Disclaimer: I do not and never will own Marvel or any of its ideas/characters.

Summary: Reed's niece, Noah, has lived with him since she eight. What happens whenshe came along to space with her uncle and everyone else? She's known Johnny Storm for years, neither of them ever really being friends, and now they have been forced back into contact with one another. Is it a recipe for disaster? Future Johnny/OC


There is nothing new except what has been forgotten. Maria Antoinette

He still wasn't entirely sure how she had managed to talk him into letting her tag along on this 'field trip' to the final frontier. But, somehow, she had done it and he supposed he shouldn't be all that surprised by it – she was related to him after all. This fact made Reed Richards grin, nodding silently to himself as he sat the papers he was reading through aside for a brief moment. He glanced sidelong to the young woman perched on the edge of one of the several arm chairs in the waiting room; she was totally engrossed in the book she was currently reading, her long, thin fingers gripping the spine and flipping through pages like she wanted to literally jump into the story.

Reed wondered whether he ever looked that absorbed in his research. He probably did, though he was very sure he could never be as easy on the eyes as his niece did while doing it. She had grown into such a beautiful young woman over the years from the awkward little girl that had once called him 'uhnkel Weed'. She had the same dark hair as he and her father, Dwayne Richards, did, but she had soft features and striking hazel eyes like that of her mother, Charlotte. Reed remembered how she used to be such a lanky child, and very thin. Almost sickly thin in his opinion, but that was mostly attributed to her premature birth – she had been born about a month and a half too soon after all. Reed had been overjoyed just to hear that his younger brother's child and his only niece had survived, so the fact that she had been thin was something he had easily looked over. And when she entered her teenage years her arms always seemed to be too long for her body. By now, though, she'd filled out a bit. She was still on the skin side of things, but at least she looked healthy now, and her limbs fit her body properly now.

"Take a picture, old man, it'll last longer."

Reed lifted his gaze from the young woman's fingers on the book to her smirking face. She had a brow arched high on her forehead, hazel eyes trained on the page she read from. The scientist shook his head at her, "Always so sweet to your uncle, Noah."

"I do what I can." She turned the page in her book, a chuckle in her voice. Reed smiled, having long since come to enjoy this banter of theirs.

"What are you reading?"

"Oh, just brushing up on evolution and life altering cosmic energy clouds." She rolled her eyes at him, "You know, the usual."

"Right," He sighed heavily, playing at exasperated. "Remind me again why I had to argue with Victor for days to get you on board this station?"

"Because I rock at Health and Environmental Sciences and you need me around to help determine the effects this space fog of yours will have on humans and every other living thing on God's rotting, polluted Earth." She grinned cheekily over her book, "Plus the simply but oh so important fact that I'm your favorite niece."

Reed laughed, "You're my only niece…"

"Well, then all the more reason for me to be here."

Ben chuckled huskily from his kneeling position just off to the side of Noah's chair. He was tucking the photo of his fiancée, Debbie, backing into his old address book and stuffing it all into his duffle bag. The bald man had been in a real sour mood earlier, not pleased in the slightest with the news he had been given that he would be following orders from someone who had once been his subordinate. His mood had improved over the last half hour though. Or, at least he wasn't giving Reed the 'stink-eye' anymore. "You can't argue with that, Reed."

Ben Grimm was just as much of an uncle to Noah as Reed was; the two men had been best friends for so long and Ben had been around the Baxter Building so often over the years that the man was practically family. He was family as far as Noah was concerned. She could even go as far as to say Ben was even like an older brother to her rather than a second uncle. And Debbie, well, Noah wasn't so close to Debbie as she was to Ben, but she liked her well enough. Debbie seemed like an alright lady and Ben loved her enough to be marrying her, so Noah accepted her as family as well; a distant member perhaps, but family nonetheless.

"I could try," Reed shifted his gaze from Noah to Ben. He tried to look smug. "I've been known to win an argument or two from time to time."

"Not with her you aren't."

"Well, then I can always play the legal guardian card and win by default," Reed's brow arched up high towards his hairline He clearly felt victorious. "It's my infallible defense tactic."

Noah snorted, but relented, letting her uncle have this one small victory. It was true that Reed was her guardian, and had been since she was eight – eleven long years. Her being nineteen now kind of made that foolproof tactic of his rather obsolete; being a legal adult now herself, she really didn't even need him as a legal guardian anymore, but he had been her stand in parent for so long now that it seemed strange and wrong to change all of that now. He'd taken her to live with him in the Baxter Building after Social Services had deemed her own parents as being ill equipped to raise her. She'd gone through a lot of shit before Reed rescued her from that dark life – the kind of stuff she never talked about to anyone and Ben and Reed were careful never to bring up. So, as far as she was concerned, the man was welcome to pull that old legal guardian defense tactic all he wanted. He had earned the right to use it.

"Sounds more like a cop-out to me."

Noah laughed out loud at the scowl that flitted over her uncle's face, she and Ben sharing a look at Reed's expense. Leave it to good old Ben to deliver the killing blow every time.

"Captain on the bridge!"

The laughter died as the voice of a man barked out from behind them, sending Ben up on his feet and standing stiff and erect at attention in the blink of an eye. Noah didn't even bother to turn and look at the entering individual. She'd know that voice anywhere, even after all these years. The blinding flash of a camera bought Ben out of his hard military stance and Noah watched his face flush in anger with each step the blond entering the room took.

"Digital camera - $254. Memory stick - $59. The look on your hard-ass former C.O.'s face when he finds out he's you junior officer – priceless." Johnny Storm gloated his way into the room, dropping his bag to the floor and settling down on the arm of the chair Noah sat in.

Uncle and niece shared a look of their own this time, both trying in vain to hold in a smile at Ben's misfortune. Noah just shook her head and continued to read as Ben and this maverick easily slipped back into their old tense, junior-senior struggle of a friendship once more. The sound of their baiting and bickering was a familiar thing by now and easily ignored from her point of view.

Noah remembered the first time she'd met Johnny Storm… Reed and Sue had been going on their third month together back then and Johnny had tagged along with his sister to Noah's twelfth birthday party. He had been seventeen and the age difference had left them with very little in common. Over the five years that Reed and Sue Storm had dated each other, she and Johnny were almost nearly always in contact with each other and the older boy had resorted to teasing her when he wasn't too busy sucking face with bimbo of the hour girlfriends. But that had been years ago and Reed and Sue had long since broken it off between them, and she hadn't seen Johnny since she was seventeen years old. She doubted the blond-haired, blue-eyed egomaniac had changed much though – he certainly looked the same to her, just taller and with a slightly deeper voice then she remembered.

"I can handle this ship. I can even handle Mr. Blond Ambition," she heard Ben say as he moved on from Johnny and over to the mini closet, watching him tug out a blue spandex flight suit. "But I don't know if I should be flying or doing Swan Lake in these suits."

Noah chuckled, giving Ben a wink. "Ooh, sexy, Ben. Blue is definitely your color."

"Quiet, you." Ben grimaced at her, shaking his head as he inspected the suit further.

Johnny seemed to have finally taken notice in her presence, her voice catching his attention and drawing his gaze down to her. She blatantly ignored his blue-eyed stare, turning another page in her book. She could practically hear the wheels in his head turning, struggling to put a name to her face, certain he recognized her, but was drawing a blank with how he knew her. The blond was still looking her over with that muddled look of his when Ben spoke again.

"Come on, I mean, who the hell came up with these?"

"Victor did." Their little group, minus a still pondering Johnny, looked up as Sue Storm walking in. She looked as dazzling as ever and Noah found herself smiling at the blond woman; she had always liked Sue. Liked her more so then she had ever liked Debbie and of all the women her uncle had ever tried and miserably failed at dating, Sue was by far her favorite. The woman was smart and beautiful and, unlike the others, she and her uncle had actually been in love with one another. "The synthetics act as a second skin, adapting to your body's individual needs."

"See, now that means it keeps the hot stuff hot and the cool stuff cool." Johnny added, snapping out of his stupor long enough to toss in a comment of his own. It was typical Johnny Storm behavior. He even used his hands while he spoke, gesturing about like he knew what he was talking about - like Noah remembered he always had.

"Putting high school chemistry to good use, I see." Noah chirped in, turning a page in her book with a quick glance up at the blond man. Their eyes met and Johnny frowned down at her, head tilting just so in utter confusion. His mouth opened like he meant to say something to her, but Noah's attention was swiftly stolen away by the sight of her uncle standing up from his seat across the way and approaching Sue.

Noah grimaced. This wasn't going to end well; she could feel it.

"Wow. Fantastic." Reed breathed in wonder and Noah watched in dismay as Sue's face lit up like a candle in a dark room. She winced inwardly when her witless-wonder of an uncle grabbed the suit Ben was holding. "Material made from self-regulating, unstable molecules…"

Sue's glowing expression deteriorated into awkward embarrassment and then into irritation that barely masked the extent of her anger beneath. Everyone but Reed saw it.

"I've been working on a formula for this."

"Smooth move, genius." Noah muttered under her breath, shaking her head at her uncle's stupidity. She sighed heavily and watched as Sue placed a stiff hand on her hip. It was a stance Noah had seen many times before in the past and recognized it for the easily, clear sign of anger that it was – something her uncle, unfortunately, had never learned to take a hint from.

"Great minds think alike." Sue look pissed; she was the kind of woman who was rather good at hiding these kinds of emotions, but it was easily spotted by someone who knew where to look for it. And Reed just kept studying the suit in his hands, oblivious to the error of his ways and the tension everyone else in the room could feel and see. "Here, Ben." The blonde woman handed Ben a blue outer jumper, one of three she had carried in with her. She smiled fondly at the bald man, affection for him leaking through the irritation and hurt she felt on account of Reed.

"Thanks, sweetie." Ben gave her and an apologetic smile, taking the offered jumper.

"Reed." Sue tossed, or rather she right out threw Reed his jumper in no attempt to hide her current animosity towards him. Noah had to fight to hold in her laugh at her bone-headed uncle's expense – the look that had crossed his face had been priceless. He really just didn't get it, the poor old fool. When Sue handed the last jumper and suit to her, Noah accepted them with a smile and took the hand the elder woman had held out to her. Noah stood, leaving her book on the chair behind. "Come one, Noah, I'll show you where you can change."

The room fell into silence for a full minute after the two girls left, Ben and Reed busying themselves with changing, before a loud sound of alarm filtered up from the back of Johnny's throat. The two older men looked back at the blond, watching him point at the empty doorway with wide blue eyes. Ben cracked a smirk at the shock on Johnny's handsome face.

"Did she say Noah? NOAH?" Johnny exclaimed, "That was 'noodle-arm' Noah? 'Noah's ark'? 'Know-it-all' Noah Richards?"

"Careful, Johnny." Reed warned with a chuckle, resuming in the unbuttoning of the collared shirt he was wearing, "She'll slit our throat if she hears you using one of those old nicknames."

"I wouldn't blame her if she did…" Ben muttered, giving Johnny a glare as the blond slide into the seat Noah had previously been occupying, "In fact, I'd reward her if she did."

Johnny ignored the bald man's words; his eyes were still glued to the empty doorway. "When the hell did that happen?" The blond gestured again, gaze finally dropping from the doorway to the book the girl had left behind. He scowled at the title. "The Noah I remember was an annoying little gangly kid with long twig arms and a face like a weasel. When did she turn into a reasonably good looking chick?"

"Watch it, playboy." Ben warned before Reed even got his mouth open, "You touch her and you're dead. Got it?"

"Easy, Papa Bear," Johnny baited the other man. He waved a dismissive hand, "Aw, cool it. She'd not even my type. Pretty, but still subpar."

"What, she not sleazy enough for that sordid pallet of yours?" Ben bit back, zipping up the blue synthetic suit he now wore and doing so rather aggressively.

"Hey, kudos for the big-boys words," the blond smirked at the look Ben gave him. He shook his head, "But no. It's more like she'd too pretty. I don't do pretty – I prefer hot. Pretty is too plain and common for my tastes."

"Too smart to be one of your hooker-bimbos sounds more like it." Ben snorted, smirking along with Reed as they finished dressing. "She's too smart for you at all."

Johnny just scowled at the two older men, blue eyes lifting to stare through the empty doorway once more.


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