"Hello?" he sounded tired but upbeat Luke thought.

"Hey bubby, it's me."

"Hi. I thought you'd be here by now."

"I know. Sorry. There's something I have to do first… it shouldn't take long and I'll be there right after, okay?"

"Okay. Um… Luke?"

"Yeah."

There was a pause and Luke waited for him to find his voice.

"I missed you last night and… I wanted to say… I'm sorry."

"For what?"

"Yesterday… what I said…? I won't hold it against you if one day it's all too much and you WANT to leave…"

"I'll never leave you…"

"…but I don't want you too. I never wanted you too. I need you. I'm sorry I said it."

"Oh Noah…" He wished he could reach through the phone and hold the man to him.

"I love you and… as long as you WANT to love me back… I'm going to let you."

"You know? I feel like a ten ton weight has just been lifted off me."

"I'm sorry. It's just because I want the best for you… you know?"

"Don't be sorry. Just… thank you…" He was so chocked up with emotion he barely got the last two words out.

"Okay. Well. You'll be here later?" There was hope in that voice. There was hope!

"You bet!"

Luke closed his phone and stood before the police station door, taking a moment to recover. He let out a shot of breath and then smiled through his tears. Finally! He got it! Noah finally understood!

"Luke? You okay?" Josh asked, nervously fidgeting beside him.

"Yeah. Yeah I'm good. Are you ready for this?"

"Not really, but I think I need to do it."

Luke nodded at him with a comforting smile. "You can go first… or do you want me to come with you?"

"No, I can manage. Thanks Luke. And I mean for everything! I'm just so sorry. I can't believe what he's done! You know? I mean my dad's a good guy! He's never…"

"Josh! I want you to stop apologising to me, okay? You are not your father! You are not responsible for his choices or his actions! Do you understand me?" His voice was firm.

Josh nodded tearing slightly.

They entered the police station and a couple of officers, recognising Luke, immediately stepped forward in case of an incident, but Detective Mullins was waiting for them and indicated they should stand down.

"Hello Luke and you must be Josh?"

The boy nodded.

"I'll need a statement from you Josh… if you think you can manage it today."

"Anything." Josh stated seriously.

"Where is he?" Luke asked, anxious to get the visit over with so that he could get back to Noah.

"Now Luke, if you don't keep your temper at bay in there I'll pull you out. Got that?"

"I'm not going in first anyway. Josh wants to see his dad."

"Okay, well then, Luke you wait here… Josh, follow me."

Luke nodded encouragingly at him as he followed behind the detective shuffling his feet and staring at the floor, suddenly looking a lot less determined than he had that morning. They reached the interview room and the detective was about to open it when Josh stopped and looked back at Luke.

"What is it Josh?"

He shook on one leg for a minute, "Will you… can you come in with me?"

Luke smiled, "Sure."

"If you're going in, I'm going in…" The detective warned.

"You okay with that Josh?" Luke asked him.

"Yeah." He muttered.

"Right. Let's do this then."

...

Luke raced into Noah's room and almost searched every square foot of it, even under the bed, before sanity set in and he stopped to take a breath. Where is he?

There were missed calls from the hospital when he and Josh left the police station and when he called; the nurse said Noah had been rushed into surgery. That was all he heard before he was running for a cab, Josh hot on his heels.

"Nurse!" he yelled, exiting the room past a shocked Josh. "Somebody?"

Where were they all? The place seemed devoid of hospital staff!

"Luke?"

He turned and his eyes widened at the sight of Lucinda and John coming towards him.

"Grandmother?"

"We tried to phone you Luke. I am so sorry."

"Sorry?" His heart stopped beating and he shook his head, "No…"

"Oh darling!" Lucinda cut in, grabbing his shoulders, suddenly realising what he thought she meant, "Noah's fine sweetheart!"

"Oh…" It was a breath and he keeled over for a minute before standing upright again. "Do you mind not doing that to me? I don't think my heart can take much more!"

"I apologise dear."

"Where is he then?"

"Well!" said John, "It's a good thing your grandmother is a resourceful woman, Luke! It seems we were just in time!"

"Just in time for what? Would somebody please explain to me why Noah's back in surgery?"

"We tried to get hold of you Luke but your phone kept going to voicemail."

"I know! Damn! I was at the police station talking to Miles Carmody."

They stared at him blankly but then decided not to question how that went under the circumstances.

"Come to the waiting room, and I'll explain everything to you…" Lucinda said gently, leading Luke by his shoulders.

Josh followed silently from behind.

"John was treating me to lunch at the Lakeview late yesterday afternoon and I ran into a Doctor I met more than a year ago. At that time he was Chief of Neurology at Oakdale Memorial and I remembered we had had a short discussion on Dr Oliver…"

"On Reid?"

"Yes. I told him how you were the one to bring Dr Oliver to Oakdale and that he was looking into curing Noah of his blindness. Anyway, he thanked me for my wonderful grandson," she smiled at him proudly, "and told me that he was being allowed to sit in on Dr Oliver's operations."

Luke's eyes widened as he realised where she was going, "Did he sit in on Noah's operation?"

"Yes sweetheart, he did! Noah's and other patients' too… and he learnt a lot! The moment he heard what had happened he told me we only had a short period of time to help Noah."

"What?"

"Apparently he needs to work with the swelling and if we wait for the swelling to come down it may be too late!"

"So you brought him here?"

"Yes, of course I did. He's in the theatre with Noah as we speak."

"And… and… can he help?" The question was extremely tentitive.

"He thinks so. He seems sure."

"Oh my god! I'm almost too scared to get my hopes up."

She hugged him.

"Thank you! Thank you so much Grandmother!"

As they waited for news on Noah, Luke's eyes fell on Josh, seated quietly in the corner, contemplating the state of his life. The meeting with his father had been interesting to say the least, and Luke wasn't really sure what to make of it.

...

Miles was obviously shocked as his son walked in, accompanied by Luke and Detective Mullins.

"Josh…" he whispered.

"What have you done Dad?"

His father looked away from him and back at Mullins, "This wasn't part of the deal! I said I would speak to THAT!" he nodded toward but didn't look at Luke, "That was the agreement!"

"My name is Luke."

The man glared at him and Luke could see the hatred there as Miles fought to keep it at bay.

Luke, for his part, was fighting his own battle as he held that gaze. He couldn't help the feeling of de je vu; like he'd been in this situation before. There were so many things he wanted to say to this man, so many questions he had, but he didn't want to take this moment away from Josh. It was his right! He had earned it!

"Josh asked me whether he could come with and I said he could."

"Why did you do this Dad?"

It seemed his father could not look at him instead he stared at his hands as they lay interlocked on the table before him. He cleared his throat, "I'm sorry I did it. I wanted to hurt him…"

Luke clenched his fists together but remained silent.

"…but I never meant to blind him… I… I was drunk and angry…"

"He was walking away!" Josh reminded him.

"I know." He shook his head, "I just had all these images in my head of you and him and…"

"What?" Luke exclaimed, not able to keep quiet at that.

The man glared that hatred back at him. "Well! We all know what you sickos get up to, don't we!"

Luke made a move towards him but Detective Mullins was quick to pull him back, "Luke! I'm warning you! Keep your cool or you're out of here!"

Luke's breathing was hard and heavy but he nodded and stood firm. "You see this?" he asked, holding up his hand to show the man his wedding ring and ignored the way the man scoffed at him. Fighting to keep the shudder out of this voice he continued, "This means love and commitment and it's the same as any other union in this world! How dare you? How dare you sit there after what YOU did and pass judgment on us? You almost killed him! And now he's blind! Possibly for the rest of his life!"

The man shrank back some, "Yeah well I am sorry for that okay? I wouldn't wish that on anyone!"

"He's been blind before Dad." Josh whispered.

"What?" The man's eyebrows rose.

"Noah. He was blind before and he got his eyesight back! And you've take that away form him! I've looked up to you my whole life Dad! I've listened to you and I've admired you and now you do THIS?"

Luke was surprised when the man actually started crying at the words from his son.

"Can you even imagine that Dad? To be blinded a second time? And… and he was only trying to help me! He was trying to help US Dad!" Josh sniffed and wiped his nose with the back of his hand. "He doesn't even know us! He didn't owe us anything and he STILL tried to help!"

His father shook his head, "There is no excuse! I'm ashamed for what I did. I shouldn't have done it and I'll take my punishment for that. But… but that doesn't change anything for me! I can't accept this life you are choosing! It's disgusting and it's WRONG! If you want back into this family you have to start behaving right!"

"Oh like YOU Dad? Forget it! You're asking me to deny who I am, just so that you don't have to feel embarrassed at the Country Club!"

"You will NOT talk to me that way! You hear me! I am still your father?"

"Are you? Are you really MY father? Or does that only apply to the non-existent straight version of me? The perfect kid you've made up in your head?"

"Josh! You're just a kid and you're at the age when people start having all these strange feelings and…"

"STOP! Stop trying to make out like this is some kind of phase with me! Nobody put these ideas into my head! I KNOW who I am! I'm Josh Carmody. I like swimming and surfing and tennis and I'm good at school and I'm gay. And you can't change that!"

"Now you look! It's time that you learnt some respect and started to behave like a man!"

"Oh I have respect Dad. Only it's not for you! It's for Luke and for Noah, because when I needed a father it wasn't you who stepped up! It was them! And they've had their lives messed up because of it!" He took a deep and chocked breath, "I love you Dad. I do. But from this moment on you are no longer my father… My father's dead."

With that, Josh turned and left the room.

Miles stood and made to go after him but Detective Mullins blocked his path and shook his head.

"This is all your fault!" The man spat at Luke. "You lost me my son!"

Luke felt suddenly sorry for the sad man before him. A man losing his son all for the sake of some misguided idea.

"You didn't need my help for that, Mr Carmody. You did a fine job all by yourself. I hope you realise that one day! For your sake as well as for his, I really hope you do. And until then, so long as he doesn't have a home with you, he'll always have one with us."

Even though, on first entering the room he so much to say, Luke felt suddenly deflated. What was the point? It wouldn't change anything. He sighed and followed Josh out of the room.

...

When Noah opened his eyes it was dark. He was slowly getting used that again; no longer waking up in a blind panic before remembering. But that didn't mean he was okay with it! Far from it! He wanted to cry and scream and throw things and hit someone, just like the last time. Because it was that same anger and frustration boiling inside him…

But Luke…

Luke and how he felt about Luke was different this time. It was Luke's right to love him, Noah, the way he chose to. It wasn't Noah's right to take that away from him. And he realised that this time. That despite not wanting Luke to have to care for him for the rest of his life, what he wanted didn't matter. If he loved Luke he had to allow Luke to love him. Anything else would hurt him. And Noah would never hurt Luke again.

And there was an enormous comfort in that and it was this comfort that was keeping the anger at bay. It was giving him hope and making him feel secure, even with a shaky future. He was thinking about this and then remembered Lucinda and Dr Coleson; who had come all the way from Oakdale to help him by using Reid's methods. And he felt a sudden stab of disappointment because he was awake and it was still black… only… he moved his head slightly and noticed a haze, a faint wobbling of lines within the darkness that weren't there before. Not light so much as a form or a shape.

He patted the bed beside him, looking for the call button but instead finding the warmth of a hand and then feeling up that arm to find the hair, that texture he knew so well.

"Luke?" he spoke but it came out as a dry and raspy whisper and he realised how thirsty he was. "Water…"

He also realised that he didn't have much energy in that exploring hand. He patted the cheek he found softly and felt him stir beneath his fingers.

"Luke…?"

"Noah!" he shouted the name and Noah heard his body shoot upwards.

"Water please…"

"Oh, yes! Sorry baby… I fell asleep… here you go."

He felt Luke's hand lift the back of his head and the straw tickle his lips. He drank thirstily and groaned as Luke took it way.

"Just a little bit. Doctor's orders!"

"Damn doctors! Think they know… everything!"

Luke laughed and it filled his soul.

"How you feeling bubby?"

"WONDERFUL!" he felt instantly bad for the sarcasm. He made a note to try and stop using Luke as a battering board.

"Still dark?"

Noah frowned, not sure whether to mention the lines. He didn't want to get Luke's hopes up. He still wasn't sure they were actually there. "Yeah…sorry… I didn't mean too be all…"

"It's okay…"

He searched out Luke's hand with his own and Luke helped by grabbing his.

"I'm glad you're here." Noah whispered sleepily.

"Me too."

...

Hope you liked it...