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Dennis shouldered his backpack and tried to blend in as he moved through chairs. It had been a hell of a day and all he wanted to do was sleep. He was almost thankful he didn’t have far to go as he slipped carefully through the emergency exit and into the stairwell. He was a few steps away from his floor when heard voices and steps coming down from the roof. It took every last molecule of energy he had to launch himself up the remaining steps and through the heavy door, leaving all the lights off and hoping he’d been fast enough.
When nobody came in immediately to arrest him he breathed a sigh of relief. He didn’t have to make it much further. Once he graduated he’d get an actual paycheck and he could find an apartment. He just had to keep under the radar until spring.
He took a quick shower and wrapped a towel around his waist. He had just picked up his toothbrush when a low voice cut through the air.
“You’ve got to be fucking kidding me.”
Dennis jumped about five inches off the ground and whirled around to see Dr. Abbot leaning against the door frame, his arms crossed over his chest.
“Dr. Abbot! Sir! This isn’t what it looks like!” He was fucked. He was going to get fired, and thrown out of school and he’d have to work at Starbucks for the rest of his life because he sure as hell wasn’t going to be using his undergrad degree to get a job.
Abbot snorted,”Don’t bullshit me, kid. I’m going to go out in the hallway while you put some damn clothes on and then we’re going to talk about this.”
Abbot hadn't immediately called security, so he’ll take that as a win. He quickly pulled on a pair of sweatpants and the t-shirt he’d been given during med school orientation and forced himself to take several deep breaths before opening the door. Abbot was leaning against the wall, furiously jabbing at his phone with his pointer finger, muttering something about bees and hives. Dennis realized he was texting when he stopped a minute, nodded, and started jabbing again.
“Sir? I’m ready.” Abbot pushed off the wall and made his way past Dennis and into the room, after a quick look at the hallway, presumably to make sure there was no one else lurking on the empty floors.
“Kid, I’m tired. You’re tired. I’m needed elsewhere, I need you to answer my questions honestly.” The tiniest part of him wanted to fight, to lie, to argue, to do something to not be humiliated in front of a guy he’d just watched pull off medical procedures he could only dream of, all with a donor bag strapped to his leg. He knew better, though, so he managed to squeak out a “Yes, sir.”
“Drop the “sir” shit, kid. Abbot or Jack is fine off the clock,” he paused, “Are you living in the hospital?”
Dennis swallowed, “Yes.” He wanted to explain that this was just temporary and he would be fine, but he had a feeling this was not the time.
“You had a rotation before this one I take it?”
“Yes, internal medicine.”
Abbot nodded, but Dennis is pretty sure he heard the word fuckers, under his breath. “You don’t have any other place to go?”
“No, but if you don’t report me I can make it through. I just need to make it until spring,” Dennis said. He knew the chances were low, he couldn’t expect Abbot to risk his own job to keep this quiet. Maybe he could get a few days rest in the med school library before anyone caught on.
Dennis tried to read Abbot’s face, but he couldn’t get anything but blank exhaustion.
“Okay kid, pack up. You can crash in our guestroom, nobody is in any shape to fix this right now. Stay as long as you need.” Dennis was tempted to point out that he didn’t take orders off the clock, but honestly Abbot was right. Nobody had the energy to deal with this right now, including him.
“Our guestroom?” he asked. It’s not like they’d had time for personal conversations in the couple hours they’d been trying to keep people alive.
Abbot stood up a little straighter, and stared Dennis down. “Yeah, my husband and I. You got a problem with that?”
If he was less tired he might be entertained by the irony, instead he just rushed out the truth, “No sir! I’m, um, well, my parents… they cut me off so…” It was not his favorite thing to talk about. He hadn’t been surprised at their reaction, but part of him was disappointed anyway.
“Say no more, man. I didn’t exactly join the army for the food.” Abbot checked his phone, “Is this all you’ve got? He’s bringing the car around, I need to get off this leg.”
“I can’t pay rent, or much of anything. I barely made tuition.” Dennis blurted out, he didn’t want any misunderstandings.
“Do you know what we make? I don’t need your money. He could use a successful project anyway. Follow me, before we both drop from exhaustion.”
They went down the stairs and out through chairs without another word. There was a battered looking Jeep, the kind that looked like it actually goes off road once and a while, idling at the curb. Abbot opened the back door and let Dennis toss his duffle bag in before climbing in behind it. Dennis looked up to the driver’s seat to see an exhausted Dr. Robby behind the wheel and about a dozen puzzle pieces clicked into place in his head.
“Hey, Whitaker. No offense but let’s save the talking for tomorrow,” Robby said. Dennis couldn’t help but notice how much rougher his voice sounded than it had that morning.
Dennis swallowed, trying to find his voice. “Yeah, no problem. Thanks, again sir.”
It only took a few minutes before they were pulling into a garage beneath an older condo building in one of the nicer areas of the city. He followed Dr. Robby and Abbot to a first floor unit and as soon as they were through the door Abbot sat down heavily on the couch. Whitaker thought he was fussing with his shoes until the man popped off a lower leg prosthetic and placed it on the coffee table. The guy was a freaking comic book superhero.
Probably guessing that Dennis had taken in a lot of information after a very rough day Robby put a hand on his shoulder.
“Let me show you where the guest room is, there’s an ensuite so you’ll have plenty of privacy. Everyone is sleeping in tomorrow, Gloria invoked our mutual aid agreements so there’s staff to cover. You’ll probably want to reach out to your advisor or program coordinator sometime tomorrow,” Robby paused, and ran a hand through his own hair, “I’m glad you were there today, get some rest.”
“Yes, sir. Thanks for this,’ Dennis said. It seemed like he should say more, something about what happened earlier, but he figured it could wait. There was something else brewing in the back of his mind, about what he’d done today, but he wasn’t quite ready to put words to it.
He’d expected to find it hard to calm down after the day he’d had, but his body was done and the bed was very comfortable, so before he knew it he was out for the night. The last thing he heard was Dr. Robby on the phone asking someone named Mark to meet McKay at the courthouse the next morning and send him the bill.
Dennis woke up sometime around ten the next morning to the smell of coffee and bacon. He pulled a t-shirt out of his bag and decided that the sweatpants he was wearing were probably good enough for breakfast.
He padded out to the living room to find Dr. Abbot at the stove cooking breakfast, while Dr. Robby sipped coffee from a blue mug on the other side of the island. The kitchen was spotless but the bookshelves in the living room were overflowing, and there was what looked like a crocheted throw on the back of the worn leather couch. It suited them, and Dennis felt strangely at home.
“Hey, Whitaker, how are you? That was a lot for your first day.” Dr. Robby looked much better than he had the previous night, and Dennis relaxed a bit.
“Yeah, that wasn’t what I expected. Any of it. Are you okay?” He didn’t think he’d ever forget finding the man in the Pedes room like he did.
“I will be. You don’t need to worry about me, Jack’s got that covered,” Robby said. Abbot huffed a little, like he didn’t care if Robby thought he worried too much or not, and that seemed fair.
Abbot put a plate of bacon and eggs at the empty stool next to Robby and pointed Dennis to the seat.
He took a minute to appreciate his first hot breakfast in weeks, and waited for the inevitable questions about his living situation.
Abbot shrugged, but Robby seemed to remember why he was in their kitchen in the first place. “How long have you been living in the hospital?”
“A few weeks. I was couch surfing for a while, but people started asking too many questions. I didn’t want to take a shelter bed from someone who actually needed it.” He saw Robby react to that, but kept going,”I had a job before, but I don’t have enough hours to work it between my rotations.” he said. “Even if I did have money for a deposit on a place nobody wants a tenant that might be leaving town in less than a year.”
“Well,” Robby said, “we’ve discussed it, and we see a couple options. You can talk to Kiara tomorrow. There are programs to help students with financial difficulties, but they could take time and some deadlines have already passed. Or you could stay here in our guest room until you’re done with school.
“You’d do that? You don’t even know me.” Dennis was shocked. It was one thing to offer him a night of safety after the MCI, but to take him into their house for months at a time?
He couldn’t read Abbot’s face, but that wasn’t that surprising given what he’d seen from the man yesterday. Robby just had that soft smile he’d seen last night. “I saw everything I needed yesterday, Dennis,” Robby said, “and you forget we’ve been in your shoes. My grandmother raised me, and she passed when I was about your age.”
“Look kid, if it doesn’t work out we’ll find another solution, but this is one problem we can actually solve,” Abbot added. He thought back to what Abbot had said last night about his husband needing a project. Now he understood what he meant.
“Okay, thank you,” Dennis said. “You have no idea how much this will help.”
“All right then. Good,” Robby said, “you should make yourself at home. I’m going to have you pay us a dollar a month rent, and I’ll disclose the landlord/tenant relationship to HR just to keep everything clean. There’s no rule against it.”
Dennis supposed that made sense, and it was reassuring to have some kind of definition beyond “charity case.” “Oh, um, do people know …” the last thing he wanted to do was to out his boss to his coworkers.
Robby smiled, “Yeah, they all know. There’s no such thing as a secret in the ED. I have some calls to make and a mountain of paperwork but Jack will get you a key and our numbers. All we ask is you’re quiet when Jack is sleeping during the day and you shoot us a heads up text if you’re off duty but not coming home just so we know you’re okay.”
“And so we know we’re clear to fuck in the living room,” Abbot added.
Robby rolled his eyes. “Jack! Not in front of the med student! Sorry kid, basic roommate rules, you don’t make your love life our problem and we’ll do the same.”
Dennis knew his entire body must have turned completely red, “Understood. I uh, need to go call my program coordinator.”
“Good idea. Jack’s working tonight and we’ll be back on duty tomorrow morning,” Robby said as his phone rattled on the counter. He picked it up and flashed the caller ID at Abbot before answering, Dennis went up the stairs to get ready for the day, hearing Robby answer the phone with, “I swear Frank, this better be about an intake appointment” while Abbot suddenly looked like he wanted to punch something. Whatever was going on was far above his pay grade, and he had bigger issues - like changing his entire career track to worry about. –
***
Dennis spent most of the day between phone calls, research, and emails. Twenty-four hours ago he was planning on applying for residency programs in Family Medicine, but he saw something in himself the day before that he didn't even know was there. It wasn’t going to be easy, but he had two months before his ERAS materials were due. It was too late to schedule an away rotation, but his advisor had suggested reaching out to several options for new rotations within his own program. He knew exactly where to go for advice, he just hoped he wasn’t asking too much.
Around dinner time he wandered back down to the living room to find his hosts on the couch watching the Pirates game, and eating pizza. Abbot had slept most of the day, and looked much better than he had at breakfast.
“Help yourself to some pizza,” Robby said, “we usually cook if one of us is off, but our rotations are a bit off.”
Dennis wasn’t terrible in the kitchen, so at least he had something to offer. “We can look at our schedules, I’m happy to pitch in. I was hoping to get your advice on something, if that’s okay.”
“Don’t tell the nurses anything you wouldn’t put on a billboard in Times Square, but know that Dana and Lena already know everything,” Jack said, and Robby added, “Eat when you can, and keep a change of clothes in your locker. You personally should keep two.”
“Noted with thanks.” That actually was helpful, but not the point of the conversation. Dennis sat down in the arm chair facing them, “I was supposed to be working towards a match in Family Medicine, but I’m thinking about changing to EM.”
It was fascinating to watch as both of them sat up straight, and were suddenly all business.
“My advisor said that it’s not too late, but that I should consider changing my next couple rotations.” He watched their reactions closely, amused as they seemed to be having an entire conversation with facial expressions and head tilts.
Abbot rubbed his hands together, “Hell yeah, I knew it. You’re one of us. If you didn’t run for the hills after yesterday you’re off to a good start.”
Robby seemed amused by his reaction, he shook his head but the look on his face was warm.
“He’s not wrong. Not everything went smoothly, but you’re here to learn. My first question is if your match preference is local or not. I’m not going to lie, I don’t have many contacts in Nebraska but those programs are less competitive.”
Dennis thought about that for a moment, “I’d prefer to stay here, but really anything more coastal than Pittsburgh should be safe.”
They both nodded, he knew they didn’t like it any more than he did, but there was no sense pretending.
“Get me a copy of your rotation schedule and your advisor’s number. I can reach out to some colleagues. Your personal statement should be a piece of cake. Right now you should make sure to show us what you’ve got while you’re in the ED. Follow procedure, listen to your residents and attendings. Stay on Dana’s good side. We’re not going to take it easy on you, but earning letters of recommendation from Jack and I will help your file. Jack has a bit of a publishing following.”
“That’s Michael’s way of saying people like reading about batshit cases, and not so subtle dick jokes,” Abbot added, “If you’ll excuse me, it’s time to make the donuts.”
Dennis wasn’t quite sure what he meant, but Robby rolled his eyes. “Don’t worry, that commercial was from before you were born.”
“Thanks, both of you. You won’t be disappointed, I promise.” He said, digging into his pizza. He meant it too. He’d been pushing himself since he decided he wanted to be a doctor. He wasn’t going to stop now. He found he already didn’t want to let Robby and Abbot down.
***
It was a few days after Pittfest and he and Abbot were both off for the day and chatting while Dennis made dinner. Abbot had been telling him that there’d been an issue with malicious gossip with one of the night shift nurses, but that Dana and Lena had taken action and that nurse had found herself looking at a transfer to geriatrics before Abbot could earn himself an incident report.
Dennis nodded, with a smirk, knowing exactly what he was talking about. He got the feeling that keeping Robby’s confidence had earned him a spot in some kind of exclusive club. In truth it was the assurance that another senior staff member was aware that had stopped him from questioning that decision. Abbot offered him a fistbump, and he returned it right as Robby walked through the door.
“Do I want to know?” Robby asked. He set his bag down on the bench by the door, and swooped through the kitchen, kissing his husband hello before getting a fresh bottle of water from the fridge.
“Probably not,” Abbot replied, “how was work?”
“It was an easy one today, so I had some downtime. I’ve got news. You’re going to finish your rotation with us in a few weeks, as planned, and then instead of pediatrics Dr. Walsh has agreed to supervise a surgery rotation. Don’t worry, Emery isn’t scary, she just hates cleaning up after Jack. You can drop your Dermatology rotation completely, and do Pedes then. Dr. Woodward was happy to shift if it meant more ED docs with some Pedes experience. That will be interview season, but they can accommodate that easier than most departments. We wanted to get you with Walsh before your materials are due. Cardiology and OB/GYN were already good choices so I left those, but I got you changed from Mason to Hernandez for OB/GYN. Mason is a dinosaur.”
“That’s… amazing. That sounds perfect.” Dennis was a bit shell shocked, he had expected a few suggestions, maybe a referral to someone known to be flexible. Instead Dr. Robby had swooped in and fixed everything. He caught Abbot’s eye, but the other man just mouthed “project” and winked.
“Jack and I have discussed it and you need at least one Away Rotation. You know I don’t have sole discretion over matches at PTMC. More contacts are always better.” Dennis shut off the oven timer and pulled the lasagna out of the oven, yeah, that was a thing in EM for sure but he was out of luck.
“But how? Those deadlines have passed.” This was certainly too much to ask.
“Well, I’ve been at this for a while. We have former residents all over the place, and many of them reached out after Pittfest. Simon Chen out at Seattle Metro has had a space open up. He also has a basement apartment that he rents to students. You don’t know how many people have been in your place. Jack and I will help with expenses.”
“I still don’t understand why you’d do this. Is this even fair to other students? You’re not going to get in trouble or something? You don’t have to do any of this just because I didn’t go broadcasting your business.”
He meant it too, he had managed this far by himself and he could finish school by himself if he needed to. He wouldn’t want them to risk anything or feel obligated.
“The fact you’re asking that is part of it. Dennis, this isn't some kind of quid pro quo. Even if you decided tomorrow that you had to tell Kiara or Gloria what happened we’d still help you. Although, for the record, Kiara and Dana both already know. I’ve got a therapy referral and I’m going to go. I meant it when I said you don’t have to worry,” Robby said.
He thought Abbot looked almost proud of that when he picked up the explanation, “You could have tried to use it. You could have demanded a good rec letter, better shifts, first pick of patients or procedures, and it didn’t even occur to you did it?”
Okay, that was true. What kind of person would that make him, using someone’s worst day against them? He supposed that was exactly the point they were trying to make. “No, I was just worried. But I’m glad you have, you know, actual adults taking care of you.”
Robby huffed at that, looking at Abbot like he questioned Dennis’s assessment, “Look Dennis, you need to understand that someone like Victoria Javadi will have all this done for her automatically. Nobody will think twice about it. If we get to even the score a little, we’re happy to do it.”
Well that actually did make sense to him. Dennis had often felt behind a lot of the other students in his program that had family in the field. He’d never had the opportunity or money to sit in on conference presentations or mix with other department heads his parents knew from charity boards or the country club. Maybe it wasn’t so bad if he got a few of those benefits just because someone thought he was a good person, because they thought he would make a good doctor.
“Okay, I get it. Thank you. Now, who wants lasagna?” he asked, plating a few large pieces.
“See, this is already paying off for me,” Abbot said, “when it’s Robby’s turn to cook I’m lucky when it’s not chili dogs.”
“You said you liked my chili dogs!” Robby said, clearly surprised by this revelation. Dennis figured it might be a good time to deflect.
“So, can I ask how long you two have been together?”
Robby and Abbot looked at each other and had another one of those silent conversations before they both laughed. “Five years,” Abbot said, biting his lip. He seemed to be trying not to smile.
“Two years,” Robby said, rolling his eyes at his husband.
Well, Dennis thought to himself, it was going to be an interesting year.