As the World Turns Fic #6: The First Hurt/Comfort One
Title: The First Hurt/Comfort One
Author: Myrna1_2_3
Fandom: As the World Turns
Characters/Pairings: Luke/Reid
Rating: R
Summary: The first hurt/comfort one.
Disclaimer: Not-not-mine
Author’s Notes: For God’s sake do not use fanfiction as your medical guide.
It wasn’t often that Reid Oliver made it home from work before his boyfriend, and looking around at the carnage when he heard the garage door opening, Reid figured that was probably a good thing. He’d come in from work, tossed his briefcase on the kitchen table, thrown the mail on the counter and set about using up as many of the leftovers in the fridge as his plate(s) would hold. He then settled in to watch the Bulls cream the Cavaliers in Game One of the playoffs, but the Bulls had not held up their end of the bargain.
“The Bulls suck, and now that asshole in Cardiology is going to make me call him Dr. Prentiss for a week,” Reid grumbled at Luke in greeting.
“What do you usually call him?” Luke asked, setting his bag down next to Reid’s and lifting a curious eyebrow at the myriad of empty Tupperware containers in, around and near the sink.
“That asshole in Cardiology,” Reid said, as if the answer should have been obvious. The way Luke nodded knowingly, it probably was.
“Why are you all of you guys so competitive about everything?” Luke asking, thumbing through the mail and separating the bills from the junk.
“Surgeons,” Reid said, shaking his head. “Might as well ask why we’re always inhaling and exhaling. You mom was here, by the way. She brought you cookies from Huffman’s.”
“She did?” Luke said. “That had to have been incredibly painful for both of you.”
It was the first time Reid and Lily had ever spent more than a passing few seconds alone in one another’s company. Reid enjoyed Luke’s grandmother Lucinda a great deal, and Luke’s other grandma, Emma, was the salt-of-the-earth personification of grandmothers everywhere. Reid had always been less enamored of Luke’s mother and father, and the feeling seemed mutual on their part. Certainly neither one of them had been overjoyed when Reid and Luke hooked up, and it wasn’t hard to figure out why. Reid almost 15 years older than Luke and was hardly the beacon of nurturing love and compassion they felt their darling boy deserved. For his part, Reid found Lily and Holden smothering and overinvested in Luke in a way that was irritating at best and dysfunctional at worst.
Lily had a way of inserting herself into even the most minor corners of Luke’s life, weighing in on everything from where he ate lunch to projects the Foundation might sponsor. Luke accepted her opinions with varying degrees of equanimity, and she’d learned early in their relationship not to say much about Reid. Not that her opinion was any secret, if pointed looks and heavy sighs were any indication.
Holden wasn’t much better. The last time Holden had been over to their house, he’d walked around their temporary, thank you very much, residence, fixing a sticky door, a broken doorknob and a leaking dishwasher and glaring at Reid like he was forcing his delicate flower of a child to live in ramshackle disrepair. What the hell? It’s not like Reid was going to beat Luke if he decided to pick up a screwdriver and fix something.
“What did my mom want? Everything okay?” Luke asked, opening the Huffman’s bag and looking inside. He frowned at the contents. “How many cookies were in the bag when she got here?” he said.
Reid laughed, eyes still on the TV. “All that matters is when she calls tomorrow and asks if you got the cookies she brought over, you can say yes.”
“What did she want?”
Reid shook his head. “She just can’t stand for her precious little dumpling to be irritated with her,” he said with a grin.
They’d been at Luke’s grandma’s a few nights earlier and the circles under Luke’s eyes and his less-than-robust appetite had caught his mother’s attention. Luke had fended off Lily’s questions, studiously avoiding Reid’s eyes because Reid wouldn’t buy into Luke’s reticence about letting his family know they were trying out a new anti-rejection drug. There were several newer drugs on the market now with milder long-term side effects, so Luke’s nephrologist had recommended they make the change. Unfortunately, Luke was having some trouble managing the new drug’s short-term side effects.
Lily had freaked out, and at first Reid was willing to cut her some slack because anything having to do with a transplant and its aftermath could be frightening-especially to non-medical personnel. But he’d gone from sympathetic to annoyed when Lily seemed more upset that Luke hadn’t phoned her from the doctor’s office to tell her what was happening than she was concerned that there was a problem with the transplant.
“I don’t understand how you could keep this from me!” she kept saying. She’d glared at Reid who had to bite his lip to keep from mentioning that they’d recently changed cable providers and hadn’t seen fit to update Lily on that either, but he suspected the sarcasm wouldn’t go over too well at the moment.
Luke, who was sleep-deprived and living in a perpetual state of nausea, hadn’t been either sympathetic or patient with his mother and had eventually snapped at her to mind her own business.
That had segued into Holden barking at Luke to show his mother some respect which segued into Emma pleading with them all to just get along when meant that no one wanted dessert and for once Reid could cut a slice of pie for himself without everyone bellyaching about the size. Not a bad evening all in all.
A few days of silence between Lily and her firstborn were clearly more than Mom could take because Lily had shown up that night just as Reid was getting home from work with a dozen cookies from Luke’s favorite bakery, looking chagrinned and then disappointed to find Luke out. She tried to glean extra details about Luke’s condition from Reid, and Reid honestly wasn’t trying to be obstinate, but there just wasn’t anything to say. There were different anti-rejection protocols available, and the long-term effects of one protocol over another were different enough that they made the decision to try a new one. If it didn’t go well, they’d try another. If all else failed, they’d go back to the original.
Reid didn’t have much frame of reference for dealing with Lily or the rest of Luke’s family for that matter. Reid’s family hadn’t spent a lot of time spazzing out about shit when he was growing up so he was always a little taken aback by whatever drama was spinning around the Walsh/Snyder universe.
Lily asked Reid to let Luke know she stopped by; Reid said he would. She warily eyed the bag of cookies on the counter and Reid resolved to wrestle her for them if she tried to take them back. Luckily she didn’t, and Reid had a nice snack to enjoy while he watched the Bulls humiliate themselves.
“Did you eat?” Reid asked as Luke sat down next to him on the couch.
Luke shook his head, nudging Reid’s arm around his shoulder. Reid chuckled and kissed the top of his head.
“If you’re going to throw up, it’s better to have something in your stomach,” Reid reminded him.
Luke sighed and nodded. “In a minute,” he said. Luke went still against him, and Reid wouldn’t have been surprised if he’d fallen asleep. They were both sleeping like crap given the nausea from the new med seemed worse in the middle of the night. But a few minutes later, Luke kissed Reid’s cheek and hoisted himself off the couch. “Did you talk to Katie about filling out the paperwork for that preschool? We’re starting to process the scholarship requests.”
“Scholarships,” Reid scoffed. “They’re two years old. How much of a scholar do you have to be to stack blocks and crap your pants?” Luke shrugged as he roamed over to the kitchen counter and half-heartedly reached for the bakery bag. Reid watched him with trepidation. “You’re not going to waste a Huffman’s cookie are you?” he asked pitifully.
Luke rolled his eyes and grabbed a loaf of bread off the counter. Glaring at Reid, he dropped two pieces in the toaster. “Did you talk to her?” he asked again.
Reid shook his head. “You really think it’s that big a deal? The first time I mentioned it, she acted like Jacob going there was the craziest thing she’d ever heard.”
“But I think it was just the tuition making her say that,” Luke said, then shrugged in answer to Reid’s question. “Grandmother was having a luncheon last month and these ladies were talking about it and it sounds like if he doesn’t go, everything’s totally ruined for, like, ever.”
“Why is this the first I’m hearing about ladies lunches at your grandmother’s?” Reid demanded. “Why am I not invited?”
Luke rolled his eyes. “I was helping move some furniture she was donating. You know, there was a time when I was actually a productive member of society.” His toast popped up and with a sigh, he dropped it onto a plate. He stood over the sink and heaved a fortifying breath before taking a bite. He chewed it slowly, looking miserable.
Reid got up to retrieve his cell phone. “It’s time to try the tacrolimus, I’m going to call Jeffers.”
“But my appointment’s not for another two weeks,” Luke said.
“I’ll get us in first thing tomorrow morning,” Reid said.
Luke made a face. “Don’t do that,” he said. “I can wait. Besides, Dr. Jeffers said it would take five weeks before we knew if it was working…”
Reid waved him off. “That’s just what we tell you so you don’t call in the first week whining about how it’s not working. We’d know by now. It’s time to try something else.”
Luke still looked uncomfortable. “It’s not right to ask him to change his schedule for me when…”
Reid reached out for Luke’s arm. Luke was particular about when and where he used his wealth and connections, and he was especially sensitive about it in regards to his health. Reid understood given the situation surrounding the transplant, but he could only humor Luke’s discomfort so far.
“Luke, think of all plans we have to rearrange-the dinners we never get to finish, Good God, the number of times I have to leave before Grandma Snyder can box up the leftovers. This is a just professional courtesy doctors extend to one another because we understand certain levels of suck that most people don’t.”
Luke thought about it for a beat, then nodded. “Okay,” he said. “I have a 10:30 meeting. Should I reschedule?”
“Nah, you’ll be fine,” Reid said, thumbing through his phone to find the contact he needed.
“Andrew? It’s Reid Oliver… Fine thanks. Hey, Luke isn’t tolerating the mizoribin, what about trying tacrolimus?...Great, 8:30? See you then…Hmm?... Yeah, I’ll take ‘em for a week. On a scale of one to 10 how bad are they?...Okay, well, one being my interns and 10 being my interns if they were me…Threes? That’s not so bad, how did you rate?...Okay, have your assistant schedule it with Marcy in Neurology any time after the third week in April, all right? Okay, good. Thanks Andrew, we’ll see you in the morning.”
Reid disconnected the call with a cocky wink that made Luke laugh. Reid watched Luke contemplate taking another bite of toast, but he ended up tossing it in the sink with a grimace and just start cleaning up the kitchen instead.
Reid slipped up behind him as he rinsed dishes and gently wrapped his arms around him. “Can you think of anything that sounds good?” Reid asked.
Luke gracefully turned his head, offering a sweet, soft expanse of his neck to Reid in a way that never failed to make Reid go weak in the knees. “I probably am a little protein deficient these days,” Luke said thoughtfully.
Reid kissed Luke's neck and said the same thing he’d been saying since they changed Luke’s meds. “I can’t imagine your puking during sex will help my ego.”
Luke answered the same way he always did. “That’s funny. I can’t imagine it hurting.”
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Hours later, Reid started awake when Luke shot up in bed with a hissed, “Shit!” As Luke pushed back the covers and slid from the bed, Reid was glad he’d remembered to flip on the bathroom light before they turned in. With a sigh, he rolled out of bed and padded into the kitchen where the digital clock on the microwave read 2:20. Reid poured a glass of ginger ale and headed back to the bathroom.
Luke was sitting against the wall across from the toilet, knees drawn up and the palms of his hands pressed against his eyes.
“Did you vomit?” Reid asked, setting the glass on the bathroom counter.
“No,” Luke said. “But put on that shirt Katie bought you last week…”
Reid huffed a laugh as he slid down the wall to sit on the floor next to Luke.
Luke grinned, hands still covering his eyes. “No, I’m serious. If I puke I’ll feel better, and that shirt is guaranteed…”
“Jacob picked it out,” Reid said, feigning insult.
“Mmm, well there’s one who won’t be batting for our side,” Luke said.
“Says the man of a thousand hideous striped shirts,” Reid muttered.
Luke grimaced and pushed himself off the wall toward the toilet. He was breathing heavily through his nose. “Shit,” he muttered, his forehead resting on the rim of the seat. “I wish I’d just throw up already. It’s like hours of foreplay and never getting to come.”
“You’re equating ejaculation to vomiting?” Reid said. “That explains so much about the sex when we first got together.”
Luke laughed in spite of himself. “If I knew how to work the remote I would toss you out on your ass so fast…”
Reid grinned at Luke’s back. “I don’t know why it’s so hard for you. Hit Program 1, Power, TV, Power.”
“That’s not it!” Luke whined. “You say that’s it, but it never works. And then you act all surprised that you’re the only one who can turn on the TV.”
“I’m insulted,” Reid said. “When we first met, you thought my Machiavellian plans were complicated schemes like botching brain surgeries. Now I’m down to diabolically thwarting your enjoyment of the television?”
“Well, it doesn’t exactly reflect well on me either, does it?”
Reid laughed. With an exaggerated groan he stood up so he could hand the ginger ale to Luke. “Take a few sips,” he said.
Luke reached for the glass with a shaking hand and took a drink. He set the glass down and breathed slowly through his nose as he shifted back closer to the toilet. Reid shut his eyes for a beat against the abject misery on Luke’s face as he leaned forward with a whispered, “Jesus.”
A thin sheen of sweat was beading on Luke’s pale skin. Reid ran a washcloth under the faucet and began to gently wipe him down. “Okay?” Reid asked quietly when Luke shivered as Reid ran the cloth down his chest.
Luke nodded. “Feels good,” he said, eyes closed.
Reid swiped the cloth along Luke's arms and across his back, around his neck. When he was finished, he brushed the hair off Luke’s forehead and placed a kiss there. “Think you can come back to bed now?”
“Hm mm,” Luke said with a slight shake of his head. He sat back on his haunches and grimaced as he swallowed. “What time is it? You need to get some sleep.”
“Let’s sit back here,” Reid said, drawing Luke back against the wall. “I’ll throw you towards the bowl if you start to hurl.”
“All that time in the gym finally put to good use.”
“Finally?” Reid said indignantly. “The way you salivate over my pecks whenever I innocently remove my shirt begs to differ. Come to think of it, my shirt doesn’t even have to be off for you to be ogling me.”
Luke smiled as he drew up his knees and laid his head down on his crossed arms. “Shameful,” he admitted.
Where beads of sweat had stood out on Luke’s skin a moment earlier, now there were goose bumps. Reid grabbed the blanket off the end of their bed and draped it around his shoulders. Luke sighed , his head still buried on his arms. “If I do start puking, and it comes down to me or the blanket, promise me you’ll save the blanket,” he said.
Reid sat down next to hm. “Only if you promise not to make me listen to the story of Great Grandma Mabel crocheting the blanket when she was pregnant with Emma during the harshest winter on record and how one February night the coal furnace failed and Great Grandpa Earl started a fire in the kitchen stove and a gust of wind blew out the window and set the curtains on fire and the house burned to the ground and the only thing they saved from the entire house was Grandma Emma’s blanket.”
“Well now there’s no point in telling it,” Luke complained. He leaned his head back against the wall, his pallor an unhealthy gray. “You should try to get some sleep,” he said. “Whose surgery am I compromising this time?”
Reid had to count to five to make sure he didn’t bark a mean-spirited reply. Reid couldn’t stand it when Luke acted like these medical issues were some kind of moral failing they could have avoided if he was just stronger or more determined or something equally ridiculous. “Nothing scheduled tomorrow,” Reid said evenly. “Just quality time for me and the mouseketeers.”
“Oh man, I’ve been meaning to send over a cappuccino maker for the intern’s lounge to make up for…”
“For what?” Reid said pointedly, but Luke acted like he didn’t hear. “If you’re going to spring for a decent coffee maker it should be for the doctor’s lounge,” Reid said.
“The one in the doctor’s lounge can’t be anywhere near as pathetic as the antique machine in the intern’s lounge,” Luke said.
Reid instantly pushed himself off of Luke’s side, his eyes slowly narrowing into slits. “And you know this how?” he asked in a slow, deadly voice.
“Uh oh,” Luke said.
“What did you do?” Reid said as if walking in on Luke standing over a bloody corpse with a knife in his hand.
“Nothing!” Luke said quickly.
“Tell me.”
“Nothing! It’s just…you’ve been up with me the last couple of weeks, and you’re totally crabby on the best day anyway, and the way you’ve been complaining about the interns I was feeling more sorry for them than usual so last week I brought over some food.”
“Thursday and Friday,” Reid said. “I remember now--they were pirouetting all over the place shoving bagels in their mouths. Did any of them see you?”
Luke shrugged. “Sharon was there early one morning, getting some studying in, and we got to talking. Did you know she…”
“Sharon?” Reid sputtered. “Oh my God, I already warned you about feeding them, and now you’re giving them names?”
Luke smirked at him. “Would it make you any happier if I told you that I had no feelings for them whatsoever, and I’m just trying to stave off your grisly murder for as long as I can because I appreciate how brilliantly you suck my cock?”
Reid thought about it for a beat. “I do like being told I’m brilliant at sucking cock,” he said, slightly mollified.
“You really do,” Luke agreed.
“Well, don’t come by again,” Reid said. “It undermines my authority.”
“Bagels undermine your authority?”
“Don’t be obtuse,” Reid said. “It’s the co-mingling of professional life and private life that muddies up the waters.”
“Just the intern part of your professional life,” Luke clarified. “ We do stuff with the doctors you work with.”
“Only because they schedule everything with you and you’re too polite to say no,” said Reid. “Besides, that’s different. Interns and residents need to fear me like they fear the wrath of God. You waltz in with your sweet little smile and your let’s-put-on-a-show attitude and all it takes is for one of them to think, ‘hmmm, if that angelic cherub is with Dr. Oliver then maybe he’s not Satan,’ and the next thing you know every single patient touched by their incompetent hands is dead, the end.”
“Yeah, it makes a lot sense when you explain it,” Luke said.
“Exactly. And it’s not like it’s forever. Eventually it won’t matter.”
Luke snorted in amused disbelief. “When’s that?”
Reid said dryly, “When you’re older than they are.”
Luke snickered. “Sharon said that she and Gabe were going to do some house hunting…”
“Which one’s Sharon?” Reid asked around a yawn.
“She has long black hair and blue eyes, kind of short…”
“How does that help me?” Reid said.
Luke sighed and cast his eyes toward heaven. “Glitter Eyes,” he said grudgingly.
“Oh, right,” Reid said, picturing the woman who wore the garish blue eye shadow. “Who the hell is Gabe?”
“Gabe’s her boyfriend,” Luke said, gesturing as though giving Reid a few hints would help him recall something there was no chance in hell he would ever have bothered to remember in the first place. “He works in DC, but might transfer out here. He was coming out for the weekend and they were going to talk about…”
“How long does it take to throw a box of bagels on a table and leave?” Reid wondered aloud.
Luke just blithely continued. “I gave her Lauren’s name. I figure if I send enough clients her way, maybe she’ll forgive us for the million and one houses she’s shown us so far.”
“Us?” Reid said. “You’re the picky one. I want doors, windows, a garage and a refrigerator. And I’m not all that picky about the doors, windows or garage.”
“A house is a really big deal,” Luke said. “It has to be right.”
“The place on Sycamore was fine. The only thing you didn’t like about it was how much your mom liked it.”
Luke groaned. “I can’t believe she just showed up at the open house.”
Reid snorted. “Really?”
“Well, no, it’s pretty believable,” Luke admitted. “The driveway was too short at that place anyway.”
“There was plenty of room to ride your tricycle in the cul-de-sac.”
“Lauren’s got another place for us to see some time this week when you’re free. I emailed the pictures to you. It’s one of the renovated old homes near Chester, lots of big trees in the front yard. It’s got an infinity pool and a media room that’s already wired for sound.”
Reid made a face at the idea of another house tour. “You go and tell me if I like it,” he said.
Luke’s shrug said he would. “If we buy a house without your looking at it first, then you can never, ever, ever, ever complain about it ever.”
“I’m okay with that,” Reid said. Luke gave him his best don’t-kid-a-kidder look. Reid just shrugged at him. “How are you going to enforce a rule like that?”
“Rats, your logic confounds me again,” Luke said. Luke squeezed his eyes shut and pitched forward toward the toilet. He dry heaved several times, but nothing came up. “God damn it, puke already!” he moaned.
Reid snorted. “I bet Great Grandma Mabel would have some ipecac on hand. That’d do the trick.”
“Help a guy out, Reid--go put on Jacob’s shirt,” Luke said.
Reid laughed. “That’s just mean,” he said. “Maybe I don’t have to worry about those interns thinking you’re all sweet and lovely after all.”
“Only in your universe is having a nice boyfriend a liability.”
“There’s nice and then there’s…” Reid made a face like he was the one about to be sick, “you.” He gave a mock shudder. “I don’t suppose there’s anything to be concerned about,” he said. “It’s not like they’re going to see us together and all of a sudden think I’m anything but the hard-driving, insensitive douche they know and love.”
“You are absolutely right,” Luke said, sliding back to rest against the wall with his eyes closed. He paused for just a beat. “Thanks for getting up with me,” he said softly. They were sitting so closely next to one another that when Reid shrugged away the thanks, Luke shrugged too. Luke smiled. “And for bringing me ginger ale.”
“Yeah, well…”
“And the washcloth.” Luke was still smiling.
Reid sniffed carelessly. “I just didn’t want your sweaty ass messing up my sheets.”
“And the blanket.” Luke ground his chin against Reid’s shoulder while Reid resolutely refused to look at him.
“Okay that’s enough.”
Reid felt Luke’s grin against his cheek. “And for….”
“Seriously. Shut up or I’ll reprogram the remote again.”
Luke shoved him. “You bastard, I knew you were messing with it!”
Reid laughed, pulling Luke back against his side and kissing the top of his head. “Now I’ll have to come up with some other diabolical plan to keep you in my dastardly clutches,” he said softly.
Luke gently laid his head on Reid’s shoulder. Reid felt his eyes sting and his throat tighten when Luke turned and nuzzled into his neck and said in a drowsy whisper, “No rush.”
#
Author: Myrna1_2_3
Fandom: As the World Turns
Characters/Pairings: Luke/Reid
Rating: R
Summary: The first hurt/comfort one.
Disclaimer: Not-not-mine
Author’s Notes: For God’s sake do not use fanfiction as your medical guide.
It wasn’t often that Reid Oliver made it home from work before his boyfriend, and looking around at the carnage when he heard the garage door opening, Reid figured that was probably a good thing. He’d come in from work, tossed his briefcase on the kitchen table, thrown the mail on the counter and set about using up as many of the leftovers in the fridge as his plate(s) would hold. He then settled in to watch the Bulls cream the Cavaliers in Game One of the playoffs, but the Bulls had not held up their end of the bargain.
“The Bulls suck, and now that asshole in Cardiology is going to make me call him Dr. Prentiss for a week,” Reid grumbled at Luke in greeting.
“What do you usually call him?” Luke asked, setting his bag down next to Reid’s and lifting a curious eyebrow at the myriad of empty Tupperware containers in, around and near the sink.
“That asshole in Cardiology,” Reid said, as if the answer should have been obvious. The way Luke nodded knowingly, it probably was.
“Why are you all of you guys so competitive about everything?” Luke asking, thumbing through the mail and separating the bills from the junk.
“Surgeons,” Reid said, shaking his head. “Might as well ask why we’re always inhaling and exhaling. You mom was here, by the way. She brought you cookies from Huffman’s.”
“She did?” Luke said. “That had to have been incredibly painful for both of you.”
It was the first time Reid and Lily had ever spent more than a passing few seconds alone in one another’s company. Reid enjoyed Luke’s grandmother Lucinda a great deal, and Luke’s other grandma, Emma, was the salt-of-the-earth personification of grandmothers everywhere. Reid had always been less enamored of Luke’s mother and father, and the feeling seemed mutual on their part. Certainly neither one of them had been overjoyed when Reid and Luke hooked up, and it wasn’t hard to figure out why. Reid almost 15 years older than Luke and was hardly the beacon of nurturing love and compassion they felt their darling boy deserved. For his part, Reid found Lily and Holden smothering and overinvested in Luke in a way that was irritating at best and dysfunctional at worst.
Lily had a way of inserting herself into even the most minor corners of Luke’s life, weighing in on everything from where he ate lunch to projects the Foundation might sponsor. Luke accepted her opinions with varying degrees of equanimity, and she’d learned early in their relationship not to say much about Reid. Not that her opinion was any secret, if pointed looks and heavy sighs were any indication.
Holden wasn’t much better. The last time Holden had been over to their house, he’d walked around their temporary, thank you very much, residence, fixing a sticky door, a broken doorknob and a leaking dishwasher and glaring at Reid like he was forcing his delicate flower of a child to live in ramshackle disrepair. What the hell? It’s not like Reid was going to beat Luke if he decided to pick up a screwdriver and fix something.
“What did my mom want? Everything okay?” Luke asked, opening the Huffman’s bag and looking inside. He frowned at the contents. “How many cookies were in the bag when she got here?” he said.
Reid laughed, eyes still on the TV. “All that matters is when she calls tomorrow and asks if you got the cookies she brought over, you can say yes.”
“What did she want?”
Reid shook his head. “She just can’t stand for her precious little dumpling to be irritated with her,” he said with a grin.
They’d been at Luke’s grandma’s a few nights earlier and the circles under Luke’s eyes and his less-than-robust appetite had caught his mother’s attention. Luke had fended off Lily’s questions, studiously avoiding Reid’s eyes because Reid wouldn’t buy into Luke’s reticence about letting his family know they were trying out a new anti-rejection drug. There were several newer drugs on the market now with milder long-term side effects, so Luke’s nephrologist had recommended they make the change. Unfortunately, Luke was having some trouble managing the new drug’s short-term side effects.
Lily had freaked out, and at first Reid was willing to cut her some slack because anything having to do with a transplant and its aftermath could be frightening-especially to non-medical personnel. But he’d gone from sympathetic to annoyed when Lily seemed more upset that Luke hadn’t phoned her from the doctor’s office to tell her what was happening than she was concerned that there was a problem with the transplant.
“I don’t understand how you could keep this from me!” she kept saying. She’d glared at Reid who had to bite his lip to keep from mentioning that they’d recently changed cable providers and hadn’t seen fit to update Lily on that either, but he suspected the sarcasm wouldn’t go over too well at the moment.
Luke, who was sleep-deprived and living in a perpetual state of nausea, hadn’t been either sympathetic or patient with his mother and had eventually snapped at her to mind her own business.
That had segued into Holden barking at Luke to show his mother some respect which segued into Emma pleading with them all to just get along when meant that no one wanted dessert and for once Reid could cut a slice of pie for himself without everyone bellyaching about the size. Not a bad evening all in all.
A few days of silence between Lily and her firstborn were clearly more than Mom could take because Lily had shown up that night just as Reid was getting home from work with a dozen cookies from Luke’s favorite bakery, looking chagrinned and then disappointed to find Luke out. She tried to glean extra details about Luke’s condition from Reid, and Reid honestly wasn’t trying to be obstinate, but there just wasn’t anything to say. There were different anti-rejection protocols available, and the long-term effects of one protocol over another were different enough that they made the decision to try a new one. If it didn’t go well, they’d try another. If all else failed, they’d go back to the original.
Reid didn’t have much frame of reference for dealing with Lily or the rest of Luke’s family for that matter. Reid’s family hadn’t spent a lot of time spazzing out about shit when he was growing up so he was always a little taken aback by whatever drama was spinning around the Walsh/Snyder universe.
Lily asked Reid to let Luke know she stopped by; Reid said he would. She warily eyed the bag of cookies on the counter and Reid resolved to wrestle her for them if she tried to take them back. Luckily she didn’t, and Reid had a nice snack to enjoy while he watched the Bulls humiliate themselves.
“Did you eat?” Reid asked as Luke sat down next to him on the couch.
Luke shook his head, nudging Reid’s arm around his shoulder. Reid chuckled and kissed the top of his head.
“If you’re going to throw up, it’s better to have something in your stomach,” Reid reminded him.
Luke sighed and nodded. “In a minute,” he said. Luke went still against him, and Reid wouldn’t have been surprised if he’d fallen asleep. They were both sleeping like crap given the nausea from the new med seemed worse in the middle of the night. But a few minutes later, Luke kissed Reid’s cheek and hoisted himself off the couch. “Did you talk to Katie about filling out the paperwork for that preschool? We’re starting to process the scholarship requests.”
“Scholarships,” Reid scoffed. “They’re two years old. How much of a scholar do you have to be to stack blocks and crap your pants?” Luke shrugged as he roamed over to the kitchen counter and half-heartedly reached for the bakery bag. Reid watched him with trepidation. “You’re not going to waste a Huffman’s cookie are you?” he asked pitifully.
Luke rolled his eyes and grabbed a loaf of bread off the counter. Glaring at Reid, he dropped two pieces in the toaster. “Did you talk to her?” he asked again.
Reid shook his head. “You really think it’s that big a deal? The first time I mentioned it, she acted like Jacob going there was the craziest thing she’d ever heard.”
“But I think it was just the tuition making her say that,” Luke said, then shrugged in answer to Reid’s question. “Grandmother was having a luncheon last month and these ladies were talking about it and it sounds like if he doesn’t go, everything’s totally ruined for, like, ever.”
“Why is this the first I’m hearing about ladies lunches at your grandmother’s?” Reid demanded. “Why am I not invited?”
Luke rolled his eyes. “I was helping move some furniture she was donating. You know, there was a time when I was actually a productive member of society.” His toast popped up and with a sigh, he dropped it onto a plate. He stood over the sink and heaved a fortifying breath before taking a bite. He chewed it slowly, looking miserable.
Reid got up to retrieve his cell phone. “It’s time to try the tacrolimus, I’m going to call Jeffers.”
“But my appointment’s not for another two weeks,” Luke said.
“I’ll get us in first thing tomorrow morning,” Reid said.
Luke made a face. “Don’t do that,” he said. “I can wait. Besides, Dr. Jeffers said it would take five weeks before we knew if it was working…”
Reid waved him off. “That’s just what we tell you so you don’t call in the first week whining about how it’s not working. We’d know by now. It’s time to try something else.”
Luke still looked uncomfortable. “It’s not right to ask him to change his schedule for me when…”
Reid reached out for Luke’s arm. Luke was particular about when and where he used his wealth and connections, and he was especially sensitive about it in regards to his health. Reid understood given the situation surrounding the transplant, but he could only humor Luke’s discomfort so far.
“Luke, think of all plans we have to rearrange-the dinners we never get to finish, Good God, the number of times I have to leave before Grandma Snyder can box up the leftovers. This is a just professional courtesy doctors extend to one another because we understand certain levels of suck that most people don’t.”
Luke thought about it for a beat, then nodded. “Okay,” he said. “I have a 10:30 meeting. Should I reschedule?”
“Nah, you’ll be fine,” Reid said, thumbing through his phone to find the contact he needed.
“Andrew? It’s Reid Oliver… Fine thanks. Hey, Luke isn’t tolerating the mizoribin, what about trying tacrolimus?...Great, 8:30? See you then…Hmm?... Yeah, I’ll take ‘em for a week. On a scale of one to 10 how bad are they?...Okay, well, one being my interns and 10 being my interns if they were me…Threes? That’s not so bad, how did you rate?...Okay, have your assistant schedule it with Marcy in Neurology any time after the third week in April, all right? Okay, good. Thanks Andrew, we’ll see you in the morning.”
Reid disconnected the call with a cocky wink that made Luke laugh. Reid watched Luke contemplate taking another bite of toast, but he ended up tossing it in the sink with a grimace and just start cleaning up the kitchen instead.
Reid slipped up behind him as he rinsed dishes and gently wrapped his arms around him. “Can you think of anything that sounds good?” Reid asked.
Luke gracefully turned his head, offering a sweet, soft expanse of his neck to Reid in a way that never failed to make Reid go weak in the knees. “I probably am a little protein deficient these days,” Luke said thoughtfully.
Reid kissed Luke's neck and said the same thing he’d been saying since they changed Luke’s meds. “I can’t imagine your puking during sex will help my ego.”
Luke answered the same way he always did. “That’s funny. I can’t imagine it hurting.”
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Hours later, Reid started awake when Luke shot up in bed with a hissed, “Shit!” As Luke pushed back the covers and slid from the bed, Reid was glad he’d remembered to flip on the bathroom light before they turned in. With a sigh, he rolled out of bed and padded into the kitchen where the digital clock on the microwave read 2:20. Reid poured a glass of ginger ale and headed back to the bathroom.
Luke was sitting against the wall across from the toilet, knees drawn up and the palms of his hands pressed against his eyes.
“Did you vomit?” Reid asked, setting the glass on the bathroom counter.
“No,” Luke said. “But put on that shirt Katie bought you last week…”
Reid huffed a laugh as he slid down the wall to sit on the floor next to Luke.
Luke grinned, hands still covering his eyes. “No, I’m serious. If I puke I’ll feel better, and that shirt is guaranteed…”
“Jacob picked it out,” Reid said, feigning insult.
“Mmm, well there’s one who won’t be batting for our side,” Luke said.
“Says the man of a thousand hideous striped shirts,” Reid muttered.
Luke grimaced and pushed himself off the wall toward the toilet. He was breathing heavily through his nose. “Shit,” he muttered, his forehead resting on the rim of the seat. “I wish I’d just throw up already. It’s like hours of foreplay and never getting to come.”
“You’re equating ejaculation to vomiting?” Reid said. “That explains so much about the sex when we first got together.”
Luke laughed in spite of himself. “If I knew how to work the remote I would toss you out on your ass so fast…”
Reid grinned at Luke’s back. “I don’t know why it’s so hard for you. Hit Program 1, Power, TV, Power.”
“That’s not it!” Luke whined. “You say that’s it, but it never works. And then you act all surprised that you’re the only one who can turn on the TV.”
“I’m insulted,” Reid said. “When we first met, you thought my Machiavellian plans were complicated schemes like botching brain surgeries. Now I’m down to diabolically thwarting your enjoyment of the television?”
“Well, it doesn’t exactly reflect well on me either, does it?”
Reid laughed. With an exaggerated groan he stood up so he could hand the ginger ale to Luke. “Take a few sips,” he said.
Luke reached for the glass with a shaking hand and took a drink. He set the glass down and breathed slowly through his nose as he shifted back closer to the toilet. Reid shut his eyes for a beat against the abject misery on Luke’s face as he leaned forward with a whispered, “Jesus.”
A thin sheen of sweat was beading on Luke’s pale skin. Reid ran a washcloth under the faucet and began to gently wipe him down. “Okay?” Reid asked quietly when Luke shivered as Reid ran the cloth down his chest.
Luke nodded. “Feels good,” he said, eyes closed.
Reid swiped the cloth along Luke's arms and across his back, around his neck. When he was finished, he brushed the hair off Luke’s forehead and placed a kiss there. “Think you can come back to bed now?”
“Hm mm,” Luke said with a slight shake of his head. He sat back on his haunches and grimaced as he swallowed. “What time is it? You need to get some sleep.”
“Let’s sit back here,” Reid said, drawing Luke back against the wall. “I’ll throw you towards the bowl if you start to hurl.”
“All that time in the gym finally put to good use.”
“Finally?” Reid said indignantly. “The way you salivate over my pecks whenever I innocently remove my shirt begs to differ. Come to think of it, my shirt doesn’t even have to be off for you to be ogling me.”
Luke smiled as he drew up his knees and laid his head down on his crossed arms. “Shameful,” he admitted.
Where beads of sweat had stood out on Luke’s skin a moment earlier, now there were goose bumps. Reid grabbed the blanket off the end of their bed and draped it around his shoulders. Luke sighed , his head still buried on his arms. “If I do start puking, and it comes down to me or the blanket, promise me you’ll save the blanket,” he said.
Reid sat down next to hm. “Only if you promise not to make me listen to the story of Great Grandma Mabel crocheting the blanket when she was pregnant with Emma during the harshest winter on record and how one February night the coal furnace failed and Great Grandpa Earl started a fire in the kitchen stove and a gust of wind blew out the window and set the curtains on fire and the house burned to the ground and the only thing they saved from the entire house was Grandma Emma’s blanket.”
“Well now there’s no point in telling it,” Luke complained. He leaned his head back against the wall, his pallor an unhealthy gray. “You should try to get some sleep,” he said. “Whose surgery am I compromising this time?”
Reid had to count to five to make sure he didn’t bark a mean-spirited reply. Reid couldn’t stand it when Luke acted like these medical issues were some kind of moral failing they could have avoided if he was just stronger or more determined or something equally ridiculous. “Nothing scheduled tomorrow,” Reid said evenly. “Just quality time for me and the mouseketeers.”
“Oh man, I’ve been meaning to send over a cappuccino maker for the intern’s lounge to make up for…”
“For what?” Reid said pointedly, but Luke acted like he didn’t hear. “If you’re going to spring for a decent coffee maker it should be for the doctor’s lounge,” Reid said.
“The one in the doctor’s lounge can’t be anywhere near as pathetic as the antique machine in the intern’s lounge,” Luke said.
Reid instantly pushed himself off of Luke’s side, his eyes slowly narrowing into slits. “And you know this how?” he asked in a slow, deadly voice.
“Uh oh,” Luke said.
“What did you do?” Reid said as if walking in on Luke standing over a bloody corpse with a knife in his hand.
“Nothing!” Luke said quickly.
“Tell me.”
“Nothing! It’s just…you’ve been up with me the last couple of weeks, and you’re totally crabby on the best day anyway, and the way you’ve been complaining about the interns I was feeling more sorry for them than usual so last week I brought over some food.”
“Thursday and Friday,” Reid said. “I remember now--they were pirouetting all over the place shoving bagels in their mouths. Did any of them see you?”
Luke shrugged. “Sharon was there early one morning, getting some studying in, and we got to talking. Did you know she…”
“Sharon?” Reid sputtered. “Oh my God, I already warned you about feeding them, and now you’re giving them names?”
Luke smirked at him. “Would it make you any happier if I told you that I had no feelings for them whatsoever, and I’m just trying to stave off your grisly murder for as long as I can because I appreciate how brilliantly you suck my cock?”
Reid thought about it for a beat. “I do like being told I’m brilliant at sucking cock,” he said, slightly mollified.
“You really do,” Luke agreed.
“Well, don’t come by again,” Reid said. “It undermines my authority.”
“Bagels undermine your authority?”
“Don’t be obtuse,” Reid said. “It’s the co-mingling of professional life and private life that muddies up the waters.”
“Just the intern part of your professional life,” Luke clarified. “ We do stuff with the doctors you work with.”
“Only because they schedule everything with you and you’re too polite to say no,” said Reid. “Besides, that’s different. Interns and residents need to fear me like they fear the wrath of God. You waltz in with your sweet little smile and your let’s-put-on-a-show attitude and all it takes is for one of them to think, ‘hmmm, if that angelic cherub is with Dr. Oliver then maybe he’s not Satan,’ and the next thing you know every single patient touched by their incompetent hands is dead, the end.”
“Yeah, it makes a lot sense when you explain it,” Luke said.
“Exactly. And it’s not like it’s forever. Eventually it won’t matter.”
Luke snorted in amused disbelief. “When’s that?”
Reid said dryly, “When you’re older than they are.”
Luke snickered. “Sharon said that she and Gabe were going to do some house hunting…”
“Which one’s Sharon?” Reid asked around a yawn.
“She has long black hair and blue eyes, kind of short…”
“How does that help me?” Reid said.
Luke sighed and cast his eyes toward heaven. “Glitter Eyes,” he said grudgingly.
“Oh, right,” Reid said, picturing the woman who wore the garish blue eye shadow. “Who the hell is Gabe?”
“Gabe’s her boyfriend,” Luke said, gesturing as though giving Reid a few hints would help him recall something there was no chance in hell he would ever have bothered to remember in the first place. “He works in DC, but might transfer out here. He was coming out for the weekend and they were going to talk about…”
“How long does it take to throw a box of bagels on a table and leave?” Reid wondered aloud.
Luke just blithely continued. “I gave her Lauren’s name. I figure if I send enough clients her way, maybe she’ll forgive us for the million and one houses she’s shown us so far.”
“Us?” Reid said. “You’re the picky one. I want doors, windows, a garage and a refrigerator. And I’m not all that picky about the doors, windows or garage.”
“A house is a really big deal,” Luke said. “It has to be right.”
“The place on Sycamore was fine. The only thing you didn’t like about it was how much your mom liked it.”
Luke groaned. “I can’t believe she just showed up at the open house.”
Reid snorted. “Really?”
“Well, no, it’s pretty believable,” Luke admitted. “The driveway was too short at that place anyway.”
“There was plenty of room to ride your tricycle in the cul-de-sac.”
“Lauren’s got another place for us to see some time this week when you’re free. I emailed the pictures to you. It’s one of the renovated old homes near Chester, lots of big trees in the front yard. It’s got an infinity pool and a media room that’s already wired for sound.”
Reid made a face at the idea of another house tour. “You go and tell me if I like it,” he said.
Luke’s shrug said he would. “If we buy a house without your looking at it first, then you can never, ever, ever, ever complain about it ever.”
“I’m okay with that,” Reid said. Luke gave him his best don’t-kid-a-kidder look. Reid just shrugged at him. “How are you going to enforce a rule like that?”
“Rats, your logic confounds me again,” Luke said. Luke squeezed his eyes shut and pitched forward toward the toilet. He dry heaved several times, but nothing came up. “God damn it, puke already!” he moaned.
Reid snorted. “I bet Great Grandma Mabel would have some ipecac on hand. That’d do the trick.”
“Help a guy out, Reid--go put on Jacob’s shirt,” Luke said.
Reid laughed. “That’s just mean,” he said. “Maybe I don’t have to worry about those interns thinking you’re all sweet and lovely after all.”
“Only in your universe is having a nice boyfriend a liability.”
“There’s nice and then there’s…” Reid made a face like he was the one about to be sick, “you.” He gave a mock shudder. “I don’t suppose there’s anything to be concerned about,” he said. “It’s not like they’re going to see us together and all of a sudden think I’m anything but the hard-driving, insensitive douche they know and love.”
“You are absolutely right,” Luke said, sliding back to rest against the wall with his eyes closed. He paused for just a beat. “Thanks for getting up with me,” he said softly. They were sitting so closely next to one another that when Reid shrugged away the thanks, Luke shrugged too. Luke smiled. “And for bringing me ginger ale.”
“Yeah, well…”
“And the washcloth.” Luke was still smiling.
Reid sniffed carelessly. “I just didn’t want your sweaty ass messing up my sheets.”
“And the blanket.” Luke ground his chin against Reid’s shoulder while Reid resolutely refused to look at him.
“Okay that’s enough.”
Reid felt Luke’s grin against his cheek. “And for….”
“Seriously. Shut up or I’ll reprogram the remote again.”
Luke shoved him. “You bastard, I knew you were messing with it!”
Reid laughed, pulling Luke back against his side and kissing the top of his head. “Now I’ll have to come up with some other diabolical plan to keep you in my dastardly clutches,” he said softly.
Luke gently laid his head on Reid’s shoulder. Reid felt his eyes sting and his throat tighten when Luke turned and nuzzled into his neck and said in a drowsy whisper, “No rush.”
#