A/N: So everyone is enjoyed the hot pink blindfold… Once again, thank you all for the amazing feedback. I'm glad that you all still enjoy this story, and I hope you all enjoy this chapter…
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Help Me Fall
Chapter Five: Honesty Breaks the Ice
"You ready for desert yet?"
"Desert?"
"Well of course…" Robin smiled seductively moving closer to him, only to pull two vanilla pudding cups from the picnic basket next to him.
"You have got to be kidding me?" Patrick sighed. "At least you have good taste." Patrick stated. This had definitely been an interesting date, of you even wanted to call it that. Robin definitely had different ideas when it came to dating that he did, but maybe that wasn't such a bad thing. She was already teaching him so much, and whether either one admitted it, they both enjoyed every minute.
"So…Tell me about yourself Dr. Drake."
"You want to know my deep dark secrets do you?" He joked. "There really isn't much to tell. My mom died a few months after I graduated high school and I had to put myself through college and medical school. And now here you are being graced by my presence."
"Why didn't your father help you out?"
"After my mom died he through himself into work for awhile and when that wasn't taking the pain away, he started drinking. It was only every once in awhile in the beginning but slowly, it became more frequent. He started spending my time at the 'hospital' but I knew something was up when he started coming home smelling like alcohol."
Robin saw the hurt in Patrick's eyes talking about his mother's death and his father. She knew from seeing the two of them together now that when Patrick lost his mother, he lost both his parents. Sure his father was physically alive but what kind of life could he live wanting to be with his dead wife?
"Eventually he stopped coming home all together. He was drinking all the time and he started taking all these women to hotels…" He trailed off. "He wasn't even there the day I moved out… He was off in some dreary bar, drinking his life away." He shrugged. "We just grew apart. I went to college and medical school and he lost his job. His drinking consumed him." He turned to look at her and for the first time she saw the tears threatening to fall. "My mother would never have wanted to see him the way he is now. She loved him with everything that she was, everything she did she did for him."
What did she say to make things okay for him? What did she say to comfort him? This was obviously still tearing him up inside. But how did she help someone who didn't believe he needed help? He blamed everything on his father. Would he even let her in long enough to let her try to help him? On any normal day, Patrick looked like the normal egotistical jerk that he was, but now he looked so vulnerable and so hurt. This was the side of Patrick that he kept hidden from everyone. He had built up this wall and refused to let anyone in.
"I promised myself that I would never be him, and for the most part I have stuck true to my word. But I'm becoming him more and more everyday. I have shut myself off from the rest of the world. Sure there are the women, but what difference does it make if I can't give one of them my heart?" He pleaded with her, but she didn't have the answers. "I feel like I'm stuck in the same place. I'm not moving forward but I'm not moving backward. I can't go back to the way things were but I can't move forward either…"
"You're scared that you're going to lose someone the way that your father lost your mother." Robin stated, understanding. She sighed. Was she ready to tell all of her deep, dark secrets? "When I was a teenager, I dated this guy Stone. He was my first love and I loved him with all of my heart. I shared some of the best times of my youth with him…" She explained. "When I was eighteen, he died of AIDS and I found out that I was HIV positive." She paused to let the realization sink in, and waited for his response. Receiving nothing she continued. "I felt like my life had ended. The one person who understood what I was going through and who was supposed to be there for me, wasn't. I had lost him and he was never coming back. I felt like I had nothing to live for. Stone had died, my parents had died, well at least my father; I had nothing."
"So how did you end up here? With the amazing career…" He was intrigued.
"I realized that I was letting my life pass me by and I couldn't let this disease control my life. If I did, it was for sure going to kill me. So I started living life again… Jason came into my life and everything changed all over again. He taught me that I could love again after Stone and that I would survive this disease. He made me believe again. I fell in love…"
"So what happened? Why aren't you and Mr. Intellectual married now? Living happily ever after?" She ignored the sarcasm in his voice and went on. After all, she couldn't stop here. Not after he had just spilled his soul to her.
"Carly happened." She simply said. "I still don't understand their relationship…" She spoke more to herself than to the man standing in front of her. "Jason was sleeping with Carly while I was with him… it's a really long story that ended with Jason and his brother AJ fighting over Carly's little boy, Michael." She wiped at her eyes. "To this day, things with Jason have never been the same."
"So you left for Paris…"
"I left for Paris." She repeated.
"Were you ever planning on coming back to Port Charles? Isn't most of your family here?"
"I don't really know if I would have ever come back. I know I missed my family but things were so easy in Paris. I had a life there…"
"But Jason got sick and you came running…" Patrick stated a little more hostile that he had intended.
"I wasn't going to come back." She ignored the tone of his voice once more. "There was no guarantee that my treatment would work, but he was dying. And no matter what Jason will always hold a special place in my heart. He helped me through some really rough times and I owe him a lot."
They stood in silence after sharing such personal emotions and stories with each other. Where did this leave them? Where did they go from here?
"Thank you for listening to me…" Patrick finally broke the silence. "You're the only person that I have ever told any of that to." He bowed his head in embarrassment.
"Thank you for listening and sharing with me." She replied. "I would like to be your friend Patrick… you are really a great guy when you get past the superficial wall that you put up to protect yourself."
"Thank you Dr. Phil…"
"I'm serious, Patrick. I understand you more than you like to believe also." She smiled up at him. Had they rally shared 'a moment' together? Maybe Patrick Drake wasn't so bad after all.
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A/N: So I know it's a bit short but I think the emotions in this chapter make up for it. So now go and review and tell me what you thought… And I'm sorry if any of this information is wrong. Like I have said before, I didn't watch when Robin was on before and I have only worked from what I have read in other fics. So please don't hate me if some of the info isn't completely correct…
