Chapter Text
March 11th - 7:15 am
“What do we got?” Dr. Michael Robinavitch asks, running up to the gurney. He was just notified of a trauma coming in from Dana, the charge nurse, and was ready for action along with two others. He slips his stethoscope into his ears and feels around the patient’s chest. He takes a quick look at the patient. Female, blonde, early 30s maybe? That’s all he can analyze with the rest of her face covered by the intubation tube and the medic pumping oxygen into her lungs.
“Car crash victim, car versus truck, launched through the window. Driver’s right behind us,” the medic says.
“Dana!” Robby yells. She points to Trauma 2 and they roll her in. They transfer her to the hospital bed and people frantically move around her. Just before Robby can join them, an EMT takes a hold of his arm and forces him to face her.
“Robby,” she says, motioning for him to follow her out of the chaos for a second. “There’s something you should know about this patient.”
“What is it? I don’t have much time. If you keep me here much longer there might not be a patient for me to save in there anymore.”
“It’s one of your own,” she reveals with bated breath.
“What?”
“It’s Melissa King.”
March 11th - 6:45 am
It’s well acknowledged by now that Frank Langdon and Mel King have been carpooling for a while. At first their co-workers paid no mind to it, but they’ve started to notice some changes.
Like how they’re so happy walking in, laughing and beaming at each other. How they seemed to develop more and more inside jokes by the day, and how they waited up for one another at the end of the day.
Mel convinced herself it was just a friendly thing to do. Frank found out she didn’t have a car and she was walking everywhere, so he offered. She turned him down multiple times, telling him that it would be too much of a hassle because that meant he’d have to pick up her sister as well. But he didn’t seem to mind.
She told herself it was going to be a temporary thing, but it has slowly grown into a habit. Everyday he drives up to her apartment complex around 6:30. They drop Becca off and then go to work. Even on days where they weren’t on the schedule together he would still drive her. That both amazed and confused Mel at first, but she’s since learned to pay no mind to it. It was better than getting ideas in her head that she couldn’t handle.
Frank couldn’t tell you why he started driving her around. At least that’s what he told everyone else. The truth was he needed some company. When he was with Abby, they would be on the phone the whole ride to work, talking about whatever they felt like. She’d be getting ready for the day, rambling on about the kids, work, or whatever, and he’d be driving to work. With that gone he couldn’t handle the silent car rides anymore.
It was his fault, after all. Who could blame her for leaving him after his addictions came into fruition? He felt horrible about it at first. Terrible about what that meant for their kids, and how it had ruined their relationship. But the more time they were apart, the more he seemed to understand why she had ended it.
They tried to keep it working in rehab, really gave it a good shot. But there was no love anymore. Their calls got shorter and shorter, and suddenly, when they would get to call, he found himself more excited to hear his kids’ voice than his wife’s.
He was furious at first. Did the whole midlife crisis thing by drowning his feelings away and hating her. Like, why couldn’t she fight through this with me? Why did she leave me? How could she! But looking back on it more, he saw how much they fought. How demanding the ‘my husband’s a doctor’ role took on her. And how it seemed they were just in it for their kids near the end. Which is the one thing they both agreed to keep going after the split, they couldn’t lose their kids.
His first day back after rehab had been a nightmare. He was trying to get back into the groove of things. He felt like he let everyone down. But there was one person who stuck by him, even knowing it all.
“You never let me down”
Boy, did he need to hear that. He felt like he let his wife down, his kids down, the whole emergency department down. But knowing that nothing had changed between him and one person at least, was comforting.
So he clung to that.
The conversations were slow at the start. Awkward silence, followed by an ‘oh, the weather's nice’ and ‘look Frank, a dog!’. But slowly it became more natural. Personal, even. They’d talk to each other about the ‘deep stuff.’ Gossip about co-workers, talk about annoying patients, and rant about emotional stuff. He even told her why he got into drugs, the real reason. Not the clean version he fed to Robby and Abby. It wasn’t just pain relief, it was deeper. He told her all the things that went down with Abby. He told her about his concerns for his kids, his worries about being a bad dad.
He didn’t even catch himself before he released it all to her. He thought she would judge him at first, thought she would think differently about him now. But in true Mel fashion she beamed at him, put her hand on his arm, and said.
“Thank you for telling me that, you didn’t have to.”
Then she told him real stuff too. About her financial problems, Becca, her parents, everything. How’s she’s never been able to have a life away from her medical one. They had lost track of time, it was midnight before Mel headed inside. They had talked for hours in his car. After it happened once, it kept happening. Every time with different stories, different discussions. They opened themselves up to each other more and more every time.
Each time it happened, Frank caught himself doing something he didn’t even notice at first. With each time she spoke, he looked with more intention. More longing. He started noticing the subtle features on her face, the way her mouth moved, the way she talked with her hands. And the more he looked, the more he didn’t want to look away.
When he realized what he was doing, he kicked her out of his car. She was in the middle of a story when he said he was really tired. She apologized, obviously, and went inside. When she was gone, he felt his heart race. He sped away to his house, and once he was there he slumped on his bed with his hands clasped over his chest. His heart was beating like crazy. He was scared of what this feeling was.
His face was flushed as he pictured her face on his ceiling. How hadn’t he realized how effortlessly pretty she was before?
Maybe because he was married.
No, he was really watching now. There was no denying it. Once it started, it didn’t stop. He kept catching himself scanning every room for her. Lighting up when she was on the same case as him. He was a child. His heart did somersaults in his chest when she would come from the locker room in her day clothes, smiling at him and saying.
“Ready to go?”
They would walk side by side in the parking lot to his car, and he felt himself holding back from reaching for her hand. He took peeks at her, subtle glances that no one would see, but to satisfy his eyes. The world seemed to stop when he looked at her. Calm to the point where nothing else mattered. He would always look away before she met his gaze, though. Now that he was watching he couldn’t, no, he didn’t want to look away. He never wanted to have to.
But everyday he had to say goodnight to her and watch her walk into her house, away from his gaze. He felt stolen from. Even if he’d see her just a few days later, it didn’t matter. Because at night he would lay alone in the bed that used to be filled and wish he had her company. Even there, in his most vulnerable place. Especially there.
He scolded himself when he caught himself looking for her in every room. But he couldn’t help it. He once found himself circling the room with his eyes only to remember she wasn’t even on the schedule for that day. He felt like a fool, a lovesick fool.
The worst part about it all? He knew she didn’t feel the same. He couldn’t blame her. He was divorced, a father, and a recovering addict for Christ's sake. Not really prime bachelor material. Mel would never-
Scratch that. Mel should never go for someone like him.
Regardless, he knew she didn’t like him back because of one particular conversation they had a few months back. It was one of their late night talks. Frank was admiring her while she went on and on about how she’s never been able to have a life outside of her sister or medicine. Her social life was ‘shot to hell’ in her words. Then she said something that made his heart stop.
“I’m gonna marry you, I promise .”
His jaw dropped and he quickly chased it. He swallowed hard, trying to think of what to reply with. But before he could she cleared it up with a,
“If we’re both still single by the time we’re 50 or something.”
Which cleared things up. He didn’t want to elaborate on it more because that could mean revealing the truth. Mel, however, doesn’t even remember saying that. She usually doesn’t remember much from those nights. The nights they spend talking the time away. She’ll remember the important stuff that he tells her of course. But what she tells him might as well be white noise to her.
“You with me?”
Of course he was. Just not in the way she thought. The more his feelings developed, the harder it became to hide them. He feared his co-workers would start catching on. Dana in particular. She had a way of knowing everything that was going on under the roof of the ER. If someone had feelings for another person, she’d catch on. That’s what happened to Jack Abbot and Samira Mohan a few months ago after all.
He always brushed it off as best as he could, but he had no idea what his co-workers were thinking. It was scary to wonder what they were thinking.
Mel, on the other hand, was otherwise too preoccupied with pretty much everything else around her to care about what other people thought about her or her relations. Some days she felt like she was in her own bubble, simply co-existing on a floating rock with billions of other people. If she took the time to think about that kind of stuff she’d drive herself crazy.
Mel remembers her first day at Pittsburg Trauma Medical Center. The Pittfest shooting and all the chaos before that. It was rough to get through it, but she remembers a specific person that made that day easier. And now he was her closest friend. Her best friend.
If you ask her, she’ll brush it off and go on about something random. Her feet hurt, or the shift was dragging. Honestly, she hasn’t put too much thought into it. She was just glad to finally have a friend. And a pretty good one.
She knew about his benzos addiction, his divorce, and all of his deep personal issues. He knew about her loneliness, her family problems, and all the pressure she put on herself. They were each other's lifelines. Each other’s safe place. There was no replacing either one of them.
She’d never admit it, but she did feel something between them. She never wanted the feelings to surface, though. She didn’t want to risk ruining the most important relationship in her life, other than her sister, of course. She didn’t really consider her co-workers as official friends. Aqantiese, people who she works with. Yeah. But friends? Not really. She didn’t call Mohan Samira, or Whitaker Dennis. But she could call Dr. Langdon Frank.
His friendship was more important than any feelings she had for him. She wasn’t about to ruin that. She couldn’t. So she avoided the topic all together. Pushed it down. But she still got butterflies when she saw him at work. Was on top of the world after every carpool ride. Was ecstatic when she was doing anything with him.
As much as she tried to ignore it, it was obviously there. But she was never going to bring that up to him. He was still freshly divorced. Okay, a year, but still. It was wrong to fly in like that. Although, she won’t admit it. But when she heard that the two of them had split, she couldn’t help the corner of her mouth from sliding up a little. She felt horrible for it.
She had met his kids. They were so adorable. Tanner loves cars and is obsessed with their dog. Penny loves all things mermaid right now. On her birthday, Mel snuck a Barbie doll from one of the Barbie mermaid movies into Langdon’s bag for him to take home and give to her, but they figured out who it was eventually.
Frank invited her over one night when he had the kids and all of them went out for ice cream afterwards. At another dinner they went to the park and Mel helped push Penny on the swings. She’ll never forget the way Frank looked at her from the sandbox with Tanner. She could’ve sworn they had a moment.
When they started getting closer every time she watched Elf with Becca she started picturing her and Frank as Buddy and Jovie. The only thing was that their personalities were swapped. She acted more like Buddy, so that kinda ruined the image.
During Christmas she would watch that movie almost everyday. So much so that his face started to morph with Will Ferrell’s. That was an image she couldn’t get out of her head for a while. She even caught herself imagining Frank in an Elf costume. She was starting to hate that film even more now.
On New Years, she went over to Frank’s house. He didn’t have the kids and Becca was with her boyfriend. When the countdown finished, she blew her party blower that she had Doordashed from the dollar store and cheered. He laughed and took a sip of his drink, and the two of them stared at one another. The tv sounded muffled as she looked into his eyes and for a second she thought they might kiss. But then the doorbell rang. Their pizza was here. Mel didn’t know what that was. She had to excuse herself to the bathroom to calm down. Her face was beat red.
Now they were here, at this confusing crossroad. She didn’t know if she should bring up New Years ever. She definitely didn’t want to have that conversation, even if it went well. She didn’t want to address anything about this with him. Partly because she didn’t know how, and mostly because she didn’t want to lose him.
So it continued like it always did. Picking her up, dropping Becca off, driving to work. After the shift was over he’d drive them home, and Mel would slump on her bed and groan about having developed absolutely nothing new that day. This ongoing torture was seemingly never going to end. It was driving her crazy. She wished for it all to just crash and burn. Either a rejection or a complete wipe of it from her brain. Either would be amazing.
Today was no different than all the others had been. She got up, got ready, and walked down the stairs to see Becca at the table, swinging her legs underneath it while she read something on her phone.
“Hey Becca.” She said, putting her stuff on the counter. “How’d you sleep?”
“Oh awesome. I dreamed of- Well, I don’t remember.”
“Well, that’s often how dreams function.” Mel replied with a smile, picking up the hairbrush that was on the table. There were two hair ties around the handle that she placed there after taking Becca’s hair out the night before. She grabbed them and wrapped them around her wrist before brushing through her sister’s hair. “Any plans today?”
“Uh, well. Me and Adam were planning on asking Ms. Rhys if we can go to the aquarium!”
“Oh, that sounds fun.” Everyday Mel’s energy with her sister resets. Some days—especially on days when she worked—at the end of the day she could barely handle dealing with her. But it always restarted every morning so she could be compassionate and caring to her.
“Yeah, Adam’s favorite fish is the clownfish because of its orange and black stripes. I think I’m gonna get him some bedsheets with orange and black stripes on them for his birthday! Do you think we can do that, Mel?”
“Of course,” she smiled, taking half of her sister’s hair and securing it with the elastic into one pig-tail. “I mean, I don’t see why not. When is it?”
“November!”
Mel laughed. “That’s a long way away, are you sure you’re going to remember that?” She tied up the other side.
“Of course I will! I’ll try at least,” Becca vowed as she sprang from her seat and rushed over to her backpack.
“Alright then,” Mel chuckled, pushing the chair in and grabbing her stuff. She picked up her phone and peaked at the time. Oh, perfect. Frank should be here any minute now. “Alright, you ready?”
“Yes!” Becca replied, a huge smile across her face. Mel picked up her keys from the counter as they walked out the door. She locked it behind them and headed down the stairs.
“I was trying to think of my favorite fish too, y'know, so I can tell Adam. But I couldn’t think of one in particular. I like a lot of different kinds so I can’t think of just one.”
“You can tell him that,” Mel replied as they reached the bottom. “You don't have to have one favorite fish, you can have multiple.”
“Yeah, but then how will he know what to get me for my birthday?” Mel shrugged as they walked out the door. As if on cue, Frank’s car pulled up to the front of the building. “Dr. Langdon!” Becca beamed.
“I’ve told you Becca, Frank is fine!” he smiled, rolling down the passenger seat’s window.
“But you’re a doctor, I should be formal,” Becca said as Mel held open the back door for her.
“Yes, but we’re friends, aren’t we?” Frank replied, running around the car.
“Yes!” Becca chuckled. “But it still feels weird.”
“Then call me whatever you want,” he decided. Mel closed the door and looked up at him.
“Morning,” she greeted with a soft smile. His eyes were so blue. They were as intimidating as they were intoxicating. They made her want to run and hide, but she also couldn’t get enough of them.
“Good morning, Melissa,” he teased, leaning against the car. “Are you ready for another day of chaos?”
“Am I ever?” She replied. Frank circled around her and opened the passenger door for her. She followed him with her body, transfixed by everything he did. “Thank you.”
“Always,” he said, closing it behind her. She got situated in the seat and watched him back around the car and slide into the driver’s seat.
“Is this new?” she asked, pointing out a sticker on the dashboard. Why did she have to notice little things like that? That just proves she was looking for them.
“Oh yeah, Penny left that there at drop off. Told me that she’s still with me through it.”
“That’s sweet,” she smiled, buckling herself in.
“Yeah,” he smiled bittersweetly. “Alright, King sisters. Are we ready to take off?”
“Yeah!” Becca smiled. Frank grinned and began to drive. It was a quiet morning, very peaceful. Birds were tweeting as the morning peaked through the trees. Mel looked out her window as the town flew past her.
“Dr. Langdon,” Becca started, “I mean Frank. What’s your favorite fish?” Frank chuckled, shaking his head as he watched the road. “Adams is a clownfish. I’m trying to come up with my favorite but there’s just so many good ones to choose from!”
“There are!” He replied. He thought about it for a second. At a red light, he leaned back to look at Becca. “I think I’d have to go with a swordfish. It’s fierce, it’s unique, and it’s dangerous.” Becca seemed to like that answer as Mel watched her sister's face light up.
“That’s a good one! Mel’s favorite is probably something boring.” Becca chuckled.
“What?” Mel said, snapping from her trance. She was distracted, admiring the world. She enjoyed it when her sister was in the car, because she didn’t have to be responsible for holding up a conversation. But she liked it a lot more when it was just her and Frank. For no reason.
“What’s your favorite fish? I realized I’ve talked about mine, Adams, and now Dr. Langdons. I haven’t asked yours.”
“I don’t know either, Bec,” she replied, shrugging her shoulders. She looked back as well. Becca always wanted the person she was talking to to be looking at her. The light turned green and they were moving again. “I’m like you, I don’t have a favorite, I like a bunch.”
“It’s so confusing right?” Becca laughs, turning to stare out the window. Mel’s phone pinged. She looked down to see it was a message from Middle Hill, Becca’s care facility. Apparently Mrs. Rhys was out sick today, and there was a sickness going around. They advised her to take extra measures for hygiene coming in this morning. She rummaged through her bag and pulled out some hand sanitizer.
“Becca, put some of this on please and keep it with you. Apply some every hour or so, after touching someone, and especially after eating.”
“Why?”
“It’s flu season,” Mel replied, squeezing some onto her sister’s hands. “And you’re going to have to make new plans for the day, Mrs. Rhys isn’t going to be there.”
“Mrs. Rhys?!” She gasped. “But I had the whole day planned out! She’s not gonna be there?” Becca whined and Mel felt her neck tense up. She squeezed her eyes shut.
“Becca, lower your voice, we’re in a car,” Mel groaned.
“But my whole day is ruined!” She complained. “Without Mrs. Rhys, me and Adam won’t be able to do anything we wanted to do.”
“You’ll just have to do it some other day.” Mel snapped a bit, turning back around. Silence followed it as Becca slumped down into her seat. Pouty eyes and sunken lips, she glared at Mel like it was somehow her fault. Mel ignored it and scrolled on her phone.
When they got to the care home, Becca stomped out of the car and slammed the door behind her. Mel slid her glasses to her head and rubbed her hands over her eyes.
“Sorry about that. She can get a little uptight about plans.”
“It’s fine,” Frank smiled lightly. The way he looked at her made her feel all warm inside as she returned the gesture. He really didn’t mind it at all, and that was really something special. Mel turned to leave the car as quickly as she could so he couldn’t see the blush that was taking over her face. She closed the door and tucked a strand of hair behind her ear.
“Come on,” she said, dragging the pouting Becca along. Her arms were crossed and she was still snarling at Mel. “You’ll find something else to do, I promise.”
“But I-”
“Stop Becca,” Mel cut her off, ascending the stairs. “It will be okay.” She didn’t like scolding Becca like this, but she really wasn’t in the mood for this right now. With all the confusing feelings going on in her brain, she didn’t have the energy to wrangle her sister. She just wanted to get to work soon. The sooner she got there, the sooner she could bury herself in her work to distract from the thoughts that were all consuming.
Frank sat in his car waiting, his finger tapping on the wheel as he watched the door of the center. He felt so childish checking the door every second to see if she was there. It’s as if his eyes were starving and looking at her fed them. He couldn’t stop thinking about her.
The way her hair was down and her eyes were still full of sleep. The way she held her coffee, the way she just presented herself was mesmerizing. He didn’t want to look away. His car smelled like her and he could still cling to it when she went away. He felt like everything could crash under him off of her smell alone, it was insane.
About two minutes later she came through the doors and Frank’s face seemed to light up at just the sight of her. She walked in slow motion to him. Her hair blew in the wind and the sun illuminated on her face. He was absolutely taken by her. She slid back into his car and rebuckled. That’s when she noticed he’d been staring.
“You alright?” She asked, one of her eyebrows cocking upwards.
“Yeah,” he stuttered, starting the car back up again. The engine sputtered, snapping him back into reality as he reared back onto the road. They rode in complete silence, neither of them daring to say a word. Both of them knew there was stuff unsaid between them, things neither of them wanted to brave up to. They didn’t know how to nor did they want to.
Mel searched through her bag and took out a hair tie. She combed through her hair with her fingers, the band woven in between her teeth. Frank kept sneaking glances every now and then, admiring her as she braided her hair.
“Hey Mel,” he announces abruptly. She turns her head to face him, a confused look scratched across her face.
“Yeah?” She asks.
“You know I care about you right?”
“Of course.”
“And I’d never want to do anything to make you uncomfortable.” He hesitated looking directly at her. He never wanted to look away from her. He awaited her response anxiously, when suddenly everything around him went black and there was a loud…
BANG!