The Clarity of Pancakes and Maple Syrup:
Reed and Sue have broken up – Ben and Sue are best friends.
This is a Christmas fiction – it helps me cool down and it's about when Sue Storm searches her heart and laments to the men in her life;
THE BAXTER BUILDING – NEW YORK CITY
25 DECEMBER 2005
New York did the whole Christmas and winter connection thing big. Snow fell heavily from the sky, trapping people happily inside buildings.
The roads and sidewalks were pure glistening white, the Statue of Liberty looked like an iced cookie and Times Square looked amazing from the penthouse of the Baxter Building.
Sue awoke in her warm bed to Johnny bouncing up and down on the edge of her bed, yelling in a child-like voice, "Wake up, Sue, its Christmas!"
Sue grumbled at her brother to go away and let her wake up. However he wouldn't relent and eventually Sue sent a force field his way that knocked him off the bed. Thankfully Johnny heated the air and safely dropped to the floor.
"Sue, come on, Ben's cooking breakfast and Reed and I have been up for ages, waiting for you." He said, chucking her a small Christmas sack of little goodie presents before practically bouncing away to the lounge, where she could hear, It's A Wonderful Life! on TV.
She changed out of her sleepwear into a massive blue tee-shirt that Ben had leant her once and she had forgotten to return and a pair of knee-length coal-coloured shorts. She tied her long blonde hair in a ponytail and walked down to the lounge barefoot, carrying her sack in one hand and rubbing sleep out of her eyes with the other.
Reed was in his armchair next to the blazing hearth, which a few seconds ago, Johnny set alight by throwing a fireball into the logs. The human flamethrower himself was waiting by the emerald Christmas tree. When he saw Sue he let a deep breath out and dragged her to the tree.
"Ben! Come on, she's here!" Johnny shouted. Sue turned and saw a comical Ben, dressed in an apron that looked like a tarp and a pair of dark blue shorts.
"Alright Johnny. Christ. Oops, sorry." Ben swore and then apologised, glancing heavenward jokingly.
He finished working at the stove, removed the apron and sat down on the floor, legs crossed, near Sue and Reed.
"Who's gonna go first?" Reed asked, relaxed.
"Me! Me! Me!" Johnny said, scrambling through the gifts, quickly but carefully. A pile of four gifts were next to him when he finished.
He opened one marked 'To Johnny from Carmen XXX.' Johnny blushed furiously when he found what was inside the small box and refused to let anyone see it. Reed playfully snatched it from him and everyone else laughed when the box full of thongs were revealed.
The laughter finished and Johnny opened his gift from Reed. It appeared to be a heavy silver and red lighter at first, but then he saw a split across the middle and the middle of the Fantastic Four logo and cracked it open to reveal a small lens. Johnny looked through and laughed hardly.
"An X-ray camera? Oh, Reed, this is so cool." Sue smacked Reed gently on the arm.
"That'll get him into more trouble." But she didn't mind. The Human Torch picked up her present and found a DVD box set of 'The World's Most Insane Stunts'. Johnny hugged her and suspiciously picked up Ben's envelope.
Inside, Sue saw the words, 'Your present was too big to be gift-wrapped. Check your room, Scout. Ben.'
Johnny rushed to his room and gasped. He brought out an amazing brand new custom made, fire and heat proof snowboard. It was silver with a huge scarlet flame tearing up the front. On the underside, in giant letters illuminated by flame read the words 'Watch Out – Human Torch Coming Through'.
For the first time ever, Johnny hugged Ben for a couple of seconds and then their gazes swivelled to Reed who had got his gifts from under the lavish tree.
Johnny had bought him a Stretch Armstrong as a joke and then, as a real present, a brand new state-of-the-art Song black laptop computer. Sue had given him a lifetime subscription to Science Weekly Magazine and Ben had given him a pass for whenever for a full free day at a top day spa in the Hampton to which Reed had laughed.
Ben, grudgingly, went next. Reed had conjured another gadget, this time in the form of a large coin, the size of a CD. It looked like a giant 50 cents, but when Ben pressed the centre of the coin, it shot out and elongated so that it turned into a weapon.
Johnny gave him a The Thing commercial toy and an indestructible CD player (created by Reed as a favour with the strength of a black box) with a stack of CDs of varied musical tastes such as pop, rock, blues, country, jazz and jokingly, some New Age.
Sue sheepishly gave him her gift. It was a custom New York Yankees shirt that fit him easily with 'The Thing' and 'Ben Grimm' in big letters on the back. With that came an enormous pair of Air Nikes and finally, a coat he had admired in a New York shop front, but super sized. It was chocolate brown and long.
"Thanks Suzie." He said, giving her a friendly kiss on her forehead.
Sue was last, but her gifts delighted her. From Johnny, a $2000 dollar account with Macys and Bloomingdales each. From Reed, a mechanical device that looked like a compact mirror, but when she opened it, the mirror turned into a camera and heat-scanned the area. The brush – when pressed – released a sleeping dart.
"Very James Bond meets Macys." Ben quipped cheerfully.
Ben's gift was a beautiful necklace from Tiffany's. It didn't look exquisite with diamonds dripping off everywhere, but it had nine different coloured pearls on a silver chain. Ben explained the symbolism of the colours; the two at either end were a pale amber-orange (for Ben); the two in were scarlet for Johnny; the dark blue ones were for Reed and the last two adjacent ones were lilac for herself. The middle one was pure white.
"Thank you so much Ben." She said kissing him. He blushed, although it was barely visible.
Now that the present giving was over, the four of them settled to a special Christmas morning breakfast. A platter of hot bacon, a tureen of scrambled eggs, a pile of pancakes, a dish of roasted tomatoes with basil and garlic, pots of jams and the like, mugs of hot chocolate with whipped cream and hot coffee and herbal tea, racks of fresh toast with a big tub of butter near them were all on the table, courtesy of Ben.
They all sat down and heartily ate with the personal mix of jazz Christmas hits from Reed's collection playing softly in the background.
Ben had trouble eating his and Sue could feel how upset he was that he couldn't be physically normal like the rest of them. Sue slid her chair across the table, went to a drawer and brought out a set of cutlery that suited Ben perfectly for they were much bigger than normal. Ben grinned from side to side, squeezed Sue's shoulder affectionately then ate a stack of scrambled eggs.
As Sue's mind drifted into blankness, her mouth chewing on two delicious pancakes dripping with golden syrup, her mind drifted over the men in her life.
Reed was her life for a long time. She had pined for him so long, until her love and desire for him had fizzled out like a sparkler at the 4th of July. She was still his soul mate and they were still very good friends.
He had become so wrapped up in his work that Sue Storm had disappeared for a while from his mind.
Victor Von Doom had been like a rich uncle to her, showing her a life she had never experienced – riches, fancy, expensive restaurants and plays and clothes she never would've dreamed of ever owning. But inside he had been a man, who hid behind his money. A coward.
Johnny was her little brother. She protected him and defended him furiously. She could kill her brother sometimes, but she'd kill for her brother all the time. He accused her of being a control freak, but he loved her all the same. They were SO different – she was blonde, he was brunette, she was a scientist and he was an adventurer.
But they still looked out for each other.
Ben Grimm was her best friend. When Debbie had dumped him for becoming the Thing, countless nights she had sat up with him and waited until he eventually cracked down in front of the late night TV. He had helped her with her break up with Reed. They had watched movies together and formed a close bond. He was her salvation from despair.
Sue Storm gazed at the most of the men of her life around the table. Ben smiled at her as did Reed and Johnny as Sue raised her mug of hot chocolate.
"I'd like to raise a toast. To family." She said. Everyone clinked mugs and Ella Fitzgerald finished 'White Christmas' on the CD.
The Invisible Woman smiled.
She was really home.