Chapter Text
It should have been a day like any other. A shift like any other, which come to think of it was fucked up in its own right. That Robby could peel off a blood soaked gown without thinking twice about the person the blood on it belonged to. That he could pronounce people dead and move on without feeling it anymore. He missed feeling it. Feeling a lot of things. Which of course was the source of almost every fight Jack and him lately. The most recent spat the reason he’d barely gotten any sleep last night. Needless to say, Jack hadn’t been too happy with his midlife crisis purchase.
"A motorcycle Robinavitch? Are you fucking kidding me?” That should have been the first sign. Jack only used his full last name when he was pissed.
“I need to feel something outside of the ER.”
Jack froze as if he’d been slapped. “And I guess I don’t do that for you anymore, is that it?”
Robby took a step towards him and Jack took a matching step back. “Jack –“
“No. I’m got to get some sleep before work. Take the guest bedroom. See if sleeping alone makes you feel anything.”
Yeah, it certainly wasn’t one of Robby’s best moments, but he didn’t have time to think about it now. Dana called out that another trauma was incoming and in a flash Robby was wrapped in the familiar chaos, the only time he felt calm, the only time he felt like he had purpose.
“Robby,” Princess said, putting a hand on his shoulder. “I think you should look at this.”
“In a little bit. If you found a name put it in the file and start looking for next of kin.”
“That’s why I think you should look at this,” Princess said, pressing a manilla folder into his hands and then vanishing before Robby could protest.
He let out an annoyed huff, but the kid was stable enough that Robby wasn’t exactly needed right now, which wasn’t a great feeling in and of itself. When did Robby start wishing kids would fall from higher just so he’d have something to do?
Robby flipped open the folder and started grazing over the information. It was a foster history and adoption file. If it did belong to this kid, this Dennis Whitaker, it wasn’t something he should have access to at the age of sixteen. Is this what Princess meant? Did she not want to deal with the CPS nightmare this was going to be and so was passing it off on him?
Robby sighed and continued flipping through the pages, stopping when he found a photocopy of a birth certificate and then froze. There, listed as the child’s mother was Moira Abbot. Robby took his glasses off and walked up to the head of the bed. His head buzzing as Langdon presented to him, but Robby didn’t care about any of it right now, he just needed to see the kid's face, the curve of his nose, that messy dirty blonde curls. Fuck
Robby slipped out of the room and ducked into an empty bay so he could take his phone out and text Jack
R: Can you come in an hour early today?
He answered back instantly, which couldn’t be a good sign. Robby wondered if it was nightmares or him that had kept Jack up.
J: What’s wrong?
Robby chewed his bottom lip. He didn’t want to make Jack worry, but it also wasn’t like he could say, oh nothing big, know how your sister’s been missing for years? Yeah, well her kid just showed up in the ER after falling off a motel balcony. Thought, I don't know, you’d want to meet him? He groaned. No such thing as a normal day in the Pitt.
R: Staff is okay. I’m okay. It’s something that came up with a patient. It’s not the kind of thing I want to discuss over text.
Robby watched Jack’s typing bubble appear and disappear over and over until a message finally came though.
J: Lemme shower and I’ll be right there.
Of course, he wouldn’t wait until before his shift, if Robby should know anything, he should know that about his husband and it wasn’t like he was about to start another argument with him right now. Either way, he was distracted from overthinking it by Dana calling for him and then he got swallowed up into the Pitt again.
Robby wasn’t sure how much time had passed when Dana called out his name and gestured with her head towards Jack. It had been at least three failed bathroom breaks and two foreign objects up the ass but that could have happened in a matter of minutes or days.
“About last night –“ Robby started but Jack held up a hand to cut him off.
“What’s happening?”
Robby turned to the nurses station. “Dana, can you cover me for 15?”
“Fine, but you owe me another pack of smokes.”
“Or I can save you time and take a piece of your lung.”
She flipped him off and Robby took Jack by the hand and pulled him into the elevator. He hit the button for the surgical floor and then the emergency stop between floors to give them at least a few minutes where someone wasn’t asking either of them for help.
Jack stayed as far away from Robby as he could, arms crossed. “What the fuck is going on, Mike?”
“A kid came in today. John Doe, was found at a motel, appeared to have gotten into some altercation and shitty balcony railing gave way and he fell. He had a bag with him. Princess went through it and found a folder. Foster and adoption records for sixteen-year-old Dennis Whitaker, including a birth certificate. Jack, Moira’s his mom.”
Instantly, Jack’s whole body language crumpled. “No.”
“Yeah,” Robby said, running a hand through his hair. “That’s why I wanted to tell you in-person.”
“Was there a father listed?”
Robby shook his head. “Kiara reached out to CPS and turns out his foster parents conveniently forgot to report him missing over two weeks ago.”
“So he’s just been on the street?”
Robby shrugged. “Maybe. But some of the bruising and a few of the broken ribs looked about a few weeks old.”
“Fuck.” Jack tugged a hand through his hair and Robby couldn't help but smirk that Jack was picking up his bad habits. "He gonna be okay?” Jack asked and Robby hit the button to start the elevator up again.
“Should be. Worst was he need surgery to put a couple screws through his tibia. The rest will just take time. Concussion, a few other minor breaks, but he’s been roughed up pretty bad. Garcia called just before you got here, he should be up soon.”
Jack nodded and Robby watched the soldier façade coming down over him. God, was this how he’d been making Jack feel these past few months? Turning into stone when it was so clear he wasn’t okay?
Robby didn’t have time to linger on that thought because the elevator stopped and Robby followed Jack out and trailed behind him as he made his way to the kid’s room.
Dennis froze when the door opened and looked up at the two men. The spoon full of pudding held halfway to his mouth. “Are you a cop?” He asked looking at Jack.
Robby huffed a laugh but it froze in his throat when he looked over and say Jack stock still, deer in the headlights getting his first look at this kid who was so obviously his nephew.
“No,” Robby answered. “He just dresses like that. That’s Jack and I’m Robby.”
“And you are?” Dennis asked. He realized he was still holding the pudding aloft and set the spoon down on his tray.
“Doctors. We work in the ER. I was there when you came in.” Robby took a seat next to the bed, and pulling one out for Jack, clearing his throat until Jack took it as if in a trance, refusing to take his eyes off Dennis as if he’d disappear. Robby turned his attention back to Dennis. “I was wondering if you could tell us what happened? That motel you were found at isn’t in a great part of town.”
“I know,” Dennis said, looking down at his bandaged hands, fidgeting with the IV tube taped into the back of one of them. “I was getting desperate. I was trying to find someone.”
“Mhm, you have friends who live there?”
Dennis shook his head. “I was looking for my mom. I haven’t met her and I was trying to track her down. Someone told me she used to live there. People weren’t happy I was asking questions and – “ He clenched and unclenched his fists. “Are you going to call the cops?”
“We don’t have to decide about that yet,” Robby told him.
Dennis gave a small nod in response that told Robby he didn’t believe him. That he was too used to adults lying to him.
“Abbot,” Jack said, startling the room out of silence. “I’m Jack Abbot.”
Dennis’s eyes went wide.
“Moira was – is – my sister. She’s struggled with drug addiction since we were teens. I’ve tried to help her whenever she shows up. Whenever and however I can but… it’s been close to a decade since I last saw her. I promise I didn’t know about – she never told me she was -” Jack took a long steadying breath. “I promise kid, if I had known I would have taken you in. I would have made sure you were with family. I was probably overseas at the time but I would have –“
Robby scooched his chair closer so that he could take Jack’s hand, squeezing it tightly. “It’s okay, love. We’re here now, right?” he whispered.
Jack gave a shaky nod in response.
“So,” Robby said, turning back to Dennis only when he was sure Jack wasn’t going to completely fall apart on him, “that makes us your uncles.”
Dennis’s eyes went from Robby to Jack and back again and then down to their joined hands and then he burst into tears. Babbling things neither of them could understand something about his mother, and the motel, and someone named Raphael and Jack was on his feet immediately, pulling himself onto bed next to the kid and wrapping him up tight.
Robby sat and watched them and felt something in his chest. Just a flicker. Just enough to wonder, maybe, maybe this is what it was like to feel alive.