Disclaimer – If you recognize it, then I don't own it.
*Notes – Thank you to everyone who's been reviewing! It really means a lot to see that people are enjoying this story.
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"Constable Harrington?" Noah repeated from his spot on the floor, before flipping onto his knees to gather the papers strewn around him. "I'm so sorry sir, I didn't see you coming around the corner." Noah knew it wasn't his fault that he had hit Eric, but some instinctive part of him had the apology flowing from his lips before he knew what he was saying.
Noah's eyes dropped to the papers he was holding, and he saw Toxicology Report printed across the top of one of them in block lettering. As if Eric had been able to read Noah's mind, he reached down and snatched the papers away from Noah. Just as quickly, he pushed Noah away and began gathering the papers up himself.
Noah stood upright, awkwardly watching the blonde. He wanted nothing more than to go, but felt as if he should stay and at least help; after all, he did bump into him. After an uncomfortable silence, Noah asked, "Were those the results from the drug test?"
Eric stiffened before standing up, clutching the papers tight to his chest. The action seemed comical on a man who was nearly 6"2, like a small child holding a teddy bear, but Noah chose not to comment on the humor – he doubted that the Constable would appreciate it.
"Yes." Eric snapped, his gaze not on Noah but on the floor, looking at the files still scattered on the carpeted ground. Noah reached down to grab a paper that was resting by his feet, but stopped halfway through when Eric practically growled, "Don't."
Standing upright, Noah realized that he should get the hell away from Eric. After all, hadn't he nearly strangled Dallas? Instead, Noah found himself asking, "What were the results?" As soon as the question was out of his mouth, Noah wished he could take it back. A flash of anger flashed through Eric's eyes, so quick that Noah almost missed it.
Interpreting Eric's silence as a cue to leave, Noah reached down and scooped his phone off of the ground before walking away. He was halfway down the hallway when he heard the Constable yell "Wait!" Turning around in shock, he saw Eric behind him, his papers still scattered about the floor.
"Yes, sir?" Noah asked hesitantly, his gut instinct telling him to turn around and keep walking. That instinct, coupled with the knowledge of how badly Eric had harmed Dallas, had Noah feeling the tingle of wariness as it flooded through his body.
"I'm sorry about how rude I was to you." Eric smiled shamefully, "I've just been stressed out and I took it out on you. You wanted to know about the test results?"
Noah nodded, trying to wrap his brain around the sudden change of heart. Despite the charisma practically oozing from Eric, Noah felt like he was watching a highly trained actor, paid to convince Noah. Of what Noah needed to be convinced about, he didn't know. All he knew was that that feeling was there.
"His BAC – blood alcohol content – was at 0.15, and he tested clean for drugs." Harrington explained. "The legal limit for blood alcohol is 0.08, so you can imagine that he was very intoxicated."
"He tested clean for drugs?" Noah repeated, trying to wrap his brain around it. Kevin was lying? "And he was drunk? Wait… how did you get the test results back so soon? Doesn't it normally take over two weeks to get them back?"
"Normally it does," Eric replied, "but I put a 'rush' on the testing, so it was done early." Once again, charisma radiated from the Constable as he smiled, and yet Noah found himself trusting the other man less and less. Maybe it was because of that charm; one thing Noah had learned from his time on army bases was that charismatic men generally hid behind their charm; Noah didn't want to know what Eric could possibly be hiding. Don't be ridiculous; he might be hiding something, but he's telling me the truth now. He wouldn't lie about something like this - it would be too easy to check.
"Oh, okay." Noah mumbled, wondering if he could've possibly come up with a less suave answer. "Well, I've got to go though, so thank you for the information." He had no where to go, but he needed to be alone, to think of what the ramifications of the drug testing were.
"Dallas Griffin ordered private drug testing, though." Eric continued, still smiling and completely ignoring Noah's statement. "He stole a urine sample and sent it to a private lab. Odd, isn't it?"
"Yeah, definitely." Noah replied awkwardly, Eric's gaze reminding Noah of a specimin sample laid before a microscope.
"That's what I thought, too." With a short nod, Eric turned around and headed back to his scattered belongings, leaving Noah to walk out of the station with a million questions bouncing around in his head.
Luke was sitting on a stack of hay bales outside of Shadowdancer's stall, his back pressed up against the wooden stall door. Occasionally, Shadow would butt her head against the back of Luke's neck, as if to remind her that she was there.
The stables had been Luke's sanctuary throughout his life, from when he was recovering from Damian's first kidnapping as a child to when he had been struggling with his sexuality. But fear had almost kept him from embracing the barn. He'd almost been afraid that this time, he was too messed up; that not even his horses could comfort him.
He had been wrong – the moment he'd stepped into the barns, that familiar rush of calm swept through him, clearing his head and allowing him to breathe again. In the stables, he couldn't lie; not to himself and not to the horses. He could admit things that terrified him, things that he didn't want to know about himself, because with the strong heat of unconditional love to his back, those things didn't seem so scary.
Luke pulled his legs up tighter to his chest as he stretched his neck back, allowing him to rest his cheek against Shadow's velvety muzzle. She nickered softly to him, and Luke closed his eyes in response, listening only to Shadow's deep and steady breathing, only feeling velvet hair against his cheek.
"Luke?" A voice called into the barn, causing Luke to jump and for Shadow to spook. She retreated to the back of her stall while Luke pressed a hand to his heart, trying to calm his suddenly rapid heartbeat. He'd thought the voice was Noah for a too-brief second, before realizing that the tone was young, the voice feminine. Natalie. Luke couldn't decide if he was happy or upset that Noah hadn't come back.
"Lu-uke," Natalie called, running into the barn. "I know you're in here, so you better come out! Why are you hid- oh. There you are." Natalie ran up to Luke and vaulted over the hay bales that were nearly as tall as she was, burying her face in his chest.
"Nat, what's up? Is everyone okay?" Luke asked, every muscle stiffening as adrenaline kicked through him. Instantly, endless scenarios ran through his head, and panic flooded through him.
"Yeah, Luke, everything's fine! Don't look so worried." Natalie teased, her head still resting against Luke's chest. "I just missed you." The innocent words of his youngest sister had Luke wrapping his arms around her, pulling her against him in what could only be described as a bear hug. Thank god I didn't loose you, too.
Luke sat in silence for a long moment before he felt Natalie shift against him, her cue that the 'sappy time' was over. "How did you know I was here?" Luke asked, genuinely curious. He knew that no one had seen him exit the house, and he hadn't been making enough noise to attract someone's attention.
To his surprise, Natalie rolled her eyes and said, "You always come out here whenever Noah drives away from the house really fast. Duh!" Natalie pulled out of Luke's embrace and sat across from him, crossing her legs in the same way Luke had while he been in elementary school. He was once again reminded about how young his sister was, even though she had been taking the past couple weeks so well. She hadn't been her usual spunky self, but she'd been the most calm and accepting, something Luke had found odd.
"Luke?" Natalie asked, her brown eyes showing a childlike confusion. "Why aren't you tickling me? You always tickle me when I say duh!" She placed her small hand on his knee before continuing. "Are you sad?"
"What? No, Nat, I'm fine." Luke smiled, reaching over to tousle her hair. Natalie sighed heavily before tapping Luke's knee with her hand like a mother scolding a child, causing Luke to raise his eyebrows in surprise.
"Luke, you're a very very bad liar." Natalie stated simply, crossing her arms. "Wanna know a secret?" She asked suddenly, the abrupt change of topic threatening to give Luke whiplash. "I get sad too, sometimes."
"Really?" Luke asked sarcastically, giving Natalie's shoulder a gentle push. "I never would've guessed it!"
"No, Luke." Natalie said, her face more serious than Luke had seen before. "I mean, I get sad when I think about Ethan, too."
"I know, Nat, I know." Luke murmured, thinking his sister needed a shoulder to cry on. He reached out to her, surprised when she didn't lean forward into him.
"I get sad about Ethan," she repeated, "but you know what? Daddy said he's happy with the angels, and that one day we'll all get to see him again. So if he's happy, than I can't be too sad, right? Because if I'm sad, then I'm not sad for him, I'm only sad for me." To his horror, Luke felt the all too familiar sensation of tears burning in his eyes; not tears of sorrow, but tears of love at the sweet innocence of his little sister, his little Nat.
Swallowing heavily, Luke forced a smile before saying, "I know. But I'm not just sad about Ethan, Nat." The words sounded incredibly selfish – after all, how could Luke have a problem compared to loosing his brother? – but Luke realized that maybe that was the first step to healing; returning to life and all of its normal problems.
"Then what are you sad about, Luke?" Natalie asked, before adding, "And don't lie to me. I can tell when you're lying, you know!" Luke was going to lie anyways, but realized that his little sister was both too stubborn and too smart to accept a lie as the truth.
"Remember when you said that you knew I was here because you saw 'Noah drive away really fast'?" Luke quoted, trying to explain the situation in words that Natalie would understand. "It was because we had a fight. And that's got me feeling sad."
"Then why don't you make up?" Natalie asked as if it was the most obvious solution in the world.
"Because, Nat… he made a big mistake, and it hurt me. And I said some not-so-nice stuff to him, too. It's not that easy to just make up." Luke was about to change the topic, but Natalie beat him to speaking.
"Not if you love him." She said simply. When Luke stared at her, she rolled her eyes again and clarified, "It's easy to make up with him if you love him. Say you're sorry! Mom makes me and Faith do that all the time."
Natalie suddenly jumped off of the hay bales, reaching her hand up to Luke. "Come on, it's too hot in here to stay!" She yelled, her young self back. "Let's go out to the pond or something."
Luke watched Natalie run out of the barn, her ponytail bouncing, before jumping off of the scratchy bales and chasing her. For now, he could push away his fears about him and Noah, the investigation, Damian, his episode in the bathroom, all of it. For now, he could simply be the brother that Natalie needed. Maybe it is that easy.
*
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Luke scrubbed his sopping wet hair with the towel he found lying on a chair on the front porch before wrapping it around his body and stepping into the house. After his impromptu, still-clothed swim with Natalie and Faith – Faith had joined in after she came down to the farm to see what the commotion was all about – Luke was feeling just the slightest bit more relaxed, which was a miracle in itself.
Despite himself, he'd been dwelling on Natalie's words to him in the barn – it's easy to make up with him if you love him. He was still mad as hell at Noah for lying to him, that was for sure. But the niggling thought kept crossing his mind that maybe he needed to let this go, and to talk to Noah instead of being his usual stubborn, judgmental self. After all, wouldn't I have done the same if the situation were reversed? Reg's murder investigation flashed through his mind, and Luke winced at how hypocritical he had been.
Plus, the regret Luke felt over his harsh words to Noah was killing him inside, and he knew that he couldn't continue to carry around that kind of burden. Deciding that he would talk to Noah as soon as he got home from the station, Luke ran up to his bedroom to exchange his soaking wet clothes for baggy sweatpants and a loose t-shirt that had definitely seen better days.
Luke was about to open the door that led into the kitchen when he heard footsteps pacing, and his grandmother's voice. After waiting and realizing she was alone, Luke realized that she was probably on the phone. He was about to head back to his room to give her some privacy when her words floated to his ear, and he found himself rooted to the ground, unable to move.
"The test results are in?" She barked into the phone, "well, what did they say?" Silence. "What do you mean, you can't tell me over the phone?" Another pause, this one longer as the person on the other end tried to explain the situation. "Darling, don't lecture me about procedure. Tell me, or I'll-" Yet another break in the conversation, before she asked, "And what does that do to a person?" What seemed like the thousandth silence spread through the room, lasting so long that Luke assumed she had hung up. He was about to open the door and ask her what the hell she was talking about when Lucinda's crisp voice rang through the air once again. "Thank you somuch for your help, darling. And don't you worry, I won't tell anyone about you breaking protocol, or my name wouldn't be Lucinda Walsh." With that, the snap of a cell phone closing could be heard throughout the room.
Luke found himself bringing a trembling hand to his mouth, resting his chin on his knuckles as the backlash of Noah lying to him again stung every cell in his body. All thoughts of apologizing to Noah flew out of his mind as he realized that not only had his boyfriend held back the truth on him, but he had involved his grandmother.
Furious, Luke swung the door open, relishing in the loud bang made as it slammed against the wall. Lucinda wheeled around, her eyes wide in shock before her expression smoothed over.
"Luke! How are you, how are you?" She asked while she twisted an ostentatiously large ring arond her finger.
"Don't." Luke spat out, utterly disgusted. "Why didn't you tell me that Noah asked you to have private testing done on Kevin's urine sample?"
Any hopes Luke had of Lucinda proving him wrong, explaining that he misinterpreted an innocent conversation died when her eyes hardened into what Luke secretly referred to as her business mode. The look meant a fight was looming, and Luke found eager for it in his desperation for answers.
"Because, darling," she began, "he didn't want you to be stressed out about this, especially if it was nothing. And to be frank, I agreed."
"You agreed?" Luke mocked, his copyrighted bitch tone coming into play. "You didn't even consider to think that maybe I didn't want to be left in the dark? That maybe I would've appreciated knowing what was going on, and that I didn't want my boyfriend and my grandmother keeping this kind of secret from me?"
"Oh Luke, I love you, but grow up!" Lucinda snapped, causing Luke's jaw to drop in shock. He'd been expecting rationalizations, a plead for forgiveness, not for Lucinda to turn around and insult him.
"Wh- what?" He managed to choke out. "How do I need to grow up?"
"You asked it darling, not me." Lucinda muttered before raising her voice and continuing. "Your boyfriend – your sweet, sweet Noah – has been wracked with guilt for keeping this secret from you. He didn't tell me, but I can tell that kind of thing. And why did he keep it a secret?" Lucinda looked at Luke expectantly.
"Because he thought I'd 'react badly'." Luke quoted bitterly, hating himself for playing along with Lucinda's game. Almost unconsciously, he curled his hand into a fist, anticipating the bite of fingernails against his skin. No. Just as quickly, he flexed his hand, feeling shaken at how reflexive the action had been.
"No, no no!" She cried, echoing Luke's thoughts. He thought she'd realized what he had been about to do, but quickly realized she was continuing their argument. "He did it because he loves you too much! He loves you too much to have you worrying about something that could've been nothing. And you're mad about that, darling? Seriously?"
Luke wanted nothing more than to shake his grandmother and make her see the problem, but settled for crossing his arms instead. "He lied to me, grandmother! Why can't you understand that?"
"You lie, I lie, he lies; it's all the same." She said calmly. "How many times have you lied to that boy?" Luke's stunned silence was her only answer. "Forgive him, Luke. You have more things to worry about than this stupid, stupid fight. Kevin's test came back positive."
Luke's protest over the 'stupid, stupid fight' died on his lips. "The… the test was positive, for drugs?" he asked, the knowledge like a ton of bricks on his shoulders. "Couldn't he have taken them himself?"
"Not unless Mr. Davis has been injecting horse sedatives into his veins." Lucinda answered briskly. "He had copious amounts of ketamine in his system, along with only the faintest traces of alcohol."
"But it was still there!" Luke cried. He knew it was irrational, but he needed Kevin to be guilty, needed someone to blame. Without that, he had nothing stable.
"Luke, darling, you would have just as much alcohol in you if you swallowed some mouthwash." Lucinda replied, her tone softening as she saw her grandson's face paling.
"What… what does ketamine do?" Luke asked as he pulled out a wooden-backed chair and sat down at the table.
"It's a hallucinogen, and it-" Whatever ketamine did to a person, Luke didn't find out, because at that moment Noah burst into the farm.
"Lucinda!" He practically yelled, not seeing Luke in his hunched down position. "I talked to the Constable, Eric Harrington, at the station, and he…" Noah's voice faded off into a whisper as he rounded the kitchen's counter and saw Luke.
"He what, Noah?" Luke asked slowly, deliberately as he rose from his chair. "He what?"
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Sorry for the rather awkward ending – the chapter would've been way too long if I ended it at the next most convenient spot. All feedback is greatly appreciated!