fic: A Beautiful Mess, 2/22
Fic: A Beautiful Mess, 2/22
Summary: Luke is a pediatrician! He is officially Dr. Luke Snyder.
Spoilers: References to Luke's past from canon and that's about it.
Rating: PG.
Disclaimer: Wish they were mine but they're not.
Note: So, this was inspired by this entry in lure_prompts by the brill _alicesprings. Feedback, concrit, etc. welcome! ♥
Last Part.
Two weeks later, Reid walks straight into Dr. Snyder's office, opening the door without knocking. "What the hell is this?" Reid asks, holding up a piece of paper. On it is the scavenger hunt list and there listed at #12 is: "Collect two dollar coin candies from Dr. Oliver's office and return to Dr. Snyder's office."
Luke smiles as he reaches forward and takes the list from Reid's hand. "That is the fun scavenger hunt we had a few days ago on Halloween. If you were here, you would've known that." There's that beaming smile again, hands folded in front of him, and he thinks he's being so clever.
"That is not what I agreed to. I thought that they were just gonna do the door-to-door thing."
"What ramifications can you possibly be facing because of this? People will, god forbid, think that you're a nice guy? People will cross your path and actually speak to you instead of cowering away in fear?"
"No, this," Reid tosses another piece of paper on his desk and Luke laughs when he sees it. "Shut up," Reid scowls and shakes his head.
Luke begins to read from the paper, "'Dear. Dr. Olvr ... or Oliver, thank you for the candy. Big hugs! Sarah.' That is just too cute."
"I don't do cute, Dr. Snyder, and I would've appreciated a warning before I opened my door to all the little cutesy hand drawn letters of thanks from the little germ breeders in peds." Reid crosses his arms over his body and Luke just smirks and stands.
"Don't worry. I hand delivered the letters this morning. No one saw a thing. Your secretary did but she's pretty loyal to you and gave me the third degree."
Reid scrutinizes him, wondering what his angle is here. "All right, but they better keep their mouths shut about this."
"They made letters for other doctors. They probably won't even remember your name, okay?" he chuckles and reaches for his legal pad, grabbing a pen. "Come on, let's go."
"Go where?"
"Uh, monthly meeting. It's this morning."
Reid's completely forgotten about it and he shakes his head. "Again? Didn't we just have one of those?"
"Yeah, a month ago. Let's go," Dr. Snyder's about to walk past him and Reid reaches out to grab his arm. They both look at each other, pausing for just a second, and Reid quickly drops his hand but smiles a little at him. Luke looks at him suspiciously. "What?"
"I did something for you and I think that you should return the favor."
"Huh?"
---
The waitress places a hamburger with fries in front of Reid and then the same order in front of Luke. Luke looks across the table at him and shakes his head as he picks up a fry. "I can't believe you talked me into this," he says when he takes a bite.
"Not only that but you're paying." When he sees the worried expression on the man sitting across from him, he tells him, "Relax. It's one hour and then we're back at the hospital," Reid has a burger with everything on it and Luke watches in awe when he takes his first bite, his jaw opening so wide that it looks like he's unlocked it and then snaps it back into place when he eats.
"How can you eat like that?" he fixes his own burger but it's not as packed as Reid's.
"Easy, watch me," Reid speaks with his mouth full and takes another bite.
Luke looks down at his food and only looks up again once Reid swallows. "I was supposed to let everyone know how the Halloween event went at the meeting today."
Reid pops a couple of fries into his mouth and folds his fingers in front of him. "Are you kidding me? Are you telling me that they don't know already? Most of them were there."
"It's kind of like a status report thing that Bob wanted me to give."
"Bob?" Reid wonders about the casual way he mentions his name. "No, Dr. Hughes for you? You both are that close? I thought you've only been working here for a few weeks." Reid can't believe that he remembers that little piece of trivia.
"I grew up here in Oakdale." Luke tells him before he takes a bite of his burger. It's a reasonable bite, unlike the way Reid eats. After he swallows, he continues, "I went to undergrad here, then the Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and Science, and then stayed in Chicago for my residency. Finally, I did a fellowship in Connecticut." Reid's eyes are on him and Luke says, "What?"
"You look like you're 18. How'd you manage to do all that?"
Luke chuckles, "Well, I told you I was in the hospital. I had to be home schooled afterward and ended up graduating from high school at 17. After four years, got my BS, and then my MD, and ... don't you know how the rest of this goes or are you just fishing to figure out how old I am?" Reid's mouth is wrapped around a straw, drinking his soda, but keeping his eyes on Luke. "I'm 29."
That almost makes Reid spit out his drink. Luke's age surprises him. "Mommy and Daddy have a good set of genes." He says it before he can take it back.
Luke looks at him, a small smile on his face before he ducks his head, looking down at his food. That move makes Reid furrow his brow, ignoring the little kick that he feels in his stomach. He must still be hungry. He continues to eat and they both let Reid's comment go.
"What about you? You leave a clinic in Dallas to come here?" Luke asks.
Reid's about to ask him how he knows about that but since Luke's pretty connected to just about everyone in the hospital, and probably this town, he doesn't bother with the simple inquiry. "Bob offered me the position. As the top neurologist in the country, it makes sense that he offered it to me first."
Luke laughs and nods, "Well, of course."
Reid smirks, "It really is an incredible state-of-the-art facility and Bob was open to my suggestions for improvement when I got here a few months ago. They're still bringing in new equipment and the better that they make the wing, the better the hospital will be able to help the patients who walk through its doors." The seriousness of his tone is balanced by the squirt of the ketchup bottle as he squeezes it out on his plate.
Luke lifts one his fries and swipes it through the ketchup on Reid's place before Reid can get to it. Then, he pops it into his mouth with Reid watching his every move. "Dr. Oliver, you're not the heartless jerk that you appear to be."
"Thanks?"
"Don't worry. I'll never tell."
"See that you don't, Dr. Snyder."
They both share a smile and continue to eat. Reid thinks that this isn't a bad way to kill an hour to get out of a meeting.
---
The following week is uneventful. Luke already has plans for the next holiday and Reid knows this because he's been running into Reid and sometimes dropping by his office when they're both there, sometimes talking about the plans. Reid's calling them, "The Plans" and Luke gets a kick out of that.
Luke's busiest hours are in the morning and in the late afternoon. Sometimes he even stays past office hours to accommodate the parents who can't take the day off from work to make an appointment.
Reid can be busy at any time of day. But, not everyone in Oakdale has a problem with their head so he can't be busy all the time. He's experiencing a bit of down time because of the holidays. Patients schedule to come in around mid-November and often reschedule because they want to come in after the holidays. He's been hearing the phrase "after the holidays" often. Reid doesn't have an "after the holidays". There's the day before that Thanksgiving day, Thanksgiving, and then after Thanksgiving.
"What do you mean you don't have any plans for Thanksgiving?" Luke asks as he flips through one of Reid's medical journals. Reid's latest article's on Page 46. Luke insisted on reading it so he's back in Reid's office, raiding his magazines.
"I never have any plans for Thanksgiving. What's the big deal?"
"Uh, the big deal is that it's one of the top holidays for food and you're telling me that you don't do anything for it. What about going to see your parents? Your friends?"
How Dr. Snyder manages to shoot all these questions out at him can be exasperating. This time is no exception. "Just drop it, Dr. Snyder. I'll find a nice pumpkin pie somewhere and eat it in one sitting."
"That's unacceptable especially for you. Come over to my grandmother's place for Thanksgiving. I'm planning on going there after our Thanksgiving here. I don't need to be here for the whole thing."
"Dr --"
"It's Luke."
"Dr. Snyder, what's with you and your crusade to force me into the holidays? First Halloween and now this? Just leave me alone."
"Fine," Luke shuts the magazine, throws it on Reid's desk, and gets up out of the chair to leave. "You got it."
It all happens so quickly that Reid doesn't even blink and he sees that Luke's left his office, closing the door behind him. It shouldn't bother him. It's not as if he asks for Dr. Snyder's company. He just shows up.
Reid continues to reply to e-mails but images of Luke's angry face continue to enter his mind, distracting him from the task at hand. He's reminded that he has a consult in a few minutes so at least he doesn't have to continue to pretend he's working on these replies. All he has to do is keep his mind on the next patient, the patient charts, the x-rays, and he'll be fine. He'll be fine.
---
"Dr. Oliver, this is for you," Jaymie hands him a brown package, addressed to him, no return address, and it just has his name on the top in black marker. He doesn't recognize the handwriting.
"Thanks. Let me know if Mrs. Hansen calls. She's waiting for the results of her blood test," he takes the package from her and she nods.
He opens the door to his office and removes his jacket, hanging it up before he walks around his desk and sits down. Taking his letter opener, he cuts the sides of the package, and unwraps it.
Inside is a tin with a turkey on the front of it.
"What ..."
He opens the tin and there's a note on top and underneath it, wrapped in ziploc bags are cookies. He looks at the note and it reads:
Sorry about the other day. Just think about Thanksgiving. My Grandma Emma made these and there are more where they came from.
Luke
Unable to help himself, he takes one of the cookies out, and takes a bite. His tongue is hit with a taste of the peanut butter and the cookie just melts in his mouth. He finishes the first one quickly and he's about to have a second when his pager goes off.
"Damn," he mumbles, glancing down at the page. It's from the emergency room.
He quickly chews, swallows, and then he heads off to the ER.
When he enters, the EMTs speak to him in clipped sentences, car accident, blunt trauma, no internal injuries sustained, and barely conscious.
"Katie? Katie!" he hears someone behind them and he's surprised to see Doogie there, yelling this woman's name. "Reid, is she okay? Is she all right? Christ!"
"Chris, you're gonna have to stand back, okay? Let us take care of this," he tells him and then he walks behind the curtain to attend to her. He thinks that's the first time that he's ever called him by his name.
He does a basic examination but she's barely conscious. They order a CT scan for her and he'll be in the room to exam the results. They take her into the room with the machine. Once they have her set up, it takes a few minutes to do the head scan. He's right there to see the scans on the computer monitor.
When he spots the bleed in her brain, he considers how to proceed. He sees the swelling and decides to alleviate the building pressure with surgery.
They're in and out of there relatively quickly. It's a pretty standard surgery by all accounts. She's perfect throughout, blood pressure's normal, vital signs are stable, and he finds no reason not to do the surgery. He monitors her closely when it's all over.
Chris finds him and tells him what happened. The ER doctor's already told him but Chris has a first-hand account. "I ... I was behind her. We were going to lunch and she was ... the car came out of nowhere and I think she hit her head on the wheel." The other driver sustained no injuries, surprisingly. "She seemed okay the scene but she must've blacked out in the ambulance. I drove behind them so I don't really know."
"She's okay," Reid tells him, in an attempt at reassurance but he doesn't really know that yet. It depends on what happens when she wakes up.
"It was supposed to be our first kind of date," Chris chuckles humorlessly and Reid holds in a sigh.
"There'll be others," he tells him, walking away from her bed, and leaving Chris behind. "I'll be back to check in on her." Chris just nods but ignores him, keeping his eyes on Katie.
Reid finds that he isn't able to attend to her until later in the evening. When he opens the door to her room, he finds Luke there instead of Chris. He's in a chair and he looks like he's half asleep but he's there. When the door opens, Luke slowly turns his head toward him.
"Hey," he greets him as Reid steps inside.
"Hey, know her?" he asks as he grabs the patient chart.
"Yeah, sort of related ... through marriage." He doesn't elaborate further and Reid doesn't pry. "I had to cover Chris's shift since he was here all day. He had to go home and rest."
"Sounds like that's something that you need to be doing too." Luke nods and turns his attention back to Katie. "I, uh, got the tin," he mentions as he flips through a page on the chart. "Only got to eat one before I got paged but it was pretty good."
"Pretty good?" Luke laughs. "That must be code for the best damn thing you've ever tasted."
Reid smiles and writes some notes into Katie's file. "She hasn't woken up since you've been in here?"
"No. Vitals have been good, stable. Hasn't regained consciousness yet but I think she will soon."
"Yeah, I should be here for that," Reid rubs his eyes with his thumb and middle finger and doesn't realize how tired he is.
"You should but maybe you should go home and get some rest too."
"Yeah," he agrees. He places the chart back in its place and Luke stands, giving her hand a squeeze before he walks out of her room with Reid. "I am sorry about before when I was in your office. I think that I was just ..."
"Overreacting?" Reid fills in the blank.
"Overreacting to your comment," Luke agrees. "You don't have to do anything that you don't wanna do and I guess I have been pressuring you into some things. But, like I said, the Thanksgiving invite is still open to you." They begin to walk down the hallway toward Reid's office. He has to pick up his things and Luke's office isn't too far away.
They stop in front of Reid's door. "Well, here's my stop," Reid motions toward his office.
"Mhmm," Luke nods and sticks his hands into his lab coat pockets. His eyes move from Reid's to Reid's lips and back again to his eyes. It's an obvious move. Reid eyes him in the same way but takes in a quick breath, reaching behind him to open his door.
"I'll see you, Dr. Snyder."
"Goodnight, Dr. Oliver." Luke bites his lower lip and turns to walk down the hall toward his office.
Reid walks through the door and closes it behind him. His heart's beating wildly in his chest and he closes his eyes as he leans against the door, waiting to catch his breath.
Shaking his head, he mutters to himself, "Get a grip, Oliver."
Then he begins to think back to just a minute ago, Luke's eyes, his body close to his, lips pink and moist. Rubbing the back of his neck, he wonders, "What was that about?"
Next.