1963-10-02 - Rest and Recovery
Summary: Investigation about Sue's illness involves discussion at home.
Related: Best Laid Plans
Theme Song: None
johnny sue reed 


<You sneezed?> Johnny blinks owlishly at Sue from his spot next to her in the back of the limo, one arm still wrapped protectively around her shoulders. When Reed joins them, he just gives him a somewhat worried look. "Aish. I better put some soup on. She's burning up — I don't know how you made it over here like this, nunim." He doesn't even sound upset. Well, yet.

*

Sue's head lulls to the side to rest on Joon's shoulder. She nods weakly at the question. "Loudly," she replies in English. "Several times." Her eyes narrow. She reaches into her pocket and takes out Victor's handkerchief, which she rubs her eyes withers she sniffles again. "I.. needed medicine." That she somehow managed to lose. Didn't she come in with a bag from the pharmacy? Or maybe she never mad wit there… "And a nice plant(?) man with a tail drove me here," this sounds like a drugged up hallucination.

*

"Don't worry about it," Reed assures Sue. "Well take you home, settle you in, you just work on getting better." He looks thoughtful. "We might want to take a closer look, but we can worry about that once we're inside." He… really doesn't want to discuss that much in Victor's car. Just can't trust the guy. Like… at all.

*

Plant man with a tail? "Mree," Johnny immediately supplies, frowning to himself as he hugs Sue against his shoulder. Given the state she's in, he might have to have a conversation with Mree about dropping her off at Victor's doorstep. A long one. For now, though, he falls quiet. They can talk more at home.

*

ROLL: Sue +rolls 1d2 for a result of: 1

*

The car drives down the street, rounding a corner and coming up to the Baxter Building. The car stops, the driver steps out, and opens the door for the trio. Seo continues to lean against her brother as her eyes lid lightly despite the opened door. Of course, this is also when the familiar tickle presses against her senses, and she presses the handkerchief to her nose in an effort to hold in the pending sneeze.

Of course, this actually causes the sneeze to be BIGGER than most. "AH-CHOOOOOO!" the loud resounding sneeze is met with a burst of psionic energy that spreads around Sue like a radius push, causing glass to crack, the limo to rumble.

*

For the second time in recent memory, Reed is hilariously flattened in the back of a car by Sue. This time is quite different, of course, but somehow he still ends up poured out on the sidewalk, blinking owlishly up at the driver trying to let him out of the car.

"Ah… thank you. We better get her inside," he notes, literally peeling his back off the concrete.

*

It's probably a good thing that Johnny was also sitting to Sue's right. Given the fact that her sneeze sends him tumbling ass-over-elbows out of the car and out onto the sidewalk in front of the Baxter Building, the force with which he'd have hit the other door would have been unpleasant.

Or sent him into traffic.

With a grunt, Johnny pushes himself up to sit, blinking twice and giving his head a good hard shake to put it back into order. "…aish. Yeah. Upstairs sounds good."

*

Dizzily, Sue unfolds and ambles out of the vehicle. "S-sorry…" she says towards nobody in particularly because everyone has been effectively insulted. She shoots the limo driver an apologetic look before shifting to the sidewalk and, with staccato'd steps, she enter she lobby and retreats to whatever solace she can find at home.

Her hand reaches out for the wall as she comes up to the elevator, and, rather impatiently, pushes the button multiple times in an effort to make it come faster.

*

Reed resists the urge to tip the driver for his trouble or pay for the damage, because it would be an insult to Victor, instead offering a 'thank you' and hurrying off after Sue before she manages to collapse or similar.

"Maybe we should drag a bed up into the lab," he suggestss as he catches up. "The effects on your powers are concerning, Sue."

*

Johnny's not far behind. He hurries along after Reed and Sue, making it just in time to join the pair of them in the elevator. Hopefully Sue's sniffles will stay under control for the duration of the ride. Hopefully.

"Can I blame him for this?" Johnny asks Reed, returning his arm to its place around his sister's shoulders. "I feel like we should be able to. Privately."

*

"…" Seo stares at Reed for a few very long beats. "…I don't want to sleep in the lab…" Because. Reasons. Sue clasps the edge of the elevator to hold herself up as it moves upwards. She sniffles again and can feel the sneeze coming on, but without sneezing, her skin shifts into invisibility, leaving the ill-fitting too-big grey sweater and bit of dress to float in the air. "I..feel bad."

She frowns, not that anyone can see it, "You can't. I… I saw him. I…went to tell him… so he knows… so he would stop trying… a no isn't…" dizzily she leans into Johnny, "it doesn't always mean 'try harder, stupid.'"

*

"I think he meant the sick," Reed supplies, and rather carefully feels his way from her collar to her forehead so he can place his wrist against it. "…and I don't see how but if you really want to, Johnny, I can't stop you," he allows, swapping to taking Sue's pulse as the elevator takes them up.

"Alright, no lab. I thought you might like to have the company while we're looking into this," he clarifies, then adds, "No sneeze that time. No bubble, either. Interesting."

*

<I'll make you some soup,> Johnny tells her, giving her shoulders a careful squeeze while Reed blindly, carefully fusses. His brow does furrow, though, and he peeks down at where he thinks his sister's eyes should be. "…why? I mean, you spent the entire conference trying to avoid him," he notes with a small frown.

By the time the elevator opens, the phones at Roberta's desk are all loudly ringing off their respective hooks, leaving the robot twittering as it tries to keep up.

*

There's a small tick of a fond smile at the thought of company, not that anyone can see it. "Oh," she manages quietly. "Ok. That… company could… that would be good." The touch of fingers to check her pulse actually produces a shiver, her skin is hot to the touch. "Your fingers are freezing," she rasps and then sniffles again. The mention of no sneeze has her frowning, however, and lifting a hand only to roll her eyes, the sentiment of which is heard in her words, "Not again."

<Chicken noodle? Need medicine." Not that anything would work. Nothing ever works with viruses. The question has her shoulders sinking, "Becaue. It was important. Because I should've said it the first time. Because things need to be done… and because I love Reed." Yup. Zero filter.
"

*

"Again? So no-sneeze-go-invisible has happened before, then?" Such patterns are important. Reed frowns a bit, clearly thinking. Though not so deeply he misses the rest. She gets a hand through her hair. Sonce he finds it. "Honestly the only think you should ever have needed to say was 'not interested'. Or even nothing. But I get the point." A pause. "And I second chicken noodle. You know medicine doesn't help with a virus, and bacteria sure doesn't do *this*. But we'll figure it out. I can bring some gear downstairs. You want your bed or the couch?"

*

"Chicken noodle soup is medicine," Johnny replies wisely, helping Sue cross from the elevator and to the front door. He gets partway through a "Roberta, would you — " before the front door unlocks itself and swings open. "Thank you."

Wherever Sue is going to end up, Johnny helps her first to the sofa before he heads for the kitchen himself. "Juice. Juice first, then soup…"

*

"Once," Seo replies softly. "But just the once." Her eyes roll emphatically. "But mostly when sneezing." She uses Victor's handkerchief to wipe her nose. She sniffles loudly. "No. Like… aspirin. Medicine~" she tries to sing, but failed. Instead it comes out scratchy. "Couch, I think." Pause. "Please." She scoffs at the last, "Heather suggested telling the press but I didn't want the world to know but that didn't work out and now Aunt Margay is … and she's going to call and I'll… yeah."

She easily slides her arm to link with Johnny's and leans on him heavily as they tread to the sofa. She perks just a little at the notion of juice, "Orange? Please?" She becomes visible again.

*

"Aspirin, we can do," Reed agrees, offering Sue trade of a box of tissues and a trashbin for the handkerchef. "Don't worry about all those things right now. Spilled milk. We'll deal with it, but you need to focus on resting and getting better right now."

*

"Don't worry about it. I can run interference on Aunt Margay. It'll be fine," Johnny replies confidently, soon returning to the couch to offer Sue a glass of orange juice and some aspirin. "The world was gonna find out eventually. Be nice if you two had gotten to decide when and not Victor," he says with a roll of his eyes. <He's such a drama queen.>

*

"I should've called Aunt Margay," Sue presses a hand to her forehead. <And he just kept talking. About everything. He kept ranting about how it was just inevitable and I just — > she lifts a hand. Never mind. Of course, at this moment, she's disappeared entirely from view, including the sweater, dress, and everything in between.

She reaches out for the orange juice, which is probably helpful because she's impossible to see. "I need a blood sample," to study herself. She groans around the words. She plucks the aspirin from Johnny and takes both. She looks down and sees that she's disappeared from view, prompting a sharp frown. "Geez."

*

Reed nods and… gives up for the moment on patting Sue, once she goes totally invisible. Thought that counts. Instead he tosses a blanket from the back of the couch over her and uses it as a guide to pat her on the leg. "We both do. I'll bring down a sampling kit in a few minutes, and a few other things." Absently, he considers the effort involved in bringing one of the better microscopes down. Mrm. Maybe. He should consider mobile equipment platforms…

*

While Reed just kind of rolls with it, Johnny leans back and eyes the place where Sue is supposed to be, his eyebrows raising. "…that's new. Isn't it? I mean, those aren't altered clothes," he notes, leaning back and drumming his fingers against his chin.

<Don't worry about whatever Victor was prattling on about, Seo. He'll get over it.> Johnny offers a reassuring smile before he turns to head back into the kitchen, rubbing his hands together. "Chicken noodle, coming up. Let me know if you need more juice."

*

The hand on Sue's leg is given an invisible squeeze. "Getting a sample will be hard if I can't… not sure how to find a vein," the frown can be heard in her voice. It's fortunate that Sue is invisible at Johnny's mention of Victor because whatever Victor had been going on about had gotten to her. Has gotten to her. At least a little. She nods at the assertion about the juice, and then remembers she can't be seen, "Yes, thank you." She cringes as she looks at her none existent clothes, "It's… hard to do. I can do it. It's hard-hard. Like amazing focus. That I don't have right now." She closes her eyes and attempts to render herself visible, but can't seem to do so.

*

"We'll just get one next time you're visible again," Reed assures her. "And I agree with Johnny on whatever Victor said. He will say whatever he thinks helps Victor, whether the truth or not." He pushes himself up to go upstairs and fetch the kit.

"Let's not forget that the whole reason for all of this is 'Victor I think you made a mistake' became 'Reed deliberately sabotaged me because he is jealous of my obvious genius'."

*

Johnny is at least polite enough to wait for Reed to be out of earshot before he looks towards the couch, taking a moment away from preparing the soup. <You know, if Reed had just invited Victor to the prom, none of this would be happening.> He casts a quick look towards the stairs — nothing! — before returning his attention to the stove. "It'll be okay. You and Reed'll figure out why your flu's making things act weird and have it fixed before lunch tomorrow."

*

"He just wants everything you have," Sue rasps back to Reed. "Everything. He wants to…" she lifts a hand, waving away the thought, not that anyone can tell.

<He claims a ridiculous affection for me,> Seo rolls her invisible eyes, but the sentiment can be heard in the tone. <It's Reed he's obsessed with.> She continues to convince herself of this fact. The blanket covering Sue jostles and a few moments later, Johnny feels a squeeze of his shoulder. "He just… ugh."

*

Reed returns with a case in one hand, which he deposits near the couch. In Sue's reach, if she really wants to be involved in sample-taking. "Well… you're not wrong I think, Sue. But I try not to think about Victor's motivations too much. It gets unsettling. I'll just hold out hope that one day he'll be happy being himself and doing his own work regardless of what I get up to." He shrugs, settles on the arm of the couch. "In the meantime, best to try not to let it affect our work or our lives more than it has to."

*

Johnny absently reaches up to cover the invisible hand on his shoulder, an impish smile tugging his lips as he watches Reed return to the couch out of the corner of his eye. Does he correct him? … nahhhhhhhh.

"We'll do our best to keep our distance. Won't we, Seo?" Normally, Johnny wouldn't even think to ask, but given they just brought her home from the Latverian embassy… eh. At least he doesn't sound like he's teasing or remotely upset with her about it. "We'll see what happens. He'll figure out it's silly one of these days. Probably. I hope."

*

"I… probably. Will stay away. From Victor." Sue makes no promises. "I just… I had to go… and tell him to stay away from all of you. But then.. it didn't go as planned." She sighs and squeezes Johnny's shoulder again, indicating that she's still here. "He…" she coughs. "…he's unsettling. Somehow I leave every conversation with him doubting something I was certain of before it started."

Ahchoo!

The sneeze causes Sue to turn invisible as she stands by the stove with Johnny. She sniffles loudly, takes a single step back, and slowly treads back to where Reed is — dizzily ambling to catch her balance. Best to get a sample when she's visible.

She collapses back on the couch and slides the blanket over her again. She lifts her arm, and reaches for an elastic to tie around her arm with her opposite hand and her teeth. This is fruitless and turning rather ridiculous quickly. Independence isn't always a virtue.

*

Reed lets Sue make the independant attempt a couple of times before he wordlessly shifts over to pull her arm into his lap and do the work. No need to call attention to it by suggesting he do so. "He's always been good at that. I think he's been honing the craft." He doesn't give her the usual blood draw instructions unless he needs to— she knows how this works— he just preps the sample vials. "Do we need to talk about what he said?" he asks mildly.

*

"If it makes you feel any better, he does that to me, too," Johnny admits, keeping his attention on the soup-in-progress. Knowing that Victor is able to easily rile his temper is one thing — that's painfully obvious to anybody who has ever seen the two men in one room. But admitting that Victor's ever planted a doubt in his head is something else, and probably why the younger Storm is now so interested in the soup.

*

There's easy compliance to Reed's sample collection thanks to having failed to set up the sample herself. Sue's fingers form a fist as she watches her veins begin to rise along her arm. She straightens her fingers and forms a fist again. She's not keen to try pricking herself with a needle. She sniffles and coughs as she shoots Johnny a weak smile. "Joon," she says gently, but it's that same raspy sound, "It doesn't. No one should make you doubt yourself. Ever." Special snowflake brother.

And it's only after she's given consideration to Johnny's admission, that she really answers Reed. "Maybe." But she watches the vein on her arm and even points to one that she decides is particularly juicy, like Reed wouldn't have selected it on his own. "He said … a lot of things." Her eyebrows draw together. Doubt unsettles her; giving it a voice? Somehow that makes it worse. "Mostly about how we're," she looks towards Reed, "only together because of circumstance." Evidently out of everything Victor said, that's the point that stuck.

*

Reed does not complain about the pointing, he just selects the vein Sue pointed out. She's had more experience with this, of course he'll take her advice. He glances up at her shortly after she looks at him. "Which circumstance?" Of course, he has to look back down to do the draw, but he continues the thought.

"Staying together because of the accident? Or that you insisted on coming along? Or that you could only insist on coming because I asked you both to come be a part fo the project? Or that I asked you because you'd been brilliant in my class? Or that you could only be there because you'd busted your rump to get into school?" He finishes the draw, two seperate samples of a reasonable size, one for each of them, and looks back up at her while he holds cotton to her arm. "If you're going to be reductive about it, everything is pure circumstance at the core. It still comes down to being together because at some point you chose to be, circumstance or not." He lifts her hand, kightly kisses the back. "We're together because you consistently chose to be. And because I consistently did, too. One can call it circumstantial if it makes one feel better, but that's the reality."

*

The questions receive no reply, but the point is made.

The brush of lips against Sue's hand earns a stitch of a smile, barely there, but clearly delighted at the words. "How do you do that?" she wonders quietly. "In a minute you allay doubt." She sniffles loudly, and thanks to an increasingly heavy-feeling head, begins to slide to lay down on the couch, electing Reed as a sort of pillow for the time being. Her eyes lid lightly and she murmurs softly, "I love you, Reed Richards."

Ah-choo!! A bookshelf across the room topples over and Sue frowns. She reaches for the tissues and blows her nose rather loudly.

*

Surprised, Johnny turns to peer towards the fallen bookshelf. That isn't what he chooses to speak about, though. His eyes slide back towards the couch and he studies the pair for a moment, lazily stirring the soup while he does.

"You two are disgusting," Johnny says slowly. And, after a pause: "It's great. Carry on, please," he says brightly, waving at them with a finger before he goes hunting for a bowl.

*

"It is apparently a great and underutilized gift," Reed hazards, settling in to be a pillow. "I" he starts a touch, when she sneezes. Presumably he was going to echo the sentiment before the interruption. "suppose we should do something about the sneezing issue if at all possible." Before someone weaponizes her by attaching her to some kind of aimable turret.

*

"Sleepy," she mumbles softly. With her eyes closed, laying across the couch, Sue's brain virtually shuts off. Her breathing slows. Not even the promise and smell of chicken noodle soup causes her to stir as she quickly falls into slumber. But as she does so, her visibility finds great variability. In a matter of moments her body flickers into and out of view.

The soup, it seems, will have to wait.

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