Dana abruptly pulled him from his thoughts. She'd been practically pressuring him for the last fifteen minutes, having overheard him at the nurses' station calling you "his little one" to Abbott. Of course, he hadn't realized it. It wasn't a big deal: she loved to spoil you with such phrases herself, being a mother herself, but hearing it from him was... exotic.

When they reached the room at the other end of the department, she gave him a stern look, and Robbie was forced to stop in front of her with a sigh, hiding his hands in the pockets of his jacket with a zipper.

“I've never seen you like this.. and just worried about you”

He blinked heavily, lowering his voice.

“You don’t have to”

“No,-she immediately added,-no, i will, dear. And what worries me most is that you, an unsociable and tough man, have felt affection for someone for the first time”

She softened her gaze and asked a little more quietly, folding her arms across her chest.

“Are you fell in love with her?”

He looked at her and couldn't answer quickly. If it weren't so, he wouldn't have remained silent for so long. And his gaze found you at the other end of the department, near the workstations. You were fiddling with something, pointing someone in the right direction, even smiling at someone. He didn't care who you smiled at: the main thing was capturing that moment. He loved seeing you happy. And yet, after two years of working together, he still couldn't figure out who you were to him. In your first months at Pitt, he didn't spend much time with you, didn't even pay much attention to you, considering you a "local kid" by default. Whitaker, Santos, Javadi, even Langdon as the eldest child — all were part of that social unit he could call "family”.

And yet..

He returned his attention to Dana, who was looking into his face, searching for a silent answer.

“No..,-hoarsely,-no, i.. i love her. Truly”

Then looked at you again. His voice became quieter.

“But im not in love”

The words had to be torn from his throat because something was holding them back. And Dana, smiling softly, patted him lightly on the shoulder, and without saying anything, walked off to her post. She understood everything anyway.

And Robbie realized that she realized, too.