This story is a bit different than what I've posted before. It's divided into six segments, each taking place over the next six months and each segment is divided into three specific scenes. I'll post one segment a month (on the last day of each month) so it'll almost feel like you're building up to the end the same way that Robin and Patrick are building towards the birth of the baby.
This story picks up in early April and nothing between Robin and Patrick is the same. Everything else on the show has happened. I started plotting this story before Robin announced her due date as October 21 (which if she conceived December 21, makes her pregnant for ten months) so my due date for her is September 21.
This story is also different in that it's meant for two purposes. One, it's a standalone fluff Scrubs story. Two, it's the backstory to Tangle for our dynamic duo. I'm writing it so that it works either way. I hope that you enjoy this :)
APRIL
1
Oh, the lovely fickleness of an April day!
William Hamilton Gibson
"I like the yellow."
Patrick nodded. "Yellow's nice."
Robin pursed her lips and tossed the fabric sample aside. "I think the green would be better."
"I agree completely," Patrick said. She eyed him and he held up his hands. "I have no opinion."
"You have to have an opinion," Robin stomped her foot. "This is your baby, too. What color do you want to see at three o'clock in the morning?"
"I don't think any color is going to let me forget I'm about to change a stinky diaper." Patrick pinched his nose. It had taken the better part of two weeks to convince Robin to move into his apartment and sublet hers to Maxie. His apartment had two bedrooms. It was closer to the hospital.
They had argued about it for days before Maxie had sat him down and carefully explained to him—in the strictest confidence, of course—that Robin was extremely insecure about the small dressing area she had for the nursery and talking about decorating that area was a surefire way to get his way.
Maxie had had a twofold reason for helping him – one, she'd actually thought it be good for Robin to have a bit more fulltime support and more importantly, two, she was making enough money to afford Robin's apartment.
It had worked but now Robin thought he wanted to be part of this decorating process and whenever he'd voiced an honest opinion, she'd started to cry.
Apparently, agreeing with her wasn't going to work either. Maybe shooting himself in the foot would clear things up.
"You have that look again," she complained.
"What look?" Patrick answered.
"You hate this and you wish I had never moved in." Robin flopped on the couch and sulked. "Because now you're stuck with a fat girlfriend and you hate me."
Oh good grief. Patrick sat on the edge of the coffee table. "Robin, you've gained ten pounds. No one even believes you're almost four months along."
"I am fat," she repeated flatly. She dragged her shirt up and touched the tiny bump that protruded. "And I'm just going to get fatter. You won't even be able to recognize me in a few months."
"Sweetheart, I barely recognize you now," Patrick said with a good-natured smile. He patted her knee. "You're not fat, you're pregnant. And hey, upside is that the bigger you get, the sooner you can feel the baby kick and you want that right?"
"Yes," she said glumly. "But it's taking forever." She huffed. "And I can't even settle on a color for the nursery. The entire thing is a disaster."
"You can't decide between the green and the yellow right?" Patrick said.
"They're not really unisex. I mean, green is totally a guy's color and yellow is so for a girl. What if I screw up this baby by choosing the wrong colors? Don't laugh at me," she warned, seeing the corners of his mouth curve up. "It's not a silly thing to worry about! Stupid things screw up kids all the time."
"I don't doubt that," Patrick said. "We can do this one of three ways. We can close our eyes, pick a color and hope for the best, we can wait to decorate the nursery until after the baby is born—"
"Pfft!"
"Or we can go to our ultrasound next week and ask Kelly to tell us the sex of the baby."
"I want it to be a surprise," Robin said stubbornly. She crossed her arms.
"Okay, then we can do it this way. Kelly will tell me the sex of the baby. I will tell Maxie and she will decorate the nursery."
"I want to decorate the nursery!" Her eyes filmed over with tears. "That nursery should be created by this child's parents, not an aunt who's…" she searched for the right word. "Who's Maxie."
"Okay, then Kelly will tell me the sex and I will decorate the nursery," Patrick said, running out of patience. He waited for her to veto the suggestion.
Instead, she stared at him. "You'd do that?" Robin asked softly. "Really?"
He hesitated. "Yes," he replied warily. He was never quite sure what the right answer was anymore.
"That is the sweetest thing!" She wrapped her arms around his neck and smacked a loud kiss on his lips. "You are going to be the best daddy."
Relieved, he joined her on the couch and wrapped his arm around her shoulders. He wasn't so bad at this after all.
And then it hit him of course.
He'd just agreed to decorate a nursery. Without Maxie's help.
Crap.
2
The April's in her eyes, it is love's spring,
And these the showers to bring it on.
William Shakespeare
"This is going to be a little cold," Kelly warned as she smeared the clear gel across Robin's bump. She grinned up at Patrick. "You excited for this, Daddy?"
"Sure," Patrick said, mostly because it was expected and he figured it would make Robin happy. Or she'd be less likely to cry. His goal for the day was to say or do as little as possible because just about everything that came out of his mouth these days upset her.
She was a minefield and he kept smacking up against them.
He was definitely interested in seeing this ultrasound. The baby wasn't abstract to him, but neither was it really concrete. He still was unsure if he could pull off being a father with any kind of success but he was willing to try very hard. He was secretly hoping that the paternal gene would kick in after viewing the ultrasound.
It worked in Nine Months after all.
"So, are we checking for the sex today?" Kelly inquired, reaching for the little wand she'd rub over Robin's tummy.
"I still don't want to know but Patrick volunteered to decorate the nursery," Robin said with a wicked smile. "So he gets to find out."
"You're going to decorate the nursery?" Kelly repeated. She stared at him. "For real?"
"I'm perfectly capable of buying some furniture," he muttered.
"You're not just choosing furniture!" Robin protested. "It's a color scheme, a concept! This is the room that our child is going to be spending a lot of time in. It has to feel like home!"
He saw her lower lip tremble and wanted to throttle Kelly. "Of course. I'm going to stop at the bookstore and stock up on some design books. The room will be perfect, I promise."
Kelly clearly had her doubts but she tactfully kept them to herself. She switched the screen on. "Well, let's see if Baby Drake is willing to help Daddy out and give us a color to work with." She fiddled a bit and smiled. "Here we go." She turned the screen to face them. "Everything looks fabulous."
"Wow." Patrick blinked. He'd seen ultrasounds before, had watched them on television so he knew that he would be able to see the head and the limbs but maybe there was something to that daddy gene kicking in at the ultrasound. That was his kid on the screen, after all. Half him, half Robin. Pretty cool concept.
"Everything's normal?" Robin asked anxiously. "I haven't gained much weight."
"Sweetie, you're going to wake up one morning and wish you hadn't complained about not gaining the weight. You're going to have a basketball there." Kelly grinned. "But, everything is normal. Right size." She hit a few screens. "Baby Drake is also going to help Daddy with the color scheme but I'll save that for when you're changing." She patted Robin's hand. "You're going to get some energy back; you're into your second trimester. The nausea is going to fade a bit, but it might not go away."
After she'd sent Robin out of the room, Kelly held out the ultrasound photo to Patrick. "Congratulations, Daddy, you've got a very healthy daughter."
"Daughter." Patrick sat back down on the stool hard. "Christ. I don't know anything about daughters."
Kelly arched an eyebrow. "They're not that much different than sons."
"But they are," Patrick said. "There's going to be ballet lessons and lacy dresses and boys are going to want to touch her." He frowned. "I'm going to go to jail for beating up boys, aren't I?"
"It's a possibility." Kelly patted his shoulder. "Cheer up. You could get a tomboy that likes to play sports. You could even teach her to appreciate the finer art of race cars."
The idea started to appeal to him but then he remembered just how fast those cars could travel and no way in hell was his kid getting in a car like that!
"She can watch," Patrick said. "But that's it."
3
Sweet April showers
Do spring May flowers.
Thomas Tusser
Patrick planted his hands on his hips and glared at the wallpaper in the second bedroom. He'd bought some books, watched a few television shows. How hard could it really be to strip the wallpaper?
Very difficult apparently as he was into hour three and had only managed half a wall. He still had six months to accomplish it but he was beginning to wish he hadn't volunteered to do this. With his luck, it would be all wrong and Robin wouldn't let their kid sleep in here a night before wanting to change it.
"Any fumes in there?" she called. "Or colors I shouldn't see?"
"Other than the crap green that was already here," he muttered. "Fumes are gone, I'm taking a break."
Robin entered and sat on the floor cross-legged, a notebook in front of her. "I have a few things we need to discuss."
"Wonderful," Patrick said, trying to sound sincere. "Where do we start?"
"First…" Robin glanced up. "Can you sit down, too? My head is going to ache if you keep this up."
Patrick folded his long legs into the same cross-legged style. "Okay, shoot."
"First," Robin repeated, "I wanted to tell you that I really do appreciate how supportive you've been, even when I've been a little…" she hesitated, "unstable."
"Nothing to it."
"You didn't exactly sign up for this and you're really going out of your way to be a good guy." She stopped. "I know we haven't really established this, but I thought we should put it into terms. I'm living here, we're sharing a bed, so you know, I guess we're back together."
"I had assumed that, yes."
"Good, good, that takes care of another item." She actually marked it off. "So even when I get really fat and unbearable, you won't leave me right?"
Patrick scrubbed a hand over his face. "That's a trick question right? If I say of course not, you're going to assume I think you're going to get fat and unbearable and sock me.. If I say yes, you're going to sock me. If I say nothing, you're going to sock me. So just go ahead and sock me."
She smiled faintly. "I'm sorry, I know I haven't been very easy to deal with. My emotions are all over the place and I'm sure if feels like everything I ask you is a declaration of war. I'm trying to work on that."
"Okay, with that in mind, then I can say that I love you," he said. "I don't love you because you're thin and let's face it, you've never been easy going. Most of our relationship has been somewhat prickly, so I don't really see that changing because your hormones get a bit whacky
and you're not going to be fat, you're going to be pregnant. Also, I knocked you up so I can't complain much. You're going to give me a kid, right? So it's a win-win situation."
"Are you…looking forward to this baby a little more?" she asked softly. "I guess…I want to know if you want the baby."
"Kelly told me the sex of the baby," Patrick said, "and I have to say, it did change things a little. I was always going to step up and do the right because that's the way my mother raised me but I could kind of picture the baby now. And while the future scares the hell out of me, it's not because I'm going to have a kid, it's because of all the things in that world out there that the kid can get a hold of that's going to hurt them. That is a very scary world out there, Robin, with poisons and bad people and people who speed on residential streets. Can we just leave the kid in one of those playpen things until its eighteen?"
She laughed and leaned forward to kiss him. "That's very cute. No."