She’s not expecting it -- standing in the supply closet, she’s just looking for spare tubing for an IV line, but then there’s hands on her hips and she startles, gasping. But she turns in their grasp and lets out a soft sigh when she sees Jack’s rather shit-eating grin, her heart still racing even as relief surges through her. He’s close enough for her to let her forehead rest against his, exhaustion making her shoulders sag. Could anyone burst into the supply closet and spot the two of them in a relatively compromising position? Yes. Does she care at the moment? Absolutely not.

“I need this,” Samira murmurs, letting her eyes fall closed for a moment as she brings her hands up to rest on his biceps. “Needed you.” It’s disorienting to her, feeling her world shift the more wrapped up with him she gets, the way he’s rearranged her life -- or… made her rearrange things herself. Made her see that she can be vulnerable with someone and they won’t think she’s too much, or not enough.

There was a reason she hadn’t gone into pediatrics -- cases with kids were the worst. Seeing them hurt was always awful, but there were some worse than others. Tonight was just one of those nights -- Samira’s pulling a double to cover for Ellis, and after the kid that just came in and didn’t make it, she’s considering cashing in on that IOU sooner rather than later. Five minutes, she thinks as she stands in the women’s bathroom, squeezing her eyes closed before splashing water on her face just as the door opens. 

The door to the break room swings open and Samira glances up from her phone, offering Frank a small smile. “Hey, Langdon… sorry I didn’t get a chance to say much the other day, but it is good to have you back.” Samira still feels guilty that she didn’t reach out after finding out the disappearance was due to rehab, but she wasn’t sure how welcome it would be, how he would feel about it.

It’s been two months since the start of the semester, since she and Jack had been paired up as lab partners for their clinical skills lab and have since become study buddies. It’s become a routine they’ve fallen into -- late nights up studying, prepping, practicing, deciding who gets to order take out or coffee. Samira, for as busy as they are, actually enjoys it.

It may also be your massive crush on him, she thinks as her gaze falls on where he’s hunched over his own notes, and Samira snickers to herself when she’s pretty sure she hears what sounds curiously like a quiet snore.