Work Text:
July 14, 2026
Dear Dr. Mohan,
Firstly, I need to apologize to you. I know I’ve already apologized in person, but after more reflection, something I’ve had a lot of time to do on my ride, I’ve realized that those conversations were still not adequate.
I shouldn’t have accused you of having mommy issues.
I shouldn’t have told you to go home.
I shouldn’t have told you that you don’t belong in the ED.
I should never have started calling you Slow-Mo.
I should never have told you that your pace was more suited to psychiatry or geriatrics.(That said, I do believe that the field of emergency geriatrics would be very lucky to have you because you do excel with that population, but that’s beside the point.)
Despite my failures as a mentor, you have continued to excel. Not only do you have the highest patient satisfaction scores of anybody, your colleagues look up to you and trust you inherently. I know that Abbot would not have let anyone else perform the pigtail catheter aspiration, and he’s always saying you’re the smartest out of all of us.
I don’t think you saw me, but I happened to walk by when you were treating Abbot’s bullet wound. There probably isn’t another doctor he would have let help him like that, myself included. He does not like letting people help him, but he lets you.
Which brings me to the second reason I’m writing. Jack is going to need a friend while I’m gone. Before I left, I was so focused on myself and what I needed that I completely forgot I’m not the only attending dealing with an abundance of trauma. He trusts you already, Samira, and I don’t say that lightly. Please, even if you still hate me, I ask you to be there for him when he needs someone to dance through the darkness (his words, not mine). I wouldn’t ask just anyone, and I wouldn’t ask you if I didn’t think you couldn’t handle it.
He told me to call him if it gets dark. He’s going to need someone when it gets dark for him. You probably already know this since you’re so perceptive, but Jack and I will go up to the rooftop at PTMC when we’ve had a bad shift and need to find perspective. I believe your generation calls it “touching grass”, but we’ve always found our peace at higher altitudes.
I’m telling you this because I used to be the person that would find him up there and convince him to come back down. He’s done the same for me a million times. He’s going to need someone else now, and I honestly believe you’re the only person he’d listen to. Take that however you want to.
If you’re read this far, thank you. I don’t deserve it, but Jack does. I’ll see you when I get back.
Sincerely,
Michael Robinavitch
Samira folded the letter back up after reading it for the third time through. Dana had handed it to her at the beginning of the shift and shrugged when asked about it. She would never have guessed the contents were a full apology from Robby as well as a request to befriend Abbot. She blushed to think that Robby had seen her and Abbot when she had whispered “our little secret” to him. That memory had been sealed up in her memory bank, only to be carefully pulled out and reviewed when safe in the confines of her own bed.
That Abbot thought of her as the “smartest of them all”, that he trusted her…she didn’t think that Robby would lie about these things. She also believed him when he wrote that Abbot would need a friend, but she was unsure that she was the right person. Still, she wasn’t going to abandon him if it were true.
She looked around the ED for Dr. Abbot, and when she didn’t see him right away, asked Lena, who was getting ready to leave. The night shift charge nurse paused, gave her an evaluating glance, and sighed.
“It was a rough shift. I think he might have taken the elevator.”
That even Lena apparently thought she would know what that meant and that she thought Samira should go find him meant more than Robby’s letter ever could.
“Thanks, Lena. Dana, could you let Dr. Al know that I….” She wasn’t sure how to finish the sentence, but Dana didn’t need her to.
“Go, I can cover for you.”
Samira gave Dana a grateful look before taking off for the rooftop. She had no idea what to expect up there, but she touched the letter from Robby again as a talisman. If Abbot needed her, she would do what she could.
When she pushed open the industrial door to the rooftop, she saw him immediately, standing at the railing with his usual straight military posture, looking out towards the city. He must have heard the door opening because she saw his shoulders tense before he turned around.
“Robby?” he asked with such tender hope that her heart broke for him.
The look of disappointment on his face when he saw that it was just her normally would have hurt more, but now knowing what she did, she understood.
“Sorry, Dr. Abbot, it’s just me.”
He blinked a few times, as if to reset his brain from expecting to see his best friend to seeing her instead. A weary smile appeared.
“What are you doing up here? Did Lena send you up for me?”
“Not exactly. I wanted to check up on you. And Robby told me you might be up here.”
“He did?” asked Jack in a broken voice.
“Yeah.” She joined him at the railing then, leaning against it while assessing him carefully. He was standing beyond the railing but not close to the edge, and he didn’t seem like he would jump, especially not now that she was up here with him. “Want to talk about it?”
It was several seconds before Jack answered, “Is it okay if I say no?” Realizing it might have sounded like a dismissal, he added quickly, “You don’t have to leave, though.. Just…stay with me?”
“Of course.” Emboldened, she reached out a hand for him, and he stared at it for a beat before taking it. His hand was dry and rough from years of using hand sanitizer but warm. She gave it a light squeeze which he returned. They stayed in comfortable silence for a few minutes before Abbot sighed and dropped her hand so that he could climb through the railing.
“Thanks,” he said as he started walking towards the door. “Robby usually tries to talk me through it, but this was much nicer.”
“Oh,” she replied, blushing. “I’m glad I could help.”
He stopped walking then and just looked at her, as if deciding whether or not to say the next bit.
“You do, you know, help.”
“I do?”
“Yeah, something about your presence. You’re like human benzos.”
She laughed at the description. “Well don’t tell that to Langdon.”
It was his turn to laugh, and she decided right then and there that the best feeling in the world was making Dr. Abbot laugh.
“Seriously, though? Next time you need some…’human benzos’, just let me know.”
The look he gave her then was so piercing she almost shrank back from it, but she held her ground and refused to break eye contact. He seemed to find what he was looking for and grunted before finally looking away.
Samira realized it was the best response she was going to get. It was enough. Something had untwisted in her heart, and she took the first step in forgiving Robby.