This Could Get Messy (Chapter 4)
Reid walked into Yo's and sat at the bar. He ordered a Guinness. It had been a long day. He'd had two morning consults, one of which was not very hopeful, and he had spent six hours in the surgical theater, fixing the damage done to a young woman by a drunk driver. His feet hurt, and his shoulders ached. What he really wanted to do was to go home and go to bed, but Doogie and his parents were having dinner with Katie at their apartment, and although Katie had made it clear that Reid was welcome to join them at the dinner table, he just didn't want to have to deal with the Hugheses or making excuses to beg off to bed, rather than visiting with them. Since he didn't have any surgeries scheduled for the next day, he decided to grab a quick dinner at Al's and then enjoy a few beers at the local neighborhood dive bar before heading home. The bartender served him his beer in a pint glass, and Reid turned around, his eyes scanning the bar to see if one of the dart boards was open.
At a corner table sat a familiar shape, with his back to him. Reid turned back around on the bar stool. Ignore. Pretend he's not here. You didn't see him.
The past week had been tense between the two men. They had argued a couple of times over plans for the wing, both of them stubborn and unwilling to see things from the other's perspective. And then there was the day that they were researching something on the computer together. Luke was standing behind Reid and leaned over Reid's shoulder to point to something on the screen. As he did, Reid turned around to say something to Luke, and Reid's nose bumped into Luke's chin. Luke jumped back like he'd touched a hot stove and Reid shook his head, wondering if there was some super nerve that he didn't know about that ran straight from the side of one's nose to the groin.
Reid sat for a few minutes at the bar, sipping his beer, before looking over his shoulder at Luke. Luke was sitting very still in his chair, shoulders slumped, head down. Against his better judgement, Reid hopped off the stool with his glass and made his way over to Luke.
"Mr. Snyder," Reid said as he pulled up a chair and sat to the left of Luke.
"Oh...hey, doctor..." Luke replied quietly.
Reid eyed the bottle of whiskey and the shot glass sitting in front of Luke. "Having a private party?" Reid teased.
"Something like that," Luke responded and gave Reid a watery smile.
"You sharing?" Reid asked and grabbed the bottle and shot glass.
"Sure. Help yourself."
Reid began to open the bottle and realized that it was still sealed. "Hey, you haven't even opened it yet." Reid opened the bottle and poured a shot. "You first, since it's your bottle," Reid said and slid the shotglass over in front of Luke.
Luke immediately pushed the shot glass back to Reid. "No, thank you. Go ahead; it's yours."
"Allrighty. Bottoms up!" Reid threw back the shot and chased it witha gulp of beer. "Smooth," he joked, in a fake hoarse voice.
He filled the shot glass again and slid it over to Luke. "Your turn."
Luke pushed the shot glass away, both he and Reid feeling a jolt when their fingers touched. "I said NO. You drink it. I don't drink."
Reid laughed. "What are you talking about? You're sitting here in a bar, with an entire bottle of whiskey in front of you, and you don't drink?" C'mon, quit it. Don't make me drink alone. Here..." Reid started to offer the glass to Luke again, but then he caught something in Luke's eyes that caused a lead weight to drop low in his stomach.
"Luke?" Reid said. It was the first time he'd ever used Luke's first name.
"Don't make me say it, Dr. Oliver. Please..." Luke said, looking away.
Reid turned away from the table and immediately called a waitress over. "Here," he said, placing the whiskey bottle and still full shotglass on her tray. "Can you take this? Give it back to the bar or throw it away or whatever. Or take it home. It's yours. I don't care what you do with it, but here, just...my beer too. And wait..." he said, fishing in his pocket for some bills. "I only have a twenty. Well, whatever...can you just bring us a couple of Cokes, or maybe a bottle of water too? Keep the change." He dropped the twenty dollar bill on her tray.
As the waitress walked away, Reid turned back to Luke. "Do you need to go to a meeting or something? I've only had one shot. I'm okay to drive."
"No," Luke said, allowing his eyes to meet Reid's again, just the slight hint of tears threatening to form. "Thanks...that's nice of you to ask...I'm sorry..."
"Hey, don't be embarrassed, Luke. Really, don't. No judgements here, okay? This is right here, not leaving this room. You can trust that. Do you have a sponsor?"
"Carly."
"Don't know her."
"Carly Tenney."
"Oh, wait...cute blonde, dates the cop?"
Luke laughed a little. "Yeah, but I'm kind of surprised you would notice how cute she is."
"Hey, I can appreciate a woman's beauty. Plus, I have a thing for blondes, what can I say?" Reid winked at Luke, causing Luke's cheeks to burn.
"She's my aunt...sort of..."
"Of course she is," Reid said, rolling his eyes. "I think I'm the only person in this god-forsaken town that isn't related to either a Hughes or a Snyder. This is a very incestuous village..."
Luke smiled at the truth in Reid's words. "She's my dad's brother's ex wife."
"Good dad or bad dad?"
"Holden. So, technically I guess Carly's no relation to me at all, since she and Jack are divorced and Holden's not my bio dad...anyway...whatever. And her son, Parker, I consider him my cousin, though really, I guess he's not, since Jack isn't his real dad either...shoot, I have sister who is not REALLY my sister...my grandmother, Lucinda, is not my bio grandmother either because my mother was adopted by her...my family tree is whack..."
Reid laughed out loud. "Your family is more fucked up than mine, and really, that's saying a lot."
"You have no idea, Doctor Oliver. At one point, there was the possiblity of Noah becoming my adopted brother. Can you imagine?"
"What?!"
"Don't even ask..."
"Ok..." Reid said laughing.
Luke focused on Reid whose eyes were down, looking at the napkin he was fiddling with. "You have a nice smile, Dr. Oliver. You should wear it more often."
Reid clearned his throat. "Have you called Carly?"
"No, she's out of the country."
"What about your parents? Noah?"
"I don't want to bother my parents, and I really don't think leaning on Noah is something I want do do right now."
"I presume your parents would want you to ask for help if you needed it."
"I'm fine. I was sitting in here for almost an hour before you arrived, and I didn't drink."
"But you wanted to. You need to talk to somebody, Mr. Snyder." Reid said and let his hand brush against the top of Luke's wrist on the table.
"You're here, arent you?" Luke asked tentatively.
"Eh, I don't know...I'm not a very good listener." Reid squirmed in his chair. He looked up at Luke and before he knew what he was doing, he was reaching out and grabbing Luke's chin with his thumb and index finger. "Hey, Luke..." Luke looked straight into his eyes. "What happened? Tell me about it."