Rhi's silly little blog

When he gets outside, he’s surprised to see Mel already out there. In their spot, staring up at the obsidian sky. She looks cold- no jacket on, just her arms folded around themselves.   

“What are you doing out here?” He calls, running over and taking off his hoodie so he can give it to her. “We've got an MVC victim coming in.”  

“I just needed a minute.” Mel tells him quietly.   

Frank knows Mel hates working the night shift- but apparently Becca’s spending the day night at Adam’s, so she had actually offered to work. Frank had followed suit two days later. The kids are with Abby this year; he would’ve been bringing in the new year alone anyway.   

Working with Mel makes it bearable- just like any shift they work together. Especially since they became... whatever they were right now. 

“Were you hoping to catch the fireworks?” He asks her.   

“Oh, I didn’t even realise the time- is it nearly midnight?”  

Frank glances down at his watch. “11:56. You wanna work this trauma with me?”  

“Sure.”   

The silence between them is comfortable, intimate. Frank places his hoodie over Mel’s shoulders and reaches out to graze his hand against hers.   

“You know, we could just pretend it's midnight now. Be time travellers for just a moment.” Frank says, taking another look at his watch. Twenty seconds until 11:58. “Bring in the new year with a kiss.”  

“At work?” Mel says, facetiously scandalised. “What if someone sees us?”  

Frank scans the ambulance bay. “Funny- I don’t see anyone.”  

Another check of the time. Ten seconds.   

He doesn’t notice that Mel is also checking until she starts counting down from five. He reaches an arm around her waist, holding her close.   

“Three. Two. One.”  

The kiss that follows is short. Soft. Yet so much more than that at the same time.   

“Happy New Year, Mel.” Frank whispers, his forehead pressed against hers.  

“To new beginnings. Happy New Year, Frank.”  

They pull away from each other just as the ambulance bay starts to fill with more people. The patient arrives thirty seconds later.   

They’re completing their primary assessment when the cheers signalling the start of a new year echo throughout the emergency department.   

Dana made sure that everyone going was done with work by seven-fifteen at the latest. By seven-thirty, they were on their way to bar number one. Ninety minutes of bottomless cocktails and wings later, it was on to the second bar (this one had a dance floor and photobooth). By eleven, it’s time to go to their final location- a private karaoke bar.  

Mel isn’t entirely sure why she was invited. She likes Victoria and thinks she’s going to be an excellent doctor one day, but they’re by no means close. There are moments at the first two bars where Mel just feels like a spare part, an extra body to make up numbers. But Santos is there, and she and Mel are friends. So, when Trinity offers to buy her a drink at bar two, Mel just thinks fuck it and asks for a vodka cranberry.  

She hasn’t had one of these since college. But by ten, everyone else is already drunk, so one or two shouldn’t hurt.  

One or two quickly turns into four, on top of three tequila shots that almost come back up as quickly as they go down.  

So that’s how Mel has ended up here, in this cramped karaoke room with twenty-odd of her colleagues, belting out Kelly Clarkson’s Since U Been Gone with Trinity.  

The July night air is sticky against her skin when they stumble out of the karaoke place at one. Mel is hanging onto Trinity’s arm for dear life. She notices her start to squint at something across the road as they’re waiting for their shared cab back to her place.  

“What the fuck is Langdon doing here?” Trinity slurs, her voice thick with disdain.  

Sure enough, when Mel looks up, she can just about make out Frank’s figure, leaning against his car.  

“Dr. Langdon!” She cries out in joy, peeling herself off Trinity and running across the road, nearly falling flat on the asphalt. Thankfully, she manages to reach him before that happens, steadying herself against his arms, which wow, they’re so big. “What are you doing here? I thought you weren’t invited!” 

Frank lets out a breathy laugh, doing his best to hold Mel up. “You sent me a text about two hours ago asking me to come and pick you up.” 

“I did?” Mel asks, flabbergasted. Her entire body runs hot with embarrassment. “I don’t remember doing that.” 

“No, I can see why you wouldn’t,” Frank says, but he doesn’t sound annoyed. “Get in the car and put your address into my phone, ok?” 

“But- Trinityyyy.” Mel groans, reaching out a hand to where Santos is currently staring at them, slack-jawed.  

“You’ll see her on Thursday. Let’s get you home, King.” 

Frank knows when Mel shows up to work on Thursday that she doesn’t remember any of it. That’s ok. He’ll tell her about it someday.  

“Maybe you’re just one of those lucky people who never has morning sickness,” Cassie told her. “I’m jealous- by week ten with Harrison, I was blowing chunks like nobody’s business.”  

McKay had obviously jinxed it- because when Mel woke up this morning, the first thing she’d done was empty her guts into the nearest toilet.   

Thank God it’s her day off.  

She has nothing planned- Frank is dropping the kids at Abby’s before he heads off to work (and graciously offered to drive Becca to Middle Hill when he’d found Mel hunched over the toilet first thing this morning), and then she’ll be by herself at home for the rest of the day. Maybe she’ll download that new book she’s been waiting to read, or check out that new research paper on emergency thoracotomy recovery.   

She’ll have to shake the nausea first.   

When Frank comes into their bedroom ten minutes later, Mel can’t help but notice tiny giggles coming from what sounds like his feet. Tanner and Penny up to their usual antics, no doubt.  

“Peppermint tea.” He holds out a steaming hot drink in her favourite mug. “I read that it helps with nausea.”   

“Thank you,” Mel says softly, leaning over to lay a kiss on his cheek from where she’s lying in bed. “Care to explain why you’ve got what sounds like a pair of tiny elves circling your feet?”  

More giggles. Louder this time. Suddenly, the two kids spring up into view, dressed ridiculously. Tanner has one of his sister's dress-up tutus on his head, and Penny is wearing Tanner’s Spider-Man costume, possibly inside out and upside down?   

It’s a miracle Mel doesn’t spill scalding hot tea all over her hands with how hard she breaks out laughing- a real laugh, soulful and all from the belly.   

“What have we got here?” She says once she’s finally caught her breath.   

“Daddy said you were feeling sick,” Tanner tells her, trying to keep the tutu from falling in his face. “And Papa Pete always says that laughter is the best medicine.”  

Papa Pete must be Abby’s father- Frank's dad is called Rob. Mel doesn’t really care who he is right now- all she knows is he’s a very wise man, because her nausea has all but completely subsided.   

“Well, thank you. I am miraculously cured.” She tells the kids.  

Tanner and Penny both squeal in delight before Frank can wrangle them out of the room, holding one kid in each arm in a way that makes his biceps look huge.   

It’s hard to believe Mel ever had reservations about what would happen when her and Frank’s families merged- she loves his kids, and they love her and Becca.  

“You won't be able to speak once the tube is inserted, but you’ll still be conscious. We’ll give you medicine to keep you pain-free.” 

“No- you need to wait for my husband to come back. He went to the cafeteria- I can’t have the last thing I say to him be a reminder to order skimmed milk in his coffee.” 

Frank swallows a comment about her husband allowing himself a trip to the cafeteria while his wife is incredibly sick in the ER. “We can wait a few moments, but if your pulse-ox continues to drop, we’ll have no choice.” 

“Ok.” The woman, Mrs Simpkins her name is, chokes back sobs. “God, I don’t know why, but I can’t think of what I need to say to him. It’s all so quick. If you don’t mind me asking, doctor- what would you say to your wife if it might be the last thingyou ever said?” 

The question knocks the wind out of him. The last thing Frank would say to Abby? Whatever it was, it would probably piss her off. He allows himself to think for a moment, imagining the person who he would want by his side in his final moments.  

The only person he can think of is Mel.  

“I would probably thank her for trusting me.” He starts, promising himself that he’ll deal with the emotional repercussions of imagining Mel by his side at his deathbed instead of his wife later. “I’m far from a perfect person, but she gives me peace- so I’d probably mention that too.” 

Mrs Simpkins nods, brushing a tear from her cheek.  

“And just for good measure, I’d probably tell her I love her too.” 

“She sounds like a very lucky woman.” Mrs Simpkins says softly, looking down at Frank’s wedding ring that he’s now twirling anxiously around his finger. “Please can we wait just a few more moments for my Carl to come back.” 

“I’ll have a nurse come in to keep an eye on you and prep for the intubation. Until we’re ready to start, I’ll give you some privacy.” 

The weight of Frank's thoughts comes crashing down on him as soon as he’s left central seven. If he could only speak to one final person, would he really want it to be the adorable R3 who he’s very quickly developing highly inappropriate feelings for? 

Suddenly Mel’s there, waving to him across the hub, a stupidly gleeful grin on her face.  

“They burn you.” Tanner replied with the upmost sincerity.  

“Owie!” Penny exclaimed, holding her sparkler even farther out than was necessary.  

“But it’s ok, because once they’ve finished burning, you’re going to stick them in this bucket of water. Ready?” 

An extremely excited clamor of affirmation came from the sparkler-wielders. It took Frank a second to light them all, but soon Becca, Tanner and Penny were all happily waving round their sparklers, drawing pictures and writing out their names in the night sky.  

Mel watched on, peacefully cradling their four-month-old baby in her arms. She didn’t mind being left out of the Fourth of July fun just for this year- sparklers made her just about as anxious as they’d made Penny. 

“You are going to have so much fun with your aunt and your crazy brother and sister one day, little one.” She whispered, gently laying a kiss on the infant’s head. “And your dad is gonna show you how to do it all.” 

She imagined their daughter, running round the yard with her two siblings. Frank teaching her to ride a bike. Him being there for all the things her own father couldn’t have seen- her high school graduation, her first day of college, her first dance at her wedding. 

Once the sparklers had safely been put out, Frank looked over to her from the end of the yard, wiping his brow in a phew motion that made her chuckle.