Archive of Our Own

“You’re going to be the best Rapunzel” Becca beamed, twirling around in her own princess dress as she looked at Mel.

“Why thank you Princess Becca” Mel replied with a curtsy.

“I’m not Princess Becca, I am Elsa! From Frozen!” Becca insisted crossly. 

Mel made a mental note to let whoever was running the Halloween party at the center know that Becca was specifically Elsa in order to avoid a meltdown later since, in all honesty, she really didn’t look the part. She didn’t want to wear a wig since it was itchy (understandable), and she had already wiped off most of the makeup Mel had applied and it wasn’t even 7am. It wouldn’t surprise her if Becca asked to change out of the costume dress too before the party even began later in the evening because again, itchy. 

“Yes, of course Elsa” Mel said somewhat absently as she texted Laura from the center to let her know that she packed an extra change of clothes (all blue to still at least fit the theme of Elsa if nothing else) for when Becca inevitably had enough of her costume, and pajamas for when the party was over since Becca planned to stay the night. She had been choosing to stay at the center more and more lately and Mel was glad that she was getting more comfortable in an environment that let her feel more independent, but it left her feeling a little unmoored to be needed less and less by her sister. She reminded herself that this had been the plan all along — to transition to Becca primarily living at the center so she could have the stability that Mel’s schedule couldn’t provide — but it was still bittersweet. Laura texted back almost immediately reassuring her that Becca would be referred to as Elsa all night regardless of wardrobe changes and that they would be on the lookout for any costume related sensory issues, and Mel sighed in relief.

Mel herself didn’t exactly look the part either, but she valued practicality and was not about to be stuck coding a trauma in a princess gown. Instead she had her hair in her normal braid but with a tiara on and purple scrubs as a nod to Rapunzel’s purple dress. At the last minute she had found one of Becca’s old beanie babies that looked like a lizard and stuck it in her front scrub pocket with the head sticking out. It would have to do. She managed to get them both out the door and have Becca dropped off without any further costume crisis.

When Mel walked into the Pitt — she always walked around the building from the staff lot to come in through the ambulance bay doors to avoid the chaos of wading through all the patients in chairs — the first thing she did was glance around as surreptitiously as possible to make sure she wasn’t the only one dressed up. Not that she looked much different than usual, but she fully planned on ditching the tiara in her locker if no one else was wearing anything festive. Right away though she locked eyes with Dr. Mohan, who seemed to have had the same idea Mel did. She was clearly a work-friendly version of Belle from Beauty and the Beast, with butter yellow scrubs on and a rose pinned to the pocket. Dr. Mohan noticed her at the same moment and came jogging her way.

“Well hello Rapunzel” she greeted Mel joyfully. Samira always had energy. A slightly manic energy at times if you asked Mel, but no one ever did and she didn’t really mind it. Samira was one of the few people she tentatively considered a friend here, and the enthusiasm could be endearing in its own way.

“Hello there Belle” Mel replied, trying to sound equally as chipper and hoping it came off sincere. She guessed it had, because Samira’s eyes lit up at the recognition.

“I’m so glad you got it! I didn’t wanna go all out and have it get in the way of work, but I couldn’t pass up dressing up at least a little bit. Anyway, I packed something else to wear later.”

“Later?” Mel asked, confused.

“After shift a bunch of us are going out! You should totally come.” Samira said brightly.

Mel couldn’t decide if she felt left out for not being invited initially, or relieved that her coworkers realized that “going out” wasn’t really her scene. “We’ll see,” she said to Samira. “Anyway, who is ‘a bunch of us’?”

“Well, right now just me and Whittaker and Santos…but we’re working on it! Trinity’s gonna ask Garcia and it sounds like she’ll probably say yes if we don’t get a big trauma right at the end of shift. Maybe you can ask Langdon?” Samira suggested hopefully.

“Why me?” Mel asked suspiciously, and a look that she wasn’t able to read flitted across Samira’s face.

“Oh you know it’s just, you two get along right?” Samira said. Mel could tell there was something between the lines she was supposed to be hearing too, she just didn’t know what.

“And you don’t?” Mel asked, confused.

“No I do, it's just…different.” Samira edged.

“Different how…” Mel started, but she was cut off by a page from Dana coming over the intercom. Dana who was actually…a mouse? She had her usual grey scrubs on but had a pink nose and whiskers painted on her face, and a headband that looked like ears. Mel made a mental note to ask her about it.

STEMI 5 minutes out. STEMI 5 minutes out. Trauma 2.

Samira looked relieved for the interruption. “Just ask him!” She called over her shoulder as she jogged towards the trauma room, snapping on a pair of gloves. Mel bit back the argument that a bar might not be the best place for a recovering drug addict anyway, and pushed her way into the locker room so she could dump her backpack in her locker before heading in the direction of Trauma 2.

As she entered the buzz of the room full of people preparing for the incoming patient a few minutes later she saw that Whitaker was clearly a farmer, with denim overalls on top of his scrubs and a plaid jacket that made him look more like a scarecrow than anything. He tossed the jacket onto the counter as he snapped on a pair of gloves. Samira was already gloved up and ready, bouncing on the balls of her feet. The hospital prided itself on its door to cath lab time for STEMIs, and Samira had a competitive streak. Whitaker was mostly just in the room so his med student shadows could see them in action. Moments later the stretcher rolled in, carrying an older man who was looking listless and diaphoretic.

“John Perez, 72 year old male, collapsed in the grocery store after complaining of chest pain, history of angina and double bypass surgery a few years ago, that was all he could tell us before he started going in and out. We sent over our 12 lead en route.”

“John” Mel began, giving a sternal rub to wake him up as they transferred him to the bed. “John did you take any medications today?” Peripherally she noticed Samira hooking up the 12 lead to get a new read on his heart rhythm.

John scowled at her. “I don’t believe in that damn Ator whatever. Ator…stat. My son tells me I gotta take it but the pharmacy wants to charge me an arm and a leg for it!”

Mel sighed. “Not taking your Atorvastatin as prescribed puts you at risk for a heart attack…” she glanced over at the 12 lead strip Samira was holding up to her with raised eyebrows. “…which is what’s happening right now. We’re going to get you up to the cath lab though and they’re going to get you fixed up okay?”

“Okay young lady” John said weakly. Mel fought back a grimace. She hated when people called her that. She was a grown adult. She had put herself through medical school. She was the primary caregiver for her sister. Being called ‘young lady’ felt diminutive in a way that bothered Mel as much as she tried not to let it. Instead of responding she just backed up a couple steps so they could wheel the patient out towards the cath lab, who had just called down to confirm that they were ready.

The rest of the morning passed without much fanfare. A teacher dressed like a cat who had gotten the flu from her kindergarten class and needed fluids. A college student who had fallen off her bike and fractured her wrist when her Princess Peach costume had gotten stuck in the spokes. A little kid in a dinosaur onesie who had fallen off the monkey bars and needed stitches for a chin lac. By the time afternoon hit they were all a little antsy feeling like it was only a matter of time until the other shoe dropped; they couldn’t possibly get through a holiday shift without something big, could they?

It was 3:00pm when the phone rang and Dana’s face fell upon answering it. Mel felt her heart rate kick up a few notches; it took a lot to rattle the seasoned charge nurse.

“Where? How many? How bad? Names? Ages? How far out?” Dana asked in a clipped tone that was all business. Mel wished she knew what was going on. No more than a minute later Dana hung up the phone with a sharp click and looked up at where they had all gathered anxiously around the desk. 

“That was dispatch. A dad passed out at the wheel heading to school pickup and mowed down a pack of kids walking out of school – not at your kid’s school and not at your kids school, I checked. What do you think this is, amateur hour?” Dana interrupted herself crossly to point at Langdon and McKay respectively, deflating the way they had been practically vibrating out of their skin when she had started talking. “The dad drove into the building and is still being extricated, unclear yet why he passed out. We’ve got a 7 year old male enroute with a head injury, a 6 year old male enroute with an open humerus fracture, and…” Dana paused long enough to swallow bitterly “a 4 year old female who was pulled out from under the vehicle, obvious crush injuries.”

The stunned silence lasted only a moment before Robby took over, spurring them all into action. “Whittaker and Santos, take the med students and head into Trauma 1, I’ll meet you there. Mel and Langdon, head to Trauma 2. Javadi and McKay you’ll be in Trauma 3, Mohan be ready to jump in if someone needs more hands. Come on people, let’s go, we got this!” Robby clapped his hands together with finality and they all scattered. 

Mel had a bad feeling about this. She eyed Langdon as they approached their designated trauma room to get gowned and gloved, wordlessly tying the yellow trauma gowns at each other’s backs and making sure the room was fully stocked with anything they might need for a pediatric trauma. His nervous energy lacked the momentary desperation he had exuded before Dana had made a point to tell them all that there was no chance these were his or McKay’s children, but they were still children all the same. Just like Mel had a soft spot for disabled or neurodivergent patients who may need a special kind of attention, it made sense that Dr. Langdon would be sensitive when it came to young kids, having two of his own. She met Robby’s eyes as he passed their trauma room to go meet Whittaker and Santos and he gave her a look she had been receiving a lot from him lately, particularly when he paired her with Langdon on a tough case. She wanted to ask him what it meant, but she never seemed to find the right moment and now certainly wasn’t it, as she heard the ambulance bay doors open and the first stretcher rolled in.

Mel’s bad feeling was confirmed when the stretcher that got wheeled into their trauma room was the little girl with the crush injuries. Her curly blonde hair lay haloed around her head and the confines of the c-collar, streaked in places with blood. She blinked up at Mel in wonder through long lashes. Thankfully the drugs and the adrenaline seemed to be dulling the pain and therefore the panic from her sweet face.

“Rapunzel” she whispered, fogging the oxygen mask that was strapped to her face.

Mel was confused for a moment, thinking it may be a sign of a head injury though the girl’s pupils were equal and reactive, until she remembered the tiara she still wore on top of her head and the braid falling over her shoulder. She felt it as Dr. Langdon leaned forward to hover over her shoulder, trying to figure out what was going on. With anyone else the proximity would bother her, but she was used to his tightly wound energy flitting around in the periphery of everything she did at this point. The little girl’s eyes grew even wider. 

“And Flynn Ryder” she said in awe.

Luckily Dr. Langdon was quicker than Mel — she only distantly paid attention to the names of the other characters when Becca put on Tangled for them to watch — and he pieced it together in an instant. “That’s Doctor Rapunzel and Doctor Flynn Rider to you. It’s your lucky day!” He said animatedly. “And what’s your name, princess?” 

The little girl was indeed wearing a princess gown of her own. “I’m Anna.” she said softly. “I don’t really have a sister named Elsa though, I have a brother. His name is Aiden.”

“That’s a very pretty name. Anna, is it okay if we take a look? We heard you were in a pretty scary accident and we need to know how we can help you.” Mel said soothingly.

Anna nodded, her bottom lip sticking out. Langdon started his examination while Mel continued asking questions. 

“How is your breathing feeling Anna?” Mel asked, keeping her tone light.

Anna took an experimental deep breath and shook her head. “Hurts” she said weakly.

“That’s okay honey, what else hurts?” Mel asked encouragingly.

Anna’s eyes glazed over. “My tummy” she said weakly, before her tiny body bucked up and she started vomiting blood. In an instant Mel whipped off the oxygen mask and reached behind Anna to roll her towards her so she didn’t aspirate, keeping her c-spine straight as much as she could. Mel felt Dr. Langdon next to her, holding Anna’s lower body in the same position. He was shaking with adrenaline, and Mel pressed her upper arm against his as much as she could without altering her hold on Anna. 

“We need some extra hands in here!” Langdon shouted through the still open door. Garcia burst through moments later, still tying on a fresh trauma gown.

“What happened?” She barked.

“Crush injuries from the accident, weak reflexes on the lower extremities, significant abdominal bruising and tenderness, vomited blood upon abdominal palpitation after reported dyspnea.” Langdon answered, his normal joking with Garcia cast aside. Anna had stopped vomiting, so they gently rolled her onto her back again.

“Dr. Flynn” she said weakly. “I don’t feel so good.”

“I know honey, I know.” Dr. Langdon said reassuringly, wiping her mouth and brushing her hair out of her face. “We’re going to help you okay?”

Anna nodded, tears streaming from the corners of her eyes.

“Dr. Flynn?” Garcia asked them both.

Mel straightened up and stepped to the side so she could talk to Garcia without Anna hearing. “I’m dressed as Rapunzel…you know, for Halloween…and Dr. Langdon is dressed up as…well, himself I guess, but she thinks he looks like Flynn Ryder. You know, from Tangled?” Mel gestured uselessly up to the tiara on her head.

Something glinted in Dr. Garcia’s eyes. “I normally just call you two ER Barbie and ER Ken, but that has a ring to it. I like it.” She said mischievously.

Mel began to regret saying anything immediately, even as Garcia bent down to get on Anna’s level and speak to her in a voice softer than Mel had ever heard her use. “Hi Anna, Dr. Rapunzel and Dr. Flynn Ryder are going to need my help making you feel all better, is that okay?”

Anna nodded lethargically. The adrenaline was wearing off and she was fading fast. She opened her mouth like she was going to say something, but then her eyes rolled back in her head and the beeping heart monitor flatlined, her tiny body going limp. Garcia hopped up onto the gurney, straddling the girl for better leverage as she began CPR. Mel immediately started bagging her as the room swarmed with people. An OR nurse switched out with her, grabbing the bag as the bed started rolling with Dr. Garcia still on top of it, headed towards the OR.

The sudden silence was deafening, leaving Mel and Dr. Landon reeling as they watched until she was out of sight. It had all happened so fast. They were left only in momentary quiet though, as almost immediately they heard Santos' voice shrieking from the hallway outside.

“Drugs?? This stupid motherfucker was on drugs??” She yelled at someone, though Mel couldn’t see who from where she stood.

What she could see though, was Langdon flinching as though he had been struck. It was clear he thought, for whatever illogical reason, it was him that Santos was yelling about in the hallway. Clearly it was still a sore spot between the two of them.

Mel stepped past him into the hallway to figure out what was actually going on, and was met almost immediately with Trinity Santos yelling animatedly at a paramedic who looked like they wanted to disappear into thin air under her scrutiny. When she saw Mel come out of the room, Santos whirled on her instead.

“That man??” She pointed to the trauma room behind her. “That man that crushed that little girl with his fucking car?? He was fucking high! That’s what the paramedics are saying! Fucking high on who the fuck knows what when he drove through an elementary school pickup line!” She screamed, entirely beside herself with rage. Whittaker materialized out of Trauma 1 and started talking to Santos in a hushed tone, trying to get her to lower her voice.

Mel felt movement behind her and she spun around just in time to block Langdon’s path. He bounced off of her much shorter frame in a quiet oof of breath and backed up a step. His blue eyes looked wild, wide and glittering with a barely suppressed rage. “Mel…I have to…did you hear her, what he did?” He was looking over her shoulder towards the room where the man had been taken. “Let me in there…let me…” he clenched and unclenched his fists at his sides and Mel reached up to grip his biceps.

“It doesn’t matter. He’s gone.” Robby’s voice echoed out as he stepped from the room the driver was in, quieting both Langdon and Santos immediately and causing all of their heads to turn towards him. “Time of death, 1632.” He ripped his gown off and chucked it in the biohazard bin as he stripped the gloves from his hands. Mel felt Langdon brush past her and this time she didn’t stop him as he strode towards the ambulance bay doors.

When Mel had stripped off her own gown and bloody gloves and made sure nothing more was needed of her in the trauma rooms, she walked towards the doors that Langdon had disappeared through. As she passed Robby he gave her a loaded look and she really wished he would stop doing that and just say whatever he had to say. She thought about letting it go, but she figured she could spare a couple minutes from her mission to go track down Dr. Langdon.

“Dr. Robby, a word?” Mel gestured at the empty room behind where he was standing.

He looked surprised either by her request or tone but he listened, sliding the glass door shut behind them. It didn’t afford them privacy from prying eyes, but it did mean that no one would hear them unless they were willing to be obvious about eavesdropping.

“Why do you keep looking at me like that? And don’t insult my intelligence by saying ‘like what’.” Mel said firmly, and from the way he looked away Mel knew that’s exactly what he had been about to say.

Instead, after a pause he leveled with her, seeming to choose his words carefully. “He’s different with you, Langdon is. The side you bring out in him is different from what the rest of us get. It’s like you remind him how to be gentle, how to care, how to teach. You have a way of bringing that out in people, Mel. You’re patient. You’re kind. You see people. I don’t regret what I did, forcing him to get help, but I don’t know how to move past it with him. So selfishly I keep counting on you to do it…to keep him steady, to give him someone to trust. Maybe that’s not fair of me. I know it at least wasn’t fair of me to do without asking you. But I’d be lying if I said I thought I was wrong for it.”

“So you look at me weird because you think I…help him?” Mel said, trying to make sense of it.

“I think you help each other. You see each other, or at least you try to.” Robby said openly. “But if it’s too much…”

“No, it’s not too much.” Mel said quickly. “Thank you for telling me.” She added before opening the sliding door and walking back the way she had been headed. Maybe she should have been upset with him. Maybe she should have been offended that he essentially pawned the senior resident off on her because he wasn’t in touch enough with his own emotions to repair things. But the protectiveness she had felt months earlier when she found out no one had visited Langdon in rehab flared up again in her chest. She had always been attuned to brokenness and had an instinct for showing up for the people who needed her, like by soothing the hurt in those she cared about she could somehow fix the holes left by neglect in her own bleeding heart. And so she pushed open the ambulance bay doors and walked around the corner to where she knew Langdon would be.

Mel sat down beside him on the bench that was just around the corner from the ambulance bay, out of the way of prying eyes. She was quiet for a moment, giving him a chance to speak first if there was something he wanted to say. After a patient minute she was rewarded as he sighed, taking a breath to speak.

“You know I wanted to go in there and shake him. Knock him around a little. Punch some sense into him, I don’t know. I was so mad. I’m still mad. That poor little girl. And…and that could have been me. High on drugs, mowing through a school zone.” Langdon said forlornly. “I’m not sure what’s worse. Feeling so angry or feeling like a hypocrite for being so angry.”

“But it wasn’t you.” Mel said simply. “You got help. You got clean. And you’re here.”

When he said nothing, continuing to stare straight ahead, Mel broke the silence, shifting gears.

“I’ve been told there are some people going out after shift, do you want to join?” Mel asked. That got his attention. He swung his head around, looking at her incredulously.

He scoffed at her, looking shocked that she would even ask. “You think that after a day like today what a recovering addict needs is a bar? Is that what you’re prescribing me, Dr. King?”

His tone stung but Mel refused to let it show. She may be sensitive but she wasn’t a pushover, and the conversation she had with Robby had emboldened her. She arched her eyebrow in reproach before she replied. “No, Dr. Langdon, I do not think a bar is what you need. But I do think that what you need isn’t to be alone right now. You need your people. Your friends. We all do. So we are going to go and drink a soda and watch our coworkers make fools of themselves, and let it distract us from this day.”

Langdon had the sense to look a little sheepish, ducking his head down to avoid her stern gaze.

“And if that doesn’t work” Mel said more softly, craning her neck to keep a hold of his gaze like he had done for her when she was the one feeling dysregulated “then we can go somewhere else. Okay?”

“Okay…yeah.” Langdon managed, looking scolded and a little out of sorts.

Mel was beginning to see what Robby meant about their ability to see each other. She reached out a hand to cover where one of his was sitting on the bench between them and squeezed it. “Plus, I can’t exactly be Rapunzel without Flynn Ryder.” She felt him flip his hand over in her grasp and squeeze back.

Luckily the last couple hours of the shift were an emotional reprieve of sorts, and most of the cases were borderline comical; a group of sorority girls dressed up like nurses who had too many Jell-O shots and kept trying to steal their stethoscopes, a clown having a panic attack because he had looked in a mirror and startled himself, a vampire in a car accident who seemed gravely injured until they realized that every last drop of blood was fake and he was just really committed to the bit. All of it was a perfect distraction as they waited anxiously for updates on Anna and the other two kids, and for the night shift to arrive so they could give their report and get out of there.

As Mel finished her handoff of the patients who remained when 7pm rolled around, she found herself abruptly pulled to the side by Samira.

“So did you ask him?” She said, looking significantly more tired and rumpled than when they had gotten there that morning, but still with that energetic gleam in her eye.

“Uh yeah actually, he said he’ll come.” Mel answered, only halfway lying. Langdon hadn’t outright said he would join them, but she felt like they had come to an understanding on it.

“Perfect!” Samira exclaimed. “Now come on Rapunzel, let down your hair.” 

The last thing Mel saw as she was pulled into the locker room by Samira was Dana looking on with a bemused smirk, and it occurred to Mel that she had never gotten around to asking her what she was dressed up as.

Twenty minutes later Mel was questioning every life choice that had led up to this moment. For reasons entirely inexplicable to Mel, Samira had packed not only a party dress that would turn her into a sluttier version of Belle, but also a long purple dress that was clearly meant for Mel to wear. 

“Samira…why?” Mel questioned, genuinely lost. “Why did you bring this?”

“Lucky guess” Samira shrugged. “I figured we must be about the same size, and I knew you weren’t about to pack yourself anything hot to wear, so I had to intervene. And clearly the universe agreed because the dress works perfectly with your whole Rapunzel thing.” She said, gesturing at where Mel still stood awkwardly in her purple scrubs. The dress in question was a spaghetti strapped lilac purple dress covered entirely in sequins (“only on the outside”, Samira promised, “it isn’t itchy”) with a low, draping neckline. It fell almost all the way to the floor with a slit that went up to mid thigh. 

“But it’s going to be cold!” Mel protested.

“Hoes don’t get cold!” Santos shouted from somewhere out of sight.

“I’m not a hoe!” Mel yelled back.

“Not with that attitude you’re not!” Santos yelled immediately.

Mel just grumbled. “Fine” she acquiesced, beginning to strip off her scrubs until she realized one more thing. “Samira, I can’t even wear a bra with this!”

Samira just shrugged “it’s fine, the fabric’s thick, no one’s gonna know.”

“And you’ve got perky tits, you can rock it!” Santos yelled again, and Mel yelped, scandalized. She wasn’t sure if she’d ever entirely get used to how casually crass Santos could be.

She hurried to shuck off the rest of her clothes and had Samira zip her into the dress just in time for Santos to come around the corner looking like…

“Shego?” Samira guessed delightedly. 

“Yeah well, Kim Possible is stuck in that surgery from earlier, so we’ll see how many other people can guess only one half of a costume” she shrugged. “Now let’s finish fixing up Rapunzel over here.” Santos eyed Mel up in a way that had her feeling almost clinically dressed down. “Do you have contacts with you?” She said, squinting at Mel appraisingly. Samira took the opportunity to walk away to start getting herself into her slinky yellow dress.

“Yeah I uh…I always bring some in case I…”

“Perfect, put them in” Santos demanded, and who was Mel to argue. At the very least she could appreciate the fact that Trinity never beat around the bush.

Once Mel had put her contacts in, Santos swooped in with more makeup than Mel probably owned, which realistically wasn’t much. “Just a little bronzer, a smudge of eyeliner…” she narrated as she did it. Mel had to admit, it didn’t feel cakey and unpleasant like it usually did when she wore makeup. “Now take out the braid, Rapunzel.” And so Mel did, shaking out her long blonde waves so they cascaded around her shoulders, something she never did at work. Santos stepped back and smiled, as Samira rounded the corner looking absolutely gorgeous in her dress, curls half down and just a touch of makeup gracing her usually bare face as well. 

“Think of it like a ren faire” Samira said as she produced a pair of strappy flats for Mel to wear that went with the dress. “Spending the night out with people you normally don’t see that way, getting to be whoever you want.” She smiled brightly, and when she put it that way Mel supposed it didn’t sound so bad after all.

As they packed up their work stuff and headed towards the door, Santos declared that she was ordering them an Uber and that the boys were meeting them there. “The boys” meaning Langdon and Whitaker, apparently. 10 minutes later, they were walking into a small bar a couple miles away from the hospital. It was crowded enough that they wouldn’t stick out in their outfits, with plenty of other patrons also dressed up for the day, but not so busy as to be immediately overwhelming. Mel found herself surprisingly glad she had agreed to this. She hadn’t really been “out” like this since her early years of college and it was…something different.

As the three of them walked in Whitaker saw them first, smiling and giving a thumbs up as he gestured to their outfits. He himself was still dressed in his farmer outfit from earlier minus the scrubs, and with the addition of a straw hat. Langdon appeared to have changed out of his black scrubs and into a pair of flattering dark jeans and a black tshirt, layered underneath a jacket. Mel supposed it was as close as he could get to maintaining the Flynn Ryder aesthetic under short notice. As he turned in their direction, notified of their arrival by Whitaker's enthusiastic waving, he almost dropped one of the glasses he was holding. His eyes widened as he saw Mel, his mouth opening in a slightly comical way as some of the liquid in the glass sloshed over the edge. Mel could hear Trinity snort next to her. “Smooth move, Flynn Ryder.” she muttered, though only Mel could hear her.

As they approached the men, Langdon extended one of the two glasses he was holding out to Mel. “It’s a shirley temple” he explained of the reddish tinged fizzy drink with a tiny sword of cherries floating on top. “You mentioned not really wanting to drink earlier and I know you don’t really do caffeine, but I figured that still left room for something fun.” he said, blushing slightly. “Mine’s just a…”

“Redbull?” Mel finished, eyeing up the toxic yellowish color of his drink as she took a sip of her own.

“Yeah” he said, bouncing on his toes in a move that made Mel doubt that he really needed the caffeine. “Mel you look…wow. You look amazing.” Frank added earnestly and she smiled back at him, blushing. She was happy he was here. Happy they were all here really, as she glanced over and saw Samira and Trinity clinking their glasses together. 

“C’mon Mel!” Samira said then, grabbing Mel by the arm as she moved towards the dance floor, cutting off anything she had been about to say to Langdon. She pressed her drink back into his hand as she let herself be whisked away and he just watched her go, that slightly star stuck look plastered back on his face.

Mel was having fun. She was letting Samira twirl her around and cheering at Trinity's exaggerated dance moves and laughing when Whitaker started singing along badly when some well known early 2000’s hits would come on over the speakers. And when it all felt like a little much, she would glance back and see Frank, leaning against the bar chatting with some of the other doctors who had stopped by, seeming content just to watch her. He wasn’t out on the floor dancing, but he still seemed relaxed and Mel gave herself a mental pat on the back for getting him to come out tonight.

Eventually, sooner than the others seemed to, Mel picked up on a theme. She listened closer to the catchy song playing through the speakers. Everyone in the bar other than her and Frank seemed to be at least a few drinks deep at this point so they didn’t quite seem to notice or care that the songs playing were no longer immediately recognizable as long as they had an upbeat tempo to move around to. Mel stilled, listening to the lyrics.

I've been stuck my whole life in a tower

These bells make my head ring every hour

And every night I pray for a ladder that's up to the task

She shook her head. She was imagining it. Mel let it go until the next song started and her suspicions again piqued.

Hair down, feelin' like Rapunzel

Keep your doggies in a motherfuckin' muzzle

Only one queen in the jungle

Ay, only one queen, only one

Mel smiled despite herself and made her way over to where Frank was standing. He quickly angled his phone away from her in a move that was unusual for him and she laughed. He glanced away, caught. Mel King was not the gambling type, but she’d bet money at this point that if she snatched away his phone right now she’d see the TouchTunes app open, controlling the music that played through the bar speakers. Mel distracted him by reaching across to grab her drink, swiping his phone with her other hand as she did so, letting out a surprised laugh when she saw the screen. It wasn’t open to TouchTunes, but it was open to a Google page that showed the search results for “songs to play that have Rapunzel in the lyrics” and when she backed up a page it was “songs about Rapunzel”. She opened her mouth to tease him, eyes sparkling with mirth, when a voice from behind them stopped her.

“Hey Rapunzel, Flynn Ryder.” Garcia had materialized at Mel’s shoulder, and though she had kept up with the nicknames she winced now as she said them. Mel’s heart sank. She set her drink back down and reached out instinctively for Frank’s hand. His fingers immediately gripped hers. If Garcia noticed she didn’t comment.

“No…” Frank said softly.

“Yes.” Garcia said over Mel’s head so she could meet his eyes and Mel hated that, the simple response. She knew what Garcia was saying but she needed to hear it said plainly, no room for misinterpretation. It was one of the first things they were taught in medical school when it came to breaking bad news. She was about to say as much when Garcia lowered her gaze back to Mel. “Your little girl, Anna. She didn’t make it. I was in surgery with her for hours. She fought so hard but her injuries were just too much for her little body to handle. Her spleen was ruptured, her pelvis was crushed, her iliac artery was torn, she had bleeding in her brain and a collapsed lung. There was just too much…” Garcia trailed off.

Mel noticed that Samira, Trinity, and Whitaker had gravitated towards them, pulled in by Garcia’s arrival and sobered by her words. Trinity had taken Garcia’s hand like Mel was holding Frank’s.

“It’s a miracle she even made it to the hospital honestly. But she did, and you two gave her one last good memory. The last thing that girl will ever know is two characters straight out of a fairytale smiling down on her. You didn’t let her die scared.” Garcia said thickly.

Frank made a strangled sort of sound and gripped Mel’s hand tightly, crushing her fingers.

“Thank you, for telling us.” Mel said sincerely, reaching out to squeeze Garcia’s arm before turning on her heel and leaving the bar without another word, dragging Frank behind her.

**************

Frank wasn’t sure where they were going, which was funny since he was driving. They had made it a few steps out of the crowded bar and into the cool October air before he had started hyperventilating in earnest, leaning up against the side of the building around the corner from the front door and crushing Mel to him in a hug. It was a testament to the bond they had that she not only allowed this but reciprocated, slipping her hands beneath his jacket and rubbing them up and down his back soothingly as she fought to manage her own ragged breathing. He felt the knot in his chest loosen slightly with the repetitive motion of her hands, and after a while he pulled back, looking down at her searchingly. Frank so rarely felt any sense of control in his own life these days, drifting from home to work to NA meetings ad nauseum just trying to keep on the straight and narrow in the hopes of figuring out where this new life of his would lead, but control was Mel’s specialty and many times he found himself looking to her to keep his head above water. Maybe it wasn’t fair to rely on her like this, but she seemed to welcome it and so he did.

“Home, or not yet?” Mel had asked simply, eyes intently searching his face to make sure the answer he gave was truthful. Frank thought of “home”. The blank walls, the empty space, the quiet that the background noise of the TV didn’t seem to actually fill.

“Not yet” he pleaded softly. And so they didn’t, getting in his car instead and watching the wheels turn in Mel’s head as she hatched a plan.

Mel had plugged her phone into the charger in his SUV and so it was an address of her choosing that filled the map screen. She hadn’t associated a name to it in her phone so he didn’t know what would await him when they got there, all he knew was that her hand holding onto his where it rested on the center console was the only thing keeping him sane right now, along with the distraction of the way she was almost absentmindedly singing along to little snippets of the songs that came on the radio as she flipped through the channels.

You built your wall so high

It's alright, honey, I don't mind

Love ain't free, but baby, I'd free climb just to get to you.

It didn’t take long before Frank was pulling into a parking spot and looking at Mel for his next move. She held out the beanie baby lizard that had been in her scrub pocket earlier. Had she had it with her this whole time they were out? He wracked his brain to remember seeing it.

“For your costume” she said, setting it on his shoulder and getting out of the car. He scrambled to follow her without losing the lizard.

“And where are we going?” he asked finally, catching up to her.

She looked a little unsure of her idea now as she answered. “This is where Becca lives when she’s not with me. They’re having a Halloween party. I’m not sure this is really what you had in mind when you said you weren’t ready to go home yet, but it felt like a good distraction and I know she’ll be happy to see us.”

To see us. Frank thought to himself pleasantly. Warmth spread through his chest. She wanted him to meet Becca. He had reached a status of permanency in Mel’s life where she wanted her sister to meet him. They had obviously continued and built on the friendship that had taken off during his time in rehab but it was always just the two of them building Ikea furniture and trying the new Thai place down the street from Mel’s apartment and going to HomeGoods to try to find things to make his own place feel more lived in and less like a flop house. He smiled, following her through the doors, and she smiled back, looking relieved at his reaction. It felt nice to be included in an us, Frank thought.

The Halloween party wasn’t so much a party in the loud, boisterous, chaotic sense he would have expected if they were going somewhere for neurotypical adults who didn’t have sensory issues, but was a party all the same. In a large common living area of the facility, the smell of popcorn emanated from of those wheeled standalone popcorn makers which was set up next to a table with a punch bowl (“Vampire punch” it said, with ice cubes molded by those rubber costume teeth floating in it) and dirt cups (“haunted graveyard dirt” the sign said). The classic Scary Movie was playing at a reasonable volume on a TV near a smattering of comfy looking couches and beanbag chairs. Over at a large kitchen table there was a group of girls painting pumpkins, and one of them looked up as the two of them walked in. It was unmistakably Mel’s sister. Even if he hadn’t already seen pictures the resemblance was obvious.

“Elsa, she’s Elsa” Mel hissed belatedly, elbowing Frank to make sure he was paying attention to what she was saying as Becca got up and made a beeline for them.

“Mel! When did you get hot?” Becca said bluntly, wide eyed as she looked her sister over.

Frank choked a little and Becca whirled towards him instead. “And who are you?” She asked suspiciously.

Mel just laughed. “Becca! This is my friend Frank, from work. Dr. Langdon. I’ve told you about him before. And tonight he’s–”

“Flynn Rider!” Becca finished for her. “And he has my lizard.” She added, looking at where the beanie baby was still precariously perched on his shoulder.

Frank’s mind was still stuck on the fact that Mel had apparently told Becca about him to the point where it was explanatory. 

“Yes, he has your lizard. I let him borrow it so it looked a little more like he was wearing a costume, not just dressed like a normal guy. I hope that’s okay?” Mel asked her sister.

“Not a normal guy, a hot guy.” Becca corrected matter of factly, and it was Mel’s turn to choke a little. “And yeah that’s fine, I don’t really play with my beanie babies anymore anyway.” she said decisively. Mel shot him a look that suggested that may not be strictly true.

“And you’re Elsa, right?” Frank said to Becca. He could see why Mel had made a point to tell him. She was wearing a blue t-shirt and blue jeans and had a tiara perched on top of her brown hair, but otherwise he probably wouldn’t have guessed who she was dressed up as.

“I am, thank you for noticing” Becca said with a practiced curtsy. “Mel didn’t want to be Anna, but she looks better as Rapunzel anyway”.

Privately, Frank was very glad that Mel had not dressed up as Anna. The day had been traumatic enough without her sharing a costume with a dead little girl. His hand twitched at his side, wanting to reach out to Mel, but he refrained under the watchful gaze of her sister.

Becca suddenly looked suspicious and at first Frank wondered ridiculously if she had read his mind but she turned to Mel instead. “You guys aren’t here to pick me up, right?” she said worriedly. “I’m not even done with my pumpkin and we were going to watch the second Scary Movie after this one and–”

“No Becca, relax. We just came to stop by and see you and your friends while we were still dressed up, you can stay.” Mel said, and Becca visibly relaxed.

“In that case, you can come help me with my pumpkin” Becca said, turning away to lead them back to the table. “We’re having a contest.”

They sat for a while at the table with Becca and her friends, and Frank was happy to just sit and take it all in. Frank enjoyed the more relaxed version of Mel he got to see outside of work, but this was something more. She was at ease with Becca in a way that made his heart ache at the tender, joyful way they were together. Becca pointed out where she needed help on her pumpkin and Mel took the paintbrush with a concentration otherwise reserved for complex medical procedures. Becca said something funny and Mel laughed in a way that was vibrant and free of self consciousness. It healed something in Frank just to watch them interact.

As the pumpkin painting came to an end and Becca’s attention was stolen by the start of the next movie, they said their goodbyes and walked back out to the car. As they buckled in, Frank was feeling much more settled than when they first arrived, but he still wasn’t quite ready for an evening alone in his apartment..

He cleared his throat and Mel turned to look at him. “Maybe we could steal their idea and have a movie night too?” he said hopefully. Mel’s face softened in understanding.

“Yeah, I don’t think I want to sit alone in an empty apartment right now either” she said in answer and he sighed in relief. Maybe it was a little codependent, but it was her company he craved when the nights felt just a little too quiet after days that had been a lot too long.

They got to his apartment a short time later – he hadn’t explicitly asked which of their places to go to but his was somehow closer both to Becca and to the hospital – and as soon as they walked in the door and slipped off their shoes he disappeared into his bedroom, coming out with a big t-shirt and handing it to her. “The dress is gorgeous on you, but it doesn’t exactly look like it would be comfortable to watch a movie in” he explained, and she smiled at him as she closed the bathroom door behind herself to change and wash the makeup off of her face. Frank felt like he had won the lottery every time he earned one of those smiles from her.

As she got changed, he quickly swapped out the jeans and t-shirt he was wearing for his own comfier clothes and sat down on the couch to begin looking for a movie. Before he could settle on one, he heard the bathroom door open and his heart did something mildly painful in his chest as he watched her walk out in his t-shirt and sit down next to him on the couch, grabbing a blanket to snuggle underneath.

“Have I told you yet that you looked gorgeous tonight? You look gorgeous actually. Present tense. Fancy dress or no fancy dress.” Frank said sincerely.

Mel gave him half a fond smile and an eye roll. “Maybe once or twice.”

He couldn’t help himself, and could she really blame him? The purple dress was absolutely hypnotizing with the way the sequins reflected and made her shine like she created the concept of light itself, not to mention the way it clung to every curve in a way scrubs never could – he was only a man after all – but seeing her curled up and relaxed on his couch in one of his old college tshirts, feet tucked under a blanket and head drifting towards his shoulder, he wasn’t sure much could compare to that. It was a tie in his mind, and he was having to remind himself with increased frequency that they were just two friends. Two good friends. Two best friends.

“It was fun, getting to see you have fun like that,” Frank said honestly. It was easy to be honest with her. Their friendship was built on honesty. Watching her spinning around with Mohan and Santos he felt like he was getting a glimpse into a side of Mel that had been long dormant, chased away by the weight of responsibilities and the busyness of adulthood and traumas he knew he wasn’t yet fully acquainted with. “It’s like there’s this whole other person inside of you I didn’t know about” he said. Mel was clearly a woman of many layers, and he was happy to let her take her time revealing them to him. 

“You know me.” Mel replied, seeming unbothered. “You know the things that matter.”

Frank could tell that something he had said hadn’t quite landed right because Mel straightened up as she spoke, and he immediately missed the warmth of where she had started leaning into his side.

“You know plenty about me that not everyone does.” she added somewhat defensively.

Frank’s eyes softened, looking to right a wrong, not pick a fight. He brushed a strand of hair out of her face and took it as a sign that she must not be too mad since she let him do it.

“I know I do. And I’m honored. Every day I’m honored that I’m someone you’ve chosen to let into your world. I know that doesn’t come easy.” he said sincerely. “I didn’t mean it as a bad thing. I love getting to find all these new pieces of you I didn’t know before.”

Mel’s face twisted in a complicated way. “I know, I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to get like that about it, it’s just…I guess I forget there are other sides to me too sometimes lately. I’m always caring for other people whether it’s at work or home with Becca, and her needing me less and less as she makes friends and wants to stay at the center more has made me realize that I don’t really know who I am anymore outside of that and I’m…struggling with it a little sometimes I guess.”

Frank nodded his understanding. He had felt the same when he was fresh out of rehab and trying to find where he fit back into his own life. Mel had been there in the early days to help him navigate, and he wanted very little more in life than to get to do the same for her now.

“I understand, and I’m sorry to be one more person you have to care for” he said honestly, making sure he sounded sincere and not like he was seeking to be reassured in some way. “I know it can probably feel like a lot sometimes to have one more thing added onto your plate, but it doesn’t go unnoticed, the things you do for me. You keep me grounded, Mel, and I can never tell you enough how much that means to me. How much you mean to me.” The words tumbled out unbidden but they seemed to be the right ones this time because she smiled up at him, relaxing into his side again and he sighed happily.

“You’re not just one more thing on my plate”, Mel said softly, her head tilted to look up at him now, his arm that had been slung over the back of the couch drifting down to pull her in closer. “Caring for you has never been a burden, it’s as easy as breathing.” She said, and Frank’s heart did that painful fluttering, twisting thing again. Of all the ways Frank had been described in life, even in his own mind, ‘easy to care for' had never been one of them, but somehow he found himself believing it when she said it. She took a deep breath before she continued and Frank could tell that the day was catching up with her. At this rate she’d be asleep before they even picked a movie. “You keep me grounded too, Frank. You remind me who I am, without all the other stuff. I look at you and I know I’m seen, and I matter, and the rest can be figured out. You make me feel like we can figure it out.” she sighed sleepily.

“We can figure it out. Always.” Frank whispered into the top of her head. “Now let’s go to bed before you fall asleep on the couch. The movie can wait for another night.” he said as he got up slowly, so as not to jostle her. Mel took his hand and followed him there which he absently decided was ironic, as he was becoming more and more certain that he would follow her anywhere.