@kingdonmacrofic day thirty-one: balloon | 1.4k/319 | rating: g | warnings: another choose your own adventure infidelity fic
When Robby gets back from sabbatical, the first thing he notices is that Frank Langdon is back in top form. The timidness that existed that first day back is gone, replaced with the confidence that he used to exude before that fateful day in September. It's quieter, and steadier, but it's undoubtedly there. He's practically running the ED alongside Al-Hashimi, and Robby feels, for a moment, that he's watching the future he used to envision for himself play out with someone else in his spot. He'll have to ask Jack if the powers that be are taking Al-Hashimi's request for more attendings seriously. If they are, he has a sinking feeling that he knows who the next one might be.
The second thing he notices is that Langdon and Mel are attached at the hip.
He expected this might happen, even from that first shift they worked together. The way they gravitated toward each other over everyone else was obvious that day, even if it turned out that Langdon had unspoken, panicked reasons for his harshness toward Santos. Still, Robby thinks that Trinity could've been the perfect student and Mel still would've come out on top in Langdon's world, an unusual magnetism existing between the two of them.
He remembers thinking briefly that he might have to keep an eye on the two of them. Not like that – Langdon was married, after all. But he didn't need to deal with accusations of favoritism, on top of all the other shit on his plate.
So, again, he's not surprised that the two of them have become close. He can't help the slight annoyance that one of his favorite residents is now head of Frank Langdon's fan club, but as long as it doesn't cause him any issues, he can't find it in himself to care. He'll check with Al-Hashimi to make sure there have been no accusations of favoritism, and as long as there haven't been, he'll chalk Langdon and Mel as a potential headache he'll deal with another day.
Robby realizes that Langdon and Mel might be a different kind of problem than he was expecting right after Thanksgiving.
Langdon has been wearing his wedding ring inconsistently for about two weeks. He only realizes this because it's the new hot topic of the ED's rumor mill. Whispers of She apparently kicked him out and I heard that he's the one who asked for a break and I bet he's already seeing someone new are impossible to avoid. But he does his best, especially when he sees the looks that Langdon and Mel receive now, from people like Princess and Perlah and Kim and Trinity and Ahmad. No one says it out loud, but the question in their gazes is loud and obvious.
He almost warns Langdon about it, because he and Mel have kept flitting around the department without a care in the world, seemingly oblivious to the speculation. Again, he in no way thinks anything is happening. He just would hate to see his best resident (Mel, to be clear) become the subject of a fucking betting board.
But then, his eyes are opened.
It starts when Trinity is pestering Mel about what she did for the holiday, accosting her because Mel apparently turned down her invitation to Santos and Whitaker's friendsgiving dinner.
“Come on, Melancholia. I know you said your sister went to her boyfriend's house. Did you really just sit around all day alone?”
“I told you that I just wanted to relax,” Mel says patiently, but then, her face brightens. “Ooh! I did try to make an apple pie for the first time – Becca isn't the biggest fan of pies because she doesn't think fruit should be hot – and it was actually really good! I did almost set off the smoke alarm, though.”
He doesn’t think anything of it, until he overhears Dana talking to Langdon.
“Oh, uh, fine,” Langdon answers, rubbing the back of his neck. “It was really good, actually. Quiet, but good.”
“Quiet? With two kids under six running around? How'd you manage that?”
He moves his shoulders awkwardly in a jerky shrug, and quickly changes the subject.
Robby pauses in the middle of reading his patient's chart.
“Wow, look at you,” Dana remarks. “I'm impressed. When did you learn how to bake?”
“Almost set off the smoke alarm, so maybe I still need some practice.”
Robby scoots his chair a little closer to the two of them, as Dana laughs.
Langdon freezes for just a moment, then forces a smile onto his face.
“Yeah,” he says, his words strained. “Yeah, she…did.”
Robby takes a casual glance down at Langdon's left hand. He's not wearing his wedding ring today.
When February hits, Robby gets his answer.
Dana tells him when he arrives in the morning that it’s Mel’s birthday, and there are cupcakes in the breakroom.
“Not just the ones from Giant Eagle, either. They’re red velvets from Prantl’s.”
“Who shelled out for that?”
Dana looks up at him a little exasperatedly. It’s easy to read the meaning behind her expression.
There’s no hard evidence, no note or card to be found. Plus, Langdon is off today, so he would’ve had to come in early or have them delivered. The soft smile on Mel’s face as she bites into one during her lunch break is probably all the confirmation he needs, though. Still, he holds onto his plausible deniability, refuses to overthink it, until he leaves the hospital that night.
He had to stay over especially long because of red tape and paperwork from a complicated trauma earlier in the day. When he reaches the employee parking garage, it’s 10:15 PM, and there are only two other cars in the lot.
He sees movement out of the corner of his eye before he can unlock his door, looks up and sees Mel at a car parked in the far corner of the garage. He doesn’t think much of it at first – Mel had been the resident helping to oversee the trauma, so she had to stay over as well – until he realizes that the car is not the sensible gold Subaru Mel usually drives. Instead, it’s a black Lexus sedan.
It’s Frank Langdon’s car. He almost drops his keys.
Mel opens the passenger-side door, and purple balloons spill from the car and onto the pavement.
The driver’s door opens as Robby openly gapes at the scene in front of him, and Langdon hops out of the car, more balloons spilling out.
“How long did this take you?” Mel asks, as he walks around the back of the car. “Oh my God, there are so many, Frank.”
He grins at her, soft and boyish. Robby realizes that the expression on Langdon’s face is the gentlest he’s ever seen on him.
“Don’t worry about it, sweetheart,” he tells her. “Tanner and Penny helped. They can hardly wait for tomorrow.”
She picks up one of the balloons from the ground, twists it around in her hands. Langdon reaches out and grasps her chin, tilting her face up.
And he leans down and kisses her.
Robby realizes immediately that he’s intruding on something private, but he can’t bring himself to look away, even as questions start to run through his brain. How long has this been going on? They obviously haven’t told the hospital yet, or he would’ve been notified. Fuck, is Langdon even divorced? He tries to think back to the last time he saw the wedding ring. He can’t remember.
By the time his mind slows down a little, Langdon and Mel have separated, and Langdon is smiling down at her with that same soft look on his face. And, for the first time in over a year, something that seems like goodwill for Langdon briefly overrides Robby’s animosity toward him.
Then, as suddenly as the feeling came, it leaves, replaced by annoyance at the HR nightmare this is going to cause him.
“Come on,” Langdon says. “We have to clean this up. Plus, I might have some more presents for you when we get home.”
Then, he taps Mel on the ass suggestively. That is Robby’s cue to leave.
He gets into his car, trying to be as quiet as he can. As he pulls out of his spot, he watches Langdon and Mel pick up balloons, laughing and seemingly oblivious to the world around them.
He should probably talk to them tomorrow. Force them to go to HR and come clean. Fill out the proper paperwork.
Or, maybe, he’ll let them be for a little while longer. Chalk Langdon and Mel up as a headache he’ll deal with another day.
