Chapter Eight: I'll Try
I said "I love you"
She began to cry
She said she needed a friend
I said "I'll try"
----John Popper - Alone
Breakfast the next morning was quite possibly the most awkward they'd ever had, at least, all together. Usually, if Sue and Reed had been overheard arguing rather dramatically the day before then Ben and Johnny would try and make themselves scarce when the couple had breakfast the next morning to save the awkward silence that would drag them all in. However, there was no way they could make excuses and leave because both of them were worried about this plan laid down by the Illuminati and how much time it would leave them with the opportunity to have breakfast as a team, no, as a family, like this.
Blaze was the only one not to pick up on the different environment. To the puppy, nothing was wrong because Sue and Reed were making breakfast together, and as usual, Sue was slipping the puppy a few sneaky treats as she moved around the kitchen. After the first corner of toast that she'd torn off her own slice, he hadn't left Sue's side, and eventually she glanced down at the happy puppy expression that was directed at only her. Smiling, she slipped a spoonful of scrambled egg into his bowl. When she looked up, however, she found that she'd been caught and that Reed was rolling his eyes at her.
"And you say Johnny spoils him…" he said playfully.
"I do not," Johnny piped up from his seat at the kitchen table, where he was pouring over the sports section of the newspaper. "He spoils himself, he's a manipulative dog."
Sue laughed, and raised an eyebrow at her husband. "You can't talk, hon. I've seen you giving him biscuits when you think no one's watching."
He looked up in shock. "What-?"
She just laughed again, putting her hand on his upper arm. "There are some secrets you can't keep from your wife, Reed, and one of them is how much you feed the dog."
At this, everything fell silent. No one had mentioned the large argument the day before when they had arrived back from the Xavier school and now nobody wanted to be the first one to bring it up. Secrets, like the one Reed had kept from them, were, of course, unforgivable, but thanks to their shared helplessness and fear over the situation, Sue and Reed appeared to have found common ground on this aspect of their hectic lives.
Realising what she had said, she dropped her hand from his arm. "I didn't mean-"
"It's okay," he told her quickly. "I know."
There was a short silence again, and it was Johnny who broke it, folding up the sports section and tossing it into the spare place. "Speaking of secrets…"
"Johnny, please, not now," Sue half-pleaded with him. She'd had an awful sleepless night where she worried whether she'd ever get to hold her husband late at night without thinking about this time of their lives, and didn't want to talk about this yet.
"I was just thinking that…"
"Look," Sue cut in, turning away from the scrambled eggs and trying not to trip over Blaze in the process. "I just want to go through at least this morning without thinking about any of this."
However, her brother looked rather insulted at the idea. "Hey, this is my moment to shine, can I have it?"
Sighing, she picked up her plate, and sat down at the table where she'd put her coffee a few minutes ago. Sitting directly opposite her brother she gave him her undivided attention, even though she was fully aware of Reed's hand comfortingly on her knee beneath the table when he took the empty seat beside her. It was still a glass-topped table, so it wasn't really a secret gesture, but Johnny and Ben had learned long ago to stop with the wisecracks about public displays of affection, especially when Reed pointed out that it was, technically, his kitchen first. "Okay, what is it?"
"You remember what they said about moving out of the Baxter and stuff?" Johnny reminded her.
She nodded with a grimace after a strong intake of coffee. "Vividly."
"Well, I'm going with you," he announced proudly.
She was silent for a moment. They all were, unsure of how to react to Johnny's decision. "Johnny, what?" she asked, wondering why he was willingly putting himself into the same line of danger that she was heading into when he was probably the most likely of the four of them to compromise the mission.
"Listen," he said, preparing himself for the big explanation he'd come up with during his own sleepless night last night. "If you've got to fake a divorce with Reed," his simple phrasing made the couple both wince, and Reed's hand on her knee moved for a fraction of a second, "leave the Fantastic Four, AND move out of the Baxter Building, pretty much the entire city is going to know that it's a pile of bullshit unless I go with you. I'm your brother. We'll do this together, and if I'm there, you're not completely on your own and I can be there in case something happens."
With a sheen of tears over her eyes that she refused to let spill over, Sue smiled. "Do you mean that?" she asked quietly.
"Absolutely," he nodded without hesitation. "Let's face it, Victor's not exactly stupid."
Ben looked at him strangely. "If I didn't know any better, I'd say you were defending him, matchstick."
"I'm not," he jumped in quickly. "I just think that he's not going to take any of this, or any of us, on faith. Sue's going to have everything to prove in his eyes, and he's exactly the sort of guy who's gonna be demanding proof twenty-four-seven."
Realising just how on-guard she was going to have to be, Sue reached below the table and took the hand that Reed had placed on her knee. He realised her need for reassurance and grasped her hand tightly, drawing circles on the inside of her palm with his thumb. "Meaning?" Sue asked, trying to keep the worry out of her voice.
"Meaning we have to be prepared," Johnny shrugged simply. "Cover all our bases, like. Hence, me coming with you."
"Would this have anything to do with the fact that you'd have to learn to use the dryer properly if I wasn't here?" she asked him.
"Perhaps," he nodded, "but mainly the good brother part."
She smiled gently at him. "Thank you, Johnny."
"No problem, but there is one condition, though."
"What's that?" Reed asked over his coffee, not releasing Sue's hand under the table.
"I'm not working for Victor," he said straight out.
Sue smiled over her coffee mug. "I don't think you need to worry about that, Johnny."
Johnny laughed to himself. "I guess not…oh, good times," he mused, leaning back in his chair and daydreaming.
Reed, however, looked rather alarmed. "Do we want to know the story behind this?"
She shook her head. "Probably not."
"Long story short," Johnny told him, "it appears that the same qualities which make me charming have also made me unemployable."
"I'm not surprised," Ben said in his gruff voice. "Look at you, kid, you're the Human Torch. You're a walking health and safety violation."
He just shrugged, taking it as a compliment. "What can I say? Chicks dig the danger."
"Whatever happened to 'chicks dig the puppy'?" Ben challenged him.
Offended, Johnny gaped at his team mate. "Please don't talk about my Blaze like he's an object."
Sue looked at Reed, her eyes smiling. "I told you that puppy would be good for him."
He sighed, smiling nonetheless now that the conversation had taken lighter tones again. "Point proven, but we're not getting another one."
Hearing this, Johnny snapped out of his bickering with Ben. "You know, when we were at the park the other day one of those blonde girls offered to breed Blaze with one of her bitches. Maybe I should call her and take her up on the offer--"
"NO!" came the replying protest from the other three.
A little knocked back, Johnny sank back into his chair. "Just a suggestion…"
Finishing her breakfast, Sue pushed back her chair and stood up, her hand feeling cold once she had released Reed's. "I'm going to head out in a whole, I've got some errands to run. Does anyone need anything?"
"Some alcohol would be nice," Johnny said.
"Anyone?" she asked, as if she hadn't heard him.
"Just the newspaper, honey," Reed said, joining her at the kitchen worktop so that he could kiss her briefly. "I've got some work to do in the lab, but let me know when you get back, though."
"I will," she smiled. "Ben?"
"Naw thanks, Susie, you want some company though?" he offered.
She smiled at him. "Yeah, that's be nice."
----
As they walked down the high street together, Sue pulled her light jacket closer around her, even though the late summer air was still warm. It was just the chill of knowing what she needed to do that was creeping up her spine. She hadn't done it yet, though. Ben knew, to top things off. He noticed her shifty behaviour. It was a good thing that they didn't actually go into any shops otherwise they might think she was shoplifting.
"So…" Ben spoke into the silence when they reached a less crowded street. "'Errands to run'? Nice getaway."
She looked at him briefly before turning back to the street, shoving her hands into her pockets. "I don't know what you're talking about."
"We've been out for almost two hours and you've not done any errands…plenty of window shopping, but no errands."
"Ben…"
"You don't have to wait until my back is turned, you know. You can just mail it already." Sue fell silent at his side. They stopped walking, just face each other in the almost empty street. "You okay?" he asked her, noticing how intently she was looking down at the sidewalk.
She half-laughed, but there was no amusement in her tone. "You know, it's funny," she mused. "I was writing my resume yesterday, and I got down to 'employment history' and realised that I'd written the exact job I was applying for again, right down to the same company employer."
"Susie…"
"I can't mail it, Ben," she said, her hands appearing from her pockets and flailing for a moment before collapsing helplessly at her sides. The pain in her voice showed every bit of hope that had failed her now that she had to leave behind her family and her love. "As soon as I mail that resume everything begins."
"You can't put this off, Susie," he pointed out to her, carefully laying his hand on her shoulder with some difficulty. "The sooner it starts, the sooner it's over, and by Christmas we'll be looking back and laughing on this."
She smiled sadly. "Ben, I'm not stupid. The Illuminati might have made it seem like a three-week job, but this isn't going to be over before Christmas. I need to win back Victor's trust. That's not going to happen anytime soon, not after what we did to him. It took six months for him to fully trust me the first time I worked for him, and that was before Reed and I were married and had tried to kill him."
They started walking slowly again. "Look on the bright side," Ben suggested after a moment.
"What bright side?"
"He might not even hire you."
Sue smiled properly this time. "I hadn't even thought of that."
"See," he prompted. "This might not be as bad as you think it's going to be."
She groaned dramatically. "I'm sure this is some sort of punishment."
"Now who would want to punish you?"
"I have no idea," she shrugged. "All I know is that saving the world is one thing, but working for Victor?!"
"Point taken."
"I just…" she trailed off into hopelessness again. "I honestly don't know how I'm going to do this, Ben."
"Hey, we're gonna do it together," he told her. "Just because me an' Reed won't be right beside you, that doesn't mean we haven't got your back."
She turned to him as they walked, nudging her shoulder against his rocky bicep for moment. "How come you always know what to say to make me feel better?"
"I've spent a lot of time watching Reed say the wrong things," he said, rather proudly. "Kinda makes me a female expert."
"Oh, really?" she challenged.
"Yeah. This Thing look is a babe magnet really."
"Is that so?"
"Yeah," he scoffed, but then hastily added. " But don't say that to Alicia."
She laughed, and then half-gasped. "Speaking of Alicia, when are you going to make an honest woman out of her?" she teased him.
"Susie…"
"Because I don't care who I'm working for or where I'm living," she continued, "there's no chance I'm not being at your wedding."
"Don't worry, Susie, I'll make sure you're there," he assured her.
"Oh, so does that mean there's going to be one?" she tested him.
He raised his rocky eyebrow at her. "You wanna do these errands on your own, or what?" he teased her back.
She just smiled, dragging him towards an empty-looking café. "Come on, lunch is on me."
