CHAPTER 1

"Excuse me, Patrick? Sorry!" Patrick Drake skidded to a halt in front of the elevator at the sound of Elizabeth Webber's voice.

He turned to see her frantically waving him over to the Hub, the phone in her hand. He quickly moved over to join her.

"Your father's on the phone." she handed it to him. "I know you've been waiting for him to get in touch with you."

"Thanks." Patrick took the phone from her. "Do me a favor and keep an eye out for my wife, will you?" Acknowledging her nod with a wink of gratitude, he gave his full attention to the phone. "Dad, hey. Thanks for calling me back."

"No problem. I'm sorry it took so long. What's up?" "I was wondering if you could take a little time, a couple of weeks or so, from Doctors Without Borders and come home for a visit."

There was a pause on the line, which Patrick had been expecting. While the relations between Noah and both of his sons had improved with time and regular, if not constant, contact, Noah hadn't yet received a request from either son to come home unless it was a Thanksgiving or Christmas visit. Even those holidays were more of an automatic, expected thing, than either Patrick or Matt specifically asking Noah home for a visit.

"Is everything all right?" Noah finally asked. "Your brother? Robin and Emma?"

"Everything's fine now, Dad." Patrick moved to reassure him. Yet, in the interest of honesty, and letting Noah know that this was important to him, "We've had a long few months, but everything's okay now. I'd just really like to see you, and I know Robin and Emma would, too."

"Give me a few hours to make some arrangements and I'll get back to you to confirm, okay?"

The realization that he was one step closer to getting what he had wanted ever since Robin had opened up to him about her recent HIV complications brought a grin to his face. "Thanks, Dad, I really appreciate it. You've been missed around here."

"I've missed being there myself, Patrick. Give Robin and Emma a kiss for me. And make sure your brother's okay with it, all right?"

"Will do." Now wasn't the time to point that Matt had been absolutely fine with seeing Noah last Christmas and last Thanksgiving and the two had even bonded while making fools of themselves over Emma. "Call me at home, okay? I'm almost done here."

He handed the phone back to Elizabeth, whose eyebrows were lifting even as she hung up for him. "Well?" she asked, nearly unable to contain herself.

"Anna's already confirmed, and she's trying to reach Robert. Dad needs to make some arrangements and I'm going to try to get a hold of Leora's father and ask him if they can come for a few days."

"It's really great you're making this happen for Robin." Elizabeth remarked. "I know she's had a really difficult time over the past few months and it'll be really great to have her family around."

"Yeah, I'm looking forward to it myself." Patrick replied. "You and Kelly are okay with the party, right?"

"We will bring whatever details we need to bring to you, but it's still going smoothly. For now." Elizabeth reassured him. "Matt said he wanted to talk to you about balloons?"

Balloons. Patrick had to blink several times just thinking about the concept. "What does he mean by balloons?"

"I honestly have no idea." Elizabeth replied. "He's being sort of secretive over what he has control over."

"God help me." Patrick intoned, shaking his head. "Alright, I'll catch up with him. If you see him before I do, let him know I'm looking for him."