Chapter Text
6:58pm
Dennis wasn't used to all nighters. When he was living at home he would go to bed early and wake at the crack of dawn to get started on his chores and while in med school he pulled his fair share of them, each one was harder than the last. Doesn't help that he was technically homeless during that time.
He's living with Trinity now and, to his slight shock, he actually liked it. When he was younger, he wished for a sister and now as an adult he had one. not that he'd ever tell her that.
Anyway, back to the point. Trinity, being a year ahead of him in the program, gave him the rundown on what to expect based on her own experience.
"Night shift brings out all the crazies, but the staff are nice people. Shen will most defiantly try and jinx the shift just ignore the shit he and Ellis get up to." She said when he met her at the lockers to give her the car keys.
She left before he could ask more.
He wandered to central just as nightshift was finishing their odd chant that trinity had forgotten to tell him about. Dr. Abbot waved him over to where he was talking to Nazely.
"Whitaker, you remember Nazely right?" He asked as Dennis made his way over.
"Yes sir."
Abbot gave him a weird look. "You don't need to call me sir. Anyway, if you have any questions don't be afraid to ask her or really anyone here. Nightshift brings out all the crazies, so don't worry."
7:09pm
The first patient of the night was a young woman with a yaws. Yaws is a long-lasting skin disease that is caused by a bacterial infection called Treponema pallidum (T. pallidum). This can potentially cause skin disfiguration. Though this disease is similar to syphilis, it isn't sexually transmitted. It is transmitted via contact with broken skin.
"Alright, Ms. Sterling. I'm going to have Vivi here draw your blood and take a sample of one of the ulcers. Then we can begin discussing a course of action." He said, pulling off his gloves as Vivi took his seat to get a blood sample.
"Is this going to be permeant? I'm a model you know, that's how I pay the bills." Ms. Sterling asked, a little too loud for a busy ED.
"I don't know that yet, Ms. Sterling. We'll know more when the tests come back." He said, leaving the room almost running into Shen in the process.
"Hey man." He said, walking around Shen.
"Here. I guessed your order and I haven't been wrong yet so let me know if I can collect my 20 dollars." Shen said, following him too central.
Dennis took the cup, some iced latte thing, and took a sip. It was peppermint? He turned back to Shen. "Is this peppermint?"
"it's a candy cane latte. Parker wanted one so I just got two." Shen smiled, leaning on the counter. "So, do I get my 20 bucks or am I going to have to lie to Parker?"
"No, it's good. You get your 20 dollars." He said, turning back to his chart as Shen spun around trying to find Ellis.
"Parker! You owe me a 20!" He called, evidently finding her. "What a way to start a quiet shift."
"For fucks sake! What did I tell you about cursing the shift? For that I'm keeping my 20." Ellis said, walking away from Shen.
He had been working on the charts for a few minutes when Vivi approached him.
"Dr. Whitaker? Ms. Sterling's results are here." She said, handing him the charts.
"Yup this is definitely yaws. Get her started on some antibiotics then well send her on her way."
8:14pm
His next patient was a 50-year-old man with coronary artery disease. Coronary artery disease (CAD) is caused by plaque buildup in your arteries that leads to blood clots. A series of things could put you at higher risk of CAD there is no one thing to avoid.
After the initial exam, he ordered a few tests (blood test, heart MRI, EKG, echo) to narrow down the potential diagnoses. Turns out Mr. Carter had coronary artery disease.
"Um, can someone page surgery? I need a consult on a CAD patient." He asked the nurses at central. Two of them shared a look, Dennis thought they might be the nightshift version of Princess and Perlah, while Lena smiled.
"I got it. You go wait with your patient." Lena said, picking up the phone.
He had been waiting in Mr. Carters' room for 10 minutes when surgery finally showed up. In the form of Dr. Walsh.
He had met Dr. Walsh very briefly during the MCI last year, but he's heard the rumors. How she took zero shit from anyone who walked over her authority and that she was known to get into loud arguments with Dr. Abbot. Trinity idolizes Dr. Walsh, has been since Dr. Walsh got an egotistical, misogynistic asshole fired when Trinity did her nightshift rotation.
"You paged for a surgery consult?" She asked, taking the scans he was holding out.
"Mr. Carter has coronary artery disease. I was just wondering if he needed surgery or not."
"Nope. No surgery. Meds and lifestyle changes." She said, turning to Mr. Carter. "No smoking, eat heart healthy, low sodium foods, and take a walk for at least half an hour a day."
With that Walsh left the room. She was…softer than when he last saw her. But given that was during an MCI that was probably a given. Turning back to Mr. Carter he said. "Alright, Mr. Carter. I'll go write up a prescription for you."
9:09pm
He got pulled into a trauma next. 2 teenage boys were found by runner after trying to hot wire a car. At least according to the runner, they were trying to hot wire it. One of the boys, the older of the two, suffered crush injuries that required surgery.
"FAST exam is positive for fluid. Lower left and lower right." The ultrasound tech said, just as Abbot walked into the room.
"Shit! We're opening him up, if we don't, he won't make to surgery." Abbot said as Walsh walked through the doors.
"I agree. And luckily I'm here so you won't give this kid more scars than needed." She snarked, turning to one of the nurses. "Olive, could you prep a surgical tray, please." Turning back to the room. "Sterile drapes and gowns all around people!"
They were 20 minutes into the procedure, getting the boy stable enough for transport, when Lena poked her head in.
"The boy's name is Miles. His mother just showed up." She said, leaving right after.
"Whitaker, go update the mother." Abbot said from where he was wrist deep in Miles's abdomen.
Dennis scrubbed out quietly and made his way to the family room, where he had to tell the boys' mother that her son will need extensive surgery.
Knocking in the door to alert her that he was there, he walked into the room.
"Ma'am?" He called softly, gaining himself a sniffle in the process. "I'm one of your sons' doctors, I'm here to give you an update."
"Is he dead?" She asked in a whisper. he noticed she was holding a rosary.
"No. he's not dead. And there is a team of some of the best doctors I know working to keep him that way." He said, handing her a tissue.
"Can I see him?"
"Not at the moment, they're still working on him, but I will personally escort you to him when you can."
By the time he got back, Miles had stable vitals and was still in the ED which is weird because he thought they were bringing him up to surgery after he was stable. before he could say anything, he heard Walsh slam one of the phones back down onto the receiver.
"Fucking cardiology!" She exclaimed, not quite a yell but close enough.
"What did James do this time?" Abbot asked, exasperated.
"He took both of my ORs for and I quote 'actual emergent cases' like my whole job isn't emergency surgeries!" Walsh said, actually yelling this time.
Abbot pulled both of her hands from where they were pulling at her hair. "What's the wait time? He's stable enough."
"Alex said at least an hour. I want someone monitoring him at all times. I'm going to go yell at someone." Walsh said, turning and almost running into Dennis. "If his mother wants to see him she can. Just tell her to be careful.
10:24pm
Dennis stood outside of the room, about to walk in to tell the boy's mother that surgery would be down momentarily, but he had frozen when he heard the boy's mother praying. "Dear god, I don't know what he did to deserve this, he's always been a sweet boy, but please don't pull him from this world yet, it is not his time, take the breath from my lungs of you have too. But please don't take my boy."
The boy's father chose this moment to barge into the ED shouting about how his son was being corrupted by 'disgusting sinners' and how his boy would never 'run away with one of those sinners.'
The boy's mother took that moment to walk out of the room, tears still streaming down her face. "Matt. Leave."
"Who the hell do you think you are? You have no right to speak to me like that!" The boy's father, Matt, yelled getting in the woman's face.
"I am his mother. I have more right to be here than you do. My body tore itself apart to bring him into this world and is tearing itself apart trying to keep him in it. And you are not helping. He is only here because he was trying to escape your homophobia. So, if were placing blame then it lies at your feet." The mother said in a whisper, dripping in venom. "I don't care if he's gay. I just want him to be happy and safe. And if being with a man is what makes him happy then I don't care."
"You stood with me when I kicked him out. Why ch—"
"Because I had no other choice! I don't know if you know this but there isn't a lot of options for a stay-at-home mother when it comes to leaving abusive assholes like you. There comes a point, I think, in every mother's life where she must decide to fight for her children or roll over and watch them duffer. can you guess which one I chose?" Security had finally shown up at forced the man to leave.
When Dennis turned back to the mother, she was already back in the room, holding her son's hand in one of hers and a rosary in the other. The mother turned when she realized he was standing behind her.
"Surgery will be down in a moment to bring him up." He said in a whisper. "You really love him, don't you?" He wasn't quite sure why he asked that.
"Homosexuality is present in 1,500 species. 500 of those having well documented cases. Do you want to know how many homophobia are present in? One. Humans. People are always preaching that same sex couples are 'unnatural' when the unnatural thing is hate." The mother said. "He is my son, my flesh and blood. What kind of mother would I be if I let who he loves dictate how I love him." She finished just as Dr. Walsh walked in to take him to surgery.
11:09pm
For the first time in 2 hours, he was finally sitting down. Shen was there as well which means Ellis was nearby. If the past few hours have taught him anything it was that Shen and Ellis were attached at the hip.
He could feel Shen staring at him and turned to look at him. "Do you need anything?"
"Has anyone told you, you sort of look like Alfredo Linguini from Ratatouille?" Shen asked in return.
"Oh my god, he does!" Ellis exclaimed from where she was walking up behind him.
Remember what he said about them being attached at the hip? Case in point.
The duo stared at him. "It's kinda freaky, don't you think?" Ellis said, holding up her phone.
"What is Ratatouille?" He asked, giving up on finishing his charts on time.
Shen chocked on his coffee, that hasn't been finished somehow and spluttered. "You haven't seen Ratatouille?!"
"Nope."
Before either of them could retort, Lena appeared.
"Alright, children. Stop terrorizing the newbie. there's an MVA 2 minutes out." She said, walking back to central.
The MVA turned out to be much more minor than what they were expecting so abbot sent him and Tweedledee and Tweedledum off to go find more patients.
His next patient was a woman, mid 30s, who had Hashimoto's disease.
Hashimoto's disease is a chronic autoimmune disease that targets your thyroid gland. It's a common disease, affecting 5 to 100 people. Women between the ages of 30 and 50 have a higher chance of getting diagnosed with Hashimoto's disease.
"Ok, Mrs. Remington. Olive is going to get a blood sample then we'll talk about a diagnosis." He smiled.
12:19am
His next patient was a young boy who had a broken arm as a result of falling down the stairs running after his brother.
"Micah, what do you say to the doctor?" The boys' mother said from her chair.
"Thank you." The boy mumbled, half asleep.
"You're very welcome." Dennis said, turning to the mother. "We'll wait for the swelling to go down then put on a cast on."
"Thank you." The boys' mother smiled.
When he got back to the desk he claimed for the night there was a coffee cup sitting next to the computer with his name on it. And a badly done drawing of a rat.
He snorted at that.
A few minutes later abbot appeared.
"Hey kid, how's nightshift treating you?" He asked, leaning on the counter above him.
Dennis looked up. "Not too bad so far. Thought I would hate it but surprisingly not."
Abbot smiled. "Yeah. The hours suck but I like to think the people make up for it."
Walsh walked by right as he said that and laughed. "Of course you do."
"Come on Walsh, you know I'm right!" He called after her as she walked into a patient room. Not before giving Abbot a teasing smirk.
"Can i ask what your deal is with Walsh?" Dennis asked, setting down his cup.
"Long story, kid, long story."
1:32am
His next patient was a young woman experiencing severe lower back pain.
"Hello, Ms. Taylor. I hear you've been having some back pain?" He asked upon entering the room.
"That's putting it lightly. it's like right on my tailbone, I've been to urgent care and another ER already and they both just said it was period cramps, but my period is not due for another 2 weeks." Ms. Taylor groaned.
"Alright well we'll do some tests and see if we can figure out the problem."
The tests (pelvis x-ray, CT, and MRI, as well as a blood test to rule out infections) showed the cause of Ms. Taylor's back pain. Ms. Taylor had sacroiliitis. It's an inflammation in the joints of your pelvis where your spine connects to it.
"Okay, Ms. Taylor. This is a referral for physical therapy, and this is a prescription for some meds to help with the pain and inflammation. If the pain continues even after the meds talk to your PCP." Dennis said, handing her the slips.
"Thank you for taking me seriously." Was all she said as she signed the discharge paper.
2:29am
His next patient was a young girl, couldn't be for than 2 years old, who showed up with bumps on her arm.
"Ms. Montclair. Genevieve has something called keratin plugs. They're harmless and will go away on their own." He said, giving the girl a spare glove to play with. "Just don't pick at them."
The mother heaved a sigh of relief. "Oh thank god. She's my first and I panicked. Thought it was something bad."
Dennis smiled. "No worries. Better to be too worried than not enough."
He left one of the nurses, Tyler, to get them discharged and went to go catch up on his charts.
As he walked past one of the empty rooms, he saw Walsh and abbot standing closer than professional. Abbot handed her a pack of what looked to be frosted animal crackers and place a hand in her lower abdomen.
He hesitated for a moment before Walsh looked up and gave him a look that said 'hush'
He went to his charts. trinity gave him the order of not getting on Walsh's bad side.
3:04am
His next patient was a middle-aged man experiencing angina, chest pain that happens most often during heart attacks.
"Harvey Miller, 56, experiencing chest pain. Potential heart attack, though the EKG isn't showing anything. Vitals are stable and holding." the EMT said, wheeling the gurney in.
"Hello, Mr. Miller, I'm Dr. Ellis. this is Dr. Whitaker. Mind if he hooks you up to our monitors?" Ellis asked, pulling a pair of gloves on.
"Go ahead."
They let the monitor run its course for a moment before Ellis turned back to Mr. Miller. "Good news it's not a heart attack. We still don't know what it is but that means we just need to do more tests."
"Echo?" Dennis asked, pulling off his gloves.
Ellis nodded. "Mr. Miller were going to take you for an echocardiogram, it's basically an ultrasound for your heart."
Lo and behold. Mr. Miller had a papillary fibroelastoma. Papillary fibroelastoma is a noncancerous tumor that most commonly affects your aortic valve. The only fix for papillary fibroelastoma is surgery. And so, they called Dr. Walsh.
"Let me see the results." She said upon walking into the ed.
Dennis handed them over and waited for Walsh's opinion.
"Yup, this is a tumor. You go notify the patient and I will call and get an or ready.
4:19am
The sacred hour has arrived. With the way everyone talked about it one would think that it was a national holiday.
He first noticed the hour when a box of muffins was slid across the counter to him by Abbot.
"Eat. You look dead on your feet." He said before grabbing a different box and walking towards the elevator.
"I feel dead." He mumbled around a bite of muffin.
A snort sounded from next to him. "Yeah. Most do on their first nightshift. Us nightcrawlers survive on sugar and caffeine." Shen said, sipping his coffee like it proved a point. Dennis then came to the conclusion that night shift was weird.
"Did you just refer to yourself as a nightcrawler unironically? You know that's what people call worms right?" He asked, offering Shen a muffin.
"I'll have you know it wasn't me who came up with it. It was parker."
Almost like she was summoned, Ellis showed up behind Shen and flicked his ear. "Don't shit talk the nickname" she said with a snarky smiled, stealing the muffin just as Shen went to go take a bite.
That's when Dennis noticed the bracelets. "What does your bracelet say?"
The duo shared a look and laugh before Ellis explained. "Mines plague." she said, nodding towards Shen. "His is famine. Walsh has death and Abbot is war."
"The four horsemen of the apocalypse?"
"Yeah. A gift from abbot's kid."
5:42am
His next patient was one of three. A trio of collage girls we're doing a bar crawl that ended in them falling to the floor in a pile and all of them ending up with broken bones.
The first of the girls, Helena, was the worst of them. She ended up with a compound fracture to her lower left leg.
Then it was Astraea. She broke her arm in four places and required surgery to reset it properly. She was not excited about that.
Lastly was Izara. She was the luckiest, only walking away with a clean break in her ankle. Well, walking away might not have been the best choice of words.
He was currently putting a cast on her foot when she asked. "Are my friends going to be okay? The only reason we were doing a bar crawl was because I just got out of a really shitty relationship"
"Well without breaking hippa I can tell you they'll both need surgery. Both procedures are ones the surgeon does multiple times a week. And recover is going to be a long road." He said, holding up the colors for the cast. "Pick a color."
6:35am
His final patient of the night was a pregnant woman who came into the ED after a minor fender bender. She was already crowning when the EMTs wheeled her in.
"Aurora Montclair, 35, 38 weeks pregnant and currently in labor. She was in a minor fender bender, so minor that she doesn't even have whiplash. Vitals are stable and holding."
"Good morning, Aurora. Do you mind if I check to see how dilated you are?" Ellis asked.
"This is my 4th. So many people have seen it at this point I could care less." Aurora laughed through another contraction.
"Oh, shit." Ellis said, turning to him. "Call up to OB and see about getting someone down here. Immediately." Turning back to Aurora she said. "You're crowning. Baby is probably going to be born down here because OB probably won't want you to give birth in the elevator."
"Figured."
They got the fetal heartbeat monitors on and got ready to deliver they baby. "Aurora, on your next contraction you're gonna start pushing." Ellis said, getting into position as Dennis got off the phone with OB.
"OB is backed up. Said the ETA was at minimum half an hour." He said, pulling on a pair of gloves and getting the baby warmer ready.
"Of course." Ellis mumbled as Aurora started pushing.
20 minutes and another phone call to OB later Aurora delivered a healthy baby girl.
After Dennis had gotten the baby cleaned and returned to her mother he and Ellis walked out of the room, almost running into the OB team who finally showed up.
"Well, I say this shift ended on a good note." Was all Ellis said before walking towards the locker room.
7:03am
Dayshift rolled in around then, actually on time. Ellis and Shen all but cornered him as he exited the locker room.
"You're coming to breakfast, right?" Shen asked, grabbing his arm.
"Of course, you are." Ellis said, grabbing his other arm as they both started pulling him towards the parking garage. Trinity had told him about the nightshift tradition of getting breakfast after shift. He just didn't expect to be dragged through the hospital.
They ended up next to a light blue range rover and all piled into it. In the front seats were Walsh and Abbot who were currently discussing names? Dennis didn't know what for.
"Let's get this show on the road people." Abbot said as Walsh started the car.
They ended up at a very cute old school diner, and all piled into a booth. As they waited for their breakfast, or chocolate pie in the case of Walsh, the nightcrawlers filled him in on all the night shift gossip. And somehow gossip about dayshift as well.
He now knew that Park the shark was caught singing Dancing Queen by Abba the other day in the locker room, one of the night shift surgery residents was double booked for date night and that led to both girlfriends covering him and his car in glitter, and that one of the cardio surgeons has a baby mama in every state he's visited in the past decade.
"No, I think he's up to 10 kids now. the child support collectors have been hounding him for the past two weeks and I am just waiting for him to get taken to court." Emery said, around a bite of pie.
"How do you keep up with this stuff?" He asked.
"Surgeons gossip more than old women. If you need information on someone and don't want to go through the nurses for some reason, try bribing a surgeon." Abbot said stealing a bite of pie.
By the time they all piled back into Walsh's range rover Dennis was seconds from falling asleep.
8:00am
He was back in his apartment when his phone started buzzing on the charging port.
the Cullens
abbot: wlcome to the weirdest and wildest, dennis.
walsh: you really need to find a new saying
ellis: why are you texting him when youre literally two feet from eachother?
walsh: let me live, parker
shen: im doing a dunkin run tonight before shift
shen: give me your orders people.
And with that Dennis muted the chat and fell asleep with warmth in his heart.