Disclaimer: I do not own Fantastic Four. That is the property of Marvel and 20th Century Fox. I am not making any profit by writing this.

Meant to Be

Chapter 11-Open Your Eyes

"Reed!"

Mr. Fantastic winced at the sound of his soon-to-be-wife shouting his name once again. As of late, Sue was irritable, cranky, short-tempered, stressed, and yelled a lot. Most of the time, Reed was the one she would take out her anger and frustration on through her screaming at him or venting to him. This behavior had become so commonplace that he forgot what it was like for his fiancée to not yell at him. He took a deep breath and braced himself before heading in the general direction of Sue's voice.

"Yes, sweetie?"

"It took you long enough to get here! What were you doing?"

"Nothing dear."

"Cut that out! Quit faking being nice to me! I can see right through the front you're putting up!"

Reed took a moment to reflect on what Sue had just said. Is that what I'm doing, faking being nice to her? No, it can't be. Could it? I mean yeah she is getting on my nerves, but I just need to keep reminding myself that once she and I get married that I will no longer have to put up with this side of Sue.

"Reed!"

He was shaken out of his thoughts by his fiancée screaming his name. Reed noticed how Sue had narrowed her eyes at him and her face was beginning to turn red with anger. That's never good.

"Did you want something from me, Sue?"

"Why do you make it seem like such a chore for you to come when I call your name?"

"It's not a chore!"

"Then why didn't you get here sooner?"

"Excuse me for not being there at your beck and call!"

Reed was trying his best not to get mad at Sue, but she wasn't making it easy for him. Their argument, if you can call it that, had escalated to the point where they were now both shouting at one another.

"You know what Reed, forget it! I have a pretty good idea what you were doing. You were in your lab working on one of your projects, weren't you? I can't believe this! I just had to fall in love with the one guy who would much rather marry his work than me!"

"Sue, wait!"

But it was too late. She had already stormed off and was in the elevator on her way down to the ground floor of the Baxter Building.

4-4-4-4

Johnny was standing before the four tombstones of the police officers who lost their lives in the armed-robbery-turned-high-speed-car-chase. The four tombstones had the names Johnson, Michaels, Anderson, and Smith on them. He couldn't bring himself to attend their funeral, but he finally was able to muster up the courage to visit their graves. He looked sadly at the tombstones. Just being here conjured up an all too vivid memory of what happened on that fateful night.

"I was hoping I'd run into you."

The Human Torch turned around to see a woman in her forties. He wiped away the tears that had formed in the corners of his eyes with his hand.

"And you are?"

"I'm Officer Johnson's wife. I didn't see you at the funeral."

"Yeah. I'm sorry about that. It was just I couldn't—it was too hard to—I—"

Johnny hated how small his voice sounded. Usually he wasn't one to stumble over his words. On the contrary, generally the Human Torch had no trouble saying what was on his mind. However, this was one of those rare occasions where that wasn't the case.

"It's okay. I understand. You're here now though. That's all that matters."

Johnny couldn't even bear to look the woman in the face. She seemed like a nice enough woman, but still, he couldn't shake the feeling that she could go off on him at any second blaming him for the death of her husband. Heck, I blame myself for the death of her husband, so why shouldn't she blame me too?

"I come here everyday you know. Sometimes, I'll talk to him. Other times, I'll just sit here with him. I know that probably sounds silly."

"No. Not at all."

The two of them stood there in a silence that was comfortable to one, but awkward for the other. The Human Torch didn't know what to even say to the woman who was now standing at his side. He was startled when she took his hand in hers.

"I don't blame you for my late husband's death. You know that, don't you?"

"You don't?"

"Why do you sound so surprised? I don't blame you. I have no reason to."

Hearing her say those words was like taking a huge load off of Johnny's shoulders. Sure, people have told him time and time again that it wasn't his fault, but to hear the wife of one of the slain police officers say it was an entirely different thing. For the first time since the incident, Johnny was starting to believe it as well.

4-4-4-4

Sue found herself at Alicia's front door. After discovering the door was unlocked, she let herself in. Miss Storm and Miss Masters had grown quite close ever since they first met. Sue had asked Alicia to be her maid of honor at the wedding. The Invisible Woman was glad to have a close female friend in Alicia.

"Alicia?"

"I'm in the bedroom."

Sue found Alicia sitting up in her bed with her lower half of her body underneath the covers. She had a slightly disheveled look to her, and was currently rubbing the sand from her eyes.

"Oh, I'm sorry. Were you sleeping? Is this a bad time? If it is, I can come back tomorrow."

"Sue, it's fine. I guess I must have dozed off in Ben's arms. He must have carried me in here and tucked me in. Anyways, what's up?"

"Reed and I got into a fight if you can even call it that. Apparently he cares more about his projects than he does about me."

"What makes you say that?"

The fact that Reed and Sue were fighting didn't come as a surprise to Alicia. From what Ben told her, Sue had been getting increasingly stressed as the wedding day approached. Alicia didn't doubt that this was probably a stressful time for everyone involved.

"The closer we get to our wedding date, the less time Reed and I spend with each other. I'm trying to handle all the wedding planning while he is in his lab no doubt working on another of his many projects."

"Why doesn't he help you?"

"Alicia, he's a guy! What could he possibly know about planning a wedding? Besides, I've dreamt about my dream wedding ever since I was a little girl, and I want everything to be just perfect, so I told him to leave the wedding planning to me."

After Sue got done responding, she realized how awkward what she had just said was. She had a pretty good idea how Alicia would respond to that. It was probably the same way she would respond to it if roles were reversed.

"So you're mad at Reed for doing what you asked him to do?"

"I guess so. That does sound pretty stupid. Still though, I feel like I will always come in second with Reed. His work is and always will be his top priority."

"If that were true, then do you think he would have asked you to marry him?"

Sue had always thought that between her and Johnny, she was the one who had a good head on her shoulders. However, if there was one thing Sue admired about Alicia, it was her ability to talk some sense into her and to give her good advice without hurting her feelings in the process.

"Well, no."

"As far as the wedding planning is concerned, I'd be more than happy to help you with that. You just have to ask yourself one question—what's more important, having a perfect wedding or marrying Reed?"

"Why does it have to be one or the other?"

"It doesn't have to be, but if you continue down the path you are on, then it might end up that way."

Sue didn't even want to contemplate the thought of losing Reed. Sure their relationship had its fair share of ups and downs, but what relationship doesn't? The two of them have known each other for such a long time, they've been through so much together, that Sue couldn't even think of anyone else in her life that could even come close to being her soul mate.

"Thanks for talking some sense into me, Alicia. I should probably be going now. I have an apology to make."

4-4-4-4

"Hey there Stretch. Where's Sue?"

"Your guess is as good as mine."

"Uh-oh. Did you two get into a fight again?"

"I don't know. I honestly don't know. Yeah. At least I think so. I don't even remember what the fight was about. All I remember was we fought, and she stormed off."

Ben had been in such a good mood too after basically cuddling with Alicia. He was still in a good mood, but his day was no longer as bright as it was a minute or so ago. The Thing wished that Reed and Sue could stop fighting especially so close to their wedding day. Ben hated the thought of either of them calling off the wedding when their wedding, as of this moment, was only two weeks away.

"If there's one thing I learned from my relationship with Debbie, it was to apologize even if you don't think you did anything wrong in the first place."

"If she thinks she is the only one who is stressed out, if she thinks she is the only one who hasn't been getting much sleep, then she has another thing coming. I am utterly confused Ben. I do precisely what she asks me to do and leave the wedding planning to her, and then she bites my head off for God knows what reason."

"Two more weeks. All you have is two more weeks to put up with it, and then you two will be married. One day, you'll look back at these days and have a good laugh."

Reed rolled his eyes and scoffed at his best friend. Somehow he doubted that he would ever look back at his pre-wedding days and laugh at the way Sue behaved.

"What should I apologize for if I don't even know what I did wrong in the first place?"

The way Ben and Reed were standing, Reed had his back to the elevator while Ben was facing it. The Thing saw Sue step out of the elevator right when Reed was in the midst of asking his question. Ben cleared his throat and with his head, subtly motioned his head in Sue's direction.

"I'll leave you two alone." Ben said before heading for his room.

"Sue, I—"

"I'm sorry too, Reed. I just got back from talking to Alicia, and she made me realize that the wedding dinner menu, the decorations, the music for our first dance, none of that matters as much as marrying you. If I had to choose between having the perfect wedding and marrying the perfect guy, hands down I choose marrying the perfect guy—I choose marrying you, Reed."

Before Reed could so much as get a word out, Sue had cut him off by kissing him. Mr. Fantastic suddenly forgot what he was about to say, but he could care less. The two of them were in the here and now, and the only thing they cared about was that their significant other was kissing them.

TBC…

I know it's been over a week since my last update, but keep in mind that I am in summer school. I just finished taking my finals for the first of two sessions of summer school this past week, and the second session starts tomorrow. While, ideally, I would love to do nothing more than to do nothing but write fanfiction all day, in reality, I cannot do that. At least if I don't want to fail my summer school classes. So, please bear with me. I'll do my best to shoot for a once a week update (maybe more often depending on how busy I am with schoolwork), but that is not etched in stone, so if I don't meet that schedule, please try not to hold that against me. If you have any comments, by all means tell me in a review. If you have anything to critique me on, feel free to tell me in a review. I gladly welcome constructive criticism. It helps me to improve my writing. No flames though please.