Ben had been alone for quite some time now. About half an hour, at least. He wasn't sure what was happening on the other side of the door, where Reed and Sue were separate from him, but the sudden cry out from Sue about five minutes prior told him that they had let her contractions start again. That worried him, but he remembered what the doctor had told Reed before the Fantastic leader had bolted back to his wife's side. They had an answer.
The shuffling of feet near to him attracted his attention away from the front cover of a magazine he had been staring at blankly. Looking up, he saw his younger team mate standing at his side, hands shoved in his pockets awkwardly.
"Johnny."
"Hey." Johnny replied, giving a brief smile.
"You came back." Ben observed.
"Yeah...Dad wanted to be here." He nodded.
"Oh." Ben accepted, but didn't see the presence of the senior Storm anywhere near them. "Where is he?"
Johnny jabbed his thumb over his shoulder, pointing in the direction of the coffee machine. Lo and behold, standing before it was the elder man, frowning slightly as he toyed with some loose change from his pocket. "Coffee." Johnny said simply. "Says he couldn't function without it."
Ben nodded for a moment, a thoughtful expression on his face. "So that's where Susie gets it from." He mused aloud.
Johnny's attention cast towards the doors. "What's happening in there?" He asked quietly.
"I don't know." Ben said honestly. "Reed hasn't come out again since you left, but from the noise in there, I think they've started her contractions again."
His face fell dangerously. "Didn't they say that was dangerous?"
"I think they've got a way around it." Ben revealed. "Just after you left, they came out and told Reed that they had an answer."
Johnny's worry seemed to calm somewhat, but the fact that it was there still remained a burden on his shoulders. He fell down into the seat beside him. "That's...good." He decided, even though he seemed to have arrived just in time to listen to the screaming again. "That's definitely good."
"Yeah." Ben agreed slowly.
Frank approached them, but the usually bright smile wasn't there as he greeted Ben. He held out his hand, which Ben awkwardly took in his own as gently as possible, and shook it, a saddened smile gracing his features. "Good afternoon, Ben."
"How are you doing, Mr. Storm?" Ben asked.
"Oh, please, call me Frank." He insisted. "There is no need for formalities between friends."
The word 'friends' brought a meaningful smile to Ben's rocky face. "I guess not." He agreed.
"Any news?" He asked, his eyes hovering on the doors that his daughter lay behind.
"The doctors say that they have an answer, and they've started the contractions up again." Ben repeated, noticing that Johnny didn't react this time; however Frank did, even though it was a simple, numb nod.
"But...she's not on her own?" He checked.
"Reed's with her." He assured the elder man, noting the clear similarity between Johnny and his father when it came to worrying about Sue being alone through this. "I don't think they could get him away from her side with ten armed men."
"Try fifty." Johnny corrected, an amused look crossing his face for a moment, reminding them that, despite the panic, their usual prankster was still in there.
Frank nodded, agreeing with them both. "I always liked that man." He said simply, sitting down beside his son. "When it comes to your daughter, you know straight away when that someone is going to look after them, no matter what." He took a sip of the burning hot coffee. "Reed's that man for her."
Ben took a deep breath, and let it out in a long sigh. "Let's hope that nothing comes between that today."
----
The midwife examining Sue nodded to herself, a confidence on her face that had underlying lines of worry among it. However sure they were that this hormonal control was going to work, there was still the fear that it wasn't. "Okay, Mrs. Richards." She announced, lifting her head to face Sue with a smile. "You're fully dilated; it's time to start pushing."
Sue looked at her in disbelief, wondering how, after all she was doing at the moment, there was anything else that could zap the energy out of her. Reed was at her side, one of his strong arms supporting her back as she sat up, and the other firmly gripping the hand that she clutched at him with. Her other hand was braced against the opposite side of the mattress, digging her fingernails into the side of it every time a contraction hit her.
However, another half an hour of contractions was all that it took for her to become fully dilated. She supposed that she was lucky, because it could have taken hours longer, but she was too exhausted and in so much pain to recognise whether it had been a minute or a day. Already she was inwardly laughing at the fact that only that morning, she was sitting at breakfast, and cleaning the house with the radio blaring full blast...and now she was screaming on a bed, and hoping to God that her and her baby survived. Her blonde hair was falling from the hair grip once again, sticking to the warm sheen covering her skin. No matter how many times Reed cooled her with a compress, she felt as if she was burning up to a temperature rivalling her brother's, and her flawless skin was almost bright red from strain. Did she feel attractive at that moment? Definitely not. Yet as Reed watched her struggling to bring their child into the world against all odds, he wondered whether he had ever seen her looking more beautiful.
"This is going to hurt, isn't it?" She realised with an inward groan when the midwife announced that it was time.
Dr. Philips gave a nod from her other side. "I'm afraid so, Mrs. Richards, but don't worry, we're all here to help."
"It's going to be fine, Sue, it'll be great." Reed assured her, kissing the side of her head from where he stood.
She turned and faced him, a sudden panic in her eyes. "What if I can't do this?" She asked.
"You can." He assured her. "I know you can."
"But what if I can't?" She insisted.
"Look at me, Sue." He instructed, and she did. "We're going to do this together, okay? Me and you, and our baby. Think about that. Think about how our life is going to be...about how great it will be to hold our son for the first time...think about him growing up, learning new things, smiling up at you...hold on to that, okay?"
The images in her head caused her to nod, with a new found determination set on her face. "Okay."
"Okay, are you ready?" He asked her.
"I think so." She nodded again.
"Don't worry." He told her again with a smile. "It's going to be okay."
"Alright, Mrs. Richards," The midwife said from her side. "When you feel the next contraction, I want you to start pushing."
Sue nodded, waiting for the inevitable wave of pain. Anxious, she realised that this was it. It was happening, and it was happening now. In a short while, her baby would be taking his first lone breaths, and she would no longer be carrying him inside of her. She would be able to hold him properly, see him open his eyes, hear his cries and be able to calm them. She would be able to meet her son.
It was this thought that gave her strength to push when the contraction hit her. Feeling the baby move inside of her hurt more than she could ever imagine, and she didn't hesitate to scream out in pain. The midwife, Reed and the doctors all coached her through it, but she ignored everyone save her husband. At the end of the day, it only mattered that he was there at her side, as he promised he would be.
When it was over, the midwife told her to stop, and she collapsed back towards the mattress, stopping when Reed's support kept her upright. "You're doing great, darling." He grinned at her.
"God, it really hurts!" She told him, her eyes winced from the pain.
The next contraction came, and Sue pushed once more, the voice of the midwife reaching her. "I can see a head, keep going, Mrs. Richards."
"See, Sue." Reed said excitedly, focusing on her. "It's almost over, you're nearly done."
"One more push should clear the head."
However, having cleared the head, a panicked expression fixated on Sue's face, and she collapsed back once more. Reed caught the look on her face, and she looked up at him, the exhaustion stronger than ever.
"Sue?"
She shook her head. "I just...I can't. I don't feel right, Reed." He frowned at her worriedly. "Something's wrong."
"Don't worry, Mrs. Richards." Dr. Philips assured her from her other side. "We're controlling your hormone levels, and you and the baby are completely safe."
Reed however, looked at him warily for a second, remembering his note to trust Sue's intuition. She said something was wrong, and he trusted her, but right now, another contraction was building up, and she had to focus. "Come on, sweetheart." He encouraged her, tightening his grip on her hand, which she returned. "One more push, and it's all over. One more, I know you can do it."
She took a deep breath, and nodded. "Right. One more."
"One more." He confirmed.
One more was enough, and moments later, the sound of Sue's pain was replaced with another sound, a sound so innocent and new that it could only be the first cry of a newborn baby. Reed smiled as he looked towards the cry, seeing a glimpse of his son being wrapped in a blanket and whisked away to the other side of the room to be checked over. However, that moment was enough for him to see the face of his first born child, the baby that they had created.
"You hear that, Sue?" He asked, turning back towards his wife, slowly. "That's our---Sue?" But she wasn't panting for breath, bathed in a motherly glow as he had expected her to be.
She was unconscious.
