Hucklerobby fic for the prompt "Keep it, looks better on you anyways."
Dennis isn’t used to feeling cold. It’s true that he didn’t have the best clothes for winter back in Broken Bow, only the old hand-me-down from his brothers because anything else was too expensive, but there was always something to do around the farm, and the constant movement kept him warm even in the harshest weather.
That’s not to say he doesn’t move around, the ER is far from a calm job; at the Pitt, you never know where your next step will take you, from an incoming trauma to a patient that has suddenly gotten worse at the other far end of the hallway. Some days, Dennis can feel his legs throbbing after his shift is long done, sweat clinging to the back of his undershirt that he can’t wait to wash off, alongside the grime and dirt from working so many hours.
But while Pittsburgh’s winters might not be as bad as they were back home, the perpetually turned on AC from the hospital almost made Dennis miss the cold from Nebraska, at least there he wasn’t constantly shivering in the middle of work, almost enough to make his teeth rattle.
Trinity had noticed after the fourth of fifth time he had to warm up his arms and hands, and failing. She had made fun of him for not even wearing a long-sleeved undershirt if he was so cold and then told him to just wear a jacket. She was right, most of the other doctors wore a hoodie or similar around the ER, but she still had that satisfied, smug smirk when Dennis first brought an old jacket to work.
He still takes it off soon enough, once things start to get messy and he needs to run from cardiac arrest to asthma attack, which in the Pitt is all the time.
Today is another chaotic day, perhaps a bit more than usual, though never as bad as his first day, and Dennis loses sight of his jacket almost as soon as the shift starts. Maybe the fact that he hasn't well that night, or the entire week, doesn't help with his absent-mindedness, but the promise of a weekend full of rest is near, and that keeps pushing him until the end of the day.
Now, he only needs to find his jacket and wait for Trinity to be done so they can go home. The first one is an easy feat, he must have left it on the back of a chair while he stopped to chart, so he quickly puts it on. Now, as for Trinity, Dennis doesn’t even know where she is, so he tries his luck looking around the chaos that is the ER.
In there, he notices Dr. Robby and Dr. Abbot talking. That’s nothing that would catch his attention any other day (a lie, his eyes always look for the day-shift attending even when he tries not to), they seem to be in the middle of handouts, laughing between them, but there’s something going on between chuckles and whispers that Dennis can’t make out. What seems to be out of the norm, though, is the blush over Robby’s cheeks, which he tries to hide by pinching the bridge of his nose.
Dennis doesn’t know what Dr. Abbot has said or what they’ve seen to make Robby react like that—Dr. Robby, who always seems to keep his cold even during the worst situations, despite Dennis already seeing though the cracks on his first day. But before he can think about it any further, Dr. Abbot slaps Robby’s back and goes to see his first patient for the night, while Robby moves towards—
Oh, he’s walking towards Dennis.
“So, uh,” Robby coughs once he’s close enough, crossing his arms over his chest, and it’s then that Dennis notices Robby isn’t wearing his usual hoodie. Must have been a hard trauma he just left, because the man doesn’t take it off at all. Dennis’ eyes definitely don’t track the shift of his muscles, the black hair across his forearms, or the faded tattoos barely hidden by his scrub shirt, not at all. “New jacket?”
Dennis looks down at his clothes, just briefly, before returning his confused gaze back to Robby’s face. Robby is still flushed from earlier, and Dennis wonders if he’s coming down with a fever or something; winter is right behind the corner, and although they should know if they’re sick, doctors make the worst patients.
“Uh, not really. I think I got this when I came to Pittsburgh,” that was a lie, the jacket was from one of his older brothers, Dennis has just been using it since before he left for college. It was comfortable, warm, and most importantly, it wasn’t broken.
Robby nods, his eyes crinkled at the corners and a smile teasing at the corners of his lips. Dennis doesn’t know what’s so funny about this situation, but he can’t help the warm feeling that washes over him when he sees Robby like this. “Yeah? Why don’t you look again, Whitaker?”
Despite his confusion, Dennis does as he’s told; just like always Robby barks an order across a bleeding patient, Dennis is quick to follow, a buzzing on the back of his head that tells him to listen to the older man. But this time, it’s the same jacket as before, the same dark navy color, the logo for a local brewery—
That’s not his old jacket, it’s Robby’s. And Dennis has been wearing it around the ER for the last fifteen minutes like nothing, in a place where gossip flies faster than real news.
“D-Dr. Robby, I’m so, so sorry. I swear I didn’t notice!” Dennis starts to panic, and he hopes he doesn’t sweat fast enough to stain the jacket. Fuck. He’s almost shaking as he tries to take the offending piece of clothing off, but firm hands on his shoulders stop all his movements.
He had gotten used to those hands already, guiding him across the ER or praising him after he did well with a patient, and almost as if he was conditioned by the warm touch, he immediately relaxes, looking up at his attending.
Robby is still smiling, though this time it looks less teasing, less sharp around the edges like he usually wears it around the ER. It’s like it had been smothered by something, a realization that makes Dennis run hot(ter).
“Keep it, looks better on you anyways,” that’s all Robby says before squeezing Dennis’ shoulders once, twice, and then turning around, the back of his neck red.
Dennis doesn’t know how long he spends in the same spot, staring at Robby’s retreating back until it disappears, the ER moving around him while he keeps repeating those words in his head, the touch of those hands on his shoulders burning a permanent mark on him. That must be how Trinity finds him whoever knows how many minutes later, still debating if he had just hallucinated the entire moment.
“Hey, you ready to go?” She says, clearly eager to leave. When Dennis doesn’t say anything, just staring at her with red cheeks, she makes a disgusted face. “Helloooo? Earth to Huckleberry? What the hell, man.”
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