Bulletproof (11/52)
Title: Bulletproof
Author: blasthisass
Rating: PG-13 to NC-17
Summary: AU- when Luke is shot by Colonel Mayer, his condition quickly deteriorates. In order to save his life, Bob calls in a young, hotshot doctor from Texas, brilliant and already making a name for himself.
Disclaimers: All characters and such property of ATWT, CBS and anyone else who can legally take credit for them. If they were mine, I would take infinitely better care of them.
Title from the song by La Roux. There is dialogue from both the time in which the story takes place as well as the LuRe storyline.
A/N: This is unbeta'd, so any mistakes are mine.
A/N2: Ugh. I have thus determined that I find it insatiably difficult to write Nuke, so my apologies if their interaction seems as disjointed and stiff to y'all as it does to me. I have no inclination to go and improve it. I'd rather move on to LuRe.
Comments much appreciated . . . I love them like Reid loves Luke.
Previous parts: prologue | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10
***
Noah rocked lightly on the balls of his feet, looking nervously at Luke. He smiled softly, almost apologetically at Luke before glancing over his shoulder and seeing Dusty conversing with Lily outside. “Long time no see, huh?” he shrugged, sticking his hands in his pockets.
Luke shrugged. There was this feeling deep within him that was overjoyed at Noah’s final arrival, one that was willing to overlook the fact that he’d been in the hospital for God knows how long and just relish in the way his veins seemed to course warmly in Noah’s presence. Then there was that small, new presence nudging at the back of his mind, hinting at him, telling him that it would be wrong to simply welcome Noah back with open arms. “I’ve been here.”
Luke glanced up to see a slightly hurt expression on Noah’s face and his eyes filled with slightly guilt. “Did you come here by yourself or did someone bring you?” he asked, trying to convey that he didn’t hold a grudge, although he wasn’t entirely sure whether that was true yet.
Noah smiled lightly at the olive branch before gesturing toward the door. “Dusty.”
Luke rolled his eyes. Dusty had forced Noah to come, presumably as a consequence of his mother’s interference. “Well, if you don’t want to be here-”
“No, it’s not that! I’m sorry I haven’t come by but . . . I’ve just been dealing with so much of my own crap right now and I’m probably the last person you want to see,” Noah muttered, hands in the pockets of his jeans.
Luke’s eyes widened. “That’s not true! Why would you think that?”
“Because, Luke, I’m basically the reason you’re in that bed right now! I mean, if it wasn’t for me, my psychopath father wouldn’t have tried to kill you!”
“Noah . . . he’s your father. He’s not you,” Luke murmured, pushing the prodding feeling in his mind aside and smiling softly at Noah. “I . . . I missed you. I thought about you all the time.” That was, for the most part, completely true.
Noah reciprocated the smile and took a tentative step closer to the bed, resting a hand lightly on the end bar, just near the patient chart. “You did, huh?”
Luke chuckled, as though it were completely obvious. “Yeah. I mean, I get that you stayed away because seeing me would remind me of your father and what he did but-”
“You know, I thought I would feel that way. But . . . seeing you also reminds me of how much I care about you.”
Luke opened his mouth lightly in surprise before ducking his chin down and laughing openly for the first time in days, since before he’d spotted Winston Mayer charging through the woods at him with a gun. He felt almost as though things were back to normal, as though they were back to that moment in WOAK when he’d looked up and seen utter determination in Noah’s eyes, right before they’d kissed for the second time.
“Yeah, well, you might want to reconsider that and run while you still can,” he joked. “I’m not sure what fun it would be to have a boyfriend in a wheelchair and that’s what you’ll be stuck with if we can’t get these puppies to work.” He patted his legs gently, smiling at Noah, who suddenly looked immensely concerned. “And you know, it’s just wrong to break up with the handicapped. I’m sure there’s something on the matter in the ADA.”
Noah didn’t answer for a moment, trying to sort through Luke’s long comment. He wondered when Luke had gotten to be this fairly long-winded, witty guy. He glanced down nervously at Luke’s legs before his eyes widened and he looked back up at Luke. “I . . . didn’t know your injuries were permanent.”
Luke shrugged, glancing out the window into the hall, his mind flashing to Dr. Oliver. Luke vaguely wondered where he was and whether he was on his way back. He glanced back at Noah. “My doctor adamantly declares that they aren’t, but I know Dr. Bob and my parents aren’t nearly as optimistic. But don’t worry. I’m sure it sucks to have a boyfriend who’s in a wheelchair, so I’ll be taking the advice of the ‘great’ Dr. Oliver and trying to get off my ass and fix this.”
Noah frowned again, though otherwise his face remained in that strange, neutral expression he always seemed to have. “Is that what I am? Your boyfriend?”
Luke sputtered slightly, stuttering over his words as he tried to backpedal out of the situation. He cursed himself for being an idiot and for applying labels when Noah was clearly not ready or eager or anything on the matter. “No. I mean . . .I just . . . You can leave whenever you want, I just . . . errm . . .” A small part of him wished Dr. Oliver would come back and kick him out and follow up with some snarky, jack-assed comment about what an idiot Luke was being.
Noah, however, moved around the side of the bed and pulled over the chair that Reid had abandoned. He plopped down into it before gazing intently at Luke. “Is that what you want? Do you want me to be your boyfriend?”
The first thing Luke should have thought was Yes and he wondered why he didn’t say it right away. But his breath got caught in his throat as his mind raced and, for some reason unfathomable to him, his eyes roamed from Noah’s face to the doorway, as though he were looking for an escape route even if he had no way of utilizing it. He bit his lip as he spotted Dr. Oliver outside, the look on his face implying that he was clearly halfway through reprimanding Lily, Holden, Lucinda and Dusty on some matter or another. Luke exhaled softly, his lips curling into a tiny smile, which barely lasted a millisecond. He inhaled sharply as Reid turned away from the group outside and their eyes met and the yes in the back of Luke’s mind hesitated once again.
Noah frowned as he watched Luke. When Luke didn’t reply, but remained staring at the door, Noah turned and raised his eyebrow at the doctor in the doorway. He turned back to Luke, letting out an awkward laugh. “You know, when you don’t say anything, it doesn’t exactly inspire confidence.”
Luke started, as though he’d somehow forgotten both the question and the fact that Noah was in the room. He shook his head, breaking eye contact with Reid, casting his gaze sadly down to his legs. “How can I say anything? I don’t have the right.”
“You know what you want, don’t you?”
“I . . .” Luke paused, confused by what he was suddenly feeling. He’d always known what he wanted, even if he didn’t want to admit it or if he was afraid to go after it. And before the whole Colonel Mayer debacle in the woods, Luke had known exactly what he wanted with Noah. Now, he wasn’t so sure and, as nothing had really changed between the two of them, he couldn't quite pinpoint why. “Noah, look at me. I can’t feel anything below my waist and that means I might not be able to, ever.”
“I’m not asking if it’s possible, I’m asking what you think, what you want.” Noah paused, looking intently at before gripping Luke’s hand lightly, running his thumb over the back of it. “What do you want? Do you want me to be your boyfriend?”
His answer sounded like a question in his mind, but not so much so when it was floating in the particles of the air.
“ . . . Yes.”
***
Reid couldn’t believe his eyes. He rounded the corner of Luke’s room to the sounds of hushed arguments. He was trying to figure out how it was that whenever he saw Holden and Lily they were outside of his patient’s room having a furious argument. He stuffed his cell phone in his pocket, trying to figure out how the Judds moved down a couple of slots on his list of overbearing parents.
“I’m sorry, but in what universe do you think it’s okay to argue out your personal drama in front of your son’s room?” he demanded approaching, the couple, who started at his presence.
Holden closed his mouth halfway over his furious reply, as though he knew that Reid was right and wanted to argue, but didn’t have anything to say that was stronger than his beliefs. It was as though his irrational feelings didn’t have the strength to argue with anyone but Lily.
Reid nodded in satisfaction at their sheepish silence, casting a gaze over the tall addition to their party and Lucinda, who’d shown up just seconds before. He frowned at her. “Mrs. Walsh.”
“Dr. Oliver,” she smiled pleasantly. “I trust you’re well.”
He snorted. “As well as one could be in the town of the insane. I’m curious. How long to you expect me to stay here until your obvious blackmail becomes irrelevant?”
“Hmm . . .” she contemplated. “I think him walking can be a sure sign that you’re not responsible for permanently paralyzing him. Lily, darling, you look exhausted. Come, all, we should get some food in you,” she said to the others, clearly done conversing with Reid.
Reid rolled his eyes, clearly annoyed, before turning toward the door. He paused when he caught Luke watching him carefully, a curious look on his face. He caught the boy’s sharp inhalation even across the room and through a pane of glass and wondered why it matched the light patter of his heartbeat. He wondered how long he stood watching Luke, unable to break away and actually walk into the room. He wasn’t even aware of the fact that there was anyone else in the room until Luke started and turned away.
Reid frowned, turning his attention to the other boy inside the room, rubbing the fingers of his left hand together as his breathing heightened as he watched the brunette, the one who he’d seen in the coffee shop just the other day, murmur something to Luke with a soft smile on his face as the latter ducked his head before gazing up sheepishly through his eyelids. Reid bit his lip, fighting the things that small movement threatened to do to him. He watched as Luke, after a soft pause, clearly said the word, “Yes,” and an overjoyed smile passed over the face of the brunette, who gave Luke’s hand a tight squeeze before leaning over the bed and placing a soft kiss on Luke’s lips. And then there was that smile. It was the first real smile that Reid had ever seen Luke flash and while it lit up the eighteen-year-old’s face like sunshine on an otherwise cloudy day, it twisted the insides of Reid’s abdomen until they were almost numb with a feeling that he didn’t recognize.
Holden was about to follow Lily, Lucinda and Dusty out of the hospital when he stopped, catching the doctor’s reflection in the glass pane beside the door. He frowned, watching Reid’s expression change from one of mild surprise when Noah’s hand first wrapped around Luke’s in a manner that could only be described as caring, to one of almost anger when Noah leaned in and kissed Luke with the utmost softness. His blue eyes had widened, the surprise almost holding a small amount of pleasure in it, before narrowing to match the clenching of his jaw and the curling of his fist. If Holden didn’t know any better, the reaction was almost homophobic and his lip curled in frustration against it.
“Problem, Dr. Oliver?” he demanded, holding an almost warning.
Reid frowned, tearing his eyes away from the scene with in a room and stuffing his clenched fist in side the pocket of his lab. He felt that if his jaw grew any tighter it might shatter, but he couldn’t do anything to stop the reaction. He glanced at Holden. “None at all, Mr. Snyder,” he replied, almost unable to withhold the furious snarl that rippled through his voice.
He knew he should have gone into the room and continued whatever he’d been doing before he’d left (he was having trouble remembering), but all he could do was turn away from the room and stalk off angrily down the hallway.
Chapter 12-->
***
Bah . . . I'm going to include some of the canon!Nuke stuff, but not directly. The Noah sightings will be as limited as I can manage.
Author: blasthisass
Rating: PG-13 to NC-17
Summary: AU- when Luke is shot by Colonel Mayer, his condition quickly deteriorates. In order to save his life, Bob calls in a young, hotshot doctor from Texas, brilliant and already making a name for himself.
Disclaimers: All characters and such property of ATWT, CBS and anyone else who can legally take credit for them. If they were mine, I would take infinitely better care of them.
Title from the song by La Roux. There is dialogue from both the time in which the story takes place as well as the LuRe storyline.
A/N: This is unbeta'd, so any mistakes are mine.
A/N2: Ugh. I have thus determined that I find it insatiably difficult to write Nuke, so my apologies if their interaction seems as disjointed and stiff to y'all as it does to me. I have no inclination to go and improve it. I'd rather move on to LuRe.
Comments much appreciated . . . I love them like Reid loves Luke.
Previous parts: prologue | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10
***
Noah rocked lightly on the balls of his feet, looking nervously at Luke. He smiled softly, almost apologetically at Luke before glancing over his shoulder and seeing Dusty conversing with Lily outside. “Long time no see, huh?” he shrugged, sticking his hands in his pockets.
Luke shrugged. There was this feeling deep within him that was overjoyed at Noah’s final arrival, one that was willing to overlook the fact that he’d been in the hospital for God knows how long and just relish in the way his veins seemed to course warmly in Noah’s presence. Then there was that small, new presence nudging at the back of his mind, hinting at him, telling him that it would be wrong to simply welcome Noah back with open arms. “I’ve been here.”
Luke glanced up to see a slightly hurt expression on Noah’s face and his eyes filled with slightly guilt. “Did you come here by yourself or did someone bring you?” he asked, trying to convey that he didn’t hold a grudge, although he wasn’t entirely sure whether that was true yet.
Noah smiled lightly at the olive branch before gesturing toward the door. “Dusty.”
Luke rolled his eyes. Dusty had forced Noah to come, presumably as a consequence of his mother’s interference. “Well, if you don’t want to be here-”
“No, it’s not that! I’m sorry I haven’t come by but . . . I’ve just been dealing with so much of my own crap right now and I’m probably the last person you want to see,” Noah muttered, hands in the pockets of his jeans.
Luke’s eyes widened. “That’s not true! Why would you think that?”
“Because, Luke, I’m basically the reason you’re in that bed right now! I mean, if it wasn’t for me, my psychopath father wouldn’t have tried to kill you!”
“Noah . . . he’s your father. He’s not you,” Luke murmured, pushing the prodding feeling in his mind aside and smiling softly at Noah. “I . . . I missed you. I thought about you all the time.” That was, for the most part, completely true.
Noah reciprocated the smile and took a tentative step closer to the bed, resting a hand lightly on the end bar, just near the patient chart. “You did, huh?”
Luke chuckled, as though it were completely obvious. “Yeah. I mean, I get that you stayed away because seeing me would remind me of your father and what he did but-”
“You know, I thought I would feel that way. But . . . seeing you also reminds me of how much I care about you.”
Luke opened his mouth lightly in surprise before ducking his chin down and laughing openly for the first time in days, since before he’d spotted Winston Mayer charging through the woods at him with a gun. He felt almost as though things were back to normal, as though they were back to that moment in WOAK when he’d looked up and seen utter determination in Noah’s eyes, right before they’d kissed for the second time.
“Yeah, well, you might want to reconsider that and run while you still can,” he joked. “I’m not sure what fun it would be to have a boyfriend in a wheelchair and that’s what you’ll be stuck with if we can’t get these puppies to work.” He patted his legs gently, smiling at Noah, who suddenly looked immensely concerned. “And you know, it’s just wrong to break up with the handicapped. I’m sure there’s something on the matter in the ADA.”
Noah didn’t answer for a moment, trying to sort through Luke’s long comment. He wondered when Luke had gotten to be this fairly long-winded, witty guy. He glanced down nervously at Luke’s legs before his eyes widened and he looked back up at Luke. “I . . . didn’t know your injuries were permanent.”
Luke shrugged, glancing out the window into the hall, his mind flashing to Dr. Oliver. Luke vaguely wondered where he was and whether he was on his way back. He glanced back at Noah. “My doctor adamantly declares that they aren’t, but I know Dr. Bob and my parents aren’t nearly as optimistic. But don’t worry. I’m sure it sucks to have a boyfriend who’s in a wheelchair, so I’ll be taking the advice of the ‘great’ Dr. Oliver and trying to get off my ass and fix this.”
Noah frowned again, though otherwise his face remained in that strange, neutral expression he always seemed to have. “Is that what I am? Your boyfriend?”
Luke sputtered slightly, stuttering over his words as he tried to backpedal out of the situation. He cursed himself for being an idiot and for applying labels when Noah was clearly not ready or eager or anything on the matter. “No. I mean . . .I just . . . You can leave whenever you want, I just . . . errm . . .” A small part of him wished Dr. Oliver would come back and kick him out and follow up with some snarky, jack-assed comment about what an idiot Luke was being.
Noah, however, moved around the side of the bed and pulled over the chair that Reid had abandoned. He plopped down into it before gazing intently at Luke. “Is that what you want? Do you want me to be your boyfriend?”
The first thing Luke should have thought was Yes and he wondered why he didn’t say it right away. But his breath got caught in his throat as his mind raced and, for some reason unfathomable to him, his eyes roamed from Noah’s face to the doorway, as though he were looking for an escape route even if he had no way of utilizing it. He bit his lip as he spotted Dr. Oliver outside, the look on his face implying that he was clearly halfway through reprimanding Lily, Holden, Lucinda and Dusty on some matter or another. Luke exhaled softly, his lips curling into a tiny smile, which barely lasted a millisecond. He inhaled sharply as Reid turned away from the group outside and their eyes met and the yes in the back of Luke’s mind hesitated once again.
Noah frowned as he watched Luke. When Luke didn’t reply, but remained staring at the door, Noah turned and raised his eyebrow at the doctor in the doorway. He turned back to Luke, letting out an awkward laugh. “You know, when you don’t say anything, it doesn’t exactly inspire confidence.”
Luke started, as though he’d somehow forgotten both the question and the fact that Noah was in the room. He shook his head, breaking eye contact with Reid, casting his gaze sadly down to his legs. “How can I say anything? I don’t have the right.”
“You know what you want, don’t you?”
“I . . .” Luke paused, confused by what he was suddenly feeling. He’d always known what he wanted, even if he didn’t want to admit it or if he was afraid to go after it. And before the whole Colonel Mayer debacle in the woods, Luke had known exactly what he wanted with Noah. Now, he wasn’t so sure and, as nothing had really changed between the two of them, he couldn't quite pinpoint why. “Noah, look at me. I can’t feel anything below my waist and that means I might not be able to, ever.”
“I’m not asking if it’s possible, I’m asking what you think, what you want.” Noah paused, looking intently at before gripping Luke’s hand lightly, running his thumb over the back of it. “What do you want? Do you want me to be your boyfriend?”
His answer sounded like a question in his mind, but not so much so when it was floating in the particles of the air.
“ . . . Yes.”
***
Reid couldn’t believe his eyes. He rounded the corner of Luke’s room to the sounds of hushed arguments. He was trying to figure out how it was that whenever he saw Holden and Lily they were outside of his patient’s room having a furious argument. He stuffed his cell phone in his pocket, trying to figure out how the Judds moved down a couple of slots on his list of overbearing parents.
“I’m sorry, but in what universe do you think it’s okay to argue out your personal drama in front of your son’s room?” he demanded approaching, the couple, who started at his presence.
Holden closed his mouth halfway over his furious reply, as though he knew that Reid was right and wanted to argue, but didn’t have anything to say that was stronger than his beliefs. It was as though his irrational feelings didn’t have the strength to argue with anyone but Lily.
Reid nodded in satisfaction at their sheepish silence, casting a gaze over the tall addition to their party and Lucinda, who’d shown up just seconds before. He frowned at her. “Mrs. Walsh.”
“Dr. Oliver,” she smiled pleasantly. “I trust you’re well.”
He snorted. “As well as one could be in the town of the insane. I’m curious. How long to you expect me to stay here until your obvious blackmail becomes irrelevant?”
“Hmm . . .” she contemplated. “I think him walking can be a sure sign that you’re not responsible for permanently paralyzing him. Lily, darling, you look exhausted. Come, all, we should get some food in you,” she said to the others, clearly done conversing with Reid.
Reid rolled his eyes, clearly annoyed, before turning toward the door. He paused when he caught Luke watching him carefully, a curious look on his face. He caught the boy’s sharp inhalation even across the room and through a pane of glass and wondered why it matched the light patter of his heartbeat. He wondered how long he stood watching Luke, unable to break away and actually walk into the room. He wasn’t even aware of the fact that there was anyone else in the room until Luke started and turned away.
Reid frowned, turning his attention to the other boy inside the room, rubbing the fingers of his left hand together as his breathing heightened as he watched the brunette, the one who he’d seen in the coffee shop just the other day, murmur something to Luke with a soft smile on his face as the latter ducked his head before gazing up sheepishly through his eyelids. Reid bit his lip, fighting the things that small movement threatened to do to him. He watched as Luke, after a soft pause, clearly said the word, “Yes,” and an overjoyed smile passed over the face of the brunette, who gave Luke’s hand a tight squeeze before leaning over the bed and placing a soft kiss on Luke’s lips. And then there was that smile. It was the first real smile that Reid had ever seen Luke flash and while it lit up the eighteen-year-old’s face like sunshine on an otherwise cloudy day, it twisted the insides of Reid’s abdomen until they were almost numb with a feeling that he didn’t recognize.
Holden was about to follow Lily, Lucinda and Dusty out of the hospital when he stopped, catching the doctor’s reflection in the glass pane beside the door. He frowned, watching Reid’s expression change from one of mild surprise when Noah’s hand first wrapped around Luke’s in a manner that could only be described as caring, to one of almost anger when Noah leaned in and kissed Luke with the utmost softness. His blue eyes had widened, the surprise almost holding a small amount of pleasure in it, before narrowing to match the clenching of his jaw and the curling of his fist. If Holden didn’t know any better, the reaction was almost homophobic and his lip curled in frustration against it.
“Problem, Dr. Oliver?” he demanded, holding an almost warning.
Reid frowned, tearing his eyes away from the scene with in a room and stuffing his clenched fist in side the pocket of his lab. He felt that if his jaw grew any tighter it might shatter, but he couldn’t do anything to stop the reaction. He glanced at Holden. “None at all, Mr. Snyder,” he replied, almost unable to withhold the furious snarl that rippled through his voice.
He knew he should have gone into the room and continued whatever he’d been doing before he’d left (he was having trouble remembering), but all he could do was turn away from the room and stalk off angrily down the hallway.
Chapter 12-->
***
Bah . . . I'm going to include some of the canon!Nuke stuff, but not directly. The Noah sightings will be as limited as I can manage.