Swelling With Love Chapter Eighteen: Delivery: in which Susan Richards gives birth.

Susan Richards the once mighty superheroine known as Ultra Woman hung her head in defeat. "I just can't do it." A moment after she said the words however she felt something that warmed her, not a sense of hope, but a sense that losing might not be so bad after all. "Well then, if you don't feel like getting out of bed then I suppose I don't either."

Susan stretched out a hand, grabbed some blankets and pulled them so that they covered everything below her chin. As she sighed she felt her entire body (especially her belly) heaving. "Thanks." Just when she'd thought she couldn't get any bigger the last few weeks had done a real number on her figure. She couldn't help but feel that she looked almost like an absurd caricature of herself with a belly so massive that without her powers, she never could have hoped to reach her own belly button which was currently jutting outwards, a miniature mountain on top of a much larger one.

Susan's naked body pulsed with delight as she felt Reed's equally nude one (complete with erect member) rubbing up against her frame. "No thanks necessary, I'm your husband after all." Susan smiled in spite of her somewhat dour mood, just hearing Reed say those words still had a magic all their own to her. "Yep. And I'm your own little science lab. The six samples of our combined DNA you wanted are just about ready; it'll probably only take another week or two till you can study them to your heart's content."

Beneath the covers Susan felt Reed's arms attempt the impossible task of fully encircling her body when they hadn't a chance of even going all the way around her belly. "You know, that not how I see you or the children." Susan smiled wistfully at Reed. "I know, it just helps to remind myself out loud every now and again. It's hard for me to not feel that way given how you've been piling praise on me over the last few months and I've never seen you that invested in anything except one of your science projects."

Reed adjusted his body almost needing to lie flat on the upper slope of her belly in order to be able to properly kiss her. "I've never been as interested in any science experiment as I am in you and our children. There's nothing I wouldn't do for you." "Really?" Another kiss. "Really.

After all, while lionesses are fierce creatures, they lead very hectic lives. They need to hunt prey to feed the pride, and also protect and nurture their cubs, the latter of which breaks down into a great many different tasks, especially when the lioness has to look after multiple cubs at the same time, which is just about always how it happens. The male lion on the other hand has one, well only two tasks, the first is sowing his seed so that there will be cubs in the first place, which is very much a seasonal work. The second is the one that he focuses on the rest of the time, looking after his lioness."

Susan just lay there for a moment before speaking. "Then could you help me get dressed? I may want to stay bedridden, but I just can't seem to stomach the idea of just laying here naked all day." Reed slid away from her towards the other side of the bed. "I'd be glad to." Even though he was doing just what she asked, a part of Susan immediately missed the comforting warmth that came with having him lie right next to her.

Reed took only a few moments to find the appropriate garments and then pulled back the covers so he could get to work. Without the cover's in the way Susan could get a pretty decent view of the upper half of her body. Her breasts were of course swollen with milk and drooped down towards her even more swollen belly which prevented her from seeing anything below it.

She could see more of course if she stretched out her body, but below her belly the view wasn't all that different than she remembered it being, so she rarely considered it worth the effort. She felt another tingle of a excitement run through her body as Reed gingerly slipped the front half of her bra over her head, then eased it on over her breasts which the unstable molecules instantly adjusted themselves to fully and comfortably cover. Then of course came the panties which Reed managed to return to their proper place with a surprisingly sterile touch.

Then it was simply a matter of pulling the top part of her outfit down, and her pants up. Reed then walked over to his side of the bed dressed himself before Susan without the slightest hint of shame (granted what exactly did he have to be ashamed of) and crawled back onto the bed with her. Susan looked down at her body once again this time seeing just how much her unstable molecule outfit had to stretch to cover her.

Granted she'd seen it become even large when she was using her powers, but having it be like this "naturally" was another sensation entirely. "Some superheroine I am right about now. Womb Woman, able to carry and give birth to an entire litter of children at the same time!" Reed just smiled at first, then began to rub his body against hers, and even though they were now clothed it did little to detract from the joy of the sensation. "Susan Richards you'll always will be Ultra Woman, able to look after herself, her teamates, her children to be, and the entire city at the same time. Not to mention look absolutely beautiful."

Susan huffed slightly. "I look like a complete and total mess from the neck up, and giant sphere from the neck down." Reed shook his head repeatedly. "Susan considering the importance of objectivity when it comes to gathering correct data, whose views on how beautiful or ugly you are should hold more weight, your's or mine?" The answer was obvious. "Yours." Of course what was left unsaid was that an actual unbiased observer who wasn't in love with her would be best of all for determining if she was beautiful..

"That's right. And if a husband tells his wife she's beautiful then she should know better than to argue the point." His mock overberence quickly gave way to genuine concern. "So do you really feel like a ball?" As he spoke his hands began to slowly work their way along Susan's massive midsection eliciting a sigh of release from her. "Nah, not really. I just feel sort of tired like I did back at the start, though that may just be eight months of pregnant superheroics finally catching up to me.

My belly feels really big and heavy and sort of full, I don't feel like I'm about to snap in half if that's what you're wondering." As she spoke Reed pulled himself a little closer and began to run one of his hands through her hair. "You don't really think you look ugly do you?" Susan blushed slightly and chuckled. "No, just pregnant, very very pregnant."

As he talked Reed began to rub his legs up and down against her belly creating a surprisingly enjoyable sensation. "Pregnant is a good look on you Susan, if nothing else you've doubtlessly got childbearing hips." Then, as if he was climbing a mountain, Reed began to work his way down Susan's body by using various parts of its as handholds until he could plant a kiss on the fabric covering her belly button.

"In fact, to tell you the truth I think I'm rather going to miss this after you give birth. One of my biggest problems with romancing you was being able to successfully pin you down, but now I have you exactly where I want you; in bed, and unable to get out of it. The fact that you're barefoot and pregnant is just a delightful side bonus." Susan hadn't notice up until that point that Reed hadn't helped her get her boots on (it wasn't as if she could see them) but a little quick probing with her toes and she concluded that indeed they were covered only by blankets.

Susan reached out with her own hands to stroke her belly, unable to naturally reach her husband with it so directly between them. "You know I bet this was all part of some elaborate plan of yours. Getting yourself turned into a bodiless brain for six months so that I'd be a powderkeg of passion ready to blow. You probably also slipped me some kind of drug to keep me from menstruating for those six months then right before you made your move gave me some fertility-enhancing ones so that I'd get knocked so far up that I wouldn't be able to see past my belly again for months."

Reed slowly turned around and climbed a little further down her body, taking a moment to teasingly stroke her bare feet, his voice still caring to her ears just fine. "Little good that observation does you now Ultra Woman. It's too late, my special parasites have been feeding off you for so long that you've got no more strength left then a limp noodle!"

It had taken Susan a while to get used to the strange sensation of seeing Reed's old face but hearing Victor Von Doom's voice, but she had to admit it certainly did let him do a very good diabolical mad scientist when he wanted to. For her part, Susan mimed a weak attempt at making use of an ability which still worked perfectly well before letting out a wail of distress, it was ironic how her helpless damsel voice was getting better even as she found less and less actual need for it.

"Oh no, you're right! How could I have failed to notice? My once firm breasts have become droopily overflowing monstrosities. My once well cared for waistline is now the size of a small nation's coastline! And my powers are gone as well, I'm nothing more then an ordinary woman now, no less then even that! What are you going to do with me?"

Reed's playful cackle bounded of the walls as she felt his hands (having slipped under her outfit) working the underside of her belly. "Quite easily my dear, you will become the first prized cow in my stable. Soon you will give birth a whole host of my parasites which will soon reduce every superheroine in the world to your currently deplorable state. Then while your still disoriented by the birthing process you'll be injected with another even large brood of my parasites."

Susan gasped. "Even larger?" She felt Reed's hands starting to work their way down her belly towards her vagina which she could feel starting to moisten itself in preparation for their arrival. "Yes, you see your elastic womb makes you a perfect incubator, you'll keep giving birth to more and more of my creations until eventually you become so swollen that you'll take up an entire room all by yourself So of course the only question is how do I properly display you till then?

Should I have you laying on your bloated belly like the cow you are, or should I hang you from the ceiling and watch how your elastic body is forced to droop under it's own weight? Ahh but why wonder about such petty questions when there are more important matters to resolve?" That was a stance on life that Susan couldn't help but agree with.

--

And so for the tail-end of her pregnancy Susan connected to allow herself to be pampered and taken care of more or less just like a normal pregnant woman even if she still used her powers for personal convenience and pleasure.

--

Then one day Susan woke up and discovered she was looking up at the ceiling, but it was closer than it used to be. She twisted her head about slightly and noticed that the walls were very close as well.

It didn't take her long to realize that her head was inside some kind of box. She quickly took a moment to figure out the condition of the rest of her body. Still pregnant, still elastic, and on the whole still quite capable of using her powers. If this was part of some kind of evil villains plan then they must have graduated last in their class at evil medical school, or possibly even never gotten accredited.

So either she was dealing with an incredibly incompetent supervillian in which case she didn't have much to worry about, or... "Reed, why did you smush my head into a box?" Sure enough the hole through which her head had been pressed into the box was large enough to let words travel out and back into it with ease. "Because it seemed more appropriate than having a bunch of people jump out from behind couches and tables. Feel free to pull your head out whenever you want to."

So Susan did just that, and was instantly greeted by one word from many different throats. "SURPRISE!" She was laying on a fairly comfortable table that had a slight upwards incline it was also at this point that she was able to place what exactly the odd sensation that had been going through the lower half of her body at this point. It was caused by the fact that from her neck down to a bit past her (popped out of course) belly button she was wearing an unstable molecule uniform, and below that she was only wearing a white sheet and no underwear beneath it.

Susan looked down at this particular arrangement for a moment and then out at the assembled crowd. "If you're trying to surprise me with the fact that I'm going to be a mother soon then I hate to disappoint you, but my body has been sending me signals about it for a while now." Reed was currently leaning against the top of the table by his wife's head, wearing a full unstable molecule uniform and a white labcoat on over it.

"Well there's not much point to ever throwing a surprise birthday party either given that the person who is supposed to be surprised must know they're getting a party thrown for them on that particular day, but still do it. So a very merry birthING day to you Susan nine months ago..."

Johnny produced a sound halfway between a the growl of a half-strangled cat and the squawk of a very startled bird causing Reed to pause for a moment before finishing the sentence. "I acquired Victor Von Doom's body in a manner that could only be called poetic justice."

Susan looked around at the assembled crowd. Aside from the other members of the her team (there was still a certain amount of dithering over the idea of changing its name to the Fantastic Five, aside from the paperwork involved there was also the issue of what to do with their suddenly outdated unstable molecule uniforms which were still perfectly useable and probably cost around ten thousand dollars each) there was also Alicia who was standing arm and arm with Ben, and the respective King and Queen of Attilan.

"Crystal said pregnancies are fairly rare among the Inhumans, but I didn't suspect that the prospect of watching a woman give birth was considered a spectacle fit for royalty to behold." Black Bolt unsurprisingly said nothing, though Medusa chuckled slightly and extended a few hairs that wrapped themselves playfully against Susan's belly. "It isn't. But from what my sister tells me the royal family might only be a year or two away from having a new branch grafted onto it, and it would be shame for us to have missed the birth of those who will retroactively become our nieces and nephews."

Susan's neck slowly shifted between looking at Medusa to look at Johnny and Crystal. "Well I suppose that's the third strike against any chance my kids had of being normal considering they're going to be skeletonless amoebas because of their mother, mind-reading geniuses because of their father, and now royalty because of their aunt-in-law.

At least I'll get to give plenty of speeches about how in my day if I wanted to pick something up I had to actually had to walk over to it instead of just stretching out an arm or calling it over to me with my telekinesis. By the way Medusa, since Lockjaw is probably going to always be 'in the neighborhood' more or less, and if our kids really are going to be some distant relations of yours, do you think that, if something dangerous was going on around here..."

Medusa picked up on what Susan was slowly and painfully working her way towards before the question could even be asked. "It would be a very simple matter to make sure that all of Attilan would stand ready to defend them." Susan breathed a heavy sigh of relief. "Thanks. Not that I don't trust my husband to turn this place into a veritable Alcatraz, but I'd still rather put my trust in people than machines, so having an entire city of superpowered humans on the opposite side of the world to protect my kids if the need arises, real load of my shoulders."

"To bad it's not a load off your pelvis since it seems to have so much more to pressing down on it at the moment..." Medusa emphasized her statment by drumming a few more hairs against Susan's belly, to irritation of that belly's owner. "Could you stop that?" Medusa smirked at her. "Wanna go another round over it blondie?"

Susan mimed rolling up her sleeves without actually adjusting her garments. "Before or after I go into labor, red?" Medusa's green eyes locked with Susan's blue ones and the emerald pair blinked first leading to Medusa raising her hands (and echoing the gesture with about half of her hair) to show that she was backing away from the argument.

"I learned my lesson the first time we went at it without me having the advantage of a can of knockout gas on my side, no reason to go repeating old mistakes. Last thing I need is for people to start hearing the story of how you knocked me unconscious and then woke me back up by having your water break on my face."

Susan returned her gaze to Reed having taken he measure of everyone in the room. "Speaking of my water breaking, what makes you so sure that it'll happen today? I mean my superpowers have already interfered with enough rules that have to do with pregnancy and the arrival date is really a rule of thumb kind of thing isn't it?"

In response Reed reached into a pocket of his labcoat and pulled out a remote. "If I only let events progress naturally then yes, but if I need to I've got all the tools and training necessary to induce labor. That said, now that you're awake I might as well let our last guest in. It wasn't easy lining this up only five months in advance, but I suppose if I only accomplished the easy tasks in life I wouldn't be much of a husband or superhero."

He pressed a button on the remote. A moment later the largest orange glowing portal that Susan had ever seen Lockjaw create (at least she assumed that dog was responsible since apart from the size it looked just like all the other ones he'd made) opened up in the middle of the lab and a very confused looking Gale stepped through it.

Susan was not so in love with her dignity (or in possession of sufficient self control) to resist letting out girlish squeal of delight at as her arms instantly shot out and wrapped them around her draconic daughter's large neck. Gale for her part let out a quick shriek of surprise (probably at having gone from wherever she had been to here so fast) but after taking a moment to calm down and realizing she recognised most of the people in the room (if not the room itself) she gave a quick trill of delight. "Hey girl, did you miss me?"

For an answer Gale stomped on over to Susan leaned down and licked her face. Susan unwound her arms and still feeling light-headed from this particular surprise, giggled. "I'll take that as a yes!" Having paid her respects Gale turned her eyes on the less familiar occupants of the room. She gave Alicia a long sniff and then a quick fluttering of the wings that passed for a shrug.

The two had met previously at Susan's wedding, but it was the most time they'd spent in each other's company since just about everybody had agreed that between Gale's tendency to forget her own strength and Alica's blindness, leaving the two alone together was a recipe for disaster.

That done, Gale's head swung towards Blackbolt and Medusa, who she had never seen before. Susan elongated her neck to a considerable degree so that she could watch Gale's eyes as she evaluated the two. For about thirty seconds she just watched Medusa's hair dance back and forth before finally giving the two a quick chuff of approval.

Susan giggled again as Blackbolt visibly relaxed after clearly preparing himself for the possibility that he might need to defend his wife. "Gale likes girls with long hair since they remind her of me and its probably a pretty safe bet that you've got the longest hair she's ever seen." As Susan retracted her neck, Gale began to do something with her hands. Susan tried to discern some meaning from it but no matter how she searched her memories she couldn't remember a similar occurrence.

"If you're trying to suggest that we play a game of catch then not only am I little busy with other things at the moment but I'm not exactly dressed for the occasion." Now apparently it was Reed's turn to chuckle. "It's sign language, or at least close enough to it, given that sign language was invented to be 'spoken' by people with one more finger on each hand than she has."

Susan put a prompt twist in her neck so that she could glare at her husband. "Seeing as you never leave anything half-explained, I bet I'm gonna love hearing how she picked up something like that in the span of five months." Reed smiled. "Well I can't personally claim all the credit, since Gale obviously contributed, but it was my idea.

Her vocal chords aren't capable of producing any human language, but you said she was capable of reasonably articulate thought, so I suggested to Nicholas that he might want to have some people try to teach her sign language. Luckily we started teaching it to her soon enough, if we'd waited too long the section of her mind responsible for language might have been effectively consumed by some other part of her mind, say to boost her hand to eye coordination."

Susan blinked a couple of times. "Can I have that again with a metaphor on the side so that it doesn't bounce right off of my rubbery brain?" Reed luckily was never at a loss of how to explain something slightly more simply, probably because his teammates so frequently asked for one.

"Okay then, to start with if anyone has ever told you that humans only use ten percent of their brain then they're out of their minds. The human brain requires too much blood and oxygen to run for us not to make use of every single bit of it, and if for some reason we can't make use of some part of it for its usual purpose, we'll use it for another.

For example, the cochlear implant is a special device which is designed to effectively be a super-powerful hearing aid. However, different people react differently to them, if a deaf child is given one then they're usually able to make a more or less complete recovery when it comes to both hearing and speech. It's also can usually help someone fully recover if they lost their hearing in some kind of accident.

However if given to an adult who was born deaf, they might be able to hear again, but it's extremely unlikely they'll ever be able to talk. Actual scans of their brains show that while they're signing the part of their brain that lights up is the same one that does in normal people while talking. Like I said, I'm glad to see the parts of Gale's brain relating to language were still available for their intended cause. I didn't tell you about it before today in case it didn't work because it'd be a shame to get your hopes up only to have them come crashing down."

It was still a lot to take in but Susan got the gist of it. "Okay, and knowing my husband the way I do, would I be correct in assuming that you hit the books to get know how to speak sign language in case it did work?" Reed nodded straight away. "Care for me to start translating?" Susan nodded and Reed made a few quick hand motions to Gale. "I just told her that she'll need to start over again..." Gale's head quickly went up and down an as her hands moved, Reed spoke.

This promptly created one of the many odd moments in Susan's life. When Susan had heard Gale's voice in her head about five months ago, she'd had a voice that was comparable to that of a girl who was somewhere between four and eight years old. So all of a sudden hearing the words Gale "said" delivered to her through Reed's voice was about as unexpected as hearing a young boy speaking with a voice in that was of a lower register than most full grown men.

Still, it let the two communicate (even if the process tended to bottleneck slightly since Gale didn't need Susan's English to be translated for her, unlike the other way around), so there had to be something to be said for it. "You're right you did get bigger since last time..." Susan nodded remembering how "small" she'd been on the day of her wedding. "Yeah, now I'd probably be a bite and a half instead of only three quarters of one."

A couple of grey scales acquired a pinkish tint at this point, which was probably the closest that Gale would ever come to blushing. "You know I'd never eat you Mommy, for one thing you only look all rich and juicy, in reality your stringy as rubber." Hearing Gale parrot back a few of the first few things that Susan had told her brought a wide smile to her face. "Nice to know you pay attention. So how is life on The Farm?"

Gale let out a slight chirp even as she signed. "It's good, they let me choose whether I'd rather hunt or just have a meal brought straight to me for once. But the best part is I've met a guy!" Susan slowly looked at Gale and then held up her right hand hesitantly. "When you say 'a guy' do you mean like your daddy or like..."

Rather than trying to articulate her point, Susan took a page form Gale's book and let her hand do the talking. In this case that particular process involved holding her middle and ring finger together while she held her thumb beneath them, throwing in a few extra bumps to them so that they resembled a pair of jaws.

Then her pinkie and index finger spread out using her powers slightly so that they could stick out perfectly to the sides of her hand. Promptly she began to use her powers a bit obviously to make a couple of ridges in those two fingers, making them look at least somewhat like wings, which she began to flap up and down. It was only at this point that she realized yet another use for her powers that would have nothing to do fighting crime, entertaining her kids with shadowpuppets.

It'd been a while since she'd last played charades, but Gale got the point. "He's like me. Well not just like me, but close enough, wings, tail, more or less the same size. Of course he's sorta older than I am, but he's really smart..." This caused Susan's smile to grow even wider as she turned her vision from the person she was having a conversation with to the one translating it. "I guess you could say we Richards women have a type..."

Gale probably didn't get the joke but Reed flashed her a small smile as he continued to translate. "He's oriental, and got a lovely set of green scales. though he does tend to refer to himself in the third person a lot..." Susan whipped an imaginary bead of sweat from her head. "Well having heard that I think we can discount the possibility that you've got a, Reed is their a female version of the Oedipus complex where you want to kill your mother and sleep with your father?" "Yes, it's called an Elektra Complex."

Susan smiled and nodded slowly there where times when it was advantage to being married to a man how is practically a living dictionary, encyclopedia, and thesaurus all rolled into one. "Right then, glad to see you don't have an Elektra complex."

Gale bobbed her head up and down giving something about as close to a nod as she could. "I don't have eggs yet either, not that we aren't trying..." Susan just sighed and placed a very long arm on Gale's snout. "That's one particular blessing I can do without. I'm not even thirty years old and yet you're already trying to make me a grandmother, whoever said having kids ages you horrible was right!" Everyone (except Blackbolt of course) had a laugh at that.

--

And so the day passed in good company. Susan and Gale talked with Reed translating, Johnny and Medusa talked with the somewhat strained cordiality appropriate for their situation, and Crystal and Medusa talked, comparing notes on their time spent with the Fantastic Four, to name just a few of the conversations that took place.

In short, just about everyone who could talk without doing considerable amount of property damage talked while they hung around Susan waiting for the event itself to happen. And then all of a sudden it did.

She felt something inside her body shift, let out a cry of surprise, felt her body stretch itself to accommodate its new situation and then heard a sound which was utterly unpronounceable. There was silence for close to ten full seconds until her brother spoke up. "So that's the 'blessed miracle of life' huh, I think I'm going to go find some place where I can sanitarily loose my lunch."

--

Reed didn't have a stopwatch on hand but it doubtlessly was the shortest time between a woman's water breaking and her children being born, considering that the two had been more or less one and the same. Just like he'd predicted (and Susan had hoped) her body had neatly made room in all the right places so that kids more or less just fell right out of her.

Also luckily snipping the umbilical cords hadn't required any special high-tech tools. So in short, her children were born, cleaned up, fed (Reed of course had some formula on hand since the ratio of breasts to hungry mouths was rather ruinously in favor of her children) and otherwise taken care of.

--

"So what do you think we should name them?" Susan and Reed were in their room laying down on their bed. Reed was looking up at the ceiling and Susan was looking down at her body still marvelling at how greatly her figure had changed now that she was no longer be lugging around six children who had gotten to probably gotten to be more or less the size of soccer balls before they were born.

What to call their children was a question that they'd kicked around a few times before, but always come to the same decision; due to the hectic nature of the their lives, the possible complications that could come with multiple child pregnancies, let alone the fact that both their parents had superpowers, actively naming them before they were born would only make the pain that would come if one them was lost that much worse.

So they'd agreed to wait until the kids were born and healthy before they picked out names for them, and a few quick tests less than an hour ago had shown Susan's children to be among the healthiest sextuplets ever born, probably because they hadn't arrived prematurely. Reed slowly moved his eyes from the ceiling to his wife. "Two boys and four girls."

Susan nodded and Reed slowly held up all the fingers of his right hand, the index and middle of his left. Then slowly he lowered the middle finger of his left hand. "We should name one of the boys Benjamin given how much Ben has done to help us wind up together." Susan echoed the gesturer that Reed had preformed, raising six fingers and then lowering her left middle finger. "Yeah, not to mention he helped save our bacon from more than a few supervillians."

She looked at her left hand and then slowly lowered her index finger. "As for the other, Franklin." "After your father?" Reed asked the question as gently as he could, and Susan did nothing but nod. After being together for so long each of them knew what topics were not to be examined too closely. Once the necessary period of time had passed for silent remembrance Reed spoke up again. "Which just leaves the girls."

Another long silence, but this one was contemplative rather then forced. It ended when Susan slowly lowered her pinkie. "We might as well name one of them Jane so that my brother doesn't go one and on about how I went and gave birth to a litter of kids and decided to name one after Ben but not one after him." Reed lowered his left pinkie as well, the two were now halfway done.

Of course that first half had probably been the easy half. The two just lay there for a few minutes, enjoying the company. Ironically Susan felt her mind drifting away from the task of naming their children and towards finding something humerous about finally being faced with a mental task where she was evidently more or less the equal of her husband.

Of course while she was thinking about that she couldn't be thinking about names which was why Reed broke the silence this time. "Would you think it horribly trite of me if I suggested we could name one of the girls Samantha?" It was trite in its way but it was suitable a now that this particular can of worms had been opened it didn't take Susan long to come up with her own suggestion along similar lines.

"I don't have a problem with it, trite would have been naming one of them 'Susana' so working from that one name why don't we call another of our daughters Rachel." Reed didn't object to that which just left an long silence hanging in the air between them as they tired to think of one last name.

"Valeria." For the first time since they'd started this discussion Susan looked directly into her husband's eyes. "Why Valeria?" As par for the course Reed had an explanation at once. "When I was in college, I learned a few things about Victor that I'm fairly certain he never told anyone else, simply because he considered me as close to an equal as his ego would ever allow him to admit to having.

One of those things was that back in order to come here to learn he had to leave behind the tribe of gypsies he considered his family, including a girl named Valeria who, he talked about like he was... I hesitate to use the phrase 'in love' but it's the most adapt description I can come up with. If there was a woman out there who was actually able to make Victor Von Doom feel any sort of emotional attachment, I think it's name that disserves to live on."

Susan curled her right hand into a fist. "Valeria it is. Well now we've got names for the whole lot of them. So should we wait a few days and see what color their hair starts to come in as, then we name them?" Reed saw the wisdom in this (since it'd make more sense to have a blond named Samantha and a dark-haired child named Rachel than the other way around) at which point he two finally just were able to just lay there and relax.

"Well congratulations, you did it." Susan looked up at the ceiling allowing a small smirk to grow on her face. "Me? I didn't do a damn thing. Together though we managed to do quite a lot." "Are you talking about you and me, or are you talking about the Fantastic Four?" "You're so smart Reed Richards, why don't you figure it out?"

--

Susan Richards mother of six looked at herself in the mirror. "I don't believe it." She reached down and stroked her own all but perfectly flat midsection, yes there was give there, but only the give of her elastic skin. She spun a slow 360 degrees using her powers to keep her head looking directly into the mirror so that she could be absolutely sure of what she was seeing. When she finished that she just stood here and uttered five simple words. "I don't fucking believe it."

She just stood there in silence gazing into her reflection in the mirror until she wasn't the only one in it. "Something the matter Susan?" She turned around to face Reed gesturing almost frantically with her hands. "Look at me! How can I look like this?" "Define 'this' for me if you don't mind."

Susan once again wildly gestured towards her own body. "No woman who just gave birth can look the way I do! The only constant exercise I've gotten for the last month or so has been sex, and for some reason I've got a well-toned midsection, an ass that doesn't have one ounce of droop in it, and pretty well-toned abbs. Hell I just stepped on a scale a few minutes ago, and as far as I can figure the only weight I've put on has been these..." As she spoke Susan grasped her breasts which of course jiggled slightly given their contents.

"So you're complaining that you look too attractive?" There was a heavy silence that hung in the air and then Susan's face just seemed to be pulled in every direction for a moment, then snapped back to normal. "I know, I know, this is not exactly a serious issue, but right now I feel like I won't be able to sleep until I figure out what is going on here. I didn't exactly think I'd turn into a fat slob but I expected to be at least a little chubby, but no, I'm practically oozing sexuality, I look just like I did before I had kids except with bigger breasts! Yes I always planned on being a MLIF, but I figured that first I'd need to diet for and exercise for a year, not go straight from this to that."

"I didn't tell you?" Susan at once stretched her head over so that there were only a few inches between their faces. "Tell me what?" For an answer Reed reached out, grabbed her nose, pulled it, let go causing it to distort and then go back to normal. "That had better be part of some brilliant metaphorical answer, because despite how much I do enjoy the sex, I have the necessary self-control to make sure you don't get to lay a finger on my absurdly, better say ridiculously, in fact lets just say flat out near implausibly hot body, at least for around forty five to sixty days... Reed smiled back at her. "It is Susan, don't worry.

As I was about to say, when I exert pressure on your body it molds itself around the pressure, when I release the pressure it returns to what it considers normal. Now the milk in your breasts, or the liquid in your womb while you were pregnant, those two things represented a foreign substance applying pressure to your body, and your body adjusted itself in response. However, fat cells represents your body putting pressure upon itself, and your body has proven itself quite resistant to deviations from what it considers 'the norm' like how you don't get tired supporting your own body when you stand up.

So without you even telling it to, your body is automatically compacting any additional fat cells it produces into such tightly packed bundles that they become next to invisible. Of course doing that requires energy, and I'll give you three guesses where your body is drawing that energy from..." "The fat cells themselves?" Got it in one."

Susan returned her neck to its normal length. "So you're saying I can't actually get fat because no matter how many calories I shove down my throat, my own body burns them up making me look thin, right?" Reed nodded again and Susan couldn't help it, she stretched out her arms giving herself a tight hug. "Reed, there are three things in this world that I really love, and I'm not going to spare myself the mental strain of trying to figure out exactly what order I love them in, so I'll just list them in the order they came into my life: you, this body, and our kids. Tell you what, why don't I combine all three?"

In seconds she had wrapped her midsection around Reed's body. "Let's go check out our kids and if they don't need us then let's go have kinky, bouncy, physics-defying sex, cause now that I feel that I've dropped about two hundred pounds I'm ready to start really having fun in the bedroom again or whatever room we're in at the time!"

Reed of course managed to keep his calm surprisingly well, but then practice made perfect. "Susan, not that I don't enjoy the prospect of those children you just gave birth to, but a man can only take so many ups and downs in his life, so in the future when we have sex, let's use birth control." Susan uncoiled herself from around Reed returning to her normal appearance. "Okay good point, in fact very good point. Hell I'll even be the big woman and not make a bad rubber joke connecting my powers and safe sex."

"You also realize that having children means that we won't be able to have quite as quite as much free time together." Susan just sighed and ran a hand through her hair. "Yeah I know, its all about dividing my time and my energy. I figure the kids can have my eyes and my boobs, and my hands while you can have my mouth and everything below my belly button. They get everything they need, you get everything you need, believe me I've been practicing; I think I can do some very impressive things with my legs..."

Reed just looked right at Susan who slumped slightly. "Yeah I know, my internal 'mom' sense tells me that's a very bad idea, sex and feeding the kids at the same time, that's the kind of thing that could make a lady develop neurosis and Lord knows I'd already bend over backwards for you. So tell you what, let's go look after our kids first and deal with things from there. Race ya!"

In seconds Susan had transformed her body into a bouncing ball that was careening down the corridors. Reed watched her go and sighed now finally free to casually (or a least as casually as one could) rub the growing hard-on in his pants. "Sooner or later that woman is going to wear you down to a nub..." The organ in question didn't seem to mind the prospect and as Reed drew in another deep breath he had to admit that indeed this was one sense of impending doom that he was perfectly capable of living with.

--

A few days after that one night Susan and Reed were together in his lab. "Well our kids seem to be safely asleep for the night, and we've got the Baxter Building's security systems set up so that if any of them make much noises that aren't natural doing sleep we'll know at once, I think it's time to do some research."

Susan nodded, and smiled. "You know, as opposed to playing around with the building's security systems, we could have just bought a baby monitor, those seem to work fairly well for most people." Reed shrugged. "Ehh, all play and no needlessly complex gadgets to build can drive a man mad at which point he starts building gadgets which have the wrong kind of point to them. Besides this way there's no way we can miss it if the system detects a sound in the room greater then 100 decibels, something a child's cry is bound to achieve.. Now then, there's been a particular experiment that I've been dying to conduct on you and your powers for two months, but I decided it might be a bad idea while you were pregnant."

Reed gestured and a grey cloth flew off to the side, revealing something that looked like little more than a large grey cylinder. "So do I get an explanation beforehand or is it going to be a surprise?" Reed walking over the to the tank and picked up a grey hose that was attached to it. "This particular experiment is designed to watch how your organs rearrange themselves to deal with a considerable amount of internal pressure. Luckily I've already seen your ability to handle something like this a few months back, even if it was on a smaller scale so I'm fairly certain you won't have to worry about the kind of problems that other people would develop from having bodies too saturated with water. I had the idea when you compared yourself to a blubbery whale about two months back."

Susan smiled wistfully. "Ahh the whimsies of childhood turning into the perversities of adulthood, is there any more beautiful sight in the world?" Reed shook his head as he patted the cylinder. "This tank is full of water which I'm about to pump into your body and then observe what happens. So if you don't mind, just put this in your mouth and keep sucking till it runs dry." Susan looked at Reed and then licked her lips. "Does sort of sound like fun, though from anyone else I'd expect that last sentence to have a VERY different connotation to it."

Susan struck the hose in her mouth wrapping her lips tightly around it, and Reed turned on the flow of water. At first Susan's cheeks bulged out like a chipmunk storing nuts for the winter, but this effect soon vanished as she began to rapidly swallow gallon after gallon of water.

It started in her belly, but that didn't mean it was like being pregnant. Her belly wasn't just pushing outward, Susan could also felt her backside expanding extremely rapidly and to a great size then it ever had while she was pregnant. The good news was that this meant she hadn't constantly had to deal with how being pregnant made her need to subtly lean backwards to counteract the weight of her belly. The bad news was that when she tried to take a step forward the combined weight of her belly and ass kept her firmly rooted in place.

She shifted stance shifted slightly and she felt the water starting to pour into her legs, making them grow larger and heavier as well. Then once again she felt her hips and ass growing larger, not so much drooping over her legs, but joining together so that from the waist down she was nothing but one large sphere. One large sphere that evidently had plans on seizing the upper half of her body as well.

She felt her arms, hands, and breasts growing larger, but not large or fast enough to escape the continuing swell of her spherical mid-and lower body until they too were utterly absorbed. Susan felt her cheeks starting to puff out again and then the flood of water stopped. She spat out the hose and all the water that was currently stored in her cheeks then smiled. "Wow, you certainly look a lot smaller from up here. So what next?"

Reed walked behind her and pushed against her back, while the sheer weight of her body would have normally made moving it impossible, her current let her roll fairly well. By the time he was done pushing Susan hadn't rolled gone far but her head was now level with Reed's. "Actually my equipment is already recording all the quantitative data that I'll need on the subject, which just leaves the qualitative half, how do you feel?"

Susan tired to shrug but she only ended up rippling slightly. "Not as nice as before, but then that's probably because you used cold water. Other than that can't complain, it isn't too bad, there's a comfortable fullness to it, like after a good meal. I could probably undo it if I wanted to by stretching and then tightening my body in the right places but at the moment..."

All of a sudden the entire room was cast in a disturbing red light. "I suddenly want to get rid of all this very, very quickly! That's just the kids are crying alarm, and not supervillians are attacking right?" Reed nodded as he raced over to the tank played with the dial on it, then came back over and offered Susan the hose once again. She accepted it, and this time instead of pumping water in, it got to work sucking the stuff out of her even faster than it had gone in. "Yes, if the Baxter Building was under attack then there would be sirens as well."

In no time at all Susan Richards once again looking like a superheroine instead of a gigantic blue ball pulled the hose from her mouth. "Well that's half a load off my shoulders. You know where I'm going." "I'll see you there soon." Susan formed her lower legs into a spring firing herself at the door out of Reed's lab without waiting for him to open it. This had the expected results, but the blue blob that her body was reduced to by the impact once again managed to slip under the door that Reed was so sure was impenetrable.

He sighed and returned to his computer took care of making sure the data was properly stored and did what he always did, thought. There were of course stories though he'd never done research about women doing incredible things to save their children, like being able to temporarily lift weights that should have been well beyond their body's capacity.

But then what was the actual capacity of the human body? Was it defined as what it could normally do, or what it could do with the proper motivation and situation? During that mental fight with Victor the sight of Susan at his mercy had given him some kind of "adrenaline" boost which should have been impossible since he'd lacked the glands necessary to produce such chemicals.

So what exactly defined a human being? That was a question that he'd probably be working on trying to find an answer to for the rest of his life.

--

By the time Reed got to the nursery it was all over. Each and every single one of their six children lay sleeping peacefully and by elongating her arms Susan was managing to rock all six of their cribs at once. "One of the little dears was hungry for a midnight snack and she woke the others up, but I took care of it and changed them all for good measure."

Reed nodded approvingly. "I told you, you that you'd make a great mother." Susan smiled, allowing her hands to return to normal but stretching her neck out so that she could whisper her words in his ear, that way she was less likely to wake up their children of course. "Yeah I know. If it's all the same, you've got your lab and all the data from that experiment to look after, but I think I'm gonna just stay in here for tonight. That way if any more problems crop up I'll already be 'on-site' at the expression goes. I figure I'll just sort of curl up into a ball in a corner and use my own body for a pillow until I'm needed."

Reed walked towards Susan making her shorten her neck in order to keep it right next to his. "I wish you wouldn't." Susan gave a firm shake of her long neck. "Sorry Reed, maybe we can do more research tomorrow, and I know that the short a delay between me finding out and getting here didn't really matter, but I just can't see myself leaving this room tonight."

By the time she was done speaking Reed was right next to her. "I know, the message I was trying to convey was that I wish you wouldn't just curl up into a ball, because then I won't have any place to sleep."

Susan's eyes got noticeably wider and popped out of their sockets for just a fraction of a second. "Reed, don't you have all that data on me that you want to look over?" Reed laid a hand comforting on Susan's shoulder. "It'll be there in the morning. In fact letting my machines play with the data on their own for a while might help me get to the important points without needing to commit as many actual man-hours to the task."

So a bit more than nine months after you got to know me in this new body, are you still willing to be the bed?" Susan nodded taking Reed by the hand and leading him towards an empty part of the room. She fell forwards elongating her body into a blue bed that would comfortably sleep one. Reed didn't bother getting undressed, he just sat down on Susan, grabbed a handful of her elastic flesh near one end of her body and pulled it up towards the other manufacturing a sheet. Susan for her part managed to provide a pillow that Reed rested his head on, and as he looked up at the ceiling, enjoying the silence of the room broken only by sounds of the eight beings within drawing breath.

At least it was until he heard a slight humming in his ears and felt Susan's body begin to shift back and forth gently. Reed momentarily propped himself up on an elbow looking down at a slightly exaggerated version of Susan's face that adorned the bed. "You're trying to rock me to sleep the same way you did them aren't you?"

The bed contorted slightly as Susan gave a full body shrug. "Sorry force of habit." "I didn't say there was anything wrong with it, I was enjoying it in fact, if I haven't said so before you have a very soothing voice. Besides, at the end of the day a scientist really is nothing more then a child, because they see a world full of things that need to be poked, prodded, and studied so that they can be better understood."

Susan's head rose up out of the bed, and kissed Reed on the cheek. "Then I guess it was only a matter of time till you ended up in here. By the way are you thirsty? I'm pretty sure even after dealing with our children I've still got at least one glass worth of milk on me somewhere." Reed shook his head solemnly. "No I'm good, and you can feel how damp my tongue is if you need to be sure."

The two shared a chuckle, at that, and then Reed laid back down and Susan went back to her chanting. The last thoughts that Reed Richards had before he fell quite comfortably asleep was that when you got right down to it Susan Storm really was an Ultra Woman in every sense of the word: lover, superheroine, wife, and mother.

End Chapter

End Fic.

AN: If you've come this far I'd appreciate you leaving a review. As for a sequel, it'll be around eventually but first I have to be about finishing the prequel to this fic Original Twist which I've already started posting here if you haven't noticed already.