Chapter 60

Nathalie ran her shackled hands over her face trying to breathe in enough air so she could begin to comprehend what had happened. The last thing she remembered was running towards her back porch before someone grabbed her and her head made contact with something hard. Blacking out, she had no memory of being transported to where they were or how long they had been gone. She remembered coming to, briefly, with Patrick staring at her but everything was hazy after that until she woke up on an exam table. There was a blood pressure cuff on her arm and a man listening to her heart through a stethoscope. Her breathing was shallow as she pulled on her arms only to find herself bound to the table. Seeing another man approach her with a needle she pulled and strained at her bonds desperate to break free but the gun suddenly pressed into her forehead forced her to lie still. In a moment of clarity she knew that this was about her and Patrick was just in the wrong place at the wrong time. Whatever happened to her she needed to make sure he got back to his family.

"Are you okay Nat? You're really pale" Patrick remarked, breaking into her thoughts.

"I was drugged" she said quietly.
"What? Upstairs? What are you symptoms?"

She shook her head. "You asked why your dad was the one giving me my pregnancy results - it's because I was drugged."

"What the hell?" he asked in confusion.

People had all kinds of internal feelings to alert them to danger but she had only one - a hammering heart. After everything she had lived through with her parents and what came before Drew, she had learned to control her panic impulses to the point that she was almost impossible to read. The only way she ever knew she was truly in trouble is if her heart was beating out of her chest. Right now, tied up in the bed, it was thrashing inside her chest. "It's a long story..."

Holding up his cuffed hands, Patrick smiled weakly. "I got nothing but time."

"I don't know all the details but apparently I went for a drink with a guy I met in the oncology ward - we wound up at Jake's and somehow, at some point, he slipped ghb into my drink." The lack of reaction from Patrick told her that the news had shaken him hard. "I guess I was behaving strangely and Coleman, bless him, intervened. He called your dad who took me to the hospital and ran a bunch of tests which told him about the ghb and the baby." She closed her eyes at the memory of waking up in Noah's bed and the abject fear that had invaded her brain when she thought her daughter had died. "Your poor father was stuck babysitting me for a day."

He said nothing at first; instead he just stared at her. "You could have been assaulted" he said quietly.

"I wasn't" she said matter-of-factly. "Thanks to Coleman and your dad."

"Why didn't you tell me?"

Frowning, she shook her head. "What is there to tell? I remember nothing - absolutely nothing. You were in Italy - what was I going to do - call you and have you rush home to take care of me?" He shrugged. "Patrick, I am not your wife or your girlfriend and I am not your problem."

"No. You're my friend."

"I'm your obligation."

He furiously held her gaze. "You cannot, after everything we have been through, think that I see you like that." Though he tried, he was unable to keep the hurt from his voice.

"Don't misunderstand me" she said as the fatigue threatened to overtake her. "You are my friend - we are friends - but a large part of what you do is because you think Drew asked you to."

He opened his mouth but there was no reply. Rubbing his hands together, he let out a low sigh. "I love you – I love you like you are my sister and that's all that matters."

She was a ball of pain and his words were like a balm on her wounds. "I'm sorry" she whispered. "I'm a little bit crazy right now."

"It's okay Nat" he reassured her. "But if we're going to get out of here you need to tell me everything you saw upstairs."

Sucking in a breath, she nodded. "They know I'm pregnant, I heard them talking about it." Pausing, she looked over at her friend, taking in his features and reactions. "It's me they want P – something about me or the baby or both. I don't think you were meant to get caught up in this so we need to find a way to get you out and get you back to Robin."

Jumping to his feet he walked as closely to her as the bonds would allow. "I am not leaving you here Nat – no way so get that thought out of your head right now."

"P…"

"Don't 'P' me. What kind of man do you think I am? That I would rush back to my family, to Robin and leave you here in the grips of madmen?" His voice rose with emotion.

"We will never both get out – they have guns and other weapons upstairs – rooms are locked with biometric locks – I can't go more than 10 minutes without wanting to vomit – I will be a liability but you – you can get out. And then you send help."

He shook his head violently. "Either we go together or we stay together but I'm not leaving you."

"Patrick…"

"You don't get it, do you? I thought you were smart but you just don't get it. How many times did you pull me through?"

She closed her eyes. "This isn't about balancing some kind of ledger Patrick."

"No. It's about being the friend to you that you've been to me. Remember the night I showed up on your doorstep – crying and drunk?"

"It was the anniversary of your mom's death" she said quietly.

"Yeah – the fifth anniversary – ironically my dad and I both marked it by getting drunk alone. You and Drew hadn't been together that long and you didn't really know me at all. But there I was a complete, quivering mess in need of Drew to straighten me out and talk me off the ledge."

"You guys talked each other off a lot of ledges"

"Except that night it wasn't Drew – it was you – Drew was working late. You pulled me into the house, forced some food in to me, listened, talked and listened some more. Nathalie, you literally held my hand as I poured my guts out to you and then you took me upstairs and tucked me into bed."

"You were Drew's best friend – what was I going to do?"

"You could have just let me crash on the couch or called Drew and begged him to come home but you didn't. You saw how much pain I was in and you wouldn't leave my side." He sank back to his bed.

"You have so many people depending on you Patrick…"

"As do you – you have Grace and Oliver and Lulu and me and you have Nik." She shook her head. "You do – whatever fight you guys had does not change the fact that that guy is crazy in love with you."

"Patrick…"

"Together Nathalie – we are in this together."

*****
Robin had just changed Rian's diaper when she heard the insistent ringing of her doorbell. Taking her son in her arms, she padded down the stairs to answer the door. Though she had tossed and turned most of the night, her thoughts of Patrick – always of Patrick, she had snatched a few hours of sleep before Rian woke up hungry and in need of a change.

A sense of relief washed over her as she opened the door. Standing on her stoop, tanned and blue eyes glittering, was her father. "Dad."

He pulled her into his arms, taking care not to squish his grandson. "Hello luv." Robin melted against her father's strong embrace. His mere presence reassured her that they would find her husband and he would be coming home. Rian let out a squawk at being ignored and Robert laughed, taking him from her arms.

"You little beauty" he said admiringly. "Did you think your old gramps would forget you? You're such a big boy now – and so strong too." Rian gurgled and giggled as Robert kissed his chubby cheeks over and over.

"Coffee?" she asked as she led them to the kitchen.

"Sure sweetheart." Robert sat down at the table and bounced his grandson on his knee. "Your mother is on her way as well but she had a longer ways to travel." he offered.

"I'm sorry about…"

Robert raised his hand. "There is no assignment or job that could be more important than this." He studied his daughter's face carefully. There was no evidence of crying and only the slightest hint of lack of sleep. "How are you?"

"Missing my husband" she said, putting the coffee in front of him. "But other than that, fine."

"Do you know any more?"

She shook her head. "Mac said he would come or call as soon as the forensic evidence came through from Nathalie's place."

"And young Cassadine – he thinks this is the work of his grandmother?"

Robin nodded. She did as well or at least she hoped it was because if Helena didn't have them, if this wasn't some sort of revenge plot then they were back at square one. "Nathalie is pregnant."

"Ah" Robert said knowingly. "The Cassadine heir or I guess in this case the Cassadine spare."

"Something like that. I think Patrick might just have been in the wrong place when they came for Nathalie." She pushed back the fear that it meant he was expendable - that Helena wouldn't think twice about hurting him. There would be time enough for dark thoughts later.

The doorbell rang again and Robin got up to answer it. She returned to the kitchen with Mac and Lucky following her. The Scorpio brothers gave each other a warm embrace before Robert put his arm around the son of his best friend. "Scorpios and Spencers, the next generation" he teased. "Well on the Spencer side anyways."

"Har! Har!" Mac groused good-naturedly.

"What do you know?" Robin asked getting straight to the point.

Lucky gave her a sympathetic smile. "We got the blood results back."

"And?"

"There are two different blood types – one unknown and one belonging to Nathalie. There is no blood from Patrick at the scene."

"What does that mean about Patrick?" Robin sat down and took Rian from her father.

Mac put a calming hand on his niece's shoulder. "It means that he is likely unhurt which is a positive. He's strong Robin and he's smart."

"I know" she nodded. "This is good news."

"Any word on the Vampire Cassadine?" Robert asked.

"Helena?" Lucky clarified. Robert nodded. "She is no longer at the facility where he had her placed and based on the information we could gather, which wasn't that much, she got out the day after Nikolas left her there."

"Of course she did" Robert griped. "She can slither between walls and transport herself through space – hell she can alter the time/space continuum if she so chooses." Standing, Robert started to pace as he was apt to do when a plan was formulating in his mind. "We need multiple approaches – she's like a rat on an obstacle course and we need to block off as many of her routes as possible."

"What do you have in mind, brother?" Mac asked, his lips curling into a small smile.

"As soon as Anna gets here tomorrow, we'll finalize the details but in the meantime, I need to go see Prince Cassadine. I need to know everything about the current Cassadine holdings and everything he knows about Helena." He clapped his brother on the shoulder. "You and young Spencer ready to shake off the cobwebs and head on a mission – a real one?"

Mac grinned. "You just say when."

Robert nodded and walked to his daughter. Bending down beside her he held on to Rian's hand. "We are going to get him and bring him home to you – to both of you" Robert said quietly. "You are my daughter and no one, not even the immortal Helena Cassadine can mess with that."

For the first time since it had begun, Robin felt emotions begin to swirl inside her. "I love you dad."

Nodding, he kissed the top of her head. "I'll be back soon."

*****
He stared at them, inert - unable to move towards them or away. They stood in front of him, mocking him with their false promise of forgetting and numbness. He knew from years of experience that the forgetting was temporary and the numbness never really came. It just wasn't possible to feel nothing though that was the thing he so desperately wanted. Images of Patrick played over and over again in his mind but they were of little comfort. His mind wandered, wondering if his son was scared; had he called out for him or for his mother in a dark moment? Did he know Robin was safe? Did he believe that she would raise an army to come for him? It had been two nights, soon to be three days, since his son was taken and he had no answers, not a single one but the questions were growing exponentially. It had been two nights, soon to be three days, since he had slept. He had gone to work but the moment Alan had seen how haggard he was he had limited him to chart review. Looking back at the table he wished he was stronger, that he could just open the bottles and be done with it. The daily meetings had been no help because he didn't want to drink, he wanted to disappear.

The furious knocking at the door distracted him from the demons in front of him. His watch read 4:12 a.m. and he was filled with dread - only bad news came in the middle of the night. Pushing off from the couch, he padded to the door and braced himself before pulling it open. It had been a fruitless effort for he was wholly unprepared for what lay before him.

"I thought you might need me" Brenda said as she strolled through the door.