Work Text:
"You have a date?"
Frank was caught by surprise by Jack Abbot's voice, suddenly by his side, jumping back in shock at the gruff attendant's appearance, lips pulled tight into a slight frown.
"Fuck, Abbot."
He raised an eyebrow but said nothing at Frank's exclamation of surprise. "Give a little warning next time." He chuckled weakly.
"You have a date?" Jack repeated his question.
"I have a date....which is weird, you know about..."
Jack didn't say anything, eyes narrowing at the taller, younger doctor with the same intensity Jack exuded during critical emergencies or missions. "Since when did you start dating?"
His question brought Frank up short, cocking his head slightly, he stared at Jack open-mouthed in surprise, the man sounding almost mad at Frank. "Ummm...this is the first one since Abby. Why?"
He was starting to feel like a suspect in an interrogation. "What's going on? Starting to freak me out here, man."
Jack stepped into Frank's space, dangerously close, smirking at Frank's sharp inhale while his brain sputtered and whirled trying to process what was happening right then and there. "Good." It wasn't a word so much as a low grumble. "Share your location with me, and we will be talking about this later."
"What's going on here?" Robby's stern voice was a much needed life line for the resident, turning his attention swiftly to Robby with large and pleading eyes, asking for some kind of help, any kind of help, pure confusion coursing through him.
"For Christ's sake, Abbot." Dana snapped, walking up behind Robby, the day shift making their way in, Frank had twelve more hours until the end of his double, "Back off before you eat Langdon in the middle of my hub. No one needs to see that over their coffee."
Frank wasn't proud of the little meep that escaped him. Jack's smirk deepened and then fell away as he stepped back from Frank, looking over at his husband. "Frankie here has a date."
"Oh fuck me," Dana muttered to herself. Robby's frown of concern twisted and moulted into something else. It was still a frown, but now Frank couldn't read it, Robby's brown eyes burning bright, his lips thinned beneath his beard while he stared Frank down.
"You have a date?"
Frank threw his hands up in the air in confused and tired exasperation. "It's not that outside the world of possibility. The world has billions of people in it. Statistically speaking, there are at least two people out there who want to date me, maybe even sleep with me. I'm going on a date with one of them. It's a date."
"I can think of two people." Parker snorted, walking past the trio group, moving a little faster under Jack and Robby's glare, which returned to Frank just as quickly.
"Oh, you didn't say anything about sex." Once again, the words from Jack were more of a growl than actual words.
"I clearly just heard him mention sex." Robby's lips curled. "First it's a date and now sex?" Robby took a step closer, pinning Frank in place with a thunderous expression. "I thought it was encouraged in meetings not to start a relationship until a year into recovery."
Frank repressed a shiver at Robby's quiet and controlled venom. He shrugged. "I'm a year sober two days ago...hence the date."
Jack and Robby pulled back, looking at each other in confusion and then back to Frank. Dana let out a long-suffering sigh.
"You didn't say anything?"
"Seriously? That's great Frank. Why didn't you say anything? We would have-"
Frank was getting whiplash trying to keep up his mind doing somersaults. "I didn't want it to be a big deal, and Jesse took me out for ice cream."
"Yeah?" Jesse asked, walking past, looking up from his phone at his name, giving a quick nod to Frank with an easy smile. "What's up?"
"Nothing." Frank shook his head, taking the moment and half jogging to catch up to Jesse, who raised an eyebrow in bemusement over whatever he had walked into but said nothing. "Going this way?"
"Sure...." Jesse trailed off, looking at Frank over his shoulder to Robby and Jack and back to Frank. "You want to....?"
"God, yes." Frank nodded swiftly, falling into step next to the man who had become an unexpected friend over since his return, uncomfortably aware of Robby and Jack's stares, leaving them behind.
Dana hummed, catching Robby and Jack's attention, smirk on her face, already sensing how this day was going to go. "Didn't Frank have an ex that looks suspiciously like Jesse?"
***
Frank did his best to put that morning's weird interaction out of his mind for the rest of that morning, despite being keenly aware of Robby watching him wherever he went, just like Robby had when the bearded man had returned from his sabbatical, or the way Robby was short and curt with Jesse, who once in awhile meet Frank's eye earning an honest shrug from the dark haired man.
"Okay, what did you do?" Mohan finally asked Frank four hours into the shift, while they looked at the board, looking at the next cases.
"Nothing, I swear."
"Yeah right." Santos snorted.
Frank glared at the woman before turning back to Samira. "Nothing, Abbot ambushed me this morning, and Robby showed up, and they're clearly going crazy."
"We knew that."
"Ambushed you about what?" Dennis butted in with his typical wide eyes and a small look of concern.
Frank resisted giving a large and dramatic sigh that would make his kids proud. "I have a date."
No one said anything for a moment. Frank braced himself for the teasing or the snide comments, but what he wasn't prepared for was how Dennis drew himself up, eyes hardening, and his tone taking an edge.
"You have a date?"
"Why does everyone keep asking me that? Yes. I'm not undateable. I did date before Abby, I even had a couple hook-ups after Abby, this is just my first.."
"Date." Whitaker was supplied with a bite. Mohan and Santos shared a look at Dennis' shift in mood, Santos holding up her hands in silent surrender. "With who?" Dennis demanded, reminding Frank too much of Robby once again, the younger man had started to have a horrible habit of that.
"Does it matter?"
He watched with wide eyes as Dennis took a step towards him, crossing his arms over his chest in almost silent challenge. "You have a date?"
"No its a hook up with some random guy I met on Grindr."
"Holy shit, you have Grindr?"
"Did not see that coming."
Dennis shoved his phone in Frank's face, hard and unyieldingly, glaring at Frank like he was personally offended. "Put your number in my phone."
It was an order, an actual order.
"You can put it in, or I can get it from someone who owes me a favour," Dennis warned. Frank rolled his eyes but took the phone from Dennis, giving the man his number. Dennis grunted when he received his phone back.
"I want his name and where you two are meeting."
"Yeah, not something you're entitled to." Frank challenged. "I'm not going to be murdered or anything."
He knew in that moment that it was exactly the wrong thing to say, from the way the smaller man inhaled. "Right, I'm walking away now." Frank declared, only to turn around to find Robby glaring at him. Fuck his life.
***
It had been hours, and Frank was going insane. Whitaker was everywhere he went, standing too close, brushing past him with a hand skimming his back, constantly making his presence known and just when Frank thought he had a moment to breathe, Robby was there. Constantly checking in on Frank's work, asking him questions, his hands on his shoulders, steering him through the halls, summoning Frank to help with this or that, still curt with Jesse, but now the bulk of his ire seemed to be with Dennis, who acted just as annoyed with Robby. Everywhere he went he was followed by sharp eyes, leaving him feeling more like prey than human.
"Langdon."
"Park."
"You look like shit."
"Only the best for you, Shark."
"Aaww, princess, you know you don't have to look pretty for me."
"Yeah, fuck that, this is for Ross in Pedes."
"Keep telling yourself that." Park retorted with a smirk, perfectly aware of the way Robby and Whitaker had stopped talking, watching them with biting expressions.
"Oh, I will," Frank responded with his own smirk. "He likes how I work when I work a double. All messy and sleep-deprived. Speaking of depravity, you hear for a leg?"
"Arm, actually, why are you offering?"
"Buy a girl dinner, first." Frank picked up his tablet with a wink.
"Pretty sure I already am. Get some fucking sleep before now and then."
"I'll do you one better, I'll even shower," Frank promised, waving his hand in a vague dismissive gesture. "Fuck off before you scare Mel or Javadi again. I'm not dealing with that on top of everything else."
Park snorted, winking at Javadi, who let out a terrified 'eep', making Jesse and Dana frown.
"See you tomorrow, Langdon."
"Fuck off, Park," Frank called out, a headache starting to form in the base of his skull. He sighed, turning around, knowing exactly what he would see, only to find a space where Robby and Whitaker had been standing. He took a breath of relief; he had an hour until he was free. Frank wasn't home for fifteen minutes before he got a text from Whitaker.
"This is Dennis. Text me back so I know you got this."
Frank was going to text Whitaker to fuck off when he received a text from Robby.
R: "Brendon Park, Langdon? When is your date and where?"
F: "Why so you can crash it?"
J: "Yes."
Frank stood there for far longer than he should have, trying to figure out if Jack was serious or not.