Chapter Text
So far, Robby's absence has been inconvenient, but manageable. It's only the second day of Robby's sabbatical, so there's still plenty of time for shit to hit the fan. Cassie has noticed several of the staff are more tense, especially Whitaker. That poor kid keeps zoning out and flinching at every incoming trauma announcement.
"Whitaker, darling, how are you doing today?" Cassie asks, her voice soft but she is careful to not be patronizing.
"Oh, I'm all good, Dr. McKay. Thank you." Whitaker responds, a half-smile on his face.
"Okay." She says, not wanting to push.
"Huckleberry," Santos starts. She's sitting at a computer, probably trying to catch up on her charting. "You're coming tomorrow, no arguing. I'm tired of you being moody."
Cassie smiles softly, she is glad Whitaker has someone to care about him, even if she pretends she doesn't. "You guys going out tomorrow?" She asks, making polite conversation.
"Yup. For Crash's 21st." Santos says, then looks up to Cassie. "You should come. Crash really looks up to you, I'm sure she'd want you there."
Cassie smiles, her heart swelling slightly, "You know, that sounds lovely." She's honestly a bit surprised by Santos being sweet, not that she didn't think Santos was incapable, but it was rare for her.
Santos smiles back, another rare occurrence, "And it's a surprise. Well, not really anymore, but it's supposed to be a surprise."
Cassie chuckles, "I'll keep the surprise."
The day went by relatively smoothly, the usual morning rush of seniors from care homes, sprains and broken bones, lacerations, the summer heatstroke hitting as the day gets hotter. Javadi trails along with Cassie for a lot of her patients. Javadi had been doing quite well with being more confident in her abilities, picking up more patients by herself. But she seems to have lost her confidence as of recently. Cassie knows that one of her patients fell through the cracks with the network shutdown on the 4th, and that her mother was pretty harsh to her about it. Cassie understands what it’s like to lose footing, emergency medicine has a habit of kicking down those who work in it. She just wishes she could help Javadi get her confidence back.
"Hello, I'm Dr. McKay, and this is Student Doctor Javadi." Cassie says, sitting down on the stool next to the patient.
"I'm Payton." The patient says, her voice timid. The girl seems young, probably around Javadi’s age.
"And who do you have with you?" Cassie asks, looking at the man sitting on her other side.
"I'm her boyfriend." He says.
"Alright. So you got a cut on your wrist? Can I see?" Cassie asks gently.
Payton moves the bloodied cloth off her wrist. It's stopped bleeding by now, and it's not horribly deep, it's curved around the side of her wrist, an interesting shape for a cut.
"That's not too bad." Cassie says, sensing the girl's nervousness.
"See, we didn't need to come in." The man says, he seems annoyed.
"No, it's still good you came in. We'll clean it up and use some skin glue to close it." Cassie says, "I'll go grab some supplies." Cassie nods to having Javadi come with her.
They both exit the room to grab the supplies. "I'm getting a... bad vibe from him." Javadi says quietly to Cassie.
Cassie sighs softly, "I know what you mean. This part of the job can be hard. Remember not to overstep, alright?"
"Yeah." Javadi nods.
They head back into the room, "Javadi will patch you up, okay?" Cassie says, setting up the sterile pad on the arm of the chair.
"I'm going to use some saline to clean the cut, it may sting a little." Javadi says. Payton nods.
"So, what cut you?" Cassie asks.
"Uhm... handcuffs." Payton says softly, wincing slightly as the saline is sprayed into her cut.
"Handcuffs?" Javadi asks, raising her eyebrows, “Why were you in handcuffs?”
“Um, it’s- uh…” Payton mutters, her face bright red.
“In bed.” Her boyfriend says. Javadi looks up at him, her eyebrows furrowed.
Cassie nods slowly, “Well, you shouldn’t be using metal ones. Are you hurt anywhere else?”
"No." Payton says.
“Good.” She knows that she can't do anything if Payton isn't going to say anything. But she knows that Payton won't talk with her boyfriend here, and he's likely not going to want to leave. Cassie notices Payton gives a nervous look to her boyfriend, then stiffens slightly as she sees his glare. Javadi looks back down at the cut, her face still scrunched.
"Alright, I'm going to glue the cut closed." Javadi says as she works.
Cassie watches Javadi work, "Good, that looks great." Cassie praises.
"So, you'll want to come back in two days for a wound check," Javadi looks over to Cassie, who nods encouragingly, "And sooner if there are any complications."
"We'll be back soon." Cassie says. They need a plan to get Payton alone if they want to deal with this properly. Cassie and Javadi leave the room, but before they can talk, Dr. Shamsi approaches Javadi.
"Victoria." Shamsi says.
Javadi fidgets with her hands, "Mom. Hi. What are you doing down here?"
"I came for a patient. I figured I would also ask if you've decided if you'd like to spend your birthday with your father and I." It seems less like a question and more like an expectation. Cassie feels a bit awkward being here.
Javadi takes a breath, "I'm working, then my friends are taking me out."
"Your friends?" Shamsi raises her eyebrows. It sounds judgemental and makes Cassie feel almost protective.
"Yeah, Santos, Mel, Mohan, Whitaker..." Javadi glances around nervously, “Princess, Perlah…”
"Your coworkers?"
"They're my friends."
"And I don't think I trust Santos taking you... out." Shamsi crosses her arms.
Cassie can't help but step in, putting her hand on Javadi's lower back, "Don't worry Dr. Shamsi, I'll take care of her."
Victoria shivers slightly as she feels McKay's hand lay on her protectively. She's always had a vaguely familiar feeling when McKay was around, although she can never quite put her finger on it. The feeling was made stronger whenever McKay would praise her, get close to her, or put an arm around her. There's a new intensity pulsing from the hand on her back.
Shamsi sighs, "See us before the week ends, Victoria."
Victoria nods, and Shamsi leaves, an annoyed expression on her face. McKay removes her hand, and Victoria feels a strange pang of disappointment. Victoria doesn’t have any time to unpack it.
“Hey Perlah!” McKay calls out to the nurse across the floor, “Could you help us?”
Perlah nods, walking over, “What do you need?”
“We need to give a patient some privacy. Her boyfriend seems… stubborn.” McKay explains.
“Of course.” Perlah follows behind McKay, Victoria following the both of them.
“Shit.” McKay mutters, standing in the doorway of a now empty room. Victoria runs a hand through her hair.
“They left?” Perlah asks softly.
McKay nods, looking defeated. Perlah rubs her back.
Victoria gulps softly, “Was it my fault? Did I say something?” Victoria doesn’t have a lot of confidence in cases like these. She’s much better when it’s an illness, or when she’s helping out in trauma. With these, she gets anxious, she says the wrong things, she reacts too much.
“No, honey, it wasn’t your fault.” McKay says gently, pulling Victoria out of her spiraling with an arm around her shoulders. It’s easy to believe McKay whenever she comforts Victoria. Her voice is gentle, but assured, and she always tells the truth, not just what Victoria needs to hear. Victoria nods, McKay nodding along with her with a small smile, her eyebrows upturned.
“It happens, unfortunately. Maybe she’ll come back, but we have to focus on those we can save.” Perlah says, a sincere expression on her face.
Victoria nods again. She has other work to do, she can’t afford to get caught up in each case that doesn’t go well, but it’s hard when she can hear her mother’s disappointed voice echoing in her head. McKay’s comment just registered in Victoria’s head, “Wait, are you coming to my birthday?”
McKay smiles softly, “Yeah. Santos invited me this morning.” Victoria always liked seeing McKay smile, it always warmed her right up.
“I- I think we’re going to a bar. Will you be… alright?” Victoria asks, her doe eyes looking to McKay with some worry in them.
McKay’s expression morphs into fondness, “I’ll be alright, darling. Thank you for your concern.”
Victoria’s heart does a little dance. McKay uses pet names for anyone younger than her but it still feels special to Victoria whenever they are directed at her. Looking McKay in the face was hard, but seeing the expression on her face… fuck.
“You alright, darling?” McKay asks, suddenly concerned, “You look faint.”
“Yeah, I’m good. I just need some… air.” Victoria says hurriedly.
McKay nods understandingly, “Go ahead.”
Victoria nods, nearly tripping on her own feet as she heads off to the ambulance bay. She pushes the doors open, stepping out into the air. The summer air isn’t much better, but now she feels less trapped, at least. Victoria’s very sudden realization left her a bit shocked. She understands what she feels around McKay now… she’s another human Utah. Victoria curses under her breath.
“You alright?” She hears Whitaker’s voice from behind her.
“Perfect.” She says, doing a double take when she sees Whitaker holding a cigarette, “You smoke?”
“Not often.” Whitaker replies. Victoria realizes just how exhausted Whitaker looks.
“You look like you’re going to collapse.” Victoria says, fully turning to him.
“Thanks.” A weak attempt at being sarcastic, only serving to make Victoria more concerned.
“What’s wrong?”
“Just been having trouble sleeping.” Whitaker says, placing the cigarette in between his lips and taking a breath of smoke in.
“You sure that’s all…?”
Whitaker exhales, the smoke leaving his mouth, “Yeah. I’m sure. Now what’s with you?”
She waves it off, “It’s stupid.” Whitaker raises an eyebrow, telling her to go on without a word. “I just… realized I have a crush on- on someone. It’s stupid, like I said.”
Whitaker chuckles softly, “Mateo off the table?”
“I don’t think he was ever on the table.” Victoria sighs.
“Fair.” Whitaker says, “...So who is it?”
Victoria can feel her face heating up, “Since when are you a gossiper?”
Whitaker drops his cigarette, putting it out under his foot, “Trinity’s rubbing off on me.”
Victoria smiles playfully, “Then I definitely shouldn’t tell you.”
Whitaker smiles back, nudging her with his elbow, “Hey! She hasn’t told anyone about my crush yet.”
Victoria grins, her eyebrows rising, “Oh? Now I’m curious.”
“We gotta get back to work!” Whitaker laughs, shaking his head.
“Oh, I see how it is.” She chuckles. Whitaker nods back to the doors and the two of them head back inside together.
McKay is talking to Dana inside, smiling softly when she spots Victoria, “Hey, honey, feeling better?”
Victoria can feel her heart start to race, she nods, “Yeah. Yeah. Feel- feeling better.” Victoria forces herself to smile as she curses herself in her head. Both Dana and Whitaker give her a curious off-look. Shit, she’s way too obvious.
“You sure?” McKay asks, her eyebrows furrowing lightly.
“I’m sure.” Victoria replies.
The rest of the day, Victoria hops on a good amount of trauma cases, a car crash, a nasty fall off a ladder, other not so pleasant injuries, she even took a couple patients with Whitaker, Joy, and Ogilvie. She hopes to limit the amount of embarrassing stutters and other such fumbles with McKay by just trying not to be around her too often, even if she really does want to be around her. She, begrudgingly, finishes her paperwork for the day, then films a few informational TikToks in some empty rooms. Finally, she heads back to her apartment.
Cassie had definitely noticed Javadi starting to avoid her after she started acting weird. She had meant to go and talk to her about it, but she didn’t find the time before Javadi went home. When Cassie asked Dana what was wrong with Javadi she only got a shrug in response. Cassie knew she had to actually talk to Javadi tomorrow as she headed back to her own apartment.