Chapter Text
“Let’s go to my office,” Dr. Robby said, leading the way.
As Javadi sat down, she felt like she was in the principal’s office. She’d never been in trouble her whole life, and she looked around nervously around the office.
“What’s this video?”
“Oh it’s nothing,” she began to laugh and then stopped when she noticed Dr. Robby’s stern expression.
“Who’s in it?” Dr. Robby asked with curiosity.
“Just Dr. Mohan and Dr. Abbot.”
“Okay and what are they doing in the video? Is it like a se-”
“Oh, no, no. Jeez nothing like that, no,” Javadi said.
“All right. Show it to me,” Dr. Robby said and Javadi took out her tablet with glee.
Jack was trying to concentrate on his downward-facing dog pose, but something kept tugging at his mind.
Why were a group of women giving him the thumbs up as he and Shen left work this morning. “You can do it!” one of them had shouted.
“Do what,” he wanted to question, but Shen led him away to the coffee shop.
As they stepped in, the air was redolent of freshly ground beans and vanilla. When they approached the cashier, she seemed to divert her gaze, but then she started to giggle. Taking out his credit card, she shook her head and said, “On the house Dr. Jack.” He hadn’t told her his name when he walked in.
“She must’ve heard me say it,” Shen explained, almost halfway done with his iced coffee. “Pity they don’t have the coconut donuts anymore,” Shen said, sounding truly disappointed.
Chugging his black coffee, Abbot agreed, but there was something weird going on and he felt like he was being kept out of the loop.
Mohan went back to look for Clare. Dr. Jefferson said he would arrive in a few minutes.
She stepped into the room, but Clare wasn’t there. She went and searched for Ahmad.
“Ahmad, I told you not to let her leave.”
“Oh, she said she was good. She felt much better after talking to you. Real pleasure she said.”
“No,” Mohan said surprised. “Her appendix could burst. She was also talking nonsense about someone named Shayla. She could do something rash. She might’ve been having an episode.”
“Oh nah, nah,” Ahmad said, really sure of himself. “It’s nothing like that,” he said, trying hard not to laugh. “She’s just someone who loves love.”
“What? What are you talking about?” Mohan said exasperated.
“Hey. That’s all I'm saying.”
They had a betting pool about who was going to cave first and he was not about to do anything to sabotage himself. He had a lot of money riding on this.
“Trust me, Clare is fine. Although I don’t think she will be the last.”
“Last what?” Mohan said even more perplexed than before.
“That’s it,” Robby said unimpressed, watching as the video ended. “So now the two of them have fans?”
Javadi nodded, but couldn’t suppress her smile. “Put your glasses on and watch it again, but this time with my commentary.”
Robby shook his head, but Javadi reached for his glasses in the middle of his chest.
“I got it,” he said, taking his glasses and putting them on.
Javadi hit replay, and then she paused it when the interviewer asked, Are you two Friends?
“What. Why did you pause it?”
“Look at Dr. Abbot’s posture. Look at his facial expression. He doesn’t like the question. Now watch for Mohan’s response.”
Robby looked intently. “Dr. Abbot didn’t like the response. Aww look at his frown, but he quickly smiles to hide the fact that he wants to be more than friends. People picked up on that.”
She pressed play and then paused it. “What did you notice?” she said, like a professor questioning students on a very serious matter.
“I noticed how Jack put a strand of hair back in place. I noticed how comfortable they were with each other and how highly they spoke of one another. How comfortable they were.”
“That’s right,” she said, grinning, “they’re vibin. Jack’s got rizz and Mohan just slayed.”
Robby shrugged and said, “I still don’t get it. Are these people delusional?”
“The term is delulu and no they’re not. Doesn’t matter. 800, 000 views in just three days. 50,000 more views since this morning. Millions get it. So now they have a will they?Won’t they? When will they realize? thing. And people are intrigued.”
Dr. Robby rubbed a hand over his face in frustration. This was getting out of control. He needed to speak to both of them before this got too far.
“Dr. Robby, I think you are just salty. Salty Robby. Maybe watch it 6 or 7 times. 6, 7,” Javadi said, knowing Dr. Robby didn’t have a clue what she was saying.
Jack continued to have difficulty on different asanas he tried when he got a text. Checking it he grinned as he saw that it was from his cousin Nurse Jesse.
Good for you champ. I mean I noticed it, but never said anything.
What are you on about? He texted quickly.
Can’t talk right now but go sail that ship.
Abbot took a deep breath and decided to take a long hot shower, hoping for clarity.
Meanwhile, Mohan listened to a patient talk for over an hour about her three husbands.
“And sometimes you just don’t realize that he is right in front of you all along. That’s how it was with Larry, my third husband. Right in front of me and I almost missed him.”
Mohan willed a wan smile to come on her face. “So now you know. It's mysterious, love is. You have to be open.”
“Okay, all right uh, let’s go back to how you were feeling.”
“You are our princess. We are here to support you. You are too pure for this world.”
Mohan needed to take a break. She wondered how many patients like Clare she would have to deal with today. Something was up, but she couldn’t put her finger on it.
“I’ve got Love Island right here,” Princess said, as she watched Mohan charting. “The only thing is that the other contestant is missing.”
Perlah laughs. “You know he always comes early. Let’s get her to do a double,” Perlah, said as she typed, “ I know she’s supposed to be off tomorrow, but I really want to see how this is going to play out.”
“Dr. Robby saw the video. He took Dr. Javadi to his office. You know that young girl can’t hide anything,” Princess informed Perlah.
Concern etched over Perlah’s face. “Oh, how do you think he’s going to feel about that?”
“We’re about to see,” Princess said, as Dr. Robby made a beeline for Dr. Mohan. Just as he was going to approach her, Dana cut in.
“Leave that poor girl alone,” Dana said, offering Robby a cigarette that he refused.
“I saw the video six times,” he revealed to Dana. “Because of her, people that aren’t sick are coming here to see her. She’s a liability.”
“First of all you mean them,” Dana clarified. “Mohan doesn’t even know the video dropped. I don’t think Abbot has any idea either. Just had a patient that was here to see Dr. Abbot,” Dana told him.
“You see! She wasn’t even sick, right?” Dr. Robby asked. “So now those two have fans, pretending to be sick and filling up our ER. You do see what’s wrong here, right?” he said in a pleading tone.
“Yeah, I see the problem here, but you keep only blaming Mohan. Both of them were in the video.”
“I’m going to text him. Tell him to come in. Tell him to get his ass over here. Might have to speak to HR as well,” he said, while he texted him on the spot.
“I think you’re jealous,” Dana said, nodding her head in that way of hers.
“Of what?”
“Jack’s got rizz,” Dana said simply and walked away.
“I got rizz! Robby yelled out after her. He didn’t even know what rizz meant.
He strode over to Mohan and giving her a look of disapproval he said, “We need to talk. You’ve really done it now.”
“May I go to the bathroom first?” she said in the smallest voice and he didn’t even answer her. In the bathroom, Mohan thought about the day and where she could have possibly gone wrong. Maybe it was the patient with pneumonia or the one that had come in with a third degree burn. She was aware that she had been in the bathroom for twenty minutes but she just didn't want to face Robby.
Abbot had raced to the ER as soon as he got the text. Parking his car in the lot, he noticed that there was a throng of women camping nearby. Maybe there was some shooting at a conference? He felt goosebumps as they all turned to look at him, and then they looked down at their watches. As he passed by, he winked at them, and it was as if a switch had gone off and they all started to clamber over each other to get to him. He watched as some of them put their hands to their hearts and batted their eyes at him. Luckily, Ahmad was close by and noticed the commotion.
“Back up ladies. Back up!" He yelled. “Let the man through!”
“Thanks, man. What are they all doing here?” he questioned Ahmad.
“Are you serious, man?” Ahmad asked in shock.
“What happened? Was there another mass casualty event?”
Ahmad shrugged. “If you want to call it that.”
Abbot noticed the ER packed to the rim and the air was redolent of disinfectant and plastic. As he entered people wanted a high five and he took in the big grins as he passed.
He, however, zeroed in on Mohan as she came out of the restroom. Quickly, he noticed that her eyes were red-rimmed and her cheeks were puffy. Clearly she had been crying. Tentatively, he approached her and she rubbed her eyes when she spotted him. She sniffed and fixed her hair.
“What happened?” he said, his eyes scanning her for any sign of injury.
Gulping and shaking her head she whimpered. “It’s just Dr. Robby. He said, he said he needed to talk to me and that I’ve really done it this time,” she said, her voice breaking at the end.
“Listen,” he said, gruffly. “I’ll talk to Robby. I’ll deal with him.” He came closer to her and he wanted to comfort her but he didn’t want to overstep so he just patted her arm.
“Why are you here anyway?” she asked in a quivering voice.
“Robby texted me. Said I had to come in and said it was serious.”
At the same time the two noticed that a hush had come over the ER. As they looked around all eyes were on them. Every patient had their cell phone out, and only some had managed to be discreet but failed. A lot of them looked as if they had heart eyes and it reminded Mohan of when she watched a rom-com. Some sighed and others said awww as Abbot continued to rub her arm. Noticing this, Abbot stopped patting her arm and looked at Mohan confused. Shrugging she looked back at him, and felt a blush rise in her cheeks.
“You two. In my office now!” Robby yelled as he spotted them.
“Aww, man. Get out of my shot. I want just the two of them in my frame.”
The ER erupted into Boo’s and Oh mans. They jeered as Robby escorted Mohan and Abbot out and led them to his office. "Comfort her," Abbot heard someone scream.
“What the hell was that?” Abbot questioned Robby.
“That’s what you two are going to tell me,” Robby said angrily.