Another popewhit thought: dennis who is good with the more aggressive patients bc he has years of experience from treating the cody boys who were never good patients even if they had luxuries of proper equipment and a hospital room.
He mentions of handedly one time about this experience, maybe he mentions the cody surname, so everyone gets real fucking nervous when an andrew cody comes through triage needing stitches. Dennis volunteers to take him despite protests, and some of the staff are anxiously waiting for a code hula hoop or for dennis to come out w bruises (bc the kid is stubborn who knows if he will care about his personal safety) or in a bad mood.
An especially anxious dana pops her head in after a while, and, is relieved and confused to find everything is fine. Mr Cody seems like he’s being the perfect patient, only tensing slightly when he notices a new person, but is quickly soothed when Dennis mutters “it’s just Dana, I’ve told you about her, it’s okay.”
Dennis asks Dana to stay for the rest of treatment, needing someone to assist and saying Andrew doesn’t like new people too much.
And he clearly doesn’t, he’s quiet, doesn’t look at anything except Dennis and the floor, has to be nudged into taking some pain relief. Dana feels her throat tighten as the strange behaviour continues, waiting for the snap that never comes.
When they finish up and Dennis makes to leave, rattling of the care instructions, Mr Cody’s face crumples, tears quickly falling down his face as he cries at apologies to “Denny”, who is quick to reach out and comfort him, soft and reassuring, promising that everything is fine and that they can talk about it later.
Later, on a shared smoke break, Dana asks about his past violent experiences with “Cody’s”, and dennis explains, as vaguely as possible, that he was talking about andrews brother, making vague mention of getting caught up in some bad shit in college, but they’re both out now. Dana wants to press more, knows better not to, asking how long he’s known Andrew, how long theyve been together, reassuring dennis that shes not gonna get him in trouble for treating family, and gets a number higher than she expected.
Another time, months later, dennis will treat a violent patient, call hula hoop as he is supposed to, but be at ease with the situation in a way that sets dana on edge, that makes her ache for the kid and worry about what kinda shit he was involved in. Dennis will get sent home early, and Andrew will pick him up. Dana will tense at the sight of him, remembering Cody’s have hurt Dennis before, that they made him familiar with violence. Dana will see the tense and angry look on Andrews face as he glares towards where the patient is, see that expression soften as he turns to Dennis and cradles his face, muttering softly, being oh so careful as he leads him out of the hospital, and she will let out a breath of relief.