You Better Go Catch It (1/1)
Title: You Better Go Catch It (1/1)
Summary: Katie and Reid continue to bond over the events of the 8/10 episode. With booze.
Disclaimer: Clearly not mine.
Spoilers: Refers to the 8/10 episode. Obviously.
Rating: PG, I guess.
A/N: Katie and Reid are surprisingly articulate drunks. It's just funnier that way, OK?
“Don’t we all?” Katie asked, and Reid stared at her for a moment.
“Who are we talking about?” Reid finally asked.
Katie sighed. “I don’t know. All I know is I left tonight before I got to finish my glass of wine.”
“The real shame of the evening. I only had a few sips of my beer before I had to leave, and then it was warm and flat when I got back.”
“God. This is what nobody tells you about when it comes to dating. The waste of good alcohol.”
Reid nodded in depressed agreement.
“And I mean, I never drink. I’m not really breastfeeding as much anymore, but there’s still Jacob to think about. The one weekend I was going to have a little fun, let loose.” Katie sighed loudly. “I should be having sex right now.”
Reid made a face of disgust, which quickly turned into an unreadable mix of regret and annoyance. “Me too.”
Katie tilted her head. “Why aren’t you? I mean, did Luke have indigestion too or something?”
“No. I just…don’t do threesomes,” Reid grumbled.
Katie nodded, only half-understanding but able to guess what Reid meant. She turned away from him for a moment, digging through the cupboards in the kitchen. She huffed a strand of hair out of her face in frustration. Then she brightened as she found what she was looking for. Pulling out the bottle, she faced Reid again.
“The night doesn’t have to be a total waste,” she proclaimed, holding the bottle up triumphantly. “You’re not on call, right?”
Reid watched her for a moment. Then he took his feet off the coffee table and sat up straight. “Bring it on.”
**
By the time they were on their third glasses, Katie was sitting cross-legged on the floor by the coffee table, her back to the couch. Reid’s legs were on either side of her, and he was giving her a massage. Katie was somewhere between angry and weepy. She sniffed loudly, then exhaled.
“I don’t know what I was thinking, anyway. I mean, I finally decide to start dating again, and I choose Chris Hughes. The guy takes playboy to new levels. I should have known that as soon as the chase was over, he’d split.”
Reid furrowed his brow. “That’s not why, trust me. Besides, that doesn’t make any sense. The chase wouldn’t be over until he actually sealed the deal.”
Katie made a face, turning around to look at Reid. “Sealed the deal?”
“You know what I mean.”
Katie harrumphed, facing forward again. “You only think it doesn’t make sense because you’re drunk.”
“No, I’m pretty sure - ”
“Why are you defending him? If you like him so much, you go have sex with him.”
“I’m telling you, I’m about to. Do you know how long it’s been since I’ve had an orgasm that wasn’t self-induced?”
**
Reid stumbled slightly as he walked back to the living room with a fresh bottle of wine. He sat on the floor next to Katie, and they leaned against each other’s shoulders. Katie tilted her head towards Reid’s.
“So why didn’t you stay at Luke’s?”
“I already told you. He’s been nagging me for days now about going on a real date, and then when we do, he spent the whole night talking about Noah. Not exactly a recipe for romance.”
“You just said that Chris had no right to push me on the Brad thing.”
“Brad died. Noah didn’t die. They were broken up before we even officially got together!”
“Feelings don’t end just because a relationship does. Like Luke said, they were together for a very long time.”
“Three years only seems like a long time to a 22-year-old.”
“Oh, hush. All I’m saying is that you can’t expect Luke to just forget about that part of his life.”
“I’m not. I’m asking him not to bring Noah up every time we take a fricking baby step forward in our relationship.”
Katie sighed, and Reid tilted his head back against the couch.
“This thing with Luke is turning me into a mindless idiot. Do you realize I actually told him I had a surgery tomorrow? I don’t do shit like that.”
“Do you?”
“Katie - would I be drinking if I had a surgery tomorrow?”
“You’re Reid Oliver, neurosurgeon extraordinaire. I bet you’d still be the best, even hungover.”
“Without a doubt,” Reid said, grinning. “Hell, I’m even a cardiologist now, apparently.”
“Huh?”
Reid cleared his throat and took a sip of his wine. “Nothing. Never mind.”
Katie leaned forward, groaning as she rested her elbows on the coffee table. Reid watched her for a moment.
“Katie, there’s something I have to tell - ”
“Did you know Brad wasn’t even my first husband? I mean, how many times can one person get it wrong?”
Reid lifted a hand to her back and rubbed softly. “You didn’t do anything wrong with Chris. It’s not your fault.”
**
After they finished the second bottle, Katie sprawled out on the couch while Reid went in search of something harder. He came back, placing the bottle and his glass on the coffee table. He lifted her feet as he sat down. Resettling her feet on his lap, he handed her the other tumbler.
“Why do you want to be chief of staff?” she asked curiously.
“What do you mean, why? It’s a very prestigious position. And powerful. I’d have run of the place.”
“You don’t care about prestige,” Katie scoffed. “Power, maybe, but only if it means you get your lab tests done before everyone else.”
Reid shrugged, then he turned serious. “When Bob asked me, I thought he was crazy. I mean, I was flattered. Very flattered. He’s a good doctor, and he cares a lot, and to think that he thought I was worthy of taking his place... But nonetheless, the idea suggests he may have a few screws loose.”
“You’re a good doctor, and you care a lot,” Katie pointed out.
Reid nodded. “I do. I think…yeah, it’s a lot of boring business work and hospital politics are not my strong suit, nor did I ever think I’d want them to be, but…the chief of staff is in a position to direct things, you know? Which departments get a little boost in research funding. Which employees get a much-needed pay raise. What the policy is for treating uninsured patients in the ER. What makes Memorial such a great community hospital is that it provides a service to people who need it, at the worst times of their lives. And a well-run hospital can do that better than one that’s run by people who only care about the bottom line. Like Invicta. There’s a much bigger picture at stake than profit.”
“But what about the neuro wing?”
“Oh, I’ll still be running that, too. They’ll have to pry that out of my cold, dead hands. Besides, if I want to make a life here, that includes some sort of professional challenge and growth. I can’t just be Luke Snyder’s sex-deprived plus-one for the next 50 years.”
Katie smiled. “It’s funny. Chris is all about proving he can make a commitment. And you just quietly…made one. To Luke and the hospital.”
“Yeah, well,” Reid grumbled. “Not if I can’t get the staff on my side.”
Katie’s mouth dropped open in shock. She slapped his arm, and Reid looked down in surprise at where she had made contact.
“Who’s not on your side?” she demanded.
“The nurses.”
“Well, you have to be nice to them, Reid.”
“I tried! Luke helped me and everything. It’s all that one’s fault, though. Their ringleader. Gretchen.”
“Gretchen Thomas?”
Reid shrugged, giving Katie a look. “How the hell should I know?”
“Dark hair. Way too weepy for a nurse who has to deal with life and death every day.”
“Yes! Her!”
“I know her! I worked with her all the time when I was a nurse’s aide.”
“Was she a bitch then, too?”
Katie sighed. “Reid. Did you call her a bitch to her face?”
“No! I do have, you know, some professionalism. I just called her incompetent.”
Katie shook her head.
**
Katie checked on Jacob and then went to the bathroom. When she returned to the living room, Reid was leaning back against the couch, his eyes closed.
“You better sit down,” he observed. “The room has started spinning.”
“Oh, OK,” Katie said, climbing over his legs and sitting next to him.
Reid inhaled, then breathed out slowly. “Luke sat next to me like this earlier. Right next to me. It was nice.”
Katie turned her head towards him, opening her eyes. “Oh God, are you a sappy, sad drunk? How did I not know this about you?”
Reid opened his eyes, sitting up as quickly as he dared. “Hell no. I am seriously done with this whining about our idiot boyfriends crap.”
Katie nodded firmly. “It is their loss. Their loss.”
“Exactly. They’ll be lucky if we give them another chance.”
“Screw giving them another chance! Life’s too short.”
Reid collapsed back onto the couch with a groan.
“What?”
“Now I’m thinking about Luke again.”
Katie was silent for a minute. “You know, we should just get married. It’d be so much easier.”
Reid nodded. “It would be. You could cook and do my laundry.”
“You could sing to Jacob and get me prescription-strength painkillers for when I have cramps.”
“We’d hang out here every night, bitching and drinking.”
“And everyone knows most married couples stop having sex after a few years anyway. We’ll just be ahead of the curve.”
“I’d have someone to legally leave my social security to.”
“I’d have someone to kill spiders and reach the top shelf.”
“We’d be golden together, Katie Peretti Snyder. Golden.”
**
Katie groaned, holding a hand to her head as she sat up. She looked slowly around the living room, gaping at the bottles and a three-quarters-empty pizza box from the place that was so disgusting people only ever ordered from it at 2 in the morning.
“Oh my God,” she whispered. “What did we do?”
At the sound of her voice, Reid sat up. He had been sleeping on the floor, his head on one of the couch pillows. As soon as he was upright, he gulped back bile and then coughed.
“Holy shit,” he said. “I am so glad I’m off today.”
Katie’s phone rang, and she looked around, eventually spotting it on the coffee table. She pointed at it, and Reid fumbled, nearly knocking over an empty glass as he grabbed it. He handed it to her, and she stared at the screen.
“It’s Chris,” she said softly. “Should I answer it?”
“Do whatever you want,” Reid said, falling back onto the pillow.
Katie stared at the screen again. Just as she was about to hit the Talk button, the call went to her voicemail. She waited a minute, then dialed the service. As she listened to her message, she slid off the couch, half-landing on Reid’s legs.
“Ow,” he mumbled.
She grabbed his arm, shaking it quickly. “Oh my God, oh my God.” She hung up the phone and stared at Reid in shocked horror.
“What?”
“Chris wants to know why I left him a message at 1:30, saying ‘you snooze, you lose. I’m going to be Mrs. Reid Oliver.’”
Reid sat up again. He stared at her, one eye squeezed shut as he tried to process that piece of information. “What?”
Katie was already flipping through her phone history, muttering incoherently. “I did. I called him. Oh my God, I called him. And…and I sent Gretchen Thomas a text message.”
“What?” Reid repeated.
“‘Reid’s really nice. You should give him a chance, you tear-leaker.’ Only I spelled your name with two Es, forgot the apostrophe, and the Yous are just, you know, Us.”
“I don’t know what’s more appalling, that message or your spelling abilities when you’re inebriated.”
Katie propped an elbow on the couch, burying her face in her palm. “You better check your phone,” she moaned.
Reid laughed derisively. “I have never drunk-dialed, or drunk-texted for that matter, anyone in my life.”
The doorbell rang, and they both turned to look. Reid eventually pulled himself up and walked over to the door. When he opened it, a disgustingly fresh-faced Luke smiled back at him.
“What?” Reid asked.
Luke smirked, stepping into the apartment. “Hi Katie. Oh my God, how much did you two drink last night?”
Katie waved at him weakly. “A lot. I’m - I’m going to check on Jacob.”
Luke faced Reid again, waiting until she was out of the room before he talked again. “I thought you had a surgery this morning,” he said, grinning.
“Yeah, well. It was cancelled.”
“You’re a horrible liar when you’re hungover.”
“What are you doing here?” Reid asked again, flopping back onto the couch. “I figured we’d need one of our little cooling-off periods after last night.”
Luke sat down next to him. Close next to him. He put his hand on Reid’s thigh. High on Reid’s thigh. “I don’t want to cool off,” he said quietly. “I want to heat things up.”
“I told you, I - ”
“And I told you that I want to be with you. Noah’s out of the picture for me, romantically. Sexually. I’m ready to move on with my life. I want to move on with you.”
Reid sighed. He turned towards Luke, and he swallowed thickly. “Let me guess, you were up all night debating the pros and cons in your diary.”
Luke laughed, shaking his head in slight annoyance. “No,” he said. “I was pretty pissed at you, so I stormed around my room for a while, and then I got pissed at myself for being, you know, rather insensitive about...he-who-shall-not-be-named, and then I pouted until I fell asleep.”
“That was my next guess.”
“And then I had this phone message this morning that - ”
“What?”
Luke smirked, holding up his phone in front of Reid’s face. Reid turned paler than he already was.
“What - what was the message?”
“If I tried to repeat it, I wouldn’t do it justice. I better just play it for you.”
Reid watched nervously as Luke punched in the numbers to access his voicemail. Eventually, Reid could hear the mechanical voice telling Luke of a message left at 1:42 AM. “Christ,” Reid muttered.
Luke held the phone up to Reid’s ear.
“Hi Luke,” Reid’s voice said, sounding slightly tinny. “It’s me. Reid. Oliver. I’m sorry about tonight. I was a dick. There’s all sorts of excuses I could give you, but the truth is I was just a dick. I know you care about Noah. I know I can’t ever really compete. Why on earth would anyone want a world-class neurosurgeon when they could have a squinty barista? - Reid, be nice! - Katie, shh. I’m leaving a message. The thing is, I really want to be with you. I mean, really. I’ve wanted to be with you since, like, the second time I saw you. And not just sex, I mean, be with you like being your date to dinners and weddings, should any wedding in this town ever actually end with a marriage. I don’t know how this happened. You’re such a cocky son-of-a-bitch, sometimes, you know that? Everyone treats you like this second-coming golden boy, and yeah, you are, but you’re also a royal jackass. I don’t know which side of you I like more. I’ve never felt this way about anyone in my life, and I hate you for it. I hate that you make me want to stay in this backwards-ass town and be a doctor to people that really should just die and take themselves out of the human gene pool, anyway. I mean, Darwinian thought alone… I hate that you make me want to be nice to idiot nurses, just to make you happy. I hate that I actually am willing to wait for sex, just because I know you want it to be all making love with candles and fucking Yanni or something equally horrendous. I hate that I really could be happy spending the rest of my life sitting on the couch with you nearly on top of me and your head on my shoulder and your stupid smile and your awful fashion sense. I mean, Chinos and a polo. My God, are you sure you’re gay? I hate that I feel guilty and bad when you’re just being honest with me. I hate that he did such a number on you that you’re so unsure about everything. I hate that you don’t see the damage he did. I hate that, even if you did see it, you wouldn’t care and you’d forgive him anyway. I hate that you’re probably going to forgive me for tonight too. And I hate…your hair. Why do you have to do something different with it every single day? What’s wrong with just - ”
The message broke off, followed by a mechanical End of Message. Reid furrowed his brow.
“There’s only room for, like, three minutes or something,” Luke explained quietly.
Reid hung up the phone. He stared at the screen for a while, too nervous to look up at Luke. Luke put his hand on Reid’s chin, turning him until they made eye contact. Luke was smiling, and his eyes were suspiciously moist, and Reid…yeah, Reid hated it. Luke swallowed.
“You’ve got some shitty qualities yourself, you know,” Luke said.
Reid nodded. “I’ve never claimed otherwise.”
“I mean, do you always have to say the most painful thing possible, just to get the last word?”
Reid opened his mouth, inhaling. Luke put his palm over Reid’s lips. “Don’t answer that,” he warned.
Reid smiled, and Luke could feel the stretch of skin underneath his palm. He looked in Reid’s eyes again, seeing something of a twinkle. He removed his hand, immediately leaning up to kiss him soundly. And he pulled back just as quickly.
“Oh my God, go brush your teeth. Then I’ll buy you breakfast at Al’s. Something really big and greasy.”
“I think I…hate you,” Reid said, groaning softly.
Luke grinned.
The End
Summary: Katie and Reid continue to bond over the events of the 8/10 episode. With booze.
Disclaimer: Clearly not mine.
Spoilers: Refers to the 8/10 episode. Obviously.
Rating: PG, I guess.
A/N: Katie and Reid are surprisingly articulate drunks. It's just funnier that way, OK?
“Don’t we all?” Katie asked, and Reid stared at her for a moment.
“Who are we talking about?” Reid finally asked.
Katie sighed. “I don’t know. All I know is I left tonight before I got to finish my glass of wine.”
“The real shame of the evening. I only had a few sips of my beer before I had to leave, and then it was warm and flat when I got back.”
“God. This is what nobody tells you about when it comes to dating. The waste of good alcohol.”
Reid nodded in depressed agreement.
“And I mean, I never drink. I’m not really breastfeeding as much anymore, but there’s still Jacob to think about. The one weekend I was going to have a little fun, let loose.” Katie sighed loudly. “I should be having sex right now.”
Reid made a face of disgust, which quickly turned into an unreadable mix of regret and annoyance. “Me too.”
Katie tilted her head. “Why aren’t you? I mean, did Luke have indigestion too or something?”
“No. I just…don’t do threesomes,” Reid grumbled.
Katie nodded, only half-understanding but able to guess what Reid meant. She turned away from him for a moment, digging through the cupboards in the kitchen. She huffed a strand of hair out of her face in frustration. Then she brightened as she found what she was looking for. Pulling out the bottle, she faced Reid again.
“The night doesn’t have to be a total waste,” she proclaimed, holding the bottle up triumphantly. “You’re not on call, right?”
Reid watched her for a moment. Then he took his feet off the coffee table and sat up straight. “Bring it on.”
**
By the time they were on their third glasses, Katie was sitting cross-legged on the floor by the coffee table, her back to the couch. Reid’s legs were on either side of her, and he was giving her a massage. Katie was somewhere between angry and weepy. She sniffed loudly, then exhaled.
“I don’t know what I was thinking, anyway. I mean, I finally decide to start dating again, and I choose Chris Hughes. The guy takes playboy to new levels. I should have known that as soon as the chase was over, he’d split.”
Reid furrowed his brow. “That’s not why, trust me. Besides, that doesn’t make any sense. The chase wouldn’t be over until he actually sealed the deal.”
Katie made a face, turning around to look at Reid. “Sealed the deal?”
“You know what I mean.”
Katie harrumphed, facing forward again. “You only think it doesn’t make sense because you’re drunk.”
“No, I’m pretty sure - ”
“Why are you defending him? If you like him so much, you go have sex with him.”
“I’m telling you, I’m about to. Do you know how long it’s been since I’ve had an orgasm that wasn’t self-induced?”
**
Reid stumbled slightly as he walked back to the living room with a fresh bottle of wine. He sat on the floor next to Katie, and they leaned against each other’s shoulders. Katie tilted her head towards Reid’s.
“So why didn’t you stay at Luke’s?”
“I already told you. He’s been nagging me for days now about going on a real date, and then when we do, he spent the whole night talking about Noah. Not exactly a recipe for romance.”
“You just said that Chris had no right to push me on the Brad thing.”
“Brad died. Noah didn’t die. They were broken up before we even officially got together!”
“Feelings don’t end just because a relationship does. Like Luke said, they were together for a very long time.”
“Three years only seems like a long time to a 22-year-old.”
“Oh, hush. All I’m saying is that you can’t expect Luke to just forget about that part of his life.”
“I’m not. I’m asking him not to bring Noah up every time we take a fricking baby step forward in our relationship.”
Katie sighed, and Reid tilted his head back against the couch.
“This thing with Luke is turning me into a mindless idiot. Do you realize I actually told him I had a surgery tomorrow? I don’t do shit like that.”
“Do you?”
“Katie - would I be drinking if I had a surgery tomorrow?”
“You’re Reid Oliver, neurosurgeon extraordinaire. I bet you’d still be the best, even hungover.”
“Without a doubt,” Reid said, grinning. “Hell, I’m even a cardiologist now, apparently.”
“Huh?”
Reid cleared his throat and took a sip of his wine. “Nothing. Never mind.”
Katie leaned forward, groaning as she rested her elbows on the coffee table. Reid watched her for a moment.
“Katie, there’s something I have to tell - ”
“Did you know Brad wasn’t even my first husband? I mean, how many times can one person get it wrong?”
Reid lifted a hand to her back and rubbed softly. “You didn’t do anything wrong with Chris. It’s not your fault.”
**
After they finished the second bottle, Katie sprawled out on the couch while Reid went in search of something harder. He came back, placing the bottle and his glass on the coffee table. He lifted her feet as he sat down. Resettling her feet on his lap, he handed her the other tumbler.
“Why do you want to be chief of staff?” she asked curiously.
“What do you mean, why? It’s a very prestigious position. And powerful. I’d have run of the place.”
“You don’t care about prestige,” Katie scoffed. “Power, maybe, but only if it means you get your lab tests done before everyone else.”
Reid shrugged, then he turned serious. “When Bob asked me, I thought he was crazy. I mean, I was flattered. Very flattered. He’s a good doctor, and he cares a lot, and to think that he thought I was worthy of taking his place... But nonetheless, the idea suggests he may have a few screws loose.”
“You’re a good doctor, and you care a lot,” Katie pointed out.
Reid nodded. “I do. I think…yeah, it’s a lot of boring business work and hospital politics are not my strong suit, nor did I ever think I’d want them to be, but…the chief of staff is in a position to direct things, you know? Which departments get a little boost in research funding. Which employees get a much-needed pay raise. What the policy is for treating uninsured patients in the ER. What makes Memorial such a great community hospital is that it provides a service to people who need it, at the worst times of their lives. And a well-run hospital can do that better than one that’s run by people who only care about the bottom line. Like Invicta. There’s a much bigger picture at stake than profit.”
“But what about the neuro wing?”
“Oh, I’ll still be running that, too. They’ll have to pry that out of my cold, dead hands. Besides, if I want to make a life here, that includes some sort of professional challenge and growth. I can’t just be Luke Snyder’s sex-deprived plus-one for the next 50 years.”
Katie smiled. “It’s funny. Chris is all about proving he can make a commitment. And you just quietly…made one. To Luke and the hospital.”
“Yeah, well,” Reid grumbled. “Not if I can’t get the staff on my side.”
Katie’s mouth dropped open in shock. She slapped his arm, and Reid looked down in surprise at where she had made contact.
“Who’s not on your side?” she demanded.
“The nurses.”
“Well, you have to be nice to them, Reid.”
“I tried! Luke helped me and everything. It’s all that one’s fault, though. Their ringleader. Gretchen.”
“Gretchen Thomas?”
Reid shrugged, giving Katie a look. “How the hell should I know?”
“Dark hair. Way too weepy for a nurse who has to deal with life and death every day.”
“Yes! Her!”
“I know her! I worked with her all the time when I was a nurse’s aide.”
“Was she a bitch then, too?”
Katie sighed. “Reid. Did you call her a bitch to her face?”
“No! I do have, you know, some professionalism. I just called her incompetent.”
Katie shook her head.
**
Katie checked on Jacob and then went to the bathroom. When she returned to the living room, Reid was leaning back against the couch, his eyes closed.
“You better sit down,” he observed. “The room has started spinning.”
“Oh, OK,” Katie said, climbing over his legs and sitting next to him.
Reid inhaled, then breathed out slowly. “Luke sat next to me like this earlier. Right next to me. It was nice.”
Katie turned her head towards him, opening her eyes. “Oh God, are you a sappy, sad drunk? How did I not know this about you?”
Reid opened his eyes, sitting up as quickly as he dared. “Hell no. I am seriously done with this whining about our idiot boyfriends crap.”
Katie nodded firmly. “It is their loss. Their loss.”
“Exactly. They’ll be lucky if we give them another chance.”
“Screw giving them another chance! Life’s too short.”
Reid collapsed back onto the couch with a groan.
“What?”
“Now I’m thinking about Luke again.”
Katie was silent for a minute. “You know, we should just get married. It’d be so much easier.”
Reid nodded. “It would be. You could cook and do my laundry.”
“You could sing to Jacob and get me prescription-strength painkillers for when I have cramps.”
“We’d hang out here every night, bitching and drinking.”
“And everyone knows most married couples stop having sex after a few years anyway. We’ll just be ahead of the curve.”
“I’d have someone to legally leave my social security to.”
“I’d have someone to kill spiders and reach the top shelf.”
“We’d be golden together, Katie Peretti Snyder. Golden.”
**
Katie groaned, holding a hand to her head as she sat up. She looked slowly around the living room, gaping at the bottles and a three-quarters-empty pizza box from the place that was so disgusting people only ever ordered from it at 2 in the morning.
“Oh my God,” she whispered. “What did we do?”
At the sound of her voice, Reid sat up. He had been sleeping on the floor, his head on one of the couch pillows. As soon as he was upright, he gulped back bile and then coughed.
“Holy shit,” he said. “I am so glad I’m off today.”
Katie’s phone rang, and she looked around, eventually spotting it on the coffee table. She pointed at it, and Reid fumbled, nearly knocking over an empty glass as he grabbed it. He handed it to her, and she stared at the screen.
“It’s Chris,” she said softly. “Should I answer it?”
“Do whatever you want,” Reid said, falling back onto the pillow.
Katie stared at the screen again. Just as she was about to hit the Talk button, the call went to her voicemail. She waited a minute, then dialed the service. As she listened to her message, she slid off the couch, half-landing on Reid’s legs.
“Ow,” he mumbled.
She grabbed his arm, shaking it quickly. “Oh my God, oh my God.” She hung up the phone and stared at Reid in shocked horror.
“What?”
“Chris wants to know why I left him a message at 1:30, saying ‘you snooze, you lose. I’m going to be Mrs. Reid Oliver.’”
Reid sat up again. He stared at her, one eye squeezed shut as he tried to process that piece of information. “What?”
Katie was already flipping through her phone history, muttering incoherently. “I did. I called him. Oh my God, I called him. And…and I sent Gretchen Thomas a text message.”
“What?” Reid repeated.
“‘Reid’s really nice. You should give him a chance, you tear-leaker.’ Only I spelled your name with two Es, forgot the apostrophe, and the Yous are just, you know, Us.”
“I don’t know what’s more appalling, that message or your spelling abilities when you’re inebriated.”
Katie propped an elbow on the couch, burying her face in her palm. “You better check your phone,” she moaned.
Reid laughed derisively. “I have never drunk-dialed, or drunk-texted for that matter, anyone in my life.”
The doorbell rang, and they both turned to look. Reid eventually pulled himself up and walked over to the door. When he opened it, a disgustingly fresh-faced Luke smiled back at him.
“What?” Reid asked.
Luke smirked, stepping into the apartment. “Hi Katie. Oh my God, how much did you two drink last night?”
Katie waved at him weakly. “A lot. I’m - I’m going to check on Jacob.”
Luke faced Reid again, waiting until she was out of the room before he talked again. “I thought you had a surgery this morning,” he said, grinning.
“Yeah, well. It was cancelled.”
“You’re a horrible liar when you’re hungover.”
“What are you doing here?” Reid asked again, flopping back onto the couch. “I figured we’d need one of our little cooling-off periods after last night.”
Luke sat down next to him. Close next to him. He put his hand on Reid’s thigh. High on Reid’s thigh. “I don’t want to cool off,” he said quietly. “I want to heat things up.”
“I told you, I - ”
“And I told you that I want to be with you. Noah’s out of the picture for me, romantically. Sexually. I’m ready to move on with my life. I want to move on with you.”
Reid sighed. He turned towards Luke, and he swallowed thickly. “Let me guess, you were up all night debating the pros and cons in your diary.”
Luke laughed, shaking his head in slight annoyance. “No,” he said. “I was pretty pissed at you, so I stormed around my room for a while, and then I got pissed at myself for being, you know, rather insensitive about...he-who-shall-not-be-named, and then I pouted until I fell asleep.”
“That was my next guess.”
“And then I had this phone message this morning that - ”
“What?”
Luke smirked, holding up his phone in front of Reid’s face. Reid turned paler than he already was.
“What - what was the message?”
“If I tried to repeat it, I wouldn’t do it justice. I better just play it for you.”
Reid watched nervously as Luke punched in the numbers to access his voicemail. Eventually, Reid could hear the mechanical voice telling Luke of a message left at 1:42 AM. “Christ,” Reid muttered.
Luke held the phone up to Reid’s ear.
“Hi Luke,” Reid’s voice said, sounding slightly tinny. “It’s me. Reid. Oliver. I’m sorry about tonight. I was a dick. There’s all sorts of excuses I could give you, but the truth is I was just a dick. I know you care about Noah. I know I can’t ever really compete. Why on earth would anyone want a world-class neurosurgeon when they could have a squinty barista? - Reid, be nice! - Katie, shh. I’m leaving a message. The thing is, I really want to be with you. I mean, really. I’ve wanted to be with you since, like, the second time I saw you. And not just sex, I mean, be with you like being your date to dinners and weddings, should any wedding in this town ever actually end with a marriage. I don’t know how this happened. You’re such a cocky son-of-a-bitch, sometimes, you know that? Everyone treats you like this second-coming golden boy, and yeah, you are, but you’re also a royal jackass. I don’t know which side of you I like more. I’ve never felt this way about anyone in my life, and I hate you for it. I hate that you make me want to stay in this backwards-ass town and be a doctor to people that really should just die and take themselves out of the human gene pool, anyway. I mean, Darwinian thought alone… I hate that you make me want to be nice to idiot nurses, just to make you happy. I hate that I actually am willing to wait for sex, just because I know you want it to be all making love with candles and fucking Yanni or something equally horrendous. I hate that I really could be happy spending the rest of my life sitting on the couch with you nearly on top of me and your head on my shoulder and your stupid smile and your awful fashion sense. I mean, Chinos and a polo. My God, are you sure you’re gay? I hate that I feel guilty and bad when you’re just being honest with me. I hate that he did such a number on you that you’re so unsure about everything. I hate that you don’t see the damage he did. I hate that, even if you did see it, you wouldn’t care and you’d forgive him anyway. I hate that you’re probably going to forgive me for tonight too. And I hate…your hair. Why do you have to do something different with it every single day? What’s wrong with just - ”
The message broke off, followed by a mechanical End of Message. Reid furrowed his brow.
“There’s only room for, like, three minutes or something,” Luke explained quietly.
Reid hung up the phone. He stared at the screen for a while, too nervous to look up at Luke. Luke put his hand on Reid’s chin, turning him until they made eye contact. Luke was smiling, and his eyes were suspiciously moist, and Reid…yeah, Reid hated it. Luke swallowed.
“You’ve got some shitty qualities yourself, you know,” Luke said.
Reid nodded. “I’ve never claimed otherwise.”
“I mean, do you always have to say the most painful thing possible, just to get the last word?”
Reid opened his mouth, inhaling. Luke put his palm over Reid’s lips. “Don’t answer that,” he warned.
Reid smiled, and Luke could feel the stretch of skin underneath his palm. He looked in Reid’s eyes again, seeing something of a twinkle. He removed his hand, immediately leaning up to kiss him soundly. And he pulled back just as quickly.
“Oh my God, go brush your teeth. Then I’ll buy you breakfast at Al’s. Something really big and greasy.”
“I think I…hate you,” Reid said, groaning softly.
Luke grinned.
The End