Luke was worried. Actually, Luke was very worried. He just came back from a nice visit with his grandma, but Emma had been very adamant about Thanksgiving. She didn’t want to break with that tradition. She wanted to gather in her kitchen on the farm.
‘Feel free to incorporate new traditions to emphasize the thankfulness of it all,’ Emma had said lovingly, ‘but my kitchen and Thanksgiving are inseparable to me. We already deal with a lot of changes in this family. I don’t want to change this.’
And Luke understood. Of course he understood. He even thought his grandmother had a good point. But now he had to tell Reid and he felt a little anxious about that. Maybe the news that his mother still wasn’t welcome on the farm would help.
With his hands on the steering wheel, he smiled at his ring. His smile broadened when he recalled Emma’s reaction on it. She had clapped her hands in pure joy, had kissed Luke on the cheek and had shed a few tears. Luke had told her the whole story and she had smiled.
‘Your man is so romantic without trying to be,’ she had grinned and Luke had agreed.
‘Or without wanting to be,’ he had joked. ‘He doesn’t do sappy. He thinks.’
They had both laughed.
When Luke saw Memorial, his smile transformed into a frown. What if Reid didn’t want to spend Thanksgiving on the farm? Luke really wanted to be there and instinctively he was thinking up arguments to persuade Reid to come with him. He stopped himself, though. He really didn’t like that pushy part of his character. He wanted to treat Reid with the respect Reid gave him.
Luke stepped out of the car and nodded to himself. That’s what he would do. He would show Reid respect. His smile was back and he made his way into the wing. Passing one of the rooms, some image caught his eye and he walked in reverse to get a better look. He gasped. He recognized them immediately and his stomach turned. Why was he holding Gary’s head between his hands? Why was he looking at Gary with that intensity? Oh my God…why did they hold each other so close?
Luke felt like throwing up. And then he noticed something else. Reid wasn’t wearing his ring.
He didn’t know how he managed to reach Reid’s office, but he did and dropped himself on the couch. His mind was racing and he still felt psychically sick. But he refused to break down. Not here. Not where he could find him. Luke activated the Grimaldi genes inside of him. He wouldn’t break down. He would deal with this. Deal with him.
When Reid walked in, Luke felt a deep rage inside. Those Grimaldi genes were ready to go.
“Luke? What’s up? I didn’t expect you to be here…” Reid closed in, but stopped when he saw Luke’s face.
“You’re upset,” Reid concluded calmly – and that made Luke even more angry – and sighed when Luke stepped backwards when Reid tried to touch his face.
“I could tell you didn’t expect me,” Luke hissed and ignored Reid’s obvious confusion.
“What do you think I did this time, Luke?” Reid sounded exhausted and if Luke had cared, he would have noticed Reid also looked exhausted.
“This time I don’t just think, Reid. I know. I saw you.”
“Saw me doing what, exactly?” The confusion made room for anger, because Reid started to realize what Luke was referring to and the suspicion in the brown eyes hurt him more than he wanted to admit.
“The way you two embraced each other… you’re having an affair with Gary Morgan, aren’t you?”
“Is that really a question? Because it sure sounds like an accusation to me.”
“Don’t patronize me,” Luke was furious. “And don’t tell me I’m overreacting again, because I know what I saw.”
“Okay then, I won’t tell you that,” Reid walked to the connecting door in his office. “I will tell you that I need some sleep, so please take your drama somewhere else and leave me alone.”
“Gladly,” Luke spit the word out, while removing the ring from his finger. Reid watched him in disbelief, but accepted the golden band without a fight. Somehow Luke hadn’t expected that and his anger turned into consternation. As if he woke up from a bad dream. What was he doing?
“So that’s it?” Luke’s whisper made Reid take a deep breath.
“Apparently,” he looked at the ring in his hand. “Without trust, there’s no foundation, Luke.”
“And that’s all you have to say? Now it’s all my fault?”
Reid managed a quick smile. “This time it really is, Luke. And no, at this point I have nothing else to say. I’ve been in surgery for four hours. Four! Do you have any idea how your brain feels after four hours of concentration and focus? After four hours of fighting for someone’s life? Let me enlighten you…your brain feels like mush. I can’t think straight, right now. The last thing I need is your drama, so just go.”
Reid stepped into the connecting room, closed the door and the little click was very familiar to Luke. But this time he wasn’t inside with Reid. This time Reid locked him out.
Luke fell on the couch and watched the door in horror. This couldn’t be happening. Not to him. Not to them.
He felt nauseous again and he knew he needed to talk to someone, before he would have a meltdown and do something stupid. Well, more stupid than he had been with Reid, just now.
The Grimaldi genes stirred again. No, he hadn’t been stupid! Reid was the guilty party here!
He walked out of the office and saw Gwen at her desk. He was about to walk into her room, when he saw her company and he tried very hard to restrain his rage. Pain was cutting into his bones. He could hear himself tell Gary ‘You’re not a threat to me, Dr. Morgan. You never were and you never will be’. Man, this Dr. Morgan had sure showed him wrong, hadn’t he? How long was this going on?
“Luke, you look like hell. What’s wrong?”
He could see Gary stepping towards him and he cringed.
“Don’t touch me,” Luke’s disgust was all over his face and made Gary flinch. After a questioning look at Gwen, Gary beat a retreat and after he left, Luke sank in a chair. Worried, Gwen pulled a chair up, sat next to him and put her arm around him.
“Luke, what’s wrong?”
“Everything.” Luke looked desperate and Gwen paled. What was going on?
“Tell me…”
Luke took a deep breath. Could he say the words? He could.
“Reid is cheating on me.”
“No, he’s not,” Gwen answered before she could help herself. “I don’t believe that for one second. Reid is totally in love with you.”
“So it seemed,” Luke sounded defeated. “But I saw them…”
Gwen gasped. Could she really be that wrong about Reid?
“You saw him doing what? Kissing? Having sex?”
Luke shook his head. “I saw him in this intimate embrace with Gary…”
“Oh God,” Gwen took Luke’s hands. “That’s it? You saw them hug?”
“It was more than a hug,” Luke protested, “You could feel there was something going on…”
“I’m sure,” Gwen said, to Luke’s surprise. “And I can even tell you what it was. Lucy told Gary that Kevin’s prognosis isn’t optimistic, to put it mildly. Gary had been very upset about it, justifiably, and I bet that’s what you saw. Reid giving Gary a shoulder to cry on.”
Luke bit his lip. Could Gwen be right? He moaned. It would explain Reid’s reaction.
“But he wasn’t wearing his ring…” Luke muttered.
“Reid just came out of surgery, Luke. No jewelry allowed in there.”
“Oh God.” Luke lowered his head, while Gwen touched his ring finger.
“Speaking of which…where is your ring?”
“I gave it back to him…” Luke whispered and Gwen looked at him in disbelief.
“You did what?”
“I was so angry and Reid was so stoical about the whole thing…”
“Of course he was. He didn’t do anything wrong, Luke.”
‘Now it’s all my fault?’ ‘This time it really is, Luke.’
“Oh my dear friend,” Gwen ruffled Luke’s hair, “How could you mistrust Reid like that?”
Luke shook his head. “I don’t know. The stupid part of it is… for some reason it felt like a confirmation of something I expected in the back of my mind. Like I had been waiting for this to happen. As if I was prepared for it…”
“Well, maybe because that’s what you’ve seen all your life,” Gwen put forward cautiously. “Your parents had some affairs, while they kept telling themselves and everybody else how much they loved each other.”
Luke looked at her for a moment. “That could be it,” he agreed. “I accused Reid of cheating on me a few months ago too…” he lowered his head again.
“You did? What happened?”
“Noah had told me he’d seen Reid walking into the elevator in Lakeview with his arms around another man.”
“What?”
“Well, it turned out to be true… but the guy was Chris, already sick, and they went upstairs so Reid could give Chris his medicine.”
“And how did Reid react on that accusation?”
“Irritated,” Luke managed a short grin. “but I chose to believe him and after a while Reid explained the whole thing.”
“But obviously that experience wasn’t enough to give him the benefit of the doubt this time, was it?”
“I’m afraid not,” Luke felt like crying. He didn’t feel like drinking anymore though, and he smiled at his friend.
“Thanks for listening to me and setting me straight.”
Gwen smiled. “You’re always welcome, Luke. You know that. What are you gonna do now?”
“I have no clue how to fix this,” Luke admitted.
“Obviously you two need to talk about this,” Gwen shrugged, “but I’m afraid Reid has some meetings scheduled.”
Luke nodded. “I know. I expect him home around eight. If he comes home…”
“Well…I’m gonna cross my fingers that he does,” Gwen gave Luke a kiss on his cheek. “But in the meantime…take care of yourself. You look terrible. Did you have lunch?”
“I feel too nauseous to eat right now,” Luke murmured. “But I’ll go home and eat something there…”
“Make sure that you do,” Gwen gave him a hug.
Luke nodded and left. He quickly scanned Reid’s office, but the front part was still empty. Would Reid actually be sleeping right now?
Luke turned and walked out of the hospital. He made enough mistakes for one day. He would leave Reid alone. For now. But he wasn’t ready to quit. Not by a long shot.
