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If You're Not the One – 27
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"I want to see my daughter!" Robert Scorpio walked in to the waiting room as if he owned it and made his demand of the waiting friends and family as if they were his loyal subjects. It was a way of being that made him a very successful spy; it just didn't make him a great hit at parties or, at present, with the members of his own family.
"Patrick is with her right now." Brenda let go of Jax's hand and stood up. She had a strong sense that another battle was about to take place because walking in right behind Robert was Anna Devane and she had a death glare trained on her former husband's head. Brenda definitely wanted a front row seat for this, but couldn't help but think about how all three of them had at some point in time disappeared on Robin.
"No, I'd like to see my daughter. You chose not to see her for fifteen years you can wait another fifteen years."
"Hello, Luv." Robert turned around and faced his former wife. He had faced down the barrel of many guns, been shot countless times and survived bombs on more than a dozen occasions; he was not going to allow himself to be intimidated by the fiery temper of Anna Devane. Hell, it's what he loved about her most. The thought brought an irreverent smile to his face.
"At least you haven't lost your sense of humor," Anna hissed and stalked up to the man who had been her partner in so many different ways before he had faked his death and left her to wander around lost and away from their daughter for almost ten years.
The two trained killers stood glaring at each other, their audience each experiencing this palpable battle of wills from their own perspective – amusement from those who had waited for it, fear or complete confusion for those uninitiated in all things Devane and Scorpio, or just plain curiosity – that was from Nikolas Cassadine to whom a little murder in the family was as common as dinner parties were to others. And often happened at dinner parties.
What they all had in common was that they expected Anna to smack Robert down, figuratively and literally, and to make it really, really hurt.
She looked at him with the fury of a woman scorned, a mother denied her child and the mother of a child denied its parents all on the decision of another flowed in her veins. It fueled her trek to Port Charles once she had confirmation that he had returned. Yet, now, standing face to face with Robert Scorpio those feelings took on another dimension. Not love, because that was always there between them no matter the perfidy or rage. Not relief that Robert indeed had not been killed by Faison. No, that was not the new dimension seeping through her now as she stared into his familiar eyes – this new dimension was about who Anna Devane was at her core.
Anna Devane was a lot of things – a survivor, a fighter, sometimes a traitor, a killer, but she was not and would not allow herself to be a hypocrite. Which is what she would be if she punished Robert too excessively for doing the same things she herself had done and for the same reasons she had done them – to protect Robin.
She had withheld Robin's existence from Robert for the first seven years of Robin's life - all to protect Robin.
She had never told Robin that she had parents for the first seven years of Robin's life – all to protect Robin.
She had not immediately told Robin she was alive once Alex showed up and the pieces were put together – all to protect Robin.
She had stayed away from Robin until the immediate danger had passed – all to protect Robin - and then she had left her to go back to work.
And how many times had Robin actually been in danger because of her parents? So who, Anna wondered, was she to cast stones at Robert for pretending to be dead for fifteen years and never letting them know in any way that he was alive? For not lifting a finger for all the years she had amnesia?
She was Anna Devane, that's who she was.
And she swung and gave him the brutal right hook she had passed on to her daughter.
And he took it, because he knew he deserved that much from her. That much, but not much more. Holding his cheek Robert cocked his head and Anna and asked, "Satisfied now, Luv?" In her eyes he could see the acknowledgement that neither of them would be winning parent of the year awards.
"I'll probably want to kick your ass a bit more later, but right now let's go see about our daughter. Who's Robin's doctor, I want to speak to him or her?" Anna asked Brenda who stood waiting, an amused expression on her face. She adored Anna Devane.
"Depends who you ask, it's either Dr. Brian Weaver or Dr. Patrick Drake." Brenda liked the fact that two reputable and gorgeous neurosurgeons were fighting over her best friend's care.
"Isn't Junior Drake recovering from his own surgery?" Robert asked.
"Yes, but he left his hospital bed to take care of her and he's now ensconced at her side and not looking like he's going anywhere soon," Brenda said and silently nodded in answer to Anna's questioning look.
"Let's go meet the man who gets up off his hospital bed to care for our daughter." She looked at Mac and Robert meaningfully before turning on her heel and following Brenda to her daughter's room.
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"You know, you and Dr. Scorpio should just rent out a room here, at the very least three admissions in three months might qualify you both for a volume discount." Nurse Epiphany made her presence known to Dr. Drake.
Patrick rubbed a tired hand over his face. He was due for a pain killer, but he didn't want to sleep. He didn't want to leave Robin's side until she was taken down to CT for another scan, which would be in another half an hour, to see if her own drug therapy was working and fast enough. He turned his head and looked at Nurse Epiphany. "I thought I was the one who got to make the jokes around here?" he said.
"When you're a patient I hold all the cards and you Mister need to get back to your own bed before you cause yourself internal bleeding. Dr. Scorpio isn't up to saving your life on the operating table right now." Nurse Epiphany walked into the room and began checking the machines. It wasn't strictly her job, but she felt rather like a guardian angel to the two doctors who made her job all that much more enjoyable and difficult in turn.
"How's my father doing?" Patrick asked.
"Nagging me about coming down here himself, but since I threatened to give him his next sponge bath instead of Nurse Spencer he's zipped it up." Epiphany tilted her head and looked down at the handsome doctor. "I think you're about due for another one yourself." She winked at him.
"Some new photos might encourage Robin to wake up." Patrick chuckled and then winced.
"That's what I thought." Epiphany handed him a small cup of pills. "Prescription strength ibuprofen. I assumed you wouldn't want to take anything that would really knock you out and let Dr. Weaver sneak in here to care for his patient, but you need something to take the edge off. Not to mention the fact that you need to not be sitting so much, Doctor." She stressed the last word pointedly. She thought it was admirable that he was risking life and limb to take care of Dr. Scorpio, but someone had to take care of him and she was it until the pretty doctor woke up.
Before she could tease him some more into taking better care of himself the room door opened. She caught the worried and determined expressions on the three faces entering, one of which she recognized as the Police Commissioner, and didn't bother trying tell them that there was a one visitor limit.
Patrick recognized Robin's father and uncle, but had never seen the beautiful brunette woman who entered, but he knew right away that it was Robin's mother. Holding a hand to his incision he slowly stood up and reached out to shake everyone's hands. Then Epiphany forced him back into the seat and made sponge-bath motions with her hands in order to keep him sitting after she left the room.
"Patrick, how is she?" Robert asked.
This was something he could answer. "She has a subacute subdural hematoma caused by the blow to the head she suffered in the explosion. Right now we're treating her with a drug combination that Robin herself developed to deal with this type of injury. It's comprised of diuretics to control the brain swelling and other drugs to speed up absorption of the bleed back into the body and even something new Robin herself came up with to stop the bleed. It's a little disturbing that she hasn't regained consciousness on her own before this, but there is nothing to indicate that it's a problem. By her own notes Robin should be waking up within the next six hours and recovered completely within a few days," Patrick rattled off the full condition, treatment and prognosis. "Of course, she'll be back at work two days before that."
"You're saying she'll be all right and that her own treatment is the cause?" Anna asked proudly.
"Yes."
"What is the worst case scenario, Patrick?" Robert asked, surreptitiously moving closer to Anna as he did so.
"If the drugs don't begin to work satisfactorily within the next three hours, depending on the speed of the bleed we'll have to operate. I'll have to drill a hole in her skull over to relieve the pressure. From there we'll give her more drugs, probably including one to prevent seizures." Patrick paused and frowned. He had delivered these details countless times to waiting friends and family. Before they had just been facts he recited full of confidence of his success, but now…he glanced at Robin and unconsciously touched her hand before continuing. "Possible effects of the injury and the surgery are amnesia, attention difficulties, anxieties and headaches. They could be short term or long term. Seizures could even begin to first appear up to twenty-four months after the trauma. For what it's worth I don't think we're dealing with that here."
As Patrick spoke, Anna stepped back right into Robert. He wrapped her in his arms as Anna looked Patrick straight in the eye as he spoke. She liked what she was hearing and seeing from this man who clearly cared about her daughter a great deal. "Robin has an extremely high opinion of you as a doctor." And that was all she needed to know, that Robin was being treated by a man she respected with a treatment she devised.
"As do I," Robert put in.
"Her opinion in such matters is unquestionable. I know my daughter will be all right." With that, Anna walked over to her daughter and bent over her and stroked back her hair and began to whisper to her. "Luv, your mother and father are here together with your Uncle Mac and your hot doctor friend. How about you wake up for us? You don't want to miss the family reunion, do you?"
"She just looks like she's sleeping," Robert said as he moved closer to the bed.
"Essentially she is. She's not in a coma," Patrick said, gingerly moving backwards, intending to leave Robin alone with her family.
Just as he was about to leave she called his name, "Patrick?"