The fifteen hour plane ride was a different kind of torture. It wasn't the long flight, or the uncomfortable seats, or even the terrible airplane food that made their trip back to Metropolis unbearable. It was the hours of sitting and being able to think of nothing but what had happened.

Everything seemed to replay in Irene's head. It was horrible and she still couldn't make sense of any of it.

After Clark had left her and Jimmy nothing could have prepared them for what they saw. They had heard the gunshots and the screaming, but when they stepped out of the building they were met with a horrific scene. Women and children were crying throughout the village.

But that wasn't the worst of it, there was smoke in the streets and as it began to settle they were able to see what the source of the burning had been.

There were bodies, dozens of them in piles across the village burned almost to the point where it was practically impossible to recognize them as bodies.

The smell of burning flesh was think in the air, and it made Irene feel sick. She was shocked that she didn't vomit there on the street from the shock of it all.

A feeling of helplessness took a hold of her knowing that there was nothing she could do to make this better. That all these people were suffering or dead and she could do nothing.

One of the military trucks that had entered the village stopped before them. It seemed like the CIA was somehow involved in all of this,but to what extent she didn't know. It seemed like they had just arrived to the scene, as the agents all looked around in shock.

Just as Irene and Jimmy were about to step toward one of the agents, Jimmy tripped on something almost falling to his knees. Looking down they realized that it was Irene's leather journal, she had long forgotten about it. And it hardly seemed important, but Jimmy picked it up regardless brushing off all the sand before handing it to her.

Irene close her eyes on the plane trying to find sleep like Jimmy had, but it was impossible. She could only see the burned bodies in the village and the crying of the women in the village.

Truthfully she didn't deserve to find peace in sleep.

They had dropped Jimmy off at his apartment straight from the airport, he was still shaken up. It wasn't that Irene was no longer haunted by what happened, she simply was better at hiding it.

She also knew that if she let it take a hold of her completely that she might not be able to come back. That the guilt and shame would consume her.

Angel had insisted picking up food, saying that she needed to eat. But truthfully the smell of grease and the cooking meat made her feel sick.

Since they had arrived at the airport in Africa all they had seen on the news was what had happened out at the desert. They shouldn't have been surprised, but they didn't want that constant reminder of what happened at every corner.

She was sure the Jimmy was reliving every moment of what happened just like she was. Maybe that was why he insisted on going straight home, to hide from all the news coverage.

Looking up at the TV screen, Irene could only watch as the Senate hearing took place. A witness who was there at Nairomi was speaking, she was also there that day and experienced those horrors first hand. But her story it wasn't right, not entirely.

Her accounts made Superman seem like a heartless monster that attacked an innocent village. That wasn't true.

Irene was surprised how quickly the hearing was taking place. How quickly the woman arrived at Metropolis after what happened, she had arrived before her and Jimmy meaning she must have left the day of the attack.

"The women in the village heard a noise. Like the sky cracked open. He came down. Then came fire." The woman claimed, everyone in the courthouse seemed horrified by her account. They were all going to think terrible things, but they didn't know. They didn't know Clark. "Even worse came after. The Government attacked. No mercy in the villages. My parents tried to run."

"The world has been so caught up with what Superman can do that no one has asked what he should do." Senator Finch stated and Irene knew what was going to happen next. "Let the record show that this committee holds him responsible."

"He'll never answer to you. He answers to no one." The woman replied, she voice shaking in maybe anger or fear. "Not even, I think, to God."

Irene couldn't take her eyes off of the TV screen even as commercials began to play. Her heart was frozen in her chest knowing that the had condemned Superman because of her. The world was going to think of him as some kind of monster because he went out to the desert to save her. And now the blame of what happened that day was being placed on him.

What was worse was that Clark had asked her not to go and she had ignored him. She had been to stubborn and ambitious to listen to him, and now it was Clark who was paying the price for her stupidity.

"Maybe we should get the food to go." Cat suggested as she lightly touched her elbow.

"What did I do Cat?" Irene muttered, and she felt like she was seconds away from breaking down in tears in the middle of the Big Belly Burger.

Irene had never cried in public. But she couldn't make sense of any of it. People were killed, and maybe it was all because of her. She didn't think she could live with it.

"This isn't on you." Cat told her taking both of Irene's hands in hers. "You couldn't have known."

Irene shook her head as she sat down at one of the tables starting to feel even more faint. "I should have never gone out there."

Cat sighed as she reached into her purse pulling out a small box and handing it to her. "Not that this is going to make you feel better or fix anything, but you just need to relax a bit"

Irene frowned as she looked down at the box. It was a bath gift set, everything was scented like lilies and honey. "I'm not really a bath person."

"Baths are great!" Cat replied sounding slightly offended, taking Irene's comment personally. And although Irene didn't mean to seem rude or ungrateful for the gesture the truth was that she had never taken a bath before. The concept just never seemed appealing to her. "Can you just try it? It might help."

Angel then approached them with two bags of Big Belly Burger, handing one of them to Cat. "I told you she wouldn't like that."

"We don't need to have another argument about this." Cat stated clearly no longer wanting to defend her love for taking baths. "Lets get Irene home."

She did don't know how she would be able to come home to Clark, to look him in the eyes after what happened. It killed her inside.

Maybe that's why she hadn't asked him to pick her up from the airport. Why she had called her brother and Cat to do it instead. Irene had honestly been hoping that maybe Angel would scold her for doing something so dangerous, but his silence was almost worse.

She now knew the cost of her ambition. And she found that it was a price she wasn't willing to pay.

There was no taking back what had happened. It was a part of her now and something that she would always have to live with.

A/N: The next two chapters are going to be mostly filler to set up the plot going forward. I do want to mostly stay true to what happened in BVS, but there will obviously be some changes.