Chapter 10:

Twenty-four hours is a long time to wait when you're waiting for the woman you love to wake up. The whole world seemed a lot darker, because he had never felt more alone in his life, not even when she had left him all those years before. He felt alone, but he was never actually by himself. Frank came to visit his daughter and grandson every day, bringing with him the news from the outside world. When he finally got around to leaving the hospital, he would pay close attention to all the news speculation about the furious concealment of the recently dubbed 'Baby Fantastic' by the journalists; when Johnny had heard this, he'd borrowed a pen from a nurse, and crossed out 'Baby Richards' on the nametag, replacing it with 'Baby Fantastic'. This simple action left all of the maternity nurses pouring attention onto the newborn.

Johnny finally brought himself to visit his sister's side. Even though he hated hospitals, he stayed there the entire time, adamant to support Reed with his idea that neither Sue nor the baby was alone. When Reed had to be with his wife, Johnny remained with his new nephew, watching the innocence of new life and hoping that the strength of this brand new child was enough to guide his sister back to them. He came bearing sunflowers, Sue's favourites, placing them in a previously empty vase at Sue's side in the room. He might have been a hot-head, but for the first few minutes, it had been clear that he was trying not to cry for his sister, but Reed was the only one who noticed. He said nothing.

For the majority of the time, Reed stayed in the chair at her bedside, facing the blind-covered window which was still drawn shut. They'd taken to keeping it drawn completely after some newspaper helicopters tried to fly dangerously close to the hospital in hopes of seeing either Sue or the baby. They had failed, however, and according to Frank's report, they had also been fired. Still, when people other than his family did check in to see how she was, he paid no attention to them. He couldn't give them an answer other than "the same" when they asked how she was, not when the only thing that made sense to him other than to stay at her side was to be with their son.

He knew that he wasn't going to forget this feeling for the rest of his life. Without a doubt, he loved his wife and child. The moment that he had walked in and seen her lying there, the mere presence of beeping in the room being the only indicator that she was alive, had been enough to send his head and his heart into some dark place, where he was helpless to do anything except to wait for her eyes to open, and bring him out of it. He didn't understand how this could have happened to her, to them.

He hurt. His heart actually hurt. He always thought that the expression of feeling your heart breaking was just words to try and explain to someone how it felt to lose the person you loved. However, the person he had almost lost wasn't gone anymore, and yet there was still a pain in his chest that begged for some sedation against it. He knew that the only person who could take away this pain was the person he was sitting there fighting for.

The only thing that helped him was visiting his son. The life that they created which lay healthy and kicking around the corner.

He needed to be strong now. He had to be strong, because Sue wasn't.

----

Four days passed, and there was still no change in Sue's condition. She was still sleeping, regenerating her mind and body before she would wake. However, on a lighter note, the baby was doing very well. So well, in fact, that they were allowing him out of the quarantine. Reed had been more than relieved when they had brought him into the room, which would now be shared between Sue and the baby. The clear plastic crib now at the side of her bed, so that when Reed was sat in the chair beside her, he was directly before his son too - there when either of them needed him.

Holding his son for the first time had brought a new pride into him. Even though so many bad things were hanging over his shoulders, he was unable to suppress the smile that surfaced when his son lay cooing in his arms for the first time. He'd imagined the remarkable feeling of holding his newborn son, yet nothing could have prepared him for the overwhelming surge of love that he felt for this child. His child. Their child.

On the fifth morning, Reed was at the side of the bed, holding their baby son in his arms. The nurses had asked him many times what they wished to name the child, yet he never answered them with a name. That was a decision he and Sue would come to together. He wasn't about to name their first born without her. It was their right as parents to name their child together, because she was going to wake up soon. He knew it. Something in his heart told him that. Soon. She'd be awake soon.

But how soon is soon? His mind would ask him.

Opposite him, on the other side of the bed, was Johnny, nursing a coffee in his hands. Neither of them said a word, and both of them found more comfort in their silences than they could have done with false assurances. At least when they weren't talking, they could listen to the gentle breaths and sighs of the baby that gave them their hope.

Johnny sighed, his hands coming up to cover his eyes as he tried to rub the tiredness from them. He'd joined Reed in Sue's room the previous evening, and still, the sleep that he had evaded since he arrived was creeping over his mind. He couldn't sleep, not now. Not yet, anyway. He needed to know that Sue was going to be okay before he slept. Too many times he had tried to sleep since she had come to hospital, and he had been awaken by the disturbing screams of his sister in what he assumed where his nightmares. He needed closure first.

Reed was in a similar position, yet on occasions, he allowed himself to rest his head. It was all very well remaining awake to watch Sue, but with the baby to care for at the same time, he needed to sleep, and quite often it was on a 'sleep when the baby sleeps' rota - unplanned and very brief. He just missed her so much. Losing Sue would have been unbearable. It would be the same as losing the other half of his soul, knowing that it couldn't function without her half. He was drowning, but there was no coming up for air like there was when she was beside him. She wasn't there to save him, because he hadn't been able to save him.

He was lucky for her to have been revived when the code team had arrived. He knew that. He knew that they had been ready to give up, as it had been so long without a heartbeat already. He knew that Sue would be in pain when she woke up, because of the bruising their fists would have caused when they had first tried to revive her, but surely, she wouldn't mind, because it has saved her life.

But that didn't change the fact that it had been five days, and all he could do was sit at her side, soothing their son when he cried.

----

On the sixth day, Frank entered the room and saw Johnny sitting there alone, whispering to his nephew. There was emptiness to the room, despite the replying coos to Johnny's mumbled comments, and the beeping of the monitors. Something was missing.

"Where is Reed?" Frank asked, as his son looked up at him from his seat at Sue's side.

Johnny looked up at him, almost worriedly. "He's...he's not good at the moment." He explained. "I told him I'd watch Sue and the kid so he could get some air."

----

Air hadn't exactly been what Reed had left to get. He couldn't leave the hospital, because of the reporters that had tried to pounce on him as soon as he had reached the doors. Instead, he'd found himself a quiet spot to the side of the lobby, ignoring the few people surrounding him so early in the morning. He didn't care for the children who looked at Mr. Fantastic, and saw a broken, helpless man instead of the hero they looked up to. He didn't know how to be that man at the moment.

Frank went down to the lobby, and heard Reed before he'd seen him. From the other side of the hall, he could hear the muffled sobs that came from his son-in-law. Reed, however, was so overwhelmed by his sobs that he didn't even notice someone was beside him until Frank put his hand down on his shoulder.

It had been the first time that he had properly broken down since Sue had been revived, six days ago. He'd kept a lot bottled up in that time. His face was pale and pasty underneath his slightly stubble. His usually unruly hair was even more all over the place from where his fingers had been tugging on it through his cries. Tears were covering his cheeks, continuously replaced by the fresh ones which streamed from his red eyes.

Frank lowered himself into the chair beside Reed, turning slightly so that he was facing him. Reed simply shook his head, stumbling over his words through the cries he was powerless to stop. "I can't-she's not-I just-"

"Calm down." Frank said, his voice gentle. "Breathe, calm down."

He didn't calm down, however, and continued to stumble over the words that he couldn't express. "She-she-she-"

"Son, will you stop and breathe for a second?" Frank instructed. Reed halted mid-stumble, realising for the first time who was beside him. Frank had always called him 'son' since the wedding, even though it was only his marriage to Sue that made this so. "Good, much better." Frank nodded, watching as Reed forced himself to take deep controlled breaths, even though he still had fresh tears running from his eyes. "Now, what's got you all like this?" He asked.

"I can't do this." He told his father-in-law weakly. "I just...I need her to wake up. I can't do this alone. I can't lose her."

"No one said you were going to." Frank pointed out. "Do you love my daughter?"

"More than you could ever imagine." Reed nodded.

"Then what are you doing hiding down here?"

Reed shook his head, half-laughing, ironically. "Because every day I sit there, and I think 'any minute now, she'll wake up', but she never does. I sit there, and I hope, and even though I know that she's going to wake up, that hope seems to get further and further away every time our son falls asleep in my arms instead of hers." Reed sighed. "I'm meant to be fighting for her, and I can't even do that properly."

Frank tightened his hand on Reed's shoulder. "You don't have to fight for her this time." He pointed out to him. "You've already done that, and you fought well. This time, you've got to help her fight, and give her a reason that makes the fighting worth it."

Reed was forcing himself to take deep breaths again, desperately trying to calm himself down before he felt he embarrassed himself any further in front of his father-in-law.

Frank stood up, bringing Reed to his feet. "Come with me."

----

Minutes later, they were back into the room that Sue lie in. Frank turned his back to Johnny, who was standing by the window with the baby asleep on his shoulder, and faced Reed. "Have you ever been to a funeral, and heard a baby start crying at the back of the room?" He asked him.

Reed nodded, remembering the sound of his cousin's newborn cries as his grandfather's funeral. "Yes."

Frank gave him a smile. "There's nothing more comforting for a funeral than that." He pointed out. "Hearing the innocence of life present at the disappearance of another." He turned away, leaving Reed confused in the centre of the room. Retrieving his grandson from his son, Frank went back over to Reed, just as Johnny left the room.

Reed held out his arms for his son, and Frank passed the child between them. Instantly, Reed adjusted to the weight in his arms, or rather, the lack of it. His son was a light child, that was to be sure. Despite his inner pain, he found that he was smiling to himself as he watched his child sleeping peacefully. Reed's gaze fell onto Sue for a moment, watching the similar peaceful expression on her face.

"You're only one man, Reed." Frank told him. "You can only do so much for her."

"I should have been able to do more." He said, shaking his head.

"You know as well as I do that you were doing everything that you could." Frank reminded him. "Besides, this is Susan. You know how she gets when you try to wrap her in cotton wool." Reed let out a small breath that could be mistaken for a laugh, realising that Frank was right. "Now, she's going to wake up. I have faith in that, and if faith is the only thing that I have to hold on to, then I'm going to hold on damn tight to it, but you've got to believe that as well."

"I want to believe so much." Reed said quietly, his eyes captured by his son squirming in his arms.

"Then what's stopping you?"

"I...I don't know." He realised.

Hope you enjoyed this chapter...please review! The next chapter is the final one!