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Trinity is the first to show up, walking in the front door with the familiarity of someone who’s done it a hundred times. Nutella slinks up to sniff her, rubbing his dark body against her legs. Dennis shakes his head as he watches Trinity stoop down to pick the cat up, kiss his head, and set him back down, his dark eyes staring up at her like she’s his whole world.
“How is he an absolute asshole to everyone but you?” Dennis complains, leaning against the back of the couch.
She smirks. “He’s an excellent judge of character.” Nutella meows up at her, but it’s mostly purring, before scampering back down the hallway as a crashing sound from across the street filters in through the open window.
Dennis cocks his head toward the kitchen and Trinity follows him in there, where Jack is pulling condiments out of the fridge to settle into an ice-filled cooler. He leans over with his fist out and Trinity bumps it. Dennis scoots around Jack, a hand on his back, and reaches into the fridge to pull out two of the hard seltzers Trinity likes.
They twist off the tops and knock the necks of the bottles together before they both take a big swig. Jack continues to fuss around the kitchen, getting things together.
“You two ready for this?” Trinity asks, her eyebrow raised.
Dennis catches Jack’s eye and he smiles at the huge grin on Jack’s face. He shrugs one shoulder. “They’re gonna find out sooner or later. I think he’s about to hire a sky-writer,” Dennis says, nodding his head at Jack before he takes another sip of hard seltzer.
Jack comes over to him and starts smacking obnoxious kisses on his neck, his arms coming around Dennis’s chest. Dennis sets the glass bottle on the counter and tries swatting him away, giggling, to no avail. Even Trinity starts laughing as Jack finally lets up, moving back over to the fridge to finish pulling out condiments.
“They’re all gonna lose their shit,” Trinity says.
"People need a little excitement in their lives," Jack returns, chuckling, as he leans into the fridge to grab a platter of burger patties from the top shelf. “Ok, I’m gonna go put – ”
There’s a knock on the door and Trinity gives a salute before turning to go answer it. Dennis takes the opportunity to reach over and slap Jack’s ass. Jack does not look contrite.
“I don’t want to make her uncomfortable.”
Jack comes over for another quick kiss. “If she isn’t used to me mauling you after all this time, that kind of feels like a her problem.”
“Look who showed up,” Trinity says, wandering back into the kitchen, Robby right behind her. Dennis is surprised to see Jesse right behind him.
“Figured you’d need some help getting everything started up,” Robby says, slapping Jack’s back.
“Yeah, man, that’d be great. Hey, Jesse,” Jack says, nodding to the nurse.
Robby grabs the platter of burgers and the three men head into the backyard to get the grill going and probably gossip, knowing Jack. Dennis goes to make sure the front door is open so people can just come inside and go through to the back. Trinity lures the cats into the guest room/office with treats to stay during the party, so they don’t escape.
Over the next half hour, more people filter in, and Dennis smiles at the sounds of his friends and coworkers sharing time together. Mateo helps him set up cornhole and Perlah deals a game of poker while they wait for the meat to cook.
Pierce shows up as the second round of burgers comes off the grill, looking a little bleary-eyed since they’d worked the overnight.
“Thanks for coming, Gwen,” Dennis says, giving them a hug.
“Oh, I wasn’t going to miss this,” they reply. “If what I’m expecting to happen, happens, I think I stand to make some very good money today.”
Dennis snorts and gestures toward the table laid out with drinks and snacks. He returns to his seat next to Jack just in time to hear Donnie and Ellis competing over stories of the weirdest things white people have done in the ED. Then Donnie looks right at Dennis and smiles.
“You hear about the rat, Ellis?”
Her brow furrows. “Like a snitch?”
Donnie shakes his head. “Like an actual rat.”
“We don’t need to talk about that,” Dennis mutters, taking another bite of his burger.
Ellis looks at him for a beat then turns back to Donnie. “Ok, now I definitely need to hear this story.”
“It was a couple of years ago… oh, shit, that was the day of PittFest, wasn’t it?”
Dennis sighs. “Yes. And my first shift of my EM rotation.”
“Oh right, I’d forgotten that part, too,” Donnie says.
He proceeds to explain how three rats had arrived in the ED, and how, after one of the patient’s dogs had initially grabbed one of the rats, Dennis had been able to toss a blanket over the rat and break his neck.
“And that’s why we called him ‘bloodhound’ for a while there,” Donnie finishes.
Ellis’s eyes are huge. “I never heard this story before!”
“Yeah, probably other things happening that day,” Dennis says, trying to sound nonchalant as Ellis snickers and Donnie laughs out loud.
“Come on, Huckleberry, be a good sport,” Trinity says on his other side. “People eventually stopped calling you that.”
“Only because my rotation ended, and they’d forgotten by the time I came back for my internship.”
“Eh, tomato, tomato,” Trinity responds, waving her hand.
Dennis shakes his head and eats his last bite of burger, and the conversation moves on. A little while later, Jack leans over to whisper in Dennis’s ear.
“You ready?”
Dennis nods. “As I’ll ever be, I guess.”
Jack squeezes his thigh under the table. The noise of conversation immediately starts to ebb as Jack stands, resting against the table a little for balance. “So you’ve probably been wondering why we’ve gathered you all here,” he says, to a growing chorus of boos.
“Just tell us already so we can find out who won the pool!” Princess shouts before Perlah slaps her arm.
“Well,” Jack says, fighting to keep his mouth in a straight line. “We wanted you all to have a little time to get used to the change, because starting with Monday’s shift, there will be two Dr. Abbots in the ED.”
Dennis can hear Princess squealing over the sudden explosion of sound as he and Jack are mobbed by people jumping out of their chairs to congratulate them. He rises, too, to greet the hugs, back slaps, and fist bumps. Trinity stands back a little ways, her arms folded, looking smug.
Jack holds up his hands as people start returning to their seats. “I’m sure you all want details.”
“Can’t believe I overshot by a week,” Pierce complains.
Najeeb snorts. “Well, I had them getting married six months ago, so.” He looks up at Dennis. “Hey, when did you tie the knot, anyway?”
“We went to the courthouse yesterday,” Dennis says, eliciting some groans.
“Hey, hey, hey,” Jack says. “Are you all seriously complaining about a fucking bet right now?”
Dennis can tell Jack’s just taking the piss, but he feels Jack’s eyes on him, checking to make sure he’s ok, that Jack doesn’t need to put some real heat on it. Dennis sways toward him so he can run his fingers down Jack's forearm in reassurance.
“We’re all happy for you!” Cassie says loudly, looking around the table. Several people join in to make similar remarks.
Dennis tugs on Jack’s hand and they both take their seats again.
“Who went with you? To the courthouse,” Javadi calls out.
“Robby and Trinity,” Dennis replies, watching as heads swivel around to look at them, some complaining about keeping secrets, some congratulating them on not spilling.
He and Jack had wanted to keep it small, one best friend each. The four had all worn suits to the courthouse, making jokes for the half hour they had to wait to see a judge. Dennis had already picked out a ring for Jack, which he'd proposed with - a thick black titanium band - but he hadn't yet seen the ring Jack had selected for him. He'd cried when Robby had pulled out the ring box and Jack had slid it onto his finger: a slightly thinner black titanium band that complemented Jack's, with a row of black sapphires embedded in a line around the middle. After the short ceremony and the signing of the certificate, the four had gone over to Sal's diner, where they'd gotten stuffed from the food Sal had kept pushing on them.
Trinity pulls her phone out of her pocket and swipes open her photos. The phone goes around the table, people scrolling through the roll to see the endless pictures Trinity had insisted on taking for “posterity.” Dennis’s eye catches on the way that Jesse leans over into Robby’s space to watch as Robby shows off the pictures. The crowd slowly settles, satisfied with the news, the excitement about the bet dissipating.
People start filtering out an hour later, off to nap before their shift, or get home to their kids. Finally, it’s just Trinity, Robby, and Jesse hanging out in the backyard, the sky starting to dim with the impending sunset.
“I think that went well,” Robby says.
“I want to know if Ellis changed her bet recently. I could have sworn her date was in two months the last time I saw the board,” Trinity says.
“What, you think she hacked my email or something so she could win?” Jack asks, his arm around the back of Dennis’s chair so he can idly trace shapes onto Dennis’s shoulder.
“Wouldn’t put it past her. She’s saving up to go on that hiking vacation, remember?”
Jack huffs a laugh.
“Well, kids, it’s been fun,” Robby says, standing up.
Jesse stands too, a polite smile on his face. They say their goodbyes, Robby giving both Dennis and Jack a hug, before heading out through the house. Dennis watches them go.
“Soooooo, we gonna talk about that, or?” Trinity says after a couple minutes of silence.
Jack snorts. “I’m surprised you waited so long after they left.”
“You knew about this?” Dennis accuses Jack, turning to give him the stink-eye.
Jack shrugs. “I’ve had my suspicions. Robby still plays it close to the vest on some things.”
“Well,” Trinity says.
“Good for him,” Dennis decides. “I mean it,” he says when Trinity looks over at him with an arched eyebrow.
“You’re a good man, Charlie Brown,” she replies as she rises from her chair. “I think I’m gonna head out, too. See you lovebirds later.” She bumps fists with Jack and punches Dennis in the arm before she leaves.
As soon as he hears the front door slam, Dennis gets up and climbs into Jack’s lap, his legs hooked over the arm of the chair. Jack’s arms come around him to keep him there.
“How’re you feeling, Dr. Abbot?” Jack asks, pressing a kiss to Dennis’s temple.
Dennis laughs. “That’s gonna take some time to get used to.”
“You still feeling good about the name change?”
“Little late for it now. Paperwork’s already been filed.”
Jack tightens his arms a little. “We could re-file. If you were having second thoughts – ”
“I’m not,” Dennis breaks in, turning his head to meet Jack’s eyes. “I want to be an Abbot. I want people to know that I belong to you, daddy.”
Jack inhales shakily. “Baby, you’d belong to me either way.”
“I know,” Dennis says, smiling at him. “But imagine how much fun it’ll be to fuck with people. They won’t know which Abbot is coming for them.”
Jack gives a quick laugh and pulls Dennis down so that his head falls onto Jack’s shoulder. They silently soak up each other’s presence as the sun continues its journey to drop below the horizon.
“Never in a million years did I think I’d get this lucky,” Jack murmurs.
“Let’s fight about which one of us is the luckier one,” Dennis says, smiling as he presses his face into Jack’s neck.
“Only if we get to engage in our usual make-up ritual,” Jack retorts.
Dennis hums. “Let’s just skip to that step.”
“Baby,” Jack says, his hand traveling up Dennis’s thigh, “I love the way your mind works.”