All The Little Things
Description: You work in the PTMC gift shop and after an emergency that requires your specific talents is handled, you find yourself intrigued by a very intimidating doctor. female!reader x trinity santos.
WC: 2.5K
A job was hard to come by in the city of Pittsburgh, you had been searching for months. Multiple places never got back to you, several had you interview but didn’t follow up after that and exactly two let you get all the way to the final step before deciding they didn’t want you.
So, here you were. In the PTMC gift shop, working the cash register. It wasn’t a terrible gig by any means. Enough to pay the bills at least. But you had really imagined a more…glamorous future after college.
“If you want something nice, we have stuffed animals over in that section. There's also puzzles if she likes that.” You point to the section where beady eyes watch you day in and day out. The woman rubs her tired eyes again and wanders towards the stuffed lions.
God, this job was so depressing sometimes. You shudder to imagine what it must be like as a doctor or a nurse, having the lives of these peoples families in your hands. Scary. Downright terrifying.
The woman comes back with a card and a stuffed pink rabbit. Smiling softly, you ring her up and wish her luck with the rest of the day. It made you feel somewhat better then you were providing things that brought people comfort. Well, maybe it wasn’t you that brought people comfort exactly but instead the items-
“I need a sweatshirt. Or something. Now!” A woman you presume is a doctor strides up to you, tugging her stethoscope away from her neck. Splattered across her scrubs is what appears to be copious amounts of blood.
“Oh! Follow me.” “This is fucking typical, Huckleberry must be rubbing off on me.” The woman - Dr. Santos - her badge reads mutters she follows you. You aren’t sure if it's a joke or something so you don’t respond, simply pointing to the rack of PTMC sweatshirts.
“Great, thanks.” Dr. Santos says, though her tone is still vaguely sarcastic. “I don’t have to pay for this right?” Your boss might be upset but you suppose it is an emergency. “Uh, no. No, on the house.”
She smiles and you are suddenly struck by just how pretty she is. “Great, today's been shit so I appreciate that.” You frown “That sucks. What, uh, what happened?” You really want her to stay and talk.
Dr. Santos waves a hand “Ugh, this guy had an interior bleed that got all over me.” “Is he ok?” She blinks like she hadn't thought about that part “Oh he’s fine. I wouldn’t be here if he wasn’t.”
“Santos! You got people waiting for you!” Dana pops in, and you wave a little. You recognize her from the smoke breaks. She offers you a small smile then fixes a pointed gaze on the dark haired woman.
‘Kill me’ Dr. Santos mouths at you before turning on her heel and marching towards Dana. You sink back into your spot behind the counter. The rest of the day, you feel lighter. Huh weird.
- - - - - - - - - - - -
Usually, a hospital gift shop is pretty quiet but today people were in and out almost non stop. All of them looked haggard and stressed, which, you didn’t blame them.
Finally getting a chance to breathe, you take the opportunity to reorganize a couple sections then try to complete the NYT crossword. A tap on the counter breaks you from your internal musings.
Looking up, you find Dr. Santos shuffling her feet in front of you and holding a coffee cup. Immediately, you straighten your posture. “Dr. Santos! No blood today?” Her dark eyes snap to yours, and she sighs “Only inside the patients.”
“Well that is the place for it to be.” She smiles a little at the quip then places the coffee in front of you “It’s a thank you. For the sweatshirt.” Your heart picks up a little.
“Thank you! You didn’t have to do that, Dr. Santos.” “Trinity.” You blink at the doctor. “What?” “My name is Trinity, you don’t have to call me Dr. Santos.”
Silence settles between you as those words land. “I- Thank you, Trinity, for the coffee.” Her name rolls off your tongue far too easily for having just met her a couple days ago. A middle aged woman steps inside and you wave in greeting.
“You guys are busy today.” Trinity remarks, causing you to focus very intently on the grain of the counter as you mumble “Not as busy as you guys.” She laughs slightly and it pleases you enough to meet her gaze. “Yeah being a doctor is…not for the weak.”
“I really don’t like seeing people's insides.” You smile. “You should meet Crash- Sorry, Victoria Javadi. She’s another doctor but on her first day as an intern, she fainted.” She smiles, a mischievous gleam entering her eye.
Laughing, you reply “Sounds like something I would do.” “You know, we all get together after our shift sometimes. Would you want to join us?”
A part of you worries about having so little in common with the doctors that would be there, but a stronger part of you whispers that this might be the only chance to see Trinity outside of work. So you find yourself saying “Sure!” “Great, let me give you my number so I can text you the address.”
As she’s typing on your phone, you take a risk “If you wanted my number so badly you could’ve just asked.” Trinity glances up at you, handing your phone back “I think I just did.” She turns on her heel but not before throwing a wink your way.
You let out a giddy laugh once she disappears into the bustle of the ER and mentally sort through your wardrobe to figure out what to wear.
- - - - - - - - - - - -
The bar is crowded. Understandable for a Friday night, people spill out of the door where you wait by occasionally, laughing amongst themselves. Checking your phone again, Trinity is about 40 minutes late.
Chewing on the hangnail by your thumb, you shoot off another text asking where she is when you hear a call of your name, “Sorry! How long were you waiting?” Trinity is still in scrub pants, but she’s obviously changed her top. It’s a deep red that brings out the color of her hair.
“Uh- Wow, um, not long!” She smiles “Good! This is Huckleberry-” “Dennis.” The mousy looking man behind her pipes up, and she shoots him a glare “Huckleberry. And this is Crash-” “Victoria!”
You smile, amused “Should I be worried about what nickname you could give me?” Trinity grabs your arm and tugs you into the bar “After tonight? Definitely.”
Maybe you expected something different from doctors but when the third round of white tea shots that Trinity grabbed from the bar made its way over to the table, you were thoroughly impressed by your companions.
“Wait, tell her again how many times you got something spilled on you your first day!” Trinity cackles at the look on Dennis’s face, you join in with her feeling looser then you have in awhile. Dennis finally cracks a smile and the laughter increases around the table ten fold.
“OMG!! I love this song!” Victoria shoots up and reaches for the both of you, “Come on, come on, come on. Dennis? Can you watch our stuff?” “Fine but only for ten minutes. Then I'm joining you.”
The heat of everyone around you should’ve made you feel boxed in but as soon as Trinity places a hand on your waist all that slips away.
“You look really good tonight! Did I tell you that?” She shouts in your ear. “No, but I don’t mind hearing it now.” Her hand grips your waist tighter, you step closer. Bold, which you assume she would like.
Trinity grins wider, so you give yourself a mental pat on the back for assuming correctly. “I have work tomorrow.” You pout a little, and she throws her head back “Yeah? So do I!” “I know, you’re gonna have a killer headache.”
But your words get lost over the music, so you just relax into the bass of each song that comes on.
Eventually, you all stumble out of the bar and into the cool night air. You hug both Victoria and Dennis, happy to have found fun people in them. Then it's just you and Trinity, bathed in the neon glow of the bar sign.
“My rides almost here.” You murmur, checking the uber again. She nods and for a moment you think this was just an outing with friends. That she didn’t really like you like that. That maybe you should evaluate your gayder.
But then she steps into your space. She’s gently cupping your face and pressing her very soft lips onto yours.
She tastes like the sugary drinks she was knocking back.
You both somehow stumble against the brick building and Trinity bites your lip gently, getting you to open your mouth to her. Her perfume surrounds you both, something dark and ambery.
Your uber driver lying on the horn broke you both out of the spell and she laughs, flipping her hair a little. “He is so pissed.” Catching your breath seems to take forever and you are still trying to fight against the lightness in your head as you lean back against the cool leather of the uber.
- - - - - - - - - - - -
Two days.
Two days since Trinity kissed you. Two days of no text messages, no greetings in the hallway, you’ve even seen her deliberately skirt around the sight line of the gift shop. Which, like…ouch.
You don’t even know what you did wrong. A part of you wants to ask Victoria or Dennis but you don’t really know them like that.
So here you are, stuck in a weird limbo. Just trying to get through the day.
As you are helping a little girl pick out a coloring book for her and her sister to do when she wakes up, you spot Trinity walking after a taller woman, also in scrubs.
You watch as she grabs the other doctor's hand. Then continue to watch as the doctor rips it away. Oh, that's why she was ghosting you. You were a distraction. Something to take her mind off of what is clearly a lovers quarrel.
Shit. Shame, anger, and disgust all swirl together to create a confusing cocktail of emotions.
There was one thing you know. You would not be some fucking rebound. Pushing your anger to the side for a moment, you check out the little girl and her father offering her a lollipop from behind the counter.
When you look up again, Trinity and that doctor are gone. Good. You needed time to think.
It got quiet around 4 PM, both in the gift shop and in the hospital. So you figured this was your chance to confront her.
She was standing in front of the board, bouncing on her feet. Walking straight up to her, you say “Can we talk?” Trinity startles, like she didn’t expect to see you ever again.
Her brow furrows “Oh, uh…I’m kind of busy.” “No you aren’t.” You retort, “We are going to talk.” You walk past her and out into the stairwell. She drags her feet after you.
Once you hear the door close, the silence echoes up into the ascending floors. “Well? What is it?” Her tone is tense. You whirl on her “What is it? Were you ever going to tell me that you had a girlfriend? Who works here!? Or were you just gonna ghost me and expect me not to ask questions. Do you think I’m stupid?”
She opens her mouth to respond but you hold up your hand, “I don’t need some fucking excuse. I just wanted to let you know it was really fucking shitty of you to do that. I’m not some pity kiss or whatever the fuck I was.”
You turn on your heel, not giving her enough time to defend herself.
Once you were firmly back behind the counter, you realized you had another two hours of being in the Pitt. A place you really did not want to be in at that moment, but you were proud of yourself for speaking up.
- - - - - - - - - - - -
Every day after that you dread going into the Pitt. Dreaded the fact that you might see her that day. You didn’t really love your job before but everything that has happened made each shift feel like a slog through molasses.
Checking the clock again, you decide you deserve a trip to the vending machine and maybe a bathroom break. You head to the bathroom first, just so you don’t have to bring a snack into the bathroom. Unsanitary.
But just as you are splashing water onto your face, a sound catches your attention from one of the stalls. A small catch of breath, and a sniff of the nose. Was someone crying?
A tug in your chest makes you step up to the stall. “Hey…um, I'm sorry if this is a bit impolite…but are you ok?” You ask softly, staring at the cool white of the door. A soft curse comes from behind the door and it swings open. Trinity standing in front of you with red rimmed eyes.
She steps past you to the sink “Excuse me.” Her voice is flat. Shit, you know you're supposed to be mad at her but…”Are you ok?” Trinity scoffs softly at the question.
“I mean I know I’m kind of the wrong person to be asking that but-” She turns to you “I need to talk. You cannot interrupt me.” You blink at her, her voice still weavering “Alright. Jeez.”
Trinity breathes out “I am not dating Garcia. The doctor you saw me talking to. I was…We had a thing. And now it’s over, and the conversation you saw between me and her was her being jealous-”
Her voice grows louder and she cuts herself off “Fucking Dennis let it slip that I kissed you, and Garcia got pissed. Even though we had broken it off like a month before that.” She presses her palms to her eyes, then lowers them to meet your gaze.
“I like you. I do, and I’m sorry that I hurt you by not telling you about my fucked dating history in this place, and if that makes you not want to…try…with me, then it would really suck but…” She shrugs “I would get it.”
Wow. You take in the speech and Trinity watches you expectantly.
Something inside says that you should forgive her. After all, what's the harm in trying?
“Would you want to get dinner after your shift?” At the question, her whole face lights up and she pulls you into a hug “I would love too.” As you pull back, you notice her eyes are shining in the bathroom light.
“What's wrong!?” You ask, you thought she was happy. “I’m fine!” She sniffs softly, with a small smile, "I'm just…really excited to get dinner.”
You pull her back into another hug, this time with her being a little stiffer before melting into you. “Yeah. Me too.”
