Consult (3/14)
The next morning, Reid sat in the corner of Java, slowly enjoying his caramel latte (with whipped cream and an extra shot). He was pretty sure he found the one damn thing about this town he might actually miss when he left. And with that thought, he slammed bars down on his subconscious as it tried to hint at other things - or rather, people - he won’t necessarily want to leave. The kid was a fine distraction when he was here for a day or two, but he wasn’t going to entertain these thoughts anymore.
Because the universe hated him, however, the person in question slid into the seat across from him. Reid stared at him in unconcealed surprise.
“Mind if I join you?”
“You should ask that before you sit down,” Reid replied.
Luke gave him a blinding smile, and Reid distracted himself by playing with the small plastic straw on the table.
“If I asked, you’d just send me away,” Luke pointed out.
Reid quirked the corner of his mouth at him and took a sip of his drink.
“Are you going to the hospital after this?” Luke asked.
Reid swallowed his drink. He rested his hand on the surface of the table and tapped his fingers. “Planning to.”
“Do you really think surgery will help my mother?”
He stared at Luke. “I’m not going to lie,” he said, unable to resist responding to the concern on Luke’s face. “It might not. But at this point…”
“Nothing could hurt?” Luke asked quietly.
Reid pressed his lips together and raised his eyebrows. Luke bent his head, focusing on the drink in front of him.
“So what happened?” Reid asked.
Luke glanced up, a bit of a deer in the headlights expression on his face. “Nothing. She just - she just fell.”
Reid narrowed his eyes slightly, but he didn’t push. The door to the shop opened, distracting Luke. Reid took the opportunity to stare at him again. His profile was pretty damn amazing, Reid had to admit. He had a feeling it’d be even better once Luke grew into his looks and began to feel more comfortable using them. Or rather, using them knowingly, because he was already pretty good at doing so unintentionally.
Stop it, Reid scolded himself. Just stop it.
Luke turned to face him again, bending down to take a sip of his iced coffee. Luke’s lips wrapped around the straw and he pulled up some liquid.
His mouth was made for sucking co - Reid closed his eyes.
Luke cleared his throat, and Reid opened his eyes again. Luke stood up, grabbing his bag off the floor. He turned to Reid, looking somewhat embarrassed.
“Good luck with my mom today,” he said. “I’ll probably swing by the hospital later.”
Reid shrugged, glancing away.
“I gotta go to school,” Luke added, by way of goodbye.
As Luke left the building, Reid nodded slowly. School. That had been something like a bucket of cold water thrown on him. Thank God.
He didn’t see the boy stop just outside the door and put his face in his hands in embarrassment.
**
Reid didn’t think he’d been as aware of the passing time since he had been in high school. Three o’clock still seemed as far away as it had back then. To kill time both that day and until Lily Snyder was ready for surgery, he agreed to take on other cases as well. In the morning, he and Dr. Roberts discussed the 17 patients in the neuro ward, and after lunch, Reid completed rounds and then took on a few Urgent Care cases in the clinic.
Finally, finally, it was about time for Luke to show up, provided he showed up at all, and Reid made his way back towards Lily’s room. That wasn’t why he went back to the room, Reid belatedly tried to convince himself. He should monitor his patient’s status, is all.
Reid turned the corner and saw Holden Snyder getting in another man’s face.
“I just came to see how Lily was doing. I was concerned,” the other man said calmly and with a noticeable accent.
“Stay away from my wife. Stay away from my family,” Holden ordered between gritted teeth.
“I have a right to be here. Luciano is - ”
“Luke is my son!”
Luciano? Reid thought.
The son in question suddenly appeared at the opposite end of the hall. He stopped quickly when he saw the two men arguing, then started walking again.
“Dad! Damian!”
Holden backed away slightly, turning to Luke and dropping his voice. “Luke, what are you doing here? I thought we agreed it was best - ”
“You agreed,” Luke responded coldly.
“Luciano should be allowed to see his mother,” the other man said.
“Stay out of it, Damian,” Holden turned back to him. “This is a conversation between me and my son.”
Luke shook his head, laughing in disbelief. “What? Now you want to talk? You haven’t even looked at me since it happened. You don’t want anything to do with me. But now - here - in front of him, you want to be Perfect Dad or something? Give me a break!”
“Luke, that’s enough.”
“No!”
The sound of Luke’s voice breaking on that word prompted Reid to finally move. He walked over quickly, stepping directly between the two adults.
“Hey!” he said sharply and everyone turned to look at him. Reid noticed Luke’s expression of shock and realized that Luke hadn’t known he was there. “This is a hospital. There are patients trying to recuperate here. Take it outside or grow the hell up, all of you.”
Then Reid walked away, heading directly for Lily Snyder’s room. Once inside, he grabbed the file out of the slot at the foot of the bed and tore it open. He pretended to be reading the latest notes from the floor nurse, but he was really fuming inside - at the men who were causing Luke pain and at himself for caring.
The door opened behind him, and Reid half-turned. It was Holden. He focused back on Lily, flipping the covers over her feet up and removing a reflex hammer from his coat pocket. Reid reached down, tracing the instrument up the soles of Lily’s feet. He nodded to himself as she reacted. Flipping the covers back down, he walked around the bed.
“Sorry about that,” Holden said quietly. “Ah, Damian Grimaldi is Luke’s biological father, and he always brings out the worst in me.”
“I don’t really care,” Reid said, not looking up even as he filed away that piece of information. “I care about the well-being of my patients. That’s it.”
Reid pried Lily’s eyelids apart, shining a flashlight into her eye. The pupil contracted, and he moved to the other side.
“Any change?”
Reid straightened, sighing as he made notes in the chart. “Nope. Her vitals and reflexes are still in acceptable ranges. She’s just not waking up.”
He dropped the chart back into the slot and walked out of the room. He glanced quickly around the hall and spotted Luke in the corner. Damian Grimaldi was still there, and he was resting a hand on Luke’s shoulder. Luke looked rather distraught, and Damian bent down to talk to him softly. Luke nodded, and Damian slid his hand around Luke’s shoulders to guide him out of sight.
**
Damian drove Luke home, and Luke immediately ran up to his room to pack a bag. He couldn’t stay here anymore, not with things like they were between him and his dad. Damian had once again offered him a place to stay, and Luke couldn’t turn him down this time. He was still surprised with himself for talking back to his dad the way he did, but damn it, it needed to be said. He was so tired of it all. And the truly awful thing was that the one person that he could usually talk to when things were all messed up was his dad.
Luke shook his head, sniffling harshly as he threw some clothes into a duffle bag. He pulled the zipper shut quickly and wrapped the strap around his shoulder. He grabbed his laptop and left his room, recognizing that it might be a long time before he returned to it. Worried that he might never come back to it.
Luke all but ran down the steps. Damian was waiting for him, standing in the spot his mom had landed. Luke took a quick breath which he exhaled sharply. He could still see her there, sprawled on the floor and not moving. He shook his head, trying to clear it of the image, and looked back at Damian.
“Ready to go?” Damian asked him.
Luke nodded, and Damian led him out of the house. As they walked to Damian’s car, he asked casually, “Who was that man at the hospital? The doctor?”
“Dr. Oliver?” Luke asked, somewhat surprised by the question. “He’s from Texas. They called him in to do the surgery on Mom. He’s the best.”
Damian nodded. “What’s his first name?”
“Reid. Why?”
“Just curious.”
They arrived at Fairwinds a short time later, and Damian sent him off to a room to unpack and get settled in. Which meant Luke didn’t hear Damian make a phone call and ask an unknown person to find out more about Reid Oliver.
Continued