put a rock on her hand
★ summary: a snapped glove mid trauma announces your engagement to the whole ED, frank can’t help but be smug
★ pairing: frank langdon x reader
★ warnings: 18+ mdni, fluff, implied smut, probably inaccurate medical procedures (s/o reddit), mentions of shootings, gsw, traumas, typical the pitt content
★ word count: 2.1k
★ notes: my malpractice prince i’ve been waiting for you
The weekend felt unreal. It was rare enough to get days off in this line of work, but a whole uninterrupted forty-eight hours was unbelievable. There was no trauma, no blood, no half-assed lunches.
Just you and Frank.
But, now here you were again, sitting passenger seat in his car, coffee in your hand, watching the sun rise over Pittsburgh. His hand was tangled with yours, his thumb absentmindedly catching on the new ring on your left middle finger. Like he couldn’t quite believe it was there, that this was real.
“You know,” He said, his voice still full of sleep. Raspier than normal, a voice that made your heart clench and legs tremble. “I could’ve used one more day.”
“You’re telling me.” You sighed dreamily, taking another long sip of your latte.
“We could always turn around, claim food poisoning, or something contagious.” He offered, “They’ll be fine, we have better things to do.”
“Like what?” You giggled, entertaining his rambling.
“Getting back underneath the sheets with you, my fiancé.” The word rolled off his tongue so softly it made your cheeks heat.
You held his hand tighter in yours, bringing up your conjured hands to kiss his knuckles. “You’re absolutely insatiable, Dr. Langdon.”
“Right,” He teased, “You weren’t saying that last night, or this morning-“
“Okay, okay.” You rolled your eyes, “Focus on driving, get your head out of the gutter.”
“I know where my head would rather be.” He hummed, PMTC appearing in the distance.
It was a familiar routine between the two of you; he’d grab your work bag for you while slinging his backpack over his shoulder. You’d hold your coffees and he’d open up the doors on the walk towards the ED.
“Why am I nervous?” He asked, scanning his badge to unlock the door.
“Because they’re our family,” You smiled, “And they’re super nosey.”
The ED doors slid open, and the quiet hope of a slow welcome-back dissolved immediately. The board was already full, gowned residents were running around, while patients were wheeled in from the bay. So much for a slow early morning start.
Frank was mumbling something under his breath, letting you know he was going to drop your bags off in your lockers.
Whittaker spotted you first, blood covering the front of his gown. “Thank god you’re here.”
“What happened?” You asked, throwing your drinks on Dana’s desk. She’d understand all things considered.
“There was a shooting downtown, three confirmed, maybe more on route.” He said, watching the night shift struggle to do hand off in the middle of the chaos.
“Welcome back!” Abbot spotted you, waving before he ran off.
“What a welcome back.” You grumbled, immediately moving to glove and gown up.
You didn’t even think about the new, very large accessory on your finger when you did. Your body goes into autopilot, stepping headfirst into the chaos.
You were assisting on the fourth patient by the time you saw Frank again. 19-year-old, GSW to the abdomen, unstable and combative.
“Pressures tanking,” Santos called out.
“I see,” You responded, adjusting your grip. “Suction, please.”
Frank’s voice cut through from the foot of the bed. “What do we have?”
You looked up for a second, your fiancés gown covered in blood, not unlike yours. His perfectly gelled hair was already falling against his safety goggles.
“Likely intra-abdominal bleed,” you said. “He’s getting rigid.”
“Nice of you to join us, Dr. Langdon,” Santos said, her voice deadpanned as she helped pass you more sterile gauze to pack into the wound. The patient groaned around the intubation tube as your fingers slid in deeper past the skin.
“Sorry, Mr. Evans. We need to get this bleeding under control.” You spoke, regardless if he couldn’t respond.
“BP sixty-two,” Santos said. “He’s crashing.”
“Push another unit of blood,” Frank ordered. “Get me a pressure bag.”
Everyone jostled around, Frank frantically rapidly entering more blood into his IV.
You slid your fingers further into the wound, bluntly exploring, feeling for pulsing, for the slick rush of his artery.
A surge against your fingertips, there. Not quite yet spurting, but heavy. Fast. Filling up his abdomen with each second that you waited.
“Got active bleeding,” you said. “Feels deeper than I like.”
“Can you compress?” Frank asked.
“Trying.” You hummed. You adjusted your stance, bracing your forearm against the patient’s abdomen for leverage. You extended two fingers further in, angling posteriorly and medially, pressing toward where the splenic hilum would sit.
Your ring stretched against the latex of the glove, not that you noticed. You were too busy focusing on isolating the vessel, applying pressure to a pulsating vein.
“Heart rate is back up, 150,” Santos said the ultrasound probe in her hand was helping guide you.
“Hang another unit.” Frank had said somewhere, while you shifted your body. Your other hand flattens against his torso to better change your angle.
“Wait, I think I got it.” You breathed out, right when you went to move to grab a clamp, there was a loud snap.
It wasn’t loud over the monitors and the suction, but you heard it immediately. Followed was cool air pressing against your bare skin.
“Damn it.” You seethed, while Whittaker paused beside you.
“Glove, your gloves torn.” He panicked.
The tear ran diagonally across your palm, latex stretched thin and split around the base of your ring finger. The diamond now poked out, loud and proud. And blood was spilling into your open palm.
Frank’s head snapped over to you, his brows furrowed in concern.
“Whittaker, we’re gonna switch.” You announced, guiding his gloved fingers exactly where yours had been. He moved without hesitation, heading your instructions.
“Maintain firm compression,” you said quickly. “Posterior and medial, feels like splenic involvement.”
“Copy.” He said, his eyes wide.
You stepped back cleanly, peeling the now ruined glove off, mindful of contamination.
“Should we let the OR know about the glove?” Santos asked, “Just in case there’s fragments.”
Frank nodded, “Just in case, how did it split?” He asked, his hands still pumping the pressure bag.
You held up the soiled glove with your still gloved hand, “Down the palm around my ring finger, it looks intact.”
That’s when the room went silent, your bare hand under the horrible hospital fluorescents. Which only amplified the very large glittering diamond that sat snuggly on your hand, in stark contrast to the specs of dry blood on your palm. The ring that was most definitely not there when you two clocked out on Friday night.
Santos paused mid-sentence, her eyes locked on the shine.
Frank checked you over quickly for injuries, something warm and familiar in his grin.
He heard one of the nurses whistle while she hung another unit of blood, only making his ego sore higher.
“Doctors, we have a patient.” He reminded everyone with a smug little smirk on his face.
That snapped everyone out of their staring while you regloved, helping Whittaker clamp the bleed and get the patient stable enough to transfer up to the OR. As soon as he was stable, the room exhaled as he was rolled out.
There was only a moment of silence before Santos spoke up, “We gonna talk about the elephant in the room? Or better, the very large rock in the room?”
Frank stood there with a shit-eating grin on his face, practically dancing on his heels as he washed up.
You threw away the towel you used to dry your hands, holding up your left hand proudly.
“And I didn’t even get a spec of blood on it.” You smiled proudly, her hand grabbing yours to get a closer look.
Whittaker just smiled warmly, “Congratulations, you guys.”
Frank clapped his shoulder once on the way past. “Thanks.”
You barely had time to breathe before Trinity dropped your hand and bolted out of the bay doors like she’d been shot herself.
“Oh no,” you muttered.
“There goes the soft launch,” Frank said under his breath.
Santos was already talking in tagalong very loudly to Princess and Perlah, with a wide smile on their faces. Everyone’s eyes turning towards your hand.
Frank's shoulder brushes against yours softly as you saunter up to the nurses' station. Dana was there now, her glasses getting pushed on top of her forehead in shock.
“Is it true?” She demanded, making you laugh.
You held your hand out, letting multiple hands grab onto you for a better look.
Princess gasped dramatically. “Oh my God.”
Perlah leaned closer. “I had fifty dollars on Christmas.”
Princess cackled. “I told you he couldn’t wait that long.”
Dana looked up at Frank with a slow, assessing nod. “You did good, kid.”
“Good?” McKay’s voice cut in as she approached. “That’s a fucking rock, Langdon.”
“Snapped a glove on our GSW,” Trinity added proudly. “Whittaker got his first feel of an aortic bleed because of it.”
Whittaker coughed. “Pretty sure it was splenic.”
“Semantics,” she waved him off.
Frank blinked. “Wait. You guys bet on our engagement?”
“Yes,” Ahmad groaned, “And Robby’s taking home the pot.”
Frank's brow furrowed, “But that’s not fair.”
“Tell me about it.” Princess sighed, tilting your hand around to make the diamond sparkle.
“Wait, it’s not fair because I told Robby I was proposing. For the time off, so you people wouldn’t call us.”
Everyone turned suddenly, eyes scouting for the Chief in question. No doubt, having ducked into a trauma room at the first mention of the bet.
“He played you guys.” Dana laughed, patting your cheek softly. “I’m happy for you guys. Really.”
“Wait, so it happened this weekend? How did he ask?” Javadi asked, setting down her tablet on the counter. “Why didn’t you tell us?”
“Well, we came in early, planning on doing that.” You laughed, “Instead, Whittaker was pale in the face, dragging me into trauma one.”
“Very on brand.” Frank laughed, Donnie coming up to hug him in congratulations.
“Oh my god, you did it?” Mel asked, her voice squealing halfway across the department. She was still in her gown and gloves, throwing her hands up. “I need all the details after this.” She pointed to the patient that Jessie was helping wheel into South 20.
“It was sweet, he took me out to our favorite restaurant on Friday night. He cooked me breakfast Saturday morning, which I knew something was up then because he never cooks.” You teased, recounting the last few days with fondness in your eyes. “I’m standing in the kitchen in pajamas, hair a mess, and I turn around to grab a cup of coffee, and he’s just there on one knee, ring in his hand.”
Awes echoed around the room, Princess putting her heart over her chest.
“I’ll save you the sappy speech to not embarrass him, but it was perfect. Perfect for us.” You beamed, letting Frank wrap his arm around your shoulder. There wasn’t much PDA between you two in the Pitt; professionalism came first. But if there was any time for him to press a kiss into the top of your head, it was now.
“What did you guys do after that?” Javadi asked, her eyes wide in joy.
“We didn’t leave the house much,” Frank smiled, “Too busy enjoying our time away from here.”
A few laughs before Donnie spoke up, “Yeah, define how much.”
“Okay.” You drawled out, rolling your eyes as Donnie shook Frank’s hand. “You guys are gonna get HR called on us, don’t you guys have patients?” You giggled, pushing Frank's shoulder away playfully. While the two men are having too much fun joking about your extracurriculars.
“Boys,” Dana mumbled, shooting you a playful look.
“That’s what I'm saying.” Robby’s voice spoke out from behind you, too, with a soft smile on his face. His hands in his pockets, rocking back on his feet. “Congratulations, you guys.”
Your friends were scattered around the ED, a few you still needed to tell, but for the most part, the large reveal was over. A promise to talk more over lunch, a plan to catch a beer with them across the street right after your shift.
“Thank you, man.” Frank smiled back, shaking his hand briefly.
“Oh, just a heads up. They found out you played them about the bet, so watch out.” You warned him, watching Ahmad start walking towards the man. “Can’t say I didn’t warn you!”
With one last brush of Frank's arms, the two of you were off again, splitting your separate ways. It was safe to say the ring was worn around your neck or shoved neatly into your locker for all future shifts.
This was so cute 🥹💕 I love how Robby played everyone on the bet lol
