Reed Defers to Sue

Sue Storm, who had faced down aliens, gods, alien gods, and things that were neither aliens nor gods, but only because those labels were too simple to contain what they were and the threat they represented, gathered her courage. She found Reed playing with the children, Franklin trying to teach him a complex card game that involved concepts like "tempo" and...

"And if I don't spend it, I get mana burn?" Reed said.

"No dad," Franklin sighed, exasperated. "They got rid of that rule."

Reed chuckled. "And I suppose my goblin tribal deck is sub-optimal these days?"

"Some of those cards aren't even allowed in Commander!" Franklin said. If his eyes rolled any harder, he would break something.

Fortunately, at that moment Julie Power arrived with her deck, and Sue was able to pull Reed away as her son and the barely-legal teen got down to serious competition. Instead, she pulled Reed into the bedroom and sat him down.

"Reed, I...have to tell you something," Sue said. "About last night, when I was with Karla. Dr. Stone."

"She called and said you'd had some kind of emotional breakthrough," Reed said. His face was open. Receptive. For once, Sue had his full attention.

"Apparently, I got seriously emotional," Sue said. "Crying, shaking. About the marriage. Dr. Stone decided to calm me down. She had a bottle of—well, several bottles—of bourbon. She thought a drink would help. So we started doing shots. And—"

"I thought I could smell the **** on you," Reed said. His arm stretched out into their bathroom and returned with a glass of water, which Sue accepted thankfully.

"—and when I woke up this morning, I couldn't really remember the night before, but she says...she says we had an intimate moment. We kissed. And I think we kind of did a sloppy drunken makeout," the words tumbled out of Sue's mouth, and she had to hold the glass of water with both hands to keep from trembling. Reed immediately wrapped his arms around her, the rubbery limbs hugging her like a straitjacket. It was a technique he had used before, when they were alone, when the bad memories came back.

"I just. I had to tell you. I'm sorry," she said, and felt the wet tears on her cheeks.

"Don't be," Reed said gently.

Sue sniffed and looked at her husband.

"You're not upset?" she said.

"Darling, I know the trauma you carry. All we've been through, plus the pregnancies, the—" he paused for a moment, and a familiar pain entered his brown eyes. "—the loss. I'm glad you're getting help with that. Now, obviously I don't like the idea of my wife getting blackout drunk and making out with another woman—"

"Well, part of you does," Sue said, a smile breaking through her sniff as she saw the beginning of a tent in her husband's pants.

Reed gave a smile. "I'm still only human. I find my wife sexy."

He nuzzled her neck, and Sue let him. She sniffed, and felt weirdly lighter. She made an invisible straw and sucked some water into her mouth.

"What should I do about Dr. Stone?" Sue said. "She admitted what happened is unprofessional. She's offered me a referral to see someone else. But I—is it weird to say that I trust her? Even if I don't remember everything that happened last night, I feel like I opened up about a part of myself because she was there and listening, and I needed that."

"Well, I wouldn't recommend you drink that much again," Reed said. "But this is your choice, darling. I support whatever decision you make. If you think you can trust her and want to continue with her, then do it. If you're afraid of more drunken makeouts, then see someone else. Doc Samson, maybe."

Sue snorted. "Samson? Maybe if I want hair tips—"

She leaned against him, and the two of them sat there for a while. That bond of trust that years of marriage and shared adventure had built had been tested once again, but it had not broken. Would not be. As long as this didn't happen again.