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It’s chaos in the ED as per usual, the tail end of a Saturday day-shift when it happens.
Frank knows he has a bit of a problem , is the thing - he’s not blind to it. Since getting back from rehab, he’s had to deal with the whispers and the shifty glances and the palpable tension in the air when he speaks to Robby, or when he gets called for his random drug testing. He’s not exactly used to it, but it doesn’t make him feel skittish in the same way as it did when he first got back to work. So that’s not exactly a problem, or not one he’s concerned about.
Frank’s problem, rather, comes in the form of his inability to tear his eyes away from Melissa King.
It’s subconscious (well, mostly), and a little bit embarrassing, but he genuinely can’t help it. Whichever room he’s in, wherever he is in the department, as soon as she appears, his eyes begin tracking her. Following the way she strides around with a confidence he thinks she doesn’t even realise she possesses, the way she brightens up everyone and everything she touches, he just can’t bring himself to look away. He’s grateful for a lot of things since getting his second chance, and getting to see Mel work, getting to watch her up close is right up there at the top of the list. Watching her is like getting to see one of the wonders of the world, and he thinks he should probably call someone and tell them that there’s a miracle happening in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
But anyways, the point being that Frank has a bit of a staring problem when it comes to Mel King. And he’s sure that everyone except her has noticed. Princess and Perlah won’t stop whispering, Dana’s never not smirking in his direction every time he passes the nurses station, and even Robby’s started raising a brow at him when he and Mel are moving from room to room. And Frank thinks it’d honestly be fine if it was just the staring, but it isn’t. He’s been aware for a while that he cares for Mel a lot, even before the divorce with Abby was finalized.
He thinks he can track it all the way back to that first shift, right before his life imploded. She was happy and bubbly and honest and empathetic and so heartbreakingly human that it cracked something wide open in Frank’s chest, something that had long previously calcified. She drew goodness out of him, something he’d doubted was there for a long time. She saw something in him. And he’d worried, when he was able to come back to work, that her view would’ve shifted, that she’d fail to see the work he’d done, the way he’d tried to repent for his sins. He’d dreaded that first day back at work for so many reasons, but the instant he walked in, a smile spread across her face, and it was like watching sunlight break through the clouds after a storm, and he just knew that he was going to be okay.
So yeah, he might be a bit in love with the woman. But who could honestly blame him?
It’s been a long shift, full of a unique kind of chaos that only the weekend could bring. He’s seen plenty of broken bones, a couple of college kids from the night before sleeping off their hangovers, and there’s a bit of a bizarre rhythm that builds. Hopping from room to room, seeing patients and treating them with an ease he wishes extended to other parts of his life. It’s easy to let his brain take a bit of a backseat, only dealing with the problem in front of him, and it feels good . It allows him to focus on other things.
Other things, namely, being Mel.
He’s just getting done with a broken ankle at the end of his shift, his very last patient, stepping out of a treatment room when Mel brushes past him in a blur, not even turning to look at him. He doesn’t even get a chance to open his mouth before she’s gone, disappearing around the corner and the whole thing leaves him confused. Ever since he got back, she makes a point to acknowledge him in some way, even if it’s just a brief Hey, Dr Langdon or a gentle hand on his arm (and he was absolutely thrilled when she started initiating physical contact with him, made him feel a little bit less insane for feeling so insanely touch-starved around her). So her not even turning her head to look at him? Something is wrong, something is very wrong.
He turns back towards the main ED, seeing Robby stepping out of the same trauma room Mel had just been in. He quickens his strides, a rock sitting in the bottom of his stomach. “What happened?”
Robby looks up, a tired, resigned look in his eye as he nods back towards the trauma room. “MVC. Parents and twin sisters. Parents were both okay, minor injuries. The girls…I got one, Dr King got the other.”
Frank sucks in a quick breath, his heart hammering an unsteady beat inside his chest. He thinks he already knows how the story ends. “How are they?”
Robby scrubs a hand down his face, shaking his head slowly. “One of them’s up in surgery with Garcia. The other one–” He stops to take a slow breath, and Frank feels distinctly like he’s standing on the edge of a cliff when Robby speaks again. “Mel coded her for forty minutes. She threw everything at her. There was just…it was just too much.”
Frank’s heart finally lands somewhere around his feet, and somewhere vaguely in the distance he thinks Robby’s calling his name, but he doesn’t care. His legs lead him on autopilot, weaving around patients and nurses and orderlies to the resident’s lounge, where he pushes open the door and finds Mel sat on the floor, knees pulled up to her chest and face in her knees.
“ Mel .” He breathes, her name coming out like a prayer as he closes the door behind him and crosses the room in three strides. He sinks to a crouch in a way that strains his back tremendously, hesitating for a second before he lays a palm lightly on her folded arms. They’re cold, so cold, and he doesn’t know what the fuck he’s doing, but he’s trying his best to not panic. “Mel, can you look at me?” He pleads, ducking his head to try and catch her eyes. He hears, faintly, the sound of a shaky breath falling from her lips, and he’s starting to get desperate. “ Sweetheart , please.”
It’s then that she looks up at him, and something in his gut twists horribly. Her eyes are red-rimmed, her glasses a little fogged up and her lips pursed together like she’s trying to hold her emotions in. Her face is flushed, a light red which is spreading down her neck, and she’s clearly devastated, and yet something like relief flashes through her eyes. It makes Frank’s breath catch in his throat, still in disbelief that she gives him so much, so willingly. He thinks he doesn’t deserve it, not really. But he tries to believe her when she says she trusts him, he really tries.
“You said, on my very first day, that I was a sensitive person.”
Frank sighs, his shoulders dropping a little in relief as he nods. “I remember.”
“You said that the ER was a tough place for sensitive people.” She states, wrapping her arms a little tighter around herself, chewing on her bottom lip as she folds in on herself a bit. “I guess I forget sometimes how tough it can be.”
“It’s always rough, losing a patient like that.”
She looks back up at him then. “Robby told you.”
Frank nods grimly, his hand squeezing gently on her arm. “I’m so sorry, Mel.”
She shakes her head, laying her cheek on her arm, and Frank tries not to think about how if he just moved his hand, just an inch, he’d be able to trace the contours of her lips. “I’m okay.”
“No, you’re not. Not right now at least, and that’s okay.” He shifts his weight a little, steadying himself as he ducks his head, successfully catching Mel’s eyes and smiling a little at her, more of a quirk of the lips than anything. “You’re feeling a lot right now, and you’re allowed to. I’m not going anywhere. ”
He hears her breath catch in her throat as she lifts her head, sees fresh tears brewing in her eyes and reaches a hand up on instinct to cup her cheek. His thumb brushes gently over the soft skin, catching tears as they fall, and she’s looking at him like she’s figuring something out for the first time. Like he’s a puzzle that she’s been trying to solve, and she’s just made a breakthrough. She tips her face into his palm, a weight he welcomes with open arms as he thinks she might need this just as much as him. When was the last time she allowed herself something like this? Continuing his gentle touch, he sees something flash through her eyes, like she’s weighing up pros and cons.
“That day– my first day,” she clarifies, eyes roaming all over his face like she’s searching for something. “You said when I’m ready, you need me.”
Frank’s mouth is dry and the world seems to be moving in slow motion as he watches her turn to press her lips against his palm. Her lips are a little chapped, and it’s the best thing he’s ever felt. “ Mel .”
“Is that still true?” She asks, and it’s one of the many things he loves about her. Her ability to be to the point and direct. His throat bobs as he swallows, and he thinks this is it . This is the moment that all of the movies talk about. The one where he needs to be brave, where he needs to make the big move.
He thinks, for Mel, he can be brave.
He gives her time to move away, time to jerk back and ask him what the fuck he’s doing . But she doesn’t, and suddenly he’s closer to her, their foreheads pressed together and he can smell the vanilla body wash she keeps in her locker for when she needs to shower at the hospital after a long shift and he wants to drown in it. “ Sweetheart ,” he rasps, a man in the desert dying of thirst as he holds her face tenderly against his, thumb resting gently against her cheekbone. “From the very first day we met , I’ve needed you. In every way that matters.”
Mel’s eyes are closed, her expression almost pained, and it makes Frank think about leaning back, about giving her some space, but then her eyes open slowly, staring up at Frank like she’s seeing him for the first time. More than that, like he’s something worth seeing . It’s slow, the way she presses forward, his breath hitching in his throat in the millisecond before they collide, and suddenly they’re kissing, and it’s like everything in his life ignites . Their lips move together tentatively at first, like they’re learning each-other’s rhythm, but then they’re really able to sink into it, Frank working her mouth open gently as one of her hands comes up to grasp loosely at his wrist.
It’s dizzying, he thinks, the way she lights everything up. He’s seeing stars being born and supernovas behind his eyelids, and he loved Abby, he truly did, but he never knew that kissing could feel like this . And this isn’t how he imagined doing any of this. He imagined taking her to dinner, walking her home and kissing her softly for the first time on her doorstep. But they’re both at the end of a long 12 hour shift, crouched on the floor of the resident’s lounge, the fading light from outside filtering through a crack in the blinds and the room smelling like antiseptic. It’s nothing like how he thought it would be, but he thinks he’d never want to be anywhere but right here, right now .
Eventually they separate, their foreheads still pressed together. Mel’s thumb caresses his thundering pulse gently and his heart aches with how much he loves her. Her eyes flutter open then, and the way she’s looking at him– fuck , she always looks at him like he’s the only person in the room. But now? Now she’s looking at him like he’s all she’s ever wanted, and that’s one of the biggest privileges Frank’s had in his short 30 years. It’s one that he vows to never take for granted, loving and being loved by her.
“Okay?” He murmurs, his other hand coming up to cradle the other side of her head.
She smiles then, a smile he’s never seen her smile before. It’s like the first rays of sun after a storm, her mouth creasing at the corner and her eyes crinkling and god , he loves her. She nods, her bottom lip tucked between her teeth. “I’m okay.”
He nods in reply, a breathless okay leaving his lips as he tilts his head up, pressing a lingering kiss to her forehead. Her breath stutters, and he can feel her cheeks growing warm below his palms, and he’s so fucking endeared by her.
He pulls back a little, his lips quirking up on one side as he moves to stand, ignoring the way his back twinges a little as he holds out a hand to her. “Ready to go?”
He wonders if she hears the quiet question under the surface, wonders if she hears are you ready now? And, he thinks, even if she’s not, he’d wait. He’s a very patient man, Frank Langdon. And Melissa King, he thinks, she’s someone worth waiting for. So if she’s not ready right now, he thinks he’d wait for her for as long as it takes.
She doesn’t make him wait very long. With a definitive nod, her hand slides into his like it belongs there as he pulls her to her feet, and this is another one of those moments, he realises. One of those defining moments he’s going to look back on as the moment everything changed between them. Except now, it feels less like standing on a cliff. Instead, he imagines himself standing on a beach, looking out into the horizon, not knowing what’s in the distance, but ready to move towards that future with Mel by his side.
“I’m ready.” She says softly, and they leave together, setting off into the unknown with nothing but each-other to hold onto. It’s not as scary as Frank thought it would be.