Chapter Text
No one was supposed to find out.
At least not until Frank couldn't hide it anymore, until it was too big and he came too far, and it was unmistakable, and he couldn't run anymore. That was supposed to be the plan, but he stopped drinking redbull and started drinking water, and trying to eat more regular meals, and Jack got suspicious of Frank's quiet and stealthy change to his diet and wouldn't let it rest. Frank was able to brush him off until he was six weeks along, and he ended up throwing up on Jack's shoes, stomach turned by the smell of the break room coffee. Jack raised an eyebrow, and Frank gave him a sheepish and awkward smile.
He took the test two weeks ago and got the blood work shortly after, and stared at the results, unable to move or breathe for three hours and decided then and there, there was no going back. Frank had known he was a carrier since puberty; the exam was humiliating and awkward, and his parents, quietly conservative and monied, were disappointed, changing their expectations from Frank taking over his father's practice and carrying on the family name to following his mother's footsteps. It became worse when his sister Charlotte ended up finding out she was not a carrier when it was her time to get checked. Both were expected to uphold the family names, get great grades and go to a college from the Langdon's preferd list. Frank was put into classes like etiquette and pushed towards gentler sports, while Charlotte continued to live her life as she wished, becoming the soccer team captain and star lacrosse player.
Both children had been picture perfect and something to be proud of. His parents were proud of him, but would never be proud of Frank like they were of Charlotte. They didn't need to say it for Frank to know it. They had been less than thrilled when he broke up with his boyfriend, is senior year of college at the University of Alabama, and even more unhappy when Frank went to med school, refusing to give up on his dream of being a doctor like his father, Franklin Beaumont Langdon Sr. Frank ended up moving to Pittsburgh, furthering earning his parents staid wrath, falling in love with emergency medicine.
His breakup with Robby had been intense and extremely painful on the night of PittFest. Driven to the brink by a batch of faulty drugs and a suspicious allegation, Santos sees Frank shaky and sweaty and acting slightly erratic, taking a pill. The only thing Robby finds as he tears Frank's locker apart is a prescription blister pack of tapering prednisone, which Frank always hated because of how they made him feel crazy and messed with his anxiety.
The final collapse was when Robby called Frank, Collin’s name, as they argued about Robby lashing out and accusing Frank instead of just talking to him about the drugs. He knew something had been between Robby and Collins, but he didn’t know what until then. He put the picture together pretty quickly, but the pair was not as subtle as they thought it was. The fight in the ambulance bay was brutal, and Frank called in sick for a week.
When he came back a week after PittFest, it was hell, and they started to ignore each other. He started to put himself out there when he heard the rumour that Robby and Collins were together again, and had a one-night stand with a hockey player from a local league with blond curls, full lips, and an ass carved from marble, when he saw them share a kiss when they thought they were alone in the ambulance bay.
Which is how he found himself six weeks pregnant, throwing his guts up in the bathroom of the ER, on his knees while Jack Abbot, of all people, silently and metaphorically held his hair back.
“I didn’t think I smelled that bad.”
“It’s the coffee, smart ass.”
“Aw, you think my ass is smart?”
“Jack-” Frank groaned, lurching for the toilet again, only to dry heave, earning a tired sigh from the greying man.
“This is the part if I ask where you’re dying.” He points out dryly, handing Frank a cup of water to rinse out his mouth, which Frank spits out into the bathroom sink, with a sigh.
“Only for the next eight months or so, at least according to my obgyn and Google.”
“Well fuck.” Jack’s honest response is leaning against the wall with his arms crossed over his muscular chest. “I know for a fact Shen does not have this on his bingo card.”
“Neither did I,” Frank admits, turning to look at the other man. “It’s not Robby’s.”
Jack blinks for a moment. “Oh, thank fuck,” he breaths out in relief, and Frank tries not to feel completely offended. “I could not handle nine months of Robby freaking the fuck out about having a kid. Barely keeping him functioning as is.”
“Uh huh.” Frank nods. “So….”
Jack shrugs in response. “So what? You won’t be the first carrier to be pregnant and working in the ED, won’t be the last. I know how you love to be special, Frankie boy, but this time, you’re horribly average.”
Frank lets out a sigh of relief at Jack’s response, not exactly sure what to expect from the man. “You don’t have to worry about me saying anything or stopping you from doing anything I wouldn’t already, but I have a couple of questions, and I need you to actually answer them.”
“Um…okay?”
“One, how far along are you?”
“Six weeks.”
Jack absorbed the information. “Are you making the necessary appointments?”
“Yeah. Had a weird feeling early on and have always been weirdly paranoid about getting knocked up before marriage-” Jack fully raises his eyebrows at Frank’s statement, “My birth control failed, Jack. I wasn’t exactly planning to be single and pregnant at thirty-three.”
“You know, fair enough. I question things when you started sleeping with Robby, but it’s good to know you’re not that stupid.”
“You also slept with Robby.”
“I’m married to Robby.” Jack corrected, chuckling at Frank’s shocked expression. “Why do you think Collins and Robby broke up to begin with? We have our own relationship, and yes, I know about Collins and you, and he knows about mine. It works for us.”
Frank gaped like a fish.
“Last question, though, kid, you have any support? Baby’s dad, your own family…?”
“Baby’s dad is already denying he’s the father, and my family is all the way back home in Homewood…Alabama, Jack. So not really.”
Jack was painfully silent for a moment. “This is a giant life decision, Frank. You’re going to need help. Call when you need, and don’t hesitate to ask. I know you can do this by yourself, but I look out for the people on my shift.”
“Won’t be on your shift much longer.”
“Kid, you’ll always be part of my shift. Now, if you’re done throwing up, lets go, we actually have to work tonight.”
That’s the extent of the conversation. Jack doesn’t bring it up again, and Frank does his best not to throw up. He lets it slip that his first prenatal appointment is coming up a week later, right at eight weeks, and Jack puts it in his calendar. He wasn’t expecting Jack to actually be there waiting for him, outside the doors of his OBGYN’s office on the third floor, next to the maternity wing.
“What the fuck? I thought you were just being polite.”
“Eh,” Jack gives him a lazy half smile, “it’s not like I was sleeping or had anything else to do.” They want him to do an ultrasound since he’s a male carrier and at higher risk of miscarriage during his first three months. He’s not prepared to be suddenly scared of seeing or hearing his baby, and Jack stays.
“Wow, that’s a strong heartbeat.” Lisa smiles encouragingly at Frank before her face furrows in concentration. “Just a minute, let me take a look…yup, there they are, thought I heard a second one.”
“Second one what?”
It’s Jack whose speaking, his voice surprisingly rough, his brown eyes assessing the screen like he does when diagnosing a patient. He’s calm and doesn’t pull back when Frank grabs his hand, with a sense of worried panic.
“Congrats, Frank.”
Lisa, an older woman with steel grey hair and a dry, practical sense of humour, smiles at Frank. “You’re having twins.”
“Fuck.”
“Not the first time I heard that.” Lisa assures, “We’ll print you out a couple of copies of the ultrasound, two for two.”
“Thanks.” It’s Jack who answers, and Frank looks at the ultrasound screen, suddenly feeling how real all of this really is.
He doens’t know who saw them walk out of the appointment together, Frank looking slightly pale and Jack silent and stern looking, with his hand on Frank’s back in support, right in the middle of his back, fingers sprawled protectively, holding the ultrasound pictures in his hand, but someone does.
Frank walks into work for the night shift during handover, two days later, to an explosion of rumours, speculation and Robby looking angry and vaguely hurt, as he’s talking in low tones to Jack, who has a deeply stubborn expression on his face.
Dana is on Frank before he has a chance to fully step on the floor. “Franklin Beaumont Langdon Jr, with me, now.”
“Yes, Ma’am.”
The answer is instinctual, and his natural accent comes out thick and heavy, earning a look from the woman who was nothing like his own mother, all sharp brashness and sarcasm. Alice-Mae Langdon was a polite southern socialite from an old southern family through and through.
She pulls him into the break room and puts her hands on her hips. “You want to tell me why I’ve been fielding rumours that you are knocked up with Jack Abbot’s baby?”
His confusion and horror are immediate. “I’m what?”
“I swear to god Langdon, I know I didn’t raise you, but I would have hoped as a doctor you would know to practice safe sex,” Frank never wanted to hear Dana talk about sex, his sex, ever again, “and really? Jack? Like, Robby wasn’t already a mistake?”
He was quickly learning that dating Robby, or when he thought they were dating, was a badly kept secret. No wonder Collins grew cold with him, despite Robby and Collins having broken up when Frank and Robby finally slept together.
“It’s not Jack’s baby.”
Dana pauses, and Frank deflates. “It was a one-night stand, and I was drunk, and it still hurts,” he didn’t mention Robby’s name; he didn’t need to, and Dana softened at his tone. He took a deep breath.
“My birth control failed, and this isn’t how I planned, but it’s probably my one and only chance, Dana, without adopting, and no one wants to let a busy single doctor adopt a baby, and Jack found out, and he came with me just out of support and the fact I was scared shitless.”
He doesn’t realise he was starting to hyperventilate until Dana wrapped her arms around him. “Okay, baby, okay.”
Frank buries his head in her shoulder and takes a deep breath, giving the older woman a squeeze. She doesn’t let him go. “Anything else you want to tell me before I go out there and try to control some of this bullshit before Jack opens his mouth and makes things worse?”
“...I’m having twins?”
Dana pulls back from him with a “Jesus Christ” with exasperation before pulling him back into a hard hug.
Robby is gone by the time they return from the break room, and Jack shoots him a wink before walking away to finish handing off and gathering everyone for the round-up. It’s a wink everyone could see, and Frank has the urge to turn around and just walk back out.
“No.”
“I haven’t said anything.” Shen defended, ambushing Frank as he stepped out of a patient’s room, on his way to take a break with some charting. Lisa warned him about the deep exhaustion, but Frank thought she was exaggerating.
She was not
“Listen, Jack warned me coffee sets you off.” Frank slows and looks over at Shen. “I need to know if it’s just the smell of hot coffee or all coffee. Just because Jack’s baby already inherited his insanity doesn’t mean I’ll let the night shift baby interfere with my dunkin’.”
Frank feels like he’s going insane.
“There are so many things wrong with that statement,” Jack calls out dryly, looking up from a screen with his readers perched on his nose. “There are two babies. What?” Jack defends himself. “It’s already out of the bag, kid. Might as well embrace it. It will save Shen from thinking of worse conspiracies.”
“No, it won’t,” Crus adds his two cents, walking by, and Shen just gapes at the pair.
“I’m sorry, you’re having fucking twins?” Parker demands, eyebrows going upwards to her hairline.
“You know,” Frank takes a breath, “most people would focus on them not being their babies first, and then the number of kids, you do get that, right, Jack?”
Jack’s smile could only be described as shit-eating. “We spent one glorious afternoon together….” he teases.
“They’re not your kids.”
“But they could be.”
“But they’re not.”
“Seems like a personal problem to me, Frank.”
Parker looks between the pair. “Yeah, I’m declaring them Jack’s kids, now. Just make it easier for everyone.”
“I refuse to believe in any other reality,” Shen nods, “the night shift is having twins. Dibs on being the favourite.”
“Yeah, right,” Jack grunts, and Parker rolls her eyes.
“Honestly, Jack. I’m surprised you’re still alive with Robby and Dana an’ all.” Parker muses, Frank sinking down into a chair, feeling heavy and worn down. He knew from the beginning, as he held that stick between his hands, that his decision was a big one, that this would be a challenge, but now with two, he’s already feeling the weight of it.
“Dana still might get him.” Shen pointed out.
“Honestly, I’m more concerned about Robby.” Parker hummed. “Just because he and Frank broke up doesn’t mean he-”
“Robby doesn’t get a say in anything I do.” Frank snaps; maybe he would transfer back to Alabama once the babies were born. If he made it that far, he knew the rate of miscarriages in the first trimester for male carriers. “Not any more.”
He could have sworn he heard Shen snort and mutter something about that doing nothing to stop Robby, but everyone let the subject drop. The rest of the shift passes in a blur, and he does his best to avoid the day shift during handoff.
He’s on night shift for approximately the rest of the week before he’s dragged back onto the day shift after a solid two months since he and Robby broke up. Jack rolls his eyes as Frank pouts about it, not looking forward to months of having to watch Robby and Collins, Robby and Dennis. He had been fully replaced by the young man with the large eyes and wholesome charm Frank never had.
“If any of them gives you too much shit, let me know, and I’ll talk to them myself.” Jack assured, “Drink.”
“God, I hate ginger ale.” Frank pulled a face, taking a sip of the one thing that seemed to settle his stomach. “You know if you do, you’re not helping the batshit rumours that you’re my baby daddy.”
“Your kids would be so lucky to get these genetics.” Jack quipped. “I’m a big boy, Frank. I can survive rumours, but if it’s really bugging you..”
Frank pulled a face at the taste of his ginger ale and put the lid back on the bottle. “They’re going to talk either way, no matter how much we deny it.”
Jack hummed in approval. “Works for me. Glad to see you’re learning some shit. When’s your next appointment?”
“Three weeks. Normally it’s four, but…”
“Text me if you have any cravings before that, and I’ll pick them up on my way to the appointment.”
“You're coming to my prenatal appointments?” Frank can’t help the surprise that fills him. Jack gives him a steady look in response.
“What else am I going to do besides sleep? Plus, got to keep the rumours alive somehow.”
Frank tells him he’s ridiculous to his face, and the man happily agrees. Frank does his best to continue to avoid the day shift as much as possible until he’s forced to fully return. He’s expecting Robby to avoid him as well, only to find the older man waiting for him. Langdon knows he’s not late for his shift; he’s fifteen minutes early.
“Langdon.”
“Robby.” He refuses to be formal with Robby even now and would not be the one to put that distance between them; if Robby wanted to do that, he could do that himself.
“We need to talk.”
“Robby, I can’t have messed up already. I just got here.”
He watches with a tiny sliver of satisfaction as Robby’s eyebrows pinch together, and he exhales loudly through his nose. He inhales slowly, smoothing out his expression.
“It’s about-”
“I know what it’s about, Robby.” Frank offers him a lifeline. “Break room, or somewhere else?”
Robby thinks about it for a moment and gestures to the direction of his break room with his head, his hands still in his pockets. He follows Frank in, and Frank turns to face him, trying to betray nothing.
“They’re not yours.”
Robby’s eyebrows inch upwards. “They’re?”
“I know you heard the rumours, Robby. They’re not your husbands, either, if that helps anything.”
Robby can only blink at him, and it’s clear this was not how he was expecting any of the conversation to go. He rubs a hand over his face and scratches his beard, with a drawn-out groan.
“You have no idea how much it really doesn’t,” Robby answered bluntly. “Listen, I need to know what your plan is, Langdon.”
“My plan?” Frank frowns in confusion, trying to figure out what Robby is asking. “Bold of you to assume I have a plan.”
Robby’s expression turns into a thoughtful frown. “You don’t have a plan?”
“Robby, I’m nine weeks pregnant, as of yesterday.” Frank sighs, “I’m just trying to get through the first trimester. I just found out I’m having twins, I’m single, and already have no clue what I’m doing. The only plan I have at this point is to keep them.”
Robby nods slowly at this, absorbing Frank’s words as if he’s truly listening. “Okay, for now that’s all I need to know.”
Frank is doubtful. “Uh huh. What were you expecting me to try to transfer out or something?”
From the guilty look, that’s exactly what Robby was expecting him to do. “Wow.”
“No.” Robby shoves his hands back in his pockets, unfolding them from across his chest. “Most people want to be around their family, and get some support is all. I was going to try to talk you out of transferring. We might have our personal issues-”
Frank snorts at that.
“But you’re a good doctor, Frank, and it would be a shame to lose you this close to the end of your residency.”
“The residency I’ll have to do over because I’m pregnant?”
“Jesus, Frank.” Robby grinds out, “Just take the fucking compliment.”
Frank decides to ignore its the first time Robby used his first name since they ended whatever they still had going. He tried not to listen to the rumours and gossip about what was happening between Robby and Collins. He knew he would never win against someone as put-together and beautiful as her.
“Yeah, I’m okay not going back home to face my parents' quiet disapproval and subject my life to a life of showers and sip’n’sees, and gender reveals.”
“What the fuck is a sip’n’see?”
Frank can’t help but laugh at the open confusion mixed with a twinge of horror in Robby’s tone. “An open house style party where people sip on refreshments and see the baby.”
“Oh.”
“Are we done now? I kind of would like to get to work before the morning sickness and exhaustion kick in.”
Robby nods and takes a step back to let Frank pass. “Wait,” Frank half turns to see Robby at war with himself, before he speaks again.
“If you need anything…”
“It’s okay, Jack already offered to help out.”
There’s something complicated that crosses Robby’s handsome face that Frank can’t read. “If you need anything at all, Frank,” Robby continues, and his warm eyes are soft, and his tone is beseeching, “please just come to me. I still care about you.”
That’s what killed Frank the most, the truth in Robby’s words.
“Okay.” Is all Frank can muster before he walks out, leaving Robby standing behind.
He can feel Collins’s sharp and heavy gaze on him as he works; she’s cold, and they’re painfully professional. Santos makes a couple of comments, or two, and Mel seems relieved it’s not actually Jack’s baby, worried about the HR implications for Frank. Samira and Jesse are the only ones who act as if nothing has changed.
“God, you’re a dumb ass.”
“Gee, thanks.” Frank smiles at Samira, and McKay lets out a chuckle.
“Condoms exist for a reason.” She points out, and McKay lets out a “mmhmm”, and Frank blushes.
“Yeah, he was hot, and I was tipsy enough to give consent, but revenge sex made me a little stupid.”
“Happens to us all…well, most of us. I mean, Harrison exists.”
It’s a hard adjustment going back on the day shift, and Frank wasn’t expecting it to be such a change after two months on the night shift, but it is. Robby is no longer avoiding him, but still isn’t seeking him out, and Dana is constantly on his case, threatening to pin him down and order an IV for him as the morning sickness makes his life hell.
Jack checks in with Frank more days than not and looks horrified when Frank jokes about naming one of the babies after him, looks more horrified when he threatens to name one after Shen.
“Here.”
Frank looks up at the annoyed-looking Collins standing next to where he’s sitting on the bench in the ambulance bay, desperately needing fresh air, the feeling of passing out threatening to take him under inside.
He takes the cold Gatorade with a quiet thanks.
“I’m planning on leaving the Pitt.” Her announcement is quiet and controlled, and Collins isn’t looking at him. He suddenly feels awful.
“It has nothing to do with you.” It’s not an assurance as much as a cold reminder that Frank has nothing to do with her. “I can’t be what he wants me to be, I don’t want to be what he wants me to be.”
Collins continues, head high. “I don’t know what he wants exactly, but I’m not going to lose myself trying to be it. I thought I could do it without giving up any part of me, and I can’t, and I won’t.”
Frank swallows his sip of Gatorade, “Oh…why are you telling me?”
Collins turns to face him with a look of scorn that shifts to genuine disbelief. “Fuck, you’re serious, aren’t you?”
“Listen, Collins-”
“No.” She shakes her head. “I don’t want to hear whatever lame ass excuse you’re going to try to give me for living your life, for being what I’m not.”
“A carrier?” The question is absurd.
“No, for being you.” Collins's tone is haughty, and she stands tall and powerful, confident she’ll never give part of herself away. “You don’t care if you lose part of yourself for him, you already have.”
“I don’t…why are you telling me this?”
“Because I want you to hear it from me, before everyone else finds out, and because he will never tell you any of this.” Collins’ expression doesn’t soften, but the air between them shifts to one of more stable understanding and cool respect.
“Drink your Gatorade and come back in; they’ll send out a hunt if you're gone too long.”
Frank thinks it is an exaggeration, but takes a sip anyway.
“Oh, and for what it’s worth, I don’t know if those rumours are true or not, but god I hope those babies are Jack’s.”
Frank is afraid to ask her why.
He’s tired and sore and was heading out the door when Robby stopped him, pulling him aside, and Frank braced himself.
“When is your next prenatal appointment?”
“I’m keeping up with them, man, if that’s what you want to know.”
“Great, when is it?”
“In two weeks, eleven weeks, Robby.”
Robby lets out a long breath as he nods at the information. “I’ll go with you.”
Frank is genuinely thrown by the offer and the quiet sincerity in Robby’s eyes despite the slight exasperation in Robby’s voice.
“You don’t need to, Robby.”
“I know. Jack told me how nervous you were at the last one and he’ll be out of town for a SWAT thing or something, so I’ll be there. If you really don’t want me there, I’ll back off but take a couple of days to think about it.”
Frank can’t help but ask the question. “Why?”
“Because we spent four years being friends, Frank, and this is my way of trying to apologise, to still be there for you.”
He lets that sit for a moment while he plays with the straps of his backpack. “And if I say no?”
“Then you say no,” Robby says it like it's so simple, and maybe it is. “Just think about it.”
The offer keeps Frank up for three days, making him toss and turn, giving him nausea, keeping him awake, the help it really didn’t need. He knows he looks rough but doesn’t realise how much until he sees Dana’s pinched and concerned expression, and Princess’s pinched look.
“Morning.”
“Nope.” Perlah commands, walking around the hub, and steering Frank towards a chair. “Sit down before you fall down.”
“Yikes.” Princess frowns. “What’s going on?”
“You need to make an appointment with your Dr Frank.” Dana commands, crossing her arms, “If you have hyperemesis gravidarum, you need to get it managed now before it becomes worse.”
“If I say it’s anxiety, will you believe me?”
All three women share a look, clearly not believing him. “I have an appointment in two weeks, I’ll talk to her then.”
“No. Now.” Dana’s tone once again reminds Frank of his mother, his mother who knows nothing of what is going on with Frank. His mother, who won’t want to know unless there’s a ring on his finger and a respectable last name to go with it.
“She’s right, Frank.” Perlah agrees, pinning Frank in his chair with a look that also reminds Frank of his mother. “Call.”
“I will later, okay.” He promises, holding up his hands, giving them a pleading look. “I’m not in Robby’s good books enough yet to be late-”
“Robby.” Dana’s voice cuts across the space between Dana and Robby, getting the man to stop his conversation with Javadi, looking over at her with an annoyed expression at being interrupted.
“Frank needs to make a phone call; he’s going to be late.”
This earns the small group a frown. “What kind of phone call?”
“I can call later, it’s not a big deal.”
“Suspected HG.” Princess pipes up. “Probably needs an IV too.”
“Definitely.” Perlah agrees, with a smirk at Frank that forces him to realise how much he’s not escaping this. “Lets go, pretty boy.”
“HG?” Robby’s voice tightens, and he jogs over to where Frank is now standing, with a concerned expression. “Why didn’t you say anything?”
“Because it’s morning sickness. It’s supposed to get better, and I’m holding down water.”
It’s clear no one is a fan of his answer. “What about food?”
Frank goes slightly green at the thought. “Yeah, thought so.” Dana comments. “Go. North 8 is free. I don’t want to see you until that IV is gone and you’ve called your doctor.”
“I’m going with him to his appointment.” Robby offers without thinking, hearing a grunt of approval from Dana and Princess.
He’s in a bed with his phone and an IV ten minutes later, a kidney bowl in his lap, finding himself drifting to sleep, the sleep he wasn’t able to get for three nights. No one warned him it would be this hard. He’s still asleep when Robby comes in a few minutes later, one hand on his stomach as he sleeps. He misses the tender look. Robby can’t hold back for a second before he shoves it back down and walks back out of the room.
It’s not hyperemesis gravidarum; the morning sickness is settling down just in time for his eleven-week appointment. Jack texts him, and Robby is waiting for him by the elevator when Frank’s time.
“You don’t have to come with me.”
“Would it make you feel better if I did?”
“A little.”
It was true, he knew plenty of carriers went to these appointments alone, but Frank couldn’t help but shake the feeling that something would go wrong if he did. Like he would jinx it. He’s two weeks away from being in his second trimester, and the anxiety of making it to that benchmark has yet to go away.
“Then I’ll go. The point is to get the support you need, Frank.” He says it like it’s the most obvious thing in the world, guiding Frank out of the elevator and into the waiting room. “You know I have never been to one of these.”
“Me either,” Frank smiles dryly.
“Huh.” Robby joked back as Frank is called, following Frank into the waiting room. The intake is pretty standard, and Lisa agrees they need to keep an eye on the morning sickness and wants Frank to start writing down his symptoms.
They talk, and Frank agrees to a first-trimester combined screening and non-invasive prenatal testing, wanting to get any large news or possible complications known as soon as possible.
“When can you tell the gender of the baby?” Robby asks with genuine curiosity, and it brings Frank up short. He never even thought about the gender.
“The NIPT testing should be able to tell us, if you’re interested in knowing the gender, Frank. Some people like the surprise, some want to know right away, so there’s no wrong answer, and if you want to know, we should have the information by your next appointment. The tests take a couple of weeks to get all the results back.”
“Um…that’s great. Can I think on it?”
“Absolutely.”
The rest of the appointment is his history, and he’s conscious not to look at Robby, as he goes into his medical history and the history of the carriers of his family, from his mother to his grandfather on both sides of his family tree. He never realised how strong the male carrier gene was in his family until then, his mother being one of the rare female carriers.
He was still trying not to be jealous of his sister Charlotte.
“Thank you for letting me go with you.” Robby finally breaks the silence between them when they’re in the elevator again. “That was interesting.”
“Was it?”
“A little, yeah. When’s the last time you ate?”
“Uh….”
“Try to eat something, Frank, before you go back on shift. You need more calories than you’re currently eating, and you’re not underweight yet, but she’s right, you do need to eat more.”
Frank sighs and leans against the elevator with a nod, breaking away from Robby to the break room when they get down to the Pitt, and they don’t talk about the appointment again. Jack ambushes Frank the morning Frank officially reaches his thirteenth week with an unreadable expression and unmovable stance. “We need to talk.”
“Whatever it is, I didn’t do it.”
Jack blinks at Frank’s open sass and gives a snort. “It's too late for you to be a smart ass.”
“Jack, it’s 6:45 in the morning.”
“Exactly. We need to talk, Frank, not no, but soon, about your plan for how you’re going to handle things when it’s time.”
Frank only blinks. “What is it with you and Robby and plans?”
“Robby talked to you about a plan? Robby?”
Frank shook his head. “No…he asked if I had one, and shook his head in disapproval when I said my plan was just to make it to the second trimester.”
“Of course. You need a plan, kid, and an actual plan. I’m off tonight, we can talk about it over dinner.”
“You’re inviting me to dinner?” Frank didn’t bother to hide the disbelief in his voice at Jack’s words.
“Sorry, sweetheart, our date will have to wait. It was Robby’s idea, and I promised him I would float it by you.” It was Robby’s day off.
“You kind of demanded instead of floated it by Jack.”
He nodded with a smile, “and we know where you work, so we’re not above showing up here and dragging you back, either, Frankie. See you tonight, kid.”