Thanks for all the feedback and encouragement because we both are inspired by it and I neeeeed it! I hope you all like this part...feedback and wishes welcome.

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Chapter 19
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Patrick was glowering at the door, as he had been for the past fifteen minutes. Where the hell was the nurse? He was finally being paroled and now he had to wait. He had been in this room for seven days, the shortest amount of time they kept LDT donors and he would have expected them to have run him out of the hospital as soon as possible.

Instead of a nurse it was Robin who came in pushing a wheelchair and smiling at him. "Your chariot has arrived, Sir!" She had been working all morning to clear her caseload so that she could stay home with Patrick for the rest of the day.

An almost imperceptible grunt of displeasure escaped his lips. "Do I have to get in that thing?" he asked with a sigh. "Can I not have one shred of dignity before I get out of this place? Because being force fed tasteless food, being woken up at all hours of the night to have my vitals and outputs checked and being stabbed somewhere on this totally sexy body multiple times a day isn't enough. And while I have a great ass I don't necessarily want it hanging out of a thin polyester gown on display for just anyone. And now I have to be pushed out of the hospital in a pram."

"I can't believe you object to everyone seeing your ass." Robin started to laugh. After a minute she took a deep breath and, ignoring his astonished look, continued. "Listen, you know the rules. Either you ride in the chair or you stay. And if you stay the nurses are going to drug you into a catatonic state and I think the doctors will help them. So would I, come to that." Robin crossed her arms and gave him her no nonsense look.

Oookaaay, Patrick thought to himself. Maybe he had been pushing the envelope a bit much if even the unflappable Dr. Scorpio was threatening him. Of course, that didn't mean he was going to concede the point so easily. "And this is the bedside manner that you've been encouraging me to adopt? I think I could do that." Patrick smirked at her, his eyes twinkling.

"I'm not you're doctor." Robin sniffed.

"No, you're my girlfriend," Patrick said in a sing song voice.

Robin rolled her eyes. "Not for much longer you act this demanding and irritating at my house. I'll dump you back on Carly. She'd deserve you." Robin's lips twitched with amusement.

"Ouch."

Robin just raised her eyebrow and looked at the chair.

With a resigned sigh Patrick walked over to the chair and sat down as Robin grabbed his overnight back and slung it over the back of the chair.

She turned him around to head towards the door when he turned to look at her and cleared his throat. She stopped and looked down at him.

"I am sorry." His words were gruff, as if his throat was rusty with that "s" word.

"For what exactly?"

"You know." Patrick shrugged and gave her seductive look.

"For biting my head off? For being crabby when I visited you? For picking fights with me about patient care when you're not supposed to be working?"

"Well, not that last part." He smiled, when she didn't smile back he sighed as he realized she was going to make him work for it this time. It was novel, but he kind of liked it. "Fine, I'm sorry for being a jackass."

"Do you know how many times you have made that same apology this week?" She leaned down and put her hands on his cheeks.

"I promise from now on I'll stop being a jackass and just be arrogant and insufferable. I know you like it." He winked.

Robin laughed and kissed him. "Just a little taste of what you'll get if you're a good little boy," she whispered before standing back up.

"Good? Little?" Patrick snorted and crossed his arm, his charming trademark smirk back in full force.

'Yup, back to insufferable." Robin rolled her eyes and reached over him to open the door.

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Robin held the door open as Patrick gingerly made his way into the cottage. Though she knew he'd bite his tongue before he'd admit it, Robin could see the weariness in his eyes as he looked up the stairs, at the couch and then back toward the stairs. Though he had talked about all the things he wanted to do once they got to her place, it was clear that all he really wanted or needed was more rest.

"I put pillows and a blanket on the couch if you want to relax there for a while. I was going to fix lunch now anyway, well heat it up, and it would be easier if I didn't have to take your lunch up the stairs."

"Does this mean I can expect meals in bed. With you feeding me?" Patrick leered at her, putting his hand on her neck and sliding his fingers up to her cheek and leaning down, as much as his incision would let him.

Robin licked her lips, riveted by his heated gaze. Be a doctor, he needs rest, she kept telling herself, but it took more strength than she had right at that moment. During his stay in the hospital they had behaved themselves, her choice and something that probably didn't help Patrick's frustration levels, but truthfully she had missed the taste of his kiss and the feel of his body surrounding her at night. They had only ever spent the night in her bed twice, after she got out of the hospital and the night before he went in. And they had only been kissing for a few weeks. She couldn't imagine how much she was going to crave him as time went on, after they finally consummated the relationship.

It was this thought that had her slide under his arm and walk into the living room, trying to pretend her heart wasn't pounding. She busied herself with unfolding the blanket on the couch and putting the pillow on one end for him to lie on.

Patrick watched her, not surprised, but disappointed by her sudden flight. He had seen desire give way to panic in her eyes. The fire of it had leapt out of her eyes and into his, licking at his gut. He loved it like he loved roller coasters. He walked into the living room and let her settle him on the couch. Before she walked away he reached out and grabbed her arm. "Have I said thank you yet?"

"It might have passed your lips at some point." Robin slid her wrist through his hand until their hands were clasped. She squeezed and gave him a smile. "You know you didn't have to ask me to be your girlfriend to get me take care of you," she teased.

"Robin."

Her smile froze as she saw the expression on his face, the vulnerability she saw in his eyes.

"I'm not used to someone taking care of me. It's been a really long time."

Robin's stomach fluttered at his words, she had to take a few deep breaths to keep her composure. What was it about this man that he could break her with just a few words? Love, she remembered from her distant past, that was love did. She was about to throw caution to the wind and tell him just why it was her honor to do this for him, when he decided to lighten the mood and put her at ease.

"You just love having me at your mercy, don't you?" Patrick raised an eyebrow and shot her an obviously feigned suspicious look.

"Absolutely. That's why we're going to watch tons of chick flicks. You know those Lifetime movies? Yep, 24/7 baby." She rolled with the change of mood and grinned manically down at him.

"Anything but Lifetime!" He cringed and pulled his hand away to hold it in front of his face.

"You prefer Women's Entertainment or Oxygen?" She laughed and walked into the kitchen, feeling a bit disappointed that the moment had been lost, even as she told herself that even in his condition Patrick would run screaming from the cottage if she had said she loved him after barely two weeks of dating. Less, actually, since he had been unconscious for part of that time.

With a wry smile she began to unpack the food she had picked up from Kelly's earlier, Mike had just re-opened and she had given him her condolences about the loss of his daughter since she'd been too ill herself to attend the memorial service. This feeling, this vulnerability was exactly why she had resisted Patrick for so long. She either really liked someone or she had no interest in them at all. She was an all or nothing woman and her heart had really good radar. It had picked up on Patrick almost from the first time they had met – despite her head's very loud objections - as someone she could fall for. With his womanizing ways and slick come ons there was no way she would allow herself to let down her guard. And now that she had, the fall had been swift. Scary. Wonderful. All those things in one. And it way too soon to share it with a man who'd never had a serious adult relationship in his life.

But there was no denying that it had to be love, why else would she have been more amused and indulgent during his demanding and surly temper while he was in the hospital? Although, she grinned as she picked up a pot to heat up the soup, here she had weapons are her disposal should he get out of line.

As everything was heating up, she poured a glass of orange juice and took Patrick's prescription pain killers and antibiotic out of another bag and took it all into the living room. She stood holding everything looking down at him with a fond smile. He had already fallen asleep.

She put everything down on a side table and reached down to pull the blanket over his shoulders. She brushed his hair off his forehead and went back into the kitchen to eat her lunch and finish up some paperwork for the grant she had just gotten from the Medical Rescue Agency.