Chapter Five
One of the few certainties that we have in life is that we are going to die. At least, that's the way it's supposed to be. Tonight I'm not so sure. Between people that I've loved – Stone, my grandmother and people I've seen die – patients, people who worked for Sonny and Jason – and the people that I've been led to believe have died who have come back to life – Brenda, my mother, name your Cassadine, Sonny and now, my father – the numbers are running neck in neck. This latest resurrection blows out of the water the only other certainty I've held in this life - that my father loved me and loved me fiercely, unconditionally and would do anything to get back to me. This was a truth I held in my bones even before I met my Robbie and learned who my father was. Turns out, neither death nor my father's love is a certainty, after all. He was never going to tell me he was alive. He never tried to help my mother. Now, I'm left floundering to figure out what and who I can trust. I'm wondering if it even matters.
It's beyond irony to Patrick that this is where Robin's car has been found - in the parking lot of State Liquor Store #27 in Nashua, New Hampshire. Patrick can remember driving past this and other New Hampshire State liquor stores like it a million times growing up. Up 95 on trips with the Senator to Kennebunkport, Maine, on trips with friends to go camping and rafting in the Maine rivers through any route that caught their fancy and the irony of all ironies, to this particular store many crazy weekends in his teen and college years when he and his friends wanted to get alcohol and knew that they weren't going to get it anywhere near their parents' place on the Cape. It was the store of choice for party-goers - cheap, tax-free liquor courtesy of the State of New Hampshire. It was only when Patrick's own father drowned himself in a bottle that those trips lost their allure.
Now, Patrick stood with his hands on his hips as he watched the Nashua Police Department's forensics team, under the no-nonsense eye of Aidan and Anna Devane pour over Robin's Toyota Camry for forensic evidence. His eyes are hidden behind sunglasses, but one doesn't need to see his eyes to perceive the tension and anguish that has been steaming through him since he heard what the cops said before they were roughly silenced by Aidan.
He heard them say that the odds of finding kidnap victims waned with every passing hour, especially for women who were often the victim of sexual assault first. He heard them talk about the hundreds of thousands of people who go missing every year in the United States and never get found. He heard how if people don't want to be found they won't. He heard them mention that they were in walking distance of the railroad. He heard it all and couldn't say a damn thing, because if he did he would be acknowledging that the words have been said and that they could possibly apply to Robin, the woman he can still feel surrounding him and inside him. Forces like Robin's cannot just be gone. He won't accept that, but with every moment of helplessness he's fighting a losing battle and he's fighting it the only way he knows how.
He is fighting to not let anything that has been said in and around him today to get through to him. Not Aidan's joke about how "pretty" he smelt when he got in the car with him this morning. Not what the cops had to say and not even Anna's firm determination that Robin is fine, despite what the hick cops had to say. The only thing that he's letting though is his father's unflagging support, though a part of him almost wishes that Noah wasn't there because, oddly, Noah reminds him of Robin; but he knows deep in his gut that he probably would not be even be standing if Noah wasn't there. He fully understands more than ever how and why Noah turned to the bottle when his wife died. Robin is not his wife and he's known her barely more than nine months and he feels almost crippled by her absence. And he doesn't even know she's dead.
She can't be.
He looks around for his father and realizes that he's standing right next to him, Patrick hadn't noticed him approach. The last time he saw him he was having a private conversation with Anna Devane after she started to let loose on the local cops for saying the things that Patrick can't chase out of his mind.
"Say something to piss me off," Patrick asks Noah, who looks at him dubiously, but not without understanding. Indeed, Noah knows what he's talking about. The father-son relationship has settled in recent months into something resembling a friendly war – they challenge the hell out of each other and they protect each other just as fiercely. He knows his son needs the challenge and the protection in equal measure.
"What do you want me to say? That I really need a drink? That Robin probably ran off with her dry cleaner?" Noah puts his hand on Patrick's arm and squeezes.
Patrick just sighs and walks closer to where Anna is again talking to the cops. He's not sure what it's going to take to piss him off right now either, he just yearns to feel something besides this quiet fear. As he gets close he hears Anna insisting that the police canvas the area for witnesses. He hears the local captain state he already has men on it. He hears them say they've taken custody of the video tapes from the security cameras and are comparing them to the photo of Robin that they've brought with them.
It's the photo from Robin's hospital ID. Patrick doesn't think it does Robin's beauty justice and that it doesn't convey a sense of urgency that one would have to find her if they could see the essence of her. When he started to say so, his father put his hand on his shoulder and led him away. As he seemed to have been doing for everyone all day long.
"It'll be some hours before everything is processed. Do you want to take a walk with me?" Aidan's voice startles him, he hadn't noticed Aidan approaching him. He feels a momentary and welcome flash of irritation at the fact that he's standing around useless and in a fog. He looks and sees the photos of Robin that Aidan holds in his hand and knows that this is not intended to be a friendly or relaxing walk. Patrick nods and turns his head to find his father. Noah, he notes absently, is now standing with Anna talking to someone in a suit.
"FBI. Since state lines have been crossed and Anna's WSB the FBI is now involved," Aidan explains. Patrick has nothing to say to that.
Patrick falls into step with Aidan as they walk. They go to the Pizza Depot which is closest and show Robin's photo. Patrick looks around as Aidan talks and tries to picture Robin here. He can't. They go to the drugstore, the pet store and all the other stores that line South Main Street all they way to Hayward's Ice Cream store. Patrick remembers that Robin's mother was once married to Dr. David Hayward, infamous heart surgeon and chemist and the story Robin told him about consulting with David on a compound a couple of years back.
No one has seen her. Aidan leaves photos behind with his phone number on the back. Patrick sees the sympathy in the people's eyes and says nothing.
They take the helicopter back to Port Charles and at the heliport discuss where they're going to work out of because it's now become necessary for them to have a base of operations. Patrick is thankful for Anna and Aidan's competence in this area because for the first time in his life he is out of his depth and quickly slipping deeper. Mac's they dismiss because of Felicia and the girls and their attendant drama. Apparently, Anna has not had a productive night's sleep there already.
"My place is bigger than Robin's and has plenty of room. I even have extra bedrooms if you and Aidan want to stay with me," Noah offers and looks at Patrick.
Anna sees the look and understands immediately. She gives her daughter's boyfriend a thoughtful look before agreeing. Aidan turns down the invitation to stay, says he is borrowing an old colleague's place and that Noah's place is convenient.
"I haven't been able to reach Robert." Anna paces around the back of the couch.
"Is that something to worry about?" Noah asks as he puts a pitcher of water on the dining room table they've turned into a work surface. He's changed out of his suit and is wearing jeans and Kiss t-shirt.
"More like par for course. I've called on some deeper connections to try and find him."
"Maybe Luke can find him?" Everyone turns to look at Patrick. This is the longest sentence he's said all day since setting eyes on Robin's car.
"Worth a shot," Aidan says.
"I'll call him." Noah stands back up and puts his hand on Patrick's shoulder as he passes.
Anna shoots Aidan a look and motions towards the stairs. Aidan takes the hint and leaves Mama Devane alone with Patrick.
"I know you care about my daughter and you probably feel some obligation to help because you are sleeping with her." Anna puts a hand up when Patrick tries to speak. "I know, you and Robin recently agreed to be more than friends with benefits and that you finally allowed her to call you her boyfriend. I know that my daughter cares a great deal about you, but I don't have time to babysit anyone who's here because you think it's expected. I need to find my daughter so if you're not committed to this, to her one hundred percent then you might as well go back to the hospital and let us do our work."
Patrick stood stunned for a moment. Then he got angry. "I'm not here for any reason other than to find Robin and make sure she gets home safe and healthy. You might disapprove of me and everything Robin and I have been through, but frankly your daughter is a grown woman who makes her own decisions and she chose me and I chose her. I…" Patrick broke off, breathing heavily "I care about Robin so much. You can hate me all you want but I'm not going anywhere."
"Good. Then I need for you to be alert and think back over the past weeks and let me know if you think of anything that pops out at you. Tell me even if you think it's stupid. Anything you find at your place or Robin's." Anna looked at Patrick meaningfully. "It's likely that Robin left under duress, even though there is no evidence of a struggle, and she would have left clues behind or be sending us clues. She will most likely send them to you, me or Brenda because we are the people closest to her."
Patrick allows himself to be mollified by her inclusion of him in that group.
"I have her phone with me." Patrick takes it out and puts it on the table.
Anna nods in approval. The calls are being monitored by Mac's team and now the FBI, but it is a good idea to keep it with them. "Never doubt she's coming home to us." Anna's eyes, so like her daughter's, bore into Patrick's.
Hours later Anna hung up Noah's phone and turned to face the other three now spread out in Noah's living room.
"What is it, Anna?" Noah asked.
"Only Robin's fingerprints were found in the car."
"What does that mean?" Patrick asked.
"Might mean nothing. Might mean that Robin is the one who drove the car to New Hampshire," Aidan explained. "Wipes?"
"Nothing seemed to be wiped down. They found Robin's prints. Patrick's. Maxie's and Georgie's. Some random prints that appear to be from car wash employees, but they're checking those, of course."
"What about other…stuff?" Patrick asked, his voice raspy.
"No blood," Anna said.
Everyone let out a collective sigh of relief.
"What the hell is going on? Sorry." Patrick winced, wishing he could find something new to ask, but there really wasn't anything else to say. They were exactly nowhere as far as he could tell.
Suddenly, there was a knock at the front door.
"Are you expecting someone, Noah?" Anna asked, reaching for her gun which she had placed on the table behind the couch. "Ask who it is."
Noah walked over to the door and looked out the peephole and shook his head at Anna and Aidan who were backing him up with guns drawn. Patrick stood off to the side, ready for whatever.
Anna walked over and took a look and then put her gun down. She swung the door open wide. "Well, well, well, Sean Donely, what brings you here?" She put her hands on her hips.
Sean held up an envelope. "I know where Robin is."
