Just so you guys know, this is the sequal to LEAVE ME BREATHLESS, and you'll have to read that first to understand the main idea of this one. It was originally going to be posted as the second chapter to that fic, but because of the action pace of this one, it's going to stand alone me thinks.

The crashing sound of rubble blocked out the shocked and surprised cries of the four superheroes that fell into the dark underground along with it. Despite the constant barrage of rock that fell from the ground level, none were crushed by the building that collapsed around them, and that in itself was a miracle. By all rights, the east wing of a four-story department store should have crushed them to death easily, but it was through the aid of their abilities caused by the cosmic storm five months ago that helped them to avoid this fate.

The Fantastic Four had gotten an emergency call from the fire department when the foundations of the newly-erected building had began to fail, which had left the entire building on the verge of collapsing. Inside, they'd fought to hold up the building's east-wing just long enough for the final innocents to escape the possibility of getting crushed. Johnny had used his power to weld together several beams which had cracked under the pressure of the floor above completely collapsing on itself; Ben had held their exit above his own height, so that the way of escaping wouldn't be shut off completely; Reed had been stretched out across the roof, preventing any falling blocks of rubble from falling onto the people trying to get out of harms way; and Sue had been using her force fields to keep everything from collapsing in on itself on their floor.

However, after the last person was out, Sue had lowered the force field partially, keeping it suspended just over the area where they stood. However, combined with Reed's body retracting back into its normal state, this caused the rest of the building to shake. It was only moments later that the ground beneath them started to crack, the foundations completely giving way beneath them just after they'd managed to complete the task of saving the bystanders; but as they'd made to leave the shaking building themselves, they'd fallen through the shattered ground, down into the darkness that lay beneath it.

Thanks to the partial force field that had remained intact above their heads, they hadn't been knocked by any of the larger piles of rubble above their heads, which had fallen alongside of them, overtaking them because of their large bulk. For a moment, everything was eerily dark; too dark to see anything clearly but they were still able to see the heavy amount of dust that had been thrown into the air.

"Is everyone okay?" Reed asked, when the rubble ceased to drown out the side of his voice.

Coughing, Johnny propped himself up on a rock. "Yeah."

"All good." Ben agreed, revealing himself to be the 'rock' that Johnny had been leaning on, causing the younger man to jump.

"Where's Sue?" Reed asked, noticing her lack of answer, and, now that the cloud of dust was thinning out, he noticed that he could not make out her body through the dusty air as he could with the other two team members,

Johnny frowned. "She was right behind me..." He said, looking over his shoulder to the area behind him, which was empty of Sue's form as he had expected it to be.

"Sue...Sue!" Reed called out, pausing in between each call of her name to cough out the dust which had settled in his throat.

"I'm over here." Her voice came quiet, and even in its minute tone, they could hear the shaking it held.

Following the sound of her voice, they found her sitting on the ground, having clearly lowered herself with her back to a rock. Her arms were drawn around her legs, and her eyes were closed with her head leaning back against the rock. Reed made his way to her side and crouched down next to her, immediately concerned by a small wound on her forehead.

"I'm okay...it doesn't hurt." She assured him quietly, as he reached out to touch it. She opened his eyes, shocking him to a momentary silence with how she'd had her eyes closed, but had known that he was about to touch her wound.

He observed it from his short distance, only inches away from her face, and nodded. It was nothing more than a small graze that was starting to bleed in a very minor way. "It's not deep. Do you feel dizzy at all?" He checked.

"Yeah, but not because of the rock." She confirmed.

He realised what she meant, and both of their eyes drifted up to what had previously been the ground they were standing on. Instead of being met with that sight, only from underneath, they found that about ten feet above them was the shattered and cracked remains of the overall roof of the building, meaning that the above floors were now littered around them in rubble and shattered furniture. Sue groaned lightly, leaning back against the rock, and Reed got to his feet, going over to Johnny and Ben.

"How far did we fall?" He asked them, keeping his voice low so that Sue didn't hear, although his low tone echoed through the area they were in.

"At least twenty feet." Johnny estimated, his own gaze turning to the ceiling.

"We must be underneath the basement." Ben agreed.

Reed sighed, running hand over his head, not surprised to see that a large amount of dust sprung from his hair as it was scraped back in his hand. "This isn't good." He murmured to himself.

"There are rescue teams above us already." Ben pointed out. "They'll have us out soon. An hour tops. We've got air. We're okay."

"We're okay." Reed stressed, looking over his shoulder at the woman behind them. "But Sue's not."

Ben's eyes narrowed. "But you said that head wound-"

"I'm not talking about the head wound." Reed assured them. "It's just a graze, nothing more."

"Then what are you talking about?" Ben asked.

Reed sighed. "Remember the day that me and her first met properly? The underground in London?" He prompted.

Johnny suddenly snapped into attention and covered his face with his hands. "Oh, man. Not again."

"What?" Ben asked, completely oblivious to the situation as he couldn't think of what it had to do with being trapped under the rubble of a four-story building.

Reed looked at Ben unsurely. "Sue's afraid of being underground." He shared.

"She's claustrophobic?"

"Not exactly." Johnny explained. "She's fine with enclosed spaces, she just doesn't like being underground."

"Oh." Ben said, his eyes meeting the rock above them once more. "That's definitely not good."

"Guys." Sue piped up quietly, and they all turned around at her voice. Her eyes were still closed. "You don't have to whisper. I know we're underground."

"You okay there, Susie?" Ben asked, unsure of what else to do as he noticed how tightly her fists were clenched.

She didn't answer his question, however she did bite her lip. "How soon will they get us out of here?" She asked.

Reed approached her once more, settling down onto the ground beside her. They were left facing each other, the sides of their legs touching. "A while." He said honestly. "An hour at the most."

"An hour?" She asked.

"Don't worry, it'll be fine." He assured her, his hands moving to settle atop hers.

"An hour, Reed?" She repeated incredulously, starting to take shakier breaths that left her trembling under his touch.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa..." He whispered. "Shh...it's okay."

She shook her head fiercely, her eyes still tightly shut. "I can't stay down here for an hour, Reed. I can't."

"Yes, you can." He assured her calmly.

"No, I can't-"

"Sue...Susan, look at me." He said rather firmly. She opened her eyes now, and looked directly into the chocolate brown pools of reassurance that were aimed straight at her. "You can do this, okay?" She shook her head, never taking her eyes off of him. "No, you can." He repeated. "You can do this."

"Is she going to be all right?" Ben asked Johnny, as the two stood back and watched the tender interaction between the pair.

Johnny shrugged gently. "She hasn't had an attack like this for a long time." He remembered.

"Attack?"

"A panic attack." He offered.

"Oh."

"She just gets in over her head with it." He explained. "Starts thinking the worst. The last time she had one was that day on the tube, when these two first met."

"I remember." Ben nodded, almost guiltily. "I remember trying to talk Reed out of going over to talk to her."

"Yeah." Johnny remembered, before turning away from Reed and Sue to look at Ben. "Try not to do that this time." He suggested.

"You got a deal." Ben promised him.

"We're so far under..." Sue realised, now that she had her eyes open and was looking around her.

"Sue, don't think about that." Reed told her, with his arms now elongated and looping around her shoulders.

"Are they going to find us?" She asked hesitantly. "Are they going to get us out of here?" She wasn't sure that she wanted an answer to this question. After all, being so far underground put them at risk of the building collapsing even more, so movement was going to be limited. There was nothing that they could do; putting them in an awkward position, especially since they had grown used to always finding a way to save lives. Now, they were the ones in need of rescue, they needed the way out. They needed saving.

"Of course they're going to." He told her simply, as if the other option was completely unthinkable.

"Promise?"

"Sue," He explained. "There were at least a hundred people up on the street when we fell, and over half of those are part of the rescue teams. They're all waiting for a chance to see the Fantastic Four, no doubt, so they're going to notice when we're not there, and then they'll be straight to work on getting us out of here by now. I promise you that they'll find us."

"What if they don't?" She asked doubtfully.

Reed gave her a gentle smile. "If they don't, then I'll get you out of here myself."

She tried to return his smile when nausea waved over her, causing her to lean in his hold. "Reed..." She murmured as the darkness threatened to consume her.

Knowing the need to keep her awake, Reed attempted to keep her engaged in conversation. "The first day we met, do you remember it?" He asked her, his voice coming out quickly.

She tried to steady her focus on him. "Reed..."

"Sue, keep talking to me." He told her firmly. "Do you remember?"

"Yes, I remember." She said weakly, nodding as best she could through the pounding in her skull.

"There was a little boy on the train, and he asked us if we were superheroes." Reed continued. "I told him that if I was a superhero, I'd have found a way for you not to go on the tube, remember?"

"You said I was pretty." She remembered softly, and gentle smile crossing her features as the nausea began to fade.

"Yeah, that's right." Reed smiled. "Don't worry, okay? We're getting out of here."

Sue nodding, trying to remain calm and focused like the others were. "What do we do until then?"

"We just sit, and we wait." Reed said.

"We do nothing?"

Noticing the return of the panic, he stroked down one side of her now-tousled and dusty hair. "Sue, we're getting out of here, okay?"

Before she could reply, there was a beeping from Johnny's direction. The sound made him jump, and he reached down to his waist, pulling from it's holder a beeper. "Whoa." He exclaimed, his eyes wide.

"What?" Reed asked.

"I've got signal." He said quietly, looking at the signal bar that was showing a small amount of call signal. "I've got signal!" He repeated again, but louder.

"You what, kid?" Ben asked, the idea absurd.

"My communicator for the fire department has got signal." He explained, shooting Ben a triumphant smirk. "I told you this thing was worth four hundred bucks."

Ben rolled his eyes, still not understanding why he'd had to spend so much money on a communication device, when Reed hadn't even spent that much on his PDA. "Well, can they get through?" He asked impatiently.

Johnny watched the signal bar for a moment, and then shook his head. "No, but I think I've got enough to call to them."

"Don't just stand there, then!" Ben told him. "Make the call before the signal dies."

Johnny punched in a few numbers, and then stepped away from the rest of the group, his back turned to them whilst they watched him curiously, listening to the one-sided conversation.

"Hello? Hello, this is Johnny Storm, can anyone hear me? ... Great! Listen, we're all still alive, no one's hurt, but we need to get out of here as fast as possible...well, can't you just get one of us out, just for now?...Look, I appreciate that it's taking time to do this, but I really, really, need to get my sister out of here...that long?...Whoa, hold on, where?" At this, Johnny walked away from them, going over to the far side of the area, where one of the foundation walls was still intact. "Can you still hear me?...Cool...I'm by the east wall...Right...no...no...yes, wait! Yes! I've got it!"

"Got what?" Ben asked him.

However, Johnny ignored him and frowned. "You want me to do what?...Right...okay...right...if the signal keeps, carry on trying to call through. I'll let you know when we get a way out."

He ended the call with the push of a button, and grinned back at the other three. "Ben, get your wide, rocky ass over here, big guy!" He called out.

Ben scowled at him. "You wanna try that again without the insults?"

"You wanna help us get out of this joint or what?" Johnny countered, still grinning.

"We've got a way out?" Reed asked him.

Johnny nodded, patting the wall beside him. "All we've gotta go is get through this wall without making the top part collapse." He announced. "Then we go through the sewer and up into the street."

"That's all?" Reed checked.

"You bet."

He turned to Sue, who was still trembling in his arms, and gave her a smile. "You hear that, Sue? We're getting out of here."

"Really?" She asked, and it was clear she was trying not to get her hopes up.

"Absolutely." Johnny called out to his sister. "You just sit tight, Susie. We'll be out of here in no time."

----

It was a short while before they began shifting the rock, as they needed to find the best position to go through the wall without hitting a weak point that would bring the whole roof down on top of them, no doubt killing them instantly. Because of this, their work was slow, and they suspected that the rescue department might reach them from above before they managed to leave through the side exit they were creating.

All through the while, Reed remained at Sue's side, holding onto her tightly. Every time the panic got the better of her and she started to hyperventilate, Reed would steady her breathing, getting her to remember the good old days at MIT, bringing back memories she could smile at, to take her mind off of the fact that a building had collapsed above them. A long time was spent with the two simply holding each other, and despite the fact that they were twenty-feet below ground, Sue found a deep comfort in his embrace, and she was glad that it was him that had found her on the tube all those years ago.

"We're out!" Johnny announced, when they had knocked through a hole large enough for them all to go through. Ben had already gone through, as they'd measured the hole by his size. He was, after all, the largest of them, and they needed to make sure that they could all get out.

Reed stood up, helping Sue to her feet and guiding her over to the gap in the wall. Johnny climbed through behind her, and was on the other side to help her through. However, when she placed half of her body through to the other side, anxious at the thought of seeing the sky once again, the rubble above them started to shake.

"What's happening?" She asked, looking up whilst holding on to Reed's arm with a furiously tight grip.

Johnny's eyes grew wide. "Shit, the roof's gonna cave in." He announced.

"Susie, come on!" Ben called from the other side.

"Reed..." She whispered, watching the familiar calculations run through his head, and knowing that the result wasn't good when he wouldn't meet her eyes.

Instead, he looked over her shoulder to Johnny. "Get Sue out, take her home." He said. "There's not enough time for us both to get through."

"No." Sue said firmly.

"Sue, go." Reed said.

"I can't." She said, shaking her head.

He looked at her, determination written across her face as he fought to keep her from climbing back beside him. "Sue, you need to get out of here."

"I can't leave without you." She told him desperately.

"You don't have a choice, now, go!" He told her.

"It's not a case of 'won't', Reed, I physically can't." She said, devastation hitting her as he realised that she had tears spilling down her cheeks. He stopped, and for a moment, the sound of collapsing rubble behind them seemed to falter away. "I can't leave you down here to die...it's impossible."

He knew that was what he was asking her to do. He was asking her to leave, and not worry about the fact that he would be crushed by the falling rock. He knew that this was going to be the last time that he ever saw her beautiful face, her wondrous blue eyes, those pink rosebud lips. He knew that this was the end, but he didn't mind if it meant that she was going to be okay.

"You need to make it possible." He told her.

She shook her head, more tears falling as her voice came out in a sob, already terrified from her phobia and now even more afraid that she was going to lose him. "Don't make me leave you."

"You have to go, Sue."

"Please..." She begged.

"Sue, come on!" Johnny urged from behind her.

"I'm only doing this because I have to." Reed told her. "I promised that I'd get you out of here, and if this is how it has to happen, then this is how it has to be."

"We've gotta go, now." Ben piped up from behind Johnny.

Johnny looked back at him, and then tugged on Sue's arm. "Susie, come on, we have to go."

"We can't leave him!" She cried, turning back to Reed after looking at her brother for a moment. "I can't leave you." She whispered loudly, not even trying to stop the tears.

Reed kept his gaze trained on her eyes, and then launched himself forwards, their lips meeting. The kiss had no time to develop into something passionate, and every split second of contact was rushed and hurried, but still, it was a kiss. Their first kiss in two years, to be exact. "I love you." He told her when they parted. "I love you, and I need to know that you're safe, and I'm not just saying this because of the situation. I'm saying this because it's true. I love you, and I'll always love you, Sue, but you need to go."

Completely shocked, Sue was speechless. "Reed...I..."

But before she could finish what she was about to say, Johnny called out. "Sue, now!"

As her brother pulled her through the last of the hole they had created, the rubble began to fall heavily, and as Reed backed away, Sue made a last attempt to throw a force field to cover him. However, a piece of rubble fell in between as they dragged Sue round the corner, into the sewer and towards the ladder they would use to escape. All the time, she fought against their grip, concentrating on keeping the force field intact as the sound of collapsing rubble intensified. However, by the time they had reached solid ground once again, she wasn't sure that her force field was intact anymore, and her concentration shattered as she saw the wreckage that they had been trapped underneath.

For a moment, she looked at the collapsed wing of the department store, and more tears dripped down her cheeks. However, what caused her to move again was the fact that their arrival on ground had halted the rescue mission. She approached the head fireman with a determination that stemmed from her anger at this ceasing.

"You have to keep digging, you have to find him!" She directed.

"Who?" The fireman asked.

"Reed, he's still down there."

The fireman's eyes wandered to the wreckage with a look of sympathy on his face when he returned his glance to Sue. "The building collapsed further...it'll be impossible to find him now." He explained.

Remembering words that Reed had spoken to her in effort to get her to leave, she mimicked the determination that he had used. "You need to make it possible." She repeated.

"Susie..." Johnny murmured, coming to her side as she spoke to the fireman. He tried to take hold of her arm, but she snatched it out of his grasp.

"No, we have to find him." She insisted.

"Sue, look at me-"

"He's still down there, Johnny." She reminded him, her voice pained with the mere thought of it. "He's down there, and he's alone..."

"This is how he wanted it." Johnny whispered, unheard by anyone apart from his sister.

Sue, however, was not comforted by his words. Instead, she dipped her head to the ground, hiding the further tears that threatened to overcome her, before looking at him with a fierce determination that was stronger than ever before. "Don't talk about him like he's dead."

"Sue-"

"He's not dead." She insisted, before backing away from him and walking to where she could make herself useful. "He's not dead." She repeated to herself.

---

An hour passed, and far from making herself useful, Sue found herself being more helpless than she had been before. Medics had poured over the three team members, asking questions to find out about any possible concussions, and, in the case of Ben, whether he'd even suffered a concussion since his transformation. However, other than Sue's graze and the bruise on Johnny's shoulder from a piece of rock whilst they were fighting through, there was no extreme damage.

After having her small wound covered with a piece of gauze, still stinging slightly after being cleaned, Sue wandered over to the edge of the building wreckage. Even from there, she couldn't see how low down the rescue workers were, which unnerved her. She didn't know what was happening down there, and no one wanted to give her false hope, so the other rescue workers had avoided talking to her. Because of her outburst, Johnny had gone down to assist with anything they'd let him do, which left Ben at her side, waiting...just waiting...

During this agonisingly long hour, Sue had time to reflect on the fact that Reed had told her that he loved her. He loved her. She didn't think she'd ever hear those words from him again, but he'd said it. He'd said it a few times, actually. And he'd kissed her. Of course, it hadn't been the passionate and gentle kiss that she remembered him being capable of, but when the world is collapsing around you, you couldn't really be fussy.

And now he might be gone. They might not find him under the rubble, and even if they did, he'd been trapped under there, maybe without air, for over an hour now. Worst case scenarios overtook her; suffocation...crushing...so many things could have happened to him down there, and he'd done it all alone. To save her.

All of this had been to get her out of there.

He'd stayed, and chosen for her to leave, because she was afraid. A stupid phobia had caused her to lose the man that she loved, before she could even tell him that. If he had gone, and she had stayed, she could have protected herself with a force field. It would have been hard to keep it up for so long, but she could have managed it to keep herself out of harms way long enough to find her. Poor Reed's body would have been crushed to the extreme by the rocks because of his malleable muscles.

All because she was scared.

The fear of being trapped underground seemed insignificant to the fear she felt now. She didn't think she'd ever felt so terrified by something as she did by the idea that Reed might be dead. He couldn't die. He couldn't. He was the one thing in the world that she'd loved more than anything, despite their rocky history. She couldn't let that be the end because he'd sacrificed himself just to save her from a little fear. She couldn't let his life end after he'd told her that he loved her.

Suddenly, Ben mumbled something, and Sue snapped out of her daze. "What?" She asked him.

"Reed." He repeated, looking in the direction of a commotion further down the street. "Reed!"

"What?" She repeated, this time in disbelief. She whipped around quickly, so quickly that a rush of dizziness returned to her, and it was a good thing that the shock that followed this grounded her motionless, otherwise she may have fallen over.

The sight before her zoned around as if she were watching it through a movie screen. The last time she had looked in that direction, she'd seen the ambulances waiting impatiently for them to arrive, so that they could be checked for injury. This time, however, when she turned, she saw a fireman approaching the medical stations. But he wasn't alone. With one arm slung over the fireman's shoulder for support, Reed limped along, battered and bruised, but very much alive.

Alive.

"Reed..." She whispered, her breathy sigh lost on the breeze, but not before Ben heard it. He smiled at her, putting a hand on her shoulder, nudging her in the direction of the man she loved.

"Sue?" Reed called out, fighting against the paramedics that swarmed over him. "Sue? Where's Sue?"

"She's over..." A firemen went to answer, but he was cut off by Sue's arrival.

Of course, her arrival wasn't exactly subtle, and despite the continuous run up she'd had for her arrival, Reed felt her before he saw her. She'd thrown herself against him, knocking him off balance to the point where he almost fell to the ground. However, the fireman and the paramedics stepped back, having already faced the wrath of the Invisible Woman once, and not willing to do so again. Within seconds of recovering from his misbalance, Reed's arms wrapped around Sue furiously, not needing to elongate his limbs to hold her as tightly as he needed to.

Crushed against each other, he found his lips directly by her ear. "Sue..." He whispered. She raised her head from his shoulder, where she was sure the force of her embrace had left a mark on his elasticised skin. Straight away he could see the tears on her face, both dry and fresh. "Oh, Susan..."

"Don't ever do that to me again, okay?" She scolded him, her voice angry, but her desperation in how her arms were still wrapped around him showing how not-angry she really was. "I've never been so scared in my entire life." She whispered, returning her head to his shoulder again.

"Really?" He asked, sounding a little shocked at this considering the frightened state he'd seen her in before.

She nodded against him, readjusting her grip so that she could hold him tighter. "I thought you were dead...because of me..."

He sighed, his lips unconsciously finding the side of her head, pressing a long, comforting kiss to her hairline. "I'm okay." He assured her. "A bit bruised, but okay." To tell the truth, his entire body was aching from the bruising he'd received, especially with the ferocity with which he was holding Sue, but it was thanks to her force field that he wasn't dead. It had shattered just after the rock had finished settling, so all his bruising came from the aftershock of the original landing.

"I was so scared." She repeated, again clutching him tighter. "More scared than...ever."

Reed pulled his head back a little, so that her eyes raised to meet his once again. His face showed a gentle frown. "More scared than being underground?" He enquired.

She nodded without hesitation. "Of course I was." She told him. "Knowing that you were still down there was worse than being down there myself."

He smiled lightly at her, his hand trailing down the soft blonde hair that still held remains from the dust that had settled there. "Don't worry." He assured her. "I'm okay."

Her anger returned and she shoved at him lightly, not paying attention when he winced as she hit a bruise. "Don't ever ask me to leave you behind again!" She told him.

"Hopefully, I'll never need to." He pointed out, removing one arm from his hold on her and rubbing sorely at the bruise.

"But even if we do..." She hinted, shaking her head as her tone dropped to a softer level once again. "Don't even bother to ask me."

"Sue..." He started, but she cut him off.

"No, we're a team, Reed." She told him. "You and me," He didn't point out that the team involved Johnny and Ben as well, because he knew that it was a different sort of team that Sue was mentioning. "If we have to go out, we'll go out together."

"Why?" He asked gently after a moment. Why would she put her life on the line for him?

"Because that's how it's meant to be." She told him confidently, her relief at him being back combined with her fear betraying her smile. "Us...together."

Reed smiled at the idea of them being together once more. "Be that as it may, I won't watch you get hurt at my side." Of course, that had been why he had made her leave his side in the first place.

She didn't argue with him, but he knew that she would do when the time came, God forbid it ever happened again. However, he knew that if the choice came between his own life, and Sue's, he'd choose hers without even needing to think. Even when they'd been apart, he found he didn't know how to exist in a world where Sue didn't, and the idea of that pain continuing until his dying day because it had been her life sacrificed would make him die along side her; only he would be forced to life a hollow, meaningless life without her. However, his plan was flawed when he realised that she was thinking the same thing, only reversed. That's why she didn't argue his point. She didn't have to, not when it was written in her eyes so clearly.

Her only response was to wind her arms around his neck, and kiss him gently before holding him tightly again. "Reed, I love you, okay?" She whispered to him. His returning kiss was enough to prove to her that her love was returned, and when the paramedics started to urge her away from him so that he could be checked over, she let him go, knowing that this time, there was no danger of losing him.

The fear she'd felt seeing Reed for what she thought would be the last time, watching him disappear from view, unable to determine whether he was alive or dead, was catastrophic in comparison to the fear she felt when she was underground. Everything was multiplied by a thousand; the trembles, the heartbeat, the nausea...it was too much. She didn't realise until Johnny pointed it out to her later that night, that she had been willingly volunteering to stay underground with Reed if it meant that he didn't die.

It just went to prove that conquering fears really could be done, as she had the right incentive.

Okay, I'm sorry for nearly killing Reed
I'm sorry that a lot you thought I'd actually killed him.
Lesson learned: Reed ALWAYS saves the day in my fics.