19 After Action Report

With closed eyes, she felt the blanket of warmth envelope her, relaxing her muscles while the white noise of the running water soothed her thoughts.

She applied the grapefruit and guava scented body wash with practiced easy feeling its foaminess bubble up against her skin.

The scent filled her lungs, reminding her of a different time when it was just her and her mother, preparing for pageant shows.

A simpler time, a naïve time, one she once hated but would prefer now, a time she would never be able to go back to.

Helped by the slickness of the bubbly foam, her hands roamed all across her body, massaging and slowly washing away the stress and the literal blood that was caked on.

A stark reminder that today's events were real.

A dozen dead, a dozen more critically wounded, more would probably die later tonight in the hospital. People burned in horrific ways, not to mention the supposed radiation. Even if they survive their initial injuries the radiation will eat them from the inside.

She shuddered for a moment and stopped, letting the shower work its soothing effects.

Everything she wanted to prevent as a hero happened today. The worst was that it was all helped by Hughie.

Butcher she understood, he had an obsession. Hell she wanted to take down Homelander, for Alex for everyone but at what cost?

Teaming up with an out of control murderer? How many innocents have to die? And Hughie…she felt anger rising he was supposed to be the voice of reason in their group.

He lied to her, in more ways than one and he was turning out to be as obsessive as Butcher. She tried telling herself it was the 24-V but it wasn't. The substance just brought out what was hidden beneath the layers of good and caring.

And that was just it, the hardest part to reconcile, it wasn't him and yet it was him more than anything else. All the powerful love, emotion and caring focused on one goal, the moment he was enabled to.

Her thoughts were broken by the muffled sound of her doorbell ringing.

A glimmer of hope rose into her chest, Hughie it had to be him, though it was quickly subdued by anger.

She quickly threw a towel on and rushed to the door.

"Hughie, if you think, you can just come and apologize and" she started saying as she opened the door but then stopped.

"Oh, uh, Homelander?" she asked unsure.

He just raised an eyebrow. "Obviously." He answered. "I doubt Hughie would come visit you here…in Vought tower…where I live, not after today. I'm sure he's smart enough to realize that would not be a good idea." He said with a sarcastic cold smile.

"Uh, right, right." She shook her head getting her thoughts straight. "So, why are you here?"

To her surprise he walked past her forcing himself in, though there wasn't much resistance as she simply moved aside as he started walking.

"I've been calling you but you haven't answered."

"I was showering."

"Yes I can see that. We have a press conference tomorrow and we need to get our stories straight." He said as he lifted the laptop she just now noticed he was holding. "We also have to coordinate our AARs."

She looked confused. "AAR's?" She saw him sigh and deflate.

"AAR's, After Action Reports? We said last meeting we will introduce them after every hero intervention? To have more transparency, better support police investigations, part of the new program we are going to implement? Any of that ring a bell?"

"Yes" she said a bit annoyed. "But that's not until we actually come up with a new training & evaluation program. We haven't even started on it."

"Well this seems like a good place to start." Homelander said. "If anything deserves an AAR then it's today's events."

"And it couldn't wait until tomorrow?" She felt herself be annoyed.

"No, it could not and if you'd have checked your phone you'd see that Ashley scheduled us for the press conference 8am sharp, she wanted us to meet tonight but considering today's events I pushed her off to give us some time to breath." He paused for a moment. "She gets way too stressed and way to excited about things." She saw him shake his head and roll his eyes.

Now that she was looking at him closer, instead of just looking at all of him she saw two darker spots of skin, one on his right cheek bone and one on the left hand corner of his mouth.

"And I've had enough excitement for today." He finished off.

He was hurt. Actually hurt, Soldier Boy did that. Why didn't she notice it after the fight? Then again they mostly focused on the wounded. How close had Soldier Boy been to killing him? Did Hughie and Butcher know?...No, he said he was winning when Hughie teleported him away. Was that a lie? Was he…

Her thoughts were interrupted when she felt a hand grab her shoulder.

"Annie, are you ok? Hey, snap out of it you're zoning out on me."

She frowned and automatically took a step back out of reach of the appendage.

"Uh, yea sorry, just, uh," He saw him looking at her to elaborate, an inkling of panic. "I don't think I've ever seen you not in your costume." She ultimately blurted out. "It just seems off." He was wearing a plain white T-shirt and beige slacks.

He seemed taken aback by it. "You know I don't wear it all the time right? You don't think I sleep in it do you?" A rhetorical question though she felt his tone was serious.

"No, of course not." She said automatically.

"Yea, that didn't sound very convincing." He said dismissively and casually sat on her couch. "Look it's been a long day. We just have to go over a few points to make sure we don't say anything we shouldn't." he paused briefly.

"I would prefer not to have to answer any questions as to why my very supportive girlfriend was naked in the middle of the road arguing with her ex just by the house where our so called suspect happened to be."

He paused for a split second again and continued with a cold smile.

"A house that I might add was hosting an orgy."