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If You're Not the One – 25
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"Robin's at the funeral!" Patrick sat up quickly, heedless of the pain the motion caused. "Do you have a phone?" Patrick looked at Alan who dug into his pocket and pulled out his mobile. He turned it on and pressed the speed dial for Robin's number and tossed it to Patrick. "Dammit!" Patrick cursed as the number went straight to voice mail. He left a frantic message.
"She might have had it off for the services," Noah said, trying to calm his son's agitation.
Alan, meanwhile, walked into the hall and picked up the hospital phone to see what he could find out from emergency services.
"I can't just sit here!" Patrick pushed the blanket off his legs and swung his legs over the side.
"You can't, Son. We don't even know what's happened yet. Hey, where do you think you're going?" Noah cried out as Patrick stood up and lurched towards the door. Before he got through the doorway he was doubled over in pain and Nurse Epiphany was there berating his for a stubborn ass and forcing him into his wheelchair.
"You're not going to find out if she's all right, Dr. Drake if you're unconscious or dead," she told him firmly.
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"Robin, Robin, wake up!" Brenda shook Robin's shoulder. Robin was lying on the floor amidst the chaos of chairs, bodies and debris. Brenda had a cut on her face and her black dress was full of dust, but other than some bumps and bruises from falling was otherwise unharmed. Some others around them were not as lucky.
"Wha…what happened?" Robin's eyes fluttered and then opened. "Ow." She closed her eyes again for a moment as she felt a dull ache in her head. Then she had the presence of mind to ask herself why her head hurt and she opened her eyes again to look up at Brenda. She saw her friend's injury and reached up to touch it as she sat up. She looked around and realized where they were. "Where's Jax?" she looked around and dug her purse out from underneath the chunk of plaster that had hit her in the head and pulled out some tissues and pressed them to Brenda's cut.
"He's okay, he went to help Alexis." Brenda took the tissues and held them to her head.
Robin breathed a sigh of relief and stood up with Brenda's help and surveyed the damage. The wall on the side of the room where Robin and Brenda and Jax had been sitting, the right side of the aisle, was mostly destroyed. Large pieces of it had collapsed into the room. The area behind the casket was completely blown out and open to sunshine, the casket itself was nowhere to be seen. Debris had scattered onto the seats on the other side of the aisle and the concussive shock of whatever had exploded had knocked over people in their seats. Men in dark suits were circling around the front of the room where the family had been sitting.
Robin had a flash of Jason giving a eulogy and AJ standing up in the crowd shocking them all, then nothing. She couldn't remember what had happened.
"Where's Jason?" Robin asked Brenda who shrugged helplessly as they helped a couple of their seat companions sit up. As soon as one of the suits came over to help the people out, Robin rushed to the front only to be stopped by Max and another suit. "I'm a doctor," she reminded him. Max nodded at the other guy and they let her through.
Jason was lying on the ground where he had landed after being thrown from the podium, Sam was hovering over him weeping, her clothes torn practically to bits, and Michael was on his other side shaking his shoulder uselessly trying to wake him up.
Nearby, John Durant was kneeling with Bobbie who was giving Emily Quartermaine mouth-to-mouth resuscitation as Durant applied chest compressions at her direction.
In the distance sirens could be heard approaching. Robin heard them and knew she was never going to hear the end of this from Mac and her father, but she pushed the thought away and slipped into doctor mode.
"Jason, it's Robin. Can you hear me?" Jason didn't respond even when Robin ran her hands over his form feeling for broken bones and cuts, of which she found a worrying number.
Robin, meanwhile, lifted Jason's eyelids to check his dilation, she didn't have a light but they looked to be equal and reactive. As she examined him, Bobbie crawled over and gave Robin a meaningful look and shook her head, Emily was dead. Pushing back the emotion that news would require for later, she watched as Bobbie picked up Jason's wrist and let Robin know that the pulse was weak and thready. Sharing a quick look with the experienced nurse, Robin slipped her hands underneath Jason's body and began to slide them, once there she bit back a gasp and pulled her hand out to confirm that the wet she felt was blood.
She waved over two of the suited men and had them slowly flip Jason over to reveal a jag of wood, possibly from the coffin, protruding from his back in the area of a kidney.
Sam let out a wail at the sight and Bobbie called for someone to hold the woman back as she tried to rush Jason's prone form.
Robin pursed her lips and considered the options out loud with Bobbie. They both agreed that they couldn't risk removing the object as it might be the only thing preventing a bleed out and sloppy removal might cause more damage. It needed to wait for x-rays and a surgeon.
At this pronouncement, Sam started screeching hysterically and tore out of the arms of the Sonny gang's typically inept guards. Before she could throw herself over Jason's body two arms circled the woman and pulled her back. Robin looked into AJ's very-much-not-dead-eyes. He gave her a small nod of recognition and Robin gave one back and made a mental note to spend some time later counting how many people she'd known who'd come back from the dead.
The sirens were right outside now and within seconds a horde of cops, paramedics and firemen were on scene. Robin waved over paramedics and rattled off the details of Jason's condition, then backed off. There was nothing she could do for him there. He needed a surgeon. She looked over and saw that another paramedic was pulling a sheet over Emily.
Sighing sadly, Robin got up from the ground and ignoring the pounding in her head turned to go outside to the triage area. She had only walked a few steps when she ran into her glowering father and uncle.
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Patrick opted to stay in his father's room while they waited. They were now tuned in to the endless loop of coverage on the local news. So far no real information had been given other than that there had not been a series of explosions as first reported, but only a single, rather large explosion. The area itself was cordoned off by the police and fire authorities and the bomb squad was seen dispersing in the area presumably to search the area for more explosives. Overhead cameras showed people being helped from the funeral home, which had only sustained damage in one part of the building, but it was clearly heavy damage as an outside wall had collapsed.
"Damn it, how long does it take to get information?" Patrick banged his hand on the chair again and dialed Robin's cell phone number again.
Noah pursed his lips and prayed.
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"Robin, I…" Robert began heatedly.
"Save the 'I told you so's.' There are people here who need help and then I need to get to the hospital."
"Are you all right?" Mac asked.
"I'm fine. Jason is badly injured and Emily Quatermaine is dead." Neither Scorpio's looked too worried by the news. "Lorenzo Alcazar was here." That on the other hand interested them. "He showed up and said that he wasn't responsible for Sonny's death and that whoever targeted his son at the carnival was responsible and was after both of their…organizations."
Robert looked impressed by Robin's immediate recounting of useful information. Mac smiled with pride and thanked her for the information. "Make sure you get checked out," he told her.
"Yes, Sir." Robin accepted a squeeze on the shoulder from her father and made her way outside the building where the injured were being triaged. She was immediately blinded by the bright sunlight and shaded her eyes with one hand as she used the other to rummage in her purse for her sunglasses. Overhead she heard helicopters hovering and as soon as she touched her cell phone she realized they were likely news copters and it was possible that Patrick had heard about the explosions. She didn't have any direct way to reach him in the ICU she realized as she turned on her phone to see she had five new messages.
She thought for a moment and then called Alan Quatermaine's cell phone. Someone had to tell him about AJ, Emily and Jason. He had once done her the service of delivering devastating news and she thought it only right she not avoid the job now.
"Robin?" Patrick's worried voice came on the line. "Are you all right?"
"Patrick? I was calling Alan?" Robin straightened her sunglasses and walked over to the triage area to find it sufficiently under control. She turned and walked around to find a way to the hospital. She spotted Officer Lucky Spencer waving at her and walked over.
"He gave me his phone and I've been trying to call you! Is Bobbie all right?" Patrick said.
"We're both fine. Is Alan there? I need to speak to him. Hang on a sec, Lucky is trying to talk to me."
There was silence on the line not because Robin asked for a minute, but because Patrick was thrown by Robin's casual attitude. He had been worried out of his mind for her, frantically pushing aside thoughts of her being injured and images of his life if she was suddenly gone from it. He had hardly expected a tearful declaration, but a brusque "I'm fine" and asking for their boss?
"Patrick?" Robin asked as Lucky put her into a car with Luke at the wheel and Bobbie in the passenger seat.
"Alan went to the ER to help manage incoming ambulances. Are you on your way?"
"I'm just getting a ride over now with Luke and Bobbie. I'll come up as soon as I can." She clicked off the phone and started dialing the ER.
"Honey, if you think it's going to be any less of a shock for Alan to find out that his son is alive and his daughter is dead over the phone from you then you're fooling yourself," Luke said from the driver's seat. In the back seat Robin grimaced at the truth of it and clicked off the connection. She would have to do it in person if no one else had by then.
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"Bobbie's all right. She's on the way here with Robin." Patrick frowned at the cell phone.
"What's wrong, Son? Is she injured?"
"She asked to speak to Alan," Patrick said, sounding befuddled.
Noah cracked a small smile that he quickly suppressed. "I imagine she wanted to convey some on scene medical information."
"Oh, right. Of course." Patrick nodded and put the phone down in his lap. That made sense. She was in doctor mode. He still wasn't satisfied, not by a long shot.
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Robin led the way as Luke helped his sister into the ER. Bobbie was insisting on getting to work right away, but both Robin and Luke shot her down. Robin told her she would treat her and then they could both get to work on the incoming injuries, though most were headed towards Mercy as it was a closer hospital to the funeral home.
On their way to an exam room Robin asked for Alan and was told that he had already been informed of his daughter's death and his son's injuries had left the ER. Whether he knew about AJ yet she didn't know.
Relieved of the sad duty, Robin took Bobbie into the room and began to treat her cuts and check her for any other injuries.
"You were a bit short with Patrick on the phone," Bobbie commented, then winced as the antiseptic Robin applied to the cut on her arm stung.
"Short?" Robin asked absently.
"I imagine he was sitting around helpless in his hospital bed worrying about you and you asked to speak to Alan."
Robin frowned as she applied a bandage. "What was I supposed to say? I told him I was all right." She bent down and began to treat the small cut on Bobbie's leg.
"Oh dear." Bobbie chuckled.
"What?" Robin was completely perplexed as she observed Bobbie's amusement.
"You could have said some sweet words or something." Bobbie waved her hand around.
"Patrick and I aren't like that." Robin flushed. Even when she was sick during the epidemic or right before Patrick's surgery there weren't flowery words or declarations. Surely Patrick would have been uncomfortable with her saying anything sappy in front of other people had she had the presence of mind to think of it. Her head was pounding trying to figure out what she had done wrong. All she had been thinking about was Alan. It was his number she had called.
"It'll be fine." Bobbie patted Robin's shoulder as she hopped down from the table. She was certainly enjoying watching those two fumble their way to each other. "Let's go find some scrubs and get to work."
Robin looked down at her dirty and torn dress and concurred with the idea.
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"Dr. Scorpio and Nurse Spencer are downstairs treating patients," Nurse Epiphany walked into the tense Drake room to announce.
Hearing the news Patrick felt a weight lift off his shoulders. He was still uneasy about the call, but since he couldn't pinpoint quite why he pushed it away. Noah was similarly relieved.
"Are they injured?" Noah asked.
"Nurse Spencer has cuts and bruises, but Doctor Scorpio seems remarkably uninjured."
"Good." Noah nodded and watched his son process the information.
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"Plastic surgery should be able to take care of that perfectly," Robin said as she examined Brenda's cut. It had already been taken care of, but she had wanted to see it for herself.
"I know. It's small. Have you heard anything about Jason?" Brenda asked.
"He was transported to Mercy because it was closer. Monica went over there."
"Do they know about AJ yet?" Brenda asked.
"I don't know about Monica, but Alan does." Robin rubbed her forehead and sat down on a nearby stool as she remembered the scene in the ER when AJ walked in. She smiled. "He was shocked, but thrilled. Hell of a day for them. They lost a daughter, regained a son and another son might…" Robin still couldn't face the possibility of Jason dying.
"Did Michael see him?" Brenda asked gently, knowing that Robin didn't want to talk about Jason until there was some definitive news.
"Yeah. That wasn't too pretty, but…" Robin trailed off. Who and where Michael ended up with was something she didn't want to think about anymore. She'd had too much involvement with that in the past. Now, that Sonny was dead and Carly committed, AJ seemed like the logical choice to take care of his son, especially if Jason didn't make it. Robin's stomach sank at the finally completed thought.
"Are you all right?" Brenda's voice sounded like it was coming from far away.
Robin looked up, trying to focus on Brenda's words, on her face. The light was too harsh in here and things were hazy, unfocused. She felt like she was falling.
"Robin?" Brenda jumped down from the table as she friend went white as a sheet and began to wilt over. Brenda caught Robin's collapsing body. "Help! I need help in here!"