Twin Fire Signs ✓

Chapter 3

The next morning we're standing on a platform outside the shuttle, binoculars pressed to our faces, watching Johnny Storm approach the launch site. He was riding beside some girl in a convertible, completely ignoring road safety or common sense by kissing her. This idiot was going to get himself killed and I had a front row seat.

"Can't do it." Ben says and I nod in agreement. Three years hadn't changed Johnny at all. In fact, I think it made him worse. Reed, incapable of reading the situation, was describing the ship, which was similar to what Ben had piloted in the past. "No! I cannot take orders from the underwear model."

"I have to agree with Ben on this. He washed out of NASA for sneaking two Victoria's Secret wannabes into a flight simulator." I added.

"Youthful high spirits?" Reed tried to reason.

"They crashed it into a wall... A flight simulator." Ben said.

"When have I ever asked you to do something you absolutely said you could not do?" Reed asked Ben.

"Five times."

"I had it at four."

"We'll this makes it five." Ben says as he walks away. I turned back to the road, watching Johnny get closer and closer.

"Reed, please don't make me do this." I begged him.

"Come on Jack. It's only for a few days. Then you never have to see him again."

"Fine but you owe me big." I followed Ben down and inside to get changed. I ran into Sue and she led me to a locker room and offered me a deep blue catsuit that left absolutely nothing to the imagination.

"So how have you been, really?" She asks.

"Besides the obvious, I've been good."

"And how's Ben?"

"Sue, you can ask how he's been. I'm not going to judge you. In all honesty, I was on your side about the whole thing. He's always been too much in his head."

"Ok... How's he been?"

"He's Reed. He throws himself into his work to avoid talking about his feelings. But he isn't seeing anyone. And he still has that trophy that you had made for him. But don't tell him I told you that." We laugh and she vows her silence.

We walked out and were almost to the main room when we heard Ben complaining. "But I don't know whether I should be flying or doing Swan Lake in these suits. I mean, who the hell came up with these?"

"Victor did," Sue says as we come around the corner. I briefly looked over at Johnny who's eyes bug out of his head as they roam down my body, taking in how it hugged my curves. "The synthetics act as a second skin, adapting to your body's individual needs." We all saw Reed's eyes widen when Sue came into the room in her suit.

"See now that means it keeps the hot stuff hot and the cold stuff cold." Johnny dumbs it down. He moves across the room and discreetly tries to pull me away from the conversation. I slap his hand away.

"Wow. Fantastic." My brother says and Sue brightens up, thinking he's referring to her. Ben and I share a look and shake our heads, knowing he's talking about the suit. My attention was diverting between Reed, who was going on about working on his own formula, and Johnny, who was still trying to pull me away.

"Great minds think alike I guess." Sue says before handing jumpsuits to Johnny, Ben and I and throwing Reed's at him.

We reached the space station with minimal incidents, if one would count the awkward tension between Sue and Reed and me and Johnny as minimal. We disembarked from the shuttle and we're walking towards the main hub of the station.