Buttons

Before leaning more into the hurt/comfort angle, how the rest of the Pitt finally found out what animal Robby is was meant to be more comedic than angst.

The idea was that he just slipped up, literally.

It's been a long, draining shift, and once again, Robby has been putting off shifting as long as he can, and is pushing the limit of his shift cycle.

But the day is almost over and once he finishes handover to Abbot, he can go home and be alone and just sleep shifted to get it out of his system.

Of course though, there's...something or other on the floor that hasn't been cleaned up yet and while he's rushing to get around the hub, Robby doesn't notice and slips on it.

He makes an extremely undignified sound, which attracts almost everyone's attention to him as he falls. The surprise of it all causes him to lose focus, which allows for his body, already completely exhausted from pushing back on shifting for so long, to trigger the change.

Robby hits the floor and rolls over himself, completely disoriented and confused. He tries to right himself, but his hands slip and scrabble on the tile, unable to get a grip. He shakes his head, trying to clear away the dizziness, and looks up...a lot higher than he should be, even if he is on the floor and becomes aware of two main things:

One, the entire ER is staring at him and two, they all just saw him turn into a fucking hedgehog.

The relief his body gets from being in the smaller form is short-lived, as he immediately forces himself to shift again and gets to his feet as quickly as possible. From the way his already sore muscles and bones protest as they are stretched back into a human shape, he knows he's going to be paying for that later.

But right now, that doesn't matter, he just needs to get back up and assure everyone he's fine and just get back to finishing handover and not acknowledge that any of that happened and hope everyone else follows his lead and they never bring up the fact that he is a hedgehog again.

Then maybe...

Maybe...