Dennis is getting passed around

late afternoon in the whitsantos household; they are sitting on the sofa watching some show and eating dinner.

it's not quite a 7-week itch, but he can't ever find someone that he feels fully comfortable being with, its only ever a matter of time until he finds something he tells himself means they are incompatible.

he realizes they are often ridiculous; he's broken things off with someone because they didn't like his favorite candy. and he does feel lonely but anytime it goes beyond the occasional date, and they start to see each other every day, he feels overwhelmed, he gets sick of their presence. He wants to be alone, but if he is he feels like they don't care about him. If they ask to stay with him, he feels like that's violating a boundary he didn't establish.

unfortunately, the alphas around him seemed convinced they could change that, make him give up everything and agree to be kept in a golden cage, and bare pups..He didn't care for any of them frankly, but he wasn't above using their underestimation of his capabilities. let them feel like they're taking care of him, to give himself a break. Trinity, his beta best friend said he should take any upper hand he could and the only advantage he had was that he was a young beautiful omega

its not like he wants to be alone all his life, it seems like none of these alphas know what kind of life he'd like. they all expected him to look for someone to "take care" of him so he wouldn't have to work anymore. He Liked his job actually; he wanted to work.

he wasn't above leveraging that delusion to get a leg up.

so what if he flirts with his attendings and gets full and total control of his and his roommate's schedule? It'd be their fault for letting him have such a bias towards him.

and if he used it to get cases he wanted, what could they do? tell Langdon he should've been quicker, or at least not have given it to the omega, it was his choice after all, he can't complain.

what if he not so subtly talks about things he's been wanting to get? it's not his fault the alphas around him, mostly abbot, felt it was their solemn duty to give him exactly what he wants

who didn't really get to see her being a carefree kid because his wife, her mother, died shortly after he got home. Her health had been failing for a while, but jack is sure she saw it as his fault because of how ardently she rejected his presence after she died. She wasn't the biggest fan of him even before that and constantly asked how long he was going to be staying. He understood that for all intents and purposes he was a Stanger to her, only knowing her though the occasional call and pictures he was sent.

He tried to not let it hurt him when she yelled and screamed and begged for her mom back, knowing she doesn't under what death entails yet. He did get through to her over the years, but there was always this distance between them because of his wife's untimely death. Who went into therapy specifically because he felt she needed it and didn't want to her to feel weird for needing help.

who's always worked nights so that he can be home when she got out of school and felt an intense paranoia anytime he didn't know exactly where she was and how she was doing. he still has contact with his daughter, who is now in collage but doesn't ever know how to start conversations with her and never feels like he said enough.

but most doctors have about 250 k dollars in med school debt and a standard payment plan would have them to pay around 40k a year. which would place them around the poverty line in actual spendable money.

but he slowly feels like his presence in their relationship is causing a rift, and has his worst fear, that he was just something to spice up their marriage affirmed. They use him to make the other jealous, he has to settle any arguments they get into, neutrality i not an option, they say hurtful things to each other and come to him for comfort after their fights.

He wouldn't know if they would fight like that before he entered the picture, but he feels like if this was a regular occurrence they would've gotten divorced ages ago. so, it must be because of him.

but they have always been like this, this is just the first time someone has gotten close enough to to see them like this. they are used to this; in a way they find comfort in it. they know no matter how bad their fight gets they won't break up. why would they? who else would they be with if not each other?

they are secure in their relationship, what they aren't secure in is their new relationship to Dennis. so, they start a fight, like they do with each other, except Dennis doesn't fight back, he just says they should break up. He felt like they must have gotten sick of him, before they would argue with each other and try and goad him onto their sides.