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When Jack finishes rounds with Robby, patients handed off, and most of the med students and residents dividing and conquering, they stroll up to the Hub to find Santos and Javadi shooting the shit. Santos is spinning back and forth on the work station’s stool, Javadi leaning in close with a nervous look on her face, clearly trying to keep the conversation in their little bubble of two. It’s apparent to Jack, even out of hearing range, that Santos is laying on her usual sarcastic charm, likely teasing Javadi to the point of madness.
Dana is already neck deep in keeping their sinking ship afloat, reading glasses perched on the end of her nose. Even an uneventful day in the ED means twenty or more patients in the waiting room needing assessment, so there needs to be less gossiping and more getting acquainted with their case load for the day. A glance at Robby’s face shows the beginnings of his trademark irritation.
Robby drums his hands across the counter to get their attention. Santos looks up at him with her usual unimpressed gaze and Javadi jumps out of her skin.
“Hello. Working hard or hardly working?”
“Dr. Robby, I – we, we were just –”
Jack is finding it hard to hide his amusement, relishing in the way Robby can still make the med students squirm. As Javadi tries to stammer her way toward an explanation, McKay approaches in that casual way of hers, eyebrows partly raised in question as she assesses the scene in front of her.
Jack can’t help but notice how Javadi immediately shuts up, eyes wider and bigger than Bambi himself. The sudden silence causes Dana to look up from her tablet too, her eyes darting around the group. She takes note of McKay and glances at Javadi before a faint smile graces her lips. Her eyes land on Jack and they share a subtle, delighted understanding of the newest drama of the day before Dana goes back to what she was doing.
“This looks like a busy spot,” McKay observes, hands in her pockets and pausing next to Robby.
“I was thinking the same thing, Dr. McKay. We were just about to hear why Javadi and Santos were spending their precious time chatting instead of treating patients.”
“Ah,” she slants a smile at Javadi. “So you’re terrorizing my med student?”
“Hardly,” his face pulls into a responding smile that ends before it reaches his eyes. “Just trying to keep this place running.”
“Good. In that case, I have a patient in North 2 that would make for a good teaching case. Javadi?”
Javadi blushes hard, looking generally mortified, and grabs her notepad before following behind McKay like a duckling. Robby watches them go, a thoughtful tilt to his head before shaking his head and turning his attention back to Santos, who is already fixated on the computer in front of her, charting never far from her mind.
“I, for one, am more intrigued than ever about what sort of conversation we just interrupted,” Jack chimes in. Santos glances up at him briefly.
"Just imparting some wisdom on sweet summer child Crash about not getting involved romantically with coworkers. It never works out well. You two may be the only exception with whatever queerplatonic situationship you've got going on with each other."
"Woah, woah, woah –"
“What’s with the drive-by?”
"– I know you're not talking about us.”
"This feels like old-school homophobia somehow –"
"– Very surprised at you, Dr. Santos –"
"Enough!" Dana cuts in, partly amused, mostly annoyed. "Put her out of her misery already, Jesus. Then get back to work!"
Jack and Robby share a mischievous look, unrepentant in the face of Dana’s chastisement. A big, wide smirk wrinkles across Jack’s face. He raises his eyebrows at Robby in question, and Robby bows his head a little, indicating for Jack to proceed.
Jack squares his shoulders and faces Santos more directly, looking down his nose at her while he uses the temporary height difference to his advantage. His mouth twitches a couple times as he settles into an affected serious demeanor.
"Not sure if I'm more offended by the situationship or the platonic allegations, Dr. Santos, but both would be incorrect."
Santos' eyes widen and her jaw drops a little, mouth curling to the side slightly in satisfaction. She looks between them with a measuring gaze, and what Jack generously interprets as a shine of approval.
“Are you coming out to me right now, Dr. Abbot?”
“There’s no need to come out of something you were never inside of.”
“Okay, gross.”
Robby cuts in looking tired, “Words are not his strong suit. Please don’t get him started.”
“Hey now –”
Jack notices that while he and Robby continue to bicker, Santos looks at them thoughtfully, clearly re-evaluating her impression of the two of them a little bit. She shakes her head and looks back to her charting, still with a pleased little quirk to her mouth.
"Huh. No fucking way."
Their bickering stops immediately as Jack returns to his imperious stance.
"Yes fucking way. Not to put too fine a point on it, but I desire Dr. Robinavitch carnally."
Robby bursts out a short, surprised laugh, face red as a tomato, as he shoves Jack slightly for his cheeky remark. He gets a pleased, dark-eyed smirk in return. Robby smiles at him lovingly before glancing around, very casually, to see if anyone was lingering nearby and happened to catch the extremely juicy tidbit of information Jack just dropped. He’s certain there’s a long-running betting pool that’s about to reward someone handsomely.
“Again, gross,” Santos frowns in disgust.
“Again with the homophobia –”
“That doesn’t even make sense and besides, it’s gross because you’re like the emergency department dads. Not because you’re super gay for each other.”
Santos turns back to her charting, not even the juiciest gossip able to steal her attention for long when she’s chronically behind. Jack leans into Robby, speaking into his ear even though Santos can very clearly still hear him.
“You know, for a couple of fatherless orphans, we do get cast in the archetype pretty often. Think there’s something to that?”
“Enoughhh,” Robby cuts in firmly, willing to entertain talking about his personal life when it meant talking about Jack. When details of his own personal backstory started getting revealed, he knew it was time to move on.
Santos’ eyebrows were in her hairline, but her gaze never faltered on the screen in front of her, typing up a storm. Dana puts down the hospital phone, the only one actually doing any work around here, and interrupts.
“Incoming, code STEMI, two minutes.”
Santos signs out of the system, her and Robby each grabbing a pair of gloves as they step toward the ambulance bay doors. Jack leans against the Hub’s counter, his shift already over for a good half hour at this point. He and Dana watch them leave, already mid-conversation about their imminent treatment plan. Dana raises her eyebrows and looks up at him as she takes off her reading glasses.
“That was big. Should I start planning a parade?”
Jack tilts his head at her with a fond smirk. Before long, his smile drops into something more sincere as he straightens up and faces the direction Robby went. Despite the sassy remark, he knows what she’s really trying to do; check in on some of her dearest friends.
Dana is aware of how they typically value their privacy, preferring to keep their personal shit out of the day-to-day operation of the ED. She also knows the restraint wears on them sometimes, their loving hearts wanting room to breathe beyond the confines of their self-imposed boundaries. They both deserve to show off this good, reliable thing of theirs now that they're ready, and she’s personally looking forward to the endless ribbing that will come from this reveal.
“It was about time,” Jack says in answer to her unasked question, warm, soft. Dana sincerely agrees.