@rabbit-bitxh liked for a starter
The emergency department moves around him in the same controlled chaos every trauma center seems to share, but John's attention keeps drifting to the same attending. He'd recognized the name on the schedule before he'd ever seen the face. Then he'd looked up from his tablet that morning and felt the air leave his lungs. Since then, he'd caught himself watching from across the department more times than he cared to admit, picking up little things without meaning to—the way Robby spoke to patients, the dry humor with the nurses, the habit of rubbing the back of his neck while thinking through a case. Every observation made the knot in his stomach a little tighter. By the time he finally spotted him alone outside a patient room, he realized if he didn't walk over now, he probably never would.
Taking one steadying breath, John crossed the hall before he could talk himself out of it. He stopped just short of the attending, offering the polite, slightly uncertain smile that had carried him through countless first days.
"Dr. Robinavitch?" he began, shifting the tablet beneath his arm. "I'm John Carter... the resident." His fingers tightened almost imperceptibly around the edge of the tablet before he continued. "I know this is probably a strange question, but..." He hesitated, searching Robby's face for something he couldn't quite name. "...do you have a minute?"
