"Mommy, you know what I want to be when I grow up?" a little blue-eyed boy asked.

A young woman with curly auburn hair scooped up the little boy in her arms. "What's that?"

The boy crossed his arms and poofed out his chest. "A super hero!"

The woman laughed, and kissed her son on the forehead. "And a super hero you'll be! Super Reid to the rescue!"

His mother held Reid above her head and started twirling him around the room. "Super Reid! Make way for Super Reid!" Mother and son laughed joyously together.

-

Blackness. Pain. Confusion.

"Oh my god! There are people in there!"

"Someone call 911!"

"Jesus Christ. Are they alive?!"

"Can anyone reach them?"

"What happened?!"

"The train! The train just... HIT them!"

Reid heard voices but could not register what they were saying. He tried opening his eyes but only saw black. He tried speaking but nothing came out. He heard sirens in the distance but all he felt was pain.

Luke.

Where was Luke? Was he hurt? Was he alive? Reid tried lifting his head but couldn't move. He grew frustrated at himself. Why couldn't he get up?! Why couldn't he see?! Why couldn't he call out for Luke?

The sirens were close. He heard shouting and people trying to talk to him but he wasn't paying them any attention. His focus was on Luke.

Reid didn't believe in God but he found himself praying. Please let Luke be okay. Please. He has so much to live for, so many people who love him. I will do anything for him. Please please let him be alright.

He heard moaning. Was it him? Was it Luke? He couldn't tell.

His eyes opened slowly. He felt something hot trickling down his face. Water? No no, blood. He tried to move but he was stuck. Something heavy was across his legs. He tried to lift his head to see what it was but he couldn't make it out.

He heard moaning again. He still wasn't sure if it was him or Luke.

"Luke…" he was able to groan out. He was able to turn his head slightly and tried to gather his bearings. He reached out in front of him to grope the heavy mass on top of him. It was then that he saw it. In the midst of the darkness surrounding him, he saw something bright. Something yellow. Something blonde.

Luke.

Reid fainted.

-

"Welcome to the best place on earth, son." A young man said to the boy next to him. "Fenway Park!"

The ten year old boy, with a giant hot dog in one hand and a baseball glove in the other, walked into the stadium with his father, his eyes huge.

"Reid, this is a tradition that my father did with me and his father did with him. I have been waiting your entire life for this moment; opening day at Fenway." He placed his arm around the young boy's shoulders. "And it's something I hope you'll do one day with your son."

Reid broke away from his father and slowly walked to the rail, staring at the huge green monster in front of him. He turned around and looked at his dad, father and son smiling at each other.

-

He could hear voices again. He felt movement.

"We need to get this one to Memorial immediately. It appears he has some sort of internal bleeding on his side. Do you see the bruising?! I'm concerned he ruptured his spleen. Or worse. Call ahead to the hospital and tell them we have two critical cases coming in and they'll need to prep the OR. Get this one on the helicopter."

Reid opened his eyes again. He saw faces hovering over him. He was on a stretcher.

"Sir? Sir? You're okay. We're going to take you to the hospital now. Can you tell me your name?"

"Luke…" he groaned out.

"Your name is Luke? Okay, Luke, stay with me okay?"

Reid tried shaking his head but couldn't. He was in a neck brace. "Where…. Luke?"

His voice, which was already soft, was drowned out by the sound of the helicopter. He felt himself being lifted up and placed not so gently aboard. Before he could register what was going on, the helicopter lifted off and rushed off towards Oakdale.

-

"You're so anxious to leave Oakdale. I give you a solution that could cut three hours off your travel time and you turn me down because it comes from me. Who does that?!"

Reid took a sip from his beer. "I'm unique."

"No. See, I don't think this has to do with me throwing my money around or how I got you to Oakdale."

"And your keen instincts tells you what?" he replies nonchalantly.

"You wouldn't treat me this way if I was the straight husband or wife of one of your patients. You don't respect me and Noah because we're gay. That's it."

Reid stares at Luke for a half a beat and starts laughing. God, someone needs to get their gaydar tweaked.

"This isn't funny!"

Reid shakes his head in disbelief, still laughing at the absurdity of the accusation. "You think I'm homophobic? That's hysterical."

He could see in Luke's body language he was starting to get uncomfortable. Good.

"Well, why don't you let me in on the joke, doctor? What? Is your best friend gay? Or your mom? Or your dad? Who?"

Reid caught Luke's eyes and held them, "Me, Mr. Snyder. I'm gay."

And with those five little words, Reid knew that he was doomed. There was no denying it now. His life was about to get a whole lot more messy –Luke Snyder messy. But he actually didn't mind.

Oh crap.

-

"Dr. Oliver? Dr. Oliver can you hear me?"

Reid's eyes opened to Bob standing over him.

"Bob-" he managed to rasp out. He was in a massive amount of pain.

"Dr. Oliver, it's good to see you awake. We're about to move you to OR. Your spleen was ruptured and we need to try and get it out. You have a few cracked ribs and heavy bruising all over your body. You have a mild concussion that we're monitoring carefully. But considering what happened, you're lucky.Extremely lucky."

Reid didn't care about his injuries. He knew he wasn't in any danger. All he cared about was Luke. Where was he?

"Luke?" he asked, his voice raspy and soft.

Bob hesitated. "Luke is - Luke is in with John. I don't know how he's doing. I've been in here with you. But we don't have time. We have to get you to the OR. Dr. Jansen is waiting."

The next thing Reid knew he was in the OR room with masked doctors and nurses surrounding him. The anesthesiologist was hovering over him, injecting him with god knows what. He felt his eye lids get heavy; he tried resisting.

Luke.

-

Reid entered his apartment in Dallas after working 36 hours straight. His feet hurt, his back hurt, and all he wanted, more than anything in this world, was a hot shower and his bed.

"Daniel?" he called out as he shrugged his coat off and threw his keys onto the coffee table. He collapsed onto the couch, leaning back on to the cushion and closing his eyes.

"Reid? I wasn't expecting you home this early!" he heard behind him.

He grunted. "'This early?' I was gone for nearly two days. When were you expecting me back?"

"That's not... that's not what I meant." Daniel said hesitantly.

Reid opened his eyes and turned to look at his boyfriend standing in the doorway leading to the bedroom. He was leaning against the door frame and had his arms crossed. He was only wearing boxers.

He licked his lips and not so subtly ran his eyes up and down Daniel's body. After two years together, Reid still couldn't believe this man wanted him. He was tall, toned. He had shaggy black hair and stunning green eyes. Daniel worked as a photo journalist for a local news station. They were polar opposites but it worked. Or so Reid assumed.

He got off the couch and slowly walked towards Daniel. A predator hunting his prey.

"You look so hot," he murmured as he wrapped his arms around Daniel's waist.

"Reid-" he started but Reid's lips quickly ended whatever it was he was about to say. Reid moaned into the kiss and ran his hands up and down Daniel's body.

"God, I want you," he said huskily into the other man's ears.

"Reid, wait." Daniel pleaded, trying to push Reid off of him.

He pulled away, puzzled. Daniel never refused sex. Never. It was then that he saw it. Beyond Daniel, in the hall. There was a trail of clothes in the hallway leading towards his bedroom –their bedroom.

"What is this?" Reid asked, quietly.

"I… wait, I can explain!" Daniel rushed out, trying to block Reid from entering the hallway.

"Get out of my way," he growled. "Daniel! Get out of my way!"

Daniel hesitantly stepped aside and Reid slowly walked into the hallway, following the trail of clothes. As he entered the bedroom, his eyes followed the clothes up onto their bed. His eyes settled on the man lying under their sheets, trying to hide himself from Reid.

He felt like he was going to be sick.

"Reid, I'm so sorry. But you're never home anymore and I got lonely. God, I didn't mean for this to happen but I mean, can you really blame me? You were NEVER here!"

Reid said nothing. He simply turned around, pushed past Daniel, and walked out of the apartment. Two days later, he picked up all of his things and moved across town. Daniel had pleaded and cried and begged Reid to forgive him but he couldn't. He wouldn't.

It wasn't until he was making his last sweep through of the apartment did Daniel finally get angry.

"You can blame this on me all you want but let's be honest here. You were never checked fully into this relationship. You were never emotionally with me. It was always work and fucking with you. You know we've been together two years and I know nothing about you? I don't know anything about your parents or your childhood. Where you grew up, what you liked to do for fun. You're angry and closed-off. What person could deal with that? What person would want to be with someone like you?"

Reid slowly turned to face Daniel and finally spoke. "Then why did you stay with me?" he asked quietly.

Daniel sighed, with tears in his eyes. "Because I thought, eventually, you would grow to love me. But I'm starting to think it's impossible for you to love."

-

"Reid? Reid can you hear me? Please open your eyes!"

Reid awoke to Katie, Bob, and Margo hovering over him. He felt disoriented, confused. His head and his side hurt.

"Oh thank god!" Katie exclaimed, bending over to kiss him on the forehead. "I was so worried about you!" She started to cry.

"Katie…" he said, his voice still heavy and groggy from the medication.

Bob stepped up the bed and placed a hand on Reid's shoulder. "You're going to heal, Reid. They had to remove your spleen but you're expected to make a full recovery. You did good in there."

He nodded slowly, trying to gather his thoughts. The train. The accident. Luke.

Luke.

"Luke?" he asked, trying to sit up quickly. "How is Luke? Where is he?"

He saw Katie, Margo, and Bob exchanging looks with one another. No one said anything.

No.

"Bob? Tell me. Where is Luke?" his voice dropped. His heart started to pound. No. No.

"Reid, I think you should get some rest. You just came out of surg-"

"No, god dammit. I don't care about getting rest. I care about Luke. Bob, tell me!"

Bob hesitated. Katie grasped his hand. "Sweetie, Luke's injuries are very serious," she finally said, gently. Her eyes started to water again.

"What? Serious? How serious? Bob!" He could feel his heart in his chest, hammering. No no no no no.

Bob rubbed his hands together anxiously. He sighed before starting. "His lung collapsed but we were able to revive it. His back is broken and so is his left leg. He cracked and broke nearly two-thirds of his ribs. He had a severe gash along his right cheek that required 60 stitches…"

Reid went numb. Luke was broken, broken.

"There's something you're not telling me," he said quietly. "What is it?"

Bob sighed again. "He sustained severe head trauma. His brain is swelling severely and there's nothing we can do to stop it. He's breathing on his own right now but very soon we're going to have to put him on a respirator. We're monitoring him closely but it doesn't look good, Reid. I'm so sorry."

"You're sorry? Wait, Bob. No no no no no no. What are you saying?" Reid was a neurosurgeon. He knew what it meant. But he couldn't grasp it, refused to believe it. Surely someone made a mistake. He was the brain doctor. He wanted the name of the doctor who came to this conclusion. He wanted to punch that doctor in the face. No one knows the brain better than himself. They were wrong. Wrong.

Katie squeezed his hand. "Sweetie, Luke isn't going to make it."

Reid shook his head. "No. No, I don't believe you. Luke willl make it. He has to make it. I want to see him. I want to see his CAT scans. There is something that you're missing. I'm the brain surgeon."

"Reid-"

"Bob, god dammit, now is not the time to follow procedure. Either help me out of this bed or I will do it on my own. But I will go to Luke."

Bob hesitated again but Reid held his gaze, refusing to back down. Bob finally gestured to Margo who grabbed a nurse and asked her to bring in a wheel chair. Both Bob and Katie helped Reid out of the bed. His side hurt like hell but he pushed the pain aside. He had to get to Luke. He had to see him, had to heal him.

Katie gently pushed him out into the hallway and the various nurses and doctors stopped and stared. Reid ignored them all. His focus was solely on Luke.

As they rounded the corner, he was thrust into a mob of Snyders. Jack and Carly. Parker and Faith. Natalie and Ethan. Emma. Lucinda. Luke's friends and family. He ignored them all. His eyes on the hospital room where Luke lay.

Jack must have realized where Katie was taking Reid because he quickly jumped in front of them to open the door. He felt Jack's hand on his shoulder as he passed but again, he ignored him. His eyes were drawn into the room. Lily and Holden were standing at the foot of Luke's bed and turned around when they heard the door open. He saw tears in Lily's eyes and pain on Holden's face. He studied both of them.

"Please." He heard himself say.

Holden nodded and gently took Lily's hand, moving her to the side of the room. Reid's eyes fell on Luke.

Luke.