Chapter Text
Robby finished filling Abbott in on all the patients and transferred the department over to the night shift. Then he finally, finally clocked out. He could not wait to collapse into bed.
When he stepped outside, however, he spotted a familiar denim jacket. Robby rallied his strength.
“Alex! Hey, did you want to grab food or something?” Robby asked.
Alex jumped at his voice. “Oh, uh…actually—”
But another voice interrupted him. “I’m so sorry, I had to get changed, and then I couldn’t find my keys, which is SO embarrassing, but—"
Javadi stopped dead when she registered Robby’s presence.
Alex flushed bright red, and Javadi seemed to lose the ability to speak.
“We were just—” Alex said, “Um, we just—”
“No, yeah, no!” Robby back-peddled furiously. “I had to catch up with Collins anyway. I’ll see you both later. Separately. In different—yeah. Bye.” Smooth one, Robinavitch.
They didn’t need to be told twice. Alex and Javadi scurried away, disappearing around the corner. Robby stared after them. Out of the corner of his eye, a figure sidled up beside him. He sensed, rather than seeing, that it was Dana.
“Should I be worried about that?” Robby asked.
Dana hummed indecisively. “Well, it’s a grey area since he was never technically her patient, he was Collins’s patient. I think it’ll be fine.”
Robby turned to look at her.
“Unless you meant your son going on a date with one of your students. In that case, yes, you should be worried. That is going to make your life very complicated.” Dana seemed to be enjoying this far too much.
“Oh my god,” Robby said, “That little shit—”
“What did Alex do this time?” Collins had joined them.
“Nothing,” Robby said.
“He’s taking Javadi on a date,” Dana ever-so-helpfully corrected.
Collins did very little to hide her smile.
Robby groaned. “Okay, thank you, both of you are being so very helpful.”
“Hey, look on the bright side,” Collins said, “Think how excited Dr. Shamsi will be.”
Dana cackled. “Oh, you should do a joint Christmas.”
“I’m Jewish,” Robby reminded her.
“Thanksgiving, then,” Collins suggested.
“If the two of you are done ganging up,” Robby said, unable to keep the laugh out of his voice, “I have a very important date with a pillow. Goodnight.”
“Goodnight!” Dana called after him, but to Robby’s surprise, Collins kept pace.
Robby’s car was parked just around the corner, so he slowed his pace to give them more time. Collins didn’t speak immediately.
“Quite a day, huh?” Robby prompted.
Collins pulled a face. “Quite a week.”
“Quite a month, now that I think of it.”
“Honestly, the past year…”
“Past five years…”
Collins laughed quietly. “This whole life has been pretty fucked up, now that you mention it.”
They’d reached Robby’s car, despite his best efforts. “Can I give you a lift?”
She shook her head. “No, I’m parked that way.” She gestured back the way they’d come. “I just…”
Robby didn’t know what she was going to say. Honestly, there wasn’t much that could be said. At least not after the week they’d had. Not out here on the street. Not sober.
“What about dinner?”
She looked at him quizzically.
“Whenever I get called in at a ridiculous hour, Ray makes something delicious.”
Collins blinked at him. “Did I know there was a Ray?”
Robby kept his personal life harshly divided from his work life. It was an old habit, but it stuck around because it just made life a helluva lot easier when shit went sideways. Because he could come home to something untouched by death and blood and chaos. Ray was Ray. Work was work. Never the two should meet.
Still, there were overlaps. Langdon. Langdon was the main overlap. But Collins wasn’t Langdon. And it occurred to Robby that she might have a Ray to get home to as well. He had no idea.
Robby just shrugged slightly. “Last time it was an amazing mushroom risotto.”
Collins still looked bewildered by the route the conversation had taken. “I don’t really do mushrooms.”
“There will be wine.”
“Wine I can do.”
They stared at each other for a moment.
“Collins…” Robby started, not knowing where he would finish. “I know I get wrapped up in my own mess sometimes, but I want…if there’s anything I can do…you know I care about you, right?”
She nodded, swallowing tightly.
“Collins…”
“Thank you, Robby. But I don’t think I’m up for it tonight.”
He nodded. Honestly, despite being the one to suggest it, Robby didn’t think he would’ve been up to it either.
“There was a time…” Robby couldn’t believe he was saying this. Of all the places to share something like this, the middle of the sidewalk outside the hospital was one of the worst he could think of. “There was a time we wanted to adopt a baby.”
Collins took a sharp breath as if she’d been punched.
“We came very close. We were involved, all through the pregnancy, and then…then the mother decided to keep her. Never ended up working out.”
It wasn’t the same. It felt ridiculous to have even said it. But Collins's eyes held no judgement. She watched him evenly. It was probably a factor of her being a woman, a Black woman, in a field like medicine, that made her very considered, very slow to react emotionally. She kept her cards close to her chest. Like Robby himself, in some ways, but better at it. So it felt like a conscious decision when she let the grief flood her face.
“I’m so sorry, Heather.”
She reached for him again and Robby pulled her into a tight embrace.
“I’m sorry.”
When she pulled away, Collins had carefully removed all traces of the tragedy from her face. You would never have been able to tell it was there in the first place.
“I’d be free for dinner next week,” Collins offered.
“Next week it is. No mushrooms.”
“Thank god.”