Totally shallow note, something about Patrick's expression when he reveals to Robin that he used Snarly to annoy her just gets to me.
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If You're Not the One - 7
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And I hope you are the one I share my life with
And I wish that you could be the one I die with
And I pray in you're the one I build my home with
I hope I love you all my life
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"Now what?" Patrick grunted in frustration and banged his hand against Noah's apartment door again.
Robin said nothing, just opened her purse and pulled out a black case that look a lot like a manicure set, except when she opened it even Patrick recognized burglary tools.
"Do you know how to use those?" Patrick was obviously shocked. This did not fit with his image of the goody-two-shoes Dr. Scorpio who came home with files to cold sheets and lectured everyone on doing the right thing. She just smiled her secret smile and pulled out the two tools she needed and got to work. Within seconds the door was popping open.
"Does your Uncle know about those?" Patrick could swear he heard somewhere that it was a crime to possess burglary tools, but that might just have been in some movie.
"He's a Scorpio." Robin shrugged and pushed the door open, letting Patrick lead the way. Truth was Mac had gotten her the tools as a sort of "just in case" kind of thing, but Robin wasn't going to go blabbing that this was the kind of gift her Police Commissioner Uncle bought her. He also helped perfect the techniques that her mother had taught her when she was a kid. She was kind of surprised to find that her timing hadn't suffered even though it had been a few years since she had used the tools. She kind of missed the thrill of it.
"I bet it comes in handy when you lock your keys in the car or in the apartment when throwing the garbage out," Patrick bantered as they walked into Noah's apartment. Despite the banter his anxiety was palpable. He turned on the light and quietly called out for his father. Robin saw his hesitance to enter the bedroom and bathroom area of the apartment because he was afraid of what he might find so she put her hand on his arm and squeezed.
He looked down at her, put his hand over hers and then without word walked further into the apartment.
Meanwhile, Robin walked over to a side table and picked up one of the framed photos there. She had seen them back when she was in Noah's apartment back in New York, but back then she didn't have a context them for the people in it. This, the largest of the photos, was clearly of Noah, Patrick and Patrick's mother; they were obviously a happy, loving family. Her heart broke just a little for what Patrick had lost. She traced her finger over the blond haired, green eyed woman. She could see some resemblance to Patrick in the shape of her smile and the cheeks. Though she had never met her she felt a connection to this woman. It was unnerving and she was putting the photo back down when Patrick came back out into the living room.
"He's not here." He walked over and looked at the photos, clearly disconcerted to find that his father kept mementos like this around, including a candid shot of him at his medical school graduation that he hadn't know his father had attended. He had never actually been inside his father's apartment and seeing those photos, the history, the intimacy of it, he felt really guilty about that.
"Your mother was very beautiful," Robin murmured, looking up at Patrick nervously.
"Yeah." At the mention of his mother a sad smile was immediately lit up his face. He looked down at Robin and once again she couldn't read the expression in his eyes. It was the same look he had at the MetroCourt when he revealed he had pretended to sleep with Carly just to annoy her. Though the revelation should have angered her, the complete seriousness and intensity of how he was looking at her disconcerted her. Just as it was there in Noah's apartment.
"Now what?" Patrick finally spoke, his voice tense.
Robin spun around looking for some clue when she spotted the yellows pages open on the counter in the kitchen near the phone. She walked over and looked and saw that it was open to "Abuse Treatment Centers." She felt Patrick tense up even more next to her when he saw what she spotted. He started reading the list, but Robin picked up the phone instead and hit redial. He turned his head and looked at her, waiting.
"Do you have a Dr. Noah Drake registered?" Robin waited, then nodded at Patrick who crossed his arms and looked at her, obviously impressed. "I'm with him now, Dr. Patrick Drake. We'll be there as soon as possible to pick him up." She turned off the phone and looked at Patrick.
"Noah's medical condition is more than the clinic can handle and they've been looking for Noah's next of kin."
"I knew he went on a bender," Patrick's words were terse as he watched Robin tear the page out of the book that had the clinic's address.
"Let's go." Robin put her hand on Patrick's arm. He shook her off and backed up.
"Why bother. They should dump him out and let him go drink himself to death. It's clearly what he wants."
"Alcoholism is a disease Patrick, just as much as cirrhosis."
"And he has consistently refused treatment for both of them."
"He's in a treatment center, he's been sober."
"But no liver transplant for martyr Noah Drake and he drank just fine for the ten years prior. He's right. He put himself in this state." Patrick dug into his pocket and pulled out his car keys. "If you want to go get him be my guest. I'm going to follow his wishes as you suggested I do and wash my hands of him."
"Patrick, you don't mean this. I understand that you're hurt and angry."
"No, Dr. Scorpio. You have no idea." Patrick put the keys on top of the phone book, spun on his heels and walked out.
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"I guess Patrick was right. You did go on a bender. Do you even know how much you drank this time?"
Robin couldn't bring herself to be upset with Patrick for walking away. She had seen the anguish that his father's alcoholism and subsequent refusal to fight to live was causing him. Before, she has suspected it, especially when he offered his own liver and lashed out at Robin whenever the subject came up. Tonight, though, he had given her a full view of the pain in his eyes, the anxiety and frustration was in the line of his body. She didn't think that walking away was the answer, but she couldn't fault him for it either.
She hadn't been dealing with Noah's drinking for ten years. Noah hadn't abandoned her when her mother died and when she needed a father. Patrick was right; it was easier for her to show him compassion. And given her stubborn refusal to forgive her own father, not that he was even around to forgive, she could hardly throw stones at Patrick. What she could do was do her damndest to help Patrick to make peace with his father so that no matter what happened he didn't live with regret. So it didn't haunt him for the rest of his days.
That left Noah as the target for her wrath and determination. For the moment.
"I don't want Patrick to know this. But I didn't have a drop. I -- I -- I -- I could've used a drink, but I checked myself in here. The urge was just overwhelming. It's all in the chart." Noah's voice was rough; Robin could hear the physical and emotional pain in his words.
"I'm sorry. I jumped to conclusions. You did the right thing." Which she knew she wouldn't have if she hadn't been empathizing so much with his son.
"Oh. I'll be back in my son's face in no time."
"No, your cirrhosis is at end-stage. You have to be checked into general hospital immediately."
"No."
"Why are you refusing to save your own life? Which part of you dying will help your son?"
"Help my son? My son doesn't need any help. It's my life, I made my choices, I'll deal with the consequences."
Noah was so full of shit, so misguided it was both sad and infuriating. "Then why did you check yourself in here? Why don't you just go drink yourself to death somewhere?"
"I want to go out sober."
"To spite Patrick?" The selfishness, the brutality of what Noah was doing and thinking to Patrick angered her, made her think of her own father who had chosen his own cowardice over being with his daughter.
"I'm going to make Patrick so angry at me he won't be around to watch me die."
Because having Patrick angry with his dead father is the road to well-adjusted. No wonder the family fell apart after their mother was gone, Robin thought in frustrated despair. "Oh, god, that makes absolutely no sense. I don't understand why you would purposely want to hurt –"
"I'm doing it because I love my son."
"Right, like my father loved me so much that he disappeared for fifteen years. That's just an excuse." She was saying to him what she didn't get to say to her own father. What Patrick didn't bother to say to Noah.
"I want Patrick to have a good life. I want him to have the life that my wife and I planned for him. The best thing he can do is forget me and the mess I made of my life."
"How can he possibly forget about you? You're all he has. The problem is you two are exactly alike -- you're way too stubborn to find a way to resolve this."
"And you're way too smart to put yourself in the middle of a no-win situation." With that Robin saw a spark of life in Noah. One that somehow Patrick had to tap into to get through to him.
"Well, if you think that can scare me away, you're mistaken."
"Huh. What are you going to do?" Noah almost smiled with the question, intrigued and impressed with this woman before him. She had dragged his ass out of a bar and back into the OR. He didn't doubt her tenacity or creativity, though he knew, or thought he did, he would get his way in the end.
"Watch me."
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