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Robby recognizes the shrieking voice coming from the doorway to the emergency department in an instant, without even needing to lift his head. He’s just not sure why he’d be hearing his baby yelling for him when he is supposed to be at work, and Adam is meant to be at home, with Jack.
All the same, his head snaps right up, eyes locking onto Jack— Jack, whose eyes are already on Robby in return, giving him a jaunty little wave like this is an average hand-off— like he doesn’t have their six children hanging off of him, clinging to him, showing up smack in the middle of Robby’s Saturday day shift. They’re all practically vibrating, waiting on Jack’s word to allow them to be unleashed on the rest of the Pitt, a place so familiar it’s nearly a second home to all of them.
It’s not often that they’ll bring the whole crew somewhere when it’s just one of them at home with them all. Robby feels bad sometimes— Jack’s there all day, and he definitely isn’t getting as much sleep as he should be in that time with six kids demanding varying levels of attention at any given point— but when Robby’s there all night with them climbing all over him, stealing the empty spaces in bed, kicking him in their sleep—
Well, it all balances out in the end, eventually.
And for how difficult it can be to have the big family they have— and six kids can be a lot, an understatement Robby repeats often— it’s also the most rewarding part of Robby’s life. His family. Which— That means a lot, when the only thing he ever thought would matter at all might just be the job, and that would’ve been okay, but—
This.
This is far better. To have both— to, he thinks often, have it all.
Then, the cherry on top of it all: Jack.
He gets to have Jack. Love of his life, most competent person he knows, talented doctor and loving father and happy defender and half of his soul and Robby’s perfect counterpart, and he’s his.
Which he does like, most times. Even when Jack is bringing all of their kids to work while Robby’s on call.
Maybe even especially then.
“I told him we weren’t doing much today,” Dana comments from beside him, leaning against the desk, leaning to wave at the children. All of them wave back, though Ellie’s hand is the most eager, practically a blur of motion, already so excited to go see her favorite person. “I always love a visit from our kids. Figured it’d be a good day for it.”
Our kids. Robby— He just loves his family, the one he’s pieced together, the one he’s made.
At his other side, Langdon whistles. “He brought the whole crew, didn’t he?”
Jack crouches slightly, says something to the kids— Robby thinks he can vaguely read his lips, making out the shapes of, “Go see Abba,” and that’s the last word before the kids are off, sprinting like they have tethers that were suddenly sprung loose.
In seconds, Robby is being swarmed in the best way he could possibly imagine. Their oldest, Dana, collides with him first, a blur of ginger hair and freckles, looking more like Jack every day; Rowan’s right after her, arms around Robby’s waist, squeezing tight while she buries her face in his soft belly. Ellie and Annie slam into his legs in almost the same moment, wrapping around them like little vines, and then Adam is right there with them, grabbing at Robby’s hand, reaching for his chest, whining, “Abba.”
With a grin, ducking down, Robby crouches on the floor and feels Ellie start climbing up his back, hands on either side of his head, hanging on. Two sneakers appear in front of him, and Robby tilts his head slightly, squinting one eye upwards towards Jack.
“Hey, everyone,” Robby says, a moment before Jack’s leaning to push Frankie into his arms. “And hello to you, too.”
Their youngest spits his tongue out at Robby in a raspberry, his current new favorite move, and Robby sticks his own tongue right back out at him before clutching him close and kissing the top of his head.
He really, really never thought he’d be here.
Jack’s hand in his hair scratches lightly at the back of his scalp, fingernails grazing along the curve of his skull in soft touches. Their children, spilling all over him, hugging him, so excited and happy to see him— to know him, even, to be part of his family. It’s everything to him, everything he thought he’d never have, everything he ever wanted, everything he’s so grateful for every time he wakes up.
“What’s up, you guys?” Robby asks. He’s definitely a little burnt out today, his voice already choking up, his eyes prickling and burning; he twists to bury his face in Adam’s hair, the tiny toddler wrapping his arm around Robby’s neck and clinging on in return. “Oh, I missed you guys. What’s it been, three weeks?”
“You saw us this morning,” Annie reminds him, and Robby nods, deferring to her sage wisdom.
“You’re right,” Robby agrees. “How could I forget? It just seems so long ago now.”
Jack tightens his grip in his hair, then ducks to give him a kiss right on the top of his head.
“Hey,” Jack says. “You guys wanna go say hi to everyone?”
That’s all it takes. In an instant, everyone is diving away, shooting off in different directions. Dana’s already right next to Langdon, telling him everything about the biology test she passed yesterday; Rowan, on the other hand, is immediately between Princess and Perlah, and Robby can tell by the look on her excited face that she’s demanding to know the latest Pitt gossip. While Ellie tilts off for Dana, climbing right over her desk to get to her, Annie takes off in search of Whitaker, ducking her head into the break room with a little frown on her face.
“Auntie Mel!” Adam exclaims at the top of his tiny lungs, turning in a circle, not sure where to start in looking for her. When Mel’s head pops out of one of the nearest rooms, already smiling, Adam takes off for her, arms up, hands grabbing.
“Hey, Adam, good to see you,” she says, crouching to meet him, taking him onto her hip without hesitation. Robby feels yet another surge of gratitude for his family here, his family there— for his family.
“And I’ll be taking this little guy, thank you,” Heather says, reaching right into Robby’s arms and scooping Frankie up out of them. “Won’t I, Frankie? Hmm?”
Frankie shrieks his delight, all limbs kicking out, his huge dark eyes obviously delighted as he grabs onto her badge and starts chewing on it. She grins at him, tapping him on the tip of his nose as she turns away towards Dana, and then—
Then, it’s just Robby and Jack on the ground, and Robby feels like he’s just been hit by a tornado.
“Yeah,” Jack says, offering him a hand, helping him upwards. “They’ve had a lot of energy today. Nothing bad, but they’ve been begging for a visit, and when Dana said it was chill…”
He trails off, shrugs, and Robby squeezes his hand as he rises back to his full height, not yet willing to let it go— to let him go. The kids are already all starting to spread off— and Robby loves that, loves them, their confidence and comfort and how they are a family here, no matter how old they get.
Even if it stings a little, how old they’re getting.
“I brought lunch,” Jack adds, turning to show Robby the backpack attached to his back. The baby wrap on his front hangs loose now without Frankie in it, and Robby uses it for leverage, winding one fist up in it to yank Jack closer, earning a cocky tilted smile and a tip of his head as he looks up at Robby like it’s still their first date, all the same love in his eyes. “Hey there, sailor. Aren’t you on the job?”
“Should’ve thought of that before you brought the litter of bunnies,” Robby points out, and Jack’s laughing, his grin only widening.
“Point taken.” Jack’s hand comes up between them, settling over Robby’s heart, pretending like he’s just casually playing with the chipped edges of the logo on his sweatshirt. “You wanna eat something before we have to be parents again?”
“Are you asking me out on a date?” Robby asks.
Jack, already tugging at him, heading towards the break room, says, “What would this be, our second? Third?”
“Hmm.” Robby pretends to count, then says, “Eight thousand and fortieth?”
“Somewhere around there,” Jack replies, kicking the door in. Whitaker holds Annie up in front of the vending machine, letting her push the buttons to choose a snack, and whirls back when he sees them. “H—”
“It’s good for her!” Whitaker protests automatically. “It’s just crackers!”
“I was going to say,” Jack starts over, “‘Hey, why don’t you take some snack baggies and go check out whatever your gnarliest patient is right now—’”
When Whitaker was first introduced to their kids, on his third shift here, he might have protested against that, maybe even been shocked by it. Now, he doesn’t even pretend to act surprised by Annie’s delighted gasp, turning her head around on a swivel, yanking at his scrub top from within the grip of his hands, begging, “Please, please, can we look? Is it gross? Is it?”
Whitaker sighs, though Robby sees the smile playing through. “I have someone who stepped on a nail and left it in for a couple days—”
“Yay!” Annie cheers, wriggling to get down. Whitaker sets her on her feet before she can squirm out of his hands and crack her head on the floor. “We’ll go see!”
“Are you asking or telling?” Jack asks her.
Annie contemplates this before answering, “Asking.”
“How do we ask?”
A smile creeps onto Robby’s face as he takes the backpack off of Jack’s shoulders, setting it on the table, unzipping it to reveal the lunches packed inside. While he’s setting them out on the table, he hears Annie’s little stifled sigh— that he insists is all Jack, even as Jack insists that’s all him.
“Please, can we go see the gross stuff?” Annie asks, lifting her hand for Whitaker’s, and he takes it easily, offering her the cracker packet from the vending machine. Jack passes him a baggie of trail mix, and it goes right into Whitaker’s pocket for later.
“Sure, yeah,” Whitaker agrees. It’s only two seconds later that he becomes a human jungle gym, Annie grabbing onto his waistband to start scaling his back, making him hunch over. Robby knows the game far too well at this point.
“That’s your daughter,” Robby accuses the second Whitaker and Annie are out of the room.
“I don’t know, I definitely watched her come out of you,” Jack shoots right back. “Did you not see that eye roll? That’s pure Robinavitch.”
Robby just barely refrains from rolling his eyes, but based on the grin Jack is giving him when he glances up, he still didn’t manage to get away with it.
“Look what I brought,” Jack tells him, popping a container and setting it on the table.
“Pierogi,” Robby exhales, and he feels the full weight of his shift hit him in the same moment he snatches one of the pierogi from the Tupperware and stuffs it in his mouth, earning a bark of a laugh from Jack.
“Are you not being fed at home?” he asks, punctuated with a tap to Robby’s nose. “There’s plenty to eat here, I brought enough for everybody.”
Stealing another pierogi, Robby allows Jack to push him towards one of the chairs, opening a series of containers in front of him, letting out steam and heat and the scents of tomato and pesto and he’s already poking around for the next thing to eat.
“How’s today going?” Jack asks, mouth half-full, munching on a carrot stick.
Robby offers a half shrug, reaching out to catch Jack’s hand. “Better now,” he tells him, then kisses the back of it.
“Careful,” Jack warns him, turning his hand over, scratching underneath Robby’s chin, nails scraping in satisfying tracks through his beard. “We’ll end up with a seventh.”
With a groan, Robby lets his head fall forward, face burying in Jack’s palm.
“Don’t even joke about that,” he mumbles into his skin. “Frankie’s not even six months old.”
“Yeah, and you’re not getting any younger, either.” Jack pokes him in the side with his other hand, earns a jostle and a snort of a laugh. “Eat your lunch.”
“If someone wasn’t distracting me,” Robby points out as Jack takes his seat directly next to him, popping open another container, revealing a thick slice of meatloaf. He’s already scooting closer when Jack hands him a fork.
Beneath the table, Jack’s foot nudges his, their ankles bumping into one another. Robby glances up at him, watches Jack in profile as he cuts a fragment of meatloaf onto his fork and takes a bite. Even his chewing is thoughtful, intent; his eyes skim over the table, flickering as he considers his next options, and Robby—
Robby counts the freckles he can see, the same ones he’s loved staring at for so many years, the same ones he gave to their children, the same ones he’s counted time and time again, and it still feels like it was at the beginning, when it was just the two of them, starting all this, falling in love with each other. He can still look at Jack— look at his eyelashes sweeping down, the little quirked twitch of his lips as he smiles at something he must be thinking, the creases and wrinkles that have come with time, the day-off rumple of his ginger curls gone salted-silver over the years— and feel like he did on their first date. It’s just like when Jack was across that table from him, and they were still figuring it all out, and Robby felt such intense love for him he didn’t know what to do with it, where to put it.
He’s still never sure, but he tries his best to find places. Their children, for one— and for another—
Leaning in, Robby presses a kiss to Jack’s cheek. He lingers, letting his eyes close, feeling his warmth, his lips brushing the soft dry skin, memorizing him like he likes so much to do. Underneath his kiss, Jack’s smile lines crinkle, and his head turns just a bit towards him— just enough for Robby’s lips to brush the happy, upturned corner of his mouth.
“What’s that for?” Jack asks him. “Feeling sentimental, old man?”
“Mm,” Robby rumbles, then gives him a chaste, slow kiss, just lips-to-lips, nothing wild, just— enough to feel him, to share this. It’s not until they part that Robby murmurs, “I just love you. Thanks for coming down today.”
“Hey, anytime,” Jack replies, his voice just as soft. “You know we all love seeing you.”
“Same here,” Robby says back, pressing one last kiss to Jack’s cheek before slipping down, his forehead colliding with Jack’s shoulder. A yawn cracks his jaw, his eyes scrunching shut; when they reopen, Jack is holding a forkful of meatloaf up to his mouth. “You don’t need to feed me.”
“Maybe this is how I get my kicks,” Jack says, the smile evident in his voice as much as on his face. “Either we have a seventh baby or you let me feed you.”
Obedient, Robby opens his mouth; Jack slips his fork inside, pushing food into his mouth, and Robby enjoys the burst of spice and warmth on his tongue, feeling so thoroughly loved he can hardly stand it.
“Though,” Jack continues as Robby chews, “if I recall correctly, letting me feed you is what ultimately led to Ellie.”
Robby spares a brief moment on memories before his insides twist with heat and he has to make himself stop; he still has the rest of his shift to work after this, and his six children are running rampant just outside this room. There’s no time for them to steal a quickie, not right now, no matter how much they want it.
Maybe later, though.
Jack offers another forkful of meatloaf, kisses the top of Robby’s head when he feeds it to him, and Robby mentally amends that thought to: Definitely later, though.
“Hey, careful!” someone nearby shouts. Robby’s more than expecting the pounding feet a second before Adam appears in the doorway, tiny chest heaving, little dimpled hands clutching the doorframe. Mel is just a step behind him, equally out of breath; she ducks to scoop him up and onto her hip again.
“Sorry,” she apologizes to the room at large. “We just—”
“Big stick,” Adam announces, wriggling with excitement, trying to climb over Mel’s shoulder. When Robby and Jack both look to her for further clarification, she looks just as excited as he does.
“There’s a guy who accidentally impaled himself on his fence post,” she explains. “All the way through his shoulder. We thought you’d want to see.”
Robby looks to Jack, sees his excitement, and sighs as if put-upon, already moving to start sealing the Tupperware back up.
“We can finish later,” Robby says, and Jack pumps his fist like he’s not a grown man who can do anything that he wants to do. “Round up the kids, they’ll want to see, too, I b—”
“On it!” Jack exclaims, already leaping up. When Adam reaches for him, leaning so far back in Mel’s hands to reach him that she has to quickly brace him with a palm flat to his back, Jack just snatches him right up and sets him on his shoulders. “Lead the way, little man!”
Adam fists his hands in Jack’s hair, and then they’re gone, presumably to round up the other children so they can all come see the impaled patient— which, if that doesn’t just sum his family up real quick, Robby doesn’t know what else would.
“It is nice,” Mel comments, seemingly apropos of nothing. “Isn’t it?” When Robby looks up, she’s just turning away from him to look down the hall again. “I just mean, it must be nice having a big family like that. You seem like you like it.”
Robby doesn’t even need to consider this to know how to answer. He takes Mel by the shoulder with a little squeeze, steering her out of the break room. If people eat their food while they’re gone, well— they probably need it, and Robby will just order the rest of them something else. Right now—
“Yeah,” Robby answers. “I really do.” He gives her another squeeze, then asks, “And where is this patient with a f—”
A squeal from across the department erupts before Rowan declares, “Wow, that’s cool!”, and Robby needs no more direction than that, pivoting and hauling Mel right along with him to join his gathered children— Dana peering over Santos’s shoulder as she charts, Rowan openly staring at the post with a smile on her face, Ellie and Annie peeking up over the side of the gurney and talking to the impaled man— with a weak smile on his face, somehow— while Adam, high on Jack’s shoulders, declares, “We’re gonna help!”
There’s no doubt in Robby’s mind that they’ll help. Jack’s mobility is a bit limited by the toddler on his shoulders and Frankie back in his sling on his front, so Robby steps in to be their hands, says, “Alright, let me get started here,” and asks their patient, “Is it alright if we have a couple of observers?”
The poor guy, bloody and breathing shallow, glances towards Annie and earns another beaming grin. It makes another watery smile come onto his face, and Robby is rocked by a surge of affection so strong he can feel it skull-to-soles.
“Yeah, that’s okay,” the patient mumbles. “Thanks, kid.”
“No problem!” Annie declares. “That’s our jobs!”
The look Jack tosses him then says everything— says that he’s feeling exactly what Robby is, says that they must be doing something right, says—
“Love you, too,” Robby mouths to him, and Jack, smiling, blows him a kiss before they get back to work, all together.