Bulletproof (7/52)
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
***
“Mom . . . you . . . Leave her . . .” Luke mumbled, struggling lift his legs, to swing them over the side of the bed and do something, anything that wasn’t just lying there helplessly. His voice came out low, almost a whisper, though he could have sworn that in his head it came out as a scream.
Lily struggled to keep the point of the needle away from her body and before Luke could force his muscles to do something, an impossible task, the chaos suddenly gained the strangest sense of organization. He heard an exclamation by someone he’d never heard speak to him, but whose voice he intuitively knew. Suddenly, the cacophony of limbs that defined Lily’s struggle with Colonel Mayer seemed unnatural. There were too many. The shout had brought an arm snaking around the colonel’s neck.
Mayer let out a shout and, in his effort to escape from the tight grip of the man behind him, obscured from Luke’s vision, released Lily. She gasped in recognition when she spotted the face of her rescuer, but didn’t have time to linger on the moment.
“Don’t just stand there like an idiot! Get out!” She didn’t have to be told twice.
Luke could barely focus at the speed that the two men were fighting, even when they twisted and he caught a glimpse of auburn curls within the chaos. He felt like he was watching a cartoon where the only thing visible to indicate a struggle was a cloud of dust.
The auburn haired man twisted the arm around the colonel’s neck, trying to gain an advantage, but was forced to release with a “Fucking hell!” when the colonel’s free hand, still holding the syringe, made a downward sweeping motion and stabbed his attacker sharply in the leg. The latter fell away and lost his focus for a second too long and the colonel took advantage of this, shoving him against the wall.
“I did what I had to do and I’m not done yet,” he snarled, giving the disoriented ginger another shake that sent him slamming into the wall. “And you won’t stop me!”
Luke didn’t know if the man would have reacted in any way, but all he appeared capable of doing was groaning as his back seared with pain from being slammed against the wall, his muscle movements stalled by whatever had been in the syringe. Mayer shoved him aside and he had to grip the crash cart he crashed into to keep his legs from collapsing.
“Son of a bitch!” he gasped, groaning as the sedative took advantage of his movements.
Mayer would have let out a satisfied cackle had he not been bowled over by the door slamming open and a gun being pointed in his face.
“That’s him! That’s the man that tried to hurt my son!”
Within seconds the colonel was dragged away, hands handcuffed behind him and Lily was by Luke’s side, hand on his face and tearfully muttering that everything was good, that it was okay.
Luke made a wordless noise, feeling some of the molten lead seeping out of his bones. Only a moment to late, he groaned inwardly as he struggled to pull himself into a sitting position. His arms felt normal and aided him well. His legs, well . . . they didn’t really feel like anything. He almost panicked, almost freaked out about that fact when he was interrupted by a noise and a loud swear and he was reminded of the auburn-haired man.
“Mom,” he mumbled, voice still weak, motioning behind her. For some reason it was important to make sure that the ginger was all right. “That man . . . is he . . .”
Lily started, as though she’d forgotten about her rescuer in general and whirled around, catching sight of the man, who’d slid down into a chair weakly and was flinging away a second syringe, begrudgingly massaging his left leg.
“Dr. Reid Oliver! What’re you doing here?”
Reid raised his eyes in absolute astonishment, the feeling coming back to his legs. “Yeah, I’m fine, thanks for asking. And you’re welcome,” he groaned, stretching his leg out and in to get the blood flowing in it again. He shook his head. It was one thing after another in this town. Maybe he should just take the lawsuit and run.
“Thank you,” Lily said, smiling, as Luke continued to strive to get a good glimpse of this Dr. Oliver, trying to see if he could connect the familiar voice to a face. “I’m sorry, I was just surprised to see you here.”
Reid snorted. “The hell you were.”
Lily smirked. “I was. Dr. Hughes said you were leaving town.”
“And you thought it appropriate to counter-attack with your mother, Mrs. Snyder?” Reid demanded, bracing himself as he stood up gingerly
“I have no idea what you’re talking about, Dr. Oliver.”
“Of course, you don’t,” Reid rolled his eyes, picking up the syringe that the colonel had dropped on the floor and reading the label. He whistled, seemingly impressed and made his way over to Luke’s bedside.
“That’s the second time I’ve had to make an effort to save your life, kid,” he muttered, reconnecting the IV and checking that the medication was flowing properly. “Try not to make a habit out of it.”
“I’ll try,” Luke murmured, the fog vanishing from before his eyes as he scanned Reid’s features curiously. He was one hundred percent certain that he’d never seen the doctor before in his life, but the slightly rough tone of his voice was strangely familiar, as was the light blue sternness of his eyes. He didn’t even gather his thoughts to ask about the doctor or the lack of anything in his legs when Bob and Holden burst into the room.
“What happened?” Bob demanded, looking in concern at Lily before flashing a look of surprise at Reid’s presence.
“We just saw the police taking Colonel Mayer away,” Holden supplemented, raising his eyebrows at Lily in regards to Reid’s company. Even in his confusion and in the midst of their fight, he couldn’t help but be impressed with her.
“I don’t even know,” Reid muttered, putting the IV down and tossing the syringe to Bob, who fumbled slightly with it to avoid getting stabbed. “I come in and some guy-”
“Winston Mayer, Bob,” Lily interjected helpfully.
“Right, sure,” Reid muttered, waving his hand dismissively. “He was trying to get benzodiazepine into Luke Snyder’s IV. Managed to get it into my fucking leg instead,” he muttered as an afterthought.
“Ben . . . errm . . .What . . . what is that?” Lily asked, her voice hysterical.
Reid sighed, telling himself that she didn’t know because she wasn’t a doctor or a nurse and therefore had some semblance of an excuse for her ignorance. “It’s a powerful sedative. Injected straight into his bloodstream, it could have suppressed his breathing.”
“Are you all right?” Bob demanded, glancing down as Reid continued to rub his left leg gingerly. “You said he stabbed you with it? You shouldn’t even be walking around!”
“I took care of it,” Reid muttered, as though it was unimportant. “Can you get them out of here so I can examine him?”
“Doctor, you’ve been through a traumatic experience,” Bob reprimanded, glancing at Lily and Holden to indicate that they should wait outside for the time being. “Go home, get some rest. I’ll examine the patient. You’re not even supposed to be here! You said-”
“I know what I said,” Reid muttered indignantly, walking over to the crash cart and pulling it open with what seemed like unnecessary force. He scoured the drawers for a pen light and a reflex hammer. When he found them he looked up and saw Lucinda standing in the hallway, her arm around Lily’s shoulder and Holden presumably explaining what had just happened. “What can I say? Things change.”
Bob frowned. “I don’t-”
“Look, Dr. Hughes. I’m fine and I’ll examine my patient, all right? You just . . . keep them from coming in and bothering me.” Reid muttered, waving a hand absentmindedly in the general direction of the hallway. Bob sighed, refraining from the juvenile urge to roll his eyes, and exited the room as per the doctor’s request.
The room was filled with a silence that was only penetrated by the loud beeping of the heart monitor. There was a clink of metal against metal as Reid lifted the chart off of the edge of the bed, where it was hanging, and flipped it open, glancing at all the machinery that surrounded Luke and filling in gaps in the information accordingly. Luke, now feeling fully awake and broken away from the anesthesia, simply looked at him.
He propped himself up on his elbows, observing the doctor. His curiosity was aroused because he had no idea who the doctor was and he felt that was saying something. Running into people that one doesn’t know in Oakdale was a rarity, if even an occurrence that came about at all. Luke had also been in and out of the hospital enough to know most everyone who was on staff there.
He coughed lightly, clearing his throat. Some part of him wanted to hear that voice, because it was the only part of familiarity he had in connection with the doctor, even if that itself was shrouded in mystery.
“Who are-”
“Name.”
Luke blinked, startled by the sudden interruption. “What?”
“Name,” Reid muttered, pressing a large hand against Luke’s shoulder blades, emitting the only amount of warmth in the room. Luke grunted as he fell back against the pillows.
“Luke Snyder. Or, if you prefer, Luciano Eduardo Grimaldi Snyder,” Luke answered, clicking his tongue as the inside of his mouth gained normalcy and his tongue started to feel like it was shrinking down to the size it was meant to be.
Reid frowned in surprise, looking up from his clipboard to look straight at Luke. “Kid, are you for real?”
Luke smiled weakly. For some reason it pleased him to unhinge the doctor, who’d contained himself within a moment of calm since Dusty had been taken from the room. “And who’re you?”
“Well, clearly you weren’t one of the few elitist blue-bloods going to the prep school,” Reid muttered before trying to figure out why he knew for certain that Oakdale had both a public and private school. He felt like he’d fallen through the rabbit hole into an alternate reality.
Luke’s mouth dropped open in indignation at the insult and when he spoke, he sounded alarmingly like his mother. “Who the hell do you think you are?”
“Your doctor. Year?”
“2007. October, unless I’ve been out of it for a long time. And duh. Bit of an asshole, aren’t you?” Luke answered, wrinkling his nose.
Reid rolled his eyes. “And that therefore cancels out the fact that I’m your doctor?”
He flicked the pen light on, planting his hand on the pillow just to Luke’s right to lean over the bed and flash the light in Luke Snyder’s coffee-colored eyes. Reid paused, watching as the pupil shrunk at the invasion and the majority of the eye was filled by the color. He couldn’t help but pause because it seemed like such a perfect color, the exact shade of his coffee when he finished sprucing it up, right before he made to drink it. It was uncanny.
He shook off the feeling and muttered, “Follow the light with your eyes.” He felt it unnecessary to explain to the kid the exact reason for this portion of the exam.
“Nngh,” Luke grunted, squinting his eyes against the light. “My eyes are fine.”
“I’ve been poking around in your brain,” Reid smirked, raising an eyebrow at the kid’s words. He contemplated how much the word ‘poking’ signified an understatement. “While I’m brilliant enough to know I didn’t screw up, hospital policy wants proof. So let me judge whether you’re fine.”
“I can’t feel my legs,” Luke muttered, eyes evading the light and instead focusing on the lightest of freckles on the end of Reid’s nose.
Reid pursed his lips thoughtfully and nodded, looking like the statement was something that he had expected. The look on his face surprised Luke slightly. Reid straightened up from the position he’d been in and went to the foot of the bed. Luke propped himself up on his elbows now that Dr. Oliver wasn’t in the vicinity to shove him back down and alternated his focus between his legs and the look of concentration on his doctor’s face. He didn’t even notice Noah lingering outside the door.
“Can you feel that?”
Luke shook his head, eyes flooding with desperation and the rate at which his breaths were escaping his lips increased exponentially.
“Try to move them,” Reid instructed curtly, focusing on the subjects of the conversation after securing the buttons of his clinical demeanor.
“I can’t!” Luke exclaimed, his frustration growing. He could feel himself succumbing to that strange childish side of himself and he couldn’t stop it. “If I can’t even feel them-”
“Are you suddenly a doctor?” Reid demanded sharply, flashing an annoyed gaze at the teenager. He couldn’t stand whining. “Do as I say.”
Luke’s jaw clenched and he focused all his energy on the action, finding it especially difficult since he’d never actually had to put any thought into the simple motion before.
“Are you trying?”
“Of course, I’m trying,” Luke snarled, his hands fisting into sheets. “Is nothing happening? What . . . What the hell is wrong with me? What . . .” his eyes darted up to Reid’s face, remembering what he’d mentioned earlier when he flashed the pen light into Luke’s eyes. “What the hell have you done to me?”
Chapter 8-->
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
***
“Mom . . . you . . . Leave her . . .” Luke mumbled, struggling lift his legs, to swing them over the side of the bed and do something, anything that wasn’t just lying there helplessly. His voice came out low, almost a whisper, though he could have sworn that in his head it came out as a scream.
Lily struggled to keep the point of the needle away from her body and before Luke could force his muscles to do something, an impossible task, the chaos suddenly gained the strangest sense of organization. He heard an exclamation by someone he’d never heard speak to him, but whose voice he intuitively knew. Suddenly, the cacophony of limbs that defined Lily’s struggle with Colonel Mayer seemed unnatural. There were too many. The shout had brought an arm snaking around the colonel’s neck.
Mayer let out a shout and, in his effort to escape from the tight grip of the man behind him, obscured from Luke’s vision, released Lily. She gasped in recognition when she spotted the face of her rescuer, but didn’t have time to linger on the moment.
“Don’t just stand there like an idiot! Get out!” She didn’t have to be told twice.
Luke could barely focus at the speed that the two men were fighting, even when they twisted and he caught a glimpse of auburn curls within the chaos. He felt like he was watching a cartoon where the only thing visible to indicate a struggle was a cloud of dust.
The auburn haired man twisted the arm around the colonel’s neck, trying to gain an advantage, but was forced to release with a “Fucking hell!” when the colonel’s free hand, still holding the syringe, made a downward sweeping motion and stabbed his attacker sharply in the leg. The latter fell away and lost his focus for a second too long and the colonel took advantage of this, shoving him against the wall.
“I did what I had to do and I’m not done yet,” he snarled, giving the disoriented ginger another shake that sent him slamming into the wall. “And you won’t stop me!”
Luke didn’t know if the man would have reacted in any way, but all he appeared capable of doing was groaning as his back seared with pain from being slammed against the wall, his muscle movements stalled by whatever had been in the syringe. Mayer shoved him aside and he had to grip the crash cart he crashed into to keep his legs from collapsing.
“Son of a bitch!” he gasped, groaning as the sedative took advantage of his movements.
Mayer would have let out a satisfied cackle had he not been bowled over by the door slamming open and a gun being pointed in his face.
“That’s him! That’s the man that tried to hurt my son!”
Within seconds the colonel was dragged away, hands handcuffed behind him and Lily was by Luke’s side, hand on his face and tearfully muttering that everything was good, that it was okay.
Luke made a wordless noise, feeling some of the molten lead seeping out of his bones. Only a moment to late, he groaned inwardly as he struggled to pull himself into a sitting position. His arms felt normal and aided him well. His legs, well . . . they didn’t really feel like anything. He almost panicked, almost freaked out about that fact when he was interrupted by a noise and a loud swear and he was reminded of the auburn-haired man.
“Mom,” he mumbled, voice still weak, motioning behind her. For some reason it was important to make sure that the ginger was all right. “That man . . . is he . . .”
Lily started, as though she’d forgotten about her rescuer in general and whirled around, catching sight of the man, who’d slid down into a chair weakly and was flinging away a second syringe, begrudgingly massaging his left leg.
“Dr. Reid Oliver! What’re you doing here?”
Reid raised his eyes in absolute astonishment, the feeling coming back to his legs. “Yeah, I’m fine, thanks for asking. And you’re welcome,” he groaned, stretching his leg out and in to get the blood flowing in it again. He shook his head. It was one thing after another in this town. Maybe he should just take the lawsuit and run.
“Thank you,” Lily said, smiling, as Luke continued to strive to get a good glimpse of this Dr. Oliver, trying to see if he could connect the familiar voice to a face. “I’m sorry, I was just surprised to see you here.”
Reid snorted. “The hell you were.”
Lily smirked. “I was. Dr. Hughes said you were leaving town.”
“And you thought it appropriate to counter-attack with your mother, Mrs. Snyder?” Reid demanded, bracing himself as he stood up gingerly
“I have no idea what you’re talking about, Dr. Oliver.”
“Of course, you don’t,” Reid rolled his eyes, picking up the syringe that the colonel had dropped on the floor and reading the label. He whistled, seemingly impressed and made his way over to Luke’s bedside.
“That’s the second time I’ve had to make an effort to save your life, kid,” he muttered, reconnecting the IV and checking that the medication was flowing properly. “Try not to make a habit out of it.”
“I’ll try,” Luke murmured, the fog vanishing from before his eyes as he scanned Reid’s features curiously. He was one hundred percent certain that he’d never seen the doctor before in his life, but the slightly rough tone of his voice was strangely familiar, as was the light blue sternness of his eyes. He didn’t even gather his thoughts to ask about the doctor or the lack of anything in his legs when Bob and Holden burst into the room.
“What happened?” Bob demanded, looking in concern at Lily before flashing a look of surprise at Reid’s presence.
“We just saw the police taking Colonel Mayer away,” Holden supplemented, raising his eyebrows at Lily in regards to Reid’s company. Even in his confusion and in the midst of their fight, he couldn’t help but be impressed with her.
“I don’t even know,” Reid muttered, putting the IV down and tossing the syringe to Bob, who fumbled slightly with it to avoid getting stabbed. “I come in and some guy-”
“Winston Mayer, Bob,” Lily interjected helpfully.
“Right, sure,” Reid muttered, waving his hand dismissively. “He was trying to get benzodiazepine into Luke Snyder’s IV. Managed to get it into my fucking leg instead,” he muttered as an afterthought.
“Ben . . . errm . . .What . . . what is that?” Lily asked, her voice hysterical.
Reid sighed, telling himself that she didn’t know because she wasn’t a doctor or a nurse and therefore had some semblance of an excuse for her ignorance. “It’s a powerful sedative. Injected straight into his bloodstream, it could have suppressed his breathing.”
“Are you all right?” Bob demanded, glancing down as Reid continued to rub his left leg gingerly. “You said he stabbed you with it? You shouldn’t even be walking around!”
“I took care of it,” Reid muttered, as though it was unimportant. “Can you get them out of here so I can examine him?”
“Doctor, you’ve been through a traumatic experience,” Bob reprimanded, glancing at Lily and Holden to indicate that they should wait outside for the time being. “Go home, get some rest. I’ll examine the patient. You’re not even supposed to be here! You said-”
“I know what I said,” Reid muttered indignantly, walking over to the crash cart and pulling it open with what seemed like unnecessary force. He scoured the drawers for a pen light and a reflex hammer. When he found them he looked up and saw Lucinda standing in the hallway, her arm around Lily’s shoulder and Holden presumably explaining what had just happened. “What can I say? Things change.”
Bob frowned. “I don’t-”
“Look, Dr. Hughes. I’m fine and I’ll examine my patient, all right? You just . . . keep them from coming in and bothering me.” Reid muttered, waving a hand absentmindedly in the general direction of the hallway. Bob sighed, refraining from the juvenile urge to roll his eyes, and exited the room as per the doctor’s request.
The room was filled with a silence that was only penetrated by the loud beeping of the heart monitor. There was a clink of metal against metal as Reid lifted the chart off of the edge of the bed, where it was hanging, and flipped it open, glancing at all the machinery that surrounded Luke and filling in gaps in the information accordingly. Luke, now feeling fully awake and broken away from the anesthesia, simply looked at him.
He propped himself up on his elbows, observing the doctor. His curiosity was aroused because he had no idea who the doctor was and he felt that was saying something. Running into people that one doesn’t know in Oakdale was a rarity, if even an occurrence that came about at all. Luke had also been in and out of the hospital enough to know most everyone who was on staff there.
He coughed lightly, clearing his throat. Some part of him wanted to hear that voice, because it was the only part of familiarity he had in connection with the doctor, even if that itself was shrouded in mystery.
“Who are-”
“Name.”
Luke blinked, startled by the sudden interruption. “What?”
“Name,” Reid muttered, pressing a large hand against Luke’s shoulder blades, emitting the only amount of warmth in the room. Luke grunted as he fell back against the pillows.
“Luke Snyder. Or, if you prefer, Luciano Eduardo Grimaldi Snyder,” Luke answered, clicking his tongue as the inside of his mouth gained normalcy and his tongue started to feel like it was shrinking down to the size it was meant to be.
Reid frowned in surprise, looking up from his clipboard to look straight at Luke. “Kid, are you for real?”
Luke smiled weakly. For some reason it pleased him to unhinge the doctor, who’d contained himself within a moment of calm since Dusty had been taken from the room. “And who’re you?”
“Well, clearly you weren’t one of the few elitist blue-bloods going to the prep school,” Reid muttered before trying to figure out why he knew for certain that Oakdale had both a public and private school. He felt like he’d fallen through the rabbit hole into an alternate reality.
Luke’s mouth dropped open in indignation at the insult and when he spoke, he sounded alarmingly like his mother. “Who the hell do you think you are?”
“Your doctor. Year?”
“2007. October, unless I’ve been out of it for a long time. And duh. Bit of an asshole, aren’t you?” Luke answered, wrinkling his nose.
Reid rolled his eyes. “And that therefore cancels out the fact that I’m your doctor?”
He flicked the pen light on, planting his hand on the pillow just to Luke’s right to lean over the bed and flash the light in Luke Snyder’s coffee-colored eyes. Reid paused, watching as the pupil shrunk at the invasion and the majority of the eye was filled by the color. He couldn’t help but pause because it seemed like such a perfect color, the exact shade of his coffee when he finished sprucing it up, right before he made to drink it. It was uncanny.
He shook off the feeling and muttered, “Follow the light with your eyes.” He felt it unnecessary to explain to the kid the exact reason for this portion of the exam.
“Nngh,” Luke grunted, squinting his eyes against the light. “My eyes are fine.”
“I’ve been poking around in your brain,” Reid smirked, raising an eyebrow at the kid’s words. He contemplated how much the word ‘poking’ signified an understatement. “While I’m brilliant enough to know I didn’t screw up, hospital policy wants proof. So let me judge whether you’re fine.”
“I can’t feel my legs,” Luke muttered, eyes evading the light and instead focusing on the lightest of freckles on the end of Reid’s nose.
Reid pursed his lips thoughtfully and nodded, looking like the statement was something that he had expected. The look on his face surprised Luke slightly. Reid straightened up from the position he’d been in and went to the foot of the bed. Luke propped himself up on his elbows now that Dr. Oliver wasn’t in the vicinity to shove him back down and alternated his focus between his legs and the look of concentration on his doctor’s face. He didn’t even notice Noah lingering outside the door.
“Can you feel that?”
Luke shook his head, eyes flooding with desperation and the rate at which his breaths were escaping his lips increased exponentially.
“Try to move them,” Reid instructed curtly, focusing on the subjects of the conversation after securing the buttons of his clinical demeanor.
“I can’t!” Luke exclaimed, his frustration growing. He could feel himself succumbing to that strange childish side of himself and he couldn’t stop it. “If I can’t even feel them-”
“Are you suddenly a doctor?” Reid demanded sharply, flashing an annoyed gaze at the teenager. He couldn’t stand whining. “Do as I say.”
Luke’s jaw clenched and he focused all his energy on the action, finding it especially difficult since he’d never actually had to put any thought into the simple motion before.
“Are you trying?”
“Of course, I’m trying,” Luke snarled, his hands fisting into sheets. “Is nothing happening? What . . . What the hell is wrong with me? What . . .” his eyes darted up to Reid’s face, remembering what he’d mentioned earlier when he flashed the pen light into Luke’s eyes. “What the hell have you done to me?”
Chapter 8-->