Chapter Ten


I thought Patrick had made a $100 bet to nail the girl with HIV. He set me up so I set him up in return, which I didn't think he'd really care about. Except, I was very, dreadfully and completely wrong, which meant that I hurt someone who did not deserve it. Although, hurt might be overstating it. I'm fairly certain that Patrick doesn't care all that much what I or anyone else thinks of him. Other than his father, not that he'd even admit to even that.

I was speechless when I realized I was wrong and I gathered my tattered pride and went to try and make it right. I found him at Jake's. With Carly. The ultimate in ironies. The only thing missing was the fact that Carly knows Patrick's name and Patrick doesn't have brain damage. That I know of. But I girded up and went over to apologize, which he made me do in front of her and Coleman. And I did it because I genuinely owed him an apology. But his attitude and the fact that he made me do it in front of her really hurt. Even though he probably does not know the history, he's seen enough of Carly's behavior towards me since he came to town to know how humiliating that had to be for me and will continue to be because she's probably going to throw it in my face for the rest of our lives.

I still don't know if he ever really wanted to sleep with me. After all, I am HIV+ and that's not exactly first or last on the list of qualities one looks for in bed partners. But I finally got what I've been asking for, for him to stop his version of flirting and for us to be solely professional colleagues.

But I am certain of one thing. Things are not always what they appear and before I jump to conclusions in the future I should ask questions.

Postscript: You know I'm kind of sad I ruined things with Patrick. I really must need to get some sleep. And make sure to talk to Alan more rationally tomorrow about instituting that no-dating policy. Among doctors. I think Patrick would die if he couldn't date the nurses.


"Sorry I'm late." Noah rushed into his apartment. He was still dressed in his blue scrubs and had a leather overnight bag over his shoulder and a pile of papers in his hands.

Patrick and Aidan sat on either side of the brown leather couch facing Anna who stood on the other side of the living room seating area in front of a large white board on an easel and a dry-erase maker in her hand. "We're just starting." She had divided the board into three main parts and had put labels on top of each column – 'fact' – 'verify' – 'interpret.'

Noah dropped his bag behind the couch and strode over to Anna. He leaned in for a moment and then seemed to remember himself and thrust the papers at Anna who took them, a smirk on her face. Their hands touched for a moment before Noah pulled back and ran his fingers through his hair and glanced at his son and then at Aidan. Patrick just looked impatient, but Aidan's eyebrows were raised. Noah licked his lips and went to sit down on one of the matching leather chairs. Anna glanced at the papers and nodded approvingly before putting them down on the coffee table.

"Sean is not joining us?" Noah asked.

"No…" Aidan started to explain.

"The guy's a liar." Patrick's voice cut through the living room. "I may not be a trained investigator but even I can see that."

"Let's get down to working out what we know," Anna said smoothly and then she began reciting the facts known about Robin's activities over the day before and the day of her disappearance. "Noah, could you take notes?" she looked over at the neurosurgeon.

Noah held up a pad and paper and she nodded thankfully and continued.

"The last time she was seen by Patrick was 6:55 a.m." She wrote this on the board and then put a check mark in the verify column. "According to Mac's sweep a neighbor saw her leave at 8:30 a.m. alone and with an overnight bag, which was before Patrick's call at 10:20 a.m." She put check mark next to Patrick's call and only an "x" next to the neighbor's sighting. "The neighbor's sighting is not considered reliable yet. We can assume that she left around this time and in her car, but we cannot assume she was alone."

"Even though all prints in Robin's apartment are accounted for?" Noah asked.

"Gloves. Just like could apply to the car. So nothing related to fingerprints is considered verifiable, we can only interpret," Anna said.

"She might have gotten into her car and driven around the corner or outside of town and then someone else drove it to New Hampshire. A tow would have probably attracted too much attention," Aidan said.

"We have no reason to believe that Robin was upset and ran on her own, notwithstanding Patrick's confession about his typical guy freeze on being given a key." Anna put "happy" under facts.

Patrick's stomach still sank at the thought, but he brushed the feeling aside, determined to follow the lead of the other players in the room.

"If Robin was going to run off on some last minute vacation she would have called in at work, which we now know she did, but the message got lost by Alan's temporary assistant for over a day. She would have called me, which she did not. And she would have called Brenda. Brenda, according to her office, is off on some romantic fling and hasn't been seen or heard from since Friday night. She could be with Robin now." She wrote those down, as did Noah.

"I still have not been able to find Robert. According to the Quartermaines he left town last Tuesday, almost a week before Robin disappeared. He was supposed to work this weekend on the Haunted Star. Tracy, of course, is livid."

"New Hampshire sightings – nothing verified. In fact, one possible witness is missing. Could be connected, could be coincidence. We're running a background check on Bill Roberts. Nothing has turned up so far, but I'm having certain contacts go deeper."

"Now, on to the interesting facts. None of the witnesses in Toronto check out and, in fact, one of them told Patrick she was paid to tell the same story Sean told us. Now, she's missing too."

Patrick squirmed in his seat, still feeling the sting of letting the girl leave and possibly putting her in danger.

"Basically, we have nothing verified beyond when Robin left her apartment and where her car ended up?" Noah said.

"Actually, we know for certain that some of the information Sean Donely gave us is fake. Show Noah the picture," Aidan prompted Patrick.

"Here." Patrick stood up and handed the photo he had printed out to his dad and then the photo Sean brought them of Robin at the ATM machine.

"What am I looking at?" Noah looked between the photos.

"The sculpture." Patrick handed him another photo. "It's not there in this picture of Robin."

"You figured this out?" Noah looked up at his son who nodded and sat back down. "Good job. So, Sean's story is bullshit."

"Succinctly put. Let's fill Aidan and Patrick in on what we've been doing over the past few days." Anna and Noah shared a brief look as Noah leaned forward and picked up the papers he had brought with him. She leaned in at the same time and picked up his note pad and pen and handed it to Patrick. He took it, glad to have something to keep his hands busy. "Make it legible, Doc," Anna told him.

"I put together a list of all the patients Robin has treated since she came to General Hospital." Patrick looked at his father proudly, knowing the risk he took getting that information. "Anna and I culled through the list based on certain criteria we developed – illness, outcome, age, family. We narrowed the list down and had Aidan's partner Tad Martin run some basic background on the list, which narrowed it down further."

"Noah has spent the last forty-eight hours meeting with the patients and or their families. I sat in on some of the meetings as his nurse."

"The one consistent thing we found is that everyone loves Dr. Scorpio. Even when the patient didn't make it or the result from her treatment wasn't all they hoped or they required surgery, everyone loved her."

"Basically, no red flags there." Anna made notations on the board.

"So, I decided to go back further, which is why I'm late. Let me tell you, high school French was a long time ago. Turns out Dr. Scorpio was practically black-balled in France because of a run-in with a hot shot neurosurgeon named Dr. Henri Carroux."

Patrick's head snapped up and he stopped writing.

"He didn't follow her advice on the stability of a patient and the patient died on the table. Dr. Scorpio put that in her report and because it had happened before his surgical credentials were yanked pending investigation. He in turn had his father yank Robin's funding and effectively black-balled her. The family is big money and, how did she put it, don't mind playing dirty."

"Is that enough of a motive?" Aidan asked.

"According to the young nurse I spoke to rumor has it that he offered to get her funding restored if she'd sleep with him."

Patrick muttered an oath, both at Henri and himself.

"Jilted suitor, money, career in jeopardy, possibly cultural tradition to get revenge," Anna ticked off.

"He got his license back, but had to get a job at another hospital. It's worth looking into," Noah said.

"We'll run him." She wrote it on the board.

"I got the nurse to fax me a list of Robin's patients. That's what this is."

"I guess charm trumps rusty French." Anna raised an eyebrow at him before turning back to the board to note that new avenue to look down.

Noah smirked at her before his expression turned serious. "There's something else." He waited until Anna was facing him again. "I also went through Patrick's list and found that this Dr. Laurent Robin was working with is." He stopped and cleared his throat. "She's dead. A few weeks ago, suspicious circumstances in Paris."

Patrick looked down, frowned and licked his bottom lip. "That's really interesting." He looked back up and at Anna. "Because Robin got an email from her just yesterday."

TBC