Chapter Fourteen: Savin' Me

Cabin

Patrick carries his wife Emily, through the fire and wreckage that has become the cabin. All the while hoping they would all have time.

Time to get out and do so much more with their lives. Time to live the way they were always supposed to. Time to screw up, to fail sometimes but realize that there would always be someone there for you.

But he didn't have time to worry about that.

He finally reaches the outside and breathes in the cool, fresh air that the fire has deprived them of. He hastily drops Emily on the snow and checks to see if she's still breathing. She is.

So he races back into the cabin for her. The one person that he could not lose today...or any day. He begins to try and untie her. It takes even longer than before but he is finally able to get her lose from the ropes that had bound her.

He immediately scoops her up into his arms as he had done so many times before through the years. He puts her close to his chest and as she sinks into him, still hanging on to life as they begin to venture back out of the house.

"You came back." She whispers, her voice shallow and subdued with fitful coughs.

"I'll always come back to you Robin. That's something that will never change."

"I know and I can't help but love you even more for it."

"I love you too." As they continue their outward journey, she holds his cheek as she reaches in for a kiss. But their moment is cut off by sirens in the back round and they continue on, reassured that everything will be okay. But in a second, their hope is shattered.

The cabin begins to collapse and in seconds, or what seems like hours, Patrick and Robin share one look.

Just one final look, before it's over and it all falls to pieces.

They can only watch as the ceiling comes crashing down.

Patrick can only watch as he sees the wood fall down onto Robin's head. And she can only look at him in what may be their final moment.

All this and more happens in the seconds before the cabin comes crashing down, along with their lives, their hearts. Smothering them into oblivion.

Outside

Jason pulls off onto the side of the cabin as his worse fears are realized. The cabin is overwhelmed with giant flames and his sister and Patrick might still be inside.

Ambulance sirens ring out, not too far away and Jason is even surprised to hear a helicopter from above. He notices this but doesn't have time to over think it. He has to find his sister.

He looks out ahead of him and is shocked to see a woman lying in the snow, in the distance. It's Emily.

He races to her and picks her up in his arms not knowing what to do or say. Not knowing if she was even alive. He puts his hand near her mouth and feels her breathing slowly, but she's still alive, it's all that counts.

"Emily, you have wake up." He says and yet he gets no response. The EMTs he sent for just in case something like this had happened come over quickly and begin to work on her. They yell things to each other about smoke inhalation, and possible drugs in her system. All things that he can hardly understand as he stares at her. They intubate her and hook her up to a ventilator as they begin to put her onto the stretcher.

For a few moments, all he could see was Emily. The little girl that had held his hand when he was in the hospital and let him know it was okay to be himself. The little girl that grew up into a woman and became the one person in his life that he knew he could count on every time.

And now that same little girl was in a stretcher.

He puts his hand through his hair, a trait the both shared, and looks behind him to see Anna and Robert drop out of the helicopter practically in front of him.

"Where's Robin? Where's my daughter?" Anna asks fearfully to Jason as Robert holds her. They both watch the cabin.

"I didn't know she was here but I think Patrick's inside. We have to get to him now."

"But Robin told us she was coming with Patrick. They could both be in there." Robert asks.

"We need to get in there and find out."

The three of them begin to race to the house when the firefighters stop them from doing so.

"You can't go in there. The cabin might collapse at any moment and the fumes in there are lethal. Back up and let us do our jobs."

"My daughter could be in there. I've lost too much time with her and I'm not letting her die in there. I'm going in there." Robert says as Anna is alerted to some movement and slight sound in the distance. She looks off to find two people in the distance, and a woman lying on the ground.

"Robert, I think that's Robin. Something's wrong, I just know it." They all run the few yards it takes to get to the three and they realize that it's not Robin lying there on the floor dead. It was Elizabeth Spencer.

"What happened to her?" Jason asks as he sees the mother of his daughter Rose lying there, in the snow. Something tells him that his daughter would not grow up with her mother.

"He-he did this to her. He killed my wife." Lucky whispers from his spot on the snow.

"Does this mean that, that Robin's dead too? Nikolas, where's Robin?"

"I don't know," he says disoriented as he watches his brother hold his wife's hand in his and sob quietly, "she should be in the cabin."

"Wake up Cassadine, the cabin's on fire and if she's in there, she could be, she could be..." Robert lets his voice trail of as the pungent scent of smoke finally registers in Nikolas' brain.

"Oh God, Robin."Nikolas mutters.

They all turn to the cabin as it collapses.

They stare into the rubble for a split second before chaos erupts.

"My daughter, I have to go save her." Anna screams as she tries to run into the cabin, before Robert stops her.

"She's gone luv." Robert says with tears in his eyes as he tries to console Anna and even himself. The feeling of losing the daughter that he was finally beginning to know just wrenches him in two.

"She can't be." Nikolas says as they all stand in front of the cabin, seeing the fire fighters scurry to get in to the building and finally do something.

But Anna won't have it. "Suck up those tears Robert. There's no reason to cry. We taught her how to survive through everything. She wouldn't-she couldn't..."Anna's voice fades as they watch everything around them.

Lucky on the cold snow, mourning his wife. Emily fighting to stay alive, being put into the stretcher, the rubble of the cabin, the fire finally beginning to diminish...with Patrick and their little girl in it.

How did it all come to this?

The reality begins to sink in for all of them, even though they wish so hard that it wasn't all true. That they could turn back the clock and go back to when they were all happy and could be forever.

Yet even as they begin to realize what may have become their daughter's fate. Anna, Robert, Nikolas, and Jason don't give up and keep searching for some clue that they could still be alive.

"They could still be okay, we just need to keep trying and searching." Jason says.

"You're right. We can't give up on them now. We have to know that they're still in there needing us to help them." Nikolas replies.

Despite the fire fighters wishes they all begin to search the perimeter of the house and remove the woods from parts of the cabin no longer engulfed in flames.

They hardly realize it when Patrick staggers out from the back of the cabin, with Robin's seemingly lifeless body in his arms.

Minutes Before

"Robin! Robin" Patrick yells as he searches for her. The last time he saw her a piece of wood had collided with her head. In the confusion and in the rubble they had gotten separated.

"Patrick." He hears a soft whispers and lifts some wood to get to her, even though his side aches tremendously while doing so.
"Your okay. I was worried that-I was worried that..."

"I know Patrick, I know." She looks at him as she's on the floor and strokes his cheek. "It's almost over Patrick. We don't have time to both get out of here alive."

"What do you mean? We're going to get through this together."

"I mean that, " she begins as she bites back tears, "you need to go... without me."

"But Robin-"

"I'm stuck and you don't have time to get me out. No Patrick, just save yourself. Get out of here and live for the both of us. Its okay to go." She says as her voice sounds so hoarse and shallow he can barely hear it.

"Haven't you figured it out by now Robin? My life isn't worth living unless it's with you. I will never leave you again" She looks at him speechless as he works to get her free and finally does.

"Your incredible, you know that." She tells him as he picks her up.

"I do and once I get you out of here, I'll have even more reason for my big ego. After all I'm practically a hero. SuperPat, they'll call me." He tells her trying to call her and keep her awake, knowing that after her head injury falling asleep could be dangerous.

"You are so lame Drake." She says, now even more disoriented than before. She begins to close her eyes, as they stand, just a few feet from the kitchen door, barricade by some wood.

"You can't go to sleep Robin. You know you have to stay up."

"I will... I will. It's just I feel so cold on the inside you know. I feel like I'm slipping farther and farther away. I don't know how to stop it."

"Yes you do," he says as he moves the objects in their way. "Just think about all we can have once we get out. Maybe we'll get married some day and we can have lots of kids and a house with a white picket fence. Anything we want, we can have now. You just have to keep fighting for it."

He reaches the outside and goes to the front of the house, slowly because of the pain he feels. He sees so many people out in front waiting for them, disbelief in their eyes. All she sees is a blur.

"They're both out." The head fire fighter yells as they all watch Patrick stagger out of the cabin with Robin.

He places her gently on the snow as her parents, Jason, and Nikolas look on, all relieved and happy about them being alive in different ways.

"Is she hurt? Is she okay?" Are the questions heard all around as Patrick and the EMTs begin to spout medical jargon to try and help her in anyway they can.

"I will be." Robin, tells them right before the intubator is placed in her throat allowing her to breathe and she closes her eyes.

"Didn't you know?" Patrick asks. "Robin's always been a fighter. That's not going to change today."

General Hospital

The helicopter had landed just minutes ago holding Robin and Emily.

Now they were in GH's Emergency Room and as Patrick began to check Robin thoroughly he found that what he saw became more and more unsettling.

He checked her pupils which were now of unequal size and the bump on her head he realized had become so much more. Even though it seemed that she was awake and pulling through, Patrick had screwed up. He had missed all the signs before that told him something was wrong.

She had an Epidural hematoma. If he didn't operate soon, the intracranial pressure would kill her within hours. He would lose her...all over again.

He busted through her room doors and saw his father, on the way too see him.

"Patrick I'm so sorry about Emily and Robin. But it seems like like Emily's pulling through. Some smoke inhalation and side effects from the chloroform but she'll pull through. How's Robin?"

"It's great that Emily's pulling through and you have to know that she's' pregnant before you do anything else. About Robin, I think she has an epidermal hematoma and the bleeding and pressure in her brain can't be good. I need to operate now." Patrick says intense, and determined.

"I'm going to be a Grandpa. That's great and I'm happy for you two. But about you operating on Robin I don't think that's a good idea Patrick. Have you looked at yourself, you're a complete mess and the way your holding your side you could have a broken rib or punctured lung. Even your hands are scared. You can't afford to do this surgery."

"You don't understand Dad," he says insistently, "I can't afford not to. I've screwed up with Robin too many times for us to give up the chance to finally be together. You have to let me do this."

As chief of surgery and even more as a father he looks at Patrick and remembers that he was in his place once. He took a chance and operated on her, the love of his life. And he let her die. For years he struggled with it, and numbed himself through alcohol. He didn't want Patrick to go through all this yet he knew it would be even worse if made him do nothing but watch as she got worse or died.

He nods. "Okay. Scrub up. I'll set you up with a surgical staff now."

Patrick practically runs through Robin's door yet pauses when he sees Nikolas in there. I feel like shoving him off his seat and taking his place near Robin. But even he deserves a moment with her. I'll go see Emily.

Robin's Room

Nikolas sits by Robin and places her hands in his as he gently presses them to his lips.

"I'm not used to this you know. Sitting here talking to you without a single word. You were never one to be quiet and you always speak your mind. That's one thing I loved...love about you."

"I know it's been hard between us and chances are, we'll never be together. But I never wanted it to end like this. I never wanted to see you in any more pain. The doctors are saying all these things that I can't understand and I don't know where it might go from here."

"I just wish you could wake up," he tells her, "I just wish you'd be okay."

He looks at her and wills her to wake up and be okay. To make even the slightest move. Nothing.

Emily's Room

Meanwhile Patrick walks into Emily's room and is again overwhelmed by all he sees. He's been in and out of rooms like this so many times but it was different now. It was different watching someone you cared about lying in one of those beds, never knowing if they might wake up.

He takes a seat as his side shoots up in pain. He ignores it knowing that now was not the time get help. Not until he helped them both.

"I know I'm not used to saying things like this, especially at times like these. But I know one thing. I need you to be okay."

"When you told me you were pregnant, I'll admit that I freaked out. To know that there's a little life inside you that we didn't plan on was a lot to handle at first. But we can do it. I know we can. You just need to pull through."

He almost wants to add that he still couldn't giver her and their child the life she wanted. That his heart was still with someone else. But looking at her lying there so sick, he could only give her hope to fight whatever would come next.

He walks out into the room and into the hallway.

Robin's surgery prep will begin soon now that she's stabilized. If I ever screw up on one surgery. I swear, this won't be it. He looks into Robin's room and almost instantly looks away for her. It's just too hard to see her like that, so fragile and weak. Everything about today has just been hard.

He sees Nikolas a few feet away from him and when he peers into Robin's room he sees Anna and Robert in their with her. Maybe I'll wait a few minutes before I go in.

So he leans on the door when all the sudden someone's heart flat lines. He looks up to find out that it's one of the two women he's cared most about in life.

He rushes into her room, all the while repeating, this can't be it. This can't be the end.

It was simple. They all wanted time and the chance to live life and follow their dreams. But it didn't mean they'd ever get it. All they could do was hope, and wish that it would someday be enough...

It never would.

A/N: I love to hear all your opinions, so tell me what you think or what you might want to happen. For everyone still reading and reviewing thanks. I hope you all liked this chapter. The title was based on Nickelback's "Savin' Me".

lorilou783: Yeah I think there will be some more Lucky angst in chapter 15 or 16. But his friends will be there to help him through.

cofeegurl5: I'm the same way. I cry reading some stories and watching movies so easily. I think my next update will be alot sooner.

ILoveToWriteSMP: Yeah I love Scrubs together, they're so cute but I really need to start working on Nem. And i come back fanfic and see you have new stories. I need to check them out.

talk2much13: Yeah Liz is dead. I love the character but I figured someone had to die so it had to be her. I'm glad you like the story's direction.