Bulletproof (21/52)
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 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20
***
Reid rubbed his hands around the cardboard outside of his coffee cup, marveling at the interesting shapes formed by his breath in the frosty December air. He’d never spent winters in places that didn’t necessarily have a winter, per se, but he almost felt as though the thick, Oakdale air heightened the intensity of the season.
He had no idea why Katie had wanted to meet him in Old Towne. He felt that her voice had implied that she was worried about his surgery on Annie, but he had reassured her (several times, in fact), that the surgery had gone flawlessly and that Annie was in the process of recovering; she’d even woken up a couple of days prior. That, however, did not stop Katie from claiming that he needed a shopping trip to raise his spirits and then proceeding to make him wait in the cold in the middle of Old Towne because he had no idea which store she wanted to meet in.
“There you are!” he heard behind him and turned around to see Katie barreling into him. She began to push him into the nearest store, though she did it in such a way that, from the outside perspective, it appeared that it was Reid that was doing the dragging.
“That the-”
“Oh, jeez, Reid, chill out!” Katie exclaimed in mock annoyance, tossing her blonde locks back. “Its just snow. Frozen water. I know you Texans have never seen such amazement, but seriously, no need to just drag me into the store.”
“Knowledge of evil, Peretti,” Reid growled, only putting up mild resistance. “Don’t make me use it.”
“Oh, and you can’t have this in there,” she claimed, grabbing his coffee and expertly tossing it in the garbage just before they entered the store.
Reid’s eyes widened in shock. “That’s . . . that’s my coffee,” he muttered in disbelief.
“Oh, grow up,” Katie laughed, letting go of him and unwinding her scarf from around her neck. “How’re you enjoying the first snowfall of the season?”
“Okay, first of all, I’m from Cambridge. Massachusetts. I have seen more snow in a season than I ever care to in my life,” Reid grumbled, glancing in melancholy at the wastebasket that now contained his precious caramel latte. “So if you wanted to make Texan/snowfall jokes, first check your facts and second, do it during the actual first snowfall of the season.”
“You were in surgery,” Katie pointed out, strolling to the nearest table and perusing the selections. Reid frowned momentarily, realizing that they were in a bookstore and for some reason finding it difficult to believe that Katie’s shopping would take place in one.
“I’m rarely in surgery for twenty-four hours at a time,” he countered, meandering over to the table next to hers and glancing curiously at bundles of expensive-looking, leather-bound journals. “Second of all, you owe me coffee. Third of all, I don’t shop.”
Katie laughed and bounded over to him. “That’s okay. I’m the one doing the shopping and then I plan on feeding you, so don’t be a grouch. Do you like that?” she asked, pointing to the ones in his hand.
“So why the hell do you need me before the part that includes food? And not particularly,” he replied, setting the journals aside gently.
“Because I’ve given up trying to figure out what to get you for Christmas and so I figured I’d drag you to the one place in town that you’d perhaps consider shopping in and just ask you what you want.”
Reid’s eyes crinkled in surprise, oddly touched. “Oh. You don’t have to get me anything.”
“Yeah, I figured you haven’t gotten me anything,” Katie laughed, glancing behind her as she made her way back toward the science section, pleased to see that he was following her slowly, eyes scanning the possibilities like a child in a candy store. “Nice that I’m the bigger person in our relationship.”
Reid laughed sarcastically, fingers trailing gently over the books as he walked. “Good to see you have self-less reasons.”
“Oh, sure. Pick something,” she commanded, spreading her arms and spinning in a little circle to encompass all his choices.
He shook his head, mildly amazed. He hadn’t even thought about any sort of reading material, other than textbooks, medical journals and newspapers, since he’d started medical school. “I really don’t care.
“So, Twilight?” Katie grinned evilly, grabbing the nearest book that she knew Reid would balk at.
“Fuck no,” Reid snorted. “I would rather die.” He perused the shelves quickly and grabbed the nearest book that didn’t repulse him and wasn’t of an unbelievable length. “Here.”
“Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde?” Katie murmured in amusement. “Story of your life?”
“Nope. I’m always Mr. Hyde, just in doctor form. Dr. Hyde, if you will,” he replied.
Katie laughed. “Alright, if that’s what you want. I’ll ring this up and then we’ll head over to Al’s.”
Reid crinkled his nose as he followed her. “Al’s? That is the food you’re proposing? Come now, I thought you would go out of your way for some fancy, Christmas-type food.”
“Vienna will be cooking some sort of traditional, Swedish Christmas meal.”
Reid’s eyes widened, as though he were both horrified by that particular thought and excited by another. “I’ve already had meatballs this week. But . . . are you implying that Hank will be there?”
Katie rolled her eyes before handing him the plastic bag with his present in it. “Here. And yes, Henry will be there. I didn’t know you knew him.”
“I had a very . . . pleasant encounter with him once,” Reid replied, chuckling evilly. “Katie, if you’d wanted to give me a present, that’s the only one I would want,” he told her ominously, buttoning his coat with one hand as they emerged into the cold, Illinois air.
Katie chuckled. “I’ll remember that for next time.”
“That’s assuming there will be a next time, which is an awfully large assumption to make,” Reid muttered, pausing suddenly in the middle of the square, halfway between the lone bench and the bookstore. It took Katie several minutes to realize that he wasn’t walking with her.
“What?” she inquired, raising an eyebrow at his oddly pensive face.
“I’ll meet you there.”
“Reid-”
“I’m not skipping out,” he promised, taking a couple of steps back in the direction from which he’d come. “I wouldn’t want to pass up an opportunity to make fun of Hank. I just have to take care of something.” He gave her a small wave before doubling back purposefully to the bookstore.
Katie raised her eyebrow, observing him carefully through the window momentarily before continuing on her way, mildly wondering what Holden might think of the purchase she was sure Reid was making, denial be damned.
***
Luke glanced up and over his shoulder as he heard the sound of the porch door open and felt the smallest hint of a chilly breeze on his back. “Hey,” he called to Noah, who smiled in reply and dropped his bag on the floor. He shifted slightly in his seat and finished the sentence he was typing.
“Hey. Oh . . . don’t get up!” Noah commented, holding his hand up as though Luke were about to jump out of his wheelchair and begin running laps around the kitchen island.
“Oh ho . . .” Luke laughed sarcastically, triumphantly punching a period and Ctrl, save before closing his laptop. “That handicapped humor never gets old, does it? You know, I’ve grown to expect it from Dr. Oliver, but you,” he shook his head in disappointment, as though the end of the sentence physically pained him. He grinned as Noah came over and leaned against he table. “Hey,” he murmured, his voice lower.
Noah grinned, before leaning in and cupping Luke’s face gently, his fingers cold from the outside air. “Hey,” he replied, kissing Luke softly. Luke responded in turn, but noises from the outside kept the kiss from growing out of its youthful chasteness.
“Hmm . . . You’re early,” Luke grinned as they pulled apart
Noah shrugged. “My exam . . . last question was on Best Years of Our Lives. I’ve only seen it about three hundred times. So how’re you doing?”
“I’m doing good.”
Noah raised an eyebrow. “And how’re you doing with-”
“Shhh,” Luke shushed, glancing around the kitchen tentatively. “Hardly a Tiny-Tim-esque Christmas miracle if you blab it all over the kitchen.”
Noah laughed, leaning back against his hands. “You’re really not going to let anyone know?”
“Well, Burt knows, vaguely, but I don’t think he’ll tell,” Luke joked.
“Ah. Just me and Burt? The great Dr. Oliver didn’t demand to know about every aspect of your life?” Noah inquired, smirking lightly to show his humor.
Luke’s grin faltered slightly at this mention of Dr. Oliver, not in the sense that it may have brought his spirits down, but in the sense that it stirred that slumbering dragon in the pit of his stomach. And ever since Thanksgiving, when he’d fully realized that said dragon was present and would ultimately be unfed in light of what appeared to be Dr. Oliver and Katie as opposed to simply Dr. Oliver, Katie, he’d found himself to be rather anxious when the man was brought up, especially after they'd seen each other at the hospital and Dr. Oliver had been so . . . caring. And in light of the fact that he had come desperately close to letting Dr. Oliver in on aspects of his life that he wouldn’t reveal to a different practitioner. And yet ever since he’d made his way from the couch to the bookshelf the other day, he’d wanted to see Dr. Oliver’s face at the marvel. Just imagining it gave Luke feeling of warmth, like when he’d sit in front of the fireplace and feel the heat of the flames lick his face.
“No,” Luke laughed slightly, pretending that the mention of the good doctor hadn’t affected him in the slightest. “But I’m sure he’ll figure it out eventually. And if he complains about me not getting him a gratuitous Christmas present, I’ll just strut back and forth in front of him and call it a day.” Luke didn’t get a chance to say anything more on the matter as Faith and Natalie burst into the room and dragged Noah off to the stables to marvel at the miracle of life.
Luke leaned back in his wheelchair and sighed, reaching into his backpack and pulling out a worn notebook, filled almost to its entirety with half-finished ideas and words that may have had some sort of meaning when Luke had written them, in hopes of returning to their origins, but that meaning was lost at the bottom of the sea with the scrolls carried by the victors of the Trojan wars, never gaining the ability to see home again. It was as though the words were written by someone that was once him, but no longer was.
One of the last words in the notebook came atop the third to last page, with three question marks and several underlines following it. Love. When he opened up to that page, he had to react quickly to catch the card that fell out. It was one that Noah had given to him several days before, as though he would have been embarrassed to do so at Christmas with the rest of the Snyders present. As though his and Luke’s Christmas deserved to be celebrated privately before diving into the familial.
Luke flipped it open, his expression neither changing into a smile nor a frown as he read the now-memorized words on the page.
Luke,
I wish I had your way with words, but I don’t. Thank you for never giving up on me, even when I pushed you away. For believing that our love may not have to work in the same, complicated way that your parents’ love does. Being with you has made me happier than I have ever been. You and your family are more of a home than I ever could have wished to have. And I hope that you know that you did no wrong in not taking your words back.
Merry Christmas, Luke.
Noah
Luke shook his head. A small part of him wished that Noah had verified what they were doing with at least a Love before his name. On the other hand, Luke knew there was a difference between telling someone that you love them and using the word loosely in a valediction. And he also knew that Noah was wrong, because in his heart, not only had the words been taken back, they hadn’t really been uttered at all.
***
Reid lingered outside of Al’s, two bags in hand, contemplating whether he seriously wanted to expose himself to whatever would be going on inside. Survival seemed a necessary component here, but then he had the choice of braving the insanity to get possibly disgusting food and abandoning the food for being permanently blinded by Henry Coleman’s shirt. And as much as he needed to eat, he needed his eyes just as much as he needed to see.
He wrinkled his nose as Katie spotted him and waved him in and he was sure there was absolutely no chance that he could even attempt to walk away then. He pushed his way into the diner gingerly, as though he were afraid of being knocked over by the combination of heavenly smells and the radiation that seemed to be floating away from Henry’s shirt.
“Hey, what took you so long?” Katie asked, her words almost loud enough to drown out Henry’s appalled, “You invited him?”
“Stuff,” Reid replied ominously before glancing triumphantly at Henry. “Hey there, Hank.” He glanced over Henry’s shoulder as Vienna came out of the back, stripping herself of her apron. He pouted at Henry. “No one told me it was going to be a foursome, Hank. I’m mighty disappointed.”
Henry sputtered indignantly before turning to Katie. “Okay, one, how do you know him? Two, why would you ever, ever stop to talk to him? Three, why would you invite him to ruin our lovely Christmas dinner?”
“One, I met him when I went to visit Luke in the hospital. Two, because he was Luke’s doctor and later because I needed a roommate and it seemed he did as well. Three, because he and I already ruined the Snyders’ Thanksgiving and, frankly, I think we’ve got a winning streak going on here.”
Reid chuckled, stopping into seriousness as he spotted the deadly look on Henry’s face. “Okay, if you’re going to challenge me to a clown duel, I left my over-the-top shirt with my lab coat, so it’s going to have to wait.”
Henry was saved the trouble of answering as Vienna swept past him and deposited a platter of sausages on the table. Her look of apprehension broke out into a smile when she saw at least one person regarding the meal hungrily.
***
“Noah! Come now, eat up!” Emma reprimanded him sternly as he hesitated over his umpteenth pound of ham.
“Ma’am, it’s delicious, I just haven’t had this much food in all of December,” Noah laughed, patting his stomach gingerly as though afraid it would burst if he applied too much pressure.
“Well, you can lose it by helping Grandma distribute presents to churches,” Luke chimed, smirking as Noah threw him a wilted look at this subtle jab at his eating habits. “No one likes a fat boyfriend, especially if he’s standing next to someone as dashing as myself,” he commented helpfully.
The rest of his family fell into wholeheartedly reprimanding him for his sudden lack of tact before falling into natural conversation. Luke took his opportunity to look around the table, feeling as though there were infinite members of their significantly large family missing from the table, as well as people whom they barely knew, yet seemed in his heart like they should belong. He vaguely wondered how interesting holidays would be Dr. Oliver were present, shooting down everyone’s notions of Christmas miracles and the joy of the season.
He shook his head before smiling to himself, pleased that everyone seemed to be so engaged in their conversations that they weren’t paying all that much attention to him. He slyly slid his wheelchair back and, gripping the armrests precisely and puling himself to his feet, imagining the adrenaline rushing through his veins and Reid’s smirking face before him, as he had the first time he’d shakily risen to his feet. Like he had each time he’d practiced making his way further from his chair. Face in the back of his mind’s eye, like a familiar friend beckoning, he limped gingerly over to the island counter, sighing slightly in relief as the passage was breached without a hitch.
He heard a stilled hush in the conversation behind him and turned, smiling his smile innocence with the greatest hint of triumph. “What?” he shrugged, the act of walking now an everyday occurrence that should not require shock or infinite pleasure. “We were out of butter.”
***
“What would a cardiologist say if he saw you eating like that?” Henry demanded, picking slightly at his food while gazing in complete awe and appall at Reid as he shoveled several sausages and sauerkraut onto his fork.
Reid considered this as he chewed. “Bon appetit?” he responded, mouth full, before winking cheekily at Vienna.
“That’s a heart attack waiting to happen,” Henry informed him. Vienna frowned at this insult to her culture and turned to see how Reid would respond.
Reid shrugged. “I’ve been carving up the brains of health-conscious people for years. If a couple of them had stopped and smelled the salami and cheese they’d have been much better off. And I think your shirt is more likely to instill a seizure than this meal a heart attack.”
Henry huffed, crossing his arms over his chest and his multi-colored, striped shirt as though he could hide it in that manner from Reid’s mockery. Vienna nodded sagely, as though she had told Henry multiple times about the shirt, but left it at that because she cared for him more than she disliked his eccentric taste. She smiled at Reid and offering him a plate of cheeses. “My Henry appears to have a weak metabolism. Cheese?”
Reid licked his lips and accepted. “Ah, heaven.”
Katie laughed, taking a bite of fish. “Seriously? This is what heaven would look like to you?”
Reid pondered this as he took a sip of beer. “There would perhaps be a scantily-clad, attractive man in the room as well as several sandwich buns, but other than that . . .yeah, this might do. Sans either Hank or his shirt, though. I have no room for monstrosities in heaven.”
Henry laughed sarcastically before flashing a pained look at Katie, who did nothing more than grin cheekily at him before moving on to some dessert. He turned to Reid in frustration. “The god-like Dr. Oliver, making the lame to walk and the blind to see, but not letting me into heaven because of my fashion taste? What would the baby Jesus say?”
Reid raised an eyebrow. “I have standards. And ‘the lame to walk and the blind to see?’ I like the sound of that. I’m working on the former, but the latter is something that I could definitely look into.”
Henry groaned. “I don’t even know why I bother talking to you. We get no where with conversation.”
“Then how about we stop talking and make a toast?” Katie offered, raising her glass of wine. “To the miracle of a year that will be better than the one that came before it.”
“If you say, ‘God bless us, every one,’ and turn this into The Christmas Carol but without the ghosts, I swear I will smack you,” Reid muttered, holding his glass only a millimeter about the table.
Katie wrinkled her nose. “Way to keep up the mood, Ebenezer.”
***
Luke groaned as his covers were tugged away from his body, exposing it to the exceptional chill of his room. “Natalie,” he moaned, rolling over onto his side, for the first time in over a month sleeping in his own bed. He checked the alarm clock and resisted the urge to bury his head underneath his pillow. 6:05 am. He was sure he hadn’t been quite so present-crazy when he was younger.
Laziness, however, stands no chance against the joy of youth on Christmas morning and Luke proceeded to be pulled out of bed and down the stairs, smiling in apology at Noah, who had apparently been pulled into a sitting position. Luke flopped down on the couch next to him and leaned his head sleepily on Noah’s shoulder.
“Remind me to apologize for this torture when I’m more coherent,” he mumbled into the fabric of Noah’s T-shirt.
Noah started at the sudden proximity and gently removed his arm from where it was being crushed by Luke’s body and wound it around Luke’s shoulders. “Eh. This isn’t that bad,” he replied softly.
“Morning,” Holden yawned, stretching as he entered the room. He laughed in mild shock at the eagerness with which Natalie and Faith were hovering near the Christmas tree and the rapidness with which they attacked the neatly wrapped packages the minute Holden entered, completing their family.
“Oi, Luke,” he grinned, tossing a partially snow-damp package on Luke’s lap. “This was outside, addressed to you.”
Luke opened his eyes wide enough to observe the package carefully. He smiled, ominously murmuring, “Oh, mystery package,” before opening it and withdrawing two leather-bound journals. He started and sat up with slight surprise and pleasure before rifling through the box to try to find a card. None found, he flipped open the binding of the first, then the second, before pausing at an inscription on the inside.
“Hide not your talents. They for use were made. What's a sundial in the shade?”
Benjamin Franklin
There was no name, but the newly-discovered warmth was a familiar one and pinpointed his suspicions on one person, despite the fact that said person was the most unlikely gift-giver Luke could think up.
Chapter 22-->
***
A/N: This chapter is a bit longer than usual (yay!) but I suppose it balances out since the next one is a wee bit shorter than usual (nooo!) :D
And my apologies to anyone wounded by the Twilight bashing. I mean no harm :)
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 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20
***
Reid rubbed his hands around the cardboard outside of his coffee cup, marveling at the interesting shapes formed by his breath in the frosty December air. He’d never spent winters in places that didn’t necessarily have a winter, per se, but he almost felt as though the thick, Oakdale air heightened the intensity of the season.
He had no idea why Katie had wanted to meet him in Old Towne. He felt that her voice had implied that she was worried about his surgery on Annie, but he had reassured her (several times, in fact), that the surgery had gone flawlessly and that Annie was in the process of recovering; she’d even woken up a couple of days prior. That, however, did not stop Katie from claiming that he needed a shopping trip to raise his spirits and then proceeding to make him wait in the cold in the middle of Old Towne because he had no idea which store she wanted to meet in.
“There you are!” he heard behind him and turned around to see Katie barreling into him. She began to push him into the nearest store, though she did it in such a way that, from the outside perspective, it appeared that it was Reid that was doing the dragging.
“That the-”
“Oh, jeez, Reid, chill out!” Katie exclaimed in mock annoyance, tossing her blonde locks back. “Its just snow. Frozen water. I know you Texans have never seen such amazement, but seriously, no need to just drag me into the store.”
“Knowledge of evil, Peretti,” Reid growled, only putting up mild resistance. “Don’t make me use it.”
“Oh, and you can’t have this in there,” she claimed, grabbing his coffee and expertly tossing it in the garbage just before they entered the store.
Reid’s eyes widened in shock. “That’s . . . that’s my coffee,” he muttered in disbelief.
“Oh, grow up,” Katie laughed, letting go of him and unwinding her scarf from around her neck. “How’re you enjoying the first snowfall of the season?”
“Okay, first of all, I’m from Cambridge. Massachusetts. I have seen more snow in a season than I ever care to in my life,” Reid grumbled, glancing in melancholy at the wastebasket that now contained his precious caramel latte. “So if you wanted to make Texan/snowfall jokes, first check your facts and second, do it during the actual first snowfall of the season.”
“You were in surgery,” Katie pointed out, strolling to the nearest table and perusing the selections. Reid frowned momentarily, realizing that they were in a bookstore and for some reason finding it difficult to believe that Katie’s shopping would take place in one.
“I’m rarely in surgery for twenty-four hours at a time,” he countered, meandering over to the table next to hers and glancing curiously at bundles of expensive-looking, leather-bound journals. “Second of all, you owe me coffee. Third of all, I don’t shop.”
Katie laughed and bounded over to him. “That’s okay. I’m the one doing the shopping and then I plan on feeding you, so don’t be a grouch. Do you like that?” she asked, pointing to the ones in his hand.
“So why the hell do you need me before the part that includes food? And not particularly,” he replied, setting the journals aside gently.
“Because I’ve given up trying to figure out what to get you for Christmas and so I figured I’d drag you to the one place in town that you’d perhaps consider shopping in and just ask you what you want.”
Reid’s eyes crinkled in surprise, oddly touched. “Oh. You don’t have to get me anything.”
“Yeah, I figured you haven’t gotten me anything,” Katie laughed, glancing behind her as she made her way back toward the science section, pleased to see that he was following her slowly, eyes scanning the possibilities like a child in a candy store. “Nice that I’m the bigger person in our relationship.”
Reid laughed sarcastically, fingers trailing gently over the books as he walked. “Good to see you have self-less reasons.”
“Oh, sure. Pick something,” she commanded, spreading her arms and spinning in a little circle to encompass all his choices.
He shook his head, mildly amazed. He hadn’t even thought about any sort of reading material, other than textbooks, medical journals and newspapers, since he’d started medical school. “I really don’t care.
“So, Twilight?” Katie grinned evilly, grabbing the nearest book that she knew Reid would balk at.
“Fuck no,” Reid snorted. “I would rather die.” He perused the shelves quickly and grabbed the nearest book that didn’t repulse him and wasn’t of an unbelievable length. “Here.”
“Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde?” Katie murmured in amusement. “Story of your life?”
“Nope. I’m always Mr. Hyde, just in doctor form. Dr. Hyde, if you will,” he replied.
Katie laughed. “Alright, if that’s what you want. I’ll ring this up and then we’ll head over to Al’s.”
Reid crinkled his nose as he followed her. “Al’s? That is the food you’re proposing? Come now, I thought you would go out of your way for some fancy, Christmas-type food.”
“Vienna will be cooking some sort of traditional, Swedish Christmas meal.”
Reid’s eyes widened, as though he were both horrified by that particular thought and excited by another. “I’ve already had meatballs this week. But . . . are you implying that Hank will be there?”
Katie rolled her eyes before handing him the plastic bag with his present in it. “Here. And yes, Henry will be there. I didn’t know you knew him.”
“I had a very . . . pleasant encounter with him once,” Reid replied, chuckling evilly. “Katie, if you’d wanted to give me a present, that’s the only one I would want,” he told her ominously, buttoning his coat with one hand as they emerged into the cold, Illinois air.
Katie chuckled. “I’ll remember that for next time.”
“That’s assuming there will be a next time, which is an awfully large assumption to make,” Reid muttered, pausing suddenly in the middle of the square, halfway between the lone bench and the bookstore. It took Katie several minutes to realize that he wasn’t walking with her.
“What?” she inquired, raising an eyebrow at his oddly pensive face.
“I’ll meet you there.”
“Reid-”
“I’m not skipping out,” he promised, taking a couple of steps back in the direction from which he’d come. “I wouldn’t want to pass up an opportunity to make fun of Hank. I just have to take care of something.” He gave her a small wave before doubling back purposefully to the bookstore.
Katie raised her eyebrow, observing him carefully through the window momentarily before continuing on her way, mildly wondering what Holden might think of the purchase she was sure Reid was making, denial be damned.
***
Luke glanced up and over his shoulder as he heard the sound of the porch door open and felt the smallest hint of a chilly breeze on his back. “Hey,” he called to Noah, who smiled in reply and dropped his bag on the floor. He shifted slightly in his seat and finished the sentence he was typing.
“Hey. Oh . . . don’t get up!” Noah commented, holding his hand up as though Luke were about to jump out of his wheelchair and begin running laps around the kitchen island.
“Oh ho . . .” Luke laughed sarcastically, triumphantly punching a period and Ctrl, save before closing his laptop. “That handicapped humor never gets old, does it? You know, I’ve grown to expect it from Dr. Oliver, but you,” he shook his head in disappointment, as though the end of the sentence physically pained him. He grinned as Noah came over and leaned against he table. “Hey,” he murmured, his voice lower.
Noah grinned, before leaning in and cupping Luke’s face gently, his fingers cold from the outside air. “Hey,” he replied, kissing Luke softly. Luke responded in turn, but noises from the outside kept the kiss from growing out of its youthful chasteness.
“Hmm . . . You’re early,” Luke grinned as they pulled apart
Noah shrugged. “My exam . . . last question was on Best Years of Our Lives. I’ve only seen it about three hundred times. So how’re you doing?”
“I’m doing good.”
Noah raised an eyebrow. “And how’re you doing with-”
“Shhh,” Luke shushed, glancing around the kitchen tentatively. “Hardly a Tiny-Tim-esque Christmas miracle if you blab it all over the kitchen.”
Noah laughed, leaning back against his hands. “You’re really not going to let anyone know?”
“Well, Burt knows, vaguely, but I don’t think he’ll tell,” Luke joked.
“Ah. Just me and Burt? The great Dr. Oliver didn’t demand to know about every aspect of your life?” Noah inquired, smirking lightly to show his humor.
Luke’s grin faltered slightly at this mention of Dr. Oliver, not in the sense that it may have brought his spirits down, but in the sense that it stirred that slumbering dragon in the pit of his stomach. And ever since Thanksgiving, when he’d fully realized that said dragon was present and would ultimately be unfed in light of what appeared to be Dr. Oliver and Katie as opposed to simply Dr. Oliver, Katie, he’d found himself to be rather anxious when the man was brought up, especially after they'd seen each other at the hospital and Dr. Oliver had been so . . . caring. And in light of the fact that he had come desperately close to letting Dr. Oliver in on aspects of his life that he wouldn’t reveal to a different practitioner. And yet ever since he’d made his way from the couch to the bookshelf the other day, he’d wanted to see Dr. Oliver’s face at the marvel. Just imagining it gave Luke feeling of warmth, like when he’d sit in front of the fireplace and feel the heat of the flames lick his face.
“No,” Luke laughed slightly, pretending that the mention of the good doctor hadn’t affected him in the slightest. “But I’m sure he’ll figure it out eventually. And if he complains about me not getting him a gratuitous Christmas present, I’ll just strut back and forth in front of him and call it a day.” Luke didn’t get a chance to say anything more on the matter as Faith and Natalie burst into the room and dragged Noah off to the stables to marvel at the miracle of life.
Luke leaned back in his wheelchair and sighed, reaching into his backpack and pulling out a worn notebook, filled almost to its entirety with half-finished ideas and words that may have had some sort of meaning when Luke had written them, in hopes of returning to their origins, but that meaning was lost at the bottom of the sea with the scrolls carried by the victors of the Trojan wars, never gaining the ability to see home again. It was as though the words were written by someone that was once him, but no longer was.
One of the last words in the notebook came atop the third to last page, with three question marks and several underlines following it. Love. When he opened up to that page, he had to react quickly to catch the card that fell out. It was one that Noah had given to him several days before, as though he would have been embarrassed to do so at Christmas with the rest of the Snyders present. As though his and Luke’s Christmas deserved to be celebrated privately before diving into the familial.
Luke flipped it open, his expression neither changing into a smile nor a frown as he read the now-memorized words on the page.
Luke,
I wish I had your way with words, but I don’t. Thank you for never giving up on me, even when I pushed you away. For believing that our love may not have to work in the same, complicated way that your parents’ love does. Being with you has made me happier than I have ever been. You and your family are more of a home than I ever could have wished to have. And I hope that you know that you did no wrong in not taking your words back.
Merry Christmas, Luke.
Noah
Luke shook his head. A small part of him wished that Noah had verified what they were doing with at least a Love before his name. On the other hand, Luke knew there was a difference between telling someone that you love them and using the word loosely in a valediction. And he also knew that Noah was wrong, because in his heart, not only had the words been taken back, they hadn’t really been uttered at all.
***
Reid lingered outside of Al’s, two bags in hand, contemplating whether he seriously wanted to expose himself to whatever would be going on inside. Survival seemed a necessary component here, but then he had the choice of braving the insanity to get possibly disgusting food and abandoning the food for being permanently blinded by Henry Coleman’s shirt. And as much as he needed to eat, he needed his eyes just as much as he needed to see.
He wrinkled his nose as Katie spotted him and waved him in and he was sure there was absolutely no chance that he could even attempt to walk away then. He pushed his way into the diner gingerly, as though he were afraid of being knocked over by the combination of heavenly smells and the radiation that seemed to be floating away from Henry’s shirt.
“Hey, what took you so long?” Katie asked, her words almost loud enough to drown out Henry’s appalled, “You invited him?”
“Stuff,” Reid replied ominously before glancing triumphantly at Henry. “Hey there, Hank.” He glanced over Henry’s shoulder as Vienna came out of the back, stripping herself of her apron. He pouted at Henry. “No one told me it was going to be a foursome, Hank. I’m mighty disappointed.”
Henry sputtered indignantly before turning to Katie. “Okay, one, how do you know him? Two, why would you ever, ever stop to talk to him? Three, why would you invite him to ruin our lovely Christmas dinner?”
“One, I met him when I went to visit Luke in the hospital. Two, because he was Luke’s doctor and later because I needed a roommate and it seemed he did as well. Three, because he and I already ruined the Snyders’ Thanksgiving and, frankly, I think we’ve got a winning streak going on here.”
Reid chuckled, stopping into seriousness as he spotted the deadly look on Henry’s face. “Okay, if you’re going to challenge me to a clown duel, I left my over-the-top shirt with my lab coat, so it’s going to have to wait.”
Henry was saved the trouble of answering as Vienna swept past him and deposited a platter of sausages on the table. Her look of apprehension broke out into a smile when she saw at least one person regarding the meal hungrily.
***
“Noah! Come now, eat up!” Emma reprimanded him sternly as he hesitated over his umpteenth pound of ham.
“Ma’am, it’s delicious, I just haven’t had this much food in all of December,” Noah laughed, patting his stomach gingerly as though afraid it would burst if he applied too much pressure.
“Well, you can lose it by helping Grandma distribute presents to churches,” Luke chimed, smirking as Noah threw him a wilted look at this subtle jab at his eating habits. “No one likes a fat boyfriend, especially if he’s standing next to someone as dashing as myself,” he commented helpfully.
The rest of his family fell into wholeheartedly reprimanding him for his sudden lack of tact before falling into natural conversation. Luke took his opportunity to look around the table, feeling as though there were infinite members of their significantly large family missing from the table, as well as people whom they barely knew, yet seemed in his heart like they should belong. He vaguely wondered how interesting holidays would be Dr. Oliver were present, shooting down everyone’s notions of Christmas miracles and the joy of the season.
He shook his head before smiling to himself, pleased that everyone seemed to be so engaged in their conversations that they weren’t paying all that much attention to him. He slyly slid his wheelchair back and, gripping the armrests precisely and puling himself to his feet, imagining the adrenaline rushing through his veins and Reid’s smirking face before him, as he had the first time he’d shakily risen to his feet. Like he had each time he’d practiced making his way further from his chair. Face in the back of his mind’s eye, like a familiar friend beckoning, he limped gingerly over to the island counter, sighing slightly in relief as the passage was breached without a hitch.
He heard a stilled hush in the conversation behind him and turned, smiling his smile innocence with the greatest hint of triumph. “What?” he shrugged, the act of walking now an everyday occurrence that should not require shock or infinite pleasure. “We were out of butter.”
***
“What would a cardiologist say if he saw you eating like that?” Henry demanded, picking slightly at his food while gazing in complete awe and appall at Reid as he shoveled several sausages and sauerkraut onto his fork.
Reid considered this as he chewed. “Bon appetit?” he responded, mouth full, before winking cheekily at Vienna.
“That’s a heart attack waiting to happen,” Henry informed him. Vienna frowned at this insult to her culture and turned to see how Reid would respond.
Reid shrugged. “I’ve been carving up the brains of health-conscious people for years. If a couple of them had stopped and smelled the salami and cheese they’d have been much better off. And I think your shirt is more likely to instill a seizure than this meal a heart attack.”
Henry huffed, crossing his arms over his chest and his multi-colored, striped shirt as though he could hide it in that manner from Reid’s mockery. Vienna nodded sagely, as though she had told Henry multiple times about the shirt, but left it at that because she cared for him more than she disliked his eccentric taste. She smiled at Reid and offering him a plate of cheeses. “My Henry appears to have a weak metabolism. Cheese?”
Reid licked his lips and accepted. “Ah, heaven.”
Katie laughed, taking a bite of fish. “Seriously? This is what heaven would look like to you?”
Reid pondered this as he took a sip of beer. “There would perhaps be a scantily-clad, attractive man in the room as well as several sandwich buns, but other than that . . .yeah, this might do. Sans either Hank or his shirt, though. I have no room for monstrosities in heaven.”
Henry laughed sarcastically before flashing a pained look at Katie, who did nothing more than grin cheekily at him before moving on to some dessert. He turned to Reid in frustration. “The god-like Dr. Oliver, making the lame to walk and the blind to see, but not letting me into heaven because of my fashion taste? What would the baby Jesus say?”
Reid raised an eyebrow. “I have standards. And ‘the lame to walk and the blind to see?’ I like the sound of that. I’m working on the former, but the latter is something that I could definitely look into.”
Henry groaned. “I don’t even know why I bother talking to you. We get no where with conversation.”
“Then how about we stop talking and make a toast?” Katie offered, raising her glass of wine. “To the miracle of a year that will be better than the one that came before it.”
“If you say, ‘God bless us, every one,’ and turn this into The Christmas Carol but without the ghosts, I swear I will smack you,” Reid muttered, holding his glass only a millimeter about the table.
Katie wrinkled her nose. “Way to keep up the mood, Ebenezer.”
***
Luke groaned as his covers were tugged away from his body, exposing it to the exceptional chill of his room. “Natalie,” he moaned, rolling over onto his side, for the first time in over a month sleeping in his own bed. He checked the alarm clock and resisted the urge to bury his head underneath his pillow. 6:05 am. He was sure he hadn’t been quite so present-crazy when he was younger.
Laziness, however, stands no chance against the joy of youth on Christmas morning and Luke proceeded to be pulled out of bed and down the stairs, smiling in apology at Noah, who had apparently been pulled into a sitting position. Luke flopped down on the couch next to him and leaned his head sleepily on Noah’s shoulder.
“Remind me to apologize for this torture when I’m more coherent,” he mumbled into the fabric of Noah’s T-shirt.
Noah started at the sudden proximity and gently removed his arm from where it was being crushed by Luke’s body and wound it around Luke’s shoulders. “Eh. This isn’t that bad,” he replied softly.
“Morning,” Holden yawned, stretching as he entered the room. He laughed in mild shock at the eagerness with which Natalie and Faith were hovering near the Christmas tree and the rapidness with which they attacked the neatly wrapped packages the minute Holden entered, completing their family.
“Oi, Luke,” he grinned, tossing a partially snow-damp package on Luke’s lap. “This was outside, addressed to you.”
Luke opened his eyes wide enough to observe the package carefully. He smiled, ominously murmuring, “Oh, mystery package,” before opening it and withdrawing two leather-bound journals. He started and sat up with slight surprise and pleasure before rifling through the box to try to find a card. None found, he flipped open the binding of the first, then the second, before pausing at an inscription on the inside.
“Hide not your talents. They for use were made. What's a sundial in the shade?”
Benjamin Franklin
There was no name, but the newly-discovered warmth was a familiar one and pinpointed his suspicions on one person, despite the fact that said person was the most unlikely gift-giver Luke could think up.
Chapter 22-->
***
A/N: This chapter is a bit longer than usual (yay!) but I suppose it balances out since the next one is a wee bit shorter than usual (nooo!) :D
And my apologies to anyone wounded by the Twilight bashing. I mean no harm :)