Chapter 1:

A struggle. A cry. A shot.

"SUSAN!"

She heard her name being called from three different directions before she even realised what was happening. The anger on her brother's and Ben's faces were only momentarily aimed towards her before she saw their heads turn back towards the battle, fighting stronger than they had been before, a new rage overcoming them. However, the heartbroken despair of the third voice told her everything that she needed to know.

The poison dart from Victor's gun had found its way into her body, and the cry that had been heard upon its impact had been her own.

No one had known that Victor Von Doom would return. They had all feared it, somewhere in the darkest depths of their mind, although these were only the sorts of fears that were recognised sometime in the deepest hours of the night, when nightmares woke them from the first villain they had ever overcome together. However, the mad villain had returned, by methods which no one had yet discovered. All they knew was that his containment had been destroyed, and he was no longer inside. It was believed that either he was freed, or that his power had been concentrated on itself for so long that it exploded with too great a force for the containment to hold.

The Fantastic Four team had been called by the US Military, who had directed them to their point of surveillance where he had been spotted. However, he had moved on since then, with no trace of Victor anywhere. It had only taken a mere hour, however, for him to be rediscovered, or rather, for him to hunt them down. An hour had passed through their search, and then Victor had cornered one of the two pairs who had been hunting him down, and had given Johnny and Ben strict instructions to be at an abandoned warehouse on the waterfront at sundown.

So, they had gone. They'd had their usual planning beforehand, going through alternate plans should anything happen, or someone get hurt, and when they remembered how dangerous it had been fighting him the first time around, they made arrangements for their medical team to accompany them, and wait nearby just in case. After all, Victor Von Doom wasn't a man to take chances around; they had all learnt that.

At the warehouse, they'd found that Victor was not alone. Instead, he seemed to have managed to find himself a considerable amount of followers. It was no surprise to them that all of them had strength to match their own, although it wasn't to the degree of their superpowers. It just meant that, before they had a chance to use them, they had to fight them to the ground first.

It had been a long and exhilarating fight for all of them, but they had managed to corner, and destroy Victor for good this time. However, he refused to go down without making his mark, and no sooner had he collapsed to the ground, he had fired a single of the four shots he had informed them earlier that evening, contained a poison.

Four shots, one meant for each of the Fantastic Four, each filled with a poison that none of them were sure of its origin, or its mortality.

The same poison that was now making its way through Sue's veins.

When Sue realised that it was her who had been hit, she understood the tones of the cries that sounded around her. Johnny's, her dear younger brother, had been laced with worry, sure enough, but it was more vengeful, as he turned his attention to the remaining followers of Victor, who, like the others, were to be bound and then arrested. Ben's was the same, although there was a hint of sadness in his, although he, too, turned back to the task at hand.

However, it was when it came to Reed that things fell into slow motion around her. She locked eyes with her husband of three years, seeing that he was already running towards her as fast as he could, ignoring the rest of the excitement around him. His cry had been immediately distinguishable from the others; filled with nothing more than a heartbreaking devastation that pained her to hear. By this point, as he started to near her, Sue was aware of a throbbing, icy pain that was starting to spread through her body too quickly for her to comprehend, originating from a more painful prick in her neck. She reached her hand up, her fingers dancing along the edge of the dart they came into contact with as she felt her legs starting to fail her, buckling to the pressure of whatever chemical was now seeping through her bloodstream.

She had no choice but to surrender to gravity when her legs gave way beneath her, although, she never felt herself reach the floor of the warehouse. Reed had already skidded to a halt on the ground beside her, catching her in the perfect moment before she reached the cold, hard ground that would have caused her even more pain. She fell limp into his arms, feeling his usually elasticised arms become extremely rigid as he held her tightly, one arm raised as he quickly removed the dart from her neck before any more poison could drain into her system.

"Sue.." He muttered to her, looking down at her dazed face. She looked up at him, darkness beginning to blur the edges of her vision slightly whilst she fought to remain in her consciousness. She didn't know what might happen if she gave in to the nausea. Part of her was afraid that if she closed her eyes at that moment, she might never wake up.

"Reed..." She whispered helplessly.

His heart sank. They'd been through a lot over the years, but he'd never, not once, heard her sound so scared before. He swore at himself, unsure as to whether or not he said it aloud, but he didn't care. He should have been paying attention. He should have been able to do something, to stop Victor making that shot, especially at her. He should have been watching her, even if it was just out of the corner of his eye through the battle, makign sure that she was okay. After all, that was his job, right? That's what a husband's meant to do. That was his soul purpose for living. If he couldn't keep Sue safe, what else couldn't he do?

"Oh, God..." He said, feeling a bile rise in his throat, but choking it down as he raised one arm, and brought his hand to her cheek. "Susie..."

Her lips raised slightly in the corners as she heard him speaking, but he was unable to meet her smile. Hearing him call her 'Susie' always made her smile. Somehow, even though Ben, Johnny and her father still called her that, it felt more special when he said it. However, now was not one of those romantic times. This was serious...wasn't it?

"Reed...what's...what's happening?" She asked frightfully, suddenly aware of how much of her body she couldn't feel even though she was still moving them...her legs...her arms...

"It's alright, Sue, you're gonna be okay. You hear me? You're gonna be fine." He convinced her, stumbling over his words whilst all she could do was listen. He wasn't the best of men with words at any normal time, let alone at a time like this. What could he say that would make her feel better? What could he do to take this pain away? Anything? Nothing? He leaned over his shoulder, taking his eyes away from her to look at Ben and Johnny, who were making sure that Victor was once and for all gone, adding a few last blows to his corpse just in Sue's honour. "Ben! Johnny!" He shouted to them desperately.

"The meds are on their way, Reed!" Ben called back, still struggling to bind up their last remaining enemies.

That should have made Reed feel better, but it didn't. The doctors that had treated them in the quarantine after they had first been exposed to the cosmic storm had become their back up, of sorts. They were always on alert when the Fantastic Four were out saving lives, just in case their own lives needed saving from time to time. Clearly, this was one of those times. They were currently a few blocks away, awaiting a possible call, which had already been made to them by Johnny.

Reed looked back over to Sue, who was looking more disorientated. "Sue?"

"Reed...go...go stop Victor." She managed to tell him. As always, she was thinking about the work side of things, rather than herself. She'd done it since the start, and still hadn't stopped, even when she had her husband looking out for her twice as much as anyone else.

Reed shook his head, tears forming in his eyes. "I'm not going anywhere." He told her stubbornly. "I'm not losing you."

"Before he hurts anyone else..."

"Victor's gone." He told her. "He's not going to hurt anyone ever again." Reed's heart almost stopped altogether when Sue's eyelids started to flutter closed. He shook her in his arms, urging her attention back to him. "Sue? Susan, stay with me!" He said, calling the last part a little too loudly, but he needed her awake. He needed those eyes, no matter how much pain they were filled with.

"I...I can't...it hurts so much." She told him in a pitiful voice that wasn't her own. No, Reed hear a voice tell him. This wasn't Sue. Sue was strong. Sue Storm. No, Sue Richards. She was strong. She was a survivor.

"Yes, you can." He told her, fully aware that he didn't sound all too convincing to her when he had tears streaming on his cheeks. They didn't know what was in that poison. She could be dead in minutes for all they knew. It might already be too late. "You have to. Don't leave me, OK?"

She gave him a weak, tired smile. "I love you."

"I love you, too, Susie, but you're going to be all right." He told her, horrified to hear the possible goodbye she was putting into her voice. "Please, just stay with me. Hold on."

"I'll try." She said, as strongly as she could.

He gave her a sad smile, struggling to hold it together still. "Good. That's good, sweetheart. That's good."

"Don't let me go, OK?"

He shook his head. "Never. I've got you, Susie. I've got you. Just keep talking to me, try to stay awake."

But now, her breathing started to get more rapid, as she fought for the air that her body was losing. She looked into his eyes fearfully, and he returned her terrified look.

"Sue?"

"Reed..." She whimpered, as the only parts of her body she was able to feel became racked with pain. Her body jerked in his arms, and he fought to hold on tighter to her, holding her against his chest, as she gasped for breath. Johnny and Ben came up behind him.

"Is she OK?" Johnny asked worriedly.

"She's fine, Kid, she's gonna be fine." Ben tried to assure him, not wanting them all to crowd her whilst she was struggling.

Johnny almost exploded at this point. "FINE? Look at her, she can't breath properly! She's not fine!"

The medical team came in, swarming over to them. However, Reed and Sue were oblivious to this, still staring into each others eyes, fearful that the moment they looked away, they would be parted. Reed couldn't stop speaking to her, assuring her that she was going to be okay, his words punctuated by Sue's whimpers and cries of pain as she clung to him as best she could.

Then, she just stopped.

The cries stopped.

The whimpers stopped.

The frantic movements and squirming stopped.

Reed's heart stopped.

"Sue...Susie?" He asked, frowning slightly. He tried to think of another explanation for why she had fallen so still, but a thick thump in his throat and hot pricks in the corner of his eyes told him the simple truth. Sue wasn't breathing. She wasn't moving, she wasn't crying, and she wasn't whimpering, because she wasn't breathing. If she wasn't breathing, then she was… "No...No, please God, no. Sue, wake up! Come on, Sue, you can't do this to me. Wake up!"

The head of the medical team, Dr. Burgess, came over, and put his hand on Reed's shoulder. "Dr. Richards. Sir, you need to let go of her."

"Sue, no, please." He still pleaded over her unmoving body, paying no attention to Burgess's request. He didn't even know that they were there, trying to help Sue. The only thing he could think of was that she had stopped breathing. She was lying in his arms, not moving, not breathing. Dead, effectively. All because he'd not been paying enough attention.

It took some time, but once the medical team managed to release Sue's body from Reed's arms, Ben took him aside, whilst Johnny stood, staring in shock at Sue's unconscious form. Ben stood in the way, so that Reed couldn't see what they were doing to revive her. It would only break him if he kept that image in his head forever; his wife being resuscitated.

"Reed, look at me."

"Sue..." He whispered under his breathing, trying to see past Ben.

"No...not Sue, Ben." He corrected, lifting Reed's face towards his with his oversized rocky finger. "She's gonna be fine." He told him, softer than his more instructive tone.

"She-she-she stopped breathing." He said slowly, as if he were processing the meaning in his mind. "She's...she's not breathing, Ben. That means she's-"

"Alright!" One of the medical staff called out, right on cue. "She's breathing, let's get her back, she needs this stuff out of her bloodstream and fast."

"I'm coming." Reed said, forcing his way past Ben, only to have the rock-built man literally lift him off his feet and hold him above the ground.

"Oh, no, you don't." Ben said.

Reed fought against him. "No. No I'm not leaving her!"

"Reed, let them do their work."

"I said I wouldn't leave her!" Reed shouted, even though none of the medical team were waiting for him. They simply lifted Sue onto a stretcher and started to prepare to leave.

"There's nothing you can do for her, Reed." Ben told him quietly, as the sight of his pale, unmoving wife shocked him into a silence and a paralysis he had never experienced before. Ben put him back on his feet and put his hands on his shoulders, holding him in place even though he knew his friend wouldn't move. "You can't help her now, man. It's all in their hands."

Reed simply shook his head numbly. He couldn't not help her. She was his wife. He was her husband. They were a team within the team. They were partners in ways that the Fantastic Four as a whole never could be. They had each other backs. They were meant to survive anything and everything, as long as they did it together. They were meant to go to the stars and back a million times before they were ever taken away from each other.

"It can't end like this." Reed muttered, still shaking his head as Sue disappeared from his sight. "It can't."

"It's not going to." Ben told him. "She'll sleep it off, and she'll be fine."

They both knew that Ben was only saying that to make him feel better. After all, you can't just 'sleep off' something that caused you to start convulsing and stop breathing.

"It can't." Reed repeated.

Now that Sue was being whisked away, Ben nudged the two brother-in-laws towards the exit. "Come on, let's get home." He told them in a fatherly tone. Clearly, he would be the one to keep things in order tonight.