happy the pitt thursday i guess im just gonna write a blurb every thursday until the season ends! (don't hold me to that)
dr robby x hard of hearing!younger!reader
and another thing, fuck ai (but i do love dr al-hashimi she's growing on me)//
you've been focusing on your breathing for less than two minutes. you know that. you're sitting at the hub, a half finished chart staring at you.
your head is killing you. but worse than that, there's a painful ringing in your ears. what little you can hear is blurring together, making it impossible to focus.
which, is pretty much the story of your fucking life.
your hand comes up to your ears, and you turn off your hearing aids, before pulling them off your ears.
the ringing is still there, but the extra noise is gone. your eyes flutter shut, and your hands clasp together, your hearing aids between your palms-- holding very gently, sensitive little buggers-- and you rest your forehead on your hands.
you reflect on the day, thinking about your seven your old with a 3rd degree burn. you think about your forty eight year old with a head laceration in central seven, and you think about the twenty nine year old that you got killed. well, if anyone heard you say that, they'd remind you that no one could've prevented that heart attack.
but you have a feeling that if you cry, you wouldn't stop and you still have hours to go.
a hand on your shoulder makes you jump, and you open your eyes-- you glance up and your eyes soften when you see robby. your stupid, twice your age, motorcycle riding boyfriend. your boyfriend who's abandoning you to go on a three month trip. you try not to think about it.
'everything okay?' he signs.
'yeah. my head kind of hurts. tinnitus is a bitch.' you sign back. robby offers you a sympathetic smile.
'i'm sorry.' he signs back .
'want to hear a secret?' you nod, and robby gets this look on his face. 'you're really beautiful.'
you roll your eyes, but smile anyways.
'don't try to flatter me, old man.' then, your hands move and you're picking up your hearing aids before putting them back on. you turn them on, and now on top of the ringing and extra noise, there's a light buzzing, but you know that'll go away when your ears readjust.
"catching up on charting?" the newly familiar voice of dr. al-hashimi breaches your ears. "i didn't know you two knew sign language." she says, and you shrug.
"well, now you do." you smile, because you really do like her-- she's a good teacher, she's obviously qualified and competent. but you don't make it a habit to have your first conversation with someone be about your being Deaf. "i'm fluent, but robby's just picked up a few things since we've been working together."
robby started learning sign language after your first date. he's pretty good. but, that would maybe tip people off to the fact that after a long shift, the two of you can't keep your hands off each other.
"that is good information to know." she smiles, and you turn back to your charts, and she continues, "you know, if you're having trouble catching up on your charting, you can use my ai app to help it go faster. it's shown to improve all around patient and doctor satisfaction." she says, and you know she's just trying to be helpful, that she obviously sees you as a valuable resident, and that she truly has faith in those words.
but robby has listened to many, many rants about your loathing for generative ai. his eyes flick between the two of you, and he wants to grab the nearest person to him, nudge them and tell them to watch what's about to happen.
"while i really do appreciate your insight, dr al-hashimi, and your passion for the ways ai can be used in medicine," you start, closing out your chart and standing up, turning to face her, a very polite smile on your face, "i prefer to do my own charting, even if it takes longer and it cuts into my off hours. i understand that some ai can be helpful with things like preemptive detection, but i also know that generative ai not only deteriorates your critical thinking skills, ai data centers are often strategically placed in both low income areas, and in communities largely populated by people of color, using an excess amount of water and energy that negatively impacts those communities." you shrug to her, with your hands in your pockets. "but i encourage everyone to do what works for them, as long as they let me do what works for me. i gotta go check on my burn in pedes." you tell both robby and al-hashimi.
as you walk away, whitaker approaches al-hashimi with a question, and robby follows you towards the vending machine. sugar surely will make you feel better.
"i want to tell you how impressed i am with the restraint you just showed." robby's voice is teasing, and you roll your eyes.
"i was thirty seconds away from telling her i couldn't hear her." you scoff, and it makes him snort. "but i like her. i just can't stand her ai thing," you mumble, reaching to your pocket to put money into the vending machine, but robby is quicker than you are--
he's swiping his card and pressing the buttons for your soft drink of choice before you can even stop him.
"you're bold today." you observe, "feeling cocky before your sabbatical?" you wonder, and he just shakes his head.
"i just wanna help you feel better. what else is wrong?" he wonders, and you want to tell him you can't stop thinking about the patient you lost, but you don't. instead, you start to ramble about something that doesn't matter.
"i lost my fucking chapstick this morning." you grumble, opening the soda, taking a sip and continuing, "and i can't stop chewing at my lip, so it's all fucked and, mm--"
robby places a kiss to your lips before you can continue, and it's only momentary, but it's enough for you to taste his own chapstick. you blush a deep red and your eyes dart around, trying to see if anyone was around to see that.
but luckily, the vending machine is in a dark corner of your beloved ed.
"better?" he asks, and you huff.
"i know you're going on sabbatical for three months and you have some sort of mission to cause as much trouble as possible before you leave," you start, "but i still have to come into work tomorrow and be around these people. i would rather not have them think i'm fucking my boss."
"you are fucking your boss." he reminds, and you give him the same sort of trouble making smile he always gives you.
"no, i'm not. dr. al-hashimi and i are just friends, dr. robinavitch." you tease right back, "and given that you're leaving me to go ride your death trap of a bike, i feel like that wasn't nearly as low of a blow as it could've been."
robby looks at you for a long time. like he's trying to figure you out.
you lick your lips, holding your soda can in your hand.
"what is that," you start, licking your lips again, "strawberry?"
"cherry." robby answers, and hands you his chapstick. you look at him. "consider it a parting gift." he shrugs.
you take the chapstick from him.
"shouldn't you get me something more expensive? like, jewelry, or something?" you wonder, and robby just gives you one of his signature, 'hmmph's, before nodding over in the general direction of pedes.
"don't act so spoiled, sweetheart." he says, "c'mon, let's go check on your burn wound, huh?" and you have to speed walk to catch up with his long legs.
the truth is that robby does have a more expensive parting gift for you-- in a small block box at the bottom of his backpack. no, it's not a ring-- it's these earrings that hang off your hearing aids, silver, with moon and star charms, from this company called 'deafmetal'. robby intends to give it to you after your shift, and then fuck you as many times a he can-- he has to get three months of it in in one night, and michael robinavitch is nothing if not stubborn.
you can read more about the harmful effects of generative ai here!
and deafmetal is a real company, which you can check out here!//