This is my first solely Fantastic Four story. I have written a couple crossovers, but not just Fantastic Four. This is set after the second movie.

Don't own anything.

Eleven months, thirty days, twenty tree hours. That was how long he had been gone.

Sue stared at the bedside clock, only faintly aware of Reed lying next to her. She was too busy counting down the minutes.

She remembered the exact time it happened. Remembered the exact minute she had realized he wasn't there. At first she hadn't thought anything of it, sure, but it still counted as the first. Even if she hadn't realized it.

It was a few months after her wedding, a few months after he had defeated Victor, and this time it looked like Victor was staying away, even if he was still alive out there somewhere.

At first she had thought maybe he had simply gone out as usual. That maybe he had gone over to Frankie's. They had actually started to get really close. It looked like Johnny was thinking of settling down with her, something that Sue had previously thought might never happen.

They had gotten a call about a fire in the city. Sue had called the phone that Reed had insisted that Johnny keep because he was rarely home, especially since he had starting dating Frankie.

He hadn't answered, but Sue hadn't been worried. She had left him a message telling him where to meet them. A fire was Johnny's territory. He could get everyone out without a risk to himself.

When he hadn't shown up, she had started to be worried. Ben and Reed had been a little angry, but she knew her brother. He had grown up a lot and even if he still had his moments, he never bailed out on a mission.

When she had called Frankie later and found out she hadn't seen him all day, the worry had spiked up another notch. She supposed he could have gone somewhere else, maybe turned his phone off, but he never did that, not anymore.

She thought it was a product of her almost dying during the fight with Victor. She knew that he didn't like her going out on missions without him, even if he never said it. She knew he worried.

When they had gotten back to the Baxter Building, and she had found the note he had left her, the worry had spiked up to near panic. The note, which said he was planning on spending the night at Frankie's.

Sue had stood in the kitchen, the note from her brother clutching in one fist. That was the moment she realized that something was wrong, that something bad must have happened. Johnny wouldn't have lied to her, not even in a note. Not after he near death experience during the fight. It had affected him a hell of a lot worse than he let on, at least around the others, and she knew that he even had nightmares about it. At that moment, standing in the kitchen with his note in hand, she knew how he felt.

Sue marked that moment. That was the moment that her world crumbled, that the most important person in her life for the better part of it had been ripped away from her in a way that she just couldn't handle.

Even if at that moment, she hadn't fully realized it yet. Even if she had been sure at the time that they would find him. That was still the moment that her fire had gone out.

She had quickly convinced Reed and Ben to begin a search. She realized that it might have been a little too early to start panicking, but she couldn't help it. With the lives they led, anything could have happened. She did notice the fact that Reed and Ben were looking worried as well.

They had called some of Johnny's friends, been out to the bars he liked to go to. No one had seen him. She had even talked to some of the girls that used to follow him around.

The next week had been pure hell for Sue. She felt like they had searched the entire city, but she couldn't stop. She couldn't stop until she found him.

Her imagination had come up with one scenario after another. She shuddered when her mind brought up an image of Victor coming back for revenge on the man who had defeated him.

It put a strain on everyone. Reed spent a lot of time trying to find a way to maybe track

Johnny's power so they could find him that way, or maybe his body heat. He had even come up with a way to separate Johnny out from the crowd since Johnny's body temperature was over a hundred degree's above normal.

They had searched the city again, this time with Reed's new equipment but hadn't found anything. They had expanded it, but still hadn't found anything.

By the time a month passed, she could practically see what Ben and Reed were thinking, that they couldn't find anything because there was nothing to find. Sue wouldn't accept it, couldn't.

It put a strain on her relationship with Reed. Especially when Reed had decided to voice this thought out loud and suggested that maybe they should get back to their lives. Sue couldn't do it. How could she continue on with all this when Johnny was out there somewhere?

Frankie had been crushed as well. The normally hard as nails girl had broken down when she realized that Johnny was missing and Sue got first hand how much Johnny meant to her.

As far as Sue had been concerned, the Fantastic Four had been no more the moment Johnny had disappeared. They wanted to keep it going, but Sue couldn't.

Johnny was her responsibility. She was supposed to take care of him. Ever since their mother had died, it had been her job. He was the only family she had left. She couldn't just abandon him like that.

It took six months for her to realize that maybe Reed was right. She had spotted Frankie out with another guy. She had sort of blown up at her. Later she had felt slightly guilty at her reaction but the guilt had been outweighed by sorrow.

Seeing Frankie give up had been the final kick that she hadn't been able to take. Frankie had loved Johnny, no matter what she had yelled at the girl she knew that. And she had given up.

After that, Sue felt like she was more going through the motions than anything. As horrible of a thought it was, she thought maybe she could have moved on with time if she had known what happened to him.

Losing her mother had been horrible. Losing her father had been just as bad. Losing Johnny was worse. Losing Johnny the way she had made it almost unbearable.

She wished sometimes that she knew who had made him disappear from her life. Whished sometimes that Victor would come back for another round. She couldn't take the not knowing. The wondering if he was even alive.

As of now, she couldn't help the lingering hope that he would walk into the Baxter Building again someday.

Sue watched the clock as it changed and felt the tears fall once again for her baby brother that she felt like she had failed.

"What is it?" Sue asked the next morning. Apparently, Reed had gotten a call, and they were planning on going out.

"Sue, you don't have to..."

"I'm going. What is it?" She repeated. It was a conversation they had almost every time they got called out. She glanced over at Ben but didn't like the wary, concerned look he always seemed to be sporting around her lately.

"Okay, but we have to leave now." Reed said, jumping up and heading towards the ship.

"There's a ship that was supposed to be carrying people from Europe to the states.

Apparently it caught fire. It's dangerous and we'll be able to get there a hell of a lot faster than the rescue teams." Sue simply nodded, and followed him.

They had been helping people into the life rafts. The ship was sinking fast, and there had been people trapped on board, away from the rafts. The rescue ship was hovering not far away, and there were people helping them.

"Looks like he got a good knock to the head." One of the rescue team came by her, a man thrown over his shoulder. "He's okay other than that. I'm pretty sure he's the last of them, too."

"Alright." Reed nodded, as they made their way off the boat. Sue was still staring at the burning ship as Reed and the rescue team checked over the injured people on the lifeboat. She turned towards them, however, when she heard a gasp from Reed.

"Sue!" Shock was in his voice and he was staring down at the man that had been carried off last, and she looked down at him. There was blood running from a wound on the side of his head, matting in his hair, but she could tell that it was blonde. Sue's eyes widened as she took in his features and she dropped down beside him, putting a hand on his cheek in disbelief.

"Johnny?"