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The Pitt was always loud. Machines, people, animals sometimes, this place was chaos.
‘Did you know Dr Robby is married?’ Javadi whispers as she leans over the central nurses station, poking her nose into Dennis and Trinity’s previous conversation; something a lot more boring than whatever gossip she came bearing- obviously. Trinity slowly turns her head towards Victoria, ‘What?’ she says almost bewildered.
‘I saw it in his records, I may have been snooping in people's files, NOT at medical stuff! Just… personal stuff?’ she squeaked out. Dennis cuts her off with a hurried, ‘But he never leaves this place? He’s furniture! How did he find time to meet someone and stay married all while being ER chief?’ ‘His wife must be a saint.’ Trinity butts in, ‘The long hours, the exhaustion. I'm sure she's a doctor too. It's the only way freaks like us can date.’
Victoria lets out a complacent hum at that. ‘Also nurse Jesse’s chart says he’s 5’11 even though he swears up and down he's 6’2’ Victoria spits out like she couldn't quite keep it anymore. Trinity grins at that, ‘I knew that bastard was lying!’ she exclaimed. ‘I'm so gonna say something to him! Wait, why are you so quiet, huckleberry?’ Dennis seems a few blocks away, his mind drifting on something else entirely.
‘I can’t stop thinking about Dr Robby being married? It just doesn't seem right? I genuinely can’t picture him outside of the ER, he’s like some sort of illusive ER cryptid or something that lives here-’ Trinity’s face inches up into a grin, eyes focused just behind Dennis, Victoria’s face drops.
‘Who is this ‘illusive ER cryptid’ then, should I be scared?’ Robby gruffs out from behind Dennis, arms crossed in front of his chest, big brown eyes focused on Whitakers own.
‘O..oh Dr Robby, hey, uh-’
Trinity saves the day once again, ‘Just some guy who has a crush on Huckleberry here, no need to worry I'm sure you don't even wanna know.’ Whitaker looks up at Robby nodding a bit embarrassed but thankful for Trinity’s quick thinking.
Dana turns to them, loudly hanging up the red phone that no one but her seemed to notice had rang. ‘Alllright we have a 34 year old male and 38 year old woman, multi vehicle accident, multiple fractures, awake and alert but sats dropping fast, 2 minutes out.’ Robby turns to his team back in work mode, ‘Whitaker, Javadi you're with me, Dr Santos head to trauma two and wait for the second driver with Dr Al Hashimi.’
The group splits off, dropping the ipad onto the nurses station and tugging on gowns and gloves as the paramedics enter the ER pushing gurneys straight into trauma one and two.
-—-
It took work, an intubation, temporary splints and a femur reset before Garcia from surgery swept into the room glancing over the man on the bed doing her own evaluation of him, taking note of his injuries head to toe. ‘We reset the femur and have the broken arm in a splint ready for surgery, CT and MRI will be back by the time you guys get him upstairs,’ Dennis reported to Garcia.
‘I thought this would be a lot more gnarly from the page I got,’ She leans around Dennis’s shoulder, ‘Oh well, there is always next time.’ She laughs a bit as if this was a rubiks cube handed to her to be solved and not life saving major orthopedic surgery.
The man on the bed’s eyes widened in fear, ‘This is Dr Garcia, Surgery fellow, she's gonna get you all stitched up Alex.’ Robby explains, ‘I would be more scared if she wasnt so confident, she's one of the best surgeons we have got, you are going to pull through man.’ Robby tapped the man's good arm gently in reassurance.
Javadi sneaks back into the room the others look around not even noticing she left in the first place, ‘Hey Alex, Your wife is going to be fine, she has a dislocated shoulder and a broken foot but after some bed rest and healing time she will be perfectly healthy again.’
Alex suddenly laughs loudly, a bit out of place for the gravity of the situation right now. Javadi looks up at Dr Robby, face pale, like she had just made a huge mistake. ‘I mean you were brought in together from the same car and you both have wedding rings on so-’ Javadi rambled.
The man continued laughing, holding his side and occasionally wincing in pain between laughs, ‘Ross is gonna cry laughing at that! She’s my fiance's sister,’ he struggles out, ‘We were actually on our way to a flower market to pick out flowers for my wedding when that guy ran us off the road, was he drunk?’ He interrupts himself looking at Robby questioningly.
‘He was taken straight down to the station and breathalysed with a reading of 0.8. Safe to say he won't be back on the road anytime soon.’ Robby resigned, face slightly pinched in anger. ‘Ah, that’s good at least? Has someone called my fiance? I would really like him to be here when I get out of surgery?’
Javadi is already on the computer scrolling through the patient's file looking for an emergency contact, eager to prove herself after her previous blunder.
‘Dr Ross Breck?’ She calls over her shoulder. ‘Yes that's him, he works in oncology upstairs.’
‘I have met Dr Breck!’ Robby exclaims, face breaking out into an uncharacteristically warm smile, ‘Very nice man!’ He grabs a paper chart, pulls his glasses out of his breast pocket and begins studying the paper, glasses perched low on his nose peering over them at Alex.
‘Yeah that’s him, so sexy to say doctor but his job demands a lot, i'm sure you guys know.’ Alex huffed out a laugh with that.
‘My spouse is actually a doctor too so I understand more than you might realise.’ Robby muttered out, still looking over the charts in his hand.
Javadi and Whitakers heads both snapped towards each other, eyes meeting and communicating without words. Robby looked a bit confused but put down the chart and continued what he was doing preparing the patient to head up to surgery. ‘Right Garcia all yours, lovely to meet you Mr Breck and I wish you all the best for your wedding!’ Robby calls out as he leaves the room, removing his gloves and grabbing a pump of sanitiser as the door slides shut behind him.
-—-
Later after the chaos of the multi vehicle collision had died down Trinity finds Javadi waiting for her standing by the desk she uses for charting, she has a mischievous glint in her eyes. ‘You were right trin,’ she said, smiling wide, ‘He said his spouse is a doctor!’
‘I knew it!’ Trinity exclaimed a slight bit too loud, a few heads turned but as soon as they were interested they had forgotten and moved back on to whatever they were doing before, probably not their jobs. ‘We should ask Dana what her specialty is, I'm sure she knows.’
‘Ask me what?’
‘Oh fuck!’ Trinity jumped as the woman appeared behind her tapping away on an ipad, ‘How the hell did you do that you were just over there?’
‘I’m everywhere hon, what do you need?’
‘Dr Robby is married right?’ Trinity starts cautiously. Dana swivels her head looking over her ipad at the two girls. Javadi butts in, ‘Today to a patient he said his spouse is a doctor too–’ ‘Spouse means married-’ Trinity interrupts, ‘So tell us Dana pleassseeee, what is her specialty? Does she work in this hospital? How long have they been married?’ She’s desperately rambling now, Dana cuts her off by simply placing a palm on her shoulder,
‘I'm afraid I can’t give you information about your boss's spouse.’ The two groaned in sync, ‘But, I will say I was at the wedding and it was beautiful.’ She gloats, turning her attention back to her ipad smiling out of the corner of her mouth.
‘That doesn’t help us at all Dana!’ Trinity guffaws.
‘Ask him yourself if you are so curious.’ She suggests, shrugging.
‘He is so scary.’ Javadi replies timidly. ‘I don’t talk to him more than I need to, he is like 3 times as big as me.’ She looks down at her feet a bit awkwardly.
Dana laughs loudly, ‘Dr Robby? Scary? Oh hon he is a massive softy, he just pretends to be scary so people will listen to him.’ They all watch as Robby steps out of a patient room talking softly to Dr Mohan about something, he gives her a friendly tap on the back and reaches for a pump of hand sanitiser before approaching the big group forming at the nurses station. Santos focuses on his hands and notices he doesn't wear a wedding ring, she files that away for later.
-—-
The sun gets lower in the sky outside and the day shift is finally beginning to wrap up in the pitt. Trinity, Dennis and Victoria all hide in a huddle at the nurses station pretending to type something up trying as hard as they can to look busy so as to not arouse suspicion. With only 15 minutes left of their shift, their best bet is to hide and wait it out until handover.
Their peace is shattered by Dennis nudging the girls in the ribs as he points towards the ED doors. Dr Jack Abbot, night shift attending and Dr Robby's best friend saunters in carrying a coffee in a familiar black thermos.
‘If anyone knows about Dr Robby’s wife, it's Dr Abbot.’ Victoria squeaked out. Dennis whips his head towards them, ‘Not it.’
Trinity stands wide eyed, a strong glare in her eye. In a second, it softens into something like easy confidence. ‘Let's get to the bottom of this.’
She saunters over towards where Dr Abbot is now stationed glancing up at the board leaning on Dana’s desk still sipping his coffee. ‘Soooooooooo’ Trinity starts, ‘Dr Robby’s wife know you’re drinking out of his thermos?’
Dr Abbot chokes on his coffee and sputters out a cough, ‘What?’ He looks up at her perplexed by the question. He glances down at his coffee and then up at Trinity’s face.
‘That is Doctor Robby’s thermos right?’ She crosses her arms over her chest trying to look authoritarian. ‘Yes?’ Jack just looks at her with a blank stare.
‘So does his wife know that you have it?’That takes him back, he pushes off of the desk standing straight.
‘Santos, what the hell are you on about?’ The blank stare veers off towards confusion. ‘So what’s she like? Is she blonde? A redhead! I bet she’s smarter than Robby-’ At this Dennis and Victoria rush over eager to de-escalate the situation brewing in the middle of the emergency department. ‘Doctor Abbot what Trin is trying to ask is if you can tell us about Dr Robby’s wife? We only found out he’s married today after he mentioned it in front of a patient and we know she's a doctor too so you must know her?’ Dennis rushes out.
‘Yeah and you guys are close so you must see her often right?’ Victoria adds.
Jack Abbot stands frozen in confusion in the middle of the ED, his brain seemed to seep out of his ears sometime around the first mention of Robby with a wife. One, two, three long seconds pass before the door to North 7 swung open and Robby strolled out still laughing with a patient as he took a squeeze of hand sanitiser and turned around catching Jack’s eye.
‘Oh hey Jack you’re a bit early, this for me?’ He takes a step towards the group and grabs the thermos to take a sip, completely unaware of the chaos he just caused.
Jack seems to snap back into himself at that, ‘I was just being interrogated about your wife?’ He shoots the taller man a mischievous grin. It’s Robby’s turn to choke on his coffee then, ‘W-what?’ He coughs out, ‘Wife?’ He looks between the gaggle of scared students and Jack confused. ‘I don't have a wife?’
The pittlings faces twist into shared looks of confusion, ‘But you told the broken femur guy Alex that your spouse is a doctor too?’ Trinity guffaws. Robby smiles slightly, ‘Yeah he is.’
‘HE?’ Dennis explodes, ‘I mean, no, wait, uh I mean, that’s, that’s like of course that’s ok!’
Robby just laughs at that, ‘I know it’s ok kid, I have been with my husband longer than you have been alive.’ Victoria steps further into the group, ‘So who is it then? Does he work in this hospital?’
‘Yes he does.’ A small glance towards Jack reveals he seems to be enjoying this way too much.
‘Trinity said your spouse is probably way smarter than you and with that I would have to agree with.’ Jack adds nodding turning towards Robby. ‘And he is way hotter than you, and funnier-’
‘So you know him well?’ Dennis interrupts.
‘Id say we are somewhat intimately familiar.’ Another smug smile.
Dana appears behind the group again, eyes peering over her glasses focused on her phone, ‘Boys, stop traumatizing the students, and students, shift is almost over, finish your charts and get the hell out of my ED.’
The group grumbled but turned back to their charts for the meantime.
-—-
‘I can’t believe we still don't know who Dr Robby’s husband is, and also husband? Who saw that coming! I mean yeah he does kind of have sad gay eyes now that I know but I have such a good gaydar!’ Trinity whines as she grabs her bag and coat from her locker, ‘How did I not see that!’ She closes it with a loud slam.
‘Trinity stop being dramatic, I mean yeah it does make a lot more sense now actually. Maybe that's why I was struggling to see him married earlier? He really doesn't give married to a woman vibes.’ Dennis adds, shrugging his own coat over his shoulders. ‘Let's get home. I'm starving, I haven't eaten since like 11am.’
The two make their way down the hall towards the exit of the ED, the weight of the day heavy on their shoulders. Movement from an adjacent hallway grabbed their attention as they passed.
Bathed in warm light by a flickering bulb towards the end of the corridor stood Jack and Robby wrapped up in eachothers arms. Robby stood with his back to the younger doctors, head buried in Jack’s neck as strong arms rub comfortingly up and down his back.
Trinity and Dennis freeze where they are standing, staring at the scene, eyes and mouths wide. feet cementing them where they stand.
Jack caught their eye over Robby’s shoulder and muttered out, ‘You’re off the clock kids, let me hug your dad in peace.’ Before stroking his husband’s hair and leaving a tender kiss on the side of Robby’s head, his charcoal wedding band sparkling slightly in the low light.