Disclaimer: Nope, don't own.
A/N- This is a prequel to Hands Held High in Surrender and it's sequel No Longer Running. This is part one of two and is JohnnyBen slash. So, this is a marvel xover and there are other pairings too, I've had the idea for this story floating around my head for awhile and I finally finished part one! Yay! Enjoy!
Johnny first gets wind of it as he's slouched down into the couch cushions as far as he can go. They've just gotten back from Iceland of all places and he'd used up a lot of his flame so he's quite content just to lounge there.
He's flipping through the channels, unable to settle on anything, tired but restless, when Ben collapses onto the couch next to him.
It's enough to pause his finger on the button as he turns to face his rocky friend, taking in the deep lines that surround tired blue eyes.
He's spent most of his life just seeing what was on the outside and in return being seen same way. With Ben he had had to look past the rocky exterior and once he had, he'd been trapped.
The only problem is, is that Ben doesn't see him the same way and Johnny isn't sure how to get Ben to really look at him. So he settles for teasing and taunting and riling Ben up just to get close to the other man.
The rest of the time, he settles for watching.
The eleven o'clock news is playing in the background, detailing a bank robbery downtown and Johnny is taking this opportunity to 'Ben watch'. He takes in the relaxed posture, on the edge of sleep. Ben's eyes are closed; chest rising and falling gently and Johnny can almost believe that the other man needs his company as much as Johnny needs his.
"Wat'cha staring at Matchstick?" Not asleep then.
"You." Johnny answers promptly.
Ben makes a noise and opens one eye lazily to peer at him.
"I'm not in the mood for any of your wise cracks, kid." Ben sounds like every syllable is a challenge to get out. It's one of those nights where all they want to do is climb into bed and never come out again, but something keeps them from doing so. Sue and Reed have no problem, but he and Ben always seem to end up with this insomnia.
"Wasn't going to." Johnny replies, staring levelly back.
He holds the gaze too long and Ben's eyes flit away. Johnny slumps back into the seat and turns his attention back to the news, tossing the remote to the side.
"-there was no sign of Spiderman at the scene or at the fire earlier this week. His whereabouts are currently under speculation but a concerned fan of the hero had this to say…"
"Wonder where Pete got to." Johnny mumbles to himself, quietly enough so that Ben doesn't have to reply if he doesn't want to. A quiet snore is his response. Ben has drifted off on the couch. Johnny can feel the restlessness begin to seep away and decides it's time to head to bed.
He drapes a blanket over the other man, turns off the tv and over head light and gets ready for bed. And as he's drifting off, finally, he takes a moment to wonder where Peter could have gone.
Maybe he'll call MJ in the morning.
DI
Two days later Johnny is out in the streets, throwing fire balls at a wave of Doom bots with the newest Avengers team. He goes left and Iron Man goes right and together they manage to take out a few of the robots.
At least there are less of them chanting 'Doom'.
He spots Captain America by the glint off his shield as he covers Spiderwoman's back and Luke Cage a few feet away doing some serious damage with Ben.
But still no Spiderman. Or Wolverine for that matter.
A Doom bot gets in a lucky hit and knocks out his flame and he falls, dazed. He lands on something hard, but not as hard as the ground.
"I got'cha." Ben curls forwards and shields them both from the next blast and Johnny holds on, hands splayed on Ben's chest. He can't feel Ben's heartbeat, but he knows it's there. Call it a sign of faith.
By the time they straighten up there aren't any Doom bots left standing and Johnny is reluctant to let go.
"You okay kid?" Ben peers down at him; worried frown in place and Johnny can't help but think that Ben frowns too much. "Matchstick?" Ben pokes him lightly when he takes too long to reply.
"I'm fine." Johnny smiles reassuringly and steadies himself before reluctantly pulling away.
Ben doesn't appear convinced and keeps a hand on his shoulder just in case he's planning on falling flat on his face anytime soon. Iron Man lands in front of them gracefully.
"Sorry I couldn't catch you, another Doom bot managed to sneak up on me." The voice coming from the Iron Man helmet is devoid of emotion but the hero shifts his stance and Johnny can tell he feels guilty even though no one was hurt.
"No problem." Johnny brushes it off. "Ben swept me off my feet." He smiles flirtatiously at Ben but Ben isn't paying attention.
"Right." He's almost certain he can hear the amusement in Iron Man's voice.
"So," Johnny turns his gaze from Ben. "Where's the rest of your team? Wolverine? Spiderman?"
Iron Man tenses before his eyes, the easy going nature gone for a moment before coming back as though it never left.
"Wolverine is at Xavier's school dealing with an emergency with one of their teachers." He hesitates slightly before saying the next part. "And Spiderman's…missing."
"What?" He'd completely forgotten to call MJ but he'd just thought Pete was on vacation or something. Not missing. "Why aren't you looking for him?"
Johnny only has a handful of people he can truly call friends and Pete is one of them.
"I'm currently running about twenty different scans right now." Iron Man sounds annoyed and Ben appears to be listening into the conversation. "We're doing everything we can- and believe me, that's a lot- and we're still looking."
Johnny nods, runs a hand over his face and tries to breathe. Iron Man is on it- the Avengers are on it. They'll find Peter and everything will be fine.
Ben's hand slides down from his shoulder and to the small of his back and Johnny allows himself to be steered towards the Fantasticar. He's not really in any shape to fly at the moment anyways.
DI
Turns out Wolverine was at Xavier's school because people were having trouble tracking down Cyclops and one of the students, Kitty Pryde.
Wolverine drops by personally to tell them this, or at least to tell Reed (while Johnny is tinkering with something he probably shouldn't be tinkering with). Johnny's first thought is that the pair have run off together and have eloped or something to Las Vegas. Or Canada.
The Avenger stares at him like he's an idiot for a moment then turns back to Reed and mentions something about Tony Stark and a theory he's supposed to pass on since the other Avengers are currently in space.
There's some talk about how the worlds most powerful telepaths cannot find the pair and Johnny tries to figure out how to get solitaire on Reeds computer.
It's not that he doesn't care- it's that the words are getting longer and sounding more like a foreign language and they'll holler if they need him.
Wolverine leaves and Ben and Sue walk in and Johnny tries to act like he's been paying attention the entire time.
"Cyclops and one of the students eloped." Johnny fills them in helpfully.
Sue pulls a face like she's trying very hard not to hit him and Ben rolls his eyes.
"What?" Johnny defends before turning flirtatious eyes towards Ben. "I hear it's all the rage."
This time Sue clamps a hand over her mouth to muffle her laughter and Ben just awkwardly heads over to where Reed is playing with a microscope. Or something.
"I think you're getting through." Sue says in an attempt to cheer him up. Johnny casts a glance across the room and catches Ben studiously not watching him. "He's just in one of his 'I'm a monster' moods."
Johnny hopes it's that easy because he can break Ben out of those moods. He's not convinced by Sue's reassuring smile. It's just that- he's liked people before, mostly girls, mostly supermodels and Ben is definitely neither of those. He's different. He's more than all the others. Johnny doesn't want to screw up.
"Now come on," Sue grabs his hand and begins to pull him over to the other half of their team. "Let's go see if Reed needs some help. Maybe he'll let you melt something."
Johnny feels better already.
DI
It's two in the morning and Johnny can't sleep.
He pads barefoot down the hall in nothing but his boxers, completely comfortable with how he looks but also confident that no one else will be awake at this hour.
The hall is dark, lit by the few emergency lights Sue made Reed put in after the Christmas fiasco. They cast shadows and make him see things that aren't really there. He's always been jumpy early in the morning but for a second he could swear that one of the shadows really was staring back at him.
He speeds up his pace and enters the kitchen in a rush, nearly missing the person seated at the kitchen table. Which is ridiculous, considering his size.
"Couldn't sleep?" Ben asks quietly, his gravelly voice filling the silence and calming Johnny's nerves. Ben's there- every things good now.
"No." Johnny opens the fridge, bathing the room in a soft light and grabs a bottle of water. He twists the cap off, takes a long drink and lets the door swing softly shut. The shadows are still looming around him, even with Ben's presence so he reaches out and flicks on the light over the stove. It's just enough to drive the darkest shadows away.
Ben studies him for a moment, taking in the bags under his eyes. Johnny feels naked under the gaze, feels exposed.
"Nightmares?" His sister doesn't know about the nightmares- Reed doesn't pay enough attention to the outside world to even notice that Johnny had switched out his usual uniform with an orange one the previous week. Sue had made him change it back.
Johnny nods, taking another swig from the bottle. It's half empty and his mouth still feels dry.
"What was it this time?" Normally he has nightmares of his friends and family leaving, either of their own will or against it, or of their more nasty villains. The past few nights though he's been dreaming about Peter and Cyclops, who he'd only met a handful of times, and a faceless girl that he knows is Kitty Pryde (he does listen sometimes). They're calling out to him, begging for help and he tries, he really does try to help- he flames on and it burns so bright and suddenly his flame is being ripped away until there is only cold and pain.
"The missing people." Johnny admits and it sounds so loud in the silent room. He waits- expecting some smart retort from Ben, something that brushes off how much Johnny is bearing to him right now. A quick word, hand clapped on his back and off to bed and everything will be back to normal tomorrow.
"Kid," Ben sighs and the chair creaks as he stands. Ben may be made of rock now, but he's no bigger than when he was just plain old Ben Grimm and not the Thing. Johnny still has to tilt his head up to look Ben in the eye as he comes close though. Ben's always been taller than him.
"You gotta stop doing this to yourself." If Ben means caring, well- he can't just turn it off. He's tried, and it always comes back worse than before.
"They keep asking me for help." He admits.
In the daytime with the sun and the warmth he can keep these thoughts at bay. He can sit still and wait for the moment that they need him; that he can help. He can sit by and let the genius' do the number crunching so long as they call him the second he can do something. It's harder at night when the sun is gone and the cold creeps in on him and his thoughts turn darker.
Ben wraps large hands around him and pulls him in close and Johnny seeks refuge in the stone body surrounding him. He feels cocooned in Ben's arms and nothing can touch him while he's there.
"Let's get you back to bed." Ben says gruffly, but makes no move to pull away and Johnny is hard pressed to think of any other time he has felt this way. Everything with Ben is different.
"Your bed?" Johnny shoots back hopefully.
Ben grunts and it could be laughter or annoyance but Johnny doesn't get a chance to ask as the doorbell sounds, loud and overbearing in the previous silence.
They separate and turn, hurrying side by side down the hall to the elevator, because no one called at two in the morning without a really good reason.
DI
Luke Cage paces around the living room. Four steps from the television to the doorway and four steps back. Jessica Jones ignores his pacing, sitting at the edge of the couch, worrying her lower lip between her teeth and very much pregnant.
Johnny has a pair of old sweats on and a t-shirt he'd borrowed from Bobby Drake last year and had never got around to giving back. He'd figured that wandering around in a pair of boxers in front of guests wasn't a great idea.
Sue is the only one in the group that doesn't look like she's just rolled out of bed; he's always envied her ability to look presentable no matter what, even covered in goop.
Reed stretches out a hand, laying it carefully on Cage's arm to catch his attention, but not to startle him and gently leads him over to the couch next to Jessica.
"Start from the beginning." Sue coaxes.
"He had just gotten back from Tokyo and was in town for the week." Cage grits out, teeth clenched, looking like he would rather be out there busting heads for information rather than in the living room of the Fantastic Four.
Jessica reaches out, twining their fingers together and Cage relaxes slightly.
"So we offered up our place. It's not the Ritz or anything but Danny liked staying with us." He runs an agitated hand over his face, eyes squeezed tight like he's reliving the scene. "We were in the same room! The same goddamn room!"
Jessica cuts in quickly, voice level and not doing a good job of hiding the same anger and helplessness that Cage is displaying.
"We were watching a movie and we must've dosed off," She looks confused for a moment, like she can't explain why they fell asleep. "And when we woke up, Danny was gone."
"You're sure he didn't just go out?" Johnny asks, resisting the urge to rub the sleep from his eyes.
"Positive." Cage levels him with a look and next to him Ben bristles. "We waited two hours. His phone was still there, wallet, watch, everything. Danny doesn't just leave without telling you."
Johnny doesn't really know Danny Rand, has only really met him once in passing, but he nods and takes Cage at his word.
"I'd like to run some tests on you." Reed says, head buried in some sort of portable computer he had whipped up a few days ago.
Johnny waits until they all file out of the room, leaving only him and Ben and then slumps back against the couch.
"This doesn't make any sense." He says finally as the silence is beginning to sink in on them again. "How can this many people go missing and no one can find them?"
"We'll find them." Ben is quick to reassure. Johnny tries to take solace in this.
"How? There isn't any trace of them. They just disappear."
Ben doesn't answer because he doesn't understand any better than Johnny how four people can disappear without a trace. Reed Richards, Tony Stark and Hank Pym are all working on this and getting no where. He may not understand the words but he understands the look of defeat that sometimes creeps into their eyes.
"They just need some time matchstick." Ben says, reading his mind.
Johnny has to believe in them, in Ben, or this will all end badly.
DI
Johnny spends the next morning watching detective movies and comes to a conclusion; all of the missing people must have something in common.
There's a chance that all of this is just random, but Johnny is working under the assumption that there is something that connects them all that no one is seeing right now.
Aside from their powers, of course.
"We're missing something." He tells Ben, completely serious.
Ben glances from the DVD cases to the empty energy drinks and then back to Johnny.
"Right."
"We are!" Johnny insists. This is his big chance to help, to stop waiting in the sidelines. He's read the books, watched the movies and flipped through the comics- he knows this detective stuff now.
Ben sighs, noting the slight manic glint in Johnny's eyes and sits at the table, if only to humor him for now.
"They all have powers."
"Already thought of that." Johnny shakes his head and studies the files he's created for the missing people. He'd had to check the internet for information on the other three, but he'd managed to make Pete's with just what he knows of the other man.
For a moment he panics as a horrible thought occurs to him, what if he has to make one for Ben before this is all over?
His eyes go wide and he looks over at Ben quickly, reassuring himself that the big lug is still there. He looks away before Ben catches him.
"All their powers are different." Ben suggests, glancing at the file on Danny Rand aka Iron Fist. Cage hadn't been very secretive with who this 'Danny' was.
Johnny 'hmms', he'd noticed that too.
"They were all in New York at the time." Johnny points out. The books are right; it does help to talk this stuff out. "Rand flew in from Tokyo."
"Cage and Jessica Jones said they fell asleep and when they woke up, Rand was gone." Ben sits forward, getting into it. Johnny shoots him a brief smile, because it looks like they're onto something here.
"And MJ said that Pete was home and then he was just gone." Their eyes meet across the table. "Like he just disappeared."
"Wanna bet that's what they say about Cyclops and Kitty Pryde?"
Four people disappearing into thin air can really only mean one thing.
"I hate magic." Ben groans and rubs a rocky hand over his face. Johnny silently agrees.
DI
Johnny tells Reed his theory, watches as a shared look passes between him and Hank Pym and then sits back as they phone Doctor Strange. Who turns out to be out of the dimension, but if they'll please leave a message, he will return their call as soon as possible.
Johnny hates magic.
Tony and Steve are out, Hank leaves to go do some research on magic (and looking out of his depth) and Sue forces Reed to leave the lab and actually eat a square meal and take a shower.
Looks like they're on downtime then.
Johnny could spend his downtime watching more detective movies, or visiting MJ or even sleeping.
He finds Ben in the living room watching the football game he recorded the previous week. He hasn't had a chance to watch it since then, but he only seems to be about twenty minutes into the game so Johnny decides that Ben can watch it later.
"Hey!" Ben doesn't look impressed when Johnny flicks off the television and seats himself on the arm of the couch, leaning against Ben. "If you're looking for attention, Matchstick…"
"A date." Johnny says simply and Ben looks confused for a moment. Then understanding dawns and he shakes his head, making to get up off the couch and to probably go hide somewhere Johnny isn't.
So Johnny slides forwards and into his lap and Ben actually stops. Johnny had figured there was about a forty percent chance that Ben wouldn't just dump him on the floor. He's rather pleased that Ben lets him settle there as he tries, awkwardly to find a place to rest his large, rocky hands.
"I want a date." Johnny says again and Ben begins to look panicked.
"Go find one of your supermodel girlfriends."
Johnny shakes his head.
"Don't have any, anymore." Ben opens his mouth but Johnny cuts him off quickly. "Broke up with the last one months ago."
"What about Frankie?"
Johnny raises an eyebrow because he hasn't seen Frankie in a long time and Ben knows this.
"I'm asking you out on a date." Johnny says, and swallows around a dry mouth. He's flirted and teased and touched but this is the first time he's just come out and asked. He gets up and off of Ben's lap, standing before him and looking him square in the eye. "To a…a movie or something. Reed's taking the evening off, Hanks gone home and Tony is out. We have the evening free."
He keeps looking Ben in the eye so that Ben will realize that this is real, this isn't a joke or anything. Johnny needs Ben to understand that he's not scared of Ben, that he doesn't think he's a monster. He's trying for flippant but he's putting himself out there and it's hard.
"Matchstick…" Ben begins but Johnny cuts him off before he can start in on his 'woe is me' tangent.
"You're the kindest person I know." Johnny says and watches as Ben's eyes widen. "And you're not a monster. You're Ben Grimm and I'm asking you to go out with me- somewhere. Anywhere."
Johnny doesn't do speeches; he's usually the one mocking them. He doesn't put much effort into relationships either but this is Ben and Ben is different. They don't even have a relationship (yet) but Johnny is working pretty hard.
"Sorry matchstick, but it wouldn't work." Ben stands, rests a brief hand on Johnny's shoulder and then leaves the room.
Johnny listens to Ben's heavy footsteps as they pad down the hall until he can't hear them anymore and then he sits down on the couch and stares blankly ahead for awhile.
DI
He's fairly positive that Ben is avoiding him. He walks into the room and Ben leaves it. So maybe he's sulking a bit. And he might be making his sisters life miserable in the process.
He can't just go play his pranks on Ben, not when the other man can't even look him in the eye, so Sue is the one suffering. He needs the outlet.
First it's whipped cream and then the toothpaste and eventually water balloons. By lunch Sue is ready to kill him.
Johnny's making his way cautiously down the hall, avoiding his sister, when he's all but bowled over.
There's a flash of red, white and blue, a loud crash and then Johnny finds himself lying on the carpet, staring up at the ceiling. That could have gone better, he muses.
Captain America stares down at him, like he can't figure out how Johnny ended up on the floor. Thundering footsteps come closer and if he tilts his head he can spot Ben and Reed at the other end of the hallway.
He suspects that he broke Sue's vase on his way to the floor.
Captain America grimaces, which Johnny takes as an apology and then holds out a hand to help him to his feet. The second Johnny is standing, Steve whirls around to Reed and he spots the panic that he'd overlooked before.
"What is it?" Reed asks, stretching the rest of the way down the hall to where they stand.
"Tony," Steve huffs, sounding like he ran the entire way to the Baxter building. Of course this is Captain America, so it's entirely possible that he ran the length of the city, fought Doom and rescued a kitten from a tree and only sounds a little winded. "They got him."
"You mean Mole Man or something right?" Johnny only half jokes.
They know where Mole Man is, he's easy to track.
"We were walking down the street and I looked away for a second," Captain America ignores his comment. His fists clench and his teeth grind together. Johnny doesn't want to be the one the anger is directed at. "One second! And he was…gone."
"You didn't see anything?" Reed asks, pulling out his data pad, tapping away at the screen.
"Nothing." Johnny has never heard Captain America sound so frustrated, has never heard that tone of defeat in his voice. It chills him. If Captain America thinks the situation is hopeless, how the hell are they supposed to win?
"One minute he was telling me about his ideas for fixing up an old hot rod and the next he just wasn't there." Steve straightens, jaw squaring and eyes narrowing. "We're going to find him. We're going to find all of them."
It feels like the truth and Johnny begins to nod his head in agreement before he realizes what he's doing.
Ben's eyes meet his and he knows that Ben isn't feeling very hopeful but Johnny has enough hope for the pair of them. Ben will see it, he's sure.
DI
Johnny goes out and walks through the route that Steve and Tony had taken, cataloguing everything, not really sure what he's looking for. He stops in at a bakery, picking up something to munch on along the way and then sets off again.
He walks through the park, past the café where they ate and around the corner where Tony disappeared. For a moment, he wonders if he'll disappear too, then at least he'll find the others.
Nothing happens and Johnny walks back to the Baxter building no closer to figuring it out than he was before.
It's late in the evening when Reed calls them all up to his lab.
The Fantastic Four plus half of the Avengers gather around Reed's computers and diagrams only to hear that they haven't made any progress. The magic is untraceable, they still can't reach Dr Strange and Reed has tried everything he can think of to track Extremis.
Up on one screen a traffic camera shows as Tony Stark and Steve Rogers make their way down the street. Johnny's been over the footage a few times, not as many as Reed- but there was always a chance that he'd spot something that was missed.
The others are trading and dismissing theories next to him but Johnny keeps watching the video.
"Hey- did you check the days that the others disappeared?"
Everyone turns and looks at him.
"What?" Steve asks, frowning.
"Well, I mean," Johnny gestures at the screen as Tony disappears from the footage. "We don't really have anything to connect them all, aside from the whole 'power' thing, so what did Tony and Steve do that everyone else did?"
Most of the room is staring at him in silent disbelief, and Ben's standing there looking really proud of him. Huh. He doesn't blush at the attention but he does soak up the smile Ben sends his way greedily.
"Good thinking Johnny." Reed says finally, breaking the silence. His hands stretch out and then he's off, typing on a series of computers at once. One by one, the footage from the days the other heroes disappeared appear on the screens.
They find Kitty Pryde first. She's sitting at an outdoor café with two other people that he doesn't know and probably don't have powers. Cyclops walks out of a bookstore down the street next.
Johnny scans another one of the videos and spots Pete going into the bakery that Johnny had visited earlier. Danny Rand glances in the window of the bakery but keeps walking down the street in his video.
"I walked that same route with Tony." Steve says quietly. "Why didn't I disappear as well?"
That's an answer Johnny can't supply.
"The question is who will be next." Sue says, worried frown in place. "If this is why the heroes are disappearing, then we have to warn everyone."
"And whoever goes and checks it out," Luke Cage speaks up. "Might end up disappearing like the others."
The look on his face tells Johnny that he's willing to go and be bait.
Johnny opens his mouth to tell them that he'd been there earlier, that he could go back. He blinks and the Baxter Building is gone.
DI
He's in some sort of container. Four feet by seven feet and seven feet tall. He can stand up and stretch out which is a relief. Dr Doom had stuck him in a tiny box one time for six hours and he'd lost the feeling in his limbs by the time the others had gotten him out.
The walls are clear and look like glass but he can't break through them.
He can't flame on.
Something is stopping his flame. He can feel the fire inside, can almost reach out and touch it but can't cross that final distance.
There's no door to the cell, no air holes (but he can breathe), no visible way out.
He really hates magic.
He slams a fist against the wall and gets a small shock in response. Johnny yelps and jumps away from the wall, holding his hand. He cautiously reaches out and pokes the glass but doesn't receive the same shock.
Okay, no hitting the glass. He can work with that.
"I hate magic."
There's an empty cell on one side of him and on the other side of his cell is a tired and worn looking Tony Stark.
Well, he's found one of them at least.
Now he just needs someone to come and find him.
"Where are we?" Johnny asks.
He spins in a circle and makes out a lot more of these glass boxes in whatever room they may be in. It looks like a big room. He has a really bad feeling.
"I don't know." Tony is sitting cross-legged in the middle of his own cell, eyes closed and he appears to be concentrating, brows furrowed.
"Are you alright?" The man is looking a little…pale, with dark circles under his eyes. He doesn't look healthy.
"Magic and Extremis don't really get along." Tony grunts out. His fingers are white where they clench his suit pants.
Hey- they still have their clothes! Johnny digs into the pockets of his jeans looking for his cell phone, but it's not there. Neither is his watch for that matter.
Okay, electronics aren't allowed. He has this bad feeling that includes part of Starks brain.
He takes a moment to be annoyed, because Ben gave him that watch for his birthday. He'd better get it back when he leaves or he's going to be really annoyed.
Speaking of which…
"We found the connection," He tells Tony. The man cracks open an eye to look at Johnny for the first time since Johnny has found himself here. "It's only a matter of time before they find us."
"Or end up here themselves." Tony mutters.
"Come on," He stops himself from calling Iron Man dude. "Cheer up, Ben and the others will find us. Have some faith."
Tony closes the eye again and for a moment Johnny thinks that the conversation is over now. He settles down on the floor, carefully leaning against the wall so he doesn't receive a shock again and stretches his legs out. Then,
"Is Steve with them?"
He suspects that part of the question is asking whether Steve has disappeared too.
"Yeah, with the rest of the Avengers, and my team." He adds.
A faint smile crosses the too pale face.
"Then I have faith."
Johnny knows what that kind of faith is like.
He gets as comfortable as he can and sits back to wait for Ben to come to the rescue.