@kingdonmicrofic | july 23: milestone | 498/408 words | warnings: none | ao3
“This calls for a celebration!”
Frank quirks an eyebrow at Mel’s excitement. The patient they’ve just treated was relatively simple, a headache that just turned out to be nothing more than a first time migraine, but Mel is beaming like they’ve just saved someone from an inevitable death.
“Does it?” he asks, carefully, gently, and Mel just nods vigorously.
“That was our hundredth case together,” she explains. “That’s a nice milestone, isn’t it?”
Holy shit. Frank has so many questions. How does she know this? Has she been tracking their interactions? If she did, that should probably freak him out, but he finds that it doesn’t. It makes him feel all warm and fuzzy inside, the notion that someone is actually paying attention to him and regarding him positively.
Most of all, how did they already reach a hundred cases? He’s only been back for a little over a week. He knows that it’s partially his fault for constantly seeking her out, but he didn’t think he was that bad.
At least Robby’s not here, because he would rip him a new one for every little step out of line. And he knows that he’s treading dangerous waters with the favouritism, but he can’t bring himself to care. Mel makes him feel like there might still be something good in his core, beneath all the bad things that have rotten him, and that’s something that he wants to savour.
Mel seems to take his shock for being weirded out, because slowly, her smile slips from her face, her lip curling down into a frown as she wrings her hands in front of her stomach. “Was that a weird thing to say? I don’t know, I just like working with you and I got excited, but maybe I was a bit too much, I’m–”
Frank blinks as he snaps out of his thoughts, quickly exclaiming, “No!”
Now it’s Mel’s turn to blink, and Frank quickly moves his hand to rest it on her shoulder, before thinking better of it and letting it fall back to his side awkwardly.
“It’s not weird, it’s nice,” he assures her, shooting her a comforting smile, which grows as he watches the relief settle in her body and her own grin reappear. “I would love to celebrate with you.”
“Oh, wonderful!” Mel replies, now bouncing on her feet. “I’m trying to see if I like baking, so I can make us cupcakes and bring them into work later this week?”
Frank watches her incredulously for a second. How is she so perfect and how did he get so lucky to meet her? Then he nods, his cheeks starting to ache from grinning so widely. “That sounds great.”
“Great!” Mel repeats, before rushing off to the central desk. He watches her go, braid bouncing behind her, and shakes his head as his heart beats loudly in his chest.
He thinks he may be a little bit in love – and in a lot of trouble.






















