The Long and Winding Road 36/?

[rtruffles]

Title: The Long and Winding Road
Pairing Luke and Reid
Other Characters: Henry, Katie and Simon.
Summary: This is the courtship of Luke and Reid
Disclaimer: These are not my characters all belong to ATWT and its parent company(ies)
All mistakes are mine.

Rating PG

Previous Chapters

1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5 / 6 / 7 / 8 / 9 / 10 / 11 / 12 / 13 / 14 / 15 / 16 / 17 / 18 / 19 /  20/ 21/  22/ 23 / 24/
25/ 26/ 27/ 28/ 29 / 30 / 31 / 32/ 33 / 34

The two men lay happily intertwined with each other, blissfully sated.
 “So what are you doing today?” Luke asked as he lazily traced shapes on Reid’s naked torso.
 “I need to go into the hospital for a few hours, and then I have to stop by Katie’s to pick up some stuff,” he replied.
 “Katie’s place, huh,” Luke teased, raising an eyebrow.
 “Um, well yeah, I mean it’s my place too, of course, but you know Katie was the first one on the lease, and I, um, guess that it’s Jacob’s place too,” Reid babbled on feeling a little bit lost.
Luke leaned over and kissed him warmly. “I love it when you babble,” he confessed.
 Reid kissed Luke back, partly  so that he wouldn't have to speak again.
 “So I was wondering if you wanted to have dinner with me tonight,” Luke paused for a moment, “in Chicago.”
“Chicago?” Reid queried. “That’s a really long drive, just for dinner.”
 “I wasn’t planning on driving, I arranged for one of the helicopters to take us there,” he shrugged.
 “Just one of them huh, so I guess that means we’ll have to share, Richie Rich?” Reid teased.
 “I know that you don’t really like to share, but two seemed a little ostentatious, even for me,” Luke replied solemnly.
 “Well we wouldn’t want that, now would we?” Reid responded. “What time would you like to leave?”
 “4:30,” he answered. “I made dinner reservations for 6.”
 “Pretty darn sure of yourself, aren’t you, Mr. Snyder,” Reid chuckled.
 “Any reason that I shouldn’t be, Dr. Oliver?”
 “No,” Reid admitted. “Where do you want to meet?”
 “The Grimaldi shipping offices at 4:30, the helicopter will take off from the roof.”
 “Sounds good to me,” Reid smiled and kissed Luke one more time before untangling himself and getting out of bed.

***

Reid spent a few hours at the hospital, ensuring that everything was running smoothly. He yelled at a few of the nurses when he caught them gossiping instead of working and chastised a young doctor who had missed a critical tumour while reading an x-ray. He checked in on his own patients and then caught up on some paperwork.
 He was surprised to see that it was 1:30 when he looked up at the clock. His stomach was rumbling and he decided to swing by Al’s to pick up some lunch before heading over to Katie’s place. Katie’s place, when was it that I stopped thinking of it has my place?

***
 “Hey Hank,” Reid called as he sat down at a booth. “I need some food.”
 “I’m shocked to hear that,” Henry mocked,  sitting himself down across from Reid.
 “What are you doing? I need you to take my order,” Reid grumbled.
 “I placed your order when I saw you walk in,” Henry replied calmly.
 “How do you know what I want to eat?”
 Henry just raised an eyebrow as Janet placed a double bacon cheeseburger, fries and a chocolate milkshake in front of Reid and a tossed green salad with garlic chicken and a glass of water in front of Henry.
 “Did you want to trade,” Henry inquired innocently.
 Reid just glared at Henry. “No thanks,” he responded tersely as he began to inhale his food.
 “So,” Henry began. “I was wondering how Bubbles was doing. I haven’t seen or heard from her in several days. Every time I call her it goes directly to her voicemail. Is she okay?” Henry asked in concern.
Reid just shrugged. “I don’t know. I haven’t seen her since Bob’s retirement party.”
 Henry gaped at Reid. “What do you mean you haven’t seen her since Bob’s party? You live with her, how could you not have seen her?”
 Reid shrugged, starting to feel very uncomfortable. “I’ve been staying at the Lakeview,” he mumbled.
 “What??? Why have you been staying there? You hate hotels! Isn’t that the reason that you moved in with Katie in the first place?”
 “With Luke,” Reid added as he continued eating.
 Henry took a moment to let that information sink in. “That explains a lot,” he nodded. “What about Katie? Do you think that she might be in trouble? Neither of us has seen her in couple of weeks! I know that she was working yesterday, but I think that I’d better go over and check on her,” Henry mused aloud.
 “I’m on my way over there now, so I’ll let you know if there’s anything wrong,” Reid answered. The last thing he wanted was Hank coming over to Katie’s with him.
“So why are you headed over there?” Henry asked innocently, though relieved that someone was going to be checking on Katie.
 Reid sighed. “It’s really none of your business, Hank,” Reid replied sternly.
 “Uh huh,” Henry prodded.
 “I’m just going over to pick up some stuff, if you must know.”
 “So you’re living with Luke now, is that it?” Henry teased.
 “No,” Reid answered, hotly. “We’re just staying at the Lakeview for now.”
 “So you’ll be moving back to Katie’s soon while Luke moves back to Lily’s?” Henry queried. “That sounds like fun.”
 Reid scowled. He didn’t like the sound of that at all, but what was the alternative? He decided to just enjoy the time that he had with Luke at the Lakeview.
 “I have to go,” Reid responded, throwing some bills on the table.
 “What? You’re not going to have any dessert?” Henry asked, surprised.
 “Nope,” Reid answered, having lost all interest in food for the moment, he turned and headed out the door.

***
 Walking into Katie’s place a short while later, Reid was shocked to see a handsome half naked man standing in the living room.
 “Not that I’m complaining, but who the hell are you?” Reid asked curtly.
 Simon spun around so quickly that his towel slipped. “Simon,” he replied, readjusting his towel. “Simon Frasier,” he added offering his hand.
 Reid just looked Simon up and down, coolly. “Uh huh,” he finally replied, keeping his hands to himself.
 “You must be the elusive, Reid Oliver,” Simon smiled.
 “I must be,” Reid drawled.
 “Simon,” Katie whined, suddenly appearing, also clad only in a towel. “What’s taking you so long?”
 Reid cleared his throat, loudly.
 “We have a guest,” Simon teased.
 Katie spun around, holding onto her towel tightly. “Reid?? What the hell are you doing here?”
 “I live here.”
 “Uh… well yeah, I guess so, but you’ve been living with Luke for the last few weeks, I just assumed that you weren’t coming back,” Katie babbled awkwardly.
 “I’m not living with Luke, we’re just staying at the Lakeview together,” Reid answered defensively.
 “Uh huh,” Katie grinned at him.
 “So who is this Simon character? I’m only gone for a couple of weeks and you just let some guy in?” Reid inquired, happy to change the direction of the conversation. “Where’s Jacob? Does he get to see the two of you gallivanting about in just your towels?”
 “Jacob is spending the weekend at Margo’s,” Katie began.
 “Katie, you haven’t told Reid who I am?” Simon interupted, pouting.
 Katie rolled her eyes at both men. “This is Simon,” she stated, willing Reid to acknowledge that he knew who Simon was.
 “Thanks Katie, I got that when he introduced himself.”
 “Ugh, why are men so stupid,” she muttered. “He’s my Simon, you know, my ex husband?”
 “Now which ex husband was he exactly, you’ve had quite a few, you know,” he teased.
 “Reid,” Katie warned. “Why are you here?” she decided that it was time to put the focus back on him.
 “I just came by to pick up a few things,” Reid answered casually.
 “Uh huh,” Katie raised an eyebrow at him, “to take back to your place…with Luke?”
 “I’ll just go and grab them now,” he grumbled heading off to his room, pretending not to hear Katie laughing at him.
 Several minutes later, he returned to the living room, hoping to exit in peace, when he heard Simon call out. “So, when do you reckon that you’ll be back?”
 “I don’t know,” Reid shrugged, noting that Simon and Katie had gotten dressed while he had been packing. “You should call Hank, he’s worried about you,” Reid advised Katie.
 “Oh my God, I’ve been meaning to call him, but I’ve been uh… busy.”
 “Yeah, I’ll bet,” Reid smirked, giving Simon the once over.
 “Katie, should I be offended or flattered that your, uh,  roommate just checked me out?” Simon inquired.
 “Flattered,” Reid and Katie answered in unison.
 “I’ll see you later,” Reid said as he exited the apartment.
 “I won’t hold my breath,” Katie called out, but Reid had already closed the door.

***
 At exactly 4:30 Reid arrived at Luke’s office ready to spend the evening with Luke in Chicago.
 “Ready to go?” he asked, relieved that Luke had changed into faded jeans and a casual black pullover.
 “Yup,” Luke smiled. “I just need to grab my jacket. You look nice,” he added, before kissing Reid on the lips. Reid had worn his tight black jeans with a plain heather gray t-shirt under his black leather jacket. Luke loved those black jeans, which of course, was why Reid chose to wear them.
 “You look good too,” Reid breathed into Luke’s ear. “Maybe we should just stay here.”
 “Not a chance,” Luke laughed and grabbed his jacket with one hand and Reid’s hand with the other. “Let’s go.”