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She was pushed, that was all. Melissa King had been working with a patient who had been kinder to her than usual—asking questions about her, what she liked, etc.—until the Pitt’s security guards had walked in. She couldn’t even brace herself for the fall.
The patient pushed her and, well, she isn't exactly sure what happened after that. He must’ve run. All she remembers is suddenly facing the ceiling with a heavy throbbing in her head.
It was bad enough she had her deposition to worry about. Being named in a medical malpractice lawsuit was incredibly anxiety-inducing for any doctor, let alone a resident. Even though Dr. Robby, her superior, had tried to quell her fears with a short anecdote about his own four—yes, FOUR!—instances of being named, it didn’t quite have the effect he had been hoping for.
Now, Mel was sitting in a side room of the ER, feeling guilty for taking a space that could’ve been used for a patient. Tears welled up behind her glasses as she zoned back in to what Dr. Langdon was saying.
“-for 10, maybe 20 minutes if you’re still woozy.” He noticed her distress the second he stopped rambling. Despite what others thought about his attentiveness, he would always keep an eye out for the sweetest, most empathetic young resident in the building.
“Mel? Are you alright?” he asked, leaning toward her, his hands reaching for her bedside.
“Dr. Langdon?” she whispered, curling in on herself like a turtle. “Can you get the lights, please?”
He obeyed, flipping the switch and closing the door to the small room to muffle most outside noise.
He spoke, more quietly this time: “It bothers you, doesn’t it?” She nodded, bringing her hands up to her face and burying her head in them.
“Hey,” the taller man said gently, coming to sit on the side of the bed. He reached up and took her glasses off her face, folding them and tucking them into the front of his scrubs. “Wanna talk?”
A head shake.
“Hug?”
Hesitation, followed by a slow nod. Langdon huffed out a laugh.
“Oh, Mel,” he whispered as he embraced her, carefully cradling the bump on the back of her head. He let out another light chuckle. “You know, you’re gonna end up with quite a goose egg there.”
“…You’re a goose egg,” Mel whispered back, squeezing him.
“Oof, careful-“ Langdon winced slightly. “You’re a lot stronger than you look, even if you might have a concussion.”
“I don’t think I’m concussed, Dr. Langdon-“
“Call me Frank,” he cut in, with an awkward, yet charming smile. Mel blinked at him with wet eyelashes.
“I don’t think I’m concussed, Frank. No blurry vision, vomiting, headache, amnesia, or confusion,” she listed softly.
Langdon laughed, though not maliciously. “You’re too smart for your own good,” he teased. “Gonna have to start calling you Captain Smarty if I'm Captain Scurvy.”
Mel's expression dropped slightly. "I'm not that smart," she mumbled. Langdon raised an eyebrow.
"And why would you think that?"
Mel bit her lip. "I dunno, I'm smart with memorization, not with people. And that's half the job," she sighed.
Langdon scoffed. "Not smart with people? You've taught me a lot about people." His voice softened. "If anything, I'm the one indifferent to people. Couldn't care less whether or not a patient is comfortable, all that matters is that they're alive."
The side of the blonde girl’s mouth quirked up into a half smile. “You made sure I was comfortable.”
It was true. Langdon had piled pillows upon pillows behind Mel’s back and head before allowing her to lean back.
Mel felt like a princess. It was a feeling she wasn’t accustomed to. Taking care of her sister was her main priority, not taking care of herself. With all her worries building up, she hasn’t even had time to wash her hair recently. She stubbornly plaited it into two braids every morning, fighting her fierce aversion to the feeling of oil on her fingers with intense concentration.
In the present, they had settled into a comfortable silence. Mel fiddled with her watch absentmindedly in the dark room. It was satisfying to pull the Velcro on and off, and the watch itself she had chosen specifically for the ER. It was easily removable, adjustable, comfortable, and simple.
Langdon watched the way her fingers moved by the light spilling through the window: they were firm, precise motions that did no more or less than they needed to. He thought she’d make a good surgeon, but the moment passed before he could tell her so.
Surprisingly, Mel was the one who broke the silence.
“You should get back to work,” she commented. “I’m fine here, and patients need you more than I do.” Langdon’s heart fell slightly at her flat tone, but she continued: “At least, they probably do. Robby’s been a bit off today, he could use some help.”
Frank snorted. “Trust me, I’m the last person Robby would want to see right now. The day before he gets 3 months off, his former coworker, who betrayed his trust and illegally stole drugs from a patient, comes back to ‘help out’?
“Mind you,” he continued ranting, “I’m the one who needed help back then. But hey, that’s in the past. I passed rehab and am cleared to work, nothing Robby can say about that. But look at you, being a people-person.” He lightly punched her arm and she shrugged in protest.
“I didn’t do anything special, I’m just listening,” she spoke, continuing to fidget with her watch.
Langdon put a hand on her arm. “You did, Mel,” he said quietly, yet earnestly. She hesitated, but rested her own hand on top of his.
“For what it’s worth, I missed you,” she whispered. His brown eyes stared at her. She couldn’t read their expression.
He finally spoke. “I missed you too. Was it really your first day when all that happened?” He laughed like he couldn’t believe it.
She nodded, then let her head drop on his shoulder.
“Thank you, Frank.”
“What for?”
“Believing in me.”
Mel didn’t know why she was saying any of this, just that it felt true. Langdon put his arm around her, shutting his eyes tightly and holding his breath. He didn’t want to let her go.
“I think I’m ready,” Mel broke the silence. “To get back to work, I mean. Still no dizziness, nausea…”
Frank put his hand on her jaw and lifted her head to meet his lips, cutting off her list of symptoms. In this room, nothing existed outside of her and him.
Mel closed her eyes, letting herself relax into him completely. Every stressful thought left her head, and for a moment she was floating, seeing herself outside of her body, kissing her attending. She let a hand rest on his chest, and gently pulled back, eyes side.
Langdon had forgotten that he still held her glasses. Shyly, he removed them from his shirt and offered them to her. She took them and deftly placed them over her ears with an expression he had never seen on her face before.
“Shit, I’m so sorry Mel, I shouldn’t have done that, I-“
Mel leaned in, placing a sweet peck on his mouth. It was a very different kind of kiss than the first one, but Langdon instantly melted, almost falling backwards. She squeezed his hand as she pulled back a second time, grinning like he had never seen before.
“We should get back to work,” Mel tried and failed to stop herself from giggling ecstatically. Now Langdon was the one turning red and stuttering through his sentences.
“Mel- oh my god, are we not going to talk about that- or are we just- oh my god…” Langdon put his flushed face in his hands, trying to ignore the burning feeling of his wedding ring on his left hand.
Mel stood and offered a hand to the attending, who still sat on the bed. “We can talk about it after work. Wanna get boba?” she smiled.
Langdon nodded, unable to stop the smile spreading across his face.
“Sounds like a plan.”