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In Only Seven Days

A/N: YAYYY first fic in so long!!! I am so excited about this one I hope you guys enjoy it, it has been my baby for weeks now.

travel nurse!reader x frank langdon

Summary: travel nurse!reader comes to PTMC for only one week, and everything she thought she knew gets flipped on its head.

CW: talks of addiction, rehab, some violence and death descriptions. lots of fluff, yearning, and some angst thrown in there too. Frank is divorced in this but never had kids (for convenience of the writer). And most definitely medical inaccuracies galore. Enjoy!

Inspired by the Queen song of the same name!!!

Word Count: 15.1k (damn)

In Only Seven Days

✿　.　˚　. 　 ˚　✿

Sunday

As a travel nurse, you tended to bounce around a lot. Going from one hospital to another, spending a few months there, packing up and leaving. This has been your life for the past two years or so. The pay was great, you’ve seen a lot of the country this way, and you weren’t quite ready to settle down just yet. You knew you would find your place eventually, but no where you went seemed very, you. That is, until you spend a week in Pittsburgh Trauma Medical Center’s ER, “The Pitt” as they referred to it. You were in between contracts at the moment and your company asked if you’d be willing to work at PTMC for just one week, they apparently were in desperate need of help. They offered a small bonus and paid hotel, so of course you said yes.

The day before your first shift in The Pitt, you got settled into your hotel room, your new home for the next eight nights, awaiting the sure to be grueling week before you. You hadn’t seen much of Pittsburgh yet, but were excited to learn from your new temporary coworkers the best spots to explore on your, singular, day off. You washed your face as you got ready to get into the bed for the night, anxiously anticipating whatever was in store for you. You always do a little research on each hospital you go to before you spend your time there, and, according to your research, PTMC was interesting, to say the least. The Pitt was one of the best ERs in the country, you read news stories from local Pittsburgh news about how they handled the Pittfest shooting last year, you were honestly impressed. But from what Google was telling you, this place never seemed to catch a break. You get under the covers of the hotel bed, taking a breath and staring at the ceiling, mentally preparing yourself for whatever this next week has in store for you. You didn’t know it yet, but the week you were about to spend in The Pitt, was going to change everything.

✿　.　˚　. 　 ˚　✿

Monday

You take a deep breath as you walk up to the nurses station in The Pitt. You were looking for the charge nurse, Dana, as the man who administered your temporary ID told you. You approach with a smile, reading every badge, waiting for one of them to read “Charge Nurse”. She finds you eventually, greeting you with a smile, seeing the semi lost look in your eyes. Something that was always there for the first day or so at a new placement.

“Hi sweetheart, you must be our new nurse for the week” She says, patting your shoulder as you give her your name.

“Yep, it’s great to meet you, I’ve heard quite a bit about this place.” You say with a smile, looking around at all the hustle and bustle around you.

“Well quite a bit goes on here, you ever travel to a level one trauma center before?” She asks, listening to you while also being attentive to the ER around her.

“Yeah a few times, this one almost seems busier though.” You note with raised brows and a nod, trying not to get overwhelmed with the seemingly constant chaos.

“It’s cause it is,” she says, giving you another pat on the shoulder, “you’ll get used to it, don’t be afraid to ask questions and ask for help if you need it, sweetheart.” She says with a final nod, walking away, leaving you standing in the midst of the chaos. You take what you think will be your last second of peace for the next upcoming days before you hear another voice coming from behind you.

“This our new placement for the week?” A man asks, you turn to face him, his ID badge reading “Michael Robinivitch”, you also note he’s the attending, you give him a polite smile and nod, he starts speaking again before you can say anything.

“Try your best to find your place, step in where you can, we really appreciate the help.” He says before he’s also pulled away. You nod, forcing your shoulders to relax as you get to work.

You’re pulled into the chaos quickly, and you find that even though you’ve never worked somewhere as fast paced as this, you seemed to fit in quite well. An hour or two in and you already seemed to mesh well with your coworkers, you liked all the doctors and nurses. You were always eager to meet new people and learn from them, but you had a firm boundary that you never got too close with people at these jobs. Especially if you weren’t there for long, like here. It just made things too complicated too quickly, it was easier to just have a clean break. Sure, it made things kind of lonely, and you were starting to lose contact with your friends from home, but it was easier this way, or so you told yourself.

You finally get a moment of respite, charting at the nurses station and taking a breather from the chaos when you feel a rustle next to you, air moving against your skin, fabric quickly brushing against your arm. You look next to you to find one of the residents leaning against the counter, he’s tall with dark hair and light eyes. You think his name is Dr. Langdon, you’d worked a small case with him an hour or so before. He was nice, from the few moments you’d known him. You couldn’t quite get a good reading on him yet. He was a strong presence in a room, yet somehow having a quiet, commanding demeanor to him. The way he spoke to his patients was very kind and impressive, you had noted earlier. You give him a smile as he looks over at you, he returns it with a smile and nod of his own.

“You’re a travel nurse?” He asks, his eyes flickering down to your ID badge, reading your name and position.

“Yeah, just here for the week.” You respond, he nods again, licking his lips before speaking.

“Just the week? Short stint, you working every single one of those days?” He asks, his brows furrowing a bit. You shake your head in response.

“I get Wednesday off, then I’m going back home for a bit on Sunday before my next contract starts.” You explain, he grimaces a little at the thought of having to work so many hours.

“Where’s back home for you?” He asks, sipping from his energy drink.

“Wisconsin” You say, rolling your eyes a bit, “I haven’t explored much of the East Coast yet, and I’m honestly a little sick of the Midwest.” You say with a smile, he smiles and nods back.

“You should talk to Whitaker about that,” he says, pointing him out, “he’s our Midwestern farm boy.” He says and you laugh a little, shaking your head.

“Glad someone else knows the pain.” You joke and he laughs a little.

“Well I’ll see you around this week then, if you need anything don’t be afraid to ask, Dana is great.” He says, you look over at her, she’s very commanding, but you can already tell she’s one of the best people you’ll probably ever meet.

“Yeah, I’ll keep that in mind.” You say with a smile, looking him in the eyes, almost finding it intimidating, how blue his eyes are.

“This is a chaotic place so just, take it at whatever pace you need.” He says with a nod, you barely get out a thanks before he’s being pulled away on another case. You pick up a tablet, knowing your moment of respite is over as well. As you walk into your next patient's room you look back at Dr. Langdon, and for just a second, you wish you could know him more.

The next few hours are gone in a whirlwind. Even though it was just your first day, you felt like this place had already claimed you as a victim, but you also understood why Dana had never left. The push and pull, the thrill of assisting on some of the most wild emergency medicine you had ever seen in your life. The constant noise and chaos, it was lighting a fire inside you that you didn’t know needed to be lit. You also, however, already felt the tiredness in your bones. Your feet ached in a way that you had no idea they could, and you still had five hours left of your shift. You sneak off to the bathroom for just a moment. Taking a breath and splashing cold water on your face. You only allow a minute or so before you open the door, ready to pick up whatever case was waiting for you. What you don’t see when you’re heading back to the nurses station is Dr. Langdon. You totally and completely crash into him.

“Oh! Dr. Langdon I’m so sorry!” You exclaim, he laughs a little and shakes his head, putting a hand on your shoulder, steadying you before quickly taking it back.

“Don’t worry about it.” He says with a smile, “first day taking its toll?” He asks, seeing the bags forming under your eyes.

“Guess so,” you say with a laugh and nod, "definitely different from other hospitals I’ve worked in.” You answer, looking at his striking eyes.

“Well, first day’s almost done, hang in there.” He says before patting your shoulder again and walking away. You feel the ghost of his touch and shake it off, walking to assist Dr. Mohan in a case.

“You seem to be handling the Pitt well.” Dr. Mohan notes as she talks with you about the case. You smile and appreciate the compliment.

“Thanks, it's challenging, but I’m liking it so far.” She smiles and nods back, you speak again before she can respond, “Dr. Langdon, what do you know about him?” You ask, almost immediately regretting the question.

“I’ve known him for a while, he’s a good guy, and an even better doctor. Used to be kind of an asshole, but ever since he came back he’s been great.” She says, shrugging her shoulders, you can feel her eyes searching you, reading you too well for having only known you a few hours.

“Came back from what?” You ask with furrowed brows.

“Oh, he was on leave for ten months.” She says with a smile before walking back to the patient. You bite your lip wondering what could’ve happened. Then you almost slap yourself, you’d known this guy for one day, worked one case with him and had two fleeting conversations, ever. You were being ridiculous, but there was something about him, something you couldn’t quite put your finger on. You knew if you kept letting yourself think it through, it would be dangerous, for the both of you. But then again, he was so hot.

The rest of the day went, fine, almost too fine. There were a couple of traumas you got pulled onto that were hectic and overwhelming, but you lived for the thrill of it. It was finally the end of your very long shift, you felt dead on your feet and more than ready to shower and collapse on your too firm hotel bed. You were at the nurses station, chatting with Dana about some patients you were handing off the night shift, jacket on and purse on your shoulder, when Dr. Langdon walked up.

“Survived your first day, huh?” He asks, bending over the counter, you notice he’s in just jeans and a t- shirt now.

“Yep, headed out now.” You reply with a smile and raised brows, he gives you a small smile back. You’re astounded as you look at him how such a large crush can form in just 12 hours.

“Yeah, me too, let me walk you out to your car. It’s easy to get lost around here when you’re new.” He says, gesturing with his head for you to follow him. You give a smile and wave to Dana, who winks at you. You catch up to him, forcing yourself not to stare too hard.

“You really like it here?” You ask after a beat of silence, feeling the cool breeze of the Pittsburgh air on your face. You close your eyes for a second and breathe it in. You open your eyes and catch him looking at you, he goes back to looking at the ground pretty quickly.

“Yeah, I do.” He says with a nod, thinking over your question, “It has its days, days where you wonder why you chose this profession altogether. But you learn that it’s really just one day at a time.” He finishes with a nod. He says the last five words almost like a mantra, practiced, repeated, something he clearly tells himself a lot.

“And you’ve been here your whole residency?” You ask with furrowed brows, almost amazed. He chuckles a little and shakes his head at your bewilderment.

“Yep, been here the whole time.” He responds with a nod, repositioning his bag on his shoulder.

“And you’re an R4?” You ask, just trying to get to know him a little more, something that you usually are very against. He pauses, almost like he’s hesitant to respond.

“Y-yeah, I’m an R4.” He says after a moment. This is when you recall that earlier Dr. Mohan had mentioned he’d been gone for ten months, you wonder what could’ve happened in that time, but you bite your tongue.

“How long have you been doing this for?” He asks, you can see your car as you two approach the garage and you don’t want this conversation to end, even though you were dead tired.

“I’ve been a nurse for about seven years now, and then the travel nurse thing for about two years.” You reply and he nods, seemingly seeing his car too.

“Travel nursing must be hard, never truly settling into one place.” He says and you shrug your shoulders.

“Haven’t found my place yet, I guess.” You say with a smile, which he returns.

“Well I hope you like it here, even if it is just for the week.” He says with a nod, you hope he doesn’t notice how your cheeks flush.

“Yeah, me too. Thanks for walking me out here.” You say, motioning over to your car.

“Don’t mention it.” He says, starting to walk over to his own car now.

“Goodnight, Dr. Langdon.” You call from across the lot.

“Goodnight.” He says with one last smile and nod. As you get in your car, you know you were in for a rough week here at PTMC.

✿　.　˚　. 　 ˚　✿

Tuesday

Walking into your second of five shifts in the Pitt, you almost feel, excited? You weren’t sure if that was exactly the right word for it, but it was something along those lines. You felt pushed here to new bounds you didn’t even know existed. Not to mention that everyone here are incredible doctors, you shake away the thought of Dr. Langdon as you think of your temporary coworkers. Even though you were pretty sure the excited buzzing in your chest was at the thought of seeing him again.

You walk up to the nurses station, greeting Dana with a smile, stifling a yawn.

“Glad to see you back, sweetheart.” She greets you with a smile, looking at you over her glasses. You smile and nod in return.

“It takes more than a little chaos to scare me off.” You say and Dana smiles in approval. You stifled another yawn, clearly more tired than you were willing to admit. You raise your brows and force your eyes open as Dana gives you the rundown on the patients you would be taking on this morning. She wraps up her directions and you give yourself a minute to look over a few charts and orders before fully getting to work. You finally let yourself fully yawn, and when you opened your eyes, there was a can of RedBull being pushed toward you.

“Your first shift here will do that to you.” Frank says, pushing the can right in front of your face. You furrow your brows a little and cock your head to the side. You didn’t usually drink caffeine, especially in RedBull form, but it might be a necessity for surviving this shift.

“I’m sure you need this more than I do.” You say with a polite smile and raised brows, starting to push it back to him, but he shows you his own can, already cracked open.

“I always keep an extra one on hand, which came in handy today.” He says, pushing the can back to you. You roll your eyes and accept the energy drink, cracking it open and taking a swig, already feeling the sugar rush into your bloodstream.

“Well thank you, I clearly didn’t come prepared.” You say with a smile and nod, taking another sip.

“Almost no one does,” He jokes with a small smile, you look into his eyes, and hate the thoughts that start coming into your head. You had only known this guy for 24 hours, yet you felt so, drawn to him, in the most inexplicable way.

“I’ll keep that in mind, thank you again.” You say, raising your can to him, he copies your move.

“Have fun out there today.” He says before taking one last swig, throwing away the can, and going to find another case. You take a breath and go back to the tablet, studying over case notes.

You look up from the tablet a few moments later to see Dana staring at you. You start wiping at your face, thinking you had to have something on it, why else would she be staring?

“What is it?” You ask with furrowed brows, she just starts laughing.

“Nothing, sweetheart, I just haven’t seen Langdon act like that since, well,” She pauses and you think back to his ten month leave again, thinking she might tell you why, “in a while.” She finished her sentence and you hate how curious you are.

“He’s known me less than a day.” You counter with raised brows. She shakes her head.

“People can click fast sweetheart, too bad you’re only here till Sunday.” She says and you sigh, rolling your eyes a bit.

“I don’t get attached to people like that, especially in this line of work.” You say, going to go check on your patients.

“Keep telling yourself that, honey.” Dana calls back to you, you give her a look before drawing the curtain on central 12, officially starting your day.

Today you let yourself be more observant. Seeing how everyone interacts with each other. You quickly notice Santos and Whitaker are a duo. You notice how Javadi always seems to gravitate toward McKay or Mateo. Mohan is pretty evenly distributed, spending more time with patients than chatting with coworkers. You, embarrassingly so, notice the most about Frank. How Santos avoids him or rolls her eyes whenever he speaks. You notice tension between him and Robby. How whenever Robby talks to him his shoulders tense up and he looks, angry? nervous? You weren’t quite sure exactly, but it was definitely not great. Most of all you notice the clear bond between him and Mel. She always seems to find him, you’ve worked on a case with both of them. It’s like they understand each other in a way no one else can. It almost disappoints you. Almost, but you don’t get attached to coworkers, so you brush it off.

A little later in the day, once your RedBull had finally kicked in, you were assisting on a case with Mel. You noticed that nobody really seemed to pay attention to her, except Frank. Two days in and this place had already threatened countless times to break your rule about not getting close with your coworkers. You wanted to let her know, in your own way, that people did listen. Even if this broke every rule in your book. But hell, you’d broken a lot of your rules already. The conversation started off small talkish, like all of them had so far, the niceties, which you were very sick of.

“You close with anyone here, Mel?” You ask, handing her the tool she needed to continue the procedure.

“Uhh, well I guess so.” She starts, laser focused on what she was doing, “Dr. Langdon is really nice, and Robby and Dana are just the best.” She finishes with a smile. You smile and nod in response, noticing the way she talks and the way her hands move.

“Yeah, you and Dr. Langdon seem like quite the team.” You say with slightly raised brows and the same smile. You liked Mel, a lot, but you also wanted to know more about Dr. Langdon, in a selfish way that almost didn’t make sense to you.

“I guess, yeah.” She responds, giving you a very sweet, genuine smile, “We kind of just, understand each other, really he’s an exceptional doctor, and a really great teacher too.” She says, excitedly jumping into a few of the things he’s taught her. It warms your chest, imagining him in those scenarios with her. You barely knew him, and every morsel of information you learned about him, the more you wanted. You finish up with the patient, continuing chatting with Mel, mostly about Dr. Langdon and her cool medical stories. You follow her out of the room, checking the board for your next patient.

“Wow, you guys really are a great team.” You say, wrapping up with conversation, she smiles, almost proudly, and nods. You think about how she describes him and a hint of jealousy (?) enters your system. Which you hate.

“Is he your, boyfriend?” You ask with furrowed brows, the way she talks about him and the few interactions you’ve seen them have, you wouldn’t be surprised. You can feel the relief spread throughout you as she vehemently shakes her head no.

“Definitely not,” She says, and you believe her, “We’re just really close, I could never see him like that.” She finishes and you nod with raised brows, looking over and finding him throughout the chaos. You shake the thoughts from your head and move on to your next case.

Thirty minutes later you were doing work at the nurses station, you noticed out of the corner of your eye Frank walking toward you. You get a nervous excitement in your stomach, but just as he’s about to reach the station, Dr. Robby comes up to talk to you, and Frank swiftly turns on his heel, avoiding him entirely. You hope it’s not noticeable how your shoulders drop in disappointment.

“So, you’ve been here a day and some change now,” Robby starts, leaning against the counter, watching as you type a few things into the computer, you hum out and nod in response, looking at him with raised brows, “You seem to be handling it well.” He says, which you think is a compliment, you mutter a small thank you as he continues talking.

“You need anything from me? Have any questions, complaints, terms of endearment?” You huff a small laugh at his quip, but shake your head no with a pleasant smile.

“All good here, just getting through the week.” You report back and nod.

“Well you seem to be fitting in nicely, don’t get too good or we might want to keep you around.” He jokes and you nod with another smile. The thought of working here permanently, was a lot to think about at once. You shake your head and laugh a little.

“If you need anything, you know where to find me, or Dana.” He says before walking off, being pulled onto another case. The people here seemed to do that a lot. They check in and leave before things can get too serious, but you didn’t mind too much.

You keep working at the computer, enjoying the quiet moment for as long as you can, until you hear your name called from a few feet in front of you. You look up to find Dr. Langdon being the owner of the voice.

“Patient in room seven needs IV fluids and antibiotics, when you get the chance.” You smile and nod, rolling away from the computer and grabbing a tablet.

“Langdon!” You hear Dana call from behind you, “the patient in seven is Princess's problem, huh?” She reminds him with raised brows. Langdon shrugs his shoulders, looking at the board above him.

“Couldn’t find her.” He says before giving you a smile and going to check on another patient. Right then Princess walks up to the station, Dana rolls her eyes.

“Don’t worry, I’ve got it.” You say with a smile, she gives you another one of those looks.

“I’m telling you sweetheart.” Dana says with a wink, you hope she doesn’t notice the flush on your cheeks and you go to take care of the patient. He catches you on your way out of room seven, stripping your gloves and tossing them in the biohazard bin.

“Thanks for taking care of that.” He says with a smile and curt nod. You smile back and mutter a small “no problem” in return. It was a fleeting moment, and then he was gone, but still, a moment nonetheless.

You get pulled away immediately after by McKay on a trauma, it was a good reminder, as you put in a PICC line, that you were here to work. Work was important, you saved lives. Focusing on your coworker of two days was not important. You focused yourself the rest of the shift on work, helping wherever you were needed, not on Dr. Langdon. Not on how his arms looked when transporting a patient from gurney to bed, not on how nice he was with patients, or how tense he was around Robby. No, of course you weren’t focused on that.

Traumas, sutures, IVs, the rest of the day gets lost on you. Somehow these 12 hours are the longest yet shortest of your life. You shrug on your jacket at the nurses station, chatting with Lena, the night shift charge nurse as you were introduced to her, and Dana about the patients you were handing off.

“I think our prodigal son is smitten with our newest addition.” Dana says, elbowing Lena, you roll your eyes.

“We’ve known each other for two days.” You say, your face unenthused, they both laugh. You wonder where the nickname prodigal son comes from.

“A lot can happen in two days, honey.” Lena says with raised brows and a pointed look. You wave her off, shouldering your bag before waving goodnight to the both of them. You start walking out when you hear a voice behind you, this time you don’t have to look to know who it is. You can practically hear the smiles on Dana and Lena’s faces.

“You find your way around yet?” He asks, catching up with you. You shrug your shoulders slightly.

“Enough, I can get to radiology, my car, and to my hotel.” You say and he huffs out a small laugh.

“Haven’t explored Pittsburgh at all yet?” He asks, looking down at you, you shake your head.

“Haven’t had the chance yet, tomorrow is my one day off, and I’m unsure if I’ll make it out of bed to actually see anything.” You say, looking down at your shoes for a moment, hoping he doesn’t see the pink on your cheeks.

“You should at least try and get out, it’s a pretty cool city, especially if you don’t live here.” He says with a smile and you can’t help but look back up at him.

“Well I’ll try, but I have no idea where to go, any recommendations?” You ask, forcing yourself to actually maintain eye contact with him. He thinks for a moment before putting his hand out.

“Hand me your phone?” He asks, you give him a confused look, but hand it over. You watch as he puts something into Google, handing it back, you see directions to a restaurant.

“Meet me there, tomorrow at noon?” He asks, and you’re stunned. You look at him with raised brows and mouth agape for a few seconds, before realizing you actually need to respond.

“Y-you don’t have to work tomorrow?” You manage to get out, your brows now furrowing, you were clearly flustered, and that made your embarrassing reaction even worse. He smiles a little and shakes his head.

“Nope, I got lucky.” He says, clearly basking in your flusteredness, but you can see him fidgeting with his hands, he was nervous.

“Well, yes, yes I will meet you there, tomorrow at noon.” You say with a definitive nod. You hadn’t even realized you had walked all the way to your car.

“Good, I will, see you then.” He says with a smile, walking over to his own car now.

“Yeah, see you.” You call out and he waves goodnight.

You unlock your car and quickly get in, the Killers CD that has been stuck in your receiver for the past five years starts blasting the second you start the car. You slap the power button, overwhelmed. You hit your head on the steering wheel, repeatedly, trying to knock some sense into yourself. What were you thinking? You were breaking every dumb rule you had ever set for yourself at work. All because of a man? How dumb was that, but then again, he really didn’t seem like any other man. You rub your palms down your face and groan out in frustration with yourself. Then again, neither of you said it was a date, he was just showing you around Pittsburgh, that was it. That was allowed, no rules broken there, as long as you didn’t let yourself get too attached. So in reality, this was fine, more than fine. You let out a heavy sigh and reverse your car, starting the drive back to your hotel. You had no idea what Wednesday was going to bring you.

✿　.　˚　. 　 ˚　✿

Wednesday

You stood in the shower for about twenty minutes too long, trying to steam off the soreness of your muscles, and also thinking maybe you can steam off all of your nervous energy, you can’t.

You eventually force yourself out of the shower, putting on your hotel provided robe while you start to dry your hair. You dropped the hairdryer on your toe halfway through and jumped around, cursing, but honestly the pain made you not focus on how nervous you were to see Frank in a setting like this. Do you call him Frank? Langdon? You had no idea, you’d known him for two days.

You think as you’re doing your makeup that maybe you’re making a mistake. But then again, you remind yourself it isn’t a date, and if it was, who cares? You never let yourself have any romantic attention these days, so you take a deep breath, and force yourself to let it go, even if the nerves come creeping back. You slip on the outfit you had packed for today, a cotton white dress with a butter yellow cardigan and hope you aren’t too overdressed.

You pull up to the restaurant and take a deep breath, leaning your head up against the headrest, the Killers CD playing softly in the background, despite how sick of it you were. You barely get any respite before you look over at a car pulling up next to you. A white Range Rover, and the one and only Frank Langdon behind the wheel. He parks and gives you a small smile and wave, it immediately relaxes you, you can tell he’s a little nervous too. You wave back and turn your car off, getting out and greeting him. He was wearing a t- shirt and jeans, you were definitely overdressed, but in a cute way, so really it was fine.

“Hey” He says with a smile, closing his car door, starting the walk with you to the restaurant.

“Hey yourself.” You reply back with a smile, immediately regretting your choice of words, just be cool, be normal, he was just showing you around the city, that’s all. You say to yourself as you walk in, making small talk that was only somewhat awkward. You sit down and put drink orders in, now faced with the real challenge, actually carrying a conversation.

“So, why is this the best restaurant in Pittsburgh?” You ask with raised brows as you take a sip of your water.

“My parents always brought me here, when we visited when I was a kid.” He says with shrugged shoulders, leaning back in his seat, “I always end up coming back.” He says with a nod, you accept this answer and nod yourself, setting your water back down.

“In the nicest way possible, why are you being so nice to me?” You blurt out, immediately wishing you could reword or take back your sentence entirely. You can feel the heat rising up your neck and onto your cheeks, he huffs out a small laugh and shakes his head.

“You mean, when you’re only here for a week, you feel like I’m wasting my time?” He asks, giving you a look that makes you feel completely exposed, vulnerable, and known all at once.

“I guess so, yeah, I-I mean I don’t mind, at all, I promise. But, I do kind of want to know.” You say, starting to ramble to explain yourself, hoping you didn’t seem too rude.

“No I understand, don’t worry.” He starts and you feel the tension in your shoulders dissolve, “I just, know what it's like to be alone, and I know with your profession it must get lonely. Didn’t want you to spend the whole week feeling like you had to be cold with everyone, just cause you were leaving so soon.” He explains, and you feel warmth spreading throughout your chest. You also feel a pang hit you as he says he knows what being alone feels like, how can anyone as kind as him ever deal with loneliness? You wonder this to yourself, but don’t dare question anything.

“Well, thank you, really.” You say with an almost shy smile, looking down at the table for a second before forcing yourself to meet his icy blue eyes, “it does get pretty lonely, from time to time, so I appreciate the company.” He gives you a soft smile before the conversation moves to lighter topics. It moves fluidly and without any tension, the awkwardness having left early on. It feels comfortable with him, getting to know each other, it felt easy, too easy.

Lunch comes to an end too quickly, he picks up the bill, even though you protest against it, he insists. You thank him a thousand times and he rolls his eyes at your gratitude. As you both walk out, you almost dread having to get into your car and leave.

“What other places in Pittsburgh do you recommend?” You ask, looking up at him watching as he ponders for a moment.

“You like music?” He asks and you smile, stifling a small laugh. Who didn’t like music? You nod and smile widely.

“Love it, deeply.” You confirm and he smiles, gesturing his head over past the restaurant.

“Theres a really cool record store just down the road, if you’re cool with walking?” He asks, you readjust your purse on your shoulder and nod, embarking with him down the road.

You talk on the way there about both of your record collections, various music tastes, bantering about who the greatest band of all time is (he finally caves and agrees it’s The Beatles). He notices the way your eyes light up when talking about music you’re really passionate about, and you can tell he has the same fire within him. Music was always your bonding point with people, and he was no different.

The rest of the day practically melts away, you learn so much about him through music and it means so much to you. It scares you how easy everything was with him. It hurts knowing that if you weren’t leaving on Sunday, this could really be something. You don’t let it bother you, you shake those thoughts out of your head and instead show him your favorite Queen record.

After a couple of record stores, he takes you to Frick Park, walking around, basking in the sun.

“So, what is your story?” You ask after a few beats of comfortable silence. He looks at you with raised brows, wide eyes, almost reluctant to even speak again.

“Who says I have a story?” He replies, trying to be witty.

“Everyone has a story.” You say, resting your hands in your dress pockets and shrugging your shoulders.

“Well then what’s yours?” He asks, clearly avoiding the question, you shake your head and smile.

“Doesn’t work like that, I asked first.” I say with a pointed, teasing look. He scoffs, thinking he might be able to get away with it.

“Well, my story isn’t very interesting.” He says, his voice kind and soft, but also kind of guarded. He has walls, and since you’re someone he will only know for one week? You understand.

“Ok, then tell me more about the Pitt, or Pittsburgh, or anything, really.” You say, looking and watching him nod, presumably thinking of a good story to tell you. He tells you about some of the craziest things he’s seen in the Pitt, you counter with a few of your own as well. Emergency Medicine always came with stories, it felt nice to swap them, feeling like other people understand.

You eventually land at your cars and you sigh, knowing your day off has come to an end. You look at him as you fumble for your keys.

“D’you drive to all of your placements?” He asks with furrowed brows.

“Pretty much, I like being able to drive myself places, even if I have to drive like 15 hours to my placements.” You explain as you finally find your keys, unlocking your car.

“But seriously, thank you for today, truly. I don’t really talk to any of my coworkers outside of the ER, like ever.” You say with a smile that he matches.

“Anytime, really.” He says and you both stare at each other for a minute. You see his eyes flick down and you know exactly what you were both thinking, you could already feel your heart breaking over something that could never happen.

You both start talking at the same time.

“I know it’s ridiculous but-” He says.

“I just want you to know that-” You say.

You both shake your heads and laugh a little.

“I just want you to know,” You say, taking the initiative to go first, “I want to, but we shouldn’t start anything right now, not when I’m leaving on Sunday.” You say, and you know that disappoints the hell out of both of you.

“So you’re saying I can’t kiss you right now?” He asks, and the flush returns to your cheeks. What harm could one kiss do?

“Maybe just one, but, this can’t be a thing, we need to maintain professionalism throughout the rest of the week and-” You keep rambling when he cuts you off, pressing his lips to yours. You were shocked, for just a second, after that you melted into him, one hand on his face, the other on his shoulder. You weren’t sure how long it lasted, or how this affected things from here on out, but in that moment, you did not care. You eventually cut it off, taking a deep breath and looking at him, noticing your berry lipgloss is on his lips.

“Shit” You say, out of breath, and you both go into a fit of laughter.

“I just had to do that once, it won’t happen again.” He says, putting his hands up like he’s surrendering.

“I wish it could happen again.” You say, you both share an almost solemn look, knowing this can’t be more than what just happened.

“Well, I’ll see you at work tomorrow.” He says and you nod, muttering a small agreement and goodbye, he waves and you get into your respective vehicles. You turn the Killers off the second you get in, driving to your hotel in silence.

You get to your room and flop onto the bed, ordering room service for dinner and turning the TV on. You almost throw the remote at the screen when a shitty Rom Com comes on, frustrated that the one person you’ve ever felt anything real with will be gone from your life in four days. You let yourself wallow for a little bit before picking yourself up. Washing off your makeup and taking your second shower of the day. Crawling into bed earlier than usual, but you were still exhausted from the two previous days at the Pitt. You fall asleep replaying the kiss in your head, over and over.

✿　.　˚　. 　 ˚　✿.

Thursday

You had no idea how you were supposed to go to work after what happened yesterday. You splashed your face with cold water about five different times during your morning routine, trying to shock your system, trying to put yesterday out of your mind, at least while you were at work. It failed, miserably. You tug your scrubs on and head out, driving to work once again in silence. You steel yourself for a moment before heading into the belly of the Pitt, greeting Dana with a smile.

“You look more and more exhausted every time I see you, sweetheart.” She says, patting your back as you huff out a laugh and nod.

“How was your day off? You see any of Pittsburgh?” She asks and you aren’t exactly sure how to answer. You take a breath in and nod with raised brows, deciding to just skirt around the truth, for now.

“Yeah, I saw a bit, it’s nice.” You say, training your eyes on the board, she furrows her brows at you.

“Like it nice enough to stay?” She asks, you turn back to her with furrowed brows, cocking your head.

“You already know I’m not staying.” You say, getting everything sorted to start your shift. She tuts slightly and shakes her head.

“Well you could, y’know, we always need more nurses and,” She pauses looking around, finding Langdon, who was quietly approaching, two RedBulls in hand, “and you have a few reasons to stay now.” She finishes with raised brows, you scoff at her.

“Mateo saw the two of you in the park yesterday.” She whispers, your cheeks turn a bright shade of red now.

“You’re joking.” You say, stunned, word really spreads around here fast.

“Don’t worry, he won’t say anything to anyone else.” She says, the finality in her tone almost makes you worried about what happened between her and Mateo. You go to say something else but are interrupted by Frank coming up to the nurses station.

“How’re we doing this morning?” He says, addressing both you and Dana, he hands you the other RedBull in his hand, and this time you accept without any protests.

“Better, now that you’re feeding my caffeine addiction.” You say with a small smirk as you crack open the can. His face falls as you finish the sentence, almost into worry? disappointment? fear? Maybe all three, you don’t have time to analyze it too deeply before he shakes his head a little. He raises his brows as he blinks, rubbing his temple with his now free hand. You furrow your brows a little at his expression but he just shakes it off again, giving you another small smile. Did you say something wrong? You had no idea, but you didn’t necessarily have time to dwell on it either.

“Looking like another busy day?” You ask, looking at the board, he leans his head back to look too.

“Hope not, best not to say anything though, you’ll jinx it.” He says, elbowing your side teasingly.

“I’m not jinxing anything, and anyway, I have a patient, hypertension.” You say, smiling at him as you lift your tablet into the air, walking over to room seven.

When you walk out of the room you see Princess and Perlah over at the nurses station, staring at you, while speaking in Tagalog. You’ve been here long enough to know what that means, and it worries you slightly. You give them a small smile and wave, which they return too eagerly, before you walk off to your next patient.

The day actually was kind of slow, you had what seemed like too much time to catch up on notes and the patients in the waiting room. You didn’t say anything though, you sure as hell weren’t about to jinx it. You share a few stolen glances with Frank, every time his gaze meets yours, it threatens to break your heart.

About an hour later you were pulled onto a trauma with Langdon and Santos, who you noticed from your time here, barely interacted. You had no idea why, but you could feel the tension rising. Every time Frank tried to have a teaching moment or try to just talk to her, she would brush it off. Silently rolling her eyes or making a small, snide comment. It wasn’t necessarily mean, but it wasn’t that nice either. You had talked to Trinity just a handful of times, and she seemed like a good doctor, sometimes a little harsh or pushy, but she was alright, you knew there was a lot more to her than what she showed at work. So you really had no idea what happened between the two of them.

While you’re putting a line in the patient, Robby walks in. Asking questions, gathering intel, he sees the look on Santos’ face and gives her a look of his own, one that says don’t even start. She rolls her eyes at him. You assume they have a relationship where that’s ok. He leaves and shortly after that the patient is transferred up to the OR, you walk out, catching up to Frank.

“Everything ok?” You ask, looking over his face, studying him. He nods quickly in response.

“Yeah she’s just, a tough one to get through to.” He says with a small shrug. You nod back, understanding what he meant. You go to say something else but Dr. McKay grabs your attention, and Frank is called to another patient.

“Do you mind drawing up the meds for my patient in central four?” She asks, showing you what meds they need and the correct dosages.

“No problem.” You say with a smile, heading off to the med cart where everything is kept. While you start drawing up the meds she needed, you accidentally catch the tail end of a conversation between Robby and Santos, that you most definitely should not have heard.

“I’m not saying you have to like him, but you need to trust your fellow physicians.” Robby says pointedly, you try to tune them out, but you can’t.

“Well I’m sorry that I don’t trust an addict, Robby. I know you got over that fact pretty fast, but who knows when something else will catch him off guard and he relapses.” Santos says, your blood runs cold, nervous that you know who they’re talking about.

“Langdon is a damn good physician. I am not saying you have to like him, but I can’t have you two avoiding each other forever. It’s getting out of hand.” Robby says, a little more heated, walking away from the conversation now. You stand there for too long, shocked, reeling over what you just heard.

Your hands shake now as you finish drawing up the meds. You walk to the patient's room to administer them in a complete daze. That’s why he wouldn’t tell you his story yesterday, why he has tension with both Robby and Santos, and why he acted weird when you mentioned a caffeine addiction this morning.

You didn’t know how to handle this, you felt guilty for eavesdropping, for knowing about it when he clearly didn’t want to tell you, for everything. You knew you had to address it, you couldn’t know his biggest secret and hold it over his head like that. No way, but how did you even tell him? You walked to the bathroom, once again splashing your face with cold water and trying to get any rational thoughts through your head. This wasn’t fair to him, not in the slightest, you could feel yourself spiraling, panic rising in your chest, that is until you’re interrupted by a knock on the bathroom door.

`You alright in there sweetheart?” You recognize Dana’s voice from outside the door. You have to practically slap some sense into yourself, swallowing your panic and opening the door.

“I’m good, why?” You ask like nothing has happened, like you didn’t just accidentally ruin the best thing that’s happened to you in months, if not years.

“Incoming trauma, all the other nurses are tied up.” Dana says, gesturing her head over to the ambulance bay.

“Oh ok, on it.” You say, going over and putting a trauma gown on, waiting for the ambulance. Luckily, you were not on this case with Frank, you didn’t know if you could look him in the eyes right now. Or ever again, for that matter.

You forced yourself to focus as hard as you could on your work, trying to calm the frenzied beating of your heart, the guilt of this knowledge eating you alive. You avoid Frank as best you could the rest of the day, resolving to yourself that you would talk to him when he walked you out to your car. It was fine. It would all be fine. You would talk to him about it, and then you would leave on Sunday. Even though you didn’t really want to leave on Sunday. You wanted to explore this, let yourself have something nice for the first time in your life, but that’s not what was supposed to happen.

When shift change came, you were quietly shaking, tears threatening to fill your eyes. You weren’t judging him, God no. But, you were upset that his right to tell you or not tell you was stripped from him. That was what was eating at you. You grab your bag and jacket, exhaling heavily before you see him, walking across the ER to you. You give him a weak smile and shaky wave, he notices the shift in your demeanor almost immediately.

“Hey, haven’t seen you around much today.” He says and you nod, letting out another exhale.

“Yeah, day got away from me I guess.” You say, fidgeting with your jacket as you two walk out together. It’s silent on the way out to the parking lot, and not the comfortable silence you two had found yourselves in recently, but now, it was filled with tension. You could feel his gaze on you, worried, reading, you were just waiting for the perfect moment to talk. You finally get outside to your cars, the cool air doing nothing to calm your nerves.

“Can I talk to you about something?” You blurt out, not knowing how else to start the conversation. He looks at you with furrowed brows, cocking his head to the side a bit.

“Um, yeah, sure, my car or yours?” He asks, you point to his car with a shaky hand, he opens the passenger side door for you like the prince he is, while you were about to ruin the best relationship four days could build.

“What’s going on?” He asks, and the genuine concern in his voice kills you. You press your palms into your eyes and take a deep breath in before you reply.

“I accidentally overheard something I shouldn’t have today, and I just wanted to tell you outright, it didn’t feel right keeping it to myself.” You start, you see his whole face and body language shift. He was not hurt, but disappointed. That made it about ten times worse.

“I was pulling meds for one of McKay’s patients, and I overheard Robby talking to Santos, and, yeah I-I’m so sorry. I should’ve left or tried harder to tune it out but I, I didn’t know what to do and I- it was so shitty, and I am so sorry.” You ramble out, tears now glazing over your eyes. You had no idea you could have so much reverence and care for someone you had known for four days, but it happened.

He steels himself for a second, taking a breath, thinking over what he wanted to say next.

“It’s alright, it wasn’t your fault, word travels around here pretty quick.” He says after a minute, clearly gutted that you now knew.

“I, I kept it from you because, I feel like now that I’ve come back to the hospital, people treat me differently.” He starts, you don’t dare say a word, you just sit as open as you can, waiting for whatever he has to say to you.

“I wanted to feel normal for a bit, I’m not embarrassed of my recovery and I don't want pity. I just wanted to get to know someone without that being the first big thing they know about me, and feel differently about me because of it.” He finishes, taking a deep breath in, his hands resting on the steering wheel. You nod, taking a minute to let his words sink in, figuring out the right thing to say.

“I don’t think any differently of you,” You assure, shaking your head a bit, “truly, I just am sorry that the decision to tell me was stripped away from you, that’s not fair.” You say, fidgeting with your hands now.

“Please don’t feel pressured to go into details or anything like that, I am not pitying you and I am sure as hell not going to treat you any differently, I just wanted you to know that I knew.” You finish, closing your eyes and nodding, biting your lip hard. You have no idea if what you said was right or good or any of it, or what will come of this.

“No, I want to tell you.” He says, you look over at him with slightly furrowed brows.

“Are you sure? I don't want to pressure you or-” He cuts you off by gently grabbing your wrist, squeezing lightly.

“If you were staying past Sunday, I would’ve told you eventually, so I promise, it’s fine.” He says and you nod, waiting for him to start back up again.

“I hurt my back awhile ago, and then got addicted to benzos,” He starts, you nod, letting him know that you’re listening.

“I was, stealing meds from the hospital, I was going down a really bad path, and Dr. Santos is the one that turned me in.” He continues, you continue to nod, biting your lip again.

“She still doesn’t like me very much, which is ok, but she saved my life really. My wife divorced me, I spent 10 months away from the Pitt and I came back in July. I’ve been clean since December. ” He says, fidgeting with the bracelet on his wrist, which you now notice is a sobriety bracelet. You nod again, processing everything before you even dare speak.

“I’m really glad you got the help you needed, that takes a lot. I’ve seen that happen to a few doctors throughout my career, but none of them were able to really come back from it. That's a big thing, you should be proud of yourself.” You say with a small, tired smile, his hand still around your wrist. You move to intertwine his hand in yours and you squeeze.

“I fucked a lot of it up, and I let a lot of people down. I just, I wish this could be different between us.” He says, you take in a shaky exhale, tears threatening to fall from your eyes again and you nod in understanding and agreement.

“Me too.” You say with a deep exhale, slightly unsure of what to say next. “I’m honestly starting to hate travel nursing ” You admit, it was something you had yet to tell anyone, “I don’t make any friends, or let myself get attached to anyone, it honestly sucks.” You breathe out, wiping your eyes.

“Yeah, I get what you mean.” He says, he doesn’t beg you to stay in Pittsburgh, or try and come up with a solution, he just sits with you in it, and that’s what you appreciate most about him. You two sit in comfortable silence for a long time after that, neither of you wanting to ruin the moment. Just two people sitting in each other's messes, even for a short amount of time. You don’t even notice your eyelids starting to shut.

“Hey,” Frank says quietly, snapping you back awake, rubbing the bleariness out of your eyes, “let me drive you back to your hotel, I’ll pick you up tomorrow morning so you don’t have to worry about that.” He offers, you sit up a little in the passenger seat, thinking over the offer, looking over at your car that was just a few feet away.

“Are you sure?” You ask, never wanting to be too much of a burden. He squeezes your hand again before letting go, putting the car in reverse.

“I’m sure, it’s a shock to the system, starting a job here, especially after any other hospital, you must be exhausted.” He says, starting to drive out of the parking garage. You nod tiredly in agreement.

“Yeah, you’re right about that.” You say, he huffs out a small laugh. You talk lightly, moving on from the heavier topics from earlier now. You’re relieved, how easy he is to talk to, how understanding, and how shockingly soft he is.

He eventually pulls up to your hotel and you let out a regretful sigh, not wanting to part ways just yet, but also knowing how terrible of an idea it was to invite him upstairs. You resist the urge, even if it kills you.

“Thank you for the ride.” You say, with a smile that says ‘thank you for everything else’.

“No problem, and, thank you too.” He says, his voice softer now, and you know exactly what he means. You lean over and kiss his cheek, lingering for a second too long.

“Goodnight, Frank.” You say, your tone tired and almost sad, opening the car door and closing it before you do something stupid. You hear him say goodnight back, turning around to see him waving through the glass before driving away.

That night you don’t even shower, you just change out of your scrubs and fall asleep almost immediately. The last thing you think of as you’re drifting off was the kiss on his cheek you left, and his musky antiseptic scent.

✿　.　˚　. 　 ˚　✿

Friday

Today was Friday, two more days in the Pitt. This week had been more on your schedule than usual. More stress, more hours, more days without breaks in between. It was pushing you as a nurse and as a human being, but you couldn’t say you weren’t enjoying the challenge. Even if you were beyond exhausted at this point.

You stand outside the hotel at the time you and Frank agreed on this morning. Leaning against a pillar of the building, your eyes threatening to close again. You snap back up when you hear his car pull up, unlocking the car and leaning over to open the passenger side door for you.

“Good morning, sunshine.” He says, smiling at your tired demeanor. There was a RedBull in the cupholder for you, next to his opened one. Before this week you would’ve said you were not a RedBull fan, but now, he was definitely changing your ways.

“How are you so energetic, you’ve been working the same hours as me.” You say, your voice still heavy with sleep as you crack open the energy drink. He laughs softly as he pulls out onto the road.

“I’m way more used to it than you are, it’ll be over before you know it.” He says, focusing back on the road. That last part stings more than it should.

It’ll be over before you know it.

But, did you want it to be?

The rest of the ride to PTMC was filled with comfortable silence and the soft sounds of the radio. Which was fine by you, except your mind was going a mile a minute about everything you had experienced in the past week. You thought everything was fine before coming here. You liked independence, you were ok with being single, you loved traveling for work. Now? Everything was flipped on its head, but you didn’t have time to think about it. Not when you were pulling up to the Pitt, and lives needed saving.

“Word travels around here fast, you sure you’re ok with everyone seeing us walk in together?” You ask, you didn’t mind if everyone saw, but this was not your permanent workplace, it was his.

“I’m pretty sure people are already talking, so I don’t mind at all.” He says and you smile and nod in agreement.

“Dana told me yesterday that Mateo saw us in the park.” You admit, you see his eyes widen a bit, before huffing out a small laugh.

“Well, I’m not surprised.” He says, shaking his head, shoving his hands in his pockets. You both share another laugh before walking up to the nurses station, Dana giving you both a pointed look over her glasses.

“Well, look who it is.” She says, pulling you in by your shoulders giving you a half hug.

“What did I tell you, huh?” She whispers, making you laugh and blush.

“Be quiet, why don’t you?” You say, teasingly shoving her off from your shoulders. She gives you a mock offended look before turning her gaze to Frank.

“I’m good, no talk needed for me.” He says, putting his hands up, moving to look at the board. You and Dana laugh against each other, you wish this could be an every morning thing. This is why you didn’t get attached to coworkers.

You start your morning off with the lowdown on the patients from the night shift, easing into morning vital checks. The days here hadn’t been as hectic as you once thought them to be, but they added up, fast. Trauma and triage, gunshot wounds, to small burns, it was a lot.

And today, a trauma rolled in and you were the nurse assigned to the case.

They were the first patient you lost here in the Pitt. Which is very lucky, considering it was your fourth shift here, but it always hit you hard. You yank your gloves off with a snap, throw them in the biohazard bin and make your way to the staircase, something you noticed happened quite a lot around here when people needed a minute.

You just kept replaying it in your head, ruminating heavily on the situation. You felt bad, terrible, for that man's family. He was cleaning the gutters, standing on the roof, heart attack and keeled over, falling at least ten feet to the ground.

It wasn’t anybody's fault, and there was nothing anyone could do to save him, but that didn’t mean it didn’t sting.

You just sit there on the staircase a moment, taking some breaths. Doing somewhat of a debrief of your own before you had to go back and do one with everyone on the case. Something they do around here, you hadn’t seen that in many of the other hospitals you’d worked in.

You collect yourself, about to stand up, ready to face the rest of the day. That’s when the door opens. For a moment, you hope it’s Frank, but then you recognize Javadi’s purple jacket. She was on the case with you, she was here for the same reason you were.

“Hey, Dr. J.” You say, you couldn’t help but let the nickname slip, you had seen some of her videos. They were surprisingly really good, the kid has insight. You pat the spot next to you on the stairs, inviting her to sit next to you.

“Losing a patient always, sucks.” She breathes out as she sits down. You nod, your chin resting in your hand.

“It never gets easier.” You say, but you almost immediately regret it as you see her eyes widen, “but, you learn to cope with it, see the difference you make in others lives, it’s worth it, I promise.” You add on, seeing the tension in her shoulders loosen a bit.

“How do you do it?” Javadi asks, you cock your head to the side a bit.

“What? Continue after losing a patient?” You ask for clarification, not really looking for an answer before continuing, “I mean you get to-” She cuts you off.

“No, no, I mean, travel nursing. How do you keep doing it?” She asks with wide eyes that make your heart squeeze at how young she is.

“Oh,” You say, realizing what she meant, you think before you answer, “I mean, the pay is pretty good, but, honestly right now I’m not sure how I’m still going.” You answer honestly, shrugging your shoulders. You had been going for a long time without stopping to think, and now, you weren’t sure what to do about anything.

“Think you might stop?” She asks, you bite your lip and slowly nod.

“I’m, considering it.” You say, pausing between words.

“Think you might stay here? We always need more help.” She says with raised brows, her expression hopeful. You smile, looking down at your feet.

“I have a lot to figure out still.” You say, you answer elusive, the way she looks at you tells you she has something to say about that.

“It’s because of Dr. Langdon, that you’re questioning everything?” She says with a smile and your face goes red, something that’s been happening way too much recently.

“It’s not just because of Dr. Langdon.” You say, rolling your eyes and giving her shoulder a teasing shove.

“And don’t think I haven’t seen the way you act around Mateo.” You add, giving her a pointed look, now it was her turn to blush.

“That's, well, he’s just so-” She fumbles with her words, you laugh and stand up, offering her a hand up.

“C’mon, they’re probably waiting for us to debrief.” You say, patting her shoulder while you two walk out of the stairwell and back into the ED. You silently wished everyone would stop being so nice, then it would be so much easier to leave tomorrow. As you walk back to the trauma bay to debrief, you catch sight of Frank. Who gives you a sympathetic smile, knowing you were on the case, and that you just lost your first patient here. You return his smile and give him a small thumbs up. Javadi gives you a look.

“I think it’s mostly because of Dr. Langdon.” She murmurs and you playfully elbow her side.

The debriefing was fine, it was a ritual you liked, you felt better about everything afterwards. That was until Robby called your name when you were trying to leave. He gestured to the hallway to talk in private. You furrowed your brows a bit as you followed, your heart starting to race.

“Nothing bad, you’re not in trouble.” He starts off and you let out a relieved sigh, “I just have noticed that you and Langdon are really hitting it off.”

Oh. You raise your brows, your lips forming a line as you anticipate whatever he’s about to say next.

“There’s nothing wrong with that, I am not trying to discourage it, but you are leaving Sunday, right?.” He says with a face that is basically saying ‘what the hell are you two thinking?’

“Um, yeah, yeah I am leaving Sunday, he’s just showing me the ropes of Pittsburgh and stuff, really.” You say, brushing it off but you both can tell it’s more than that.

“I’ve got it under control, Dr. Robby, and I appreciate the concern. But I’ve got a handle on it.” You say with a final nod, trying to convince yourself just as much as him.

“Ok, no problem, but if you happen to be looking for a permanent placement, you’re always welcome back here.” He says, getting hand sanitizer from the dispenser and walking off, leaving you alone in the hallway. Why did everyone keep telling you that? And why was it a little tempting?

You walked back to the nurses station, picking up a tablet and throwing yourself right back in it. You were not about to let personal feelings get in the way of your job. Even though every time Frank walked by you couldn’t help but stare. You sighed, unsure of anything anymore. You just needed to get through these two shifts and then you were back home. You could think about everything then, not now.

The rest of the day went by much better than expected, and a lot easier than your morning did. Dana assigned another nurse for each trauma that came in the rest of the day, letting you catch a break. It honestly felt good to escape and take a breather in triage. Some people complained that it was boring or slow, but you appreciated being able to sit down and really talk with people. It somehow made you feel a lot less alone.

Triage room three was out of gauze. As you went to restock it, you looked over and saw Robby pulling Langdon to the side. Frank looked tense as hell as he stepped away to talk to him. You wondered if Robby was about to have the same conversation he had with you with Frank now, but you sure weren’t going to stick around and find out.

The hours caught up to you before you knew it, you stuck around a little longer than usual, helping finish up charts and easing the shift change from day shift to night. You noticed that as you continued to help, Frank was at the nurses station, lingering. Waiting for you. You give him a smile and gesture that you’ll be just a few more minutes, he just smiles and nods, sending you on your way. You only leave him waiting for a few more minutes, running up to him as you sling your bag over your shoulder. You wave bye to Dana and Lena, and you were pretty sure Dana was catching Lena up on the whole situation, you could hear them gossiping to themselves, you just rolled your eyes and smiled.

“Just one more shift, huh?” He says, nudging you a little. You sigh and nod in confirmation.

“One more, then I’m out of here.” You confirm, your tone is a little heavier than usual.

“Robby told me it’s probably best I stay away from you.” Frank admits after a minute, you look at him with wide eyes.

“What did you reply?” You ask, studying his expression.

“I said we were both adults, and we know what we’re doing.” He says and you almost laugh.

“I said pretty much the same exact thing to him this morning.” You say with a wide smile now.

“Well I’m glad we’re on the same page then.” He says with raised brows and a nod. You look out at the dark Pittsburgh sky, taking it all in for a moment.

“I think I will miss Pittsburgh,” You say after a minute, “this is a special place.”

“Yeah, well, if you’re ever visiting again, you’re always welcome here.” He says, his eyes also fixated on the stars.

“Everyone keeps saying that I just- I don’t know what the hell is next for me.” You say with a heavy exhale, he looks over at you, almost like he’s trying to memorize everything about you.

“Don’t let anyone pressure you into staying, or not staying.” He says and you nod.

“Do whatever’s best for you, but I will miss you.” He admits, you feel your chest tighten. You give him a sad smile.

“I’ll miss you too, who knew so much could happen in only seven days.” You say and he nods back.

“Go get some rest, maybe tomorrow night I can take you out, celebrate your last night here?” He asks and your heart starts beating faster at the idea.

“That would be great.” You agree, your smile turning happier, “But, it has to be casual, not a date, we can’t, repeat Wednesday.” You say, he laughs and shakes his head, knowing exactly what you meant.

“No, I’ll keep it PG, don’t worry.” He jokes, making you both laugh a little. You grab his forearm and squeeze gently before letting go, walking to your car.

“Goodnight, Frank.” You say with a warm smile, he shakes his head and waves goodnight. You turn your car on and sit there for a long, long time.

✿　.　˚　. 　 ˚　✿

Saturday

Your last shift in the Pitt was finally here, and you couldn’t believe it. You felt like a completely different person now then the person who came in on Monday. And when you walked in, there he was, here extra early, chatting with Dana and McKay. Your final RedBull sitting waiting for you next to his arm. You walk up with a smile on your face, happy to be greeting them.

“Good morning, guys.” You say with a sweet smile, Dana pulls you in by your shoulders again.

“Good morning for the very last time, sweetheart.” She says, giving you a proud look that fills you with warmth.

“Are you ready to be out of here?” McKay asks, her eyes are tired, as you’re sure your own are. You smile and shrug a bit.

“I guess, it’s been a really good week though, I’m just excited to sleep for three days straight when I get home.” You say, and you honestly weren’t even joking. Frank slides the can of RedBull over to you.

“You can go back to saving your extra cans for yourself.” You say as you crack it open, he smiles and nods, but it doesn’t quite reach his eyes. All of this, bittersweetness, was new to you. You were used to working your contracts and moving on to the next one, but this was so incredibly different.

“Well it looks like it’s gonna be a busy day,” Dana says, clapping her hands together, “waiting room is already filling up, go, pronto.” She says, shooing everyone away from the nurses station. You let out a heavy sigh, rubbing a hand down your face as you go to do morning vital checks. The exhaustion and weariness about leaving is finally catching up to you. That wasn’t important right now though. Your patients were important. You walk into bay 14 with a wide smile and a good morning, despite everything, you were a good nurse.

The morning was filled with vital checks, med refills, and most of the Pitt staff stopping to chat with you. Most of them asked you to stay. Mel even hugged you, which you were not anticipating, but appreciated nonetheless. You had no idea how you slipped so far in the cracks of your own rules. You were beyond rules at this point, which had never happened before. Your high strung rulebook had withstood so much, you’d done so well for two years, and then one doctor in Pittsburgh ruined it all. And the worst part? You didn’t mind at all. Maybe this is where you were supposed to be, where you wanted to stay. You wouldn’t make any promises to anyone yet though. You would think it over on your drive home, that was that.

Today did feel busier somehow. The morning rush hit hard, you were thrown onto multiple traumas right off the bat. Your arms were sore from doing compressions, and you had probably hit a record for how many IVs done in just one hour. You caught a glimpse of the waiting room when you were getting intake paperwork from Lupe, and it was a lot of people. More than you had seen the entire time you had been here.

People were getting restless, and you understood. It’s hard not to get frustrated when you’re sick or in pain and waiting for hours. You want terribly to be able to help everyone as fast as possible, but you just couldn’t. That was always a hard pill to swallow.

You came back with the paperwork and brought it to the nurses station, sorting it all out patient by patient. You hear Dana call your name and you turn to her with raised brows.

“Can you repeat vitals on the patient in 14? They’ve been waiting there for a hot minute.” She directs and you smile and nod, reviewing their chart on your tablet. Mr. Sullivan had been here two weeks ago with a non displaced ankle fracture. Now, he was back, awaiting surgery because he hadn’t followed the recovery directions properly. You see the letters NPO in red on his chart, nod to yourself, and head in.

“Hi again, Mr. Sullivan.” You greet with a smile as you enter the room, donning gloves to check his vitals, “any changes at all since I talked to you last?” You ask, sitting down on the stool next to his bed.

` “Well how about the fact that I’m fucking starving.” He says, his tone hostile, but you were good at talking people down.

“I’m sure you are, and I’m really sorry but you are NPO, you can’t eat or drink anything while you wait for your surgery.” You explain with a soft, empathetic expression. He gives you a nasty look back.

“That’s the dumbest shit I’ve ever heard.” He says, rolling his eyes, his body language guarded.

“I know you’re frustrated, I would be too, but it looks like you’re next in line for the OR, sir. You just got bumped by a few other people.” You explain, moving a bit to check vital signs. What happens next completely takes you off guard, even though you should’ve seen it coming.

“You bitch!” He yells as you readjust his pulse ox reader. You try to move out of the way, Ahmad already walking towards the room the second he heard yelling, but it was too late. He socks you right in the cheekbone, knocking you to the ground immediately.

“We got a code hula hoop in here!” Ahmad yells out, restraining the patient. Dana and Robby are immediately sprinting towards you. They help you up, a bunch more people swarm the room, trying to get a hold on the patient.

“What the hell!” Dana yells as her and Robby sit you down on a chair in the nurses station. You weren’t exactly sure what was happening anymore, there was so much chaos and noise and pain. White hot pain spreading and settling into a nasty headache, the bright ER lights not helping that one bit. You were trying your best to just stay calm, but that was much easier said than done. Unfortunately, this was not the first time something like this had happened to you, but this was the worst the aggression had been.

“Ow, ow.” You mutter as Robby looks over the injury. Dana takes your hand and squeezes it gently, she’s muttering curses at Gloria and the entire system the whole time.

“There’s a laceration on the cheekbone from the impact, might need stitched up, but not until after we get you a head CT.” He says, you furrow your brows a little bit.

“No, I-I don’t need a head CT, I’m ok.” You breathe out, your chest heaving from everything you haven’t had time to process. Everyone around you starts to protest your words, but only one gets through to you.

“You’re getting the damn CT.” Frank says, he’s knelt down, his face looks somewhat pinched in pain, but he needed to be at eye level with you in the moment.

“I’ll stitch her up when she’s back.” He volunteers, lifting himself up with a small grimace. Robby looks between the two of you.

“Are you sure that’s the best idea?” Robby asked with raised brows. You and Frank both start speaking at the same time in response.

“Absolutely.” Frank says with a curt nod.

“Please.” You say at the same time as him, Dana putting gauze over the lac on your cheek.

Robby says and nods in agreement, waving his hand a bit.

“Alright,” He starts, giving Langdon a once over, pausing before nodding again, “we’ll bump everyone, get you next in line for CT.” He says, Dana volunteers to take you. Frank asks Princess to get a wheelchair, but you refuse one, insisting you walk. Frank gives you a concerned look, but you wave him off, promising you were ok.

“I’ll stitch you up when you get back, ok?” He says softly, squeezing your shoulder before Dana sweeps you away to CT. Frantically apologizing the entire time.

“This shit happens way too often, it’s a fucking disgrace. I wouldn’t blame you if you didn’t want to come back here.” She says, you just let her talk, you were pretty sure she just needed to get it all out. You appreciated her ferocity though, and her unwavering company.

The scan was fine, Dana escorted you back to a room afterwards, Frank already setting up everything meticulously to suture your wound closed. Dana gives you a soft smile before turning you over to Frank’s care. You couldn’t even believe the last 20 minutes of your life had happened.

“Alright, up on the bed, let me have a look.” He says, his voice so gentle. You had admired this whole week how kind he was when speaking to patients, now that tone was turned on you. He peels back the gauze, prodding it with gloved fingers, you wince a little. Your eyes are closed but you can basically hear his face mirroring yours, pinched in pain.

“It’s not bad, maybe three stitches max, you’ll be alright.” He says, starting to prep everything to stitch it close.

“Careful with my face, Langdon.” You say, managing a small smile and joke. Despite the situation, he manages a small smile himself.

“Your face is impossible to mess up,” He says, and your signature blush gives yourself away, again, “minimal to no scarring, promise.” He says, getting the local anesthetic ready.

“Pinprick and some burning, ok?” He asks, waiting for your nod before he starts. You furrow your brows a little bit at the burning, but it leaves as soon as it came.

“Sorry.” he mutters, seeing your furrowed brow. You don’t respond, keeping as still as possible while he starts to work. It doesn’t take him very long at all. This is an intern or med students job, not an R4s, but you were beyond grateful that he was the one doing this. His skilled hands work fast and you felt like you only took a few breaths before he was cutting the string off, putting a small gauze pad over it.

“I won’t bore you with all the recovery instructions, I know you know it already.” He says, cleaning everything up. You sit up, just watching him for a moment. How had you gotten so lucky with him? And how unlucky were you that you had to leave?

“Thank you, really.” You say, going to stand up, but he stops you. He puts a hand on your shoulder and pushes you back down on the bed.

“Stay here, twenty minutes.” He says, his tone serious now.

“But I-” You start to protest, but he cuts you off.

“Nope, you got hurt by a patient, your CT results were clean, but I’m not letting you go straight back into it after that.” He says, his voice and face stern, you knew you couldn’t argue with him. You just nod and lay back down.

“Good, you still on for later?” He asks, his brows slightly raised, his eyes grazing over every one of your features with a pinched concern. You smile and nod tiredly.

“Wouldn’t miss it for the world.” You say, now it was his turn to blush.

“Good, stay put, twenty minutes.” He says, dimming the lights before heading out. You sigh heavily, trying to process what the hell just happened to you, in multiple ways.

Robby comes in and checks on you ten minutes in, looking at your CT results and checking Frank’s stitch job.

“You can leave early, no one would blame you.” He says, sitting on the stool beside the bed. You shake your head, no way you were leaving your last day early.

“I’ll be okay, I appreciate the concern though, really.” You say, and he lets you stay. He does, however, make you do triage for the rest of the day. You honestly weren’t complaining too much.

Despite everything, you were still dreading leaving at the end of your shift. You slowly gathered your things and said your goodbyes. Robby clapped you on the back, saying you were welcome back anytime. Dana squeezed you into the world’s tightest hug, you were scared for a minute your stitches were going to pop.

“You take care of yourself, sweetheart, ok?” She says, giving you a pointed look. You smile and nod, promising you would. You finish your goodbyes and find Frank waiting for you,. For the last time, you two walk out together.

“What’re you in the mood for tonight?” He asks, you shrug in response.

“Whatever you want, you are the Pittsburgh local, after all.” You say and he thinks it over for a minute.

“Shitty fast food while we sit in my car?” He asks, you laugh and nod.

“That sounds perfect.” You say, refraining from taking his hand or leaning into him as you two walked. He lets you play whatever music you want while he drives to the restaurant. Even though you were sick of it, you chose the Killers album that was stuck in your CD reader, it felt too perfect.

“Are you kidding? I love the Killers.” He says with a smile and you start laughing, shoulders shaking a bit, he gives you a somewhat confused look.

“This CD has been stuck in my car for five years.” You say through laughs, now he’s laughing a little too.

“Well if one CD is gonna be stuck in your car, this is the one.” He says, you both continue to chat and banter until he pulls through the drive thru. He parks and you two eat in silence for the most part. You were so comfortable in silence with him, the unspoken understanding between you two was something you had never experienced with another person before.

“Thank you, again,” You start after a few minutes in silence, “not just for today. I just, you’re a really special guy, Frank.” You say, even though there was so much more to say than that. He gives you a warm smile and sits for a moment, you could practically hear his thoughts coming out of his head.

“I wanted to thank you too.” He starts, you cock your head to the side a little bit, waiting for his next words, “I’ve struggled a lot, with my divorce, my addiction, everything at the hospital, but you’ve been a really good breath of fresh air. I appreciate it more than you know.” He says, and hot tears well up.

“God, I don’t want to leave.” You finally admit, pressing your palms to your eyes.

“You’ll figure it out, I’m sure you will.” He says, and honestly, that was all you needed to hear, from exactly the right person.

“I will figure it out.” You repeat, leaning your head against the headrest of the car.

“Can I see your phone?” He asks, you furrow your brows, but hand it over. He opens your Contacts app, adding his phone number and name into it.

“Just in case, if you’re ever in town or just need anything, don’t hesitate.” He says, you smile and blush fiercely, texting him so he would have your contact saved too.

“Thank you, Frank.” You say, your voice ernest and sincere, saying everything you couldn’t. You sit and talk for what feels like hours. Your cheek was starting to ache and so were your eyes. One week in the Pitt felt like seven lifetimes. As much as you enjoyed it, you were excited to rest. Eventually, he drives you back to your car. You were dreading getting out.

He rounds the car and opens the door for you. You stand and your feet are aching instantly. He draws you into a hug and you have to fight back tears against him.

“I guess this is goodbye.” You say, looking up at him with raised brows. He shakes his head, the emotion getting to him as well.

“I don’t like goodbyes.” He admits, you furrow your brows slightly, “Just, goodnight.” He says, and before either of you can process it, he’s kissing you. You didn’t mind, at all, even though you said there would be no repeating Wednesday, that was the least of your worries right now. You taste salt, you weren’t sure if they were his tears or yours, and you weren’t sure that even mattered. When he pulled away, you both had sad smiles. You unlock your car, knowing if you didn’t leave now, you never would.

“Goodnight, Frank.” You say, starting your car. On the drive back to your hotel, you didn’t mind your Killers CD nearly as much.

✿　.　˚　. 　 ˚　✿

Sunday

Pretty much the second you’re back home in Wisconsin, you submit your permanent transfer request to Pittsburgh Trauma Medical Center’s Emergency Department.

One day after that you get approved, you were starting in two weeks.

Ten minutes later you pull out your phone, shakily finding the contact saved as Frank Langdon.

You stare at the screen for three minutes, typing and retyping what you should say. Eventually, you decide to keep it simple.

“I’m coming back to PTMC permanently in two weeks.”

One minute after that you see three dots indicating he’s typing.

“So I can take you on a proper date now?”

You know immediately you made the right decision.

The End!

✿　.　˚　. 　 ˚　✿

A/N: I hope you guys enjoyed!! I loved writing this so so much. Would also like to say I did unintentionally write Al-Hashimi out, and I indeed apologize. Would also like to say, there is no room for Santos hate here xoxo. How I wrote her was for plot convenience, I love her dearly. Thank you for reading!!

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