Collision chapter 7/?
The next day Luke woke up feeling well rested. The bump on his head was still there, but he felt fine.
He turned onto his back and stared up at the ceiling. He thought about the conversation he had with Reid the night before. Even though he only knew Reid for a few days, he trusted him completely, which was rare. Luke didn’t usually trust people easily. He was often scared people would take advantage of him, because of his fame and wealth. And he was scared they might discover who and what he really was.
But with Reid, he didn’t mind so much. Actually, he wanted Reid to know who he really was. But he also he wanted to know who Reid really was. He wanted to look beyond that snarky exterior and see the man inside. A kind man who touched him with such gentle hands.
He closed his eyes and imagined what it would be like to be held and to be kissed by Reid, to feel Reid’s hands on his body, his ass, his cock. Luke groaned, he grew hard just thinking about it, imagining Reid’s firm body against his own.
He palmed his growing erection through his boxers, his breath quickening.
Without thinking further, he slid his hand in his boxers and started to rub himself, images of Reid flashing before his eyes. It didn’t take long before he let out a quiet moan and coated his own hand with his come.
He remained still in bed, catching his breath before wiping his hand on his boxers and taking them off. He then climbed out of bed and stepped into the shower.
Jesus. He just jerked off to his doctor. He put his hands on the shower wall and let the hot water cascade over his body.
Maybe he should be embarrassed about it, but he really wasn’t. He felt even more alone now. He wrapped his arms around himself to compensate for the lack of another human being holding him.
Then he heard someone knock on his door. He quickly turned off the water, slung a towel around his hips and hurried to the door.
“Good morning, Luke. Did you sleep well?” Without asking for permission, coach Callahan stepped into his room.
“Yeah, sure.” Surprised, Luke slowly closed the door behind him and followed him into the room.
“How are you feeling? Are you up for the press conference?” Coach looked at him questioningly.
“Actually, no. I talked to Re-, uhm, Dr. Oliver last night and he thought it would be wise to avoid it. It could be stressful and harm my recovery. Apparently, a concussion is a serious injury,” Luke smiled apologetically.
Callahan looked a little disappointed, but didn’t try to change Luke’s mind. He shrugged his shoulders. “Well, if the doctor says so, it’s probably the wisest thing to do. Don’t worry about it.”
“Will Mike take my place?” Luke inquired. He felt a little bit bad for Mike; he hated press conferences and had trouble staying polite with journalists and their inane questions. But he was Luke’s replacement on and off the field as captain.
“Yes, he’s been dreading it since yesterday,” Callahan laughed. “It will be good for him; he needs to learn a thing or two about dealing with the press.”
Luke smiled wider, relieved that Callahan did not hold it against him.
“I am going to be at the training this morning. I probably won’t do much, but I want to keep in touch with the team. I’ll practice some free kicks and do a little running.”
“Fine with me. Okay, I’ll see you later then.” With that, Callahan turned on his heels and walked out of Luke’s room.
Luke shook his head and laughed to himself. It was funny to hear Callahan say something about Mike’s people skills. Coach wasn’t much of a conversationalist himself and had pissed off more people than Luke could count. But his heart was in the right place.
His mind wandered back to Reid, when he dressed himself in a clean tracksuit for training. After training, he would go back to the hospital, visit Kevin and see Reid again. He looked forward to it and dreaded it at the same time, especially after what he did this morning.
But today was not about that, it was about Kevin and his surgery. If nothing else, he needed to be there for Kevin. Whilst keeping that in mind, he picked up his gym bag and left the room.
*****
When he returned at the end of the morning, he showered again and had trouble deciding what to wear. Eventually he chose a pair of jeans that hung low on his hips and hugged his ass in all the right places and a white long sleeved v-neck t-shirt. He toyed with his hair until it had just the right look, brushed his teeth and looked himself over in the mirror.
Suddenly he felt totally ridiculous. This isn’t a date or anything; he is going to visit his team mate in the hospital who is there because of him, and who is undergoing brain surgery today.
And here he is, worrying about his looks because he has the hots for the surgeon who was performing the dangerous surgery. Get your priorities straight Snyder!
Without glancing back at the mirror, he left the bathroom, picked up his wallet, phone and room key and headed out.
He took the elevator down to the parking garage, where he searched for the rental There were several for the team to use, since they didn’t have their own cars there.
Once he found it, he put on his sunglasses and drove away. There was no press waiting at the exit of the garage, thank God.
When he reached the hospital he quickly made his way upstairs to Kevin’s room. When he knocked on the door, there was no answer, so he assumed no one was there.
He stepped in and found Kevin alone in the room, lying still in the bed. Luke took a chair and placed it close to the bed.
He sat down and took Kevin’s hand in his own.
“Hey Kev, it’s Luke,” he spoke softly. “It’s a big day today. You’re having surgery in a couple of hours. But you’re going to be fine. I’m sure of it. And you want to how I know this? Because Dr. Oliver is performing it and he’s the best there is. He is very optimistic about it.”
Nothing wrong with stretching the truth a little bit.
He looked at Kevin’s face. It looked peaceful, as if he was just sleeping. It made Luke’s stomach turn a little. Because even though his mind knew he wasn’t to blame for the accident, his heart still felt guilty and responsible.
He squeezed Kevin’s hand and promised, “I’ll be here when you wake up. You will wake up. and you will be you old self again.” Then Luke remembered something. “Maybe you can finally tell me what you wanted to talk to me about, huh? This is quite a way to build up suspense.” He smiled. “And it worked, because I am very curious now.”
“Curious about what?” Luke suddenly heard behind him.
He jumped up, let go of Kevin’s hand, causing it to fall beside the bed limply and turned around.
“Jesus! Reid!” Luke exclaimed, pressing his hand to his chest as to calm his heart.
Reid smirked “Sorry, I couldn’t resist.”
“Aren’t you supposed to save people’s lives, not scare them to death?”
“You’re hardly dead, Mr. Snyder.”
“Yeah well, just be sure you know your CPR if you keep on doing this.”
Reid gazed at Luke intently with a small smile on his lips.
“You would be lucky, mouth to mouth is one of my specialties.” He smirked.
Luke blushed furiously, looked down at his shoes and then at Kevin and back to his shoes. Not having a snarky comment ready, he remained silent.
Not wanting to add to his embarrassment Reid picked up Kevin’s chart and started reading.
Just before the silence turned really uncomfortable, Luke spoke up. “Is Kevin’s surgery still on for today?” He looked at Reid out of the corner of his eyes.
“Yes, everything is going according to plan, the latest scans looked a bit more hopeful actually.” Reid didn’t look up, but felt Luke’s eyes on him.
“That’s good right? He will fully recover?” Luke started to relax a little bit.
“As I said before, I can’t make any guarantees, but I expect him so make a full recovery, yes.”
Reid wanted to ease Luke’s mind, without giving to much details about Mr. Jackson’s condition.
Reid had examined Kevin about an hour before Luke came in, so he was here now solely for Luke. And Reid really wanted to spend time with him, so he pulled another chair next to the bed and gestured that Luke should sit back down again.
“So, how are you? Are feeling okay?” Reid watched Luke as he sat down and felt a jolt of energy rush through his body when their knees touched.
Luke, still a bit flushed, tugged his ear and finally looked at Reid. Warm brown eyes met serious blue ones and whatever he wanted to say, stayed in his mouth. The intensity of Reid’s gaze completely caught him off guard and as much as he tried to hold it, he couldn’t help but look away. The images of what he did that morning flooded his brain again.
He swallowed thickly and said, “yeah, yeah. I’m fine.” His voice croaked and he coughed a little.
Reid watched him go through his emotions and smiled to himself. He’s just as affected as I am.
“That’s good to hear. How did your coach take the news about the press conference?” He asked, giving Luke the opportunity to compose himself with an innocent question.
“He took it really well, actually. He had Mike replace me and he knows that Mike hates press conferences, so I’m sure he will delegate as much questions as possible to him,” Luke snickered. “He did that to me too, when I was just named captain. It’s very uncomfortable, but you learn to get the hang of it really fast. I guess that’s why he does it. I’ll watch it tonight, to see how he does.”
“It hasn’t started yet, has it? Why don’t you watch it live?” Reid asked confused.
“Because I want to stay here, Kevin shouldn’t be alone when he’s taken into surgery, even though he’s not awake. There should be someone here for him.” Luke said passionately.
“And there will be. His parents are here, they sat with him all morning and they just went out for lunch. They will probably return shortly.” Reid informed him.
Luke was taken aback by this news. Of course he heard earlier that Kevin’s parents were on their way, but he hadn’t thought about it anymore.
“Oh. Oh, that’s good.” He looked at Kevin’s unmoving body. “How are they? Have you spoken to them?”
“Yes, I have. They’re shocked and worried, I guess. They wanted to see you too.”
“Me?” Luke shrieked. “Why would they want to see me? I’m the one who put him there.”
“I guess that’s exactly why,” Reid said dryly. “I am sure they’re not blaming you or anything. They just want to know what happened first hand. You don’t want to talk to them?”
Luke thought about it. Did he want to talk to them? Or would he rather avoid their questions and maybe accusations?
“But wouldn’t talking to them be considered a stressful situation, doctor?” Luke smiled a little and looked at Reid through his eyelashes.
“That depends, Mr. Snyder,” Reid said, while he leaned forward and placed his elbows on his knees. “If you have stopped feeling unnecessarily guilty about what happened, then no. It wouldn’t have to be a stressful situation.” Reid smiled, but also took the question seriously, because he really didn’t want Luke to feel guilty anymore. If it was up to him, he would never again see the pained expression he saw on Luke’s face a few days ago. Luke said nothing, but looked down at his hands, which were clasped together in his lap.
“I know that it’s not my fault, but it’s hard to stop your feelings, you know? I can’t will them to go away.” He said quietly.
Reid ducked his head and tried to catch Luke’s eyes.
“I know how hard it is when you try to stop feeling what you’re feeling or change how you feel. But you’re right; you can’t change how you feel about this.” Reid stopped for a moment, then added, “or about other things.”
At these words, Luke slowly lifted his eyes to meet Reid’s again and this time he held his gaze. He felt the deeper meaning behind Reid’s words.
“But you do have a choice, Luke. You can either follow your head, or your heart.” With these words, Reid tentatively placed one hand on Luke’s knee. Luke felt the warmth of Reid’s hand spread through his whole body. It made him tingle all over and his breathing became shallow.
But before he could say or do anything, the door to Kevin’s room opened and Kevin’s parents walked in. They stopped dead in their tracks and looked at Luke, then at Dr. Oliver and back at Luke.
*