You would think after a decade of having the same dream, Billy wouldn't be so scared anymore. But his mind had a way of coming up with new ways to torment him. Little changes to the dream that would awaken a different kind of fear from the time before.

Sometimes his dream played out exactly how the memory did. Becca goes missing, Grace showed him the footage, he found out what happened to Becca. Other times he was standing right in front of Becca's body, wherever his mind thinks it ended up. Or Homelander takes both of them aside at that party and makes him watch. By now, Butcher figured he's dreamt of every possibility. There was nothing worse than the reality he woke up to every day.

Until tonight.

He'd fallen asleep later than usual. You two had just finished a movie and he'd found himself carrying you to bed. His nightmare started as usual, with Grace Mallory finding him and pulling up Vought's old security footage on her phone. But it wasn't Becca's demise she was proving to him.

It was yours. You walked out of that room limping and distressed. Your face was on what was supposed to be Becca's obituary in his car. Butcher was reliving the worst day of his life and this time it was you paying the price. You who was far too good to be involved with a mean old bastard like him.

When Butcher woke up his face was damp. The sheets were half off the bed and his chest was still heaving with choked sobs. Your side of the bed was cold and empty save for Terror sleeping by the pillow. A cold sense of dread washed over Butcher as he began to wonder if his nightmare had been real.