Scenic Route
Pairing: Jack Abbot x Reader
Wordcount: 3.0k
Synopsis: Shen needs saving, you're sleep deprived and suffering an unrequited crush, and Abbot wishes he had never asked.
Notes: reader and shen are reaching critical, sleep deprivation induced levels of stupidity during the first part of this fic. Jack is kind of messy in this, flirting with reader while thinking she's in a relationship. writing for this man stresses me so much. sorta kinda proofread.
"Who do you think I'm going to have to blow to get two separate people to cover the weekend shift next week?"
You're too tired to be embarrassed by the snort that leaves your body when you laugh at Shen's question.
It's two hours from end of shift and you're bordering on delirious. You're not sure what it is about tonight, but it has drained every ounce of energy you walked in with.
Shen is leaning against the counter behind your computer, chewing on the plastic straw of his long gone iced coffee while he stares wistfully at next weeks calendar.
"Just blowing someone might not cover it," You giggle. "You might have to go full wine and dine if you want two people covering on a holiday weekend."
"Why do you need two people to cover one shift?"
That wakes you up immediately.
You somehow failed to notice Abbot walk up behind you, now standing so close you can feel the his heat radiating against your back.
It would usually be a comforting feeling, the thing you think about to fall asleep at night. But right now, the heat rushing to your cheeks has nothing to do with a crush and everything to do with being caught.
The night shift keeps a fairly open policy, but as much as you all love him, at the end of the day Abbot is your boss, so there are a select few things that are kept from him for the good of everybody. And one of those things is the very secret relationship between Shen and Javadi. There's nothing in the hospital rules saying they can't date, but life is a bit easier for everyone when the general surgery consult isn't the mother of your fellow attending's much younger girlfriend.
"What're you talking about?" Shen asks, faking confusion so well you're not actually sure if it is entirely faked.
"You just said you need two people to cover your shift this weekend," Abbot repeats. "Just because you're an attending now doesn't mean two doctors need to cover you."
"Oh, right," Shen nods. "It's just that I'm taking my girlfriend home to meet my parents this weekend."
He shoots you a look that makes it seem like he thinks that explanation somehow saved his ass.
"You're dating someone in the ER?" Abbot asks, sounding uncharacteristically scandalized.
If you weren't currently stuck between Abbot and the desk, you'd be making a very swift exit right now.
"Who told you?"
"You just did," You can already imagine the look on Abbot's face right now; brows furrowed, eyes squinting, mouth slightly open as he wonders how hard Shen must've hit his head before this conversation. "You're taking your girlfriend home for the weekend and you need two separate shifts covered. That means that whoever your girlfriend is, works here."
If only this shift had dulled Abbot mind as much as it had yours and Shen's.
"Yup," You blurt out, far too quickly and loudly. "She does work here, because she is… me."
What the absolute fuck is wrong with you.
You could've thrown out a completely made up name, said they were a nurse from day shift that Abbot's never met, but no, you said me.
"Yep," Shen clears his throat, looking at you like you've grown three heads. "We've been seeing each other for while, decided to keep it on the down-low so work didn't get awkward."
"You've been seeing each other?" Abbot asks, his tone giving away nothing, but you're too scared to turn around and face him. His gaze is so heavy on the back of your neck it feels like you're sinking.
"Yeah." You nod.
"Uh-huh." Shen nods back, and you can see him fighting a smile.
"Were you every going to mention this to me? Because I don't know if you guys have forgotten, but I am your boss."
At that you frown. Abbot almost never pulls the boss card on you guys, even when he probably should.
"Technically you're only her boss," Shen clarifies, pointing down at you. "But I get what you mean."
You want to stab him with a scalpel for throwing you under the bus, but good fake girlfriends don't stab their fake boyfriends while lying to their boss.
"John wanted to keep it a secret so I wouldn't be treated differently," Your turn slowly, peering up at Abbot through your lashes in a way you hope makes you seem too sweet to be reprimanded. "We've seen it happen before, a woman starts dating a coworker and suddenly they're not a fellow doctor anymore, just someone's girlfriend."
True as they are, they're not your words, they're Javadi's. It's the exact explanation she'd given you when you'd caught her car in the parking lot of Shen's apartment complex. You like to think you work with good people, but especially as a med student, respect as a female doctor is hard to earn.
Abbot's head jerks at your words, almost like you've slapped him. He doesn't say anything for a moment, just stares into your eyes, clearly searching for something and not finding it.
"Okay," He nods, suddenly unable to meet your eyes. "Cool. Just make sure you run everything by HR, I don't want any kind of legal drama getting in the way of, y'know, saving lives."
Abbot walks away before either of you can say anything else.
"I'm so sorry," You turn back to Shen, mortification clear on your face. "Why did I do that?!"
"I was just about to ask," He laughs. "You kind of saved my ass though."
"Kind of?" You scoff. "I just lied straight to Abbot's face about being your girlfriend."
The words taste sour in your mouth. You have never lied to Abbot, like ever. He's one of the few people you've seen on a regular bases for the past four years. You talk to each other about almost anything, and you'd like the think that makes you at least friends—even if you wish it could be more.
A lie this big and stupid isn't going to last long, not when Abbot knows the two of you so well.
"That's true," Shen says, seeming already over the drama of the situation. "Let me pay you back. What do you want?"
"Pay me back?" You laugh. "What, like I'm a hooker?"
"A hooker who's also a kick-ass emergency medicine doctor."
"You're sick in the head." You let out an incredulous laugh.
"Seriously though, what do you want?"
You think for a moment, fiddling with the worn edge of your badge.
"Your Costco membership," You settle. "Whenever, wherever. You will go shopping with me every time, and buy me the occasional piece of pizza when the mood strikes me."
"That's it?" He asks, seemingly underwhelmed. "I expected worse."
"I'm going easy on you."
"I'll take it."
An entire week passes before Abbot brings it up again.
You're less than sixty seconds post code, still gowned and gloved as you watch the patient be rolled to the ICU.
"Did you genuinely think I would treat you differently?"
Abbot is standing in front of you, jaw clenched, posture tense, eyes completely unreadable.
You're confused until you remember the intricate lie you'd caught yourself in. According to him, you're supposed to leave for a romantic weekend getaway with Shen and his parents tomorrow. If only he knew you'd be spending the entire weekend third wheeling him and Javadi.
"It wasn't you specifically, it was everybody, and god knows the nurses are always listening." You try to laugh it off, but it falls flat. "You're a good guy, Abbot. I know you'd treat me the same, and I'm sorry if us keeping it a secret hurt you."
And I'm especially sorry about the fact that I'm still lying to you.
"You're one of the best doctors in this place," He says, so obviously avoiding addressing your apology it hurts. "If anyone let something as stupid as a relationship blind them to that, they're not worth your time."
"Thank you, Abbot." You offer him a weak smile.
"I'm sorry if I'm overstepping, but Shen is a coward for keeping you hidden," Jack takes a couple steps forward, crowding you so he's the only thing you can register. "You deserve someone who's proud to be yours, who's not afraid of having to put a couple people in their place so you can get the respect you deserve."
You're not sure you can breathe.
"Jack…"
"GSW to the chest, two minutes out."
He's out the door in a blink.
"Hey, sister wife."
Victoria is sitting in the passenger seat of John's car, window rolled down and her chin propped up on her hand as she watches you exit your apartment building with a teasing smile.
In a shocking turn of events, she had found the entire panicked coverup hilarious.
"You're the worst," You laugh, collapsing into the backseat. "I just want to get this weekend over with."
"You're not excited to be reunited with Mama and Papa Shen?" John asks, watching you in the rear view mirror.
"I, for one, am really glad you're coming," Victoria says, turning in her seat look at you like a kicked puppy. "You being there will take some of the attention off of me."
"They're going to love you, Victoria," You assure with a hand on her shoulder. "I promise."
She turns back in her seat, and you can't fight the smile on your face when you see John reach for her hand, giving it a reassuring squeeze.
You look away when you feel your phone buzz in your purse.
I think one of your sweaters is in my truck.
It's from Abbot.
Which one?
You can't think of any sweaters missing from your closet, but who knows.
It's dark green.
Just looks like a regular hoodie
You shake your head.
Your attention to detail is astounding.
It's probably mine, but are you telling me you don't spend your days off going on dates with beautiful women who leave carefully forgotten sweaters in your car so you'll call again?
It's meant to be a joke, a call back to a dating coach you two had treated during a shift a million years ago, but his response knocks the air out of your lungs.
You're the only beautiful woman who's ever in my car.
"I never should've said any of that to you."
You're both in the alleyway behind the bar, a bit drunk and both desperate to breathe air that doesn't reek of booze and cigarettes.
Abbot is leaning against the back of the building, arms crossed like a bouncer just waiting to catch someone with a fake ID. You're in front of him, kicking a pebble around in circles so you don't stare at how good his arms look in a black t-shirt.
"What're you talking about?" You remember it so clearly; the smell of his cologne, the mint on his breath from the gum he'd been chewing when he'd cornered you in the trauma room. The text he'd sent the next morning
You deserve someone who's proud to be yours. You're the only beautiful woman who's ever in my car.
"What I said to you in the trauma room, and then that text," Jack says, crushing your hopes that he'd just drop it. "I was out of line, way out of line."
"It's okay."
You're obviously not going to tell him this, but those moment had been playing on a loop in your mind every day since. You'd never seen him look at you like that before, or even talk to you like that.
"No it's not. You're with Shen, and—"
"I'm serious, Jack. It's fine."
"But it's not—"
"Jack, you don't need to say anything."
"Can you just let me apologize?"
"No," You can't control the way the words burst out of you. "There's nothing to apologize for because I'm not with Shen!"
The noise of the city seems to quiet the moment the words exit your mouth, leaving you in a painful silence with Abbot staring holes through you.
"What's that supposed to mean?"
"It means that we've been lying to you," You say, a bit braver with the alcohol in your system. "Shen and I are—and have only ever been—friends. It was a lie."
"You expect me to believe that?" Jack asks. "He took you home to meet his parents!"
"He took Javadi home to meet his parents!" You blurt out. "They've been sneaking around for months. I fell on the sword for them so Javadi's parents wouldn't find out, and John wouldn't receive a reprimand for screwing a med student. I spent that entire weekend third wheeling them, and thinking about how terrible it makes me feel to lie to you."
The truth hangs heavy in the air, but you're the lightest you've felt in months.
Jack is only staring at you, hands braced on his hips as the many stages of grief seem to run through his system at once.
"You're not with Shen?" He clarifies, taking a step towards you. "In any capacity?"
"None whatsoever," You nod. "Unless you consider me using this to blackmail him into giving me free use of his Costco membership ‘together'."
"Shen is with Javadi?" He asks again, taking another step forward that puts the two of you toe to toe. "And not with you?"
"Do you need to see it in writing?" You tease, but your voice wavers. "We're not together."
"You're single." It's not a question anymore, it's a fact. "Completely and utterly unattached to any man."
No, because I've been in love with you since we met.
"Yes."
He nods. Once. Twice. You're so close together your foreheads almost bump with each frantic jerk.
"Thank fucking Christ."
His lips are on yours before you can even form a proper thought, hands grasping desperately at whatever part of you they can reach. One at your waist, clutching at the fabric of your shirt, and the other buried in your hair, keeping you right where he wants you.
It's overwhelming in the perfect way. Everything is him, the feel of his hands, the taste of his tongue in your mouth, the smell of his cologne mixed with the scent of his skin that you could only describe as purely Jack.
He nips at your bottom lip, pulling it with his teeth as he disconnects from the kiss entirely. A handful of quick kisses are pressed to your face, your nose, both cheeks, your chin, the spot between your brows that always creases when you're mad. It's as if he's following a map, a route he carefully planned out years ago that he's just been waiting for the opportunity to take.
"Jack," You murmur, and he presses another kiss to your lips. "What're you doing?"
"You want me to stop?" He asks, lips wandering down from your chin to your jaw. "I can stop."
"No," You breathe out, a moan half caught in your throat. "But I'm a bit—fuck—confused."
He sucks a mark against the spot just below your ear that makes your knees weak, but he's there to keep you stable, a hand sneaking below your shirt to press against the bare skin of your back.
"What's there to be confused about?" He asks, pulling back to look at you with a small frown.
"You treat me like I'm just a resident, all the time, and then you think Shen and I are together and suddenly you’re—" You cut yourself off with a sigh. "I'm in no way upset about… whatever is happening right now, but from my perspective it's just doesn't make sense."
"Doesn't make sense?" He repeats with an laugh. "You are the thing that gets me out of bed in the morning. I spend every precious moment of downtime on shift talking to you, watching you, thinking about you. I memorized your glove size on your first shift, I do everything I can to keep you away from young patients in critical condition because I hate how upset they make you, and even more than that, I hate that there's nothing I can to to keep you away from everything bad in that place while respecting the fact that you chose to be there. Everything tiny thing I do in a day, I do thinking about you."
You suddenly feel light headed, as if the ground has been taken out from beneath your feet and everything tipped upside down.
"Were you ever going to say something?" It's the only thing you can think to ask.
"It never seemed like the right thing to do," He admits, wiping the tear you hadn't even noticed slip from your eye. "You're always working so hard to be the best doctor you can be, I didn't want to get in the way of that, not when I know how important this job is to you. And when I thought you were with Shen, you seemed happy, y'know? I would be an asshole to tell you then, because I would be doing it selfishly, not because I thought it was what you wanted."
"Even if you thought I'd be happier with you?"
"I know you'd be happier with me," He strokes a thumb over your cheekbone, a small smile tugging at his lips. "But that's not the point."
"We're both so stupid," You shake your head. "I've been embarrassingly in love with you for years, but for some reason I thought you'd never see me that way."
"It's the only way I've ever seen you," He whispers it like it's a secret meant only for you. "You were so brilliant from day one, I just wanted to be in your life in whatever way you'd have me."
"You should've said something," You let out a wet laugh, untangling your fingers from his shirt to wipe the tears from your face. "It would've saved us a lot of trouble."
"I don't mind taking the scenic route," He jokes, pressing another chaste kiss to your lips. "Especially if it leads to this."
