Bulletproof (32/52)
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 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 | 31
***
Reid frowned as the credits began to roll on the movie, reaching up and rubbing his eyes gently, trying to figure out when it was exactly that he’d stopped reading his medical journal. When he’d stopped paying attention to the fact that Luke, finished reading over his shoulder and trying to determine whether or not the study Reid was reading had any value, had unconsciously started just resting his head on Reid’s shoulder as he watched the movie. As though there wasn’t still a ridiculous amount of space on the couch that had been saved for Katie, but which for some reason hadn’t been filled.
“Hey,” he muttered, lifting his shoulder gently. “Now that my attention is undivided you can’t just lie there with no fear for my wrath.”
Reid tilted his head when his actions gained him no response, lips curling up into an affectionate smile when he found Luke completely asleep. He bit his lip and tried to make his actions as fluid as possible. He eased one hand gently between his own shoulder and Luke’s and the other went to hold Luke’s head steady as he shifted his own body out from under the boy, gently easing him down into a lying position in the newly empty space. Luke mumbled something in his sleep and shifted, pulling his legs in slightly toward himself and wrapping an arm around his own torso.
Reid smiled softly, allowing his fingers to linger ever so slightly on Luke’s cheek as he removed his hands from the positions they’d been in. He grabbed a blanket off the backrest of the couch and allowed it to float down and cover the sleeping teen. Mission accomplished, he took up his journal and reading glasses and made his way into the bedroom.
He started as he entered said establishment and found Katie sitting at his desk, looking like she was half working, half simply biding her time until he came in. He thought she’d gone to bed or something of the matter, which would have dutifully explained her absence during the movie. “Where the hell were you?” he demanded, sounding exceptionally cheerful, before flopping down on his bed, medical journal in front of him. “It was your idea to watch that movie in the first place.”
Katie shook her head and stood up, paced the length of the room one before stopping right in front of Reid. “You care about him, don’t you?”
“Who? Richard Meredith?” Reid asked absentmindedly, inclining his journal toward her slightly. “Frankly, no. He’s a self-aggrandizing, plagiarizing idiot who would have no idea how to string together a sentence if someone hadn’t already done so-”
Katie groaned, not at all in the mood. “Will you cut the bull, Reid? You know exactly what I’m talking about.”
At the serious aggravation in her tone, Reid looked up curiously. “Well, you know how I don’t like to assume, as you ideas are often more wild and insane than anything I could ever come up with.”
Katie shook her head. “I don’t think I can put it any simpler than I just did. Do you care about Luke?”
Reid rolled his eyes. “Jesus Christ, this again? I thought we already established on New Year’s that yes, I, Dr. Reid Oliver, the great human android, supposedly have a ‘thing’ for Luke Snyder-”
“That’s not what I’m asking, Reid,” Katie responded seriously, crossing her arms in front of her chest. “I’m asking if you have feelings for him. Real, genuine, human feelings for him.”
Reid inhaled sharply before coughing gruffly and looking back at his journal. “Well, since this town believes that a jackass isn’t a human and since I most certainly am the former, I cannot be the latter and therefore-”
“Oh, for fuck’s sake, Reid!”
Reid’s eyes flew up to her face at this and he folded the medical journal with every appearance of calm, though his heart was pounding. He didn’t think he’d ever heard Katie swear like that before. “What the hell as gotten into you?”
“He’s asleep on our couch, Reid!”
“Your couch, really . . . I’m getting one of a more decent color when you move out-”
“He’s asleep on our couch and it’s so fucking obvious that I don’t understand how the pair of you can’t see it!” Katie shouted in a hushed whisper.
Reid’s eyes narrowed. This conversation was inching closer and closer to a place that he was desperately trying to avoid. “And what would that be, exactly?”
“Reid,” she sighed sadly, leaning back against his dresser and observing him with the utmost intensity. “He likes you. Can’t you see that?”
“We breathe the same air. Hardly proof,” Reid muttered, wetting his lips at the thought. “And I’m just so damn likeable-”
Katie let out an aggravated noise and mimicked strangling someone in the air. “Could we please just have a serious conversation for two seconds, please? Reid, I saw you guys in there.”
“He was watching a movie, I was reading crap that came spewing from Richard Meredith’s computer. So?”
“And when he was reading over your shoulder? Reid, it just looked so comfortable and natural and just . . . the look on his face . . . And then he just fell asleep against you . . . I haven’t really seen Luke and Noah dating and such, other than maybe New Year’s, but this just looked so much more to me, you know?”
Reid inhaled softly, his breathing controlled, as though he were somehow reliving the moment of Luke’s temple just resting on his shoulder. He couldn’t think of a proper response and almost winced when Katie smirked, nodding in satisfaction. “Reid . . . this has to stop.”
He frowned, now confused. “What does?”
“This . . . this entire arrangement. I feel like I don’t even recognize you. When you first arrived you never would have agreed to it and I don’t know if you’re doing it because you want to help or because you just want to be closer to him but . . . Reid, if he’s developing feelings for you while he has a boyfriend-” Katie held up her hands to silence Reid’s coming protest, “Whose marital status doesn’t even fucking matter right now. One of these days, when he’s frustrated with his own situation, you’re both going to end up doing something you regret.”
“I don’t believe in regrets,” Reid murmured softly, his eyes never leaving her face.
“I know that, but maybe that’s because you’ve never felt enough to have a regret,” Katie replied, walking over to the bed and sitting down next to him as he raised himself up from his lying position and placed his bare feet square on the softness of the carpet. “Reid . . . you can’t drag him along like this. You can’t drag yourself along like this.”
“I think that’s implying that I have feelings for him,” Reid whispered, not because the situation demanded it, but because the wringing of his stomach wouldn’t allow his vocal chords to increase the volume.
“Can you look me in the face and honestly tell me that you don’t?” Katie murmured, touching her shoulder gently against his.
Reid bit his lip, turning his head away from her and glancing out the door, his gaze just barely falling on the edge of the couch. But he couldn’t see Luke and, despite the fact that he was the scientist and not the writer, the moment seemed strangely metaphorical. He couldn’t see Luke, much as he so desperately wanted to.
“Katie,” he muttered, casting his gaze to his lap, where he found his hands wringing them nervously. His voice was so thick that Katie needed nothing more than the sound of her name to know she was right. She wrapped an arm tenderly around his shoulders and rested her chin gently on his shoulder.
“Reid . . . you can’t keep doing this . . . you can’t keep stringing yourself along.”
“I don’t know how it happened,” he murmured, sounding incredibly defeated, his head felling to the side so that his temple rested in the folds of her hair.
“We never know when love hits us,” Katie reassured him softly, pulling away to place a kiss softly on the curve of his cheekbone. “But we know when it does that we don’t want to be the other person, the one on the side. We want to be the person and if we can’t have that, it’s just better to take ourselves out of the equation.”
She stood up, her hand resting gently on Reid’s shoulder as her legs re-grew accustomed to her weight. “Let him sleep tonight, but don’t put it off,” she instructed, walking toward the door.
Reid groaned as soon as the door closed, falling back onto the bed. He couldn’t even believe that he hadn’t even considered any of the things she had said. He was just grateful that Katie had chosen not to use the word ‘love’ throughout any part of the conversation. That particular fact was not something he wished to argue about. Feelings, yes, he could acknowledge-hell, he couldn’t really even deny them anymore. Love, on the other hand . . . all he knew was that he felt absolutely terrible and not at all as the sappy, drugstore greeting cards claimed he should. He’d never felt worse in his whole life, yet never better when he was actually with Luke. And sappy greeting cards had nothing at all to say on that particular front.
***
Reid rubbed his eyes as he wandered into the kitchen the next morning, resisting the urge to stretch his arms over his head, as though he knew the action would lift his T-shirt up and expose a smidge of skin just above the waistband of his pants. He felt extremely hypersensitive to Katie’s’ instructions, as though he needed to rebuild the wall of doctor/patient relationships, despite the fact that Luke hadn’t been his patient for a long time now. He couldn’t decide, therefore, whether he should be relieved or disappointed upon finding not Luke Snyder on his couch, but a note on the table next to a cup of almost freshly-brewed coffee.
Hey,
Had to go. Noah and Ameera are moving into Will and Gwen’s old house today. Promised I’d help them.
Thanks. I know you’re probably standing there thinking, ‘What the fuck for?’ but I just wanted to say it. Thanks.
Luke
“Fuck,” Reid muttered, fingering the note gently before crumpling it up and tossing it in the wastebasket. “Fuck.”
Chapter 33-->
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 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 | 31
***
Reid frowned as the credits began to roll on the movie, reaching up and rubbing his eyes gently, trying to figure out when it was exactly that he’d stopped reading his medical journal. When he’d stopped paying attention to the fact that Luke, finished reading over his shoulder and trying to determine whether or not the study Reid was reading had any value, had unconsciously started just resting his head on Reid’s shoulder as he watched the movie. As though there wasn’t still a ridiculous amount of space on the couch that had been saved for Katie, but which for some reason hadn’t been filled.
“Hey,” he muttered, lifting his shoulder gently. “Now that my attention is undivided you can’t just lie there with no fear for my wrath.”
Reid tilted his head when his actions gained him no response, lips curling up into an affectionate smile when he found Luke completely asleep. He bit his lip and tried to make his actions as fluid as possible. He eased one hand gently between his own shoulder and Luke’s and the other went to hold Luke’s head steady as he shifted his own body out from under the boy, gently easing him down into a lying position in the newly empty space. Luke mumbled something in his sleep and shifted, pulling his legs in slightly toward himself and wrapping an arm around his own torso.
Reid smiled softly, allowing his fingers to linger ever so slightly on Luke’s cheek as he removed his hands from the positions they’d been in. He grabbed a blanket off the backrest of the couch and allowed it to float down and cover the sleeping teen. Mission accomplished, he took up his journal and reading glasses and made his way into the bedroom.
He started as he entered said establishment and found Katie sitting at his desk, looking like she was half working, half simply biding her time until he came in. He thought she’d gone to bed or something of the matter, which would have dutifully explained her absence during the movie. “Where the hell were you?” he demanded, sounding exceptionally cheerful, before flopping down on his bed, medical journal in front of him. “It was your idea to watch that movie in the first place.”
Katie shook her head and stood up, paced the length of the room one before stopping right in front of Reid. “You care about him, don’t you?”
“Who? Richard Meredith?” Reid asked absentmindedly, inclining his journal toward her slightly. “Frankly, no. He’s a self-aggrandizing, plagiarizing idiot who would have no idea how to string together a sentence if someone hadn’t already done so-”
Katie groaned, not at all in the mood. “Will you cut the bull, Reid? You know exactly what I’m talking about.”
At the serious aggravation in her tone, Reid looked up curiously. “Well, you know how I don’t like to assume, as you ideas are often more wild and insane than anything I could ever come up with.”
Katie shook her head. “I don’t think I can put it any simpler than I just did. Do you care about Luke?”
Reid rolled his eyes. “Jesus Christ, this again? I thought we already established on New Year’s that yes, I, Dr. Reid Oliver, the great human android, supposedly have a ‘thing’ for Luke Snyder-”
“That’s not what I’m asking, Reid,” Katie responded seriously, crossing her arms in front of her chest. “I’m asking if you have feelings for him. Real, genuine, human feelings for him.”
Reid inhaled sharply before coughing gruffly and looking back at his journal. “Well, since this town believes that a jackass isn’t a human and since I most certainly am the former, I cannot be the latter and therefore-”
“Oh, for fuck’s sake, Reid!”
Reid’s eyes flew up to her face at this and he folded the medical journal with every appearance of calm, though his heart was pounding. He didn’t think he’d ever heard Katie swear like that before. “What the hell as gotten into you?”
“He’s asleep on our couch, Reid!”
“Your couch, really . . . I’m getting one of a more decent color when you move out-”
“He’s asleep on our couch and it’s so fucking obvious that I don’t understand how the pair of you can’t see it!” Katie shouted in a hushed whisper.
Reid’s eyes narrowed. This conversation was inching closer and closer to a place that he was desperately trying to avoid. “And what would that be, exactly?”
“Reid,” she sighed sadly, leaning back against his dresser and observing him with the utmost intensity. “He likes you. Can’t you see that?”
“We breathe the same air. Hardly proof,” Reid muttered, wetting his lips at the thought. “And I’m just so damn likeable-”
Katie let out an aggravated noise and mimicked strangling someone in the air. “Could we please just have a serious conversation for two seconds, please? Reid, I saw you guys in there.”
“He was watching a movie, I was reading crap that came spewing from Richard Meredith’s computer. So?”
“And when he was reading over your shoulder? Reid, it just looked so comfortable and natural and just . . . the look on his face . . . And then he just fell asleep against you . . . I haven’t really seen Luke and Noah dating and such, other than maybe New Year’s, but this just looked so much more to me, you know?”
Reid inhaled softly, his breathing controlled, as though he were somehow reliving the moment of Luke’s temple just resting on his shoulder. He couldn’t think of a proper response and almost winced when Katie smirked, nodding in satisfaction. “Reid . . . this has to stop.”
He frowned, now confused. “What does?”
“This . . . this entire arrangement. I feel like I don’t even recognize you. When you first arrived you never would have agreed to it and I don’t know if you’re doing it because you want to help or because you just want to be closer to him but . . . Reid, if he’s developing feelings for you while he has a boyfriend-” Katie held up her hands to silence Reid’s coming protest, “Whose marital status doesn’t even fucking matter right now. One of these days, when he’s frustrated with his own situation, you’re both going to end up doing something you regret.”
“I don’t believe in regrets,” Reid murmured softly, his eyes never leaving her face.
“I know that, but maybe that’s because you’ve never felt enough to have a regret,” Katie replied, walking over to the bed and sitting down next to him as he raised himself up from his lying position and placed his bare feet square on the softness of the carpet. “Reid . . . you can’t drag him along like this. You can’t drag yourself along like this.”
“I think that’s implying that I have feelings for him,” Reid whispered, not because the situation demanded it, but because the wringing of his stomach wouldn’t allow his vocal chords to increase the volume.
“Can you look me in the face and honestly tell me that you don’t?” Katie murmured, touching her shoulder gently against his.
Reid bit his lip, turning his head away from her and glancing out the door, his gaze just barely falling on the edge of the couch. But he couldn’t see Luke and, despite the fact that he was the scientist and not the writer, the moment seemed strangely metaphorical. He couldn’t see Luke, much as he so desperately wanted to.
“Katie,” he muttered, casting his gaze to his lap, where he found his hands wringing them nervously. His voice was so thick that Katie needed nothing more than the sound of her name to know she was right. She wrapped an arm tenderly around his shoulders and rested her chin gently on his shoulder.
“Reid . . . you can’t keep doing this . . . you can’t keep stringing yourself along.”
“I don’t know how it happened,” he murmured, sounding incredibly defeated, his head felling to the side so that his temple rested in the folds of her hair.
“We never know when love hits us,” Katie reassured him softly, pulling away to place a kiss softly on the curve of his cheekbone. “But we know when it does that we don’t want to be the other person, the one on the side. We want to be the person and if we can’t have that, it’s just better to take ourselves out of the equation.”
She stood up, her hand resting gently on Reid’s shoulder as her legs re-grew accustomed to her weight. “Let him sleep tonight, but don’t put it off,” she instructed, walking toward the door.
Reid groaned as soon as the door closed, falling back onto the bed. He couldn’t even believe that he hadn’t even considered any of the things she had said. He was just grateful that Katie had chosen not to use the word ‘love’ throughout any part of the conversation. That particular fact was not something he wished to argue about. Feelings, yes, he could acknowledge-hell, he couldn’t really even deny them anymore. Love, on the other hand . . . all he knew was that he felt absolutely terrible and not at all as the sappy, drugstore greeting cards claimed he should. He’d never felt worse in his whole life, yet never better when he was actually with Luke. And sappy greeting cards had nothing at all to say on that particular front.
***
Reid rubbed his eyes as he wandered into the kitchen the next morning, resisting the urge to stretch his arms over his head, as though he knew the action would lift his T-shirt up and expose a smidge of skin just above the waistband of his pants. He felt extremely hypersensitive to Katie’s’ instructions, as though he needed to rebuild the wall of doctor/patient relationships, despite the fact that Luke hadn’t been his patient for a long time now. He couldn’t decide, therefore, whether he should be relieved or disappointed upon finding not Luke Snyder on his couch, but a note on the table next to a cup of almost freshly-brewed coffee.
Hey,
Had to go. Noah and Ameera are moving into Will and Gwen’s old house today. Promised I’d help them.
Thanks. I know you’re probably standing there thinking, ‘What the fuck for?’ but I just wanted to say it. Thanks.
Luke
“Fuck,” Reid muttered, fingering the note gently before crumpling it up and tossing it in the wastebasket. “Fuck.”
Chapter 33-->