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(Soon to be Dr.) Grace Worden liked all of her co-workers.
She knew how rare of a feat that was. She worked at a frozen yogurt shop throughout high school, and a corporate, lifeless Italian restaurant to put herself through undergrad and the first three years of med school before she started her rotation at PTMC, and she disliked plenty of her co-workers back then. Most of them, honestly.
In the Pitt, however, she couldn’t think of anyone she had any real issue with. Grace adored all of the nurses, particularly Dana, with her maternal wit that reminded Grace of her own mother (God rest her soul). She was good friends with her fellow MS4s and all the residents.
Plus, the attendings seemed to like her, which was something she worked very hard to achieve. She was gunning for the open R1 spot that would come around next summer, and getting in the good graces of her attendings was imperative to that. She was still only a month into her rotation, so maybe things would change, but for now, she relaxed into not having to worry about her lunch being stolen from her backpack like it used to be at the frozen yogurt shop.
Grace liked all of her co-workers, but her favourite was Dr. Whitaker.
There seemed to be a consensus among everyone underneath him that Whitaker was the nicest senior resident. He was the least intimidating teacher and the first one to reassure the med students when they were freaking out.
“You’re not even an official doctor yet.” Grace overheard him talking to Xochitl by the nurses’ station in a soft voice. Her patient had just been rushed upstairs for surgery after she missed an obstruction in the heart. “You’re supposed to make mistakes. We all do. The important thing is that your patient is gonna’ be okay. Garcia is an excellent surgeon.”
Xochitl wiped at her eyes roughly. The poor girl wasn’t going to survive here if she couldn’t keep her emotions in check. “Dr. Robby said that I’m bringing my personal life into things too much. He said I need to get out of my own way.”
Whitaker was silent for a long moment before replying carefully, “Robby can seem like a hard-ass, but he only wants the best for you.” He lowers his voice into a playful whisper, leaning closer to her like they were gossiping best friends. “Between you and me, he’s usually the hardest on his favourites.”
“He was mean to you, then? When you were a med student?” She sniffles.
Whitaker laughs a little. “I wouldn’t say that.”
He’s pulled away to another case before Xochitl can ask any more questions. Grace stays there in front of the computer where she is supposed to be charting, fixated on the way he spoke about Robby. There was so much tenderness there beneath the words, this unbelievably soft knowing that felt out of place in the blood and chaos of the ED.
Something about it stuck with Grace, tucked safely into the back of her mind.
-
Grace’s initial recognition of something she didn’t entirely understand lying beneath the surface when Whitaker talked about Robby left her curious, which is probably the reason she became fixated on everything that followed.
A couple weeks after Whitaker’s conversation with Xochitl, Grace was working with Whitaker on a man complaining of a fever, sores, and muscle aches.
“And is the rash itchy at all?” Whitaker asked the man, examining a bright red rash going down his arms and palms. Grace stood just behind her senior resident, hands clasped behind her back, leaning over just enough to get a good look.
“No, not at all, weirdly.” The man replied.
Whitaker hummed, quiet for a moment before turning to Grace. “Worden, any questions for Mr. Atkinson?”
“Um…” Grace mentally shuffled through the long list of possible diagnoses in her head. Whitaker waited patiently, gracefully, before she finally turned to the patient to ask, “Are you experiencing any tenderness in your neck?”
Mr. Atkinson shrugged. “A little, I guess.”
Grace was about to open her mouth to respond when she heard the curtain behind them squeak and flutter as it pulled back. Dr. Robby slipped into the makeshift room before pulling the curtain again.
“Dr. Whitaker,” Robby greeted with a sort of warmness that was unfamiliar to Grace. “Your assessment?”
When Grace turned back to Whitaker, he was smiling. “I was just about to ask our med student to make that conclusion.”
Grace raised her eyebrows at the teasing confidence, but her surprise was overshadowed by the strike of anxiety she felt at Robby’s full attention now trained on her as he waited for a response, arms loosely crossed.
“Mr. Atkinson, do you-” Grace cleared her throat and shook her head. “Is it possible that you could have an STI? Have you had unprotected sex in the last couple months?”
Mr. Atkinson’s cheeks went red as his gaze averted to the floor. “A month ago, yeah. One night stand.”
“Dennis?” Robby asked, and once again, Grace felt utterly lost.
“We’re gonna run a screening to check for a couple different STIs, Mr. Atkinson. My guess would be syphilis based on the symptoms you’ve described but we’ll also check for gonorrhoea, chlamydia, hepatitis, and HIV.” Whitaker explained to the patient reassuringly before standing.
Robby wished the man good luck as the three of them left. Whitaker pressed a tablet into Grace’s hands to fill in the order for the screening, but she found that her eyes kept drifting to where Robby and Whitaker were walking a few steps ahead of her.
“Nice job.” Robby said.
“I think as a senior resident I should be able to diagnose an STI without any issues.”
“I meant good job on your teaching. I heard you’re a favourite among the med students.”
Whitaker snorted, staring up at Robby with a deep affection in his eyes. It’s like he was staring into the sun itself, enamored by its beauty. “I had a pretty good teacher myself.”
Robby grinned before heading back to the nurses’ station to read the board. Grace watched as it took an extra moment for Whitaker’s own smile to drop, eyes following Robby all the way across the Pitt.
Grace was always told by her friends and family that she was very expressive, that it often took a single look at her face to see everything she was feeling, and right now she must look like a deer caught in headlights for the entire ED to see, clutching the tablet to her chest.
Robby wasn’t a bad guy by any means, but he was… in Whitaker’s own words, a hard-ass. He wasn’t as generous with his praise as the other attendings like Mel and Abbott were, and he always seemed to be ready with a critique of what his residents could be doing differently. So watching him praise Whitaker so openly and with a fondness that Grace would kill to be on the receiving end of was jarring, to say the least.
What was going on with these two?
-
Another few days went by after their very strange interaction when Grace slipped into the break room to heat up the leftover tacos in her bag from the Mexican place down the street.
Xochitl was already sitting at the tiny round table in the center of the room, stuffing pasta in her mouth at an alarming rate. They both knew that it was only a matter of time before Dana burst into the room to force them back to work.
“Finally escaped your jailer?” Xochitl asked.
Grace groaned as she popped the tin into the microwave. “Ogilvie is a tyrant and he works here merely to punish med students.”
Xochitl snorted. “Can’t relate. I’ve been working cases with doctor sexy all morning.”
“You talking about Langdon?”
“Who else would I be talking about?”
“I don’t know. Robby’s hot.”
“Twenty years ago, maybe.”
Grace rolled her eyes. “Well, doctor sexy is engaged to our attending, so I would maybe refrain from lusting after him in the workplace, if I were you.”
“It’s a compliment to Mel.” Xochitl replied. Grace slid the tacos out of the microwave and collapsed heavily into the seat across from her.
They were silent as they ate before Grace found her thoughts sliding back to Whitaker and Robby, like they so often did these days. She went through a brief phase when she was a child where she was obsessed with wanting to be a detective, and this wasn’t too different. It was like a secret investigation.
“Have you noticed anything… weird between Whitaker and Robby?” Grace asked.
“Like, the special treatment, you mean? Yeah, it’s stupid.” Xochitl scowled. She struggled a lot during her first couple weeks of rotation, and Robby still hadn’t fully forgiven her.
“No, they’re just very…” Grace gestured wide as she tried to explain. “They just have a weird dynamic. Robby was in such a shitty mood the other day and I overheard Princess saying that they needed to make an official rule that he always had to work the same shift as Whitaker. It’s almost like they’re in cahoots.”
Xochitl took another big bite of food, starting to rise from the table. “No, no, no, Whitaker’s married.”
Grace felt her mouth drop wide open. “Seriously?”
“Yeah, you haven’t seen his wedding ring before?”
“No. I guess I never noticed.” The more Grace thought about it, the more it made sense. Whitaker was a great guy, and she was sure that it was true outside of work as much as it was within the four walls of the Pitt. Being a fourth-year resident meant that he was probably already around thirty, so it makes sense for him to be married. Plus, Grace had to admit that he was pretty handsome.
“Robby’s married too, I think.” Xochitl stuffs the plastic container formerly full of pasta into the trash, rinsing her hands quickly. “Whitaker’s probably just his favourite student.”
The explanation should have been satisfying for Grace, but there was still this itch at the back of her skull.
-
On the two month anniversary of Grace’s rotation in the Pitt, Grace was charting at the nurses’ station when her attention was stolen by a gruff shout. She looked up to see a tall man approaching Emma angrily.
“Hey, nurse, my wife has been waiting for a bed upstairs for five hours. When are you morons gonna’ get your heads out of your asses and help her?” The man spat. He wasn’t touching Emma, but they were practically nose-to-nose, looming over her with a red face and shaking hands.
Emma blinked and shuffled backwards subtly. “Sir, I’m very sorry for the delay, but-”
“No! I’m gonna’ accept your bullshit response, sweetheart.” The man cut her off. “If you can’t handle being a nurse then find me someone who can, and maybe you can go try working on the pole, you-”
“Hey!” Grace flinched when another voice joined that cacophony. It was Whitaker marching over like a man possessed. He stepped in front of Emma, completely uncaring that the man he was now almost chest-to-chest with was several inches taller than him. “Sir, you cannot speak to our nurses like that. We treated your wife, and now we’re waiting for a bed upstairs. It can take a while. That doesn’t mean you can come here and verbally abuse a young woman because it makes you feel better about yourself.”
“Who the fuck do you think you are?” The man shouted, and then he was grabbing Whitaker by the shoulders. Emma yelped and jumped out of the violence as the man smashed Whitaker into the nearest wall.
Grace felt a startled yell get ripped from her throat. A burst of noise and chaos came all at once, and she hardly processed what was happening before Donnie was there and Whitaker was fighting the guy off and Ahmad was dragging him away.
“Dennis.” Robby was there in an instant, just as Whitaker was pushing himself up off the wall and half the ED staff were surrounding him to ask if he was okay. Robby grabbed his shoulder tightly, leaning down to look him in the eyes. Robby looked terrified in a way that Grace had never seen him before. “Are you okay?”
“I’m fine.” Whitaker shook his head.
“I heard the yelling from the other room but I didn’t-” Robby cut himself off shakily.
“Hey.” As Whitaker took in the distressed state of his attending, it seemed to unnerve him more than his own attack. Grace watched in fascination as Whitaker cupped Robby’s neck and leaned closer. “I’m fine.”
Robby’s reply was too quiet for Grace to hear.
-
“Dana?”
Dana turned away from the screen, glasses perched at the end of her nose. “What’s up?”
“I have to present a case to Dr. Robby and I was wondering if you could… help me, maybe? Or if you could get one of the doctors to?” Grace silently scolded herself for sounding so pathetic, like a little girl asking her teacher to skip the planned presentation because of her anxiety.
Dana laughed, but it wasn't cruel. It didn’t sound cruel, at least. It sounded more amused. “He doesn’t bite, kid.”
Grace forced out her own laugh as heat rushed to her cheeks. “Yeah, I’ll just… nevermind. Thank you. I’ll go and…”
Dana leaned closer, setting a hand on Grace’s arm. “Why don’t you go ask Dr. Whitaker to present with you? He’ll make sure Robby’s nice.”
Grace pressed her lips together. Why would Whitaker have any power over making Robby be kind to her? Even if he was Robby’s favourite, there’s no reason for him to be taking orders from an R4.
She found Whitaker shortly after, sheepishly folding her hands together and grinning as she said, “Dana told me that if I asked you to present a case to Robby with me it would go a lot smoother.”
Whitaker chuckled. “Go a lot smoother or be less scary?”
“Both?”
“Come on, then.”
-
After three months, Grace couldn’t figure it out. She just couldn’t understand their dynamic. Maybe Whitaker had dirt on Robby from years ago and used it to get Robby to do his general bidding. But then why did Robby seem to enjoy it so much? Why did he seem to calm down the most around Whitaker, like his personal stress ball came to let him squeeze all the frustration away?
She was leaving PTMC after a shift that stretched on three hours too long thanks to a huge MVC right before the switch-off. They lost two patients but managed to save seven more.
Grace was already fantasizing about the warm comfort of her bed, a long shower, and an episode of Severance as she walked through the sliding doors of the ED and into the ambulance bay, when she spotted two figures leaning up against the wall.
She startled before quickly recognising the figures as Robby and Whitaker, who were- oh. Robby had Whitaker pinned against the wall, face buried in his shoulder. Whitaker was cupping the back of his head, fingers splayed through the grey-brown hair as Robby kissed down his neck and his collarbone, body caging the younger man in completely.
Grace gasped.
-
She nearly tripped over her own feet the next morning to pull Xochitl aside into the nearest stairwell.
“I have something to tell you.” Grace said, a grin already spreading across her face. “Robby and Whitaker are having an affair. They’re cheating on their wives with each other.”
“No way.”
“Yes.”
“You’re lying.”
“I’m not! I saw them making out in the ambulance bay yesterday.”
“Holy shit!” Xochitl laughed. “Whitaker’s a snake. I knew he wasn’t Robby’s favourite by chance. He’s totally hot for teacher.”
“I feel bad for Whitaker’s wife.” Grace admits. Through the giddiness of the scandal, she couldn’t help but think of the faceless woman at home being none-the-wiser that her husband was sleeping with his boss. Poor girl.
Xochitl shrugged. “Well, what can you expect if you’re dating a doctor and you’re not a doctor? They’re with their co-workers for twelve hours a day. Sparks are bound to fly. She probably has a side piece, too.”
There was a short laugh from behind them. Grace turned to see Dr. Santos standing there, looking absolutely delighted on what she intruded upon.
Grace’s first thought was oh, no, she’s going to tell everyone about the affair and they’re all going to know that it was me who saw it and then Robby is never going to let me get hired.
“Dr. Santos!” Xochitl exclaimed. “We were just-”
“Gossiping about Robby and Whitaker. I heard.” She said dryly. “Isn’t it so juicy?”
“People already know about it?” Grace asked. That was starting to make a lot more sense. It was the reason why Dana encouraged her to use Whitaker as a tool to protect herself from any of Robby’s criticisms, constructive or otherwise.
“Yeah. Most of the hospital does. I guess you newbies wouldn’t.” Santos shrugged, still looking incredibly gleefully at the whole situation. She turned to leave, but not before telling them, “And, just an FYI, when you two tell everyone about this you should probably get the facts straight, because it’s not technically an affair if they’re married to each other.”
Married to each other.
Each other.
Whitaker and Robby were married to each other.
That… made so much more sense. Everything did. The soft looks, the fondness in Whitaker’s voice when he talked about Robby– when he talked about his husband. Robby seeming to always find excuses to check in on Whitaker throughout the day while he was busy with patients. Robby’s devastation when the patient’s husband got aggressive with Whitaker.
A hysterical laugh burst out of Grace before she could stop it.
Grace realised later that she could have put two-and-two together much sooner if she had just taken a second and glanced down at Whitaker’s badge, which reads Dr. Dennis Whitaker-Robinavitch.