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ㅤㅤㅤㅤ SCHOOL GIRL CRUSH!

summary: you bring your elderly neighbor to the ER after a fall, only to be faced with your high school crush - who is hotter, more capable and just as charming. pairing: frank langdon x social worker!reader tags: afab reader, meddling elderly neighbor, just some flirting, vomiting is mentioned but not described, frank langdon was a problem child in high school truthnuke, shen & mel mention, hospital setting, small miscommunication, divorced frank langdon word count: 5.0k notes: frank langdon i love u. one day i'll be able to write a small fic. please reblog if you enjoy!

The emergency department is not where you thought you’d find yourself at four in the morning. Especially not after you had made such a fuss to your friends about getting home early and going to sleep immediately afterwards.

It had been such a nice night. You had had a nice dinner, ran yourself a hot bath for the first time in ages. Put on a matching pajama set that felt silky on your freshly-shaved legs, curled up beneath a fluffy freshly-cleaned blanket. Sleep had come easily. That is, until the vibrating of your phone woke you up.

Miss Robin had lived in the house next to yours for four decades. As soon as you had inherited the house you now lived in, she had waddled on over, a Tupperware of still-warm cookies in her hands and a bright smile on her face. You had returned the favor by bringing over some leftover lasagna and your friendship had only sprouted further and further.

She was widowed young, her husband passing away from cancer when they were in their forties. Her only son had grown up and moved out, now a lawyer in New York. He was only a six hour drive away, but his job and family seemed to keep him too busy to come and visit his mother. You thought it was bullshit, but Miss Robin had constantly reassured you that her son had reached out enough to keep her happy, so there wasn’t much more to say.

Over time, she had become a close confidant of yours. It was silly, especially with the drastic age difference between the two of you, but she was kind and had wisdom you couldn’t even fathom. It made the lonely nights in your large house just a bit less haunting.

Which is why her voice over the phone, wavering about how she had fallen and she didn’t believe she could get up, had immediately gotten you out of bed. You had slid a baggy hoodie over your pajamas, slid your socked feet into the ugliest pair of sandals you owned, and immediately raced over next door. Luckily, she had given you a key a couple of months ago when she had decided to go on a trip with some friends from her book club, so you were able to barge into her home and find her.

After sending her off in the ambulance, even as she had protested and ensured you that she was fine, you had jumped in your own car and driven to the Pittsburgh Trauma Medical Center. Ruffled, still donned in the rattiest clothes you own and hair entangled in a rat’s nest, you had been brought back to her room to wait until she got back from a CT, whatever that meant.

Luckily, Miss Robin’s doctor seemed to be nice. A bit ditsy and attached to the coffee in his hand, but competent and kind. She couldn’t stop gushing about how handsome he was, anyway, so there was no time to question his doctor-ing between her trying to play matchmaker.

The clock on the wall now reads seven-thirty in the morning. Three and a half hours of sitting in this room after being woken up and you’re feeling it in every part of you, your elbow perched on the railing of Miss Robin’s bed and your chin in your palm. Every couple moments, your eyelids drift closed without your permission, only to be jerked open again a second later at the beep of the heartrate monitor attached to her finger.

You sit up at the sound of the curtain rustling, squinting at the extra bit of light that streams into the space. All of their rooms had been filled despite the early hour the ambulance had come in, meaning that you and Miss Robin were occupying a make-shift room made up of three curtains and a dream. It was loud, especially with the man on the other side of the curtain retching every few minutes.

How lovely.

“Hello, Miss Sheffield. I’ll be taking over your care from Dr. Shen so he can head home.” A voice hits your ears, perking up for more news. Hopefully, that meant you could leave soon and catch at least a few hours of sleep before work tomorrow. “I’m Dr -”

“Frank?” His name spills out of your lips before you can stop it, shoulders tensing as you sit straight up.

“Dr. Frank? What a silly name.” Miss Robin muses playfully. You pass her a look and watch as she mimics zipping her lips closed.

Frank Langdon. Dimpled chin, thick eyebrows, blue-eyed Frank Langdon. He realizes who you are the minute you speak his name into the air, lips parting in surprise as his eyes flicker between you and Miss Robin. He’s frozen for only a moment, recovering with a shake of his head.

The corners of his lips tilt up in an almost sheepish smile. “Dr. Langdon.” He gently corrects the older woman as he looks at her. Then, he finds you again. “It’s nice to see you.”

It almost irks you, the professionalism radiating off of him while your heart thuds harder in your chest. You squirm as a blush naturally creeps up on your cheeks, reaching up to run your fingers through your hair. Your fingers snag on a couple of tangles on their way through and you make a mental note to shift into a ponytail as soon as possible.

Miss Robin’s eyes flicker from the both of you as you sit in an awkward staring contest, your words caught in your throat. “Do you two know each other?” she asks.

“Yes.”

Langdon speaks at the same time as you, although his voice is way less squeakier than yours. He gives you a crooked smile before looking back at the actual patient. “I shouldn’t admit this as your doctor, but I used to get the answers to my math quizzes off of her.” He moves closer to the bed, pulling his stethoscope off of his neck.

With intense focus, he presses the bell to Miss Robin’s chest, situating the eartips into his ears. He murmurs a quick “breathe deep” as he slides it along her chest and then back. His gaze flickers from where his hand is placed to her vitals, taking mental notes.

You stay quiet as he works, not wanting to interrupt. It was odd, seeing him after all these years. Taller, more muscle curving along his arms from what you could see through his scrubs. His hair had been constantly quiffed up as a teenager, but now it was settled into a mess of a middle part, loose strands falling over his forehead. Just as handsome as you had found him in high school, although manlier.

“Your secret’s safe with me.” Miss Robin sweetly responds, practically beaming as he gives her a soft laugh.

You’re not the only one that has been swooned by his charm, it seems.

“I appreciate that.” Frank looks between the two of you as he grabs a tablet off of a cart, gaze constantly moving. “How do you two know each other, if you don’t mind me asking?”

Your throat feels dry as you swallow nervously, clearing it before you speak. “She’s my neighbor,” you answer.

A loose string at the edge of your hoodie has become the victim of your nervous fidgeting, tugging on it and feeling the sleeve constrict just a bit. “And my friend.” You add, suddenly bashful about your friendship with a woman decades older than you. What if he thought you were a loser who couldn’t make friends your own age?

Robin hums her agreement. “She’s a darling,” she gushes. You pretend to miss the pointed look and smile she flashes at you. “She’s the one who called the ambulance for me today. Ran in there like Superwoman, you should’ve seen her.”

The urge to sink into your baggy hoodie consumes you, but instead you finally snap off the thread and turn it over in your fingers.

“It’s nice that you have someone to help you out, Miss Sheffield. Although I doubt you need it most of the time.” One eye closes in a quick wink and you’re pretty sure you see a blush on her cheeks. “Now, Dr. Shen briefed me quickly on your case, but I’d like to hear from you what happened this morning.”

Your neighbor gets into a way-too-peppy ramble of everything that led to her fall and happened afterwards, clearly inflating your role in this story. Despite her hyperbolic storytelling, Frank listens intently, nodding in response.

Once she’s done, he gives her a friendly smile. “Alright. Looking at your vitals, you’re looking good. Your heartrate is steady, your blood pressure is stellar, and you look great to me. We are still waiting on your CT results, but I know you two have been here for a while, so I’ll see about getting a rush on them so you can get home before our morning rush.”

You’ve dozed off without closing your eyes as the two talked, eyes hazy as they try to focus on him. You’re brought back by his attention suddenly turning to you, sitting up straight and glancing away for a moment to cover up the fact that you had been staring. Not on purpose, of course.

“Do you want me to show you where you can get some coffee?” He offers, brows raising. That crooked grin blossoms again. “You look like you could use it.”

Miss Robin answers before you do. “She’d love some!” She chirps.

She looks at you, swatting her hands to shoo you out. “Go. You heard the doc. I’m fine.” Then she gives Langdon a look, one that says “this girl, am I right,” like they’re good chums now.

You must’ve slept through the part where they decided to team up against you.

“Thank you.” You mumble as you stand up, legs stiff from sitting for so long. Curling your arm around your waist, you press your thumb into the small of your back, hoping to ease the dull ache there.

Frank holds the curtain open for you to step out into the hubbub of the emergency department, shutting it behind you with a swish. His hand curls gently around your bicep to pull you out of the way of an incoming gurney, the touch disappearing as soon as it’s there. “Your back hurt?” he asks.

Taking a look around the sudden busy state of the ER, you shake your head dismissively. “It’s just from sitting down for so long. I’ll be fine.”

Your next breath comes out as a long exhale as you walk beside him, shaking your head. “I can’t believe you’re a doctor,” you blurt.

“Why? Because I copied off of you in high school?” It’s a tease, but his face doesn’t change much. His hands come up to wrap around his stethoscope, pulling it flush against the back of his neck and letting his elbows swing.

You scoff playfully, shaking your head as you round the nurse’s station with him. A couple pairs of eyes follow the two of you, but you ignore it. “I didn’t think you’d willingly choose to do more school, is all.”

His shoulders raise in a shrug, releasing his stethoscope to push open a door and duck inside. There’s cabinets lining one wall, a sink and a refrigerator. A table sits in the middle of the room, looking lonely with only four chairs. The rest of the room is bare, off-white walls and all.

You freeze in the doorway. “Am I supposed to be in here?” you ask. “This looks suspiciously close to a breakroom.”

“Doctor’s lounge,” he corrects. “And you’re VIP. No need to go all the way to the cafeteria when I can just make you a cup here.” The door clicks shut behind the both of you, your shoulders relaxing at the sudden quiet.

Noticing your relaxation, Langdon gives you another soft smile as he steps towards the coffee machine. “Take a seat. Enjoy the quiet while you can.” He nods his head towards the chairs.

Flashing him a grateful smile, you sit down, even if your body still ached from being next to Miss Robin’s bed all night. You balance your chin on the palm of your hand, watching as he places the coffee pot into the machine and presses start.

“So,” you start, desperate to fill the silence, “how have you been in the last decade?”

His arms cross over his chest as he turns to face you, leaning back against the counter. “You don’t have to say it like that, you know. Makes us sound ancient.”

“I feel that way,” you volley.

“Fair enough.”

Another crooked grin. He takes a deep inhale as he shuffles on his feet, looking up at the ceiling as if trying to remember everything that happened. “Well, I went to med school. Chose emergency medicine pretty quickly. I like the rush.”

You nod in response, eyes flickering down as he turns around to gather the coffee pot.

He carefully pours some into a singular mug as he continues speaking. “I married Abby.” He notes, octave raising as if waiting for your surprise. “We have two kids. Tanner’s four and Penny’s two. I got them a dog, too, which she wasn’t too happy about..”

Slight disappointment blooms in your chest at the idea of him being married. You’re not sure why you’re shocked, however, as Abby and Frank had been connected at the hip when they had started dating in high school. It had broken your little teenage heart to see them together, especially after pining for him all year and hoping that asking for answers would turn into more.

The two kids were definitely a shocker. You tried to imagine the Frank that you had known as a father, reckless and loose-limbed. Did his son have the same charm to him that made him get everything he wanted? Was his daughter as discreetly empathetic?

He gestures to the cream and sugar, in which you snap out of your imagination and nod.

“Abby and I officially divorced a few months ago, though.” He reveals as he pours, tongue darting out to stick between his lips in focus.

You can’t stop the unhinging of your jaw in surprise, his nonchalant tone throwing you off. Langdon looks amused as he sets your coffee mug down in front of you, settling into the seat next to you.

“Sorry. Uhm, I’m sorry to hear that.” The cup covers your blush as you bring it to your lips, taking a slow sip and trying not to wince at the sting on your tongue.

He shakes it off with a shake of his head, another strand of hair draping over his forehead. There’s no move to push them away from his eyes.

“It’s okay. It was for the best.” The reassuring smile he gives you doesn’t contradict his statement, so you allow yourself to relax again. After a beat, he speaks again. “What about you? Husband? Wife? Kids? Pets?”

A laugh bubbles out of you before you can stop it, fingers tightening around your mug as you shake your head. “God, no. Not even close.” Your tongue runs along your bottom lip to catch a stray drop of coffee, ignoring the way Frank’s eyes flicker downwards at the movement. “I inherited my grandmother’s house here in Pittsburgh when she passed, which is when I moved in next to Miss Robin. Since then, I’ve just been focusing on work.”

“What do you do?” He asks, sounding so genuinely curious that your heart skips one singular beat.

The good news is that if you end up having a heart attack, there’s a doctor right in front of you. Did they still do mouth-to-mouth these days?

You squirm nervously in your seat, stretching out that one taut muscle in your back. “I’m a mental health social worker. I work at a community health center.”

That seems to sit with him for a moment, an unrecognizable emotion flashing across his face before he settles it. His eyebrows raise as he leans back more, a hand sprawled on the table in front of him. “Really?” he asks. “That means there could be a world where we ended up at a hospital together.”

There goes that heart fluttering again. You press the heel of your palm into the middle of your sternum to try and calm it, reminding yourself that Frank Langdon was just charming, not the prince of Pittsburgh. “What a world that’d be,” is the only response you can think of.

Langdon grins at you again, quiet for a moment. He goes to answer when the door to the doctor’s lounge creaks open, his attention immediately turning.

“Dr. Langdon? I was wondering if I could get a consult on the toddler in South 15.” A blonde asks tentatively, poking just her head in. Her hair is tied back in a tight braid, thick glasses perched on her nose. She looks at you, eyes widening before looking back at the man across from you. “It can wait.”

His hand raises to stop her from leaving, pressing his palm into the table as he rises to his feet. “No worries, Mel, we were just catching up.” He takes a couple steps until just his fingertips are resting on the wood, looking down at you. “Do you think you’ll be able to find your way back?”

Not wanting to take up anymore of his time, you stand up abruptly, grabbing the cup. “Oh, yeah, no problem.” Your feet carry you towards the sink, ready to toss out the rest of your drink.

Frank’s fingers close around your bicep before you can do so, still sporting a soft grin. “Take it with you. I can grab it when I come to discharge your neighbor.”

He lets go of your arm before heading towards the door, spinning around and walking backwards when he gets closer to it. His hand reaches behind him to grab it handle, pushing it down and opening without looking. “If you need anything, tell one of the nurses to get me, okay? I’ll be around.”

The door shuts behind him before you can finish saying “thank you,” leaving you stranded in the doctor’s lounge with a lukewarm cup of coffee in your hands.

Once you find your way back to Robin’s makeshift room, after fumbling around for way less time than you thought you would, you’re immediately greeted with a knowing grin.

“What are you smiling at?” You accuse, pinching your eyebrows at her as you hover near the wall. The idea of sitting down again makes every ache pulse.

A girlish giggle leaves her lips. “You have a crush on my doctor.”

The crochet hook in her hands, produced from her stuffed purse, click against her wedding ring as she loops a green thread of yarn through a black one. Earlier, she had insisted that she was making you a scarf in exchange for helping her out this morning, but right now it just looks like a handkerchief.

An unattractive snort quickly spills out of you. “I had a crush on your doctor before he was even a doctor. Don’t act like you just figured out the secrets to the universe.” You tilt your chin up at her before pointedly looking at the project in your lap. “Get back to your crocheting, grandma.”

By eight-thirty, you’ve called into work with a lame excuse about how you were sick with some odd stomach bug. Still, the curtain doesn’t peel open until an hour later, Frank’s head popping through first before the rest of his body follows.

“Sorry for the wait,” he apologizes immediately. The muscles in his hand tense as he closes the curtain, the flex not lost on you. “We always get a morning rush from patients who forced themselves to push through their symptoms for the night.”

Unfortunately, the coffee from earlier hadn’t outweighed the exhaustion that stemmed from sitting in the emergency department longer than you had slept. You’re practically deadweight where you’re slouched against the wall, earning you an apologetic smile that you let yourself sleepily enjoy.

Pointer finger tapping away at a tablet, Langdon speaks without looking up. “Your CT shows no breaks or fractures. Your initial examination when you were brought in shows no signs that we should be worried for internal bleeding or head injury.” He glances up through his eyelashes at Robin, lips pulling into a friendly smile. “I’ll do one more exam just to make sure nothing’s shown up to surprise us, but we should be good to discharge you shortly.”

“God bless,” you grumble beneath your breath. It’s quiet, and meant to be private, however it’s obvious by the huff of a laugh Frank gives you that he heard.

Your focus is basically gone as he examines Robin, fingers gentle along her skin as he checks every spot she had banged and bruised. His hands press into her abdomen to check for sensitivity, those strands hanging in front of his face as he leans over.

You drift off to the sound of him and Miss Robin talking about what she was crocheting, your temple pressed to the cool wall.

An hour later, according to the clock on the wall, you’re roused by a hand on the shoulder. To your surprise, Robin’s standing above you, her other hand on her purse. “Sorry to wake you, but I do need a ride home.”

“Don’t apologize,” you rasp. You press your fingers into your eyes before standing up, jaw falling in a large yawn. “I’ll pull the car around for you.”

Glancing around at the emptiness of the room, the corners of your lips pull down for a moment. “Did I miss Fr - Dr. Langdon?”

She glances at you knowingly, lips pulled into a reassuring smile. “He hasn’t come back since he did my exam earlier. A nurse brought me the paperwork.” Her pointer finger pokes into your shoulder. “Guess he didn’t have much to come back for since you were asleep.”

You fix her with a grumpy scowl before swatting her hand away, rising to your feet with a soft grunt. “I’m letting you sit here alone next time.”

The older woman’s laugh echoes behind you as you step out from behind the curtain. You duck through the swarms of people that have suddenly flooded the place in the hours you had been there. Blinking through the sleepy haze over your eyes, you move towards the exit, stopped only by the sound of your name.

“Hey! Did Miss Sheffield get her discharge papers?” Langdon’s way too peppy compared to your exhaustion, a bright light in his blue eyes. “I meant to stop by to say goodbye, but then a trauma came in, and then my patient coded.” He trails off, obviously not wanting to bring the mood down.

He shoulders up beside you as you continue walking, an airy swagger to his walk. There’s no move to stop you from walking, just simply joining you in your stroll towards the exit.

“It’s alright,” you assure. “Apparently some nurse brought them by. She’s still in the room while I bring my car around, if you’d like to say goodbye now.”

Frank looks over his shoulder for a moment before back at you, head tilting thoughtfully. “I’ll walk you out first. I can get her situated in a wheelchair while you’re driving.”

Next to you, he’s the picture of nonchalance. Despite the crazy job he has and the lives that are constantly in his hands, there’s not a single wave of nervousness radiating off of him. His shoulders are down away from his ears, his arms swinging at his sides, each step sure.

He’s always been more confident. A chatterbox inside of class, sat next to the quiet students in hopes it’d quell his attention deficiency. The type to toss a wadded up piece of paper into a trash can and holler when it actually goes in, despite only being a few steps away. A loser covered up in a cloak of charm and confidence.

It’s odd to see it become useful professionally, for him to find the perfect place to turn that energy into something good. If someone had asked you what you thought his life-time career had ended up being before today, you would’ve guessed he had gone into real estate.

“It’s nice to see you again.” You repeat the same words he had said to you earlier, although there’s something gentler. “This job seems to really suit you.”

Frank’s head turns to pass you a grin, eyes flickering around at the emergency department like he’s looking at it in a different light. “I enjoy it,” he admits. “The rush of constantly moving, the ‘helping people’ aspect. There’s been more than a few bad days, but I try to remind myself that the good outweighs the bad.” A smile plays on your lips without you even registering it there, chuckling lightly. “Never thought the day I’d see you serious about anything.” You note with a playful raise of your brow.

His lips part in a puckish gasp. “What? I was focused,” he insists.

“Yeah. Focused on Natalie Jefferson,” you shoot back.

That turns his mock surprise into his signature coprophagous grin, eyes rolling and head rolling with them. “I was not focused on Natalie.” His tongue touches the corner of his mouth for just a moment as he watches you, shifting around the people moving through the halls like it’s a second nature.

“You totally were!” Your energy has slowly returned, skipping your next step so that you could turn to face him more. “I’d turn around to look at you and you’d be staring directly at her when the board was in front of me. You stole her seat when she got up so that she’d talk to you when she came back.”

A laugh rumbles out of him, shaking his head again. He says your name with an emphasis, glancing at you out of the corner of his eye. When he notices your pointed look, he exhales heavily, shoulders falling. “I wasn’t looking at her.”

You groan. “I may have worn glasses, Frank, but I could still see.”

“I wasn’t looking at her,” he insists. After a beat of you giving a blank stare, he tries to push down his smile. “I was looking at you. But then you’d turn around and look at me, so I’d look away. Usually at Natalie, who just happened to be sitting next to you.”

His focus moves to in front of him, giving a passing nurse a friendly smile. “And I’d sit in her seat so I could talk to you better.” Those blues return back to you, calmer and more knowing. “Because I liked talking to you, but could never find a reason.”

For a moment, you just stare at him, eyebrows pinched in confusion. You try to make sense of what he’s telling you, but can’t seem to find what he’s trying to bring up.

Finally, the two of you breach the doorway leading outside, right in front of the crosswalk heading towards the parking lot. His fingers curl around your bicep to stop you, turning you to face him. “Confession time?”

A bit dumbfounded, and definitely stunned by the feel of his hand still on your arm, you dazedly look up at him. Slowly, you nod.

“I didn’t need your answers.” Despite the confession, he keeps his bright grin. The only evidence of his bashfulness is the pink on his cheeks, slowly creeping to the tips of his ears. “I thought you were pretty, so I needed a reason to talk to you. I figured you assumed I was a stupid annoyance, which you were right, so I thought that asking you for answers to homework and tests would be the easiest way to get to know you.”

Frank shuffles on his feet, looking over your shoulder to ensure none of his coworkers were around. “But then nothing ever happened, so I thought you didn’t like me and I tried to move on.”

Your jaw has been dropped for the last couple minutes, taking in everything he was telling you. Disbelief crawls up your body like a hot flash, along with playful annoyance at the way he just keeps fucking smiling at you. Finally, your hand whips out to smack his bicep, scowling at him.

“Frank!” You scold, because you’re not sure what else to do. “I had a crush on you, you idiot! I didn’t talk to you outside of schoolwork because I thought that’s all you wanted to talk to me for! You idiot!”

You slap him again purely because you feel like it, only letting a smile grace your face when he takes a singular step back and laughs.

After both of you finish laughing at the absurdity of it all, shaking off the remnants of your giggle, he raises his hand to rub it along his clean-shaven. “Wow. Teenage Frank really messed that one up, didn’t he?”

Rather than assure him, you purse your lips, nodding. “He did.”

He sighs, eyes caught on your face like he’s unable to pull them away. There’s a moment of silence before he speaks again, softer. “Well, can’t repeat that, can I?” He shoves his hands into his pockets, shoulders still low and relaxed. “Can I take you out to dinner sometime?”

“Depends. Are you going to look at another girl every time I try to make eye contact?”

“I promise you that my eyes will only be on you. And the server.” Langdon holds up three fingers. “Scout’s honor.”