Fic: Simple Gifts, Chapter 2: Home (2/30+)
Title: Simple Gifts, A Luke and Reid Love Story
Author: lovelureuk
Rating: PG-13 (language and innuendo)
Word Count:: not so many in these chapters, but it just gets longer!
Disclaimer: Telenext, P&G, blah blah blah. I’m just reveling in the opportunity to live in Luke and Reid’s universe.
Warnings: romance, romance, romance. with (hopefully) a healthy dose of humor, a dollop of fluff, and a few dashes of angst here and there. No other warnings really necessary - unless you’re wary of schmoop!
Summary: Train? What train. Following their first Christmas together, Luke and Reid embark on journeys of self-discovery. Can two simple gifts lead to a happily ever after?
Notes: I started writing this back in May and it's been posted on FF.net with update alerts posted on LRO , FB,and my blog. But someone suggested I post this here in the lure_atwt community as well. And since it's not the first time I've received that suggestion, I'll go ahead and take that advice. Sorry if I'm posting stuff in the wrong place - I'm a complete LJ newbie.
***any and all feedback appreciated, but since I check FFN more frequently, and you can leave comments there as well.
I'm starting with the first three chapters, which is how this story was originally posted. If you'd like me to keep posting the chapters here, please let me know and I'll do so. you'd like to keep following along, you can read the whole thing at:
Simple Gifts, on FanFiction.net.
Chapter 2: Home
During the car ride, Reid went along with Luke's cheery chatter about the day's highlights.
"Did you see the look on Ethan's face when he opened the Power Ranger toy we got him?" asked Luke.
"Poor kid looked terrified. I told you you should have gotten him a chess set."
"Yeah, right. Like you know all about what kids want," retorted Luke. "Did you even play with toys when you were a kid?"
"I never was a kid."
"So what was your favorite toy?"
"I didn't do toys," said Reid.
"Aw, c'mon," prodded Luke. "You must've played with something!"
"Well, I guess I sometimes used my imagination," conceded Reid.
Luke couldn't resist the opening. "You had an imagination? Were you good at playing doctor?"
"I'm even better now," replied Reid, leaving the statement open for interpretation.
Luke turned to catch his eye, almost forgetting he was driving.
"Get your mind out of the gutter, Mr. Snyder, and keep your eyes on the road before you kill us both," admonished Reid. But then he smiled.
Twenty minutes later, they arrived at the house that used to be Katie and Brad's. In September, Katie had invited them, along with Henry and Maddie to an impromptu dinner at Chris Hughes's house. Though Hank drove him nuts, Reid was beginning to see why Katie was so fond of him. Reid still couldn't stand Chris, but Reid would do just about anything for Katie and Jacob, so along they went.
Midway through dinner, between the salads and the beef Florentine, Katie had stood to make an announcement: she and Chris were engaged. Henry started to stammer, and even Reid raised an eyebrow. But Katie was beaming, so Reid decided he'd question her sanity later in private.
Katie poured champagne and Chris toasted his beautiful bride-to-be, while Henry and Reid rolled their eyes and Luke and Maddie gushed their congratulations.
Then, Katie stood up again. Raising her glass, she smiled broadly and turned to look squarely at Reid. "Oh, shit," thought Reid. "This can't be good."
"And..." began Katie, with a dramatic pause, "Since I'll be moving in with Chris, I think that you, Reid - and Luke - should buy my house."
"Are you crazy?" Reid had asked incredulously. Luke and Reid had grown closer over the past several months, and were spending practically every hour, waking or not, together. Only work commitments kept them apart. But as far as living together, neither had broached the subject yet.
Luke looked shell-shocked - first by Katie's very public suggestion, then by Reid's outraged response. Luke's knee-jerk reaction had been similar, but he'd moved almost instantaneously from "that's crazy" to "hmmm...maybe," so Reid's unequivocal denial took him aback. He bit his tongue and looked away.
Reid caught Luke's expression out of the corner of his eye and realized how Luke had interpreted his outburst. Katie sternly waggled her eyebrows at him, giving him a "say something you big dope" look, while Maddie, Henry and Chris looked from Luke to Reid and back, as if watching a tennis match.
Reid never apologized for stating his mind, but he could tell he'd hurt Luke. While he struggled to find the right words to say, he threw Katie a "throw me a lifeline, will ya?" look.
Her frown said, "Chicken. Fix it yourself," but she obliged. "Luke already spends more time there than I do. And I just can't stay in that house with Chris. There are too many memories of Brad there, so we really need start our lives together someplace else. Your stuff is already there, Reid, why wouldn't you just stay?"
By this time, Reid had recovered his tongue enough to manage, "Thanks for the suggestion. We'll, um, talk about it." He waited until he made full eye contact with Luke and his eyes made a silent apology.
Luke was quiet through most of the rest of dinner, but Katie and Maddie quickly jumped in and kept up the conversation until it was time to go home.
Luke continued to sulk in the car as Reid drove, leaning against the car door with his arms folded tightly across his chest.
Finally Reid broke the silence: "I didn't mean it to come out like it sounded."
"What, like you can't imagine my moving in?" asked Luke petulantly.
"That's not what I meant at all!" protested Reid. "You know I don't play games. My first problem is that it's crazy for Katie to be marrying Doogie Hughes in the first place. She's not ready. And she loves that house. Even though they're at Chris's most of the time already, it's just not gonna be the same without her and the kid."
"Is that what you'd like? To stay Katie's roommate forever?" challenged Luke.
"No, that's not what I mean either," said Reid. "Look, I'm not going to spend all night defending myself, but I want you to understand."
"Understand what?" demanded Luke.
"If you'd stop assuming that I'm Noah trying to push you away, you could actually hear what I'm saying," said Reid.
The mention of Noah's name struck a nerve and Luke withdrew even further.
"Luke," Reid tried again. "You were still reeling from your relationship with Noah when we got together. And you never got a breather in between to figure out what you really want. How do you know you're ready to move in with me?" asked Reid.
"Look, just because you know everything in the world about people's brains doesn't mean you know everything about their hearts. Especially mine," Luke retorted. "Why don't you give me credit for knowing what I want?"
A lengthy list of times Luke had made decisions without knowing what he wanted, couched in an acerbic response, sat on the tip of Reid's tongue, but he managed to keep it in check. He forced himself to count to five before asking, "What do you want, Luke?" with what he hoped was a questioning, rather than demanding tone.
Put on the spot, Luke realized that he really didn't know.
He adored the time he was spending with Reid. His involvement in the hospital wing had given him something meaningful to do with his days. He had started learning the ropes at Grimaldi, but he'd never asked to take over the company, and the routine responsibilities at the shipping company left him less than enthralled. For the Snyder Pavilion project, he had personally interviewed the contractors and checked in with project planners on a daily basis. As he spent more time at the hospital and learned about what Reid did on a day-to-day basis, Luke was able to translate what he learned into improvements in the wing's design and management.
Outside of work, Luke and Reid had fallen into a comfortable pattern. On Monday and Thursday evenings Reid stayed late in the office, reviewing case files and details before surgery the next morning. Tuesdays were joint working nights, with both of them spending the evening reviewing status reports and meeting with a revolving door of architects, contractors, suppliers, physicians, patient rights groups, and media. Luke had foundation meetings on Wednesday nights, visiting as many of the Oakdale -based organizations they supported as he could on a regular basis.
On weekday mornings, Reid was inevitably up before Luke, so Luke had grown accustomed to waking up in an empty bed. But he was always reassured by the the smell of the coffee Reid set brewing before stepping in the shower, and he would never tire of watching Reid shave in the mornings, framed in the bathroom door - water still glistening on his shoulders and back. It took two months before Luke had managed to convince Reid that he was soon to be "Administration" and could leave the weekend call shifts to more ordinary physicians. Reluctantly, Reid had begun having coffee at home on Sunday mornings, and after two more months, had progressed to taking Saturdays off and enjoying lazy Sunday morning lie-ins with Luke.
Luke had even grown accustomed to hearing Reid's beeper going off in the middle of the night. The first time, he had awoken with a start, thinking it must be the smoke alarm. But Reid had leaned over and whispered, "It's the hospital - blunt force trauma. Gotta go. Get some sleep," before kissing him on the cheek. Luke rolled over to watch Reid dressing in the dark before silently disappearing through the doorway.
He had been amazed how quickly he'd forgotten what it felt like to wake up alone in the middle of the night. He edged himself closer to the empty side of the bed, trying to capture the last of the warmth Reid had left behind. When he leaned his head against Reid's pillow, he found it still smelled like him, so Luke wrapped his arms around it before snuggling deeper under the covers.
As for snuggling under the covers, even the thought brought a smile to Luke's lips. When they first found each other, they were painfully intense, drinking each other in like an oasis in a desert. But they soon began to realize that they would both be around for awhile, so their nights became less urgent and more varied, echoing the ebbs and swells of their days - variously needy, exuberant, tender, or intense. Luke's shyness crept in, but he was happy to lie back and let Reid introduce him to erogenous zones he'd never even considered.
Luke spent countless nights mapping out every inch of Reid's body, tracing his chin with his lips, outlining the contours of his back, memorizing every ripple on his chest, and pinpointing the exact location of the sensitive spot on his left inner thigh. He loved falling asleep feeling Reid's stubble against his shoulder, wrapped in his arms, with the weight of Reid's right leg pressing heavily atop his hip.
"Luke?" came Reid's voice in the dark. Luke had been driving in autopilot and they were only a few blocks from Katie's house. Reid's house...His house?
"Luke, what're you thinking?" asked Reid as they pulled into the driveway.
Luke paused for a moment before speaking. "I'm thinking," he said, "I'm home."
Author: lovelureuk
Rating: PG-13 (language and innuendo)
Word Count:: not so many in these chapters, but it just gets longer!
Disclaimer: Telenext, P&G, blah blah blah. I’m just reveling in the opportunity to live in Luke and Reid’s universe.
Warnings: romance, romance, romance. with (hopefully) a healthy dose of humor, a dollop of fluff, and a few dashes of angst here and there. No other warnings really necessary - unless you’re wary of schmoop!
Summary: Train? What train. Following their first Christmas together, Luke and Reid embark on journeys of self-discovery. Can two simple gifts lead to a happily ever after?
Notes: I started writing this back in May and it's been posted on FF.net with update alerts posted on LRO , FB,and my blog. But someone suggested I post this here in the lure_atwt community as well. And since it's not the first time I've received that suggestion, I'll go ahead and take that advice. Sorry if I'm posting stuff in the wrong place - I'm a complete LJ newbie.
***any and all feedback appreciated, but since I check FFN more frequently, and you can leave comments there as well.
I'm starting with the first three chapters, which is how this story was originally posted. If you'd like me to keep posting the chapters here, please let me know and I'll do so. you'd like to keep following along, you can read the whole thing at:
Simple Gifts, on FanFiction.net.
Chapter 2: Home
During the car ride, Reid went along with Luke's cheery chatter about the day's highlights.
"Did you see the look on Ethan's face when he opened the Power Ranger toy we got him?" asked Luke.
"Poor kid looked terrified. I told you you should have gotten him a chess set."
"Yeah, right. Like you know all about what kids want," retorted Luke. "Did you even play with toys when you were a kid?"
"I never was a kid."
"So what was your favorite toy?"
"I didn't do toys," said Reid.
"Aw, c'mon," prodded Luke. "You must've played with something!"
"Well, I guess I sometimes used my imagination," conceded Reid.
Luke couldn't resist the opening. "You had an imagination? Were you good at playing doctor?"
"I'm even better now," replied Reid, leaving the statement open for interpretation.
Luke turned to catch his eye, almost forgetting he was driving.
"Get your mind out of the gutter, Mr. Snyder, and keep your eyes on the road before you kill us both," admonished Reid. But then he smiled.
Twenty minutes later, they arrived at the house that used to be Katie and Brad's. In September, Katie had invited them, along with Henry and Maddie to an impromptu dinner at Chris Hughes's house. Though Hank drove him nuts, Reid was beginning to see why Katie was so fond of him. Reid still couldn't stand Chris, but Reid would do just about anything for Katie and Jacob, so along they went.
Midway through dinner, between the salads and the beef Florentine, Katie had stood to make an announcement: she and Chris were engaged. Henry started to stammer, and even Reid raised an eyebrow. But Katie was beaming, so Reid decided he'd question her sanity later in private.
Katie poured champagne and Chris toasted his beautiful bride-to-be, while Henry and Reid rolled their eyes and Luke and Maddie gushed their congratulations.
Then, Katie stood up again. Raising her glass, she smiled broadly and turned to look squarely at Reid. "Oh, shit," thought Reid. "This can't be good."
"And..." began Katie, with a dramatic pause, "Since I'll be moving in with Chris, I think that you, Reid - and Luke - should buy my house."
"Are you crazy?" Reid had asked incredulously. Luke and Reid had grown closer over the past several months, and were spending practically every hour, waking or not, together. Only work commitments kept them apart. But as far as living together, neither had broached the subject yet.
Luke looked shell-shocked - first by Katie's very public suggestion, then by Reid's outraged response. Luke's knee-jerk reaction had been similar, but he'd moved almost instantaneously from "that's crazy" to "hmmm...maybe," so Reid's unequivocal denial took him aback. He bit his tongue and looked away.
Reid caught Luke's expression out of the corner of his eye and realized how Luke had interpreted his outburst. Katie sternly waggled her eyebrows at him, giving him a "say something you big dope" look, while Maddie, Henry and Chris looked from Luke to Reid and back, as if watching a tennis match.
Reid never apologized for stating his mind, but he could tell he'd hurt Luke. While he struggled to find the right words to say, he threw Katie a "throw me a lifeline, will ya?" look.
Her frown said, "Chicken. Fix it yourself," but she obliged. "Luke already spends more time there than I do. And I just can't stay in that house with Chris. There are too many memories of Brad there, so we really need start our lives together someplace else. Your stuff is already there, Reid, why wouldn't you just stay?"
By this time, Reid had recovered his tongue enough to manage, "Thanks for the suggestion. We'll, um, talk about it." He waited until he made full eye contact with Luke and his eyes made a silent apology.
Luke was quiet through most of the rest of dinner, but Katie and Maddie quickly jumped in and kept up the conversation until it was time to go home.
Luke continued to sulk in the car as Reid drove, leaning against the car door with his arms folded tightly across his chest.
Finally Reid broke the silence: "I didn't mean it to come out like it sounded."
"What, like you can't imagine my moving in?" asked Luke petulantly.
"That's not what I meant at all!" protested Reid. "You know I don't play games. My first problem is that it's crazy for Katie to be marrying Doogie Hughes in the first place. She's not ready. And she loves that house. Even though they're at Chris's most of the time already, it's just not gonna be the same without her and the kid."
"Is that what you'd like? To stay Katie's roommate forever?" challenged Luke.
"No, that's not what I mean either," said Reid. "Look, I'm not going to spend all night defending myself, but I want you to understand."
"Understand what?" demanded Luke.
"If you'd stop assuming that I'm Noah trying to push you away, you could actually hear what I'm saying," said Reid.
The mention of Noah's name struck a nerve and Luke withdrew even further.
"Luke," Reid tried again. "You were still reeling from your relationship with Noah when we got together. And you never got a breather in between to figure out what you really want. How do you know you're ready to move in with me?" asked Reid.
"Look, just because you know everything in the world about people's brains doesn't mean you know everything about their hearts. Especially mine," Luke retorted. "Why don't you give me credit for knowing what I want?"
A lengthy list of times Luke had made decisions without knowing what he wanted, couched in an acerbic response, sat on the tip of Reid's tongue, but he managed to keep it in check. He forced himself to count to five before asking, "What do you want, Luke?" with what he hoped was a questioning, rather than demanding tone.
Put on the spot, Luke realized that he really didn't know.
He adored the time he was spending with Reid. His involvement in the hospital wing had given him something meaningful to do with his days. He had started learning the ropes at Grimaldi, but he'd never asked to take over the company, and the routine responsibilities at the shipping company left him less than enthralled. For the Snyder Pavilion project, he had personally interviewed the contractors and checked in with project planners on a daily basis. As he spent more time at the hospital and learned about what Reid did on a day-to-day basis, Luke was able to translate what he learned into improvements in the wing's design and management.
Outside of work, Luke and Reid had fallen into a comfortable pattern. On Monday and Thursday evenings Reid stayed late in the office, reviewing case files and details before surgery the next morning. Tuesdays were joint working nights, with both of them spending the evening reviewing status reports and meeting with a revolving door of architects, contractors, suppliers, physicians, patient rights groups, and media. Luke had foundation meetings on Wednesday nights, visiting as many of the Oakdale -based organizations they supported as he could on a regular basis.
On weekday mornings, Reid was inevitably up before Luke, so Luke had grown accustomed to waking up in an empty bed. But he was always reassured by the the smell of the coffee Reid set brewing before stepping in the shower, and he would never tire of watching Reid shave in the mornings, framed in the bathroom door - water still glistening on his shoulders and back. It took two months before Luke had managed to convince Reid that he was soon to be "Administration" and could leave the weekend call shifts to more ordinary physicians. Reluctantly, Reid had begun having coffee at home on Sunday mornings, and after two more months, had progressed to taking Saturdays off and enjoying lazy Sunday morning lie-ins with Luke.
Luke had even grown accustomed to hearing Reid's beeper going off in the middle of the night. The first time, he had awoken with a start, thinking it must be the smoke alarm. But Reid had leaned over and whispered, "It's the hospital - blunt force trauma. Gotta go. Get some sleep," before kissing him on the cheek. Luke rolled over to watch Reid dressing in the dark before silently disappearing through the doorway.
He had been amazed how quickly he'd forgotten what it felt like to wake up alone in the middle of the night. He edged himself closer to the empty side of the bed, trying to capture the last of the warmth Reid had left behind. When he leaned his head against Reid's pillow, he found it still smelled like him, so Luke wrapped his arms around it before snuggling deeper under the covers.
As for snuggling under the covers, even the thought brought a smile to Luke's lips. When they first found each other, they were painfully intense, drinking each other in like an oasis in a desert. But they soon began to realize that they would both be around for awhile, so their nights became less urgent and more varied, echoing the ebbs and swells of their days - variously needy, exuberant, tender, or intense. Luke's shyness crept in, but he was happy to lie back and let Reid introduce him to erogenous zones he'd never even considered.
Luke spent countless nights mapping out every inch of Reid's body, tracing his chin with his lips, outlining the contours of his back, memorizing every ripple on his chest, and pinpointing the exact location of the sensitive spot on his left inner thigh. He loved falling asleep feeling Reid's stubble against his shoulder, wrapped in his arms, with the weight of Reid's right leg pressing heavily atop his hip.
"Luke?" came Reid's voice in the dark. Luke had been driving in autopilot and they were only a few blocks from Katie's house. Reid's house...His house?
"Luke, what're you thinking?" asked Reid as they pulled into the driveway.
Luke paused for a moment before speaking. "I'm thinking," he said, "I'm home."