Rating: R
Summary:
It was just that on his first day in the oncology department of the hospital six years ago, he'd been introduced to Dr Ryan Ross, Head Surgeon, and fallen stupidly and irrevocably in love with him, and that, apparently, was that.
(A hospital AU.)
~~~~
Brendon was a creature of habit. Every day he got up, showered if he had time, and was out the door exactly forty minutes before his shift started, twenty of which he spent in traffic, and ten in Starbucks picking up coffee for Jon and himself. He walked into the foyer of the hospital right on time every day, to the extent that whichever Alex was at the front desk wouldn't even bother to look up before he said, "Hey, Brendon."
He hadn't always been so used to and happy in a routine, but working in a hospital kind of forced him into it, and he didn't mind so much. He was busy all day, and it was easier to get things done if he left slacking off to his free days. At the hospital, his day was divided carefully into patients, paperwork, seeking Jon and Spencer out for five minute chats, and watching Ryan Ross. Unfortunately, due to time constraints, the last two often had to be combined.
"So," Jon said, kicking his legs against the desk lightly. "Any particularly reason why we're eating lunch in the outpatients?"
"I like the atmosphere," Brendon said. Across the room, Ryan had an expression of poorly concealed disgust as he beckoned a mother and her retching toddler into Exam Room One.
"Uh huh," Jon said. "I can see how all the suffering kids and Portacaths and stuff really do it for you."
"I'm a man of simple pleasures," Brendon said, and sighed when Ryan closed the door behind him. "He can't examine kids with the door open? Jeez."
"Yeah, shocking how unwilling he is to contravene ethics," Jon said, and then jumped back onto the floor. "Come on. We've only got five minutes until our break's over, and I want some fresh air. He won't be back out in time."
"Are you kidding?" Brendon was horrified. Had years of Ryan-watching taught Jon
nothing
? "It's a kid, Jon. He hates kids, he'll be back out in, like, two minutes."
Jon grimaced. "
Brendon
," he said, and Brendon sighed again, and slid down regretfully from the desk, picking up his third hot chocolate of the day from where it had been sitting beside him. He'd been at work since six that morning, and the day wasn't half over yet, and sugar was almost as good as caffeine, and with the bonus that it didn't make Brendon get headaches if he drank too much.
He spared one last glance over his shoulder on their way out, but Ryan still hadn't emerged. Jon grinned, and patted him on the shoulder. "Buck up, kid," he said.
"Don't call me kid," Brendon grumbled.
--
It wasn't a huge thing. "It's not like I'm pining or anything," Brendon told Jon and Spencer, even if he kind of was pining, in a suave, non-pathetic manner. It didn't actually influence his life a huge deal anymore, apart from in deciding where he and Jon sat for lunch. It was just that on his first day in the oncology department of the hospital six years ago, he'd been introduced to Dr Ryan Ross, Head Surgeon, and fallen stupidly and irrevocably in love with him, and that, apparently, was that.
Since then, a lot of things had happened; like Brendon reaching attending level of the paediatric oncologist department and being ridiculously busy and exhausted all the time, but in the best way possible, and finally fixing things up with his parents, to the extent that they were even icily polite to Shane on occasion. Other things, too, like Ryan dating a steady stream of pretty blonde nurses, and Brendon and Jon deciding that Ryan's best friend, also a surgeon, was awesome, and that Ryan should share him, and as a result of that Ryan spending time with them as a group now and then. Despite all that, Brendon never really got around to falling out of love with Ryan. It wasn't as though he had any amazing love affairs waiting for him to just notice them, and anyway, Brendon thought that Ryan was pretty amazing all on his own, in a hopeless, never-going-to-happen kind of way. He had a feeling that falling out of love with Ryan might be considerably harder than falling in love with him. Brendon was content to pine from afar.
