Frank frowns, hands Robby his glass and calls over the music: “This is ginger ale!”

Robby looks him over “You’re not drunk?”

“No. Why?”

“Oh no nothing, carry on.” He hands him his glass back and leaves him to it.

Langdon looks at Santos. “Do I look drunk?”

Frank needs to get to his kids. Mel needs to get to Becca.

All they have time for is one horrendously short hug that ends with Frank pressing a kiss to her forehead before they have to let go and run for their lives, not knowing if they’ll ever see each other again.

Against all odds, they do end up meeting again in some military compound in Canada where Mel has been acting as a medic since she and Becca got there. She's on duty when Frank emerges from the distant tree line, looking half dead, carrying only Penny. The guards are ready to shoot him on sight because he looks so unwell, but Mel still recognises him in a heartbeat, and thank fuck her word counts for something and they agree to let him into one of the quarantine rooms (the potential pay-off of having another skilled emergency medic on staff if he makes it is doing the heavy lifting here).

Mel has to come see him in a bite-proof hazmat suit and still it’s the best embrace of their lives. He’s a sack of bones, every scrap of food he could find went to Penny, who is looking healthy but obviously traumatised.

She knows is not professional but she’s not being overly rude she thinks to herself, she’s just not working with him as much as she’s used to and when does have to she’s professional.

He notices this and tries to figure out why she won’t talk to him.

My question is this, does he corner her to find out what’s going on the same day she’s icing him out or gives it a few days to see if she changes her attitude towards him?

Or does he just give up and go to the roof cause he doesn’t want to be in a world where Mel King is mad at him? (Lol jk on this option)

That's a good question, and I'm sorry it took me so long to answer.

I genuinely don't think these two have the necessary chill for any sort of silent treatment. Langdon already couldn't stand it when she was slightly unhappy with the Becca situation and immediately stuck by her. He couldn't stand her not talking to him. They're both such overexplainers who desperately need to be understood that I can't imagine any icing out lasting for more than the hour or so it might take to reconvene in the ambulance bay to talk it out.

I can't help comparing them to Dr. Greene and Dr. Lewis in S1 of ER, who have the same seniority gap Frank and Mel have in S1. Because they have several conflicts and a few very solid cold shoulder moments, because they're primarily friends, but the job gets in the way.

Some of the things they have disagreements/hurt feelings about include:

You didn't back me/my treatment approach in the case review

You told our attending I have trouble asserting myself against aggressive male doctors

You didn't tell me our attending asked you to sign off on all my cases/referrals while I'm under review

And honestly some of this could happen for Mel and Frank, but even with just two days of rapport they're incredibly communicative. Where Susan and Mark have the settled chill of a much calmer setting (though still stressful) to take their feelings away and process, Mel and Frank don't have that. To be fair, some of these things also might not come up. I don't think for a second Frank would tell an attending something he hadn't addressed with Mel first (i.e., she'll never hear something Langdon has to say about her from Robby and not Langdon first), and I think with her being his only doctor friend, he'll have trouble not telling her admin stuff he knows (especially now their seniority gap is reduced).

Someone’s coming in via helicopter? “You two, get on the roof.”

Triage is going too slow? “Langdon, grab Mel, Lupe says triage needs back-up!”

After the first night of sleeping over he’s so glad he didn’t say anything, because it turns out he loves the feeling of her gentle fingers on his scalp, caressing and massaging the tender skin, combing through his hair affectionately.

Robby doesn’t seem to like him very much though, because when he says “I can start the STEMI with Mel”, Robby says “Collins can start the STEMI with Mel.”

He keeps showing Mel where things are and floats diagnostic suggestions on some patients. She reads his name tag at one point. Dr. Frank Langdon, Senior Resident. How odd, Mel thinks, that he wasn’t introduced like Collins was. Maybe he’s from the night shift and just helping out or pulling a double. She doesn’t really question it. Langdon is so nice though, tells her she’s making a great first impression, sitting with her in the break room and telling her she’s needed here.

“Have you seen Dr. Langdon?” She asks Trinity when she doesn’t see him for a while.

“Who?”

Mel describes him, but Trinity must not have worked with him. Too bad, she hopes to see him again soon. And she does, periodically. His schedule seems to be erratic though. And Mel can’t find his initials on the shift schedule, which is weird. Maybe he’s freelance and just helps out?

When she hears his name from Dana at the hub she zeroes in on the conversation. “What about Dr. Langdon?”

Dana looks at her all sad. “His wife decided to turn off his life support.”

“What? What happened?”

“Nothing. He’s just not getting better and the bills are mounting. Such a shame.”

“No I mean— was he in an accident?”

And Dana tells her kind of. He overdosed about a month before Mel’s first day, had a horrible seizure and hasn’t woken up since.

None of it makes sense. Mel drifts up to the third floor and finds the man who has been teaching her so much since her first day lying in bed, pale, sunken in. It’s undeniably him. She talked to him so much. But now that she’s thinking about it, he never seemed to talk to anyone else much.

“Dr. Langdon?” She sits down at the side of the bed, takes his cold hand in hers.

“I’m sorry. I didn’t know what to say.”

She looks up to see him standing there in scrubs.

“What’s happening to you?”

He licks his lips. “I… I can’t go back. I fucked it all up.”

Mel tells him that she’s sure his wife wants him back, tells him about the situation but he shakes his head. Abby hates him, and he probably lost his shot at being a doctor with his overdose. There’s no life for him now. Not after what he put everyone through.

“I really don’t want you to go.” Mel’s eyes are tearing up. “You never let me down. You’re not even really there and you’re still the best part of this hospital. Please can’t we try to find a way? You can always give up later. I can’t believe you’d linger like this if you weren’t meant to be here.”

He’s scared. But a part of him wants to live. He just can’t stand how hard it is.

“If I try this… Mel… I need you.”

“I’ll be there every day.”

And though he looks terrified, he reaches for his own body. A minute later, he starts showing signs of waking up. Mel helps the nurses with his care, stays through all the long phases of semi-wakefulness until Frank is fully back.

“I didn’t dream you,” is the first coherent thing he says.

“I’m right here.”

Mel leaves when Abby Langdon arrives, and she doesn’t see Frank again for a few days, not until the charge desk phone rings and a surprised Dana exclaims “Langdon, as I live and breathe, how are you kid? … that’s good. Oh? Yeah she’s here.” And Dana hands her the phone.