Chapter 8 – Flaming On the Core
"Where are them? Time is running out…" Reed was pacing.
Carmen was with James in his room, so he could not pretend that everything would be just great. He believed that things would brighten up but wasn't entirely sure. But what he knew exactly is that Carmen and Johnny must have faith, because no matter how mach medications James will get it would be nothing without his parent's faith in him and support.
"Reed?" He heard from the door and turned to face the person who was talking to him, although he's already knew who it was.
That same moment he was enveloped in a tight hug from his future wife. She gently kissed his temple:
"I missed you so much…"
"I missed you too." He whispered, nuzzling his head in the crook of her neck. "I'm so glad you came."
"Erm…" The both heard from the door. "I don't want to interrupt, but…"
"You're right, Johnny." Reed pushed himself away from Sue. "Tell Dr. Roberts to get James ready. I'll take care of Sue."
Johnny nodded and turned to the door.
"Ok, we'll do that and after we need to talk about the woman I was telling you about." Sue said, taking the coat of.
"Oh yeah, right. Did you find out who she was?"
"Er…yes, but I'll tell you later." Reed started protesting but Sue silenced him with a fast kiss on the lips.
"Ok, whatever you say." He agreed after a minuet.
"Carm!" Johnny called.
The young woman was sitting near the room 407, reading a book. She looked up from it the second he showed up in the hall.
"Yes?"
"Sue's here. They're going to get Johnny ready." Johnny said.
"That's good." She nodded.
But Johnny didn't buy it. He kneeled in front of her and looked in the eyes. It was pretty hard regarding the fact that she was fully staring in her book.
"Ok, what's wrong?"
"Nothing." She answered, to quick.
He titled her chin with his hand to make her look at him:
"Tell me."
"What if it's not going to work? I know Reed said everything would be fine, but it looked like he wasn't so sure. I mean you will go back to your life in New York, and me…maybe I sound selfish but what am I going to do without him?" It was the first time Carmen let the guards down. The wall that was created at the age ten, after the car accident, just fall apart in front of Johnny Storm. It happened for the first time since that night in Madrid when they created a new life that was fighting to survive in the room next to them.
Carmen felt hot tears running down her cheeks. She didn't bother to stop them. Johnny moved closer and hugged her. Then he hugged her even more tightly if it's possible. Johnny felt Carmen hesitate under his touch, but then she wrapped her arms around him in return.
"Hello." Ben answered the phone.
"Hello, Mr. Grimm?" The voice on the line was formal and held ho emotions.
"Yes. Who's this?" Ben asked.
"My name is Richard Lincoln, I'm Ms. Von Doom's lower." He answered.
"Oh." Ben coughed. "Ok."
"The court will notify you about the case and when it will be held and where. I recommend you find a good lower and not leave the country." Mr. Lincoln said.
"Listen to me, Rich…" Ben didn't get to finish the sentence. The other end of the line was already off. "Damn…"
Ben felt himself immediately becoming restless. This Lydia was going to be a great headache for everyone. What have they done to her anyway? Victor was a danger for everyone that's why The Fantastic Four fought him. Not because they wanted to, it was just a necessity. But Ben had some other matters to attend to…
"So?" Johnny and Carmen asked in unison when Reed exited the room he spent last two and a half hours in.
"Everything went well. Now all we have to do is wait." He announced.
Parents looked at one another and a small smile appeared on each other's faces. Johnny took a hold of Carmen's arm.
"Johnny, can I ask you to get Sue to the hotel? She's lost a lot of blood and needs to rest. I need to stay here, so…"
"I'll take care of that. We'll go to my house." Carmen said, standing up, and Johnny made it up as well.
"Are you sure?" Reed asked.
"Don't be silly." Carmen answered.
"Ok, great. And you?" He turned to Johnny.
"I'll stay. One of us should." Carmen nodded.
In the US Ben took a sit in a comfortable lather chair and looked around. The room reflected nothing of its owner. Maybe because it was the office and there was no place for the other emotions rather then the client's ones.
"Well, it's really nice to meet you, Ben. Is that ok for me to call you that?" A nice tall elegant woman in her mid thirties with kind brown eyes and strawberry blond hair that was tugged in a messy bun, said, taking a place behind the desk.
"Er…sure." The thing replied.
"Alright, Ben. My name is Dr. Carrie Marshal, but if we're on the first name bases it will only be fair for you to call me Carrie." She smiled.
Ben nodded.
"You're here, Ben, because you came yourself, because you understand that you need help to cope with your problems. We can talk, discuss and solve them here, in this office." Carrie's voice was so soft that Ben almost closed his eyes to listen to only it. "Everything that happens here, everything we talk about, will stay here, it will not leave this room."
The man took another chance to glance around the office curiously.
"Well, let's try to figure out what's wrong, shall we?" She took a notebook and a pen.
Johnny took a sit near James' bed, on the left side. He took a small hand in his own and looked down, on the floor, before he started to talk:
"Hey, buddy. I know we've never talked. And I know I haven't been your father for quiet some time. But I really want it to change. I really do. Seeing you now, like that, I can't help but think how much of your life I've missed. Your first step, your first word…everything. I was too young to understand what I was losing. And I'm…afraid…I'm so afraid I'm too late now…God, I hope I'm not. I promise, if you wake up I'll be here, and I'll be a good father…because…because I love you, James." He brushed a betraying tear. "I do."
Reed looked at that scene from behind the glass window of the room 407. He felt his own tears building in the back of his eyes. What would happen next? If Johnny would get too close to his own son, what would happen? They have too many enemies. But was he really the one to talk? He's marring Sue and probably some day they would have kids too. That thought was scary at the moment.
Carmen and Susan made it on Carmen's car to her home. Sue took a nap, being very tired from donating blood, so women didn't have a chance to talk, although both of them wanted for unknown reasons.
Carmen took a hold of Sue's shoulder to wake her. The other woman wasn't in deep sleep so she woke with the touch of a cold hand.
"Are we there?" She asked.
"Yes." Carmen answered and mentioned for the other girl to look at her right.
What Sue saw made her breathing stop and mouth hang open. You couldn't call what you saw a house. It was a huge mention with at least twenty windows. It seemed old and was far from London, Sue presumed.
"Wow…whe…where do you work to afford this kind of castle? No offends but I thought single mothers didn't live like this!" The invisible woman laughed.
"My ex-husband. He has at least three more like this in whole Britain. After our divorce he insisted on giving me one." Carmen laughed a bit too. "Apparently he loved me a bit more then I did him."
"Really? So, you are alone now?"
"Yes. And no. I have James now and that means it's going to be two of us always." She said, smiling. "He's the man of my life and other men…they'll just be lucky to take a place in my heart!"
Susan smiled.
"Can I be honest?"
Carmen nodded.
"I like you. You're not like that bimbos my brother has affaires with. You're different. In a good way." Both of them smiled.
"Thank you. Well, let's get into the house. And I never got a chance to thank you for saving James…"
"Stop it." The blond interrupted. "He's my nephew, isn't he? And it doesn't matter that I've never seen him before. He still is a part of a family. And what happened is just awful! That accident…"
"Can I be honest too?" This time Carmen interrupted.
"Of course."
"I'm not so sure it was an accident…"
TBC
