Pairing: Jack Abbot x SLP!OC (Evelyn 'Evie' Wyatt)
Key Terms: Speech Language Pathologist (SLP), Nil Per Os (NPO - Latin for nothing by mouth), Videofluroscopic Swallowing Study (VFSS)
Related to: His & Hers: The Beginning and The Middle
“Thanks again for stepping in, Jack.” Jack waved Robby off as he stared at the board. It had been a fairly quiet morning so far. Only one trauma in the past hour since their shift started.
“Bad luck that the week Collins is interviewing is when Langdon’s kid decided to get him sick.” Dana commented.
“Children,” Robby started dryly putting his glasses on. “The great petri dishes of our lives.”
“Ten bucks says Langdon is laid out making Abby baby him.” Dana teased while uncapping her moisturizer.
Jack shook his head at her. “No bet, that’s a given.”
Shaking his head, Robby didn’t even look up from the computer. “Oh, I know a shark when I see one.”
“You boys are no fun.” Dana lamented before she shifted her attention. “Hey sweetie.” Jack followed Dana’s vision and watched Evie leave Central 11.
“Hi.” Evie greeted as she walked up to the central station. Her gaze flickering to everyone but Jack felt it settle on him for a second longer.
“So,” Jack started,working to keep her gaze directly on him. “What's on the menu for Ms. West?”
“I’m going to recommend keeping her NPO. She required multiple swallows per bolus when trialing thick liquid and she had the presence of a wet voice following all food trials. I’m also going to recommend a VFSS, which I’ll put the orders in now.” Evie’s tone suddenly shifted to a conspiratorial one. “But I also know they’re free now since the tech was running late so if you were to take her up now then she could be first in line.”
“Antoine!” Dana shouted toward the medical assistant. “Take Ms. West up to radiology NOW!”
“God, you are good.” Jack couldn’t help but praise her. Not only was she good at her job but she understood and wanted to help game the system that Gloria had set up. “My computer is open if you need it.”
“His computer?” Dana whispered to Robby.
Holding her gaze, Jack liked how she didn’t break his. If anything she had started to match the ferocity of his gaze with his own. He could read into it, he should be reading into it. Dana and Robby clearly were by the conspiratorial whispering they were doing on his peripheral. Seeing her after a night shift or when he came in early had made work bearable. Covering a day shift and getting to work alongside her was a welcomed treat. She was the silver lining to the bad shifts.
“Angel, what are you still doing in this hell hole?” Rolling up in her wheelchair, Mryna shot a disapproving look at Evie. “I thought I told you to quit and go somewhere where they can appreciate you better?”
Jack watched Evie laugh. “Hi Myrna, how are you?”
Flipping her hair over her shoulder, Mryna turned her attention to him.“Better now that I’ve seen Dr. Abbot.”
Crossing his arms, Jack huffed a smile at her. “Good morning, Myrna.”
Wheeling herself behind him, Mryna purred. “Looking good, Dr. Abbot.”
“Alright, enough of the free show.” Walking around the station, Dana stood behind Myrna and began to roll her away. “How about tea?”
Shaking his head, he turned back to the central station. He had expected to see Evie silently laughing or even smiling at him. He found Myrna to be harmless and since she called Evie angel, clearly she was on her good side too. Instead, Jack found she wasn’t even looking at him. Her gaze had seemed focused on his hands that were crossed against his chest.
“Evie?” As if breaking from a trance, Evie glanced up at him before looking away. Jack attempted to catch her gaze again, even moving his body to enter her line of vision.“You okay, Evie?”
“Yup!” Her reply was short and chipper. Not at all her usual tone.
“The computer is still open to put the VFSS order in.."Gesturing toward the computer, Jack watched confusedly as she shook her head. It felt as if all their months of knowing each other evaporated. Like what was once there, the eye contact, the banter, the smiles, the familiar warmth in his chest, had disappeared.
“I’ll do it upstairs. I’ll see you guys.” Frowning, Jack watched her walk off toward the elevator.
“What did you do?” Rejoining them, Dana looked judgmentally at Jack. “I leave for a second and suddenly, she’s gone?”
“I did nothing.” Jack didn’t even know why he was entertaining his conversation. Dana and Robby had been too happy to see him talking to Evie. Anytime he came in for the handoff with Robby, there would be a question about if he saw Evie. And Dana had some sixth sense whenever they were talking in the ED. He would look away for a second from Evie and there Dana watched fondly.
Robby looked up disapprovingly over his glasses. It reminded Jack of his elementary school librarian who once yelled at him for coughing ‘too loudly’. “Well clearly you did something if she walked away so fast.”
________________________________________________________________
Evie tapped her finger against the central nurse station as she waited for the patient to return from CT. She knew it wasn’t Dana’s fault for there being a line but she wished she hadn't come down. She had done so well the past two weeks of avoiding the ED by swapping patients with the other SLPs but this was completely ruining her plan.
Checking her watch once more, Evie promised herself she would wait 5 more minutes before she left and came back later.
“Hey Wyatt, can I have a snack?” Langdon called out to her.
Looking down at his seated figure, Evie raised an eyebrow. “Do I look like a vending machine?”
“Come on. I skipped lunch, saving four people’s lives. I know you have snacks on you.”
“I don’t have snacks.” She glared at him. “I have food to assess a swallow.”
She and Langdon had built a bickering relationship over her months working at PTMC. So this shouldn’t have bothered her but she was exceptionally on edge. Two weeks ago when she saw Jack, no Dr. Abbot’s wedding ring, she amended. She was horrified. And horrified by Dana and Robby for letting it continue to happen for months. Maybe he wasn't flirting, maybe he was just being kind and attentive because he was a good attending at a teaching hospital. And maybe she was just naive. Their over ten year age gap should have been a big enough clue. But somewhere along the lines, her feelings had slipped from innocent crush to something hopeful and real. And now she was left with the guilt that she had flirted with a married man.
“Same difference, give it here.” Langdon held out an expectant hand. “I'll take either graham crackers or apple sauce. I’ll even tell you their vending machine codes.”
“Are they FU?” Evie didn’t try to hide her annoyance with Langdon. “And why would I when you called me a ‘thick and easy woman’ last week?”
“You did what?” Jack Abbot’s voice seemingly cut through all the noise in the ED. Closing her eyes, Evie willed the patient to come down at that moment.
“In my defense, my friend’s wife from the UK told me that’s what they call SLPs there."
“And it felt worthy of repeating? Not cool, man.” Evie could tell from Jack’s, no Dr. Abbot's voice, that he was offended for her. She tried so hard in that moment to ignore the butterfly in her stomach. He was just being kind, she had read into it too much.
“I didn’t know!” Throwing his arms up, Langdon seemingly decided he needed to switch tactics. “Look, I’ve seen the errors of my ways.”
Now that Dr. Abbot was there, two and a half hours before his shift she noted checking her watch, Evie decided she would come back later. Throwing Langdon a prepackaged graham cracker set, she didn’t even acknowledge the apology he yelled after her as she walked off.
“Hey kid!” Siddling up to her, Dana looped her arm with Evie. “Walk with me.” Leading Evie into the break room, Dana let go of her before walking over to the coffee maker. “Want a coffee?”
“No, thank you.” Evie was unsure of what to make of this. She liked Dana, she admired her knowledge and calm presence a lot, but this situation unnerved her. “What’s up?”
“We’re waiting on someone.” As soon as Dana finished her sentence, Robby popped his head into the room. “Princess said you needed me?”
“Good you’re here.” Handing Robby a coffee, Dana guided him further into the room and shut the door.
Narrowing her eyes at Robby, Evie noticed how he avoided her eyes and focused on the cup of coffee in his hands. She truly was confused now. She wasn’t ED staff, she was just a consulting service so what could she have done that earned her a private chat with the ER’s chief attending and charge nurse?
“Jack’s a widow.” Of all the things Evie expected Dana to say, that wasn’t one of them. She figured Dana might have caught on to her cold shoulder to Jack and avoided the ED. She had practically run from Dana yesterday when she tried to make small talk with her. But she didn’t think she would be ambushed by her and Robby in retaliation.
And judging by the way Robby spit out his coffee and was coughing, he clearly didn’t either.
Passing Robby a napkin, Evie looked at Dana. “Okay…you’re telling me this, why?”
Dana looked at her like she was an idiot and honestly, Evie felt that way too.
“Just figured you should know since you guys are...close. And maybe you'd have questions about the ring." Dana deserved an Osacar for her performance. Evie had never seen anyone play coy and all knowing simultaneously.
“I…we’re just acquaintances.” She definitely needs to avoid the ED now. This was too much for her. Her best friend Charlie was going to have a field day when she told her this. She could almost hear her screaming now. Charlie had spent an hour consoling and negating Evie’s claim that she was as bad as her cheating asshole ex when she found out about Jack’s ring.
“And I’m fucking Easter Bunny, kid.”
“What Dana is trying to say,” Robby had apparently collected himself enough to join in. “Is that if you did want to be ‘acquaintances’ or whatever you want with Jack, give him some credit. He isn’t the two-timing type. He’s just seen a lot and had things happen that he’ll tell you about if you let him. But the ring is just a reminder.”
“So give him some grace and throw him a bone. He’s been miserable since you stopped talking to him.” Taking her hands in his, Dana squeezed them. “Give him some sunshine back, please kid.”
“Only if you want to…and if you don’t, definitely don’t tell HR. Inter-hospital relationships are allowed but this conversation could be seen as coercion...”
“Relax cap. You said you wanted a woman’s touch.”
“Dana, this is a sledgehammer!”
Evie couldn’t help but laugh and jump to Dana’s defense. “Sometimes a woman’s touch is a sledgehammer.”
“See?” Dana pointed at Evie, “She gets it.”
Suddenly, the door to the break room opened. Walking in with his hands in his pockets, Jack regarded the room. “Is this where the party is?”
“No, we were just leaving.” Giving Evie a wink, Dana left the room with Robby.
Evie didn’t really know what to make of everything now. Her emotions were everywhere and she had no time to process but she did know that she had hurt Dr. Abbot’s feelings. Fixing that felt like the easiest solution at the moment.
“Hey,” Evie called his attention. Refusing to look at him the few times she wasn’t able to avoid him felt childish but she knew it was important to him. It was why she held his gaze so intently now. “Thank you for talking to Langdon.”
“Of course, he needs to learn to not run his mouth.” Jack says holding her gaze, a thread of forgiveness in it.
“Still, thank you.” She wanted him to understand that she was grateful for that and so many other ways he tried to reach out to her the past two weeks. Grateful for the way he held the elevator, deescalated her aggressive patients, gave her his computer, brought her tea when he knew she hated coffee and for many other things.
“You okay?” Jack’s voice was soft which was a nice contrast against its gravelly nature.
“Yeah, I was just dealing with some stuff but I’m okay now.” She smiled at him and warmed as he matched her grin. “And for what it’s worth, I’m sorry I wasn’t as friendly recently.”
His face softened, it was a split second but she caught it. Almost as if a weight had been lifted. “If you're okay now then it’s just water under the bridge.”
“If my patient isn’t back from CT still, do you want to split a muffin from the cafeteria?”
Follow up fic: His & Hers: The After
A/N: This is technically the last part in the beginning of their relationship. But I have another part written and I'm sure write more so this isn't the end of Jack and Evie. I appreciate any and all feedback!
Copyrights: All rights of Charlie Larson belong my forever inspiration @thedeviltohisangel
Warning: I'd like to acknowledge that there might be some discrepancies with my medical jargon/usage/portrayal of medical Speech Language Pathologists (SLP). While I am a fully licensed and practicing SLP, my area of focus is with children, so I haven't touched this kind of speech since graduate school.
