Archive of Our Own

Chapter Text

"Running late?" Trinity smirked as she leaned next to Mel's locker. "I saw Ken hurry inside too. Is there a reason you're both exactly fifteen minutes late?"

Mel blinked at her, startled at her sudden appearance. "We carpooled." She said.

"Right, carpooled." Trinity wiggled her eyebrows. "Is that a euphemism?"

Mel just closed her locker and pulled on her zip-up, not deigning Trinity with an answer. It had been two weeks of text messages asking if they'd gotten married yet, if she was sure he wasn't keeping her locked in the basement, and Mel was not in the mood to get those comments in person now.

"I mean, you could do a lot in fifteen minutes, I bet Ken doesn't even need that long to-."

"Oh my god!" Mel interrupted her, eyes wide, looking around to check if someone had heard. "We had to drop off his kids at school and were running behind. You try being on time with kids, it's nearly impossible."

There, a perfectly reasonable explanation for being late, and she wasn't even lying. Tanner had kept wanting to leave without pants, and stubborn as he was, it had been a fight to get him in a pair. She smiled as she remembered the lovable chaos of that morning, looking over at Trinity to find her slack-jawed. 

"What?" Mel asked, confused.

"Mel, you're killing me here." The girl deadpanned. "You're stepmothering his offspring and you're still maintaining the best buddies routine?"

"What- I'm not their stepmother," She spluttered. "I just help out."

"Sure, Jan."

"Who's Jan?"

Trinity rolled her eyes. "You're Jan, cause you're full of shit."

"I'm not. Frank is my best friend, it's not a lie."

"False. I'm your best friend. Whatever you and Ken have going on, is the fartest thing from platonic I have ever seen."

Mel swallowed because Trinity had obviously picked up on Mel's more-than-friendly feelings for Frank despite her never confirming them, and now she just assumed those feelings were returned. Mel knew she was in love with Frank, but that didn't take away from the fact that they really were just friends. He was Frank, and she was just Mel, and the idea that he might return her feelings was as exhilarating as it was somehow incomprehensible. And she did not want to spend today discussing all that with Trinity, especially not at 7 AM.

"Dear God, Mel, please just tell me I'm right."

"I'm gonna check the board." Mel said and quickly left the locker room. It was decidedly too early to get introspective on her friendship with Frank.

Dana was standing at the nurse's station and looked her over with a warm smile. 

"Good to have you back, hon. You feeling okay?"

"Hi Dana, I'm feeling great." Mel smiled at her. Now that was the greeting she'd hoped for after a two week absence, not the locker room ambush that reminded her of Becca's biweekly are you and Frank dating yet?

"I love to hear it. Mind if I give you a welcome back hug?" She always checked in first.

Mel nodded and squeezed her eyes closed as she was given a very gentle hug. Dana pulled back, holding onto her arms for a moment as she examined her face.

"Frank took care of you?"

Mel stared at her, dumbstruck, and just nodded. Because how was she supposed to respond to that?

"That's good." Dana smiled with a nod, patting her arm before releasing her and answering Earl's call for a sandwich. Mel stood there, frozen, until Samira bounded up to her.

"Mel, you're back!" She beamed.

"Yes, I am. Finally." She pushed aside Dana's question, shelving it for later, or preferably never.

"Everything back in working order?"

"Definitely, I was fine a week ago but Dr. Abbott made me take two weeks off."

"Oh, he's sweet like that." Samira said, her smile turning soft and affectionate. "Well, Frank must be glad you're back too, huh?"

"I think so, he was in a good mood." She remembered his overall contentment as he put on Mel's playlist in the car this morning.

"I bet he was." Samira said, a sly lilt to her voice. Mel frowned, confused.

"Hey Mel, good to see you." Dr. Collins nodded at her as she walked by. "Frank know you're back yet?"

"Hi, uh, we carpooled." She said, though she wasn't sure why it mattered. She chose to leave out the fact that she'd stayed at his house for the past two weeks because even she realized that might sound too friendly.

"Oh, good."

Mel was puzzled as she stared at Dr. Collins' retreating back.

"Mel!" Cassie smiled at her as she dropped by the nurse's station. "Frank told me you were back today. Honestly, I'm glad you are because he was getting on my nerves a little."

"Oh, that's, uh, I'm glad too?" Mel guessed, unsure how those two things were related.

Cassie smiled at her. "He was getting a little grumpy without you, that's all."

Mel fell silent. He was? He'd been fine at home, more smiles than anything, no grumpiness except maybe for the mornings when he had to leave and she could rot in bed for a few more hours, but she'd written that off as classic jealousy. 

Before she could break her brain further, Dr. Abbott walked over, backpack slung over his shoulder, ready to end his night shift. He hovered behind Samira, standing close in a way that would have had Mel ducking aside.

"Dr. King, back from the dead." He seemed genuinely pleased to see her. "Good to see your face intact, kid."  He gestured to her forehead. "Santos sewed you up nicely, it seems."

"Oh, yeah, she did a great job. Just a tiny scar." Mel squeezed her thumb and forefinger together to illustrate the tininess.

"I knew she was gonna take care of you. Frank know you're here?" Those words again.

"We carpooled." She repeated slowly.

"Good to hear," Dr. Abbott smirked, giving Samira a quick wink. "Have a good shift, ladies." He walked off towards the exit, turning back for a moment. "And Mel, remember, stay on your feet. We need you here. For morale."

"Thank you, I will." She chuckled, a little awkwardly because she had no clue what was going on.

"Mel!" She startled as Perlah shouted her name across the nurse's station. "It's so good to see you!" She then craned her head to shout something at Princess that Mel could swear included Frank's name.

She let her bewildered gaze fall to Samira. "I'm so confused."

Her friend just laughed in response. "Don't worry about it, Mel. We're all just happy you're back."

She was definitely going to worry about it because why was everyone, literally everyone, mentioning Frank to her? Was it because he'd picked her up, because he was her emergency contact? Everyone already knew they were close friends, that wasn't news.

"Dr. King, welcome back." Dr. Robby greeted her kindly. "You doing alright? Good to start today?"

"Yes, I'm excited to get back to it." She smiled, momentarily happy that Frank's name wasn't in there anywhere. 

"Good. I have something for you," Dr. Robby continued, the corner of his mouth twitching ominously. "If Frank hasn't pulled you onto a case yet." Oh well, it was nice while it lasted. 

"Still free." She said, voice tight.

"Great, follow me."

The case Dr. Robby had reserved for her was a two-month-old baby who she diagnosed with a normal amount of fussiness and overconcerned parents. Mel's love for babies was a well-known fact in the pitt, so she considered it a welcome back gift. By the time she was done, she was filled with joy from holding the tiny little baby and had mostly forgotten the weird morning greetings. She figured it had probably just been weird to have Frank working without her for two weeks, since they did come as a pair most shifts. And if he'd really been grumpy, like Cassie said, she could understand their relief at her presence. He could be a real grump at times.

She'd just handed Earl his second sandwich of the day and was looking up at the board for her next patient when said grump materialized beside her, very much not grumpy going by the happy smile on his face. 

"Hi." Frank leaned on the counter. 

Mel hated that he'd made her have a thing for leaning.

"Hey, how was it?"

"Good." He said, fidgeting where he stood, slightly out of breath as if he'd been hurrying.

"Good?" She beamed at him because good meant-

"Gloria said I'm officially in line for the attending position. I just have to finish my trial period and bam, I'm making the big bucks."

"That's amazing!" Mel exclaimed, reaching out to hug him tightly. He eagerly hugged her back, resting his chin on the top of her head. All those days and nights where he'd been worried sick that he'd thrown away his career as a doctor flashed behind her eyes, and she felt so utterly proud she could burst. 

"What are we celebrating?"

Mel pulled back only to be met with various stares coming from the nurse's station, with Perlah and Princess ferociously discussing something while glancing in their direction. The question came from Dana, who was looking at them with a knowing glint in her eyes. It reminded her so much of the way Frank's mom looked at her whenever she caught Mel staring at her son that it made her take a step back.

"Frank's soon-to-be promotion." Mel grinned, feeling proud enough to shake off the weirdness.

"Well, that was a given," Dana smiled. "We should crack open another bottle of that champagne we had a few months ago."

Frank chuckled. "If Gloria sees me with champagne, I'm getting fired instead of promoted."

"It's alcohol-free, hon." Dana winked at him. "But don't worry, you're a shoo-in, I'm sure of it."

"Thanks, Dana." He smiled bashfully. It was cute how Dana made him act like a kid sometimes, she truly was his work mom. Which reminded her-

"Did you text your mom yet?" She asked.

"No, I'll call her later." Ugh, men.

"Frank, she's been asking you for weeks about your promotion." She said, exasperated as she pulled her phone from her pocket. "I'll just put it in the girls' group chat."

"Is that a cow?" Frank asked, looking over her shoulder.

Mel smiled at the last picture posted in the chat. "Yes, it's from that trip Becca took with the center."

"You got a cow? I only got goat pictures."

"She knows you like goats." Mel said, typing out a quick message about Frank's promotion.

"I like goats?"

"Yeah, you have that goat picture in the bathroom."

"That-" Frank paused, huffing out a laugh. "I guess that makes sense."

The intercom warned of an incoming STEMI while she finished typing, and Frank jumped into action next to her.

"STEMI time, Mel!" He said, reaching for the gloves. "Time to beat our own record."

"Don't talk about beating your record in front of the patient, please." Dr. Robby said as he passed by, frowning at them over the rim of his glasses.

"We won't." Mel promised him, shoving her elbow into Frank's side. He barely flinched, only sent her an infuriating smirk.

"I don't know, it might make 'em feel good knowing we're doing our very best to-"

"Frank." Dr. Robby cut him off, eyebrow raised.

Mel loved that Frank felt comfortable enough to joke with his boss-turned-friend-turned-boss-turned-friend-again, but sometimes she wanted to pinch his lips shut.

"No talking about beating our record, got it." He then whispered to Mel as they made their way to the ambulance bay, shoulders bumping together as they tugged on the gloves. "We're still gonna beat it though."

Mel giggled as she snapped on her gloves. As much as he liked joking about it, Frank was fully locked in when the patient came in, and Mel would never tire of looking at him in his element like this, rattling off orders with a confidence she was once afraid he might never get back. He winked at her when he caught her staring, and she forced her eyes back to the ECG, a stubborn blush clinging to her cheeks. Frank led the case smoothly, shoulders loosening only when they sent the patient off upstairs for his coronary angioplasty.

"And time." He said as the elevator closed, pointing at Perlah who he'd designated as timekeeper. She rolled her eyes but looked at her wristwatch. "Forty-five minutes, Dr. Langdon."

"Aaah, so close." He hissed, punching his fist, before eyeing Perlah suspiciously. "Are you sure you didn't add to our time on purpose?"

"I would never do that to Mel." Perlah said, sending her a smile as they walked back to the nurse's station.

"You would to me? That hurts my feelings, Perlah."

"What can I say? I like Mel more."

Mel grinned in response, she liked being liked, sue her.

"Yeah, I guess I can't blame you for that." Frank sighed, tugging at Mel's braid to put it back over her shoulder. "You're too lovable, Mel."

"I don't think that's a thing." She said, tapping her ID to access the computer in an effort to distract herself from blushing again. Behind her she could hear Perlah murmur something to Princess in Tagalog, and she pricked up her ears for her or Frank's name but heard nothing. Either she was being paranoid or they were using nicknames.

"Trust me, it's a thing." Frank said, seemingly unbothered by the muttering pair of nurses as he hovered behind her.

"So, has my mom answered yet?" 

"I don't know, I haven't looked." Mel grabbed the phone from her pocket and held it up for him. "You can check."

"Wow." Frank took the phone and leaned in closer to stare at the side of her face. "You're letting me see the group chat?"

Mel bit her lip to contain her smile at the glee in his voice. The group chat was between her, Becca, Frank's mom and Frank's sister. No boys allowed. But this was about his promotion, and Mel wanted him to see the proud message that was certainly waiting for him.

"I trust you not scroll up."

"That's a lot of trust." Frank mumbled absentmindedly as he unlocked her phone - Mel had added his fingerprint a few months ago.

She watched from the corner of her eye as he smiled fondly at whatever the messages said, warmth filling her chest. 

"Mom's proud of me." He said, though Mel doubted that was all it said. "Becca says she wants an electric guitar if I'm gonna be earning that much, but she did also send two hearts. And Morgan just copy-pasted the lyrics of Money Money Money."

Becca had been on a music kick lately because one of her friends at the center had an acoustic guitar and knew how to play all The Sound of Music songs.

"Just so you know, it won't be funny in a rich man's world if you get Becca an electric guitar." Mel commented. Frank broke out in a laugh, which always made her feel on top of the world.

He closed the group chat and handed the phone back, proving he had more than earned her trust. 

"Thank you, Mel." He said, tugging playfully at her braid like he always did when he wanted to touch her but had to keep it low-key.

"You're welcome." She saved her braid from his wandering fingers because she didn't want to have to redo it so quickly, and it gave her an excuse to touch him. He fought her for a second and she laughed with amused exasperation.

"First day back and you're already bothering her, Langdon?" Cassie joked, walking up behind them.

"Oh, she hasn't had a moment's rest." Perlah piped up.

"Hey, what is this? Harp on Frank day?"

"Consider it revenge for putting up with you for the past two weeks."

"Was it that bad?" Mel asked curiously. 

"No. They're exaggerating as always." Frank leaned over to quickly log her out before guiding her away with a hand between her shoulders, waving away Cassie trying to answer Mel's question. "Let's go find another case, there's a-"

He cut himself off as he suddenly turned his head towards the doors to the ambulance bay. "Is that a kid crying?"

The doors slid open then, paramedics indeed wheeling in a crying child, face covered in blood. Strangely, there was no adult in sight. Frank hurried over, Mel hot on his feet, and grabbed two pairs of gloves on the way.

"What happened?" He asked as he snapped on his pair, handing the other pair to Mel.

"Kid got knocked on the head with a sharp branch and had a bad fall. Medium scalp lac, no signs of a concussion, pupils reacting normally. Possible radius or ulna fracture, forearm is tender and starting to swell."

"What's his name?" Mel asked as she reached out to rub the boy's back, her heart aching at his panicked cries as Frank gently peeled away the makeshift bandage to see the head wound.

"Jamie, he's around four years old."

"Where are his parents?" Frank asked as he signed to Dana to ask which room they should take.

"Ped's is still free!" She called back.

The paramedics helped wheel the gurney towards the room. "Mom's on her way hopefully. The kid was at daycare when it happened, there was only worker and she couldn't leave the other kids. Mom wasn't answering her phone but we got her number, we'll leave it with Dana."

"Only one worker at a daycare?"

"Yeah, there were like twenty kids, it was mayhem."

"One person taking care of twenty kids?" Princess exclaimed. "No wonder this happened."

"That's the national child care crisis for you." Frank frowned. 

Mel grimaced and was suddenly very happy Frank's mom was retired and could take the kids on Frank's custody days when he was working.

"Okay, let's get him some ibuprofen to help with the pain." Frank picked up Jamie as gently as possible, tucking the arm against his chest to avoid jostling it. The boy was still crying hysterically, and Frank held him close for a moment, the boy fisting Frank's scrub top with his little hand.

"Hey Jamie, you're okay," He soothed him with a rumbling voice, petting a large comforting hand down the boy's back. "We're gonna take good care of you, sweetie."

It was hard enough to see Frank with his kids and not melt into a puddle. This was just as bad. Jamie's cries died down slightly, though his little hands remained fisted into Frank's scrub top as he curiously looked the soothing stranger over.

"I'll sit with him on the bed," Frank spoke over the boy's head. "We should splint his arm before we take care of the scalp lac."

Mel nodded. "Scalp lac first and then X-rays?" She asked as she went to look for a splint.

"Yeah, I don't want to send him off all bloody, poor kid."

By the time Mel turned back with a splint, Princess and Frank had gotten Jamie to take the ibuprofen without too much protest, and Frank was sitting on the bed, Jamie perched onto his lap. The boy was still whimpering, the pitiful sounds cutting to Mel's heart.

"You're doing so well, buddy." Frank encouraged him, smile soft and oh so sweet. "Can you tell me how old you are?"

The boy sniffed, loosening the hand in Frank's shirt to hold up four fingers.

"Very good." Frank praised him, rubbing his back. "See my friend Mel here?"

Mel almost jumped at the sound of her name, feeling strangely caught as Frank looked at her. The boy reluctantly turned his head, and she waved at him with a reassuring smile.

"She's magic, like Tinkerbell." Frank pointed to said fairy on the front of Jamie's t-shirt. "And she's gonna use her powers to make you feel better. Does that sound okay?"

Jamie nodded quietly but fisted his hand in Frank's shirt again. Mel thought it was going to be impossible to get the splint on, but between Frank's soft praise and Mel's gentle touches, the boy stayed put as Mel secured his arm, though he didn't stop uttering those heartbreaking whimpers.

When his arm was secure, Mel moved on to clean his face that was still covered in blood. Jamie closed his eyes, and the repetitive moments of the cleaning wipes calmed him down further. Mel smiled, strangely transported back to the night Frank had done the same to her, and when she looked up to meet his eyes, she could tell he was thinking the same thing, his mouth curled into a soft smile as he reached out to give her braid a gentle tug. Jamie was being perfectly sweet, unmoving as he sat pressed against Frank's chest, and Mel easily wiped most of the blood off.

She moved on to the scalp lac then, grabbing the betadine from Princess to clean a small spot next to the wound, covering it in lido cream next.

"Tell me what you're doing, Mel, this is still a teaching hospital." Mel was familiar enough with the register of Frank's smiles to know he was teasing her. Also, the boy was perched on his lap, and Frank had a front-row view of her actions.

She rolled her eyes but couldn't stop the corner of her mouth from twitching upwards. "I'm numbing the area with the cream before injecting the lidocaine."

"And why would you do that?" He asked.

Mel almost glared at him but then saw Jamie curiously peeking up at them as they talked, his eyes shifting between them in interest.

"It's to make sure the injection doesn't h-u-r-t." She'd learned early on in her residency that spelling out words was key around kids.

Frank smiled at her, eyes fond. "Perfect." He said, and why did that always warm her to her toes.

She let the cream do its work and chattered with Frank about some random things, if only to keep Jamie's eyes on them. He seemed to like listening to them, and Mel loved talking to Frank no matter the subject, so win win.

After a few minutes, she accepted the syringe from Princess, keeping it far away from Jamie's sight as she brought it to his scalp.

"Injecting the lidocaine." She said and pushed the needle, Frank gently rubbing Jamie's back in case he still felt something.

"You're doing well, Dr. King." Frank said as she handed the empty syringe back.

"Thank you, Dr. Langdon." She matched his energy, keeping her tone overly sweet. Frank's smile was delighted, hard to look away from.

Princess cleared her throat, unlocking their gazes, and Mel floundered for a moment.

"Saline?" The nurse asked.

"Right, saline to irrigate the wound and a bowl, please. Thank you, Princess." She took a moment to crouch in front of the boy. "Jamie, your hair is going to get a little wet. Like when your mommy puts you in the bath."

"Mommy?" Jamie's voice was croaky from the crying, but she was glad to hear it anyway.

"She'll be here soon." She promised with a comforting smile.

Mel straightened and craned her head to whisper to Princess. "Can you check whether someone got a hold of the mom yet?"

She nodded and quietly left the room. Mel meanwhile used the saline to clean Jamie's scalp and flush the wound, with Frank keeping hold of the bowl to catch the reddish tinted liquid. 

"That doesn't look too bad." He said once they had better visibility of the laceration.

Jamie looked up at him as he spoke and Frank smiled down at him, gently flicking his nose. "You're gonna be perfectly fine, buddy."

It earned him a small smile, and Frank looked up to share a triumphant grin with her. 

"I think it needs staples." Mel said. "What do you think?"

"I think you're right, as I do most days."

She was just gently gluing down Jamie's hair to create a neat part where the laceration sat when Princess walked back in.

"Mom's on the way, she should be here within the next twenty minutes." She said softly.

"Hear that, buddy?" Frank said. "Your mom's almost here."

Jamie smiled again, flashing his tiny baby teeth. He really was a cute kid. 

Fifteen minutes later he was sent off to get an X-ray with four staples sitting neatly in his scalp. His mom had arrived just in time to accompany him, and Mel walked with her to get her up to speed on what happened, even offering Kiara's services to discuss daycare options. The mom had thankfully appreciated Mel's offer, eager to get help in managing her childcare, especially after what happened.

When she returned to the nurse's station, Frank was sitting at one of the computers, restlessly swiveling his chair from left to right as he charted while chatting with Dana. Mel's gaze was drawn to Princess and Perlah, who were deep in discussion again, this time while glancing at Frank. She frowned as they exchanged money.

What was going on today?

"Mel, hey, how did it go with the mom?" Frank asked.

"Good, I think. She's very open to suggestions." She leaned on the counter next to him, looking at the open chart. "Do you need me to add something?" 

"I think I'm good, but check it over to see if you want to add anything." He stood up and gently grabbed her by the shoulders to push her down on his chair. The seat was warm, which she couldn't help but notice. She caught movement from the corner of her eye and found Javadi staring at them. The med student startled as Mel noticed her and quickly looked away.

"God, I hope that's the last time I ever see an infected anal fissure." Trinity said as she walked up to them, which was a typical Trinity entrance.

"Don't work in emergency medicine then, honey." Dana told her. "You'll see a lot more."

Trinity grimaced before eyeing Frank's hands still resting on Mel's shoulders. Mel prayed for her not to mention it, fearing the worst when Trinity set her gaze on Frank.

"Hey, RBF, Dr. Robby told me to say he's looking for you." She said instead and Mel sighed in relief.

"Who's-" Frank swiveled his head to look behind him, but Trinity was definitely staring at him. "I'm RBF?"

"Yeah, like I said, Dr. Robby said to find him in the lounge."

By now the two men's friendship had been repaired enough that Frank had stopped panicking at the idea of Dr. Robby wanting to talk. A few months ago, Dana and Mel had locked them out on the roof until they'd finally talked their issues out, they'd then celebrated the occasion with a glass of alcohol-free champagne that they'd reserved in the breakroom fridge.

"RBF?" Frank looked quizzically at Mel who just shrugged because she had no idea either. She didn't understand half the things that came out of Trinity's mouth.

"Resting bitch face." Javadi clarified from the side.

"Oh, you're one to talk." Frank scoffed, gesturing to Trinity.

"I call it like I see, bitch." She smirked at him and walked off again.

"That's like workplace harassment." Frank grumbled.

"Go find Robby, you can make a complaint." Dana grinned, patting his shoulder.

He rolled his eyes before turning to Mel with a pleading smile. "Come find me if I'm not back in five? I have a feeling he's gonna give me a sentimental speech about the attending thing, and I can only handle that for like five minutes tops."

The last time Dr. Robby had cornered him for an emotional speech had been a few months ago when Frank had been one year sober. Mel had found him in the break room with red-rimmed eyes, where he'd made her promise to never let Dr. Robby near him again on his sobriety anniversaries.

"Sure, I'll make something up." She said, looking up at him. "Ooh, maybe an impalement, that would be exciting!"

Frank huffed out a laugh, eyes sparkling. "Perfect." He said, walking backward in the direction of the breakroom. "Love your thinking, as always."

"Langdon, walk normally before you run someone over." Cassie said, jumping out of his way. "Mel won't disappear, I promise."

"Sorry, Cass." He turned forward, yelling back before he reached the door. "Five minutes! Don't forget about me, Mel!"

As if she ever could.

Mel was washing her hands after a quick bathroom break when Trinity walked in, ignoring the cubicles to stop right in front of her.

"So, let's finish our conversation from this morning."

"Let's not." Mel said, turning away to dry her hands.

"What, why not?"

"Because my day's weird enough already."

"How? I thought you just had some easy kid cases." Trinity frowned. "No anal fissures."

"The patients are fine, it's everyone else that's being weird."

Trinity stared at her, unblinking, waiting for an explanation.

Mel sighed. "People are being weird about me and Frank. You were weird, and then everyone kept mentioning him, and I can feel people staring. Also, I don't know what Princess and Perlah are saying, but I'm ninety-nine percent sure they're talking about us."

"Oh," Trinity breathed out. "They're one hundred percent talking about you, and staring at you. I mean, what did you expect after the spectacle from two weeks ago?"

"What spectacle? There was a spectacle?"

"Mel-" Trinity looked at her intently. "Can I grab you by the shoulders because this moment needs it. I know I'm not Dr. Sexy with a dimple in my chin but-"

"Just do it." She interrupted her with a glare.

Trinity got a good grip on her shoulders and looked her dead in the eyes. "He came in here like a headless chicken, asking where you were so loudly we got a noise complaint, and when he found you, he spontaneously forgot your name and called you baby while he petted your hair and looked at you like you were going to die. From a head lac."

She let the silence sit for a moment. "People talk for a lot less, Mel."

"But you were the only one in the room. You wouldn't gossip about me."

"I love that you think so highly of me and I hate to burst your bubble, but I would definitely gossip about you." She then sighed. "But yeah, not about this."

"Then why-"

"The door was open and Perlah was working."

"Fuck, okay." If Perlah knew, then Princess knew, and if the pair of them knew, the other nurses knew too and then everyone knew probably. "So people are gossiping about our friendship? That's weird."

"More like your future marriage."

Mel gulped. "What? People think-"

"That you're the peanut to his butter? Yeah, I'm not the only one, King."

"Oh." Mel panicked. It was hard enough being in love with Frank without an audience. Now she'd have to do it with one?  "What do I do? Should I avoid him? I don't want to avoid him."

"No, fuck 'em." Trinity said, tightening her grip. "Fuck what anyone else says. Just do you. I mean, it's not even negative gossip, Mel. They're just invested."

"In Frank and me?"

"Yeah, we're all suckers for a happy ending or whatever."

"But we're not-"

"Mel." Trinity cut her off. "Come on."

"We're really not." Mel insisted. Because she needed Trinity to know the gossip was just that, gossip. 

Trinity fell silent. "Wait, really?" Her face was struck with astonishment.

"Yes, really." She was momentarily glad she'd finally gotten through to her and then-

"Mel, what the actual fuck? You're in love with him, he's in love with you, it's clear as fucking day."

"No, it's not." Mel protested. She refused to believe she was that obvious.

"Yes, it is."

She was struck by the fierceness of Trinity's arguing, as if she really believed it to be true. Still, Mel still had her doubts. She'd had boyfriends before, of course she had, but there had always been a casualness. Men liked her, yes, but they didn't fall in love with her, and Mel didn't fall in love with them. There were just too many responsibilities and too little free time. So she'd come to accept it wasn't for her, falling in love and being loved in return.

And then she met Frank and she fell hard. And with him- she was weak, and she couldn't help but wonder sometimes, most times, if she might also be loved in return. When she slept in his bed and he held her in his arms or when he looked at her with those sparkling blue eyes. The past two weeks had been heaven and hell combined because when he wasn't working, he was there, all the time. And so, Mel wondered, all the time. She'd never craved a man's attention like this before. As a feminist and independent woman™, she was a little ashamed of herself. But having his eyes on her felt so good she couldn't even pretend to care.

Still, despite their intimacy and their casual I love you's, there was never a step to shift them into something else, something more. And so, it was friendship and to keep from going insane, Mel erected a wall inside her mind that firmly separated reality from the fantasy of being able to have Frank, really actually have him. And while the wall was built too strong to collapse from a few words, Trinity's conviction did punch a hole in it. Because what if?

She was saved from answering when the door opened and Garcia walked in.

"Oh, there you are." The surgeon said. "I was looking for you."

"Me?" Trinity said meekly, and Mel could swear she was blushing. This was a great turn of events.

"Yeah, unless Dr. King was the one who didn't answer my text last night."

Trinity spluttered, and Mel was loving the show. She'd stay longer but it was nearly time to go save Frank from Dr. Robby. 

"I'll leave you to it." She said, heading towards the door. "I would definitely never ignore your texts, Yolanda. I can't imagine why anyone would." She added, ignoring Trinity's glare as she left the bathroom.

Back in the hall, she took a moment to file away the conversation she'd just had in a backroom corner of her brain where she'd never have to look at it again. A quick trip to the board made her laugh in surprise, and a minute later she dutifully opened the door to the break room.

"Dr. Langdon, there's an actual impalement!" She said excitedly, a man with a knife stuck in his hand was at the top of the board. "Want to check it-"

She fell silent as she met Frank's wide-eyed gaze, he looked like he'd seen a ghost, but with a distinct flush to his cheeks. Dr. Robby on the other hand sat next to him with a grin, and Mel had apparently interrupted something other than a sentimental speech about Frank's promotion. "Uh, I can leave-"

"No, no," Frank said, standing up. "I love impalements, let's go."

"What did you mean by an actual impalement?" Dr. Robby asked, laughter coating his voice. She wasn't used to seeing him smile so big, it was nice, especially if it was because of something Frank had said or done.

"Oh, I'm just excited." Mel laughed nervously, wringing her hands together. Lying wasn't her forte. "I love impalements too."

"Right." Dr. Robby nodded. "Well, go on ahead, don't let me stall your fun."

Frank joined her in the doorway, eyes still wide and flicking all over the place, and turned back to Dr. Robby for a moment. "Thanks for- yeah." He then shut the door behind him, trailing Mel on her way to South 16.

"Everything okay?" She asked carefully.

"Fine." Frank said in a way that made it clear it was everything but.

"You don't have to tell me, but is it bad?"

"No," Frank chuckled a little awkwardly, running his hand through his hair. "It wasn't bad, don't worry. Just Robby being Robby."

"Okay then."

"Really, don't worry about it, Mel. Everything's good." 

He sent her a smile, and it did look fairly sincere, so she decided to put it from her mind for now. Maybe she'd ask him again later, after work.

"Mel!"

Or maybe she'd kill herself after work. Because sitting in South 16, steak knife through his hand and what looked like a superficial cut on his shoulder, was a familiar figure, naked from the waist up.

"Hi Chris."

"You know each other?" Frank asked, glancing between the both of them. 

Perlah was sending them equally curious glances, eyes wide in anticipation. Mel was so fucked.

"Yeah, Mel's the best date I ever had, the one that got away."

Perlah dropped the IV bag she was holding, though it thankfully held its shape, and she scrambled to pick it up. Frank was just silent, deadly so. Mel was afraid to look at either of them and simply stared at Chris, who was grinning at her.

"It's good to see you, Mel." 

"Right, you too." She said just to be nice because she hadn't really thought about him in about ten months, not since their third and final date, and she really would have preferred not to see him, especially here.

Perlah hastily picked up the bag from the floor and hung it from the IV pole.

"Is that safe?" Chris asked warily.

"Perfectly safe." Perlah waved him away. "Don't worry."

The room was silent for a full fifteen seconds. "So should someone do something about this?" Chris asked, nodding to his hand.

"Right." Mel clapped her hands together and steeled herself to look at Frank. 

She found him staring at Chris in silence, his brow furrowed, mouth open slightly. 

"Dr. Langdon," She addressed him, and his eyes shot to her so fast it startled her a little. "I can take this one on my own, you know, if you-" want to be anywhere else but here, she thought but didn't say. She just trailed off instead, unsure.

"Oh, do you want me to-" He also trailed off. Mel's almost-fling appeared, and they were stuck speaking to each other like kids who hadn't learned how to finish a sentence yet.

"No." Mel said because she absolutely didn't want him to think she wanted to be alone with Chris, she just didn't want to make him uncomfortable, and going by his earlier silence, comfortable he was not. "I just thought if you wanted-"

God, this was so unprofessional, she was going to die.

"I'll stick around in case you need a hand." Frank decided, and Mel didn't know whether to be relieved or anxious about his presence so her nervous system settled on the default, which was anxious. How was she ever gonna get that knife safely out of Chris' hand?

By the time they had set everything up to pull the knife out, Mel had seen most of the department pass by the room, even Whitaker who was usually the opposite of nosy. They didn't even have the decency to be subtle about it, especially Trinity who was still hanging out in the doorway while she just grinned as if this was prime entertainment for her. It probably was. It didn't help that Chris was very brazenly flirting with Mel. He apparently didn't care that he had a girlfriend, which was a little fair since she was apparently the one responsible for the knife.

"The whole doctor thing suits you." He said as they waited for the lidocaine to work. "You're just as smart as you are beautiful, it's amazing."

Mel watched Frank's hand clench around Chris' shoulder where he was holding it still to suture the superficial stab wound. She could hardly believe he hadn't passed it off to a med student yet. For some godforsaken reason, he wanted to be in this room.

"Hey, remember our third date at Gino's? We had so much fun, didn't we? I know you said your life was busy and all, but I can handle that. I'd really like to take you on a fourth date, Mel." Chris winced when Frank once again tightened his grip.

"I don't think that's a good idea." Mel said. "With you having a girlfriend and all that."

"I mean, she literally stabbed me, Mel, I don't think that's gonna last much longer."

Mel chose to ignore him and focused on the knife instead. "Okay, I think we can get this bad boy out now." 

"Can I do it?" Frank asked suddenly.

Mel stared at him, and the maniacal look in his eyes told her he was likely to jam it in Chris' other hand as soon as it was out.

"No."

Frank deflated with a sigh and finished up his sutures. Mel could hear Trinity stifle a laugh, and she frowned at her.

"Don't you have a job to do?"

Her friend innocently held up her hands. "I'm going." She said, and Mel glared at her until she did.

"So, Mel, are you seeing anyone?"

"I don't think that's an appropriate-"

"Just checking, because I really want to take you on that fourth date. We don't have to go anywhere, you could come back to mine-"

Mel cut him off by yanking the steak knife from his hand, staring at the bloody serrated edges. From her peripheral vision she could see Frank and Perlah's bulging eyes as they intermittently gaped at her and each other. Okay, that hadn't been very professional, she could admit that, this day was just so weird, and Mel was getting on her last nerve before she'd even had a lunch break.

"Wow, cool." Chris said and promptly passed out. Silence at last.

Perlah was the first to shake herself from her stunned surprise and she checked his pulse to be certain he'd just fainted from the sight of the knife and not because Mel had accidentally killed him. By the time she nodded, he was already coming to. Frank was still staring at her, and Mel met his eyes with a shrug, making him bark out an incredulous laugh.

Chris groaned. "Wh- what happened?"

"You fainted." Perlah said. "It happens all the time."

"Oh, okay, so Mel-"

He was interrupted by the ear-shattering chorus of Total Eclipse of the Heart. The music was so loud it was as if Bonnie Tyler herself was in the room.

"What the fuck?" Frank yelled over the music.

Mel grabbed the opportunity to leave with both hands, standing up to stick her head outside. The deafening sound was coming from the room next door, and a plethora of people had already gathered to look inside. From the looks on their faces, it was funny. Mel joined them and was confronted with the sight of Mateo and Javadi desperately trying to pry away a boombox from what Mel presumed was a patient. Who even owned boomboxes these days?

She felt Frank walk up behind her. "That is amazing."

Mel giggled because it was really something to watch Mateo and Javadi chase the patient around the bed to the lyrics of Total Eclipse of the Heart, it reminded her of the weird performance art Becca had forced them to go see. Dr. Robby and Dana eventually rushed past them, assisting the other pair in grabbing hold of the boombox. Frank was full-on belly laughing at that point, and Mel couldn't help but join him. Sometimes this job could be good weird too.

With the four of them, it didn't take long for the patient to lose his hold on the boombox. Only then, they couldn't exactly figure out how to shut it off. And Bonnie Tyler started her second chorus. Mel and Frank were in stitches, and when the sound finally fell away it, was their hysterical laughter that replaced it. They weren't the only ones. Cassie and Samira were barely standing up, clinging to each other for stability.

"I have to pee!" Princess almost screached as she ran to the bathroom, eyes wet with laughter.

It was her and Frank Dr. Robby came up to, arms crossed as he shook his head in disapproval. "You could have helped, you know."

"I really couldn't have." Frank said, voice shaky with laughter. "I love Bonnie Tyler, I'd have let him keep it."

Mel couldn't even speak, stuck between lingering mirth from the boombox chase and dismay at Dr. Robby's look of disapproval.

Dr. Robby just sighed at Frank's comment, but he smiled a moment later, to Mel's relief. "Okay, everyone back to work." He said, dispersing the crowd that had gathered. "Nothing to see here."

Mel silently thanked the patient for the spectacle because it had made her take a very much needed break from her old date in the other room. Mel was disappointed in her past self because Chris had been cute and sweet and interested, and she'd been falling hopelessly in love with Frank who was very freshly divorced and sober. She'd essentially used Chris to try and get over her ever-growing crush, not her finest moment. She'd felt guilty, and it hadn't even been working, so she'd given up after date number three.

"So, Chris huh?" Frank asked, using the opportunity of being outside the room to ask a question he must have been sitting on since Chris dropped the date-bomb.

Mel shrugged, averting her eyes to the ceiling. "He seemed nice, I was just trying something. I don't actually like him at the moment."

"So you liked him back then? When did you even go out with him? You didn't tell me."

"It was like ten months ago." Mel shrugged. "You were busy with other stuff." Getting clean, getting divorced, Mel thought, small things.

She glanced at him to find him frowning intensely, as if thinking back to ten months ago.

"Well, I can't imagine you agreeing to a date with a guy you don't like." He said, fiddling with the friendship bracelets on his wrist. He wore three now, to her surprise, one from each of his kids, the third one she had no clue about. Mel had her own two bracelets hanging in her locker, the kids eager to gift them on her birthday a few months ago.

"There must be something about him." Frank added.

"He was cute and interested, Frank. I'm just a woman, you know, it's not that complicated." She said with a blush, hating that she needed to speak those words out loud.

"You think he's cute, really?" He scrunched his nose, which would be endearing in any other circumstance.

"Was, I thought he was cute."

"What, and now he suddenly isn't anymore?"

"No, because-"

Because now her mind and heart were so full of Frank, there was no space left for anyone else. And whatever she'd seen in Chris all those months ago, it was gone. But she wasn't going to say that out loud.

She just threw up her hands in exasperation. "I don't know why I'm telling you this. Let's just finish up before his murderous girlfriend appears." She fled before he could ask again.

"Mel, you're back!" Chris beamed at her.

"Yes, I am.

"So-"

"No, I'm not going on another date with you. What I am going to do, is get you a surgical consult because that knife damaged your tendon, and it'll need to be repaired."

Mel tried really hard not to scream at the idea that Chris would definitely have to spend at least the whole day here waiting for a bed upstairs.

Chris went white. "I need surgery?"

"Probably." Frank confirmed from where he was looming behind her, way too close to be considered professional. "If you want to use your left hand again."

He paled even further, and Mel watched Perlah purse her lips to hide her smile. She rolled her eyes, turning around to see Frank standing so close she needed to crane her neck to look at him. He was being suspiciously weird about Chris and Mel had to force Trinity's voice out of her head.

"Okay," She sighed, putting a hand on his chest to push him a few inches backward because this was truly too much for their place of work. "How about you get ahold of Yolanda, huh?"

"What- Perlah can call her."

"Perlah's busy."

They both glanced at Perlah to find her doing absolutely nothing but stare at them.

"Doing what?"

"I'm going to irrigate the wound, Dr. Langdon." Perlah said, a mocking tilt to the edge of her smile.

"Exactly, thank you, Perlah." She turned back to give Frank an innocent smile. "So, go find Yolanda? I'm pretty sure I saw her around Central."

"You're mean." He narrowed his eyes but did start making his way out of the room.

"I don't know what you're talking about." Mel said, pointedly turning her back to him as his footsteps tapered off.

Chris had regained some color and was frowning up at Mel inquisitively. "Are you sure you aren't seeing him?"

Mel flushed red, eyes darting to Perlah, who had trouble containing her grin, and decided she needed to be anywhere else but here.

"You got this?" She squeezed out the words, practically running out as soon as Perlah nodded.

She was almost to the nurse's station when Trinity stuck her head out of an exam room to yell at her.

"Mel! Come help me pop this guy's shoulder back in!"

Mel hesitated, unsure whether she wanted to be in a room alone with Trinity after their bathroom talk, but she figured with the patient, it should be fine. She entered the room and smiled at the middle-aged man lying on the bed. "Good morning, sir. I'm Dr. King." 

"Dr. King's gonna help me get your shoulder back in place, Joe."

"Awesome." The man smiled at her, and Mel reached out to hold onto him so Trinity could maneuver the dislocated shoulder on the other side without moving his body.

"I'm just going to gently move your shoulder around to get the bits back into their proper positions, Joe. It might take a few minutes, but the muscle relaxant should limit the pain."

The man just nodded, intently staring at Mel for some reason.

"So, tell me, Mel," Trinity started. "How did you ever date that guy?" She wrinkled her nose, so similar to Frank it was almost uncanny.

"Uh," Mel froze, eyes flashing to Joe.

"Oh, Joe doesn't mind. I already filled him in, we were actually waiting for you." She said as she gently started moving around his shoulder.

"It's true, go ahead, Dr. King." Well, that at least explained the staring.

Mel sighed. She wasn't going to tell Trinity she had just come back from Frank's after they had taken Doc to the dog park, heart still racing from the parting hug he'd given her, and that Chris had walked up to her in a coffee shop with a cute smile and interest shining from his eyes, and that she had thought why not, maybe I can stop thinking about kissing Frank and thus had said yes when he'd asked her out.

"He was cute and nice, he seemed interested, and I was single."

"Yeah, that'll do it, I guess."

Mel glanced at Joe to find him nodding in agreement.

"Wait, was single?" Trinity added with a grin.

"Am single." She corrected with a frown. "Free to date whomever I please."

"God, don't let Ken hear you say that, he'll have an aneurysm."

"I don't know why he's being so weird about it."

"Yes, you do. He's jealous as fuck."

"From what I've heard, he does sound jealous." Joe added.

Mel faltered for a moment. The same thought had maybe crossed her mind the tiniest bit, but it could easily just be his protective instincts kicking in as a response to Chris' persistence. He told patients to back off all the time if they made Mel uncomfortable.

"I don't know-"

"Mel, come on, he was glaring at your ex-boytoy the whole time he was in there. At one point I thought he might give him another stab wound, going all hulk with how green he was looking. How was that performance in there not enough proof that he's into you?"

"He was just being protective like always."

"Exactly! Like always! Oh my god, I can't believe I'm putting all this effort into getting RBF a girlfriend that's way too fucking good for him, and it's not even working."

"Dr. King, if I may," Joe popped up, face slightly pinched as Trinity rolled his shoulder a particular way. "Why don't you just tell him?"

"Tell him what?"

"That you're in love with him. In my experience, it's best to cut to the chase with these things."

Mel glared at Trinity. "Did you tell Joe I'm in love with Frank?"

"No, I told him you're in love with each other but you're both idiots."

"You can't know he's in love with me, you hardly speak to him."

"Doesn't matter, I know, everyone knows."

"No they don't, gossip is not the same as being a hundred percent sure that it's true."

"She has a point there, Dr. Santos." Joe agreed.

"Thank you." Mel smiled down at him, Joe wasn't too bad.

An infuriated sigh escaped Trinity as she looked up from Joe's shoulder. "I just don't understand why you're so against the idea when it seems so obvious."

"Because," Mel said. "Frank is Frank, and I'm me. And we're different, too different."

"What does that even mean?"

Mel hesitated, but apparently this was the day she was going to share her fundamental insecurities with Trinity. And Joe.

"My whole life, I've been the weird girl who had trouble making friends. And I'm fine with that. I've gotten used to it. Girls like me don't end up with guys like Frank. Girls like Abby end up with guys like Frank."

Mel didn't dislike Abby. She was a great mom and from the few times they'd met, she seemed to be an overall great person too. She was also beautiful in a way Mel would never be. And that always sent a pang through her chest.

Trinity gaped at her and from the corner of her eye she saw Joe do the same. "Mel, don't tell me you actually believe that, what the fuck."

"It's just the truth."

"It's not, you're a fox."

"No I'm not." She frowned, that was just a lie. Her high school experience wouldn't have been what it was if she'd been a fox.

"Yes you are, trust me, I'm a connoisseur."

Mel just stayed silent.

"Okay, first of all," Trinity continued. "Ken divorced Abby, so there's that. Second of all, he would be so seriously lucky to have you, Mel, and while I hate saying this, I know he knows that. Just talk to him or even better, just go and kiss him, he'll love it, I promise you. Do it out of my sight though, please."

"I disagree, it's like you always say, he's ER Ken. And I'm-"

"ER Barbie."

Mel paused. "What?"

Trinity chuckled. "We love you Mel, so we don't say it to your face, but in this hospital, you and Langdon are Barbie and Ken."

"I haven't seen Dr. Langdon yet, but I can definitely see you as Barbie." Joe added.

"Right!" Trinity grinned.

Mel was perplexed. She'd heard the moniker before, but she'd never even thought to link it to herself, always figured it was people talking about Frank needing a girlfriend, which never failed to put her in a lousy mood.

"You think it's nicer to call me ER Barbie behind my back than to my face?" She scrunched her eyebrows in confusion because that didn't make sense.

"It's not that really, we mostly do it to tease Langdon when you're not around."

"So when I overheard Yolanda ask him where ER Barbie was, she meant?"

"She was probably asking where you were, yes, which we do all the time when he's somewhere you aren't."

"Oh." Mel frowned thoughtfully, unsure whether to take the nickname as a compliment or not. She couldn't deny feeling pleased at having a nickname that was so connected to Frank's, as if people considered them a pair, which they apparently did.

"So now that we've covered the fact that you're both very attractive people, can you maybe accept that you both love each other?"

"Well, I know he loves me." Mel said absentmindedly, still stuck on the Barbie reveal.

Joe yelped as Trinity finally popped his shoulder back in. "What?!" She gaped at her. "What do you mean you know?! You just told me off for suggesting it."

"No, I told you off for suggesting he's in love with me, that's different."

Trinity shared an incredulous look with Joe, who'd already seemed to have forgotten his pain.

"So he told you he loved you?" Joe asked.

"Yeah, as friends do." Mel glared at both of them because she knew for a fact friends could tell each other that without it having any more meaning.

"Just a second." Trinity said, holding up a finger. She walked over to open the door and scanned the outside. "Huckleberry, get in here!"

Mel shifted uncomfortably because she really didn't want to involve another person into this. Trinity had adopted Whitaker like a little brother though, and he was constantly being pulled into her troublemaking, mostly against his will. It helped that he was Dr. Robby's favorite because the man often turned a blind eye to their -mostly innocent- shenanigans. Whitaker's face was apprehensive when he entered the room, and he sighed when he saw Mel standing there.

"Okay, roomie, quick question. Do you think Dr. Langdon's in love with Mel and stupidly jealous of that guy with the knife?"

"Trinity!" Mel whisper-yelled at her because she didn't want to attract anyone else's attention. 

"Come on, Footloose, let's hear it."

"I really don't wanna be in involved in this." Whitaker pleaded.

Yeah, neither did Mel. 

"Dennis, I also have a question for you. Do you think Trinity's in love with Dr. Garcia?"

Trinity gaped at her. "Mel- what the-"

"Uh, I don't really wanna-" Whitaker cringed, trailing off as he inched away from her and Trinity.

"Two can play this game, Trinity. Now if you'll excuse me, I have other patients to see. Joe, it was really nice meeting you."

She then stomped to the door and hurried out of the room, only to bump right into Frank's chest, of course. 

"Whoa." He steadied her with a grip on her upper arm.

He glanced behind her and frowned, probably wondering why she'd stormed out of a room with a grinning patient, an awkward Whitaker and an uncharacteristically flustered Trinity.

"Everything okay?" Frank asked skeptically, looking back down at her, his hair flopping over his eyes. He needed a haircut, though she really didn't want him to get one.

"Of course." She said, voice coming out at a higher pitch than she wanted. Frank was going to see right through her. "I just need the bathroom."

She walked away before he could start questioning her, bypassing the bathroom and moving to the ambulance bay instead because she needed a break, a moment away from the stares, away from the rapid-fire Tagalog that started up whenever she or Frank appeared,  away from Chris' flirting, away from Trinity's ambushes and away from Frank being Frank.

Too bad she couldn't get away from her thoughts, couldn't escape the echo of Trinity's incredulous what do you mean you know?! even as she leaned against the wall, staring intensely into the lava lamp on her phone while willing her mind to empty itself.

Okay, so, of course she knew he loved her, they were best friends, who loved each other, as best friends do. Mel still remembered the day a few months ago when Frank had just casually told her, like it wasn't news and she should have already known. She hadn't, and the words had struck her speechless. 

They'd been actual friends for about ten months, Frank was five months into his life post-divorce and he'd been back at the pitt for four. They hadn't been sleeping in each other's beds just yet, but they were close nevertheless, a culmination of Frank sticking to her like glue when he'd returned to work and Mel feeling strangely protective over him after she'd watched him put his all in fighting to get clean. She wasn't about to let their coworkers ruin it with dumb comments. Fortunately, most of them hadn't made a big deal out of it, and Mel had stared the ones who had into silence, and four months into it, things had mostly gone back to normal, though Frank's relationship with Dr. Robby had still been touch and go, Dana landing the thankless job of playing mediator between the two of them.

Already halfway in love with him, Mel had braced for Frank to grow apart from her as he found his feet again, as he felt confident enough to whine to Dana about annoying patients and snipe at Trinity without fearing it would backfire on him. Mel would've let him go, of course she would have, but she was so utterly relieved she hadn't needed to, that instead of growing apart, they'd grown closer with every shift shared, every movie night with Becca on her couch and every dinner with the kids at his place.

No, Frank hadn't gone anywhere, he'd kept her close instead, kept choosing her in a way that no one ever had before. Mel, do a STEMI with me! became a phrase she heard weekly. When they'd broken the record of the fastest STEMI at PTMC, it had earned them an awkward though genuine compliment from Dr. Robby. When she had lunch with Trinity and Whitaker in the cafeteria on quiet days, Frank joined them if he was free, even though it meant having lunch with Trinity too. If Mel was quietly charting at the nurse's station, Frank would always find her in between patients, to share a bag of candies or just to annoy her by playing with her braid. She relished in it every single time, she'd never had someone like Frank in her life, someone who walked into a room full of people and honed in on Mel like a homing beacon because he just liked to spend his time with her. She figured her continuous amazement was partly leftover trauma from her high school years, where she'd just been the weirdo who no one was ever paying any attention to. At times she wished she could go back in time and tell her younger self that one day, there'd be a boy who'd pay her so much attention it sometimes felt like drowning in a sea of affection—in a good way.

They were standing at the nurse's station the day he'd said the words it for the first time. Frank had been charting, and Mel had been the one to find him, because honestly, she was just as focused on him as he was on her. He turned to her before she'd even reached him, as if his Mel-sensor had pinged, boyish smile already on his face.

"There you are, I haven't seen you all day."

It was the third hour of a twelve-hour shift, and they'd carpooled to work. Still, Mel felt the same.

"I got stuck running interference between the parents of two teens who got stuck while having sex."

"You're on that case?" He grinned excitedly. "Is it true they're-" He trailed off, hooking his fingers into each other in a rudimentary imitation of the couple's circumstances.

"Her IUD is stuck on his new piercing." Mel smiled at him. He was cute when he was being nosy. 

Frank shuddered. "Wow, that just made me full body flinch."

Mel could relate, getting an IUD had been bad enough, she couldn't imagine it being stuck on something. She took the computer on Frank's other side to update the teens' charts, Frank swiveling on his chair to keep facing her, ignoring his own charts.

"We're trying to separate them without surgery, but no luck so far. They're getting an X-ray now to see what's going on in there."

"Poor kids. Wait, who's giving genital piercings to a kid?"

"Someone downtown, in a skeevy business called 'Pierce My Soul' apparently. I'm gonna report them."

"Hm, get me a gift card for my birthday first, yeah?"

She'd gotten better at picking up his jokes, but still. "If that wasn't sarcasm, I'm ending our friendship."

Frank broke into a grin. "It was. Very good."

"Thank you."

"So why the need for interference, the parents unhappy about their kids having sex?"

"Oh," Mel said, glancing at Frank to shoot him a sunny smile because she knew he'd love this. "Plot twist, they're Mormons."

Frank promptly choked on the Sour Patch Kid he'd just popped in his mouth, and yeah, Mel could have timed that better. She slapped his back until he coughed and started breathing again.

"Mormons?" He said, voice rough and disbelieving.

"Mm-hmm" She nodded, turning back to the computer now that he wasn't choking anymore.

"You're treating a Mormon with a genital piercing."

"Mm-hmm"

"Mel," She looked up at him at his insistent tone. "I'm gonna need more information."

"Well, the girl's mom went with her daughter to get an IUD without dad's knowledge and dad is pissed. And of course the boy's parents are in shock over the surprise piercing. They're convinced it's demonic possession because they found a Ouija board in his room a week ago. His father was going around earlier "cleansing" the ER, he was praying so loud I had to call security to get him to stop."

"Oh, I heard that, I thought someone put on The Passion of The Christ or something."

"No, all him. Also, you've never watched that movie, there's barely any prayer in it."

"You watched it?" Frank eyed her.

"I like movies with foreign languages."

"I thought it was a Mel Gibson movie?"

"It is, but they're mostly speaking Latin and Hebrew."

"Huh, maybe I should watch it."

"Don't, it's mostly torture porn."

"My favorite."

Mel frowned at him, and Frank smiled innocently, holding up his hands. "Just joking, honey."

Her frown only intensified at the petname, looking around the nurse's stations to see if anyone caught it. To her dismay, she looked straight into the eyes of a wide-eyed Javadi who was coming up behind them.

"Uh, Dr Langdon." Four months in and Javadi was still hesistant around Frank. He didn't let it bother him because she was a med student and he did steal benzo's from patients, Mel, his words. Still, sometimes Mel wanted to shake her. They were doctors and addiction was a disease, not something a future doctor should be afraid of.

"What's up?" Frank said, giving Mel a conspiring smile before swiveling his chair to face Javadi.

"I got the chest X-rays for our patient with breathing trouble, you were right, the radiologist said it's a pulmonary edema."

"Great," Frank said, taking the copies from her and holding them up to the light. "Not for him though, that's not good. Go on ahead, Javadi, I'll be there in a sec."

The girl just nodded, briefly glancing at Mel before walking off to South.

"So, Mel." Frank spun the chair back towards her. "What can cause an edema like this?"

"Shouldn't you be asking Victoria this?" She frowned at him.

"Yeah, I'll run her through it in a second, but I wanted your opinion first. Besides, let me live a little, I like thinking with you."

Mel huffed out a laugh but didn't protest because she liked it just as much. "Pulmonary edemas are usually caused by inflammation of the pleura."

"Exactly," Frank nodded. "Any ideas on the cause of the inflammation?"

"Pneumonia or the flu, has he got a fever?"

"Nope."

"Hm, autoimmune then maybe? Oh, maybe it's lupus!"

She saw the twinkle in Frank's eyes and immediately knew what he was going to say, so she said it with him. "It's never lupus." They echoed, breaking into laughter right after.

"Slow day?" Dana's amused voice broke them from their reverie and they twisted around to find her staring at them over the rim of her glasses, the corner of her mouth tilted up in a smile. "I just passed Javadi looking lost in front of your patient's room, Dr. Langdon, maybe you should check up on her."

"Ah, duty calls," Frank sighed as he stood up. "Please keep me posted on the Mormon story, Mel, I need to know how it ends."

"Meet you in the break room at twelve? I brought those half-burnt cookies Becca always makes and only you like."

Frank beamed at her, eyes fond. "You did? You're the best, Mel, I love you. See you at twelve!"

He then walked off, leaving Mel to stand there frozen, her eyes stuck on his retreating back as the words I love you rattled around her brain.

"You okay, hon?"

And oh god, Dana had heard that, of course.

"Fine, I'm just gonna-" She pointed to the computer, nearly slamming her hand into the screen. "Finish this."

It had taken her twice the amount of time than normal to update just the girl's chart because she kept zoning out. And before she could start on the boy's, his dad had found her again asking her if they could perform an exorcism here. It'd been a weird day and it was burned into her mind. Partly because of the exorcism she'd had to intercept with the help of Dr. Robby, mostly because of the I love you.

So again, yes, she knew Frank loved her. Even if the first time could be interpreted as an offhand comment, he'd repeated it plenty of times since then. She knew he loved her. That didn't mean it made her brave enough to ask him if he was also in love with her. She was resigned to live in this limbo, where sometimes she was sure they were just really close best friends and other times where she couldn't help but wonder if Frank might want to kiss her. Utterly stuck because the idea of just blurting her feelings out to him petrified her.

The buzzing from her phone brought her back to reality. Becca's picture spread across her screen, and Mel blew out a breath to prepare herself for the biweekly are you and Frank dating yet? She started the FaceTime with a smile.

"Hi, Becca!"

"Hey, Mel! I heard coffee shop Chris is there!"

Mel choked on her next inhale, her voice strangled as she all but yelled "How do you know that?" because how did she know that?

"Frank texted me. He wanted to know about your dates." She grinned. "I think he's jealous. Have you finally kissed?"

"No, Becca, still just friends."

"But you love him."

Mel nodded, resigned. She was very aware of that fact, and she was also very aware that Becca knew. She'd given up trying to hide it with her at least.

"And he loves you, he's very obvious, it's embarrassing."

There was nothing she wanted to believe more, but something in her brain refused to let her, pushed her back into the corner of don't kid yourself everytime she considered it. If she could be a little more delusional, maybe she'd suffer less.

"Maybe." She offered because an all-out refusal would just fan Becca's flames. "What did you tell him about Chris?"

"That he seemed hot and nice."

"You never even met him."

"Frank doesn't know that. He replied with a crying emoji. I feel bad for him, Mel. If you kissed him, he'd be happy, and you'd finally have a boyfriend again! Win-win."

"I'll think about it." Mel lied because she was going to push that thought so far out of her brain it would enter outer space.

Her sister peered at her like she was going to call her out on the obvious lie, and Mel lacked the emotional capacity to deal with that at the moment.

"Sorry, Becca, I have to get back to work. I'll see you tonight."

"Bring Frank!" Becca said and hung up. She loved having the last word. 

Mel put her phone away and looked up as the doors to the hospital opened. She wasn't surprised to find Frank heading outside with a concerned look on his face, relief softening his features as he noticed her. It was his usual MO, brought to life on that very first day they had met, give Mel some time to calm down with her lava lamp and then find her. It never failed to make her feel warm, having someone who cared this much.

"Hey," He said as he leaned his shoulder against the wall to face her, crossing his arms. "You okay?" 

"I'm fine."

"You sure? You all but sprinted out of there." Frank arched his brow. "Not that I blame you, I'd sprint out of a room too if Trinity was in it."

Rolling her eyes, Mel smiled up at him. "Trinity was just being her usual self, and I needed a break, nothing happened."

Frank eyed her like he didn't believe a word she was saying, but she kept quiet. Because what was she supposed to say? The truth? Not an option. If it were up to her, Frank would never even get a whiff of what was said in that room.

"Tell me later?" He tried.

"Are you going to tell me what Dr. Robby said to you in the break room?" She asked pointedly.

He narrowed his eyes at her, but his mouth twitched with a proud smile.

"My little blackmailer."

"It's not blackmail." She objected. "It's being fair."

They stared at each other, neither willing to answer each other's questions. The fact that Frank wouldn't tell her what went down in the break room irked her a bit, and now, she couldn't even fault him when she was doing the exact same. She just really wanted to know what had him looking so panicked, just like Frank wanted to know why she'd run off to look at her lava lamp. Though she couldn't imagine his conversation with Dr. Robby would ever cover the same topic as her and Trinity's.

Mel broke their staring match by glancing to the friendship bracelets on Frank's wrist. "You got a new one."

"Hm?" Frank followed her look and huffed out a laugh. "Becca gave it to me." He said, sticking out his arm for her to see.

She grabbed ahold of his hand and turned his wrist so she could read what the beads spelled out, frowning up at Frank in confusion.

"BFFN?"

"Best friends for now." He shrugged, bright smile betraying his amusement. "You know I'm always on thin ice with Becs."

Mel laughed, her heart warming with fondness like it always did when she was faced with Frank and Becca's antics.

"She's making one for you too, but it's supposed to be a surprise, so act surprised."

"This is why you're on thin ice with her." She pointed out.

Frank just grinned wider. "Eh, she needs me to keep her on her toes."

"Please don't let her hear you say that."

The car flying around the corner interrupted their conversation as it skidded to a halt right in front of them. Frank took the arrival in stride, hurrying up to the car in full doctor mode and pulling open the door. Mel peered inside over his shoulder. A man was sitting in the driver's seat with another man passed out on his lap, covered in blood. He had one hand on the wheel and one on the other man's neck, looking supremely relieved at the sight of two doctors.

"Please help us. His neck- the bullet, it-" He choked out.

"Get a gurney, quick." Frank told her as he half climbed into the car.

Mel shot back inside to get a gurney, pulling a pair of gloves in the process. "GSW to the neck outside in the ambulance bay, we could use a hand!" She yelled before wheeling the gurney outside.

Dr. Robby was on her heels immediately.

"Talk to me, Frank." He said as they reached the car where Frank was using his stethoscope to listen to the man's heart.

"GSW to the neck, heartrate's tachy, no arterial hemorrhage as far as I can see, but breath sounds do indicate a pulmonary hemorrhage."

"Okay, let's get him out fast but carefully."

They shuffled the cop out of the car and onto the gurney as efficiently as possible. Mid-lift and as soon as the man's legs were out of the car, the driver revved the engine and sped off at a dangerous speed. 

"What-" Mel glanced over her shoulder to watch the car drive off.

"How much you wanna bet he got shot doing something less-than-legal?" Frank asked, lifting the man's legs onto the gurney.

Dr. Robby frowned. "That's a matter for the pol- Wow." He cut off himself off as bright red blood started spurting from the man's neck.

Mel was closest and didn't hesitate in pressing her hand down on the wound as hard as she could. Still, she could feel the warm liquid flowing out against her palm.

"Correction, there is an arterial hemorrhage." Frank said.

"Mel get on top and get your finger in there, find the bleeder and plug it up." Dr. Robby ordered.

She'd climbed onto the gurney before she'd even fully processed his instructions, the world moving around her as they started wheeling her and the patient inside. 

"With my finger?"

"Yeah, you'll feel it." Frank encouraged her. 

She stuck her finger inside the bloody wound, suppressing a cringe, and, to her relief, almost immediately found the hole, plugging it up to keep the blood inside.

"Plugged it." She said. "Holy shit." She looked up at Frank to find him grinning at her.

"You're doing great, Mel."

Garcia speedwalked up to them as soon as they came through the doors. 

"GSW to the neck? Looks nasty. You plugging up the bleeder, Mel?"

"Yes," She couldn't help but feel proud. "A tear in the carotid, I can plug it with one finger."

"We'll need to keep it plugged or he'll bleed out before he can even get upstairs." Dr. Robby said as they entered trauma one. "Stay put a while longer, Dr. King."

Mel nodded, doing her best to lean out of the way of Jesse as he hooked the patient up to the monitor and maneuvering her free arm as Princess helped her into an apron as best she could. It was strange just sitting there while the usual organized chaos happened around her.

"Let's get an IV, FFP and some O-neg going."

"Sats are way down, we need to intubate."

"We don't know where the bullet it is, trachea might have been hit."

"Should I feel around with my other finger?" Mel asked.

"Better not." Frank answered. "Bullet could cut you. Let's ultrasound."

They were all focused on the small screen as Frank moved the probe around the gelled neck.

"Wow." Mel said as she spotted the bullet halfway stuck into the trachea.

"Yeah," Frank agreed. "We're not getting past there with a tube. We'll need a crike and a chest tube. Get me a scalpel."

Garcia moved up next to him. "I'll do the crike. Out of the way, pretty boy, you put in the chest tube."

"Robby, the surgeons are ordering us around again."

"Aw, telling on me to daddy, that's cute."

"Okay, let's keep it civilized please." Dr Robby cut in. "Garcia's here so she can do the crike. Frank, do the chest tube. Let's hurry."

"Looks like dad loves me better." Garcia grinned as she accepted the scalpel from Princess, Jesse pouring betadine to quickly disinfect the area.

Frank accepted a scalpel of his own. "Good for you with a face only a father could love."

"Oh my god." Mel mumbled beneath her breath. She'd more or less gotten used to their banter since finding out they were friends outside the hospital and not actually fighting, but sometimes the indignation escaped her before she could convince her brain it wasn't that serious.

"Sorry, Mel." Frank said with an impish smile.

"Whipped." Garcia grinned as she made the cut on the man's throat, beneath the area where the bullet sat snugly encased. 

"At least I can get a text back."

"Yeah, I bet it's stop texting me, you weirdo."

"Let's keep our focus on the patient, people." Dr. Robby chastised them. Mel was glad for his rebuke and switched between watching Garcia's hands place the crike and Frank's hands put in the chest tube.

"So, Mel, I met your boyfriend." Garcia apparently had no qualms ignoring Dr. Robby's comment. 

"What? I don't-"

"They went on like three dates." Frank glanced at his friend with a glare.

"Ohh, okay, thanks for the clarification, Mel." Garcia's smile was smug. "Crike's in."

"Chest tube too." Frank grumbled.

"Sats are going up." Princess said, voice filled with amusement. Mel felt a sense of foreboding as she realized this whole thing was going to do rounds at the nurse's station. She could already hear the Tagalog.

"Good," Dr. Robby said. "Let's-

They fell silent as the beginning notes of Total Eclipse of the Heart started echoing through the hospital. 

"Not again." Dr. Robby groaned as he turned to look outside the trauma room.

Mel shared an incredulous look with Frank, both of them pressing their lips into a thin line to keep from laughing.

"What's going on?" Garcia asked, confused.

"Patient with a boombox and a love of Bonnie Tyler." Frank said around a grin.

Garcia frowned, unimpressed. "Every day I'm glad I get to go upstairs and escape this madhouse."

"But you're missing all the fun." 

Mel agreed. Sitting here, her finger stuck in some guy's throat while she hummed along to Bonnie Tyler was some of the most fun she'd had in years, especially when Frank started humming with her.

"Okay, no humming." Dr. Robby clapped his hands together, eyes still trying to find the stray boombox. "Let's get Mel's finger replaced with an aortic clamp so we can send the patient upstairs, please."

A few minutes later, Mel finally stood on her two legs again and the patient was wheeled off to emergency surgery alongside Garcia. The music had abruptly stopped a minute after Dr. Robby had left the room, the man proving once again he was excellent at his job. Mel stretched her legs for a moment, and she winced at a small twinge in her thigh, trying to rub it out.

"Cramp?" Frank asked as he chucked his apron and gloves in the bin. He was staring at her thigh and Mel squirmed under his gaze.

"Just a twinge." She said, relieved when he shifted his gaze upwards.

"Let's walk it out on your way to the the scrub machine, I bet you're doing your best Whitaker impression underneath that thing."

Mel pulled off the yellow apron and wasn't surprised to see he was right. The blood had spurted over her arms and front before she'd gotten a finger in there, and she thanked her morning self for choosing to wear a jacket despite the warmer weather. She binned her apron and gloves before following Frank out of the room. He picked up a fresh pair of scrubs, showing her a way to cheat the machine's demand for her old scrubs first, though he made her promise to keep it a secret. Mel weirdly loved having secrets with him, so she happily made the promise.

"Why hasn't anyone told this to Dennis?" Mel asked because he was the person who could definitely make use of a hack like this.

"Because me and Collins are the only ones that know and we get a kick out of no one else knowing."

"No one except me?"

"You're always my exception, Mel." He winked at her with a fond smile. She felt her cheeks flush with heat as an embarrassingly pleased smile forced its way to her face. If someone could tell her how to not fall in love with a man saying that while looking at her like that, she'd appreciate the advice.

She set off to the bathroom, just in case she got blood on her and needed to clean it off, the twinge in her thigh fading on her way there. The restroom was empty with no closed cubicles as Mel made her way inside, and she was befuddled to see Frank follow after her.

"You know this is the women's restroom, right?"

"Yeah." He shrugged, carefree. "We're doctors." He added, as if that explained it. And maybe it did.

Mel nodded and followed his lead, shrugging her shoulders as she started extricating herself from her bloody jacket. She tried not touching the bloody sleeves, which wasn't easy given the tightness of the fit.

"I'll just put these here." Frank said, placing the scrubs on the ledge of the sink. He smiled at her little dance as she struggled to get out of the jacket.

"Need a hand?" 

"Please."

She looked up as he stepped in closer. The jacket was already down to her elbows, and he grabbed it to pull it down the rest of the way, turning the bloody sleeves inside out. He was focused on his task of not making a mess, an adorable frown on his face, giving Mel the opportunity to just look at him for a moment. Suddenly she realized this was the first time they'd been alone in a room since waking up in the same bed this morning. Closed walls, a closed door and not a person in sight.

"You okay?" He asked when he noticed her looking, balling up her jacket and putting it in the plastic bag he'd swiped from the closet.

Mel just nodded. She couldn't be more okay.

"You should take this off too." Frank said, tugging at the hem of her blood-spattered shirt.

The touch brought a certain innuendo to his words and she felt her blush spread down her neck. Frank's eyes widened as the implication hit him and Mel grabbed his wrist before he could pull back.

"Uh, I'm wearing a tank underneath." Her eyes felt like they were frozen onto his. "I could use your help, I'll probably get blood all over my face otherwise." She huffed out a laugh, trying to ease the tension.

"Right." Frank just blinked at her.

It was weird how this morning she'd woken up with his hand under her shirt, palming her bare stomach, and now the barest implication of him taking her shirt off was enough to rattle them. It was the hospital, Mel knew, creating a strange invisible wall between Dr. King and Dr. Langdon, R3 and future attending, and Mel and Frank, really close best friends who didn't have a lot of personal boundaries left. It wasn't new, but the past two weeks had brought a whole new level of closeness, and it was weird to have to hold back now.

Mel eventually started removing her shirt herself, Frank unfreezing and springing into action as he helped peel it off her. He slipped a hand underneath to keep the bloodied fabric pulled away from her face as they dragged it upward, and Mel sucked in a breath as his knuckles grazed her stomach. Frank didn't make a sound, but his eyes were focused on hers like he was watching her every move. She closed her eyes as the shirt went over her head and let Frank get it all the way off. 

When she opened them, she caught him dragging his gaze from her feet all the way up until he met her eyes. It felt like a physical touch, sending tingles up her spine.

"All clean." He said, voice hoarse in a way that made Mel strangely heated. 

He turned away, and for a moment, Mel wanted to grab onto him to keep him from leaving, but he just bagged the shirt with her jacket and grabbed the scrub top from the sink before facing her again, smiling softly at whatever expression her face was making.

"Need help getting this on?" He asked, a hint of a smirk that said he knew she could easily get the scrub top on herself.

Mel bit her lip to keep her smile from growing too bright and simply stuck her hands in the air.

Frank chuckled, stepping closer to ease her arms into the scrub top, sliding it over her head and down her torso. He then gently straightened her glasses and slipped his hand under the collar of her shirt to pull her braid free, pulling it over her shoulder. His touch was soft and careful, and Mel wanted him closer, wanted to press against him like she did at home, to feel that intimacy they so easily shared when it was just them in their space.

She loved him so much it actually ached a little, and she absentmindedly reached up to rub at her chest. 

Frank furrowed his brow in concern. "You okay, sweetheart?"

The gravelly sweetheart was too much, and Mel gave in, closing the remaining distance to press up against him in a hug, holding onto the back of his shirt as she pressed her forehead to his chest. He didn't hesitate in folding her in, resting his chin on top like he'd done this morning. Except now there were no nurses to watch them, no Dana to look at her like she knew something. There was no one and Mel could just burrow closer, could bury her face into him and just be for a moment. Frank petted a large comforting hand down her back, the other coming up to cup the back of Mel's neck under her braid. She was engulfed, and it was perfect.

"God, I really missed you." Frank murmured above her.

Mel pressed her smile against his sternum. "You saw me every day, I stayed at your house."

"Yeah, but I was here for twelve hours, and you were at home in bed."

The implication of them sharing a home and a bed sent butterflies through her stomach. His house had started to feel like home, she hadn't even minded not sleeping at her own place for a whole two weeks. That's something she could never have imagined before him, leaving her safe place for days at a time. But Frank's house, it was different, seeing her and Becca's stuff and Frank's stuff and the kids' stuff all intermingled just felt so right. And it was so nice to be surrounded by him even if he wasn't there, his sheets, his pillow, his clothes, his favorite books, his clutter, his dog, even his kids at times. It had made it easier to miss him, to while away the hours while waiting for him to come home, always with a smile on his face, making it impossible for her to have guessed he'd spent his day missing her and being a moody asshole to their coworkers.

"Cassie did say you were being grumpy." She said, the confusing morning becoming clearer now.

She tilted her head back until her chin was resting on his chest so she could look up at him, his head tilting down to do the same. 

"I wasn't grumpy, I was just eager to get home, and everyone was so slow all the time. It pissed me off."

Mel laughed at the annoyed expression on his face.

"Go ahead, laugh at my suffering, Mel."

"I'm sorry," she giggled. "You look cute when you're annoyed."

"Do I?" He pursed his lips. "I'll take that."

Mel smiled at him looking pleased, and she reached up to push the hair that had fallen in his eyes away from his forehead.

"You need a haircut." She said. Please don't get one, she thought.

"Nah, I like you tucking it away for me."

"You're so needy."

"Only for you."

Mel flushed at the sincerity in his voice, the teasing lilt gone.

"Yeah?" She couldn't help but sigh.

Frank hummed, his face growing serious. His eyes dropped to her mouth with a suggestiveness that made her belly flutter in anticipation of something she didn't know she could get. She gasped as he pressed his hand to the small of her back, inching them impossibly closer. He wrapped his other hand more firmly around her neck until she was sure her pulse was thumping against his palm, and the warmth and size of his hand was so intoxicating she couldn't help but eagerly push into it.

"Mel-" 

And okay, forget petnames, he could call her only Mel for the rest of his life as long as he spoke her name like that, like the very sound of it was dragged from the depths of his chest. 

For a terribly exhilarating moment, she started imagining that Frank Langdon might actually want to kiss her, here and right now. Her grip on his scrub top tightened as she followed his lead and glanced at his mouth, his lips were parted, and Mel was so eager to get a taste of them she could hardly breathe with it, wetting her bottom lip without thinking and dragging a choked sound from Frank's mouth that had her flushing hot. She edged up on the tips of her toes and-

The door slammed open with a bang. They sprang apart, Frank leaning against the sink with a casual nonchalance that didn't match up with his flushed cheeks and Mel just standing there, her eyes darting between a stunned Javadi, Frank and the ceiling.

Frank seemed to realize being in the women's restroom with Javadi wasn't the best idea, and he straightened up with a jolt, heading towards the door, grabbing the bag with Mel's bloody clothes on the way.

"Early lunch in ten?" He asked, his voice still carrying that hoarseness from before. She loved him for not leaving without saying anything.

"Mm-hmm." She nodded, not trusting her voice quite yet.

Frank left the room with a heated backward glance, which only made her stomach flutter again. It was almost a relief when he was out of sight, her body deflating as the enticing energy between them was cut with the slamming of the door.

Javadi was still there though, and Mel had to face her eventually.

"Hi," she said. "We're friends."

"I'm in love with Mateo." The girl blurted out.

"Oh."

Mel already knew that. According to Cassie, Javadi and Mateo had a whole will they or won't they thing going on, where Mateo kept insisting he didn't date coworkers, but he also kept taking Victoria out for drinks while she fell in love with him. Cassie insisted the feelings were mutual, but Mateo was just being annoying about it.

"I just mean- I don't judge." Javadi said, glancing vaguely at the scene of the crime she'd walked in on.

"Oh, we're not-" She quieted at Javadi's raised eyebrow. "I mean, we're- yeah, okay, no, I get what you mean." She could hardly talk herself out of this.

"It's why I keep staring, you know?"

Mel tilted her head in confusion.

"It's not because I mind or because I think it's weird. Whenever you and Dr. Langdon are together, you seem close, and he doesn't mind showing that, even if people might see. I guess I'm just a little jealous, the closest me and Mateo get during work hours is chasing a patient with a boombox." She said the last bit with no small amount of frustration.

Mel huffed out a laugh. "I'm sorry, Victoria."

"No, don't be sorry, really, I'm happy for you."

"Thanks but we're really not-" She trailed off, vaguely gesturing.

"Oh-" Javadi said, utterly surprised. "Are you sure?"

Mel hesitated. "I was?" Is what she eventually settled on because the moment in this bathroom had done more to persuade her of Frank's maybe reciprocated feelings than all of Becca's and Trinity's speeches combined.

"Yeah, I'd say was too, because if this whole thing here was platonic then love is truly dead."

Mel flushed.

"Now, I'm going to pee because my bladder is gonna burst." She hurried past Mel. "Good luck with lunch."

"Thank you." She might need it.

Mel used the ten minutes to calm herself down and to convince her stubborn brain that no, they weren't going to make out in the break room. And then ten minutes turned into thirty minutes because Jamie had just gotten back from radiology, and Mel wanted to discharge him first. The radiologist had concluded the break was only a buckle fracture and didn't need a cast, so Mel just rechecked the splint and informed the mom on the aftercare instructions before leaving her with Kiara to discuss other daycare options.

Another five minutes later, her pulse jumped with nerves as she approached the break room, and she took a breath before easing open the door, not sure if she was happy or disappointed to find Samira and Dana sitting at the table with Frank. He looked up as soon as he noticed her, kicking out the chair next to him with a reassuring smile, a clear invitation she couldn't nor wanted to refuse. She sat down and felt his knee knock against hers, remaining there. The last of her nerves left her body, and she relaxed against his touch. No matter what happened, he was still her best friend.

Frank had made them sandwiches this morning, bleary-eyed and in nothing but a pair of pajama pants. Mel had almost poured coffee onto the counter instead of in her mug. The paper bag already sat on the table in front of him, and he was waving around a half-finished sandwich as he argued with Samira over day shift vs. night shift.

"You just like the night shift because Abbott's the attending." He said, pointing at her with his sandwich.

Samira scoffed though the blush on her face was unmistakable, even with her brown skin. "I can say the same about you, Langdon."

"What, that I like Abbott?"

Samira rolled her eyes. "You just like the day shift because Mel's on it." 

Franks glanced at her with a quick smile. "I'm not gonna deny that. The one time she had a night shift, some dude literally knocked her around, so yes, day shift anytime."

"He didn't knock me around, he pushed me, and I fell weird." She countered, taking a bite of her own sandwich.

"Same thing, I still can't believe you don't wanna sue him."

"You haven't sued him, honey?" Dana asked, sipping at her coffee.

"He's probably going to prison for drug trafficking, prison in America is plenty of punishment."

Next came Frank's argument that she'd had to hear almost every day for the past two weeks. Just because he's already going down for drug trafficking doesn't mean he can't also go down for assault, Mel. It had been a frequently revisited topic at the dinner table, but Mel was in no mood to go through the trouble of suing someone. Despite her right to do so, she had plenty of self-awareness to know she might even feel guilty for adding to his prison sentence. A week ago, she'd subtly put on a documentary on the American prison system, and by the end, Frank had reluctantly admitted that he understood where she was coming from. It didn't mean Mel didn't understand him too. She did, having woken up plenty of times with Frank's eyes tracing her bruised face. She knew the sight of it had yet to truly leave him, if it ever would.

"I might sue the guy with the boombox." Dana eventually said, when Mel had gotten Frank to drop his argument.

"No don't," Frank pleaded. "Watching Mateo and Javadi run around in circles like that was a once in a lifetime event. I love boombox guy."

Mel giggled as the boombox chase ran through her mind again.

Samira laughed with her. "Why is that guy even in here?"

"He needs to be admitted upstairs for observation, so as long as there's no bed, he'll be here." Dana sighed, though her eyes sparkled with amusement.

Frank grinned. "Great, I'm looking forward to more Bonnie Tyler."

"I'm sending you two after him next time." Dana gestured at him and Mel. "Let the dynamic duo fix it."

"If they can stop giggling long enough." Samira teased.

"Hey!" Mel protested. "You were just as bad." 

"Yeah, Mohan. You and Cass were almost on the floor."

Samira gasped, faking innocence at her and Frank's accusations.

Dana narrowed her eyes at her. "You and McKay can go in after them."

Cassie walked in then, and Mel watched them rehash the whole boombox thing as she ate her sandwich with a smile, giggling as Cassie and Frank eventually started their own off-key rendition of Total Eclipse of the Heart. Samira left them with a groan, saying she needed to check on her diabetes patient, though Mel caught her smiling. Dr. Collins walked in on them mid-performance, raised her eyebrows, and promptly walked back out, her hands on Dr. Robby's shoulders as she steered him away from the break room. Mel caught only a glimpse of the mostly fond exasperation on his face.

Mel clapped when they were done, earning her twin grins and bows. Dana just shook her head in amused disbelief, glancing from Frank to Mel with a content, almost grateful smile, and Mel knew she was just as happy as her that they'd come this far after that terrible day from a year ago.

Mel stayed a little longer to finish her sandwich, Dana leaving them with the assurance that, despite the boombox chaos, it was kind of quiet today, not that she explicitly mentioned the q-word, she'd never. Frank had already finished and had stretched his arm out on the back of Mel's chair, his fingers teasing at the tangles of her braid while he asked Cassie about Harrison, and Mel needed to force herself to stop smiling so she could chew the rest of her sandwich. 

They were interrupted when Whitaker stuck his head inside asking for help with an older woman experiencing stomach pains.

"Duty calls." Frank said as he stood up. 

Mel immediately missed the warmth of him, feeling strangely bereft because he'd been at her side almost the entire time since they did the STEMI together.

"Come find me when you're done." He said, as if reading her mind, and pressed a surprising kiss to the top of her head before pushing a slightly bewildered Whitaker out the door. The touch had been as innocent as could be, but Mel's toes had still curled inside her sneakers.

Her eyes were wide as she stared at Cassie, waiting for the inevitable comment, but Cassie just chuckled softly and continued her rant about Harrison's teacher. Mel was glad for the reprieve. She even found herself mentioning Frank's kids, sharing the latest kindergarten mishap where Tanner had brought a frog to school that he'd caught in the garden the night before. Frank still checked his backpack for stray critters.

"You're good for him, Mel." Cassie smiled at her.

Mel's answering smile was pleased because she liked the thought of that, and as Frank's sponsor, Cassie was a pretty reliable source. "He's good for me too."

"Yeah, you're really good together."

"Oh, we arent-" Mel started, for what felt like the hundredth time today. No reprieve after all.

"I know you aren't, trust me." Cassie said with a smile that spoke of things Mel had no clue about. Did she and Frank talk about her? 

"But Mel, that doesn't mean you can't."

Mel just nodded vaguely because she had no idea what to say to that. Thankfully, Cassie didn't press further, and Mel left the break room when Mateo and Javadi showed up to join Cassie for lunch. Frank wasn't at the nurse's station, so Mel figured he was still on Whitaker's case. 

"Mel!" Donnie walked up to her. "I've got a teenager with a broken nose in South 20, she's been bawling her eyes out for ten minutes because senior prom's in three weeks. Could you-" He trailed off, pleading smile on his face.

"Of course, lead the way. Prom is very important."

She remembered her own prom. By senior year she had made friends so she didn't have to go alone, but watching the couples slowdance had left her with a sense of disappointment, an experience missed. Her first boyfriend had come around when she was in college, and there were no proms in college.

She passed Chris' room on the way to her new patient, and he waved at her with his good hand. She waved out of politeness but kept walking, ignoring Donnie's huff of laughter.

Donnie hadn't been exaggerating. The seventeen-year-old girl was weeping when they pulled back the curtain, tears wetting the top of her sports uniform, which was already covered in blood, dried mostly as the bleeding did seem to have stopped. Mel almost winced at the crooked shape of the girl's nose. The break had definitely displaced a bone. The woman standing off to the side introduced herself as the girl's teacher and explained the situation, a volleyball to the face during gym class, but she didn't seem in a hurry to get her student to stop crying, simply gestured helplessly in her direction before turning to her phone again.

Mel walked up to the girl. "Hi Maya, I'm Dr. King. Do you think you can tell me what happened?"

More crying.

"I know it hurts, but I need you to calm down so I can take a look, okay?"

"I'm gonna be so ugly." The girl cried between hitched breaths.

Mel shared a commiserating look with Donny, who was prepping the lidocaine.

"That's not true. If you-"

She broke off as a familiar song again reverberated across the ER, looking over her shoulder as if the man with the boombox might pass by. 

The crying petered out to sniffles. "Is that Total Eclipse of the Heart?" The girl asked, voice thick.

Thank you, Mr. Boombox, Mel thought. "Yes, you know that song?"

"It was in glee."

Mel smiled and made use of her calmed state to explain to the girl that she was going to inject some lidocaine to numb her nose so she could examine the break. It was the first time she'd explained a procedure to background music. Maya seemed to like it and even started singing along while they waited for the anesthetic to kick in. Mel meanwhile pondered finding a more senior doctor for a second opinion. She'd fixed a few broken noses before, but the girl's nerves about having a pretty nose for prom struck a chord, and she wanted to send her home happy. The music stopped, pulling Mel from her thoughts. 

"Okay, I'm gonna go ahead and examine your nose now." She said, reaching out. "You might feel a little pressure."

Maya nodded, closing her eyes. Mel used her fingers to feel around for a minute before shining her penlight inside the nostrils to inspect more of the damage. She was happy to find she could probably reposition the nose back to it's original position without too much trouble. Maya frowned a little at the prodding, but the lidocaine was doing its job because she didn't make a sound. She opened her eyes when Mel pulled back.

"Good news, I don't think you need surgery. We should be able to fix this manually."

"So it will look exactly the same?" The girl asked, hopeful.

Mel gave her a sympathetic smile. "I'm not going to lie, Maya. The bones were displaced, so there is a chance your nose might look a little different than before, but if there is a change, it should be minor."

The girl seemed to get a little teary, but she took a deep breath through her mouth and nodded. "That's okay. I just turned eighteen, I can always get a nosejob."

Mel nodded. "That is always an option if you're unhappy with the result."

Sensing the girl's nerves, Mel decided she could use that second opinion, just to be sure. As if summoned, footsteps walked up behind her and Maya's eyes went wide at whoever had appeared.

"Mel, where were you? Dana sent me to catch boombox guy on my own. He was weirdly slippery."

She chuckled, looking over her shoulder. Frank looked frazzled, his hair falling messily down his forehead again, and Mel could more than sympathize with the stunned girl. "Sorry, I was busy with Maya here."

"Hi Maya, that's an impressive break you got there." Frank said, coming closer to stand shoulder to shoulder with Mel.

The girl just squeaked, her eyes screaming help me as they flicked towards Mel. Always amusing to see teenage girls around Frank. 

"Thank you for catching boombox guy, I'm sorry I wasn't there to help you." She looked up at him. "I could use your help on this, though." She ignored Maya's betrayed eyes burning in the side of her head, the girl would thank her if it kept Mel from ruining her nose.

 "Yeah?" Frank smiled at her. "Talk to me."

"I think I can just realign the bones with a closed reduction, but I'd like a second opinion, just in case. Senior prom's in three weeks so it's important."

"Really?" Frank turned his smile onto Maya, the poor girl. "Got an outfit already?"

She just nodded, eyes wide as Frank snapped on a pair of gloves. "Well, we'll make sure you're gonna be looking your best, okay?" He shuffled closer so he could easily reach the girl's nose, inching into Mel's space.

"She sedated?" He asked, looking back to Mel for a moment. His face was surprisingly close, and she glanced at his mouth before she realized what she was doing and promptly snapped her eyes upward again.

"Yes." She said quickly. "All numb."

"Okay." Frank blinked, looking somewhat speechless, before facing forward again. "A little pressure." He warned Maya before pressing his fingers along the break, the girl squeezing her eyes shut again. He tilted her head back so he could shine a light inside her nostrils and eventually pulled back with a small hum. He glanced at Mel again, and this time she made sure to keep her eyes fixed above his nose. 

"You're right as always, Dr. King." He gave her a nod. "Closed reduction should take care of this."

"Great." Mel clasped her hands together with a smile, happy that she'd been right.

Frank grinned at her excitement and backed up a little. "Want me to stick around while you fix it?"

Mel glanced at Maya, who was probably screaming no at her inside her mind, going by the teenage girl fury in her eyes. Deciding to give her already stressed-out patient a break, she shook her head.

"I've done closed reductions before, I'll be fine."

Frank looked mildly disappointed. "You sure? I don't have anything else right now." Mel snorted because there was always something else to do around here.

"I'm sure." She said.

Still, he didn't move, just eyed her suspiciously as if curious why she wanted him to leave. Mel sighed and turned to him, putting her hands on his arms to start moving him out of the curtained area.

"You're freaking out my patient with your whole Frank thing, so please leave the room." She said, voice lowered.

Frank smirked but let himself be led backward, his body easily following the guidance of her touch. "My whole Frank thing?"

"You know what I mean."

"No, I don't, please elaborate, Dr King."

"I won't."

He stared at her, eyes roving her face as his smirk stayed stubbornly in place. She could feel the blush rising to her cheeks, as if summoned by his gaze.

"Let's come back to this later, without an audience."

She glanced over her shoulder to find Maya and Donnie intensely gawking at them. Even the teacher had put down her phone to watch them. Mel's blush deepened as she turned back to Frank.

"Let's not."

"Come find me later." Frank said, ignoring her. "And actually come find me this time, don't ditch me for Donnie again." He said, raising his voice, eyes flashing over her shoulder.

"She likes me better, man." Donnie teased back.

Mel chuckled at Frank's exaggerated frown. "You know, I get paid to see patients, not to follow you around the hospital."

"Hmm, a shame."

"Frank-" Mel swallowed. "I'm going back to work." She needed to exit whatever this was as fast as possible.

"You sure you don't need my help with the reduction?" Frank asked, raising his voice again as he peered past Mel's shoulder. She could hear Maya squeak again.

"Yes, I'm sure. Go terrorize someone else."

Frank sighed. "Fine, but I'll miss you." He said, walking off backward while forming his fingers into a heart shape over his chest, sending her a wink before disappearing around the corner.

Mel sighed, taking a small moment to compose herself, because that man was a menace. She retook her place at Maya's side, only to be startled by the girl's wide eyes as they regarded her.

"Is he your boyfriend?"

Mel coughed slightly. "No. Dr. Langdon is my friend, and coworker."

"Well Dr. Langdon didn't look at you like a friend, let alone a coworker." 

She heard Donnie let out a sound of agreement and frowned at him. God, this day was really testing Mel's never-ending patience. Her fault for not pushing Frank out of the room before he could even open his mouth.

"Oh, sorry, is it like not allowed because you work together?" Maya continued, glancing at Donnie from the corner of her eye. "In that case, I didn't say anything. Just friends, totally looked like that, yeah. Very friendly."

Mel smiled at her because that was kind of sweet and decided her best option here was to ignore the elephant in the room. "Donnie, could you get me the elevator and forceps, please?" She asked, before addressing Maya. "I'm gonna go ahead and use some instruments to push the bones in your nose back into place. It won't hurt a lot, but you might feel a little discomfort. Tell me if it's too much, okay?"

Maya nodded and closed her eyes as Mel got started. The repair was smooth, and twenty minutes later everything sat back into place.

"Is it done?"

"Yes, I just have to pack it so it doesn't move again."

"Does it look okay?"

"It'll take some time for the swelling to go down, but it looks fine, Maya. You're still very pretty."

The girl smiled at her. "So, how long till it heals?" She asked. "I plan on becoming prom queen and I really can't be in the yearbook with a swollen nose, Dr. Mel."

Mel floundered slightly at the use of her name, the girl must have picked it up from Frank's entrance.

"Uh, it should heal within three to six weeks, but the swelling should go down within a few days and the splint can come off after a week or so. Just be careful with your nose when you're dancing."

"Okay, I'll just tell my boyfriend my doctor doesn't want me doing any activities where balls fly at my nose. I've always wanted to say that."

Mel let out a nervous laugh. "Ha, that was funny, if slightly inappropriate."

"Sorry." Maya said, looking anything but.

Mel started on the splint, and by the time she'd finished bandaging the girl's nose, she was fully informed on the highs and lows of high school prom queen campaigns, Maya had stopped looking like the end of the world was nigh, and her mom had arrived in time for the aftercare instructions and discharge.

"Thank you, Dr. Mel." Maya said as she walked her towards the exit. "And uh, good luck with your "friendship" with Dr. Langdon." She actually used quotation marks and gave her a dramatic wink.

Mel stood frozen for a moment, and in the worst timing ever, Trinity appeared at her shoulder.

"Did that teenager just imply you're shaking sheets with Langdon?"

Mel hummed. "The universe hates me today. I must've done something."

"It can't possibly hate you because you're about to watch something never before seen."

"I am?"

"Yes, you're gonna watch me apologize."

"I am?" She repeated, voice awed, because she didn't think she'd ever heard Trinity say the words I'm sorry.

"Yes, although miss quotation marks over there was this close to changing my mind."

Mel stared at her, confused, and Trinity sighed.

"I'm sorry for harassing you earlier. I shouldn't have pushed. If you want to remain oblivious to your very obvious thing with Langdon, that's your choice and I should respect it."

"That was a strange apology." Mel concluded, though it did warm her that Trinity felt the need to make one.

"Yeah well, I'm outta practice."

"Never had any practice, more likely."

"Melissa King, was that a joke?" Trinity said, voice awed.

"I make jokes sometimes."

"Yeah, but this one was good."

"They're all good, you just don't get me."

"Not like Frank." Trinity leaned in to whisper.

Mel just turned around and walked up to the nurse's station, intending to finish her chart. 

"Sorry, that was the last time, I promise." Trinity walked after her.

Mel sincerely doubted it, though she did will it to be true. After her and Frank's almost-kiss- and oh wow, the very idea had her heart skipping a beat. After that, she wasn't sure how well she'd hold up against another Trinity ambush because she might end up admitting to the almost-kiss and how it was slowly convincing even the most stubborn parts of her brain that Trinity might actually have a point when it came to Mel's obliviousness.

"You okay, sweetie?" Dana asked, scrutinizing her over the rim of her glasses. "Dr. Santos bothering you?"

"Hey!" Trinity protested. "I'm being nice for a change."

"As long as you know it's a change, hon." Dana chuckled.

"Hey Mel," Whitaker passed by them, looking mildly uncomfortable like always. "Frank asked me to tell you he was doing a paracentesis in North 5, if you're interested."

Mel was interested, very interested even, but she was also very aware of everyone's eyes on her as she received this information. 

"God, I'm really biting my tongue here." Trinity commented. 

At least someone was, Perlah and Princess were doing anything but, and Mel could swear she saw them exchange another twenty.

"Thank you, Dennis. But I'm busy doing a-" She peered at the top of the board. "rectal foreign body removal." She cringed as soon as she realized what she'd signed up for.

"That's great." Whitaker said, giving her an awkward thumbs-up before disappearing again.

Trinity laughed. "Tragic, Mel." 

She sighed. "I know."

The afternoon started dragging then. She talked to the foreign body patient and was dumbstruck with surprise when he admitted there was an iPod stuck up there.

Morbidly curious as she was, she asked about the circumstances, to which the patient answered that he wanted to feel the bass. She sent him off for X-rays and used the free time to help Samira with a woman who'd gone into anaphylactic shock. They got her stabilized by the time the X-rays for her foreign body patient came back, and she took what felt like forever getting the object out. She was this close to having him admitted for laparoscopic surgery when the iPod finally came out. It broke her record for weirdest thing she'd ever pulled out of a patient. She took a few more patients to cleanse her eyes and gave Earl another sandwich before ending up at the nurse's station for some charting.

She hadn't bumped into Frank at all the past few hours, only catching glimpses of him here and there, and his absence left her feeling weirdly discomfited. She only had her earlier self to blame, if only she'd ignored everyone's stares and just hightailed it to North 5 to help him with the paracentesis. Gossip she could live through, no Frank was another thing entirely.

"Penny for your thoughts?"

She almost jumped out of her skin as Dr. Robby appeared beside her.

"Sorry, didn't mean to startle you." He said, settling behind the computer next to her. "Guilty conscience?"

"Uh- I don't- no?"

"Just kidding, Dr. King." He huffed out a laugh as he put on his glasses.

Mel smiled awkwardly, relieved that Dr. Robby hadn't suddenly learned to mind-read.

"So, are you doing anything to celebrate Frank's promotion? I tried asking him about it, but he keeps running away from me."

The image brought a fond smile to her face. He could be such a dork sometimes.

"He doesn't want to make a big deal out of it, even made me promise not to plan anything."

"And are you going to keep your promise?"

"I'm going to try. He said he'd rather work ten MCIs in a row than walk into a surprise party, but his mom really wants to do something, so I might have to hide him somewhere."

Dr. Robby chuckled. "What Deb wants, Deb gets in my experience." He said. "But you're a force to be reckoned with, Mel. If you say no, I'm sure she'll listen."

Mel was oddly thrilled to learn that Dr. Robby thought of her that way. She was used to people underestimating her, and it was always nice when someone didn't, especially someone she looked up to.

"Thank you." She smiled up at him. "I might take him out to dinner though, once it's official. If you wanted to join us, I'm sure he wouldn't mind?"

Because despite Frank's fear of Dr. Robby's sentimental speeches, he did like the man's company.

"No, it's fine," Dr. Robby waved her away with a chuckle. "I'm sure he'll be happiest going with you, and if he's happy, I'm happy."

In that moment, Mel was more grateful than ever that Frank and Dr. Robby had managed to patch up their friendship.

"You know, you're really good for him, Mel." He added.

She froze at the words, staring wordlessly as he smiled at her, similarly to how Dana and Cassie had smiled at her, back in the break room. 

"A year ago, I never could have imagined him being his old self again, but he is. Better even, happier than I've seen him in a long time."

"He's good for me too." She repeated the words she'd said to Cassie because while she loved the idea of making Frank happy, she refused to make it seem like she was the only one offering anything. Frank had enriched her life so much. Her confidence as a doctor had blossomed under his approving eye, his presence had filled up an emptiness that Mel had never even noticed until it was suddenly filled, and most of all, Frank made her feel so utterly seen it was like she'd been invisible before.

"I know." Dr. Robby inclined his head. "I told him that, but I'm not sure he believed me."

Mel frowned, wondering if that was the conversation she'd interrupted in the break room. She voiced the thought out loud and was almost blinded by the brightness of Dr. Robby's grin.

"Partly." He said, voice filled with laughter. "He can fill you in on the rest."

"He didn't want to tell me." Mel pouted, hearing Dr. Robby whisper something under his breath that sounded suspicously like idiot.

Their bubble of calm was interrupted by the intercom warning of an incoming suspected overdose, slamming the pair of them back into reality without mercy and what could have been.

"You can sit this one out if you want." Dr. Robby said as he grabbed a pair of gloves.

She grabbed her own pair and followed him towards the ambulance bay. "I'm good." She'd treated plenty of overdoses the past year, and sure, it wasn't her favorite thing to do, but she could mostly separate them from Frank. Mostly. Afterwards, she ended up on the roof more often than not.

This case was a bad one. Bad enough that Dr. Robby called over Dr. Collins as soon as the patient was wheeled inside trauma one. The man was unconscious, unresponsive, and barely breathing. 

Dr. Collins grimaced at his vital signs as the nurses got him hooked up to the monitor. "He's well on his way to complete respiratory failure and cardiac arrest." She said. "Get me another dose of Naxolone. Dr. King, get an ET tube in there, now."

Mel hurried up to the head of the table where Princess handed her the laryngoscope. She leaned over to open the patient's mouth. His lips were turning blue and- 

Mel paused. There was a dimple in his chin. 

She froze, hand clenching around the metal as her ears started to ring.

"Mel," Dr. Collins called her name, and Mel forced her gaze away from the dimple to the other doctor, sound rushing in again. "I just saw Langdon in central with an old woman who couldn't stop chattering about how handsome he is, he's fine."

Mel nodded. Of course he was fine. It wasn't Frank lying on the table, the logical part of her brain knew that, it was the emotional part that needed to get on board. It was just- she sometimes dreamed about Frank on a table like this, and the sheer dread weighing her down on those nights made her feel insane. It was the same dread she felt now.

"Mel, let me-" Dr. Robby started.

"No, I've got this." Mel said because she was a doctor and she could push aside her own issues to help this man.

Pulling herself together, she slipped the laryngoscope inside before following with the ET tube. She kept her mind deliberately turned off, thinking of nothing while she let instinct guide her hands. Dr. Robby observed her closely, and Mel felt better knowing he was there to step in if need be, even if he looked a touch pale himself.

The patient flatlined ten minutes in and the sound carved itself into Mel's ears. They tried to bring him back but the flatline stubbornly persisted, and Dr. Collins pronounced him dead twenty minutes later. Mel glanced at the patient's face, and for one agonizing moment, her brain tricked her again into seeing Frank, his body lifeless on the table. Her panicked double take didn't go unnoticed by Dr. Collins who was at her side immediately.

"You should take a break."

"I don't-"

"Take a break, Mel." Dr. Robby interjected. "Doctor's orders." His kind smile had a grieved tilt to it, and Mel missed the version of the man she'd sat next to only half an hour before. She figured he could use a break himself, but she knew Dr. Collins would take care of him.

So she listened and took the break because her hands were shaking and her heartbeat was picking up, and she needed to exit the room with the dead body in it. She also desperately needed to lay eyes on Frank. She paced around the nurse's station. It'd been a few hours since she saw him, since he'd signed that adorable little heart at her. Was he really okay? Maybe something happened in the meantime. She took a deep breath to keep from crying because at first glance, she couldn't find him.

"Over there, hon." Dana walked up to her, eyes soft with sympathy, and grabbed her oh so gently by the shoulder to turn her ninety degrees.

And there he was, all smiles as he sutured up the arm of an old woman who kept breaking off into laughter at whatever he was saying. Mel's breath left her in a whoosh, and she had to lock her knees to keep them from buckling in relief. Dana gave her a soft pat to the shoulder and left her to it. The door to the exam room was open, and now that her panic was slowly ebbing away, she could hear his voice drifting out, the familiar charming chit-chat Frank loved to engage in with old ladies filling her ears. 

He must have sensed her eyes on him because his head swiveled towards her, his easy smile falling away at whatever broken expression had remained on her face.

She listened to him excuse himself and stared quietly as he hurried up to her, dropping his gloves in the bin on his way over.

"Mel-" He cupped her elbow, dipping down to catch her eyes. "Are you okay? What happened?"

"He had a dimple in his chin."

Frank's brow furrowed in concern. "Sweetheart, what are you talking about?" He asked, reaching up to tuck a stray lock of hair behind her ear. He looked about two seconds away from ushering her into an exam room and checking for a concussion.

Mel closed her eyes and gathered her thoughts. Frank was fine, he was here, alive, doing better, doing great even. She opened them again to find him reaching for the penlight sitting in the pocket of his scrub top. Her lips twitched with a smile, and the relief on Frank's face made her feel bad for worrying him. She took his hand, tugging it away from the penlight and intertwining their fingers instead.

"Sorry, just a bad case."

"You lost a patient?" He asked, eyes filled with compassion.

"Mm-hmm." She paused, hesitant, but she hated keeping things from Frank. "He OD'd." She added quietly.

Frank's gaze tightened in understanding, and Mel hated that too. She knew he blamed himself for gifting her this particular weak spot, they'd had that conversation plenty of times, but it was the last thing Mel wanted. After all, she'd take a weak spot any day if it got her Frank in return. She would just keep repeating that until the words were burned into his brain.

"Any day." She said, a reminder of the words spoken on those quiet nights where he'd held her tight and whispered apologies into her hair.

His eyes softened, his smile sad but warm as he squeezed her hand. "How about you keep me company for a bit, yeah?" He asked, clearing his throat. "Bertha's great, you'll love her."

Mel nodded because there was nothing she wanted more than to just be near him. It didn't even matter who else was in the room. She'd happily spend hours watching him suture while charming Bertha, fully in his element. The relief was plain on Frank's face, and he guided her inside with a hand pressed to the small of her back.

"Bertha, let me introduce you to our finest resident, Dr. Melissa King. She's gonna keep an eye on me to make sure you're getting the best possible care."

"Mel!" Bertha said her name as if they were long lost friends and for a moment, Mel thought she'd actually forgotten meeting this woman. "I've heard so much about you from Frank over here."

"Oh." Well, that explained it.

She arched her brow causing Frank to flush endearingly red, an innocent smile on his face as he shrugged his shoulders.

"All good things, of course." Bertha continued. "He likes to brag about you."

"Okay, Bertha, you can stop embarrassing me anytime now." Frank joked, snapping on a new pair of gloves.

"Don't listen to him, ma'am, please continue."

Frank spluttered in protest, but his eyes sparkled at her.

"Ma'am," Bertha repeated, delighted. "Oh, you are a sweet one."

"I lied when I said that, she's actually a menace." Frank grinned, getting back on the stool and picking up a clean needle to continue his sutures.

"Don't mind him, hon. The way he talks about you, it reminds me so much of my Charlie."

"Your husband?" She asked, sitting down in the vacant chair on the other side of the bed, not even questioning why that was the first thing she'd thought of in relation to Frank talking about her.

"Ha, thank God no!" 

Mel laughed in surprise at the woman's vehemence, and Frank looked up from his work to send her a wink, mouth curled into a soft smile.

"Charlie's my wife." Bertha explained.

"Oh, that's nice. How long have you been married?"

"Legally, just a little under a year, but we've been together since 1971."

"Oh wow, that's a long time."

Bertha didn't need more encouragement to start gushing about her wife. Mel listened attentively, entranced by the narrative Bertha spun. She'd always adored love stories, ever since she was a little kid. And while movies and books were good, nothing beat a real-life, honest-to-God love story with a happy ending.

"It flew by." Bertha concluded, a wistful edge to her smile. "It's really true what they say, time flies when you're having fun. That's what happens when you meet your person. You know, people say there's no such thing as perfection, but honey, you can get pretty damn close."

The words hit home hard. Mel had experienced that sense of perfection before. She glanced at Frank and found him already looking at her. The look on his face made her breath catch in her chest, and she was sure the soul-stirring tangle of emotions in his eyes was fully reflected in hers. For one delirious moment, she was overtaken by the urge to grow old with him, to sit in a hospital room with a minor injury and tell her doctor that true love did exist because she had lived it.

Bertha cleared her throat. "I'd happily let you stare a bit longer, but just so you know, you have some onlookers."

They blinked at each other, reluctant to break their gaze despite the apparent eyes on them.

"Going by the money exchanging hands, I assume people are betting on the two of you."

They glanced outside simultaneously, a dozen stares or so snapping away as soon as they did. And Mel did indeed see Princess accept another twenty off of Perlah.

"You think they'd have work to in an ER." Frank commented, shaking his head in amusement.

Mel hummed in agreement, already becoming desensitized to the stares. She decided to get up, because despite wanting to sit in this room for the rest of the day, she did get paid to work. Frank was finishing up anyway, tying off his stitches. His idea of having her hang around had done the trick of calming her. Bertha was a joy, and her soft speaking voice combined with Frank's steady presence had worked wonders for her nervous system.

"Speaking of work, I should get back to it. I need to check up on Chris."

"Oh, I already checked on him. He's fine, still waiting for surgery."

"You checked on him?" Mel asked, confused and slightly worried, because she hadn't forgotten the maniacal look on his face just yet.

"Yup, you're off the hook."

"Shouldn't I see him anyway? What if he gives me a bad patient satisfaction score?"

"I wouldn't worry, Mel. He's giving you five stars no matter what." Frank grumbled.

"Oh, I should go thank him then." She said, walking up to the door.

Frank's head flew up. "That's not what I meant."

Mel just grinned at him. "I know."

"Menace." He shook his head in disbelief, looking at Bertha. "See, I told you."

The woman laughed heartily. "It was nice to meet you, Mel."

"Nice to meet you too, Bertha. Say hi to Charlie for me?"

"I will."

"And Frank?"

"Yeah?" He looked up with a questioning smile.

"Thank you." For steadying her, for taking Chris off her hands, for being him. He'd understand.

"Anything for you, Mel." It should have sounded teasing. It didn't. 

She walked out of the door with pink cheeks, and when she looked back over her shoulder, Frank was still watching her walk away.

Mel took a moment to finish the chart she'd been working on earlier and was just looking up at the board for another patient when-

Turnaround

That song was going to be stuck in her head for days.

"Dr. King!" Dana called from behind her. "It's your turn!"

Mel hesitated, pondering over the pros and cons of running from Dana and being on the receiving end of her very disappointed look versus a guy with a boombox and an ever-burning love for Bonnie Tyler. Mel sighed. Boombox guy, it was. She turned and walked up to Dana. 

"Where is he?"

"I don't know, I suggest you follow the music, hon." She smirked at her.

"Can I take a buddy?" She asked because she really didn't see her catching the guy on her own.

"Sure, if you can find a volunteer."

Mel looked around and set her eyes on Whitaker who was grimacing at the music. "Dennis!"

He jumped at the sound of his name, looking over in apprehension as Mel walked up to him. "Our turn to catch boombox guy."

"Why is it my-"

"Because Dana said so." Mel lied. She'd make it up to him later.

"Oh, okay. Um, how should we-"

Mel strategized with him. The sound was coming from the North side which had access from two sides. So if Mel went one way and Whitaker went the other, they should be able to catch the guy in the middle. By the end of their tactical huddle, Whitaker seemed weirdly into it and he strode to his entrance with conviction, Mel doing the same on the other side, if a little less confidently. She rounded the corner to see Whitaker appear on the other end of the space, and at once their eyes were focused on the dancing guy in the middle. He was fairly short and skinny, the boombox sat perched on his shoulder as he moved dramatically to Bonnie Tyler's singing. Mel closed in on her side, Whitaker mirroring her. She cursed when the guy noticed her and abruptly stopped dancing. He eyed her for a moment and then took off, sprinting in Whitaker's direction.

"Dennis, catch him!" Mel yelled.

She gasped in awe as Whitaker did just that. In a move of very unexpected athleticism, Whitaker tackled the guy to an empty gurney, the boombox falling to the ground with a thud. Mel half-expected it to break, but the music just carried on.

I really need you tonight
Forever's gonna start tonight

Faintly, she could hear Trinity's exclamation of go roomie! and what sounded like Frank's laughter, and she didn't know when exactly they'd gained an audience. Ignoring it, she hurried up to the boombox, smoothly skidding to her knees to frantically search for the off button while Whitaker did his best to keep the patient from escaping his hold as they slid from the gurney to the floor.

"Mel, I can't hold him much longer!" Whitaker warned her.

"I can't find the button!"

"How difficult can it be?"

"It's a boombox, Dennis, I've never seen a boombox, it's a relic!"

A familiar hand came down from heaven then and pressed a button Mel hadn't noticed yet, abruptly cutting off Bonnie Tyler. She looked up to find Frank cackling with laughter, and she couldn't help but join him at the utter ridiculousness of this situation.

"Hide the boombox, he's escaping!" Whitaker yelled.

Frank doubled over, which only spurred on Mel's own laughter, she was not getting away with this thing anytime soon.

"God, you two are useless." Trinity's voice spoke above her, though there was laughter in there too. "Give me that."

She grabbed the boombox off the floor and quickly disappeared with it. Only when she'd turned the corner did Whitaker let go of the patient, who just sighed deeply and promptly walked off.

"Should I follow him?" Whitaker asked hesitantly, still on the floor.

Frank's laughter finally started slowing down enough for him to get a sentence out.

"No, it's fine." He chuckled. "Apparently he always gets back to his room on his own."

He caught his breath as the last of his laughter died down, and he grabbed Mel's hand to pull her off the floor, wiping imaginary dust off her shoulders before hauling Whitaker upright too.

"That was a great tackle, man."

"Thank you." Whitaker smiled awkwardly but with a hint of pride. "I played soccer as a kid."

"Oh, no way." Frank grinned. "Still got it." 

He casually wrapped an arm around Mel's shoulders as the three of them walked back towards the nurse's station. "You play soccer too, Mel? That slide was really something."

"No. Me and Becca danced all through high school, though. I was always good at knee slides."

"Huh," Frank breathed out. "Were you now?"

Mel hummed. "I was also very flexible."

She startled as Frank choked on his breath.

"Okay," Whitaker interjected, eyes wide as he veered off to the left with a vague gesture towards the other side of the room. "I'm gonna go over there." 

"You okay?" Mel asked, turning toward Frank under the weight of his arm.

"Absolutely, never been better." His voice was raspy and his eyes carried a hint of astonishment where they were fixed on her face.

She smiled at him, a little confused, and he huffed out a helpless laugh. "God, Mel, you drive me crazy."

"Oh, I'm sorry?"

"Don't be, I love it."

Mel could only blush in response to that.

"Here's the dynamic duo." Dana grinned as they walked up to the nurse's station. "Heard you worked together after all."

"Don't let them fool you, Dana." Trinity said as she passed them. "They wouldn't have gotten shit done without Huckleberry and me. By the way, I hid the boombox in the women's bathroom."

"It was a team effort." Mel explained.

"Well, let's hope it was our last effort. If I have to hear that song one more time-" Dana trailed off as she stared at something over Mel's shoulder. "Earl, I said no more sandwiches, you're gonna throw up!" She strided off, presumably to try and achieve the impossible task of taking away Earl's sandwich.

Realizing she was still under Frank's arm, Mel reluctantly slid away before Perlah or Princess appeared, smiling at the disgruntled look on his face. Cute. 

"All done with Bertha?"

"Yeah, Charlie got here just before Bonnie Tyler started her-." He paused. "Third?"

"Fourth." Mel corrected.

"Fourth round." He said, snapping his finger. "I fast-tracked her discharge so they could get out of here."

Mel beamed at him. "That's sweet."

"That's me, sweetness personified."

"Okay, let's not get carried away."

Frank chuckled. "Hey, you'll come pick me up when I'm old and end up in the ER, right?"

"Well I'd have to, I am your emergency contact after all."

"Have too? Ouch, Mel."

"Oh, shush." She patted his arm. "How about you just don't end up in the ER. My old lady heart wouldn't be able to handle it and I might go into cardiac arrest."

Frank leaned in closer, mouth curved into a teasing smile, an undoubtedly clever remark on the tip of his tongue, when his head snapped up at the sound of frenzied shouting. Mel frowned when he huffed out a laugh.

"What?"

"I think the angry girlfriend finally arrived."

She craned her head and realized the shouting was coming from Chris' room. Oh, that angry girlfriend. 

"Should we-"

"I got it, you stay here." Frank said, starting towards the room. 

Mel hated people shouting, and Frank obviously knew that, but-

"I'm not letting you go in alone." She protested, following him.

"I think I can handle one angry girlfriend." 

As a woman herself, Mel had her doubts, so she inched into the doorway next to him.

"Don't lie to me, Chris!" A dark-haired woman stood next to his bed. "I heard you asking the nurse if Mel was single!" She said, gesturing to Perlah who was fiddling with the IV. "Who the fuck is Mel, huh?!"

Oh fuck. Maybe she should have stayed where she was.

"Come on, Jess, you know I only love you." Chris pleaded with her.

Jess turned around at the sound of Mel and Frank shuffling inside the room, taking a hard look at Mel and the ID pinned to her shirt. Frank subtly took a step in front of her, almost hiding her behind his frame.

"Unbelieveable!" Jess shouted, thankfully turning back to Chris instead of going in on Mel. "I stab you with a knife for flirting with the waitress, and you come and flirt with your fucking doctor!"

"I changed my mind, do I have to intervene?" Frank looked back at her, mouth slanted into a crooked smile. "She's not lying."

"If we want to avoid Dr. Robby's I'm very disappointed speech-"

"Right." Frank gave a sharp nod. "I would like to avoid that."

He closed in, walking up behind the yelling woman. "Okay, let's calm down, this is a hospital, people."

Mel was strangely proud of him for channeling his best Dr. Robby. She left him to it, zero plans of intervening herself because she figured she'd only make it worse anyway. Jess didn't hear Frank or acted like she didn't. Instead she snatched up the suture tray off to the side, and Mel watched in horror as she swung it backward with the clear intention to pummel her boyfriend, the backswing catching Frank right across the face with a thud that made Mel flinch, his head snapping to the side from the impact.

"Oh my god!" Mel cried out, echoed by Perlah who immediately ran outside yelling for security.

"Motherfucker." Frank bit out. Not even years of suppressing his curses around his kids could keep that one in.

To Mel's amazement, he shook it off with a flex of his jaw and stomped forward again, tackling Jess to the end of Chris' bed. She hadn't even noticed she'd whacked him, continuing to hit Chris with the tray while he did his best to fight her off with one hand. She yelped as her feet left the ground and she hit the bed, dropping the tray onto the ground and screaming murder as Frank held her down.

"I'll let you go if you calm down." He said loudly to be heard over her screams.

By now the commotion had gathered attention, and Dr. Robby came running in, Perlah on his heels. "What the hell is going on in here?"

"Boyfriend troubles." Frank grinned at him, he seemed strangely delighted about the whole thing, despite the cut on his cheekbone and Jess trying to kick him in the nuts. It was weirdly attractive, and Mel forced her eyes away from the shifting muscles of his arms, ignoring the devious voice in her head that said she'd happily take the woman's place. 

Security hurried inside then, and between Ahmad, Dr. Robby and Frank, Jess was calmed down and swiftly escorted out of the room.

Mel pried herself away from the wall to grab Frank's wrist and pull him towards her. He came easily. 

"Are you okay?" She asked worriedly.

"Fine." He said, tonguing his lip as if checking for damage. Mel's eyes dipped to follow the obscene slide of his tongue, and she felt the urge to touch it, which was so inappropriate she instantly started shaming herself inside her head.

"You have a cut." She gestured to his cheekbone and promptly grabbed his hand as he reached for it. "Don't touch it, it's bleeding. You should disinfect it, and probably ice it."

"Good idea." He smiled playfully. "You know, I could use a doctor."

Mel couldn't help but laugh as he wiggled his brows. "I'm afraid I have another patient to see first." She looked past him to Chris, who'd also suffered a cut to his face and was sighing despondently at whatever Perlah was telling him.

Frank gasped. "Choosing him over me? You might as well kill me."

He was cute when he was being dramatic.

"He can give me a patient satisfaction score."

Frank shrugged. "If it's satisfaction you want-."

Mel clamped a hand over his mouth, feeling him smile against it. 

"Everything okay here?"

Mel jumped at Dr. Robby's sudden appearance, and she quickly tore her hand away from Frank's mouth.

"Fine." She said, ignoring his raised brow and amused smile. She had never seen him smile as much as he did today.

"Yeah, fine." Frank cleared his throat. Strangely, he was blushing. "I'm just gonna disinfect this." He said, gesturing to his face as he all but ran from the room like he couldn't get away fast enough all of a sudden.

Mel stood there for a moment, confused. 

"How about you finish up here and check up on him?" Dr. Robby suggested.

"Oh, uh, I already took a break."

"It's fine, it's not that busy. Besides, you can hand him this." He held out a plastic folder filled with an incident report, she recognized the papers from when she'd had her own incident. "I figure if I let you ask him, there's a better chance of him actually filling it in."

Mel could certainly try. Either way, she liked having an excuse to go see him. "I'll do my best." She promised, taking the folder.

Dr. Robby left her with a nod, and Mel put the papers aside to focus on Chris. Just a few minutes to check his vitals, pain level, hand, and the minor cut on his face, and then she could get to Frank. Easy enough. Chris was weirdly subdued throughout it all, which was a big step up from the flirting. It probably had something to do with his girlfriend having just slapped him around, and Mel made a mental note to ask Kiara to come by because this relationship was obviously not a healthy one. She finished her check-up and quickly called up to surgery to ask about a timeframe, but as usual, they had no real answer for a non-emergent case.

"Hey, Mel?" Chris asked just as she was about to leave.

"Yes?"

"I just wanted to say sorry for the flirting, I obviously didn't realize you were in a serious relationship."

Mel frowned because she also hadn't realized she was in a serious relationship.

"I mean, your boyfriend came in earlier and made it very clear, so yeah, sorry. Even the nurse said you were serious. You could have said something, you know, I would've backed off."

Mel had never been more confused in her life. Her boyfriend?

"Although I guess it was pretty obvious he was your boyfriend, with the glaring and stuff. The painkillers are making me a bit more oblivious, I think."

"Okay." Mel finally spoke, blinking at Chris. "Thank you for apologizing. I'm just going to update your chart." She said and left before he could utter another sentence that would scramble her brain even further.

The word boyfriend was playing on repeat in her mind while she quickly used her tablet to update Chris' chart until her thoughts abruptly ceased when she stumbled upon Frank's name. Like he'd said, he'd added an update a few hours ago, in that too long period of time where she hadn't seen him at all. 

Oh, maybe she did have a boyfriend.

Frank stood at the counter in the break room, digging through the pitiful collection of tea bags with one hand while using the other to keep a towel-wrapped ice pack pressed against his cheek. He looked up as she entered, shooting her a smile.

"Hey, they're out of green tea again. Peppermint okay?"

Mel nodded. Frank hated tea, but Mel liked it better than coffee during the day. He must have known she was coming. She stared at him for a moment, still grappling with the idea that she might actually be able to have him.

"You okay, sweetheart?" He asked when she remained silent and frozen near the door.

The petname unfroze her, and she joined him at the counter, jumping up to perch on top so she could meet him at eye level, setting the incident report folder aside for now. Frank smiled and leaned sideways against the counter, sliding her mug of tea closer to her thigh.

"You call me that a lot." She said, taking a sip of her tea. There was a time he'd used the sweethearts and baby's sparingly, but since the night he'd taken her home from the hospital, the dam seemed to have broken.

"I- yeah, they kind of keep slipping out, do you want me to stop?"

"No." Her answer was resolute.

The relief on his face was stark. "Thank God, because I'd try, but I'd struggle."

"I like it." She said honestly.

"Oh," Frank breathed out, looking a little dumbstruck. "That's good to know."

Mel smiled and tried hiding her blush by taking another sip.

"Hey, I forgot to ask earlier. How did it go with Maya? Your closed reduction?"

"Oh, good. I think her nose should end up mostly the same. She promised to come around with the yearbook pictures though, so we'll see."

"She did? Can't wait to see your work."

Mel pointed at him. "You are not invited to the picture viewing. I'll lock you up in here before you give that poor girl a panic attack."

Frank grinned, inching closer and stealing Mel's mug to take a sip of his own, grimacing after. She never understood why he did that. "You never did explain what you meant by my whole Frank thing."

"You know what I meant, you look in the mirror every day."

"Why, Dr. King, I do believe you're calling me handsome." He said, a teasing lilt to his voice.

"Don't let it get to your head."

"Too late for that. I can die happy knowing Melissa King thinks I have a good face."

Mel smiled at the pride in his voice. She took her mug back to set it off to the side and, gathering all her courage, she hooked her feet around the back of Frank's knees to pull him in, right where she wanted. Frank's eyes grew comically wide, but he didn't resist, sliding between her spread legs with an ease that had Mel's toes curling inside her sneakers.

"Speaking of your face, I heard you could use a doctor?" It took a lot of effort to keep her voice steady with her heart hammering in her chest.

Frank just stared, bewildered, as if unable to form a single word, and Mel felt so giddy, she was almost squirming where she sat. He was putty in her hands when she reached up to take the ice pack from him, and he let his hands fall to the counter until she was boxed in between his outstretched arms. 

Putting aside the ice pack, Mel used her fingers to gently feel around his cheekbone. The skin was red, just starting to bruise. He twitched slightly under her touch, but he didn't flinch back.

"You know, today was a weird day." She said softly.

"It was?" Frank whispered, eyes boring into hers.

Mel hummed. She avoided the intensity of his gaze by staring at the steri-strip covering the cut on his cheek because getting the words out would be hard enough without losing herself in the blue depths. She steeled herself and went for it.

"Partly because of our coworkers betting on us. Mostly because Trinity kept trying to convince me you were in love with me."

Frank was silent for a moment, leaving her to silently panic for a good ten seconds until he reached up to wrap his hand around her wrist. Her fingers froze where they were still brushing over his skin, and for one terrifying moment, she wondered if she got it all wrong after all. And then Frank tilted his head to press a kiss to her palm, and she let out a shuddering breath, equal parts relieved and feverish. She met his eyes, almost melting at the sheer love shining from them.

"Did you need convincing?" He asked curiously, thumbing her pulse point. "I feel like I'm pretty obvious about it."

Mel's quick laugh was filled with disbelief because of course Frank would just casually confirm it like that and turn her world upside down. He pressed another kiss to her palm, closer to her wrist. Goosebumps puckered her skin, and she shivered slightly.

"I might still need convincing." She said honestly because she felt like she might be dreaming. Maybe she was still sleeping, and this whole day was simply a very realistic dream, it would explain a few things.

"Really?" His voice was filled with surprise, his brows curved upwards.

She nodded, she wanted to know what dream-Frank had to say. 

"Okay, well, here goes." A hint of a grin played on the side of his mouth, and Mel's ears were wide open, her skin buzzing with anticipation as he moved his grip from her wrist to tangle their fingers together, pressing a quick kiss to the back of her hand this time. 

"I'm in love with you." He stated, letting the words fill the room for a moment. "And everyone is extremely aware that I'm in love with you because I am unable to not stare at you like I'm twelve and having my first crush. Dana asks me to tone it down every time she catches me, but I can't, because you're beautiful, and looking at you is always the best part of my day. Cassie calls me dumb every day for not kissing you, Trinity keeps threatening to kill me if I ever break your heart, and Perlah asked me to hold off on making our relationship public next week because that's the date she put money on. Everyone knows, Mel. Even Robby pulled me aside today to give us his blessing, except there was nothing to bless yet, and I've never seen him more surprised, that was what you walked in on in the break room."

Mel could only stare at him, mouth open, her heart going a mile a minute because Frank was in love with her, everyone knew it, and Mel was just supremely oblivious or extremely good at being in denial, take your pick.

Frank huffed out a laugh at her surprise. "I really thought you knew too. We're a little bit too close for just friends, sweetheart. I mean, I love sharing a bed with you, but there's a reason I take a cold shower every morning. Trust me, it's not because you're my friend."

"You love cold showers." Mel said on autopilot, still processing as her worldview shifted with every word he spoke. How had she missed this?

"I hate cold showers," Frank deadpanned. "I need them yes, ever since I started waking up next to you."

"Oh." She couldn't help but giggle at the chagrined look on his face. Apparently she'd caused him much suffering in the past months.

"Jesus, Mel." He laughed with her. "I'm head over heels for you, completely gone, never to be sane again because you make me lose my mind every single second I'm in your presence and I couldn't be happier about it."

Wow. "That was very romantic." At this rate, her heart was going to pump right out of her chest and into Frank's, where it really wanted to be.

"You think?" Frank grinned at her. He looked so proud of himself, it was sickeningly cute and God, Mel loved him so much. It was probably time she said it back to him, before he could get the ridiculous idea that she wasn't just as far gone as he was.

"I'm in love with you too." She felt slightly ashamed of her lack of words compared to Frank's monologue that would remain burned into her brain for eternity.

"Obviously." She tacked on.

He looked relieved, his shoulders losing tension Mel hadn't even noticed was there. Maybe not so obvious then.

"Do you need convincing too?" She asked.

"Mel, I just-" His eyes flickered all over her face. "Are you sure?"

"Of course I am. Aren't you?"

"I love you so much, I just don't wanna fuck it up." 

"Is that why you never-" She trailed off, unsure how to finish.

Frank understood her, as he always did. "I should have said something earlier, weeks or even months ago, I know, I just-" He sighed, dragging a hand through his hair, which was distracting and unfair. "I guess I was afraid."

"You don't have to be afraid."

Frank smiled at her, eyes filled with breathtaking affection and a devastating hint of sadness. "It's not that easy. Saying it out loud, kissing you," His breath caught. "It makes it real, which means I can fuck it up. I fucked up a lot already, Mel, I can't fuck this up."

"You won't."

"It would kill me. You're the best thing that ever happened to me, and I can't-"

"You won't." Mel repeated. The urge to touch became too much, and she untangled their fingers to cup his face in her hands. Frank closed his eyes and leaned into her, his hands falling to her thighs as he exhaled heavily. "You're so good for me, perfect even. Like you were made for me."

"Mel- baby." His voice was breathy, coated with awe.

"Before you, when it was just me and Becca," She continued because she needed him to understand that he changed her life so much she didn't even want to imagine losing him. "There were times I felt so alone." She paused, swallowing back her tears.

"Sweetheart-" Frank's eyes were filled with understanding, and he mirrored her gesture, cupping her face and smoothing his thumbs beneath her eyes.

"And then you came, and now, I have I job that I love and I get to work with you, and practically live with you, and you make me so happy I could cry, which is annoying. And God, Frank, you made our family feel so much bigger, I can't even begin to explain how much that means to me."

Frank let out a stunned laugh.

"I can't imagine my family without the two of you. God knows where I even would've ended up if I hadn't met you. My kids-" He cut himself of with a heavy breath, voice choked as he continued. "Months ago Tanner said he was happy I was laughing so much, and I cried a whole fucking lot that day because I realized it'd been a long time since my kids saw me truly happy. These days, I am so goddamn happy, Mel, have been ever since you came into my life. And I'm so grateful my kids can grow up seeing me like that, instead of the miserable bastard I was turning into."

A happy tear fell from the corner of her eye and Frank gently thumbed it away. Mel couldn't speak, overcome with so much elation it lit up her skin. She gasped when he leaned in, only for his lips to stop a hair away from her own, and she slid her arms around his neck, tangling her fingers in the hair starting to overgrow there. The warmth of his bulk against her was like fireworks, the sparks frying her brain until all thoughts disappeared and all that was left, was his name. She might actually die if he kissed her, but it would be more than worth it.

"Mel-" He whispered, his warm minty breath intermingling with hers. She could only make a sound in reply, a desperate pleading little thing that could only be described as a whimper. 

"Can I kiss you?"

"Yes-" She'd barely gotten the word out when his lips were on hers, and her mind was gone.

Frank kissed like he meant it, like he'd spent eons longing for her and was putting every ounce of that longing into kissing her breathless. Mel surged up against him, matching him with her own longing burning in her chest. 

Her glasses dug uncomfortably in her skin and she drew back for a second, saying "Let me just-" as she pulled them off and almost threw them to the side with a carelessness that spoke of her urgency, before Frank pulled her back in, tilting her head back so he could lick into her mouth. Mel moaned softly as his tongue curled around hers, her body buzzing with delighted eagerness for more and closer and deeper. 

Frank shifted his grip to press his thumb at the hinge of her jaw as if willing her jaw to open even wider. The kiss was filthy and wet, and entirely too inappropriate for the workplace, especially with a door that wasn't even locked. Mel couldn't care less and gave as good as she got, tugging at Frank's hair as he bit at her lip, earning her a whispered fuck that had her stomach fluttering like crazy, and she tightened her legs around his waist, Frank dropping one hand to squeeze her thigh. His grip was big and warm, and the electrifying touch had Mel suddenly and ferociously hating the fact that they started this at work of all places, before their shift was even over.

As if both realizing they were getting a bit too carried away, they slowed down in increments, lips dragging together softly before shifting to small pecks. It cleared Mel's mind enough to actually perceive a familiar sound reaching her ears, and she pulled back.

"Is that?" She whispered, inches away from Frank's mouth.

Turn around, bright eyes

Frank huffed out a laugh, groaning as he pressed his forehead against hers. "I can't believe we had our first kiss to Total Eclipse of the Heart."

Mel laughed, her heart so full of joy. "Technically it was our second kiss."

"Hmm, It was definitely an extension of our first kiss." Frank spoke, leaning in to kiss her again.

"I'm sorry, did you want our first kiss to happen to Bonnie Tyler?" She murmured against his mouth.

"Hey, I love Bonnie Tyler." He mumbled back.

They both grinned, making it hard to keep kissing, but they did it anyway because the alternative was stopping, and that was just no.

A hard knock on the door interrupted them some time later. The music had stopped without them noticing it, and Mel had to force her brain out of its Frank-induced hypnosis to pay attention to the words coming from the other side of the door.

"There's two hours left in this shift, lovebirds, wrap it up!" Trinity, of course.

Frank pulled back with a parting kiss, catching her bottom lip between his teeth. "You couldn't have seduced me at seven?"

Mel followed his mouth with hers, pouting when she couldn't reach him. "I didn't seduce you." She protested, causing him to smile mischievously.

"No? Why do I feel seduced then?"

Feeling confident and desirable, she slid a hand down his back to slip it under his scrub top, dragging her nails over his skin.

"Mel-" He groaned out her name, gripping her thigh to pull her impossibly closer, and she yelped as he dragged her further off the counter, legs clamping around his waist and hands clutching at his biceps.

"Langdon, get your hands off her!" Trinity said loudly. "You have thirty seconds to get presentable and then I'm coming in."

Frank sighed and angled his hips a little out of the way. "I'm gonna need more than thirty seconds."

Mel's eyes widened, and she couldn't help but stare at his crotch, though her slight blurry vision and the looseness of his scrub pants sadly hid whatever he was working with.

"The staring doesn't help." He said tightly, tilting her head back so he could press a kiss to the corner of her mouth.

"Pick up where we left off later?" Mel asked, full of hope.

"Yes, you menace." Frank grinned before stepping back and helping her off the counter, picking up the glasses she'd chucked to the side and perching them back onto her face.

Right on time because Trinity burst in a second later.

"Please tell me you were actually making out and not just playing Scrabble." She said. Her eyes then slid over their overall appearance, mussed hair and kiss-swollen lips, and she grinned. "Never mind."

God, Mel already knew she was going to be so smug about this.

"Very sorry for interrupting but if I hadn't, it would have been Dr. Robby and Mel would have died. And I like you too much for that, King."

"Thank you." Mel said dryly.

"Also, I am starving." She grabbed a protein bar and left, keeping the door wide open as a clear message. "Back to work, horndogs."

"Well, that did it." Frank said, tugging at his pants.

Mel giggled and grabbed his arm to pull him out of the room, pausing when her eyes landed on the folder still on the counter.

"Oh, I forgot." She snatched it up and pressed it to Frank's chest. "Dr. Robby wants you to fill these in."

"An incident report?" Frank scrunched his nose. "It was just a dumb accident."

"Fill it in anyway. As a future attending, you have to set an example."

He grinned, leaning closer to whisper in her ear. "So no more making out in the break room then."

"Well, you're not an attending yet." She pointed out, causing Frank to laugh in surprise.

They walked towards the nurse's station, shoulders bumping together. Mel was filled with so much glee she wasn't sure how to look like anything but a person who'd just gotten everything she ever wanted. Frank was rifling through the papers until he stopped abruptly, an amused laugh escaping him.

"What?" She asked curiously.

"Robby sent you to give me these?" 

"Yes, why?"

He tilted the papers toward her, and Mel's eyes widened as she read the words at the top of the page. Consensual Relationship Agreement.

"Guess he didn't believe me when I said there was nothing to bless."

Mel gaped at the papers, she was never looking Dr. Robby in the eye again.

"So," Frank asked, tugging at her braid to get her brain back online. "Want to fill it in now or next week to get Perlah her money?"

They were pulled onto a trauma case before Mel even had the opportunity to answer Frank's question, an MVA with two criticals that took an hour to stabilize. Back in the thick of it, it felt like nothing had changed, even though everything had. Their teamwork shined as always as they smoothly worked with and around each other to save the woman lying on the table.

The hour after the two criticals were sent off to surgery was the longest hour she'd ever worked in the pitt, which was saying a lot. She lost Frank again as Cassie called for assistance with a seizing patient. To her dismay, he seemed to get really busy all of a sudden, while Mel was stuck at the nurse's station, finishing up her charts. She could only smile at him as he brushed past her, shooting her helpless looks as someone else pulled him into a room. Maybe it was better this way because having him next to her while she filled in charts, knowing she could kiss him if she wanted to and he'd let her, would be disastrous for her productivity. She was relieved when the night shift crew started trickling in, signaling the long-awaited end of her workday. She handed off her cases, ignoring Dr. Ellis' knowing smile as she covered Chris' chart meaning someone had already filled her in on the gossip. Old ladies had nothing on the pitt crew.

Mel had already passed by the locker room and was waiting by the nurse's station when Frank finally appeared, frazzled but smiling.

"Two minutes." He promised her, sliding a hand down her back as he passed her on his way to the lockers. He stretched as he went, and Mel's eyes strayed to the small of his back where his shirt rode up. As if sensing her gaze, he glanced over his shoulder, sending her a teasing wink when she snapped her eyes back up. She felt caught for a moment, only to realize he was actually hers now, so she just wiggled her eyebrows, making him laugh as he rounded the corner.

"Wow, I can't believe I apologized to you for absolutely nothing." Trinity suddenly appeared next to her.

"It was sweet." Mel smiled at her.

"God, you really spent the entire day making me seem crazy for suggesting he was into you, only to defile him in the break room, you minx." 

"Stop talking and just tell me 'I told you so', I know you want to."

Trinity grinned. "You know me so well. Anyway, I fucking told you so."

"You did and you were right." Mel said because Trinity wouldn't leave her alone until she admitted that.

"Ah, my favorite words." 

Mel laughed at her glee. She was still riding high from her kiss with Frank, feeling entirely too happy to be even a smidge annoyed at Trinity's smugness.  Besides, she deserved it.

Cassie joined them, looked from Trinity's smug face to Mel's overall happy appearance, and broke out into a smile. "Oh thank God. Frank was driving me crazy with all his pining. No offense Mel, but if I had to hear him say your name one more time, I was going to slap him." 

"They might just get worse, McKay." Trinity said pensively.

Cassie's face dropped. "Shit, you're right."

Mel just let their chatter wash over her. She minded the speculation less now that she was done breaking her head over her and Frank's relationship. A familiar shoulder pressed against hers, and she leaned into the touch.

"Blossom and Buttercup bothering you, Mel?" Frank asked with a grin, eyeing the two women.

"Very funny, Mojo Jojo." Trinity said. "We were just talking about you and Bubbles over here." She gestured to Mel. 

Mel privately thought the nicknames were getting a little out of hand.

"Why, Santos, I didn't know you were so invested in my love life." Frank needled her, raising his arm to drape it around Mel's shoulders. "Is that jealousy I sense?"

"I'd rather kill myself, thank you."

"You're welcome."

Trinity groaned while Cassie huffed out a laugh. "Okay, I'm leaving, I need to pick up Harrison from my parents. See you guys tomorrow!"

"Wait, don't leave me alone with them." Trinity said, following her with a shout towards Whitaker. "Huckleberry, let's go, we're leaving!"

He hurried behind her like a baby duckling which was strangely cute. 

"Did I say something?" Frank said innocently, staring after them.

He really was a snarky asshole, but he was her snarky asshole.

"No, you're good." Mel smiled up at him and patted the hand hanging over her shoulder. Frank caught her fingers with his own, intertwining them loosely.

"What the hell, guys." Mel looked away from him to find Dr. Abbott standing behind the nurse's station, staring at them. "You just made me lose fifty bucks."

"Jack, just be happy for them." Samira said, she was perched on the chair in front of him and smiled at them over her shoulder. "It took them long enough."

"Wait, what?" Perlah said, having just come out of the locker room with Princess. "Nothing's official yet."

"Look at them," Dr. Abbott gestured. "It's as official as it's ever gonna get."

"Dr. Langdon, you promised." Perlah said, aghast.

"You couldn't have waited one more day?" Princess sighed.

"I didn't even do anything." Frank defended himself.

Dr. Robby walked up then, alongside Dr. Collins, watching everyone frown at Mel and Frank. "What's going on?"

"They made me lose the bet." Dr. Abbott and Perlah echoed.

"Ah, you'll survive." Dr. Robby laughed before turning to Dr. Collins. "That means you won, though."

"I did." She said with a smug smile to Mel and Frank. "Great timing, guys."

"Hold on." Frank said, fixing Dr. Robby with a suspicious look. "Is that why you-" He gestured as if to say you know. 

"Why I what?" The attending responded innocently.

"Yeah, why he what?" Dr. Abbott interjected. "Did he interfere? That's cheating, Robby."

Mel was dazed as she watched the drama unfold. Everyone's stares and comments were making a lot of sense by now. She'd figured there was some kind of bet going on with the money exchanging hands, but she'd never have expected the scale of it. Dana eventually joined them too and shared in the winnings with Dr. Collins. Even Dr. Shen and Dr. Ellis came to share their disappointment in being off by a few days. Dr. Abbott was still going in on Dr. Robby, appalled at his apparent trickery, when Mateo and Javadi appeared hand in hand. And that started off a whole new discussion, because there'd been bets there too.

They were all cut off as familiar notes again echoed through the hospital.

Turnaround, Every now and then I get a little bit lonely
And you're never coming round

"What the fuck?" Dr. Abbott stated. He clocked their lack of surprise and Dr. Robby's deep sigh. "Forgot to mention something, brother?"

"I thought it was handled."

Mel couldn't help but giggle, most of the day shift joining in while the night shift stared at them in confusion.

"That's our song." Frank mumbled into her ear with a laugh.

"No it's not." Mel protested. She refused to let it be their song, even though a part of her knew it was a lost case. Their relationship would be forever intrinsically linked to Bonnie Tyler. 

The day shift started heading out then, Dr. Robby staying behind a bit longer to fill Dr. Abbott in on boombox guy. A few of them headed to the park, but Mel was more than ready to be alone with Frank again. He kept his arm around her shoulders as they started the walk to his car, Mel circling her own arm around his waist. The blessed silence of the evening air finally let her ask a question she'd been sitting on for the past few hours.

"Hey, did you tell Chris you're my boyfriend?"

Frank looked caught, smiling sheepishly as he rubbed the back of his neck. "I might have made some implications." He admitted. "Don't blame me, Mel. He was asking whether you were single and if I thought you were interested and I got very jealous very quickly. Obviously you're free to date whoever you want, and I dont want to-"

"Don't worry," Mel cut him off with a bright smile. "I think it's cute. And I mean, I do have a boyfriend."

"You do?" Frank asked, looking panicked.

She chuckled. "Yeah, Frank. It's the guy with his arm around me."

"Oh."

He grinned happily, and Mel yelped as he grabbed her hand to spin her around like they were dancing, causing her to stumble into his chest. "My girlfriend, Melissa King, I've made it in life. Fuck being an attending, I've already got a full-time job." He smiled down at her, eyes sparkling.

He was such a sap it was embarrassing. She loved it. 

"If you want to buy Becca that electric guitar, you will also need to become an attending." She reminded him.

"Right, the guitar." Frank nodded. "You're absolutely right, of course. I can handle two jobs."

Mel's smile was hurting her cheeks.

"Oh, we need to swing by the center to pick up Becca by the way, I forgot to tell you."

"What? You're telling me we're keeping Becs waiting? Mel, you should have told me."

She laughed as Frank tugged her toward the car. Sitting in the passenger's seat, she checked her phone while Frank put their bags in the back, only now noticing the text from Becca.

Do not pick me up before 8, we're watching Elf!

She showed it to Frank as soon as he got in the driver's seat.

"Hey, that means no Elf for you tonight." Frank grinned.

Mel nodded happily. It also meant she needed to find something to do for the next twenty minutes. She eyed Frank, who was tapping something out on his own phone. Not enough time to find a bed, but- 

She glanced around, they were parked a ways off from the entrance because of their late arrival, in a mostly dark corner of the parking lot. She pulled up the clock on her phone and set an alarm for ten to eight before dropping it in the empty cup holder along with her glasses. Shen then smoothly climbed onto Frank's lap. He startled, his phone dropping next to hers.

"Is this okay?" She asked, suddenly feeling a bit nervous because his eyes were wide and surprised, and she hadn't asked, and maybe he wasn't-

"Sweetheart, feel free to get on my lap whenever you feel like it for the rest of your life." Frank interrupted her thoughts, voice breathy, his hands finding the curve of her waist.

She smiled shyly despite her position and leaned in to brush her nose against Frank's. "Don't get too carried away, we only have twenty minutes."

"And we're in a car in the hospital parking lot." Frank pointed out, voice breathy.

"Yeah, that too."

He chuckled and tilted his head to fit their mouths together. They made generous use of the twenty minutes Mel had allotted to them. So much that when they'd picked up Becca, she took one look at their disheveled appearance and said the one thing that had been on Mel's mind since Frank had kissed her.

"Finally!"