Time by myself and Kim
Genre/Type: Romance/ Drama
Rating: NC-17
Word Count: 60,000 +
Characters/Pairings: Luke/Reid small mention Noah. Other Snyders are involved. This was just wrote for fun the characters do not belong to me.
Author Note I wrote this back in 2010 with Kim. I had always meant to pot this here. Life got away from me.
Chapter 1
There are two ways to describe time; either it goes by too quickly, or it goes by too slowly.
Noah looked up at the second hand of the clock on the wall and groaned. It was definitely one of those nights when time dragged its feet. He looked around and shifted uncomfortably in his chair. The TV was on somewhere in the background, but to him it was just noise. He could see family members of strangers sitting together waiting for news about their loved ones. He waited anxiously right along with them.
Luke is right; hospital waiting rooms did need more distractions.
Stretching out his legs, his head fell back against the wall as he closed his eyes and his thoughts went back to how they'd ended up with a successful production company...
They surely had been through a great deal the last three years-his blindness, Luke's relationship or whatever-you-wanted-to-call-it with Reid Oliver, the Damien debacle... It was after what had happened with Damien that they began to rebuild their friendship. After Luke and Reid had broken up due to constant issues concerning ethics with Reid being head of the neurological wing and Luke being on the Board of Directors, Luke went to live with Noah in New York where, together, they'd started DreamsWorld Productions. Luke was in charge of reviewing screenplays and overseeing rewrites as was necessary, while Noah spearheaded the creative process of putting the words to film.
For the first six months, Noah and Luke were able to keep their relationship a secret easily, but all that changed when their first movie debuted. Not only had Noah produced the film; he'd also starred in it. He, along with the movie Luke had helped him create, became an overnight sensation. Pretty soon, he was followed everywhere by the paparazzi. Noah decided it would be better for the company if his relationship with Luke were kept under wraps, so they never publicly displayed any affection, no matter how often they were seen together.
That plan lasted another few months, until Luke's birthday. Noah went to great lengths to arrange a wonderful evening, complete with what he thought was a foolproof plan to keep the paparazzi away. Well, the beginning of the night had been peaceful. They'd gone to see a play Luke wanted to see. The evening took its disastrous turn when Noah forgot himself as they were leaving the theater. It was as simple as grabbing Luke's hand, but it was enough. As they walked out of the theatre flash bulbs had begun going off in their faces, Noah dropped Luke's hand, but it'd been too late.
As they both rushed to the car, Luke and Noah agreed it'd be best if they ended the night sooner rather than later, so they headed back home. When they woke up the next morning, their faces were all over the T.V. and, to Noah's disgust; there were pictures of the two of them sharing a kiss during the play.
That had been six months ago. People had begun making death threats against Luke for being with Noah and against the both of them for being gay. Now, they both had security detail on them at all times.
When Noah opened his eyes and glanced up at the clock, a half hour had passed since the last time he'd looked. Luckily, so far, no one had recognized him. He took a quick glance at his security people on the other side of the room. He was so glad Luke had convinced him to put on a wig, and dress differently, but he still felt much better knowing they were watching and would be there if someone started bothering him. He was still running on frayed nerves from the night's events.
"It was nice to go out tonight. It seems like it's been a long time since we've been able to go out to dinner by ourselves. And thanks for wearing the wig. It's so you." Luke laughed.
"I know we need to do it more often, even though they had to follow us." Noah looked back at the two men and internally groaned.
"Hey, I talked to Grandma and told her that we'll meet the family in France for the last two weeks of the summer."
"Okay, but only if I get the post production done."
"You promised that you would go no matter what." Luke stopped so Noah had to turn to face him, "The completed project isn't due until the beginning of November."
"You just don't understand how much pressure I am under. All you had to do is oversee the writing. I had to oversee all the important things."
"Oh so my contribution isn't important?" Luke looked at him and it was obvious how much his words had hurt.
"I am sorry Luke; that came out wrong."
"Yeah, whatever." Luke started walking in the other direction.
It was then that the flash bulbs started going off and although he was used to it, it still bothered him especially at times like these when the two of them were fighting which seems to be happening a lot more lately.
Luke was ahead of him by quite a bit getting lost in the crowded streets. He was just trying to appease the cameras so they would leave them alone.
It all happened in what felt like slow motion, but Noah was sure it was only a matter of seconds. He heard the car screech to a halt, then two gunshots were fired and Luke was on the ground. Noah and the security guards took off running. People were taking pictures and he knew it would be front-page news in the morning, but right now Luke was hurt and that's all that mattered.
"I called 911, they're on the way", someone said.
Noah went down on his knees, Luke was still breathing although it was shallow.
"It hurts so badly." Luke whispered.
"He's still breathing but it's shallow. There's blood everywhere, tell them to hurry".
Noah screamed, "Not again, please Luke don't leave me."
The paramedics and the police showed up then and a member of the security team pulled Noah away from Luke. The police ushered the bystanders away and the paramedics went to work to stabilize Luke and to immobilize his spine careful not to move him any more than necessary. They put an oxygen mask on him and started an IV. They put a collar around his neck to avoid any movement of his neck and put him on a straight board to keep him very still so that the spine would be protected from any further injury.
It looked like there were two entry wounds, one was on the lower right side of his back and had an exit wound. The other one was in the middle of his back and did not have an exit wound. "Can you feel this sir?" the paramedic asked as he touched Luke's legs. All Luke could do was shake his head no, all he felt at this point was extreme pain all over and he was very weak.
Once they got Luke onto a stretcher and into the ambulance they asked if Noah wanted to ride with them. He made his way over to the ambulance and got in. The door was immediately shut.
"Which hospital would you like him transported to?"
"New York General."
The whole ride the paramedic riding with Luke asked Noah questions about Luke's general health and asked about any major surgeries he may have had. Noah was completely in shock, but managed to remember to tell the paramedic about Luke's past kidney transplant and his past spinal cord injury.
When they reached the hospital, nurses and doctors were waiting. Noah ran after the stretcher. The paramedics filled the staff in on the patients' condition and help move Luke to a hospital gurney and leave.
"I am sorry sir, but we have to ask you to leave now, we'll let you know when you can see him again."
Noah went to sit in the waiting room. Almost immediately a nurse came out with papers in her hand.
"There is some internal bleeding. They are taking him into surgery now. We need these consent forms signed. Do you know who Mr. Snyder's medical power of attorney is?"
"I am his power of attorney", Noah said as he grabbed the clipboard and signed the papers as quickly as he could.
"The doctor will be out to talk to you as soon as Mr. Snyder is out of surgery." The nurse said as she rushed away.
Noah decided that now was as good a time as any to make the call. He needed to let Luke's family know what had happened. Unfortunately, they were vacationing in France and Noah hated the fact that he had to be the one to deliver the bad news. He decided the best person to call is Holden. He had always been the most laid back one in the family. Holden answered on the third ring.
"Holden this is Noah. I have some bad news, Luke has been shot... We are in New York General Hospital. He is in surgery right now. No, I don't have any information on his condition yet. Yes, I will call again as soon as he is out of surgery and I know more. Please don't get on a plane home yet, let us see how Luke is first when he comes out of surgery. Yes, Holden I will call you as soon as he comes out and I speak to the doctor."
Okay that wasn't as terrible as I thought it would be; I hope I have better news for him the next time I call...
Noah opened his eyes again and looked at the clock. It had now been two hours since they took him into surgery.
How much longer is this going to take?
He couldn't took the waiting anymore, he had to get up and move around.
Ten minutes later Noah saw the doctor coming out of the operating room. "Mr. Mayer we were able to stop the bleeding. The first bullet punctured his appendix, which was where the bleeding was. We removed the appendix and stopped the bleeding. I believe the second bullet is lodged in his spine. I will know more after I see the results of the CAT scan that I ordered. We have no way of knowing the extent of the damage to the spinal cord until he wakes up. Given his past spinal cord injury and his kidney transplant, I would like to call a colleague of mine and see if he would be willing to fly in and take a look."
"Okay, how is he now?" Noah asked the doctor.
"He is going to be in recovery for some time and I have started him on high doses of Methylprednisolone, which will prevent further neurological damage. We will know more once we get the results of the tests. I am going to keep him sedated for now. I will keep you posted about my colleague."
"Doctor, since Luke will be sedated for a while is it okay if I went home and got some sleep? Noah asked. "I have a meeting in the morning that I cannot get out of. I can leave my contact numbers should you need to get in touch with me for any reason. I'll be back here after my meeting is over."
"Yes, Mr. Mayer that would be fine. He will be moved to the ICU as soon as he is out of recovery." With that the doctor left to make the phone call.
As Noah left the hospital for the night, he had a phone call to make of his own. He needed to call Holden back to update him on Luke's condition. Upon doing so, Holden informed Noah that they would be leaving France as soon as they could get Lucinda's private jet ready. Holden went on to say that he would call Noah as soon as they landed in New York.
Luke is not going to be happy about this, was all Noah thought at this point...