Chapter Text
"Dr. Robby, need you in Trauma 1 now!" Langdon hollered right after the 41-year-old female was wheeled into the trauma bay. Robby excused himself from his current patient and made his way over.
He was just about to reach the door when his left leg came into contact with something blunt and metallic. "Fuck!" The sharp pain had him crouching over the floor in seconds.
"You alright there, Dr. Robby?" There were hands on him, trying to help him up, but he waved them off. "Just need a minute."
Just another day in the ER, he thought to himself. He gritted his teeth and breathed out slowly, willing for the pain to subside.
When he felt like he could move again, he turned to look at the person behind him, a young nurse who seemed—worried. She offered her hand gingerly and Robby shook his head. He recognised her as one of the new nurses, but he couldn't bring himself to recall her name.
Robby took a quick peek at the name tag as he pushed to one knee. "Thank you—Emma." He said weakly and felt lightheaded as he stood, but he continued to pull the curtain aside, just to check what it was that he walked into.
And mystery solved, a poorly parked gurney with its corner sticking out to the hallway. He walked right into that metal frame.
Fighting to keep a straight face, he turned to Emma and spoke in what he hoped was a gentle tone. "Remember, no obstruction in any footpath."
With one hand on the wall, he kept walking and didn't look back. He brushed off the slight limb on his leg, tried to get his head back in the game as quickly as he could. But when he did look up, he locked eyes with his youngest resident across the hall.
On the other end of the unit, Dr. Whitaker was speaking to a patient. Between polite smiles and nods, the sharp eyes kept glancing back at Robby, clearly distracted by the commotion that had just happened over on this side.
Like a deer caught in headlights, Robby straightened his back and he pushed open the door to the trauma bay.
It would definitely take a minute before the pain would die down, but he was the captain of this ship and his patient could not wait.
Robby noticed the two ice pack on his desk as soon as he got out. He all but purred when he sank into the chair. "You're a star, Dana."
"Not this time." The charge nurse spared him a look and chuck a chocolate bar at his desk in between typing. "Whitaker got you these as well."
Robby pricked up his ears at the mention of Whitaker, but he did his best keeping his hands busy with the ice packs on his lap. He knew there would be a massive bruise on his thigh but it was too close to his hip that he wouldn't be able to see it without removing his trousers.
"Keep the ice pack on, will ya? And get an x-ray done before you see the next patient." Dana placed a light squeeze on his shoulder as she came through. Her eyes narrowed as she examined his leg.
As close as Robby was with Dana, something in his gut still sent him jumping as soon as her hands reached his thigh. He pushed back his chair in a sudden and eased into a standing position not so smoothly. "It's not that bad, probably just a bruise."
"In that case you'd have no issue filling out an incident report." Whatever it was, he was grateful Dana didn't comment on it. He leaned back onto the counter and felt the tension in his shoulders ebb. "Remind me to never get on your bad side."
"You're always on my bad side, Robby." Dana's smile was reassuring. Robby was lucky to have her as a friend.
The charge nurse circled back to the nurse station and was already scanning through the screens above their heads. "Oh, perfect timing. South 16 is free. You can get your bruise checked."
"Thank you Dana."
Robby was just about to climb onto the gurney when he heard the firm knock on the door. His eyes darted to the entrance and of course, it was Dennis.
"Dr. Robby."
He cursed the hospital policy for not having door locks in the patients' rooms.
"I'm fine." Robby snapped at him and went back to setting up the scanner, too stubborn to acknowledge the young man standing by the door, with eyes trained on him like a bloodhound.
Robby shuffled back and forth, trying to line up his leg for the x-ray. Only then did Dennis stepped in. "Let me help." He closed the door behind him with a soft click and pulled the curtains back up for Robby's sake. The young doctor adjected the angles of the machine and guided him to where he needed to be.
It was all clinical, and Robby was impressed.
He couldn't help staring at his resident whose attention had now been shifted to the machine. When the blue eyes looked up to meet his gaze, there was a slight smirk on the young man's face. "You might wanna take off your trousers."
"You can still do an x-ray scan with my clothes on." Robby crossed his arms defensively. He knew he was being unreasonable, but the last thing he needed right now was to strip down to his boxers in the bloody ER. The rumor mill was always a gossip away from setting back into motion, and Robby could really use without a HR meeting right now.
"I will have to see the wound to assess it." Not willing to budge, Dennis stepped forward, hunched over the gurney, and softened his voice like he was speaking to a particularly difficult patient. "Come on, I know what your body looks like, Robby."
And that put him in place.
Dennis had a way with him, Robby'd give him that. He knew which buttons to push to get Robby over the edge and sadly he had yet to figure out how to say no. On the bright side, the quicker they get this done, the sooner they could both get back to doing their jobs.
Robby tried not to think about how ridiculous it was to be sitting in his boxers while his intern took an x-ray scan of his leg. The idea alone made his skin crawl.
At the very least, there was no obvious fracture, so he should get clearance to go back to work straight away.
He did his best sitting still while those sturdy hands pressed on his skin, lifting his feet up so he could flex his muscles. There was a stern look on Dennis's face as he set his leg down. "No fracture on your femur. Your hip looks fine. Just stick with the ice pack for now, it should help with your bruising. And no more pressure on your left leg."
"And watch where I'm going. Got it, Doc." He took the chance to throw his trousers back on and felt the heat creeping up his cheeks. "You sure you don't want to take the rest of the shift off? It's only two hours left—"
"And thank you, Dr. Whitaker." Robby pushed through the door and practically sprinted out. He took a deep breath as he returned to the safety of his desk, ignoring all the curious looks pointed at him. Then he fetched his tablet and immediately switched to a look out for his next patient.