Chapter 1
Sabrina Santiago had just moved to Port Charles from Puerto Rico to attend nursing school at General Hospital (GH). Today was her first day interning in the hospital and she was beyond nervous. All she ever wanted was to become a nurse like her mom and now she was finally getting the chance. Sabrina, a quintessential bookworm, had the smarts and drive to, well, kick ass, in the classes; however, she was worried that her chronic clumsiness would interfere with her clinical work. Sabrina was responsible and careful, could dance gracefully and multitask with the best of them, but somehow fate always intervened and made her run into people and objects, trip over her own two feet or generally make an ass of herself in public. She hated it, but it was a fact. So, to make a good impression, she was being extra careful as she carried a stack of charts from the file room. Epiphany, the head nurse, had assigned her the task of ensuring that the paper files were scanned into the new EHR system properly, which she would be working on throughout her tenure at GH. Sabrina knew that carrying so many charts was a recipe for disaster, but she was always an all-the-groceries-in-one-trip kind of girl, so she took the chance. She was nearly at the nurses' station when she was hit by a wrecking ball from the side. Sabrina was down with charts everywhere. Sabrina shouted "HEY!" as she pulled herself up from the floor and began mumbling "Why don't you watch where you're going?!" to the speeding bullet that hit her, but then she looked up and she lost her ability to speak, let alone breathe…
Patrick Drake, GH's Chief of Neurosurgery, was running late for a consult. He'd worked his ass off for years to hone his craft and climb the ladder of success and he finally managed to win the position he'd been angling for. It took a lot of hard work and even more schmoozing, but he'd achieved it. Now that he had the spot, he planned to excel in it so that, one day (sooner rather than later), he would be Chief of Staff and run the whole damn hospital himself. Patrick loved being who he was. Some people called him arrogant, but he knew that it was just an unshakeable confidence in himself that he would succeed. If he never questioned his decisions or abilities, then no one else would do it either. While he had lost a few patients over the years, as his surgeries were often complex and dangerous, he never blamed himself. He was the best at his job and if the surgeries didn't go as planned, then he simply believed they weren't meant to and there would have been nothing he could do to change that. Patrick lived life to the fullest with no regrets, especially when it came to his career and women. Because he was a successful (very successful) surgeon with tremendous self-confidence, women fell at his feet. Most of the women accepted his terms. While their liaison lasted, they would both be happy (very happy), but his work came first. Always. When a woman wanted more, he bailed. He simply chose not to tolerate the drama. Patrick was texting the ginger bombshell he was meeting for a drink after his consult, if he could only get there, when he hit a wall, or what felt like one. He looked up from his iPhone and noticed that it wasn't a wall he'd run into, but a person, who was not very happy about being bulldozed. As the little spitfire was giving him a set down about watching where he was going, he bent down to help her up so he could be on his way, and suddenly the consult and his date were the absolute last things on his mind…