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“Okay, guys,” Victoria declares, arms folded and brows furrowed when she approaches Trinity, who is in the midst of a discussion with Perlah and Princess. “Is anyone going to give me any insight on what the hell is going on with Samira and Dr Abbot?”
Two pairs of brown eyes and a pair of greens turn to her, and Princess has to try her best to hold back a little snort of laughter. They thought everyone already knew just how much of a flirt Jack was… hell, even Princess herself had brief run-ins more than once with the silver fox attending. But since Samira’s arrival and rise to success within the ED, it had been obvious to anyone with functioning eyes how much of a soft spot he’d grown for the woman he always made a point to call the future of medicine.
“Trying to gather some intel, Crash?” Trinity teases, leaning against the nurse bay with an easygoing smile. “I mean, who knows? Those fuck me eyes they shoot each other over the gurneys really could mean anything.”
Victoria gives an exasperated sigh and rolls her eyes, already sick of Trinity’s nonsense, then turns her body to face the pair of nurses in hopes they give her a better answer.
“Well,” Perlah starts, seeming to genuinely think on it despite her companion’s amused stare, “There were some times where I’d be on my way out when they thought I wasn’t looking. Y’know, when Samira works doubles? They try to keep it hidden. Probably don’t want Robby finding out.”
“Even though he totally already knows,” Princess chimes in, and they share a laugh. That’s when Victoria has a little lightbulb moment.
“You really think Robby knows?” she asks, eyes wide and glistening with excitement. No matter how much she tries to pretend otherwise, it’s clear gossip flows through Victoria Javadi’s blood.
Perlah’s gaze darts between Princess’ face and Victoria’s to try and gauge whether it’s actually a terrible idea to try getting info about an attending’s dating life from the Head of the ED. Before they can silently come to a decision, Trinity is already stepping in to sow chaos.
“Go for it, Dr J,” she grins. “I’m willing to bet he knows. What’s the worst that could happen, huh? He shoos you away and you get to make a total bombshell storytime about it?”
Victoria’s face lights up as she heads off to find her next victim; as it turns out, shooing her away is not the worst thing that could happen.
It didn’t take much courage for her to casually approach Robby to ask her question of choice, but no amount of preparation could ready her for his response—a latex glove pinged at her head.
“Abbot and Mohan having some history, huh?” he’d asked. “I’m honestly struggling to put my finger on which procedure this intel would be most integral for, Dr Javadi. Can you remind me before you head off again?”
His not-so-subtle method of telling her to get back to work was rewarded with yet another stormy expression from the young student doctor, clearly bogged down by the refusal. All she wanted to know was what he knew! It wouldn’t be that hard to tell her, would it?
Eventually she finds herself falling into conversation with Cassie as they tend to an unconscious patient together under Cassie’s watch.
“You look a little out of sorts today,” Cassie hums, her gaze lowered to focus on the clean she’s wrapping around the patient’s leg. “Something bugging you?”
Victoria looks up, eyes round, looking like she’d seen a ghost. “Oh! N-no, I just— well, it’s kinda embarrassing… I’d heard some rumours that Samira and Dr Abbot are…”
“… Fucking? Dating?” Cassie snorts. “Yeah, they’re not exactly the best at hiding that they’ve got the hots for each other. I’m pretty close with Samira, and I’d honestly suggest you just ask her if you really wanna know the ins and outs. But… I can tell just from being around her lately she’s a lot happier. And I like to think I’m pretty intuitive, so don’t think I haven’t noticed the fact that spike in happiness just happened to coincide with her starting to work more doubles.”
Victoria laughs. “Whoa, really? I mean, I’ve only ever seen them at shift change. But they did seem super close lately. But nobody wants to tell me anything!”
“Mm. It’s funny, actually,” Cassie continues, “Just a few weeks ago I dragged her along with me to crawl some art galleries hoping I’d meet a guy I was speaking to there. She told me before we left that night that it was gonna be her mission to get me some hot, sticky sex.”
Victoria pulls a face at the mental image of a man doing anything hot or sticky, but Cassie continues.
“Well, anyway, nothing ended up happening with that guy, but now I’m starting to think that maybe it was the odds shifting in her favour?” she muses, the corners of her lips curling upwards. “She probably manifested it for herself by accident. Finally got herself something nice.”
Victoria is charting a few hours later when Robby seems to suddenly appear from nowhere again.
“Okay, you didn’t hear this from me,” he lowers his voice to say, leaning casually against the nurse bay and pretending to point a finger to act out guiding her through the chart. “But you remember Orlando Diaz?”
She scrunches up her nose. “… Vaguely?”
“Patient of Mohan’s, from the 4th of July. Anyway, he’d left early before she could finish his treatment. I remember her being very disappointed about it, actually. But I was passing the room he’d been kept in and she was in there with Abbot. His shirt off, treating his gunshot wound.”
Victoria’s jaw drops a little. “Seriously? Hello? That’s like, totally something out of a romcom! I can’t believe nobody told me this!”
Robby shrugs. “I think I might’ve been the only one who saw it, but I definitely didn’t forget it, huh? I’ve been a little suspect of them since that moment. I’m not planning on intervening, they’re both adults— well, not unless it has an affect on their work. But honestly… I know Abbot better than just about anyone here. We’ve been working together for so long, I’d know if something with throwing his focus. He just seems more enthusiastic than ever.”
The pieces start to click together in Victoria’s mind now, and the picture is coming together pretty vividly. She still can’t believe something so crucial came from Robby of all people, though.
“He is way too old to be such a gossip…” she laughs to herself when he walks away.
Before she knows it shift change comes around, and Victoria sees an opportunity to get some intel from the other side—they work with Dr Abbot the most, after all, right?
“Soooo,” Victoria starts, not acting awkwardly whatsoever as she slides up to Shen’s side. “Samira and Dr Abbot, huh?”
John stares back at her, taking a slow sip of his Dunkin. “Yeah, what about them? I should thank Jack, it’s nice to have Samira on nights more often now. She’s real talented.”
She narrows her eyes. “You know that’s not what I’m asking, Dr Shen.”
“I’m not a gossip.”
“You’re not?”
“Nope.”
“Not even if I buy you another iced coffee?”
“… Okay, I’ll give you something!”
John wracks his brain, sifting through what he’d managed to gather over the last few months. There’s almost too much: Jack is a little too casual when it comes to telling him how he feels when Samira isn’t on shift. “They like each other’s company, I know that much. Seen ‘em talking a lot in the ambulance bay a lot lately. Might be a coincidence, but it seems like they’re always on procedures together. Not to mention the fact they’re always hanging out outside of the ED, I swear they’re cuddled up on that bench every other day—”
He’s gotten distracted, forgetting he was talking to Victoria and not Parker—and ended up letting something slip that Parker had told him herself in confidence. His face twists. “You weren’t supposed to hear that part, so I’m gonna need a couple extra shots of espresso in that iced coffee…”
Victoria scoffs. “Oh, no, of course! Totally! I didn’t even hear that!” she says, having totally heard that and stored it away forever.
She’s heading out with Joy when the end of shift change swings by, and by this point she’s completely satisfied with the results she’d gathered to prove her little hypothesis today.
“What’s up with you?” Joy probes.
“Oh, y’know,” she grins, “Just totally on the precipice of proving to everyone that Samira and Dr Abbot have been secretly dating for months, nothing crazy.”
Joy furrows her brows. “Proving? Wait, you— you didn’t know? I asked Samira, she told me they were dating last week. Like, officially.”
And just like that, Victoria’s entire world crashes to the ground around her.
“… What?!”