'the last unicorn.'

"Come on Trin please." Emery hushes Trinity and rocks her side to side as she wails. She had to move to the surgery break room since so many doctors were giving her dirty looks for how loud she was being.

Surgery believed the lie that Trinity was her little sister, but people would definitely start getting suspicious.

"Shhh, Shhh." Emery tries her best but Trinity wouldn't stop screaming.

Apparently Trinity's chronic pain was acting up, and that was making her cry. Her goal was to get her calm before Yolanda came back from the ED, or else she'd get an earful. Baran's mama bear instincts seemed to rub off on Yolanda and she would be extra mean if Trinity got injured.

Emery gets an idea and holds Trinity on her hip. She starts signing. 'Trinity?' Trinity looks up at her and tilts her head.

'How about snack and pain meds?'

Trinity wipes her eyes and nods as Emery grabs gummies and tylenol out her secret stash in the cupboard. Trinity coos and devours it and slowly calms down.

'Was it noisy?'

'Legs hurt?'

Trinity nods quietly as Emery sighs. She should probably ask Yolanda and Baran to invest in earplugs and a plan if it was this bad in the future. 'Better?'

Trinity coos and nods.

"Mel."

"Mel!"

Ellis snaps in front of Mel's face.

"Uh, what?"

"You went to dreamland." Ellis snorts. "Surgery needs help upstairs, Abbot decided to send you since you're already on night shift tonight."

"W-w-what? ME?" Mel was shocked. She only agreed to do night shift tonight since Nazely and Vivi were both struck down by a stomach bug and they needed the extra hands.

"Can't Shen or a higher resident do it? I don't think I'm-"

"Relax." Ellis says, patting her shoulder. "It's likely just gonna be grunt work. Handing them the tools, making sure everything's sterile." Ellis seems to remember something before making a noise through her teeth. "Oh and, make sure your skin's thick. Yolanda and Emery are nice, but the average surgeon can be pretty mean."

She pats Mel's shoulder. "But you're tough." She starts leading her towards the elevator, handing her a clipboard. "Now don't come down with your tail between your legs in the next hour. At least try to learn something."

Mel gets in the elevator with her hands shaking as she presses the button. "Good luck!" Ellis says with a smile as the door closes.

Mel taps her feet and holds her hands together nervously. She could probably sneak back down soon, right? Why would they pick me? The doors open and she steps out. There were a few surgeons walking around, talking, going to patients.

She already felt out of place.

Mel nervously approaches the front desk. "Uh, hi, I- I'm from the ED and-"

The man looks at her blankly. "Oh, right, the help. The OR needs some hands, you should head over there."

Mel nods nervously. "And where is-?"

The man completely ignores her and goes back to typing on his computer and talking to his friend next to him.

"Um. I- okay." Mel walks down the hall hoping to find the room where she runs into Garcia. She doesn't know whether to say hi until Yolanda looks up from her phone. "Oh! Mel. Didn't think they'd send you."

"Yeah, I don't know why either. Thought they'd send Shen or something."

Yolanda shakes her head and smiles. "Probably a test or something." She laughs at something on her phone before turning it to Mel. "Look, these goobers are watching Superman without me!" It was a selfie of Trinity dozing with a pacifier in with Baran smiling and kissimg her forehead.

Yolanda types a few things before looking back up. "Were you looking for something?"

"At the desk they said they needed help in the OR-? but I don't know where it-"

Yolanda puts her phone in her pocket. "Scrub room is down the hall, you should probably clean up a bit, then OR is right next to it, can't miss it. Emery's gonna be in the next surgery and she hates latecomers so you should probably make it quick."

Mel perks up and starts powerwalking over there. Yolanda watches her leave with a thoughtful look.

Please let them be nice to her.

Mel scrubs her hands trying not to listen to the other surgeons talking about her.

Did they really send a girl from the ED up here?

They know they can't catch up with us.

Bet she's gonna fuck up somehow, ED's the asscrack of this hospital I swear.

Mel tries to control her breathing before drying off and putting on sterile gloves and gown. After she gets in the OR room Emery walks in. She gives Mel a slight nod before explaining the surgery.

Luckily it wasn't anything major, small foreign object removal on the patient's legs. Everyone gets masks on and by Mel's surprise Emery has her stand next to her.

At first, it goes well. She passes Emery tweazers and a scalpel and gets wiping sweat duty.

Then the other surgeons start whispering.

How come the ED bitch gets to play teacher's pet?

Bet she's a nepo baby like the other one.

Oh my god, can you imagine?

The whispering gets louder and louder before she hands another surgeon the tweazers and storms out.

"Shit." Emery mumbles. She had heard the whispering, but didn't want to acknowledge it in fear of embarrassing Mel. She was sensitive compared to a lot of them in the ED. Emery hands her tools to the other surgeon.

"Get the pieces out, I'll be back."

Emery heads out the OR, taking off her gown and gloves before walking down the hall, rounding a corner, and seeing Mel sobbing into her knees in a corner.

She kneels down.

"Mel? Are you-?"

Mel looks up at her and cries harder.

"I know they're mean Mel, but you got to-"

Mel shakes her head and starts raising her shaky hands, starting to sign before putting her hands down. Now was the worst time to go nonverbal, Mel. Come on. Talk.

Emery tilts her head before signing.

'Nonverbal?'

Mel nods in surprise and signs.

'Overwhelmed. They're mean.'

Emery nods.

'Didn't think you knew sign.'

Mel wipes her face and nods.

'Becca and I learned. Easy when overstimulated and upset.'

Emery smiles understandingly before picking her next words. "How about you chill in the break room? Maybe I'll swing by. And if you really want, I could page downstairs and get Crus or Shen if you really aren't up to it."

"Sound good?"

Mel nods and lets herself get helped up. Emery's about to say something else before Emery's pager beeps. Apparently they had an above the knee amputation coming in soon, it'd be all hands on deck.

"Ah, shit Mel I gotta-"

Mel interrupts her and signs. 'I want to help.'

"Are you sure? This is a bit crazier then a foreign object removal." Mel nods. 'I got this.'

Emery sighs before nodding and leading her to the scrub room, and they clean up and get new gloves and gowns. Before they head in, Emery turns to her.

'Hey, stand next to me, listen, if you need to get my attention just sign. The other surgeons talking shit don't matter. Just focus on the patient."

Mel nods before they head in.

'I got this.'

The surgery goes well, Mel even picked up some new skills from Emery. As they take off the gowns, Emery smiles. 'So, wanna follow Trinity into surgery?"

Mel snorts and signs her next words with a smile.

'Absolutely not.'

Trinity was currently playing with her toys on the rug while Emery typed on her laptop on the couch, sipping her lemonade. She had a few last minute things she had to knock out but she was keeping Trinity in view.

She had agreed to watch Trinity for a few hours but got a million warnings from Baran of how much of a troublemaker she was and always enjoyed making babysitter's lives hell.

Speaking of which.

Trinity throws a toy that smacks Emery in the forehead. "Ow, Trin what the fu-" She looks up and Trinity was crossing her arms and pouting.

"Okay, what do you want?" Emery relents. "Food? Snacks? Movie?"

Trinity tosses another toy that Emery catches. "Trin, you gotta tell me what's up." Trinity shakes her head and babbles something. Emery rolls her eyes and gets off the couch to kneel in front of her. Baran wasn't kidding about the stubborness.

"I know you know some sign, come on, try it."

Trinity grumbles and tries signing something.

She sloppily finger spells 'Attention' and Emery cackles. "Okay wait, hang on." After a few tries, Trinity signs that she wants to play and Emery smiles.

They play a few before Trinity changes her mind and wants to watch a movie. Baran had a collection of dvds in a drawer underneath the tv that Emery digs though.

"Okay, Sleeping Beauty?"

Trinity shakes her head and signs 'Fish'

What?

Emery keeps digging. "Finding Nemo?"

Trinity keeps signing fish and getting progressively angrier.

Emery gets a few dvds out before taking out Ponyo and Trinity starts clapping. She pops the movie in and Trinity crawls into her lap. She had that movie practically memorized, babbling along to the quotes and characters.

After the movie Emery decides to teach Trinity some sign. Yolanda had bought her some books plus Emery found some while thrift shopping.

"Okay Trin, lets try the alphabet."

Trinity signs the alphabet after a few tries and claps excitedly. After Emery reads her a few books and gets a bit carried away to the point Trinity falls asleep in her lap.

"Ok Trin let's try....oh."

They’d usually wake up in a cuddle pile, Trinity between them. She’d either wake up as herself, a baby, or a teen. Baran is always hyper paranoid she’d fall off the bed so she’d wrap a loose arm around her.

If she was a baby Baran would hold her while brushing her teeth and making breakfast. Trinity would devour whatever it was and beg for more.

Yolanda started her mornings by doing yoga or pilates in the garage that Trinity always snuck into. I imagine she’d plop in her back while she was doing pushups or crawl around while she was lifting weights.

‘Careful Trini, those weights are really heavy.’

And Trinity would babble and crawl around her. Around lunchtime Baran would make something quick for them before they went on an afternoon walk.

Trinity was a wanderer so they kept her close with mandatory hand holding. The neighbors up the street had a pitbull that they were paranoid of getting out. They’d seen too many accidents at that hospital.

By the time they got back to the house Trinity was ready for dinner and would start whining. Baran would have to wrap her around her chest so she could watch her cook.

After dinner it’d be either board games or tv, with Trinity likely shifting back to her original form so she could pick options.

Surgery Floor

Likely found out a bit after she started working there. She used to hide her hearing aids behind her ears but that lasted for a week before she was just like 'wait I don't actually care.'

They know, but also don't put any effort. The whole 'surgeons are mean' stereotype runs deep up there. Like "Oh you can read lips and have hearing aids right? So we don't have to learn anything."

Even though it'd be helpful if people could learn ASL on the surgery floor to talk to her and any patients who were also deaf or HOH. Half the motherfuckers wore masks, how the fuck was she gonna lip read? Only Yolanda actually put in the effort to learn, with Trinity teaching her and her taking online courses.

The ED

Now ED actually puts in the effort. Trinity goes nonverbal sometimes so Princess helped teach her some ASL for when she's quiet. One day she came down and didn't have her hearing aids so she was dreading it. But luckily Trinity and Princess were in the room helping, translating everything said to Emery since everyone was wearing masks.

It was like a dream, minus doing the minor surgery.

Communication was clear, she din't have to have anyone scream or have to talk slower.

(Gloria once almost got an interpreter for her and she almost burnt the place down.)

Plus, it was perfect for talking shit with Trinity and Princess.

Samira

Samira had been learning some ASL when Emery told her about it. It hadn't been a full commitment until that playdate at Baran's house when she realized how little communication she had with Emery without the hearing aids. That made her feel shitty. They were supposed to be dating and Samira only knew like 10 words in sign?

For months she learned online, taking classes, watching videos, and doing everything she could.

For Emery's birthday she signed the happy birthday song and did it so perfectly that Emery sobbed on the spot.

this one was a bit short! took a break from that godforsaken essay to do this quick one (the irony)

"Shhh.. Shhh.. it's okay Trini."

Yolanda was holding Trinity close to her chest as she wailed. Trinity and her had the day off but she didn't expect her to wake up with a fever. She had called Baran who was just about to rush home but Yolanda assured her that she had it handled.

Trinity screams and buries her head into Yolanda's shoulder. Yolanda groans and grabs the thermometer from the nightstand. "Okay, you were 100 an hour ago so.."

She pops it in Trinity's mouth and after a few seconds takes it out.

"Shit."

104.

It'd gone up.

She holds Trinity close and kisses her head. "Looks like we gotta go see mama Trin." Trinity whines quietly and vice grips Yolanda's shirt. Yolanda grabs blankets and extra clothes before heading to her car and putting Trinity in the backseat, kissing her forehead.

On the way to PTMC Yolanda calls Baran.

"Hey babe, uh Trinity's fever went up we're heading over."

"What? Is she okay? Did you give her tylenol? Is she-" Baran starts rambling already getting a bed ready. Trinity starts crying again, likely another headache and squirms. "She's, uh, sorry she's crying really loud."

Baran sighs on the other line. "I'll see you guys soon, okay?"

Yolanda turns on the radio to hopefully calm Trinity down before pulling up to the ambulance bay. Baran and Dana rush out as Yolanda gets Trinity out. "Heart rate's high, and her fever went up. Luckily no vomiting or anything."

Trinity screams and squirms. "M-A-MAMA!" Baran's heart breaks as she takes Trinity from her. "Oh, my angel, you're okay." Yolanda feels her forehead. "I'll move the car, you get her settled?"

Baran nods as her and Dana take Trinity in. Her screams echo across the ED but luckily none were phased too much. "How high's the fever?" Dana asks, patting Trinity's head as they get to a room.

"Yoyo said 104, but-" Trinity whines as Baran puts her down on a bed. "I know you'd prefer a crib but your powers tend to act up when you're sick."

Dana runs to her desk to grab the pacifier and the toys she had stocked while Baran got some meds to get her fever down. By the time Yolanda comes back Trinity had slightly calmed down, in Baran's arms with a pacifier and a toy.

She smiles. "Someone's feeling better?" Trinity coos and nods.

"Fever went down but she's still a bit sniffly."