Chapter Text
"So, do you know what you're gonna get?", Ron exhaled heavily, his eyes resting on the a new grad nurse named Alex.
"I think, I'll just go with the normal burger and a coke", she shyly responded, chewing on the nail of her thumb.
"Pam was a bit much today, wasn't she?", Ron grumbled, sounding as empathetic as he could.
Alex nodded: "Yeah— well, I don't know— I just thought I'd know much more about how to be a nurse after nursing school"
"See", Ron sighed, waving the waitress over to them, "there's a lot of stupid people working at St. Denis. Some of them will always be stupid while others will grow out of that phase"
He diverted his attention to the waitress: "For me a double cheese burger and a hazelnut milkshake. Alex?"
Alex brushed one strand of hair behind her ear and read from the card to be sure not to mess up: "The burger with a coke, please?"
"Coming right up"
"I have a good feeling about you", Ron gently smiled at Alex, as gently as Ron could smile at anyone, "I think you'll grow out of being stupid"
"Oh", Alex laughed abashed, "that's- that's very kind of you to say"
Just an hour ago Pam had yelled at her for folding the sheets incorrectly, calling Alex all kind of names she'd rather not recall.
"How long have you been working here?", she tried changing the topic.
"Oh", Ron waved his hand dismissively, "too long"
The moment the waitress placed the milkshake in front of him, he started slurping it through the straw. A peace settled on his face that Alex hadn't seen all day. A bit of that grump that made him immune to whatever Pam had to complain about faded slowly, his eyebrows grew relaxed and even the skin on his forehead seemed to flatten out.
"You know, let me tell you something; no matter how many years go by, a good milkshake always makes my day", Ron raised the plastic cup to toast with Alex's coke.
Ron always got a sense of superiority out of taking the newbies out for burgers and shakes. He had developed a system of judging everyone's personality this way: If they agreed to come with him, the chances that they'd get along would be pretty good. There was a fair share of people who declined and almost seemed weirded out. Those people landed at the bottom of Ron's mental "likeability list" and had to work themselves up. Alex though was doing pretty well so far.
"I don't think I ever had a hazelnut milkshake. I only ever tried banana and chocolate", Alex filled the silence in which Ron had starred at her pensively.
"Yep, those are the classics. But there's something about hazelnut that just—", Ron slid his shake over to Alex, "try it"
"Oh, no, I don't- that's your milkshake, I don't wanna--", she stuttered
Ron rolled his eyes. Alex would have to learn a lot about taking up space: "I insist"
Alex fished the straw out of the cup to not share too many bacteria with Ron's mouth and took the smallest sip imaginable: "Wow, yeah that's- that's really good"
"See, I told you", Ron grabbed his shake, making space for the two burgers approaching them.
Alex had met a lot of doctors before. While visiting her nan during college or later during her clinicals. Most of them were similar too Ron. Hard shell outside and no care for what anybody else was up to. But no doctor had ever insisted she call him by his first name. Ron's hard shell felt more performed than sincere. She was a bit scared of him still. Wise and omniscient. She didn't want to fuck up on her first day working here already.
Careful to not make a fool of herself, Alex took small bites out of her burger. Ron on the other hand ate like nobody was watching. The burger sauce got caught in his black, well-kept beard while his hands got moisturized by the burger patty's grease.
"Now that is what I call a good meal", Ron smiled contempt with himself.
As his eyes smiled kindly at Alex, she felt some peace settle in her chest for the first time today. Maybe she wasn't a screw up like Pam had made her believe. Maybe she would find friends and maybe she could belong here.
"I'm going to try really hard not to be one of the stupid people working at St. Denis", she nodded strongly, giving a promise to Ron.
"I'm sure you will, I'm sure you will", Ron quietly placed Alex in the top 10 of his "likability list". He would never tell her that. But she would know.