Archive of Our Own

“You must be Gloria’s new hire” Jack sends a glance at the woman looking at him with an unamused raised eyebrow across his patient in Trauma 2.

“We can do this,” she insists, instead of answering him. Jack knows this, of course they can. But he’s here. He’s here because he brought this guy in and he wasn’t going to walk away until he was stable. He feels Robby glance up at him across the patient and he refuses to look up at him, lest Robby agree and try and send him out.

“Oh no, I got it.” He answered with a slight smirk. Santos sounded off next orders as Jack leaned in to check her work. He tracked the new hire out of the corner of his eye as she stepped to the side of the trauma room but didn’t exit. He worked quickly, ensuring the airway was established and bleeding stopped on this poor idiot, victim of his family’s annual Fourth of July shooting competition, which ended with him shot in the leg. Twice. Jack and his temporary co-workers today had left the guy’s brother crying to the cops while Jack brought him here to oversee the work himself.

Garcia strode into the room. “Ass-bit, looking like the military industrial complex come to life.”

“Happy Fourth to you Garcia,” Jack didn’t look up from where he was watching one of the newer day shift nurses, he just could not remember the name up finishing cleaning up the second bullet wound. “No Walsh?”

“You are stuck with me my fine friend,” Garcia said leaning over to take a look at the bullet wounds. “So sorry. Especially since getting you feels like a breath of fresh air after Robby today.” Robby has stepped back with Garcia’s entrance and gives a loud, sarcastic laugh. Garcia levels him a narrowed eye stare for a moment and then turns to the MAs and nods sharply, “let’s get him up.”

Jack groaned internally. Robby’s last day before sabbatical sounded like it was going great. He and Garcia exchanged a look as she turned to exit, Trinity following her quickly. The room continued to clear as Jack pulled off his gloves. Strange, he felt a tightness in his shoulder as he did, rolling it slightly.

Robby finished taking off his gown and turned to Jack, “stick around for a bit, why don’t you?” to which Jack nodded. “I’ll let you two get acquainted.” And he slipped out of the room as their new co-worker stepped forward as though she was going to disagree and keep him there.

Jack shook his head, classic avoidant Robby. He returned his attention to the last person still in the room. “Dr. Abbot, I assume?” His new…boss, he mused idly, stepped forward and extended a hand. “I’m Dr. Baran Al-Hashimi.” Jack took her hand and gave her a tired smile.

“You got me.”

“Night shift lead attending?” She phrased it as a question, but her tone did not imply a question.

“Got me again.”

“It is good to meet you, but I do want to reiterate that the current staff could have handled the trauma all the same.”

Jack nodded. “Let’s just say I have a tendency to jump in?” He offered with a slight shrug and felt that pull in his shoulder again.

“Noted.” Dr. Al-Hashimi gave him a small smile finally. “Well, Dr. Abbot, I believe in some semblance of work life balance and will try to institute that for the staff,” she headed towards the trauma room doors and Jack followed looking to head to his locker and change out of this conspicuous uniform, “and the staff includes the attendings,” she added wryly. Jack laughed

“Your lips to gods here, ma’am” he chuckled and as they approached the Hub, Samira Mohan floated into his vision. She was inside the work area, holding a tablet and had clearly been chatting with Dana. Both of them seemed distracted by him showing up out of the Trauma Bay.

“Dr. Abbot,” she said a smile spread across her face, “what are you doing here? It’s early…even for you,” she chided gently, mirth in her eyes. Her gaze stole down to take in her uniform before jumping back up to his face.

He put his arms up on the counter leaning towards her across the space. Dr. Al-Hashimi stopped at his side. “Rough day for me,” he waved generally at the air to indicate the Fourth and Samira nodded. She had set her tablet down and had moved towards him across the counter, seemingly without her mind’s knowledge. “I’m volunteering with a VA group assisting emergency responders. Keeps me busy, you know.”

Samira nodded again, hands almost twitching. She felt it happened and pulled them back. “Caught a trauma, then?” she indicated to the trauma bay.

“Yea, accidental gunshot due to annual gun shooting.” Samira’s look of distaste made Jack chuckle again. Dr. Al-Hashimi cleared her throat.

“Oh, and you got to meet Dr. Al!” Samira said happily.

“This is true,” Jack turned it head and raised his eyebrows. “Do I get to call you Dr. Al?”

“Samira and I worked at the VA together – “

“With Dr. King as well.” Samira added and Dr. Al gave her a small smile.

“- so maybe after months of working together and years of knowing each other?” Dr. Al finished. Jack laughed again.

“Alright, alright, I’ll earn it.”

Dana took her moment to interrupt, “Jack, we losing you back to the streets?”

Jack stroked his chin as if he was contemplating and gave it a beat. “No, I think I’m sticking around for a bit.”

“Good, because the Westbridge patients are coming in fast and furious.” Dana clapped her hands together once with effect. “Go change!”

Jack didn’t move. He knew he needed to hang around after Dr. Al-Hashimi and Samira left to ask Dana for a room so Robby could look at his shoulder. A silence descended as nobody moved in the group and then Dr. Al-Hashimi turned to Samira.

“Samira, how is Baby Jane Doe?”

“She is excellent, I was just about to go re-check vitals and just take a peek,” Samira lit up talking about the infant. Jack felt momentarily paralyzed by her glow and their gazes locked.

“Samira?”

“Yep, yes.” Samira picked up her tablet and headed towards pedes. Dana shook her head and turned back to her computer.

“Okay with you if I stay?” Jack offered as an olive branch turning to face the new doctor.

She nodded almost absently as she took him in carefully. “You served?” She finally asked.

“Two tours. Afghanistan. Medic in the Marine Corps”

“One tour. Iraq. Medic in the Army.”

They regard each other for another moment.

“Tough day for you?” Jack asks finally.

“Not as much recently. But it has been in the past. I understand needing to stay busy, dull out the noise.” She seems lost in her own memories as she says it. Jack can only offer an affirmative mmhm, there wasn’t really much else to say. “If you need to stay, stay,” she finally seems to come out of whatever she was remembering. “We could use the support, and I doubt anyone here says no to you much anyways.” Dana lets out a snort at that, and Jack has to shrug in agreement.

“My deep appreciation Dr. Baran Al-Hashimi. I am in your debt. I would love to buy you a beer at some point and hear about the Army medic service. I hear it’s way easier than Marine Corps medic life.” She laughs at that and starts to walk away.

Over her shoulder she responds, “You have to do more than one good trauma before you buy this girl a drink Dr. Abbot.”

Jack chuckles to himself, someone who can give it like he can. He can only imagine the hell she has been putting Robby through this morning. His small laugh turns to an irritated groan as his shoulder pulses again and he sees Dana raise her eyebrows at him.

“Can I get an empty room?”

“Yea, sure. Can I get a million bucks?”

He levels a sarcastic stare at her and leans closer across the counter. She walks over, placating his antics. “I did something to my shoulder, and I need Robby to look at it when he has a minute.”

Dana leans back “Oh, ho, ho. Jack Abbot asking for help? Yea fine, I can get you a room for a few minutes. Go get your stuff to change.”

Dana works her magic and in a few short minutes Jack is in South 20 waiting on Robby with his shirt off. Minutes pass and he grows frustrated that the injury is in the one spot he can’t just treat himself. He waits and as the minutes pass he grows frustrated by the noises he can hear happening outside the curtain. Finally, he decides that it’s just a small something, he doesn’t need to be waiting in here for Robby when there is plenty out there to help with. He stands and goes to pull his shirt on when he hears the curtain pull open.

“I’m soooo – Dr. Abbot?”

He freezes with his arms over his head and turns pulling them down without pulling the shirt down over his chest. Samira Mohan stands in front of him eyes wide before quickly snapping to and turning to draw the curtain behind her, so no curious onlookers start to gather.

“Um, Dr. Mohan?”

She isn’t looking at him as she steps around him to snap on gloves and pull out a cleaning kit from the drawer.

“Dr. Mohan.” He says more definitely.

“Dr. Abbot please sit down,” she finally turns to look at him, face neutral.

“Dr. Mohan, please. I’m waiting on Robby and he was taking forever so I can just get back to work until he has time.”

She furrows her brow and gives him a look that reminds that everything he knows is a drop in the ocean of the knowledge she contains. “Dr. Abbot, I saw the contusion. Let me take care of it quickly and then you can get to work. It isn’t anything that demands Robby’s attention. It’s no problem.”

Oh yes, it is. Her hands on him, on his back. Even with gloves she has never touched his bare skin like that. He has spent months, years trying to be as professional as he could and now, she is seeing him with no shirt and…going to touch him. He might combust. Has his professionalism been failing more and more every year? Sure. But appearing in front of her shirtless was a new low.

Flirting with Walsh, Dana, Myrna, whoever is just part of his personality. Hell, even Baran Al-Hashimi is just a new distraction from the all consuming need he feels for an R4 he has known since her intern year and tried so hard to keep out of his head.

“Dr. Abbot?” Her voice breaks through his internal panic.

“Yea, you’re right. Of course you’re right.” He smiles gently at her, and he sees her face harden slightly. Odd.

She walks around him to start his wound care. “What happened?” She murmured quietly.

He was trying to box breath but in a way that would be unnoticeable to a woman sharing the same square foot as him. “The Fourth of July gunslingers had rubber bullets they were playing with too and one hit me through the vest.”

Her hands gripped his shoulders as she exclaimed “Jack Abbot. You were shot at?”

“Sweetheart, it wasn’t the first time.” He laughed slightly, trying to put her as ease more than anything. It didn’t work as her fingers dug into the tops of his arms even further. He turned on the table to look at her and she narrowed her eyes, batting him back into place.

“That is…insane,” she breathed, resuming her work. “You will definitely be staying here, doctors’ orders.”

“Glad I got the best doctor in the place then,” he said softly, his voice getting a little deeper as he spoke words he shouldn’t. She responded with a noncommittal humph and let them lapse into silence as she cleaned the wound.

“So, Al-Hashimi?” He inquired after a moment, not enjoying not hearing her voice. He felt her fingers still for a moment.

“She’s great, isn’t she?” Samira answered and her voice sounded strange, too high.

Jack frowned at her tone, “She seems great, yea. Nice to have another vet around. I don’t even have to play the amputee card to get her to let me work doubles.” Samira scoffed, they had had many a conversation about how they should both stop working so many doubles. Usually on their overlapping doubles that neither of them stopped doing.

“Have she and Robby been getting into it?”

“They are not seeing eye to eye, no.” Samira finished with the bandage and walked around him to throw away supplies and strip her gloves off. “Dr. Al sees things differently than Robby; it will be a big change during his sabbatical.”

They stood in the small space then, Samira’s hands twisted in front of her as she tried to look anywhere but Abbot’s bare chest. Abbot waited patiently as she decided what to do, noting with amusement that her gaze did stop on his chest a few times.

She finally cleared her throat “I’ll prescribe Naproxen, get it out and leave it for you with Dana.” She straightened her shoulders and her hands stopped fidgeting. “Shirt on Abbot, Dana needs you back at the Hub,” and left without saying another word.

Hmmm, that was not what he expected to happen. He has been inching closer and closer to impropriety with Samira, especially since Pittfest. He bought her a Valentine’s Day gift four months ago for gods sake. He has been so obvious she would be right to file an HR complaint. And it had seemed like she was inching closer to him too. She texted him thoughts about cases that she got on day shift she thought he might like; she waited after day shift ended to go over case notes with him.

He shook his head, trying to clear out some of the confusion and noise. He’s missing something, he doesn’t think he just wants her so badly he’s made it all up. He stood and pulled his shirt on to get back out there. Doctors’ orders, right?

~~~

Samira stepped out of South 20 and headed straight for the ambulance bay. She stepped out in the July heat and let the somewhat fresh, somewhat gasoline and blech scented air hit her lungs. She drew in and blew out a deep breath. Like she didn’t have enough going on with her mom’s stupid new boyfriend, deciding what she was going to do about New Jersey, and McKay going on about getting laid. Now the man she’s liked for years and recently become obsessed with shows up in an obscenely hot military uniform, something she has never found attractive before mind you, takes off his shirt, and asks out her boss.

What. A. Day.

She had walked into South 20 looking for a dislocated shoulder patient that the tall med student she hated had “misplaced” and instead found Jack Abbot, arms held up over his head, back muscles taut. If she was a better woman she would say she had immediately been distracted by the shoulder contusion and forgotten the muscled abdomen, thick biceps. But she was just a lesser woman lusting over a man who was basically her boss. Oh my god, his arms. She has to take another deep breath.

She leaned against the wall pressed a hand to her chest. She’d turned right back around to the Hub, having forgotten she needed Dana’s assistance on a new test for baby Jane Doe when she heard –

You have to do more than one good trauma before you buy this girl a drink Dr. Abbot

Dr. Al shows up and gets Abbot to ask her out on what? Less than 10 minutes? Samira has been around for four years. Clearly, she was missing something. The more time she takes to think logically, the more it makes sense though. Dr. Al is also a vet, an attending, liked by administration and patients alike. She is gorgeous and kind. Who wouldn’t meet her and be enamored. How could Samira blame Jack? She certainly couldn’t blame Dr. Al for wanting to go out with Jack.

She just thought things were – changing. He had always been so kind to her, made her feel special and assured since her intern year. And then at Pittfest he looked deep into her eyes and made her know, with certainty, that she could do amazing things. They did them together. And after that, recently he’s gone out of his way to seek her out, get her gifts even. She wasn’t sure she was the only person who he bought a personalized Littman stethoscope for, but she thinks maybe she was. And on Valentines Day?

He flirts with everyone. He flirts with Myrna. He’s a flirt. Has she misread everything? She must have, he never asked anyone else out before. This is a clear boundary. But then he called her sweetheart? She audibly groaned. Jack Abbot was making her act like an idiot. No shirt and a pet name and she feels unmoored.

Robby appears in the sliding doorways. “Mohan – incoming MVC, you’re running it.” She nods and jumps to attention. Jack Abbot doesn’t get to spin her out like this. If she and Dr. Al want to be together, good for them.

~~~

Jack exited North 2 and pulled up to the charting area to write up notes on the concussion and head lac he had just treated. They were approaching 5pm and he knew the worst of the Fourth was only ahead of them with nightfall still hours away. Out of the corner of his eye he saw Samira exit pedes, having picked up another pediatric case on top of Baby Jane Doe, and make her way towards him as he sat at the nearest charting station.

Once she noticed he was sitting there her pace slowed and she seemed to rethink her destination, passing behind him and into the break room. He turned on his stool to look at the break room door for a moment, thinking over the last few hours. Samira not just hadn’t said a word to him; she had avoided him at every opportunity. They worked on a heat stroke trauma together two hours ago and she stepped back to let some new tall evil version of the farm kid, Jack really needed to learn names, run all of her parts to avoid standing shoulder to shoulder with him. They were never better than shoulder to shoulder in a trauma. Something was seriously wrong.

He shook his head and gave another look at the break room door. Samira also never took breaks, he had to force coffee, in the first six hours of the shift, or tea, in the last six hours of the shift, into her hand to make her drink anything. Eating was barely a thought to her most days unless he put food right under her nose. Her choosing to go into the break room was suspicious in and of itself.

He turned back to the monitor and started typing. Dr. Al-Hashimi came around the corner.

“Dr. Abbot. Have you seen Robby?”

“He keeps shaking you?” Jack leaned back on the stool as Dr. Al smiled with good humor.

“He certainly keeps trying,” she conceded with a shake of the head. She looked at the charting on his screen behind him. “You happy you stayed to take concussion patients?” She inquired with a quirk to her lips.

“Of course, things are just getting good. If I leave now, I shudder to think of what creativity I might miss later on. The new orifices people will find to put fireworks in this year.”

They are laughing as Samira exits the break room. Jack sees her immediately and notices a tightening of her brows when she sees them laughing.

“Samira,” he calls and she hesitates for too long to be polite. So long that Dr. Al turns to check if she heard Jack and with both of them looking at her, she trudges up to them. Jack didn’t actually have anything to ask her; he just hasn’t spoken to her in 3 hours now and it is driving him insane.

“Dr. Abbot?” She inquires, no smile on her voice or in her tone.

“Um,” he is throwing lines out across is mind trying to catch any good reason he could have called her over. “Any bets on the strangest place we see a firework end up this year?”

Samira looks at him with narrowed eyes. He would almost call her expression undecipherable, but if he had to guess he reads annoyance in her gaze. “I bet Ahmed has a pot going,” she demurs, “excuse me.” And turns to walk down the hallway seemingly towards the Hub to check for new patients.

Jack turns back towards the monitoring with his charting, cringing internally at how badly that went. After a beat he realizes Dr. Al-Hashimi witnessed the whole thing. Great. He looks up at her, but she is watching Samira walk away, a pensive look on her face. She looks down at Jack and winks quickly. Before he can say anything, she pats his arm and walks away as well following Samira down the hall.

~~~

Samira had lots of bad days in medicine. Days she lost a patient. Days she made the wrong call. Pittfest. Today was a special kind of horrible where she just couldn’t do enough and it wasn’t her fault; it was the system. She stood at a charting station typing up notes on her diabetic father patient, who wasn’t getting the care he needed in Med Surge and wouldn’t pay to stay in the ER. He was leaving AMA and Samira had done everything she could, but it wasn’t enough. What more could this day take from her.

She was staring at med options. If the family had stayed a little longer, maybe she could have at least gotten them some of these treatments to support him at home. She sighed and rubbed her hand up and down the opposite arm, self-soothing through the fatigue she felt coming down on her hard.

“Samira.” Jack’s voice cut through the hum of the ER. He was so much closer to her than she would have expected, she didn’t even hear him come up. “Are you okay?” He leaned in closely; concern etched on his face.

She sighed and the resolve she had had to stop sharing so much with him, to stop relying on him so much shrank as she looked at his earnest and concerned face.  She looked back at the screen because it just hurt a little bit to hold eye contact with him. “No. This father that I was treating left AMA and if he had stayed a little longer, I could have at least gotten him these meds to help him at home. I wish we could courier them or maybe I should just leave and take them myself. I just, god Jack, it just makes me so mad when we know exactly what to do and the systems make it impossible for people to get the treatment they need. What good are we if we can’t even –” she cut off as his hand came up to rest of hers where her fingers were anxiously tapping on the workspace desktop. With his touch she calmed down almost immediately and felt herself let out a huge breath.

“Let’s courier the meds.” He said simply.

She gave him an exasperated look. “I don’t have enough money to courier them across town, I will just wait and go after work.”

“Samira. Let me pay to courier the meds.” He spoke with finality and his hand was still on top of hers.

She gazed at him and he returned the look, serious and sure. She flipped her hand slowly under his and clasped their hands together, squeezing his. “Thank you” she spoke quietly.

With his other hand he pulled out his phone. “Can you pull up the address? I’ll order the service right now. Get the meds pulled and this will all be done shortly.” He squeezed her hand back and then released it, but slowly, as though letting go was a regret.

Within a few minutes she had the meds packaged and handed to him which he took with a smile.

“Jack, truly, this means so much to me.”

“Samira. You really didn’t even have to ask,” he half shrugged. They were suspended in their own world. Jack just happy to be back in Samira’s good graces and Samira happy to put her confusion to the side for the moment and bask in this better outcome for her patient.

“Dr. Abbot, a word?” Dr. Al-Hashimi broke into their bubble from across the work area. Jack watched Samira change in front of him, her features schooling into a more reserved version of herself. He had never seen her do this before, she was always just herself.

Samira closed her eyes briefly hearing Dr. Al’s voice. Right, Dr. Al, his date. Dr. Al her mentor who she genuinely liked. She was kidding herself with the last few minutes, she needed to steel herself up against these emotions for Jack and pull back. Her plan had worked brilliantly for all of six hours. Stupid, stupid.

“Samira?”

“Hey, it’s nearly seven. Time for your date, right? You wouldn’t want to miss that.”

She turned and walked away, not wanting to see his reaction to her words. As she walked towards the bathroom, needing a break after whatever that was, she thought about the fact that they had both used each other’s first names. It felt like one of the most romantic things that had ever happened to her. Oh god, was she screwed.

~~~

Time for your date, right?

Jack had a pretty good idea what was going now.

After dropping off the package to the courier and conferring on the consult Dr. Al-Hashimi requested, Jack felt antsy. He felt antsy because he knew what Samira’s problem was and maybe today was the day to finally solve it. Solve them.

He found Dana wrapping things up at her station. “Can you do me a favor?” He tried to put on his nicest face.

She looked at him suspiciously, “End of shift, you aren’t even supposed to be here, holiday weekend. This can’t be good.”

“I need my shoulder checked out again. Can I get a room, and can you send Dr. Mohan back in?”

“Mohan did it?” Dana raised an eyebrow, “bet you loved that.”

“I am going to love it more the second time,” he winked.

Dana grimaced but waved him off fondly. “Fine, go sit in West 12, It’s a little more out of the way.” She added with a wink.

“You mean everything to me,” he praised her walking away and heard her let out a laugh.

~~~

Samira was almost out of here when Dana pulled her back for one more in West 12. A patient requested her, which is not how the ER works. But whatever, she doesn’t have anywhere to be, and she didn’t see Jack or Dr. Al still hanging around so she might as well stay for one more patient and some peace.

Ugh. She chastises herself mentally, she cannot be thinking negatively about either of them, but especially Dr. Al, who has done nothing to her but show up to day one at her new job. Sighing to herself, she pushed the door open and steps in. And for the second time today she is greeted by a shirtless Jack Abbot.

“Jack! What are you doing in here?” She turns to make sure the curtain is pulled as they are now going to be surrounded by his night shift colleagues.

He grins at her, but it’s more of a smirk than his usual look. It’s sexier, which is saying something considering she usually finds him attractive.

“Dr. Mohan, I was thinking about something –”

“That you’ve lost your mind?”

“– I was thinking about your behavior today.”

“My behavior?!”

“I didn’t like you ignoring me.”

“Excuse me?” She marches closer to him, indignation spreading through her. “You have a lot of nerve Dr. Abbot.”

He reaches out and grabs her wrist with both hands, one hand staying wrapped around her wrist and the other moving up to trace her inner arm. His touch sears through her and stops whatever she was about to say next on her lips.

“Call me Jack,” he says softly, watching her reaction to her voice, his touch.

“Dr. Abbot,” she grits out yanking on her arm, but not very hard, and he doesn’t let her go. “Why are you in here?”

He leans down and presses a kiss to the middle of her inner forearm. She freezes and feels the burn of his lips on her skin shoot through her whole body.

“I want us to have a conversation, Samira.” The hand around her wrist twists in such a way that it seems like he’s tracking her pulse. Damn doctors. “I want to know what happened today to make you ignore me for hours. I want to know why you pulled away from me in traumas, at the nursing stations, in the rooms. I want to know and I want to fix it. You’re the best damn doctor I have ever worked with, and I am going to fix us.”

His words were both so comforting and felt like cold water being dropped over her. He didn’t like that they weren’t working as well together as normal, of course this is about work performance. She pulled on her arm again and he took her hand and placed it on his chest. She let out a small sound; some might call it a whimper. She called it pathetic.

“Samira, what happened today?”

Her eyes flew up to his from where she had been watching her hand rest on his chest. She had unintentionally stepped closer to her and was between his legs where he sat on the exam table. They were less than a step apart now. She let out a shaky breath.

“Why are you doing this?”

“Samira, why did you think I had a date tonight with Dr. Al?”

She looked at through narrowed eyes. “I heard you two, you asked her out and she said you needed more than one good trauma before you could buy her a drink. And you’ve been laughing and flirting all day, don’t act like I’m stupid.” She did finally pull her hand off his chest and step back, he let her this time. “And you would be lucky to be with her; she is smart and kind and beautiful. It makes sense that you would go out with you. You, you should! I can give you her phone number.”

He sat on the table, so calm, and so stupidly shirtless letting her vent at him.

“And actually Dr. Abbot, how dare you come hold my hand and be so nice to me and my patient when you have a date planned. And be in here with your shirt off waiting for me. Dr. Al deserves better than that, I am actually disappointed in you. Yea, I am not liking this look on you at all.” She nodded to herself, not sure how she landed on chastising him, but committing, nonetheless.

“Are you good?” He raised his hands in surrender waiting for her to reply. She rolled her eyes and sighed, crossing her arms over her chest but finally nodding.  

“Come here.” He holds his hands out towards her.

She looks at him with frustration, “No.”

“Samira, please come here.”

She bites her lip and looks at him, shirtless and beckoning her to him. It’s like a dream made real.

“But, I thought…”

He barks out a laugh. “Obviously. But you thought wrong.” At his laughter she feels herself moving towards him automatically, like he is the center of her gravity, He settles his hands on her waist running his hands gently up and down her sides.

“Maybe I flirt too much, but you have always been different. I’m sorry that wasn’t clear enough. And I did ask Dr. Al out to get a beer, but to hear about her military background, I am not sure if you heard that part. She flirted back a bit, but she’s also done that with Robby and Dana today. I think to her, I am not special, which is a-okay.”

He leaned down a ran the tip of his nose up the side of her neck, breathing in the Samira scent he had only ever gotten the barest hint of standing close together at workstations before. Samira’s hand come up to rest on his biceps, fingers curling in.

“You ignoring me felt like torture, I was coming up with any reason to get your attention. I would have paid a grand for a courier if it got you to talk to me.”

He kissed the hollow of the throat and she sighed. One of her hands came up to wrap in his hair. She pulled his head back until they were looking eye to eye.

“I think we’re both idiots,” Samira said quietly, eyes circling his lips.

“Never met bigger ones,” he agreed.

And she wasn’t sure if she went in first or he did, but then their lips met. It started softly, learning a little about each other. But then one of the hands on her waist ran up her body and she whimpered. That sound pushed him over the edge. He pulled her bottom lip between his teeth and licked into her mouth, feeling her shudder beneath her touch.

His hands ran down her body pulling her even closer and gripping her ass. Through the scrub material he could feel that her underwear had lace material and he groaned into her mouth pulling away from her to kiss behind her ear and down her neck.

Samira panted and reached her hands out to trace the planes of his chest exposed for her exploration. Her finger brushed his nipple, and he bit down on the junction where her shoulder met her neck.

“Jack,” she breathed “Jack, oh my god.”

He hummed into her skin leaving one hand kneading her ass and bringing the other up to cup her cheek.

“I know, I know.” He mumbled distractedly into her skin.

“We need to stop.” Samira said, with no conviction. She was squeezing his bicep and leaned in to kiss below his ear.

“We really need to stop.” He agreed, putting his hand under her scrub top and running his hand across her abdomen. They both groaned.

Samira slowly stepped back, arms coming up like she was holding Jack, or maybe herself, back.

“Why are you in here shirtless anyways?” She finally asked after a moment had passed of them catching their breath.

“I knew why you were mad, but I knew you couldn’t help checking me out earlier. I was hoping getting back into this state you liked would help my case.” He half shrugged smiling sheepishly at her.

She shook her head in awe. “You really didn’t need to extra assist; I’m sort of distracted by you at every moment. But I do appreciate it.”

He winked at her, “anything for you.” Reaching behind him he grabbed his shirt and put it back on. Samira ran her fingers through her hair which Jack had gotten out of its clip at some point. They looked at each other, and both laughed before Jack reached out a hand and Samira entwined their fingers together.

“Samira Mohan, do you want to get dinner with me?”

“Like a date?”

“Not like a date. Do you want to go on a date with me. Which leads to dating me. Which leads to –”

“Jack!”

“Samira?”

She smiled at him leaning up to kiss him gently. “Yes, I would like to go on a date with you.”

They dropped hands as they left to avoid attention, going to their lockers, gathering belongings, explaining Jack’s injury and why they had been in a room anyways as they said their goodbyes.

“Ready Dr. Mohan?” Jack asked as they walked to his car.

“This is crazy,” she stopped short. “Is this really happening?”

He leaned down and grabbed her hand, bringing it up to his lips. “If you want it to be.” He said simply.

“I really thought…” she trailed off shaking her head. She gave him a radiant smile and climbed into the car. She had never been so happy to be wrong.