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Sue couldn’t move. Everything hurt so bad. Her eyes squeezed shut as she desperately tried to make sense of her surroundings and where she was. The worst part was that no one was coming to look for her, no one had a reason to come and look for her considering that she shouldn’t have been in any danger but considering her job she probably should have brought some backup or a way to contact one of the four. She had been going on an expedition to a new dig sight.
Nothing special, just your average dig. It had been so long since she had actually been able to put her archaeology degree to work. With the whole fantastic four and the politics and issues that came with it.
It meant that Sue just didn’t get to do some of the things that she loved. She had been fine with this. Truly she had been but that didn’t mean she hadn’t been ecstatic when the invite to the expedition had come in. God loves the boys because Sue didn't know how they put up with her at that time. With her excessive and excited ramblings as she went on and on about just how amazing of an experience this would be and how she so desperately missed being able to do archeology stuff.
She knew realistically they probably had no clue what she was going on about or why this kind of stuff was important too her but that was the great thing about her family. They didn’t need to know the reasons why to care that it was important to her, and if it was important to her then it was important to them as well. Out of the four of them she was probably the one that got the least free time outside of their four stuff and the whole politics thing she had to do.
Reed has his science and his tv show, Johnny has his cars and photoshoots and Ben has football and gardening.She had hobbies sure she liked to read and stuff but her job took up so much of her spare time. In all honesty, even if the boys never told her, they were honestly so glad that she was getting an opportunity to go out and do things by herself.
She worked so hard constantly, half the time she had to be dragged to take a break because if they didn’t then she would probably forget to eat or drink. So seeing her happy and excited about something that wasn't work felt like a blessing to them.
They did what they could and got her all the best equipment since it had been literal years since she had used her stuff last. Sue laughed and waved them off saying how they hadn’t needed to do that since all her old stuff worked fine but they didn’t care.
They got her the best of the best just so that they could see her happy smile as she fiddled with her equipment rambling about just how good they were. Which was a relief considering they spent hours in a shop as a worker dragged them around showing them what their best stuff was. It had been very pricey, but it also made Sue smile so really the money didn’t matter in the slightest.
The exhibition wasn't that far away, only a couple hours on flight. It wasn’t even a particularly massive dig, but that was still a step in the right direction of being able to do the things that she loved again. Sure Sue adored being a superhero, she loved being able to save lives, keep people safe and make sure no one got hurt when villains attacked but her passion had always been Archeology.
Ever since she was a little girl her bookshelves were full of excavating books and her walls had fossils scribbled on them. Sometimes at night she would sneak into her little brother's room so that she would be able to read her new book to him in the hopes that somehow it would convert him into loving archeology just as much as her. To younger hers annoyance it never really worked with him complaining that her books were ‘way too boring’ for him but that didn’t put her off from continuing to obsess over it.
The day she had left she had been practically jumping up and down in excitement as she got ready. At some point she caught Reed sitting down and watching her with a soft look in his eyes. Just staring at her with all the love in the world and when she asked him what was up he simply responded with ‘it's nice to see you excited’. She would never admit how much their support made her want to cry.
They were so genuine and sweet about it that she couldn’t help but tear up as they walked her to her airport terminal. All happily chatting away and telling her to call them if she needed anything and to tell them how it went.
When she had been growing up she had been alone in most things. Her parents didn’t pay her any attention, Johnny was younger and didn’t mean anything by it, her friends thought it was lame and practically every boyfriend she had before Reed had just been with her for the sex. So just as she was about to walk, she paused. Wiping the tears from her eyes as she doubled back and engulfed the three in a hug. The three people who had ever genuinely cared for her, who had looked out for her and wanted nothing more than to see her happy.
There was a time that she figured she didn’t deserve anything like that.
That she was just a pretty face who wasn’t worth any more than to be arm candy for the asshole of the month.
Now she had them, who saw her for her smarts, her personality, her passions.
They loved her deeply and she loved them back. Sue would give anything to be back with them right now, it had been a stupid decision as she was hiking up a trail to get to the dig site. She hadn’t been alone going up but she had been falling slightly behind as she looked at the various different rock formations that littlered the mountains. She never got a lot of time to just sit and look around so she had taken it. Waving the people in front of her off that she was fine, that she had done this before and if anything was wrong she would just call.
However, what she hadn’t expected was just how badly everything could go wrong and just how fast she could lose control of a situation. It hadn’t even taken much to startle her, just the sound of a bird swooping too close to her head made her trip on a rock and sent her falling down. She hit her head hard. Without herself or her powers to catch her Sue fell off the side of the cliff.
She could feel her whole body fall as her vision quickly blacked out. Sue thanked whatever god out there that she was out when she inevitably hit the ground. She must have been out for a while, it had been noon when she had tripped, the sun directly above her but now as her blurry eyes slowly creeped open she found herself no longer staring up into a bright blue sky but that it was now streaked with shades of orange and pink. The sun was setting.
She had presumably been out cold for hours.
Sue groaned as she slowly tried to sit up but she could barely move before pain split through her and she went back to laying still. Even in her confused and terrified mind she realised that she had fallen hundreds of feet. She didn't even know how her body had fallen.
Either way there was a great chance that she had broken her skin on the way down or even if she hadn’t she couldn’t risk hurting herself even more. There were chances of broken ribs sticking into organs or just general risk of snapping bones with any kind of movement. Even if she cant see injuries they were definitely there. She needed to be careful. Someone would come looking for her; they couldn’t just leave her there to die. People would have noticed when she hadn’t reached the dig sight and would come looking for her.
They’d be here any moment and she was going to be okay.
The only thing that she had to do was to stay put and to make sure that she didn’t move a muscle. Something that she could do,
it would be easy right?
Her whole job is to just stare at the sky, watch the colours past as someone would inevitably come and find her. ‘There's no need to be scared’ she told herself. ‘Someone will come and find me’. Sue looked down softly, trying not to crane her head but just enough to see the damage. Her leg was broken. Badly broken. Snapped in the wrong direction with the bone sticking out.
Sue had a strong stomach, something she had gained from years of pulling people out of rubble and helping them set injuries but nothing ever normalised you to when you see it on yourself. Her whole body was scratched up. Part of her clothes were torn and ripped from the fall. Shakily with broken fingers she reached up to feel the back of her head expecting to feel a comminuted fracture and to feel her skull crunch underneath her fingers but to her surprise there was nothing.
She pulled her hand away to see that there wasn’t even any blood. Not any on her fingers, or hair or even on the ground around her. Instead everything was completely dry. Something which shouldn’t be possible, her skull should be fractured and practically turned to dust at the back from a fall that high and yet she was fine.
In fact the more that she noticed the more odd the situation seemed to become. She shouldn’t be awake right now. It should have been way longer till she eventually recovered enough to even open her eyes. Her vision should be shaking, she shouldn’t be breathing as calmly and evenly as she was.
It wasn’t hard to tell but there was the simple fact that Sue just wasn’t as hurt as she should have been. Her body should be borderline unrecognisable and yet here she was keeping herself awake and calm. Thats when a smile softly crossed her face and a pained gentle laugh erupted from her throat.
She had used her powers.
It was something she had seen in Reed and Johnny where in moments of distress they would use their powers to protect themselves without even knowing it. Sure, she had done it with invisibility, but it sure wasn't her being invisible which had protected her body. She had figured that was just because those were more physical, meanwhile her force fields were something that she had to put a conscious effort into making. She had to bend the light. It took effort, not a painful amount but just enough she figured she couldn’t use it without thinking. But there was no other way this was possible.
Somehow even while knocked out she had used her powers to soften the impact on her body. A sad smile crept across her face. God, Reed was gonna be so proud of her that she had managed to do something that was so damn cool.
However as soon as the smile graced her face it swiftly disappeared when she thought about her husband, when she thought about all three of them. She wished they were here. She wished she had brought her communicator so they could have just found her by now but she hadn’t. Something about that made her want to cry.
God she missed them so bad.
However as time went on Sue could feel her hope in getting found slowly start to diminish. She told herself over and over again that people were coming, that they would find her and everything would be okay.
The adrenaline was starting to wear off and her leg was starting to hurt badly. She wanted to go home. She wanted to sleep but she was stuck here. This was supposed to be her opportunity to have a break from the stress, she was finally meant to be able to unwind doing something that she loved and was passionate about. Maybe the universe just hated her because that was starting to seem like an all too real possibility to her. She shouldn’t have walked so far behind, they were just mountains after all.
It was dumb.
It was a dumb thing to be excited about and risk your life over.
But god, even if it felt a little silly to admit it, stopping to look at rock formations without the risk of being attacked or swarmed with questions had been genuinely exciting. She felt like she was nineteen again with her college going on her first dig. It had been basically nothing, an area already thoroughly scavenged with there being no chance of them finding anything and she hadn’t. That wasn’t the point of going.
Just the mere idea of being around so much history. Stepping in the same places so many people before her had stepped had been exhilarating. It had brought genuine tears to her eyes at the time.
Maybe other people didn’t see the value in it but every little moment she got like that made the heat and exhaustion worth it. Even now as she laid broken and in pain in the valley at the bottom of a mountain. Sue can honestly say that it had been fully worth it. She wouldn’t do a thing differently because even looking at such things that normal people take for granted had moved her, made her feel like she had been on top of the world. She would take all of this pain and so much more if it meant that she could just have another breathless moment as she stared out at the horizon.
Her lips had turned blue at this point as the cold started to get to her, making her shiver. Her long hair was matted to her forehead in sweat. Every small movement made jolts go down her leg as she stared up at the inky blackness. It was nothing like the city out here. As she looked up she could see so many stars above her head.
It was beautiful.
A smile creeped back onto her face as she just appreciated the moment, being able to lay here and witness something so common yet so life changing. The sky was the same as it had always been but that's what made it so incredible. It was just like that all of the time. The world was so magnificent and wonderful.
Sue didn’t even feel the tears that started to stream down her face as she let herself laugh loudly. There was no point in stopping it now. Worst case scenario was that she hurt one of her already probably damaged organs. Even if she could stop herself and conserve her energy into breathing rather than laughing, what was the point? S
he wanted to feel the moment so god dammit that's exactly what she was going to do. Even with blurry eyes and agonising pain in her leg she let herself smile and laugh at the simple joy that was the nights sky. Maybe she was just delusional. Maybe she was that tired from laying in the dirt bleeding from her broken leg but this all felt so natural. Like this was exactly where Sue was supposed to be all of this time.
Like every moment in her life had led her here, she softly moved her broken fingers so that they softly laid on her face as she laughed into them. This was real, this was real and it was downright fucking magical.
That's when her manic, hysterical laughter was cut off when a bright light was suddenly pointed in her direction.
Sue looked to the side only to see Reed.
For a second she wondered if she was imagining him. If her injury had finally gotten to her. Well, finally got to her more. But he was real and he was standing staring with a joy that almost matched hers. His eyes welling up with tears as he took shaky steps forward before breaking out into a run. Running faster than Sue had ever seen him go before he slid next to her.
“You’re alive, oh my god you’re alive” he said relieved as he gently smoothed her hair back away from her face looking down at her with glassy eyes and a crumpled expression on his face. He had clearly been worried out of his mind. He took desperate and sharp breaths as he ran his hands few her hair a few times trying to calm himself
“Reed” she croaked out. Her voice is gravely and barely working. When had her voice gotten that bad? It had been fine earlier today
The tears in his eyes threatened to spill when he heard her voice. Reed let out a choked desperate laugh as he leaned down gently pressing his forehead against hers as he whispered “I’m here, I'm right here okay? There's no need to be scared im right by your side” she could feel the tenderness in how he was holding her face and stroking her back. She could tell he was more trying to convince himself than he was trying to convince her
Reed looked away from her and looked up at the mountain in which she had fallen from. The sight of the distance seemed to break his heart even more. If she knew Reed then she knew damn well he was picturing what it must have been like for her to fall from that height “That was a bad fucking fall wasn’t it christ-” he whispered but was suddenly cut off by Sue
“Why are you here?” she asked, confused. She had been hours away from them. How had he gotten to her so fast?
As she asked this Reed had pulled out a small flashlight and was shining it in her eyes checking to see how responsive they were. His relief that her pupils were fully responsive was cut off when he realised what she had asked
“What?” Reed whispered
Sue cleared her throat thinking the problem was that he couldn’t hear her through the horrible rasp in her voice “Why are you here” she asked desperate and confused for an answer. She didn’t get how he had gotten here so fast. He had been doing important work had he just dropped it to find her
“Why am i- you think when i hear that my wife went missing from her trip that i wasn’t going to instantly rush to come find her? Cmon..” he whispered to her holding her cheeks in his hands as he scanned her face clearly trying to hold back the pained look threatening to spill over. Reed was worried that if she saw his panicked and devastated expression then it would trigger her into starting to panic.
He couldn’t have that
He needed her to stay calm
Reed picked up his communicator and softly switched it in “Hey i’ve got her” he said calmly into it, holding it to his ear with one hand as he used his other to gently stroke her cheek. Smiling softly as he watched her lean into his hand clearly in need for some kind of affection. Affection that he would happily give her
Suddenly voices screamed over the comm making Sue scrunch her face up softly
Reed got so focused with how nice it was just to see her, see her mannerisms and the way she scrunches her nose when annoyed that he completely forgot that he was on comms for a minute. The voices continued to scream at him over the phone when he didn’t respond instantly. He blinked a few times rubbing his eyes “I’m two minutes east from where you are in with her now”
“‘Yeah- yeah she's awake and responsive” he said happily as he looked down at her with a tender smile on his face. They had been searching for hours after reports that she had fallen off the mountain. He had been scared that she would have bled out by the time that he found her, so to see her here and alive and responsive made his heart unclench.
“She’s doing really well honestly for someone who should be screaming in pain right now” he tried to joke but instead he just eyed her leg again. They would need to do something about that soon. By the sign of the sweat on her forehead despite how cold it was there was no doubt that whatever adrenaline she had was wearing off fast.
“Okay i’ll see you when you get here” Reed said quickly before hanging up his full attention right now was on his wife and how she was doing. Frankly, nothing else mattered to him right now other than her.
“Who’s that?” She asked softly as Reed gently stroked the back of his knuckles off the side of her face. He couldn’t look away from her. The last time he had seen her they had been ushering her onto the plane as she was brimming with excitement and now she was laying on the stone scared to move in case she had a broken spine that they didn’t know about
He snapped out of it when he remembered she had asked a question “Hm? Oh Johnny and Ben we split up when trying to find you, how’s your head” there was no point in dwelling on the boys considering they would be here in a minute anyway. She was her main focus.
“S’okay i protected it” She reached up gently patting her head again with a proud look on her face as she winced at the movement of her fingers, she had briefly forgotten that they were very broken. Reed's eyes stayed on her face as she examined her fingers before hiding them from Reed's line of sight.
“Thats really good” he said, his shoulders losing the tension in them as he gently patted the back of her head again trying to feel for any fractures that she lay have missed but just like she had said there was nothing there.
“Guess what?” She asked looking up at him as she got an excited look on her face. She could wait to tell Reed what she had done. Her face was bright and excited in a way that made her husband paused as he looked at her completely and utterly dazzled by how bright her smile was even in these circumstances
“What is it” He asked softly, leaning forward so that he would be able to hear her better. Considering how gravely and broken her voice was right now it was a little hard for him to understand just everything that she was saying.
“I protected it with my force fields while unconscious” She said excitedly looking up at him. Sue laughed softly as she looked up at him expectantly. They had been trying so hard to get her force fields to work without thinking about how useful it would be for protection. And here she was actually being able to do it.
It was amazing
Sure he would have liked for her to find this information out in a more controlled and less dangerous situation but still he was no less proud of her. If she hadn't been able to do it then she might have not still been here. A hit like this to the head could and probably should have killed her but she had protected herself. Thank god had she protected herself.
Reed didn’t know what he would do without her, frankly he could even imagine a world where she wasn't constantly by his side. Even the idea of one made his hands shake in terror.
“Really?” He said forcing the thoughts of how his wife could have died and instead focused on the positives’ she was here, she was alive and honestly she was happy and proud with herself. “I didn’t think that was possible good job. I'm so proud of you, you know that?” He said happily with a bright smile.
His excitement made her beam, she closed her eyes as her smile got wider clearly preening in the attention that she was being given “Im so cool” she whispered softly to herself
The way she clearly didn't mean to say that out loud made a surprised laugh echo from his throat. He didn’t know if he was just relieved but seeing her that blissful and happy with herself felt like the best thing he had seen in his entire life “Of course you are, coolest damn person that I know that for sure. So its just your leg then?” He kept his tone light as he asked her. He wanted her to be honest and tell him if anything else hurt. He wanted whatever was wrong with her fixed as soon as possible.
“No i hurt my fingers as well” He said as she put her hand in his, her fingers were clearly broken. Some were bent at the wrong angle and all of them were just generally swollen. Luckily broken fingers were something that he could easily fix if he wanted to.
“Yeah? Let me see” He whispered but he didn’t need too. When her hand was fully in his he gently brought her fingers to his lips and tenderly kissed them a few times to make sure.
“We can get them splintered no bother you dont even have to worry about it” She wouldnt need to wrry about anything, anything wrong or hurt he would have her treated with the best care possible, he was on good terms and knew practically every doctor in the country. He was well renowned for a reason. His effort in caring for both the scientific community and for the doctors within it meant that he could get her the best care money could buy and even the best care that money couldn't buy.
After all, the best of the best is precisely what she deserved.
“Have you looked at the sky yet?” Sue mumbled her gaze which had been dreamily on him finally broke. Reed would never admit how much it hurt him to break eye contact with his wife but he didn’t complain this wasn't about him. This was about her and if staring into the night sky. Admiring the stars that were up there was something that would bring another smile to her face and keep her from realising how scary of a situation that she was in then he could take the pain that came when her attention wasn't on him.
“Hm? No i guess i havent” He said softly watching as she turned away from him to look towards the sky. But reed didnt move instead his gaze stayed on her watching every microexpression that she made. Reed knew Sue like the back of his hand. He knew her like a book that he had read back to front. There was not a bit of distress in her face.
She was broken at the bottom of a mountain and yet she seemed completely at peace with herself. It was an odd sight to see but he wasn’t displeased at it.
“It’s really pretty” She mumbled looking up at it transfixed. She seemed so peaceful, despite the events of what had occurred today Sue didn’t seem to mind. She was completely happy within this moment.
“Yeah… it is” Reed whispered, but he had no eyes for the sky. Instead, all he could do was look down at her and think about just how lucky he is to have her. How he wouldn’t let anything like this happen to her ever again, not while he was still breathing. As long as he was on this planet he would do whatever it could to protect her
“SUE” a voice screamed. Reeds head snapped to the side while Sue stayed looking at the sky, her hand gently in reeds as he absentmindedly patted her bruised fingers gently in a way so that he didn’t hurt her a smile crossed his face when he saw the way that Johnny and Ben were frantically running over.
They had been just as scared as he had been when the call came in that Sue had gone missing on the way up to the dig and they thought she had fell. In the drive over they had been screaming at him to make the fantasticar go faster when it had already been going full speed
“Well guess the calvary has arrived,” Reed said to her gently as he waved the boys over. Sue wasn’t even listening. She just stared at the stars completely transfixed. You would have thought that she had never seen them before in her life because of the way that she was looking. There was a glow in her eyes. The excitement of being able to see them.
She didn’t even look to her side as Johnny skidded to his knees next to her no doubted hurting them badly as he did so. Reed could see a patch of blood seeping through his suit already but Johnny didn’t have a care in the world; his only focus was on his sister. Ben was the same plopping himself down next to Johnny practically rattling the ground as he did so
“Oh my god are you okay? You fell from really high Reed said your leg is hurt are you sure that you’re okay?” Johnny asked frantically looking at her very broken leg with wide eyes before looking back at her. His hands were shaking and his face was pale like he was seconds away from vomiting out of worry. He put a hand on her cheek and some of the worry melted away when she leaned into it but not all of it. Reed didn’t comment on the fact that he was clearly seconds away from crying, there was no point in it since he himself also had tear stains on his cheeks.
Ben was about the same breathing heavily with a hand on her knee as he looked down at her desperately. Neither of them knew what to do. Usually Sue was so confident, she would be pushing them off insisting that she was fine and would just need a minute. Usually they would have to force her to go rest but now she barely even seemed to notice her injuries and instead was transfixed in the sky, her breaths shallow and calm with a tender smile firm on her face
“Christ suzie-Q i knew you said this trip was gonna be exciting but c'mon there was no need to give us a heart attack like that kid we almost died when we got the call that you had gone missing” he tried to joke but it just completely fell flat. There was nothing to joke about here; he was far too worried about her to joke at a time like this.
They didn’t even think she seemed to notice their worry or was hearing anything they said, that was until they heard a small, whispery voice
“Sorry” she whispered clearly, completely out of it. Reed doubted that she even really knew where she was right now. She was blinking slowly, barely even giving the boys a glance; she was just so transfixed on the stars. The sight made the three soften. They had expected her to be screaming in pain for injuries like this hell she should have been screaming in pain but instead she just smiled looking upwards.
She didn’t even seem to notice the hands stroking back her hair, patting her hand and rubbing her shoulder with all the gentleness in the world. However, a part of her leaned into comfort. She blinked slowly so that her eyes were closed for a few seconds before they slowly opened glancing up at the three of them.
She looked exhausted, like she was seconds away from falling asleep
Hey.. Hey dont apologise we were just worried is all” Johnny said as he tilted her head ever so slightly to look at him, not enough to do any damage to her spine if it was broken but enough so that she looked away from the stars and looked at him instead. Surprisingly just making eye contact with her seemed to make everything feel so much better. It was a sign that she was okay, that she was there and all they needed to do now was get her somewhere to be checked out.
If they had been a bit longer then maybe she wouldn’t have made it, maybe she would have bled out on the stone staring up at the stars with the excitement of a little kid who had never seen them before. But they had been fast enough even when they had been hours away they had managed to find a way to get to her and be the ones to find her despite the massive search and rescue team that had failed to do so.
It was their job to protect her just like it was her job to protect them.
Ben leaned forward taking Sue’s hand from Johnny signalling that she should look over at him, even with her protecting her head it was clear from her confusion that she had some kind of concussion. If she needed them to keep being this soft with her, to hold her hand and guide her gaze then that was exactly what they would do. They didn’t care as long as she was still here, still safe with them “How about this? We’re going to get you to a hospital and you can get nice and comfy in a hospital bed while we all annoy the crap out of you with our worrying, how does that sound then?” Ben offered
Sue got an almost dreamy smile on her face at the thought as she looked up at him “That sounds really nice” she whispered with a giggle clearly excited at the idea of doing something other than lay here in pain. They didn’t care how much it cost they’d get her the nicest hospital room that money could buy. If it made her happy then the price didn’t matter.
“Yeah? You wanna do that then?” Reed asked gently, coaxing her head to look back up at him again. She didn’t even need to think about it before Sue started to nod her head at him
“Yeah” she said shyly and from then on till she got better the boys knew she would get exactly what she wanted no matter how big or small. If it made her smile like that then it was worth every penny.
The ambulance was on its way, Reed had signalled for where to meet them the second that he had first spotted her there, his flashlight illuminating her still body. It would be here soon and when it came everything was going to be right again. No matter what Reed, Johnny or Ben had too do they’d make sure that she was okay. They would also make sure that this wouldn’t deter her from her passion. Sue loved Archeology with all of her heart.
She may have fallen this time, she may have gotten hurt but they weren’t going to let her use this an excuse to never do the things she loved again.
They’d make sure she could continue to have the fun that she so desperately deserved.
Because if Sue fell?
They would be right there to catch her.