A/N: I just can't help myself sometimes, I like happy Scrubs. And then I restrain myself. Thanks for all the lovely feedback.

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If You're Not the One – 14
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And though I can't be with you tonight
And know my heart is by your side
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"How about you take off the Florence Nightingale cap for one evening and get some sleep, Robin."

Patrick's words betrayed more than grief and anger about his father's condition, there was an edge that even Robin, one of the most patient and understanding of people, couldn't miss as being directed at her and not the situation in general; one that Patrick, for all his denial, knew even as he acted like a petulant child was directly caused by seeing the closeness of Robin and Nikolas in the hall. It wasn't just jealousy though, it was the concern on Nikolas' face that had been unmistakable and it eat at him as a man and doctor that he had been leaning so heavily on Robin and not thinking about her limits.

Robin stood for a moment. "Will you look at me?" He turned and looked at her. As their eyes caught his shoulders drooped and he leaned back in his chair and licked his bottom lip and looked away and then back again. "You should eat something and get some sleep, Patrick." He just nodded and looked chagrined. She shrugged and turned to leave.

"Wait." He reached out and caught her wrist. She turned back to face him. "I'm sorry. I just.."

"Patrick it's okay, you don't need to explain." Robin tried to pull her wrist back.

"No. I do. Will you stop struggling?" He gave her a lopsided smile and let go when she nodded. "I saw you in the hall with Nikolas, it bothered me."

"He's just a friend." Robin wasn't one to play games, however, she couldn't resist asking, "Are you admitting that you were jealous?"

Patrick pursed his lips and looked at her sideways. "Some people might call it that."

Robin crossed her arms and smiled gently. "You don't need to be."

"Are you admitting something, Robin?" He opened his palm on his thigh and motioned to it with his chin.

She shrugged.

He motioned with his head again.

She rolled her eyes and stepped back to him and took his proffered hand, which required her to step close enough for him to pull her onto his lap. "Patrick!" Robin protested softly. "Someone might see."

"And?" he prompted.

"And I'm a doctor, you're a doctor. We work here."

"Not in here. In here I'm a visitor and you're my, what, friend? Girlfriend?" His eyes sparkled at her.

"Girlfriend?" Robin broke out into a big grin, too happy to point out that one was supposed to agree to the status rather than be anointed.

"I think you like that. Yeah, girlfriend." He stroked her hair and buried his face in her neck. "I'm sorry about the last couple of days."

"Don't be." She played with his hair, wondering if this would be one of those things that he'd say had been said in a moment of exhaustion and weakness and decided she wasn't going to put much stock into it until they could really talk about it. "You need to get your sleep."

"So do you, Robin. I don't want you get sick taking care of us." Somehow, hearing the same thing from Patrick that Nikolas said felt vastly different. It hit her somewhere deeper and warm tendrils of affection spread through her body. She softened against him.

"You too. Why don't you go lie down in the doctor's lounge? Or…" She paused before continuing. "We can both go to my apartment. It's only five minutes away."

"Are you inviting me to sleep with you, Dr. Scorpio?" Patrick bounced his knee and teased.

"To sleep, and eat. Nothing more."

"Not even a little more?" he whispered in her ear, sending shivers through her, but she bluffed and rolled her eyes. "Down boy."

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"No more flowers?" Patrick pouted when he walked into the apartment and looked around, one hand on his hip, the other holding the sandwich Robin had gotten him and his gym bag over his shoulder. Technically, Nikolas had insisted on buying it, but she wasn't going to tell Patrick that, thinking quite rightly that he would toss it if he knew. Robin was feeling quite pleased that Patrick was jealous and that he thought of her as his girlfriend. The last few days of working together to save Noah had seemingly erased the differences that had stood between them before, although they would eventually rear their ugly head in order to be dealt with.

"The flowers were a loss last time I was here." She didn't mention that she had saved a couple of the flowers and had them drying on top of the fridge.

Patrick put the carton down on the coffee table and settled himself on my couch, both of them secretly liking how he made himself at home. Robin went to the kitchen and got them both glasses of water.

"I'm going to go shower and change."

"It would save water if we showered together." Patrick smirked at her. Instead of responding to his teasing she looked at him seriously. "Hey, I was just kidding, mostly." He wondered if he had stepped over some invisible line.

"I saw Noah's name on the donor list," Robin said quietly.

Patrick pursed his lips and looked up at her. "It's a good thing he said he wanted the transplant. You heard him say it, right?" His voice was hoarse, full of hope and test.

The two doctors stared at each other for a long moment before Robin said what she had already decided the moment she was Noah's name at the top of the list. "Thank god Noah agreed to stay on the list." They looked at each other for another moment before Robin walked out of the living room.

When Patrick heard the shower turn on for once his thoughts didn't stray to sex, something a lot more profound was moving through him. One that displaced his hunger and he leaned back on the couch and dropped his head back.

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A few hours later the alarm went off, waking the two doctors who lay curled up in Robin's bed together. Patrick had been asleep in the bed before Robin even got out of the shower and sometime during the few hours he had allowed himself he had gravitated towards her, held her. Semi-awake now he reached over her and reset the clock. "Go back to sleep. I set it to give you another couple of hours."

She mumbled incoherently and nodded back off. He looked down at her and softly stroked her hair off her cheek before rolling off the other side of the bed and going to shower and change into a fresh set of scrubs.

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"What do we got?" Patrick rushed over to the incoming gurney, slipping into surgeon mode with no hesitation. This was what he did, who he was. Sitting at a bedside, helpless and worrying was outside his comfort zone, this was something he could do.

"A gunshot wound to the head. They couldn't intubate him. He's hypotensive," Monica rattled off the facts.

"Okay, we need to hyperventilate him to reduce cerebral edema. Keep the head of the bed raised 15-20 degrees and call me when the C.T. Results are in. Also, prep the O.R."

"Good, good," Monica agreed.

"I want to operate as soon as possible." The patient needed it and so did he.

"You got it."

"No, you can't do that." Robin had arrived back at the hospital just behind the paramedics, her steps faltered only a split second when she saw who it was they were bringing in. Her eyes shot to Maxie standing nearby looking scared and her mind flashed to what her cousin might go through. "It's too soon to operate. His blood pressure needs to be stabilized. And we need to start him on Manatol to reduce the swelling in his brain."

"Obviously, you didn't hear me the first time. I'm operating as soon as possible." His voice was full of arrogance and dismissal, back to full surgeon mode.

"Obviously, you didn't hear me. He's not stable." As ever, Robin was undeterred by their professional differences.

"Look, we should make a notification, but on Jesse's chart, there's no next of kin," Patrick went on as if she hadn't spoken. He heard her, he just didn't agree and knew better than to try and argue with her. So he found a tactic through the disagreement - an arbiter.

"Well, Maxie is closest to him." She didn't want her baby cousin to have to make these decisions, but also knew she had the right and the need to do it.

"We should talk to her." Patrick turned and headed towards Maxie.

"Let me handle this." Robin slipped in front of Patrick as they approached her cousin. Patrick was a brilliant surgeon, but he sucked in the compassion department. "Hey. How are you holding up?" Robin sat down and took her cousin's hand.

"Not real well. Scared."

"Yeah. I know. We have to ask you something," Robin spoke gently, Patrick hovering over her. She could feel the tension radiating from his body, but she refused to rush, refused to be anything but clear.

"Okay." Maxie looked between Patrick and Robin.

"Who would be in a position to make decisions for Jesse?"

"What kind of decision?" Scared and confused, tears flowed down her cheeks.

"Look, Jesse needs to be operated on. Dr. Scorpio wants to wait till he's more stable. If we don't operate, he's going to end up a vegetable." In this, Robin and Patrick would probably never see eye to eye – the need to cut versus the need to wait. Waiting was never something Patrick was good at, life and death decisions something he did with less ease than he'd previously thought, but still something in his comfort zone. Therefore, he had a natural expectation that others could do it too or leave it to him to decide.

"Waiting means less risk to Jesse's life."

"Well, can you promise me if we wait, he's going to be okay?"

"No, I can't. I'm sorry, I can't make that guarantee."

"Then operate on him as soon as possible."

Patrick nodded and turned to go get ready. Robin flinched as she felt his warmth leave her back. She stayed and held Maxie's hand and tried to find words that might be of comfort.

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"I need to talk to you." Robin walked into the locker room and found Patrick staring into his locker. It unnerved her, ratcheting up the worry she had come in to discuss with him.

"It'll have to wait. I'm getting ready for surgery." He threw something into his locker and continued to get ready.

"You're not doing it," Robin said imperiously. Normally, Robin was the kind of person who made her pleas with compassion and understanding, but those tools didn't work when dealing with Patrick Drake. Neither did barking orders, but she was desperate to protect him from himself. She had seen Jesse's scans, his vitals, the odds that he would make it through the surgery were very low. She had also seen something that would make this more than Patrick's first O.R. failure if he did indeed fail.

"Are you a broken record?" Patrick's question was more rhetorical than anything. Indeed, Robin Scorpio often was like a broken record to him.

"Here." Robin handed him the print out she had hurriedly made.

"What's this?" Patrick asked, assuming it wasn't a love letter. Though, he thought that might be nice for a change.

"A list of alternative surgeons."

"I'm the only doctor in this hospital that can do the surgery." It wasn't arrogance when it was true in Patrick's opinion.

"I saw Jesse's chart and so did you. His blood type matches Noah's. He could be a match. He could be a liver donor for your father."

"So what are you saying?" As if it wasn't obvious and didn't infuriate him that she could even think it.

"If you operate and Jesse doesn't survive, it won't look like an accident."

"I asked for your support with my father, I didn't give you permission to butt into my professional decisions. I get it, we have opposing views on treatment and I get that you don't think that much of me as a man and clearly there's nothing I can do to change that, so butt the hell out Dr. Scorpio!" Patrick slammed his locker closed and bent down to tie his sneakers.

Robin stood stunned for a moment, blinked her eyes and shook her head and then turned to leave. After the door closed behind her Patrick stood up, licked his top lip and closed his eyes. What the hell, he wondered, did he do to deserve Robin Scorpio. Right then he was in too much turmoil to mean that in a particularly nice way.

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