Sixteen Weeks Later

In the gym, Sue Storm was at the weight bench. Sweat dripped off her as she pulled at the bar, her normally lean frame somewhat paler and puffier, a notable little bulge in her once-tight stomach.

The flu hit the Fantastic Four hard. First Johnny came home with a sniffle. Ben had started to sneeze. Then the kids started puking. Sue Storm, who had to nurse everyone, caught it the worst. Weeks of nausea, exhaustion, muscle fatigue and soreness. She struggled to keep up with her workout and diet. Slept poorly when she slept at all. Yet she was the glue that held the family together, and she struggled on, despite the looming dangers of middle age spread.

Sue knew something was up when Reed walked into the exercise room. He hadn't shaved in weeks, his beard coming in nicely. There were dark bags under his eyes, and he moved with a rubbery awkwardness that told her that he was very upset. Her husband hadn't been as badly affected as the rest of them, but she'd seen less of him the last week. Reed had been working on improving the air filtration systems and installing wastewater monitoring.

"When were you going to tell me?" he said quietly, as Sue finished her rep.

Sue leaned forward, elbows on her knees. Her shoulders were bare, her exercise top stained with sweat. The waistband of her exercise pants cut into her midriff. She couldn't believe how fat she'd gotten, even though on the scale it was only about ten pounds.

"Tell you what, darling?" Sue asked, and looked up at him, panting.

His hands tightened into fists. White knuckle. Sue blinked and stared up at him.

"Don't lie to me. The wastewater sensors I put in check for a number of health conditions," he said quietly. "I know you're pregnant."

Sue's jaw fell open. The impact stunned her.

"Reed that's...that's impossible. We haven't had sex in..." Sue thought back. Their love life had been practically non-existent during the bout of illness that rocked the family, and even before that... "Five, six months?"

"Six months, eight days, twelve hours," he said, and she could see his forearms tremble now. His face twisted as if he was about to cry. "And according to my calculations, you're sixteen weeks pregnant."

"That's...no...Reed, I'm not...here, I'll show you!" Sue said hotly.

The Invisible Woman stood up. She put her hand to her abdomen and concentrated. Layers of skin, muscle, and fat went transparent. Sue caught glimpses of blood rush through arteries and veins, the pink tube of her vagina, and then...no, that wasn't right. Her uterus, normally small enough to fit in her palm, was swollen. Protuberant. The breath froze in Sue Storm's lungs, her eyes wide.

She kept going. The thick, elastic wall of the uterus dissolved...to show the fetus. The little human form, still developing, curled up inside of her.

Except the head turned, and Sue made out the tiny pig-like snout.

The room swam. Sue's heart pounded as her knees gave way. Reed rushed forward, arms extended to catch her as she fell in a daze.

Sue awoke on one of the medical examination tables in Reed's lab. Her exercise shirt had been lifted up to expose her swollen stomach. The Invisible Woman shivered, still in shock. The weight she'd put on the last few months—just fleshy enough to hide the beginning of a baby bump. She wondered how many of the symptoms she'd faced had actually been the flu and how many had been the pregnancy.

Sixteen weeks...too late to do anything, legally. But...

"Get it out of me," Sue said. "Reed. Please. You can...you know how to do it, right?"

Mister Fantastic stared at her. There was anger, resentment, hurt in those eyes. His trust in her had been shaken. She could tell he wanted to believe her that she didn't know. But he'd been hurt too deeply by her imagined betrayal.

"I know how," he said quietly.

She pulled down her pants. Put her feet in the stirrups. Reed scrubbed his hands and arms. When he came back, he was gloved, masked, and with a tray of high-tech surgical tools freshly sterilized. The tension in Sue's body was almost overwhelming. Whatever this thing was inside of her, it wasn't human. It wasn't her husband's.

The speculum was cold, but lubricated. Sue didn't grunt in pain as it slid inside of her, or as it slowly pressed against her walls. It was a position she had never wanted to be in. Never imagined herself being in.

How the hell could this happen? she wondered.

Reed moved forward. Something long and slim with a small laser on the end moved into the depths of her. Sue tried to **** herself to relax, but it was impossible. Her whole body was tense. Her skin crawled in revulsion at this parasitic thing that had invaded her and upended her life so completely in a matter of moments.

There was a tink. Reed's eyes narrowed.

"Susan...are you using your powers?"

"No," Sue said, her brow furrowed. "No, I'm...Reed, what's going on?"

He looked up at her.

"I'm encountering an invisible **** field," he said. "Around your cervix."

Sue opened her mouth. She wasn't doing it. But how could she prove that?

"The baby," Reed realized before she did. "It has your powers. It's protecting itself, instinctively."

He dropped the laser scalpel back into the tray with a clatter and stared at his wife's gaping pussy.

"What...what does that mean?" Sue said.

"I think," he said slowly. "It means you'll have to carry it to term."