Left and Right: Chapter Twenty-One
Title: Left and Right (multi-chapter)
Author: dolce_amore
Summary: Reid injures himself in an accident six months after starting a relationship with Luke. This is the story of how Reid and Luke handle it.
Genre/Type: Romance/Drama/Future-Fic
Rating: R
Disclaimer: I do not own As the World Turns, it’s characters, or it’s settings. Though if you know where I can buy a Reid, please let me know. ☺
Disclaimer #2: Chapter titles are all lyrics taken from songs. I take no credit for them. They are being used for entertainment purposes only. All rights go to the artists that first penned them. ☺
Characters/Pairings in this chapter: Reid/Luke
Author's Notes: This is my Big Bang fic for LROnline. It's 23 chapters, though, so I figured I'd break it up instead of posting all the chapters at once. Enjoy! Comments = love.
Author's Note 2: I can't believe this is almost the end! I hope you've enjoyed "reiding" thus far. :D Just two more chapters after this, then an epilogue. :)
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Twenty-One: I Come to You in Pieces So You Can Make Me Whole
Weeks passed - hell, an entire month passed - and it felt like nothing was changing. Reid still couldn’t grip his coffee mug. He still couldn’t cup Luke’s shoulder when he snuggled up to him in bed the way he used to. It wasn’t right, and Reid realized more and more with each passing day that he wasn’t going to be a surgeon anymore.
It didn’t feel the way he thought it would. There it went, his life’s work all down the drain. He should’ve felt guiltier, like a talent gone to waste, but he just couldn’t muster up those feelings anymore. He had felt that way for months, and he refused to self-indulge anymore. He couldn’t find a logical reason to. For the first time in his life, the most logical thing was to simply let go.
Had this happened a year ago, he would’ve wanted to die. He’d have nothing left. He saw merely practicing medicine as nothing more as time being wasted when he could be in the operating room where he could save lives. He had never been taught differently. No one believed in him as anything but a surgeon. Not as just an ordinary doctor, and certainly not as a man.
Now - everything had changed. Luke was a man who would put his life on hold for years and would fly Reid to every specialist in the country if there were even the slightest chance he’d get his hand fully functioning again. He’d sit at that kitchen table with all the exercise instructions spread upon it for the next fifty years, never giving up, never questioning a thing. He couldn’t make Luke do that, though, as much as he loved him for it. He couldn’t make himself do it. He couldn’t let something go on forever that in truth could meet a very sudden end.
God help him if he admitted it, but just as much as Luke changed Reid’s outlook, so did, of all people, Bob. Bob was the kind of physician that reminded him of why he loved medicine so much to begin with - just basic, simple medicine. Bob saved lives every day with a stethoscope, not a scalpel. And he was happy with that. Simple as it was, he was happy with that. He put up with hospital politics and whiny hypochondriacs every day with a smile. Reid could never be so enthusiastic about that, but he understood why Bob did it now. A life was a life. Bob saved a few every day; he just had the challenge of getting through the shitty parts of the job first. He didn’t have to get through those parts alone, though - he had Mrs. Hughes to go home to, to fix the shitty parts by letting her point out the rewarding parts, just like Bob did for him at work. Just like Luke did for him always.
Author: dolce_amore
Summary: Reid injures himself in an accident six months after starting a relationship with Luke. This is the story of how Reid and Luke handle it.
Genre/Type: Romance/Drama/Future-Fic
Rating: R
Disclaimer: I do not own As the World Turns, it’s characters, or it’s settings. Though if you know where I can buy a Reid, please let me know. ☺
Disclaimer #2: Chapter titles are all lyrics taken from songs. I take no credit for them. They are being used for entertainment purposes only. All rights go to the artists that first penned them. ☺
Characters/Pairings in this chapter: Reid/Luke
Author's Notes: This is my Big Bang fic for LROnline. It's 23 chapters, though, so I figured I'd break it up instead of posting all the chapters at once. Enjoy! Comments = love.
Author's Note 2: I can't believe this is almost the end! I hope you've enjoyed "reiding" thus far. :D Just two more chapters after this, then an epilogue. :)
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Twenty-One: I Come to You in Pieces So You Can Make Me Whole
Weeks passed - hell, an entire month passed - and it felt like nothing was changing. Reid still couldn’t grip his coffee mug. He still couldn’t cup Luke’s shoulder when he snuggled up to him in bed the way he used to. It wasn’t right, and Reid realized more and more with each passing day that he wasn’t going to be a surgeon anymore.
It didn’t feel the way he thought it would. There it went, his life’s work all down the drain. He should’ve felt guiltier, like a talent gone to waste, but he just couldn’t muster up those feelings anymore. He had felt that way for months, and he refused to self-indulge anymore. He couldn’t find a logical reason to. For the first time in his life, the most logical thing was to simply let go.
Had this happened a year ago, he would’ve wanted to die. He’d have nothing left. He saw merely practicing medicine as nothing more as time being wasted when he could be in the operating room where he could save lives. He had never been taught differently. No one believed in him as anything but a surgeon. Not as just an ordinary doctor, and certainly not as a man.
Now - everything had changed. Luke was a man who would put his life on hold for years and would fly Reid to every specialist in the country if there were even the slightest chance he’d get his hand fully functioning again. He’d sit at that kitchen table with all the exercise instructions spread upon it for the next fifty years, never giving up, never questioning a thing. He couldn’t make Luke do that, though, as much as he loved him for it. He couldn’t make himself do it. He couldn’t let something go on forever that in truth could meet a very sudden end.
God help him if he admitted it, but just as much as Luke changed Reid’s outlook, so did, of all people, Bob. Bob was the kind of physician that reminded him of why he loved medicine so much to begin with - just basic, simple medicine. Bob saved lives every day with a stethoscope, not a scalpel. And he was happy with that. Simple as it was, he was happy with that. He put up with hospital politics and whiny hypochondriacs every day with a smile. Reid could never be so enthusiastic about that, but he understood why Bob did it now. A life was a life. Bob saved a few every day; he just had the challenge of getting through the shitty parts of the job first. He didn’t have to get through those parts alone, though - he had Mrs. Hughes to go home to, to fix the shitty parts by letting her point out the rewarding parts, just like Bob did for him at work. Just like Luke did for him always.