There was never enough time.
Sixty seconds in a minute. Sixty minutes in an hour. Twenty-four hours in a day. 1440 minutes in a day, and yet, that still wasn't enough. Before, Susan would have considered herself a balanced woman. She helped take care of her brother, she studied, she succeeded. If she could set her mind to it, she could accomplish it. Her tenacity had done her well as she attained her degrees and slowly achieved her goals. Before, she hadn't realized just how finite time was even though she was constantly stressing over deadlines. Susan had failed to see how good she had it, even though she had thought she was excelling.
Now, things were different. She was different. Her body, twisted and turned. The cells had shifted and changed into a formation that she couldn't recognize — couldn't even see sometimes. The accident had irreparably changed everyone who had been aboard the ship. They had suddenly become strangers in their own skin, and some of them didn't even have their original skin anymore. But still, she persevered. Sue put her head down and did everything she could to harness the abilities that had been thrust onto her. She had to be strong not only for herself, but also for Johnny, Reed, and Ben. Rational. Balanced. Brave. Susan could do it, but it was hard.
Of course, that was before the multiverse threw something else on their plate. Before the multiverse had decided to become entangled in a way that they couldn't seem to unknot. It felt like they had gone straight from the frying pan into the fire. They were still stuck in the labs working all night, but now they had hundreds of eyes on them. It wasn't just the newly christened Fantastic Four looking for their place; it was a multiversal affair that they seemed to be headlining.
"Hm?" Despite the fact that there was a pen in her mouth and a pencil tucked behind her ear, Sue still was looking around for one before she realized she had one. Pulling it out of her mouth, she turned to take Johnny in. Her eyes darted to the smiley face on the board, but it didn't overlap with any of her equations. Her shoulders loosened ever so slightly.
"That's probably because Reed was in here for thirty-six straight hours. I'm only at twenty-two." Had she eaten during that time? Maybe at one point. There was an empty take out container on the counter. Sleep? No, not really. Her eyes burned from exhaustion but the caffeine was jumping through her system, sparking each nerve.
"Is this code for you're hungry? I can make you something. A break won't kill me." It was easy to slide from the role of researcher into big sister. Johnny could make his own food. He had before. She just needed to feel like she could do something in the midst of feeling powerless.