Ben Grimm Calls In A Few Favors

He made a few calls. That night, they came to the Baxter Building, one at a time. Spider-Man. Daredevil. Jessica Jones. Black Widow. Ben had the beers cold and the green felt table set up. He was careful to close and lock the door, and then he looked at his four friends.

"DD," he said. "Anybody else here? Just the five of us?"

"Just the five of us," Daredevil said, cocking his head. "Your heart rate is elevated. Something tells me you didn't just call us over for poker."

"I gotta confess," Ben said, as he took a seat and began to shuffle. "I didn't. Suzy's been actin'...weird."

He laid out his concerns. The shifts in behavior. Spending more time away. Her apparent lack of concern for the kids.

"And you want us to look into it?" Jessica Jones said.

The stony head nodded. "Follow her on these therapy appointments. See where she goes. Me, I can't do sneaky very well, but the four of you are basically ninjas."

"Hey!" Spider-Man said. "I resent that. I only know kung fu."

"It could be nothing," Black Widow said. "Women change as they get older. She lives a stressful life. I've seen a lot of people act different after therapy."

Ben dealt out the cards. They played a few desultory hands. The Thing had a habit of betting big on bad hands, but as he threw his last chip into the pot, the four noted that he'd balanced things out so that each of them ended up with about the same amount in front of them. That was when they realized they really weren't playing poker.

"I got a feelin' in my gut," Ben Grimm said. "I trust alla you to keep a secret. An' I know you can do it. I'm hopin' I'm wrong. 'cause if I ain't..."

He didn't finish. The mountain of a man sat still as a boulder, as guilt and suspicion ate away at the inside of him like an acid. If he was right, then something was rotten in the Fantastic Four. And the whole world might never be the same.

"We'll do it, Ben," Spider-Man said. "Right?"

Daredevil nodded. "We'll need to set up a schedule to watch her entrances and exits."

"And use proper technique, so that she doesn't spot us," Black Widow added. "I can also put in a few discreet feelers about her therapist."

"And I can crack her credit card, see where she's spending money," Jessica Jones said.

Ben kept his eyes downcast. The unwilling monolith at the center of the conspiracy he had just launched to investigate one of his dearest friends. Yet what else could he do?