Chapter Text
Dennis arrives at Robby’s apartment complex early in the afternoon.
He would have shown up sooner, but his morning at Amy’s had been far busier than he had accounted for. The wind had picked up at some point during the night, blustery and whistling over the Pennsylvania hills and against the beams of her house. One of the fences in the sheep pen had blown down during the uptick in the weather. That meant on top of the usual things he helped with in the morning, he also tacked on rounding up some wayward sheep and fixing said fence before he left. She had her parents coming for dinner that night, and Dennis wanted to make sure there was little for her to do come evening.
It was all in all an exciting morning and didn’t leave time for much else…but the little yellow piece of paper from Robby tucked in his backpack sat in the corner of his mind the whole time. Dennis was curious about Michael Robinavitch’s place of residence, sue him, and he wasn’t the only one.
Tell us what dr. robby’s place is like pls, a drunk text from Trinity lit up his phone sometime after 2am. Followed closely by a selfie of her and Mel, which, unexpected, but it made Dennis smile.
And then, dude do you think he knows you have a crush on him.
Dennis heart reacted to the selfie, but ignored each of the texts along with the heat on the back of his neck that they created, and he tries not to think about them as he walks into the front doors of the building and towards the elevators.
The building is nice, well built and older but full of modern upgrades. Down to the warmly lit hallways and the fancy crown molding, it’s sleek and exactly the kind of place that a single cool man in his fifties would live in. It was far outside the tax bracket that Dennis was in, and when the elevator doors part he is suddenly hyper aware of the farm smell still lingering on the fabric of his clothes, tracked in on the mud of his boots. He could have, probably should have, stopped at Trinity’s first to change into something fresh. Based on the texts he got from her, though, he didn’t want to disrupt any much needed sleep she was getting. So. That would just have to wait.
Besides, Dennis assumed Robby wouldn’t be home for months and that left plenty of time for any earthy smells to air out. Hopefully. Dennis sucks it up and continues down the hall to the number scrawled out on the paper in his hand. Neat penmanship listing each number he could possibly have a need for; Robby’s was already saved in Dennis’ phone as a new contact. He wasn’t sure what to save it under, at first. His full government name was too weird, Dr. Robby didn’t look right either, so he ended up with Robby–lower case R. Dennis just stared at the contact on his phone while he was tucked in the corner of Amy’s couch, wavering whether or not he should send a text to confirm it was correct. Ultimately he decided against it, because sending a text so late would probably be strange.
It doesn’t take him long to find Robby’s door. There’s a simple welcome mat out front, nothing distinctive that distinguished it from any other door in the hallway. Dennis fumbles with the key for a minute, and when he finally swings the heavy door open, it catches on a pair of shoes sitting haphazardly on the floor. Dennis quirks an eyebrow as he toes off his own shoes, surprised that Robby would have left things in such a state before he left.
Dennis doesn’t pay it much more attention than that, stepping into the apartment for the first time. It’s big and spacious, and smells like cedar and something else warm. It’s not sterile and antiseptic like the ED, instead it’s closer to what Dennis might imagine Robby would smell like away from the walls of the hospital. Not that he had ever given that too much thought.
The place is bright, with big windows that look over the city. It’s not far from PTMC, Dennis was pretty sure it would be a short wall over. The couch looks big and comfortable too, if he needed to spend the night which.
Dennis pads into the high pile carpeted living room and his attention turns to the dark wood of the bookshelves that hold a couple plants each. They look similar toi Trinity’s pothos, and he’s confident they would be easy enough to keep alive for a few months with some periodic attention. His eyes scan half heartedly over the books on the shelf without really registering any of them and as he walks, Dennis absently notices how the floor doesn’t creak underfoot like the old farmhouse back home or even Trinity’s place, and the silence in his movements make him feel like he’s sneaking around or something. Which, is obviously silly, since Robby gave him the code and everything and-
“Hey, Whitaker-”
“Jesus Christ!” Dennis yelps and whips around, hand over his heart on instinct, chest heaving as he meets Robby’s eyes, “You. You’re still–fucking hell. I thought-”
“Shh,” there’s an amused gleam in Robby’s eyes as he puts his finger to his lips, and his voice is hushed when it comes, “Sorry I didn’t text you, I didn’t have your number. Something came up.”
Dennis thinks, maybe he should have sent that text last night after all, if it meant his heart wasn’t threatening to burst out of his chest right now. “Oh, that’s. That’s fine. Did you, uh, change your mind or something?”
Robby hums and haws with a wave of his hand, “Not exactly.” With a flick of his chin, he gestures at Dennis to follow him back down the hallway he came from.
Dennis trails after him, not needing to be asked in so many words.
Robby stops at an open door, and Dennis does the same, just stopping himself from bumping into Robby’s shoulder. At first he doesn’t know what he’s looking at. Robby’s bedroom, floor to ceiling windows just like the living room, though the blinds in here are mostly closed, save for a few gleams of cloudy afternoon light that land on the corners of the sprawling king bed. The rumpled sheets are evident and Dennis’ first thought was that it was good Robby got some sleep, and then he notices the way the pillows are arranged and in their centre the telling form of one tiny baby.
“Oh shit. I mean, shoot,” Dennis corrects in a whisper as if the baby has any grasp of obscenities uttered while she’s sleeping, “Is that baby Jane Doe from yesterday?”
Robby’s eyes don’t leave the sleeping lump as her tiny chest rises and falls in a steady rhythm. He nods, and his voice comes quiet and raspy, thick with everything from yesterday and probably an equally restless night given the circumstance, “Just until they can find a place for her to go. A foster placement will probably be available by tomorrow.”
Dennis looks at the baby for awhile before he turns to Robby, watches the slouched line of the other man's body against the door frame, looking tired and weary and somehow older than he usually did, “Well, I’m sure this is a whole lot nicer than staying in the ED.”
“Hope so,” Robby sighs, rubbing his hand over the back of his neck and flashing Dennis a half smile.
Their eyes both drift back to the baby when she starts to squirm and fuss, awoken from her sleep by the noise. Robby sighs and crosses the distance to scoop her up against his shoulder, leaving Dennis to watch as he talks softly to her. Too mumbled for Dennis to make out anything, but it makes his heart do something funny anyway.
“Hey. Do you need any help?” Dennis asks quickly, still standing in the door frame, “While I’m here, if you need a shower or anything. I can watch her for a bit, I’m pretty good with babies.”
Robby looks like he’s going to refuse, Dennis can already see the shake to his head.
“Really, I don’t mind,” Dennis offers as sincerely as he can.
“I don’t want to put you out.”
Dennis laughs, “I was going to hang out for a bit if you weren’t here, to be honest. Amy’s got family over and Santos…well. Trust me, I have nowhere else to be right now.”
Robby sighs, “A shower would be really fucking great, actually.”
Robby ends up showing him where her stuff is in a bag in the living room, and Dennis puts down a couple blankets on the large corner section of the couch while Robby gets him up to speed on the last time she ate, last time she was changed, and the like. He also shows him where the remote for the TV is, and tells Dennis to help himself to whatever might be in the kitchen.
When Dennis has washed his hands and put on the singular clean hoodie from his backpack, Robby hands over the baby. Dennis watches her face contort with displeasure at first until he gently sways her in his arms. The motion quickly has her looking more at ease, and Dennis marvels at her quick adaptability. Even Theo wasn’t so quick to settle when Amy handed him over.
“So much for no babies in your place, huh,” Dennis murmurs as he sits down with her tucked safely in his arms, looking down at her big blue eyes watching him with curiosity.
Robby huffs a laugh at that, and Dennis can feel his eyes on him for a beat before he says, “Thank you, Dennis. I won’t be long.”
“Oh, take your time,” Dennis assures and tries not to react when Robby uses his first name, and tries to ignore the little flutter it creates in his chest. That’s your boss, idiot, he tells himself, but it doesn’t stop the smile that tugs onto his lips when he settles the baby safely on his lap.
Dennis had a lot of experience with babies, before Pittsburgh, and before medical school. He was the youngest of his own gaggle of siblings, but after him there were several baby cousins that he would get tasked with babysitting when his older brothers had things to do on the farm. Dennis never minded, and always enjoyed the quiet time with his mom where she showed him how to properly hold their heads, or the way to check that their bottles weren’t too hot. It helped him through his pediatric rotation, and a lot with Theo.
The soft milky smell of the abandoned baby in his arms brings him right back to those days. He runs the tips of his fingers over the whisps of her soft hair and smiles. Dennis could never really see himself having kids of his own but god did he enjoy moments like this.
He takes a picture of her and sends it to his mom.
She sends a text back, That’s not Theo! Who is this? 💖❤️😁
Dennis leaves it to reply to later, and looks at the baby and smiles sadly. He didn’t even have an answer; who was this baby in his arms? A little life left in their ED with no name, no history, Dennis probably would never really know who she was once she left Robby’s care. For now though, he would do his best to keep her happy, in the little moment that their lives were intersecting.
“Look at you,” Dennis says quietly, watching the way her tiny fingers grasp onto his own, her face breaking into a big gummy smile.
“You’re pretty tough to be so smiley after everything…that’s good. You should hang onto that.”
She coos and smiles at the sound of his voice, and Dennis laughs.
“You know,” he says as he leans in closer to her, lowering his voice even though he can still hear the shower going. He thinks about Robby out on the road by himself. Thinks about the ‘if I don’t come back’ comment, and breathes out something shaky as he tells her, “Thank you, by the way. I’m really glad that you got him to stay.”
The baby babbles something incoherent, unaware of anything but the warm, quiet house and the arms of yet another kind stranger keeping her safe.
⋆
The shower runs a lot longer than Robby means it to, but the hot water cleanses something deep beneath the epidermis layer of his skin. It doesn’t flush it out, but quiets it somewhat. It would run for as long as he’d like to, with no threat of the water getting cold but he does eventually think it would be rude to leave Whitaker to take care of the baby much longer.
Whitaker. Who so easily agreed to watching his place, and was so willing to help with the baby. Eager and present, and so easy to trust. It’s hard for Robby not to feel like he’s leaning a little on what the younger man has put in front of him.
His hair is still dripping when he puts on some new clothes, and by the time he makes his way back to the living room he finds Dennis has moved to the floor, surrounded by blankets and pillows, a baby Jane Doe tucked and sleeping between his legs. The TV is playing some nature documentary on mute, but Dennis easily tears his attention away from it when he realizes Robby had returned.
“Hey. I thought I’d move to the floor, just in case I fell asleep or something,” Dennis says quietly.
Robby nods before sitting on the couch, near enough to see the baby but not close enough that his leg could accidentally brush Dennis’ shoulder, “That’s a good idea. How was she?”
“Oh she was great. She fell back to sleep after a few minutes. She must be so tired,” Dennis tells him, tilting his head to look up at Robby, “I don’t blame her, I would be too.”
“A lot for a little one like her to go through.”
“A lot for anyone to go through,” Dennis says off hand, not possibly aware of the weight of those words, not knowing that they make Robby’s eyes burn, but, he doesn’t need to know.
⋆
“What do you think her name is?”
“Don’t know if I’ve thought about it,” Robby says honestly, he had been so preoccupied with her care that it hadn’t crossed his mind, “Why?”
“She looks like a Daisy to me,” Dennis muses quietly,
The way Dennis looks at the baby in front of him makes Robby smile softly. A look of such care and thoughtfulness that he’s seen directed towards countless patients before, but here in Robby’s living room where the lights are lower, Dennis’ hair mussed and loose…it knocks something dangerous around in Robby’s chest. Loose and wild, it looks for purchase somewhere, scrambling in the walls of his chest cavity.
Dennis looks up and there’s a sheepish look in the shadows of his eyes, “I’m not getting attached. I just wonder…I mean, she deserves a real name, y’know?”
It falls right to the pit of his stomach.
“She’ll get one, after all this,” Robby promises with a reassuring pat to Dennis’ shoulder. He knows it’s hard, not knowing where she’ll go after this, not knowing who she was or how she got into their lives, however brief.
Dennis nods, and Robby lets his hand linger too long. Feels it in his palm when Dennis speaks.
“There is a family out there that is going to love you so much, little girl,” Dennis says to her, his voice not a condescending baby voice that is so common, but something matter of fact tinged with something gentle.
“Daisy would suit her, though,” he says into the quiet, and the pleased look on Dennis’ face is enough to make Robby smile, too.
He shouldn’t feel the way he does about Dennis Whitaker. Definitely shouldn't be given their positions, and the fact that he’s half his age, but it’s easier to forget about the ‘why nots’ within the walls of his own living room.
⋆
“Are you still going on your trip? After this?” Dennis asks Robby while they shift their attention from the TV to the baby and back again.
“I think so.”
“Well. I, uh, sent you a text. So you have my number now, if you need it. For anything.”
-
“You must have to get going soon.”
“No, no. I’m good. Do you need anything?”
“Can I buy you dinner for your help today?”
⋆
They eat in the living room, baby safe and still sleeping nearby. Dennis cross legged on Robby’s couch and looking like the sandwiches they got delivered was the best thing he’d ever eaten. He thanks Robby no less than five times, and Robby waves it off every time.
It’s all an oddly soft illusion of a domestic picture that doesn’t fit quite right, a shaky image of something Robby never quite got to and something he doesn’t believe he ever will. There’s too much of him tinged with something dark that leeches into whatever future there is for him out there.
The things keeping him tethered were temporary. The baby would go. Dennis would go. Everything would return to Robby in full force, and he wasn’t so stupid as to believe that it being tampered down right now was going to be permanent.
For the moment, though, he has been given respite. Everything is quiet, everyone is safe, he has purpose outside PTMC’s walls, and it’s enough.