Chapter Text
Victoria wakes up with nine missed calls from Trinity and double-digit unread messages in the day-shift group text. The trash talk had heated up significantly since the last time she’d checked the thread. Most of the messages were from Garcia, reminding everyone what field and the time for today's game. Then defending herself when Trinity heckled her. Victoria’s morning scroll is interrupted when Trinity’s face flashes over her screen. She must’ve started talking before Victoria even answered, because she only catches half of what she’s saying.
“-doesn’t mean you can blow me off and keep us waiting! we’re literally two minutes from your house.” Trinity doesn’t even sound tired. “Garcia said everyone needs to be on time this week!”
“What?” She taps her phone screen to to check the time. “Oh! Okay okay, I’m ready! I’m coming out now! Don’t park in the driveway!” Trinity grumbles and hangs up halfway through.
—
Victoria is crammed in the middle seat of Trinity’s sedan between Mateo and Donnie. They’re talking across her about how Garcia really needs to switch up the batting lineup. Dennis and Trinity are bickering in the front seat. Victoria’s thumb hovers over the text thread she’s been avoiding all morning.
thank u for the shot! I hope u had a good time tonight!!
11:48 PM
how is chad’s leg doing?? looked strong haha
12:13 AM
I think it’s really cool that u guys are so close!
12:18 AM
not that it’s any of my business! haha!
12:18 AM
A burning feeling pools in her gut and creeps up the back of her neck. What had she been thinking last night? Directly questioning Dr. McKay’s relationship with her ex-husband? She probably thought her student was insane. Still, the lack of a response stung. McKay could’ve at least told her off. Snapped at Victoria to mind her own business.
Her spiral is interrupted by Mateo nudging her shoulder and nodding toward the front seat.
“Earth to Javadi? Hello?” Trinity is glancing up at her through the rearview mirror.
“Sorry. What?” Victoria crams her phone into her jacket pocket.
“I asked what you and Dr. McKay were yapping about at the bar last night.” Suddenly, there’s four sets of eyes staring at her, eager for answers.
“I thought Dr. McKay was sober?” Dennis chimes in.
“Sober. Not dead, Huckleberry.” Santos reaches across the console to flick Dennis between the eyebrows. “And that was definitely her so, what gives? Crash?” Victoria catches Trinity in the mirror wiggling her eye-brows suggestively. “Getting some pre-game pointers from Coach?”
“Oh my god, whatever. She was just saying hey.” Victoria lies.
—
Victoria eyed McKay as she strolled into the bar. She didn’t question why her attention flashed to the door so quickly when she saw red out of the corner of her eye, especially with the conversation roaring around her. Dr. McKay was walking intently, muscling through the crowd with a focused scowl. She was wearing a dark green crew neck, the sleeves pushed up against her forearms. Victoria hadn’t even noticed the man trailing behind her until he’d stepped on the back of McKay’s shoe. She reared around to glare at him and caught Victoria staring. Victoria swears the corner of her mouth ticked up before the guy, Chad, started talking again and diverted McKay’s attention away from Victoria.
Victoria continued to ignore the urge to barge over to the table Cassie and Chad occupied in the corner of the small bar. She tried her best to laugh at the right times and follow the spirited debate Mohan and Santos were having. She actually did peel her gaze away long enough to hear about Dennis' weird, complicated, one-sided beef with one of the EMTs they were playing tomorrow. Still, her eyes kept getting pulled to that corner where Cassie and Chad sat on the same side of their booth. Gross. What was she doing with him, anyways? On a Saturday night, of all times?
He must’ve said something hilarious, because Dr. McKay had her head tilted back in a cackle and was smacking the table in response. Victoria caught her eyes mid-roll.
Later, Trinity’s voice jolts Victoria out of her thoughts. “Crash! You’re on the last round. Since you’re clearly not even listening anyway.” Victoria hops down from her stool as Santos calls out again. “If you come back with lemon drops, I’m committing an HR violation against you I swear to god.”
“Got it, six lemon drops.”
This is probably her least favorite part of going out with the team, or going out to bars in general. Of course she understands taking turns buying rounds. But nobody gets that Victoria is like the perfect height to be ignored by bartenders. She spends a few minutes trying to catch the eye of the blonde behind the bar. With no luck, she looks over her shoulder to see if Santos will pop up to help and finds herself chest-to-chest with Dr. McKay. The squeak she lets out is undignified to say the least.
“Dr. McKay! Hi! Sorry” Victoria tries to take a step back, but bumps into the bar behind her.
“Outside of the hospital, it’s just Cassie. You know that.” McKay leans in closer, eyes focused on something behind her. Victoria turns and sees the bartender has materialized out of thin air. “Closing out, thanks. And how about a tequila shot for my friend here.”
Victoria tries not to feel let down at how easily the word 'friend' rolls off of McKay's tongue. That's what she is, of course. And it's better than student, for sure.
“Oh, you don’t—“ Victoria says, shocked at how thin her voice is. She glances down quickly and notices how close Cassie is standing to her right now.
Cassie reaches over Javadi’s shoulder to grab and sign the receipt the bartender placed on the counter. She’s thinking about how the service here is suddenly like, five-star. Victoria feels the sleeve of Cassie’s jacket brush against her ear. She lets her eyes close and the scent of McKay’s detergent and cologne wash over her.
When she opens her eyes, McKay’s staring right at her. Victoria’s eyes linger on the wrinkle between Cassie's eyebrows. The slight darkness under her eyes. McKay’s undivided attention beaming at her like a spotlight.
“You alright, Victoria?”
“Fine! Thank you, by the way. I like—didn’t even know you were here!” Victoria rushes the words out. Cassie’s head tilts slightly.
“Yeah? You saw me when I came in, though.” The corner of Cassie’s mouth ticks up, always grinning with some inside joke that Victoria is the butt of. Victoria wants to kiss it off.
“Well, yeah. I mean—you just don’t usually come out…with us—I mean!” Victoria forces out a laugh. “I’m sure you go out like, all the time.”
“Uh-huh” Cassie grins again. “You ready for tomorrow? I’m getting a little worried with our first four batters falling out of their stools over there.”
The bartender returns with Cassie’s card, and Victoria’s shot. Cassie plucks the lime off of the rim and holds the glass up to Victoria.
“Alright. Go on.”
“What? Oh! Right now?” Victoria can feel her face heating up.
She doesn’t drink often, obviously. She’d only gone out with the gang a handful of times since her birthday. The drunkest she’d ever gotten was at a wine-night at Dennis and Trinity’s apartment. Deep down, she felt the entire thing was overhyped. The taste was one thing, but honestly it was the idea of drinking poison purposefully that was most offensive to her.
“I don’t have all night, sweetheart.” Cassie grabs Victoria’s hand gently and wraps her fingers around the glass.
Victoria’s mind is mush right now. She glances down at where Cassie’s fingertips are brushing against hers. McKay’s voice cuts through again.
“Drink, Victoria.” Cassie’s fully grinning at her again, dimple on full display. Her eyes slightly narrowed, watching Victoria closely.
Victoria lifts the shot glass to her lips and tilts her head back. It burns all the way down, there’s no hope of concealing the disgust on her face. She lets out a stinging breath. Before she knows it, she’s leaning forward and plucking the lime wedge still perched between Cassie’s long fingers. Her bottom lip bumps gently against the pad of Cassie's thumb. She bites down on the fruit and groans, relieved by the sour taste.
There’s a floaty buzz behind her eyes when Victoria looks back at Cassie, depositing the rind in the shot glass and placing it back on the bar top. Are her eyes blue-er than usual tonight?
“What?” Cassie is the one blushing for once. She scoffs and takes a half-step back from Victoria, breaking eye contact to clear her throat. “Same as always, I’d guess.”
“Did I say that? Not like that! They’re normal of course! You just look—um nice, is all. You look nice tonight.” Victoria wishes someone would take her out back and put her out of her misery. With McKay looking like that, there's no hope for her. “It’s always nice to see you out of scrubs.” She thinks that explains everything until the sentence is fully out of her mouth.
Cassie is eyeing her like she’s not quite sure what to say. Victoria doesn’t miss how they drag over her outfit. A black, scoop neck tank top and one of her more modest miniskirts. McKay’s eyes definitely hovered over the little bow at the lowest point of her neckline.
“Thanks, doll.” McKay’s voice sounds tighter now, or maybe Victoria is imagining it. Cassie reaches and brushes her fingers against the bow holding her top together. “I like this on you. It’s nice.” Cassie’s voice flicks up in an imitation of Victoria’s at the end and of her sentence.
It makes Victoria laugh. “I do not sound like that.” But she preens at the attention, leaning in and letting McKay’s fingertips brush against her chest.
if she likes it, she should have more, Victoria thinks to herself.
Cassies hand lingers for just long enough to blur the lines of respectability. Victoria's breath picks up at the feeling of Cassie tugging the bow slightly, dragging her fingertips over Victoria's cleavage, feather-light.
“Well, I better get out of here. We’ve got an early morning tomorrow, yeah?.” Cassie glances around, making she she’s got everything. Victoria shrinks a bit at a voice in the back of her head telling her that she’s definitely checking to see if anyone saw them.
“No—I mean, yeah of course. I’ll um, see you tomorrow.” Sadness sweeps over Victoria, realizing the moment is broken and coming to a close.
McKay smiles at her. “Chin up, you’re gonna do great.” She brings her hand up to Victoria’s chin, tilting it up. “Don’t stay out too late. And behave, yes? Can’t have half of you knuckleheads passing out on the field tomorrow.” Cassie turns to leave. “Text me when you make it home! Goodnight, Dr. Javadi.”
Victoria notices she takes the patio door out, avoiding walking by the rest of their colleagues. She brings her fingers to the corner of her mouth, where Cassie had touched her lip. She tries to remember why she was waiting at the bar and comes up empty.
Trinity greets her loudly when she returns to the table.
“Javadi you’ve been gone for like 20 minutes, where are the shots?”
—
Thankfully, she didn’t have to convince the peanut gallery that her brief…encounter with Dr. McKay was just that. Santos missed the turn into the park and Mateo groaned loudly, diverting everyones attention from Victoria’s very very general description of last night’s events.
They pile out of Trinity’s car in a heap, only fifteen minutes late for warm-ups somehow. Victoria can spot Garcia from the parking lot, arms folded tightly and glaring at them from a hundred yards away. Victoria trails behind the group with Dennis.
“How do you always end up carrying everyone’s bags?” She asks him, hand outstretched to help.
He passes her Mateo’s cleats. “Oh, you know. Just saving them the trip back to the car.”
They make it a few more paces without speaking. Victoria spots McKay’s car near the front of the lot, just the sight of it making her heart rate pick up a bit. Her mind drifts back to her unanswered text messages.
“My squad, let’s pick it up!” Garcia’s voice rings out across the otherwise quiet park. They all groan, but pickup the pace nonetheless.
When they finally make it to the dugout, Garcia zeros in on Trinity to express her disappointment with their punctuality. The boys, and Dennis, unpack their gear and join the rest of the team in left-field. Victoria scans the bench for McKay and comes up empty. She feels equal parts relief and disappointment.
She spots her on the field a moment later, helping Mel warm up her arm. Her back is to Victoria, so she takes a minute to watch. Who knows, maybe she’ll have to play catcher someday, it’s good observational research. She really did want to get better, or at least not be the worst on the team. Although, there’s an argument to be made for the latter title between her and Dennis.
Mel releases her next pitch, and the ball makes a satisfying 'pop' as it disappears into Cassie’s mitt. Victoria sighs and rests her weight on the chain link fence as Cassie stands up quickly and returns the ball to Mel. She watches her calves and thighs flex, propelling her upwards. Deftly, her feet pivot and McKay twists her body in time with her arm. Her arm follows through to get a good stretch in, she finishes slightly hunched over before straightening fluidly and settling back on her haunches to anticipate the next pitch. Victoria doesn’t understand how she makes it look so easy. It went unsaid that putting Victoria on defense was a safety hazard after she took a pop-fly to the cheek during their first practice. Cassie is annoyingly good at baseball, like good in ways that don’t even really make sense to Victoria. Her grasp on the rules of this game are loose, to say the least, but she knows the other team always backs up when it’s McKay’s turn to hit. And nobody, with the exception of Ellis, dares take an extra base if the ball is in Cassie’s hand.
She spots Cassie’s blue and black duffle bag tossed in a heap in the corner, McKay’s catcher’s helmet and batting gloves spilling out. Victoria busies herself with organizing the gear, the motion of it settles her nerves. Happy to be useful.
She always offered to help Cassie prep for procedures if someone else didn’t get to it first. It made her happy to lay the instruments out just how Cassie liked—well how the guidelines instructed, but that just happened to also be how she liked it. Whatever, It was an easy predecessor to a hushed, focused ‘thank you, Javadi’, and those powered her shifts more than Celsius these days.
“Javadi, why are you still in the dugout?” Garcia’s voice rings out again. “Go hit a couple off the tee, you’re batting today.”
Victoria whips her head around, that couldn’t be right. “What? You said I could be a pinched runner.”
“Pinch. Runner.” Garcia shakes her head in exasperation, then continues. “Someone brought it to my attention that not giving every player at-least one at-bat isn’t fair.” Garcia says regretfully, not even attempting to hide her lack of confidence.
McKay jogs over to meet Garcia at the door of the dugout. She claps her hands on Garcia’s shoulders excitedly. Victoria covers her mouth to stifle the giggle at Garcia’s shoulders shooting up over her ears.
“And I agree!” Cassie chimes in and winks at Victoria.
There’s no sarcasm in her voice, Victoria notes. She smiles at her with the same openness as always. Maybe its cooler to like, not respond to someones embarrassing text instead of bringing up. Victoria decides to continue to do her best to forget the whole thing.
She takes moment to drink in the sight of Cassie in her ‘uniform’, if you could even call it that. Garcia shelled out god-knows how much to get the team screen-printed jerseys. The hospital’s logo proudly embellished into the navy blue mesh top. McKay left the top two buttons undone, chain and tank top peaking out underneath. Her collarbones were already glistening lightly with sweat. Victoria’s mouth watered. Bottoms were up to personal preference, and Cassie always opted for a light grey baseball pants. Garcia had also hand-embroidered long navy blue socks for everyone. Their last names were stitched into the white band at the top, near the calf. The pants might’ve been half of the reason Victoria hung around after the first disastrous practice and subsequent blowout.
Her observation is interrupted by McKay and Garcia peering at her curiously.
“Javadi. Warm-ups. Are you hearing us? This is like a nightmare I have where I’m speaking English but everyone hears it as Spanish.” Garcia spoke and glanced at McKay to make sure her words were, in fact, coming out in English.
“Do you often dream of med-students? Or, should I say interns?” McKay sneers, laughing harder when Garcia socks her in the arm and storms out of the dugout. Victoria can hear frustrated muttering as she strides away. “C’mon, doll. You’re lagging this morning.” Cassie waves two fingers in the air, beckoning Victoria forward.
Victoria hops up, quickly shuffling over to where Cassie waits for her at the opening of the fence. Close-up, Victoria has a much better look at the way McKay’s bangs are starting to stick to her forehead a bit. She moves to follow her out, but Cassie doesn’t budge from the doorway.
Victoria bumps right into her. She places the pads of her fingers on Victoria’s chest to steady her.
“Your bat, Javadi.” Cassie stares at her expectantly.
“Oh! Right.” Victoria’s cheeks burn, glancing quickly at where Cassie’s fingers are pressed into her sternum. She grabs it from where it leans on the fence, next to McKay’s.
—
“We’ve got time for a bucket. C’mon Victoria put some pep in your step.” Cassie was perched on an overturned bucket staring at her with that expectant look on her face.
She set a ball on the tee in front of her. Victoria stepped up with the bat resting on her shoulder.
“Remember, line your knuckles up how I showed you.” Cassie spoke gently, nodding as Victoria made the correction. “Good. Loosen up a bit, doll.” Cassie wiggled her shoulders as she spoke and Victoria copied her, eyes watching the way her chain tumbled against her chest and collar. “Deep breath, bend your knees.” She coached. “There you, go.”
A flush was creeping over Victoria’s cheeks now. Cassie’s instructions were easy enough to follow, and she remembered a bit from the last practice. She bounced on her heels a bit, settling into position and looking back up to McKay.
“You got it, kid. What’s next?” Cassie says, sitting up and rolling an extra ball around her palm.
Victoria’s mind went blank for a moment, but then she remembered. “Eyes. Hands. Hips. Follow-through.” She spoke it confidently and Cassie’s face lit up.
“Perfect, Javadi.” She grinned. “Alright, let’s see it.”
The hard part. Victoria took a deep breath. She settled back her weight evenly before repeating the mantra in her head and letting her body do the rest.
Eyes, hands, hips, follow-through.
When Javadi exhaled again, the ball was swishing into the back of the net and her bat was resting solidly against her back. It gave her a sated sense of accomplishment, to look back at Cassie and see her nod and place the next ball on the tee. Like, yeah of course she could do it and why did she ever think she couldn’t?
Javadi hit about a quarter of a bucket while the rest of the team packed up and headed toward the dugout. Garcia walked toward home plate, eyeing the pair suspiciously as she passed by.
“10 minutes.” Garcia spoke tersely.
Cassie rolled her eyes. “Don’t mind her. She could do a thoracotomy with her eyes closed, but the idea of losing to Ellis and Abbot again sets her nerves over the edge.” She jokes. “Swap with me, I’m gonna take a couple.”
Cassie’s fingers brush her own as Victoria hands over the bat. Victoria takes a seat on the bucket and wiggles her wrists, shaking out the tingly feeling in her fingertips.
“Does it always sting a little bit? Like, do your fingers tingle when you hit it too?” Victoria asks as she props the first ball on the tee.
McKay tilts her head considering, then shrugs. “You gotta find the sweet spot, y’know?”
Victoria nods. “Ah, the like the center of the ball.”
McKay takes her first swing, leaning on her back foot before driving forward. Her hips and hands move through the ball in tandem, sending it torpedoing into the back of the net and popping back out.
“Well, not exactly.” Cassie tilts the bat out toward Javadi, then angles it so she can see the barrel. She knocks her knuckle against the thickest part. “Right there.”
Victoria nods and places another ball on the tee.
“I’m sure you’ve taken a physics class or two.” Cassie quirks an eyebrow.
“Or two.” Victoria mumbles. She doesn’t want Cassie to think of her as a student, even though Victoria is literally a med-student and Cassie is teaching her baseball right now. Whatever, she wasn’t just a student. There were plenty of things that she wanted to teach Cassie, actually. How to get her off, for one. Victoria concealed the mischievous joy it brought her to think about it. McKay wasn’t the only one with knowledge to share, that’s all.
“Well, that spot,—“ Cassie takes a deep breath and takes another swing. Her jersey rides up a bit this time. And Victoria gets a peak of the soft, toned skin underneath. Cassie continues her explanation, but all Victoria can hear is blood whooshing and rushing through her ears. She mindlessly sets another ball up on the tee, hoping to see it again. “…its called the trampoline effect. Maximum energy transfer,” Cassie takes another swing and her shirt rides up again. Victoria swears she spots a curve of black ink swirling up her right hip. On the follow-through, McKay releases a muffled grunt a beat after the sharp 'ting' of the ball hitting the bat. She squints, placing another ball on the tee. “…minimal vibration.”
This whole exercise reminds her a bit of the gum ball machine in her grandfather’s old primary care office. Afternoons spent digging in couch cushions and checking empty exam rooms for forgotten quarters. Sometimes bribing a sympathetic assistant with a drawing or fun fact. Anything to buy a ticket to the best show in the house. The machine was mysteriously always filled to the brim. She’d put her quarter in and watch the machine drop a single gum ball onto a ramp. Little iridescent lights lit up the inside in an array of colors. It traveled down in a spiral, rotating faster and faster until it dropped into the small basket and gate at the bottom of the machine. One time her mother had dropped her off unexpectedly and in a hurry. Victoria remembers sniffling in the waiting room until her grandfather placed a single roll of quarters in her lap. He stood behind her beaming as she loaded the quarters in as fast as possible, enamored by the colors as they whirled down the spiral.
So, she’s happy to nod along as Cassie explains sweet spots to her. As long as she continues setting the balls on the tee, she’ll get peaks of skin and McKay’s measured grunts as a treat. A couple of minutes pass like this, not nearly long enough in Victoria’s opinion. When the bucket is empty McKay untucks her jersey to wretch it up a bit. She gathers the fabric of her undershirt in her hand and dabs at the sweat on her neck. Javadi worries her bottom lip, thinking about splaying her palms over McKay’s soft belly, pressing her face into the skin there, digging her fingernails into her hips.
Victoria is flushed and slightly panting despite doing the least amount of exercise possible. She startles when McKay claps her hand in front of her face, a little poof of orange dirt left in their wake. “Sorry to nerd out on you there, Vic.” She squats to Victoria’s eye-level and starts to collect the balls in and around the net.
“Oh, no! I don’t mind at all. Thanks for uh, teaching me.” Victoria finishes slowly.
“I guess you are a good listener, huh?” Cassie says absentmindedly.
“You guess?” Victoria questions.
McKay has finished loading up the bucket. She turns smoothly to break the small net down and start folding it into it’s case. “Huh?”
At home plate, Garcia claps her hands loudly, then cups them around her mouth. “We’re hitting first! Let’s go, Javadi you’re up!”
“Better go ahead, kid.” She taps the bottom of the bucket Victoria is sitting on with her foot “You got this. Good thing I warmed you up, huh?” Cassie smirks, zipping the case and slinging it over her shoulder.