Chapter Text
Mel is sitting in the break room, AirPods in, listening to her patented wave sounds after a particularly rowdy patient almost decked her in the face (if it hadn’t been for Donnie, she’d probably have left North Two with a black eye at minimum). She’s breathing in tandem to the sounds of the crashing water, eyes closed, when she feels the energy of the room shift. She opens one eye.
Frank walks in, phone glued to his ear and the vein in his forehead popping out just slightly. His jaw is locked as he listens closely to whoever is on the line, and when his eyes catch her headphones in, he closes the door and sits down across from her at the table, a silent acknowledgment that this was a safe space. It isn’t like Mel is the type to go gossiping with the other members of staff anyway, so he was safe here with her. AirPods or no AirPods, this phone conversation was not leaving this room.
Now, despite not participating and moving the gossip along, unfortunately, Mel does work in the Pitt, meaning she hears the whispers anyway. So, she knows he is not exactly in his wife’s good graces. Getting caught stealing drugs from your job, being high at said job and then going off on a six-month stint in a rehab center does not bode well for a healthy relationship. He’s been fighting tooth and nail to get his sponsors and the PHP and his therapist and anyone else that will vouch for him. To prove to more strangers that he is more than his addiction and that his children are his priority.
That’s what Mel thinks this phone call is about, judging from the stress lines on his forehead. His pointer finger is tapping the table absentmindedly, and while she can’t hear it, Mel can certainly feel it.
(And to think he probably has no idea yet about what almost just happened to her).
She rests her phone in one hand, instead of cradling it, and rests her other one on the table, palm up, between them. A silent invitation.
An invitation that is accepted as Frank grasps her hand, squeezing, but not too tightly, and she can see some of the tension leave his shoulders. When Mel looks up, he meets her eye and smiles, those stress lines getting a little smaller, but those crinkles by his eyes making a full show.