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Baran didn’t have time to process finally meeting Doctor Robinavitch after the mock code when they were pulled away for an incoming trauma. She’d been there earlier than she probably needed, a full bagel spread and all, in an attempt to make a good first impression. Baran was hesitant about taking the interim job, but now that she’s just getting started, she’s glad she said yes.
It also helps that her fiancée works upstairs and comes down to the ER on occasion. Given that the day just started, Baran hadn’t gotten the chance to see Yolanda since this morning before she left. The couple had been together for almost five years now, having met before Yolanda transferred to PTMC.
Everyone who worked with Yolanda knew about her being in a relationship; she was very open about that fact about herself. What people didn’t know was who she was in a relationship with. Well, aside from Samira and Mel, who had worked with Baran previously and definitely saw Yolanda pick her up some nights. But neither of them had said anything to anyone, knowing the couple valued some semblance of privacy outside of their work.
Baran didn’t have much time to think about missing her fiancée when the patient was wheeled into the room. Directions were flying as the doctors worked to move the patient onto the bed, just as the door at the back of the room swung open.
“What do we got, party people?” Yolanda’s teasing voice pulled Baran away from the patient, her eyes finding the surgeon almost immediately.
Yolanda was too focused on the patient in front of them to notice her at first, but Baran had to bite back a small smile while watching her work. It was Robby’s voice that pulled her back into focus.
“Doctor Yolanda Garcia...,” he started introducing her, but Baran tuned him out. She was well aware of who Doctor Garcia was.
Baran rattled off her own suggestions, mentally rolling her eyes every time Robby went against them. In the midst of treating the patient, she swore she saw Yolanda smirk when she first spoke, earning a small grin in response.
“I can give it a try,” Baran‘s voice cuts in as she watches the doctors in front of her struggle.
“Doctor Garcia is a very skilled surgeon. If she can’t get it, we need to think of something else,” Robby muttered, eyes locked on the open chest in front of him.
In their short time together, this is the first time Baran has been inclined to agree with Robby. She was well aware of how skilled Yolanda was, but she also knew that there were some things that even the most skilled people needed help with.
“We can rotate the lungs,” Robby said after a beat, earning a look from everyone in the room.
“That could possibly work,” Yolanda responded with a quick glance at Baran.
“Or, he’ll die when you rip the entire lung off the hilum,” Baran was quick to interject, throwing a side glare to the man next to her.
Despite being annoyed at Robby, Baran is glad that his wild suggestion worked. Before following her co-attending back into the main area, Yolanda threw her a quick wink, easing the tension she could already feel rising. It was enough to get her through the next hour until they met in the same room for another trauma.
By the time she and Robby, along with McKay and Mel, had reached the trauma room, Yolanda had already made her way down. Baran did her best to focus on teaching rather than eyeing her fiancée, making sure to throw questions Mel's way. In between her questioning, she rounded the table, passing behind Yolanda as the surgeon worked.
She was immediately hit with Yolanda’s favorite perfume, one she’d been wearing the night they met. Baran shot her a side glance as Yolanda moved, biting back a smirk as she returned her focus to Mel. “Do you remember the name for that?” She asked.
“Sounds like a Harry Potter spell,” McKay cut in after Mel hesitated with her answer.
Mel eventually answered, and more questions followed as they examined the man’s dislocation. It wasn’t long before Robby was back to cutting her off and undermining her suggestions, something that she wasn’t sure she could handle all day.
“Let’s get an opinion from Ortho,” Baran huffed, arms crossed as she eyed Robby.
Behind her, Yolanda chuckled softly. “You’re definitely new, Doctor Wishful-Thinking,” Yolanda teased, earning a look from Baran.
The treatment continued despite her suggestion to move the patient to the OR. She knew that being new, she wouldn’t know
they did here in the Pitt, but she would like to think she was giving sound advice.
“This should be done in the OR,” Baran grumbled with her hands on her hips.
She may be a bit upset that no one had considered her suggestion, but Yolanda was currently grunting and tugging on a sheet in front of her. Her eyes danced around the room, doing her best not to look completely distracted.
“I am the OR!” Yolanda huffed as she tugged in an attempt to fix the patient’s dislocation.
Baran tucked that comment away for later teasing and kept her attention on the patient in front of her. It didn’t help that Yolanda was just inches from her grunting as she and McKay let go of the sheet they had been tugging. As Robby worked with Mel, Baran let her eyes dart to Yolanda, who met her eyes with a smirk of her own.
The attending licked her lips quickly as everyone returned to working on the dislocation. She was grateful when it seemed to work, and Yolanda could put her end of the sheet down. As Baran and Robby were talking with Mel, Baran watched Yolanda out of the corner of her eye. It was Robby’s voice that pulled her back into the conversation.
“Right, Doctor Al?” He asked with a raised brow, and she had to resist the urge to tell him not to call her that.
Instead, she turned to face Mel. “I’ve never been named in a lawsuit,” she replied, earning a look from both Mel and Robby. There was no need to lie to make Mel feel better; that wouldn’t help anything.
The next few hours went by, and she’d yet to see Yolanda again despite the many traumas that came through the doors. While leaning against the nurses’ station with an iPad in front of her, a body leaned against the desk next to her. “Hi, Doctor Wishful-Thinking,” a voice teased.
Baran let a small smirk grace her lips as she turned her head slightly to find the same surgeon she was just thinking about. “Hi, OR,” she teased back as she laid the iPad down.
“How’s your first day going?” Yolanda asked, her voice softer than anyone in the entire hospital had ever heard it.
“It’s… okay,” Baran answered with a sigh. “It would help if I weren’t being treated like a resident.”
Her tone changed as she thought about the way Robby treated her so far, but she knew it was just for the day. His opinion of her meant nothing because she knew she was better than whatever it was he thought of her.
“Robby can be an ass,” Yolanda sighed, eyes rolling as she spoke. “Do you want me to say something to him?”
Baran shook her head, a small smile replacing the scowl she wore when thinking of Robby. “No, I will,” she shrugged. “Enough of that. Do you want to pick up something when we get off, or cook?” Her smile was much bigger now.
“I’ll cook, since it’s your first day and all,” Yolanda grinned as she slid closer to the attending. Her finger darting out to drum against Baran's wrist.
Baran looked away for a moment, clearly affected by the tone of Yolanda’s voice and how close she was now standing. “Y’know we have the house to ourselves this week,” Yolanda continued, referring to the fact that Baran’s son would be with her ex-wife this week.
“I had no idea,” she flirted, uncaring about the fact that they were in the middle of the ER.
It was Yolanda’s turn to smirk, but before she responded, her pager interrupted them. “Duty calls,” she huffed as she slid her pager back into her pocket after reading the message.
“I’ll see you later,” Baran beamed as she watched Yolanda walk away.
When she turned back to pick up her iPad, her eyes met Victoria’s, sitting just far enough to watch the interaction but not close enough to have heard anything. Baran smiled softly and tried to refocus on the screen in front of her, but Victoria had other plans.
The med student slowly made her way to where Baran was standing, fiddling with her fingers as she cleared her throat.
“What can I do for you, Victoria?” Baran hummed as she looked up at the younger girl.
“Um, I don’t mean to be nosy or anything,” Victoria started, her voice quiet. “Doctor Garcia’s like.. engaged or something, and that looked very flirty. I just thought you should know…,” Victoria trailed off, her eyes darting around the ER.
Baran stifled a chuckle as she nodded. “Thank you for telling me,” she smiled before holding up her left hand, engagement ring glistening in the harsh lighting of the emergency room. “But, I’m well aware.”
Victoria’s eyes widened as the information sank in. “Oh! I’m sorry, I didn’t know you two even knew each other,” the med student rushed out.
“It’s okay, Victoria,” the attending promised. “I think only Samira and Mel knew. We try to keep our private life to ourselves,” Baran explained.
“Ah,” Victoria nodded before clearing her throat once more. “I think everyone’s gonna know now. That didn’t look like you were trying to keep it private,” she continued, throwing a side glance to a pair of very gossipy nurses sitting not far from them.
Baran laughed before sending a smile toward Princess and Perlah, and turned her attention back to Victoria. “That’s okay. I’m sure it wouldn’t have taken long to figure out,” she joked.
Neither of them had the time to say more before EMTs came rushing through the doors with a trauma. The rest of the shift went as well as it could after Baran’s talk with Victoria, who happened to end up working on several cases with the engaged couple. There were plenty of times Baran caught her glancing between the pair as they worked, as if she was trying to picture them together.
Baran broke the news to Yolanda as they headed to Baran’s car after the shift. “Victoria knows about us,” she teased, her hand intertwined with Yolanda’s.
“Really? I didn’t think she’d be the first to catch on with how attached she is to McKay,” the surgeon joked.
“She tried to warn me that you were seeing someone after you were too flirty,” Baran laughed softly.
Yolanda laughed a bit louder with a shake of her head. “At least she was trying to be on your side,” she joked as they reached the car.
“I’m sure everyone else will know by tomorrow morning,” Baran hummed as she leaned back against the car.
Yolanda grinned as she moved to stand in front of her, pressing her against the vehicle. “Good, at least that means I can kiss you in between patients,” Yolanda teased as her hands gripped Baran’s hips.
Baran chuckled as she moved her arms to rest on Yolanda’s shoulders. “Who said you could do that? What happened to professionalism?” The attending joked as she leaned in slightly.
“I don’t care about professionalism,” Yolanda purred as her lips grazed Baran’s.
Their lips met in a slow kiss, the sounds of the city drowning out the longer they made out. Eventually, Yolanda pulled away with a signature teasing smirk. “C’mon, I’m starving,” she teased as she pulled away.
Baran rolled her eyes and let Yolanda open the passenger side door for her. Accidentally being accused of possibly homewrecking wasn’t how she pictured her new co-workers figuring out her relationship, but it was perhaps the funniest way for it to happen. Normally, she’d care about having some sort of separation between work and her private life, but she couldn’t deny she liked the sound of Yolanda randomly popping down to the ER just to see her.