the pitt hyperfixation

And when she sees Dennis on his first day getting pets and letting Robby guide him around and scruff a hand through his ears and genuinely leaning into it and looking up at him with his big puppy dog eyes she feels that familiar tug in her stomach, a big hurling conflict of emotion where she wants to protect him, and screw her nose up in disgust at him, and snap at him, and curl her tail up around him, and keep that smile on his face, and shout at him for being naive enough to smile in the first place. So she works through those emotions the best she can and what comes out is a bitchy little comment about him killing his patient. And her heart constricts at his face and the way his ears droop back, and she doubles the fuck down, even if she wants to hiss at herself. 

But Dennis keeps trudging on and his little ears keep perking up and his tail keeps wagging and Trinity wants to be annoyed but she’s kinda endeared to this little gay freak. So it’s an easy decision to follow him and an easier one to offer him her guest room. 

Dennis is ridiculous most of the time. His stupid lumbering tail that hits her when it wags, and the way he scarfs down her avocados, and his little yips of excitement that are sometimes so high pitched they make her ears twitch, and the fur that sheds from his tail he leaves everywhere and the fucking- the time he chewed her fucking blanket edge ragging it around in his mouth with low little growls. (She’d scrunched her nose up at that, but Dennis had just shrugged, completely unashamed and said that he needed to let some energy out. “What’s next?” She’d snorted, “am I gonna have to take you to the park and throw a ball?” And Dennis had waited a beat and said: ”Would you?”)

But Dennis is also smart. Whether she wants to be seen or not, he sees her. And he doesn’t try and touch her once. He doesn’t head but her or get her to pet his ears or bound up to her and flop over her lap. He’s careful and cautious without making it a big deal. (Sometimes she wishes he would make it a big deal so she could hate him for it and cement her choice to push him away, even though she wants to pet him.) 

Then one day after Garcia had blown her off again, she mopes home and sees Dennis sat there on the sofa, spooning out some avocado with a teaspoon like a fucking freak, and she doesn’t even think she just curls up next to him and wraps her tail over her hip and his stomach, and Dennis freezes. She tenses a little, and he yips excitedly and goes to cuddle her but she hisses. Then flushes. Then apologises. But Dennis just laughs and asks if she wants some avocado. “Do I want your fucking spit covered janky ass avocado on a teaspoon? No ew. Gross you freak. Gimme the remote. You owe me like, five of these green fucks by the way.” And she stays there while they binge watch greys anatomy. 

Theres always been a disconnect between her mind and her body. She wants the affection, craves it almost, but it’s so much harder to take that step and allow herself the casual comfort. People make it harder than it needs to be too- but Dennis? Dennis never makes it hard. He takes it in his stride and lets her be the one to progress them from her sitting close, to touching his ears, to his tail around her too, to her gentle hesitant stunted purrs. Before she knows it they’ve reached this point of flopping on each other, tangling their tails in cuddles. 

Sometimes, even in this new space they’ve found themselves in, Dennis will go to reach for her and she’ll feel a stunted hiss come out of her mouth, but instead of being annoyed or treating her like kid gloves, Dennis will smile, or laugh, or call her grouchy, and wait for her to come to him. 

But sometimes it’s just easy. Sometimes, Dennis will come back from a shift and the baking heat of the summer evening is filtering in through the window and casting a long line of golden rays across the floor, and Trinity feels no shame now, about how she’s arranged the blankets and has curled up over them in the sun, the tips of her ears warmed and her tail flicking contentedly as she listens softly to No Doubt on her speaker. And when Dennis comes back from the shower his’ tail is wagging a little behind him as he steps closer. She rolls her eyes and does a quick flick of her head and Dennis bounds over, messing up her blankets as he shuffles closer and squirms in excitement. “You’re such a fucking huckleberry. Settle down idiot.” And Dennis laughs, pressing his head against hers and rubbing their ears together. “Let me nap.” She protests and Dennis whines. “But you nap all the time and I need to tell you about Jack.” Trinity laughs around her purr, “fuck off not even Abbot, he’s Jack now is he? Moving on from Robby already?” 

Moving in with Robby and Jack had not changed this fact, much to the older men's dismay.

Robby slept like the dead. He had three alarms on his phone spread out across fifteen minutes plus a last resort alarm clock for work days to make sure he was up in time to get to the Pitt. Sure, he had trouble falling asleep most nights, but once he was out? He’d probably sleep through a tornado (and had slept through most of a hurricane back during his residency in New Orleans).

Jack, like Dennis, was a man of routine. The military had given him a framework for his days, and he found that even after he got out that framework was beneficial for his life. The only problem for Jack was that his routine revolved around working 7pm to 7am, which was not exactly conducive to switching to a normal circadian rhythm on his days off.

All of that to say, there weren't many mornings where the three of them woke up together. Normally it was Dennis getting up and making coffee, with Robby following about an hour or so later. Jack would join them as soon as the smell of breakfast hit his nose; the man was a bloodhound when it came to Robby’s shakshuka. It wasn't necessarily a bad thing to wake up staggered like that, but both Robby and Jack had lamented being able to spend the morning hours in bed together - back before the world had caught up to them.

The two older men got their wish one morning after a night of what Dennis had deemed “corrupting a sweet innocent Nebraskan farm boy” and Jack had called “a normal Friday evening”.

Jack woke up, slightly sore and needing to piss like a racehorse. It was still mostly dark outside, the first rays of the morning sun just barely seeping over the horizon, as Jack extricated himself from the mess of tangled limbs that were Dennis and Robby. Thankfully, he’d had half a mind to put his crutches back in their spot next to the bed before their… activities the night before. He grabbed them and in a practiced motion, made his way to the en suite as quietly as possible.

When Jack exited the bathroom, he was disappointed to see Dennis sitting up in bed, his phone lighting up his face as he rubbed his eyes.

“What’re you doin’ up?” Dennis slurred softly, still half asleep.

Jack set his crutches back against the bedside table and sat down to rearrange his pillows before laying back down.

“Just had to piss,” he replied, “You should go back to bed. S’too early for us to be awake.”

As if to demonstrate Jack’s point, Dennis yawned, which in turn made Jack yawn too.

“That means we’re connected,” Dennis smirked, before shifting towards the edge of the bed. "I think I'm going to go for a run while it's still cool out-"

Jack shook his head and grabbed the younger man’s phone from his hands, putting it away on the side table. With his phone safely out of the way, Jack hauled Dennis down to him so that his back was against Jack’s chest. Robby barely stirred at the movement, a single snore rumbling through his throat that made Jack and Dennis pause momentarily.

“S'too early. Go back to bed, pup,” Jack whispered, one of his hands wrapping around the younger man’s hip and the other threading its way through Dennis’s curls.

Jack felt the tension melt from Dennis’s shoulder the moment his fingers sunk into Dennis’s hair. Dennis liked his hair played with, even if he refused to admit it. He liked the subtle pull as Jack gently untangled the knots that formed as he slept, the dull scratch of his blunt nails across his scalp. Jack loved the way Dennis’s soft hair glided through his fingers; loved being able to smell his curl products in their boy’s hair.

It wasn't long before Dennis’s breathing evened out. Jack smiled to himself as the first beam of sunlight crossed the hardwood floors of their room. He tucked his head against Dennis's back and sighed. If he was lucky, the next time he woke, Dennis and Robby would still be in bed.