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“Is she blushing?” Trinity Santos muttered, leaning against the counter with her arms crossed. Her eyes were locked across the hall where Victoria Javadi stood talking to Cassie McKay, their heads tilted close over a patient’s prescription papers.
“Probably,” Dennis Whitaker agreed, following her line of sight immediately, not even pretending to hide his stare. He was perched on a stool, fiddling with a pen like it was the most interesting thing in the world while clearly doing the opposite.
Victoria, who has her hands stuffed deep in her hoodie pocket, rocking up and down on her heels in that restless, schoolgirl-crush way she only did when Cassie was within twenty feet. It was a habit she hated but couldn’t kill, a nervous energy leaking out like she was one compliment away from jumping out of her skin. She was trying to play it cool, or so she planned to, but the second Cassie laughed at something she said and touched her arm lightly, Victoria’s cheeks went pink and she forced out a chuckle to hide the fact that her heart was banging through her chest. She looked to the side and caught Trinity and Dennis watching and pressed her lips together to kill the smile threatening to break out.
Trinity closed her eyes and let out a low, contained chuckle, shaking her head. She walks around the nurses’ station and drops on a chair, still staring ahead Victoria’s direction.
“What’s going on?” Mel King asked, approaching them looking half-dead but still curious.
“Just look at Victoria,” Dennis said, tilting his chin.
“Oh.” Mel’s eyebrows went up as she clocked the scene. She dropped into the chair beside Trinity and started scribbling notes on a paper, but her attention was clearly elsewhere.
Victoria finally finished her conversation and tore herself away from Cassie. She walked over fast, glancing side to side too many times than necessary like she was checking for witnesses, arms still buried in her hoodie. “I can fucking feel your eyes. Stop doing that.”
“Can’t,” Trinity said, smirking. “It’s too entertaining.”
“Oh shut it, surgeon fucker,” Victoria pointed at her accusingly. Trinity almost choked on her own spit, shooting Victoria a warning look as a couple of nurses passed by just out of earshot. The jab landed too close—almost everyone here knew about her and Garcia.
“Hey, how’s your guy treating you lately?” Dennis asked as Samira Mohan stopped by the counter, piling an iPad into the organizer
Samira barely looked up while slotting the iPad into the organizer. “My guy?”
“Doctor Abbott.”
Samira glanced up, her expression neutral but her eyes flicking briefly toward the hallway where Abbott and Robby stood. “Oh. He’s fine” she said carefully, watching the two. “He’s over there with doctor Robby though. They seemed deep in some old-pal conversation.”
All four of them followed Samira’s gaze almost instinctively, leaning slightly to get a better look as the two attendings discussed the upcoming shift hand-offs before the night team took over. Abbott stood facing Robby, one hand resting against his hip while Robby leaned closer to point something out between them. They moved around each other fluidly as they talked, shoulder brushing shoulder once when they passed by the workstation. Abbott looked upward slightly while Robby looked down at him, the height difference somehow adding an extra layer of tension to the exchange.
Then they peeled away from each other. Abbott reached out and tapped Robby lightly on the waist as he turned to head off, a quick, casual touch that crept too long, and Robby smiled in his direction.
“...Y’all saw that?” Dennis started, eyes flickering between the four sets of eyes around him, his voice hushed with a little disbelief.
“The hell was that?” Trinity muttered beside him.
“Yeah,” Samira continued, “Doctor Robby’s kind of like that with Doctor Jefferson too.”
Dennis frowned slightly. “Jefferson?”
“The psych attending,” Mel supplied quietly.
Samira nodded once. “Honestly, I think he might’ve been Robby’s therapist at one point.”
“Damn,” Trinity muttered.
Victoria leaned against the desk “We need to talk about these people. Like, actually.”
“Yeah. We certainly do,” Whitaker said.
—
A little later, the five of them had claimed the cramped break room. The air smelled like old coffee and disinfectant, the table sticky from earlier spills no one had cleaned. The door was cracked just enough so they wouldn’t miss a page, but it gave them a thin veil of privacy for the kind of conversation that could get them all written up if the wrong person walked in. And in that shadowed corner during the 8 PM dead hour, and they had somehow converged here like it was fate, or more likely just collective exhaustion looking for something sharper than another chart to chew on, an entertainment perhaps.
Trinity kicked her feet up on an empty chair “Okay. Real talk. I know I am not the only one seeing all this shit circling around this place.”
“You mean the HR threat in these workplace dynamics?” Samira said dryly dragging a chair behind her before settling down.
“Yeah, exactly that,” Trinity replied, gesturing vaguely. “And also our thing with them.”
Mel looks up and wrinkled her brow.
“You know what I mean,” Trinity said, meeting her eyes with a pointed look.
There was a collective silence because everyone was realizing they were all equally guilty. Dennis broke first. “I think this department is making us insane.”
“No,” Trinity said. “I think this department hired exclusively hot emotionally challenged people and expected nobody to notice, except they’re all pretty obvious around each other.”
She leaned forward now, lowering her voice instinctively despite the empty room around them. “Let’s start with the basics,” she said. “Mckay and Al-Hashimi” Victoria immediately covered her face with one hand at the mention of names.
“I don’t even care if you would judge me on this but they have this energy of…single hot moms walking around like they don’t know they’re lethal. I swear to God,” Trinity added eagerly, “Mckay winked at Doctor Al when they were assessing that multi-car pileup patient last week.”
Mel blinked. “You noticed that during that gore?”
“It was hot.” Trinity insisted.
Victoria nodded too fast. “Yeah.”
Everyone looked at her and she froze, her eyes widening. The rocking on her heels had stopped, but her fingers twisted in her hoodie strings. “I mean—yeah I’m not surviving it. I see them in the same room and my brain just stops.”
“Same,” Trinity admitted, a little too honestly. Then suddenly her mind flashed unhelpfully to the last time she’d caught Garcia and Baran deep in conversation near the trauma board, seeing Garcia’s steady, surgeon-cocky presence cutting through Baran’s quieter, more composed intensity. The way their voices mixed, professional but threaded with something warmer, maybe a little provocative in a way if someone looked more closely. It had left Trinity standing frozen in the hallway longer than she should have, heat prickling under her scrubs, caught between the memory of Garcia’s hands on her the other night, the imagery of them hooking up the other night that had been raw, easy, and almost addictive. Garcia already had her a little fucked up, anyway. But the idea of Baran there too? Or maybe just Trinity watching them together before getting pulled in? It made her shift in her seat. She thinks of it as demented, yet the thought of them with each other only made it worse. So worse in way that makes her—
“Trinity” Dennis snaps her back to reality. “What’s up with you?” Trinity swallows blinking hard.
“She’s thinking about her two hot curly women fucking her stupid that’s what’s up with her” Victoria said flatly from across the table.
“Okay, first of all” Trinity hissed, “lower your damn voice.”
“Please. Words get around here, you know.” Samira cuts in quickly, glancing back toward the cracked door.
“Speaking of words getting around, uhh have you heard about Doctor Abbott and Doctor Robby being tight back in med school?” Mel added.
“Wait, really?” Samira straightened.
“Yeah,” Dennis said. “Doctor Robby himself mentioned it to me as well. I think it might’ve slipped out accidentally.”
“Well,” Samira said slowly, “that explains their nighttime roof routine.”
Trinity looked up immediately. “Their what?”
Samira shrugged one shoulder. “I’ve seen them up there together after shifts. More than once.”
“What do they even do there?”
“Make out?” Dennis offered, half-joking, though the way his gaze drifted said he wasn’t entirely kidding.
“Yeah, you’d like that, wouldn’t you?” Victoria shot back, nudging his stool with her foot.
“Could join in with the both of them if I could,” Dennis admitted with a sheepish shrug, the words tumbling out before he could filter them. He walks towards the table pantry in the corner “I’m no better than you.” He glanced back at Trinity, who rolled her eyes and mouthed fuckleberry at him, the competitive spark flashing between them. At least he’s honest, Trinity thought. The idea of Dennis being the most honest among them is too good to be true, but here they are.
“Well, both of them seemed weirdly into Doctor Al-Hashimi,” Samira said, her voice carrying that edge of reluctant observation. She remembered the way Robby’s eyes tracked Baran during rounds, and how Abbott stares just a beat longer when she spoke.
“Holy shit?” Victoria breathed out, her eyes wide with dawning realization.
“I know,” Dennis said immediately, delighted. “They were both pretty down bad about her, honestly.”
Mel looked between them and frowned thoughtfully. “You think she would even—you know…with them?” The room fell silent once again, all of them thinking hard at the implications of a love triangle (or square, damn maybe it’s a love polygon at this point, given the other ideas they had), then Trinity leaned back, crossing her arms.
“I doubt she wouldn't” all of them looking at Trinity, curiosity for once again glinting within their eyes. “What? You guys seriously don’t see it?
“See what”?
Trinity straightened at her chair, gesturing both of her hands being more fully invested at whatever information she’s about to throw at them. “Her and Doctor Robby already have a thing. Or had a thing. Hell, maybe they are currently in the world’s longest unresolved situationship.”
Whitaker barked out a laugh.
“No, seriously,” Trinity continued. “They act like a divorced couple forced to co-parent this emergency department. Ever noticed how she challenges him? Like constantly?”
That made the others quiet down a little. Because they too had noticed. They noticed that Baran was one of the only attendings who pushed back on Robby without hesitation. If Robby wanted to discharge somebody too early, Baran questioned it. If he bulldozed through rounds too fast, she slowed him down. If he got too deep in his own head during a bad shift, she cut through it with one calm sentence and suddenly he was listening again. Robby listened to Baran differently. And he always acted mildly annoyed about it. But underneath it? There was never real resistance. Like he’s right where he wanted to be. At least that’s what everyone sees. And apparently, everyone has eyes and they weren’t pretty much subtle about anything.
“And then Robby gets weird whenever she’s around another person, take Abbott for example. Robby gets this subtle thing, I don’t know, he’s weirdly into it, anyway. Like he doesn’t know who to get jealous with.” Trinity added.
Victoria glanced toward Samira now, grin turning mischievous. “Wow, how’d you feel about that?
Samira blinked. “About what exactly?”
“You know,” Victoria said vaguely. “Doctor Abbott and Al-Hashimi.”
Samira let out a disbelieving laugh, rubbing her temple with two fingers as if trying to ward off a headache. For a brief moment, her mind drifted to the small interactions she’d had with Abbott lately, his gaze would stay on her occasionally, steady and assessing. The dry comments he’d make when they were alone, his voice lower, the rare half-smile that suggested he enjoyed the quiet tension as much as she did.
Last night immediately resurfaced in her head. She’d been struggling through a difficult central line through the neck in a patient. It should not have been that difficult. But because she’d been running on maybe three hours of sleep, adrenaline and caffeine alone, everything felt wrong and too much all at once. And instead of taking over like most would’ve, he simply adjusted one of her gloves where it sat twisted at her wrist.
“Start again.”
His voice still rings in her ears, a raspy with a slight gruff. Start again not because you’re not doing anything right. No, it sounded more like Start again because I will teach you how.
“I don’t know. I mean…” She shrugged finally, trying for nonchalance and failing slightly. “Who wouldn’t want Doctor Al-Hashimi, right?”
A collective “Exactly” went around the table they all chatter with the information or perhaps the gossips they’re tuned in, laced with the kind of shared understanding that only came from too many hours in the same rattling pressure cooker. The break room felt smaller for a moment, and outside, the ED busltes pressing in like a reminder that behind this cracked door, their attendings and seniors were still running the show, oblivious or not to the web they’d spun.
“Anyway, Abbott and Evans seemed to have history too,” Dennis said, settling on the nearby couch, coffee mug in one hand, he looked around them thoughtful, slightly wide-eyed look he got when piecing things together.
“Yeah, I noticed that too.” Victoria said
“Wait, I thought that was Doctor Robby?” Mel said, her brow furrowing slightly. She adjusted her glasses with a precise push of her index finger, tilting her head as she tried to mentally reorganize the information.
Dennis blinked. “With Abbott or Evans?”
“I–I don’t know–with Dana?” Mel replied, her voice a little tighter as the threads tangled in her head, she needed the extra clarity to process the overlapping dynamics. Honestly, anyone would be confused.
“Maybe they all do,” Dennis muttered dramatically before sipping from his cup. He gestured with his hand circling around “Like each of the three of them…”
Everyone just accepted that claim. Because what can they fucking do, it’s all around them.
“I think we might have another nurse situation too. Aside from Dana.” Samira added casually, the tone sounding like what’s she’s supposed to say happens everyday.
Trinity looked up immediately. “Who?”
“Princess and Perlah.”
Then Dennis blurted out, “You’re joking.”
“I mean, we’re getting everybody, why not add them?” Samira shrugged lightly.
“I like their whole…” Victoria gestured vaguely with both hands, trying to find the words. “Little gossip corner thing.”
“I think they’re just best friends.” Dennis said.
“Riiiight. And Mel doesn’t have a thing for Doctor chin dimple.” Victoria turns toward Mel with narrowed eyes like she’d just remembered another suspect in an ongoing investigation.
“Huh?” Mel squeaked, lower than usual.
“Langdon.”
“What about him?” That alone was enough to make Trinity lean forward in interest, elbows braced on her knees, her competitive stare sharpening the way it did when she sensed weakness in a trauma bay.
“Oh, okay,” Victoria said. “Mel, don’t act above this. You literally stare at him like he sang "Savage.”
Trinity wheezes out a laugh, biting the bottom of her lips to contain herself.
Mel coughed sharply, a clear attempt to buy herself a second, her face warming in a flustered way she got when caught off guard.
“He’s…fine, I think. Uhm a little charming somehow,” Truthfully, Mel had noticed Langdon on day one. Not like that at first or at least that’s what she kept telling herself. He’d just been good. She followed his lead during codes, absorbing the way he moved through the place with that unpredictable mix of competence and edge. It started as pure medical hunger, the kind of drive that got her through med school. A mentor thing. That was all. She thinks. The same way Victoria hovered around McKay whenever she could. Except at some point, Langdon had started lingering too. A hand on her shoulder after a rough intubation. Explaining procedures with that easy patience of his. Too nice. Too gentle. And unfortunately, annoyingly attractive too. “But,” she added quickly, clearing her throat, trying to regain control, “I had a talk with Doctor Ellis earlier though.”
Victoria’s eyebrows shot up immediately. “Wow, okay.”
“I don’t know about Doctor Langdon,” Mel continued, tapping her finger harder against the table now, she pushes away the thought of Langdon, redirecting her thoughts entirely because Parker Ellis was somehow also hot, which frankly felt unfair. “but I think he might be into Robby too.”
“Jesus Christ,” Dennis mumbled, slouching deeper into the couch, rubbing a hand over his face. The earnest med student shine he still carried made moments like this hit him harder, he wanted to see the best in everyone when he first came in here, but this department had a way of complicating that.
“Doesn’t he have a wife?” Victoria asked.
“They’re getting divorced, I think,” Trinity said. Her tone was matter-of-fact, no judgment, just the blunt realism of someone who’d grown up competitive and learned early that rules bent under pressure. “But marriage hasn’t stopped anyone from flirting and going around in this ED anyway.”
“That sounds completely out of line.” Samira muttered.
“Am I wrong?”
Nobody answered. Because she wasn’t. The emergency department existed in this weird suspended universe where people saw each other at their absolute worst and weirdest hours. Fifteen-hour shifts, sometimes pushing seventeen, even. Blood on shoes. Panic attacks in bathrooms. Midnight vending machine dinners. Boundaries got blurry fast.
“Come on, just look at Dana,” Trinity continued. “She somehow joined the Cassie-Baran situation too. Having cigarettes breaks outside” Victoria’s eyes lit up immediately in recognition of that new information.
“Yeah, Dana always offer Doctor Al her pack of cigarettes first,” Dennis added quietly. “Even though she doesn’t even smoke. It’s like Dana just wanted to get close to her.” A few nights ago, he’d stepped outside into the ambulance bay for air during a brutal overnight when the place felt like it was trying to swallow them whole. He found Baran, Cassie and Dana just hanging around. Dennis had stayed there longer than he should have, not wanting to interrupt because it felt almost calming. These women who ran the department with iron competence but beneath it all, they’re all just humans. People who found each other somehow, exhausted, and hiding from the shift for five minutes. Companionship between disasters. And maybe the sharp bite of nicotine to take the edge off. There was a softness in the way the three of them existed together, shoulders occasionally brushing, low laughter cutting through the night like it didn’t belong in the middle of all the blood and the unmistakable carnage happening inside.
“Notice how Cassie gets this look whenever Dana makes Baran laugh. It’s like she wants to slap and kiss both of them at the same time” Trinity added. She enjoyed watching Dana or just anyone that pulled a reaction from Baran almost as much as she wanted to do it herself. Victoria nodded aggressively at what she said
Dennis then slowly turned toward Victoria, eyeing her suspiciously “Okay,” he said. “I’m seeing a pattern here.”
Victoria immediately looked slightly stunned. “What pattern?”
He pointed directly at her. “What is up with you and mothers?” The room detonated.
Victoria recoiled so fast her chair screeched against the floor. “Excuse me?”
“Every single time Doctor Al-Hashimi, McKay, or Evans gets brought up,” Dennis continued, counting on his fingers now, “you agree instantly.”
“Oh, Crash, are you into older women?” Trinity said teasingly.
Victoria groaned loud enough to echo slightly off the break room walls, dragging both hoodie sleeves over her face. Underneath the embarrassment was the raw truth of it: the way Cassie’s quiet teaching style made her feel seen, or how Baran’s rare nods of approval settled something restless in her chest.
“You told me you like the curly nurse guy but it’s Mckay that really, and I mean really got you kicking your feet, huh?” Trinity just drops it in front of them.
“She has mommy issues,” Mel added, the words landing light but pointed.
“It’s not mommy issues,” Victoria argued weakly from behind her hands.
Dennis tilted his head settling down his empty mug. “Then explain the McKay situation.”
“Cassie’s cool, okay?
They looked at her a little unconvinced.
“Alright, fine she’s hot and she teaches me things.”
“And Al-Hashimi?”
Victoria hesitated a fraction too long. “She—She notices my good work.”
“Oh, such a good little girl for her, aren’t you?” Trinity teased. The room exploded again into muffled laughter. Trinity herself felt the hypocrisy—she was just as much a sucker for Baran’s measured praise and her way of noticing good works, and she knew it herself, how it cut through her usual bravado and made her push harder.
“TRINITY!” Victoria gasps looking genuinely scandalized. Then a second later she pointed accusingly at all of them. “Like any of you are better.”
“I’ve never claimed to be. “And besides,” Trinity continued, completely unapologetic, “can't even blame you. They're all hot moms.”
Dennis’s eyebrows raises. “Hot moms?”
“Milfs.”
Dennis immediately looks away from her and shakes his head. “Nope.”
Trinity grinned. “You know what it means.”
“I know exactly what it means.”
“Mommy I'd like to fu—”
“Okay, I get.” Dennis talks over her so quickly that even Mel laughed.
Samira was laughing quietly at that too, head tipping back slightly. Trinity immediately looked toward her. “Oh, don’t tell me,” she said slowly. “You have mommy issues too”
Samira raised both hands in surrender, shoulders lifting in a small shrug. “I work fifteen hours a day,” she defended, her voice carrying that dry, self-aware precision she usually uses around someone. “They’re all there and I need enrichment. That’s all I’m saying.”
Dennis suddenly snapped his fingers. “Wait,” he said. “What about Shen? We haven’t mentioned him.”
Then Trinity waved one hand dismissively. “Oh, he can enjoy his Dunkin alone.”
And somewhere out there, probably holding a Dunkin coffee exactly as predicted, Shen remained completely unaware that he will maybe in the long run become the newest victim of the resident group observation analysis.