Who: Reed Richards, Sue Richards (and Franklin, too!) What: Sue and Reed get ready for bed, but somebody didn't get the memo. So. They start discussing names. He does need a name, after all. Where: Sue and Reed's Bedroom, Baxter Building, New York City, New York When: Saturday, November 24 2012 Rating: PG. I don't think I should have to warn for pregnancy, but I will anyway. Just in case. Oh, and fluff. ;)
Sue had a ritual of taking baths at the end of day. After long days, they were warm and relaxing. They soothed her. Nowadays, it also helped relieve the aches and pains that came along with her pregnancy. The pain in her sore muscles eased up in the bath, allowing her to relax.
Resting her head on the bath pillow, Sue closed her eyes, taking deep breaths. She went to a Zen place. At least, for a little while. Eventually, the water cooled off; Sue let the water drain completely before getting out of the bath -- very carefully.
She sat on the toilet while drying off and applying cocoa butter, as best she could, to her skin to prevent stretch marks. It smelled nice. Oh, and there was the whole needing to pee thing, too. Cinching a robe, she dried her hair and brushed her teeth.
Sue smiled when she emerged from the master bath and saw Reed getting ready for bed. She crossed the room, to be closer to him. She smiled affectionately.
“Not burning the midnight oil tonight?” she queried. She didn’t mind it. She knew that most of his projects -- most of his concerns lately -- were centered around making sure they were prepared for when the baby arrived. It was almost crazy to think she was in her third trimester. Where had the time gone?
~~~
Reed didn’t bother her when she was taking baths these days... it was her chance to be alone and to enjoy some quiet time, and he didn’t want to interrupt that. He’d gone to shower, change and brush his teeth in the lab-- which wasn’t unheard of for him in general, let alone when their shared bathroom was occupied. By the time Sue was emerging from their bathroom, he was back in their bedroom wearing a pair of blue plaid pajama pants and a white undershirt. He looked up when she spoke and smiled at her.
“I’m tired. I’m not sure I slept last night.” He added the second sentence as an afterthought, but the smile on his face was relaxed and content.
With the bedding turned down, Reed got into bed and pulled the comforter aside to make room for Sue to join him.
~~~
“Reed, you have to take care of yourself too, you know,” Sue said as she got into bed. “Not just us. Promise me.” She reached over and touched his face, her fingers gently playing with the greying hair at his temple. “--Oh!”
Sue gave a startled exclamation, then her expression changed... to one of wry acceptance. For now. She placed Reed’s hands on her stomach. “Somebody obviously didn’t get the memo that it’s time for bed,” she said.
~~~
Reed smiled and cocked his head slightly towards her hand. He didn’t even argue with her assessment that he wasn’t taking care of himself. She was probably right, but there were other things that needed to be taken care of before the baby came. Earnest panic crossed his face at her exclamation but it quickly faded and changed back into a smile when he felt his son kicking and something that felt closer to swimming than any activity Reed could think of.
“When you’re awake and walking, he’s rocked to sleep by your footsteps, the shifting of your weight on either foot, the movement of your hips. It’s only logical that when the rocking stops, he’d wake.” Reed murmured absently. He could swear he could feel the baby’s hand against his. He was almost certain it wasn’t a foot or an elbow. He was sure it was his hand.
Reed stretched his neck out to allow him to lay his cheek against Sue’s belly.
“He doesn’t have a name. We should find a name.” After all, they only had two months left.
~~~
There was an entirely new kind of intimacy that came with pregnancy; it just was no longer about the two of them a couple. It was about the three of them as a family. Sue felt a rush of unbelievable love watching Reed bond with their son as he made his presence known from inside her womb.
This was a side of Reed no one else saw -- sweet, loving, affectionate -- and Sue liked it that way. He made her feel special. She liked being the only one who was privy to that. She loved him--them--so much.
Sue nodded her agreement. She liked the idea of finally figuring out a name. They even had baby names book. Someone had given it to her (she forgot who). It was laying on top of a stack of books by their bookshelves, which were already full.
“Can you reach the book?” she asked, looking to her husband for help. Getting comfortable in bed felt like a chore these days. When she did get comfortable, it felt like she’d won a small victory. “I don’t want to move.”
~~~
Were Reed not distracted by his son pushing against him from inside Sue’s belly, he would have made a joke that since the Accident, he had yet to find anything he couldn’t reach. But instead, he reached back and stretched his arm back to the bookshelf across the room and pulled the baby name book back to be with them.
Reed, for one, was still rather uncertain as to why they even had a baby name book, when there were plenty of names to be had if they only combined their not unimpressive brain power. Then again, it seemed they had books on every other subject (even in their bedroom), so he supposed baby names may as well have been added to the collection.
“Are there any that you’re partial to?”
~~~
“Nothing ridiculous,” said Sue firmly. She had several reasons for this; one being that she thought that trendy names were just that, trends. She didn’t like the idea of naming children after places, either. That felt too much like you were trying to be sophisticated, or you were naming your child after the place in which they were conceived. But mostly, it was because she worried about his future: “I don’t want him to be teased on the playground because of his name.”
She paused, almost hesitating to voice what came next. “It’s going to be hard enough to make sure he doesn’t feel left out or different than other kids when we have superpowers and our jobs involve saving the world on a regular basis and the world treats us like we’re America’s other First Family because of that. We can shelter him from it as best we can, and give him as normal a childhood as possible, but that doesn’t change the fact our identities are public. It will affect him.”
It’s hard to admit your insecurities about being parent. The impact of their public super/celebrity status on a child had one of the things she’d been reticent about in the past about having children. Now, her entire life would be devoted to their son, and she would do whatever she had to protect him. But there was still the worry that she couldn’t -- and the knowledge that she wouldn’t always be able to.
“I don’t want his name to be one of those things that affect him. Or that he hates us for when he’s older. I want his name to mean something. I want him to be proud of it. I don’t know what name I like, but that’s what I want.”
~~~
Reed paused to consider everything that Sue was saying. Something common enough that he wouldn’t be teased, but unique enough that it would be a special name for their son... not just any name. Something special to them, and their family-- something he could be proud of when he was grown, that he could point to and say, “my parents named me this because...”
“Benjamin.” Reed offered automatically. “What about Benjamin?”
It didn’t take a genius to see where he had come up with that name.
~~~
Sue turned the idea over in her head. She did like Reed’s idea of naming him after Ben in some way. Her reflection turned somewhat inward as she began to focus on the baby.
To help her figure this out, Sue relied on the bond she’d developed with him already. It was strange, the ways Sue felt she knew her baby boy already-- she wouldn’t have been able to describe that feeling before.
She could see him clearly, vividly, in her mind’s eye: Reed’s irrepressible curiosity shining behind blue eyes, wanting to explore all the world has to offer him. Yes, Benjamin would suit him. Hopefully keep him grounded. That was a trait she’d she always always associated with Ben... and hoped he could pass on to her son.
Ben was Reed’s best friend. He’d had always been there for Reed, and he’d always been there for her, too. From being the best man at their wedding to being there to keep her sane when Reed and Johnny were driving her insane, Sue couldn’t imagine her life without Ben. The Ever Lovin’ Blue-Eyed Thing.
Flipping through the baby names book, she almost smiled when she reached the entry for Benjamin: Hebrew.Son of My Right Hand.
Now, she and Reed certainly weren’t the type to pick a name based solely on its meaning, because that was really taking this whole thing a little too seriously, but Sue could recognize the irony in that and find it a little funny.
Still, Benjamin didn’t feel quite right all on it’s own. Sue couldn’t put her finger on quite why. It was one of another those situations where she envied other women who could call up their parents and ask for advice. She missed the opportunity to ask her mother things like this. Or even her mother-in-law.
“What about Franklin?” she ventured at last.
It was hard to keep the emotion out of her voice. Outside of Reed and Johnny, Sue’s devotion to her father, Dr. Franklin Storm, had been unparalleled. His death was one of the hardest things she’d ever had to go through. Harder, even, than losing her mother at the age of 12.
“Franklin Benjamin Richards... after my dad and Ben. He’ll never get to meet him, but... this way, he’ll know how much his grandparents would have loved him.”
Sue laughed when Franklin kicked insistently. It honestly felt, in that moment, as though he were agreeing with her.
“I think he likes it, Reed,” Sue said, grinning at him. “He’s so incredible...”
~~~
“Benjamin Franklin is also not a bad person to be named after.” Reed said with an absent smile. Yes, Franklin Benjamin would work well for a name, for a number of reasons. If their son could somehow osmote the virtues of the three people that his name represented; he was going to be just fine.
Yes. Yes, Franklin Benjamin Richards would be a very good name.
~~~
“Not at all,” Sue agreed. Shifting slightly, she brought a hand to Reed’s face so she could redirect his attention and kissed him softly on the lips. “I love you.”