Twenty-Six
"I'm glad you called, darling." Anna stood up from her table at Kelly's and pressed a kiss to her daughter's cheek. "How are things with Patrick?"
"Is everything with you about Patrick?" Robin rolled her eyes as she sat down across the table and put her purse down on a spare chair. "Isn't it enough that I, your daughter, wanted to see you?"
Anna raised an eyebrow and leaned forward across the table. "What happened with Patrick?" In truth, she already knew, but she knew Robin wouldn't appreciate how she knew that days ago Patrick had broken things off and had been doing his best to avoid her and revert back to the uncaring man who had no family or friends. And she definitely could not know how the news was affecting Noah who was just as stubbornly insisting his son needed to be safe more than he needed his father.
Robin stopped resisting. She put her elbow on the table and rested her head on it, avoiding her mother's eyes she confessed, "He broke up with me."
"What!" Anna's voice filled the restaurant. "Why?" she said more quietly, trying to not overplay her hand.
"He found out about that guy I slept with." Robin sighed and toyed with the fork on the table. "He freaked out and broke up with me."
"That was back when he was still running in the other direction from commitment; he has no right to be mad about that."
"I think it has more to do with Noah and the fact that I didn't tell him." Robin swallowed. "He told me he loved me when we were away. And then like Noah I violated his trust."
"I'm going to kill him," Anna said, not specifying which Drake she was speaking of.
"Please leave him alone, mom. If and when he's ready to work things out I want it to be on his own terms and not because my well-intentioned, but interfering and scary mother forced him to." Robin looked at her meaningfully.
"Fine. I'll stay away from Patrick. What would you like to have for lunch? Is the chili still good?" Anna smiled innocently and took a sip of her iced tea. "You know, I have a phone call to make. I'll be right back." She said she's stay away from Patrick, but she definitely didn't promise that Robert would, and since it was all his fault enduring Robin and Patrick's wrath was the least he could do.
"Ah, Dr. Drake, just the man I was looking for."
"I'm actually busy, Mr. Scorpio." Patrick's eyes darted around evasively. He was wearing blue scrubs and he rested his empty hands on his hips.
"Well, it's a good thing I checked with that lovely nurse at the station and she told me that you had just finished surgery and post-op and were due for a break." Robert smiled charmingly at Nurse Epiphany Johnson standing at the counter watching them.
"If this is about Robin, I really don't think that I should talk to you about…"
"About my daughter's sex life? I understand completely that you are having a jealous fit imagining the woman you love with another man, even if it occurred while you." Robert jabbed a finger in Patrick's chest. "Were too stupid and cowardly to commit to her yourself." Robert's smile had more than a hint of threat. "But I'm actually here to talk about you. Let me buy you a cup of amazingly bad hospital coffee, won't you?"
"What is it you wanted to talk about, Mr. Scorpio?" Patrick asked and then took a sip of coffee. They were sitting across from each other at a small, round cafeteria table.
"Like I said before, I can understand how it feels to imagine the woman you love with another man. It makes you crazy. I bet you imagined you'd never feel that way given your own reputation." Robert put a hand up when Patrick started to interrupt. "I can see why you'd maybe not handle that so well. But I think you're doing yourself a disservice, young Drake. Robin is an amazing woman and you have the fortune of having her love you. Opportunities like that don't come around often. And I'm not just saying that because I'm her father. I've had the honor of being loved by her mother. You don't want to throw that away like I have."
"Mr. Scorpio…"
"Robert."
"Robert." Patrick dipped his head for a moment. "I'm just not cut out for this relationship stuff. I'm selfish and…."
"That's a nice line, but it's a load of crap. It's a lot to take in, falling in love, being jealous and seeing your father fall off the wagon again. You might wonder if it's worth the effort, but since you strike me as the kind of man who succeeds at whatever he puts his mind to and I'm sure a relationship with my daughter would be challenge enough to keep your interest, you know that you could make her happy. The question is whether you choose to be a coward and live with regret for the rest of your life or whether you step up and be a man." Robert stood up. "You know, this coffee is just as horrible as I remember. I thought maybe my feelings about it would change after all these years. Funny, that." He walked off leaving Patrick sitting and staring into his dark brew.
"Well, well, well, if it isn't Dr. Hypocrite," Dr. Kelly Lee said dramatically as Patrick Drake walked up to the nurse's station. He glared at Robin's roommate and slammed his clipboard down on the desk. "Look Epiphany, it's the pig that would nail anything that moves…"
"I don't think Dr. Scorpio would appreciate having her personal business aired with such detail in the hospital." Epiphany cut off the pretty doctor.
"Thank you." Patrick smiled at Epiphany.
"That's not to say she isn't right about the hypocrite part." Epiphany pointed at the male doctor, wiping the smug grin off her face. Kelly stuck her tongue out at him from behind Epiphany's back. Patrick stuck his back at her.
"I wasn't told we were moving the day care to the tenth floor," Dr. Lainey Winters commented as she walked up to them.
"Months ago," Epiphany said laconically, casting glares at Kelly and Patrick who just grinned at her.
"Well, behave yourself because Robin is on her way up from the lab to meet us for dinner," Lainey said as she put a file into an empty slot on the wall.
Patrick stiffened and turned to slink away, but go no more than three steps when the elevator doors opened and Robin was standing there. They both stopped short at the sight of the other. The doors started to close as the two doctors stared at each other. Patrick leapt forward and put his hand between the doors to stop them from closing.
"Aren't you getting out?" he asked, swallowing over the lump in his throat. His eyes darkening with longing as he looked at her.
"Yeah. And you're getting on?" she asked, shifting uncomfortably under the intensity of his gaze.
"No. I, uh, I forgot something." He watched her intently as she passed closely by him out of the elevator. He removed his hand from the door and turned to watch her, oblivious to the doors closing behind him.
"Any messages for me, Epiphany?" Robin asked, all the while conscious of Patrick's eyes on her.
"None."
Robin thanked the nurse and turned to her roommates. "Where are we going for dinner?" she asked.
"Maybe Dr. Dickhead can recommend someplace? Somewhere maybe where he's taken one of the hundreds of women he slept with?" Kelly gave Patrick a fake grin over Robin's head. "Or did I underestimate?"
"Kelly," Robin said quietly, but firmly.
"No, it's all right. Clearly, Dr. Lee has a lot that she wants to get off her chest." Patrick stepped forward to stand next to Robin at the counter and crossed his arms. "About things that are none of her business."
"Robin is my friend and my roommate and you hurt her that makes it my business."
"Kelly, Patrick, please," Lainey tried to interrupt and was ignored.
"Maybe if you had a love life of you wouldn't need to pass judgment on mine."
Epiphany just shook her head and answered the ringing phone.
"I might have more of a love life of my own if you men weren't such hypocrites!" Kelly leaned forward, her eyes flashing.
"We're not hypocrites, you just scare men away! The night I took you to the Haunted Star…" Patrick leaned forward over the counter closer to her as he yelled. He was spoiling for a fight and Kelly was giving him the perfect excuse.
"Hey! Hey!" Epiphany held her hand over the phone and broke up the brawl. "This is a hospital!"
Patrick and Kelly turned their head in surprise. They had both forgotten where they were.
"Dr. Scorpio, it's for you."
Robin licked her lips and took the phone, assiduously avoiding Patrick who was looking over at her, his face flushed.
Robin greeted the caller and then as she listened began to get pale. Patrick frowned and licked her lips and leaned in. Her eyes darted up to meet his. "All right, we'll be waiting." Robin hung up the phone.
"What happened?" Patrick asked worriedly.
She looked up at him, tears shimmering in her eyes. "That was the rehab center. Jeremy is being rushed to the hospital. He's unconscious." Robin grasped the sleeve of Patrick's lab coat. "He might need surgery, will you do it?"
"Of course." Patrick nodded. "Let's get down to the E.R. Epiphany, which O.R. is free?"
"Four."
"Have a team assembled. Let's go." Patrick put his hand on Robin's back and gently guided her towards the stairs and down to the E.R.
Kelly frowned and looked at Lainey. "Let them work it out themselves, Kel. When the chips are down, they're a team." Lainey told her.
The long beep pierced the air of operating room.
Dr. Patrick Drake kept barking orders. Increasing various drugs. Charging the paddles. All while continuing his operation on the previously undetected aneurysm that had burst.
Robin shook her head and looked at Epiphany who was watching her with sympathetic eyes. They all knew the surgery was a long-shot from the beginning, but Patrick had insisted on trying anyway. Now, he was refusing to give, needing to save this boy for the sake of the woman he loved.
"You need to call it, Dr. Drake." Epiphany put her hand over Patrick's. It took a moment for him to register the interference and to look at the nurse. Then he looked at Robin who was standing at Jeremy's feet. Above her mask her eyes were wet and pained. "Call it," she whispered.
Patrick pulled his hands back and looked up at the clock above Robin's head.
"Time of death ten forty-five p.m."
The vitals monitor was turned off. Robin turned and slipped out of the room before Patrick could say anything to her.
TBC