Chapter Text
Frank was avoiding them.
It was cute at first, watching the way he would dip and weave away from them, finding ways to be busy or attach himself to a different resident or case. The way he would stick to Robby's side like an adorable, wide-eyed, energetic duckling. Now, thought it was starting to be downright irritating how the younger resident kept slipping out of Dennis' grasp or managed to wiggle away just as Jesse was making his way over to him. There were rumours about the man, whispers and speculation, but it wasn't until Frank started to go to heat in the middle of the Pitt that anything was confirmed.
It was Jesse who found the second-year resident burning up and out of it, in the corner of the break room, fully thinking he had the flu. It was Dennis who held him close and petted his hair, letting the taller man lean against him, projecting the scene of protection and safety as much as he could without removing his scent patches, Jesse guarding his mate, and Frank as the heat started to claim him. He tried not to growl when Robby strode in, his expression hard and stern, before he could smell what was happening, before he saw the boy clinging to his former golden resident, trying to nuzzle closer.
"Alright, pup," the beta man crouched down and reached for Frank, who went willingly to Robby, nuzzling the older man's neck with a broken sound, like someone attempting to purr. Dennis tensed at the sound, and Jesse let out an unhappy rumble at the sound, but Robby didn't seem to recognise it.
"Think you can walk, pup, or do I need to carry you?"
"I can walk, Robby."
"Good. I'll call Jack from the car, he'll be there when we get home?"
"Jack?"
"Yeah, puppy." They watched as Robby rubbed his forehead against Frank's, scenting him as best he could, rubbing his cheek against Frank's like a parent would do. "Jack."
"Can we order Thai food?"
"Will your stomach be able to handle the spice right now?"
Their conversation continued as Robby steered Frank out of the break room, hand on his nape, keeping the resident talking, leaving the two alphas behind, irritated and unhappy at Frank being taken away from them, from not being able to help him, the sound of his broken purr and his sour, unripe scent deeply unsettling to the pair. Frank came back two weeks later, once again bright and energetic and wearing scent patches.
He never wore scent patches before then.
Frank had been avoiding the nurse and the senior resident ever since.
A grumble slipped from Dennis’ lips as he watched Robby rub his wrist against Frank’s shoulders, absently making the intern beam while he charted and Frank continued to talk about the case he was working with Javadi on with earnest excitement.
He was adorable.
“For fuck’s sake, just pin him against a wall and scent mark him already, get it out of your system.”
“Jesus, Trin,” Dennis rolls his eyes, shooting his best friend since med school a look. “I’m not going to do that.”
“Fine, have Jesse do it. Just until you guys can get your heads out of your asses and mark him before someone else does.”
A flash of jealousy deep and hot burned at the thought of someone else doing anything close to marking Frank. “I heard John Shen’s been trying to ask him on a date.”
Dennis could feel his lip curl at the thought of the night shift senior resident, and Jack’s golden boy. “Like Jack would ever let that happen.”
Jack was a deeply jealous and protective alpha, and once the man had claimed someone as pack, he never let them go, and from the moment Frank tripped over him, all wide-eyed and nervous as an MS3, Jack had claimed him as his own.
Dennis might have once been Robby’s heir, his addiction and the fallout of it ripping that away, but Frank was different; Frank was Robby’s pup. Dennis and Robby learned to work together, but it was different now, colder; the lack of trust and the remnants of broken trust were still there.
“You never know.” Trinity’s voice was laced with humour as she gave a stretch, “Papa Jack might decide Shen is worth his little princess, or Ellis.”
Jesse’s greeting is a silent arm around his waist, the older, taller alpha frowning deeply. “How long are we going to let him avoid us?”
Dennis followed his line of sight where Frank was now standing close to Mohan, their heads bent together as they worked, the beta woman and Frank inseparable despite their contrasting personalities. Honestly, it made Jesse and Dennis feel better to know Frank had a friend he could lean on, a friend other than Yolanda Garcia.
Jesse and Dennis hated the way Garcia would snip and bite at Frank, all sharp teeth and sarcasm.
“Why?”
Jesse is unimpressed with the open mocking tone of Trinity’s words. “Worried, he’ll avoid you forever?”
Jesse and Dennis both refused to let that happen, the ghost of Frank lingering between them. They discussed it at length, the smell, the sound, and discussed it some more when he came back wearing scent patches, the military grade ones, not the medical grade ones that stripped Frank of scent completely.
The same ones Jack wore, the same ones Robby would have worn as Jack’s mate and husband if he weren’t a beta.
“Not what we're worried about,” Jesse informs her dryly, squeezing Dennis’s hip before pulling away.
Jesse had been the only one to reach out during Dennis’ time in rehab, to be there when he got out, his relapse after years was still painful to think about. Growing up in rural Nebraska, addiction was common, and addictions came early. Dennis was a teen.
They look back at Frank just in time to see him blush at something Matteo says to him, Mohan shaking her head softly with a small, unbelieving smile. Frank looks over and sees Jesse and Dennis standing there, and his blush deepens before he scurries off again to the safety of Dana and McKay.
“Fuck, this ends today,” Jesse mutters, giving Dennis a put-upon look, and Dennis represses a tired sigh.
“Yeah, we’ll find a way to talk to him, even if we have to pin him to a wall.”
“Kinky.” Both men turn to look at a smirking Trinity. “Better move fast before Robby catches you.”
They’re still trying to figure out how to keep Frank in one place when he approaches them, small and quiet, and Dennis instantly wants to soothe the omega in front of him, barely stopping himself from reaching out and rubbing his wrist against Frank’s pale neck.
“Hey…um…do you two have a moment to talk?”
“Sure.” Jesse agrees, they will make all the time they need to.
It's weird to see Frank look so unsure; everyone used to the energetic confidence he easily seems to carry with him constantly.
“C-can we go somewhere a little less…” He looks around, bouncing on the balls of his feet, and Dennis looks around the taller omega to see Robby watching the trio.
“Yeah, come on.” Dennis motions with his head, leading to an empty exam room and the three slip inside.
“What’s going on?” Jesse leans against the counter of the exam room, putting his hands in his pockets, and Dennis crosses his muscular arms over his chest, sharing a look with Jesse, neither wanting to rush Frank.
“Um..I wanted to say I’m sorry for avoiding you and to…to thank you for the other day. I wasn’t aware what was happening.”
Dennis can feel his shoulders relax. “Ah, it’s no problem, really. I mean, breakthrough heats are a thing, just took you by surprise.”
They are expecting it to be it, to leave any unanswered questions as just those, but Frank lets out a little huff.
“Yeah…um…” He began and stopped taking a deep breath. “I didn’t know it was a heat, I’ve never really had one, and I thought it was just the flu…”
“I’m sorry, what?” Dennis knows he’s frowning deeply, and he can sense Jesse fully tensing, knowing the bearded man was also frowning. “You’ve never had a heat?”
“How?” Jesse’s voice is gentler, but the smell of concern still leaks through his patches. “You’re twenty-eight, Frank.”
“Twenty-six,” he corrects with a sheepish look. “I’m twenty-six, and um, I just never had one. I’ve been on suppressants since I started presenting, so I really never had to deal with one.”
Dennis suddenly feels nauseous. “Frank,” the sick feeling grows as Frank flinches at Dennis’ soft tone, “exactly how old were you when you went on suppressants?”
“Eleven?”
“You’re not sure?”
Frank looks from Dennis to Jesse. “I might have been twelve.” He admits. “My parents paid to have me genetically tested when I started to fully exhibit signs of puberty, instead of waiting for me to present.”
He gives a careless shrug at the information he was sharing, and Dennis felt sick all over again. He knew how much those tests cost now, and how much more they were back then; only the rich could truly afford it.
“If I were a girl, it might have been different, but my parents didn’t want their only child to be an omega.”
“What the fuck?” Jesse breaths out, deeply disturbed by the fact that Frank just seems to brush it off.
He holds out his hands with wide eyes. “They weren’t abusive or anything. They’re decent people.”
“Frank.” Dennis snaps, and feels bad when he flinches again, and Dennis lets out an apologetic whine for scaring him. “They had you on suppressants since you were eleven or twelve. You were a kid. They never let you fully present. You know how dangerous that is.”
“I mean, yeah, I know that.” Frank snaps back, clearly frustrated, “but they weren’t abusive. They didn’t hit me or beat me, and they were never emotionally abusive. I had friends and toys, and bedtime stories. My dad took me to baseball and football games, and I got to play both.”
“You played football?” There is no hiding the slight alarm in Jesse’s voice.
“Yeah, man.” Frank levels him with a look. “Listen, I had a good childhood, and as good a teenagehood as any awkward teenager could. I got good grades, and a new car when I learned to drive. My parents were warm and supportive, and I never once felt unsafe or unloved. I was told that I had a hormonal disorder, and they discovered the same time they put me on suppressants, and I would never be able to fully present, because of it. However, as long as I took the meds and kept to a strict med schedule, I would live a long and healthy life as close to a beta as I could be.”
Dennis clenched his jaw. “They would take me off the meds for a week or so every six months, I would come down with the flu, and then go back on the meds. At worst, I missed like four weeks of school every year.”
Jesse runs a hand down his face in disbelief, and Dennis is this close to letting his fury at Frank’s parents slip, the fury testing his self-control.
“So what changed?”
“Um…” Dennis has to resist the urge to snap at Frank to look at him and not the floor, but he doesn’t. “There was an incident, and I collapsed and started seizing while on a run due to long-term, heavy use. I nearly died…the closest hospital was Presby.”
WHAT?
“You were in rehab, and Jack told everyone I was in an accident. I was out for four months. Robby took a ‘sabbatical’ to help with my recovery.”
Robby’s fucking sabbatical. The one he left for without saying a word to Dennis after his return, the one he was supposed to be on when Dennis got back. At first, he thought it was just to avoid seeing him, and then it might be a suicide tour, but Dennis wasn’t expecting this.
“I’m sorry that happened, Dennis.”
“Eh, it was probably bound to happen eventually. I’m... I’m off them now.” Frank admits in nothing more than a whisper. “It’s in my file, I’m not allowed to be prescribed them, ever. I-uh-they don’t know what kind of damage any of it has done since I was never given the chance to properly present, and they don’t know if or when I’ll ever have a reproductive heat, whatever that is.”
Dennis blinked, overwhelmed and barely keeping his scent and emotions intact, at Frank’s confession. “You don’t know what a reproductive heat is?”
“To be honest, I don’t even know how to make a nest or do shit like purr or chirp.” The blush blooms on his cheeks, and Dennis has never felt more tested by the universe in his life. The shorter man lets out a breath.
“Jesus.”
“Sure, but I’m not sure how much praying will actually teach me how to be an omega.”
Dennis was going to kill the kid.
“What’s going on here?” Jack’s voice is smooth and carefully curious as he interrupts, doing his best to look open. Dennis doesn’t buy it for a moment.
“Oh, nothing.” Frank gives Jack a weak smile. “I was just thanking them for being-for-”
“Yeah, pup, I got it.” Jack cuts him off with a knowing chuckle. “Good day?”
“Sure.”
“Uh huh. So we don’t need to talk about you pushing yourself too hard when I get home in the morning?”
Dennis sees Jesse shift into a protective stance, feeling his mate’s own swirling emotions through their bond. Dennis crosses the space between them and puts a steady grounding hand on his back.
“Nope,” Frank smirks cheekily at the older alpha, falling back to the happy personality they all knew. “I was perfect.”
“Kid, that’s such bullshit. Don’t worry, Michael told me all about it. God, I thought Jake was bad.”
Jack ignores Frank’s faux gasp at being compared to Robby and Jack’s actual pup, adopting the boy a year after he was left at the Pitt as a baby John Doe.
“Whitaker, Jesse.”
Jess is on Dennis the moment Jack and Frank leave the room, pulling him impossibly close and bending down to bury his head in the crook of Dennis’ neck, the smell of anger and heartbreak heavy around him.
Dennis grips the back of Jesse’s scrub top tightly as he holds him. “Fuck, baby.”
“He’s off of them.” Dennis reminds himself of that over and over: “He’ll never be on them again, we won’t let him.”
“What if seized and no one was there? He could have died.”
“He didn’t.” Dennis pulls Jesse back, searching the blue eyes Dennis never wants to live without. “He didn’t, he’s here.”
“Yeah.” Jesse nods, leaning forward and rubbing his face against Dennis before tugging him forward in a kiss. “He’s here.” He repeated.
“I swear to god, though Jesse, if I ever set eyes on either of his fucking parents…” Dennis doesn’t stop the low, deadly growl that rips through him.
“You and me both,” Jesse mutters.
Dennis scrubs his hands over his face and rubs the back of his neck. “Fucking Lagndon.”