Now and Again (16/??)
Title: Now and Again
Author: alissablue
Rating: PG-13/R, will be NC-17 eventually.
Characters/Pairings: Luke/Reid, Noah, other Oakdale characters and an OC here or there.
Category: Fix it-fic, AU
Summary: “If men define situations as real, they are real in their consequences.”- W.I. Thomas
Warnings: Angsty Angst, some mindfuckery
Disclaimer: Do not own. Wish I did, though. I could make them do all sorts of kinky stuff.
A/N: Keywords for this fic are ‘patience’ and ‘payoff’. I have been working on this since... September(?) and I've finally written enough chapters to start posting. Title credit goes to my epically awesome beta slayerkitty, who deserves a round of applause for sitting through my long rants, freak outs, smut-related giggles and posting hesitation.
A/N: Me + comments is like... Reid + Sandwiches<3.
Prologue / 1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5 / 6 / 7 / 8 / 9 / 10 / 11 / 12 / 13 / 14 / 15 /
Chapter 16: The keg party’s on Friday
Luke’s eyes flew open, his own scream waking him up and then replacing itself with a moment of complete, deafening silence, as he began to feel himself suffocating. The walls were closing in on him, edging closer and closer, the odd feeling of claustrophobia creeping up on him for the first time in his life.
“I think I still have a future as a male model.”
As his heart beat over a hundred beats per minute, mind and heart racing alike, fusing into a blend of beats and incoherent thoughts, the only sounds he heard in the room after the gut wrenching scream that broke the silence in the first place, were the sound of his pounding heartbeat and the squeaks escaping his throat in an attempt to breathe.
“What can I say? I like ‘em tough.”
He felt his own hands on his throat, his fingers slightly shaking in hesitation, the kind he hadn’t felt since seeing his transplant scar for the first time. He closed his eyes in an attempt to focus, to drown out every part of the war between his body and his mind, to loosen the chains that were figuratively holding him captive.
“You’re pretty tough yourself.”
It took him forty-five seconds to escape the chains, forty-five seconds to fill his lungs, but it seemed like an eternity, as though time had gone on without him, had left him behind at the side of some kind of deserted road.
“What are you going to do with me now?”
The last thing he saw before he closed his eyes again to fall into a deep slumber was his off-white ceiling and the faded lines of paintbrush strokes, not knowing that, in a different part of Oakdale, the same sight was the last thing on Reid’s mind as well.
********
The tiny human was still staring at him.
Sitting up and playing with his stuffed teddy bear, the kid had followed Reid’s every move with his eyes for the past hour and reached out for him, whenever he was nearby. Reid had been living at Katie’s for about five days and in those few days, they had already fallen in some kind of domestic routine. Katie made him sandwiches, he helped her fold the kid’s clothes -this would be funny, if it weren’t so shocking- and he had even agreed to babysit the little bugger, when Katie got called to the tv-studio on an emergency two hours ago.
The kid, Jacob, drooled a lot, more than Reid ever thought a baby was capable of and Jacob cried and wasted perfectly good baby food and left his stupid rattles lying around, causing Reid to step on them several times and utter a few profanities that made him glad Katie wasn’t around. But Jacob also giggled and rolled around and latched on to Reid’s collar with his little fingers and Jacob loved him.
Absolutely adored him, in fact.
From the moment he’d met Reid, he had started following him around, crawling after him on his chubby hands and knees whenever Katie wasn’t looking and Reid had found himself picking him up and bringing him back to Katie numerous times. Reid had found himself actually liking the little drool machine. He liked Jacob, who didn’t talk back and laughed at his jokes -or, well, at anything Reid did - and his uncanny Justin Timberlake impression.
But now, now that Reid was sitting on the couch, watching a game with him and his stuffed teddy bear sitting next to him, Jacob was looking up at him, still staring at him, unusually calm and quiet and creeping him out a little.
“Kid, I know there’s a genius in your house, but-” The sound of the door opening stopped him mid-sentence. Katie walked into the apartment and grinned a grin bigger than Reid thought was possible at the sight of the two men in her life.
“Awww, look at the two of you. Bonding.”
“Oh, yeah, we’re buddies. The keg party’s on Friday.” Reid picked him up and moved off the couch, lightly bouncing Jacob on his side. Jacob still kept his eyes on Reid the entire time, reaching out and trying to put his sticky fingers into Reid’s mouth. His actions blocked by Reid’s quick thinking, he pulled away and handed the baby off to his mom with a smirk. Katie held out her hands and took him, wrapped her arms around her little bundle of joy and sniffed his dark hair, having missed the scent that was so inherently him.
“Thank you for watching him, Reid.”
“Sure… Did everything work itself out at the studio?”
“It did!” Katie put Jacob in his crib, the infant letting out a displeased cry as she did, while Reid walked toward the fridge and was met by the clattering and pleasant sound of several beer bottles. He took his time, carefully calculating which one would brighten his day the most and the second one from the right eventually made the cut. “By the way, has Chris called?”
“The petulant non-boyfriend? Nope.”
“Oh… He said he would… Again. He’s been acting so weird, lately- you should’ve seen him a few weeks ago, he just wouldn’t leave me alone. But now… He’s all cold and detached and I have no idea what’s going on with him.”
“Maybe he’s just an idiot.” Taking a swig from his beer bottle, he moved toward the couch again and sat back down on the piece of furniture, ignoring Katie’s gasp and consequent death glare.
“Reid!”
“Just sayin’… I met him at work the other day- apparently we went to med school together- and I have no idea what Bob Hughes ever did to deserve a son like- whatever do you see in him, goldilocks?”
“Reid… Just, try to be nice to him, okay? I really like him. I like him a lot.”
“And I have to be nice to him, because…?” His brow furrowed, seriously confused -and somewhat disgusted- at the possibility of ever having to do anything for the sake of Chris Hughes.
“He might be coming around here more often. And, who knows, maybe you’ll end up becoming great friends.”
“Please. The day I do anything for Doogie, is the day hell freezes over.”
********
The 26th of July, the day of Noah’s surgery, came much more quickly than Luke had expected. He had been so preoccupied with trying to find Reid, that the days had flown by in a haze of ReidReidReid and suffocating dreams about, well, Reid.
The surgery was scheduled for the early afternoon and Luke had a feeling Noah was going out of his mind, waiting for the surgery on his own. Channing wouldn’t be there until right before they’d take Noah to the operating room and Luke couldn’t help but wonder if there was anyone to hold his hand and calm him down.
He hadn’t talked to Noah in twelve days, which was the longest Luke could remember them not exchanging words, but the twelve days of silence hadn’t been for lack of trying. On Luke’s part anyway. In addition to calling all the major facilities in the country - and he was this close to asking Lucinda Walsh for help- he had also called Noah a dozen times and left him an equal amount of messages, all of which were left unanswered.
Luke was aware that he had nothing to apologize for, that he couldn’t and shouldn’t and wouldn’t apologize for falling out of love with the man he had once thought he’d be with forever, but leaving things like this, going from a strained bond to absolutely nothing… That hurt and that needed to be fixed.
And he knew just how to do that.
He went up to his room, grabbed Noah’s video camera, which was still lying around on his desk and determined to fix whatever he felt he had broken, Luke Snyder made his way to Oakdale Memorial Hospital.
And in a different part of Oakdale, Reid Oliver got ready for work.
NEXT
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A/N: Let's get this party started, shall we? Short chapter is very short again! But the chapters get much longer from here. Thanks for reading! =)