Chapter Text
The bar is loud as Mateo slumps back in his chair, picking at the paper coaster under his beer. He’s at a crowded table with Donnie, Jesse, and Princess after what was a hellish shift. None of them had felt like being near the sirens at the park so they settled for a nearby bar.
To say it was a rough shift was an understatement. The last four hours had been horrible, a family of three kids and their parents came in from a MVA. The parents had passed in the ambulance while all three kids that were under the age of eight had life threatening injuries. They worked endlessly on them, but in the end it wasn’t enough. Their injuries were too severe.
They’re quiet as they drink, only murmuring about any topic they can latch onto in attempt to forget about their shift. Jesse doesn’t even bother, staring into his drink. Mateo sighs as he eyes him, the kids were always hard on him. It’s hard on them all, but it’s another level for him.
It’s hard on Mateo too. He takes another deep pull from his beer. Drinking this late isn’t his style, but tonight he needed to take the edge off to try to forget the image of the little girl dead on the gurney. He won’t.
Mateo loves his job, he really does. But some days he just wants to crawl into his bed and never come out. And this is one of those days. Princess had begged him to stay for two drinks, it was obvious in her eyes that she was worried about him.
He’s about to drain the last of his beer and call it a night, a warm shower and his comfy bed is calling his name. Just as he lifts the beer to his mouth, the door chimes and screaming laughter fills the room. Mateo glances up just in time to catch sight of a side profile of someone he hasn’t seen in four years, before it disappears into the crowd.
The beer clunks onto the table as he abandons it, his back immediately straightening and neck straining to find her again. Then, like it’s a goddamn movie, the crowd parts and there she is. Her smile lights up the room as she giggles with her friends.
Victoria Javadi.
Mateo slowly takes in her appearance, gulping hard. She’s wearing a small sparkly purple slip for a top and tight black jeans, with black boots and a small purse to tie it together. She’s got a gold chain around her neck, matching bracelets, and half of her hair is pulled out of her face into a mini ponytail. She turns to the bar to order, baring her back to him and Mateo damn near loses his breath. Her top is almost entirely backless, only swooping down at the base of her spine with tiny straps holding it up on her shoulder. He eyes every inch of skin she’s showing.
It’s been so long since he’s seen her. He still remembers her shy smile, soft giggles, the braids in her hair, and that pink jacket she wore every shift. He’d liked her back then, he would’ve been stupid not to, she was so freaking cute. But now she’s grown more, seems more confident, and Mateo loves that for her. He suddenly realizes that he’d never seen her smile this much before, she always seemed so burnt out back then, only offering small smiles to him or McKay. And even then, those smiles were lined with stress and complemented with tired eyes.
Now though, she looks happy, genuinely happy. Mateo cracks a small smile at the sight. He and Victoria hadn’t kept in touch when she left to finish medical school. He remembers the day she gave him her phone number.
It was her last day at the Pitt and she smiles shyly up at him. They’re in the park, everyone had gathered around to say a small farewell to the two medical students that had weaseled their way into everyone’s hearts.
Victoria had stayed by his side or Cassie’s side, when Santos wasn’t pulling her away. But now she’s back by his side again, looking up at him with wide eyes as he twists a beer cap off a new bottle and hands it to her.
She blinks down at it then brushes her fingers against his as she takes it. He tries not to grin at her still obvious crush on him, but he can’t help it. She’s so fucking cute when she’s trying to impress him. Not that she needs to impress him, though.
“Uh,” She starts, chewing her lip and looking up at him so earnestly. “Could I give you my number?”
He blinks at her, not expecting that to be what she was going to say.
She rushes to continue. “You know, just to stay in contact!” She fiddles with the beer bottle and bites her lips again. “I just- uh, McKay has it too, and you know… just to keep in contact.” She rambles.
Mateo gives her a soft smile, trying to soothe her nerves. “Sure, Victoria.” He hands her his phone, a new contact card open.
Mateo had never called or texted her. He shifts guiltily in his chair as he feels his phone burning a hole in his back pocket, her number’s still saved as “rockstar”. It wasn’t that he didn’t want to talk to her per se, but he had overheard her referring to him as human Utah to Dana her first day. And he didn’t want to be a first experience for her, she deserves better than him for that.
But there were days where he stared at her contact and debated calling her. Anytime there was a crazy case, he’d always itch to tell her about it, or maybe he had a tough shift and needed to talk to someone. But he would always end up shutting off his phone and going off to do anything else to get his mind off of her.
Victoria turns around from the bar and it’s like she still has a sixth sense for him, her eyes colliding with his across the room. Mateo feels like he can’t breathe. Those eyes always had a fucking hold on him. They were just so expressive, always taking his breath away. He slowly lifts a hand to wave at her.
Her face pulls into a grimace, and it looks like she’s debating on turning and leaving until Princess catches sight of her. Princess squeals and rushes towards her, practically attacking her in a hug and dragging her back to the table.
“Javadi! Oh my goodness, what are the chances you’re here?” Princess gushes. Mateo chuckles under his breath, watching a stiff, wide eyed Victoria staring at her as they walk over. Princess had a soft spot for Victoria when they worked together, was always in her corner encouraging her to be bold and whatnot.
Jesse finally tears his gaze away from his drink as he smiles at their new company. Donnie’s smile also brightens as he pulls another chair to the table for her, setting it right next to Mateo.
Victoria smiles as she hugs everyone, then she slides into the chair, only giving a small wave to Mateo. Their thighs brush together and Mateo resists the urge to press his thigh closer to hers.
He tries not to let the single wave sting but he supposes that’s fair, considering he had kinda ghosted her. He nods at her.
“Hey, Javadi,” He lowers his voice, giving her that smile where his dimples show. “Good to see you.”
“Good to see you guys too,” She averts her eyes to her lap, smiling and he wants to fist pump the air. He can still make her flustered from his smile after all these years. It makes him smile wider. “Uh- I’m just here celebrating a friend’s birthday.” She gestures back at her friends across the room, while miming to them she’d be back soon.
“So, what have you been up to, Javadi?” Donnie asks her as he sits back down.
“Uh well, I’m in my third year of residency,” She reaches up to play with the ends of her hair. “I’m actually working at the Pitt now, but I’m off tonight.”
Mateo chokes on his beer. “W-what?” He coughs. Victoria hovers her hand on his arm, her eyebrows scrunched in concern.
Jesse cuts in, frowning. “You are? Have we been so blind that we didn’t notice you around?”
“What? Oh no!” She giggles, taking her hand back after Mateo waved her off. “I’m working the night shift,” She glances at her hands. “Which I kind of prefer anyways, so I don’t have the same schedule as my parents.” She shrugs.
Donnie laughs. “Honestly, Javadi, I expected you to croak and drop out of school that year. Surprised you’re still going strong,”
“Oh uh,” She blinks back at him, her face falling slightly. She leans back, looking uncomfortable and Mateo glares at Donnie. Man, if he weren’t across the table, he’d slap him on the head. “It was a rough year, I wasn’t really in medicine for the right reasons at the time, but now I am. And I’m actually enjoying it, for the most part.”
She glances back at her friends and Mateo has a feeling she’ll bolt if he doesn’t say something. So he blurts out the first thing he can think of. “How are you now?”
She scrunches her eyebrows in confusion. Right, she’d already answered that question.
“Uh- like with the whole job thing now.” He stammers. “Like why do you think you’re enjoying it better now?”
“Oh! Well I think I got better at time management and balancing my life out.” She smiles and Mateo has to focus hard to keep his eyes from falling to her mouth. “Focusing twenty four/seven on medicine wasn’t good for me, so I found some hobbies and moved out of my parent’s place.” She glances down at her hands on the table. “Then it started to feel like it was my life instead of my parent’s.” She added quietly.
“So what hobbies are you into now?” Princess asks.
“I dance.” She says brightly and for the second time that night Mateo chokes on his beer. “And I… also hike too,” She finishes slowly, looking at him in concern. “Do you want some water?”
“No, no,” He coughs out, willing himself to calm down. “You, uh, you dance?” Mateo tries really hard not to think about her dancing on a stage, her body moving slowly in some skimpy outfit. He catches Donnie’s gaze, who’s eyeing him suspiciously. Mateo immediately looks down at his bottle.
“Yeahhh,” She draws out. “I teach youth classes at a studio on the weekends not too far from here. Sometimes we’ll host shows to raise money for the community.” Mateo lets out a breath. That was not the type of dancing he was imagining and he’s thankful he was wrong.
Donnie starts chuckling under his breath at him, catching onto Mateo’s train of thought. Mateo subtly flips him off in response.
Jesse smiles. “That sounds really nice. I have some nieces who’d love that. Are you taking sign ups?”
Victoria immediately brightens. “Yes, of course! I have a card actually,” She starts digging in her purse. “Here.” She says, pulling out a colorful card and hands it to him. “We’re having a show next week if they want to check it out and see if it’s something they’d like?”
Jesse nods and says he’ll check it out.
“Actually maybe we should all go,” Donnie suggests, smirking at Mateo. “Are you dancing as well, Javadi? Or just coordinating?”
“Oh, that’d be cool if you guys could come! I’m doing both. There’s a youth show and an all-age show. I’m coordinating the youth one and dancing in the other show.” She smiles brightly at them.
“That’d be cool,” Mateo says, a small grin on his face as he knocks his knee into hers. “I’d love to see it.”
She smiles shyly again and Mateo starts thinking of ways he can make her flustered again. Donnie sniggers again from across the table, which Mateo just ignores. But Victoria doesn’t.
“I should get back to my friends. But before I go, I haven’t asked how you guys are?” She inches away in her chair.
Choruses of “fines” and “goods” ring out. And suddenly Mateo realizes that it’s true. His chest no longer feels as heavy as it did at the beginning of the night.
“We’re good, Javadi,” He grins. “Better now that we saw you.” He winks at her, watching as she blinks at him. Yes, he’s flirting. No, he does not care that he’s got an audience. It’s been too long for him to not try his chances with her. “We’ll catch up later.” He nods at her as she gets up and he mourns the loss of her heat against his legs.
She recovers quicker than he would like to his flirting and smiles softly before sauntering over to her friends, who cheer when she arrives. Mateo groans underneath his breath at the sight of her hips moving back and forth.
Donnie full on cackles at Mateo when she’s out of earshot.
“Shut up man,” Mateo grumbles, his cheeks turning pink. “I’m leaving now.” They jeer and catcall him as he walks away.
Mateo looks back at Victoria before he shoves the door to leave and he knows he’ll remember the image of her smiling and chatting with her friends, looking carefree as ever, for a long time.
He pushes out into the night air, a small smile playing on his face.