Disclaimer: If I owned ATWT, Reid would be alive! And I'll skip any other comment otherwise I'll get negative reviews saying not to bash thouroughly and very cruelly a certain head author who makes absolutely no sense when questioned, by the way, and who should be too ashamed to look at herself in the mirror, let alone speak in interviews.

AN: Here is your weekly chapter! A couple of days late, admitedly. I'm sorry but school got in the way. Still it's not so bad compared to the months long writer's block I had in the past!

Chapter 13:

Reid Oliver was laughing. His boyfriend was such a prude. He'd been trying to make Luke come out of the bedroom with him for the last 15 minutes with no success. The younger man was still hiding beneath the covers and was simply refusing to come out as long as Katie was still in the apartment. Reid felt like he was dating a teenage girl who had just been caught by her parents while doing the dirty.

"Come on Luke, get out. I'm hungry. I want a sandwich."

"Then go make yourself one. I'm not getting out." Luke's muffled voice told him.

"You're making a big deal over nothing. So Katie saw your underwear. At least she didn't see you retrieving said underwear butt naked like she could have. Instead, she was nice enough to pick up our clothes and give them to us. Beside, you're talking about a married woman and a mother. Trust me you don't have anything she hasn't seen plenty of times" Reid said matter-of-factly. Luke's head peaked out of the blankets.

"Reid, she saw our clothes all over the house. She knows what we've been doing here!"

"And that's bad how?" Reid asked. Seriously, he got that it was embarrassing. He didn't like the situation that much either but Luke was really blowing this out of proportion.

"Well it just is!"

"Come on Luke, surely it can't be more embarrassing then being caught by your parents!"

"Oh my god. You're right. That means we can't do it at my home. But then if we do it here, Katie will know…"

"Woah…you mean you've actually been able to not get caught by your parents? You're meddling, super present parents with tons of relatives that keep popping out for a surprise visit?"

"Well…" Luke started, thinking about it "It's not like Noah and I had sex often….we barely did actually. And Noah was against making out if someone else was in the house"

"Well I don't have that problem, not really. Although I would prefer doing it when we're alone in the house. It's never good to give Katie too much teasing material; she can use it as leverage or blackmail."

"I don't feel comfortable with the idea of Katie knowing what we're up to." Reid bit his lip. Should he aboard the subject or not. Their relationship was really recent after all. And Reid didn't know how Katie would react if he left. It just…she was a strong woman but she was a grieving one and sometimes she really needed a shoulder to cry on and Reid didn't mind it. He liked being able to comfort her when she needed it.

"What?" Luke asked, sensing Reid was pondering something.

"Well…it's just…I've been thinking…well not really thinking, it's more like it slipped into my mind once or twice." Luke looked at him with expectancy. "Alright" Reid finally said gathering his courage. "I might have had a thought like 'Luke and I need to get our own place' cross my mind once or twice" Luke's eyes widened. He was positively flabbergasted. Of all things Reid could say….that was definitively one he hadn't expected. Reid hadn't made it a secret that he didn't do relationships. To have him as committed to Luke as he already was, was already asking the older man to leave his comfort zone far behind him. Therefore, Luke had never thought that Reid would be the one to first ask for their relationship to move to the next level. Luke thought he would probably have to bring the idea up and let Reid get use to it before the older man would be ready to commit even more. Yet, here was his one-week-long-slightly-commitment-phobic boyfriend basically asking Luke to get a place with him.

"Well…" Reid said looking incredibly uncomfortable.

"uh…" Luke shook himself out of his stupor. "Well it's unexpected. I thought you wouldn't be ready for that for a while. I mean we've only been together for a week."

"I'm not saying we need to move in together tomorrow." Reid clarified. "For one, I'd have to talk to Katie first. She has been gracious enough to give me a home to stay; I need to discuss my potential leaving with her and help her organize herself. The rent I give her helps her financially, so I'd have to find her a new roommate before leaving. Plus, well….to be honest…when I thought of moving in with you, I was thinking mostly about our privacy. I'm way too old to do the whole 'parents might walk in any minute' thing. I mean sure there's a thrill in that, but generally I just want my own privacy. And I think you want the same thing."

"I do. Definitely. Lord knows my family can be smothering and there's always someone at our place but….I mean you haven't even met my parents yet. Can you imagine their reactions if I told them I was moving in with you? Someone who's basically a complete stranger to them? They'd freak! Well, not Grandma Lucinda, but she never freaks so…still. They'd react really badly to it."

"Which is why I'm saying we won't do it right now. Obviously there are steps to be taken before we can. Meeting your family being unfortunately one of them."

"They're not so bad" Reid looked at Luke with his best unbelieving expression. "Alright, they're kind of intense, but when you get to know them, they're really not so bad. Just overwhelming is all." Reid still looked sceptical. The Snyders were….well they were many. And Reid really, really didn't do well when there were a lot of people around. He was more of a loner; always had been. Big family reunions…well if he was honest with himself, he'd say they positively freaked him out. "Come on Reid it won't be so bad. I'll protect you."

"Well you better." Reid answered looking awkward. "You know how I am in social settings. Being surrounded by a lot of people…Luke that's really not my thing" Luke looked at his boyfriend. He looked younger than his age and he surprisingly looked terrified. The young Snyder knew it would take convincing to get Reid to assist to family reunion, but he wouldn't have thought the older man actually feared them. Luke took pity on him.

"If it scares you so much…."

"It doesn't scare me" Reid denied. Luke raised an eyebrow. "It doesn't. It just…makes me uncomfortable." Luke rolled his eyes. That man and his ego!

"Fine, if it makes you uncomfortable" Luke said, putting emphasis on the word uncomfortable to mock Reid, "then we'll have you meet them individually before a big family reunion happens. How does that sound?"

"It sounds…fair" Reid said slowly.

"Good. Then I'll call my mom and schedule dinner with her" Reid's eyes widened. "What? you want to do this or not Reid? 'Cause if you want us to really be together, then you'll need to meet my family."

"I know but your mom….I mean we had dinner with her that one time."
"Well yeah, but I didn't officially introduce you as my boyfriend. Plus we could eat with my younger siblings too. Plus it'd be easier to start with her since we've already had dinner with her before"
"Are you sure? I don't think she likes me much. No wait scratch that: I know she doesn't like me. She was civil sure, but her smiles looked faked"

"Well…it could be true. You don't exactly make the best first impression on people." Reid nodded. It was true. "But before I came to talk to Katie, after you left the pub that day, my mom came and talk to me."

"And let me guess, she told you that you should jump in Noah's arms?" Luke frowned.

"No actually Reid she didn't. At the hospital, she had asked me about what I would do if Noah apologized and told me he'd do anything to get together with me again and what I answered her…it didn't answer her question at all. Mom knew I was suffering and confused and that I was hurting both you and Noah because of that. She wanted me to figure things out, no matter what the answer was. She loves me. She wants me to be happy and you make me happy. She might have loved Noah like her own son, but that doesn't mean she'll hate you 'cause I didn't choose him. Me not being with Noah won't change anything about Mom's feelings for Noah. She won't loose him because of this. My family is basically his family. And sure he probably won't show up to any family reunions where I'm there for a while, but with the neuro-wing being constructed and you being a doctor, we'll probably be too busy to attend all of those reunions anyway. Don't worry so much about her; I think deep down she already knew that day that you would be my choice. She just doesn't know how to act around you and you don't know how to act around her. You're both uncomfortable with each other for some reason. Dinning with her first is a great idea. You need to learn to be comfortable with each other. My mom is probably the one who'll cause you most trouble with that"

Reid felt better now. On a personal level, he didn't really care about Lily Walsh's opinion of him. But Luke lived with her still and if she, deep down beneath the nice smiling facade, hated his guts, visiting Luke would get tricky and very uncomfortable for his boyfriend.

"Alright, so we'll have dinner with mom, then I guess with Dad and Molly and then the grandmothers. I'll leave my siblings for last….or at least Faith. Don't take it personally if she's….uhm…not very welcoming. She's a teen; you know how they are" Reid bit his tongue to keep himself from saying 'Well yeah, I'm dating one'

"And then…." Luke blushed. "I supposed after that we could start planning to move in together. Slowly, you know."

"Yeah, but…."

"But what?" Luke interrupted him. Reid had been the one to suggest living together. Surely he wasn't taking that back.

"As much as I want to move in with you as soon as possible, there's something I need to make sure of first."

Luke frowned. He wondered that could be. He looked at Reid expectantly. "Katie" Reid sighed.

"Katie? I know you need to talk to her and find another roommate but…"

"It's not that. Well there is that but my problem is something else. You want your family to be okay with us before we live together; I want my family to be okay too. Just not in the same way" Luke didn't understand

"But Katie already knows about us and she's basically the reason we're together at all."

"Yeah, we owe that to her. I owe a lot to her. Look Luke, Katie…she's well, she's basically the only family I have" Luke bit his lip to keep himself from saying 'awwww' "and well…She's not over Brad, Luke. She still wakes up in the middle of the night, sobbing after a nightmare of Brad's death. And other times she cries herself to sleep. We've been living together for several months. We have routines. I like routines. A lot. Changing my routine is something hard for me. Something I'll have to prepare myself for before living with you. And one of those routines is that I go in Katie's room when she cries and hug her until she falls asleep. Another one, is that we eat ice cream…well she eats ice cream….I normally eat a sandwich, and we watch a movie, whenever either of us had a bad day or need to be cheered up. When she needs to go to work or to whatever else and I'm home, she knows she can count on me to baby-sit Jacob. Whenever Jacob is sick I'm there to diagnose what's wrong. When he suffers from insomnia, I'm there to sing him Justin Timberlake's songs….it's just….I want to go live with you right now. But I worry about Katie. I've been a constant in her life for months now, someone she can depend on. I don't….I don't feel comfortable with leaving her on her own. It's not that I think she can't take care of herself it's just…."

"That you care about her and you want to protect her."

"Yeah…and I just need to make sure that my leaving won't cause her any trouble at all."

"I'm sure it won't. You won't be moving out tomorrow. If you tell her as soon as possible, she'll have time getting use to the idea. The most important thing is to make sure she knows you'll still be her friend once you move out. You'll see, everything will be fine. She's a lot stronger than you think."

"I know" Reid said. And he really did. Katie was an amazing woman who had somehow found a way into the many layers of protective shells Reid had and made a nest there. Reid wasn't an emotional guy. When people meet him, they see a cold-hearted, distant, anti-social man. And they were right. But every human being felt emotion and were able to create links with their peers; Reid was just the type of person who didn't let people in easily. And because of that, the very few people who were able to make him care for them were extremely important to him. Reid felt silly for being so worried about Katie but he really couldn't help it. She was the first person, along with Jacob, who had made Reid open his heart in years. If it weren't for her, he would probably never have been able to open himself up enough to let Luke in.

"Although it is kinda cute the way you go all overprotective, worry-wart of an older brother on her." Reid frowned. Reid Oliver did NOT do cute. He had a reputation to uphold darnit!

"Take that back Snyder. I am NOT cute. I do NOT do cute!"

"Oh really ? Make me" Luke teased. Reid raised an eyebrow and smile. Well, I guess it was time to check whether his boyfriend was ticklish or not. Luke had been smiling teasingly at his partner until suddenly a predatory look appeared in Reid's eyes. And not the nice I'll-take-you-right-here-right-now predatory look. This was another kind of look altogether. Before Luke could even think of an escape plan, he found himself pinned to the bed with Reid tickling him like there was no tomorrow. Luke was screaming and laughing and barely breathing. "Reid…stop…please…" Luke laughed. "Say I'm not cute Snyder, and the tickling will stop" Luke pouted "But you are cute." Reid started the torture again. "Ok! Ok!" Luke screamed. "You're not cute!" Reid stopped tickling and pressed his lips to his boyfriend's. "There see that wasn't that hard now was it?" Luke didn't have the time to answer back though. Reid claimed his lips again this time forcefully, and pinned Luke's arms above his head. Luke hoping Katie had left the apartment again was the last coherent thought the young Snyder was able to have before the sensation his boyfriend's talented hands and lips completely turned off his brain.

/

AN: So that's it for now! I know the chapters aren't really long anymore, but I want to do weekly updates so they'll probably look like that for now on. Anyway, so I'll try really hard to update within the next 7 days! Took a little more time than that this time but school got in the way (Bad school! What can I say? University sometimes is EVIL) So anyway, hoped you liked it! If you have suggestions or ideas on how things could go with Reid meeting Lily or with him meeting Holden/Molly please feel free to tell me. All suggestions are good for inspiration even if I don't actually do the suggestion it might make something click in my mind and make me right. For readers of And nothing else, the update should be up this evening!