Archive of Our Own

Trinity was just about done with today, which was why she was so eager to drop her body onto the bench in the locker room instead of packing up to leave for her well deserved weekend off starting tomorrow. She knew that slumping over at the bench and letting the exhaustion settle deeper into her bones was more than counterproductive but she couldn't help herself when her feet ached so badly from standing on them all day for the third time in a row this week. 

"Ah, damn it..." Came a sigh from Trinity's left. She turned her head to look at Dr. Al-Hashimi, who rubbed a hand over a face stuck somewhere between worry and defeat. 

"Is something wrong?" That question came from Javadi, nosy maybe, but nonetheless sincerely empathetic. She was in the process of neatly folding her clothes to put away into her locker. What an overachiever, Trinity thought with a mental eye roll. 

"My babysitter declined for tomorrow." Al-Hashimi murmured with a glance to the youngest person in the locker room. 

"Uhh..." Javadi supplied helpfully. 

"It was supposed to be my exes weekend, but he supposedly came down with something, so my son can't go to his place. And I'm working tomorrow." Al-Hashimi explained, looking the part of exhausted mother that got stuck with her kid with no childcare at last notice. 

"I'm also working tomorrow otherwise I would offer to help out." Javadi offers.

"I don't." Says Trinity, earning herself a curious eyebrow raise from her attending and a wide eyed look from Javadi, who doesn't bother to hide her clear flabbergast behind any decorum. 

Trinity actually rolls her eyes this time, as is customary for her. 

"I mean, if you don't work something out I could sit this one in." She offers, sounding just as 'nonchalant' as she intended to. 

Javadi continues to stare at her as if she just gave insulin in milliliters instead of units, which from Javadi's perspective might be equivalent of hearing that the great Trinity Santos would willingly offer up her day off. To watch a kid, nonetheless. 

Now, Trinity would have taken offense to being pinpointed as 'not fit for a babysitter', if it didn't flatter her ego that her asshole-y façade was holding up. 

It wasn't like Trinity hated kids. Contrary to popular belief, she kind of enjoyed their carefree, mostly nonjudgmental view of the world. 

And she thought this might be a good way to get into her new attendings good graces. Some small plus points for her, given her less than ideal first impression resulting in threats of repeating R2 and all... It has been a few weeks since that incident, maybe over a month by now and they had gotten more acquainted with each other, but Trinity would rather be safe than sorry.

In this case anyway.

Al-Hashimi's face had turned from curious to thoughtful as she pondered over her options. 

"You know, I might actually take you up on your offer..." She spoke eventually, then fiddled with her phone for just a second and offered it up to Trinity. 

"Would you put in your number? If I really can't arrange anything I'll text you in the evening with all the details regarding tomorrow." Al-Hashimi continued as Trinity took the offered phone and typed in the digits. 

"That is, if you really mean what you said." The attending adds, taking her phone back when Trinity extends it towards her. 

"I did." Trinity stands her ground, maybe a little defensive to which Al-Hashimi offers a small smile. 

"Thank you for your willingness, Dr. Santos, no matter if you end up as the babysitter or not." Dr. Al-Hashimi says with a bigger smile on her face and gratitude reflecting in her eyes. And with that she slings her duffle bag over her shoulder, bids them a goodbye with a wave of her hand and disappears behind the corner of the door frame. 

Trinity stares after her for a moment, thoughtful. 

"What was that about?" Javadi breaks the silence, earning herself a raised eyebrow from her follow doctor. 

"I have no idea what you're talking about, Crash." Trinity dismisses her easily, finally willing herself to push up from her seat and start to get ready to head home. 

"You're planning something." Javadi accuses. 

"And why do you think that? Because I couldn't possibly want to spend my day looking after a little kid?" Trinity replies, pointedly not even turning to look at her co-worker as she replies. Instead she messily stuffs her dirty laundry from her previous shifts into her own bag. 

"Exactly!" Javadi exclaims rather loudly, throwing her hands out in exasperation. 

Trinity gets great pleasure from working the younger woman up like this. Finally, as she throws the bag over her shoulder, she turns to look at Javadi. 

"I think I'm pretty good with kids. But we will have to wait for Robo-Doc's review. If I end up going." And with that, Trinity walks out of the locker room and then out of the hospital, still in her scrubs, leaving Javadi to stare after her. 

It's hours later, when she's laying on her couch, scrolling on her phone with a full belly of Thai takeout, that a text from an unknown number interrupts her internet surfing. 

Trinity opens the messages.

Her fingers hover over the keyboard for a moment before she types out her message and sends it out. 

While she waits for a reply, she copies the number into a new contact slot, saving it under 'Robo-Doc'. 

Few minutes pass before another texts comes in. This one detailing the specific of Trinity's babysitting gig. The time frame, apartment directions and the location link, that upon getting opened in maps shows a high end apartment complex. 

Then after another minute, the last text Trinity will receive from her attending that evening comes in. 

Trinity shoots of a quick reply of 'no problem' and with that the exchange ends. 

Dennis isn't home, he left for that farm widow's for the weekend, so there's no-one really to distract her from thinking about the slight mess she, willingly, got herself into. 

She supposed there were worst ways to spend her weekend. Such as working through it. But also better ways, such as sleeping till noon and stuffing her face with whatever she craved. 

Too late to back out now.

Trinity regrets her decision to suck up to her boss as soon as her alarm screams into her ear at the refreshing 4.55 AM. That's even earlier than her regular workday alarm. 

Dr. Al-Hashimi had mentioned in her text last night that she left for work at 6.15 which meant trinity had just over an hour to not only get herself together but commute to the other side of Pittsburgh where Al-Hashimi lived. 

The 40 minute journey in an crammed car of The T was just as grueling as being on her feet this early on her free day. Trinity shot a short text to Al-Hashimi's number simply stating she's on her way, trying to stand her personal space and ideally not get squished to her death. 

When she finally managed to step out onto the fresh air, out of the waggon and the gateway station, she pulled up the map with the location that her attending sent her. According to her phone the apartment complex was 10 minute walk from her current position. 

Walking down the block to get to her destination, Trinity took the opportunity to judge the neighbourhood. She knew when she checked the GPS linked by Al-Hashimi that the appartment building was catered to the more wealthy clientele but the whole neighborhood was filled with sleek apartment complexes, glass office buildings and aesthetic design choices including a few statues and well planned out greenery. 

Of course Trinity knew that this city part was one of the nicer areas that Pittsburgh had to offer, but she never had a reason to visit and such couldn't be blamed by the minor wonder and disgust with which she admired the poshness of the streets she walked. 

After roughly 5 minutes of walking she stops in front of the apartment building, looking up at the multistory, sleek structure that matches the photo she saw online yesterday when looking up the address.

Trinity takes a deep breath through her nose and walks through the automatic doors into the lobby of the building. It's as expected, sleek, modern with a designer chandelier hanging from the ceiling and an employee stationed behind a marble floor desk.

She walks over to the front lady who has been watching her from the moment she stepped in and casually explains her reason for coming in.

"I'm here to see Dr. Al-Hashimi." To which the woman just briefly measures her with her gaze and points to the right, towards the foyer with multiple elevator doors.

"Take the second one on the left. I believe you know which floor, correct?" Trinity knows it's a security question to make sure she actually knows where she's headed instead of just a cover up to snoop about the luxurious complex with no good intentions.

"Of course, 6th floor, apartment 4A." Trinity replies, earning herself a small nod which she takes as her cue to head for the elevator.

She calls a quick thank you over her shoulder and steps into the elevator, which is conveniently already waiting for her.

The elevator ride is rather short and she spends it staring into the mirrors inside, noting she looks just as exhausted as she feels.

The elevator stops with a ding and the doors open, revealing a hallway with multiple secure wooden doors. She looks around, trying to get oriented to be able to locate the apartment she needed.

Al-Hashimi residence, or the apartment 4A was at the very end of the left side of the hallway. The door wasn't for a key but a passcode with a small keypad to the right of the door frame. Trinity didn't know why she didn't expect that.

She knocks on the door.

It takes a moment but the door swings open and behind it stands her attending, already in her scrubs, with her hair pulled back into a ponytail and the smallest hint of relief in her eyes. Those same deep, brown eyes make Trinity feel almost nervous when they look at her and so she looks past her, catching a glimpse of the living space of her older colleague.

"Good morning," Dr. Al-Hashimi greets her but Trinity's gaze is already looking past her and into the apartment.

"Morning," Trinity murmurs, but her focus is already somewhere else.

The apartment is jarringly different from her own flat, but that she expected. She thought that maybe it could be at least comparable to Garcia's place.

It is not.

And it's not what she expected an up-tight, rule-following attending physician's apartment to look like.

It doesn't match the polished snobness of the apartment complex either.

Garcia's loft was open spaced, with colour palette barely string from beige, white, black and grey. Everything was sleek, modern, minimalistic. Abstract art hung on the walls, usually the only specs of colour in the room, although they all featured cold tones. Garcia's home felt impersonal, sterile almost. Everything has it's designated place in the grand scheme of the apartment. Just like in Garcia's personal life, everything had to fit a specific mold.

In contrast, Al-Hashimi's home was lived in. That's the word Trinity couldn't quite attach to Garcia's place. This apartment wasn't minimalistic, nor was it maximalist in style. It was a balance in between, with paintings and wooden artwork hanging on the walls, differing in sizes and colours. The apartment was still very well put together, modern and smelling of wealth, but it was... Warm. Inviting even.

Trinity stands there, stunned for a brief moment before she realises she's still standing in the doorway, gawking past her boss's shoulder at her home like a complete idiot.

She quickly focuses back on the woman in front of her, who had moved slightly to the side, holding the door open wider to allow her to come in. The corner of her eyes are crinkled with amusement.

"This is my son, Taha," Dr. Al-Hashimi introduces and guides a boy that Trinity completely overlooked from his hiding spot behind her to properly face his babysitter for the day.

"Hello.." the boy greeted, just a tad bit shy. His mother places a gentle hand on his shoulder, to ground him, Trinity guesses.

The boy, Taha, looks to be still in Elementary school, reaching in height to his mother's chest and mirrors her middle eastern skin complection with thick head full of dark curls and big brown eyes.

"Hi, buddy." Trinity greets him back, glancing up at her attending with a silent question of why and how is the boy already up before 6. Was that something all kids his age were doing or was it just a specific habit of his? Trinity didn't know, nor was it really her business. She just found it curious.

"Well, come on inside." Dr. Al-Hashimi prompted, clearing a wider path for Trinity by steering herself and her son further away from the door.

"Would you like some coffee?" Al-Hashimi asked as Trinity stepped fully into the apartment, towing her shoes of and pushing them to the side with her foot.

"Yeah, sure." She murmured, taking another moment to scan her surroundings. This time with more detail.

Kitchen court with a dining area co-joined with the living room. Lots of natural light flooding in from large window panels on one side of the room. Wooden flooring, marble countertops, kitchen aisle with bar stools on one side. Dark wooden furniture, warm tones in fabric and walls painted in shades of yellow and white. Small personal touches scattered around, lots of potted plants in various sizes including one small palm tree by the TV wall, framed pictures here and there interchanging with paintings of mostly nature scenery.

"Would you fetch me a mug, sweetheart?" Dr Al-Hashimi request her son, to which he dutifully obliges with a small nod. While Trinity was busy observing, the pair has moved to the kitchen area. Al-Hashimi was already preparing the coffee machine to brew.

By the time Trinity crosses the room to join her company, the machine is already signaling with a repeated beeping that the brewing process is finished. And so, as soon as trinity comes up to the bar stool by the aisle, a ceramic mug with painted heart pattern is set down in front of her, steaming and waffling of freshly ground coffee beans.

"Thank you," Trinity offers before bringing the mug to her lips and taking a small sip.

Her attending picks this time to give out instructions and provide Trinity with needed information about her day at Al-Hashimi residence.

She grabs a small phone shaped device that was sitting on the kitchen counter, handing it over to Trinity.

"Taha has diabetes type 1. He's got an insulin pump with and a CGM." Al-Hashimi points to the device in Trinity hands.

"That's what you'll use to monitor his levels and trends for today. He's a big boy and knows how to count his carbs well on his own by now but just in case... You're a doctor so you'll get this faster than most; his ratio is 1 unit per 15 grams, target is 80-150, juice boxes are in the pantry and anything else he might need he knows to grab himself. Call me before you call the endo, the number is taped to the fridge when you can find all the instructions written down just in case..." And the woman would go on to ramble more if it wasn't for Trinity cutting her off.

"Yes, hybrid closed loop system. Anything else is written on the fridge or achievable by a quick text to you or Google search. Don't worry doc, I think I can handle this." Trinity reassures the woman, coming off maybe just the tiny bit rude, which is pretty standard for Trinity.

"Ah, you're right Dr. Santos. It wasn't my intention to..." Trinity cuts her of again.

"I get it," she says, waving a hand in a dismissive manner. "Just looking out for your kid like a good mother should."

If something bitter seeps into her voice, neither of them mention it.

"I'll leave you some money, please use it to order yourself lunch, I cooked for Taha but if he wants to, he can get something too, just make sure to recount the bolus after Taha does and punch it into his pump."

Al-Hashimi takes a big breath before continuing in her little speech.

"The shift officially ends at 9 PM but you know how it can get and as an attending physician.." She gets cut off, once again.

"I understand, you don't have to worry about being late." Trinity reassures and this time Al-Hashimi sighs, though something akin to amusement dances in her eyes.

"Take care, Dr. Santos." The older woman says, reaching into the pocket of her scrubs and takes out her wallet. She sets down a few bills on the marble countertop before turning and walking over to her son.

"Taha?" Dr. Al-Hashimi asked in low voice as she pulled the boy into her arms.

"Joonam," the boy answered in equally soft tone.

"Be good to Doctor Santos for me." Al-Hashimi asks of him and as he nods she presses a soft kiss to the crown of his head.

"Ghorbunet Beram." She tells him at last, gently pushing him away from her chest to look him in the eyes as she says it.

"I love you māmān, be safe." Taha says back to her and his mother brings him back for one last squeeze before she lets go to go fetch her bag and head to put her shoes on.

Trinity had watched the exchange with mild interest, she has no idea what some of the words and phrases used meant, but that didn't really bother her. She wasn't privy to their love. It was perhaps a little strange, watching her confident and sometimes even sharp attending soften and deflate from an authority figure to a living mother.

With one last wave in their direction, Al-Hashimi leaves her home to spend to another exhausting day in the PTMC.

Trinity turns from watching her leave to look at her responsibility of the day only to find the kid already staring at her with his big brown eyes.

There's a pause, a somewhat awkward one, before Trinity breaks it.

"So...." She drawls out. "What do you want to do, kiddo?" She asks rather lamely, as nothing else comes to her mind at that moment.

"My name is Taha." The boy corrects her and Trinity has to bite her tongue not to say something sarcastic back as she was tempted to. That's not appropriate response to a kid, especially not one that could snitch on her to her boss.

"Righ, Taha." She agrees, sqeezing her eyes shut to swallow her mild irritation.

"What do you want to do?" She asks again.

"Can I play my switch?" He asks.

"I don't know, can you? Would your mother approve you playing so early in the morning?" Trinity asks back with a small self-satisfied smirk.

"Māmān isn't here." The boy points out and Trinity's smirk falls a little. Smart kid.

She considers it for a moment, though it's only for theatrics, and then nods.

"Sure, knock yourself out." She agrees and watches the child light up with happiness before he bolts it further into the house, presumably to get his game.

The speed at which he emerged from the depths of the flat is significantly lower as he has his nose glued to the console, already sucked into whatever game he's playing.

He plops down onto the floor by the couch and continues to game, not paying any mind to his company.

Trinity watches him for a moment, contemplating on what to do for the foreseeable future while the kid entertains himself with the electronics.

The rest of the flat remains shrouded in mystery for Trinity and she reasons with herself that she needs to be familiar with the layout of it in case of emergencies, even though she feels childish sense of giddiness bubble under the surface to maybe find something useful about the new chief of the ED.

"I'm going to take a look around." Trinity informs him, too curious and too giddy about this opportunity.

"Uh, ok!" Comes a reply and Trinity's sure the kid didn't fully register what she told him as he was yet to tear his gaze from the console in his hands. She bites back a snort and gets to wandering the flat.

In Trinity's defense she wasn't actively snooping or anything. Like she said, it was essential for her to be at least somewhat aware of the layout and possible escaoe routes in case of fire or in need of toilet trips. Sure, she could ask Taha where the bathroom was, but what was the fun in that? It was harmless, she wouldn't go inside unless necessary, she's just going to take a peak inside the rooms to know what's where.

First door she reached was on the right side, looking inside she found a bathroom. Natural shaded stones and blue tiles, shower, cabinet with a sink, large mirror, a few other storage places and a toilet.

Second door, left side, another bathroom. This one had also natural stones but paired with green tiles. Instead of shower it had a large bathtub. Double sink, cabinets, a ladder radiator.

Third door was on the left, peaking inside Trinity found it was laundry room. A washer and a dryer and a shelf holding some of the household items including fresh beddings, towels and detergent with other cleaning supplies.

Next closes door was also on the left, from the plaquette on the door, Trinity knew it was Taha's bedroom.

She didn't go in.

One last door remains that she is yet to open. She knows what's behind it, it has to be Al-Hashimi's bedroom.

She could look inside, but she won't.

For the same reason she didn't enter Taha's room.

She's not that kind of person, she respects her attending not only as her boss but also as a human being. She won't violate her trust and invade her privacy by stepping into space as intimate as someone's bedroom.

And thus, two doors remain closed. Still Trinity wonders what it looks like on the other side of them.

She walks back to the living room, finding Taha where she left him, sitting on the floor with back leaned against the couch, knees tucked to his chest and face pinched in concentration as he furiously taps the buttons of his switch.

She walks over, waiting to see if the boy will acknowledge her presence at all.

He does not.

She looks towards the kitchen area, reading the time of a large analogue watch hung on the wall above the dining nook.

Just a few minutes till 7. Still too early to really do much outside.

So Trinity let's Taha play some more, busying herself with mindless doom-scrolling.

It's almost 10 when Trinity gets up to use the bathroom and check the CGM device on the way back. His levels were fine and the trending arrow was pointing straight forward, so everything looked good.

She glanced back to the couch seeing Taha still deep in his gameplay. She walks over.

Time to create some havoc. He had already almost 3 hours of screen time before lunch.

"Okay, that's enough of that." Trinity laments as she plucks the switch from Taha's grasp. The boy puts up a fight, defiantly reaching up to try and snatch what was stolen from him back.

"Come on!" He wails petulantly, clambering onto the couch to gain height advantage. He's still too short to reach where Trinity waves the console high above both of their heads.

"Your mom would kill me if I let you play all day long." Trinity reasons, dodging an elbow that would otherwise accidentally land in her face.

"I wouldn't snitch!" The boy protests, still stubbornly trying to get to his game.

"As much I appreciate it," Trinity's words drip with playful sarcasm, "I'm a doctor and thus know it's not healthy." She finishes, watching Taha get even angrier at such lame excuse as pulling a Dr. Heathly card.

He puffs, tries to snatch the console back one last time with a leap of faith of the couch before he gives up.

Trinity listens to the steady decrease in laboured breaths and watches the fight leave the boy's body.

"Feel better yet?" She questions after a moment, earning herself a glare in return.

She snorts.

Was she this difficult as a child? Surely not, she thinks to herself despite knowing her parents would tell a very different story if asked.

"How 'bout we head out for some time?" They could both use some fresh air in Trinity's honest opinion.

"I don't wanna." The boy argues.

"Not even if we get something to eat for lunch while we're out?" Trinity tempts the boy.

Taha considers the offer, mulling it over in his head.

"Do I get to pick?" He asks with all the seriousness that comes with knowing Trinity's answer will heavily influence his decision.

Trinity rolls his eyes, but nods nonetheless. "Sure, if that makes you happy." She sharks.

Taha folds his arms over his chest. "It does." He matches her snarking with his own.

Trinity kind of likes this kid. He has a backbone.

"Go get ready, pack a bag with anything you might need. I'll fetch some snacks from the pantry and we can head out." She shoos Taha away.

While he's off getting changed into different clothes and stuffing essentials into a backpack, Trinity locates the pantry and picks out a few juice boxes.

She grabs a variety because she forgot to ask if Taha had any preferences. An orange and an apple juice, one box each. That should be good, right? If not they can stop by a store and grab some more.

Just as she exits the pantry, Taha walks out into the living room with a small blue backpack.

"Have everything you might need?" Trinity asks.

Taha nods, "...'ve got an emergency kit, a water bottle, my toys, put my insulin pump case on..." He lists off.

"Okay, good. Anything else you might need or want to bring along?" Trinity asks.

The boy thinks for a moment before he wordlessly runs over to one of the kitchen cabinets and pulls something out of a drawer. "My own glucose tablets for my jacket." He says.

"Alright, sure." Trinity shrugs. She walks over to where the CGM device sits on a counter and grabs it.

"That means we have everything. Ready to go?" She asks the last question and Taha nods, running over to the front hall to pull his shoes on.

For someone who needed convincing to agree to go outside, he was pretty excited. Trinity shook her head and followed after him, suiting herself up.

Taha grabbed a light jacket of a hook and shrugged it on, he didn't wait for Trinity to finish dressing herself, he was already swinging the door open and hurriedly walking over to the elevator doors to press the call button.

Trinity was just about to close the door behind her before she stopped. Taking just a moment for consideration, she walked back into the apartment and over to the fridge, snapping a quick photo with the instructions left there by Al-Hashimi.

Just to be safe.

By the time Trinity finally reaches the elevator doors, Taha is already standing in one, holding the door open so the elevator doesn't ride off without her.

"Thanks." Trinity mumbles when she gets in. She pulls out her phone as the doors shut, pulling up Google maps of the neighborhood to see where exactly they could go.

There was a park nearby, about 10 minutes walk away from this apartment complex. Looked to have a playground and a section fenced off as a dog park.

That sounded good enough.

So there they went.

The walk was quiet. Taha was busy looking around and wandering and skipping about. Typical kid.

Trinity made sure he wouldn't wander off to the road or didn't run out of her sight, but other than that she was content to let him do whatever he pleased.

When they made it to the park, Trinity stopped Taha from running off immediately to the utter frustration of the boy.

They both knew that physical activity would make his sugar drop so it was important to check his levels and see how he was trending. But Taha was almost vibrating in place, too excited to explore the jungle gym and the playground tand anything really that the park had to offer.

Trinity pulled out the CGM device, looking at the numbers. His current levels were on the lower side and he was also trending downwards.

"I got orange or apple juice, witch one do you want?" Trinity asks him.

He considers it for a moment before confidently answers with "Orange."

"Alright," Trinity nods, fishing out the right juice box out of her bag and hands it to the kid.

"If I call on you, you'll come immediately. Okay?" Trinity tells him seriously.

The boy nods, unable to reply verbally as he was already drinking his juice.

"Okay, go on." She releases him, knowing they don't need to administer a bolus as the sugar he just got from the box was fast acting and paired with the activity of running around and his levels being as they were, it would compensate nicely without needing a correction.

Trinity would still check the CGM device regularly to be safe though.

As soon as the juice box is finished the kid is off. She spots him heading for the jungle gym first and he spends nearly an hour there. Between climbing the variety of ropes, ladders and netting, swinging on the swings and trying to hand over hand over the bar on one side.

His levels looked good when Trinity checked them.

Taha made a friend at the top of one of the climbing obstacles and when they got bored of the jungle gym they resorted to a game of tag that slowly evolved into intense Marco Pollo.

Trinity had been sitting on the bench by the playground for close to hour and a half when a woman, presumably a mother of one of the kids came over to chat.

Trinity wasn't too interested, but she kept the conversation politely going.

Apparently the friend Taha made, a boy looking to be slightly older than Taha himself, was this woman's son.

The pair has to leave about 20 minutes later, having a family event they had to attend or something like that.

Taha got bored of the park not even 10 minutes after his friend left.

"You're done with the playground?" Trinity asked when he came over and plopped down next to her on the bench.

"Yeah." Taha confirmed, kicking his feet in the air.

"So, what now? You want to go for lunch?" Trinity questioned.

"Yeah. You said I'll get to pick so I'm picking McDonald's." Taha tells her, looking at her with such intensity that Trinity was sure he was daring her to protest.

"Okay then." Trinity agreed easily. She wouldn't be offended by a burger and some fries.

Closest McDonald's was just a small walk from the park.

They ordered their food, Trinity a large menu with some seasonal offer and Taha a Happy meal with chicken nuggets.

Taha picked out a place for them to sit, in the back of the fastfood chain in the corner.

"I'll look up the carb count so we can calculate your bolus." Trinity informs the boy. He's busy playing with the zipper of his backpack.

Adding all the food items up, taking the counts straight from the McDonald's website that listed the nutritional values, the carb count came to 52g total. Thankful that she remembered to snap that photo of the fridge note, she pulled it up to make sure she had the proper values before calculating anything.

Using Taha's ratio of 1 unit per 15 grams of carbs, she calculated the bolus to be 3.47 units.

She didn't put the info in yet, having to check the current levels and trending arrow for the correction factor.

The CGM device read 70. Below Taha's target range.

Now, she got two options. She could get Taha to drink his juice box before he ate his actual food to get the levels up and see how it would improve. Or she could put it all into the pump which would reduce the bolus to take the current levels into account.

Trinity went with the first option, "Your dropping. Drink your juice first and then we can eat."

Taha seems upset about having to wait to eat his food, probably hungry from all the running around.

"Sorry bud." Trinity murmurs, watching the CGM device and the numbers on it slowly raising up till he was on the lower side of his target range.

"Enjoy your meal." Trinity tells him once he stabilised and he put the info into his pump.

Her assumption about his hunger proved to be correct as Taha totally destroyed his meal in almost record time.

Trinity barely got through half of her burger when he was already done, eating the last of his fries.

"Check your levels and tell me how they are, I've got greasy fingers." Trinity requests.

"I'm in range and stable." Taha replies after doing as he was told, he plays with the device, fidgeting with it in his hands.

"Good," Trinity says around a mouthful of fries she just staffed into her mouth.

The route from McDonald's leads them straight back to the Al-Hashimi apartment.

Trinity was impossibly glad when she finally sat down on the couch. She could use a little wind down.

Taha layed down on the couch too, all his running around was finally catching up with him.

The peace and quiet lasts for longer than Trinity guesses it would.

"Can we build a pillow fort." A small, quiet voice piping up is what breaks the hush that settles between the two of them.

Trinity would like to pretend she wasn't surprised by the soft request. Thinking about it, it didn't sound like a bad idea at all.

"Let's do it." She agrees, causing Taha to sit up in excitement.

"We gotta make it super cool!" He exclaims loudly.

"Any ideas?" Trinity asks, encouraging the boy on.

"Yeah, it will be big. No, huge! And we have to stash snacks inside, and I'll get māmān's battery so there'll be light and some books and also Lego and...." Taha's rambles grow progressively more disorganized and quicker the more excited he gets.

"Easy, kid. I didn't catch half of what you just said." Trinity hushes with a laugh.

"You've gotta help me gather the supplies. How about I make the skeleton with chairs and you'll go fetch us some blankets?" Trinity offers, she doesn't get a proper response, only clue to Taha's agreement to her plan is his abrupt departure.

She huffs, amused. While he's off gathering drapery, Trinity carries over 2 of the dining nook chairs and one bar stool. They'll use the couch as the foundation and the chairs as anchors to extend the space.

She contemplates momentarily before pushing the coffee table away from in front of the couch, making proper space for the pillow fort.

Taha comes back out from the depths of the flat slower than he went in, hands full of various blankets and pillows. The amount he could carry was apparently not enough for him as he had one pillow dangling by one corner from between his teeth.

Trinity snickered out loud.

"Had to carry it all at once? Couldn't go back for the rest?" She asks him.

Taha spits the pillow out of his mouth, letting it fall to the ground, then let's the rest of the materials he gather follow after.

"It worked, so what?" He grumbles.

"I'm not complaining, I'm just laughing at you." Trinity points out, much to Taha's further annoyance.

Too busy laughing and playing it up, Trinity is too preoccupied to notice the balled up blanket whizzing through the air until it's too late. The patched fabric hits her to the side of her head and Trinity is too stunned to react as she stares gobsmacked at the boy.

He doesn't put up any decorum, straight up laughing back at her.

"You little,...!" Trinity yells out, suddenly bolting in his direction.

Taha screams, shrill and giggly as he also dashes out in a crazy sprint to evade his chaser.

Trinity is hot on his heels, pursuing him down the hallway where she finally managed to sweep him of his feet just as he's about to hide away into his room.

"Got you!" Echoes a victorious shout, accompanied by halfhearted protesting and giddy laughing.

Taha's lifted of the ground and thrown over Trinity's shoulder, upper body dangling upside down and legs kicking in the air.

Still, he giggles widely as he's carried back to the living room and then gently thrown with calculated precision to the softness of the couch's cushions.

"We're gonna build the fort or what?" Trinity asks, resting her hands on her hips to play up the mock importance she was aiming for.

Despite his persistent snickering, Taha gets to work, ordering Trinity around more than doing the job himself.

Trinity secures the blankets to hang over the chairs, tucks corners of the fabric into the couch cushions and remaining corners get tied around the closest thing that can hold them in place.

Taha makes her readjust said structure multiple times and once he's satisfied he relieves her of her duties, stating the interior will be done solely by himself.

Trinity sits back and watches as he drags remaining blankets he fetched under the makeshift canopy, arranges pillows and makes multiple trips to his room and back to bring all the things he could think of as 'necessary' into the fort.

Then finally, Trinity is invited inside with a wave of his hand.

She picks up the GCM device, quickly checking the readings and climbs inside.

First thing Taha insists on doing is building Legos. Along a larger box of Lego pieces, he brought in a large space ship he proudly presents to Trinity, making sure to emphasize that he build it on his own.

"I'm going to build a rocket for planet exploration. You're an enemy alien, you need to build a ship so we can actually play!" Taha orders, pushing the box of pieces in Trinity's direction.

It's not like she has much choice, so she might as well have fun with it.

She's fairly proud of her final product, a modified plane the size of her palm with various funky attachments she insists are badass alien weaponry that can absolutely destroy the force fields Taha's space ship apparently has.

Neither of them bother to keep track of time, too submerged in their intergalactic space ship battle.

When they get tired of committing war crimes against plastic Lego figures and coming up with new ways to gain advantage against the other Taha simply tells Trinity to wait for him in the fort and leaves to retrieve something.

He returns with a iPad in his hands, climbing back inside and propping it up against the case so they can watch a movie on it.

They bicker over what to watch with Trinity insisting the old Disney and Pixar movies are superior while Taha stubbornly defends the new gen movies.

Eventually, they settle on Inside Out.

Taha doses off not even halfway into the film, must have tired himself out with all the running and jumping he did. He's slouched over, resting his head against Trinity's shoulder.

She quietly finishes the movie and then silently scrolls on her phone.

Time passes and when she looks at the time again it reads 10:17 PM. Already over an hour since the day shift would have ended. Already past the time Trinity should be relieved of her babysitting duty by the arrival of the owner of this flat. Yet here she sits, with a boy lost in dreamworld leaning against her shoulder, sharing her space and heat.

It doesn't bother her that she's technically here overtime, it's not like she's being payed for this and it's better than the yawning emptiness of her apartment with Dennis' absence.

She's more worried about the other doctor herself, worried that something might have happened to cause the hold up, not only in terms of busy ER or complicated hand over to the nightshift but also about the dangers on the route back home.

She knows first-hand how tired one can be after a shift in the Pitt. It isn't hard to imagine a slip in consciousness in the dull of the drive home.

Trinity's pretty worried.

And she doesn't like it one bit. Doesn't understand why or rather, stubbornly won't let herself admit to it. She doesn't have much of a relationship to her superior, it doesn't make sense for her to worry, even if a little imaginable Dennis aggravatingly whispers that maybe it's just because she's a good person. Trinity loaths that idea.

But still, in this moment, she worries for Al-Hashimi's safety.

Maybe she could check the news on her phone? Just to see if there are any reports of anything big that might have happened to prolong the already neverending working hours of the shift.

She does just that. Few taps away and she's skimming through a 'flash news' article about a large chain car crash on a highway in a city quarter that falls under the Pitt's area coverage.

That explains the hold up.

And eases the worry. Much to Trinity's annoyance.

From what she gathered from the article, the crash was fresh, happened roughly 30 minutes ago. Which means that the casualties are currently being rolled in if her estimated calculations are right. That would put the call Pitt would have recieved about the situation at the time of the shift swap.

Trinity deduces that she's stuck here for another hour at the very least.

Her eyes droop and before she knows it, she slips under.

By the time Baran Al-Hashimi walks though her front door, Trinity is long asleep, huddled together with a kid on the ground by the couch, wrapped up in a fluffy checkered blanket and hiding away in a pillow fort. And unbeknownst to the sleeping med student, the senior doctor smiles fondly when she finds the sleeping pair in the pillow fort, committing the picture into a memory she will hold dear in her heart.

Deciding that letting her mentee sleep for a while longer won't hurt anyone, Baran slips away to take a quick shower to wash away the hospital grime and change to more comfortable clothes.

Refreshed and feeling much better in her skin now that she's not sweaty and smelling of antiseptics, she walks back to the living room, confirming that both her kid and her co-worker were still fast asleep.

She walks over to the castle of pillows and with light touch peels the blanket serving as the roof of the fortress back.

Bending down, she gently wraps an arm around her son, trying her best to not jolt either of them from their slumber which she knows is an impossible feat.

Her other arm hooks under Taha's knees and like that Baran pushes up from her kneeling position with armful full of her little boy.

Trinity gets awakened by faith rustling of movements and sudden disappearance of a warm weight from her side.

When she blinks her eyes open, groggy and dropping, she sees Dr. Al-Hashimi with her son cradled in her arms as she hushes the sleepy murmurs of the boy, Her voice is low whe she explains she's just merely taking him to his bed.

Trinity notes her neck is stiff from where her head had lolled back to rest against the couch cushion in an awkward way since she had no support holding it upright. She rubs a hand against it, trying to chase away the sore dull ache.

Baran is alerted to her awakening by a yawn that escapes her mouth just a moment later and their eyes meet.

Trinity offers a small wave before she stretches out.

"I'll take him to bed, wait for me please?" Dr. Al-Hashimi requests.

Trinity nods. While the other woman puts Taha back to sleep, Trinity checks the time.

11.24 PM lights up on her display.

She's tired and sleepy and hardly in any mood to journey through half of Pittsburgh back to her apartment but at the same time she would love nothing more than to collapse into her own bed and sleep till noon.

She rests an arm over her eyes, sliding further down on the floor to have her head comfortably leaned against the couch, even if her overall position looked more than a little bizarre.

She takes it off to look at her attending when she hears her speak up. "I apologise for the delay in my return. There was a massive car crash and all injured were transferred to us since we were the closest." Al-Hashimi explains, apologetic in her tone and facial expression.

Trinity dismisses her concerns. "I've seen the news about it and we talked about it in the morning, I know it's sometimes hard to crawl out of that hell hole."

Baran can't help but huff in amusement at the rather fitting description of their workplace.

"Still, I am sorry for holding you up for so long." She apologises again, adamant.

Trinity hums noncommittally, because what was she really supposed to reply to that?

"I should get going." She mutters but makes no move to stand up from her current position.

Baran nods in agreement and offers Trinity a helping hand.

Trinity accepts, even though she would usually decline with an additional retort. But she's tired and there's little fight left in her body, so she clasps her attendings hand in her own and let's her Dr. Al-Hashimi help haul her up to her feet.

"I'll call you a taxi." Al-Hashimi offers.

"There's no need, I can do that on my own." Trinity waves her off.

"I insist." Baran doesn't let herself be refused this time.

Trinity can see the stubbornness in the brown eyes staring adamantly at her and so she sighs.

"Alright." She relents.

"It's the least I can do for what you've done for me today." Baran tells her.

Trinity stays quiet, once again at loss of words at what to reply to the gratitude.

Al-Hashimi has already a number dialed up on her phone, bringing it to her ear so she could tell the taxi service where and when to pick Trinity up.

The younger of the two heads over to the entrance hall to gather her things, put her shoes on and shrug on her leather jacket.

"Okay, I'm off. See you at work on Monday." Trinity calls over her shoulder, already half way out the door.

"I'm not going to let you wait outside on your own. Even if this is a safe neighborhood." Al-Hashimi tells her just as she catches the door before it can swing fully closed.

"Let me guess, you're going to insist on this too?" Trinity asks, already resignated at making any attempts of protesting.

"Come along, the taxi will be here soon enough." Al-Hashimi dismisses, ushering Trinity forward with the faintest push at her lower back.

The first few moments of the elevator ride are spent in subdued quiet.

"Taha... He's a good kid." Trinity remarks for no particular reason other than breaking the stretching silence between them.

"He is. I'm thankful to be his mother." Al-Hashimi says with softness and a small smile.

"I'm sure he's thankful for that too." Trinity replies in an equally quiet voice, thinking back to the few interactions she was able to witness of them together, getting an impression of quite close and healthy bond between them.

"I try my best." Al-Hashimi whispers.

Before the serenity of that conversation gets to fully clash against Trinity's emotional walls, she's saved by the elevator arriving to the lobby.

A ding and then they're walking out into the foyer of the apartment complex.

Al-Hashimi nods at the woman behind the front desk, the same one Trinity talked to when she first got here and who she payed no mind when she was with Taha.

The woman was looking at them a bit funny, at least in Trinity's opinion.

But she couldn't dwell on it as soon she was stepping out of the building along her attending, waiting for a car to come and pick her up.

It was a bit chilly, a rather strong breeze blew through the night streets of Pittsburgh.

It was only a moment before a taxi pulled into a stop by the curb.

"Guess this is my ride." Trinity observes, turning to look at the other woman.

"Seems it is." She agrees with Trinity.

"Please send me your payment information and confirm you made it safely back to your home when you get there." Al-Hashimi requests.

Trinity nods and then walks over to the car, opening the back door and getting in. Before she shuts it behind her, she looks back to her attending and bids her goodnight.

"Good night, Dr. Santos." She hears just before the door cuts the outside noise.

By the time she makes it to her own apartment she's feeling even more drowsy, the car ride has pulled her to sleep and she really was exhausted.

She all but collapsed onto the closest soft thing she saw, which happened to be the sofa in her living room.

Before she could fully let herself sleep she remembered what Al-Hashimi asked of her.

She shuts her phone, not bothering to put it away to charge beforel she closed her eyes and finally allowed herself to properly rest.

That message remains unanswered, long after it was sent.

When Dr. Al-Hashimi asks Trinity about the next shift they have together, she just shrugs.

"I don't want the money. I offered, it was a free service." She explains, making Dr. Al-Hashimi's eyebrows rise up in pleasant surprise.

"Besides, it would be much more appreciated if you let me off easy on my charting." Trinity had to quip up cheekily.

Baran laught. If she did go easy on the R2 about her charging habits, nobody needed to know.