Chapter 27

Michelle sat by her mom's bed talking to her. "Ry is very mad at me right now – she said it's not fair that I get to see you and she doesn't."

Robin didn't even stir at Michelle's comment. The visitor's restriction had been lifted earlier that day and Patrick had contacted her immediately so she could sit by her mom's side while he worked on a cure. "She is with Grandma Anna, Maxie and Georgie right now drawing you at least a dozen different get well soon pictures."

"Is she sleeping?" Michael walked in with AJ and Jason right behind him.

"They sedated her after the seizure so she should be out for at least a couple of hours." Michelle stood up and hugged Michael. "I just keep hoping she can hear me."

Michael rubbed her back as he held her close. "She can."

AJ smiled at his son's girlfriend while Jason made his way to Robin's bedside. "How are you doing? Do you need anything?"

"Just for her to get better." She turned around and leaned back into Michael. "I don't understand – why would anyone want to do this to her?"

"Maybe they thought she was close to a cure." Jason took Robin's hand while he spoke. "They didn't realize she had already found it and wanted to get her out of the way."

"I don't know, maybe." Michelle sat back down in the chair and leaned back. "She has to get better," she felt Michael's hand on her shoulder and she reached up to hold it, "she just has to."


"You wanted to see me Dr. Quartermaine?" Gwen had been just about to leave the hospital when she was paged to the Chief of Staff's office.

"Yes, please have a seat." He pointed to the chair in front of his desk. "This may take a couple of minutes."

"If this is about my patients…"

"Actually," Patrick walked into the office with Robert right behind him, "this is about one of my patients. Do you want to explain to me what you were doing in Robin's room earlier today?"

"I just wanted to tell her how impressed I was with her research." Gwen spoke with almost no emotion in her voice. "I stopped in but she was sleeping so I left."

"Seriously? You expect us to believe…"

"Patrick," Alan quickly interrupted the man, "we need to listen to what Dr. Miller has to say."

"As I was saying," Gwen let her voice take on a note of disdain, "I simply wanted to congratulate Dr. Soltini on her achievement."

"And you say she was sleeping you went in?" Alan knew that they couldn't prove that Gwen had done anything to Robin but he was hoping to get her to slip up. She nodded her head. "So why even go in the room? She was sleeping after all."

"But I couldn't tell that until I got in the room, her back was towards the door." Gwen stood up. "I really need to check in with my superiors at Mercy but I am more than willing to come back and work on Dr. Soltini's case with Dr. Drake."

"No!" Patrick slammed his fist down on Alan's desk, startling everyone in the room. "You will not go near her ever again."

Gwen was shocked by the absolute fury in Patrick's eyes. She had known the man for years and never seen him look like that. Nervously, she stumbled to the door. "Very well, I will be going then. If you need my assistance with anything else…"

"Thank you Dr. Miller." Alan waited until she had shut the door behind her to address Patrick. "Dr. Drake, I understand your feelings…"

"With all due respect Alan, I don't think you do." Patrick was breathing heavily as he tried to regain control. "The woman I love, the only woman I have ever loved, may be dying and the person responsible just walked out that door."

"Look, we don't know for sure that Dr. Miller did anything." Robert felt the need to interject. "We have reviewed the security footage and there are several people that we still need to question, including the gentleman that Dr. Miller spoke with outside my daughter's room. Plus there was a person in scrubs and a mask that entered her room not long after Dr. Miller left that we still have not been able to identify."

"But she wanted to work on Robin's case, thought curing the HIV positive woman would be a feather in her cap." Patrick sat down, tired and frustrated.

"Still not proof that she would inject her with something to make her worse." Robert was trying to think like a spy and not a father at this point. "We need to be concentrated on what we can control – are you any closer to figuring out what was injected into Robin's IV?"

"Kavi says it was a mutated version of the virus. The good news is that he was able take Robin's notes and figure out a way to counteract it so we can keep Robin on schedule to receive the counteragent."

"And the bad news?" Robert could hear the trepidation in Patrick's voice.

"It's going to be at least another two days before we can perform the extraction on Dillon again and all we can do until then is keep her comfortable and pray that her viral load doesn't go up suddenly." For the first time in his professional life, Patrick felt truly useless. As brilliant as he was, he couldn't help Robin right now and it was killing him.

Robert understood the doctor's frustration, he had felt the same way when he discovered Robin was HIV positive. Part of the deal that kept Robin safe from the WSB was that he disappear from her life. Although he had been forbidden to contact her, Robert had been able to at least get occasional updates on how Robin was doing through the years. He would never forget that day over 20 years ago when he was handed a copy of Robin's test result showing she had HIV and was told that her boyfriend had died of AIDS.

He had sat in his office staring at the file for hours, half convinced that he could change the positive to a negative by sheer willpower. Everything he had done was to protect her and now she had contracted a virus that would, in all likelihood, kill her.

"Dr. Drake…"

"I'm going to go check on my patient." Patrick turned and ran out of the office. He needed to see Robin.


"Epiphany has decided that Rylee needs to have all five emotion dolls from Inside Out movie." Michelle had been talking to Jason while Michael and AJ went to get them supper. In a few minutes she would head out to meet them at Mac's house to eat with Rylee and the girls.

"What's Inside Out?" Jason knew he would need to familiarize himself with all cartoons now that he was going to be a father.

She laughed. "Only Rylee's favorite movie. Mom has sat through it with her so many times." She reached over and picked up her mom's hand. "I couldn't ask for a better mom or grandma."

"I always knew that she would be a wonderful mother." Jason reached over and gently brushed a lock of hair behind her ear. "She was so good with Michael when we were taking care of him."

"She told me about that."

"Did she and your dad ever talk about having anymore kids?" Jason was surprised that Michelle was Robin's only child.

"At first Mom thought it wasn't possible given her HIV status. I know that they talked about it with her doctor after they got married and mom said they decided they were happy with just me." She sighed and leaned back in her chair. "I think it was because she was convinced she was going to die first."

Jason regarded Robin's daughter curiously. "What?"

"I overheard her and dad one night talking about it. Dad was trying to get her to understand that no one is guaranteed a future even if they are perfectly healthy." Her face clouded over. "Unfortunately, he was right."

"What happened with your dad, if you don't mind me asking." Jason knew Robin was widowed but didn't know the circumstances surrounding her husband's death.

"He was on a call – house fire. He started having chest pains while he was on the roof of the house and…" she bit her lip, "…he didn't even make it to the hospital."

"Did he have a history of heart problems?"

"Because of the gear and the heat of the fire, firefighters are at a higher risk of heart attacks than an office worker or a doctor. Heat causes the blood to thicken and even the slightest blockage becomes deadly." Michelle wiped away a tear that came to her eye. "He died doing what he loved – helping other people."

"I am so sorry." Jason really didn't know what else to say.

"Me too." Patrick had been listening to Michelle's story from the doorway. Robin had never really elaborated on what happened to Roger, just that he had died in the line of duty. "How is she doing?"

"The same I think." She stood up. "I need to go and check on Ry. Will you…"

Patrick sat down in her chair. "No place else I would rather be. Give Ry a hug from me."

"I will." Michelle walked to the door with Jason right behind her. "She is going to get better, right?"

Jason looked back at Patrick and nodded his head. "He may be an arrogant jerk but he is also one of the best doctors I have ever met – he will save her."

Less than a minute after they left the room, Patrick heard a soft sound coming from the bed. "Patrick…" Robin's voice was weak but clear.

"Hey you." He sat down on her bed and gently stroked her cheek. "How are you feeling?"

"Been better." She opened her eyes and then shut them again because of the pain in her head. "I think I'm dying."

"Like hell you are." Patrick ran his hands through her hair. "We already have the counteragent figured out so you just need to wait until Dillon is ready to do the extraction in a couple of days. Don't give up on me now Robin."

"But I saw my father. It was almost as if he were here to…"

Patrick leaned over and kissed her forehead. "I can't explain it right now but your father isn't here to usher you to the other side I promise you. All he wants is what I want – for you to get better."

"I don't understand." She was confused as to what Patrick was saying.

"You don't need to right now – just know that we want you to get better. We will deal with everything else after that." He laid down next to her on the bed, taking a moment to wrap his arms around her. He was unhappy with how warm she still was but he knew that he was doing everything he could for her. "Now you need to rest and if you need any strength, you take it from me. You're going to be fine Robin, I promise."

She placed her forehead on his chest and sighed. Maybe it was the fever or the drugs she was on but, for some reason, she believed Patrick when he said she was going to be okay. A sense of peace came over her as she fell back to sleep.