As the director of the Empire State Institute for Behavior Health, parent organization of the Hirshire Sleep Studies Clinic that Susan was enrolled in, Dr. Thaddeus Burke was a truly impressive
academician. Reed had checked him out himself before allowing anyone to poke around his poor wife’s psyche.
With over 30 years in the field he had been nominated for a Nobel Prize in Medicine in the first 5 years.
Dr. Burke had over 20 awards in psychology, 8 for addiction studies, and 5 in the field of sexual disorders.
There was no finer person to look to Susan’s issues than he.
That was why Roberta had enthralled him before ever coming to Reed and Sue with the idea of enrolling Sue in a clinic to hide her nighttime activities.
Each night, Roberta 2 had altered her looks to appear like Susan and checked herself in to the Hirshire Clinic.
Each night she used her own mind control powers on Dr. Burke and his staff as well as feeding the monitoring equipment all the data she would need for this moment… The moment when Dr. Burke gave his evaluation to Susan’s family.
While the Roberta drones kept the children busy at play, the good doctor met with Reed and Roberta in person at the Xavier Estate.
Johnny and Ben also attended via a rather advanced hologram/virtual reality device that Reed and Roberta had devised.
While holograms of the heroes interacted with the people on Earth, Johnny and Ben wore VR masks that gave them full sensory perception of the happenings in the room with Reed and Roberta.
As an added precaution, Reed had insisted in the highest encryption for this communication which also allowed Roberta to add corridors for her impressive mind control powers to interact with the heroes without detection.
All was ready for the discussion.
Dr. Burke tried to ease the obvious tensions in the room “Well, it is an enormous pleasure to meet you all.
Even beyond the news coverage of your adventures, Susan has spoken of you all so highly, although…”
The professor looked at the holograms of Ben and Johnny with curiosity.
“I never imagined this meeting would be quite like this.”
Reed did his best to calm himself as he spoke to the fellow scientist “Well, Dr. Burke, we do tend to push for the bleeding edge in science.
That is why we came to you with Susan’s… issue.” Ben and Johnny both agreed whole heartedly with their leader and it showed in their approving nods and body language.
Burke nodded his sadly as he continued “But you see, Dr. Richards, it is the unanimous opinion of both myself and my staff that Susan’s issue is small in comparison to the issues your family
is constantly placing on her!” All in the room were shocked to silence, but the professor continued “Oh, everyone *knows* beyond *question* that each and every one of you loves and supports Susan with every fiber of your being, but there are
things that have pushed her beyond her ability to deal with in a normal fashion, at least as far as society will accept.”
Burke turned to Johnny first as he went on “For example, young Mr. Storm, how much responsibility for your own life do you carry?
You are in your 20’s man! Do you care for yourself or do you pile it onto your loving devoted sister to handle the drudgery of life for you?”
Next he turned to Ben “And you, good sir, are quite the opposite.
You treat her like a china doll to delicate for anyone to touch. That is, until her brother gets your ire.
Then you have no problem destroying the house and home she takes pride in just to show the young bull who the true alpha is.”
Finally he turned to Reed “For you I have the worst news. Although she has grown in the adventures you have shared with her, her needs have been sadly neglected.
Your drive for scientific exploration has left a very sexual person without the resources she needs to be happy.
She cannot live with this yet she will not cut you off from this deep passion you have with science.
Please know that she still loves you very much, but the fact of the matter is she has not been *in love* with you for a very, very long time.
Susan’s sexual addiction is an extension of this very thing.
She could not bear to tell you she was no longer in love with you, so when these villains took advantage, she found that she had an outlet for her needs.
Soon she subconsciously began seeking out this contact; not only to sate herself, but as a means of pushing away from a dear man and good father she did not want to be with anymore.
This last episode drove the situation to where even consciously she could not let the situation continue.”
Everyone in the room was uncharacteristically quiet through the whole conversation. While Reed was evaluating the information, Roberta was using her powers via the holographic link to help Ben
and Johnny accept Burke’s statements. For his part, the good doctor could see that his words were getting through to his audience so he continued “So now that we have laid the foundation of the past, let us begin building the future.
Susan loves you all, but she needs her space to rebuild. She needs to continue her therapy and she needs to live where she is comfortable but you must understand and accept this… She *must* be alone now and for the foreseeable future!
You *must* allow her to control the contact she has with each of you.
You must let her reach out on her own as she sees fit. The next few months to a year are critical to her growth and progress.”