Title: The Long and Winding Road

Pairing: Luke and Reid

Other Characters: Bob and mentions of Noah and Chris

Summary: This is the story of the courtship of Reid and Luke.

Disclaimer: These are not my characters. All mistakes are mine.

Rating R

A/N Please leave a comment and let me know what you think.

As Luke and Reid lay curled together in Reid's bed, Luke wanted to make sure that they learned from this experience so that they didn't keep having these misunderstandings.

"So Reid, what have we learned from this?"

Reid smiled. "That you are an excellent top, Mr. Snyder."

"Reid, that's not what I meant," Luke replied, blushing with pleasure.

"Also, you give an excellent rim job! Your tongue in my ass is a little piece of heaven."

"Stop it Reid, you're turning me on," Luke sighed.

"Why on earth would that be a bad thing?" Reid asked truly puzzled.

"Reid, please be serious."

"I am serious, Luke. That was amazing and frankly I can't wait until we can do it again," he stated as he turned his head to give Luke a heart stopping kiss.

"Stop it, Reid. We really need to talk," he said feeling unnerved. "I think that I should put some clothes on."

"No," Reid cried horrified at the thought of Luke hiding his beautiful body in clothes. "I'll behave, I promise. What do you want to talk about?"

"We need to learn from this experience so that we can grow as a couple," Luke stated as though it was the most obvious thing in the world.

"Okay, okay I get it, so tell me what exactly have we learned?" Reid asked knowing this would go much faster if Luke just told him what the problem was rather than trying to figure it out on his own. Brain surgery I understand, relationships, not so much.

"Geez Reid, obviously we should have learned that we need to communicate better. When something happens that upsets one of us we need to talk about it. When I say one of us I mean you," Luke added pointedly. "You can't run away every time you get scared or I'll spend all of my time trying to catch you and make you talk to me."

Reid laughed at that image.

Luke frowned, "There will be no sex for you if you keep running away!"

That thought instantly sobered Reid. "No sex? You can't be serious."

"Well Reid, logistically we won't be able to have sex if you are running away from me."

"Alright, but you have to admit that the make-up sex was pretty incredible," Reid said as he rolled onto his side so that he could stare into Luke's eyes.

"Yes the make-up sex was incredible, and I'm sure that we will have plenty of fights that we will have to make-up after, but the point is we need to make sure that we talk to each other, okay?"

"Okay, I will try to talk to you if I start to freak out again. You're going to have to be patient with me though, because this relationship stuff is all new to me. I suck at it and I'm not used to sucking at things."

"Reid you don't suck at this. You are an amazing boyfriend, but you need to talk to me so that I can help you," Luke reassured him with a smile.

Satisfied that the talking portion was over, Reid began to run his hand over the contour of Luke's body. I really would like Luke to stick his tongue back in my ass. God that felt amazing. I sure as hell hope he knows that I wasn't joking about that!

"So we're okay, right?" Luke asked still somewhat amazed that they had solved this crisis so easily. Noah and I never ever settled anything this easily.

Reid looked directly into Luke's warm brown eyes. "Yes Luke we're okay, hell we're more than okay," as he leaned in and kissed Luke soundly, trying desperately to remove any doubts that Luke might have.

"So does this mean that you're going to lift the ban you ordered at the hospital?" Luke teased once the kiss had ended.

Reid's eyes flew open. "What are you talking about? I would never ban you from the hospital."

Luke looked confused. "I brought you a latte yesterday morning and Gretchen flat out refused to let me give it to you. Didn't she tell you it was from me when she gave it to you?"

"Gretchen didn't give me my coffee, Chris did and he acted like he had gotten it for me. No one even mentioned that you had dropped by."

"That's odd. Why would Chris give you the latte? No offense, but the guy seems to hate you. I've caught him glaring at you several times."

"Yeah, you're right. Apparently we went to med school together and I won a fellowship that he wanted."

"Was he the runner up?"

"No, I have no idea where he finished. I don't even remember him from med school. Apparently he was one of the people who believed the rumour that I had cheated in order to win."

"Really, people thought that you had cheated?"

Reid just shrugged.

"Wouldn't it be nearly impossible to cheat? I mean I imagine that the committee who selects the winner would be looking out for that sort of thing, wouldn't they?"

"Yes," Reid agreed. "I don't know if people really believed that I had cheated or if was just sour grapes. I didn't care what people thought of me then and I don't care now. The Harvard committee investigated and was never able to validate the charges because they were false."

"So it sounds like Chris has been holding a grudge for a long time," Luke began. "That being said why would he go out of his way to talk to you?"

"I don't know," Reid paused. "Actually he mentioned you."

"Me?" Luke asked, surprised. "What did he say about me?"

Reid closed his eyes wishing he hadn't brought this up. "He said that he thought that you and Noah were back together. Apparently he had seen you together and said that you looked cozy."

"What? The only time I've seen Noah recently was at Java and we definitely weren't cozy. Did you see him there the other day?"

"No, but then I was only looking for you. I guess he might have been there. Did you see Noah at any other time?"

"Not really, well I saw him yesterday morning, but you definitely couldn't say were together then," Luke answered with a frown.

"What happened?"

Luke sighed. "He wanted to have coffee with me again and I said no because I just wanted to get our drinks and then go and see you," Luke paused. "I told him that I was getting you a latte and he started going on about how you were just interested in having sex with me and how I wasn't good enough for you," Luke finished feeling embarrassed.

"Sorry I shouldn't have dumped all of this on you."

Reid reached over and kissed Luke, long and hard. "I love you, Luke."

Luke nodded.

"You're not dumping anything on me. I believe that you are uh communicating with me," he teased. "I have to admit that I'm amused that Noah, of all people, thinks that you're not good enough for me. I can assure you that everyone else in this town thinks the opposite is true."

"What do you think?" Luke asked nervously chewing on his lower lip.

"I think that we complement each other. We're very different but somehow we fit. What do you think?"

"I think that you're right. After all, you are a genius," Luke finished teasingly.

Reid leaned over and kissed Luke.

"So what do you think is up with Chris? This is all very weird."

"I don't know. Are you friends with him? Is he a friend of Noah's?" Reid wanted to know.

"I know him, but I've never hung out with him after all he is kind of old."

"He's my age, Luke. He's hardly ancient," Reid replied, glaring at Luke.

"Oh yeah, I forgot. I guess it's because you're so much hotter than he is."

"Nice recovery."

"He might have become friends with Noah, because he used to date Ali and Ali and Noah are definitely friends."

"Chris and Ali dated, really? She nearly married Casey a few months ago, Chris's nephew, right?"

"Yes."

"Alrighty then," Reid answered shaking his head. Bloody Oakdale you need a score card to figure out who has slept with whom. "So it's possible that Noah told Chris that the two of you were back together, but the whole thing just seems strange; especially when you add in the fact that the nurses wouldn't let you in to see me. It makes me uncomfortable," Reid paused to think for a moment. "Luke, I need you to do me a favour, one that you are not going to like."

"Okay." Luke responded not liking the sound of that. "What do you want me to do?"

"I want you to stay away from me at the hospital. Chris seems to want to believe that we aren't together so let's let him."

Luke's face fell. "Reid, I can't be your secret. I just can't do it. I'm sorry."

"Luke, I'm not asking you to be my secret. I just want you to stay away from me at the hospital. I just need to figure out what's going on with Chris. I have a feeling that this has something to do with me getting the chief of staff job. I don't know what Chris is capable of and I'm not comfortable with him trying to use you against me. I am going to try to talk to Bob today and hopefully we will get this sorted out quickly."

"What about the board meetings for the neuro wing? We both have to attend those and I don't want to pretend that we're not together during those."

"That's fine. I don't think that I am capable of pretending that we're not together when I'm near you anyway. Chris won't be at those meetings and we don't have another one scheduled for a couple of weeks. I'm hoping that the situation, whatever it is, with Chris, is sorted out by then."

"So everything will stay the same between us, right? If we happen to see Chris when we're out you don't want me to suddenly disappear, do you?"

"No of course not, if we happen to see Chris we'll deal with it then. I have no desire to change my life for Doogie Hughes. I just don't want to flaunt it in front of him in case he is planning something. Do you think that you could be okay with that?"

"Yes."

"Good," Reid smiled at Luke. "Now can we get on with more important things?"

"Whatever do you mean?" Luke inquired with false innocence.

"I want your tongue in my ass," Reid stated, "Now!"

Luke smiled and kissed Reid warmly on the mouth and then did as he was told.

Later that morning after very enjoyable morning sex followed by equally amazing shower sex, Reid found himself in Bob's office.

"So Reid what can I do for you today?" Bob asked genially.

"I'm worried about Chris and I thought that I should let you know of an incident that happened yesterday."

"Are you telling me this as Chris's father or as his boss?"

"Both I guess," Reid replied with a shrug.

"Very well," Bob answered with a world weary sigh.

Reid proceeded to tell Bob about Chris giving him his latte, and the inference that Luke was with Noah. Hearing himself say the words to Bob he felt a little bit silly, but he just couldn't shake the feeling that something was off.

Bob listened and wondered what the big deal was.

"Reid, I'm afraid that I don't understand the nature of your concern. Why is it such a big deal that Chris delivered a coffee to you?"

Reid blushed, feeling utterly ridiculous. "I know that it sounds stupid, but the truth is that Chris hates me and it just seems odd that he would go out of his way to deliver anything at all to me, and then pretend that he had bought it for me."

"Are you sure that you're not reading too much into this?"

"I could be, I don't know. All I know is that I have a really bad feeling about this. Chris really doesn't like me at all and it makes me nervous that he was making comments about my personal life."

"Are you sure that he even knows that you and Luke are serious? Maybe he was just making conversation."

"I don't know what he knows about Luke and me or not. He did see us together the other day at Al's and I'm guessing that we looked like we were together. I'm not exactly known for my subtlety."

Bob acknowledged that Reid had a point there, he had heard about Luke and Reid through the hospital grapevine but he really hadn't thought they were serious, until now. "He might have seen Luke and Noah together and assumed that they were a couple again. Those two have a habit of breaking up and making up. It's hard to keep track of them. It's possible that he wasn't even thinking about you and Luke dating. You are quite a bit older than Luke and he may have thought that the two of you were just having a fling."

"That does make sense," Reid agreed, feeling better after hearing Bob's rational explanations for Doogie's behaviour.

"There is one other piece to this strange puzzle that I would like your thoughts on," Reid added.

"Okay," Bob replied.

"When Luke came to deliver the latte to me the nurses wouldn't let him into my office. Do you have any idea why the nurses would do that?"

Bob smiled in that grandfatherly way of his. "I'm betting that the nurses were trying to protect you. As you mentioned subtlety is not your strong suit. You were so happy for a couple of weeks when you and Luke started dating. Everyone noticed, I heard about it from several employees. Then you two had a fight and the nurses probably thought they were protecting you, and themselves, by prohibiting Luke from seeing you."

"How would they be protecting themselves?" Reid asked feeling perplexed.

Bob just stared at Reid. Interpersonal communication is not your forte! Thank God that you and Luke are back together, hopefully he can help you with those!

"I'm guessing that they were afraid that seeing Luke would incur your wrath and that while Luke would experience some of it, he could leave, the nurses would have to deal with you for the rest of their shifts."

"Ah," Reid nodded as comprehension dawned on him. "You make a good point."

"I'm always glad to help. Do you want me to talk to Chris about any of this?"

"No thanks Bob. I would appreciate if you didn't tell him that Luke and I are back together. I'm going to try to keep my private life just that, private."

"Certainly," Bob smiled at Reid. Good luck with that! "Are you going to speak to the nurses?"

"No," Reid shook his head. "I've asked Luke not to visit me at work. I really do want to keep my private life private."

Bob nodded and sent Reid back to work.

Once Bob was alone in his office he began to wonder if Chris might be up to something after all. He knew that he had responded to Reid with reasonable explanations, but he couldn't help the niggling feeling that told him something was off with his son. He would have to keep an eye on things.