A/N: Once again, thank you all for the amazing reviews and feedback. It just keeps getting better and better! I love that all of you loved my "strong" Robin. I personally had a lot of fun writing the two parts with Sonny and Jason but I think I am going to enjoy the next ranting and raving section even better! MUHAHAHA! And all of you will just have to wait and see what happens… sigh. Am I being too evil? ;)

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Help Me Fall

Chapter Eleven: All in his Hands

"I can't believe that I was bombarded with the both of them in one day!" Robin exasperated. "And who do they think they are? I haven't had a normal conversation with either one of them since before I left!"

"Okay, take a deep breath…" Liz instructed. "You are right… you haven't talked to either one of them for ten years. Let whatever they said go in one ear and out the other. When they look at you they still see that same girl that left all those years ago. They haven't been around the new you…"

"But I can't just let it go… What they said to me, no matter how much I want to deny it, it mattered to me. It felt good knowing that they still loved me or at the very least still cared for me." Robin explained, finally taking a seat next to Liz in the locker room and completing her pacing.

"You want them to be proud of you and you want their recognition. Somewhere deep down inside you feel like you need it for everything to work out, for you to be happy. But you don't have to feel that way. What Sonny and Jason think of you or Patrick, is their problem." She looked at Robin who still seemed so torn. "Will you answer me a question? Are you happy? Does Patrick make you happy?"

"Yes." She wasted no time answering.

"Then there is your answer. Maybe Jason and Sonny are right and Patrick isn't going to do anything but hurt you, but at least you are willing to take that risk. What kind of life would you have if you always played it safe?" The irony dripping from her words. "But I feel it, deep down inside, Patrick truly cares for you and I believe that if he has any say in the matter; he will never hurt you."

--

"Happy birthday." Robin says as she pulls the package from behind her back and placed it on the table in front of them.

"How did you know?" He glanced at her, his eyes full of question. "I never told you…"

"I overheard Noah talking the other day…" She smiled at the glow in his eyes. "Go ahead, open it." She urged.

He still watched her with a slight grin on his face. Every time he thought she couldn't get any better and she couldn't surprise him any longer… she did. He didn't deserve her, she was way too good for him… but he would never be able to let her go. Not now.

He shifted his gaze to the medium sized box covered with a deep purple paper and a light purple bow and slowly began unwrapping the gift. Part of him was going to painstakingly slow to torture Robin, it was his way after all, but part of him wanted to savor the moment. She really didn't understand just how much this simple thought and this simple box really meant to him. Even if she had given him just a birthday card, it didn't matter… she knew it was his birthday and she cared.

He lifted the cover and he moved each layer of tissue paper to the sides, taking a sharp intake of breath when he saw what lay beneath it. "Do you like it?" She asked hopefully. She had taken a real risk in giving something like this to him.

"It's beautiful…" He couldn't manage anything more. He looked up at her with tears rimming his eyes and he wrapped his arm around her waist and pulled her into his lap. "Thank you so much."

He glanced once more at the picture of his mother holding him when he was a baby. She was in a rocking chair, looking down at him with so much adoration and love. She was still so young and so innocent. No one knew how things would end… He had seen the picture only a few times before and hadn't seen it now, in years. After losing her, Noah boxed away any memory he could. He couldn't handle the pain, the memories, or the shame that he felt knowing that he was letting her down. "How did you get this?" He questioned; his voice cracking.

"Noah gave me a box full of pictures…" She whispered to him, noting the emotions hidden in the moment. "He said I could take any of them that I want. And I saw this picture and I fell in love with it immediately." She kissed his temple lightly before locking eyes. "She was beautiful, Patrick."

He nodded, still trying to get his emotions in check. "She was amazing. She did everything for me and my dad. Everything that she did, any decision that she made was about what would be best for our family." He wiped at his eyes. He certainly hadn't meant to get this emotional but when it came to his mother, he was a wreck. He missed her more than anything and if he had one wish it would be to see her, speak to her, love her once more. "This means everything to me Robin…really. Thank you so much."

"I'm happy I was able to give you something that means so much to you…" She framed his face in her hands and kissed his lips gently. "She would be extremely proud of the man that you have become…" She answered the question that he always asked himself. He always wondered if she would be happy with the way he turned out or if she would be ashamed of him… Somehow, the words spoken by Robin did wonders to soothe his mixed feelings.

"What have we here?" the snake-like voice asked from behind them. Robin pulled away only to find her worst nightmare staring right back at the two of them.

"If you wouldn't mind Carly, would you just keep walking and act like you never even saw us?" Robin asked, managing to keep her voice flat. "Now really isn't the time."

"Actually, now is the perfect time…" She said with an evil glint in her eye. "It's the perfect time to tell Patrick what a huge mistake he is making and hopefully help him rectify it before it's too late."

"Carly, I don't want to hear anything that you have to say…" Patrick said tiredly. "When are you going to understand that I don't care what you think about Robin or about our relationship for that matter?"

"You will care when she chews you up and spits you out like yesterdays gum…" Carly said flatly. "I'm only trying to help you. I know what she is capable of and I just don't want to see you hurt."

"What she is capable of?" Patrick asked disbelieving. "What about what you are capable of? From what I hear, you aren't the perfect saint that you like to believe you are…" He was really growing sick of Carly and her incessant intrusions. She acted like it was any of her business what he did when he wasn't working, when he was with Robin. "Just listen to me when I tell you that I don't want to have anything to do with you. There is nothing that attracts me to you and I'm not going to sit here and listen to you downgrade Robin…"

"And I suppose that little miss thing here, has everything that you have ever wanted in a woman, right?" Carly seethed in return. "What about sex, Patrick? Are you willing to go without because you sure as hell won't be getting any from her." She shot a nasty glance at Robin who was now standing behind Patrick, placing a protective hand on his shoulder.

"That's enough Carly. You know nothing about our relationship and as I said before, I'm not going to listen as you talk about Robin that way. She may not be your favorite person, hell; you might even wish her every pain imaginable but I don't want to here any of it. You have your opinion of her and I have mine." He grabbed the picture and the box it once called home. "You are trying to use me and what miniscule friendship we had as some way to stick it to Robin… well, let me tell you, I'm not going to let it happen." There was an unforeseen fire in his eyes as he gripped Robin's hand and they walked out the door; leaving a dumbfounded Carly standing alone.

--

"You didn't have to say all of those things you know…" Robin said as they walked a long the docks. "But thank you all the same."

He stopped walking and looked her deep in the eyes, making sure she understood what he was saying. "I care for you. I really care for you…who knows, maybe it's more but at this point I'm not sure and I don't want to complicate things. I really don't know… however, know that I'm not going to stand by and watch her hurt you. You certainly don't deserve it and Carly has no right to be spitting accusations and insults your way…"

"She placed her hand on his cheek, giving him a sincere smile. They had grown so close in just the few shorts weeks that had pasted. Their feelings for each other continued to grow; they continued to spend more and more time together, opening up with each other. They were quickly becoming best friends but at the same time there was a whole other level to their relationship. They could now walk into a room and sense when something was wrong with the other. They could tell what was on their mind and bothering them by just looking in the other's eyes. Slowly, their dependence on the other was gaining control…

"You know, you already gave me the best birthday gift imaginable. You gave me my father back…" He was silent for a minute before continuing with his praise. "This is the first year in a really long time that we have actually been on speaking terms with each other and now he is considering me as a liver donor for him. We have taken some fairly large steps in our relationship recently and none of that would have happened had it not been for you…"

"You give me too much credit. I just pointed out what was right in front of you this whole time. You and Noah love each other more than either of you realize or maybe you do know and you just don't want to let those feelings show, but what matters is that you are your father's son. You are Noah." She smiled at his disgusted look. "But that is a good thing. Noah is a great man. He is a man who wasn't afraid to love and hurt. He is a man who took a chance with an amazing woman who turned his world upside down and in the end; things weren't the way he had planned them to be… BUT he had a forever memory of that woman and their life together; their love. You."

He blushed slightly and grabbed her arm as he moved to sit on the bench nearby. "How did you get so smart?"

"Well I did a have two international spies as parents…" She said casually. "But it might be my super-surgeon boyfriend…"

"Boyfriend huh?"

"Yeah, I hate to break to you Dr. Drake; it seems you may have some competition…"

"Oh really," He asked mischievously as he leaned in to kiss her, "I guess I'll just have to show him now won't I?"

"Oh buy you are doing a great job…" She pulled from his lips slightly. "Let's get out of here. I have a surprise for you at my apartment…"

"Your apartment?" He raised his eyebrows.

"Down boy." She giggled.

"Thank you again Robin. You have made this birthday one worth having." He surprised her by hugging her instead of kissing her. She smiled to herself knowing that she was getting to him and in her own way she was changing him. But he was also changing her in his own way… They were changing for each other. They were sacrificing and growing. They were making an attempt to love each other, to be together, to be new people.

Mind numbing. Mind shattering. Mind blowing.

It hit suddenly. No warning, no time for preparation. Nothing.

She went limp in his arms, putting her full weight in his hands.

"Robin?" His voice cracked. "Robin, baby, what's wrong?" Her knees sagged and he slowly lowered her to the wooden planks they were standing on. "What happened?"

"My- my back…" She choked out. He reached around to inspect her small, fragile body. "Don't."

"I have to, Robin. I don't care…" He pressed her lower back where he felt the warm liquid cover his hand in just seconds.

Blood.

"Patrick, I'm so cold."