"Dad. Daddy. Can I talk to you?" Julie asked, coming into the living room from her bedroom a month later.

"Sure. What's going on?" Luke asked, as Julie sat down in the chair opposite the couch on which he and Reid were sitting.

"There's an end of the year party in the park next week. It's hosted by the PTA and parents are invited. I was hoping you would come."

"Of course. Why wouldn't we?" Luke asked.

"Well, because of Noah," Julie said warily.

"Hey, listen to me, Jules. Don't ever worry about us and Noah. The three of us are adults and we can handle one afternoon together."

"At least the park is an open space. We can run away," Reid said. Luke smacked the back of his head and Julie smiled.

"So you'll come?"

"We'll be there!" Luke said enthusiastically.

"Thanks," Julie said and went back into her room.

"This'll be a barrel of laughs," Reid said.

"Oh, it'll be fun to make Noah uncomfortable," Luke said, leaning back against Reid's shoulder. "I'd like to get to know his wife, though. She seemed nice."

"Really? You want to be friends with Noah's wife?"

"Sure. Is that weird?" Luke asked.

"Well, you know, the whole subject of friends is weird to me anyway," Reid said. Luke snorted. "I think it would make Noah so nervous."

"Yeah. He'd be afraid I'd tell her about him and me," Luke said.

"Would you?"

"Nah. It's for him to tell her. If he wants to forget it ever happened then that's his problem," Luke said.

"I honestly don't know why he'd ever want to forget being with you," Reid said, kissing the top of Luke's head.

Luke smiled and closed his eyes, leaning his head against the doctor's. "Noah was never comfortable with being gay the way we are. I think it's because he never had his father's approval."

"So what?" Reid said angrily.

"He craved his father's approval. So because the Colonel wouldn't accept him, he couldn't completely accept himself," Luke said, looking at Reid.

"So you're not going to out him to Megan, then?"

"No. But I still want to get to know her. If Julie's dating her son, then we should know her, shouldn't we? I want to make sure she's not going to try to kill her, the way the Colonel tried to kill me," Luke said.

"This is bringing up a lot of bad memories, isn't it?" Reid asked.

Luke was silent for a while. Then he said, "Yeah. I mean, I've thought about over the years, like when I see someone in a wheel chair or when I hear about someone struggling to come to terms with their sexuality. But it's never all hit me like a ton of bricks, like it has the last couple months since we found out Noah was back in Oakdale."

"You haven't seemed particularly sad, though."

"That's because when I get sad about what happened with Noah, I think of the one truly good thing that come from my relationship with him."

"What's that?" Reid asked.

"You," Luke said, smiling at the doctor. "Us."

Reid smiled and kissed Luke.

"I guess this means we're going to this picnic thingie," Reid said.

"Yep," Luke said, flashing Reid a dazzling smile.

Reid sighed in resignation.