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Trinity Santos had two modes.
The first was the snarky, sarcastic loser lesbian who had a nickname for everyone and enjoyed torturing her people with her words. Seeing Huckleberry and Crash’s shocked faces with every quip was one of her favourite things in the world - don’t tell them she said that. Oftentimes, however, the snark was involuntary, an unfortunate immediate reaction to the world around her, her brain lashing out against anyone and everyone around her to protect her from harm. It was happening more and more frequently after she ended it with Garcia, the hurtful words escaping every time someone got to close, every time someone tried to show her care. She was trying to change that. Trying to let the snark be a fun thing and not something to hurt the people she cared about. Trying to channel her energy into something else, something more fun, something, as her therapist suggested, that might make her colleagues find her nicer to be around.
That’s where the second mode came in.
The second mode was the flirtiest loser lesbian around, constantly using the cheesiest pick-up lines, leaving no woman behind. She flirted with everyone, every single lady who worked in that goddamn ED, channelling her excess energy into coming up with a line for everyone. She was joking, mostly, and everyone knew it. Some of them, like Cassie and Parker flirted back, enjoying the back and forth and seeing the tops of Trinity’s cheeks turn pink. Others, like Crash and Baran, just rolled their eyes at her antics, pretending not to be happy that Trinity seemed better, seemed happier in herself. She was. It was fun to see people blush and quip back, or roll their eyes and walk away. She had gotten pretty good at predicting people’s reactions to her comments.
Trinity would have bet all her money on Dana Evans continuing to be a roll her eyes and walk away kind of woman. Trinity would have been poor upon making that bet. Because when, two weeks after Dana’s divorce was finalised, Trinity decided to target Dana with her flirtatious comments, Dana flirted right back with a smirk, enjoying how shocked Trinity looked at her responses. But she only looked shocked for a second, and then Dana saw the fire light behind her eyes, saw the bratty, competitive spirit that lived in Trinity’s bones begin to rise with a smile.
Challenge accepted.
Trinity started small, not wanting to play her whole hand straight away, picking one of her cheesiest, shittiest pick-up lines, expecting it to just make Dana laugh. It did not just make Dana laugh. Dana gave back as good as she got, years of experience with flirty patients giving her the edge over Trinity.
‘Did it hurt, Dana?’ Trinity began, leaning on the hub with her arms crossed, looking down at Dana with a smile.
‘Did what hurt, Santos?’ she responded, looking at her over her glasses in a way that made her stomach swoop - something that Trinity would deny under oath.
‘When you fell from heaven,’ she quipped back, the smirk on her face hiding the strange buzz she felt when Dana looked at her with exasperation, rolling her eyes and shaking her head. Trinity felt like she had won, until Dana leant in with a smirk, tongue in her cheek, and dropped Trinity’s jaw.
‘Bold of you to assume that I’m any kind of angel, honey,’ her voice was low, tone raspy, and Trinity felt her brain empty, her voice catching in her throat, mouth dropping open slightly and eyes widening in shock. ‘Here’, Dana continued, raising her hand to rest under Trinity’s chin, pressing her mouth closed lightly, ‘let me get that for you.’ She stood from her chair and walked away to check on a patient like nothing had happened, leaving behind a red-faced Trinity to pick up the shattered pieces of her concentration. Trinity steeled herself and took a deep breath, chuckling to herself. So that’s how Dana wanted to play it.
Game on.
-
Trinity left it a day, not wanting to dissolve into a blushing mess more than once in a shift, thank you very much, before pulling out her big guns, determined to make Dana squirm at least once. She sidled up to Dana, standing closer than usual, and traced one finger over the nurse’s arm, knowing that she was being significantly more daring than she had ever been with her when she started to talk.
‘You’re going to be very distracting today,’ she said lightly, injecting enough energy into her voice that it could be taken as both flirty and humorous, not wanting to make Dana uncomfortable in any way.
‘What do you want, Santos?’ questioned Dana, eyes narrowed, not able to disguise the little smile that was threatening to spread over her face.
‘What are you willing to give me, D?’ Trinity responded quickly, shaking her head and laughing quietly, one eyebrow raised. She refused to let Dana win this round.
Dana won this round.
Her pretty eyes lit up and she leant closer, resting one cool hand on Trinity’s lower back in a way that would look like a comforting gesture to anyone who saw them. Her fingers rubbed little patterns, tiny movements that made Trinity shiver, heat pooling in her belly, her body betraying her resolve. And then Dana spoke, her face close to Trinity’s ear, and that resolve truly shattered.
‘Wouldn’t you like to know, pretty girl,’ Dana drawled, and Trinity gasped loudly. Her face turned pink at the tone and the endearment, and her reaction sent a hit of dopamine through Dana, making her smile, her heart pick up a little bit. She pushed her fingers into Trinity’s back a little bit harder, relishing in the small sound she couldn’t quite keep in her mouth, and then pulled back, once again leaving Trinity to pick up the pieces on her own. Heat pooled in the base of Trinity’s stomach, and she stood there for a few seconds blinking rapidly like she was in shock, before pulling herself together a bit and getting back to work, only slightly preoccupied by the feel of Dana’s hand still ghosted on her back like a memory.
She needed a break, but she wouldn’t get one for a while, the ED bouncing with patients as always. And when she did get one, it wasn’t the relaxing experience that she hoped for.
In a mid-afternoon lull, as the sun began to dip in the sky and paint the clouds the same colour her face had been for most of the day, Trinity managed to snatch five minutes for herself, slipping out into the ambulance bay with the packet of cigarettes she only used in emergencies. Dana reducing her to a blushing mess counted as an emergency in her books. She lit the cig, taking a long drag and exhaling, the nicotine rushing through her bloodstream like a sedative, making her muscles relax, her head fall forward.
She stood there smoking alone for a few minutes, the solitude and cigarette calming her down until she was ready to go back in. She gave herself another minute before heading back, that was her mistake. Trinity hadn’t noticed her approaching until a blonde blur with nimble fingers pulled the cigarette from between her lips and placed it between her own, leaning against the wall next to her without saying anything. Trinity watched with a slack expression as Dana took a long inhale, smoke settling in her lungs, head tilted back with her eyes closed.
Dana was beautiful. It wasn’t the first time that Trinity had thought that, but it was the first time she had internalised it, letting her eyes roam in the few seconds Dana wasn’t looking. The blonde hair that was escaping her claw clip and tickling along the back of her neck making her look softer somehow; the smile lines and crow’s feet around her eyes made Trinity’s mouth water, she wanted to run her fingers over them; the way Dana’s throat moved as she exhaled the smoke, bobbing and tightening made Trinity’s breath catch, she wanted to bite it, wanted to leave little bruises along the pale skin. Fuck. Dana was beautiful, and Trinity actually wanted her.
Trinity gulped loudly, trying to temper her reactions as Dana opened her eyes, grinning at her like she’d just figured something out and pulled the cigarette from between her pretty lips. She placed it back between Trinity’s, patting her on the cheek with a wink, and heading back into the ED without a single word passing between them.
Fuck. Why was that so hot.
Dana was playing her at her own game and winning. Trinity needed to try harder.
-
Over the next few weeks, it became a back and forth between them that everyone noticed. Bets had been placed with Ahmad by most of the day shift - and a few of the night shift - on when they’d finally get together, who would initiate it, how it would happen. A few people, like Robby and Samira, had put their money on it never happening, thinking that it was just the nothing flirting that Trinity had made her personality, but most of them bet on it happening, and happening soon.
The day that it finally did, they were just as flirty as usual, circling each other around the ED like sharks with jokes and lines and lingering touches that sent sparks through them both. Trinity found Dana sat in her usual chair in the hub, scrolling through her tablet, glasses perched on her noise, pen between her teeth, the very picture of concentration. Trinity resolved to break that concentration. She leant against the front of Dana’s desk, head resting on one hand, cocky grin in place. Catching Dana’s eye, she made a show of looking her up and down, eyes slow and lingering, eyebrows quirking up and down once in a show of appreciation.
Dana rolled her eyes before Trinity could even get a word out.
‘I gotta be honest,’ said Trinity, tilting her head and giving Dana another once over, ‘those glasses really do something to me.’
‘Maybe I should take them off then, honey,’ quipped Dana, reaching up to do just that, only stopping at Trinity’s wounded expression.
‘Do you have to ruin my view, baby?’ she crooned back, shaking her head sarcastically, tongue between her teeth.
‘Yes, if it means you’ll get back to work, doll.’
Trinity rolled her eyes and got back to work, biting back a little whine at the pet name from Dana. They didn’t always affect her, but for some reason doll sent her brain fuzzy and heat between her legs every time.
The rest of the day was relatively normal for the most part, they went about their work separately, flirting whenever they crossed paths as always, to everybody’s amusement. It wasn’t until the last couple of hours of their shift where they worked together again, on a young man with severe pain and nausea. They gave him pain medication, which seemed to work for a moment, but it made the nausea worse, and Trinity ended up covered in sick. Great. Exactly what she needed.
They left the room together, Trinity asking Dana to get some cyclizine for the patient, but before they headed their separate ways, Dana grabbed her wrist lightly.
‘You should get out of those clothes, doll,’ she murmured, smiling as blush began to spread over Trinity’s cheeks, a tiny whine escaping into the space between them, ‘maybe grab a quick shower while we’re fully staffed.’
Trinity laughed, walking away with a quick, ‘damnnn D, take a girl to dinner first.’ It was Dana’s turn to blush, shaking her head and heading to put the order in for the anti-nausea medication.
It wasn’t long after that Trinity returned, hair still damp, dressed in new, short sleeve black scrubs without an undershirt on, looking better for the change of clothing. Dana looked her up and down appreciatively as walked into the hub and stopped in front of the screen, taking longer than necessary to figure out her patients. She was procrastinating, hoping that the end of the shift would come quickly.
Dana whistled lightly as she walked to stand behind her, that cool hand coming up to toy with the hem of her sleeve. ‘You scrub up well for a resident,’ she flirted, making the same path with her eyes that Trinity used to tease her before.
‘You’re trouble, Dana,’ laughed Trinity, still half focused on the screen, making a mental note for her rounds.
‘Takes one to know one, pretty girl,’ Trinity went still, her breath hitching sharply, Dana continued, her voice low, stern in the way that sent heat bursting through Trinity’s veins, ‘now go do your job before I have to punish you.’
Trinity moaned. Loudly.
Loudly enough that people turned to look at the pair of them, Dana standing there with a grin that made everyone slightly concerned, blush covering the top of her cheeks at the sound, they had never seen her look so smug; she looked like the cat that had got the cream; Trinity looked mortified, red bursting across her face like wildfire, she made shocked eye contact with Dana for a moment, then turned on her heel and walked to a patient on at the other end of the ED, hoping that the space between them would make her face go back to normal. It didn’t.
Dana returned to the hub with a smirk. Cassie appeared next to her with a dopey grin, one eyebrow raised, laughing at the blush on her friend’s cheeks, and the shit eating expression on her face.
‘What did you say to her, D?’ she questioned, humour evident in her tone, ‘you sure do enjoy making that one squirm.’
‘Fuck off, Cass,’ she tapped her on the arm, no anger in her voice, rolling her eyes as her, ‘she’s fun to tease and you know it.’
‘And I know,’ Cassie continued, her voice low ‘what you look like when you have a crush. You should go for her D.’
‘Cass,’ interrupted Dana, Cassie didn’t let her continue.
‘Dana. You should go for her, you more than anyone deserve some happiness, especially after Benji, and she looks at you like you invented medicine. Do it, or I’ll get Vadi to tell her to.’
Cassie left her with a squeeze to the shoulder and a lot to think about.
-
By the end of the day, Trinity was exhausted.
She managed to escape not long after handover, promising Baran that she would take an extra day on as admin to catch up on her charts, the attending not wanting her to fall too far behind, but not wanting her to stay beyond the point of exhaustion, especially with how well she had been doing with everything recently. Trinity appreciated that, a lot. Huckleberry had already left for the farm, so she changed and packed up her things alone, planning to go home, eat an ungodly amount of pizza rolls, and crash with a shit tv show for the night.
That plan did not come to fruition.
When she left the hospital, cold Pittsburgh air filling her lungs, washing away the stress of the day, she walked to her car and stopped, shocked by what she saw. Leaning against her car, smoking, shoulders tense, one foot tapping, was Dana, looking like she’d decided something. Something that made her nervous. Trinity smiled, deciding in an instant to pay Dana back for one of her earlier tricks.
She walked towards her slowly, one hand in her pocket, the other reaching out to pluck the cigarette from between her lips. Dana gasped as Trinity took a drag, standing so close she could feel the heat coming from her body; her eyes flicked appreciatively across Trinity’s body, taking in the cargo pants resting low on her hips, the carabiner hanging from it. Trinity was gorgeous, Dana knew that. Her jumper highlighted her curves and Dana wanted to reach out and pull her in, let her hands finally wander over the body she had tried not to fantasize about.
Cassie was right. Dana had a crush. A big, huge, massive lesbian crush on Trinity.
Trinity, who exhaled the cigarette smoke and placed it back between Dana’s lips, letting her thumb graze over her bottom lip for a fraction of a second. Dana whined, eyes fluttering shut, face heating in both embarrassment and arousal. Trinity cupped her face, and she gasped, her eyes opening, the cigarette falling between them and going out as it hit the floor. Trinity picked it up quickly, tucking it into the bin beside her car, then cupped Dana’s face again, turning it so they were making eye contact. Hazel meeting green. They looked at each other for a moment, taking each other in. Then Trinity broke the silence.
‘Are you gonna let me take you to dinner, Dana?’ her voice was quiet, injected with hope and false confidence.
Dana shook her head a bit in Trinity’s hand, laughing self-deprecatingly, eyes wide and nervous, butterflies dancing through her internal organs. She needed to get a grip, she wasn’t a teenager, she was a grown adult. Dana looked at the floor, steeling herself to say what she needed to.
‘I’m way too old for you, honey,’ her voice was small, smaller than Trinity had ever heard it, and it made her ache. It was like she was trying to convince herself of that fact. She had taken Cassie’s advice, she had made up her mind that she wanted Trinity, wanted to go for it, but she needed her to make that choice; she needed Trinity to acknowledge and accept the significant gap between their ages before she would even try.
‘I think that’s my decision to make, baby,’ she began, tilting Dana’s face back up, ‘and you’re way too pretty to resist, D.’
Trinity leant in and Dana met her halfway, their lips finally meeting, and they both sighed, instantly relaxing into each other. They kissed softly for a while, tasting smoke and nicotine, hands tracing each other like they’d both been stopping themselves and finally decided not to. Trinity traced her thumb over Dana’s cheek, ghosting over the smile lines and crow’s feet and sighing at how soft they felt; her other hand caressed up and down the soft expanse of Dana’s waist, relishing in the small shiver that coursed through the other woman; Dana’s hands never stopped moving, they carded through dark hair, scratching along her scalp, the travelled the whole expanse of Trinity’s back, pressing into the tension she found, smiling at the soft moans; one hand eventually stopped, cupping the back of her neck and pulling her in closer, pressing on the sensitive spot under her ear until Trinity whined against her mouth.
Soon enough, Dana’s worry died, it disintegrated somewhere around Trinity moaning into her mouth, and the cocky, smug attitude of the day returned, making her smile into the kiss, hands tightening around the younger woman. She turned them, pressing Trinity against the car door, tongue coming out to lick Trinity’s lips, asking nicely to be let in. Trinity opened her mouth with a groan, thighs rubbing together to try and get pressure on her aching core, as Dana pressed her tongue into her mouth and flicked, seeking the spots that made her squirm.
Why was Trinity surprised that Dana was a fucking excellent kisser?
The kiss went on until they had both lost track of time, Dana dominating it with an ease that made Trinity’s head buzz, her thoughts narrowing until there was nothing but the feeling of Dana’s tongue in her mouth; the feeling of her hands roaming her hair and face, cupping her jaw and controlling the kiss; the feeling of her body pressing her against the cold metal of the car. She whined as Dana finally pulled away trying to chase her lips but being held back by the hand on her jaw. Instead, Dana pulled her into a hug, Trinity burrowing her head into her neck, resisting the urge to plant kisses along the flushed skin.
‘Do you,’ Dana began, speaking into Trinity’s hair, ‘wanna come back to mine, pretty girl?’ Trinity nodded into Dana’s neck with a little whine that meant yes. Dana tutted; she couldn’t have that. She coaxed Trinity out from her neck, holding her by the chin, forcing eye contact.
Trinity’s eyes were blown, face covered in splotches of red that made her look desperate, her lips were swollen and pink, hips rocking back and forth like she couldn’t help it. Dana knew in her heart that Trinity had never looked more beautiful to her, so submissive and needy.
‘Say please,’ she whispered, tilted her head just so. Trinity whined, her back arching away from the car.
‘Please, Dana please,’ her voice was high, wrecked from the kissing; Dana bottled it in her mind, never wanting to forget this moment. Trinity Santos, competitive brat supreme, begging Dana to take her home. Dana had won their little game, as if there was any doubt. She leant back in to catch her lips again, but stopped a few millimetres away, a smug twinkle in her eye. And when she spoke, it was in that low dangerous tone that made Trinity moan unashamedly.
‘Good girl.’
-
Cassie won the bet, because of course she did.