“The surgery went alright, Mr. Snyder”

“What?”

Dr. Rowland smiled. At last, he’s listening to me… That part of his job wasn’t that bad… the look on their faces when they thought they’d lost everything and you tell them they haven’t. That’s why he became a doctor.

“Your husband, is it?”

“Yeah…”

“He’s gonna be fine. We had to remove his spleen, and he lost quite a large amount of blood, but he will be fine with time”

“Oh, my God…”

Maybe now’s when he’ll start shouting at me…

“We expect him to wake up in a few hours. He’s gonna have to spend some time at the intensive care unit so you won’t be able to see him much, but we’ll transfer him to another room soon. I am very optimistic”

More tears, now…

“3 ribs are broken, plus his left leg and arm, and has some bruises all over. It’s going to be long till he can resume normal life again, but he’ll make it”

“I was so sure… you should’ve seen him there on the floor… he looked so… so… dead…”

He cried, now, couldn’t stop himself and cried like a baby. Dr. Rowland put his hand in his back

“It’s okay…”

“I was so sure he was… he wasn’t moving and… they wouldn’t let me touch him…”

“It is better not to move injured people after an accident, I am sure you know that”

“Yes, but… “

He covered his face and sobbed

“My god… Luke?”

Dr. Rowland turned around and saw a man looking at them

“Luke… Oh, my god, not again…”

“My name is Steve Rowland, I treated Mr. Snyder when he was admitted to the hospital. Are you related to them?”

“He’s my son… How’s Noah? Don’t tell me he…”

“He’s okay. He made it through surgery and is recovering now”

“Thank god… Luke”

Holden kneeled in front of Luke

“Luke, son, he’ll be alright”

“I know.. I was so scared, Dad…”

Holden held him tight

“I know, I was scared too… but he’s fine, he’s gonna be okay…”

“I’ll be around, so call me if you need to ask any questions… The nurses will tell you when you can go see him in a few hours”

“Okay, thank you, Dr.”

The doctor left and Holden looked at Luke smiling

“He’ll be fine”

Luke smiled and tried to wipe the tears from his face

“Yeah… I guess we do have plenty of time ahead of us…”

“Of course you do”

A few hours later a nurse told Luke that Noah was waking up and asking to see him.

He was looking terrible, with bruises all over his face. His arm and leg were in a cast and there were tubes everywhere. Luke didn’t know where to touch him, he needed to but didn’t want to hurt him. He aproached the bed and whispered

“Hey, babe”

Noah smiled a little and opened his eyes. He was very sedated

“Hey babe…”

He was talking quietly, and slow… like he didn’t have the strenght

Luke couldn’t stop the tears from running down his face again. He’d told himself he was going to be calmed and possitive with Noah but he didn’t seem to be in control of himself anymore

“That bad, uh?”

Luke laughed

“I am sorry… I thought you were… I don’t know, Noah, I have never been so scared in my life…”

“I know… I’m sorry”

“Where can I touch you? I want to touch you so badly, but…”

Noah smiled

“I’m pretty much numbed now… anywhere you want… I don’t think I’ll feel much of it…”

Luke chose a spot in his forehead to kiss it. He brushed his hair back

“I love you… I love you so much…”

“Same here…”

Noah closed his eyes

“Will you be here when I wake up again…?”

“No one is getting me out of here, I promise”

“Good… I don’t want you to go…”

“I won’t, babe, I’m not going anywhere”

And it was true. He had to argue and fight, but he managed to stay by his bed and by the time Noah woke up again Luke was asleep leaning on the side of the bed, on top of his good hand. When he tried to move Luke sat up

“What…”

“Sorry… I needed to move my hand”

“Hey, you’re awake…”

“Wish I wasn’t…”

“What’s wrong, babe?”

“It hurts… damn, everything hurts a lot…”

“I’ll call the doctor”

“No… stay… don’t want you to go… Aaron…”

“He’s at the farm, with dad and Faith, she came from NY as soon as she heard about the accident. I talked to him and told him you’ll be fine”

“I wish I could see him…”

“I don’t want him to see you like this, you understand, right?”

“Yes, will you tell him I love him?”

“I will”

Noah closed his eyes again, he looked tired. Luke hated seeing him like this

“I wish I could be there instead of you”

“I’m happy is not you…”

Luke smiled and put Noah’s hand in his own face. He kissed it. Noah opened his eyes

“The car…”

“Shh, don’t have to talk about that”

“Yes we do… sped up when they saw me…”

“I know, Jack and Margo are on it, Babe, you don’t have to worry, there are a few witnesses”

“Who…?”

“They found the car and they took some fingerprints…”

“What… who…?”

“She showed me a photo, but I didn’t recognize him. They did a background check and…”

“What, Luke…”

“He spent some time in jail… with the colonel”

Noah just looked at him

“They think he asked that guy to come kill you for him”

“Shit… he knows I am here…”

“I’m sorry, hun… “

“You have to go… with Aaron”

“No, I am staying here, and Aaron is at the farm with a lot of people. We’ll be fine”

“But”

“I told you, I’m not going anywhere”

“Your life would’ve been so easy without me… I shouldn’t have come to Oakdale for the internship…”

“My life is better with you, Noah”

“If you hadn’t met me…”

“I would’ve never known what love feels like, I wouldn’t change what we have for anything in the world, you hear me?”

“Yes… but”

“I could say the same to you. If I hadn’t pushed you to admit you were gay… you would’ve married Maddie, have kids, just what your father wanted. You would be getting along just fine”

“It scares me sometimes to think what my life would’ve been like with Maddie, hiding myself… I wouldn’t change it, Luke…”

Luke kissed him softly on the lips

“We have plenty of time ahead of us, right?”

“God… I hope so…”