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Santos looked up from the patient - 27 year old male, crush injuries, massive blood loss - and focused on the directives rather than on the person giving them.
“Get a BP and keep giving him blood,” he instructed, monitoring the overall status on the screen. “Santos, what's next?”
She looked back down, assessing the patient. They were just able to get him back after he went asystole on them and, two epis in later, he seemed stable enough for transportation. “Arterial blood gas and he's going to need surgery ASAP.” She said, confidently even though part of her still thought back to the verbal lashing that might come her way again.
The senior resident met her eye, and she thought for a second he was going to go another half-assed attempt at extending an olive branch before he nodded curtly. “Call Garcia and come get me when she’s here.”
Santos sighed as he walked out of the room, taking a second to curse this day to hell and back. “Of fucking course,” she muttered under her breath.
Trinity was having a day and she was rather hoping it would just end already. She tapped her phone screen quickly and looked at the time when it lit up - 3:24p.m.
Sighing again, she headed to the board just to notice her favorite wide-eyed medical student (now that Dennis was an intern, not that she would vocalize that) already there, looking lost. “Crash, are you surviving all the paperwork or are you thinking about crash-ing out on us?” she joked, perking up.
Trinity smirked, sensing Victoria’s annoyance. She was so easy. The med student side eyed her and continued to stare at the board intently, marker in hand. After a beat with no other reaction, she took Javadi’s hand and ripped the marker out of her hand. “Alright, what is it?”
“Patient in room 7 is now on the way to the ER, emergency surgery but some tests are still pending. I am just trying to figure out if I should erase her information from the board to clear up the room or wait on the results so it all goes to his file.”
Trinity nodded, erasing the information herself, “patient’s name will be on the results, it should sort itself out once the system is back up. For now, we need rooms.” She set the marker down and looked at Victoria again, noticing a weird air about her, “You okay, Javadi? There has to be a reason you did not react to my awesome pun.”
Victoria nodded, now slightly more relaxed with that case taken care of, “I think I really screwed up with that patient…,” she stopped, visibly trying to clear her head. “And all this analog process, it’s so overwhelming.”
A change of topic if she’s ever seen one. “Tell me about it. I wish I had asked for the PTO now. Not that I have 4th of July plans or anything,” she said, sardonically.
“Yeah, well, no PTO for me. Or plans,” Victoria smiled, nervous. Big eyes looked around the ER, noticing Donnie and Ahmed talking in pressing tones close to the entrance, before they settled back on Trinity. Javadi absentmindedly noticed strands were coming out from her ponytail, strands that she probably hadn't had time to notice with all the action. “Maybe you’d want to do something tonight? If our shift ends when it’s supposed to end, anyways,” she clarified and then added, almost an afterthought, “and Dennis, of course.”
The offer settled like a balm over something that had been stinging inside Trinity since I made other plans and we’re just keeping it casual, right?
She smiled genuinely, for what felt like the first time since this whole shift started, “Yeah, okay.”
“Hey, you two!” Dr. Robby approached, steps sounding thunderous when paired with the commanding voice. “Incoming victims, freak accident at the waterpark! ETA 5 min, get ready.”
Waterpark. Children, possibly. Santos went still at the thought. This was not going to be pretty.
Forty five minutes later and almost swaying on her feet from the pure adrenaline drifting off her body after juggling 3 patients at the same time, knowing the older residents were having it much worse. Luckily, Mohan had materialized by her side which meant she did not have to work with Langdon during the onslaught. Now, however, their patients were stable and either waiting for transport to Presby due to insurance issues or waiting for an ER to open up.
And talking about ER.
She jogged to Room 4, back to the patient who was waiting on Yola - Dr. Garcia, and she almost stopped on her feet when she saw both Langdon and Garcia talk about the patient. Trinity entered the room, catching the tail end of Langdon’s summary of the patient’s status.
Langdon looked at her and then looked away, quickly. “Dr. Garcia is taking Mr. Moore now. Dr. Shamsi is coming down to take another patient up.”
Santos nodded, “Right, oka—”
“Send the patient file and update the board, Santos,” Langdon interrupted, already making his way out. Trinity assumed he had finally taken the hint that the less they interacted the better but she couldn’t help the stung from the abrupt tone.
She ignored it, looking at Yolanda. Casual. Be cool.
“Is it as crazy up there as it is in here?” She asked, like a loser.
“Worse,” Garcia said, motioning for the nurse in charge of Mr. Moore to start making her way to the elevator. “Excuse me.”
Don’t do it, Trin. She could hear the voice of Dennis in her stupid head. You’re better than that.
Dammit.
“Wait, Yol— Garcia. One second,” she ohmygodwhatswrongwithher pleaded. Yolanda slowed down, debating and eventually she nodded to the nurse telling her which operating room was ready and the surgeon that would be performing the operation. Once the doors of the elevator closed, she looked around and basically checked her shoulder when she went through the door to the stairs.
Oh, god. She didn't even have a plan. What was she going to say exactly? Are we okay? Did I do something? It’s been a really long day and I was really looking forward to the end of shift to hang out with you
Pathetic. And true.
“Look, I know things have been weird lately,” she started, barely meeting sharp eyes. “You haven’t been over in a week and then today’s plans— It’s fine, I get it. Life happens. I guess I’m just trying to say I— It’s been a long day, with going analog and stupid Langdon back, and I wanted” you, she almost finishes but stops when she sees Yolanda rolling her eyes at her, impatient.
“He's here to stay, Trinity. Put on your big girl panties, and work it out.” She says, with all the gentleness of a car crash. “And I really don’t want to talk about that here. We’re on the clock. We got work to do, a lot of it. I would appreciate it if you were to focus on it before you get us both in trouble.”
Trinity nodded, hollow in the pit of her stomach. She whispered a quick, “yeah, sorry.” She wasn’t sure if it even reached Yolanda’s ears with how fast she moved past the doors and into the mess of the ER. She moved but only to press her forehead against the cold white wall.
Trinity didn’t attempt to get back in there yet, not when she was trying to get a hold of herself first.
Maybe Dennis was right. Maybe.
Two hours later and at this point in this shift, the ER was slowly becoming manageable again. They were still going analog but the process had gained some fluidity, less questions flying around and though it was infinitely slower than their usual routine, they pushed on. Now with all the rooms taken and only waiting on results and scans on three different patients, Trinity sat on one of the chairs at the hub and out of habit, she moved the mouse of the computer. Still nothing.
“You look like shit,” a voice says followed by a body leaning against the workstation, right by her chair. Trinity looked up, silently relieved to see her emotional support human in one piece and not covered by bodily fluids. Dennis smiles tiredly, traces of the same relief showing on his face much more clearly than on hers.
“All the charm of a farmboy, Huckleberry. No wonder you pull so much.”
Her sarcasm doesn’t stop her from slightly leaning in his space, her shoulder making contact with his side. Dennis accepts the contact without a comment, if anything he leans back putting more pressure on it. She can feel when he shrugs, “You know what I mean. Is everything okay?”
“I'll survive,” Trinity responds quickly because that's what she does. She survives. “So much to tell you, though. And Yol— you know who, is being a bitch.”
Dennis smiles shortly, “Color me unimpressed because when is she not.” He says with all the nonchalance of someone who’s called it before. “I can not believe you willingly dealt with that this long. I wish you would just, you know,” he gestures with one hand, vaguely.
Stand your ground. She completes in her head, with his words.
Dump her ass. That’s in her own words.
“Well, can’t dump her if she dumps me first,” she sighs quietly, clocking Perlah approaching the hub from behind Dennis. She meets his eyes, shaking her head at the question in there. Instead, she changes gears, “So, tonight… you up to celebrating surviving this shift? Crash is down to do something.”
She sees the moment the yes went to oh— and raises a brow. What now?
“Ah, yes, I can meet you guys. There’s, uh, something I need to take care of first. Uh,” he looks at her then looks away. “There’s… Dr. Robby asked me, well, maybe you know since you talked to him first, though I don’t think he mentioned…” he continues mumbling and Trinity can feel her patience running out.
“Huckleberry, spit it out.”
“Right,” he manages to articulate. “I know you told Dr. Robby about Amy because he happened to talk to me about it and how I needed to put some boundaries there. So, not happy about that, by the way. But it’s fine. Anyways, he also kind of asked me to house sit, randomly. For the three months he’ll be gone. Just be there and water the plants and you know… house sit?” Dennis cringes.
Trinity gapes and pulls away from Dennis. What the hell, Robby.
“I… have so many questions,” she starts. “So you’re moving to Robby’s house?”
“Apartment, I think. For three months,” Dennis points out.
“And he talked to you about… boundaries?”
His face makes something complicated, “Yes?”
Trinity opened her mouth and then closed it. Her left foot started bouncing while she considered all this. She wanted to tell Dennis not to do it, that there was something inherently weird about house-sitting for your boss. The fact that she sent Robby to talk to him hoping he would spend less time with Amy and more time in their place and now he was somehow moving out made her want to swing at something.
At someone. Someone old and whose sabbatical could not save from her wrath.
She, however, was not angry at overly empathetic mouse face so she just nodded, “Alright, then. Don’t care, won’t ask. You’re still cooking Tuesdays and Thursdays so make it work. And you’re meeting us after whatever you have to do tonight.”