Half Shocked, Half Excited

"You...you actually fucked him?" Janet van Dyne could hardly believe her ears. "I thought...I thought it was a Skrull, an LMD, an interdimensional duplicate. Hell, I even thought it could be Mystique, but you really..."

There was no disgust or condemnation in the Wasp's voice. Her face was open, shock evident. Sue looked around, but they were alone. Janet wouldn't have dared to show this to her if there was any chance of anyone else seeing it, getting the wrong idea.

Or the right idea, as it turned out.

"Yes, okay?" Sue admitted. "I'm having an affair with Porkum."

It was the first time the Invisible Woman had said the words, and she hugged her arms even as she used an invisible hand to shut the recording off. She couldn't meet Janet's eyes, but her friend couldn't let it go. Curiosity—and a terrible, unnamable thrill—made her press Sue for details.

"How long? And...I mean why?" Jan said. Her brain made an intuitive leap. "Is everything okay with you and Reed?"

Sue Storm sighed. Her lips pressed into a tight line.

"Things are...okay. It's just been..." Sue sighed again, not sure where to start. "I've been fucking Porkum for a couple of months now, I guess. It started off when Reed and the others abandoned me to go hunt through other dimensions. Then everybody else got busy, stopped visiting. I was all alone in the Baxter Building, healing up from that wound in my thigh and...Porkum popped up. A minor villain. I thought I could handle him easily, even in my condition."

The Invisible Woman's eyes dropped into her lap.

"Instead, I ended up fucking him. He's got...well, you see how big his cock is. When I first confronted him, he wasn't dressed and...I don't know what came over me, really. Porkum can be very charming, when he wants to be. And Reed and I...our sex life hasn't been great. Not for years, not since I had Valeria. I guess...I guess I was lonely."

"Oh, Sue," Janet said, and stood up from her chair to cross the space between them and wrap her arms around her friend. "Why didn't you tell me? You know I'm always here for you!"

"I didn't...I didn't want anybody to know," Sue admitted. "You know what our lives are like, the image we have to project. It's bad enough when the media zeroes in whenever I gain a pound, can you imagine what they would do if they learned I was cheating on my husband?"

There was truth and fiction mixed into Sue Storm's confession. Even the Invisible Woman wasn't sure how much of either. There were certainly things about her relationship with Porkum, how it had started, that she didn't want to share with Jan. Yet she needed the Wasp on her side. If Jan showed this recording to anyone...her life would be over.

Sue raised her head and stared Jan in the eyes. The Invisible Woman's cheeks were wet with tears.

"You won't tell anyone, will you Jan? I can trust you, can't I? If anyone finds out...I'll be ruined. My marriage will be over, I'll lose the kids, the media will be all over me..."

"Of course, Sue," Janet said. Then she hesitated. Something nagged at the Wasp. Something that she had to say. "But you need to do one thing for me..."