Thirty-One

"Mmmmm."

"Noah?" Anna Devane got up from the bedside chair and bent down over Noah Drake's prone figure. "Noah, can you hear me?" she whispered.

"Mmmm, Anna?" he croaked out as he blinked his eyes to try and focus.

"Keep your eyes closed, darling." Anna ghosted her fingers over his forehead and eyelids. "Doctor's orders."

"I'm the doctor, not you," he joked weakly.

"Not today. Today you're just a plain old hero. Albeit a bit battered and bruised." Anna clasped his hand.

"A hero, eh? How's Robin?" Noah suddenly remembered what had happened and tried to open his eyes. Anna covered them with her hand.

"She's fine. Thanks to you. Patrick is fine as well, although he'd like to kill all of us for getting you here like this."

"What is like this?" Noah was silent for a moment. "I've never felt this inside my own head before, but I've probably seen it a thousand times in a scan." His words were getting weaker, his respirations more shallow despite the oxygen feed in his nose. "Surgery?"

"Maybe. Or maybe one of my brilliant daughter's concoctions." She brushed his unruly hair gently.

"Patrick will love that." His breathing got more labored.

"Go back to sleep. It's my turn to take care of you," Anna whispered as Noah slipped back into unconsciousness. She sighed softly and pressed a kiss to his cheek.

Tears filled Robin's eyes and she bit her lip. "I'm sorry. I'm so sorry." She blinked to try to stem her tears and one slid free down her cheek.

"What are you sorry for?" Patrick slid his fingers up Robin's cheek and knuckled at the flowing tear.

"For being a coward." With her free hand she took the hand she had pulled out of moments before. "When you mentioned using one of my treatments I got scared and I let the fear get in the way." She schooled her features and raised her chin, looking Patrick in the eyes. "What happened to Jeremy will not happen to Noah. I promise you that."

"Robin, it's not…"

"Will you take me to the lab?" Robin interrupted him.

Patrick hesitated for a moment before standing up and getting behind her wheelchair. Despite himself his lips curved into an admiring smile.

"I hear we have a rogue patient in here. Dr. Quatermaine is threatening to put you under restraints," Nurse Epiphany Johnson announced as she walked into Robin's lab where Patrick was acting as Robin's hands and preparing the drug combination and the treatment syringes.

"After we're done with this I'll help him," Patrick said, his attention not wavering from his task.

"Hey!" Robin protested and glared at a smiling Patrick. She sighed when he didn't look one iota of chagrined. "One more syringe and the rest go into Freezer C in a sealed bottle."

Patrick did as directed. While his back turned, Robin sagged in her wheelchair and closed her eyes in her pale face. Epiphany didn't miss it. "Dr. Drake, why don't you go do doctor things and I'll help Dr. Scorpio here finish up."

Patrick turned and looked at Robin who had rallied before he looked at her, causing Epiphany's lips to thin ominously.

"Go ahead. I'll be down to start the treatment once we hit the five hour mark," Robin said.

"Go, scoot, scoot." Epiphany walked over and herded Patrick out of the lab, giving him just enough space to wave at Robin before the door closed on him. Epiphany turned and gave Robin the eye. "All right, missy, it's time for you to take care of yourself." She put her hands on her hips to show she meant business. Robin's protest died on her lips at the look.

"How's he doing?" Anna looked up at Patrick who was studying Noah's chart as he walked into the hospital room.

"Stable. We're going to start the drug treatment within the hour." Patrick put the chart into the slot at the end of the bed and walked to his father's head. Noah now had an oxygen mask to help stabilize his oxygen intake. Patrick's face tightened as he looked at his father, then he shook it off and took a pen light out of his white lab coat. He bent down and studied his father's pupils.

"Should you be treating him, Patrick? I mean being so close to the case?"

"Dr. Dumont is his primary doctor and Robin is the consulting. I'm just playing back up."

"How's my daughter doing?" Anna stood up.

At the mention of Robin Patrick smiled. "She's stubborn, brave, pretending she's not in as much pain as she is. Normal, Robin. But I called in reinforcements."

"Good. Take care of her, Patrick. And Noah." Anna looked over at the man she had fallen in love with. She touched his hand briefly, Patrick's eyes following the move. "I'll let you spend some time alone with him and go back up those reinforcements."

Patrick watched her go before sitting down on the chair next to the bed that she had vacated. "Well, Dad. You've made it really difficult to be pissed off at you for faking your descent back into the bottle. Saving the life of my girlfriend and doing it for love and all." Patrick paused and licked his lip. "I wish you had told me what you were up to. There seems to be a lot of half truths around me lately and maybe later I'll wonder what that means, but for right now I'll just say I'm really proud of you. That doesn't mean your work is done, though. There's a bunch of people waiting for you to get well and Robin is battling some serious insecurity right now about her drug treatments so you can't let her down. That gorgeous woman you have waiting for you should be enough motivation." Patrick leaned in closer to his father's ear. "I love you, Dad." Patrick put his hand over Noah's, where Anna had moments before.