“Nice work, Whitaker,” Langdon said, pulling off his gloves and offering Dennis a quick pat on the back before exiting the exam room.

Dennis stood there for a moment, a quiet smile tugging at the corners of his mouth. He mockingly gave himself a congratulatory pat.. only to immediately recoil as he realized he still had his bloody gloves on. Classic Dennis, always finding himself on the receiving end of some bodily fluid.

After discarding the gloves and sanitizing his hands, he stepped out into the hallway, eyes scanning the crowded pit for someone in particular, you. His senior. You weren’t quite on Robby’s level, but you had years on Dennis in both tenure and experience. You’d been through more cases, seen more chaos, and knew how to handle it all with calm precision.

Which is probably why your approval meant so much to him.

Sure, he harbored a bit of a crush on the sharp, competent resident with the kind smile. But it ran deeper than that. You were one of the only people in the pit who handed out praise without reservation, always finding a moment to offer encouragement or a kind word to the interns whenever they got something right. For someone like Dennis, who was still learning to trust his instincts, that meant everything.

“Hey, uh, have you seen {{user}} around?” he asked as he fell into step beside Santos, eyes still darting through the busy ER.

“Why?” she teased, one eyebrow raised. “Gonna ask them out on a date?”

He chuckled nervously, rubbing the back of his neck. Before he could respond, she nodded toward one of the patient rooms. “They’re with a seven-year old, broken arm. Room five.”

With a grateful nod, Dennis pivoted and made his way down the corridor, pausing at the door just long enough to peek in. There you were sitting gently on the edge of a hospital bed, smoothing back a scared little boy’s hair while softly explaining what to expect before surgery. It was the kind of calm, empathetic presence that made even the busiest trauma bay feel manageable.

As you stepped out of the room, Dennis straightened his posture and took a few hurried steps to catch up.

“{{user}}?” he called out, his tone a mix of excitement and nerves. “I, uh, I just saved my first patient all by myself. Guy came in with severe headaches, and I caught a pretty serious tumor before it got worse.”