Chapter Text
“Hey Mel, you all finished up with your patient in central 2?” Asked Emma, practically bounding up to her. The day had mercifully been pretty slow, as far as the day shift goes anyway, so she still had plenty of energy.
“Hi, yeah all discharged, picking up some paperwork on the way out. How have you been doing?”
“Yeah I'm good, I’m just glad I don’t need to ask Dana so many questions these days” she joked, though she was very happy to be feeling less like a lost puppy with every passing day. “How’s Becca, I’m sad I didn’t get to see her last weekend”
“She’s good, her and Adam are going really well. Their road trip went well but she says she’s happy to be in a bed that doesn’t move”
Mel and Emma had become good friends as of recently. They were both balls of sunshine who got on with everyone and together they were a sickeningly sweet combination. Mel didn’t have a lot of girl friends, well Mel hadn’t had a lot of friends at all. People liked her, sure, but not many stuck around long enough to get a deep connection with. She wasn’t invited to sleepovers as a kid, or the parties as a teenager and certainly no outings in college, though that one could probably be more closely blamed on the studying. It had been just her and Becca for so long that she didn’t even know what she was missing. That was until Emma came along.
Emma had been working at the Pitt for almost 3 weeks when Mel came across Emma in the break room, looking totally dejected.
“What’s got you down?” asked Mel. She liked talking to Emma, she showed interest when she spoke and didn’t seem to pay any mind to her quirks. There was so much genuineness in all of her interactions, she never had to second guess things with her. She wasn’t just being polite to her until she walked away. It was a kind of trust that Mel really valued.
“I’ve been exiled from my apartment for the night” Emma sighed. “My roommate has a new boyfriend and has very indirectly suggested I hang out at someone else's place for the night” she stated, huffing in frustration. “Honestly I don’t mind, it’s just she usually gives me more notice, and it seems everyone I know has plans tonight already”. Emma didn’t have a shortage of friends exactly. But everyone from med school ended up taking jobs farther away, some even out of state and the others all had normal jobs with normal hours. A little tricky to make plans. She had been trying to break into one of the different groups in the Pitt but had no such luck so far. She wasn’t about to ask Dana to house her for the evening.
“Well, I don’t have plans” Mel spoke before her brain could really catch up. Though in fairness when it did, it didn’t protest as much as it usually would at someone in her space unexpectedly. Sure she liked to be on her own, but Becca was at the center and she suddenly remembered the leftover chinese that was far too much for just her to eat.
“Really? You’d be okay with that?” Emma asked hopefully, jumping up from her chair.
“Yeah, it could be fun,” Mel said, genuinely enthusiastically. “If you want we can go straight from work? You could just borrow some clothes, I have a spare room and I always keep some extra toothbrushes and other things around just in case”
“Wow, that's so nice of you, thank you. We could have a movie night! Maybe a horror, how would you feel about stopping by the store and getting face masks” Emma rambled excitedly as they walked back onto the floor. Honestly her energy was a lot for Mel, but in a good way.
She couldn’t remember the last time someone had shown this much excitement to just…hang out with her. And movies, face masks, takeout? She was about to have her first girls night
And that was how Mel and Emma became best friends. It became a routine, as much of a routine as you could get with their jobs. First it was just whenever Emma’s roommate kicked her out, then it was if they ever had days off that lined up. Before Mel knew it she had almost weekly sleepovers with Emma.
It was really nice. They had worked their way through almost every classic chick flick, eaten every item on the menu of Mel's local chinese restaurant and talked about anything and everything together. Including of course, dating.
“So I mayyyyy or may not have noticed that you are a bit happier than usual these days” said Emma slyly, clearly having been waiting to bring up the topic. Mel had in fact been seeing someone. It wasn’t new per say, in fact some would call it a long time coming, but they were still figuring it out and the last thing she needed was her coworkers all up in her business.
Not that Emma was just a coworker these days she supposed.
Instead she opted for a shift of focus.
“You’re not the only one noticing things around here, don’t think I didn’t notice that hickey last week” Mel joked. Emma had actually done a very good job of hiding it at work, but of course Mel had still spotted the darker spot the morning after a sleepover where the makeup had clearly rubbed off overnight.
Emma blushed and touched her neck
“Okay yes I am seeing someone but it’s new” she said, wanting to say more but clearly hesitant.
“You don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to”
“No I-, I do think I want to. Besides if I was going to tell anyone, I want it to be you” Mel felt a warm glow in her chest at that. “She’s just…great,” Emma said dreamily. “We ran into each, maybe a month ago? Out at a bar. And well we got to chatting and I just saw her in this new light. A lot of people think she’s kinda mean, and I mean I did too at first but she’s actually this big softie” she giggled, clearly thinking of a memory. “We’re taking it slow, but I don’t know, we started talking recently about…being a bit more open about it at work” Emma said, looking Mel directly in the eye at that last part, hoping she’d connect the dots.
“So, this mystery girl is someone from work?” Mel said. Interesting.
“Yeah, I know people say don’t date your coworkers but it’s kind of hard not too in our field, I mean there’s not really time for anyone else. I just don’t want anyone to get the wrong-”
“I’m also seeing someone from work” Mel interrupted her abruptly.
“You are?”
“Yeah, um, yeah I am” Mel said, gaining confidence with every word. She could tell her right?
“So you get it then”
“Yeah, I do. We’ve also been talking about it. He’s wanted to be open from the start but we both agreed to keep it quiet. I don’t really want our coworkers whispering things”
“Oh my god I know, they’re so nosey”
“The other day I heard Princess theorising that Whittaker was having some fling with Robby. Robby! Of all the people” Mel laughed
“I swear I saw Donnie give Ahmad 40 bucks the other day on a bet about when Mohan and Abbott would get together”
“So ridiculous” They both laughed till their stomachs hurt.
“So tell me more about this mystery guy” Emma probed, wanting to know more. Mel had so rarely talked about anything dating related, she had suspected Mel might have no interest at all. So she was now very excited to learn that not only was she interested in that, but they were coworkers.
“He was a real rock on my first day. We were good coworkers for a long time, then good friends. A few people joked about how we acted towards each other. I didn’t pay it a lot of attention, and didn't want to get my hopes up. And then one day he just kissed me. Of course I panicked, you know as happy as I was to kiss him there was just so many logistics to figure out, but we did it. And now, you’re all caught up” Mel said, shrugging her shoulders.
“Okay, how about on the count of three, we both say who we’re going out with. That way neither of us have to do the scary thing and go first” Emma suggested.
“Okay” said Mel, after only a moments hesitation
“1”
“2”
“3”
“Langdon”
“Santos”
…
“Oh no” they both exclaimed.