A/N: Sorry about the wait guys, here you go.

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Chapter Six

The insurance company had covered the damage to Johnny's car. He had fought them for it, of course, but in the end, they caved. Ben told him it was a wonder that his license plate had survived after bouncing off his head. Johnny loved that car: fast, shiny, hot, and a stereo that cranked. But right now the cranking stereo was not at the top of his list.

Stella found an old radio station that played...Happy Music...they called it. Scary music, Johnny called it. Oldies: Janis Joplin, The Temptations, Otis Redding, Nancy Sinatra; Stella seemed to like that kind of music. Right now she was riding shotgun singing along with the radio as they sat at a red light. Finally the song came to an end. Thank God, if Johnny ever heard another "Do Wa Diddy" as long as he lived it would be too soon.

"This is so much fun," Stella declared excitedly. "I've never been to a city this big in my life."

"Hey baby," the grungy man in the wannabe-hotrod stopped besides them called. "Why don't you ditch that zero and get with a real hero." Stella blushed crimson and sunk down in her seat. Johnny gripped the steering wheel heatedly. "You wanna make the easiest fifty bucks of your life?" Jerk-face sneered. That was the straw that broke the camel's back. Johnny had been working on his temper, but nobody insults the Torch's girl...not while he was around.

"Get down," Johnny instructed, he put his hand on the back of Stella's head and quickly pushed her forward. He chucked a ball of flame at the adjacent car. It hit the driver's side door with enough force to rock the car. Jerk-face shouted in surprise as he hurried to roll up his window.

"What the hell is your problem," Jerk-face yelled as Johnny chucked another fireball at him. He went off into a sting of incoherent swearwords. As Johnny chucked another fireball at the car he slammed on the gas, but halfway through the intersection his front left tire blew out from the heat. The car swerved to the left and an oncoming car hit the passenger's side. The driver of a second oncoming car slammed on the brakes, but still hit Jerk-face head on.

"Oh my gosh, Johnny look what you did," Stella half-laughed, half-hissed.

"I'm not the one who ran the red light," Johnny reminded her as he made a right turn, out of the commotion of honking horns and shouting drivers.

Johnny parked the car along the curb outside of an old pub style restaurant called Oliver's. It looked as though most of the lunch hour rush had died down and the waitress in the front hallway took them upstairs to a booth almost as soon as they came in.

"You know what this is," Johnny began craftily after they had placed their drink orders. Stella shrugged. "It's out second date," Johnny declared.

"And?" Stella looked a little confused.

"And?" Johnny teased. "The rules of proper date procedure clearly say that on the second date, I get my first long kiss."

"Oh," Stella mused. "You have this down to a science, don't you?"

"I wouldn't call it a science, per say," Johnny replied. Science bad. "I mean, I've never known a girl as long as I've known you without kissing her...well, except my sister, but let me tell you there are definitely some issues there." Stella looked as though she wasn't sure if she should be offended or amused.

"Is that so," she shot.

"Well yea," Johnny said, taking a sip of his soda. "She stripped naked in front of me and about a hundred other people on the damn bridge." Stella laughed, shaking her head.

"It's not funny," Johnny insisted, "I'm scarred for life. I just can't look at lingerie the same." But his tone quickly changed as their waitress returned with their burgers. "Oh. Food."

"Great, I'm starving," Stella began, shoving a couple fries in her mouth. Stella ended up eating her food, and half of Johnny's fries.

"You weren't kidding," Johnny ribbed good-naturedly as he waved over their waitress. "You want to go get ice cream?"

"You eat ice cream?" Stella mused. Johnny let his brow furrow slightly.

"Good point," he replied. "How about cheesecake and coffee?" Stella laughed.

"Sounds like a plan," she said as the waitress approached.

"Don't worry about it. It's on the house," she explained. Johnny grinned and thanked her charmingly.

"You know it pays to be a superhero," he said. "You're gonna like it. Especially since Ben and I do most of the dirty work. Sue and Reed usually stay up at the Baxter Building and...you know...study stuff."

"I really don't think I'm going to be fighting crime any time soon," Stella replied.

"That's the best part," Johnny said. "You don't have to."

"Excuse me," they heard a woman call. Stella and Johnny looked in the direction of the voice and found two identical copies of a woman rushing towards them. "Aren't you Johnny Storm?" The one asked, in a voice that led you to believe that she thought she was the Helen of Troy.

"Why yes I am," Johnny answered smiling in a self-satisfied, charismatic way.

"Oh my gosh, we just saw you on the news," Helen number two replied. "Hi, I'm Connie."

"I'm Annie," the second offered. Then they informed him together: "We're twins."

"We can see that," Stella replied, not hiding the agitation in her voice. The two looked at her questioningly. "Stella," she explained. "Girlfriend."

"Girlfriend?" Johnny repeated.

"Why yes," Stella answered. "The laws of dating clearly state that after two dates and one long kiss, we're a couple."

"Now, Stella," Johnny began philosophically as he put an arm around her. "I'm not a one girl guy."

"Oh, you're not?" Stella shot back, anger growing.

"Don't worry baby," Johnny assured her. "I'm plenty hot enough to go around." Stella sneered as she grabbed what remained of her soda—which was nothing but some ice—off the table.

"Is that so? Then why don't you cool off," she returned just before dumping the ice down the front of his pants and taking off. Johnny yelped in surprise as his shorts were put on ice, as he tried to shake the ice cubes down one leg of his pants, before heading after her.

Stella hurried down the stairs and out of the pub. They weren't far from the Baxter Building, only a few blocks. She was pretty sure she remembered how to get there, so as she headed out into the light of the street she started to run. She ran as fast as she could past cars and people until she spotted the familiar building. She stormed through the doors and rushed up the stairs.

She was starving by then, even though she had just eaten, so she headed towards the kitchen area. She came into the kitchen and heard the microwave go off, and whatever it was, she wanted it. She pulled the door open and grabbed the two slices of pizza on her way out to the balcony.

Reed looked up from his paper in time to see Stella disappear with his pizza. She looked pissed, and Johnny wasn't back yet, so he wasn't about to say anything. He sighed heavily, exchanging looks with Ben and Sue, reaching into the refrigerator for the left over lasagna.

Stella finished her (or rather Reed's) pizza and began to look around for somewhere a little more secluded. She spotted a wide ledge above the balcony and decided it was perfect. She climbed up on the cement railing and pulled herself up. She sat there for some time, observing the skyline, before she heard heavy footsteps coming out onto the balcony.

Ben looked around, then up, and spotted Stella.

"Mind if I join you?" He asked, pulling himself up easily. She shook her head. "You want to tell me what happened?" Again she shook her head. Ben sat silent a minute, waiting.

"He's such a jerk," Stella declared finally. "Do you know that?" Ben laughed slightly.

"I know, Johnny's always been a little conceited," Ben answered. "And a bit of a hothead...and a smartass. But I also think he has good intentions...most of the time, and he seems to...genuinely care about you. If you had seen him at the hospital, or waiting for you to come around, you would have thought he was a different person." Stella sighed.

"I'm sorry about this morning," she said finally.

"Don't worry about it," he assured her.

"You're just a little bit—"

"I know," he offered apprehensively.

"Surprising," Stella finished. "I mean, how often does a girl wake up in a strange place and find herself in the company of somebody like you?"

Surprising? Ben pondered to himself; he had heard scary, ugly, and grotesquely huge before, but surprising was new. Stella was certainly one in a million, and if Johnny didn't know what he had going for him, then he was stupider than he looked.