Chapter Text
Mohan was never one for workplace gossip.
Mostly, she didn’t have the time for it. She was too busy trying to keep her patients alive and happy to worry about the personal lives of the other doctors and nurses at PTMC.
However, that didn’t mean she wasn’t observant.
She was always good at sussing out patterns, Dr. Collins had once praised her for that ability when it came to diagnosing patients, and after years of seeing people in rough and desperate conditions, she also tended to give people the benefit of the doubt.
So, when she noticed Robby staring at the newest med student, Whitaker, she didn’t think much of it. Any sort of new face or disruption to the old system tended to garner extra attention.
Also, frankly, with how much trouble the kid managed to find himself stuck in, he was hard to ignore. Mohan remembered how he ran around on his first day, covered in blood, multiple times. He seemed to be doing better now, though.
Her curiosity first peaked when she was discussing the treatment plan for one of her patients with Robby and Whitaker shyly interrupted to let Robby know that the CT results for their car accident patient were back and if he could please look at them when he had a moment.
Robby’s gaze was locked on him while he spoke.
He gave Whitaker a warm smile when he responded, much warmer than he usually gave the rest of the students (or doctors), and Whitaker's cheeks darkened before he nodded and turned around.
When the younger man left, Mohan took note of the way Robby’s eyes didn’t break away from him until he was completely out of view.
He was so focused on the student, that he seemed to have forgotten the conversation they were having. Mohan prompted, “Dr. Robby?”
He blinked his attention back to her and said, “Hm? Sorry. What did you need?”
That was just one time, though, and she would have forgotten all about it, if the second time wasn’t even stranger.
Mohan was looking at the board, toying with the ends of her stethoscope, trying to figure out what her next case should be, when she saw Robby was sitting at his desk with his glasses on, staring at something across the room.
Whatever it was, it had his rapt attention.
Mohan curiously followed his eyeline and landed on Whitaker, who stood outside of North 10, talking to Santos. She couldn’t hear what they were saying, but Whitaker smiled and rolled his eyes.
That was it, though. He was just standing there, not doing much of anything.
She looked back at Robby, whose gaze was still firmly focused on Whitaker. His glasses slipped down his nose, but he didn’t try to adjust them. Robby had a pen in his hand that he clicked mindlessly, but other than that, he didn’t move.
Huh. Weird.
Mohan wondered if there was anything about Whitaker that looked different today, but she didn’t notice anything. He had the same sad, blue eyes and nervous expression as always, and yet, Robby was transfixed on him.
Mohan waited to see if Robby would say something, or if Whitaker would notice his attending’s blatant staring, but neither happened.
She frowned thoughtfully, but, ultimately, nothing came of it.
Two times could be a coincidence, but it just kept happening.
Next time, when Whitaker wasn’t paying attention, too focused on looking down at the tablet in his hands, Robby gave him a once-over. His dark brown eyes trailed from the top of Whitaker’s head, past his dark scrubs, down to his feet, and all the way back up to his head again. He did it slowly enough that it didn’t feel accidental.
The whole time, Whitaker didn’t look up from the tablet or notice the searing gaze on him.
Another time, Whitaker dropped a piece of paper that managed to slide under one of the desks and he had to crouch down onto his knees to stick his hand under the desk and reach it.
When Mohan glanced over at Robby, who was standing nearby, his eyes were lasered solely on Whitaker.
It was getting uncomfortably close to leering, and she briefly considered letting Whitaker know. Whitaker was a nice student with a strong drive for helping others, even if he did need some guidance along the way, and Mohan could admit that she saw a little bit of herself in him.
She decided against it, though. It wasn’t like anything untoward had actually happened, but she kept a private note of it in her head.
Mohan was eating a salad in the staff lounge when Robby walked in to make himself a cup of coffee. He glanced at her and said, in a tone that was trying too hard to be nonchalant, “Mohan, do you know much about Whitaker?”
Mohan paused. The question surprised her. “Uh, not really? I know he’s planning to do his residency here, in emergency medicine. I know he’s from some random town in Nebrska… erm- he’s living with Santos? That’s about all I’ve got.”
She didn’t talk with him much outside of the hospital, but he had also only been working there for a few weeks, so they hadn’t had much opportunity to interact.
He seemed to get along well with Santos, though, which was nice. She needed more friends, especially friends who could handle the more expressive parts of her personality.
Robby’s hand tensed around the cup of coffee he had just made. His mouth twitched. “Ah. So he and Santos are together?”
Mohan started laughing so hard she choked on her salad. She coughed, “Are you serious?”
Robby blinked at her, clearly confused. “What?”
Oh boy.
“Robby, Santos is a lesbian. How have you not picked up on that?” It wasn’t like she hid that fact. Anyone with a working brain could tell that she and Dr. Garcia were hooking up. “Her and Whitaker are not at all together. I think she treats him more like an annoying little brother than anything else.”
Mohan didn’t know what she expected Robby’s reaction to that piece of information to be, but she certainly didn’t expect for him to smile and perk up like she had just told him he’d been given a raise.
Robby nodded and bit back the smile that flickered across his face. “Huh. I guess I’m not as observant as I like to think…” He trailed off as his attention got caught on something outside the staff lounge.
Mohan glanced through the window behind her, and her eyes widened when she saw Whitaker walking by, shirtless, holding a lump of clothes in his arms. She couldn’t hear him, but based on his expression, he seemed to be cursing.
Yikes.
Mohan felt a spike of sympathy for him and whatever odd situation he had gotten into now.
She turned back to Robby, but paused when she saw he was openly staring at Whitaker’s bare torso. The cup of coffee in his hand was forgotten and rapidly cooling.
Mohan frowned and said, “Dr. Robby?”
Robby had to rip his eyes away from Whitaker like velcro to look back at her. He said, sounding the slightest bit out of breath, “Great, well, enjoy your lunch. When you’re done, go help McKay out in chairs, it’s turning into a jungle out there.” He threw his still-full cup of coffee into the trash and hurried out.
Before Mohan could properly reply, he was already out the door and headed towards the direction Whitaker went.
Mohan sighed and mumbled, in a mock gruff voice, “Please, Dr. Mohan, would you be so kind as to go help McKay out in chairs? Why of course, Dr. Robby. Thank you. You’re very welcome. Have a lovely day and thank you for all the great work you do h-”
“Who are you talking to?”
Mohan jumped and snapped her head around to see Mel standing behind her.
Mohan blushed, embarrassed at being overheard, “F-! Hi. Sorry. Nothing, just talking to myself.”
Mel was never judgemental though, so she just nodded and said, “Oh. Okay,” and walked over to the microwave to heat up her food.
The two of them ate in quiet company for a few minutes before Mohan tapped her fingers against the desk and said, “Hey, Mel. Have you, by chance, noticed anything weird about how Robby… interacts with Whitaker?”
Mel tilted her head to the side and blinked at her through her glasses. “Well, I did notice how eager Robby was to help Whitaker get a new pair of scrubs earlier. Speaking of- they should probably be back by now. I don’t know what’s taking them so long. Does that count as weird?”
A strange thought started brewing in the back of her head.
No. That’s ridiculous.
Whitaker was half his age.
Technically, Robby’s dated coworkers before.
But that was Dr. Collins- it was a very different situation. She wasn’t a med student who followed Robby around like a lost puppy.
Mohan shook her head. Sure, Robby had a reputation for being a bit of a flirt, but he also had boundaries. She assumed (hoped?) that those boundaries excluded wide-eyed, twenty-something year old med students.
She stabbed at the last remains of her salad and sighed.
Benefit of the doubt, Samira. Benefit of the doubt.