Who: Reed Richards NPCs: Dr. Leonard Samson What: Reed visits Doc Samson for one of his weekly psychiatric appointments. Where: Samson's office, New York City, New York When: Monday, November 26th [forward dated]
"How was your Thanksgiving?" Samson asked from his leather wingback chair, pen and pad in hand, and a friendly smile on his face.
"Good, and yours?" Reed answered automatically, taking a seat in one of the matching chairs across from the doctor and avoided the long couch. He disdained the cliche of lying back and telling the doctor how you felt. It seemed inauthentic somehow, and Samson, for his part, said Reed could sit wherever he was comfortable.
"It was good, quiet." He replied politely, "How's Sue feeling? The baby should be due in a couple months, is that right?"
"February." Reed paused, then added, "We decided on a name."
"Oh?"
"Franklin Benjamin Richards."
"I like it. Named after Benjamin Franklin?"
"That's rather secondary-- we happened to have two rather important people named Franklin and Benjamin in our lives."
"Ah, of course. Have you told Ben yet that you're naming the baby after him?"
Reed smiled at the thought and shook his head. Samson smiled in response, "I'm sure he'll be thrilled. Are you excited?"
"To tell him?"
"About the baby, I meant."
"Oh. Yes, of course." Reed scrunched up his face for a moment with all the look of someone who was trying to spit something out and finding it extraordinarily difficult. For the moment, Samson sat quietly and preserved the silence, waiting to see if Reed would continue. When he didn't go on, Samson prompted very gently,
"What else?"
Reed rested his chin on his fist for a moment, staring into the middle distance with his elbow on his knee. He didn't look at Samson when he spoke again. "Apprehensive."
"I think that's a very common feeling for first time parents. What are you apprehensive about?"
"What if he doesn't like me?"
Samson didn't laugh of course, but his smile was amicable, "That's a valid concern-- why do you think he won't like you?"
Reed shrugged one shoulder, looking all together like a sheepish teenager for a moment, "Sometimes I don't like me either." He admitted without looking up. Before Samson could ask for a further explanation though, Reed shook his head, "I don't want to talk about this."
"Okay. We don't have to talk about it right now." Samson said quietly, though he made a note to come back to it at some other date. "Is there something else you'd like to talk about?"
Reed didn't answer at first and stood instead, moving to pace behind the couch and occasionally glancing out the windows towards the New York skyline. Samson waited patiently for the scientist to gather his thoughts.
"I want to fix everything, before Franklin is born. But there just isn't time." While Reed thought, and paced, Samson stayed quiet, waiting to see what else Reed would say without prompting...
"I asked some... people... to help me fix things; but I don't think it's going to work."
"Why not?"
"They don't get along very well."
"What does Susan think of these people?"
"I haven't told her." Reed admitted, stopping to stare out the window.
"Why not?"
"She wouldn't understand."
"How do you know, if you haven't asked her?" Samson asked, jotting notes on his legal pad.
Reed chuckled and barely glanced over his shoulder at the psychiatrist, "I have spent more time studying Susan Storm than I have any other subject-- math, astronomy, physics-- I know more about Sue than any of these things..." Reed turned his attention back to the city, "... and yet, she can still be such a mystery..."
"Reed," Samson started quietly, "people aren't usually referred to as 'subjects'."
Reed looked back at him with a slightly startled expression, "Did I...? Of course, how inconsiderate of me." He said with a bit of a forced smile and returned his attention to the cityscape.
Samson returned the smile, then consulted his notes briefly before speaking again, "When you said you had to fix everything, what all do you need to fix?"
"The world."
"The entire world?"
"Yes."
"That seems like a big job for one person."
Reed didn't reply and instead crossed his arms over his chest, leaning one shoulder against the window.
"Reed?" Samson asked, trying to regain his attention. When Reed barely responded, Samson probed a little deeper, "Reed, why does it have to be you who fixes the world?"
Reed paused and took a breath, shifting his body weight slightly, "It's my responsibility."
"You can't be responsible for the entire world."
The scientist's lack of reply said far more than anything he might have mentioned.
"Reed, do you think this sense of responsibility might have something to do with the Accident?" Samson asked quietly, leaning forward over his knees.
Samson's patient's shoulders slumped suddenly and he dropped his head forward with a defeated expression. "I should have done more to protect them... Johnny shouldn't even have been there. Ben is... 'The Thing'" The pained expression that crossed Reed's face quieted him and he resorted to simply shaking his head. "Sue was afraid that we wouldn't be able to conceive a child, much less that she would be able to carry a pregnancy to term... It wasn't fair, what happened to them."
"And what happened to you...?"
Reed was silent for a long moment, "...was inevitable."
"Reed, it was an accident."
"I would have been exposed no matter what. It was my experiment, my invention... my fault. They were the variable that could have been altered to create a different outcome. I'm responsible for what happened to them, I'm responsible for them." Reed paused and looked at his shoes.
From near the door, an alarm sounded to signal the end of this week's session. Samson stood to turn the alarm off and Reed straightened his shoulders and held his head up.
"I'd like to talk about this some more next week, Reed." Samson said with a smile and shook Reed's hand as he walked him to the door, "I think we're really starting to get to the core of some of these issues."
Reed gave a smile and nodded slightly, "Of course. Thank you again, Doctor."
"My pleasure. Tell Susan I said hello."
Agreeing to do just that, Reed picked up his jacket and left the psychiatrist's office, straightening his tie and presenting to all the world the image of a brilliant, slightly frazzled, but content scientist/psuedo-celebrity who had everything... and not a care in the world.