We're not doctors, but we're trying to be as accurate as we can…forgive us the errors!
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Chapter 17
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"Any word?" Robin asked Liz quietly as she bent down and put her patient binders away under the counter for tomorrow's rounds. She was taking care of the follow-up on her own patients, as well as those of Patrick's who were close to release and didn't need intensive post-surgical follow-up. She had been glad for the excess load this morning as it had enabled her to keep her mind off the dual surgery that had started at six a.m. that morning. At least for a few minutes at a time.
"Nothing," Liz said as Robin stood up. "You're really worried aren't you?"
"There's nothing to worry about." As usual everything Robin was feeling was clear on her expressive face so no one within viewing distance believed her for a moment, especially Liz.
"The Doctors Drake have the best care, possible between Doctor Jonas, Doctor Quatermaine and the LDT specialist that flew in from the Mayo Clinic."
"I know. I know. And the risk to Patrick is less than one percent. But if anything should happen to Noah." Robin closed her eyes and blew out a breath. "I don't know why I'm so worried."
"Because you care about them." Liz put her hand on Robin's to still her nervous ruffling of forms on the counter.
Robin nodded and frowned, still staring at her hands. "I'm a doctor, I've seen surgeries performed more times than I can count. Even on Jason. But the thought of Patrick being cut open makes me feel like a panicked neophyte." The admission made her feel physically weak.
Liz looked at Robin intently for a moment. "When did you figure out you're in love with him?" Liz asked.
"Yesterday. I finally admitted it to myself yesterday." Robin smiled ruefully, her cheeks coloring.
"Have you told him?" Liz asked.
"I figured it wouldn't be a good idea for him to have a heart attack the night before surgery. Or to run out and have nowhere to convalesce," Robin said wryly.
"Robin," Liz admonished.
"He asked me to be his girlfriend last night. His only girlfriend," Robin admitted, a bright smile temporarily chasing away all traces of worry.
Liz blinked and then covered her mouth to suppress her laughter.
"Gee, thanks, Liz." Robin rolled her eyes and leaned her hip on the counter and waited for her colleagues mirth to disappear.
"I think it's wonderful, I'm just so surprised. Not that you aren't totally worth it, but that…"
"That the biggest womanizer…blah blah. Believe me, I was just as surprised. The thing is Liz, I really trust him. He doesn't take his integrity lightly, despite his cocky exterior."
"He was really there for me when Lucky was missing. You were right, there is a heart under there. I don't think you have anything to worry about."
"Then why am I so worried?"
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Sound. Voices. The clanking of metal, the sound of wheels turning. Sensations. Cold. Shaking. Black. Breathing. In. Out. In. Out.
A warm hand touching his shoulder.
A voice, closer this time. A woman.
"He's waking up."
Everything got louder. Stronger. Still black.
"Come on open your eyes, Doctor Drake?"
"Patrick. Come on."
He turned his head towards the voice and opened his eyes. Everything was blurry. He blinked a few times. A light was shined in his eyes. He felt through the fading anesthesia pressure in his lower body. He knew they were checking his urine and other bodily outputs. Robin took his hand and squeezed, speaking to him quietly. "Everything is going smoothly."
Patrick had an oxygen tube around his head, sending oxygen directly through his nose. He coughed as he tried to clear his throat and he smiled as he saw the concern in Robin's eyes. From the other side of his bed a doctor from the Post-Anesthesia Care Unit started to examine him.
The cold metal of a stethoscope startled him. "Hey! Warm that up." His voice was hoarse from disuse.
"How are you feeling?"
"Robin." He sighed as she brushed his forehead. Then he frowned. "Cold." His suddenly realized that his legs were beginning to tremble. He couldn't stop them. He put his hands on his legs to hold them down, pulling a little too quickly on his IV.
"It's a reaction to the anesthesia," the nurse, he recognized as Nurse Scott, told him. He knew that, he was a surgeon. "It'll stop in a few minutes."
"Here." Robin put another blanket over his legs, careful to avoid the other tubes coming out of his body and took his hand again.
"You know I bet I'd warm up a lot quicker if you crawled in here beside me." His voice was shaky as his body trembled.
"I bet you would." Robin laughed and sat down onto a stool next to his bed. "Noah is doing fine. They'll be done soon."
Something in her tone, in her eyes sliced through his body's trauma, halted his internal self-assessment. "What?"
"There were a few scary moments. Noah's blood pressure dropped too fast after they took his liver out. He was given an extra transfusion."
"But he's okay now?" At her nod he continued. "Were you there?"
Robin nodded. It had all happened just as Robin had come into the observation deck above the operating theatre. Her own blood pressure had dipped until the crisis passed.
"Soooo, basically you've seen me naked. Bet you're feeling pretty lucky."
Robin let out an involuntary bark of laughter. "Insufferable." She squeezed his hand.
"Part of my charm, Girlfriend." At her surprise he continued. "Did you think I asked you because I thought I'd be dead today?" He winked to take the sting out of his words.
"No." The smile slipped from her brown eyes at the sentiment.
"Hey, I'm just joking. Were you worried?"
Robin shrugged and gave a sheepish smile. "How do you feel?" His shaking had stopped as they talked. "Do you need a painkiller?"
Patrick thought for a moment. "No. I'm fine. You were really worried weren't you?" He grinned.
"You shouldn't talk so much yet."
Patrick reached up and touched Robin's cheek, stroking it with the backs of his fingers, his dark eyes drinking her in. "When." He broke off and coughed.
"See." She said. "Save it for something really important."
"Okay." He paused and gave her a very seriously look. "When's the first sponge bath?"
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Robin leaned back up against the wall outside Patrick's private room and closed her eyes. Her knees were shaking and she wasn't sure she'd be able to complete the walk back to the PACU. He'd just been transferred from the PACU to the transplant unit and had finally fallen asleep. After the initial reaction to the anesthesia had worn off they had sat quietly talking together for a while as the doctors and nurses continued to check Patrick's bile, urine and blood counts in regular intervals. Then Patrick's incision and, as he said, his insides began to hurt. From then on all signs of the cocky, lothario disappeared and in came the type of patients they named entire reality programs after.
For such an athletic, vibrant man who had never been sick a day in his life to be bedridden and in pain, at the mercy of doctors and nurses, and Robin suspected be seen as such in front of Robin, had proved to be a nightmare for everyone. Especially since he was a doctor who wanted to second guess every area of his own care. The IV wasn't in smooth enough. He wanted a different pain medicine at a different dosage. He didn't want to sleep. He wanted to see all his labs. And he was most especially picky about the catheter in his most prized part. At some point Robin had ceased to be his caring girlfriend and became just another doctor who wasn't doing exactly what he wanted when he wanted it.
Now, four hours later, Robin felt like she was tied in knots. Part of her understood his frustration and his need to control things, another part of her just wanted to shoot his IV full of meds and put him to sleep.
He had been demanding wanted minute-by-minutes reports on his father's surgery, which should have taken only an hour longer than his own, but had taken almost two hours longer because there had been another blood pressure scare that slowed them down. Patrick hadn't been told about that, nor had he been told that Noah wasn't waking up from the surgery as quickly as the doctors would have liked; that he was still on the breathing tube and that the doctors were slightly alarmed at his outputs. It was too soon for any real alarm, which was why the doctors had decided to not burden Patrick with the information while he was in such a delicate stage of his own recovery. It had taken every ounce of Robin's will to keep the knowledge from showing on her face.
He had just fallen asleep, but not before asking her to go check on Noah and report back to him.
She hoped she that by the time he woke up all the news would be good.
