And nothing else (2/3?)
Title: And nothing else.
Author: KittyBlackCat
Disclaimer: Luke and Reid aren't dating and going at it like bunnies so obviously, I don't own ATWT or its characters
Rating: PG-13(to be safe)
Summary: Post episode of June 17th. Reid said that he would do nothing else but his job. Just how far along that line will he go?
Word count: 3830
AN: Ok so apparently it'll have more than two parts. I suppose I could wait longer and post every thing in one other big block but I feel like doing it this way.
Part 1 PArt 3 Part 4 Part 5
Chapter 2
If Katie Snyder had been worried when she had arrived at Memorial, she was now in full blown panic mode as she listened to Allison’s findings. She could not believe that she hadn’t seen this coming. How could she have been so neglectful? She had always prided herself about being a good friend, but obviously she had failed miserably where Reid was concerned. Knowing that her roommate, her confident and probably best friend had apparently lost so much weight was terrifying her. And Chris’ findings did nothing to dissipate that fear. After Allison had told Dr.Hughes of her observations, he had immediately looked for Reid’s file to check exactly how much work he had been doing. However, what he saw at first glance didn’t seem that extraordinary. Allison, being convinced something was wrong, took a look at the file and was able to identify dates where Dr.Oliver had replaced doctors so they could take the day off. Checking on the other doctors’ files, Chris Hughes soon realized that they all had taken quite a lot of days off in the last two months, yet there were few traces of who had worked in their place. Every time a doctor took a day off yet no replacement was recorded on file, Reid Oliver had been the one doing the replacement.
“My god, Katie. He must have work for 48 hours straight at times. How the hell didn’t I notice?”
“Well Dr.Hughes, it’s not secret that you and Dr.Oliver aren’t on the best of terms” Allison answered. “You tend to avoid each other as much as you can and Dr.Oliver is really sneaky. He made sure nothing was put on file and probably found a way to keep the other doctors to talk to each other about taking a day off, so he wouldn’t get caught. He’s very good at hiding. It took me a long time to notice he wasn’t eating and obviously I had underestimated the situation.” Allison added in a voice filled with guilt.
“ But you did what you could Allison” Katie reassured her. “And that’s more than everyone else can say, me included. You did a good job, ok. It isn’t your fault”
“But if I had come to Dr.Hughes beforehand…”
“It wouldn’t have change anything! Chris would have most likely not listened to you and think you were exaggerating!”
“Yes, that’s true Allison. Even if you had talked about it, I probably wouldn’t have believed you. It makes no sense for Reid to do what he did and Reid is a logical being. I don’t see him doing something like that so I wouldn’t have thought it possible. I still don’t know how it is possible” Chris said incredulously. He really didn’t know what Reid could have been thinking. Sure the guy had no personal life, but he still used to get downtime off work. ‘Wait a minute..’ Chris thought
“Katie did something happen in Reid’s personal life? Could he be avoiding a personal issue, trying to distract himself with work?”
“I don’t know. He hasn’t talked to me about anything. I…” Katie stopped herself to think. A personal matter…Something that could have had a huge effect on Reid, something that would have touched him emotionally…
“Luke” Katie whispered. “Something must have happened with Luke. Allison, have you seen Luke visit Reid recently?”
“Euhm…no. Actually, I haven’t seen Luke at the hospital at all since like…two months ago!” Allison exclaimed. That’s it! Katie was right. It had something to do with Luke.
“Oh my god I’m so stupid” Allison said “Noah told me about catching Luke and Reid kissing and them probably being an item now. I should have known something was wrong. If they were together Luke would come to the hospital more often not less often.”
“Wait a minute” Chris said, his eyes widening. “Luke Snyder and Reid Oliver are dating?!? Seriously?”
“No” a voice said, surprising them. The older Dr.Hughes had seen the three of them talking and had been intrigued at the worried looks they had. He had come near enough to hear Chris’ questions. “No they aren’t dating anymore, if they ever were. It was unethical for the Doctor Oliver, who is the head of the new wing, to have relationship with the main founder of the said new wing. So I asked him to choose”
“WHAT!?!” came the three voices of Chris, Allison and Katie.
“How is that unethical? Doctors have been dating nurses working under them since I’ve been here, maybe even since this hospital opened. They work together all the time, not just once in a while like Luke and Dr.Oliver on the new wing and no one had any problems or complaints about it as long as there was no blatant favouritism towards the nurse dating the doctor” Allison said animatedly.
She couldn’t believe the older man would ask Dr.Oliver to choose between Luke and his job. That man got as excited about doing a surgery as a 5 year-old would be in Santa Claus’ workshop where an unlimited amount of toys and candies were given to him. And beside, that man had a 10 inches long stick up his arse when it came to professional behaviour. It was crazy how many times he had given a lecture to interns and nurses about acting too familiarly instead of professionally, and letting personal emotions or situations affect their work. The guy was a freaking robot when it came to his job! And she made sure to tell Bob Hughes all of this with quite an outraged tone since it seemed Katie was much too enraged to open her mouth, let alone move. Allison could swear that if Katie wasn’t forcing herself to be completely still, she would jump of Bob Hughes and try to strangle him. Or beat him up to death. Seriously, neither Allison nor Chris had ever seen such a murderous look on anyone’s face. ‘Note to self’ thought Chris. ‘Never, ever lift a single finger against Reid Oliver. If you do, Katie will most likely castrate you. I really should tell my father to get the hell away as fast as he can’
Bob Hughes was getting tired of having to justify himself on this particular issue. Kim hadn’t stopped bringing the subject up in the last two months. She kept saying that Reid had looked somewhat depressed and tired the few times she had seen him. She wouldn’t put the subject to rest. He tried to explain again the situation to the trio but neither the nurse nor his son seemed to fully understand or agree with him on the issue, though they admitted that it was out of their hands. Katie Snyder however still looked as outraged as ever.
“I’d tell you what I think of this decision Dr.Hughes, but I’m afraid I was raised with too much good manners to use that kind of language, especially to someone in your position. So I’ll just go look for my roommate and best friend and try my darnest to salvage the disaster that you created. But don’t think for one single minute, that this conversation is over. I just like being out of jail too much to do anything but get as far away from you as I can right now.” Katie’s voice was cold as ice as she uttered those words and she was quick to storm out of there. She didn’t trust herself at all at the moment. To force Reid to choose between the only thing he had in his life pre-Oakdale and the one thing in Oakdale that he cherished the most, the one thing that made him more human, more relaxed, and happy, it was…cruel. There was no other word for it. Bob Hughes had been unnecessarily cruel to Reid. There most have been another solution. Luke wasn’t the only one working at that foundation. He could have sent someone else to work with Reid and not take care of things concerning the new wing anymore. It wouldn’t have been pleasant for Luke but it would have been much less dramatic than Reid losing his job.
“Can you believe him” Katie asked Chris and Allison once they had reached her. “Couldn’t he find another solution? Wasn’t there a way to make it ethical?”
“I don’t know. But it sure would explain some of the tension I sense between my parents. If Mom knows of this, she most certainly doesn’t agree with Dad on it”
“Yeah. I heard her asking some nurse how Reid was..” Allison never got to finish her sentence though. A nurse she knew worked with Dr.Oliver came running towards them, screaming “Dr.Hughes, Dr.Hughes” at the top of her lungs.
“Hey what’s wrong?” Chris asked, instantly getting in doctor mode. The nurse was completely out of breath and looked panicked.
“It’s Dr.Oliver!*pant* he *pant*he..”
“he what?” Katie interrupted impatiently. That feeling in her stomach had just increased tenfolds. What happened to Reid?
“He…we found him on the stairs between two floors.” Answered the nurse trying to talk normally even though she was still short of breath. “He was supposed to deliver a document to someone on the next floor but he never made it. We found him unconscious and his head was bleeding. He must have fell down the stairs.” The nurse continued telling them as the group hurriedly walked towards the scene.
What Katie saw once there, almost made her heart stop. Reid, her Reid, her best friend was laying on the gurney, his head covered in blood. It was as if time had stopped and the world was ending. And suddenly she felt the ground slipping from underneath her.
“Katie!” Allison screamed, catching her as she fell. “Katie, Katie” She kept repeating, but the other woman wasn’t responding to her. “Casey get over here and help me! I think Katie’s in shock”
“Allison. What’s wrong? What happen…omg, is that…was that Dr.Oliver they were rushing away.” Casey asked as he helped Allison bring Katie to a chair.
“Yeah. He fell down the stairs and opened his head. They’re going to check to see if there’s internal bleeding in the brain. If there is, they’ll have to operate.”
“Man, what bad luck. And ironic too. The head doctor splitting his head open!”
“This isn’t funny Casey!” Allison screamed at him, tears starting to fall from her eyes. Casey looked at his friend in shock. What in the world? Sure, it wasn’t fun to see a colleague get hurt, but surely it wasn’t that bad. I mean, how bad can you get hurt from simply falling down a couple of stairs?
“Doctor Oliver could die!” Allison continued “And it isn’t just a head surgery Case! I was right! I was right to worry about him. He has only skin on his bones. He looks like he’s anorexic. And he’s been pulling triple shifts for the last two months. He’s overworked and underfed. How in the world he was still able to stand, I don’t know. But it probably involved lots of caffeine or worst maybe even drugs. Do you see how bad it could get if they have to operate. Surgery involves medicine that might react to something he took and the weaker you are physically, the more dangerous operating you is. And Dr.Oliver is in a really bad shape right now. If they have to do a serious surgery, he might not make it through”
Casey was left speechless and with a rock in his stomach. Sure, he didn’t like the guy, he thought he was a jerk and don’t get him started on what he did to Noah, but…him dying? No. There was nothing funny about that.
“Surgery?” Katie whispered. “They’re taking him to surgery?”
“ We don’t know that yet Katie” reassured Allison, bringing a lose strand of Katie’s hair behind her ear.
“ But they can’t” Katie said softly, still looking straight in front of her. “It’s a head injury. Reid is the neurosurgeon. They can operate without him. He’s the only neurosurgeon. They can’t operate him, they’ll mess it up! It’s not their speciality, they’ll mess things up!” Katie sobbed, her head falling on her knees. She kept repeating “they’ll mess things up” over and over again.
“Katie. Katie, listen to me” Allison said, kneeling in front of her. “If there’s internal bleeding, they have to do the surgery to stop it, ok. There’s no time to get a neurosurgeon from another hospital. Reid could die waiting. Chris is a competent doctor and surgeon, ok”
“Yes but”
“Katie. You know Dr.Oliver the best here, right?” asked Casey. Katie nodded. “Alright then, if Dr.Oliver had to choose one doctor in this hospital to operate on him, who would it be?”
Katie sat back in the chair and thought about it. She thought about all of Reid’s comments about every doctor he had encountered. “Chris” she answered “Chris would be his choice”
“Well that’s exactly who he has watching his back. He’ll be fine you’ll see.” Said Casey.
“Yeah” Katie said with a stronger voice, wiping her tears away. “He’ll be fine. And he’ll mock me about being such a worrywart and a darn drama queen”
The trio stayed in silence for a few minutes before Chris came to tell them that surgery wouldn’t be necessary but that looking at the brain activity, there was a possibility that Reid had slipped into a coma.
“But we’re not sure. And right now, the most urgent thing is to deal with Reid’s other issues. He’s incredibly thin and malnourished and must suffer from exhaustion. His body must have been taken quite a toll in the last few months. I’ve ordered a complete blood work and a tox screen just to be safe, but it’ll take a while before we have any result back. For now, I think you should all go home and rest Katie. Allison, can you stay with her?”
“Sure”
“No. I’m not leaving him”
“Katie be reasonable” Chris pleaded. “There’s nothing you can do”
“Chris” Katie said brusquely. “If I was the one in this position, where do you think Reid would be? Do you really think that anything would make him leave my side?” Chris looked down. No, if the situation were reversed Reid Oliver would right here, making sure that the nurses and doctors didn’t screw things up with their stupidity and nothing would have been able to make him leave Katie’s side except maybe Jacob or Luke needing urgent brain surgery. “No Chris. He wouldn’t leave my side for a second. He’d stay by my bedside, whether it was authorized or not, without sleeping or eating until I woke up, saw him there and was told I was completely out of the woods.”
“But he wouldn’t want you to neglect yourself by staying with him Katie.” Chris said “He would want you to go back home and get some sleep as soon as it becomes too much. So you have to do that. For him. It won’t do him any good, if he wakes up to you looking like death warmed over. If anything, it’ll just worry him and anger him and then he’ll be screaming at me, insulting my intelligence and accusing me of not taking good care of you” he added. “So you can stay with him for now, but you’ll have to go home eventually.” Katie nodded and started to follow Chris to Reid’s room when suddenly, a thought occurred to her.
“Allison?”
“Yes”
“I think someone should go tell Luke. I…I don’t know how things broke up but…I think Luke would want to know. Do you think you can do it? I…I really don’t want to leave Reid’s side and this is the kind of news better said in person”
“Of course” Allison answered sadly, tears coming to her eyes. Katie’s pain was so obvious. Her heart went out to her and to Luke. No doubt her friend would not take this well.
“Maybe I should go with you” said Casey. “We don’t know how Luke will react. If he goes into shock like Katie, you won’t be able to catch him or move him around and frankly, I don’t think either of you will be in a state to drive” he added looking at his friend teary face. Allison was obviously trying to keep herself from crying, to be strong for Katie, but he knew that she was really affected by all of this. Dr.Oliver and she were not close. They weren’t much of anything to each other really. But Allison had been the one who noticed something wrong and she had put quite some effort into making Oliver’s life easier for him. Casey just knew by looking at her that she was chastising herself for not doing more, for not keeping things from happening. It wasn’t her fault of course. But Allison hadn’t become a nurse for nothing. She deeply cared about people and always wanted them to get better, no matter who they were. She would need someone there to support her when she told Luke.
*****************************
When Luke Snyder had told Reid Oliver he was making his decision for him and had decided to call it quits with the doctor, he had been furious and disappointed. He had really, seriously thought he could make things work with Reid. But the older man had refused to tell him the truth when Luke confronted him and then had told him of his decision of taking a break with Luke for a couple of months without talking to him about it. That was the part that infuriated Luke the most. Reid had taken a decision that concerned them both without consulting him. A couple makes couple’s decisions. That was that. He wouldn’t enter in a relationship where he didn’t a voice! If that was how things would be with Reid, Luke preferred to walk away before he got so involved it would hurt too much to leave him. How difficult would it have been to sit down with Luke and discuss Bob’s ultimatum? Maybe they could have found another solution. Or at least, Luke would have felt he had had a say in what would happen and have time to actually think about what he wanted to do. But he hadn’t had the time to think. Reid just dropped this bombshell on him and expected him to go with it. Well, no he wouldn’t just go with it. He wouldn’t let anyone decide what is best for him. He refused to let himself be walked on. He would never be anyone’s doormat. Not ever again.
But then, after a few days, the anger slowly faded and was replaced by an intense sadness. He had wanted to be with Reid so badly. Finding out that things just weren’t meant to be had hurt a lot. He had tried to distract himself with work, helping his family, and anything else he could find to busy himself, but it hadn’t made the pain go way and when he went home at night, he would immediately go to bed and sleep until the next morning. He didn’t remember ever spending so much time in bed….or eating that much cherry flavoured ice-cream either. He missed Reid so much. Much, much more then he missed Noah, who was still refusing any contact with Luke. He had wanted more than couple of times to sneak into the hospital to see Reid, if only from afar. But he knew that if he saw Reid, he would want to talk to him and that was dangerous. Luke couldn’t let himself fall back into his arms. He had made a decision and it was for the best. Reid and he had different priorities and being together would only hurt them much more than now. But then a couple of weeks ago, things had change. Not for the better though. No, a few weeks ago, doubts started creeping in. Had he really made the right decision? Should he have left Reid explain himself more? Were Reid and him really not good for each other? What if this situation wasn’t a reflection of what would be? Was he wrong? Reid was such an amazing neurosurgeon. And in Dallas, he had been so devastated and scared at the idea that he might never be able to practice medicine again. Maybe Luke should have listened to Reid’s reasoning. Maybe he should have given him a chance anyway. But then, this little voice in his head asked him ‘Where’s Reid now?’ If Reid had truly wanted them to be together, if Luke had truly been important to Reid, wouldn’t the doctor have tried to contact him? If he cared for Luke, why didn’t he try to change his mind? Yet again, Reid hadn’t fought for him. He supposed, he really did mean a lot less to the doctor than what Reid meant to him.
So yet again, Luke Snyder found himself staring at his ceiling in the middle of the night. It was a good thing he had slept so much in the first month because now he didn’t sleep that much. He had too many questions and too many doubts to be able to rest peacefully. It was going to be another long night of self-doubt, or so he thought. Luke was lost in thought when suddenly he heard the doorbell ring. ‘What the hell? Who in the world would come here at this time?’ Sure he wasn’t sleeping, but other people didn’t know that. Slightly frustrated at having to get out of bed, Luke put on his slippers and went to answer the door. The sight that was waiting for him surprised him. At his doorstep stood a tear-streaked Allison and an uncomfortable Casey.
“Hey guys. Come in, come in.” Luke urged them. He could have cut the tension in the air. “What’s wrong? What happened?” Allison and Casey looked at each other then back at him. He was starting to get worried.
“Luke” Casey started “Maybe you would be better sitting” Alright, now Luke was very worried.
“What happened? Why is Allison crying?”
“Luke” Allison choked through tears. “I’m so sorry. I tried to help…I should talked….I should have told you or Bob or Chris or Katie”
“Wo, wo! Allison stop it” Casey interrupted her, putting his hands on her shoulders and forcing her to look at him. This stupid guilt trip had to stop. “It wasn’t your fault. It wasn’t anyone’s fault”
“Yeah well I’m not so sure about that” Allison responded, thinking back on what Bob Hughes had told them.
“Guys. I’m still here. And I’m seriously getting worried now; could you please tell me what this is all about? Alli” Luke said putting a hand on her shoulder and taking one of her hands with the other. “What’s going on?”
“Luke” she said squeezing his hand hard, tears still falling down “It’s Reid.”
*********************************************
AN: Dum, dum, dum... I felt like cutting here even though I have some more written. Next part: Luke's reaction to the news! (I wanted to put his reaction in a chap of its own) It should be ready relatively soon. thanks!
Author: KittyBlackCat
Disclaimer: Luke and Reid aren't dating and going at it like bunnies so obviously, I don't own ATWT or its characters
Rating: PG-13(to be safe)
Summary: Post episode of June 17th. Reid said that he would do nothing else but his job. Just how far along that line will he go?
Word count: 3830
AN: Ok so apparently it'll have more than two parts. I suppose I could wait longer and post every thing in one other big block but I feel like doing it this way.
Part 1 PArt 3 Part 4 Part 5
Chapter 2
If Katie Snyder had been worried when she had arrived at Memorial, she was now in full blown panic mode as she listened to Allison’s findings. She could not believe that she hadn’t seen this coming. How could she have been so neglectful? She had always prided herself about being a good friend, but obviously she had failed miserably where Reid was concerned. Knowing that her roommate, her confident and probably best friend had apparently lost so much weight was terrifying her. And Chris’ findings did nothing to dissipate that fear. After Allison had told Dr.Hughes of her observations, he had immediately looked for Reid’s file to check exactly how much work he had been doing. However, what he saw at first glance didn’t seem that extraordinary. Allison, being convinced something was wrong, took a look at the file and was able to identify dates where Dr.Oliver had replaced doctors so they could take the day off. Checking on the other doctors’ files, Chris Hughes soon realized that they all had taken quite a lot of days off in the last two months, yet there were few traces of who had worked in their place. Every time a doctor took a day off yet no replacement was recorded on file, Reid Oliver had been the one doing the replacement.
“My god, Katie. He must have work for 48 hours straight at times. How the hell didn’t I notice?”
“Well Dr.Hughes, it’s not secret that you and Dr.Oliver aren’t on the best of terms” Allison answered. “You tend to avoid each other as much as you can and Dr.Oliver is really sneaky. He made sure nothing was put on file and probably found a way to keep the other doctors to talk to each other about taking a day off, so he wouldn’t get caught. He’s very good at hiding. It took me a long time to notice he wasn’t eating and obviously I had underestimated the situation.” Allison added in a voice filled with guilt.
“ But you did what you could Allison” Katie reassured her. “And that’s more than everyone else can say, me included. You did a good job, ok. It isn’t your fault”
“But if I had come to Dr.Hughes beforehand…”
“It wouldn’t have change anything! Chris would have most likely not listened to you and think you were exaggerating!”
“Yes, that’s true Allison. Even if you had talked about it, I probably wouldn’t have believed you. It makes no sense for Reid to do what he did and Reid is a logical being. I don’t see him doing something like that so I wouldn’t have thought it possible. I still don’t know how it is possible” Chris said incredulously. He really didn’t know what Reid could have been thinking. Sure the guy had no personal life, but he still used to get downtime off work. ‘Wait a minute..’ Chris thought
“Katie did something happen in Reid’s personal life? Could he be avoiding a personal issue, trying to distract himself with work?”
“I don’t know. He hasn’t talked to me about anything. I…” Katie stopped herself to think. A personal matter…Something that could have had a huge effect on Reid, something that would have touched him emotionally…
“Luke” Katie whispered. “Something must have happened with Luke. Allison, have you seen Luke visit Reid recently?”
“Euhm…no. Actually, I haven’t seen Luke at the hospital at all since like…two months ago!” Allison exclaimed. That’s it! Katie was right. It had something to do with Luke.
“Oh my god I’m so stupid” Allison said “Noah told me about catching Luke and Reid kissing and them probably being an item now. I should have known something was wrong. If they were together Luke would come to the hospital more often not less often.”
“Wait a minute” Chris said, his eyes widening. “Luke Snyder and Reid Oliver are dating?!? Seriously?”
“No” a voice said, surprising them. The older Dr.Hughes had seen the three of them talking and had been intrigued at the worried looks they had. He had come near enough to hear Chris’ questions. “No they aren’t dating anymore, if they ever were. It was unethical for the Doctor Oliver, who is the head of the new wing, to have relationship with the main founder of the said new wing. So I asked him to choose”
“WHAT!?!” came the three voices of Chris, Allison and Katie.
“How is that unethical? Doctors have been dating nurses working under them since I’ve been here, maybe even since this hospital opened. They work together all the time, not just once in a while like Luke and Dr.Oliver on the new wing and no one had any problems or complaints about it as long as there was no blatant favouritism towards the nurse dating the doctor” Allison said animatedly.
She couldn’t believe the older man would ask Dr.Oliver to choose between Luke and his job. That man got as excited about doing a surgery as a 5 year-old would be in Santa Claus’ workshop where an unlimited amount of toys and candies were given to him. And beside, that man had a 10 inches long stick up his arse when it came to professional behaviour. It was crazy how many times he had given a lecture to interns and nurses about acting too familiarly instead of professionally, and letting personal emotions or situations affect their work. The guy was a freaking robot when it came to his job! And she made sure to tell Bob Hughes all of this with quite an outraged tone since it seemed Katie was much too enraged to open her mouth, let alone move. Allison could swear that if Katie wasn’t forcing herself to be completely still, she would jump of Bob Hughes and try to strangle him. Or beat him up to death. Seriously, neither Allison nor Chris had ever seen such a murderous look on anyone’s face. ‘Note to self’ thought Chris. ‘Never, ever lift a single finger against Reid Oliver. If you do, Katie will most likely castrate you. I really should tell my father to get the hell away as fast as he can’
Bob Hughes was getting tired of having to justify himself on this particular issue. Kim hadn’t stopped bringing the subject up in the last two months. She kept saying that Reid had looked somewhat depressed and tired the few times she had seen him. She wouldn’t put the subject to rest. He tried to explain again the situation to the trio but neither the nurse nor his son seemed to fully understand or agree with him on the issue, though they admitted that it was out of their hands. Katie Snyder however still looked as outraged as ever.
“I’d tell you what I think of this decision Dr.Hughes, but I’m afraid I was raised with too much good manners to use that kind of language, especially to someone in your position. So I’ll just go look for my roommate and best friend and try my darnest to salvage the disaster that you created. But don’t think for one single minute, that this conversation is over. I just like being out of jail too much to do anything but get as far away from you as I can right now.” Katie’s voice was cold as ice as she uttered those words and she was quick to storm out of there. She didn’t trust herself at all at the moment. To force Reid to choose between the only thing he had in his life pre-Oakdale and the one thing in Oakdale that he cherished the most, the one thing that made him more human, more relaxed, and happy, it was…cruel. There was no other word for it. Bob Hughes had been unnecessarily cruel to Reid. There most have been another solution. Luke wasn’t the only one working at that foundation. He could have sent someone else to work with Reid and not take care of things concerning the new wing anymore. It wouldn’t have been pleasant for Luke but it would have been much less dramatic than Reid losing his job.
“Can you believe him” Katie asked Chris and Allison once they had reached her. “Couldn’t he find another solution? Wasn’t there a way to make it ethical?”
“I don’t know. But it sure would explain some of the tension I sense between my parents. If Mom knows of this, she most certainly doesn’t agree with Dad on it”
“Yeah. I heard her asking some nurse how Reid was..” Allison never got to finish her sentence though. A nurse she knew worked with Dr.Oliver came running towards them, screaming “Dr.Hughes, Dr.Hughes” at the top of her lungs.
“Hey what’s wrong?” Chris asked, instantly getting in doctor mode. The nurse was completely out of breath and looked panicked.
“It’s Dr.Oliver!*pant* he *pant*he..”
“he what?” Katie interrupted impatiently. That feeling in her stomach had just increased tenfolds. What happened to Reid?
“He…we found him on the stairs between two floors.” Answered the nurse trying to talk normally even though she was still short of breath. “He was supposed to deliver a document to someone on the next floor but he never made it. We found him unconscious and his head was bleeding. He must have fell down the stairs.” The nurse continued telling them as the group hurriedly walked towards the scene.
What Katie saw once there, almost made her heart stop. Reid, her Reid, her best friend was laying on the gurney, his head covered in blood. It was as if time had stopped and the world was ending. And suddenly she felt the ground slipping from underneath her.
“Katie!” Allison screamed, catching her as she fell. “Katie, Katie” She kept repeating, but the other woman wasn’t responding to her. “Casey get over here and help me! I think Katie’s in shock”
“Allison. What’s wrong? What happen…omg, is that…was that Dr.Oliver they were rushing away.” Casey asked as he helped Allison bring Katie to a chair.
“Yeah. He fell down the stairs and opened his head. They’re going to check to see if there’s internal bleeding in the brain. If there is, they’ll have to operate.”
“Man, what bad luck. And ironic too. The head doctor splitting his head open!”
“This isn’t funny Casey!” Allison screamed at him, tears starting to fall from her eyes. Casey looked at his friend in shock. What in the world? Sure, it wasn’t fun to see a colleague get hurt, but surely it wasn’t that bad. I mean, how bad can you get hurt from simply falling down a couple of stairs?
“Doctor Oliver could die!” Allison continued “And it isn’t just a head surgery Case! I was right! I was right to worry about him. He has only skin on his bones. He looks like he’s anorexic. And he’s been pulling triple shifts for the last two months. He’s overworked and underfed. How in the world he was still able to stand, I don’t know. But it probably involved lots of caffeine or worst maybe even drugs. Do you see how bad it could get if they have to operate. Surgery involves medicine that might react to something he took and the weaker you are physically, the more dangerous operating you is. And Dr.Oliver is in a really bad shape right now. If they have to do a serious surgery, he might not make it through”
Casey was left speechless and with a rock in his stomach. Sure, he didn’t like the guy, he thought he was a jerk and don’t get him started on what he did to Noah, but…him dying? No. There was nothing funny about that.
“Surgery?” Katie whispered. “They’re taking him to surgery?”
“ We don’t know that yet Katie” reassured Allison, bringing a lose strand of Katie’s hair behind her ear.
“ But they can’t” Katie said softly, still looking straight in front of her. “It’s a head injury. Reid is the neurosurgeon. They can operate without him. He’s the only neurosurgeon. They can’t operate him, they’ll mess it up! It’s not their speciality, they’ll mess things up!” Katie sobbed, her head falling on her knees. She kept repeating “they’ll mess things up” over and over again.
“Katie. Katie, listen to me” Allison said, kneeling in front of her. “If there’s internal bleeding, they have to do the surgery to stop it, ok. There’s no time to get a neurosurgeon from another hospital. Reid could die waiting. Chris is a competent doctor and surgeon, ok”
“Yes but”
“Katie. You know Dr.Oliver the best here, right?” asked Casey. Katie nodded. “Alright then, if Dr.Oliver had to choose one doctor in this hospital to operate on him, who would it be?”
Katie sat back in the chair and thought about it. She thought about all of Reid’s comments about every doctor he had encountered. “Chris” she answered “Chris would be his choice”
“Well that’s exactly who he has watching his back. He’ll be fine you’ll see.” Said Casey.
“Yeah” Katie said with a stronger voice, wiping her tears away. “He’ll be fine. And he’ll mock me about being such a worrywart and a darn drama queen”
The trio stayed in silence for a few minutes before Chris came to tell them that surgery wouldn’t be necessary but that looking at the brain activity, there was a possibility that Reid had slipped into a coma.
“But we’re not sure. And right now, the most urgent thing is to deal with Reid’s other issues. He’s incredibly thin and malnourished and must suffer from exhaustion. His body must have been taken quite a toll in the last few months. I’ve ordered a complete blood work and a tox screen just to be safe, but it’ll take a while before we have any result back. For now, I think you should all go home and rest Katie. Allison, can you stay with her?”
“Sure”
“No. I’m not leaving him”
“Katie be reasonable” Chris pleaded. “There’s nothing you can do”
“Chris” Katie said brusquely. “If I was the one in this position, where do you think Reid would be? Do you really think that anything would make him leave my side?” Chris looked down. No, if the situation were reversed Reid Oliver would right here, making sure that the nurses and doctors didn’t screw things up with their stupidity and nothing would have been able to make him leave Katie’s side except maybe Jacob or Luke needing urgent brain surgery. “No Chris. He wouldn’t leave my side for a second. He’d stay by my bedside, whether it was authorized or not, without sleeping or eating until I woke up, saw him there and was told I was completely out of the woods.”
“But he wouldn’t want you to neglect yourself by staying with him Katie.” Chris said “He would want you to go back home and get some sleep as soon as it becomes too much. So you have to do that. For him. It won’t do him any good, if he wakes up to you looking like death warmed over. If anything, it’ll just worry him and anger him and then he’ll be screaming at me, insulting my intelligence and accusing me of not taking good care of you” he added. “So you can stay with him for now, but you’ll have to go home eventually.” Katie nodded and started to follow Chris to Reid’s room when suddenly, a thought occurred to her.
“Allison?”
“Yes”
“I think someone should go tell Luke. I…I don’t know how things broke up but…I think Luke would want to know. Do you think you can do it? I…I really don’t want to leave Reid’s side and this is the kind of news better said in person”
“Of course” Allison answered sadly, tears coming to her eyes. Katie’s pain was so obvious. Her heart went out to her and to Luke. No doubt her friend would not take this well.
“Maybe I should go with you” said Casey. “We don’t know how Luke will react. If he goes into shock like Katie, you won’t be able to catch him or move him around and frankly, I don’t think either of you will be in a state to drive” he added looking at his friend teary face. Allison was obviously trying to keep herself from crying, to be strong for Katie, but he knew that she was really affected by all of this. Dr.Oliver and she were not close. They weren’t much of anything to each other really. But Allison had been the one who noticed something wrong and she had put quite some effort into making Oliver’s life easier for him. Casey just knew by looking at her that she was chastising herself for not doing more, for not keeping things from happening. It wasn’t her fault of course. But Allison hadn’t become a nurse for nothing. She deeply cared about people and always wanted them to get better, no matter who they were. She would need someone there to support her when she told Luke.
*****************************
When Luke Snyder had told Reid Oliver he was making his decision for him and had decided to call it quits with the doctor, he had been furious and disappointed. He had really, seriously thought he could make things work with Reid. But the older man had refused to tell him the truth when Luke confronted him and then had told him of his decision of taking a break with Luke for a couple of months without talking to him about it. That was the part that infuriated Luke the most. Reid had taken a decision that concerned them both without consulting him. A couple makes couple’s decisions. That was that. He wouldn’t enter in a relationship where he didn’t a voice! If that was how things would be with Reid, Luke preferred to walk away before he got so involved it would hurt too much to leave him. How difficult would it have been to sit down with Luke and discuss Bob’s ultimatum? Maybe they could have found another solution. Or at least, Luke would have felt he had had a say in what would happen and have time to actually think about what he wanted to do. But he hadn’t had the time to think. Reid just dropped this bombshell on him and expected him to go with it. Well, no he wouldn’t just go with it. He wouldn’t let anyone decide what is best for him. He refused to let himself be walked on. He would never be anyone’s doormat. Not ever again.
But then, after a few days, the anger slowly faded and was replaced by an intense sadness. He had wanted to be with Reid so badly. Finding out that things just weren’t meant to be had hurt a lot. He had tried to distract himself with work, helping his family, and anything else he could find to busy himself, but it hadn’t made the pain go way and when he went home at night, he would immediately go to bed and sleep until the next morning. He didn’t remember ever spending so much time in bed….or eating that much cherry flavoured ice-cream either. He missed Reid so much. Much, much more then he missed Noah, who was still refusing any contact with Luke. He had wanted more than couple of times to sneak into the hospital to see Reid, if only from afar. But he knew that if he saw Reid, he would want to talk to him and that was dangerous. Luke couldn’t let himself fall back into his arms. He had made a decision and it was for the best. Reid and he had different priorities and being together would only hurt them much more than now. But then a couple of weeks ago, things had change. Not for the better though. No, a few weeks ago, doubts started creeping in. Had he really made the right decision? Should he have left Reid explain himself more? Were Reid and him really not good for each other? What if this situation wasn’t a reflection of what would be? Was he wrong? Reid was such an amazing neurosurgeon. And in Dallas, he had been so devastated and scared at the idea that he might never be able to practice medicine again. Maybe Luke should have listened to Reid’s reasoning. Maybe he should have given him a chance anyway. But then, this little voice in his head asked him ‘Where’s Reid now?’ If Reid had truly wanted them to be together, if Luke had truly been important to Reid, wouldn’t the doctor have tried to contact him? If he cared for Luke, why didn’t he try to change his mind? Yet again, Reid hadn’t fought for him. He supposed, he really did mean a lot less to the doctor than what Reid meant to him.
So yet again, Luke Snyder found himself staring at his ceiling in the middle of the night. It was a good thing he had slept so much in the first month because now he didn’t sleep that much. He had too many questions and too many doubts to be able to rest peacefully. It was going to be another long night of self-doubt, or so he thought. Luke was lost in thought when suddenly he heard the doorbell ring. ‘What the hell? Who in the world would come here at this time?’ Sure he wasn’t sleeping, but other people didn’t know that. Slightly frustrated at having to get out of bed, Luke put on his slippers and went to answer the door. The sight that was waiting for him surprised him. At his doorstep stood a tear-streaked Allison and an uncomfortable Casey.
“Hey guys. Come in, come in.” Luke urged them. He could have cut the tension in the air. “What’s wrong? What happened?” Allison and Casey looked at each other then back at him. He was starting to get worried.
“Luke” Casey started “Maybe you would be better sitting” Alright, now Luke was very worried.
“What happened? Why is Allison crying?”
“Luke” Allison choked through tears. “I’m so sorry. I tried to help…I should talked….I should have told you or Bob or Chris or Katie”
“Wo, wo! Allison stop it” Casey interrupted her, putting his hands on her shoulders and forcing her to look at him. This stupid guilt trip had to stop. “It wasn’t your fault. It wasn’t anyone’s fault”
“Yeah well I’m not so sure about that” Allison responded, thinking back on what Bob Hughes had told them.
“Guys. I’m still here. And I’m seriously getting worried now; could you please tell me what this is all about? Alli” Luke said putting a hand on her shoulder and taking one of her hands with the other. “What’s going on?”
“Luke” she said squeezing his hand hard, tears still falling down “It’s Reid.”
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AN: Dum, dum, dum... I felt like cutting here even though I have some more written. Next part: Luke's reaction to the news! (I wanted to put his reaction in a chap of its own) It should be ready relatively soon. thanks!