Marshmallow Wishes

Johnny woke up with a start, a bad feeling at the back of his throat, and a shine of terror flashed across him, just for a second.

Someone was in his room. He could feel it.

Or maybe somebody had touched him. Either way, there was definitely someone there. His eyes snapped open when he was already half-upright. It was still dark in his room, so he had no idea what time it was. All he knew was that it was late, and his heart raced for the bedside lamp so that he could shed light into the dark bedroom. When the light came on, he jumped all over again, there was someone in his room.

Two someone's, in fact.

Franklin and Valeria.

They stood about two feet away from his bed, near the now-open door. It didn't look like they had been out of bed for long, he realised just from looking at them. Four-year-old Valeria was wearing an old-fashioned style nightdress, white and frilly, one that he remembered his aunt sending down for her great-niece last Christmas, and her hair was a sleep-tousled mass of gold over her shoulders. Seven-year-old Franklin stood beside her, holding onto his younger sisters hand inside of the blue Human Torch pyjamas which he wore as a shrine to his uncle, but they were old now, stopping a few inches short of his wrists and ankles. His blonde hair stood on end, and his eyes were still puffed up with sleep.

It had been twice in three days that the two of them had managed to break into his flat, and both times they'd scared the Hell out of him. Mind you, they didn't have far to go. They lived in the main part of the Fantastic Four home, right above him. All they needed to do was go down one flight of stairs in the lobby area of their parents part of the home, and they were at his front door.

Johnny remained silent for a moment, meeting the eyes of the two before him. Something was wrong, he could sense it. Last night, they'd come down into his bedroom, Valeria panicked and crying as she held on to her brother, quickly mumbling about how their mother was getting sick and that they didn't like it because she was crying. Johnny could sympathise with their hating it. Sue had been strangely ill for a few weeks now. A mystery illness which Reed could neither identify nor cure, much to all of their stress. However, last night when they'd come into his room, Reed had come down moments after he had awoke, checking with Johnny whether it was okay for the two to sleep down with him for the night.

A minute passed. No Reed.

Another minute passed. Still no Reed.

So, he focused on the children. Franklin was facing him, but his eyes weren't seeing him. It was as though he was staring through him. Valeria had stuck her thumb inside of her mouth now. He'd not seen her do that since she had turned three and decided it was too babyish to do. Her other hand was gripping her brother's tightly, and her bright blue eyes were glazed over, staring fixedly at a point by the end of Johnny's bed. And her cheeks were marked by shiny tracks of tears.

Oh.

In that instant, he knew that he should have thrown back the covers. He knew that he should have been upstairs. Something was happening upstairs, he knew it. Upstairs, where his sister and her husband lived, something bad was happening. But he didn't. As long as he stayed there, chaos didn't take over. As long as he stayed there, it wasn't a reality, whatever it was.

"What's the matter?" He asked them both, his voice thick with sleep beside being very much awake for several silent minutes now.

Valeria subbed at her eye with the palm of her hand. Franklin looked so pale that Johnny first thought he might be ill. Johnny's heart began to race, speeding in his chest, faster than it had been when he had awoken a few minutes ago.

Please say bad dream, please say bad dream.

"You have to come upstairs." Franklin told him, his voice so weary that it sounded as though it were about to collapse underneath him.

"Why?" He asked.

His persistent eyes, inherited from his mother undoubtedly, stared straight at Johnny. However, it was Valeria that spoke first. "Daddy's crying." She explained simply.

Johnny frowned. Reed got frustrated most of the time these days, but he didn't think he'd ever seen his brother-in-law actually cry, not at any time in their lives. "Why is he crying?" He asked, now afraid of the answer.

Valeria turned against her brother, wiping her eyes on his shoulder as more tears came. Franklin looked at Johnny again. "Mom won't wake up."

Will she be blue?

Lying on the couch? On the floor? In her bed?

Was it the sickness?

Did someone get into their headquarters and hurt her?

How long has she been gone?

Will she be cold?

Thoughts circled through Johnny's head as he made his way up the stairs. He'd seen dead bodies before - they all had in their current line of work - but he didn't think he could deal with one of them being that of his sister.

With gentle questioning, Johnny had managed to get an explanation from Franklin about what happened whilst Valeria crawled into his lap in bed and sniffled every few seconds. Sue had put them to bed that night, as she always did, and kissed them goodnight and tucked them in, telling them that she loved them. Reed had gone in moments later, to do the same. Hours later, they had been woken up by a horrible gasping sound, and strangled cries belonging to Reed. Franklin had crawled out of bed, whilst Valeria kept asking what was happening, calling out for Mommy to come and see her. But Mommy never came. Mommy never came, because Mommy was lying, somewhat asleep, in Daddy's arms.

It was a scene that they had seen so many times before, their mother sleeping in their fathers arms on the couch, but what made it different this time was that Daddy was crying.

Daddy didn't cry.

Ever.

So, scared, and with Reed unable to focus on anything other than repeating Sue's name over and over again, the children had gone down to see Uncle Johnny. Uncle Johnny would know what to do.

Once he'd hear their story, Johnny felt fear running through him like an ice cube slipping down into his stomach. Was his sister really dead?

He took the children into his living-room area, flipping on the television and telling them to wait for him there, but neither of them had wanted to leave him, especially not when he tried to put Valeria down on the couch and she had whimpered, clasping tighter to his neck. Surrendering, and understanding why they didn't want to be on their own, he told them he was taking them to Uncle Ben and Auntie Alicia's.

But they didn't want them.

They wanted Mommy and Daddy.

So now, he was walking up the stairs, slower than he had ever done in his life. Usually, he took these stairs, two, even three, at a time, but now, he was taking each step as slowly as he could. Franklin was holding on to the back of his t-shirt, for no other reason other than to stay close to him. Valeria had every limb flung around him as she hid her face in his neck.

Once he'd seen the body - his sister's dead body - that would be it. There would be no going back to the person he was before. That moment would be one of the indelible marks on his soul, first marked by the loss of his mother, and now of his sister. Another wound that wouldn't quite heal. He could remember all too well the effects it might have on the two children refusing to leave his side.

At the top of the stairs, the separating door had been left open, no doubt from when the children had made their way downstairs to him. Taking a deep breath, he waited until Franklin was standing beside him, and he closed the door behind them. The main compartment of the Fantastic Four headquarters was dedicated to their homes, and the part belonging to the Richards' family was silent. Eerily so. With one arm holding his niece against him, and the other guiding his nephew along beside them, Johnny took slow steps into the apartment.

He stopped just before he came to the living room door. This door had been shut, clearly to shut away the sounds of Reed's tears. He couldn't go thought the door. He physically couldn't move to open it. He shouldn't have to do this. He shouldn't have to go through that door and see his sisters body, still and lifeless. He shouldn't have to see his brother-in-law sobbing over her motionless body.

Franklin looked up at him, and whilst Johnny didn't return the gaze, he could feel his sister's blue eyes upon him in the form of her son. He didn't want to go in there and see his sister's body, but the two children had already done it. They'd had no choice in the matter because it had been right there before them. They'd already done it, and they were seven and four years old.

If they can do it, so can you.

He saw the soles of her feet, first. On the couch furthest from the door, before the plasma screen TV where he'd often walked in on them discussing private matters, one slightly crossed over the other, the left foot on top. His heart froze as he looked at them, now hearing the muffled sobs of Reed from that same direction. Johnny opened his mouth, starting breathe heavily as he attempted to calm himself down, and at the same time, not start hyperventilating. He'd not done that since he was Franklin's age.

And then, when his eyes travelled up, it happened.

He lost it.

He lost all feeling in his body, as his mind left him. He went to the place where he had gone when his mother had died, that little corner where he was always safe. Always calm. Always protected. Protected from every nasty thing in the world. There, in that place, he couldn't see his sister's head pressed against her husbands chest, whilst he held her tightly against him, sobbing into her hair. He couldn't see the gently parted lips, or the closed eyes that would never open again. He couldn't see the limp hands in her lap, not affected by the furious hold that Reed had on her upper body. He couldn't see her face, even paler than it had been during her sickest moments.

The numb feeling that he'd seen on his nephew's face swept over him, disturbed only by the sudden pressure on his side. Looking down, he saw that Franklin had turned, burying his face into Johnny's t-shirt, as far away from the scene as he could get. Over the sound of Reed's crying, Johnny could make out a gently choked sob from the young boy at his side. Johnny knelt down, Valeria still in his arms, and embraced Franklin with one arm, holding both of them as tightly as Reed was holding Sue's body. Pressing his face against Valeria's golden hair, he allowed the horrific thought to take hold of his mind, and start running him on autopilot.

His sister was dead.

Days later, the final three members of the Fantastic Four stood mourning the loss of their female companion; their friend, their sister, their wife. Unable to bear the image of his lifeless sister and the man he loved holding on to her, Johnny had taken the children into their bedroom, the three of the sitting curled up on Valeria's bed together until they had cried themselves back to sleep. Only then, after they wouldn't see his tears, did Johnny let his own loose. They'd already been scared enough by their father's, they didn't need to see his as well. Not fearless Uncle Johnny. He didn't cry either. Uncle Ben cried at weddings, but Uncle Johnny and Daddy never cried at anything.

Sometime during the worst morning of all their lives, the coroners had left the Baxter Building with Sue's body, taking it to the morgue until funeral details could be made. Everyone had been at a loss. None of the group had been to a funeral since they were a child, so they had no idea what it would take to prepare a funeral. After they had left, taking Sue with them, a light seemed to have disappeared from the Baxter Building. She was really gone. Reed had collapsed back onto the couch, starting into space until his daughter had crawled into his lap, asking where Mommy was gone. Franklin didn't need to be told, he just sat silently beside his father, whilst his younger sister cried out at the thought that Mommy really wasn't going to come home again.

Now, a few days later, Johnny entered the kitchen. He felt sick to his stomach, and the idea of food was absurd, but he needed to do something. It was almost nine am, and the kids hadn't eaten yet. Normally, they were used to eating at around seven in the morning when Sue and Reed woke them up for school and kindergarten. For the past few days, they had been thrown out of routine. Johnny remembered being thrown out of routine, and how that had made him feel worse.

As he expected, the children were sitting in the kitchen, in silence at the wooden breakfast table that now stood there. Valeria was at the head of the table, and was making her toy bear jump around on the placemat - occasionally Billy, as she had named him last year, would jump high in the air, and then do a kamikaze dive into her empty cereal bowl in front of him, only to leave again moments later, completely unscathed. Franklin, who sat to his sisters right, had his elbow on the table, going against all the table manners he had been taught, and was resting his face on his hand, staring down into the bowl as though nothing else mattered but the bottom of his ceramic, yet empty, cereal holder.

But it was the dress that showed him just how much he was trying to ignore reality. He was wearing a navy t-shirt and jeans, which had been all the clean clothing he could find that morning in his disrupted bedroom, but the two children before him were dressed neatly. Valeria, bless her heart, in her best dress, and Franklin in black pants with a black shirt. Johnny knew that these were the only black clothing that the children owned, as Valeria was almost always wearing pink, and Franklin the same with blue and red. However, there they were, sat in their best clothes, dressed ready for their mothers funeral that morning. It was clear that Reed had been the one to try and make something nice out of Valeria's hair. It had been brushed well, but the side pigtails she had were slightly off-centre, and definately crooked. Franklin's longer hair hadn't even been combed through, so it was sticking up in all directions.

Johnny hesitated before he stepped into the doorway. The children, who had been alone for he could only guess how long, in the kitchen, both looked up at him. Valeria was still covered in dried tears from her usual morning cry, when she realised that Mommy still wasn't back, but she gave Johnny a weak smile, always pleased to see her uncle. Franklin looked from him to Valeria, and, seeing her smile, scrunched his mouth together, and looked back into the bowl.

"Hi." Johnny said cautiously, not moving from the doorway. He was scared to be around them. His sister had died days before, and he was scared to be around the two children who mirrored her exactly in both appearance and behaviour. Franklin's features, however, didn't look like his mothers like they usually did. No, his blue eyes held the same haunted, emotionless look as his father's did at that moment. In absence of his mother, he had taken on the same appearance as his father, without even realising it.

"Are you going to have breakfast with us today, Uncle Johnny?" Valeria asked in her tiny, sweet voice.

For the past few days, he'd been shut away downstairs in his own living area, unintentionally glazing over the childhood photos that were stuck to the fridge. The worse one to look at was taken only a month ago; the whole group down at the seaside when they had been visiting their father. Reed and Sue were sat beside each other, with Franklin squeezed in between thier legs and Valeria clinging to her mother's lap. Beside them, Ben and Alicia were embracing, and Johnny had squeezed his head in between the two groups. It had been taken with the time setting on Johnny's camera, because you could see a slight blur around his head where he was still getting into position. However, now, on the day of Sue's funeral, he knew that he couldn't avoid everyone forever. He couldn't avoid them just because he missed his sister.

He nodded. "Yeah. Is that okay with you?"

Valeria nodded back. "You have to get a bowl."

Johnny easily found the ceramic bowls in the same cupboard they had been in since before they had all moved in together. He pulled out a matching, white one to the children's, and made his way into the seat opposite Franklin, on Valeria's left side.

He observed the children, finding himself haunted by images of his own childhood. Franklin's spirit had gone. There was none of his happy self radiating from him. Normally, by now, he would be buzzing on about his soccer game that afternoon, that he clearly wouldn't be making now, and he would still be talking about what had happened at school during the week. Valeria was still shadowing her normal self, at least. Her antics with Billy the Bear and his invisible trapeze act showed that she still wanted to play, but she didn't smile fully. She was only four-years-old, of course, and she didn't really understand the full situation of Sue's tragic death, but she still understood that 'never coming home' meant that she wouldn't see her mother for a long time.

Johnny had to do something. Anything. They needed to have their minds taken off the pain long enough to eat breakfast and start their day. His eyes scanned the room, coming across photo after photo of family outings, the four Richards in happy poses, smiling and laughing like they never would as a family again. He had to think. What had helped him when his mother died?

Sue. Sue had helped him.

What had she done?

Marshmallows.

"You know what I like to eat for breakfast sometimes?" Johnny asked them, heading over to the cupboard that he knew held the treats he was looking for. The children said nothing, but watched him all the same. "I like marshmallows."

"Marshmallows are for the barbeque though." Valeria spoke up in her tiny voice again.

"Yeah, that's right." Johnny told her, bringing the bag back over to the table. "But sometimes, I eat them for breakfast. But don't go telling anyone that because it's my special secret. I've only ever told you two this."

Valeria cocked her head to one side, curious as to what he was about to show them with the marshmallows, and Franklin's arm slipped of the table, his head rising up to watch him. Johnny, on the other hand, thought drastically until he could remember what, exactly, Sue had done to help him.

"How do you make them marshmallows special?" Valeria asked.

"Well, you have to start with your bag of wishes." Johnny told them.

"I don't got one of them." Valeria said, looking sad.

"Yes, you do." Johnny told her. "Everyone has. It's always right beside you. It's just invisible."

"Like Mommy?" Valeria asked.

A small silence set in. For a moment, Johnny feared that she had taken Reed to a different understanding. Maybe the reason she could still smile wasn't because she was so young and innocent, but because she had simply understood that by not seeing her mother for a long time, that Sue had simply become invisible forever. However, Johnny worked through this, and nodded.

"Yeah, like Mommy." He told her, reaching into an imaginary space beside him and pinching his fingers together. "Now, you open the bag of wishes, and you put your fingers in like this. Then you pick up what's inside it, and you sprinkle it into your bowl." He waited until the two children had mimicked his actions before continuing. Valeria, as he had hoped, looked rather excited about the idea of a new game. "Now, the first ingredient is always love." He told them, repeating the action of picking up wishes again. "The second one is happiness, because that makes you smile, and the next one is sunshine to make you all warm inside." He took another pinch of air, and held it up to his face. "Do you know what this one is?" He asked them, and then he waited.

He waited, because he had to. He had their attention now, and they weren't thinking about their dead mother, or their sad father. He needed to keep things like that for as long as possible. Sue would want to know that her children were still smiling, even in her absence. So, he waited. Time ticked past, and even though it was only seconds, he was started to feel stupid. But he remembered making Sue wait for her answers. He had stared at her as if she were insane at first, and he had been seven-years-old, the same as Franklin was now.

"Magic." A small voice said.

Johnny smiled at Franklin, pleased that he'd spoken. He'd not said a word since he had explained to Johnny about how they had woken up. "You're right, Frankie." Johnny said, giving him the best grin that he could. He sprinkled it into the bowl and then took another pinch, showing it to Valeria. "And what's this one, Vallie?"

"Fun." She said, her smile widening.

"That's right!" Johnny told her, his voice full of the same encouragement he'd given the two for their entire lives. "Okay, now we've put the wishes in, we can add the marshmallows." He opened the pack in his hand, and poured the large white treats into the three bowls. He felt like he needed a marshmallow breakfast as well. "Now, we need to add another wish. But this one is the most extra, extra special." He told them.

"What do we wish for?" Valeria asked.

"Anything you want, Vallie." Johnny told her. "Absolutely anything."

Valeria moved first. She put down Billy the Bear, and looked down at her bag of wishes. Of course, there was nothing really there, but the imagination of a four-year-old who believed in fairies was limitless. She dipped her hand into the air, and began sprinkling her wishes on the marshmallows in the bowl ."I'm wishing for Daddy to smile again." She said.

Franklin watched his sister, and then followed the same motion. He didn't speak his wish aloud, but once they were all sitting before a wish-filled breakfast, they began eating. Johnny, however, stayed staring at his bowl.

He hadn't made his wish yet.

While the two children started eating their marshmallows, Valeria picking out the pink ones first because it was her favourite colour, Johnny made his wish. He closed his eyes, choosing not to take a pinch of air, but instead make a wish the same way he had done on the morning that his mother's funeral had taken place, on the morning when his sister had taught him how to do a marshmallow breakfast. He'd started to believe it when he was seven years old, and he believed it now, twenty-two years later.

He didn't make one wish, he made several, even though that was technically breaking wishing rules. He wished that his sister knew that he didn't mean all the things he said when they were younger. He wished that she knew he loved her really, and that he would miss her so much more than anything he'd ever lose. He wished that Reed would manage to get past her death, enough to show his children that they can still be a family without Sue being there. He wished that Franklin and Valeria would continue to smile, despite their loss. He wished that whatever happened next, everyone would be happy...Reed, the children, and Sue as well. He wished that she'd be able to see her children growing up. He wished that they would be okay. He wished that more than anything.

"Daddy!" Valeria said rather brightly, causing Johnny to open his eyes.

Sure enough, Reed had entered the kitchen. He was still wearing the shirt that he had been wearing the previous day, and no doubt the same pants as well. Clearly, he'd been awake all night again. Dark circles lined the underneath of his eyes. Johnny knew that he'd been up all night, looking through photograph albums. He'd walked past one day and seen them spread out on the bed that Reed was clearly not sleeping in anymore. Reed looked at his children, eating marshmallows out of Sue's best china, and appeared almost ashamed for a moment.

"Breakfast." He murmured to himself. "I forgot breakfast."

"Daddy, we're having breakfast." Valeria told him. "Uncle Johnny showed us Mommy's special super secret marshmallow breakfast."

Johnny frowned. "Hey, what makes you think it's not my special super secret breakfast?" He asked her, trying to sound offended.

Valeria looked at him as if he were stupid. "Uncle Johnny, you had the remember look all the time."

The remember look. Of course, he must have looked like he was trying to remember what Sue had told him at times. Valeria was too observed for her own good, he sometimes found. Reed came up behind his daughter's chair, crouching down beside her as she leaned down to give him a sticky marshmallow kiss. "Are you okay?" Reed asked the children.

Franklin leaned his head against Reed's shoulder, and Valeria nodded. "I love you, Daddy." Valeria told him. Reed gave her a small smile, and kissed her again.

"I love you, too, angel." He replied.

Valeria looked rather pleased for a moment. "I wished for you to smile again." She told him proudly. Reed looked at her, rather confused as she turned back to her breakfast.

Franklin, however, looked rather sad. "I love Mom, too." He said quietly.

Reed looked at his son, whilst Johnny could only watch on. This was their family moment. This was their time. So he ate his marshmallows, and listened, remembering familiar words from his own father. "We all love your mother." Reed assured him. "I love her, you love her, Valeria loves her. Uncle Johnny loves her, and Uncle Ben and Auntie Alicia, and Grandpa Frank...we all love your Mom. Just because she's not here, it doesn't mean that we stop loving her. It doesn't mean that she stops loving us either, okay?" Franklin nodded, and Reed kissed his forehead.

Johnny stood up, hearing his father's name and realising that Franklin Storm was on his way to the funerary home at that moment. Coming from the coast meant that he would already be travelling, and, no doubt, getting lost. "I uh...I've gotta call Dad. Make sure that he knows where he's going." He announced, seeing Reed look up.

Johnny made to leave the room, but he heard the scraping of a chair against the floor, and turned. Franklin came padding over to him, his white socks clearly standing out against the rest of his dark attire, he tugged on his sleeve, and Johnny leaned down.

"Uncle Johnny, I didn't tell you what I wished for." He said in a loud whisper, having made sure that his father and sister weren't listening.

"Frankie, kid, you don't have to tell me." Johnny explained.

"I wished that we'll all be okay." Franklin explained. "I wished that we'll be okay without Mom."

Johnny smiled softly. "I wished for the same thing." He admitted.

"I was gonna wish for Mom to come back, but I don't think she'd want to." Franklin revealed. "I think she's in a really nice place, because Mom's a good person, and she wouldn't have gone to a bad place, would she?"

Johnny shook his head. "No, she wouldn't."

"That's what I thought." Franklin repeated. "So I wished that we'll be okay without her, because if Mom's happy, then we can be too. And we will be okay, won't we? Me, and Vallie, and Dad, and you, and Uncle Ben, and Auntie Alicia...we will be okay again, right?"

He looked over Franklin's shoulder, realising that yes, he was right. Reed would be okay, because he had the children to give him a reason to carry on with the everyday life he'd built with Sue. The kids would be just fine, because they still had Reed, and the rest of their family, to help them through this tough time. Ben and Alicia would be okay, because they had each other. And Johnny knew that he would be okay as well. He might not have a partner to aid him through, but he had Valeria and Franklin, his niece and nephew, to remind him of his siter. He knew that he'd be able to watch them, and see the spirit of his sister living on in the children she loved. He'd be okay, because he'd never really lose her while they all had memories to cling to. However, he knew that the main reason he'd be okay, was because when they were very young, Sue had taught him how to be okay.

Johnny ruffled his nephew's blonde hair, and gave him a confident smile. "Yeah, kid. We will be."