Disclaimers: I don't own the F4 characters, as much as I'd like to, but I'm not that lucky… I own Maria though, so I guess I'm pretty lucky.

A/n Just a note, remember in chapter 8 Ben said: "Look at her skin..." ? Keep it fresh in mind.

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"Maria? Honey?" she could hear her father's voice, it was time to get up.

'I knew it was dream,' she thought as she reached up her hands slowly, and rubbed her eyes. She'd dreamt that she and Johnny had become trapped in a hotel during an earthquake, but everyone knew they didn't happen in New York… right?

"Reed, she's waking up," she heard her dad's voice saying happily.

'Waking up?' she thought, what was the big deal? Had he been calling her for a while? She didn't think so, she'd only just heard him. Why was he so excited? She must have overselpt way passed her alarm.

Slowly she opened her eyes, and cloed the immediately. The light hurt them too much. "It's ok sweetie, take your time," her father's voice said, and she felt him taking hold of her hand.

'What's going on? Am I sick?' she asked herself, trying to open her eyes again. She did it slowly this time, letting the light enter them gently enough so she could get used to it. Looking to her left, she saw her father. He had had tears flowing down his face, "Dad?" she said, only it came out quieter than she wanted it to. Her voice was weak, and she coughed a little. "Why are you crying?" she asked, her voice came out louder this time. "Did someone die?" she asked. The last time she saw him cry like this was when he broke the news that her parents had been killed.

He shook his head, "No sweetie," he said, stroking her hair gently, in case he hurt her.

"Did I die?" she asked. 'Don't be stupid, if you had you wouldn't be asking that question,' she scolded herself.

Ben laughed, "No," he said. He nearly added 'you almost died,' but stopped himself before the words came out. "Do you remember what happened?" he asked gently.

Maria blinked, "I was with Johnny," she stopped and sat up in the bed. "Oh my God! Johnny!" she looked at her father, "Is he alright?" things started coming back to her, the gas leak, the little boy… "Where is he?" she asked fearfully, was that why he'd been crying? No, she'd asked if anyone had died, and he'd said no.

Ben put a hand on her shoulder and eased her back down to a lying position. "You need to lye down," he said gently.

Maria shook her head, "No, I don't need to lye down," she protested struggling against the big man's strength - which was useless. "Why won't you answer me?" she asked fearfully.

"He's ok, he's with Sue," Reed answered her. "Do you want me to go and get him?" he asked, and Ben glared at him.

"Please?" she asked, and Reed nodded. She looked back at her father, "What happened? How long have I been sleeping?" she asked, it was now becoming clear to her that she'd been in a coma of some sort.

Ben took a deep breath, "You collapsed in the hotel, and the fire men had to go in and get you out," he paused as it all came back to him. "When they bought you out, you weren't breathing, and they had to help you," he paused again feeling tears well up. Blinking them away, he continued, "When they got you breathing again they said they didn't know the damage the gas had done, and they had to do tests." He paused again, "Only they couldn't get any needles into you, your skin had changed."

Her eyes widened, "What do you mean?" she asked.

He paused and reached for a mirror, "Look," he showed his child her face.

"Oh my God…" she said staring at her reflection, "I look normal…" tears sprang to her eyes, and they slid down her face. She wiped them away quickly, but then she realised, her skin wasn't affected… "What's happened, am I normal again?" she asked. She didn't want to be normal, even if it did mean she could get back to her old life. She wanted to be a superhero, she liked it. She didn't have to study to be a superhero, she just was one.

Ben shook his head, "No…" he said.

"No?" she repeated. "Then what? If I'm not normal, and not a me, then what am I?" She looked at her reflection again, her skin was normal, but her hair was still of a bluish colour.

"The hospital allowed Reed to bring you back here to run some of his own tests," he explained, "You're body is still pretty much made up of water, only you're skin is like an elastic shell," he said. "It can't be pierced." He reached over to get a needle, and handed it to her.

She took it and pressed it on her skin, she felt no pain, only a tingle from the point. "What about heat, does it effect me?" she asked, knowing that water didn't as her tears didn't hurt her.

"We don't know, Reed wasn't sure. We'll test it when you're better," he said to her.

There was a knock on the door, Maria and Ben looked to it, and saw Johnny nervously poking his head around the corner. He was still a little timid of Ben.

Ben got up and pointed at his seat, "Sit," he ordered the younger male. Johnny stared at him for a second, he wandered is he'd get clobbered if he sat down. "Sit," Ben repeated. Johnny nodded a 'yes sir' nod. It looked like there was more of a chance of him getting clobbered if he didn't sit down.

Ben made his way to the door, "I'll leave you guys alone for a bit," he said. "I'll be back later to check on you," he smiled.

Maria smiled back, "I love you dad," she said.

Ben smiled, "Love you too sweetie," and with that he disappeared and closed the door behind him, leaving Maria and Johnny in what was rapidly becoming a nervous silence.

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End of Chapter

A/N, Can you feel the love in this room:):) (yes, very aware of how lame that sounded). I'm a bit of a funny mood - I got in trouble for my attitude to this really cruel and bitchy customer (reall really not my fault-she yelled at me cos I was going too fast on the checkout, but I had a queue of about 8 people! - I'm damned if I go slow and I'm damned if I go fast). Besides all I did was tell her that if she was going to slag me off in a different language to do it in a language that I didn't understand.