Jan sat frozen for a moment, then let out a wail. She thought she'd been prepared for anything, but this hadn't even occurred to her.

Jan ran out of the bungalow, hitting her head on the door in the process. Hank was nowhere to be seen, but she knew where Sue's guest house was. She half-ran, half-stumbled there.

Jan knocked on the door. She knew Reed had gone back to New York, but Sue had stayed for a few more days. "Who is it?" Sue asked from inside.

"It's Jan!" the giantess shouted, sobbing.

The door flew open. "Jan, what's wrong?" Sue said.

Jan looked down at Sue, her mouth twitching while she tried to find the words. Finally she shouted, in obvious agony, "He dumped me!"

"What?"

"Hank -" Jan gasped "- dumped me! He just dumped me!"

"Come in here," Sue said. "Watch your head."

After helping Jan to the love seat , Sue grabbed a cell phone. She hit speed-dial. "Hello, Bobbi? Oh, hi, Clint. Is Bobbi there? It's an emergency. No, not an Avengers emergency, a Jan emergency."

Jan was staring at the floor in disbelief, heaving heavy sobs, her face awash with tears.

Sue covered the phone's mouthpiece. "Jan, are you sure you understood Hank right? I just can't believe -" Sue shifted back to the phone. "Bobbi, I need you to do an intervention with Hank. I've got Jan in my living room, and she says Hank dumped her."

"WHAT!" Jan could hear Mockingbird's shout from halfway across the room.

"I'm not sure what really happened," Sue said. "But she's in tears. I've never seen her like this. She's just totally falling apart."

"I'll get the bastard," Mockingbird said.

"Bobbi, talk to him, don't kill him," Sue said, but Bobbi had hung up her phone.

Sue shook her head. She turned back to Jan. "OK, just what did Hank say?"

Jan sniffled, then sobbed, momentarily unable to form words. "Why am I like this?" she said. "I never fall apart like this."

Sue put an arm around Jan's shoulder as best she could. "Jan, you've been through a lot of trauma in what, for you, has been just a few days," Sue said. "Your emotions are like soda pop, and someone heated the can, shook it up - and then Hank added Mentos. They couldn't help but bubble over."

Jan looked into Sue's eyes. She was still breathing hard from all the sobbing. "Um, to answer your question, he said he'd had to close his heart to me to survive, and as to reopening it, and then he clammed up, shook his head and just left." She broke down again. "He just dumped me!"

Sue held her friend for a few minutes, trying to comfort Jan while processing the situation. Then she got down on the floor in front of Jan. She placed a hand on each of Jan's shoulders. "Jan, look at me," Sue said.

Jan did, her eyes and cheeks reddened.

"I'm pretty sure I know what Hank was trying to say, and I don't think he was trying to dump you," Sue said. "He and Reed are a lot alike, and Reed, who can get out 17-syllable scientific words, trips all over himself trying to express feeling."

"But he said -"

Sue put a finger to Jan's lips. "But to explain why I think that, I'm going to need to tell you something, something I promised myself I wouldn't tell you - and you have to promise to keep my secret. Bobbi's the only other one who knows."

"Not even Reed?" Jan said.

"Especially not Reed," Sue said. "Do you promise?"

Jan nodded, looking confused and worn.

"See, Jan, we were on that Skrull ship and their combat world for a long time - a very long time - and we were allowed to have some interaction. At first, I thought Reed or Johnny or the Avengers or someone would come save us, but when no one did, and we still couldn't find a way out, I gave in to despair.

"I thought I'd never see any of my family or friends again," Sue said. "I thought I'd never see Reed again. And Hank … Hank was so much like my Reed, and Hank was right there, and -"

"Oh, my god!" Jan said. "Did you -"

"If you're asking what I think you're asking, no," Sue said. "But I fell in love with him - really in love with him, Jan."

Now Sue's jaw quivered. "I practically threw myself at him, Jan, and he never noticed. I flirted as hard as I could, but I guess I wasn't as good at it as you are. He missed all the signals I sent him."

"He's been known to do that with me, too," Jan said, "But I can usually get through the haze."

Sue chuckled, but her eyes were brimming with tears. "See, Jan, the thing was, it wasn't just that Hank was thick about women. All he talked about was what he would do when he got back to you. He never doubted for a minute that he would get back to you and be able to make up for all that he'd lost with you.

"And part of me hated that, because I wanted him to want me. But part of me was so glad, because he inspired me. He gave me hope that I could get back to Earth and to Reed and the rest of my family. And he did the same for Bobbi, who realized just how much she really missed and needed Clint. And in the midst of it all, Hank himself became mentally stronger, better able to cope with whatever was thrown at him."

Sue took a deep breath as the tears started to flow. "And then, when we got back, Bobbi's in Clint's arms, and I'm in Reed's - and they're telling Hank that you had died. That you had just died. That he had missed you, and that there wasn't even a body for him to tell you goodbye.

"I wanted to run to him, to hold him, to tell him I loved him and try to ease his loss - but I couldn't. I had my Reed back, and he was the one with whom I belonged - and belong."

Sue started to recompose herself. "Over the next few months, Hank had his highs and lows. You'd have probably been embarrassed by your memorial service, although all of us from the ship thought he was probably right.

"But, once he realized there was a chance of getting you back, however slim, he went to work with that same tunnel vision Reed gets. He was going to make sure he got you back if he could.

"Eventually, he had to start living without you," Sue said. "But I don't think he wanted to, really. And he never stopped looking for you. I don't think he could if he wanted to. I know Hank was married before, Jan, but you're the one great love of his life. He just - he's not good at expressing his feelings, and he's dealing with all these layers of trauma, too. But I don't think he intended to dump you. The Hank Pym I fell in love with couldn't do anything else but love you."

Sue looked up at Jan. "Do you hate me?"

Jan shook her head, then enfolded Sue in an enormous embrace. The two women both began to sob. That lasted for a few minutes, then they each began to wipe away tears.

Jan looked down at Sue. "You really think he didn't mean to dump me?"

Sue nodded. "Don't you think that, too?"

Jan's voice sounded tiny as she said, "I want to."

Bobbi had stormed into Hank's rooms. "PYM!" she shouted.

"Bobbi? What -"

Before Hank could get out another word, Mockingbird socked him in the jaw, slamming him to the ground with a single punch.

"What the hell was THAT about?" Hank asked, rubbing his jaw.

"How could you do this to Jan?" Bobbi shouted, her face contorted in rage.

"What are you talking about?" Hank said.

"What you did to Jan, you jerk!" Bobbi shouted. "That poor woman's been through hell, and she wants and needs you, and you dump her!"

"Dump her? What are you talking about?"

"You dumped her, you son of a -"

"Bobbi!" said Hank, standing up, "I didn't dump Jan."

"Well, she sure as hell thinks you did," Bobbi said. "She's at Sue's rooms now, bawling her eyes out because she thinks the great love of her life has just dumped her right when she needs him most!'

"She's what?"

"She thinks you dumped her, you big ninny," Bobbi said. "What did you say to her?"

"I said -" Then it hit Hank. "Oh, God," he said. "I was handling things so badly, and I made them even worse for her. I'm so thick."

"No argument there," Bobbi said. "Hank, she told me you talked about you, and I know you talked about mechanics. Have you actually really talked to Jan - you know, about what she wants? About her?"

"No," Hank said quietly.

"Don't you think MAYBE you ought to talk about more than just you?"

Hank nodded. "I'm on my way, You said she's at Sue's?"

"Yes," said Bobbi. As Giant-Man turned to leave, she added, "And, Hank?"

Hank turned back, expecting an apology for the punch. "Yes?"

"I am still an Avenger," she said. "Consider that time you hit Jan avenged."

Hank nodded. "Got it," he said as he pivoted to exit.

Hank was embarrassed to realize he didn't know which guest house was Sue's. He soon pieced it together by the lights and the open door.

Hank came up to find two superheroines who were red-faced and had tears streaming down their cheeks. "Um, can I come in?" he asked.

Sue looked panic-stricken. "How long have you been there?" she said.

"I just got here," Hank said. "Um, Jan, I think we need to talk - alone."

"Right," said Sue, standing up. "I'll leave,"

"Stay," said Hank. "This is your home away from home." He turned to Jan. "Honey, I've screwed up again. I'm sorry. I'd like to walk and talk with you, if you'll still let me."

Jan stood up. "Let's walk."

As she got ready to duck out the door, Jan turned to Sue. "Thanks, Sue - for everything."

Sue reached up and hugged Jan. "Not a word," she whispered.

"About what?" Jan whispered back, smiling. With her back to Hank, she winked at Sue.

Once Sue had closed the door behind them, she called Mockingbird. "Bobbi, I could use you over here. I told Jan."

"So, what do you want to talk about?" Jan said to Hank.

"Well, not a press conference," he said. "You want to walk to my quarters? I don't think you've seen them since you got back."

"Going over to your place, huh?" Jan said.

Hank nodded. "Jan, Bobbi told me you thought I'd dumped you."

"I did. I don't now. Sue helped me figure that much out."

"She's always been a good friend," Hank said. "Even on the Skrull ship, she kind of hovered over me, making sure I was OK. She's like a mother hen, you know?"

You have no idea, Jan thought.

"Jan, I want to let you talk, but I need to explain about earlier."

"Yes, you do," Jan said.

Hank stopped. "See, on the Skrull ship, I had lived to get back to you - and then I'd just missed you when I got back. And I thought I'd found you and tried to revive you, only it wasn't you, it was Carina Walters. I realized I was afraid of living without you, and I had to face the fact that I might have to do that for the rest of my life. I couldn't live with that fear any longer, so I had to close that part of my heart..

"Here's the thing: My searching slowed, but never stopped. I thought I'd closed my heart so I could go on living, but I never had. I'd just put it in a box. The problem is, there's a tangled mass of baggage now, and - well, you know I'm not the most emotionally open person to start with."

"Hank, you don't need to be afraid of living without me now," Jan said. "I'm back."

"But I am afraid, Jan," Hank said. "I'm afraid of losing you again. I'm afraid of screwing up again and costing you your life. If I did that again, I couldn't bear it."

"What are you talking about?" Jan said. "You didn't get me killed. I got me killed."

Hank looked at Jan, his face contorted. "I got myself captured!" Hank said. "I'm a superhero, for God's sake, and I got myself captured and couldn't figure or find a way out."

"Hank, it wasn't just you," Jan said. "They got a bunch of our best and brightest - You, Sue, Bobbi, Spider-Woman."

"But I'm supposed to be a genius," Hank said. "And I couldn't find a way out. And because I couldn't find a way out, that Skrull impostor turned you into a weapon of mass destruction, and you died."

"Stop it, Hank," Jan said. "You always do that. You always take all the blame for everything. And I've always let you, and that was wrong of me. It needs to stop now."

Jan's lower lip quivered. "Hank, I know you made mistakes in our relationship, and I was right to leave you when you hit me. But I botched things up, to, and I made you the fall guy."

"How so?" Hank said.

"Well, there was that time I slept with Clint," Jan said. "And, when you had your bouts with insanity, including the time you hit me, I never tried to get you the help you needed. Even when I left you, if I loved you, I should have tried to get you help.

"Even the way our marriage started," Jan said. Do you remember, Hank? You were delusional, thought you were a new guy named Yellowjacket who had killed Hank Pym. You were so convincing, none of the other Avengers knew you. I did."

"Yeah, by kissing me," said Hank. "I'd just as soon not have kissed Cap, Clint or T'Challa."

"When you wanted to marry me as the Yellowjacket personality, I let you do it," Jan said. "When you came to yourself again, I held you to the marriage."

"But I wanted to stay married," Hank said.

"Hank, that was no way to start a marriage - playing on your problems to my advantage," Jan said. "That was wrong of me.

"But the worst - the very worst - was the Skrull," Jan said. "Hank, that thing lived with me for months, maybe years. I shared my life with it. I shared my dreams with it. I shared my bed with it!" As she said the last sentence, her face took on an expression like she had just stepped in dog droppings.

Jan sagged to her knees. "Hank, I kissed that thing I don't know how many times, and I never knew it wasn't you. How could I not have known? I knew you by a single kiss once. How could I have missed all those signs? As I was dying, I saw all the little things that should have tipped me off - the moment it gave me the toxic serum as an anniversary present for an anniversary we didn't have, that it didn't hit its toothbrush on the edge of the sink four times every night like you did.

"And I saw you in that first Yellowjacket uniform, kissing me. God, I wanted to at least know you were alive. I wanted to at least see your face, say I love you one more time. But all I could do was try to take out a few Skrulls as I died."

Jan looked to Hank. He had fallen to his knees in front of her, and he was sobbing. "I've watched the news video of your death hundreds of times," Hank said. "I kept wishing I could step through it into that time, to let you see I was alive, so you could at least have that much peace - and so I could find a way to say I love you as you… As you…"

Jan wiped Hank's tears. "Don't you understand?" she said. "Hank, I used to know you by a kiss - one kiss. How could that thing have fooled me all those times? I should have known when it never wanted to play any of our games - you know, 'Hank the Explorer,' 'Hank the Spelunker,' 'Hank the Mountain Climber,' 'The Giant and the Fairy Princess.'"

"I remember vividly," Hank said, chuckling through his tears.

"And I missed all those signs," Jan said. "The person who knew you best in the whole world missed all those signs and let herself get turned into a human WMD. Hank, I let the Earth down. I let New York down. I let the Avengers down. I let myself down. I let you down, and I let us down. That's the biggest failure of them all. How can I live that down? How can I forgive myself for that? How can anyone forgive me for that?"

As his beloved dissolved in front of him, Hank composed himself a bit. "I let all those people down, too - including you, me and us - by getting caught. And I didn't think anyone could forgive me either."

Jan lifted her head to look at Hank. "I forgive you," she said.

Hank caressed Jan's face with both hands. "And I forgive you," he said. "Now we each just have to forgive ourselves."

Jan wiped tears from both their faces. "Well, it's easier for me to forgive myself with you forgiving me."

"It works that way for me, too," Hank said.

"Um, so, can I still see your quarters?" Jan said.

Hank stood up and took her hand. "Come with me," he said.

As they walked, Hank said, "So, I'm supposed to talk to you about your plans and wishes - and I want to hear them."

"And I want to share them with you," Jan said. "But it's been a rough night, and those things will keep for a day or so. Actually, what I'd like to do tonight is just … to have you hold me for a while."

"Do you want me bigger for that?" Hank asked.

"Yes, please," Jan said. "Like, early Goliath size."

Hank instantly shot up to 10 feet tall. He casually slipped his arm around Jan's waist. They walked toward Hank's quarters with their steps in the kind of easy, automatic synchronization that only longtime couples have.

"Just hold you?" Hank said.

Jan smiled coyly. "Well, at least for now," She said. "Later tonight … Let's just play it by ear, OK?"

"OK," Hank said. "By the way, Jan, since I don't think I've just come out and said this tonight: I love you."

With the emotions of the last hour starting to wash away, Jan smiled a blissful smile. "Oh, I love you, too," she said.