Archive of Our Own

Dennis was fed up with some of the staff at this hospital. First of all, it seemed like the gossip mill from this workplace was constantly going, and they desperately wanted the details of all the finer points of every doctors life. Second of all, for whatever reason, everyone knew something about soulmate names on at least one coworker. The girls chat that he had been dragged into by Trinity because she argued that his ass counted had various soulmate conversations at least once a month. And finally, he was losing his mind because Trinity was the only person to know that he had fully given up on ever finding his soulmates.

He had grown up rural. He had grown up religious. And he had grown up with a family who did not take to outsiders well. And outsiders were considered anyone that wasn't like them. Not white, got side eyes from everyone, although helping hands were helping hands during harvest season. Not Christian, practically banished from the public sphere. And God forbid anyone be born with a soulmate mark that suggested gay or polyamorous shit.

Unfortunately for Dennis, he had been born with extraordinarily bad luck. Like the kind of bad luck that had people tortured. He had been born with two marks. Already a sin to his parents. Already enough for them to use the fucking cattle brand to burn away the marks. But both names were male, a fact that his dad never failed to let him forget when he was getting lashes from the belt or the cane. If he hadn't been born with so much sin, things could have been different. If he didn't have wandering eyes, they could have found him a nice girl to settle down with. Someone who didn't want the hassle of having to travel for a soulmate.

He had escaped that life once he was in college. He had never looked back. He switched from theology to medicine. He was going to save people, and if there was a god hopefully they'd look kindly on the fact that Dennis didn't ask for much. He didn't ask for a way to reverse the scarring. He didn't ask for a miracle where his name was somehow so popular someone pieced together he was their Dennis Whitaker from the internet. All he asked for was for random people to stop looking at him like he was thing to be pitied or asking about his damn soulmate names.

Trinity knew, and her looks of pity were already bad enough. He could barely stand them. The rest of them with their curious gazes and their burning need to understand why Dr. Whitaker refused to talk about soulmates was driving him crazy. Almost crazy enough to do something bad enough for HR to get involved. And wouldn't that be something else.

He bit down on his lip as Mel turned to him again. "Hey, Whitaker, Frank and I were talking about the possibility of platonic soulmates rather than romantic ones. Do you have a stance on this?"

Dennis grabbed a new chart and left the charting station all together. He grabbed Trinity by the sleeve of her scrubs as he marched past. He found a somewhat uncrowded corner of this ER and released a huge breath. "I need help."

"Oh, wow. You need enough help that you're caving and asking at the workplace. Bold, Huckleberry, bold indeed."

"Trinity," he whined.

"Okay, okay. What do you need?"

"I need people to stop asking me about soulmates before I lose whatever is left of my sanity and take a scalpel to either mine or someone else's neck."

Trinity's lips twitched. "I mean I could start a rumor. Something small that stays away from the truth or something. Perlah and Princess would believe that I got this hot gossip from living with you. I can't promise no one would come over and start asking questions about whatever cover story I came up with, but I can guarantee that it would stop the worst of it."

Dennis shook his head. He could barely stand lying regularly. He wouldn't be able to keep the story straight and then when one of the staff figured out that he was just letting Trinity lie on his behalf, the questions would get worse, and Trinity wouldn't be able to cover for him twice.

He rubbed at his face angrily. "Maybe. Could you tell everyone who wants to know about my soulmate situation to meet on the roof after shift? I'll give the bare bones explanation of what happened, and then anyone who shows up can have exactly one question that I will answer honestly. In return for this after today, no one is going to ever bring up soulmates to me specifically."

Trinity hummed. "That might just work. Traumatize all of them and make them feel massively guilty for forcing you to spread this story, and then no longer deal with the problem since the guilt will keep their mouths shut. Yes, I can get this done, I'm pretty sure."

"Thank you."

Trinity shrugged. "It's not a problem, Huckleberry. This is one of the few things from your tragic backstory even I won't poke fun at. What happened to you was a tragedy, and if they knew they'd stop poking."

Dennis breathed a sigh of relief as he started to check in on patients. The next few hours of his shift went blissfully easy, with no one else asking a thing about soulmates. Mostly because they were all on edge about the fact they were going to get lore later today. He was at the nurse's station charting when Robby leaned up against the counter to speak with Dana.

"Hey, do you know why most of the staff is doing a roof gathering after shift?"

Dana hummed. "Looks like Whitaker has finally snapped with the rumor mill going around about how and why no one knows anything about his soulmates. He's doing a little Q & A plus story time after shift."

Dennis raised a brow at her.

Dana lifted her hands. "Hey, kid, I haven't said shit to you all day. Not my fault that Robby is to busy being a doctor to know that you've elected to put yourself through this torture."

"Better than hearing nine separate people try to poke and prod for answers at me despite me being very clear repeatedly that I don't talk about soulmates. It's not that hard to understand."

Robby blinked slowly. "You're going to talk about your soulmates today."

"Yes," Dennis answered.

"On the roof, to what amounts to most of this department?"

"Is there a problem with that?" Dennis questioned softly. "I didn't think that violated any of the hospital policies, but I can call it off if it does."

"No," Robby replied quickly. Too quickly to not raise Dennis' suspicions on the fact that Robby was acting weird. Like really weird. "Could I come to the roof too?"

Dennis shrugged violently with a heavy sigh. "Why not? I mean I don't get why you want to, you're one of the only people in this hospital that has generally respected my desire to not have my intimate details put on blast in front of everyone. But I guess, it only makes sense that you're curious too."

"Curious," Robby muttered as Dennis took off to see to another patient.

Dennis was beat down and tired by the end of the shift. Despite knowing full well he agreed to this load of bullshit, he couldn't really help the fact that he was more than a little fed up about it being necessary. Under no circumstances was he looking forward to this conversation. He trudged up to the roof and then blinked.

Robby and Trinity were not surprises to be there already. He had known Trinity would have his back in this conversation. And Dr. Robby had made it clear he wanted to be here earlier, even if Dennis was still a touch suspicious on why his boss cared in the slightest about his soulmate status.

Similarly, Perlah and Princess were not huge surprises as the rumor mill more or less ran on the two of them speaking Tagalog in this hospital to make sure they were on the same page on what was going on with everything going down in the hospital. If the two of them weren't there for the gossip, he would want to get his eyes checked.

Victoria was there, and he'd probably have to make sure to check in with her that she knew better than to post anything on social media about his life story. He did not need his story going viral and the aftermath of that kind of mess.

Frank and Mel were both there. He guessed they really wanted his answer from earlier. He knew that Frank had long been a believer in platonic and romantic soulmates, because that was how he handled having two names, when both of his soulmates only had one, his on them. He wasn't in a true triad.

To be fair, Dennis didn't know whether he was in a true triad or not. He could never know that information, anymore than he could know their names, or find them. Dennis Whitaker wasn't such an uncommon name that he would be easily located, and given the fact he could not help a search in any way, he had made his peace with never being able to find a soulmate.

He cleared his throat. "I am going to give you the basics of why I don't speak about soulmates, then you each get a question. Trinity, you're discounted from getting a question, because you already know everything."

"Aye, aye," she quipped.

He closed his eyes briefly. "Some of you know, some of you don't, but I grew up in a really small town. Broken bow has less than 4000 people and most everyone out there is heavily Christian and farmer country. Out there, being gay is not accepted, even with a soulmate mark. No form of it."

He opened his eyes slightly. "It's considered rather old school, but sometimes if a child is born with a soulmate name that is clearly going to cause problems for being part of the status quo, they'll decide its best that the child never be given the temptation to succumb to these urges. They'll burn off the soulmate name while the child is still an infant to give them the best chance of fighting those urges."

Trinity held a hand over her mouth to keep from sobbing. The first time they had this exact conversation, things had not gone this smoothly. Both of them had ended up crying at different points, and he had shown her the raised scars from where the soulmate names used to sit. One of them was significantly longer than the other, and that's about all he knew about the situation.

Dennis smiled wryly at her. "I was born with two soulmate names. I have no idea whether it was a triad or not. I have no idea what their names are, how to find them, or even whether they'd still want me after all of this. So I don't talk about soulmates. Dwelling on the unfairness of the universe and the abuse I suffered isn't fun. And while I've made peace with the fact this is my lot in life, I'd really rather never talk about them again. I hope this makes sense, and you'll respect my wishes in the future."

Frank stuck his hand up in the air automatically once Dennis finished talking.

Dennis blew out a small breath. Of course, Frank would immediately have a question. "Go ahead, Frank. I promised you a question after all."

"Have you ever looked at seeing whether the scar tissue can be removed and whether any traces of the names might exist under the scar tissue?"

Dennis blinked. That was actually a fair and kind question. One that a doctor would ask if someone disclosed this kind of trauma. "They made sure to burn the names down deep enough to never be able to be recovered. It was the first thing I checked when I ran away."

Victoria stared at him. "How did you survive this?"

"Growing up, by never thinking about them as anything but a sin my parents were protecting me from. Once I realized that the religion was bullshit, that god wouldn't have given me a soulmate that he didn't want me to be happy and whole with, I held onto the fact that I was just a baby. There was nothing I could have done to save myself. It was on the adults in my life to keep me healthy and safe, and instead they mutilated me. I'm just a victim of some fucked up people."

Princess let out a small squeak. "If we can find your soulmates somehow, would you allow us another conversation about soulmates in that vein?"

"For the love of god, do not do that." Dennis stared Princess down. "I know how many Dennis Whitakers are out there. I know the chances of my name being the one given that I have nothing is extremely low. And I don't want to go searching only for them to later meet a Dennis Whitaker that has their name inked across their skin by god. That might kill me."

He glanced around the roof. "Perlah, Mel, Robby, you've all still got a question if you want them."

Robby's eyes were still dazed as he looked up at the mention of his name. "Can we talk privately after this, please?"

Dennis jerked his head in a nod. That was fine. Maybe Robby's question was one that he didn't want the rest of the staff to know about. Or maybe Robby just wanted to repay the favor from his first day and help with the inevitable mental breakdown he saw careening towards his younger resident. Either way, he was chill with having a private conversation.

Mel reached out. "Do you want a hug?"

"Yeah, Mel."

Mel's arms closed around him. "I'm sorry. We all should have respected your boundaries and understood that there would have had to be a really good reason for someone to never talk about soulmates at all."

"I get it. It's an important part to society, and I'm not all that normal."

Perlah sighed. "Are you really actually at peace with all of this?"

Dennis barked out a quiet laugh as Mel stepped back away from him. "It's that or being depressed every time I think about soulmates and given how prominent they are in the world, I'll take this any day. It's dark and gloomy and not at all optimistic, but it keeps going day after day. That's got to be worth something."

Slowly but surely, the roof started clearing. He got hugs from practically everyone as they left. Even Frank had given him a gruff one armed squeeze before heading out. This could have gone a lot worse for him. The only thing he still had a few concerns about was Robby wanting to talk to him.

Robby approached slowly. "Can I, god, I don't even know how to start this conversation."

"Dr. Robby, it's all fine. I'm not sure what you want to talk about, but it's all fine."

"You're right that the chances of finding one of your soulmates is low. But you're also wrong, if you've got an actual triad, because then their tattoos will match and they'll both have your name."

Dennis blinked. "Yeah, but you know as well as I do that two soulmate names doesn't necessarily mean a triad. Frank and Mel are key examples of that."

Robby snorted. "I give it another year before Frank gives up trying to continue claiming that he's only platonically in love with Mel."

Dennis' lips twitched. "True. Anyway, I'm not beating myself up for not being able to find my soulmates. If sometime someone reaches out believing that I might be their soulmate, I'm not going to reject them out of hand, but I'm not going to spend my life wandering around trying to find people who I don't even have a clue where to start hunting."

Robby swallowed. He untucked his shirt from his pants and rolled up the fabric. His stomach slowly came into view.

Dennis furrowed his brow. "Dr. Robby…"

"Just look, please."

Dennis rolled his eyes but dropped his gaze to the now bared skin. The now bared skin that showed his name written on the pudgy flesh. Dennis Whitaker, clear as day written boldly on the skin. He sharply inhaled.

Robby dropped the fabric. "Jack's got your name too."

"Oh you fuckers. You've known for the past year that I'm your soulmate."

"Heavily suspected," Robby corrected gently. "You didn't react like I was expecting when we were introduced. At first I thought it was because I rarely use my first name or my full last name, but I made sure to fully name drop my title in front of you that first week. And well, Jack's name is quite easy to place."

"And you didn't say anything," he repeated somewhat louder.

"There's been a lot of research on triad soulmates, and there is some consensus that two members of a triad getting together and having a romantic history before finding their third can result in the third holding a bit of a grudge over the shared history of the other two. We thought that you saying you didn't talk about soulmates was your way of telling us that you needed distance and time."

Dennis' eyes narrowed at him. Then, he let out a large breath. "Alright, well that's not what this was. I needed you to be direct."

Robby nodded. "No, I'm getting that. Although I do want to stress that I don't think it's even slightly fair for you to be upset at us for not guessing that you didn't know we were your soulmates because the names were burned off your skin when you were an infant."

In his own head, Dennis would admit this was a reasonable thing to ask for. The exterior part of him wanted to hold onto that anger, because they could have had an extra year. He needed at least a day to settle into this before he was going to be fanatically happy about the fact he was getting any years at all with them.

Robby reached a hand back to grip at his own neck as an effort to self soothe again. "I don't suppose I could convince you to come back to ours to explain this to Jack."

Dennis froze. Right, Jack wasn't somewhere in the hospital. Today was his day off. He was at home, his home that he shared with one of his soulmates. Jack who did not know why Dennis had never spoken about soulmates, who did not know his traumatizing history, and who had no way of knowing Dennis was desperate for love.

Robby sighed. "It's fine. Obviously you didn't even know we were soulmates, and it's completely reasonable for you to need time to process and decide how you want to communicate and everything else."

"Robby," Dennis said softly cutting him off. "Please shut up for a minute. I'm not telling you no. I'm just….processing."

"Right, yeah. And I'm trying to be reassuring about the fact that I understand that you need time to make sense of all of this without being an asshole about it."

Dennis took a few deep breaths. "Alright, yeah. I will come home with you. We should have discussions anyway, and it'll make better sense to talk it out all in person and with all of us getting on the same page."

Robby blinked. "Wait really?"

"Yeah, well, I really don't want to waste another year to some stupid shit. I don't know what this will look like or how we're going to make it work, but I'm sure as shit that I want to try."

Robby beamed at him. "Okay. Yes, let's go. We're both off the clock, and I do not want to continue testing my luck by being here in case of a massive trauma rolling in."

Dennis huffed out a laugh. "Don't worry. You've promised me a soulmate conversation. I can guarantee I'd drag you out even if Shen tried to rope you into a trauma."

Robby paused as they both got in the elevator to head back down to the bottom floor. "Slight thing, I did bring the bike to work today."

"That's fine. I'm comfortable riding behind you on a bike."

"Right, but Jack isn't."

Dennis blinked. "I thought you said he was at home, not here."

"He is at home. I'm trying to say that I only have the one helmet. Obviously you can have the helmet, but you might have to be prepared for Jack to yell quite a bit when he finds out that I was riding without one."

"No," Dennis said shortly.

"No, what?"

"No, you're not riding without a helmet again. I might not have known you were my soulmate, but I did know you well enough to know that was a desperate cry for help, and we're not backsliding in an effort to make me more comfortable or safe or whatever excuse you were going to say."

Robby held the door open for him as they both slipped out to the parking lot. He sighed deeply. "Dennis, it's not a big deal. I will literally order a second helmet the moment we get home. I just don't have a solution for you today."

Dennis closed his eyes. "You're wearing the helmet."

"Dennis."

"You're wearing the helmet, or I swear to god, I will head back to Trinity's and come over later once I'm sure that you've arrived home wearing your helmet."

Robby pouted. "Please don't do that."

"Please wear your helmet."

Robby rolled his eyes but dutifully put the helmet on his head.

"Good." Dennis leaned forward and glanced at the bike. "Any rules for riding that I should know about?"

"Huh?"

"Some people I've ridden with are real particular about where you can and cannot grab them to maintain balance. I'm checking in with you."

"Dennis, you're my soulmate, and I'm still trying hard not to freak out about the fact I could have been telling you this since the day we met. You can touch me however you like. I'm never going to turn you down."

"That feels dangerous, especially since we haven't checked in with Jack."

Robby's brow furrowed in amusement. "We got together without ever being able to check in with you. He'd be a hypocrite if he got upset at us doing something together, and Jack might be many things, but a hypocrite isn't one of them."

Dennis rolled his eyes. "Come on, we can talk about that, once we actually get there and have Jack to talk to about this stuff."

Robby straddled the bike and then patted the bike behind him.

Dennis slipped onto the bike behind his soulmate. He wrapped his arms tightly around the man's waist and leaned his head on the man's shoulder. "Alright. I'm trusting you to get us home."

Robby took off on the bike. His speed was rather clearly less than what he normally rides at because he catches himself going too fast and then backs off the accelerator for a little while.

Dennis doesn't mind. The extra safety since he doesn't have a helmet makes sense. And despite the few bumps to speed, Robby is clearly in control of the bike and making sure both of them are arriving safely to where they live. He takes in the neighborhood as they go. This is a nice part of the city. Townhouses and actual genuine people exist here with space between them rather than the apartment complex where people are stacked on top of each other and no one knows who is genuine and just making it by and which people are there to try to screw over others.

They stopped on the driveway. Robby glanced towards the door. "Alright. Just to check in, how much of this story are you telling versus me?"

"Shit. Hadn't thought of that. Play it by ear?" Dennis suggested.

"Sounds good. Just, maybe be prepared for the fact, Jack doesn't like things coming out of the blue."

"Okay…"

"And he might have had a plan for to handle you being our soulmate and not wanting anything to do with soulmates, and this is likely going to overwhelm the shit out of him, so just have grace. Please."

Dennis blinked. "Robby, there is very little that I think Jack is actually willing to do that I would deny him today. Let him yell if that helps. If he wants to rage against my family and call them awful names, let him."

Robby shrugged as he got off the bike and helped Dennis off. "Yeah, alright." He pushed his key in and swung open the door.

Dennis followed behind Robby. He toed off his shoes after Robby did and generally stayed a step or two behind the man.

"Hi, honey. I'm home, and I brought a guest."

Jack appeared off from the kitchen, a set of crutches under his arms as his prosthetic was off. He gaped for a second upon seeing Dennis. "Robby! Why the fuck is our resident in our house today?"

"Resident," Dennis quipped. "That's an interesting way of saying third soulmate, but I guess I'll take it."

Jack froze. "What the fuck?" He jabbed a finger at Robby's chest. "We had a plan. What happened to the plan?"

Dennis couldn't help but giggle. Robby had given him a fair warning that this was going to happen, and still he couldn't believe he was seeing this with his own eyes. This was ridiculous. Still, he found it kind of endearing in other ways. Most people wouldn't have this reaction to finding out that their soulmate was in their house at long last.

"Listen," Robby began, "I had to throw away the plan."

"Shut up," Jack ordered briskly. "Men who deliberately throw off my plan and don't even send me a warning text that they're bringing our third soulmate home after he's spent a year refusing any conversation about soulmates with even his literal soulmates have not earned the right to speak to me yet."

Dennis' lips twitched as he tried to contain even more of his laughter. Honestly, Robby was really getting the stray hits from both Dennis and Jack today when their problems weren't actually with him but the universe and circumstance.

Jack pointed at Dennis with a lot less vitriol in his jab. "Please start talking before I have a breakdown."

"Sure thing, Jacky." He watched in amusement as a light blush spread across Jack's face. Good to know that nicknames worked as a disarming material. "So, I've got some questions about this plan."

Jack growled. "Dennis."

"Peace," Dennis replied. "Sorry. I mean, the shortest version of this story is that I didn't know the two of you were my soulmates until like five minutes after we all finished clocking out today."

Jack froze. "I've changed my mind. Robby, you can speak, if you can make any of hte words he just said make sense."

Robby hummed. "Hey do you remember that article in the New York Times a couple years back that said there were still religious sects within the United States that rejected LGBTQ soulmates as part of god's will?"

"That feels like a deflection, but yeah. I remember because we agreed to go a pride march again due to that. And how horrified I was to read that some of those places actually still did things to conceal soulmates from their children."

Dennis snorted. "Yeah, Broken Bow Nebraska is definitely one of those places."

"They concealed your soulmate from you."

Dennis held up a hand. "Technically they didn't just conceal it from me. They just made it impossible for me to ever learn who my soulmates are. Concealment implies that there is a way to reveal it. When I actually talk about it, I use the term mutilation."

"What?"

Dennis brushed his hair off to the side to reveal his neck. There was a decent sized scar across his neck, where the burn had gone deep. He was honestly impressed his father had managed to burn it off without killing baby Dennis with it, if he was being rather brutal with the truths he admitted to himself. "I'm guessing now that I know it's the two of you that this one is yours."

Then, he pushed his pants down to reveal his left hip bone where a large loping scar exists across the top of his pelvis line. "And I'm betting this one is Robby's."

Jack froze. "You can't see any trace of our names."

"And I never have. They branded me as an infant with an old fashioned cattle brand hot enough to sear through leather."

Jack reached out and traced the line along Dennis' throat.

Dennis shivered under the touch. He swallowed harshly. "So, yeah. Long story short, until today, I had no idea it was the two of you. I had kind of made my peace with never knowing, but talking about soulmates hurts like a bitch when you know your parents were more willing to mutilate you than allow even the slightest chance that you would find your soulmates."

Jack brushed against the mark firmly before pulling back. He paused for a second, then started shrugging out of his shirt. He twisted around, and Dennis found his name scrawled in a nice print across the man's back shoulder blades straight in the middle.

Dennis swallowed harshly. He had been really polite in the hospital keeping his distance, but Jack had reached out to touch him. Maybe he could be bold too today. "Can I touch?"

"Yeah, sweetheart, of course."

Dennis ran his fingers along his name as he tried to blink back the tears that were threatening to spill out of the corner of his eyes.

"Do you like omelettes?" Robby called from the kitchen.

"What?" Dennis questioned.

"Omelettes, good or not good? I need food before I crash and you want adult conversations. So I'm improvising towards dealing with this via food first."

"Omelettes are fine." He shot a quick glance to Jack asking for what that even meant.

Jack shrugged. "Omelettes are good, Mikey. I have bread in the oven."

"Yeah, I know. Figured we needed protein to go along with the bread, and since the two of you need to talk more than me and Dennis do at this point. I've had a few moments to come to terms with all of this, and I had the whole drive home with him being able to ground me through touch. So, I'll cook while we talk. Just yell if you need my input in anything."

Jack rolled his eyes. "Trust the man to find a reasonable way to avoid communication of trauma."

Dennis winked. "Don't worry. I'll help you work on his issues."

Jack grinned.

Dennis paused after that the euphoria of seeing his name in print wearing off quickly. He paused tapping at his arm. "Listen, I know that Robby said the reason the two of you didn't say anything to me was because of some information about soulmate triads."

"Yeah. Well, originally, we weren't putting much stock in the idea that you would be angry we had gotten together when we found each other as we awaited you, but things kind of escalated quickly, and I really didn't want to make things worse."

"And you couldn't have said anything?" His voice wobbled just a bit. Mostly because he was actually really upset that they had left him to wonder and hurt for a whole entire year. He understood realistically that Robby had no way of knowing or even guessing that his soulmate marks had been mutilated to the point that he knew nothing about them.

"Oh," Jack whispered. "Please don't cry."

"But?" Dennis whispered softly.

"I was going to. It was a week after you started. I had bought you a coffee ahead of shift change, and I had already talked to Robby about stealing you away from like 15 minutes to have like a brief conversation that was just going to be 'hey I know we're soulmates, and I know that things are fucking insane right now, but just let either of us know when you're ready to talk.' But I had barely set the coffee down before you were looking at me like I was your savior. You thought Robby had texted me about your god awful shift. And then you said words to me that I'm not sure I can forget in my lifetime."

"What the fuck did I say to you?"

"You said, if one more person asks about my fucking soulmate marks like they have a right to know my story, I am going to steal a scalpel from this work place and carve out an eyeball. And in my defense for my immediate shut down, I thought my soulmate had just looked me in my eyes and told me that if I asked him about us right then, he would further disable me permanently. We went to a therapist specializing in troubled soulmate relationships the next day."

Dennis covered his mouth to avoid laughing, but he couldn't stop the shakes from hitting him. "Okay, like objectively, that might be the worst possible miscommunication to ever happen."

Jack let out a light laugh too. "Yeah, that was what birthed the 15 step plan that we were working on before he just brought you into the house."

Dennis stepped forward. "Well, while I fully acknowledge that it's a completely irrational anger, I think I'm still going to be upset that both of you knew that I was your soulmate for a full year before I got to be clued in on this development."

"Fair. I know it's an irrational anger, but I'm going to hold onto the fact that my soulmate told me that if I spoke to him about soulmates, he'd carve out my eye with a scalpel."

"Or," Robby called out. "We could just agree that shit happened and move forward."

"I don't think he understands irrational anger," Dennis whispered into Jack's ear.

Jack burst out a small laugh. He put a hand on the center of Dennis' back and guided him further into the kitchen where a nice island was set up. Dennis took a seat as did Jack. Jack's crutches were leaned up against the counter with ease.

Robby pointed a spatula at Jack. "No holding his words against him. He didn't know you were his soulmate."

"I see you aren't giving him a lecture."

"I've already told him that it's not fair to blame us for not assuming mutilation was a possible option for why he wasn't talking to us."

Jack paused. "Well, alright then. I can't really argue with that. I will say that the point of irrational anger is that we're admitting we know logically that this isn't an issue, but we're not always logical beings. Sometimes we're full of contradictions."

Robby sighed. "Yes, Jack. I know. I just don't want us starting an argument on day one about shit that none of us could possibly have foreseen."

Dennis watched Robby carefully. "You know that I'm not going to leave the second things get a bit rough, right?"

Robby's body froze.

"Oh, he still barely believes that I won't," Jack said. "He thinks he's inherently unlovable."

"Can you please stop taking shots at me?"

Jack hummed. "Have better self worth and they wouldn't be shots."

Robby grimaced as he moved one of the omelettes off to a plate and started cracking more eggs. He hesitated for a moment. "Can we talk about the elephant in the room or are we going to continue worrying about other things for the moment?"

"What elephant in the room?" Dennis wondered.

Jack shrugged. "We can, I guess. Michael wants to talk about the fact the two of us got together before we met you."

"Oh, sure. I mean eventually I'd love to hear the story of how you met, and the little details of when you decided to get married and the memories of your first kiss and stuff like that. But I'm not sure we need to delve into that on day one."

Robby poured some eggs. "I was more meaning about your emotions regarding that and some ground rules for what we can and cannot do while we're working on becoming a triad instead of a duo."

Dennis blinked. "My emotions?"

"He's asking whether you've got any anger at us for getting together while we were waiting on you."

"Oh!" Dennis considered that for a moment. He remembered that Robby had mentioned this when they were talking, but he was preoccupied with the whole he had soulmates he found portion. "Not really angry about it."

"Not really is not exactly anger free," Jack commented slowly.

"I mean I don't think there's any anger in me about any of this. I'm a little sad, if I'm being honest. But you're both older than me. If I'm correct about ages, Robby is like 56, and you're what just turning 50, meanwhile I'm sitting pretty at 28. Obviously the two of you were likely to meet first, and why would I be upset that you got more years together? I want all the years I can possibly have with you."

Robby blinked. "I don't know if you should be allowed to say such romantic things."

Jack's phone dinged on the table, and he turned off the alarm with practiced ease. "The bread needs to come out of the oven, dear." He turned to Dennis. "Thank you. Thank you for understanding and thank you for coming over today."

Dennis shrugged lightly. "I mean I'm happy for you both to have had this shared life with each other, and I'm excited to be a part of that in any way we choose."

Jack exchanged a light look with Robby. Then, he turned to Dennis. "Are you ready to possibly talk about that tonight?"

"Oh, yeah." Before he could continue his phone started ringing. He pulled it out and saw Trinity's number. He didn't even hesitate answering the call, bringing up to his ear. "Trin, all good?"

Jack's eyes widened when he realized who Dennis just picked up for, while Robby just sighed from the kitchen and removed the bread from the oven.

"Dennis, you aren't home. I know Robby wanted to talk privately and so you'd have to catch the bus, but unless that conversation lasted for more than 20 minutes you would be home by now."

"Yeah, I'm actually at Robby's place now."

"Why?"

"Complicated situation."

"Well uncomplicate the strings, Huckleberry."

"This can't hit the gossip ring. Not until I tell you it can."

There was a pause on the other end of the phone. "Alright, apartment truce of silence. What the fuck is going on?"

"Evidently our married and soulmate attendings had a third name, and it's mine."

There was a sharp squeal from the phone. "Alright. I got it. I'll let you get back to handling the absolute insanity that promises to be. Text me if you're staying the night with them. Keep safe."

"Alright, thanks, Trin. Love you."

"Ew, emotions. Love you too."

Dennis hung up the phone and slipped it back into his pocket and then noticed the intense look that Jack was giving him. He put his hands up. "Listen, if there were such thing as platonic soulmates, Trinity's name would have been scrawled on my skin too. You're going to have live with the fact that she's the other half of me."

Jack blinked. "You met her like a year ago."

"Yeah, and she saved me from being homeless after the hell that was Pittfest. And despite all the shit happening in my life, she has remained a constant to keeping me treading water with my mental health."

Robby dropped the spatula. "Homeless???"

"Yeah. I mean the theology major in undergrad, I was able to skirt under the radar of my parents and had some support. I hadn't quite run away, because I knew how bad that would get. I had to once I was ready for medical school. I was able to get the loan to pay tuition, but nothing else. So most of med school, I was homeless. Rotations showed me the abandoned floor in our hospital which was where I was crashing when Trinity found me."

Jack dropped his head against the island counter. "You were homeless?"

"Yeah."

"I need a minute to process."

Dennis blinked. "Is that going to be a major problem?" His eyes darted over to Robby. He hadn't really considered this being some kind of deal breaker or anything, so he was kind of looking towards the other man for some kind of comforting fact.

Robby shook his head. "You're just triggering his desire to fix everything in the lives of people he cares about. He just needs a few minutes to figure out how to handle it."

He turned and poked Jack in the cheek. "Hey, the kid wanted to see your glorious 15 step plan. Will you go grab it for him to look at while you process and I finish dinner?"

Jack grabbed his crutches and moved off to one of the backrooms. He came back out and handed a small journal to Dennis. Then, he dropped his head back down to the island with a groan.

Dennis shrugged his shoulders and opened the journal. Jack's handwriting was neat and precise across the pages.

Step one: Do not bring up soulmates to Dennis.

Step two: Be friendly but not overtly heavy handed in being kind to him. Treat him more like old Langdon and Ellis than Collins

Step three: Practice patience and wait for Dennis to bring up relationships and/or soulmates himself.

Step four: Lightly explain the first meeting between you and Michael

Step five: Explain Michael's crisis of faith

Step six: Explain the horrific-ness of Pittfest and why that day should not be held against either of us and our lack of respecting that we shouldn't shove the relationship down his throat upon first meeting because nothing else would have kept both of us alive.

Step seven: low stakes date (eg. coffee, walk in the park, maybe a beer in the park)

Step eight: Invite him to a larger date (eg. dinner or bar)

Step nine: Ask about his past and do not judge any of his answers even if they include things that we don't love that happened

Step ten: Ask what Michael and I can do to make him feel equal in the relationship (And then implement them)

Step eleven: Start inviting him home (even when it's only one of us there)

Step twelve: Ask him to share the bed (No sex yet)

Step thirteen: Establish boundaries for sex (Threesomes and separate duos)

Step fourteen: Ask who and when we can start telling that we've found our third and also calling ourselves a labeled trio

Step fifteen: Propose

Dennis chuckled. He set the journal down. "I would love to hear about Robby's apparent crisis in faith. But most of this is ridiculous."

Jack narrowed his eyes. "You can't just drop on me the traumatic childhood mutilation and the fact you used to be homeless, and then call my well laid out gentle step plan to get you to fall in love with us ridiculous."

"Jack," Dennis said softly. "You don't have to explain why Pittfest was awful, I was there."

Robby winced. "It was worse than just what you saw. It kind of ties into the whole crisis of faith."

Dennis paused for a second. Then, he nodded his head. "Alright. I'll let you tell this story when you're ready."

He pointed at the list. "You've got me in your home already. You don't need to scale up dates. I'm happy to go on dates with you whenever the hell you want to go. You want to get coffee before shift tomorrow, I'm there. You want a lazy walk around town, I'm with you. A hike, I'm down. Seriously, I'm so fucking thrilled to know you and be here with you."

Jack narrowed his eyes. "And if I said I wanted the next time you have a day off to whisk you away to a fancy restaurant, are you going to tell me that's fine?"

Dennis blinked slowly. "Yes, Jack. I would love to go to a fancy restaurant with you. I might need to borrow some clothes for the attire though. I have like five shirts and three pairs of jeans presently because you know recently homeless. Well, and my scrubs but I don't think those count for proper attire."

Robby's mouth dropped open.

Dennis pointed at him. "Same goes for you. Any date, anytime that our schedules line up."

"Can I take you to my favorite place to stargaze near the city after shift tomorrow?"

"Yes," Dennis answered.

Jack gaped, then he shook his head. "Okay, maybe we misjudged."

"Maybe. Darling, you did not need to do half of that. If you wanted me to sign all the forms and marry you tomorrow, I would. Speaking of, it's not on your list, but we really ought to fill out the paperwork for HR soon."

Robby flushed.

Jack snorted. "I never do the paperwork for this relationship, but Michael knows that it has to be done. He's been forging my signature on that shit for ages. I'm pretty sure that he's already done that for yours."

"Seriously, can we stop making fun of me for five seconds?" Robby pleaded.

"I think it's sweet," Dennis replied easily. "So really all I that needs to happen is that I sign the correct forms? Robby can you help me with all that."

The flush grew more pronounced, and Jack barked out a laugh. "How soon did you get his signature to forge for those papers, so he didn't have to say a word about any of it?"

"Day after he threatened you," Robby admitted.

Dennis burst out laughing. "Oh, sweetheart, you are a delight."

Jack cleared his throat. "Actually before we go much further, we probably ought to address the crisis in faith, Mikey."

Robby deflated at the stove. He rubbed at the back of his neck. "Can you, would you, tell this part of the story, please?"

Jack nodded automatically. "I can do that for you."

Dennis glanced in between them. He stood up slowly and moved to stand behind Robby. "Can I touch you?"

"Sure, yeah. Like I said on the bike, whatever you want."

He wrapped his hands around Robby's waist again and lightly hugged him deeply. He rocked them gently side to side. "If you don't want this story shared, then we can leave it."

"No, it's important for you to know."

Jack sighed. "You're close friends with Trinity, and she is integral to the hospital rumor mill. The chances of you running into conversations about his crisis of faith are high, and if we don't talk about it ahead of time, there is a chance that you will be very upset about many things."

Dennis nodded along. "So ask me for grace again, Michael."

Robby's eyes closed and he leaned back gently into Dennis. "Let Jack tell you the story for me. I don't want there to be secrets. I just…this was a dark period in my life, and I don't like talking about it."

"Okay."

"At some point shortly after doing his residency in New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina and losing his grandmother who raised him, he lost all belief in God. He grew up Jewish and he was rather particular about it once upon a time. But after this, he lost all faith."

Dennis reached down and grabbed Robby's hand to squeeze. "We talked about the fact you aren't so sure that god is real. While I do believe in the almighty, I am not my family. I will not judge you for not believing."

"You might," Robby muttered.

"In his belief that God was a lie, he also came to disbelieve in the notion of soulmates. God couldn't tell you who to love because there was no god."

Dennis blinked. "Oh."

"He started dating a woman who had lost her soulmate. She had a son, and she didn't want to raise him alone. You've probably met or heard of her son, his name was Jake."

Dennis winced. "Isn't that?"

"Yeah, one of the Pittfest victims, shot through the leg. The patient that Robby lost, the one that had him in a full blown panic on the floor of Pedes that you ended up saving him from, that was Jake's girlfriend. Their relationship has been quite a bit strained since then."

Robby shrugged. "He's not wrong."

"You did everything you could to save her," Jack snapped.

"And I didn't. All my best efforts were not enough to save her, and he saw me as a hero. He can't do that anymore. All he's got is a broken human standing in front of him. It's a dark thing to learn. He can take all the time he needs to get his head on straight."

Dennis glanced over at Jack. "Have you reached out at all?"

"On his birthday," Robby replied.

"Okay, that's good. You tell him that you love him?"

Robby froze. "We don't…uh…we don't say those words often."

"From what I remember that's all I ever wanted to hear my parents or my siblings say to me through the years. Not another lecture on how I needed to learn to resist temptation, not another conversation about how I should know better, but just to be told I love you. It'll help."

"I'll reach out," Robby conceded softly.

"Good." Dennis nodded towards Jack. "I assume he met you and that cured his problem with disbelieving in soulmates."

"No. Janey and him broke up because the darkness that surrounds this job got to her too much. She still loves him deeply, but she's not willing to wade into this level of muck all of the time. He moved on. He fell in love with someone else who did not believe one bit in soulmates. You definitely met her. Dr. Collins."

"Like the fourth year resident that was helping lead shift on my first day?"

"Yep."

"Alright."

"She wasn't a resident at the time," Robby defended. "I met her outside of work, long before she was a student or a resident in my hospital."

"Uhuh."

Dennis ran a hand down Robby's arm. "Of course not. You weren't trying to get HR involved, it just happened."

Jack rolled his eyes. "And just to be clear that was the last long term attempt he made with a non-soulmate before he met me. And also just so you fully understand the absolute train wreck that was Pittfest, just before the shooting victims showed up and we found out this was happening. Collins informed Robby that she had been pregnant with his child back then and aborted it."

Robby rolled his eyes. "She wanted to know whether I'd forgive her for not telling me at a weak moment. I was happy to grant her that peace of mind. The two of us weren't solid in the relationship, she was planning on returning to school. Having a child would have put a dent in all her plans. I don't blame her for even a moment."

Dennis blinked slowly. "So we hate her forever."

Jack nodded. "We hate her."

"Woah," Robby said.

Dennis narrowed his eyes and pinched Robby's side lightly. "Listen she had every right to end that pregnancy, and I wouldn't blame her for a second for making that decision on her own. However, if she didn't give you the chance to say anything back then, putting that on you randomly, is a dick move."

Jack grinned. "Finally, someone who understands what I've been saying."

Robby fell quiet for a second. "Yeah, that hurt a bit. I don't know whether I would have disagreed that I wasn't ready to be a parent and that we shouldn't bring a child into a world when we're unsure, but…"

"But you would have said something different," Dennis said. "Had you known back then, without hindsight, I bet you would have chosen to keep the child. I saw how you were with Baby Jane Doe. I bet you would have done it alone if that was the only option that you could come up with."

"Well, I'm glad to see that the two of you know me well enough to say for certain something that I have questions about."

Jack pushed himself a bit up on the counter. "There's one more small thing about Pittfest, and since I've told you the rest of it, I might as well give you the full picture so if the anniversary ever comes up, you're fully prepped for the absolute carnage that will be going on due to that."

"Alright, sure. What else exists, Jack?"

"Three years before Pittfest on that exact day, Robby had to pull the plug during covid on Dr. Adamson, who was not only his mentor in the program, but who had also probably the only adult male role model in his life becoming a father figure."

Dennis blinked rapidly. "Alright. So you're just never working that particular day again, because we work in healthcare and we understand superstitions, and thid day is fucking cursed for you."

Robby threw his head back and laughed. "You know, my therapist said they didn't think it would be unreasonable to claim that day as a rotating holiday for the rest of my time in this hospital."

"I agree with the therapist."

Jack nodded. "It's not a failing to say there are some things that you can't handle because of the trauma of our lives. I don't work the day that I blew up my leg overseas."

Dennis shrugged. "I'd take off the day that I had my soulmate marks burned off my body, except I don't actually know the specific date. But bet your ass if for whatever reason I'm having a crisis that day over it, I would take the day."

Jack grinned. "You're my kind of person."

Dennis couldn't help but snort in amusement. "I'm pretty sure that's what the soulmate mark says, yes."

"Oh, he's got snark, Michael."

"Anyone who plans on dating you would need to."

Jack clapped. "Alright, we've discussed traumas, let's move on to fun things."

"I'm just saying you haven't said shit about your own traumas," Robby retorted.

Jack eyed Robby critically, then turned back towards Dennis instead, since Dennis has stepped away from Robby and taken a seat once more near Jack. "I'm a war veteran. I was a medic overseas because at the time I thought it was some noble mission. I learned how very very wrong those ideas are, and how fucking human everyone in a war is."

"Understood."

"There are many days that I am literally incapable of sleeping more than a few hours straight at any period, because I am haunted by the things I had to see and the things I had to choose to do. I pick up SWAT team shifts when I'm stuck away in the middle of the day, because I can still grab a wounded man and keep them alive until they reach help. And I'm missing a leg and some days that causes me to lose my cool, especially when I feel helpless."

Dennis frowned for a second. "Am I allowed to have emotions regarding you going out to get shot at again?"

"Sure, just like Michael is. And just like I'm allowed to have emotions on getting on that death trap of a bike. There are even some days, I'll hear arguments against my decisions."

Dennis jerked his head into a nod. "Just so we're all clear, if either of you leave me to live this life alone because of a stupid decision, I will be pissed and saying so at your funerals."

Jack sputtered. "Holy shit, Dennis. You weren't kidding that if we wanted to go get married tomorrow, you wouldn't bat an eye."

"Nope. I'd have to steal one of your credit cards though. I refuse to get married in something that isn't a suit, and I don't have the funds for that shit."

Jack nodded. "You can have a card anytime you want it. Actually, do you want to fuck over Uncle Sam and make him pay your medical school tuition bills?"

"Uh, yeah."

Robby laughed. "You finally found someone the government will let you pay for the schooling of."

"I am going to milk every dollar out of this government that I can. You know that I have a lot of rage towards them."

"Fair enough."

Dennis leaned back as Robby finished dishing up the last omelette.

Robby turned off the stove top with ease. "Alright, now onto, the question that I was hoping would come before all of this talk of traumas, which is Dennis what are you comfortable with affection from us and what are we allowed to do with each other during this getting to know each other and settling into a triad relationship?"

"Huh?"

Jack chuckled. "He's asking for your boundaries."

"Right, and I kind of sort of understand the whole what I want, but I'm real confused on the second part. Didn't I already make it clear that I have no issues with the two of you getting together ahead of me? I'm not about to make you change your behaviors."

"So you're saying that you're not going to mind if I kiss him in front of you?" Robby questioned.

"Of course I'm not going to mind."

Robby seemed to take that as a challenge. He crossed the kitchen and cupped Jack's chin in his hand.

Jack's eyes lit up in delight, especially as Robby drew him into a deep kiss. He pressed back into the kiss and then settled back down into his chair. "Welcome home."

Dennis smiled gently when both of them broke apart and turned back to him. "I told you, I'm good with whatever you want to do. At least to each other."

Jack nodded. "Right. And you? Where are your boundaries for yourself?"

"Ah, yeah, that. I don't know."

Robby blinked. "Like you need more time to figure it out. Because that's fine, we can work that out. Are you planning on staying here with us, you're welcome of course?"

Dennis shook his head to clear his mind a little. "Sorry, are you asking me to move in?"

Jack nodded. "We have a spare bedroom if you'd be more comfortable there, but you're also welcome to join us in ours, for sleep. We've got a king bed. And the number of nights that I'll actually be here is rather low, so most of the time it'll just be the two of you."

"One second."

He dug out his phone and opened the text message chat with Trinity.

Huckleberry: They've offered me their spare room or their bed indefinitely. I'm going to take them up on it tonight for sure, I will update you about the rest tomorrow.

Lesboss: Tell them if they try to steal you, I will sneak chili oil into their lube.

Huckleberry: I won't, but you could never lose me.

Lesboss: Loser

Lesboss: Thx

Dennis nodded as he slipped the phone away again. "I'm good with staying the night. Where exactly I think might be a later on problem than right now. Also could I borrow some clothes for regular wearing for tomorrow before I change into scrubs. I don't want all the comments I would get if I show up in yesterdays clothes from the rumor mill."

"You can have anything you want from my closet," Jack said. "You can also pillage Robby's, but if you wear most of them out of this house, he will pout. He has different clothes for being comfortable here and clothes that can head towards the hospital."

"I'm separating where I'm happy from where I'm doing soul sucking work."

Dennis glanced over at Jack. "Is he ever happy with this job?"

"Oh, yes. Just never really enough to battle the number of deaths that he's seen. Or the number of stupid people who argue that they know better than medical professionals who have spent years in school understanding medicine."

Dennis hummed. "Well thanks for the clothes, and the offer to stay."

"Yes, of course."

Robby tapped his foot against the ground. "I get that you're not sure about what we can and cannot do, but could you give me like a ballpark? Like you initiated a hug earlier, can I do that?"

"Oh. Yeah, of course. Any touches that could be construed as platonic are super chill and always welcomed. I'm more than a little touch starved from how I grew up."

Jack tilted his head to the side. "What about the romantic touches is giving you pause?"

"Uh, inexperience and nerves mostly. I didn't really want to lead anyone on, and I always believed in romantic soulmates being the goal. So I did nothing with anyone ever. I waited for the two of you to hold hands, or kiss my cheek. Or like anything further really. So I can't know what boundaries might exist."

Jack blinked slowly, as Robby flushed a deep red. "Just to be clear, all things sexual or romantic you held off of even though you had made peace with never finding your soulmates."

"Yes."

Jack licked his lips. "God, I would kill to know exactly how your head works."

"We can do joint therapy sometime if you'd like to further exam."

"We can?"

"Sure, we've got those irrational angers that Robby just wants to ignore."

Jack's grin spread. Then, he reached out his hand across the island to be in front of Dennis. He wiggled his fingers. "Only if you want," he said softly.

Dennis placed his hand gently over Jack's. He twined their fingers together. He bit his lip. "Yeah?"

Jack squeezed his hand gently. "Yeah. Anytime you'd like. Even if it is at the hospital as long as my hands aren't deep inside a patient or something."

Robby glanced at Jack then back at Dennis. "Probably don't do that to me at the hospital unless I initiate the touch. But here at home, feel free to do whatever you'd like."

Dennis glanced at the rapidly cooling eggs. They really probably should have started eating ages ago. But he doesn't really want to pull away from Jack's grasp, and he was kind of curious what had Robby still blushing. "So, what were your thoughts when I said that I hadn't done anything waiting for you?"

"Nothing reasonable at all," Robby said briskly.

"Mikey," Jack chided.

Dennis snapped with his free hand. "Actually, I have a question about that. Do you prefer Robby or Michael here at home. I haven't heard Jack call you Robby except when he was super upset at you when we first got here."

"Michael, or Mikey, or Misha. And I'm also quite fond of pet names."

"Misha?"

"Russian diminutive of Michael. His grandmother still spoke heavy Russian. He can speak the basics of the language," Jack explained.

Dennis nodded. "I understand entirely."

Michael smiled at him. "Please do still call me Robby at the hospital. Unless I'm like crashing into a panic in the middle of the ER, in which case use whatever name will pull me back together the best."

"Of course, Misha."

Jack watched the full body shiver his husband gave with a light chuckle. "You asked what his thoughts were, and I can guarantee he's thinking dirty thoughts about the fact that you're going to get a lot of firsts with the two of us. I'm not sure which one got him blushing, but I can guarantee it was you naked."

Dennis laughed out loud alongside Jack. "Well, I'd say that perhaps you doing anything fully sexual tonight might be a touch fast for me. But I certainly wouldn't turn down my first kiss, if either of you'd like to claim it."

Jack laughed softly as Robby seemed rooted in place for the moment. "What was it you said earlier? That you hadn't let anyone hold your hand or kiss your cheek." He leaned over and he gave a light kiss to Dennis' cheek. "I think we can handle doing that, sweetheart."

Dennis' cheeks lit up with the color. The simple affection was going to be his downfall. "You're evil. You know exactly what you're doing to me."

Jack hummed. "And what I'm doing to Michael. I'm specifically not stealing your first kiss. I want to see his reaction when he snaps and grabs you to kiss you. He kisses with such passion. You can feel the depths of every emotion when he captures your lips with such ferocity."

"Jack," Robby warned.

"He wants to kiss you so badly, but he's worried he won't control himself well. He hasn't really been able to stop himself from touching you this whole time. The extra touch to your shoulders, your neck, where he would normally keep his hands to himself."

"I love that this means Trinity was completely right that this wasn't normal behavior."

"Oh, definitely not that." Jack smirked at his husband. "The kid said his boundaries, so you have full permission to do anything that doesn't violate those rules. Trying to hold yourself back never works well for you."

Robby inhaled and exhaled with his hands flat on the counter. "Jack, you're evil. Dennis, can I kiss you?"

"Yes, of course."

Jack laughed in the background as Robby stalked around the counter and put his hand directly on Dennis' cheek, almost trapping the kiss Jack had given him onto his skin. His bubbling joy was contagious, but all Dennis could focus on was how large Robby's hands were against his skin and how his eyes were tracking every movement.

Robby leaned forward giving plenty of time for Dennis to pull back and say that he wasn't actually ready for this, but eventually his lips did cover Dennis'. Their lips moved together, and Dennis melted into the kiss.

Robby kept them from falling forward. Robby slipped his tongue into Dennis' mouth and claimed every part of him. It wasn't until he could hear the slight hitch in Dennis' chest that said the other man needed more air than this kiss was allowing him, that he pulled back. His eyes slipped closed as he wavered on his feet.

Jack chuckled. "Plates, Michael. Let's get the two of you fed, and then you can crash in the bed. I'll even waive the normal rule about taking a shower before we crawl into the covers."

Dennis blinked, dazed. "And I can sleep there too?"

"If you want, always," Robby said.

Dennis nodded. "I want to try. I want as much time with my soulmates as possible."

Jack smiled. "Well, outside of the alternating shift schedules, you're always welcome to be here and with us."

Robby snorted. "Maybe with two of us on day shift, we'll convince Jack to come back to daylight hours."

Dennis shot a quick glance at Jack and gave him a wink. "Or maybe Jack will convince me to go to the dark side."

Jack clapped. "Oh, he really is precious, Michael."

As Robby passed over the plates, Dennis felt the lingering bits of tension leave him. They were going to have some problems to work through from finding this out about each other, but they would work together. It wasn't like just one of them was traumatized. Every one of them had the world teach them that things weren't always kind, but they also found each other and the brightness of the world over and over again. That had to be worth it.