Bulletproof (15/52)
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.
Comments much appreciated . . . I love them like Reid loves Luke.
Previous parts: prologue | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14
***
Luke groaned as he waited for the obnoxiously slow handicapped doors to open so that he could wheel himself into the hospital. He’d not felt quite so restless in a long time nor so depressed and it really annoyed him that he seemed to be bouncing between moods like a bipolar, teenage girl. He watched on with narrowed eyes as several kids darted past wearing Power Rangers costumes. He felt as though everyone was mocking him, going out and having a good time while he was stuck going to physical therapy. At least he had an excuse to get away from his parents, who were seriously driving him up the wall. And it annoyed him that his mom’s intermittent presence was either as a result of wanting to babysit him or the fact that she and his dad were getting separated. As it were, neither scenario sat well with him.
“Hey, Luke. Succumbing to the wills of the evil Dr. Oliver again?” Gretchen asked, smiling at him as he rolled toward the nurse’s station.
Luck chuckled slightly. “Aren’t we all? Where is he, anyway? I’d rather just get this over with and go home.”
“I last saw him up in pediatrics,” Gretchen smiled, raising her eyebrow at his dumbfounded expression before going off to do her rounds.
Luke frowned in utter confusion. He couldn’t imagine Dr. Reid Oliver hanging out with a bunch of sick children unless he was utilizing them for some evil experiment. He rolled himself over to the elevator, unable to stop himself from grinning at the image of Dr. Oliver strutting around a science-fiction laboratory in his lab coat, concocting some potion or another to cure the human race of its utter stupidity. He wondered why a therapy check-up with Dr. Oliver, of all people, seemed like the right thing to cheer him up.
The elevator pinged as it slid to a stop at the second floor and even before the doors opened, Luke could hear the sounds of Halloween-type music filtering in from pediatrics and the sounds to sick children having more fun than they had in months.
He waved happily at a couple of girls dressed up as Disney princesses as they ran by, nurses with IVs trailing after a few of them. Luke actually felt a little guilty then, wondering who he was go give up on himself when there was a high probability that he would get better. Especially in light of these kids, most of who might not even make it through the holidays.
He smiled at a passing nurse, asking her where he could find Dr. Oliver. He’d scanned the main room of the floor, unable to find him anywhere, though that could have been as a direct result of the fact that Luke was still unable to wrap his mind around Reid being here in the first place.
The nurse raised her eyebrows, smiling in mild amusement at the request and pointed down the hall toward one of the waiting rooms. He nodded and began to wheel his way slowly down the hall, the journey erratic as he desperately tried not to run over anyone.
He started in surprise when he turned the corner to see the waiting room transformed into a continuation of the activity center. There were several doctors and nurses helping children bob for apples, but the person he was looking for was over near the wall, helping a tiny, mousey-haired girl pin a ghost onto a haunted house.
Luke could do nothing but watch as the little girl was guided to the wall. When her hand collided with the poster on the wall, Reid smiled lightly and removed her blindfold. She grinned with a happiness that Luke had never thought possible and danced in a joyous circle of success before grabbing Reid’s hands and jumping up and down in excitement. Reid laughed happily, moving his arms up and down to accommodate her movement while desperately trying to stay balanced in his crouch. She pulled him over to another table, where someone had just brought out costumes for those children who didn’t have their own. Reid helped her search through it until they found a powder-blue Cinderella dress. She spread it across her lap excitedly before rifling through the box again. She giggled uncontrollable and motioned Reid closer. He raised his eyebrow but did as she asked, only to be rewarded by her sticking a halo on his head, her giggling shaking her entire body.
Reid flashed her a look of mock hurt. “Oh, come on, Annie. You’re going to ruin my reputation.”
She flashed him a smirk that was so characteristically Reid that Luke broke out into an even wider smile than the one that had developed on his face as a result of the unbearably adorable scene. She shook her head and reached up to remove the halo and replaced them with a pair of devil’s horns.
Reid nodded in satisfaction. “That’s more like it, young lady,” he grinned before chasing her off to her room to change into her costume. He settled back, watching her disappear affectionately, somehow not bothering to remove his headpiece.
Luke smirked and took the opportunity to wheel over to the table, commenting with a smug grin. “Aww . . . I think the angel costume suited your personality much better,” he laughed sarcastically.
Reid whirled around, having been completely unaware of Luke’s presence until the latter had spoken, almost falling out of the tiny seat that he was sitting in. his hand automatically flew up to his curls and he snatched the horns out of his hair, flinging them back into the box.
Luke pursed his lips. “But see, now you’re just a doctor,” he said sadly, gesturing at Reid’s lab coat. “How unoriginal.”
Reid shrugged, the back of his neck the lightest color of pink, so light that it wasn’t indiscernible from his tan. “I’m unique in every other sense. Not dressing up for Halloween is original.”
He glanced at Luke, mildly surprised that the boy wasn’t putting on a pout about being unable to participate in various Halloween shenanigans with other college freshmen. With his boyfriend. “You ready?”
Luke shrugged. “I’m clearly not the one playing dress-up, so I’m all set.”
Reid’s mouth twisted itself into a displeased smirk at Luke’s friendly teasing, as though they were more than doctor and patient. “Right. Burt is trick-or-treating with his brats, so it’ll just be you and me tonight.”
Luke opened his mouth, his brain instantly jumping into immature college mode to make an inappropriate remark, but at that moment Annie darted out of her room, happily calling Reid’s name. She stopped to whirl expertly before him. “How do I look?” she asked, pausing in her glee to gaze seriously at him.
He fell into a crouch to stare straight at her. “Belle of the ball. Will you be okay with Nurse Gretchen? I have some work to do.”
Annie glanced at Luke and crinkled her nose at him. How dare he take away her playmate? “I guess,” she replied.
“Please. Nurse Gretchen is fun. She cries,” Reid informed the young girl, waggling his eyebrows comically, before pointing her in the direction of the brunette nurse. “All right, Snyder, let’s go.”
***
Reid wheeled Luke into an empty therapy room, which was the only one that seemed to be completely free of cardboard bats hanging from the ceiling and cobwebs glued to the corners. Luke shook his head before smirking at his stone-cold doctor. “So. You secretly adore kids. When that gets out your reputation will be shot to hell.”
“I don’t like kids,” Reid answered, shifting through the file to look at Luke’s latest scans and his therapy outline. “They’re so . . .” He shivered mockingly. “Plus, they always seem to have jam on their hands. Even if there’s no jam in the vicinity, they have jam hands. It’s uncanny.”
“Uh huh. And Annie?”
“She’s a patient,” Reid replied, flicking the folder shut and settling down in a seat near Luke. “Had to fly her in as she has a bit of an expiration date if I don’t perform surgery soon.”
“Oh . . .” Luke murmured, casting a guilty look down at his useless legs. “What’s she . . .”
“Doctor/patient confidentiality, Mr. Snyder.”
“Right,” Luke muttered, leaning back in his seat. He desperately needed to change the subject. “So . . . you don’t like kids? Big fan of Halloween then? I suppose if you like the holiday it’s as good an excuse as any to subject yourself to jam hands,” Luke teased.
“Please, it’s a pathetic, devil-worshiping holiday that teaches kids that gluttony is okay and doesn’t lead to obesity. And it doesn’t exactly teach self-identity. Why anyone would want to participate in it is beyond me,” Reid replied, wondering why they were spending so much time talking rather than getting stuff done. If he were in Luke’s shoes, he figured he would have wanted to get out as soon as possible.
“Oh, you can’t possibly be that cynical, even on a bad day.”
Reid snorted, leaning forward in his seat. “I bet you don’t have any Halloween related memories that don’t involve you in a pirate costume stuffing your face with chocolate and then throwing up the next day.”
“That only happened once!” Luke joked, but settled back, his hand rubbing his leg lightly. “I guess . . . my favorite Halloweens were always spent on the farm. My dad’s family’s farm, that is. Like . . . when I was little, maybe . . . seven, I couldn’t sleep, so my grandma Emma took me out on this hayride. The moon was out, and all the scarecrows in the fields were covered with these old sheets, and she started telling me this story about all the spirits that lived in the reeds down by Snyder Pond.”
Reid watched him intently, so completely and utterly fascinated that he barely remembered to sneakily ease himself into the situation and begin moving Luke’s leg back and forth gently. The blonde closed his eyes as he spoke, his breathing slowing as though he were reciting a dream that he was at that very moment having. Reid swallowed, his fingers trembling slightly in their actions, as his eyes couldn’t help but roam, unhindered by the possibility that Luke might catch him looking. Might catch him passing his gaze intently over the definitive arch of Luke’s cheekbones and the gorgeous shape of his incredibly full lips. Lips that would be perfect for-
“It’s kind of lame, but . . .” Luke stopped as his eyes opened and he caught Reid’s darkened eyes watching him with unbelievable intensity. He swallowed, his eyes darting down as Reid’s tongue flitted out of his mouth to wet his lips. He tried to control his breathing and he mentally chanted, Noah, boyfriend, Noah, boyfriend, Noah . . . Dr. Oliver . . . Rei-no! Noah-
“No . . . not so lame at all . . .” Reid murmured giving him a faint smile. Luke had almost gained enough control of his senses to smile back when he felt a light shot of pain ripple through his leg.
“Ow! Shit!” Luke exclaimed his hand flying to his left leg and landing on the soft skin of Reid’s arm. He grimaced lightly before feeling the lack of jeans under his palm and opening his eyes, as though just realizing that they had been going through the exercises.
Reid barely registered the skin-on-skin contact before flying immediately into doctor mode, his eyes narrowing in concern. His hand quickly released Luke’s thigh from the grip it had, though it remained resting there. “Did you feel something?” When Luke nodded, the edges of Reid’s lips darted up slightly. “Describe it to me.”
“It’s, errm . . . It’s like,” Luke struggled, trying to recall the momentary flash of feeling, especially now that it had faded away. “I just . . . I think I felt your hand, like it was gripping me a little too tightly. I, errm . . . I can’t feel it now,” he admitted sadly.
Reid nodded, gently pulling his hand out from under Luke’s. Luke started and pulled his hand back, clenching it into a fist and hiding it between his thigh and the wheelchair. Reid stood up and walked over to the counter, making a quick note. He didn’t say anything as he was doing so.
“Is that . . . What does that mean? Is it good?” Luke inquired curiously, still tingling nervously from the seemingly out of body experience they both had before Luke’s leg had reminded them what they should be focusing on.
Reid smiled at the papers. “It ain’t bad. I think we should call that a day.”
“What! But we haven’t even done anything!” Luke exclaimed, maneuvering his wheelchair in a half circle to face Reid’s back. “We were just starting to get somewhere!”
“Feeling in your legs. That’s a good sign. That means that the swelling is receding. But we also can’t push it. The point of the therapy is to help you regain the use of your legs in accordance to your brain healing. If you push yourself when you still can’t feel your legs and feel the strain, we could cause additional damage rather than preventing it,” Reid explained, turning around and leaning back against the counter. “Baby steps, Mr. Snyder.”
Luke frowned. He hated being deterred when it finally seemed like he was making progress, but he mostly felt like he’d rather stay at the hospital ( . . . with Dr. Oliver . . .) rather than going home. “If you say so.”
“I do say so,” Reid declared, walking around Luke (keeping what appeared to be an unnecessarily large distance) and easing open the door. “So get out of here and go . . . celebrate.”
Luke smirked. “Ouch. That looked like it took some effort.,” he commented before wheeling past Reid and down the hall. If he was free for the rest of the night . . . perhaps he might as well find Noah. Share his good news.
Reid watched Luke wheel himself into the elevator, feeling immensely satisfied with himself and Luke’s progress, but also wishing that it wasn’t happening quite so fast. He couldn’t understand where this sentiment came from, but if a couple of weeks ago he wished to get out of Oakdale as fast as possible, now he didn’t quite want Luke to recover so quickly.
“Dr. Oliver!”
He glanced down slightly to see Annie running toward him, her curls bouncing against the fabric of her dress. His brow furrowed when he saw that she was unaccompanied. “Hey, kiddo. Where’s Nurse Gretchen?”
Annie shrugged, trying to pout but showing a strange, Reid-like pleasure. “I think I made her cry and she didn’t want to play with me anymore,” she stated matter-of-factly.
Reid raised his eyebrows, unable to stop himself from chuckling and patting her gently on the head. “Good for you, kid.”
Chapter 16-->
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.
Comments much appreciated . . . I love them like Reid loves Luke.
Previous parts: prologue | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14
***
Luke groaned as he waited for the obnoxiously slow handicapped doors to open so that he could wheel himself into the hospital. He’d not felt quite so restless in a long time nor so depressed and it really annoyed him that he seemed to be bouncing between moods like a bipolar, teenage girl. He watched on with narrowed eyes as several kids darted past wearing Power Rangers costumes. He felt as though everyone was mocking him, going out and having a good time while he was stuck going to physical therapy. At least he had an excuse to get away from his parents, who were seriously driving him up the wall. And it annoyed him that his mom’s intermittent presence was either as a result of wanting to babysit him or the fact that she and his dad were getting separated. As it were, neither scenario sat well with him.
“Hey, Luke. Succumbing to the wills of the evil Dr. Oliver again?” Gretchen asked, smiling at him as he rolled toward the nurse’s station.
Luck chuckled slightly. “Aren’t we all? Where is he, anyway? I’d rather just get this over with and go home.”
“I last saw him up in pediatrics,” Gretchen smiled, raising her eyebrow at his dumbfounded expression before going off to do her rounds.
Luke frowned in utter confusion. He couldn’t imagine Dr. Reid Oliver hanging out with a bunch of sick children unless he was utilizing them for some evil experiment. He rolled himself over to the elevator, unable to stop himself from grinning at the image of Dr. Oliver strutting around a science-fiction laboratory in his lab coat, concocting some potion or another to cure the human race of its utter stupidity. He wondered why a therapy check-up with Dr. Oliver, of all people, seemed like the right thing to cheer him up.
The elevator pinged as it slid to a stop at the second floor and even before the doors opened, Luke could hear the sounds of Halloween-type music filtering in from pediatrics and the sounds to sick children having more fun than they had in months.
He waved happily at a couple of girls dressed up as Disney princesses as they ran by, nurses with IVs trailing after a few of them. Luke actually felt a little guilty then, wondering who he was go give up on himself when there was a high probability that he would get better. Especially in light of these kids, most of who might not even make it through the holidays.
He smiled at a passing nurse, asking her where he could find Dr. Oliver. He’d scanned the main room of the floor, unable to find him anywhere, though that could have been as a direct result of the fact that Luke was still unable to wrap his mind around Reid being here in the first place.
The nurse raised her eyebrows, smiling in mild amusement at the request and pointed down the hall toward one of the waiting rooms. He nodded and began to wheel his way slowly down the hall, the journey erratic as he desperately tried not to run over anyone.
He started in surprise when he turned the corner to see the waiting room transformed into a continuation of the activity center. There were several doctors and nurses helping children bob for apples, but the person he was looking for was over near the wall, helping a tiny, mousey-haired girl pin a ghost onto a haunted house.
Luke could do nothing but watch as the little girl was guided to the wall. When her hand collided with the poster on the wall, Reid smiled lightly and removed her blindfold. She grinned with a happiness that Luke had never thought possible and danced in a joyous circle of success before grabbing Reid’s hands and jumping up and down in excitement. Reid laughed happily, moving his arms up and down to accommodate her movement while desperately trying to stay balanced in his crouch. She pulled him over to another table, where someone had just brought out costumes for those children who didn’t have their own. Reid helped her search through it until they found a powder-blue Cinderella dress. She spread it across her lap excitedly before rifling through the box again. She giggled uncontrollable and motioned Reid closer. He raised his eyebrow but did as she asked, only to be rewarded by her sticking a halo on his head, her giggling shaking her entire body.
Reid flashed her a look of mock hurt. “Oh, come on, Annie. You’re going to ruin my reputation.”
She flashed him a smirk that was so characteristically Reid that Luke broke out into an even wider smile than the one that had developed on his face as a result of the unbearably adorable scene. She shook her head and reached up to remove the halo and replaced them with a pair of devil’s horns.
Reid nodded in satisfaction. “That’s more like it, young lady,” he grinned before chasing her off to her room to change into her costume. He settled back, watching her disappear affectionately, somehow not bothering to remove his headpiece.
Luke smirked and took the opportunity to wheel over to the table, commenting with a smug grin. “Aww . . . I think the angel costume suited your personality much better,” he laughed sarcastically.
Reid whirled around, having been completely unaware of Luke’s presence until the latter had spoken, almost falling out of the tiny seat that he was sitting in. his hand automatically flew up to his curls and he snatched the horns out of his hair, flinging them back into the box.
Luke pursed his lips. “But see, now you’re just a doctor,” he said sadly, gesturing at Reid’s lab coat. “How unoriginal.”
Reid shrugged, the back of his neck the lightest color of pink, so light that it wasn’t indiscernible from his tan. “I’m unique in every other sense. Not dressing up for Halloween is original.”
He glanced at Luke, mildly surprised that the boy wasn’t putting on a pout about being unable to participate in various Halloween shenanigans with other college freshmen. With his boyfriend. “You ready?”
Luke shrugged. “I’m clearly not the one playing dress-up, so I’m all set.”
Reid’s mouth twisted itself into a displeased smirk at Luke’s friendly teasing, as though they were more than doctor and patient. “Right. Burt is trick-or-treating with his brats, so it’ll just be you and me tonight.”
Luke opened his mouth, his brain instantly jumping into immature college mode to make an inappropriate remark, but at that moment Annie darted out of her room, happily calling Reid’s name. She stopped to whirl expertly before him. “How do I look?” she asked, pausing in her glee to gaze seriously at him.
He fell into a crouch to stare straight at her. “Belle of the ball. Will you be okay with Nurse Gretchen? I have some work to do.”
Annie glanced at Luke and crinkled her nose at him. How dare he take away her playmate? “I guess,” she replied.
“Please. Nurse Gretchen is fun. She cries,” Reid informed the young girl, waggling his eyebrows comically, before pointing her in the direction of the brunette nurse. “All right, Snyder, let’s go.”
***
Reid wheeled Luke into an empty therapy room, which was the only one that seemed to be completely free of cardboard bats hanging from the ceiling and cobwebs glued to the corners. Luke shook his head before smirking at his stone-cold doctor. “So. You secretly adore kids. When that gets out your reputation will be shot to hell.”
“I don’t like kids,” Reid answered, shifting through the file to look at Luke’s latest scans and his therapy outline. “They’re so . . .” He shivered mockingly. “Plus, they always seem to have jam on their hands. Even if there’s no jam in the vicinity, they have jam hands. It’s uncanny.”
“Uh huh. And Annie?”
“She’s a patient,” Reid replied, flicking the folder shut and settling down in a seat near Luke. “Had to fly her in as she has a bit of an expiration date if I don’t perform surgery soon.”
“Oh . . .” Luke murmured, casting a guilty look down at his useless legs. “What’s she . . .”
“Doctor/patient confidentiality, Mr. Snyder.”
“Right,” Luke muttered, leaning back in his seat. He desperately needed to change the subject. “So . . . you don’t like kids? Big fan of Halloween then? I suppose if you like the holiday it’s as good an excuse as any to subject yourself to jam hands,” Luke teased.
“Please, it’s a pathetic, devil-worshiping holiday that teaches kids that gluttony is okay and doesn’t lead to obesity. And it doesn’t exactly teach self-identity. Why anyone would want to participate in it is beyond me,” Reid replied, wondering why they were spending so much time talking rather than getting stuff done. If he were in Luke’s shoes, he figured he would have wanted to get out as soon as possible.
“Oh, you can’t possibly be that cynical, even on a bad day.”
Reid snorted, leaning forward in his seat. “I bet you don’t have any Halloween related memories that don’t involve you in a pirate costume stuffing your face with chocolate and then throwing up the next day.”
“That only happened once!” Luke joked, but settled back, his hand rubbing his leg lightly. “I guess . . . my favorite Halloweens were always spent on the farm. My dad’s family’s farm, that is. Like . . . when I was little, maybe . . . seven, I couldn’t sleep, so my grandma Emma took me out on this hayride. The moon was out, and all the scarecrows in the fields were covered with these old sheets, and she started telling me this story about all the spirits that lived in the reeds down by Snyder Pond.”
Reid watched him intently, so completely and utterly fascinated that he barely remembered to sneakily ease himself into the situation and begin moving Luke’s leg back and forth gently. The blonde closed his eyes as he spoke, his breathing slowing as though he were reciting a dream that he was at that very moment having. Reid swallowed, his fingers trembling slightly in their actions, as his eyes couldn’t help but roam, unhindered by the possibility that Luke might catch him looking. Might catch him passing his gaze intently over the definitive arch of Luke’s cheekbones and the gorgeous shape of his incredibly full lips. Lips that would be perfect for-
“It’s kind of lame, but . . .” Luke stopped as his eyes opened and he caught Reid’s darkened eyes watching him with unbelievable intensity. He swallowed, his eyes darting down as Reid’s tongue flitted out of his mouth to wet his lips. He tried to control his breathing and he mentally chanted, Noah, boyfriend, Noah, boyfriend, Noah . . . Dr. Oliver . . . Rei-no! Noah-
“No . . . not so lame at all . . .” Reid murmured giving him a faint smile. Luke had almost gained enough control of his senses to smile back when he felt a light shot of pain ripple through his leg.
“Ow! Shit!” Luke exclaimed his hand flying to his left leg and landing on the soft skin of Reid’s arm. He grimaced lightly before feeling the lack of jeans under his palm and opening his eyes, as though just realizing that they had been going through the exercises.
Reid barely registered the skin-on-skin contact before flying immediately into doctor mode, his eyes narrowing in concern. His hand quickly released Luke’s thigh from the grip it had, though it remained resting there. “Did you feel something?” When Luke nodded, the edges of Reid’s lips darted up slightly. “Describe it to me.”
“It’s, errm . . . It’s like,” Luke struggled, trying to recall the momentary flash of feeling, especially now that it had faded away. “I just . . . I think I felt your hand, like it was gripping me a little too tightly. I, errm . . . I can’t feel it now,” he admitted sadly.
Reid nodded, gently pulling his hand out from under Luke’s. Luke started and pulled his hand back, clenching it into a fist and hiding it between his thigh and the wheelchair. Reid stood up and walked over to the counter, making a quick note. He didn’t say anything as he was doing so.
“Is that . . . What does that mean? Is it good?” Luke inquired curiously, still tingling nervously from the seemingly out of body experience they both had before Luke’s leg had reminded them what they should be focusing on.
Reid smiled at the papers. “It ain’t bad. I think we should call that a day.”
“What! But we haven’t even done anything!” Luke exclaimed, maneuvering his wheelchair in a half circle to face Reid’s back. “We were just starting to get somewhere!”
“Feeling in your legs. That’s a good sign. That means that the swelling is receding. But we also can’t push it. The point of the therapy is to help you regain the use of your legs in accordance to your brain healing. If you push yourself when you still can’t feel your legs and feel the strain, we could cause additional damage rather than preventing it,” Reid explained, turning around and leaning back against the counter. “Baby steps, Mr. Snyder.”
Luke frowned. He hated being deterred when it finally seemed like he was making progress, but he mostly felt like he’d rather stay at the hospital ( . . . with Dr. Oliver . . .) rather than going home. “If you say so.”
“I do say so,” Reid declared, walking around Luke (keeping what appeared to be an unnecessarily large distance) and easing open the door. “So get out of here and go . . . celebrate.”
Luke smirked. “Ouch. That looked like it took some effort.,” he commented before wheeling past Reid and down the hall. If he was free for the rest of the night . . . perhaps he might as well find Noah. Share his good news.
Reid watched Luke wheel himself into the elevator, feeling immensely satisfied with himself and Luke’s progress, but also wishing that it wasn’t happening quite so fast. He couldn’t understand where this sentiment came from, but if a couple of weeks ago he wished to get out of Oakdale as fast as possible, now he didn’t quite want Luke to recover so quickly.
“Dr. Oliver!”
He glanced down slightly to see Annie running toward him, her curls bouncing against the fabric of her dress. His brow furrowed when he saw that she was unaccompanied. “Hey, kiddo. Where’s Nurse Gretchen?”
Annie shrugged, trying to pout but showing a strange, Reid-like pleasure. “I think I made her cry and she didn’t want to play with me anymore,” she stated matter-of-factly.
Reid raised his eyebrows, unable to stop himself from chuckling and patting her gently on the head. “Good for you, kid.”
Chapter 16-->