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The door creaks slightly as she pushes it open, making a mental note that they’ll need to fix that later. Sue peers around the door, stepping into the sunlit room she trips on some wooden building blocks that have been left lying on the floor just behind the door.
She shakes at her head at nobody and picks up the wooden ‘F’ block with blue paint thats chipping away. Turning to look over her shoulder back out of the room she calls out. “Franklin what have we told you about tidying up your toys?”
Picking up the rest of the blocks she continues into the room to put them away in the wicker basket that sits by the window that holds the rest of his wooden blocks and a few other miscellaneous toys.
Sue picks up a few more toys from the floor, including plastic spaceships, soft plushie spaceships and a stuffed The Thing plushie which Franklin absolutely loves but Ben cannot stand. She places the soft toys on his bed up by his pillow before sitting down on the bed and smoothing her hand over the pale blue bedding.
Tiny little footsteps padding down the hallway outside the room catch her attention and she smiles to herself before making herself invisible and standing up off the bed taking a few careful steps towards the door.
Her four year little boy sticks his head around the door looking for her in the room.
“Mommy?” He asks, walking into the room looking confused.
Sue steps behind him and scoops him up in her arms, “Boo!” She says making herself visible again and tickling him.
His giggles fill the room as he squirms in her arms. His laugh is her favourite sound in the world.
Her eyes snap open to sunlight streaming in the room through the small gap in the curtains falling over her and the bed and creating tiny rainbows across the yellow and white carpet at the bottom of the bed.
That was some dream. She thinks to herself, the memory of her dream lingering in the back of her mind. That feeling of her son in her arms, that empty feeling now that she’s no longer holding him and the sound of his laughter. That name and her dream son looking so much like herself and Reed.
She turns over in bed to face her husband only to realise he’s not in bed next to her. Sue frowns turning back to look at the alarm clock.
Nine forty two am. She’s slept in.
Sue curses herself as she throws the covers back and pushes herself out of bed, though this particular morning she feels off. Theres a weird ache to her muscles, her limbs feel heavy and a quick wave of nausea passes over her as she stands up.
“That’s strange.” She mutters to herself as she stretches her arms above her head.
Could she have eaten something weird last night? She’s never gotten sick from Ben’s cooking before and she wouldn’t even necessarily say she’s sick now, though it is possible.
“Shake it off Sue.” She tells herself.
When she passes her mirror on her way to her and Reeds shared closet she can’t help but stop and look at herself. She fixes her hair and adjusts her pyjamas trying to see if she can spot anything that might be off with her appearance or complexion. The only thing she notices is how refreshed she looks for it being first thing in the morning her skin looks more alive with colour. Maybe she just slept better last night, she did miss Reed getting up.
She snaps herself out of it, she’s standing in direct sunlight of course her skin has a soft glow to it. She makes her way into the closet to get dressed for the day. She’s late already as it is.
“Ah, there we are.” Ben says as she hurries into the kitchen adjusting her headband. “Sleepy this morning were we?”
“No.” She says getting slightly defensive but tries to brush it off and save herself. “Just taking some time to myself, reading.” She adds.
“Mmhm, right.” He says though thankfully he doesn’t push the situation further.
“What’s for breakfast?” Sue asks making her way around the kitchen island.
“Nothing. We got cereal though.” Ben says passing her a bowl.
“Johnny’s cereal?” Sue asks raising an eyebrow, she already knows the answer to her own question.
Of course all they’ve got in the kitchen this morning is Johnny’s overly sweet cereal, since the rest of them typically prefer a more filling and savoury breakfast and Johnny can never be bothered to be up early enough to care what he has for breakfast.
“I’m getting groceries later you need anything?” Ben asks, a notepad already on the countertop and pen in his hand.
She looks down at her empty bowl and hesitates for a second. Does she need anything? Not particularly though she would like to know what’s going on with her this morning and why the images of her dream wont leave her mind all morning. Or maybe it’s just a weird lazy Sunday morning and she’ll feel better tomorrow.
“No, no I’m good.” She tells him, reaching into the fridge for what’s left of the milk. How have they let it get this bad to the point where there’s very little left in their kitchen. “Has Reed left already?”
“Yep about an hour ago.” He informs her, adding milk to his list.
So she won’t be seeing him until later.
She grabs Johnny’s box of cereal out of the cupboard and pour herself a decent amount of lucky charms into her bowl before filling it with milk. She takes it over to the table to sit and eat it and think.
Her head starts spinning as she continues to recall her dream and starts to calculate her last period when she completely misses what Ben says. She looks up at him, spoon mid way to her mouth as she tries to act as nonchalant as possible.
“Is everything okay with you this morning?” He asks, eyes narrowing in on her. “You seem a little off.”
“I’m fine.” She reassures him and mostly herself as she eats her cereal to keep busy.
Ben joins her at the table, notepad and pen in hand his grocery list growing. “So what’s Reed doing at the University on a Sunday?” He asks.
“Summer club for kids runs this week and next, over the weekends as well and I think the kids are getting to go to the University and learn some stuff about science.” She tells him. Trying to remember what Reed had told her about it the other month when he was invited down and asked if he would come in for the day for the kids.
“That’s nice.”
After a second and third spoonful of Johnny’s Lucky Charms and a good three minutes of her doing more calculations in her head for her period that she’s sure somehow she’s miscalculating, she must be forgetting the day her previous period finished because otherwise that would mean she’s—
“… late.” Johnny says strolling into the kitchen sporting blue fluffy robe and matching blue fluffy slippers.
Sue freezes, “What?” she asks.
“You’re up late.” He repeats, at least he’s not giving her the same weird looks Ben had been sparing her way earlier. “Hey my cereal.” He gasps dramatically, grabbing the box off of the counter then looking down at her bowl.
Johnny turns the box around so that the picture of him printed across the back of the box is facing her and he taps next to his face.
Sue sighs rolling her eyes. “The cereal, technically, is for everyone Johnny.” She tells him eating another spoonful while holding eye contact with her brother.
“But it’s my face thats on the box. And anyways you don’t even like sweet foods in the morning for breakfast.” He says and now he’s giving her a weird look.
“Ben… hasn’t been grocery shopping yet. It’s all we had.” She shrugs avoiding eye contact with the two of them.
Johnny huffs as he throws himself down into the chair opposite her and digs his hands into the cereal box, pulling out a handful of Lucky Charms and shoving them into his mouth a few of them somehow miss his big mouth and fall onto the floor around his chair.
“You’re making a mess.” She points out gesturing with her spoon. “H.E.R.B.I.E’s going to have to clean up after you.”
“Sorry mom.” Johnny mumbles sarcastically around a mouthful of cereal. “It’s kind of his job though.”
Sue rolls her eyes. “It’s not just his job to clean up after you.”
Her brother shrugs, essentially ignoring her and throws up a piece of cereal into the air before successfully catching it in his mouth.
“WHOAA!” He exclaims putting the box down on the table a little too forcefully, making the table shake. Johnny stands up arms above his head victoriously. “Ben! Did you see that? Tell me you saw that.” He reaches his arm out to high five Ben who’s understandably purposefully ignoring her hot headed brother by scribbling down more things onto his grocery list.
“No Johnny, I didn’t.”
“Awwww come on! That was my first try as well. What a way to start the morning am I right?” He asks looking across the table at her as he sits back down.
“Whatever helps get you motivated for the day Johnny.” She says pushing her chair back and taking her bowl over to the sink to rinse it out. “See you boys tonight for dinner?”
“Yes yes.” Johnny sighs, tossing multiple pieces of cereal up into the air and catching at least one of them in his mouth. “Seven pm, on the dot.”
Sue makes her way into the living room where the sunlight covers the entire room in a wam golden blanket. The mid morning sun is bright and the air blowing through the open window is cool and refreshing. She sits down on the sofa and picks up the stack of papers she left on the coffee table last night that she still needs to read through and approve.
A series of future interview questions for their upcoming Ted Gilbert, afternoon T.V appearance they have coming up soon needs to be looked over and approved before they go ahead and properly schedule a date for their appearance on the show.
As well as that a new issue of ‘Teen Living’ that Johnny was on the cover of has been published just this past Friday has come through.
“The Fantastic Four Hunk Is Whipping Up A Storm” Sue reads aloud to herself looking over the front cover. No doubt that he picked that little phrase out himself or something similar that the journalist adapted.
She flicks through the pages nervous to see just what her brother has potentially spilled about them to the world. She had at least gotten to see a few of the questions he was going to be asked beforehand and nothing in there seemed too invasive of their privacy if she’s remembering correctly.
‘Find out Johnny’s biggest secret’ Reads at the top of the page and under that headline and continuing onto the next page alongside a picture of her brother with hearts around his face, because of course, is his question and answer section of the magazine which Sue takes the time to read through.
He’s gotten pretty good at answering questions more professionally and maturely. She especially likes his answers about her. Mentioning how he carries her advice with him through everything and the part where he calls her the coolest person ever. It makes her smile and she’ll make sure he never hears the end of it from her.
For the rest of the morning she goes through the interview questions for their T.V appearance, highlighting the ones she thinks are the better questions, the more appropriate slightly fun and unique questions they don’t always get asked a lot.
She’ll also go through them with the rest of the family later although most of the time they’re not that interested in all the pre-interview details and trust her to oversee that everything is finalised beforehand. Still, Johnny with probably want to keep in some of the more flirty questions and Ben won’t have much of a preference. Reed will want to talk science and family stuff while keeping most things professional and private.
Before lunch she writes back that they’ll take the Time Magazine interview in the coming weeks and takes some time to look over some stuff for her Future Foundation. Once she’s done and bored of sitting in the living room needing to get up and walk around she finds H.E.R.B.I.E in the kitchen.
“Hello H.E.R.B.I.E.” Sue greets him. “Would you take these and make sure they’re given to the right people?” She asks him, handing over the paper. “And make sure Johnny get’s his magazine. He’s probably going to want to frame the front cover.”
H.E.R.B.I.E whirs in agreement, taking the papers from her and keeping the magazine on top of the pile. He rolls over to the counter top and stops to show her the sandwiches he’s prepared for lunch.
“So this is where breakfast went.” She says shaking her head.
Four near identical sandwiches sit on four identical plates with symmetrical blue patterns around the edge of the plate. The sandwiches are simple bacon, lettuce and tomato cut into triangles. There’s extra bacon on Johnny’s however and Ben’s has extra tomato, where as she likes more mayo on her’s personally and Reed prefers his simple with even proportions of everything.
“H.E.R.B.I.E did Reed forget to take his lunch with him today?” She asks looking down at him.
He spins himself around three times, making a low whirring noise.
Of course her husband forgot to take his lunch with him on the way out. Smartest scientist, man and mind in the world but can’t quite seem to remember to pack his lunch, however you wont ever see him forgetting Tsiolkovsky equation.
“Pack mine up with his and I’ll take it over to him.” She tells H.E.R.B.I.E taking herself over to the fridge and grabbing two bottles of water to go in with their lunch and she can pick up something sweet from Maisie’s on her way.
Sue takes their lunch over to the University Reed sometimes guest lectures at during the school term. Once every couple of months he’s invited down by the Universities dean to teach specialised graduate lectures. Today though he’s teaching a group of kids as part of their summer camp.
It’s good for him to get out of the lab some days, take a step back from his own projects and research.
When she get’s to the University and up to the lecture hall he frequents, a group of late kindergarten kids are lining up to leave the lecture hall in pairs, holding their partners hand. The kids are all talking amongst themselves in quiet voices mentioning space and planets and stars, excitement ringing throughout their voices as they speak.
She holds off to the side letting them leave the room and make their way down the hallway behind their teacher. A few of the kids recognise her and smile and wave as they nudge their friends and in a not so quiet voice whisper. “That’s Invisible Woman.”
“She can turn herself invisible.” Another says.
A little girl with blonde hair and blue ribbons in neat pleats waves at her, her eyes light up and the biggest smile spreads across her face. Sue waves back offering the girl a soft smile and somehow the girls smile widens and she turns to her friend with the most excited look on her face, her eyes shine with awe and admiration.
The last few kids exit the room with another teacher following behind them. The last group of boys all look at her smile and giggle to themselves. One saying to another, “They’re married.”
Their teacher ushers them down the hallway and as they reach the stairs the little girl from before looks back over her shoulder and gives Sue one last little wave.
Sue enters the lecture hall smiling to herself over how cute the kids were and imagining them sitting in here listening to Reed talk on and on about science or space or engineering. The kids taking in every word and truly enjoying having Mister Fantastic teach them for the morning.
“I think you’ve got some good reviews coming your way.” She announces herself walking down to the front of the room where Reed is stood, his back facing her as he cleans off his chalk board that’s covered in drawings of planets, the moon and sun.
Reed turns around a smile on his face from seeing her. “You think? They were great honestly, so eager to learn and listen. Lot’s of questions.” He chuckles.
He cleans his hands on a piece of cloth before dropping it down onto his desk. He walks around his desk to meet her and pulls her in at the waist for a kiss. She wraps an arm around his neck leaning into the kiss.
“I missed you this morning.” She says after the kiss ends.
“I missed you too. You looked so peaceful I didn’t want to wake you up, thought I’d let you sleep in.” He says giving her a softer peck on the lips.
“It’s okay. I figured since I didn’t see you this morning we could have lunch together.” She tells him holding up the Maisie’s bag which she put their sandwiches into on the walk over along with their water and the cookies she picked up.
Reed looks at the bag and she watches the realisation cross his face. “I forgot lunch.” He sighs, taking the bag from her and walking back around his desk.
“What have you got on after this?” She asks following him around to the other side of the desk and sits down in his chair while he sits on the edge of the desk already going through the containers H.E.R.B.I.E packed their lunch in.
“I’ve got another group of kids from the summer camp coming in about…” He pauses to check his watch, “twenty three minutes. So I’ve got plenty of time to enjoy lunch with my beautiful wife.” Sue smiles up at him as he passes her the foil container with her sandwich and hands her water over.
They fall into a comfortable silence as they unwrap and start to eat their food, it’s not until she’s two bites in that she notices something is off about the taste of her’s. She glances over at her husband wondering if his also has a weird flavour. She can’t quite place what it is about it though something has a hot not all that fresh taste to it which she thinks might be the tomato. After taking another bite to confirm and that hot sensation still lingers after each bite.
Reed hums pleasantly through a mouthful of his own food. “Good sandwich, nice fresh tomatoes.”
Sue tries to keep her face neutral and just nods along agreeing with him and forcing down another bite, trying her best to get over the taste. All her previous thoughts from this morning, the way she was feeling, how she didn’t mind the sweetness of this mornings Lucky Charm’s breakfast and her dream all come rushing back to her as well as all the little things she knows about pregnancy and pregnancy symptoms come to mind. Especially the ones she thinks she has already been experiencing.
Fatigue, her sleeping in this morning. Morning sickness and nausea, that wave that washed over her when she first stood up this morning. Change in tastebuds, this sandwich. Then there’s the main one, a late period.
“You good?” Reed asks her, watching her closely over his lunch.
She nods quickly swallowing what’s in her mouth, “I’m fine.” She reassures him.
He accepts that, continuing to eat his sandwich and drink his water though she can tell from the look on his face and the way he’s trying not to watch her, that he doesn’t quite believe her but thankfully he doesn’t push it any further.
Sue takes another smaller bite of her own sandwich finding each bite more and more unbearable. That wave of nausea she experienced early this morning is back and stronger and she has no idea how to play it off in front of him.
So she starts talking so that the attention is off her.
“What were you teaching them about our solar system?” She asks Reed. Sue spins the chair around to face the chalkboard and what’s still left of his drawings.
“Started off with the basics of what’s in our solar system.” He tells her getting down from the desk and stepping towards the chalkboard. “We kept it simple. I took them through the planets and explained to them how they all rotate around the sun and we talked a little about the moon and some different star constellations.”
Sue smiles as she listens to him talk. “Was it fun getting to teach them? They’re different from your usual crowd.”
Reed nods. “It was. They’re surprisingly great listeners and had some really good engaging questions. Overall they just seemed really interested in everything we talked about.”
After finishing up their sandwiches they moved onto the cookies she bought from Maisie’s. These taste so much better than those tomatoes. Sweet with a rich chocolate chip and the perfect bake to them, crispy on the outside and a soft and gooey inside. The sweetness is a welcome change for her tastebuds.
Before Reeds next group of eager kindergartens come in for their summer camp lessons, Sue helps clean up their lunch then starts her walk back to the Baxter Building when she finds herself stopped in front of a pharmacy on the corner of a street just a few blocks away from home.
The street is thankfully quiet, seeing as its a Sunday afternoon closing in on three pm. And from the looks of it so is the pharmacy.
She takes a deep breath before crossing the street and tells herself it’s just to ease her mind. She’ll probably get home and find out she’s started her period and all of this from this morning and lunch has just been a weird fluke and a strange series of coincidences and can all be chalked down to period hormones not pregnancy hormones.
Saying that though before she even walks into the pharmacy she does make herself invisible. She doesn’t want to risk anyone inside seeing what she’s buying and running to the nearest news outlet. She also doesn’t need the clerk behind the counter gossiping with his coworkers about what the Invisible Woman just purchased.
What if she’s not pregnant and then there are rumours going around everywhere that she is and it becomes yet another huge expectation of her and Reed that they need to meet to appease everyone. It’s too much and would be too much on top of the whole being a superhero part of her life.
Sue walks down the isle with the pregnancy tests stopping in front of the slim selection available to her. A few different types sit on the shelf staring back at her. She has no idea which brands are more reliable with better and more accurate results.
Screw it. She picks up two different brands, both the strip tests which she makes invisible just like her. Two floating pregnancy tests would raise some eyebrows and questions and ultimately lead back to her. She makes her way to the counter, waits a second for the clerk to turn his back and his attention to something behind him before she drops the exact change for the tests onto the wooden counter and hastily makes her way out of the store and down the street.
Keeping herself and the tests invisible, Sue continues her way back to the Baxter Building and even when she’s inside and making her way upstairs and along the hallway to the living room keeps herself out of sight from anyone who might be around. She stops short of the living room and hesitates hearing voices coming from the sofa.
Slowly, taking a few steps closer she can hear their conversation and stands listening for a few minutes.
“When you go, is it just a heap of rocks or?” Johnny asks.
There’s a beat of silence and she can almost see the disappointment on Ben’s face at his lack of a response.
“I’m not answering that.” Ben says.
“But does it come out as rocks? More boulder like?” Johnny persistently asks.
“Come on Johnny. No.”
“So you’re not shitting literal rocks?”
Sue dreads to know how this conversation even came about or what started. Shaking her head she heads fully into the living room, deciding to keep herself invisible so that she can play a little prank on the two of them.
“No.” Ben replies sharply.
“Now answer me this, when you pee… is it like a waterfall or more like a nice easy stream?”
“Good god Johnny, what is wrong with you?”
Johnny just shrugs. “Nothing man I’m just curious.”
“Too curious.” Ben mumbles. “So what happens when you piss then huh? It gets too hot that it’s already evaporated before it even hit’s the toilet bowl?” He asks just matching Johnny’s energy.
“No. I piss normally thank you. But how cool would that be, never having to pee again.”
Ben scoffs. “Yeah right. And what moron would want that as their superpower?” Ben asks to which Johnny just shrugs again. “You take steaming hot dumps then?” He adds.
Johnny pulls a face. “I already told you, I go to the bathroom normally.”
“You’re telling me you don’t shit lumps of coal?”
“Ha Ha. Very funny.” Johnny sarcastically laughs. “Keep talking like that and i’ll leave some lumps of coal in your bed for you one night. Nice little toasty surprise.”
Okay. She’s heard enough she decides as she makes herself visible, tests stuffed in her pocket and all her focus on keeping just those invisible. From her spot on the edge of the sofa, just down from Ben she appears to the two boys.
“Afternoon boys.” She announces herself.
“GOD! Sue what-“ Johnny nearly jumping out of his own skin startles, fingers sizzle with a little bit of heat from instinct as his fight or flight kicks in.
“How long you been sitting there?” Ben asks, hand on his chest.
Sue refusing to let them know just how much of their ‘boy talk’ she heard for her own satisfaction simply just stands up making her way over to the stairs.
“You know,” Johnny calls out behind her. “we need to set some clear boundaries with you and doing that. Time and place sis. Time and place!”
She doesn’t respond to her brother. Too amused with herself for getting the two of them yet again and managing to scare them.
“It could’ve been worse.” She can distantly hear Ben say as she approaches her and Reeds room.
She closes the door gently behind herself and heads straight for their ensuite bathroom, taking the tests out of her pocket and looks over the front and back of the packaging. The detailed instructions and step by step must be inside.
She’s aware of the basics however. Pee on it and wait for a line to show after a minute or two.
Sue sighs and opens the top drawer under the sink and puts both tests inside next to her untouched box of tampons from this month. When she takes the tests, which she will do today because she needs to know. She’s going to wait and take them with Reed, this isn’t something she wants to do alone.
Closing the drawer and returning to her room she kicks her shoes off and get’s comfortable on the bed. To pass the time and help keep herself busy she spends the rest of the afternoon reading, hoping that focusing on something else will calm her nerves.
“…home, how was the rest of your day?” Reed asks closing the door to their room behind him.
“Oh nothing, just reading.” Sue replies stifling a yawn as she sits up in bed quickly wiping the sleep from her eyes and slides her bookmark into her book.
Reed looks at her over his shoulder briefly as he hangs up his jacket in the closet, leaving his briefcase at the bottom of the bed on his side. He walks around to her side of the bed and gives her a quick kiss on the cheek on his way to the bathroom to freshen up.
She can hear the tap running and becomes hyperaware that he’s only a few centimetres from the tests in her drawer and he doesn’t know. While he’s busy finishing up in there she takes a moment to finally yawn, stretch her arms above her head and wake herself up a little more. She didn’t even mean to fall asleep and take a nap.
She’s adjusting her headband and fixing her hair when Reed comes out of the bathroom, he shoots her a weird look and for a split second she thinks he’s stumbled across the tests in her drawer.
“You take a nap?” He asks still using his Dr Richards voice.
A moment stretches out between them before Sue nods, fidgeting with the pages of her book and avoiding constant eye contact with her husband as tears build behind her eyes.
“Hey,” His eyes soften as he walks over and sits on the edge of the bed next to her. Concern flashes across his face asking, “Sue what’s going on?”
She hesitates for a second then deciding just to come out with it, says. “I’m late.”
His face doesn’t change as he asks, eyebrow raised, “Late?” he looks more confused than concerned now. “For what? Because of your nap?”
“No.”
“Dinner isn’t for another twenty minutes.”
Sue shakes her head, casting her eyes down only able to repeat herself. “I’m late Reed.”
He’s still looking at her with a confused looks eyes searching her face for more information and then… there it is, it finally dawns on him. Reed’s eyes go wide and his mouth falls open slightly, he glances down at her stomach for a second then back up at her face.
“Oh.” He says softly, his voice barely a whisper.
“Yeah.” She breathe’s anxiously awaiting to see if that was his full reaction.
“When did your last period start?” Reed asks.
She blinks taken aback by the question, thinking for a second before she answers. “Uh… the twenty eighth.”
Reed leans back slightly concentrating hard as he calculates her previous period for her. They both know that her cycle is regular and she can’t remember the last time she had an irregular period or was ever late. So it’s safe to say that her being late this month isn’t some weird fluke.
“You’re six days late.” He says more like a statement than a question.
She nods, that’s what she calculated herself this morning over breakfast. “I don’t know how I didn’t notice until today.”
“Do you think-“
She gets out of bed nodding and walking into the bathroom. “I picked up two tests after our lunch date.” She looks back at him, nodding her head towards the bathroom once for him to follow her. “I haven’t taken them yet.”
Reed follows her into the bathroom and Sue takes the two tests out of the drawer and places them on the counter. The blue packaging contrasts against the red countertop.
“You wan’t to do this now?” He asks picking up one of the tests examining the front and back.
“Is there a better time?” She asks.
Reed spends about five minutes reading over the instructions then again and again and once more just to be sure they do it right. Only once he’s confident that he understands everything down to the exact time to wait between taking the test and getting the results does he finally hand her the first test to take.
Sue pees into a small glass they dug out of a drawer and they dip both tests from both packets for ten seconds each, exactly, into the glass just to be sure. Once that’s done they set the four tests flat on the counter and Reed set’s an alarm on his watch.
While they wait she sits down on the toilet seat, tapping her fingers against her knees and watches as Reed paces up and down the bathroom rereading over the instructions once more.
Those five minutes felt like twenty seconds and an hour at the same time.
A gentle beeping sounds from Reeds watch and Sue draws in a deep breath and looks up at her husband. He stops pacing meeting her eyes and neither of them make a move to look at the tests. Without meaning to she warps the light around the tests making them invisible on the counter.
“I don’t think I can look.” She whispers. Her hands shake in her lap and her leg twitches lightly, foot tapping against the floor.
“I’ll look first.” Reed offers but he doesn’t step towards the counter until she nods and he knows that she’s okay with him being the first to know.
She does nods making the tests visible again and lowers her head to avoid seeing his face and reaction looking back at her in the mirror. She counts her breath’s, tapping her fingers together rhythmically when Reed’s been quiet for a minute too long to make her comfortable, she stands up and takes a steps behind him.
“Reed?” She asks before catching his face in the mirror. An unmistakable smile sits on his lips as he looks down at one of the test strips in his hand.
Peering over his shoulder she see’s two red lines. Both lines so clear and strong that theres no mistaking it’s positive. Sue steps around him and looks at the other three tests on the counter. They’re all the same with the same two dark red lines just as persistent as the one Reed is holding.
She turns to look at him, his smile growing. “You’re pregnant.” He says, putting the test next to the others before pulling her into a gentle yet comforting hug and kissing the top of her head.
“This is really happening.” She whispers into his chest. “Is this the best time for this to be happening?” She asks.
“Hey,” Reed pulls back brushing her hair out of her face. “There couldn’t be a better time. Superhero work has been slow, there’s no immediate threat or danger. This is going to be okay.” He reassures her.
She smiles. He’s right thankfully the crime rate itself has been at an all time low recently and other types of threats that require their assistance has been quiet. Life recently as well has been easy going so yeah, he’s right this might actually be the ideal time for this to be happening.
Sure they’ll still have the occasional superhero business to attend to but they can work that out when the times comes. But she’s not worried nor is she nervous or as anxious as she thought she was going to be.
“Reed,” Sue says softly, resting her hands on her stomach. “we’re having a baby.”
“We are.” He nods smiling leaning down to kiss her. “I’m so happy Sue.”
Truly she could not be happier, knowing that this is happening with him. Her best friend, partner and her soulmate. The two of them doing this together starting their own little family. This is the stuff she dreamed of having four years ago before that first time in space and was worried that she could never have this after getting their powers.
But here they are.
Without missing a beat Reed starts rapidly listing off different things they’re going to need to do prepare for when the baby gets here. “We should schedule in doctors appointments get some sonograms- I could even make one for us here at home. And then there’s the nursery, building a crib. Not to mention the baby will need a seat in the car and for the ship-“
She chuckles. “Reed-“
“-something that can be easily adapted as the baby grows so that they’ll always fit into it. A pram too with some protective features…”
Sue laughs taking her husbands face in her hands and gently turns his head so that he’s looking at her. “Reed, honey.” She kisses him interrupting his adorable rambling. “We have time to figure all this out.”
“You’re right. You’re right of course.” He nods taking her hands in his as he moves to sit down on the toilet seat.
Reed relaxes his forehead against her stomach.
Her chest swells with more love than she had ever imagined possible. Sue takes a deep breath and runs one hand through Reed’s hair. She fully believes in him and in herself and in the two of them together that they can do this.
“We’re ready for this.” She tells him, tilting his chin up to look at her. “We’ve got each other. We’ve got Johnny and Ben, even H.E.R.B.I.E.”
He nods and softly kisses her stomach over her top before standing up. “Together.”
“As a family.” She adds, stretching up on her toes to give him a kiss. “When should we tell them? Johnny and Ben.” She asks.
“Soon.” Reed replies.
“It wouldn’t be fair to keep it from them for too long. Plus they’ll probably start to notice something’s going on.”
“We’ll have to be discreet and natural at dinner.” He says.
She tilts her head asking, “Are you capable of that?” Sue raises an eyebrow and smirks.
He gasps dramatically, hand on his chest sarcastically. “I can keep it a secret through dinner.”
“Mhmm, I’ll believe it when I see it.” She laughs. One of the many things she loves about him is how utterly bad his lying is, he can be too honest for his own good sometimes.
“What about telling the rest of the world?” Reed asks switching the conversation away from his horrible pokerface back to the baby.
“I don’t think I want the world to know just yet.” Sue answers in a whisper. There’s some worry that people might not take too kindly with two superheroes having a baby together, what if the baby has superpowers as well? Then there’s the scarier thought that someone might want to harm her and the baby.
“Then we don’t tell them yet.” He must notice the worry on her face and he’s probably thinking similar things. He rests his hands on her waist. “We’ll do what we can. I’m here to protect you, both of you.”
She nods. ‘We protect each other.” She tells him, glancing down at his watch and catching sight of the time. “Come on daddy-to-be, we’re going to be late for dinner.”
She starts making her way out of the bathroom and back into their room quickly fixing her clothes and hair so neither Ben or Johnny suspect that anything is off. Reed follows behind her and when she turns to take his hand in hers she spots him smiling again, his eyes sparkling with joy.
“What?” She asks tilting her head and smiling back at him. She chuckles lightly asking, “What is that smile for?”
Reed rubs the back of his neck his smile widening. “I’m going to be a dad.”