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Faris, Baran's ex, is a great guy. He's tall and handsome, a little bumbling but in an endearing way. She doesn't think she's ever met a better father and she deals with parents everyday. But it did hit his ego pretty hard when Baran came out to him.

He wasn't exactly thrilled to hear that his wife of almost ten years has decided that not only is she attracted to women, but she's not sure if she was ever attracted to men.

He left that night and didn't speak to her for three months. This isn't even the part that enrages Baran, but its the fact that he would only communicate through his mother.

Baran's eye twitches every time she talks about it.

But three months later Faris calls Baran after a long night out and reveals to her that he had his first bisexual experience last night that made him rethink the whole situation.

Now that time has passed, and lots of therapy has happened, Baran's able to laugh about it in the end.

She finishes her story and Trinity can't help but ask if Baran ever thinks she'll get married again.

Baran turns soft because, well yeah of course I would, if the right time comes around. Like it was a no-brainer.

Trinity, momentarily forgetting her audience, says, "I don't think I could ever get married."

Baran tries not to flinch at the statement, but Trinity catches it. "Oh?" She says instead, "Why?"

Trinity doesn't even know where to start.

Maybe her parents? Who argue constantly and aren't exactly a great example of a happy marriage. Growing up she had always secretly hoped her father would gain the independence he needed to divorce her mom.

She thought that at least one day he would stand up for Trinity. That he would fight for her.

She was wrong.

Trinity knows she gets her barbed tongue from her mother. She knows deep down that every insult is just a reflection of her mother's own insecurities. They both have a problem with going too far in verbal arguments. But that didn't change the fact that Trinity was a child and her mother was supposed to be the adult.

Or maybe its that Trinity doesn’t like the idea of losing her true independence, something she fought tooth and nail for from her parents. When she moved in with Baran and Yolanda (Yolanda moved in first because her lease was up the fastest), she had to practically beg Baran to let her pay rent.

Even though she already is paying for all the other things in her life; her car and phone payments, swim lessons for Farouk she signed him up for, plus the multiple streaming services that she lets Dennis have full use of even though she no longer lives there and Baran’s got her own accounts.

Even though Baran argues it is completely unnecessary, they compromise on $400 a month in addition to that she has to mow the lawn every other week. Trinity thinks she uses the money on groceries or something, and she’s pretty sure she was already going to do that last part anyway,

She loves her life and the way things are going in their little family, she wouldn’t change anything for the world.

But the idea of a wedding has the power to make her break out in hives.

She wasn't always this way, but then she fell in love with her best friend. Over fifteen years ago now, Katie turned to Trinity and decided that they would have a joint wedding when they grew up because obviously they were going to be best friends forever.

Secretly, little 8th grader Trinity hoped that maybe they would marry each other instead.

And then Katie died and took that dream with her.

But what actually comes out of Trinity's mouth is a defensive laugh and a short story about a middle school science teacher that once told Trinity that marriage is really only for tax purposes.

"And if you really think about it, she was right," Trinity says.

Baran stares at her with an open mouth ready to reply when the front door opens.

"Hello?"Yolanda bellows from the front door. "Hey we're in here!" Trinity calls back.

"Trinity." Baran begins, drawing her attention again, "you can't be serious," she tries.

Trinity shrugs, suddenly feeling defensive. "I don't know.. I've never really been interested in it. Isn't it really just a piece of paper?" It comes out as a question.

“You're not interested in marriage?" Baran reiterates, "then what the fuck are we even doing here?" She suddenly spats out, then guiltily looks at her glass of wine.

Sometimes the combination of her meds and alcohol made it hard to keep a lid on her emotions.

Baran never uses this tone with Trinity; she hasn't spoken to anyone this way since her argument with Robby in the ED.

Her eyes are practically on fire with how they burn a hole through Trinity.

Time stops for a second and Trinity can feel the bough break beneath her.

She feels like she's been burned and retreats into herself, adverting her eyes.

"-Woah!" They're interrupted by Yolanda who is now standing in the doorway.

"What the hell is going on?" She asks, looking wildly between her two girlfriends.

"Nothing," Baran says defensively. "Just a disagreement."

Trinity stands, meekly wringing her hands together, "I think l'm gonna. I think I'm going to go stay at Dennis’s.”

"No," Baran tries, suddenly realizing that her words may have been too harsh. She's still mad, but she hates it when Trinity retreats into herself. Hates herself when she's the cause.

She moves to grab Trinity's wrists to keep her there but the younger woman shakes her head and pulls out of her grasp. "Look, we can talk about it later." She says softly, tears in her eyes. "I just need to go," she tells Baran.

So when her nose started running two hours into shift, she just kept with the same prognosis. Swollen sinuses often caused noses to run, sick or not.

She'd managed to make it five more hours before the headache hit, which was only a precursor to the chills that set in a half hour later.

She manages to convince Robby to let her use his medicated nostril spray, there was a steroid in it that was meant to prevent you from getting sick. "But if you're already sick it won't help," he warned, handing it over warily like she was a bomb that might explode.

Which, fair, she did have a lot of mucus building up. But she was a doctor first and foremost, she was supposed to push through right?

Dana, although wary for her health, seemed to understand that Trinity was going to work until she dropped. "At least manage your electrolytes kid, you look flush," she told her, handing her a gatorade.

Exhaustion set in next, and even under the constant barrage of the bright fluorescent lighting, she found herself feeling tired enough she could just find a bed somewhere and sleep.

In a moment of weakness she allows herself the five minutes, hopping up onto a bed in the hall. Just to rest her knees and feet, she’d told herself, which had begun to ache as she neared the 11th hour of her shift. At least that was a normal occurrence.

Its actually Garcia who finds her. Garcia- and not Yolanda. Trinity tries not to mix the two in her head. Not only are they at work but honestly they haven't really spoken in months. That one argument on the Fourth sparked another where Trinity eventually found the self-respect to call it off.

Garcia tried to play it off like it didn't affect her, but they both know it did. After taking a few days off she’d returned without that usual fire under her feet. If Trinity was in the room she would hardly put in the effort to even banter with the staff, Trinity wasn't being iced out per-say, but it was like her presence distracted her.

And besides, Trinity has moved on to greener pastures, so to speak. Or at the very least she's found a new inappropriate crush to keep her attention.

She couldn't help it, Dr. Al-Hashimi was hot and unfortunately she checked all of Trinity's boxes when it came to Inappropriate Crushes on Older Women.

After a few months of babysitting Baran’s son here and there, they’ve become friendlier. Trinity stays the night sometimes when Baran gets home too late, and is on Farouk’s car pick up list. Baran took the liberty of securing Trinity her modified tablet and has been working with her on rebuilding her trust with Langdon (its not perfect but they no longer argue in front of patients).

Their working relationship can be up and down, but if Robby and Whitaker are Batman and Robin, she and Baran are more like Daphne and Velma when working together.

Garcia looks worried when Trinity opens her eyes- oh shit, did she doze off? "Oh my god, I swear if you don't tell anyone about this I'll buy you coffee for a week-" Trinity blurts out, brain quickly catching up with her. Garcia hated signs of poor work behavior, and falling asleep was definitely high on that list.

"Shh," Garcia shushes her, placing a finger over Trinity's lips. She uses the same hand to check Trinity's temperature with the back of her hand against her skin.

Trinity leans in momentarily to the cold contact, her stupid touch-starved body too tired to remember its currently upset with the hands’ owner. "You're burning up. Why'd you come to work like this?"

"You think I would’ve come to work if it was like this when I woke up?" Trinity snarks but Garcia doesn't pull away, she just levels her with a stare. Trinity winces, leaning away from the surgeon, "Look, I'm fine. I thought it was just allergies but now..."

"Now?"

"I'm not so sure now," Trinity shrugs, "I don't usually nap."

Garcia snorts at that at least, "That was what tipped you off? Seriously?!" She asks incredulously, before looking down at her beeping pager.

Garcia, who in certain lights looked suspiciously like Yolanda, curses at whatever message she sees written. She looks around quickly as if trying to determine her next move, and when she's decided she turns back to Trinity and grabs her wrist.

"Come with me." She says and drags Trinity along with her towards the Trauma Bay. Trinity has to ignore the ache in her limbs as she follows behind her to the incoming trauma that she was no doubtly called down for.

Trinity isn't sure where she's supposed to be going but it isn't long before Garcia parks her in front of Dr. Al-Hashimi who seems to be exiting her own trauma.

"Dr. Al, this one needs to go home. You got her?" Garcia asks, nodding to Trinity.

Dr. Al Hashimi turns to greet them and sets her all-knowing gaze onto Trinity. "Home? What's wrong?" She asks, looking between them.

"She's sick." Garcia says.

"I might be sick," Trinity corrects her weakly. "The jury is still out."

They all but ignore her. The two older women seems to have a silent conversation with their eyes before Baran nods at Yolanda, "I got her, you go tend to your trauma."

That seems to be all Garcia needs, she pats Trinity on the back lightly, "Feel better Trinity," she says and turns to enter room.

Now that they're alone, Trinity can't help but feel deja vu back to when she was nine and accidentally got sick during math class. No one had noticed and she had to go up and physically tell her teacher what happened. Embarrassing.

"Come with me Trinity," Baran says, and although she keeps her tone light, Trinity knows by now not to test her on duty. She follows behind her and lets herself be ushered into a nearby exam room.

Trinity realizes that the Baran she’s following is not the fun Baran who drinks wine with her after returning home from work while Trinity babysits Farouk all day, the one who lets her guard down and carefully helps blurring the line between professional and romantic.

This Baran is the not-so-fun Dr. Robot Al-Hashimi who tends to have a stick up her butt. Greeaat.

"When exactly did this start?" Baran asks, applying hand sanitizer to her hands on instinct and gloving up.

"This morning. I woke up and my tonsils felt huge. I did a saltwater rinse and it got better though. Now I just have a runny nose, headache, and I've been holding back my coughs for the last two hours." Trinity sighs, using the step stool hop up on the exam table.

"My money's on the flu." Baran remarks, "May I?" She asks, waiting for permission before touching Trinity. Trinity nods her permission and tries not to groan while Baran massages the area around her sinuses.

She takes her vitals next. "102.1- Santos!" Dr. Al-Hashimi scolds, as if Trinity could control her own temperature. Trinity winces, "I'm sorry! I took some ibuprofen earlier and Robby's stupid nose spray- I probably can't feel how bad it actually is." She explains.

Baran doesn't seem amused but she lets the issue drop, "Hold out your tongue." She orders, moving to swab the back of Trinity's throat. She also does a COVID test just to be safe.

Trinity tries to hold it in, but lets out a sickly sounding cough, which prompts Baran to check her lungs. She winces at the crackling she can hear in Trinity’s right lower lung. The older woman finishes quickly before telling Trinity to sit tight while she submits the tests to the lab, leaving Trinity to her own devices.

While she’s gone Trinity takes the opportunity to doze.

—

When she wakes up again, Trinity blinks open her eyes to two slightly familiar figures are standing over her wearing masks.

“Santos… Trinity? Are you awake?!” Emma chirps from behind her mask.

“Oh my god,” Trinity startles, then grabs her head because her body aches with the sudden movement. Is this how ET felt?

Baran stands beside Emma with her hands arms crossed. “Rhinovirus? Seriously Santos? You shouldn’t even be on the floor!” She starts up once she sees Trinity open her eyes.

Trinity shrinks back onto the bed, wondering briefly if feigning to fall back asleep would get her out of this one, but the look on Baran’s face suggests theres no way in hell.

Trinity shrugs, “Like I said, I didn’t think it was that bad. I don’t get sick.” She deflects.

“Until today.” Emma adds unhelpfully. Trinity tries not to glare at her.

“That’s why you ask one of the many capable doctors and nurses around you to check you out before you infect everyone in chairs. Did you even consider how bad it would be if a patient caught it or got an infection from their walking petrie dish of a doctor?!” Baran scolds her.

Okay. Fair. Trinity did not necessarily think about that. She has the good sense to look chastised, glancing down at her lap. “I’m sorry Dr. Al-Hashimi. I wasn’t thinking properly.”

Baran stares Trinity down for a few seconds before taking a deep breath and letting out a sigh. “Okay. Here’s what’s going to happen, you’re going to sit where while Emma sets up your nebulizer treatment while I prescribe you an inhaler and catch Dr. Abbot up. Then you and I are going to go home.”

Trinity nods, internally grateful Baran thought ahead to refill her inhaler considering her lower lungs are making a fun wheezing noise.

“Wait, why do I need to wait for Abbott? I have my car, I can just drive myself.” Trinity argues while Emma begins setting up the machine.

“Because you’re coming home with me.” Baran explains, a tight expression on her face as if Trinity hadn’t been listening before.

Trinity shakes her head, “You don’t need to do that. I can take care of this myself. Besides, what about the kid?”

“You’re a kid too.” Baran says pointedly. “One who decided she was fit enough to come to work today and her, also a doctor, roommate let her! Sorry I’m not convinced.” She argues.

Trinity grumbles at that, but reluctantly accepts the face mask from Emma, who removes herself from the room the moment she is no longer physically needed. She doesn’t put the face mask on but she holds it up to her face.

“Feel better Santos,” Emma says cheerily out the door, Baran following behind her while also telling her to “stay put” like a dog.

Trinity rolls her eyes petulantly like a child.

Fifteen minutes later a sheepish looking Dennis enters with her backpack slung over his shoulder, her gray UCLA hoodie and blue steel water bottle dangling from his hands.

“I got this for you,” he says, placing it all in a pile on the visitor chair in the corner of the room.

“What, did Baran look up my locker combination now?” Trinity huffs, but Dennis seems confused by her statement.

“Dr. Al-Hashimi? No… no Dr. Garcia approached me after a trauma we ran and gave me the combo. She said you were going home.”

Thats too much conflicting and equally confusing information for Trinity’s sick brain so she drops it.

“This is so stupid. They should just admit me, I could just sleep here.” Trinity groans kicking her feet while still holding the mask that was spitting the breathing treatment.

Dennis shook his head, “You’d be lowest priority. They might even make you wait in chairs.” They both shivered at that thought.

“So are you going with Dr. Al-Hashimi? Or..- Because she was saying that she could let you recover in her guest bedroom. I’m working tomorrow too and I really can’t get sick right now.”

His residency had really picked up the pace now that Robby was back.

“Fine. Enjoy the germ free apartment Huckleberry,” Trinity relents, tossing him the spare set of keys in her side pocket.

Dennis stays until her treatment ends, by then Baran has returned with Trinity’s prescription and having just finished catching Abbott up to speed.

She lets Trinity keep her dignity by letting her walk out of the ED without a wheelchair or much of a scene.

The instant they’re outside of the Ambulance Bay Baran takes it upon herself to guide Trinity to the parking deck with her hand against the small of her back.

Secretly Trinity is grateful for her attendings’ kindness because she is feeling a little light headed.

Trinity collapses into the passenger seat, which is already modified to Trinity’s preference. She was the only other person besides Farouk who was regularly in her car.

Sometimes they took him on little trips to different museums. It was something Baran always clarified she could do herself, but that she was happy to have Trinity come along.

Trinity knows her presence is also helpful with child-rearing a quick witted but stubborn 7 year old with an adventurous streak like his mother.

Trinity sees a flash of Baran’s phone when it buzzes while she’s starting the car.

Baran’s CarPlay announces the arrival of the text from an unknown number. Baran looks down and takes a moment to respond when Trinity realizes she’s also gotten a text message.

From: 🌶️💃 Yolanda (DO NOT TEXT. DRUNK TRINITY IF YOU ARE READING THIS GO TO BED)

Hey 👋 Farmer Brown just updated me. I hope this isn’t too weird but let me know if you need anything. Feel better

Why? Why of all days would Yolanda be trying to contact Trinity when she feels like there’s an Anvil pressing down on top of her bead.

She’d run out of fingers if she tried to count exactly how many times she tried to run away from home before she was even in middle school.

And then she realized she wouldn’t get very far until she learned to drive, so she made do with long walks down a nearby golf course she heard the highschoolers used to make out.

Most of the people in her life don’t notice this habit, but those close to her do, and they have varying opinions about it.

Sometimes they think it is funny, like when they lose her in the middle of the club and find her across the street at a late-night pizza place.

Sometimes they think it’s cute, like when Baran finds her decompressing in a nearby storage closet staring at the same lavalamp screen Mel uses to calm down. Trinity swears her to secrecy over it. She likes Mel, they’re sort of friends, but she would never hear the end of it from everyone else.

But the people who lover her also constantly challenge her autonomy, because when Trinity needs a break the last thing they want is for her to run away.

Dennis makes her swear that she’ll keep her location on her phone, and refuses to go to bed until he knows Trinity is safe and sound.

Baran goes a step further and “accidentally” leaves an AirTag in her car.

Yolanda threatens to slash her tires if she says she wants to go for a drive and its already past midnight. When Trinity says she’ll just go for a walk then, Yolanda puts her foot down because somehow thats worse.

But she just can’t help it. Her brain doesn’t like to turn off until she’s hightailing it in the opposite direction.

Some people have their best thoughts in the shower, Trinity has her best thoughts flying down the interstate on cruise control.

She drives and drives, never knowing where she’s driving to, but she always knows when she finds it.

After the first couple incidents of running away and royally pissing off the people who love her, Trinity started to at least take pictures when she gets to her destination.

Flowers off the side of the highway, a random ice cream shop in the middle of nowhere, the welcome sign to a national park.

One night she can feel it coming on so she doesn’t go home with Baran or Yolanda in an effort to not have to explain herself.

She waits a reasonable amount of time after Whitaker has gone to bed before slipping out of the apartment and into her car.

The only thing she wasn’t expecting when she got in the car was for Baran and Yolanda to be sleeping in her backseat.

“How’d you even get in here?!” Trinity demanded. Yolanda sleepily holds up her spare key, as if that explains anything.

“Look, we don’t want you going off alone to who knows where. Let us stay with you.”

“We won’t make a sound Azizam,” Baran adds helpfully.

Trinity has half a mind to drive to Baran’s house and kick them out. But she doesn’t do that. Instead she lets them stay on the condition that they do not interrupt.

She drives them out of the city and past all the suburbs. The radio plays through a random shuffle softly and they ride in silence. Trinity tries to put it out of her mind but she can still feel their eyes on her and hear their soft whispers in the back. At some point Trinity pulls off the interstate and directs them to a trailhead with a parking lot.

They get out and start walking the trail, using their phone flashlights to see in the dark.

“Where even are we?” Yolanda breaks through the silence in demand after they’ve walked for almost fifteen minutes. It makes Trinity smile, she knows her girlfriend doesn’t like the suspense of not knowing.

“This random barista told me about this place when I moved here. I missed nature and trees. Apparently he grew up around here and suggested I visit.” Trinity explains.

“So you just walk around the woods in the middle of the night?” Baran asks.

“I don’t always come here,” Trinity says, a little defensive, “and we’re not even at our location yet. You’ll see.”

Baran reaches out to hold Trinity’s hand, “I just worry, I’m sorry.” Trinity squeezes her hand to let her know its okay. She just needs to keep going.

The land grows steep the longer they walk, until their legs are burning with the incline. In the distance a large wooden tower appears and grows closer and closer until their at its base.

They come to a stop at the rickety staircase leading up into the structure and peer upwards.

“I promise the climb isn’t so bad,” Trinity tells them, beginning the climb before Yolanda can say something sarcastic or Baran can worry about their safety.

They climb and climb until they reach the top around 100 ft into the air. She leads them up into the crows nest, and settles along the railing.

All at once Trinity starts to feel better, gazing out into the forest. Baran and Yolanda flank either side of her, their presence comforting.

“Its so beautiful,” Baran breathes, tilting her head to rest it on Trinity’s shoulders. The sun isn’t quite ready to come out yet, but the sky has grown brighter and some birds in the distance have started to chirp.

“It is.” Trinity agrees, cocking her head. “I was always going to take you both here one day.” She clarifies. “I like this spot. It helps me think.”

“When I reach the summit of the mountain, all the other peaks feel small in comparison.” Yolanda quotes beside her, and then flushes, “That’s- uh what my Grandfather used to say.” She says, scratching the back of her neck awkwardly.

Trinity knocks her arm into Yolanda’s, “No.. its.. its true.” she reassures her.

The skies continue to lighten until theres a faint yellow far off in the distance. She’s happy here with her girls.

At the beginning of the drive she’d been sure that they would somehow make the experience worse.