Grateful, but Conflicted

Sue Storm took a moment to consider her response. At last she said:

"Thank you Victor. For what you did for Franklin and Valeria, for me...for everything. I truly am grateful for it," she stepped out of the scanning device and turned to face him. There was conflict in her face. No attempt at a strong front, no poker face. Doctor Doom stared into her face and it was if she had become truly transparent, not physically, but emotionally. As if he stared into her blue eyes and could see her very soul.

What emotions she felt there—guilt, relief, affection, regret, gratefulness—he could see them at play as she relived, for a moment, the whole ordeal. How she had fallen to Porkum. How she had betrayed her husband and family. How Doom had saved her life and sanity.

"Why did you do it?" she asked, after a long moment.

Doom held her gaze. There was a plaintive yearning in her eyes. She needed to hear the words. Needed a gesture to see if her feelings were reciprocated. That she could trust him.

With calm deliberation, Doom reached up and undid the catches that held his mask in place. He withdrew it slowly, carefully. Their eyes met as she beheld Doom's scarred visage. Sue Storm did not flinch.

"Initially, I felt—responsibility," Doom said. "I watched Richards abandon you. Watched Porkum move in. Influence you. Yet I did nothing. It was not my business, you were Richard's wife..."

He let the thought trail off. Started again.

"When the children reached out to me, I thought at first it an opportunity to take advantage of Richards' absence, but as their distress became evident, I began to see my error. When I saw what the mutant had done to you—I regret that I did not take action sooner."

Doom took a measured step closer, then another.

"I have—enjoyed having the children here. It has been too long since Doomstadt knew the footsteps of children, the sound of their voices. So too, I have enjoyed having you here, Susan. Our conversations. Someone I can address who...owes me no fealty."

"I owe you my life," Sue said simply.

"You owe Doom nothing," the Latverian monarch said, as he slipped back into the old way of speaking. "Had I but acted sooner—"

Sue step forward. One hand touched the tunic on his armored chest.

"You acted. That's what matters," she said.

His hand closed on hers. They stood close now, eyes locked. His armor could feel her pulse quicken. Saw the conflict in her eyes resolve, just for a moment.

She leaned forward, Doctor Doom as still as a statue, as she planted a warm kiss on scarred lips. It was a chaste kiss, but Doom felt something warm and strange in his heart. An emotion he had not felt in long years, like the dull ache of an ancient wound that had never healed. A surge of desire that produced an immediate physical response.

Sue Storm pulled back, blushed. She had felt something like that too.

Doom thought of reaching out to her, to crush her body to him—but no. That was Porkum's way of thinking. The Invisible Woman would come to him of her own volition, or not at all.

"I'm still married," she whispered. There were tears in her eyes. "Reed and the others might—they might come back. I need—I need to go back to the Baxter Building. See if there's any way to contact them. Bring them home."

Doom settled his mask back into place.

"Of course. I swore to your son that I would not oppose Richards' return to this plane, and you are all free to come and go as you wish. The teleporter stands ready to deliver you back to the Baxter Building."

Sue Storm steeled herself. Her emotions at war once again.

"The children are settled here. I—I want to go on my own, at first. I'll be back. If that's alright."

"You are always welcome here," Doom said simply.

He walked her toward the teleport station. Sue's heart hammered in her chest. She turned to look at Doom.

"The coordinates at the Baxter Building are already set," Doom said. "You need simply step onto the pad when you wish to return. I will await your return. And...Susan. Whatever decision you come to. Know that Doomstadt will always be here for you, and the children."

She nodded. Then golden light enveloped her, and her physical being was translated into a stream of information, transmitted across the planet to a receptor station thousands of miles away. Doom felt a shadow on his heart at her absence, but he knew this was a necessary step. Sue Storm needed to confront what she had done, and what she had left behind.