Work Text:
1:30pm
“Almost done.”
Mel stitched the patients arm, her mind attempting to wander, she mentally snagged the thought before it could developed further. She lifted her head briefly to ask the patient a question, only to be met with bright ocean like blue eyes, his mouth agape as he watches her.
Mel swiftly shifted her gaze, her eyes landing back on the stitches she was working on.
“You have nice hair.”
Her eyes snaps towards the patient, Chris, who’s watching her, a small smile grows on her face. His brown eyes boring into hers, she could feel the warmth blossoming on her cheeks.
“Oh thank—”
“Your chart says everything’s normal. You should be good to go soon.”
Chris looks over at Langdon and nods. Mel finishes the stitches on his arm, Langdon hovers closer, stepping away to head back towards the monitor.
“So, once I’m done with the stitches I can go?”
“Pretty much.” Langdon says, almost absentmindedly, Mel sneaks a glance at him, a small frown etches on the corner of his lip.
Mel furrows her brows before turning to the patient, a smiling “Yep,” escapes her lips.
Langdon lets out a pressed sigh, one Mel can’t seem to decipher. Before she can snap her head to look at him, Chris gently taps his fingers against her wrist.
“I just wanted to say, I think you’re really pretty.” Chris says, his eyes trained on Mel.
“Oh.” She can feel her cheeks burning bright. “Thank you.”
Langdon breaths heavily, his finger tapping roughly against the monitor.
“Can you get the release papers, Mel?”
“I thought—”
“Go.”
She takes pause, his voice taking an octave she isn’t used to. Maybe he’s… annoyed by her? Or the patient? But why would he be sending her away if he was annoyed with the patient. So is he annoyed with her then?
She purses her lips, now a bit peeved that he has the audacity to send her away, without letting her know what she did wrong. She smiles at Chris before walking away.
What the hell was that? He’d never spoken to her like that before. What was his deal? She shakes her head before walking towards Dana.
“Hi, I need to step out for a second. Is it possible to get someone else to send release papers to Dr. Langdon?”
“Uh sure kid, something happen?”
“Just need a minute.”
She steps out towards the ambulance bay, reaching behind her back, fondling before realizing she’s got the wrong pocket.
She yanks her phone out of the right pocket of her scrubs, opening her lava lamp app. She just needed some space, some time to understand what just happened. If she was just dramatizing it in her head.
Langdon brows furrowed, as Javadi comes over to hand him the release papers for Chris.
“Where’s Mel?”
“Uh stepped out for a minute. She said to hand these to you. I gotta get back to my own patient.”
He blinks in surprise, she needed a minute? He turns back to Chris, he shifts the paper towards him.
“You’re uh free to go. Just make sure to rest as much as you can. You don’t want the stitches to—”
“Yeah, yeah I got it. Uh where did uh Dr. King go?”
Langdon bites his lip hard, “She stepped out.”
“Oh.” The disappointment in Chris’s voice is evident. It makes Langdon want to crawl out of his damn skin. He wants to scream but he keeps biting his lip, preventing himself.
“Well, good luck.”
The bitterness in his voice is a surprise to even himself. But thankfully, with how fast the ER moves, he doesn’t have to think about it further. Perlah is already introducing him to another patient who’s in need.
He searches the room for Mel one last time. Before remembering she’d stepped out for a moment.
A moment? A moment for what?
2:30pm
It felt more than just a second. It felt like an eternity. Where the hell was Mel?
He walks over towards Dana, who stands by the desk with Perlah and Princess.
“Hi uh, Dana have you seen Mel?”
“I thought she was with you?” Dana says, adjusting her glasses, staring down at papers in her hand.
“No, she left me.. I mean she left for a while. I don’t—I just wanted to know if she was okay.”
“Tulad ng dati.” Perlah mumbles under her breath. Princess holds back a laugh, avoiding eye contact with Langdon.
“Oh! I know where she is. She’s in trauma 2.” Princess says, a smile still etched on her face.
Langdon looks between them two before nodding, heading towards trauma two.
“Hi, hi, I need your help with a patient.” A scrambling Oglivie interrupts, “I think I might have to intubate.”
“Oh uh yeah of course.”
4pm
“Mel says she’s busy.” Princess says for the fourth time in an hour.
“I just needed help with a case. Can she come and tell—”
“Princess! You’re needed in triage.” Santos says, not bothering to spare a glance in Langdon’s direction.
The anxiety of not seeing Mel was a wave, crashing over him, pulling him under, hindering him from thinking about anything else. What did he do?
Did he do something? Did this have to do with their patient Chris?
He catches a glimpse of Mel, and springs to his feet, practically intercepting Princess. He jogs over, a smile threatening to spread on his lips.
“Mel, h—”
Samira gets between them, unassumingly.
“Sorry, I have something I need to get.”
Before he can fully catch up to Mel, she’s already gone. He lets out a deep sigh, watching as she walks into a different room.
6pm
“Hi, Langdon says if you want that medicine for your patient. You’re going to have to ask him directly.” Princess says.
“Wh—”
“Sorry Mel. I can’t hold him off for you forever. Whatever happened between you two. You better just work it out. He’s in the ambulance bay if you need to talk to him.”
Princess shrugs and walks off, Mel sighs deeply, her eyes wide, she really was going to have to just face this. She was being immature and unprofessional enough for one day.
When she finally finds Langdon, right where Princess said he’d be, she hesitates. But it’s like he can sense her somehow. He turns around.
There’s a beat, the world seems to shrink around them, allowing them space to just be the two of them. Allowing them to just be here as one together. She can feel her cheeks heating up.
His face breaks into a smile.
“Hi. Haven’t really gotten to speak to you or see you all day.”
Yes, it was literal torture.
She tries to push the thought away as she thinks it.
“Yeah.”
“Is everything okay?”
Mel pauses again, staring at him, he’s so handsome, it hurts to even look at him. Her stomach churns.
“No, actually it’s not okay.”
“Whys that?”
“You were very rude to me earlier.”
Langdon only blinks.
“If I annoyed you—”
“You shouldn’t be flirting with our patients, it’s not professional Mel.”
Her brows furrow, “Flirting? Flirting, me— I wasn’t flirting. He just gave me a compliment. I was just being nice.”
“Nice, so you had to blush to be nice?”
Mel can feel her brows crinkle, the dent in the middle of her brows forming. What?
“I wasn’t blush—”
“Your face was red, Mel. I think I can gather when someone’s blushing. When you’re blushing.”
Now she was just perplexed. What? Why did he even care that she'd been blushing. It's not her fault she wasn't used to compliments, nor that she didn't know to contain the blush that sprouted on her cheeks.
“Why does it matter? I didn’t know what to say. It was rude to not respond.”
“How about changing the subject. Doing anything else expect—”
“Is this a real conversation we’re having? Because I can’t understand why that would bother you.”
Langdon lets out a frustrated puff of breath.
“I’m your friend. I’m just trying to protect you.”
“From what? A compliment?” She turns away from him, staring at one of the parked cars. “This is really ridiculous. I don’t understand, it was completely harmless, Dr. Langdon.”
His brows raises, a look flashes across his face. One she didn’t get to catch.
“I just, I want the best for you. That’s all. He wasn’t that.”
“How would you know?”
“Cause I just do. I know a sleaze bag when I see one.” Langdon says, “What if he broke your heart?”
“Langdon.” Mel shakes her head, closing her eyes, before opening them again. “I wasn’t interested in him.”
“Oh.”
“Yeah, oh. Look, I think it’s sweet that you’re trying to… whatever your version of protect me is. But I’m fine. I can handle things.”
“I didn’t mean—”
Mel moves away from him, heading towards the doors to get back inside.
“This is also unprofessional. By the way.”
“Mel—”
Mel enters back into the ED, now visibly annoyed, she spots Dana, who sports a weird look on her face. Mel doesn’t bother trying to get it, she heads back towards her patient. She’ll just deal with her own patient.
Hand off time
“Jesus, that’s a very deep cut.” Santos comments on one of the patients.
“Another one?” Mel voice raises an octave. “I mean, we can work on that.”
“Nope. I’m going home.” Santos says, eyeing the cut on the patient one last time before working away.
“You should go home too.” Langdon says, Mel jumps.
She practically trips on her own foot to turn to look at him.
“Can you not do that?”
“Sorry, I just don’t think you should prolong your shift. You look tired.”
“Oh so you can comment on my looks. But no one else can?”
She doesn’t even know where this is all coming from. She was already over their conversation at the ambulance bay.
“About that, can we please talk?”
“Is that why you want me to not prolong my shift?”
“Please?”
The desperation in his tone, stops her from speaking. She nods, he guides her towards one of the empty viewing rooms. He closes the door slowly before turning to her.
“I was very out of line today with you. I’m sorry. I just— I don’t want you to end up with some asshole.”
Mel nods, processing what he’s saying.
“Oh. You don’t have to be so concerned. I wasn’t interested in him. It was just a compliment. I’m already seeing someone.”
Langdon bites his lips, nodding. He looks around the room, at the gray couches and the oceanic painting on the wall. But it gives him no comfort.
“Oh, that’s great. That’s great. You deserve to be happy. You deserve to have someone.”
“Okay, not really seeing them like that. We’re getting to know each other. But we like the renaissance faire. We met cause of that. I went alone, he saw me. We just hit it off.”
“Right.”
As Mel looks away, a pained expression seeps into Langdon’s face. It fades quickly when Mel looks up at him.
“I’m sorry for assuming. Again, I was out of line. I was just worried… for a friend.”
Mel smiles, “It’s okay. I’m sorry for being so snippy with you today.”
“You had every right to be snippy with me.” Langdon smiles, “I promise, I’ll be less of a prick.”
“Good.”
Mel phone rings.
“Oh, I almost forgot. You don’t have to drive me home today. Ryland is going to pick me up. So no need but thank you.”
“Ryland.”
“The guy I’m seeing.”
“Yes, Ryland. Wow, that’s nice of him. Right, you don’t want to keep him waiting.”
“Bye Langdon.”
“Bye Mel.”
As the door shuts, Langdon watches Mel go. His heart sinking in his chest.
“Fuck.” He mumbles under his breath.