Chapter Text
When Robby and Dennis had started dating, Robby might’ve looked into Dennis's medical file. He was just curious, he wondered if the kid got chicken pox when he was younger or something of that nature.
He expected to see no shot record from age one to nineteen or so. From what little he knew about Dennis's family, they were crazy religious. So it would make sense that they wouldn't believe in vaccines.
But what he hadn't expected to see was a diagnosis for arthritis in both knees. For a second he thought he had clicked into the wrong file by accident– he looked up at the top, searching for the patient's name.
Dennis Lee Whitaker
He did have the right file.
Robby was confused, to say the least. How had this never been brought up before? Even in basic conversation it should've come up, he thought. Frank talked about his back pain all the time. He felt like this shouldn't be any different. This made no sense.
Also, at this point Robby and Dennis had been seeing each other seriously for like two months. How in the fuck had this not come up?
Now that he thought about it. It wasn't that it just never came up, he was hiding the fact that he had arthritis.
At work, Dennis would appear stiff when getting up from a chair he probably sat too long in, chalking it up to being tired. When he stood idly, sometimes he would steadily kick up leg. Bending his knee, sometimes twisting his leg with the motion.
At home, Dennis would grimace when kneeling down to grab a pan when he was cooking dinner. There were knee compression garments in their sock drawer, and Robby never asked about it. He always thought they were for farm work.
It all made sense now. Not with why he was hiding it, but just the fact that he was hiding it.
He didn't know what to do with this information. Part of him wanted to confront Dennis, but he almost immediately realized that would a stupid idea. It would either make the kid shut down, or it would make him never trust Robby again. also what would he even say? “Oh yeah I've been snooping around in your private business and guess what I found!” That would be ridiculous.
Another part of him wanted to say or do nothing at all. He wondered just how long Dennis would keep up the act, if he would tell him at all.
What was he gonna do though?
After thinking for a very long while. He decided on asking Trinity if she knew anything about it, and then also asking what he should do about it.
“Don't worry I've peeked at his file too, i'm not gonna snitch. when I asked him about it. He just got kinda shy? Or flustered might be a better word. And then he changed the conversation. It was kinda weird, but then again isn't he always weird?”
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“I'm not really sure to be honest” she thought for a moment “what If I brought it up? I mean, he trusts me on like a sibling level. Just something like ‘oh have you told robby about your knees yet?’”
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Of course Robby had agreed, it sounded way better than anything he was coming up with, everything he thought of would probably scare Dennis away.
So they made a plan.
Step 1: trinity would demand that they hangout
Step 2: get Dennis drunk
Step 3: ask him if he has ever told Robby about his arthritis
Step 4: tell him that Robby has a right to know
Step 5: have Robby come pick him up at the end of the night
It was a simple plan. They weren't sure if it would work. But this was quite literally eating Robby alive. So it was better than doing nothing at all.
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“We're hanging out tonight,” Trinity said without looking at Dennis. They were both catching up on charting.
“I have plans with Robby tonight, i cant cancel on him” Dennis pointed out
“I already talked to Robby, He said you guys can do movie night tomorrow.” she stated nonchalantly
Dennis grumbled “great, you two have already found a way to conspire against me” he said sarcastically
“Hey! God forbid a girl wants to hang out with her friend”
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“Call me when your ready to come home” Robby said as Dennis slid into the passenger seat of Trinity's car
“It'll probably be around 9 if I had to guess” Dennis replied
The door shut, Dennis rolled the window down.
“I'll see you later,” Robby said before they shared a small kiss through the window. They looked at each other for a moment
“Gross” Trinity said annoyed as she pulled out of the parking space
“Be safe! Don't do anything too stupid!!” Robby yelled after them as he watched them drive away from the hospital.
I'm really counting on you trinity. Robby thought to himself as he climbed into his own car.