Disclaimer: GH belongs to a whole bunch of people that aren't me…

A/N: Ick, the flu sucks- sorry I haven't written anything in a bit… Here's the next chapter of my little drama; this piece is about Robin contemplating her choices and the decision she has to make; the next chapter will be what's going on at the same time with Brenda and Carly…

--Chapter Ten--

--MetroCourt Hotel--

Carly, it seemed, had not noticed Robin yet- for which Robin swore she would be eternally grateful. So, she hid in a corner- far enough away to be out of the range of whatever hell was about to break loose, but close enough that Brenda could see that she hadn't ditched her. She needed a few moments to herself… just a few minutes to think about the last two hours- and, really, the last ten years.

The ride from GH to the hotel had been filled with Brenda's incessant chattering- not something Robin would have minded, had it not been for the fact that the one-sided conversation had centered around herself and Patrick and Brenda's opinions on why her best friend was so scared. She'd heard the phrase "your parents," and both Stone's and Jason's names had been tossed out there, along with, "HIV," but, essentially, Robin had been trying to ignore the seemingly never-ending stream of words spilling off Brenda's lips. She didn't want to think about her relationship with Patrick, didn't want to evaluate her own feelings- she knew she loved him. She knew he loved her. It didn't change things, though, not in her mind- her parents loved her, but look how much they had hurt her. Stone had loved her and he'd left her- she didn't want to be angry at him for that, but some little corner of her heart hurt because that's what it felt like he'd done. It felt like he had abandoned her- she couldn't help but think what might have happened if he had gotten tested sooner, if they'd just caught the HIV a little sooner, maybe… Maybe he would still be here.

And Jason… She'd loved Jason- he'd been her rock when she'd lost Stone, when she'd been handling her own HIV status. But had she ever really been in love with him? Probably not, she thought with a sad sigh. She'd wanted to be- wanted to prove to herself that Stone was not the only man she would ever love like that, but she hadn't been able to, no matter how hard she tried. Her heart hadn't been able to let go of Stone. So, she'd run- not the typical run-for-the-hills-exit, either- she'd done something she had known Jason wouldn't be able to forgive. She had told AJ the truth- she still maintained that AJ had had the right to know Michael was his son, but there had to have been a better way to do handle that. She'd flashed back to when she'd met her dad- she'd never thought AJ would do the things he'd done to Michael and Carly. She'd really been trying to help- to do the right thing… but she'd known that it would make Jason hate her. She'd told AJ knowing that Jason wouldn't want anything to do with her after that- it had been just the excuse she had needed to break away from him before they hurt each other- she couldn't love him the way he wanted, the way he needed, and he… he wasn't Stone.

For ten years, she'd managed to avoid love. She'd rarely gone on dates- there had been a grand total of two, and neither had ended well at all- instead deciding to burry herself in her research. She couldn't think of any friends that she'd had in Paris; her colleagues had been nothing more than people she worked with. There were no parties, no late-night movies, no girl-talk. She'd preferred it that way. And then she'd gotten the call- a call that had ended up changing her life.

She could still hear her friend and mentor's voice, uncharacteristic panic making Dr. Alan Quartermaine's voice softer and, yet, edgier than almost any other time he'd ever spoken to her. She'd known instantly that something was terribly, terribly wrong back home in Port Charles.

--FLASHBACK--

"Robin?" Hearing Dr. Alan Quartermaine's voice on the other end of the line so clearly- as though he were just across the room and not across an ocean- was a pleasant surprise for Robin, but it was laced with a panic Robin had rarely heard from this man.

"Alan, what is it? Is it Maxie?" her ever-logical mind instantly picked out her teenage cousin as the most probable reason for the phone call, given the young girl's heart condition.

"No, no, but… Robin, Jason's been in an accident…"

Robin could hear Alan's voice as he continued to explain the situation, but her mind refused to absorb the information being given. She caught sporadic bits of what she was being told- Jason was, thank goodness, alive, but he had been suffering seizures and headaches- and he had no memory of his life up to that point.

Fear wrapped itself around her heart like a fist, and she felt as though her stomach had been tied and twisted into a thousand knots, and found herself transported to the day so many years before when she'd last heard those words, "Jason has no memory of his life before waking up in that hospital bed." He'd been her classmate, her friend. In the end, Jason Quartermaine had been lost, dead in the eyes of the citizens of Port Charles. In his place was Jason Morgan, a man searching to find his place. Ten years later, Jason had more than found where he belonged- the last she'd heard, he was happily involved in a relationship, he had Carly and Sonny and the boys… He was happy. What would happen if Jason Morgan suffered the same fate as Jason Quartermaine and was once again…lost?

She told Alan she would be in Port Charles as soon as possible, and sunk to the floor of the lab she'd been working in, hugging her knees to her chest and burying her face in her hands as tears poured like rain from her eyes and dripped down her face.

--END FLASHBACK--

And so she'd returned, her mission to save Jason Morgan. When her own research had failed, when the drug she'd helped developed (A/N: I'm pretty sure Robin helped develop it, but I could be wrong… just go with it, okay?) hadn't worked, she'd tracked down world-renowned brain surgeon, Dr. Noah Drake- and he, in turn, had led her to his son. Dr. Patrick Drake's arrogance and skirt-chasing ways had irritated her from the start, but his brilliance had amazed her. She had to admit, too, that he'd challenged her in a way no one else had in a long time- he kept her on her toes and made working at the hospital with him more than interesting.

During the epidemic, when she'd woken up to find him sitting beside her bed, waiting hopefully- though, he would never admit it, she was sure- for her to open her eyes- that was when things had changed for her. Sure, at some point between when they had first met and that moment, they'd developed something resembling a friendship- but right then, when she'd seen the uncensored fear that she wouldn't ever be exchanging playful banter with him again gleaming in his eyes, she'd known she was a goner. She'd tried, she really had, to fight it. She'd pushed him and pushed him, trying to get him to go away- to leave her now as opposed to later when she was totally in love with him. She'd been stupid enough, or delusional enough, to think that she could stop the fall. But Patrick had pushed back just as hard, refusing to leave. She knew he was just as scared as she was; she knew that he was willing to take the risk of being hurt.

Watching as Brenda and Carly exchanged insults, she realized she had a choice to make: leave and get hurt now- break her heart and Patrick's and never get the second shot at love she'd longed for since Stone's death, or take the chance- believe that Patrick would never intentionally hurt her, never walk away without a fight, never abandon her unless he had no choice, even if it meant getting hurt later. Was the pain that would come with losing him later- if that happened- be worth whatever memories they created now? Did the love outweigh the potential heartache? She wasn't sure…