Same.

Mel nods, happy with the positive feedback

Oh you can always ask for more! I love people dropping into my inbox to share headcanons and talk about the characters we love!

I have a few, some of them might make it into future fics, one of them for sure will (first one):

When Mel and Frank plan their wedding, it's a no-brainer they want a small intimate thing. Mel doesn't have a lot of family, neither does he, and they have most of their friends in common. So when the talk of who their witnesses best man/maid of honor will be, Frank just says "I guess my dad again" in a very odd flat tone that makes Mel pause in her tracks, because it's unlike him. "I guess" hasn't really been part of the wedding planning vocabulary. Frank has a lot more opinions than she does on how he wants things. "He was your best man at your wedding with Abby?" "Yeah..." Frank does that odd thing he sometimes does when he's trying to make a topic go away, where gives his voice an upbeat twist. He never does that with her. "Was he your first choice?" Mel asks tentatively. Frank pauses whatever he was doing, but doesn't look at her, his leg starts twitching under the table. "I'm sorry, I don't know why that just tripped me up," Mel continues conversationally. "I guess I just always thought I'd see Yolanda up there with you." All of Frank freezes. He looks at her, she pauses what she's doing and looks at him. "Is that an option?" Mel blinks. "Yeah, of course, why wouldn't it be?" His face does something complicated and he picks up folding the invites or whatever, but Mel waits him out. "Abby vetoed her." He eventually says. "You should ask her." Mel tells him. "I know I'd like to see you both up there. I mean I like your dad, he's great, but he's not Yoyo." "That he isn't." Frank agrees. It takes him another beat of processing before he leans in to pull Mel into a tight hug. "I love you so much."

Yolanda is the one who figures out Mel's ring size for Frank. They're at a christmas market booth and Yolanda just kind of grabs Mel like "I need to see these on someone else's hand" and starts putting rings on all her fingers until she finds the right size for her ring finger, she buys that one and slips it to Frank.

Mel and Yolanda don't have that much to say to each other off the bat and while Yolanda deals with weird neurodivergent people all day long in her department, Mel is a flavour she doesn't quite get at first. Once she gets Mel comfortable enough to start chatting about something she likes though, the world opens up and she sees the exact glow that's got Frank hanging on her every word. Like okay I get it. Good for you.

When Trinity and Mel start hanging out and the relationship with Yolanda and Trinity actually cools down to casual for the first time ever because Trinity has places to be as well, Yolanda corners Mel at some point and tries to chitchat, but it soon becomes clear what she actually wants when she very un-cool-like asks "So does Trinity ever talk about me?"

When a friend cancels on her, Yolanda takes Mel on a silent spa weekend retreat and because it's meant to be silent, Mel is the most relaxed she has ever been in her life, because the expectation is so clear. It's just the two of them for two days going to massages and sitting in hot water and saunas and mud baths together and eventually getting so weirded out by how serious everyone is being that they find hidden corners to whisper to each other in.

They're each other's first port of call if one of them is worried about Frank. Mel isn't really on socials. So when Abby posts about going on a one-month cruise with the kids and her parents over the summer break, Mel has no idea why Frank goes quiet on her that day, and he's not ready to talk about it, but by the time midday rolls around, Yolanda has pulled her aside and shown her the insta story.

Yolanda likes Mel, period. But she *really* likes Mel for Frank. When he finally gets divorced and tells her at work, she slips in a little "Imagine how good it's gonna feel to spend time with someone who actually likes you." She pointedly *doesn't* look at Mel, who has been out with Frank doing some kind of nerdy nonsense every day they've had off together if their dependents weren't available. Frank instinctively looks at Mel though, which tells Yolanda all she needs to know.

Yolanda in her role as Frank's best woman, tries to run her bachelor party plans by Mel, but Mel just tells her she doesn't need to do that, she knows Frank's safe with her (and obviously she trusts him or they wouldn't be getting married), she's not worried.

When Yolanda gets hurt (in a way/place she can't fix herself) she asks for Mel to treat her. Frank is too emotional. Robby is too erratic. Abbot is a lunatic. Gotta have Mel.

She will heckle them in their own home by shouting “Nerds!”

derek hale, who’s foaming at the mouth to put a bite mark on stiles’ neck

derek hale, who’s chomping at the the bit to cover stiles in his own scent

derek hale, who’s nearly feral at the thought of it not being completely obvious that stiles is his mate

derek hale, who’s using every muscle in his body to hold himself back from overwhelming stiles with the knowledge that he is devoted to him, that there is no one else, that there couldn’t be. that even if stiles does not choose derek, derek will only ever be choosing stiles.

derek hale, who’s ready to worship his other half and do everything in his power to make sure stiles is comfortable, safe, warm, loved and provided for

and, i am enthralled with stiles stilinski.

stiles, who wonders if derek is really even all that into him

stiles, who wants to text derek, to call him, to run into him somewhere in town, but holds back because he doesn’t want to seem too desperate

stiles, who thinks derek could have anybody he wanted, so why on earth would he want stiles?

stiles, who doesn’t think he deserves to have someone love him as thoroughly as derek would

stiles, who wonders if he’s feeling too much too quickly about this because he’s never felt this way about anybody

stiles, who feels insecure and dismissive of derek’s attention because it probably doesn’t mean anything, and he’s probably making something out of nothing

stiles, who after their first meeting immediately wants nothing more than to follow derek around forever

and

derek, who after their first meeting knows immediately that this pale boy is his mate, his forever. he knows at once that he would die for this boy, would kill for this boy, would do absolutely anything for this boy.

…and then there’s stiles, who wonders if it’s too soon to text him back? does derek really even like him that much? is he being too clingy?

"Doctor Langdon, can I speak with you?"

Frank nearly jumped out of his skin right there in the ambulance bay. Mel hadn't called him that in weeks, not since they had exchanged phone numbers and he had told her he'd prefer if she called him Frank away from patients, so hearing it again now induced the profound sense of having fucked up.

Her conflicted and somewhat stormy expression did the rest of the heavy lifting. His stomach dropped.

"I told you, Doctor Langdon is my dog." He joked, and at least that got a momentary smile out of her and she did a half-hearted point at him to let him know she got his joke.

No one else at work knew the kids had named their golden doodle that, but here he was, responding to Doctor Bluey Langdon at every vet check-up. Frank had had no doubts that Mel was trustworthy, but the fact that that tidbit hadn't made the rounds at all really sealed his trust in her. So when her face fell again, it actually made him worry.

"What's wrong, Mel?"

He could practically see her lose steam, her approach slowing until she stood an awkward distance away from him.

She shook her head. "Nevermind. It's not important."

"No hey, come here, what's going on?" He walked a few steps towards the door with her until she stopped, and then fell into step with her on the way around the corner, so they wouldn't be immediately interrupted by the first person who came outside. Trying to catch her eyes wasn't quite working, her gaze fixed into the middle distance on the grass.

"I'm not fragile." It came out almost like a question, not to him, but to herself, like she was questioning the word. "I know... I don't think you were wrong when you said I was sensitive. I do respond emotionally to certain things and I have cried at work, but I'm pretty sure most people have?"

"I know I have." He confirmed easily, but didn't interrupt further, and instead opted to hear her out.

"But I've been in medical settings. I've been in university, I've been in school, I've been around war veterans with incredibly colourful vocabulary." She glanced up at him and Frank nodded, he knew all that.

"I guess what I'm trying to say is, I'm not going to cry if you tease me."

He blinked, trying to catch up with where she had led him. "I... I'm not sure I follow."

"You do it with everyone. I mean, you and Dr. Garcia, that's more like verbal fencing than anything else, but with Dr. Shen, and Whitaker, and Javadi, and even with Trinity you're... " She made a vague hand gesture, trying to fish for the right word. "You shoot the shit, you're funny, teasing... collegial, but easy going...." When he still didn't react, she looked actually ticked off. "You know what I mean."

"You don't think I'm funny with you?"

"No that's not, I think you're plenty funny, but it's different. It's like you always take the steam out of it, like you don't think you can act the same with me."

Well, fuck...

"Because I don't tease you the same way?" He concluded, and she nodded, a slight quiver to her lip like she was bracing for something and god, he knew she could hold her own, she was friends with Santos of all people, her skin wasn't that thin. It wasn't that.

"Mel... you're my favourite. I'm not meant to have any, but you are."

"What?"

Honesty hour. She deserved it.

"Not just my favourite resident, or favourite colleague. You're my favourite person, not counting the ones I actually put on this planet myself. I don't wanna talk to you the way I talk to Whitaker, 'cause it's not the same. You're not the same as any of them. I'm sorry if I made you feel left out, I didn't mean to. But I don't think this is something I can fix. I prefer to be in on jokes with you, not make them at your expense. Do you think you can forgive me?"

99% of staff : rolls their eyes, scoffs, winces, judges

PATRICK BALL & TAYLOR DEARDEN 05.09.26 — Becky Shaw Stage Door