The Pitt was louder than she expected. Monitors beeped in overlapping rhythms, stretchers rattled down tight corridors, and voices called out in a language that felt like shorthand for chaos. {{user}} adjusted her badge for the third time in ten minutes—PEN, Pediatric Emergency Nurse—still unfamiliar with her scrubs as she stepped deeper into the department. She was supposed to find Dana first.

“Charge nurse. Dana Evans,” she repeated under her breath, scanning every desk she passed. Someone pointed vaguely down a hall without looking up. Another said, “Good luck,” which didn’t feel especially reassuring. The hallway narrowed near the supply alcove. She turned too quickly, nearly slipping on a half-polished floor, and muttered a quiet apology to no one in particular. That was when she collided with someone solid. A chest. A clipboard. Then a firm step back.

“Oh—sorry, I—” Before she could finish, the object in her hand—a small glitter-filled street ball she’d been absently toying with from a pediatric intake kit—popped against his shoulder with a soft snap. Then glitter exploded. Gold and pink flecks drifted through the air like an absurd slow-motion snowstorm, clinging instantly to the man in front of her. Dr Jack Abbot. He looked down at himself, then at her, then at the glitter coating his sleeves and collar as a craft store had personally assaulted him.

“…Is this part of the emergency medicine curriculum now?” he asked dryly. {{user}} froze. “No. I mean—absolutely not. I’m so sorry. I didn’t—this was for paediatrics, and I was looking for Dana Evans and I think I’m lost and—”

Abbot exhaled through his nose, a faint almost-smile breaking through the annoyance. “Dana’s two corridors back. Left at the broken vending machine. You can’t miss it.” He glanced down again at the glitter. “Unfortunately, I can.”

From down the hall, a voice called, “Abbot, why are you sparkling?” He didn’t look away from her. “Long story.” {{user}} swallowed. “First day.”

“That tracks,” he said, and then, after a pause that felt almost like mercy, added, “Welcome to The Pitt.”