Chapter Text
Halloween was one of Robby’s least favorite holidays after becoming a doctor in Emergency medicine. Long ago, in days before back-to-back 12-hour shifts stole his social life and the pandemic stomped on his mental health- Halloween used to be a fun day for him.
He used to go out, have a few drinks, dance to terrible music, and make more than a few even worse decisions. But those days went away when his back pain became constant, and a full 8 hours of sleep became necessary for him to function.
Now, Halloween was his least favorite holiday, thanks to his grim outlook on his life and the frankly idiotic injuries that would flood the ER.
Usually, he did his best to vacate the hospital before the really annoying patients would filter in, thanks to the uptick in house parties as the night went on. However, this year, Mohan had begged him to switch shifts with her, and Robby felt like he owed her after how much of a dick he was to her the day of Pittfest.
So here he was, listening to Jack and Dana laugh it up as Robby dealt with his third village idiot given access to LSD and a fake knife that ended up not being so fake.
He sighs as he stitches the kid up, telling one of the night shift nurses to hook him up with extra fluids to help him sober up before making his way back to the nurses' station, where Jack is still chuckling quietly to himself.
“Why does it seem like everyone loses access to common sense the moment it hits October 31st?” Robby asks to no one in particular, but Dana still snorts as she pats his arm.
“Excessive amounts of booze, my friend,” she says, like she’s attempting to comfort him.
McKay comes sliding up beside them, a scowl painted on her face as she sets a patient chart down a tad too harshly on the counter. Apparently, her Ex had custody of their son for this holiday, and McKay was none too pleased to discover her ex was taking Harrison to an all-night Halloween concert.
Dana shifted her attention over to the redhead, offering gentle comfort to the clearly annoyed doctor. “At least he’s not trying to take him to that big Halloween rave,” Abbot says, peering around Robby to offer the woman some comfort.
“What Halloween rave?” Robby asks, peering over to his best friend with a raised brow. Jack shrugs, leaning against the nurses' station, surveying the mildly chaotic ER.
“It’s apparently a big thing going on downtown; it’s where Mohan and all your little interns are celebrating Halloween,” he says, and before Robby can ask how he knows that- more accurately, tease him about knowing where Mohan is spending her Halloween- Mel appears beside them.
“Dr. Robby, I had a question about a patient for you,” she says, passing over her patient file. Robby nods and steps away from the nurses' station, listening to the woman rattle off the facts about her patient while he reads over their stats.
Mel had volunteered to switch with a night shift nurse like Robby and McKay had, spending her day with her sister before coming to the hospital. Mel didn’t seem to enjoy the late-night party festivities, too many people, she’d said when asked.
The young woman seemed to revel in the chaos Halloween in the ER tended to bring, bouncing from patient to patient with ease. Of course, none of the cases were all that complicated- except for the woman who tried swallowing a sword… that had been… something.
So far, all the injuries in the ER had been superficial costume-related injuries, overdoses, drunken stupors, and more than one nosebleed caused by snorting pixie sticks.
Even the case Mel had asked for assistance on was relatively simple once they got the man to admit what drugs he shoved… up there… to hide from the cops.
Eventually, Robby ends up loitering around the nurses' station, leaning against the counter while he waits for Abbot to reappear so he can grill him about Mohan.
“Stop grinning like the cat who caught the canary,” Jack says when he finally finishes with his drunk patient, who was convinced he was Elvis Presley reborn. Robby does not wipe the shit eating grin off his face, much to Jack's annoyance, and instead pokes the man in the side.
“You are obsessed with that woman, and you know it,” Robby teases while Jack groans into his hands, “Did you stalk her Instagram? Or were you painfully obvious about it?”
“It was a friendly inquiry about why she was switching shifts!” Jack wheezes, the tips of his ears going pink. Robby laughs. It’s not often he gets to tease his friend like this, even less for Jack to be this flustered.
“You totally threw a fit when you realized you had to go through a whole shift without her,” Robby teases, poking the man in the side again as he drops into one of the nurses' chairs. “Come on, you looked like a kicked puppy when you realized she was gone before handover.”
Jack levels him with a sharp glare and a swift kick to the shin, “Like you weren’t also pissy when you realized Whitaker was already gone too,” he hisses, making Robby’s face go hot. Of course, Jack knew about his stupid infatuation with his student doctor; he just didn’t realize he was being so obvious about it.
“I was not,” he tries to defend himself, but Dana snorts, suddenly wheeling herself into the conversation with a rye smile.
“You get all in a huff whenever the little Bloodhound isn’t here, it’s like you don’t know what to do with your hands when you don’t have him around to manhandle,” she says, making a groping motion with her hands.
Robby squawks, swatting at Dana’s hands lightly. “I do not manhandle him,” he hisses while Jack and Dana laugh at him. Jack opens his mouth for a witty retort before he’s cut off by one of the nurses running over with wide eyes.
“A drunk bus driver just plowed through the Halloween Rave downtown, we’ve got upwards of 50 people injured,” she says quickly. Dana shoots up, shouting at people to start moving non-critical patients out of the ER and get everyone out of the waiting room so they can prep for the wave of patients.
Robby should follow her lead, huddle the doctors and nurses together to brief them on what was coming, but he’s frozen. His interns were at that rave, Whitaker was at that rave.
Jack’s in a similar frozen state, but McKay appears, slapping both their shoulders to get them moving. “Come on,” she demands, clearly trying not to let her concern show too heavily on her face. “We are useless to them standing around.”
She forces them to move, shaking Mel out of her stupor as well. Robby knew that Trinity had invited her to go along with her, Javadi, Whitaker, and Mohan for the night. He knew what must be running through her mind as she wrapped herself in a gown and pulled on a fresh pair of gloves.
Robby forces himself to focus, snapping himself into attending mode as he directs people to different zones. “ETA?” he shouts to Dana, who is meaning the phones like a military drill sergeant.
“First Bus should be arriving now!” she shouts back, and then it’s a rush, sectioning patients to different zones for the various injuries, and doing their damn best to keep as many people breathing.
It was a mad dash, sending people to the right places. From people with mild injuries to people crushed by the bus as it rammed through the crowd. Robby barely has time to breathe when he hears a familiar voice shout over the chaos.
“I need Epi!” Robby’s face whips over to see Whitaker with blood running down his chin and onto his neck, straddling a patient as he does chest compressions.
Santos is running beside him, cutting through the crowd as she pushes the gurney to the first open doctor available. Javadi and Mohan are close behind them, with Mohan helping a woman with a broken leg hobble inside, while Javadi leads another stretcher towards the nearest trauma room.
“Whitaker!” Robby shouts, finding his bearings and rushing over to find the man no longer doing chest compressions and instead helping Trinity insert a chest tube. “Whitaker! Where are you injured?!” Robby shouts, noticing the blood soaking the collar of his frilly, low-cut button-down.
“It’s not real blood!” Whitaker rushes out, still focused on his patient as he helps stabilize the man before they rush him out and up to the OR for a collapsed lung. Robby’s still high on adrenaline and grabs Whitaker's arm, stopping him from rushing back into the ED.
His gaze whips around the man's form, focusing on the very real-looking blood staining the man's chin and neck. Whistaker's hand rests over his own, forcing his gaze off his collarbones and onto his makeup-covered eyes. “Robby,” he soothes, “It’s not real blood, I’m not injured.”
Robby sighs, his shoulders drooping in relief as he loosens his grip on the smaller man's arm. Now, with his fear curbed, Robby’s able to take in the rest of the man's appearance.
He’s dressed as a vampire if the blood and fangs mean anything, his curly hair is more tousled than usual, and Robby follows the trail the blood makes from the man's fake fangs down to his outfit.
The button-down was unbuttoned just enough to show off the man's pale chest, glistening with sweat. His waist is accentuated by a tight-fitted corset, making his waist look even smaller than normal. Robby’s eyes trail down to his legs, which are barely covered by a pair of sinfully tight leather shorts and thigh-high platform boots.
Robby kicks himself for how hot under the collar it makes him when he realizes that, even with the shoes, Whitaker is still shorter than him.
He inhales sharply, forcing himself to take his hands off the student doctor, trying to force himself back into the moment. “Are you all alright?” he asks, gaze flitting over to Mohan, Javadi, and Santos as they help around the crowded ED, sticking out like shoe thumbs thanks to their Halloween costumes in the sea of white trauma robes and scrubs.
Whitaker nods, looking out at the crowded ER, silently wondering how the night turned out like this.
It had been a good day, all things considered. His day shift had been calm-ish; he didn’t even have to change his scrubs! He’d made it through handover, letting Trinity rush him so they could get home and change for the Halloween Rave she’d been so excited for for the past month.
Sure, he was a little upset he didn’t get to see Robby that day, but he decided it was better to give himself some distance from the man he was uselessly crushing on. Maybe, a night away from the ER and a day to recover from his inevitable hangover would do him some good and help curb his growing infatuation with his attending.
He let Trinity dress him up as a vampire, posing how she wanted him to, so she could quote “slut him out”. He had fun, letting her and Mohan do his makeup while they pregamed at his and Trinity’s apartment.
Mohan pranced around, singing and laughing their whole walk, swinging her twin whips around from her catwoman costume, doing her best to pull Victoria out of her shell.
He and Trinity laughed as Javadi slowly became more comfortable in her Cleo DeNile costume, watching the girl strut in her insanely sparkly gold wedge heels.
Of course, Trinity forced him to take plenty of photos of her in her Elvira costume, flipping her extensions around as she showed off an impressive amount of cleavage.
As nervous as he was, the rave was actually pretty fun, despite the overpriced drinks and overcrowded atmosphere. The music had been surprisingly good, and it was nice to let loose with his friend for once without fear of someone dying on his watch.
Even Victoria had let loose, dancing and singing with him while Trinity and Mohan tried in vain to find drinks under $20 a piece.
Of course, something had to go wrong, and a bus rammed through the barrier surrounding the rave and crashed straight through a large crowd of inebriated dancers.
Whitaker remembers the sound of people screaming and the pounding of feet against the grass as people sprinted away from the scene.
The bus tore people down before crashing into the stage; thankfully, no one was pinned between it and the stage, but there were still plenty of people injured, in the bus, under the bus, and in the wake of it.
Mohan moved first, using one of her Catwoman's whips as a makeshift tourniquet for a man trapped beneath the wheel of the bus. Whitaker remembers running, pulling the doors to the bus open to assess the injuries of the people inside.
The bus driver was dead, and the people inside weren’t faring much better; plenty had blunt force injuries, a few with lacerations caused by the broken glass, and one with a broken spine.
He and Javadi worked with the paramedics at the rave to stabilize the patients in the Bus while Santos and Mohan worked outside.
At some point, he ended up in an ambulance with Trinity, working on a man whose lung was partially collapsed. The man's stats began to drop as they arrived at the hospital, and Whitaker didn’t even think before he climbed onto the gurney to do chest compressions.
And now here he was, dressed in something that would probably get him cited for indecent exposure, next to his boss- the boss he had a crush on, that is…
He wondered how much it would cost him to leave the country out of sheer embarrassment until Trinity appeared beside him with a scrub gown in hand and a pair of gloves.
“Go wipe the blood off your chin so you don’t give Dana a heart attack,” she demands, tying up her longer-than-usual hair with a huff. Robby stutters for a moment, stopping Whitaker with a hand on his shoulder.
“Now hold on- you’ve been drinking, you aren’t fit to work right now,” he says, which was true; he couldn’t have any of them getting in trouble for possibly injuring a patient while inebriated.
Trinity scoffs and waves her hand as she tugs on her gloves, “The drinks at the rave were 20 bucks a piece, Denny wasn’t letting us buy any of those, and we each had half a margarita-” she grabs Robby’s watch to check the time, “5 hours and three tacos ago, were fine. Whit, go, before Dana tackles you and does a full workup.” Dennis nods and rushes off, tying his gown over his costume as he goes.
Robby watches him go, more than a little enamored with the amount of ivory skin he’s getting to look at for the first time. Trinity snaps her fingers in front of his face with a half-stern, half-amused look. “Stop looking at him like he’s a piece of meat unless you’re going to actually do something about it,” she snarks. Robby sputters for a moment, caught off guard.
“Dr. Santos!” he hisses, “I’m not looking at him in any way! And I do not appreciate-”
Trinity scoffs, cutting him off with a hand wave. “You’re so obsessed with him I can practically smell it, so nut up or shut up, we’ve got work to do and we can’t do it if you're staring yearningly at my roommate with no intentions of actually doing something about it!”
And with that, she’s gone, zeroed in on someone with a broken femur. Robby watches her go before sighing and diving back into the thick of it, focusing solely on his patients and not the way Whitaker's thighs looked while he straddled that patient on the way in- NO! Bad Robby! Bad!