CH 29

"Hey Robin, I have those samples you asked for" Elizabeth said entering the lab.

"Thanks. You can set them where ever" Robin replied not looking up from her microscope.

"Still at it, I see" Elizabeth stated as she took a seat across from Robin.

"Yeah. I feel like I'm getting closer but still not there yet."

"What about the antiretroviral meds?"

"They've pretty much done all they can. I need more than that at this point." Robin replied with frustration in her voice.

"And I'm sure you'll find it." Elizabeth said confidently.

"You're damn right I will. I finally have my family back. I am not leaving them again."

"Yeah…" Elizabeth whispered as her thoughts went to Patrick and Emma and how happy they were before Robin returned.

"What?" Robin questioned.

"Huh? Nothing" Elizabeth smiled.

"No, you have something on your mind, speak on it."

Elizabeth took a deep breath "Robin, what made you tell Patrick about all of this?"

"Well he was honest with me so I had to be honest with him."

"That's all?"

"What are you insinuating, Elizabeth?"

"Nothing, I just… When you told me about it, it sounded a little convenient. Are you sure the only reason you confessed all of this to Patrick was because he deserved to know or did you feel like you were about to lose him?"

Robin stood up from the lab table and turned around to shield her eyes from her friend. She thought back to the night in their living room when Patrick admitted to sleeping with Sabrina. The look in his eyes, his entire demeanor. He was in love with Sabrina. Robin already knew that, but what she didn't realize until that night was that he loved Sabrina more than her. Robin knew exactly what Patrick was going to say next, so she did what she needed to do to stop him. "Does it really matter?" Robin asked turning back to face Elizabeth.

"Yes, it does. Is this really how you want him? Out of guilt and obligation?"

"Wow. Is that really all you think of our relationship? Patrick has loved me for a long time, Elizabeth."

"I am not disputing that, Robin, but he also loves Sabrina."

"Oh my God!" Robin screamed. "Sabrina Sabrina Sabrina! Do you have any idea how sick I am of hearing about perfect little Sabrina? That's all anyone can talk about. How beautiful she is, how great of a nurse she is, how much MY husband and MY daughter love her. And now you're taking her side too? You are supposed to be my friend, Elizabeth."

"Robin, I am always going to be your friend. And as your friend I feel like it's my responsibility to tell you how I see it."

"Fine, Elizabeth, how do you see it?" Robin huffed sitting back down across from her.

"Something horrible happened to you. You were ripped away from the people you loved most in this world. You spent a year and a half crying for them, loving them, fighting to get back to them. You said to yourself that when you finally got back you would never let anyone or anything take you away from them again."

"You would be correct. So what's wrong with that?"

"Nothing, other than your failure to realize that life moved on here in your absence. Patrick grieved for you in the worse possible way he could. He shut everyone and everything out. He was this close to losing his job, his daughter and his mind. Everything in Noah that Patrick swore he would never embody, he became. He lived his life at the bottom of a pill bottle, Robin."

Robin wiped away the tears from her eyes "I know. He told me."

"I had never seen him so broken, so lost. Maxie and Lulu were the first to see the signs and call him out on it. They made him get clean, but even after that, he was an empty shell of his former self. He walked around this hospital like a zombie some days. It was like the light in his eyes was completely shut off. The first time I saw that light again…"

"Was with Sabrina." Robin said lowering her head.

"I know it hurts to hear this, Robin, but I refuse to lie to you. I was there. I saw it. I saw them fall in love with each other. I saw Patrick smile again, laugh again. I saw him looking forward to the next day because he knew he was going to see her. And Robin… when he thought he lost her to that crazy Doctor… I saw him beginning to slip right back to where he was. The thought of losing another woman he loved was almost too much for him to bear. After that horrible event, they became stronger than ever. They loved each other more than ever."

"And then I came back and ruined it, is that what you're saying?"

"No, what I'm saying is that you came back and didn't acknowledge it. You just assumed everything would go back to the way it was. You didn't even care how hard this was going to be for Patrick and Emma. The three of them were a family, Robin. Everything you said you wanted for them on that DVD, they were."

Robin dropped her head into her hands to catch her tears "You don't think I know that, Elizabeth? I see it every time I catch him staring at here. I see it in Emma's eyes every times she wakes up from a nightmare and cries for her. But what can I do about it now? What's done is done. We both know the kind of man Patrick is. He's never going to abandon me when I need him most."

"Patrick will always love you and support you through whatever comes, but you both will know the truth. Can you honestly live with that?" Elizabeth asked taking her hand "Robin, it is never too late to do what's right."


"Girl, that Lucas Jones is just too much" Felix said changing into his scrubs. "He's the main one talking about keeping it PC at work, and then has the nerve to pull me into a storage closet. Not that I am in anyway complaining. That man can check my vitals anytime he wants. Did you hear me?" Felix closed his locker and walked to the other side to see Sabrina staring off into space. "Earth to Sabrina."

"Huh? Yeah, Lucas. Great." Sabrina replied.

"Where were you just now?"

"In my own thoughts... as usual." She sighed.

"Let me guess, baby daddy issues."

"Felix, can you keep your voice down please?!" She said looking around the empty locker room.

"Girl, ain't nobody here. So has your conscience finally gotten to you?" Felix asked.

"I don't want to talk about it."

"Well you better talk about it. Preferably with Patrick. It's been a week since you found out you were baking his bun. You might want to run that past him. Just a suggestion." He smirked.

"Felix can you please let me handle this?" She said slamming her locker.

"I would love to, Sabrina, if you were actually handling it. All you're doing is ignoring it. That tactic isn't going to work forever. You're going to start showing eventually."

"Maybe not…" She said avoiding Felix's eyes.

"What do you mean, maybe not? Um hello, your skinny ass will not be able to hide a baby bump forever."

"That's not what I meant. Can we do this later? The last thing either one of us needs is for Epiphany to come looking for us."

"Fine, but we're not done with…" Felix said walking towards the lock room door and running directly into Robin as she was coming in. "Oh, Dr. Scorpio-Drake. I'm sorry. I didn't see you there."

"It's… it's ok." Robin said adjusting her clothing. She looked at Sabrina with blank expression on her face. She studied her for a moment before looking away.

"Robin? Is everything ok?" Sabrina asked?

"Yeah… um. Everything is fine. I just came in to pull myself together. Ethan is by the nurses' station by the way. I think he was looking for you."

"Oh ok. Thanks" Sabrina said before heading out the locker room and down the hallway with Felix. "Did she seem a little off to you?"

"No more so than usual" Felix chuckled.


"Dr. Drake" Ethan said approaching the counter of the nurses' station.

"Ethan. Let me guess, you're looking for Sabrina" Patrick said rolling his eyes and returning his attention back to his patient files.

"Yes, I am actually."

"Well I haven't seen her."

"That's fine. I'll wait. I have some news for her." Ethan smiled.

Patrick looked up at Ethan and tried to swallow his desire to wipe the smile off his face "Is this about Lily? Because I still think the entire thing is entirely too dangerous. I don't know what you and Sonny are thinking. How you could claim to care about her and then turn around and be ok with sending her into a country that was and still is riddled with violent drug crimes."

Ethan nodded his head in agreement "I agree. But you know her better than me. So you know that Sabrina doesn't do anything she doesn't want to."

"That sounds like a cop out to me." Patrick said angrily.

Ethan sighed "It's not my fault, you know?"

"No, it's Sonny's fault. If he wants to find Lily so badly, why doesn't he just go himself?"

"That's not what I meant. I meant that it is not my fault that you and Sabrina aren't together. I understand why you have so much animosity towards me. Any man would be lucky to have a woman like Sabrina Santiago by his side. Unfortunately, it's not me that she wants."

Patrick stood there for a moment absorbing what Ethan had just said. He was right. Everything between him and Sabrina wasn't Ethan's fault. It was theirs. Sabrina's for walking away the first time and Patrick's for walking away now. "Ethan… I'm sorry, I just…"

"Hey" Sabrina said walking up noticing the tension between them "Everything ok here?"

"Yeah, I need to talk to you for a moment" Ethan said pulling her over towards the elevators out of earshot of Patrick.

"Is it Lily?" She asked.

"Not exactly. I haven't heard anything new on that front. I'm actually here to say goodbye."

"Goodbye? What are you talking about?" Sabrina asked confused.

"I have to leave town for awhile. The great and adventurous Lucas Lorenzo Spencer has gotten himself into yet another dire situation and he needs my help. Sometimes I wonder who the parent really is." Ethan chuckled.

Sabrina turned away not finding anything funny about what he had just said. "You're leaving me too?"

"Hey come here" Ethan said turning her back around to face him "You know I wouldn't do this if it wasn't important."

"No, I know. He's your dad, you have to go" She said wiping her tears "It just seems like the people who mean the most to me keep leaving."

Ethan took Sabrina's face into his hands "I'm sorry to do this right now. If I had any other choice, I would stay here, but this isn't forever. I'll be back. How long it takes really depends on how deep my father has gotten himself in this go around. And just because I'm leaving doesn't mean the search for your mother is done. Sonny is putting Shawn Butler on it as we speak. He feels like they're getting close."

"I'm going to miss you." She pouted

Ethan smiled and placed a kiss on Sabrina's forehead "I'm going to miss you too, Mi Amiga" He smiled pulling her into his arms.

Sabrina wrapped her arms around Ethan's torso and let her tears soak his shirt. Ethan had quickly become one of her closet friends. Although she may not have been able to return his romantic feelings for her, she didn't want to lose him either. In his own little way, Ethan Lovett had keep Sabrina together. "Promise me you'll come back in one piece" She said when she finally loosened her grip.

"Who me? Please, I've got nine lives" he laughed.

"You said that the first time we met. I'm pretty sure you've used at least one of them already." She smiled.

"Ah yes, I did. And it was well worth it my dear" Ethan replied taking her chin into his finger tips and bringing her lips to his. There was no way he could leave without a final kiss from the object of his desires.

Sabrina returned Ethan's gesture, wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed as passionately as she had on that drunken night in her apartment.

"Wow" He said after she allowed him back up for air "What was that for?"

"You can call that an incentive to come back alive." She smiled.

"Well, I'll take it." He said pushing the button to summon the elevator. Once he stepped on he turned to Sabrina one last time "Be happy, beautiful. You deserve it."

Sabrina smiled and watched Ethan disappear behind the closing doors. After a few moments she turned to walk back towards the nurses' station and was met with Patrick eyes. She looked down to the ground realizing that he had seen everything. She turned around in the opposite direction and began walking by the exam rooms. As she walked along the empty hallway she felt her phone vibrating in her pocket "Hello?"

"Yes, Miss Santiago?"

"Speaking."

"Hi this is Elaine with Woman's Choice Clinic. I was calling to confirm your appointment for tonight. Will you still be coming in?"

Sabrina closed her eyes and leaned up against the wall. She was alone, scared and pregnant with the child of a married man who didn't want her. She had no mother to help talk her though her feelings, a father who she didn't trust enough to confide in and an overbearing best friend who was well intentioned but naive to the conflict she had boiling inside of her. She felt abandoned and had to do what she felt was best for everyone involved.

"Miss Santiago? Are you still there" Elaine asked.

"Yes… yes I'm here. And yes… I will be there." Sabrina hung up the phone and slid against the wall until she was sitting on the floor. She pulled her legs against her body and rested her chin on her knees. Everything was beginning to hit her like a ton of bricks. By this time tomorrow, she would no longer be pregnant by the man she loved.