A/N: Busy day at work today! By the way, I hate Courtney. Think her and Nikolas' relationship was a big fat joke and hate her for ruining Jax - she was the warm up for this Carjax nightmare, because while the actors are great together, the characters don't fit without unbelievably elevating one or polluting the other.

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If You're Not the One – 10
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If I don't need you then why am I crying on my bed?
If I don't need you then why does your name resound in my head?
If you're not for me then why does this distance maim my life?
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"Fancy meeting you here."

"Have you taken to wandering the halls of General Hospital late at night, Nikolas?" Robin looked up from the computer she was working on at the Nurse's Station to find Nikolas Cassadine fresh from the Haunter Star Party leaning against the counter. She had been emailing with the clinic in Geneva who was running a trial of one of her drug combinations and trying not to think about what was going on down the hall in Noah's room. Or in her own head. Nikolas, looking scruffy and handsome in his suit was a welcome distraction.

"I thought I'd…well, you know. And I wanted to see if you were all right. If you found senior Drake."

Robin smiled sweetly at Nikolas. She understood why he was there, he was still grieving for Courtney and didn't know what else to do with himself. His only remaining tie to the woman he believed he loved was her son, who he wasn't allowed to see. Because she understood she felt compelled to try and make it all better for him, though she knew all she could do was be a sympathetic friend.

"We did."

"How is he doing?" Nikolas saw something in her face as she answered. And he was looking pretty closely, because, though he'd never really figure this out, he had been flinging from one extreme to another since his grandmother sent him to prison and his life went to hell, that included an ill-advised and rather shallow sexual relationship with the former Mrs. Jacks that he baked up in his mind as a saving love that would fix everything that had gone wrong. Robin was a calm in the eye of the storm.

"Not well." She sighed and leaned on the counter towards Nik. "He's dying," she whispered brokenly.

"That's rough." Nikolas absently stroked her hand. "I'm sorry. I know you care about him…and his son." He looked at her pointedly at the allusion to Patrick. At that, Robin's face changed, a change that Nikolas had age old experience with, remembering it from when he had been pursuing her and she was in love with Jason all those years ago. Back, unbelievable as it would have seemed then, life had been less complicated for him. Some subconscious part of him longed for that time, and as a result, was starting to long for Robin as if in having her he could get that relative innocence back. Plus, he was attracted to her and respected her to boot.

"Do you want to go get some coffee?" Robin said for the lack of anything else to say. She wasn't ready, might never be, to confide the feelings she had only acknowledged to herself tonight so she did what she did best. Pretended outwardly that she was serene and focused her concern on others, while in her head chaos ruled.

Nikolas allowed himself to be easily taken in by the façade because he sensed that's what she wanted and because it went along with his need for simple, as well as hers. So he accepted her invitation and, ever the gentleman, as they waited for the elevator he put his hand on her lower back and leaned in to her for a bit more of a private chat. Mostly about nothing, somewhat about Courtney and a little of whether they should have decaf or be wild and go full caf. His sardonic suggestion elicited laughter from Robin as they walked onto the elevator.

Just then, a highly emotionally charged Patrick came storming out of his father's room. He was burnt and twisted by Noah's adamant refusal to fight for his life, stung by his rejection of a second chance with his son. Without consciously knowing it, Patrick was seeking out Robin for more coaching before getting back into the ring with his father because he relied on her advice a lot more than he admitted to himself. He was pretending it was just because he had promised to finish having a conversation he still didn't even know how he planned to finish. He also wanted to drown himself in her kiss and he had some hope that she might let him. But mostly, whatever was going on with them was the furthest thing from his mind as he strode his sexy, confident form down the hallway; his focus was now narrowed to his fight to have his father live and deciding just how far he was willing to go.

He was entirely thrown off by the intimate picture that Nikolas and Robin made as they got into the elevator, the sound of her happy laughter and in the midst of his fatherly turmoil, he once again was stirred by the same feelings he had when he saw them together on The Haunted Star, feelings that he was not willing to label as jealousy. It was, after all, much easier to express righteous indignation that Robin wasn't right where he expected her to be - the lab and alone - when he expected her to be there and waiting for him. Resentment, basically, that he wasn't her sole focus; which, if he had stopped to think logically about it, is exactly how jealousy would be defined. Perhaps, but unlikely, if he had been thinking more clearly he would have been able to stop himself from storming ahead and exposing himself.

Fuming, Patrick called out Robin's name before the elevator doors closed. His cry of "Robin" reverberated all the way across the lobby. That shout would be something that everyone, mostly the women and some of the men, would be musing about for weeks. Everyone included Robin and Nikolas who halted their conversation and looked over to see Patrick striding towards them as the elevator doors closed.

"Well, Robin. What exactly is going on with you and Patrick Drake?" Nikolas asked.