cinderlily | Fic :: (Luke/Reid) "desperate measures"

Title: desperate measures
Pairing: Luke Snyder/Dr. Reid Oliver
Rating: PG
Summary: Nine times out of ten Reid wasn’t the one to put Riley to bed. (part of Riley!verse)
Author's Notes: Written because I am a giant sap apparently. And for the

schmoop_bingo prompt "bedtime rituals."

openice betaed it because she LOOOOOVES me. (And I love her.)

Nine times out of ten Reid wasn’t the one to put Riley to bed. It was Luke’s job through and through, Reid was usually at work or catching up on things he should have done at work, or sleeping. Plus Luke was good at it, great at it even, and Reid wasn’t one to do something if he couldn’t do it correctly.

But then Luke would have a meeting that ran late, or a dinner for him to schmooze and it was all him. All Reid. If he were the kind of guy to get daunted, he would be. At least with Jacob he had the back up of Katie. As it stood he had a screaming three-month old who apparently had no affection for Justin Timberlake.

He was sure that there was a hole in the ground from where he was pacing back and forth. He thought that only happened in cartoons.

“Come on kid,” he pleaded. “You’re changed, you’re fed, you’ve got your blanket AND your pacifier. I’ve got nothing.”

Riley wailed at him, his face going from pink to puce.

Reid could make a blind man see, could stop seizures in their tracks, but he couldn’t get his own son to calm down. It was kind of insulting. He walked from the living room into the nursery, finally over the pacing and ready for the rocker. Standing up wasn’t helping, it couldn’t get worse.

He rocked more out of instinct more than actual thought behind it. He paced himself slowly, legs sore from walking around so long. It didn’t seem to ebb Riley but he was slowly getting used to the ear piercing screams.

“I’ve got to tell you,” Reid said, quietly like the infant would share the secret otherwise. “Your other dad makes this look a lot easier. But that’s something we can keep between the two of us, okay?”

Riley paused in his tears for all of six seconds before he started again. That was about as close to a yes that he could expect. He pushed back and forth a few times before he thought of one last-ditch effort.

He picked his son up and placed him on the changing table. On the very off chance that something was there, he checked. Nothing. He let out a sigh of relief. He put his hand under Riley’s head and situated the blanket under him. He’d seen the nurses swaddle a baby a million times, he knew he could do this.

Only… the first time failed. And the second time fell apart about half way through. The third time though, he found the right rhythm and curled the blanket in just the right way, tight and high and everything he’d seen before. Riley still cried but when he lifted the baby to his shoulder the baby eased slightly.

He swayed back and forth for a while, grasping at straws and humming the chorus to ‘Toxic’, the song that was playing while Luke was getting ready to leave that morning. The screams didn’t end entirely but after a few moments they slowed down and went into hiccuping sobs.

Reid closed his eyes and exhaled slowly, gently lowering himself back into the rocker. Riley sighed and wriggled back and forth on Reid’s chest. The soft snuffle of the baby getting comfortable was like music to Reid’s ears, even if it meant he had to hum Britney Spears to keep him doing that. He’d moved on to ‘Womanizer’, and boggled at how he even knew that song.

It was a success though; Riley was quiet, eyes closed and breathing rhythmically. He laid his head back and smiled. Relishing in the moment of just breathing in and out with his son, his son. That was something he never would have thought he’d say but it felt amazing. He inhaled the smell of baby shampoo and baby sweat and leaned down to kiss the top of Riley’s head.

He was turning into such a sap.

He pushed himself off the rocker and oh so gently lowered his son into the crib.

Later, when Luke asked, he’d say it was a piece of cake, because some secrets were meant to be kept between father and son and this was one of them.

Current Mood: rushed
Current Music: Britney Spears::Toxic