Time 9/31
Title: Time 9/31
Author: andrea325 and kwbalan (LRO)
Artist:Zweety89 (LRO)
Genre/Type: Romance/ Drama
Rating:NC-17
Word Count: 60,000 +
Characters/Pairings: Luke/Reid small mention Noah. Other Snyders are involved
Warnings: violence/sex
Summary:What happens when a year after Luke & Reid end their relationship and Luke & Noah get back together Reid ends up back in the picture because something happens to Luke. Reid must figure out how to treat him.
Author note Hey everybody this Andrea. I realized that I have never put my first big bang that I wrote last year up one chapter a day. A special thanks goes to Kim for her willingness to write with me. I had so much fun writing this. I am so thankful for her friendship. I love the artwork Zweety89 its perfect. Another thanks goes to Gwen for being our Beta. we appreciate your hard work Sorry for the delay I injured my hand so typing has been difficult
Chapter 9
None of them knew how much later it was when Dr. Nelson and Dr. Oliver walked out of the operating room. Both of them had serious looks on their faces.
They couldn’t help but notice how pale Dr. Oliver looked.
Dr. Nelson was the one to speak.
“We were able to remove the bullet; however, there were some complications during surgery.
Once we opened up the spine it was more difficult then we first expected to remove the bullet. It was wedged in a tough spot and we had to be extremely careful in removing it so as not to cause any further damage to the spine. Mr. Snyder lost a lot of blood during surgery, which in turn caused his blood pressure to drop. He coded on the table and we almost lost him...”
“Oh My God... Luke... Is he going to be okay...? Please tell me he is okay.”
Lily cried out interrupting Dr. Nelson.
Dr. Nelson continued. “We were able to bring him back and get his pressure stabilized. We had to give him a transfusion during surgery. We were able to get his heart beating again rather quickly so we don’t believe there will be any lasting effects, but we will not know until he wakes up.” Dr. Nelson stopped in case there were any questions the family had.
Lily was beside herself, “Is he going to be alright, please tell me my baby will be alright.” She said as more of a statement than a question.
“How could this happen Dr. Nelson?” Holden was the next to speak.
Lucinda was just too numb to say anything.
“Again, we said that there was always the possibility of complications before we went in. There is just no way of knowing if those complications will have a lasting effect until Mr. Snyder wakes up, I am sorry.” Dr. Nelson adds. “We will keep him sedated a little while longer and move him to recovery.”
“When can we see him?” Lily interjects.
“As soon as he is out of recovery we will move him to the ICU at least overnight so we are able to monitor his condition more closely. As soon as he is taken to the ICU you will be able to see him. Again we are very sorry.” Dr. Nelson adds realizing that Reid is just too much in shock to speak.
On that final statement the doctors walked away leaving them alone to their thoughts.
Reid could not bring himself so say anything to Luke’s family.
Lily fell into Holden’s arms, and the unstoppable tears began to flow. Lucinda just leaned against the wall as if the wall wasn’t there she would fall right to the floor.
Dr. Nelson and Dr. Oliver walk back to the on call room in silence.
Please God let Luke be okay.
When they arrive back to the on call room, Reid plops himself down on one of the cots.
His head is spinning.
What went wrong?
He kept playing the surgery over and over in his mind. He could not understand why this happened to Luke of all people. Yes, it was a difficult procedure, but with Dr. Nelson and himself in the operating room there should have been no complications.
Dr. Nelson was the first to speak which brought Reid out of his thoughts. He said as if reading Reid’s thoughts, “Reid we did the best we could. You of all people knew going in that anything could happen. We just have to wait and see now, but to sit here and worry is not going to help Mr. Snyder. You try and get some rest and I am going to check on him in recovery.”
“I am coming with you.”
They stopped at the nurses’ desk once inside the recovery room to pick up his chart. His vitals seem to be unchanged and stable. They went to his bedside and saw that he was still sleeping comfortably. He would be for several more hours at least until the anesthesia wore off at which time, he should wake up. It would not be a good sign if he didn’t regain consciousness at that time.
That is a thought that Reid refuses to even entertain.
He had to be okay.
“Reid, Mr. Snyder will not be awake for at least another few hours. Why don’t you go and take a shower, it may make you feel better.”
“What about you, Mike?”
“I am fine; I am more worried about you.”
“Okay, well that sounds like a good idea; I need some time alone to clear my head.”
With that he headed to the locker room. He couldn’t get there fast enough.
It was hard to have complications with any patient, but this was Luke.
The one person who seemed to get him. The warm water felt good on his muscles as his thoughts drifted to what had just transpired.
The surgery was going as well as they could have expected given the fact that the bullet was in a much more difficult place to reach then they had anticipated. But then Luke began losing too much blood. When all of a sudden Reid could hear the anesthesiologist telling them that Luke’s pressure was dropping. Completely engrossed in what they were trying to do, Reid had looked up at the monitor in front of him and realized that it was falling much faster than they could stop the bleeding so his pressure would stabilize. Before they could get him into a position to better access his airway he was coding.
It came so naturally the words he was saying to the nurses. It had only took a few seconds to get him breathing again. Mike had watched both Reid and Luke so carefully the rest of the surgery. It wasn’t until after they had done the last staple that Reid the man allowed himself to realize what had just happened.
Reid started to rinse his hair.
I almost lost Luke today.
The idea of that was enough to cause him to slide down the tile to the floor and start to cry. Luke, his Luke had been in his operating room and had almost died.
What would had happened if I had never seen his face light up when I came in a room again?
The sobs just flowed. Luke had become such an important part of his life. A life that up until Luke, had consisted of surgery, food and sleep.
The crying had stopped, but had left him with a desperate need to see Luke, to just be with him so he dressed quickly looking down at his watch. Luke would be waking up shortly, he needed to find Mike, check on his schedule for the rest of the day, and then he could go be with Luke.
Less than twenty minutes later, Reid had spoken to Mike, and after telling him he was fine, Mike offered to take on part of Reid's case load allowing Reid to spend more time with Luke, and not worry so much about his responsibilities. He went to check on Luke.
This feels so surreal.
Reid thought as he walked into the recovery room, sure he had been in hundreds of patients’ rooms before, but this was different. He knew what all the machines did, and if he looked he knew how to interpret them, but he couldn’t bring himself to take his eyes off Luke, and to think he almost lost him. He closed the curtain around Luke’s bed and moved the stool next to the bed and it didn’t take long for his hand to find his way up to Luke’s cheek.
“I almost lost you today”, Reid said to a still sleeping Luke, “and I couldn’t lose you again. I wish you had come back into my life differently, but you're here now and I want you to stay. Luke, now I need you to do something for me, I need you to open your eyes and look at me and do that thing you always do to me when I get lost in your eyes. Luke I have realized over these past couple of days that I cannot live without you. I don’t want to live without you.”
Reid didn’t know how much time passed, maybe another hour when Luke’s eyes began to flutter open. It was the most amazing sight Reid had ever seen. Luke turned his head to see Reid sitting right by his bedside.
In barely a whisper Luke said, “Reid you’re here”.
“Where else would I be?”
You have no idea the scare you gave me.
“How do you feel, Luke?”
“I feel good actually, thought I would have more pain.”
“Well there is still some anesthesia taking effect, as well as the PCA that we inserted, and we’ve already begun giving you pain medication in your IV. That should help a great deal with the pain. As soon as you begin to feel any pain you can push the button right here.” Reid showed Luke the button by his right hand on the bed.
“You know you gave us quite a scare in the operating room.”
“I did?” Luke said with an incredulous look on his face.
“Yes, you did. The bullet was far more difficult to reach than we first suspected and you lost a lot of blood. Your blood pressure dropped and we almost lost you in there. We were able to remove the bullet and you were going to be okay now.”
Luke seemed to slowly absorb this information, and then tears slowly began to form on his face. “You saved me.” Luke reached his hand up so that Reid would grab it.
“The whole team of doctors and nurses in the operating room saved you. I am just relieved that we were able to, and now to see you are going to be okay.”
That was actually an understatement.
“Luke, we will have plenty of time together, later. I really need to go let your family know you are okay. We are going to transfer you to the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) just as a precaution since there were complications, and we want to be able to monitor your condition more closely. You may only need to spend one night there. As soon as you are transferred your family will be able to come in and see you. I am going to order the transfer now and let your family know that you are awake and alert. I will see you up in the ICU.” Reid gave Luke’s hand a squeeze before he left.
Dr. Oliver left the room, and went right to see Mr. Snyder’s family who were down the hall in the waiting room. He let them know that Mr. Snyder had woken up and he was alert, there did not seem to be any visible signs of brain damage. They were ecstatic; they wanted to know how long it would be before they could see him. Reid went on to tell them that he would be transferred shortly to the ICU and as soon as he was there they could see him but they can only go in one at a time. He went on to explain that hopefully Mr. Snyder would only need to be there one night before he can be moved to a regular room.
Dr. Oliver then left and went to find Dr. Nelson. He found him in the on call room and gave him the great news. “Luke is awake and alert, no obvious signs of brain damage.” I had him transferred to the ICU barring any more complications, he should only have to stay in the ICU one night.”
Dr. Nelson was relieved as well to hear this news.
“Dr. Oliver, as soon as he is transferred we will go in and examine him together.”
“Okay, Dr. Nelson. I will page you as soon as he is settled in the ICU.”
And with that Reid left the room with a bit of a skip in his step.
Dr. Nelson knew exactly why that was. He couldn’t help the smile that came to his face as well.