Luke can't believe it. He's done it again. You'd think that after three years together he'd be used to it by now, but he's not. Luke sits alone on the couch in the house they have shared for the last two years and looks around at the collection of a life together. Books on the coffee table, art on the walls, framed pictures of them scattered sporadically throughout the rooms. Sometimes it feels like he's in it alone.
It's not Reid's fault really, he's Chief of Staff at Memorial now and it's a time consuming position. Luke is nothing if not understanding about the hours the job requires, and the emergency pages in the middle of sex and family dinners, the lack of vacations.
But he needs Reid too, needs to know he matters more than the hospital, that their relationship is as much of a priority to Reid as it is to him. He doesn't feel that way now though, he wasn't asking for more than a happy birthday. He just wanted to be remembered. You would think that if Reid can remember what's going on with nearly any patient at the hospital at any given time, he could SURELY remember Luke's twenty-fifth birthday. He'd gotten a quick text that said Reid would be at the hospital late, he assumed it was a setup for something awesome, he was very wrong.
He continued to sit there and wait for the call that never came. By nine o'clock he's so angry he packs an overnight bag and heads out to the farm without leaving a note.
Luke had woken up excited and happy that morning, grinning before his eyes were opened. He's twenty-five today and for some reason that makes him feel less kid-like. Aging doesn't bother him, not that it should at twenty-five, but it does bother some people. He knows he'll be growing old with Reid and because of that he looks forward to the coming years.
He rolled over and moved his hand across the bed searching for Reid, but realized quickly he was alone. He sat up and ran his hand through his hair and looked up as the bathroom door opened. Reid walked into their bedroom, and Luke's breath caught in his throat, every thought in his head seemed to fly out at once and all he could see, think and feel was Reid. He loved that Reid never felt the need to wrap up in anything and was currently standing there in all his tight, toned, beautifully naked glory rubbing the towel in his hair to dry it.
Reid finally noticed Luke sitting up in bed and walked over, "Good morning sleepyhead," as he leaned over to give Luke a quick kiss.
Luke reached up to trap Reid and pulled him back in for a deeper kiss, which Reid reluctantly broke after a minute.
"Sorry, I would love to continue this, but I have a staff meeting this morning and a patient consult right after. Wouldn't do for the man in charge to be late to his own meeting." Reid said as he walked towards the closet and began pulling out clothes to wear and Luke leaned back in bed and watched his boyfriend dress.
"So what are your plans for the day?" Reid asked as he pulled the zipper up on his pants and reached for his shirt. Luke lost train of thought again as Reid bent over to grab his shoes out of the closet and he remembered Reid in that position last night bent over the dresser as they watched each other passion in the mirror. He needed to get in the shower before this got any worse, because he knew Reid couldn't stay and help him if his thoughts got his body out of control.
Luke threw back the covers, stood and stretched. He was wearing sleeping pants and as he stretched up the pants dropped lower on his hips showing off his abdomen. He chuckled slightly as he saw Reid stop what he was doing to watch Luke and groaned.
Luke approached Reid slowly, gave him a teasing kiss and leaned forward to whisper in his ear, "You're the one who doesn't have time…" Luke licked the shell of Reid's ear, "… remember?"
"You're an evil little man, Mr. Snyder." Reid stated as Luke walked into the bathroom.
Luke poked his head back out, "Why Dr. Oliver… you know there is nothing little about me." Luke stuck his tongue at Reid and went back into the bathroom to get in a very cold shower.
Reid wandered into the kitchen for breakfast and some much needed caffeine. Luke came out as Reid was pouring the coffee into a travel mug.
"Ok, I've got to go before I really am late. There's a bagel in the toaster and coffee in the pot." Reid stuffed files into his briefcase, grabbed his coffee, gave Luke a quick kiss, and walked out the door.
Luke watched Reid walk away, his pants hugging that tight little butt, shit, he was going to need another cold shower if he didn't get his head out of the bedroom. He walked to the counter to get a cup of coffee, then stood there stunned as it occurred to him that Reid had not wished him a happy birthday.
Ever the one to give the benefit of the doubt, he knew Reid had a lot on his mind this morning, hell, once Reid walked out naked Luke had forgotten his own birthday and earlier excitement. Luke was sure he'd get a call later apologizing and offering the wish. Reid surely had something great planned today, because there is no way in hell he could forget two years in a row.
Reid is having a hell of a day. The staff nearly came to blows at the meeting, and the patient consult ran long because no matter how simply Reid tried to explain things the patient was a complete fucking idiot and just couldn't seem to get it. These were the times when he hated being Chief, when he had to sit there with a smile plastered on his face and explain the same damn thing over and over again, instead of telling the moron to pull his head out of his ass and use their fucking brain for a change.
It had just gone downhill from there and now he was easily three hours behind on his day, and he couldn't shake the feeling that he's forgetting something. He'd sent Luke a text to let him know he was working late nearly two hours ago and hadn't yet gotten a response which was odd for Luke, but Reid hadn't had time to focus on it. The interns were fighting amongst themselves, the nurses seemed to be having a stand-off with the doctors, and every last one of them were bitching to Reid and he just couldn't bring himself to care.
By seven o'clock all he wanted to do was fire the staff and replace them with more intelligent less bitchy ones, and go home to Luke. He remembered how turned on he'd been this morning when Luke got out of bed, morning Luke was sexy as hell. He still had a soft sleepy look to him that made Reid want to crawl into bed and wake him up completely in the best way possible. He couldn't believe it'd been three years and he still couldn't get enough of Luke. He wondered if he ever would, if he could ever have enough of Luke. He'd never been so happy in his life as he'd been since Luke chose him. He always said Luke chose him, because when he'd met Luke he'd never had a choice, he was Luke's from the beginning.
He'd been thinking lately of Luke belonging to him permanently. At first he'd dismissed the idea as ludicrous, but the more the thought rolled around in his head, the more comfortable he became with it. He hated the hours away from Luke and it was part of the reason he'd been waiting to broach the subject. He didn't want Luke to feel obligated to say yes, he might find that he couldn't take the time apart or the constant interruption to their lives. If Luke left him though, Reid wouldn't survive, his soul was already tied to Luke's so completely he's afraid he'd be ripped in half if it happened.
At eight thirty Reid was still lost in thought when he ran into Katie and Chris talking quietly and holding hands.
"Dr. Hughes, don't you have anything better to do than block the hallways?"
"Reid!" Katie cried, "Be nice, we were actually waiting on you Dr. Smartass." Chris hid a grin, because Katie always put Reid in his place.
Reid paused, "Why are you waiting on me? Were we supposed to do something?"
"Duh, what have you got planned for Luke? Something big? Are we invited?" Katie fired one question after the other at Reid, but he was still stuck on the first one.
"Planned for Luke? What the hell are you talking about?" Reid looked expectantly at Katie as he watched her face change from excited to complete horror.
"Oh my God! You didn't! You forgot… AGAIN! TWO YEARS IN A ROW!" Katie's voice got progressively louder the more worked up she got.
"Katie, calm down! Forgot what two ye…." Reid trailed off as realization struck, that niggling feeling he'd had all day that he was forgetting something. He must have written the date a hundred times today, and it never once clicked. Luke was hurt last year when Reid had forgotten, but he was forgiven pretty quickly and Reid promised he'd never forget again. He hated seeing that kicked puppy look on Luke's face and worse, he hated being the one that put it there. There's no way in hell Luke will be that forgiving a second time.
"FUCK! Luke is going to kill me! I'll call you later Katie, I've got to go." Reid jogged to his office to gather his keys and checked his phone, praying for a missed call or text from Luke. He touched his phone and it lit up… nothing there. Reid had a sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach. This was not good. He debated calling Luke for a minute before deciding that this was something best done in person, and he's not entirely sure Luke would take his call at this point. On his way out he was stopped twice, but his couldn't even try to maintain his patience and finally made it out the door and into his car at nine o five.
This was going to take a lot of sucking up, but Reid was prepared to grovel. He couldn't believe how different he was with Luke than he was with anyone else. Had Luke been anyone else in his life, they wouldn't even get an apology for the oversight.
Ten minutes later he pulled into the driveway and got an ominous feeling in the pit of his stomach. Luke's car wasn't there and the house was dark. He pulled out his phone and tried to call Luke, but the phone went straight to voicemail. The sick feeling was settling into his stomach. He ran into the house calling Luke's name, but knew he wasn't there. He tried calling Luke's phone again with the same result. He looked around everywhere and anywhere Luke would have left a note. Luke never left the house without letting Reid know where he would be, especially if it was late. Luke said he never wanted Reid to worry about where he was.
No note in either the kitchen or living room, so Reid went into the bedroom to look and what he saw made him want to throw up. Drawers were opened with clothes hanging out of them like they'd been pulled out in a hurry, there were a couple of broken hangers on the floor as if the clothing had been ripped out of the closet in anger. Luke was gone, he'd actually left Reid, and worse, Reid couldn't even blame him. He'd broken a promise to Luke and Reid hit his knees and fell apart.