A/N: Thanks for reading and for all the amazing, amusing and complimentary comments you've left for me. They really mean a lot to this aspiring writer.

Fourteen

Patrick moved his hand across the bed and encountered emptiness where he expected to find Robin. His half-sleeping mind jolted awake and he opened his eyes to look around. The hotel room appeared to be empty, but then he heard noises coming from the bathroom. He sucked in a breath and sat up, the sheet dropping down to sit at his waist. A second later Robin came walking out of the bathroom. She was dressed in a simple black sheath and was putting an earring in one ear.

"Planning to leave me behind?" He snapped.

She looked at him, startled, and then stiffened at his tone. "You came in late so I was letting you get more sleep." She smoothed her dress over her hips and glanced away for a moment. "I ordered us breakfast."

Patrick sighed and rubbed his face and then looked at the clock. They had a couple of hours before the service. He pushed the blanket aside and got out of bed. "How are you doing?" he asked softly as he walked up to Robin. He saw her tense, but ignored it and framed her face with his hands.

"We should talk." Robin put her hands over his. Patrick nodded and pressed a kiss to her forehead. "But we should wait until later. After the funeral."

"Because you think I need to go to a funeral before you'll trust what I have to say?" he asked, his voice tight. He let go of her and grabbed a pair of shorts out of a drawer and put them on, his movements jerky. "I've been to funerals before, you know."

"I know you have," Robin said quietly.

"Then why can't you trust that I know what I'm doing? Is it because you think I'm so shallow and thoughtless?" he asked as he advanced on her. "Too emotionally immature to realize the consequences of my choices?"

Robin frowned and shook her head. His anger, far from worrying her, actually gave her a small flicker of hope. If he was cutting and running he wouldn't be angry. Right?

"Then how about giving me the benefit of the doubt and not making decisions for me?"

"I know you're a doctor, Patrick, I know you know the risks of being with me sexually."

"I'm not just a doctor, Robin, I'm also a man. A man who lost his entire idyllic childhood and family in one tragic moment. A man who loves a woman with a disease that might take her from me too damn early. I don't need a funeral to snap me back to my senses if that's what you're thinking!"

Robin's eyes widened and her mouth opened, but no words came out.

"I thought long and hard about this, Robin. You're right, I didn't think about it in those terms two days ago, but I have now and I..."

Robin put her hand on Patrick's abdomen to stop him from talking.

"What?" He frowned, puzzled by her shaken expression.

"Do you…do you know what you just said? Do you mean it?" Her voice cracked.

"That I love you?" At her nod he licked his bottom lip and raised his eyebrows at her as he nodded.

"Yes. That." Robin closed her eyes and a tear slid down her cheek. She pressed shaking hands to her face. "You love me?" Her voice was rough with tears, with emotion.

Patrick smirked. He was amazingly relieved to finally say the words and to find that they were not accompanied with the panic that he expected. It just felt right. He was also pleased to get such a strong reaction from the usually composed and rigid Robin Scorpio.

"No turning back for me now, Scorpio. I know what I'm signing up for here. The real question is what do you want?"

"I want you." Robin dropped her hands, opened her eyes, which were swimming with tears and sucked in a breath. "I love you."

Patrick's face transformed with the happy smile he couldn't have stopped if he tried. "I knew that. Although, all that running away from me you do did make me wonder. For about two seconds." He bent down slightly and cupped her chin. "I may be the novice at relationships here, but I'm pretty certain that you need to stop running off and pushing me away when faced with something difficult. At least not too far or for too long."

Robin nodded slightly and took his hand off her chin and held it inside both of hers. "I'll work on that. I never thought I'd feel this way again or that someone would feel this way about me." She trembled. He loved her, so then there really was no choice but to move forward from here. Together.

"How could you resist me?" He stepped closer and pressed his lips to her forehead. Her nose. Her lips. He wrapped his arms around her and rest his head on top of hers. "I never thought I would feel this way about anyone."

"Then I must be pretty irresistible myself." Robin buried her face in his chest and pressed her palms flat on the bare skin of his back. She enjoyed the vibrations from his laughter her brag elicited.

"You must be if you managed to trap a guy as amazing as I am."

"Oh, brother," Robin snuffled against his chest.

Robin and Patrick walked out of Gerard's home that evening. Night had fallen and it had been a long day. First the memorial service which flowed out of the doors of the funeral home with all the people whose lives Lucille had touched during her lifetime. People from work, people from her HIV support group, friends from all over the world and family from England. Then a smaller group went back to their home to share food, drink and stories about the woman they were honoring.

"That was amazing," Patrick said as he and Robin walked hand in hand down the street. "I've never been to anything like it. Dr. Jones' memorial was close, this was…." He was at a loss for words.

"It was a celebration, just what she wanted." Robin sighed softly. "I never expected to laugh today. Thank you for being here with me."

"I don't belong anywhere else." Patrick let go of her hand and put his arm around her shoulder and pulled her against him as they walked. "Where are we going anyway?" He looked around.

"To the river. I thought we'd walk back to the hotel if that's okay with you?"

Some time later they were walking along the Seine, the moon glowing overheard and in the faint sound of music was coming from one of the house boats that lined the ancient waterway. Few words had been exchanged.

"Let's sit down," Patrick suggested and pointed to a stone bench. They headed over and sat down.

Robin put her foot on her knee and pulled off her shoe and began rubbing her foot. Patrick pushed her hand away and took over the task.

"Thank you." Robin leaned her head back and groaned in delight. He picked up her other leg and put them both in his lap. He took off her other shoe and began giving it the same tender, loving care.

"One of the perks of being my girlfriend is my amazingly gifted hands."

Robin let out a bark of laughter and looked at him levelly. "You sure do think a lot of yourself." She shook her head. "I don't know how I got sucked in to that."

Patrick beamed and waggled his eyebrows at her.

"Girlfriend and boyfriend, huh?" she tilted her head.

"Are you going to fight it?"

She shook her head. "I'll probably always worry on some level, about your health, about leaving you, but I won't run." He didn't answer, just brushed his fingers over her legs. She looked down for a moment. "Do you think we were fated to find each other?"

"Fate? I'm not sure I believe in that." He paused for a moment and then licked his lips. "But if it exists this must be it. From the moment you stormed into my O.R. you've turned my life upside down." He chuckled. "It's unrecognizable. My father. Where I work. Who I'm with. How I feel."

"I bet that was scary," Robin said quietly.

Patrick looked into the distance. "Not so much scary as unexpected. I wasn't looking for any of this, to be reconciled with my father, to throw out the little black book, to falling in love." He turned and looked at Robin. "Now, I can't imagine life without all of it."

"I know what you mean. I never thought I'd find love a third time in my life. And that it would be…" she broke off and studied his face, steeling her nerve. "That it would be so much more than anything I've had before."

"More than with Stone and Jason?" Patrick asked huskily.

"Stone was my first love. He was an amazing, kind, caring boy. What we had and went through was very adult, I'd like to think it would have lasted a lifetime if he didn't get sick, but that we didn't get a chance to find out. Jason…he gave me hope for a future, what we had was passionate, but there were too many differences, it couldn't have lasted for the long haul." She paused and grimaced at the use of that hated phrase – the one that had freaked Patrick out all those months ago.

"And me?" he asked.

"You're my equal. You see right through me and you take my ear-numbing sermons, impossible standards and walls and like me anyway."

"Love," he prompted.

"Love." She nodded.

Patrick slid his hand up her legs to touch the edge of her dress. "I see through to the amazing woman that I could love for all my days."

"Oh, geez!" Robin covered her face, flushing and battling tears at the unexpectedly romantic words.

"You were right, we are a lot alike. And you get me to do things no one else could." He grinned and slid a finger underneath her dress.

Robin removed her hands and gave him a knowing look.

"I didn't just mean in bed!" Patrick laughed. "But speaking of…how about we get a cab and head back to the big, empty hotel room and I show you just how lucky you are?"

Robin scooted forward until she was sitting in his lap. She wrapped her arms around his neck and pressed her breasts against his chest. "We'll see who the lucky one is." She pressed her lips against his and dived in for a heated kiss, not stopping until he moaned.

"We really need to get back to the hotel room!" he muttered against her neck, his breath coming in short pants. She could feel his arousal under her body.

"Who's lucky?" Robin teased.

Patrick laughed and stood up with her in his arms.

"My shoes!" Robin reached down, almost toppling them. He bent down until she could reach her shoes and with them dangling from her fingers he loped up the stairs to street level to search for a taxi.

The fell into the hotel room, their lips fused and hands moving expertly removing clothes. By the time they lurched onto the bed they were both only in their underwear. He pulled her up and under him until they reached the pillows. His hands skimmed over her body hungrily as she groped at him. She arched into him and he groaned and reached towards the bedside table and smoothly pulled out just what they needed. He pulled out a condom and pressed it into her hand and lift his hips. She pushed his underwear off and sheathed him and then pushed off her own panties. She gasped as she spread her legs wider and he surged into her, filling her.

Over and over they surged into each other. Their movements were frantic as they raced to a long overdue release.

"Say it," Patrick commanded as he felt her breaking apart under and around him.

"I love you!" She began to crest and fall. She saw stars, colors and Patrick's handsome face.

He cried out and pulsed into her. He buried his sweat soaked face against her hair. "I love you, Robin. Always."

"Always."

Then they began to make slow, sweet love. They glowed in the moonlight.

THE END