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“Hey,” Jack says, intense, leaning right down into Robby’s direct eyeline, snapping his fingers. It’s only once his view of his paperwork is obscured that Robby processes he’s being spoken to at all, and he could tell just by Jack’s tone that it’s not the first time he’s said something. “Earth to Dr. Robby. You’re in a hospital, you know. Should be paying some attention, don’t you think?”
“What crawled up your ass?” Robby asks as he pushes him aside to scribble one last signature and tuck the paperwork away in its slot. Removing his glasses, letting them hang from their chain around his neck, he gives Jack a look only to realize he’s already getting one right back.
“I was saying that I don’t know where the hell Dennis took off to,” Jack tells him. “I can’t find him.”
It’s one of the only things Jack could’ve said that would get Robby’s full attention. He’s already frowning, twisting to look over his shoulder at the board behind him, eyes darting over the screen.
“Yeah, I already checked that,” Jack tells him with a light swat to the back of his head. Robby brushes him off again and actually stands, heading closer to squint and find Dennis’s name. “He’s supposed to be in South 7 with a two-year-old female with heatstroke, but he’s not in there. Neither’s the kid.”
Robby’s frown deepens, turning towards Jack again. “Well, what about the parents? Did we even have anyone looking after this kid?”
“Summer day camp counselor brought her in,” Dana interrupts to explain, leaning over the counter in between them. “Poor kid was barely sixteen and freaking out, I told her to go get something from the caf and we’d look after Maeve for a minute.”
“Great job we’re doing,” Jack comments. “Kid’s gone and took one of our doctors with her.”
Dana’s face creases slightly, though it’s less a frown and more just confusion. “Whitaker had her last, it’s not like they got kidnapped. She was hanging right off of him. Honestly, I don’t think he would’ve been able to leave without her.”
“Did you see where they went?” Robby immediately asks. He’s trying not to demand, and he hates feeling nervous because one person is out of his sight for more than a few minutes, but here he is. If Whitaker ever really went missing, he’s not sure what he’d do. Start bursting down doors within about five minutes, maybe.
He can tell the way Jack would do the same, practically vibrating at his side, ready to take off like a shot the moment Dana gives them a direction to go in. For her part, Dana just sighs, leaning forward with her elbows on the desktop, her chin in her hands, her eyes on them.
“You know,” she comments, “you two are kind of insufferable. Have people told you that?”
“Yeah,” Jack replies. “Mainly you.”
“Well, now, I guess you three are insufferable.” Dana’s eyes flick over their shoulders, and she straightens up with a smile that both intimidates and relaxes Robby all at once. Such is her charm. “Or four, unless he can manage to get the barnacle off.”
It takes Robby a second, during which Dana impatiently rolls her head to direct his attention behind himself. The two of them spin to discover Dennis standing at the vending machines just down the hallway.
Sure enough, just like Dana said, he has a barnacle attached to him in the form of a small child wrapped in one of their thin children’s gowns. She has a cold compress affixed to the back of her neck, mostly-obscured by a mess of ginger curls that have been pulled up into a sloppy bun at the back of her head in an apparent attempt to keep them off her neck and out of her freckled face. One hand is wrapped around Dennis’s back while the other is wound in his collar, hanging on so tight her dimpled knuckles are a little pale.
She’s still a bit red, but seems better than an emergency room heatstroke victim would be expected to be. Probably a good thing the counselor brought her in, anyway, before she had gotten any worse. Better safe than sorry, and especially with children, Robby thinks.
And he’s definitely not biased by the way the little girl yawns, then nuzzles her face against Dennis’s shoulder.
He watches as Dennis is immediately distracted from his task choosing from the vending machine. Tilting his head down, he bounces her slightly on his hip, swaying from one side to the other. His mouth is moving, though Robby can’t hear what he’s saying from here. His cheeks are a little flushed, too.
“Do I need to remind you two that you’re professionals?” Dana comments from behind them. Robby mildly snaps out of it— well, enough to turn and see Jack beside him doing just as he’s doing: staring openly at Dennis with the tiny child. “He’s just holding a baby. And besides, you shouldn’t be ogling one of your students.”
“He’s not a student anymore,” Robby corrects her at the same time Jack protests, “We’re dating him.”
“You shouldn’t be ogling anyone, I don’t care what your excuses are,” Dana insists, earning a huff from Jack while Robby just fights back a smile.
His attention is already being stolen once again by Dennis. He’s moved the child to his front, supporting her with both arms as he bounces again, an instinctual up-and-down that seems to come naturally to him. He’s smiling, saying something to her on each bounce. The little girl is smiling right back at him the whole time—
—Before she tips forward into him, bonking her forehead into the middle of his chest. She turns her face against him, rubs her cheek over the hollow between his collarbones. Dennis’s hand comes up, cradles the back of her head. His palm strokes over her hair as he turns, heading in the opposite direction. Robby’s heart skips over itself.
“I think he looked warm, too,” Robby comments. “Do you think he’s too warm?”
“It is July,” Jack agrees. “And there’s a heat wave, I saw it on the news.”
“We should bring them water,” Robby says. “Heatstroke patients should have water.”
“Clear fluids, absolutely.” Jack’s already moving, Robby on his heels. “Maybe we should get a fresh compress for her. Or for both of them.”
“Just in case,” Robby says, picking up the pace. Neither of them catch Dana’s eyeroll behind them as she pushes away from the desk and returns to her work at the computer, glasses replaced on her nose, but the rest of the surrounding staff does— as do the patients, much to her amusement. They may as well enjoy the show, too.
Though they could split off and tag-team, they end up treating every task like a two-man job. When they were younger, just starting out together— both as doctors and as partners— it took a little time to come into rhythm together. Now, it feels like they’re one person with four hands.
Two of their paper cups get filled— one small, one the largest size they have. Jack carries them carefully, speed-walking at Robby’s side without spilling a drop, while they retrieve cold compresses, one for each of them.
“He did look flushed, didn’t he?” Jack asks as he ducks into one room, then the next, then another, after another, after another, trying to find where Dennis disappeared to.
“It’s because the damn air conditioning never works in this place.” It’s a common complaint, though typically Robby’s complaining because he sees someone sweating, not someone looking just a little too warm, but. Still. The point stands. “I’m putting in another grievance, this is ridiculous. We’re going to end up with our patients worse off just because—”
“There!” Jack interrupts him, pointing forward with the smaller cup.
In all honesty, Robby forgets what he was saying completely as his head snaps up. He can see, at the very end of the long hallway, just beyond the staircase, in front of a massive window, Dennis is sitting cross-legged on the floor. The child is crawling over his shoulder, apparently trying to climb up onto his head; Dennis just has his arms around her, twisted at ridiculous angles, trying to prevent her from falling backwards off of him.
Even though it’s extremely— extremely— unlikely that anything’s actually wrong with Dennis, Robby’s chest still tightens for a moment when he sees him on the floor. He relaxes when he sees his head turn, clocks the smile on his face, but— still.
It takes a moment for him to realize Jack has taken off once again. Once he does, though, he’s instantly trailing after, half of his focus on Jack, the other half on Dennis, as it so often is.
They don’t speak before they’re close. In the bustle of the hospital, their voices would likely be mostly-lost anyway—
—Which means they both get a chance to just look at him as they approach.
Robby likes to think he’s fairly well-versed in Dennis’s expressions by now. The twitching scrunch when he’s confused, the slight part of his lips when he wants to speak up, the small smile when he’s proud of himself, the tight fear that steals his breath, the light in his eyes when he helps a patient, the darkness that descends when he can’t, the beaming grin he gets when he’s happy, the flush that paints his cheeks when he’s flirting, the special smile that only Jack and Robby ever seem to get.
This expression, though— this is a new one.
Even from the side, Robby knows he’s never seen this exact face on Dennis before. There’s a smile that dimples one cheek, his hair a tousled mess as he twists to catch Maeve and pull her back into his lap. She babbles something up at him that makes him laugh, and he ducks down to whisper something in return that makes her laugh.
It’s a similar smile to ones Robby’s seen before on him, but new nonetheless. The sight of it draws Robby up short, and he doesn’t even notice he’s come to a slow halt halfway down the hall until Jack is realizing it himself and doubling back for him.
“What is it, what’s wrong?” Jack asks. Always on alert, always ready to help.
Robby just shakes his head, tells him, “Nothing’s wrong, I just—”
He doesn’t know how to say it, how to express— how to tell Jack, Nothing’s wrong, I just got distracted watching our boyfriend with a toddler, and it made me yearn to give him a child of his own, for us to have a child all our own, so I can see him smile like that all the time.
The words fill him up, though Robby can’t find it in himself to say it in the moment. Maybe after he’s had more time to process; maybe tomorrow, over their shared breakfast— that’s really their dinner, timing-wise, after a double, right before they’ll all tuck in and go to sleep— he’ll be able to say something. He’ll look up from his eggs and see Dennis leaning in to listen to a story Jack is telling, the morning sunshine lighting up the both of them in a golden glow, and he won’t be able to help himself from telling them everything. Over their coffee, their pancakes, their kitchen table, in their home, he can confess that he watched Dennis with the baby and he wants one of his own with them and would that really be so bad? Would they want that, too?
Maybe their eyes will light up, too, even brighter than that morning sun. Maybe they’ll agree with him. Maybe it won’t even be long before they’ll have their own, and Robby will sit at that kitchen table with them and a fourth person, a smaller person, their person.
Maybe their child will even sit in Dennis’s lap, just like Maeve is now, and grab onto his shoulders and beam up at him like he’s the only person who has ever existed.
When he manages to tear his eyes off of Dennis, turning to Jack, he thinks he sees the same thing in him. The same words, the same thoughts, the same wants. He knows Jack better than he knows himself, he thinks, sometimes.
The words don’t need to come out right now, he realizes. Jack already knows, as if he can read his mind— and Dennis will get to find out over breakfast.
For now, though, Jack only nudges Robby’s shoulder and tells him, “I know,” before he adds, “Me, too.”
“I know,” Robby echoes. He bumps his shoulder back against Jack’s, earning a playful, wordless exclamation.
“Hey, be careful, I have precious cargo here,” Jack protests.
His voice is just loud enough that Dennis manages to hear it— or, at least, it catches his attention, and he turns with Maeve still perched in his lap, Dennis’s hands under her arms to hold her upright. The way his face brightens at seeing them is something Robby doesn’t think he’ll ever get tired of.
“Oh, hey,” Dennis calls, his voice just barely carrying. Robby thinks he could pick it out of a crowd, but with the way his hearing is going, maybe not.
Dennis beckons them closer with a tip of his head, unable— or unwilling— to let Maeve go long enough to use a hand instead. By the time they reach him, Maeve has clocked their presence and burrowed into Dennis, apparently shy and taking comfort from him.
“Sorry, she’s been a little overwhelmed by everything here,” Dennis apologizes. Jack drops right down onto the floor beside him, legs stretched in front, setting the two cups of water between his thighs. “I meant to move on to the next patient, but she wouldn’t stop crying and screaming every time I left the room. I figured it’d be easier on everyone if I just took her with me until her parents get here.” After a pause, he repeats, “Sorry.”
“Don’t apologize,” Robby replies as he lowers himself to the floor on Dennis’s other side. Probably a sight to see, three doctors lined up on the floor with one child patient, but at least it’s under good circumstances for once.
While Robby’s knees creak and his joints and back all protest his attempts to get comfortable on the floor, Jack leans over and asks, “She likes you, huh?”
“I guess so,” Dennis replies, as if the small girl isn’t trying to climb into his scrub top. “I think she’s just nervous. And, you know, I was always— I was good with the baby animals, at home, and with my little cousins, I don’t know. It’s just— I don’t know. Mostly they just want to feel safe and looked after.”
Jack has that smile that tells Robby he’s thinking again before he ducks his head down a little bit and says, “Hey there, Maeve. I’m Doctor Jack, and that’s Doctor Robby. We’re friends with Doctor Dennis. Can we help you, too?”
Maeve frowns at him, though she seems more disgruntled at his appearance than genuinely upset. She throws her arms around Dennis’s neck and answers, “No,” in a tiny, firm voice.
Turning a knowing glance on Robby, then on Dennis, he earns a smile from the former and a huff from the latter. Dennis protests, “She just got attached.”
“Well, who wouldn’t?” Robby replies. He holds up the compresses, tells Dennis, “One for you, one for her, fresh out of the cooler.”
Dennis’s brow scrunches up slightly. “I don’t need one.”
“We just saw you and thought you looked a little red.” Jack leans to take the compress out of Robby’s hand and clap it onto the back of Dennis’s neck. A shiver rolls through his body that Robby has to force himself not to focus on. “And one to replace Maeve’s, if she’s okay with that.”
Robby reaches to swap out the compresses, but she just wriggles closer to Dennis and repeats, “No! Dennis!”
“Oh, that’s adorable,” Jack comments. “The way she said your name, like—”
“Look, I’ll— I’ll do it, just— just give it here,” Dennis says, blushing that soft pink that means one of them has gotten at least a little bit under his skin.
Without a fight, Robby surrenders the compress to Dennis. He places one hand on Maeve’s back, slowly lowering her to sit in his lap once more and tilting her back a bit so she can meet his eyes. Her face is still a bit pink, though nowhere near the red it likely was when she was brought in earlier.
“Is the cloth on the back of your neck warm?” Dennis asks her. She seems to think about it for a second before she nods, tucking both hands now into Dennis’s collar for comfort and leverage. “Can I replace it with this cooler one?”
Dennis holds up the new compress for her inspection. She contemplates that for a second before she agrees, “Yeah,” in a smaller voice.
“Thank you very much, Little Miss Maeve,” Dennis says, carefully turning her a bit so she can sit in his lap instead. She goes easily, without a protest, and allows Dennis to sweep the straggling strands of her hair up to switch out the compresses. Robby takes the warmed one, tucks it between his hands, if only for something to hold and fidget with. “See? Isn’t that better?”
“Yeah,” Maeve repeats as Dennis lets her hair relax again. As soon as she feels his hands move, she’s turning around in his lap again and lifting her arms up towards him in the universal sign of all children to be picked up and held.
Doing just that, Dennis scoops her up again, lets her curl against his chest as she clings to him. He rubs her back for a moment before he apparently feels the eyes on him; he turns to Robby first, catches his eye, then swivels to do the same with Jack.
“What?” he asks, partially-defensive and mostly-curious. “Did I do something wrong?”
“Not unless you count short-circuiting your attendings wrong,” Jack replies. Before Dennis can ask what, exactly, he means by that, Jack is holding up the cups. “I brought water, too. Figured you both could use some.”
“Look at that!” Dennis exclaims, turning Maeve a little. Her face peeks out from his shoulder, bright green eyes scanning Jack with interest. “You were just saying you were thirsty, and look, Doctor Jack brought you water! How’d he know that, hm?”
Maeve squints at Jack, then repeats, “Dennis.”
“Yeah, he told me through his mind,” Jack tells her, and she blinks those big eyes at him. “Doctor Dennis can do anything. He’s kind of like a superhero.”
It takes a moment before Maeve asks, “Superhero princess?”
The words are a little mushed, but still audible enough to be understood, and Robby and Jack are both suppressing laughter while Dennis just gets pinker and pinker.
“He is actually a superhero princess,” Jack agrees.
“Ah,” Robby stops him. “Doctor superhero princess.”
“Who could forget?” Jack says.
“Come on,” Dennis protests, his voice just edging against a whine. “Just— Maeve, honey, do you want the water?”
Honey. Just knock Robby out now, it would be easier than enduring this.
Maeve considers Jack and his offering of a small cup for a long moment before she agrees, “Yeah,” and shifts to sit in Dennis’s lap once again to recline against him in what’s clearly a practiced move of hers. With her back to his front, she accepts the little cup between both of her hands.
“Careful,” Dennis says, though he doesn’t really need to. Her hands barely even shake as she brings the cup up for a sip. “Now, what do we say?”
“Thank you,” she answers automatically, taking another sip.
“You’re welcome,” Jack replies. His attention’s already refocusing on Dennis. “Got you one, too, here you go—” As he passes the cup off to Dennis, letting him take it one-handed, he adds, “You’re pretty good with her.”
“I think she’s just a good kid,” Dennis protests.
“Maybe both are true,” Robby suggests, and Dennis has no answer for that— except to go a bit redder in the face.
Rather than meet either of their eyes, Dennis just looks down at Maeve, observing her as she drinks her water from her tiny cup. She gestures with it towards the window, exclaims, “Look!” just in time for them to see a pigeon picking crumbs off the blacktop outside. “Bird!”
“That’s a really pretty bird, too, isn’t it?” Dennis asks her.
“Yeah!” she says, more excited now. “Water?”
“The bird has water,” Dennis tells her. “He’ll fly all over to his favorite places. I bet he knows all the good birdbaths in Pittsburgh. Maybe the whole world. Right?”
“Yeah,” she agrees. Her head falls back against Dennis’s chest again as she watches the bird with intent, still taking her small sips.
It’s quiet for a moment— or, it’s as quiet as an emergency room hallway is ever going to be. But, in that moment, Robby catches Dennis watching Maeve, and Jack watching Dennis watching Maeve, and he feels a sense of peace he never gets to feel here, not really. Not like this.
“Hey,” Dennis says, his voice soft. Maeve tilts her head up to look at him, then looks away towards the bird again when she realizes he’s not speaking directed to her. “Have you guys ever…”
He trails off, then stops. Robby bumps his shoulder at the same time Jack tells him, “Spit it out, don’t leave us hanging. Or I can start guessing, but with Maeve here—”
“Have you ever wanted kids?” Dennis blurts out— though whether it’s to stop Jack from making suggestions or because he can’t keep it in anymore, Robby’s not sure.
What Robby is sure about is that his heart is in his throat in an instant. Sooner than breakfast, then. Dennis has always been bolder than anyone ever gives him credit for— and he always seems to know what he wants, in his own way.
“I mean, I’ve— I have thought about it,” Robby answers honestly. He’s surprised to speak before Jack, but he finds the words coming, honest and immediate, and he just lets them out. “I didn’t think I’d be that good of a parent. And when we were younger, it just— There didn’t feel like there was any time.” He huffs, almost a laugh, rubbing at the back of his neck. “Now, I guess I’m really running out of time.”
“And, I mean, you know that I’ve always been a little messed up, I don’t know,” Jack says. “We had— We’d talked about it, but then, after— And then— It was just, I think I didn’t want to be responsible for another life that I could just lose, just—”
He stops abruptly, shakes his head, looks back out the window, takes a deep breath.
After a beat, he adds, “But, I think about it more now.”
“Really?” Dennis asks.
“Yeah.” Jack picks at a thread on his pants. Robby’s not even sure he knows he’s doing it. “Something about coming home and you’re both there— I don’t know. Makes a guy think thoughts.”
“First time for everything,” Robby teases. Jack leans around Dennis to flick at Robby’s arm where Maeve can’t see. “Hey, you watch it, or—”
“What about you?” Dennis asks of Robby. “Did— I mean, do you still— It’s not actually too late, you know, it’s not like you’re that old—”
Jack snorts just as Robby protests with another, “Hey!”
“That’s not what I meant!” Dennis protests.
“Yes, it is,” Jack laughs. “How’s that one feel, old man?”
“We’ll see if I’ll have kids with you now,” Robby grumbles at them, fighting to keep himself from smiling. He’s failing, but he’s fighting.
Dennis’s simultaneous distress and amusement both disappear as he asks with eager excitement, “Wait, like— Actually, though? You really would?”
“Well, we should probably talk about it first,” Robby tells him. “Figure out— logistics, and how we’ll make a schedule, and—”
“Alright, slow down over there,” Jack interrupts him. “A yes or no works just fine.”
Robby pauses, really considers his answer, then says, “Yeah. Yes, yeah, I think I would.” The smile on his face spreads, and he adds, “Especially seeing you with her.”
“Yeah, geez, I feel like I’m entering mating season over here,” Jack replies, prompting Dennis to reach up and wrap his free arm around Maeve’s head to block her ears, earning a giggle out of her as she squirms. “What? I didn’t say I’m going into heat—”
“Would you—” Dennis starts to scold him before they hear Dana’s voice down the hall calling to them.
“Hey, nitwits,” she shouts over all the other noises and voices, and all three of them turn, drawing a laugh from her. “Well, that worked.”
“What is it, Dana?” Robby asks, slightly disappointed at having their conversation interrupted.
“I just thought Maeve would want to see her parents,” Dana replies. Robby catches sight of her turning, telling a couple of young men behind her, “She’s right over here.”
They’re already rushing forward, moving around the three of them to crouch in front of Dennis and start fussing over their daughter. She laughs when she sees them, nearly spilling the remains of her water cup as she throws her arms around the first of the two to reach her.
When he starts to scoop her up, though, she fusses and tries to twist back down, protesting, “No! Dennis!”
“Hi, sorry, she’s kind of— She’s just been fussing a little, I was looking after her until she felt a little better,” Dennis explains, suddenly sheepish.
“That’s Dr. Dennis Whitaker, he’s one of the best we’ve got,” Jack tells the couple as he rises. He has to offer a hand to Robby to help him stand, too, but at least he doesn’t get teased in the process. This time. “He’s been taking very good care of your daughter today.”
“Thank you so much,” the other man says, offering Dennis a hand up of his own. Dennis shifts his cup to his other hand as he stands, the other father pulling Maeve onto his hip despite her protests.
“No!” she shouts again. “Don’t go!”
Robby is prepared to step in, but Dennis does before he can, turning to take her water cup away. Jack takes both cups away so Dennis can take her hands in his, squeezing a little.
“You get to go home and rest now, just like I promised,” Dennis tells her. “And remember, you can always come visit and ask for me, and we can hang out again. How’s that?”
Maeve considers this with bright, teary eyes before she nods, clearly hesitant but apparently unwilling to say no to him. Robby understands the feeling. She throws herself forward, nearly pitching herself out of her father’s arms, but he holds on and Dennis catches her, letting her wrap him up in a hug.
“Just try not to end up here because you’re hurt,” Dennis reminds her with a squeeze before releasing her. “I’ll always help, but you have to look after yourself, too. Okay?”
“Yeah,” Maeve replies, leaning her head against her dad's shoulder now. “Thank you, Dennis.”
“Thank you so much,” her father adds, and her other father echoes the sentiment, both clearly grateful before Dana is leading them away.
For a moment, the three of them just watch them go.
Then, Jack asks, “Alright, I’m not waiting anymore, when do we start trying to make a baby?”
Dennis coughs around a laugh, turning into Jack with that same new bright smile, and Robby can’t help thinking, Right now.