Disclaimer: Do you see Reid and Luke in bed together? Do you see Noah and Richard living happily ever after in Hollywood? Do you see Barbara free from Iris' clutches so that that storyline can finally end? No? Then I don't own ATWT or anything related to it.

CHAPTER 7

Bob Hughes had had a terrible month. His staff was pissed at him, his son was exasperated and disappointed in him and his wife…well his wife wasn't talking to him at the moment. And that was the hardest part of it all. Bob had had some difficulties in his life before, but he had always known that he could count on Kim, his soulmate. Yet, it seemed that even their love wasn't enough in this case. And really it broke Bob's heart. He could deal with being on the bad side of his hospital staff but with Kim…No. He had to fix this. Actually he had to fix a lot of things but fixing things with Kim was first because really, on his own, he had no idea how to make things right with Reid…or how to keep the hospital afloat without Mona Cross' money. He entered the living room where his wife was reading a novel as carefully as possible. He didn't want Kim to go running from him…again. Every time he was in the same room as her, she would go somewhere else.

"Kim?" Bob asked tentatively. "May I talk with you please?" She ignored him, but she didn't leave. 'Well at least we've made progress' thought Bob. He figured it was as good an invitation as he would get. "I…It seems that I have made a mistake. A mistake that came with a very heavy cost. Kim, we've been together for so long. I always knew I could count on you and right now I need you. I thought about my actions these past few months and I know that I've made some terrible choice. Every time I have made an important decision, you have been there by my side, helping me. Yet, when I decided to sell the hospital to Invector, I didn't say anything to you. It was by coincidence that you heard about it. And for that I am sorry. I am so sorry Kim. We are a couple. We take important decisions together and although you don't work at the hospital, you've always been invested into what was happening there and it was disrespectful of me not to include you into my decision. However, you have to understand Kim, that I know you almost as much as I love you. I knew you wouldn't agree with my choice to sell the hospital to a company. I knew it because deep down, buried beneath a pile of denial, I knew I didn't agree with it either. You were right. Everything you said and I avoided listening to was right. But at the time, I…I didn't know what to do to save my hospital from this financial crisis. I still don't know what to do. However, I know that any decision that I make that could have and might still cost me one of my best doctors and many of my nurses as well, and that is disapproved by both my wife and son, is a bad decision. And I need to make that awful decision right. But I…I do not know how to repair my mistake. I was hoping that you could find it in your heart to forgive the man who loves you so much for his blatant stupidity and guide me, once again." Kim looked at him with sad eyes.

"Oh Bob" Kim sighed "You great fool" Bob sat beside her and took her hand,

"I need your help with this Kim. I'm unsure of what to do."

"What you need is more than just my help. Bob…when I found out about the ultimatum you had given Dr. Oliver, I told you what I thought about it. I told you I thought you were making a mistake"

"Yes and I realize that now. Much too late I admit but…"

"But" his wife interrupted him. "That ultimatum wasn't your only mistake. It wasn't your biggest mistake either." Bob looked at Kim, slightly confused about what she was implying. "You're biggest mistake wasn't issuing the ultimatum, but failing to notice the consequences it brought on and taking it back before it was too late. You can drop that silly choice now, but the damage is already done. Reid is in a hospital bed and he has probably lost his trust in you. Dr. Oliver is a difficult man in many ways. But I saw how he was with you Bob. It had changed so much since he arrived here. He acted mostly the same, but that's just how he is. I could see though that he had come to respect you and to trust your judgment. He had esteem for you and that's not something usual for him. He trusted you with himself. You fancied yourself his mentor in this hospital and yet you betrayed him. You let him down in a way he would have never imagined. You, who had been promoting friendship and family to him since he had arrived, deprived him of those things. Reid will get better physically and eventually, I hope he will get better emotionally thanks to Luke…but even if you take everything back now, it won't change that you lost his trust and his esteem. Those things are going to be extremely hard to get back. He's not a man who lets people in easily and he had let you in somewhat. Apologies are necessary, but I fear that it won't be enough for him to let you in again. I do not know if that will ever be possible, even with time. Reid Oliver is a very closed off person after all. That might make things at the hospital tense and he might leave. And that's only Reid. Luke…now that will be your worst challenge, darling. Reid liked you a lot, for Reid anyway, so maybe…maybe he will forgive you. He'll be distant and wary and won't let you get close to him, but he could forgive you. Luke however….he may be a forgiving person but you hurt the man he loves Bob. I saw the look in his eyes when he confronted you. That boy may not forgive you for a long time and he certainly won't trust you anywhere near Reid. I could be wrong of course, but Luke did seem particularly closed-off towards you the last time you interacted"

"Then what should I do Kim? How can I make things right with these boys?"

"With time…and many apologies."

"Alright. I suppose I should start now" Bob said getting up, but Kim stopped him.

"Just keep in mind that it might be better if Luke isn't present when you apologize to Reid. Not only do they both deserve separate apologies but it might be too hard to get them to listen to you if they're you apologize, the person you apologize to needs to be open to it. It's useless to say sorry to someone who puts defensive walls between you and him. And I fear that Luke would do just that. He is not going to be open-minded about you talking to Reid after you hurt him so much. Luke could be a negative presence in this case. No, you need to speak with Reid alone, without Luke trying to push you away from them. If Reid ends up accepting you apologies and accepts to try to forgive you, in time, Luke will follow. Although I still suggest you try to apologize to him too." Bob kissed his wife.

"Thank you, Kim. And I am sorry about how I have been acting in the last couple of months. You were right. We'll have to find another solution to the hospital financial situation than Invector. I admit I'm at lost as to a solution to that problem too."

"Memorial Hospital is an important part of this town Bob. If its citizen knew about the hospital's troubles, I'm sure that many of them would want to help and many heads are much better than one when it comes to finding that kind of solutions. But first, start by explaining the situation to your hospital staff. They're the ones who will be most affected by this."

"Thank you. You are truly a life saver, darling" Bob kissed Kim one last time before leaving for the hospital. He had a lot of things to make right.

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Luke and Reid sat on the hospital bed together in silence, Reid's arm around Luke and Luke's head on Reid's shoulder. It was comfortable. Unfortunately, they still had one more subject to talk about.

"So" Reid said "Are we going to talk about the last elephant in the room?" Luke looked at him with a puzzled expression. "The ultimatum Luke. We still haven't figured out what to do about it"

"We shouldn't have to do anything about it" Luke said angrily. "That ultimatum was stupid and Bob should have never given it to you"

"True. But he did think he was doing the right thing for his hospital" Reid said carefully. He hadn't expected Luke to be this furious all of a sudden. It was strange, for he had never seen the young man act quite like that before.

"How can you even say that? How is making one of your doctors choose between personal and professional life be a good thing for anyone. We didn't do anything wrong Reid. We have the right to be together!" Luke screamed at him. Reid's eyes widened as he watch his boyfriend explode in frustration and anger. He'd better choose his words carefully, because honestly, this Luke was unsettling and Reid Oliver wasn't comfortable with being unsettled.

"I know, Luke, calm down. What is this? I've never seen you so furious before. What is going on?"

"What do you think? I know I am partially to blame for what happened Reid, I know that. But none of this would have happened if Bob" Luke spat the older man's name "hadn't given you that stupid ultimatum. And then he didn't even notice that something was wrong with you for two months! He's the chief of staff for Pete's sake. He should have seen it!"

"Look, Luke. I'm as displeased as you are about the ultimatum. And was I hurt that Bob gave it to me and didn't fight for me or try to see how it would affect me? Yes, I was. For quite a bit of time surprisingly enough. And yes, I was disappointed and I felt…I just thought better of . But" Reid paused "I had a lot of free time recently to think and analyse situations Luke. And one of the things I've come to understand was that it wasn't as easy for Bob to make that decision as I originally thought it was." Reid tried to explain. Luke simply looked confused which, Reid decided, was much better at the moment than anger was. "It just doesn't make any sense. Bob Hughes has been telling me to get a life and to learn to love people since I first step foot in Oakhell. It's completely illogical for him to issue that kind of ultimatum."

"So?" Luke asked, still confused as to what Reid's point was.

" So, I don't think this ultimatum has anything to do with Bob's beliefs and everything to do with Mona Cross' beliefs"

"How so? She has a huge crush on you, so he thinks it's better if you appear single?" Luke said sarcastically. Reid shuddered.

"Argh. Luke please don't even joke about that. Imagining that woman liking me gives me the creeps." Luke rolled his eyes. "No seriously, I'll have nightmares. I mean, imagine she was interested in you"

"Ewww. Ok, ok. I get it. Still I don't understand what's your point"

"My point is, every working place has its own rules. As I pointed out to Bob, there wasn't any problems when his son dated Nurse Allison. Which means that Bob has no rules against interagency relationships."

"But Mona Cross and Invector might have" Luke completed.

"Exactly!" Reid said

Now Luke got it. Obviously Reid had had a lot of time to think about this. It made sense but Luke hadn't seen it before. Actually, the truth of the matter was, he had simply not cared. He hadn't cared about why Bob had made the ultimatum and how out of character it was for the older man: he had just care about what it had done to Reid and him and about how to make things right with the man he loved. In Luke's opinion, Dr. Bob Hughes could go to hell for all he cared. Sure he had liked the older man before and had respected him, but he could live without having any type of relationship with the old doctor. But it was obvious by Reid's reaction to Luke's anger that the older man still cared about Bob Hughes somewhat and wanted to try to make things right with him. Luke wasn't very keen on the idea of Bob Hughes having anything to do with the man he loved (hadn't he done enough already?) but obviously it was important to Reid, so Luke needed to at least keep his mouth shut and let the Bob try to make amends with his doctor.

"Alright, so what does it mean for us?" asked Luke "I don't think Bob will let Invector's deal go for us. He would have done so already if that was the case. Now, I could retreat as a donor and/or give up my chair on the committee, like I threaten Bob to do or I could invest in a neuro-wing at another hospital where you could work, like I also threaten Bob to do, or…"

"Wait, wait. You threatened Bob? You? When?" Reid asked, unbelieving what he was hearing.

"The day after you were hospitalized. Bob showed up at the hospital and when Chris told him about you, and Bob told Kim you were going to be fine and I… kinda blew up"

"Kinda blew up? What does that even mean?"

"Basically, I screamed at him like a banshee in front of everyone, implied or downright said he was many horrible things, basically told him f**k off, and threaten to take my money away or make you go work someplace else."

"Make me go someplace else?" Reid raised an eyebrow at his boyfriend.

"Well" Luke said blushing "I might have said that you would leave Memorial if I wanted you to."

"Really Mr. Snyder?"

"Well yes" Luke said sheepishly. Reid's expression was neutral and Luke couldn't tell if he had just said something that would trigger their first fight. "But in my defence I did say that it would need some convincing on my part before you agreed to do what I asked."

"Convincing as in blackmailing you mean" Reid teased

"Oh no I implied I wouldn't need anything like that. And I think I wouldn't." Luke said in a sure tone. Now that he was sure Reid wasn't angry or insulted, he could say what he really thought.

"Really?" Reid asked

"Yeah. I really think that if I told you that I don't like the idea of you working at Memorial, that you might just listen to me"

"Do you want me to leave Memorial Luke?" Reid asked seriously.

"Do you want to leave Memorial Reid?" Luke asked back "It's your choice. You're the one who has to work in a hospital. Me? I'll just support your choice and try to find a way around the ultimatum if you want to stay. Although, I have to tell you, I really don't want to have to put our relationship on hold and after the scene I made in front of Bob and most of the hospital staff, there's no way we'd be able to have a secret relationship."

"Then, we'll figure something else out. But first, I think we should talk to Bob."

"Why in the world would we do that?" asked Luke. Ok, so he had told himself he would let Bob near Reid for Reid's sake but it didn't mean that he wanted to talk to the older man now. Or at all really. First he was still angry at him and second…well Luke had been really mean to Dr. Hughes the last time they talked (well actually Luke screamed and Bob stood there rather flabbergasted) so a small part of him was a little shy and embarrassed at seeing him again. Luke just wasn't used to these kind of things.

"Because he's the one who holds the cards Luke. Whatever solution we come up with, if he thinks that solution still doesn't work, then we're back on square one."

"Alright. We'll talk to Bob then. I'll go tell Alli to send him in when he gets here."

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When Bob arrived at Memorial, he was informed by Allison that Luke and Reid wanted to see him. For the first time in a long while, Bob Hughes was seriously nervous about talking to one of his doctors. His wife had told him it would be easier if he talk to Reid without Luke being present and she was probably right. The last time Bob had seen Luke Snyder, the younger man had been lividly furious with him. He had never seen anything quite like it and he was wary of what was waiting for him in that hospital room. He would rather not be screamed at, at the moment. He knew he had been an idiot, but he wanted to make things right and he wouldn't have the chance to do that if young Luke tried to verbally murder him again. However, this needed to be done and if talking to Reid meant having to confront Luke, then Bob really had no room to complain about it after what he had done to those two. So it was with an unsettled stomach that Bob Hughes opened the door of Reid's hospital room. As soon as he stepped inside, Luke and Reid stopped their conversation and looked at him. Reid's face was neutral as per usual, although it seemed to hold a more fragile, for a lack of a better term, expression than normal. Although Reid had been getting much better recently, Bob could still see the results of those two dreadful months where Reid had been self-destructing and Bob had been completely oblivious about it. Luke's expression however left nothing for interpretation. The smile the young man had sported seconds before had dropped completely and his mouth was set into a hard line. He had crossed his arms on his chest, closing himself off. His eyes were glaring at Bob conveying a very clear message: if Bob did one single thing wrong, he was out. It was quite obvious that it hadn't been Luke's idea to ask to talk to Bob. However, he had obviously gone with it, which gave Bob some hope about making this first step.

"Hello Reid, Luke" said Bob politely. The atmosphere was awkward to say the least.

"Hello Bob" Reid said neutrally. Luke, wanting to be supportive of lover, decided it was better for all parties involved if he simply abstained to use his mouth. Talking and thinking about talking to Bob was one thing; facing Bob in real life was another matter entirely. Although Luke had accepted Reid's explanation of Bob's behaviour and had accepted to give the older man a chance, doing it for real was suddenly much harder than he had thought. The second Luke saw Bob entered, he was filled with all the pain, anger and resentment he had felt the day Reid was hospitalized. So yes, keeping his mouth shut was the best strategy.

"How may we help you Bob?" Reid asked. He wasn't sure if Bob was there because he wanted to or because he was told they had asked for it.

"Well, I was coming to see you when Nurse Stewart informed me that Luke and you wanted to see me. I was quite relieved to hear that; I would have hated to have bothered you over everything else."

"Everything else? Like what?" Luke asked abruptly, in a not-so-charming sarcastic tone. Darn it. Not saying anything was harder than he thought. Luke was not used to this level of anger and resentment and he didn't quite know how to keep it inside.

"Luke, please" Reid intervene.

"No, no Reid." Bob said indulgently "I appreciate what you're trying to do but young here has every right to be upset with me. I have caused the man he loves a lot of pain and if I know anything about Luke Snyder it's that he would do anything to protect the people he loves. I understand where he's coming from and to be honest, I don't think there's anything he could say right now that I haven't heard from him or from your nursing staff before." Luke smiled a little at that. He just loved these nurses!

"Still. I would rather this doesn't go into an hostile direction. I'm already quite tired as it is, I don't think I would handle that really well right now" Reid said. Immediately, Luke's glare disappeared and his eyes filled with guilt, worry and love. He dropped his arms and grabbed Reid's hand, squeezing it to convey how sorry he was about his behaviour. Reid simply kissed Luke's forehead, telling the younger man that he wasn't upset at all and that he should drop that feeling of guilt effective immediately. And Luke did. Bob simply looked at their silent conversation in wonderment. He had never thought he would get to see Reid this way. And yet, he was. Luke was so good for Reid; actually, no, he was perfect for Reid. Oh what a blind fool he had been.

"I must say that I do not quite know how to go about this. There are so many things I need to apologize for that I'm at lost as to where to begin" Luke and Reid left their personal little bubble and turned back toward Bob and looked at him with interest as to what he was going to say. "Seeing you like this just reinforces how wrong I was. Reid…When I asked you to choose between Luke and your position at this hospital, I did not realise I was asking you to choose between your personal and professional life. You see, when I saw you with Luke, it caught me completely by surprise. I had never even imagined that you two could be friendly to each other and therefore, I didn't realise that all those changes I had seen in you in the last months were mostly, if not all, due to Luke. I also didn't realise how serious you two were. The way you talked Reid made it seem like you weren't even dating and foolishly, I assumed it meant you weren't in love with each other. I didn't think loosing Luke would have a grave impact. If I had known, if I had seen you two just like this…well I really hope that I wouldn't have issued that ultimatum, because asking someone to choose between his job and his soulmate…"

Reid's eyebrows raised higher than ever before at the terminology used by his chief of staff. Soulmate? What in the world?

"Soul..Soulmate?" Luke stammered, putting his boyfriend's thoughts into words.

Bob laughed a little and sat on a nearby chair, making himself comfortable now that he believed he wouldn't be kicked out immediately.

"Yes Luke, soulmate. You can call me a romantic fool, but that's what I see when I look at you two. I see the kind of love that Kim and I have. The way you are so in tune with each other, the way you both help the other improve himself…You know Luke, over the years, I have heard quite a few people referring to you and Noah Mayer as the gay Bob and Kim, but to be truthful with you, I never believed that was true. Oh I know you loved Noah dearly…but I never saw between you two what Kim and I have. Well, I might have seen some of it coming from you, but from afar, I have never felt it coming from Noah. He loved you there's no doubt, but it just wasn't what I call soulmate love. And Kim is undoubtedly my soulmate even though we had some rough times. Not all loving relationship can make it through hard times"

Luke snorted. "Yeah I know all about that, trust me"

"Yes you do Luke. And looking at you and Reid, I see the kind of love that's meant to last through hard times. And I really, really hope that I wouldn't have been such an idiotic and cruel man as to push you two apart had I seen that. Unfortunately, we will never know. I cannot tell you how sorry I am for giving you that ultimatum, Reid. You are someone I have come to respect and to care for, and I betrayed that. And I'm so sorry I did. But most of all, I'm terribly sorry I didn't see how bad you were doing. You are an important person to me and to have failed you in such a way…well it's horrible. I made mistake upon mistake."

"Why did you?" Asked Reid, his tone harder than before. Having the older man apologize like that was just bringing forward all the feelings of anger, hurt and disappointment he had felt towards his mentor.

"Money" Bob spat in a disgusted tone. "This hospital is my life. I care about it and its people so much. When I realised how bad our finances were, I felt completely clueless as to how to save my hospital. So when I heard about Invector, it was like a miracle. Finally, I had a solution. But it wasn't a good one. It went against everything I have ever believed in and I knew that. But I needed to keep this hospital afloat so I used every bit of my ability for denial and buried the truth deep inside of me. But I still knew deep down that selling to Invector wasn't a good solution. That's why I avoided Kim in those two months where I let you down so much. Because I knew that my wife wouldn't stop pestering me until the truth I had buried came out. It's the same reason I avoided you. Because I knew that if I looked at you two often, I would immediately feel bad about the ultimatum and could potentially ruin any chances of this hospital being bought. I…I wish I could offer a better explanation than that for my behaviour, but I'm afraid I can't. I was desperate and I made serious mistakes and although I know it won't make things better between us, I still hope that both of you know that I am sincere in my apologies and that there is no longer any ultimatum, or Invector for that matter, and that I wish the best to both of you."

"Thank you, Bob. I appreciate that" Reid said. "I can't say that I wasn't angry, and hurt by how you acted and I can't say that I don't feel like that at all anymore. But I do understand that you wanted to do what was best for the hospital and I know that humans make stupid mistakes at time. I can't guarantee things won't be a little awkward working with you, especially since it seems the nurses who work with me have taken a particular disliking of you, but I will remain professional…"

"Of course I had no doubt about that Reid"

"And I will keep Luke from massacring you" Luke glared at his boyfriend at that comment but Reid simply smiled at him.

"Yeah what Reid said basically. We're not ok. Or at least I'm not okay with you. When I saw Reid in that state Bob, it hurt so much you can't even imagine…Or you can. If something had happened to Kim when you were a young couple due to someone else's decision. I'm sure you can understand why I'm angry and why I'm not sure of how much I can trust you when Reid's concerned"

"Yes I understand Luke. But you have nothing to worry about. I won't do anything like this again and even if I did, I think that if Reid doesn't put me in my place for it, the nurses, my son, Katie Snyder, and you will be more than ready to make me rue the day I hurt Reid Oliver"

"Good" Luke said "Then your apology is accepted. And I will try my best to treat you correctly for Reid's sake as well as my own. This level of anger just can't be healthy. Plus…I liked you Bob and I trusted you and I think I speak for both Reid and I when I say that we'd like to have some of that back" Reid nodded. "But it'll take time"

"Of course. I just…if there are any problems, don't be afraid to call me on it."

"Bob, when have you known me not to call you on your stupidities at least once" Reid answered back. Bob laughed a little at that. "Well, I was just making sure that at least that hadn't change Reid." Bob said before leaving the two lovers alone.

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"Well that went well" Reid said, glad to have been right about it being a good idea for them to talk to Bob.

"Yeah, yeah, you were right. It did help to talk to him."

"And you didn't even have to threaten him"

"Not for the lack of wanting to. I just…I didn't think you would have appreciated me threatening your boss"

"Not in this case no. Although Bob was so nice today that you probably could have gotten away with making threats at him. Darn…maybe I should have let you after all. It's not any day I get to see you do that"

" Are you saying you would have enjoyed watching me be threatening?"

"I always enjoy watching you" Reid stated matter-of-factly "Well….unless it involves Noah Mayer or you being sacrilegious enough to throw away good food. I think I'm still traumatize from the last time" he joked

"Last time of what? Me being with Noah or throwing away food?" Luke asked, deciding to play along.

"Both actually. Although disgusted would be a better adjective to describe what I feel when I see you with Mr. Mayer."

"Yeah well, you'll have to get used to that" Reid frowned and look quizzically at his boyfriend. His jaw was set tightly as if to mask anger. 'Damn, me and my big mouth' Luke thought. Things between them had just settled down and he had to bring up Noah. And when the other man still wasn't talking to him! He should have kept his mouth shut. This wouldn't be an issue for a while after all. "Look Reid. Noah was a big part of my life. So yes, I want him to be a part of it still. Is he a part of it right now? No. Noah still won't talk to me. We haven't spoken in months. But I do have the hope that things between us will get better and that we can rediscover each other as friends. I know a lot of exes don't stay friends for a variety of reasons, but I'd really like to try with Noah. I still love him and I want him to be in my life. And I hope that you can understand and accept that even if you might not like it."

"You're right. I don't like it. At all."

"Reid…"

"No Luke. You can't expect me to be comfortable with that, especially right now. You know, I've been interested in you for longer than you have been in me and you've known I was interested in you for a much longer time than I knew you were interested. God Luke, I wasn't even sure you were seriously interested before you accidentally used the phrase 'if I didn't love you so much' that other time."

"What? Reid. Of course I was interested in you before that!"

"Really? And how was I supposed to know that? Was it when you said you and Noah were figuring things out? Or…or wait! Was ii when you said you were still in love with him?" Reid asked sarcastically.

"Don't be like that" Luke said softly.

"Be like what Luke? Seriously how am I being? Unreasonable? Stupid? Jealous? What?" Reid screamed. It was like a gate had been opened and he could stop the flow. Cliché, yes but it was the best way he could describe what was happening. He just couldn't stop himself. He was so sick of hearing Luke always talk about Noah and how important he was. He knew that and he didn't need Luke to continuously bring it up. It was like Reid had no chance of ever measuring up to the wonder that was Noah Mayer, like he would never be good enough for Luke. Like he was the boyfriend only because Mr. Mayer had decided he wanted nothing to do with Luke anymore. And Reid couldn't keep all these pent up emotions and thoughts that he had had nor the ones he hadn't been aware he had. He exploded and Luke sat there listening to Reid telling him all those things as he tried to stop the tears from flowing. Things had been going so well and now…Luke needed to get out of here. He didn't….he had never thought Reid thought all these things. It made Luke feel like such an awful person. He wanted to tell Reid he was wrong but…right now he couldn't. It was too much. There had been too many emotions involved recently and Luke couldn't take it. He really needed to leave before he fell apart in a sobbing mess.

When Reid had finished his diatribe, Luke stood up. "I think…um you know, it's getting late and Chris said you need to rest still and I promise Katie I'll do some grocery shopping since I'm eating her food and all…and…" Luke choked out, looking at his feet. "I'll just…I'll come and see you tomorrow ok?" Luke almost whispered. Reid's anger had fell as soon as he had seen Luke's face. He was crying and he looked so small. Reid's chest hurt. He hadn't meant to say all these things. Many of them, he believed or had believed at some point in time but…he had never meant to hurt Luke.

"Luke" Reid started wanting to apologize, but as he said the name, the younger man was already sprinting out of the hospital room. "Luke!" Reid screamed. He got up as quickly as possible and went to follow Luke but unfortunately, the young man had been much quicker than the still recovering doctor and he was no where in sight. "Oh crap. Damn it!" Reid exclaimed as he punched the wall at his own stupidity.

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AN: I'm sorry! Please don't throw tomatoes! I don't know where that came from. I was just completing this chapter, writing a nice little conclusion to it with Reid and Luke talking about what had just happened with Bob, when this came out! I don't know why. They just decided to fight…..I don't censure myself when writing and sometimes my muse brings me somewhere I really didn't expect or planned. Sorry…it just needed to be written. I don't know…maybe it's because they never did truly cleared up the air about Noah in the soap and he's coming back next week and I'm just dealing with my insecurity at that by making Reid insecure and/or unsure? Maybe. Anyway, hope you enjoyed! *goes off to start chapter 8 and try to fix things her muse messed up btw the boys*