EQUALS 11/?
EQUALS…
Author: Scotianova
Beta-fairy: Carol38
Disclaimer: I don't own them and writing about them is just for fun.
Genre: A story about different shades of love
Pairing: Reid and Luke - as always
Characters: Reid Oliver, Luke Snyder, Ravi Oliver, Ruby Oliver II, Kathryn Peretti, Liath Orbanns, Damien Grimaldi, Henry Coleman,Dustin Donovan, Paul Ryan, Holly McLean…
Warning: none so far
Rating: sexual contents
Summary: On the surface they couldn’t be more different from every point of view, but if someone just looks closely at them…
AN: This is an attempt to invert some facts and whereabouts but I hope the character drawing is plausible- somehow at least ;)
11.
Luke could have continued the private conversation with Reid Oliver for the rest of the night however he finally excused himself intending to go to his room at midnight. Reid had looked incredibly exhausted in the end, while their conversation had been very vivid.
At first sight Reid appeared inactive listening to Luke. But Luke, the experienced observer realized Reid was a dedicated listener. You could see him approving things by slightly nodding, disagreeing with his brows furrowing, when he was astonished he raised his left brow and when he seemed amused he pursed his lips before he smiled. While talking about something uncomfortable he pinched the bridge of his nose but Luke’s most favorite gesture was when Reid bent his head pondering something and lifted it again to look Luke straight in the eye.
Although knowing each other just a very short time they opened up, especially about their family backgrounds.
Since Ravi was feeling a little better Henry would stay with him tonight.
“Ravi loves Henry, you know. They share something only the two of them know about.”
“So all the guys live here?”
“Well, Henry and Barbara live with us in the main building. It’s huge, you know. My uncle had a megalomaniac tendency. Dustin and Vienna live in one of the so called summerhouses and so does Paul.”
“And Liath?”
“He has his own apartment in the right wing. He mostly joins us for dinner but he’s a very private person. It’s only because of Ravi that he’s around all day lately.”
Luke hadn’t asked for the information and wondered why Reid gave it.
“It’s a very unique arrangement of living.” Luke said lamely.
Reid chuckled in response.
“You think? Well, it’s family. Angus was Paul’s godfather; Paul’s dad, one of Barbara’s countless husbands was befriended by Angus. And Paul definitely has Angus’ business sense; maybe Angus and Barbara had an affair and Angus was Paul’s real dad. If I think about it now there is even a vague outward resemblance.”
When Reid let hear his adorable chuckle Luke felt that warm feeling spreading through his veins again.
“And Dustin is the son of one of Liath’ cousins of a cousin of a cousin, whatever. Well, let’s see - Henry is my actual cousin on my mother’s side. The guys might appear a bit ‘unique’ at first sight and they are in some respects but they are extremely loyal. You know Dusty had kind of a fling with my mother when he was 15 - that’s why he proclaimed himself to be Ruby’s and my guard…He is smarter than he seems, you know. And he would kill for the ones he loves.”
Was this supposed to soothe Luke or did this imply quite the opposite?
“From Barbara’s several inheritances she bought Henry a little theater in South End. He’s actually a good actor. Beside that he is Ruby’s and Ravi’s main entertainer when Katie and I are busy! Paul helps Liath with whatever mysterious things - and Dustin has finally made it as the family’s protector Number One. He is quite effective - if Henry wouldn’t be butting in from time to time. Well I guess you wonder about Henry and Barbara - when they married Paul freaked out, you know, since ‘Sarah Bernhardt’s illegitimate bastard’ would become his stepfather.”
Luke couldn’t do anything but join in Reid’s amusement. And Reid lifting his hands curling his fingers, air-quoting was just cute.
“Well, fortunately they’d come to an agreement, and as weird as they might seem they all have found their places in life.”
And you, Reid?
Of course Luke didn’t ask that yet; something told him that Reid hadn’t found HIS place in life, not completely at least.
“Why do you need protection?”
“As you probably know we’re obscenely loaded, and Liath is absolutely obsessive when it comes to protecting us. He, my father and my mother were childhood friends. I can’t recall a time when he was not around. When my mom died my father went nuts and ran away. If Liath hadn’t been there for us, I don’t know what would have happened.”
“How old were you, when your mother died?”
“13 and Ruby was 11.”
“Was it an accident?”
“No. Our mother had the weird habit of going for long lonesome walks and one day she didn’t return home. They performed an autopsy but they didn’t find an explanation. I studied the reports a hundred times when I was old enough to understand them but there was no logical reason. They found her sitting under a tree, peacefully and dead. It’s crazy! But now it’s enough of Oliver’s family drama. What about you?”
So it came that Reid Oliver learned the important parts of Luke Snyder’s and Luciano Grimaldi’s lives first hand.
“I am glad, you guys have found and brought me here.”
Luke said before he left Reid’s room and was a bit stunned when Reid followed him - but of course the redhead didn’t go to bed without checking his son.
And Luke couldn’t resist and silently asked if he might have a look on Ravi too.
They found Ravi sound asleep and so was Henry who lay rolled up on the comfortable couch only an arm’s length from Ravi.
This time it was “The Three Musketeers” lying on top of Ravi’s books and Luke wondered if the boy had chosen different books to be read by particular family members. Well, “The Musketeers” would fit Papageno who probably was sympathetic to Porthos. Turning his head to Reid he caught the redhead watching him with an unreadable expression. It was neither malevolent nor defensive, but Luke couldn’t make it out. The disturbing thing about it was that Reid didn’t look away, just kept his eyes on Luke.
“What do you want to know about me, Reid?”
Luke asked with his eyes only but didn’t get an answer, with a nod to the door Reid asked Luke to leave the room with him though. Walking a few steps side by side along the hall Reid halted in front of a room Luke hadn’t noticed before: “Here’s where Ruby lives” - of course the girl “lived” next door to her brother.
“Good night, Luke!” Reid whispered before he opened the door and looked after his little girl, to see if she was safe too.
Luke began to move just in time to hide his eyes tearing up. Those two kids were the epicenter, the moon and the sun of this special, still unknown, but intriguing universe called “Oliver-family”.
What a day! So many threads, that screamed to be connected, lot of questions still unanswered, so many people who lived here in that huge house building an unorthodox family. If Luke hadn’t grown up in his own crazy family-web he would shake his head in disbelief. So Papageno had a stepson who was older than him, well that wasn’t the most surprising thing - it could have been a plagiarism stolen from the chronicles of Oakdale.
Luke was honest enough with himself to admit that everything concerning Reid captivated him.
Reid’s answer to Luke’s question about missing life in New York popped into Luke’s head again: “…But yes, I miss it. It was just me and …whatever…”
Who was ‘whatever’?
Reid clearly didn’t wear his heart on his sleeve so it would take a lot of Luke’s questioning skills to learn more about the interesting man. He’d told Luke that he loved his kids, the family - yet there was something melancholically and yearning about Reid that Luke didn’t think referred to Ravi’s illness. Reid Oliver simply wasn’t a happy man. Maybe happiness was overrated, maybe it wasn’t about happiness but contentment in life, anyway - there was something gnawing at Reid that might eat him up one day. Was Luke seeing things? He didn’t believe that, because it was written in Reid’s eyes and Luke was an excellent reader.
That night caravans of organ dealers were crossing Luke’s path, smuggling countless transparent coolers across an unknown border. Luke could see hearts, kidneys and even eyes in those ugly-bright coolers. It was a nightmarish scene and Luke wanted to step in and ask the felons what they thought they were doing, but his mouth was sewn up and his feet refused to move.
Luke’s heartbeats raced and throbbed in his throat and ears erratically so that it took him a few minutes to calm down. Shaking he put his aching head in his hands and breathed out as slowly as possible. Sometimes Luke had good use of his vivid dreams, changing and using them for his novels:
“Hastening, panicking I searched room after room, had a look into every inch of the house, yet I couldn’t find it, my ventilatory support was gone. Grabbing my throat I felt the every last breath leaving my body, taking what’s called life with it. Was this the way I was supposed to go? Choking because I couldn’t take care of my medical devices? It was then when I caught sight of him, leaning against the wall holding the small inhaler in his right hand, waving it as if he wanted to greet me with it. But his lunatic grin told me he wasn’t going to give it to me. That was the very moment I knew for sure, that I had to leave, run away not fast enough and put thousands of miles between me and the so called love of my life.” (Luciano Grimaldi, Respiratory Passages)
Well Noah had never done anything like that, but that nightmare had been the last straw, convincing Luke that he was supposed to make the choice of staying in a toxic relationship or risk clearance.
And sometimes Luke just cursed his tendency to live a parallel life in his dreams.
Well, Ravi was a privileged kid, even being ill he was in a better place than the thousands of kids who had no rich parents able to do everything possible to get them a donor organ.
Thinking of the incredible staff that would perform the surgeries on Ravi and him, Luke couldn’t help but feel uneasy.
An American and a German endovascular surgeon, two French anesthetists, an entire Japanese aftercare team including physiotherapists…the team that Reid Oliver had assembled was unbelievable. Luke had asked if he could contribute his part, because the costs had to be astronomical. But Reid had smiled in return: “You might not believe it, but none of these doctors accepts payment. Of course we pay their expenses and provide them a nice stay here, but no, they don’t get paid. And I wouldn’t either if one of them asked me to help in a similar case. I know many people think of us as businessmen wearing white or blue coats, but believe me there are thousands of doctors out there who are so much more, working themselves to death. And regarding the hospital expenses - you know who actually runs the clinic.”
And something told Luke that Reid would prefer to be one of those doctors working 48 hours shifts.
When the surgery was over and Ravi and he were healthy Luke decided to talk with Reid about some suggestions he had in mind. If Ravi survives and has a healthy life afterwards they had to give a part of that incredible luck back - to those who weren’t in a good place, right?
Luke would figure out something. With that thought he snuggled up in Morpheus’ arms and slept through the rest of the night.
Luke woke up because of unmistakably knowing that he was being watched and that it wasn’t another dream.
“You’re a sleepyhead!”
Ruby Oliver II stated sitting on the right side of his bed dressed in the greenest pajama Luke had even seen, her hair still in thick, disheveled braids and her feet encased in obviously self-knitted red socks.
“Good morning to you, too, Miss Oliver!”
“Yesterday you only showed up at 9 and today you’re still sleeping at 9 again.” Ruby answered unfazed.
“What’s wrong with that?”
“It’s boring!”
“Maybe for the ones who are watching sleeping people it’s boring - and kind of creepy, but for the ones who sleep - it’s not!” Luke smiled.
Again Ruby didn’t fall for Luke’s charm.
“And because one of your sperm cells and one of aunt Ruby’s egg cells joined Ravi was born!”
“I guess that’s how it usually works.”
“Why didn’t you stay with them?”
“Because I didn’t know that Ravi was on the way.”
“Did Aunt Ruby want to keep Ravi for herself?”
“Maybe. I don’t know.”
“Are you mad at her then?”
“No, no I am not. Back then I wasn’t in a good place and maybe I wouldn’t have been a good dad.”
“Were you ill then?”
“Kind of - I was very confused and sick at heart.”
“Lovesick?”
“You, little Lady are a hell of an interrogator!”
Thank God that made the girl smile finally.
“That’s what Gran-Li also calls me, 'Ms. Ruby Marple’! Gran-Li says that she was a brilliant detective!”
“Gran-Li?” Yesterday Ravi had used that pet name too.
“Ravi and I don’t have grandparents, so we decided to adopt Liath, that’s why we call him Gran-Li, because Gran-Liath sounds weird.”
Luke had difficulty choking laughter listening to Ruby’s explanations.
She and Ravi had adopted Liath!
How was he supposed to react to that? Well, actually Luke knew already that Reid’s father was still alive but the redhead had cut him out of his life. That was sad, but who was Luke to judge? A man running away from his kids who had just lost their mother - maybe Luke wouldn’t want the guy to be his kids’ granddad either if he was in Reid’s stead. And although he didn’t like Liath Luke could tell that he was good with the kids.
“So you want to become a detective when you’re grown up?”
“No, I am becoming a neurosurgeon.”
Sure, why hadn’t he thought of that himself? He was stupid, right?
“What about you get up and have breakfast with us?”
“Well, that’s a wonderful idea; I only need a few minutes to shower and dress, okay?”
“Okay.”
With that she hopped from Luke’s bed and left the room.
This time the whole clan was gathered round the breakfast table waiting for Luke to join them- except Liath Orbanns.
“Is he having the moods again?”
Approaching the open space dining room Luke heard Reid asking Katie mockingly and realized only that Reid referred to Liath when Katie laughed and answered: “Maybe - he wasn’t amused about your conversation last night.”
“He needs to quit that, Kit!”
“Not in front of the kids, Reid!” Katie censured him mildly.
And Reid slurped his hot chocolate as a reply.
“Good morning!” Luke took a seat and looked cheerily to everybody around. At least this kind of behavior had helped when he was a boy and still lived at home - ignoring the tension between his parents at the dining table.
Katie returned his smile, and so did Vienna, Barbara and Ravi whereas DD grunted something incomprehensible, Foxy grinned, Papageno coughed, Reid waved a buttered piece of baguette at him and Ruby informed everybody: ”I have already greeted him earlier!”
“Can I have a bite?” Ruby looked at her father who just put a ton of strawberry jam on his bread.”
“Please eat your fruit first, Ruby!” Her mother reminded her gently getting a huff from her daughter in return.
“Where is Daddy’s fruit?”
“Right here!” And Reid snatched a slice of apple, shoved it into his mouth and started toothily chewing on it getting Ruby exactly where he wanted her. The girl giggled and finished the healthy part of her breakfast without any further complaints. Her reward was a jam sandwich made by her dad served with a kiss.
That was the moment Luke stopped worrying that Ruby would possibly suffer from always coming second.
Author: Scotianova
Beta-fairy: Carol38
Disclaimer: I don't own them and writing about them is just for fun.
Genre: A story about different shades of love
Pairing: Reid and Luke - as always
Characters: Reid Oliver, Luke Snyder, Ravi Oliver, Ruby Oliver II, Kathryn Peretti, Liath Orbanns, Damien Grimaldi, Henry Coleman,Dustin Donovan, Paul Ryan, Holly McLean…
Warning: none so far
Rating: sexual contents
Summary: On the surface they couldn’t be more different from every point of view, but if someone just looks closely at them…
AN: This is an attempt to invert some facts and whereabouts but I hope the character drawing is plausible- somehow at least ;)
11.
Luke could have continued the private conversation with Reid Oliver for the rest of the night however he finally excused himself intending to go to his room at midnight. Reid had looked incredibly exhausted in the end, while their conversation had been very vivid.
At first sight Reid appeared inactive listening to Luke. But Luke, the experienced observer realized Reid was a dedicated listener. You could see him approving things by slightly nodding, disagreeing with his brows furrowing, when he was astonished he raised his left brow and when he seemed amused he pursed his lips before he smiled. While talking about something uncomfortable he pinched the bridge of his nose but Luke’s most favorite gesture was when Reid bent his head pondering something and lifted it again to look Luke straight in the eye.
Although knowing each other just a very short time they opened up, especially about their family backgrounds.
Since Ravi was feeling a little better Henry would stay with him tonight.
“Ravi loves Henry, you know. They share something only the two of them know about.”
“So all the guys live here?”
“Well, Henry and Barbara live with us in the main building. It’s huge, you know. My uncle had a megalomaniac tendency. Dustin and Vienna live in one of the so called summerhouses and so does Paul.”
“And Liath?”
“He has his own apartment in the right wing. He mostly joins us for dinner but he’s a very private person. It’s only because of Ravi that he’s around all day lately.”
Luke hadn’t asked for the information and wondered why Reid gave it.
“It’s a very unique arrangement of living.” Luke said lamely.
Reid chuckled in response.
“You think? Well, it’s family. Angus was Paul’s godfather; Paul’s dad, one of Barbara’s countless husbands was befriended by Angus. And Paul definitely has Angus’ business sense; maybe Angus and Barbara had an affair and Angus was Paul’s real dad. If I think about it now there is even a vague outward resemblance.”
When Reid let hear his adorable chuckle Luke felt that warm feeling spreading through his veins again.
“And Dustin is the son of one of Liath’ cousins of a cousin of a cousin, whatever. Well, let’s see - Henry is my actual cousin on my mother’s side. The guys might appear a bit ‘unique’ at first sight and they are in some respects but they are extremely loyal. You know Dusty had kind of a fling with my mother when he was 15 - that’s why he proclaimed himself to be Ruby’s and my guard…He is smarter than he seems, you know. And he would kill for the ones he loves.”
Was this supposed to soothe Luke or did this imply quite the opposite?
“From Barbara’s several inheritances she bought Henry a little theater in South End. He’s actually a good actor. Beside that he is Ruby’s and Ravi’s main entertainer when Katie and I are busy! Paul helps Liath with whatever mysterious things - and Dustin has finally made it as the family’s protector Number One. He is quite effective - if Henry wouldn’t be butting in from time to time. Well I guess you wonder about Henry and Barbara - when they married Paul freaked out, you know, since ‘Sarah Bernhardt’s illegitimate bastard’ would become his stepfather.”
Luke couldn’t do anything but join in Reid’s amusement. And Reid lifting his hands curling his fingers, air-quoting was just cute.
“Well, fortunately they’d come to an agreement, and as weird as they might seem they all have found their places in life.”
And you, Reid?
Of course Luke didn’t ask that yet; something told him that Reid hadn’t found HIS place in life, not completely at least.
“Why do you need protection?”
“As you probably know we’re obscenely loaded, and Liath is absolutely obsessive when it comes to protecting us. He, my father and my mother were childhood friends. I can’t recall a time when he was not around. When my mom died my father went nuts and ran away. If Liath hadn’t been there for us, I don’t know what would have happened.”
“How old were you, when your mother died?”
“13 and Ruby was 11.”
“Was it an accident?”
“No. Our mother had the weird habit of going for long lonesome walks and one day she didn’t return home. They performed an autopsy but they didn’t find an explanation. I studied the reports a hundred times when I was old enough to understand them but there was no logical reason. They found her sitting under a tree, peacefully and dead. It’s crazy! But now it’s enough of Oliver’s family drama. What about you?”
So it came that Reid Oliver learned the important parts of Luke Snyder’s and Luciano Grimaldi’s lives first hand.
“I am glad, you guys have found and brought me here.”
Luke said before he left Reid’s room and was a bit stunned when Reid followed him - but of course the redhead didn’t go to bed without checking his son.
And Luke couldn’t resist and silently asked if he might have a look on Ravi too.
They found Ravi sound asleep and so was Henry who lay rolled up on the comfortable couch only an arm’s length from Ravi.
This time it was “The Three Musketeers” lying on top of Ravi’s books and Luke wondered if the boy had chosen different books to be read by particular family members. Well, “The Musketeers” would fit Papageno who probably was sympathetic to Porthos. Turning his head to Reid he caught the redhead watching him with an unreadable expression. It was neither malevolent nor defensive, but Luke couldn’t make it out. The disturbing thing about it was that Reid didn’t look away, just kept his eyes on Luke.
“What do you want to know about me, Reid?”
Luke asked with his eyes only but didn’t get an answer, with a nod to the door Reid asked Luke to leave the room with him though. Walking a few steps side by side along the hall Reid halted in front of a room Luke hadn’t noticed before: “Here’s where Ruby lives” - of course the girl “lived” next door to her brother.
“Good night, Luke!” Reid whispered before he opened the door and looked after his little girl, to see if she was safe too.
Luke began to move just in time to hide his eyes tearing up. Those two kids were the epicenter, the moon and the sun of this special, still unknown, but intriguing universe called “Oliver-family”.
What a day! So many threads, that screamed to be connected, lot of questions still unanswered, so many people who lived here in that huge house building an unorthodox family. If Luke hadn’t grown up in his own crazy family-web he would shake his head in disbelief. So Papageno had a stepson who was older than him, well that wasn’t the most surprising thing - it could have been a plagiarism stolen from the chronicles of Oakdale.
Luke was honest enough with himself to admit that everything concerning Reid captivated him.
Reid’s answer to Luke’s question about missing life in New York popped into Luke’s head again: “…But yes, I miss it. It was just me and …whatever…”
Who was ‘whatever’?
Reid clearly didn’t wear his heart on his sleeve so it would take a lot of Luke’s questioning skills to learn more about the interesting man. He’d told Luke that he loved his kids, the family - yet there was something melancholically and yearning about Reid that Luke didn’t think referred to Ravi’s illness. Reid Oliver simply wasn’t a happy man. Maybe happiness was overrated, maybe it wasn’t about happiness but contentment in life, anyway - there was something gnawing at Reid that might eat him up one day. Was Luke seeing things? He didn’t believe that, because it was written in Reid’s eyes and Luke was an excellent reader.
That night caravans of organ dealers were crossing Luke’s path, smuggling countless transparent coolers across an unknown border. Luke could see hearts, kidneys and even eyes in those ugly-bright coolers. It was a nightmarish scene and Luke wanted to step in and ask the felons what they thought they were doing, but his mouth was sewn up and his feet refused to move.
Luke’s heartbeats raced and throbbed in his throat and ears erratically so that it took him a few minutes to calm down. Shaking he put his aching head in his hands and breathed out as slowly as possible. Sometimes Luke had good use of his vivid dreams, changing and using them for his novels:
“Hastening, panicking I searched room after room, had a look into every inch of the house, yet I couldn’t find it, my ventilatory support was gone. Grabbing my throat I felt the every last breath leaving my body, taking what’s called life with it. Was this the way I was supposed to go? Choking because I couldn’t take care of my medical devices? It was then when I caught sight of him, leaning against the wall holding the small inhaler in his right hand, waving it as if he wanted to greet me with it. But his lunatic grin told me he wasn’t going to give it to me. That was the very moment I knew for sure, that I had to leave, run away not fast enough and put thousands of miles between me and the so called love of my life.” (Luciano Grimaldi, Respiratory Passages)
Well Noah had never done anything like that, but that nightmare had been the last straw, convincing Luke that he was supposed to make the choice of staying in a toxic relationship or risk clearance.
And sometimes Luke just cursed his tendency to live a parallel life in his dreams.
Well, Ravi was a privileged kid, even being ill he was in a better place than the thousands of kids who had no rich parents able to do everything possible to get them a donor organ.
Thinking of the incredible staff that would perform the surgeries on Ravi and him, Luke couldn’t help but feel uneasy.
An American and a German endovascular surgeon, two French anesthetists, an entire Japanese aftercare team including physiotherapists…the team that Reid Oliver had assembled was unbelievable. Luke had asked if he could contribute his part, because the costs had to be astronomical. But Reid had smiled in return: “You might not believe it, but none of these doctors accepts payment. Of course we pay their expenses and provide them a nice stay here, but no, they don’t get paid. And I wouldn’t either if one of them asked me to help in a similar case. I know many people think of us as businessmen wearing white or blue coats, but believe me there are thousands of doctors out there who are so much more, working themselves to death. And regarding the hospital expenses - you know who actually runs the clinic.”
And something told Luke that Reid would prefer to be one of those doctors working 48 hours shifts.
When the surgery was over and Ravi and he were healthy Luke decided to talk with Reid about some suggestions he had in mind. If Ravi survives and has a healthy life afterwards they had to give a part of that incredible luck back - to those who weren’t in a good place, right?
Luke would figure out something. With that thought he snuggled up in Morpheus’ arms and slept through the rest of the night.
Luke woke up because of unmistakably knowing that he was being watched and that it wasn’t another dream.
“You’re a sleepyhead!”
Ruby Oliver II stated sitting on the right side of his bed dressed in the greenest pajama Luke had even seen, her hair still in thick, disheveled braids and her feet encased in obviously self-knitted red socks.
“Good morning to you, too, Miss Oliver!”
“Yesterday you only showed up at 9 and today you’re still sleeping at 9 again.” Ruby answered unfazed.
“What’s wrong with that?”
“It’s boring!”
“Maybe for the ones who are watching sleeping people it’s boring - and kind of creepy, but for the ones who sleep - it’s not!” Luke smiled.
Again Ruby didn’t fall for Luke’s charm.
“And because one of your sperm cells and one of aunt Ruby’s egg cells joined Ravi was born!”
“I guess that’s how it usually works.”
“Why didn’t you stay with them?”
“Because I didn’t know that Ravi was on the way.”
“Did Aunt Ruby want to keep Ravi for herself?”
“Maybe. I don’t know.”
“Are you mad at her then?”
“No, no I am not. Back then I wasn’t in a good place and maybe I wouldn’t have been a good dad.”
“Were you ill then?”
“Kind of - I was very confused and sick at heart.”
“Lovesick?”
“You, little Lady are a hell of an interrogator!”
Thank God that made the girl smile finally.
“That’s what Gran-Li also calls me, 'Ms. Ruby Marple’! Gran-Li says that she was a brilliant detective!”
“Gran-Li?” Yesterday Ravi had used that pet name too.
“Ravi and I don’t have grandparents, so we decided to adopt Liath, that’s why we call him Gran-Li, because Gran-Liath sounds weird.”
Luke had difficulty choking laughter listening to Ruby’s explanations.
She and Ravi had adopted Liath!
How was he supposed to react to that? Well, actually Luke knew already that Reid’s father was still alive but the redhead had cut him out of his life. That was sad, but who was Luke to judge? A man running away from his kids who had just lost their mother - maybe Luke wouldn’t want the guy to be his kids’ granddad either if he was in Reid’s stead. And although he didn’t like Liath Luke could tell that he was good with the kids.
“So you want to become a detective when you’re grown up?”
“No, I am becoming a neurosurgeon.”
Sure, why hadn’t he thought of that himself? He was stupid, right?
“What about you get up and have breakfast with us?”
“Well, that’s a wonderful idea; I only need a few minutes to shower and dress, okay?”
“Okay.”
With that she hopped from Luke’s bed and left the room.
This time the whole clan was gathered round the breakfast table waiting for Luke to join them- except Liath Orbanns.
“Is he having the moods again?”
Approaching the open space dining room Luke heard Reid asking Katie mockingly and realized only that Reid referred to Liath when Katie laughed and answered: “Maybe - he wasn’t amused about your conversation last night.”
“He needs to quit that, Kit!”
“Not in front of the kids, Reid!” Katie censured him mildly.
And Reid slurped his hot chocolate as a reply.
“Good morning!” Luke took a seat and looked cheerily to everybody around. At least this kind of behavior had helped when he was a boy and still lived at home - ignoring the tension between his parents at the dining table.
Katie returned his smile, and so did Vienna, Barbara and Ravi whereas DD grunted something incomprehensible, Foxy grinned, Papageno coughed, Reid waved a buttered piece of baguette at him and Ruby informed everybody: ”I have already greeted him earlier!”
“Can I have a bite?” Ruby looked at her father who just put a ton of strawberry jam on his bread.”
“Please eat your fruit first, Ruby!” Her mother reminded her gently getting a huff from her daughter in return.
“Where is Daddy’s fruit?”
“Right here!” And Reid snatched a slice of apple, shoved it into his mouth and started toothily chewing on it getting Ruby exactly where he wanted her. The girl giggled and finished the healthy part of her breakfast without any further complaints. Her reward was a jam sandwich made by her dad served with a kiss.
That was the moment Luke stopped worrying that Ruby would possibly suffer from always coming second.