Chapter Text
Crushes are normal. Harmless.
Victoria is twenty something and brilliant and attractive in that quiet, devastating way. She has a beautiful smile. She's kind. She has these big brown eyes that-
What was she talking about?
Cassie loses the plot of her own thoughts for a second.
The thing is… of course Victoria is going to develop a little thing for someone. Its expected.
Cassie doesn’t care.
She is professional. Mature. Unaffected.
She absolutely does not care.
She just thinks that Mateo is… statistically unremarkable.
Objectively average.
Professionally speaking, of course.
Very average.
—
The first time it happens, Cassie and Victoria are walking toward a patient's room when Mateo catches up to them, launching into an explanation about the case.
“Which is always a solid seven on the WMMV scale” he says, grinning, “What Makes Mateo Vomit”
Dumb joke.
Cassie barely reacts, but then she hears it.
Victorias laughs.
It wasn’t a polite laugh, it wasn’t small.
It was a full, unfiltered, slightly breathless laugh
The kind that sounds suspiciously like a girl with a high school crush.
Mateo beams at his own joke and heads off down the hall.
Cassie immediately turns to look at her, surprised.
“You okay?”
Victoria’s smile falters just a little, like she hadn’t meant for it to be that obvious.
“Yeah,” she says quickly. “He is… umm, he’s funny”, she nods toward the hallway. “The nurse”
Cassie pauses.
“Oh. Mateo”, she says “You can say his name”
Victoria frowns. “I know his name.”
“Right” Cassie replies. “Just checking.”
Cassie blinks like she's trying to make sense of what just happened, and why that irritated her.
It doesn't mean anything.
It definitely does not mean anything at all.
—
The second time it happens, it’s a little more subtle.
After a fight between two women in the waiting room Mateo and Victoria get assigned to check on the woman that lost her teeth.
“Guess that makes us a team,” Mateo says looking at Victoria.
Victoria hesitates just a fraction of a second.
“I guess it does.”
Cassie doesn’t know why she notices that pause.
Victoria turns to look at the woman. “Ma’am, come with Mateo and I…” she stops. “Mateo and me. Yes, with us both.”
Cassie watches them walking a little too close, they aren’t touching, but they are close. She stares at the door after they disappear inside.
Very average, she reminds herself.
—
The third time it happens, it's accidental.
Cassie and Victoria are finishing their charts when Mateo approaches them. Cassie and him start talking about babysitting Harrison, Victoria just looks at Mateo without saying a word.
“And, you know, a new foot massage place just opened in the Strip District. Do you wanna go on Sunday?” Cassie asks.
“For sure, yeah.” Mateo replies
“I’m free Sundays” Victoria spills without thinking.
Cassie turns to look at her sharply.
Mateo looks at her too.
Victoria swallows. “Umm… to help or… whatever. Yeah. Whatever.”
There’s a split second where Cassie thinks Victoria is volunteering to go with him.
To the massage place.
On sunday.
Something hot and unpleasant curls low in her stomach.
Mateo blinks. “You’d babysit?”
Victoria nods quickly. “Yeah, of course. I like kids.”
Silence.
Oh.
Oh.
Not Mateo.
Harrison.
The tightness in her chest dissolves so fast it almost makes her dizzy.
“You’d do that?” Cassie asks, softer now.
Victoria shrugs, suddenly shy. “If it helps.”
“That's awesome. Thank you.”
Cassie steps forward without thinking and pulls Victoria into a hug.
It’s brief, professional.
But it’s warm.
Victoria goes still in her arms before slowly hugging her back. Cassie doesn’t notice the change of Victoria’s breathing.
When she pulls back, Victoria is looking at her like she’s recalculating something important.
Mateo says something, a joke, probably, but neither of them hears it.
Victoria is looking directly at her.
Differently.
Cassie doesn’t notice.
—
The fourth time it happens, it’s after PittFest.
After they finish with all the patients, Victoria is still standing near the nurse station. Mateo approaches her carefully.
“Hey”, he says. “Sit down.”
“Why?” she asks, not fully understanding but following him anyway.
“Adrenaline crash after a big event.” He gestures toward a chair. “Trust me.”
She sits down and then she sees how Mateo is handling her something small and rectangular.
“A juice box? Thanks.”
Mateo studies her for a second. “What happened here today… isn’t normal.” He exhales. Then he chuckles softly. “But you? You were a rockstar, Victoria.”
And with that he leaves.
Victoria watches him go. A big smile spreads across her face.
“He knows my name,” she murmurs to herself.
Cassie hears it. She hadn't meant to be standing there listening, but she is. And something in her chest tightens in a way that feels deeply, deeply unreasonable.
Of course he knows her name.
They work together.
It would be concerning if he didn’t.
Cassie looks back down at her chart.
Objectively average.
Statistically unremarkable.
Possibly lactose intolerant.
—
A few days after PittFest, Victoria is suturing. Her hands are steady, focused. Cassie watches from the doorway, shoulder resting against the frame.
“Nice work.” She says when Victoria finishes.
Victoria glances up. A faint flush creeping into her cheeks.
Cassie steps closer to inspect it.
“Clean. Efficient.” she pauses.
Don’t.
“Very… rockstar of you.”
No she didn’t.
The second the word leaves her mouth, Cassie regrets it. Of course the nickname was floating in her head, it had been circling for days. Mocking Mateo silently. Irritating her at inconvenient hours.
She just hadn’t expected to say it out loud.
Hadn’t expected to see it land on Victoria’s face.
Cassie doesn’t look at her, she just continue keeping her expression neutral.
“Careful though,” she adds lightly. “Wouldn’t want you to have an adrenaline crash.”
What the hell was wrong with her?
She mentally slaps herself. Once. Twice.
Victoria goes still.
Silence falls between them.
“You heard that,” Victoria says finally.
Cassie doesn’t look at her. “Hard not to.” Too quick. Too flat
“You didn’t like it,” Victoria says, studying her reaction.
Cassie finally looks at her. “I dont care”.
But there is something behind those words that screams the contrary.
And Victoria sees it.
She keeps watching her for a long second.
“Okay”.
The smile that touches Victoria's mouth now is different.
It isn’t about Mateo.
It’s about Cassie.