Chapter Text
It really had been stupid of them to think they could hide their relationship at work. The ER had eyes and ears everywhere and seemed to run on a steady stream of gossip and drama. Everyone knew the instant Mateo started seeing a nurse from ortho. When Perlah's mom had a stroke, she had been receiving condolences and best wishes before she had even told her kids. Langdon's pill issue had only stayed under wraps for so long because Dr. Robby would snap at anyone even mentioning Langdon and then be in a pissy mood for the rest of the day, taking it out on whoever was closest. And Collin's miscarriage was quickly told to anyone that needed to know, or knew her well enough, though people seemed to be respectful enough to keep that to a small group.
So when Robby and Dennis had decided they would somehow beat the hospital gossip game and keep their fragile new relationship status a secret, it was truly either an act of naivety or stupidity. Maybe a mix of both.
Dana had been the second person to catch on. And honestly, the idea that they could ever hide it from her had been idiotic in the first place.
Two days after Robby and Dennis had started actually seeing each other, and living together, Dana pulled Robby aside with the excuse of delivering some sensitive message from the night shift that Jack had failed to mention. Which should have been Robby's first clue that the whole thing was a trap, Jack's handover was so well practiced at this point it was nearing perfection.
But Robby was drunk on the bliss of a new relationship, and Dana was just a bit too good at getting him to relax, so he followed her without question to the empty south 16 and didn't even question it when she closed the door and hit him with one of those looks.
"What has you all happy?" Her arms crossed and her head tilted at an angle, it was clear Dana wasn't going to let up on him until she got an answer.
"Oh, am I not allowed to be joyful from time to time?" Robby asked, mentally kicking himself for following her in the first place.
"Yes you are, but you've been acting like someone shoved a stick up your ass since Langdon, so I would love to know what magical cure you managed to come across."
Robby had long since given up on the idea of trying to lie to her. His job was to be the ER, to understand it on an instinctual level and react. Dana had taken it upon herself to understand it on a personal level, and if she had decided his mood was now of her concern, there was no way to shake her off.
"Look, do we have to do this?" Still, it wasn't like Robby had to make it easy for her.
Another glare was sent his way before Dana mockingly glanced at her watch. She could wait him out, she had before, and in all likelihood she would again.
"I'm seeing someone, okay?"
Robby went to walk out the door and get back to his real actual job of running an emergency department, but was stopped once again by Dana. All she had to do was put her arm out, not even touching him, but it was enough.
"Who?"
"No one you know."
Dana scoffed, throwing her head back in that way she knew always got under Robby's skin. It reminded him too much of his Bubba, and he really didn't need that right now.
"It's always someone I know with you." Janey, Heather, his few hook-ups, Dana had known them all and was the first to give him shit the second things started to get messy. She was a lifesaver, she really was, but Robby could already imagine her reaction to learning about Dennis; it wouldn't be good.
"I've got it handled." Robby insisted, once again going for the door.
This time Dana didn't stop him. She just gave him another eyebrow raise and watched as he scurried out of her sight as fast as possible. Though Robby could have sworn he heard a quiet 'you never do' following him as he ran.
Robby could feel Dana's stare following him around for the next few days, watching and carefully cataloging every interaction he had with all his coworkers. She never said anything, because she never did until she had something to say. But Robby could feel the stare, on him like a hot brand every time he asked Mohan for an update on a case he didn't really need, or thanked Kiara a little too much for her help on something.
He hated the constant watching, but on the bright side, it meant that she didn't know who was making Robby so happy yet. It lulled him into a false sense of security. So maybe that was why Robby failed to bring up the interrogation with Dennis.
And maybe that was also why Robby didn't see it coming when Dennis and him were eating takeout on what had quickly become their couch a few nights later, and Dennis mentioned that Dana had asked him about his love life.
"She what?" Robby asked with a look of disbelief after choking on his curry.
"Are you okay?" Dennis went to put his food down and took Robby's from him as well, afraid the man would spill it in his shock.
"Baby, please don't tell me Dana asked about your love life." Robby asked after another round of coughing.
Dennis hadn't seen him in such a state often and really wasn't sure what the right answer here was. Dana had just asked him an innocent question, stopping him after a particularly rough segmental fracture to check in on him and 'make sure he had someone to talk to outside of work'. It had seemed completely innocent at the time, so Dennis hadn't even thought twice when he happily told her he had started seeing someone recently and that things were going well.
"Why? She just wanted to know if I was seeing anyone." Dennis asked with a shrug.
Robby let out one of his moans that was usually associated with someone mentioning any Steelers game in which they lost. Which apparently was often. And Dennis could only sit back and wait until Robby decided to clue him in on whatever battle was playing out in his head.
"Fuck. She's onto us then." Robby admitted after staring at the ceiling for a bit too long.
"What? Robby, what does that mean?" Dennis exclaimed, trying not to get too worked up over it and failing horribly.
Dennis wracked his brain, trying to think of anything in his short interaction with Dana that would lead her to believe he was, in fact, sleeping with his senior attending. But try as he might he found nothing. It had been such a short interaction, and Robby had been nowhere in sight, so it wasn't like Dennis could have accidentally caught the man's eye and given her a clue.
"How did she figure it out so quickly?" Robby moaned.
"Robby, what do you mean she knows?" Dennis asked, not even trying too hard to keep the panic out of his voice.
The second adult conversation they had had in their relationship was centered around how important it was to keep it secret for the moment. With their first being how bad of an idea this was in the first place, and how neither of them cared. But Dennis was still a student; he was an adult, sure, but he was still a medical student. Once he graduated in the spring, they could be a bit looser with their relationship. As much as he would have liked to, the chances of Dennis doing all of his residences in the Pitt specifically were zero to none. And their relationship had a better chance of not causing an HR nightmare if they announced it when Dennis wasn't working under him. They at least had to wait until Dennis' current rotation in the ER was done.
"Ugh fuck, it's all my fault." Robby said, far too relaxed for Dennis' liking, "I should have warned you she was on the hunt."
"Robby." Dennis tried again, this time grabbing Robby's hands and locking him in with his eyes. "What does it mean that she knows?"
Dennis knew he couldn't give this up. They had only been together a few weeks, but Dennis couldn't stand the thought of losing Robby. He was the only person who really seemed to see Dennis, who saw him for all his flaws and issues, and wanted to stay anyway. But at the same time he couldn't fuck up this rotation, financially he needed to graduate in the spring. And he didn't even know what it could mean for Robby.
Apparently, whatever look was on Dennis' face was enough because Robby's whole demeanor changed in an instant. He quickly pulled his hands away from Dennis' and instead cupped his face, tracing circular patterns into his cheeks. Dennis didn't even realize there were tears in his eyes, he had kind of hoped the T would have taken care of that habit of his. But apparently, he had started tearing up at some point as Robby took the time to slowly kiss his tears away.
"Oh kid." Robby soothed, pulling Dennis into his chest until the man was basically sitting on his lap. "It's okay. It's just Dana."
They sat like that for a while, with Robby silently rubbing Dennis' back, well Dennis in turn took to tracing the collar of Robby's worn tee.
Dennis wasn't ready to admit out loud how much he had started to need Robby since they had started dating. He hadn't really needed anyone before, and he felt raw saying he needed the man to feel okay again. But he did. Being with Robby made him feel a kind of whole he had never felt before, and the flash of fear that he might lose that made him realize just how much their relationship mattered to him.
He didn't try to vocalize any of that, in all honesty Dennis didn't know how to yet. or if Robby was ready to hear it. But the older man seemed to understand enough to comfort Dennis. To hold him close and let Dennis feel the comfort and safety of the other man's embrace for a bit.
"It just means both of us are going to have to sit through one of her speeches." Robby said, running a hand through Dennis' hair, playing idly with the uncut length.
"Speeches?"
"Yeah, just don't expect to have a good day tomorrow." Robby said with a sigh, hiding his head in Dennis' neck as if that would stave off the passage of time for a bit.
And true to Robby's words they did in fact have speeches to sit through the next day.
Dennis was somehow caught off guard by Dana, even with Robby's warning the night before. Following her blindly into central 13 and only considering that it may have been a trap when she closed the door behind them.
"So, you and Dr. Robby?" Dana asked, cutting right to the point and annoyingly not giving Dennis any room to obfuscate.
For the briefest of moments Dennis had considered lying. Telling her that he had no idea what she was talking about and trying to get out of the room as fast as possible. If Robby hadn't warned him ahead of time that probably would have been his plan. But apparently Dana had a special knack for sniffing out a lie, and once she caught onto something, nothing would stop her. Robby had warned him at this point lying would only make both of them look worse in her eyes.
"Uh, yeah." Dennis said, eyes cast down and fiddling with the stethoscope around his neck. The stethoscope Robby had given him after he complained of his own rubbing uncomfortably against his neck.
"Oh honey," Dana said, blowing a puff of air through clenched teeth.
"When did it start?" She asked, gesturing for him to sit on the empty patient bed in the room.
Dennis didn't want to sit down, he was far too jittery for how this conversation could go now that he found himself in the middle of it. But Dana's crossed arms and her look between him and the bed made it clear he didn't have much of a choice, so Dennis acquiesced. He felt like a dog commanded to sit as he lowered himself down.
"Uh, a few weeks ago." Dennis started, trying to think of the best way to phrase their relationship to the outside world. "I uh, didn't have a place to stay and Robby offered me a room and things just kind of happened from there."
Somehow, that was clearly the wrong answer as Dana's expression shifted from somewhat exasperated nurse to health care professional in the blink of an eye. It was a bit of a scary shift to see when he was the focus of it. Gone was the relaxed mom of the emergency room who wanted to get the scoop on anything that may affect her ER, and in its place was a highly skilled professional clearly looking beyond Dennis' words and not liking what she was seeing.
"Dennis, are you happy? Do you feel any sort of pressure to-" Dana drilled him, stalking into his personal space and giving him nowhere to hide
"What? No Dana, of course not!" Dennis exclaimed, putting his hands up to get even just a bit of distance between the two. "It's Robby we're talking about!"
"It's your boss." Dana said, her tone sharp and her words absolute. "Who you are living with."
Dennis had honestly never thought of it like that. For all intents and purposes Dennis felt like he was the one taking advantage of the situation. Clearly, Robby had liked him before asking him to stay with him, Dennis had come to accept that despite how unreal it felt. But there was a huge difference between finding someone cute and being willing to open your home up to them for an undisclosed amount of time and let them invade your space 24/7. Sure, Robby was his boss and that probably didn't look great, but at the same time he was just Robby. There was just something about him that never made Dennis feel like there was an expectation for him. Like he had to do anything.
"It's not like that." Dennis tried to protest. It was important to him that Dana saw Robby the way Dennis saw him and he didn't know how to vocalize why. "He just- he's really sweet and I've had a crush on him since I started, but I never thought he would ever have feelings for me. So we just, uh- jumped into it when we realized we were on the same page."
It already weighed on him that their relationship may end up having a negative impact on Robby. He was the one with the most to lose here. He had already put everything on the line for Dennis, and Dennis desperately wanted Dana to understand that, to see how much Robby genuinely cared.
"Dennis." Dana tried after he had finished giving his little speech. He could see the care in her eyes, it was plain as day and Dennis had no idea what he had done to deserve that. It was as sweet as it was mildly infuriating.
"Really! I just really like him."
Dana eyed him up and down a few times before letting out a long sigh. It was clear to Dennis that she was trying to size him up and pick apart his words like a surgeon. It really was kind of infuriating how she just felt the right to come in and judge their relationship. But at the same time, it was maybe the sweetest thing anyone had done for him outside of Robby.
He had never had to care about judgment in the past because he never had anyone care about his relationships before. No one would ever scold him for jumping in too fast, or for not considering all the red flags. Not one ever really cared if he made it back to his dorm that night, or how his partners were treating him. That was only ever his problem to deal with.
He wanted to reach out and hug Dana for caring. For taking the time of day to make sure he was okay. But also a part of him wanted to strangle her for even suggesting that his Robby would ever take advantage of anything. So instead he settled for giving her an open-ended shrug and the most sincere smile he could give.
"Okay kid. Okay." Dana said, shaking her head but giving him her first smile of this whole conversation. "But I want you to let me know the second you need anything, okay? He may be the senior attending of this ER, but I'm union."
"Dana, really it's not like that-"
"And let me know when he annoys you too much. I have years of experience dealing with his moods."
Dana finally gave him a genuine look of fondness and lovingly hit him with her clipboard. Dennis couldn't even pretend to be annoyed at it, though. The shared potential camaraderie of dealing with Robby at his worst made Dennis feel warm and fuzzy in a way he never expected from this whole thing.
"I- thank you." Was all Dennis could manage before, to his surprise, Dana wrapped him up in a quick hug.
She held onto him for just a second, long enough for the shock to wear off and for Dennis to really start to appreciate it. And then, as quickly as it had come on it was over. Dana was ushering him off the bed and out the door.
"Of course. now get out there." She laughed, hitting him jokingly in the ass with her clipboard in a way that was also definitely an HR violation if they were keeping track here.
The yelp Dennis let out as she hit him was apparently worth it all to her, as Dana went from lightly chuckling to full on laughing at Dennis' misery. He shot her a mock glare as he rubbed his but, which only seemed to set her off even more.
Dana ushered him out the door and back into the normal chaos of the emergency department. The only sign that anything had happened between them was the slight sting on Dennis' ass and the warmth in his heart. Dennis didn't really have any friends, and he still wasn't sure if he could really call Dana a friend. But there was a nice, fuzzy warmth there Dennis had never had before, and he would be sure to savor it.
As they walked back out into the ER together, Dana leaned in a whisper in his ear: "Oh, and tell your boyfriend I'm looking for him."
And Whitaker did in fact follow her directions and tell his "boyfriend", not that they had talked about that, that Dana was looking for him. Dennis didn't know much about their relationship except for the fact that they had worked together for years and were very close. But if the look Robby gave at the news that Dana needed to talk to him alone after talking to Dennis was any indication, Dennis was sure Dana scared Robby like no one else.
With a solemn nod Robby walked away from Whitaker back to the nurses' station where Dana was waiting expectantly for him. No words were exchanged between them as Robby obediently followed her into the same room Dennis had just come out of.
Dennis didn't see much of Robby for the rest of the day. The man wasn't avoiding him or anything, but he seemed to move around the ER like a ghost, and Whitaker had only managed to catch his hauntings a few times. When they met up at Robby's truck at the end of their shift Robby was uncharacteristically quiet, only offering a nod or a grunt when Dennis tried to make conversation.
It was only after dinner had been finished and Robby was nursing a beer on their couch while Dennis worked on studying did he offer up any commentary on the day.
"You had your talk with Dana?" Robby said slowly, like he wasn't quite ready to bring up the topic himself.
"Uh?" Dennis looked up from his computer to Robby seated next to him. "Oh yeah."
"Good. Good." Robby said slowly. To the outside observer, it would look like the older man was carefully considering his words, but Dennis knew him well enough to bet that he just didn't want to keep talking but knew he had to. "So, uh, how was it?"
"Good, I guess?" Dennis closed his laptop and set it aside. "She seemed a bit pissed, but nothing too bad."
"That's good."
They sat in silence for a bit. Dennis waited for Robby to say anything else, but the man went back to slowly sipping his beer and staring into the distance. Dennis gave him exactly three sips before he decided Robby clearly wasn't going to be the guide for this conversation he had started.
"How was your talk? Any different?" Dennis offered, closing the space between them and giving Robby a quick kiss before climbing on top of him and using Robby's chest as a pillow.
Dennis had been nervous about such casual intimacy when they had first started their relationship. But it was easy to see how much Robby valued the quiet touch so Dennis had been trying to practice it more.
And like every time Dennis offered up a casual cuddle Robby took to it like a starving man to food. He quickly wrapped his arms around the younger man and brought his legs up a bit as well to truly frame Dennis within his own body. The touch was simple but carried a desperation to it Dennis had come to expect from Robby, as much as it broke his heart. Robby held him like he was afraid Dennis would disappear at any moment and the only thing Dennis could ever do to prove him wrong was to stay.
"Uh yeah, I uh." Robby said after he had gotten enough of his Dennis fill to find the strength to keep the conversation going. "I forgot Dana could yell like that."
"She yelled at you?"
"Oh yeah, in that scary quiet way. I haven't seen her do that in years."
Clearly their conversation had gone a bit differently if Robby’s half answers were anything to go by. Dennis had expected her to be a bit harsher on Robby given their conversation. But he had expected it to be more like a stern lecture, full of HR threats and the promise of favors for making Dana cover for him, not whatever lashing Robby clearly received.
He should probably be upset that she had yelled at Robby like that. As far as Dennis knew that was supposed to be the typical reaction when someone yelled at your partner. But he just couldn’t find it in himself to be upset. It was sweet, almost. In a mama grizzly bear type of way.
"Are-are you okay?" Dennis asked, playing with the Star of David necklace that was peaking out from Robby’s shirt.
"Well I have a hot young man on my couch, so I would say I'm doing pretty good." Robby ruffled his hair and planted a kiss on the crown of his head.
"Robby." Dennis groaned, trying not to laugh as the kisses picked up in frequency and force until Robby was basically just hitting him with kisses.
"I was also told that if I ever break your heart, Dana would show off everything she learned as an OR nurse.” Robby shrugged before continuing his lip based assault on every piece of Dennis he could reach. “So I guess you're stuck with me."
"Well good. You're stuck with me too then."
Dennis sat up, ending Robby’s assault with the most pationet kiss he could manage while still laughing at Robby’s antics. It was a lazy kiss, with them breaking apart almost constantly to share a laugh or for Robby to try to go after more of Dennis’ skin that he hadn't managed to assault with kisses yet. It was simple and relaxed and exactly the kind of thing Dennis never thought he would get.
"I wouldn't want it any other way." Robby whispered against his ear before, in a grand show of strength, flipped them over so Dennis was laying on his back with Robby on top. Leaving Dennis completely defenceless to the barrage of kisses that Robby was about to unleash.