It doesn’t hit quite as hard yet as it will in the future because as of S2 she was still almost a stranger, a new friend whose first day with him had a 10 month incubation period under uncertain conditions, and he was still in desperate need to approval and assurance from more senior people, but give them one fucking normal week and he’ll be hooked on Mel telling him a case went well and he’s a good doctor.

I can’t wait to see them in S3, at which point he’ll have seen many instances of Mel having a normal day (riding in on her unicorn, thriving, rocking it with her patients, being cool under pressure which she always was), and I can just picture him planning his future around wherever she goes as much as he can. Not even in a romantic way, but in an “I can’t imagine doing thirty years of this without you” way. When she tells him she’s planning on staying in Pittsburgh if she can, he’s so relieved and it makes him pursue that attending spot with all he’s got, not just for himself but to also have a voice in a potential hiring process for her a year later.

I can see them a few years down the line, so relieved when the other comes in early because shit hit the fan, sharing that palpable relief because life just got easier now that the other is here.