Saving Us
Summary: Sequel to Saving Me. Roughly about two years later. Johnny and Merc are, still, engaged (not saying they haven't tried), Sue's pregnant and Ben and Alicia have successfully made it down the aisle and adopted!! But with nearly a year of inactivity and little crime fighting, the Fantastic Five team is restless. To solve the problem, new and old people come into the picture to bring their lives back to the craziness of saving the world again. But the more pressing problem doesn't seem to be the world at stake, but Johnny and Merc's relationship and her apparent fear of white dresses.
Rating: M (language, violence, mature stuff…blah, blah, blah)
A/N: I honestly didn't feel like tallying up the votes so, instead of going with my original idea that I liked (Everyone married, super powered kids, and Merc and Johnny's kid falls for the Surfer since I was planning on him returning and it be like sixteen or something years later) I have come up with a different idea. I'll probably make Doom a small part in this, not overly fond of him but really…he didn't die, just sank.
ANYWAYS!!!! On with the story!!!
"IF I HAVE TO GO THROUGH THIS FOR ONE MORE MINUTE I AM FORCE FEILDING THIS KID OUT OF ME!!!" Sue screamed.
"Relax!!" Merc said. "Almost…where'd it go?"
"WHERE'D IT GO??? WHAT DO YOU MEAN!!!" Sue screamed. Johnny was so glad he didn't have to be apart of this. Poor Reed though. He had to hold Sue's hand AND help birth his child. That was the reason why Merc had learned midwife stuff.
"Sue, it just has your powers." Reed said. "Calm down."
"I'm going to kill the next person who says calm down." Sue said.
"You hear that baby…turn visible so we can save you from your mommy." Merc said. The baby did as it was told…and then went skinny. Merc and Reed looked at each other with wide eyes as Merc easily pulled the baby up and out. It cried louder then it's mother as it returned to a healthy look. "Oh boy."
"What? What 'oh boy'?" Sue asked.
"It's an invisible turning, stretching baby." Merc said.
"Oh boy." Sue said.
"No, oh girl actually." Reed said, tying off the umbilical cord and snipping it.
"See Johnny, I told you we'd wind up with a niece." Merc said.
"You'll get your fifty bucks later." Johnny said. Merc smiled and helped Reed clean up the baby before giving it to Sue and walking over to her fiancé. "If you say you want a baby I'll…yell doesn't seem strong enough."
"Hmm…don't worry." Merc said. She actually, a bit, did want a baby now but she was trying to make Johnny happy. They had gone through several attempts of weddings and each time that Merc didn't fail to show up, it had gotten interrupted by something. The last attempt was about three months ago and Merc was too busy trying to force herself into putting on the white dress (cough, of doom, cough) that she completely missed her cue at least three times before Sue came to find her.
It was safe to say that Johnny was getting pretty restless with the whole thing. Merc wanted to marry him, really she did, but something just was keeping her from it. Her parents had vanished from her life again, no big surprise there, but that didn't seem to be too big of a bother. None of them could figure out what was the matter. Merc had expressed, quite emotionally, how much she wanted to marry Johnny and wanted to be with him but it just seemed that there was some unknown thing about a wedding that was freaking her out. She had spent the time between the last failed attempt and the birth of their niece, trying to make it up to Johnny.
"So…any name ideas?" Sue asked, breaking Merc out of her thought process. She looked at Johnny and Reed then shook her head.
"Umm…nope." Merc said.
"Nothing." Johnny said. "Let's see…what goes with Richards that doesn't start with an R or S…"
"Natalie?" Merc suggested. There was a pause as everyone thought it over.
"I like Natalie." Sue said.
"Me too." Reed said.
Eight hours later…no one liked Natalie as she started to cry yet again in the middle of the night.
"Ooooh…make her stop…I have a publishing deadline coming up." Merc groaned, taking her pillow and putting it on top of her head. After the whole Surfer/Doom/Galactus problem two years ago, there was a lot of time not devoted to saving a city or country and Merc was able to focus more on her school work. A top publisher had come to one of the classes to talk to the students and had looked over a few of their work. He had liked Merc's stuff and then had offered her a job a while ago. She had been working with them for almost a year now and had her second book publishing coming up (the first was the story she had written that got her into the school in the first place).
"Yeah…at least you get to stay home for that." Johnny said, copying her. He had taken on a job doing some fire stunt work. It was perfect because he could catch himself on fire and no one had to worry about it burning him.
They had never actually managed to move into a different apartment. The only one who actually managed something like that was Ben, who took the apartment that was for sale on the floor below them when he and Alicia got married. That also got on Johnny's nerves. The fact that Pebbles got engaged and married in less time then him…
"I'm really sorry." Merc said, accidentally reading Johnny's mind.
"What…oh." Johnny said. He had gotten better at telling when she would be doing such things over the years.
"It's just a bit funny with the fact that you were such a playboy before we got together and now you're the one who's pissed off about failed attempts." Merc said, lifting her pillow off her eyes to look at Johnny as he did the same.
"I'm not pissed, Mercy." Johnny said, taking his pillow off his head and sitting up. Merc looked at him curiously as she did the same. "It's just a bit annoying."
"I know, I'm sorry." Merc said, again. "Johnny you know I love you and I want to be with you…I just don't know what my hang up is. Even that rehearsal thing didn't work." One of the failed attempts was that they had decided to make the rehearsal into the actual wedding but not bother to tell Merc. She did good up until the vows and then she couldn't speak. It didn't matter because that was interrupted by some car chase that involved a stolen armored car and about seven police cars chasing it.
"Hey, come on." Johnny said, noticing that Merc was looking close to crying. "It'll be ok."
"No it won't." Merc said.
"Mercy, it will." Johnny said, hugging her. "Come on, look at it this way. We've been living together for two years so we pretty much count as common law married now…right?"
"If that was the case then we'd all technically be married to each other." Merc said.
"I was trying to make both of us feel better." Johnny said.
"I know, I'm sorry." Merc said, yet again. "Maybe if you just…tell me that we're married and then it won't…" Johnny rolled his eyes and kissed her. Merc mumbled the next word against his lips before succumbing to the kiss.
"We have so many problems we should be on a talk show." Johnny said. Merc giggled. She snuggled against him before gasped and straightening up.
"Oh my god…talk show!" Merc said.
"Yeah, that's what I said." Johnny said.
"No, Johnny…I have that talk show interview thing tomorrow!" Merc said. "To…to…to promote the book and such."
"Oh…that would be why you wanted to go to bed early." Johnny said. Merc nodded. "Right, now I remember. God, how did we forget about that?"
"Natalie." Merc said, as the cries erupted through the halls yet once more.
"Right again." Johnny said. They both flopped down and put their pillows on top of their heads again.
"Good morning, all." Ben said, walking into the apartment the next morning. Everyone looked up from their breakfasts and glared at him. "Oh…guessing…not so good?"
"Ben…meet Natalie." Reed said, walking over with the, finally asleep, baby in his arms. "The reason for our glares."
"This cute little thing?" Ben asked.
"What cute little thing?" Alicia asked, coming in holding the hand of a little Cambodian boy. They had first just sponsored him but when Merc found out that he was able to be adopted, she talked her uncle and aunt into adopting him almost a year and a half ago.
"Hey Adrian…bet you got more sleep then I did." Merc said. She adored her cousin. They had to change his name because none of them could pronounce it (not saying they didn't try though). He had spent his fifth birthday with them and his sixth one was coming up soon.
"Why didn't you get sleep?" Adrian asked, letting go of Alicia's hand and walking over to hug Merc.
"Brand new baby thinks it's fun to cry at night." Merc said, lifting the little boy into her arms and carrying him back over to his parents and 'uncle'. "This is your new cousin, Natalie."
"Ooooh." Adrian said. Alicia careful ran her hand around Natalie's face.
"Aww she's adorable." She said.
"Mommy's got magic fingers." Adrian said. Merc smiled.
"Well at least now she's catching up to the rest of us." She said. "Without being exposed to a stupid cloud." Everyone laughed and Merc put Adrian down. "I have to get ready…stupid interview."
"When is it?" Sue asked.
"The real thing is tonight but you know…gotta get all prettied up and practiced and shit." Merc said.
"Merc!" Ben said.
"Uh…I mean and stuff." Merc said. "I'm bad at this." Everyone laughed again and this time it woke up Natalie who promptly began to cry, yet again. "There's my cue to hope in the shower." Merc practically ran out of the room.
So there's the first chapter. You have the new family members introduced. For any of you who might ask this…No…Reed will not be performing any tests on Natalie anytime soon.