased. She eyed her brother suspiciously, seeing the way his upper lip curled. He was serious about this. He wasn't going to back down.

"Is that a threat?" Victoria wondered from him.

"I don't want it to be," Billy said. "I might've given into whatever's inside of me, but that don't mean I want to kill ya."

"I'm comforted," Victoria said in a sarcastic drawl to him. He laughed once and moved to his feet. He'd only intended for this to be a fleeting visit. He wasn't going to drag it out with her. He was going to say what he had to say and be done with it.

"You got in my way yesterday and I hesitated, but I won't hesitate again," Billy warned her.

"So you'd kill me?"

"You'd get yourself killed for that monster?" Billy threw back at her and she had the decency not to say anything. She just looked down at her lap. "I thought that I could save you, Vic…but you can't save someone who don't want saving."

"Well, you'd know all about that," Victoria shot back at him.

Billy didn't say anything back to her. He just looked down at her as she glared up at him, hardly recognising her brother anymore. There was no semblance of him left and she wasn't entirely sure if she could bring him back. She didn't know if there were any words she could say that would bring him back to her.

"Just stay out of my way," Billy warned her.

"You don't need to do this," she said and she moved to her feet as he started walking away. Carrying the rabbit by her side, she reached for his forearm and he stopped, turning around to face her as she knew there was no harm in one final attempt at trying to reason him. It would probably be futile, but it was worth a shot. "I can do this the right way, Billy. I can fight him. You don't need to do this. It'll only end in heartache."

"For who? For you?" Billy questioned her. "Even now you're begging for his life."

"I'm begging for you to see reason. I have a daughter who is a supe…if you release that virus…Billy…"

"Then perhaps you should go into hiding," Billy suggested. "Because I'm doing this. I'm going to kill your husband. I'm going to do what I should've done at the very beginning and you…you're never going to leave him."

"I'm just his cheap little whore, remember?" Victoria sniped back.

"You said it," Billy replied, smirk remaining on his face. "Good luck, Vic."

Victoria didn't bother to try and stop him from walking away. She let him go. She just stood and watched the back of him until he rounded the corner and left her alone. Victoria's hands balled into fists and she stormed off in the other direction and headed back to the hotel.

…

"We've got people asking if the two of you are back together considering that you were with her at her father's funeral."

Homelander sat in the Vought meeting room. It was filled with people who worked in the PR department. Apparently what they needed was crisis management. Homelander sat at the head of the table, trying to ignore the screens that were playing video footage of Billy attacking him. He had newspapers laid out in front of him displaying his image with Victoria. She was on the floor, knelt in front of him with her hands on his cheeks as she begged him not to retaliate. In another image he was picking her up, prepared to flee with her.

"We can tell them that you were just there supporting her," someone else spoke.

"Or we can tell them that you're trying to reconcile and you knew how difficult it would be for her to be there alone?"

"Either way, we're telling them that you were attacked unprovoked."

"And that your wife has nothing to do with her brother. The two of them are estranged as he doesn't agree with her being married to you."

"Well, isn't that the fucking understatement of the year."

The new voice entered the room and Homelander looked up to see Sage walking in. She was dressed in jeans, a white tee with a logo on it and a dark green jacket on her shoulders. She moved into the room with an air of confidence and Homelander snapped out of the trance that he'd been in.

"I'm sorry, but were you invited to the meeting?" a man in a suit asked.

"I asked her here," Homelander replied. "Everyone out. We need the room."

There were mutters of apprehension, but eventually everyone gathered their papers and left, taking their time and making Homelander ground his teeth in frustration. Once the doors had closed behind them, Homelander watched as Sage walked around the table and sat down in her old seat.

"I was surprised to get your call."

"I need someone to work out the best plan of action. I have people out there thinking I'm weak," Homelander snarled.

"Well, you were bested," Sage said to him. "That bruise on your cheek shows that, but there's ways to get control of the narrative. You know what you need to do, but you're too nervous to do it because you don't know how your wife will react."

"I know I need to kill her brother. She knows it too," Homelander said, drumming his fingers against the table.

Sage shook her head. She leant back, hands resting on the arms of the chair. Her eyes glimmered for a few moments as she realised that she was back in power. She was back where she belonged and she was ready for the next phase. She was ready for whatever was coming for them.

"No," she said to him. "You can kill him and I don't doubt that you will eventually, but right now he's on the run and we don't know where he is. All we know is that William Butcher is strong because of the Temp V in his veins and he has a virus that can kill all supes on him. You want him found? You tell the world about that virus."

"What?"

"People hardly look for fugitives in broad daylight. You can put his poster on every street corner…on every news station…people will still walk right by him and not recognise him. If you create panic, well, it creates paranoia. People will start questioning their neighbours…friends…every face they see on the street could be his. We can find him quicker. The quicker we find him, the quicker you can kill him and you get the virus back."

Homelander weighed up what she was saying. He didn't know if this was the route he wanted to go down. Sage knew it as well. She observed how he looked out of the window, clearly lost in thought. She kept on staring at him, trying to work out what was going on in his mind.

"I told you that she was always going to be the obstacle," Sage said and he closed his eyes. "You need to realise that if you want this…if you really want this…then you need to start playing the game. I take it that's why it hasn't been made public that you've caught some of the others? And that's why you freed Alex? You're doing it to try and shelter her. You can't shelter her."

"I need to shelter her," Homelander said, eyes snapping open again. "If I don't shelter her then what happens to her?"

"She faces things on her own two feet like a big girl because she made her choice. She chose to leave. She chose to go out on her own," Sage said.

"And if the world finds out her brother has a supe-killing virus, then what?" Homelander questioned Sage. "What if someone comes for Victoria? What if they think she's working with her brother? All it takes is some crazy bastard to hurt her. It's bad enough that she's gone against me and I can't protect her as much as I could…but with that information out there…I can't risk her."

"Then you need to think of another way to get William Butcher," Sage said to him with a shrug of her shoulders. "And you need to think about how to do it without upsetting your wife…either way…it's going to be bumpy."

"No shit," Homelander mumbled and Sage pulled her phone out of her pocket. She unlocked it and slid it across to him. He looked down at the screen and the image, his eyes widening and his finger running over her face. "When was this?"

"About twenty minutes before I got here," Sage said. "Her team are already saying that it's been an emotional few days for her. They've asked for her privacy to be respected as she…well…I don't think grieve is the right word, but as she comes to term with her loss."

The image was of Victoria with her mother. Her mother was holding her as she sobbed, head buried against her shoulder as they stood in a carpark. He let his thumb run over Victoria's face and he pushed the phone back to Sage. He moved to his feet.

"Think of a way to clean this mess up. When I come home, we announce that some of the fugitives have been caught. We catch Starlight and William without dragging Victoria down. I'm not having her suffer anymore," Homelander decided on saying.

"I'll see what I can do," Sage assured him.

He began to storm out of the meeting room at the same time Firecracker walked in. She tried to say something to him, but he ignored her. She watched him leave and she knew that she couldn't stop him. She looked into the meeting room and shock crossed her face as she realised it was Sage sat there. Sage shot her a smirk with a wave and Firecracker folded her arms over her chest, knowing that there was going to be sparks between the pair of them.

…

"You saw the photos then?" Victoria guessed.

After her meeting with her brother, she'd gone back to the hotel and had spent the rest of the day with Evelyn. They'd gone for a walk along the South Bank and had gotten ice cream. She'd taken her to some soft play centre and had crawled through small tunnels and climbed foam steps up to slides with her. Natalie had gone with them and it had felt good. For just a few hours, Victoria forgot why she was even in London. She had forgotten that her dad had died. She'd forgotten that she'd lost her brother. It had been nice. It had been nice to just spend time with Evie.

But then, once she'd put Evelyn to bed, Victoria had gone to the rooftop for some fresh air. They told her that there was a rooftop bar, but in the winter it was unmanned because no one wanted to stand with a beer in the cold. Victoria had gone up there and had leant against the stone railing, wrapped up in her blue woollen coat over her jumper and skirt. She could hear the noise of the traffic from below, horns blaring with yells and laughter mixed into it.

"I saw them," Homelander confirmed for her.

"I thought that I could go into the flat, but I couldn't. I couldn't bring myself to go in there," Victoria said to him and he noticed that there was a bottle of wine on the table next to her. He could smell that it had been opened and she'd been drinking some of it. "Daniella called me to tell me that the photos were doing the rounds. She's gone down the route of saying I just need time to process what happened and I guess that makes sense. Maybe I do need time? Or maybe anyone who was asked to go back to the childhood home where they were abused might cry at the idea of stepping through the door again?"

She picked the bottle up and took a swig of the white wine. She didn't particularly enjoy the taste. It was too bitter. She didn't entirely care because it was alcohol. She just needed alcohol. She needed something to numb the pain.

"I think it's only natural," Homelander assured her.

"And then I saw Billy again. He's done with me completely so that's another brother I've lost," Victoria said and Homelander knew that she was tipsy. He leant against the railing next to her. "He told me that he'd kill me too if I ever stood in his way again and you know what? I believe him. I think he probably would kill me because he's that hell bent on revenge."

"We're working on trying to find him," Homelander assured his wife.

"Yeah, well, who knows if you will," Victoria said. "And then there's the fact that I know you've arrested Hughie, Frenchie, M.M. and Kimiko."

Homelander looked to her as she turned her glare to him. He let out a deep breath and shrugged his shoulders. "I was trying to think of the best time to tell you. You've had enough going on and I didn't want to add to it…we haven't made it public yet. How did you find out?"

"Daniella," Victoria said. "We have connections in the justice department and they told us. So…they're rotting in some cell, I guess?"

"I let Alex walk free, Vic, I can't let the others go," Homelander warned her. "There's the fact too that they did try and kill Victoria Neuman. We have evidence of them doing that and you know it. They're not exactly innocent in all of this and we shouldn't pretend that they are."

Victoria knew that was true. No one was innocent in all of this. She was well aware of it. "You still should've told me," was all she could mutter to him and she pressed the bottle to her lips and took another swig of the wine, letting it burn her throat. Homelander shrugged his shoulders and bowed his head, hair falling into his face as the wind whipped around them.

"I just…things between us have been better, Vic…I just didn't want to ruin that," he settled on saying to her. "I just want to be there for you. I always just want to be there for you and keep you safe. Don't you get it? Everything I do is to try and protect you."

"I don't always need protecting, John," Victoria said to him.

"Really?" Homelander asked. "Because there's photos of you online crying in the middle of a carpark over your fucked up childhood. You make out like you're strong, Vic, and you are. You're one of the strongest women I know, but that doesn't mean that you're invincible. You still need protecting. You need me to protect you from things down there that you don't know about," he pointed to the distance of the London skyline. "You need me and there's no shame in admitting that."

"I need the man I met. I need the man I first met. I need him, but you're not him and I…I don't know if we can keep doing this," Victoria said, pointing between the two of them. "This back and forth we have going on is exhausting."

"Then we can stop it."

"Yeah, we can," Victoria agreed with him, but her idea of how to stop it was different to his. He watched as she set the bottle down on the table and started to move back towards the door. "I don't think you should stay tonight."

Homelander blinked profusely at that. "What?" he asked her.

"I just don't think it's a good idea."

"Don't," Homelander urged from her. "Don't push me away because we both know that you'll only come crawling back. We both know it. I'm your weakness as much as you're my weakness so don't do this. Just come to me…come back to me."

Bending down, he kissed her forcefully, giving her no time to pull back from him. Out of instinct, she closed her eyes and moved her lips against his. He grabbed hold of her around the waist, pushing her backwards until her back hit the brick wall. Victoria moved a hand to his hair, tangling into it as his fingers danced up the inside of her thigh and towards the waistband of her tights. Victoria moaned against his mouth before she pulled back from him, a hand going to his chest.

"Stop it," she urged from him.

"Is that what you really want?" he questioned from her, but his hand stilled against her stomach, palm pressing flat against it and feeling the scar from where she'd given birth to Evelyn. It was puckered and slightly cool to his fingers. She'd been apprehensive about it to begin with, but he saw it as nothing but a sign of how she'd given birth to their daughter.

"No," Victoria said. "What I want is to go downstairs to that bedroom and I want you to stay with me for the night. I want to be with you. I want you to hold me until I fall asleep. I want all of that, but I can't…I can't have it and I know that I can't…so I'm going to go. You need to go home. You need to leave."

"I'm not leaving you." Homelander said defiantly.

"You might not be leaving me, but I'm leaving you, John," Victoria said.

He didn't fight her as she untangled herself from his grip, moving his hand from under her clothes. She kept hold of his hand, her fingers gripping his for a moment and she swore that he was on the verge of tears. She closed her eyes tightly as she walked away from him. Homelander watched her go, not bothering to try and drag her back because she was clearly being stubborn. He wiped his eyes with the back of his hand and he reached for his phone. He tugged it from his pocket and dialled her number.

"Do it," he demanded as soon as she picked up. "Release the news."

"Which news?" she questioned.

"Butcher and the virus," Homelander decided. "Let the world know."

"And Victoria?"

"She thinks she doesn't want my protection. She will when this news comes out," Homelander retorted, looking out over the bright lights of London. "So release it. Tonight."

"Consider it done," Sage said and hung up.

Homelander put his phone back in his pocket and ran his tongue over his lip, swearing that he could taste his wife's lip balm. He knew that this was a dangerous game he was playing, but Victoria had driven him to it. She drove him to desperation and madness. He guessed that was what being in love was all about.

...

A/N: How have we made it to chapter 100?! I can't actually believe I've had enough ideas to keep this going this long! I hope you've all enjoyed the ride so far and as always, I would love to know your thoughts! Hoping I can make it to 500 reviews for the 100th chapter!