Chapter Text
Dennis Whitaker knew he wasn’t what people imagined when they thought about an Alpha. His physique wasn’t one anyone would be jealous of or lust over; he wasn’t blessed with the natural muscular body that usually came with the superior secondary gender. He somewhat blamed it on his upbringing on a farm in Broken Bow, Nebraska, having built up a constant “farm-food fluff“ as Santos liked to call it.
The only thing he got from being an Alpha was his, sometimes, red glowing eyes and the typical Alpha-voice drop that makes people listen to commands every rut. Not that he had ever used it on someone before, or had someone to use it on.
He had never been treated like an Alpha either; maybe it was because of his untypical height (5′ 7″ - 170cm) or perhaps his puny looks, which made him look like a sick Victorian child most of the time, and so he eventually stopped mentioning it; unless it was absolutely necessary.
And that’s how he went about with his life, mostly ignoring his secondary gender, spending ruts alone in his room with his favourite collection of sex toys and using pheromone pills to appear closer to being a beta. Knotting into his hand obviously didn’t satisfy him fully, but he wasn’t one to go to a rut/heat clinic or pick up someone at a bar. After his last boyfriend, Jason, an omega, left him a few years back due to unforeseen “circumstances“, he never got back into dating, and now he just prefers to be alone.
At least that’s what he had convinced himself to think up to the point he started his ER rotation at the Pittsburgh Trauma Medical Center.
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“Whitaker, what do we have here?“ Robby adjusted his glasses, waiting for the med student to start the nightly ER rounds. It was 2 am on a Monday, Dennis’ fourth week in the Pitt, his eyebags appearing darker this time around; he didn’t have time to grab a coffee yet.
“Mary Nguyen, Alpha. She was brought in on Sunday, yesterday, evening with complaints about severe headaches, abdominal pain and disorientation. Tested positive for Borrelia antibodies.“ Dennis held back a yawn; he had already given up on getting used to these night shifts. At least Robby also always took the same ones, from 11 pm to 7 am, these days. “Dr. Collins started her on antibiotics and omnibiotics yesterday shortly before we clocked in.“
“Pregnancy out of the question?“
Robby flipped through the clipboard pages, silently enough not to wake the woman in the bed.
“Yes, out of the question.“ Dennis nodded. He bit his lip; the next part wouldn’t be pleasant to bring up. “We did test her positive for pheromone abundance. That’s why she is still here.“
The older doctor looked up from the papers. “Another one? That’s the 12th one in one week.“
Cases of pheromone abundance used to be rare, only happening once or twice every two months or so. The sudden increase in cases started about two weeks ago, and the prime suspect was a new pheromone-inducing product on the black market, clearly invented to cause chaos and mayhem.
The symptoms went into effect scarily quickly: dizziness, restlessness and, most annoying, increased horniness until the affected victim succumbs to their secondary gender’s instincts and throws themselves at the nearest person. Sex seemed to be the only fast-working remedy against the drug; the other was to receive a 5-hour-long IV-fusion with a mix of saline solution and liquified pheromone blockers.
Without those two „treatments“, though only the latter one could be counted as that, it would take more than 24 hours to get back to normal fully. With Sex, maybe shortly under 24 hours, but they weren't sure of that.
What might have started as a party drug lapped over into the mainstream quickly. This also resulted in an increase in sexual assault in those past weeks, a dark factor that enveloped the ER with more victims coming in than usual.
“The police haven’t found anything yet, have they?“ Dennis sighed as they walked out of the curtain, closing it behind them.
Robby just shook his head and took off his glasses, to Dennis’ dissatisfaction; he loved the way Robby looked with glasses.
“Only that the drug looks like your everyday pheromone blocker pill, it’s not airborne or exchangeable through saliva, so that’s a good thing.“
Dennis simply nodded again as another wave of tiredness hit him, and this time he couldn’t keep the yawn out.
“Me too.“ Robby stretched his arms and yawned as well. “Let’s get some coffee. Langdon and the others can cover for a while.“
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The staff lounge was almost fully empty, apart from a surgeon reading a magazine, as was the rest of the ER. It was one of the rare, quiet nights at the hospital, though nobody would ever say that out loud, not to trigger “the curse“. Dennis wouldn’t believe its existence if he hadn’t accidentally caused it himself before.
During his second week in the ER, on a night shift with Dr Abbott and Dr Mohan, the words slipped out, and not even ten minutes later, the place got hit with a mass casualty from the nearby highway.
Trinity teased him relentlessly after, and Victoria seemed genuinely scared to be around Dennis on nightshifts after it happened.
“There you go.“ Dennis got shaken out of his thoughts when Robby placed a red mug filled with black coffee in front of him. Robby gave him a soft smile and sat down across from him. The chairs and wooden table were by no means the comfiest things in the break room, but Dennis refused to sit on the couch with Robby.
Not that he didn’t like being near the other, but every time they got too close, it was like a sensor got activated in Dennis’ body that caused him to blush more and more the closer they got. And he was sure Robby saw it happen at some point by now.
“Thanks, “ he took a sip, burned his tongue a little, but paid it no mind. “So, how was your weekend?“
Dennis tried to sound not too interested, but he knew he did. His eyes probably grew a little bigger when he asked, and he noticed his hands starting to fidget around the hot mug.
“Not too bad, I hung up a new picture frame.“ Robby blew on the coffee to cool it down, and Dennis chuckled.
“Another finished puzzle?“ From what Robby had told him, he loved puzzles, hanging them up on the wall and then doing it all over again; it was sort of his “puffer“ for in-between shifts.
“Yeah.“ Robby finally took a sip and scrunched his face. Dennis instinctively reached behind him to grab the oatmilk from the counter, careful not to tip over with his chair.
“Won’t you run out of wall soon?“ The chief attending physician snickered at that remark and gratefully took the oatmilk from Dennis.
“Not necessarily, I am running out of motivation, though.“
“Maybe you need a puzzle-partner.“ Dennis suggested, and he took another sip; this time, it didn’t burn anymore.
“Would you like to?“
“Hm- ?!“ Dennis coughed up coffee, wrong pipe. “ cough Puzzle cough over at your cough place?“
Their relationship had undeniably developed a lot ever since Dennis found Robby on the floor mid panic attack on his first day, but this was a huge step.
“Do you not like puzzles?“ Robby raised an eyebrow.
“No- I- I love puzzles“, he stammered and tried to catch himself mid-sentence, but to no avail. “I’m very passionate about puzzles, I- I… I love puzzles.“
Dennis Whitaker, aged 26, had never even so much as looked at a puzzle before in his life.
Just as Robby was about to say more, Trinity stormed into the break room. “We need you out front Dr Robby.“
She gave Dennis a somewhat apologetic look and then ran out with Robby behind her. The coffee Robby left stood there, still steaming.
Dennis groaned and let himself hang back over the backrest. The ceiling looked as normal as ever, but he didn’t feel normal at all. Not about Robby, that is.
He didn’t know when it started, but Robby made his way into his mind with the speed of a lightning bolt crashing right into his heart. But with all those new butterflies also came a bunch of scorpions that tormented him relentlessly. He knew it was wrong, so awfully wrong, to think about his superior, who was also old enough to be his father, in such ways. And while one side of his brain tried to keep him down to earth with his one-sided feelings, the other wanted him to jump Robby every time they were alone in a room.
Or even just behind curtains in the middle of the ER.
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