Chapter 12 - In the Still of the Night
The early morning hours drew near and Robin was restless. She couldn't sleep, even though she had just worked nineteen straight hours at the hospital. She had been fighting off this cold for the last twenty four hours, but she was not having much success changing her own medications. It had started out as fatigue, but she was used to that. Living with HIV, she was often fatigued when her blood count was low. But now it had progressed to chills running through her body, yet she was sweating through her pajamas. A harsh fever was the last thing she needed right now...her case load at the hospital was too much.
Robin slipped quietly from her bed, wrapped an afghan around her shoulders and gazed out her window out at the dawn breaking over Port Charles. She loved this time of the morning, but right now she was just too miserable to appreciate it. Silently, Robin padded down the hall into her kitchen. Riley, keeping watch at the end of her bed, raised his head to see what was going on and then obediently followed her through the apartment. "It's okay, baby," Robin whispered to him, giving him an apologetic look. "It's not time to get up yet. Go lay down in your bed." She pointed to his bed, but Riley followed her into the kitchen. Her loyal companion knew that something was not right.
Robin set her tea kettle on the stove to boil and rustled through her cabinets for some herbal tea. She was going to have to make an appointment to see Tony or Monica later today to get some blood tests run. There was only so much she could do with self-medication and while working in the midst of all the infections and viruses at the hospital, Robin wasn't taking any chances. While waiting for the water to boil, she pulled open the refrigerator door, peered inside, and shook her head. The vast assortment of half empty take out containers screamed back at her that a single woman who works too much and has no social life lives in her house. Her mother would probably peer into her refrigerator and shake her head in disgust.
After fixing herself a cup of tea, Robin flopped down on her couch with her mug and turned on the television. She pulled the afghan tighter around her as Riley jumped up on the couch. Normally, Robin didn't let him on her furniture but she decided to make an exception this time. Dogs were so in tune with human emotions and could always sense when their masters were feeling bad. Riley settled his head in her lap and she ran her fingers over his soft fur. After flipping through channel after channel of infomercials, she finally settled on a rerun of an early Gilmore Girls episode. Robin snuggled up in her afghan, enjoyed the warmth of her tea, and settled into the zany world of Rory and Lorelei Gilmore. It wasn't long before the antics of the make believe mother and daughter team on the T.V. screen had Robin missing Anna. The tears began to well up in her eyes and she suddenly found it hard to swallow.
"What is going on with me lately?" Robin asked Riley, who was asleep in her lap. "I seem to cry at the drop of a hat." Checking the clock on her VCR, Robin did a quick calculation in her head as to what time it would be in Anna's part of the world. Deciding that her mother would be up, Robin made a face when she realized that she had left her cordless phone on the kitchen counter earlier in the evening. She slowly moved Riley's head off her lap and started to stand up. But putting her feet on the floor, Robin found it difficult to stand up. Her head was spinning and she knew her equilibrium was way out of whack. Figuring it was a side effect of her fever, Robin braced herself on her end table and started to stand up. But as soon as she took a step toward the kitchen, she felt her legs buckle underneath her. To keep herself from falling, Robin lunged for the edge of the coffee table to steady herself. Something was not right, she thought fearfully.
Inching her way across the living room, grasping the edges of her furniture to steady her, Robin reached for her phone and leaned against the nearest barstool. Dialing the number she knew by heart, Robin tried to calm herself down before she began to speak.
"Uncle Mac?" Robin asked when his sleepy voice came on the line. "I'm sorry to wake you up, but I need your help. Can you come over right away? I think something is seriously wrong."