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Maybe she should’ve brought her backpack up, and maybe then the fireworks wouldn’t be so noisy. But she left everything in her locker, far away in the hospital's ED basement. It was becoming sorta pathetic.
Fireworks were originally invented to ward off evil spirits.
“Hey,” was said softly and all of a sudden, and Mel could’ve left right then and there, recognizing the voice right off the bat.
“Thought I’d find you up here, although, this area is more closed off than the rest,”
Mel lets out a quiet breath through her nose, not turning around right away. “Yeah, well. That’s the point.”
There’s a beat. The distant crack of fireworks echoes somewhere over the city, dulled by concrete and glass but still loud enough to make her jaw tighten at the sudden booms.
She finally glances over her shoulder. “You stalking me now, Dr. Langdon?”
There’s no bite to it. Not really. She’s just noticed that on the two shifts she’s shared with him, wherever she went, he was bound to follow.
Frank shrugs as he saddles up next to, like it’s nothing. Like they weren’t close together against the protective railing. “You disappeared after clocking out.”
“I didn’t disappear,” she says, turning back toward the skyline. “I just relocated.”
“Mm.” He steps closer, but not too close. Careful. Another firework goes off—louder this time. She flinches, just barely.
Frank notices. Of course he does.
“Too loud?” he asks.
Mel shakes her head immediately. “No. They’re fine. I just—” She exhales, scrubbing a hand over her face. They weren’t fine. They were aiding in worsening her headache. “I just didn’t feel like going home.”
Now that, that was the ultimate truth.
“That bad?”
She laughs once. Sharp. “Define bad.”
He doesn’t answer right away. Just watches her.
That’s the problem.
Mel shifts her weight, crossing her arms like she can hold herself together if she just squeezes hard enough. “Just my deposition,” she starts, like she’s giving a simple report,
“And I’m pretty sure I said at least three things wrong, contradicted myself twice, and at one point I think I just stopped making sense entirely.”
“Mel—”
“And the way they look at you,” she keeps going, faster now, words picking up pace like they’ve been waiting all day, “like they already decided what you are before you even walked in. Like you’re just—another problem to talk about. Like I was just a liability, nothing more,”
She starts pacing, small, tight movements.
“I hate that I do that,” she mutters. “Like everything I say is wrong, I say something and I fuck up, I don’t say something, then I fuck up. I can’t fucking win,”
Frank shifts, wincing at something invisible, but he doesn’t interrupt.
Not yet.
“And I was gonna text- or well, call Becca,” she adds, like it’s an afterthought. It’s not. “Because that’s what we do. Or—what we did, I guess.”
That one comes out quieter.
Mel laughs under her breath, shaking her head. “Then she came in today, then she said she’s had lots of sex, great sex mind you, and then she says it’s because she has a boyfriend, and I don’t even know this boyfriend and I just-,”
She stops pacing.
“That’s—” she gestures vaguely, frustrated, “it- it just feels like something you tell your sister, right? Or am I crazy? I’m going crazy, I already know,”
Frank opens his mouth, but she barrels on.
“And it’s not even about the boyfriend of it all,” she says quickly, even though it clearly is, “it’s just—why wouldn’t she tell me? We tell each other everything. Or I thought we did. It’s like she doesn’t even want to talk to me anymore. I’m all alone,”
Another firework cracks. Closer this time.
Mel barely reacts now.
“I mean, I—” she scoffs softly, looking down at her hands. “I skipped everything for her, you know? It started as a thing, then two, then our parents died. I went to school to get a job to provide for her, so I didn’t go out, and I didn’t do anything with my life. No friends, no boyfriend, no—nothing. I have nothing,”
The words hang there.
Ugly. Honest.
“And she just gets to move on?” Mel looks back up, eyes sharper now. His blue eyes even in the dark shine, never leaving hers. “Like I’m not even part of this new version of her life?”
Frank’s voice is softer when he tries again. “Mel—”
“And I know how this sounds,” she cuts in, quick and defensive, like she’s already bracing for judgment. She knows it’ll come from him eventually. “I know I sound insane and jealous and—whatever, but I just—”
Her voice falters, her words cracking wetly.
“I thought I mattered more than that. I thought if I mattered to at least one person I’d be okay but I guess I don’t,”
Silence settles between them, heavy and awkward and too full. Mel inhales shakily, as she can still outrun it if she keeps talking. She wipes at her nose, hating herself for crying from anger.
“And it’s stupid, because it’s not even just her,” she says, quieter now, words spilling slower but hitting harder. “It’s everything. It’s all of it. I’m just—here. All the time. Watching everyone else have these lives and these special moments, and I’m just—”
She gestures at herself, helpless.
“Waiting.”
That word barely makes it out.
“I’ve never even been kissed,” she adds, with a small, self-deprecating laugh that doesn’t quite land. “Which is—honestly, at this point, kind of pathetic of me.”
“Hey.”
It’s firmer this time.
She shakes her head. “No, it definitely is. Like there has to be a reason, right? People don’t just—skip over someone for no reason. So it’s probably just me. There’s probably something wrong with—”
His hand closes around her wrist.
It’s not rough. But it’s enough to stop her in her tracks. His palm is warm and rugged. Mel blinks, startled, finally looking at him fully.
“Mel,” Frank says, stepping closer, his voice low and steady. “That’s not true.”
She lets out a shaky breath, like she’s about to argue anyway. “I mean—”
He lifts his other hand, cupping her face.
Everything else fell silent.
The evil spirits were warded off once and for all as fireworks boomed around them, circling them in that moment as protection. Red, blue, white. They symbolize freedom. Moving forward, or at least that was their intention.
Her words die in her throat, eyes widening slightly as her brain tries to catch up to what’s happening.
He only hesitates by looking her in her eyes, then her lips, back up to her eyes, before honing in on her. She’d wish she could remember every detail, but it numbed her entirely.
The kiss is deliberate. Sweet and deep on his end, stiff and frozen on hers.
Mel stays still, as if she moved it would break the trance. He’d realize she’s a fuck up and disappear for another 10 months.
But she melted under him as he placed a hand on her waist, pulling her closer to him. The heat and humidity had nothing on how hot he made her become, a warm blush blazing from the inside out. She let her fingers curl up into his shirt like she needed something to hold onto.
It’s not perfect but it’s real.
And it’s finally fucking hers. Something is finally hers.
When he pulls back, it’s slow, like he’s not entirely sure he should. Like he didn’t want to.
Mel just stares up at him, licking her lips, slightly tasting the syrupy sweet Red Bull he was sipping on in his last hour.
“That was—” she starts, then stops, a small, disbelieving laugh slipping out. “…okay, that was… wow.”
Frank huffs a quiet breath, almost a laugh, but there’s something tighter underneath it. “Yeah.”
She studies him for a second, then blurts, softer now, “That was a great first kiss,”
His expression shifts immediately, a cocky, dimpled smirk threatening to take place.
“I hoped so,” he admits softly, still holding onto her. Good, cause she might faint.
“And you just—” she gestures between them, still catching up. A corner of his mouth twitches, but his voice stays low.
He exhales, glancing away for half a second before looking back at her, smiling. “You wouldn’t stop talking.”
Mel lets out a short laugh, shaking her head. “Wow. Okay. So that’s your solution? Just—”
“Well it worked, didn’t it?”
That lands.
She presses her lips together, trying not to smile at his antics, and fails just a little.
“…yeah,” she admits.
A beat of silence before he steps closer into her space, his hands on her. He was warm and he was safe and he was a human firework, standing right there in front of her.
“Can we do it again Mel?”