AN - Okie-doke, so this is my first F4 fic, and yep, it's a 'shippy one. Ever since I saw the movie, I fell in love with the Sue/Reed pairing. I've wanted to do a 'shippy F4 fic for awhile, but I couldn't think of anything to write about. But when I was flipping through the F4 novelization, the idea for this struck me. So I decided to take a crack at it. Enjoy. ;-)
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The Only Thing
-dutchtulips-
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It had been a long, long night.
Reed Richards dragged a hand across his dirt-smudged brow as he stood in the middle of the twentieth-floor atrium. He slowly surveyed the wreckage, letting out a dejected, tired sigh. Earlier that night, he, Sue, Ben, and Johnny had risked their lives in fighting against Victor - no, Dr. Doom as he now was - after he had unleashed an attack with every intention of destroying them. It had only been hours since the police had carted Doom's statuesque form away from the scene, and not too long after that the four of them were able to return to the Baxter Building. But it felt like it had lasted years.
On the way home, Ben had explained to Reed what had happened back at the Baxter Building with Von Doom, and Reed knew that seeing the condition his lab was in wouldn't please him. As horrible an ordeal they'd all been through, and as grateful as Reed was that the four of them had all survived, he still was forever the scientist - still worried about how damaged his lab was.
Sue had teased him about it, as they rode home in the police car. He could still hear her words in his head, as he looked around the wrecked atrium again.
"Of course Reed wants to get home," she'd said to Ben and Johnny, though she eyed Reed as she said it, "He needs to check on his lab, make sure Doom didn't hurt her, either." And they'd all laughed, even Reed.
Now, as he stooped over to pull one of the overturned bookcases back on its feet, Reed smiled at Sue's earlier ribbing. Just days ago, it might have irritated him, but now his heart was in a different place, and he knew Sue's was, as well. She no longer teased him out of annoyance, he knew, but now because she loved him.
She loves me. The words bounced around inside of Reed's head, causing whatever existing pain from earlier that night to slide off of him. Without even thinking, his thoughts still on Sue, he reached across the floor, stretching his forearm like a rubber band, to pick up several fallen books. It wasn't until he slid them back onto the shelf that he realized what he'd done. Smiling to himself, he shook his head ruefully.
I can never really think straight when I'm thinking about her, he thought, walking back across the atrium again. But it's the only thing I ever knew, that I love her, without even having to think about it. And she was right, that sure is a rarity for me.
Reed's eyes fell upon several pieces of shattered equipment and broken glass, lying scattered across the floor, near his desk. His eyes lowered, and he wordlessly dropped into his leather desk chair. It wasn't so much as the mess that struck him, but more of how senseless all of the destruction had been. He sighed again, as the realizations once again hit him. How very close he'd been to losing one of his best friends, here in this very room. It made him angry, thinking of how easily it had been for Von Doom to invade his lab, his home, and the safety of Reed and everyone he cared about.
Sue.
Along with Ben, Reed had come uncomfortably close to losing her, as well. It hadn't occurred to him initially, as he had been so sure Sue had been safe. When Von Doom had him tied to that chair, freezing him to death with the liquid nitrogen, his only thoughts were of her, how thankful he was that it was him instead of Sue. But then, of course, she'd snuck into Von Doom's office in order to save Reed's life. And at the time, he'd been so delirious from the cold that he hadn't been immediately able to register what was happening.
Reed slouched down in the swivel chair, his hands dropping to his lap. He was still wearing the navy blue jumpsuit, its number "4" patch stitched below the left shoulder. Methodically, he traced his finger around it. When Johnny had snuck off and added the patches to each of their uniforms, Reed hadn't been entirely thrilled by that. But now, it seemed to have a meaning. Hell, he knew it did. Now. The accident in space may have connected them to one another, but it was the events from earlier that night that had truly bonded them now. He sighed. Leave it to Johnny. Sometimes the brash young man did have his moments.
"Mourning the loss of your capacitor?" A jaunty voice joked, cutting out of the darkness. "Don't be too sad, he gave his life so that we could live."
Reed straightened at the voice, turning slowly his chair. Speak of the devil, he thought, as he spotted Johnny, wearing only flannel pajama pants, stepping into the atrium from the back hallway, where the bedrooms were located. "What're you doing in here?" Reed inquired, surprised to see him.
Johnny shrugged. "Couldn't sleep. Still riled up, you know, from tonight."
"Are Sue and Ben asleep?"
"Like babies." He stepped further into the atrium and carefully around the broken equipment. "I was going to the kitchen to steal the rest of your Cherry Garcia. You want anything?"
"No, I'm fine," Reed replied hastily, rising from the swivel chair. "I was hoping to get the lab back in order, don't let me keep you from your snack."
Johnny shook his head ruefully. "It's three thirty in the morning, Reed. We spent all night sending Doom to hell. Go to bed, already."
The scientist sighed, leaning over to pick up some file folders. "Perhaps you should follow your own advice."
The young man raised his hands. "Okay, okay," he said. "I give you that one. But seriously, worry about the lab later. You care about it way too much. Come into the kitchen, have a scoop with me."
Reed glanced up from the papers in his hands to look at his roommate. "With you? Since when do you want my company?"
Johnny didn't reply to the question, at least not directly. "Aw, come on, Reed. Biology 101? An active body requires nourishment."
The scientist looked down again at the file folders he was holding, and slowly turned and placed them on his desk. "All right," he relented, his arms dropping to his sides as he crossed the atrium and turned into the adjacent hallway, Johnny following him.
The corridor opened up into the rectangular kitchenette, where Reed flicked on the light and then sat down at the small dining table, plunking his elbows to the oak tabletop. Johnny crossed the room and opened up freezer door, fishing in the back for the cardboard containers of Ben and Jerry's. He removed two pints of Cherry Garcia from the freezer and two spoons from the silverware drawer, sliding one of each over to Reed, and he seated himself across from the scientist.
For several moments they didn't speak as they savored the ice cream in silence. Under the light of the kitchen, though, Johnny noticed that Reed was still wearing the blue uniform. "Diggin' the threads, huh?" He asked, smirking. "I agree, they're smokin'."
Reed was momentarily puzzled until he glanced at his sleeves, and the confusion dissipated. "Oh. Right. Well, I sort of forgot I was wearing it. After all of the excitement, you know..."
Johnny nodded, understanding. "Yeah. Insane, wasn't it?"
"That's one way to put it," the scientist replied, stabbing his spoon into his pint. "By the way... thanks, you know, for what you did. The supernova. We might not have been able to stop him otherwise."
Johnny smiled, a genuine one this time. "No problem. Just doing my job."
Reed returned the smile, letting out a rare chuckle. "For once." He paused for a moment in thought, and then looked up at his roommate again. "I've been doing some thinking, you know, about the transformation chamber and all..."
"And?" Johnny's face creased with curiosity.
"And... maybe... well... it almost doesn't seem right anymore, trying to reverse all of this. We discovered tonight, you know, who we really are. Well, I know I did, anyway." He paused again, looking down at the half-eaten ice cream. "I learned a lot about myself tonight, and..." Sue flashed through his mind, "... about other things, as well. I have... we have... this power that's helped people. It's not exactly how I originally planned to ease the lives of others, but... nevertheless."
When Reed looked up again, he saw that Johnny was glancing sideways at him. "Okay... who are you, and what have you done with Reed?"
The scientist rolled his eyes, half-amused, half-aggravated, at the comment. "I did make a promise to Ben, though. So I want to try and repair the chamber, at least for him."
Johnny shrugged. "I wouldn't worry about the big guy. He did change himself back, after all."
Reed nodded but said nothing. He did indeed know about what had happened with Ben, the night before when Victor came uninvited into the lab, but the argument Reed had had with his oldest friend before Ben went storming out of the Baxter Building was still fresh in his mind. Although they had clearly patched things up now, it was something he never wanted to relive.
"There's more to it," he replied simply, not wanting to tell Johnny about the fight. "And I want to keep my promise." Pause. "After nearly losing one of my best friends, and my..." Sue. Reed's voice drifted off as his thoughts took him to her yet again, the vision of her leaping to the front row of his brain. After tonight, he knew how he felt about her, without a moment's hesitation, but what word had he been prepared to say? What had she become now, to him?
Johnny was staring at him, the look in his eyes fully aware of what Reed had been thinking about. "... My sister," he finished for the scientist.
Reed averted his eyes, nodding slowly. "Yes. Sue."
"You're still in love with her, aren't you."
Reed blinked at the question, but wasn't surprised that Johnny was being so forward. He'd always been that way. "Are you sure you want to have this discussion with me? Because I'm not entirely sure that I want to. I know I've never been your favorite person."
But all Johnny did was shovel a large spoonful of Cherry Garcia from his pint and scoop it heartily into his mouth. After several moments, he swallowed, and finally replied. "A couple days before we went up into space and got zapped, Sue actually thought it was smart to ask me for advice about you. Like I knew what to tell her; I have a list of ex-girlfriends that's miles long."
Reed's brow furrowed, as he at last looked back up at Johnny. "No offense, but is there a point?"
"I gave her the typical chick response, you know, to follow her heart. Even though I didn't think it was a very smart thing to tell her, I did it anyway." He pushed the now-empty ice cream carton across the table. "You guys screwed it up last time, but she still wanted to be with you again! I'll never understand women. Anyway, that's my point. Somewhere in the middle of all the wrong stuff, you must've done something right. Dunno what the hell it was, but it had to be something."
Reed lapsed into silence after that, not sure how to respond. Johnny was usually so flippant, never missing a chance to crack a joke, that when he said the rare serious thing, it left Reed dumbstruck.
"Well, I think I'm gonna hit the sack now," Johnny said suddenly, breaking into the scientist's reverie. He got up from the table, pushing in his chair with a screech. "Kicking supervillian ass really takes it out of you."
After that, he left, leaving Reed alone with his thoughts. He sat there for several long minutes after Johnny left, but then finally got up from the table himself, tossing the empty ice cream containers into the trash can. He pushed down the light switch and left the room, wandering back into the lab, still very deep in thought.
Reed had such a logical, scientific mind that such irrational things like love were hard for him to simplify. Until Sue had come into his life. Even then he was always letting his head get in the way, treating every part of their relationship like a physics equation. He'd realized how wrong that was, but far too late after he could've done something about it. But the way he'd been acting since the cosmic storm accident had been no better than before, always letting variables cloud what was really important. Which had always included Susan Storm. Even after she'd temporarily walked out of his life, it still had. The pang he'd felt in the pit of his stomach - at Von Doom's office all those weeks ago, when Reed saw Sue again for the first time in two years - had told him that. Rather, it had screamed it.
Absentmindedly, thoughts still awhirl, Reed reached for the broom, leaning against one of the bookcases, and slowly started to sweep up the broken glass and metal. It seemed like a menial task to do, as he was still quite aways from getting his lab back in top form, but there wasn't much else he could do at four in the morning. He knew he should've gone to bed by now, but Reed was no stranger to pulling overnights, that was certain --
Thud.
His broom knocked against a plastic box on the floor next to his desk, and as he looked down at it, Reed realized it was the box that contained the plant samples he'd brought back from space. Breaking the glass around one of them, a fortnight ago, had provided him with the breakthrough for the transformation chamber. And now, it seemed, the box of samples had survived yet again, in the midst of the recent assault on the lab.
Reed set the broom aside and, for no reason he could readily explain, he leaned over to pick up the container. Setting it on his desk, which was already cluttered with file folders, books, and papers, Reed began to sift through the contents. He didn't find anything out of the ordinary; it had been the same equipment he had packed for his experiments for space. Mostly they consisted of the leftover plant samples, along with several research materials. The box was also littered with tools and pieces of metal, though none of them had come from last night's lab attack.
The fragments, he recognized, were several things he'd hastily stuffed into the box after the cosmic storm had, as Johnny had phrased it over their ice cream, "zapped them." A panel had blow apart while he and Johnny had been attempting to reel in Ben from space, and before they returned to Earth, Reed had heedlessly tried to repair it. He hadn't had much success, so he tossed the spare parts into the box with the rest of his things and forgotten all about the box itself, until his research to cure the four of them had started.
It was then that he realized some of the parts were jangling around in the bottom of the box and, curious, Reed pushed the plant samples aside to see what it was. Scrabbling his hand around for a moment, his fingers at last closed around something and he pulled it out. A simple piece of metal, in the shape of a ring, fell into his palm. Reed stared at it for a few moments, and then it dawned on him.
It was a gasket.
There wasn't much to it, really. An ordinary, thin iron gasket. It must have served as a sealing for a joint within the panel, that was all. No use for it now. Might as well toss it away with the rest of the lab's debris.
But a thought kept nagging at Reed, something else he remembered about the space mission and a ring. It struck him almost immediately as his scientific mind made the connection. When he'd burst in on Sue and Victor, to warn them about the cosmic storm's approach, for just the shortest of moments - right before Victor had stuffed it away - Reed recalled seeing him propositioning Sue with a ring. It had made him sick to his stomach for the briefest of moments, for the fear of the accelerating cloud pushing any other thoughts out of his mind. The same cloud that had changed all of their lives forever. The cloud that had brought Susan back into his life when Reed thought she was gone forever. The same cloud that, he knew, beyond any shadow of a doubt, would be the reason they'd never part again.
And, just like that, Reed Richards knew exactly what to do.
Clutching tightly onto the gasket, the scientist left the atrium and wandered down the hallway, in the direction of the bedrooms. Passing Ben's room, Reed looked in momentarily to see that his friend's massive rocky form was still and peaceful in his bed. On the opposite side of the hallway, Johnny's room, he saw the young man in the same state.
Just one more to go.
Her room was the one closest to his - he'd planned it that way on purpose - and Reed was happy to see a dim light flooding out of her ajar bedroom door. Johnny had said she was asleep, but perhaps she was awake now. Sue had always been an early riser.
Pushing the door open gently, Reed peeked in, seeing Sue's supple body laying in her bed. The reading lamp on the nightstand was on, shedding misty light across her face as well as the bed, where he could see a book lying atop the sheets, and it was then that he realized she'd fallen asleep reading.
Nevertheless, he pressed on, stepping as quietly as he could into Sue's room. Carefully he sat down on the opposite side of the bed, smiling softly down at her sleeping form. Her face indeed looked tired and worn, but no doubt from the hell-raising night they'd had. She looked so tranquil, but still Reed couldn't resist leaning over and placing a tender kiss on her forehead.
Sue's eyelashes flittered at the touch, and momentarily, they opened. She gave him a sleepy smile. Reed wasn't sure if she were really awake or not, but returned the grin anyway.
"... love... you..." She murmured softly, and her eyelids closed once more.
Reed grinned harder, but let Sue drift back into slumber again. Without thinking about it, he leaned back against the bed next to her, and wrapped an arm around her. For a split second he wondered what she'd think if she woke up and found Reed in the bed with her, but his next thought told her that she probably wouldn't mind.
He sighed contentedly as he closed his eyes. Tomorrow night, he thought to himself, just before sleep's whirlpool swept him up. We're throwing that party on the Circle Line yacht tomorrow night. That's when I'll give her the gasket. That's when I'll ask her... for forever.
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el fin
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