Disclaimer: I don't own the Fantastic Four, movies or comics, or Chris Evans. I'd be rich if I did.
I'd like to thank yaonne- san, ShadowWolfDagger, yumi-wheeler, Keiri Bradon, and penny3 for reviewing, and everyone who reviews after the fact. Hope you like it, love, Brownie. Oh yeah, and the Ben and me, not I, is intentional.
Warnings: this will have mentions of child abuse, and some graphic scenes.
This is an AU, it's gonna have flashbacks, and there is a 12 year old gap between Sue and Johnny, at the start of the story. Takes place after Rise of the Silver Surfer.
Johnny
Chapter 11: Morning After
"He who can be a good son will be a good father." Anonymous
Sue awoke to the feeling of small puffs of breath hitting the crook of her neck, which, she realized when she looked down, were coming from Johnny…the five year old version of him. Crap, she had been hoping that it had just been a nightmare, but no such luck. Sue's mood, which had just been down in the dumps, went up considerably when she saw the scene next to her; Reed was sleeping on his side next to her and Johnny, his arms were thrown around them protectively and Johnny's tiny hand was fisted in his shirt.
A soft smile covering her face, Sue carefully, as to not wake them up, removed herself from under Johnny and Reed. Seeing that it was five o'clock and knowing that Reed, Ben, and maybe even Johnny would be up soon, she went to the kitchen to get breakfast started. Once she reached the Sue started gathering all the ingredients she needed to make chocolate chip pancakes, which were Johnny's favorite breakfast since he was little.
As she stirred the batter, Sue thought about everything that had happened yesterday and dang, had it been an action-packed day. Sue was so lost in her thoughts and mixing the batter, cooking was a stress-releaser for her, that she didn't hear Ben, whose approach was always accompanied by the sound of stomping feet, walk in. And that was why she jumped back, went invisible, and almost dropped the batter when he said, "Hey, Suzie."
Going visible and breathing heavily, she, placing the batter back on the counter and then facing Ben, said, "You almost gave me a heart attack."
"Sorry," apologized Ben, wondering why she hadn't heard him thundering down the stairs.
Running her fingers through her hair, pushing it back, Sue admitted, "It's not your fault, Ben. I was lost in my thoughts, wondering how we are gonna help Johnny, I didn't even realize it the first time, Ben, what if I mess it up again?"
Smiling at her reassuringly, Ben said, "I can't promise you that we're not gonna mess up and I can assure you that it's not gonna be easy. But what I can promise you is that you're not going to be alone, me and Reed, we love the kid as much as you do and we'll do anything for him…" he was interrupted by Reed, whose hair was sticking out every which way and was still wearing his jeans and t-shirt from yesterday and had obviously just woken up.
"Ben's right, Sue," started Reed as he walked up to Sue and pulled her into a hug, "We'll figure it out and besides it can't be worse than last time and he turned out pretty good."
"Yeah, he did, didn't he?" said Sue, in the circle of Reed's arms, truly believing that they could do this for the first time. Then, after kissing Reed on the cheek, she pulled out of his arms, and actually started making the pancakes. While she was doing this, she asked, "Where's Johnny?"
Reed, who was now sitting on the dining table and flipping through Johnny's folder, answered her query, "He's still sleeping, I think everything that happened yesterday wore him out and besides he's five years old now, he's gonna get tired really easily now."
Reed and Ben both started reading the papers, pausing when Reed told Ben something that finally made the news of what kind of person Johnny really was, from at least the age of five until now, hit home, leaving them both wondering as to what the best way to tell Sue was.
The news that they had just learned would simultaneously worry, relieve, and more than likely anger Sue because well, it would make anyone who cared about Johnny angry, but it would probably affect Sue more than anyone because, well, she was his big sister and if anyone in the world had the right to know what had happened it was her. And the fact that some people in Social Services had found out and hadn't told her, his legal guardian of the fact, well, to say the least, it wasn't exactly legal.
Reed was about to just blurt it out, but stopped when he heard the almost silent pitter-patter of tiny feet and quickly realized the only person it could be and held up a hand so Ben didn't blurt it out either. And a minute later, just as he had predicted, a tiny head, the hair on which was sticking up every which way and was probably going against every force of nature, peeked in the door. The owner of said head turned beet red when he saw the three pairs of eyes that were looking at him and, clearly feeling embarrassed, walked in, voicing a shy, "Good Moorwing."
Crouching down to his level and smiling, because she could tell that he was clearly feeling vulnerable because of everything that happened yesterday, Sue said, "Hi, Johnny. Are you hungry?"
She smiled the "aww, that's so adorable" smile that was found on the faces of most mothers, when he peeked up at her through his mop of blonde hair and, with a hesitant smile covering his face, nodded and said, "Yes, pwease."
"All righty," she said as she picked him up and placed him on his booster seat, the one that Reed had found sometime yesterday, "I hope you like choco-chip pancakes with whip cream and milk because that's what I made."
This got the enthusiastic response that she expected from Johnny, reminding her that her baby brother was somewhere in there, "I woves them!"
"Well, that's good," said Reed, picking up the conversation when Sue went to go get the pancakes, "cuz she made a lot!"
"Weally?" asked Johnny, getting more subdued causing Reed to get at himself once more because he was seriously messing this up.
Trying to fix whatever the problem was, Reed asked, "What's wrong, Buddy?" And as he had expected got no response from Johnny and so he tried again. He, placing his hand under Johnny's chin and tilted his head up, not even blinking at Johnny's flinch because he had been expecting it, and, looking him in the eyes, said, "Johnny, I can't fix what's wrong if you don't tell me. I promise I will do anything I will do everything I can to fix whatever's wrong, but first you have to tell me. Come on, Kiddo."
With his bottom lip quivering and his blue eyes watering, Johnny looked up at him and confided, "I can't eat wat much, Weed." Reed couldn't believe that he was that worked up over something so little, but then again he was a little kid, and so to assure him that it would be okay, Reed said, "That's okay, Buddy, Sue won't mind…" he was then interrupted by a worried little kid.
"But what if she get angwy and hates me, Weed?" asked Johnny, terrified that the one person he cared about most in the world would hate him.
Knowing by now that the "she won't care" reason wouldn't work on Johnny, Reed said, "Okay, what if...you eat as much as you can and Ben," he said, pointing to him, "and me will eat the rest? What do you think?" Reed internally raised a fist in victory, when Johnny's face lit up and he, almost sounding surprised that someone would do that for him, which made some of Reed's happiness wane, asked, "Weally, you guys would do wat four me?"
This was when Ben, seeing that Reed was lost in the thought that Johnny would think it was a big deal that someone would eat for him, said, "Course we would, Kiddo," he really wanted to add 'We love you' to that, but he was still too closed-up to do that and, so, internally apologized, 'I'm sorry, Johnny.'
They were all pulled out of their thoughts and conversation, when Sue came in with the aroma of chocolate chip pancakes following her. Placing everything, which was, the platter of pancakes, the jar of milk, and the can of whip cream, on the table and then, after taking her own seat at the table, which was next to Johnny, so that he was sitting between Sue and Reed and across from Johnny, she said, "Dig in, guys," and so they did.
Johnny, after placing two pancakes on his plate, reached for the spray, whip cream, bottle and squeezed the metal base, wondering why it didn't work and what had happened to the tubs of whip cream that Sue used to use before. Trying to figure out how it worked, Johnny inadvertently ending up pointing the nozzle at his shirt and running his fingers all over tweaked the nozzle, effectively spraying himself with whip cream.
Then looking at his shirt, he, looking horrified, glanced up at them, expecting them to get mad just as his foster father had every time he had made the smallest mistake, he just hoped that they didn't hit him like he had. He sure as heck hadn't expected them to burst out laughing and for Sue, to reach out with a napkin and wipe the whip cream off of his shirt and order, "Reed, you have to give him a bath after we are done eating," then went back to eating, and Reed, being the perfect husband that he was, replied, "Okay," and sprayed some whip cream on the pancakes for Johnny, poured him some milk, and they finished the meal in peace.
…TBC…
So whaddya think? Good, iffy, bad, better, could be better? Should I continue? Reviews and constructive criticism are always appreciated.
*wishes really, really hard*hope you enjoyed it, yours truly, Brownie.
