contains: the pitt, samira mohan x jack abbot, phone call, mild hurt/comfort
summary: It's the fourth of July, and Jack Abbot can't stop thinking about Samira Mohan.
word count: 1.2k
read on ao3
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Jack scrubbed a hand over his face as he paced the stairwell. It was just one call, so why was the little green button next to that name causing his heart to leap in his throat? She was most likely asleep by now. It was eleven pm and from what Jack overheard she'd had a very shitty day. She had to have been exhausted. He told himself he was just checking in—professionally of course. But who calls one of their senior residents at eleven o'clock at night on the fourth of July?
If he waited any longer he'd miss his window. The chaos slowed significantly within the past hour. However, the night was still young and fireworks stilled boomed across the city. Shen could only cover him for so long. He sucked in a deep breath and pressed the call button. He could hear his on heart thump loudly in his chest as the line ringed.
"Come on, Samira." He murmured to himself as he kept his eyes fixed on the ticking clock above the window of the stairwell. He planned to leave a voicemail if she didn't answer but a selfish part of him just wanted to hear her voice since he didn't catch her before she left earlier that day.
"Dr. Abbot?"
Jack snapped from his daze. "Dr. Mohan!" He cleared his throat. "I didn't wake you, did I?"
"Um, no, you didn't," she sighed. "Can't seem to sleep anyways."
"Damn." His voice trailed off as his chest grew heavy. "After a day like today? That's unfortunate."
"Yeah, it is." She sounded completely drained. "Anyway, can I ask why you're calling me on shift? If the night moves anything like today then you should be with your patients."
Jack shrugged. "I have a small window of down time."
"Okay, then what is it?."
He could hear rustling on the other end and could only assume that she was sitting down.
"I'm uh—" He rested his chin on his palm. "I'm just checking in I guess. Dana said that you we're looking for me earlier—something about a letter of recommendation?"
"Oh yeah, that." Disappointment laced her tone.
"Are you applying for fellowships for next year?" He maintained his professional persona.
"I was going to try." Her voice cracked. "Now I'm probably not going to apply for anything at all."
"Why not?" Jack was confused. She was the smartest person he knew, surly she could get into any fellowship that she wanted.
"I think that I'm going to throw in the towel for the whole emergency medicine specialty." She stumbled over her own words as if to reassure herself.
"What?" Jack stood abruptly, surprised at what he just heard. "What do you mean?"
"I'm not cut out for this, Dr. Abbot. If no one told you already I fucked up pretty badly today."
"Dr. Mohan-"
"I lost a patient today because I missed something on the scan. Ogilvie was under my supervision and now he feels at fault for the lost." Her voice began to shake. "The other one—Mr. Diaz if I hadn't let him leave earlier than he wouldn't be in the ICU with a TBI. If I was more on top of things today then—"
"Samira." Her name rolled off his tongue and gave her pause. "Breathe for me, okay?" He wished that he was standing beside her rather then on the other end of the phone.
The rambling was soon replaced by deep inhales. After several moments past, Jack spoke up again.
"Better?"
Samira released a shaky breath. "A little."
"Good." He smiled to himself. "Now check your pulse for me."
She scoffed. "I'm fine I swear-"
"Just humor me." He shook his head.
"Okay." The line went quiet for a minute. "It's a little spiked but normal."
"That's good." He cleared his throat. "Now listen to me. You’re a brilliant doctor, Samira. Hell—you're smarter than all of us."
"But I-"
"Listen." He urged. "Today was a bad day, okay? There's no doubt about it. I'm sorry about Robby. He was a dick and you didn't deserve to be treated that way."
"Why are you apologizing?" Samira asked.
"Because he didn't and it's what you deserve." He sighed, if only she knew that he thought the world of her. "Also because I wasn't there. Things would've went a lot differently if I was." When Dana informed him of the way Robby treated Samira earlier that day, Jack imagined all of the different ways he could've smacked some sense into the man. He knew that Robby had his struggles but it was not excuse to belittle and shame his residents, especially not his best doctor on staff.
"You're a good doctor, Mohan," he continued. "Not enough people give you credit. I've seen you with your patients. You care about them and go above and beyond to get them the care that they need. I've seen your skills firsthand. The way that you gracefully handled the MCI, not a lot of people could handle it like you did. You saved that man threading that pigtail catheter."
"It wasn't without your guidance." If he had to guess, he would say that she was smiling.
"Every night shift I've worked you with you I've seen your bedside manner. When you present you cover all of your bases and address every concern. When health insurance is an issue, you go above and beyond to ensure that your patients get the care that they need."
Samira remained silent.
"Look, don't quit the ED, okay? It would be a huge disservice to the entire city of Pittsburgh and the United States." His gazed up at the ceiling and chose his next words with caution. "Take a few days off. After a day like today I'd say you earned it, okay? Doctor's orders."
A laugh broke through the speaker. "How long have you be waiting to use that line?"
"You have no idea." He smirked and found himself laughing too.
"Hey, Abbot." Parker Ellis poked her head through the door of the stairwell. "We've got a trauma en route. Another party gone sideways, there were firecrackers involved. From what we know the guy's missing at least two limbs."
"Shit." Jack shook his head. "I'll be right out."
"Okay." Ellis nodded. "I've bet $20 on the left foot and pinky finger." She disappeared back into the ED.
"It sounds like things are picking up again." Samira’s voice broke through the other end.
"Seems like it." Jack sighed. "I'll write up that recommendation letter for you by the end of the day tomorrow."
"Dr. Abbot you don't have to-"
"I insist, Samira. Any department would be lucky to have you. I mean it." If only she truly knew how much he meant it.
"Okay." She surrendered. "I'll let you go."
"I'll call you tomorrow to make sure you're following my orders." He smirked.
"Funny," she scoffed. "I'll make note of that."
He chuckled into the phone. "Goodnight, Samira. Try to get some sleep, okay?"
Samira yawned. "Okay, goodnight, Jack." The line went dead as she hung up the phone.
Jack took in a deep breath and stared at the blank phone screen. It was the first time she had addressed him as Jack. He smiled to himself before he shoved his phone in his pocket and stepped back out into the chaos of the ED.
So I’m still really disappointed with how Season 2 of The Pitt was handled both on and off screen, like the absolute PR nightmare that was announcing halfway through season 2 that Supriya Ganesh was being written off at the same time Ayesha Harris was being promoted?? To me that’s been the crux point for all the drama that followed. Like way to take it from both the actresses.
Since then, we’ve watched the slew of interviews about actors showing their disappointment of SG being written off, about cut scenes, all the women from season 2 coming together to discuss the MAYBE UNINTENTIONAL sexism in the show (like were cooked if even the actors in the show don’t know), NW saying some INSANE stuff like a night shift spin off would be boring because mothers mostly work night shift, dissing the entire horror film genre as an off hand comment, giving some really insensitive advice to his employees as their boss about not jumping ship, joking about writing people off the show on set, joking about yelling at women on set (that one’s not great given the shows criticism of sexism and treatment of WoC). Then the showrunners flip flopping about why Mohan is being written off (that’s pissing me right off), they left Supriya to deal with that media circus all by herself only to not give any good reason why they were removing her. The actress and the character deserved so much better.
However, all the above accumulates into a tight corner the showrunners have put themselves into that presents two scenarios moving forward.
Either they don’t write any characters out of S4 and just show, like how they manipulated Javadi’s presence in S3, that they could’ve done the same thing for Mohan. So they removed her for a reason that had nothing to do with the writing.
OR
They’ve forced themselves into a corner and now have to start writing off characters. And looking at the line up, it’s going to be either fan favourite characters with massive followings online AND/OR people of colour.
Basically I’m very interested in seeing what they’re gonna do, because they can tout on about the show being a revolving door for ‘realism purposes’, but fans are really going to start getting tired of Robby crying every episode and getting attached to characters only to have them written off a season or two later.
This means they’ve backtracked on the timeline they originally had planned btw. Or they’re gonna pull some unrealistic 4d chess on us about why two of the previous cast are missing in the middle of the rotation year.
I don’t ever think I’ve seen a tv show speedrun a whitewash with a side of PR disaster like this before, it’s frankly fascinating.
the problem with movie remakes is that they always remake something that was already good, meaning at worst you ruin it and at best your remake is largely redundant. to make a truly good remake you need to start with source material that is absolute dogwater. ignore the pull of nostalgia. redeem the sins of moviemaking past.
quotes from supriya ganesh's new interview that make me wanna rip out my own hair:
"I think a lot of what drives her is the passing of her father; and though that's not explicitly delved into in the show like for a lot of the characters[...] everyone has that thing that makes them tick"
"One thing i did, especially for season two, is that i wrote letters to him in different stages of her life, especially when she was in medical school, promising the kind of doctor she was gonna be, and the goals she would strive to as a medical professional for him"
"I think pittfest really redeemed her, and showed us that she can work in a fast paced environment. I think a lot of it is decision paralysis, which can also be a strength. She's found more balance. She has that diagnostic superpower where she can look under the surface and see what's going on"
"I hear from a lot of people; people with chronic pain, chronic disease, conditions where they weren't believed, especially women and women of colour, they really want this doctor. I mean i want this doctor. [...] There is so much in women's healthcare especially, where there's just no research done for... like there's still no real way to diagnose endometrioses without an invasive surgery for example"
"Doctor Mohan is that doctor that says 'no i am going to listen to you, even if other people call you crazy[...]' and i don't think it's a specific type of patient; even with the geriatric cases she doesn't dismiss them just because they are older, she sees their problems and she is going to fix it"
"i think she only realises how innapropriate and in some ways traumatic it was that her boss spoke to her that way after he left the room, and she sort of sees everyone looking at her; that is only the moment where she's like 'what just happened'"
"Especially as a subordinate, so much of your future depends on whether your attending likes you or not, and she's trying to stay in this hospital. It's very destabilising to her. It really sort of came out of nowhere, she thought they were on better terms"
"[during the ambulance bay scene] This is the first time that she's learning literally anything about him; she's trying to process it after these weird few hours with him. It gives her more insight into why. I don't know if things are 100% okay, i think she just sort of sees that he's going through it too"
"A lot of female residents or med students have this sort of weird dynamic with superiors where they are kind of seen as less than in some ways, or taken less seriously"
"[about Orlando] She never wanted to be in the position of the doctor who delivered the news to her family; she always thought she was gonna cover all her bases and is now met with this immovable force that is the American healthcare system and insurance. Even though there is a much larger structural force preventing her from delivering this care, having to give the news herself kind of breaks her"
"She now has empathy for that doctor that failed her own family; there is very complicated feelings, like 'was i too harsh on them' or 'maybe they were also tired' or maybe they had a boss that was trying to get them to flip beds and thought my dad was being dramatic about his heart attack symptoms."
"When i first read her, i thought she was written as a response to, like, everything. The fact that you have to turn over these patients, and almost treat this hospital like it's a restaurant. She feels like the best way to deliver care is to not do that to the extent that it needs to be done"
"[If Samira returned to s3] I just think she's a brilliant ER doctor, and i would hope that she adds specialties to make her more fulfilled in that setting; i would hope that she would find a way to continue her research on racial disparity, and i hope she takes the next day [after the 4th of July] off"
"[ About fans response to her leaving] I guess i didn't know you liked the character that much?[laughs] No, no, i mean i know they did, but i was so surprised by how much love everyone had for her. That's what i'm gonna miss the most, all the love and the community that people formed around the character"
"[About Samira's most challenging case] I think it was really the sickle cell patient; we filmed that very soon after Sonya Massey was murdered. I think it was really overwhelming for me to come in and deal with those dynamics with the sickle cell patient. I told Ashley(Joyce) that we could always take a breather"
"I don't think Samira does karaoke, i think she's just kinda sitting in the corner and hoping no one notices she's there"
"[About what she'll miss the most] Oh, i mean the cast, definitely. I've made some lifelong friends there, and it's gonna be weird seeing them not in scrubs because we don't hang out outside of set a lot. Now i will have see them outside of a scrub setting"
Considering the similarities between Jack Abbot and Brett Richards, Fire Country has the opportunity to be hilarious and hire Supriya Ganesh to play like an EMT who works alongside the fire station and slowly falls in love with Brett
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