Chapter Text
Robby had checked his phone six times in the last twenty minutes.
Dennis noticed on the seventh.
“You know,” he said, without looking up from the book in his lap, “if you keep checking it, it’s not going to suddenly tell you that you have a shift.”
Robby looked down at his phone.
Then at Dennis.
Then back at his phone.
“I know.”
Jack, sitting across the aisle from them, snorted.
“No, you don’t.”
Robby gave him a look.
Jack raised both hands.
“I’m just saying. You’ve been staring at that thing like it personally offended you.”
“It’s habit.”
“It’s been three days.”
“Exactly.”
Dennis smiled faintly and turned another page.
They were on a train heading north, somewhere beyond the part of the country Robby had bothered to memorize. Their flight had gotten them across the Atlantic, the first leg of their trip had been relatively straightforward, and now they were settling into the strange rhythm of traveling without a schedule.
No hospital.
No pager.
No shift change.
No one waiting for Robby to walk through the doors of the emergency department and take responsibility for whatever disaster had arrived during the previous twelve hours.
It should have felt freeing.
Instead, Robby kept expecting someone to need him.
He slipped his phone into his jacket pocket.
Thirty seconds later, he pulled it back out.
Jack watched him.
“You’re doing it again.”
“I’m not.”
“You absolutely are.”
Dennis looked over the top of his book.
“You are.”
Robby sighed.
“Fine.”
He put the phone face down on the little table between the seats.
Jack nodded approvingly.
“Look at that. Growth.”
“Don’t push it.”
“Wouldn’t dream of it.”
For a few minutes, the three of them settled back into silence.
Outside the window, the landscape rolled past in shades of green and gray. It was different from home in a way Robby couldn’t quite articulate yet. Maybe it was the weather. Maybe it was the architecture whenever they passed through a town. Maybe it was simply the fact that he didn’t recognize anything.
He liked that.
He hadn’t expected to.
Dennis shifted in his seat and nudged Robby’s knee with his own.
“You okay?”
Robby glanced at him.
“Yeah.”
Dennis gave him the look.
Robby sighed again.
“Mostly.”
“That’s better.”
Jack leaned his head against the window.
“Give him another week.”
“For what?”
“To stop trying to run an emergency department from his vacation.”
“I am not trying to run an emergency department.”
“You checked the Pitt’s schedule yesterday.”
“That was one time.”
“You checked it twice.”
Robby frowned.
“I was curious.”
“About what?”
“The schedule.”
“That’s not an answer.”
Robby opened his mouth.
Nothing came out.
Dennis quietly covered a laugh with his hand.
Jack looked pleased with himself.
“Exactly.”
Robby shook his head and looked back out the window.
The reflection staring back at him looked tired.
Not exhausted.
Not the way he’d looked after some of the worst shifts.
Just tired.
The kind of tired that came from traveling, changing time zones, sleeping badly, and realizing that for the first time in years there was no immediate reason to get up and do anything.
Three months.
That was what he’d been given.
Three months away.
Three months with no expectation that he needed to fix anything.
And, perhaps most importantly, three months with Jack and Dennis.
Robby looked over.
Dennis had gone back to his book.
Jack had his eyes closed, though Robby suspected he wasn’t asleep.
Robby smiled.
He reached across the small space between them and took Dennis’s hand.
Dennis’s fingers immediately curled around his.
Jack opened one eye.
“You know, some people are trying to sleep.”
“You’re not sleeping.”
“I was considering it.”
“You’re welcome to.”
Jack closed his eye again.
“Thanks.”
A few seconds passed.
Then Jack reached across the aisle without opening his eyes and caught Robby’s free hand.
Robby blinked.
Jack squeezed once.
Then settled back against the window.
Dennis smiled.
Robby looked down at the two hands holding his.
For once, he didn’t reach for his phone.
The train rocked gently beneath them.
Someone a few rows ahead laughed.
A conductor walked through the carriage.
Outside, another small town slipped past.
Robby had no idea where they were.
For the first time, that didn’t bother him.
“Where are we?” he asked.
Dennis checked the itinerary.
“Somewhere between Birmingham and York.”
Jack opened his eyes.
“That sounds reassuringly vague.”
“We’re going to York.”
“Eventually?”
“That’s generally how trains work.”
Jack looked at Robby.
“Did you hear that? Eventually.”
Robby smiled.
“I’m learning.”
Jack gave his hand another squeeze.
“Good.”
The train continued north.
And for the first time in a very long time, Robby let himself simply go wherever it was taking him