Date Night, The Blues and Stupid Weakened Immune Systems - a fanfic - Chapter 7/7
Title: Date Night, The Blues and Stupid Weakened Immune Systems
Author: nancygrew
Disclaimer: characters belong to atwt
Rating: pg-13 for a few swears in an upcoming chapter
Characters: Luke/Reid, Lucinda, Half of Oakdale. A small percentage of Malta.
Warning: The title probably gives away the fact that there’s hurt/comfort ahead.
Notes: Futurefic. Takes place June 2015. Takes place between my story Luke and Casey Have a Chat and my story Amnesia and Realizations. And Maple-Glazed Turkey. The latter story mentioned that Luke had been seriously ill about six months prior to that story and there was a request to see that story so I thought I’d give it a shot. You don’t have to read my other fic in order to understand this one. AU after Reid drives off to Bay City on some long-forgotten errand.
Summary: Reid hangs out with Lucinda and Luke’s been working too hard.
Chapter Seven - Back home in Oakdale
It was nearly noon when Reid entered Calliope’s Café and Cinema. As usual, the music that filled the air of the café was from a movie soundtrack. He smiled as he realized that the music currently playing was the soundtrack to The Godfather. Years earlier, Reid and Luke had selected Love Theme from the Godfather by Nito Rota as their first dance during their wedding reception. Lily had hated their selection and had tried to talk Luke into selecting Wind Beneath My Wings by Bette Midler. Luke counter-offered by bluffing and saying that he really, secretly, wanted Escape (The Pina Colada Song) by Rupert Holmes. Lily decided that she was absolutely fine with Love Theme from the Godfather.
Reid’s plan was to grab a few sandwiches and a couple of containers of soup and to head home for a long lunch. He and Luke had only been back from Malta since yesterday. They had stayed in Malta for a week after Luke was released from the hospital. Their stay at the Grimaldi Villa had been more relaxing after the second day when Lily and Holden had flown home to Oakdale. Before that, the tensions between Damian and Holden had been a little . . .intense. Damian still carried a grudge against Holden for trying to murder him. Holden still carried a grudge against Damian for having a sexy accent. At least that’s how Reid interpreted their feuding. And then there were the tensions between Lily and Iva. Lily had been upset with Iva because her biological mother was now in some sort of undefined relationship with Lily’s ex-husband. Iva had done her best to avoid Lily during Lily’s stay but Lily had kept managing to corner her. What exactly was going on with Iva and Damian? Did Luke know about what was going on between his father and his grandmother? What was Iva thinking? When Luke had overheard Lily browbeating Iva, he had distracted Lily by asking her what was going on between her and Adam Hughes. If Lily and Adam married, was Luke expected to call Adam ‘Dad the Third’? If Lily and Adam married, would Casey be Luke’s uncle? This was enough to completely discombobulate Lily and to allow Iva an opportunity to escape.
Reid had gone into work today but Luke had stayed at home. Luke was going to take another week off of work to fully recover from his recent illness. Luke had been sound asleep when Reid had left at six a.m. for an emergency surgery but Reid was looking forward to surprising him with lunch.
Until he noticed that Luke was sitting at a corner table in Calliope’s typing away on his laptop. Reid couldn’t decide between rolling his eyes and sighing. He did both.
Reid approached Luke’s table. Before he could come up with an appropriately sarcastic comment about Luke not being bright enough to understand that he had almost died and that he should be resting, Luke saw him. Luke’s face lit up in a grin. How was Reid supposed to tell Luke off when Luke was so happy to see him? Reid laid both hands gently on Luke’s face and then kissed him, slow and sweet.
"You’re not supposed to be working," Reid said while pulling a chair closer to Luke. He sat down and helped himself to a bite of Luke’s sandwich. Hey, if Luke was going to just leave it sitting around where anyone could take it . . . Hmmm. Butternut squash, red pepper and onion marmalade on a multi-grain roll. Luke’s grandma Emma had done a great job with creating the vegetarian and vegan recipes for Calliope’s. She had experimented with everything from baking different types of breads to creating homemade condiments. The sandwich was really good. It would have been better with bacon, though.
"I’m not actually working," replied Luke with a grin. "I’m working on a script for a webisode series to advertise Calliope’s."
"I’m pretty sure working on the marketing of one of your businesses is work," answered Reid.
"What I’m writing is way too silly to be considered work."
"What is this webisode thing about?" asked Reid while putting one of his arms around Luke’s back.
"Well, Maddie and I had discussed creating a faux-reality show based around Calliope’s and it’s employees but then decided to go for a soap opera based at Calliopes."
"I didn’t think that people watched soap operas any more."
"Ratings are down on televised soaps but that’s because the producers stopped caring about quality writing. There are web-based soaps. Anyway, it won’t be a ‘real’ soap opera. I’m writing a 90-minute script which we’ll break down into 5 to 7 minute episodes and we’ll post one episode a week. Hopefully, they’ll be funny and quirky enough that people look forward to their weekly posting."
"And how will that advertise Calliope’s?"
"Product placement, baby. Every episode takes place here, either in the movie theater or in the restaurant. I’m going to make sure that the characters mention the name of the place once or twice an episode. We’ll show lots of extreme, loving close-ups of the delicious foods. We’ll mention upcoming film festivals."
"That could work but isn’t it going to be expensive to hire actors?" asked Reid.
"Nope. Maddie asked all the employees if any of them want to participate. Not only do they all want to participate but they’re pretty excited about it to. Mellie, one of the evening staff, wanted an evil twin so I’ve created Shmellie, her goatee-wearing identical twin."
"You fail biology forever. A female can’t have an identical male twin," huffed Reid.
"Shmellie is female. It’s just that if you’re evil enough, you grow a goatee regardless of your gender."
"How evil is Shmellie?"
"In the episode where I mention the upcoming Marx Brothers’ Festival, Shmellie reveals that her favorite Marx brother is Zeppo," explained Luke with a shudder.
"My favorite is Gummo," said Reid.
"There isn’t a Gummo Marx."
"Yeah, there is. He belonged to the act when they were doing vaudeville but quit before they started doing movies."
"You just have to be unique, don’t you," grinned Luke.
"Yep. So, you couldn’t have stayed home to do this?" asked Reid while rubbing Luke’s back.
"There wasn’t anything to eat in the house. I figured I’d grab a bite here and then stop at the grocery store on the way home," said Luke.
"Geez, I’m so sorry, Luke," said Reid. "I forgot that we were low on groceries. I should have taken care of that instead of making the Coma Boy leave his sickbed."
"Emergency cranial trauma outweighs grocery-shopping," Luke said gently. "We just got back yesterday. It’s not like you had the time to go shopping. I could have called someone to go for me if I wasn’t feeling up to it."
Reid took another bite of Luke’s sandwich while trying to decide whether it would be a bad idea for him to order Luke to go home to rest. Luke really didn’t like to be ordered around. He’d get all insulted and eye-roll-y. Unless they were playing. Before Reid had a chance to decide whether to order his husband to go home posthaste, he felt somebody smack the back of his head. Reid flinched and turned around.
"Hey, no eating the invalid’s food," Maddie Coleman said with a stern frown. She carried a tray with a couple of sandwiches and a couple of glasses of freshly squeezed juice. She placed the tray on the table in front of Reid and handed one of the glasses to Luke. She gave Luke a quick hug. Judging from Luke’s resigned smile, this must not be the first ‘I’m glad you’re alive’ hug that she’d given him today. "And don’t think that I’m going to make it a habit to serve you at the table instead of making you get in line with the rest of the customers, Doc. Carly’s warned me about you."
"I don’t want to look a gift sandwich in the mouth, but why are you providing table service this time? And what if I had my heart set on another kind of sandwich? And some soup. And some cookies."
Maddie huffed. "I’m making a one time exception regarding table service because Luke told me how sweet you were to him when he was so sick. I’m feeling all kindly towards you right now. And all of the sandwiches are good so you’ll eat what I’ve brought you and you’ll love it."
"Since there aren’t any cookies on my tray, I seriously doubt that Luke told you exactly how sweet I can be to him," smirked Reid before biting into one of the sandwiches.
"Trust me, I’ve tried to get Luke to tell me exactly how sweet you can be to him but he’s never been one for locker room bragging. Just locker room blushing," said Maddie. "But if you’d like to share your titillating bedroom secrets with me, I’ll pull up a chair."
Reid opened his mouth. Luke immediately put his hand over Reid’s mouth. Maddie laughed and, with one last tousle of Luke’s hair, turned around and went back to the counter to help the staff with the lunch crowd.
"So, what do you think about us getting a butler?" asked Reid before biting into one of the sandwiches.
"You do realize that butlers touch your stuff, right?"
"I can learn to live with that," said Reid. "Probably."
"We probably need a housekeeper instead of a butler," said Luke.
"Nope. We need a butler. We need someone who can take care of the housekeeping stuff but also do social secretary stuff for you. Like working with Iva on the fundraisers. We need someone who can handle invitations and hiring caterers and all of the boring stuff that takes up too much of your time," said Reid.
"I can start pulling up some online resumes," shrugged Luke. "It’ll give me something to do while I’m taking it easy this week."
"You really don’t understand the concept of taking it easy, do you? Thank goodness you’re pretty. Anyway, Lucinda already offered to teach me about how to hire a butler. I’ll take care of it. Do you have any preferences in a butler? A Jeeves-type? A Alfred Pennyworth-type?"
"Surprise me," said Luke.
"Can do. So, do you think you’ll be going home to rest soon?"
"Yes. I’m meeting Faithie at the house in an hour. We’re going to put on pajamas and watch movies in bed."
"Excellent!" Reid pulled out his cell-phone and hit the speed dial for [Snyder, Faith 555-588-2924 - Don’t tease her about Casey]. "Hey, it’s Reid. Can you stop at the grocery store on the way to visit Luke? I have to get back to work soon and I left the invalid without groceries. Yeah. Yeah. I’m a horrible husband. On the plus side, I do let your brother do all sorts of dirty, dirty things to me. No, I won’t tell you about them. Thanks, I owe ya."
Reid hung up the phone. He noticed Luke’s raised eyebrow. And ignored it in father of eating.
"Look, I have a hypothetical question for you," Luke said.
"Is it a hypothetical question regarding acrobatic, and illegal, sexual acts?" asked Reid. "Because the answer is yes."
"Not this time," said Luke. "As a neurosurgeon, do you feel that the idea of me getting a motorcycle falls under the purview of you being in charge of the medical decisions for the Snoliver household?"
"Are you an idiot?" asked Reid with a fierce frown. "Do you have any idea how many brain injuries and deaths are caused by motorcycle accidents?"
Luke sighed. "Yeah, I kind of knew that’s what you were going to say. I’ve been thinking of getting a motorcycle for a few months but I thought that it would be tough to get you on board. I was in the process of preparing a presentation of why you should agree that it was a good idea for me to get a motorcycle when my latest health crises occurred."
"What did you end up coming up with to try to persuade me?" asked Reid.
"Motorcycles are cool and I’d be cool if I had a motorcycle. And that’s basically all I got."
"It would take more than a motorcycle for you to be cool," Reid said in a kindly tone.
"Hey!"
"Face it, Luke. You have many admirable qualities. But on the cool scale, you fall closer to Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm than you do to James Dean," said Reid.
"You’re such a jerk!" huffed a smiling Luke.
"There’s no need to state the obvious," said Reid. "I would really worry about you if you got a motorcycle."
Luke gave a lop-sided smile. "Okay. No motorcycle. I should probably head home. I don’t want to risk being late for quality Faithie and Luke time."
"Okay," said Reid. Reid leaned into Luke for a goodbye kiss. Their lips met, clung, wrestled a little, retreated and met again. Reid felt one of Luke’s hands slide into his hair.
They heard an awkward cough. They parted. Noah Mayer was standing next to their table looking uncomfortable.
"Hey, Noah, what’s up?" asked Luke while patting Reid’s thigh in comfort or, possibly, warning.
"Can we talk for a few minutes?" asked Noah.
"Actually, I was going to head out. Can we have coffee or something next week, instead?" asked Luke.
"It’ll just take a minute," said Noah as he pulled up a chair. Reid opened his mouth. Luke squeezed his thigh. Again, Reid wasn’t sure if the gesture was meant to be comforting or a warning. To be on the safe side, he closed his mouth. Then he squeezed Luke’s thigh under he table. His upper thigh. Very upper thigh. Luke laughed.
Noah frowned at Luke’s laugh. He squinted suspiciously at Reid who ignored him and went back to eating his lunch.
"Maddie mentioned that you guys were going to do a webisode series as advertisement for Calliope’s," said Noah.
"Yeah. It’s going to be so much fun," enthused Luke. "I had wanted the character of ‘Luke Snyder’ to be this kind of clueless boss who was always out-smarted by his employees but the staff outvoted me. Now the character of ‘Luke Snyder’ is being written as a Machiavellian clotheshorse. I should probably worry that the character the staff chose for me is so Joan Collins-like."
"You know, I’d be willing to direct the webisodes if I had artistic control over them," offered Noah.
"That’s so nice of you," said Luke. "But we aren’t trying to make great art or anything. We don’t need a director."
"I think that it’s a bad idea not to bring in help," said Noah.
"I disagree. I think if the project is done completely by me and Maddie and the staff, it’ll be a great bonding experience for us. It’ll be a cool, team-building exercise. If we bring in outsiders to make it some sort of polished piece of marketing, it’ll suck out all of the fun."
"You need someone to direct this, Luke," intonedNoah.
"Luke can do it. Didn’t Luke direct part of your award-winning film?" asked Reid.
"I was blind," spat Noah.
"Noah, thank you for your generous offer of help. I appreciate it but it’s not needed. I don’t want to be rude but I really have to go. I’m meeting Faith. Reid, if you walk me out to my car, I’ll let you feel me up."
Reid hurriedly lay a twenty-dollar bill on the table to pay for lunch and wrapped his second, uneaten sandwich in a napkin. He clasped Luke’s hand and led him out of the cafe. Sandwiches plus feeling up Luke equaled one excellent lunch break.