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Despite how exhilarating his two weeks at the Day Shift were, Whitaker was more than nervous about the Night Shift. There was some sense of relief, he supposed; hopefully his external body temperature would follow a normal baseline for the entirety of the two weeks, and his lower abdomen wouldn’t constantly be tense.
When his analogue alarm went off, it was disorienting. It was weird as all hell to hear those blaring beeps that shot him up at 7 am and to look out his cracked blinds only to see the sun setting. Just as his brain was convincing himself that he was dreaming and the night shift was one big mass hallucination, the sound of movement in his shared kitchen with Trinity proved otherwise. At least he wasn’t going to be alone, and if he did go crazy, he had someone to fall back on.
Not that she’d be any real help… if anything it would probably be her fault he went crazy.
Jumping around his room for a bit and blasting music in his ears was an effective way of waking him up from his brain fog, but he hoped — for his sanity’s sake — that it wouldn’t persist throughout the rest of his shift. Everyone knew about what the night shift did to people, and how if you weren’t alert at all times to take care of your patients, you were probably falling asleep in some empty room.
Grabbing his things, he exited his room to see Trinity dancing around the kitchen to wake herself up as well. He took off his headphones and heard she was listening to Nicki Minaj, yawning whilst dancing lazily.
He laughed at her softly, going over to pat her back so she could move out of the way. The two moved in sync, ducking arms and squeezing against counters to move past one another — it had only been half a month since he moved in and it already felt like he had known the woman for years. Trinity was a meal prepper, He was not. She had offered a couple times throughout their first week, but Dennis had repeatedly declined. The guilt was wringing through him every time she asked. He was already living with her for free, he was not about to make her pay for his groceries too. About halfway through their second week living together, the resident had sat him down and explained to him that if he didn’t start eating more she was going to force feed him.
They reached a compromise by Trinity just buying a little bit more of her usual groceries so that Dennis didn’t feel as if she was buying food specifically for him.
“You ready?” she asked, wiping the tears that were pricking her eyes from exhaustion.
He shimmed his shoulders in uncertainty as he packed his lunch and shoved it into his bag. “I hope… Maybe if my anxiety keeps up, I won’t pass out in the middle of the shift.”
“We so should’ve gone to bed earlier.” She was stretching now, doing uncoordinated yoga moves. “Are we idiots?”
“Mission Impossible is more important than saving lives, though,” he argued jokingly. “Either way, I’m sure we can find some stuff in Langdon’s locker to help us.” His eyes darted over to her to see she was giggling; thankfully his joke landed, and it wasn’t still a sore subject for her.
She began moving her hips to the beat in a way that made his shoulders shake from laughter. He zipped up his bag and elected not to put his jacket on—maybe the biting cold would wake him up even more! “You look like you’re dreading this.”
“Oh yeah!” she agreed while twerking in a stiff sort of way. “I’m gonna fucking hate it.”
All he could do was laugh as he slid her bag closer to the corner she had stopped herself at. Getting used to her humor wasn’t as quick as he wished it had been. He still got a little defensive when she poked and prodded him, somehow locking onto the nichest of his insecurities and making a whole comedy routine about it. Despite that, with their forced proximity of one another, he could see the subtle signs on whether or not she was being sarcastic about something.
This was obviously one of those instances as she had now moved on to do a crude impression of a robot dancing.
“Bet your dick is happy Robby isn’t gonna be anywhere around.”
Whitaker sighed and he hung his head. There it was. In all honesty, he wanted to drop to the floor dead. He knew that she was gonna mention something stupid like this, he just didn’t know it was going to be so early in their morning.
“Can we not talk about that?”
“Oh, sorry.” She did not look sorry, but she forced a grimace like she really was and the sentence had just slipped out. “Did the mention of him alone get your blood rushing?”
What was worse was that she was right. The mere thought of him or the waft of his cologne was enough to get Dennis’ cheeks hot and nerves on fire. It was a really big problem that hopefully would be solved with the absence of him for the next two weeks.
Whitaker didn’t really know what it was exactly… his height… authority… his ability to be kind yet stern at the same time… the fact that at least twice every shift the man’s hands were on him. Yeah, Whitaker didn’t really know what it was, but he refused to actually talk to Trinity or his friends about it unless he wanted to be humiliated for the rest of his life.
He sighed again, rubbing a hand down his face and dropping his bag to the floor. “Trinity.”
She slowly stood up to her full height, skeptical about what he was about to do.
“I am going to beat your ass.”
They ran around the kitchen a few times, a furious game of cat and mouse before Trinity realized that Whitaker was a farmboy, yes, but pathetic. She was able to quickly turn the tables and get him into a headlock before he made them both fall over the back of the couch onto the cushions. He had to tap so they could get a move on and not be late… so much for having brothers.
Their daily routine wasn’t all that different. Get in the car, argue over music and flip a coin. They’d then sit in their parking space for a minute or two before mustering up the courage to walk into their own version of purgatory. One must imagine Sisyphus happy, Dr. Robby had once said to them to gather up group morale, the newbies just all looked at each other with disdain and skepticism. After that they would race to their lockers, see who could emerge out the quickest, and they were ready to start their day.
One thing that took them out of their usual early morning autopilot mode, was how terribly dark it was. The sun had set quick and streetlamps had lit up the road and the walkways towards the ED. It made the fluorescent lighting of the hospital all that more aggressive on their eyes. Trinity actually stuttered to a stop to cover her eyes. Dennis did make sure to laugh at her before she attempted to make him look straight up at the lights as if trying to blind someone on an eclipse day.
The other difference that stuck out like a sore thumb were the new faces. There were some they recognized and pointed out, couple nurses, couple doctors, only because of that one night — their first shift.
There was one group of faces that they recognized. A group that let the tension fall from the duo’s shoulders and caused them to pick up a bouncing pace towards the central station.
“Mel?” Trinity called out with a smile as they walked towards their friends. “What are you doing here?”
The blonde smiled, pushing her glasses up with the back of her hand. “I guess because I’m new they’d also like to do a day and night shift rotation with me?” She shrugged. “I guess it’s to just get me situated.”
“I asked the same thing.” Victoria joined them, leaning against the central up and propping her head up with her hand. “By the way, do you know if Samira is gonna be coming?”
“She’s not new, though?” Mel asked. “I’d think not,” she answered her own question.
Whitaker shrugged. “Last time we talked she said she’d tried to snake her way over here, I told her it was a bad idea… pretty sure she ignored me.”
“I did indeed ignore you, Huckleberry.”
The group turned around and were met with Samira smiling at them with her usual sparkling teeth. They all shared a quick little laugh and dragged Samira over to their group.
Okay, Whitaker was going to be fine. He had his friends, and he already knew some of the night shift people from that casualty that happened on their very first day. Some of them also liked to pop in and out of the hospital as well. In his soul, he hoped that it was because they didn’t value their sleep and not because they had to ignore their health for this damn job (but it was most likely the latter).
Trinity’s eyes were pulled away from their conversation by the arrival of Ellis, the senior resident that liked to frequent night shift more than day shift. She had been brought up there a couple times during that transitional period when they lost Langdon, but after finding someone who stuck, Dennis didn’t see Ellis again.
She was nice! Very stern, like most of the other night shift regulars. It made Dennis a little worried, what if he ended up getting stuck with night shift and turned into a perpetual grump?
“Hey,” her whisper sounded more like her throat was scratchy as she poked the resident in the arm. “Parker.”
“Knew it,” Whitaker mumbled, having argued with himself silently if the resident’s name was Paris or Parker. Samira nudged him with a smile.
“What, Santos?”
“Like that little thing you did to try and remember my name.”
Ellis tilted their head down with a smile, probably because Trinity was right on the money.
The senior looked back up at her with a raised eyebrow and Trinity took a deep breath before asking her question. There was tense air between the small group of friends because they all, subconsciously, knew what Trinity was about to ask. It had been a silent question plaguing them since learning about this new rotation.
“Is Abbot like… mean?”
Ellis stared at her for a second, then her eyes scanned over the group of, while fairly confident, incredibly scared newbies. She didn’t say any words, but she did laugh, and laugh… and her laughter grew as she walked away from them, holding her stomach in pain.
Victoria groaned and let her head fall to the counter. “We are so fucked.”
“Maybe you guys are,” Mel teased with a smile, but it quickly faded as her shoulders slouched. “Sorry, that was mean. I’m sure he’ll be nice.”
Trinity snorted. “No, Melody.” The wrongness of her name made Mel scrunch her nose like she had an itch. Trinity reached around to nudge her slightly. “Be bitchy, it suits you.”
“Melissa.”
“No, yeah, Melanoma.”
Whitaker snorted and quickly covered his face in shame.
Mel let a little sigh out. “Okay…Traci…”
The girls (and Whitaker) all set their eyes on Mel with growing smiles.
Trinity squinted her eyes, but there was a smile clear and plain on her face. “Okay, Melanie.”
Mel’s smile was also growing and she clapped her hands together and squeezed, a usual indicator she was excited. “Tralena.”
“Melissophobia.”
“What is even that?” Whitaker whispered, leaning between them to reach Victoria and Samira.
“Fear of bees,” Victoria answered. “Pretty sure. I haven’t studied my phobias in forever.”
“Triiodothyronine!”
“Are we playing scrabble?” Victoria asked. “What the hell was that?”
“Isn’t that a thyroid hormone?” Samira asked.
Whitaker let his head fall into his hands. “Is this a ploy for us to study our medical terms? I did not sign up for this.”
Trinity hummed and repeatedly hit her foot against the floor as she thought of a comeback, another ‘mel’ name or term. She finally slammed her hand against the table.
“Melanosis coli!”
“What the fuck?”
They turned around to see Dr. Abbot now in front of them all. His face was skewed and scrunched up in annoyance. The other night-shift workers were staring at them as well. Parker was covering her mouth with her fist at the opposite end of the central station, but it was clear she was hiding a smile.
The room got really hot and Whitaker had to hang his head down to avoid eye contact and pretend like this first day wasn’t just as embarrassing as his last.
Their new attending physician gave them a sideways look before shaking his body and beginning his speech to introduce everyone to the new people and get the day started. It was almost exactly like their first day, except it felt like everyone on the night shift hated the fact that they were on the night shift. Whitaker couldn’t help but focus in on a particular snap to Dr. Abbot’s tone that made his neck twitch.
But it was fine… it was nothing. Dr. Abbot was a handsome man—Whitaker had noticed it when the physician came unprompted to help with the shooting victims—but it’s not like he had been focusing on handsome men during a damn mass casualty event…
He clapped his hands once he was done. “Okay! Shoo! Shoo!” He waved his hands at them.
Whitaker was about to turn and walk away when his name was called. Abbot was looking at him, gesturing his hands towards him.
A spotlight quickly appeared on the doctor, everything else in Dennis’ line of vision went dark. There was no way he was already being singled out, it was the beginning of his damn shift!
He whipped his head back to look at his friends (who were all stifling laughs). Trinity waved her hand at him, shooing him along like an animal going back to the forest.
The man’s gravitational pull was much stronger than Dennis’ dignity and he gravitated towards the man. Their sides stuck together like two opposite magnets and the older man wrapped an arm around Whitaker’s shoulder, maneuvering him at the same time to turn him away from his friends.
“I’m excited that you’re here.” His voice was low, like he was trying to whisper, but didn’t want to commit all the way. “Robby told me all about you.” He squeezed him ever so gently.
Dennis froze for a moment as the words sunk into his head, and even after what felt like hours of repeating those words in his head, he still couldn’t wrap his head around it. Robby talked about him? Robby told Abbot all about him? What the hell did that mean?
Abbot’s voice continued to float through his head. “Can’t wait to see what you do when you're in my territory. And if you need to change your scrubs, you can do it in the attending office, alright?” His smile was sharp, and the things he was saying made it sound like he was some kind of wolf ready to tear Whitaker open.
“O-okay, thanks.” His throat felt hoarse and painful as he tried to say something — as if his body was fighting against him.
He squeezed him again before letting him go. “Have fun!” He winked.
Whitaker put his hand up as a silent, repeated ‘thank you’ and rushed away, running to the group of girls who had yet to leave the central station. They were not subtle at all when they were watching people — maybe if they were a smaller group and the ED wasn’t so open they’d have a better chance — but they all just looked like a pack of meerkats emerging from their underground dens.
His body felt like it was on fire as Trinity wrapped her arm around his shoulder, most likely purposefully copying the move that Abbot had done on him mere seconds ago. This could not be what the rest of his shift was going to be like, but thankfully he learned his lesson with Robby, and if he was smart enough he’d be able to avoid Dr. Abbot at every possible chance.
“You poor soul,” Trinity cooed, running the back of her hand down his hot face as the girls giggled. “And we thought that this rotation would be easy for you.”
“I literally hate all of you,” he said through gritted teeth. His eyes kept darting over to Abbot who was flipping through papers and talking to their charge nurse, Lena.
“Be ready for a lot of bathroom breaks.” Samira pushed his back with a laugh before she skipped away to check on patients.
His face went hot and he covered his face with his hands. There was a deep urge in him to just abandon his sanity and scream into his palms, but he kept his composure… somehow.
“Oh, Dr. Abbot,” Trinity moaned quietly, at this point Whitaker was sure that his face was melting off and dripping onto the floor. Victoria gasped in laughter as his roommate continued. “Oh my god—Dr. Abbot!” She moaned again, pretending to jack off and squeezing Whitaker tighter.
“You need me already?” Abbot was halfway to turning around when they scrambled.
Victoria made a squeaking sound and ran off in the same direction as Samira, Mel ducked her head low and ran off in the opposite direction, while Tweedle-dee and Tweedle-dum ran into each other.
“Fuck! Trinity!” He held his forehead and she spun him around.
“Go, go, go!” She hurried, pushing him along to avoid the very confused gaze of Jack Abbot.
The attending stared at the now empty spot with an unimpressed look, before popping his weight to one side and giving a look to Lena. She gave him a half-hearted shrug, and he shook his head with a sigh.
“Damn newbies.”
Whitaker liked to think that the rest of the day went by as normal as it possibly could. He saw patients, helped save lives, checked on patients, got to work triage, made friends with some of the night shift nurses, and even had a break and talked with his friends. All the normal stuff that made working in a department of mayhem bearable.
But…there were some things that forced Whitaker to pause and take a breath, lest he pop a blood vessel.
He originally didn’t want to work the case. He saw Abbot duck into the trauma room with the patient and he could only run so far before Mel grabbed him by the scruff of his shirt and pulled him along. Now, Mel was an awkward girl, but they loved her anyway. It wasn’t often that she would join in on the group's banter or their teasing—she was a fan of straight talk. If something didn’t need to be said, half of the time she wouldn’t say it. Key phrase: “half of the time.” Just because Mel didn’t always join in on the bits when the group acted like they hated each other didn’t mean she never did.
Her eyes darted from Dennis to the patient to Dennis to the patient—it was really making him freak out. She was an actual resident, older than him and on a higher level than him—just because they were friends didn’t mean that her authority didn’t stress him out, especially when she was staring him down like this.
“Dr. Abbot.” Her voice was a little small, like she was unsure of what she was about to say. “How is…” She shook her body a little. “How do you think Whitaker is doing?”
Dennis ever so slightly turned his head to get a good look at Abbot, who was standing at the patient’s feet. He tilted his head and hummed before striding over to the MS4 and getting so close Dennis was sure that his lips were gonna be on his neck.
“Good,” he said after a moment that felt far too long. “Your hands are shaking a bit though, kid.”
“Sorry,” he mumbled and bit his tongue as Abbot’s gentle hand held onto his elbow. What was an attempt to stop the shake in his hands, just ended up making his whole body shake.
Shooting a quick glance across the body in front of him let him see the small smile of accomplishment on Mel’s face.
Oh, the bastard.
Once they were done, he wracked through his brain so he could get back at her. He tried to think of literally anything to embarrass her, and that’s when he noticed it.
“Hey, Mel,” he said, voice a little louder than it needed to be, “what’s that thing on your neck?” He asked, throwing his gloves in the trash.
Her face scrunched with confusion and she felt around her neck with two fingers before slapping a hand over the side of it. Her eyes were wide, and there was a light dusting of pink on her face. She didn’t say anything as the two stared at each other from across the room.
“Have you seen Langdon recently by the way?” he asked, casually, like it was completely unrelated. “How’s he doing?”
“Good,” She answered, very matter-of-factly. She narrowed her eyes at him as they exited the room and she rushed off to fix the very strange spot on her neck.
He could hear the faintest of laughs coming from his side — coming from Abbot.
Then, after being pulled into another case that Dennis was trying to avoid (why did Abbot have to always be there? Who cared about what the attending had to say about their job…), he found himself alone with Dr. Abbot as the two of them helped clean up a trauma room.
The older man was cleaning his hands with hand sanitizer when he spoke up. “Y’know, Whitaker… I’m disappointed.”
Dennis snapped to attention. “Excuse me?” he asked, small and worried.
“I’m disappointed.” Abbot shrugged.
Whitaker threw the things in his hands away and he slowly walked up to the attending. “I’m sorry if I did anything,” he apologized quietly. “If there was any mistake that I made, I will make up for it 100%.”
Dr. Abbot had his arms crossed now. He huffed out a laugh with a small smile on his face. “Well, you haven’t had to change your scrubs at all so far.”
Whitaker felt his nervous system boil and pop with confusion. There was no way this was a serious problem that the physician could actually be upset about, but on the other hand…he sounded really upset.
He huffed. “I was expecting a damn show, and I’ve gotten nothing so far.”
Whitaker didn’t know what to do. Should he apologize profusely and ask to not be kicked out forever or should he flirt?
There was a puff of smoke in his ear and a little devil was now sitting on his shoulder. Unfortunately, it was shaped and sounded like Trinity Santos.
Whitaker straightened out his back ever so slightly. “Sorry about that, sir…” His hands were shaking as he prepared himself for what he was gonna say, he held them tightly, almost cutting off circulation. “But…the shift’s not over yet.”
Dr. Abbot didn’t move. There was a slight widening of his eyes and curl of his lips, but that was it. Had he made the wrong decision? That devil on his shoulder was the devil, so why the hell had he listened to it?
Abbot’s hand was suddenly on his shoulder. “You’re right, kid.” He was squeezing it ever so slightly, Whitaker’s body was growing hot. “Looking forward to it.” The doctor winked and left without another word, leaving Whitaker alone…in the trauma room, deaf to everything but his own pounding heartbeat.
Their shift was then coming to an end. The sun was rising into the sky, and the day shift staff were making their exchanges.
Whitaker was using the counter of the central hub to stretch. His back was killing him, and so were his feet…and his knees…and he was pretty sure that he had a headache the whole shift from Trinity slamming into him at the beginning.
All he wanted to do was go back home, pass out, and never think about Dr. Abbot or Dr. Robby again.
He stretched his back, arching it every so slightly.
“You needed me?”
Whitaker looked under his arms as he stretched. Red spread across his face as he saw Dr. Abbot and Trinity standing side by side. His roommate was biting her finger with a poorly hidden smile on her face.
He shot up to his full height as he stuttered. “What?” he asked. “I’m sorry for—”
“For your nose?” Trinity cut him off, a mischievous smile on her face. “You said you were worried about when we knocked into each other, right? It had been bothering you all night.”
It was impeccable how well she could lie right to their face—so impeccable that Whitaker almost believed her, despite the fact that she was talking about him.
He blinked a few times before giving in. Trinity was an awful role model for him. “Uh, yeah… I don’t know, I didn’t wanna bother you—”
“Don’t sweat it, kid.” In two large strides Abbot was in his personal space (in front of everyone). One hand was on the back of his neck to brace it, while the other was holding his nose and pushing his head back.
His whole body was on fire, his nerves alert and raw as Abbot kept his hands secured on his head. He darted his eyes behind the doctor and he could see Trinity with her jaw practically on the floor. He was sure that she had expected him to get close, but holy shit! If he wasn’t focusing 100% on not passing out, his jaw would’ve been right there on the floor next to hers.
Abbot smelled of cologne and coffee—more coffee than anything. He tried his hardest not to breathe in too hard in case he looked like a weirdo, but he was really loving it. Maybe in some kind of casual conversation, he could ask Abbot what cologne he wore, but his body was too fiery for his vocal cords to work properly.
The physician breathing gently onto him due to their proximity was driving Whitaker up a wall. Abbot lightly squeezed his nose, pressing his fingers into the skin. Millions of images began running around in Whitaker’s mind, and he had to bite down to force his brain to focus on the task at hand: not popping a boner while Dr. Jack Abbot was practically on top of him.
And in front of everyone.
God, was this a new kink? Dennis was gonna kill himself.
“Did that hurt?” he asked, quiet and low, must having felt his jaw tense.
“Oh? No, sorry, I… Sorry.”
There was an incredibly soft laugh from the attending. “I think your nose is fine, Whitaker.”
“That’s good, yeah.” He picked his head up, but Jack’s hand had yet to fall from his neck and he didn’t take any steps back. “Honestly the pain was dwindling all day.” Dennis did not like lying; he hated lying to family, friends, and patients alike, but he supposed that lying could be good if it got a hot doctor to invade his personal space. Being friends with Santos was really not good for his morals.
Abbot hummed, “That’s good.” There was a beat of silence. “Y’know… you gave me false hope earlier.”
This could not be happening. This was not a real thing that was happening to him right now. If Dennis had a lack of dignity, he would’ve stripped right then and there, but he did have some…sadly…
“Your face is getting red, Whitaker, you okay?”
He let out a small squeak in response; probably the best response he could’ve given to that question. How easily could he get to the roof of the hospital before anyone noticed? And how could he leave a note that he did not want either Abbot or Robby working on him if he survived the fall?
“You torturing the boy, Abbot?” Robby’s voice filled the air.
“Ohhh,” Abbot drew out as he turned around to face the man. “I torture all my students, you know this!”
They met in a quick hug, but it was long enough for Trinity to take Whitaker and make a very quick run—or better yet, speedwalk—for it.
“That was crazy!” Santos gritted through her teeth as they made their way to the lockers. “He was all up in your bubble!”
“You think I don’t know that?” He ripped his arm from the girl as they essentially ran through the ER. “Oh my god, I’m gonna lose it!” He was sure that people were looking at them, but he didn’t want to risk turning his head and seeing the small figures of Abbot and Robby staring them down.
“I cannot wait for the girls to find this out.”
“I cannot have a crush on both of them—I’ll die!”
“Looks like you're dying soon, buddy!” They stopped at the locker room. “Maybe you can ask them both to resuscitate you.” She made a gesture with her hand and pressed her tongue to her cheek to make it pop out.
Whitaker’s face went bright red. “You are awful! Shut up!”