🪩✨Lancey's Cave✨🪩

Of course, Robby couldn't retire completely. When fall came, he found himself at the front of a lecture hall at the University of Pittsburgh teaching electives on the “Lasting Effects of the COVID-19 Pandemic in Healthcare” and “Trauma Responses in Emergency Medicine Workers”. Teaching scratched the itch he had to still be productive while also settling down out of the fast-paced environment of the ED. He cherished the opportunity to pass down his skills and knowledge to the next generation of doctors; to help them not make the same mistakes that he had made. He brought in help whenever he could: his husband came in to talk about combat medicine, Dana popped by to discuss violence in the workplace, and he had even managed to rope Whitaker into a video lecture on rural medicine. His classes always got great reviews, students citing engaging lectures, useful anecdotes, and interesting guest speakers.

Dr. Jack Abbot, being two years Robby’s junior and still somehow full of energy, continued in the ED for three years after Robby’s retirement. He switched to day shift, citing that he wanted to be able to spend more time with his husband - definitely not the fact that he was in his sixties and his body couldn't handle the night shift like it used to. After the initial adjustment of switching to day shift, Jack couldn't deny the rejuvenating effect of being able to wake up and go to bed next to Robby every night.

When the day came for both doctors to retire fully, their lives shifted in different ways.

Robby couldn't stay out of the hospital - something that both his therapist and Jack ragged on him about constantly. He spent his free time up in the OB, volunteering in the NICU cuddling preemies whose parents couldn't for whatever reason. Which also led him to learning how to quilt, his and Jack’s office slowly turning into a craft room as Robby putted away making baby blankets.

Jack also took up volunteering. He volunteered at the local animal shelter and the VA. His official role at the animal shelter was “Kitten Cuddler”; he helped socialize the kittens and get them used to human touch and interaction. It also wasn't unusual for shelter staff to find Jack in the back yard with a dog or two, throwing a tennis ball from his wheelchair while the dogs chased after it. At the VA, he advocated for disabled veterans and ran a support group for newly disabled vets as well as one for grieving widows and widowers.

Their nights were slow and warm. More often than not they'd have a vinyl on the record player, music playing softly through the house as Robby cooked dinner with Jack in the living room with their cat, a foster fail named Pericardiocentesis (aka: Perry, Cardi, Cardi P, Sissy, and a million other things Jack called her that weren’t her name) laying curled up in his lap. When dinner was over and the two of them had tag-teamed the dishes, Robby would whisk Jack into the kitchen for one last dance, wheeling and spinning Jack around in his wheelchair to the music.

Jack has never seen Robby's face look as fucking haggard as it does when he takes Jack aside a few nights later, and breaks the news with as much gentleness as he's still got left in him.

Major traffic accident, car vs pedestrians. Multiple crushing injuries. They'd taken Whitaker to Presby because it was closer to the scene.

Amputation of Whitaker's left leg. Below the knee, Jack hears Robby say, and he knows realistically that it's a good thing. Lucky.

He can't bring himself to say it out loud, and neither can Robby.

---

The decision to take Whitaker under his wing is made without much conscious effort from Jack. It happens like a simple math problem, the outcome consistent and expected.

He goes to visit the kid at Presby, doesn't get offended when he has to introduce himself and then jog the kid's memory about where they've met before.

He lets the kid be numb, then sad, then angry, then sad again. He drives him to the support groups, and lets the kid be bitterly jealous over Jack's control of a vehicle.

"You'll have this again. But in the meantime you get to be pissed about it."

He gets his care transferred over to PTMC, and promises the kid that the ortho and rehab teams won't go spreading rumours or talking about him to his colleagues.

"They're not even my colleagues anymore."

"Hate to break it to you kid, but those pricks are persistent, and most of them have made a real nice ass groove for themselves in that department. Like it or not, those fuckers will be waiting for you when you get back. Robby's practically salivating."

Jack snorts, and tries to hold back another one at the kid's angry, puffed-up kitten scowl.

Jack knows this whole process well enough to know that the uptick of the corner of Dennis' mouth is a win.

He takes the kid to hydrotherapy, and he pulls some strings so that their first session is just the two of them, gently splashing around in the pool. Jack's not a physiotherapist, but he does understand the tightness around Dennis' eyes at the thought of exposing his new body to yet another perfect stranger.

He stands in the water and holds his arms out, waiting patiently for Dennis to be ready. Lets the kid cling to his arms, huffs a quiet laugh at the small sound he makes the instant he's submerged in the warm water.

"Yeah? Takes away some of that aching, huh?"

Dennis nods, quiet in the way that someone is when they're surprised that a promise has been kept. Jack slowly inches backwards in the water, only a couple of inches, stops when Dennis makes a gutteral, unsteady sound.

"I got you, I got you." The kid's fingers are leaving livid white marks on his biceps, but that's not important. "I'm not gonna let you fall. You remember what we talked about before? About what to do if you start to overbalance?"

"I know how to swim. I lost a leg, not my memory."

"Oh yeah?" Jack grins, gently bobs them both a little in the water. "Well if you remember how to swim, and you remember your piss-poor attitude, why don't you stop doing your best bubble impression and take some baby steps for me?"

Dennis scowls, and the indignation and curiosity almost cancels out his hesitation and fear.

"Shut up. What the hell does that even mean?"

Jack is so very glad he asked.

"Your bubble impression?" He shrugs, deliberately looking away from Denns' legs making their first hesitant shuffles. "Floating there looking pretty, but not doing much else."

"Oh, fuck you."

He's there when Dennis gets his first prosthesis, ready to catch him when the inevitable frustration and disappointment set in at the realisation that the freedom of mobility doesn't come without adjustments.

"Dennis. Look at me." The kid's face is blotchy and red, and he's been studiously avoiding Jack's eyes ever since they got back.

"It's okay to be frustrated. I know it hurts. It's a completely new piece of equipment being attached to a part of your body that never expected to have this attached. There's new pressure, new sensations, and it's all happening to new, sensitive skin, and muscle and bone that are still adjusting. Give yourself some grace, kid."

"I'm - I'm lucky to have this." Dennis spits out. That word again, the tricky sticking point that even Jack never quite got to grips with. "I shouldn't be complaining. There are people far worse off than me."

Jack hums, handing Dennis the antibac wipes and offering no further guidance on cleaning.

"Sure. There are definitely people who are worse off." He sees Dennis' head jerk upwards, finally gets that eye contact he'd been chasing.

"But I'm not talking to them, I'm talking to you. Other people have it worse, and you've still been dealt a shitty hand right now. Both things can be true. You're lucky to have access to the prosthesis and the rehab teams. This -" he gently pats the prosthetic limb like it has its own nerves "-is going to be the thing that gives you your freedom and mobility back. But right now, it's new and it hurts, and it'll take adjustment. Both things can be true."

He shows Dennis his own prosthesis, his own stump, and how the two work together. He was surprised at how intimate and vulnerable it felt, letting Dennis see him remove his leg and care for his stump at the end of a long shift. He was interested by his own tenderness at the process, as he'd long thought he was over any feelings of particular vulnerability where observation was concerned.

But he shared all the small things he'd learned over the years with Dennis. All the little things that nobody without a prosthesis could possibly be expected to know, despite their qualifications, because they were the kind of things you only learnt by living it. He softened when he saw Dennis' face set in such concentration as he told him about tips for dealing with hot weather, felt something in him ache a little tenderly at the expression on the kid's face when Jack talked openly about the need for hygiene and the reality of 12-hour shifts and sweat and residual limb care.

He was there the first time he saw it in Dennis' face; the realisation that different did not negate okay. He was there when the kid met with Robby (and really, it was supposed to be a meeting with administration first, but Jack wasn't stupid) to discuss returning for the rest of his rotation.

He was definitely there when the kid started to look at him with something dangerously close to admiration and worship and - if Robby was to be believed - little tiny hearts in his eyes.

"He's too fucking young for me."

"He's twenty six."

"Too. Fucking. Young. He's all caught up with looking at me as his saviour right now."

"Pretty sure he's seen you at your least glamourous. I don't know if you think you've been some kind of perfect, Florence Nightingale figure with endless pools of patience and grace, but let me tell you that you've been cranky, difficult, downright fucking belligerent, and I've heard you tell the worst fucking jokes in your reportoire. The kid still laughs at them and gives you cow eyes."

"He's still too-"

"Both things can be true."

The lagoon is pretty far removed from... well everything. It's out on a peninsula, a notch in the shoreline carved out over millions of years by the wind and the waves. Because it's situated on the leeward side of the peninsula, it's relatively safe from most of the big storms that come through and the weather is typically perfect for Robby and Dennis to not only care for Jack but also observe the other marine species.

It's almost like taking care of an island lighthouse, being in such a secluded area. Where the peninsula meets the rest of the land, there are dense forests that aren't really travel-able by foot or by driving, so anyone coming and going from the lagoon base has to take a ferry or a helicopter. There's a radio connection to the main base that they use to report their findings and updates about the base. Their food and other supplies get flown over from the mainland once a month.

Robby had met Jack when he was still a young, up-and-coming biologist. He had been picked for the remote station, and instead of a month of isolation studying seaweed and corals, he found Jack.

Jack, a merfolk whose lower body resembled that of a tiger shark, had claimed the enclosed lagoon near the research cottage. It was shallow and the current didn't pull as much, making it easier for Jack to get around; he wasn't nearly as fast or as powerful as he had been before losing part of his tail.

Him and Robby became quick friends, Robby’s enthusiasm to study and learn about Jack matched with Jack’s longing for company. Jack was a good companion; witty and sarcastic if not a little crass. Robby couldn't help falling in love with him as he requested more and more time at the peninsula station.

Dennis had arrived at the station years later, bright eyed and bushy tailed with an eagerness to learn about anything he could get his hands on. Jack was immediately obsessed with him, letting him hold onto his dorsal fin as he swam around the lagoon. Robby was careful to watch the two after learning the hard way that Dennis was a very poor swimmer.

Dennis became Jack’s guppy… but he quickly became Robby’s lover. The young man was attentive and attractive; it didn't take long at all for Robby to fall head over heels for him.

Their relationship with Jack became less than ethical during Jack’s mating season. Sure, Robby had been helping out the merfolk with his rut for a while, but bringing Dennis into the fold proved to be the thing that pushed the purely functional activity to something so much more.

It was kind of the perfect situation for the three of them. Robby and Dennis got the freedom to observe the environment and conduct their own studies with supplies that are paid for by grants, but were also free to explore their less-than-conventional relationship with the shark hybrid merman that stalked the lagoon. And of course, Jack is happy to have company, even if they were weird and soft.

And everything is going well until they get word from the mainland that there's a big storm coming. I'm talking about a once-in-a-lifetime global-warming scale storm.

Robby and Dennis tell Jack to swim out to deeper water to protect himself from the storm, but he's a stubborn bastard of course, so he refuses and is adamant about staying. The storm grows closer and closer as Dennis and Robby scramble to gather the supplies they have left. The wind picks up and Robby goes down to the lagoon one more time, telling Jack that he's a damn fool for staying in the lagoon instead of heading for deeper water. That he's going to be dashed against the rocks and he'll be dead before they can get down there to even say goodbye. The turning point is when Robby brings up Dennis.

"What if your guppy finds you? You want your last act on this earth to be traumatizing one of the men you love?"

Jack chokes up bringing Robby down to kiss him aggressively, his sharp teeth making little knicks in Robby's lips. M

"I love you. I love Dennis too. Please tell him for me."

And then he's gone, navigating the waves and rocks out to the open sea.

The storm starts in earnest as soon as Robby reaches the cottage. Him and Dennis barricade themselves in, but it's no use. The winds rip apart the roof and shatter the windows. The waves are cresting over the cliff side and the cottage begins to flood, Robby holding tight to Dennis who still isn't a very good swimmer. It's the most painful thing in his life when a huge wave crashes over the cliff, sending a giant swell of water careening into the cottage, and Robby screams as Dennis is ripped out of his arms by the backflow.

Robby is distraught, screaming and crying out for Dennis as the storm rages on. At some point he loses consciousness from getting pounded by the water and debris. He wakes up to the sun shining in his eyes and sea water in his throat; rolls over and throws up a bit before he stands up.

The peninsula is wrecked. The rock walls that had shielded the lagoon from the current have toppled inwards, making the lagoon into more of a tide pool than anything. The cottage is completely destroyed, only the stone foundations left standing. Robby can't help but think it's some grand cosmic joke that he's still alive. He can't find Dennis *anywhere*. He searches everywhere, the coastline, the lagoon, the cliffs, even the windward side of the island to no avail. And as he looks out to the sea, there's no sign of Jack either.

After hours of searching for a sign of either of the men he loved, he collapses near the ruined lagoon and resigns himself to oblivion.

Or he would have, if a large splash followed by a familiar yell hadn't caught his attention from outside of the lagoon.

He uses every last bit of energy he has to climb up the rocks and as he crests the rubble, he sees Jack holding a limp Dennis in his arms. Robby nearly kills himself getting down the cliff to the water's edge, where Jack is waiting with Dennis's body laying on the rocks in front of him. Robby skids over to him and starts checking his vitals, his heart plummeting when he can't find a pulse.

Jack is silent in the water next to them as Robby starts chest compressions, giving rescue breaths and checking his pulse when needed. Jack can't cry, physically it's not in his biology to cry. But he's visibly distraught, swimming up and down the length of the beach as Robby works on Dennis.

After what feels like a lifetime, Dennis lurches, coughing up sea water from his lungs as he struggles to breathe again.

Robby is on him immediately, pulling him close and holding him tighter than he should for someone who definitely had a bruised rib or two from CPR. But Robby can't help it, his Dennis is back, in his arms, and he's *alive*.

Meanwhile Jack has stayed back, watching as the two embraced. He feels guilty, feels like he should have pressed harder to find somewhere safer for them. He feels like he failed his mates - failed to protect them.

But Dennis, sweet Dennis who can't swim and was just brought back from the depths of the ocean and death itself, managed to pry himself away from Robby to crawl to the edge of the water, holding his hands out to Jack and embracing him as well.

"You saved me, Jack," he croaked. "I love you so much."

But MS2 is kicking Jack’s ass, and it’s well known that Robby is at the top of their class so he asks him for help.

Robby agrees, but keeps an eye out for any ulterior motives.

To his surprise, there are none. Jack is a perfect gentleman and is constantly in awe of how good of a teacher Robby is. It makes his chest swell with pride. The more time Robby spends tutoring Jack the more he wants to spend time with him outside of that, maybe go to dinner or a movie, and Robby has this strange urge to ask for Jack’s coat. Oh, fuck. He likes this alpha.

Of course he likes the one alpha that isn’t interested.

Robby starts wearing lower cut tops that show off his neck and don’t suppress his scent, he also brings food to share to Jack’s tutoring sessions and makes sure to lean in extra close when he’s explaining something. Nothing works.

Meanwhile, Jack feels like he’s liable to combust at any moment. He’s trying so so hard to be respectful, but after every study session with Robby he has to run home and jerk off like the exact type of knotheads Robby hates. It’s getting harder to resist asking for the opportunity to court him, but Jack still isn’t willing to be met with reality.