Ch.28

"Can we talk?" Maggie asks me as I look at Frenchie who is now calmly walking away. 

"Sure… Though let's do it somewhere else," I say as she nods, gesturing for me to follow her. 

Maggie brings me to a car, that has driven her here, and we get inside it. The driver says nothing about me, as Maggie tells him to take us to the tower. She gives me a look to not say anything yet. 

We both get out of the car, but she tells me to wait outside the tower. A few minutes later Maggie comes back down, but now wearing her casual clothes. I text the boys to not wait up for me since something important came to my attention and I will meet up with them later. 

"Sorry… I just didn't want to bring you inside since Homelander might see you and take offense," Maggie says as I nod my head and we walk down the street toward my apartment. 

"So… I'm Queen Maeve…," Maggie says to me as we walk and I just nod my head slowly thinking of a response. 

"Yeah… I kinda knew that already… I mean you don't cover your face and it's not like you look any different than her. I really have no idea how no one else figured this out already," I say to her as she stares at me for a second and then laughs nodding her head. 

"Shit, you're not wrong. Seems the 'secret identity' of ours is not so secret when you take a minute to think about it," Maggie says with a laugh. 

"Well in a way it works, I know someone famous, and when he puts regular clothes on and glasses no one even notices him. However, as soon as he puts his outfit on everyone recognizes him," I say to her referencing Superman from my past life as she gives me a curious look. 

"Then again it might just be a New York thing, since everyone here doesn't care what's going on around them unless it involves them," I say to her as we pass people who don't even give her a second look. 

"Really bursting my bubble here," Maggie says with a laugh as we finally arrive at my apartment. 

"To be honest… I'm surprised you're not put off by my real identity, then again since you already knew maybe you are a gold digger," Maggie says to me while giving me a smirk at the second part. 

"Two things, first, I like strong women, especially ones that can handle my… passion. Secondly, it might not look like it but I have more money than I care to admit. I just like living like anyone else, not to say I don't have a fancy home away from everyone," I say to her as I pour us some bourbon I have. 

"You are very… passionate," Maggie says to me with a flirtatious smile. 

"So… I can only assume Homelander and the others don't know about me?" I say to her changing the subject as we start sipping our drinks. Maggie looks off outside the window before sighing and nodding her head in a defeated manner. 

"Yeah… Homelander would not take kindly to your existence, especially since we've grown as close as we have. He is not like what he appears to be like… He is… is a monster," Maggie says to me while giving me a serious look. 

"I know," I say nodding my head making her give me a confused look. 

I stand up holding my hand up to make her wait since it seems I can trust her enough to bring her into the fold. However, how she will feel about me after will be seen shortly. I then grab some of the files I have here on Homelander and the current members of the Seven including her. I hand her them all, and her eyes widen when she looks through them. 

"Before you get angry with me… In the beginning, when we first met I was just interested in using you… However, like you said we've grown closer and I'd rather not use you like that, but hope you will join us in bringing down Homelander and the other supes who are fucked in the head," I say to her as she gives me a hurt and angry look. 

"I can't believe I thought I found a decent person for once! Every fucking time I grow close to someone I get stabbed in the back!" Maggie says standing up and walking to my door, but I grab her wrist stopping her. 

Maggie then rips her wrist from my hand but is surprised to see she didn't as I'm stronger than normal people. Before she can say anything else, I pull her close to me and kiss her. We both are messed up people and like letting off steam through sex, so I figured this might help me patch some things. 

At first, she resists the kiss, but then gives in and things turn very heated. However, this time she doesn't hold back as I pick her up and slam her into the wall breaking it slightly. The rest of the day and night is a very long and passionate one with my apartment being broken by the end with only a handful of things left not broken. 

"You're not a normal human," Maggie says as we finally rest while smoking some cigarettes and sitting on the crushed couch naked. 

"No… You can consider me a supe, however, my team isn't aware of that considering they hate supes with a passion. They are all there to take down the corrupted and untouchable supes, which so far we've failed in doing. However, we know it is a slow and long process," I say to her as she nods her head. 

"I can help… but I doubt I can do much other than give you some insider information, which you appear to already have," Maggie says while picking up the file on her. 

"You know pretty much everything about me and I know almost nothing about you, tell me about you," Maggie says to me as I stare at her for a few seconds. 

Half of me is wary of telling her the truth, the real truth, while the other half wants to open up to her since we've grown closer over the last few months. Having hooked up multiple times she has slowly opened up to me anyway. Plus after these last twelve hours, it feels like we've grown closer than most women I've been with. 

"I'll tell you this… My real name is not John Logan… I lived a long life, longer than most, and been through a lot," I say to her since the part of me not trusting her won out, but the other part let me open up just a bit. 

"I see… I get you have trust issues, believe me, I have them too. I just hope though one day you will open up to me, especially since we are going to be working together moving forward now," Maggie says to me as I sigh the urge to tell her more growing. 

"I'm sorry, it's just what my team and I are doing is very important. We have to be extremely careful, hell letting you know as much as I have already has put us in a jam if you tell anyone. I want to tell you, that I must look out for my team and their safety before my feelings. Therefore, I will be the only one in contact with you until–," I say to her. 

"Until you can trust me… I get it, I do. After learning all you did about most supes it can be next to impossible to trust any of them," Maggie says with a bitter laugh. 

"I'm sorry," I say to her and she shakes her head dismissing it. 

"It's fine, though moving forward our relationship is going to be professional only," Maggie says standing up and putting her clothes back on. 

"Understandable… I will reach out to you should I need you for anything. If you need to tell me anything or need my help you can contact me like you normally do," I say to her as she nods her head and takes her leave right after. 

I then shower and come back out to the destroyed apartment sighing at the mess I will have to clean up later. Then I head to the hideout Frenchie got for us through his connections. Arriving there, Frenchie gives me a raised eyebrow since he saw me with Maggie, though I give him a look to talk about it later. 

"So what happened?" I ask them as they all look over to me. 

"Where've you been?" Butcher says to me giving me a curious look. 

"Something personal came up… don't worry about it. What did I miss?" I say to them and change the subject back to what happened yesterday. 

"Well, I got the Compound V, however it is mostly used up. So it might be useless," Frenchie says tossing me the small vial with maybe a few drops of the blue liquid left inside. 

"Shit, ok… MM, Butcher anything new with Popclaw?" I say putting the vial on the table in front of us. 

"Yeah, we have some great information regarding that," Butcher says motioning for MM to talk. 

"I watched Popclaw use a secret stash of hers. She seemed very annoyed by A-Train's remarks after the race, so Popclaw injected the V, and then she did some crazy squat-pressing huge barbells," MM says as I nod my head. 

"Then Popclaw's landlord, knocks at the door, asking for her rent and she invited him in. Then Popclaw and her landlord started some weird roleplay shit, which lead to her crushing his head while sitting on it," MM says shuttering at the memory. 

'Death by Snu Snu… good for him I guess,' I think as the Futurama scene comes to my mind. 

"So then we blackmailed her into telling us what she knows," Butcher continues for MM. 

"What does she know?" I say to them. 

"Popclaw said that Compound V comes from somewhere in the vicinity of a noodle shop as A-Train comes back with the noodles after every V run," Butcher says as I nod my head. 

"Then we need to start a surveillance of it. MM, Frenchie, you guys take the first watch. Butcher and Hughie will relieve you both later. I will take the night watch," I say to them as they nod their heads and quickly leave. 

It took a week of watching the noodle shop before MM and Frenchie reported back that they are following someone who appeared to have a package. Butcher, Hughie, and I quickly make our way over, as MM and Frenchie motion for us over. 

"They are inside there, no other way in or out. Seems this is the place they are using," MM says as Frenchie watches the entrance/ exit. It is a warehouse full of boxes.

"Right, Hughie, keep watch for anyone coming in and inform us. I will take lead with Frenchie, Butcher, and MM watch our backs," I say as they nod and we walk inside the warehouse with our guns drawn. 

We then sneak past a room with several guards inside talking in what sounds like Vietnamese. At the back of the warehouse in a barred room, we find a young woman watching TV. The woman was barefoot, wearing old worn pajamas, and looking like she was homeless. We all give each other confused looks, while Frenchie walks closer to the bars. I then motioned for everyone to split up to look for Compound V.