Work Text:
“I’m sorry, Johnny.”
“Why are you sorry?” Johnny tilted his head.
And then… despite having prepared for this conversation all day, Reed didn’t know what to say. He’d just spent a long time searching for Johnny, finally finding him in Ben’s room.
Well, that’s a surprise. But it’s good to see them getting along instead of fighting over something stupid.
Now, Johnny was in the lab with Reed, who was about to show him the results of the test.
“What’s wrong? What are you sorry about?”
Reed froze.
He knew this wouldn’t be easy, but it was turning out to be even harder than he thought it would be.
But I have to tell him the news.
Johnny had to know. His life depended on it.
“You remember when I gave you a brain scan for fun, because you were bored?”
“Yeah, of course.”
“Well, I was looking at the results and…” Reed nervously shuffled some papers around in a folder.
“You’re here to say how big my brain is, and how intelligent I am, right?”
“No, that’s not it. It’s…” Reed couldn’t get the words out.
Johnny, having practically no attention span, grabbed the folder from Reed’s hand.
“Let me see it for myself. I’m smart enough to understand.”
“No, I really think I should…”
“Nope, I got it. Thanks, Reed! See ya at dinner!”
Johnny swaggered off, tauntingly smacking himself on the rear with the folder.
Why didn’t I grab it from him?! I could’ve stretched out my arm, and… and… oh, well. Maybe it’s better for him to find out on his own.
According to his wife and friends, Reed had never been good at delivering bad news sensitively.
Johnny was true to his word, and Reed didn’t see him again until dinner time.
“Everything okay, Johnny?” Sue asked.
“I’m fine. Fiiiine.” Johnny, normally having a huge appetite, was now pushing his food in circles around his plate.
“Then why aren’t you eating your food?”
“Just got a lot on my mind.”
“You wanna share?”
“Oh, you know. Just normal stuff. Like how I’M GONNA FUCKING DIE!” Johnny shot daggers at Reed before getting up and running away.
Sue’s eyes widened. “Reed, what did you do to him?”
“What makes you think I did something to him?”
“Well, you were doing some sort of experiment on him not that long ago.”
“I didn’t… I was just going to tell him… but he found out…”
“This is about the brain tumor, isn’t it?” Ben asked.
“THE WHAT?!” Sue shrieked.
After dinner, Reed was looking for Johnny. Again.
First, he’d become distracted by rearranging some equipment that had gotten moved around, and then he’d turned and found himself face to face with Johnny.
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
Reed took a deep breath and tried to respond calmly, despite his racing heart.
“I was going to tell you, but you insisted on finding out yourself, and then you ran away”.
“Well, then why didn’t you tell me earlier?! You scanned me weeks ago!” Johnny sunk into a spinning chair and began pushing with his feet to turn around in circles.
“I needed time, Johnny! I was taking measurements, calculating probabilities…”
“Well, couldn’t you at least have told me that?”
“I didn’t want to worry you.”
“Well, I was going to worry either way. Now I’m even more worried because I’m probably gonna die because you didn’t tell me and I bet this thing in my head has grown even bigger! But do you care? No!”
Reed reached out and stopped the chair, turning Johnny towards him to look into his eyes again.
He looked so frightened and vulnerable.
Like a child who just needed a hug from his parents.
“I do care about you! I love you!” Reed couldn’t believe he had said that. Well, it was true. He did love Johnny.
Even when he’s being a little shit. And that has happened a lot in the past few months.
“You… love me?”
“Of course. You’re family.”
“Then why did you keep such a big secret from me?” Johnny frowned. “That’s not a very loving thing to do.”
It’s true. I shouldn’t have been keeping secrets from him, especially with his life on the line. Johnny’s a grown man, not a child. He’s old enough to know all the details.
“I got caught up in the research. Thought if I had planned some solution before I told you, it would soften the blow.”
“Oh! So what’s the solution?”
A solution? As in… a way to prevent him from needing a surgery that would impair his abilities? One that might even have him relearning how to talk and walk, if he even survived at all?
There was no other way. Reed had spent many sleepless nights going over every possible course of action. When he did sleep, he was plagued by nightmares of Johnny dying.
It was completely hopeless.
“You do have a solution, right?”
Reed sighed.
“No.”