A/N: I'm SO happy that everyone is enjoying this story already. As I said before, I'm going to be changing a few things around. So it'll be based on what's going on in the show but in a different way… if that makes any sense. But you guys will all understand soon enough.

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To Close for Comfort

Chapter Two:

It was times like these that Patrick really hated his job. He knew years ago when he entered medical school that he wanted to help people. He wanted to make a difference in people's lives and hopefully, help them get better. He wanted to make his father proud of him, become that man that his father would have wanted to watch grow up. And he felt that up until the past few years he had done that. He had worked himself to death those years while still in school, and what for? To tell a little girl that she had a terrible disease that might kill her? What had she done to deserve that… stayed up just a little too long past her bed time?

"Cancer." Patrick sighed as he walked over to the nurse's station, after seeing little Maddie off on the elevator. "That little girl has leukemia." Patrick stated. "She came in with a fever. She said she was tired… and now…"

"Why do children have to suffer like that? They are just so innocent. Why do they have to go through all of that pain?" She shook her head. She knew all too well that life wasn't fair. That things happen without a reason, and now that little girl's family was going to have to learn that same lesson. "How did the grandmother handle it?"

"That wasn't her grandmother." He said simply, his voice full of emotion, this not going unnoticed by Robin. "That was the woman at the orphanage where she lives." Why did people have to suffer so terribly? Why did their families have to watch them go through their pain until there was finally nothing that could be done for them, and they let go? That was the one thing that Patrick hated about his job of choice. Medicine could only go so far, and there was a lot that medicine couldn't overcome.

Like Leukemia.

"Are you okay?" Patrick still didn't look her in the eye. There was something bothering him, something deep inside him and she could tell but he was avoiding the situation. He was building up the wall brick by brick in front of her eyes, all over again. The wall that they had worked so hard together to break down.

"Huh? Oh yeah, I'm fine. I'm just going to go take a break." He started walking away. "I'll be on the roof if anyone needs me."

Robin watched him walk down the hall and turn the corner. There was something seriously off with him all of a sudden. His whole demeanor had changed, as did his attitude. He had walked out of that exam room, a different man than when he had walked in. It was obvious he was fighting a losing battle within himself, but he wouldn't allow himself to be open and honest and tell her what was bothering him. He was still protecting himself, not willing to let her in completely.

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He opened the door and the burst of cold air hit him… fast. But he barely felt the temperature difference. His body was numb. Never had a patient affected him as much as that little girl. Never had he allowed a patient affect him this much. Robin had pestered him nonstop about his terrible bedside manner, but this was exactly what he had been protecting himself from. If he remained their doctor and nothing more, he didn't run the risk of getting hurt himself. If he only did what he had been taught to do, things wouldn't get complicated and he would be able to walk out of the room with no connections and no regrets.

Many misconstrued him as being cold, heartless. But that couldn't have been farther from the truth. He wasn't cold and he did have a heart. He was reminded of that every time he looked at a picture of his father, or every time he ended up alone being drug into the past like right now. For years, he had perfected the art of pushing people away and letting no one new into his life. Things got too complicated; he packed up and moved leaving everything behind him. It was his MO. He never stayed in one place too long and when he did, he kept to himself never letting anyone get to know him.

And he couldn't even explain why. He never really did understand why his life was the way it was. He was what most women would consider gorgeous and he never had had a problem in that department, and he had a great career. He was a surgeon who woke up every morning to help make people better, save their lives. He wanted it to be enough. He wanted to wake up every morning and be satisfied. He wanted to go to bed at night knowing that he had made a difference that day, even if it was only a small difference. It was something.

He heard the door open and close loudly behind him but he didn't move to turn around. He knew who it was, and he wasn't ready to open up about everything to her just yet. If he did, he would be breaking his pattern. He would be connected to someone, even a little bit, and he couldn't let that happen. He couldn't risk giving a part of himself over to her and never getting it back.

"I know you wanted to be alone…" She began but stopped. He hadn't shown any sign that he cared that she was even near him. Maybe she should have just left him alone, like he had asked.

She turned to leave. This had been a mistake.

"My dad died when I was eighteen." He said softly, almost a whisper. He sighed deeply. It was too late. He had started it and now he had to finish. "He had cancer."

She walked up next to him and touched his arm gently. She wasn't sure if she was ready to hear this, but he needed to talk, he needed to tell somebody. And if he felt that she was who he wanted to tell, then she was going to listen. She was going to put everything in their past behind them, she wasn't going to laugh at him or make fun of him. She was going to listen and be a friend.

"I told you the night in the park that I had lost my mother… which is true, but I didn't tell you the whole truth." He continued looking out into the sky; anywhere but at her. He refused to meet her eyes. "My dad had cancer. We found out when I was fifteen and he immediately started taking treatments. He said from the very beginning that he was going to fight and we never argued with him, because we knew that he would. Me and my mother were everything to him and we knew it. The thought of losing him never crossed our minds… we wouldn't let it."

She watched as the tears formed in his eyes and a few managed to escape and glide down his unshaven cheek. She had never seen him this emotional, this open and honest. She wasn't quite sure what to say, so she stood by, quietly waiting for him to continue.

"My mom was a surgeon," He smiled, "she always said that she wanted nothing more than to watch me follow in her footsteps." The smile faded from his face as the other memories flooded through his mind. "My father wanted her to operate on him. The caner had grown so much that the only chance he had of survival was surgery, and he said he would only go through with it if my mother performed the surgery." He closed his eyes, trying to block out the pain from those years before. "She didn't want to at first but he was getting worse and she wasn't ready to lose the man she loved… so she agreed."

He grew silent. "W—what happened?" Robin stammered, unsure.

"He died on the table in the first hour of the surgery." He finally locked eyes with her and she was surprised to not see pain and sadness there, but anger. "Things were as normal as possible for the first few months. The funeral came and went and my high school graduation came… my mom was fine, but slowly she gave in. She missed him so much and she couldn't handle it. She needed something to take the pain away and she turned to alcohol, she stopped eating and taking care of herself." He paused. "She had already lost her husband, the man that meant everything to her and here I was leaving and going to college. She felt like she was losing me too."

How did she take all of this information? All this time she had judged Patrick on his outward appearance. Never really trying to get to know him and see what he had been through. Now she was seeing this man standing in front of her, torn and alone.

"I told you I lost my mom… and I did. I lost her to the alcohol. When I lost my father, I lost both my parents." He began pacing. He had been this open with anyone is an extremely long time. How had he ended up here, telling all of this to Robin Scorpio? "It was bad enough going through the transition from a kid to a man without my father, but I lost my mother too. I was so lost but I promised myself that I was going to go through with the plan. I promise myself that I was going to become the man that my father always wanted me to be… and somewhere I always hoped that it would bring my mom back to me too."

"Have you talked to her?"

He shook his head. "It's been almost two years. She came to me and I tried to help her but she didn't want my help… she stole two hundred dollars from me and I don't know where she is." He was growing angrier with every step he took, back and forth, back and forth. "I don't even care. She isn't the woman that I grew up with. She isn't that woman that my father loved…"

But Robin could tell that he did care. It was written all over his face.

She walked in front of him, forcing him to stop pacing and stare her straight in the face. He looked deep into her eyes, searching for some kind of an answer. He needed her to help him. He needed her to give him the answers, the solution. But she didn't have any answers. She didn't know what to say to make things better, to help him. It didn't matter how bad she wanted to take all of his pain away.

She stepped closer to him and watched as the questions flashed across the same eyes that were filled with so much pain and anger. But once again, she didn't have the answers. She wasn't sure what she was doing. She just knew that right now he needed someone. He needed a friend. Someone who understands…someone to be there for him and to listen to him. She looked in his eyes once more before pulling him close to her and wrapping her arms around his waist. There were no words that could be said to make things okay for him, but for a brief moment, if she could make him know that he wasn't alone… she had succeeded.

It wasn't until she felt his body wracking against her own that she knew he was crying, bringing tears to her own eyes.

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A/N: Okay so I said a few days and here it is… I have to admit that I'm fairly proud of myself and all of you should know that I'm blowing off my homework to get this to you. My AP homework! But I'm not complaining… hehe But I hope you liked this chapter and I hope this explained a little more about the changes I'm making…