Sparks & Gasoline: Chapter 5
Title: Sparks and Gasoline: Chapter 5
Summary: Luke and Reid grew up together, but neither had liked the other. Reid moved away for college then, and Luke never saw him again. Sixteen years later, Luke is the editor in chief of the local newspaper, Oakdaily. When a corporation decides to take over Oakdale Memorial, Luke becomes suspicious and starts investigating. Then unexpectedly, Bob decides to retire and hire Reid Oliver to come back to town. Hijinks ensue as Luke is convinced Reid has something to do with the corruption and mystery. What will happen when sparks and gasoline meet?
Rating: PG-13
Disclaimer: I don't own anything associated with ATWT.
As Luke entered the hospital his nerves were on edge. He had butterflies in his stomach, and he couldn’t explain why he was so nervous.
He insisted that it was because they finally had a solid lead on the story, but really, deep down, he knew Reid was working and he wanted to avoid another confrontation at all costs.
His phone buzzed then.
Luke steeled himself, and walked through the sliding doors.
He rounded the corner and headed to find Amber.
Amber was leaning against the wall, checking her phone.
“So, what’s this great lead you got us?”
“Dr. Christopher Robert Hughes.”
“You got his middle name after talking to him once?”
“What can I say? I’m thorough.”
“You’re something, alright. Anyways, isn’t he in Pediatrics? How can he help us?”
“Well, turns out the night that Dr. Murdoch died, Chris was working on call in the emergency room. He was there when Murdoch was wheeled in. Murdoch apparently was close to death, but kept whispering one word over and over.”
Amber stopped talking then and went back to her phone.
“Which was? You can’t leave me hanging here, Amber.”
“Salad.”
“The word he kept whispering over and over was salad?”
“Yes. Salad.”
“And why is that important?”
“Because when they investigated his office, he had a half eaten salad sitting on his desk.”
“So, you think Dr. Murdoch was poisoned?”
“That’s the general thought.”
“I thought his death was confirmed to be of natural causes. The medical examiner said heart failure.”
“Yes, but the medical examiner thought it was suspicious as Murdoch was in near perfect health. There were no signs of any heart stress, blockages, or weaknesses around the heart. A 35 year old man with no prior history of heart issues doesn’t simply have heart failure.”
“Well, if they had this salad in evidence, why didn’t the police find any poison traces?”
“This is Oakdale we are talking about, Luke. They don’t have all the toxicology tests that say larger cities would.”
“And you want to have some of these grounds sent to a larger city to be tested?”
“That’s the idea. Chris has a friend from medical school that has access to these tests.”
“So how are we going to get some of the salad to be sampled? Jack and Margo aren’t just going to turn over evidence because we have a hunch.”
“Don’t worry about it. The samples have already been sent.”
“How exactly did you get these samples, Amber?”
“Oh relax, Luke. I didn’t steal them if that is what you are implying. Let’s just say I may have flirted with a particular handsome, if not dimwitted, officer to get me what I needed.”
“You do realize that he could lose his job and you could go to jail for tampering with evidence, right?”
“Oh relax, this is the Oakdale PD. They won’t even realize anything is missing.”
Luke just sighed and leaned his head against the wall.
“So, what did Chris find out?”
“They aren’t back yet, but we’ll know something soon.”
“Let me know when you do, and for the love of God, Amber. Don’t do anything else illegal. “
“You’re no fun. I promise to call you as soon as I know anything.”
“Promise me on the other thing.”
“I can’t do that.”
“Amber…”
“Luke, I can only promise that if I do something and get caught, I won’t bring you down. “
“You are so annoying. I really wish I could fire you.”
“You can’t though. I’m the only one at the paper that you actually like.”
Luke sighed dramatically then,
“Just be safe. Promise me that.”
“I’ll do my best, Luke. That I can promise.”
Luke left then.
He rounded the corner and had just made it out the front doors when he heard a large sigh behind him.
He felt the sudden urge to laugh, but then reminded himself that he did not find Reid amusing. So he quashed that.
His heart was racing though and his stomach felt like it had just done somersaults inside him.
“Did you at least give them some sort of incentive for answering your questions this time?”
“Don’t worry, Reid. I wasn’t questioning any of your precious employees. I was visiting a friend.”
“Oh.”
Luke had fully expected a snarky response to his statement and when it didn’t come he was shocked and truth be told, a little let down.
He hated that though. He hated the confusion and the constant struggle within himself, and the tension he felt whenever he was near Reid. All he wanted was to get out of there and away from the perplexity.
“Now if you’ll excuse me I have to get to a meeting.”
“Bye, Luke.”
Reid smiled at him, and Luke’s stomach started doing the somersaults again.
Fuck.
He put his hand against one of the pillars. He suddenly felt dizzy and lightheaded.
“Are you okay, Mr. Snyder?”
“I’m fine. Just a little lightheaded.”
Luke willed himself to calm down. Finally, once he was breathing normally again, he stepped forward and prepared to find his car.
He was embarrassed. He recognized all the signs for what they were. He still had a thing for Reid Oliver after all these years. He had it in high school, he had it now, and he would have it until the day he died. He was tired of pretending it wasn’t what it was. It was better to identify it, address it, accept it, and internalize it. There was no way in hell he would ever act on it, because as much as he wanted Reid, he couldn’t stand him.
“Bye, Reid.”
Luke started walking to the parking lot then. He pulled his keys out and put his phone in his pocket.
He could feel someone following him.
He turned around to see Reid following him.
“Is there a reason you’re following me?”
“Relax, Luke. I’m not going to rape you or something. I’m done for the day and since I drove here in a car and parked in this thing called a parking lot, I thought it would probably be a good idea to drive said car home.”
Luke relaxed a bit then. He finally found his car, and threw his jacket in the back.
He saw Reid walk to a vintage car.
Luke new it was expensive and called out,
“So, let me get this straight. You have a vintage, what is that, a Porsche, and you make fun of me for driving a fancy car?”
“This car only cost me $50,000, not $700,000, and yes it’s a Porsche.”
“See the thing is, Reid, I didn’t go out and spend $700,000 on my car. You did go out and spend $50,000.”
“Do you not know me at all? You saw what I was wearing the night I came to town. Did you expect me to drive a Honda?”
“No, I don’t know you. I hadn’t seen you in 16 years before that night, and even then before that we were barely acquaintances.”
“And whose fault was that?”
“YOURS!”
“Oh, really?”
“Are you kidding me? You treated me like shit from the day you met me.”
“Maybe you shouldn’t have been so damn annoying.”
“Oh, okay. It’s my fault you were an asshole to a seven year old.”
“You should really just get over it.”
“How are you a doctor? You have the worst people skills of anyone I have ever seen.”
“I can separate my personal from my professional life.”
“So does that mean if I were a patient, you’d actually have to be nice to me?”
“Well, personally, I can’t stand you. But from a professional standpoint, I would treat you like any other patient. Besides, I like your mother, and she seems to love you for some unknown reason. I guess if you push a nine pound object out of your body and don’t die from it, you feel some sort of attachment to it.”
“Are you done being a prick?”
“Don’t you have a meeting to get to?”
“No, I made that up so I didn’t have to talk to you.”
“Yeah? How’s that working out for you?”
“I chose to talk to you, so it’s going fine.”
“Yeah, okay. Deep down you know you love talking to me. Otherwise, you wouldn’t continue to do so every time you see me.”
“Yeah, I really love stooping to your level of immaturity.”
Reid laughed and slid in his car then.
“Thanks for the stimulating conversation, Luke.”
Reid peeled out of the parking lot then and turned the corner.
Luke just watched him go.
He realized that he hadn’t asked the one question he had wanted to ask Reid.