Reed and Sue -- After Hours Discussions

[xp-fantastic.livejournal.com]

Reed gets caught sleeping at the lab, and Sue doesn't let him get away with it.


The lab was completely empty and deserted, just about what you'd expect at 10:30 at night. The labs which were normally so busy and hectic during the day took on an almost eerie quality at night, It was as if they were saying, stay away, don't come here, you should be home asleep by now; not that Sue had ever listened to them before and doubtless would continue to ignore them in the future.

But then she could hardly be blamed, she'd just spent the last 3 hours in a room as her fellow board members haggled over every point under the sun. When her grandfather had offered her a voting block of shares in his bank she had never thought that board meeting were all cut and thrust and political maneuverings. She had completely missed the point of the board meetings which was actually running the bank. What's worse, she was actually good at it, so she'd just have to muddle through and take her fun where she could. Like now, sneaking through the lab to check on a simulation she'd left running earlier in the day. It was these moments of peace alone where the blonde could get most of her work done...at least that was how things went on a normal day. Today it looked like she had company, a brown haired man in a lab coat slumped over a desk apparently fast asleep.

The lights coming on were what alerted Reed to Sue's presence. Sitting up straight, he looked around, bleary eyed. "Huh? What? What's going on?" It took him a few minutes to realize he'd fallen asleep at his desk and he was presently in the lab.
Rubbing at his face, he blinked a few times at Sue before running a hand through his unruly hair. He'd really have to cut it sometime soon. "Susan." If anyone had to catch him sleeping here, he was glad it was her. He still didn't trust many people at Storm Tech. "Hi. What time is it? I didn't mean to fall asleep. It's not like I'm living here or anything," he said lamely, trying to laugh to show it was a joke.

Even if it wasn't.

"It's late, like you should be at home relaxing instead of working late," Sue told Reed with a sigh shaking her head. She'd only known him a while but knew that nothing she said was gonna make a difference to him on this subject. "So, what's got you so focused you fell asleep at your desk? I mean those are the same clothes you wore yesterday so this isn't the first time right?"

Was it his same outfit? He looked down and frowned, trying to remember when the last time he changed was. It was tough to tell. He surreptitiously tried to sniff but even that didn't help. "I live in my lab coat," he said as way of explanation. "And as for falling asleep at my desk....". Reed scrambled to think of a good reason. Grabbing a random pile of papers, he gave a wry smile. "Formulas. Necessary evil but sometimes, quantum physics can get tedious. But enough of me, why are you here? You're usually out and about." Which is why he never worried about her catching him in the lab.

"Oh you know how it is, it's too late to go all the way out to my apartment so thought I'd spend the night in the one of the company's apartments in the city but I got there to find my dad ...entertaining right now. I really don't need to spend years describing that to a therapist so escape to the lab for a few hours is my plan." Sue smirked at Reed, "You know, those formulas of yours are photographs right? I mean I guess you could develop a formula from looking at them but the ones you want are on the other side."
Reed blinked a few times before looking down at the photographs. Crap. "I have no explanation for this," he said, wide eyed. "I'm tired. This desk isn't as comfortable as it appears."

"Really? I knew we should have ordered those utlrasoft cushiony desks," Sue replied completely deadpan, "you know, people have these things called pillows that are perfect for sleeping on, they go well with beds which is where it looks like you should be right now." she pointed out.

He could give her a flippant remark but the exhaustion was getting to him. No matter how much he tweaked with the molecular structure of caffeine, or tried to use micronaps in an attempt to stave off sleep, there was still no way around it. "If I tell you the truth, do you promise not to fire me?" He sighed. "Actually, that's not fair of me to ask. I got evicted. My landlady wasn't too impressed with my latest experiment, although to be fair," he added, "I didn't account for the sheer amount of methane that her dog creates, and that variable caused some interesting discharge..."

"You were experimenting with....I don't even want to know," the blonde shook her head, "you know what I don't even want to guess." She told Reed with a smile on her face, she was hardly one to talk about experiments going wrong. "Was your landlady's dog ok? I mean we shouldn't look out for giant killer dogs in the news should we?" Sue couldn't help but tease Reed, he was so earnest and straight laced all the time. "Not having any luck finding a new apartment then?"

Reed shook his head, his hair flopping in his face. " She won't give me a reference," he said ruefully. "None of my landlords will. I always tend to work at home and well....". Reed trailed off. In addition to that, he had no money. None. Hard to rent with no cash.
Sue shook her head fondly, "It is a pretty basic rule of renting a house, don't blow it up or preform mad scientist experiments there. If you're going to that you at least have to rent out a ramshackle castle in the middle of nowhere. Or a skyscraper. No-one complains when you do mad scientist experiments in a skyscraper for some reason." she grinned as she gestured at the lab they were in, "imagine if we tried to do this in a white picket fence house. The neighbors would run us out of town with pitchforks...you know suddenly all the older stories make sense to me.

The blonde cocked her head and gave Reed a questioning look, "What about buying a house of your own? Your salary is good enough to let you afford at least an apartment somewhere in the city."

Was this what shame felt like? How did he explain to Sue that he had more debt than he knew what to do with? Sure, he had received scholarships, full ride to MIT and such, but he used a lot of that on private research and when the money was gone, student loans stepped in. Even now, it was a constant struggle to fund his own research and keep up with his bills. Instead of answering, he simply shook his head. "I’m no millionaire, Sue. I can't afford a place in the city with a garage. I'd have to move to New Jersey or something."

The blonde shuddered, "Yeah that's not really the best option," she agreed, "Your commute would be a nightmare, especially with city traffic." Besides, she'd much rather live in the city than in the suburbs herself, so much more to do. "You don't need to be a millionaire, but I guess it helps," Sue allowed, "But there must be someplace you can find a room, I mean sleeping in the lab can't really be good for you, or comfortable." The blonde cocked her head, "If the garage is for a car well we have parking here you could use, and if it's for a lab," she stuck her hands out to encompass the room, "you have a cutting edge lab here. Should make it easier to find a place if you don't have to worry about it."

He pursed his lips, wondering how far he could push before getting fired. And for once, he actually cared about his job. Franklin was a good boss, and Sue.....well, he'd do anything to just be able to stare at her. Working with her was an added bonus.
"Your father owns anything I make here," Reed responded slowly. "That kind of hinders my want and drive to create. I want my ideas to be my own, my intellectual property should benefit me...not someone else." He sighed and brushed his hair behind his ears. "I'll just leave now. You're right. I shouldn't be here overnight."

As he crossed her Sue reached out to grab his arm, "I know you want control, you don't want anything you make to be used to hurt people but..." the young woman gave Reed a wry smile, "I guess you just have to trust my dad. He would never make you work on a weapon if you didn't want to, we have more than enough scientists who are happy to do that. But someone who just wants to invent to help people...that's rarer than you know. It just takes time before you get control, but you'll be running your own lab before you know it." the girl cocked her head to the side and smiled at Reed, "besides, you just got kicked out of your house, where exactly do you think you're going to go tonight? And please don't say the back seat of your car."

Reed opened his mouth to.protest but he had no answer. Slouching almost defeatedly, he looked at her. "So what am I supposed to do? You won't let me sleep at my desk or in my car. I don’t have money for a motel and to be honest, I'll be back here in about five hours anyways."

Sue shook her head and sighed, "No you're not. You're not allowed in the lab till at least you've had a good night's sleep and a good meal." She grabbed Reed's hand and started pulling him towards the elevator, "If I have to I'll sit on you to make sure you get your sleep, just see if I don't." she assured Reed with a grin as she flashed her card key against the reader in the elevator and punched the button for the top floor.

He never could protest when she touched him. Following along silently, he entered the elevator and waited. He had no clue what was at the top, and frankly, it scared him a little. When the door opened, he looked around curiously. "Where are we?"

"Welcome to the greatest secret of Storm Tech...the penthouse apartment," Sue explained letting go of Reed's hand and gesturing at the apartment with a flourish. "It's the answer to what do you do if you're a workoholic father who has 2 children to take care of in New York and owns an office block. Build an apartment on top of work so you can bring it home but still be around. It might be the safest apartment in New York actually considering the security requirements of the building." The blonde grinned at Reed, "Impressed yet?"

"Always.". And he was. The amount of money that went into this place..and a secret penthouse.... He walked around, eyes wide as he took in the decor. It was pristine and had an understated look of money. Catching her pleased look, he startled. "You're not implying I sleep here are you? Oh no. I can sleep in my car, thanks. It's comfy and I've broken it in beautifully. I shouldn't even be here."

"Nuhuh, nope, not gonna happen," Sue shook her head vehemently, "You're not sleeping in your car, or the lab or even some corner you've found in the building that's warm." The blonde grabbed Reed by the shoulder ignoring the fact that he was taller than her and propelled him towards a door. "This is the spare room, there's a bathroom with a towel through there. I'll bring you something to wear and leave it on the bed. I think I have an old dress you'd look perfect in," she teased pushing him through the door.

He stumbled through, his hands outstretched to stop himself at the doorjamb. Looking behind him, Sue had already taken off to get him things.

Reed was scared to touch anything. There wasn't a single thing that didn't scream money and he had no way to replace anything that was broken.

Awkwardly sitting down on the bed, he looked around and tried to calculate how much everything cost. His running tally was in the thousands when Sue came back in.

"This is too much," he protested once more. "Sue...you can't tell me you do this for your employees regularly...."

"Most of our employees don't end up living at work or you know in their car," the blonde pointed out her voice echoing from round the corner. "I think this is the first time this particular situation has ever come up, but what am I supposed to do, let you live like a hobo? Not in my building bub." the blonde breezed back into the room and dropped a bundle of folded clothes into Reed's lap. Get, I'll start on food," Sue pulled out her phone, we have a choice of Chinese, Pizza and Mexican."

"Pizza?" That was probably the cheapest option, and he already felt like he owed her enough. "I'm..just going to shower. I guess." He would have rambled a bit more, but Sue seemed to have already turned her attention to something else.

Heading to the shower, he had to admit: money was a wonderful thing. He'd never had such a luxurious shower, and it gave him plenty of time to think about things. Why was Sue doing this? Was there an underlying reason? Was he too obvious about his affection for her? Did he need to step away?

By the time he was dressed in the clothing she'd provided, he had no clear answer in his head, and this bothered him. He always knew what was going on. There was always a logical and practical explanation for anything. This wasn't helping.

"I have some money to pitch in," Reed offered, noting that the food was already there. "You're already giving me a place to stay for the night. I should be helping."

Sue cocked her head and looked at Reed, "Tell you what, I'll pay for the pizza, but you can either pay for the movie or for dessert," she allowed. Sue could tell by the look on Reed's face that he wasn't entirely comfortable and she'd rather not force him to be any more uncomfortable than he already was. "Or you know, both if you want," the blonde stood up and tossed him the remote, "We have some kinda movie pay service I think, and dessert is either something from a vending machine or raiding the executive canteen and just leaving them the money, they normally have something decent in there." The blonde glanced down at herself then up at Reed with a smile, I'll let you surprise me," she decided, "I really don't still need to be all dressed up.. I'll be right back," she said already retreating to her room. She wasn't sure why Reed looked so bothered but she hoped a little time would help sort that out. He was a lot of fun, mainly to tease if she was honest, when he wasn't wrestling some internal problem.

Reed hated this indecisiveness, but he finally realized he was genuinely too tired to care and the couch looked comfortable and the food smelled good....

So he helped himself to some food, sat down and flicked through the channels until an episode of Futurama caught his eye. Easily his favourite show and definitely his favourite genre: animated comedy.

He almost didn't notice Sue coming out of her room, until she came near him. And as usual, he was a bit speechless. "Um. Right. This is your place. You're staying here tonight too."

There went any ideas of how good he would sleep tonight.

"That is how it works," Sue agreed reaching over to grab a slice of pizza before dropping cross-legged onto the couch next to Reed. With her free hand she pulled at the old shirt she was wearing smoothing out some scrunched up cloth and settling it more comfortably. "So what's the choice d'jour?" she asked settling back onto the couch as she took a bite of the pizza and immediately squeaked and sucked in a breath, jumping up off the couch. "Owww, that's hot!" she complained sucking another breath over her scalded tongue. "Pizza, how could you betray me like this." she muttered under her breath before giving Reed a wan smile. I guess that'll teach me for just diving straight in," she allowed grudgingly. "Since I'm up, what's your pleasure? I'm pretty sure we have all the bases covered as far as drinks go."

"Anything. I'm not picky.". Reed didn't drink enough to have a preference but he could appreciate the need for it right now. His heart was racing and he really needed to calm down.

Were those short shorts?!

Turning his attention back to the tv, he cleared his throat. "Futurama. Have you seen it before? I like it better than sitcoms. I have a hatred for laugh tracks."

"I think we have something back here," Sue pushed herself up onto her tiptoes as she reached up to the back of hte top shelf of the cupboard, "Almost, almost...got it." The young woman pirouetted around holding two bottle aloft in triumph, condensation starting to speckle the surface of the bottles. "An acquaintance signed my dad up for one of those beer club subscriptions, only he never got around to drinking most of it. So," the blonde hefted the bottle with a grin as she padded back from the kitchen to drop cross-legged onto the couch next to Reed passing him one of the bottles and resting her own beer against her bare leg. "This is the one with the robot right? I think Johnny used to watch it."

Reed nodded, and took a sip of his drink. He'd have to be careful -- he could already feel his self control slipping and he didn't want to melt in front of her. "Yes....it's a good one...I like cartoons. They're ridiculous. Anything can happen and they just say 'because science'! Sometimes, I try to prove things right. Or wrong. Why are you here tonight and not out with friends?"

"I am with a friend," Sue pointed out tipping her slice of pizza at Reed, "Pizza, beer, good company and cartoons, not a bad way to spend the night. Totally trumps my plans for the night, you saved me from hanging out here alone going through reports, or going to a party a friend of my grandmother's is throwing tonight." She gave Reed a wry smile, "My only real friends run a club in the city so most of their nights tend to be spent running that place so I don't get much of a chance to hang out with them at night."

Friends? She considered them friends? He couldn't help but grin back, and look down, his hair flopping in his face as usual. "I like spending time with you too Sue," he admitted, words rushing out. "You're fun, and nice and incredibly intelligent. Our conversation yesterday about nuclear convertors and its potential.....". He trailed off. "It was one of the most engaging conversations I've had in a long time."

"Why Mr Richards, you know all the right things to say to sweet talk a lady don't you," Sue replied with a friendly grin saluting Reed with her beer bottle, "It's hard to find someone, even around here, who you can talk to about more than one thing. Everyone is an expert in their fields and has no interest in anything else. It's rare to find a true Polymath here, even if you do tend to come down a little biased on theoretical knowledge and miss what's right infront of you." she noted as she flashed Reed an impish grin.

"Without a solid theory, you can't practice good science," he protested with a grin. "I'm fairly certain that's a fact. -- no, I KNOW that's a fact. You can't trick science with your pretty face, Ms. Storm. You have to look at the foundation and build from that."

"Oh, it's so on," Sue span on the spot to face Reed, "While you and your precious theory are rebuilding science from the basics those of us who have a more....practical approach would have already looked at the problem and constructed a device to deal with it. You can explain it later but we'd already have figured it out and how to use it." She grinned teasingly at him, "you can always come along and fill in the gaps later." she teased sticking her tongue out at Reed. "And I'll have you know that this pretty face has fooled plenty of science before, you didn't think it's scientifically possible to look this good do you?" Her smile lost the teasing quality, "but thank you for the compliment. If Reed Richards notices then I must be doing something right."

"How could I not? You're gorgeous," he said, confused. Did she think he didn't see it?

Oh wow, how did they end up here, "Reed, you're probably the smartest person I've ever met, but you're also probably the most oblivious person I've ever met. I've literally seen you miss every sign that a woman liked you, It's hard to know what you think about other people," she noted giving him a wry smile, she knew from experience watching other people and her own. "Besides, you know sometimes it's nice to be told if someone finds you attractive. Compliments are always welcome."
Reed had to think about that for a while. Taking a sip of his drink, he turned his attention to the show and continued to eat, all the while things moving in his head

About fifteen minutes, he interrupted Sue mid-sentence. "Wait -- what signs have I missed? What woman?" He groaned. "It's not Kat the intern, is it? She does seem overly concerned about my lab coat...."

"Kat, and Jenny from accounting, and Lisa from the next lab, even Robert from security, need I go on?" Sue smirked at Reed, "for someone who's been here for such a short time you've amassed quite a following Mr Richards," she teased."

Reed blinked a few times. "I don't think I understand."

"I'm not sure if it's the shaggy hair, the figure you cut in a lab coat, the biceps or the fact you always look so oblivious to everything while you're working that people want to end up mothering you but I swear you've become the most talked about person by the water coolers. That's a pretty impressive achievement," the blonde pointed out with a smile.

It wasn't that Reed was a blushing virgin but he was still uncomfortable with being talked to regarding his body. He'd rather be remembered for his mind.

"I'm not sure what I said say to that," he responded slowly. "I've never really noticed. I need a haircut, it's not really a fashion statement." He'd needed a haircut for a few weeks actually, but it would probably get to his shoulders before he thought to trim it again. "Do you think I'm attractive?"

Ahh, she should have seen that question coming, human resources would probably have a few choice words for her after this if they found out, "Well I wouldn't have mentioned it if I didn't agree with them. Unlike science, this is much more subjective."
"Oh." He gave her a lopsided grin. There wasn't much he could say. "I think you are too." Wait -- he'd said that already. And then he realized he'd said that part out loud. "Well. I am absolutely at a loss, Sue. We both mutually agree the other is attractive. That's good."

"It normally is," Sue agreed with a smile as she took a sip of her beer, "I've got to say, it's unusual for anything to leave you at a loss, I think this is the first time. I've actually seen it. I thought it was more a legend than a reality."

Now that caught his attention. "Excuse me? Are you suggesting I don't know what to do right now?"

Sue smirked and tipped her beer bottle at him, "I didn't say anything, you did," she pointed out with a friendly teasing smile.

She had a point. He gave a nod. "I concede. Sometimes my inner thoughts slip out while I'm still formulating them. In fact, the reality is I'm only at a loss because these last few months working alongside you have easily been the highlight of my working career. Your intellect surpasses no one, and your quickness is awe inspiring. In fact," he continued, his grin widening, "sometimes, I think you might even be smarter than me."

"Let's not get carried away here," Sue replied with a grin, "I'm still working on finishing doctorate number 1, so you're already 2 up on me, although I did learn not to get kicked out of my apartment at the same time so I'd have to call it even," she teased gently a smile on her face to take any sting out of her words. "You know, this calls for a competition to find out." she decided nodding wisely as her leg flicked out at a nearby table and pulling it next to the couch with her foot. "So Mr Richards," she turned to face Reed after scooping up two chess pieces from the board, and holding out clenched fists to Reed. "Black or white, which will you get?"

"Black," he said, happily reaching out for it. "It's been a while since I played a game, Ms. Storm but are you ready to be soundly trounced? I know more gambits than Bobby Fisher."

"It's not the number of gambits you know, it's how you can use them," Sue shot back with a laugh reaching for the game board. And how you can play your opponent, and that was something she was very good at indeed.