#pittfics

summary: and what if god gave you a second chance? (aka you reunite with dennis whitaker after losing him the first time) wc: 1.3k other: audiologist! reader, afab! reader, reader and dennis became close in undergrad and lose contact and now here they are wow, this is my first fic in over 10 years bear with me <3

Having trouble hearing out of his left ear wasn’t even one of his top three concerns rushing out of his and Trin’s apartment that morning. He slept through his alarm, the freezer door had been left slightly ajar overnight, and he had to Uber to work because he missed the bus— 40 stupid bucks gone from his stupid bank account.

“Huckleberry!” He was walking away from the patient board, ready to see his next patient when Trinity grabs him by the shoulder.

“I’ve been trying to get your attention– are you okay?”

The concern touches him. But he really doesn't want to acknowledge his shitty morning any further, so he quickly apologizes and lies, saying he hasn’t had enough caffeine yet. It isn’t until he misses Dr. Al-Hashimi calling his name that he has to face the consequences of his choices.

“I want you to go to ENT and Audiology for follow-up, too, Dr. Whitaker,” Dr. Al-Hashimi says firmly. “I’m sure I don’t have to tell you that sudden hearing loss is an emergency– it’ll be quick. I already paged them, and they’re willing to see you now.”

Before he can protest, Dr. Al-Hashimi is already walking away. It’s not like they have any time to spare down here. But they’re already expecting him, so Dennis figures this will just be another thing to add to his shitty day.

But what he could not anticipate is you, standing right in front of him. Your features are different, less baby-faced, and your hair is longer, but it’s you.

“Dennis?” Your eyes widen at the sight of him. Suddenly, he’s twenty-one and looking at you like it’s the last time he’ll ever get to. You were undeniably beautiful back then. And now, you were just as distressingly beautiful, maybe even more so. Your badge displays your first and last name with Audiologist below it. His eyes jump to your left hand holding his patient folder, ring-less.

A knot in his heart unravels.

He says your name, a little breathless.

Without warning, you hug him, the squeal of delight you make turns his cheeks pink, his shitty morning long forgotten. He wraps his arms around you, holding you, and when you pull back to look at him, eyes shimmering in delight and disbelief, the desire he tucked away years ago rises up into his throat.

He wants to tell you that he did it– he went to medical school and became a doctor. But you seem to be taking him in already– his scrubs, his ID badge. And the awe on your face makes all of it worth it all over again. There’s a million other things he wants to tell you, ask you.

Did you really not marry him?

How’s your grandfather?

How did you end up here?

Are you happy?

But the reality of the situation hits you, and being the professional you are, you straighten up and tell him to follow you into the testing booth. He’s immensely grateful to see your toothy smile. Your last semester of undergrad, when you decided you were going to go through with returning to your hometown and marrying your then-fiancé, he couldn’t help but notice how your smile stopped meeting your eyes.

· · ─ ·✶· ─ · ·

“It’s what they want me to do, Den. I’m their only daughter. I can’t let them down like this,” You had confessed quietly, but stubbornly. Your eyes were glassy, and Dennis could tell you hadn’t been able to sleep.

You had met him in your last year of college. There were not many people enrolled in The Scripture As Literature English course. Including you and Dennis, it had been 7 people total. You learned that he was majoring in Theology to potentially become a pastor back home. Home was Broken Bow, Nebraska. Based on the way he described it, it reminded you of your own hometown, minus the farming: a small, conservative community that raised you with its calloused hands.

Your parents had set you up with a boy from another well-respected family, with the promise that they would support you and your schooling if you married him after graduation. He was nice enough, you gathered. You had gone on a handful of chaperoned dates with him, embarrassingly eager to fall in love. But once you realized that wasn’t going to happen, you had resigned yourself to your fateful duty. You could learn to love someone, right?

· · ─ ·✶· ─ · ·

“I woke up today, and everything just sounded muffled on my left side,” Dennis explains, sitting down in the chair. You try to ignore how handsome he is looking up at you like that with his wide blue eyes. And was that… a mullet?

“Any other symptoms? Like ringing or buzzing, dizziness or vertigo?” You ask instead, looking back at him attentively while you jot his answers down. Meanwhile, he's trying to not be distracted by how cute you look in your pink scrubs.

“I know y’all must be busy down in the ER, so I’ll make this quick, Dr. Whitaker.” You grin as you instruct him and set him up for the hearing test. “Press the button every time you hear the beep and repeat after me when I ask you to, okay?”

He watches you from the little window in the booth, noticing the confidence that radiates off of you when you're in your element. He likes hearing your calm and lovely voice through the headphones.

It goes by in a blip, and in the end, you identify some mild to moderate high-frequency sensorineural hearing loss in the left ear and adequate eardrum movement in both ears.

“I’m going to write everything in your report. Dr. Green is going to see you right now– it won’t take very long. I know they prescribed you Prednisone down in the ER, definitely finish that. But they might want to do the intratympanic steroid shots if there’s no improvement.”

You’re walking him back to another room, and the moment is ending too soon. Before he can ask you for your number, or whatever, to make sure he can see you after today, you stop a little short before reaching the doorway.

“I’m really glad to see you today,” you say, shyer now. It reminds him of when you first met, when you held yourself back in fear of saying too much. But Dennis had been too easy to talk to, kind and genuine in a way you weren’t used to. Fittingly enough, it had made you think he’d be a great pastor.

And now, here he is in front of you, an Emergency Medicine doctor. The pride that's been blooming in your chest wants to burst. But from your own experience, you have an inkling of what that must have meant for him–having to choose the hard thing, over and over again.

In that moment, you make a decision. You’re not going to lose him a second time.

“Can we swap numbers? I’d love to see you again.” You’re tugging your phone out of your pants pocket, letting yourself hope. Back then, you had been in no position to think of Dennis as anything other than your friend. At the very most, he was someone who made you think that God could be real.

It’s the easiest yes he’s given in a long time. You walk away, skin electric where your hand brushed up against his when he put the phone back into your hands, with Dennis Whitaker :) saved as your newest contact.