Cranky Faith Cheers Up
Title; Cranky Faith Cheers Up
Author: nancygrew
rating: g
Disclaimer: Characters belong to ATWT
Notes: Takes place after Eggs Benedict at the Lakeview
Summary: Reid has a late lunch at Al's Diner and is joined by company
Reid sat at a booth in Al’s Diner enjoying his cheeseburger [cheddar cheese instead of American cheese], french fries [done extra well and served with vinegar as per his request] and a strawberry milkshake [with just a touch of chocolate syrup added as per his request]. Life was good. He had awoken this morning with his hot young lover and a half dozen love bites. He had been served an amazing breakfast that he hadn’t minded sharing with the wee folk, AKA Luke’s brother Ethan and sister Natalie. They understood how to appreciate good food and neurological anecdotes. He had caught up with his roommate Katie at the hospital. She had gotten some sleep and nutrition after having spent a stressful few days worrying about Doogie. That was good. She still considered Doogie her boyfriend. That wasn’t so good. She could have done, and probably had done, so much better than some mediocre pediatrician with a death wish. Reid had performed rounds, consulted with patients and started writing a sure-to-be-brilliant article for The New England Journal of Medicine. After he finished lunch, he had plans to interview some nurses who had requested being assigned to the new, state of the art neurological wing once it was completed. He really hoped that Crying Nurse wasn’t going to apply for one of the positions. "There’s no crying in brain surgery," he thought. "Ha!" Reid looked around as he suddenly feared that he might have laughed out loud while sitting alone. No one was looking. That was good.
An unsmiling teenage girl sat down at his booth in the seat across from his. Reid recognized her as Luke’s sister Faith. He had met her briefly at the non-wedding of Luke and Faith’s father and the mother of their half-sister Abigail. Reid grunted a greeting as he chewed his mouthful of deliciousness. Faith grunted back.
"Can I have some fries?" she asked.
Reid swallowed. "Are you here to tell me heartwarming tales of the Sweetest, Most Wonderful Love of All Time?"
"Huh?" asked Faith.
"The Adventures of the Emotional Philanthropist and the Blind but Noble Barista," clarified Reid.
Faith rolled her eyes. "Nope."
Reid turned his plate so that his fries were closer to Faith. He lifted his hand to indicate that she could help herself to some fries. When she reached for the ketchup, he scowled and covered his plate protectively. "I spritzed them with vinegar," he explained. "You’re not going to sully them with tomato guts."
Faith scowled but tried a fry without ketchup. "Huh, that’s not bad. So, Grandmother Lucinda and I spent the morning together at the spa getting deep tissue massages."
It was Reid’s turn to roll his eyes. As he had spent decades longer than Faith in perfecting eye-rolling techniques, his were better. "Aren’t you a little young for spa days, Marie Antoinette?"
"I lead a very stressful life," Faith solemnly informed Reid. "Anyway, Grandmother told me that you and my brother were going to be moving into the cottage together."
"You have a problem with that?" asked Reid not particularly caring one way or the other.
"You and Luke are going to be moving in together?" asked an angry Noah who had come into the diner unnoticed by either the neurosurgeon or the crabby-pants teenybopper.
"Who realized that giants could be so stealthy?" thought Reid.
"It’s none of your business," snapped Faith to Noah, the man who had briefly been her adopted brother. "Maybe if you had been man enough to be willing to be friends with Luke, you would have the right to know about Luke’s life but you weren’t and you don’t."
"I’m pretty sure that Luke considers them friends," Reid said to Faith in the interests of accuracy while ignoring the presence of Noah.
"Maybe Luke does," Faith explained to Reid with a voice full of loathing. "But Luke told me that he asked Noah to stay friends with him but Noah said that he couldn’t. Boo hoo. Noah could have agreed to be e-mail buddies with the guy but noooo, it was just impossible for Noah to not hurt my brother one final time before he went off to L.A. to become the next Ed Wood."
Reid eyed Faith with respect. Noah stared open-mouthed. Faith continued to eat Reid’s fries.
"I thought we were friends," said Noah with hurt tones.
"Did you?" asked Faith. "When was the last time you and I had a conversation? When was the last time you hung out with me or Natalie or Ethan? You pretended that you were a member of the family but you stopped letting any of us interact with you. Then you just disappeared from our lives. Nat and Ethan get enough turmoil and dysfunction from our whacko parents. The kids didn’t need that garbage from you."
"I’m so sorry," Noah said with apology. "I never meant to hurt you, any of you. You were the only real family I’ve ever had. I love you guys."
Faith shook with anger and actually hissed at him. "You don’t have a clue what love is. Everyone always knew that you never loved Luke as much as he loved you but, like an idiot, I trusted you to be kind to him. Of everyone I know, Luke’s the one who deserves kindness the most."
"That’s not fair!" exclaimed Noah. "I did love Luke as much as he loved me. But I was blind and I was afraid that I’d never see his face again."
"You spent months flinching from him every time he tried to get near you. You broke his heart! Get lost before I stab you in the head with Reid’s fork," snarled Faith.
Henry returned to the dining area from the kitchen and immediately noticed the tension and came over to try to soothe the situation.
"Faith, hi!" he greeted in a friendly voice. "What can I get you to eat? The cook made a batch of goulash for lunch. You love goulash. And rightfully so as goulash is magnificent. Would you like some goulash?"
"Thank you, Henry," said Faith while trying to calm herself down. "I’d love a bowl of goulash. And some diet cola, please."
"That’s great," replied Henry. "Hey, Noah why don’t you come up to the counter and place your order there?"
"No," answered Noah. "I need to make Faith understand that not everything was my fault with Luke."
"You need to show some respect to Luke by not upsetting his baby sister in public," said Henry quietly while he gently took Noah’s arm. "You don’t want to say or do anything that you’re going to regret later. Trust me, I’m more familiar with regrets than I’d like to be."
"No, Faith needs to know that what happened between me and Luke was a two-way street. It’s no secret that Luke’s not exactly a saint," defended Noah.
"Guess what, schmuck" smirked Faith. "Luke and Reid are moving into the cottage together. You know the place you honeymooned with your wife."
"Whoa, Nelly," said a surprised Reid. "Noah was married?!?"
"It was a green card marriage," justified Noah. "Luke understood that I had to marry Ameera in order to save her life."
Reid didn’t even attempt to hide his look of disgust aimed at Noah. Granted, Reid rarely ever attempted to hide his looks of disgust. He imagined that Luke’s wealthy and doting grandmother Lucinda probably had a team of lawyers in her basement. Right between the room full of gold bullion and the room with the Lost Arc of the Covenant. Surely marriage wasn’t the only option for this Ameera woman’s immigration issues.
"Noah let Luke write Noah’s freaking wedding vows," growled Faith as she reached for Reid’s fork. Henry stepped forward and placed his body in front of Noah’s just in case Faith wasn’t bluffing. Oh, how he wished there was such a thing as an uncomplicated Snyder woman.
"Faith," said Noah. "I’m sorry that you feel that I don’t care about you-"
"Tell me something, Noah," demanded Faith uncaring of Noah’s seemingly sincere regret. "Did you have any plans at all to come see me or the kids before you flew off into the wild blue yonder?" Noah glanced away guiltily. "I thought not. Hit the road."
Noah didn’t resist as Henry led him out of the diner.
"I’m sorry," Reid said as he ineffectually tried to think of what else he should say.
"For what?" asked Faith glumly.
"That you’re hurting. If you want, you can put ketchup on the fries."
Faith sniffed. "I’m not hurting. I’m just fine. It’s him hurting Luke and the kids that I’m mad over." Reid figured that the polite thing to do was to pretend to believe Faith’s protestations. Faith figured the polite thing to do was to not put ketchup on the fries that Reid had ordered.
Henry returned to their table after escorting Noah from the building. He gently patted Faith’s arm. "Sweetheart, would you like a double fudge sundae on the house once you’ve finished the goulash?"
"Thanks, but I’m good," said Faith. Henry went back to the kitchen to place her original order.
"As a responsible adult, am I expected to discourage you from making people cry?" asked Reid. He was genuinely interested in the answer.
"He didn’t cry," muttered Faith.
"Maybe not, but he was close. I’m pretty impressed. You were way more vicious than I was when I told him off. Of course I was able to say, ‘Thanks to me you can now see the door. Use it.’"
One side of Faith’s mouth quirked in possible amusement. "That’s pretty darn funny."
"Yeah. Uh, I really don’t normally explain myself to people," said Reid. "But you seem to be having a craptacular day so, I will make a one time exception. I’m an arrogant jerk. I don’t have a clue about how to be a good boyfriend. I love my work completely and sometimes Luke is going to have to come in second place to my patients. But I love your brother and he’s really good at standing up to me. It’s like he should have a doctorate in standing up to me. You don’t have to worry about Luke putting up with any bull from me."
"Do you plan on marrying anyone else while you’re dating him?" asked Faith with a sneer.
"No."
"Well, we’re good then. When are you and Luke going to move into the cottage? Grandmother is having her people clean and stock it today."
"Luke and I haven’t had a chance to talk about it yet. What is your grandmother stocking the cottage with?" asked Reid.
"Food, bedding, dishware," shrugged Faith. "Possibly a couple of housekeeping androids, I’m not sure."
"I’m sure that eventually I will feel irate indignation at the arrogant assumption that Luke and I are incapable of setting up housekeeping on our own. Probably. Right now, I’m marveling at how convenient it is that Luke has Mommy Warbucks for a grandmother and that she’s seemingly adverse to having her precious grandson worry about anything as mundane as domestic responsibilities."
"Welcome to the dark side," said Faith. "Soon, we’ll have you joining us for spa days. You haven’t lived until you’ve had a seaweed wrap."
Henry returned with Faith’s lunch order. Reid handed over his credit card and asked that Henry put both his and Faith’s lunch on the card. Reid was about to head back to the hospital when Leland Pierce, a hospital trustee, approached his booth. He stood and shook hands with Leland. After shaking hands with Reid, Leland waved at Reid to sit back down.
"Faith," introduced Reid. "This is Leland Pierce. He’s a trustee of the hospital. Leland, this is Faith Snyder. She’s the sister of Luke Snyder."
"It’s nice to meet you, Miss Snyder," greeted Leland.
"And you as well," replied Faith as she offered her hand in greeting. Reid remembered not to roll his eyes at the practiced pleasantries.
"I won’t keep you long," stated Leland. "But I wanted to tell you how impressed we all are at your managing to obtain that heart for Chris Hughes. He owes you his life."
"It’s kind of my job as a doctor to save people’s lives. He doesn’t owe me anything. Well he might owe me a car depending upon whether my insurance is going to pay my car being demolished by a train."
"When I heard about Chris’ condition and realized that he must have been aware of the status of his health," said Leland. "It made me look at the events of our golf game in a different light. The reason you joined Chris and me in our golf game was to try to get him to leave and to go to the hospital, wasn’t it?"
"It’s not appropriate for me to discuss Chris’ health with anyone," explained Reid.
"Whoa, Nelly," interrupted Faith. "Chris went golfing when he knew he had a bad heart? Isn’t that malpractice?"
"Like I said, it’s not appropriate for me to discuss Chris’ health with anyone," Reid said while rolling his eyes at having to repeat himself. He never had to repeat himself when he lived in Dallas. "Are you seriously stating that if Chris knew about his own ill health that he should sue himself for malpractice?"
"No," groused Faith. "I’m saying that the family of the person who was next in line for that heart should sue Chris for malpractice. If Chris willfully ignored his symptoms in order to schmooze his way into a job that he doesn’t deserve, then he should be held accountable. Of course, he won’t be because people love Dr. Bob and Kim. It must be nice being considered for a job you’re unqualified for just because of who your dad is."
Reid couldn’t help but smile at Faith’s rude and obnoxious behavior. Thank goodness he was straight. It would have been inconvenient to fall in love with a teenager. Not that his actual lover was exactly Methuselah. With a great amount of effort, Reid wiped the smile from his face.
"Faith," said Reid. "Maybe this isn’t a discussion that we should be having in front of a trustee of the hospital."
"Actually, maybe this is a discussion the trustees, board members and department heads should be having before anyone makes any decisions about who’s going to be the next Chief of Staff of Memorial," insisted Faith. "Mr. Pierce, you feel that it was incredibly irresponsible of Chris to ignore his condition, don’t you?"
Leland looked as uncomfortable as a man possibly could. He actually started to fiddle with his collar nervously. "We don’t really know for a fact that Chris ignored his condition."
"Reid, how long does it usually take between the first symptoms of Chris’ illness to start to show up in someone and the time that it’s so bad that that person would need a heart transplant?" asked Faith.
"Dammit Jim, I’m a neurosurgeon not a cardiologist," answered Reid. When Faith just looked at him confused by the reference, he explained. "It’s a Star Trek reference. Faith, I have to get back to the hospital so why don’t you walk me out. Leland, it was nice to see you." Reid placed a tip on the table and stood up. Faith stood up too. She faced Leland. Reid watched in fascinated horror as the teenager seemingly set out to destroy Doogie’s chances of being considered for the Chief of Staff job.
"Mr. Pierce," said Faith. "Everyone in town, including potential donors, knows that Chris Hughes is famous for bad judgement. Risking his own health by playing golf instead of admitting himself into the hospital is just the latest example. A few years ago, he got away with sexually harassing a nurse because he’s Dr. Bob’s son."
"If I remember the incident correctly, it wasn’t as simple as that," Leland tried to justify while wondering if he could walk away from Lucinda Walsh’s granddaughter without incurring the unending wrath of Lucinda Walsh.
"Please. If Chris ever gets into a position of responsibility at Memorial, any woman who is fired by him or not promoted by him will seemingly have grounds to sue the hospital. Even if they don’t win, it’s going to cost Memorial a fortune," Faith advised Leland.
"Faith," Reid said as he grabbed her hand and held it in his own. "We should really be going. See ya, Leland." Reid pulled her out of the diner. He tried to release her hand but she held on and started to swing their arms as they walked. Reid raised his eyebrow at her. Faith giggled with happiness.
"So," he said. "Was this Lucinda’s way of getting The Powers That Be to remember and start debating the risks of Chris’ previous sexual malfeasance without her breaking her word to Luke?"
"Nope," replied Faith. "She had no way of knowing that I would run into a hospital trustee. It’s not like I hang out at . . .well, wherever hospital trustees hang out. But she did mention the conversation she and John had with you and my brother about Chris being a sexual predator and how you didn’t want bring it up during your battle for COS because you like Dr. Bob so much."
"You should probably release my hand before I’m arrested for being a perv," suggested Reid.
Faith shrugged and released his hand. But she continued to walk with him as he walked back to the hospital.
"You’re not going to get all righteous about me playing dirty and trying to drag Butthead Chris Hughes off of his unearned pedestal are you?" she asked with narrowed eyes.
"No. I don’t even think it’s playing dirty to point out that Chis is the most moronic Tool in all of Tooldom," Reid tried to explain. "I just hate the idea of Bob being hurt and embarrassed by all of this mishigoss. Especially when he’s so stressed about his mom dying and his son almost dying."
"Hmmm. I think I’m kind of disappointed," said Faith.
"What do you mean?"
"Well, I heard you were this arrogant, rude jerk but you’re actually sweet and caring," said Faith with a frown.
"You take that back," said Reid as he shoved her none-too-lightly in the shoulder.
Faith giggled again. "This is a good day for me. I can’t wait to tell Grandmother about my conversation with poor, clueless Mr. Pierce. Did you see his face?"
"That was pretty darn nifty. He looked like he wanted to get away from you as quickly as possible even if he had to run through the wall in Mr. Kool-Aid fashion. Hey, why do you dislike Chris so much? I thought the Snyders and Hughes were old family friends landing on Oakdale Rock together back in the 1400s."
"Dr. Bob and Kim are awesome. But Chris? He slept with my brother Aaron’s fiancee the night before their wedding."
Reid looked at Faith in surprise. "That’s so weird. That’s what happened with Grandbaby Hughes’ and his fiancee."
Faith grinned. "Do you know what’s even weirder?" she asked. "The woman that cheated on Aaron the night before she married him is Alison. The same woman who cheated on Casey."
"You’re making that up," insisted Reid.
"No, I’m not! Also, the woman that Chris sexually harassed? That was Alison too."
"How does everyone manage to live in this town without realizing it’s The Twilight Zone?" Reid asked in astonishment.
"Also, Chris abandoned Alison at the altar because he had fallen in love with her sister Emily."
"I am begging you to please stop. The sheer ridiculousness is going to make my head explode."
Faith suddenly pulled Reid to a stop. She shuffled her feet and looked discomforted by what she was about to say. Reid waited patiently. For about five seconds. Then he poked her in the stomach. "What is it?" he asked annoyed.
"Grandmother told me about how you were willing to sacrifice your job because you wanted Luke. I just want to say that that was pretty amazing. I don’t think anyone has ever really sacrificed anything for Luke before."
Reid could actually feel his face heat up in embarrassment. Oakdale was just one new experience after another for him. He really didn’t want to be having this conversation. "Luke’s worth sacrificing for. Let’s never talk about this again, okay?"
"Okay. Hey, I was going to go pick up some cardboard boxes to help Luke pack. Do you want me to pick up some for you?" Faith asked.
"I don’t really have that much stuff to pack. I had most of my Dallas belongings put in storage and haven’t had them sent up yet. But thanks for the offer."
"Not a problem. So, what exactly did you say to Noah when you told him off?"
Reid smiled at Faith and held out his arm for her to take. As she strolled back to the hospital with him holding onto his arm, Reid told Faith about his conversation with Noah during their last visit as doctor and patient. Faith laughed. A lot.