Somebody To Love

((Authors Note: My friend wrote this, I inputted ideas and edited it. But mainly hers, and neither of us own the Fantastic Four..))

Ever since I could remember, it has always been Ben, Reed, and me. My brother, Ben, had been best friends with Reed since they were kids and as I grew older, they let me tag along for the ride. When we were in school, Reed would tutor me and Ben would defend us. We were pretty invincible. Together we made the perfect person. Reed did the thinking, I did the talking, and Ben did the waking. Reed was the brains. Ben was the brawn. And me, I was the attitude and flair. I was the girl who knew how to get things done the way Reed wanted them to be done.

Today, we were in front of Von Doom Industries. Reed was coming to Victor to, in a sense, get us out of bankruptcy. We stopped in front of the statue of Victor.

"Typical of Victor Von Doom to build a 30 ft statue of himself." Ben said as we stopped.

"Well, it's obviously aimed at first-time visitors to create feelings of smallness inadequacy." Reed replied nervously.

"Good thing, it ain't workin'." Ben replied.

"Reed, are you sure you want to do this? He's kind of an egomaniac." I tried to reason with him. I didn't like Victor. He didn't seem human to me.

"He's not that bad, Brittany. He's just a little larger than life." Reed gave me a reassuring smile.

"Alright, but if he tries anything don't say I didn't warn you." I replied flatly.

We all went inside and to Victor's office. Victor sat down and reed set up, I went to his laptop and pulled up the graphics.

"My research suggests that exposure to a high-energy cosmic storm borne on solar winds might have triggered the evolution of early planetary life. In six weeks another cloud with the same elemental profile will pass Earth's orbit. A study, conducted in space could fundamentally advance our knowledge about the structure of the human genome cure countless diseases extend human life give kids to live longer stronger healthier." He explained.

"Turn it off." Victor waved at me. He had had enough.

"But he's barely even started. He has even explained his purpose fully yet." I told him.

"No, I think he has. Same old Reed always stretching trying to reaching for the stars with the weight of the world on his back; but dreams don't pay the bills, do they?" Victor said as he threw a time magazine on to the table. Its cover said 'Reed Richards Bankrupt'. It had a black and white picture of Reed on the front.

"You remember when we were in school we talked about working together. Well, that's what I was about to explain. The storm is deadly, but the shields on your stations control room are designed to protect any occupants inside." Reed explained. Victor turned on the lights and then dropped the bomb. "Tell me Reed, if NASA doesn't trust you, why should I?"

Ben and I exchanged glances and then looked at Reed. He looked at us for help.

"That's my job to stay a step ahead to know what other men don't." Victor said.

"Yes, and with Reed's help you will be able to do a better job of it." I gave him a fake smile.

"Take it easy, Britt." Ben lightly scolded

"It's just business." Reed told me. I shrugged and nodded.

"He's right, Britt. It is just business." I heard Sue say as she walked into the room.

"I believe all three of you know my director of genetic research Susan Storm." Victor introduced her.

"One more thing he's got." Ben muttered to Reed.

Sue hugged me and we both said hi. She hugged and greeted Ben next. Then she and Reed awkwardly shook hands.

"Uh…how have you been?" Reed asked her.

"Never better." She replied dryly. They had been broken up for quite sometime. Both hearts were broken too.

"This isn't a problem is it?" Victor motioned at them. Reed shook his head and said "No not at all."

"Good." Victor nodded and then said to Sue, "You've come just in time to hear Reed Richards ask me for help."

'Because we had too, you weren't our first choice. You're our last hope. And that isn't saying much.' I yelled at him in my head.

"You made a lot of folks at M.I.T. feel like a junior high science fair so you'll excuse me if I savor the moment" Victor said haughtily.

"When the mission is over, I sign over a fair percentage of any applications." Reed told him fairly.

"The number is 75, its applications and patents." Victor told him flatly.

"What you don't want his first born too?" I mocked his greed dryly. Victor chuckled. "Come on. 25 percent of a billion is enough to keep the lights on for a while isn't? It might even be enough to pay off the fourth mortgage on the Baxter Building. Deal?" He negotiated. He held out his hand. Reed took it.

"To our future together. Funny how things turn out, isn't it?" Victor said.

"Hilarious." Reed muttered. I rolled my eyes. "Yeah it really takes the cake." I muttered to him.

We packed up our stuff and headed into to the elevator. Sue rode down with us.

"Reed, you should know those solar winds have been picking up speed." Sue warned him.

"I've factored that into my coordinates." He lied not wanting to look stupid.

"Of course you did… in theory. It's a little different when you're really out there." She saw threw it but gave him the benefit of the doubt.

"I can assure you-"Reed started. I cut him off before he said something stupid. "So when are we leaving?"

"I'll be scheduling the launch. You can call me in the morning for crew and resources." She replied. She took out a card and handed it to Reed. He stopped her. "I remember the number." He told her.

"It's been changed." She gave him the card.

"We were hoping Ben could pilot the mission." I told her. There was no way I was going to let myself get caught in a more awkward situation.

"We already have a pilot on our payroll, but you can ride shot gun, Ben." She replied.

'Oh please. Please don't let it be who I think it is.' I prayed silently. But my hopes were crushed when sue said, "You remember my brother, Johnny, right?"

'No!!!' I screamed in my mind. I looked at Ben. He did not look happy.

When we were in high school, Johnny and I were in the same grade. We never really saw eye to eye. He had every girl swooning over him and he encouraged it. I didn't really see why he was so special. He was a butterfly boy. He was a player and there were other fish in the sea. I was the only girl who didn't go for him and he didn't get it through his thick skull. Ben would've pounded it into him if I had let him.

Ben, Reed, and I went to the observation deck. I watched our 'pilot' ride on a motorcycle while kissing some brunette. "I see he can still multitask when it comes to women." I said as I watched him. Then they started going into a full on make-out session. I felt like was going to be sick.

"Nope. Nada. Non. No. A million times, no." I told them handing Ben the binoculars. He watched the display.

"Nope. Can't do it." Ben agreed with me.

"I'm not going on a mission with that lunatic." I told Reed.

"And I'm not taking orders from the underwear model." Ben told him.

"Oh, come on guys." Reed tried reasoning with us.

"Reed, he was thrown out of NASA for sneaking two Victoria Secret model wannabes into a flight simulator." I crossed my arms.

"Youthful high spirits." He dismissed it.

"They crashed it into a wall." Ben told him.

"How many times have I asked you to do something you absolutely could not do?" Reed asked us. We thought for a moment and then Ben said "Five." Then he walked down the stairs of the observation deck.

"I had it at four." Reed called to him.

"I guess this makes five." I said following Ben. Reed followed me down. "Are you okay with this?" He asked.

"As long as I stay away from Johnny, it should be a good trip. You're sure about the storm, right?" I replied and stopped to talk to him. I hopped on to the railing.

"You helped me with the coordinates. We're sure. Don't worry everything will be fine." He said. I gave him half a smile. Reed had always been another brother to me. When we were young, we were always helping each other out. He helped me in school, I helped him get Sue.

"Alright. I doubt anything will go catastrophically wrong. I'll see you back at home. I need to get some things. Do you need anything?" I replied.

"No, I'm fine. Can you pick up something for dinner?" He asked.

"Pizza or Chinese?" I asked him. He grimaced when I said Chinese. "Okay, deep-dish cheese pizza for you and Ben. French-bread pepperoni pizza for me."

He nodded in agreement.

"I'll see ya later." I went down the steps and went to catch a cab.

When I caught one, I got in and put my bag in the seat next me. The cab stopped a few minutes later and someone else got in. It was Johnny.

'What happened to the bike? The moron probably crashed it.'

Johnny gave the driver, Ziggy, the address and then looked at me. Well more like stared with a goofy smile on his face.

"Is there a problem, Johnny?" I asked him.

"I know you from somewhere." He kept his happy grin.

"Is this how you charm the girls now? You used to be almost clever. I guess you get most by your looks now." I replied unimpressed.

"Brittany Grimm. It's good to see you again. You're still as beautiful as ever." He sounded sincere.

"Thank you…It's good to see you too." I nodded. He flashed me another smile.

"So, you still live with Ben and Reed?" He asked.

"Yeah…Ben lives with Debbie now though. How have you been?" I replied nonchalantly. 'That was a stupid question.' I thought afterward.

"I'm good, nothing much has changed. So, wait, you live with Reed…does that mean-"

I cut him off. "No, it doesn't. I'm his research assistant. We thought it was easier, since his lab is in the Baxter Building, and since I'm over there all the time, that I lived there. There's no romantic involvement at all. He's not my type."

"What is your type?" He threw me a boyish smirk.

'Impressive…you remembered the only thing I liked about you. The smirk…Too bad.'

"That's my secret." I threw him a smirk. He chocked his head and looked at me smiling to himself. "Hey Ziggy, can you let me off here? I just remembered something I forgot to get." I turned my attention to Ziggy. He nodded and pulled over. "Thanks Ziggy. See you around Johnny." I got my bag, got out of the cab and went to Wegmans. I bought the pizzas and I picked up a cake too. I caught another cab and went to the Baxter Building. I took the elevator up. As soon and I came in, Reed saw me and rushed to help me. He took his pizza and the cake.

"Wow I can see again. Unbelievable." I joked. I am very petite and the boxes I was carrying blocked my vision.

"How long did you walk around with those?" He asked and we went up to the kitchen.

"Four blocks then caught a cab. Not too far." I answer as I put my pizza on the table. "I'm gonna take my bag to my room. I'll be back."

I went into my room and set my bag down. I open my bag to get out my IPod and my Blackberry Storm but they weren't there.

"Hey Reed, did I set down my phone and my IPod in there?" I called to him.

"Nope. Not that I see." He replied. Then the buzzer for the door went off.

"I'll get it." I went down stairs and looked threw the peephole in the door to see who it was. I was Johnny. I open the door and went out to see him. He wasn't really paying attention, he was looking around.

"Hi Johnny." I greeted him. He looked at me and smiled. "Hey. You know, you learn a lot about person through the music they listen to." He told me.

"I didn't know that. That's kind of cool." I replied.

"Yeah, it is. I'm sorry. I found these on the seat. I couldn't help but look at the songs. Here…" He handed me my phone and my IPod. I smiled accepting them. "Thank you. You came all this way just to deliver these?"

"Yeah, they seemed kind of important." He replied.

"Thanks Johnny. That's really sweet." I smiled at him. He threw me his boyish smirk. "I'll see you." I turned to go in. He grabbed my wrist. "I have two tickets for a Sum 41 concert tomorrow night. Do you want to come?" He asked.

"Alright…"I hesitantly agreed. 'But it's only because I love Sum 41.' I finished in my head.

He leaned in and kissed me on the cheek. He left happily. I went inside quickly and went back to my room and shut the door behind. I looked at myself in the mirror and touched the place he kissed me.

"It's just a concert. And he only kissed you on the cheek. It's not like it's forever and always. And it's Johnny, Johnny Storm, player of the century, the king of the butterfly boys. This means nothing." I told myself calmly and took a deep breath.

---------

"So, who was that?" Reed asked as I came back into the kitchen.

"Johnny Storm." I told him as I got my pizza and sat down at the table next to him. "Johnny? What did he want?" He looked at me strangely. I took a bite out of my pizza then replied, "He was returning my phone and IPod."

"Why did he have them?" He asked confused.

"We shared a cab on my way to wegmans. They dropped out of my bag. Are we just packing tomorrow night? Do we have any research to do?" I replied.

"No, we're just packing, why?" He asked and thought for a moment. "Do I want to know?"

"Johnny asked me to go to a concert with him to a concert. And I agreed." I replied nonchalantly.

"I thought you thought he was insane." He said trying to understand.

"I do, but I love Sum 41."I shrugged taking another bite.

"The smirk got to you, didn't it?" He gave me a know-it-all smile.

"Course not. Just because I happen to be fond of that stupid smirk, does not mean I happen to be fond of him or his looks." I replied dryly. 'It is not good to lie.' I thought shaking my head. Reed just smiled a small smile. "Have a good time. I won't tell Ben." He told me as he got up put his plate in the dishwasher and went to his room. 'Ben's gonna freak when he finds out.'

I put my plate in the dishwasher and then went to my room and packed for the mission.

The next night, Johnny picked me up at seven o'clock on the dot. I was in dark-wash jeans, a red long sleeve shirt with a black tight fitting shirt with the Sum 41 band logo on it and black and red plaid converses. He smiled when he saw me outside the door. "I guess I picked the right band." He said looking at my shirt.

"Yeah, I guess so." I returned the smile.

When we came back it was almost eleven o'clock. The concert was amazing. Either Sum 41 was having a really good night or I actually had a good time with Johnny. I thought that it had to be the first until he asked, "Can we do this again? Go out again?" This surprised me to no end. Johnny had never done anything like this. "Do you want to do this again?" He asked.

"Maybe, I had an amazing time. I'll think about it. I'll tell you after we come back from the mission." I started to go inside the building. He grabbed my wrist.

"If this helps you decide, I want to this again." He kissed my cheek and walked over to his car. He watched my go in and then drove away.

As soon as I got up, I went to my room, closed the door and flopped on to my bed. "Wow…"

I changed my clothes and drifted off to sleep.