She Who Wears the Crown

When he wakes up from his medically induced coma, they realize he’s suffering from temporary partial memory loss

He knows he’s a doctor, he lives in Pittsburgh, yada yada. It’s just personal relationships that seem to be all scrambled in his head. He knows Jack, Dana seems familiar, everyone else is really fuzzy, but Dennis seems to be unusually prominent in his memories

People write it off as Dennis being the last person to talk to Robby before he rode off

Dennis, with his sacrificial savior complex and enormous crush on his boss, volunteers to take care of Robby. I mean, he already has the keys to the place, and Robby seems most comfortable with that idea

Dennis is changing his bandages, scolding the older man when he moves around too much, coaxing him to relax, and entertaining him when he gets bored

He's cooking nutritional meals, making sure Robby takes his medicine on time, going out on nature walks with him so he's not just cooped up inside

It suddenly clicks in Robby’s mind. This is his husband!

When Dennis is feeding Robby a bite of this new dessert he’s trying out, Robby thanks him by leaning over and pecking his lips, y’know, like a husband would do

Dennis lights up in a furious blush, making Robby confused as he stutters out an excuse and flees from the house

Robby noticed before that Dennis doesn’t have anything personal around his house; it’s all Robby’s

Robby is horrified to think that they’re in the middle of a separation, and the only reason why Dennis stuck around was guilt and some sort of misplaced obligation

Now Robby is on a mission to win back his husband and stop the divorce from happening

Dennis who can’t afford working hearing aids, so makes do with a pair he found on Facebook marketplace.

Dennis who favours one side significantly, to the point of being convinced that everyone knows (they don’t), and they all must hate him for being useless (they don’t know).

Dennis who uses these janky hearing aids despite constantly giving him a migraine, because he can’t let anything compromise his chances of being a doctor.

Dennis who completely understands that Abbott needs a break from his prosthetic, and is often the first to volunteer to cover his charting in the middle of the shift.

Dennis who cannot give himself allowances, because he’s not properly disabled; not like Abbot is anyway.

Dennis whose hearing loss is “self inflicted” and therefore needs to deal with the consequences of his actions (he was six).

Dennis who absolutely will not let himself have hearing breaks in the middle of a shift, no matter how much pain his ears are in.

Dennis who can’t take his aids out at night because he sleeps in shelters, and his hearing is the first line of defence against an attack.

Dennis who recognises the symptoms of an ear infection, but can’t afford antibiotics and the hospital cracked down on “borrowing” medicine.

Dennis who collapses mid shift after a particularly bad bout of vertigo.

Dennis who doesn’t really remember much after this because the floor was suddenly very, very close, and he was suddenly very, very cold.

…

Robby who sees Dennis pass out on shift.

Robby who curses these damn med students for drinking too much caffeine and not eating enough food.

Robby who walks over to Dennis and tries to rouse him.

Robby who thinks Dennis looks a little too out of it for it to just be low blood sugar.

Robby who touches Dennis and notices he’s ice cold.

Robby who holds Dennis as he starts seizing.

Robby who catches a glimpse of white in his ear, surrounded by red, angry tissue.

Robby who swears loudly and violently when he realises “god-fucking-dammit he’s deaf”.

Robby who curses every god he knows the name of (and he knows a lot) for putting Dennis in this situation.

…

Dennis who wakes up with a very stressed Robby next to him, saying words like “septic shock” and “septic encephalopathy” and “infection spread” and “potential brain damage”.

Robby who raises his voice in frustration, and Dennis who flinches imperceptibly.

Robby who drags Dennis to audiologist appointments and forces him to pick multiple different types of aids so he’ll be comfortable wherever.

Robby who pays for the new aids, but lets Dennis think insurance covers them.

Abbot who forces Dennis to take hearing breaks whenever he takes leg breaks because he’s “bored” and “needs company”.

Abbott who, for the first time in Dennis’ life, sits him down and teaches him the ASL he learnt from his vet friends.

Dennis, who when he formally attends ASL lessons, realises he’s been taught to swear like a sailor, and his vernacular is entirely comprised of military slang.

Dennis who doesn’t understand why Robby and Abbott are being so nice about being deaf, and explains all about how it was his fault that he lost his hearing (he was six).

Abbot who gives Robby a look, and signs him up for therapy the next day.

Dennis, who comes to the realisation that the factors surrounding his hearing loss are heavily consistent with signs of child abuse.

Robby, who can only hug Dennis as he breaks down, mourning the childhood he thought he had.

Abbot, who makes him hot cocoa when he wakes up from nightmares and rocks him back to sleep,

And Dennis.

one afternoon he'd walked into their living room to see dennis changing a light bulb for a fixture in one of their ceiling corners- but they had high ceilings, and the stepladder wasn't quite tall enough. and so dennis- beautiful, brainless dennis- had planted one foot on the top bar of the ladder that was meant to be held, and his other? resting against the wall itself to boost him high enough to change the bulb.

underneath him, given his horrific position on top of the stepladder, was fifteen feet of empty space followed by a hardwood floor. robby could actively feel the adrenaline pump through his veins as he locked eyes on his idiotic boyfriend teetering in the air. his heart seized and he gripped the doorframe for support, mind filling with visions of dennis slipping and falling, breaking his arms, legs, neck... the panic he felt was total.

he kept his voice as calm as possible.

"dennis... dennis get down from there. get down. right now. now, please dennis. down."

dennis, cool as a cucumber, turned his head and smiled at robby from up in the air.

"oh, hi robby! im just doing the light. I'll be down soon, just gotta screw this bad boy in."

robby wasn't playing this game today.

"no dennis. down. now. leave the light alone. it doesnt matter, please just fucking get down."

something about the raw fear in robby's voice made dennis's face fall and his eyes widen. oh. his boyfriend really looked terrified- he was pale as a sheet and sweating, grasping at the doorframe and tugging his hair in anxiety. he looked to be on the verge of tears. dennis got down.

the second his feet touched the floor, robby was on him, holding him tight and kissing his face like they'd been apart ten years. he held dennis so tight that the younger man's face was smushed into his chest and his lungs struggled to fully inflate given the force of robby's arms.

"dennis whitaker. dont you ever, ever do that again. do you hear me? that is not safe. you could've fallen, I could've- i could've lost you, don't ever do that shit again. fuck the fucking light bulb."

dennis felt guilty. he knew his farm methods weren't standard, but he never realised how terrified they made his boyfriend.

Not my circus but I've grown quite fond of its monkeys

+ bonus:

Because they're good braids, some of them quite complicated and no one can understand just how he knows how to do that.

The only conclusion they could come to is that the hobbit must have a paramour back in The Shire, some long-haired lass who he spoils with pretty love-braids.

Thorins temper had been truly foul after Balin had proposed the theory out loud.

After weeks of Thorin sulking, it was ever curious: Ori, who finally asked where Bilbo had learned such intrecate braid work.