Time Management - a fanfic
Title: Time Management
Author: nancygrew
Rating: G
Disclaimer: characters belong to ATWT
Notes: Futurefic. AU after Reid drives off to get a heart for Doogie. Takes place ~late August 2011. You don't have to read my other fic in order to understand this one. Luke/Reid, Iva. mentions of other characters.
Summary: Reid gets an unexpected visitor in his office.
It was late afternoon and Reid was sitting in his office working on an article for the New England Journal of Medicine. He wondered if it there was a less arrogant way to describe the surgery that he had performed than ‘a breathtaking piece of brilliance’. His intercom buzzed and his administrative assistant, Lowell Ward, advised him that a Ms. Iva Snyder was there to see him. Reid had hired Lowell as his administrative assistant nearly a year ago, shortly after he had become Chief of Staff. During his initial interview with Lowell, Reid had learned that Lowell was the son of two former Oakdale Memorial doctors, one a former Chief of Surgery, and the grandson of another former Oakdale Memorial doctor who had been the Head of the Research department. Instead of seeing this as a positive, Reid had been disinclined to hire him. Reid had worried that it would appear that he had hired Lowell due to his connections. As much as Reid admired his predecessor in the Chief of Staff position, good ol’ Dr. Bob had seemingly reveled in nepotism. However, during a follow up interview held in the hospital cafeteria, Reid had been impressed at Lowell’s unflappability when an escaped knife-welding psychiatric patient had threatened to kill Reid. While Reid calmly explained that he was not a lizard from outer space, Lowell had hit the patient over the head with an aesthetically unappealing orange cafeteria tray and then casually kicked the fallen knife away from the patient. It had occurred to Reid that Lowell had exactly the type of skills that an administrative assistant needed in Oakdale.
Reid let Lowell know to send Ms. Snyder in. Reid stood in order to greet her as she entered. Iva was an attractive woman in her mid to late fifties with curly auburn hair dressed in conservative clothing.
"Dr. Oliver," greeted Iva politely. "I’m sorry for showing up without an appointment but I was hoping that you’d have a few minutes for me."
"Of course. You’re welcome to call me Reid," invited Reid. "Please sit down."
"Thank you," Iva said. "Please call me Iva." After shaking hands, they both sat down.
Although Reid had never met Iva before due to her having moved to Washington D.C. many years before Reid’s arrival in the Village of the Darned, he knew who she was. Luke had once drawn him a Snyder Family Tree to further his education. Iva was his lover Luke’s biological grandmother and the adopted sister of his adoptive father. Luke always referred to Iva as Aunt Iva so Reid assumed that Luke didn’t feel any confusion about the relationship. He wondered if Iva thought of Luke as her nephew or as her grandson. He didn’t ask. He might not be the most socially aware person alive but he knew that it was always best to ask as few questions as possible about the complicated relationships among the Snyder family. It could be like walking in a minefield.
"I had heard that you had flown into Oakdale in order to talk to Luke about coming back to Oakdale in order to take over the running of his foundation," said Reid. "Emma called Luke earlier to let him know that there’s going to be a welcome back barbecue for you this weekend. I’ve been looking forward to it. Your mother’s food is incredible and she should be worshipped like a goddess."
"I’ve heard that you’re a man who enjoys his food," Iva said. "Mama gets a real kick out of feeding you. She’s also tickled by the fact that you insist on paying her back by taking her out for lunch to fancy restaurants every so often."
"I enjoy having lunch with your mother when I get a chance," Reid informed Iva. "She’s one of those wise and kind people who manage somehow not to be annoying. I hope that I don’t sound rude, but is there a reason you’ve come to visit me?"
"You have a reputation of being honest," said Iva. "Horribly, painfully honest. The kind of honest where you actually tell the truth when someone asks you if their outfit make their butt look fat."
"Why would anyone ever ask if their outfit made their butt look fat if they didn’t want to know the truth?" asked a befuddled Reid.
"Exactly," Iva said. "I don’t want to put you on the spot but I wanted to ask you something. Is the reason Luke offered me the job running his foundation because Mama was worried about me being depressed over my divorce and she talked him into it?"
"Not exactly," explained Reid. "Emma is worried about you. She hates it when any of her children are unhappy. But it was Luke’s idea to offer you the job so that you’d move back to Oakdale so that the Snyder clan could clasp you to it’s collective bosom."
"Luke was always such a sweet little boy," remembered Iva. "I appreciate that he’d want to help me out but I can’t accept a job that was offered out of pity."
Reid wished Luke was here. He absolutely hated it when he was supposed to figure out the ‘correct’ thing to say. "There’s a difference between concern and pity. Emma and Luke consider you to be a strong, capable woman who just happens to be going through a tough time and is justifiably a little depressed over it."
"The decision for Jason and me to divorce was mutual," explained Iva. "We grew apart and have different goals in life now. My son is grown and living his own life. There isn’t any reason for me to be depressed over a marriage that ended amicably and which doesn’t involve young children."
"Luke once told me that love is a miracle," said Reid hesitantly. "He said that when it ended, it hurt and that it should hurt. It seems to me that regardless of how friendly the divorce was, you’d kind of have to be a sociopath to not feel bad that the love and the relationship that you shared with your ex-husband is over."
Iva gave a gentle smile. It was tiny but it was a real smile. "That’s a very kind thing to say."
Reid shrugged uncomfortably.
"Was Luke even looking to hire someone for the Foundation?" asked Iva.
"No. He loves giving away money so he wouldn’t have thought of hiring someone else to do it for him. If he hadn’t heard that you were a bit blue, it wouldn’t have occurred to him to offer you the job. But you have the background to run the Foundation. I’ve checked through some old hospital records and it’s obvious that you did an outstanding job as the director of the AIDS contribution department. You were smart enough, and pushy enough, to raise a lot of funds at a time when AIDS awareness wasn’t what it is now. Luke said that you’ve also worked at non-profits while you were living in D.C. He wouldn’t offer you the job if he thought you wouldn’t be great at it."
"Regardless of how good a job I might or might not do, I’m going to have to turn down the job since he really doesn’t need me," advised Iva.
Reid rolled his eyes. "You Snyders are stubborn jerks, you know that?"
Iva looked slightly taken aback by the statement. "Well, I guess your reputation for honesty is well-earned. Lily and Holden weren’t exaggerating about that. And yes, adopted or biological or fairy changelings, we Snyders do tend to be stubborn jerks. However, I think the more accurate term is headstrong. It sounds less . . .jerky. But this isn’t about me being headstrong. It’s about me wanting to do the right thing and not accept a job that was offered for the wrong reasons."
"Did you just call your nephew a fairy?"
Iva looked horrified. "No! I didn’t mean it like that. A fairy changeling is fairy baby that has been secretly exchanged for a human baby."
Reid smiled at Iva. She suddenly thought that Lily and Holden were insane. She could see exactly why their son was attracted to the handsome doctor. Putting up with a little rudeness would be worth it if the man made a habit out of flashing that smile at his lover. She wondered if it was wrong of her to think that the much younger doctor was hot. Would it make her one of those ‘cougars’?
"Sorry," Reid apologized. "That was my idea of a joke. I don’t really attempt them very often. For obvious reasons. I’m more of a sarcastic insult type of guy. I know about the western European folktales regarding changelings. And interestingly enough, although fairy changelings are the ones that most often seem to occur in modern pop culture, folklore includes changelings of other species of legendary beings too. Like trolls and elves. There are also comparable mythologies in Africa and the Philippines." Reid finished speaking abruptly. He suddenly felt embarrassed about his slight geek-out. It’s not even as though it was a science-related geek-out. This may have been the first liberal arts geek-out that he had ever experienced. He blamed Luke.
Reid decided to move the conversation to a more comfortable avenue. "I am a brilliant, renowned surgeon with a waiting list of patients. I head up a brand new state of the art neurology wing, which has greatly increased the hospital’s traffic and profile. I’m also the Chief of Staff of the hospital. Granted, it’s a hospital that’s about the same size as Barbie’s Dream House but it is, in fact, a hospital. It requires a lot of time to deal with the bureaucracy of running a hospital."
"Okay," Iva said agreeably not sure what Reid was getting at. Of course, having once been romantically involved with John Dixon, she understood that sometimes surgeons just needed to brag about their greatness.
"I am an incredibly busy man," Reid went on. "And my 22 year old boyfriend works as many, or even more, hours as I do most weeks. Between the foundation, Grimaldi shipping, school and Damian convincing him to dip his toes into Kingsley Malta, the man has every waking moment scheduled. You taking over the foundation is actually the best thing that could happen. He’ll probably still insist on co-hosting the fundraisers because, for some reason, he actually enjoys socializing with people. But if you’re there to take over the paperwork and the grant selection process, he’ll be able to spend a couple of hours a day doing something that’s unscheduled. Like napping."
"I’m sure Luke would be willing to cut back his hours, if it’s affecting your relationship," said Iva worriedly.
"I’m not concerned that his being over-scheduled is affecting our relationship," advised Reid. "Because it isn’t. I know full well how satisfying it is to have a successful career and I don’t begrudge him that at all. Plus, he’s always careful about scheduling time for us. Because we’re both so busy, he’s become kind of fanatical about scheduling our lives. It’s like he’s become Schedule Man, the most anal-retentive superhero ever. I just worry that he’s over-working himself and putting too much pressure on himself to be all things to all people. He doesn’t feel that he can spend less time with his schooling or with Grimaldi Shipping or Kingsley Malta. But if someone he trusts completely is willing to take some of the weight off of his shoulders by running his foundation for him, then that is something that he can accept without feeling guilty."
Iva smiled slyly. "Well, if accepting the job means that I’m being altrusic, then I guess I should accept it."
"That’s the spirit," Reid encouraged.
"So, how much time does Schedule Man schedule for the two of you?" inquired Iva curiously.
"Well, Saturday night is usually date night and is just for us," explained Reid. "No double dating allowed. Partly because we need time alone. Partly because we don’t know any couples where at least one person in the relationship isn’t an idiot. Luke doesn’t mind idiots; he even once dated an idiot. But I’d rather avoid them during my non-working hours whenever possible. We usually drive to Chicago on date night so we’re not interrupted by any of the billions of people Luke knows in Oakdale. However, when we go to blues or jazz clubs, Luke ends up befriending half the people there anyway including other customers, wait-staff, musicians, etc.,. One time he befriended a wild-eyed loner that I’m pretty certain was casing the joint. I’ve been keeping an eye on the police blotter in the Chicago newspaper websites to see if I recognize a description of him."
Iva laughed. "I’m not a mathematician but I’m relatively certain that there aren’t actually billions of people in Oakdale."
"An exception to Saturday night being date night is the first weekend of the month," Reid explained while ignoring Iva’s rude correction. "For the first week of the month, Friday is date night so that we can free up the first Saturday of the month as our night to entertain as a couple. And yes, us entertaining people is completely Luke’s idea. He refuses to come in for an MRI so I can check to see if he has a brain tumor."
"Mama’s told me all about your dinner parties and how invitations are much sought-after," smiled Iva. "She referred to you two as the Perle Mesta of Oakdale. I should probably confess that I had to use Wikipedia to get the reference."
"The hostess with the mostest," smirked Reid. "A wealthy and influential socialite who was known for throwing fancy parties."
"Show off," smirked Iva right back. "Mama said that the two of you pick a theme and go all out with the food and music. She really enjoyed Moroccan Night last month."
"Well, Luke picks out the food and music and theme and who to invite," Reid said. "I’m just his lackey when he throws his little soirees. I go to the store, chop vegetables, run the vacuum. Pretty much whatever he tells me to do. He gets completely butch and bossy when it comes to throwing parties. I’d be upset at being used as unpaid labor except the food is always really great and he makes enough so that we can have leftovers for a couple of days."
"I understand that there’s quite a controversy over the fact that Katie gets to come to every dinner party while everyone in the family has to wait their turn getting invitations," said Iva teasingly. "I’m pretty sure there’s a petition being passed around."
"Well, that was my fault," confided Reid. "When Luke started talking about the importance of us entertaining as a couple, I thought he was making a funny, funny joke. He wasn’t. A series of talks ensued with each of us putting forth articulate arguments regarding whether entertaining people is a necessary social obligation and personal pleasure or whether it is an irritating and mind-numbing waste of everyone’s time and energy. We only reached a détente when Luke agreed to my demand that Katie could come to every dinner party. This way I am always guaranteed to have someone who likes me at every party. Of course, having Katie there means that Doogie is there, so it’s not like it’s a completely positive thing."
Iva smiled. "I take it that Doogie is a pet name that you use for Katie’s husband, Dr. Chris Hughes?"
"Yeah," said Reid. "Katie asked me not to call him insulting names anymore. We had a very long conversation regarding what constitutes an insulting nickname. Baboon Heart, Gerbil Heart, Hughes the Lesser, and Gigantic Pumpkin Head are all considered to be insulting. Who knew? I had to convince her that Doogie wasn’t an actual insult because Doogie Howser M.D. was a genius. It still annoys Chris though and that’s what really matters to me."
Iva laughed. "I’m sure he deserves being annoyed. So, Luke only has the two of you scheduled for time together one night a week?" She was fascinated by the glimpse she was getting into Luke’s life with his boyfriend.
"Nope," said Reid. "Wednesday nights are cozy nights at home. It’s supposed to be the two of us just hanging out and maybe playing chess or watching a video. But half the time, some Snyder or another ends up popping in. Faith seems to have some teenage crises once a month. They’re not always a typical teenage crises. The last one was when she realized that maybe dating her cousin was a bad idea. It finally occurred to her that the feelings she has for Parker were more familial and safe than actual romantic love. Fortunately, Parker came to the same realization at about the same time so it could have been worse."
"They’re not biological cousins, you know," Iva defended.
"They were raised as cousins though," said Reid. "Luke also has us scheduled for horse-backing riding and brunch on Sundays. We also work out together a few mornings a week. He’s stopped trying to get me to play basketball with him due to my complete lack of dribbling abilities so usually we do yoga together. He gets real paranoid that I’m making up positions and chants though."
"And do you make up chants and positions?" asked Iva already suspecting the answer.
"Well, not anymore," Reid said morosely. "He googles the chants and poses and if I’m making anything up, he gets all pissy and refuses to do yoga with me for a week. Stupid, stupid internet."
Iva grinned. Luke’s boyfriend was amusing in a cranky fussbudget kind of way. "I saw the pictures of you and Luke together at Lily and Holden’s wedding last month. The two of you looked very dashing and you looked only a little chagrinned at having accidentally caught the bouquet when Lily’s aim overshot all of the single women."
Reid narrowed his eyes. "You’re making that up. I managed to avoid the photographer all day and he was gone by the time she threw those stupid, smelly weeds."
"The camera phone is a wonderful and/or dreadful invention," said Iva. "I received so many pictures of you and my nephew from Mama, Holden, Lily and Jack, I felt like I was at the wedding."
"Don’t feel bad about missing the wedding," said Reid. "I’m sure that Liz and Dick will marry at least a few more times. Crap. I’m not supposed to say things like that about your daughter to you, am I?"
"Well, I suppose that I can look at it as you having made a good-natured joke about my daughter’s tendency to be a romantic who believes in marrying when she’s in love," said Iva. "Should we go with that?"
Reid nodded but kept his mouth shut in case something inadvertently insulting came out.
"If you’re not a fan of weddings, I’m surprised that Luke managed to get you to come to his parents wedding," said Iva.
"Luke and I have a deal," Reid advised Iva. "I have to attend weddings if I don’t have to work and if I’ve never been to a wedding of either of the participants before. If I’ve attended a wedding of either one of the participants previously, Luke isn’t even allowed to ask me to go. This includes, but is not limited to, weddings that were interrupted by cold feet or gunfire. I figure the way everyone in this Bizarro Universe town gets married every other year, I’ll have to attend a dozen weddings in two years and then one for every decade afterwards."
"That sounds like an excellent compromise," said Iva.
"Well, I already made an exception with Lily and Holden’s wedding. I had previously attended the attempted Molly/Holden nuptials. But I volunteered to go to the Lily/Holden ceremony due to Natalie and Ethan being so excited about their parents remarrying. Although it’s possible to say no to them on an individual basis, it’s impossible to say no to both of them when they’re being all shiny and happy. But I did refuse to attend Grandbaby Hughes and Meth Nurse’s wedding last month because I attended their last fiasco and Luke didn’t give me a hard time about being soulless. I attended Katie and Doogie’s wedding last week so I won’t have to attend any of either one of their future weddings."
"I’m going to assume that Grandbaby Hughes is little Casey, Margo and Tom’s son, and Meth Nurse is Aaron’s ex wife Alison Stewart. Well, I probably should be going. I really appreciate you taking the time to talk to me about the job Luke offered me. I realize that you’re very busy so I’ll let you get back to work."
Iva rose but Reid looked at his watch instead of standing. "Luke is attending a board meeting in about fifteen minutes," said Reid. "If you want to say hi to him, you might as well stick around for a few minutes as he usually stops off at Java to pick me up a coffee whenever he’s coming to the hospital for a board meeting or to visit an ex-middle school classmate with appendicitis."
"You make Luke pick you up coffee when he comes to the hospital?" asked Iva.
"Like I can make Luke do anything," Reid huffed. "It’s just a thing that he does. I’m dating a cuddly Care Bear."
Just then there was a perfunctory knock on the door. Luke came in without waiting for a reply. He was obviously startled to see his Aunt Iva visiting his boyfriend in his office. He handed Reid the cup of coffee that he held and hugged his aunt.
"Hey, Aunt Iva," Luke greeted her. "Are you alright? You’re not here to see Reid as a potential patient, are you?"
"Oh, no," assured Iva. "I’m just here to get Reid to spill the beans about whether you were offering me a job running your foundation out of pity for me due to me being a little sad about my marriage ending."
Luke momentarily froze. "He explained that I really want you to work for the foundation, right?"
"Yes. He explained that I’m really needed at the Foundation and that the offer had absolutely nothing to do with pity," Iva told her nephew/grandson hybrid.
Luke beamed at his boyfriend proudly. His cell phone buzzed. He looked at the text message sent to him and frowned.
"What is it?" asked Reid with concern.
"Oh, it’s nothing bad," assured Luke. "They just cancelled the board meeting because Larry got called out of town at the last minute. The good news is that I now have an extra 90 minutes in my day. But I wish I had found this out before I left my office and wasted the time to come down here."
Reid cleared his throat. When Luke looked at him questioningly, Reid attempted to look dejected and sad. He didn’t do a very good job of it as subterfuge wasn’t his strong suite. Luke did understand which look Reid was attempting so he laughed and walked over to him and gave him a resounding kiss on the mouth.
"Not that I feel that any opportunity I have to see you in the middle of the day is wasted," Luke said playing his part. Reid grinned at his boyfriend.
Luke turned towards his aunt. "Aunt Iva, do you have the time to come into the Foundation now so that I can sell you on accepting the job?"
"That won’t be necessary," replied Iva. "I’ve been keeping up to date with your foundation via it’s website and from media reports. I love your mission statement and the projects that you’ve been supporting. You keep your administrative and fundraising expenses low so the majority of the money spent goes directly to the programs. If you truly want me to run the foundation, I would be honored to do so."
"That’s great," said Luke. "When do you want to start?"
"How about two weeks from now," said Iva. "That’ll give me time to go back to D.C. and pack up everything and to get settled back in the farmhouse."
"That’s great." Luke looked thoughtful. He turned to Reid. "Now that I’m going to have a little free time, this is a good time for us to go house hunting. Why don’t we spend a little bit of time thinking about what we want in a home and we’ll discuss it later, okay?"
"So much for Luke having some free time," thought Reid disgustedly. He saw Iva give him a sympathetic glance so she too must have thought about how the time gained by Luke not doing foundation work was going to be balanced by the time he spent house-hunting. A zero sum game.
"I like living at the cottage," said Reid.
"It’s not big enough for us to have overnight guests," argued Luke.
"I know! That’s a selling point," Reid said.
Luke turned to his aunt. "That statement probably made Reid sound really misanthropic but he’s really not that bad," he said reassuringly. "He actually likes a dozen people now. Granted one of those people is himself but I count him so that there’s an even dozen."
"Are you counting yourself in error?" Reid asked sarcastically. "Because I’m pretty sure it’s only eleven people." Luke decided to ignore that rude comment.
"The cottage is too small for us to have our own home offices," said Luke.
"We don’t need our own offices. I like it when we’re in the living room together working on our separate projects and we can decide to take a break to-"
"Shut up," shrieked Luke. "You can’t talk like that in front of my aunt."
"I was going to say, ‘take a break to have a snack together,’" defended Reid.
"Liar," said Luke. As he was, in fact, lying, Reid could do nothing but shrug. Iva laughed.
"Sorry, Aunt Iva," Luke apologized. "We shouldn’t be bickering in front of you."
Iva smiled. "Don’t worry about it. I should get going anyway. I told Mama that I would stop at the grocery store on my way back to the farm." Iva kissed her nephew goodbye and shook Reid’s hand.
Once Iva left, Reid grabbed hold of Luke’s hand and dragged him to the couch. "Since you suddenly have a free ninety minutes . . ."
"I’m not having sex in your office while Lowell is still on the clock," said Luke.
"You have a filthy mind. I have an appointment in fifteen minutes so we can’t do anything anyway. But let’s talk about your sudden need for us to get our own place. Why the rush?"
"We’ve been living in Grandmother’s cottage for almost a year," Luke reminded Reid. "It’s time for us to leave the nest."
"But she has a pool and stables and gardeners," huffed Reid.
"You know, for someone with issues regarding the amoral capitalists taking advantage of the proletariat, you’ve grown quite accustomed to life’s creature comforts and luxuries."
"I’m complicated," Reid advised Luke. "The main thing I’m concerned about his that you’re trading in one of your responsibilities for another. But if you’re set on us leaving the nest, why don’t we just make it easy and rent a furnished condo somewhere?"
Luke looked at his boyfriend in dismay. "A furnished condo makes the statement that our relationship is a temporary liason unworthy of the time and effort involved in creating a home together.
Reid held up his hands defensively. "I apologize for not speaking real estate."
"If we’re going to get our own place, we should create a place that will be perfect for us now and for ten years from now and for thirty years from now," said Luke.
"You see us together in thirty years?" asked Reid.
"Well, unless your metabolism changes and you get as obese as you should be," grinned Luke.
"You wouldn’t dump me just because I got fat," smiled Reid. "You’d stay with me if I became fat and bald and developed a hump and halitosis."
"How can you be sure?" Luke asked.
"Because you’re a sentimental fool who doesn’t give up on love." Luke couldn’t argue with that.
Luke said to Reid, "You should think about what you want in a dream house so that we can come up with a list that will satisfy both of us. Then we’ll contact real estate agents. But I think we might end up having to have something built to our specifications."
"I’m sure we’ll be able to find something suitable," said Reid. "It’s not like we’re bubble boys with special needs."
"We need to find a place that is comfortable as a home yet a showplace that can be used to hold fundraisers and parties. Which means we need to worry about a ton of things like parking and traffic flow. A terrace would be great for entertaining in the summer months. I’m thinking it would be really cool to create a sleek, modern home with glass and steel and Italian design elements and some architectural heft. It’ll also need to be close to the hospital for when you’re on call. And we each need a pimped out home office. And we’ll need at least one guest room for when Nat and Ethan stay over. If we decide to have a kid later, we can turn it into a room for him or her. Do you have a vision for the perfect home or do you need some time to think about it first?"
"My perfect home is wherever you are, my beloved," said Reid with an attempt at sincerity.
"Yeah, we’ll just give you a little more time to think about it," said Luke. "There’s no rush. We have the rest of our lives."
"Yeah, we do," agreed Reid. "We have ten minutes before my appointment. Can we make out a little?"
"Of course."