Chapter One:

Johnny Storm was laid on on the balcony of the Baxter building, soaking up the rays of the sun that streamed down on him. He'd never been a fan of balconies or verandas until their first summer as the Fantastic Four had revealed to him how wonderful it felt to lie out on the miniature precipice of the building, and now, four years after they had become the professional superhero team, he had made sunbathing into more of a hobby than his sister had done as a teenager. As a child, he'd never really been a fan of sitting still in the sun like she had, especially on a rare visit to the ocean. True, Sue had always liked the trips to the seaside, and she'd play and swim in the water like he had done, but most of the tme, she would lie out on the sand and, as he saw it, be boring. Instead, he'd be off climbing rocks, and as he got older, he started trying surfing, waterskiing and other water sports that had left Sue fretting as much as his parents, and later just his father, had done.

For the moment, none of the rest of the group were in, which was rare. They all still resided in Reed's part of the Baxter, as once the money had started raking in from the government, they had managed to pay off, between them, the entire mortgage on the part that Reed owned, making it the official residence of the Fantastic Four. Who'd have thought, Government Funded Superheroes? However, will all of them living there, and with Ben's girlfriend Alicia having moved in there as well, Johnny had found himself surprised that he'd been presented with the afternoon to himself.

He had to admit though, now that no one was around, that he'd rather have gone out with Sue and Reed. They were off to the hospital that afternoon for another check on the baby, and this time, unlike the time before, in which all of them had gone and Johnny had left very disappointed and uninformed, they were finding out whether they were having a boy or a girl. Johnny had done all but pleaded with them that morning to go with them, but they insisted that they wanted to go alone. After all, it was their first child together, and they wanted to be the first to know. They also wanted to be the ones to tell people what they were expecting, and they knew that if Johnny knew, half the city would know within ten minutes; but they didn't tell him that part.

Ben and Alicia, however, had gone on a secret outing that Ben had been planning for a few weeks now. He'd never told anyone except Reed and Sue where he was taking her, and Johnny had pestered him to no end once he had realised that he and Alicia were the only ones that didn't know. He didn't understand at first what Alicia saw in Ben, and it was only when he had voiced this to Sue after a party that she had told him how incredibly unsensitive he was being to the fact that Alicia was blind. He had to admit, he hadn't known until then, and he hadn't made the same mistake again. After all, he might be an ass most of the time, but there were lines that shouldn't be crossed and that was one of them.

Yet, as much as he liked the peace and quiet, he didn't like being on his own. It gave him too much time to think, and he got bored easily without someone to annoy, mainly Ben, who stil gave him the entertainment he needed from his pranks. Annoying Reed had become something of a dead sport when his brother-in-law had adopted the 'if we ignore it, he'll stop' approach to his mischief. It had annoyed Johnny more when he realised that Reed's approach had been right. Reed tried to tell Ben this as much as possible, but Johnny realised after a while that Ben didn't have Sue backing him up as much as Reed did, so he could always take it a step further without being spoken to afterwards like a child.

So, he'd sat out in the sun all afternoon, feeling abandoned and alone, and most importantly, bored. Perhaps it was the fact that his usual body temperature was over two hundred degrees which brought on the sudden contempt to sit in the sun. Feeling the comforting head was more enjoyable to him than getting a tan, even though he knew that it was great for attracting the ladies this time of year. So, he'd found his favourite chair, which was always rooted in position to catch the best rays before the sun disappeared to the other side of the Baxter, gotten his sunglasses from his room, and made himself comfortable with an afternoon cocktail from the pathetic collection of alcohol in the kitchen. It wasn't good when the person who did the food shopping was pregnant, and decided to stop drinking alcohol, but he wasn't about to risk going shopping just yet.

He stayed that way well into the afternoon, never rising from the perfect spot he had accomplished, and time passed quickly when he had little on his mind, so he had suspected that when two hours had mysteriously passed by in what felt like three minutes, that he must have fallen asleep for a while. Yet, as oblivious as he was to the sound of the congestion on the streets below him, he was all to aware of the lack of heat hitting his chest. Someone was standing in front of him, and so he clearly wasn't alone in the apartment anymore.

"You're in my light." He said simply, without opening his eyes behind his sunglasses to see who it was. "Move."

"Did you put anything on to stop you burning?"

He laughed lightly at the voice, which, although from most would have been concerned, was instead scolding. It was Sue. He didn't have to open his eyes to know that. Despite the obvious differences between her voice, and those of Reed and Ben, he knew just from what was said that it was his elder sister coming out to practice being maternal around him. She'd been doing it for years.

"I'm the Human Torch, Sue." He pointed out, still with his eyes closed beneath the dark shades. "I burn for a living."

"There's nothing to say that the Human Torch can't get skin cancer." She muttered to him, causing him to laugh again.

"I can take a little heat." He told her confidently. After all, he knew that he could take a lot of heat. "Although..." He added, gesturing blindly to the empty glass beside him. "I could do with a top up."

Sue put her hands on her hips, looking down at her brother in disbelief. "Do I look like you're mother?" She asked him daringly.

He finally opened his eyes, lifting his shades and settling them atop his head as he looked up at his sister. Blonde hair. Blue eyes. Hands on hips. Giving him a disappointed 'oh no you didn't' look. "Yeah, actually." He nodded slowly. "You look a lot like Mom."

Sue shook her head at him, smiling as she did so before turning on her heel and disappearing into the kitchen, which the balcony lead off of Laughing at himself, and generally pleased that, once again, her comeback had fired on her, he stood up, following her into the kitchen and grabbing the t-shirt he had abandoned on the back of his chair earlier. He slipped it over his head when he followed her back into the apartment, catching sight of himself in the mirror as he did, and he waited to admire his tan for a moment.

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Reed had thought a long time ago that, as a scientist, nothing could surprise him. Being exposed to a cosmic storm which had left him and his friends with what could only be described now as superpowers had backed this up. Nothing surprised him anymore. And he hadn't been surprised either, at the hospital, when the doctors had told him and Sue that all the precautions they were taking with no alcohol and eating more nutrients than usual were working, and that their baby was very healthy. He hadn't been surprised, but he'd been thankful for it.

They'd been in for a little over an hour, lazing around in the bedroom when they'd returned. The heat that day was almost unbearable, especially for the 5th of May. He'd expect weather like this in the middle of July or early August, but instead they were having a heatwave in May. He hadn't been overly surprised at that either, what with all the global warming threats still flying around from environmentalists. So, rather that going out shopping as they had planned to afterwards, they had come home and lay on the bed together, the windows open as far as they would go so that the breeze would fly over them and cool them down. After all, Sue was five and a half months pregnant now, and she wasn't a big fan of the heat. She was already cursing the fact that she'd have to spend her biggest and last months of the pregnancy in the hottest months of the summer. But despite that, they were both thrilled at the idea of their child joining them soon.

Reed made his way through to the kitchen, where he knew Sue was making a drink. He heard her talking to Johnny out on the balcony, and shook his head, wondering what the siblings were bickering about this time. He was about to join them, when the doorbell attracted his attention.

He crossed through the living room to where they had built in front door after you stepped off the elevator. Too many times when they had first established themselves as a team, people had slipped past security and managed to get into the apartment, usually startling someone in the kitchen where they would drop whatever they were holding, leading to a lot of culinary replacements with their first year of living together.

When he opened the door, he was faced with a young girl, in her early twenties. She had pale hair, almost white-blonde but not dyed that way. Her skin was almost as pale as her cheeks, and when she turned at the sound of the door being opened, he saw her bright blue eyes looking up at him. He also saw the small toddler she was carrying on her hip. Or, at least, she saw the back of the sleeping child, and a lot of light brown curly hair.

He had to say, he was surprised, even though he tried to tell himself that he wasn't.

"Can I help you?" He asked her, not recognising her as someone who had called round before, and definately not knowing someone with a toddler.

"I'm looking for Johnny Storm." The woman said, her tone saying his name with the annoyed tone that many women rang up for Johnny with. Although, even though some of these had come by to the apartment looking for him as well, none of them had come with two bags at their side and a toddler on their hip. Reed looked at her, and then more suspiciously at the child, and the woman caught this look. "I'm just...going out of town." She explained. "I wanted to say goodbye to him before I left."

It explained the bags at her side, and he nodded, stepping back and allowing her in. "Sure, come on in." He said, going to help her with her bags, but she effortlessly reached down and grasped them in the same hand, still clutching the sleeping toddler against her as well.

"Thanks." She said, as she came in and let Reed shut the door behind her.

"I'll go get him, he's out on the balcony." He explained as he lead the young woman through to the living room. She put the sleeping toddler down in an unusually large armchair, one that they had specially reinforced for Ben's size, and placed the bags at her side. She then crossed back over the room and stood facing in the direction that Reed was disappearing into. "Who shall I tell him is-"

"Tell him it's Hallie." She said simply. "He'll know who it is."

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"So, when did you get back?" Johnny asked, when he had finished admiring his reflection and joined his sister in the kitchen.

"About an hour ago." She told him.

"Thanks for coming to say 'hi'." He smirked sarcastically.

"You were being so quiet out there. I didn't think you were in."

He raised his eyebrows at her suggestion. "You know, I don't always destroy something every time you leave me alone." He told her.

She raised her eyebrows in the same way. "Don't you?"

He sighed. "Okay, the toaster was an accident--"

"That's our third toaster in a fortnight, Johnny." She told him. Wow, he thoguht, she even sounded like their mother. No wonder the previous comeback had fired on her.

"And?" He asked, not entirely seeing the point. "Anyway, we've got more important things to talk about." He said, gesturing down at her ever-growing stomach, which wasn't huge at the moment, but definately large enough to tell the world that she was expected.

She grinned down at her stomach in the maternal way that sometimes made him feel like gagging, particularly when her and Reed were doing it at the same time, and then smiled up at her brother. "I thought we might." She mused simply, remembering the small tantrum Johnny had had when he found out that he wasn't going to the hospital with them that afternoon.

"So, spill!" He urged her. "Is my nephew a nephew or a niece?"

Convinced that the baby was a boy, Johnny had insistantly taken to calling Sue's baby his nephew, even though there was an equally high possibility that it could be a girl. However, knowing Johnny, that wouldn't stop him from calling the baby his nephew. But still, Sue had had many a talk with him trying to explain the possibility that she could be having a girl. None of them had worked, though.

"You know," She reminded him. "If it is a girl, you're going to have to stop calling them your nephew."

However, the small smirk on her lips that wasn't there when she usually told him that gave everything away and he looked at her hopefully. "It's a boy, isn't it?" He realised.

She grinned at him, nodding. "Yes, it's a boy." She revealed.

Johnny jumped across the room, before embracing his sister kindly. However, when he realised that he was, indeed, hugging his sister, he stepped back. "Alright!" He exclaimed, and then added with a gently smile. "Congratulations, sis."

She laughed at his reaction. "Would you have hated a niece that much?" She asked him, even though she was smiling.

"No." He assured her. "But boys are so much easier to handle than girls."

"How?" She questioned.

"Boys like video games and water guns and wrestling and football..." Johnny said, knowing that the list was ending, and holding back from adding the word 'fire' to his list and earning a slap from his sister. "Girls like dolls and dancing and dolls--"

"You said dolls twice." Sue pointed out to him.

Johnny looked at her warily. "Do you not remember how many dolls you had?"

Sue laughed. "Okay, you've got me there."

"The point is," Johnny continued. "That there's another boy to outnumber you in this place."

She shook her head, smiling devlishly. "One day, there will be many girls in this house." She looked up as she saw her husband entering the room. "Reed." She smiled, but frowned gently at the confused and wary expression on his face.

"What's up, Doc?" Johnny asked, the same greeting he always had for his brother-in-law.

Reed jabbed his thumb towards the living room, looking at Johnny. "There's someone here to see you." He said.

Johnny frowned as well, looking at his watch for a moment. "I'm not expecting anyone--"

"She said to tell you that it's Hallie, and that you'll know who she is." Reed shrugged.

"Hallie?" Johnny asked, perking up again excitedly, as he had done when Sue told him that his nephew was, in fact, a nephew. "Hallie's here?"

"Wait a sec." Sue said. "Hallie Morgan?"

"You know her?" Reed asked, coming further into the room.

Sue nodded, smiling at Johnny as a strong string of memories came back to her. "Know her? She practically lived at our house. She was Johnny's best friend and his childhood sweetheart." She teased him, seeing the beginnings of a faint blush on her brothers cheek. "Whatever happened to you two?"

Johnny shrugged. "No idea. I saw her once after we got these powers, and then after that, she just broke off completely from me. No idea why." Of course, he did really have every idea why. He knew that he was simply a rebound guy to get over her long-term boyfriend breaking up with her, and it was probably her shame for letting that happen that she had avoided him for the past four years.

"I uh...I think she might have brought the reason with her." Reed explained carefully, his mind still putting two and two together from what he had seen when he opened the door.

Johnny frowned, and left the kitchen to go into the living room. Sue went to follow, looking equally confused, but Reed grabbed her arm gently and pulled her back to him, putting his arms around her.

"Trust me." He told her. "You don't wanna go in there."

"Why not?" Sue asked.

Reed tilted his head to either side, debating his wording, and then settled simply on: "Hallie's not exactly...alone."