55 Kicking and screaming
Word Soap: As The World Keeps Turning
Author: SYLnl
Title: #55 Kicking and screaming
Rating: PG
Summary: "He who envies others does not obtain peace of mind." - Buddha
Big Thanks To: ltklo, for brushing up my grammar
Previously on As The World Keeps Turning:
#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 #35 #36 #37 #38 #39 #40 #41 #42 #43 #44 #45 #46 #47 #48 #49 #50 #51 #52 #53 #54
There was an unfamiliar soft chatter in the background and it took him a few minutes to realize what it was and where he was. He looked at the floor next to him. The mattresses were gone, the coffee table was cleaned up and the fire was roaring. Somebody had been busy. And quiet about it, because it hadn’t woken him up. Then again, he had been very tired.
Reid closed his eyes again and concentrated on the buzz that came out of the kitchen. He smiled when he heard Luke’s voice obviously telling some funny story, because young laughter filled the air. After Luke’s “Stttt” the volume went down a little and Reid pulled the comforter over him. He could stay here all day.
He was dozing off a little when Faith’s remark reached his auditory meatus and woke him up.
“Can I bring Reid his breakfast?”
The question lured him out of hiding. “Yes please!”
He heard Luke and Faith laughing, but Ethan’s reaction got to him the most.
“He’s awake!”
Reid could hear the boy running and before he knew what was happening, Ethan had dropped himself on top of Reid.
“Hey, E!” Luke wasn’t far behind, “Be careful, please. Give Reid some time to wake up.”
Luke leaned over the back of the couch, ruffled Reid’s curls and gave him a soft kiss.
“Sorry for that.”
“You never have to apologize for kissing me, handsome,” Reid grinned, deliberately misunderstanding Luke, “I know I’m irresistible.”
Luke showed him irresistible. The loving eyes, the big grin, the whole blissful-high-cheekbone-dimple-thingie… Reid just let himself get lost in his view and according to the amused spark in the brown eyes, Luke knew exactly how cute he was. So Reid snapped out of it and pushed him away.
“Go charm your sister, before she burns down our kitchen.”
“Heard that,” Faith sounded very close and looked at the tray in her hands. “I wanted to do something nice for you, but I could change my mind in a second, being female and all…”
“Have mercy,” Reid gave her his most charming smile, “Don’t take my food…”
She shrugged, told Ethan to move and planted the tray on Reid’s lap.
“That was a good smile,” she winked at him. “Don’t use it on just anyone.”
“Promise,” Reid was already checking out the food and nodded. “This looks pretty good…thanks, Faith.”
“You’re welcome,” she dropped herself into the chair, “Thanks for…you know.”
Reid gave her a nod and started eating.
“Beebee was very nice to us,” Ethan sat close to Luke and his little head was one big enthusiastic nod. Natalie joined him. She looked up to Luke and declared: “I’m glad you gave us Beebee. He’s funny.”
Luke looked lost and Reid raised his finger. “That would be me,” he stated while chewing.
“What?”
“Beebee.”
“But why…” Luke turned to Faith for help and she gave it to him. “Ethan was referring to Reid as his Big Brother all the time, so I shortened it.”
Luke laughed and enjoyed Reid’s reaction. The doctor actually looked proud of his new title, but when Luke wanted to respond to it, a ringtone demanded attention.
“It’s mine,” Faith checked the screen and made a face. “It’s her…”
She saw Reid’s raised eyebrow and lowered her head. “I know, I know…she’s still my mother…I’ll take it…” she took a deep breath and pushed a button. “What do you want, mother?”
Reid stuffed a donut in his mouth to prevent his fit of laughter from coming out. This girl was a piece of work! And he knew it was probably against all parenting guidelines, but he liked her boldness. It reminded him of… ha!... of him!
“No, we are not ready to leave, especially not with you. We’d call dad as to when he could pick us up, so why are you calling now?”
Faith rolled her eyes.
“And does dad knows about that too?” she snorted, “Well, it’s not gonna happen. Ethan and Natalie don’t want to stay at your place. I thought you’d figured that out by now.”
Luke closed his eyes, but didn’t interfere. Faith needed to handle this her way. And who knows… maybe her way worked better than his.
“No mom, I don’t tell them what to do. This is all your own doing. Last time you invited them over, you left them alone for almost two hours!”
Faith listened to her mother’s comment and shook her head.
“I don’t care where you went. You knew you had therapy that day, so you should have made other arrangements. But nooooo, you thought it was a great idea to leave them alone with him. Well, guess what, mom? That wasn’t a great idea at all! All that dope face did was ask them about B… Reid. If they spend much time with him, if Reid played games with them like he used to do…Telling them how wrong Reid was for Luke…”
Faith’s voice trembled with anger and Reid could tell she was fighting her tears. A quick scan of the other couch told him that Natalie and Ethan had lost that fight. Reid put the tray down and motioned them to sit with him. He smiled when Luke joined his siblings. Natalie conquered his lap and the two boys sat on either side. He kissed Luke on his hair and squeezed his arm, but didn’t say anything. Faith did the talking and she did pretty good.
“I don’t care that you didn’t know this happened,” she sniffled and shook her head to regain her calm, “You should have known it could happen. You know he hates Reid. I guess that’s one of the things you two have in common.”
Whatever Lily said, Faith didn’t believe it.
“Of course you don’t. You put a gun in his face out of sheer love,” Faith snorted, met Reid’s eyes and calmed down.
“Look mom, whether you like it or not, we happen to like Reid. A lot, actually. So we don’t need some confused drifter badmouthing Reid. Period. That’s why we don’t want to come over and that’s why we won’t come over as long as he’s there with you.”
The surprised look told her audience that Lily’s remark was unexpected and Faith even smiled. Okay, just a little, but smiled nevertheless.
“I’m glad you listened,” she nodded, “yeah, I will call dad.” She nodded some more. “Okay. You make sure he moves out and we’ll take it from there.”
After a short greeting, she disconnected and let out a victory yell.
“This was a first. She actually listened to me and agreed that Noah’s behavior was not acceptable! Go figure!”
“You were pretty fierce,” Luke left the comfort of Reid’s embrace to give his sister a well deserved hug.
“I was pretty mad,” Faith pulled Luke close. “I know you prefer the more calm way, so I’m sorry if this made you feel uncomfortable.”
“It did, but that doesn’t made it wrong. I think mom needed to hear this. And so did I.”
Faith kissed her big brother on his cheek. “I’m sorry you had to find out like this. I was gonna tell you…”
Luke smiled. “That’s okay,” he glanced at his siblings, finding shelter with Reid. “I’m very angry about the whole thing, obviously, and I really would like to give him a piece of my mind right now, but I’m not gonna do that. Let him wallow in whatever he likes to wallow in… I’m gonna focus on the love that’s in this house.”
“You do that. There’s lots of it.” Faith kissed him again and turned to her younger brother and sister.
“Are you ready to go?” She smiled when she saw them pout, “Listen, mom made a pretty good point just now. Luke just came home from his trip and I know for a fact Reid missed him a lot, so why don’t we let them enjoy some time together?”
Natalie looked Reid in the eyes. “You want to be with Luke?”
Reid smiled. “Yes, please.”
Ethan cut in too. “Will you miss us too?”
Reid kissed the boy on the head. “I had a great time with you guys. Thank you for helping me through an otherwise lonely and gruesome evening.”
Ethan beamed. “You’re welcome! See you Sunday?”
Oops. He caressed the boy’s hair. “I’m afraid not, sport. I’ll be working this weekend.”
Reid started to believe pouting was a very dominant characteristic in the Snyder genes. And they were very good at using it, too.
“Working?” Nat pulled an offended face, “Working on Halloween?”
“Yep. Somebody must be ready at the hospital to revive all those people you’ll scare half to death with your terrifying outfits…”
The pouting turned into chuckles. “Yeah, we’re very scary…”
“I believe that,” Reid said as seriously as he could.
“But we’ll see you on Monday then, right?” Ethan looked up with a hopeful glance and Reid smiled.
“Yep. Maybe I’ll be the scary one then, because Luke is making me wear a tux.”
“But I wouldn’t be surprised at all if he eventually will show up in a black jeans, black shirt and white coat,” Luke rolled his eyes and Reid chuckled, remembering what Luke was referring to.
“I might,” Reid teased, “but we are talking about the grand opening of the new wing… it could be important enough to dress up.”
“Well, I hope you do, because I will! Got a whole new dress and everything!” Faith looked radiant, “Much better deal then looking as ugly as possible on Sunday.”
She was rewarded with Reid’s understanding wink and she laughed.
“I think I need to find myself a job, so I can work on holidays too…” she pushed a button on her phone and hastily continued: “Are you gonna bail on all holidays?”
When she noticed the way Luke looked at his partner, she bit her lip. Apparently she had touched a sore subject. Now it was really time to leave…
“Hey dad, can you pick us up?”
The house was strangely quiet after the kids had left and Reid, still on the couch with the comforter, motioned Luke towards him. When his blond sat down, Reid positioned the comforter around the both of them and pulled him close.
“Are you okay?”
Luke leaned against Reid’s chest and nodded. “I will be. I’m still so mad at Noah…”
“I know…but it’s a good sign.”
“It is? Why?” Luke looked confused.
“Because it tells me you really broke the circle with him. For the first time you didn’t hurry to his defense with stories about his troubled youth and how he probably didn’t realize how hurtful he was and excuses like that.”
“Yeah, if you put it like that…” Luke gave a quick grin, “but still…I don’t like this anger either. And I don’t know how to shake it,” Luke whispered and was startled when Reid rose to his feet and pulled Luke up too.
“Come with me,” Reid grabbed his coat and keys, threw Luke’s coat to him and walked out the door.
“Where are we…”
A little pling activated Reid’s car doors and he motioned Luke to get in.
“I don’t want to go anywhere…”
“We’re not going anywhere,” Reid reassured him. He closed the door and turned to Luke. “You’re going to let something out.”
Luke looked confused.
“This is a little trick I use when I’ve lost a patient,” Reid explained on a soft tone. “I go sit in my car and scream my lungs out.”
“Scream?”
“Yep. Yoga helps too, but this is the perfect quick fix. I scream as loud as I can. A car - well, a good car like this one, at least - filters out most of the noise. Nobody can hear you. Just scream.”
“You can hear me…” Luke hesitated.
“I can cover my ears or I could leave…whatever you want.”
“Please stay,” Luke put his hands on Reid’s legs, “but do cover your ears, because I’m really gonna give this a serious try.”
Reid put his hands in the right position and gave him a nod. “You go for it.”
A little cautious at first, Luke started to yell. It turned into a scream. And extended to a roar. He felt this primal vibration coming up from his chest and he let it out. He let it all out. Minute after minute he screamed until it became a painful cry and his body started shaking. When he felt Reid’s arm around his shoulder, he crawled to Reid’s chest and cried like he hadn’t done in a long time.
When he finally calmed down, his lover proved his drama killer skills again. With a telling grin he murmured:
“I guess it worked.”