Chapter Text
“No,” Robby said, arms crossed and head shaking, “absolutely not.”
There was no way this was happening. Robby stared down his kid brother where he was entering from the gurney walk and intercepted him at central command.
“Great, I knew I could count on a warm welcome from you.” John shot back, bringing the shoulder strap of his messenger bag over his head and slinging it into a chair.
“What are you doing here? This is my ER, this is my workplace, I am not entertaining whatever it is you think you're doing.” Robby stared at John, incredulous, and asked again, “Why are you here?”
“You know, if you answered your phone once in a while you might have an idea,” John replied, raising his eyebrows at his older brother, “I’m sure someone told you that there would be a visiting doctor today; you had to have gotten a memo as the ED chief, right?”
Robby stopped short. He looked John up and down, the button down shirt and slacks under a white lab coat; J. Carter M.D. stitched in blue on the left. He scrubbed a hand through his beard and then clapped it in between John’s shoulder blades, using it to guide John out of the central hub and into the employee break room.
Princess was inside shooting back a cup of coffee, but her eyes widened and she spluttered when she saw the two men enter the room.
“Doctor Robby? And…. What?” Robby had never seen her speechless.
“Give us a minute, Princess.” He asked, jaw tight. She fled the room, eyes not leaving the pair until the door shut behind her.
Great, more grist for the gossip mill.
Robby turned his sharp gaze back to his brother, eyebrows raised expectantly. Infuriatingly, John just laughed, a lopsided grin taking over his face.
“Care to clue me in on the joke?” Robby asked.
“No, no joke, Michael.” John chuckled, “Just wondering if this is how you treat all of your prospective chief residents. It’s a wonder any of them apply.”
Robby squinted at him. It rang a bell. Something Gloria said the other day. Something about creating a more competitive teaching program, something about a national application process for chief residencies in all departments. Something about how Robby could expect visiting residents over the next few weeks as the top candidates in the country stop by to observe, interview, and gain practical experience at the PTMC Emergency Department.
He remembered complaining to Jack about the holds placed in his schedule for interviewing candidates. He didn’t remember that the first prospective was supposed to arrive today. And he certainly didn’t remember that the prospective would be his 20-something year old half brother.
“Michael, I tried calling, I tried texting,” John released a sigh and ran a hand through his hair, “It was not my intention to blindside you today, but you didn’t really give me a choice.”
Robby took a deep breath and pinched the bridge of his nose. He let it out in a rush of air.
“Okay. Yep.” He nodded, meeting John’s eyes for a split second before darting away again, arms securely crossed once more across his chest. They both stood there for a few moments, John mercifully giving Robby time to adjust to the shock of seeing him.
“Great,” John said, “How about we just start over, we don’t have to bring anything into this other than me being a visiting doctor and you being the attending on duty. Really, Michael, I’m just visiting. This isn’t anything other than me doing due diligence for my career.”
John stuck his hands in his lab coat pockets and leaned against the closed door.
“I really did try to call, man.” He said, eyes cast to the floor.
Robby laughed at that, the discomfort finally ebbing a little. He took another moment to look John over. His hair was longer. His jaw stronger. He’d filled out a little and gained some steadiness to his stature.
“I didn’t realize you had graduated already. Or that you were specializing in emergency medicine.” Robby said, “Congratulations.”
“Already?” John laughed. “I’m almost through with my residency, Michael. Even had time to repeat my intern year.”
Robby raised an eyebrow at that.
“Long story.” John replied, waving it off with one hand. “Point is, I’m definitely a doctor. Definitely qualified. And definitely interested to see how you all do it here in Pittsburgh.”
Robby nodded at him, then held out a hand. John took it, and Robby tugged him off of the door, clapped him on the shoulder.
“Good,” he said. “Welcome to The Pitt, let me show you around.”
“They definitely know each other, I saw him come in…” A student doctor was leaning over the desk whispering to a nurse in a hijab.
“And did you look at his face? I mean, he could be Robby’s son!” The nurse from earlier — Princess — added lowly.
Carter managed to suppress a laugh at that, but did not do a great job of keeping the grin off of his face. Michael shot him a glare.
The seated nurse looked up to where Carter and Michael were making their way back to central and smacked Princess’ hip with the back of her hand.
“Doctor Robby!” she exclaimed, “Who’s your friend?”
The student whipped around, her cheeks burning as her eyes danced between Carter and Michael. She squeaked out a small “Patient!” before running off.
Carter watched her leave with a smile. He swore these med students got younger every year.
“Perlah, Princess,” Michael nodded at both nurses in turn, then to Carter. “This is Doctor Carter, prospective for the chief residency position. He’ll be observing the ED this week.”
“Nice to meet you,” Princess said, exchanging a look with Perlah.
“Dana!” Michael called out to a blonde woman on the other side of central command. She glanced up from where she was bent over a computer and walked over.
“Woah!” She said, her voice brazen and thick with a Pittsburgh accent, “am I seein’ double or what?”
John laughed at that and held out a hand. Dana took it and gave it one firm shake.
“John Carter. You must be the charge nurse for the PTMC Emergency Department. Dana, was it?”
“Nice to meet ya, Doctor Carter. Your reputation does not precede you. Robby, there something you’d like to share with the class here?” She looked over the rim of her glasses at Carter’s brother, lips pursed.
“Dana, this is my brother,” Michael blew out quickly, waving a hand through the air, “I’ve mentioned him…”
“Oh sure,” Dana said, “sure…”
So he definitely hadn’t mentioned him.
“Johnny is a part of the candidate pool for chief resident next year.”
Euch. Johnny.
“That’s right,” Carter replied with a smile, “I’m excited to see how you run the place, Dana. And please, call me Carter, no one in Chicago calls me John except my Gamma.”
Carter shot Michael a look that he hoped said call me Johnny one more time…
Michael lifted his hands in a placating manner before addressing Dana again. “Could we get the kid some scrubs please, Dana?”
“Oh, I’m fine as is, thanks.” Carter cut in.
“You do work in the ED out in Chicago, right?” Michael asked, glancing over Carter’s shirt and tie, “This what they’re wearing out there?”
“It’s what I wear out there.” Carter replied.
“Suit yourself, kid.” Michael muttered.
Dana was called away by a phone ringing. A second later —
“Robby, we’ve got an incoming trauma, pedestrian versus catering van, ETA 3 minutes,” Dana yelled out, and the crew jumped into action.
“Ready to get to work?” Robby asked Carter warily.
“No time like the present,” Carter replied, quickly looking around the floor of the ED to gain his bearings.
“Alright, don’t touch anything,” Robby said, “and stay out of the way.”
Carter followed as the EMTs rolled the patient into trauma 2. The man had a gash through his throat and had been intubated. Carter stood back and watched as Michael ran the trauma; a mousy-haired resident with glasses helped transfer the patient to the bed and nurse Perlah hooked the man up to the pulse oximeter. The med student from earlier stood with Carter, out of the way, but gloved and ready to help.
“Sats are low,” Perlah called out.
“Breath sounds decreased bilaterally,” the one in glasses called back, and the EMT bagging looked with confusion to Michael, “Doctor Robby?”
Michael pressed against the man’s trachea to examine the wound, viscera shifting around his fingers.
“Javadi, what do we need to think about?” Michael asked, glancing behind him at where the med student was standing on her tiptoes to see the trauma in action.
“Oh! Uh.” She exclaimed, clearly taken aback.
“Think DOPE.” Carter leaned over and whispered to her.
“Right!” She perked up, then quickly spat out the answer, “We need to check the ET tube for displacement or obstruction, check the patient for pneumothorax, and check for equipment failure.”
“We’ve ruled out one of those already, your resident gave us breath sounds,” Carter called out.
“Yes. Hi, I’m Doctor Melissa King, everybody calls me —”
“Pleasantries later, please,” Robby yelled, “it was displacement. Mel, pop this bag. I need a pediatric mask and size seven tube.”
The rest of the trauma passed in a blur as Michael conducted a tracheostomy and stabilized the patient. It all took less than five minutes. Everyone was calm, collected, and the med student — Javadi — got to hold the trachea open with forceps. She hadn’t looked as thrilled as Carter might’ve been at her age, but maybe she wasn’t looking to go into emergency medicine.
Still, she found Carter when they had both removed their sterile covers and gloves.
“Thanks for the assist.” She said, looking up at him, “I totally knew that, though.”
“Yeah, you totally did.” Carter replied warmly. He stuck out a hand, “Doctor John Carter, I’m visiting this week, but I'll be hanging back to observe. I guess you and I are the wallflowers around here.”
She took his hand and gave it two quick shakes, “Yeah, I guess so.”
“Where are you headed? Maybe I can join you and stay out of the boss’ way.” Carter waggled his eyebrows a little, which made Javadi laugh. Excellent.
Word spread fast in the ED. Robby rounded corners and caught residents and nurses alike in close conspiracy. He rolled his eyes and tried to shake it off.
So what if his kid brother — half brother — had somehow stumbled his way back into Robby’s life? He wasn’t going to let him get under foot this time. Wasn’t going to let him distract him from the importance of his job.
It didn’t matter.
As the morning progressed, Robby kept reeling from John’s sudden appearance. Robby had no idea John was specializing in emergency medicine. Last he remembered, he’d been placed at County General in Chicago for med school. He’d seen it on a Facebook post. Must have been six — no, seven? Was it seven years ago? That would mean Robby hadn’t seen Johnny in at least ten.
Robby guessed he was still there for his residency. Must have made an impression on his attendings, being able to stay on at the hospital where he was a student.
Why was he looking at other options if he’d spent his whole career there? Robby could only imagine the trouble he must have gotten himself into if he was looking to uproot to a whole new part of the country.
Although Gloria did say that the visiting doctors would be top candidates.
John, a top candidate? Robby marveled, kid couldn’t even tie his shoelaces until he was eleven. The John that Robby remembered was naive, overprivileged, and full of unearned confidence. Well, he wouldn’t be holding John’s hand while he was here in his ED, that’s for sure. The kid would have to figure a few things out for himself.
Robby thought back to the trauma room. John had managed to stay out of the way, but the way he was looking over Robby’s shoulder, the way he gave an assist to Javadi, gave light praise to Mel… It was all pointing to a conclusion that Robby couldn’t reconcile with the picture of John Carter that lived in his head.
Robby took tabs on his floor. Mohan had three patients, Whitaker was working under Langdon today, McCay was connecting a family with the organ donation specialist… He would have to check in on her later. A few student doctors were running around with the various residents and John…
John was standing just outside exam 11 with Langdon.
Perfect.