whitaker enjoyer

Dennis Whitaker x Pharmacist! Reader, The Pitt x Reader

Description: Fed up with your retail pharmacy job, you open your own independent pharmacy down the street from PTMC. A prescription error from a certain curly-haired resident leads to an awkward phone conversation leaving you both wanting more.

Word count: ~1.5k

Author's note: This is my first fic since like 2014 so sorry if it sucks. Feedback is appreciated!

You knew going in to pharmacy school that you wanted to do community pharmacy. It got a bad rap because of the long hours, angry patients, and insurance issues. But it was also where you got some of the most meaningful patient interactions and felt like part of the community. So when you graduated, a freshly minted Doctor of Pharmacy, you took a job as a staff pharmacist at a big chain retail pharmacy.

And you hated it.

You developed a real connection with some of the patients, while others you came to know in passing. But there were always the patients who knew better than you. Who said their doctors couldn't possibly have made a mistake and it was you. That their insurance wouldn't do that to them and it was you. You were the middleman to prior authorizations, deductibles, and refills. But to them you were the cause of it all. You were the reason that they were in pain. That their inhaler was $20 instead of $10. And you couldn't blame their frustration with the system, you just wish it had somewhere else to go.

So you left.

You spent some time working at an independent pharmacy and life jsut became... better. No corporate telling you how to run things. Lower patient volume. An actual lunch break. And time. Time to go through prescriptions more thoroughly. To call doctors and give your recommendations. So you did what any sane and reasonable person would do. You opened your own independent pharmacy.

Alleghany Pharmacy was located in downtown Pittsburgh, right down the street from PTMC, the area's largest medical center. It was prime real estate to get prescriptions for patients being discharged from the hospital or seeing specialists. Getting everything in shape to open to the public had been a real pain, but that's what business managers are for. But your dream had finally become a reality, and the prescriptions started coming in.

During your second week, you got an influx of new prescriptions. The technicians were busy ringing out patients, so you opened up the data entry queue yourself to start processing some of them. A nitrofurantoin for a urinary tract infection, a refill on escitalopram, a meloxicam for arthritis. Nothing out of the ordinary. You opened up a levofloxacin order that had just come in with an indication of community-acquired pneumonia. 750 mg once daily for 5 days. Fine for a patient with healthy kidneys, but Mr. Thompson had end stage renal disease. Aka kidney failure. So you picked up the phone and called the PTMC emergency department.

---

“Hey Whitaker,” Dana called from the nurses’ station, desk phone pressed between her shoulder and her ear, “Call for you.”

“For me?” Dennis furrowed his brows. He rarely got calls from outside PTMC while on shift. His mind went to Santos who had the day off, alone at their apartment. But Dana interrupted his thoughts before they could spiral to catastrophe.

“Relax,” she peered at him over her glasses, “It’s just the pharmacy down the street.”

He let out a breath he didn’t realize he was holding in and walked toward her, taking the phone from her outstretched hand.

“Hi, this is Dr. Whitaker,” he said into the phone.

“Hi Dr. Whitaker, sorry to bother you!” you spoke cheerfully into the phone, surprised by how quickly you were able to reach him. Usually you got the dreaded, 'they're busy, can I take a message?' which was never returned. “I’m one of the pharmacists at Allegheny Pharmacy down the street. I’m calling about a prescription you sent over earlier for Mr. Thompson.”

“Oh ok, is there an issue?” he probed, worried he had screwed up. He had never gotten a call from an outpatient pharmacy so it had to be bad. Sure, he had to do prior authorizations sometimes, but that was all online. He braced himself for the worst.

“I just wanted to double check the levofloxacin dose for his pneumonia,” you said. “You prescribed 750 mg once daily, but he has end stage renal disease on dialysis. The recommended dosing in dialysis is 750 mg once, then 500 mg every 48 hours.”

“Oh shoot, sorry about that!” said Dennis, thankful you couldn’t see his face reddening, “Do I need to send a new prescription?”

“No worries, it’s an easy thing to overlook,” you said softly. You could see he was a resident based on the DEA number on the prescription so you didn’t want to give him a hard time. He seemed sweet, readily admitting that he made a mistake instead of getting defensive. Renal dosing was something even the most experienced doctors messed up. “I can take a verbal prescription if that’s easier. Did he get a dose of levofloxacin in the hospital?”

“Uhhh let me check real quick,” Dennis quickly logged on to the nearest computer and pulled up Mr. Thompson’s chart. He felt bad for wasting your time over his mistake, especially with how nice you were being. The way you spoke to him made it seem like this was the most routine thing in the world, which it might have been to you. “Yeah looks like he got his first dose of 750 mg this morning. So I guess start the 500 mg tomorrow?”

“Sounds good, I’ll put in the new prescription,” you said. “Thank you Dr. Whitaker!”

“I should be the one thanking you,” he said, rubbing the back of his neck. “I’m kind of surprised this is the first call I’ve gotten from you, honestly. Or any pharmacy.” He let out an awkward chuckle, immediately regretting it once he heard himself.

“We actually just opened last week,” you said. His lack of confidence in himself pulled at your heartstrings. You had a hard time believing someone so sweet and willing to admit their mistakes was a bad doctor. “And I’m not shocked that any of our big name competitors haven’t called with how understaffed they are. I’ve definitely had the time and bandwidth to be more thorough here compared to my last job. But you don’t need my life story, sorry.” You shook your head to yourself, unsure why you were rambling to this poor, sweet emergency medicine doctor with who certainly had more important things to do.

“Don’t apologize, I’m glad for both our sakes that you don’t feel so rushed,” said Dennis with a small laugh. He couldn’t believe you were apologizing to him when he was the one who screwed up. And he couldn’t say he minded hearing more of your voice, a thought that made his cheeks burn. He didn't have time to examine that thought any further before Robby's voice cut through the lull in conversation.

“Whitaker!” he heard Robby call, “Incoming MVC, let’s go!”

“Well thanks again for catching that, I’ve gotta run,” said Dennis, “Hope to hear from you again some time. Well, I guess not actually since that would mean - "

“Whitaker, now!”

“Um bye, thanks!” Dennis slammed down the phone, running towards to the ambulance bay as the EMTs rolled a stretcher in. He was grateful for the distraction so he didn’t have to dwell on his embarrassing admission to the pharmacist with the nice voice that he’d like to talk to her again. Was he really so desperate that he could develop a crush by talking to someone on the phone for five minutes? Surely not, he told himself. She was just nice and he was grateful she caught his mistake. That was all.

---

You hung up the phone and stared at your computer screen at Mr. Thompson’s prescription. Your eyes flickered flicked over to the prescriber information. Dennis Whitaker. His thanks and apologies, delivered with a slight Midwestern accent, played through your head. Doctors were rarely so receptive to your recommendations, often taking them as challenges to their expertise.

But Dr. Whitaker apologized and thanked you instead, not once questioning your knowledge. Not once saying that you shouldn’t question his prescription because weren’t a doctor. You genuinely appreciated this, but it was also clear that it came from a place of self-doubt. Something you were all too familiar with. You hoped Dr. Whitaker would grow into himself as a clinician just as you had during your residency.

Your thoughts drift to what he said before hanging up. “Hope go hear from you again some time”. Though you didn’t want to admit it to yourself, you hoped he would too. Your cheeks burned as you realized the effect this man you'd never even met was having on you. There was something so genuine about the way he spoke. About the way he told he you wanted to talk to you again, even if he didn't intend on saying it out loud. You smiled to yourself as you reprocessed Mr. Thompson's prescription with the updated dosing instructions.

"Are you becoming delirious after 10 hours here?" said Keisha, one of the pharmacy technicians. "'Cause I know there's no other reason to be smiling right now."