Work Text:
“You know that really isn’t the ring you should be putting your finger in?”
Raising his head to look at the ceiling, Frank let out a sigh at the voice of the man in his bed. “You were the one who wanted to keep this quiet. This is how we do that.” Standing up, he stretched his back with a groan and turned to look at Dennis. “Or are you ready to come out of the closet Whitaker?”
Dennis only rolled his eyes as he climbed to his knees and wrapped his arms around Frank’s neck, pulling him into a deep kiss. Leaning into it, he felt his boyfriend’s hands come up to grip at his already bruised hips, causing him to moan into the older man’s mouth.
The sound of Frank’s alarm made them break away from each other, already knowing that the sound of that particular alarm meant that they were due in work a lot sooner than their bodies wanted.
“I’m out of the closet Doctor Langdon, I was just hesitant to admit that I was sleeping with a married man.” Climbing off of the bed, Dennis rubbed at the mark forming on his neck as he moved to the bathroom.
Looking back on that night four months ago, the decision to sleep with a married man had been one of the best things he’d ever done. It had been an extremely rough shift, and the sheer number of motorcycle injuries had made him realise that he needed several drinks before heading back to Robby’s empty house
~~~~~~~
July 9th
“Doctor Langdon?” Taking a seat at the bar, Dennis’s eyes widened as he looked at the senior resident on the stool beside him, with two empty shot glasses on the bar beside his phone.
Langdon only groaned as he looked over at him. “Whitaker. Because this night couldn’t get any worse. Please, stay and join me in my misery.”
Flagging down the bartender for a vodka soda, Dennis took in the sight of the man beside him. He looked like shit. He hadn’t been working today so he was dressed in his regular clothes, but his sneakers were scuffed, and the shirt he wore looked like it hadn’t been washed in a week or so. “You don’t look too good. Should I call someone?” He hesitated as his eyes were drawn back to the shot glasses. “Your sponsor?”
A brief look of confusion crossed Langdon’s face as his eyes went down to the empty glasses, before he let out a harsh laugh. “Oh I wish. Believe me falling off the wagon would hurt less.” Pulling a stack of papers out of his jacket, he slammed them down on the table. “My wife is suing for full custody.”
Shit. As far as Dennis was aware, Langdon was still happily married, or maybe just married considering his stint in rehab after drug stealing. Yeah, he knew all about that. After a particularly challenging shift on Christmas Eve, Trinity had decided to drink most of the liquor in the apartment and go on a rant about people taking drugs. She’d been six drinks in when Langdon’s name came up and she’d spilled the beans about that first day. His Christmas present to her had been a coffee for her hangover, a particularly fancy thrifted blanket for her couch, and a pinky promise that he would never tell anybody about what she’d let slip.
“Oh. Sorry about that. I thought you two were still together.”
The papers tore slightly as Langdon’s fingers dragged across them. “Yeah well it’s easy to lie and say that your life didn’t totally fall apart when nobody checks on you for ten months.”
A look of regret must have crossed his face, as Langdon quickly continued. “You don’t need to feel bad about that. We barely worked together for a shift. It’s not like you trained me.” He paused as Dennis drink arrived. “How is the old man anyway?”
Dennis took a sip and grimaced. He hadn’t been to this bar since his emergency rotation and had forgotten how strong they made their drinks. “No idea. He hasn’t called since he left. Doesn’t even read my texts.” A thought crossed his mind. “You said you’ve been to his place, you have any idea how to lock the living room window? Robby left it open.”
Langdon’s eyes seemed to drift down slightly, looking at the lower part of his face. “Yeah, I can show you if you want. It’s a tricky window.”
~~~~~~~
Now
It hadn’t been a tricky window at all, but looking back Dennis really didn’t care about the lie because only minutes later Frank’s lips had been on his and he was being pushed up the stairs and into Robby’s bedroom before being slowly but surely reduced to a whimpering mess against the attending’s pillows.
It took a month for Frank’s divorce to be finalised and custody to be awarded jointly, and in that month there had only been four days where they hadn’t had some sort of encounter, whether that be full sex, a quick blowjob while Frank was clearing the last of his things from his marital home, or touches in work that had Princess claiming that much like Robby, Frank had contracted ‘Whitaker syndrome’.
It wasn’t a totally incorrect diagnosis. Much like Robby, Frank couldn’t seem to keep his hands off of him. Brief touches at his back to push him forward to present a case, or grasping his shoulders as they came off a trauma that had ended with a stable patient. Everyone had noticed pretty quickly. From Dana’s little raised eyebrow to Trinity pulling him aside and wondering if he’d been replaced by a body snatching alien because why was he being happy around Langdon?
The bathroom door opened while he showered, and Frank’s head poked through the steam. “Remember it’s drinks for Dana tonight. You going back to Santos’s first or you wearing one my shirts?”
The rational thing to do would be to go back to Trinity’s, where he lived and kept his clothes, to get one of his shirts, but the thought of wearing a shirt that belonged to Frank, having that proof of their relationship in front of their unsuspecting coworkers, just did something that he couldn’t read too much into if he wanted to get to work on time. “If you have the green one I’ll wear that?”
Frank’s laugh filled the bathroom, loud and warm. “How’d I know you’d go with option B?”
“Because you love seeing me in your clothes tiny arms.” It was one of their little inside jokes. While he didn’t do as much work at Amy’s farm as anyone believed, considering he used that as a cover to stay at Frank’s, the work he had done had helped build some decent muscle that they’d found out really made his arms look good in Frank’s shirts.
Quickly finishing his shower, he stepped out and grabbed the towel, stepping aside as Frank climbed in, careful not to look down at what was between his boyfriend’s legs. There would be time for that after Dana’s party. Or maybe in the toilets at Dana’s party if Frank was feeling daring.
~~~~~~~
The trauma bay lights were bright and clinical above them as Dennis pulled on his gloves. The patient, a warehouse worker with a deep thigh laceration from a metal shelf, lay still under the drapes, already numbed and stable. Nothing life-threatening. Just a wide, dirty cut that needed thorough irrigation and careful layered closure. “You called for me?”
Kim looked at him from where she was stood at the head of the bed, monitoring vitals. Perlah and Mel worked quietly on either side, passing instruments and keeping the field clear.
Frank was already waiting. “Yeah, you need more suture practice.”
“You pulled me off of another trauma for a suture?” The words had more bite to them than he’d intended, but all eyes in the room seemed to widen regardless.
This had been their thing for months. However much they laughed and seemed close, they were still teacher and student, and a sober Frank Langdon was one hell of a teacher. But still, Samira had a GSW next door that he wanted to work on.
Folding his arms, Frank’s voice hardened. “You always need to practice the basics. Or do you think you’re too good for that?”
Running his tongue across the inside of his lip, Dennis stepped up beside his secret boyfriend. “Never too good to learn from you Doctor Langdon.”
“Good, I’ll walk you through it.” Frank’s gloved hand moved to his back as he shifted, guiding Dennis forward half a step so that he was directly above the wound. Nothing unusual there. Except Frank’s hand dipped to press at the small of his back, his thumb rubbing a small circle through the material before moving away.
“So we’re doing the sub-Q. I know Donnie’s taught you a good bit on these sort of closures.” Frank murmured. “Don’t rush. Feel for where everything wants to line up.” His breath was warm near Dennis’s ear. “Nice and slow. Let the tissue show you.”
Dennis’s hands stayed steady, but his pulse didn’t. He could smell Frank’s soap under the antiseptic, the same soap that he himself had used only hours earlier. Every time the older man spoke, the words landed lower than they should have. “3-0 vicryl please Perlah.” Taking the needle, he risked a small glance at Frank, who nodded.
“Good. Now for the first bite.” Frank’s voice stayed quiet, professional, and just a fraction too intimate. “Deep enough to hold, but not so deep you force it. You know the difference. You’ve got good hands when you trust them.” Another subtle press of that thumb. “Show me.”
Dennis placed the suture. Frank’s glove came up and adjusted his wrist slightly as he brought his hand back down to place the next one, the contact lingering a beat longer than necessary.
“Just watch the positioning, you’re making it harder on yourself like that.” Speaking softly, Frank drew back. “Again. Same depth. Same angle when you pull back. Don’t pull too hard when you cinch—let it settle against itself. Easy.” His tone stayed even, clinical on the surface. Underneath it was something else entirely. “Just like that. You’re doing exactly what I want.”
Mel’s eyes flicked up once. Kim’s brow twitched. Perlah kept working, but her glance cut sideways towards Robby, who had appeared in the doorway just a moment beforehand. The attending’s expression didn’t change, though the corner of his mouth tightened.
No one said a word.
Frank stayed close as he went through the rest of the deep layer, talking Dennis through every step in that same low voice—precise, measured, and threaded with quiet heat. By the time the last suture was tied, Dennis’s mouth was dry and his concentration felt deliberate.
Frank stepped back only then, peeling off his gloves.
“Solid work, Whitaker.” Louder now. Professional again. “Doctor King, you good to take the skin with him?”
Mel simply nodded as she moved around the bed. “Yeah.”
Robby pushed off the doorframe. “Looks like everything is going well in here. Good job Whitaker. Nice teaching Doctor Langdon.” He left without any other words of encouragement. Perlah and Kim exchanged a brief look that said everything and nothing, then returned to their tasks.
Pausing at the doorway, Frank looked back just long enough to catch Dennis’s eye. The look was brief, heated, and carefully neutral for anyone else watching.
With a very quick shake of his head, Dennis looked back to the wound as Mel began talking him through the skin layer.
It wasn’t until two hours later that they managed to speak about what had happened. Closing the break room door behind him, Dennis looked at his boyfriend and tried to suppress the grin on his face. “You are such an asshole.”
Raising his eyebrow as he leant against the counter, Frank brought his coffee down. “Because I pulled you off that trauma? We said church and state.”
They had, in fact it had been Dennis’s own suggestion when it became clear that their night in Robby’s bed was the first of many. He’d worked way too hard to let sex affect his career. Stepping forward and resting his hip against the sink, Dennis folded his arms. “Because we’ve had less intimate moments while you were inside me. You knew that you were riling me up and that there would be nothing I could do about it.”
Realising that this wasn’t that sort of argument, Frank chuckled. “In my defence, there were plenty of nights that you weren’t looking for intimate.”
Dennis took a moment to look behind him and out of the glass window of the door. Nobody out there was looking in their direction, so he quickly turned back and pulled Frank into a deep kiss. His boyfriend was shocked for a moment, but quickly relaxed into it, moaning when he felt Dennis’s tongue against his lips. For a moment they stayed like that before Dennis pulled away. “You have no idea what you just started baby.”
What followed was arguably the most unprofessional day of his career. Every time that Frank was near him, Dennis found a reason to do something that he knew Frank couldn’t resist. A transfer on a non urgent trauma? He lifted his arms to stretch his back, letting his scrubs ride up to show a sliver of skin. Stood at the hub? Oops, he just dropped his pen and had to bend over to pick it up. Frank was looking at him while he charted? Running his finger along his jaw, he bit his lip and looked up at the ceiling. Of course in the last hour Frank decided to play along, and his hands got lower and lower every single time he touched Dennis.
By the time their shift finished, Dennis was ready to wish Dana a happy birthday and drag Frank up to the eight floor, but he’d made a promise and his desire to ride his boyfriend until the older man was begging for release was dwarfed by his fear of breaking a promise to the one and only Trinity Santos.
“Ok I know that’s not yours. Do not tell me you’re stealing dead husband’s clothes as well as raising his kid?” Trinity looked him up and down as he exited the ambulance bay, changed out of his scrubs and hoisting his bag onto his shoulder.
“Uh Teddy was like a foot taller than me, and I found this at a thrift shop the other day before I went to Amy’s. I completely forgot about it until last night.” It should have made him feel bad to lie to his best friend like that, but while Trinity was no longer wishing that Frank relapse, she was barely at a stage where she was civil with him, so lying was the best course of action at this point. “Now are you gonna accuse the homosexual of sleeping with a widow again or are we gonna go and get drunk for Dana?”
Trinity’s face froze as she considered her options. While she did love to taunt him, she did also love getting drunk, and Robby had said that he was covering the tab tonight, so they’d both agreed that they would take advantage of the boss’s kindness and dumbassery when it came to the drinking tendencies of his staff.
~~~~~~~
The problem with a shift change in the emergency room was that not everyone finished at the same time, so by the time he and trinity arrived a lot of people were still there.
A good thing about a shift change in the emergency room was that not everyone finished at the same time, so by the time they arrived all of the decoration were put out and Princess no longer held a clipboard in her hand.
“You gotta let them cry sometimes it’s-”
“Said that I would tell him but he just wouldn’t listen-”
“And we’re just going at it-”
All around them people were in conversation, still waiting for the woman of the hour to arrive. After a few quick shots at the bar, Dennis looked around for somewhere to sit while Trinity got their drinks. In both a stroke of luck and what was ultimately a curse from the universe, the only booth that was free was the one Frank was sat in with Princess and Donnie. Sliding in beside his boyfriend, he left the seat beside Princess free for Trinity. As he sat his hand brushed against Frank’s, the ring still on his finger.
“Ok I need gossip.” Princess looked over at him. “Whitaker, when are you getting a man that we can meet?”
Under the table, Frank’s hand brushed his thigh before the senior resident broke out in a knowing grin. “Yeah Whitaker, you know it’s kind of a tradition that all relationships become Princess approved. You gotta show him off.”
The very bitchy response he had planned died on his lips as Trinity placed his drink down on the table. “Oh that’s just gonna scare him off getting one, or of telling him that he’s got one.”
“I promise that I won’t judge your taste. As long as he’s good to you then he’ll get approved.” Princess raised her cocktail. “But if he’s cute then he does get extra points.”
“Well I mean-”
Mateo’s voice cut him off. “She’s coming. Places people places.”
Happy to be cut off, Dennis sank down into his seat slightly to avoid being seen from the window, mentally counting the seconds until the door opened.
3, 2, 1… ok 3, 2…. 3, 2…
The door opened and he stood up, his hand brushing against Frank’s as they all shouted.
“Surprise!”
Robby stood in the doorway. Alone. “Sorry.”
“A surprise party? Really?”
All heads whipped around to the back door of the bar where Dana stood, an amused expression on her face. “You bozos can’t keep a secret for shit.”
Oh if only you knew Dana.
Exchanging a quick glance with Frank, he smiled as his boyfriend obviously had the same thought.
The party had properly settled in by the time Dennis realised how many drinks he’d already had.
Trinity reappeared from the dance floor at some point with two fresh drinks in her hand, sliding his across the table with a look that was half challenge, half concern. “You’re keeping up. I’m proud and also slightly worried.”
“I’m fine.” He responded, bring the glass up to hid lips and taking a long swallow to prove it. The burn sat warm in his chest. Looking around the room he saw that Dana had claimed the middle of the floor with Kim, both of them laughing too hard to keep time with the music, while Donnie and Jesse both had their phones out to record them. Robby was at the bar ordering another round for the nurses, completely sober and pretending he wasn’t watching everyone like a mildly amused parent. Frank stayed beside him in the booth, one arm stretched along the back of the seat, the picture of ease. Every so often his knee pressed against Dennis’s under the table, a quiet reminder that he was right there.
Dennis finished the drink Trinity had brought. Then another when Samira passed by with a tray of shots and refused to take no for an answer. The edges of the room softened. Conversations blurred into a pleasant hum. He laughed too loudly at something Mateo said about a patient who had tried to leave with an IV still attached.
“You’re flushed.” Frank murmured at one point, voice low enough that only Dennis could hear.
“It’s warm.”
“It’s not that warm.”
“You’re always saying that I’m hot.” Dennis turned toward him, smiling too wide. “You smell good.”
Frank’s expression didn’t change, but something in his eyes went darker. “Careful.”
“I’m being careful.”
“You’re really not.”
Someone called Frank’s name—Robby this time—and he stood to answer, leaving Dennis alone in the booth for a few minutes. Trinity dropped into the empty space immediately.
“You’re staring.” She looked over to Langdon and Robby before turning back to him. “The emotionally unavailable attending or the married man. Neither one is a good choice.”
“I’m not.” He hiccoughed as he said the words, causing his roommate to laugh.
“You are. And you’re drunk. Which is new. Usually you nurse one beer all night and then complain about the hangover you don’t have.”
Dennis shrugged, the motion loose. “Dana’s birthday. Special occasion. Plus Robby’s paying.”
Trinity studied him for a long second, then glanced across the room at Frank, who was still talking to Robby. “Just don’t make a move on the married man.”
“I’m not going to do anything stupid.” Considering the married man in question had already made several moves on him, it was the best that he could promise.
She didn’t look convinced.
Pushing himself to his feet, he strode to the dance floor and took Perlah’s hand, leading her into a spin before placing her other hand on his shoulder and swaying back and forth.
It was almost 11PM, after multiple shots and several cigarette breaks, that he returned to the table that Frank was at, dropping down beside him and landing closer than he probably should have, thigh pressed against Frank’s from hip to knee.
Frank didn’t move away though. Instead he just leaned in to shout over the music. “All that time up there and no line dancing? Im disappointed.” He slid his coke over the table and clicked it against the unopened bottle of water that Dennis hadn’t noticed before. “Cheers. Now drink up.”
Twisting open the bottle, he brought it up to his lips and took a swig as he locked eyes with his boyfriend. At lot of people had cleared out by that point, and most of those who reimagined were focused on the dance floor or the bar before last call. Leaning in slightly, he rested against Frank’s arm as he spoke, his voice soft and unguarded. “I wanted us to have some time tonight.”
Frank’s brow lifted slightly. “Yeah?”
“Yeah.” Dennis’s hand found Frank’s under the table, fingers curling around his wrist. “Just us. After this. I kept thinking about it all shift. After you—” He stopped, swallowed, then pushed on anyway as he turned to his boyfriend. “After you had your hands on me in the bay. I wanted to go home and let you finish what you started.”
Frank’s breath left him in a quiet exhale. His free hand came up, almost automatically, to brush a thumb along the edge of Dennis’s jaw before he caught himself and dropped it again.
“You’re drunk.” Frank said, low.
“I know.” Dennis’s smile was crooked, open, completely unfiltered. “Still true though.” He leaned in slightly. Not quite enough to be obvious, but close enough that anyone watching would wonder what was going on.
Frank’s eyes darted past him towards their coworkers. “You keep this up and I’m not gonna care that we’re about to become the most talked about workplace relationship since Clinton and Lewinsky.”
“I mean as nice as that ring on your finger is, I’m tired of pretending you’re someone else’s.”He didn’t wait for an response. He just closed the last inch between them and pulled Frank into a kiss—slow at first, then deeper when Frank made a quiet sound against his mouth and kissed him back. For a moment the bar noise faded. Frank’s hand settled at the back of Dennis’s neck, steadying him, tasting the alcohol on his tongue, letting it happen even though they were still in public and people were only a few tables away.
When they finally broke apart, Frank rested his forehead against Dennis’s for a second, eyes closed. “I’ve been wanting to do that for months.”
“Oh I fucking called it!” Princess’s voice cut through the relative quiet of the room and made both of them turn to look at the remaining party-goers who stood in various states of shock with their mouths hanging open.
Shrugging, Frank slipped the ring off of his finger and tucked it into his chest pocket while he wrapped his arm around Dennis and pulled him in for another kiss. Much slower this time, not heated and lustful, but cooler, with a much deeper sense of affection to it.”
At the bar Princess whispered something in Tagalog and Perlah stepped forward, slipping a bill from her pocket and dropping it into the other nurse’s outstretched hand. “Bitch.”