Written for the 10 Sentence Challenge, Week 11 at the Unconventional General Hospital board, If Only in My Fantasies.
Olivia runs into the emergency room reliving every mother's worst nightmare, wondering if this was the time their luck would run out, if this was the time her prayers wouldn't be answered, when Patrick rushes past her, promising to do everything he can to save her son before she can even say a word.
After surgery he finds her in the chapel, gazing up at the large golden cross adorning the wall, and, struck by a sense of deja vu, leads her back to the curtain separating her from her son, telling her now all they can do is wait.
Though Patrick is in the room checking Dante's vitals when he finally opens his eyes, he tries to sneak out, wanting to give Olivia a moment alone with her son before Lulu comes back; but, she has other ideas and reaches back, blindly seeking his hand, keeping him there, her eyes never leaving Dante.
Later, standing outside Dante's room, Patrick answers the question Olivia couldn't bring herself to ask out loud – Dante would make a full recovery – and holds her when she throws her arms around him in relief.
She comes back the next day bearing a dish of home-made manicotti, "Well, I wanted to thank you and I thought you and Emma might appreciate a good, home-cooked meal."
That afternoon Patrick and Olivia sit across from each other in the hospital cafeteria, sampling the manicotti and talking about raising children alone, the single greatest worry in Patrick's life since Robin died. Every decision Patrick makes now is with Emma at the forefront of his mind but he has his doubts about whether or not he will be able to be everything she needs; however, after seeing Olivia and her relationship with Dante up close, he knows he stands a fighting chance.
Though lunch may have been a simple matter of convenience, by the third time he finds himself sitting across a table from Olivia, eating a meal, he knows it's something more, and stops pretending it's some kind of accident. Even so, they continue to dance around the subject, Patrick still hurting over losing Robin and Olivia still nursing a broken heart from her relationship with Steve, but something feels inevitable when he's around her. He still wonders whether or not this will work but, once he sees Olivia, a natural with kids, with Emma, he knows it is also a chance he should take.
