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The patient had just been wheeled off to surgery leaving the ER with a rare few seconds of downtime. Whitaker is not all that surprised that Ogilvie - who still looks a little green around the edges from handling the amputated leg - saddles up beside him and says, "That ortho surgeon was pretty intense."
Dennis sighs. "You don't know the half of it."
"He seemed like he had it out for you."
Stopping at the nurse's station, Dennis hangs his head down. "Go check on your patients, Ogilvie."
Thankfully the medical student doesn't argue with him and instead runs off to actually do his job. He couldn't be more grateful for the space.
"Hey," Dennis jumps at Dr. Robby's hand landing firmly on his shoulder. He sits up straight and meets his mentor's eyes. "Are you good? With Mohan out until her labs get back I really need your head in the game." The older doctor eyes him warily, like Dennis might be the next doctor taking up a patient room.
Shaking his head, Dennis pushes away from the counter. "Yeah, I'm good, just grabbing a second."
Robby doesn't say anything for a few moments, then nods and drops it. There are far too many fires to put out at the moment to worry about the stability of any of his residents.
Whitaker for one is glad he dropped it, the last thing he wants is to explain to his boss that he went on a date with one of the hospital's orthopedic surgeons and ruined it so bad he might never get an ortho consult from the man in the future.
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It had been a rare day off for both Dennis and Trinity. Dennis had been excited, so rarely did he and his roommate ever get a chance to actually hangout. He had been in the process of asking Trinity if she wanted to go to a club - just any place to get alcohol and dance that didn't remind him of a Broken Bow bonfire - when she interrupted him for a phone call.
"Sorry, Huck, Yo wants to get ramen. Rain check?"
Dennis knows he takes too long to respond with, "Y-Yeah, yeah, raincheck."
Trinity sighs. "I can cancel if you really want to hang out."
"No! No, seriously, I'm fine. Go." When she doesn't immediately move to put her shoes on or head out the door, Dennis insists some more until she does.
"I'll be back tomorrow, so don't wait up!" She yells as the door shuts behind her.
Dennis waves after her, collapsing onto Trinity's couch and beginning his usual evening routine of doomscrolling until he can't keep his eyes open anymore.
For whatever reason he eventually finds himself swiping through a dating app. Ever since he started at PTMC and thus increased his dating range by another decade, he's had a plethora of options, but none have ever been what - who - he was looking for enough to swipe right.
Until that night.
Brendon Park is a muscular thirty-nine year old man with a crisp haircut, a clean shaven face, and a frat boy smile. His occupation is listed as surgeon and his place of work is listed as Presby. Dennis swipes through some of his photos and he can't help the places his mind goes. He swipes right. The screen lights up green, telling him that he's made a match.
He is surprised by the match, but even more surprised to get a chat message from the man only a few minutes later.
Brendon: I find that matching on a dating app means nothing unless I meet up with the person within 24 hours. Are you free to get a few drinks tonight?
A few alarm bells do go off in Dennis's head. Trinity had been appalled to learn that Dennis had gone on a few dates while he was university and hadn't ever told anyone where he was going or who he was seeing. Since then she had drilled into his head all of her 'safe dating tips' - which included being wary of people who wanted to meet up right away.
But…if it was in a public place, then it should be fine, right?
He messages Brendon back, asking if he'd be okay to meet up at a bar within walking distance of his and Trinity's apartment.
Brendon: Sounds good. See you in thirty?
He texts Trinity as he's heading out the door, letting her know where he's going and the name of the person he's supposed to be meeting up with. She texts him back a litany of emojis that would be innocent under any other circumstance.
The bar is loud and crowded when he arrives and Dennis has to push his way up to the bartender. He orders a Bud Light, ignoring the way the bartender looks at him like he's surprised he was old enough to be let in the main doors.
As he sips on his beer he messages Brendon where he's sitting - on the far end of the bar, a few steps from the bathroom - and waits patiently for the man to show up.
He's not expecting his date for the night to be so tall…or so broad. He can barely take his eyes off Brendon's chest as the man formally introduces himself and shakes Dennis's hand. The older man orders the only craft beer on tap from the bartender, as he removes his jacket, draping it over the back of his barchair.
They get the basic introductions out of the way and eventually venture into small talk territory. Dennis starts by asking, "So, you're a surgeon?" And it's not until the man answers that he realizes his mistake.
"Ortho surgeon, yeah."
Dennis tells the voice inside his head - one that sounds suspiciously like Dr. Robby - to stop reminding him of all the horrible experiences he and his peers have ever had with orthopedic surgeons. "Ortho, cool. I haven't done my rotation through any of the surgery specialties just yet."
Brendon smirks. When he had found out Dennis was a resident the first thing he had asked was where Dennis wanted to end up. He had been about as close to disgusted as one can properly get on a first date when Dennis had said Emergency Medicine. "Ortho is the best of the best."
And then, he's off. Dennis doesn't think he's ever heard anyone talk about themselves and their profession like two ideas were intertwined - and he certainly hasn't heard someone talk about either of those things for this long.
Anytime he tries to add to the conversation or try to interject about something the two of them might have in common, Brendon redirects back to himself and recounts some ortho case he had in the last week that he must think is the most interesting thing on the planet.
In just thirty minutes the other man has interrupted Dennis at least ten times, pulled out his phone just about every time Dennis does get a chance to speak, and looks about as interested in Dennis as Dennis is in paint drying.
At some point, Dennis stops paying attention. He sips at his beer and nods when he thinks he should be nodding, but all that's on his mind is:
I gotta get the fuck out of here!
When Brendon turns to order another beer for himself, Dennis uses the opportunity to quickly and sneakily dial Trinity's number, then hang up after a ring. He then sets his phone down on the bartop, face up, and does his best not to watch the screen.
Thankfully Trinity sees his missed call and calls him back right when Brendon is starting to go on about how much he hated his emergency rotation. Dennis does his best to look appropriately apologetic as he picks up his phone. "Sorry, I have to take this, it's my roommate and she never calls."
Brendon, who seems unaware that Dennis is feeling more like a prisoner and less like a date, tells him to go ahead.
"Dennis? What's up? Are you okay?! You called and hung up."
"Hey," he tries to talk loud enough for Trinity and Brendon to hear him without sounding too robotic. "You did what?"
"What? I said are you,"
"Well don't touch anything else, I'm coming home before you flood the apartment."
"Ohhhh, I see what's going on here. Get home safe, Huckleberry! Sorry your date went bad."
"It's okay. I'll fix it. See you soon." He hangs up before she can respond to him again. When he looks up at Brendon he can tell the man is already aware of what he's about to say. "Sorry, my roommate was trying to fix the sink and now there's water all over the bathroom. I really have to go before this gets out of hand."
Brendon nods, seemingly believing him. "No worries, it happens." He pulls out his phone. "Here, take my number. I had a good time, we can do this again." He grins in a way that makes Dennis's skin crawl. "For real, though, no half dates."
Dennis takes the man's number, putting it in the notes app on his phone, and nearly runs out of the bar as fast as he can.
He doesn't ever text Brendon back and as soon as he's able to he unmatched him on the dating app.
Dennis doesn't realize he's screwed himself over until he and Trinity are recounting his disaster date the next afternoon. She's tearing up from laughing so hard at him and pawing at his phone to get him to show her a picture of this 'Brendon' when all of the joy leaves her body. She snatches his phone roughly, holding it far too close to her face as she inspects the photo of Dennis's ex-match.
"Please tell me you're pranking me."
"What? He's not unattractive. And he's not even that much older than me so you can save it if that's what you're about to ream me for."
"No, what I'm about to ream you for is going on a date with Park the fucking Shark and then ghosting him!"
"What?"
She shoves his phone back into his chest. "Dr. Park! The Shark! You know, PTMC's biggest ortho-dick!"
Dennis shakes his head. "No, he works at Presby,"
"He probably has dual-privileges! Most specialists do!"
"I-I- are you sure!?"
"Positive!" She leaps from the couch. "Oh my god, you're so screwed. If anyone from surgery ever asks, we do not know each other."
"It…it won't be that bad, I mean we're all professionals?" He ventures.
"He's a Bone Bro! It's going to be bad!"
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Trinity bumps his hip with hers. Chaos rains around them. "I take it The Shark still doesn't like you."
The two residents glance across the ER to the trauma bay. The Shark is already gone, having left to prepare for surgery before the patient had, but his dick-ly presence lingers.
Dennis laughs. "No, no he does not." He groaned. "Do you think he'll ever get over it?"
"With your luck? Definitely not. You're stuck being his punching bag for the rest of time, Huckleberry, best get used to it."
"Whitaker!"
Both residents turn at the sound of Dennis's name. Robby waves the younger man over.
"Come on, I want you with me on this one, my friend Duke finally arrived."
Santos sighs. "Go on, follow after your master little puppy dog."
Dennis wrinkles his nose at her. "Don't say that!" He whisper-yells, ignoring whatever response she has in favor of running after his attending.
As he listens to Robby talk to Duke and watches him scope his friend Dennis can only think one thing: ortho can suck it, ER is way better.