loverboy — jack abbot x f!midwife!reader
Eleven hours deep into what was supposed to be a relatively short shift, you were well past being dead on your feet; it had spread to your aching lower back and your fingers which shook from too much caffeine. Apparently, it even made its way to your eyes because an unrecognisable silver fox belonging to the ED—the black scrubs gave that away for you—was beelining for the nurse's desk against which you'd been slouching for the last seven and a half minutes.
"Hey," Even his voice was hot, a low rasp that told you you weren't, in fact, hallucinating this gorgeous man.
"Hi," you uttered, eyes clinging to his despite your desire to let them drag over his chest, hugged by the dark scrub top he sported, the very top which seemed almost to have fused with his bulging, freckled biceps. You stood up a little straighter, shifting on your feet.
"Hi.." watching his lips curve in a slow smile, you willed your cheeks not to flush and your ears not to burn as he took you in, skimming a heavy hazel gaze over your form.
Suddenly, you felt ever so foolish for not taking a few extra minutes in the toilet to redo the messy bun your hair was in, or top up on your butter cream lip gloss with the hopes of relieving them of their chapped roughness.
"Um.." he blinked himself back to a conscious enough form upon realising he'd been staring, having found himself quite enjoying the soft dusting of pink over your cheeks, the small smudge of brown at the corner of your eye, which he couldn't decipher to be eyeliner or mascara. "Uh, a woman was sent up for an emergency C-section.. couple hours ago... Just hoped I could check in."
"I think it was Maria... something."
"That's it," he nodded, a grateful look passing over him as he watched you recall her without so much as a glance at a chart needed. "How.. are they?"
"She's doing okay, resting right now. The boys are good, too," you inform him gently, watching his brows ease slightly, his shoulders drop somewhat. Still, he lingered, and you gathered it wasn't much to admire the utter disaster that was you after working three hours' overtime. You offered swiftly, watching him tug the drawstring of his scrub trousers: "Would you like to see them?"
Eyes jumping up to yours, a wide grin split his features as he nodded swiftly. "Is that okay?"
"Course. C'mon, nursery's just down this way."
The two of you stopped on the outside of the thick glass and you watched his eyes jolt over the rows of small cribs, smiling slightly as you pointed them out. "There they are.. Jim and Rick."
Following the direction of your finger, Jack set eyes on the twins, bundled up and sleeping soundly, their two cribs ever so slightly closer than the rest. Then his brow quirked, as if your words had finally registered, and he turned his eyes back on you.
"Uh.. she's not named them yet... sometimes I just... make them up myself, it's dumb and probably really unprofessional..."
"I don't think so," he uttered. "I'm Jack, by the way. Abbot."
"Jack By The Way Abbot," you mused through a breath of a laugh, the best you could muster in your exhaustion. He chuckled a husky thing and you gave your own name, watched him take a moment as if to file it away mentally before casting his eyes back into the nursery. "Do you.. have any of your own?"
"Mm. Two girls that run rings around me."
"Yeah.. wish I could just stop 'em growing though. There's only so many things a single dad can do to entertain his little divas."
The laugh that fell from you was a little richer now and you told yourself it was most definitely not due to the fact you'd not even had to pry to discover there was no woman in the picture of his family, not that it was your concern anyway.
"Oh yeah. I mean, they're angels, really, but they sure know how to get what they want out of me."
"Well that's a girl's specialty, getting daddy's love."
Jack chuckled at that, shaking his head and very intently looking through the glass as he tried his utter hardest not to consider the fact you'd just inadvertently called him daddy.
Before you could realise the same, and apologise profusely and only embarrass yourself even more, the blaring of his pager cut the train of thought that had him wondering whether you would call him that same thing in a very different context. Cursing quietly, he shut it off instantly so as not to disturb the peaceful babies on the other side of the glass and sent you an apologetic look, sighing, "Back to it."
"Yeah. You- um, you can come up any time.. for the babies."
"Maybe I will. For the babies."
"Okay. Good luck with the.. the emergency."
Rumbling out a low laugh, he rounded you with a nod and headed swiftly for the nearest elevator, leaving you to bury your face in your palms and curse your motormouth and your caffeine-worn brain for all of five seconds before a fellow midwife and your closest friend, Kailah, trotted up to you.
The smirk was evident even in just her voice as she wrenched your hands away from your face and beamed at you, demanding, "Who's the DILF?"
"Shut up, you know it's true."
"I know it's unprofessional, and I know HR would beat your ass if they heard you say it."
"Pfft, they could try," she shrugged, grinning as she led you back to the nurse's desk to busy herself with a chart. After a short while, she shot her head up and huffed, "You're seriously not going to tell me?"
"Oh, don't act all offended."
"Act? Act?! Baby, I am offended! He's from downstairs, right?"
"Ugh, you're such a hog. What did you guys talk about?"
"Seriously. He treated Maria before they sent her up, wanted to check on the twins."
"Those twins.." she nodded down the hall to the nursery before whipping her head back and nodding down to your chest, "or those twins?"
"Fuck off," you laughed, shaking your head quickly. "He is not into me."
"Uh huh. He's totally into you. I can sense these things, you know."
"Sure you can," you conceded with a sigh, watching her drop her head to fill out the rest of the chart as she muttered something about you spoiling all of her fun. Seeing your window, you didn't hesitate to take it, drifting back away from the desk as you mused, "Yeah yeah, try saying that again when I come back with your strawberry matcha."
"She says, like it's not an excuse to catch up to Dr Sexy."
"You're incorrigible, truly."
"Ha! I don't even know what that means sooo I win!"
"It means you're a loser with far too much time on her hands and her head up her ass," you teased through a laugh, ignoring her gasp of mock offence as you retreated to the stairwell.
Meanwhile, down in the ED, a sort of giddiness had swollen Jack's heart, throbbing behind his ears and beneath his wrist and in his residual limb. He was fucked, well and truly. And that knowledge seemed to seep from him without his permission, Robby sidling up beside him wearing a shit-eating grin.
"So, who's the lucky girl?" the taller of the two taunted, extending his elbow to bat at his friend when he received no immediate reply.
"I won't respond to such an allegation."
"Allegation?" the laugh bubbled loudly from Robby, drawing a few nearby heads' attention. "Please, brother. Don't act like I don't know you. And don't you dare act like I'm stupid enough to let you worm your way out of this. Who is she?"
"I'm doing nothing," holding his hands up, Robby's floppy grin spread as he watched his friend continue to stare up at the board, avoiding eye contact ever so tellingly.
"You're meddling," Abbot grunted, holding his arms over his chest. "And I don't like it. In fact, it's making me uncomfortable. I may have to report you to HR."
"Robby. Stop it. Leave me alone."
"Says the man who is lingering in my ED."
"It's 7:15 and we've already done handover, so right now it's mine. And, you know, if you don't leave soon, I might just have to have Ahmad escort you out. You could technically be trespassing."
"Fuck you, that's not what trespassing is."
"It will be.. if you don't tell me who's kidnapped your heart."
"Stolen, then. No, no: heartnapped."
Rolling his eyes, the younger of the two huffed, "You're insane, my friend. Deluded. Way beyond repair."
"Alright Tweedledumb and Tweedledickface, can you quit the flirting? Some of us have to at least pretend to be busy around her," the sudden heavily-accented and much-appreciated interruption came from none other than Dana as she pushed her way between them to reach her station at the hub. Swiftly turning on her heel, she dealt a quick glare to Robby and set her eyes more gently on the other, "Abbot, honey, go home, ya look half-dead and I'm sure the girls would appreciate a hug."
"Yes ma'am," he nodded, casting Robby a smug look and giving him no time to further his teasing as he briskly headed for his office, grabbing his rucksack and pulling a thick old jumper over his head to negate the bitter cold of Pittsburgh in mid-Autumn.
By the time he'd made it out of the building, the ED was already abuzz with the news that their nightly attending was most sincerely lovestruck by a mystery woman. First, Robby had leaned over the counter to utter it oh so inconspicuously to Dana, who waved him off with some grumble about not being a gossip. Of course, Princess could not say the same as she lingered just close enough to hear the news herself while also remaining under a guise of innocence. From her it passed to Perlah, most naturally, at which point the Tagalog words were overheard by Trinity who told Dennis who told every person with their ears open enough to catch it.
If he thought he was fucked before, he was in for a whole new shitshow when he came back for the evening handover.
The looks were what gave his coworkers away; upon his return, Abbot had been eyed by every fucker who knew his name, which made up just about everyone. Robby was unusually talkative, rambling nonsensically throughout handover—that only served to further unsettle the shorter attending as he eyed his daytime counterpart suspiciously. "What did you do?"
"Me? Nothing. Nothing, nothing... I just need my bed."
"Right... okay," nodding slowly, Abbot watched him scurry away with all the grace of newborn Bambi, brows pinching as he watched him go.
"Back in the game, eh, old man?" Shen laughed, drawing his attending's attention as he plucked a tablet from the stack and used it as a holder for his Dunkin cup.
Snatching the cup off the device, Abbot pushed it back into the resident's hand, scowling at him, "What are you talking about? And why is everyone looking at me like I have two heads?"
"No reason," smirking devillishly, tapping the side of his cup, Shen retreated before his boss could go full-blown interrogation mode, laughing up to the ceiling as he went.
With an endless stream of cases and charts and curious glances and implicatory comments from his residents, the first three hours of the shift passed by for Abbot in what seemed to only be twenty minutes. Usually, such a swift start would be invited by the veteran, but the convoluted hints as to what the actual fuck was happening around him didn't seem to add up and his nerves seemed to have been put through a cheese grater.
Resorting to a last hitch, he followed Javadi, who'd taken up nights for the week, into the break room and effectively cornered her.
She nearly jumped out of her skin, turning away from the coffee machine to look at him like a deer in headlights. "I'm just.. making coffee.. Do you... want one?"
"Victoria. You know what I mean."
"Yes, you do. Come on," he'd lowered his voice, stalking closer until he was just a foot away, expectant eyes peering down at her, "it's okay, just tell me."
"Well, it's- s'only a rumour, I don't... like rumours, y'know? They're not even true! Usually.. Like- I mean, but so what if it is, right? So..."
"So... um-" gulping, she glanced quickly over his shoulder in want of an out, only to sigh heavily and stare down at her shoes as she conceded, rapid and quiet, "apparentlyyouhaveacrush."
"I- what?" he groaned, throwing his head back. "I'm going to kill him—actually, actually kill him, I swear to God."
"Michael Rashitovich, the messy-bearded, gangly fuckin'.. fucker.." the student doctor let out a long sigh as Abbot turned quickly, still rambling on his way to the door, "Stupid asshole, dickface, dumbfuck loser..."
Just as she thought herself free of his apparent wrath, he stopped in the doorway and shot a look over his shoulder, features softening minutely as he told, "Thank you for your honesty, Javadi."
"Why would he be avoiding you?" Kailah scoffed through her lunch—if it can even be called that at half past midnight. "He's not. I mean, come on, you know what it's like down there. It's chaos, it's hell on earth, it's-"
"Yes, I get the picture, thanks," you mumbled into your palm, the half-eaten pasta pot beside you glaring at you. You pushed it further away with your elbow, set your gaze back on her as you pierced the hole in your carton of apple juice. "I mean, maybe I came on too strong, maybe-"
"Baby, if I know you at all, and I most definitely do, then I can say with full certainty that you didn't come on too strong."
"Yeah.. probably not. I know I looked a mess, but... was I really that hideous?"
"Bitch please," her eyeroll seemed to reach the ceiling before she brought her gaze back down to your face, reaching over the table to pat your hand lovingly. "He's busy. And you're bored, and you know that makes you overthink. He's just busy."
Smiling, she nodded firmly. "I know. And you know what? If he is avoiding you, I'll go down there and whip him into shape myself."
"No, no, you won't. Don't.. do that. Ever. Please."
"For you, my love, I would do anything. I promise not to harm him until you give me the green light."
"Uh huh. Now finish that pasta, okay?"
"Yes, mom, Jesus.." you muttered, drawing it back in front of you and stabbing your fork into a piece.
For the rest of your lunch hour, you listened to Kailah's own romantic mishaps, the current topic being how truly impossible it was to find a one-night stand when your usual clubbing hours are spent pulling babies out of vaginas. The two of you had drifted up to the roof to share the last in your packet of Marlboro Gold's, sitting under the railing as you passed it back and forth.
"I think I'm going off men anyway," she huffed, dropping her chin onto the cold metal bar. "Like, girls are just so much sexier to me now."
"Log back into Hinge?" you offered, handing the cigarette back to her. "I'm sure there's loads of lovely ladies waiting for you to match them."
Shaking her head swiftly, she pouted, "No, I want a meet-cute, y'know the real authentic thing. Like you, with your dumb DILF downstairs."
Laughing, you countered, "I don't think it counts as a meet-cute if you're half asleep and barely functioning. And.. don't go crazy about this, but... I may have accidentally called him daddy?"
"Oh, you dirty girl," she cackled, throwing her hand back and stubbing out the cigarette. Pushing herself up off the ledge, she braced her weight with one hand on the railing, offering the other to you. Taking it, you stood as well and laughed softly as she fixated on your Freudian slip. "What did he say? Did he like it?"
"I mean, he didn't look offended, exactly. But it's not like I called him daddy properly, I just.. I don't know, it just slipped."
"Sure, and it's got nothing to do with your raging daddy issues and his massive biceps."
"Shut up," you laughed softly, letting her pull you back to the door to the stairway when it struck you. Gasping, you turned quickly, "Oh my God, what if that's why he's avoiding me? I totally turned him off!"
"Drama queen, you need to relax. He's not avoiding you, he's probably elbow-deep in someone's stomach right now. And maybe it's, like, a hard-to-get sort of thing, make you want it really bad before giving anything away."
"The man has two daughters, I don't think he's the gameplaying type," you sighed. "And if he is, I don't want it anyway."
"Preach. So it's settled: he's busy."
"You are terrible for my delusions."
Getting back down to the labour ward, Kailah's arms was looped in yours as you laughed your way back to the nurse's desk, each of you stilling to see Linda, the head of midwifery frowning at a busted ultrasound machine. Her head whipped up and she glanced between you both, calling your name before you could even pretend to be busy.
"Mm?" you hummed, eyes finding the sharp beads of hers that never ceased to frighten you, no matter how much you'd come to love her.
"I need you to go down to the ED, see if they have any spares knocking around," she said, kicking the wheel of the ultrasound to emphasise her point.
Cringing at the thought, you uttered, "Why me?"
"Because I said so. And because you could get away with murder with that look, they won't say no to you."
"And fetch coffee on your way up."
'Loverboy' had taken all of three minutes to become Abbot's new unofficial name. Of course, at the root of it was Santos, who'd come by to pick up Javadi and sang it on their way out. Shane and Cruz jumped at the opportunity to embarrass their attending and before he knew it, the nurses were either uttering it behind his back or saying it to his face.
A hair's breath away from losing his entire mind as he hovered around the hub, thankful for the lull that settled, Jack convinced himself cursed when the elevator dinged and Lena's head turned faster than he thought humanly possible. Naturally, his eyes followed hers.
You stepped off the elevator, your pink scrubs feeling all too telling in the sea of blacks and dark greys, anxious fingers pulling at the small teddy bear that was clipped onto your lanyard.
When your eyes at last trailed up from your Crocs, they found his.
"You're a long way from home, dear," Lena mused, finding her own remark much funnier than you could even consider it to be whilst shifting under his weighted gaze. Your eyes had already jolted away, and yet his remained glued to you. "How can I help ya?"
The words had you jumping out of your thoughts as your hands set on the desk between her body and your own, swallowing thickly before you squeaked, "Do you have a spare ultrasound going? One of ours is busted and-"
"Yeah," Jack rasped, eyes trained on yours over the charge nurse's head. "It's in Trauma Four."
"He can show you," Lena offered with a smile, glancing at the attending behind her and nodding towards the room while he seemed weirdly frozen by her suggestion. "Go on, Abbot, I'm sure she doesn't bite." Then, she turned back to you and winked, mused, "He doesn't either."
An awkward laugh fell from your lips as you let slip a "phew", cursing yourself for it moments later when he was walking and you were following.
Reaching the door, he held it open, stepping aside slightly to usher you in first. It shut behind him slowly when he finally let go.
"Funny.. seeing you here.." you uttered as you quickly crouched by the machine to give it a thorough overlook. Not that you didn't trust the Pitt's treatment of hospital property, rather.. it seemed easier than holding his gaze.
"Well, I do work here.." he chuckled, watched you fiddle with it briefly before standing and turning to face him again, your eyes slightly wide and your cheeks bright with a dusting of blush.
"No need to be," he smiled.
"Okay... uh... h- how are your girls?"
"Good. That- was that weird to ask?"
"Need some help with it?"
"Um," Yes, yes, yes, yes! "I should manage," you said with a slight smile, trying to repress your whore of a brain.
The elevator was apparently the quietest and hottest spot in the whole hospital. You ran your palm over the damp hairs falling down the back of your neck, a soft sigh leaving you and splitting the silence.
"Okay?" Jack held his weight on his left leg, one large hand still holding the side of the ultrasound machine as if it might run away or refuse to divide the two of you any longer.
"Yeah, yeah... I'm good," you nodded, and just a quick glance at him had you feeling a surge of confidence, earned or not. "But, you know, I think I've figured you out."
His heart stuttered and he battled to keep his expression calm, the only giveaway to the rush of inner panic that thrummed through his throat being the slight clench of his jaw. Easing it, he tilted his head, "Oh really?"
"Please, go ahead. I'm curious now."
"You just want to see the babies again,"
Half relief and half amusement, the laugh that escaped him was the gentlest thing he'd felt all day. He decided to evade both confirmation and denial, remarking swiftly in return, "Can you blame me?"
"Not at all," you were laughing quietly as well now as you found him in your periphery.
"How are they? Tim and Rick?"
"I forgive you. They're doing well, it's a bit of a struggle getting them to feed properly but.. I don't want to put too much pressure on Maria right now anyway. She's been through a lot."
"I think even if he does, he doesn't deserve to be a part of something so beautiful."
"Isn't that a little harsh?"
"No. He had his chance, wasted it."
"But those boys deserve a dad. And Maria deserves a.. partner, at least."
"That doesn't mean he deserves them."
"Maybe not," you nodded slowly. The elevator dinged and you were stepping out in unison behind the ultrasound. "You don't believe in second chances?"
"Depends on the situation, I suppose," he gave half a shrug and let you steer it while he supported the weight on his left side. "But he was her emergency contact and he didn't show. If it was my place to, I'd strongly advise her to never let him back in."
"I guess it's easier to think that when you're not a woman."
Quirking a brow, Jack lifted his eyes to cross with yours over the machine as a flurry of passing nurses had you both pausing in the hallway.
"It's drilled into us from a young age to rely on men, depend on them. And even when we can't, when they don't show.. we're told that the scraps are enough to get by on, so we'll put up with anything."
"Would you?" you froze for a moment at that, eyes wide as they shot up to his, before you were both pushing the machine again. "I'm sorry, that wasn't... I meant to say, you shouldn't. I- well, not that, I just..." he sighed heavily, shaking his head.
Shaking your head softly, you pushed through the haze his words had left you in and uttered, "It's okay. And.. thanks."
A silence settled. Stiff, a little awkward. It wasn't uncomfortable, per se, and it didn't have you itching to find an out as it might have with anyone else. But he didn't seem all too keen to tear it and you figured that meant you shouldn't say anything else.
"Thank you," was the next thing you said as he steered the ultrasound through a doorway, leaving it beside a wall.
"Sure," his nod was quick as he trained his eyes on his shoes. "Look, I'm sorry about-"
"No, it's fine, really. I wasn't trying to argue or anything-"
"I know. But what I said, that wasn't..."
"Okay.. I should get back down there."
"Yeah, of course. Um.. I'll see you."
author's note: deciding to leave this here because by god do i love free will! (aka i cba to write any more rn and itd probably be better as a multi-parter anyway)
i hope you enjoyed, if not seriously do not tell me unless you want to break my heart
i do have a little bit of a plan for part 2 but nothings properly structured or anything yet sooo itll be probably be a little while, sorry:(
im ngl i kinda love this pairing, lmk what you think!
