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Adrenaline rushed through Dennis' system, his endorphins spiked making his head dizzy in a good way. This wasn't an unusual feeling for working in the ER, its what helped them all survive the high stakes environment they worked in every day. Evolution's clever way of keeping people going in even in the most difficult and dangerous of situations. Over the noise around him Dennis hears Robby's voice, he could probably find him whispering in a crowd full of people, while blindfolded. He was asking if anyone had gotten a picture of the board. He quickly pushes past Ogilvie and Abbot to get to Robby's side. He can't get the way Robby had looked over him - when the CEO announced they were shutting the computer systems down - out of his head he was probably only imagining it but it had seemed Robby's first instinct was to look at him, at Dennis, in a moment when he was in complete shock and anxiety, like he'd needed his reassurance. Of course, Dennis was probably just projecting because he always needed Robby, always looked to him, always got that reassurance.
"Dr Robby, I was able to get a picture of the board just before everything went down." God he was almost breathless in his rush to get over and show his attending that he'd done something helpful, that maybe he'd made things a little bit easier in this soon-to-be hellish process. Sometimes he was a little pathetic when it came to Michael Robinavitch, even with his new-found confidence thanks to Trinity, Robby, and Dana all helping him build himself up over the past ten months.
"Great." Robby clapped him on the shoulder, Dennis couldn't help but glance down at his hand, his thumb pressed with light pressure into the muscle above his acromioclavicular joint, the rest of his fingers splayed across his scapula. "Thank you, Dr Whitaker." A shiver ran down his spine, something about Robby calling him 'doctor' really got to him. "Donnie said he'd grab us a easel pad, I'll need this." He easily took Dennis' phone from his hand, and he didn't even try and hang onto it like he would have if it was Trinity or Samira trying to take it from him on a drunk night out or during a ribbing session aimed at him on game night.
"Yeah, I'm just…glad I got it."
"One less thing to worry about." Robby agreed, giving him a small tight smile.
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It wasn't until Donnie was pushing the whiteboard into the room and setting it up for Robby and Dana to organize for them that Dennis realized what he'd done. He'd just handed his fucking phone over to Robby, unlocked, in the photo-app.
"Oh fuck." He whispers to himself, the two med students on either side of him glance at him, curious. Robby grabs Dennis' phone off the counter he'd set it down on as he pulls his reading glasses out of his front pocket. Dennis takes two steps forward, his face burning as he realizes how insane and incriminating he's about to sound. "Um, hey, Dr Robby if you could just be careful-" His voice is just a little too low, but he's leaning forward now, right at Robby's shoulder. "-like, maybe don't s-" His words die in his throat.
He can see it happening, it's all so slow for Dennis, he notices every little detail in that moment. The way Robby's holding the phone, just a little awkwardly so he can focus on putting his glasses on - something Dennis' fucking mom used to do which annoyed the fuck out of him - the picture is sliding over and there's nothing he can do to stop it - bar tackling the phone out of his hand. Robby glances over his shoulder at Dennis looking a little confused and like he didn't hear or didn't understand what the resident was saying, he opens his mouth probably to ask him to repeat himself but its at the same time his eyes are drifting back down to the phone in his hand. Dennis considers, for what must be a millisecond within a millisecond, finding a scalpel and jamming it into his carotid to make it all stop.
Dennis supposes the picture could be worse but it also could be so so much better. More innocent and not likely to make working with Robby in the future a very new kind of hell that had nothing to do with how busy the ED was or how big his crush on the older man is.
See he'd had the night off yesterday, Trinity was out and he hadn't been in the mood to help Amy after working all day and he'd been in his feelings about Robby for what must have been the millionth time just that week. He didn't usually use Grindr even if he did always have it downloaded, notifications turned off, only using it when he got a very specific itch under his skin or he wanted to lead a few guys on for a couple hours just to get some compliments and boost his ego a little. He'd been having that itch and needed to update his pictures, though his profile was always faceless it hadn't been conveying what he wanted it to in that moment. So he's gone into the stash he kept under his mattress and picked out his favorite pair of lilac purple lacy panties.
He'd given himself a little photo-shoot to raise his spirits and his confidence. He'd warn an oversized hoodie with the panties, folding himself up on the floor as proactively as he could while still leaving enough to the imagination. The lilac lace wrapped around his half-hard cock in a way he thought was pretty appealing at the time. He'd been fucking proud of how good it looked when he'd been alone and only using his shitty old iphone and the junk around their house to help him angle his phone correctly.
Robby just stares at the picture, most everyone else hasn't noticed the way he and Dennis were frozen in place. Dennis peaking around his shoulder, Robby unmoving, unblinking, phone clutched tightly in his hand as his face filled with a bright pink flush that was quickly spreading to his ears. Everyone else is busy setting up for going analog, Robby and Dennis were always standing close - why would they think anything of it? Dennis' ears were ringing and the world was blurring at the edges.
Dennis didn't notice Joy coming up to his shoulder and peaking over at the phone, he was too consumed with his own doom and gloom and wondering if Robby was going to fire him on spot.
"Wow." Joy said, the sound of smugness creeping into her tone. Both Robby and Dennis jumped at the sound of her voice. "Cute panties, good angle." Her voice is low, she pats Dennis on the arm. "We do have work to do though." And then she stepped back.
The ringing had stopped, Dennis gasped in a breath not realizing he'd been depriving himself of air. "Robby-"
Robby turned and shoved the phone into Dennis' chest. "Read the information off to me." He said, tone apathetic and numb but his voice was gruffer than usual.
Dennis just nodded numbly. "Righ-" his voice strained and quiet again, he cleared his throat and quickly swiped away from the picture that had just ruined his life. "Right, okay, I can do that."
Somehow the world kept spinning. They had patients who needed care. They had jobs to do.