Work Text:
Ethan Ramsey isn’t an attending physician known for leniency when it comes to the interns, but he finds himself entertaining the idea of giving his Rookie the evening off on September 30th, because he’s been to Donahue’s enough to hear her friends talking about celebrating her upcoming birthday at some fancy-ish restaurant on their intern salaries. Alex had told them that she only wanted a low-key celebration and she’d been noncommittal about their plans, citing her current workload, and that she’d be too wiped out to spend all night partying. Ethan is aware of that workload she speaks of, as he knew she’d committed to swapping shifts with an intern who’s fallen ill recently, and she’d be working through the weekend.
And that is before he even considers the fact that she’s working Naveen’s case with him. So, he figures that Alex would benefit from taking a break from the case, and that she’d be much happier spending the evening of her birthday with her friends instead of working a case with her boss. Therefore, he’s told her that she wants them to work on Naveen’s case on the evening of September 29th, effectively giving her the next night off to spend time with her friends.
If Alex suspects his motives for asking her to work on a Sunday evening, she doesn’t comment on it, not in the way that she’s absolutely focused on reading through case study after case study with him at the dining table of his condo. Ethan has gotten used to working alongside her in a comfortable silence despite only having started working on Naveen’s case together about two weeks ago, and that she’s only been over a grand total of three times. He isn’t going to complain about it, though, and he appreciates her efficiency and her focus on the job.
His own focus is broken when his cell phone rings while they’re working, the caller ID indicating that it’s coming from the switchboard of his condo’s intercom system, and he takes the call away from the dining room, hoping to avoid interrupting Alex’s workflow.
“Hello?” he answers the call.
“Dr. Ramsey?” a male voice replies. “I have a delivery.”
“I didn’t order anything,” he counters immediately. He hasn’t made any online purchases recently, and none of the courier services he knows would be delivering at almost 10 PM on a Sunday anyway.
“Please don’t hang up, Dr. Ramsey,” the voice pleads right as he’s about to hang up. “I don’t mean to intrude. My name is Adrian, and I’m Alex’s older twin brother. She doesn’t know that I’m in Boston tonight because I want to celebrate our birthdays together. I tracked her phone here, and when I looked up the building directory, I figured she’s working at your place. Can you buzz me up?”
Ethan is silent for a moment as he ponders what he wants to do next. He hasn’t known the Rookie well enough or long enough to warrant meeting anyone from her family, and he definitely doesn’t think that they’d find it comfortable having him around to celebrate their birthdays. And yet… the idea of him not letting the twins celebrate together seems wrong, and so he finally presses the button to unlock the door for Adrian.
“Are you expecting company tonight?” Alex asks curiously upon his return.
“Uh, no. It’s just someone who called the wrong number,” Ethan shrugs, and he sees that Alex clearly doesn’t believe him, but she doesn’t push him further. She returns her attention to her work for a few minutes before his doorbell goes off, and she raises an eyebrow to challenge his half-hearted attempt at a lie earlier. Ethan says to her, “I think you should get the door.”
“At your condo? Are you telling me to greet a visitor at your condo? Are you serious?” Alex triple checks, and he gestures for her to do so. She’s studying him with interest before finally obliging, going to his front door to greet her visitor.
And then it happens. Ethan watches as Alex sees her older twin brother at his doorstep, and she offers him one of the biggest smiles he’s ever seen on her. Adrian is balancing the cake in one hand as Alex happily hugs him, and they’re both excited to see each other. After a quick exchange of their jovial greeting, she invites Adrian in, reminding Adrian to take off his shoes at the foyer, since Ethan hates getting the carpets dirty.
“Adrian, I thought I told you I was working?” Alex asks as Adrian sets the cake down on the kitchen counter.
“Well, you said you were working on a Sunday evening, but your phone GPS said you weren’t at the hospital or at home, so I figured I’d come out here and see if you were up for celebrating our birthdays together,” Adrian explains. “Besides, if you’re not at home or the hospital, it’s perfect for me to come out so you won’t have to introduce me to your friends at all.”
“Oh, Dr. Ramsey, this is Adrian, my older twin brother, and Adrian, this is Dr. Ramsey,” Alex finally remembers to introduce them.
“Rookie, if you’re not comfortable with introducing your brother to your friends, why do you seem perfectly okay with me, your boss, knowing who Adrian is?” Ethan questions her logic in that moment.
Adrian watches their interaction with amusement before choosing to explain instead, saying, “Well, if her friends meet me, they’d wanna add me on social media. Alex is uncomfortable with some of them finding out about her family before knowing if she can trust them. No offense, Dr. Ramsey, but you don’t seem like the type who’d wanna add me on social media.”
“The competition is already getting to some of my roommates. I really don’t need to give them any more reason to hate me because I come from a privileged background,” Alex grumbles, avoiding eye contact with Ethan for a moment. “Besides, I never planned for you to meet Adrian either! He has to work tomorrow, but he’s clearly doing the irresponsible thing by flying out here for—”
“Oh, c’mon Alex!” Adrian whines. “We celebrate our birthdays together every year! It’s practically our tradition! I’m sure Dr. Ramsey would let you off just this once, right? It’s a Sunday evening, and you’re definitely off the clock, and I can tell him that he’s breaking all sorts of labor laws—”
“Adrian!” Alex interjects. “This is a work thing, but it’s also not a work thing. Remember that super secret case I can’t talk to you about? This is work, for that super secret case!”
“Is that what the kids are calling it these days?” Adrian retorts without missing a beat, and Ethan notices at Alex is a little embarrassed. He finds that amusing because she hadn’t been the slightest bit remorseful about eavesdropping on his conversation with Harper a month ago.
“Adrian! I mean it! This is for a real patient!” Alex chides her brother before turning to Ethan. “Dr. Ramsey, I’m so sorry about him… He’s been like this since birth!”
“Oh, you love me, little sis!” Adrian teases.
“Little? You’re only twenty-three minutes older than I am!” Alex counters and Ethan stifles a chuckle at the twins’ antics.
“Yeah, but I was born before midnight, and that means I’m a day older than you are on paper,” Adrian shrugs nonchalantly. “Now, little sis, I’ve brought us your favorite Tiramisu cake for us to eat. Will the great Dr. Ramsey let us celebrate here in exchange for some incredible cake?”
“Dr. Ramsey, you don’t have to—” Alex starts.
“Rookie, considering that you don’t want your friends finding out about your brother and your family, where would you go if I said no to letting you celebrate here?” Ethan asks.
“Well, considering that Adrian got himself out here, I’m sure he can check himself into a hotel nearby,” Alex says before Adrian gets a word in. “You don’t have to say yes. I don’t want to cause you too much trouble.”
“He’s not gonna say no,” Adrian asserts. “I mean, who says no to this gorgeous Tiramisu cake?”
“Did you buy this even though I told you I wasn’t able to keep up with our tradition of celebrating together this year?” Alex asks.
“Well, Mattias already made it because I didn’t tell him we weren’t able to celebrate together. I was planning to stuff my face with the cake to keep our tradition alive by eating enough cake for the both of us,” Adrian jokes. “But when I saw you weren’t home, and Francis was enticing me to come here since he was flying his chopper out for his meeting with his investors tomorrow, I knew I had to hitch a ride and bring the cake!”
“You flew out here on a chopper?” Ethan asks.
“It’s really not a big deal. My friend owns a chopper and he’s trained to fly it, and he was headed to Boston—” Adrian explains before Alex hits his arm. “—Ow! What? If Dr. Ramsey can afford this penthouse in Boston, he can afford to rent a chopper to fly to New York if he wanted to. It’s really not that expensive, and it’s even better when my friend offers to fly me out for free.”
“So, you flew out to Boston from New York on a chopper to celebrate your birthday with Alex?” Ethan asks again, and Adrian nods. “This is really important to you, huh?”
“Well, as you’ve probably inferred, Alex and I were born on either side of midnight. Our family always celebrated our birthdays apart because they thought we’d be jealous that our older sisters didn’t have to share birthday celebrations. But when we got to middle school, we wanted to celebrate our birthdays together, just the two of us,” Adrian explains. “We used to buy two slices of whatever we could afford with our allowances back then, but when we started working, we started to buy Tiramisu slices from Mattias. His son has actually taken over his business now, but he’s still baking his signature Tiramisu for Alex and I since we’ve been long-time customers. I didn’t tell him that this is the first time we’re not in the same city for our birthdays.”
“Well, traditions should be honored,” Ethan finally acquiesces before Adrian finishes his story, and he sees Alex beaming at him. “But, don’t you feel that I’m intruding on your private celebration?”
“No, no, no, not at all,” Alex assures him immediately. “I mean, if it’s not for you asking me to work tonight, Adrian wouldn’t even have come out to Boston, and we’d miss our tradition altogether. I really hope we’re not being too imposing—”
“It’s fine,” Ethan shrugs. “You won’t even notice I’m here.”
“No, you should join us,” Adrian offers instead, as if he’s known him for years. Ethan has always found Alex to be very easygoing when she meets her patients, but Adrian seems far more unguarded than she is. After Adrian receives another nudge from Alex, he adds, “I mean, only if you want to, of course. We don’t wanna impose.”
Ethan shrugs nonchalantly before offering, “Do you want something to drink? I’ve got a half bottle of Macallan 20 left.”
“Are you seriously offering top shelf alcohol for our birthdays?” Adrian asks excitedly. “And are you sure you wanna let Alex near that kind of scotch?”
“Hey! Stop making me sound like an alcoholic!” Alex protests.
“Rookie, I’ve seen you at Donahue’s with your friends. Your brother’s not wrong here,” Ethan deadpans.
“You literally just met my brother and you’re already siding with him?”
“What can I say? I’m just that much more likable—Ow! Stop hitting me, you’re violent!” Adrian tries to stop Alex from hitting his arm further, and Ethan chuckles as he wonders if all siblings behaved like these two.
After allowing Adrian to set the cake in the fridge while he retrieves his bottle of scotch, they’re seated in his living room nursing the liquor while Adrian and Alex reminisce and catch up with each other. Ethan had already seen a different side to Alex when they stayed up all night to monitor baby Ethan Hudson’s vitals, and still Adrian manages to bring out another facet of her that he’s never seen before, not even when she’s at Donahue’s with her closest friends in Boston. Ethan finds himself more relaxed in the presence of the twins, their openness with one another allowing his subconscious self to feel safe, and he’s roped into conversations he’d never thought he’d be having with an intern, let alone their families.
He learns that the twins are both foodies, and they’ve travelled vastly in the past together. Ethan particularly enjoys the culinary discussion they’re currently having because he’s always on the lookout for new recipes to try, and it would seem that the twins enjoy trying new things as well, back when they lived together in New York. Adrian teases Alex for a while when she admits that she hasn’t had all that much time to cook in Boston, because she’s not at home enough to share cooking chores with her roommates.
It’s almost 11:45 PM and the bottle of scotch is empty, Alex retrieves the cake from his refrigerator and cuts two slices, as Adrian places a candle on each slice, setting each slice in front of Alex and himself. Ethan merely observes as Adrian lights the candles.
“Adrian, happy 26th birthday, old man!” Alex teases, as she cuts another slice of cake for Ethan.
“Need I remind you that you're only twenty three minutes younger than I am?” Adrian counters immediately, before he turns to Ethan and says, “We used to only get two slices of cake for our private celebration, so this is how we do it every year, Dr. Ramsey. Now you can stop watching us with that curiosity in your eyes.”
It seems that Adrian is as adept at reading him as Alex is, and is just as vocal in commenting on him as she is. Ethan smiles in response, and asks, “Are wishes part of your tradition?”
“Of course,” Adrian says before turning back to his slice of cake. “I wish that Alex will tell me where she’d be after her residency is over, so I can apply to the state’s bar association and move there, where I can be with my favorite little sister.”
“I wish that I can spend every birthday with you, Adrian,” Alex makes her wish, and the twins blow out their candles simultaneously.
It amazes Ethan that their wishes are that simple, and he’s glad he buzzed Adrian in and offered to let them celebrate here together, because he realizes that it is a privilege to be allowed in on this tradition; it is apparent that the twins value their annual private celebration more than sharing their birthdays with anyone else in their lives. And the cake was absolutely delicious, too.
They continue to chat over a second slice of cake before they decide to call it a night, and they help him clean up. He offers for them to take his guest room, but the twins didn’t want to trouble him any further, and they leave at almost one in the morning. It is a rare move on his part, but he decides to text Alex after about twenty minutes just to check in with her.
Ethan: I just wanted to make sure you got home safely.
Alex: Safe. Adrian checked in at The Langham, I’m staying with him.
Ethan: Okay then. I’ll see you at work tomorrow.
Alex: See you tomorrow, Dr. Ramsey.
The Next Day…
“Dr. Ramsey, here are the patient discharge forms you requested,” Alex approaches him after morning rounds to pass him the files. When they've turned a corner, Alex says in a quieter voice, “I’m sorry I didn’t have time to work on the patient’s case last evening. I will work on it tonight—”
“Don’t your friends have plans with you tonight?” he asks.
“It’s just dinner. I can come back and work on it after,” Alex says.
“Take the evening off, Rookie,” Ethan replies. “You worked the entire weekend. You’re no good to your patients if you’re not rested. Oh, and Rookie? Happy birthday."
"Thank you, Dr. Ramsey," Alex beams in return before she walks off to start her day.