GleefulNerd

Months into joining them, the older men get put up on the kiss cam. Both turning beet red, trying to signal to the camera that they're just friends.

Then, barely in frame of the shot, Dennis's hands come into view, gripping both their heads and turning them till their mouths slot together.

this show was made to honour medical workers and highlight their struggles and realities in that workplace/area. when they say that robby is exactly like them, or like doctors or nurses that they knew and loved who committed suicide (the cast have visited hospitals where doctors have spoken to them and thanked them, and talked about their "own doctor robby" who sadly didn't live), and that they have been crying out for this truthful and non-sensationalised reprasentation, they are the ones who really matter here in this conversation. not you.

they deserve this complex and nuanced and empathetic character at a breaking point, and they deserve to see his storyline, and they deserve to get this good reprasentation of what it's really like to feel like you're holding up the world on your shoulders in a system falling apart. they deserve it all. we're all here because of them. they don't deserve a watered down, piss-poor showing of their own trauma because you can't grasp the nuance of a genuine character.

this show was made to honour medical workers and highlight their struggles and realities in that workplace/area. when they say that robby is exactly like them, or like doctors or nurses that they knew and loved who committed suicide (the cast have visited hospitals where doctors have spoken to them and thanked them, and talked about their "own doctor robby" who sadly didn't live), and that they have been crying out for this truthful and non-sensationalised reprasentation, they are the ones who really matter here in this conversation. not you.

they deserve this complex and nuanced and empathetic character at a breaking point, and they deserve to see his storyline, and they deserve to get this good reprasentation of what it's really like to feel like you're holding up the world on your shoulders in a system falling apart. they deserve it all. we're all here because of them. they don't deserve a watered down, piss-poor showing of their own trauma because you can't grasp the nuance of a genuine character.

Jack pauses when he sees the food present. Cheese sticks.. a fuck ton of spaghetti.. tubs of icing…? When he grabs his drink he jokes "you got pizza rolls in the freezer?"

He expects Robby to laugh but instead the man casually says he does. Jack laughs to himself and opens the freezer out of curiosity. He sees pizza rolls, three of the same microwaveable meal, and hot pockets.

"What, are you in your 20s?" Jack jokes. The moment he says that everything clicks to him.

It can also be found on Google Drive here and on Bluesky here.

The thing being that he really fucking liked it.

Liked the feel of soft cool sheets directly against his skin, liked not getting overheated and sweating all night, liked being able to fantasize about hands roaming over every inch of him that was exposed, feeling skin against skin, soft cock squished against his plush mattress.

But it was hard to sleep naked when you were sharing a room with your older brother, then impossible when you were homeless, and somehow even harder when you had a roommate that didn't understand personal boundaries, or knocking, when she came barging into your room first thing in the morning.

dana, who loves and respects robby, who robby clearly loves and respects right back, who robby can't fathom running the hospital without, but even through all that mutual adoration and affection there is still a final mile between them, a wall dana simply can’t breakthrough, one that robby is stubborn and steadfast about maintaining. whether that’s because of some kind of internalized bias or some misguided sense of responsibility or just sheer stubborness on robby’s end, who knows, but the cracks dana sees in robby are in spite of his effort, things robby is trying and failing to hide, rather than because robby lets her in to see him. robby trusts dana so much, but clearly still needs her to see him a certain way, to be the fearless leader, her partner in crime, someone who’s strong, the carer and never the one who needs care. if i had to guess i'd say at least toward the end of s2 he’s self aware enough to know dana has seen past that smokescreen, but even still at no point does robby ever let himself open up to her. he resists up until the very end and what he does reveals is reactive, almost out of his control, never meant to be shared except the veil is too thin and he is too tired to hide behind it.

with jack, robby still gnashes his teeth, but he’s doesn’t lie to him. it almost feels like he can’t, that he doesn't want to. oh he'll try to distract him, try to deflect so he doesn't have to give in, or he'll avoid him so he doesn't have to confront it, but when jack really really steps up to the plate and confronts robby directly it's almost like it's the secret code for robby's brain to shut up and listen. when jack point blank asks, robby answers. he hears him, even if he doesn't always believe him, even if he can't, and as far as we've seen on screen, it works. jack knows robby doesn't like to to listen because this is a song and a dance they've done before. when no one else can make robby even begin to listen, they look to jack to cross that line because it's a line he's been able to cross before.

dennis in season 2 is clearly coming into his own -- he's smart, confident, and capable; his relationships with the other pittlings have clearly grown deeper and more robust (there's a reason why he sees through trinity so easily and why he is the one victoria vents to); he is steady-handed with ogilvie and joy despite both of them clearly pissing him off at times and regroups himself excellently

snapping at langdon is evidence of this confidence because he knows he isn't the same guy he was ten months ago; he's not homeless, hungry, and dealing with a mass casualty in a new environment. his reaction to robby asking him to housesit also clearly shows where his mind is; while he is visibly worried when robby jokes about not coming back, he still sets boundaries with robby, not with amy like robby suggested. he still drives off with amy at the end of his shift (a very clear mirror to robby's wife/child/pond speech) and demonstrates that while he is robby's new protege he does not feel an all-consuming need to prove himself to robby because he already understands most of who he is

i want this dennis -- confident and self-aware, perceptive beyond literally anyone else in the pitt except for mckay -- coming up against jack and robby on relatively equal footing. i love dennis knowing that robby is deeply mentally ill, recognizing that he is flawed, and rather than throwing it back in his face like langdon taking the good parts of what robby is showing him and amplifying them (his moment of silence for the dead patient in season 2) and taking the bad parts and undoing them (his willingness to learn & admit his bias when he and mckay have the patient with the ovarian torsion). i think the version of dennis whitaker who respects robby, understands he's a good teacher and a fantastic leader, but still understands that he is not infallible, is a version of dennis that is extremely interesting to examine.

There’s a chance the annoyance is displaced, he grants, but fuck it, he’s feeling his feelings.

Thing is, when Jack looks at Robby, when he sees him trying to find calm and quiet inside himself, enough to get through a shift now his sabbatical’s done, he wants to pass on the advice. Drink some fucking water, man. Go take a leak. Eat more than a protein bar. Does Robby even know what sleep is?  The man has his own therapist now, one who’s stuck with it despite Robby’s no-doubt pugilistic attitude, and Jack’s pretty sure the ‘back to basics’ stuff is the kind of thing all therapists cover as a matter of rote. Still, Robby doesn’t seem to be doing any of it. It makes Jack want to climb the walls.

So he does something about it. Makes a point of buying Robby a really great water bottle, with all the mod cons water bottles offer these days, and sticks a label on it that says “use me, you dipshit.” (A similar bottle shows up two days later with a label that says “physician, heal thyself.” Fucking smartass.) Jack starts making himself a meal before he comes on shift, just so that he can put the leftovers in a plastic box and hand it to Robby before he leaves for the night. Robby starts showing up with breakfast in a to-go bag, shoving it in Jack’s hands and holding up a finger when Jack tries to protest.

Jack hates that he doesn’t say anything when Robby holds up that finger, but he’s learned it’s futile to argue, and he was done with being “tsk!”d when he was about nine.

Jack leaves sandwiches in the staff-room fridge, and Robby starts leaving salads, and Jack starts feeling better about the way Robby looks—better fed, more rested, like he’s not about to collapse, dehydrated; like he’s taking care of himself. He enjoys the salads, too, a meal he would never, ever make for himself because of all the faff involved, the ingredients, the fucking choices when it comes to dressing.  He’s happy to let Robby do the thinking.

Shifts being what they are, there’s a stretch of three days where they’re both out of the ED, and Jack texts Robby on day two, asks if he wants to go to a game, and they eat more hotdogs than anyone should, and beer is not technically the way to take care of the resulting thirst, but whatever.  Robby hoots when there’s a double play and Jack looks over at him, at the way he seems more whole, reaches out to pat his knee out of deep-felt satisfaction, and then just leaves his hand there for reasons that he doesn’t care to delve into too deeply.

Robby looks back at him. “You okay?”

Jack gives him a nod. “I think I am.”

But I'm going to say that the one person I think was genuinely snubbed, in the sense that her performance was brilliant and no one even mentioned her? Amielynn Abellera. She was so good as Perlah in Season 2. She deserved at least for people to bring her up in conversation about the Emmys, but I didn't see a single journalist even drop her name.