Disclaimer: You know the drill, I don't own the Fantastic Four yada yada ya.

Author's note: Well thank you very much for your reviews, I'm sorry I didn't update sooner but these things happen when you go on holiday. Anyway, I bet everyone will hate me after reading this chapter and if I'm honest I would hate me too but I don't :D. Enjoy!

Johnny slumped against the wall and sighed for the umpteenth time. He was sure Ambulances were supposed to get to their destination as quickly as possible, not stop off at Starbucks for a coffee, drop off their dry cleaning and then go and save someone's life. He glanced at his phone impatiently; it had been sixteen minutes since he called.

Ben had regained his original position on the floor and was now holding Alicia in his arms again. Reed and Sue were discussing what might have happened. Johnny hated to sound like a jerk but he couldn't help but be slightly annoyed that all this was happening. He had been the centre of attention up until now and he didn't take to being pushed aside too well. Once Ben called everyone had completely forgotten he was now powerless. He knew it was wrong to think so, but Johnny wished Alicia's timing had been a little better. He wished she had chosen a date a month from now to have a near death experience. In other words when he was done soaking up all the sympathy.

Johnny sighed again and kicked a chunk of broken glass lying on the floor. He frowned. Broken glass? He looked closely and noticed it wasn't the only piece. Johnny was standing in a layer of tiny shards of the material. Johnny knelt down to get a closer look.

"Ben? Does Alicia do stuff with glass?" Johnny asked. Ben frowned.

"Whaddya mean do stuff with glass?" he replied.

"You know, art. Sculptures and stuff," Johnny answered.

"No…why?"

"There's just loads of broken glass over here," Johnny said.

"Glass?" Reed stretched over to where Johnny was crouched to see what he was talking about.

"She may have just dropped a glass," Johnny said nonchalantly. Reed shook his head.

"I think it was something more," he muttered and leaned down for a closer look.

The faint sound of an ambulance siren caught the ears of Ben and he managed to smile a little. He looked down at Alicia and kissed her lightly on the forehead. "Not long now," he whispered reassuringly. The siren became louder as the ambulance drew closer.

"Johnny, go and greet them," Sue instructed. Johnny sighed, rolled his eyes and left the room. Shortly after the siren abruptly stopped and Johnny reappeared followed two men and a woman.

"Well, what have we got?" One of the men asked. He was very tall and thin and reminded Johnny of a boy he had known at school nicknamed 'String bean'. Reed, who had been staring at the glass, stood up and joined the newcomers.

"We don't know. We just found her lying on the floor, I don't think she's breathing but she has a faint pulse," he summarised. Ben put Alicia down gently and watched as the woman felt for a pulse.

"We need to get her back to base ASAP," the woman commanded. Ben raised his eyebrows, she spoke like she had come straight from a top secret military base. Automatically Ben looked at Johnny and visa versa, the two exchanged looks and they both smiled. Johnny's smile quickly faded as he remembered he was still mad at Ben and he looked away.

The two men disappeared and reappeared with a stretcher. They quickly loaded Alicia onto the stretcher and carried her out the building. The Fantastic Four followed them and watched, as Alicia was loaded into the vehicle. Army girl, (as Ben had decided to dub her,) and her silent companion, (the other man,) got into the ambulance but String bean hesitated and looked at Ben.

"Are you coming?" he asked. Ben shook his head.

"I wouldn't fit. I'll, er, drive there," he muttered. String Bean nodded sympathetically.

"Rodney!" Army girl shouted from the drivers seat. String Bean/Rodney pulled a face and climbed into the ambulance, he smiled at Ben and slammed the doors shut.

The Fantastic Four watched as the Ambulance drove off and stood in the street until the sound of the sirens had faded into the distance.

"We should probably get going," Reed stated, drawing everyone out of their own quiet thoughts. Everyone nodded in agreement apart from Johnny.

"You guys go ahead; I'm gonna go home," he said quietly. He threw his car keys at Reed.

"I'll walk," Johnny added at Reed's surprised look. Sue watched her brother suspiciously.

"Don't drink any alcohol at home," Sue warned.

"I won't touch anything at home," Johnny promised. "Take care of her," he added to Reed over his shoulder as he began to walk off. He was gone before Sue could say she meant for him not to drink anywhere.

A BAR ON YANCY STREET

Johnny had intended to go straight home; he hadn't really been in the mood to go anywhere else. At least that's how he had been feeling until Sue had told him not to drink anything. The last time he had disobeyed his sister he had lost his powers, so he found a loophole in the rule. Sue had instructed him not to touch a drop of alcohol at home, so he hadn't. He didn't have to go very far to find a bar, he turned a corner and it had been sitting lazily in front of him.

Johnny entered the bar slowly and sat down in a corner at the counter. He had come to the bar before with Ben a few times; Ben always mumbled something about it being like a second home to him. Johnny thought that always made Ben sound like an alcoholic.

"Johnny! What can I do for ya?" the bartender asked brightly. He quickly made his way over to where Johnny was sitting.

"Hey Ernie…er, I'm not bothered. Something strong," Johnny said quietly. Ernie raised his eyebrows curiously.

"Something strong? I got just the thing," Ernie wandered off to the other end of the counter and reappeared a minute later holding a small glass filled with a clear liquid. Johnny accepted the drink and nodded gratefully.

AT THE HOSPITAL

It took Reed, Ben and Sue twenty minutes to drive to the nearest hospital. It had been a long, antagonising twenty minutes. Ben had spent the whole journey voicing his concerns, yelling at other drivers and telling Reed to hurry up. Reed drove as quickly as he dared without being pulled over by the police; he also drove carefully, taking care not to hit anything on the way. They all knew very well that Johnny would kill him if there were a single scratch scratch.

Then it had taken a while for them to find somewhere to park. They ended up having to park Johnny's car quite far away. It would have taken them ten minutes to reach the hospital from their parking space but Reed and Sue had to run to keep up with Ben's colossal strides. They reached the hospital in five minutes.

"Excuse me ma'am," Ben said to the young girl sitting at the counter. The receptionist looked up from her crossword in the paper and flashed Ben a dazzling smile.

"Hi, how can I help you?" she asked brightly.

"We're looking for a woman called Alicia Masters, she should have arrived here not too long ago," Reed said answered.

"She came in an ambulance," Sue added quickly. The receptionist frowned.

"Excuse me," she said before turning to face the doctor checking something on the computer behind her.

"Have we had any ambulance calls lately?" she asked. The doctor nodded.

"I sent Rodney and co to Yancy Street a few minutes ago."

"Are they back yet?" the receptionist asked. The doctor shrugged.

The receptionist turned back to the three superheroes waiting patiently, or at least two of them were.

"Well?" Ben asked.

"I haven't seen anyone arrive in an ambulance for at least three hours," the receptionist admitted. "You could go to the waiting area for A&E. Ask the people down there if she's in theatre or something like that. It's the second room on the left."

"Ok, thank you," Sue said gratefully before following Ben and Reed who were already far ahead.

The waiting room was full of people, uneasy chatter covered up the noise of the television screen hanging on the wall. Ben was the first to reach the desk.

"Hi, uh, could you tell me if a woman named Alicia Masters has arrived here yet? She left her workplace from an ambulance about half an hour ago," Ben said to the receptionist. The woman frowned and shook her head.

"We haven't had any ambulances drop people off for a while honey," she said sympathetically. "Are you sure this is the right hospital?"

"Well it is the closest and she was unconscious," Reed replied impatiently.

"I'm sorry, maybe you should try St. James," the receptionist said before returning her attention to the forms in front of her.

Ben couldn't breathe. Was this a joke? If she wasn't at the hospital then where was she?

A SMALL BAR ON YANCY STREET

Three more drinks later Johnny still sat mournfully by himself. He tuned off to the noise of the bar and wandered loosely through his own thoughts. He could understand why Ben came here every week. No one bothered him, no one asked any questions about the cast on his arm and no one was asking him about his team-mates. Most of the people in there were regulars, they were used to seeing The Thing almost every Saturday night. The sound of a door slamming open pulled him back into reality. All eyes turned to the door as three people dragged themselves into the room. All of them were dressed in hospital uniforms. The two men were supporting their female companion between them. Ernie rushed from behind the counter and helped the men carry the woman into an empty booth near Johnny. Johnny listened curiously to their conversation.

"What happened?" Ernie asked. One of the men answered him.

"We were just driving to our destination when a man waved us down, he said his friends was hurt. We got out and sure enough there was a guy lying on the floor with blood all over his leg and a girl kneeling next to him. We decided to take the guy to the ambulance. Now I was driving so I didn't see what happened next but the next thing I knew the 'injured' guy was holding a gun to my head and telling me to stop the car and get out. He already knocked these two out," the man gestured to his companions. "We thought it was kinda odd that they were dressed like they worked at the hospital with us but we never thought they'd steal our ambulance."

"They stole your ambulance?" Ernie asked. "Well where were you guys headed?"

"108 Yancy Street," the girl managed to say. Ernie stiffened.

"108?" he asked. The three people nodded.

"You know the person who lives there?" one of the men asked. Ernie nodded and turned around to face Johnny.

"Hey Johnny, doesn't Alicia work at the art studio…" he trailed off; Johnny was already out the door.

AT THE HOSPITAL

Ben sat silently with his eyes closed on the floor; he listened to Reed talk to the hospital staff and Sue sip herbal tea. He'd been sitting with his back to the wall for five minutes now, he couldn't think of anything else. Ben waited; he waited for the doors a few feet away to fly open. He waited to see doctors and nurses crowded around a trolley. He waited to stand up and see his girlfriend lying amid the chaos peacefully. Any minute now.

Ben slowly opened his eyes, the receptionist was starting to get sick of Reed, Ben could tell. She spoke impatiently and kept glaring at him.

"I told you, there is absolutely nothing I can do," the receptionist said through clenched teeth.

"Nothing?" Reed asked her sceptically. "Don't you have tracking devices on your ambulances in case they go AWOL?"

"I'm sorry, maybe you didn't hear me the first time. I can't help you!" The receptionist said angrily, she had dropped her smile now.

Ben closed his eyes again and focused his mind on Alicia. Where could she be? Why was she missing? Was she alive?

Ben had gathered up a few ideas already, this had Doom written all over it. He would've seen Alicia and decided to take advantage of everything. Would he kill her? Nah, he'd capture me and make me watch. The idea made Ben's blood run cold, he didn't know what he would do if he didn't have Alicia. Everything would become pointless, of course he always had his friends but what was friendship compared to what he had with the sculptress?

"Johnny?" Sue calling out the superhero's name made Ben open his eyes briefly. He looked Johnny up and down and closed his eyes. Johnny was standing with his sister by the door; he was out of breath and wearing his suit. From his position on the floor Ben could smell the alcohol on Johnny's breath. Apparently so could Sue.

"Have you been drinking?" she asked suspiciously.

"That's not important," Johnny said dismissively. "Is Alicia here?"

"No, we don't know where she is," Sue said in a way that made it clear she couldn't really believe what she was saying.

"Well I do," Ben's eyes snapped open, Reed stopped arguing with the receptionist and Sue stared at her brother.

"Well I don't know where she is," Johnny admitted. Sue rolled her eyes, "but I think I know what happened to her," he added quickly. Ben stood up and went over to join Johnny. Reed quickly followed.

"Well?" Reed pressed.

"I was at Ernie's when these three people came in, they were wearing ambulance clothes and stuff and they looked pretty bad. Anyway, the guy told Ernie that they were on their way to the studio when a guy asked them to help his friend. They let these two guys and this girl into the ambulance and then these guys and the girl pulled out guns and beat them up pretty bad. I'm guessing they were the ones who took Alicia and…I'm guessing they aren't real ambulance people either."

There was a tense silence as everyone processed what they had just heard. Reed was the first to speak.

"Okay Johnny, I need you to do another drawing. Draw the ambulance staff and then we can ask questions about them. The rest of us should go and ask around and see if people have seen the ambulance. Maybe we could track it down with eye witnesses."

"Cool," Johnny agreed. "Shall I go home?"

"I don't care where you go, just draw," Reed commanded. Johnny raised his eyebrows and left his companions for the Baxter Building.

"Should we split up?" Sue asked. Reed nodded.

"Lets go to Yancy Street and knock on doors, if we split up we can get this done quicker. The quicker the better, we want people to remember which way the ambulance went."