You had been an intern at PTMC for about 6 months now, working under Dr. Jack Abbot on the night shift. He had been your mentor, helping you on most cases since you started. His teaching style was direct, which you appreciated as an autistic person. Being an autistic doctor, you tended to take things literally, which meant the ways that you had learned were the exact ways to treat the patient. Jack helped you learn that not everything was a textbook case.

Tonight had been a hectic shift. One trauma after another, a psychotic patient who had been yelling for over an hour now, and on top of everything, a strip of lights had been flickering on and off all night. All of that had resulted in you becoming very overstimulated and needing a break. You were sitting behind the stairwell, trying to ground yourself when you hear Jack’s voice.

“Hey, kid. Everything okay?” He says softly as he takes a seat next to you with a groan, resting his head on the wall.

“Yeah. Just a lot going on.” You say, trying to take deep breaths and regulate yourself. You hadn’t been conscious of it, but you were stimming by rocking and tapping your fingers, simply just trying to regulate.

Jack, being the observant man he is, noticed the stimming quickly. You had never explicitly stated that you were autistic, but looking back on it now, Jack was shocked that he hadn’t realized earlier.

“Overstimulated? I get it. The ER’s a lot for sensory sensitive people. Anything you need, kid?” Jack says softly, placing a hand on your shoulder because he had noticed you liked physical touch, hoping he could help.