Title: What he's doing now Chapter: 3 - Dead inside Rating: G Summary: Characters: Genre: Warnings: English is not my native language Disclaimer: This site is no way associated with "As the World Turns", CBS, P&G, or Van Hansis and Jake Silbermann. This is not for profit. No copyright infringement is intended. Authors submit and write their own work.

That same day Noah stopped at a nearby shop to get some groceries. He didn’t feel like eating, but he knew he had to pull himself together. He couldn’t help spending his nights awake, but he was going to make sure he ate something that day. He was losing weight already.

He turned a corner and saw him… Noah stayed there, not moving at all, not breathing, just looking at him a few feet away… Luke Snyder… Thoughts were filling his mind “What’s he doing here? Is he really here? Can this be possible? I am having hallucinations… that’s it, first insomnia and now this… “

Just then Luke turned around and looked at him. Noah felt frozen, he couldn’t move even if his life depended on it.

Luke was the first to talk

“Noah… hi”

Do hallucinations talk? Can you hear a vision?

Luke smiled

Can they get more beautiful than this?

“Noah? You okay?”

It’s him… he’s real, and here, just a few steps away…

“Luke…”

Luke walked closer to him; Noah could only look at him

“I didn’t know you lived in New York”

“Yeah… you too?”

Luke smiled again. Noah had forgotten about that smile, how could he forget such an amazing sight? How could he? It made him feel so warm…

“No, we are just visiting”

“We” he just said “we”… damn, a husband, of course… And that smell, how could he forget about that?

“Faith had a baby a few weeks ago and we came to visit, she’s my first niece after all”

Noah couldn’t really hear anything apart from “we”

“Faith?”

“Yes, my sister, you don’t remember?”

How could he forget about Faith? Of course he remembered… he smiled remembering, “They are dating, of course they’re hugging”.

“Yeah, yeah, of course I remember… so, a baby?”

“Yes, a baby girl, Emma”

“Like your Grandma”

Luke stopped smiling and Noah feared the worst

“Yeah, well, she passed away last year and Faith decided to name her daughter after her”

Ahhh, another piece of his heart just left him, Noah could feel the emptiness growing deep in his soul.

“I am sorry to hear that… so sorry… How are your parents? And your brothers? Nat?”

“My parents are”

Whatever he was going to say was interrupted by a kid’s voice resonating throughout the shop

“Daddy? Where are you?”

Noah smiled at that, he’d found himself smiling a lot around children for the last weeks

“That’s quite a voice, what were you say “

“I’m here!”

Noah could feel ice in his veins, did Luke just answered that kid? Sure… in a flash a small boy appeared out of nowhere and jumped in Luke’s arms, he was smiling and had the same blond, long hair as Luke, and the smile…

“This is Aaron, my son”

So this is how it feels to be dead on the inside… he thought about the trees, when they die they stay standing… they don’t fall and nobody notices that they are dead, that’s what he felt at that moment, like and old oak tree, dead inside but still standing…

Chapter 4