20 Bookmarks by Slowburnlovers
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"Does that happen often? Struggling to know how people feel?" Frank asked.
Mel looked like she might cry. "I'm not stupid…" she whispered.
"Of course you're not," Frank kept his voice soft and low. "Let me ask you a question. Do you think autistic people are stupid?"
Mel looked horrified. "No! That would be an awful thing to think!"
"Exactly. So why is it stupid if you struggle with working out people's emotions?"-
Or, Frank helps Mel with the complexities of adult autism diagnoses.
Bookmarked by Slowburnlovers
16 Jul 2026
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Mel get diagnosed fic
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The day that Melissa King first meets Frank Langdon is also the first day that she ever argues with an adult.
Series
- Part 1 of we're going to be (more than) friends
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“Are you not interested in dating?” Frank asked curiously. Mel could tell there wasn't judgement in his voice, just that he was trying to inquire.
“Um, it's more like it doesn't cross my mind. I actually did some research back in grad school about asexuality and I think I’m demisexual. Have you heard the term?” Mel responded.
“No, tell me more.”
__________Or Frank and Mel go on practice dates together to both gain more experience with dating (and cuteness ensues)
The companion song for this fic is "4AM" by Bastille
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“Langdon, if you’re done with the personal call on the clock,” Dana says, appearing on his left. “Whitaker could use a senior resident in…”
“Just give me one minute,” he replies. “Mel, you gotta tell me what’s going on…”
“Don’t freak out, okay?”
In the history of people uttering that sentence, Frank thinks there are few who have not proceeded to freak the fuck out over what follows. But he’s an ER doctor. He thrives under pressure. If anyone is not going to freak out, it’s him. But it’s also her…
“Mel…”
“I…” Frank hears a faint thunk, like a tire hitting a pothole, and then the sound of someone hissing in pain. “I may have broken my arm…”
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They’re scanning charts when the idea first hits Trinity, Mel’s eyebrows knitted together as she stares at her monitor across the way. Trinity kicks her foot out, catches Mel’s shin.
“Hey,” she says, watches Mel’s eyes go wide like what, me? “Your sister dumped you, right?”
//
three losers and their pity party (momentos watches the fireworks)
Bookmarked by Slowburnlovers
11 Apr 2026
Bookmarker's Notes
The Trinity/Samira/Mel friendship the writers of the show could get if they were not COWARDS
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It sucked to acknowledge what he'd done to anyone, obviously, but for some reason it always felt the worst in front of Mel, because she'd never once shown him even a hint of judgment for it. He could list every shitty fucking thing he did, all the drugs he stole, the lies he told, all of it, and Mel would just sit there and nod and tell him Okay, well, thank you for being honest with me.
It wasn't that he didn't want her to do that. It was that he craved it so badly he couldn't stand it, needed her acceptance with an intensity he didn't know how to handle.
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“Mel…”
“Yes?” Her voice is small when she replies.
“Baby, when was your last period?”
[or: pregnancy scare and how Mel and Frank navigate through it]
CAN BE READ AS A STANDALONESeries
- Part 4 of The Feeling Flows Both Ways
Bookmarked by Slowburnlovers
10 Mar 2026
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They were friends.
And yeah, maybe the ring on his finger sort of burned when he looked at her sometimes, even though it was just for show, now.
It was just easier to let her keep thinking he was still married to Abby. Safer.
It raised less eyebrows about the nature of their friendship when the ring stayed on while he was at work, the weight on his finger reminding him not to say or do anything stupid.
It also made it a little less creepy when the pet names started slipping out.
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Mel is doing fine. A bit tired, maybe. A bit stressed. A bit easily overwhelmed by bright lights and sudden changes and too many noises at once. Usually she can deal with all of this on her own. Today, she can't. She's fairly certain she's going to loose her job.
Or: A lot of people care about Mel and want to support her. Sadly none of them communicate well enough to figure shit out before she ends up having a full-on melt-down, but it's the thought that counts.
Series
- Part 1 of Mel takes a break
Bookmarked by Slowburnlovers
04 Mar 2026
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“Dr. Langdon?” Her voice comes out as little more than a croak.
“I thought we agreed I was Frank outside of the hospital,” he says, instinctively laying a hand on her forehead.
His hands are still a little cold from the frigid February evening, but he still has to fight not to let his eyebrows raise in alarm at the heat radiating from her flushed face.
“What are you doing in my bedroom?” Mel asks.
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She throws back her head and cackles, little snorts in her laughter that are kind of charming, actually. “Oh, god, don’t be. He dragged me to Pennsylvania, went and got hooked on drugs, and I’m pretty sure he’s been sleeping with his coworker. I’ve been waiting for this.” She grins a bit ferally. “Besides, I’m gonna be a hot divorcee, what’s not to love about that?”
Mel blinks, trying her best to adopt the sort of expression she uses when a patient tells her something particularly out of pocket. “Oh. That’s a lot,”Or, the one where Mel and Abby get stuck in an elevator.
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Mel can’t quite shake the feeling that she’s lied. Not in the facts of the matter, not in any provable way, but by omission. She knows, logically, that what she's left out of her story is no different than Trinity being gay or Cassie being straight. Just another part of herself. But while her friends have accepted everything else about her freely and without reservation, she worries that this will be the bridge too far.
“Hey, guys?” Mel says. “By the way, I'm asexual.”
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Frank Langdon has a list. He actually has a list for many things. What he doesn't expect is that little by little, Mel King seems to make her way into every single one of them
[or: Frank Langdon goes to rehab, loses his mind a little bit, gets clean, gets divorced, fights with his boss and falls in love in no particular order]
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She's the girl that hides to stare at her phone from time to time, the girl that has trouble remembering people's names and faces, the girl with very bad timing and too straightforward answers, the girl that stims by pressing her hands together and pacing around awkwardly, the girl that no one really sees eating, so what? It's okay. That's just her.
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Becca had this phase where she was really into playing pinball — handheld ones, not the big machines, which was a relief. The big ones are really noisy. But anyway. Becca had read all the manuals, even looked up reviews online, and she swore there was a strategy to it, that you could control where the ball landed, if you just hit it at a certain angle, with just the right amount of strength. But Mel was missing the hand-eye coordination, or the muscle memory, or something, because to her, it all seemed totally random, like nothing she did made any difference as to where that damn ball ended up.
Conversations with Trinity feel kind of like that, sometimes. Like watching a tiny silver ball come racing down towards her, frozen in silent panic, Becca chanting in her ear to hit it, just hit it, knowing full well she's only going to miss.
Mel is really, really bad at pinball. In case that part wasn't clear.
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A comprehensive scientific framework for the human experience of love has been sought after by social psychologists for decades.
This piece will recount the experience of one person (a heterosexual, well-educated, white female in her late twenties) through the lens of Tobore’s AAC Quadruple Framework Theory of Love.
Looking for a housemate to move into my 2br 2ba apartment in South Side Flats. 1110 sq ft, modern, clean, north-facing. Shared areas fully furnished, but willing to consolidate. In-unit washer/dryer. $1000 per month, excluding utilities.
Strong preference for someone in healthcare or other industry with day/night shift rotations. Available from July 27. Current lease runs until December, with option for renewal.
Send EOI to [email protected]
“Oh, do you know someone who’s interested?”
“Yeah,” he grinned. “Me.”
- Language:
- English
- Words:
- 32,256
- Chapters:
- 5/5
- Comments:
- 280
- Kudos:
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- Bookmarks:
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Bookmarked by Slowburnlovers
21 Dec 2025
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The friendship in this one is so great it made me cry
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"Sometimes Mel thinks all her little problems actually matter.
She cries on the bus after long shifts, straddling the line between trying to stop and trying to get it out so that she doesn’t ruin Becca’s night. She watches her coworkers pair up happily, full of inside jokes, and knows there’s no one waiting to catch up with her. And she gets up on bridges to see if she’ll actually do something about any of it."
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Six months into working in the Pitt, Mel is reaching her breaking point. She doesn't expect Frank to be the one who finds her when she finally cracks.
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-"How did you do that?"
-"Do what?"
-"Talk to him."
-"I...listened?"- Frank Langdon and Mel King, The Pitt 01x07
Series
- Part 7 of The Pitt: 15 character studies
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After the first shift from Hell, Trinity heads to a secluded spot in the hospital to recover. Mel seems to have had the same idea.
OR
Trinity and Mel grow closer after Day 1 in the Pitt.
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Mel🎶: I’m dating Dr. Langdon.
Several people are typing…
Or, Mel and Frank kissed in the rain. Now what?
Series
- Part 4 of Balancing Act