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It turns out that the staff of the hospital are harbouring a hell of a lot of secrets, ranging from STEALS FROM THE CAFETERIA to STEALS FROM THE PHARMACY, so Mindy's had an interesting week at work.

Why she doesn't have a secret on her own back, she's not really sure, except maybe because she's always worn her heart on her sleeve, anyway.

By the end of the week she's had enough of the halls of the maternity ward looking like the halls of that high school in Mean Girls, and she needs a drink. Or several. As much as she loves Leo and as guilty as she feels asking the sitter to come by so she can get out, sometimes she just needs her own time. Her own space.

After all, it's only been a few months since she had to learn that she doesn't really get her own space anymore. At least, not in any way that lasts.

God, sometimes she wishes Danny was around just for diaper duty.

"I'll have another glass of the red," she tells the bartender, shameless, before glancing around to see if there's anyone handsome she can convince to buy the next round.

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In spite of all sorts of coaxing, of reassurances that he's allowed to have his own life and isn't being neglectful if he goes out on his own for a while, Sam still doesn't really get out much these days. Most of his nights are spent in with Jordan, quiet and usually involving working, and he's come to like it that way. From the time Andrea found out she was pregnant, the one thing he knew he wanted was not to wind up like his own father, to give his kid a better childhood than the one he had, and he thinks he's managed that, that even as a single parent, he's been present. That trumps everything else.

Still, he's trying, he is, to give himself some leeway, which is what has him drinking in a bar, a neighbor watching Jordan, rather than in his apartment. It feels a little less depressing than drinking alone, anyway, even more so when he spots a familiar face at the bar and heads over to join her. "Hey, Mindy," he says with a smile. "What's up?"

"Whoa, hey, stranger," Mindy says when she spots Sam. She had wanted some grownup time to herself but that doesn't mean that she can't share it with other grownups. Especially one like Sam who may be one of the only few friends she has that actually has any idea what she's going through. "Just celebrating the end of one really, really weird week. What are you doing here?"

"Working on the whole having a life of my own thing," Sam says with a wry twist of his lips, knowing that Mindy, of all people, will probably get it. Being a parent, and especially a single parent, has at least in his experience meant that he doesn't have a whole lot of time for things like this, and that it's harder to let himself than it probably should be. "You know how it is."

"Uh, hell yeah I do," Mindy says, gesturing at her wine glass. Of course, drinking alone at a bar doesn't really suggest that she has a life, but it does suggest she has one beyond sharing tiny jars of chocolate custard with her son while they watch some knockoff version of Sesame Street. As much as she enjoys that. "What are you in the mood for? My treat."

"Oh, just a beer. Whatever's on tap," he says, attention turning briefly towards the bartender when they catch his notice, the man nodding in response. He was never too much for it anyway, but these days, Sam never really feels right drinking to get drunk. Tonight is a nice break, and probably overdue, but that doesn't mean he needs to go overboard with it. Turning to Mindy again, he grins. "Thanks."

"Anytime," Mindy says. She means it, too. She has all of the time in the world for Sam, with the caveat that neither of them has really any time at all. But they share something that most people don't, and it's nice to be around someone who gets it. And someone, she gets the impression, who's also had his heart broken. "Not to, like, ruin time away from the kids, but how's Jordan?"

"She's good," Sam says, and can't help grinning, in spite of the fact that, like she's said, they've both come out to have some time for themselves. "I swear, sometimes it seems like she gets bigger every day. It's crazy, you know?" If anything, it's probably normal, at least to feel like that's the case, but he still finds himself thinking sometimes about how he never imagined or expected this for himself, and it's absolutely goddamn mind-blowing. "How's Leo?"

"Oh, he's a handful," Mindy says, taking a sip of her wine almost pointedly. That he's a handful is her response to almost everyone but really, Leo's a great kid. She's not sure what she would have done if he'd turned up and been a total brat. "Walking, kind of. Mostly stumbling. I don't know what the hell I'll do when he can run. I am not nearly fit enough."

"God, seriously. For as short as their legs are, kids can be fast," Sam says with a slightly exaggerated sigh, reaching for his own drink in turn. "It's crazy, too. The kind of thing that... even when you know it's gonna happen, and that it's gonna happen soon, it's hard to believe." All of Jordan's milestones have been like that for him, in no small part because he never expected to be a parent. "Obviously we're really good at this getting some time to ourselves thing."

"Oh, we're killing it," Mindy grins. When she thought about being a mom, which was a surprising amount, it was nothing like this.

Of course, in that fantasy she wasn't single, but she also had crazy amounts of hired help and didn't do half of the things she finds herself doing firsthand every day.

The things she's kind of grown to like doing, simply because they're for Leo. "I'm going to need way, way more wine to stop worrying about whether or not I left enough diapers for the babysitter, believe me."

"In that case, next round's on me," Sam says, laughing fondly. It's a feeling he knows well, and even now that Jordan has gotten somewhat older, he still worries about things like that more often than not. Hearing the same coming from someone else is a little comforting, at least. He figures it probably comes with the territory of being a parent, especially for single parents like them, people for whom this was more than a little unexpected. "I think we could probably use it."

"I think we've earned it," Mindy adds. She's always given her patients credit for pregnancy and getting through childbirth and all of that, but now she has even more admiration for the rest of it. Late nights and early mornings and fevers that just don't seem to want to break. "So was your week filled with other people's secrets, too?"

"A few," Sam says, one shoulder lifting in a shrug. "Nobody I'm that close to had to deal with anything, at least." Of course, that may well be in part because his social circle is relatively small these days, but he's not any less grateful for it. Some of what he saw people walking around wearing seemed pretty harsh. "Anything particularly noteworthy on your end?"

"Uh, hell yeah," Mindy says with a breath of a laugh because oh, she has stories. She's not sure that they're hers to divulge but it's not like she's naming names. "I work in a hospital. With nurses. It was like an episode of Space Hospital. I think the cops were called."

"Well, that sounds exciting," Sam says, letting out a laugh. "Anything particularly noteworthy, or would that fall under doctor/patient confidentiality?" It doesn't seem like it should, but it's not his line of work, and he doesn't want to just assume. If she can talk about it, though, he'd bet some of them were pretty damn entertaining.

Edited 2016-06-29 02:34 (UTC)

"Oh, no," Mindy says, shaking her head. "It was more, like, work people stuff. Nurses. Pharmacists. Pharmacists are super shady, don't let their degree fool you. Also janitors have really interesting home lives. I think one on the med surg ward might be a murderer. Or was a murderer? It didn't specify if he was reformed."

"Holy shit," Sam says, startled but amused. It's definitely more serious than what he'd been expecting to hear, anything related to interpersonal drama. Something like that, he imagines he'd be pretty unnerved by. "I hope he was reformed. That might, uh, not be the best workplace, otherwise."