Chapter Text
Chapter One- Professional Disagreements
The emergency department at the Pittsburgh Trauma Medical Center had a particular kind of chaos in the late afternoon.
It was the kind that came with too many patients, too few beds, and a coffee machine that seemed determined to make everyone’s day worse.
Michael Robinavitch had been dealing with all three for most of his shift.
“I’m telling you, Dennis, if one more person asks me whether we have somewhere quieter they can wait, I’m going to show them the supply closet.”
Dennis Whitaker glanced up from the chart he was reviewing.
“You can’t put patients in the supply closet, Robby.”
“Watch me.”
“Pretty sure that’s a fire hazard.”
“Then I’ll put a sign on the door.”
Dennis laughed, shaking his head. “You know, most people count down the hours until their shift ends by thinking about going home. You count down by threatening to violate hospital policy.”
“It’s a coping mechanism.”
“It’s a cry for help.”
Robby shot him a look. Dennis only smiled, entirely too pleased with himself.
That was the problem with Dennis. He had a smile that made it difficult to stay irritated with him, even when he was being deliberately annoying.
Unfortunately for Robby, Dennis seemed to have made it his personal mission to be deliberately annoying every single day.
Fortunately for Robby, he was also the person he wanted to go home with.
Dennis nudged his shoulder against Robby’s as they stood beside the workstation. It was a small gesture, familiar enough that neither of them thought much about it. His fingers brushed Robby’s wrist before he returned to the chart.
“You’re tense,” Dennis observed.
“I’m at work.”
“You’re always at work.”
“That’s because patients keep showing up.”
“Terrible design flaw in the emergency department, honestly.”
Robby huffed a laugh despite himself.
They had been together long enough that Dennis knew most of Robby’s moods before Robby had even figured them out himself. He knew when to push, when to leave him alone, and when a sarcastic comment was likely to earn him a kiss rather than an argument.
The last one was Dennis’s favorite.
“You two planning on doing any actual work today?”
The voice came from behind them.
Robby closed his eyes for half a second.
Of course.
Jack Abbot stood a few feet away, looking entirely too pleased with himself. He was early for his night shift, carrying a coffee and wearing the expression of a man who had already decided everyone around him was incompetent.
Robby disliked that expression.
He disliked the coffee, too, for reasons he couldn’t quite explain.
Mostly, though, he disliked Jack.
That was what he told himself, anyway.
“Nice to see you too, Abbot,” Robby said. “I was just thinking this place needed another opinion.”
Jack took a sip of his coffee. “Good. Yours are clearly in short supply.”
Dennis made a noise that sounded suspiciously like a laugh.
Robby turned toward him. “You’re supposed to be on my side.”
“I am on your side.”
“Could’ve fooled me.”
“I’m on your side emotionally,” Dennis clarified. “Professionally, I’m staying out of this.”
“Coward.”
“Survivor.”
Jack’s mouth twitched.
It was barely a smile, but Robby noticed it anyway.
Which was irritating.
Everything about Jack Abbot was irritating, including the fact that he had a good smile when he occasionally forgot to look like he wanted to fight the entire world.
“Don’t you have somewhere to be?” Robby asked him.
“Night shift starts soon.”
“Then why are you here?”
“Because some of us like to know what we’re walking into.”
“Some of us know how to give a handoff without making it a personal attack.”
Jack lowered his coffee.
“Some of us would give better handoffs if the information was actually useful.”
There it was.
Dennis quietly moved his chart out of the way.
“Oh, this should be good,” he muttered.
Robby folded his arms. “The handoff notes are complete.”
“They’re missing the latest update on the patient in bed six.”
“Because the labs came back five minutes ago.”
“And nobody thought to update the chart?”
“I was about to.”
“Convenient.”
Robby stared at him.
Jack stared back.
For a moment, the noise of the emergency department seemed to fade into the background. There was only the space between them, the challenge in Jack’s expression, and the inexplicable awareness Robby had of how close the other man was standing.
Then Robby remembered that he was supposed to be annoyed.
He was very good at being annoyed.
“Would you like to do my job for me, Abbot?”
“Would you let me?”
“Not if you were the last doctor in Pittsburgh.”
“Good thing I’m not.”
“Thank God for small mercies.”
Dennis cleared his throat.
“Okay. Before either of you gets written up for murder in the workplace, can we remember that we’re all adults?”
“Tell him that,” Robby said.
Jack looked at Dennis. “I was perfectly civil.”
Dennis blinked.
Then he laughed.
It was a genuine laugh, bright and unrestrained, and Jack looked briefly surprised to have caused it.
Robby didn’t like that, either.
He especially didn’t like the way Jack’s expression softened when he looked at Dennis.
It was a small change. A slight easing around the eyes, a little less tension in his shoulders.
Robby had seen Jack be plenty of things.
He hadn’t realized that charming was one of them.
Interesting.
Annoying.
Very, very annoying.
“Anyway,” Dennis said, still smiling, “the patient in bed six has an updated set of labs. Robby was about to add them. And if you two could save the professional hostility until after I’ve had lunch, I’d appreciate it.”
“It’s not hostility,” Jack said.
“It’s a difference of opinion,” Robby added.
Dennis looked between them.
“Right. And I’m the queen of England.”
He walked away before either of them could respond.
Jack watched him go.
Robby noticed.
Of course he noticed.
“Something catch your attention?” Robby asked.
Jack turned back to him. “Your boyfriend’s funny.”
Robby’s eyebrows rose.
“My boyfriend?”
“Whitaker.”
“I know who you’re talking about.”
“Then why’d you ask?”
Robby stared at him for a beat.
Jack took another sip of coffee, looking infuriatingly satisfied.
“You’re a pain in the ass,” Robby informed him.
“That’s what I’ve heard.”
“From everyone you’ve ever met, I assume.”
“Mostly from you.”
“Then maybe you should consider the possibility that I’m right.”
Jack’s eyes flicked over his face.
“Maybe I like hearing you say it.”
The words landed between them with considerably more force than they should have.
Robby forgot what he was going to say.
It lasted only a second, perhaps two, but Jack noticed.
Of course he noticed.
His mouth curved into that irritating almost-smile again.
“See you around, Robinavitch.”
He walked away before Robby could recover enough to come up with an appropriate response.
Robby watched him go, his expression darkening.
He hated Jack Abbot.
He absolutely hated him.
“Robby?”
He turned.
Dennis had returned, holding two cups of coffee.
“Why do you look like you just lost an argument with a wall?”
“Because I work with idiots.”
Dennis handed him a cup. “And yet you keep coming back.”
“Occupational hazard.”
“Sure.”
Dennis studied him for a moment, his eyes narrowing thoughtfully.
Then he smiled.
“Oh.”
Robby immediately became suspicious. “What?”
“Nothing.”
“Dennis.”
“Nothing at all.”
“Don’t do that.”
“Do what?”
“That face.”
Dennis’s smile widened.
“What face?”
“The face you’re making right now.”
“I can’t help my face, Robby.”
“You absolutely can.”
Dennis leaned in and pressed a quick kiss to the corner of Robby’s mouth.
It was brief, casual, and entirely too effective at making Robby’s irritation disappear.
“There,” Dennis murmured. “Better?”
Robby tried to maintain his scowl.
He failed.
“A little.”
“Good. Now update those labs before Abbot comes back and starts another argument.”
“I hope he spills his coffee.”
“That’s mean.”
“I hope it’s hot coffee.”
“Robby!”
“What? I’m wishing him a minor inconvenience.”
Dennis shook his head, laughing as he headed back toward the workstation.
Robby followed, still thinking about the way Jack had looked at him.
Which was ridiculous.
He had a boyfriend. A wonderful boyfriend, who was currently waiting for him to finish his shift so they could go home together.
He had no reason whatsoever to be thinking about Jack Abbot.
Absolutely none.
⸻
The next hour passed in the usual blur of emergency medicine.
A patient with chest pain came through the doors. A child with a nasty cut needed stitches. Someone’s grandfather had decided that a fall down the stairs wasn’t worth mentioning until his wife noticed he couldn’t stand up straight.
The department kept moving.
Robby worked alongside Jack on a patient whose condition deteriorated unexpectedly. Whatever else could be said about the man, Jack knew what he was doing.
He was quick, decisive, and annoyingly good at anticipating what needed to happen next.
They worked together without getting in each other’s way, their instructions falling into place with an ease that neither of them commented on.
When the patient’s condition stabilized, Jack checked the latest readings and nodded.
“Good call.”
Robby looked up.
“What?”
“The decision to get the additional imaging. Good call.”
Robby stared at him, waiting for the insult that usually followed any compliment from Jack Abbot.
It didn’t come.
“Oh,” he said eventually. “Well. Obviously.”
Jack’s expression shifted.
“There he is.”
“Who?”
“The guy who can’t accept a compliment without making it unbearable.”
“I’m sorry, would you prefer I cry with gratitude?”
“I’d settle for a thank-you.”
“Don’t push your luck.”
Jack laughed under his breath.
Robby felt it somewhere in his chest.
That was becoming a problem.
A serious one.
Across the department, Dennis was speaking with a nurse, his expression attentive as he listened to her explain a patient’s symptoms. When he noticed Jack looking in his direction, he raised his eyebrows.
Jack lifted his coffee in a small greeting.
Dennis smiled back.
Robby saw the exchange.
He also saw Jack’s expression soften again.
For reasons he wasn’t prepared to examine, he found himself wanting to step between them.
Instead, he looked down at the chart in his hands.
Ridiculous.
All of it was ridiculous.
⸻
The baby had been quiet for most of the afternoon.
Baby Jane Doe.
That was what the staff had been calling her, the little girl brought into the hospital without anyone who could tell them her name or where she belonged. She was stable and being monitored, cared for by the staff while the necessary arrangements were made.
Robby had checked on her earlier.
He had told himself it was simply part of his job.
It was part of his job to care about the patients who came through the emergency department, especially the ones who couldn’t speak for themselves.
Still, he’d lingered longer than necessary.
He’d watched her sleeping, impossibly small beneath the blanket, and felt something twist painfully in his chest.
He had no answers for her.
No way to make the situation fair.
All he could do was make sure she was safe for the time being.
When he passed her again later, he paused at the doorway.
She was still sleeping.
For a moment, the department’s noise seemed far away.
Then Dennis appeared beside him.
“She’s doing okay,” Dennis said quietly.
Robby nodded.
“Yeah.”
Dennis didn’t ask what he was thinking. He didn’t need to.
Instead, he rested a hand briefly against Robby’s back.
A familiar, grounding touch.
Robby covered Dennis’s hand with his own for a second before letting go.
They stood there together, watching over a child neither of them knew, sharing a silence that didn’t need to be filled.
Then a monitor alarm sounded from somewhere down the hall.
The moment passed.
There was always another patient.
Always something else that needed them.
They went back to work.
⸻
By the time Robby and Dennis were finally ready to leave, the afternoon had stretched into early evening.
Robby was tired, hungry, and more than ready to get out of the hospital.
Dennis, unfortunately, seemed determined to make the walk to the exit as entertaining as possible.
“So,” Dennis began.
“No.”
“You don’t even know what I’m going to say.”
“I know you.”
“That’s sweet.”
“It’s a warning.”
Dennis grinned.
“You think Jack’s attractive.”
Robby stopped walking.
Dennis took two more steps before noticing and turning around.
“Oh, my God.”
“Don’t.”
“You do!”
“I absolutely do not.”
“Robby, you just stopped walking like I’d announced the apocalypse.”
“Because you’re saying ridiculous things.”
“Am I?”
“Yes.”
Dennis walked back toward him, looking delighted.
“You’ve spent the entire afternoon arguing with him.”
“He started it.”
“You watched him walk away three separate times.”
“I was making sure he left.”
“Of course you were.”
“And you’re enjoying this far too much.”
“I’m enjoying it exactly the right amount.”
Robby dragged a hand down his face.
“I cannot believe I’m dating you.”
Dennis’s expression softened.
“Yeah, you can.”
Robby looked at him.
That was the thing about Dennis. Beneath all the teasing, beneath the jokes and the ridiculous observations, there was a warmth that made Robby feel understood in a way he hadn’t expected to find in anyone.
He stepped closer and kissed Dennis properly this time.
Dennis smiled against his mouth before kissing him back, one hand settling at Robby’s waist.
When they separated, Dennis looked unbearably pleased.
“See?” he murmured. “You love me.”
“Unfortunately.”
“Tragic.”
“The worst.”
Dennis kissed his cheek.
“Come on. Let’s go home.”
Robby let Dennis take his hand as they continued toward the exit.
He didn’t look back.
Not once.
⸻
Jack was finishing up at the workstation when he noticed them leaving.
Dennis was saying something that made Robby roll his eyes. Their hands were linked, their shoulders brushing as they walked, and Dennis leaned in to whisper something that made Robby laugh despite his best efforts not to.
It was an easy kind of affection.
The kind that didn’t need to announce itself to everyone in the room.
Jack found himself watching them longer than he intended.
He’d known Robby and Dennis were together. It wasn’t exactly a secret.
But seeing them like this was different.
They fit.
And Dennis looked happy.
Jack had no business thinking about either of them.
He especially had no business noticing the way Robby looked when he laughed, or the way Dennis seemed to know exactly how to draw that laugh out of him.
“Abbot?”
Jack turned to find a nurse waiting for him with a chart.
“Sorry,” he said, taking it from her. “What’s up?”
She explained the patient assignment, and Jack focused on the details, pushing the other thoughts aside.
He was here to work.
That was all.
Still, as he turned back toward the department, his eyes drifted once more to the doors through which Robby and Dennis had disappeared.
He thought about Robby’s sharp tongue.
Dennis’s smile.
The way Robby had looked at him when he’d offered that compliment.
Jack exhaled slowly.
This was going to be a problem.
And something told him it was only the beginning.