The Old Ball and Chain (4/4)
Twenty-Five Hours Later
They had barely made it ten feet through the Oakdale airport terminal before Lily’s phone - now turned on after the flight - registered a voicemail message. All four of them stopped walking as she punched in the code to listen to it, then turned towards Holden with a shocked expression a few minutes into the recording. And moments later, she hung up the phone, paused, and then revealed to all of them the news.
“Damian was captured in New York. They’re transferring him back here to be processed.”
Holden began to ask her questions, while Lily lifted her phone again to return the call to the police station. But Reid was entirely focused on Luke, who stepped away from the group and stared out the window at the still dark sky. Reid followed him; Luke’s slight flinch when he stepped next to him was the only indication that Luke knew he was there.
“You OK?” Reid asked.
Luke sighed, shrugged. And then he ducked his head forward, pinching at the bridge of his nose to hold back his emotion. “At the beginning of this week - I…I thought he was dead and my dad would go to prison. And now I know he’s alive but he’ll be the one going to prison and - ” Luke’s voice caught in his throat and he shook his head, blinking rapidly. He took a deep breath and exhaled harshly. “I don’t know why I even care. He just continues to hurt me and hurt me and I just - I keep going back for more.”
Reid didn’t say anything for a long moment. Then he observed, “It seems to be a pattern with you.”
Luke turned his head quickly, finally making eye contact with Reid. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
Reid licked his lips as he searched for the right words. “There’s nothing wrong with loving people,” he reminded Luke. “But that doesn’t mean they get to have emotional control over every part of you. You have a right to say when enough’s enough.”
Luke simply stared at him in response.
Thirty Hours Later
“Luke!”
Luke offered Alison a smile as he walked into Java. He immediately focused on Noah, who was sitting at the table with her and turning in Luke’s direction. He ended up looking slightly to the left of Luke, as he smiled widely in greeting.
“You’re back!” Noah exclaimed.
Luke felt his heart clench with nostalgic affection.
“I am,” he confirmed.
“Good! I’ve been getting really worried. It’s almost the time Dr. Oliver said we could do the surgery.”
Luke’s smile fell, and he swallowed. He pressed his lips together as he nodded once. “So my dad’s been released,” he said pointedly.
“That’s such a relief,” Alison said.
“Yeah, really great news,” Noah added belatedly.
Luke lifted a hand to scratch at his eye. “Noah, can we talk? Alison, you don’t mind, do you?”
“No, no!” Alison replied, gesturing towards them as she started to stand and leave the table.
Luke quickly shook his head. “Stay! Noah, how about we go for a walk?”
“OK,” Noah agreed. “I have to go to the hospital anyway; I have an appointment with Dr. Oliver.”
Luke smiled tightly. “He’s not wasting any time, huh?”
Noah laughed in agreement, and Luke didn’t say anything else until they were outside and relatively alone. He took a deep breath, looked at Noah and steeled himself.
“Noah, things have been…weird between us.”
Noah nodded. “I know. But you understand, right? I have to be focused on my sight right - ”
“Please, let me finish.”
Noah pivoted in Luke’s direction, apparently startled by the interruption.
“Noah, things have been weird. For a long time, actually, but it’s been really noticeable since your accident - and I know that it’s been really tough for you. But it’s been tough for me too, and…you’re not - you haven’t - ” Luke sighed.
“Luke?”
“I need more from you,” Luke said.
“I don’t understand.”
Luke shook his head. “That wasn’t what I meant. I need more. Period. Since the beginning of our relationship, we’ve always been about your needs and wants, with you coming out and your dad and the whole thing with Ameera and - and everything, right up to now and how you want to deal with your injuries and medical care. And…I just can’t do it anymore.”
Noah stopped walking. “Are you breaking up with me?”
Luke made a slight face. “Is there anything really to break up? We’re barely together. We aren’t together. You moved out, Noah.”
“Temporarily,” Noah argued.
“Well,” Luke said. He paused, then continued on firmly, “I want it to be permanently. I want - I need someone who wants to be with me. All of me, the real me, bumps and warts and stupid mistakes and - and who wants to be a partner with me. You know, share our lives and be there for each other. You can’t be that for me; you never were.”
“I can’t believe you’re saying this to me. I can’t believe you’re doing this now,” Noah protested. He didn’t sound nearly as upset as part of Luke had hoped he would be.
Luke sighed. “Go to your appointment, Noah. We can talk again soon, if you want to. But this is the way it has to be. I’m sorry.”
Without waiting for a response, Luke turned away. He made it nearly a block before the tears in his eyes pooled over.
Three Weeks Later
Reid stretched his arms out as he turned his head from side to side. It had been a long day, but Noah’s surgery was finally behind them. It had gone well - by AMA standards, already a success. And now they just had to wait for him to heal a little so they could check if it worked and he could see again.
He sighed as he sat on the couch, a bottle of cold beer in his hand. He was thankful that Katie and Margo had gone away for the weekend on a sisters’ mini-vacation. The rugrat was with some blonde nurse friend of Katie’s and so Reid had the entire apartment to himself for a few days. He was going to eat, sleep and not think about the looks Luke had been shooting him as he told him the outcomes of the surgery that afternoon. It had been all over town a few weeks ago that Luke and Noah had broken up, but when Luke maintained his distance from Reid, he concluded that just because Luke had realized how bad his relationship had become, it didn’t mean that -
The doorbell rang. Reid turned to glare at it, annoyed at the interruption of his thoughts. But grateful too, because that whole plan to not obsess over Luke? Not working so well. Reid sighed, placing his bottle on the coffee table as he stood. He shuffled over to the door, shouting an acknowledgement when the bell rang a second time.
When Reid opened the door, the resulting surprise nearly floored him. A rather nervous-looking Luke stared back at him, his hands in his pockets as he rocked slightly on his feet.
“Hi,” Luke said.
“Hi,” Reid replied slowly.
They stood there, neither man speaking or moving for several moments. Luke laughed, embarrassed.
“Can I come in?”
Reid raised his eyebrows as he shook his head to bring himself back to the conversation. He stepped aside, letting Luke into the apartment.
“What are you doing here?” he asked.
Luke turned to face him, nervously laughing again as he removed his hands from his pockets and pushed his sleeves up. “Starting off with the hard questions, I see.”
Reid tilted his head, waiting. Luke pressed his lips together and swallowed, and Reid couldn’t tear his eyes away from Luke’s mouth and throat.
“I - um. I wanted to thank you for - ”
And Reid rolled his eyes, turning away and walking back to his beer. “I’m done with the gratitude from your family. I did what you brought me here to do, and now I just want to go home.”
Luke turned quickly, following him to the couch. “You’re leaving?” he asked, surprise and something like fear bleeding into his voice.
Reid held the bottle centimeters from his lips as he stared at Luke. “What were you expecting?”
“I don’t know,” Luke breathed out, slowly sitting down next to Reid. “I…wow, it’s not going to be the same here, without you.”
Reid furrowed his brow quickly. “I’ve only been here a little while,” he reminded Luke.
“It’s felt - longer,” Luke said, almost angrily. “You’ve made an impression, I guess.”
Reid lifted the bottle to his mouth, finishing off the beer. He leaned forward and deposited the empty bottle on the table. “Well…I’m still going home. I have no reason to stay any longer.”
Luke turned to him quickly, staring at him with a borderline hurt expression. He pulled his mouth forward and worked his jaw, even while he shifted uncomfortably on the couch.
“Do I?” Reid asked, kicking himself as he did so.
Luke blinked once. Twice. Then he launched himself at Reid, forcing him to his back as he met him in a kiss. Reid reacted quickly, almost instinctively, drawing one arm up and holding Luke on top of him. He kissed him back with everything he had, sliding his tongue into Luke’s mouth and wrapping it around Luke’s own. Luke made small noises in the back of his throat as he buried one hand in Reid’s hair. He pressed down, thrusting his cock against Reid, and Reid’s other hand dropped to Luke’s ass, forcing him closer.
And then Luke broke the kiss, backing away from Reid and staring at him with wild, scared eyes.
“Wow,” Reid breathed out.
Luke made to sit up, and Reid tightened his embrace around him. Luke dropped his eyes away, trembling as he exhaled and quickly licked his lips.
“What am I doing?” he asked.
“You know what you’re doing; so do I,” Reid informed him.
Luke moved quickly, bending down to kiss him and just as rapidly pulling away again.
“I - I shouldn’t, I - ”
“Don’t freak out,” Reid said, surprised at his own calm attitude and voice, while inside he was losing control almost as much as Luke was.
Luke stared at him again, his breath steadying and his eyes focusing. He swallowed once and shifted his hips again, which prompted Reid to close his eyes at the pleasure. When he opened his eyes, Luke was starting to smile.
**
Luke didn’t really know what had come over him. This was so not like him, at all. He wasn’t the kind of guy to just jump someone else and -
Except, yeah, he realized. He kind of was. Because he loved this. He loved the way Reid held him tightly, and how Reid’s body felt against and beneath his. He loved how Reid had stalked closer and closer to him, seducing him back in his room in Malta. He loved how much Reid wanted him, and how much he wanted Reid. He loved arguing with Reid, and teasing him, and seeing glimpses of the human underneath the armor of sarcasm and cynicism. He loved how Reid cared enough to cross an ocean to help him even as he pretended he didn’t care at all, and how he thought enough of Luke to tell him hard truths and ask why he didn’t demand more from his life and the people who were supposed to be there for him.
And, Luke remembered as he leaned forward to suck Reid’s lower lip back into his mouth, as he reached his hands around to begin to unbutton Reid’s shirt, he hadn’t wanted to wait with Noah. He wasn’t the kind of guy who didn’t need this in a relationship. He had wanted this, all of this, the touching and the passion and the kissing and the naked skin, the pain and the pleasure, the push and the pull. He was nearly overwhelmed with how much he wanted this, how much he wanted to be the kind of guy who went for it, who was confident enough to do what felt good. And if it ended up not being as perfectly happily ever after as he hoped it would be, he wanted to be the kind of guy who was strong enough to deal with that.
But he kind of had the feeling - when they accidentally rolled off the couch and landed on the ground, when Luke oomphed and Reid laughingly asked if he was OK and Luke just pulled him back into the kiss with one hand and reached his other hand into Reid’s unbuckled pants and felt his thick, full cock in his palm - he wouldn’t have to deal with anything.
He had the feeling he was about to have everything he always wanted.
The End