Chapter Text
Santos is literally one foot out of the locker room before her entire chance of a good day is ripped away. Javadi blindly steamrolls into her with little regard as she rushes to the lockers.
“Jeez, watch where you’re going Crash.” Trinity snaps, immediately losing her patience with the younger girl. She looks over at Javadi who looks frantic, clearly having been running a little late. Seeing her flustered amuses Trinity, though she’s not exactly sure why.
“How was that my fault?” Javadi looks taken aback, not expecting such hostility from their first interaction of the day. Usually, they can make it at least part way through their shift before they stop pulling their punches.
“You came running in here without looking!” Santos continues to argue, knowing she should let it go. Realistically, she knows that it was accidental, but Javadi’s irritated expression encourages her to keep pushing. This doesn’t need to be a thing, but neither of them will be the first to back down, so they make it a thing.
“Well maybe if you didn’t have your head stuck so far up Garcia’s ass, you’d be able to see where you were going!” Javadi says, her voice rising. Ouch. Santos screws up her face a little as Javadi rubs salt in the semi-fresh wound. It doesn’t shock her though; she’s learned by now that Crash gives as good as she gets, she’s a lot snappier than she lets on. She’s not even sure how Javadi knows, or even what she knows. It could be coincidental, a nippy remark about the relationship (or lack of) that Santos was having with the senior doctor, but Santos chooses to interpret it as a deliberate attempt to get at her.
“Let’s hope mommy doesn’t have to fix anymore messes of yours today,” Santos says angrily, knowing it’s a low blow but failing to care, as she pushes by her to immerse herself into the patient hand-off’s waiting for her.
Trinity should have anticipated her day going from bad to worse, the demands of the Pitt wait for no one, today this is especially true. It is horrifically busy; Santos is irritated, behind on her charts (again) and she can feel the attendings on her ass before they even say anything. Her patient load has doubled in the last hour, and she hasn’t had a minute to breathe, nevermind take a break or god forbid, use the bathroom.
Santos knows she isn’t the only one feeling it, tensions are high across the department, and everyone is dealing with the abnormally high number of patients, but it feels like everyone is handling it much better than she is. Finishing her rounds, before anyone else is rushed through the doors, she takes a minute to linger around the nurses station, leaning onto her forearms. This takes the weight off her feet for a moment, and she relishes in the brief reprieve; she doesn’t think she’s stopped moving since her shift began. Stopping only makes her all the more aware of the ache in her lower back, but it feels nice to stand still for even just a minute. Glancing up at the board, she considers each available case, briefly assessing severity and urgency trying to decide where to start. The board is overwhelmingly full of reds and yellows - there’s no time for anything light today.
“Cherry-picking, Santos?” She hears Javadi say. She has this irritating habit of just appearing, and it pisses Trinity off. Trinity tenses as she hears her name, letting the breath out through her nose.
“Shut up, Crash. I’m just looking,” she responds truthfully, albeit slightly snarky. Javadi rolls her eyes, turning to look at Santos.
“How many times do I have to tell you, stop calling me that?” she replies. Trinity knows that she hates the name, but she can’t help but enjoy Javadi’s reaction to it. It was never meant from a place of malice; she just thought it was funny.
“Why? It’s just a friendly nickname,” Santos replies with a grin, pushing Javadi’s buttons more. This provokes a laugh from the girl, who crosses her arms over her chest defensively.
“We’re not friends, Santos, we will never be friends,” she says, looking up at her. Santos feels her stomach drop slightly at the statement, she’s not sure why again; she knows her and Javadi aren’t friends. She lets out a low whistle, rocking backwards a little and screwing up her face.
“You’re killing me crash, really, what am I going to do without the Victoria Javadi being my friend?” She teases her, feigning fake hurt. Javadi huffs, reminding Trinity of the petulant toddler she had treated earlier, and storms away. Turning back to the board, she catches Dana’s eye - she’s shaking her head disapprovingly.
“You’ve gotta lay off the kid,” she says, looking back down at the computer dismissively. Dana somehow always looks composed, she somehow always notices every minute detail of everything that goes on in the ED. It’s so clear that she really is the one who runs the place.
“Come on, she started that, and you know it.” Trinity refuses to leave it there, a little bothered that she’s receiving the blame. “Besides, she’s barely a kid, I mean when was the last time you saw her without a stick up her ass?” Santos chuckles lightly at the girl’s expense, however still feeling the tension.
“Put yourself in her shoes, how would you feel with Dr Shamsi breathing down your neck every day?” Dana tries to reason. Trinity holds back an eye roll, of course she’d jump to Javadi’s defence.
“Talk about a dream,” Trinity deflects, trying to hide the irritation she feels, walking away from Dana before she can continue the lecture.
The shift doesn’t let up, and Trinity thinks this is potentially the worst shift she’s had in months. It must be some sort of divine punishment, testing her abilities and testing her as a person entirely. The attendings are short when reviewing cases and she’s heard them arguing more than once as the afternoon drags on. Moving between patients, she even hears Robby’s sharp tone directed at Dennis, who she notes looks like he wants to start screaming on the spot. Santos doesn’t think it can get much worse, until Dana sticks her with Javadi, with a pointed look, to deal with three new patients moved in from triage. Great.
She finds Javadi easily, waiting for her beside the closed curtain that she assumes their first patient is behind; her purple zip up stands out in amongst the chaos. It makes her eyes roll. How does she always look so put together? Clearly she’s not as busy as the rest of them.
“What could I possibly have done to be blessed with the presence of the great Dr J again?” Santos asks Javadi with a theatrical bow. Javadi glares but doesn’t humour Santos with a response, pulling back the curtain and greeting the patient.
“Well, present your case,” Santos follows Javadi, gesturing at the patient who eyes them uncomfortably, already feeling the tension that surrounds the pair.
“You’re not my attending,” Javadi barks back. Trinity is shocked by the outburst; Javadi is usually so composed in front of patients at least. It makes her goad her further, wanting to see how far Crash will go.
“I’m your superior,” she points out with an air of arrogance, smirking at Javadi and crossing her arms. She only says it to get the reaction, it’s not something she really cares about. Javadi’s head snaps around from where she’s checking the chart.
“Oh my god, do you ever shut up!? You’re so full of yourself,” Javadi raises her voice, her annoyance at Trinity overtaking her professionalism. Santos watches the embarrassment creep over Javadi’s face as she realises what she’s done. She feels a little guilty doing this in front of a patient, but Crash just makes it so easy.
“I apologise for my colleagues' behaviour Mr. Tucker,” Robby interjects, appearing suddenly and glancing at his chart. Javadi, embarrassment tripling, opens her mouth to start apologising but he stops her with a quickly raised palm. Her head falls and Trinity is again reminded of the stroppy toddler; she has to hold back a smile.
“Javadi, go check on Whitaker, see if he needs help with the med students,” He says curtly waving her out of the room. She scurries out shooting a quick glare at Santos, who rolls her eyes in response. Robby takes over the patient care, giving him a brief update on the next steps, answering any questions. Santos awkwardly waits bedside, knowing she hasn’t been dismissed. Robby apologises once more for their behaviour, Trinity wincing apologetically to the man before the door is opened and she is being gestured out of the room.
“A word,” he says to Santos firmly. She knows she is fucked this time.
“Fuck,” she mutters to herself, already trying to think of ways to save her own ass. She follows him to an empty-ish corridor, a few nurses lingering - he doesn’t even check to see if she’s following.
“Dr Robby, listen, I-“ she starts when he turns to her.
“No, it's your turn to listen,” he cuts her off. She can see the stress all over his face, and Santos knows there’s nothing she can say to lessen the blow.
“I can’t deal with that shit in my ED today, Dr Santos, especially not in front of our patients. You should know better, you have the title, you have the experience. You’re supposed to be teaching, instead I hear you bickering and provoking a med student.” Santos’ head drops, she knows he’s right, Javadi just gets under her skin. Robby doesn’t stop there.
“I’m sure you remember how it felt having a superior take a dislike towards you? Out of everyone, you’re the last person I expected it from.” Her head snaps back up at Robby’s sheer audacity, he knows that’s a sore spot. The shame she was feeling is immediately replaced with red hot anger. Her face twists into a frown, her jaw clenched tight as she grinds her teeth.
“That’s not fair,” She chokes out, Robby’s stare is unwavering. “This is nothing like my shit with Langdon,” She says it quietly, not wanting anyone reminded of her horrible first shift in the ED.
“Isn’t it?” Robby queries, “From day one you have been on her, I’m seeing more similarities than differences!” Trinity would rather he slapped her in the face, she can officially confirm this is one of the worst shifts of her short career, she cannot catch a break. Compared to Langdon? The asshole who berated her constantly that day and still looks at her like he wants to wring her neck? The words cut pretty deep.
Robby watches the emotions flash across her face, continuing to stare her down, waiting for her response. She doesn’t have one, she feels defeated. She meets his gaze and sees him falter slightly, maybe he knows he took it too far. Santos knows he won’t take it back.
“Fix it,” are his final words as he darts back into the hustle of the ED. She lingers a moment, watching him walk away. Robby walks by Dennis, stopping him with a gentle hand on his shoulder, he says something, a small smile climbing onto Dennis’ face. Santos huffs; she’s seen it enough to know he’s apologising for snapping at him earlier. She wishes she would be afforded the same grace that Whitaker, his golden boy, gets. She feels guilty immediately after the thought, it’s not Whitaker's fault. Still, she’s pissed off, so when they make eye contact across the ED, she flips him off before finding a patient to distract herself with.
The day feels endless, checking the clock, Trinity feels a little lighter to see there’s less than two hours left before she can get the hell out of here and forget the day had even happened. Her brief respite is once again interrupted by one Victoria Javadi. She can feel her anger rise immediately, Javadi has been poking and prodding all day - usually it’s funny to her. But with the hell she’s been dealing with today, everything feels like a personal attack, especially from the girl. It’s not an excuse, but it’s an explanation for her reaction.
“So, what did Robby say to you earlier? Did you get into trouble?” Javadi asks, dragging out the final syllable. Santos drops her head and groans, before turning to face Javadi head on.
“He asked me to go easy on you, you know, because you only got this spot because of who your parents are,” Santos spits at her. She knows it’s low and she knows she said it to hurt Javadi. She can’t stop, she doesn’t want to be the only one feeling so defeated. Usually, she feels satisfied when she sees Javadi’s face contort angrily and storm off. Not this time, this time it makes her feel worse. But she can’t help herself, it’s what she knows will sting.
“What’s wrong, Crash? Don’t wanna talk about your mommy issues?” Santos continues, following her.
“Just fuck off Trinity,” she snaps back, turning to look at her briefly. It stops Trinity in her stride, Javadi’s never looked at her like this before. She looks broken, eyes slightly glassed over. Trinity wishes Javadi would look at her with her usual anger, that she can handle. She has no idea how to react to Javadi’s current expression. All she knows is that she never wants to see it again, let alone directed at her.
In her haste, Javadi bumps past Robby, the concern on his face evaporating as he looks at Santos, immediately putting two and two together. She can feel her heart drop as he shakes his head, disappointment radiating off him. The shame and anger swirl in her stomach, she drops down at the computer praying she can chart until the end of the shift.
—
The ED is pretty empty as her shift comes to its end, she doesn’t care about jinxing it, she’ll be out of here in the next twenty minutes. A lot of the Doctors mirror Trinity, all trying to finish their charts and escape on time. She’s interrupted by Dennis, approaching her from the side, rapping his knuckles on the nurse’s station.
“Who’s all coming to The Street after shift tonight?” Whitaker asks in the direction of Dr Mohan, knowing Santos is also listening. Mohan hums slightly, thinking to herself, finishing a sentence.
“Uh, I think I’ve mentioned to everyone except Javadi, so us three, Robby, McKay, Mel, and a couple of the nursing guys maybe,” she replies, focusing back on her work on the computer. Javadi, walking by them, slows to a stop at the mention of her name.
“What haven’t you mentioned to me?” She queries. Trinity notes she looks a little more relaxed than when she last saw her, easing the tension in her chest slightly.
“Oh! Vic! Wanna come to The Street with us after our shift? Everyone’s going, just to blow off some steam,” Mohan offers to Javadi, smiling at her expectantly.
“Really? Everyone?” Javadi says, looking at Santos with an intrigued expression. The tension returns to Trinity’s chest almost instantly. “Didn’t realise that charts finished themselves,” she nips. Santos ignores her completely, keeping her eyes on the screen in front of her.
“What, nothing to say?” She continues goading, clearly irate from their last interaction. Santos feels her glare and prays Javadi is busy, she cannot deal with their back and forth out of work too.
“So, are you down? It’ll be fun!” Whitaker says, trying to divert attention from Santos. Her anger builds, now directed at Dennis. Why is he encouraging her? Is anyone on her side?
“Yeah, sure, I’ll come along,” she says, looking at Santos again, waiting. Trinity dead set on ignoring her, offers no response. Not getting the response she wants; Javadi turns sharply and walks away.
“Great!” Santos exclaims with faux excitement, once Javadi is out of earshot. “Can’t believe I’m spending my night off with fucking Crash,” glaring at Whitaker and leaving in the opposite direction. She knows he’s just being kind, it’s in his nature. It doesn’t piss her off any less.