Chapter Seven

Shopping was a fearful task, enough to strike fear into the heart of some of the greatest men – apparently this also included those of the superhero nature. However, whether it was shopping in general, or just shopping with Sue, that bought so much terror into the room whenever the words were mentioned, remained to be seen. At this moment, it was the combination of both that was making Reed Richards start to sweat a little.

"If Johnny needs new clothes, just go to the mall," he suggested.

"It's not just that, we need food as well," his wife pointed out. "And I can't take Johnny with me again in this state, it'll look suspicious. So you'll have to come with me."

He choked on his coffee a little. "That's one of the most horrible ideas I've ever heard," he said, shaking his head.

"Well, I'm not going on my own," she told him.

"Why not?"

It was Johnny who contributed here. "Susie has a shopping problem."

"Thank you, Johnny," Sue grimaced.

"But you do," he argued. "Daddy says you'll bankrupt a millionaire," he said, his pronunciation far from correct but they understood what he was trying to say.

"Hmm..." Ben mused from beside the youngster. "Victor was a millionaire, and you helped bankrupt him..."

"Ben," she snapped lightly. "Not helping."

Johnny frowned, looking at Ben. "Who's Victor?" he asked.

Before Ben had the chance to answer, Sue turned back to Reed. "Come on, Reed, it'll be fun."

Reed put a hand on his wife's cheek. "Sue, darling, honey, sweetheart...I love you. But I don't think I can face shopping with you ever again."

She pouted. "Just the kids department and then the supermarket," she insisted.

"Honestly?"

She nodded. "We'll go to the kids department, get some clothes for Johnny and then get some food...then we'll come back...maybe have some alone time..."

It worked instantly.

"Johnny, have a fun afternoon with Ben," Reed said hurriedly. "Ben, take him out and don't come back for at least twenty-four hours."

Ben raised his rocky brow. "Will six hours do?" he asked. "Me and Alicia are going to her parents for her mom's birthday."

"Yes," Reed nodded. "Six hours will do."

Getting Johnny to stay with Ben and Alicia, however, was more complicated. He'd agreed to stay home with them all while Sue and Reed were getting ready to go out, but the second he saw them head towards the door, he'd decided he wasn't all that pleased about his sister going out and leaving him. It ended with him hanging on to Sue's leg and begging her not to go.

Sue sighed, turning to Ben. "Are you sure you don't mind doing this?" she asked.

"We don't mind, Susie," he waved off.

"Are you really sure?" she checked. "Because if you want we can-?"

"Susie, it doesn't matter how many covers you have, that kid is going to shout out something in the store, or when an old lady tells him how cute he is, he'll tell her what his name is, and that he's your brother," he pointed out. "The whole world knows you only got one brother called Johnny. So don't worry about us and go shopping."

"Okay," she sighed. "Thank you."

"No problem." He looked down at Johnny. "Come on, kid, party time."

Johnny frowned, clinging harder to Sue's leg. "No. I wanna stay with Susie."

"Johnny," she warned him.

"No!" he insisted.

"You'll have fun playing with Ben and Alicia," she assured him.

"I wanna have fun with you," he argued.

"I'm sorry, Johnny, but I need to go shopping," she told him.

He looked up at her. "I can help!" he insisted.

She shook her head. "Sorry, but this grown-ups stuff."

He looked down again, pouting. "Hate being little," he hugged. "Wanna be a grown up."

The irony in his words silenced them all for a moment. "Well, when you're as old as I am you can go out on your own as well," Sue told him quietly.

He gaped at her. "But that's about a hundred years from now!" he argued. "I can't wait that long!"

She frowned. "How old do you think I am?" she tested.

He shrugged, not releasing his hold on her leg. "Old enough to have all the fun."

She crouched down to his level. "How about you play with Ben and Alicia this afternoon, and if you're really good I'll bring you home some ice cream for after dinner?" she suggested to him.

Johnny narrowed his eyes. "Will it be chocolate?" he asked.

"It sure will," she smiled.

He still looked sceptical. "And all I gotta do is play with Ben and 'Lisha?"

Ben put his hand on the boy's tiny shoulder. "We can do anythin' you want, kid."

Johnny contemplated this for a moment, then nodded. "Ok."

"That's my boy," Sue praised. "You have fun, and be good."

She stood up, ready to leave, and Alicia grinned into the air before her. Sue watched her, before asking. "What?"

"You're such a mother," she pointed out.

Sue shook her head. "Don't start."

"Don't worry, Susie," Ben assured her, not realising that Johnny had darted off behind them and was occupying himself in a questionable way. "The kid'll be fine...hey, get that out of your mouth!"

In order to keep Johnny occupied, they quickly realised that indoors wasn't going to cut it. He had a massive store of energy that apparently had been there for his entire life, and now they had to burn it off before Johnny decided to escape from the building. They ended up on the roof of the Baxter Building, where Ben had set up an obstacle course out of whatever he could find lying around. He stood Johnny at one end of it, and indicated to a line of rope at his feet.

"Right, this is the starting line," he said. "There's another line by the other wall, and that's the finish line. Before you get to the finish line, you have to do the obstacle course."

Johnny frowned. "Wassat?"

"It's like an army training course," he told the youngster.

He perked up at this. "Do spacemen do them too?"

"Absolutely."

"Cool!"

Ben started to walk around the course to try and explain it to him. "Well, first off, you have to run through all these poles without touching any of them. Then you have to run up to this long pole and you have to jump either side of it like this," he said, showing him how to do it. "Then you get on your belly and crawl underneath the tarp. Then when you get to the other side you run around the metal block over there and you run over the finish like. You have to go as quickly as you can without falling over. Think you can do that?"

Johnny nodded eagerly. "Uh-huh."

"Are you ready?"

"Ready!"

"Set?"

"Set!

"Go!"

Sue and Reed came back hours later, obviously much later than they had planned considering the look on Reed's face. It was amusing to see his arms stretching dramatically to hold all of the bags in his arms without needing to rush backwards and forwards between the elevator while putting the food away. When Reed took the bags into the kitchen, Sue went over to where Ben and Alicia were sitting.

"You took your time," Ben pointed out.

"Sorry, traffic was awful," she groaned. "I swear, half of the food must have defrosted. Was he ok for you?"

"Yeah, he was great. No trouble."

Sue raised an eyebrow. "Really?"

Ben nodded. "One think he don't remember is how he liked to play tricks on me, and I'm glad of that."

"Where is he?" she asked, looking around with suspicion about how quiet it was.

"Watching television," he said.

"Susie!" came an excited call, followed by quick footsteps as Johnny launched himself at his sister.

"Or at least, he was," Ben grumbled.

"Did you have fun with Ben and Alicia?" Susie asked him.

He nodded eagerly. "Yeah, I did an obstacle course!"

"Really?" Sue asked him brightly.

"Yeah, spacemen do them!" he told her. "I want to be a spaceman."

"I know you do," she nodded.

"Reed says I'm going to fly us all to space one day," he told her.

She smiled at him, putting her hand on the top of his head. "I know you will, Johnny."