Robby has a dog and because he’s always at work he hires a dog sitter - a student, Dennis, he’s only met a couple times, but the dog, freya, seems happy with him. They don’t often cross paths because the kid has some early morning classes and some in the afternoon. Sometimes he’ll check the cameras he has in the house to make sure they’re doing okay, often finding them playing or Freya leaning against Dennis’s side as he studies, very content with the continuous pettings she’s getting. Its cute.
Robby was content to leave their dynamic as it was, barely interacting outside of texts and only talking about his dog.
He comes home one shift to loud whining behind the door. He lets himself in and calls out to Freya, going to the kitchen. She isn’t in there.
Freya is always kept in the kitchen when she’s home alone, Dennis wouldn’t have just forgotten that. Robby calls out for Freya again, and this time he can hear the pattering of paws accompanying her crying as she finds him.
“Oh, what’s the matter, huh? Miss me that much?” He’s petting her furry head, giving her a few kisses on the forehead to try to soothe her, but she wiggles out of his grip, heading out of the kitchen, pausing briefly to make sure he sees where she’s going, “alright, alright, I’m coming.”
Freya leads the way, frequently looking back to her owner, to the basement door, sitting wide open, the lights down there on. Robby mutters a what the fuck as Freya trots down the stairs, only to see what she was so stressed out about.
Down in Robby’s shitty basement, Dennis lies at the bottom of the stairs, sprawled out against the hard floor, Freya anxiously circling his prone body, blood beginning to soak into her paws and fur.
Robby nearly falls down the stairs in himself in his haste to get down to the kid, pulling out his phone and dialling 911, nervous hands easily finding the pulse point, nearly crying in relief when he finds it. He doesn’t do more than a cursory examination, fuck knows what other damage has been done, and he certainly isn’t going to make it worse. He’s glad he forgot to lock the door when the paramedics arrive.
He spends the ambulance ride anxiously gripping Dennis’s hand, staying as far out of the paramedics way as he can without dropping it - fuck, how is he gonna explain this to the kids parents? Is it up to him to make that call?
They end up going to the Pitt, and Dana, who is still fucking there for some reason, keeps him out of the trauma room. He watches anxiously as he is worked on - Walsh made her way down at some point, and oh fuck, the kid needs surgery, fuck he shouldn't have stayed back at work so long, who knows how long he was lying there on the basement floor - ignoring Dana at his side, trying to comfort or move him away from the sight. He only moves when they start transporting him upstairs. He follows alongside the gurney, yelling questions, demanding answers that won't be given because he's not family, held back from going any further by Dana again when they reach the elevator.
He's sitting anxiously in the family room. He thinks he should be able to move upstairs to the one in surgery, but he supposes Jack wants to keep an eye on him. Dana, the gift that she is, went back to his place and is taking Freya for the night. He's sitting there, picking at his shaking hands, still covered in Dennis's blood, when he spots Santos, a med student on rotation for the next few weeks, rushes up to the central desk.
He can't help but go to her, can't help but worry about his people despite what happened tonight. She's speaking quickly to Lena, looking more stressed than he has ever seen her. Her hair is a mess, she was probably asleep, and, fuck, not another thing.
"Santos?" His voice is still shaky from the adrenaline and nerves, but it still startles her, her neck snapping towards him. She takes in a watery inhale at the sight of him, dragging her eyes over his blood-soaked form, before the tears start falling. He approaches her as she starts rapidly shaking her head, muttering 'no' over and over again. He manages to gently grab her shaking hands in his, mutter an 'I got her' to Lena, before taking her back to the family room.
He manages to sit her down, squeezing her hands gently in his, gently prompting her to copy his breathing, grateful when she does. He remains quiet for a moment once she is no longer actively panicking, allows her to catch her breath and unscramble her thoughts. When she finally does speak, it's a crackly whisper of "What happened?"
Robby lets out his own watery noise, shaking his head as he runs his bloody hand over the back of his neck - he should wash his hands soon, that would probably be good for him, if he could manage to move from Trinity's side, in a few hours maybe - "I don't know. I uh, I got home, figured he'd left already, like he usually does, but Freya wasn't in the kitchen and she led me to the basement and-" a shiver cut him off at the memory of Dennis crumpled and bloodied on the concrete, "and he was just lying there. Must have fallen down the stairs. I thought he was dead."
Trinity lets out a sob at that, and he can't help but follow her. Her body is shaking with fear, the same as his, but he still moves to wrap her in his arms, pulling her into his side. She cries into his chest, and he tries his best not to cry into her hair. He can just barely hear her mutterings of "he has to be fine, he has to, I can't do this again." and he can't help but agree.
Him and Trinity are sitting next to each other when Dennis wakes up.
They're in his recovery room, playing a stupid card game to try and distract themselves from staring at his monitor and hounding any passing nurse or doctor for information. Trinity is beating him devastatingly when he spots a small movement out of the corner of his eye. He nudges Trinity, directing her attention to her friends moving hand, and she rushes over to fuss over him as Robby heads out to get the nurses attention. By the time he returns with the nurse, Amelia, in tow, Dennis is blinking groggily at Trinity, who is smiling softly as she jokes about him doing this purposefully to ruin her date, that he didn't need to crack his head open to hangout.
Trinity only slightly reluctantly moves away to allow the nurse to properly check Dennis over. He was thankfully extubated after surgery, so he didn't have to go through the pain of that and could (somewhat) answer the nurses questions. She leaves with the promise that his doctor will arrive soon, telling him to rest until she does.
Dennis seems to be drifting off almost as soon as Amelia has left, but manages to drag his tired eyes over the room, pausing when they land on Robby's figure. He manages to give him a lazy smile, murmuring, "You're here."
Robby moves over to loom over Dennis, taking his hand in his now-clean one, "Yeah, kid, I'm here. I'm gonna keep an eye on Dr Santos while you sleep if that's okay with you. Make sure you're both okay."
Dennis's eyes are growing heavier by the second, fluttering as he fights sleep, "She's gonna take care of you. 's what she does."
He lets out a little chuckle at that, a deep rumble that makes that lazy smile flicker across Dennis's face again, "We'll look after each other, okay? You go to sleep, we'll both be right here when you wake up."
With one last sleepy hum, Dennis slips into unconsciousness. Robby falls back into the chair next to Trinity, picks up his cards, and the game restarts.
