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You were, to put it nicely, a bit rough at reading signals. To put it more bluntly, you were dumb as fuck.
You were a fantastic doctor, always able to read what a patient needed before they verbalized it and clocking the subtle shifts in the room to help a coworker before they had to ask. You worked with a lethal precision and accuracy that set you apart from the rest of the team, rivaled only by the cool head and unyielding perfection of Jack Abbot himself. Your patient satisfaction scores were some of the highest on the team (Samira, you suspected, would always have you beat- and you wouldn’t change that for the world), and even doctors you crossed paths with who weren’t your biggest fan held a begrudging respect for you.
But just because you were an intuitive doctor didn’t mean you were necessarily an intuitive person in general. Sure, you could tell when someone was clearly mad or happy, but when it came to relationships, you were blind as a bat. There had been a time in college where a guy in your class suggested the two of you dress up as two characters from a TV show you both watched for the class Halloween contest. You agreed readily, but when he had suggested one of the couples in the show, you had thought it over and genuinely suggested switching them to one of the friend duos in the show, citing that “we look more like them”. Four years later, you were laying in bed trying to sleep when you remembered that situation and your eyes flew open with the realization that the poor kid had been trying to hit on you, and you, in your total obliviousness, accidentally rejected him in a kind of brutal way.
One might think that after that realization you got better at reading flirtatious signals and picking up on cues like that, but no, you were still just as painfully hopeless as you had been before. It was painful for all of your friends to watch, and no matter how much they tried to help you in the moment, you always brushed it off and insisted they were wrong.
When you started transferred over to the PTMC emergency department, you came in as a senior resident, having already completed almost all of your training at a different hospital before being transferred over to help with staffing. You had shown up ten minutes early for your shift so you could get situated and get a quick tour of the space, backpack over one shoulder, earbuds playing your Spotify playlist titled “you have to work you need the money”, and a cardigan with colorful stars and swirls thrown over your scrubs to keep the April breeze from biting your arms.
You had been told to find the charge nurse when you got there, and it wasn’t hard to figure out who she was right off the bat. Dana, as you learned her name was, was kind as could be to you as she had shown you where the lockers were, where the staff room was, where all the supplies were kept, and explained the layout of the rooms in a record breaking seven minute crash course. You had listened attentively, nodding when it was appropriate and matching her pace easily. At the end, Dana had asked if you had any questions, and when you said no, and raised an eyebrow, almost like she expected that you would have some by the end of the shift, but she didn’t question it as she led you to the team huddle to start the shift.
Dr. Robanivitch, or Dr. Robby, as he told you to call him, was the type of man you immediately decided you could trust. He had shook your hand with a smile, eyes crinkling in the corners, an underlying air of stress oozing off of him no matter how calm and relaxed he looked. When he was introducing you to the team, you had kept your hands firmly in your pockets, nodding to everyone with a smile of your own when they all politely nodded and smiled at you in greeting, avoiding looking at any one doctor for too long. You missed the resident on the side of the group staring at you with slightly blown eyes- but nobody else did.
Your first day had gone beautifully. It was a shit show, sure, but you had asserted yourself as a force to be reckoned with, smoothly completing procedures that the students and interns hesitated over and carrying yourself with an air that radiated certainty in an assured manner, not a cocky one. You quickly fell into a comfortable camaraderie with your coworkers, with Samira, Heather, Dana, and Mel specifically meshing immediately with you. At the end of your shift, Dr. Robby had pulled you aside to tell you how glad he was that you were with the team, and that solidified in your heart that you were going to do just fine here.
Your first day went beautifully- but your presence seemed to throw a curveball to none other than your fellow senior resident, Frank Langdon. When Robby had said they would be getting a new senior resident, everyone had voiced their hesitation at the thought of someone new waltzing on the scene and entering as either a peer or leader right off the bat. Frank in particular wasn’t too fond of the thought of having to share his spotlight with a new resident. He tried not to be an overly cocky person, but he was damn good at his job and he knew it, which made it hard to want to hand over one of his reins to someone else.
Frank hadn’t expected you to knock the air out of his lungs like he had been punched in the chest when he saw you. You had been standing next to Robby, positively dwarfed by the attending, hands in the pockets of your black scrubs and badge clipped to the outside of your left pocket. There was a flash of anxiety that he could see quickly cross your face when everyone approached the board for huddle, but it quickly vanished to be replaced by a look of practiced calm, your spine straightening and eyes glinting as you shifted from a nervous new coworker to a seasoned doctor. He knew it from one look at you: he was a goner.
Turned out, he wasn’t the only person who knew it. Throughout the day he kept catching himself watching you, listening to how easily you calmed patients down and shot orders at the interns and lower residents during procedures, or watching the smile break out on your face whenever Heather or Dana told you a particularly funny joke. At one point, you were standing near the doorway of the supply closet talking to Trinity, eyebrow slightly raised and amusement written in your gaze at whatever the overeager intern was telling you, and it wasn’t until he felt Dana’s his shoulder that he realized he had stopped writing on his clipboard halfway through a sentence for several minutes straight.
Truth be told, you thought he didn’t like you at first. Every time you looked his way and sent him a smile when you caught his eye, he would either look away quickly and walk off, or he would hold your gaze even longer with an indecipherable look in his eyes. The two of you worked beautifully together, flawlessly in sync in the trauma bays no matter who was taking the lead on the case. But every time you were finished, you’d peel your gloves and vest off and turn to the rest of the crew, only to see that he had already vanished from the room. Given how outgoing and snarky he was with everyone else, you just assumed he hated you.
“ I just don’t know what I did to him,” you had said one night. Heather, Mel, and Samira had invited you out for a girls night with them a few weeks after your first day, and you had readily accepted their offer. That led to the four of you sitting at a table in a newer bar downtown, all drinking non alcoholic drinks because you had work in the morning and none of you wanted to risk even a faint hangover for a Saturday shift. “He doesn’t even ignore Santos this way, and the two of them really hate each other. We don’t have to be friends, but I just wish he’d at least say more than two words to me when we aren’t in a trauma bay, you know?”
Mel had cocked her head to one side, looking at you with that look of hers that told you she was confused. Samira had smiled into her Shirley Temple, sipping it to avoid giggling out loud. Heather, though, had just raised an eyebrow and smirked knowingly at you. “ You think he doesn’t like you, and that’s why he doesn’t talk to you? (Y/N), I love you, but you might be the blinder than our nail gun patient earlier.”
Wincing at the memory of your patient that morning who had accidentally nailed himself in his left eye, you shrugged and sipped your virgin mule. “I mean, it’s the only explanation. I’ve tried everything- I even got him more of those caramels he talks about all the time and left them in his locker. He didn’t even say he got them. It’s really not a big deal, it’s just a bummer.”
“He’s ignoring you because he likes you, (Y/N), that’s the explanation.” Mel had said matter of factly, pushing her glasses up her nose further and meeting your eyes. “He never stops staring at you and I can barely get him to actually help with patients anymore whenever you’re in eyesight. You’re about his age and very attractive, he probably just has a crush on you.”
“ Seconded !” Samira raised her glass to that with a wide smile, and Heather nodded at you vehemently.
“She’s right, (Y/N), Langdon’s got it bad for you. When Dana said you were out sick the other day, the guy looked like someone had kicked his puppy. I’ve never seen him so quiet and out of character before. Even Robby had to pull him aside to ask if he was okay.”
You still hadn’t believed them, but the next morning at your shift, you were walking past the nurse’s station with the iPad in hand when a “ Hey !” caught your attention and stopped you in your tracks. Glancing behind you, you had frozen with a slightly surprised look in your eyes as Frank stood up from his chair quickly and walked towards you, running one hand through his hair in a weirdly anxious manner.
“ Dr. Langdon ,” you had held the iPad to your chest firmly like a security blanket, “ what’s up ?”
“Nothing, nothing, I uh…” he had looked down at his feet with his hands laced behind his neck, rocking back and forth on the balls of his feet slightly before looking back at you and meeting your gaz e, “I just… I realized I never said hi this morning.”
You had blinked up at him, your eyes widening a little, but you couldn’t help the smile that slowly spread over your face, his own face gaining a pink dusting on his cheeks alongside a wide smile. “ Oh! Um… hi!”
You would have said more, but the iPad in your arms beeped, and you only had to glance down to know you were needed elsewhere. You had looked back up at him quickly before you left, throwing him another beaming smile, before turning and walking briskly away. He had watched you go, arms crossed over his chest with a stupid grin on his face, only breaking his stare to roll his eyes when he noticed Perlah and Princess on either side of him, looking between you and him and then speaking to each other in rapid Tagalog.
That day marked the start of a genuine friendship between the two of you. Banter flowed easily, him making a sharp quip and you bursting into laughter over it, leaving him with a proud grin and blue eyes that never left your face. It wasn’t uncommon for the two of you to be found at a corner of the nurse’s station, you sitting in a chair trying to work on a computer, him leaning on his forearms at the counter in front of you, distracting you until you would finally look up with a smile you tried so hard to hold back as you shooed him away.
It was ten months into your job that things hit a new milestone. It had been an even more stressful day than usual, with a waiting room time of ten hours and a staff that kept encountering the worst patients in human history. One particular patient had been such a dick to everyone in the waiting room that he finally stormed off without being treated, yelling the whole time that he was going to sue you and everyone else in the hospital. You and Frank had stood by Lupe in the clerk’s desk, watching him leave with matching frowns.
Eventually, you had gone outside for a quick break with Dana, her to smoke and you to get some fresh air and take a few minutes of silence. The two of you had been standing quietly side by side outside until you heard footsteps coming towards you on the pavement. Turning to face them, you heard Dana shout at the same time you saw the man from the waiting room from earlier coming towards you.
Jumping in front of Dana, you felt a blinding pain in your right cheekbone, stumbling backwards and nearly falling over if not for the charge nurse catching you from behind to stabilize you. The man yelled at you again, obscenities and crude names falling past his lips, before the ambulance bay doors opened and you heard Robby’s voice call your name. He took off running right as Robby had come outside to check on the two of you, a look of horror passing over his face as he bolted to come catch you before you could collapse out of Dana’s arms.
You tried to insist that you were fine, but when you tried to take a step on your own, you had nearly fallen over from the pain pulsing in your head. You could barely think straight, only able to hear the ringing in your ears and the faint, “ Hey, hey, don’t do that. I’ve got you, I’ve got you, it’s okay. You’re safe but we’ve got to get you inside now, come on.” Robby kept a firm arm around your waist as he carefully led you back into the hospital, bringing you to a chair at the nurse’s station and helping you sit down before immediately switching out of concerned dad friend mode and into attending doctor more, calling a horrified looking Heather over for help.
Heather took over for Robby, doing a quick assessment to make sure you were neurologically fine, before ruling that you weren’t concussed or broken, just developing a bruised cheekbone and a killer shiner. As she had been explaining that to you, holding an ice pack to your eye and cheek so your whole bruise was covered, you heard running footsteps and a panicked voice calling your name.
Seconds later, Frank had arrived next to Heather, dropping to his knees in front of the chair and cupping your uninjured cheek in his hand. “(Y/N)? What the fuck happened, Jesus, are you okay?”
“She’s fine, Langdon, I just did an exam,” Heather reassured the panicked resident quickly, letting you hold the ice pack with your own hand now so that she could step away from you, “ Robby just brought her in from outside.”
“Outside?? (Y/N)?”
“I’m fine, it’s just a shiner,” you took the ice pack off of your face for a brief moment to show the black and blue bruise forming around your eye and on your cheekbone, before putting the ice back on when the pain started to blossom again. You couldn’t meet Frank’s eyes, the fear in them too intense for you to manage looking at, so you quietly added, “ it was just an accident, I’m fine, I promise. Don’t worry about me.”
“Don’t worry about you?” Frank ran a hand through his hair in exasperation, eyes flitting between yours and concern wracking his face. “You’re sitting here with a fucking black and blue eye, that’s not supposed to be worrying?”
“(Y/N), you idiot.” Dana had walked over to where you were then, a mixture of anger and fear in her face as she came up behind Frank. “What in the hell were you thinking jumping in like that? You got yourself hurt over that?”
“I couldn’t let you get hurt, Dana, we need our charge nurse in tip top shape.” You tried to joke and throw a smile her way, and you saw the faintest twitch of her lips, but it was largely overshadowed by concern etched into every line of her face. Frank had looked between the two of you, still kneeling in front of you with his hands now resting on the arms of the chair you were on, before asking what exactly Dana meant by jumping in. “ Oh, nothing crazy, just our dear Dr. (L/N) taking a punch from the old bastard in the waiting room earlier when he was trying to get me instead. Should have let him hit me, (Y/N), I can’t believe you.”
The exasperation in her tone didn’t stop her from stepping around Frank to the side of your chair and giving you a tight hug, whispering a thank you to you and pulling back. She had opened her mouth to say more, but was called to the side by Robby, who had found a pair of cops to report everything to. You had watched her walk away before turning back to Frank, whose face had shifted from panic and worry to a deadly fury. “What the fuck does she mean you got punched?”
“Frank, listen, it’s not a big deal. I’ll be fine, I’ll talk to the cops, it’s okay. If you have patients to get back to-”
“It’s not fucking okay!” He had exclaimed, scooting close enough that his knees touched the wheels of the chair and your knees brushed his chest, your hands in your lap now that the ice had warmed up, and his arms still on the arms of your chair. “ You got assaulted at work? Right outside?”
“I mean, technically it was just a punch-”
“That’s assault, (Y/N)!”
His tirade had been cut off quickly by the police, who pulled you into an on call room to get your side of the story and any information you remembered. They had taken photos of your injury, accidentally brushing the bruise when they turned your head and making you wince. Frank- who had insisted on coming with you despite your insistence that he stay out there to help patients (“ You are a patient right now, technically, I’m not leaving.” )- nearly bit their heads off at the flinch until you told him to back down.
When the cops had their pictures, they had left, leaving you and Frank alone in the on call room, the door locked so you could have a few more minutes to rest and recover. You were sitting on the bed, he was leaning on the wall across from you, neither one of you saying a word. When you looked up, your cheeks went pink. He had already been staring at you intensely, arms folded across his chest, fingers drumming on his arm.
You looked away, standing up and hooking your fingers in front of you. “Thank you for… for worrying about me, and staying with me. You really didn’t need to.”
“Jesus Christ.” Frank had closed his eyes and exhaled firmly through his nose, pushing off the wall and walking towards you, meeting you in the middle of the room. You looked up at him, breath hitching in your throat when you met his gaze and saw the intensity in it. You felt like you had been stripped bare, felt more vulnerable than you ever had in your life before. One of his hands reached up to touch your bruise with a featherlight touch, barely brushing your skin before falling down. He sighed again and shook his head, looking down at you with an unwavering gaze. “I wish you’d stop saying thank you for caring. Of course I fucking care.”
“You didn’t need to stay here and everything, though, I would have understood if you needed to get back to work.” You had said, voice practically a whisper as he took another step closer. You could feel the warmth of his body heat, and it had taken all of your willpower to keep from getting weak kneed. You may or may not have developed a crush on your fellow senior resident by that point, but you had successfully told yourself that nothing would come of it. Being in an enclosed, dimly lit on call room with him alone was really, really testing your resolve.
“I needed to, (Y/N).” He had whispered back, voice shaky as he spoke. “Of course I needed to. Do-”
He had run a hand over his face in frustration, taking another deep breath before continuing, you still standing silently with pink cheeks and wide eyes. “Do you really not get it?”
“Get what, Frank?” You had started to sound both confused and annoyed by that point, looking up at him and holding his gaze firmly. “Those patients are more important than me, and as much as I appreciate you staying with me- don’t get me wrong, I really do- you didn’t -need- to do anything. It’s just me.”
“That’s exactly the goddamn point, (Y/N)! It’s you!” His own voice raised now too, not loud enough to be heard outside the room, but loud enough that you had been clearly able to hear the frustration and exasperation in every syllable.
“Why? What the hell makes me different?”
“You don’t- I don’t-”
“What?”
“Because I fucking like you!”
The only sound in the room then had been his heavy breathing after shouting, and the sharp intake of breath from you. He liked you? Like, as in a crush? You met his gaze and felt the blush on your cheeks darken further when you saw how blown his pupils were, the black nearly consuming the blue. His own cheeks had been turning pink by now as well, the embarrassment of the confession hanging in the air showing physically.
“Forget I said-”
“I like you too.”
Your reply was quiet, barely audible, but he heard it nonetheless. His eyes had flown open, hooking a finger under your chin forcing you to meet his gaze when you tried to look away. The look in his eyes was nothing short of hopeful, desperate, and terrified all at once.
“Don’t joke with me, (Y/N), please. Please don’t say it if you don’t mean it.” He whispered, the broken tone seeping into your bones and hurting you too.
“I wouldn’t. You know me. I wouldn’t lie.”
There was a beat of silence, a moment of holding each other’s gazes, breath mingling in the far too small space between the two of you. Your hands were shaking at your sides from anxiety. His hands were under your chin and hovering by your side, fingers brushing yours. The silence lasted a single second longer, before a whisper escaped him, eyes boring into yours. “Fuck it.”
Before you had a chance to think, Frank lunged at you. The hand by your jaw cupped your uninjured cheek and tilted your head towards him, his other hand wrapping around your waist to find the small of your back, and his mouth meeting yours with a passion you had never seen from him before. You had let out a squeak of surprise that was instantly swallowed by his lips, your hands flying up to clutch at the front of his scrubs to steady yourself.
He stepped forward, backing you up quickly until your back hit the wall, mouth not leaving yours once. You tried to match his pace, but found yourself out of breath and breaking the kiss to catch your breath. He didn’t seem to care, though, and moved down to your neck quickly, nudging your head to the side and leaving searing kisses from under your ear down to the base of your neck, nipping gently to pull little gasps and whines from you.
He found one spot at the base of your neck where you let out a particularly quick gasp, and he grinned against your skin like he had struck gold, immediately sucking and biting harder on that spot with no regard for how it might look.
“ Frank- fuck, that feels- ah-” You could barely speak while he kissed your neck, breath hitching and voice breaking every time you tried. All you could do was whimper his name pitifully, but it seemed to strike him to his core, because you felt a shiver run through him and felt his hands tighten on you. Your hands shifted up into his hair, tugging on the strands there and relishing the groan he let out when you did. You used his hair to tug his head back up to you, kissing him fiercely.
“Fuck, (Y/N), sweetheart, so good for me.” Frank groaned with pleasure when you immediately spread your legs for him when he nudged your thigh against yours, pushing it between to give you something to balance on since you were on your toes reaching him. “Good girl, so good at listening.”
You felt him nip at your lips, and you willingly opened your mouth to him, rewarded with a pleased hum as he deepened the kiss even further. You felt like you were melting, his thigh pushing up into your core and sending all the heat rushing there, his hands on the back of your thigh hitched over his waist and on the back of your neck. It was so much all at once and in the best way.
Finally, the two of you had broken apart, panting. Neither of you stepped away to make any space for the other, with him setting your leg down on the ground gently and resting his hands on your hips, setting his forehead against yours. Your eyes were still closed, trying to ground yourself and process everything that had just happened.
He spoke first, breaking the silence. “ So… not to ask ‘what are we’, but what do you want that to mean? Because (Y/N), fuck, I like you too much for this to just be a casual thing.”
His blue eyes met yours, vulnerability like you had never seen before in them. Frank was, in his own way, baring his heart to you right now, putting the ball in your court. Either you could walk out and pretend this had never happened, or you could admit that you also didn’t do casual, you could bare your heart in the same way to him.
You chose the latter. You had whispered under your breath, a quiet “ I don’t do casual either, and I don’t want to do casual with you.”
“Are you saying-” He cut himself off, the vulnerability melting into a look of unadulterated hope, and morphing further into joy when you nodded with a growing smile of your own. “ Go out with me. Tonight, after shift ends. I don’t want to wait to take you out, I can’t.”
“We’ll be all gross in our scrubs, Frank, are you sure?”
“I’ve never been more sure of anything. Dr. (Y/N) (L/N), will you go out with me?”
You bit your lip and held his gaze, unable to stop the smile growing further and further, before you spoke again. “Okay. It’s a date., Dr. Frank Langdon.”
The grin he had nearly split his face in half as he swooped back in to pepper kisses all over your face and neck, laughter peeling out of you as he did so. A few minutes later, the two of you straightened up, adjusted your scrubs to cover the bruise, and left the on call room like it had never happened. The whole time, all you could think was “ Damn, the girls were right. Maybe I -am- oblivious.”
That was a year and a half ago now. You and Frank had gone out on a date that night sure enough, and you’d been together ever since. It seemed like it was fated to happen, the two fourth year residents falling in love and becoming two attendings still madly in love. You had both finished your residency and progressed on to become attendings, which Robby, Shen, and Abbot were absolutely thrilled about- it meant they had extra hands on deck suddenly (even though you and Frank really only ever worked day shifts still).
The one tricky part of your relationship was that you kept it private. Not because you were embarrassed of each other, or because you didn’t want to get in trouble. No, the two of you had learned about the staff betting pool on the two of you about a week into your relationship, and when you learned the figures multiplied the longer it went on, you were determined to hold out as long as you could before they learned anything. Plus, when you had checked the board secretly, the two of you found that the “10 month” betters, the ones who would be getting $10 a week if they were right until it was revealed, were none other than Robby and Abbot themselves, and both of you wanted them to get the highest possible payout they could.
Keeping it a secret had been really hard. The two of you lived together, having moved in after a year of dating, so you had to pretend to run into each other outside or stagger your departure times just slightly to avoid suspicion. Frank had almost slipped up and called you sweetheart or love more times than he could count, and each time you shot him a look to stop him before he did. Not to mention the staff themselves. They were like bloodhounds sniffing for any hint that the two of you were more than friends, but you were too good for them to catch you. If there was one thing both of you wanted more than to show off your relationship, it was to spite your friends and coworkers. You didn’t even tell anyone you had partners PERIOD- they would infer too quickly, and the game would be over.
Your shift today was one where both you and Frank were working with Robby, and for once, it was so slow you thought you may have actually been overstaffed. There was a huge music festival happening in Philly, so everyone and their mother was there instead of Pittsburgh. The waiting room only had a fifteen minute wait, and the nurses and doctors actually had the chance to sit, eat, and chat for a little bit, which meant Robby had ordered pizza for everyone to celebrate.
“Dr. (L/N)? Can I get a consult?” You looked up from your laptop to see Whitaker approaching you, and you stood up with a nod.
“Absolutely, what’s up?” You asked, slipping around to the other side of the counter and standing beside Whitaker to look at his iPad, scanning the chart quickly and listening to him explain.
Behind you, Frank slid up to hear what was going on, leaning over your shoulder with a hand on the counter behind you. His breath was fanning over your neck, and you could practically feel the smirk on his face when you tensed nearly imperceptibly. Whitaker didn't notice anything, still talking and explaining his suspected mono patient’s woes.
“Ooh, can I take this one?” Frank asked eagerly, slipping around you with a brush on the arm and onto Whitaker’s other side. “I haven’t gotten a mono patient in ages.”
“Uh…” Whitaker looked at you, and you shrugged.
“Fine by me. Go for it, Dr. Langdon. Good luck, Dr. Whitaker.”
The two set off towards the patient’s room, and you sighed, turning around to face your laptop again, only to see the new nurse leaning on the counter behind you now. You bit back a groan and refrained from rolling your eyes. James was the new nurse recently hired on, a kid about Mateo’s age. He was good, sure, but he was cocky and pushy, and he was definitely a heavy flirt with the girls there.
Frank hated James. He swore up and down that James was flirting with you every time James so much as mentioned the weather. It had been a point of contention between the two of you for a little while now, because you swore he was just being a cocky suck up of a nurse. Frank would say that you couldn’t read signals for shit, you would get offended because you knew he was right, you would both drop it, and then James would make some comment that would set Frank off again. It was a cycle you hated repeating.
“Hey, (Y/N), how’s it going?” He asked, brushing a hand through his hair and smiling cheekily at you.
“It’s Dr. (L/N), thank you, and it’s going well. Do you have a patient consultation I can help with?” You asked smoothly, walking around him and grabbing your laptop again.
“Does a guy have to have a consultation to talk to you around here?” He rested his arms on the counter and leaned down so he was closer to eye level with you.
You didn’t look up at him as you spoke, typing notes into your latest patient’s chart. “No, but I’m aware of several patients that haven’t been triaged yet, so I assumed you were here to give me an update or ask a question about them, since that would seem to be the logical pattern here.”
Behind you, on the other side of the nurse’s station, you heard a faint snicker from Robby. You didn’t have to look to know the man was hiding a smirk behind his hand, something he did routinely whenever you and James interacted. You weren’t sure why he found it so amusing, but he did, and you didn’t care to stop him from finding fun wherever he could. Perlah and Princess were next to him, speaking in Tagalog rapidly and quietly, and you made the educated guess that it was also about you and James. The gossip mill never stopped churning at PTMC.
“I mean, I do have a question, but it’s not patient related per se.” James said slyly, and you sighed, turning to face him with a deadpan stare.
“Yes?” You didn’t give him any real emotion, just crossed arms and an annoyed stare.
It didn’t deter him one bit, though, because the next words out of his mouth were, “Do you like Korean food?”
You wrinkled your brow in confusion. “I mean… yeah, doesn’t everyone?”
“Have you ever heard of that really good KBBQ place over on 5th?”
“Yeah, me and F-a friend were going to go there in a few days. Want me to let you know if it’s any good?” You offered, trying to be nicer since it seemed to be just a genuine question. The intake of breath in a pained “oooof” from Robby behind you, though, made you think the two of you weren’t quite on the same page.
“Or, you could let the friend know if it’s worth going to when you go tonight.” James said proudly, running his hand through his hair again (seriously, his hair wasn’t even that good to begin with) and winking at you.
“I’m not going tonight. Why did you think I was?” You asked with genuine confusion in your tone, standing up and crossing your arms again.
“Because I figured you and I could check it out and see if it’s worth all the hype.”
The Tagalog behind you became even more rapid fire, and you swore you heard Santos’s voice joining in as well now. You grimaced. “Sorry, James, I don’t really want to go out anywhere. I’m sure Mateo and the others would totally go if you wanted to go out though, you should ask them!”
James did cock an eyebrow slightly at that. “I mean, we can always go tomorrow night if that works better?”
“I’m not sure-”
“Look, let me be blunt.” He stepped in front of you fully, staring you down since he was eye level with you. “I’d like to take you out on a date there. When works best for you?”
The conversation behind you had fallen totally silent, which was somehow worse than the gossiping. You froze in your spot, hands in your pockets now (you really had to stop absorbing traits from Robby), and tried to think of a polite way to let him down. “Oh, James, I’m so sorry, I’m not interested like that. I appreciate the offer, I really do.”
“Come on, just give it a chance. You’ll never know unless you go, right?” He winked, nudging your arm.
You stepped back slightly, brows furrowing. “I appreciate the offer, but no, I’m quite certain I’m not interested.”
“Are you sure-”
“Quite.” You said dryly, standing up straighter.
“I’m just saying-”
“Christ, kid, she said no. Know when to back off already.” Robby put a hand on your shoulder and stepped behind you, staring down at James. “Go clean the bedpans from room 8 or something.”
“Dr. Robby, I just think-” James was really, truly NOT getting the hint, and both you and Robby were thoroughly annoyed. A quick glance to your right showed that Perlah, Princess, Santos, Samira, Heather, and Dana had all gathered there, pretending ineffectively to not be eavesdropping on every word. You looked back at James and opened your mouth to speak again, but a new voice cut you off.
“Hey, James, I’d love it if you would leave her alone when she already said fucking no.” Frank was at your side in a heartbeat, a calm fury in his tone but a fiery one in his eyes.
“Dr. Langdon, all due respect, but I don’t think you speak for her. Right, (Y/N)?” James said, looking at you as if you would be even remotely on his side.
Before either you or Robby could answer (because he was also well and duly pissed off now), Frank slipped an arm around your waist and pulled you straight into his side, the fury seeping further into his expression though his tone remained deadly calm. “I don’t speak for her, no, but I also don’t appreciate nurses pressuring my fiancee into a fucking date.”
The gasps that rang out throughout the entire room were synchronized and shocked. Even you froze up, looking up at Frank with complete confusion on your face, though he didn’t look down at you, still staring James down. James seemed to finally get the hint, muttering a “whatever, man”, and walking away. You turned to Frank fully now, his arm draped across your lower back, and raised an eyebrow. “Fiancee?”
“Okay, what the fuck is happening?” Robby asked, hands on the back of his head and jaw slightly dropped from surprise. “You two are fucking engaged?”
“No!” You said exasperatedly, groaning.
“Oh, you just pretended to be dating to throw James off your back?” Perlah asked, finally speaking over to you from her spot across the station. You turned so Frank was behind you now so you could face her and the rest of the wide eyed group.
“No.” Frank answered, wrapping his other arm around your waist and putting his chin on top of your head after pressing a kiss to the crown of it. “Definitely not pretending.”
“Wait, what the fuck is going on right now?” Santos exclaimed, throwing her clipboard down and her arms in the air. “You’re not engaged? Or you’re not dating? I’m so confused.”
“Wait, you fucking lied? You’re not engaged?” James walked back over, looking somewhat pissed off as he stood a ways away down the hall.
“Hang on one second.” Frank suddenly let go of you and bolted towards the lockers, barely gone for ten seconds before he slid right back over to you. You didn’t even have time to ask him what was going on before he pulled a ring out of his pocket and dropped to one knee right on the floor in front of you, holding your left hand in his.
There you stood, in the middle of the pit, halfway through a shift, both of you in dirty scrubs and exhausted, surrounded by nurses and doctors who just let out sounds varying from shocked gasps to excited shouts. Your free hand flew up to cover your mouth, confused as hell and overwhelmed with love and excitement. Frank looked up at you with more adoration and love than you thought one person could carry, a slight tremble in his hands as he spoke.
“Dr. (Y/N) (L/N), when they told me we would be getting a new resident two years ago, I was kind of pissed off.” You let out a laugh, as did the staff- all of them, apparently deciding this was more important than their tasks, which was fair given there weren’t any waiting patients anymore. “I wish I could go back and tell my past self to not be angry, but to understand that he was about to meet the best thing that had ever happened to him. You are the calm to my chaos, my partner in crime, the one person who understands the good and the bad and loves everyone she meets despite it all. You’ve had my heart since the first day you walked through those doors, but if there’s one thing I learned today, it’s that I can’t wait a single second longer to ask you to take it and keep it for life officially.”
He let go of your hand to hold out a ring in front of him, a simple band with a (gemstone) in it. You could barely see through your watery eyes, but you could see enough to see tears in his own eyes as well. “Dr. (L/N), (Y/N), the love of my life. Will you marry me?”
“Like there was a chance I’d say no.” You breathed out, letting out a shaky sob and nodding frantically. “Yes, Dr. Langdon, I will happily marry you!”
Frank slid the ring on your shaking hand with equally trembling ones before meeting your gaze and beaming wider than you had ever seen before, standing up and sweeping you up into his arms at the same time. He lifted you clean off your feet and kissed you, spinning you around in a circle several times while the team around you erupted into cheers and whistles, louder than you had ever heard from them before. He set you down carefully, pulling away just enough to look you in the eyes, and you reached up to carefully wipe the tears off of his face before wiping your own.
“See, they ARE engaged, you persistent bitch!” Santos yelled at James, causing you and Frank to burst into a round of laughter. You beamed back up at him again, pressing a soft kiss to his lips and resting your head on his chest as he clutched you to him, kissing the top of your head again and rubbing your back.
“What the hell did I just walk into?” You turned your head to see a thoroughly confused Jack Abbot walking in the door, backpack over his shoulder and puzzled expression on his face. In response, you held up your hand, and for the first time in your career there, you saw genuine joy in his face. “You’re fucking kidding! When?”
“Like twenty seconds ago, if we’re being honest.” Samira chimed in, wiping her own tears from her eyes.
“Are we the first people to ever get engaged in the pit?” You looked past Frank at Robby, who was blinking furiously and wiping suspiciously damp fingers on his hoodie.
“In my time here? Yes, and probably the last.” He responded, coughing halfway through to cover the way his voice broke.
It was like the air changed, because one minute everyone was watching you with bated breath, and the next the whole team swarmed the two of you, hugging you and clapping you on the back, sharing their congratulations and wiping away both your tears and their own. When Robby hugged you, it felt like he was conveying a million emotions all at once in that one hug, and you tried to do the same. Pulling away from him, you looked up and asked, “You’ll walk me, right?”
“Huh?” Robby looked gobsmacked, so you repeated yourself. “You’ll walk me down the aisle, right? You’re the closest thing I have to a dad, but I get it if it’s not-”
Robby hugged you again, even tighter than last time, letting out a shaky breath and furiously wiping his eyes. “Damn, my allergies must really be acting up today. Yeah, kid, of course I will. Of course I will.”
“Thanks, Robby.” You whispered, squeezing him around the middle.
The girls swarmed you eventually, looking at the ring and gushing over the design, asking you questions about wedding decorations and songs and venues that you hadn’t even known existed until three minutes ago. You didn’t mind a bit, your hand finding Frank’s again and squeezing it when you looked over at him to see the guys clapping him on the back and congratulating him. He looked over at you and smiled again, bringing your joined hands to his lips and giving yours a chaste kiss before lowering them again, mouthing “I love you”. You mouthed it back, blushing crimson when Samira and Javadi awwed.
“Wait, wait, wait.” Abbot quieted everyone, all eyes turning to him as he held his hands up. “We didn’t ask the most important question. When did the two of you start dating?”
“We started dating…” You trailed off, looking to Frank to extend the suspense in the air. He pulled you against him, wrapping his arms around you from behind again before answering.
“Ten months after she started working here.”
The team silently ran the numbers in their head, before Dana exclaimed, “Shit! That was Robby and Abbot!”
The two men laughed loudly and high fived, stopping when a horrified Dana added, “It was a $10 a week bet… sixteen months ago.”
“That means you each owe us…” Robby looked to the ceiling, doing quick mental math, before Mel spoke up.
“$695 a person. Everyone owes you that. Except me, because I don’t like betting.”
The cheering immediately switched to booing and groaning, and you and Frank couldn’t help but laugh, looking at each other and smiling. He ducked his head to give you a soft kiss on the neck, and you leaned your head back against his chest, fingers running along the veins in his arms. He leaned down by your ear and whispered, “I love you. So much. So, so much.”
“I love you too, Frank. So, so much.” You whispered back, tilting your head up to look at him with a soft smile.
The grin on his face said it all. And the two of you knew, standing there in the pit surrounded by all of your closest friends and surrogate family, that as unconventional as this proposal had been, there was no other way you would have had it.
Bonus:
“Hey, look at this.” Mateo elbowed you in the side the next day, holding his phone.
You took it and read the screen. It was pulled up on Twitter, and you read the tweet out loud. “In the ER at #PTMC and my doctors just got engaged outside of my room?? Bro be fr I just want to get my Tylenol and go home.”