Work Text:
“Dana, quick question?” Mel leaned her elbows over the hub to look at Dana.
“How can I help?” Dana’s fingers were flying over the keyboard, finishing up a sentence before she pulled her glasses down to the tip of her nose to look up at Mel.
“It’s about Dr. Langdon. I think, uhm, we didn’t know he was going to be back today. Or at least I didn’t know.”
“We had too many people out sick today, he was available to cover. Is something wrong?”
“No, no!” Mel shook her head quickly. “Nothing’s wrong, just… we didn’t- there wasn’t a chance to organise anything? Is there anything in the works yet?”
Dana took her glasses off completely, letting them dangle on their chain around her neck. “What are you thinking?”
“Well, what do we usually do when someone comes back from leave?” She had asked Dana, who had been welcomed back with a pizza party after her leave of absence. “Is there a… guide? Does it depend on the uhm- on the type of leave?”
Dana looked up at her intently, glancing over into the North area where Langdon was talking to a guy who seemed to be projectile vomiting every time he opened his mouth.
“I think it depends.” She didn’t tell Mel what it depended on, but Mel had a feeling she wasn’t meant to ask either. It was one of those things that were seemingly understood by everyone, she just hadn’t gotten the memo. A sinking part of her wondered if it depended on how much people missed you. Dana’s expression softened along with her tone. “There’s no hard rules, go with what feels right so long as it’s not a distraction.”
Mel nodded. “Got it. Thank you.” She ducked out of the conversation, glancing over at Langdon at exactly the right, or maybe the wrong, moment to see his patient let loose an absolute storm of vomit. He looked a bit green himself at this point. And from what she had heard he had just lost a patient too. That felt like quite a lot for a first day back.
She pulled out her phone and stepped into the ambulance bay. There was a bakery just down the block that visitors loved to bring pastries in from. Dr. Abbot brought in treats by the dozens for nightshift sometimes. It was just a quick call, and then a pitstop at the triage to leave her credit card with Lupe for when the delivery came in.
A new arrival distracted her for the next hour. By the time Ahmad found her, Mel was just about done checking on her current patients.
“Dr. King, your delivery is here. I brought it into the break room.” He handed Mel her card back.
“That’s amazing, thank you, Ahmad. Have you seen Dr. Langdon?”
“I think he’s in the debrief for Louie.” He pointed at the viewing room.
“Oh. The man who died? He was here a lot.” She hadn’t personally treated Louie often, but the few times she had, he was a pleasure to work with.
Ahmad nodded. “It’s one of those that really hit.”
“I’m sorry.” She said quietly.
Just as she was about to ask how well Ahmad knew him, the door to the viewing room opened, and the people who attended the debrief slowly filed out. The somber mood was palpable. Whitaker and Langdon brought up the rear, both of them looking defeated.
Mel found herself a bit torn. Maybe now wasn’t the time for a sweet treat, but when Langdon veered towards the break room, she figured just walking in on it with no one telling him about it would be weirder.
“Dr. Langdon.” He stopped in his tracks, eyes zeroing in on her, tense and ready in case she was calling him for a consult. When she came jogging over he relaxed though.
“Hey Mel.” The sound of his voice matched his slumped shoulders, tired, wrung out.
She gestured towards the break room and he followed her. “There’s just a little uhm- because we didn’t know you’d be back today. Otherwise I would have whipped something up myself.”
Langdon frowned at her, a little confused and she felt herself not making sense, so she just pushed the door to the break room open and beckoned him in.
There, in the middle of the table, Ahmad had set up the two boxes of colourful muffins she had delivered in proper order. Each one with a single sugar letter pressed into the icing to spell out the message. A singular helium balloon was attached to one of the boxes. It was sweet, festive, and a little bit sad at the same time, now that she saw it all together.
In an ideal world, most people in the shift would have been here for this. Realistically, that was never going to happen unless it happened directly at shift change, when night shift still had everything covered and everyone from the dayshift still had a minute to breathe and brace for the day.
She watched Langdon for a reaction, hoping she hadn't overstepped. It was a strange face journey to behold, something warm, followed by something hurt, and then a disbelieving laugh that had her looking back at the boxes in confusion.
Oh. They weren’t the first ones here. One of the letters was missing.
“I do wish they’d taken the exclamation mark one instead…,” she cringed as she looked down at what remained of the message.
WELCOME BACK RANK!, with only a little smidge of oil left on the paper where the F had been.
Mel picked up the last E-muffin in WELCOME and broke the bottom horizontal line off, putting it into the empty spot.
She turned to Langdon who was looking down at the muffins with a complicated look on his face.
“The ‘W E L C O M E’ ones are gluten-free.” She added quietly, watching him.
“That’s- Mel, that’s really sweet, you shouldn’t have.”
“I wanted to.”
Langdon looked up at her, holding her gaze for a long moment like he was thinking hard. “Are you- you’re not one for hugs are you?”
“Oh, I don’t mind them from friends, I just don’t like when I don’t know they’re coming, but-“
But she could take the hint when he opened his arms. He didn’t step in closer, didn’t demand it, an unspoken question for her to answer, unsure if he made the cut.
Mel moved in a heartbeat, pulling him in with a tight grip around his ribs.
He was warm in the artificially cold break room air, and he hugged her back just as tightly. She could smell his deodorant, the traces of the disinfectant they used between handwashes and the starchy clean scent of his scrubs. He didn't squish her, didn't even nudge her glasses out of alignment the way so many people did without thinking.
“Thank you.” He said softly.
“You’re welcome… I’m sorry, I heard about your patient. That sucks on your first day back.” She said quietly.
“Yeah.”
She felt a deep shuddering breath pass through his chest and gently let go. He did too the moment Mel did.
“I think you just made my day.” He said, looking back at the now mostly complete message of muffins. He reached out to pick up the muffin with the exclamation mark when the door to the break room flew open and Perlah leaned in, hand on the doorframe. “Pedestrian vs motorcycle, en route, ETA 2 minutes, can someone help?”
They both jumped into action to follow her. Mel took a second to grab a napkin and set the exclamation mark muffin on it, to the side, silently reserving it for later.