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Chapter 14
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It was Robin's first day back at work since before the outbreak and she felt strangely bereft. Part of it was adjusting back to the hospital, which though busy, was missing the adrenaline rush she'd lived on for two weeks before she herself became a victim of the manmade virus. Another part of it was the fact that during that time she and Patrick Drake had put aside their differences and worked side by side night and day and then he had been in charge of her care both in and out of the hospital. At least he had been until she had been out of the hospital for a couple of days, then he had virtually disappeared. He still called once a day to check in on her general health, but he had turned her care back over to Alan Quatermaine. And since she had come to work today he had been avoiding her.

He said that he was trying to clear his surgical schedule before his own surgery later that week, but it just didn't ring true. He was busy, but not necessarily anymore busy than he had ever been and then he'd found plenty of time to get in her face. Short of chasing him down in the OR and holding him hostage there was nothing she could do about it so after finishing her rounds she retreated to her lab to get things back in order. She was sitting with her head down on her desk when someone walked into her office.

"Are you okay?"

Robin looked up and smiled at Noah Drake wearing his white doctor's coat and a clipboard in his hand.

"I just spent the afternoon and early part of the evening on the phone with NIH and the FDA. I now have a headache as if I've actually been banging my head against a brick wall."

"Bureaucrats." Noah nodded consolingly and sat down across the desk from her. "Giving you a hard time?"

"NIH wants more data before they'll approve a grant for a new study, but I need the grant to get more data. The FDA…well, I don't even want to relive those calls yet. What brings a brilliant neurosurgeon down to this neck of the woods when there's no mutant virus felling the residents of Port Charles?"

"Thought I would welcome you back to work." Noah tapped his fingers on the clipboard resting on his lap.

"Thank you. And?" Robin propped her elbows on the desk and rested her chin on her entwined hands.

"I came to ask you to not give up on my son."

Robin blinked a few times. "Where did that come from?" She asked, lifting her head and dropping her hands onto the desk.

"It's been a rough couple of months for all of us."

"How are you feeling?" Robin asked. "You look tired."

"It's a good tired. I'm glad that Alan let me come to work before my surgery. At least if it doesn't work out I'll have gone out practicing medicine again."

"Everything is going to be fine. Both you and Patrick are going to be fine." Robin said firmly.

"We probably will. Doctor Lee and Monica are amazing surgeons. Patrick told me that you offered to take care of him after he got out of the hospital. I can't tell you how relieved I am that you'll be there for him."

"I'm not so sure Patrick wants me to. He probably has other options." Robin shrugged and straightened a pile of papers, trying to look unaffected.

"My son is not as well adjusted as you are in dealing with things."

"I'm no example of well-adjusted." Robin laughed.

"Your father came back from the dead, your missing husband showed up, you had someone close to you die and you almost died yourself. I'd say your plate has been full, but here you are back at work and looking more at peace than I've ever seen you. Even with your head buried on your desk in frustration."

"My mother says that life never hands you more than you can handle." She shrugged, brushing off his compliment.

"Maybe not, but you can choose not to handle it. Like I did when Patrick's mother died. Like Patrick is doing now avoiding you."

"We spent almost every waking moment together for over a month so it's weird now, but we're settling back into the day to day again." Robin waved a hand, trying to make light of the situation. As if the feel of him holding her hadn't haunted her all week.

"I may not have been a good father to him for a long time, but I know my son and I know when he's running scared.

Robin leaned back in her chair and looked up at the ceiling. After a few moments she looked back at Noah. "Noah, Patrick and I are just colleagues and in some weird fashion, friends, but we don't have any kind of understanding beyond that. Let me finish," she said when Noah started to speak. "I'll admit, grudgingly, that there's an attraction between us, but for the first time in my life I have no expectations. I decided to let things go where they may with your son. He's backed off and I…" Robin stopped and sighed.

"Not so simple is it?" Noah asked.

"I'm trying really hard to not get hurt here." Robin rubbed a hand over her forehead.

"How Patrick has been through this crisis, how he's been with me, I haven't seen him like this since his mother was alive and I'm certain that it's because of your influence. Because despite Patrick's steadfast vows to never get emotionally involved with patients, his father or a woman so that he didn't end up like I did living life from the bottom of a bottle, he's done just that and all in the past month. He doesn't know how to handle being vulnerable so he's backing off to reconsider. I'm here to ask you to not give up on him. He needs you even if he's too stubborn or scared to admit it."

"What do you want me to do? Hunt him down and…" Robin held her palms up and shrugged.

"Just don't give up on him, especially if something happens to me, if I don't come out of this surgery or if the transplant doesn't take, he'll need someone with your strength to make sure he doesn't disappear completely. My son actually cares about me." Noah shook his head, his smile full of sad wonder.

"You're his father, of course he loves you," she said quietly.

"If this is too much to ask, I'll understand. I've just never seen anyone who can get through to the Drake men like you. Not since my wife," Noah said seriously.

"I'll be there for Patrick. I promise." Robin's throat was tight with tears, and her own fears.

"Enough doom and gloom, how about you have dinner with me tonight." Noah was back to charming.

"You don't have to bribe me," Robin teased, even as she reeled inside at the wonder of having the Drake men in her life.

"It's not a bribe, it's purely selfish. This out of practice neurosurgeon would love to spend a nice evening with a beautiful brain researcher." Noah said just as charmingly as his son ever could.

"I think that's a great idea."

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Patrick was standing at the backside of the nurse's station in his scrubs, just out of surgery, flirting with Nurses Spencer and Kendall, when the sound of familiar laughter caught his attention. He snapped his head to the right just in time to see his father slipping Doctor Robin Scorpio's scarf around her neck. They were both laughing about something as Noah reached back and pressed the elevator button. Ignoring the two women in front of him he watched them until they went into the elevator.

"Hello, Patrick?" Liz waved her hand in front of his face.

"What?" he snapped out and turned back to see that sexy Nurse Kendall was wandered off and Liz was holding her hand out waiting for the post-surgical report he was filling out. "Sorry." He blew out a breath and tried to muster up a flirty smirk.

"She looks healthy."

"Who?" Patrick asked as he finished the report and signed his signature with a flourish.

"Robin. The person you were staring at so intently."

"I wasn't…" Patrick shrugged and handed her the clipboard. "She looks fine."

"She seemed to be having a good time with your father, but I'm pretty sure there's nothing going on."

"Of course there's nothing going on." Patrick scowled.

"Then why are you so pissed off?"

"I've performed three surgeries today. I've been here since five in the morning. It was the same yesterday. I'm not pissed off, I'm tired."

"I stand corrected," Liz said. "It's just…"

"What?" Patrick leaned on the counter and tilted his head down at her.

"You're normally euphoric after surgery. Bouncing around with excess energy. It's obvious how much you love it."

"I do." Patrick nodded, his smile not slipping, but his eyes were wary.

"I've also noticed," she started waiting for Patrick to urge her on. "The first person you seek out to burn off that excess energy is Robin."

"Is there a point to this, Nurse Spencer?" Patrick feigned nonchalance.

"You're a lot of things, Doctor Drake, but stupid is not one of them. You're avoiding her and you're not happy about it." Liz turned away and left Patrick standing alone at the counter thinking about just how not unhappy Robin had looked laughing with his father.

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Robin and Noah had enjoyed a wonderful dinner at the Metrocourt. Not only was the food excellent, but Carly was absent and the conversation flowed. They had found themselves caught up in a number of discussions about the latest brain studies and Robin correctly surmised that Noah had always kept up on the science of brain surgery, even if he wasn't practicing it in the years since his wife had died. She had also confirmed first hand just where Patrick got his charm.

She was now walking through the grocery store to pick up some vegetables and cottage cheese before she went home. On her way to the register she took a detour past the deli counter in the vain hopes of finding the cheeses from Paris she missed. As she was peering into the glass cases she saw the reflection of a pretty hot guy wearing a baseball cap in the aisle behind her. Interest piqued she turned and saw one Patrick Drake trying to decide between pop tart flavors. She thought for a moment before walking up to him.

"I like the low fat strawberry with the frosting best."

"Why is that?" Patrick turned and looked down at her, letting her see the N.Y. for the NY Yankees on his cap.

"Low fat, frosting, strawberry. Does that not say it all? Felicia sometimes sent them to me in Paris." She shrugged and laughed. "Sometimes a croissant just didn't do it."

Patrick grabbed the recommended flavor and put it in his basket and began to move sideways. "Did you have a good time with my father tonight?" Patrick asked, nonchalantly studying the other pre-prepared breakfast treats on offer as if they were fascinating.

"We did."

"Good." Patrick turned around and started walking faster.

"It was nice of you to give him permission to come back to work." Robin paced him and came up beside him as he put his basket down on the conveyor belt.

"I'm so glad the president of his fan club thinks it's nice."

Robin frowned as she unpacked her own items. She waited until his items were being rung up.

"Did I do something wrong, Patrick?"

Patrick stuffed his hands in his jacket pockets and looked down at his sneakers. "No. You didn't do anything wrong." He sounded pretty irked as he said it.

"Oh. Okay." Robin looked away for a moment. "It was a lot easier when you were trying to piss me off all the time."

"Yeah, it was." Patrick smiled slightly as he took a bill out of his wallet and handed it to the cashier.

"I can pretend I can't stand you if it'll make you more comfortable."

Patrick picked up his bag of groceries, frowning, looking away. Then with the snap of his head he turned and nailed her with an intense look.