Chapter 1
Standing in front of her locker at General Hospital, Robin Scorpio sighed heavily and thought back to the days, when life seemed somewhat simpler. She would go out drinking with her girlfriends and come into work the next day and still refreshed. That was before she became a mother and a wife. She wasn't complaining about motherhood, because Emma was the most important person in her life and she wouldn't trade having her for anything, not even the mess her life had been for the past few months. Robin was aware that right now, Emma was probably the only steady thing in her life. If she could, she would have taken Emma and gone to spend a few months in Rome with her mother. Anna had been encouraging her to come out there for a while now and if it wasn't for the fact that she had patients counting on her and that Emma needed Patrick, she would have packed her things and gone. Thinking about Patrick made her want to put a fist through her locker. She had forgiven him for cheating on her with his psycho ex-girlfriend for their daughter's sake. She didn't want Emma growing up with parents that bickered and hated each other. She admitted that although Patrick disappointed her as a husband, he was a great father. It made her grit her teeth to have to admit anything decent about him, but she prided herself in giving credit where credit was due. Now all she had to do was find a way to co-parent and avoid him at the same time. Yeah, that would be simple enough. Sigh.
As she shut her locker and turned around, she came face to face with the current bane of her existence, Dr. Lisa Niles. Raising her eyebrows, Robin decided she wasn't in the mood to deal with the crazy bitch this early. She had skipped her morning coffee in order to get Emma to daycare on time.
"Practicing your stalking techniques Dr. Niles or is this your friendly morning talk". For the last few days, Lisa would single Robin out and attempt to talk to her. Robin knew it was another one of Lisa's ploy to look like she was making an effort to "get along" with Robin, but most of her talk was full of innuendo about Patrick and Robin's life. Robin had decided to ignore the CB because it was either that or punch her in the face again. She knew that was what Lisa wanted in order to get her suspended or fired, and she wasn't going to play into her hands. Robin knew how to be patient. She had initially reacted to Lisa's schemes because she had been in shock and a little disconcerted. She and just learned that the husband she had so much faith in had betrayed their marriage and that the woman he had cheated with was going after her and her daughter. Admittedly, it had felt good to punch Lisa in the face and watch her drop, but in hindsight, it hadn't been her finest hour. Now that Robin had had time to take a step back and assess the situation, her outlook was different. She still had the urge to throttle the narcissistic psycho, but she was a Devane –Scorpio and could bid her time. Lisa didn't know who she was messing with and it gave Robin a little satisfaction to know that she would come out on top in the end.
"Really Robin, a little professionalism wouldn't hurt". Lisa smirked.
"Really Lisa, a little medication would help" Robin grin and walked away, she just wasn't in the damn mood to be passive aggressive today. As she ducked out of the door, she ran into the other problem in her life, he was coming into the locker room with Elizabeth Webber.
"Hey, are you okay?" Patrick asked with concern, he could tell that Robin was upset, but trying to control it. Despite what she thought, he knew her inside out which also meant that he knew that getting her back would be nearly impossible but being an idiot didn't make him a coward. He was determined to put his family back together and earn back his wife's trust. He was giving her the time and space she had asked for out of respect.
"I'm fine, just ridding myself of bug". She threw over her should as she continued past them.
Walking into the locker room and seeing Lisa come around the corner, Liz laughed "more like a virus" she said to Patrick. Liz was torn because she was close to both Patrick and Robin. When she had been going through her breakdown the year before, Robin had been there for her. She had talked to Robin about everything and gotten some good advice from her. She was also close to Patrick and he had been there for her also, so she was torn between her two friends. She hated seeing what had become of them. Before she left to see her sister Sarah, they had been in a good place. Sure they had some issues but after everything they had been through, she figured they were one couple who could get through anything. She couldn't judge Patrick because she had done much worst then him, but she felt like she was betraying Robin by supporting him. This had driven a little wedge in their friendship and she wanted to fix it. She hadn't really had a heart-to heart with Robin since she came back and she knew that Robin thought she had taken Patrick's side, as childish as that sounded, but she hadn't. She just didn't know what to say to her friend. How was she to give advice, when she was no better than Patrick.
"Hi Patrick, Elizabeth" Lisa called out.
"What did you say to Robin?" Patrick crossed his arms
"Good Morning, all I said was good morning and she got all huffy and stormed out. That girl can really use a reality check" she shook her head
"Says to the pot the kettle" Liz murmured just loud enough for Lisa to hear and then walked away.
"Patrick we are due in surgery in 20mins" she reminded him.
"Are you talking about the Dawkins surgery? I wanted in on that but the chief said you requested Loacer." Lisa pouted "come on Patrick, you know I'm the best, we could rock that surgery"
"Thanks Lisa, but I already have my team put together" He gritted his teeth. He was trying to be civil, but his patience was coming to an end. He knew that all of this was his fault. If he hadn't slept with Lisa, she wouldn't have thought they had a chance to be together and gone after Robin and Emma. And if he hadn't had insisted Mac send her to Shadybrook instead of jail, she wouldn't be back messing with them again. He was working overtime to appear civil towards her and avoid giving her more reason to spin even more out of control.
"You ready Liz?" he asked her as he opens the patient's chart and head out the door.
"Right behind you Doctor".
Robin approached the nurse's station with care, she had been limiting her contact with the current chief of staff in an effort not to go off on him again since he hired Lisa back on the staff. She had thought Steve now Dr. Webber, had enough common sense to know the chick was nuts. She used him to get to Patrick and he still felt sorry for the nut job. He had tried to explain to Robin that he was only doing what was in the best interest of the Hospital, but she called him on his bull. He went on about how Lisa was a good surgeon who had made some bad choices and as a doctor who had sworn to heal, he wanted to give her a chance to get her life back together. Robin had listened and told him he was full of shit. She had gone on to tell him that if and when Lisa did something to jeopardize the hospital, it was on him. He had apologized for all she had been through and told her he was there if she needed to talk. She knew that Steve was basically a good guy, who wanted to see the best in everyone and do the right thing, but in this case, he was flat out wrong. And she had told him as much, then walked out. She had later apologized for walking out but not what she'd said. He had accepted her apology and told her he hoped they could go back to being on friendly terms. When he'd first come to GH, they had developed a friendship out of common bond, Patrick's ego and Elizabeth's breakdown. She could talk to him about stuff without him judging her and vice-versa. He also didn't hesitate to call her on her crap and she didn't mind because he didn't have an ulterior motive. Now all she talked to him about was her patients and hospital business.
Steve Webber hurried over to the nurse's station when he rounded the corner and saw Robin talking to Epiphany. He was excited to tell her about the new patient they had just checked in. After doing the initial tests, Steve had come to the conclusion that Mr. Larsen was the perfect patient to try out the new drug therapy Robin had developed. He knew she was excited about it and had been working on the protocol for the last three years. When he came back to GH as chief of staff, she was one of the first people he'd met and really liked, hell, he had been attracted to her. Then he had seen her wedding ring and she introduced herself and he had pushed the attraction to the back of his mind and become her friend. She use to come to him when she had breakthroughs just to get his opinion. Now after the whole Lisa debacle, she could barely stand to be in the same room with him. He couldn't fault her for her professionalism, except the one time she had gone off on him, but he figured he owed her that much. He missed talking to her and bouncing ideas off her. He knew she thought he was being too forgiving with Lisa, but he'd known women like Lisa all hi life. If she didn't get what she wanted, in this case Patrick, she would become even more unstable then she was before. He needed her close where he could keep an eye on her. He figured if he kept her busy with work, it would leave her less time to wreak havoc on Robin's life. He couldn't appear to show favoritism because as chief of staff he had to remain objective. When he'd heard that Lisa had left Robin in that well, he'd knew that she was more dangerous than they had original thought. He suspected she had something to do with the dead nurse in the stairwell, but couldn't prove anything. He had launched a discrete investigation into it, but hadn't come up with anything as of yet.
"Heads up, here comes the chief" Epiphany muttered. She and Doctor Scorpio had been discussing Emma's latest "cute" moment. Everyone on staff adored that little girl and Epiphany felt especially soft towards her because she had witnessed most of her parent's relationship. She was particularly saddened by the state of said relationship now all because Drake Jr. couldn't keep it in his pants. After all that boy had put her and the rest of the staff through trying to get Robin to marry him, he had to go an mess it up by sleeping with Dr. Niles.
"Thanks" Robin turned to see Steve coming towards her with an animated look on his face.
"Robin" he grabbed her shoulder in excitement, forgetting at the moment that she was in professional mode. "We just had a patient come in with acute sensitivity to his frontal lobe. I ran some tests and found a tumor but it's not possible to perform surgery where it's located. I think he will benefit from your new drug protocol. His vital and stats are in line with the requirements for the drugs and if it works, he wouldn't have to have surgery at all." He drew in a deep breath and watched her reaction. He saw the mental debate between excitement and her need to be professional with him. He saw her excitement win and smiled as she snatched the folder from his hands.
"Did you run his blood tests, check his MRI, do a…"
Putting his hands up to stop her "Robin, I checked everything, I still have my medical license you know, I don't just tell you guys what to do" he laughed.
"Ha ha, you have been in more meetings lately than the OR so I'm not sure" she countered. She forgot for a moment that she was supposed to be his employee not his friend. "Jeremy Bradley Larsen" she read the name aloud, "35 year old male in excellent physical condition. No previous illness and no family history. He must be freaking out, I mean you come in for a headache that won't go away and find out you have an inoperable tumor" she looked back up at Steve . "Did you explain the protocol to him?"
"I wanted you to do it since it's yours, I figured you had a much better chance of assuring him then I did"
"Ok, let's go see Mr. Larsen"
Robin was still meticulously looking through the patient's chart when she and Steve walked into the room, so she had her head down when he introduced her.
"Mr. Larsen, I'd like you to meet Dr. Scorpio-Drake, she is going to be taking over your case. She is the best..." his voice trailed off as he noticed the look that past between the patient and Robin.