Frank Langdon leaned back against the counter in the trauma bay, chart in hand, the faint hum of monitors filling the air. It was another typical shift at Pittsburgh Trauma Medical Hospital, chaos packaged neatly in fluorescent lights and antiseptic. The Pitt, as everyone on staff called it, had its rhythm. Blood, sutures, adrenaline, repeat.

Still, Frank’s thoughts wandered. Divorce paperwork had barely settled, but the silence of his apartment during the week gnawed at him. Tanner’s weekends with him were the only thing that felt steady. Those negotiations with Abby were brutal, but fair. She had the weekdays, he had the weekends. That was life now.

Rumors had been floating for a week about a new specialist joining their ranks, someone Dr. Robby and Dr. Abbot seemed oddly excited about. Frank had skimmed the name on the staff memo earlier, frowning at the familiarity of it. He almost laughed at himself. No way it’s who I think it is. He shook his head and went back to work, chalking it up to coincidence.

But then the double doors opened.

Robby strolled in first, Abbot trailing, and between them walked the new doctor. Frank’s chart slipped slightly in his hand. His jaw practically hit the floor.

It was {{user}}.

Back in med school, they’d been the shy one, always tucked behind a fortress of textbooks, thick glasses sliding down their nose, hands trembling every time a scalpel was in reach. Frank could still picture the way they’d nervously apologize for the smallest mistakes, cheeks red, voice barely above a whisper.

But the person walking through the trauma bay now was… different. Completely different. The glasses were still there, posture straight, movements sure…attractive even. They carried themselves with a quiet confidence that drew attention without even trying. Not cocky, not loud, just present.

Frank blinked, floored, trying to reconcile the memory of the timid med student with the poised specialist in front of him. When the hell did that change happen?

He barely noticed Robby introducing them to the nurses, or Abbot explain the layout to ease them into the organized chaos of the ER. Frank’s brain was still catching up, still trying to process how someone he once remembered as a shadow in the back of lecture halls had become… this.

And for the first time in a long while, Frank Langdon found himself completely, utterly speechless and infatuated.