Six Weeks Later

Sue Storm opened the medicine cabinet, to look for something for her upset stomach. The nausea had been sudden, and she needed something for it...when she saw the tampon, still in its wrapper, on the shelf.

Her mind went back suddenly to her last period. Mouth twisted down into a frown. Too long. Two weeks too long.

The Invisible Woman closed the medicine cabinet and stared at herself. Two children, all the stress of adventuring, but she still looked young. At least she thought she did. No wrinkles on her face, due to her constant beauty regime. A tight, toned body, still thin and athletic as a woman half her age due to constant exercise and dieting. Her blue eyes like chips of arctic ice.

A thought, and her Fantastic Four uniform went transparent. She stood there as if in her underwear. Sue could see the signs of childbirth now. The little white lines of stretch marks across her trim stomach and breasts. The hint of darker areola. She reached up and cupped her breasts, through the bra, in her hands, and winced at a sudden, unexpected soreness. This was her biggest non-maternity bra, too. The smaller ones she normally wear didn't fit comfortably this morning. Sue knew she normally went up a cup size during her period, due to bloating, except she wasn't on her period. Either it was late, or...

Her hands dropped down to her flat stomach. Her fingers made a triangle, just below her belly button. Sue barely breathed as she let the layers of her skin and muscle dissolve away, into invisibility. A layer at a time. Deeper and deeper inside herself.

Until she saw her womb. And a little red blotch that really shouldn't be there.

"It's impossible," Sue said.

She visited the pharmacy incognito. Black wig, civilian clothes, sunglasses, mask. Something made her grab a packet of sour cream & onion potato chips and a bottle of antacid tablets. The young woman at the cashier said nothing as she rung up the pregnancy tests and the rest of it. Her brown eyes met Sue's, very briefly. No smile. No nothing. Just a shared moment of understanding.

Sue went invisible before she stepped off the elevator. The kids were in the living room, playing their games. She didn't want to answer any questions they might have about where she'd been and what she brought them. Inside, the nausea still gripped her guts, but with it was a jittery nervousness of excitement that was mingled dread and anticipation.

She didn't bother to pick up the clothes where she dropped them on the way to the bathroom. Pantied around her knees she tore open the box of tests. Her fingers trembled, eyes barely able to focus as she read the instructions.

The last time she'd been with Reed was months ago. He'd used a condom. He always used a condom, since they had Valeria.

The Invisible Woman hovered over the toilet like a cheerleader six months after prom night. A thin trickle of a clear stream ran over the applicator.

Sue set the test on the sink as she pulled up her panties and flushed. She washed her hands, cupped them under the stream of cool water and drank. Felt it flow down her stomach and form a pool inside her grumbling gut.

Ten minutes later, Sue had demolished the sour cream & onion chips. Washed down two antacids with more water. Closed her eyes. Released the breath she had been holding. Stared down at the test.

Two pink lines stared up at her.

It was as though a hole opened in Sue Storm's heart. She stood there, at a loss for words, barely able to think. To process what she had known, all along. What her body had been trying to tell her. Stared into the face in the mirror. The face of a faithful wife. A loving mother. A superheroine.

Of a pregnant woman.

"How am I going to tell Reed?" she asked her reflection.