Work Text:
As Jack stepped through the ambulance bay doors, he couldn’t help but feel out of place. His normal scrubs were replaced with a pair of cargo shorts and a worn Pirates shirt. He and Robby were going to the Pirates game tonight and while he was off tonight, Robby was just finishing up his day shift. The stadium was closer to the hospital, so it just made sense for them to leave together from here. And if he couldn’t wait the thirty extra minutes to see Robby, no one has to know but him. Speaking of the man, he doesn’t see him anywhere on the floor. Jack prays to the ER gods that he hasn’t been pulled into something that is going to make them late. He has a pre-game ritual to follow.
“Ugh, you’re off tonight. Why am I seeing your white boy legs in the middle of the ED?” He hears Parker before he sees her.
“It’s only the one leg and don’t act like you don’t like it.” Jack makes a move to flex his calf muscle and flashes a grin at her.
“Gross. Save it for your boyfriend,” Parker says, eyes already scanning the board from day shift.
“I’m going to ignore that.”
“What are you doing here anyway?”
“I’m actually here grabbing Ro-” Parker’s eyebrows lift, looking at him smugly, as if he’s just proven her point. Jack rolls his eyes at her.
“-bby, we’re going to the Pirates game and if we don’t get out of here in the next 15 minutes, we’re going to be late.”
“Oh, I see. It’s date night.”
“It’s not a date. Robby and I are just friends. Which I know you know, because we’ve discussed it more times than anybody should care about their boss’s personal life.”
“I only call it like I see it, boss.”
“It’s perfectly normal for two guys to watch a baseball game. That’s like the straightest thing two guys can do.” Jack cranes his head around again, searching for Robby. Seriously, where is he? He checks his watch. 13 minutes.
“Sure. Two straight guys who never go out just happen to be attending the Pirates game on Pride Night.” His head whips back to face Parker.
“Pride Night?” Jack asks.
“Mmhmm. I bet Robby paid for the tickets too, didn’t he?” Parker crosses her arms, tilting her head.
“Yeah, but we stopped paying each other back for stuff when you were in med school.”
“That isn’t the defense you think it is.” Jack opens his mouth to respond, but is saved by his name being yelled from the nursing station.
“Yo, Abbot! Can you please get your boy and leave?” Dana calls, standing behind the desk with Lena.
“See, it’s not just me.” Parker says before turning and heading toward the lockers. Jack walks over to the nursing station, leaning his elbows onto the desk in front of the two charge nurses.
“Good evening ladies.” Jack smiles broadly.
“Oh, not you too.” Dana scoffs, straightening up the things at her work station.
“Wh-” but she doesn’t give Jack a chance to speak.
“Stop.” Dana holds her hand up to his face.
“Go get Robby and get out of here. I can’t take it anymore.” That stops Jack in his tracks. Did Robby have a bad day? He sounded fine when he texted him an hour ago. He was really looking forward to tonight. It’s been a while since their shifts had lined up for them to do anything.
“Rough shift?” Jack asks, hoping he can get some details and start doing damage control. He sneaks another look at his watch. 9 minutes.
“No worse than usual. No, the problem is Robby has been practically giddy all day. Singing, whistling, doing little jigs. Not even Gloria could bring his mood down. It’s unnatural and scaring the med students.”
“So, your problem is that Robby is too happy?”
“Now you’re getting it.”
“He’s allowed to be happy, Dana. He deserves it and quite frankly it bothers me tha-”
“Stand down, soldier boy. I’m yankin’ your chain. He’s just been looking forward to it all day, so I want you to get out of here before he gets pulled into something else and is convinced he can’t leave.”
“Oh.”
“But don’t think I don’t know about the two of you. You’re not foolin’ anybody.” Dana looks at him from over her glasses.
“We’re best friends, Dana. Same as it’s always been. Nothing to know.” He can’t help the edge in his tone as he says it. Is he really that obvious to everybody?
“Unbelieveable.”
“What?”
“You two deserve each other. Seriously.” Dana huffs out a laugh before grabbing her purse and hoisting it over her shoulder. Something behind him seems to catch her eye.
“Right on time!”
“Jack!” Finally. Jack turns toward Robby’s voice and his brain short circuits at what he sees. Robby has already changed for the game and is wearing a pair of chino shorts that would be perfectly respectful on anyone else, but look obscene on his long legs. He’s wearing a white Pirates jersey open over a wife beater. He sees his magnum david necklace hanging across his chest. His hair looks damp, so he must have taken a quick shower before changing clothes. He wants to trace his tongue down the side of his ne-
“Hey man!” Robby finally reaches the nursing station and steps beside Jack. He claps his hand on Jack’s shoulder and squeezes before letting go.
“I ordered an Uber before I left the locker room. It should be here any minute. Man, I’ve been looking forward to this all day.”
“I heard.” Jack’s brain finally reboots, shaking the image of his tongue on Robby’s neck out of his brain.
“You okay?” Robby asks, looking concerned.
“He’s great, been waiting on your slow ass for the past 15 minutes. I don’t want to see either of you for the next 24-hours. Go!” Dana says. She practically pushes them out of the ED.
The Uber pulls up right as they step outside. Robby opens the door before stepping back to let Jack get in first. Robby slides in behind him before shutting the door and greeting the driver.
Parker’s voice is still in the back of his mind as they make their way to the stadium. He hears Robby chattering away about today’s bet on the betting board, but he’s not paying attention. Pride Night. Maybe Robby knew? Had he planned this? Could he feel the same? Jack can feel his heart rate picking up.
“Did you know tonight was Pride Night?” Jack blurts out, interrupting Robby.
“...Pride Night?” Robby looks confused.
“Yeah. It’s tonight.”
“Like I missed a holiday or?”
“At the ballpark.”
“Oh.” Robby suddenly looks like he’s not sure what to say.
“I had no idea. Is that okay?” Jack feels his face fall. Of course he didn’t know.
“Yeah, of course. I just didn’t know if you…knew. Beforehand.”
“Right. No, but we’re…allies? Right. Pride is cool! It’s fine.” Robby almost looks nervous as he looks at Jack. He can’t help but just stare at him for a second. Allies?
“Of course,” he whispers. He turns to look out the window as they get closer to the stadium. Neither of them talk after that.
By the time they make it over to the stadium, the place is overflowing with people. As soon as they shut the Uber door behind them, Robby reaches out to grab Jack’s hand, helping navigate him through the crowd. He looks down at their hands in awe. They’ve never held hands before. Jack’s hand tingles at the contact, but he squeezes Robby’s hand back as they inch closer inside. Robby pulls out his phone to scan their tickets without letting Jack’s hand go. He does drop it briefly to walk through the metal detectors, but grabs it again as soon as they both make it through.
Jack can’t help but look around them to see all of the other gay couples also walking with their hands clasped between them. Not that he and Robby are a couple of course. It’s just…crowd navigation. Perfectly hetero.
Robby abruptly comes to a stop in front of him.
“These lines are crazy. You want to grab the beers and I’ll grab us some food? I’ll meet you back at the seats?”
“Yeah, sounds good.” He feels Robby squeeze his hand one more time before dropping it and turning back into the crowd. Jack can’t help but flex his fingers at the loss of contact. He shakes his head and heads toward the beer cart. He needs a drink.
Twenty minutes later, Jack is finally juggling four beers on his way to their seats. No sense in having to get up twice. His leg feels fine right now, but he’d rather not have to navigate the stairs anymore than he has to. That’s the main reason he doesn’t get to as many games as he used to. Too many damn stairs. It’s not until he’s looking for their seat numbers that he realizes Robby bought seats that were on the ground level, meaning he didn’t have to navigate the stairs afterall. He knows how much more expensive and hard to find those seats can be and his heart clinches at the thought of Robby intentionally picking out these seats with him in mind. Their seats are at the end of the row so Jack goes ahead and slides into the second seat. He knows Robby prefers sitting on the end.
A few minutes later, a shadow looming over him blocks the sun. Thinking it’s Robby he starts talking immediately without looking up.
“Hey, any longer and I was going to start pilfering nachos from the neighbors!”
“I’d be happy to get you anything you wanted, handsome,” Jack startles at the voice that is clearly not Robby’s.
“Oh, sorry. I thought you were somebody else.”
“I can be anybody you want.” The guy is now sitting in Robby’s seat, leaned over the armrest into Jack’s space.
“Oh, uh-” Jack stutters. The man before him looks to be at least ten years younger than him, but he has to admit that he’s objectively handsome. It’s just that he prefers a man a little taller, a little broader, and with a lot more gray in his beard.
“I’m Brian. What’s your name?” Brian flashes his perfect white teeth at him.
“Jack.” He shuffles his beer around so that he can take the man’s hand. No sense in being rude. Brian shakes his hand, but then doesn’t drop it before continuing to speak. His hand is smooth and sweaty, nothing like the hand he held earlier.
“Nice to meet you, Jack. I couldn’t help but notice you sitting here by yourself. I was just wondering if you might be interested in-”
“He’s not interested.” Jack startles at Robby’s angry voice. He looks up to see Robby standing at the end of the aisle with nachos, two hot dogs, a bag of popcorn, and is that cotton candy? The sight would be comical if Robby didn’t look like he was ready to murder the man. So much for not being rude. Jack rips his hand out of Brian’s.
“Robby, this is Brian. He was just-” Jack tries to defuse the situation. He’s seen angry Robby enough to know when he’s about to blow.
“I heard enough. Move.” Robby continues to stare at Brian as the man finally takes the hint and lifts himself out of Robby’s seat.
“Sorry, man. Didn’t mean to offend.” Brian holds his hands up in surrender before scurrying away. Robby clinches his jaw as he watches him walk away. When he’s finally out of sight, Robby sits down in his seat.
“Sorry, about the wait.” Robby starts unloading half of the food into Jack’s hands, passing him the nachos and a hotdog.
“Some teenager was working the cotton candy machine and had gotten it all stopped up. It was crazy.” Jack just looks at him in shock.
“What was that?” Jack asks.
“Cotton candy? I know you pretend you don’t like it, but secretly get up between innings and eat it before you get back to your seat. I thought I’d save you the trouble.”
“No. With the guy? Brian.”
“Brian was in my seat. I paid good money for these seats! What was I supposed to do? Just let him sit here?” Robby shrugs like there was nothing at all weird about his behavior.
“No, but you didn’t have to be so rude. I was just about to tell him the seat was taken.”
“And I saved you the trouble. Eat your nachos before they get soggy.” Robby swipes a chip before unwrapping his hotdog. Conversation over.
Jack stares at him for another second before turning to his nachos. He does hate soggy chips.
Pirates are up 3-2 over the Reds at the end of the sixth inning. They’ve demolished all of the food Robby bought and Jack is feeling perfectly loose after three beers (the two he bought on the way in and the one Robby bought from the beer guy walking around). Robby’s arm is stretched out behind Jack and his fingers are rubbing his shoulder. Jack’s not even sure he’s noticed that he’s doing it, but he’s certainly not going to stop it. His eyes are roaming over the stadium, watching the different families and couples out enjoying the nice summer weather. His eyes land on the Jumbotron where he sees KISS CAM flashing brightly with hearts and rainbows around it. He watches as it flashes between various couples. A young gay couple make a dramatic show of kissing passionately, while an older lesbian couple look bashfully at their image on the screen before sharing a peck. Jack can feel a lump form in his throat as he tries not to look at Robby out of the corner of his eye. Will he ever be brave enough to risk what he has with him? To see if they could be even more?
He’s so lost in his thoughts that it’s not until Robby’s fingers on his back freeze and he hears the chants and whistles of the people around them that he realizes the people on the screen are him and Robby. Oh my god.
He looks over at Robby who has gone completely red and is actively looking everywhere but at him. He looks like he wishes the ground would open up underneath him and swallow him whole. Jack tries to laugh and shake off the attention, but inside he can feel his heart breaking. This is why he never said anything.
“KISS HIM!!!!” A small girl in front of them yells. Jack blushes at the attention.
“We really don’t ha-” Before he can finish, Robby has reached over and cupped his chin with his hand. He leans forward, glancing down at Jack’s lips.
“We don’t want to disappoint the people, do we?” Robby doesn’t wait for a response before closing the distance and pressing their lips together. Jack’s eyes immediately close as he sinks into the feeling. He feels the scratch of Robby’s beard, he tastes the beer on his lips and he swears this is the best thing he’s experienced in his entire life. Robby’s tongue swipes his bottom lip and he moans as they deepen the kiss. He finally registers the cheering around them and remembers they are surrounded by thousands of people in public. He pulls back abruptly. Robby’s eyes are still closed and he moves forward to chase Jack’s lips, but Jack stops him with a hand on his chest.
“I can’t do this.” Jack scrambles to his feet, quickly stepping over Robby’s shocked frame.
“Jack!” but Jack doesn’t stop. He picks up his pace, weaving through the crowd. Finally, he spots a handicap bathroom. He surges forward making it to the door and finding it unlocked. Thank fuck. He yanks the door open and turns to pull it shut behind him. It’s not until he’s reaching for the door again that he realizes Robby is right behind him. He moves his body in between the door and Jack.
“Jack, what are you doing?” Robby asks, sounding afraid.
“Go away, Robby!” Jack attempts to push Robby out of the way, but the older man won’t budge.
“Is everything all right over here?” Jack hears a security guard over Robby’s shoulder.
“Everything’s fine! I think my friend might be sick. I’m a doctor. I’m just going to check on him really quickly.” Robby yells over his shoulder, moving his body further into the bathroom. Jack realizes it’s a lost battle and moves to the other wall of the bathroom, as far away from Robby as possible. Robby closes the door and locks it behind him before turning back to face him. Jack has his arms wrapped around himself, biting his lips, trying not to cry. Robby starts to take a step toward him, but Jack stops him.
“Don’t.”
“Jack…talk to me.” Robby pleads, holding his hands out in front of him. Jack just shakes his head. What can he say that won’t ruin everything?
“If this is about the kiss, we can forget all about it.” Robby starts, which is exactly what Jack doesn’t want him to say.
“Forget about it? Yeah right.” he scoffs. As if he could ever forget about the feel of Robby’s lips on his.
“You think you can just kiss me and then we just forget about it? What the hell, man?” Jack’s pissed now.
“Yes! I mean, no. What was I supposed to do?” Robby brings his hands up and presses the palms of his hands into his eyes.
“Laugh it off? Ignore it? ANYTHING other than kiss me!”
“I’m sorry okay!” Robby yells, hands flailing around him.
“I just thought we were having a good time. Like we always do. After you brought up Pride Night, I don’t know. I thought maybe you were trying to tell me something. And I know I bungled it in the car, so I tried grabbing your hand. And putting my arm around you. You didn’t seem to hate it? Was I wrong about that?”
“No, you weren’t wrong.” Jack finally looks up at Robby.
“So when we landed on the kiss cam…I thought maybe this was the universe’s way of telling me to be brave.” Jack feels hope start to bloom in his chest. Could he mean what he thinks he means?
“Brave?” Jack tries to interject.
“But I’m sorry, it wasn’t right of me to just lay one on you without talking to you about it. Believe me, I won’t do it again. I never want to see that look on your face again.” Jack can see unshed tears in Robby’s eyes as he speaks.
“What if I wanted you to kiss me again?” Robby freezes.
“Don’t fuck around with me about this, Jack.” Robby’s voice takes a deadly tone. It’s unbelievably hot.
“I’m not fucking around.” Jack pushes himself off the wall and closes the distance between him and Robby.
“Then what the fuck are we arguing about?”
“I didn’t know you wanted me like that.” Jack admits quietly. “I didn’t want to ruin what we had.”
“Oh, for fuck’s sake.” and before he knows what’s happening, Robby’s mouth is back on his. His kiss steals the breath from his lungs and he reaches out for something to hold onto as he stumbles from the force of Robby’s body on his. Jack’s hands find the back of Robby’s head as he pulls him even closer. He feels like he might die if he doesn’t feel Robby’s tongue back in his mouth so he bites down on his bottom lip, earning a moan from Robby. He slips his tongue inside his mouth as they battle for dominance. Goddamn Robby had been holding out on him. Robby’s hands skim down his back before landing on his ass and squeezing him hard. It’s Jack’s turn to groan into the kiss.
All of the sudden, Robby rips his lips from Jack’s, gasping for breath. Jack surges forward to reconnect their mouths. Where is he going?
“Wait.” Robby gasps, pressing a short kiss to Jack’s lips.
“I have something I need to say.”
“Say it later.” Jack mumbles, grasping at Robby’s jersey to pull him closer, but Robby just leans his head back away from him.
“No, this is important.” Realizing Robby isn’t going to give up until he says whatever he’s going to say, he takes a step back. He sees Robby steel himself before opening his mouth to speak.
“You have to know. Before this goes any further, I have to tell you that I lov-” Jack removes his hands from Robby’s body and slaps one over his mouth in an instant.
“Don’t you dare say that for the first time in the bathroom at PNC Park.” Robby has the nerve to laugh at him.
“I’m serious, Robby. That can’t be the story we tell people.” Robby reaches up to grab Jack’s hand from his mouth and laces their fingers together.
“Oh, so we’re telling people? You've just decided this?” Robby tries to sound serious, but the crinkles by his eyes give him away.
“I think you decided when you decided to kiss me in front of 30,000 people.” Jack snarks back.
“I guess I did, didn’t I?” He can’t help but smile at the besotted look on Robby’s face.
“HEY, everything okay in there?” The security guard from earlier yells at them through the locked door.
“Everything’s great!” Robby yells, never taking his eyes off Jack.
“Everything’s perfect.”
—------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
After they finally made it out of the bathroom, they decided neither one of them were very interested in watching the end of the game. Jack’s head is resting on Robby’s shoulder in the back of the Uber back to his place. Their fingers are tangled together in Robby’s lap. Jack feels Robby’s lips kiss the top of his head and snuggles deeper into the other man’s side. He can’t believe it took them this long to get here.
Suddenly Jack feels his phone vibrate in his pocket. He reaches the hand not connected to Robby’s into his pocket.
Parker Ellis
Two New Messages
They better not be having some sort of night shift energy and need him to come in. He doesn’t think he could survive it tonight. He holds his breath as he unlocks his phone.
Not your boyfriend my ass.
Above the text is a picture of the Jumbotron from PNC Park. He quickly recognizes the sight of him and Robby locked together in a heated embrace, looking like they weren’t in the middle of 35,000 people. The tips of his ears burn looking at the picture.
Jack Abbot
How did you even get this picture?
Parker Ellis
Pride Night and you thought I wouldn’t have eyes and ears there? Robby’s making you sloppy, boss.
Jack chuckles before turning his screen where Robby can see it.
“Who’s that?” Robby murmurs, squinting at the bright screen.
“Ellis.”
“Ah.”
“You know she had us figured out a long time ago.”
“So did Dana.”
“You care if I send her a picture?”
“No. What could you send her that would be more incriminating than that?” He asks, gesturing back to his phone.
Jack opens up his camera before flipping the view so that he is staring back at the two of them in the frame. His head is still tucked into Robby’s shoulder, but he can’t see much more than Robby’s neck at this angle.
“Lean down.”
Robby tucks his head down, placing another kiss to the crown of Jack’s head. Jack snaps the picture. You still can’t see Robby’s entire face, but you can see his bearded jaw and where his lips and nose are pressed to the top of his silver curls. Satisfied, he sends the picture along with a single emoji: 🥰
Her response is almost instant.
Ew.
A minute later he receives a second notification.
Parker Ellis has loved an image.