Title: There's No Alcohol In This
Written By:![[info]](https://www.insanejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif)
_alicesprings
Rating: PG-13
Author's Notes: Gapfiller for the June 30 episode. A BIG thank you to the amazing![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif)
newssodark for helping me work through some problems I was having with it. YOU'RE ACES!
Reid Oliver is a surgeon. He’s always on call, even when he’s not. He hates days off. He hates being away from the operating room. He’s not even particularly fond of patients. It’s the brain he loves. Reid Oliver is a surgeon. It’s everything he is and knows, everything he’s ever wanted.
The truth is, Reid Oliver hasn’t had anything stronger than a beer to drink in years. Reid Oliver is always ready for surgery. He’d told Bob Hughes on the phone that he wouldn’t be rooting around in anyone’s brain the next morning. Instead, he’s rooting around it in his mind, while brooding over the bar at Yo’s.
Patient: Williams, George. Age: 59. Diagnosis: Normal pressure hydrocephalus. Treatment: Ventriculoperitoneal shunt.
Not his favorite surgery, certainly not as meaty as a good tumor, but it’d do in a pinch. You know how stupid I am? I came here to apologize to you. Cut into the skull to access the brain. I was ready to fight to get your job back, but that’s not what you want, is it? Insert tube into lateral ventricle. Have fun in Minneapolis. Tunnel underneath the skin to the abdomen. I don’t give a damn. Make an incision in the abdomen to access the peritoneal cavity. Insert tube. I don't give a damn. ... I don't give a damn.
Reid shook his head. “Another.” He gestured to the bartender with his empty glass.
Temporary insanity, Reid thought. The sooner he got the hell out of Oakdale, and put Luke Snyder behind him, the better. Luke had turned him into an idiot, a babbling, nervous idiot who quit his job. He quit being a surgeon.
Temporary insanity.
“Another.”
*
One thing Reid Oliver had learned since coming to Oakdale is that you can’t avoid anyone, not even when you want to. Especially not when you want to. So it was no great surprise that Bob Hughes showed up to hoist himself onto a bar stool half an hour later.
It was a surprise to learn that Luke had gone in to bat for him.
Again.
Hope bubbled up in his chest. It was a foreign feeling for Reid, something he’d experienced once or twice in the last couple of months, though it was usually trampled down as abruptly as it had appeared. It was uncomfortable. Mostly because it made him remember he did have a heart after all, loath though he was to admit it. And Luke Snyder had set up his tent and staked a claim on it.
Temporary insanity.
Reid headed for Luke’s place.
*
Luke, it turned out, had given up his seat on the advisory committee in exchange for Reid’s job.
“You shouldn’t have had to do that. I know how much it meant to you.”
Luke shrugged. “You gave up your job first. That means everything to you.”
“Almost everything,” Reid said, and then rolled his eyes at his own sentimentality, but Luke just smiled and reached out to rest a tentative hand on Reid’s shoulder again.
“Half the reason I insisted on having a seat on the committee in the first place was because I wanted to spend time with you,” Luke said, a blush staining his cheeks.
“Even then?”
“Even then.”
Touched, Reid stepped a little closer to Luke. “Well, you don’t need an excuse to do that anymore.”
They stared at each other for a long moment before Luke closed the distance between them, meeting Reid’s lips in the softest of kisses. It was a new beginning and it was sweetness and sacrifice and love and everything all wrapped up. It was everything.
*
Reid lifted his head from the pillow and glanced at Luke’s alarm clock. The green numbers glowed in the dim room. 6:47am. The Williams surgery was scheduled for 8am. Reid could still go in and do it. His head dropped back down onto the pillow, and he nosed at the back of Luke’s neck, breathing in the smell that was part citrus shampoo and part sweat but mostly just Luke. Luke shifted a little in his sleep and Reid moved closer still, tightening his arm around Luke’s waist. He let Luke’s steady breathing lull him back to sleep. Hunter could do the surgery.
Reid Oliver is a surgeon. And he is Luke Snyder’s boyfriend.
Written By:
_alicespringsRating: PG-13
Author's Notes: Gapfiller for the June 30 episode. A BIG thank you to the amazing
newssodark for helping me work through some problems I was having with it. YOU'RE ACES!Reid Oliver is a surgeon. He’s always on call, even when he’s not. He hates days off. He hates being away from the operating room. He’s not even particularly fond of patients. It’s the brain he loves. Reid Oliver is a surgeon. It’s everything he is and knows, everything he’s ever wanted.
The truth is, Reid Oliver hasn’t had anything stronger than a beer to drink in years. Reid Oliver is always ready for surgery. He’d told Bob Hughes on the phone that he wouldn’t be rooting around in anyone’s brain the next morning. Instead, he’s rooting around it in his mind, while brooding over the bar at Yo’s.
Patient: Williams, George. Age: 59. Diagnosis: Normal pressure hydrocephalus. Treatment: Ventriculoperitoneal shunt.
Not his favorite surgery, certainly not as meaty as a good tumor, but it’d do in a pinch. You know how stupid I am? I came here to apologize to you. Cut into the skull to access the brain. I was ready to fight to get your job back, but that’s not what you want, is it? Insert tube into lateral ventricle. Have fun in Minneapolis. Tunnel underneath the skin to the abdomen. I don’t give a damn. Make an incision in the abdomen to access the peritoneal cavity. Insert tube. I don't give a damn. ... I don't give a damn.
Reid shook his head. “Another.” He gestured to the bartender with his empty glass.
Temporary insanity, Reid thought. The sooner he got the hell out of Oakdale, and put Luke Snyder behind him, the better. Luke had turned him into an idiot, a babbling, nervous idiot who quit his job. He quit being a surgeon.
Temporary insanity.
“Another.”
*
One thing Reid Oliver had learned since coming to Oakdale is that you can’t avoid anyone, not even when you want to. Especially not when you want to. So it was no great surprise that Bob Hughes showed up to hoist himself onto a bar stool half an hour later.
It was a surprise to learn that Luke had gone in to bat for him.
Again.
Hope bubbled up in his chest. It was a foreign feeling for Reid, something he’d experienced once or twice in the last couple of months, though it was usually trampled down as abruptly as it had appeared. It was uncomfortable. Mostly because it made him remember he did have a heart after all, loath though he was to admit it. And Luke Snyder had set up his tent and staked a claim on it.
Temporary insanity.
Reid headed for Luke’s place.
*
Luke, it turned out, had given up his seat on the advisory committee in exchange for Reid’s job.
“You shouldn’t have had to do that. I know how much it meant to you.”
Luke shrugged. “You gave up your job first. That means everything to you.”
“Almost everything,” Reid said, and then rolled his eyes at his own sentimentality, but Luke just smiled and reached out to rest a tentative hand on Reid’s shoulder again.
“Half the reason I insisted on having a seat on the committee in the first place was because I wanted to spend time with you,” Luke said, a blush staining his cheeks.
“Even then?”
“Even then.”
Touched, Reid stepped a little closer to Luke. “Well, you don’t need an excuse to do that anymore.”
They stared at each other for a long moment before Luke closed the distance between them, meeting Reid’s lips in the softest of kisses. It was a new beginning and it was sweetness and sacrifice and love and everything all wrapped up. It was everything.
*
Reid lifted his head from the pillow and glanced at Luke’s alarm clock. The green numbers glowed in the dim room. 6:47am. The Williams surgery was scheduled for 8am. Reid could still go in and do it. His head dropped back down onto the pillow, and he nosed at the back of Luke’s neck, breathing in the smell that was part citrus shampoo and part sweat but mostly just Luke. Luke shifted a little in his sleep and Reid moved closer still, tightening his arm around Luke’s waist. He let Luke’s steady breathing lull him back to sleep. Hunter could do the surgery.
Reid Oliver is a surgeon. And he is Luke Snyder’s boyfriend.
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